After The War - Luna Aeternal

by Scorched Earth

DEFCON 2

Luna Aeternal
Human Capital
District 1

"ATTENTION LUNA AETERNAL. WE HAVE CLASS 2 EMERGENCY. LUNA AETERNAL IS NOW IN DEFCON 3. ALL DISTRICTS ARE UNDER A LOCK DOWN. PLEASE REMAIN CALM AND DO NOT LEAVE YOUR HOMES. REPEAT. WE HAVE CLASS 2 EMERGENCY. LUNA AETERNAL IS NOW IN DEFCON 3. ALL DISTRICTS ARE UNDER A LOCK DOWN. PLEASE REMAIN CALM AND DO NOT LEAVE YOUR HOMES. "

Twilight jumped out of her bed. Her room was suddenly bathed in a red light and in distance she could hear klaxons. A guard rushed inside her room.

"Miss Sparkle, are you alright?"

"Yes, what is going on?"

"It appears to be some a kind of emergency. Humans are going nuts outside, the security forces are moving and I swear I saw several members of military rushing in full combat gear." The guard said, just as a squad of humans rushed inside the room. The guard took position between Twilight and the security officers.

"Search the place! Don't leave anything untouched! FIND IT!" Officers exploded into action, opening doors and pulling stuff out of cabinets. In a few minutes whole room looked like it had been hit by a hurricane.

"Hey hey hey what are you doing? What is the meaning of this?" Twilight said, still not fully awake to process what was going around.

"Silence. This is a class 2 emergency. You are to remain here until otherwise told. Failure to comply will be met with lethal force." The closest officer said, while keeping his hands on his pistol. Twilight was just became even more confused.

"Sir! We got a PDA here!" The officer who had found the PDA showed it his leader.

"Take it to the station. Miss, can you tell us what is in this PDA?"

"Huh, uh, I just got it yesterday, it should only have some historical data on it, non-restricted stuff." Twilight said in a confused panic.

"Who did you buy it from?"

"I don't know! Sergeant Smith was with us when I bought it!"

"Who ‘us’? Who else was with you?"

"Private Aegis Armor, one of the Royal Guard! He was with me whole day!"

The leader turned away to address his men. "Found anything?"

"Nothing Sir." One of the men reported. Others seemed to have same result.

"Alright. Luz, Rosavier, you are to guard this place with your life. Do not allow anyone enter or leave without my permission!"

"SIR YES SIR!" One of the officers remained inside, while the other one took a position outside. Rest of them moved to their next target. All while half-awake Twilight was trying to piece together what the hay just happened. The guard seemed just as confused, but unlike Twilight, he had a goal he could concentrate on: protect Princess assistant. Finally Twilight started to be both mentally and physically awake and rose from her bed. The officer by the door got in to combat stance upon seeing this, with the guard following the suit and earning a pointed gun at himself.

"Please, everyone, calm down, we don't need to fight! What, what is going on?"

"I'm sorry miss, but I am not allowed to talk about it. Please remain where I can see you." The officer adjusted his aim slightly. Twilight jumped back to the bed and laid down. Better not to anger them. Something was clearly wrong. A strange warning, red lights and now panicking humans. However, after a while, nature made it's demands very clear.

"Umm, sir? I need to go to bathroom."

"Please do not move."

"It really urgent really. I rather not relieve myself here..." The officer remained silent for a moment before pressing a button that opened the door. At no point did he break the eye contact with ponies in the room.

"Luz, follow the purple one. She claims she need to visit the bathroom. I take the guard." Other officer stepped inside end gestured towards the bathroom. He was holding what looked like a big tube. Twilight remembered she had read about those, shotguns they were called. Humans had not used them in The War, due to their short range and poor accuracy. However, in Luna Aeternal where combat took place in closed quarters they were ideal weapons. She didn't know what they could do, but description of "hundreds of small metal pellets size of a grain" didn't promise anything good.

Twilight walked into the bathroom and the officer stood in the doorway, so that he could see both Twilight and the guard at the same time.

"Umm, do you really need to watch me? It's really making me nervous..."

"Protocols demand that in case of class 2 emergency or higher all personnel are to be monitored at all times."

"Umm, can you at least tell me what's class 2 emergency? Or defcon 3?"

"DEFCON 3 means we are under a imminent threat of war. Class 2 emergency means there is a district wide threat going on." Human said after a pause, apparently coming to conclusion that such information could be revealed to two prisoners.

