A Different World: The Future and Fate of Equestria

by Riclo

Chapter 28 | Ponyville Massacre

"Are you all ready?" I asked to the surrounding ponies. At the moment I was hiding behind some large rocks and bushes located at the outskirts of Ponyville along with Applejack, Rarity, and Chrysalis. The horde of changelings were currently taking a detour around the town with the goal of making it to the Everfree Forest - their reasoning for being there was part of my plan.

"Can you.. repeat the plan one more time please?" Rarity replied.

"There's a big mother fucker out there the size of a building. Once Pinkie and Fluttershy kill him with one of the railguns, I'll start taking out the rest of these goons myself. When I'm ready, I'm going to throw a flashbang way up into the air: You'll know what I'm talking about as soon as you see it. This is going to be the signal that tells Chrysalis' changelings to pour out of the nearby forest and attack whatever is still left. You two can come out after that as well."

"You can be darn sure that ah'll be out there." Applejack responded.

I nodded, then pulled out the radio that was clipped to my belt. "Pinkie and Fluttershy, you two ready? We're about to head in."

"Yep, we're all ready!" Pinkie's voice replied. "The thing is telling me that it's locked on and ready to shoot, and to do that I just press this button, right?"

"Yeah, but not yet. When you see me out there, then shoot." Putting the radio back, I stood up from my crouched down position. 'It's time.'

I stepped out from behind our cover and began to make my way straight towards the town. My M60 was in my hands as I walked step by step closer, where it didn't take much longer before some of the demons started to notice me. They weren't even attacking yet though, as if they were totally confused as to what I possibly could've been doing. The huge guy that I was mentioning earlier soon took notice as well, turning his attention to me and stepping forward. Just his fist was probably bigger than my entire body, and I gripped the gun tighter as I waited for the right timing. The other demons were slowly approaching as well from his sides, and then in an instant a huge projectile rammed into the massive demon's head, penetrating through his skull and dropping him right to the ground.

"FUCK YOU ALL!!!" I shouted out as I pulled the trigger. Bullets immediately rang out, firing so fast and each with its own distinctive bang. The monsters in-front of me began to get ripped apart by the torrent of lead, losing most of their limbs and their heads before they even made it to the ground. All of the noise and the gargled screams of death was beginning to catch the attention of the other monsters, to which they got their heads blown off as soon as they appeared within my line of sight. Their numbers increased as more showed themselves from within buildings and from deeper inside the town, but they were still completely outmatched - each and every one of them got blown to bits before they got anywhere close to me.

I relentlessly fired the gun without pause until it finally clicked empty, where I stood to observe the sight of destruction displayed in-front of me. Bullet holes were everywhere, as were the dead, twitching bodies of Tartarus scum. There had to have been at least fifty of them, and they had all been obliterated in one swoop; there wasn't even anymore in sight, but I knew that wouldn't last long. That was only some of them. 'Time for the other box.'

Cleh-cleehk, bwomp

Cling-cling-cling - thud

Click

Bwhim, cling-cling

Bam BAM

With the spare box magazine now loaded, I looked ahead, and just in time to see another railgun blast penetrate right through several mother fuckers with no visible resistance at all. They were starting to flood my position again, and it wasn't just ground monsters either; I could see at least a hundred bats making my way towards me from further away. I was going to need to deal with them another way unless I wanted to get swarmed, and I knew the perfect way to do so.

Taking off one of the frag grenades from my belt, I pulled the pin, waiting a couple seconds before chucking it far away towards the incoming group. The grenade exploded in mid-air right in-front of them, sending all of the surrounding bats flying from the shockwave - and those were the lucky ones that didn't get torn up by shards of shrapnel. Pulling out another grenade, I repeated the same procedure, only this time they were closer now and the explosive went off right in the middle of their swarm. The bats blew to bits, staining the nearby buildings with blood and sticky body parts. The ground demons were quickly approaching by now though, so I held my M60 back up, and just in-time for yet another railgun blast to put a sizeable dent in their advances. With the pull of a trigger, I was back to completely ravaging everything in-front of me.

