First state visit to Human Refuge's home, [i]Luna Aeternal[/i] is happening. What will happen?
First state visit to The Human Refuge's home, Luna Aeternal is happening. What will happen? Twilight Sparkle accompanies Princess Luna as she visits the human colony on the moon. What kind of place is the mysterious human home? What will she find there? And will they survive the visit without restarting the most devastating war in the history of Equesteria?
Sort of sequel to The History of Human War. Originally planned to just add this to that fic, but it kept growing until I had to split it into two parts and then it kept growing until it started to be longer than other "After The War" chapters combined. So now it is its own story. Enjoy.
It was a nerve wracking ride. It was the first state visit made by ponies to human seat of goverment, Luna Aeternal, or "Eternal Moon" as it translated. At first Twilight had been interested in how the human machinery worked, but after emptying her stomach several times(She hadn't been aware that she had had carrots for lunch) when the ship pushed trough the atmosphere, she had suddenly lost her interest on the subject. Humans seemed to be amused by this, judging by how they shook their heads and their shoulders moved. They wore their suits, saying that you could never be sure when traveling trough space. At least this time they didn't have face covering plates, but clear see-trough helmets. Said they were "EVA" suits. They also lacked the armored parts the normal suit had. Twilight wondered if their perspection of humans was warped by the war, since "normal" human suit to ponies meant the armored and intimidating combat armor, where as this EVA suit was considered "non-normal".
Luna Aeternal was currently facing the sun, which meant that "Sun Time". Humans were less active on the surface when this time was on, mainly due to their sensitivity to the sun they had developed during the exile. Luna was looking out of the window when the ship flew around the moon, bringing Luna Aeternal into full view. Not that they were active to start with. There was little to do, outside repairs and occasional scrambles to get Anti-Asteroid Suits to approaching asteroids. Failure do so once had lead to The Second Cataclysm and to the war.
"It's weird. It looks at the same time majestic, yet depressing." Luna commented. In front of them Luna Aeternal expanded across the moon, being larger than Equestria in sheer size. Large crater where Hydroponic Farming District 6 had once been was clearly visible in the "southern" section of the complex. That crater was the reason behind The War. With the loss of such large source of food humans had panicked and launched an invasion on Equestria, hoping to remove magic from the surface and find a new source of food. Some of the outer structures were in process of being dismantled and recycled, since humanity no longer needed them or they had become ghost districts long time ago, as human population declined.
Large concrete and steel structures covered the surface, most of them gray with only few spots of color, left from the old days. The moon lacked an atmosphere, so no erosion occurred and what was left outside, usually stayed there for couple of centuries. Twilight could see anti-asteroid turrets dotting the buildings, with occasionally turning to target them before recognizing the ship and turning away.
Luna Aeternal was less of a single complex as it was one large city that lacked streets. Buildings rose and fell across it, but they were all connected to each others. Beneath the surface tunnels continued as humanity had expanded underground. It had been only few buildings when humanity had exiled itself to the moon, yet now it was largest human settlement in the existence. When Earth "phased" into Equestria, their colonies on Mars and other locations, as well the planets themselves, had disappeared(From their point of view, ponies never even knew there was supposed to be planet called Mars or Jupiter or anything else) thus leaving the moon colony only out-of-the-planet settlement left.
Suddenly, the pilot started to speak.
"Control Tower, this is Transport 3-4-1, callsign Icarus, transporting Princess Luna and her entourage. Total of 7 ponies. Requesting permission to land. Over."
"This is Control Tower to Transport Icarus, we hear you. Permission granted to docking bay 11. Warn the passengers of the media. The First Citizen is there to meet them. Over."
"Copy that Control Tower, making our approach now." Pilot pressed few buttons and ship turned around, moving towards large structure, which roof was opening. "Just to warn you, there will be media presence there. Don't be surprised. They can be worse than a pack of jackals."
"What's a jackal?" Twilight asked.
"I don't know. It's figure of a speech. Apparently it was some sort of vicious pre-Cataclysm predator." Pilot just shrugged his shoulders and took the ship down to the roof. Another metallic door greeted them. Roof above them started to close.
"Hey, what's going on?" One of the guards asked, seeing that there was no way to leave the place.
"It's an airlock. They will pump air in next and open the next door. You didn't think we just expose the interiors to the vacuum." One of the guards spoke up, clearly not wanting to be the one on whose turn things went wrong. Twilight thought for it a moment. It made sense. Since they needed to be able to work on their ships, they needed air, which meant atmosphere. If they just exposed the hangar, all the air would escape. So that's why they had build two door system.
"Also, we are about to enter AGG-field. You are going to feel your weight soon. Get ready for it. Especially you, get down to the floor." Human continued. He himself was holding on a handle on the wall and trying to keep his legs aimed down. Twilight turned herself around so that her hooves pointed down. Luna had enjoyed feeling of weightlessness, but had still remained upright. Rest of guards did their best to get down, with Luna assisting some. It was rather small(or large, depending what time era you framed it against) group. Princess Luna, Twilight, Captain Stonewall and 4 guards,
Ship landed down and pilot made last checks. "All clear. 1 minute until I open the front door. Get yourself ready." Ponies took their formation, with two guards front, Princess Luna, with Captain Stonewall on the right and Twilight on the left, on the left side and two guards behind. "Door open in 3... 2... 1... open" Door opened with a hiss and imminently they were assaulted by lights and sounds. It took sometime for Twilight to discern that there were humans with cameras filming and taking pictures, with another group of humans in same old armor they used everywhere. Except this time they had batons and pistols, lacked helmets and their suits where colored blue and white. There was large "SECURITY" painted on their back. They were clearly trying to hold back the tide of humans who were waving microphones around and tried to approach the transport. There were also curious onlookers, trying to see glimpses of these greatly talked about ponies.
Ponies walked down the ramp and up to a man in a suit. Interestingly enough, when on the moon they didn't need the suits, even when in presence of unicorns or even Princesses. In fact, he seemed visibly feel better when Princess Luna walked up to him.
"First Citizen Modigal, it is a pleasure to meet you." Luna greeted the man, by extending her right hoof which the man took in his hand and shaked, before releasing it and giving a small bow.
"It is our pleasure to host you for this meeting, Princess Luna. May I welcome you and your entourage to Luna Aeternal, the home of The Human Refuge. We hope that your trips was pleasant."
"Yes, it is not often we are able to experience joys of weightlessness."
"Shall we continue this on the official quarters? Docking bay is hardly a good place to conduct diplomatic business. Just follow us."
"Very well. Please show us the way."
In distance, Twilight saw one of the humans turn to those big cameras and start to speak.
"That was The First Citizen Modigal and Princess Luna of Equesteria, straight from the Docking Bay 11 of District 1. We will continue to bring you the latest news as they happen, so stay tuned! This is Olga Lindhoofs, Channel 1. We are off the air? Okay, let's move. I want to get everything from this visit."
Twilight guessed they were human version of reporters. If she hadn't seen humans with their "televisions", she would have wondered about the whole thing. However, as it was, she knew that they had been shown to whole human population in those things. The First Citizen (What sort of rank was that?) showed them around, although Twilight had to confess that she was already lost. Sure, there were signs and color-coded routes, but most of the hallways looked the same. Same metal everywhere. Same dull gray color. It was a small wonder how humans weren't permanently depressed. He showed them local market district, manufacturing areas, meeting areas, governmental sectors before coming to heavily guarded area. At first Twilight thought it was his residence, but The First Citizens words shocked her.
"Let me show you our pride and joy. We were able to save only little of garden plants, but those little we saved we brought here. This, is District 1's Nation Park" The First Citizen said as they passed trough one more bulkhead. In front of them laid massive dome. It was large enough that one could even fly there. It had glass ceiling, although Twilight guessed that metal structures that held it up housed steel plates to cover the whole structure if needed. But the most important thing was, the ground was covered in green grass. There were even some trees there and some flowers. Twilight tried to not let it show but she couldn't be but feel pity. This place, they called it a park, acted like it was something magnificent.
In Equestria, it wouldn't have been anything else but a garden. A badly cared garden. Yet, it was the best humans had, the best they could save from time before their exile.
She couldn't understand how humanity could have lived without going insane all these years.
"It is really lovely" Princess Luna said, although Twilight could hear Luna was thinking same thoughts as she was. It had been so much easier to think humans as some who wanted war because they were warlike people. Seeing that they really didn't have anything beyond scraps made it harder and harder to remain angry at them.
After a formal dinner, which despite being imported from planetside was somehow still lacking in taste, Princess and her entourage retreated to their chamber for rest.
"Bleh, what do they do to that food? It barely had any taste!" One of the guards complained.
"Silence private. You are official guard of Princess Luna. You are supposed to remain silent and guard her!" Captain Stonewall said.
"I think it's either because they have different tastebuds or it's because food is cleaned from all magical traces. Thus, when we eat it tastes 'bland' to us." Twilight wondered.
"I think so too, although there is no way to confirm that hypothesis without having human eat food that still has it's magical residue. We all known what would happen is someone did that." Princess Luna said. Two of the guards, who had served in the war, shuddered. They had seen what effect magic had on humans. Nobody would wish that horror on anybody. Two other guards and Captain hadn't witnessed the event, but were well aware of it.
"I wonder if I could get access to their library... they must have one!" Twilights curiosity started to appear when she thought about it. A whole new library, with never before seen books. It would be a scholar's dream! What she could learn from there, perhaps humans had created whole new school of magic? Or maybe she could finally glimpse the pre-Cataclysm history? She had always been fascinated by it. What kind of world had Earth been? Had it been like Equestria? Or maybe it had been something completely different? Normal humans who she had talked with had little knowledge of it. They had said there was little saved from those days and even that little was in danger of being lost due to inability to read ancient records.
"It is better for thou to stay here.This place is unfamiliar to all of us. Besides, thou can ask about it tomorrow while We are meeting with The First Citizen. We are tired and wish to retire for the day..." Princess slowed down at this point, seemingly to think for a moment and then turned to a clock that was on the wall "...Well, sleep cycle if We understand this clock correctly. 21:01 is late or early?"
"I think it means late. Very well Princess, we shall leave you for your rest. I will return to my quarters next room." Twilight answered and gave small polite bow. Guards simply saluted and moved to take their positions in the hallway.
"Good night, my little ponies..." Luna said before retiring for sleep. Twilight left the room and started to walk to her door, but noticed that guards had not yet left Princess room. On sudden impulse, she ran around the corner and made sure that guards didn't see her leave. Now she was free to go and locate the library. She trotted around empty hallways until she came to intersection that had directions.
"Let' see... infirmary, red line... security, blue line... hm...."
"Hey, why are you here?" Sudden voice asked next to her. Twilight gave a yelp, made impressive jump to air without running start and turned to the voice. It was a human child(At least Twilight thought it was a child. Otherwise humans had some really freaky height differences), about a her size. Humans were usually size of full-grown alicorn. "Are you here to kidnap bad children like my brother says?"
"... Uuhh... no... I... I ah.... What did your brother say I was here for?"
"To kidnap bad children. He said you came here to kidnap all children who didn't act nicely. Is that true?"
"NO! I mean, we, I mean, I, I ah...." Twilight's normally smart brains were currently trying to deal with a syntax error little kid had manage to cause. Kidnap bad children? What was she, a fairy tale monster? "I uh, I was looking of the library?"
"What's a library?" Kid said while dropping head to one side.
"It's a place with lot's of book, a place of knowledge." How come someone couldn't know what's a library was!?
"What's a book?" At this point Twilight's brain gave up and let her jaw hit the floor. Okay, not only did this kid think she was a fairy tale monster, but she didn't know what a library or a book was!? What was wrong with these humans?!
"...A book is a thing that holds a text. A library has many of them."
"Oooh! I know! You mean PDA! You lost your PDA and now you can't access The Database! Why you call it a library?" Kid started to jump up and down. It reminded Twilight the way Pinkie Pie jumped around. "Anyway, you can borrow mine! Just remember to return it to me once you don't need it! Here you go, with stylus! See ya!" Kid ran off and Twilight was left with weird flat thing, with a small pen looking object. As well as weird feeling she had met Pinkie Pie of humans.
She looked down to it. It had few items across it, often with labels she didn't understand. What was "My PDA", "uMessage" or "Steaming"? Atleast there was one thing she could use understand, "Users Guide". She tried to press it with her magic but found that there was nothing to press. She thought about trying open the device to find buttons when he remembered something. Kid had left her with this pen like thing, "a stylus" kid had called it. She picked it up and tried to press it against the item that said "Users Manual". Screen changed to what looked like a book, with title "Users Manual" on it. Twilight's eyes went wide open. This thing was a book?
Hour later she was in disbelief of what humans had achieved. This small thing, once you connected it to something called Lunar Network, could connect to The Database that housed nearly all knowledge humans had. It was incredible. Within her hoof was right now more books than her library in Ponyville had and they could travel with her! How was it possible that humans could ever lose any knowledge if it was so easy to take with them!?
"And may I ask what you are doing here, with that thing?" Metallic voice came behind her. Voice she knew very well. Slowly her head turned to face fully equipped human soldier... except this one had that blue-white color scheme with SECURITY written on it's chest. However, it didn't change the fact he still had that freaky helmet, even if it this time it had white faceplate and blue visor.
"I uh... I was looking for a library and uh..."
"You were looking for what?"
"A library" Human turned his head to side, universal 'I have no idea what you are talking about' sign. "Place with knowledge about history and such. Then I met this little kid... who I now realise didn't tell me her name... and he... or was it she... damn you humans look so same... anyway, he gave me this when I explained what I was looking for. It's amazing! It's like carrying your own library in your pocket and if you want to change book you can just choose a new book and if you are looking for something you just use the search function and you don't need to trough the book stacks to find it and try to remember the name you can just use the keywords..." Twilight didn't notice that the security officer had taken few steps back from the clearly insane mare.
"Alright, alright, I get it. However, I need to check something from that PDA, alright?"
"Huh wha- Oh right, sorry, here you go!" Twilight floated the stylus and the device(PDA? Was it another acronym what humans seemed to love?) to the officer. He was clearly not used to unicorn magic, since he was hesitant to touch the device. Maybe he hadn't served in the armed forces? Human picked the device and the stylus, tapped the device few times, looked at something, then tapped it again, looked some more before lowering it.
"Alright, no problem with the device itself. However, I need to confiscate this one, since it is originally from black market."
"WHAT!? I didn't..."
"No worries. I can see that this one was bought only few days ago and it has minimun use. In fact, I would say you just saved the kids family. It has malware on it..."
"What's a malware?" This time it was humans turn to make 'you got to be kidding me'-face, even if Twilight couldn't see it.
"It's a program. Had they used this PDA to buy something trough the network, the criminals who sold this one would have gained access to their bank accounts and stolen them clean. We had few of these appearing on the market and have been hard pressed to find them. This might be just what we need to locate the criminals. If you want your own PDA, I would suggest buying one from the sanctioned shops or requesting one from the embassy." Human said as he put the device away.
"Aaaw... and I wanted to learn your history... how come you could lose history if you got those thing?"
"Simple. Databases can get corrupt if not maintained, hardware can get destroyed, old formats become obsolete and nobody transfers the data forward et cetera et cetera. Now, you should return to your quarters and I won't report I found you here." Sudden Twilight realised she had no knowledge where she was supposed to be.
"I uuhh.... Oh great I'm lost!" The officer did human equivalent of facehoof, before pulling another device out of his pocket. He pressed the device few times before turning back to Twilight.
"Alright, follow me and I take you to quest quarters."
"Ah, thank you... uh..."
"Officer Silan, 2nd Security Division, at your service."
Rest of the trip was made in silence, with human checking his device few times to make sure they were going at the right direction. Eventually they arrived at her quarters where two were sleepy looking guards were guarding the door.
"Lost something?" Human said to the guards who sudden became much more aware of their surrounding. When they noticed Twilight their eyes went comically large. "You should be more careful. I leave her at your care and won't report this incident to Security Command." He said before leaving. Twilight just gave apologetic smile to guards and slipped inside.
It had been interesting day.
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Meanwhile, Luna was having an interesting experience. She had suddenly remembered that on Equesteria, it was time to raise the moon while she was on it. Although technically she had been imprisoned on the moon when it was raised by Celestia, she had no power back then. Ponies also had the funny misconception that she was physically on the moon. If that would have been the case, she would have known about the humans. No, she had been magically bind to the moon, with it serving as a metaphysical chain that kept her in prison. Celestia had agreed to take care of raising the moon while she was visiting humans, but she never did it right. Oh sure, to uneducated it seemed like the moon rose just fine, but to Luna it was all wrong. Seriosuly, you would think that couple exatons (1 000 000 000 000 000 000 tons) of rock in space would be easy to set to correct orbit after you have done same to a giant flaming ball of nuclear fusion! So she extended her magic to feel the moon.
Just like she thought, she was feeling Celestia’s magic nudging it to the sky and to travel in certain orbit. And she was doing it all wrong again! No, not there, here, no, don't sent it there it will block those stars, by the moon how hard can it be?! After a while she could feel Celestia’s magic withdraw as she fixed her mistakes one by one. Apparently Celestia decided to leave the job to those who knew how to do it. Satisfied with now correct path across Equestrian night sky, Princess Luna went to sleep.
She had difficult talks with The First Citizen tomorrow.
Twilight woke up when suddenly bright lights turned on.
"SPIKE! Stop playing around. I'm sleepy..." Nothing happened.
"Spike?" Twilight asked once more. Nothing. Had he gone to help Rarity? She stood up from her bed, looking around.
"Meh, this ain't the library?" At least last time she checked the library in Ponyville was made out of tree(well, it WAS a tree), not out of metal. Then she remembered.
"Oh, right, the state visit! How could I forget. Why are the lights on? What time it is?" She looked towards a clock that was on the wall. 9:00. So it was morning by now. They had meeting scheduled at 11:30. Twilight rose up, no harm getting ready already. If she remembered correctly, she would have some free time today, when The First Citizen and Princess Luna would be talking about private matters, matters that required utmost secrecy.
Twilight was not happy about that. Despite official peace between two nations, there still lingered a shadow of war that neither side wanted. For the first time in 1000 years, Equesteria had internal instability. There were ponies demanding blood. Many felt wronged by the human actions during the war. Especially because the masterminds and key players of the Operation Scorch Earth were not persecuted due to the New Zebas Treaty. She wasn't sure, but she also heard their ambassador to Canterlot speak about some unrest too. Apparently there was growing demand to increase the zones, because more and more wanted to come to live on the surface.
Both governments tried to keep the lid on this disaster, to prevent it from exploding and ruining everything that had been achieved in 5 years. It was an one reason why this state visit was being carried out. The ambassador didn't have enough power to decide on certain matters, so they needed to speak of The First Citizen, who couldn't come to the planet. Life had become so complicated and political. Even if normal ponies didn't realize it, both sides carefully tryed to dance this dance on a minefield.
There was eventually a knock on the door.
"Miss Sparkle? Princess Luna wishes to see you." Twilight recognized the voice of one of the guards. She took quick look of herself on the mirror, made some minor adjustment and opened the door. Or tried but couldn't find the handle. Then she remembered that these doors had button on the side that needed to be pressed.
"Sorry about that, still getting used to this place. Alright, I'm ready to go." Guard nodded and started to escort her to Princess room. She had at first expected much grander rooms, rather than rather small 3 room + WC/Bathroom + Kitchen combo both had gained. Guards had much smaller "guard room", something that was a relic from a long time ago. However, when remembering previous days tour, these rooms were probably the best they could offer.
Luna greeted her and motioned her to follow her. The First Citizen was waiting them at the breakfast. Breakfast consistent mainly imported food, since food supplies on Luna Aeternal were reserved for citizens. Despite being grown on the planetside, it was still somewhat bland, lacking the normally colorful tastes that pony grown food had. After the breakfast The First Citizen took them to small side room where he and Luna sat down to talk everyday matters. At this point human media had arrived and was following the discussion closely. Human security was less hard pressed to contain the media, mainly because there were several soldiers in the room in full gear, guarding The First Citizen.
After a while, media was dismissed and Luna turned to Twilight.
"Twilight, although we appreciate that you are with us, there are matters of great national security to be discussed. We fear that we need to ask you to leave us for rest of the day." Luna clearly didn't like the idea, leaving Twilight alone in the massive city.
"My assistant, sergeant Matheus Smith, shall show you the place and help you in anything you need." The First Citizen replied, with one of the uniformed men stepping forward. He wore grey officer uniform, with red highlights. his hair was grey and eyes were green. On his shoulder was the symbol of human armed forces, Earth with a shield behind it and a sword in front of it. Twilight just nodded to the man.
"Nice to meet you, my name is Twilight Sparkle."
"Sergeant Matheus Smith, at your service miss Sparkle. Is there anything you wish to see of our great city?"
"Well, not really, I mean, I am not really familiar with it. Maybe you could show me around and tell me about this place?"
"Very well. The First Citizen. Princess. We shall take our leave." Matheus saluted both before turning towards the door.
"Guard, I wish you to join them. I feel better if I know there is one of you with them." Luna motioned to one of the guards that had accompanied them. Guard just saluted and trotted next to Twilight, who gave her farewells and followed her new human guide.
"So, who are you?" She asked the guard assigned to her.
"Private Aegis Armor, at your service." The guard answered with a polite bow.
"Is there any place you would like to visit, madam?" Matheus said.
"Oh, uh, not really... maybe we could visit the park again?" Twilight said, trying to buy some time to think. Matheus just nodded and started to lead them. After a several turns they arrived at the familiar bulkhead. Matheus opened the door and gestured two ponies to enter. Twilight took another look at the so-called "National Park". There were few humans around the place, some sitting down on the grass, chatting while others others worked on maintaining the park. There was a small group of children playing around too. Artificial sun had been set to 'dawn' setting.
"Is there anything else I can do to help you?" Matheus said once again, keeping his face free of emotions.
"No, not really. Maybe we could go sit somewhere and you could tell us about your species. We have so little information in general. Like, what is your society like and stuff?" Twilight tried. She didn't really have much of an idea on what to do, District 1 was mainly a governmental district, with little to no interesting things for her. Besides, she didn't want to ruin Princess Luna's negotiations with The First Citizen by accidentally being accused of espionage.
Matheus, however, simply nodded and lead them to a shade under a tree. Twilight took a seat and Aegis Armor just stood, looking around. Matheus took weird stance, placing his legs under him and seemingly sitting on them. Twilight, once again, found herself wondering how humans could move when their limbs moved in such a strange fashion. She quickly thought something to ask and decided to go with an easy solution.
"How about you tell me about your people? Some general history and how your society works?" Twilight said, wishing she had her writing equipment with her.
"Very well. We are an one-party representative republic, with our single party simply referred to as The Party. Everyone wishing to run for a governmental seat needs to join The Party. Within The Party there are currently 6 political blocks, each with it's own agenda and opinions. Our economy is a controlled free market system. As you can see, main portion of our people live here on the moon. We used to live on the planet you came from, but that was long time ago. We relocated here once it became clear that we can't survive there. Our population has remained in stable 50 million people last 1000 years, with little fluctuation. Our leader is called The First Citizen, although I am not sure where the name comes from. We have single city, Luna Aeternal that is divided into 63 Districts. District 1, which we are currently in, is our main governmental facility. This place houses our ministries and leadership."
