//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: The Equestrian Liberation Alliance // Story: MLP Movie: Equestria's side of the story // by tzening //------------------------------// The Four Briefing Tables 1 hour after Canterlot Occupation In the darkest of times, hope arose in the most likely and unlikely of sources. From the ordinary to the extraordinary, from all walks of life the second set of Equestria's heroes gathered together. As the communication spell unfurled simultaneously on the four directions of Canterlot to reveal three other windows for the other resistance leaders, what was the first line spoken? "WE'RE ALL DOOOOMED!!" Trixie's yell broke the ice or even possibly stop any ice from being formed in the first place with her outburst. "Our saviours are the incompetent Captain of the Royal Guard and the equally incompetent Wonderbolts, a kooky scientist way over his head and Starswirl...The...Bearded..." "..." The realization hit Trixie like a ton of bricks which is definitely much harder than a cart of nuts. "Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh!! It's Starswirl The Bearded, the greatest wizard of all time and the aspiration of all unicorn spell casters helping us!! I totally changed my mind, we are so going to win this!!" As the four chosen leaders, Shining Armour of the Crystal Empire, Spitfire of the Wonderbolts, Time Turner representing Ponyville and Starswirl of Sorcery looked at Trixie in disbelief. Starswirl groaned in disbelief in the fact that he just ran into another one of his crazy fans as Trixie was dragged away by the CMC. Shining Armour was the first to take advantage of the ruckus caused by Trixie to start communications. "This is Shining Armour, Captain of the Royal Guard and the Crystal Prince. I'm relieved that Equestria doesn't always have to rely on Twilight and Starlight to save the day. They really need to have some pressure laid off them. Captain Spitfire of the Wonderbolts, I'm relieved that you managed to escape Canterlot. Starswirl The Bearded, I never thought you would actually be alive. When Twily sent us a letter which gave us the rundown about what happened with the Pillars, I couldn't believe it either. Sunburst keeping the whole issue to himself in his haste to archive his notes was also a factor." "I'm surprised you managed to keep a ruckus to yourself. Every unicorn I met either said that my costume needs work or was too busy screaming for my autograph." "I have my ways." When Shining Armour received the letter a while ago, he started jumping for joy like a colt who just got his first 100%. Sunburst only has this to say to Flash Sentry: "I told you that withholding that bottle first is a good idea, he would geek out like his sister once he read the name of the sender. Thank goodness I already did my own freak-out when I first found the journal." Starswirl immediately resumed the conversation to the last leader. "Looks like the three of us are acquainted. May I know the identity of the fourth leader?" "Time Turner, The Doctor. Your spells regarding time travel have caused quite some shenanigans on the time stream." "I had a feeling something like this would happen sooner or later. I will be paying you a visit after all this to see the damage caused." "Good. Now at the business at hand. The real reason we are in contact is to establish quick and efficient communications with one another and to trade intelligence on the situation at Canterlot and what we're truly up against." The other leaders stiffened at that sentence. "Shall we begin?" And so it began, the synchronization of information among the four factions began. Shining Armour gave the status on the city of Canterlot. Sunburst gave his information on the armaments of the enemy and the situation of the Princesses, much to the dismay of Starswirl who was no doubt holding on the shred of hope that at least either one of his two students escaped. Spitfire divulged the situation at Cloudsdale about the rallying of the Wonderbolts and usage of the armours. Flash Magnus recognised the potential of these pegasi and proposed to teach the Wonderbolts how to redirect lightning using their innate magic. Starswirl told the rest about the situation of the Royal Guard and the formation of their base. Time Turner took in all this information and decided to come up with a plan. "Everypony, may I have your attention? In light of all this information, I have thought up of our next course of action." The two unicorns and one pegasus turned their attention on Time Turner. "Right now, even accounting for our numbers and strength, I'm afraid our chances of liberating Canterlot is still very low. Even if we do succeed, the cost in collateral damage would be off the charts! And yes, I'm taking the rainbow wave that supposedly magically fixes everything in the end into account. This is because right now, we have boxed in the entire enemy fleet by surrounding them in all four directions. While this means that the occupation area is