The shell casings from the huge gun started to pile up on the ground near my legs as I shot off more ammo than I could count. Whatever armor these demons were wearing stood no chance against the torrent of bullets. Holes were made, and when the ground forces were pushed back far enough, I lifted the gun to shoot at the rest of the bats. It wasn't as effective, but when they got hit with just one bullet, that was it - there wouldn't even be anything left of them. By the time I was finally done with the second box magazine, there was nothing left in my path - the entire advancing force had been completely destroyed with no survivors; at least, none that wouldn't die from their wounds in the next couple minutes. The barrel of the gun was smoking intensely and even slightly red from the non-stop firing. I could feel the heating radiating off of it as well, especially on my hands. With no more ammo left, I let the gun drop to the ground with a loud clunk.

'That was nice. Time to finish them off.' Reaching behind me, I took out the flashbang, pulling the pin and then tossing it as high up into the air as I could. I covered my ears and closed my eyes, lowering my body and waiting. The loud bang and flash of light soon followed, signaling to the others that it was time. Any demons still left in this area probably would've been disoriented too, and reaching over my back, I pulled out the advanced Striker shotgun before making my way forward. I could feel my body sink slightly with every occasional step as the flesh and guts squished beneath my weight - there were dead limping bodies everywhere. After making it past the initial destruction and walking over a short hill made of dirt and debris, I saw more monsters; they were coming out of buildings and beginning to ignore the civilians due to all the noise I had been making. It was at this moment that the changelings began to swarm in - hundreds of them all flying in and pummeling the first demon they saw. The demons were totally overwhelmed by the sheer numbers, and at this rate I wasn't even going to have to do anything else - so far we had totally decimated everyone here. I lowered the shotgun and looked around, where I caught the sight of Applejack rushing towards Sweet Apple Acres. Following her wouldn't be a bad idea.

I took chase, following her through Ponyville until she arrived at her house. It still seemed to be mostly untouched by the looks of it, and after a quick glance at the surroundings, I approached the home several seconds after she did. I walked up the stairs and quietly entered through the front door, raising my shotgun and looking around for any demons that might've been in here. They didn't seem to have made it over here yet though, and voices coming from below caught my attention. Eventually I came across a room that had an opening in the ground, and going down the steps revealed Applejack embracing her family members, who all seemed to still be doing okay. They snapped their heads over in my direction when they heard me step inside, only to look relieved when they saw it was just me and not something else.

"Klade! What are ya doin' here?" Applejack asked.

"The changelings are destroying whatever is left so far. Thought I'd follow you to make sure nothing happened." I replied. I looked over at Big Mac, Applebloom, Granny Smith, as well as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle who seemed to be in here too. "What's been going on in Ponyville? I haven't been here in awhile."

"Ya mean right now?" Applebloom responded. "Gosh, I don't know. As soon as they started comin' we all came down here and hid. Ah don't know how everypony else is doin' - we need to find out!"

"Eeyup." Big Mac chimed in. Applebloom proceeded to run back up the stairs, followed by the rest of us as we made our way over to the front door together. In the distance we could see the battle currently going on in the central part of Ponyville. Changelings were everywhere, and it seemed as if the battle was already coming to a close.

"Wait, they've got changelings as a part of this too?" Scootaloo spoke up.

"But the skies never got all red and grey when the changelings attacked Canterlot, right?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"They're on our side." I answered. "By the looks of things, they've already dealt with most of these Tartarus demons."

Right after I said that, the loud sound of a tree cracking and falling came from the apple orchard. All of us turned our attention to the sound, where the distinct rumbling of big footsteps was heard off in the distance. More trees visibly fell, and with them out of the way it revealed another huge demon - an oversized manticore-looking abomination.

"Not all of them, apparently!" Applejack remarked. "We gotta get back ta hidin' before it spots us - we can't take that thing on!"

"We can't, but someone else can." I replied as I pulled out my radio. "Pinkie, Fluttershy? Either one it doesn't matter. We got another massive piece of shit over by Sweet Apple Acres."

"I'm looking I'm looking!" Pinkie's voice responded. "This thing turns kinda slow."

I gripped my Striker tighter in my hands as I watched the monster, to which I soon made direct eye-contact with it not much later. After only a few seconds of that, it abruptly began to charge right towards us, effortlessly ramming down any trees in its path.

