Foal Mountain is more like a series of spiky ridges that look like white-tipped claws stretching into the air to scratch the clouds. Located just east of Canterlot, it overlooks plains and valleys below like a guardian protector. Railroads run through the mountains as well, easily transporting troops and goods to and from the nearby capital city.
Those railroads were now blocked; their tunnels filled. If the enemy were to take advantage of them, ruin would fall upon Canterlot. The Noxxa were already pouring into Equestria by the day. Manhattan, the entrance to the land bridge, had been overrun after a hard resistance from the yaks and ponies, but mercifully, no civilians were in the city, having been evacuated by the fortuitous order from Canterlot. Now their next easy target was this mountain range.
Supplies and new troops were arriving every day by train and chariot. But, one day--on the same day the Ten Souls had found the Tree of Harmony, which was Monday--one particular chariot appeared out of the murky clouds and arrived at the foot of the mountain from behind.
This chariot, dark blue and with a black sheen, bumped as it landed before rolling to a stop, their batpony drivers fluffing their wings and snarling for breath. The other guardsponies unloading new troops from the trains halted and stared with awe at the regal passengers.
This chariot's passengers were Princess Luna and Scorpan.
When Luna stepped onto the rocky ground, her steps clinked and creaked; rich blue armor was adorning her entire body, with openings only at the joints. Metal even covered her wings like a protective sheath. Strapped to her flank, upright like a flag, was a wicked midnight scythe with a sharp curve like the waning moon.
Most of the present Royal Guard genuflected by bowing their heads or knees. Luna paid them no attention except for a dismissive wave of her wing.
Scorpan followed Luna like a pilgrim, under a very large hooded burlap robe. It was ragged on the fringes and was torn in several places. His face was hidden in shadow, the hood drooping down sadly. Next to Luna, he looked rather pathetic. But a dark undercurrent of power surrounded him that no one dared to question. Most who noticed him over Luna immediately acted like they had more important things to do, like staring at nothing in particular or whistling nervously.
The odd pair strode to the pony overseeing the unloading process, armed with a loaded clipboard in his wing and a pencil in his mouth. Upon seeing them, though, he had opened it enough to make the pencil drop and clack on the pebbles.
"Take us to the highest commanding officer," Luna told him with a tone that meant business.
The Royal Guard was entrenched deep in the mountains, fortifying every nook and cranny they could find with traps, shelters, spike pits, sniper positions, catapult emplacements, and nests. Among the shiny guardsponies were ragged civilians drafted for the war, in addition to supplementary forces from the rulers of the other kingdoms. Changelings, yaks, and the occasional dragon could be seen in the same ranks as ponies, for the first time in Equestria's history.
Luna noted all this with an approving eye. Standing united in the same cause would provide greater unity between all of the various kingdoms of Equestria. There wasn't much they could do against a force as numerous and deadly as the Noxxa. But their power here could slow them, and their stand would shine brightly; besides, this mountain range was a strong position against pretty much anything. It would take several tons of dynamite to make even a small dent in its foundation.
Eventually, as they finally reached a spot near the pinnacle of the mountain, they were led to a stiff brown unicorn officer with short purple hair under her silver helmet overlooking a row of foxhole constructions. Her face was hard-lined with a scowl, and her icy blue eyes held restrained disdain.
This uptight pony noticed Luna’s arrival only when she was a few meters away, and gave a simple nod. “Luna.” Her voice sounded scratchy and deep. She spat out a wad of something unidentifiable. “Name’s Glitz.”
“Good morning, Glitz,” Luna replied, serene as midnight to oppose her staunch nature.
“You here to take command, or what?”
“Far from it. Your troops are yours to command. Scorpan and I are here to support your forces.”
Glitz turned her eyes to the lumbering, holy monster. “You mean this ugly, hairy freak?”
The unfazed Scorpan gave a slow nod.
Glitz, seeing him unresponsive, harrumphed approvingly. “Discipline is in short supply these days,” she commented to him. “We could use some of yours.”
“All I have is my own,” was Scorpan’s answer. “Every pony must rely on their own strength alone to survive. We cannot borrow or lend bravery. It's innate, in every one of us. It only needs to be drawn out.”
Glitz gave a grim, dark smile. “I like him.”
“I don’t care if you like me or not,” Scorpan replied under his hood, not even looking at her. “All that matters to me is the victory.”
Glitz broke out into a real smile at that. “I really like him! Luna, where’d you find this guy? Under a rock?”
Luna’s attention, however, was drawn to the distance, up north. Far, far away, across a great plain, was a green ridge stretching from horizon to horizon. If they were to come from anywhere, it would be there.
How long could they hold off the Noxxa? They had overrun Manehattan, even with their advance warning. The expeditionary forces stationed there had done little more than slow them down for one day. It was safe to assume that they were more or less wiped out entirely.
Here, however, there were more of their forces, plus more discipline, variety in their ranks, a defensible position, and two powerful magic users. The Noxxa would need to bite harder to advance much further.
