As the week progresses everypony's accuracy continued to get better and better. Within four days most everypony was getting multiple hits on the soft spot on the replica dragon. Colgate was thrilled with this, especially as her accuracy had increased significantly. She gathered her forces together and said, "Alright everypony, our performance has increased significantly. I feel that we can decrease our daily exercises from two to one."
Lyra asked, "So when will Twilight and her minions start heading this way?"
Colgate replied, "Well if Twilight is sticking to her schedule, it will be today. I will continue to monitor her and if they do leave today, I think two more days of exercises will be necessary and then we will clear our minds and wait. I want us to be as focused as possible."
Brevity asked, "Colgate, how is that spell for protection for dragon fire coming along. Brevity does not want anypony to get incinerated or even burned by the fire of the dragon's breath."
Colgate replied, "Well I wrote it the night after our first day of exercises and it works perfectly. So don't worry everypony, we won't have to worry about the dragon's breath killing us. It might make things a little bit warmer, but it won't make it hot around us."
This caused everypony to breathe a sigh of relief. Colgate said, "Ok everypony, I am going to head up to my tower and see what Twilight is up to. Once they arrive at the coast, I will duplicate our regular soldiers so that we will have plenty of them to take on Twilight and her forces."
Colgate headed up to her tower and tapped into the eye so she could monitor Twilight. In Faustica Twilight had the ships ready to go. She said, "Galaxia, I am going to need three dark Alicorn officers, five changeling officers and one regular soldier of each kind."
Galaxia asked, "Why only one regular soldier? Aren't we going to need more than that?"
Twilight replied, "Uh Galaxia, you do know that I will duplicate the regular soldiers many times over once we reach the Equestrian coast. Like I have said probably a hundred times before, we do not have the resources to feed an army that will be in the thousands."
Galaxia headed over to their base and grabbed the forces that Twilight wanted and led them over to Twilight for her to inspect. She asked, "Galaxia, who are these officers you are bringing to me?"
Galaxia replied, "The three dark Alicorns are Major Dark Storm, Captain Death Crystal and Lieutenant Piercing Ice. The changeling officers are General Green Death, Colonel Sharp Spear, Major Choking Mist, Captain Green Storm and Lieutenant Moldy Ooze. And then we have the two regular soldiers. The dark Alicorn is Eternal Darkness and the changeling is Death Mist."
Colgate inspected them and she could tell that they were not loyal to her, that they were loyal only to Galaxia and Cosmos. She said, "Alright Galaxia, thanks but they are going to need a loyalty spell cast on them."
This did not sit well with Galaxia but she knew that for Twilight to accomplish her objective, that it had to be done. She watched with a scowl on her face as Twilight pointed her horn at them.
Twilight began to glow a deep purple and her horn had a purple bulb at the end of it as she recited, "From another to me, that is where your allegiance will now be, you thought your old commander loved you like pie when all they wanted was for you to die. With me all shall be great, there shall be no hate."
The energy she fired at them was powerful and knocked them backwards a little bit. They very quickly wiped their eyes and had a different look in their eyes. Twilight asked them who they were loyal to. They replied, "We are loyal to the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle and no other."
Twilight replied, "Good, very good. I am happy to have you in my army." Twilight looked over at the rest of her envoy and continued, "Come on everypony, let's get going. I want to hurry up and get over there before they have had too much time to prepare."
Her envoy nodded at her and they set sail for the east. Twilight had an evil look on her face as she shouted to herself, "Oh Colgate, you are going to wish you were never born after we win this!"
Colgate was watching this and when she heard Twilight say this she replied back to herself, "Oh Twily, you are going to be in for the surprise of your life when you get here. We are ready to take you down and your little dragon too!"
Two days pass and Colgate decides to have her forces rest and mentally prepare for the battle that is to come. Out at sea, Twilight is contemplating what they are going to do as far as training goes.
LaurFa said, "Twilight, you do know that we may not be able to have any training exercises once we hit the coast. After all, if we are doing those Colgate could easily bring her forces to the coast and decimate us before we even get to Ponyville."
