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// The Raid 
// Story: The Lost Princess 
// by alahh601 
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Chapter One
“Twilight! Twilight!” 
Twilight Sparkle the unicorn slumped down below the sheets in her bed. She could hear the unmistakable voice of her assistant Spike calling her. Groggily, she groaned back at Spike, “I don’t want to wake up!” “Youv’e got to,” said Spike. “ An important letter from Princess Luna has just arrived. It says to come to her place immediately and bring as much tools and provisions as possible.  She also said to get your horn in very good shape. And she also said to bring whatever weapons you can find..because there is an unknown force waging war upon our kingdom.” 
Twilight instantly sat up in her bed. She blinked her eyes a few times. “What??” she asked Spike.  Rolling sleepily out of her bed, Twilight stumbled her way to the main room of the library. “But…” Twilight levitated the scroll away from Spike’s hands and into hers with her magic. “..But why Princess Luna? Why not Princess Celestia? And this-“ she pointed at the sentence “an unknown force waging war on Equestria” –“this is a very big deal. We have to let everypony in Equestria know about this. We could be plunged into a deep war. Many ponies could die. Let’s  get to Princess Luna’s soon as possible.”
Twilight ran back into her room. Still a bit groggy, she practically ripped her saddlebag off her clothing hook and packed it with provisions until it almost popped open. Then she zipped both bags closed and strapped them onto her back. “We need to go, now,” said Twilight. “But the letter says you have to bring all your friends, with all of their provisions,” said Spike. “Oh, really?” she said. “In that case, we’ll have to teleport with magic. It’ll be faster.”  Spike nodded as Twilight levitated Spike onto her back. “Hang on tight,” said Twilight. With a large flash of pink light, they were gone.
Appearing at the town square, Twilight and Spike immediately got up and brushed themselves off, a bit hurt from their fall. Twilight spotted Rainbow Dash helping the other ponies manipulate the weather. “Hey, Rainbow!” Rainbow turned at Twilight’s call. “Oh, it’s you, Twilight. What’s up?” 
“I need you to go to your house,” said Twilight. “Princess Luna has called us to her castle to help her prepare for a war that an unknown force is waging upon Equestria. It’s very important that you get there right away.” Rainbow, puzzled, looked around. “What? A..war? Where? Is it hitting us first?” “Calm down, Dash,” said Twilight, patting Rainbow’s back. “’The war hasn’t started yet. But it’s coming soon, and we have to prepare for it!” “Then we have to prepare rainclouds, in that case,” said Rainbow Dash. “All we do is hit those war-waging forces with thunder and-“  Twilight shook her head. Leave that to the other Pegasus ponies. It’s not your job right now.” 
“But-“ Rainbow Dash protested. “No. You can shock enemies all you want in the war, but now, if we don’t prepare, our kingdom could die. Now go collect your things, and fly to Princess Luna’s with me.”  Rainbow Dash nodded vigorously, a large grin spreading across her face. Twilight sighed. Rainbow wouldn’t have to worry about the war. After all, she was the fastest flyer in all of Equestria. 
And again, Twilight knew that she could do all sorts of magic tricks. She could levitate herself. Teleport with ease in  any situation. Turn into anything she wanted. Sink into the ground. And she could even give another flightless pony wings. Twilight smiled. Maybe she would be of some use in the war. 
She thought of how she could send ponies flying off into the air with her magic, how she could trap ponies in cages with her horn, and how she could easily teleport if she were in danger. She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn’t notice that the town square was slowly starting to vibrate. She didn’t even notice that ponies were peeking out of their windows in fear, staring at a large figure ahead that was slowly moving up the streets. Then she heard a loud, piercing scream.
Suddenly Twilight snapped back to reality. Realizing that something was wrong, she looked up ahead and heard the vibrating of thousands of hooves. And she saw hundreds of figures galloping up ahead and swarming into Ponyville. Ponies were running out of their doors, and Twilight could hear cries for help within the sound of many thundering hooves heading towards the town square. 
Then Twilight recognized the figures of the scary creatures that were moving toward them. It was Discord-and a giant pack of changelings at his side. I’ve got to warn Rainbow Dash! thought Twilight. Twilight galloped towards Rainbow’s home. “Spike, go home and send every single item inside to Princess Luna’s. We can’t risk a thing being damaged.” Spike nodded, and ran back towards the hollowed-out tree in which Twilight lived. 
