//------------------------------// // Chapter 26: Negotiating Battle Plans // Story: Prisoner and Savior: Part 2 // by efug25g //------------------------------// Somewhere in outer space, 1,000km south of the Temar Galaxy...... A large fleet of Sectanium ships are proceeding down towards the north as they are following the trail Zeck's ship. Thanks to Colonel Janus, they were able to pinpoint the traveling way points that lead towards where Zeck's battlecruiser is headed. Their fleet has included a 2 dozen Sectanium Battleships, escorted by their Interceptors up front. Behind them, the Empress' Flagship is seen while 10 warships are staying alongside it. In addition, the Sectanium Fleet also has scores of small Mandor cruisers and Warrior Frigates following the Flagship from behind. Inside the Empress' Flagship, at the command bridge, Empress Vanista is sitting on her throne while taking a sip of her wine from her glass as she looks towards her battleships as they continue their voyage to hunt down the traitors and crush them with all their might. The Empress grinned maliciously as she herself in a prideful mood. Behind her, Trine has appeared from the corridors. After his recovery from his fiasco at the UFF Military Port they took over, Trine is seen with a huge, flat bandage on the right side of his face and a brace that is holding up his lower jaw in place. Every time Trine turns his head to another direction, he can feel the pain burning from his injured jawbone. As he face the Empress, Vanista turned to see Trine in a facial, crippled state. "How's your jawbone, Captain Trine?" Vanista asked out of a frightful concern. "It still stings, I could barely feel my jaw!!" Trine gasped in pain. "I thought I was seeing stars back there." "I don't know how could we lose so much of our men to a bunch of pastel horses and the UFF at that Military Port." Empress said, feeling a bit distressed over the incidents that occurred ever since of the prison outbreak on Terram. "Even though we were able to secure that Military Port in Xarilius, most of our Mandor grunts have been taken out, along one platoon of my best soldiers. So, I had no choice but to summon the rest of our fleet and our army from Sacreus and Kulverth, the Mandor homeworld which took about 48 lightyears." "I know, that Zeck is starting to become a big pain for all of us!!" Trine snarled. "Ever since Colonel Janus threw that purple pastel horse EQ-3 into Terram's slammer, things slowly got out of hand in about one week later, not to mention that Xuliana disappeared again along with the traitor Pamela." "Whoever this pastel horse is, something is telling me that we are going to be facing a whole new adversary unlike anything we fought before." Empress said, feeling a bit anxious over that strange, sentimental alien. "I've got a very bad feeling about this!!" "Did you get Janus' location of where Zeck is?" Trine asked the Empress. "I did, she said that his ship disappeared into another planet at Temar. Janus pointed out that it was planet called Equiss or something like that. On that planet, she pointed out that Lord Hampt is being held in somewhere inside some sort of large, white city with a huge palace in the middle." "I just hope we can find the escaped prisoners there because when we do, we'll string them all up and sent them straight to Satria." The Empress snarled. *SMASH* *Twinkle* *Twinkle* In anger and frustration, Vanista breaks her own wine glass with the strength of her firm grip on her hand. As a result, the remaining wine that was still inside the glass spattered all over the floor, along with its broken remains. "Thankfully, with the aid of Admiral Jiarius and General Zuluk we will succeed this time, along with 20 Warriors onboard our flagship." In about three days later after Twilight's speech, all of Equestria's military leaders and allied representatives have all gathered around in the huge meeting room. Right in the middle of all 50 seats, they and the UFF leaders are sitting across each other in a massive, large round map table made of crystal structure. It is pretty similar to that of the map table in the Castle of Friendship, the very same Castle Twilight used to live in before moving back to Canterlot at the start of her reign. Starswirl, Flash Mangus, Mage Meadowbrook, Sommambula, Mistmare, and Rockhoof are all sitting at the north end of the map table. Twilight Sparkle, Thorax, Cadence, Ember, Flash Sentry, and Queen Novo are seen sitting at the west side of the map table. A.K Yearling, Stygian, Tempest