//------------------------------//
// Chapter 26: Battle of Struthill 
// Story: Stairway to Equestria 
// by AlexUk 
//------------------------------//

“I don’t fear Death, but the ones that fear it less than I do.”



Chapter 26

The Battle of Struthill






“Move out, move the fuck out! Everyone get your flight suits and get ready to drop!” a pegasus captain yelled after bursting into a garrison in the dead of night, waking everyone up.

Dash sprung from her bed, landing on her feet. The haze of slumber was quickly dispelled from her mind as she instantly realised what was happening. She rushed out of the barracks and went straight to the nearest commanding post, just near the outer perimeter of the base. 

Sirens and alarms across Cloudsdale rang relentlessly, driving thousands of pegasi out of the military base’s sleeping quarters. Above their heads, formations of hundreds of ponies flew at different altitudes, most of them however conveying towards the center of the flying city. 

“Dash, Rainbow,” the mare told one of the officers standing at a long table overwhelmed by pegasi. 

“Dash, Dash . . .” he muttered, going through several pieces of paper filled with names. “Here we go: Rainbow M. Dash. You’ve been assigned as centurion squad leader for squad Haylift, first brigade, third battalion, second company. You are to suit up ASAP, and take drop formation in Hurricane Square.”

“Sir, yes, sir!” she shouted, and then dashed into the armory building nearby. 

Rainbow searched through the racks for a costume that would fit her, trying to keep her calm in the general frenzy that had gripped all the pegasi. Ponies were shouting left and right, the air dripping with excitement and fear. One particularly loud voice caught her attention: a stallion perched on a metal table, repeating the same set of instructions on and on while holding part of the flying gear, putting it on and taking it off repeatedly.  

“This is the newly issued CFA, combat flight assistant,” he started again for a group of pegasi that had just entered the armory. “This backpack-like piece of gear might save your damn lives today so listen up!” 

He threw it over his back and fastened the belt around his midsection, securing it in place. Two long, thin pieces of metal sprung out from the gear, aligned with the pegasus’s wings. “It goes on your back like this, then when these come out, you slide your primaries through them.” He demonstrated it, retracting his wings then slowly pushing their tip along a groove in each of the two pieces of metal. When he finished, the front parts of his wings were covered by the metal exoskeleton. “The CFA has a central mechanism that conserves momentum from your normal wing flapping and stores it to be used later when you need an extra boost. It also has an emergency system that when triggered, locks your wings so that you can glide back to ground safely.”

Dash took a look at the small, thin backpack next to her uniform, her mind torn between taking it with her and leaving it there. 

“You’re not thinking about not wearing it, are you now?”

Dash turned her head to a turquoise pegasus mare nearby, and immediately recognized the fiery mane and the wide, cocky grin. “Lightning Dust!” Rainbow said rather cheerfully, bumping hooves with her old friend. A year or so after the events at the Wonderbolt Academy, the two pegasi met again under better circumstances, and after Lightning Dust’s sincere apology, the two became good friends in no time.

So, they dug you up as well for this war?”

“I’m in the Academy now, joined right after you graduated. Everyone there had to enlist for this, even the drill instructors. So, you really aren’t taking that with you?” Lightning asked again, noticing Dash had thrown the CFA gear back onto a rack. 

“Slows me down too much, and I already have to wear that flight armor and the hoof blade. Plus, I don’t need any fancy tech to help me fly. What squad did they assign you to anyway?”

“Well, Rainbow Dash, I think we will be flying together again. I’m a right-wing Centurion in squad Haylift, ma’am.”

Dash looked at the turquoise mare for a moment, her face sketching no expression whatsoever. She then dropped her eyes to her suit and armor, fiddling with the various belts and straps as she began to put them on. 

“Dash, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just wished I didn’t had anyone on my squad that I knew personally. I’m not that good at telling friends what to do . . .”

Lightning patted her roughly on the back a couple of times in a gesture that could be seen only as reassuring for the cyan pegasus. “You’ll be fine, Dash; I know how good of a flier you are, and I’ll have no problems following your orders, okay? Come on now, I’ll help you with your armor, then you can do mine.”

Rainbow nodded happily, content with saying nothing more as they helped each other with the tricky flight armor pieces. 

Twenty minutes later, they were armored up and ready to go. A short flight later saw the two pegasi arriving in a huge square laid down on a bed of dense clouds, spanning hundreds of meters in width and stretching in length across the city’s diameter. Thousands of pegasi ready for battle were in formation, and more arrived with every passing moment. The entire square was lit by street lamps and large stage lights, as the night was still far from over.



***      ***      ***



Spitfire landed on a small platform on the large tower-like structure that stood tall in front of Hurricane Square. She was soon joined by a group of Colonels, Generals and Majors, all of them already wearing their combat gear. Spitfire took a moment to look over the square, her eyes seeing for the first time so many pegasi all in one place. It was an understatement to say that she was nervous. Despite her calm and composure shown ever since she was promoted after the Gala incident, her mind had been a constant battleground between ideas, fears, and challenges. 

“Ma’am, I think we should go in.”

Spitfire turned to the stallion that had just talked, who gave her a rather reassuring nod.

“You’re right.” She then stepped into the building, making everyone in the large control room stand at attention. 

“General on deck!” came from somewhere in the room. 

“At ease everyone. Captain Rain,” she said, saluting the blue stallion behind a large helm in the middle of the room.

“Take the wheel, officer,” Rain said to a nearby pony, then stepped off the high platform that held the large steering wheel as well as other panels. “General Spitfire, so the time for battle has finally come.”

“It really has, Captain. I hope you didn’t mind the orders that came earlier, it’s something that was decided in the last minute.”

“Orders are orders, General, and I’ve done as instructed. We’re flying Cloudsdale over the mountains and over Canterlot so our pegasi will have a shorter flight to the battlefield, but once the drop is complete, I’m returning at a higher altitude and will park the city behind the mountains again.”

“Actually, after we drop, I want you to turn on all propellers and go south at maximum speed, do you understand?” Several crew ponies in the control room turned their heads to the General, while others carried on their duties, however keeping their attention on the conversation.

“Ma’am? We haven’t flown at max speed in decades-”

“This is a personal order, Captain Rain. Cloudsdale will have hundreds of thousands of civilians left unprotected when the battle starts. I want this city to be as far as possible from this place when that happens.”

“Is it that bad, ma’am?” Rain asked straightforwardly. 

“No. But it’s not good either. Regardless of that, protocol, and Princess Luna herself, require me notify you that you’re to take command of the kingdom’s entire forces in case we lose Canterlot today, or you don’t hear word from the three generals or any of the Princesses.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Rain acknowledged with a salute. 

“Five thousand feet drop altitude reached, sir. We’re also above Canterlot,” the officer holding the helm announced.

“Now, we wait for our order,” Spitfire said, moving to the front windows, where most of the ponies were staring out though. Miles away, underneath them and covered by the night, hundreds of thousands of changelings, gryphons, and minotaurs marched and flew towards the city beneath.  



***      ***      ***



The blue unicorn stallion burst in a room from the balcony, a dark raven perched on his shoulder. Through the room’s open door he could see ponies and guards rushing down the hallways, and the commotion outside was getting louder and louder as the capital’s sirens went on into the night. His heart was racing out of his chest at the sight he had just witnessed, as well as the voice coming from the darkest corners of his mind. He started pacing around the room nervously, eventually stopping in the middle and clamping his hooves to his ears, trying to seal the outer world off for a moment. 

A violent shake snapped him out of his panic attack. “Blink! Damn it, Blink, are you okay?” Chaser’s voice faded in. He looked at him for a moment, and thoughts once again began to filter through.

“I’m fine. I’m just- I dunno, my life’s so fucked up.”

“I guess all our lives are pretty fucked up right now, mate. Darn it, I see my talk didn’t do much to you, now did it? Come on, tell me what’s on your mind, then we can go win us a war, okay?”

Blink stared at the pegasus with a slightly disgusted look in his eyes, his heart rate already going up again. “You’re damn right your little talk did nothing. What the fuck did you even mean by ‘we’re all in this together’?”

“Mate, I meant that I know what you’re going through right now might seem hard-”

“I left my fiancée crying in her room yesterday, saying that I can’t stay with her after she found out her brother might have died in a stupid attempt to secure a strategic location. The pony I love the most in this world probably hates me now, and it’s all because I wanna fight in this damn war I’m now afraid of!” Blink spat, causing Chaser to back off a little and Raven to fly off to a bookshelf nearby. 

He took a couple of breaths of air, then continued. “You can’t possibly know what that feels like. Ever since the Gala I’ve barely slept, thinking about what’s to come and how I can keep all my friends alive and well! I’m not like you, Chaser, screwing the Princess in her fancy royal bedroom and feeling relaxed and fine the next day. I haven’t even had s-” his words froze in his throat, realizing how crass he was actually sounding the entire time. He took a deep breath, pressing his front hooves against the floor when he noticed how hard they were shaking. “I haven’t even been with Twilight,” he continued with a calmer voice, “and I fear that I might not even get to kiss her one last time before I die.”