Unless they simply circumvented this place entirely? The long route would be to take the road west, going through the Crystal Empire, circle south, and then curve back up and invade Canterlot that way. Difficult as it was, if they chose to go that way instead, there would be no purpose for them to stay here.
It all depended on their confidence. If they chose to be bold because of their numbers and technological advancement, they’d strike as soon as they could against Canterlot, and with the kingdom divided, they’d simply mop up the remaining towns and cities. Their other option was as a conquering force, steamrolling every town they came across, and either razing it or taking it as a defensive position, like a parasite. That would be a war of attrition, very difficult to end quickly. Luna preferred the first option, but it was a lesser of two evils.
Scorpan came next to her, his hairy fists clenched. Luna gave him a glance.
“We will stand our ground,” he murmured. “No matter how much they hurl against us, we shall not give.”
“Is that a prophecy?” Luna asked.
“A hope,” he replied, softly.
The journey out of the Everfree Forest was easier than Tempest realized. Before long, the ponies had expertly navigated their way out of the cave, up the ravine, and to the outskirts of the forest, where, once again, they set out through the Everfree.
And for all of it, Tempest felt dragged along in a whirlwind of color, unsure of her short-term memories. It seemed as if one moment, they were all in the cave, and the next, they were reaching the edge of the forest of nightmares. What was going on? Was Tempest losing track of herself? Was she following because she had no other choice? Or because she honestly, genuinely wanted to? Really, it came down to this: did she have faith in her friends or not?
Friends.
Tempest found herself unable to confidently answer that. For now, she decided it was better to fake it till she made it.
Which was pretty much a step in the right direction the ponies wanted her to go. Tempest ignored that bit of logic for the moment, though.
“Yo, Tempest.”
Tempest eyed the speaker. Rainbow Dash was beside her. Tempest blew a harsh breath from her nose. “What?”
“Got a question. About the Storm King.”
Well, this would be an easier question than she normally had to endure. (Pinkie Pie had made a few inquiries earlier about if red velvet was her favorite cake) “Go ahead,” she whispered.
“Is he tracking you? Because I sure hope he isn’t. We already had to deal with Noxxa and Blueblood, and now we’re off to fight other ponies… in the Dragonlands. Go figure, I guess.”
“He will be hunting us,” Tempest confirmed as they emerged from the treeline of the Everfree and walked into an open grassland beneath the darkening skies, with boiling grey clouds threatening to spill its rain. “He does not take too well to personal challenges, Rainbow Dash. And we have provoked him. Especially me.” She gave a nod at Rainbow. “And you.”
Rainbow looked positively dumbfounded. “Me? I barely know the guy! Mount Aris was where we all first even knew about him! And I didn’t even do anything against him”
“Yes you did. You lopped off his horn with a flaming sword.”
“...Ohhh…”
“Yeah.”
“It was pretty awesome, yeah, but… Now what?”
“The Storm King never, ever forgets. And he forgives even less. And rainbows are pretty hard to forget, especially for a guy like him who hates all things cute. I know what he’ll do. He’ll come after you all, but his target is you. And he’ll chop off your legs, boil your hooves, and use that glue to seal your mouth and nose shut until you asphyxiate.”
Rainbow appropriately looked at a loss for words. But she took a mighty swallow and croaked, “You’re just exaggerating, right?”
Tempest narrowed her eyes.
“I-I mean, I hope you’re exaggerating.”
“Rainbow Dash,” Tempest said, all serious now. “The Storm King is your nemesis, whether you realize it or not. You, as an expert pegasus, don’t just oppose his power to control the weather. You represent everything he seeks to destroy: loyalty. He wants slavery, and manipulation. I see now that he manipulated me. Don’t let him manipulate you. If you turn, anyone can.”
Tempest’s voice had grown intense by the end of it. But more importantly, she was internally confused at her own advice. Why did it seem so important to let her know this? Why did she care that much?
“Hey, hey. Chillax. Don’t worry, Tempest. I’ll teach that guy a lesson. Nopony does that kind of thing to my friend!”
If it weren’t for the fact that they were walking, Tempest would have frozen. She did fall behind Rainbow’s pace, though. “What?”
“Uh, yeah!” Rainbow insisted, her eyes never leaving hers as she turned around, her mane whipping in the gathering wind that accompanied a thunderstorm. “I’ll stop any storm in its tracks if it means you’ll be safe… You’re my friend, right?”
Tempest was momentarily breathless. Rainbow was a myriad of color against the black backdrop of the sky, and her words had pierced her heart.
“I… Y-you... “ Tempest dropped her resistance in that moment. “Yes.”
Rain began to fall at that moment, and soon the ponies began to run through the wet grass, throwing droplets everywhere. After about ten minutes, during which they had gotten pretty much soaked, they managed to make it to the cavity of a large boulder on the edge of a gathering of trees. Soon after, the lightning started, flashing brighter than the noonday sun in long strings of plasma, and the thunder was so loud, it sounded like a cannon shot, rumbling the earth and making their ears twitch.
