The Thousand Year Change

by Darthvalgaav

Operation: Umbrella

The LBI headquarters was not a sinister looking building. It was a simple, four story building with polished one way glass windows. Just like every other building around it for five blocks. Only two things set this one apart. The first, and most obvious, was a sign that said “Welcome to the Lunar Bureau of Investigations” right above the door in big friendly letters. The other was a steel statue of Princess Luna standing on the surface of the moon on only her hind legs while raising the Lunar Republic’s flag with her forelegs. Nothing seemed off about it in the slightest. Nothing at all.

‘But I guess that’s the point.’ thought Shadow Blade as he stared at the building. Currently he was standing on top of the building directly across from it. He had ditched his heavy armor which would have both made him stand out like a sore hoof as well as slowing him down greatly now that he was back in normal gravity.

His eyes surveyed the area with a frown, looking for any LBI agents patrolling the area. Every few seconds his head would shift to look at the door on the roof that led back into the building. Every time he looked at it he felt like it was mocking him or waiting for him to lower his guard so that it would open to reveal a surprise. His ears twitched as he listened carefully for the sounds of wings flapping or a teleportation spell.

Shadow’s wings hugged his sides tightly. None of this felt right. He hadn’t seen anypony patrolling the ground or even guarding the door. And he had been here long enough to know that they would have spotted him. Something should have happened. So where was everypony?

‘It could be a trap,’ thought Shadow as his eye narrowed at the building. ‘Perhaps they want me to try and break in so they can surround and corner me without being seen. Not a bad plan all things considered.’

Shadow took a deep breath and began to think. He had been in the building many times with Princess Luna so he knew the layout fairly well. The first floor held public offices mainly for things like school trips or if somepony wanted to file a complaint. Going up, the security tightened greatly. The next two floors held most of their monitoring systems and the floor above them both data storage as well as the office of the Sealed Document. Trying to move up to the top floor would be very difficult by trying to walk through the front entrance. If he was right about it being a trap then there would be multiple locations where he could be cornered. Trying to use stealth would be impossible since they would have plenty of motion detectors and cameras. Not to mention that in order to get to the next floor a pony would have to walk across the floor in order to get to the next stair well. He could try the door on their roof, but he was sure it would be locked and if he tried to buck it down alarms would sound.

Shadow’s ears flattened. He knew he was running out of time. The battle in Equestria had already begun. He would have to act soon.

-x-

“Luna!” cried Discord in a cheerful tone as the two rocked through the sky. “So good to see you again. I must say I like the look, but who are you cosplaying as? Iron Mare or Singularity? Oh, the Iron Singularity!”

Luna said nothing as she opened her wings, causing her to stop in midair. She then pointed her hoof at Discord as it went “Bweee”. Discord suddenly stopped in midair as well while giving Luna a knowing smile and placing his claws on his hips. Seeing this, the Night Princess gritted her teeth as she fired on her opponent. Before it could hit him, however, Discord grabbed the beam of energy and took a bite out of it.

“Tasty, though it could use more salt.” said Discord as he took another bite. As he did, he noticed Luna’s expression. She didn’t seem shocked at all. More annoyed, judging by how she was narrowing her eyes. “What’s this? No!’ ‘That’s impossible!’ or ‘That should have worked?’ Those are all things the ‘hero’ is supposed to say.” When Discord finished saying this, he tossed the energy beam over his shoulder and manipulated it to speed towards the ground. Within seconds it fell onto of a restaurant in Restaurant Row that had a three hooves rating. Nothing of value was lost.

“Do you take me for a fool Discord?” asked Luna. “I remember the last time me and my sister fought you. I know all too well what you are capable of.” Oh, Luna knew full well the extent of his powers. She remembered how he toyed with reality, driving the ponies of Equestria mad for his own amusement and what it had taken to defeat him. She knew that even with both her technology and her magic, she only stood the slimmest of chances. The only thing Luna knew she had that would work was Operation: Umbrella. However, using that now without warning the other races like the griffons would cause a disaster. And she wasn’t ready to do that right now. Right now it could only be her last resort.

Discord rubbed his goatee. “I see,” he said calmly before sighing. “Well I suppose that it can’t be helped. But having only one alicorn instead of the two makes things less interesting. So tell me, ‘Princess’, how do you expect to defeat me by yourself when you and your big sister couldn’t defeat me a thousand years ago? Multi-modal reflection sorting?”

Discord grinned while Luna growled, the crescent moon on her armor beginning to glow. This only made Discord chuckle harder. To him it seemed like a foolish thing to do to a being like him who had just a few minutes ago grabbed attack similar to that. No matter how powerful the blast the end result would be the same. The only problem it presented was him trying to decide how to dodge it. There was no way he’d try the same trick again so perhaps this time he would slit himself in two or create a hole in him at the last moment. Oh, better yet he could use Magical Cylinder and send the attack right back at her! Oh the look on her face as he put on that multi-colored, spiky haired wing and used a foal’s card game to turn her own attack against her would be priceless.

What Discord failed to notice, however, was that while her armor continued to glow brighter and brighter so too did her horn. Just when it looked like it couldn’t get any brighter Luna vanished, leaving a slightly confused looking god of chaos staring out into the open sky. This didn’t last long as Luna appeared above him and fired her chest blaster at full power. Before Discord could even think above looking up he was hit by the blast and sent down to the city below them, crashing into a house belonging to one of the nobles. Several loud crashes could be heard as Discord went through the roof, down five stories, into the basement, and eventually creating a sixteen foot deep crater.

Luna wasn’t done. Not in the slightest. As she pulled back her right gauntlet in a pose that looked like she was going to punch somepony she also pulled her wings back so she could drive towards the ground as quickly as possible. As she did this her gauntlet began to glow, surging with power that was begging to be released. When she made it to the roof however, Discord had jumped out of the hole. He snapped his fingers and was suddenly dressed in a bright blue suit with a helmet that had white wings on both sides. On his right arm there was a red and white shield that he lifted up and blocked Luna’s attack, the force of the impact being dispersed in a shockwave so powerful that it destroyed the house.

When the dust cleared, both beings were standing several yards apart amidst the jagged rumble. Discord, who was still in costume, was grinning insanely while Luna’s face bore a frown.

“We’re doing a scene from my favorite superhero movie!” cried Discord in delight. “So much better than ‘Batmare vs Supermare: Yawn of Boredom’. I mean, why did them realizing that their mothers having the same names get them to stop fighting? Or why did that moron think that cloning-” Before Discord could continue to ramble on like angry fanboy, Luna sprang into action. Using her magic she lifted many of the heavy rocky pieces around them and launched them at Discord. Seeing this, Discord threw his shield into the rumble and watched as it bounce off everything to hit Luna’s horn. The sudden impact caused the princess’ magic to cease and what she had been lifting to fall to the ground.

As the rocks fell back to the ground, Captain Discord’s shield returned to him. Before it could reach him, Luna lifted her hoof at the shield and shot it. The blast changed the shield direction and causing it to soar away from the chaos spirit. This failed to phase the god of chaos as he simply prepared to snap his claw. However, before he could do this, Luna jumped into the air and unleashed a barrage of mini-explosives before punching him with her right forehoof with all her might. The force of the blow sent Discord flying out of the ruins and into the garden of a noble a block away.

As Discord skidded to a halt, he witnessed something that caused him to lose his calm front. Luna’s horn was glowing brighter than anything he had ever witness before, whiting out everything behind her. Lightning seemed to dance around it, striking the ground while small chucks of rock began to float all around her. Her armor too had begun to glow having turned off all the safety restraints. Luna stood on her hind legs, both her foreleg gauntlets and her chest piece were pointed at him and glowing a whitish blue color.

Then she unleashed it all upon him.

Seeing the attack coming towards him, Discord summoned the shield back and braced himself for impact. Said impact came fast and hard as both science and magic assaulted him. The force of the blast was so great that it instantly destroyed the shield. Discord cried out in vain as he was swallowed up by the light.

Once the attack had faded, Luna slumped down with her wings falling limp at her sides and her breathing coming out in gasps. Small sparks were coming out of her armor, but was thankfully still functioning.

“Warning,” said the female voice of her computer system. “Power levels are currently at nine percent. Shields: offline. Weapons: offline. Teleporter: critical condition. Levitation field: critical condition. Communications: online.”

“Well that something to be thankful for.” said Luna hoarsely. Her ears then twitched as she heard hoofsteps racing towards her and a moment later several of her Guard was helping her up.

“Princess, are you alright?” asked one of her Guards, his voice heavy with worry.

At first, Luna didn’t say anything. She just looked at the area Discord had been. All of the plant life that had been there was now dead, nothing more than black warped vine looking things. The ground looked like it had been stripped of all its dirt leaving behind charred rock. The only thing that remained were the pieces of shield shining in the sunlight. The only things that moved were the shadows of her fighters in the sky above them.

“Princess,” said another member of her Guard with an excited tone. Turning to look at her, Luna saw that she had a hoof pressed against her helmet. “Discord’s gone! You defeated him.”

“Perhaps,” murmured Luna with uncertainty. “Scan the area for any chaotic magic.”

“I already have Princess.” said the mare Guard in a tone that suggested that she was going to start jumping up and down with joy.

“Well…I suppose that is the end of Discord.” said Luna, a smile appearing on her face. However, once she had finished saying this Discord appeared in a flash in front of them carrying a trumpet along with several clone of himself dressed up like a mariachi band.

“Au contraire, mon Princess. He’s back!” exclaimed Discord happily as his clones began to play their various instruments. A second smaller light flash shone in front of Luna, and she found herself biting into a cigar., prompting Luna to split it out immediately. The Lunar Guard, upon seeing this, didn’t hesitate in firing at the Discords. Yet before their weapon could hit them they were blocked by a green barrier. “Sorry, but we’ve adapted.”

“Get back!” cried a member of the Guard. At once, several ponies lifted their princess up and began to run away with her from the laughing monster. Once they were far enough away, the various fighters in the air began to fire their energy weapons on Discord without mercy. And even though they were larger and more powerful blasts, Discord just stood there with a smirk once more plastered to his face. Then with a snap of a claw he became dressed in a black bathing robe with the hood up and Darth Vader slippers on his feet.

“Now witness the full power of the Chaotic side!” he exclaimed while reaching into his pocket. A moment later he pull out a blowing bubbles bottle, opened it, pulled out the stick, and began to blow bubbles. These bubbles floated into the air towards the Lunar fighters and exploded on impact. Luckily for the pilots they managed to eject in the nick of time before the remains of what had once been their crafts fell down onto the fancy houses below.

“Oh, this is so much fun.” exclaimed Discord happily as the dark robes vanished. “But, I’m afraid, all amusing things must come to an end before you jump the sharknado. Although I might do that later.”

Once again, Discord snapped his fingers and Luna fell to the ground. As she opened her eyes, she noticed that her Guard was missing. No, not missing. Looking at the ground around her she saw that they had all been turned into action figures. As tears appeared in her eyes she reach out a hoof to take one but was stopped when Discord appeared next to her and picked up the one she had been reaching for. The princess of the moon narrowed her eyes and glared at the creature who had dared to do this to her subjects. If it bothered him at all he didn’t show it as he began to make ‘pew, pew’ noises with his mouth while playing with the helpless guard.

“I really must say you did much better than I thought you would have princess.” said Discord as he pressed a button, causing the Guard’s armor to light up and make random noises. “Never thought you would have broken my favorite snack dish without big sister Celestia around to hold your hoof. I guess that’s what happens when you spend all your time training instead of stuffing your face with cake and attending boring parties.”

“Turn…them…back,” hissed Luna venomously as she tried to stand. Discord ignored her, floating several feet into the air as he began to examine his new ‘toy’.

“But I must say, I have never seen anything like this before,” said the floating oddity. “Now I know that you and Celestia had your little falling out, but for the life of me I have no idea where on this world you set up camp. If all this high tech gizmos are to be believed, your ‘Lunar Republic’ will be oodles of fun.”