The room plunged into an uncomfortable silence, as Blink stared into the floor, avoiding Chaser’s look. His heart was still beating fast in his chest. However, the recent rush of emotions and having said all those things made him felt somewhat better. That feeling lasted but a moment, as Blink quickly realized how insulting some of those words were for his friend. He looked towards him to apologize, expecting an angry pegasus to stare back. Instead, he only saw a gloomy stallion whose glistening eyes hid untold sadness. 

“You’re right, Blink. I don’t understand any of that, but I understand how it is to have someone to care about. I love my sister with all my heart and feel like the worst pony in the world for leaving Canterlot all those years ago and living in a forest all by myself. Those were some hard times for me, and after coming back with you, Spike, and Pearl, I realised how much I missed out on.”

He got up and slowly paced towards the balcony. “Maybe I don’t know how it is to make the mare I love unhappy. But in my case, one day, I don’t know how far in the future, that will happen. And there is nothing I can do about it; it’s something that has kept me up many nights, Blink.” He turned back towards his friend, the filtered moonlight reflecting in his cream colored mane. “When I said that we’re all in this together, I meant that you can always talk to me about anything that troubles you. I know you prefer to hide all your issues away and try to solve them in silence but . . . that’s what friends are for, mate. You know what, after all this is over, we’re going to sit down for a pint and have a long talk, okay? I won’t take no for an answer either.”

“That would be nice,” Blink answered, cracking a faint smile. “Look, I’m sorry about what I said. It was stupid, selfish, and it was-”

“Don’t want to hear about it. It’s partially my fault as well for not telling you about me and Lu- Princess Luna,” he corrected himself. 

“I’m sure you had good reasons, Chase’. But you’re right, right now we need to win a war. I’ll hold you to that pint.”

The two stallions slowly made their way out of the room, but immediately found themselves in front of two high-ranking royal guards. Chaser saluted them, and they in turn saluted Blink. “Sir, we need your orders. The troops are assembling as we speak. Where do you want us for this battle?”

Blink stared at them for a couple of seconds before remembering he was, after all, the captain of the entire royal guard. Even if some of the guards had been re-assigned with the war or left with Shining Armor to defend Tartarus, he still had a considerable number of stallions under his command.

“Look guys, I know this whole thing is a mess. I’ve been promoted to Captain just because Luna wanted me in the War Room. I also know you kept a secret the fact that Shining took several hundred of you and left in the dead of night,” he said, raising a hoof to hold off an imminent interruption from the guards in front of him. “But I don’t care about that. I won’t dare to demand you to respect me the same way you respected Shining Armor. He earned his position through hard work and determination, and most of all, he earned your trust. I’m not your Captain, gentlecolts. Right now, I’m a soldier that wants to fight off those damn invaders.”

He looked to his left, at his friend, and smiled devilishly. “Officer Star Chaser over here will take my place as Captain of the Royal Guard for the moment. I need to go now, but in my opinion, the royal guards that are left here should remain in the castle and protect the Princesses like they’ve always done. Officers, Captain,” he saluted them, and went off towards the blacksmiths. 



***      ***      ***



“Captain, I see you’re finally here,” Luna said to the rushing unicorn as he passed the hallway outside the War Room. 

“Princess, I’ll have to correct you on that. I’m no longer a Captain, just a soldier,” Blink said, stopping for a moment near the group of ponies surrounding the Princess. 

“Wait for me inside,” she simply said, to which the military stallions and mares around her made their way into the War Room. “Midnight Blink, mind telling me why you are no longer the Captain of my guards?” she asked when the hallway emptied. 

“With all due respect, I don’t have time for that. I’m fighting in this battle; that was our agreement. I’m sure my best friend Chaser will do a great job filling in my horseshoes,” he said, emphasizing the pegasus’s name.

Luna’s eyes narrowed slightly, her mouth opening up to say something when Blink beat her to it. “I know about you two. As long as he’s happy, I’ll forgive you guys for not filling me in on that little detail. I assume, however, that there are more pressing matters on hoof at this point than your personal life, Your Highness, and I would very much like to tend to those matters.”

“Correct, Midnight Blink,” Luna said, her face however gaining a bit more color. “The enemy troops are less than forty miles away. However, there has been a decision in the War Room earlier today that we will fight them outside of Canterlot. They are too many to defend against, even behind our large walls. The sheer number of fliers they possess could overrun the capital in minutes.”

Blink’s face dropped. “But this is . . . this is suicide, Princess. Anything we put out there in the open will be lost. Is this all you guys thought of in that room?”

With a heavy sigh, Luna nodded. “I’m afraid so. Our only chance is to hit them with all we have out there and bring down as many as we can. There are almost two hundred thousand ponies behind enemy lines, they’ve all regrouped from the coastal cities but will not reach the enemy by the time they reach us first. Our only hope of not losing Canterlot is to hold them off as much as possible until reinforcements arrive.”

“That still doesn’t warrant the move of all our troops out in the open. We can stand right here and defend Canterlot,” Blink argued, not taking the news lightly. 

“And what are thou planning to do about our zeppelins, or our special troops for that matter? You know very well that our army’s composition can be effective only in an open area. If those swarms ever get near Canterlot as they are now, the city will be lost before noon. Must I also remind you of the hundreds of thousands of unlisted civilians that are still here?”

Blink opened his mouth to retort, but couldn’t find any words that were to his liking. The pressure was mounting by the minute, and he had no time to review Luna’s strategic decisions. 

“Fine, but this is on your hooves, Princess. How about news from our allies?” he asked, a tinge of hope still residing inside his mind. 

“None. We now have forty thousand pegasi in Cloudsdale. They will fight against the biggest part of our enemy’s troops. Almost two hundred thousand changeling fliers and gryphons are approaching us as we speak. Over a hundred thousand enemy ground troops, changelings, and minotaurs will fight against our thirty thousand earth and unicorn soldiers. We also have five thousand Crystal Guardians, as well as a hundred buffalo, our special unicorn troops and our zeppelin air force. I want thou, Midnight Blink, to lead the vanguard of Crystal Guardians today. Major General Iron Hooves, currently General of the Armies, wants to be in the front lines as well. Do you think you can join him?”

“I don’t see how that will be a problem,” Blink said rather nervously. “I’ll be able to get in and out of battle if I need to, but what about the rest, Princess? All those lost lives . . .”

“The magic users have been tasked with recovering injured troops in the battlefield. They will teleport casualties back to Canterlot, more specifically in the auditorium downtown that is being refitted as we speak to act as a remote field hospital. My sister will personally aid in saving the lives of the troops that get sent there. All our doctors and physicians that had no combat training are now there. I dread losing pony lives as much as you do, Midnight Blink, probably even more, but it’s all we can do to save as many as we can in this situation.”

“I understand. But did we ever find out why those minotaurs joined the changelings and gryphons? I thought we had good standings with them.”

“It’s most likely that they got an offer they couldn’t refuse from Arnost, the gryphon king. He only wants to dethrone me and my sister, and make sure Equestria is unable to intervene when he’ll invade the Dragon Lands to expand his empire. The Minotaurs were most likely promised our southern territories as reward for their involvement and the Changelings will be given a foothold in central and northern Equestria.”

“So Arnost is the head of this whole thing?”

“Yes, but we have knowledge that he is not present among his forces.”

“Figures,” Blink puffed out, “Anyway, I’ll be off now if that is all, need to get armored up,” he added, lingering for a moment.

“Just- just be careful, Midnight Blink. Remember what you’ve learned and remain focused at all times. Void thyself of emotions in battle so that your decisions will always be the best thou can take.”

“Thank you, your highness.”

He then turned around and trotted off towards the blacksmiths, not looking back for one moment. 



***      ***      ***



Redheart slipped her hoof through a brush handle, then damped the scrubber into a bucket and started cleaning a gurney. She pressed hard against the stretcher, making sure the surface was as clean as possible. Her heart and mind however were with Silver, who she hadn’t even had the opportunity to see after she arrived into the capital the day before. 

In an urgent letter coming straight from the central Hoofton Coltboro hospital, Ponyville’s hospital was notified that they should send all their non-essential medical personnel on the last train to Canterlot for the imminent confrontation. As such, nurse Redheart found herself in Equestria’s capital city, where she was rushed out to the central auditorium downtown to prepare medical equipment and participate in the efforts of saving the lives of those coming from the battlefield.

With thoughts wandering, her hoof slowed down, eventually stopping as soon as the prospect of seeing her coltfriend on one of those gurneys crept into her mind. She brought her front hooves to her head, trying to shake that thought away.

“I find it better if I don’t think about it,” a calm, warm voice came from behind her.