Matheus explained as Twilight nodded and tried to make as many mental notes as she could. Aegis Armor simply stood and kept watch on the surroundings. Few humans looked at the ponies, but then moved on, having more important things to take care of. However, of the children seemed to notice something interesting and suddenly ran to Matheus.
"Uncle Matt! Come play with us!" Twilight wasn't sure but she believed that the kid was a girl, based on her hair and sound of her voice. For some reason human females kept long hairs, while males cut them short.
"Not now Lily, I got job to take care of. Shouldn't you be in a school in District 7, anyway?"
"We are visiting the park! And what job you got, all you do is being lazy!" The girl turned to see Twilight and Aegis Armor, who moved slightly towards this new, unknown factor. "EEEP!" The girl hid behind the back of Matheus.
"Forgive me and Lily. She doesn't always understand that I am not available to play her games." Matheus said while bowing his head.
"Ah, it's okay. Kids are kids, no matter what species they are, right? Spike used to be the same and his a dragon. Once, he nearly burned Royal Library in tantrum because I said I wasn't able to play with him. He decided that since books were keeping me away the books should go away." Twilight smiled at the memory. Back then she nearly had a heart attack, but now she could look back and laugh at the incident.
"Alright Lily, come out there and say a hello. It's rude to hide from someone." Matheus said while reaching for the girl hiding behind his back. He picked up the girl and brought her in front of him. Twilight gestured Aegis Armor to stand back little bit, clearly the heavily armored pony was scaring the girl.
"i'm sorry..." The girl said while looking down, seeming like any moment she would ran behind Matheus back once again.
"It's okay, no harm done. Your name is Lily, right? Nice to meet you, I am Twilight Sparkle. Sergeant Smith here is your uncle?"
"Oh, I am not her real uncle. I just live next door. For some reason she has decided are Best Friends Forever, despite my work."
"But you never work! All you do is sit in your room, moving papers trying to look important."
"That's my job! Someone needs to take care of all the paperwork!"
"Then why you never read them, you just use stamp to mark them moving throwing them away?" At this point Matheus face turned from white to deep red. Twilight tried to hold back a giggle and she could see that Aegis Armor was enjoying the show too, despite trying to keep his stoic appearance.
"Lily Unzerwald, what have I told about running off from the group!? Get back here on this instant!" A woman shouted at the group, with Lily frowning before turning to adress Twilight.
"I need to go now. See ya!" Then she ran off to a group of children that the woman was taking care of. She was scolded, but she seemed to take it in good spirits before returning to chatting to other girls in the group.
"That little rascal... sometimes she is going to get me in a trouble."
"That reminds me... could it be possible we could visit some residential district? I would like to see what daily life of humans on the moon looks like. I have seen how you people live on the surface, but not here. " Twilight said, her curiosity rising. Nobody really knew how humans lived, they were pretty isolated group. This was once in a million years chance to see daily human life.
"How about I take you to District 7, that is my home district. It's underground and has much more room, being built inside one the few natural caverns here on the moon."
"Oh my, I thought that Luna Aeternal was build on the surface."
"Most of it is. However, Districts 7, 14 and 22 are build underground. There are total of 63 Districts, each with it's own representative in the senate. We need to take a mag-lev trip to get there."
"Mag-lev?"
"It's our main transportation here. I have VIP access since I am escorting you, so we don't need to wait so long." He lead them trough hallways and walkways that crossed seemingly endless pit. Finally they arrived at some sort of station which was full of people. Trough a glass that spanned across one of the walls Twilight could see something moving with incredible speeds. She doubted that even Rainbow Dash could keep up with whatever went trough the tunnels. Then she realized something horrible turned to Matheus.
"Is that... mag-lev? We are going there?" Aegis Armor seemed to lose color on his face too.
"It's perfectly safe. You are more likely to to die due to accident in home. Hey Johnny, I got two VIPs." Matheus answered before moving past a line and a speaking a man behind a counter.
"You always say that." A man behind the counter said without even raising his gaze. People in the line stared at the ponies, with children hiding behind their parents, curiously taking peeks at the creatures their fathers and parents had fought once.
"This time I really got them. You want to go and explain to The First Citizen why our guest were stuck waiting for a public transport?" Matheus said, gesturing to two ponies behind him.
"Reich und Gott, I am sorry! I get you a VIP mag-lev ASAP!" The man behind the counter exploded into action, furiously typing something on this desk. Twilight couldn't see what it was, the desk was too high. Matheus seemed to be amused. "Alright, Dock 2 if you will. There will be a mag-lev there soon. I wish you nice visit." The man said while tipping his hat. Twilight always wondered that human gesture. They seemed to use it in so many context, that it was hard to decipher what it meant.
"Thank you." Twilight said,hoping to give friendly smile. Human just nodded, seemingly unsure what to think of ponies. Matheus lead them to a side tunnel, before arriving to a room. The room had two tunnels leading out of it, both which seemed strangely large. Moving trough the tunnels and the room there was a track. Suddenly she heard loud noise, similar to noise made by sonic rainboom. In distance of one tunnel, she saw two lights closing towards them. Twilight jumped backwards, as did her guard. Matheus, however, remained stationary, clearly accustomed to it. A strange, dart shaped machine stopped in front of them on the tracks, floated off and floated down in front of them. At least it wasn't colored black, but red with white highlights. Matheus touched something on it's side and machine opened.
"Please step in. It's a VIP mag-lev, so it gets priority in the traffic. Trip will take one and half hour, so you can ask me whatever you wish. I will try to answer to my best abilities." Matheus said as he gestured towards the machine. Aegis Armor was first to get in, being suspicious of the machine and wanting to check it before allowing his charge to enter it. Eventually he was satisfied and took one of the seats in the back. Twilight followed, taking seat next to him. Matheus took the front seat. "Oh right, stupid me... you lack human physiology. Let's see, how we are going to pull this... See those straps there? There should be two on either side of you." Twilight found both rather quickly. Guard just stared them with suspicion. "Pull them across your chest, so that your... ahh... what's the word..."
"Hoofs. Front hoofs and hind hoofs. Legs are fine too." Twilight supplied him.
"Right, so that the straps are under your front legs, but over your hind legs. There is a lock in both of them, make sure the lock is in middle of your chest. Just push them together, it should do the rest." Twilight did as she was instructed, eventually getting it right. Position was not the most comfortable, but after seeing how fast these so-called mag-levs traveled, she didn't want to take her chances. Aegis Armor fiddled with his lock slightly, but left it alone after a while.
"Alright, we are going to accelerate now before entering transport tunnel. Computer."
"Greetings. Welcome to VIP Transport Number 9. I hope you..." Matheus hit something on the board, silencing the voice.
"Sorry about that. Computer, take us to District 7. VIP route, authorization Matheus Smith, 7-7-2-4, two guest. You better open your mouth and close your eyes, trust me."
"Acknowledged. Please keep your hands and feet inside the ride during the trip." Matheus just shook his head. Machine closed the doors and lifted to air, before moving to rails. Then it started to accelerate to ludicrous speeds. Twilight felt like she was going to be absorbed in the seat. How could humans use these machines as their main transportation!? Then, suddenly as it had started, it ended.
"Alright, everything is ok now. We are cruising at the comfortable speed of 600 kilometers per hour. There is no weather to speak and no interesting sights to see, we hope you enjoy the ride." Matheus said in his best "flight assistant" imitation. Twilight wanted to curl up and get back to solid ground. She had come to a conclusion she hated human transportation, since they seemed to be build on sole idea of making occupant sick. Still, she finally had time to ask questions about humans, something she couldn't miss.
"Why are these machines build to make us so sick..." Okay, that had not been intended question but it was a good one.
"Hmm? Maybe it's just that we are used to these things. Luna Aeternal is a big place, so to get anywhere in decent time you need high speed machines. It's not really feasible to build docks on every building we have. So these mag-lev tunnels became much more common."
"I see..." No she really didn't, but she didn't actually have anything to argue with, so she let it be. "So, tell me about the place we are going, please?"
"District 7 is the first underground build area. Originally it was believed that the moon didn't have much of a caves in it. However, discovery of the cave that would later become District 7 changed that conception. It's a large, hollow underground cavern. It's airtight too. District 7 is build inside it and it's rather popular place to live in. It has large, open air feeling and it's said that it is closest to pre-Cataclysm city design as it can be. Still, it has it's own set of problems, mainly the price level. The government is artificially keeping it low, since if they let it rise to it's 'real' value, only the richest could afford to live there. We had bad experiences with such systems, so we take extra care that everyone is equal, yet allowed to pursue their own dreams."
"How can your government decide the price?" Human politics, confusing as ever. Still, it was useful knowledge to have, especially when you were visiting them.
"Major industry is state controlled. There are smaller companies, but everything big such as ship building, food distribution, housing, they are all state controlled. The state distributed certain amount of food to it's citizens and sells rest of it own auctions to private companies, who sell it on their own prices. That guarantees that everyone has basic food supplies, but also allows limited private industry to function. Housing is entirely state controlled. They try to keep prices close to 'real' value as they can, but as in case of District 7, they artificially drive them down to allow everyone a chance to live there."
"Sounds complicated, why would you do that? I know you are supposed to have free market, like in Equestria." At this remark Matheus face became dark.
"Because, allowing uncontrolled free market is what caused The Class Wars, or The First Human Civil War. It caused people to be divided to those with money and those without money. Those without money lived in poverty, barely surviving from day to day. Free market is great when there is overabundance of basic supplies. However, make the basic supplies scarce and you got all the makings of a conflict. District 3 and 4 were totally destroyed during the fighting. After that, a new type of government was created. Well, it worked okay for awhile but in the end, turns out that entirely state controlled system doesn't work either. It can't respond to public demands fast enough. That lead to The Second Human Civil War. Current system has been in effect for 1 200 years and has worked OK so far."
"Oh my, you people have so much history..."
"The Database has more details than what I can give, I was more interesting in getting in Security Training so that I could get in Military Academy."
"The Database... Oh! I remember. Last night met someone who showed me those things you carry, uh... Pdos you called them? I was wondering if I could get one and read the history myself."
"P-D-A, comes from words Personal Data Assistant. They are standard issue equipment to us. We used to store information in physical form, but when those resources were needed for something we slowly moved to digitization of everything. We lost a lot of knowledge, but survival is our primary concern. Everything else comes after that."
Even if he sounded determined, Twilight couldn't help but once again feel pity. It was clear that these people, they were not really that different from ponies besides physical characteristics. Their bad luck with magic had simply hardened them into what they were now.
"But can I get my own? I remember one security officer saying I could buy one."
"Hmm, I can't see why not. It will most likely be unable to connect to Lunar Network once you return to planetside, but I think you can download lite version of our history if you want. Depends what model you buy."
"There are different models?"
"Yes. They have different storage capacities and ability to run programs." He picked up his own PDA. "Mine is Greenlight 5, it's slightly above average PDA. It has total 60 terabytes of storage room, which should be enough for unclassified history data if you like."
"Those numbers don't really say anything to me..." Twilight said with slight embarrassment.
"Sorry, my bad. Let' see... average work is around 500 pages, that is about 1 megabyte... 1 024 megabytes is 1 gigabyte and 1 024 gigabytes is 1 terabyte... so 1 terabyte is about 1 000 000 works, take or leave couple of thousands."
Twilight's brain, at this point, encountered overflow error and her jaw hit the floor second time during the trip. 60 million books on that small thing? Now it was more than necessary to get her own. That thing could hold more books than all libraries in all Equesteria!
"Then again, if you want one you are going to have problem with electricity. I do not know what you got, but these things needed to be recharged every couple of days. So you might want to check how you can recharge it before buying one. No fun having one and being unable to use it because it's battery ran out."
That caused Twilight to pause her dreams of having the largest library in the world right in her hooves. Meanwhile, guard next her started to turn green when they narrowly passed another mag-lev going in to another direction. Matheus peeked at the guard and the pointed to a brown bag next to him.
"If you are going to throw up, please us that." Aegis Armor grabbed the bag and threw up, causing Twilight to wince. She couldn't blame him, she was feeling horrible too. Speeds which mag-levs traveled were insane and they went so close to each others. Some traveled on trails, while others were freely floating. They themselves were following trails that were laid next to the wall.
Rest of the trip was rather uneventful, if you didn't count occasional shrieks from ponies when someone passed them or they passed someone way too close to their liking. Twilight asked Matheus about human settlement and way of life, with the picture in her mind becoming more and more grim. She was also slightly surprised that humans were omnivores, although Matheus told that they didn't have any real meat for last 1 400 years, only synthetic substitutes. There were apparently been some attempts to clone herbivores from pre-Cataclysm era, however, cost-benefit ration had resulted the plan being scrapped.
Finally, they arrived on their destination. A massive cavern opened in front of them, being even larger than Canterlot. Mag-lev rails zig-zagged the city and mag-lev vehicles flew across the city that was laid down on them. Buildings climbed up and down the walls, while on the cavern floor smaller buildings rose to heights, sometimes connecting with the wall buildings. To Twilight, it was a marvel of engineering. Even Aegis Armor was amazed by the sheer size of it all.
"Welcome to District 7, the largest District of them all." Matheus said as their vehicle started to lower itself towards the station.
----------------------------------------
Canterlot Human Embassy The basement.
*CRUNCH*
A woman tied to a chair fell to the ground. His interrogator grabbed her hair and pushed her back upright. Then he moved face to to face with her.
"Who. Is. The Contact?" The woman just spit to his face. Another punch and the woman was lying on the ground, barely breathing. The man just shook his head and walked out of the dimly lit room, Behind the door ambassador Fahrenheit waited.
"Well?"
"Not much. We know that one of the ponies is member of radical anti-human organization but we do not know which one and who is their human contact, or even how they remain in contact. It's pretty clever once you think about it. Pose as pro-pony organization and promise to even the odd. Then just make the whole exchange into a trap. Whole thing is made to seem like ponies are trying to steal weapons from us. Unfortunately, like I said, we don't have names and we can't just capture the members of royal entourage."
"REICH UND GOTT! We do not need this right now! We are already living on an edge of a knife and now some idiots want to restart the war!? Can we contact Luna Aeternal?"
"Solar storm makes it nearly impossible. Next ship to the moon leaves tomorrow and arrives in four days. In that time the visit, and the exchange, is over."
"Reich und Gott" Fahrenheit cursed again. If she went and spoke to Princess Celestia that there was a traitor among them, it could lead to a political scandal. If she didn't, it could lead to a war as 'pony assassins' would end up killing an entire district! If she just could contact Internal Security Agency, none of this would matter, but now she was cut off.
Luna watched as Twilight and her companions left the room, then she turned to The First Citizen. Middle-aged, already balding man looked at her with expectations. Guess he wanted her to break the ice on the matter.
"We need to find a compromise." She usually isn't this blunt, but she knew from experience that humans preferred to get straight to the matter. They lacked fitness in foreing politics, mainly because until 5 years ago they didn't even have foreign politics. Their Ministry of Foreign Affairs was still trying to find a good way to organize it. So far it gave it's ambassadors rather great leeway, giving them broad goals they needed to complete but left details to them.
"And why would we need that?" The First Citizen asked. Damn it, now she was forced show her cards if she wanted to get these negotiations to go anywhere. She had fallen into his trap. If she didn't tell why they wanted this compromise, she looked like a fool. And revealing the truth would give all the advantages to him, since she wouldn't be able to know what he got in this game.
"Our and our sisters power is threatened by internal instability." She realized she could gain some lost ground by pointing out human internal problems. "And so is yours. We are aware that there is increased demand for more living room down on the planet. You wish that we increase the size of The Zone. We have told you, that such action is tiring for us and takes time to accomplish. We are, however, worried that our subjects might see the increase of The Zone as a weakness. Thus, we believe can come to an agreeable compromise."
"This for that game, huh?" The First Citizen said, cocking his head. "Fine. Let's be honest here. We got our own problems. Some people think we stopped too early and that we should use our military advantage to coerce you to accept our demands. However, I am aware of your own problems. Your reign relies on your subjects believe that you can protect them from everything.” Luna gave sharp glare at The First Citizen, before nodding. That was sadly the truth of it. If ponies could not trust Royal Princesses to protect them, they might once again isolate themselves into three tribes.
“Yes. If we submit to your... request once more, it might spark an internal strife. It might seem we are paying a tribute to you for peace. So far this... relationship has been very once sided. We feel that we need something from you, a gesture of goodwill that you too are willing to work for this peace.”
The First Citizen stared at Luna. Luna maintained her own gaze, knowing that the other was trying to intimidate her to drop the subject. After a tense while, he turned away.
“I am not sure what I can offer to you. Many war criminals you want are highly respected heroes to us. Arresting and handing them to you would be problematic for us. Furthermore, to conduct a fair trial we would need to grant you access to our military records, which I hope you understand is not excatly high on our 'what we can offer' list. Without a fair trial, handing them to you would seem like betraying them.”
“We are aware of this. If you could give us anyone, no matter how small, and accompanying evidence required for fair and just trial it would help us greatly. Then there is another matter, which I hope we could agree on.”
“Oh, and what would that be?”
“War reparations from Operation Schorch Earth. The attack caused enormous amount of pony lives, as well as major loss of industry. It is especially those behind the attack we want to put on trial. However, if you could publicly admit that the attack was wrong and agree to pay us reparations from the attack, it would help the peace considerably.”
“How so? It would sound like it would be a bad deal for us.”
“Consider this: our government becomes more stable, the government that actively seeks to maintain the peace. It would also allow us to start healing the wounds from the war. It would also help you, allow you to distance from the government that caused the attacks. Instead of being continuation of the government that started the war, you could be the government that rebuild the peace.” Luna looked around the room, seeing several previous The First Citizens staring down on her from paintings.
“Also, it would help pro-peace groups. Right now your government is in turmoil due to peoples confusion. Was the war righteous, or was it carried out on false pretense? Was the war won or lost? Admit that the attack was wrong, give us the criminals behind the attack and we will expand the zones.
You could be The First Citizen who strengthened the peace, but also gave your people more living room on the surface.”
The First Citizen stroked his chin thinking about the possibility. On the other hand, Princess was right. Relationship had so far been defined by humans having upper hand in military, thus able to make any demands they wanted. That aggravated the pony population, risking the war. On the other hand, admitting that the attack was wrong could also fuel those groups who though that they were too depending on ponies maintaining The Zone. Public opinion was like a flag in a wind. One moment it blew to one direction, then to another. It also had a memory of a goldfish, whatever the goldfish was.
What a nice mess his predecessor left him with...
“Reich und Gott, why did I ran for this position... Why there are never easy answers for anything. I would need to talk to Council of Districts, but I think I could sway them to admit that the attack was a war crime. I think I can abuse old laws that were never abolished, like ban of OSWMDs...”
“The what now?” Luna asked confused. Humans and their acronyms.
“OSWMDs, Orbit to Surface Weapons Of Mass Destruction. I think I can pass asteroids as one. With little trickery I can remind them that if we can't uphold our own laws, how can we expect you ponies to keep yours. Besides, that particular set of laws doesn't speak against who the weapon is used, only that it's use is banned.”
“Hmm, that is a good start, at least. Sooner we can begin to have population to accept the peace and cooperation, sooner we can get back to our peaceful lives.”
“I doubt there will ever be peace like before. We are on the surface now. No matter what happens, the fact remains: we humans are there to stay and we occupy an area that used to be a pony area. It will take centuries for such grievance to die, if ever. There are stories of our nations holding grudges for thousand of years.”
“It is sad, but we have seen during our long life different grudges to die out and be forgotten. Do not let your limited lifespan limit your views, there is still hope for our people. The fact that we both stand here, talking on how to prevent a disaster from happening, is a proof of it.”
The First Citizen gave Luna look of disbelief before bursting in to laughter.
“What is so funny?”
“I'm just thinking, were you a human you would probably be in my position right now! Hahaha, the public would just adore you! Hehee...” Luna shook his head. Humans and their strange thoughts. Still, it was a mighty praise, despite not being presented as such. He acknowledged her leadership, even if it was done from human point of view.
“Anyway, war criminals are out. Unless you can bring me something, let's say, a proof that one of them is conspiracing against the state, I can't do anything. It's like, let me think... Oh, right, let's say I wanted to take your assistant who was with you for a trial. Miss Sparkle, that was her name? Yes, let's say one day our ambassador came and demanded her head for war crimes. What would be your answer?”
“We would deny such request. I assume you are in same position, our criminals are your heroes, correct?”
“That's what I said. I can't touch them without definite proof that they are doing something wrong now. Untill such time, I'm afraid that they are out of either ones reach. I admit, I am not thrilled of idea of giving them to you, but peace requires sacrifices.”
“I can respect that. We are happy already that you even accepted to meet us, to listen our grievances. You are clearly seeking peace with us, not war. We cannot understand how some would wish such.”
“That would be a block called 'Humanity First', bunch of assholes. I get their platform, humans first and human survival and all that, but where I draw a line is when they start shouting their bullshit about human supremacy over everything else. If we were so supreme, we wouldn't be in this mess to begin with.” The First Citizen shook his head. Damn idiots were drumming up support to restart the war. He wished he had the old power to simply ban and crackdown on problematic parties, but since they were technically part of the same party, he had little room to move. Cracking down on them could be seen as “cleansing”, which in turn would make every other block oppose him.
“However... why would we need to worry about that? Why should we be worried off your governmental stability? Perhaps it would beneficial for us, having your people interested fighting each others rather than us?”
Luna was shocked that he would even suggest this, but realised the hidden meaning. The First Citizen wanted a good excuse to maintain his current policy, something to use against his enemies who undoubtedly would use such argument.
“Would you rather deal with the devil you know, than with a devil you don't know? Furthermore, should something... happen... to me or my sister, there is no guarantee that The Zone can be maintained.”
“Is that... a threat?” The First Citizen said with a raised eyebrow.
“A warning.” Luna answered with the best poker face she could muster.
“Very well. Let's discuss the possible size of the reparations if the Council agrees to pay them. How much do you want, or need?”
“Machinery. Lot and lots of machinery. Manehattan was one of our main industrial centers. Our railway system is still badly damaged and our industry is still trying to recover. We are going to need expertise and equipment to restart our industry. Furthermore, I am hoping that you could help us set a nationwide communications network.”
“A communication network?”
“Yes. Monsters are now much more active and we cannot always act fast enough. Our attempts to regain control of the weather have also been hampered by our inability to warn other areas of sudden changes. If we could contact far-off lands before a disaster hits them, they could prepare and work to prevent the disaster.“
“Interesting idea, and when you present it that way something that public could accept. Our own hardship makes them more agreeing on idea of preventing hardship on anyone else. Besides, those storms are hitting The Zone too. So the anti-pony groups can't object to it either. Very good.” Once again, despite not saying it Luna could hear that The First Citizen approved her leadership. Despite not saying it, he had been testing and trying to see whenever or not Luna was a good leader. She could only hope that she had passed whatever test the human had subjected her.
“For now, shall we have a dinner? I shall send message that your assistant may rejoin us.”
“If she wishes. I have no desire to force her. She is a well respected friend of ours.”
“Very well, I shall contact sergeant Smith and inform him.” The First Citizen picked up his PDA and typed something into it. Then he waited for a moment. Machine beeped and he scowled. “That is... interesting. It seems they have left District 1 and heading to District 7. Sergeant Smith says that your assitant was interested in daily live of humans.” Luna gave a small snicker at this. Twilight and her endless curiosity.
