Damnation, Part 2
With the Crystal Cannon sabotaged by Discord, Princess Luna and Twilight bring it upon themselves to destroy the last of three religious cities: Jerusalem.
The hot winds blew fiercely across the parched landscape as the Equestrians began their attack on Jerusalem.
While the initial jump from Equestria to Israel had been a rocky one, the landing was arguably far worse. The moment Princess Luna and the regiments under her command arrived in the city they were immediately welcomed by a concentrated hail of gunfire through overlapping shooting lanes and explosive ordinance that seemed to come from the openings of every building in sight at all conceivable angles.
Human resistance was heavy out the gates and continued to remain so even as two Alicorns rained down their arcane might against them. Veteran soldiers hardened by years of conflict and cunning insurgents drawn from the local populace assailed them with everything they had, embolden by their unquenchable desire to defend the holy lands from hostile invaders.
Several guardspony at the vanguard perished from this surprise, but casualties, tragic as they were, did little to dissuade the regiment from engaging the enemy.
Their mission was clear and failure was not an option.
Like clockwork, the 182nd began establishing a foothold within Bab A-Zahara, raising force shields and erecting a series of command posts nearby to aid in navigating the battle. There were some difficulties at first, magical apparatuses stubbornly refusing to work, a sudden onset of headaches and fatigue when raising the shields, but once they were dug in they wasted no time in pressing the attack.
Luna herself proudly led the charge from the front lines as she had time and again, clad in a glorious set of ornate blueish silver armor and brandishing a sleek shining crescent blade as her soldiers rallied around her in a zealous fervor. There was fire in her blood, a sensation she thought she could no longer experience but reveled in nonetheless. Gallantly, they began their final march, slowly but surely gaining ground as they sought to raze any and all structures of import they came across.
The fighting was brutal and relentless, leaving thousands dead and a great deal more wounded with casualties steadily mounting on both sides the longer the battle continued to drag out. Hours soon turned into days and eventually the siege devolved into a vicious tug of war for territory. The Equestrian forces would soon lose their forward momentum, slowing to a crawl as each engagement boiled down to attrition.
Though they continued to steadily chip away at the opposition's defenses, maintaining their tactical advantage the whole way through, the end to the war will take just a bit longer than they had initially surmised.
Luna stood by the edge of the command post's force barrier, eyes steely upon the setting sun as her soldiers tended to the wounded and prepared for the next wave of their assault. It had been four days now since their attack began, she was beginning to grow restless. Nearby was a scrying pool, a luminous silver dish one could use to magically communicate with others across great distances. On the other end was Twilight.
"They're putting up quite the effort," Twilight's flickering image said over the scrying pool, her expression neutral. The sounds of battle raged in the background, feverish screams in Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and more intermixed between the cacophony of gunfire and explosions. "We had anticipated strong resistance after the destruction of Rome and Mecca, but it would appear we miscalculated how truly desperate they are to save this sandblasted hovel. Their initial strike upon our arrival have pushed our timetable forward an unacceptable margin."
"This the beginning of the end, they know it. If they fail to repel us here it would all be over for them. That is why they continue to be so irksome even in the face of the inevitable. Their determination could be seen as admirable, were it not so sad. Such is the human condition, I suppose," Luna snorted derisively, her eyes fixated upon the horizon. " How goes things on your end, Twilight?"
"We're gaining ground, but the humans are making sure we work for it. This is the most casualties I've experienced insofar," she replied, rubbing at her temple. "The city is a death trap. We have insurgents coming out of our ears, they know how to fight in urban areas better than we do. To make matters worse, nearly every square meter of this place is rigged with booby traps... I saw one of my men die simply stepping through a door. He didn't notice the wire by his hoof when he entered the building, by then it was already too late."
"A tragedy, yes, but his sacrifice and that of others before him will not be in vain so long as we complete our sacred task," Luna soothed.
"I know that, but that doesn't make it any easier for me. The thing that disturbed me most was how part of him just... evaporated," she dry heaved at the memory. "I don't get it. His armor's enchantments should've allowed him to survive the blast, albeit gravely injured if not crippled." Twilight scowled and screwed her eyes shut, hissing sharply as she did. "I'm getting a migraine just thinking about it..."
"Be strong, Twilight. You're merely fatigued after coming down from the combat high. The stress of war will overwhelm you if you do not take a moment to calm thy nerves," said Luna, quietly suffering through her own throbbing headaches. "Luckily, I have good news to share. You will be glad to know that my regiment and I are closing in on the Temple Mount. Within a day's time we will reach its base where I will proceed to raze it to its very foundation. I will show all of humanity their holiest of monuments is naught but cold drab stone devoid of any voices, divine or otherwise."
"That is good news," Twilight sighed in relief. "However, I doubt the opposition will just let you stroll up and let it be destroyed."
Luna threw her head back and let out a throaty laugh. It was haughty and prickly noise. "Let them try and stop me!" she boldly proclaimed. "My soldiers and I will sweep them aside like the ineffectual mites they are! By noon's light tomorrow, the Temple Mount will be reduced to a smoldering mountain of rubble, this I swear!"
Princess Luna was beyond livid.
Her displeasure was made very much evident by the gnarled expression of barely repressed anger twisting her regal visage; with narrowed rage-filled eyes, an indignant scowl on her lips, tense facial muscles and a throbbing vein on the side of her temple threatening to burst in a plume of silvery blood. It took every ounce of self control she had left not to explode and loose an angry tirade of epic proportions.
She needed to retain some measure of dignity, however, otherwise morale will sink even further than it was now, and that was something she could not afford. Not when Equestria's most pivotal victory continued to frustratingly elude them.