limited to just Canterlot area and the rest of Equestria can prepare defences and sit tight, it also means that the entire enemy force is concentrated into a single spot, allowing them to just bunker down in the city itself. Make no mistake, because of this they will no doubt try to break through our blockade, so our job is to enforce siege warfare and gradually turtle in step by step." Shining Armor is the first to speak out. "Have you been listening to what I just said about the state of the prisoners!? Not to mention, we still have no word on what happened to Princess Twilight and the main purpose of the invasion is to take the Alicorn magic of the four main princesses. We are already lucky that they didn't know about Flurry Heart since there is no sign of any airships coming our way to the Crystal Empire as of now. If we can liberate Canterlot now, we can send a message to Twilight and tell her everything is alright. She must be worried sick about us right now and all of you should know what happens when she is under pressure." Spitfire looked at Shining Armour in pity. "Sir, I know you want to save your wife and family. But you need to control your anxiety and not collapse into pressure like your sister. If all of us barge in, the toll in lives would be catastrophic as the Storm King's armies are fully fresh and casualties would be off the charts!! If we instead play it safe and combine the Wonderbolts Academy, your Crystal Saber flight capable weapons and the long-range Dendara Lights of the Pillars' fortress to stop any airships from flying over us and invading the rest of Equestria, we can minimize the damage caused via attrition. The ponies of Canterlot and Ponyville are tough. If there is any group out there that can live through a crisis like this as if it is an average day, it's them." Shining Armour looked at Spitfire with a look of disbelief. "As much as we all know how tough the ponies are, this is something that is way out of their league. Families are being forcibly separated and loaded into cages on the airships preparing to the taken or Celestia forbid, sold to who knows where if it wasn't for us blocking their exit. The ones that have to remain in the city were given the barest of necessities to live. Such evil hasn't been seen since the days of King Sombra when he took over the Crystal Empire. If sit on our haunches, I can't even fathom the psychological damage that will be inflicted on the ponies in the long term. If we really have to do siege warfare, we need to make haste otherwise one way or another, there won't be a city left saving." "Just so you know, you can't let your failures drive you into rash action hoping that you can save the day." To say that it's a poor choice of words from the Wonderbolt Captain would be an understatement. Shining Armour exploded on hearing those words. "AND YOU SEEM TO DO SO MUCH BETTER?! I HAD TO KEEP FLURRY HEART A SECRET AND WHILE STOPPING HER FROM DEMOLISHING THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE WITH HER SNEEZES!! WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE FOR NOT SAVING THE PRINCESSES??" "YOU TRY CARRYING THREE ALICORNS WITHOUT MAGIC WHILE TRYING NOT TO DROP THEM LIKE A VASE AND DODGING STEEL NETS THAT PULL YOU FROM THE SKY, YOU ENTITLED LITTLE LEEC-" "ENOUGH, BOTH OF YOU!!" The two military captains flinched at Starswirl's outburst. "I can see both of your frustrations for not being able to protect Canterlot but now is not the time for infighting!! Right now as we speak, the enemy fleet has gathering waves of troops in both the sky and land in an attempt to break through and invade the rest of Equestria. They are already aware of the Western and Southern resistance and it won't be a matter of time before they find out about the other two armies. If you truly wear that uniform with pride, then stop bickering like foals and do your job successfully!!" As the two Captains drooped in shame, The Doctor decided to move the awkwardness aside by asking Shining Armor about another topic. "I heard about the alliance with Yakyakistan. Has there been any word from them and is a train prepared to bring them to the front lines quickly?" "Nope, not yet. Before this meeting, I checked with the Crystal Empire at the train station. They haven't made it here yet. After all, it has only been around two hours." "So, final decision. The four groups employ siege warfare in a battle of attrition while slowly turtling towards the city. The sooner the better. We also have to employ the phrase 'where the best defence is a good offence' to prevent the Storm King's army from attacking the rest of Equestria. Are we clear on that?" "Agreed." Said the other three leaders respectively. "We shall leave this spell bottle open. This is our only way of establishing communications in real-time. We are Equestria's liberators!!" As the leaders all left to mobilize, Flash Magnus only has this to say: "All we can hope for is that everypony lives in the end. Alea iacta est". "What