FimFiction Link - Short ID: 413718/machina-cor-armageddon
Published: Jul '19 — Dec '20
AU Equestria is at war with Sombra's empire, and it's going badly. Dr. Sparkle, a magicless unicorn and borderline psychopath, develops a way to give a pony the magic of a second tribe, turning them into a nearly unkillable supersoldier. She applies this to the three ponies on the cover - Lightning Dust, Sunset Shimmer, and Marble Pie - and sends them out to fight Sombra's linnorms, twisted monsters created by dark magic, in hopes of turning the tide of the war.
I really enjoyed this fic. It's much darker than I usually like my horsewords, with several major characters getting brutally killed throughout the story, but the characters, the worldbuilding, and the somewhat anime-style fight scenes make up for it. There are no called attacks, thankfully, but there is lots of shouting, along the lines of "You think you can beat me? I'll never back down!" and so on.
Two words of warning:
>1. Celestia is a major antagonist, and Twilight comes across as a borderline psychopath for most of the fic. If you're particularly attached to these characters, you might not enjoy this.
>2. Important lore segments and the epilogue are included as author's notes, for some reason. Make sure whatever format you're reading in will display those