Redheart turned her head, only to be greeted by the sight of no one else other than Princess Celestia herself, looking down upon her with a kind set of eyes. As the nurse started getting up to bow down to the royal figure, Celestia simply sat down next to her, grabbing a scrubber in her magic and starting to clean another stretcher. 

The nurse was wordless. Even if she had seen Celestia around the auditorium assisting with the preparations, it was the first time she had even been addressed by the white monarch. “H-how can I not think about it?” she made the courage to ask, grabbing her own brush and continuing her work alongside the Princess. 

“We all need to do our best to help those that will be fighting today. Thinking about all the bad things that could happen will just make it harder for us to help them.”

“I don’t even know why we’re fighting this war,” Redheart said in a low, dismayed tone. 

“It all comes down to the decisions made by certain leaders of this world. As a nation, we haven’t seen war in centuries, and I was foolish enough to think something like this might never happen again . . .”

Nurse Redheart looked up to the alicorn next to her. “Do you think that things would have been different if you were here?”

Celestia stopped her scrubbing for a moment, the yellow wisps of magic still floating around the brush. “There hasn’t been a second ever since I returned a few days ago that I stopped thinking about that. But I know my sister very well, and I know she did everything that could have been done to resolve this in a diplomatic matter. Even so, not being here is probably the biggest regret in a . . . millennia,” she said, her voice and thoughts trailing away towards the end.

“I’m glad you came back, Princess. It makes everypony feel safer when they see you.”

Celestia returned a weak smile, and returned to her cleaning. “It remains to be seen if I can really protect my subjects in these dire times.”



***      ***      ***



Blink rushed into the royal blacksmiths outside the castle, from where hundreds of ponies were leaving with the last supplies needed for the upcoming battle. Most of the forges were cold, as the worker ponies tended to last minute adjustments on weapons and armors. One however stood out, not because it was still burning, but because of the green fire and sparks coming out of it. 

“Spike?” Blink asked, reaching the section where several ponies were fussing about. The dragon was taking out red-hot layers of material out of the forge that undoubtedly burned with his own magic fire.   

“Hey Blink! Rarity, I think that was the last one,” he announced. 

One of the ponies there took off her mask, revealing the sweaty and messy face of Ponyville’s fashionista. “Thanks darling! Blink, you’re here, right on time!”

“Well, I’m off dude, need to get my armor on. Rarity made it for me, you’ll see how awesome it is!” he said with excitement.

“So you’re fighting too, huh?”

“What, you thought I would miss it? No chance. Anyway, stay strong, man,” he added before leaving, patting Blink on the shoulder. 

Blink noticed the concern he was trying to hide but didn’t have the chance to say anything else, as Spike sprung up in the air and left the blacksmith through a huge ventilation hole in the tall ceiling. When he turned back to the forge, Rarity’s face bearing a wide, rather fake smile was blocking his view.

“Blink, I know you said you wanted a set of armor that is lighter and better for you . . .”

“Rarity, what did you do?” Blink asked, picking up on something. “Did you mess up the straps or something? Will parts of my body be exposed with your modifications?”

“No, no, no, that’s not it. I still have the set you wore at that training session, haven’t changed a thing on it.”

“Ohh, so you made something new, I assume?” Blink asked with a confused look. 

“Yes. I just wanted to tell you, before you uhh- try it on, that the old set is still an option.”

“Rarity, we are about to be invaded. Please just show me the new armor, I need to move out.”

She turned back and gave a hesitant nod. Four of the ponies there took off their blacksmith’s masks and each retrieved a device of some sort, sliding them around their hooves.

“I couldn’t think of anything better than what you had, but then I remembered about a certain material that would be a perfect substitute,” she explained as he walked Blink to the forge. “I’m not going to lie, it’s not finished yet, because . . .”

Her magic grabbed something from a work bench nearby and held it in front of Blink. It was a patch of a material of some sorts, still glowing hot near the center, while the edges were slowly darkening as they cooled down. 

“Don’t tell me this-”

“Yes it is, darling. Black hydra leather, extremely rare, but we had some in the royal inventory. Put this on,” she said, returning the leather patch on the table and retrieving a full body underwear piece.

“So how long until you stitch it up?” he asked, reluctantly slipping into the white onesie.

“We’re going to do it now, but we need to assemble it onto you directly,” she simply said. 

“Rarity, are you insane? Those- things are still hot!” he protested, pointing a hoof at the line of hot strips of leather.

“Yes, but if it cools down, we won’t be able to stitch it with anything we have. It has to be done while they are relatively . . . warm.”

Two ponies brought a couple of buckets and spilled their entire content over Blink’s body, then grabbed their brushes and began scrubbing underneath the white garment around him.

“That solution will help you a little and we’re going to cool the material as much as we can before putting it on you. Your skin should not get too burned if we time everything properly.”

“I cannot believe you are doing this- waa, careful there!” he said to the stallion scrubbing his underbelly. He paused for a moment, staring at the pieces of leather on the workbench. With a gulp, his decision was made. “Okay, do it.”

A unicorn approached him, and he could see she was wearing a medic’s uniform. The mare’s horn glowed and her magic surrounded his body, his entire head becoming light all of a sudden. “A partial anesthesia spell, sir, it will numb out any acute sensations, it will wear off after half an hour or so,” she said, then stepped back. “I will stay here in case I need to recast it, miss Rarity.”

“Thank you darling! Blink, we’re going to start now, all right? They are the best dressmakers in Canterlot, we’ll try to finish the stitching as fast as possible.” Blink looked at the other four stallions and mares around, all giving him weak re-assuring nods and fake smiles. “I won’t be able to add your rank to it, I’m afraid-”

“It’s okay, Rarity, I’m not a Captain anymore. Wow, I can’t feel anymore,” he off-tracked, running his hoof over his chest. “Okay, let’s do this, just- just keep talking about your special armor, please,” he asked, standing his ground and clenching his teeth. He felt a fuzzy sensation underneath him and noticed a layer of magic from one of the dressmakers holding him upright. 

Rarity grabbed a couple of pieces of hot material and sunk them in a bath nearby, steam rising from the liquid. “Black Hydra leather is among the most durable and flexible materials-”

“AAaahhhh!” Blink’s scream pierced the air, as Rarity placed two strips over his back. His legs buckled under the immense pain radiating from the top of his body, but the magic grip underneath kept him leveled. Two ponies immediately began binding together the two pieces, using the portable industrial sewing kits they had. “Careful not to pierce the skin,” Rarity advised, bringing another patch and placing it next to the other two. 

The mechanical noise of the kits was muffled in Blink’s head, as he was desperately trying to cope with the immense heat slowly engulfing his body. 

“-the material is magic resistant, as well as fire-proof. Also, once it cools down, it will act very much like a second, thicker skin.”

“Great! Just . . . great!” Blink managed between clenched teeth, his vision blurred by the tears in his eyes.



***      ***      ***



“Give him another one.”

“Princess, that would be a bit too much-”

“Just do it, this stallion needs to be on the battlefield in the next hour!”

The voices blended together, fading in and out as his head spun into a sea of darkness. A sharp sensation in his chest started getting stronger and stronger. Blink opened his eyes, and was greeted by the sight of Princess Luna, Rarity, and some other ponies wearing medical uniforms. 

“Good, you’re back,” Luna stated, drawing hidden, scornful looks from Rarity and the medics. 

“Why does it feel like my heart will explode?” Blink asked, rather frightened. He looked around, noticing he was lying in a tub filled with water and floating ice cubes. 

“That’s the adrenaline, we gave you two doses,” said one medic pony.

“You passed out in the middle of getting your armor onto you. Sorry about that, dear, but now it’s all done.”

“Why am I not feeling it anymore?”

“Princess Luna cast a more potent numbing spell,” one of the medic mares reluctantly said. Seeing Blink’s stare made her continue the explanation: “You’ve suffered first degree thermal and magic burns on over 90 percent of your body, and second degree burns on your back, face and neck. It can all be fixed fairly easily, but you will need extensive magic surgery as soon as possible.”

Blinked raised a hoof from the water, and saw the black, matte leather wrapped around it, covering his entire forehoof down to the base. He started flailing around, and got up from the tub, with Rarity’s and the medics’ help. Standing up, water dripped from over and underneath his armor, yet he wasn’t feeling any of the atrocious pain he went through before passing out. He looked around and, as if reading his mind, the fashionista floated a tall mirror in front of him. 

Blink’s eyes widened. His entire body was encased in black hydra leather, the stitching running along in random patterns denoting the shape of the strips. Even his face was covered and only his horn and the dark brown mane and tail stuck out of the armor. The eye holes were made out of a dark material, yet he was still able to see clearly, as if they were just a pair of glasses. 

“Rarity, this is amazing,” he said, rising on his hind legs, testing out the flexibility of the armor. “It really is like a second skin. I’ll think of a way to make it up for you. Wait, how long was I out?” he suddenly remembered.

