The Battle
Chapter 1: Dividing
Twilight had teleported herself immediately to Princess Celestia’s side upon regaining the use of her limbs after Cream’s statement, and Princess Celestia in turn had informed everypony else that would fight, and warned everypony who would hide.
Once securing the safety of Canterlot’s civilians, including the entirety of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Spike, the ponies gathered for battle in their assigned areas.
Twilight and the other Elements of Harmony stood on the roof of Canterlot Castle’s roof alongside Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Celestia and the newly healed Luna, Feather Blaster, and Zuli Archer. The musical ponies would run sound interference and the Elements of Harmony, Celestia, Luna and Zuli would attack those affected by it.
Clockwork, Cream, Quick-Fix, Bam, and Nova stood below them in the Courtyards, ready to launch mechanical attacks and respond to injuries where they were needed and when. Clockwork, Bam and Quick-Fix readied Quick-Fix’s Modified Crossbow’s just as Nova at last maximized the output of his AIED.
Rafiq, Shining Armor, Hay Bale, Breeze Rider, Peach, and Sky Wing stood at the frontlines of what would soon become Canterlot’s battlefield, ready to fight. Sky Wing had insisted upon fighting alongside his Captain Zuli in battle, but Zuli had convinced him his shotguns could do more against Blaze Bringer’s forces on the ground than alongside him above Canterlot.
Once all was said and done, and Twilight and Cream had set up a communications spell between the separate battle groups, only one pony remained unaccounted for among the warriors or the hidden.
“Has anypony anywhere seen that one pony that was Feather Blaster’s manager? Shift was his name wasn’t it?” Peach asked everypony via their link, wondering just where Shift could’ve gone.
“Yeah. Where is that colt? He disappeared like a day ago into the Canterlot Gardens, and I don’t think anypony’s seen him since.” Vinyl Scratch relayed her answer back, murmurs of agreement coming alongside it from the others.
“I am here. And I’m ready to fight.” A gentle voice quickly billowed through everypony’s mind, shocking them
.
Everypony quickly looked around until Shift was located emerging from the Labyrinth near the Ground Fighters.
A few birds were calmly perched along Shift’s head and back, and a snake was draped across his shoulders. Upon reaching the other ponies, the animals calmly left Shift’s being and moved back within the Gardens.
“How’d you learn the Mind-link Spell?” Cream asked Shift as he readied himself alongside Rafiq for battle.
“I saw it and I liked it. Simple as that for me now.” Shift smiled as he felt the confused thoughts of everypony temporarily invade his mind.
“Let’s figure this all out later shall we? It’s time.” Breeze Rider added in as everypony went silent and focused towards the mass of creatures that had just appeared within their normal field of vision.
***
Blaze Bringer and his Sabrei approached the outer limitations of Canterlot as an army under complete command of only one leader. Upon reaching around 3 miles away from Canterlot’s widest barriers, Blaze Bringer halted his Sabrei so as to again address Canterlot.
“Well Canterlot. It certainly has been quite a long time since last we saw each other. I hardly recognize you, and I’m certain you don’t recognize me. But enough time for playful banter. You did not heed my warning citizens of Canterlot. I warned you of my arrival and what would happen should you choose to stand against me. I see your pitiful defenses. They will do you no good against my power and the power of my Sabrei. Confused as to how I acquired such an army? I morphed the populations of the nations I conquered into these beings, beings with a single thought in mind; to aid me in my destruction of Equestria. You cannot hope to fight us all. Your powers cannot compare. You made many wrong decisions this day, and for that, now you will die.”
***
The Sabrei moved to attack at Blaze Bringer’s last words, still as a near entirely solitary unit. Within a few seconds of charging, the fastest Sabrei made contact with Nova’s AIED.
Many of the initial wave of Sabrei were paralyzed into inactivity by the sheer amount of electricity coursing through the invisible net over Canterlot, but a few of the Sabrei were able to charge through the AIED and towards the Castle.
Rafiq was first to attack the charging Sabrei, charging forward and smashing two aside with his shield before smashing a third and fourth away with his mallet.
“For The Celestial and Lunar Empire!” Rafiq called out loudly as he prepared to attack the remaining grounded Sabrei again.
As Blaze Bringer at last surveyed just how many of his air-born Sabrei were useless against Nova’s AIED, he moved towards it himself.
“An interesting design, as well as an irritating one. Vanish before me you annoyance.” Blaze Bringer breathed his last words heavily at the AIED, his flames flowing through his words and onto to the AIED, quickly spreading across its entire surface and destroying it just as rapidly.
“My AIED! How could he just destroy it so easily?” Nova yelled to the others as he saw the formerly paralyzed Sabrei regain control of their faculties and begin to move towards them.
“Worry about that later Nova! Take a Crossbow and get ready!” Quick-Fix told her friend, quickly aiming her own Crossbow and nailing four Sabrei.
As the air-born Sabrei approached the Castle, the Magical Noise Interference at last went into effect by Feather Blaster and Octave Swell, causing many of the Sabrei to break from the pack mind as the pain overwhelmed them. The Rooftop Fighters wasted no time in quickly putting down each and every Sabrei that stopped moving for so little as a second.
