//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Planning // Story: Red Clouds: The Strangers of Fate // by Akatsuki God //------------------------------// Music Link Princesses Celestia and Luna sat in a meeting with Shining Armor discussing what should be done to protect Equestria if an attack was inevitable. The room was large with a large rectangular table with a map of Equestria and its surrounding nations. The three of them sat close to each other since no one else was involved in the meeting. Celestia stared at the map of her home. "Why would they want to attack us? We haven't done anything wrong, and the griffins have been friends with us for the past hundred years! Why in the world would they want a war with us?" she said questioning the loyalty of the griffins. "I don't know Princess, but we need to remain calm and carefully asses our curent situation. Also we don't know if my sister's nightmares are visions or just bad dreams. For all we know it may just be a spell from Chysalis ment to scare us over nothing, but even so, we must not take any chances with the survival of our home." said Shining Armor in respons to the white princess who stared at the map in dispair. Celestia fell silent and for a few seconds, it was silent, but the silence did not last long as Shining looked at the map again. "If they do attack, they would probably start from here." he said pointing a hoof at the border lands north of them and close to changeling territory, then pointed at another portion of the border lands, north west of them where the Griffin/Equestrian borders were located. "And when the griffins get involved, chances are, they will invade from here." He finished. Luna looked up at him when he finished. "Yes, that does look rather probable, but what if they attack from elsewhere, completely different from where you predicted? What must we do then?" she asked him. Shining was looking back to her then turned back to the map."Chances are, they don't even know that we have obtained this information. They will almost certainly attack, staring from this general area, raiding several small towns on their way to Manehatten, giving them a key foothold in Equestria, then launching another attack on two highly populated cities, Fillydelphia and Los Pegasus, before heading out to Cloudsdale, taking out the wonderbolts and our weather teams and also giving them an advantage over the skies, acting as an airial base or reconossence and air support, and Ponyville, home to five of the six barers of the elements of harmony and tightining their grip on Canterlot until finally, they attack us in Canterlot, bringing about the fall of Equestria as we know it." he said, pointing at the border lands, then at the cities that he mentioned, in order. "Princess, this is the worst possible fate of Equestria, should we discover Twilight's nightmares to be true. Because of this, wish to personally investigate the borderlands near changeling territory, to search for any signs of a coming invasion." Shining requested, eager to find and report any threats. The sisters looked at each other for a few seconds then back towards him and nodded in approval. "You may go to the borderlands, but be careful. Don't let yourself be caught off guard. Even if they don't intend to start a war, the changelings are aggressive and will attack you on sight!" "I'm well aware of that and I'll be fine, but I'll need some guards to come with me, if that's okay with you ." Shining said while turning his head towards Celestia. "Yes, you may take some of my guards with you. How many do you need?" Celestia asked giving a warm smile. "Thank you your highness, I'll need twenty earth guards, ten unicorn guards, and ten pegasi guards for this operation. Are you okay with this many going to the borderlands with me?" Shining asked his princess already knowing what the answer would be. "Why of course, I trust that you of all ponies would make wise decisions when it comes to these types of situations. Take them, and please, make sure you come back safely with as many of them as possible." Celestia requested, confident the captain’s ability. "I promise, I will not let you down." Shining left the room to gather the ponies he had requested and the two princesses continued the meeting without him. "Luna, I need you to check up on him in his dreams, keep us updated so that we can have more time to react to any strange activity in the borderlands." Celestia said wanting to make the most of her sister's ability to visit the dreams of any Equestrian individual. "Leave it to me big sister." Luna replied "But what of starting a draft into thine legion like Shining Armor hast suggested? It may be the best way to give Twilight Sparkle and her friends the time they need to use the elements to summon yon warriors, should Equestria be attacked." "I'm not sure if I am willing to draft any of our subjects, rather, we should let them volunteer to join instead of forcing their hoof." Celestia replied wanting not to force her subjects into such a dangerous profession. "Yes, perhaps thou are right about that." Luna agreed. After their meeting the two of them left to announce that any pony willing to join the legion was going to be accepted and that their military training would begin immediately at Canterlot castle. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ {Ponyville} Twilight met up with her friends in the middle of Ponyville at the town hall. Her friends showed up in glee that Twilight was back in Ponyville after being in Canterlot for nearly a year. Twilight was greeted by her friends as they led her inside- "SURPRISE!!!!!!!!" -only to nearly jump out of her skin. "What the-?!...Pinkie Pie." Twilight said to herself slightly annoyed with her surprise yet, some how knew that Pinkie Pie would have thrown a welcome back to Ponyville party for her. Twilight, seeing as she hadn't seen her friends in awhile, went along with it. "We were so glad to hear that you were coming back to Ponyville, Twilight, we couldn't help but throw you a party." Her friend Rarity explained. Twilight smiled and told her friends that she was here on a matter of great importance and that they were needed to help out on the matter, but she didn't tell them what it was until the party had ended and all the ponies, except the six of them, had left to go home. "Girls, I had a wonderful time with you and I wish it hadn't ended, but now that every pony has gone home, I must tell you that Equestria is on the brink of a disaster worse than any other we have ever faced." Twilight said explaining their current situation to them. "What do you mean? What kind of disaster?" questioned Rainbow Dash. "I've been having these nightmares about the end of harmony as we know it." Twilight said while receiving a few concerned or annoyed looks from her friends. "So you came all the way over here, from Canterlot, to tell us about a few bad dreams?" asked an orange earth pony with a cocked eyebrow. "No Applejack that isn't it at all!" Twilight replied a bit disturbed with her friend's question, "I’m here because in my dreams Equestria was attacked by the griffin kingdoms and the changelings simultaneously and eventually Equestria would be swept into the abyss of history, metaphorically speaking." "Yes Twilight, but these are just dreams are they not? Surely such a thing will not happen." Rarity said trying to calm her friend down. "And besides, what would they have to gain by attacking us?" "I'm not sure, but my dreams are recurring and my brother said Zecora told him recurring dreams may be visions of what the future holds." Twilight took a moment to recollect her thoughts then sighed, "And even the elements of harmony alone wouldn't be enough to save us from this catastrophe." "Oh my...then why did you come to us if even the six of us couldn't stop it?" a yellow pegasus asked in a low voice. "I came to all of you because we may be able to use the elements to summon allies from another dimension that may be strong enough to save us from this war Fluttershy." Twilight answered in a confident tone. "But the summoning will take days to perform and a very large amount of energy." "Which is why we use our elements? To meet the need for all that energy?" Applejack asked now a little worried about their future. Twilight gave her a slight smile, "Yes, the energy output from the elements would probably be enough to perform the summoning, but we must not summon these allies unless we actually do end up going to war." Twilight said trying to keep her friends on the same page as her. "However, we must be ready to use the elements and perform the spell in response to an invasion, so you will all be staying in the castle with me." Twilight’s friends all agreed to go to the castle with her. They trusted Twilight with their lives and knowing that they played a key role in the survival of Equestria, they gladly complied to their friend's request. At the time they were hoping that a war was just a dream and nothing more, but Twilight had an uncanny feeling that a war was inevitable and that their potential enemies were already acting against them.