This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc.
Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.
Chapter 21
Fenrir and Syringe looked at me with respect as I left my bedroom dressed for war. They both nodded to me and I cleared my throat.
“I'll meet you two at the Schoolhouse. Let me just get a few more things.” I said. They nodded again and got up, leaving the library though the broken door. I, on the other hand, went upstairs into Twilight's room. I don't know why I entered her room, but I felt like I had to for some reason or another. I felt like I needed a physical reminder of why I was doing this. I looked around her cozy room, with it's bed covered in purple and pink blankets and comforters, it's various bookcases and the telescope that rested on one wall. I breathed deeply, and I found out even her room smelled faintly of Lavender too. I smiled at the fact and looked once again at room. My eyes came to rest on a note on her end table and I trotted over to see what it said.
I found out it was addressed to Princess Celestia. It read:
Dear Princess Celestia,
I have dire news that requires the utmost care immediately. Two days ago, a large timberwolf came into town. Of course this scared some ponies and some even decided to attack him. Only when Crimson came to the scene did we find out the timberwolf was one of his friends and completely harmless. However, this didn't stop the fight right away and Crimson was hurt so that he had another attack. This time however, I felt a massive magical pulse come from him and he unwillingly cause a massive earthquake in Ponyville, before falling unconscious again.
Later that day, Fenrir (Crimson's timberwolf friend) and I led Crimson out to show him what had happened. Crimson had no recollection of causing the earthquake and he was devastated. He got angry and went off on a walk by himself.
About ten minutes later Pinkie Pie came racing to me crying and upset, saying that Crimson was chased out of town!!!!
Please Princess, we've been looking for a whole two days and still haven't been able to find him. I'm so scared and worried I haven't been able to sleep or eat. I .......I just want to find him and make sure he's safe. Could you help us please?
Your faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle.
I grasped the letter in my gauntlet and felt a wave of guilt wash over me. I had caused her to worry so much she was going to ask Princess Celestia for help. I realized that she mus have written this before the town was attacked, and I griped it so hard it started to crumple. I looked at the parchment in my hoof, and I slipped it into my left gauntlet.
“I'm coming Twilight.” I said as I left her room and the house.
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My final stop before I decided to head over to the schoolhouse was the town center. I descended the hills and rose the valleys to make a level path as I trotted back to the scene of my most destructive attack. I found out that my magical connection with the Earth's magic was much stronger, as suspected by Century, since I was wearing my gauntlets. I trotted into the flat ground at the epicenter of the undulations in the ground and I took a deep breath. I combined my will with that of the Earth's and I felt the ground around me and throughout Ponyville go back to normal. The hills sunk, the valleys rose, and the ground became even again. However, some of the houses weakened by the initial earthquake fell, but many others were righted to their original state.
I looked at this and sighed. At least I made up for one of my blunders in Ponyville. But now it was time to make up for the biggest of them all. I trotted away from Ponyville's square and headed the the schoolhouse.
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I arrived at the schoolhouse about an hour earlier than I had told everypony else to, but I found it calming. The schoolyard was silent, but gone was its eeriness. Now it just seemed on edge, like the calm before the storm.
Broken Wheat and Husked Corn saluted me again and smiled at my uniform. They opened the doors again and I strolled down the school's hallway to the last door on the right. I opened up the door slowly and walked in.
Princess Luna and Pinkie Pie, dressed in what could only be described as ancient Romean armor were pouring over a map.
“And there's a catapult here and here.” Pinkie said, pointing to two spots on the map. “As well as flame pits behind them. But Zecora's and my potion should take care of that. It should also stop the catapults from working too, but we should be careful just in case it doesn't.”
Luna nodded her hear, a hoof under her chin. “We agree. We will tell the pegasi to act with extreme caution.”
“Ahem.” I said clearing my throat. Both mares jumped, but smiled when they saw me.
“Crimson, where ya been? Without you, life's been a pain in the shin...” Pinkie sang as she bounced around me. I smiled at her show of happiness and made a mental note to never let her and Solitary get stuck in a room together with me; I'd go insane in a matter of moments.