Shadow, Mayor Mare, and Chancellor Neighsayer are seen sitting at the east side of the huge map table. As for Captain Zeck, Admiral Derek, and Co-Captain Chmone, they are sitting at the south end of the map table. For those who happened to be subordinates of the leaders from Equestria's allied nations, they all introduced themselves briefly before they stood firm and listened carefully during their meeting inside the Canterlot palace. After Twilight introduced Zeck and the UFF leaders to the rest of the rulers from Equestria's neighboring nations, Admiral Wellington makes his first announcement as he takes out a huge sheet of Zeck's drawn out battle plans while Zeck takes out the translator and turns it on so that every creature in the room can understand what his superior is saying to them. Stygian takes out his notebook while levitating it with his magic before setting it down on the table in front him. At the same time, he also pulls out his ink and quill before taking notes over Derek's plans. "So everyone, you all know why you're here, right?!" The UFF Admiral announced as he addresses his speech to all of the leaders of Equestria's allies. "Well, what do you know about these invaders?!" Stygian asked, in a cautious manner. "From what Twilight said during her speech, we have already been fighting against the Sectaniums and Mandors for years. They have been making my people suffer all because they came up with the wrong ideas for the right reasons." Wellington said, briefly. "Their technological weaponry is very advanced and they'll be sending in troops with the warriors blending within their ranks. Thankfully, Twilight and her friends did managed to restrain several of our pursuers when they intercepted their forces at one of the Military Ports we owned before it was overrun." "You mean, Twilight actually brought in prisoners on the way back here?!" Thorax pointed out. "Exactly!" "What are you going to do with them, your highness?" Thorax asked, out of curiosity. "I might as well give them all a taste of their own medicine if they're not careful. They need to understand what might happen if those monsters do not stop this foolishness!!" Twilight said, as she narrowed her eyes sternly. "I also heard that some creature or pony may have something that can repel against the mind-controlling warriors. Is that true?!" Zeck said, clarifying what Twilight's friends told him during Xul's story. In response to Zeck's question, StarSwirl the Bearded was the first to raise his frail, gray hoof up above his head. "You might you be, sir?" Derek asked the old, wise unicorn. "My name is Starswirl the Bearded. I happen to be the most wisest of the unicorns in Equestria that dealt with every aspect of magic both light and dark for a very long time." "Do you have any leads on how to deal with mind-control, Starswirl?" Zeck asked, in a curious, educational manner. "Why indeed, yes. It's just like the time when King Sombra used his dark magic to control every pony in Ponyville before attacking Canterlot. I do have several counter spells books that I had Twilight read after her coronation in Canterlot." Starswirl said as he took out one of his anti-dark magic spell books from his sack. "I already taught Celestia and Luna how to reverse dark magic like that when they're both in my study back then." As Starswirl slid an anti-dark magic spell book to Zeck, he picked it up and skimmed through several pages to see what the wise unicorn is getting at. In just a few minutes of skimming, Zeck felt a bit overwhelmed on what spell can the unicorns use to ward of the Warrior's mind control abilities. "So Twilight, how did your friends managed to capture one of the invaders coming after you?!" Starswirl asked while Zeck continued to read his spell book. "It was Discord and Luna, actually. They told me that they were accompanying my friends during the fight back there. Discord used the bewitching bell on the Warrior before Luna restrained him with her magic!!" Twilight answered briefly to Starswirl. "What did the bell do to him, exactly?" Derek asked as his eyes widened with a confused look. "Well, they were able to use the bewitching bell to strip away Lord Hampt of his dark magic." Twilight answered briefly. "However, there is some dark history about the bell. I hate to say this but the bewitching bell used to belong to an ancient evil creature named Grogar many eons ago. It was meant to drain the magic from other creatures when being used by the one who has it. It's also meant to grant the user dark powers