Everypony was on edge. Storm had ‘accidentally’ leaked the reason for the last massive monster attack, and the citizens of Manehattan had correctly guessed that, because Gusty bead the chimera, Grogar was going to retaliate.
The whole island was on lockdown. Ponies had spent the day gathering supplies and running to underground shelters. The streets were empty except for a few ponies, grabbing everything else they could salvage and running back to their hiding places. When they spotted Gusty, the majority of them nodded or whispered, “Good luck.” A few glared at her, because they blamed her for getting them into this whole mess.
“This is the only bridge out of the city,” Maggie said in a tight voice, staring at her hooves. “The monsters always come here.”
“So I just have to stand here and knock them off one at a time by zapping them with lightning,” Gusty said, trying to be cheerful and hopeful in a hopeless situation. “...Right?”
“Something like that,” Fire Storm said gruffly, looking away to rub angrily at his eyes. “Argh… I never should have agreed to this!” he burst out, stamping his hoof. “Stupid Trout with his pompous, know-it-all, I’m-so-much-better-than-you face that looks so punchable…” He met Gusty’s eyes, and she was startled to see tears in his eyes. “You shouldn’t have to do this alone, Gusty, it’s - it’s not worth it if you-”
“Please don’t say I’m going to die,” Gusty frette4d, “It seems very counterintuitive and doom-ish.”
“Promise me you’ll come back!” Maggie suddenly cried, leaping forward and throwing her arms around Gusty, who staggered back in surprise. “Don’t you dare go in there, all brave and daring, and not c-come back out-”
“Yeesh, come on, guys, let’s focus on something positive!” Gusty tried to reprimand them, though her shaky voice didn’t sell it. “It’s going to be fine.”
“This is it,” Fire Storm said in a quiet voice. “This is… this is the beginning. And the end.”
“I hope you mean the end of Grogar, and not the end of me,” Gusty tried.
“What?” Maggie straightened up and wiped her eyes, looking back and forth between the two other unicorns, for she had gone into a kind of trance ever since she heard that Gusty was going to be facing off against the entirety of Grogar’s monster army. “The beginning of what?”
“We’re coming out of the shadows,” Fire Storm told her distractedly. “Once this battle is over, for better or for worse, Grogar will know that something is over there. It’s time to fight back.”
“Are you crazy?” Maggie demanded, leaping in front of the colonel. “We’re nowhere near ready!”
“We’ll never be truly ready,” Gusty said calmly. “But every second we spend is another that the enemy has to grow stronger and definitely plan vengeance on you, so… you know, the sooner you get started, the better.”
“Exactly,” Fire Storm agreed before giving Gusty a strange look. “We were told that by Professor Dolphin on our first day. How’d you know that?”
Gusty shrugged. Better to let him wonder than to admit that, when Maggie had said, “We’re nowhere near ready,” she had seen the blue pegasus giving the exact same speech to a group of ponies. Then she had blinked, and she was back here, and absolutely no time had passed. No, better to let them wonder.
Maggie drew Gusty into yet another hug. “Promise you’ll come back,” she whispered into her mane. “I don’t know what I would be able to do without you. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had.”
“I promise,” Gusty assured her, pulling her friend deeper into the hug, and for a moment, they just stood there, the chilly breeze ruffling Gusty’s mane, and she wished she could stay like this - wrapped in her friend’s embrace, with no monsters to worry about. “I’ll come back after beating all those ugly monsters, and then we’ll curl up and read books together to celebrate. And, for what it’s worth, you’re the very best friend I’ve ever had, too.”
“Hey!” Fire Storm protested. “What about me?”
Gusty sighed and pulled the stallion into the hug. “Better now?” she asked, patting him comfortingly on the head.
“Yes,” he whispered mournfully before breaking away along with maggie. And as the two unicorns watched their friend walk slowly away across the long wooden bridge, both of them stared after her, as if they had so much more that they wanted to say, but couldn’t find the words to say what was on their minds.
Gusty’s hoof stepped on a loose plank of wood, and she lost her balance. Flailing, she fell into the river below, sinking below the surface as water filled her lungs-
She blinked. She was standing on the bridge - most definitely not in the water. Reaching out in front of her, she felt the next plank of wood - and it was loose. She gently applied weight, and she threatened to topple over the side of the bridge into the churning, dark, cold water below. Everything about it had seemed so real that she couldn’t shake that feeling.