Twilight finally reached Rainbow’s house, where she bumped into Rainbow Dash and sent her things flying  out of her unstrapped saddlebag. “Rainbow! The war has started! Discord and the changelings are raiding Ponyville!”  Rainbow shook her head around vigorously. “Did you say..Discord? And the changelings?” 
Twilight nodded.  “There’s not much time to explain. But we have to stop the raid now.”  Twilight wasn’t sure of how close Spike was to the library now, but she hoped that Spike was safe. “Quick, pick up your things,” said Twilight. “Let’s head to Luna’s.” Rainbow nodded, keeping quiet. Twilight ignited her horn with magic. The two ponies quickly teleported to Princess Luna’s castle. Twilight fell immediately to the floor, rubbing her head. She had put a lot of work into teleporting across Equestria and right to Canterlot. 
“I feel like I’m sick!” groaned Twilight, her head hurting her with lots of pain. Her forehead felt like it was about to burst. Twilight, dazed, fell to the floor in pain. “I’m afraid I put too much work into teleporting,” said Twilight. “I’ll go get Princess Luna,” said Rainbow. “She could give you something to put on your head, maybe.” 
Twilight nodded, and Rainbow Dash flew away. Twilight groaned again, louder this time, and struggled on the floor for a while. Then, seeing it was no use, she just lay down on the floor for a while. Trying to get up, Twilight realized that her whole body was too weak to walk, or even stand, much less run. She stood up once stumbled, and fell again. She felt weaker than usual, and her head was hurting her harder than ever. Then, suddenly, a large amount of pain pierced through her head, and she screamed. 
“Owww…” she moaned, grabbing her head tightly. She tried harder than ever to stand up, but all she was able to do was stumble around, in a weak and feeble pose, and then fall hopelessly to the ground again. She slid herself across the floor with her hooves, hoping to find a interesting book on the bookshelves inside the walls, for her to read so she could pass the time. 
She suddenly screamed again as pain pierced her whole body like a large needle. Twilight then found herself clutching her head tightly, her whole body scrunched up. She then saw the princess standing over her. “Princess Luna!” said Twilight. She was so happy to see the Princess, all the pain left her body at once, and she scrambled up to meet the smiling princess. But she stumbled and fell, as she was still very weak. Princess Luna frowned. “Hello,” she said. “It seems you have a case of the teleportation cramp. It is a very unknown sickness across the pony kingdom, but it’s possible. Every time an unicorn teleports too far away beyond the magical barrier they can take, they get the teleportation cramp. .  Their body will become weak and feeble, and very soon, show signs of various sicknesses. This sickness has resulted in death or permanent injury. But luckily, right now you are showing the signs of recovery.” Twilight nodded. “Okay.” 
She feebly tried to stand up, and to her amazement, she could finally stand. “Oh, good,” she said. “Princess, the war has started,” she said. They’ve raided Ponyville. I’m not even sure if Spike is safe. I only had enough time to rescue Rainbow here. I don’t know about my other friends.” 
Princess Luna gasped. “Then theyr’e in big danger,” she said. “I have to use my magic to create a map  on which I can check where the raid has gotten to.” Princess Luna’s horn began to glow. Sparks began to ignite from her horn, flying everywhere.  A small portal- like circle appeared in front of the princess as she focused on her spell. The circle warped around for a while, then became a large rectangle. The light died down, and a complicated map appeared in the rectangle. Strange dots were moving around on it. Princess Luna looked around on the magical map. 
Twilight could see many giant clusters of red dots on the map, especially even bigger clusters that were coming onto the “screen” from the side of the map. She tried to interpret the map, but she couldn’t.  For some reason the teleportation cramps she had gotten must have somehow gotten into her head. It was a pretty obvious map, Twilight then realized. 
Luna looked at the map. “Twilight,” she said, frowning with a sad look on her face that Twilight knew could only mean trouble, “These red dots on the map are the people of the enemy. The green dots are your friends. If any of those green dots have an red X on them, that means that friend’s home has already been infiltrated by the enemies. “ Twilight gasped in horror as she saw that all of the green dots had a bright red “X” on them. “Do you know what this means?” Luna asked. “This means..all of your friends are now in grave danger.”