“I'm glad you came early. There is something I must ask you.” Luna said in a stern, yet friendly voice.
“Woona and I were making plans!” Pinkie interrupted as she jumped around, making the Romane armor clank around.
“Indeed we were. If Pinkie Pie was not the baker of Ponyville and the Element of Laughter, she would be one of top strategists.” Luna said as she smirked at Pinkie's exuberance.
“It's easy Luna! All a good plan needs is some wit, speed, and two hundred gallons of chocolate pudding.” Pinkie said with the utmost seriousness. Luna's face contorted and I smiled, remembering the first time I tried to understand Pinkie's logic.
“So what were you going to ask me?” I asked Luna. She broke from her Pinkie Pie-induced confusion and looked at me sheepishly. Her horn lit up and a small box flew up onto the table on which the map was on.
“It may sound presumptuous of us to ask, especially after so long, but we would like to extend a hoof to you in invitation back into the Lunar Battalion.”
I was stunned. I expected Luna to ask me something about....about anything but that. But it made sense.
“I...I don't know. What if I have an attack again?” I asked hesitantly. Luna just smiled at me.
“We know you won't. From the second you came in here, we felt my brother's magic on you. He changes everyone he meets you know. And it's always for the better. So, would you like to rejoin?” she asked before looking at me pleadingly. “Please, we need you.”
I swallowed hard and tried to think, but my mind was a blank slate. So I did the only thing I knew I could.
“A..Alright.”
Luna jumped up into the air and did a Pinkie-esque cheer. I guess spending so much time with the pink mare rubs off on you. She landed and gave me a hug and a giant smile. She magicked the small box over to herself and her smile faded a little, while a twinkle developed in her eyes.
“As first act of a reinstated Lunar soldier, we request you close your eyes.”
“Luna.....” I said warningly.
“Don't worry. Just close thy eyes.”
I sighed and did as she asked and I heard the clasp of the box open up. I felt something intangible and thick pour over myself and my eyes shot open. I heard a muffled gasp as Pinkie saw me and I looked around the room though a thick, cold, and murky veil. I was about to move around, but Luna's magic held me in place.
“Do not fret. It takes but minutes. Just stay there for a moment.” she told me, sounding like she was underwater.
“Holy midnight, Batmare.....” Pinkie muttered, sounding just as echoy as Luna.
I tried to calm down, but as I stopped struggling I started to feel increasingly cold. I shivered where I stood and I felt the thin sheet of ooze moving on my uniform and seeping into it. When I almost couldn't stand it, it stopped and I started to feel warmer. The veil that covered my eyes became tangible and I put a hoof up to it. I moved it away from my eyes and found out it was a hood that was now connected to my uniform. I spun around in place looking at what Luna had done to my lovely uniform.
The dark gray base of the uniform was no longer gray, but an impossibly dark black and blue. It was hard to tell which color it truly was, since it was swirling and moving like storm clouds in the night. Despite that, the silver edgings of the outfit seemed to glow slightly and the moon on my back was much colder than before. I took a glance at it and found out it was no longer the moon of Puck Unit, but Luna's moon. However, it was a deep crimson. The deep red of a Lunar Eclipse.
I looked away from my uniform, stunned by the change, and I glanced Luna saluting me.
“I now name you General Steelhooves of the Lunar Battalion.” she said with a large smile.
“Hail General!” Pinkie called, doing her best salute which ended up making her look like the ancient Romanean she was dressed up like. I shakily returned the salute, shocked for the umpteenth time today.
“G..General??” I stammered.
“Yes, General. There is nopony more deserving of the title than thee. Be glad; you are the first General of the Lunar Battalion in over 1000 years.” Luna said with a smile. “Now drop your hood again.”
I did as she asked, and saw that the lighted room seemed to be covered in a dark film, like I was wearing sunglasses. But then Luna's horn glowed and nothing happened. In fact, the room looked brighter. I removed the hood to find that the room was in complete darkness. I threw the hood back on and the room was lighted again. I did the test a few times, eliciting a laugh from Luna.
