--Atropos: Main Bridge--
The captain ended the connection and turned around, “Did you track the call?”
“Yes sir, it seems to be coming from a city called Canterlot,” replied a crewman confidently.
“Isn’t that supposed to be the ponies’ capital city or something?” asked the captain.
“Yes sir, it is.”
“Well isn’t that just perfect. Nick’s in the capital city,” grinned the captain.
He quickly turned around again to face his first officer.
“Okay change of plans. I don’t want you to go down and take the elements quite yet. I want you to gather up every able bodied soldier and overtake every major city down there except Canterlot,” ordered the captain.
“But sir, why not Canterlot? Shouldn’t that be our prime target since it’s the capital?” asked the first officer puzzled.
“No, I want you to seize all major cities except Canterlot. I want Nick to realize just how foolish he is as everything crumbles around him. Then, once all the other cities are overtaken, I want you to attack Canterlot with full force leaving no survivors and bringing me the elements.”
“Yes sir!”
--Meanwhile in the Canterlot Castle Great Hall--
Nick, Celestia, and the other six all stood in the great hall slack-jawed and flabbergasted. None of them could have guessed that the call with the captain would have ended up like that.
After a few minutes Celestia finally broke the silence, “It’s been over a thousand years…”
“Since what?” asked Nick still stunned.
“Since war…” replied Celestia soullessly.
“What are we going to do!?” shouted Twilight suddenly.
After a few more moments Celestia replied, “The only thing that we can do.”
“And what is that?”
“Fight back…”
--Canterlot Castle War Room--
Shining Armor had finished gathering up the Royal Army a couple of days ago but the Princess would not let him attack Los Pegasus because she said that it would be considered an act of war and the last thing she wanted was a war. So for the past couple of days he had been trying to find a peaceful way to win Los Pegasus back from the unknown attackers. Unfortunately, to no avail. Shining Armor was about to give up on trying to find a way to peacefully win back Los Pegasus when suddenly a Royal Guard burst into the room.
“Sir! I’ve got some very important news!” exclaimed the guard.
“Not now, can’t you see that I’m busy trying to find the answer to a hopeless cause?”
“But sir…”
“Not now!”
“It’s a message from Princess Celestia!”
“Well then, come in, come in, why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“I was trying to sir…”
“I’m sorry, what is this message?”
“She’s giving you the go-ahead to attack Los Pegasus.”
“What!?” exclaimed Shining Armor surprised, “I thought she wanted to resolve this matter peacefully.”
“Well, she did. That is, until the attackers announced war on us.”
“Wait, what!? B-but we still don’t even know what they are!”
“Calm down sir, Celestia has requested your presence in the great hall. She says that she’ll explain everything to you there.”
--Meanwhile in the Canterlot Castle Great Hall--
Nick was in the middle of explaining to the Princess more about the human race and where they had come from when suddenly a white pony with a blue mane that was dressed in gold and purple armor suddenly burst into the great hall.
“I’m here Celestia!” called out the important looking pony.
“That must be Shining Armor,” thought Nick, “Celestia sent for him a little while ago.”
Shining Armor galloped through the great hall towards the Princess quickly making up the distance between them.
Once in front of the Princess he took a bow to show respect and then asked, “One of my guards reported that we are now at war with the unknown attackers and that you would like to speak with me. Is this true? Are we really at war!?”
Celestia sighed before replying, “Yes it’s true. Let me fill you in on what’s happened…”
Celestia explained to Shining Armor what she knew about the humans and how they wanted the elements. When Celestia was in the middle of describing what a human was Shining Armor seemed to take notice of Nick for the first time.
“Is he one of them?” he asked.
That’s when Twilight took over and explained the story about how they had found Nick and how he was willing to fight against the humans.
“Okay…” replied Shining Armor in deep thought after Twilight had finished, “So, if they want the elements wouldn’t that make Canterlot their next target?”
