//------------------------------// // Ch33: Studies in Warfare // Story: Equestria: The Afterlife // by Timzocker201 //------------------------------// POV: Twilight I woke up the morning after with a feeling of emptiness. Not in a bad way, though. It was more like a feeling of satisfaction that originated from the empty space to my left… as well as from the now empty space between my hind legs… I slowly opened my eyes, feeling a bit groggy with the bliss from the morning after, and looked to my left, where I found Rainbow Dash lying beside the slight indent that Markus had made during his sleep. At that moment, I felt a slight spurt of affection towards the cyan Pegasus flare up inside me. It wasn’t like I loved her directly. More like we were connected in our love for somepony else: Markus. Rainbow was slowly waking up as well. Her eyelids opened in a slow movement, stopping halfway and allowing her to give me a half-lidded, satisfied smile. “Morning, egghead.” She groaned sleepily. I greeted her with a smile myself and shared a long look with her. Then, almost without my own input, I, or rather we slowly shifted ourselves over, to occupy the middle. We lay close to each other, our foreheads and muzzles touching and our breaths coating the other’s snout in a thin layer of moisture and then… we made out… It was almost like we both had the same strange idea at the same time. We both leaned in together, we both opened our muzzles together and we both explored the other’s muzzle together. All of this was fuelled by a sudden burst of passion I felt inside me, combined with the still glowing bliss of the night before. The room was almost completely silent, the only sounds being some sporadic wet slurps from us, as well as the shower running in the background. We slowly broke the kiss and then stared at each other for a while longer, before nestling into the covers once more and swimming in the leftover bliss from last night’s events, as well as the warmth that Markus had left in the spot where he came to sleep at last. The sounds of the shower soon faded and Markus came back. Though, instead of lying back down between us, he sat down on the desk and started to write, probably not even noticing that we were already awake. I didn’t mind that at all though, instead finding the rhythmic scribbling of the quill on the blank parchment to only amplify what I was already feeling. He wrote on for quite a few minutes and probably would even have written more, if it wasn’t for Spike suddenly running upstairs and opening the door. “Twilight!” He called out and I noticed that he was holding a letter with the royal seal in his claw. The moment he stepped through the door to my sleeping cove, he froze, probably a bit weirded out from seeing me and Rainbow in one bed and so close together at that. He looked over to the desk, where Markus was still sitting and gave him a slack jawed stare. “Are you okay with this?” He asked while holding a claw out towards us. Markus looked over to us, likely finally realizing that we were awake, before looking back to Spike and giving a shrug. “Well, yes, I am. Are you not?” Rainbow’s face formed into a playful smirk and she shifted around to face Spike directly. “Maybe you aren’t experienced enough yet, to know what’s going on?” “Well, you are one to talk, Rainbow.” I thought, holding back a giggle and from the corner of my eye I could see Markus do the same. “Hey, don’t you want to know, what we were up to, last evening? Or maybe you’d rather know what we did… last night.” She teased, causing Spike to heavily blush and shake his head. “N-No, no, no!” He stammered, “I-I am actually just here because there’s a letter… for Twilight… from Celestia…” I shuffled out of bed and as soon as I had, Rainbow quickly occupied Markus’s still-warm indent. I took the letter from Spike’s claw, unrolled it and read aloud: Dear Twilight, A matter of utmost importance has come up which requires you, the Elements, as well as Captain Becker and his company to come to Canterlot as soon as possible. A special train has been dispatched and the switches have been set to allow for you to come here as fast as possible. I am afraid we are facing a catastrophe, greater than every problem you have faced so far combined. Signed, Princess Celestia A heavy silence hung over the room, broken only by the sounds of everyday life coming from outside, oblivious to the news that had just reached us. Then, as if on cue, we all started off to quickly get ourselves ready. Rainbow flew out of the window to get the others assembled, while I hurried to get myself washed up and Markus got his equipment, before we both rushed out the front door, where we almost crashed into Mystic Gem. “Captain!” She shouted in surprise, “Good that I found you, Captain. The General wants us to-“ “I know.” Markus interrupted, “Tell everyone that they are to get ready for redeployment. We will assemble at the station in twenty minutes.” The mare saluted quickly, before running off to relay the orders Markus had given. We on the other hoof made haste to get to the station ourselves, where we then waited for everypony and the train to arrive. Soon, we all stood in wait and Markus gave a quick briefing to his company, before the train finally arrived and we boarded it. It seemed to be the same train that had taken us into the crystal empire, only that instead of overnight wagons, it had a few second-class wagons and a single first class wagon this time around. The soldiers all took the second-class wagons, leaving the first class to us. The train departed with a loud whistle