"Eenope." Big Mac commented as he made his way back inside. The others followed suit, but I only stepped closer towards the demon instead, taking aim with my gun and waiting until I had a decent shot - I knew what the first few loaded rounds were. When I had the opportunity, I fired, sending a whistling grenade through the air with a thwump. It made contact right against the demon's chest, blowing up and halting his advance as he stumbled backwards. Upon regaining its composure, it let out and extremely loud roar, a roar so loud that it caused the ground to rumble and a few trinkets to fall from the barn - it was really ticked off now. I only fired two more times in response, hitting it in the upper-chest and in the shoulder with both grenades. The damage was enough to stun him more, but before he could charge at me again, a large lightning fast projectile rammed right into his head. He jerked to the side as his skull exploded with blood and brain matter, and I could already hear Pinkie's cheering voice from the radio clipped to my belt.

'Surprised the grenades didn't hurt him more. These are some tough bastards.' I examined the drum magazine and moved the revolving mechanism to the other side, deciding to reload some more grenades in the three empty slots that I had just created. I could've sworn I heard more talking from my radio though, so when I was done, I grabbed it, holding it up to my ear in curiosity. "What's going on?"

"We um, Klade, well.. there's some flying creatures heading towards Ponyville right now." Fluttershy's voice replied. "There's so many of them... I think they almost look like dragons? But they have red eyes and they're not friendly looking at all."

Looking back over in the direction of Ponyville only confirmed that observation. There were tons of them flying off in the distance, and if I was fast enough, I could probably make it back to the central part of the town before they arrived.

"I see them. Guess this isn't over yet." I stated. Putting the radio back, I hastily began my sprint. The changelings that were just winding down from finishing off the ground forces were starting to notice by now, and by the time I met up with them, the winged demons were only about a hundred yards away. Taking aim, I fired the first three grenades at the swarm; when each grenade made contact, it exploded, obliterating the one it hit and then taking down the others that surrounded it. Orcs that had been riding them were starting to jump off, and the remaining birds began to dive towards us with the intent of ramming into us with their beaks. I spotted a couple headed right towards me, so I took aim and fired, sending multiple flaming incendiary rounds in their direction. The birds caught fire and their path diverted, sending them slamming into nearby buildings where their necks snapped on impact.

I lowered the gun and jumped over some debris, focusing on the ground for the time being as I spotted a large group of orcs overwhelming a couple changelings. I looked down the sights of my shotgun and fired into the horde, where the next shots loaded happened to be actual shotgun shells. Each blast ripped the orcs apart and sent collateral damage to the ones I wasn't even aiming at. In only seconds the entire group had been killed, and the changelings flew free to join up with a larger fighting force. With that taken care of, I quickly scanned my surroundings, taking notice of a few orcs barging their way into a building. Pony screams from the inside followed, so I was brisk to make my way over. I ran inside and took aim at the first orc I saw, blowing him away with a blast of shotgun. Before I could shoot the other one that was beside him though, a club suddenly slammed into my arm from the side, inadvertently knocking the gun out of my hands.

"AHHHH!!!!!!" I yelled out in pain. I turned to face the other orc and brought my arms up just in time to block another swing. I quickly stepped backwards, but I didn't have time to do much of anything as he was already running after me. I brought my leg up for a swift kick, grabbing onto his club and cursing out as I tried to wrestle it out of his hands. I yanked it back and forth, but it was like he had a death grip on the damn thing - and before I could change my strategy, the other orc had approached from out of my line of sight, slamming something against my back.

"Fucker!!!" I shouted as I fell to the floor, where I quickly rolled my body to the side and then sorely stood back up. They were already making their way over to me though, but before they could, I spotted a wooden chair nearby. I speedily grabbed it and flung it in their direction, giving enough of a distraction for me to reach for one of my G18s. By the time the chair had broken apart on impact, I had the pistol aimed right at them, to which I let the full-auto spray loose on their vile selves. The spammy fire rate made quick work of both of them, and when the gun clicked empty, they were both already dead on the ground. A glance around showed no other demons in the room, so I took the time to eject the empty magazine.

'Mother fuckers. That shit hurt.' I reached into my leather jacket and pulled out one of the two full magazines, pushing it into the pistol and then letting the slide of the gun forward. I returned it to my hip holster and then noticed a couple ponies looking at me from behind an over-turned table. "They're dead now. Hopefully the battle outside is over soon." I spoke to them before making my way back out the front door, picking up my shotgun from the ground in the process.