“Almost an hour. The last troops are leaving Canterlot as we speak,” Luna said, matter-of-factly. “Our forces will stand at the top of Struthill, less than a mile north of this city. That is where the first battle will take place, and it’s where you have to be.”

“I’ll be on my way then. Thank you again Rarity,” he said, then took a slight bow in front of Luna and galloped away. 

“Be careful, the numbing spell will wear off in several hours!” the medic shouted after him, yet he chose to ignore it.

As he was about to exit the castle, Blink stopped in his tracks. His mind was oversaturated with regret by that point regarding a certain mare, so he decided to follow his heart in what could be his very last hours. His horn glowed, and moment later, the stallion appeared in front of Twilight’s old room, blue sparks gently falling around him. He burst through the door, yet there was no one inside. A large chest was placed over the bed, its contents missing completely. His eyes fell on a nightstand nearby, and opening it, he retrieved his revolver and several bullet types that were to be used as molds for his cloning spell. 

With a burst of magic, he found himself standing near the castle’s entrance. “You!” he pointed at a guard nearby, “have you seen a purple unicorn leaving the castle by any chance?”

The guard jumped in place at the sight of the black-armored stallion, lowering his spear at him and taking a defensive stance.

“I’m Midnight Blink, you idiot, your former captain!”

The guard reluctantly aimed the spear away. “Uhh- sorry sir, you just don’t have any official markings on your-”

“Purple unicorn with a star-shaped cutie mark! Have you seen her or not?”

“I remember seeing such a pony leaving the castle and taking one of the earlier carriages. Didn’t see her cutie mark though, she was armored.”

“Damn it!”

“Private Blink!” an approaching stallion shouted as he was leaving the castle premises as well. 

“Iron Hooves?” the unicorn asked, unsure. The stallion that called him was large enough to be the earth pony General, and the massive, golden armor was adding at least several inches to his stature. Only his head was not covered by the impressive protective gear, his helmet resting on the small of his back, over a large sword and a shield.

“That would be me, son. So, heard you bailed out on your Captain duty; too good for that, heh?” he asked with a hearty chuckle. “Come on, we’re late for the battle, and we got a vanguard to lead, you and me!”

He rushed to a closed carriage parker outside the castle’s fences, while Blink followed him closely. “You’re lucky, this is the last ride to Struthill, and it’s been waiting on me to get out of that damn War Room.” 

He climbed through the back of the vehicle and tapped one of his massive hooves at the front of the transporter, signaling the drivers to go. Blink took a seat opposite to him as the carriage jolted forwards. The earth stallion rested his helmet and large shield on a seat nearby, leaving his equally large two-sided sword sheathed over his back. 

“Nice armor you got there,” he said, looking at the unicorn’s battle gear.

“Thanks,” Blink responded through the very small opening of his helmet. “General Hooves, aren’t you . . . afraid? I mean, I don’t want to be rude but you’re . . . an earth pony-”

A loud laugh interrupted Blink, the General shaking his head, completely amused. “Why of course I’m afraid, we’re about to battle an army eight times bigger than ours! But that’s what I am, Midnight Blink: a soldier. I’ve trained all my life not to show my fears and the day has come to see all that training put in use. I’ve heard about you and your magic talent, but tell me, aren’t you afraid of death?”

Blink pondered for a moment. “I don’t fear Death, General Hooves, but I do fear the ones that fear it less than I do. And I also fear myself, and what’s inside of me, more than anything else,” Blink said, shivers going down his spine at the thoughts of his own Nightmare.

“Huh, that’s an interesting thing to say. Well, you’d better get ready son, because today we’ll be fighting a lot of creatures that don’t have the same notions of life and death as we do,” Iron Hooves said, patting the unicorn in front of him with his heavy hoof.

The carriage jolted and shook as it left the capital and went down a dirt path towards Struthill. Blink looked out through the back of the vehicle, witnessing the rare sight of a city carved into the mountains, and another one floating high above it. 



***      ***      ***



The last ponies arrived atop a small vantage point between the capital and the hilltop in front of them. A temporary camp marked by military tents and equestrian banners swarmed with unicorns and high ranking officials, one of which was former Archmage, now General of the Unicorns, Dark Shine. He was standing near a table among other ponies, rallying orders and assigning tasks. Nearby, a couple of communication officers were rallying the commands through a couple of large radio stations, while scrolls kept popping into existence and falling onto the table in front of the general.

“You lot,” he said, turning towards the newly arrived, “the ones that have medical training make your way towards the east side of the front lines. The combat mages . . .” he turned his attention towards the battlefield, darting his eyes to the map every now and then, “-the combat mages should go and provide addition escort to them!” he said, pointing at circle of soldiers slowly marching towards Struthill, seemingly nothing between them. 

As the group of arrivals split, following their respective command, one remained, a lone pony covered in a pale cloak. A purple hue tugged at the tip of the hood, and Dark Shine focused his entire attention onto her as he recognized the unicorn. 

“Twilight Sparkle, the Sun Princess has told me you’d arrive, she did not tell me you would be late however.”

“Sorry, Archmage Shine, I had to make sure I wasn’t seen leaving by someone-”

“Let me guess, by Blink Midnight, that insolent brat under Princess Luna’s tutelage? I wondered at the news that you accepted his proposal to marry him; I’ve heard good things about you, but-”

“Enough!” Twilight suddenly snapped, drawing surprised looks from all the other military ponies around. Her lip quivered as she was about to defend Blink, yet stopped as the battle in her heart and mind still went on. “Just- just tell me where the life support and magic transport teams are stationed.”

A silent moment followed in which their stares fought against each-other, yet eventually, Dark Shine choose not to escalate the spontaneous conflict, despite the fact that the mare in front of him was young enough to be his granddaughter. “Go that way, you’ll see the field hospital ahead,” he said, pointing to a pathway lighted by torches and recently installed lights. 

Twilight went off in an angry canter, not looking back at the unicorn General. The night was slowly coming to an end, the eastern horizon warming up to the upcoming sunset. As she approached the place that Dark Shine pointed her to, she started noticing large groups of ponies departing for the front lines, mostly unicorns, and all wearing medical markings.

“Twilight Sparkle?” an armored mare with golden mane asked her, slowly approaching her.

“Yes,” the answer came, yet her attention was still caught by the sight of seeing so many ponies making their way towards what could be their very own death. 

“You came in right in time, Princess Celestia sent us word that you will be leading the triage today. This way, please,” the mare said, making her way to a wide area filled with gurneys and anxious medics. 

“The . . . triage? But I don’t have advanced medical knowledge.”

“I’m the head doctor for this team, I will advise you on each individual case we get, however Princess Celestia told us of your extremely good organizational skills, as well as you magical abilities.”

Nervousness started getting to her, however Twilight knew that it would be a great challenge, and if she was to help out like she wanted to, she would have to take some big responsibilities.

“Ok, I’ll do it,” Twilight decided, and she floated the cloak off her back. 

The first rays of the morning came just in time to reflect off the armor given to her by Celestia herself. The impeccably white set bared a breathtaking silvery shine, and fit the unicorn’s form perfectly. The Sun Princess had made sure it would be her size in time for the battle, and had gifted it to her protégé with the hope that it would help Twilight more than it would help her.



***      ***      ***



Carts filled with spears ending up in short-barreled muskets flew across Hurricane Square, as officers were handing them to each group if centurions. 

“Three for each squad, make good use of them!” said one of the officers while he grabbed three weapons from a cart and gave them to squad Haylift’s commander. 

Dash turned back to the other four members. “Lighting Dust, I know you were good with these. As for the rest, distribute them according to your marksmanship  exam results.”

“I didn’t even take that one yet, squad commander,” said a blonde, green coated stallion.

Dash stared at him for a moment, then promptly gave the remaining muskets to the other two pegasi left in the squad. “Listen up: we’re a light-fliers-only squad, so we’re going to do the trimming. The big studs will push into the enemy swarms and we’ll head on towards the top and pick off the ones out of formation. We strike and then pull out, there shouldn’t be anything to outfly us, got it?”

“Yes, ma’ am!” 

The air suddenly filled with reverb coming from speakers throughout the city, the sound catching everyone’s attention and making them look up to the city’s control tower at the end of the square.

General Spitfire slowly approached the edge of the rail at the tower’s top level, not wearing her uniform anymore, but normal battle gear like the rest. Captain Rain was behind her as well as a few other high ranking pegasi. She took a moment to stare down along the main road that cut the city into two, culminating with the large open area underneath her that was Hurricane Square.

“Centurions of Equestria!” she addressed the thousands of armored pegasi beneath her eyes, speaking into a set of microphones brought there specifically for her speech. “I would have never thought- no, no one would have ever believed that we would fight for our kingdom a couple of weeks ago. Yet so, events were put in motion by the Gryphon Kingdom and their hastily-gathered allies. Their decision to attack us came as a surprise for us all, but don’t think for a moment that there won’t be a day when they shall come to regret that decision!”