“Yes, that sounds like her. Well then, it seems it shall be only two of us.”
“So it seems. Please follow me.” The First Citizen rose and gesture towards the door. Luna stood up and followed him. Despite being a scheming politician, he had sort of hidden intelligence that Luna respected. After all, trough last 6 years he had managed to keep his people in check and somehow, with help from Princess Luna and Celestia, managed to create a situation where starting a war could ruin both sides economy, leading to economic powers to oppose the war. As everyone knew, when you could only lose from war, nobody wanted it.
The best part was that he had managed to do this and still somehow keep his support. He had essentially torn down human superior position and made two sides equal. Except in military. He maintained that “if this whole thing blows in our face and the war does begin, I want to make sure it's my species who stands on the mountain of corpses.” Luna could respect that. Seek peace, prepare for war. She remembered the early days of hers and Celestias rule when they had maintained the same attitude. Interesting creatures, these humans were. So much potential, yet it seemed like the world hated them.
During the meal, Luna decided to bring this up, for unspecific reasons. Partly because she enjoyed talking with someone who didn't fear her because of her past as Nightmare Moon, partly because she was interested. It saddened her that despite her efforts during the war, so many feared her. Some of the meanest even suggest it had been her, attempting to bring Nightmare Moons hidden army and conquer Equesteria. Of course, such words were not spoken aloud, especially around Celestia. She tented to explode in anger when such idea was proposed, altough suprisingly nobody had been banished or killed yet. So far worst they got was few months in a hospital..
“There is something that has been made me wonder... Your people, they are not really that different from us ponies. You have so much potential, one only need to look at this magnificent feat of engineering to understand it. Yet, it seems like you are experiencing disaster after disaster? What is like this before The Great Cataclysm?”
The First Citizen stopped the fork that was moving towards his mouth and seemed to think for a possible answer. He lowered the fork and had this thoughtful appearance on his face.
“I can't give you absolute answer for that. I personally belief that it's the struggle that drives our people. Whenever our live settles in conformable routine, we grow lax. We regress. Yet, the greatest innovations of humankind have come through struggle. We struggled against the weather, our buildings became strong. Throughout our history, mankind struggles against something, creating new ways to counter the hardship we encounter. Some say it's the will of Mother Earth, to make us a species worthy of her by making us able to conquer every challenge.
I think that's the fundamental difference between our species. Your species flourishes in harmony, ours in struggle. When you were faced against advisory stronger than yours, you were hard pressed to simply cope with the sheer challenge it presented. Contrast us humans. When our opponent turned out to be the entire world, we took upon ourselves to relocate here, to turn what was few shacks and farms into a great nation.
Do not take me wrong. We are not superior race. We have been, to be honest, in decline for last 3 millennial. Our numbers are barely holding up. Each and every disaster brings us one step closer to extinction. That is one reason I seek friendship between our nations. To save my species. We can't keep living here. One more asteroid and we are done for. We need to relocate to the planet as soon as possible, but we need to do it so that we don't need to fear our neighbors."
Luna, despite trying to be understanding and seeking friendship, did not like the idea. It was one thing to hand areas to humans. It was one thing to have the entire human population to live practically next door. There was also the fact that his description sounded too much like they were creatures of disharmony, much like Discord. She wasn't sure if she could stomach the idea, even if she hated herself for thinking like that. It reminded her too much her succumb to dark magic thousand years ago.
However, she had also seen human the human faces first time the stood under the sky without their suits. That expression of wonder and joy. Especially under the night sky, when they could see the moon. Even if ponies no longer feared the night, they didn't embrace it like humans did. To them, night was not time of nightmares and misfortune, but time of action, time when their protective home was on the sky, looking down on them. Time when the scorching sun and it's cursed energies could not hurt them, even if thanks to The Zone days were equally safe for them.
Funny how a species that once tried to kill her, now embraced her domain more than her own species.
"I hope your species can once live without The Zone. Being confined to small area is not really feasible and poses a risk for your kind. Even if I can maintain The Zone, there is no telling if radical group of unicorns would try to unravel the magic that upholds it."
"Yes. However, The Zone is better than nothing. We can grow our own food, food that poses no risk for us. You learned the hard way that one." The First Citizen pointed accusingly. Luna shuddered. They had tried to feed human prisoners pony grown food, only for them to grow sick and suffer a painful death. Most of the prisoners died thanks to that. They had later switched to raiding human supply convoys for food. Not efficient, but it was far more ponine, or humane depending of point of view, to do than force them to eat poisonous food. Human food, when fed to ponies, simply tasted bland. As it did currently, Luna Aeternal didn't have any non-human food on it.
"May I ask you of something?" The First Citizen spoke up. Luna nodded to him.
"How come ponies consider you the 'weaker' of Royal Princesses, despite the fact that you move the stars?"
"I do not understand your question? Celestia moves the sun. I move the moon and the stars. Clearly the sun is bigger and more difficult object to move, so it is natural that she is thought as the stronger one."
"Yes, but aren't the stars just another suns, only millions of light years away? I mean, it would sound to me that you hold greater power by simply being able to move them over such great distances."
"Oh, it seems you have wrong understanding of my magic. It's a quote different than simply moving them. It would be more correct that I adjust the planet, rather than the sun. Tilting the planet degree or two to one direction can bring entire new set of stars to the skies. Usually, I just adjust when their light arrives so that the order they appear on the sky changes." Luna said happily. Most ponies weren't interested on how the magic worked and she didn't miss that The First Citizen had assumed she was more powerful than her sister.
"I see... well, not really. Our scientist have been working on understanding the magic for 3 000 years and best they got is 'stuff happens because magic'. It is clearly not meant for us. There is also how you move the moon. We do detect increased magical energies on the moon when we move over the night sky. However, as far as we know, we should also be visible during the day yet... somehow we never are. We rarely, if ever, see day time Equesteria from here."
"Yes, you see, part of my duty is to keep the moon on the night sky. So each night I adjust it's orbit, moving it to it's intended position. You might have already noticed that, unlike in your pre-Cataclysm world, our solar system is centered around our planet, not around the sun. That's why us Royal Princesses are needed, to maintain the order of the solar system. In the past it took thousands of unicorns, who trained for their entire life, to do so." At this point The First Citizens jaw hit the floor and his fork dropped down. He put his head on his hands, seemingly shaken by some realization.
"What is wrong? Did I say something?"
"I... I just realized... If we had killed you... We might have caused the entire solar system to collapse. With nobody to regulate the moon and the sun, who knows what might have happened..." At this point Luna realized what he meant. She was even more glad she had witnessed the event that allowed her to create The Zone. If she and Celestia had been killed... she didn't even want to think of the consequences. "This is something big. I need to think about this. I need to inform people in the government, but I can't let the public know, not yet. This would cause chaos. Reich und Gott, this would be perfect against 'Humanity First'..." The First Citizen muttered to himself, thinking on how to react to these news. Then he seemed to remember something and turned back to Princess Luna.
"By the way, would you know anything about sudden decrease of background magical radiation here on the moon? It happened about 14 years ago. For 1 000 years, we had a steady amount of background magic. it's currently theorized that it is what caused our bodies to reach positively to your magic." Luna froze, not sure what to say. Sure, I know. I was metaphysically trapped in the moon for 1 000 years after trying to plunge the world under an eternal night by blocking the sun. Did I mention I was batshit insane and evil during this time and I was only released 12 years ago? "However, 12 years ago there was sudden drop in it. We are not sure, but there was apparently something happening on the surface during that time?"
"I am not sure. I would need to consult Royal Archives to be sure." She lied. The First Citizen seemed skeptical, but dropped the matter. Rest of the lunch was carried out in silence, with occasional idle chit-chat about the food and non-important stuff.
After the lunch, there was a scheduled press conference for both of them. They were supposed to meet the representatives of human media, or at least those who had managed to gain permit to attend to the conference. She could only hope that nothing bad happened during the event.
----------------------------------
Canterlot Royal Castle Throne Room
"Princess Celestia?" Captain Trixie Lulamoon (HERO OF EQUESTERIA!) approached Princess who was holding a court at the moment.
"What is it captain?" Celestia asked, slightly annoyed by the sudden interruption.
"There is something going on in the human embassy. I need a permission to take a squad to investigate it." Trixie had gained a lot of confidence since joining The Royal Guard and was good way towards gaining the rank of general. Her own insecurities, however, prevent her from gaining the rank.
"Excuse my little ponies, there is something I must take care of. I will be back soon." There were mutters of discontent, but most of the ponies accepted the delay. Celestia took Trixie to an empty hallway.
"What do you mean there is something going on?" Celestia asked, suddenly a lot more serious. When humans did something without informing them, it would turn in to a matter of national security.
"I couldn't see it clearly, but I think they dragged a pony and a human there. Both seemed to be captured recently. I mean captured, they seemed to have been detained trough force. I didn't recognize the group that took them in. They lacked any distinctive markings. Furthermore, a quick roll call revealed that we are missing one guard. Private Jagged Dagger is missing. Furthermore, when I visited one the pubs, they said that one of the humans, Katherine Fast, had not been seen since yesterday. Normally she would be visiting the pub."
"Maybe she went somewhere else?" Celestia offered, but she too was starting to get worried. This was not normal human behavior. Trixie, however, shook her head.
"That would mean that she would have left Canterlot. Talking with her colleagues revealed that she didn't have permission to leave. There is only one pub in Canterlot that offers human drinks. She must have been the other prisoner."
"What do we know about these two?"
"Private Jagged Dagger lost her family during the war. They were in Cloudsdale when it was hit, his father died there. His mother was later in volunteer corps in Baltimare and was killed during the battle. He joined after that, served troughout the war. Was at one point in my unit. On personal opinion, I would have discharged him long time ago, but he had friends in command chain. Seems stable on the surface, but has problems.
As for the human, I do not know. Some say she is a member of anti-pony organization, however, what little information I got contradicts with that. Seems to be friendly with nearly everyone on Canterlot. Regular at Swinging Cup, the pub I mentioned earlier. Knows everyone there."
Celestia tough on the matter. On one hoof, Embassies were technically part of the land they represented. On the other hoof, this seemed too fishy to be passed on. Also, Captain Lulamoon (HERO OF EQUESTRIA!) had a knack on catching human dirty work, even during the war.
"Very well. You have my permission. However, try to keep your distance. I do not want anything go wrong with the humans right now, especially since my sister is visiting them."
"Yes Your Highness!" Trixie saluted and trotted to take care of her new assignment. Celestia returned to the throne room and apologized for the inconvenience. She hoped that for once, Captain Lulamoon (HERO OF EQUESTRIA!) was wrong.
Twilight jumped off the mag-lev vehicle and hugged the ground. The sweet, sweet solid ground. Next to her Aegis Armor was hard pressed not to do the same. Matheus just shook his head, ponies and their weird customs. The station was much like the station back in District 1, except this one was build on the side of a cavern wall. Their mag-lev had first flow inside, before being mechanically moved to the station itself. However, just as they were about to leave the station they were stopped by a group of security officers.
"Excuse me, but I need to scan you all. Possible magical contamination is not allowed on the district." Twilight raised her eyebrow at this, but remained silent.
"They were scanned at District 1 already. Besides, if they would have magical weaponry on them, I would have died to radiation already." Matheus said taking position between the security and ponies.
"Orders are orders, Sir. I understand what you say, but I do not wish that should something happen, it would happen because I didn't do my duty." Officer replied to Matheus, looking apologetic.
"It is OK, I do not mind. They are just doing their duty, right?" Twilight said, hoping to defuse the situation.
"Thank you for your understanding. Please, this way. This will only take few minutes." They were taken to a side room, with smaller room next to it. Trough a class they could see a strange machine inside the smaller room.
"Please step inside the scanner and we will take care of it all."
"Alright, I..." Twilight started to move towards the door, before being stopped by Aegis Armor.
"I object to this, Miss Sparkle. At least let me do this first, just to make sure it's safe." He said with determined face.
"Are you suggesting we would do something to an emissary of a foreign nation?" one the officers said with clear irritation.
"What I am suggesting that this a machine we have never seen before and which function is unknown to us beyond what you claim. I am not taking chances here. I was told to protect Miss Sparkle, and by Goddesses that is what I'm going to do." Aegis Armor replied with his own irritation. Two seemed to try to stare each other down, until Matheus stood between them.
"Alright, settle down, it's safe. How about this, I take the scan first, then you and finally Miss Sparkle? That way you can see it's safe."
"That sounds fine!" Twilight said before Aegis Armor could object, hoping that the other would get the hint. She didn't want any sort of incident while they were there. Matheus nodded and walked inside the room. He then moved inside the machine. On the screens of the first room, his skeleton could be seen. Twilight couldn't help but be curious, as it was the first time she could see something like this.
"Alright, you OK there?" The security officer from earlier said to a mic.
"Everything is OK here." Came Matheus reply trough the speakers.
"Begin scan. Scanning for anomalies." Screen turned into green color "Clean. Scanning for magical energies" Screen turned to red this time. "Clean. Scanning for BNC traces." Screen turned to blue. "Clean. All scans show clean, you're OK to leave. Next one, please." Aegis Armor walked inside the machine this time, as Matheus walked back to the room with Twilight and security officers. Aegis Armors skeleton appeared on the screen.
"Can you hear us?"
"Yes."
"Good. Begin scan. Scanning for anomalies." Screen turned into green color "Clean. Scanning for magical energies" Screen turned to red this time, but his armor was highlighted with faint blue glow. "Hmm, your armor gives of slight magical radiation. Please stay put while we measure it." A counter appeared on the screen, with numbers chancing on it, before staying on 12-15 range. "Minimal amount, I guess it's to keep it clean? Shouldn't be harmful. Background radiation used to be worse than that. Alright, next BNC scan." Screen turned to blue. "Clean. Alright, you may return here. Everything seems okay."
Then it was Twilights turn. She walked inside the room and the machine. Inside the machine there were two pieces that run for whole length of the machine.
"Can you hear us?" A voice came through a speaker.
"Yes,"
"Begin scan. Scanning for anomalies." Two tubes moved up and down, bathing her in green light. "Clean. Scanning for magical energies" This time she was bathed in red light. "Detecting magical energies around the horn. Seems non-threatening, but I must ask you to keep use of magic to minimum. Scanning for BNC traces." Then it was blue. "Clean, you're OK to leave." Twilight stood out of the machine and returned to the room. Officers looked relieved that there was nothing major to worry about. "Alright, I we need to inform the command of our scans, but you are clean to leave, for now." The officer in charge gave a quick salute before leaving for other duties. Rest of the squad took them to the doors of the station.
"Well, now that we got that out of the way, I guess..." Something bleeped in his pocket and he took out his PDA. She scowled upon reading it. "Looks like The First Citizen and Princess have decided to retire for a lunch." He pressed few buttons on the machine. After a while machine bleeped again. "Alright, if you wish we may return to District 1 or we can have a lunch here. I got permissions from both The First Citizen and Princess Luna."
Twilight gave thought to this. On the other hoof, she was supposed to accompany Princess. On the other hoof, she got a permission to leave and she was interested in seeing the district.
"Let's have a lunch here, perhaps you can recommend a good place?" Twilight decided. This was an opportunity she couldn't pass up.
"Hmm, Terra's Cuisine is one the best, but also very expensive. Then again, we are paying this visit from the states pocket, so money isn't a problem." That was one advantage of doing a state visit. Near unlimited money to spend on souvenirs. Rarity would have been overjoyed. They took a smaller mag-lev vehicle, with Matheus explaining that it was restricted to 40 km/h speeds and would only follow certain lanes unless overridden by the security. Indeed, the trip was much more smooth and less gut wrenching than the one earlier. Upon arriving at the restaurant, Twilight took a moment to look at the design of the building. It had some familiar feeling on it, with white marble pillars and marble floor. It reminded her of ancient pony ruins. However, there was distinct 'human' feeling on the place. Upon entering and taking a seat, a waiter came up to them.
"Greetings, and welcome to Terra's Cuisine, the finest restaurant in all Luna Aeternal! What would you like to have?"
"I will take Spartans Nightmare, thank you, as well as a cup of coffee, please." Waiter clearly disapproved such choice, but remained silent and wrote the order down.
"And what would madam and... gentlestallion take?" Waiter guessed the term. Aegis Armor took a quick look around before realizing that the waiter referred to him.
"I do not know, there is so much and half of these foods have names I can't even pronounce!" Twilight said in near panic.
"Well, for the guard here I would say Spartans Nightmare. You aren't a real soldier if you can't stomach that stuff."
"May I remind sergeant that we are not a lowly pub and Spartans Nightmare is on the menu purely due to it's historic value to us?"
"And every year we take our recruits here and force feed them it! That stuff is horrible in taste, but Reich und Gott does it fill you with energy! So shut up. It's soldiers food and since you are the last place to serve it..." If a gaze could kill, Matheus would have dropped to the ground at this point.
Aegis Armor gave a thought at this. "Very well, I will take one these... Spartans Nightmares. However, a glass of water is enough for me." If human soldiers ate it, surely a member of Royal Guard could stomach it?
"As for the lady, bring her Scandinavian Vegetable Surprise. My guess is she would like that."
"Well, at least you aren't a hopeless case." The waiter said with hint of sarcasm before turning to Twilight. "Would you like to have some wine with it? We have an excellent selection, grown from our own private garden." He asked Twilight.
"Oh, I am not very good with alcohol, not even with little amounts. I just take water too, thank you."
"Shall I repeat your order? Two Spartans Nightmares as well as Scandinavian Vegetable Surprise, one cup of coffee and two glasses of water. Shall I bring you one or two bottles of water?"
"Bring two, just in case." Matheus answered for ponies. The waiter nodded and excused himself, before leaving for the kitchen.
"This place is hold in high regard because they still do the food in 'old way', with frying and all, instead of using pre-made paste and molding that. Here it's real vegetables. Oh, and it's the only place that still has real wine, not synthetic variant." Matheus said with a pride.
"You mean you don't eat real vegetables? But yesterday you had them!" Twilight asked in a shock.
"Well, not really. What we usually have is a paste that tastes like one. Then they add extra vitamins and other stuff that our bodies need to sustain themselves. I said we are omnivores, right? Because we have distinct lack of meat we are forced to use other means.
However, for the big events like this state visit, they go for a extra mile and use real vegetables and fruits."
Food was brought to them, with Matheus eyeing the little piece of sugar he was given.
"Hey, waiter, what's wrong with my sugar?" Holding up what seemed like a half of standard sugar cube. Twilight was confused on why Matheus seemed to be skeptical.
"Sir, it is a new type of sugar from the surface. It is based on pony plant that we do not have here on the moon. It is quite... strong in taste." Matheus took the little piece and threw it in his mouth.
"Hah, I bet this doesn't-" Matheus didn't get further before spitting the half-melted sugar to his hand and taking long sip of his coffee. "REICH UND GOTT! That was way too sweet! What the heck?"
"Sir, it is made from a plant called a 'sugar cane'. It appear that it is how ponies make their sugar. It is, indeed, quite strong in taste. Also, I would like to ask you to refrain from cursing, there are minors in this restaurant." The waiter said clearly trying to hold back a smile. Twilight was confused, sugar didn't usually give that sort of reaction. Next to her, Aegis Armor had failed to hold back a smile and was currently trying to hold back a laugh.
"Umm, can I have sugar too? I want to know how strong it can be, because as far as I know a sugar cube of that size shouldn't be that bad?"
"Very well madam, I shall bring you one of our own for comparison." The waiter said with a bow. Pretty soon Twilight was presented with two sugar cubes, one white and one grey. She started to have her hunch on why humans considered the pony sugar 'too sweet'. She reached with her hoof and picket the white sugar cube. Humans were starring intensely at her. She confirmed her suspicions, the sugar didn't taste any different, except slightly bland that came with all human grown food. Then she picked the grey sugar cube. She barely tasted any sweetness in it.
"Let me guess... based on your description earlier, I would say your sugar is made artificially?"
"What, you mean there some sort of 'natural' way to make sugar?" Matheus said with hint of skepticism in his voice. "But to answer your question, yes, sugar is made in the labs. How so?"
"Well, to me this sugar tastes normal and your sugar is pretty much bland as it can be. My guess is either the original recipe was bland or that it has degenerated over the time. On Equesteria, sugar is made from these plants, called sugar canes. They keep their natural taste. So your taste buds have come to be used to taste of artificial sugar and when presented with real sugar, it taste way too sweet for you." Twilight said, before realizing that what she said could be taken as an insult. She really hoped humans wouldn't take it so.
"Interesting... if we could mass produce this 'real' sugar, we could save thousands on packing and materials. It takes a lot less of this to make food than it takes our normal sugar..." The waiter mused. Good, they had not taken it as an insult. "Oh, excuse me, I shall leave you for you food. Sir, I will bring you a new sugar cube."
"That won't be needed, I don't usually drink my coffee with sugar. I just wondered why it was so white and small. Now we know." Matheus said with a wave of his hand. The waiter bowed and left them alone. Aegis Armor stared at his 'food', if you could call it. It looked closer like someone had somehow found a way to melt bunch of vegetables, then burned the following mix and then melted it again. Then solidified it and made it look like a steak. Aegis Armor took quick glance at Matheus who was cutting a piece for himself. Well, if he could eat it so could he too. He soon regretted it.
"Now I understand why it's called 'Nightmare'..." Aegis Armor muttered while taking a sip of water.
"Yup, but trust me, when you are running low on food supplies Spartans Nightmare is your best friend. It stays editable for a long time and in time of emergency, it can be used as a weapon too! My former sergeant once threw one those things at us, knocked me out for a whole cycle!" Matheus said way too happily.
Meanwhile Twilight was enjoying her own food, while watching two soldiers argue. Her choice had some carrots, potatoes, salad and apples on it with some strange sauce on top of them. Tasted good, however. Still, the idea that humans only knew artificial sugar, thinking it was real sugar was a disturbing thought. Once again, she couldn't help but pity humans. They had once controlled entire planet and had build a mighty civilization. Now, they were stuck on the moon, dancing on an edge of a sword, trying to prevent their own extinction. Twilight wondered what it would be if ponies would ever be in the same situation, a dying race driven from it's ancestral home? Could they hold out and try to rebuild their civilization, despite losing so much?
After the meal was eaten, Matheus took them to a market plaza, a large open area full of different shops, malls, small food stands, everything. It reminded Twilight of Manehattan, if buildings in Manehattan had towered in kilometers and had been build from steel and concrete and colored black. Which one again brought painful memories of losing her parents. Nobody had really truly understood death until The War, so far death was something you prepared for. With The War, death became something that came without a warning. One day you had husband. Next day you didn't. One day you had two proud parents. Next day you didn't. One day you had cheerful foal playing on the front lawn. Next day you didn't have anything. One moment ponies were alive, next they weren't.
it was one of the reasons why humans were sometimes referred as "Messengers of Death". When humans fought, they brought their message of death to all.
She still held small resentment towards humans for all the death they had caused.
Matheus toured them through the area, showing different kind of places, from small pubs to grand restaurants, to small family owned shops to shopping malls. After a while, Matheus took them to a shop that dealt in electronics.
"Greetings, how..." the man behind the counter started to say before seeing who had entered the shop. "Get out. I don't serve your kind."
"Oi, man, she is an official representative of Kingdom of Equesteria. Show some respect."