They didn’t have any wood for a fire (it was all soaked anyway) and Rainbow couldn’t stop the scheduled weather for the day, so they decided to use Firestorm’s swords as sources of heat and food. They ate a quick, sparse meal without saying much, and soon after began to fall asleep in the boulder’s blessed shelter, curling up as best they could to preserve each other’s body heat.
Before Tempest fell asleep, though, she noticed that Rainbow was close to the entrance, staring into the storming, furious night air, her eyes destitute and almost… scared.
Early the following Tuesday morning, after a tremendous rainstorm during the night, Glitz was helping three other ponies with the construction of a limber catapult on the top of the mountain. Luna was also on the pinnacle of the small mount, squinting at the distance.
"Come on, ya useless grunts!" came her brash encouragement to Luna's ears. "You want to spend all day putting this thing up?!"
The sound of rushed apologies and intensified working followed.
Luna, however, was preoccupied with lowering the moon to allow her sister to raise the sun. She paid no heed to Glitz's abrasive, scratchy voice.
She first saw it as she finished lowering the moon and the first rays of dawn emerged from the hills beneath. It was on the horizon, faint and blurry. And it wasn't good.
"They're here!" she announced.
Glitz abandoned the nearly-complete catapult immediately and rushed to the edge of the mountain. So did the other ponies who were up early enough. Every eye was narrowed, and soon, a scowl also was on their faces.
A long black line stretched from one end of the earth to the other. It was the Noxxa hordes finally assembling, far away, on the edge of a ridge that was on the other side of a valley separating the two forces.
Luna sniffed and ground a pebble into dust beneath her hoof. "Keep a perpetual lookout. If any movements are made, notify the closest officer immediately, and report it to me or Scorpan. Don't make any assaults, and always hold your positions."
For the rest of the day, Luna and Glitz patrolled the mountain, reinforcing weak spots and assuring the troops of their stability in spite of the nearby threat. While Luna was serene and motherly, Glitz's insensitive voice could likely be heard from the bottom of the mountain. Although it could never hold a candle to Luna's Royal Canterlot Voice, should she choose to unleash it.
The most noteworthy event occurred when Luna was helping build up a barrier around a crossbow nest on the slope of the mountain. She avoided looking up whenever she could. That black line on the horizon made chills run up her back. What were they capable of unleashing?
Glitz’s nearby voice scratched her eardrum. “GET THOSE PIKES MOVING! EVERY PIKE YOU STICK IN THE ROCKS IS ANOTHER DIRTY NOX PINNED IN MY BUG COLLECTION!”
Luna rolled her eyes at that. Noxxa disintegrated when they died. Her bug collection would be disappointing.
“Hey, Prophet. Get over here and help me assemble this wire trap, huh?”
Luna took a peek over the edge of her fortification. Scorpan was trudging his way over to the impatient Glitz, who had a rope coiled at her hooves. Scorpan’s stride was lopsided, and he looked pained.
“What’re ya waiting for?” Glitz demanded of the Prophet. “You’re one of the only guys here with claws I can trust. Tie this knot here so you can…” Glitz cut off when she noticed how pained his face looked. “Hey, what’s the matter with ya?”
Scorpan grimaced and stiffened his shoulders. “Old pain. It can cripple you if you work too hard for too long.”
“You really that old?” Glitz poked. “Yeesh. Get to work already.”
“I was Tirek’s brother,” Scorpan told her as he bent down and began to tie the knot in the trap. “I can’t help my age.”
Glitz looked taken aback. “You… what?” She blinked in astonishment. “Tirek’s brother?”
“Hard of hearing?” Scorpan wryly asked as he checked the knot. “You’re that old? Yeesh.”
Glitz stood still. She looked as if a stranger had just slapped her in the face.
“Yes. I had once invaded Equestria, intent on conquering the magic within this land. But a young pony called Star Swirl the Bearded taught me the value of friendship.”
Glitz shook her head. “Young. Feh. Ya old geezer.”
“My brother was… not as amused as you were.”
Scorpan disrobed the sackcloth he wore and threw it aside. The brown-furred gargoyle’s sweat clung to his body, but Glitz wasn’t focused on that. It was on his leathery wings. Or what remained of them. They bore the evidence of a bloody fight long ago which hadn’t healed properly: twisted the wrong way, snapped in multiple places, and dislocated joints. Glit's hoof was over her mouth, her eyes wide and horrified.
“He gave me this as a token of his brotherly love,” Scorpan murmured, clenching his fist as a spasm of pain wracked his spine. “In return, I splintered his horn and set his insides on fire. Solak Ethisi Wo.”
His fist burst into a coiling dance of black fire that traveled up his arm and into his shoulder, and Glitz jumped back, staring at his crackling arm the entire time.
“After I delivered him into Celestia’s hooves, I wandered the earth, directionless. Faust, however, found me and turned me into her prophet… the means of delivering Faust’s voice to the world.” He shook his arm, and the flames dissipated.