Returning outside, I saw nearly every changeling currently involved in a fight - either in the sky or on the ground. It would've been too hectic to run out in the middle of it all, so I opted to stay right in the door-way of the building instead - I was going to have to pick these guys off one by one. A couple orcs running around right in-front of me caught my attention, so I took aim and fired, blowing them to the ground with each shot. I continued until the ground in-front of me was clear, then took my aim to the sky, watching and waiting for a clear shot at one of the flying dragons. When I spotted one that was away from the changelings, I shot at him with a thwump, blowing his brains out as he dropped like a bag of sand. The shot was too precise for a regular shotgun round, so I figured I must've been onto the slugs now - perfect timing.

I scanned for the next target, and after careful aiming I shot, bringing him down as if I was using an actual rifle. The slug hit with enough force to send him back a couple feet as he fell, and with him out of the way, I moved onto the next one, attentively sighting in the bastard before taking him out too. I picked off the winged demons like targets until the area in-front of me was clear, and then I made my way out from in the door-way of the building. With some of the changelings freed from having to battle against the demons I had just killed, they quickly began to overwhelm the remaining monsters. The battle seemed to be coming to a close once again, but I made sure to keep my guard up anyway, scouting the surrounding area and taking out any straggling orcs with incendiaries. After only a few more minutes things seemed to be dealt with - the brutal sounds of death and screaming had come to a halt.

"Pinkie, Fluttershy, you see anything left through the railgun cameras?" I asked through my radio as I looked around.

"I don't think so!" Pinkie responded. "I think you got'em all. Wow, that was a whole bunch of them too - it's like you guys took out a whole army!"

"Good. At this rate Tartarus might not be as bad as everyone thought if they just end up running out of demons." I exclaimed. I took another look around, then made my way over to someplace that wasn't as open just to be safe. The changelings were beginning to regroup amongst themselves, and not too long after, I noticed Queen Chrysalis approaching me.

"How are you so powerful?" She spoke up. "There's no magic to use, and yet you took out hundreds of them in only minutes. I've never seen or heard anything like it before - is this common for your species?"

"We're pretty violent where I come from." I replied. "It's a technology thing, not magic; or rather, it's pre-existing magic through some epic spells. We have stuff that can destroy probably hundreds of miles worth of land in only minutes, destroying anything that's inside."

Chrysalis's eyes went wide, to which she then shook her head. "You must be over-exaggerating. You do know how much space that would cover?"

"Yeah. I don't have anything that big - at least I don't think so - but you'll likely end up seeing some of it since Discord's being a fuckhead."

The queen changeling still seemed a little hesitant to believe such a proclaim at first. Before the conversation could continue, however, the sound of Rarity's voice caught our attention.

"Sweetie Belle! Thank goodness you're okay!" She called out. I turned to see that Applejack and the others had arrived, and with that I noticed that other ponies were starting to poke out of their houses as well. I wasn't liking that too much though - the battle seemed like it was over, but nothing was a certainty, and I wanted to make sure of that.

"Pinkie, Fluttershy, zoom out if you can. Make sure there's nothing else headed this way."

"I'll do that." Fluttershy's voice replied this time. I looked back toward the others to see Rarity embracing Sweetie Belle. Other Ponyville citizens were starting to group around them and converse, where I specifically heard Celestia's name being mentioned - Rarity or Applejack must've been breaking the news. Instead of getting involved though, I decided to walk around; Ponyville was where me and Duston spent the majority of our time in Equestria, so I wanted to get a look at things since I hadn't been here in a long time. The place was unfortunately half in ruins due to what the demons had done already, but with the way the ponies of this place were, it probably wouldn't be that big of a deal to fix everything up. I still hated to see it this way though.

During my walk, I eventually caught notice that the door to Twilight's library was partially opened. The building seemed mostly undamaged, and out of curiosity I stepped closer to investigate, pulling my Striker from my back. 'I wonder if Twilight and the others stopped by here during their escape?' I pushed the door open all the way with my hand, keeping my other on the gun as I crept inside. The initial view of the interior appeared empty, until I spotted Spike looking over at me from the front window.

"Are you the real Klade?" He asked.

"Yeah, not a clone." I answered as I lowered the gun - seeing him here was definitely strange. "Why are you here? Weren't you in Canterlot with the others?"

"Well, I was! Boy am I glad you're here. Is everyone else that left with you here too? That should mean Princess Celestia is here - we really needed her! Things have been totally crazy and-"

"Celestia is dead." I replied bluntly. The small dragon blinked, then laughed a tiny bit afterwards.

"Uh, kind of a weird joke, but okay." He stared at me for a few seconds before his eyes started to go wide. "Wait, you're not actually, you know, serious, are you?"