Spitfire then reached out for the helmet placed on the ground next to her and put it over her head.

“And today is that day!” she let out, louder and firmer. “Today we fight for our kingdom, for our nation, for our families! Today we show everyone what pegasi can do!” She grabbed onto a microphone and extended her wings, flapping them once to bring her on top of the rails she was holding onto. “Join me, centurions! Fly high and may the wind guide us all on this fateful day!” she shouted her last words, before throwing the microphone away and diving forwards, off the tower’s edge.

Spitfire folded her wings to get as much air speed as possible, her falling silhouette seen by almost forty thousand soldiers lined up and ready to fight. With a barely audible pomf, the Pegasus General smashed through the bank of clouds that formed Cloudsdale’s ground. Almost immediately after, thousands upon thousands followed in her wake, diving forwards in place, letting themselves fall through the clouds below their hooves. 

“Eyes on me, and keep formation!” Dash shouted before she too plunged into the city’s ground itself, her helmet now secured over her head.

Her heart raced madly as she sped through the multiple layers that formed the base of their floating city, her visors alternating between freezing and getting wet as she cut through the numerous clouds. The layers got brighter and brighter until her entire point of view cleared up, revealing the capital below and the distant sunset to the right. Pegasi squads dropped all around her, and the brigades slowly began joining up into battalions, which in turn started forming entire fronts spanning hundreds of meters across.

Rainbow Dash looked back up, and her squad was in perfect formation behind her, just as she had told them.

“We’re right here, Rainbow Dash,” came Lighting Dust’s voice through the small speaker inside the pegasus’s helmet.

Dash adjusted her course, veering towards the lines of ponies located along the top of Struthill. Her eyes focused on the bone-chilling sight ahead, where hundreds of thousands of changelings amassed into a large swarm several miles away, while the ground troops came baring down in a hurried march towards the city.



***      ***      ***



“Get in, Tiny! NOW!” Pearl yelled through the Zeppelin’s boarding door, before storming back inside.

The interior of the flying ship was now less roomy that it had been before they managed to fit the cannons, however the crewponies made their way effortlessly among the high caliber artillery and the ammunition stored pretty much everywhere onboard the ship.

The large unicorn that was Tiny boarded the zeppelin, bringing with him one last crate of bullets for the twin-barreled MG nest placed in front of the ship’s reinforced basket, under the captain’s wheel. 

Pearl took his place behind the front windshield of the closed basket, rising on his hind legs and resting his forehooves on the large helm. As the large iron doors of Hangar One opened wider in front of him, he pushed the accelerator handle from the small control panel to his side. The zeppelin jolted away, and the noise of the two motors powering the large propellers got louder and louder.

“There ya’ go, girl, there ya’ go . . .” he whispered, gently bringing the ship out of the docking hangar. He turned his head back to the crew. “Alright you air monkeys, get ready for the fight of yer’ lives! Crank Shot, take the fancy guns below; Tiny, get on loading duty; Sour Buck and Green Horn prepare to aim the cannons, and Silver, you’re on spotting duty.”

“Aye, captain!” came in a choir from behind him. 

Crank Shot opened up a hatchet in the floor right behind Pearl, and slid into the cramped machinegun nest. “Feed me bullets, boys!” he let out, before slamming the hatchet closed. 

A couple of stallions dragged strips of ammo from two large boxes nearby, and ran them through a pair of holes in the hatchet. Crank Shot used his magic to grab onto the first bullets in the series, sliding them into the MG loading trays located underneath his seat. The nest was sphere-shaped, extremely cramped but mostly made out of hard, reinforced glass, which allowed him to see everything below and in front of the zeppelin. He grabbed onto the large trigger sticks between his legs and lit up his horn, simultaneously pulling the bolts back and loading the guns. His magic then engulfed the top part of the nest, and he began rotating the entire turret, testing the rails one last time.

Up on the deck, Pearl applied the wind brakes, bringing the ship to a stop right near the edge of the exterior bay. In front of the ship, standing on a scaffolding blocking out zeppelin’s way, was a unicorn, waiting patiently for his orders. To the left side, along the mountain, four other ships came to a stop, each having their own unicorn in front of them. Pearl threw a salute to the other zeppelins right before the radio in the control panel next to him turned on, initially playing loud static, before automatically tuning on the right frequency. 

“-is the War Room Command Center, calling all Royal Zepp force members, report your status,” a rugged voice came through the speaker. Pearl fumbled with the controls for a bit, trying to find out where the transmitting button was.

“Damn thing, they replaced the old station, where the hell is that damn button?” 

“Black Prince reporting, sir.”

“HMS Blue Bird ready and waiting.”

“Where the hell is that thing?” Pearl shouted in frustration, the lights inside the basket turning off as he kept pressing random buttons on the brand new control panel.

“Try that one,” Silver said from over his shoulder. 

“Purple Barron, awaiting orders.”

The engines suddenly choked as the emergency stops were triggered. A red warning light started spinning inside the ship, making the other crew members groan in frustration.

“Skip’, what are you doing?”  

“It’s this bloody new panel, I didn’t have the time to-” he grabbed what was the transmitter, and studied it attentively. “Why in Celestia’s fat arse did they replace the old microphone? How do you even turn this-”

“What did he say about my sister?” came a distant, background voice from the radio. The operator then started speaking again: “We copy you loud and clear now, Celestia’s uhh-”

“Celestia’s Pearl! Hehe, that’d be us, the scoundrels of the ol’ zepp force!” Pearl quickly said, his mane standing up on the back of his head.

“Roger that, all zeppelins, prepare to enter the battle!” one last command came through the station.

Pearl hung the mic back onto the upper panel, then rested a hoof on the helm while the other grasped the acceleration. “Get ready, boys, this ain’t gonna be pretty!”



***      ***      ***



The ground trembled slightly, a mighty horn blowing in the distance. The capital city behind was slowly encased by a golden magic barrier, sealing it from the rest of the world. The silence on the field was eerie, only the flaps of the Equestrian banners carried by a few still traveling through the air. 

Blink held his ground, his teeth clenched and hooves heavy as lead. His eyes dared to drift from the sight in front of him for a single moment, and he used that second to look at the ones standing behind him. A thin line of Crystal Guardians was spread across the entire hill chain. In between them every ten feet or so, a buffalo wearing golden armor plates stood, ready to fight for the same land shared by their equine allies. 

Behind that vanguard were thirty thousand soldiers, stallions and even mares, all united and wearing the same golden armors. They bared large, round shields, swords and spears, some even magic muskets or bows. They stood in front of an army several times larger than their own, yet their bravery matched that of their enemies without any compromise. Some knew very well they might not come back home, but everyone felt that they were exactly where they were supposed to be.

“Getting cold hooves, eh?”

Blink turned his head towards the sturdy General of the Armies, but said nothing. 

“Listen, we tried to find her, she’s probably not even here. Worse case, she’s at the field hospital behind us. Right now however you have three entire armies coming this way. I’ll start the counter-charge soon enough, that is your current focus, you understand?”

“I do,” he said, “I’ve been asked that a lot recently . . .”

Iron Hooves turned to the rows behind the two of them. “I don’t need to remind you who we’re fighting for today! I don’t need to tell you what will happen to the city behind us if we don’t hold them off here long enough! Now for you, Crystal Guardians!”

The entire couple of rows formed by the un-living crystal soldiers smacked their shields against their breastplates, standing at attention. 

“Your Princess has ordered you to follow my commands; and I just want to thank you for coming to our aid! Future scribes will write the tale of this battle, and it will not be legend, for you have been here with us, and fought against our enemies, to protect Equestria and the Crystal Empire! We’re also grateful for your help, buffalos from the canyons and plains of our southern lands! And the same goes to all other races present here among us, which chose to fight for the freedom of this world and the peace between nations! We may not have as many allies as the Gryphon Kingdom, but today we-”

An amalgam of distant, awkward calls started reaching the ears of everyone on Struthill, stopping Iron Hooves’ speech. The enemies ahead had picked up their pace, now only less than a mile away, the fast minotaurs overtaking the non-flying changelings, while the air troops were even further away. Yet the waves of high-pitched shrieks did not come from them, but from somewhere on right side of the battlefield.

Everyone stared at a distant hill that flanked both armies, behind which the sun had arisen from. The morale of the entire equestrian army suddenly rose as they realised what was happening: thousands of silver armored, equine-looking creatures flooded the flanking hill in a full charge, their sharp war cries specific to only one known race: the zebras.

Iron Hooves cracked a wide smile before closing the visor of his helmet. “Let’s get there and help our friends! What say you?” he shouted his question, which was followed by the uproar of all the soldiers on the field, save for the Guardians, who remain rather unfazed by the commotion behind them.

The General of the Armies strapped his shield around the front side of his left hoof, then raised his right one in the air. He looked behind him at the approaching pegasi, then to his right at the zebras, making sure all the troops under his command as well as his allies would counter at the same time. 