Lieutenant Autumn Falls had just finished telling her about the state of their combined regiment. Disastrous did not even begin to describe the sheer disadvantage her forces were left at after the siege of the Temple Mount.
Even when taking into account all the other regiments and companies they had absorbed into their ranks, the 182nd Silver Crescent were still just above sixty percent fighting strength, a little over two-thirds of their original size. It was a less than optimal statistic to be had in an ongoing operation, a thought made worse when considering the casualties they've suffered, which was without a shadow of doubt the worst in the history of Equestria, let alone the war.
The rest had either joined up with Twilight to consolidate their forces or had already fallen prey to the enemy where they were probably executed on the spot or tortured by their cruel human captors.
If things weren't bad enough most of their supplies, wagons full of precious foodstuffs and crucial equipment, had been destroyed or were hastily abandoned during the human counterattack. What little gear they had managed to save needed to be used sparingly and the meager stockpile of food they'd gathered, including whatever rotted and shriveled up morsels they could scrounge in the abandoned marketplace, was being carefully rationed to sustain their forces for the long night. Most everything else were what ponies had on them.
"...And that's about the gist of it, your majesty. As you can see our situation is... far from ideal. I can only imagine how bad it is for the others lost in Jerusalem," Autumn Falls gulped, nervously awaiting a response from Luna. Hopefully one that didn't blow out her eardrums.
"...Is there anything else I should know about, lieutenant?" Luna began evenly, eyeing the mare expectantly.
"..." Autumn Falls contemplated the question for a moment. She had thought the issue nagging at the back of her mind not worth investigating, but at this point it was better to be safe than sorry. "Princess Luna, Colonel Air Lift. Please, follow me." With a practiced turn she gestured her superiors to follow her down the hallways.
After passing through several shops, many of which housed their weary and exhausted soldiers, they came across the main plaza of the bazaar. It had turned into a makeshift command post. Ponies were rushing all over the plaza tweaking the various scrying pools, hololiths and other magical apparatuses that had been set up earlier to monitor their situation. Diligent as these ponies were in their work they were still dutiful enough to salute their superiors upon their arrival before returning to their task.
"Why exactly are we here?" Air lift queried, raising a brow. "The area is already secured. My men and I made sure of it."
"It's not security that I'm worried about, sir," replied Autumn Falls as she walked up to a nearby hololith. She motioned for the pony positioned behind the device to activate it. With a few pushes of the crystalline switches on its console the hololith hummed to life and bathed the group with a warm turquoise glow. It depicted Bab A-Zahara along with the surrounding areas of the old city, albeit with unusually poor quality.
Most of the time the hololith was stable and unfailing, and while it was still capable of displaying accurate data the map was constantly flickering on and off, failing to hold its shape for more than a few seconds at the most.
From what Luna and Air Lift could make out on the finicky device it was that they had found Twilight, much to their relief. Her signature along with several other surviving regiments around the area was faint but very much present. Everypony could feel a great weight lifted from their shoulders knowing that they were okay, everpony save for the lieutenant, curiously enough.
It would appear that throughout the chaos Twilight and her regiment had gotten separated from the main force and escaped west to the area around the Mount of Olives, just under two miles over. Judging by the denseness of their positioning they were holing up there, fortifying the craggy terrain to their advantage in order to ward off any human attacks. For the time being, they were safe from harm.
"Oh, bless the stars," Air Lift breathed a sigh of relief and briskly gestured the sign of his faith. "Princess Twilight is safe, as well as those under her command. The battle has yet to be decided."
"Fortune smiles upon us colonel," replied Luna, easing up on her earlier stress. "We may yet be able to mount a counteroffensive and finish razing this sandblasted pit, once and for all. Setback or not, once we join up with Twilight's forces we will turn this debacle around and flatten every monument to hypocrisy that still stands. Rest assured, it will a song-worthy finale to this tiresome slog of a war."
"We must send out a message to them immediately," suggested Air Lift. "The sooner they learn of our status the sooner we can-" He was abruptly cut off as the hololith's image suddenly began to twist and pull at itself erratically. It let loose an ear scrambling whine across the whole of the plaza before fading into nothingness and dying with a shrill squeak. The shock of it wore off quickly but it had done much to unnerve those present.
"Augh! Damnation!" Autumn Falls angrily slammed her hoof on the hololith. "I was afraid of this!"
"Calm yourself, lieutenant!" Luna exclaimed. "Tis merely a magical malfunction. The equipment must be damaged after experiencing such a rough journey from the front lines."
"Forgive my tactless outburst, your majesty," Autumn Falls huffed, quickly collecting herself, "but this is what I wanted to show you."
"Why does this trouble you so, lieutenant?" Air Lift raised a brow. "Discovering Twilight's location is a commendable effort, one that is sure to solidify our victory here."
"Princess Luna, Colonel Air Lift, with all due respect but surely you cannot be blind to what has been happening to us this entire time?" Autumn Falls inquired. She gestured to the other magical devices nearby, they were all behaving strangely, so much so that their operators were left baffled at what was going on. "I brought this to your attention not because we have possibly discovered Twilight's current position, but because throughout our entire engagement we've been experience strange hiccups and holes in our magical weave. Something that, by all rights, should be impossible."
"I've told you already, the apparatuses must have been damaged during the withdrawal, that's why they're acting so strang-" Luna began but was cut off by Autumn Falls stamping her hoof in frustration.
"Princess, this is not just a simple case of mishandling!" Autumn Falls snapped, her lips curling into a frown. "This is not an isolated incident. It's been happening every since we left Canterlot! Spells requiring more effort to cast or outright failing, enchanted armor and weaponry suddenly losing their efficacy, defective magical apparatuses. None of these can be considered coincidences when they've happened too many times to count in such a short period." Her eyes narrowed as to accentuate her anxiety, "Something is wrong with our magic. That's why we're losing this fight."