"I don't care if that thing was God himself, I want it out. Those damn things are nothing but trouble!"
"You want me to beat you up!? I can do that too!" Matheus answered in anger.
"You do that and I will call the security to fry your ass!" The man shouted once again, this time pulling a bat from under his counter. "Now get out of my store!"
"Come on, we can go somewhere else, it's nothing important...." Twilight said while trying to pull now agitated human out of the ship. Aegis Armor was pushing from the front. Fortunately, Matheus relented and walked out of the shop with them.
"What was his problem?" Aegis Armor muttered before catching himself. Twilight gave him a sharp glare.
"Despite the peace, there are still those who want nothing else than to wipe out every non-human out. Thankfully, they are in minority at the moment. Let's try some other shop." Next shop was much more friendly. The salesman decided to give them a discount, in exchange that he could get a picture of ponies. Twilight didn't really get the idea, but she agreed to it. She decided to buy a low-end PDA and a special solar powered charger for it. It had cost her quite a lot, almost all her money she had brought with himself, but with Matheus and Aegis Armor chipping in for a sign of goodwill, she managed to have enough for it.
Rest of the evening was spend watching humans going on their business, while Matheus explained how to use PDA and how to download archives. Some of the archives were behind restrictions, so Twilight left those out. Twilight noted that human daily life was not really that different from ponies. They went to work, went to shopping, met with their friends and so forth. Suddenly, an owner of the cafe they were sitting at the moment shouted.
"Hey look! It's the press conference! The First Citizen and Princess whatshername are on the TV!" Everyone in the cafe turned towards the large TV on the wall, while the owner increased the volume.
"Greetings fellow citizen." The First Citizen spoke. "It is our pleasure to appear before, alongside Princess Luna of Kingdom of Equesteria, to answer any questions you might have. Please note, that some questions will be ignored and we will not allow any hostilities on this room. This is a civilized meeting, not a network forum. Now, you may ask your questions." Several shouts and waving of hand followed, with eventually The First Citizen pointed towards one of the reporters.
"Princess Luna, there has been increased demand to increase the size of The Zone. With the territories ceded to The Human Refuge, why was not the entire area turned into The Zone?" Twilight winced. It was exactly a type of question both sides wanted to avoid.
"Creating and increasing the size of The Zone is not an easy task. A great care must be taken to make sure that The Zone can maintain itself without outside interference. Trying to rush the process can cause the entire Zone to collapse. That is something we wish to avoid. We have steadily grown The Zone these past years, however, we are reaching a point where growth is too dangerous. That is why we are looking into alternative means. Next question, please."
"The First Citizen, there are rumors that Kingdom of Equestria wishes to place generals Ravensaw, Tarnheiser, Golgata and numerous others on trial for war crimes. Is this true?" What, did the press actively seek something to cause a war?
"So far Kingdom of Equestria has not made any demands for mentioned people. They have expressed interest in placing war criminals on trial, however they have not pursued the matter. Next question."
"Princess Luna, you are co-ruler of Kingdom of Equestria. However, both of you claim a title of princess. Why is that?"
"This is something that precedes us. In the law of Equestria, 'a queen' is the consort of 'a king'. As there is no king, there can be no queen. That is why our title is princess. Next question, please"
"Princess Luna, will Kingdom of Equestria continue it's attempts to push back Diamond Dog Protectorate from it's new territories?"
"Those territories are originally part of Equestria and were never given to Diamond Dog Protectorate. We are also committed to solving this situation through diplomatic means. Ambassador Fahrenheit has been helpful in this matter and we expect that the solution can be found soon. Next question, please."
This went on for a two hours, with both of the answering questions presented to them. Aegis Armor was growing bored when a new shout was heard.
"Laila! WATCH OUT!"
*THUMP*
"Whoa!" Aegis Armor shouted as the chair was suddenly taken from under him. Twilight and Matheus rose up to see what happened. On the ground, Aegis Armor was laying down, trying to get his bearings. A short distance away, a human girl was holding her head. It didn't take long for two of them to understand what had happened, especially when a group of kids came running for them.
"We are really sorry sir! Please don't punish her, we were just playing!" Apparent leader of the group spoke in rapid speed.
"It's okay, just... look where you are going next time." Aegis Armor muttered as he rose to his hooves. Matheus just shook his head at the display.
"Shouldn't you kids be at the school at this time?" He asked the children.
"Huh? It's past 7:00! Schools over." The leader said with confusion. Matheus looked in to his watch and gave a whistle.
"Wow, it really is. It's going to be at least 21:00 before we are back at District 1. Alright, let's head back then." Twilight nodded and stood up, tucking her new PDA in her saddlebag. She doubted that she would have much sleep this night, there was so much history to be learn. It was a amazing what humans had accomplished. Empires that controlled entire continents before they even figured out trains. Their hazardous race to space. They defiance in front forces of nature, refusing to bow down to nature. How they turned their enemies and competitors into allies and pets. Human history was a history how humanity defied the fate that set on it by the world and how they had decided to create their own fate.
Upon returning to the District 1, Matheus took Twilight and Aegis Armor to their quarters, where Princess Luna was already waiting for them.
"Hello my little ponies, did you have a nice day? I hope you didn't cause any troubles for sergeant."
"No milady. There we no problems." Matheus said with a salute.
"Yeah, it was really interesting day. Sergeant Smith was been really helpful. How did the talks go? "
"We reached limited agreement on some matters, yet some are still disputed. We will meet again and talk about them, but we are reached a start."
"Excuse me, but if you no longer require my services, I need to attend to my other duties." Matheus said while standing in attention.
"Oh, sorry, yes you may leave." Luna said. Matheus saluted and left the room.
"I need you to come with me for tomorrows meetings. We are going to discuss of possible war reparations and I need your calculation skills for it." Luna said to Twilight after Matheus had left.
"War reparations? Is that what they demand now?" Twilight asked. That was pushing it too far. They already demanded that The Zone was to be expanded, now war reparations for a war they started?
"It's what we demand and they have, at least for now, agreed." Luna said chastised. Twilight dropped her head in shame, she had assumed that humans were demanding something right away before asking for more details. "But, that is for tomorrow. Why don't you tell me about your day?" Luna said with a smile and Twilight started to tell her.
-----------------------------------------
Luna Aeternal District 20 WMD Containment Facility, "The Vault"
For private Kutzkov it was another boring day in The Vault. Who would want to steal these weapons, knowing that only use they could have was against massive asteroids or against enemies of mankind? Yet, here he was, standing, doing the most boring duty on all Luna Aeternal. All because he had gone and dated general Ravensaw daughter. That man was way too overprotective of her. Besides, how cliche was getting such duty for such reasons? Life wasn't fair. Suddenly, the door opened.
"General Tarnheiser!" He saluted quickly, as did his comrade. "I wasn't informed that you would be visiting us!"
"At ease men. I'm here on surprise inspection. We got garbled message from the surface, no idea what it meant, but apparently something about WMDs. Could have been order to prepare them, could have been a warning."
"Everything is OK here Sir. All weapons are in de-activated state and nobody has tried to enter The Vault." General nodded at this.
"Good, then we just-" *BANG* one the guards dropped to floor, clutching his stomach. Kutzkov tried to pull his weapon to bear against the shooter. He wasn't fast enough and felt something pierce his armor and ripping his stomach open. He fell to the ground.
"Now, general, if you were so kind as to open the door for us." Came a voice.
"Was killing them necessary?" Generals voice answered.
"We do what we must. Do not concern yourself with their deaths. They will serve the greater purpose." Kutzkov tried to see the person who had shot him. One of generals bodyguards was holding a pistol. Kutzkov was losing consciousnesses rapidly.
"What about my family?"
"Already taken care of, no need to concern yourself general."
"Bastards..." Kutzkov tried to reach for his service pistol, only to get kicked in the stomach, in the same place as he had been shot. Pain shot through his body.
"Looks like this one still has some fight in him. Not for a long." Kutzkov felt his helmet being removed and a cold steel being pressed against his head.
One more shot, and Kutzkov fell into eternal sleep.
-----------------------------------------
Ponyville Outskirts
"Thank you for taking me out Spike." Rarity said with a smile, giving a small snuggle to the dragon walking next to her. Spike just waved his hand, an old habit.
"No need to thank me Rarity, thank you for coming. It was really fun." He had originally planned to take Rarity to sightseeing, but had adjusted his plans to take her to a small club that still played classical music. Rarity had been overjoyed. Since losing her sight during The War, she had gained much more interest in music, mainly in classical. She didn't really care who's music it was, pony, human, griffin, as long as it was music. She particularly liked the ancient human songs, they had certain pompousness in them she liked. Contrast with pony music, that tended towards harmony and flow, human music sounded like it tried to announce 'Here we are, we'll never give up!'.
They had decided to walk back to Carousel Boutique, since the evening weather was clear, rare event but thankfully not as rare as before. Rainbow Dash had pushed every pegasus in Equesteria to pull double shifts recently, saying that "either they bring the weather back under control, or die trying". She had nearly exhausted herself until Fluttershy had berated her for nearly abandoning Scootaloo.
"Hmm, do you hear something Spike? Or see?" Rarity suddenly asked. Spike too a look around, He didn't hear anything, but he did see something. A small human transport was heading towards Everfree forest.
"That's strange. What business could humans have in Everfree forest at this hour?"
"I don't know, did it have any markings?"
"No, that's the weirdest part. Normally they have some sort of markings, but this one didn't."
"Please tell me it at least wasn't colored in that ugly black?" Rarity said, small flicker of hope in her voice.
"Well, can't say for sure, but it appears their color spectrum has gone from 'Black' to 'black and grey'". Rarity shook her head on this, humans and their horrible fashion sense. They walked for little while until they were stopped by sudden appearance of Royal Guards.
"Halt, did you see a human transport moving near here?"
"Trixie? Is that you?" Rarity said when she recognized the voice.
"Oh, hi Rarity, didn't recognize you at first. New glasses?" Now days Rarity wore black glasses to hide her eyes. Trixie could never understand how Rarity managed to maintain fashionable appearance, or even keep her shop running. She suspected that Rarity's sister and the dragon she was with had something to do with it.
"Yes, thank you. Spike helped me to pick them up. He is such a sweetie when he wants to be." Spike turned to red at this point.
"Ahem, anyway, as for humans you asked, we saw a transport flying towards Everfree forest. No markings at all." Spike said, hoping to prevent the teasing he could see was coming.
"That's them! All guards, move out. Find out where they went and why! Move it!" Trixie shouted. Guards dispersed to find the humans. Spike was left with Rarity (who was looking into wrong direction), confused for what was going. Twilight was going with Princess Luna to visit humans and now Trixie was hunting down suspicious human transport?
"I wonder what's going on..." Spike said.
"I hope that nothing wrong... There is too much that could go wrong at this time..." Rarity said with slight hint of fear. Spike put his hand on her shoulder, trying to reassure her.
"Well, I'm sure it's just a small things, perhaps they are doing an exercise? Come on, let's get you home."
"ATTENTION LUNA AETERNAL. WE HAVE CLASS 2 EMERGENCY. LUNA AETERNAL IS NOW IN DEFCON 3. ALL DISTRICTS ARE UNDER A LOCK DOWN. PLEASE REMAIN CALM AND DO NOT LEAVE YOUR HOMES. REPEAT. WE HAVE CLASS 2 EMERGENCY. LUNA AETERNAL IS NOW IN DEFCON 3. ALL DISTRICTS ARE UNDER A LOCK DOWN. PLEASE REMAIN CALM AND DO NOT LEAVE YOUR HOMES. "
Twilight jumped out of her bed. Her room was suddenly bathed in a red light and in distance she could hear klaxons. A guard rushed inside her room.
"Miss Sparkle, are you alright?"
"Yes, what is going on?"
"It appears to be some a kind of emergency. Humans are going nuts outside, the security forces are moving and I swear I saw several members of military rushing in full combat gear." The guard said, just as a squad of humans rushed inside the room. The guard took position between Twilight and the security officers.
"Search the place! Don't leave anything untouched! FIND IT!" Officers exploded into action, opening doors and pulling stuff out of cabinets. In a few minutes whole room looked like it had been hit by a hurricane.
"Hey hey hey what are you doing? What is the meaning of this?" Twilight said, still not fully awake to process what was going around.
"Silence. This is a class 2 emergency. You are to remain here until otherwise told. Failure to comply will be met with lethal force." The closest officer said, while keeping his hands on his pistol. Twilight was just became even more confused.
"Sir! We got a PDA here!" The officer who had found the PDA showed it his leader.
"Take it to the station. Miss, can you tell us what is in this PDA?"
"Huh, uh, I just got it yesterday, it should only have some historical data on it, non-restricted stuff." Twilight said in a confused panic.
"Who did you buy it from?"
"I don't know! Sergeant Smith was with us when I bought it!"
"Who ‘us’? Who else was with you?"
"Private Aegis Armor, one of the Royal Guard! He was with me whole day!"
The leader turned away to address his men. "Found anything?"
"Nothing Sir." One of the men reported. Others seemed to have same result.
"Alright. Luz, Rosavier, you are to guard this place with your life. Do not allow anyone enter or leave without my permission!"
"SIR YES SIR!" One of the officers remained inside, while the other one took a position outside. Rest of them moved to their next target. All while half-awake Twilight was trying to piece together what the hay just happened. The guard seemed just as confused, but unlike Twilight, he had a goal he could concentrate on: protect Princess assistant. Finally Twilight started to be both mentally and physically awake and rose from her bed. The officer by the door got in to combat stance upon seeing this, with the guard following the suit and earning a pointed gun at himself.
"Please, everyone, calm down, we don't need to fight! What, what is going on?"
"I'm sorry miss, but I am not allowed to talk about it. Please remain where I can see you." The officer adjusted his aim slightly. Twilight jumped back to the bed and laid down. Better not to anger them. Something was clearly wrong. A strange warning, red lights and now panicking humans. However, after a while, nature made it's demands very clear.
"Umm, sir? I need to go to bathroom."
"Please do not move."
"It really urgent really. I rather not relieve myself here..." The officer remained silent for a moment before pressing a button that opened the door. At no point did he break the eye contact with ponies in the room.
"Luz, follow the purple one. She claims she need to visit the bathroom. I take the guard." Other officer stepped inside end gestured towards the bathroom. He was holding what looked like a big tube. Twilight remembered she had read about those, shotguns they were called. Humans had not used them in The War, due to their short range and poor accuracy. However, in Luna Aeternal where combat took place in closed quarters they were ideal weapons. She didn't know what they could do, but description of "hundreds of small metal pellets size of a grain" didn't promise anything good.
Twilight walked into the bathroom and the officer stood in the doorway, so that he could see both Twilight and the guard at the same time.
"Umm, do you really need to watch me? It's really making me nervous..."
"Protocols demand that in case of class 2 emergency or higher all personnel are to be monitored at all times."
"Umm, can you at least tell me what's class 2 emergency? Or defcon 3?"
"DEFCON 3 means we are under a imminent threat of war. Class 2 emergency means there is a district wide threat going on." Human said after a pause, apparently coming to conclusion that such information could be revealed to two prisoners.
A imminent threat of war? A district wide threat? But how? It had seemed like Luna Aeternal had the best possible security in the entire universe! Furthermore, humans had only one possible enemy they could start a war with: Equesteria. If humans believed there was an imminent threat of war, it meant that either Luna had done something or something had happened on the surface. Twilights thoughts started going in cycles and she started to panic. Were humans starting a war? Were they mobilizing? What had happened? How could this happen? Weren't they here to prevent the war?
She didn't even notice she had taken care of what she come to do, until the officer ordered her to hurry up. She finished herself and returned to the bed. The officer (Luz the other one had called him) returned to his post outside the door. Suddenly, Twilight realized something. She gesture the guard to come closer.
"Aren't there supposed be two of you? Captain and two guard with Princess, two with me?" She whispered.
"Aegis Armor went to get his relieve from Princess room. One of us is sleeping while others guard. Not the most efficient, but since we coul-"
"What are you talking there? Separate on this instance!" The officer yelled and raised his pistol. The guard jumped away, causing the officers aim to shift towards him.
After waiting for a tense hour, group of 6 human soldiers entered the room. They were easy to recognize to be soldiers, for the first of all they lacked big blue "SECURITY" paint. Second, they wore black armor and carried assault rifles.
"You two. Come with us." The man in front said. He carried 3 arrow symbol on his chest, marking him as a squad sergeant. Twilight got up and followed the soldiers, with the guard following her closely. Soldiers formed a circle around them. Twilight noticed they all had their weapons pointed towards them, even if they didn't actively aim at them. It was unsettling for her. They were brought in front of The First Citizen, who also wore full combat gear, except for face plate. Princess Luna and her guards were soon brought in.
"What is the meaning of this, The First Citizen?" Luna demanded as she entered the room.
"Shut up. Do you have them all?" The First Citizen snapped at Luna and turned to a man next to him.
"We are missing two ponies, Sir." He looked down on to his paper. "Private Aegis Armor and Captain Stonewall, Sir. Our monitors suffered... 'sudden' malfunction and we lost our sight of them."
"REICH UND GOTT! Princess. What is the meaning of this? Where are your guards!? WHERE IS THE AMSB!?" The First Citizen shouted at Princess Luna.
"I have no idea and unless you explain to me what is going on, I will take this as an act of war and respond accordingly!" Twilight recoiled at the threat. Starting a war with humans, here and now? What was Princess thinking? Luckily, The First Citizen relented to the treat. He didn't want to take on Princess in closed quarters.
"At 07:54, two guards were found at The Vault. Both had been shot. Furthermore, an Anti-Mater Suitcase Bomb was removed from The Vault, as well as components needed to make it armed. However, whoever did it didn't take extra batteries with him. Logs show that door was opened by general Tarnheiser at 01:22. We have 17 hours before the containment field fails and the weapon detonates. It will create an explosion big enough to destroy an entire district!"
"That... that is horrible! But what does this have to do with us?"
"06:03 a human was seen on the monitor speaking a pony. This was seen happening on a restricted area. The human handed something to that pony. A security team was dispatched to secure them but we lost contact with them. At 08:25 we found their remains. Security does not fear full body covers. Somehow, they had been killed... by magic." The First Citizen face turned to stone and he took faceplace offered to him and place it on. His voice also gained a sharp tone. "That means, someone smuggled magical weapons to our capital. A direct violation of the agreement."
"Are you blaming us on this? We have no knowledge what is going on! Why would we want to do something like this, during a critical time like this?"
"I have no idea and I don't care. As of now, you are considered Prisoners Of War, Do not attempt to escape or harm the guards, Any attempt to use magic, no matter for what purpose, is considered a hostile action and will be met with lethal force. All guards are armed with live bullets. I believe you are already familiar with them?"
Luna wanted to smack The First Citizen, but also understood what he was doing. If what he had said was true, Luna and her entourage were natural suspects. He was already taking a risk meeting them like this. However, hearing that a powerful weapons had been stolen worried her. She gathered from it's name and description that this 'Anti-Matter' bomb was capable to massive destruction and was small enough to be carried in a saddlebag. That meant it could be hidden anywhere. If one of her guards had taken it and it would detonate...
There would be no way she could convince humans that this was not planned.
That guard had to be found, they had no way of knowing didn't know who was behind the action. Guards armors were enchanted to make them look identical. If humans couldn't recognize him as Captain Stonewall... that left Aegis Armor, only other missing pony. But how? Aegis Armor didn't seem to hate humans. He was friendly with the ambassador and her people. This whole situation made no sense.
Why would a human give such weapon to pony... and not make it harmless. Furthermore, general Tarnheiser was the one who opened the storage facility... meaning it was through him that the guard had gained the weapon. Yet, Tarnheiser was one of the war criminals Equestria wanted.
All of this was speculation and none of it made sense, but it was the only logical thing she could think. Too many why's. And she couldn't do anything except wait until humans found something.
Canterlot Royal Castle Throne Room T-16 hours until detonation
Ambassador Fahrenheit was nervous when she walked into the room. Princess Celestia had suddenly called her to “discuss matters of extreme importance”. The fact that she had asked her to attend alone made her even more nervous. She stopped before the throne where Celestia sat and bowed.
“Your Highness, you wished to see me?”
“Everyone else. Leave.” Celestia's voice was chilly and Fahrenheit had feeling she was in a deep trouble. Guards seemed to hesitate, but eventually left.
“Now. Ambassador, care to explain us few things?” Celestia's gaze was like a drill.
“I... I am not aware of what you mean?”
“We found two corpses yesterday. One human. One pony. Someone had tried to hide them in Everfree forest, clearly hoping that monsters there would take care of the bodies. Funny thing is, they both had been tortured before being killed.”
“Reich und Gott, that is horrible. Do you wish our assistance in guarding the castle?” Reich und Gott, please don't those two corpses be the same ones she had ordered to be disposed. Who had screwed up? What would happen? What should she say? Why didn't they burn the bodies before disposing them? No wait, the last one had an answer. They didn't have facilities to do that.
“That... won't be necessary, ambassador. We have already identified the culprit.”
“Then who is it, your Highness?”
“Your guards. Both had been executed by a standard service pistol. Clean shots to back of their heads.” Celestia stare went from “icy” to “absolute zero point”,
“Explain. You have 30 seconds.”
Fahrenheit gulped. The worst case scenario had happened. They had already discussed about this they had come to a conclusion on how to act.
“There is an explanation to all of this.” She tried to buy some time.
“20 seconds.” Celestia was not selling it.
“We got traitors in our ranks. Someone is trying to steal a WMD and detonate it and blame it on the ponies!" Fahrenheit blurted. That made Celestia nearly lose her balance from a shock.
"A WMD? You mean those awful 'weapons of mass destruction'? I thought they were under a lock and key, never to be used again!" Celestia had been briefed of WMDs after the war. Luckily, humans had long time ago build a containment facility to guard them, since they were considered way too powerful to be even on stand-by. All weapons were supposed to be deactivated and placed in a high security facility!
"Yes, but it appears someone is pulling strings behind the scenes. We do not know who. We can't contact Luna Aeternal due to the solar storm. It scrambles our communications. We tried to get a message to them, but we don't know did they get it or not."
"By the Faust... If the solar storm were to disappear, would it help!?"
"Perhaps, if the enemy hasn't moved yet. If we can have ISA to look into the matter, check everything, we could act fast before the enemy can do anything. On the other hand, if you can give us a permission I can have my people look in to the matter with the help of Royal Guard. This is a matter national security, to both of us! If these terrorist success, what do you think will happen to Princess Luna?"
"Then get moving. You have full authority to do whatever it is necessary to do. I will attend to the sun. I think I can calm it down in about 10 hours. It is better than nothing. Captain Lulamoon!" Trixie trotted inside and gave a sharp glare to the ambassador before saluting Princess. "Assist the ambassador in everything she says. We have a national crisis in our hands. Obey every command. I will take personal responsibility for everything!"
Trixie was about to protest, when she saw panicked face on both Princess and the ambassador. Something big was happening. Something that made both of them panic. It couldn't be good.
"Yes Your Highness. What do you need ambassador?"
"I need all details you can get on Private Jagged Dagger, where was, who he talked, fuck, give me when last visited the bathroom. Everything you can. Arrest everyone associated with him past 3 months. My men will assist you and provide firepower in case they try to resist."
Humans assisting to provide firepower?
This wasn't a "something big going down"-level crisis.