Fear now struck Luna’s heart like a knife causing her entire body to tremble at the thought of Discord appearing on the moon. With his careless, selfish behavior he would end up killing thousands of her subjects, her precious ponies, in minutes. Everything they had worked so hard for in the last thousand years would be gone in days!

“What’s this?” asked Discord as he turned the ‘toy’ upside down to get a better look at its underbelly. “’Made on the moon’. Guess you took the whole ‘Princess of the Moon’ bit too serious. I can’t to get up there and bring some much need chaos!”

Discord then unceremoniously dropped the ‘toy’ and prepared to snap his fingers. Luna’s eyes grew wide for a brief moment before she closed them tightly. She then yelled out with all her might “COMPUTER ACTIVATE OPERATION UMBRELLA! PASSCODE: DESPERATE MEASURES!” This sudden outburst was enough to startle Discord making him pause and look at Princess Luna in bewilderment.

And in that time, Luna’s command went into action. The signal from her armor was sent to the crystals stationed in orbit above the planet. One of the crystals began to glow red right before it shot out four thin, red beams that struck other nearby crystals. Those crystals began to glow red before they in turn repeated what the first one did. Over and over this repeated until all of the crystals were glowing red in a grid formation.

And when it had finished, Discord fell to the ground.

The spirit of chaos blinked in confusion. Why did he fall down? He hadn’t wanted to and he certainly didn’t cancel the magic that allowed him to float. Not sure what was going on Discord willed himself to levitate off the ground once more only to find that he couldn’t. He closed his eyes and put all of his focus into this simple task, but nothing happened. Now beginning to panic, Discord leapt to his feet and felt an odd sense on his right knee. Looking down he saw, to his amazement and confusion, that he had scraped his knee and was now bleeding. For the first time in his life he, the lord of all chaos was bleeding! In a panic Discord began to snap his fingers rapidly. He didn’t care what he was doing or to what, all he wanted was something to happen. But nothing did. Everything remained the same.

“W-What have you done…?” whispered Discord as Luna got onto her hooves. He turned to look at her and, to his amazement, all of her ponies had returned to normal.

“The Lunar Republic never treated you as a myth like they have here in Equestria,” began Luna as she stepped towards Discord. “We knew that, one day, you would be free again and thus worked towards a means of defeating you for good. But no matter what we thought of, the problem was always the same: your reality warping magic. As long as that remained a factor, the chances of defeating you were slim to none. But then one of my scientists, Dr. Umbrella, had an idea. The Lunar Republic has become rather skilled in magic suppression technology, you see. Her idea was to take this technology and create a field over the entire planet so that no magic could be used.”

Discord blinked. “You mean all magic is negated?”

Luna nodded as she touched the crescent moon on her chest. The symbol began to glow for a moment as two strands of white energy flowed out of it and took hold of her glaive and chakram. “Yes, Discord. All magic is being suppressed. All spells that have been cast have been undone. All around the world magic has ceased until I deactivate Operation: Umbrella. Something that will only happen after your death.”

For a moment, the two stared at each other in silence. Then…Discord began to laugh? Blinking in confusion, Luna took a step back as Discord got up and placed his claws on his stomach as he laughed his flank off. Luna was taken aback by this reaction. She had expected him to throw a hissy fit like a spoiled foal or perhaps to beg for forgiveness. Yet instead she watched as he, still laughing, moved over to the destroyed plant life and began to pick them. Soon all those present saw that Discord was trying to make a crown out of what he was gathering.

“Discord, have you finally lost what little sense you had?” demanded Luna.

“Oh no, no.” laughed Discord as he walked over to Luna with the dead crown in his claws. “I just never thought I’d see the day when I was outdone in my own field. Truly, you are the new goddess of chaos.” With that said, he placed the crown upon Luna’s head.

“Explain. Yourself.” barked Luna.

Discord continued to laugh. “Oh my dear, can’t you figure it out?” he asked. “You’ve taken all of the magic from the entire world! I’m sure a pony as smart as you should realize the implications of such a chaotic act!”

-x-

It was true. Magic in all its shapes and forms had vanished from Equestria as well as the rest of the world. Unicorns across the land found themselves unable to cast any spells. Earth ponies found themselves weaker, their stamina a fraction of what their earthen magic granted them. Neither of the two tribes knew what was going on…and it frightened them. Both of them, especially the unicorns, felt helpless.

And pegasi…they suffered the worst. Those who were flying in the sky suddenly discovered that they could no longer remain airborne with their tiny wings. As for their ability to walk on the clouds, that vanished too. This was discovered when all of the ponies, as well as their possessions, began to fall from the great cloud cities like Cloudsdale and Los Pegasus. From the elderly to infant, they all plummeted to the ground below while flapping their useless wings trying to save either themselves or their families.

Very few survived this.

This applied to other lands as well like the Griffon Empire. While having larger wings, the griffons there found that flight had left them as they too fell to the ground below them. Some managed to make a soft landing, gliding as best they could. However for those around the Talon Palace found themselves crashing against the mountain all before the eyes of their Emperor who watched this horror from his daughter’s bedroom window, shielding her eyes as best he could.

In the lands far north of Canterlot, a city of sparkling crystal suddenly reappeared after being lost for a thousand years. The crystal ponies who dwelt there looked around in awe and wonder. However, the magic within their crystal dwellings was gone and without it some began to crumble. The first was the castle whose four arching pillars could not handle the weight. Loud cracks could be heard throughout the Empire before it fell to ruin before their eyes, shattering into thousands of shards that rained down upon them. Those that survived from being crushed, lacerated, or impaled by shattered crystal shards flying everywhere, saw that the winter landscape began to creep closer towards what had once been their homes.

In the same Frozen North, a lone figure trudged through the thick snows and freezing winds. This figure was a dark-grey unicorn stallion with a black mane. What made him different than other unicorns was that his horn was not straight with a spiral but instead it was curved and red. He wore heavy armor and had a red cloak around him. Neither of which could help him as he wandered through the howling blizzard alone with no magic to guide or warm him.

“S-s-so…c-c-cold,” the unicorn who was once king whispered through chattering teeth, his final words being drowned out by the howling winds as he pitched forward into the deep snow; seeing nothing but white, and shortly thereafter, nothing ever again.

Even those in the ocean were affected by this. Oceana, who at the time had been trying to settle a land dispute, suddenly found herself unable to breathe like she normally could. Her subjects, seeing her distress, rushed to her side. Not knowing what was happening they saw her to the surface as fast as they could barely breaking the surface in time. The queen of the ocean, once she caught her breath, tried to flap her wings so she could go out and search for the cause of what just happened yet found she could not fly. She was stranded in the middle of the ocean, hoping that none of the giant sea life spotted her in this weakened state and decided to have a snack.

In another part of the world, Molten Fury was preparing to enter a volcano that would soon erupt near a pony settlement. Yet as he neared the magma he suddenly began to feel very, very hot. Sweat was beginning to appear all over his body. Then, when he was almost next to it, parts of his body suddenly caught on fire. Scared at what was happening while also being in a great deal of pain the alicorn of the earth tried to fly away only for his feathers to catch on fire as well. With each passing moment, the fires spread over his body until he fell to the ground. His last thoughts being of his former wife and his eldest daughter.

-x-

“I can see it now.” said Discord as he twirled around on one hoof, his smile never leaving his face. “All those ponies, scared about what happened to all the magic in the world and not having a clue. Not knowing if it will ever come back. With such a simple act you, my dear princess, have caused more chaos and disharmony than I ever could have with all of my power! I can’t believe I never even considered something like this!”

With that, Discord threw back his head to laugh once more. A moment later he was silenced as Luna’s glaive flew through the air to slice through his neck, severing his head from his body. Even after falling to the ground, the expression on his face was still the very picture of mad amusement.

Luna stood over the the lifeless serpentine body of Discord for long moments. Finally, she turned and trotted away, long rivulets of tears streaming down her eyes.

“I truly am a Nightmare,” whispered Luna as the tears fell from her muzzle.

-x-

Sealed Document was sitting in his chair in front of his desk. On said desk were a few items. A picture of his husband, several data crystals, the Liar’s Cube and a glass of water. Yet despite being in his office he was simply sitting there. There were no screens displaying anything. He wasn’t reading any reports. Heck, the lights were even on. He just sat there in the dark doing nothing.

That all changed when he reached to take the glass with his hoof. Once he had it, Sealed brought it up to his eye level and just stare at it. If one were to come in right now they would think that he had never seen a glass of water a day before in his life. Or, perhaps, he was looking at it as if it were to be his last.

As he prepared to bring the glass to his lips, a shadow of a bat appeared in his office a split-second before the glass window behind him shattered into a thousand pieces. Yet Sealed didn’t seem at all concerned by this until several of the glass shards fell into the glass causing his eyes to widen slightly. Before Sealed could open his mouth he found himself being picked up from behind and being flown across the room only to stop once his face hit the wall hard. A millisecond later he found his right foreleg bent and pressed against his back.

“Shadow Blade,” grunted Sealed with a neutral expression that Shadow could not see. “You came just as he predicted. Still you could have just gone through the front door and not ruin a perfectly good glass of water.”

“Shut up,” snarled Shadow. “Where is all the evidence you stole? Tell me or else I’ll-”

“The files I obtained as well as the Liar’s Cube are on my desk,” said Sealed calmly, shocking Shadow into silence. “I have not altered either of them in the slightest, but feel free to check them if you wish. Also, the ponies the LBI captured are currently being held in the basement of this facility. I believe that’s all you’ll need in order to make a case against us.”

Now the hairs on the back of Shadow’s neck were beginning to stand and the speed of his breathing quickened. This was too easy. His eyes darted towards the door wondering why it hadn’t burst open yet. Buck, there wasn’t even a voice over the com system asking if everything was alright!

“Your agents, where are they?” demanded Shadow as he tightened his hold on Sealed’s foreleg.

The smallest of smiles graced Sealed’s face for a moment. “Oh they’re up and about.” Shadow slammed his free hoof against the wall next to Sealed’s head.

“This isn’t a game!” he snapped. As he said this, he noticed that Sealed hadn’t even flinched when he did that. It was almost as if he didn’t care about anything anymore, that he just accepted his fate.

“Shadow, do you read me?” came a voice over the com system in his ear.

“Healing Touch this is a bad time.” said Shadow as he stared at Sealed.

“I’m sorry it took so long,” said Healing in a rushed voice. “I just spent all night trying to figure out what was in Twilight’s body. I checked every known poison known to the Republic and there were no matches. So I took a hunch and was right. It was MI-191!”

“Doc, I don’t understand.” said Shadow.

“MI-191 is a drug that hasn’t been used in decades,” explained Healing Touch. “Basically, it does the same job as MI-392, the drug that ‘should’ have been given to Twilight. The difference between is that the older drug takes longer to heal the patient’s heart while also keeping said patient in a dreamless sleep! Captain, whoever gave this to Twilight wasn’t trying to kill her, just stall her recovery while keeping her quiet!”

Shadow couldn’t help it when his eyes went wide due to this revelation. ‘This…makes no sense,’ he thought. ‘If the pony who had attacked Twilight was trying to kill her and then frame the Equestrians, why change to the drug to something that will only take longer for her to heal especially when Princess Luna herself stated that they were going to wait for their execution until Twilight wakes up?’ His eye then narrowed. ‘I need answers.’

“Alright Sealed,” said Shadow as he put a bit of additional pressure on Sealed’s foreleg. “I have questions and you have answers. I want to know where your agents are, what they’re doing, and why you’re so bucking calm right now!”

Sealed let out a soft chuckle. “Oh Shadow,” he said with some amusement. “You were clever enough to figure out something was going on, something we hadn’t counted on. It’s a shame you can’t figure this one out. It’s really simple when you think about it. I’m calm right now because I have completed all of my objectives. While my partner in this is finishing up things on his end, I was to draw you far away Dome Zero so that you can’t interfere.”