beyond their wildest dreams!!!" Twilight said in a grim expression. Zeck and Derek felt horrified to imagine if his enemies were to get their hands on that bell. Thankfully, they used it for good instead of evil. Hopefully, it won't fall under the wrong hands if they were to defend Canterlot from the Sectanium Empire. "It wasn't before Gusty the Great was able to steal the bell from Grogar and sealed it away with her magic in Mount Everhoof so that it will never be used again, until now!!" Twilight continued. "It was thanks to Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Chrysalis that they almost used the bell on us. Even though if we defeated them all and recovered the bell, its powers still remain intact as of now." "Do you think that bell will be useful against the Warriors?" Chmone asked, feeling a bit confident about the ancient artifact Twilight is elaborating on. "Yes it would. However, there will still be other villains that'll get their hands on that bell by any means necessary." Twilight warned Chmone. "If it falls under the wrong hands, we wouldn't stand a chance against them anymore. This is also why Celestia wanted to secure that bell immediately after Discord used it to take away Lord Hampt's mind-controlling powers. Besides, the bell can never be destroyed by any means, especially not with magic. So, we have to do our best to make sure the bell is not in reach with any hostile creature." "I understand. It's too much of a risk." Zeck said, confirming Twilight's statement over the Bell of Grogar. "I can't imagine the Empress getting her hands on that thing!" "Putting the bell aside, I'll still send in more of the anti-magic wards from the Changeling Kingdom to reinforce Canterlot's Castle walls." Thorax said, making his suggestion to add more defenses to Equestria's Capital City. "What will they do?" Zeck asked the Leader of the Changelings. "They're meant to cancel out any evil spells that get too close to its barrier. So, if those enemy Warriors reach the walls of Canterlot, their powers will be useless." Thorax explained, briefly. "Well, we still have their interceptors and their warships to deal with. They have huge laser cannons that can level cities and buildings to rubble in a few minutes tops. My crew onboard the ship will try to do their best in keeping most of the interceptors at bay. However, their warships may be harder to crack." "Tell me Zeck, do you still have any spies that might give us information about how to bring their ships down?" Flash Mangus asked as he's trying to understand the weakness of these new foes. "When Xul was still in their military, she did point out that anti-air, rapid-fire cannons may be enough to punch through the hulls of the warships. They still move very slow and are only equipped with a frontal laser cannon, two huge bombard, double-barrelled side cannons, and one missile launcher setup on their rear." "I'll do my best to send in some of the best pegasus teams and airships to overwhelm their warships." Flash Mangus said with determination. "For the defenses, do you still have any weapons that can also blow their warships sky high too?" "We'll try to setup mobile anti-air defenses somewhere inside the Canterlot city but we need good vantage points first!!" Zeck replied, making his first plan in fortifying the city's defense layout. "Also, I'll bring in a team to setup trenches near the city gates. They'll be expecting us to counter attack both from the walls and from the trenches." "What kinds of attacks will we also expect from the invaders?" Twilight asked Zeck. "Their warships will start opening fire from above along with their interceptors before they send in the ground troops to clean up the mess. We do need to raise some shield barriers to keep their air units from leveling the city. Since I already saw Twilight raised her own shields, I do suppose there are other unicorns that can do this to, right?!" "There is, actually. Though, it all depends on the strength of their willpower and experience in using magic out on the battlefield." Starswirl pointed out. "I did study on my shield spell for years. However, their weapons still gave me a headache every time they kept shooting at it. If only BBBFF is here......" Twilight added in, feeling a bit anxious in raising her shield against her enemies again. "Who is BBBFF??" Zeck asked, feeling confused over such a strange word. "My big brother best friend forever but his real name is Shinning Armour." Twilight answered in a specific sentence. "He's formerly the