After several tensed seconds, he brought his hoof forward, breaking into a gallop. The entire vanguard yanked off in a perfectly synchronized charge, heading straight towards the incoming minotaurs. 

Blink started his charge along the large earth stallion general as well, however he shortly began lagging behind, his muscles still feeling numb following the spells cast on him earlier to block the pain of the hot armor pieces. The Guardians galloped past him as he desperately tried to keep up the pace. He felt something suddenly yank his mane, and found himself thrown in the air, after which he landed on a rapidly bobbing surface. He held onto the edges of the gold object, and soon realised where he was. 

“You looked like you needed a lift. Are you all right, pony?” chief Thunderhooves asked.

“Just numb, it’s a long story . . . but you shouldn’t have,” Blink said from atop the buffalo’s back as he held onto him for dear life.

From that vantage position, Blink could see the entire battle that was about to unfold. Behind him were the earth and unicorn soldiers; above him, the pegasi halted their descent and leveled at around one hundred feet, heading straight towards the huge swarm up ahead. Leading that entire air force was none other than Spitfire herself; Blink also noticed a larger silhouette among the pegasi behind her, which was undoubtedly Spike. The small zebra army to the right had already clashed with the enemy ground troops, the sounds of metal smashing against metal already reaching his ears.

“Ok, focus time,” Blink murmured to himself. 

The first scattered rows of minotaurs were about to hit their Guardians vanguard. His horn started channeling his magic.

“I won’t go too far in,” Thunderhooves announced, “we’ll be surrounded too fast by the insects!”

“It’s all right, chieftain. I am, after all, a unicorn.” With those last words said, the black armored unicorn puffed out of existence in a cloud of blue smoke. 

He re-appeared right in the middle of the charging minotaurs, right behind their front lines. The dust around him started rising, twirling around him as he charged his first spell. He rose on his hind legs and then came back down, smashing his hooves against the ground. The air in a large area around him suddenly compressed downwards, making the knees of everyone nearby buckle under the instant rise in air pressure, sending them tumbling into the dirt.

Blink began walking forwards, eyes darting all around him, analyzing the swarming mass of troops flowing around him. From behind, he could hear the initial clash of the two armies as the fight broke out. His eyes focused on a fallen minotaur nearby that got up and lunged at him with his horns lowered, while his eyes were bloodshot with rage.

The minotaur’s weapon, a large double-sided axe, flew from the ground and imbedded itself into his owner’s chest, felling the large creature to the ground with a loud thud. The blue magical aura surrounding it faded away, and Blink simply stared at the now lifeless body of his enemy. Cold chills ran down his spine underneath the hydra armor, yet the taste of killing is always an acquired one.

His eyes narrowed. The large warriors nearby had noticed him and were already approaching the stallion with every intention to kill. Blue shield plates materialized and started spinning around Blink as he planted his hooves into the ground. “Come on, show me what you got,” he snorted, horn glowing brighter and brighter. 



***      ***      ***



“Aim aaannnd fire!” Dash yelled the order. 

Three bolts of green magic left the spear-muskets of her squad’s members, joining the other thousands fired at the gryphon line ahead. In the next second, the enemy fliers returned fire, spawning a cloud of smoke from their gunpowder muskets, as blazing fast bullets hit the pegasi armada full on.

The gryphon’s round of fire hit first, falling hundreds of pegasi as both armies still flew towards each-other, still not within dogfight range. Bullets whizzed all around, and the cyan captain pulled up, trying to get themselves away from the center of their troops. 

“Keep ascending at seventy degrees, we need to get the hell out of their line of fire. Don’t stop shooting! Empty out your guns and- ahh!” She dodged a falling pegasus in the last moment, banking a sharp left. “-and prepare for close range battle!” 

She craned her neck down, unable to refrain from knowing the fallen centurion’s fate. As he was struggling to move his wings, his combat flight assistant emergency mechanism triggered, locking his wings and setting him on a glide path towards the back of their lines. As she saw all the fallen pegasi that were still alive make use of their CFAs, Rainbow began regretting not taking hers along. She threw those thoughts away and tapped her right hoof. A blade jutted out, locking itself in position. 

Bullets still flew past them, but none of the light class fliers of Haylift had been hit yet. They finished their ascend to the top of their forces, and aligned towards the enemy front lines.

Lightning Dust finished emptying out the musket’s magic coal, and fumbled with a switch at the base of the short barrel, ejecting the smoking rock. She reached out to a compartment near her chest piece, and retrieved one last piece of enchanted coal. The other two pegasi in the squad that had spear-muskets were already out of ammo, throwing the weapons away and bringing out their hoof-blades. 

“This is it, we’re going in,” Dash announced in her helmet mic. 

The two armies finally clashed against each other, the largest pegasi leading the vanguard smashing against the even larger gryphons. The two groups were almost identical in numbers, yet behind the gryphon fleet, the changeling swarm was still trying to catch up, due to their flyers’ smaller, less effective wings.

Dash banked, heading towards the nearest approaching target, a gryphon that was still using his musket. “Engagement distance, featherbrain,” she muttered, doing a barrel roll to avoid the gryphon’s last bullet. Rainbow then straightened her wings upward, swinging her right hoof underneath her as she passed above the target’s head. 

The blade struck the base of one of his unprotected wings, severing it completely. With a piercing scream, the gryphon began falling down, flailing his limbs in a desperate attempt to avoid his certain death. 

Rainbow brought her eyes back to the fight nearby, her hooves however shaking as the realization of what she had done started overcoming her. She stared at her hoof blade, entranced by the vivid red that stained it. The blood skidded across the shiny metal, meeting at its tip and dripping down towards the hell bellow.

A hot, green projectile passed right in front of Dash, striking a gryphon that was about to plunge a spear into her. The attacker veered off-course, the weapon slipping from his hand, joining him in his fall. Dash caught a glimpse of his empty eyes through the helmet’s visor, smoke coming out from a gap inside his chest armor. 

“Rainbow Dash!” came Lightning Dust’s voice through the helmet’s receiver. “What the buck was that just there? Snap out of it, we’re in deep horse shit right now!”

The cyan pegasus darted her eyes to her, the tumultuous reality around settling back into her mind. She mustered her inner courage and all the military academy’s training started kicking in. Tens of thousands of gryphons and pegasi engaged into dogfights and brawls, filling the air with screams, grunts and metal clangs as they hit, stabbed and shot each-other into oblivion. Below them, the enemy ground troops continued to pour into the fight, the front lines of that battle located behind their position. The minotaurs had been the first to clash with the earth and unicorn soldiers, and as such, the two air armadas met further away from Struthill than the ground troops had, causing a dangerous misalignment for the Equestrian army.  

Dash entered a steep dive after a group of gryphons started chasing her. “Haylift, shake these four off my tail!” Her agility allowed her to dodge and navigate through the cloud of fighting soldiers, and at one point she fully extended her wings out, breaking her fall. She then flapped them madly as she sprung up in the air, towards the ones chasing her. She dodged both an axe and a pole-arm in the last moment, before sinking her blade in a gryphon’s neck and using the stopping momentum to smash another one with her hind hooves, sending his tumbling into the air. Two stallions from her squad hurtled past her, engaging the two remaining chasers.

“General announcement on all frequencies, Royal Zepp Force is about to deploy, all air troops must stay clear of the red smoke flares, I repeat, all air troops must get away from the smoke flares. Fall back behind the smoke as soon as you see it and prepare to defend the zeppelins from concentrated fire.”

The entire dynamic of the air battle suddenly shifted, the pegasi dragging the fight behind in what was the first tactical retreat thus far. 

“You hear that?” Rainbow asked her fellow squad members, “get behind those flares, we’re too far ahead already! We need to-”

“Dash, watch out!”

A sudden impact threw her off course, and soon pain started radiating from her right wing. She tried to regain control of her flight, and through her spinning she saw her squad members being chased off by a large group of gryphons wearing heavier armor sets than the rest, decorated with royal symbols and markings of their kingdom.

Dash felt another impact as something latched onto her. A pair of wings and a furry tail made their way into her line of sight as she realised she was in the claws of a gryphon. Using her wings to get some momentum, she spun around, freeing herself from the strong claws. As she rotated, Rainbow flung a hind leg at the enemy behind her, and then her right foreleg. The hoof missed and the blade got stuck into the gryphon’s shoulder guard. 

The pegasus noticed the armor was well crafted and polished, bearing some sort of royal signs that the other gryphons did not have. As she struggled to get her blade out of the shoulder guard, she used her other hoof, smashing the assailant repeatedly. The gryphon grabbed her left hoof and used the other set of claws to lift the visor of her helmet, before wrapping them around Dash’s neck. 

“Gotcha’, dweeb.”








***      ***      ***



“Deploy, deploy, deploy!” The radio station inside the airship boomed. 