This was a "shit hitting the windmill"-level crisis.
Luna Aeternal Human Capital District 1 T-12 hours until detonation
5 hours had passed since the entire incident had started and nobody was anywhere closer to knowing the truth, or even stopping the terrorist. Princess Luna had finally managed to convince the humans that they no part in this, but they were still under guard. Humans weren't taking any chances. They had been moved to observation room next to human war room. 10 human soldiers were watching them, each one in full gear and armed with shotguns.
"SIR! We found them! Two ponies plus four humans in District 5!" One operator shouted. The First Citizen cursed.
"Reich und Gott, that's civilian district! Can we get them?"
"No sir, We have lost contact with The District Control Center. Nobody is answering us. Security is in chaos there. Someone detonated one of them 'magic grenades' in their HQ. They say there are total six ponies running around, which doesn't make sense. We got five here and two missing. Someone has changed the override codes and whole place is under the lock down."
"Damn it, we need to force our way in. How soon can we get there?" General Ruvashenko said.
"Unknown, estimate is at least 5 hours, assuming they haven't done the internal lock down. The external lock down is in effect. There is no docking bay in District 5 so we can't our way trough there. Only way in are the mag-lev tunnels."
"REICH UND GOTT! Why is this happening now!?"
"Sir! We lost camera feed from District 5!" Another operator spoke up. "Last feed showed that the internal lock down has been activated!"
"That means they have the control of The District Control Center. That just made estimate to get in jump to 20 hours. Every bulkhead will be sealed now. How the fuck could they pull this up? It takes at least 100 soldiers to just to take control of the place. We must have traitors in our mist. Take us to DEFCON 2, lethal force is authorized. Isolate District 5 from The Network!" General Ravensaw ordered. He, alongside general Ruvashenko had taken charge of the war room.
"Do we have any troops we can contact there? How about the AMSB? Do we have confirmation it's there?"
"No sir, we do not have any readings."
"Reich und Gott, this could all be a diversion and the real bomb could be anywhere! Where did the exchange take place?" General Ruvashenko asked.
"District 6. I have my men going through that place right now." General Ravensaw answered him.
"Have them go trough all accompanying Districts too! Seal the place up!" The First Citizen shouted. The war room was in chaos, with different officers trying to get their orders trough, everyone panicking and trying to figure out what to do and what was going on. It was a national crisis on a scale that had been not seen since The Second Human Civil War. Not even during The War had Luna Aeternal ever been under a direct threat. Meanwhile, Luna came up an idea that would helpfully aid in the situation.
"We can get in."
"What?" Both generals and The First Citizen said as they turned towards Luna.
"We can use our magic to teleport in." Luna answered them.
"Absolutely not, you are-" General Ravensaw started, before being cut off by general Ruvashenko.
"Actually that is a good idea. We can't get in before the bomb detonates itself, but she can. I wonder... I need volunteers for a dangerous experiment!"
"What are you planning?" The First Citizen asked.
"She will take herself and our troops inside. While inside, they will re-establish the contact with us. Princess, how far can you teleport?"
"It's unknown territory, so not far. There is chance of 'telekill', being re-materialized inside a solid structure. It's not a pretty sight." Princess explained.
"What about the magic itself? Will your men be able to take it?" Twilight asked. They were on the moon, yes, bu direct contact with such magic was bound to do some damage to humans.
"We do not know. They will have full equipment as well as talismans. We can't take any chances. Do we have any volunteers!?" General Ruvashenko shouted once again.
"Sir! We got 10 volunteers ready to serve you!" Sergeant Smith said while stepping forward. Behind him, 10 soldiers saluted.
"Get next to the mag-lev locks of the District 5. Take Princess with you."
"I can offer my guards to help them, they should be able to fare the travel much more easily and perhaps they can soak up some magic, instead of letting it hit your men." Princess Luna said.
"Fine, we do not have much choices. Get in, get in contact and do not do anything suspicious or our men will terminate you."
Soldiers, both human and pony started to move. Twilight followed Princess, because she was afraid of being left alone and because she wanted to help too. They needed to prevent the disaster from happening. They could not allow these terrorist to restart the war.
Canterlot The human embassy Interrogation room T-11 hours until detonation
"TELL ME EVERYTHING!" Trixie shouted at the prisoner. Things had gone bad quickly. A large, underground, radical anti-human organization known as 'Ponies of the Apocalypse' had somehow managed to infiltrate the Equesterian government. Worst of all they were not alone. Few humans had been caught, members of 'Terra's Children'. Once humans had found about this they had gone batshit insane, demanding to know how a well known terrorist organization could have infiltrated them. Currently they were running a background check on every in the embassy. Half of the staff was under guard. The ambassador was currently in process of ripping her hair out due to frustration.
"Screw you human lover. We will return Equesteria to it's former glory." The yellow colored earth pony said. Trixie bucked him.
"Don't fuck with me! We can't afford a war! What do you think this will achieve!?" She demanded while standing above him.
"We will use these humans.. those idiots... promised to give us a weapon... a weapon to destroy their armies..." The stallion wheezed between breaths.
"YOU IDIOT! You are being played by them! They will use this as an excuse to restart the war!" Trixie couldn't belive this. It was already bad to think there were humans who wanted to restart the war, at least with them she could hate them. This? This was even worse. Ponies who wanted a war. Never before there had been such thing been presented before her. She wanted to go in to her room and fall asleep, pretend that nothing was happening. Just hide from the cruel world...
But she couldn't. Her fellow guards were counting on her. They trusted that their Great and Powerful captain, Hero of Equesteria, would solve the situation. She couldn't let them down. No, not when they had followed her to hell and back. She couldn't break their trust, not now when it was only thing keeping them together.
"Then... it just proves... that we can't... trust them..." Trixie had enough. She exited the room. Guards who served her were waiting outside.
"Did he say anything?" Private Long Spear said. "Did my brother tell us anything?"
Trixies silence was all they needed to know. Guards looked dejected. Then she started to shake from anger.
"How could he... didn't he have enough during the war? WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT MORE WAR!?" Trixie shouted. Sharp Spear had been one of the most promising guard in her unit. She used to have great expectations of him, even expecting him to replace her in near future, allowing her to retire. To learn that he had betrayed them, conspired behind her back... No. She would not accept it. It was her failing that allowed them to do this. She should have seen it. She had been too focused on humans to see the threat from the inside. She would not allow these traitors do what they wanted.
"Let's move. There are more traitors we need to weed out." Trixie said in cold determination. "It's going to The Day of Reckoning for them." Guards simply nodded. They had never seen their captain act like this.
She would crack down on these traitors like a wrath of Goddess.
Luna Aeternal Human Capital District 5 Connection Tunnel T-10 hours until detonation
The trip was tense. Soldiers had equipped themselves with every known countermeasure know to them. Each one wore a full combat gear, making it hard to different between them. Only clue Twilight had who was sergeant Smith was his sergeant symbol on his chest. Nobody spoke a word, although Twilight could sense that the humans were more than nervous. They were about to be subjected to magic itself, something that would affect themselves directly. Even during the war such actions had been rare. Unicorns could rarely 'lock' inside the human suit, making most of the attacks against the suit itself. Now, they had just willing agreed to do something insane. Yet, it was necessary. Entire Luna Aeternal was in danger.
They arrived at the massive steel door, used to lock down the entire district in case of an emergency. Their mag-lev was a special military design and was able to dock against the wall, using powerful magnets to keep it stationary.
"Buckle up people, we do not know what is on the other side or what will happen to us. The best case scenario, nothing happens. The worst case, we all suffer painful death by melting." Matheus shouted. Not exactly the most reassuring speech in Twilights opinion.
"What's on the other side?" Luna asked the sergeant.
"Empty corridor that leads to mag-lev reception tunnel. It leads directly to the station proper. It's empty all the way in. The door is about 1 meter thick. There are total of 10 bulkheads, distance between each one is 20 meters. So I need you to take us about 210 meters inside, 220 to be safe. Tunnels is about the same width as this one." Matheus answered.
"Alright, I'm going to do it. Be ready." Luna's horn started to glow from magic. Royal Guards seemed to be OK, but humans visibly tensed. There was a bright flash and they were on the other side. Humans dropped to their knees, removed their faceplates and vomited. However, they seemed to be otherwise unharmed.
"Reich und Gott, that felt horrible..." One of the soldiers commented before cleaning himself and replacing his faceplate.
"Agreed, I hope I never have to do this again." Another said. Group started to move in silence towards the station.
"How far we need to go?" One the Royal Guard asked. They were less interested in saving the human colony than they were protecting Princess.
"At the current rate, we should arrive at the terminal in 15 minutes. From there, assuming that the elevators still work, it's 30 minutes to District Control Center. We need to take control of that place in order to contact the command. Move it people, we do not have much time!"
Luna Aeternal Human Capital District 5 Mag-Lev station T-9h 45m until detonation
"Alright people, get ready. We do not know what to expect." Matheus said as they approached the station. What worried Twilight at the moment was the utter silence. There was barely any sounds, even machinery seemed to have fallen silent. That was something you didn't want to hear in a place where such sounds meant that life support was working. 3 human soldiers quickly moved to station, spreading out.
"Clear."
"Clear."
"Clear."
"Squad. Move in." In quick and efficient method humans soldiers moved inside the station. Ponies quickly followed them.
"This is strange..." Twilight commented. "Shouldn't there be security here?"
"That is strange indeed. We can't even find bodies. You two, check Security Office." Matheus said to two soldiers.
"Yes sir." They quickly moved to a sidehall, before returning.
"Sir. Reporting 6 corpses. All have been hit by magic. Complete meltdown. They were in their armors when they got hit. Systems are fried."
"Fuck, what the hell is going on? Two ponies couldn't cause this much damage. The security should have taken them down quickly."
"There isn't even a sign that they were even detected here. Guards seemed to have been relaxing, doing normal monitor duty. One suit even had coffee mug in front of it."
"Reich und Gott... Okay, gear up and move out. We know better when we are in The DCC." Group started to move out once again. Rest of the way was, once again, rather silent. What bothered Twilight most that the security was missing and that there was distinct lack of reason for why it was missing. If the place would had bullet holes, she could at least think there had been a battle that the security had lost. Right now, it seemed like everyone had just abandoned the place.
When they reached the door, Twilight saw something in the corner of her vision.
"Huh?" There was an unicorn pony there. Brown, in blue/white armor that seemed to have been made from discarded human armor. "Who are you?" She asked. Humans turned around just to see the unicorn toss something at them.
"TAKE COVER!" Humans jumped away just as there was a flash. Twilight felt something hit her as she flew backwards. Something else cut her cheek and front hoof. Behind her Luna had cast a shield to protect those behind her. One human was left out of the shield and started to scream. Twilight hit the wall and fell down to the floor. Suddenly air was filled with gunfire that sounded like it came from the humans who had accompanied them. Twilight finally managed to her head straight and look around. The unicorn laid dead, shot by humans. One of the humans laid down in the ground, his suit having rupture just below the neck. Suit was empty, with something slowly oozing out of the rupture.
"What the fuck was that?" Matheus said while 3 soldiers pointed their guns at the ponies.
"That unicorn... he wasn't with us when we came." Luna said, looking at the corpse. "We had 2 earth ponies and 2 pegasis with us. Captain Stonewall and Twilight Sparkle here are the only unicorns that were allowed to this trip. Furthermore, I had never seen weapon like that before."
"I think it's was a shrapnel grenade, that emits a burst of raw magic when it detonates..." Twilight concluded. "But how did they conceal it. I didn't feel anything before it detonated."
"It ruptures the suit and kills the victim. Since when have you had such weapons?" One of the soldiers said.
"We never had. We never pursued such weapon. I am just as confused as you are." Luna said.
"Come on men. She saved our lives with that shield. Furthermore, we need to get to The DCC. That is our only concern right now. Call the elevator and get in once it arrives."
Canterlot Royal Palace Throne Room T-9h 30m until detonation
Celestia was in deep meditation. Moving the sun was one thing. Trying to interfere with it's natural life was another. Solar storms were necessary part for the sun to operate normally. Otherwise, the sun would need constant attention to just to prevent it from going supernova. Right now she tried to calm the sun down, just enough so that humans could contact Luna Aeternal and warn them. She didn't notice as Trixie and her squad entered the room.
"Alright, spread out and make sure that Princess is protected. This is important. We need to contact Luna Aeternal as soon as possible. Humans are setting up an outside perimeter. Our job is to take care of the interior."
"Captain, we'll do as you say but are you sure we need to do this? Shouldn't we be hunting down those traitors?"
"That is exactly why we are here. There are still traitors running around free. Right now, we don't know what they plan. The ambassador should be safe, but she is not our concern. Our concern is to make sure that Princess Celestia remains unharmed." Trixie said. Sure, she was wouldn't love anything else than beat down these fools right now, but she was no longer a showmare. She was a captain of the guard now. She could not just run around without thinking, hoping that bravado and flashy appearance did the job for her.
"Look out for anything that is different from normal. Sudden lens flares, unusual movement, unexplained red dots... on... PRINCESS!" She managed to scream and tackle the princess. She felt something hit her in the flank.
"CAPTAIN!" Several more shots hit around her, one of them hitting Princess Celestia in the hind leg.
"SECURE THE PRINCESS! FIND THE SHOOTER!" Trixie shouted and she tried to find out where the shots had came from. Pegasis under her command took to the air, before flying outside. One of the windows had broken to pieces, no doubt from the bullets. She heard as guards outside started to move.
"Princess, are you OK?" Trixie grunted trough her teeth.
"Yes, captain. Thank you, you save my live." Celestia said, shocked that something like this could have happened. This was bad. Terra's Children had planned this operation well. Either the war would start with a terrorist action on the moon or from an assassination. She prayed they had not yet moved to take action on the moon. "Do not move, let me heal you."
"No, it's not that easy. We need to take you to infirmary right now. We need to remove the bullet and disinfect the wound. If we don't, we..." There was a flash of light and Celestia's leg was once again like nothing had happened. On the floor there was a bullet.
"Alicorn, remember? Now hold still." Celestia said with a soft smile. She knew that her captains experience during the war had made her fearful of human weaponry, to point one might call it cowardice. Yet, despite all it, she placed people under her before her, rather risking infection herself than those who trusted her. Another flash of light and removed bullet later Trixie stood up.
"Thank you Princess, and forgive me for this security breach. I will submit my resignation as soon as we have situation under the control." By the sun and moon, she had failed. Failed again. Why couldn't she have a break!? Why did all her attempts to protect everypony keep failing!? "Princess, forgive me but I need you to move to somewhere safe. Somewhere where snipers can't hit you."
"Do not speak of foolishness, captain. You are doing very well. We are all confused of the situation." Celestia said, before heading towards her chambers. Trixie gave orders to guard the chambers with everything they got. She couldn't risk another breach like this. However, at this point she had started to think something.
Only humans could operate the those guns, unicorn magic was (rarely) precise enough to operate them. It was one thing float a gun, but to use telekinesis inside a telekinesis field on different part of the object was whole different thing. It took practice to learn, something she hadn't learned yet. Even Twilight had hard time trying to do it. So shooter had to be human, but on the other hand where had he gotten a talisman or the armor? And how had he managed to get close enough the castle to pull this off? Was the ambassador behind this? She had captured one pony and one human and had them executed. Then again, she was also determined to ensure that the peace was upheld. She would have had millions of possibilities to subtly sabotage the peace, this sort of sudden flashy action was not something she would use. Furthermore, human forces were not mobilizing. If they had wanted a war, humans would be crossing the border right now, assaulting the castle directly not trying to protect it.
Trixie shook her head. Nothing made sense anymore. All she could do was to try to bring situation under the control and find all the traitors.
Luna Aeternal Human Capital District 5 Control Center T-9h until detonation
"My God..."
"Reich und Gott, what happened here..."
"By the sun and the moon..."
"How could someone..."
Control room looked like someone had gone nuts with magical shrapnel grenades. Floor was covered in ooze and empty suits, some that weren't even combat suits, just normal everyday clothing. Twilight swore that at least two clothes were too small for an adult human, which only made it worse. One of the Royal Guards threw up. Twilight couldn't blame him, she too was ready to vomit at any second. The stench was horrible and idea that the floor was covered in melted humans just made it even more horrible. Eventually, one of the soldiers took steps inside. His steps made sickening splashing sounds.
"Uh... let's see... urgh..." The soldier tried to hold himself together while he moved to console and tried to re-establish the contact. "District 1 Command, can you hear us? This is the infiltration team. We have reached The DCC."
There was a moment of silence, before the answer came.
"This is the war room We hear you. What happened there?" Voice that answered belonged to General Ravensaw. At this point Matheus walked to the console, clearly not feeling good.
"We encountered unknown pony, an unicorn. Didn't match any known unicorns that should be here. Used some sort of new weapons, a magical shrapnel grenade or something. Private Gilligan got hit by it. He... he suffered A Magical Meltdown. Rest of us are OK, thanks to Princess Lunas shield."
"... What about The DCC?"
"..."
"Answer, infiltration team, are you there? What is the status of The District 5 Control Center?"
"It is... not a pretty sight. Someone took the entire control center by surprise. They have used magic. I repeat, magic was used to wipe out The District 5 Command Center."
"Reich und Gott... We will attempt to override the system with The First Citizen's codes. Hold steady. Once we are in the system, we will attempt to locate the AMSB."
Now they just had to hope they wouldn't run out of time.
Canterlot The Human Embassy The ambassador's office T-7h 20m until detonation
Ambassador Fahrenheit was not having a good day. Her co-workers knew this because she was going trough her 60th cup of coffee. They also knew that unless this crisis was solved soon, they were going to run out of coffee. A stressed ambassador without coffee was something nobody wanted. It had happened once and nobody wanted to experience it again. The previous assistant was still in therapy from that incident.
For Fahrenheit, everything was going wrong. Two terrorist organizations had infiltrated both governments and now somebody had taken a potshot at the princess. All she now needed was to get in contact with Luna Aeternal and learn that they were having a terrorist crisis too and she would faint. She had known that this job would not be an easy one, but this was beyond what she had ever expected.
"Do we have anything yet?" She said to her assistant. She sipped her coffee.
"Lieutenant Mendoza from New Baltimore said he had found something and was looking into it. Apparently there was some inconsistency with his personal experience and flight records." Fahrenheit sipped her coffee.
"What do you mean?" She sipped her coffee.
"Well, apparently there was one, unlogged and unscheduled flight taken 4 days ago. 1 day before the state visit. Official records show that there was only one scheduled flight on that they. He personally claims that there were two." Fahrenheit sipped her coffee.
"Get in contact with Captain Lulamoon of the Royal Guard. Tell her to check if any ponies are missing. Guards or otherwise. Tell her to check those who have vacation too." She sipped her coffee, or at least tried. There had to be someone who kept stealing her coffee, her mug was empty again. She refilled it. "What about the Princess? Or the shooter?"
"The shooter was caught short time ago, however he cut his suit up while in transit and perished. The Princess is currently in her quarters, watched by her guards." Fahrenheit sipped her coffee.
"Can we trust them?" She sipped her coffee.
"Captain Lulamoon personally handpicked them, however she has requested we set up a perimeter on the ground." Fahrenheit sipped her coffee.
"Do it. We can't take any chances. What about the solar storm." She sipped her coffee.
"We are still out of contact with Luna Aeternal. Current estimate is, that unless Princess attends to the sun once again, we can contact them tomorrow morning." Fahrenheit sipped her coffee.
"Good, good... better than waiting for a several days. Okay. We can do this. We can prevent situation from going to south..." She sipped her coffee. "Fuck... Send message to governors. All flights are grounded as of now. Double check everyone's background. And I mean everyone's. Relay all data back here. Also, I want you to pull double checks against the governors. I don't to learn that one of them is member of Terra's Children. Understand?" She sipped her coffee.
"Understood, ambassador. I shall take care of right away." Fahrenheit sipped her coffee. Or at least tried. Someone had once again drank her coffee without her noticing. She needed to have someone look into that next.
Luna Aeternal Human Capital District 5 Control Center T-5h until detonation
It had been longest 4 hours ever. Everyone had waited for something from the command, but command had not been able to do much. Despite using The First Citizen codes, they had been unable to unlock the system. They had been able to lift the internal lockdown, but only certain extend and the external lockdown was still in effect. This was after they had waited one and half hour. The command was still trying to get around entire new firewall that had been set and get access to the camera network.
"The infiltration team, respond."
"This is the infiltration team, we copy you."
"Our troops are currently breaking in, however it will take at least six hours for them to break through. Assuming nothing goes wrong. This new firewall is something we have never seen before, it's custom made. We are trying to track down people behind this but so far no good. However, we think we may have an idea where the AMSB is."
"Tell Sir, we will intercept it."
"Reactor Cluster 6. Everything else is silent, no humans or ponies. However, RC6 has some readings, biological readings and strange magical energy also. We do not know what it is, but it can't be good. Take care of it."
"Sir yes Sir! Alright people, we are moving to Reactor Cluster 6. If we are lucky, we can catch the culprits there. Move out!"
After the elevator ride down, it was decided they should catch a mag-lev ride to the reactor cluster. It was much faster than trying to run through the entire district. They grabbed what humans called 'a cargo truck', with Matheus entering override codes into the console. The truck sped in speeds that reminded Twilight way too much of the speeds of the mag-lev ride during their visit to District 7. She was glad that there was limited atmosphere in the tunnel, otherwise the truck would have busted into flames from the air resistance.
"So, why are we taking these ponies with us sarge? I can understand the big one and the unicorn, but those others?" One of the humans said to Matheus, gesturing towards Royal Guards.
"Cause they are the royal entourage and thus follow the Princess everywhere. So we need to take them with us. Now shut up and get ready. We do not know what awaits us at the station."
Luna Aeternal Human Capital District 5, Reactor Cluster 6 T-3h until detonation
"STOP THE VEHICLE!" One the Royal Guard sudden shouted. Twilight looked out of the window and saw that in the distance, a massive door like before was closed. "We are going to crash in to it!"
"REICH UND GOTT!" One the soldiers screamed as he climbed into the pilots seat and activate the breaks. It wasn't enough, the vehicle slowed down but it didn't stop enough. Twilight cast her own spell on the machine, trying to force it to slow down. Luna followed her example. Still the massive door approached them. The mag-lev truck slowed down, but still not enough.
"Oh shit!"
"GUARDS! Grab every human you can! Grab on anypony near you!" Luna's voice was heard. Twilight felt two arms coming across her. Then a strange metallic ripping sound.
*CRASH*
Twilight had closed her eyes in anticipation of what seemed to be like a painful death, which apparently didn't come to her. She opened her eyes and saw that she was being floated in the air. Around her, humans were clinging to ponies who also floated in the air. One was holding his hands around her. In front of her, a badly mangled wreckage of the mag-lev truck was struck against the door, pieces of it having flown in every direction. She could sense traces of a shield cast by Princess Luna which had protected them from the worst.
"Holy shit that was too close..." One of the humans muttered, while being lowered by a pegasus guard he and another human were holding on. "Thanks. We owe you our lives."
"What, and the time earlier when Princess protected you from that explosive doesn't count?" The pegasus guard said.
"Okay, fine, twice now. Still, good thinking."
"Well, we couldn't stop and if we stayed on, I doubt anyone else except perhaps me would have survived. Which would have not seemed good to The First Citizen and generals. Infiltration team get's mysteriously wiped out and only survivor is an alicorn? Not good for peace talks..."