"N-nonsense!" Air Lift sputtered, tensing his shoulders. He gave her a look like she was speaking gibberish. "Lieutenant, do you have any idea what you are saying?!"
She nodded her head judiciously. "Magic's not supposed to be failing like this. It's almost as if..."
"Magic can only be nullified by magic," Luna hastily interrupted, her tone incredulous as she leveled a piercing glare upon the lieutenant, who fought with every ounce of willpower not to shrink under her commanding gaze. "Those are the rules, and they have been that way since time immemorial. Can the humans use magic, lieutenant? Have you notice any of them weave a spell or hex us with their voodoo fetishes and black magic? Perhaps you spotted them performing such heinous rituals as bloodletting and animal sacrifices to bedevil us during what should be our finest hour?"
"No, bu-"
"Then there you have it," Luna snorted derisively. She turned away and closed her eyes, pushing down the growing sense of dread gnawing at her from within. Exhaling deeply, she looked over her troops, taking in their weary and dispirited expressions.
"It is only natural that the grand battle to end the war is hard fought. Mayhaps it had been foolish to believe it would be so easy, but I'm willing to shoulder that folly and the burden of our fallen if it means seeing this through to the end. However!" she jerked around suddenly. "That does not mean we have to luxury to dwell on such flights of fancy, especially if it is detrimental to our overall morale. We cannot let ourselves lose sight of our goal when we are so close to achieving it!"
"I hate to repeat myself, but for the sake of our mental well-being and to put to rest your silly notions of failing magicks, I will say it again. Everything that's been happening, spotty spells and malfunctioning equipment, are because of nerves and mishandling respectively. Is it wrong to believe that at the most pivotal moment in history that we're bound to make mistakes?"
"Princess Luna..." Autumn Falls swallowed thickly. "There is no doubt at all in my mind that the culmination of all your years of experience and tactical understanding greatly dwarf my own, but, do you think it wise to simply ignore these disconcerting omens?"
"They are not omens!" Luna bellowed angrily, scowling as she craned her head downwards until she was nose to nose with Autumn Falls. Her eyes were briefly aglow with godly might as her gaze bore deep into the soul of the now trembling underling. "I will only give you this one warning, lieutenant! There will not be a second! Heed my wisdom and cease your catastrophizing at once! It serves no purpose to dwell on the impossible! I've already made it very clear the root cause of our troubles and will hear none of your baseless conjecture henceforth from you or anypony else, do I make myself clear!"
She concluded her tirade with a furious stamp of her hoof, embedding it into the tile flooring and causing long deep cracks to web along its dusty surface. The resounding crunch of stone underneath her extremity made her troops to recoil as if struck, stumbling about nervously in their place. A deathly silence blanketed the plaza soon after. All eyes fell upon the unfortunate lieutenant as they awkwardly waited for her response.
Autumn Falls felt her heart leap up into her throat, plummet back down into the pit of her stomach and bounce back into her chest at Luna's outburst. The princess had always been known to have a temper, but it usually took a considerable amount of stress to truly bring out her ugly side. The fact that she had been the metaphorical straw that broke the camel's back turned the blood in her veins frigid.
Whatever fear of the unknown that lingered within had been replaced by the fear of God. She kowtowed to Luna's demands without so much as a second thought, clinging desperately to the dwindling hope that she would overlook her impudence.
"I-I-I... C-Crystal, your majesty," Autumn Falls squeaked meekly, her voice sounding like air leaking from a balloon as she bowed her head in shame. Her legs, like towers of jelly, threaten to give out beneath her, but she remained standing if only because she was frozen in terror.
Luna knitted her brow and slowly, deliberately pulled away from her overly aggressive hunch and into a more authoritative pose worthy of her position. She flared her nostrils and cleared her throat, eliciting a guttural, uncouth whinny of acknowledgement to escape her parched lips. Luna said nothing further, seeing her point had come across for all those in attendance. Autumn Falls would begin to apologize profusely shortly after, prostrating herself before the princess and confessing her wrongdoings.
For the moment, it would seem that the matter had been settled.
...Or so they would have wanted to believe.
A bloodcurdling scream, sudden and palpable, rang out across the air, unnerving everypony to their very core. It had echoed from the food court where the makeshift infirmary had been established, followed by stringent cries of desperation and angry shouts. The noise went beyond a simple regimental scuffle, it sounded like a full-blown riot had broken out among the rank and file.
"Grr... What now?!" Luna seethed, turning on her hooves and rushing towards the source of the noise as her entourage snapped out of their stunned stupor to join her.
She would later arrive to a scene of total chaos unfolding right before her eyes.
At last, after carving a bloody swathe across Jerusalem, Luna, the 182nd and other joining regiments had finally reached the Temple Mount.
The Haram Esh-Sharif.
Off in the distance stood the holiest most revered of all religious monuments in the great wide world. Painstakingly carved from ancient stone in days of yore it has stood firm across the ages even as the world around it changed and became embroiled in conflict one after the other.
Its beautiful blue mosaic tile walls were like cool flowing water in the desert, and the grand golden dome glimmered overhead like the sun, radiating God's warmth for all to embrace. Beyond its hallowed halls were a multitude of dusty archways, paths and smaller, though no less impressive, gazebos of old stone and refurbished materials.
To many, it was the site where one could commune with God.
To Luna, it will be the site of her greatest triumph.
Her half of the Equestrian forces had successfully captured the hill the Temple Mount stood upon after disposing of the human forces occupying it. They gathered around its base, hastily forming an great arcane bastion within the immediate vicinity and hunkering down as they were assailed from all sides.
