Elements of Revival

by ChivalrythePegasus

Canterlot

The center of the camp was busy with everypony, who were eager to see Aluna. She exited the tent, greeted by cheers and hearty welcomes all around. Aluna blushed, not exactly used to all of the attention, especially since the fall of Canterlot. She bowed humbly, then turned to Chivalry and the others who had rescued her.

"Mares and gentlecolts, it is not I who deserves the applause, it is those who risked their lives to save me, those that came and fought with our enemy. Because of all this, our enemy has not just a face, but a name. She is an alicorn, she goes by the name Sylvandras, and she controls the creatures we fight against. She is the cause of the problems." Immediately, an unsettling murmur went through the crowd, silenced by Morningrise, who began to approach the Unicorn, speaking softly.

"Well, we can discuss our next approach when we arrive home. Until then," Morningrise began, almost immediately interrupted by Aluna.

"Home? No! She said something about Canterlot, about keeping us out. There has to be something there if she wants us out of there that badly." Aluna said, getting a concerned look from even Morningrise now, as the murmur began to erupt louder and louder.

"Canterlot? There's too much danger involved in that, I'm afraid we cannot afford to risk that." Morningrise responded, shivering as he remembered the destruction of his home.

"But you have to trust me, there's something there, I just don't know what. Please Morningrise, you have to." Morningrise looked to Aluna, beginning to analyze her motives, realizing that she truly heard what Sylvandras had said, and that Aluna had full belief in it. He closed his eyes, then sighed. He turned around, looking in the direction of Canterlot, raising his head and opening his eyes.

"Then we march in the morning." An enormous uproar exploded from the crowd, spearheaded by Sparta. He trotted to Morningrise, speaking almost immediately.

"You can't be serious. We have been everywhere fighting to try to find anything out, what makes you think that risking our lives again will do any good?" The Pegasus said, as Morningrise kept his back turned. He spoke back to the Pegasus, but did not ever meet eyes with the scarred warrior.

"Because we risk our lives going home the same. If we begin to head home, we could be ambushed and killed just as easily. If there's something in Canterlot, by Celestia we will find it." Morningrise responded, as Sparta begin to become more and more upset.

" But they are expecting us at Canterlot, you can't really..." Sparta began, immediately interrupted by Morningrise.

"Would they not also be expecting us at home if we retreat?" Morningrise responded as Sparta began to recede from the conversation. Morningrise still did not turn back to the others, fixated on the direction to Canterlot. Night Flash went amid the group, speaking to everypony.

"You heard him, let's get moving. Get some shut eye, because there's no sleep till Canterlot!" Everypony began to stop murmuring, most of the negative emotion replaced by excitement and anticipation. Gradually, everypony scattered, returning to their respective tents, with the exception of Aluna Vela and Echo, who trotted over to Morningrise. Echo spoke first, trying to present her findings.

"Um, Morningrise?" Echo whispered.

"Yes?" Morningrise responded, now turning back to the others, snapped out of his fixated trance.

"We found these in the cave that Aluna was trapped in," Echo began, opening the chest and pulling out an orb. "We think that they are..." Echo tried to finish, immediately talked over by Morningrise, who had a surprised reaction to the empty orbs.

"They are spellbinder orbs. We can trap spells in them to be used later for the same, or even a stronger effect. These were in the same cave?" Morningrise responded, getting a nod from Aluna and Echo. His look went to concern, continuing to examine the orbs.

"Then we are dealing with quite an opponent, not everypony gets to even see these, let alone possess any. But they are rather simple to use..." Morningrise began, immediately snapped into an idea.

"I think we may have a solution to our number problem..."

Morning struck early, everypony yawning and rolling themselves up to their hooves. Chivalry and Virtue were up first, as they were much more the morning ponies compared to everypony else. Morningrise exited from his tent, calling Chivalry and Virtue to his side. He addressed Chivalry first, looking to the further tents in which a few ponies were still sleeping.

"I need you to get everypony up, get them here quickly so that we don't have to spend so much time organizing everypony." Morningrise spoke, getting a quick nod from Chivalry as he flew off to accomplish his task. After Chivalry left, he turned his attention to Virtue. He looked to her, speaking with urgency in his voice.

"I need you to get everypony organized as such," Morningrise said, handing Virtue a list "it is crucial that everypony is organized like this, including the reserves." Virtue looked confused at Morningrise.

"Reserves? Do we really have the numbers for reserves?" Virtue said, getting a quick nod from Morningrise, who saw the doubt in Virtue's eyes.

"Just trust me."

Everypony lined up into groups, as Morningrise addressed them before the march. Four groups stood each numbering about four, and the rest, mostly pegasi, stood in a mass to the side. Morningrise was in his ceremonial armor, which glowed white and gold as he stood there.

"Today, we fight for not only our lives, there is something much greater at stake. Our enemy, Sylvandras, has hidden something behind the legendary walls of Canterlot. Regardless of what that may be, we are going to find out. I have sorted you into groups, designated Heavy, Spellslinger, Marksman, and my personal command group, as well as another squad or two of whom know what their job is. Does anypony have any questions." Monringrise finished, as a silence of understanding fell the room, followed by Justice, in the spellslinger group, raising her hoof and jumping. Her eyes glowed a light pink, a symbol of her personality fallacy. Morningrise nodded, as Justice asked her question.

"Ooh, ooh, can we throw books at them? Books hurt, one time, I tripped over a book, and...." Justice began, stopped by Morningrise.