A imminent threat of war? A district wide threat? But how? It had seemed like Luna Aeternal had the best possible security in the entire universe! Furthermore, humans had only one possible enemy they could start a war with: Equesteria. If humans believed there was an imminent threat of war, it meant that either Luna had done something or something had happened on the surface. Twilights thoughts started going in cycles and she started to panic. Were humans starting a war? Were they mobilizing? What had happened? How could this happen? Weren't they here to prevent the war?

She didn't even notice she had taken care of what she come to do, until the officer ordered her to hurry up. She finished herself and returned to the bed. The officer (Luz the other one had called him) returned to his post outside the door. Suddenly, Twilight realized something. She gesture the guard to come closer.

"Aren't there supposed be two of you? Captain and two guard with Princess, two with me?" She whispered.

"Aegis Armor went to get his relieve from Princess room. One of us is sleeping while others guard. Not the most efficient, but since we coul-"

"What are you talking there? Separate on this instance!" The officer yelled and raised his pistol. The guard jumped away, causing the officers aim to shift towards him.

After waiting for a tense hour, group of 6 human soldiers entered the room. They were easy to recognize to be soldiers, for the first of all they lacked big blue "SECURITY" paint. Second, they wore black armor and carried assault rifles.

"You two. Come with us." The man in front said. He carried 3 arrow symbol on his chest, marking him as a squad sergeant. Twilight got up and followed the soldiers, with the guard following her closely. Soldiers formed a circle around them. Twilight noticed they all had their weapons pointed towards them, even if they didn't actively aim at them. It was unsettling for her. They were brought in front of The First Citizen, who also wore full combat gear, except for face plate. Princess Luna and her guards were soon brought in.

"What is the meaning of this, The First Citizen?" Luna demanded as she entered the room.

"Shut up. Do you have them all?" The First Citizen snapped at Luna and turned to a man next to him.

"We are missing two ponies, Sir." He looked down on to his paper. "Private Aegis Armor and Captain Stonewall, Sir. Our monitors suffered... 'sudden' malfunction and we lost our sight of them."

"REICH UND GOTT! Princess. What is the meaning of this? Where are your guards!? WHERE IS THE AMSB!?" The First Citizen shouted at Princess Luna.

"I have no idea and unless you explain to me what is going on, I will take this as an act of war and respond accordingly!" Twilight recoiled at the threat. Starting a war with humans, here and now? What was Princess thinking? Luckily, The First Citizen relented to the treat. He didn't want to take on Princess in closed quarters.

"At 07:54, two guards were found at The Vault. Both had been shot. Furthermore, an Anti-Mater Suitcase Bomb was removed from The Vault, as well as components needed to make it armed. However, whoever did it didn't take extra batteries with him. Logs show that door was opened by general Tarnheiser at 01:22. We have 17 hours before the containment field fails and the weapon detonates. It will create an explosion big enough to destroy an entire district!"

"That... that is horrible! But what does this have to do with us?"

"06:03 a human was seen on the monitor speaking a pony. This was seen happening on a restricted area. The human handed something to that pony. A security team was dispatched to secure them but we lost contact with them. At 08:25 we found their remains. Security does not fear full body covers. Somehow, they had been killed... by magic." The First Citizen face turned to stone and he took faceplace offered to him and place it on. His voice also gained a sharp tone. "That means, someone smuggled magical weapons to our capital. A direct violation of the agreement."

"Are you blaming us on this? We have no knowledge what is going on! Why would we want to do something like this, during a critical time like this?"

"I have no idea and I don't care. As of now, you are considered Prisoners Of War, Do not attempt to escape or harm the guards, Any attempt to use magic, no matter for what purpose, is considered a hostile action and will be met with lethal force. All guards are armed with live bullets. I believe you are already familiar with them?"

Luna wanted to smack The First Citizen, but also understood what he was doing. If what he had said was true, Luna and her entourage were natural suspects. He was already taking a risk meeting them like this. However, hearing that a powerful weapons had been stolen worried her. She gathered from it's name and description that this 'Anti-Matter' bomb was capable to massive destruction and was small enough to be carried in a saddlebag. That meant it could be hidden anywhere. If one of her guards had taken it and it would detonate...

There would be no way she could convince humans that this was not planned.

That guard had to be found, they had no way of knowing didn't know who was behind the action. Guards armors were enchanted to make them look identical. If humans couldn't recognize him as Captain Stonewall... that left Aegis Armor, only other missing pony. But how? Aegis Armor didn't seem to hate humans. He was friendly with the ambassador and her people. This whole situation made no sense.

Why would a human give such weapon to pony... and not make it harmless. Furthermore, general Tarnheiser was the one who opened the storage facility... meaning it was through him that the guard had gained the weapon. Yet, Tarnheiser was one of the war criminals Equestria wanted.

