//------------------------------//
// Eleventh Hour 
// Story: Kindness and the Heart of Shadow 
// by Raven-Flight 
//------------------------------//

There was an emergency meeting.  Grogar glared furiously at the faces surrounding him.  Tirek, Cozy Glow, Chrysalis, a very distracted Sombra, and Nightmare Moon, whom Grogar had just finished subduing and converting to his league when the disaster happened.

“We have to go now,” shouted the goat when all were gathered.  “Discord has found us and taken our hostage.  We must launch our attack before he can warn the ponies.  Come, to Canterlot!  We have everything we need.”

“But,” moped King Sombra, not rising from his seat as the others had done, “he took Fluttershy.”

“It’s no matter now!”  Grogar roared into Sombra’s indifferent face.  “We win this battle, and you can have her back along with all the mares your puny heart desires.  Now come!”





Celestia was overseeing the outfitting of the citizen volunteers to the Equestrian army.  They would need armor and weapons for the battle that was likely to follow after they flooded the San Franciscolt sea caves with their tsunami.  Pinkie Pie burst in, singing in a high, shaky voice.

“They’re here, they’re here, oh, sweet Celestia, they’re just over the hill!”

“Then it is time.  We must revert to our defense plan,” stated the Princess, looking to her Lieutenant Captain of the Guard.

Princess Cadence stepped up to her side and began barking orders.  “Everypony, battle formations!”  There was a general scramble, and Pinkie Pie exited to summon the others.  “Ready?  March!”

In minutes, a few thousand ponies marched out of the castle courtyards and through the city streets.  Their rows and diagonals were mostly straight, but only the remnant of the Royal Guard, which took the frontlines, managed to stay in step with each other.  There was a deadly quiet throughout the city.

As they approached the front gates of Canterlot, the quiet broke in an eruption of bizarre, dissonant music.  It was Pinkie Pie playing a yovidaphone as she preceded the army.  The sound caused the thousands more Equestrian citizens who were camping as refugees outside the city walls to clear a path for the approaching ranks.

Ponies lined up on either side of the wide road out of Canterlot to watch the army pass.  Fillies and colts stared at the glittering light reflected off that sea of metal armor and weapons.  The adults with eyes wide as the childrens’ made furtive glances out to the horizon, fearing what might appear.  Some spotted a loved one marching with the grim company and broke down into tears.  For a few suspenseful moments, not a sound could be heard but stomping of thousands of hooves and that eerie yovidaphone rising above all.

Behind Pinkie Pie marched the three Princesses.  Twilight shifted uncomfortably in the royal battle armor, fitted specifically to her but still foreign.  Next were the other Element bearers, as well as Starlight and Starswirl.  They had all been suited in armor too, and Rainbow Dash and Applejack took to it immediately.  Rarity tugged at the amulet around her neck.

Then the yovidaphone stopped.  So did all the marching hooves.  A gentle breeze carried in echoes of their thunderous hooffalls.  No, not echoes; another army.  The tops of dark helmets appeared, and soon the first rows of Sombra’s nightmare-brainwashed horde crested the hill.

All of the Equestrians held their breath.

One by one, wails of anguish rose from the edges of the refugee camps.  The ponies were recognizing their friends and family in that dark enemy company, and realizing that if they didn’t lose their loved ones in the Equestrian defense, they would almost certainly lose others from the opposing side.  Twilight glanced back at her friends and saw them all bleakly staring ahead, visibly repressing their emotions.

Nightmare Moon flew up above the frontlines of her side’s army, and Celestia too pursed her lips.