"I doubt that peace talks are in front of his mind right now. If that bomb goes off, we are all screwed." Matheus said as the Princess lowered the earth pony he was clinging to. Twilight felt as she was lowered to the ground. "Okay, spread out. We need to find a maintenance tunnel. With luck, it should be close and we can use it to reach the Reactor Cluster 6. Vega, contact the command and inform them of our situation.
"Yes sir." Twilight didn't listen too closely, rather keeping close to Princess Luna, but it appeared that something was wrong. She eventually left the safety of the Princess and tried to to find the maintenance access. She didn't find the maintenance access, but something else totally.
"PRINCESS! SERGEANT! QUICK!" Private Aegis Armor and unknown human security officer were thrown on a small alcove near the wall, with Aegis Armor dead. Human slowly moved his head to see her. Upon seeing her, he tried to move only to hiss in pain.
"Bastards.... came to finish the job huh... Don't worry... I still.. got... enough in me... to take you on..."
"No don't move, you are badly hurt and help is coming. What happened? Why is Aegis Armor dead?"
"Don't... even try you..."
"What is it miss Sparkle? Did you REICH UND GOTT! Are you okay?" Matheus said as he walked to the scene.
"Of course he is not, he has clearly fractured bones. Let me trough, I need to check him." One of the soldiers, having a red cross with white outline on his left shoulder, said as he moved past Twilight and others.
"You're... not with them traitors? You're... loyalist, right?" The security officer said.
"Sergeant Matheus Smith, 2nd Squadron, 3rd battalion. Who are you?"
"Officer... Hassan... District 5 Security Service... Arg... It's... Traitors... those... ponies think that... the traitors are working for them... thinking they are taken to the dock... there is no dock... they are being brought to an ambush... ambush and made to confess they planned to use the bomb... they will get killed..."
"And the bomb will explode, making sure nobody tells the truth..."
"What!? They... they can't! It... it would.. .destroy the entire District...."
"The bomb will off in few hours. Can you move him?"
"His body is in bad condition. I seems like he was in a fight. His left lung has collapsed, it's a small miracle he is still alive!"
"That.. .bastard there... they sicked him after me... they... thought they could convince me to work with them... told him that I heard their plans... hell of a kicker... thank God there is no magic here... And he didn't hit me in face... Killed him... but can't move... need to inform... the command..."
"We can't move him Sir, too risky. We need to wait until the medical mag-lev gets here."
"Damnit... Vega, any word from the command?"
"No sir... Something is interfering with the system."
"It's a virus... General... Tarnheiser... He visited us this morning... he did something with the system... and we lost the control of it. Locked everyone inside. Couldn't move... I was on a patrol when things happened. Then... then there were these ponies... ponies with grenades. Came from nowhere... Humans too... damn traitors... Here..." Hassan said as he reached for something from his helmet, before handing it to Matheus.
"Everything... is on the camera. Tarnheisers visit... ponies... traitors... their plan when they tried to convince me... his attempts to beat me. Everything... Leave me here... I can't move, but you... you need to move... Stop them. Stop them before it's too late..."
"We can't leave him alone here sir, he will perish." The medic said.
"Fine, you stay here and watch over him. Private Yuri will stay too. You two are to protect him with your lives. Try to contact the command as soon as you can. Rest of us, move out!"
Things were going more and more wrong, on every account.
Luna Aeternal Human Capital District 1, the war room T- 1h until detonation
"General Tarnheiser, where in bloody hell have you been!?" General Ravensaw shouted at the man in question. General Tarnheiser had just arrived at the war room.
"Taking care of my duties. I got proof that there was a second transport headed to the moon, just a day earlier. It brought in a squad of pony troops! I had my men secure all docks in Luna Aeternal and check every single District."
"WHAT! How is this possible!?" The First Citizen asked. Had Princess Luna lied to him? Had she really planned this all along? But if so, why was she so adamant to protect the peace? This was nearly an official declaration of war.
"The First Citizen, I need to ask you to come with me. We can't be sure that the enemy hasn't infiltrated any other locations. We also need to contain the princess." Tarnheiser said.
"Princess is in District 5, among with 10 volunteers lead by sergeant Matheus Smith." Ravensaw said.
"Damn it, they are propably dead by now. With communications down we need to make sure that they don't get any other drops on us. Please, we need to get you away." The First Citizen nodded and followed him. General Ruvashenko watched after them. There was something off about how Tarnheiser was acting.
"Atlas, I am going to follow them. Something is wrong. Have our men replace every guard here."
"What do you mean?"
"How did he know that we are not in contact with the infiltration team, but not that the Princess was with them? I am going to follow them."
"If you are right and something suspicious is going on, use secondary memory slot and have your suit do constant backup. I don't want to be left guessing what happens if everything goes to hell."
"No worries, I am not an amateur like Tarnheiser." Ruvashenko said and picked an additional memory chip which he plugged in to his suit. Quick adjustment through his PDA and he was ready. Now to find out what that guy was up to...
Luna Aeternal Human Capital District 5, Reactor Cluster 6 T- 30m until detonation
After a long time before Princess Luna was able to find the maintenance access. From there, it took almost two hours before they reached the reactor cluster.
"Command, this the infiltration team. We have reached the RC6. Do you hear us?" Nothing happened. "Damn it, still no contact."
"We need to move fast sergeant. Is there any place where we could teleport to safe time?"
"No. This is one of the 'old' places, it was build with as little wasted space as possible. There is barely any room for us to move. Right, we need a plan... Gorbach, Widow, Resnok and you two ponies there, take reactors A and B."
"Yes sir." Humans answered. Royal Guards looked little bit sceptical of the orders, but Luna assured them.
"Follow them. We can't waste time. It is better to split and find this weapon."
"Short range communications still work. Contact us ASAP if you find it. We can't take any risk now. We only have barely one and half hours to find it." Twilight realized the reason why they were divided into pony-human groups. Humans had the communication systems and ability to operate human systems, but couldn't check every room with the numbers they had. With ponies, they could cover larger ground by having ponies look around with them.
"Solomon, Sheppard and you two ponies, take reactors E and F. Me, Quin and Princess and miss Sparkle will take reactors C and D." Troops nodded before exploding into action, each one heading towards their own section of the Reactor Cluster. Twilight and Luna followed Sergeant Smith and Private Quin to another section.
"Wait, sarge, wouldn't it have been better to send the unicorns with another team? I mean, two magic users in same team is kinda overkill." Quin said as they raced down the path. Matheus facepalmed.
"I'm an idiot. Too late now. Let's just move and hope others don't need them."
They arrived at the reactor room, where two massive reactors provided power to the District 5. District 5, like other districts, had several "clusters" of reactors, working together. If one reactor was shut down, other could keep providing power, preventing a blackout. Now, normally the room was filled with technicians keeping eye on the reactors and numerous screens.
This time however, it was filled with traitor ponies and humans.
"We have been found! Move out!" Twilight recognized Captain Stonewall, who was holding something in his saddle bag. He started to run, just as some ponies charged against their group. Traitor humans started to take positions around the room.
"This is Sergeant Smith! Target is in The Reactor Room 2! I repeat, the target is in The Reactor Room 2!" Matheus screamed to comm unit as the traitor humans opened fire at them. Luna quickly cast a spell to protect them. She noticed that it had become more easy to cast the spell than before The War. Guess the practice made master.
"It's the false princess! Take her down! For the glory of Equesteria!" Traitor ponies shouted. Quin and Matheus were having hard time keeping at the charging ponies from overrunning them. Twilight tried to help, mainly by using lose objects to distract them. She had never gotten used to idea of killing anyone, not even during the war and thus avoided causing any lasting damage. On the other hoof, they would need to interrogate these ponies to understand how they had gotten on in and why were they doing this.
Pony traitors had at this point realized that they wouldn't be able to reach their targets and shifted in throwing those strange magical grenades at the group.
"I can't move while I am keeping up this shield! We need to break our way in!" Luna shouted over the gunfire. Twilight tried to think how she could help. Then she had an idea. A flash and she was gone. Another flash and she was behind human traitors. She bucked closest one as hard she could, grabbed his dropped gun with magic and used it as a club against other. Then she teleported behind Princess Luna, who had dropped her shield in favor of casting a thunder spells. Group dashed forward as quickly as they could, just in time for human traitors brought their guns to bear again. Luna cast her shield for 3rd time at the day.
"Good thinking, but I am afraid the won't fall it for a second time. Others are heading this way, they are using other paths." Matheus said before taking several potshots, hitting his targets.
"How much time we have?" Twilight asked
"20 minutes."
Luna Aeternal Human Capital District 1, the war room T- 20m until detonation
"SIR! We got a pony suicide bomber in the District!" A soldier came rushing in.
"WHAT!? What about The First Citizen? General Tarnheiser? Does anyone have any knowledge of general Ruvashenko?" This were going bad quickly. They only had 20 minutes and now this?
"Sir, the assassin had hidden himself well. He attacked the escort protecting The First Citizen. General Tarnheiser is the only survivor. His suit wasn't ruptured by a magic grenade used by the assassin. He said he managed to kill the assassin before he got him. As for general Ruvashenko, he had apparently joined the escort and was killed too." The soldier said in quick succession, clearly starting to panic.
"REICH UND GOTT!" This was worse than the worst case scenario. This the nightmare scenario. "What is the status of General Tarnheiser?"
"He has slightly fracture due to pulse way but otherwise stable. He is currently being taken to the infirmary."
"Keep him there. I want him under constant surveillance." Then he thought something different. He needed to act fast. "You there, you soldier. Bring me general Ruvashenko's PDA and belt."
"Sir?" The request was not something you normally heard.
"You hear me. Bring me the ones he was wearing. There is something I must see." He could trust this one, since he was one the hand-picked ones. Each general had his 'honor guard', the best hand-picked troops that served them. The one that had come to him was one of Tarnheiser's men. He couldn't trust him.
"Get moving. Control! Bring us to DEFCON 1. Full mobilization! If we hear from the surface that they are under an attack, I want our men to be ready to support survivors. Get those weapons in The Vault prepared, but do not re-arm them. If this goes to hell and a war starts, it's going to be an one hour war!" Ravensaw shouted. He prayed to God that it would not come to it. He wasn't sure if he could order an orbital bombardment against the entire planet. Order to launch the Operation Scorch Earth had been hard enough. Order to cause a global extinction would be something he could not live with, but would do if necessary.
Luna Aeternal Human Capital District 5, Reactor Cluster 6 T- 18m until detonation
"The Apocalypse cannot be stopped!" One of the traitor ponies shouted as she threw an another grenade. Luna was getting royally pissed off at these ponies. So far she had been called 'The False Princess', 'Nightmare Moon Reborn' and 'Queen Bitch of The Moon'. None which pleased her in anyway. She also heard several insults against her sister, none which were any less insulting. However, at the moment she wasn't interested in hearing what the traitors shouted. She was more interested in getting trough them and capturing Captain Stonewall and the bomb he carried.
"Look, we are getting nowhere at this pace. We need to somehow take down that rifle squad!" Matheus shouted before taking another shot.
"Twilight, can you hold up the shield for few seconds?" Luna asked.
"What? Oh, sure, I can try." Twilight's horn started to glow from magic, creating a magic barrier. She suddenly had much more respect for Luna, who could hold the shield so easily. Each hit by a bullet felt like someone slapped her in the face. Meanwhile, Luna had taken different target for her magic. The catwalk where the traitor humans had set themselves started to groan and suddenly crashed down, taking out humans on and under it. Luna quickly took over casting the shield, allowing Twilight to catch her breath.
"Holy shit, that was good." Matheus said, before rushing out of his cover and slamming his rifle into a face of a traitor pony. Quin quickly followed, shooting anyone who wasn't part of their group. Luna and Twilight followed their example, quickly taking out the group of traitors that had stayed behind to cover the retreat if their leader.
"Okay, I think we got most of them. Let's take out that leader of theirs before it's too late."
"Right behind you sarge." Quin said. Luna and Twilight nodded and followed Matheus. They didn't have much time.
T- 14m until detonation
"Captain Stonewall! Stop right there!" Luna shouted towards the catwalk that Stonewall was running across. Stonewall didn't answer, only floated an another magical grenade and threw it behind him. Explosion didn't harm his pursuers, but it caused them to stop. Just enough for Stonewall to disappear from their sight.
"Reich und Gott this place is a maze!" It didn't help that the traitors kept ambushing them, making their progress even more slow. Two humans appeared behind them and tried to shoot them. Quin got hit in his head, but unlike idiots in the movies he wore a helmet. So instead of pretty little head shot, he got dented helmet and a headache. Luna cast the shield spell over them once again and Matheus took care of the attackers.
"Damn it, at this rate we will never get them!"
"We need to do something, something that will allow us to catch him quickly! What is the general layout of this place?" Twilight asked. "I need to know where he might be headed."
"Let me think... Damn it!" Another group of ponies appeared and started throwing discarded weapons and other objects at them. Some of them tried to charge right at the group, but Matheus and Quin quickly convinced them how bad this idea was. These ponies were clearly not from the Royal Guard. Royal Guard had learned long time ago that blindly charching at an armed human was a suicide. "Let's see... this is..." Matheus looked the signs places on the wall. "Okay, he is most likely heading to emergency vent controls, at least that's one path. Other possibility he is trying to reach the auxiliary control center." Matheus looked at the ponies in their way. "Problem is, it's like these guys are respawning! They keep coming back again and again!"
"What's 'respawning'?"
"Doesn't matter. What matters is..." Suddenly one the traitor ponies screamed and flew over the catwalk. Twilight turned to see and saw one of the royal guards causing a havoc in traitor ranks. One human appeared also, opening fire at them. With the sudden appearance of reinforcements, Matheus and Quin quickly started to rush the enemy, hoping to break through before they could reorganize themselves. After a quick fight Matheus turned to their two helpers.
"Resnok, where is rest of your team?"
"This is it sarge. We got ambushed. If it wasn't for private Silent Storm here I would be dead by now. This guy knows how to cheat." The human soldier answered.
"They would have killed us both anyway and if that bomb is not stopped, we are all dead." The guard said
"Well, it's a good thing you came as you did, we need to catch down that bastard."
"Who is it?" Silent Storm asked.
"Captain Stonewall." Luna answered for him as they rushed after the traitor.
"WHAT!? Captain? Impossible, he is one of the most loyal guards of all times!" Silent Storm wasn't believing it.
"I saw him myself. He ordered these traitors to slow us down. Do you doubt my words?" Luna's voice was harsh and cold. It was a voice that Twilight never wanted to hear again.
"No your highness. It's just... why would he do this? It makes no sense."
"Nothing makes sense when one is blinded by hate and grief. We must stop him before he can blind humanity with the same hate and grief." Luna said. She didn't really want to start thinking why or how. If she did, she wasn't sure if she could hold herself together. How could ponies have gone so deep in the darkness? No. Don't think. If she started to think she might start to blame humans. If she started to blame humans now, she wasn't sure if she could do everything needed to prevent the disaster. She couldn't live with that knowledge.
Furthermore, they were running out of time.
T- 6m until detonation
“Can you see him?” Luna asked as they arrived in a large room.
“No. He should be around here. There are only two access ways here, this one and the one on the lower levels. He couldn't have used that one.” Matheus answered
“Maybe someone is guiding him? Perhaps he is heading to lower levels.” Twilight suggested. “I mean, Stonewall shouldn't be even aware where to go here. He has never been in Luna Aeternal before.” Humans didn't asnwer at this. It meant there was someone else at the moment getting trough the communications blackout.
“Tarnheiser's Iron Brigade!” Resnok shouted with a realization.
“Who?”
“Tarnheiser's own hand picked unit! Each general has one. Tarnheiser has Iron Brigade, Ravensaw has Steel Legion and so forth. Each unit has the best of the best and take care of the most delicate matters.” Matheus said. “Considering the size of this conspiracy and the fact that we know Tarnheiser to be behind this, it makes sense. They could develop a virus that would block everyone else out except them.”
“Fuck, so we got a traitor general AND a traitor unit? This keeps going better and better! Next thing you tell me they got assassins trying to take the Sun Princess down.”
“You think my sister is in danger!? We must warn her!” Luna said. Idea that the traitors could have breached the security of Canterlot and threatened her sisters life was terrifying.
“I don't think so. That would mean that those guys would get past ISA. ISA rarely, if ever screws up that bad.” Matheus said.
“Doesn't matter much if we can't stop this guy. I mean, The First Citizen might believe you aren't behind this, but rest of the council? I don't think so.”
T- 3m until detonation
“THERE! I see him! Stop right there you criminal scum!” Matheus shouted. Stonewall had indeed attempted to reach lower levels, being two levers lower than the group was. Humans started to shoot at him, while Luna and Twilight used their magic to create a barrier in order to trap him. However, due to human tendency create reduntant paths and systems everywhere, it was hard to trap him for even a short time.
“AARGH!” Stonewall screamed as Quin's bullet pierced his front hoof.
“Got the fucker! Can you pull him here?” Quin said with enthusiasm as Lunas magic grabbed the now unmoving body of former captain Stonewall. He was levitated up, to the catwalk that the group was currently standing on.
Stonewall tried to fight against the magic, but lost in raw power. Furthermore, the pain in his hood distracted him. He still tried to kick humans as he was pulled over the catwalk. However, Matheus knocked him out with swift strike with his rifles. Stonewall fell to the ground with a thud.
“Okay, let's see...” Matheus said and opened the saddlebag. He pulled out a small cylinder, about 70 centimeters in length. He placed the cylinder on the ground and pressed few buttons. Small red light turned to green and opened a small lid on the side. Inside the lid there was two small, rectangular objects. Both had a meter on their side. Other one was completely black. Other one had a small red streak in it.
“Damn it, almost out.” Quin gave Matheus the replacement battery. “Alright, this should d-”
“FOR THE GLORY OF EQUESTRIA!”
*CRACK*
Matheus fell backwards, holdings his face. His faceplate had a crack on it. Stonewall had stood up and bucked him the face. Replacement battery that Matheus had been holding fell over the railing and down into the depths. Twilight tried to reach it with her magic, but it was too small and too fast. She lost it. She only saw it momentarily before being it fell out of her sight, in to darkness.
“YOU FUCKER!” Quin shouted and shot Stonewall in the face. He then turned to Matheus “Now what?!” He asked in panic.
“Resnok, do you have a replacement battery!?” Matheus asked.
“No, Gorbach and Soloman had, but not me. I forgot to pick it from Gorbachs body, I was kinda more worried getting here!”
“There must be something we can do! We can't just let it explode! Can we contain it anyway!?”
“It's an anti-matter weapon! It creates enormous amounts of energy! There were called metropolis busters for a reason.” Quin said as he tried to think of something. Luna looked at the bomb. Red bar was nearly gone and flashed as if to urge someone to do something. And someone did something.
Luna Aeternal Human Capital District 1 War Room T- 10s until detonation
There was a bright flash and Twilight found herself inside the District 1 war room.
“What the...” Resnok started when sickening plashing sound was heard. Twilight turned around and saw all too familiar ooze flowing out of cracks in Matheus faceplate. “SARGE!”
“Soldier! What in the name God are you doing here!?” Twilight turned around once again to see group of soldiers aiming their guns at her and the group, while general Ravensaw seemed like was trying suppress a heart attack.
“Wait, how are we here? WHERE IS PRINCESS LUNA!?” Twilight started to panic. She wouldn't...
“Sir, detecting large amounts of energies in The Reactor Cluster 6 in District 5!” A shout pierced the chaos.
She had.
“The bomb! It's going off!”
“What!? No!” Quins voice was heard.
“Detecting additional energy. Seems to be holding the matter/anti-matter detonation in isolated section. Can't get definite results. All systems are reporting overflow error.” One operator started to shout. Everyone turned to screens on the walls. One of them showed external feed of District 5. Another showed several graphs. Those graphs showed that another energy, colored white, kept rising, before hitting 'a wall' of other energy, colored purple, which seemed to absorb it. Twilight didn't understand all the technical data currently on the screens, but technicians seemed to stare it intensely. She figured out as long as purple graph was 'winning', everything was fine.
Ten long seconds passed and nothing changed. Then 10 more seconds. After a full 2 minutes of silence and the bomb being contained, the silence was broken.
“Can she do it?” Ravensaw said quietly.
“I... I don't know.” Twilight said equally quietly. This couldn't be happening. They couldn't fail. She had to succeed. She was the moon princess. This was her turf. This was where her magic was on it's strongest. This should be nothing to her. She was a goddess, even humans called her and Princess Celestia a demi-goddess. They were the most powerful magic users in Equesteria.
And then everything went to hell.
Mike didn't understand why her parents were so anxious. He himself was happy. School had been canceled and that meant a whole day of free time! Too bad he couldn't go out. For some reason all doors were locked. Oh well, he had all toys he needed to entertain himself for a whole day! And the TV still worked. That was always good. Still, there was the annoying thing running across the screen, showing some text he didn't understand and for some reason some boring guy appeared in middle of his favorite show to talk about boring things. Mother and father became scared of that so he didn't like the man. He liked his mom and dad, so if that man scared them, he couldn't be a good person.
He saw some bright light shining under the door and left for the eternal playground.
Angela was fixing some food for her husband. He had been sick for a week now, nothing major thankfully. Just some common cold and fever, he should be good in few days, or at least the doctor had said so. She was happy he was fine. Age of 135 was respectable age, even by modern medicine. She herself was 105, just 5 years of average livetime. She herself was still feeling well. However, the lockdown worried her. If it continued for much longer, she feared they would run out of food. The Social Security did best it could to help eldery people, but they sometimes messed. This was just type time they would mess up.
Blinding light that came through a wall made all her worries irrelevant.
Another drunken day for Mosh. Two weeks of unemployment had left him bitter for the government. It was not his fault that the rookie had screwed up. It was not his fault that the rookie had gotten killed. It was not his fault his wife had left for that bastard Nikolai. It was never his fault. He didn't screw up. He would bounce right back up in few days. Screw everyone else who tought otherwise.
In a blink of an eye his worries of unemployment became something minor problem.
The white energy broke free of the purple energy. Purple energy seemed to vanish in a moment. On the screen, a massive white ball appeared for total of two seconds before having consumed all oxygen avaible to it. In those two seconds, District 5 ceased to be. However, as it would later be noted, damaged was slightly less than predicted. Instead of wiping out the entire district and then causing nearby districts go critical, it only caused District 5 to be destroyed. Large pieces of concrete and metal flew from the explosion, piercing neighboring districts, numerous sectors to suffer sudden decompression. District 6 got hit particulary hard. Massive steel pilar, most likely one of the outer supporting structures of District 5 pierced trough District 6, eventually hitting one of it's reactor clusters. Only thanks to human tendency to overdesing and exreme reduncancy the system did not go critical and the chain reaction was averted.
When Twilights vision finally recovered from the sudden flash of light, what she was made her legs give out. Entire district was gone, only with small pieces floating in the air. Other districts had holes in them, with some pieces potruding from where they hadn't broken trough. Humans were in shock. Two soldiers removed their faceplates, as if doubting the optic sensors in their helmets. Most of them simply stared the screen, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Her mind could not understand the sheer scale of the damage.