Captain of the Royal Guard in Canterlot, now the co-ruler of the Crystal Empire." "This ought to be interesting." Derek thought. "We could ask him to aid us here too." "I'm right here!!!" A stallion voiced boomed from behind Zeck and Derek. As the stallion appeared, he was seen as a white unicorn with a blue mane and tail wearing purple guard armor. After looking around for a moment, he sees Twilight as tears came down from his eyes. She knew that it was Shinning Armour that came from outside of the meeting room. Just like that, he jumped on Twilight as he embraced her in his hooves. "Oh, Twiley!! I heard about what happened when Spike sent me that message back at the Crystal Empire!! I'm so glad you're okay!!!" The stallion wailed. As he looked behind Twilight, Shinning saw some strange creatures that he didn't recall seeing. After looking at Twilight in the next second, he lets go of her only to glared at Zeck, Chmone, and Derek. "I've got my eye on you boys!!" Shinning sneered as he approached the two while lighting up his horn. "You better not have done anything to my sister back there or I'll......." "Shinning Armour, please!!" Twilight shouted as she shoved her brother back away from the two UFF officers. *GULP* Zeck and Chmone started sweating nervously underneath their breath while Derek made a big gulp to think that the white unicorn stallion would start doing more worse than what Twilight did. "Sorry about that. You guys have to excuse my brother. He's just only doing what any other brother would've done." Twilight added in, trying to soothe the nervous UFF officers. "Okay, then." Zeck huffed as he tried to stay cool in front of a stern Shinning Armour. "So, where were we?!" "Oh yeah, my brother has the strongest shield spell to use in order to keep out any intruders from infiltrating Canterlot. However, if his emotions can cause the shield to break down." Twilight explained briefly. "Twiley, can I have a moment with you?!" Shinning asked his little sister before taking her outside of the meeting room. As soon as the unicorn and alicorn went outside of the room, Shinning was the first to ask his sister about her friendship with Zeck and his crew. "Twiley, I'm not sure we can rely on those strangers to help us defeat this evil threat that you were elaborating during your speech." Shinning Armour said in anxiety. "Why not?! I was able to get very far in taking several of the invaders down thanks to them. Also, my friends were able to intervene when I was trying to escape from them for the 3rd time. They already gave us covering fire before my friends captured one of the invaders to hold as hostage." "It's not going to be that simple, Twiley. I already know my way around when it comes to fighting our enemies on the battlefield. Besides, we can beat the invaders with what we've got right?!" "This battle is not going to be that simple either, Shinning. Our new enemies have weapons and ships that are powerful enough to crack our magical defenses. I suggest to get as much help from our new friends to reinforce Canterlot. If we can't help the UFF recover from their losses, then we can't defend Equestria from the Sectanium Empire." Twilight said, in a serious tone. "My shield barrier can hold out for so long. I can't really help them without you, Shinning." "But Twiley, they're not even........" Shinning pleaded before being interrupted by Twilight's intense voice. "But nothing, Shinning. I almost faced an unauthorized death sentence when I was locked up in Terram, its as if I was in a whole new kind of Tartarus. They need to know who they're really dealing with because unless something is done to drive the invaders away, they'll do to all of our ponies what they tried to do to me. Please brother, just do this for me and for our family." After giving it some thought, Shinning took a deep breath before responding to Twilight's request in helping the UFF and Canterlot defend against the invasion. "Okay. I'm in!! Just don't do anything reckless in front of them." "Thanks, BBBFF!!" Twilight said as she hugged Shinning again. As soon as Twilight and Shinning Armour came back into the meeting room, they see Zeck standing in-between both of them before the Crystal Prince makes his statement. "So, you're Zeck right?!" "Yes, I am. I happen to be the captain of the UFF Battlecruiser Blue Lightraider. It's a pleasure to meet you, sir." "Yeah well, I hope you do the right thing for our kin because the last thing I would ever want is to have Twilight go Twilynanas!!! Anyway, what were you saying