All of this was speculation and none of it made sense, but it was the only logical thing she could think. Too many why's. And she couldn't do anything except wait until humans found something.

---

Canterlot
Royal Castle
Throne Room
T-16 hours until detonation

Ambassador Fahrenheit was nervous when she walked into the room. Princess Celestia had suddenly called her to “discuss matters of extreme importance”. The fact that she had asked her to attend alone made her even more nervous. She stopped before the throne where Celestia sat and bowed.

“Your Highness, you wished to see me?”

“Everyone else. Leave.” Celestia's voice was chilly and Fahrenheit had feeling she was in a deep trouble. Guards seemed to hesitate, but eventually left.

“Now. Ambassador, care to explain us few things?” Celestia's gaze was like a drill.

“I... I am not aware of what you mean?”

“We found two corpses yesterday. One human. One pony. Someone had tried to hide them in Everfree forest, clearly hoping that monsters there would take care of the bodies. Funny thing is, they both had been tortured before being killed.”

“Reich und Gott, that is horrible. Do you wish our assistance in guarding the castle?” Reich und Gott, please don't those two corpses be the same ones she had ordered to be disposed. Who had screwed up? What would happen? What should she say? Why didn't they burn the bodies before disposing them? No wait, the last one had an answer. They didn't have facilities to do that.

“That... won't be necessary, ambassador. We have already identified the culprit.”

“Then who is it, your Highness?”

“Your guards. Both had been executed by a standard service pistol. Clean shots to back of their heads.” Celestia stare went from “icy” to “absolute zero point”,

“Explain. You have 30 seconds.”

Fahrenheit gulped. The worst case scenario had happened. They had already discussed about this they had come to a conclusion on how to act.

“There is an explanation to all of this.” She tried to buy some time.

“20 seconds.” Celestia was not selling it.

“We got traitors in our ranks. Someone is trying to steal a WMD and detonate it and blame it on the ponies!" Fahrenheit blurted. That made Celestia nearly lose her balance from a shock.

"A WMD? You mean those awful 'weapons of mass destruction'? I thought they were under a lock and key, never to be used again!" Celestia had been briefed of WMDs after the war. Luckily, humans had long time ago build a containment facility to guard them, since they were considered way too powerful to be even on stand-by. All weapons were supposed to be deactivated and placed in a high security facility!

"Yes, but it appears someone is pulling strings behind the scenes. We do not know who. We can't contact Luna Aeternal due to the solar storm. It scrambles our communications. We tried to get a message to them, but we don't know did they get it or not."

"By the Faust... If the solar storm were to disappear, would it help!?"

"Perhaps, if the enemy hasn't moved yet. If we can have ISA to look into the matter, check everything, we could act fast before the enemy can do anything. On the other hand, if you can give us a permission I can have my people look in to the matter with the help of Royal Guard. This is a matter national security, to both of us! If these terrorist success, what do you think will happen to Princess Luna?"

"Then get moving. You have full authority to do whatever it is necessary to do. I will attend to the sun. I think I can calm it down in about 10 hours. It is better than nothing. Captain Lulamoon!" Trixie trotted inside and gave a sharp glare to the ambassador before saluting Princess. "Assist the ambassador in everything she says. We have a national crisis in our hands. Obey every command. I will take personal responsibility for everything!"

Trixie was about to protest, when she saw panicked face on both Princess and the ambassador. Something big was happening. Something that made both of them panic. It couldn't be good.

"Yes Your Highness. What do you need ambassador?"

"I need all details you can get on Private Jagged Dagger, where was, who he talked, fuck, give me when last visited the bathroom. Everything you can. Arrest everyone associated with him past 3 months. My men will assist you and provide firepower in case they try to resist."

Humans assisting to provide firepower?

This wasn't a "something big going down"-level crisis.

This was a "shit hitting the windmill"-level crisis.

---

Luna Aeternal
Human Capital
District 1
T-12 hours until detonation

5 hours had passed since the entire incident had started and nobody was anywhere closer to knowing the truth, or even stopping the terrorist. Princess Luna had finally managed to convince the humans that they no part in this, but they were still under guard. Humans weren't taking any chances. They had been moved to observation room next to human war room. 10 human soldiers were watching them, each one in full gear and armed with shotguns.

"SIR! We found them! Two ponies plus four humans in District 5!" One operator shouted. The First Citizen cursed.

"Reich und Gott, that's civilian district! Can we get them?"

"No sir, We have lost contact with The District Control Center. Nobody is answering us. Security is in chaos there. Someone detonated one of them 'magic grenades' in their HQ. They say there are total six ponies running around, which doesn't make sense. We got five here and two missing. Someone has changed the override codes and whole place is under the lock down."

