“Twilight!” Spike called her name, while running through the throne hall with a letter in his claws.
“Spike?” Twilight asked, as she put some blueprints away.
“You will not gonna believe it!” He only said, as he gave her the letter.
Twilight looked at the letter in her aura and started reading aloud.
“To: Princess Twilight Sparkle
From: Princess Cadance
Day 1: Tall three legend machine was spotted at Equestria-Crystal Empire border, going circles like if it was patrolling.
Day 2: One unit managed to get close enough to the machine without being spotted. They discovered that the machine had one pony in a cage. Probably unicorn.
Day 3: The machine began to behave strangely, and after two days it crossed the borders of the Crystal Empire and approached the crystal castle with a 'crippled' step. Reasons: Unknown."
“You see? It ran out of ‘fuel’ and now it's heading to Crystal Empire to catch some!”
“Spike… I REFUSE to believe that THEY are using unicorns as a ‘fuel’! It’s ridiculous and nonsense! How would they use them as fuel? It’s just a nonsense theory!”
While the dragon was about to say something, griffon Gallus opened the crown hall doors.
“Princess Twilight?” He said, stepping inside the hall, closing the doors a little bit behind him.
“*Sigh* Yes Gallus?”
“In the last five hours, three or four thousands of ponies and a few hundreds of creatures made their way to Canterlot. What now?”
“Take them to the city hospital and open the castle’s gates. We have rooms ready for them.”
“Roger that!” Gallus saluted, left the throne hall and closed the doors.
“You know what, Twilight?” Spike made eye contact with her.
“I’m buying the train ticket to Crystal Empire.” He said, as he turned his back on her and slowly walked out of the throne hall.
“Spike! What do you think you’re gonna do there? Stop the machine?”
“Yes!” He looked back at her.
“And save Crystal Empire for one more time.” He added.
As he left, Twilight leaned back against her throne, taking a breath.
“He’ll come back eventually and tell me how wrong he was…I hope.” She said to herself.
Again, the hall's doors opened. Twilight exhaled and took new air into her lungs. She looked who had entered for this time.
A pink unicorn mare with a gold-yellow mane and tail has entered the throne room. Her cutie mark was a setting sun.
“Ah, Luster Dawn! I haven't seen you for a long time!” Twilight smiled. But Luster…her expression was…a little sad, which Twilight noticed.
“Princess Twilight, I…have bad news.”
“Bad news?”
“Yes, um… From the information that you published to the public, I made a map of the movement of ‘The Death machines’.” She explained as she used her magic to reveal a rolled poster behind the doors, which she closed right after.
“Oh? Can you show me?”
Luster nodded, trotted to Twilight and showed the poster of the Equestria. It was full of marks and darts. In some places it was full red.
“I found out that they're pushing the ponies out of the hinterlands to the very edge of Equestria, where they're letting them live. Its next move, which I indicated, would mostly be Appleloosa, even when it was attacked earlier. Next would very likely be Canterlot. And as you've known for a long time, one machine started acting strangely in the north. Could…this mean something?"
“Interesting, Luster. This may help us to make some tactics against them. But for that, I don’t think that one machine would mean something for all of the other machines. It might just be overheated, which Crystal Empire can use as an advantage too.” Twilight explained.
“Yea…? If it’s just overheated, then why aren't the others?”
“Weather and soil quality?”
“I don’t think so… I think it has to be something with the unicorns too… You know…what if a unicorn's magic is…fuel for them?”
At this information, Twilight looked at her, like she met Spike moments before.
“...You think…?”
“Yea.”
"But......if they are using unicorns as a 'fuel', then... Oh no..." Twilight then stands up from her throne seat, took the blueprints and slowly trotted out of throne hall.
"Princess Twilight? Where are you going?" Luster Dawn asked.
"If all you and Spike are saying is true, then I think it's better to turn the Canterlot shield on!" She said, moments before she closed the doors to the Throne hall.
"Has she...figure out something?" She asked, confused even more.