The five unicorns standing in front of their respective zeppelins closed their eyes as they focused their entire attention on the spell, their magic auras encasing the airships completely. A ring of non-translucent energy began forming around each of them, starting to rotate faster and faster. 

Inside the basket, the light coming through the large windshield was almost blinding. Pearl pulled on a lever over and over, attempting to re-ignite the choked engines. 

“Damn engines be dying on us! To Tartarus with you!” he shouted, smashing the control panel. He then grabbed the radio mic. “Command Center? This here’s Captain Pearl, we request you ta’ stop the darn deploy for our ship in front of Hangar 1, our engines are dead.”

The only answer he received was static. “Ohh no . . .” he murmured, looking at the magic shield surrounding his ship, putting two and two together. “Green Horn!” He outright yelled behind him, “Grab a couple starter cartridges, get your ugly flank outside and fire up those engines or we’ll be dead in the water! Now!”

The unicorn searched through few containers at the back of the basket until he found a cardboard box containing several large cartridges that were used to jump-start piston engines like their own. He grabbed several of them with his magic and rushed back to the front of the ship, where the boarding door was located. 

The cracking of energy and magic suddenly got doubled by a powerful, rising high frequency noise, and the ship started shaking violently. 

“Hold onto something, boys!”

The white light coming from outside exploded, filling the entire cabin as the world lost all sound for a few short moments. With a deep thud, the zeppelin jolted violently and everyone was thrown backwards then forwards as the airship halted in place. Luckily they were holding on, save for the Captain, who smashed against the helm and had his lungs emptied in an instant.

“Damn it, Captain!” Silver said as he rushed in to help the white stallion stand up. 

Green Horn opened the metal door and his face dropped at the sight. From the right side of the zeppelin’s basket, he could see the entire battle unfolding in front of and under his eyes. Thousands of retreating pegasi flew past their ships and started re-grouping around them. He turned his head to the left, towards the enemy troops, and saw the approaching gryphons as well as the many insect-like creatures behind them. His blood froze in his veins. 

“Green Horn, why aren’t- why- why aren’t my damn engines running already?” Pearl’s hollers came from within, interrupted by his coughing fit as he regained his breath. 

“On it, Captain!” The unicorn said, grabbing a roll of rope. He tied one end securely around a metal beam, then took the other end in his mouth, stepping outside on the thin outer edge of the basket. He glued his body to the ship’s hull, slowly dragging his legs along the ridge, making his way towards the engine and crawling underneath the tip of the canons that stuck out through their hatchets. 

Inside the MG nest, Crank Shot spun the turret around facing forwards, and his stomach too sunk deeply at the chilling sight in front of him. He lined up the sights, but there were still a lot of pegasi fighting gryphons at danger close distances.    

Outside the ship, Green Horn walked carefully on the supporting structure beams that held the engines attached to the rest of the ship, wobbling dangerously above the edge every now and then. He reached the first engine, the right one, and quickly removed the service hatch. Grabbing a cartridge from the box, he slammed it into the emergency ignition slot. 

Captain Pearl hit the start button for the first engine as soon as he saw his crew pony crawling his way out of the area in front of the large propeller. An explosion blasted dark smoke out of the engine, causing the blades to start spinning. 

“Hurry up with the next!” Pearl ordered from the cabin, feverishly pointing at what was coming in front of them.

Green Horn spat the rope out of his mouth and grabbed it firmly in his hooves, before jumping off. He swung to the engine on the other side of the basket, grabbing hold of the supporting beam and pulling himself up. Moment later, a starting cartridge was loaded into the second engine as well. Pearl smashed the second ignition button and the ship became fully functional again.

“Help him back up and load the portside cannons!”

The unicorn outside tied the rope around himself and jumped again, ending up dangling underneath the ship. Crank Shot turned the turret towards him, saluting him with a wide grin. A couple of crewponies began pulling on the rope, dragging the unicorn back into the basket.

After the door hatch closed, Pearl spun the helm madly to the right, accelerating the left engine to the maximum. The zeppelin banked sideways, forcing everyone to hold on again. Improperly stored cannonballs rolled around the floor, drawing another series of curses and slurs from the white captain. 

Pearl equalized the engine’s powers after turning the ship halfway back. “Portside better be ready!”

With the help of the large stallion that was Tiny, Sour Buck and Green Horn finished preparing the first firing round, sliding the fourth portside cannon out the hatchet. 

Outside, the lines of centurions had fallen back right behind their position, as the gryphons pushed forwards, now dangerously close to the zeppelin lines. All flying ships were turned 90 degrees and were already firing their cannons as well as their machine guns at the approaching waves of enemies. 

Noticing that from the front of the cabin, Pearl tapped the MG nest’s floor hatchet with a hoof. “What are you waiting for, monkey? Fire that damn thing already! The rest of you, open fire!”

“Skip’, we still have ponies dogfighting in our line of fire!” Silver said, lowering a pair of binoculars from his eyes. 

Pearl opened his mouth, but didn’t find anything to say, so he resumed at smashing his hoof against the helm. “Open fire at the ground units then!”

The two unicorns tasked with aiming the cannons lowered all four, 42 pounder barrels at the battlefield beneath, then sparked the triggering chambers with their own magic. The blast shook the entire basket with its ear-shattering discharge, causing the ship to dangle slightly from the strong recoil. 

Inside the MG nest, Crank Shot aimed the twin-barreled machinegun at an incoming group of gryphons. After making sure there were no friendlies along that line, he pulled at the two triggers with his hooves, unleashing the firepower of the 50-caliber-fed monster.

The rounds spat out at greater-than-sound-speed velocities, tearing through the group of enemies with ruthless accuracy. “I’ll be fucking damned!” he shouted, more from the fact that his ears were ringing from the sound of the twin beasts. Three gryphons were torn to shreds from the short burst of fire, and the other broke formation immediately. Crank Shot’s horn glowed as he turned the basket, and began firing after the rest. 

The rounds traced through the air, initially missing the gryphons entirely as they left the flying bullets behind them. After a quick adjustment to his aiming technique, Crank Shot opened fire again, aiming the guns slightly in front of his targets, that time hitting at least another two of them. The ammo belts jiggled above him, as the hungry monster consumed them at what was considered a mind-blowing pace by the small unicorn.

The basket shook strongly, another round of cannonballs fired to the changeling ground troops below that followed in the steps of the crazed minotaurs.



***      ***      ***



His ears caught a whistling sound getting louder and louder, and just as he was about to turn his head, a blast threw him in the air and into the dirt. Blink rolled onto his back, running his hoof over his side and chest. Small metal fragments were embedded into the black leather armor, yet none had made it through. 

He looked at a minotaur’s body next to him, noticing the several piercing holes in his armor set. “I’ll be damned, remind me to get you a nice Heart Warming Eve’s present, Rarity.”

Blink got up and assessed the status of the battlefield. He found himself still way behind the engagement area, the horde of minotaurs passing by slowly turning into a swarm of ground changeling troops. Luckily for him, the bipedal creatures did not overrun him entirely, and only had to teleport away a couple of times. 

The changelings however showed more interest in the dark armored unicorn, charging at him relentlessly before the cannonball hit the ground next to him. One of the shadow clones he was using just before being interrupted came back to Blink, helping him get up from the dirt. 

“I need a damn weapon!” his illusion spat at him. 

“Sorry, this baby takes a lot of magic to duplicate,” Blink said, picking up the revolver from the ground and firing a couple of rounds at an incoming changeling. Right behind it was another one, which jumped head-first straight at him.

The unicorn grabbed his shadow clone by the shoulders and moved it in front of him. The insect soldier hit him in the back, its jagged horn sticking through and out of the clone’s chest. 

“Yeah, this is even harder to clone, it’s too magical; so I just made it out of normal leather,” Blink said, referring to the clone’s armor that had failed to stop the fatal stab.

“Just great,” he muttered back, blood trickling from his mouth. The clone puffed out of existence, and the real stallion brought his gun to the changeling’s head, blasting it away with a hollow-point round.

“Rrrrhhhaaa!” A primal scream filled the air, as a large soldier bashed his way through a small group of changelings, sending them flying. He planted his hind legs firmly, reached for the large broadsword on his back and swung it at another couple of enemies, slicing the head off the first changeling and cutting the second one’s chest open with one strike. 

“Iron Hooves, happy to see you’re still alive there!” Blink said to the stallion that came to his side as he was picking up his breath. 

“That makes two of us, lad.” 

A group of Guardians, not more than eight or nine, advanced forward from behind in a deadly gallop, slicing and stabbing their way to their appointed commander. 

“I see our crystal friends are still at it,” the black armored unicorn declared, rather surprised. He snapped his head to the side, sending out a blast of magic to a new wave of changelings.