"No, there will be no books." Morningrise said, as Justice dropped her head in sadness.

Everypony marched forward down the path, getting a few miles outside of Canterlot now with still no contact.

"It's too quiet, Timberhitch, status." Morningrise said, as Timberhitch looked through a looking glass further down the road.

"Still noth...Wait, what's that?" TImberhitch said, shocked as she pulled the looking glass from her eye and turned to Morningrise. She mustered a sentence. "Oh, no......." She repeated several times, as Morningrise quickly began to bark commands to the squads, lining them up with Heavy at the front. He shouted more commands as the enemies became within sight.

"Get into formation, stand your ground." Morningrise shouted as Heavy squad lined up 3 wide, consisting of Lionessa, Blitz, and Lancelot. Lionessa turned into a bear, taking up the majority of the road again as the wave crashed nearly seven wide. The line shoved back, as Blitz and Lancelot planted their hooves into the ground. The mass crashed again, moving the group another couple of feet.

"Hold!" Morningrise yelled, as Blitz spoke back, panicked.

"We can't, there are too many of them." He spoke as the line fell back a couple of feet again.

"Hold..." Morningrise spoke again, as the panic of Blitz rose again. The unicorns threw what spells they could into the masses, as Timberhitch and the other pegasi began using whatever was handy to hit the masses. Blitz turned this time, putting his back into the enemy mass and pushing backwards, trying to halt the advance.

"We can't Morningrise, we can't." Blitz said, struggling to stay on his hooves. The line crashed again, this time pushing the brunt of the enemy force into the road, where to either side forest blocked their flanks, finally, Morningrise turned to Vela.

"Vela, now!" Morningrise spoke, as Vela quickly told Aluna mentally that it was time, getting no response. Vela looked to Morningrise, not sure what to tell him. He sighed, turning to the group and continued firing spells into the mass. Now the complete army of the enemy, including the control orbs, were in the box of a path. The group gave up hope, thinking that they had been abandoned by their allies. Lancelot now turned, doing the same to Blitz and shouting to Morningrise.

"We're done for!" He shouted, straining to hold his ground. Morningrise sighed, dropping his head. He had failed them. But what he did not see is the swooping line of pegasi coming in from the left flank, as mass chaos erupted from the enemy ranks. Morningrise's ears perked, as he heard a shout.

"Did somepony call in air support?" Aluna yelled, carrying the same orbs, that glowed different colors. She threw them at the enemy, as spells busted through the enemy lines. Blitz and Lancelot fell over as the enemies in front of them fell or fled, as the first sweep was replaced by a second one, of all pegasi carrying the bombs. Of the four original control orbs, only one remained, as the second wave of pegasi ran out of ammo. Finally, the third sweep came through, destroying and scattering the remnants of the enemy. What few were left ran in terror, as they had before. Blitz and Lancelot picked themselves off of the ground, looking to Morningrise with a large deal of confusion.

"What in Celestia's name was that?" Blitz asked, getting laughter from Morningrise followed by a happy response.

"That, that was air support."

The group moved on, focused on their goal. Morningrise walked next to Hope, who began to quickly make small talk with the alicorn.

"So, you said something about having a mentor." Hope said, as Morningrise turned and looked to the Pegasus with a lifted brow.

"I don't recall ever saying such a thing to you, but yes, I did." He responded, getting a quick apology that he dismissed with a laugh.

"But everypony refuses to tell me who it is." Hope responded, as Morningrise began to understand why Hope was asking such questions.

"So you intend to pry from me my secrets?" Morningrise responded, as Hope mustered a nod.

"If it isn't too much of an imposition."

"Not at all, I actually intended to tell you one day, when the time was right, for it will come as a shock to you." Morningrise said, as Hope shrugged it off confidently.

"Try me."

"My teacher, who taught me all that I show you, was Twilight Sparkle." Immediately Hope was baffled in pure awe.

"Wait, wait, wait, THE Twilight Sparkle? The PRINCESS Twilight Sparkle?" Hope stood, with enormously wide eyes. Morningrise smiled, then nodded.

"And you didn't tell me sooner? For Celestia's sake, she was my idol!" Hope said, as Morningrise began to laugh at the sheer surprise from Hope.

"I figured you would have had such a response." Morningrise said, rolling his eyes as Hope continued to gush in excitement.

"Yeah, but why didn't you tell me sooner?" Hope asked, as Morningrise responded nearly immediately.

"For I did not want you to see me as Morningrise, Twilight Sparkle's student, I wanted you to see me as I am. As me." Morningrise said, as Hope began to calm.

"But Morningrise, it does not matter if you are a pauper or Celestia herself, it doesn't matter where you come from, you are still you." Hope said, as Morningrise smiled. The time he had to share this with Hope relieved some stress and doubt as to Hope's true feeling of trust in Morningrise, and had reinstated some pride in the aging alicorn. The discussion had also taken a considerable amount of time, as Canterlot quickly fell within sight on the horizon. The group approached the gates of the once proud city, which now barely stayed on their hinges. Morningrise took a deep breath, and then opened the door. He trotted in, seeing the structures that had once stood proud and defiant against nature, now being overrun by vines and moisture, causing major damage to many of the stone structures, including the wall, which at one time had been famed as impenetrable and indestructible. Now, it was a heap of decaying stone. Morningrise found himself in the town center, the entourage of ponies following him at a distance. He looked around the center, seeing all of the buildings he once called home. He then looked to the castle. He stared at the castle, in a deep trance.

"This is where it all began."