-x-

Gigawatt marched through the hallways of Dome Zero, his eyes containing a focus look. The computer had just finished giving him all the information he needed. Now he had a good idea where the Equestrians might be: in one of the old emergency caves.

It was, in his opinion, an ideal place to hide them since so few ponies knew about them. Heck, he never even thought to check them before now. But that had been because there would have been no way for them to know about them. Now things were different. He knew that Land Share had a hoof in their disappearance and he was one of the few ponies that knew about those caves.

‘I’ll be there soon,’ thought Gigawatt coldly. ‘And once I do I will put an end to this affair with my own horn.’

-x-

“Princess!” cried Blazing Glory. Cadence, true to her word, had been listening to Trixie since she had untied the mare from the tree. Trixie had started with what had happened in the Republic, but the pink princess felt like she was leaving a few details out. It also looked odd when she would glance at the filly, who had been introduced as Sunset Shimmer, whenever she glossed over certain details. But the important thing that she heard was that ponies from Equestria had been responsible for the Republic’s loss of food and water.

As Trixie continued her tale, she began to speak quicker. She told them about the battle at the castle leading to Celestia’s defeat and capture. About how Blueblood had secured himself power since Cadence wasn’t there. About the job Trixie had been tasked with followed by the warning Lady Majesty gave her. Out of the corner of her eye, Cadence saw that the Guard was staring at the blue mare with frowns on their faces. Whether it was because they didn’t believe her or they were disgusted by the events happening in Canterlot, Cadence would have to wait and see.

As for Cadence, well, this was difficult to take in. Part of her didn’t want to believe any of it to a point where she would prefer it if the mare telling her all of this was really a changeling. That this was some sort of trick and that everything back in Canterlot was fine. That her Aunt Celestia was there having tea with Princess Luna while the two of them tried once more to find some common ground to build the foundation of the future of their respective nations. And yet she could see it all happening the way Trixie was saying it. She knew Blueblood all too well and if he thought there was something in it for him, he would take advantage of the situation.

‘But perhaps he bit off more than he could chew.’ thought Cadence. Then, as Trixie began to talk about how they alluded the Guard, Cadence felt her strength leave her suddenly. It was like having a rug pulled out from underneath her hooves causing her to fall to the ground.

“Mommy!” yelled Midnight as she rushed over to her fallen mother and wrapped her tiny forelegs around her neck. “Are you ok? Please be ok!”

“I’m- ...I’m fine,” said Cadence slowly. “I just feel as though my strength suddenly left me. How-” Cadence’s sentence was cut off by several gasps and a cry of surprise. Lifting her head a bit, Cadence saw something that was completely unexpected. The little filly that Trixie had brought with her had suddenly turned into a full grown mare! As Trixie’s mouth hung open at what had just happened all of the Guards looked at Sunset with distrust in their eyes. As for Sunset, there was a genuine look of fear and confusion in her eyes.

“I knew it!” yelled Blazing Glory as the Guards surrounded Cadence. “They have to be changelings! How else could she have turned into a full grown mare? What’s the matter? Couldn’t hold a filly form for too long so you decided to age up and hope we ponies were too dumb to notice?”

“Sunset is not a changeling!” said Trixie as she stepped in front of her friend.

“Silence changeling!” barked Blazing as he pointed a hoof at Trixie. “I didn’t buy that half-baked story for a moment! Bet you thought we’d panic if you said something along the lines of ‘Princess Celestia was defeated’ and we’d be too stupid to question it. Well I’ve heard and seen enough.” He glared at the two mares while pointing his horn at them…and nothing happened. Not a glow or spark came from it. His head whipped up, his eyes filled with shock and horror. “My magic! I can’t use my magic!”

Another unicorn in their company tried to use his as well only to get the same results. Then another tried. After that one failed, a pegasus Guard volunteered to fly into town and get a doctor in case they had contacted something. However, no matter how hard the pegasus flapped his wings he could not even manage to hover above the ground.

“What’s going on?” asked one of the Guards as another pegasus failed to take off.

Before anypony could point blame, a figure rushed from the tree line. All anypony could see was a brown and rust colored blur that made its way towards the princess and those protecting her. As it got closer to the barrier of ponies Cadence noticed a flash of steel right before the figure stopped in front of one of the pegasus Guards, allowing the pink princess to take a good look at who was attacking them. It was a male griffon! His body was that of an ocelot: reddish brown fur with black spots and rosette shaped marks. His wings and head were also brown while lacking any other markings other than the rust colored tips at the end of his wings. The griffon wore nothing besides a belt that held an empty sheath and several throwing daggers. He was standing on his hind legs and in his talons was his swords which had pierced the pegasus Guard. Then, faster than Cadence could blink, the assailant jumped back allowing the poor pony to fall to the ground.

‘This is most fortunate,’ thought Ripper as he landed on ground, his face displaying no emotions whatsoever. ‘I had though my sudden inability to fly would make this task impossible. However, since all of our magic is gone and I am the only one with a weapon this should be most easy.’

As Ripper stood there, Cadence was having her own realization. ‘This must be the assassin that Trixie was warning us about. But if that’s the case then…CANTERLOT! I need to get there before it’s too late!’

But Cadence knew first things first. And in this case the first thing was dealing with the killer griffon before them. As the Guard’s got into fighting stances by spreading their legs apart in order to better brace themselves, Cadence opened her mouth in the hope that she might be able to talk him down by getting him to see reason.

Ripper, however, never gave her the chance. He grabbed three of his throwing daggers and launched them at her Guards. One hit a poor stallion in the neck, killing him quickly. Another one hit a stallion in the leg while the final one hit the last Guard in barrel. Cadence watched helplessly as all three fell to the ground.

The other Guards, however, didn’t turn their heads to look at their wounded comrades. They knew better than to take their eyes off their opponent. Instead they lowered their heads with the few pegasi in their group extending their wings before charging forwards. It was not a blind charge, however. Several of the ponies moved as that they could surround the griffon thus giving them a better chance to lay a hoof on him.

This was a good idea in theory. Ripper saw this and shifted his blade so that he held it with one claw while the other remained open. He then began to move, lunging at an incoming pegasus with his sword aimed at his wing while his claw slashed at the face of the pony next to him. Ripper then spun around while reaching towards his belt and then throwing the rest of his daggers at the ponies who tried to attack him from behind. A few ponies managed to dodge the attack but others had difficulty in doing so. The pegasi, for example, instinctively flapped their wings in order to fly away while the unicorn tried to teleport or create a barrier. Because of this, those ponies soon had daggers impaled in their bodies.

Cadence watched as the lone griffon slashed away at a few more ponies with ease while she did her best to shield her daughter. She knew that if she had her magic, her flight, or even her strength she could do something to help. But in this slightly sleep deprived state she was utterly useless to do anything. Out of the corner of her eye she looked over at Trixie and Sunset. Trixie was looking through the belonging she had brought with her in a vain effort to find something that might help while Sunset had her eyes closed in tight concentration. Cadence knew that they were in the same boat as her, useless without their magic.

Looking back at the fight, she saw that Blazing Glory was the last pony standing up to the griffon. All of the others had fallen. Some had horrible slash or claw marks on their bodies, the pain from them making it impossible to stand. Others had more severe wounds or simple had daggers in their bodies meaning they were most likely dead.

The griffon swung his sword at Blazing who jumped back in order to dodge it. The unicorn, upon landing, crouched low to the ground before springing forwards managing to head-butt him opponent. As he landed, the griffon’s claw flew to his head to grasp it never dropping his sword. Blazing didn’t let up. He spun around so quickly that it shocked Princess Cadence and then proceeded to ram into the griffon with all his might. As the wing was knocked out of his enemy’s lungs, Blazing continued his charge until he slammed the griffon into a tree. It was only then did he back up so that he could charge into the assassin once more.

As the unicorn back up once again, Ripper saw through half open eyes that his head was lowered as if to use his horn as a stabbing weapon. Once the unicorn charged forwards Ripped ducked to the left, spun around, and swung his sword in a downwards arc. The blow didn’t hit his neck, but it did slice off his horn causing the unicorn to let out a howl of pain while dropping to the ground and clutching his head with his forehooves. Looking down, Ripper saw that the stallion’s face was being drenched in tears while his face was contorted in pain. Still Ripper noted that the stallion was managing to keep one eye open, fixed on him.

With no expression, Ripper took his sword with both claws and raised it above his head. While he was an assassin and not an honorable warrior, he felt a twinge of respect for this stallion. Just enough to give him a quick death and spare him the dishonor of having to watch the death of the princess he had failed to protect.

Seeing what was about to happen, Cadence began frantically looking around for anything that could be used as a weapon. Something like a branch or a large rock. However, due to the care that the Apple family put into their orchard, neither of those could be found. However, there were apples. That was something, right? Quickly realizing that this was going to be the best she could find, Cadence picked up the apple clumsily in her hooves and threw it at the griffon. Sadly her throwing power nor her aim was as good as it was with her magic. Instead of hitting him in the head or in the middle of his back, the apple lightly hit him in the leg and bounced off harmlessly. Said griffon turned around to see that had hit him before looking at Cadence with a look that screamed ‘Please tell me you weren’t serious’.

As Ripper turned his attention back to Blazing, two of the other Guards managed to get back to their hooves. One was the stallion who got a dagger in the leg while the other had been slashed by the griffon’s claws across the face. Both of them were panting hard as they lunged at Ripper in the hope of tackling him to the ground. Ripper, however, saw them coming. Once they were in range he swung his sword, slashing them both in the chest before getting out of the way.

With those distractions taken care of, Ripper returned his attention to Blazing and once more lifted his sword to deliver the killing blow. Said stallion had stopped screaming in pain, letting out little whimpers now while still crying. Ripper knew he was still in a great deal of pain and the reason he had yet to pass out was likely due to sheer willpower. As the sword descended downwards, something moved in its path and blocked it causing the griffon’s eyes to widen. His sword was had made impact with a bat pony mare wearing pink armor. Her ears flattened against her skull before letting out a hiss and baring her fangs at him.

Just then, Ripper realized that more ponies were entering the area. He quickly looked around for a mere second. By the princess two more bat ponies in pink armor had appeared in a flanking formation. Off to the side there was another bat pony mare with pigtails and a neckerchief standing beside a zebra mare of all things.

“What?” said Cadence as she realized her Guard was here. “How?”

“When we felt ourselves lose our magic we realized something was wrong,” said Thunderclap as he took a step in front of the princess. “So, naturally, we thought it best to find you.”

“And while we can’t fly, that doesn’t mean our hearing was affected,” continued Dusk as he too stepped in front of Cadence. “We heard the fighting and rushed over.”

“We’re just glad neither of you are hurt,” added Thunderclap as he spared a glance at both Cadence and Midnight.

“Fools,” said Ripped as he took several steps back from Ruby, never dropping his guard as he did so. “My employer requested that you bat ponies die as well. The only thing you have done is spare me the trouble of hunting you down like the animals you are.”

Ruby said nothing as she let out another hiss as she moved forwards a bit so that she was no longer standing above the fallen pony. Slowly, she began to circle him the way a shark circles its prey. Never did she take her eyes off of him, watching him as he made sure he was always facing her. They did this for literally minutes, waiting to see who would make the first move and allowing the tension to build.

Finally, Ruby sank onto her hind legs quick before lunging at Ripper while hissing as loudly as she could. Ripper responding by angling his sword so that he could thrust it forward into her exposed skull. Yet he never got the chance. He had been so focused on the mare that he failed to notice two more stallions attacking from behind and sinking their fangs into his unprotected flesh. Losing his composure, Ripper twisted his body around so that he could use his claw to strike the one on his left. When he did this, however, he suddenly found the mare he had ignored biting into his arm with all her might. Screaming in both pain and rage, Ripper used the hilt of his sword to hit her so hard she released him before doing the same to the last remaining bat pony biting him.