"Yeah, some really retarded bullshit happened at Mount Everhoof and she ended up freezing to death to save us. Rainbow's gone too - she went missing on the mountain."

"I... I can't believe that." Spike's gaze diverted somewhere out of focus. "You mean she's.. dead dead? Gone? Rainbow too?"

"Yeah. Everyone else is fine though." I took a quick glance outside to make sure nothing was happening. "As of right now we're focused on fighting Discord and his goons non-stop until this bullshit is fixed. Why are you here though and not at Canterlot?"

"Whoa...Huh? Oh, right." He cleared his throat before continuing. "It started with me in the bathroom, and while I was in there I started hearing all of these noises coming from outside. It was rumbling and everything and I could hear royal guards yelling from outside the door - it was really really scary! I decided that the best thing for me to do would be to just hide right where I was, so that's what I did. I ended up hiding for a really long time, and then after awhile things got quiet aside from occasional noises.. but what got me was how I couldn't hear anyone talking. I kept waiting and waiting for at least one voice, and that was really starting to spook me. I ended up taking a nap in there, and when I woke up and got out to investigate, there was nopony and the whole place looked like it had been through a battle." He frowned. "I still have no idea what happened, so I started making my way back to Ponyville by myself. When I got here though, the same thing ended up happening, so I ran here and I've been hiding in the basement ever since."

"Tartarus opening up is what happened." I replied after listening to his explanation.

"Tartarus?" His eyes went wide. "I've overheard Twilight talking about that place, and from what I understand, it is not a good place."

"Discord decided it would be a fantastic idea to open that place up. I'm guessing that destroying the towers will stop it, so that'll probably be the next thing we work on. Speaking of which, there should be a map of Equestria somewhere in here, right?"

"Uh, yeah! Just a sec." Spike responded. He went over and looked through the bookshelves, where he eventually picked out a book and flipped to a random page. "Here, it's got it right here!"

I took the book after he walked up to me, then ripped the page out, handing it back to his shocked self. "Thanks."

"Did you just.." He shook his head. "I won't tell Twilight, I promise."

"Let her find out on her own, then blame a demon." I replied. Spike laughed slightly as he returned the book. "You should follow me back outside; it's not like you can stay here."

"I wasn't planning on it." He responded. With that said, I began looking at the map as we made our way back outside. I was going to need this information for the towers, because there was a certain way I wanted to deal with them. The two of us headed towards the other ponies that were grouping up together, where Spike ended up speaking up again.

"Is Celestia and Rainbow Dash really gone?"

"Yeah." I looked down at him. "I don't like it, but I get the feeling that there's going to be more than just them. Something's changed in Equestria.. I don't know what it is, but it's not good."

"I hope you're wrong about that." Spike replied. By now we had reached the group, where Spike went up to talk to the others. I needed to discuss some things with Pinkie and Fluttershy though, so I pulled out my radio.

"Pinkie, Fluttershy, I need you two to do something for me, but answer me this first: do you know what cities are plagued with towers?"

"I do! It's Manehattan, Baltimare, Los Pegasus and Vanhoover. Well, those were all we knew about in the beginning, so there could totally be even more of them out there by now." Pinkie answered.

"Check for whatever you can see through the guns' cameras. If you see anything in any of the other cities, let me know." I was doubtful there would be more towers, but I wanted her to check just to make sure.

"On it!" Pinkie responded. While I waited, I decided now would probably be good time to gear up on some more stuff. The earth-style house that I had created shortly after I learned of the creation spell was located in Ponyville, and I knew I had some stuff there that would be useful. Taking one more look at the others, I began making my way towards the outskirts of Ponyville.

Soon enough I arrived at a house located on a hill; it appeared to be untouched which was a good thing. I remembered that the last time I tried entering, I ended up being trapped in the middle of a desert where I almost died - I was definitely going to be more careful this time just to be safe. I stood to the side of the front door and twisted the knob, pushing it open all the way and peeking inside. Everything seemed normal - there was no black void like last time - so I stepped inside and closed the door behind me. The familiar sight of the couch and TV caught my eye, as well as all the games and controllers next to the television. If I wanted to, I could actually just sit down and play some, but now really wasn't the time for that.

