"Is that... fire?" asked a grey pegasus, who was soaring above a huge expanse of trees.
"I don't know, I can't see from here!" replied her passenger, an orange filly holding on for dear life. "Slow down a bit so I can see where we are going!" Her eyes were clenched shut, to protect her eyes from grit as they flew.
"I think that's Ponyville over there... on fire" said Ditzy, slowing down her flight. "What do you think, Scootaloo?"
Opening her eyes, she saw in the distance pillars of smoke rising, turning the evening sky from a green hue to jet black, blocking out the orange moon. "FLY FASTER, FLY FASTER, FLY FASTER!" shouted the young pegasus, forcing her eyes shut again.
Nodding in agreement, the mailmare dived towards the ground to build up speed. Just feet above the tree layer, she rocketed towards the town, with all the grace of a maimed sloth. In the distance, she could see a large, armoured pink winged unicorn diving towards the town as well. Flying to intercept her, she noticed the other pony had stopped. "Hey, do you know what happened?" the grey pegasus called out to the other pony.
Turning her head towards the voice, Cadence saw a grey pegasus with bugged out eyes flying towards her. On her back was an orange filly, biting down hard on the blonde mane of the adult. "No, I just arrived. May I ask who you are?"
"I'm Ditzy Doo, and this is Scootaloo. You look familiar..." the mailmare said, scrunching her face up.
"I'm Princess Cadence. But I think this conversation can wait, as we need to help the civilians here" the armoured pony said, flying towards a large white marquee.
"Should we help?" asked Scootaloo, opening her eyes again.
"We should, but I think the guard can handle this. We need to find Luna. The quicker we find the elements, the quicker ponies stop getting hurt" said the grey pegasus, as she glided towards the large tree library.
Landing gracefully on the ground, Princess Cadence galloped towards the entrance of the tent, which was blocked by two of Luna's personal guard. "Halt, my lady" said one of the guards.
"Open the path, soldier. I request that I am allowed to assist the wounded ponies" said the pink pony, taking her helmet off.
"By order of the Princess of the Moon, we have been entrusted to ensure you stay in secure zones" replied the other. "We shall escort you to the safe zone, if that is ok with you?"
"I'm guessing I don't get much of a choice in this, do I?" said Cadence, her mood souring. Not only had Ponyville been attacked, but her superior wasn't letting her help. Looking back into the tent, she saw ponies flailing and attacking one another.
"Luna doesn't want you to do anything without her say so anymore, in the interests of your safety. I doubt Ponyville can take another attack like that, and we are losing more ponies to Discord by the hour" said the guard, leading her to the centre of town. As they walked, they wandered past the various tents, which had now covered every piece of free land in the town. In the distance, a huge mass of white could be seen covering the fields of Sweet Apple Acres. In front of the library, the princess saw two familiar ponies.
"I see we are both here for the same reason" said the pink winged unicorn.
"We would be, except Luna isn't accepting any visitors at the moment. That guard said something about 'Intelligence gathering'" said Scootaloo, brushing one of her hooves on the ground.
Cadence looked at the guard, and saw that he looked out of place. His green coat clashed horribly with the ill fitting royal guard armour, and he looked less muscular than other guards. "May my companions and I pass through? We have urgent news regarding the current climate."
"Nah, old Loony said she doesn't want to see anyone at the moment" he said, slouching in his pose.
"Are you sure this is a real guard?" asked Cadence to her bat-like guards, not breaking eye contact with the 'soldier'.
"New recruit. Apparently he was quite effective in the siege of Canterlot. I think he came down along with all of the refugees from there."
"Do we still control Canterlot, then?" she asked, knowing the answer already.
"No. It was last seen floating past Tartarus."
"So this is our last stronghold. Simply great."
"What about Trottingham? We kicked the changelings out of there" asked Scootaloo.
"Our forces are stretched thin as it is. It was safer for everypony that we moved the inhabitants from there to here" the guard said to the filly. "It is entirely possible that we still have Cloudsdale. The problem is that any soldier sent up there to get us a status report never returns. No word from the Wonderbolts, either" he said, turning to the armoured princess.
"I see Nocturnal has filled you in on the details" a booming voice said. The green guard quickly opened the door, allowing for the large navy blue princess to be seen. "You may stand down now, guards. Cadence, Ditzy, Scootaloo, follow me" she said, walking back into the library with her guests following.
"So as you can see, we aren't doing too well right now" said Luna, standing in front of the three ponies. "We were completely outmatched by those mangy mutts, even on the home field. Luckily, we have our reinforcements from Canterlot, so I don't think we should be at risk from another invasion on this scale. Anyway, I hope you bring good news from the forest."
"Well, we received aid from a Zebra named Zecora in the forest, who told us of her being interrogated by a gang of Discord's goons. After we started chasing them down, we got ambushed by a unicorn who had turned that part of the forest into an icy waste" said Ditzy, stepping forwards.
"That must have been what all of the magic we detected was. Continue" mused the princess of the night.