“You mean that frickin’ Goddess?” Glitz remarked. “Everyone’s been talking about her lately. Some people believe it, but a whole lotta don’t. You’re not doin’ so well as a mouthpiece, you know.”
“It’s not my place to dictate what you believe,” Scorpan replied with equal measure. “I am a simple watchman. It’s up to you to trust me.”
“I’ll only trust you if you manage to hold them back,” Glitz said, jabbing at the dark horizon filled to the brink with awaiting Noxxa. “If they’re as strong as you and Luna say they are, it’ll take a miracle to deliver us, or they’ll pummel this mountain to dust.”
“Don’t be too demeaning of the deity I speak for. The ability to destroy a mountain is insignificant next to the power of the Goddess.”
“What is the power of a Goddess to an unbeliever, Scorpan? I trust in my own hooves, and my own power alone. I don’t need some Goddess to look out for me as well.”
Scorpan thinned his lips. “I find your lack of faith disturbing.”
“I find your wings disturbing. Why didn’t your precious Goddess save them?”
A flash of anger found its way into the grizzled Prophet’s eyes.
Glitz noticed this and scooted back quickly, fear rapidly encompassing her. Luna wanted to jump out from her fortification, but she held herself back; both parties were already simmering down. Scorpan had closed his eyes, sighed, and sat on his rear, looking away from Glitz. As for the unicorn, she took a few hesitant steps towards him, looking surprisingly remorseful for a mare with such hard lines in her brown face.
“H-hey. I’m… I’m sorry, okay? That was… out of line for someone who makes a big deal about discipline.”
Scorpan didn’t say anything.
Glitz sat beside him. “Look, if you want to be silent, it’s no big deal, but it’s immature if somepony’s apologizing.”
“Who broke my wings?” Scorpan asked quietly.
“...Tirek,” Glitz hesitantly answered.
“Whose choice was it to break my wings?”
“...Tirek,” Glitz said again, slower this time. She paused, then nodded. “Ah. I see.”
They didn’t say much more after that. After another moment of staring into the distance, Glitz told Scorpan he could go to the command center to rest.
The rest of the day went according to plan, and by the end of the day, their work was completed. The mountain range was covered from tip to base in death traps and fortifications. Anything in an eight hundred meter range would get peppered into oblivion with arrows and boulders, and the mountain was virtually non-scaleable.
The Noxxa, during all this time, made no moves. It was simply waiting in the distance. Like a predator cornering its prey.
Tuesday morning was quick. After stretching and repacking with a small cold breakfast, the ponies set out again. The lack of nutrition might have been a problem had the journey been a few weeks earlier. But to the ponies now, it was something they could do without for a day or two.
For Fluttershy, though, as they set out along the edge of the forest, moving southeast, she felt queasy. Just how much more of this could she take? No one could suffer forever.
Then she remembered that plenty of ponies had it worse off than she did. Twilight, for one. And Celestia, distraught and upset and running a country in wartime. Tempest, tortured and humiliated by both the Storm King and themselves until she had humbly agreed to come along. Not to mention the ponies in Ponyville who were conscripted for the war, and their wives and husbands.
It was a little trick Fluttershy used to make her sufferings seem lighter than they really were. Why should she complain? Compared to others, she was doing just fine! But this time, she felt… off about it. Something was wrong about her reasoning.
“Rainbow?” she asked; she was next to her at the moment.
Rainbow glanced at her. “Yeah, Flutters? What’s up?”
“I feel…” Fluttershy frowned. How to describe it? “Uneasy.”
To her surprise, instead of giving a sarcastic remark, Rainbow only sighed. “Speak for yourself. I’m on edge too.”
“What?” Fluttershy asked. “You? Never.”
Rainbow gave a short glare at her. “What, do you think you’re the only one who’s uneasy about all this?”
“It’s not about that!” Fluttershy defended. “And that’s the whole point. All this time, I’ve been rationalizing that I shouldn’t be uneasy, since we’re not as bad off as others. But lately, I’ve felt… like that isn’t enough. Like… the strength within myself… isn’t enough to face off my problems at full power. So I’ve been downplaying everything. But the, um... levity of our circumstances can’t be ignored. And I’m afraid I won’t be able to handle it.”
“Huh.” Rainbow looked surprised. “You know, if there’s one thing you’re good at, Fluttershy, it’s standing up to things you’re scared of.”
“I know,” Fluttershy mumbled.
“Just find your inner power,” Rainbow advised, hopping atop a fallen tree trunk as they walked, rising above Fluttershy the farther they went. “Everything you need is right inside yourself. I’m… working on that problem myself, if I gotta be honest.”
“Power?” Fluttershy muttered. “You mean inner strength?”
Rainbow dropped from the fallen trunk and trotted to keep pace with Fluttershy. “Power is doing something with the strength you have. It’s the ability to act, Fluttershy. What will you do with your power?”
