The next morning, J´zar woke up at 7:00 AM, one hour sooner than what he agreed to meet with the ponies. He did that to ensure he would have enough time to put on all of his clothes by himself, as well as finishing the most mandatory tasks any member of the Order was required to do. The long, tedious work that putting on his armor was made J´zar feel slightly dizzy, but that feeling quickly dissappeared. "I am not the one I used to be" J´zar thought for himself "Perhaps it is age".
Half a hour later, the ponies reached the camp, and looked near J´zar's tent, expecting to find him outside waiting, or to hear the sound of whetstone against metal. But there was a lack of both in J´zar's place. The mares felt surprised that J´zar had forgot or missed an appointment: They always thought of him as a very responsable person.
"¿What are you looking at? I'm over here" J´zar called them from a nearby tent. The warrior had one hand on the hilt of his sword, and the other one was holding a glass filled with something yellow and sticky "I apologize for not being there. I was having breakfast"
"¿You only get juice for breakfast?" Rainbow Dash asked in surprise.
"Actually, these are a dozen raw eggs" J´zar took the glass to his lips and drinked all of it in one go "All you need for a quick and healthy breakfast" he said, cleaning the corner of his mouth with his forearm.
"¿Does it taste good?" Pinkie Pie secretly wished she could have tasted it herself.
"No. It tastes horrible" J´zar lazily answered "But whatever..."
Another member of the Order came out of the tent he shared with other men. He saluted J´zar and moved on.
"¡Hey you!" J´zar stopped the other soldier's walk "Take this to the kitchen" he said, giving the glass he had just emptied to the soldier.
The other man looked at the glass for a moment before nodding and hurrying in a different direction that the one he originally intended to go.
"Well, we should set everything for our departure" J´zar said to the mares "I told Sp´hre to start taking down everything at 8:00 AM so that we can quickly go away"
"¿Who's going to carry all of this?" Twilight Sparkle let curiosity get the best of her.
"Probably some designated carriers" J´zar sounded angry yet again "¿Why is it taking so long? Generally, as soon as the order is issued it only takes one hour..."
"Wait, ¿Are ya telling as we gotta wait one whole hour?" Applejack complained.
"Waiting is easy. Heed my words" J´zar rebutted.
They stood there, watching as the seconds passed. Within a few minutes, men started appearing everywhere, pulling crates or sleeping bags out of the tents. At least ten men entered J´zar's tent as another four waited outside to disarm the tent intself. The men who had gone inside the tent quickly came back carrying the file-filled drawers on their backs, and the other followed them, carrying a desk, a chair, the individual pieces of a bed (pillow, blankets and a mattress) and a chest with a padlock locking it. The other four waiting outside almost mechanically disarmed the tent. The carriers went towards the center of the camp and dissappeared from sight.
The mares had their mouth opened wide. Few times had they seen such effectivity. J´zar looked at them.
"¿What? ¿Have you never seen an army before?" he gently asked.
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When the two hundred men that Sp´hre had brought to Equestria were finally prepared (and half of them carrying the belongings of the other half besides their own) they finally started to move towards Canterlot, with Sp´hre and J´zar spearheading the block of armored men. The ponies walked alongside them, to provide guide.
J´zar then remembered something.
"I found your sisters in the camp yesterday night, he said to Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity "You should keep an eye on them, lest they do something far too dangerous"
"Doing dangerous thing is what they do" Rainbow Dash made a gesture very similar to shrugging "Can't go against that"
J´zar didn't ask a lot more, but the mares did. They asked him of his mother (who had died giving birth to J´zar, her only child), of his father (a farmer who died after refusing to join the army of the local landlord), of the places he had been in (from the deep Brazilian jungles to the cramped battlefields of 17th century Japan) and of his family (J´zar had none). J´zar, in turn, didn't ask. The ponies were quite willing to share much personal information, and in less than an hour they had informed him of all the small nuances of their existance.
In the end, before J´zar noticed, their chat stopped in tacit agreement as they reached the doors of Canterlot's palace. Sp´hre spoke with the Princess, who was surrounded by four Royal Guardsman.
"Never even think on clicking that button" the Commander said, offering it to Celestia.
The Princess used her magic to lift the silver orb as she dropped it on her right hoof.
"How curious..." the Princess commented.
And before she could add anything else, before the ordeal could finally end, a descent, a crimson trajectory and a shrieking scream.
J´zar didn't process the scene very well, the screams mixing between each other and weaving a confusing mesh. He saw Princess Celestia laying on the ground, blood coming form her right wrist and her right hoof missing. And standing in front of the fallen alicorn, there was Ix, his hand gripping a two handed axe, stained with fresh blood. The other hand held the silverish orb together with Celestia's hoof.
"Good evening, brothers" Ix said laughing "This dimension is so fun..."