"Damn it, we need to force our way in. How soon can we get there?" General Ruvashenko said.

"Unknown, estimate is at least 5 hours, assuming they haven't done the internal lock down. The external lock down is in effect. There is no docking bay in District 5 so we can't our way trough there. Only way in are the mag-lev tunnels."

"REICH UND GOTT! Why is this happening now!?"

"Sir! We lost camera feed from District 5!" Another operator spoke up. "Last feed showed that the internal lock down has been activated!"

"That means they have the control of The District Control Center. That just made estimate to get in jump to 20 hours. Every bulkhead will be sealed now. How the fuck could they pull this up? It takes at least 100 soldiers to just to take control of the place. We must have traitors in our mist. Take us to DEFCON 2, lethal force is authorized. Isolate District 5 from The Network!" General Ravensaw ordered. He, alongside general Ruvashenko had taken charge of the war room.

"Do we have any troops we can contact there? How about the AMSB? Do we have confirmation it's there?"

"No sir, we do not have any readings."

"Reich und Gott, this could all be a diversion and the real bomb could be anywhere! Where did the exchange take place?" General Ruvashenko asked.

"District 6. I have my men going through that place right now." General Ravensaw answered him.

"Have them go trough all accompanying Districts too! Seal the place up!" The First Citizen shouted. The war room was in chaos, with different officers trying to get their orders trough, everyone panicking and trying to figure out what to do and what was going on. It was a national crisis on a scale that had been not seen since The Second Human Civil War. Not even during The War had Luna Aeternal ever been under a direct threat. Meanwhile, Luna came up an idea that would helpfully aid in the situation.

"We can get in."

"What?" Both generals and The First Citizen said as they turned towards Luna.

"We can use our magic to teleport in." Luna answered them.

"Absolutely not, you are-" General Ravensaw started, before being cut off by general Ruvashenko.

"Actually that is a good idea. We can't get in before the bomb detonates itself, but she can. I wonder... I need volunteers for a dangerous experiment!"

"What are you planning?" The First Citizen asked.

"She will take herself and our troops inside. While inside, they will re-establish the contact with us. Princess, how far can you teleport?"

"It's unknown territory, so not far. There is chance of 'telekill', being re-materialized inside a solid structure. It's not a pretty sight." Princess explained.

"What about the magic itself? Will your men be able to take it?" Twilight asked. They were on the moon, yes, bu direct contact with such magic was bound to do some damage to humans.

"We do not know. They will have full equipment as well as talismans. We can't take any chances. Do we have any volunteers!?" General Ruvashenko shouted once again.

"Sir! We got 10 volunteers ready to serve you!" Sergeant Smith said while stepping forward. Behind him, 10 soldiers saluted.

"Get next to the mag-lev locks of the District 5. Take Princess with you."

"I can offer my guards to help them, they should be able to fare the travel much more easily and perhaps they can soak up some magic, instead of letting it hit your men." Princess Luna said.

"Fine, we do not have much choices. Get in, get in contact and do not do anything suspicious or our men will terminate you."

Soldiers, both human and pony started to move. Twilight followed Princess, because she was afraid of being left alone and because she wanted to help too. They needed to prevent the disaster from happening. They could not allow these terrorist to restart the war.

---

Canterlot
The human embassy
Interrogation room
T-11 hours until detonation

"TELL ME EVERYTHING!" Trixie shouted at the prisoner. Things had gone bad quickly. A large, underground, radical anti-human organization known as 'Ponies of the Apocalypse' had somehow managed to infiltrate the Equesterian government. Worst of all they were not alone. Few humans had been caught, members of 'Terra's Children'. Once humans had found about this they had gone batshit insane, demanding to know how a well known terrorist organization could have infiltrated them. Currently they were running a background check on every in the embassy. Half of the staff was under guard. The ambassador was currently in process of ripping her hair out due to frustration.

"Screw you human lover. We will return Equesteria to it's former glory." The yellow colored earth pony said. Trixie bucked him.

"Don't fuck with me! We can't afford a war! What do you think this will achieve!?" She demanded while standing above him.

"We will use these humans.. those idiots... promised to give us a weapon... a weapon to destroy their armies..." The stallion wheezed between breaths.

"YOU IDIOT! You are being played by them! They will use this as an excuse to restart the war!" Trixie couldn't belive this. It was already bad to think there were humans who wanted to restart the war, at least with them she could hate them. This? This was even worse. Ponies who wanted a war. Never before there had been such thing been presented before her. She wanted to go in to her room and fall asleep, pretend that nothing was happening. Just hide from the cruel world...