“Most likely yes,” answered Nick, “Knowing the Captain he’s probably going to attack Canterlot with a very powerful Blitzkrieg attack, take the elements, and kill me. The Captain never gives up until he gets what he wants and right now his two main goals seem to be to steal the elements and killing me. He wouldn’t waste his time and soldiers by fooling around with other cities.”
“Sounds logical,” replied Shining Armor as he turned to face Celestia, “Should I cast the spell?”
Celestia nodded in response, “Do whatever it takes Shining Armor. I trust you to protect Equestria and all of its citizens.”
Shining Armor returned the nod and took a step backwards. He then squeezed his eyes shut in concentration. Suddenly, a beam of translucent purple light shot out of his horn. It passed harmlessly through the ceiling of the great hall and into the sky. Once the beam of light reached a certain height in the sky it exploded in a shower of purple and mauve colored sparks. The entire city of Canterlot was almost instantly enclosed by what seemed to be some sort of purplish energy field.
“As long as I am awake and well no harm shall befall upon this city!” exclaimed Shining Armor confidently.
--Fillydelphia guard station--
Thorn sat in his office lazily. He was the sergeant of a small platoon that was posted in Fillydelphia. They were originally posted in Fillydelphia to guard the city but that was a long time ago and it’s not like the city ever gets attacked. Over the years they become lax and became more like the city’s police instead of soldiers. If there was ever any crime they would catch the criminals, if a cat got stuck in a tree they would save it, if for some reason a fight broke out they would break it up, etc. They didn’t have to do this stuff, because it wasn’t their job, but Thorn and the others enjoyed doing it because if they didn’t then they would just end up sitting in a guard station all day. Thorn was just about to get started on some minor paperwork when suddenly Thunderbolt walked into his office. Thunderbolt was one of the guards in the platoon Thorn commanded but they were also really good friends.
“Hey Thorn, whatcha doing?” asked Thunderbolt with a smile.
“Nothing really…” replied Thorn pushing the paperwork to the side; it could wait until later.
“Want to go to the doughnut shop with me?” asked Thunderbolt, “We haven’t had much action at all for the past couple of days and I feel like doing something, even if it’s just buying a doughnut.”
“Okay,” chuckled Thorn hopping out of his office chair, “It’s about time for break soon anyway…”
Thorn and Thunderbolt made their way out of the guard station and onto the streets. They were only about half way to the doughnut shop when suddenly all of hell broke loose. The loud sound of rushing air suddenly filled the sky as giant metallic looking creatures descended out of nowhere. Out of them detached smaller metallic crafts that zipped through and around the city at high speeds. Then, out of those crafts, even smaller creatures jumped out of them. The even smaller creatures seemed to be wearing strange clothing and helmets. Right when they would near the ground some type of device would shoot out of the backs and land them safely onto the ground. Once on the ground the creatures would start yelling and hollering at all the ponies closest to them and tell them to get down on the ground, or, in many cases, there would just be loud banging noises and the ponies would fall down dead. Thorn was so traumatized by this sudden attack that all he could do was watch the pandemonium in speechless terror. An exploding building finally shook him back to reality as he jumped out of the way to dodge the falling debris. Suddenly, more buildings started to crumble as the giant flying metallic looking creatures shot, what seemed to be fire balls, down onto the city. Thunderbolt quickly rushed up to the closest grounded creature and stabbed it in the back with his sword before it had a chance to turn around.
But then, Thorns eyes widened in horror as he screamed, “Thunder! Look out! There’s another one to your right!”
But it was too late. A loud banging shortly followed leaving Thunderbolt lying motionless on the ground. Thorn couldn’t believe it... His best friend was dead! Not only that but the city was being over taken and there was nothing he could do about it. He only had fifteen guards in his platoon and there seemed to be countless attackers.
“I’ll kill you!” cried Thorn stabbing the creature that had killed Thunderbolt before it had a chance to react.
Then a loud voice suddenly rumbled throughout the city. It was coming from one of the large metallic flying creatures, “Surrender the city now or prepare for annihilation!”
Thorn fell down to his knees in terror and dismay as he realized that there was no possible way that they could win…