Normally, planting oneself in the midst of an ongoing firefight in a wide-open space with clear sight lines was outright suicide. But with the might of an alicorn and destiny on their side, they were confident in the fact that they were all but impervious to whatever pitiable attempts the human soldier would resort to in order to breach their defenses.
Beyond the questionable strategic choice it was also a bold statement, the metaphorical waving of a big stick as it were.
Always one for theatricality, Luna was adamant that bringing down the Temple Mount must be a grand act to be seen and heard all around. Its destruction needed to be executed perfectly in the way a ballerina would perform their dance. It wasn't simply a matter of destroying a fancy building of religious importance; it was to signify the end of the war, and by extension, the end of humanity and its sinful ways.
"Hmph," Luna scoffed, sizing up the building as she tuned out the crackling of gunfire and explosives plinking against the shield. She observed the crumbling architecture, partially damaged by periphery combat, sneering at every little crack, mark and imperfection that dotted the venerable building. "It looked nicer from afar. Alas, tis a disappointment. A very predictable disappointment."
"Like all things humanity worships, it is a vastly overrated theme park full of smoke and mirrors created to wow the ignorant masses, and a cheap one at that," Colonel Air Lift joined the princess, offering his own snide comment. "If there is any holiness at all it this city, it isn't here."
"I couldn't have said it better myself," she replied, absently kicking a random rock around. "Hmm, perhaps once all is said and done, I'll have the artisans of Canterlor replace this affront to common sense with something actually worthy of reverence. I'm thinking about verdant garden in the desert, filled with all manner of flowers in every color imaginable. And in the center of it all, a magnificent statue of pristine white marble depicting the heroics that took place upon this very day." Luna's expression grew giddy, a small smile formed on her lips. "Yes, I can see it now. An oasis amidst the dunes. A true jewel for all to experience."
"Princess!" An earth pony grunt exclaimed, rushing over to Luna. A mortar round erupted against the magical dome, causing him to stumble in his steps before coming to a stop before the princess. He raised his hoof and saluted, catching his breath as he did. "The human's reinforcements are on their way here, they're converging on our location as I speak! It won't be long before we are completely surrounded!"
"Ah! An audience!" Luna chuckled airily as her lips curled into a smirk. "Let them come, let them come! I want all these misguided fools to see the exact moment I pound in the last nail into the coffin of their resistance! Their make-believe pagan Gods are nowhere to be seen, and we will remind them of that fact! Guardspony, I thank you for the news. Now, return to your post and standby for orders."
"As you command, Princess Luna," the earth pony swiftly bowed before turning on his hoof and galloping back into position.
Luna then turned addressed Air Lift. "Colonel, Air Lift. Rally our forces. Spread them out along the perimeter, order them to maintain the barrier and to uphold the battlefront. Do not let up for even a moment. What I am about to do requires total concentration and I don't want to be interrupted for what comes next."
"At once, your majesty. I look forward to moment of triumph," Air Lift bowed respectfully and flew off to deliver the princess's orders.
"Honor guard, to me!" She commanded, and a squad of bat ponies hurriedly appeared beside her. They all stood proudly at attention, clad in the same blueish silver armor that Luna wore. Several of them had a collection of metal rods slung over their shoulders while one had a rolled-up bundle of dark colored silk.
"My most esteemed warriors! Chosen for your courage and honor, the very physical embodiment of the Equestrian ideal! Champions of this most righteous cause!" she began, her voice fiery and passionate. "Our victory is nigh! With this final act, the future is secured for all of planet Earth! Sir, Night Fury! Present thyself, front and center!" she called, and one of the bat ponies stepped forward and lowered his head. "Dost thou have the flag prepared?"
"It is ready, your majesty." Night Fury proudly unfurled and presented the flag that was slung across his back, holding it up to Luna. It was an expertly stitched dark blue silken banner with silver trim, embroidered with the image of Luna and Celestia orbiting the sun and moon surrounded by rows of stars.
It was the flag of the exalted and prosperous nation of Equestria.
"Most excellent," Luna hummed before marching towards the Temple Mount, urging her honor guard to follow with an exaggerated motion. "Now, let us not tarry! Follow me to glory!"
Luna and her entourage approached the building. Once they were near, Luna stepped forth and her horn began to glow. She widened her stance and buried her hooves into the dirt, knitted her brow and scrunched up her face as she began focusing the flashiest most visually destructive spell she could cast.
Beads of sweat began to form by her brow. Web-like veins bulged and throbbed underneath the matted fur around her neck and forehead as she strained herself to will it into existence. It had always been particularly tough spell to conjure, largely because it was impractical in real combat, yet it was even more strenuous than she had last remembered. But the end result was a spectacle, it was the perfect for the job.
Suddenly, the winds were whipped up into a vigorous squall as dark clouds gathered around the Temple Mount, darkening the clear noon sky with foreboding blackness. The ominous clouds swirled and churned violently, booming with thunderous bellows that echoed for miles around and crackling with ethereal blue lightning as a blinding light formed in the eye of the storm that intensified with each passing second.
The light rumbled and growled like the belly of a terrible beast as it charged. It swelled and blossomed disconcertingly, growing and growing until finally it unleashed its payload; a minute but incredibly dense fragment of a neutron star torn from the very cosmos that was sent crashing down upon the Haram Esh-Sharif at terminal velocity, leaving behind a glimmering trail of luminescent starlight in its wake.