“Now try to move around.” she said with mirth.
I walked around the room, and even hit a desk accidentally while I was playing around with my hood. I ended up standing next to Pinkie, who was looking around dartingly in the dark room. Suddenly, the room appeared darker and Pinkie saw me. She gasped and jumped into the air, ending up shaking on the ceiling of the room.
“How'd you get there?” she asked, pointing a hoof at me incredulously.
“You didn't hear me?”
“No! I didn't even notice you until the lights went back on!!!” she clutched at her chest. “Don't scare me like that!”
I laughed and Luna spoke up. “You can now move silently in the darkness, and even if you accidentally make noise, it will be muffled. Also, nopony will be able to see you in the dark. Even if it is a shadow during the day, you will not be seen while you are in your uniform.”
Pinkie Pie fell down and landed right next to me with a loud 'CLANK'. “You're like a ninja-pony!” she exclaimed excitedly.
I ignored her, other than rubbing my now deaf ear. “Thank you Luna, but why?”
“As my General, you must be a leader to all the members of the Battalion and more. You must be an avatar for me, a creature that is so in harmony with darkness that he can lead anypony into it without any fear.” she explained.
“Now come. You are our general, so you must learn of our plans.....” she said while she lead Pinkie and I to the map.
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An hour later, Pinkie and I emerged from the schoolhouse when Broken Wheat came into the planning room and told us that all the ponies were here. He eyed my outfit with wonder and just gave Pinkie's armor a confused look. Thus, Pinkie and I bid Luna goodbye for the moment and left the room and schoolhouse.
We came outside into the afternoon sun and witnessed something that made my heart race from happiness and worry. There was a large crowd of Ponyville citizens sitting and talking with our friends. From what I could see, all were armed with some sort of weapon, however, they were not weapons of war. Flyball bats, farming spades and hoes, and even some kitchen implements laid next to their owners as they communed with their friends and ours.
“AttenHUT!” I called into the crowd.
Everypony looked up to see me, and most of their eyes went wide at Pinkie's get-up, but the awe they say in my uniform was reflected in their eyes. I had my hood down and apparently nopony could tell it was me. However, the Puck unit noticed who I was by the sound of my voice and rushed to the stairs of the schoolhouse, forming a line and saluting. The civilian ponies looked at each other a little puzzled before some of them joined in, making a line behind the Lunar Soldiers.
“He said ATTENHUT!!!!” shouted Pinkie and the rest of the Ponyville citizens jumped into lines and saluted. I and Pinkie returned it before I said “At ease.”
The Lunar Soldiers relaxed and the rest of the ponies followed suit. I quickly looked at the lines and determined there was about 70 ponies overall. So 60 had come from Ponyville. Impressive, and yet daunting. From all the whispering I witnessed, I knew some of my fears had come true. Right away, those ponies weren't ponies of war, so this would be the most aggressive thing they could participate in.
I took of my hood and all of the conversations stopped.
“You all know me.” I started. “I'm the one who caused the earthquake that killed three of your friends. I'm sorry, I really am; but right now we all have to get ready to steel ourselves. We'll be facing a lot of death tonight, and even more of our friends will die if we can't save them. I am commanding General of the Lunar Battalion and Princess Luna and I have already called in for back-up from the rest of the Lunar Battalion. However, they will not be here until early tomorrow morning. So we need all of you to fight with us tonight.”
Surprisingly, a solitary hoof rose in the crowd. I pointed to it and spoke. “Yeah, you.”
The lines parted slightly and I saw that a blue and white pegasus had held it up. “If the rest of the Lunar Battalion is coming so soon, then why do we need to fight?” Members of the crowd murmured in agreement.
I clapped my hooves together to silence them. “Good question.” I said. “We need you to help us tonight, because we are afraid that the Fire-Eater will leave around midnight, unless we stop them.”
I pointed up to the warm afternoon sun. “We will attack around sunset, so that means we have six hours to train all of you into a semblance of a trained army.”