and the screeching sound of metal rubbing on metal, morphing its sounds into the soft clicking that we all knew from train rides. Apart from these sounds, there was absolute silence. Nopony spoke a word. Not until Rarity finally broke the silence after about an hour. “Does anypony know, what this ‘urgent matter’ may be?” I saw everypony loosen up slightly, as she asked this, as if this very question had been lingering in all their heads for a while now. “I don’t know. Princess Celestia didn’t tell me in the letter and so far, I haven’t heard anything else. Markus, do you know anything?” Markus didn’t answer. He just sat there with a stoic expression, his chin resting on his thumbs and his hands forming a roof over his mouth. “Markus?” He still didn’t say anything, but I could somehow feel, what was going on. Shining Armor has told him, but he couldn’t share his knowledge without exposing his true relation to my brother. Silence befell us again and it remained until we reached Canterlot after only another hour. When we arrived, we all were in awe at what we saw. The whole Canterlot station was filled with trains from all of Equestria and we saw Guards streaming from each of them. Soon, we ourselves filed out of the train as well and Markus split off to organize his troops while we went to see the princesses. “Hello, dear Twilight.” Celestia greeted, as we reached them. “I hope you and your friends have been doing well?” We both briefly hugged and then I answered her. “Yes, we all are well, although, your letter really put a damper on our mood. Speaking of which, what is this ‘urgent matter’ you have mentioned?” Celestia’s smile abruptly dropped. She and Luna shared a short look, before Celestia finally sighed and looked back to us. “Please don’t panic at this, but it appears that… the Gryphon Kingdom has declared war upon us.” A collective gasp erupted from my friends and me. Out of all the things we were prepared to face, war was definitely not one of them. For a moment, none of us knew what to say and none of us needed to say any more. We all were now fully aware of the danger we found ourselves in. It was then, that another train reached the station, bearing the markings of the Crystal Empire. When it stopped, I saw not only a whole battalion of crystal guards, but also Cadence and Shining Armor disembark from the train. Both of them made their way over to us and Cadence actually started to run, when she spotted me. “Twilight!” She called out, before coming to a full stop before us and starting to chant: “Sunshine, Sunshine…” but she stopped after she noticed that I didn’t chime in. The news were still too heavy on my mind to actually do this and Cadence quickly realized that. “So, aunt Celestia has already told you what had happened, huh?” I quickly nodded and looked over to my brother, who seemed like there were many things on his mind right that moment. That wasn’t really odd, given that he was in charge of the Crystal Guard and the Royal Guard, which meant that he had a lot on his hooves due to the war. “Now that everypony is here, I suppose it is time we made our way to the Palace and meet the Generals.” Celestia said, before turning around and trotting off, but she stopped after just a few steps and looked back over her shoulder. “Oh and Twilight? Even considering what happened with your brother the last time, I believe it would be wise to have Markus attend as well.” I did as she implied and went to Markus to tag him along. We then departed together and made our way towards the Palace into the room, where Markus and I had been brought almost half a year ago, when he was showing his abilities for the first time. We weren’t the only ones in the room though, this time around. This time, the room was filled with several Generals, one of them being General Pillbox, who were all standing around the map in the middle and were staring at Markus with different levels of confusion and/or disdain. “Princess Celestia…” One of the more decorated Generals spoke up, “I thought this to be a meeting of the General staff. What are those civilians doing here? Not to mention that I can’t remember the newcomer having been promoted already.” Markus didn’t react at all to the stallion, leaving it to Celestia to berate her general. “General Flatters, I believe you should be aware that these ponies are no mere civilians, but the Elements of Harmony. As for the Captain… you may have heard about his exploits up until now and apart from that he is the only one in this room beside Luna and me, who has experience in warfare.” The generals shared a short glance at each other, some growling in contempt, others seeming slightly more welcoming towards Markus. The princesses and Shining joined the generals at the map, while Markus, my friends and I placed ourselves slightly behind them. “Now, I think it would be a good start to find out, why they chose this exact time to attack. I mean we all know the threat that was made earlier by Sharp Beak and which he made true now, but it seems a bit odd that he did this only now, a few months after the transgression.” One of the Generals started, causing the bundle to fall into mumblings towards each other, going on about different strategic possibilities, before General Pillbox spoke up between them. “I think, if the Princess really has that much faith in Captain Becker, then why not have him answer that question?” They all turned around to look at Markus, who in turn made a step forward and went into his signature ‘at ease’ stance. “As you wish, General. First off, may I inquire, how many mares are there