It behaved similarly to dropping a heavy tungsten rod from low orbit, albeit on a smaller more concentrated scale. In one fell swoop the Temple Mount was obliterated by kinetic bombardment in an rolling cloud of sand, dirt and other loose debris that swept its way down alongside the hill, coating the guardspony nearby in a layer of dust. The resulting tremor could be felt across all of Jerusalem, and the earsplitting rupture that echoed through the bones was enough to cause the fighting to cease momentarily.
An eerie silence enveloped the city shortly after, everything came to a grinding halt.
When the dust finally settled and the view cleared and the skies returned to its gentle blue hue, only a smoldering crater emitting a stinking gout of steam and hot air remained where the Temple Mount once stood. Luna took a moment to collect herself after performing such an physically draining spell, panting heavily and feeling lightheaded. She took a deep breath and wiped the sweat from her brow, allowing herself to admire her handiwork during the brief reprieve.
The Haram Esh-Sharif had been erased. Reduced to warm gravel and ash scattered across the winds in an eye-blink. It was the spectacle Luna had desired, and it was every bit as traumatic as she had wanted it to be.
But she was not finished.
No, she needed to twist the knife further in order to let in sink in to all in attendance just exactly what she had accomplished this day.
"Honor guard!" She commanded between labored breathes. Her honor guard snapped to attention, pristine and free from dust, as they quickly scrambled into a parade formation beside her, dutifully awaiting orders. "Your time is now, plant the Equestrian flag! Solidify our victory!"
"At once, Princess Luna!" the bat ponies all proclaimed in unison.
The honor guard broke off into two groups; one was responsible for setting up the flagpole while the other proceeded to perform the ceremonial unfurling of the flag.
They moved with practiced ease, unpacking tools and other equipment, having performed this ceremonial act time and time again. The first group hastily and expertly assembled the flagpole in record time, fitting the metal rods together and tightening the bolts until it was whole. The second group gather around the flag and held it in their hooves with reverent esteem and began to carefully, meticulously unfurl it as though it were ancient parchment, taking care not to let even a single thread touch the ground as they affixed in to the end of the pole.
Once affixed, they raised the flag pole in some imitative mockery of Iwo Jima, right down to the photograph being taken for posterity, and planting it into the ground as the others stood by at attention, their hooves held up high in a perfect salute. Then, one of them began to sing the national anthem. Their voice was a smooth, velvety baritone; rich and full of fanatical zeal. It was enough to make some of the others watching shed a tear.
"Equestria, the land I love,
a land of harmony!
Our flag does wave from high above,
for ponykind to see!
Equestria, a land of friends,
where ponykind do roam!
They say true friendship never ends
Equestria, my home!"
Once they finished, the regiments erupted in a victorious cheer, the war all but forgotten as they applauded the princess for her success. They stomped, whooped and holler in ecstatic joy, turning to hug each other or throwing their helmets up in premature celebration believing the war to finally be over once and for all... Up until the shelling restarts. The mood died instantly, and the Equestrians received a sobering reminder that the battle for Jerusalem had yet to be decided.
Throughout Luna's elaborate showcase and blatant disregard for wartime decorum, the human reinforcements had finally showed up en masse and taken the time freely allotted to them to setup their equipment in the back line; things like weapons teams, artillery, tanks and, most curious of all, strange alien looking devices that glowed with a disconcerting red hue. They wasted no time in bombarding the hill with everything they got, spurned on to even greater fervor after witnessing the callous destruction of the Temple Mount.
"Such insolence!" Sir Night Fury seethed as the honor guard returned to Luna's side. "Can they not see that they've already lost? Can they not see how pointless it is to continue resisting?"
"Tsk, I expect nothing more from a bunch of violent apes," Luna sneered with a hint of amusement in her voice, rolling her eyes as the ground shook and rumbled with each successive shelling. So absorbed was she in her own smug sense of self-satisfaction that she failed to notice the multitude of thin cracks forming on the surface of the force shield, nor the the nearby unicorns maintaining it growing pale and sickly in appearance the longer they kept it raised. "Clearly, they have difficulty processing the shock of it all and can only react the way they always do when they fail; lashing out in anger. Perhaps I need to spell it out for them after all."
Luna cleared her throat and took a step forward, pushing back the wooziness percolating in the depths of her skull before address the opposing force with the royal 'we.'
"Humans, hear me!" she boomed, her powerful voice rising above all the chaos and strident noises around her. "Let my voice reach you and bring us together. Cease your pitiful resistance, lay down your arms and accept reality for once in your misbegotten lives! It's over! The war has already been decided! Equestria has bested you, as it was destined to be!"
She gestured to the crater. "Can you not see? I destroyed your precious temple, that unsightly hovel you claim where God's voice could be heard. That alone should be proof enough of the futility of your endeavor! There are no Gods here, nor were there any in Mecca or Rome. There is no perception of divinity or false hope of any sort for you to hopelessly cling onto any longer, we have freed you from those sinister chains! Let go of this obsession! Let go of this pointless defiance and at last, open yourselves, your hearts and your minds to the glorious embrace of conversion! This is the way!"
Luna had hoped her speech would have a mollifying effect, that the fighting would stop, but whether it was due to deafness from exposure to the near constant sound of gunfire or lack of care they simply ignored her. She frowned and furrowed her brow, but continued with her speech regardless. She believed she merely needed to persevere and all things will fall into place in due time.
"There has been too much bloodshed, too much violence, too much suffering. Far too much suffering. But there is a way to escape all that, I offer to you my hoof in the name of peace, friendship and harmony! All you need to do is-!?"
The plodding thump of a tank's main cannon went off in the distance. The shell looked a thin streak of light as it whistled across the air like the shrill scream of death at high speeds.