“First off, Smithy will check your weapons.” I said to my the last earth pony of my old unit. She was a mare with a singed-orange coat and a cool blue mane. She was one of my good friends back when I was in Puck, mostly since she was a smith, true to her name.
“Smithy, how many extra weapons do we have?”
She gave me a wide smile and ran into the schoolhouse. A moment later she came pulling a large steamer trunk. I helped her carry it down the stairs and she laughed as she popped the top. “Before you say anything,” she told me. “You asked for it.”
The top sprang backwards as two large containers on arms sprung out. Each container held a multitude of weapons, not to mention some were strapped to the top of the steamer, and even more were on the bottom of the trunk.
Smithy whistled as she took inventory. “We got ten extra hoof-axes, ten extra hoof-blades, four crossbows, twelve collapsible shields, three hoof maces, and some other assorted goodies.”
“Like?”
“Oh, just about 20 daggers, 300 arrows and crossbow bolts, and a mouth-mace.”
I turned to the crowd. “Ok children. Line up and come up here with your armaments.”
Slowly, a quivering line of ponies formed and started coming up one by one. The first pony to come up was a shaking earth pony who held a cracked shovel. Smithy took it from him and turned it around and around, eventually stopping when she saw the crack in the head.
“Ptbthhh.” went her tongue as she threw it away to her left. She grabbed the stallion's leg, much to his complaint, and she poked and prodded. She scratched her chin and then dove into her treasure chest of weapons, pulling out a hoof-axe and strapping it to his hoof.
“Ok, over there” she pointed away from the line. He stumbled off and I could see what I had to do next.
“Solitary! Split up Puck into groups to teach these ponies how to use these weapons.” Solitary quickly saluted to me, and then quickly and animatedly talked to the other members of Puck. I stayed with Smithy as she sorted through the ponies's weapons, casting away most of them, but finding a few jewels in the rough. Some ponies actually already had a crossbow (for sport) and a few even had some other more interesting weapons. One earth pony who farmed wheat owned a wicked looking scythe, one pegasi that helped make snow had large blades that she would attach to her hooves to shred up ice, and the most interesting was a pony named Octavia who owned an authentic katana, and was very proficient in it's use.
Eventually the larger weapons ran out and we had to revert to giving some ponies the collapsible shields and daggers. Some ponies even flat out refused the new weapons, sticking to their flyball bats and other spur-of-the-moment weapons. They trotted off with the rest of their friends to be trained by my old unit.
Besides the few ponies who could actually fight, was a staggering amount of them who knew nothing about the new weapons they held. Many shook out of fearful respect for the deadly weapons, but Puck got them to become confident, if not proficient, with the weapons. I looked up to the sky to see the sun. It had sunk in the sky, telling me it was around four in the afternoon. I looked back to the ponies training and I hoped for their sake that our plans would go off without a hitch, as it could cease most of the fight before it even started.
“Ah thought ya were a captain.” said an orange country mare as she walked up to me.
“So Luna healed that gash?”
“Eeyep.” she said showing off the faint line of a wound left on her right shoulder. I looked behind her and saw the rest of my friends coming up to me. I looked at Rainbow dash who still walked with a slight limp and the rest of my friends. The bearers of harmony all had their respective necklace on along with some of their own armaments. Applejack wore a long bullwhip on a belt around her flank while Rainbow Dash had a wooden flyball bat with the words 'The Sandman' printed on it's side. Ditzy wore her old Ganymede uniform, which looked almost identical to mine before the upgrade, and the Doctor wore a beat up duster. Pinkie Pie was still in her Romane armor, but now she had her element necklace on and a helmet that funneled her mane onto the top of her head, making a frizzy mohawk that ran down the middle of her head and neck. Flutter shy was probably the most armored out of all of them, wearing layers of pillows taped to herself while she wore hoofball pads and helmet. She had her element of harmony with her, but she carried a bag full of clinking jars and vials of medicines and herbs. Big Mac similarly carried a large satchel of clinking substances, but he also had his magical wings on; his flying goggles hung losely on his neck, ready for when they were needed.
“The promotion surprised me too.” I replied to Applejack.