I made my way forward and down the hallway to the left, stepping inside my bedroom located on the right. The first thing I spotted was a table next to my bed where I had my computer, monitor, mouse, and other PC-related crap that was needed. I remembered I was able to access the internet through what I assumed must've been magic, and out of curiosity I decided to turn it on just to see if it was still possible. While the computer was booting up, I took notice of a pair of sunglasses on the bed as well.

'Ah, I remember these.' I thought to myself as I reached and grabbed them. 'Duke Nukem shades. Made out of bullet-proof glass, for when you accidentally get shot in the eye or something, as well as an automatic light dispenser that makes dark places brighter.' I put the shades in one of my inner-jacket pockets and continued around the room. On the other side of the bed was an M4A1 Assault Rifle leaning against the wall, so I picked it up and placed it on the bed. Next to it was a backpack full of ammo for the gun, so I put that on the bed as well. 'This'll be useful.'

With that done, I proceeded to reach inside my pillow, grabbing out a keycard. I crawled underneath the bed and opened up a hidden compartment, exposing a flight of stairs that led downwards to a thick steel door. After sliding the keycard across a nearby panel, the door slowly opened, revealing a small, tech-looking shelter. There unfortunately wasn't anything super badass here - it was more of a spare lookout station equal to that of my base. It consisted of only one room that had a computer panel and a monitor that was connected to the cameras across Equestria, as well as a tracking device that would show where my location was. Attached to a wall was a G18 pistol, so I grabbed it, sliding the mag out and lining it with the other ones in my leather jacket. 'Extra ammo right there.' I looked around for anything else, but the only other thing that would've been useful was a box filled with magic crystals that I had epicly mined a long time ago. Deciding it wouldn't be a bad idea to take some, I stuffed a few of them in my pockets, even though I really couldn't think of any possible use for them. The magic crystals allowed non-magic users to use magic, but if all magic was being blocked off anyway, then there really wasn't any point.

'Guess that's it for here.' I looked at the monitor and pressed some buttons, bringing up cameras from inside my mountain base. I was able to view Pinkie and Fluttershy angling the railguns around in search for any extra towers - they still seemed to be searching by the looks of it. I backed out of the shelter and re-closed the door with the keycard, making my way up the stairs and right up to the bottom of my bed. I crawled back out and then stood up, placing the keycard back in my pillow and glancing at my M4. 'I should start getting ready. I still need to spend the next five minutes reloading that shotgun.'

By the time I was finished, I was once again over-clustered with my M4 in my hands. Bringing the backpack would've been impossible due to how much I was already carrying, so I opted to shove as many M4 mags in my pockets as I could. Every single pocket was filled to the brim with ammo, and I wouldn't be a surprised if a few mags fell out by the time I caught up with the others. My PC was done booting up by now, so out of curiosity I made my way over to it, sitting on my bed and grabbing the mouse. Everything seemed to be working aside from having no internet connection, which was something I kind of expected due to how magic was being blocked. Somehow the magical essence of Equestria had previously allowed me to go online, as little sense as that actually made. It was one of those 'it works because magic, good 'nuff.' explanations.

Turning the computer back off, I proceeded to walk out of the room, exiting the entire house shortly afterwards as the dark-red skies of this new 'Equestria' came into view again. 'Well, that was a nice trip back to the old times. Shame I have to step outside to this retarded bullshit.' Thinking about when I had first arrived in Equestria soon made me reminisce the fun stuff I did with Duston. Before I could get mopey again over that though, a voice coming from my radio caught my attention.

"We haven't seen any additional towers Klade." Fluttershy spoke up.

"Good. There is one thing though that I wanted to be checked..." I pulled out the map and looked at it. "Is it possible to see the Los Pegasus tower or the Vanhoover one through either the Foal Mountain #1 or Foal Mountain #2 railguns?"

"Um... we can check that right now." Fluttershy replied.

I continued my way back into the central part of Ponyville as I waited for them to finish. The others were still grouped up, to which Applejack was the first to speak up.

"There ya are! Where the heck have ya been?"

"Doing stuff. Re-stocking. Hating whatever the hell has happened to Equestria in the past week." I answered.

"We've been discussing what to do next." Rarity spoke up. "Our lead with the remaining princesses and the others being in the Badlands seems to be true. Spike has told us that he overheard the name of that place being mentioned while he was hiding in Canterlot. We are thinking it may be our best option to go there as well.."

"Ya got that map Spike said he gave you?" Applejack asked.