"Anyway, she turned out to be on our side, as well as owning the card containing Twilight Sparkle. Unfortunately, she isn't the most co-operative of ponies and requested Mario's aid in getting her stuff back from the gang. From what he told us, it ended up as a fight between a ninja mule, them two and the two Ursas in the forest. Thankfully, they somehow got out of that scrap alive, and the others are on the way back here. Anything else you want us to do, Princess?" asked the mailmare.
"I'll brief you in a minute. Cadence, what news do you bring?" said the blue winged unicorn, turning to her pink kin.
"I was doing some snooping around in the castle, when I found this ledger of trades in there. Inside were records of deals with the pack of diamond dogs that live on the outskirts of town, as well as a deal with somepony known as 'Garble'" replied Cadence.
"If what you said is true, this could possibly mean that he trusted those mutts with a card. Miss Doo, I request that you find one of the guard captains and get the lowdown on the enemy. Return here once Mario arrives, understand?" Luna said, turning to the two pegasi.
"Yes ma'am" said Ditzy, as Scootaloo saluted. Watching the pair walk out of the door, the princess of the night turned to Cadence.
"That armour suits you, by the way. Reminds me of Tia when she was young. Now on with business. I don't need to tell you that your snooping is vital in the return of harmony in Equestria" she said. "But before you go, I would like to request that you spend a little time with me. I have a visitor of sorts coming, and I need you to aid me."
"In what?" asked the princess of love, confused.
"Cleaning this place up" Luna replied, pointing to the unmoving body of a massive diamond dog. "My interrogation got awfully messy."
Cadence rolled her eyes, and walked over to the prisoner, letting out a little sigh.
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"Are we there yet?" asked Trixie, putting on a childish tone.
"NO!" shouted Mario, who had endured this question for the last forty minutes. Smirking to herself, the mage on the plumbers back yawned.
"Lighten up, moustache boy, it should be an honour to have the Great and Powerful Trixie ride you" she said, causing Big Macintosh to snicker.
"Hold on a second, I think I hear something" said Applebloom, who was walking a bit ahead of the group. "It sounds like rustling in that tree up there" she said, pointing to a bent tree.
"It looks like I've lost the element of surprise today" said a female voice from the tree.
Wait, I recognise that voice thought Mario.
"Come out, Diamond Tiara" said the yellow filly, her voice showing a hint of annoyance.
"Fine" the rich filly said, flying out of the bush. Her mane had leaves and twigs sticking out of it, and her suit of metal armour had grass stains on it. One major addition had been made to her armour, and that was a pair of fake wings.
"H-how are you flying?" asked the plumber, his jaw dropping.
"After being humiliated at your hooves near Trottingham, I decided I needed revenge on you-" Diamond Tiara said, her robotic wings still flapping.
"For breaking your toy" replied Mario in a deadpan tone.
"You also kicked me into a tree. You hurt me, I hurt you. Anyway, my uncle is an inventor and since he had to flee his workshop, I didn't see any reason why he'd want these wonderful things anymore." She fluttered about some more, admiring the whirring technology on her back.
"Go home, Tiara. It isn't safe out here" said the moustachioed plumber.
"For people like you, maybe. I saw this sketchy looking pegasus earlier and I beat him down. His little griffon friend could only try to flee in terror, but I made sure he didn't get far" she said, smirking.
"Seriously, you're going to make some powerful enemies doing stunts like that" said Mario.
"What, like you? None of you can even attempt to hurt me now that I can fly out of your reach" the armoured filly said, laughing to herself. Suddenly, a bolt of magic rocketed past her head, causing Diamond Tiara to shriek.
"Listen, girly, if you wish to fight the Great and Powerful Trixie, you would not even last a minute. So why don't you take your chubby pink flank and scram" growled the blue mage, who's hat had floated over towards Big Macintosh.
"Chubby? Listen, you two bit unicorn, I am the prettiest and richest filly in Ponyville. You do a single thing to me, and my father will destroy you" the armoured pony growled. Trixie raised her eyebrow at her, and began charging up another bolt. "I don't have time to mess around with small fish like you anyway. Oh, by the way, I heard Ponyville has been attacked by some dogs. Thought you ought to know" she said, flying off above the trees.
"Cheers for getting rid of her" said Mario, looking at his passenger.
"She had it coming. By the sounds of it, I think you should be running faster" she replied, levitating her hat from Big Mac's head.
"Eeyup" said the farmer, dashing off towards the town, with Mario in hot pursuit
.
"Hey, wait up for me!" yelled Applebloom, trying to keep up with the running ponies.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
"I can't believe Chancellor Bloodwing is blaming us for all of this" said Cadence, watching a unit of griffons fly out of town. "I mean, it's pretty damn obvious we need help from those feather brains if any sort of order is going to remain in this world" she said, turning to Luna.
"The griffons have always been only worried by problems that are immediately affecting them. Would you believe they thought that Chrysalis was less of a threat than a dragon that decided he wanted to live 3 miles in the border?" laughed the princess of the night, as she walked back into the library. "This does put us under a bit of pressure to solve this issue though."
"Why? It's going to affect them too."