She faced the dark woods in front of her, remembering her task… and remembering her friends. She felt the strongest urge to turn back and look at them, but she refrained from doing so, because she knew that she wouldn't be able to turn back.
“Gusty, wait!”
The sound of the familiar voice, though it wasn’t one she expected to hear, was enough to make her turn around… and her jaw dropped.
For racing towards her through the empty streets of Manehattan was a huge group of ponies, dozens of them, earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi alike, led by Everpine. They skidded to a halt besides an astounded Maggie and Fire Storm.
“What are you doing here?” Gusty demanded, breaking into a run to meet the sap colored unicorn who now approached her.
“If Trout finds out, you’re going to be in big trouble!” Fire Storm added, raising his voice to address the troops of the Equestrian army. “Everypony, thank you for showing your support, but you need to go home! This isn’t a joke - when Trout learns that you’ve been here, he might-”
“Do what? Throw out over half his army?” Everpine scoffed. “We’re done hiding, we’re tired of doing nothing. We’re ready to fight!” A resounding cheer rose up from the ponies, so loud and defiant and amazing that even Fire Storm cracked a smile. Gusty desperately wanted to agree, to let them fight by her side, but she just couldn’t do it.
“Guys… no. For one, Trout said that I have to be the one who banishes the monsters. And for another, this is dangerous - I couldn’t stand it if one of you got hurt because of me.”
“It won’t be because of you,” an earth pony said fiercely. “This is our choice.”
Their faces were so set, so determined, that it made Gusty hesitate. She knew that, realistically, she couldn’t do this alone. “Well…”
“He only said that you had to banish them,” Everpine pointed out. “He didn’t say anything about ponies helping you fight them. And we’re going to help whether you like it or not, no matter what Trout might say, so…” She shrugged and shuffled her hooves.
Gusty felt a massive grin splitting her face in two, and she looked at Fire Storm, who shrugged and lit the tip of his horn, showing that he was going to fight by her side as well. She looked at Maggie, who looked like she was about to cry with happiness. Then she studied the crowd, nearly a hundred ponies who were ready to die for their cause.
Those monsters wouldn’t stand a chance.
“All right, fine,” she relented, and everypony cheered. “But remember, I have to be the one to banish them. Just keep the monsters from entering the city, okay?”
“What do we do, commander?” called one of the pegasi. Gusty glanced at Fire Storm, but he, like everypony else, was looking at her, waiting for their instructions to come from her.
Quite a change from the unicorn who’d sat around in the woods all day, doing nothing.
“Pegasi,” she instructed, “I want you to surround the city from the air and keep an eye out for any monsters. Make sure you can hear each other - if you see something, communicate it to me immediately.
“Unicorns,” she continued as the pegasi saluted and flew away to get into position, “patrol the city limits, form a barricade between the city and any possible entrance. Keep your horns lit and try to look as big and scary as possible.” The unicorns galloped away, directing each other to form a wall around Manehattan.
“And earth ponies,” she said, turning to the few ponies that remained. “I want you to patrol the forest. Stay in pairs, don’t get lost, and if one of you sees something, tell the others, and all of you get out of there as fast as you can. Join the unicorns and get ready to fight.”
“Wow,” Maggie marveled as the earth ponies raced off. “You’re really good at this.”
Gusty grinned. “Why, thank you,” she said cheerfully, her heart light for the first time that day. “Oh, don’t step there,” she warned as ponies raced across the bridge. “The board’s loose - you’ll fall.”
Gusty, Maggie, and Fire Storm positioned themselves in front of the bridge, their horns lit, so the monsters would have to get through them to get to the city. All around her, surrounding the entirety of Manehattan, unicorns lit their horns, and pegasi hovered, their eyes narrowed at the dark trees.
After standing there for what must have been hours, Gusty’s hooves were numb, and she began to wonder if the monsters were even coming. Perhaps she had scared them off. Then-
Flames erupted deep in the forest, followed by a bloodcurdling scream. The woods erupted into chaos, and Gusty dug her hooves into the ground.
This was it.
They were here.