Prologue
~Manehatten, December, 2nd Year at War~
‘And we’ll all go down together…’
Her rainbow mane thrashed wildly in the wind, as she smiled at the reflection in the clear, almost soothing water.
‘We’ll all go down together...’
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~Canterlot City, September~
There was no term that could accurately describe the utter chaos bestowed upon the wide, fearful eyes of Equestria’s own great heroes. Canterlot wasn’t exactly a common destination for the six; however, they had been in the city before. This was not what they would expect on any other night.
But, as unfortunate as it may seem, it just happened to be that night, and these ponies, determined to be brave for the sake of their already frightened friends, unknowingly attempted to convince each other that they were ready for whatever was being thrown into their already shattered lives.
The six continued to walk through the torn streets, avoiding being carried away from the palace by the endless sea of ponies heading for the quickest route out of the city. After what would feel to be hours, one orange Earth pony decided to speak up.
“Ah’m not really sure why you needed us to come with ya, Twilight.”
Twilight Sparkle paused for a moment, her expression making it apparent that she was deep in thought. She stepped off to the side of the cluttered road, and sat down, trying to remind herself why she had been summoned to the Canterlot Palace.
My most faithful student,
It is without any reasonable doubt that I must request so much of you once again, and for this, I sincerely apologize. There is no excuse of which is accurate to explain why you must be forced to answer Equestria and her calling. However, when you accepted the duties handed to you with the Elements of Harmony, I am sure you realized that desperate situations like these would swallow your and your friend’s lives.
I request an audience with you tomorrow night, in the council room of Canterlot Palace.
Your caring mentor,
Princess Celestia.
The Unicorn, although far from even being considered unintelligent, was dumbstruck by the message, and after attempting to redistribute the exact content to her peers, found herself even more confused than she had been before.
“But it just doesn’t make any sense!” She cried out, “Why would the Princess call us to the city if it was being evacuated? Shouldn’t we have met some place else?”
She spoke the truth, as the Canterlot guard, who stood clad in their armor on every corner of the flooded streets, directed traffic to the nearest entrance, or in this case, exit, from the city.
“No point in sitting around here then, ladies.” The white unicorn stated. “We may as well make our way to the Palace, and quickly, as the crowd seems to be growing quite worse.”
Rarity was in no way a pony that enjoyed disorder. Organized chaos, perhaps, but nothing similar to the spectacle the mare was currently watching. She was quite surprised that the most civil city in all of Equestria had become this torn, despicable slice of mayhem that one would dare call a city.
Pinkie Pie bounced up and down as they slowly pushed through the crowd. “I bet they all just want to get to the big party the Princess is having!” She bubbled.
Twilight smacked her hoof to her forehead. “Pinkie, I’m pretty sure that people don’t panic when their Princess decides to have a party.” The pink mare’s energetic attitude often got on her nerves, but an innocent look in her eyes would almost always leave the unicorn grinning. Although Pinkie continued to ramble on about the party she assumed the princess was throwing, carefree to what event was unfolding around her, the other five mares turned one another, each wearing a concerned look upon their face.
The orange pony decided to continue the previous conversation.
“So let’s get this straight, Twi’,” Applejack continued, “Celestia wants to talk to ya, and now your makin’ all of us go with ya?”
“Not exactly,” Twilight began, “The Princess mentioned it did concern the Elements of Harmony, so I thought it was safe to assume that all of you could come along. Also, I thought it wouldn’t be fair to leave you all in the dark about what was going on here.”
Applejack knew that was true, and never doubted Twilight for a second. It was only in her nature to question anyone who asked something of her, as she didn’t want to be part of something until she was sure of what that something was.
“Um, if I may ask,” a whisper from a yellow mare was barely audible, “How we plan on getting through to the Palace with all of those…guards?”
The other ponies, despite Pinkie, followed Fluttershy’s gaze to the entrance of the Palace. At least 20 armored guards stood at attention, looking almost as one large, immovable wall.
