Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye Soarin spotted something! Something that filled his heart with dread. "Uh, guys, don't look now but I think we've got yet another problem on our hooves."
"What do you mea-" Fancy Pants began only to be cut off as he and the other stallions saw a sight they had seen only once before! Thick vines were extending out from the Everfree Forest and rapidly closing in on Ponyville!
Shining let out a gasp! "Of course! With the Tree of Harmony gone there's nothing to hold back the Everfree Forest! It's out of control again!"
Thunderlane nervously turned to Shining. "Well what are we supposed to do now? Last time it took the Elements of Harmony being put back on the Tree of Harmony to fix this. And we don't have either of those anymore."
Shining stomped a hoof down on the ground. "We'll just have to improvise! It won't do us any good to stop Sombra if the Everfree Forest takes up half of Equestria!"
"But Sombra's on his way to Canterlot!" Fancy Pants gasped in horror!
"Celestia and Luna will hold the line!" Shining firmly declared. "Army or not, Sombra will have a hard time just taking over. We need to at least hold back the Everfree Forest until we're sure it won't be a problem. Then after Sombra's defeatd we'll figure out how to tame it again."
"Sounds like a plan to me!" Soarin declared and hurriedly swooped over to a nearby stand, bringing back axes, hoes, shovels, sheers and all sorts of other gardening tools. "Looks like it's time for a little gardening!"
Fancy Pants picked up a pair of sheers. "I hate to have to dirty my suit like this, Fleur will surely kill me when she sees it torn yet again. But the safety of Ponyville and all of Equestria comes first!"
"For our homes!" Braeburn shouted.
"For our families!" Big Macintosh joined in.
"For Equestria!" The six stallions all yelled together! Then they all picked up the first gardening tool they could lay eyes on and charged towards the oncoming vines!
Twilight stood back, watching the assault on the encroaching vines. "They're in way over their head!" She thought to herself! "They're gonna need back-up, and I think I know just the ponies who can help!"
The stallions managed to drive the vines out of Ponyville, but as they reached the entrance to the Everfree Forest they seemed to slow down and become exhausted. They were sweaty, sore, and very dirty. But it seemed like for every vine they cut off, snipped, chopped, or otherwise destroyed three more sprang up!
"This ain't workin'!" Big Macintosh panted while wielding an ax. "We ain't makin' much headway like this!"
Soarin shouted back! "We can't stop now! That forest is gonna run out of vines sooner or later!"
"I don't know if we can hold out that long!" Thunderlane protested as he whacked a vine with a hoe. "I think we bit off more than we could chew this time!"
"Indeed you did!" A familiar, elderly voice called out, soon revealing itself as a bearded unicorn stallion! And accompanying him was a set of six very familiar ponies! It was Starswirl the Bearded and the pillars, including Stygian!
Rockhoof chopped off several vines with his shovel as he charged toward the stallions. "You lads really should've given us a heads up. We've been itching for action!"
Mistmane nodded her head. "Do not forget that plants and nature are my specialty."
Starswirl the Bearded then approached the stallions. "We received a distress signal from Twilight. Though she needn't have bothered. I could sense that the balance of harmony has been disrupted."
"Then you know about the tree? About Cozy Glow?" Shining questioned Starswirl.
The old wizard nodded his head as he lowered it slowly. "I could feel it in my bones when it happened. As a part of me simply ceased to exist. I promptly contacted Stygian and he in turn alerted the other pillars!"
Stygian promptly puffed out his chest. "It feels just like old times! And this time I'm actually helping! Though I must say, this is an experience I don't think any books could've prepared me for." He proceeded to use an ax to chop off several vines.
"You six are needed elsewhere," Meadowbrook informed the stallions. "You leave this out of control forest to us."
"Ya sure you're up to the task? We'd hate to leave y'all behind like this." Braeburn remarked with concern.
Starswirl just flashed a smile. "Come now, the Tree of Harmony didn't spring up overnight after we planted its seed. And who do you think kept the Everfree Forest under control while the tree was growing?"
Somnambula eagerly replied! "We would not have left for Ponhenge to prepare the banishing spell if we'd had any doubts that the Everfree Forest would grow out of control in our absence."