about raising a shield above Canterlot?!" "That's right. We made our plan to make sure the enemy Warriors do not attack us first. Other than that, we need some defenses to keep their ships and their fighters out of the city." "Very well. I'll bring in some of my best Unicorn guards to protect Equestria with a combined Shield Dome. It will give you all time to get ready for a ground attack." "By the way, do you still have your other friends with you onboard your ship?" Twilight asked. She already noticed that 15 of the creatures that she helped free may not be enough to aid her Royal Guard in holding Canterlot's garrison. "Now that you mentioned it, only 11 of us escaped from Terram before we fled to the nearest UFF Military Port. As of now, the Admiral and 200 UFF marines went onboard my ship before we were attacked by the Sectanium Fleet." Zeck replied in a brief response. "From the account of Canterlot's garrison roster, we have about 3,000 Royal Guards stationed all over Canterlot. But if any creature agrees to send in reinforcements, now is the time!!" Twilight said, before she makes her statement towards Thorax, Cadence, Ember, and Queen Novo. "We'll do our best, Twilight. But things take time!!" Novo said, feeling a bit nostalgic. "Twilight, I'm not sure we'll have enough time to go back and get our men prepped for battle before Canterlot gets attacked." "Novo, you still have to do your best. Remember how your daughter helped us liberate Canterlot when the Storm Creatures invaded Equestria. It's not too late to make up for your tarnished reputation, right?!" "I know, I'll still felt like a coward for not standing up against the Storm Guard." Novo muttered in self-pity. "Twilight's got a point there." Thorax added in. "If we were able to help Twilight and her friends keep the previous villains at bay, we can do it again." "I'm with Twilight on this one." Ember agreed as she raised her staff up high. "If these invaders think they can get the best out of us with use of their weapons, I'll get the worst out of them! After all, our strength lies in the friendship of Dragons, Changelings, and ponies!!!" "Do you guys think you can make it back in 48 hours with an army too?" Zeck asked Thorax, Ember, and Novo. "We can't say for sure, but there's always the first time for everything." Novo hesitantly said. "Is there anything else we need to watch out for when they attack Canterlot?" Twilight asked Zeck and Derek. "They'll be sending in ground troops, accompanied by several squads of hover tanks if not for their ships. They'll be armed with a 25mm railgun as its main gun and a rapid-fire pulse carbine. Their firepower make severe dents on the walls. Also, their soldiers will be marching in line formations from behind those tanks." Derek answered. Zeck ordered two of his marines to bring in a mobile billboard to show Twilight and her friends the planned layout for Canterlot's external defenses, along with a map showing the interior layout of the city. In his first step, Zeck drew out a line in front of the City Gates. With interest, most of the ponies did their best in paying close attention to what Zeck is presenting on the billboard. "My men will be stationed at the front of the city's entrance while setting up sandbags and trenches outside of the gates. I'll be making my stand there." In the next drawing on the billboard, Zeck puts in several "Xs" at various spots inside the city of Canterlot. "For all of those 'Xs' I've marked, they will be locations were the rest of your men will be setting up ambush points. If the enemy breaches the walls, your guards will have to fall back to their designated positions so that they won't be sitting ducks. Of course, they will be starting their counter-attack up on the walls and inside their guard towers first." As Twilight see the 'Xs' that Zeck drew all over the map of Canterlot, see notices that some of them are marked in various buildings within the city. "I'll do my best, Zeck. After all, I've got a score to settle with them since they all messed with the wrong pony." Twilight smirked as she clamped both of hooves together, feeling determined to teach the invaders a lesson. "Alright, everyone. You all have your missions from Zeck. Let's not stand around anymore." As all of the leaders of Equestria's allied nations nodded in agreement, Thorax, Ember, Cadence, and Novo left the meeting room along with their guards while Zeck and Chmone went back to their ship to help their fellow UFF marines start setting up the defenses all over Canterlot.