//------------------------------// // Act 3 // Story: Alarming Voice // by AizakkuHorooee //------------------------------// Once my the dragon army is established onto the borders of Canterlot, I begin my orders, pacing around with twig in my claws hovering over my shoulder. “Spread out, and stay ready, warriors!  Those ponies may be puny, but Dragon Lord Ember is counting on us to protect them!” “Yes, Commander Garble!” the rest of the dragons reply, saluting. In the distance, I can see three sirens in their true form heading straight for us.  The yellow colored siren is Adagio, the purple one is Aria, and the blue one is Sonata. “Warriors!  Prepare to fire!” We all begin soaring the air, preparing our fire breath.  We start shooting when the sirens do, allowing us to block their blasts.  Trading hits for ten to twenty seconds, Fizzle - the dragon with white scales and pink underbelly, underwings and spines - manages a good shot at Aria.  Fume - purple spins and scales, yellow underbelly, underwings and hair - and Clump - thick body, brown scales, red underwings, blue horns - end up with the best shots on Sonata soon after. All of these potent shots are around where their pendants would normally be, but are absent for some reason.  As a result, those two end up going down, but Adagio seems attracted to me, firing the most mouth beams at me.  Charcoal - black scales, yellow hair, horn, underbelly and underwings - and I clash one of those beams with our combined fire.  We manage to hold for quite a while, and in fact, it may be for a bit too long.  Sonata and Aria get up and add to Adagio’s blast against us, knocking me and Charcoal into the rest of the dragon warriors. “Hah, fireproof, but not beam-proof,” Adagio remarks as she and the other two sirens leave the battlefield for Canterlot, us dragons now winded from the fight. After me and my friends had made a plan to contribute to attacking whoever will come our way, Mangle decides to fly overhead, hammerspacing a megaphone so that all of Ponyville can hear. Attention citizens of Ponyville!  We urge you to stay inside while we take care of our enemy!  We should be clear by the end of the day!  Heed my warning or you’re fired! With Mangle taking care of the rest of Ponyville, each one of “us” - that being me and ALL the friends I’ve made since moving here - awaits the arrival of either CHS Spitfire, Svengallop, or the sirens.  As soon as Mangle joins back in the group, it turns out the middle choice of our enemies returns for revenge on me.  And there is a difference in Svengallop since the last time I last saw him; instead of an earth pony, he’s an alicorn now. “Ah, just the prince of friendship I wanted to see,” says Svengallop as he lands in front of all of us, misgendering me on purpose. This intentional denial of events angers not only Chrysalis, but also me. “Alright!  That is enough!!!” I scream at Svengallop, floating him close to me with my magic.  But knowing him, he would flail around, so it’s not close enough for him to thump my horn, but still close enough for him to clearly see the sheer amount fury within me.  “You can force Coloratura to conform to your standards, exploit Pinkie Pie and Applejack with impossible tasks, even frame Discord for forging a professional letter!  I’ve managed to keep my cool around all that, but deliberately calling me ‘prince’ is when I hold NOTHING back!!!” Still in my magic, I slam Svengallop to the ground.  Chrysalis quickly jumps to him and firmly presses her hooves on the side of his in the air. “How does it feel, Svengallop?!?  Did you seriously think purposefully misgendering Aita would be a wise choice of yours?!?  She’s a CHILD!!!” she shouts in his ear. “So that’s what Discord meant as in unacceptable…” Svengallop squeakily mumbles before planting his face to the ground.  But once Chrysalis hovers back next to me, he immediately recovers, jumps into the air and dusts himself off.  “Ha!  As if chitin’s going to stop me!” Before he has a chance to leave for Canterlot, Chrysalis and I point to him, signaling Cozy, Bow, Windy, Trace Light and Lightning Dust to jump up and bring clouds over to shoot lightning at Svengallop.  He falls to the ground again, this time having been struck successfully by the pegasi. Starlight, Sunset, Kevin, Chrysalis and I all shoot a beam together, Svengallop dodging pretty swiftly, though haphazardly, considering the charring from the lightning that struck him.  He takes off quite quickly, dodging another round of lighting all my pegasus friends have in store for him. Granola then zooms past everyone and sends Svengallop into a tailspin, which he recovers from within just a few seconds. “Darn it!  He’s fleeing!” Starlight points out. “Svengallop is headed for Canterlot!  We must support Twilight!  Come, Aita,” orders Chrysalis before she turns around to our friends.  “Wish us luck, everyone.” So, Chrysalis teleports me and herself to the Canterlot Castle throne room. The guards have taken over the battle with CHS Spitfire at the moment while my friends hide behind the throne platform, and I stand with the princesses.  The guards are shooting rapid fire lasers at Spitfire, who has encased herself momentarily in a bubble shield.  Once she’s at a lower elevation, she opens a portal to the moat of Canterlot as the guards charge her, causing them to fall into the moat on the other side. “Aaaand powerless guards out of the way…” notes Spitfire. “Stand down Canterlot City Spitfire!” Celestia angrily orders, raising and curling a hoof. Spitfire shrugs.  “Meh, I could… but I can’t play mental bingo doin’ that!  Can I?”  She opens fire at us again. Celestia and Luna shriek, and through the shield I generate to block Spitfire’s magic from harming the three of us, I can see Aita and Chrysalis teleport in at the entrance of the throne room, slightly tired from a battle of their own. “Ready, sister?” says Celestia. Confused, I deactivate the shield and look up as the princesses fly and prepare for an attack.  “Wait… What are you-” I stop short, but also notice Aita’s sudden shock. “Celestia!  Luna!  No!!!” she quickly shouts, levitating the two past Spitfire and safely next to her.  That’s when they see what Aita saw, shifting from their initial surprise upon levitation to utter relief.  From what I can guess, Aita just saved the princesses from getting their magic drained from Grogar’s bell. “Ha!  I’m genuinely impressed, prince!” Spitfire remarks, angering everyone currently showing themselves to her.  “You’ve actually wised up for once!” “Oh that is IT!” I declare, referring to the depletion of my patience for Spitfire’s manners, or lack there of.  I point to Spitfire.  “NOW!!!” On cue, my friends show themselves to Spitfire.  The first to attack is Rainbow Dash, who stuns her by spinning her like a top, zooming around her at an immeasurable revolution.  Rarity holds Pinkie Pie in her magic, who is holding a party bazooka. “SURPRISE ATTACK!!!” Pinkie screams, firing a shot of copious confetti, making Spitfire cough it all out. “Fly my pretties!!!” Fluttershy orders the geese as they gather around her, Aita and Chrysalis joining them and transforming into geese themselves.  They all buffet Spitfire. Spike is next to attack, taking full control his aerial fire breath. Everyone continues taking their turn, attacking the former CHS Superintendent until Applejack uses a lasso to bring her down to ground level.  The bell falls alongside her, which Spitfire grabs in her hooves, a little shocked she’s actually losing by herself. As soon as my friends and I can corner her though, Spitfire realizes the others are about to bail her out, as the stain glass windows behind my new throne are glowing.  As she hovers higher and higher, the windows shatter from a blast by Svengallop and the sirens, blowing everyone else in the room to the entrance, including Tirek, forcing Chrysalis and Aita to lose their goose disguises. Everyone gathers behind me and I initiate a ground shield to protect them. “You think that feeble little shield will deter US?!?” Adagio gloats as she hovers over the shield.  “The dragons have been defeated!  Your friendship castle is abandoned!  Face it, Twilight!  You. have. LOST!!!” “You can attack us, and we may fall.  But Equestria will still stand, united in friendship, and we won’t stop until we defeat you no matter how many ponies you take down!!!” Tirek taps me.  “Um, Twilight…” Spitfire snickers.  “Y- you’re serious, right?” “Didn’t you notice something was wrong in Equestria?  Spitfire and I were busy!” explains Sonata, rubbing her hooves around the shield, and occasionally pointing to either Spitfire or herself.  “She sent me on MANY a-field trip, humming and humming until enough ponies were weary of each other!  And because of how I roll, everypony was none the wiser!” Svengallop rubs his hooves together, then swipes them to the side.  “You have no backups this time.  Consider the friendships within all equinity ERASED!” “Say, do you think this castle could use some finishing touches?” Aria playfully asks, prompting the rest to charge a beam that obliterates the wall and ceiling over the throne platform. “It’s about time YOU learned a life science lesson, Twilight,” Adagio taunts. “EXACTLY!!!” exclaims Svengallop, shooting out the shield, causing it to break.  He then floats me to his hoof, grabbing me by the wings.  “Because NOTHING, not even friendship, is more powerful than self-preservation!” I avert my gaze from Svengallop as his colleagues gather behind him, charging up an attack to hit me at point blank range with, something that could potentially finish me off.  Fortunately, a boulder comes flying onto them, forcing them to throw me into the air and I land on the floor on my stomach.  I go sliding on the carpet for a short distance. “Huh?”  I look up at everyone in front of the throne, and Aita appears to be the one who threw the boulder, and is straining a bit from all that strength and force, her ears flat, but otherwise okay, smiling about her magic working so well in a fit of adrenaline.  Chrysalis pets her twice on the back.  I put on a small, brief grin myself, but realize through loud wing beats that our enemies are not done. I get up and gain a little distance from our enemies as they dust themselves off from the physical distraction.  They fire another blast together at us, so with my quick thinking, I summon the same willpower Aita used and hold a large flat slab of rubble to block their fire. Everyone starts to hold the rubble themselves, starting with Rarity.  “Twilight!  Chrysalis!  Aita!  Go!!!  Get help!!” “We’ll hold them ‘til y’all get back!” Applejack adds. “No!!  We can’t leave you here!!!” objects Aita. Fluttershy is next to hold the slab.  “It’s our only chance!!” “You’ll come up with something to save the day!!” Rainbow Dash yells. “You always do!!” Pinkie shouts, adding to the counterforce that’s beginning to crowd the area, followed shortly by Celestia, and Luna. “We believe in you!!!” Spike is the last to join in the counterforce before Tirek pushes me close to Aita and Chrysalis, forcing me to let go of the slab. “Fly you foals!!!” he screams, finally joining everyone else who is holding the rubble in place. The decision is unanimous.  We have to get out of here.  Even the castle is falling apart from all the force being applied here, as it is now raining rubble.  Chrysalis, Aita and I reluctantly turn around, teleport and go our separate ways not only from our friends, but from each other in order to get whatever help is available to us more easily.  And as we exit, our reluctance brings us - yes, even Chrysalis - to tears, escaping from the castle just in time to miss the overwhelming explosive force of Svengallop, CHS Spitfire and the sirens’ beam attack.