Ripper could feel the blood matting his coat as he took several steps back to stare at the three ponies who had done this to him. Besides the mare there was an older looking bat pony with an eye covered with bandages alongside another stallion who looked younger sporting a dark blue coat and green mane. Ripper let out a mental curse at his sloppiness. He had been so focused on the mare as well as the other two armored bat ponies that he failed, FAILED, to take into account the possibility that there might be others despite being told by Blueblood himself that there were only three bat pony Guards protecting the princess. It was because of this carelessness and NOT their skills he had been injured to this point. Now here he was, being forced to put most of his weight on his hind legs due to the wound on his foreleg so the good one could hold the sword.

Meanwhile, the three bat ponies were speaking to each other under their breath.

“That was a nice plan you had there.” whispered Lone Wolf to Darkwing.

“Just a little something those from my colony picked up from the buffalo,” answered Darkwing. “Normally we’re supposed to head-butt the enemy, but using fangs works too.”

“Yeah well I can’t be used as a distraction again,” whispered Ruby who noticed out of the corner of her eye Blazing crawling on the ground and trying to grab something on the ground with his mouth. “My armor took most of that first blow but I could still feel the blade. I think he might have cut into it a bit.”

“Are you bleeding?” asked Darkwing in a tone heavy with concern.

“I don’t think so,” answered Ruby. “Maybe he nicked my coat, but that’s all. Anymore and he’d probably gotten to my spinal cord.”

“Well he is using griffon steel,” said Lone Wolf as he took a step forwards. “From what I remember, that stuff is far better than anything that can be found here in Equestria. Better let me handle it from here on.”

“Wait a moment,” said Darkwing as he stepped forward, blocking the other stallions path. “Let’s not get cocky. We should push our advantage.”

“I agree,” said Ruby as she too stepped forwards. “We just managed to deal his serious wounds just now by working together. We can’t start thinking this is a duel or something like that. That plot hole is trying to kill my fellow Guardponies, probably in order to kill my princess. We need to take him out and fast.”

Lone Wolf looked at Ruby and then Darkwing with his one good eye before sighing in defeat. “Alright, you win,” he said with a halfhearted smile while shooting the griffon a quick glance. “Doesn’t look like he’ll last much longer.”

“Ah’ll help ya’ll as well,” said Poisoned Apple as she approached the three of them. “This here rattler is tryin’ something on my kin’s land. Greased pigs will fly before ah let that happen.”

“Alright then,” said Lone Wolf. “Follow my lead.”

With a nod between the four of them they moved towards the attacker like a pack of wolves with Lone Wolf in the front of the pack. Ripper held out his sword, ready for the attack. But just before they got in his sword’s range of attack they turned and began to circle him at a light trots pace. As Ripper began tried his best to keep up his guard he would hear a hiss which promised another fanged strike once more.

Something that would not happen again.

Ripper had already taken note of the difference between these ponies and the Royal Guard. The Royal Guard, while well tried, was used to fighting a certain way the benefited their tribe. Sure they were trained in hoof to hoof combat, but with them still in shock over suddenly losing access to their magical advantages had put them off their game. These ponies, from what he had seen, were different. They had no formal training but instead fought more like wild animals. Given the lives he had heard they lived, they were most likely used to dealing with difficult situations and adapting to them quickly in order to survive. Most likely how they were able to fight so well despite suddenly losing their ability to fly.

Realizing that it would be best to make the first move, Ripper quickly swung his sword to the side so the it implanted itself into the ground. Seeing this the cyclops bat pony who had been running towards it didn’t stop but instead changed his direction, leaping towards Ripper’s exposed arm. Ripper, however, let go of his weapon so that he could quickly back claw the bat pony in the muzzle. As the eldest in the group fell to the ground, Ripper kicked in back of him in order to hit the pony in the pink armor. The stallion in front of him turned as soon as he heard the mare fall to the ground and flew towards the griffon with rage clear in his eyes. Instantly Ripper curled his claw into a fist and punched the foolish stallion in the muzzle.

Yet as the stallion fell, Ripper felt fangs biting into his bad foreleg. Looking at it quickly he saw that the bat mare with the pigtails was biting into him with all of her might. Suppressing a scream of both pain and rage, Ripper was about to punch the mare off when he noticed that the armored mare was moving towards his sword. Quickly realizing which was the bigger threat, Ripper reached over and grabbed the handle of his sword just before the mare could get her primitive hooves on it. Ripper then slashed the blade downwards upon her, leaving a larger cut mark in her armor as she fell to the ground.

As she fell, the pig tailed mare put more force into her bite forcing a small cry of pain to escape his beak. But he did not let that deter him as he lifted the blade quickly and aimed for the downed mare’s unprotected neck with the intent to kill her before she could get back up. But before he could end her once and for all, another pain shot through his body from his side nearly causing him to drop the sword. Looking over he was amazed by what he saw. It was the unicorn whose horn he had cut off. Said horn was being held in the stallion’s teeth as he used it to stab into his side.

“Don’t you dare lay a claw on that mare,” growled the unicorn through his clenched teeth.

Seething in rage, Ripper did his best to slash that the unicorn. However, due to the pain and the position the unicorn was in he was unable to make a killing blow. All he was able to do was leave a scar on his face that went through his left eye, blinding him there for life.

As the unicorn let go, the pig tailed mare bit down even harder! No longer able to contain his anger and frustration, Ripper began to hit her in the muzzle with the hilt of his sword.

“Let. Go. Of. ME. YOU. DAMNED. FREAK!” Every word he yelled was punctuated with another blow from his hilt yet still the mare refused to let go. If fact, with each blow she seemed to bite down even harder as if she were trying to bite his foreleg off. Finally have enough of this, Ripper flipper his blade around. “I’ll cut your head clean off then!”

“Nnope!” came an angry declaration from behind him followed swiftly by the force of a powerful hoof coming down on his head. Ripper’s head was sent to the ground with enough force that he felt his beak crack and then everything went black.

Seeing the griffon was out cold, possibly even dead, Poisoned Apple unclenched her jaw to remove her fangs from his foreleg. As she got into a sitting position and began to get the taste of blood out of her mouth she began to look around at everypony. Thunderclap, Dusk, Cadence, and Midnight were already checking on everypony to make sure they were ok starting with the fallen Guard members with the assistance of Zecora. Ruby was checking up on both Darkwing and Lone Wolf who, in turn, were making she sure was in good health as well. The two unicorns who had been besides Cadence were still off to the side looking afraid as if they thought that moving might attract another killer. And finally there was the big red stallion who had saved her, staring at her.

“Ya alright cuz?” he asked softly.

“Thanks ta you, McIntosh,” replied Poisoned with a small grin which he returned.

“Wasn’t gonna let the fella hurt my kin,” he said. “Apples stick together. And ya can just call me-”

“Don’t you bucking touch me!” came a loud yell that interrupted the family conversation. The two Apples turned and looked in the direction they heard the yell. It had come from the stallion who had been clawed in the muzzle, a pegasus with the standard white coat and blue mane of the Guard, who was currently giving a death glare to Thunderclap. The bat pony stallion had been extending a hoof to help him up but had retracted it.

“Hey, I’m just trying to help you-” began Thunderclap but was interrupted by the pegasus.

“You can help me by drowning yourself,” snapped the pegasus as he began to get up on his own. “Bad enough we failed to take down one bucking assassin, but to be helped by scum like you is an insult! After this I can never show my face in Canterlot ever again!”

Now standing up, the stallion spat in Thunderclap’s face. For a moment, Thunderclap just stood there with his eye wide before they suddenly narrowed while his fangs bared. A low growl came from his throat as his leathery wing extended.

“Enough!” said Blazing who had been laying on the ground. Slowly he got up and stumbled towards the pair with his good eye fixed on Thunderclap. “You, please step away from that stallion.” Thunderclap glared at the de-horned unicorn before glancing at the stallion who had spat on him. For a moment he did nothing before letting out a growl and then took a few steps back.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” said the scared pegasus with a smirk. “Get moving you dumb, stupid anim-” Before he could finish the insult, Blazing smacked him upside the head and then proceed to stumble in front of him.

“Apologize maggot,” said Blazing as he glared angrily at the other pony. Upon hearing that, Lone Wolf’s jaw dropped slightly, not able to believe what he was both seeing and hearing.

“WHAT?” yelled the pegasus. He then took a deep breath. “Sir, I think your injuries are affecting your judgement. Those…things are bat ponies.”

“My judgement is not the one in question right now private,” stated Blazing Glory as he narrowed his good eye. “You still have two good eyes so use them to look around! Many here are injured or even dead. And this is how you choose to act? By insulting the ponies who came to our rescue? Your fellow ponies in the Royal Guard?”

“Those things should never have been allowed in!” snarled the pegasus.

“Get the buck off my property!” shouted Big Mac suddenly, stomping his hoof on the ground as he did so.

“What? Why?” demanded the pegasus.

Big Mac let out a loud snort. “Nopony talks that way about mah kin,” he said. “An all these here bat ponies an’ their friends be honorary Apples as far as ah’m concerned. An’ around here family means everything!”

The pegasus, however, just sneered at Big Mac. “I always thought there was a funny taste to your apples,” he said. “Now I know why, being picked from a bunch of bat pony loving freaks! When I get back home everypony there will knew to stay away from your manure.”

“Private!” yelled Blazing, snapping attention back to him. “You are out of line.”

“No, all of this,” he said while gesturing to Cadence and the bat ponies around her, “is out of line. First our Captain of the Guard is punished for doing the sensible thing of beating up that bucking foal who dared to sneak into the kitchen. Then the Guard is forced to take in those freaks of nature. The Royal Guard looks like a joke now because of them.” The pegasus then turned his head to look at his fellow Guards. He had hoped they would be nodding or about to voice their support. What he got instead were looks of disdain or simply heads turning to look away from those that were still conscious.

“The only joke is that you’re the only one to believe that dung,” growled Blazing. “After what I just went through with them at my side, it is clear that they belong with us. They are a part of the Royal Guard and I am honored to call them comrade. And since you can’t understand that, then there is no place for you here. Go drag your sorry flank back to Canterlot and clear out your bunk!” He then looked over at Princess Cadence to see if she objected at all only to find her nodding in agreement to this decision.

“HA!” laughed the stallion as he turned around and began to walk away. “I was going to leave anyways since you all think filth like them is good enough to join!”

As he did, Lone Wolf and Ruby approached Blazing as he lowered himself back onto the ground with as much control as he could. When the pair got there, Lone Wolf opened his mouth to say something but quickly closed it before looking everywhere. He looked at his hooves, at Ruby, at Poisoned Apple and even up in the sky! When he did finally looked at Blazing again he found the injured unicorn staring back at him. Then, finally, Wolf let out a long sigh.

“W-What you said just now,” began Lone Wolf before gulping.

“I stand by what I said,” said Blazing in a pained tone before looking over at Ruby. “Thank you for saving my life Private…”

“Oh, right,” said Ruby as she realized that she had yet to introduce herself. “Ruby Moon, Captain of Princess Cadence’s Royal Guard. And this here is Flight Master Lone Wolf, head of the Everfree Colony.”

“Well then, please excuse my poor conduct ma’am,” said Blazing as he saluted her. “I should be standing when addressing my superiors.”

“I think that given the situation it can be overlooked,” replied Ruby with a small smile.

Back over with Cadence, she had her head lowered in concentration. With the recent danger over she was able now give the information that Trixie had given them her full attention. Part of her wanted to rush over to Canterlot as fast as she could and stop this whole mess before things got out of hoof. But there were many, many problems with that idea. First, and most importantly, there was no way she could get to Canterlot quickly. She could neither fly nor teleport herself to the capital meaning she would either have to walk nor rent a carriage to get there. By the time that happened whatever battle between Equestria and the Lunar Republic would have either started and/or ended by then. Or what if Blueblood had somehow gained more control and had turned the nobles as well as the Royal Guard against her. Based on how that pegasus had reacted she could be sure that there were others that felt the same way and would not side with her since she was willing to give bat ponies a real chance.