*CRACK!*
The shell penetrated the force shield as if it were made of glass and detonating as it landed by the hooves of Luna's honor guard, cutting the princess off mid-sentence and unceremoniously blowing her and everyone around her away in a squall of dirt, smoke and shrapnel.
The experience was sudden and entirely unexpected. Nopony could've seen it coming.
Time stopped for Luna as the force of the blast sent her wildly careening into the dirt, limbs splayed outwards like a ragdoll, her heart pounding dangerously quick against her rib cage and hearing consumed by roaring white noise. She tore a long trench into the ground before smashing her helmeted head up against the base of the flag pole with a loud clang.
She blacked out instantly.
"What in the name of me?!" Luna exclaimed.
Her soldiers, loyal and steadfast, had turned their blades on each other. They screamed profanity and other vile obscenities as they descended into barbarism, charging at each other with cudgel, blade and even empty hooves in a rampant fit of misguided fury.
"Ya think you're hot shit with that horn of yers?! Let's see how smug ya are when I snap it off yer skull!" One guardspony, a purple pegasus armed with a lance, shouted at a blue unicorn with a black eye.
"I don't need my horn to beat some respect into you, you pansy cloud kicker!" the unicorn snarled, gripping his combat knife tight in his hoof. "Come get a taste!"
"Arrogant prick, I'll kill you!" The pegasus charged towards him with a deadly lunge, using the gust from his wings to propel forward at great speeds, only to get swiftly bucked square in the jaw at the last second and be sent careening into a rickety fruit cart with a noisy clatter and squeals of metal.
"Just a pansy cloud kicker!" The unicorn spat venomously, twirling his knife around as he began moving in for the kill. Before he could land the killing blow, however, he was blindsided by an earth pony who tackled him to the ground, knocking the blade out of his hoof. They both slid to a stop against the wall where they proceeded to descend into a brawl as the earth pony overwhelmed the unicorn with a brutish flurry of blows.
"Elysium above, they've all gone mad!" Autumn Falls breathed, eyes wide in disbelief.
"You!" Air Lift pointed nearby. There was a terrified private huddling beneath a table with his hooves over his head. The trembling soldier snapped to attention upon being addressed, banging his head under the table before scrambling out and giving a shaky salute. "What is the meaning of this!" he barked furiously, misting the unfortunate grunt with a spray of spittle. "I thought the princess had made her position clear about insubordination! Why are the men at each other's throats?! Why has nopony attempted to stop them!?"
"Sir! O-one of the squads suddenly went rogue!" the private stammered, quaking in his horseshoes. "They tried to desert! When one of the other officers attempted to stop them he got his jaw broken! N-next thing I know everything went to Hell! I scrambled away to safety before it could escalate!"
"Such reckless insolence! I will not tolerate this disorderly conduct any longer! It is beneath us!" Luna snapped, baring her teeth. She forced herself through, rudely shoving aside her subordinates and asserted herself before the rabble. It was telling to how low her warriors had sunk that even in her immediate presence the fighting did not wane in the slightest.
Her horn began glowing with a translucent dark navy blue hue, she didn't notice the brief fluctuation of color and wayward sparks elicited from the tip as she flare her wings out in a display of authority.
With a great flash of light and an even greater deal of mental stress, something Luna understandably attributed to her combat fatigue, all those involved in the brawl were caught in her telekinetic hold. In a single moment, the sound of quarreling quieted down to an uncomfortable silence. They remained helplessly frozen mid-fight with only the spastic darting of their eyes as their sole signs of life.
Forcefully, she peeled everypony off one another and swiftly arranged them into neat rows and columns. If there were any protests nopony voiced them, assuming they weren't the ones being manhandled. All the while Luna's mood continued to worsen, she struggled to maintain a strained facade of calm as she planted the last guardspony into position and released her telekinetic hold.
The moment her magic was dispelled she felt a wave of fatigue wash over her, leaving her panting and slouched over. Luna was tired, terribly so. It wouldn't take much to make her tip over in her weakened state. She wanted nothing more in the moment than to let go and crumble onto the floor and allow herself the reprieve of sleep. But unfavorable circumstances prevented her from indulging in such luxuries. Sucking in a lungful of air, she righted herself and cast an indignant glare across her soldiers.
At that point in time, everypony in attendance desired to be anywhere else but here.
They stood in fearful silence, quivering in their horseshoes as they expected to be verbally, and quite possibly physically, ripped apart by a very ticked off alicorn. The seconds ticked away at a dreadfully slow pace. Nopony said a thing. Nopony refused to let anything slip, not even a single breath out of fear of setting her off and becoming the target of her ire.
But in a more unsettling twist, Luna grew calm. Calmer than it would be deemed reasonable given their predicament. Her tenseness slackened and her expression turned soft, she just sort of deflates.
And for a while, nothing happens.
In all honestly, the fact that she wasn't exploding into a heated tirade or exuding an oppressive magical force was more frightening than if she did. It was hard to tell if she was remaining professional about it all, as screaming her head off would no doubt alert the enemy to their vulnerable position. Nopony could tell what was going on in her mind.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she turned over to her underlings and whispered them in a voice so cold they could practically feel frost forming on their fur, "Settle this. All of it. I don't care how you do it, I want it done. If somepony, anypony, steps out of line, you are authorized to have them executed. No. Exceptions. I will not suffer fools, not now." It was not an order or a demand, it's what will happen.
Air Lift and Autumn Falls both swallowed the lumps in their throats and responded with a quick salute.
With nothing but a snort for an acknowledgement, Luna turned on her hooves and left the scene, seeking a quiet spot in the bazaar to decompress and find peace of mind.
Luna's eyes slowly fluttered open as consciousness returned to her.
Groggily, she attempted to raise her pounding head, her vision a messy blur of colors and blinding streaks, silver blood staining part of her eyesight, as tinnitus stifled her hearing.
