"Planning for Failure Has Never Been Our Way of Things."
The sun began its ascent in the nighttime sky by the time the herd of magical ponies below reached the capital gates, only stopping before the pristine walls to catch their breaths after the long haul they exhausted themselves through. It also didn’t help that none of the girls had a chance to fall asleep before their summoning, leaving them to dread how Canterlot didn’t sell energy drinks.
Twilight, upon seeing that Dash was the first to catch her breath due to athletic nature, ordered her to fly to the top of the gate and give the word if it was safe enough to open the gate. The others resigned to fall onto their stomachs until to give their aching legs the rest they deserved.
“You know, darling.” The bone-chilling gust sweeping through the land before the gate, along with the many pants on her part, served to interrupt slow Rarity’s speech. “As lovely as it is that we’re all back together and about to take one some evil like we used to; it would be so much better if it were a little warmer our, and we all had gotten our beauty sleep. This doesn't feel as romantic as it used to.”
Twilight nodded her head as she gazed up at her cyan friend. “I know.”
The top of the gate overlooked to the city of Canterlot, as it spanned across the mountain side with its numerous buildings and statues, constantly evaluating to another level at the end of its length, where a new part of the city began. This effect continued till it reached almost the peak of the mountain, where half of the castle lay hidden behind the rocks.
The streets of Canterlot saw to not a single hoof steep, nor did the blinds of the windows of the many building slid away to reveal if anyone was inside. Dash frowned not at the emptiness of the city, but how the only sounds to come from it was the gust of cold wind.
“Weird.” With a final glance at the town to check for any activity, Rainbow Dash turned around to the side her friends were below and waved with her hoof to come inside. She disappeared past the gate and went onward into the abandoned city.
Twilight’s horn charged up with a pulsating lavender glow a second before it fired a concentrated beam directly at the gate. A golden aurora expanded outward from the confines inside the gate to repel the beam, managing to drain some of its impacts before the golden aurora faded comply and the gate was blown outward enough to create a hole at the bottom.
The magical glow wisped away from the tip of Twilight’s horn just as she began approaching the hole in the gate she had created. Her friends stayed behind, however, causing her to stop just when she had just reached under the hole. “Something wrong?”
“Um, yeah Twilight.” Applejack slowly approached the smoking hole before Twilight, as if the gate would collapse at any given moment. “Why did you blow a hole through the gate instead of, y’know, sliding it open for us to get through.”
Twilight could only afford to glance back at her friend with a single eye before responding. “Because I needed to test out another theory that would tell us how much we would need to prepare for what’s coming next.”
She slumped over and squeezed through the hole, not waiting for her friends on the other side as she took a glance around with her horn charged once more. The girls decided that been left behind due to the confusion was not worth it, and began to squeeze through the hole as well.
“Care to explain how blowin a hole through a gate show us how prepared we should be?” Applejack had her hips stuck at the whole, taking extra care to wiggle through until she popped out on the other side.
At the last of her friends passing through the hole, Twilight turned around with a horn already charge, as she sent her aurora onto the metal bent outward. Crinkling resounded throughout the city as the metal began to mend itself, reverting inward, until the gate stood the same as it had been before.
After a sigh induced by the magical exertion, the lavender unicorn answered the question. “Celestia never relies just on walls to protect her kingdom when far fierce things exist in this world. Usually, she has her magic imbued in anything that is used in defense and takes care that that magic is at its fullest power. Since I was able to blow my way in with some ease, it means her magic has weakened, and that there's a real threat in Canterlot.”
The girls kept quiet upon hearing the realization as all their eyes drifted to one another, with the exception of Twilight, as they knew not what should be done next. The Elements of Harmony chilled their chests as the temperature had frozen the metals.
“It’s obviously.” Twilight’s eyes drifted upward, past the different layers of the city, to where the shadow of the castle loomed in the distance. “We carry on to the castle and gather what’s happened on the way there. Let’s keep the Elements ready for whatever could happen.”
The girls simultaneously nodded as they prepared to gallop together onward to the castle, though a call of a voice stopped them before their muscles could even tense. All the mares looked backward to where Fluttershy still stood.
“Wait! Before we even think about going forth, shouldn’t we give the message to the conductor to leave the station to where it’s safe?” Most mares shared the disbelief that Fluttershy finally had said something, though that disbelief was soon replaced by apprehension on what should be done next.
“To be perfectly honest, dear, I think we should keep the train where it is.” Rarity emerged from the line that they had formed before they raced off, trying to create her own section where like-minded ponies would join her. “It’s still at a safe distance should anything go awry, and if there’s a threat that we cannot defeat, then there is no shame in running away to get more help.”
“Planning for failure has never been our way of things.” Applejack too came out of the line and took her place opposite of Rarity, where she sat down. The chilling breeze blew her way in an opposing manner, trying to strip off her hat and chilled her ears, but the hat didn’t go far as the strap around the orange neck was too strong ever to be snipped. “If Twilight’s right in that there’s a threat significant enough to require our full power, then there might not be enough time for the train to get away. It’ll have to chug backward to escape, and there’s no telling what our damage radius may be this time around.”
Rarity sat down as well in order to mirror her friend's sense of power, though rose back as soon as her flank touched the cold pavement.
“I’m really confused.” A voice spooked the two and caused them to look to their right, where Pinkie was staring down at her hoof. “I mean, you two have some excellent points. As heroes, I believe we’re supposed to risk everything we have to that ponies can go on laughing and smiling. But I also agree with the notion that we may need to escape and get help, because we may not be able to stop whatever it is that’s going on.”
Twilight, for her part, had been silent on the debate besides her tired eyes trailing to whoever had been speaking. Once an impasse had been reached, her eyes directed themselves to the mare that had started the argument in the first place.
“Fluttershy,” Twilight said, the first time she dared talked to the pegasus since Spike left them both. “What do you believe should be done? Have the train depart with the guaranteed safety of the passengers, and risk all of our lives if such a major battle is to exist. Or, have our means of escape to fight another day, while risking that the aftermath of the fight could potentially harm the passengers? Choose quickly; Celestia may not have long.”
Fluttershy’s heavy lids were close to sealing once more as the sleep in her system threaten to overtake her. Through the blurriness of her squinted eyes, she saw two of her friends sitting on opposing sides, while Pinkie a little farther but still in the middle of them, while Twilight looked down at them all from the top of the small staircase.
The sun began to reach its apex past the cold clouds as it began to hang over Twilight’s form. In a split second a bolt of electricity connected the two beings, despite the plane they stood on, as they understood one another feelings perfectly.
Both desired to fall asleep as quickly as possible.
Fluttershy took on the mental pain known as thinking, which Twilight had been trying for so long to avoid, as it drained their energy quite quickly. But because of this, Fluttershy came to with her answer that she fully believed in.
“With no offense to Rarity, I believe we should single for the train to pull away from the station.”
Twilight didn’t smile, but she nodded in a way that conveyed the same feeling. “Then go and do it; we’ll be up ahead.”
The lavender mare gestured with her hoof for the girls to follow her, as she disappeared in the cold, foggy streets with a lit horn that served to analyze the surrounding area. Though the others waited until Fluttershy leaped up in the air and took a flight to the top of the gate, before silent carrying on with their ever going onward walk toward the castle.
“I hope you girls know what you are doing.” Rarity had muttered the line under her breath.