The other part of her simply didn’t know what to do. It knew that going to Canterlot was a bad idea, but so was doing nothing. If she stayed here sooner or later another one of Blueblood’s assassins would find her and put more ponies in danger. And she couldn’t live with herself if she just stayed here and did nothing while ponies were dying back in her home! She would have loved to try and contract Princess Luna, but without her magic there was no chance of that happening!

As her thoughts went to her lack of magic, she began to wonder about that as well. How many ponies were being affected by this? Was it just Sweet Apple Acres? The whole of Ponyville? All of Equestria? What or who caused it? Had anypony been hurt by this?

A sudden touch of a small hoof on her foreleg broke her from her thoughts. She looked down at Midnight’s worried face. After seeing it, Cadence placed a hoof on her chest as she took a deep breath and then extended it forwards as she exhaled. Once that was done she gave her daughter a reassuring smile right before patting her on the head.

‘Now is the worst possible time for me to panic,’ she thought. ‘Everypony will be scared and will look to me for answers. For their sake I need to remain calm and appear in control. First things first.’

“Captain Moon,” called out Cadence sharply, causing everypony to jump slightly. Seconds later, Ruby was standing at attention in front of Cadence.

“Yes, my Lady?” she asked.

“We need to get these ponies medical treatment,” said Cadence as she gestured to the fallen with her wing. “And we need to do so quickly. I fear we are far away from the Ponyville Hospital.”

“Perhaps ah can help,” said Big Mac. “Ya can use mah family’s barn. Closer than the hospital.”

“I too would like to help if could,” said Zecora. “I am a potion maker who lives deep in the wood. There I mixed potions to mend anything that would cause ail. But with my hut destroyed and ingredients gone anything I make will fail.”

“Perhaps not,” said Cadence before turning to address Trixie and Sunset. “You two, I want you both to accompany Zecora into town and get whatever it is she needs. Inform them that I am picking up the bill and, if they have any doubts, to seek me out at Sweet Apple Acres. But if they are to do that then they MUST bring whatever it is that Zecora needs. Time is not our ally in this matter and should not be wasted.”

“Yes, Princess,” said Trixie while Sunset nodded. As the two got up, Cadence looked over to where Ruby had been standing to find that she was already on the move. She and all the other able bodied ponies were now at work to pick up the injured or dead to bring them back to Sweet Apple Acres. And soon she too went to help.

-x-

The city of Canterlot was unlike any other city on the planet. Not just for its stunning architecture or because of its political importance, but its location. Located in high altitude on a mountain using enchanted wooden beams to keep the platform that the city rested on in place. Not only were the beams enchanted in order to keep them from decaying as time went on but also to help support the ever growing weight of the city.

But now, with those spells gone, the city was beginning to creak due to the weight. Already several of the oldest beams had broken, causing the city to tilt slightly. Not only that but holes were started to appear in the streets and, in some cases, entire buildings were falling through. This naturally caused a panic amongst the ponies who had remained in the city. The Guard, both Equestrian and Lunars, were working together to try and make sure all of the civilians got out safely. To better assist, the Lunar Guard began to use several of their vehicles to help transport the sick, elderly, and the young quickly since they were top priority. The Equestrian Guard was helping to lead the rest along a path that took them to the opposite side of the mountain where falling buildings wouldn’t be a problem.

However, the nobility still remained a problem. While there were those, like North Star and Fancy Pants, who were helping to evacuate the population of the city, there were also those who had their own concerns. Some of the nobles were in a state of denial, choosing to return to their estates while acting like nothing was wrong. Others argued in the castle about who was in charge. Then there were the nobles who were trying to save as much of their own possessions as possible. While most of the common ponies were taking things they would need like camping equipment or food, there were nobles who wanted to save their wealth and art while demanding that either the Guard or their servants help them carry it down. Both Guards refused this with the Lunar Guard going to the extreme of blasting the noble’s possessions apart with their weapon.

As for Princess Luna…

“Operation Umbrella: Disengage!” she cried out as tears continued to flow from her eyes. “Passcode: Peaceful Evenings!”

“Unable to comply,” said the computer, causing another stab into Luna’s heart.

Very shortly after Discord’s final words, Luna had order Operation: Umbrella to deactivate. It should have been something extremely simple, but it wasn’t working. Over and over Luna tried to turn it off yet each time the answer was the same. The Princess knew that the longer this went on more ponies, as well as the other races on the planet, would suffer.

Another whine from the city’s support caused Luna to shout out once more the deactivation command and passcode, getting the same response as before.

What made this all the worse was that Luna couldn’t understand why it wasn’t working. After she had tried the first time Luna had order the computer in her armor to run a systems check on Operation: Umbrella to see if there were any errors. According to her systems, there were none meaning that this SHOULD be working. But it wasn’t for some reason.

A sudden scream from somewhere nearby followed by cracking/crumbling noise stole Luna’s attention for a moment. Her mind played out a scenario where a mare had fallen through the failing streets of the city. And without any magic she would end up falling to her-

‘No!’ thought Luna as she struggled to her mind focus. ‘I caused all of this. This is my fault. But things aren’t going to get any better if I can’t stay focused and figure out a way to end this before more innocent ponies get hurt.’

“Princess Luna, we have a problem,” came the voice of Cupcake Leader through her com system.

“We have a lot of problems Cupcake Leader,” said Luna in a voice dripping with despair.

“Princess, something is wrong with out fighter,” said Cupcake Leader. “We have lost control of them. Currently we are rising up into the atmosphere and soon we will break away from the planet completely! I am trying to-”

Silence. No static or any other noise. Just silence.

“Cupcake Leader!” shouted Luna as she pressed a hoof against her helmet. Her breathing quickened as she looked upwards, searching for her air support. “Please respond! Please, give me any sign that you can hear me! Anything at all! CUPCAKE LEADER!”

“Princess this is Captain Star-” Again, the transmission just cut. In a panic, Luna opened her com to contact all of her troops. She did not waste any time demanding to know who could hear her and what their status was. And all she got was silence. Dead, crippling silence that caused her to drop onto her flank while another section of the city fell.

“What’s going on?” whispered Luna. “What has happened to my ponies?”

“Attention,” said her computer system. “A request from Dome Zero to teleport Princess Luna has been granted. Please prepare yourself for emergency teleportation.”

“What? NO!” shouted Luna. “Belay that order. We need to remain and help these-” Before Luna could say another word she vanished from Canterlot just before the remaining beams gave way and the city tumbled down the mountainside slope to the ground below.

-x-

“Warn…Princess…Gigawatt...” said Twilight, gulping hard between each word. Fluttershy, who was sitting next to her, gently patted her side before looking over her shoulder at where the other girls were. They were sitting in a circle talking about recent events like Shadow’s last transmission to them as well as possible thing that they could try. Fluttershy had, for a time, been a part of that conversation until it became her turn to watch over Twilight switching with Pinkie Pie. Even since she had come over here, Twilight’s vocabulary hadn’t improved much. It seemed like it was still taking an effort for her to speak, yet she kept repeating similar words and names over and over again.

“Don’t worry,” said Fluttershy as gently as possible. “As soon as we can we’ll tell Princess Luna all about Gigawatt.” Before the pegasus could retract her hoof, she found it frozen in place by Twilight magic. She then let out a gasp as Twilight turned her head to look at her, her eyes fixed on Fluttershy’s.

“Gigawatt,” said Twilight in a stressed tone before coughing.

“Twilight, please, you need your rest,” said Fluttershy as Twilight’s magic vanished.

“Gigawatt,” repeated Twilight. “Land Share.”

“Land Share will be back soon,” said Fluttershy in the hopes that it would calm her injured friend down. It was then that she noticed Rarity and the others approached Twilight cot. As they did, Fluttershy patted Twilight’s cot before moving towards the rest of the group so that they could talk without being overheard by Twilight. Not because Fluttershy wanted to keep secrets from her but because she was afraid she would upset her friend.

“How is the poor dear?” asked Rarity is a low whisper once Fluttershy was close enough. “Has she been able to say anything else about what happened?”

“No,” replied Fluttershy as she lowered her head. “I know she’s trying to tell us something important, but I can’t figure out what.”

“Gigawatt,” came Twilight’s voice.

“Well, whatever she’s trying to tell us we need to act now!” said Rainbow in her normal speaking voice, earning a ‘shh’ from the others. Looking slightly abashed, she lowered her voice a bit when she next spoke. “Look, Shadow said that the war is starting soon. For all we know it’s going on right now and we haven’t heard anything. We need to act before innocent ponies get hurt! I say we get out of this cave, find Gigawatt, and beat the information we need out of him for Shadow!”

“Gigawatt,” came Twilight’s voice again.

“See,” said Rainbow as she pointed over in the direction of Twilight’s cot, not even bothering to look over at it. “Even Twilight agrees with me.”

“Twi there isn’t exactly in the best of conditions,” said Applejack plainly. “Look, Shadow set all this here up for us to protect Twi. He trusted us ya’ll. If we mess up he’ll be in more trouble than a chicken locked in the same room as a fox.”

“Oh, I hate to say this but I agree with Rainbow Dash.” said Rarity.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Rainbow quickly giving her friend an angry expression.

“Gigawatt,” said Twilight.

“I mean no offense darling,” said Rarity quickly, ignoring Twilight completely. “It’s just that, normally, I’d say that your ideas border on the, er, rash side. That aside, I do agree that we shouldn’t remain here doing nothing. Right now Gigawatt has Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom doing Celestia knows what to them! Not to mention our families back in Ponyville. There is simply too much at stake for us to simply still here.”

“Um, excuse me,” said the timid pegasus. “But how will we even find him? He could be anywhere.”

“Step away from Twilight Sparkle,” said a cold voice behind them. The mares all turned around, their jaws dropping when the saw Gigawatt standing at the entrance to the cavern with his eyes fixed on Twilight.

Rainbow was the first to act. At almost Pinkie Pie like speed she suddenly appeared in front of Twilight’s cot so that she was in-between the helpless unicorn and Gigawatt. Rainbow let out a snort, kicking the ground with her right hoof as she lowered her head. Soon Applejack was besides her with gritted teeth followed by Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity.

Gigawatt seemed unfazed by this as he began to walk forwards. “So, Land Share is involved in all of this. I can tell by the supplies around Twilight that they belong to him. And since he never reported them stolen during this time I can safely assume that he gave them to you. Once I get to Twilight, he and I will be exchanging some very heated words.” It was then that his eyes narrowed at the mares. “I said step away from Twilight Sparkle this instant.”

“Over my dead body,” declared Rainbow. Hearing this caused Gigawatt’s lips to curl into a smile. It was an unnervingly happy smile that would have put Pinkie Pie’s to shame. Four of the five mares took a step back save for Rainbow who remained rooted where she was.

“Oh,” he said joyfully as his horn began to produce sparks. “If you insist.”

The sparks that danced around the stallions horn grew brighter before a bolt of lightning was sent zooming towards Rainbow Dash. Her eyes widened slightly before she was hit. Instantly she fell to the ground, screaming in utter pain as her body convulsed. All those around her could smell burning flesh and knew that if it weren’t for the fact that she was a pegasus she would have been dead by now.

Then, finally, it ended.

Rainbow laid there panting while her mane seemed to be standing straight and pointy. Occasionally her legs would jerk as sparks randomly appeared. In any other situation, Pinkie would have made a joke or tried to touch it. But the pink mare knew that this wasn’t the time as she and her friends glared at the smirking stallion.