The first thing she registered as her senses realigned themselves was pain. Searing pain, numbing pain, pain of all kinds. True physical pain the likes of which she hadn't felt in years, not when she once called herself Mooncloud. So long ago was it forgotten the frail trappings of mortality that It had become an alien sensation to her. The experience left her shaken in the way a foal would be after burning their hoof on the stove top for the first time ever.
There was a figure standing over her, shouting something she could barely hear. She attempted to speak but lost herself in a violent coughing fit that sent fresh waves of agony rippling across her body. The air was rife with the acrid scent of smoke and spilled blood, it filled her lungs with lingering fragments of death and decay.
When her head finally cleared and her vision recovered from being a smear of colors she found herself in a waking nightmare.
Her regiment was in total disarray. The force shield protecting them had all but shattered, leaving them wide open to attack. Artillery and strafing runs bombarded them to no end, sending ponies flying through the air in bits and pieces, feeding the good Earth with their viscera. Another unfortunate soul could be seen flailing about, silently screaming, engulfed in fire as his skin crackled like roasted chicken. To add insult to injury, their flag remained standing, albeit crooked and set aflame as its smoking silk flapped flaccidly in the winds.
It was madness, complete and utter madness.
"...una... cess Luna... Princess Luna!" Sir Night fury screamed, finally snapping her attention towards the bat pony. "Oh, bless the makers, you're safe-!" he was cut off as a bullet entered the side of his head, completely bypassing his enchanted helmet and blowing a revolting exit wound out the other end like a gory flower. The sudden gout of blood and gray matter coated her fur as Sir Night Fury collapsed atop her. Luna frightfully shoved the corpse away and crawled backwards in disgust and horror, a scream trapped in her throat.
Luna swung her head wildly side to side, scanning the landscape. It then dawned on her the severity of the situation. Her entire honor guard had been killed, their bodies laid strewn across the dirt in bloody chunks after being caught in the blast of the tank shell, with Sir Night Fury being the only sole survivor before being shot dead himself. The regiment fought with every ounce of courage they could muster, only to be ruthlessly cut down by the storm of lead from automatic weapons.
The Equestrian forces were losing, and badly at that.
Gritting her teeth, she forced herself back onto all fours, ignoring the searing pain pulsing from her limbs as she hobbled back towards the battlefront. Her mind was caught in a turbulent storm of crippling terror, stubborn pride and furious anger. This was the eve of her greatest triumph she could not let that moment slip away because of a fluke.
She open her mouth to speak, hacking up a thick wad of blood as she suppressed the need to cough again. She raised her hoof up high and bellowed for all to hear, rallying her forces so that they may repel the humans.
"FIGHT ON, MY LITTLE PONIES!" she cried hoarsely, shambling about in a stupor as her soldiers watched on incredulously. "HEED MY ORDERS! MAINTAIN THIS POSITION AND FIGHT ON! WE WILL NOT GIVE THEM THIS DAY! FIGHT WITH ALL YOU HAVE! DO NOT GIVE THEM AN INCH! VICTORY IS ALREADY OURS! DO THIS FOR FRIENDSHIP, FOR HARMONY, FOR EQUESTRIA!"
The regiment would continue to fight, girded by the words of their princess who was still alive and well, albeit wounded. But confidence was a poor weapon and an even flimsier shield. The choice to stay and fight had grave consequences as the regiment was quickly being overwhelmed by the oppositions sheer numbers and powerful advanced weaponry.
Eventually, after being forced into a corner and threatened with total annihilation, it became clear what needed to be done. Humiliated beyond belief, Luna finally called the order to retreat.
"FALL BACK!" she shouted, the words like razor blades leaving her throat. "FALL BACK AND RETREAT NOW!"
And thus, for the first and final time of the Conversion war, Princess Luna fled.
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The comments section of this story makes it sound like you need to read the original story in order to understand this one. Is this true?
Luna actually destroyed the Temple Mount? Yeah, I see now why this arc's called Damnation.
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Not necessarily, the original Negotiation story had tid bits here and there talking about what happened during the war but they're juicy background material that wasn't elaborated on yet. It does however set the mood and context for the universe
(... I think I'm going to take an unhealthy amount of pleasure in seeing Princess Luna die at the end of this. Spoiler is for a future event as known from the original Negotiations-verse, not what actually happened in this chapter.)
Can’t wait to see her final stand…. Still wondering if we will see her terror…. Or if for the first time in the war… she felt truly alive…
Autumn tried to warn her, but so confident, so assured that victory was in their grasp Luna only sealed her death.
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Not really, this is sort of like a prequel, going in-depth about the war, while also adding in the aftermath shortly after Equestria surrenders in the original. Although I highly recommend giving the original a read.
Oh, she's going to go down in tears and anger.
I'm getting a sick sense of joy upon reading of her failure and anger. She truly deserves this chapter's title.
Oh this is just wonderful, its good to see the slow twisting of the knife. The end is swiftly approaching.
They pierced her sense of invulnerability and she couldn't handle it. I bet she had almost turned back into Nightmare Moon by the time they killed her.
She thought that the destruction of the Temple Mount would break the spirit of the united army of three religions? No... Luna only gave them an excuse to not hold back… At all...
Thank you very much for this chapter, I hope you are doing well yourself. Try not to overwork yourself. *hug*
Thus Jerusalem became what should have been Equestria's Iwo Jima into their Gallipoli.