does that mean?" Somnambula asked. "It's a saying the Royal Legion used as to define a situation that has reached a point of no return. Direct translation: The die is cast." Crystal Train Aurora, The Northern Front 1 hour and 15 minutes after Canterlot Occupation Thunderous armies of the Storm King from the city of Canterlot spread north, hoping to plunder the northern regions of the country. Standing in their way are the Crystal Guard, the troops who served under the Crystal Empire lead by a Prince who didn't exactly have the best track record. Shining Armour in Crystal Saber armor addressed his men as he faced the enemy. "We are the Crystal wall that stands between the north of Equestria and our homes. They shall never break past us!! Guards, to battle!!" As his men engaged the troops that are already on the ground, Shining Armour flew towards the airships to intercept them. "Crystal Materialization!!" The first function activated, the sword became coated in crystal with dragon scale cutting levels of sharpness. Shining Armour made a break for the first airship's bridge while dodging projectiles including those steel nets that Spitfire warned him about. He soon came up with his second command: "Crystal Mirage!!" With the combined might of his magic reserves and the power of the armour, he formed autonomous crystal shells and split into multiple clones of himself to confuse to defenders and protect himself from multiple angles. When all the clones simultaneously made a break for the bridge, they immediately combined into a formation that weakened the window for the user to destroy in one hit. Not planning on disappointing his men, he broke into the bridge by hitting the crystal formation. "HAAAA!!" A massive explosion of crystal shards on the bridge window sent the crew of the airship flying back in surprise. Taking advantage of the chaos caused, the prince immediately started disarming the Storm Guard (not literally of course, he still had his principles). The once imposing beasts after collecting themselves soon found their trump card which was their anti-magic armour fall into useless pieces on the floor. He pointed his sword at the remaining crew which managed to collect themselves in time. "You are all my captives under the grounds of the rules of warfare. Surrender and I will give mercy as a Prince." Some dropped their arms and surrendered, while the others charged forward, not intending to lose to this one pony. "Suit yourselves." He charged forward, his crystal swords blazing with power while buffed by the Accelero spell as he effortlessly disarmed opponent after opponent. The defeated and surrendered were encased up to their necks in crystal blocks twice their size thanks to the magic of the armour and the spell used by his wife Princess Cadance. With the entire crew surrendered or subdued, Shining Armour took control of the airship. "Now how do I fly this thing? Where's the manual?" Outside, the battle between the two armies is raging fiercely as ever. However, the difference in experience and training is soon made clear as the ponies began to lose ground. "We need a plan now!! Did Shining Armour leave one more set for me?" Sunburst pleaded Flash Sentry. "Sorry, you don't have the military training and is better of as the strategist, that's why Prince Shining Armour gave the second completed set to me." Flash Sentry replied, decked out in a similar set of armour as his liege. "However, he did tell me to bring the leftover ice arrows from the Equestrian Games and asked the Wonderbolts if the Weather Factory can make more if these. Don't know why though." "According to Shining Armour when I enquired about the arrows, he replied by saying that there was an incident during the Equestrian Games where in the archery competition, one of the archers slipped and shot an arrow straight into one of the clouds which created a giant ice block the size of the field...of course!! Flash Sentry, you're a pegasus. You are the few ponies who can make big enough clouds and turn them into ice with the arrows, turning them into giant icebergs to drop them right on the enemy!!" "Very well, I shall do this idea. Right now, we need all the advantages we can muster." Flash Sentry along with any pegasus available started forming as many clouds as he could. When an entire cloud bank was made, he measured the approximation of the battle line. After he finished, he gave the signal to all ponies to fall back. As the Crystal Guards fell back, the Storm Guards wasted no time trying to gain momentum. Of course, this was part of Sunburst's plan. "FLASH SENTRY, NOW!!!! EAT THIS, STORM GUARD!!" On Sunburst's command, Flash Sentry and the other pegasi immediately shoved the arrows into the clouds. The effect was instantaneous. What was once a cloud bank became a massive glacier in the sky and it wasted no time letting gravity effect it. The Storm Guards looked up in horror and wasted no time retreating as the massive glacier came crashing down on them. The airships