"As far as they see it, Discord is from Equestria, therefore it should be our responsibility to deal with him and if he attacks their territories, it's almost as bad as invasion."
"Has he already been attacking them?"
"Not properly, only a few eyries have been turned into candy floss so far. Still annoying those hot headed feather brains to no end. But I digress. Thank you for your help in cleaning up those dogs and making this place almost presentable. Now, I must insist you return to my sister and find out more from that ledger up in the castle."
"No problem, Luna" said Cadence, as she picked up the armour that was put into a cupboard. "Anything you'd like me to tell her?" she asked.
"Just say that I have everything under control. Goodbye, and good luck up there" said the princess of the night, opening the door to the exit. Waiting for her there were a gang of ponies, all out of breath. At the front of them was a red stallion with bandages wrapped around his chest and a blue unicorn riding on his back.
"What... Happened... Princess?" gasped Mario.
"Diamond dogs. Come in, you lot, we need a team talk" replied Luna, walking back into the building.
"Well... good luck down here" said Cadence as she walked past the large red farmer, who was carrying a large playing card on his back. Spreading her wings out wide, she took off high into the sky through the smoke clouds that hung above the town.
"As I told miss Doo, we got attacked by the local Diamond dog gang. Cadence also confirmed that they are working with Discord" said the princess, walking around the ponies. "But anyway, let's see what good news we have."
"Well, we found Twilight Sparkle, as well as got a name for our little group of delinquents" said Mario. Big Macintosh put the card on the floor, facing up towards Luna. "Turns out they call themselves 'The Legion of Chaos'."
"Really?" asked the winged unicorn in a deadpan tone. Levitating the card, she placed it next to the card containing Fluttershy. "Do go on."
"We also found another piece of help in the form of... her" said the plumber, pointing his hoof to the unicorn standing next to him, who was looking at a suspicious puddle of blood in the room.
"Trixie Lulamoon. You have been on my radars for a while..." said Luna, grinning.
"Wha- what did you know?" asked the mage, standing completely upright.
"Well, that depends. Are you willing to work for our cause?" asked the princess, winking at Scootaloo, who snickered.
"Uh, yes. Yes I am" said the unicorn, sweating heavily.
"Good. I'll see if we can wipe off your record after this mess is cleared up."
"Uh thanks." She turned to Mario and hissed "So you weren't lying. I'm surprised."
"Anyway, it's good we have more hooves to help us. Thanks to the clues we have amassed, I have reason to believe that somewhere those mutts have an element in their home. Going in there straight will be suicide, no matter how strong you are. They may not be smart, but they number in the hundreds" said Luna.
"My big brother could easily beat them up. Miss Trixie beat us all up, so she must be like 5 Mario's" said Applebloom. "If we surprise them, we can destroy most of them!"
"Trixie agrees. I have won my share of scrapes, so an ambush is the perfect idea to crush these mutts" she said, raising her nose into the air.
"I have a better idea. Come out, Fido!" Luna called. From another room, a lumbering, great blue dog, wearing a grey vest top. His eyes were a pale blue with black swirls, and his jaw was hanging slightly open. "Turns out this big boy is one of the leaders of that gang. He will be your ticket into their caves, and hopefully into their inner sanctum."
"What... did you do to him?" asked Scootaloo, looking at the dogs eyes.
"A little mind control. Me and Cadence have given him the commands, all you have to do is blow into the whistle and he will act it up. Your secondary objective is to rescue any hostages you may find. Diamond Dogs are known for kidnapping ponies and forcing them to work in their mines, and we lost a good 200 ponies to them in the fight."
"How... did you even get him to bow down to the spell? I'd have thought he'd have been thrashing too much for you to get it on him correctly" asked Trixie, looking at the idle dog closely.
"He and a bunch of his friends decided that this was a good target. Frankly, I think they were more surprised than me when they saw me" replied the princess. "Anyway, they don't move much when you shut down their motor functions."
"So when do we move out?" asked Scootaloo, who was replacing her bandage with one from Twilight's cupboard. "I mean, the last bit of rest we had was when we were tied up to those poles."
"I'd rather you do this as soon as possible, but I suppose you can rest. Tiredness will only lead to mistakes. 0600 hours I expect to see you all ready to go down here." The princess turned her horn to the canine thrall and forced him to fall asleep on the floor in a heap, with his rear pointing straight at Mario.
"Trixie calls double bed" said the mage, walking up the stairs with a barrier up. Scootaloo attempted to run past her, but the white energy shield pushed her back. "You can have the basket."
Grumbling, the orange filly climbed up the stairs behind her, with a snickering Applebloom behind her.
When everyone had left the room, apart from Mario, he walked up behind the princess. "Do you think Discord will pull another attack like this?"
"Of course he will. I'm actually surprised it took him this long. Luckily for us, I am working on replicating Captain Shining Armour's shield spell. For now, you should focus on your upcoming fight with the dogs."
"I suppose. Goodnight, Luna" said Mario, heading up the stairs.
"Goodnight" said the winged unicorn, placing a blue nightcap on her head, sitting down on a large cushion in the centre of the room