Fluttershy hummed and tried to think. That question wasn’t easy.
“Y-you don’t have to think of an answer right now,” Rainbow reiterated. “Just… keep it in mind when you feel like taking action.”
“Where did you get this advice?” Fluttershy asked.
Rainbow Dash coughed. “Tempest.”
Suddenly it made sense. “Ah.”
“Look, it was all incidental, anyway.”
“What did you mean when you said you were working on this problem yourself?” Fluttershy asked.
Now it was Rainbow’s turn to look uneasy. “Um… the Storm King. He kinda sees me as his enemy now.”
“Now that’s just nonsense!” Fluttershy immediately chided. “We all fought against him at Mount Aris. Twilight was his main goal, Tempest betrayed him, and Noble Blade dueled him and cut off his leg. There’s plenty of foes he could choose from. You’re not his antithesis.”
“But I am!” Rainbow insisted. “I… Look, Shy, whether I like it or not, I’ll be the one to face him. He twisted my friend into evil!”
“Your friend? Tempest?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow said. “And he wants to kill us all. What, do you think I’d just stand back and cheer on the Guardians as they take him down? I’m in this fight too. I’ll make my mark. Staying by their side, especially in a hurricane of blood, is the whole point of being loyal.”
“... But you’re not sure if you can manage that?”
Rainbow sighed, kicking a pebble. “You got it.”
They didn’t have much time to say anything more after that. Soon after this, the group came across another open plain, but there wasn’t any grass in it this time. Just grey pebbles scattered on a layer of dark brown soil. A few sparse flowers poked up at odd places, but that just made it seem all the more pathetic. It was actually once a piece of farmland five acres wide, but had long been neglected by its bankrupt owner, leaving it desolate.
They crossed the plain without incident. By the time they had gotten back to softer grass, everyone had pebbles in their hooves and were hissing or grumbling their displeasure.
Fluttershy, however, had more important things on her mind. Personal power…
They continued hiking, going through the nearby woods once more to shave off more time. This small piece of woods wasn’t like the Everfree, but it was still a challenge to navigate. More rough terrain awaited them along the way, like staggered elevation changes and drops. They were only a foot tall, but it slowed them down. Roots, thorns, and fallen vegetation blocked most of their routes, but they cut through those and pressed grimly onward.
Once they emerged from the trees, they continued for a few hours until they had gotten to the base of a tall, grassy hill, with the setting sun from behind bathing it in golden light. Starlight announced that they would make camp on top of it and call it a day. Everyone agreed, and they quickly ascended until they reached the top.
Dinner that night was the flowers they found on the hill. They once again used Firestorm’s swords for heat and light as the world was gradually bathed in cool blue night and the emerging stars, according to an awed Rarity, “shone like sequins on a black dress.” This far away from any civilization, Fluttershy could indeed see for miles on top of that hill, and numberless concourses of beautiful stars.
It made Fluttershy feel very small indeed. But it also made her feel important, just because she got to see this beautiful tapestry of heavenly power.
As everyone was drifting off to bed, and Noble Blade was out like a log beside her, only Fluttershy’s head was still high, looking up and squinting to see how much of the dark heavens she could make out.
Was Fluttershy a star, too? But not just another prick in the endless expanse of the sky--one of the important ones, used for directing ponies on their journeys? Fluttershy felt a pang within herself. She needed direction before she could give it to others. She needed purpose.
The stars couldn’t give those to her. But she wished on them anyway.
On Wednesday morning, after she had lowered the moon and the sun was just beginning to rise, Luna was in the command center of Foal Mountain, which was a hoof-cut cave near the middle of the mountain’s ascent. Close enough to the action so it would be easy to command from the position, yet close enough to the base so orders and news from the base of the mountain could easily reach it.
Which is what happened as Luna was in the middle of overseeing a list of the provisions and munitions the ponies had on Foal Mountain. A pegasus conscript--Cloudkicker, Luna remembered her name was--appeared at the open mouth of the cave, panting, and wheezed out, “Urgent news… from the south!”
Luna’s attention was diverted immediately. She levitated the scroll from the lilac pegasus’ hoof, and immediately began to peruse it.
Almost instantly, her horn began to smolder with killing fury, and the edge of the scroll began to blacken and curl.
Cloudkicker looked appropriately taken aback, taking a nervous step out of the cave. “Um… L-luna? Should I… g-g-go?”
“NO,” Luna thundered, and Cloudkicker seemed to shrink. Luna corrected herself. “Gather Scorpan and Glitz and bring them here before you leave. We have a matter of grave importance on our hooves.”
Fifteen minutes later, Cloudkicker, true to orders, reappeared with Scorpan and Glitz’s shadows behind her. Giving a nervous laugh, she smiled exaggeratedly as the two of them entered, then before anyone could say anything more to her, she was out.
Glitz gave Luna a questioning, scathing eye. “What is it, Luna? I was finally having a proper hot breakfast, but then Cloudkicker decided that was the time to pick me off my flank and drag me back here.” She took a swig from a tin canteen.