in the guard, in percent?” “About sixty three percent.” I quickly answered, earning me some very astounded looks by almost all the generals present. “All right. Now, as you all know, heat week has started just yesterday, which means that all our mares are incapacitated if they don’t take their medicine and even though the emergency protocol forces them to take it, the side-effects will likely render them a lot less effective in combat. That and it would be very foolish to attack during winter.” Markus concluded his observation by giving a brief salute and moving to return back to us, but was stopped by General Pillbox. “If you are so well aware of the situation, I am sure you already have a plan ready, don’t you?” Markus stopped for a moment and looked on with a blank stare, before giving a mischievous smile towards Shining Armor. “Well, as you’ve correctly assessed earlier, I am not a general. It is not my role to make detailed plans. Merely to execute them.” He said this as if he was actually genuine about it, but by the looks he and my brother were exchanging, I was pretty sure that he just uttered some kind of a challenge towards Shining. A challenge, which he quickly picked up on. “That is quite correct, Captain. It is not your purpose to make the bigger plans, but ours. Gentlecolts, I think I do have a plan.” He leaned over towards the map and pointed a hoof at a large line which likely represented the front line. “We cannot risk opposing them directly just yet, due to our overall strength being compromised due to heat week. Thus, we will instead turn to a more defensive strategy, holding them off while we can, but still slowly retreating, hoping to stretch out their supply lines a bit, while we wait for heat week to end. Once all our mares are free from the heat symptoms, we will launch an offensive. Though, we won’t attack on the whole front at once, but rather concentrate our attacks on a few key points.” As he finished, he looked over to Markus, who gave an over-exaggerated look of surprise in return, though going by my brother`s brief smile, I think that Markus was congratulating him over the thought-bridge. “Very well, that does indeed sound like a reasonable plan. Now, Twilight, I am sure that you are wondering why I have called you here as well. With a heavy heart, I wanted to ask you and your friends to participate in our war effort, to help save Equestria once more.” Celestia said, which caused an immediate reaction from Markus. “WHAT?! Princess, you can’t be serious! I mean, Rainbow Dash would be understandable, since she is a wonderbolt cadet, but the others? They are just civilians!” “That may be correct, but they are also our most powerful weapon, as you may know.” Celestia said back. “A weapon that can turn corrupted ponies back into loyal subjects, yes, but these Gryphons aren’t corrupted! They are our enemies, BECAUSE they are loyal subjects!” Markus almost shouted, as he slowly grew more agitated. “They are also very capable of defending themselves if need-be.” Celestia added. “Against small groups of enemies, yes, but we are talking about a whole ARMY and-“ “ENOUGH!” Celestia interrupted him with a use of her Royal Canterlot Voice, “I have made my decision and you are in no place to question it!” Her anger faded quickly, making way for a look of utter shock at her own words. “Very well. I have voiced my objection, but I adhere to your orders, your highness.” Markus said flatly, turning on the spot and marching back to us. “If you are so concerned about the Elements then I will gladly put them under your care.” Celestia added quickly, eliciting a quick ‘yeah, thanks’ from Markus. “Whooee, don’t worry, Markus, I’m sure we’ll do just fine.” Applejack tried to calm him, but managed only the opposite. “You know, it is exactly this innocent enthusiasm that worries me the most…” After the meeting was over, Markus returned to his unit and all the guards assembled themselves in a large formation in the central plaza of Canterlot. A large pedestal was placed directly in front of them, on which we princesses stood, facing the formation. It looked mostly like a gigantic blob of white and gold, with only four segments sticking out. Namely it were the Solar guard on the left, which wore a large, orange saddlecloth underneath their armour, which additionally had a silvery colour instead of the standard gold. Then there was the Lunar Guard to the right, who wore their standard dark blue Armour with fin-like protrusions on their helmets, as well as having their coats coloured a dark grey. Also there were the crystal guard, shimmering slightly on the front left of the formation, wearing their light pink armour. And lastly, of course, there was Markus’s company, standing on the front right in their woodland camouflage uniforms and with their coats coloured a deep brown. While I was busy looking over the guards, Celestia walked to the front end of the pedestal and delivered a speech. “My little ponies, I am certain that rumors have already made their way into your ears and sadly, I am here to confirm them. Yes, the Gryphon Empire has declared war upon us and is violating our beloved homeland this very instant. As a ruler, of course, I am concerned about the future of Equestria, of the nation that my sister and I have built over the centuries, but that sorrow is vastly overshadowed by my concern over those poor ponies that may not have fled quickly enough and are now trapped under foreign rule. We cannot allow our little ponies to come to harm and that’s why we ask your service in this dreadful moment. We ask of you no less than to aid our cause in keeping Equestria safe and if necessary do so with your very life. It is not a simple thing to ask and I shall respect everypony’s decision if they wish to drop out. So I ask you now: are you willing to heed our call?” A collective ‘YES, Princess!’ erupted from the formation. “You have my sincere thanks. Now, follow your leaders! Sally out and free those poor ponies from our enemies!” With that, the whole formation set into motion and we followed close behind, as Markus and his ponies boarded a train and went for the front lines. During the first week, not much happened. Like my brother had planned, we made some brief defensive stances and retreated as soon as the enemy began to overwhelm us. This held our losses at a very minimal level and also meant that we Elements actually never came to fight. That is, until the first week ended and we were called to attack. Markus was tasked to secure the town of Trottingham and so, we made haste to reach it. As soon as we were there, Markus ordered Bulkhead and Overdrive to secure the buildings around us, while Mystic, Markus and us were moving along the main road into the town square. We didn’t encounter a single enemy on our way, which seemed to gravely unsettle Markus and Mystic. In fact, we didn’t encounter anypony at all… When we reached the square, Bulkhead and Overdrive re-joined our group to receive new orders, while we looked around a bit. The town square was a large plaza with shops set up around it and roads coming in from every cardinal direction except one, where there was a large church instead. I went to study the church’s construction and briefly noted that Overdrive and Mystic had received order from Markus to secure the rest of the city, while Bulkhead was to establish a perimeter. Those orders, however, never were fulfilled, as their actions were interrupted by a low whirling sound, followed by a large boulder impacting in the middle of the plaza. Markus immediately screamed for us to take cover, an order which everypony quickly followed. Everypony, but I. More boulders followed, quickly developing into an outright hailstorm of rocks and yet, I still didn’t manage to move. Suddenly, I heard a loud impact from above me, which was finally enough to free me from my trauma, but it was too late… A few falling bricks already hinted at the worst and I looked upwards just to see the massive belfry of the church come falling down towards me. I closed my eyes, certain that my end has come. I had already laid down my life, when a sudden crack emanated from my far right and I was suddenly slammed out of the way, just before the belfry hit the ground in a loud crash. At first, I thought that Rainbow had come to help me in the last second, but I quickly noticed that I wasn’t feeling the texture of fur, but of a uniform. I opened my eyes and saw that it was indeed Markus who had saved me from being crushed to death, but I could not comprehend, how he did that. “That? Oh well, it’s actually quite simple. You know, recently I found out that I can’t just form shapes with my magic, but actually use it to propel myself by placing it under or behind me and moving it around. Though, in all seriousness, I don’t know how the g-forces on that one didn’t kill me. I mean I went from a complete standstill to supersonic in literally no time and yet, I am still alive… well, magic, I guess…” As he finished this statement, we noticed that the hailstorm had abruptly ceased, something that Markus found very strange. He sent Rainbow up to see if she could find any Gryphons in close vicinity. She went off and almost immediately came back with wide eyes and a nervous stammer. “Gryphons… Close… Coming…” Markus reacted quickly, forming a plan to defend our position. His plan was to utilize the plaza as a large trap. He would place some of his soldiers in the buildings around it, while a few soldiers and he would act as a decoy to lure the gryphons into the middle, so they could be fired upon from all sides at once. That meant that those who were in the middle would not only have to face the enemy in melee, but also be threatened by friendly fire, so he was now searching for volunteers. My friends and I volunteered almost immediately for the job, but he wanted us to hide inside the buildings instead, so I pulled the old princess order again. Oh, how foolish I was… He found his volunteers and the rest scuttled into the buildings just in time for the Gryphons to reach the plaza and lay eyes upon us. With a loud screech, they charged towards us, some flying low, others running on the ground. The other volunteers fired as much they could and the Gryphons answered with arrows. I quickly built a magic shield around us to protect us from them, but I wasn’t fast enough, as I suddenly heard a pain-filled scream behind me. I looked around and saw with horror that Applejack was lying on the ground, an arrow firmly lodged in her flank. Fluttershy quickly moved to help her, but couldn’t remove the arrow, for risk of making the wound even bigger. Soon, the Gryphons reached the plaza, where they moved to completely surround us before engaging us in close combat. The ponies in the buildings immediately opened fire as soon as the circle was closed, but that didn’t stop the Gryphons from pulling us into the fight. Soon, we all were engaged in melee combat, although on our part, that would be best described as ‘trying to survive’. Rainbow immediately went off to try the same stunt she had pulled in the Everfree, but was almost immediately thrown to the ground by another Gryphon, where