The Pegasus was right. Even though Twilight was Princess Celestia’s top student, and the six were the bearers of the most powerful force in Equestria, if this was a time of crisis, there would be no getting through to her. The six continued to approach, until they finally reached the solid wall of steel-clad Soldiers.
Twilight approached the one guard dressed slightly different- he wore 2 copper bars on the left shoulder of his armor, indicating his rank- a Lieutenant. Twilight wasn’t exactly familiar with any form of military hierarchy, as the books she read did not go into any sort of detail, but she had gotten slightly acquainted with the ranking of the Palace guard, due to her spending much of her time there before leaving for Ponyville.
“Excuse me, sir,” The unicorn began, “I'm Twilight Sparkle, a friend and student of the Princess, and I believe she’s-“
“No time to talk, ma’am,” The Lieutenant snapped, “My orders are to send you directly to the princess, no questions asked.”
The Guard began to glance around, obviously looking for something, or someone.
“Darkly Brave! Spark Arrow!” He barked, focus setting on the two Stallions who trotted up to him, “Make sure these six make it to the Princess as soon as possible!”
They both stood at attention, shouting, “Yes sir!”, and stepped out of place to guide the young mares to the Alicorn princess.
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~Canterlot Palace, September~
“My most trusted Advisors,” Celestia shivered. Perhaps the Alicorn was immortal, and perhaps she had nothing to fear for herself. But she did fear for her people. Her people, who were currently could not live how she wanted them to, because they were afraid of something they couldn’t quite understand.
“It is inevitable that we will be forced into defending our homes, our family, and frankly, our right to live. We do not know why we are being attacked, nor do we know exactly who is leading this violence. They have engaged our defenses to the east, which, although strange, cannot be ignored. Ponies were not raised as a fighting people. We are peaceful, but that does not mean we cannot defend ourselves.” The Unicorns in the room gave her a glare that implied they thought she was crazy. She sighed.
The Princess knew that her advisors did not intend in any way to physically assist her. They would only give her words of advice, and flee as soon as they could grasp the opportunity.
After a few moments of a confused silence, a second Alicorn, this one of a darker shade, entered the council. She wore a saddened smile on her face, and glanced at her older sister, before taking a seat next to her.
“Ah, Luna, how nice it is to see you could join us.”
The younger Alicorn rolled her eyes. “It’s not as if I could ignore the matter, sister. This… aggression towards Equestria means nothing less than a declaration of w-“
“Excuse me, my lady!” Darkly Brave approached the eldest sister.
Celestia removed her eyes from Luna, turning her sight toward the guard approaching.
“It is my duty to tell you,” he continued, “that your student and her friends have arrived.”
“Ah.” The Princess showed no emotion within her voice. “It is of extreme importance that they are informed of the coming danger. May I ask where they are?”
“Of course, my lady,” Brave stood tall. “I flew ahead of them to let you know of their coming. I figured it’d be best if you’d known prior to their arrival.”
Celestia smiled. She appreciated her guard’s consideration of the sensitivity of the matter.
“Excellent. You are dismissed.” Darkly Brave walked back out of the doors, towards his station in front of the palace.
Celestia turned her attention back to her advisors. “Gentlecolts, six mares will enter the door behind you. When they arrive, you are to be silent, as the subject of our discussion must be explained to them with extreme care and delicacy. They are, indeed, the holders of the Elements of Harmony, but they are still young, and the coming months will force them to sacrifice more than they will be willing. If you feel you can not stand idle and must speak your mind, I ask that you leave now.”
Silence.
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~Canterlot Palace, September~
“Please, Private Arrow, we really need to know what’s going on. Can you drop the formality for one moment?”
Twilight was practically begging. No one could blame her, as fear had enveloped all of their minds, and each of the six mares were hungry for answers.
“I’ve been asked not to say anything. But to be honest with you, kid, I really don’t know.” Spark Arrow seemed nervous.
A flash of multiple colors flew into Spark, but deflected right off of his chest piece. It quickly recovered, standing in a fighting stance on all four hooves. Rainbow Dash had finally broke.