“Ohh Crimson, your uniform looks like a Nightingale's plumage.” Fluttershy commented.
“Thanks?” I said, not really sure what a nightingale looked like. I glanced over to the Doctor.
“Did Pinkie tell you about how we're going to need you?”
The Doctor nodded. “Don't worry chap. Me an' the old girl 'ave been through worse than this.” he said to me seriously.
“Alright. Do you all know what you're supposed to do?”
“I'm staying near the back with Syringe in the medical pavilion. Or at least until....”
“And I'm going with the Doctor!” interrupted Rainbow Dash. “But I want to be up in the frontlines! Look!” she said taking up a pose with her flyball bat. “I should be on a flyball card!”
“Hey Crimson, ya might wanna take a gander at what ah got here.” Big Mac said, taking the satchel off of his shoulder. He opened it in front of me on the ground and I saw it was full of jam jars. The jam jars were tightly sealed and inside was a thick, gooey, gray liquid.
“So what is it?” I said picking up one of the jars in my hooves.
“Ah made 'em tah patch up holes in the barn. Here lemme jest show you.” he said as he took the jar from my hooves and whipped it at a nearby tree. The glass hit the tree and made a resounding shattering noise. I saw the viscous gray liquid start to run down the side of the tree and it's limbs, but then it grew lighter in a matter of seconds and became immobile.
“Go try tah break it.” Big Mac instructed me. I walked up to the tree and first poked at the now hard gray mess. It was completely solid. I tapped it gently and nothing happened. Next, I hat it quite hard, and instead of it cracking, the tree did. I smiled mischievously.
“Hey Doctor?”
“Yes mate?”
“You have enough room for one more passenger?”
“Plenty.”
I turned around and looked at Big Mac approvingly. “You think you could ride with the Doctor and the pegasi? If not, give the....stuff to the Doctor.”
“Don't worry partner.” Big Mac said resolutely. “Ah'll go with them.”
I nodded happily as Rainbow Dash slapped Big Mac on the shoulder. Everything was going according to plan, more or less.
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A few hours later, when the sun was closer to setting, and after we had fed everypony a Lunar Battalion dinner, they all knew what they were to do. All pegasi would go with Doctor Whooves and Ditzy while all the earth ponies would come with Princess Luna and I. Puck Unit would be the rear guard, or at least until the right time.
As we all finished a meal that was half-solemn, half-panicked joy, Princess Luna finally came out of the schoolhouse. All the ponies there gasped and bowed at her sight. She came out of the schoolhouse not as a demure and peaceful ruler, but a queen of war. She now towered over the ponies like her sister usually did, only she was dressed in shining silver armor. It looked much like the set she wore when she was Nightmare Moon, however this set was much sleeker, and a little more intimidating. Her silver breastplate shone in the setting sun, making her gauntlets, flak covers, and horn all sparkle. She flared her wings and all could see the sharp and protective armors covering the edges, ready to deflect an enemy projectile, or cut them down with little effort.
“There is no need to bow to us my little ponies. We are all equally threatening our lives, so that makes us all equal. Now rise, for we march now.” she declared to all of us.
I rose first along with the rest of Puck and my friends. I nodded to the Doctor and cleared my voice.
“Alright everypony, you know the drill! Pegasi with the Doctor and Ditzy, earth ponies with Princess Luna and I! Let's go, go, go!!!!” I shouted to the crowds of ponies. I saw a many ponies bid farewell to their friends, even seeing Big Mac give Fluttershy a long drawn out kiss, and then the crowd burst into a frenzy of movement. I walked over to Luna and we led the way confidentially to the side of the schoolyard. We stayed there for a moment, waiting for the troops to assemble.
The Doctor and Ditzy rushed by us, the Doctor smiling at us and Ditzy blowing a kiss, as they led all the pegasi in the opposite direction, towards their home. I smiled back at the pair before casting a glance behind me. There stood all of our earth pony troops and many of my friends.
“I think we're ready to go Luna.” I said with anticipation.
Luna took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. She began walking in silence and we all followed, letting the silence fall over all of us.