they then wrestled with each other. Markus took on multiple opponents at once, almost recklessly slashing through the hordes with Gryphons coming in from behind him almost continuously. Though, every time they tried to hit his back, their blades just seemed to bounce off of a suddenly appearing black panel, which vanished just as fast as it came before Markus turned around and struck a blow of his own towards his opponent. It was only after a few of these displays that I realized that it was indeed Markus’s own magic that was creating these ‘shields’, if you so will. I, meanwhile, was fending off the Gryphons with blast after blast of stun spell, but they seemed completely unaffected. Every time I hit them, they flew back a bit and then almost immediately got back up again. Pinkie was using her party cannon as a weapon again and was actually doing pretty decent with it. Until a Gryphon managed to sneak behind her, that is. I barely managed to call out to her, before he made a slash towards her chest. She tried to evade, but didn’t manage in time, causing the blade to rip a large, oozing gash into her coat. She fell to the ground, writhing in pain and the Gryphon went to finish her off, but was luckily blasted away by a spell from Rarity, before she then tended to Pinkie. Slowly but surely, this whole situation came down on me like the bricks in a barely maintained ceiling. The pained moans from Applejack, Pinkie’s cries, the screams of Ponies and Gryphons around me, it all hammered at my psyche, slowly breaking it like a dome of glass. I finally couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t want other ponies to be hurt, I didn’t want my friends to be hurt, I didn’t want MARKUS to be hurt. So, in a purely emotion-fuelled notion, I charged my horn with a deadly blast of magic and unleashed it upon the gryphons. I don’t know how many I killed and, frankly, I don’t want to know either. I just know that, when my blast ceded, so did the fighting and the remaining Gryphons fled. We all assembled and my friends and I embraced each other in a group hug, happy that we were still alive. All, but Rainbow. I quickly looked around, fearing the worst, but was relieved to see that she was sitting a few hooves away in front of a dead Gryphon and was… crying? Markus seemed to notice as well and so we quickly went to her. However, before we could ask her why she was crying, we saw the answer ourselves, for the Gryphon before her was none other than… Gilda. We all stopped and stood in silence behind her as we noticed this. None of us dared move, except Markus, who went to her side and knelt down beside her. He then moved to place a hand on her shoulder, but as soon as he did, she whirled around and pressed herself against him in a desperate hug. “I-I… I didn’t want…!” She sobbed heavily, barely managing to get words out at all. “I… didn’t… want… kill…” She cried out, her tears freely flowing and wetting Markus’s Uniform. We other’s couldn’t keep our eyes dry either, only Markus remained as calm as always. “I know… she was a jerk, but… She was… still… friend…” Her last barrier finally fell and she didn’t bring out another word, only managing to cry out her soul into Markus’s chest. He didn’t stop her. He didn’t try to say anything, as we all knew that it would be useless. He just sat there, providing a literal shoulder to cry on for Rainbow. Slowly, her cries faded to sobs and her sobs then went into heavy breaths, before she finally went into a quiet mourning. “Markus?” She mumbled in a shaky voice. “I-I don’t want to lose any more friends… I don’t want to lose you! Please tell me that you won’t go anywhere… that you won’t leave us…” “Rainbow, of course I won’t go away. I will always be there and watch over you.” “Do you promise?” “I promise.” “Pinkie Promise!” Markus smiled briefly and gave a sigh, before making the unbreakable promise. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. There, all good now?” “hmmhmm.” Came from Rainbow and she nodded, curling herself a bit deeper into Markus’s chest and staying like this. Meanwhile, I looked over to the rest of our friends, or rather, what was left of them. Applejack still had that Arrow sticking out of her flank, which was only covered up by a few bandages to keep her from bleeding out. Her movement was severely hindered by this, causing her to make a very wobbly limp rather than actually walking. Rarity’s coat was dotted with red and blue marks, some from blunt hits, some from cuts which bled out into her coat. Her mane was completely dishevelled, her horn was showing severe signs of wear and also, she was sporting a very unladylike swollen eye. Fluttershy seemed mostly okay at first glance, but a closer look at her wings and mane showed that not even her innocence kept the Gryphons from trying to harm her. Her mane had some ripped hairs in a few places and some of her feathers were broken in half. The one who was hit the worst, though, was Pinkie. She didn’t even stand in our group, but lay a few hooves away, unconscious. The cut on her chest was still covered in blood, even though the wound seemed to have been closed by Unicorn Magic. She didn’t move. The only sign that she was still alive was her chest, which was going up and down ever so slightly. It was then that I finally realized how foolish I had truly been. That I just couldn’t see that this wasn’t like calming an ursa minor and bringing it back into the Everfree. It wasn’t like defeating Sombra in the Crystal Empire or our usual fight with an Everfree monstrosity. This was something entirely different. This was war…