“Oh, it...is...on!” growled Rarity as her horn began to glow, her magic focused on the gems in her dress. As Gigawatt prepared for another attack, the gems flew out tearing apart what remained of Rarity’s dress and flew towards the attacker. While that was going on, Applejack charged forwards with her head lowered in order to ram straight into Gigawatt at full speed.

This didn’t faze the senator one bit. Instead of pointing his horn at any of the things coming towards him, Gigawatt instead pointed his horn upwards as a blue ball of electricity formed. The ball floated several yards above him before it stopped and hovered there. From it sprang dozens of threads that arced towards the ground forming something that resembled a bird cage. The gems were the first that should have reached him, however once they came close enough to the cage the electricity jumped out towards them and held them in place. A similar thing happened to Applejack who was moving too fast to stop in time. The farmer pony let out a howl of pain as she stood there unable to move as the current flowed into her

‘He uses elemental magic,’ thought Rarity as her eyes widened. While growing up, the fashion loving unicorn had taken private magic lessons in Ponyville to help her understand her magic as well as its limitations. Specifically that her magic was closely tied into her special talent. During one of her lessons they had talked about elemental magic uses who, basically, converted their magic into one of the elements and could use them in creative ways. Gigawatt it seemed was such a pony and could use electricity!

“Applejack,” called out Fluttershy as the spell faded and Applejack fell to the ground. Her call caught the attention of Gigawatt whose glare with filled with more hate than the pony had ever seen. So much hate, in fact, that she felt cold under his gaze and began to tremble.

More electricity crackled around Gigawatt’s horn as he charged his next spell. This time he was putting four times as much magic into this spell than he did when attacked Rainbow Dash. Enough to fry even a pegasus like her. The bolts of lightning that danced around his horn grew thicker and thicker until his horn began to crack from its power. It was only then that he unleashed its fury, directing it towards Fluttershy. It moved towards her a tad more sluggish that it had against Rainbow, but as it moved towards its target the rock underneath it upturned due to the sheer power in the bolt.

Then something unexpected happened. Pinkie Pie jumped in front of Fluttershy, standing in between her and death. Fluttershy called out to her friend, but the pink mare kept her gaze locked onto the lightning bolt as she reach into her mane. Quickly she pulled out…a rubber chicken. She then held it in front of her like a shield. The lightning hit the fake chicken and stopped. When everything was said and done everypony was staring at Pinkie with their jaws hanging open. Including Gigawatt!

“But? How?” demanded Gigawatt. “I just…I don’t…THAT SHOULDN’T HAVE WORKED!”

“Pinkie Pie, why did you bring a rubber chicken with you to the moon?” asked Rarity as she too was having a hard time comprehending what just occurred.

“Silly Rarity, I always carry a supply of rubber chickens in case of a smile emergency,” said Pinkie as she reached into her mane only to have a dozen or so fall out. “My sister Maud got them for me. Isn’t she the greatest?”

“I’ll say,” said Rainbow Dash as she got up slowly. With slight effort she was able to make it to the pile Pinkie Pie had created and picked up one of the rubber chickens in her mouth. “Remind me to thank her after we kick this guy’s flank!”

“Ah, me too?” said Rarity weakly as she also picked up a chicken with her magic limply.

A sudden snort caught their attention and all of their focus returned to Gigawatt. The stallion had lowered his head, his horn pointed at Pinkie Pie as he kicked the ground behind him. Lightning was being emitted from his horn and flowing backwards so that it covered his entire body. Soon he charged at them, moving at such a speed that he was a blur to the naked eye.

Pinkie Pie was the first to react, turning around to grab Fluttershy and getting the two of them out of the way. Rainbow, once Gigawatt was close enough, swung her joke toy at him as hard as she could. This resulted in hitting him in his side but doing no visible damage. Rarity, likewise, daintily struck Gigawatt as well with even less results if that were possible.

As Gigawatt turned for another round, he saw Applejack racing towards him with a determined look in her green eyes. Narrowing his own eyes and gritting his teeth, changed his target to the farming mare while more lightning covered his body. As the two charged at each other, Rainbow Dash flew up towards the cavern’s ceiling with her rubber chicken still clenched in her jaw while Pinkie Pie got in a bit closer.

Soon Gigawatt and Applejack had closed much of the distance between the two. Once she was close enough, Applejack spun around in order to deliver a power buck to Gigawatt’s head in the hope that it would knock him out. The stallion read the attack and managed to turn his body so that his head was out of harm’s way. However, this left his side exposed and an easy target for Applejack’s legs. And even though she got a powerful jolt once she made contact with his body she still sent Gigawatt flying a couple dozen yards and crashing to the ground.

When Gigawatt climbed back onto his hooves, he sensed somepony was behind him. Turning around he saw that it was Pinkie Pie. Then she did something that caused his brain to freeze, desperately trying to process what he had just seen. She reached behind her and pulled out a cannon almost the same size as her! How the buck did she do that? What hadn’t their scans detected it? As he was thinking of these questions and more, Pinkie Pie fired her cannon sending a blast of air and confetti at Gigawatt sending him flying back in the direction of Applejack.

While this was going on, Rainbow Dash was in the air preparing to put her rubber chicken to good use. She had pulled herself back far enough so that she could just make out what was going on while waiting for the right moment to strike. And when Pinkie Pie blew him away with her cannon, she knew this was the moment. Without any hesitation she shot towards the stallion as fast as her wings could take her. Then, as Gigawatt was standing up, she passed by him while making sure to hit him in the chest with the chicken.

While this sent him flying once more, he sadly impacted Applejack and the two rolled off over the nearby ledge. Luckily for AJ, she had enough wits in her to grab hold of the ledge before falling all the way down. Gigawatt was not so lucky, falling down part of the way before managing to get his hoof on some rock strong enough to hold himself while Applejack pulled herself up.

Gigawatt grunted in pain as he hung on for dear life. His body hurt from what it had recently endured, but did his best to ignore it and try to push himself up. Yet as he did this the rock he was holding onto gave way forcing him to slide down an inch or two before he caught himself again. Now his heart rate was beating very, very quickly as sweat began to cover his muzzle. He dared not look down at the seemly bottomless pit he knew was belong him. Instead he looked upwards to see Applejack staring down at him.

‘Is this the part where you laugh Equestrian?’ thought Gigawatt. ‘Where you gloat or mock me for my foolishness? Whatever you’re planning just do it already. I can ignore you easily just by thinking of…my wife. Stars above, I hope she’ll be alright. And my colts…I won’t get to see them grow up.’ It was then that Applejack made her move. She laid down on the rocky ground before reaching out a hoof towards him.

“Take mah hoof.” she said causing Gigawatt’s eyes to widen.

“Is this some kind of sick joke?!” demanded Gigawatt as the rock he was holding onto crumbled a bit. “Don’t take me for a fool. I know once I let go you’ll just pull your hoof back so I’ll fall to my death faster! It’s what your kind wants! To see all of us dead!” Now the rock had given way once more. Gigawatt was about to fall to his death when suddenly Applejack’s hoof shot down and grabbed his foreleg. Her friends called out to her as they all went to grab hold of the farm pony so she didn’t fall over the edge.

“Please, give me ya other hoof,” begged Applejack. “Ah can’t hold ya forever!” But still, Gigawatt didn’t move his other hoof. He simply looked at her and then at the dark void below him as if he were considering his options. “Look, ah know ya don’t like us much after everything that’s happened up till this point. Ya have no reason ta trust us. But ah what ya ta know this here is the honest truth: ah don’t want ta see ya or any pony die. Ah promise if ya give me ya’r hoof you’ll be alright. Please.”

For a moment, Gigawatt looked at Applejack as if she were crazy. Like the very idea of her wanting to save him after he had tried to kill all of them was insane. Then he took a deep breath before he did something he never thought he’d do in his life: trust them. With a mighty effort he swung his free hoof to take hold of Applejack’s. Then, at Applejack’s command, the mares pulled with all their might to help get Applejack and Gigawatt to safety.

The rescue did not go smoothly as one would have liked to have hoped. Several times Gigawatt thought, due to their bouncing him around, that they were trying to kill him. However, even when that happened as well as them sliding down a bit, Applejack refused to let go of his hoof. Instead she did everything in her power to tighten her hold until they were finally back on solid ground.

‘She could have let me die,’ thought Gigawatt as he breathed heavily, trying to calm his nerves. ‘Yet, she and the others worked to save me after everything I did. But…why? They’re from Equestria, the land that wants to either kill us or take everything we have worked so hard for. And she’s the one who…’

Gigawatt’s thoughts paused as he looked at the freckled earth pony mare. Currently she was laying on her side, panting hard as well with sweat on her face. Behind her, the other mares seemed better off and were beginning to stand. Yet Gigawatt paid them little mind as Applejack’s eyes found his own. For a second the two stared at each other ending with Gigawatt breaking the hold to gulp.

“Y-” began Gigawatt slowly, catching his breath. “You really didn’t try to kill Twilight, did you…?”

Applejack threw up her hooves into the air and gave an exasperated groan. “That’s what ah’ve been tryin’ ta tell everypony!” she exclaimed, rolling onto her belly and starting to stand.

“Wait, you think that Applejack attacked Twilight?” asked Fluttershy softly as she got onto her hooves. At first her friends didn’t get what she was saying. But then it began to dawn on them, their eyes widening when it did.

“Of course, I did,” said Gigawatt as he stood up slowly alongside Applejack. “You admitted it in court. But, if-”

“Gigawatt, thank the stars.” came a whisper like voice off to the side. All heads turned to look at the source.

It was Twilight. She had managed to turn her body so that she was laying on her side with her face looking directly at Gigawatt with a smile on her face and a small tear in her eyes. With what appeared to be a great effort on her part, Twilight began to move the blanket covering her body off of her. It took several tries and by the time she had managed to pull it off of her the others had surrounded her cot.

“Twilight, you need your rest.” said Rarity as she put the covers back on top of her friend with her magic.

“Tried to tell them,” whispered Twilight, her eyes beginning to droop a bit as she continued to look at Gigawatt. “So hard to talk right now. Please…they thought you attacked me. They didn’t know. They are…innocent.”

Gigawatt slowly nodded. “I know that...now,” he said before spotting the supplies.

‘I think my scuffle with those Equestrians caused an adrenaline rush,’ he thought as he moved to look through the bags. ‘Its giving her strength she needs to talk, but she’s losing it quickly. Maybe there’s something here that can help. Then we can find out who is behind all of this!’

Truth be told, Gigawatt had a suspicion that something was wrong since the trail. A tiny voice that had been whispering to him ever since they activated the Truth Light during the trial and he heard that noise. He had listened to that voice at first, which brought up the possibility of tampering which caused him to ask Fluttershy if she tended the trees in Ponyville to see if the Light was working. After it appeared like things were in working order with her answer, he dismissed the voice even when he saw the state Applejack had been in when it was used against her.

Now he was wishing he had done a bit more. Perhaps then they wouldn’t be in this situation.

After a minute or two of looking through the supplies, Gigawatt found an injection that would do the trick. Picking it up with his teeth, Gigawatt brought it to Twilight’s neck and pressed it against her coat until he heard a familiar hissing sound before pulling away. Twilight made a slight gasping noise that put the other mares on the edge, Rarity’s horn lighting up with Rainbow Dash extending her wings. Luckily they calmed down when they saw Twilight’s eyes brighten and then she raised a hoof to wave them off.

“Much…better,” sighed Twilight. Her voice sounded a bit stronger now.

“That should give you a little pick me up,” said Gigawatt before his eyes narrowed. “Twilight, we need to know what happened. Who tried to kill you? And why?”

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, with everypony’s attention on her.

-x-

“Luna, please wake up,” came Celestia’s voice through the fog of dark sleep that had enveloped the princess of the night. Slowly, Luna’s eyes opened to see Celestia’s face looking down at her. The look in her eyes was that of worry that changed slightly to relief as Luna rejoined the waking world.