A million human lives had just been lost, with countless others from collaterial damage. Princess Luna had been near the center of the destruction, trying to contain it. Only to fail in the end. Trying to contain a weapon that humanity had deemed too horrific to ever to be used again.
Just because a group of madmen wished to see the world burn.
Luna Aeternal Human Capital District 1 Containment Cells. 4 hours after detonation
Twilight sat in her cell. On the next cell, the single surviving Royal Guard sit without his armor. He had been stripped off it, as humans didn't want to take any chances anymore. He had agreed to give it peacefully. On the otherside of the hallway, in similar room that she was, private Resnok and Quin in their own. Ravensaw had them all imprisoned. Some of the soldiers had suggested that her horn should be broken, to prevent her from using magic. Ravensaw had overruled that suggestion, saying that they still lacked information to know what had happened. He had applied old human saying that ponies used too: 'Innocent until proven otherwise'.
Matheus hadn't survived the teleportation. His talisman couldn't protect him completely, since his suit had broken. What remained of him had been cleaned off. At the moment they were in process of going trough his helmet records and on-suit computer records. Same was happening with Quins and Resnoks suits. They were wearing orange jumpsuits with numbers on them.
“Miss Sparkle? Are you awake yet?” She could hear Silent Storm ask her, but she didn't answer. Her brains were still in process of trying to understand what had happened. She hadn't heard anything from humans yet. They had their teams going trough the remains and trying to assist damaged districts. “Miss Sparkle?” Silent Storm was worried of Twilight Sparkles condition. He had seen his father in same condition when he had returned from the war. It had not been a pretty sight. He had also failed to protect Princess Luna. Now, she and miss Sparkle were only surviving ponies of the whole event. Least he could at the moment was to look over her. Perhaps Princess Celestia would take care of the situation.
“Give it up. She is in shock. It will probably take day or two before she starts to be responsive.” Resnok said.
“How do you know?”
“I saw my comrade become like that. It was during the First Battle of Ghastly Gorge. He had to take therapy to get over it. Too much death in too little time, too personal. Had she been in the war room all this time, she wouldn't be like that.”
“How so?”
“She would not be able to comprehend the death of all. It's same with humans. Too much too soon and human mind just can't comprehend it, unable to react to it. This time? She was there. In middle of it. She activly tried to prevent it. She failed. Furthermore, someone who she knew personally was in there. Propably dead.”
“She can't be...” Twilight in quiet voice. Humans looked her in pity, before returning to their silence.
“Let's sleep. We can't do anything here. Until they have figured out how this could happen and why, we are stuck here. The First Citizen will take care of it, don't worry.” Quin said and went to bed. Silent Storm stood for a while before laying down on his. Resnok followed the suit. Twilight remained sitting for another ten minutes before going to sleep herself. Perhaps she could finally act tomorrow.
[h]
Canterlot The human embassy Communications room 8 hours after detonation.
“Contact Luna Aeternal.” Fahrenheit ordered. Next to her stood Princess Celestia, anxious to know the situation. She had felt powerful surge of magic last night which worried her. She had not heard from her sister since she had left for Luna Aeternal and with recent events, she was worried like never before.
“Are you sure this will work?” Celestia asked Fahrenheit.
“It should. Thanks to you, the solar storm calmed enough to attempt to contact them. We should have a connection soon enough.” Fahrenheit responded.
“I hope we are not too late. I can't imagine what would happen if these terrorist had already made their move.”
“Contacting. Receiving response. Establishing a quantum link. The link is stabilizing. The link stable is stable. We have a contact.” The operator said as the face of general Ravensaw appeared on the screen. He looked like he had not slept for two days.
“This is Luna Aeternal. What is it? Got a major crisis here.” General Ravensaw appeared on the screen. He looked like hadn't slept for two days. He had bags under his eyes and his eyes looked slightly blood red. His hair was a mess and his suit wasn't clean like normally.
“This is ambassador Fahrenheit. We need to inform you about possible terrorist action against...”
“Too late. They have already struct against us. District 5 was hit by an Anti-Matter Suitcase Bomb. We have confirmed that there were pony terrorists, assisted by group of human traitors. We are still trying to clear the situation.” Ravensaw cut Fahrenheit off. Image switched to ruins of District 5 before switching back to Ravensaw.
“Reich und Gott...”
“It's not over yet. The First Citizen is dead. So is General Ruvashenko. General Tarnheiser is in medical being treated for wounds he received protecting The First Citizen.” Ravensaw continued. “Furthermore, Internal Security Agency is going nuts here, they are arresting people left and right. Everyone is a suspect. There has never been crisis like this since the Second Civil War.” Ravensaw rubbed his eyes before turning back to the screen. “I suggest you lockdown the embassy. We do not know yet if this was part of some pony black-ops organization or not. We do know now that one of their captains was part of his, seems like he was a leader. That's about it. We got only four survivors. One royal guard, the assistant and two of our soldiers. They were teleported out before the bomb went off.” Celestia noticed that her sister was not included in the list.
“General, I can assure you that the Kingdom of Equesteria is NOT behind this... and what about my sister? Is she okay?”
“The other Princess is there with you, ambassador?” Ravensaw asked with a hint of disapproval.
“Yes sir. There was an assassination attempt yesterday, when she tried to calm the solar storm to allow us to contact you.”
“Well isn't that just great. As for your question Princess, our teams went trough the rubble. There is a small part of the Reactor Cluster 6 that seems to still have athmosphere, if she still alive she is there. If not... then she died trying to protect us all. It's been eight hours since the detonation and she hasn't yet contacted us. We have, for now, determined she has been Killed In Action.”
Celestia stood her mouth open and eyes wide. Luna was dead? Her sister had been gone for thousand years, only to return 14 years ago. Now she was gone, again. This time permanently.
“Sir, you said we should lockdown the embassy?”
“Yes and prepare to evacuate yourself. There is a lot going on right now and the worst case scenario is that the council decides to go to war.”
“What!? No! That's what they want!” Fahreinheit shouted in panic. Despite all their hopes, it started to seem like Terra's Children had succeeded in their plan.
“Who they? Explain.”
“Sir, yesterday we uncovered some suspicious movement in the embassy. Further investigation revealed that the embassy had been compromised by the Terra's Children.”
“WHAT!? Didn't we wipe them out several years ago!?” Ravensaw shouted. He had personally been leading the teams that had supposedly busted several ringleaders. It had been part of his officer training.
“Apparently not Sir. We got several of them in containment right now.”
“What about the assassin?”
“Committed suicide to avoid capture.”
“General, if I may ask what happens now?” Celestia interjected. World was spiralling towards chaos and she had no idea what to do, despite all her life experiences.
“I am not sure. We are looking into matters right now. Your information removes some suspicion from you, but it is not enough. Until we know how these terrorist got past our internal security, Luna Aeternal is in DEFCON 2.”
“Reich und Gott...” Fahrenheit gasped. That mean that Luna Aeternal had mobilized it's full military force. They were gearing up for a war.
“We were in DEFCON 1 few hours ago. I reduced the status to DEFCON 2 after we re-established the contact with the surface. According to them, Equesterian Royal Guard seemed to be more interested about events in Canterlot than crossing the border. However, I will maintain full mobilization in effect until this crisis is over or I get orders from the council. As the highest remaining military commander I am assuming command of all units, on the moon and planet.”
“General Ravensaw, I ask you, please, can I talk to my student, Twilight Sparkle?” Celestia asked Ravensaw.
“She is currently undergoing a shock. She is currently in a contaiment cell, apparently finally started to talk to other survivors. However, I can not let you talk to her, not yet. Not before we had chance to talk to her.”
“General, she is my most loyal student and if you have done anything to...” Celestia began before being cut off.
“Princess, we are currently one step away from launching a full-scale orbital WMD bombardment on your entire planet. One wrong step and this whole thing explodes into a war. Choose your next words with exceptional care.” Ravensaw interrupted. His gaze was cold and unforgiving. Celestia knew he wasn't bluffing. If she chose her words wrong, if she made any threats at this point, he would launch an attack that could end in a global extinction of all non-human life on the planet.
“...Nothing, General. I am simply currently worried of two very close ponies to me. Princess Luna is my sister. Twilight Sparkle is like a daughter to me. I am worried of them, weren't you if our roles were reversed?”
Ravensaw remained silent, before sighting and visibly slumping.
“I apologize Princess. It's been a long day and there is no end in sight. Everything is going to hell right now. Council is in uproar, public demands blood, we have no clear leader, millions are dead and for some reason everyone brings their worries to me. I apologize for snapping at you, but I ask you. Please vacate the embassy. Do not contact us. We contact you once we got more information. Ambassador, I want you to relay everything, absolutely everything you have, to me. This mess is something we need to clear up as soon as possible.” Ravensaw cut the connection before either Fahrenheit or Celestia could answer. They both stood in silence for a moment, before Fahrenheit turned to Celestia.
“Princess, I must ask you and your guards to leave the embassy grounds. I apologize, but... orders are orders.”
“Do not apologize, ambassador. I understand. We will leave and will not approach the embassy until you send messenger.” Celestia said and stood up. She motioned guards to follow her and returned to the castle. She walked to the throne room and sat on the throne. Normally at this time she and Luna would switch places and she would start holding a court. This time, however, she was too distracted to do so.
“Note Keeper.” She said to her assistant who turned to her. “We will not hold court today. Nor tomorrow. We will not hold court until further notice. We are... unable for the present time.”
“But Princess, there are hundreds, even thousands of ponies who have waited for this moment for ages and then we have diplomatic...” Note Keeper before being cut off.
“WE WILL NOT HOLD THE COURT!” Celestia said in Royal Canterlot Voice. Note Keeper silenced herself. Whenever Princess Celestia used that voice, you shut up and listened. “...summon my generals. We need to go trough our defense plans. Call all our unicorns currently in the service. Send word to garrisons. All reserves are to be called in right away. “ She said in much more subdued voice, as if she had suddenly lost her strength. She stood up and left for her own room.
Note Keeper nodded and watched as Celestia left. Celestia might have not said it, but she knew what those orders meant. Last time reserves were called back in to service was during The War.
Luna Aeternal District 1 The Office of General Ravensaw
Ravensaw plugged in the chip he had acquired from the belt of general Ruvashenko . Video started to play, showing him speaking to Ravensaw and leaving out. So far so good. The team moved forward towards the bunker complex, where The First Citizen was supposed to be safe. Video started to near the end when the moment he had been waiting for happened. The assassination.
General Tarnheiser left the group, saying he needed to have his men ready waiting for them. Two minutes after he left the group was attacked. Like Tarnheiser had claimed, it was a pony assassin, committing suicide attack against the group. Ruvashenko shielded The First Citizen with his body leaving him alive while rest of the group died. He made mental note to increase the numbers in convoy groups.
Ruvashenko fell to the ground, but luckily his helmet faced The First Citizen. The First Citizen rose up and walked slightly away before stopping and turning around.
"Tarnheiser. Why are you pointing that thing at me?"
"Because you are not supposed to live. I didn't expect Ruvashenko to save you. That was surprising."
"Why are you doing this?"
"Expect me to rant and give you chance to do something? Perhaps get my confession? Oh no, no you don't get." Tarnheiser gave a strong punch at The First Citizen, making him fall to the ground. "As soon as I am done here, I will clear the chips and replace them with new ones. No-one will never know what happens here."
"Why? Why you want to start the war!? I deserve to know that!"
"You want to know? BECAUSE YOU ARE WEAK! We humans, we have the entire world in front of us, ripe for taking! To leave this infernal death trap once and for all! Yet, yet here we are. Stuck, because you are too weak to take us to our true home! No more. We will eradicate our enemies. We will claim out birthright. We will rebuild our civilization. We will reject the extinction that the world tries to impose on us!" Another punch and The First Citizen fell to the ground, unconscious.
"Burn in the fire long time ago, stand next to me you never stand alone." Tarnheiser said and dropped one more grenade over the body of The First Citizen. He left the vicinity and the grenade exploded, killing The First Citizen. Tarnheiser then returned and removed chips from each corpse, before wounding himself and calling for help.
Ravensaw rubbed his eyes again. 4 hours he had been contacted by the ambassador and he news only made his situation worse. Data she had send to him had been useful in tracking down suspects on Luna Aternal and finding out that ability to re-establish the contact with the surface was thanks to Princess Celestia made him grateful for two of them. Still, he had so much to do. He had gone trough recordings from the Infiltration Team, well, from those who had come back. That was three video files in total. So far he had a rough overview of what the situation was.
General Tarnheiser was a covert operative of Terra's Children. Group was seriously weakened from it's heydays, but still had people in high places. He had managed to pose as an pro-pony human radical and contact anti-human organization known as Ponies of the Apocalypse. He had promised them he would provide them with a weapon that could destroy human armies and allow Equestria to get military advantage over the humans.
That was what he got right now. Ultimate goal was apparently restart the war and 'finish what they had started'. However, the plan made so little sense. Why kill The First Citizen? Because he was pro-peace? Why destroy an entire District? To create incredible bloodlust in the population? He had succeeded in that. The public was demanding blood of those who were responsible. Someone had leaked details that ponies were involved and demands to launch a retaliatory strike were heard more and more often. Had he planned to use that as a bouncing board to get permission for the strike?
Tarnheisers 'proof' was very convincing, if it was only thing you got. It showed that unknown group of ponies had infiltrated a transport. It also spoke of possible mind control spells, pointing towards their history with changelings. Ravensaw made a mental note to look into possible threat from these creatures. Essentially, picture that the 'evidence' painted was a black-ops pony team infiltrating Luna Aeternal in effort to create fear in humans. It was something that could convince the council to go to war.
However, Ravensaw had access to other sources of information too and was skeptical of the evidence. First of all, logs showed that it was general Tarnheiser who had opened the door to The Vault. Second, Princess Luna had been surprised of everything and had taken extreme measures to prevent the disaster. Also, there was Tarnheisers suspicious MIA during the early stages of the crisis. Death of The First Citizen, general Ruvashenko and all accompanying personnel... except general Tarnheiser. And now the video file that showed him murdering The First Citizen. Thankfully the princess had managed to teleport few survivors to the war room. That mean he was prepared. There had been suspicious accident with his personal vehicle later, when he had decided to take different route.
So he had different theory. Tarnheiser was in process of eliminating top-tier leadership. Once he would be made emergency leader, he would launch a revenge strike against ponies. Ponies, unaware of what had happened would take it as a declaration of war. In the end, humanity would wipe out pony armies. Princess Luna would be kept as a prisoner, by using pony population as a hostage. This would ensure that The Zone would keep expanding in case their theory of killing them off would be wrong.
Ravensaw sighed. Question was, how did Tarnheiser manage to pull this off? Clearly he had not anticipated few things, like Princess Luna participation in the infiltration mission. Or that Ruvashenko had followed him. The biggest wrench in his plans was most likely the fact that there were survivors. With the information from those survivors, Ravensaw could easily have him arrested for a conspiracy against the state. Question was: should he?
If he went public with all this information, it could destabilize the entire government. Everyone would be a suspect. Nobody could trust anyone. People would lose their trust in their leaders. What if people behind this would take direct action? A civil war was the last thing humanity needed right now.
He was so tired, yet there was so much to do. He had managed to get the backup chip from Ruvashenkos belt. The main chip was missing, no doubt removed by Tarnheiser himself. He had been good. If it weren't for recovery of the infiltration team and actions if Captain Lulamoon of the Royal Guard, he himself would be in front of the council, demanding them to strike before it was too late. When he had learned that the Royal Guard had made no moves to cross the border, he had ordered Luna Aeternal into DEFCON 2 and that The Vault to be resealed. He also had the whole place guarded by ISA and had every access to the damn place closed. At the moment any attempt to enter The Vault was to be met with lethal force.
"Sir, I got news for you." A soldier entered his room saluting. Ravensaw had left his door open, due to the amount of people currently visiting him for everything.
"Well, what now? Our two pony prisoners are actually disguised dragons?"
"No sir. We have recovered the princess. She was found in the remains of Reactor Cluster 6 that had crashed in to ground near District 5."
"Right. How bad was it?"
"Sir, the recovery team reported her missing her left wing, as well as missing half of the other one. She is also missing left front hoof and left back leg. There is also a ugly scar running across the left side of her face. Her left eye is badly damaged. She has also numerous burns all across her body."
"Shit. I guess we can give her Star Of Terra posthumously..."
"Sir... she is alive."
"WHAT!?" Okay, she was an insanely powerful alicorn, but that bomb was metropolis buster. There should be no way for anything to survive. She was near the epic center of the God damn explosion!
"That is correct sir. She had a strange field of energy surrounding her. That field was weakening rapidly when she was recovered. She is currently in the Ganymede Hospital under intense care. Doctor have quarantined an entire sector for her alone. Furthermore, ISA and Steel Legion volunteers have set up a perimeter around the hospital and her room, in order to prevent any harm to be done to her."
"That is insane... There should be no way for her to survive!"
"Sir, permission to speak freely?"
"Granted. I want to hear your opinion on this."
"Sir, she is an insanely powerful moon-connected demi-goddess who violates the laws of nature every night because she thinks that the moon should be on certain place during the night. Her surviving the explosion should perhaps not be that weird."
"Hmm, she was on the moon, her 'domain' so to speak..."
"Also, it's magic, science invalid." The soldier said with a hint of humor in his voice. Ravensaw gave a chuckle. It had become something of a joke among the grunts during the war when scientist tried to wrap their heads around the magic and how it worked. 'It is magic, science invalid' was a popular saying when encountering seemingly impossible things.
"What time is it?"
"It's 14:21, sir"
"Damn it, I need to attend to council meeting."
Luna Aeternal District 1 The Council of Districts
"This proves that these... 'ponies' are still out to get us! I say we strike a retaliatory strike against them as soon as possible!"
"I agree with general Tarnheiser! This kind of attack can't go unpunished."
"Can we prove that this indeed government sanctioned attack? What if they were a rogue element?"
"Doesn't matter! This was an attack against mankind. We will not bow down to terrorism! It shall not matter who carries the strike, the fact that their 'goddesses' failed to contain these elements speaks lengths of their government! What if there are more? Can we trust their government to prevent any future incidents!?"
"You seem to forgot that ISA screwed up as well! We should have seen this one coming! How did these ponies even knew about the anti-matter bomb? Or that matter, how did they get access to it?"
Ravensaw walked as the councilors shouted at each others. There were two camps at the moment, those who demanded imminent actions and those who wanted to wait and see.
"General Ravensaw, what is your opinion on this?" One of the councilors asked him.
"I believe we should not make rushed decisions. We do not know enough to make decisions that could lead to a war with Equestria. I suggest we form a special investigation unit to investigate this event."
"Meanwhile these ponies will attack our colonies on the surface."
"The connection to the surface has been re-established, councilor. Ponies have not moved against us, in fact it seems there was an assassination attempt in their capital. However, our orbital surveillance has confirmed that they have called their reserves back into service, following our orders to lockdown the embassy."
"They are preparing for a war!"
"So would we if they would suddenly close their embassy. It seems that they are just as afraid as we are" Another councilor said. "I say we follow general Ravensaws idea and investigate the situation before making any decisions. General Ravensaw, you have been most active in all this. We trust you will take care of this."
"I will not fail this council. By your leave."
Luna Aeternal District 1 Containment Cells
Twilight looked around her cell, once again. One the other hoof, it was much more comfortable than the dungeon in Canterlot Castle. Then again, at least in Canterlot you could count tiles on the walls. Here, best you could count was bolts (there was total of 1 534 bolts visible) which got boring pretty quickly. She still had troubles trying to accept what had happened, but in the end, she had no choice. She couldn't change the reality, no matter how much she wanted. She had been questioned earlier. It was different what she had expected. They had not interrogated her, but asked questions which she had answered. They had not blamed her. Silent Storm had similar experience, as did two human survivors.
A door was opened at the end of the hallways and general Ravensaw entered the room,
"Miss Sparkle?"
"Yes?" She asked, not bothering to stand up from the floor.
"I believe you wish to know the status of Princess Luna." Twilight stood up on that notion. So did Silent Storm who walked closer to the group.
"Did you find her?"
"Yes. She is still alive, but horribly wounded. We have placed her in to medically induced coma. If she were to wake up before we had chance to attempt to heal her, there is a chance she would hurt herself even more."
"Thank goodness she is alive... but what happens to us?"
"I do not know. I am currently leading the investigation on this matter. I will inform you later." Ravensaw said and left. After he was out of the room, Twilight walked to the wall that separated her and Silent Storm.
"You heard that? Princess Luna is alive."
"Praise the moon."
"It is one thing less to worry. Still... I worry. Ravensaw seemed troubled."
"The pro-war groups are probably drumming up the support to start a war. All we can do is wait and see."
"Do you remember the good old days? When our enemies where single powerful creature? When Elements of Harmony were all you needed to defeat those who threatened us? I wish those days back. I can't believe I miss dealing with Discord. At least he was a clear target. Right now? I do not know who is our enemy. Who I am supposed to fight? Even during The War, we didn't know who we were supposed to defeat. Being able to cast powerful spells doesn't help much when they are designed to deal with singular enemies."
Silent Storm didn't say anything. Insane as it was, he too missed those days. Sure, Discord was an insanely powerful creature of chaos, but like Twilight Sparkle had said, he was a clear enemy, someone to beat up and not feel bad about. Even during the changeling invasion, they had clear target: Queen Chrysalis. Right now, they barely even knew who to trust.
Luna Aeternal District 1 The Office of General Ravensaw
"How are you doing, Ravensaw?" Ravensaw raised his head to see the former general Golgata enter the room.
"Well if it ain't the quiter herself. What do you want?" Ravensaw with venom in his voice. He had never really forgiven her for stepping down from her position after the war.
"Come on, Kane. I know you are having a hard time. Can't I visit an old friend?"
"You stopped being my friend when you left me alone to deal with the mess after the war. What do you want?" Ravensaw repeated his question "And don't call me Kane."
"Ravensaw... Listen. I know you got everything you need to decide the future. You were always one that would find everything there was to find out. I also know, you are torn apart. You don't know what to do." Golgata said with sadness in her voice. Ravensaw remained silent before pressing few buttons. The door closed.
"I'm tired, Minna. I can't decide. What should I do? I got everything I need to prevent the war, but that would endanger everything we have!" Ravensaw shouted.
"I know you will make the right decision, Kane. You never made any decision lightly."
"Oh yeah? Even that accursed Operation Scorch Earth? Yes, using an orbital WMD bombardment was so right decision. What have we become? Bunch of insane survivalist murderers. What happened to our great ventures in to great unknown? What happened to our curiosity? What happened to us, to lose that human spark that made us humans?" Ravensaw said in desperation. More he thought about the situation, less and less confidence he had in his fellow humans. Golgata reached to hug him.
"I do not know, but think about this. We no longer need to be like we have been. We could start over. This could be the time when we abandon our old ways and start anew. Perhaps.. it's time to stop protecting what we have and time to rebuild what we once had?"
"I do not know... I need you to leave. I need to make decisions soon. The council awaits my conclusion. They will decide the fate of humanity based on that." Ravensaw said and gestured towards the door. Golgata left, but not before giving a last look to slumped form of general Ravensaw.
She really deserved his hate for leaving him to deal with such matters alone.
Canterlot Canterlot Castle War room
"Generals, captains, humans might launch an attack against us at any moment." Celestia said to assembled generals and captains. Everyone looked shocked, except captain Lulamoon. "At the moment, status of Princess Luna is unknown, however the most reliable information available to us indicated that she has been..." Celestia fought to pish out the words. "Killed in action..."
