40 Years

by bookhorse125

Chapter 16 - TheBlueEM2

Many miles away, an alarm suddenly began blaring on a bridge. This bridge belonged to a ship. And this ship floated in space above the void of reality Grogar had created.

A robotic machine looked as the display and checked a button. "Urgent message, sir!" they called.

And then the doors at the back of the room opened. Several machine stepped through the door and stopped in front of the main control panel, looking at the message.

The centre one of the machines was considerably more detailed and dramatic than the others, with golden and bronze plating to accentuate his existing colours. What looked like a crown sat atop his head, and he carried a metal and gold staff in his hand.

"Looks like the fools remembered to send the distress call after all," he said, smiling. "What was the location of the signal."

"One came from the world between worlds," the ship's navigator replied, looking at the display. "The other came from Equestria itself. These two positions are forces supplied with troops by us."

The centre machine nodded, his eyes glowing in the dimly lit light of the bridge which was otherwise illuminated by the sickly green light of the displays. "Indeed. This is our chance to finish what the others started. They may have challenged us in the past, but their poor usage and leadership of our assets leaves much to be desired. The Void Admiral will emerge victorious over his enemies." He stepped forward and punched a button on the display. "Prepare the fighters and the troop carriers for launch."

As this happened, the alarm shifted to a continous, high pitched tone backed by a buzzing sound. The sheer volume got the desired attention, and large numbers of the machines began to head for their designated zones. Spine like dropships sat in position, with machines stepping onboard in perfect precise movements and locking into place with magnetic clamps for the journey. Larger transporter were loaded with enormous vehicles of various functions, all to bring devastation to the enemy.

Finally, the fighers powered up, their crescent shaped hulls humming with glowing green energy as their engines rumbled into life. The pilots were already in place and ready for launch. The bay doors protecting them from outer space lifted back, and the craft took off for the void below and the battlefields of Equestria.

Back in the ship, the Void Admiral looked at his console. "Air reinforcements for Grogar, and ground ones for Sprout," he said. "They shall make their attacks, and then link up to reinforce the siege of Zephyr Heights." He looked to one of his ship crew. "Move the flotilla into bombardment position over Grogar's battlefield. Prepare the guns to fire on my order."

"Yes, Void Admiral," the operator replied, and the ships began to move to their indicated positions. The ships rumbled through space as huge numbers of transports and other craft moved about.

Victory was at hand. All that was needed was the troops to deliver it to them.

---

Hitch had barely any time to react before the room was lit up with energy weapons fire from the machines. He ran for it as quickly as he could, but it was no use.

"Good luck dodging all of this!" Sprout laughed, as he stood at the back.

Hitch jumped as best he could. "Really, Sprout?"

"If you're looking for a fair fight, you're doing it wrong!" Sprout replied. "KILL! KILL!"

Hitch ducked behind a rock to hide, but his luck could only hold for so long. He spotted another piece of cover before him, and dashed to it-

-only to get hit in the legs and fall to the ground. No sooner had he registered this, his world ended very suddenly.

Sprout raised his hoof. "CEASE FIRE!" He had a machine go forward to check the body.

"HITCH TERMINATED," the machine gruffly replied.

Sprout was pleased. He had finally done it. He had gotten rid of that awful sherriff that had ruined his life, and hopefully Grogar had destroyed his idiot friends as well. Now there was nothing standing in the way of his dreams of conquest.

A loud noise outside attracted his attention, and he and the machines went outside the cave to reveal huge numbers of dropships touching down, offloading combat machines and vehicles.

As he stopped, the tablet he had flickered into life, and the robotic face of the Admiral appeared on the screen. "You have done well so far, Sprout," he said. "Your new objective is to use these assets to march on and capture Zephyr Heights. The siege needs reinforcing. Expect air support within the next hour. High Command out."

Sprout nodded, seeing the enormous army positioned before him. There was nopony who could get in his way now. "ADVANCE!" he shouted. "DESTROY THEM!"

The dropships immediwtely started offloading their troops, and the troops onboard began to march in perfect unity towards their target. Behind them rumbled large machines. Multi legged walkers carried energy weapons slung below them, crackling with energy. Large slab sided monoliths hummed with otherworldly energy. Machines fitted with enormous cannons floated along, the weapons on the underside perfect for a siege.

There was no chance of the pegasi being able to counter such an army. Equestria was as good as his for the taking.

After a few hours march, the city came into view, flames and fire burning from it and holes punctured in its walls. Whilst the pegasi clearly were fighting back, it was obvious this was a losing battle. Sprout's troops marched into position to reinforce the existing besieging troops, and soon the bombardment began anew.

Sprout continued to watch from his throne as firepower continued to batter the once fine and beautiful city. He looked over to three hovering machines and moved his hoof forward. "Go into the city, and bring me back the head of the Queen."

The pilots nodded, and the three machines flew away into the darkness and smoke, to carry out their grusome mission.

---

Twilight looked about in confusion as loud humming sounded over the battlefield. "What the?" she asked. "I thought this was over! We've won!"

She was about to be proven very wrong. Large aircraft suddenly appeared in the skies and began blasting anything on the ground with their weapons and other tools of death. It was soon utter pandemonium, and the already tortured soil, torn up by hours of hard battle between magical adverseries, was once more being ripped apart by weapons fire. They were already exhausted, and somepony had somehow committed fresh troops to the battlefield.