“There’s a sizeable force of Noxxa approaching from the south.”
Glitz spat out her coffee with bulging eyes, then growled and glared at Luna. “You deliberately chose the time to do that too, didn’t you?” she irritably asked.
“How can this be?” Scorpan asked. “Did we not keep a proper lookout to notice them circling around our position?”
“That’s not the case,” Luna refuted. “None of the pegasus scouts found any movements. To have a substantial number of them break off and circle around would not only be noticeable, but also time-consuming. They just didn’t have the time to organize a force, move all around the mountains, and then for no reason go fifty miles south of us.”
“Fifty miles?!” Glitz exclaimed. “But how did they get them there, then? Did they send a fleet?”
“No. That would have also taken time, and we would have noticed that, too. This, here… they appeared almost instantly. Like daisies popping out of the ground.”
“What other news is there?” Glitz demanded.
“Dodge City and Baltimare have fallen simultaneously,” Luna reported, examining the letter. “And the Noxxa had joined forces in between the two cities after their swift takeover of both. They began marching north today.”
“They’re fast,” Glitz remarked drily.
“They’ll be here by nightfall tomorrow!” Scorpan declared, a hint of fear in his otherwise passive tone.
“We can’t fight a war on two fronts,” Luna told the two of them, standing at her tallest. “However they appeared, we must take the first action, or we’ll get sandwiched between their pincers.”
“You mean launch a preemptive strike?” Glitz asked. “You have to realize, our emplacements aren’t entirely set up yet. And besides, they’re out of the range of our catapults anyway. You thinking of a cavalry charge? Those have a horrific death rate.”
“No, of course not, Glitz. Somehow, we need to get rid of the Noxxa to our south. But we need to do it quickly, and with one blow, or else the Noxxa to the north will strike and overrun our weakened defenses.”
Glitz twisted her mouth into an ugly, grim line. “I hate this. Well then, what’re you gonna do? Send Scorpan to the south?”
“That was my thought.”
“What does their army look like?”
“We don’t know. There’s no number estimate… likely because it was too big to approximate precisely.”
“Him, alone, against an entire army? And without him here, and the Noxxa to the north vastly larger, our forces couldn’t handle their assault if they charged.”
"I know," came Luna's forlorn response.
“Then get Celestia or Cadence down here to replace his absence!”
“Celestia is taking care of the home front matters, and Cadence is leading her troops in the Crystal Empire, should the Noxxa change their course to the west. This is the best we can do.”
Glitz ground her teeth so hard, it sounded like she was chewing sand. Her eyes seemed to quiver, like her eye sockets were boiling.
“I will go,” Scorpan solemnly said. He put his burly hands behind his crooked back. “I will hold them off long enough for you to repel the north army.”
“Your purpose isn’t to die!” Glitz scolded him instantly.
Scorpan huffed, narrowing his eyes at his newest friend. “What do you think I’m going to do, walk out with an arrow pointing at me, saying, ‘come and get it?’ The whole idea is not to die. I’ll stay alive so I can fight, and if I fight, I’ll buy you time.”
Glitz looked incensed. She stood defiantly as tall as she could, which didn’t make that much of a difference to a creature as tall as Scorpan. “We don’t need time! We need stronger forces!”
“I will give you the time to strengthen your forces,” Scorpan insisted. “The longer we waste time here, the closer the enemy gets. We will not fight a war where we’re surrounded.”
“I know,” Glitz insisted. “But still, I don’t… want you to go…”
Luna said nothing. She was watching with a heightened level of interest, having nothing to say.
“I know why you don’t,” Scorpan reassured her. “Let me promise this much: I won’t try to die.”
“That’s not much of a promise,” Glitz growled. “Like you said, the whole point of war is not to die for your country. It’s to make the other guy die for his.”
“Well spoken,” Scorpan told her.
Silence befell them. Glitz and Scorpan stared into each other’s eyes with equal force. Luna decided not to say anything.
“...You promise?” Glitz asked, much softer than her usual tone.
“I do.” Scorpan’s voice was gentle. He bent his knees so he and Glitz were on equal eye level, and delicately cupped her scraggly cheek. “I promise, in the name of the Goddess.”
Glitz blinked a few times before taking her cheek out of Scorpan’s gentle claws. “Don’t make a promise you can’t keep, Scorpan.”
“I will keep it because I made it, Glitz.”
Glitz gave a heavy nod. “Fine, then. Go. Get out of here and do your country proud.”
“Right now?” Luna mildly asked.
“Oh, no, he should have a cup of tea first. Of course I mean right now, Luna! The tide of war waits for nopony!”
And so Scorpan was subsequently taken to a chariot in the unloading zone. Two pegasi were promptly hitched up, and the broken Scorpan, covered with heavy cloth, stamped into the chariot lopsidedly. His clenched fists, however, were anything but broken.
Luna watched the chariot disappear into the distance, her eyes hurting from the light of her sister’s sun. When she could see no more, she turned to the nearby Glitz, glaring at the Prophet’s back with a tear on her cheek.