From my shallow knowledge of physics, shouldn't such fragment had cause FAR more damage than the destruction of Haram Esh-Sharif?
thumbs.gfycat.com/CheapHugeCapeghostfrog-size_restricted.gif
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Honestly anything larger than the size of a marble with material as incredibly dense as a neutron star colliding as fast as it did would've flattened the entire hill and rip a massive hole in the ground, beyond that the damage would only get worse the larger you go up to say the size of an apple to a watermelon. Hence the emphasis on the word 'minute.' Also, magic handwave author's license bs from me
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And that was the whole problem.
The ponies assumed that human belief systems were exactly like theirs - where the thing and/or place was the most important part of their belief. If they had gotten their heads out of their asses long enough to do a little research they would realize that that is very incorrect. Human beliefs have things & places as reminders of events and places to gather, but its the IDEA that is held sacred. So it really didn't matter if they tore down the Temple Mount or not - the various faiths would just keep going on. What it would do was eliminate any chance of mercy being shown. Oh and assure that the moment the excuse-for-stupidity aka The Barrier dropped at least one group would tell the UN to take its "moral high ground" and choke on it before launching a feww hundred kilotons of nuclear wrath.
THIS.IS OUR HOME
AND YOU.WILL NOT TAKE IT FROM US
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I could tell when she was yelling at Autumn Falls that it wasn't because she didn't believe her: it was because she saw the logic behind what was being said and it scared her. She's doing everything she can to make excuse after excuse to explain away the possibility that anti-magic is at work, because she knows she's supremely f**ked otherwise. That and pride. Sheer stubborn pride to admit anything could possibly be wrong with her moment "rolls eyes"
I normally keep my vindictive side at bay, but I will be very happy to see this version of Princess Luna fall.
A true rollercoaster of emotions, and I'm sure part 3 will be as well.
That's the one thing ponies will not understand about humans, I dont know if they are aware of the phrase "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" and that was at play throughout the entire war. Basically we were able to put aside our differences and band together to fight a common enemy.
Things go badly. It looks like Luna will be lucky if she can manage to merely decimate the city. Yes, she may only manage to destroy a 10th of the city and a 10th of the population.
Oh dear Luna, all you've done was invigorate mankind's fighting spirit a hundred fold.
You know, I’ve always wondered. Twilight being the bookworm she is, ever ready and eager to learn, must’ve researched everything she could about humanity when Ponies and humans met for the first time, albeit she’d have had to stop once Celestia began banning all things human, but surely she’d have disregarded all this when the war began. After all, to truly defeat your enemy, you must KNOW and understand your enemy.
I mean, even if she chose NOT to learn anything else even after the war began, surely she’d have at least done some prior research about the areas they’d be targeting no? I mean, since when has destroying any church, mosque or synagogue ever broken the faiths of the abrahamic religions? On the contrary, it only enhanced them. Look at the Hadrianic persecutions of the Jews and the Holocaust. Look at the early Roman persecution of Christians. Look at the infighting between the three and all the religious buildings they’ve torn down of each other.
Hell, forget religion and look at human history in general, doing things like rarely works. Did bombing London break the British? Did Pearl Harbor break the Americans? Actions like the one Luna just performed only hardens your enemy’s resolve and inflames the will to continue the fight.
Honestly, destroying the Temple Mount merely wiped out a beautiful building and a valuable piece of history, it didn’t do shit to the area’s religious veneration, it probably enhanced it actually. I’d expect a new, even-holier building that venerates all three abrahamic religions joining hands to repel Equestria being built in its place.
Temples #1 and 2 of the Jews have been destroyed, yet the Temple Mount remains holy to them
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was razed to the ground and the true cross taken way back when, yet the Christians rebuilt the church and recaptured the true cross later, it’s still holy to them too.
During the Reconquista, a ton of mosques were destroyed or converted into churches, the greatest example being the Great Cathedral of Cordoba, and Muslims were totally banished from the Iberian peninsula. Didn’t really do much against their faith, many mosques were later rebuilt and those that weren’t are still contested to this day.
To top it all off, Jerusalem isn’t new to this kind of assault. Throughout it’s long history, Jerusalem has been:
Destroyed 2 times
Besieged 23 times
Attacked 52 times
And Captured and Recaptured 44 times.
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I'd argue that, while Twilight is certainly smart and would know her stuff she, at least this version of her, has her hardline viewpoint, beliefs, prejudices and naivety ultimately color her overall perception of the world and how it works, which more or less dictates the logic behind a lot of her actions. She is prone to using her brain but not her head and even her rare moments of objective lucidity and logical understanding it's almost always quashed by her own obstinance (ironic), doubt, or outside manipulations.
Even if we the audience know this plan won't work because of the reasons you stated she wholeheartedly believes it will because,
A) Cadence believes it will
B) Celestia believes it will
C) She herself believes in conversion, the cause, Equestria and her own righteousness
D) Revenge for Shining Armor
Will there be a part 3
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yes
Been there, done that. Really should have looked into the history of that. Ever hear of the Hanging Gardens Luna? Beat you too it by like 3000-4000 years.
I suspect one of the primary reasons that Damnation, Part 3 is taking so long is because of all the crap going on right now. I mean, shit, crap was always going on around there but Oct 7 was just awful. Kinda hard to publish a chapter featuring all 3 abrahamic religions joining hands to rain down fury on their opponents when the environment for that kind of cooperation couldn’t be farther off in real life, though I do firmly believe it will happen someday.
You know, that does actually bring up an interesting question. In this universe, we know that a lot of current enemies set aside their squabbles to face the imminent threat united, like the Koreas uniting for example, so does that mean that the Arab-Israeli conflict also came to an end? Did the Battle of Jerusalem have the after-effect of the Israelis and the Palestinians joining together in victory? Perhaps uniting at last to form one nation; Israel-Palestine or Judea-Palaestina?