Luna stared at Celestia, confused as to why she was here before her eyes began to look around. What she saw caused her to jump onto all fours so fast that Celestia also jumped. They were in a cell. Three bared wall connected to the metallic wall behind them. In front of them was an empty space that a pony could walk nine or ten steps before reaching the sliding door. Luna was only vaguely aware that Celestia was talking to her, trying to ask her questions but Luna ignored her for the moment. Instead she looked down at her body and saw that her armor was missing as well as regalia. Her heart began to beat faster than ever as her hoof shot to her horn and, much to her horror, there was an anti-magic ring placed onto it.

Not that it need the ring. She knew this cell very well since she had been the one to have it commissioned. It was made to hold one pony: herself.

“Oh no,” whispered Luna. “Oh no.”

“Luna, you must talk to me,” said Celestia. “Something has gone wrong in the Republic. What-”

But before Celestia could say anything else, the door slide open with a loud hiss. And standing in the doorway was a single figure whose appearance caused Luna’s eyes to grow wide from shock.

“I’m so very sorry, your Highness,” said the doorway figure, morosely.

-x-

“Land Share,” said Twilight.

Comments

[TheMyth]

Heh... I called it.

Also, I know I shouldn't say this... but Molten Fury, you deserved to be burned for what you did to Luna....

[OrpheusDefense]

It's like the twists never end! Betrayed by her own ponies, gotta be "no longer needing magic, nor princesses to rule us" speech coming up.

[EchoWolf31]

About time something actually blew up in Luna's face. Now if Luna and the NLR thought the ponies of Equestria didn't have a legitimate reason to hate them before, they sure as hell have one now.

[Starlight Nova]

Why did the chapters get so long all of a sudden?

[Starlight Nova]

7437916 Where can I read that story?

[Darthvalgaav]

7622965
more stuff is happening

[cosmic flash]

wow awesome chapter and twist at the end.

[Shadow Weapon]

HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Didn't see that coming

[thewookie1]

There will be no Mane 6 Comments due to the Mane 6 are too busy trying to work their minds through the practical genocide that just occurred worldwide.

However Discord did leave us a note:

Don't worry readers, I'm not dead, just this iteration of me........ Ugh...I won't get back the $10 he owed me....

[Brony-wan-kenobi]

Land Share! Damn, I was sure it was Gigawatt.

Hell, Operation: Umbrella is like the ultimate weapon in this world. Hands, er, hooves down

7623084
Really? You missed a good one with Big Mac a few chapters ago and now the mane six have nothing to say about Discord's death or how they fought Gigawatt? But I guess watching the planet lose all of its magic and seeing the results on such a world would put anyone in the silent corner.

[17JosephLC]

Um... Am I the only one who is horrified by the effects of Umbrella?

[Madara1442]

Thus the game with Discord has ended...now the real game can begin.

The real mastermind has finally revealed himself. What does he have plans for the Princesses?

Will Twilight and the Rest of the Equestrians be able to Fight Alone or will they have assistance along the way?

The Battle to Liberate and reclaim the Lunar Republic has begun.

[TheMyth]

The path to hell is filled with good intentions... Poor Luna (hug), if only certain ponies showed her a better way in the beginning (one of them is locked away on the moon and another is dead now, his pride came with his fall)

[rst64tlc]

Welp, this excceed my expectations! I always wondered what would happen if Equestia suddenly lost their magic, this reminds me of that one dlc comic: JLA Act of God where all the super-powered heroes lose their powers. Well this is what happens. The world just got dunked on by Umbrella.

Well all i can say is that well...how in Equestia will the planet ever recover? They just got the biggest magic plug out in all of fimfiction (unless there is a story that has done that already and I don't know about), cause millions, possibly billions of deaths, the world arcitecturly is screwed. and Unless they pull some stupid time travel bs out of their flanks, they either try to stop the damage before it happens or just accepts it happened and try to cope with it.

"Perhaps this is what I have always wished for since that day. The loss and destruction of all. That's right, one must destroy before creating. In that case, if my conscience becomes a hindrance to me, then I will simply erase it. I have no other choice but to move forward”
― Lelouch Vi Britannia

To create a new world, one must destroy the old one. Great chapter.

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

WHY LAND SHARE WHY!? WHY COULDN'T HAVE BEEN GIGAWATT!?

[ironwall]

Well, we may be sure, that a lot of species just ceased from existing. Ursas, Crystal ponys if they don't stop Umbrella fast, maybe dragons (there is a limit of size that can have living creature, durability of bones) and a lot of others. Such massive genocide for defeating Discord. Truly, he can be proud.

And Luna can forget about any friendly relations with planet. She is responsible for death of millions, even if she done it to defend her country. Such thing cannot be forgiven in a long time. Celestia... I don't know she first despair over this all destrucion or explode from rage.

[Raistlin]

7623849

You know the worst part? Most of the deaths could have been prevented if Luna had decapitated Discord the moment she ordered Umbrella 's activation, and ordered its disactivation just the second after his demise. But nooooo... she had to lose her time chatting.

[Brony-wan-kenobi]

7623915
Something tells me that wouldn't have worked given how the story ended.

[solidcrazyy]

static.cdn-seekingalpha.com/uploads/2012/9/5/saupload_waiting_game.jpg

reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/cookie_monster_waiting.gif [img]

[Darthvalgaav]

7623316
Why do you think Luna didn't want to use it before now, and only as a last resort against Discord

[Darthvalgaav]

7623223
I was going more of the 13 colonies

[17JosephLC]

7624105
Well I knew it was gonna be bad, but I didn't think it would be genocidal!

[xoid]

There is a special place in Tartarus for Blueblood, Land Share, Stareye, and Sealed Document. These greedy, power hungry, shortsighted morons combined to create a perfect storm that resulted in the deaths of a sizeable percentage of the planet’s populace.

[Eliseo221]

Called it...I think. Don't remember of I put it on a comment or if I just thought it

[Mob]

WWWWHHHHHYYYYY, he seemed that he was ok with everything so (beep) WHY?

[ValNitak Choas]

yess I was right, when land share first show up I knew he was bad guy, he name is land share, and he live on the moon, he want more land, also he is a Politian and u cant trust them at all,

[Brony-wan-kenobi]

7624516
But if that's your logic, shouldn't the bad guy be Stock Market?

[Brony-wan-kenobi]

7624486
She's just defending her aunt. Trust me, she getsto see things and do things that will change her mind

[ValNitak Choas]

7624676 all polition are evil, just some are not evil in way you think, or they crazy, I mean who want to run for office now a days anyway

[ValNitak Choas]

7624935 agree I think the two need to take a very long 1000 year trip to the therapy to work out they issues......

[Stainless Steel Fox]

Yeah, figured on that particular twist. Gigawatt was way too obviously the villain. While I havn't figured out why, beyond wanting to kill every-pony who could threaten them and have free reign to take everything from Equestria... actually that's a pretty good reason, the whole war was arranged by Landshare and Sealed Document to ramp up the chaos enough to free Discord and force Luna to use the Umbrella, so that once it was turned on they could keep it on and genocide massive amounts of Equestrians.

The next stage is to seal the Princesses in stasis chambers, use the IBI to take over the moon and insitute an absolute dictatorship, pretending that Princess Luna died on Equestria and they're just doing what they need to for 'public safety'. Blame the Equestrians and treat what's left like slaves. They have tech that works under the Umbrella, Equestrians have no majic, they can keep it up indefinitely.

And the thing is, they've won. Even if they're defeated at the last moment, they've won. Equestria is in ruins, the Lunar Republic may be able to take the food it wants but they have to live with what it's done. See my previous post times like... a thousand.

There is one possibility. A throwaway line a lot earlier where two scientists were building a time machine. At this point, only going back in time could fix things.

[thewookie1]

7623196 Sorry I disappointed you

Well here's a few questions & comments:

1. Did this just literally kill every changeling instantaneously or merely begin to starve them?
2. The plan was rather short sighted if the Lunar aircraft couldn't handle the anti-magic field while their ground based vehicles could.
3. Canterlot is likely only going to be a small balcony to a mountain side by the time they fix this mess.
4. At least 1/2 to 3/4 of Pegasus population just fell to their deaths or are in critical condition with little means of being saved
5. The weather is likely whipping up something awful as it rushes to set itself based on air pressure vs pegasus
6. Magic based creatures cease to exist
7. Cloud cities would disintegrate and drop items and ponies onto the unsuspecting ponies below
8. Hell, this is darker than even Discord's style

[Brony-wan-kenobi]

7625183
I think the darker chaos was what he found so amusing. Also, from what I read, it doesn't feel like the air ships left due to the anti magic field

[Architect Ironturtle]

7623316
7625183 I once had a character cancel all magic in Equestria for a measly seven seconds. That alone was enough to wreck most of the country. I can barely imagine what several minutes would do, let alone a day or more.

[EternalLurker]

(sorry for length)
Huh, well I will 'tentatively' admit to being wrong, you actually had Luna fail at something, quit spectacularly, I honestly did not think you would depict her in the wrong, I am worried that this will somehow be blamed on Celestia and/or the conspirators in an effort to absolve Luna. That being said, this is why I pushed so hard for you to have Luna's impulsiveness and temper get her into trouble, to foreshadow the massive disaster she has now brought down on everyone.

7623849
You know, there were a lot of comments after the previous chapter speculating on how awesome relations between Equestria and the Republic would be after Blueblood and Celestia were removed and Cadance placed on the throne, they seemed, idealistic. I would argue that any chance at true reconciliation was lost the moment Luna decided to make Equestria a puppet-state. Think about it from the average pony's perspective, the ponies on the moon who are supposed to be monsters, came down, tried to kill, and then actually kidnapped their Princess, who at this point would be a keystone to their cultural and national identity, for 1000 years Celestia has been there, and now she id gone.

Then the Republic returns and slaughters a half a million of their sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, friends, and family, in a very public display, and if everything went as planned at this point, Luna would install Cadance whose authority would be backed by Republic strength and, the Equestrians would be helpless as they watched the Republic strip them of their food and water, tell me, in what world would there be peace and reconciliation. I would say that the events of this chapter would have forever cemented Luna as the ultimate evil (Devil/Satan) in their national consciousness, they probably will never forgive her or her ponies for what they have done, at least till long after several generations have come and gone.

As for Celestia I honestly don't know at this point, she has been trying desperately to reconcile with Luna (however incompetently) and when last she saw Equestria it was intact, she begged and pleaded with Luna to halt the invasion and coming slaughter only to be promised a possibly permanent stay in a dungeon for her 'arrogance', at this point she probably suspects a lot of her ponies are dead, but I can't imagine her utter horror when she finds out that her sister just killed millions of her ponies and destroyed thousands of years with of civilization, everything she has worked for and strove to build, in ruin. I would be hard pressed to see her ever forgiving Luna, honestly I could see it being Luna now trying to find some way to make things up to Celestia (I don't see how given the scale of her folly)

7623915 7623957
Kind of a pointless observation, but from how I read it, I don't think there was any lag time between Luna turning the thing on and all the Pegasi and Gryphons dying, so even without Land Shares sudden yet inevitable betrayal, I think most of the damage would be done, I mean unless the author is implying that Discord would come back when they turn the Umbrella off, otherwise I think the Crystal Empire and Canterlot would still be screwed.

7624935
I have to disagree with you when it comes to Celestia, both in removing her from power completely and the level of her blame in current events. Now I will not dispute that Celestia as depicted thus far has been just terrible at everything, but she has at least seemed to acknowledge she needs to do things differently, but that is not why she needs to stay on the throne. The ponies of Equestria, however many may be left, will need something stable to hold on to after the cataclysm that has fallen on them, there is no better option than Celestia, temper her authority with Cadance and an elected parliament, but she still needs to be involved, as for making up with Luna? Would she even be able to try once she sees the full results of Luna's actions?