Glitz caught Luna’s eye, then snorted and wiped it away. “What are you looking at?”
Luna, in spite of it all, smirked.
To Twilight, it barely seemed like a moment between the time she had fallen asleep and when Starlight Glimmer was shaking her awake. She blinked eye crud out of her face as her pupil shook her body. “Star…?”
“Hush!” she insisted. She looked scared out of her mind. “Stay low and stay quiet.”
That made Twilight fully awake in a second. “What’s happening?” she whispered.
“Look over the hilltop,” Starlight told her. “They only showed up recently. We’re waking the rest now.”
They. Twilight tensed. That could mean only one thing. She rolled onto her stomach, deep in the wet grass, and inched her way to the edge of the hilltop, where Fluttershy, Rarity, Freedom Fighter, and Applejack were also peeking over. When Twilight saw it, she grimaced.
The scenery awaiting them would be ordinarily gorgeous. The sky above them was blue and cloudless, with nothing tall around to obstruct their view. The sun was also barely rising in the distance, right in their eyes, but illuminating the long shadows of what lay beneath. There was a great bowl-like basin created by a circle of tall hills, all without any trees, but covered with lush grass.
And moving through this basin like some evil, massive flood were hordes of black Noxxa, pouring endlessly into it from the south.
“When did they get here?” Rarity hissed.
“Are they the ones that’ve just emerged from their hiding spots?” Applejack pondered.
“If they are,” Fluttershy added quietly, “the cities to the south must have been overrun!”
“How many are there? To take the cities down and then move up north... Maybe they met up at some point,” Rarity suggested.
Freedom Fighter said nothing. But his fiery eyes and trembling, clenched hooves spoke more than his mouth ever could.
They were too far away to count. But a few stood out. Noxxa varied in size, and below was no exception. Most of the Noxxa below were the size of a normal pony. But some Noxxa stood high above the rest, tremendous and bulky, the size of a train car or a house. These armored Noxxa were put to the task of hauling even more enormous siege engines--catapults, ballistas, assault towers. Some of the engines had two throwing arms. Some had three. Some were made of iron, and some from simple wood.
But one of them at the front stood out to Twilight--a six-wheeled iron behemoth easily eighty feet in length, looking like a deformed, long box on wide wheels. Ballistas were at either end of it, but what concerned Twilight were the rudimentary cannons on the front and rear. She knew the power of cannon damage from the pirates after Mount Aris. On top of all that, it moved by itself. Smoke belched from its rear like some smoky apparition, and even from far away she could hear the faint creaks it made as the monster rolled along at a snail’s pace.
The entire army was all pressed together as it slogged through the basin, moving at the slow pace of the siege engines. It reminded Twilight of moving sludge. It was slow, but the front line was already at the halfway point of crossing the faraway basin.
The rest of the ponies had joined them by that point. Sleep’s importance had been shoved aside at the threat beneath them. None of them dared to expose themselves too high.
“What do we do?” Spike whispered to Rarity.
“I… Um… Twilight, what do we do?” Rarity passed along.
Twilight felt every eye turn on her.
“Well, what do you want to do?” Twilight returned.
“Face them,” Rainbow replied.
“Fight them,” Firestorm said at the same time.
“Hold on a cotton-pickin’ minute, now, you two. There are twelve of us, and about ten thousand of them.”
“I like those odds,” Tempest said.
“This is unrealistic. We can’t win this!” Rarity exclaimed.
“Anything is possible with the magic of friendship on your siiide~” Pinkie Pie tried to persuade.
“I agree with Rarity,” came Noble’s voice, cutting through the discussion. “How can we deliver a substantial wound to this army? We’d get subjugated or killed. They have superior force and numbers.”
“But we have greater firepower,” Firestorm brought up. “The Elements of Harmony, remember?”
“It’s too risky,” Fluttershy put in. “What if we lose them? It’d be wasted.”
“Nothing is wasted if it means killing Noxxa,” Tempest said.
“Kill them all.”
Freedom Fighter’s sudden growl made everyone forget what they were going to say. His face was contorted into something feral. His eyes glittered intensely. Everyone knew that for Freedom Fighter, this was a personal matter.
“They must not be allowed to go further north,” Freedom Fighter stated. “We slaughter them, here and now.”
“I agree with that too,” Noble quickly said. “The issue I see is that we don’t know how.”
“Are they reconvening with the army moving from Manehattan?” Starlight asked aloud, squinting at the advancing army. “If so, then that means they’re gathering strength to attack someplace serious. So the army up north isn’t going to move until this contingent reaches them. If this doesn’t reach them in time, we’ll bog the main force down, and they’ll lose their battle against whatever they’re trying to attack.”
“What could they be attacking?” Fluttershy asked Twilight’s pupil. “The Crystal Empire?”