had to quickly turn back to avoid getting crushed. One particular airship which is moving weirder then usual also managed to avoid the projectile, but instead of following the retreating airships, it flew over the glacier and raced towards the Crystal Army. "Why is there an airship heading towards us? Wait, where's Shining Armour?" Sunburst realized. The glacier finally reached the ground with a resounding crash that can be heard for miles, gouging a white line across the Northern Canterlot Plains. Meanwhile, the approaching airship suddenly blared open like a loudspeaker. "Stop!! Don't shoot!! It's me, Shining Armour!! I have taken command of this airship and have brought prisoners of war. Everyone, nice job with the tactic!!" The captured airship landed right in the middle of the train-turned-base. The Crystal Guards wasted no time mobilizing to the airship in case it's a Trojan airship. Much to every ponies' relief, Shining Armour stepped out of the airship, bringing the prisoners in tow with his magic. Flash Sentry was the first to greet his liege. "Prince Shining Armour, am I glad to see that you are all right!! We almost crushed you by accident!!" "My bad on not telling you about what I did. Still, glad to see you too. Sunburst, help me bring the prisoners. Everypony else, use the time brought by the glacier to push forward and establish as much ground as we can cover! Flash Sentry, how many ice arrows do we have left and what is your estimate on how many times we can pull this off? Will we be able to drop a glacier at the foot of Canterlot Mountain, if you know what I mean?" As Sunburst helped Shining Armour load the prisoners into the prison carriage, the Crystal Guard began advancing across the glacier to gain ground to make their way to Canterlot, Flash Sentry gave his reply: "We only have enough arrows for one more attempt. Let's just hope that Cloudsdale will be able to send those arrows soon. Then we don't have to worry about supply." With that, he joined his fellow guards in gaining ground. As Flash Sentry and the Crystal Guard refortified their battle lines using the momentum brought on by the strategy, Shining Armour flew ahead of his men as the vanguard to disable the airships which have turned around after securing the last prisoner. "Excalibur, T-mode!!" The sword split down the middle to form it's legendary crystal greatsword, designed to face the biggest and mightiest of dragons. The airships fired projectile after projectile even the dreaded Obsidian Orbs at the advancing knight, but he dodged or blocked them all with his special shields and just as it seems that an Obsidian Orb is about to hit Shining Armour, he teleported behind the airships. Caught in their blind spot, he swung the Excalibur at the thrusters that were enabling it to maintain altitude. A massive crystal circle expanded following his slash direction materialised, affecting other airships in the same altitude in it's area of effect. It then proceed to shatter, damaging their thrusters as well. "Fall into the pits of Tatarus, EX------CALIBURRRR!!!" With a second follow-up swing, the thrusters affected in his attack were completely destroyed and the affected airships were forced to make a crash landing either far away from the Crystal Guards for them to gain ground or right in their faces to be subdued quickly and be taken prisoner. "Show off..." Flash Sentry quipped. "Canterlot is becoming closer by the second!! Keep this up and victory will be ours!!" The Crystal Guards cheered at the sight of their Prince demonstrating why he is the Captain of the Royal Guard in the first place. Wonderbolts Academy, The Western Front 1 hour and 15 minutes after Canterlot Occupation Spitfire grinned as she heard the impact of the glacier with her ears alone. She did not have the luxury of having a show of manpower to spare unlike the Royal Guards, not with the Reserves being just civilians and stuck having to man the lighting turrets to fire on the airships approaching them and the ones over Ponyville airspace. Instead, she and eleven others rained thunder and lighting with their bare hooves on the Storm Guards. Having exposed areas and armour that can conduct electricity made them a bad match-up if it wasn't for the steel nets that can incapacitate a Pegasus with just one successful hit. "So that's what you had planned in mind with those ice arrows, Captain Shining Armour. Clever. Fleetfoot, can we spare anypony to bring the ice arrows from the Weather Factory to the Crystal Guards?" "Afraid not, Captain. Just the twelve of us with the support of the Academy are only enough to barely make this front a stalemate. I can request a civilian to bring the arrows though but untrained wings means it will take longer to get there." "Yeah, a thought just came to me. What if Rainbow Dash and her friends actually lost and the Storm King got the magic of four alicorns? I have been preparing for that scenario." "How could you?! Don't you have faith in the ponies that saved