Now, as for Luna, she cannot and must not be allowed to stay in power, after this, Blueblood played his games yes, but Luna's actions and their results are on her. No one put a gun to her head and forced her to issue an ultimatum with an insanely short amount of time to fulfill it, no one forced her to attack Celestia and then declare war on a nation that could not fight back, it was her decision to ignore her sisters pleas and invade Equestria knowing full well that Discord would be released and that Operation Umbrella was likely the only way she could stop him, and she activated the Umbrella knowing exactly what it would do to the planet. Hold Blueblood (if alive), Land Share and his faction accountable, but Luna can not walk back her actions and choices, nor shift her responsibilities to others.

Whats more, Luna has spent the last 1000 years fostering a highly advanced militaristic nation, that has made hatred and fear of Equestria a part of their basic school curriculum, Land Share and his ilk did not just come from no were. The Republic can not continue to exist in its current form, Luna must be removed and a concerted effort at reeducation must be undertaken, I would say cultural exchange programs should be used as well but Equestria probably would not be willing now, I would agree that Twilight would be best.

7623537
Oh god, please don't remind me of that, from my recollection that was when DC was at its peak "Bat-God" phase

7625117

There is one possibility. A throwaway line a lot earlier where two scientists were building a time machine. At this point, only going back in time could fix things.

i really hope that isn't the direction the author takes this.

[i_am_the_jam]

Stupid question, but why didn't they just have the Umbrella cover Discord and his immediate area, say, 100 m around him INSTEAD OF THE WHOLE FREAKIN' PLANET?

[EternalLurker]

7625489
So I never said that Celestia should be let off the hook completely off the hook, ie an elected parliament and Cadance as a dual monarch, but she must still be there, whats left of her nation needs something, anything to hang onto. With the Republic and Luna the author has been trying to have his cake and eat it to. We are talking about a nation that has for 1000 taken deliberate efforts to indoctrinate their people in hatred and fear of Equestria, he has maintained that only to flip flop on it when it is time to give Luna the moral high ground, just look at her 180 in how she viewed the war last chapter compared to previous ones, or deflecting her attempt to kill Celestia and aftermath by randomly blaming some unseen medics for disobeying orders we never saw her give. I bring that up to simply say I don't buy the notion that they don't hate the Equestrians as much as the Equestrians hate them, I actually rolled my eyes last chapter when the Republic and Luna suddenly caring about Equestrian well being.

As for Luna, while she isn't completely blameless for umbrella...

So I wont rehash my last comment but from the moment Luna attached her unreasonable time frame to her ultimatum, she set herself on a course that would lead to her more or less ending Equestrian as a functional state, she did not have to invade and rlease discord, there were other options for food and water, but if I recall correctly she waned Equestria to pay the price, heck the invasion was all about 'teaching them a lesson' and from all the other times umbrella was talked about, it was not her last resort but her preferred option, the last resort was new to this chapter as far as I can recall, so I do place the death of millions directly at her feat. The thing to remember is that ostensibly Luna is supposed to have an anger issue and be short sighted in this story, so this I assume is the chickens coming home to roost on that front.

One thing I want to touch on here and this may not have been your intention, but form your language I read it as you think that Luna has the minimum of responsibility for her actions, if that is not the case then I apologize, this is getting off topic but time and time again, I see fans on Luna go out of their way to remove her agency as a character, ie she can never be at fault or suffer consequences, its always something or someone other that her that is truly at fault, again this is probably not fair to you.

I wont even try to defend this Celestia, though I would argue its not a lack of backbone but a lack of a brain, its honestly the only explanation I can come up with at this point but I do want to ask you, how do you see the sisters actually working things out? Yes Celestia has apparently done nothing for 1000 years and let the situation fester, I do think she finally came to the realization that she needs to change, but what can Luna possibly say or do in the aftermath of this, Equestria more or less dose not exist anymore, and she has killed millions of her ponies, would Celestia even be mentally capable of reaching out to Luna, I just can't see there be any way to come back from this. Also as a final aside, I always found her plan for Equestria and Cadance to be completely unworkable, there would never be peace and Cadance rule would probably have to be enforced by the Republic and more bloodshed.

Now having said all that, I will say you will probably be proven correct, I say this with no sarcasm, I legitimately believe we will see Celestia begging Luna's forgiveness for forcing Luna to destroy Equestria.

[Brony-wan-kenobi]

7625851
So what your saying is that the Lunar Republic is mostly at fault. That Luna after being lied to, manipulated, having an entire city state DESTROYED, losing a good chunk of her nations water, being attacked while in Canterlot has no right to fight back. That after holding a meeting with her senate and all of them agreeing, Luna bares all the blame. She twice gave Equestria the chance to surrender so no blood would be spilt

Also, how dare she have her ponies learn about their history in a realistic way like we do today. She should have done what Celestia did andportray the Equestrians as child eating monsters

[Brony-wan-kenobi]

7625851
Also, notice how Luna tried to fight Discord instead of using Operation : Umbrella? She did everything she could to avoid using it. Hell several times in the story it's states that they were trying to make it so that it would only affect Discord. But in the end, they ran out of time and Discord was about to head to the Republic. Luna chose to protect her ponies and she didn't try to defend herself against his jabs. She didn't justify herself or held any belief that she was in the right at that moment.

Also, as for the war, yeah. Luna didn't grab 500000 ponies and slaughter them in front of Canterlot. Blueblood and Stareye are the one who sent them out there and could have surrender after the first shot. The way you talk makes it sound like Luna is 100% at fault

Also also, how many ponies suffered needlessly under Celestia's rule? How many were beaten, starved, and treated like animals just because they were bat ponies? And how many ponies suffered or were killed because they defended them?

[pendrake72]

7625332

(sorry for length)

Never apologize for your Comment's "long" length when it is written in earnest. Never.

That you committed the [time + effort] to write an such a Comment towards this fan-fiction is a testament to how you actively you feel upon the subject, as well as a compliment towards the Author in how much his story has stirred you.

[Stainless Steel Fox]

7625332

i really hope that isn't the direction the author takes this.

I don't see a Tragedy tag. But then I don't see Gore either, and that fight certainly qualifies. Up until the last three chapters, it fit it's tags, but now the story has gone a whole lot more grim-dark. I dislike tragedy (there's a reason I un-favourited this), but oddly enough, I agree with you. This is a definite case where the consequences of ponies actions should come home to roost.

Still, we have to remember, it's only a 'what if' spell creation. Maybe that's why the author hasn't given it the tags it deserves.

[Evilhumour]

7627216 Yeah, that what if part of the story means none of this ever happened or matters

[Stainless Steel Fox]

7627316 depends if you take your multiverse theory on the rocks or straight. Is Twilight's spell creating a simulation, or allowing them to view an existing timeline which already existed?

[EternalLurker]

7626264
So the short answer, yes, I absolutely hold Luna and the Republic responsible for the choices they made and the actions they took, I also never said that they did not have the right to make the choices they did, I wont dispute that they believe they where doing the right thing, we all do, but that does not let us ignore our responsibility for the consequences of our choices for good or ill. I also never said that they did not have the right to take the actions that they did, of course they do, and they did take those actions, and now at millions are dead, at one civilization is gone, the Gyphons are devastated, and Equestrian no longer is a functioning nation, seriously in a single hour(?) they lost their military their government a huge portion of their population and at least 3 cities.

I wont even dispute that Luna used the Umbrella to protect her ponies as she was now out of options, the thing is, she put herself in that position, and the fact that she feels bad about the results does not even remotely matter. No one forced her to imprison her sister, that is on her, no one forced her to declare war, and no one forced her to ignore her sisters pleas and invade a nation she could safely ignore, with the full knowledge that doing so would unleash Discord, a enemy she, by her own admission only had one means of dealing with, the Umbrella.

Whats more there were oceans or better yet comets to get more water, and there was nothing stopping them from raiding for more food as they were doing, or dealing with other nations, but she wanted the war, by her own words she stated her desire for war multiple times, she wanted to invade a primitive nation that could not fight back to teach them a lesson, she wanted a stage and audience for said lesson, hence her declaration of war included the time and place he army would be arriving, Blueblood obliged her to be sure, but honestly what nation would not attempt to resist a hostile invader? She gave not a single thought for the ponies she would soon be killing as she quite happily informed Celestia of her imprisonment, the upcoming fate of Equestria and their nephew's impending demise, and once she had placed herself the position she was in in this chapter she activated her super weapon. So her sudden 180 in the previous chapter really does not hold water for me.

On the subject of the senate, I do think most of them should lose their position, look how fast they brought up orbital bombardment and the use of the Umbrella, with no voices raised in protest to the implied genocide, why would there be? For 1000 years they and their ancestors had been taught that Equestrians were savages, so who cares if several millions die, right? But, the thing is the senate are children when compared to Luna, poorly raised ones at that, so I don't hold them to the same standard as Luna.

That leads us to this :

Also, how dare she have her ponies learn about their history in a realistic way like we do today. She should have done what Celestia did and portray the Equestrians as child eating monsters

So you know in real life we teach children about the Second World War without teaching them to hate and fear all Germans right? We also don't get into things like the Holocaust until later on, and even then we don't go into all the horrible details until they are older, heck even the real nightmare fuel like the Dirlewanger Brigade does not show up until university, the point is, we can and do teach history without teach them to hate.

Just look at Gigawatt in this chapter, he is not even one of those who is conspiring to destroy Equestria, but his fear and hate of all Equestrians is so ingrained that he could not even conceive of the fact that an Equestrian would offer to save him for reasons other than a sick joke. The Republics culture like Equestria is sick and needs healing, and if we are blaming Equestrias woes on Celestia's inaction then Luna's deliberate policies must be held to at least the same standard don't you think?

Also, how many ponies suffered needlessly under Celestia's rule? How many were beaten, starved, and treated like animals just because they were bat ponies? And how many ponies suffered or were killed because they defended them?

This seems off topic but ill bite, I obviously can not answer this question, but I feel I can say with confidence, that after this chapter Luna has far surpassed her sister in the levels of pain, misery, death and destruction they have brought to the world......yay?

7627216 7627316
Ya the tags always seemed a bit off to me, never could put my finger on it, but now that the 'war' is over my main interest is seeing how the what if spell is played out. We have not seen it since the first chapter and the author has been mum on it, it could just be the Futurama what if machine or it could be a "Flashpoint parodox"

[Darthvalgaav]

7627216
There are reasons I haven't put those tags there. For one thing, I think gore is something far worse than anything I have written. Gore to me is more sadistic and the like. Tragedty, well, lets just say the storys not over yet

[Super-Brony12]

Holy crap! Things went incredibly south REALLY fast. I didn't fully realize the implications of what Operation Umbrella would do until Discord started describing what happened. Damn that is extremely depressing.

Also... LAND SHARE!? WHAT? I was honestly not expecting that! Holy crap things have gotten a lot worse now. I hope that things take a turn for the better soon. Otherwise everypony is screwed!

~ Super-Brony12

[Ragegamer243]

This is an AWESOME CHAPTER!!! This is why I absolutely LOVE this story, it gives so many twists and turns to the plot and I LOVE IT!! Though...I wish to know if you even enjoy putting us on edge for several months at a time, because if you're that kind of guy, you're definitely having fun.

Also, near the end, I somewhat pictured this in my mind...

[Ragegamer243]

7627615 Also, is it really hard to put a spoilers bar around that comment? you're giving out a bit too much...

[TheMyth]

Luna's weapon reminds me of Genesis from Gundam Seed

[DarkPurveyorOfJustice]

This story is going directly onto my favourite list.
Why? Well for one because its a fantastic story through and through. But the thing that really elevates it above all the rest is that in this story someone finally kills Discord. This is the first story that I have ever read where someone actually kills that bag of bloody cocks.And I for one think that any and all fallout that is a consequence of how he was killed is entirely justified. I don't care what had to happen for Discord to die, it's entirely worth it.
All hail Luna.