"Yeah." I replied as I handed her the ripped out page. It was right after that I heard more talking from my radio, so I pulled it out and held it to my ear.

"Okay so we looked at those two cities from those two gunnies that you told us to." Pinkie began. "We can luckily see the Los Pegasus one right in-between some mountains, but we can't see the Vanhoover one. I've been thinking while I've been looking though and I realized that we can totally just destroy these other three from right here! We can do that, right? Because that would be the most awesomest awesome thing I've ever seen!"

"Yeah, that's the plan, but I want it done a certain way." I replied. I proceeded to look at everyone else, directing their attention from the map since I wanted them to listen to this as well. "Alright everyone, Pinkie and Fluttershy can destroy three of the normal towers from where they're at. For the huge tower on Mount Everhoof, I plan on them using the nuclear railguns to fuck up the whole mountain - this should take that out without any problems. However, I want these all taken out at the same time, which means we won't be destroying them right now." I paused for a second before continuing. "While I was on Mount Everhoof with the others, Discord told us that he had re-made all the towers we had destroyed earlier, almost as if it's not a big deal for him to put them back up. I'm worried that if we attack them now, he's going to fuck up my guns and prevent us from doing it again before we can get to the last one. This is why I want to take them all out in one big swoop, which should enable our magic use again - and from there I'll be able to make sure that no other towers can be put up without being taken right back down."

"Do you suspect taking them all out will close up Tartarus?" Applejack inquired.

"I don't think that's possible." Spike chimed in. "Once the gates of Tartarus are opened, they can't be closed without a powerful magical force - something like the Elements of Harmony."

"Oh shit." I replied. "We still have all of those?"

"Almost. Ah took Celestia's off when we buried her. Ah still have mine on and so should Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy." Applejack responded. "We got five outta six 'cus Rainbow Dash is missing."

"Hmm..." I stood and thought over some things. Before I could say anything else though, Rarity spoke up.

"If you would please clarify, as I am a little confused... Can we not take all the towers out right now?"

"No. The only one the railguns can't get to is the Vanhoover tower." I answered. "Because of this, we would have to make our way there manually. From there I can destroy the tower, and Pinkie and Fluttershy would take out the rest. They should all be destroyed within a few minutes, which should be way more than short enough to ensure Discord doesn't put any back up without me putting backup plans in place."

"So we should go to Vanhoover instead of the Badlands?" Spike asked.

"There's jus' one problem with that though." Applejack exclaimed. "What are we supposed to do with all these ponies from Ponyville? We can't just leave them here."

I looked over at all the ponies that were standing around us. Most of them I was able to recognize, and there was only around a couple hundred. It wasn't surprising that I was able to recognize them, but seeing them all here at once made me realize that Ponyville really wasn't that big of a town. Everyone pretty much knew each other. Either way, most of them seemed capable of a couple day journey. "They'll have to come with us then. We've already got a huge bunch of changelings anyway, so it's not like our numbers weren't already high."

"Wait, so we're not going to meet up with Twilight and the others?" Pinkie's voice came on through the radio.

"Once the towers are destroyed and overall magic use should be possible, then I should be able to create something that can bring all of us straight to the Badlands. It'll take awhile and give me a huge damn headache, but it should be possible."

The others seemed a bit skeptical, but weren't really in a position to question much since they had already seen the destruction I had done to these demons. "So, are we all okay with that plan?" Applejack asked. The others appeared to be nodding their heads in agreement, so I spoke up afterwards.

"Alright. It would probably be a good idea for you people to start gathering up stuff you want to bring - just try to make it stuff that's actually important for traveling." I looked around the town and at the skies. I couldn't really tell what time of day it was due to how the atmosphere was all red and dark from what must've been Tartarus, so it seemed as if whatever time of day it was supposed to be wasn't going to matter. "Try to be ready in an hour. We'll leave on my signal no matter what because I don't want to waste too much time here."

With that said, the others began to disperse into their homes, gathering up what they were going to need for our journey all the way to the very top-left portion of Equestria - Vanhoover.

Author's Note:

I know this took three whole weeks but there's alot and I also tried to sync it up with BFG Division. Totally worth it though, hopefully it came out fine because people read at different speeds and stuff like that

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

8598526
Can I please get a link to that story?

[Riclo]

9118567
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8286694/1/A-Different-World

Don't expect too much though. I wrote this when I was a teenager so there's some edgy/unrealistic stuff. It's fun though if you don't take it too seriously