Sunny looked in surprise as a single blast slammed into her, bouncing off her shield produced by her alicorn form. "This doesn't make any sense! We destroyed Grogar's forces!"

Moments later, a huge, slab sided monolith slammed into the ground, followed by many more. They activated in turn, their guns glowing and humming as they began to fire. Their front plates began to glow a sickly green colour. Out of them marched more machines into the battle, discharging their weapons into the foe.

Twilight saw her friends begin to fall, and realised their victory was undone. "RETREAT!" she shouted.

Ponies began to move in a shambles that only vaguely resembled a retreat as the previously victorious ponies were gunned down by firepower from the land and the sky. Twilight hid behind a rock and suddenly saw something flicker into life.

An image appeared before her. "Foolish ponies," said the figure, the Admiral himself. "You really didn't think I kept troops in reserve?"

Twilight gasped as she saw Rainbow Dash shot down, slamming into the ground at fatal speeds. "How? We defeated Grogar!"

"That foolish ram," the Admiral said. "He was merely a distraction, a threat to weaken all of you. The true rulers of the universe are awakening once more, and we can at last take command of this reality- as it was always meant to be."

Twilight realised what this meant. "Grogar called you in!"

"Precisely," the Admiral said. "If you mortals have a weakness, it's that you show mercy too often. If you had just killed him, you wouldn't be in this mess, would you?"

Twilight consulted her data pad as she saw their troop numbers had reduced to double digits. She saw pegasi, Zipp amongst them, be shot out of the sky by thunderous batteries. Gunfire roared across the battlefield, cutting troops down like wheat.

Twilight saw Sunny valiently hold the line, firing off energy beams as hard and fast as she could, but ultimately it proved to all be for naught. One of the massive machines trained its main gun on her, and obliterated her in a single flash of light.

Their victory was in vain. Starlight had died for nothing.

Wait... Starlight. Twilight suddenly had an idea. A way to fix this mess.

She focused her magic as the machines closed in, and before they fired she suddenly vanished into the cold void of space.

---

When the light had fully faded from her eyes, Twilight found herself outside a cave, not in a place she recognised. The world was different to what she had known. Even so, this was preferable to being on a battlefield being bombed flat. She stepped forward through the terrain, and notice the rock formation had carvings in it.

Each bore the inscription of a different cutie mark. She recognised most of them as belonging to those who had fought alongside her during this struggle.

Most of whom were dead now.

Twilight realised the providence of what this meant. This was the place from where they had been summoned to fight Grogar in the first place. And from what she had pieced together this place was supposed to serve as his prison.

His prison...

Twilight looked inside and heard voices from inside.

Grogar was inside the cave. And if he was in there, and not anywhere else, Twilight's plan had worked. She had been able to use the time travel spell to go backwards in time and return to the point where this timeline began.

Sometimes it is said that the only way to truly overcome a tragic event is to ensure it can never happen. This is what Twilight intended to do. She lit her horn, watching the energy build up as she prepared to unleash a truly gargantuan spell.

As she did so, memories of the journey she had gone on with the others flashed through her mind. Sunny, Rainbow Dash (the other Rainbow Dash, not the one from her timeline), Firefly, Patch, and even Gusty herself... she would never forget them, nor the sacrifices they had made to bring about this moment.

Once the spell had reached its apex, Twilight released it. A massive bolt of energy exploded from her horn and into the air, flying into the dark void and illuminating the hostile cave beyond with its power. Moments later it struck its target, and there was a massive bang.

Rock and rubble began to fall from the ceiling with intensity, smashing into the ground and producing a barrier that nothing could survive. As the interior of the cave collapsed in on itself, Twilight felt some relief. This was no longer a prison for that ram who had caused so much suffering.

It was his tomb.

As the last of the rockfall occurred and the landscape finished shifting, Twilight turned away, knowing her mission was done. Grogar could now never escape or harm the others, and her duty to protect her subjects was fulfilled.

As the world around her shifted as the new timeline took effect, Twilight felt herself be carried along by the winds of time back to her own reality.

True, her actions would mean that none of those she knew from the other dimensions would ever meet.

But wasn't preventing the pain and suffering of the war worth it?

Twilight Sparkle smiled as she saw Canterlot fade into view.

As far as she was concerned, all was good.

Author's Note:

Being asked to write the penultimate chapter of the story was quite the honour, but also quite the challenge. A challenge I gladly accepted. The only question was how to suitably top the story we had so far?

The approach I chose to take, the ultimate erasure of the timeline, was taken from a Doctor Who episode, which frequently used rewriting the past to prevent disastrous outcomes as a plot device; Turn Left is an excellent example.

I would like to extend my hand and thank Bookhorse125 for inviting me to work on this project. It's been great fun being a part of MLP's 40th anniversary.

This is The Blue EM2, signing off!

---

Special thanks to The Blue EM2 for writing this epic chapter!

Whew! We're almost done! I think there will be one more chapter for this story to wrap things up, and then that will be it for this year. I'm going to take a little break to focus on my next project, which will be released early next year, but it's going to take some time. Also, chronologically, it takes place after Secrets of Starlight and all of Make Your Mark, so I have to wait for that to come out first...

Anyway, thanks to all of you for writing and reading this story along with me. You are the best.