This resulted in sharp gasps around the room. One of the Royal Princesses was dead? How was this possible? How could humans do it? What sort of sorcery was it? And now they were planning to attack Equestria?
"That's why I have called you here. We need to prepare ourselves for a possible war in near future. At the moment human government is in a crisis, they themselves are not sure what is going on. However, is certain groups within them succeed, we can expect human armies to cross the border or massive fleet of transports." Celestia continued.
"We need to have our observatories ready as soon as possible. Also, we need to reinforce our borders. Fighting retreat. It's no use to try to stop them at the border. Identify where their main attack will be and strike there." Captain Lulamoon said. Generals looked like she had stolen their glory, but knew that at the moment Princess Celestia listened to her. Besides, she had a point.
"We can have 2nd and 3rd army units reinforce Ghastly Gorge DMZ. I suggest we place 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th army units on reserve, to move in and reinforce our troops where needed." One of the generals spoke. Celestia nodded to this.
"I trust you will do whatever necessary. However, I will not allow pre-emptive assaults. If you excuse me, I must contact the Elements of Harmony." Generals nodded and saluted her, as did captains. "Captain Lulamoon, would you please accompany me?"
"Sure, your highness." Trixie followed her up the stairs, confused why Princess would want her to come with her.
"Tell me, captain, what are you thoughts of the possible war? Please, be honest with me". Celestia said as they reached the end of the stairs. Trixie considered telling confident lies, but decided otherwise.
"Honestly? We would lose. Lose badly. If the worst did happen and I assume it has, humans would not wage a war of conquest. It would be a war of vengeance, a war of genocide. They would slaughter us to last stallion and mare."
"So you do not believe that we could save Equestria."
"...No. I have seen how humans fight wars. We have many good warriors, but that is the problem. They are warriors, not soldiers. To them, a war is chance for glory and success. Humans are soldiers. To them, war is business like anything else. Something you do as quickly and efficiently as you can, with minimal lost. We can't afford a long war with the humans. Last time they wanted to keep the nature intact. This time they would not have such restriction."
"So what would you suggest, captain? So far you have been more honest and productive than my generals."
"I am not sure, your highness. Escape to Griffin Kingdom. Or at least evacuate as many ponies as we can. If humans decide to attack, Equestria will fall. It's not matter if or if not, it's matter of when."
"Tell me captain, do you miss the old times?"
"...To certain degree, yes."
"Hmm? Please, do elaborate."
"Life used to be more simple and more carefree than it is these days. No constant fear. No constant worry. No true knowledge what a war really is. My only worry was where I would hold my next show." Trixie looked trough a window, down where her troops were waiting. "On the other hand... I have changed. I used to me more callous, more... cowardly. But now? I want to escape, I want to hide from all death and pain, but when I see those stallions and mares out there? The same ones that followed me to Tartarus and back, just because they trusted me? I can't do it. More than I fear death, I fear their disapproval. It's... weird, really." Trixie shook her head. She really had changed trough the war. However, Celestia just smiled at her.
"Captain, if I had more generals like you, I would not fear for Equestria so much." She said and left Trixie in confusion.
Luna Aeternal District 1 The Office of General Ravensaw
Ravensaw went trough the highlights of videos he had. No doubt about it, this information was something that would decide the future actions of mankind. He had the keys to future and he didn't know what to do with them. Should he join Tarnheiser and help humanity to reclaim it's place as the rightful ruler of Earth? Or should he expose Tarnheiser, possibly destabilizing the entire government, but allow peace to continue?
Like so many times he turned his gaze towards the picture of his father and mother. What would they think of him? What would they say to him? He couldn't ask them. He picked up the chips that contained the truth. One small twist of fingers, and the proof would be gone forever. He could go and support Tarnheiser without any fear that he would be found out. Perhaps even join Terra's Children.
He looked down to the picture of his parents.
He made his decision. He picked up the chip and gave it one more look. History would decide if his choice was the correct one.
Her body felt heavy. Which was a good thing, considering that as long as she felt her body she was alive. Luna tried to shift herself, but was barely able to move any part of her body. She heard some faint sounds in the distance. Strangely enough, although her body felt like million ton statue, she herself felt like she was floating on a cloud. She felt herself drifting back to sleep... But could she go to sleep? What had happened? She tried to remember. She had been... somewhere... doing... something...
Well that didn't help much. She didn't know how long she was in that emptiness. She wasn't sure, but she thought she had slept occasionally. However, slowly but sure, her body started to move. Still, it took some time and tries before she finally was able to open her eyes. Too bright. She closed her eyes and tried again. Too bright. She kept repeating the process few times before finally having her eyes to adjust to the light.
She was in a small, white and metallic room. In she heard someone say something and tried to turn her head. She managed to twist is degree or two, but not much. Suddenly her vision was filled by a strange creature in a white coat. A... human? Yeah, that was the word. The creature was a human. Why was he or she staring her like that? Maybe she could ask him?
"Mblspts" Well that went well.
The human said something to someone else and Luna started to feel sleepy again. Oh well, guess it was mystery for another day...
Unknown location Unknown time
Luna felt much better now. She once again tried to open her eyes. Room was still the same, but this time she had much better understanding of her surroundings. She was in a human facility, but why? The place was apparently a hospital, judging by the looks of it. She once again tried to remember what had happened. She remembered going for a state visit in human capital and that some sort of crisis had happened, but she couldn't remember details.
"Waking up, Princess?" She heard a voice say. She managed to turn her head slightly to see a human approach her.
"Where..." Her throat felt dry as a desert. There was also other strange feelings, as she was missing something from her body.
"Do not try to move or talk. You have been medically induced coma for last 2 weeks. It's a small miracle you have woken up at all. By our understanding of biology, you should be dead. However, it appears that being an alicorn has some benefits to it." Human said while holding her eye open and shining some bright light on it. After being satisfied he shut down the light and let go of her head. She blinked rapidly before his words sank in.
"2... weeks?"
"Yes. Can you remember anything? What is the last thing you remember?"
"Stonewall... we found him... ran away..."
"Good, good. Only minor memory loss. We were afraid you had suffered major damage to your brains, but it appears you are mentally OK." The human said and wrote something on his PDA. "Rest now Princess. We will contact your sister. She will be happy to hear that you are alive." The human smiled at her.
"Where am... I?"
"You are in The Ganymede Hospital, sector 1. When you were brought here we weren't even sure if you would live. However, are happy to admit that we were wrong and you are very much alive."
"I see..." Luna felt once again sleepy, but tried to fight it. The human appeared to notice this, however.
"No no no, don't fight it. You need to sleep. You will feel much better when you wake up next time. Perhaps your sister has arrived here by then, yes?" Another smile. "You have suffered extensive injuries, many which will take years to fully heal. Or would, if were you a human. Since you are an alicorn, we can only guess. Rest now. We will be here when you wake up next."
Luna gave up and drifted to dreamless sleep.
Luna Aeternal District 1 Ganymede Hospital Unknown Time
Luna was woke up again, once again feeling much better than previously. She tried to stand up, but once again it seemed like some parts of her body refused to move. So she just raised her head slightly. Her room was empty, but blinking light on the corner told her she was being watched. Indeed, very quickly the human from earlier arrived in her room, accompanied by two females.
"Awake already, Princess? It's been only two days since you woke last time. Indeed, if you weren't a hero and alive, I would love to study your biology. However, I do not disrespect those who have been awarded Star of Terra. How are you feeling today?"
"I am feeling very well, thank you. Who are you?" Luna asked. This time talking was much easier, her throat no longer felt like a sandpaper.
"I am Doctor Fritz. These here are my assistants, nurse Matilda and nurse Joy. We have been working with you these past 2 weeks now."
"Last time you said two weeks?" Luna asked in confusion.
"Indeed I said so. However, a new week has started! Your sister was overjoyed to hear that you have finally awakened and is currently coming here. Heard that The First Citizen made quite a scene when the council wished to prevent such thing. Apparently made them all ashamed of themselves."
"The bomb! Did I succeed? Were the people saved?"
"I am afraid I can't answer that at the moment. The First Citizen will see you in a moment, once I contact him. Of course, if you feel tired and wish to sleep you are fully entitled to do so! The First Citizen gave very strict orders that you are to be treated with exceptional care and respect and indeed, you deserve it."
Luna tried to stand up and finally realized what had been nagging her for a while. She was missing her right front hoof. She also realized she wasn't feeling her left hind leg.
"Doctor... I think I failed... please tell me the truth. That is all I ask of you." Luna pleaded and tried her best puppy eyes impression. She noticed that she was having trouble with her depth vision.
"...The bomb detonated, destroying the entire 5th District. 1.2 million people died during the initial explosion. More in collateral damage. Total of 2.3 million people died. However, thanks to your efforts, the bomb was significantly weaker than normally. Without you, we would also lost Districts 4, 6, 7 and 8." Dictor Fritz said slowly. "Your assistant Twilight Sparkle survived, as well as Royal Guard named Silent Storm and two human soldiers, private Resnok and Quin. All four have been awarded Star of Terra. Thanks to your effort to bring them back, as well as sergeant Smith, who died during the teleport, the conspiracy to reignite the war was uncovered and exposed."
"Then... there is still a peace? We avoided the war?" Luna said, fearing for the worst.
"You should not worry about that. You should rest, The First Citizen will be here shortly.
"How bad was I when I was brought in? Or how come I am even alive? I know that I was supposed to die in that explosion. It was too powerful to contain or absorb like I hoped."
"Yes, you were... well, let me not sugarcoat it. You were one inch away from death. You are missing right front hoof as well as entire left back leg. Your left wing is entirely gone and your right one has only half of it left. The sight from your left eye is also gone, although we managed to keep it, so you are not missing an eye, only the sight from it. Then there are scars and burns all over your body. The recovery team said they found you in some sort of magic field. Do you remember casting it?"
"No, I do not remember anything. I barely remember trying to contain the explosion. I remember it hurt like never before..."
"Yes, I see. Then I guess it was a subconscious action, perhaps a reflex. Very well, I shall not tire you further. The First Citizen will here soon."
Luna had waited for a hour or two before Ravensaw entered the room.
"Princess Luna, good to see that you are alive." He greeted her.
"It feels good to be alive, general. Will The First Citizen join us soon?" Luna asked him.
"I'm afraid I must bring bad news. The First Citizen Modigal is dead. He was killed by the traitor forces during the chaos. As for now, I have been made The First Citizen and given emergency powers to dictate how humanity deals with this situation." Ravensaw said as he sat down a chair next to her bed.
"Dead? By the moon and stars... what about others? Is Twilight Sparkle OK? What about my guards?"
"Miss Sparkle is fine and has returned to surface already. So has the sole remaining Royal Guard. As for other two survivors, they are currently in on a leave from the force. Private Quin is taking therapy. As for private Resnok, well, as far as I know he has been demanding to be let to participate in his normal duties as soon as possible."
"When can I leave? I know this may sound rude, but... I wish to return to Canterlot."
"Yes, I can understand that. However, I ask you to remain here until you have healed enough to travel, at least. Then there is the issue with your missing limbs. I would normally offer you that we would clone you new organs and limbs, but the damage done to you and differing physiology creates a problem. I can offer mechanical limb for you, to replace your missing leg." Ravensaw said. "Also... I wish to thank you. Thank you for trying to help us. If you hadn't brought those people back to us... we wouldn't know. We would be launching an all-out assault against Equesteria. Yet, when I reviewed the data we got from the survivors... I couldn't allow that to happen. Too many lost their lived trying to prevent the war."
"I am sorry I couldn't do anything more. I tried to contain it, tried to absorb it but... it was too much. Too much energy, even for me. I doubt even Celestia could have dealt with his. It is a horrifying weapon. Why do you have such weapon?"
"Because we have lost means to decommission it. Ancient archives speak of prototype anti-matter reactors, reactors that would allow us to harness the power. However, that data is long lost. We do not know how to build such device. Nor do we know how to destroy such weapon safely. That's why we have The Vault. We have lost many technologies, one of them how to safely decommission anti-matter weapons. They are horrifying weapons and sometimes we wonder, why did our ancestors build them? Why did they brought them with them to here?" Ravensaw shrugged his shoulders "I guess they had their reasons. Well, there is one less now. We have lost knowledge to safely dispose them, but we have also lost the knowledge to build them."
"I see..." Both remained silent for a moment, before Luna decided to ask something.
"My sister... how is she?"
"Very well, except tired. She was worried about you, despite the assassination attempt."
"What!? Is she OK? Did they..."
"Calm down. The assassination happened when you were inside District 5. Your sister is OK. She was saved by Captain Lulamoon, as far as I know." Ravensaw said raising his hand. "She will arrive in two or three days, depending how the trip goes. I gave her permission to visit you, although only for a day."
"Why only for a day?"
"Because our government is a mess right now. ISA went nuts when I came forth with all the evidence and arrested several councilors and ministers. At the moment, I am pretty much an emergence dictator. My people are running the show. I intend to step down once we got this mess cleared up, perhaps in a month or two. In that time, we need to refill the council and re-elect ministers."
"I see... I'm glad that the peace was maintained... I was so worried."
"It came pretty close. I nearly ran out of time. I had to arrest Tarnheiser in middle of a speech to the council. So much for a stealthy approach. Then again, it allowed me to move more quickly, since I didn't need to fear getting exposed. It reminds me... I need to ask a favor from you."
"What kind of favor?"
"Do not talk about what happened in District 5. Nothing. Not what you saw, not what you learned, nothing. We are keeping worst of it under wraps for now. We have only released limited amount of information to the public. The council might have nominated me as The First Citizen and given me emergency powers, but that was after I... persuaded them little bit. Nobody buys it anyway and I don't expect them to buy it. This is coup d'etat, pure and simple. However, everyone accepts it for now. We don't have much of a choice, alternative is to allow the government to crumble as people would resign out of disgust or get arrested. If someone asks, just tell them it's a request from The First Citizen."
"I am sorry to hear what this tragedy has brought on your people. I wish I could have done more..."
"Do not blame yourself. This is our fault. We allowed this to happen. We allowed ourselves to be blinded to the hate that started to consume us. Now we pay the price."
After the visit from The First Citizen Ravensaw, rest of the day was spend in silence. Luna found out that being imprisoned (even if not actually in prison, but unable to leave her bed) on the moon was much worse than being imprisoned in the moon. For started, you got bored a lot more quicker. She was already getting bored counting bolts on the walls, or how many tons of steel had been required for the construction. She had asked if there was anything to do and humans had brought in a PDA with several books stored in to it and what humans called 'television'. Most of the shows were something she didn't get. Some took little more time to figure out. Why did those two keep beating each other up, until other one fell down unconscious? Then she had remembered that ponies used to have similar, although less violent sports. Wrestling was one. Humans apparently called this 'boxing', although she failed to see connection between a box and punching other person in the face repeatedly.
After two days, a whirlwind busted in to her room.
"LUNA! THANK THE SUN YOU ARE OK!" Celestia said as she hugged her sister.
"Tia... air..." Luna said with an effort. She had managed to turn even more blue somehow. Celestia released her with a sheepish grin. After finally catching her breath, Luna smiled for her sister. "Missed me?"
"Don't even joke, Luna. I was so worried about you. Then they told me you were inch away from death and refused to let me come to visit you. I was so happy to hear that you had awakened." Celestia said and nuzzled her sister.
"I'm glad to be alive even if... slightly disabled..." Luna said. The fact that she was missing limbs was only now starting to sink in. "How I am going to go on living, Tia? What will ponies think of me when they see me?" She said, her voice barely audible.
"You are strong, Luna... Don't let this take you down. I know you can handle this. Have you spoken with anyone yet? Humans have very good understanding of medicine. Perhaps they could clone you new limbs? I know they do it with their own people."
"Yes. I spoke with The First Citizen Ravensaw already. He offered a mechanical leg to replace the one I am missing... but... should I do it? Can I appear in front of ponies, as a part-machine? A machine that comes from those who live on the moon. There is already voice claiming that I am still Nightmare Moon. Wouldn't that just convince them further?" Luna asked. Celestia remained silent for a moment, pondering this.
"I don't care what they think. I want you to be happy. It is not right to confine you to bed or something. You should be able to move. You may never again fly, but that should not mean you are to be confined to your bed, if there is an alternative." Celestia gave Luna a smile. "It doesn't matter if your body is magic, flesh or machine. You are my sister. That is all that matters." Celestia took something out the bag she had brought with herself. "Besides, the voices who whispered of Nightmare Moon are very silent at the moment, afraid to be heard by those who heard of your bravery."
Celestia laid hundreds of 'Get well soon' cards in front of Luna. There were, of course, cards from Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pies card exploded into confetti when opened, which somehow didn't surprise Luna. Then there were other cards, many from who Luna didn't personally know. Silent Storm had send a card too. They all wished her quick recovery and return to Canterlot. Pinkie Pie promised to hold a party when she would return. Luna smiled at that.
"They all miss you, Luna. The guards, once they heard from Silent Storm what had happened, gathered up and were ready to capture a transport just to get you back. It took quite a lot of convincing to make them wait." Celestia gave mischievous smile. Also, there had been few... unexplained assaults at those who have spoken ill of you."
"I'm glad they are worried of me. I too want to return to Canterlot as soon as possible. However, doctors are not allowing me to leave just yet. They want to make sure I am completely healed before I am discharged. Perhpas we can be more often in contact, now that i am awake?" Luna asked "Canterlot embassy does have communications equipment, doesn't it?"
"Yes. I shall speak to The First Citizen. Meanwhile, you get better." Celestia turned to look at the door and closed it. "Now... You don't need to do this, if you don't want but... can you tell me what happened? I know what Ravensaw told me, but no more. He hides behind national security." Celestia asked. Luna thought for a moment, whenever she should or should not tell Celestia what she had witnessed.
"Did Twilight tell you?"
"She did, but I want to hear from you."
"...Not here. Please. Ravensaw asked me to remain silent. They might hear us here. I will tell you when we are at Canterlot." Luna said. Celestia accepted this, as she didn't want to push her sister. Rest of the meeting was spend on idle chit-chat, before a nurse told Celestia that meeting time was over and that the security was here to return her to surface. Celestia gave Luna her farewells before leaving. Luna watched as her sister left and then started to think about conversations they just had.
As the doctor entered the room, she turned to speak to him.
"Doctor... The First Citizen spoke of mechanical leg to replace the lost one."
"Yes. We could build one, specifically suited for you. It will take sometime, at least a month to get used to it and use it like it was a natural extension of your body. If you are wondering of cosmetics, we will provide you with covers that hide the mechanical parts. It will look like your natural leg would."
"... How soon can you make me one?"
"Are you sure? Not everyone gets used to the augs. Some complain that they are unnatural. It should be decision after long considerations."
"Doctor. I can't fly anymore and if I don't take up on this chance, I will be confined to a bed or a chair. Please." Luna said while looking directly at the doctor. The doctor remained silent for a moment before nodding.
"I will talk to our people."
Luna watched through her TV as human conducted a ceremony for their. Although on the screen she saw hundreds of thousands, she knew that millions watched the ceremony like she did. Humans started to sing their song. Luna watched as the single voice started the song.
I tell you, I tell you, the day shall come, for the age of darkness is just about done! We sing to our youth, and to days come and gone for the end to all evil, for death to all our foes
More voices joined the song, giving it strength. Luna realized this was how the song was supposed to be sang. One voice starting it, others joining to strengthen it.
Believe, believe, for we shall rise, and once again the glory of Terra shall shine! We'll drive out the evil from the lands of our own, with our blood and our steel we will take back our home.
Humans were at the same time social and solitary creatures. In the times of plenty, they drifted apart, but in times of peril they sought strength in numbers and friendship.
Now hear us, now hear us, to you we have sworn: we shall reclaim our place in the world! For the darkness has passed, and yet our strength grows. you'll know, you'll know we have come.
No matter how much it cost them, they would return. Now they had and it had cost them dearly. Song continued further and grew on strength. She heard from the hallway as others joined in it. She did feel something inside herself, something telling that she should join the song. She didn't know the words but it seemed secondary to not being silent. She remained silent as the voiced nagged her to join the song, to affirm that she was there, she would not go into the night... where had that thought come from?
Luna watched as humans finished their song. Perhaps they did have their own magic. When humanity joined together, it expressed this magic. With that magic, nothing was outside their reach. She didn't know what it was, but she could feel it at that moment. Humanity had unconsciously made decision, decision held by all humans. They would not die here. They would not leave legacy of death and destruction. They would choose another path.
For some reason, she was proud of them. She didn't know why.
Canterlot The Human Embassy Landing pad 4 months after The Lunar Crisis
Twilight was nervous. It had been 4 months since The Lunar Crisis, as it was now called. Humans had send a word that Princess Luna was finally being released from the hospital. She had finally been able to master her new leg (or legs, if you counted the small replacement hoof) and was allowed to return to normal life. She had seen pictures send by Luna with her new leg and humans had stayed true to their word. Unless you actually tried to look for it, you didn't notice that her leg wasn't the original one.
Ravensaw had stepped down from his position as The First Citizen and had retired from his duty. He and general Tarnheiser were waiting for a joint trial concerning events of Lunar Crisis and the war crimes. Ravensaw had surrendered himself to the trial after stepping down, as a peace offering. Tarnheisers opinion on the matter had been ignored and he too was facing the trial. Other generals had been left alone, as per Ravensaws request. Several other deals had been made too, although less important ones.
Pretty much entire Canterlot was outside the embassy. Someone had leaked that Princess Luna was returning and now everyone was waiting. Humans and Royal Guard were currently keeping them outside. Meanwhile, ISA was trying to catch an anomaly called Pinkie Pie who had somehow managed to make the whole place into a big party. Even after cleaning the place up, she had somehow pulled a cannon out of nowhere and just fixed the decorations. The ambassador was trying her earnest not laugh at the sign of black clad spec-ops people trying to catch the pink pony, only to fail in a spectacular fashion.
Then she saw a red shape on the sky. The human transport was piercing the atmosphere before slowing down. It slowed down and turned slightly. After a while, it touched the landing pad and opened it's door. Princess Luna walked out accompanied by two human guards. Those who had not seen the pictures of her gasped. Her mane and skin had healed and her fur hid the scars, except the one that ran on the left side of her face. Humans had tried to save as much as they could of her wing, but weren't completely successful. It hadn't recovered all the feathers it used to have. Then again, it didn't matter much. It was only a half of the wing and she was missing the other one. She would never fly on her own again.
Still, she was looking much better than she had when Twilight had first seen her. She had all four legs now. She was walking and humans had given her a contact lens that made it look like she still had her eyesight. She was looking much more healthy.
"Princess Luna, on behalf of the embassy staff, welcome back to Canterlot." Fahrenheit greeted Luna.
"It is good to be back, ambassador." Luna answered with a smile as she stood down from the stairs and walked over to Celestia. "I'm home, sister."
"Welcome home." Celestia said with a smile. At that moment an ISA agent gave a yelp and seemed fall from a local tree. Pinkie Pie appeared from the branches.
"Silly human, that's not how you climb in a tree! Oh, hi Princess Luna! Look, I set up a party for you, like I promised! It's 'Welcome Back Home' party!"
Twilight laughed alongside others and shook her head. Life was back to normal.