“There’s something you aren’t telling us, and we need to know, right now!”
She chose to be silent up until this point out of respect. She didn’t want to force any ideas into the minds of her friends, regardless if she thought them true or not. More importantly, she feared she wouldn’t be helpful to the situation, instead only adding more stress with her cocky, gun-ho attitude. Dash was probably more frightened than any other member of the group, save for Fluttershy, but she only had to act tough.
“Now, RD, don’t get too far ahead of yourself. Ah’ think we gotta’ be patient here. This guy is leading us to the Princess, ya hear? So she’ll give us all the answers we need, Ah’ll bet.” Dash only gave an angry glare at Applejack, before Twilight spoke up.
“A-Applejack is right… If anyone is going to know what’s going on right now, it’s the Princess.”
Dash, now floating above her friends, crossed her forelegs. “Alright, but I don’t like it. I’m not exactly what one would call ‘patient’.”
Spark Arrow came to a halt. The group followed, excluding Pinkie Pie, who managed to walk straight into the wall in front of them. She let out a sheepish giggle, and shuffled back behind Private Arrrow.
“This would be the Council's chambers. I wish the best of luck to you all.” Spark Arrow gave a weak salute, and began the journey to return to his post.
Twilight, using her magic, turned the door knob slowly. None of them were quite sure what to expect the collected Princess to tell them. They all hoped it would be nothing urgent.
“Ah, girls, It’s lovely to see you, but under such horrible circumstances.”
Their hopes had been quietly murdered.
“It is of up most importance that you listen to what I say, and study every word carefully. You will no longer be able to live in Ponyville, or in any location, for that matter. You’ll be making your way south, towards the ocean. I know this is extremely difficult to absorb in mere moments, but there are reasons that you must not be aware of. Adding onto that, Luna and I will-“
“Princess!” Twilight cried, cutting Celestia off, “Please, we need to know! People are in a panic, and I think I can speak for all of my friends when I say that we’re scared to death! What's going on!?”
The Alicorn could only stare through the window, the darkness of a storm approaching. The screams of terror easily audible in the distance, and the cries of thousands of ponies, reaching out towards their Princess in a desperate time of need, and Celestia could only sit in her chambers, hoping that the day would come where her subjects could live in peace.
She looked down upon the Elements of Harmony, and gave them a look of sympathy, and to their own surprise, fear.
“Equestria is at war.”
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~Outskirts of Stalliongrad, September, 1st Day at War~
Captain Point watched from the far end of Stalliongrad.
The 2nd Equestrian Infantry division had just been torn to pieces, and it would be on his conscience as to why. He had sent them, knowingly, to their own demise, as a way to divert the attention of their enemy to allow his aerial units to begin their decent upon enemy infantry. Another few minutes, and they were gone as well.
Point was not in charge of the defense of Equestria, not by a long shot. But Stalliongrad, however, was his responsibility. He had clear orders to make sure the city was well defended, and to make sure any advancements of their foe were immediately dealt with.
He knew he would fail within the first hour of arriving.
Bodies of ponies were scattered around the last site of battle, and, as Point directed himself towards the current struggle, it seemed as if the amount had almost doubled. He returned his vision to the old site of struggle. A young stallion lay on the grass, quite close to him. The ground below him was stained a deep color of red.
Blood.
Captain Point had seen ponies die. It was nothing out of the ordinary, being a warrior of his country. But Equestria never had gone to war before. Not until now.
And with that, his 3rd wave of infantry broke, scattering to retreat back to the city, where no one but defenseless foals and their mothers would be waiting.
He had to face the truth, the horrifying truth that made him want to vomit. His duty to his country was to protect the eastern front. If the defense to the east was lost, then all of Equestria would be doomed to war.
He closed his eyes for a moment, only opening them when hearing the sound of screaming ponies. To the smell of burning buildings, and the even more disturbing smell of burning flesh. He had failed, and the fate of Equestria was out of his hands.
Stalliongrad had fallen.