“That’s likely. Or a defensive position in their way to Canterlot. They’ll want to avoid the long way west and head straight for Canterlot itself. But the only defensive position between here and Manehattan is-”
“-Foal Mountain,” Pinkie Pie glumly finished.
The implication hit everyone at once. They were devising a pincer attack to crush Equestria’s forces between two fronts. The victory was practically already decided.
“Then,” Pinkie sighed, “we need to stop them.”
It was uncharacteristically melancholic of Pinkie to say that. And Twilight knew that it was during these times when Pinkie was most unstable.
“No matter what,” Applejack continued. It was hard for her to say, Twilight observed.
“But what if… we face disaster again?” Fluttershy pointed out. “The mirror portal. The Appaloosa camp. We might fail.”
“We might also win,” Rainbow Dash said with confidence.
“If I may,” Tempest spoke up. “This army alone is the size of yours. Equestria’s forces would be obliterated.”
“So would we,” Twilight argued. “Even with the Elements… I just…” She searched for words before whispering, “I just… don’t want to lose you. You mean… so much...”
Silence befell them all.
Noble Blade, however, was looking into the crossguard of his sword, which was in its scabbard in his arms. The Element of Honor sparkled a deep blue, matching his narrowed, thinking eyes. Twilight knew what was running through his head. How he got that Element. A reminder. Certainly of the death of Blueblood. But also of the promise of Faust.
“Our eternal mother…” Noble said slowly, looking up, “is with us all.” He gripped the hilt of his blade. “She will not let us fall. Even while I was in the shadow of death… she delivered me.” He paused, his eyes quivering, but his lips firm. “We must fight.”
Most of the ponies absorbed that in, taking various times to reflect on it. However, soon, each of them looked resolute at last.
Twilight blinked hard, and her voice was croaky. “What do you say, then?” She gulped. “Will you go against them in battle?”
A chorus of yes greeted her. Some responded with less enthusiasm than others. But all of them said yes.
A consciousness in her head, familiar to her since the very start of her journey, delivered these voiceless words: You are protected, Twilight. You will prevail.
“Oh, if every pony could have Faust as a mother,” Tempest remarked, cynically but solemnly.
Twilight almost forgot about Tempest’s refusal to acknowledge the Goddess. Would Faust protect her too?
The answer was astonishingly simple.
As if it was the screech of an enraged animal, a single scream broke through the morning, cutting through all other weak, tremulous sounds in its path. The devils of utter night came to a stop. As if it were a ghostly howl in their ancient nightmares, the second scream pricked their hearts and made them gasp in pain. It held tremendous power, and the promise of destruction--the will of its wielder, a servant of the sun.
The first rays of the sun touched lightly upon the crest of the westernmost hill, illuminating the sole figure standing on his hind legs and making the enormous symbol carved into the dirt beneath him noticeable to any in the enemy army below. One unlucky bug did, draped in that cursed emotion called fear, and cried out. It drew attention from others nearby, who gaped in horror at what was etched into the side of the tall hill. News traveled fast, and before long, all the devils were looking up into the sun-soaked hilltop. The advance stopped in its tracks, for how could one progress if the power of your greatest enemy is all around you? Noxxa cringed at the sight, convulsing, screaming, crying. The nightmares had a nightmare, too. It was him.
The Unforgiven, once silent and now screaming for the third time, was catching the fire of the sun on the staff above his head. It was blazing yellow, as golden as his face, contorted with the will to purge this vile stain, to destroy all they held sacred, to scatter the earth with their ashes. And the ashes already in the earth beneath him was the symbol they had so mockingly branded him with--a mirrored U, the symbol of the Unforgiven.
To either side of this mythic demigod came other distant figures, bathed a golden glow in the firelight of Celestia’s sun. The Mistress of the Plains, The Blood of Life, The Last Hero, and a sapphire Knight Protector, stripped of his armor, but not of his resolve. The Dreadful Bear, The Dragon Lord, The Huntress, and The Daughter of Thunder. Jewels of blinding light shone from their bodies, even from those without an Element.
But this all was a ruse, a means of distraction. Far above, far above, where once great things are rendered small, three streaks of light fired like a loosed arrow to the ground. The Stormkeeper shot down like a comet. The Raging Inferno blazed all in his path like a meteor.
And the Child of Light slowed and hovered above the devils, as the spiraling rainbow and firebolt danced together in a double helix. The air was ripped apart as the pair of pegasi reached a supersonic speed, aiming in an acute angle at the rear of the black army. They glowed brightly and screeched before the eruption.
And in an explosion of color that caused the earth itself to tremor and reel like it was drunk, a halo of a fiery rainbow erupted only two hundred feet above the surface. Shooting in a circle, the colors of the rainbow crackled and snapped in a hot ring, blasting the upstanding siege towers into burning splinters and raining like hail upon the Noxxa.
The Child of Light fired a heavy blast of royal, majestic violet down into the base Noxxa, and earth was thrown into the air like a geyser.
And with a roar, the ponies on the hill charged like war horses straitly into war and blood, ash and fire.