"We fended it off once before and we'll gladly do it again!" Flash Magnus spoke up! "You guys better get to Canterlot and back up the princesses! Even with all that training I gave them I doubt the royal guards will last long against a threat like Sombra."
But at that moment, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna appeared as they used their magic to vaporize several vines all at once. "I'm afraid they lasted even shorter than we'd hoped." Luna spoke up.
Shining gasped as he approached the princesses! "But... if you're here... who's defending Canterlot?!"
Celestia shook her head. "Canterlot is lost to us. With our own subjects under Sombra's control he holds all the cards," She somberly informed the group. "His demands were simple: Surrender, or he would throw as many brainwashed servants at us as possible until we collapsed."
"We could've taken him, but my sister decided not to call his bluff," Luna reluctantly added. "He'll be expecting you."
Shining just sighed. "Well, expected or not we can't let him get away with what he's done! He must be stopped no matter the cost!"
"Then it looks like it's off to Canterlot for us!" Soarin declared, before he reluctantly added. "Does this mean we're gonna have to fight our friends and families?"
The prince only vaguely replied. "Hopefully it won't come to that, but I can't rule anything out."
Yeah, sorry Luna, but if there's anything I know about Sombra, it's that he DOESN'T bluff. He'll gladly sacrifice others in order to get what he wants. After all, he turned his own slaves into storm troopers aka canon fodder in the war timeline. To him, all other lives are expendable compared to his desires.
9948235
Well, maybe not ALL others. Radiant Hope seemed to be the one exception to that. The only other individual he truly cared about.
Still, you make a VERY valid point.
Once again, REALLY good job on the latest chapter. The exchanges, characterizations, action and future chapter set-up are all well done in all the right places. I especially liked Twilight having the sense to call in the Pillars for help (though one has to wonder how Twilight's message got through so fast when Sombra has Spike under his control and, unlike the Equestria Girls world, ponies typically don't have smart phones) as well as Celestia, Luna and the Pillars working together against the Everfree while Shiny and the others go to fight Sombra. And, yeah, you have some REALLY valid points in the author's notes as usual.
Twilight: I'm going with you, Shiny. Sombra has my son under his control. There is NO WAY I'm letting THAT go unpunished.
Shiny: I can respect the Mama Bear rage, Twily, but if you go charging in, Sombra is just going to take control of YOU too.
Twilight: I'm NOT just going to go charging in. Besides, Starlight is just as powerful as I am. You're going to need SOMEBODY who is at least powerful enough to stalemate Starlight to keep HER busy while you can focus on Sombra.
Soarin': Twi's got a point, Shiny. But, more than that, we need somebody powerful enough to handle Sombra WITHOUT the Crystal Heart OR the Elements of Harmony.
Shining: But literally the only one THAT powerful, other than Celestia and Luna, is Discord.
Sorry about that. Got carried away.
Anyway, will VERY definitely be looking forward to more of this.
9948544
Except she isn't canon to the show, so that only applies to the comics, i'm afraid.^^; But i'm glad you agree, otherwise.:)
9948881
To be fair, it's possible Sombra's FIENDship is Magic backstory remained largely the same, but with the exception that Radiant has been dead for many centuries by present day.
So, yeah, might have existed ONCE but dead long enough where it's a moot point NOW.
So, you know that seems like a pretty fair compromise.
9949104
On that concept we can both agree. Just as we now can confirm that Tirek's issue in FIENDship #2 is canon to the series......even though we STILL don't know all the details. And for some reason, I have a feeling Hasbro, and IDW's doing it on purpose to increase our interest in the centaur, and how he turned from this:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2015/7/21/941113.png
to THIS monstrosity!:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2019/10/19/2174007.png
Ahh the Everfree Forest is attacking
9949183
That is a pretty cool design and I did remember reading that story
"For our homes!" Braeburn shouted.
"For our families!" Big Macintosh joined in.
"For Equestria!" The six stallions all yelled together! Then they all picked up the first gardening tool they could lay eyes on and charged towards the oncoming vines!
That is an awesome battle cry
I wish they could have done that in the show having all the pillows to help out including Stygian