“Good shot my sister! But do not waste thine energy too quickly. You have only recently recovered some of it, and we have many more to fight!” Luna called out to Celestia as Celestia struck down three Sabrei with a single burst of her magic, while Luna herself made four Sabrei collide with each other by facilitating artificial darkness in front of them.
Zuli was firing a multitude of various arrows at the Sabrei, attempting to see in just what way he could stop them without killing any of them. Eventually, Zuli learned he could burn out their own flames with an arrow of fire of his own magical creation, allowing him to quickly disarm and render many Sabrei within an area useless. Within little to no time, Zuli had defeated the most Sabrei of any single fighter, though he took no pride in it.
Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow were easily wielding the Elements of Harmony against large groups of Sabrei, quickly clearing entire areas of battle of the enemy entirely. Each had trained so well with the Elements that they knew they could continue to project the full power of the Elements for hours still.
Even as each of the Canterlot Warriors was amazing at defeating Sabrei though, many more rose from the ranks to replace them, so formerly defeated ones even rising again, pain and fear entirely gone from their thoughts at all. After near a half hour of consistent attacks, with little progress appearing to have been made against the Sabrei, a thought began to course through each fighters mind;
“Will we lose?”
Just as each fighter took a quick reprise at that horrible thought, an immensely strong warrior landed in front of several of them.
***
Six distinct Sabrei landed upon the rooftop of Canterlot Castle, each with an individual goal of the collective mind.
“You look….familiar.” Rarity slowly spoke to the two large figures before her, eliciting their old voices to temporarily emerge to taunt her.
“Do we now? I wonder why that might be pony. Buwahaha.” Scale spoke to Rarity, laughing at the end as her eyes widened at the minor recollection of his voice.
“Grableasgh.” Crackle barked at Rarity, his old personality leaking through the Sabrei pack mind as well for now.
“You…you’re the dragons Spike met on his Migration!” Twilight called out as she connected the figures of the two in front of Rarity with the shape of the Sabrei in front of her as well.
“Very good pony. Where is that little part-pony anyway? Master ordered me to eliminate him and the Element of Magic.” Garble growled at Twilight, licking his lips slightly as he did so.
“Yeah. I’d like to see the shrimp again too, but I gotta stay here and detain as many as I can of the noise causers.” Shred smiled maliciously at Vinyl, Octavia, and Feather Blaster.
“Are you a dragon from the Migration too then?” Rainbow Dash quickly jumped back and snorted at the figure in front of her.
“Come on Dash. Already forgotten me entirely in favor of your lame pony friends for who you have proper Loyalty have you?” Gilda laughed at Rainbow, causing Rainbow to entirely go slack at the shock of seeing Gilda like this.
“And who are you then? You share no body type like the dragons or griffons.” Celestia challenged the last figure, which stood before her and Luna.
“I was once Raki, leader of Zebrika, though I have no need of that name or title except for now under my Master’s rule. I am to detain his sisters as long as I can.” Raki answered Celestia and Luna, eliciting each of them to get into a stance assosciated with battle.
“I’d say that’s enough explanation for now. Time to find that pathetic excuse for a dragon. You better hurry if you wanna beat me to him Element of Magic.” Garble laughed as he quickly smashed a large hole within the roof and took of through it.
Twilight galloped over to the hole, and looked back at the others, torn as to just where she needed to go.
“Go Twi! Spike and the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ll need ya more than we will! You said that now that we’re so attuned to em, the Elements still have power even if they’re separated. We’ll be fine for now! Go!” Applejack yelled at Twilight, eliciting a nod from Twilight as she followed Garble through the hole he had made and used her Teleport spell to make up for lost time against the Sabrei Dragon.
“Bad choice. Dividing your forces when you’re already divided.” Shred laughed back at Applejack, smiling toothily as he finished.
“And why’s that scale face?” Diamond Bolt angrily asked Shred, hoping he could somehow instill fear in the strange creature.
“Cause now it’s easier for us to do our jobs. Like this!” Shred yelled as he quickly leapt at the speakers and destroyed over half of them with two slashes of his claws.
As everypony looked at the damage Shred had just done against one of their best defenses, Gilda and Raki made their moves. While Gilda took Rainbow Dash from the roof with her in one swift movement, Raki forced Celestia and Luna down to the ground with a Sabrei energy empowered temporary Zebrikan Seal.
“Let’s take our battle to the skies Dash! Hope you can keep up!” Gilda screeched at Rainbow as she flung her high into the clouds above the Castle.
“The Master wishes you be on the same level as his when he finishes the others.” Raki spoke mindlessly, speaking as nothing but a Sabrei more than any other.
As Shred landed upon the roof again, Zuli, Diamond Bolt, Violet, and Skeptic took off while Octavia and Vinyl dashed to opposite corners of the rooftop. Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Applejack quickly joined them in their new formation.
“Zuli! Rarity! Diam! Applejack! Go help Twilight, Clockwork, Hay Bale, Shift and the others on the ground! The less of us they have directly held here the better!” Skeptic yelled at Diamond Bolt, Zuli and Applejack, encouraging a nod from his fellow Pegasi before they took off quickly towards the ground, followed by a shift of her hat from Applejack and a wave of her mane from Rarity as they leapt off the rooftop behind Diamond Bolt and Zuli.
“They may have a better chance down there now, but you have a worse chance here. Buwahaha.” Scale spoke up as he and Crackle joined by Scales’ side against the few ponies left on the rooftop.