But she couldn't. Her fellow guards were counting on her. They trusted that their Great and Powerful captain, Hero of Equesteria, would solve the situation. She couldn't let them down. No, not when they had followed her to hell and back. She couldn't break their trust, not now when it was only thing keeping them together.

"Then... it just proves... that we can't... trust them..." Trixie had enough. She exited the room. Guards who served her were waiting outside.

"Did he say anything?" Private Long Spear said. "Did my brother tell us anything?"

Trixies silence was all they needed to know. Guards looked dejected. Then she started to shake from anger.

"How could he... didn't he have enough during the war? WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT MORE WAR!?" Trixie shouted. Sharp Spear had been one of the most promising guard in her unit. She used to have great expectations of him, even expecting him to replace her in near future, allowing her to retire. To learn that he had betrayed them, conspired behind her back... No. She would not accept it. It was her failing that allowed them to do this. She should have seen it. She had been too focused on humans to see the threat from the inside. She would not allow these traitors do what they wanted.

"Let's move. There are more traitors we need to weed out." Trixie said in cold determination. "It's going to The Day of Reckoning for them." Guards simply nodded. They had never seen their captain act like this.

She would crack down on these traitors like a wrath of Goddess.

---

Luna Aeternal
Human Capital
District 5 Connection Tunnel
T-10 hours until detonation

The trip was tense. Soldiers had equipped themselves with every known countermeasure know to them. Each one wore a full combat gear, making it hard to different between them. Only clue Twilight had who was sergeant Smith was his sergeant symbol on his chest. Nobody spoke a word, although Twilight could sense that the humans were more than nervous. They were about to be subjected to magic itself, something that would affect themselves directly. Even during the war such actions had been rare. Unicorns could rarely 'lock' inside the human suit, making most of the attacks against the suit itself. Now, they had just willing agreed to do something insane. Yet, it was necessary. Entire Luna Aeternal was in danger.

They arrived at the massive steel door, used to lock down the entire district in case of an emergency. Their mag-lev was a special military design and was able to dock against the wall, using powerful magnets to keep it stationary.

"Buckle up people, we do not know what is on the other side or what will happen to us. The best case scenario, nothing happens. The worst case, we all suffer painful death by melting." Matheus shouted. Not exactly the most reassuring speech in Twilights opinion.

"What's on the other side?" Luna asked the sergeant.

"Empty corridor that leads to mag-lev reception tunnel. It leads directly to the station proper. It's empty all the way in. The door is about 1 meter thick. There are total of 10 bulkheads, distance between each one is 20 meters. So I need you to take us about 210 meters inside, 220 to be safe. Tunnels is about the same width as this one." Matheus answered.

"Alright, I'm going to do it. Be ready." Luna's horn started to glow from magic. Royal Guards seemed to be OK, but humans visibly tensed. There was a bright flash and they were on the other side. Humans dropped to their knees, removed their faceplates and vomited. However, they seemed to be otherwise unharmed.

"Reich und Gott, that felt horrible..." One of the soldiers commented before cleaning himself and replacing his faceplate.

"Agreed, I hope I never have to do this again." Another said. Group started to move in silence towards the station.

"How far we need to go?" One the Royal Guard asked. They were less interested in saving the human colony than they were protecting Princess.

"At the current rate, we should arrive at the terminal in 15 minutes. From there, assuming that the elevators still work, it's 30 minutes to District Control Center. We need to take control of that place in order to contact the command. Move it people, we do not have much time!"

Comments

[Scorched Earth]

Wow, I got this one ready fast. It's like the story is writing itself!

EDIT

Also, how come Trixie reappeared in this fic AGAIN? She wasn't originally supposed to be anything else than one scene cameo/shoutout in The History Of The Human War. How come she suddenly appears in three chapters here? I'm starting to believe those writers who say "Stories write themselves, writer is just a conduit"...

[Guardian]

Wow, it's going down now! Oh, and, this story had officially become to awesome to be called, After The War - Luna Aeternal. Perhaps you could rename it, The Luna Aeternal Crisis?.

Halten Sie schriftlich, guter Herr.

[wat]

TELEFRAG BIACH

[Biker_Dash]

HOLY FAUST! This is getting good!
I suspect now I will have to wait a minimum of a few days for the next update...
Your grammer may not be up to what some expect, but you write a hell of a story! /)

[Scorched Earth]

1227806

Well, I can't really promise anything. I mean, this was supposed to be small, about 2000 word side story to The History Of The Human War. Well, it went and grew quite a lot, didn't it?

[Carpinus Caroliniana]

Your grammar and mechanics need a bit of work but damn, you know how to write an intemse story and keep the reader's attention.