your sorry flank time and time again??" "Of course I do!! Why do you think I saved the last armour for Crash instead of giving it to some pegasus? Still, it pays to be prepared for such a scenario. So as a last resort, I'll use ice arrows on the Academy and drop that sucker right on the Storm King's ugly face. Let's see him survive that. "Are you crazy?! You aren't dropping some generic building. You're dropping the legendary academy of the Wonderbolts, formed by General Firefly's own hooves no less. Even if we rebuild it, it will never be the same..." "Tell me, do you have any other ideas to stop a being with a might of our four princesses? I would throw away all material sentimentality if it means saving Equestria in the end." Fleetfoot has no response to her desperate captain. All she can hope for is whatever Crash is possibly doing with the fourth princess, she better make it quick. East of Canterlot, The Great Pyramid Throne Room 3 hours after Canterlot Occupation As the rays of power fired on the thrusters of the enemy airships to cripple their flight capability while the other Pillars and the Royal Guard engaged the ground troops, Starswirl who was helping Somnambula maintain the temple complex suddenly has a scroll materialize in front of him. "Who could this be?" As he read the scroll, never has his sprits rose since the saving of Stygian. He immediately initiated contact with the other leaders so that they could hear about it as well. "Everyone, I have important news!! We have a message from Princess Twilight Sparkle!!" Dear Starswirl, We need your help!! I couldn't contact you sooner because we had no access to writing materials when we escaped Canterlot and couldn't afford to make a detour to Ponyville for the Elements and writing materials in order to cover our tracks. We are now in Klugetown which is beyond the south of the Badlands, in the residence of a bipedal cat named Capper using his writing materials after asking for permission of course. The Princesses have all been captured except for me and I currently have their commander Tempest Shadow chasing me down. I just found out that Celestia needed Luna to seek help from the Queen of the Hippogriffs of Mount Aris, not the Hippos and are now on their way to seek their aid. I have also sent a letter to Changeling King Thorax and Dragon Lord Ember asking for their assistance. If you see a small blue female dragon possibly leading a whole dragonflight coming in from the southeast of Equestria, it's her. The same goes for possibly seeing a swarm of multi-coloured giant bugs flying in from around the same direction, it means that Thorax has came for assistance. I don't know whether how much of my family is still out there not getting captured. Starswirl, please don't bring up the past and screw this up for us. Forward this message to Shining Armour if you are certain the Crystal Empire isn't attacked too as I have a message for him. If there are any other friends we need to know of, please send a letter to me. In hindsight, I could've just casted a spell for scrolls and quills instead of having Spike carry them all. Now if only some others among us can take this whole thing more seriously... Signed, Twilight Sparkle P.S Dear Shining Armour, If you are reading this in relative safety instead of being currently locked in a cage after getting taken down like a chump again: Please keep you-know-who safe and a secret if the Storm King doesn't know about her as you can tell, they are after the magic of four alicorns. I can't imagine what would happen if she ended up as my substitute. After what happened to Cadance and our parents, I can't afford to lose anymore of my family. Heard about Flurry's flu, I hope that she would get well soon. After hearing from the Princess of Friendship, a weight of their backs has been lifted. "Twily is safe. I'm so glad..." Shining Armour who is currently resting in the Royal Carriage after disabling another airship with the "Excalibur" heaved a sigh of relief. Not to mention, he had just received word that the Yaks had just arrived at the Crystal Empire and is now boarding the civilian train to join the front. "I wouldn't expect anything less from that group of misfits." Spitfire quipped as she fired thunderbolt after thunderbolt at the Storm Guard. "Such is the power of the friendship. If only it is just as powerful in my older days." Time Turner wondered as he pointed the Sonic Screwdriver in direction of the enemy. "Now we have a clear goal!! The Hippogriffs of Mount Aris as far I know have the strength and magic to aid us and minimize casualties. We just need to maintain this siege until Princess Twilight returns with their help. Proceed as usual. I will send her a letter informing us of our situation." Starswirl told the other leaders of the Equestrian Liberation Alliance or E.L.A for short while he prepared a reply, hoping to lift some pressure off Twilight's back. As unbeknownst to the heroes who fought on, their greatest trial is yet to come...