Twilight screamed, "OF COURSE I KNOW THAT!" Twilight then calmed down a bit and continued, "I know we won't have anywhere to prepare our forces and I know that we can't train them on enemy turf. I honestly don't know what we are going to do."
Galaxia commented, "Well I think the best option we have is for you to duplicate our forces, tell them to fire energy at our foes, make sure the changelings know to cover our enemies in ooze and let Spike take care of the rest. After all, it isn't like we are having to prepare to defend our turf against a dragon!"
Twilight smiled and replied, "Thank you for realizing that Galaxia. Here I am the one leading the charge but you are the one who knows what we need to do most. So here is the plan, once we reach the coast, I will duplicate the dark Alicorn soldiers and the changelings and then we head off to battle. Everything will be just fine."
For the next two days everything was peaceful for both sides. In Ponyville there was plenty of rest and relaxation while out at sea a much more confident Twilight continued her voyage east. Finally shortly before dawn on the fourth day of the journey Twilight sees the coast off in the distance. She starts jumping up and down like a school filly shouting, "The coast! I can see the coast!"
General Ice Wind said, "I know Twily, very soon you will be back in your black tower."
Twilight added, "And sleeping in MY bed!"
The ships finally docked and they saw the bushes with the apples that everypony likes so much. Before they started eating Major Dark Storm asked, "Regarding the regular soldiers, aren't you going to create them now so that they can eat?"
Twilight replied, "Oh, this is something you probably don't know. The duplicates have just as full of stomachs as the originals do, so there is nothing to worry about."
After about an hour of eating and resting, Twilight decides it is time to duplicate her forces. She orders her dark Alicorn soldier and changeling drone to float in an area away from everypony else. She then begins to glow, her eyes shine green and her horn glows as she recites, "From one to two, two to four and so much more, when one is simple mere, more and more shall appear."
She fired the energy at the two soldiers. There went from being one of each to being two of each. She continued to repeat the spell until she had around 10,000 of each. She looked at her newly formed armies and was very pleased with the results. She said, "Ok guys, I think this will be sufficient. Once we are around five miles west of Ponyville I shall cast the armor spell on all of us. Now let's go!"
With that all of Twilight's forces sped eastward towards their objective. In Ponyville Colgate sees this and knows the time has come. Her and Scootaloo round up everypony in the military. They head over to the base where Colgate addresses them, "Alright everypony, Twilight and her minions are on their way. She has approximately 10,000 dark Alicorns and 10,000 changeling drones. Right now we only have around one thousand of each, so I need all the dark Alicorn soldiers and changeling drones to gather in that field off to the south of the base."
Her soldiers gather over in the field so that they could be duplicated. Some of them were scared about what would happen to them regarding spells being put on them but they knew better than to question Colgate. Colgate began to glow a bright blue, her eyes were shining blue and her horn was glowing as she recited, "From one to two, two to four and so much more, when one is simple mere, more and more shall appear."
She continued firing energy at her forces until there were 16,000 of each. She was happy with the results. She then continued to address all of her forces. "Ok, given the time that the left they should be here around noon. Alright, we have already ate breakfast and I think around 10 we should have a small snack because chances are we won't get any lunch."
Brevity asked, "So what are we going to do with Twilight and her high level minions once they are captured?"
Colgate replied, "Well you said you will handle your sister so what you do with her is your choice. Luna, I think you should be the one to handle Celestia and your parents. I will handle Twilight."
Lemon Hearts asked, "What about Spike?"
Colgate replied, "Regarding him, we have to bring him down in battle or we can't capture Twilight and her higher ups. Does anypony else have any questions?"
Nopony said anything so Colgate said, "Alright, around 1130 I will cast the armor spell on all of us, including the fire protection spell. We will win this guys. For now I will continue to monitor Twilight and her forces movements. Once they are around fifteen miles west of town I will come down, cast the necessary skills and we will wait for her arrival."
Everypony shouted, "ALL HAIL SUPREME COMMANDER COLGATE, THE PONY WHO WILL LEAD US TO VICTORY!"