“They are a strong bunch, haven’t seen anything like it. If it weren’t for them and the buffalo to break the minotaur ranks, I don’t know how we would have made it so far.” He suddenly raised his left hoof right in time. A flying insect smashed into the shield that was still attached to the hoof and the impact was instantly followed by the noise of crunching bones and ligament. Iron Hooves then took his sword, rotated it and stuck it into the struggling creature, twisting it once for good measure. 

“We need to go soon, we won’t last too long now that these bugs caught up with the gryphons and minotaurs.” He looked up in the air, behind them, where the air battle had moved around the zeppelins, one of them already letting out thick streams of smoke from an engine.

“It’s too early. We can’t leave yet,” Blink protested while bucking a changeling that jumped him.

“Son, we’re losing soldiers! Lots of them! If we don’t start falling back there won’t be anyone left to protect the city! Our main troops are still far away, we will have to hold them off in Canterlot until they reach us.”

“Fine, you can go then, sir! I can always teleport out if needed.”

“Don’t take too long, ya hear?” The General then turned and galloped back to their lines, surrounded by the small group of Guardians.

Blink cast several shadow clones, which engaged with an incoming group of changelings and minotaurs, keeping him away from the fight as he laid out the plans of his next moves. Lightning bolts came down somewhere behind him, and the thunders made the ground rumble underneath his hooves. The mages had entered the field, it seemed.  

Seeing that he wasn’t doing that much damage behind enemy lines, mostly because the attackers were determined more than anything to reach the city rather than kill everyone in sight, Blink decided to head back to the main combat area of the battle. 

A blue flash and he found himself in the middle of the real battle, thousands of soldiers locked in desperate clashes, some stallions facing even two or more changelings at a time. Minotaurs were still present on the field, spreading terror and fear among the Equestrian ranks with their superior strength and heavy weapons. The only ones bigger than them, the buffalo, ran amok across the field, smashing horns-first into anything that wasn’t a pony. 

The Crystal Guardians were engaging as many targets as they could at once in an attempt to keep the rest of the troops as safe as possible while the hostile army kept pouring among their ranks. Fast, agile silver-armored zebras fought alongside with the golden soldiers of Equestria, slicing through enemy waves with long, double-edged, double-tipped swords in an amazing display of combat proficiency. 

Unicorns wearing light armor and matching golden robes navigated through the battlefield by teleportation, casting various spells onto the enemies around them. Some of them, wearing medic markings, assisted the fallen ponies, buffalo and zebra, getting them out of the field by teleporting out. 

“We need to fall back soon! Stop advancing, they’ll overcome us!” shouted someone, Blink didn’t see who. 

“Okay, time to take control of this,” Blink muttered to himself, horn lighting up while blue waves of energy started materializing around himself. “Let’s see how you invading scum handle the Four Stallions of the Apocalypse.”

With those last words, his entire body burst into pure, black smog. The dark cloud swirled around for a moment before separating in distinct shapes, materializing themselves into four unique shadow clones. The first bared a huge, heavy combat hammer over his shoulder; the second clone was surrounded by two, thin swords levitating to his sides, and had spiked chains hanging around his neck and into the air, while the last two stood behind them back to back on their hind legs, bearing no weapon.



***      ***      ***



“Critical!” Golden Heart, the medic mare with blonde mane shouted from the side of a gurney, on top of who a stallion was struggling in pain.

Twilight rushed to the other side, taking a moment to study the bleeding wound right below his jaw line. She was not wearing Celestia’s armor anymore, choosing to cast it aside soon after the first injured started to arrive, which allowed her greater mobility. 

She cast a spell on the affected area, and the torrent of blood slowed down considerably. “It’s . . . very critical, he lost a lot of blood.” 

“All right then, send him out, we need the gurneys,” Golden Heart urged her, quickly binding the groaning soldier’s hooves with some tape. “You’re gonna be okay dear, we’re sending you to Canterlot, this is just so you don’t fumble too much during the teleportation.” She comforted him with a few strokes of his mane, while searching her medic bag. Finding what she was looking for, Golden pulled out a sticker pad and, using her magic, wrote down on a red one the word ‘transfusion B+’ with a pen, before applying it to his chest piece. 

Twilight’s purple magic encased the stallion, while she closed her eyes in concentration, focusing on the auditorium building back in the capital. With a bright flash, the stretcher was empty, the only proof of someone laying there just moments ago being a couple of large, fresh blood stains.

Two spheres of magic materialized nearby, and a couple of unicorn stallions dragged themselves out of them, each carrying an injured pony. Twilight looked around, taking in the sight of long lines of filled gurneys and the erratic medics swarming around them. She mentally went over her checklist, deciding she would have exactly twelve and a half seconds before needing to check on two almost-critical cases pending transport. 

The two unicorns both came to the same gurney where Golden and Twilight stood. The blonde unicorn mare rushed to one holding onto a pegasus, inspecting him. 

“Wing, broken forelegs,” said the soldier holding him. 

The mare looked at his back but could only see a wing and a bleeding stub. She then darted her eyes at the other injured stallion who was screaming in pain and noticed a smoking hole in his side. “Get the pegasus to the field tents, tell them to secure the broken legs and cauterize the wing. And you, you put the earth stallion over there.”

The second soldier placed the injured pony with the side wound on the gurney, before trotting away, disappearing into a burst of magic. 

“Wow, we’re getting more of these now, damn it; they must have started fighting the changelings,” Golden said, removing the armor while casting a series of spells to check his vitals. Meanwhile, Twilight used a mild pain numbing spell, trying to ease his suffering while not wasting too much magic. 

“It- it stings so much!” he managed between clenched teeth, breaking into a loud moan. “Am I gonna die? Tell me if I’m gonna die!”

“You’re going to be fine, sweetheart,” Golden tried to assure him, while removing the chainmail layer. 

The wound was deep and wide, and smoke was still coming from the burning edges, while blood streamed out from everywhere. The two mares’ eyes met for a moment, and the medic mare shook her head subtly. Twilight immediately felt a pang in her chest, and even if her decision was correct, she was still unable to accept it completely. The pony’s wailing wasn’t helping her either. 

“I can- I could keep him under my full life support spell, seal off the missing liver and kidney functions and restore-”

“Twilight! While you do that, ten more that you could save in that time and with that amount of magic would die.”

Her ears flopped down, accepting the morbid situation and the fate of the stallion in front of her.

“Can I at least send him to Canterlot? They have more pain meds . . .”

Golden sighed, and retrieved another couple of pads from her bag. She stuck a black one on his armor, and another white one with “pain meds” written over it. Twilight then cast the spell and the dying pony disappeared completely, purple sparks burning out on the blood-stained stretcher. 



***      ***      ***



“We got another critical transfusion over here!” shouted a caramel-coated stallion in a coat that was once white and not filled with red. 

The entire main hall, where performances and shows used to play not a few days before, was now riddled with hundreds of medical beds and stretchers, all filled with injured stallions and mares of all races. To one side of the tremendous hall, several buffalo lay on the floor, medics desperately trying to heal their injuries even with limited knowledge of their anatomy.

The soldier with the deep neck wound was lying on the stage, which was completely cleared and had several magic markings recently engraved into its wooden boards. The medic grabbed him by the tail and hastily dragged him out of that spot. A unicorn with a floating gurney came to help and they both placed him onto it. 

“This one needs to get into surgery ASAP, and fix him up with a liter of B+ on the way there!”

As the unicorn rushed off with the gurney floating behind him, the medic slumped down on the front edge of the stage, trying to catch his breath. He and other several doctors had been triaging ever since the battle had started and the first injured soldiers arrived. The stage was littered with sticky notes of various colors, most of which were red. His eyes dropped to his hoof, and the sickening sensation overcame him again; it wasn’t the blood or gore, as a medic he was used to that. What made his insides churn was the small, black post-it note under his hoof, which was stained by several drops of blood. There were more and more of those coming through recently.  

His ear twitched at the crackling sound of bursting magic behind him, which had become the norm for the last hours. He tried to turn his head but was soon stopped by a gentle hoof. 

“You need to rest, or else you’ll cause more harm than good,” said to him a mare nurse that he had only seen in passing that day. “Go, I’ll replace you.”

The medic nodded and jumped off the stage, making his way to the storage area where he knew he could find something else less stressful to do. Redheart then climbed the small ladder and joined the others in triaging the transported soldiers on the stage. Her heart was fluttering relentlessly, fearing that every pony that arrived there could very well be him.

Back towards the exit of the main auditorium hall, the medic floating the stallion with the neck wound had finished prepping his transfusion bag, yet the soldier was already unconscious. He grunted in frustration and rushed forwards, entering a busy hallway with the stretcher behind him in his magic grasp. The atmosphere was utterly chaotic, medics and nurses rushing in every possible direction in and out of the rooms that were just dressing chambers the day before. Screams and moans came from the critically injured waiting to be taken care of, their vocalized pain breaking the spirits of even the most hardened medical staff. 

“I need a surgeon, he’s dying here!” the stallion with the injured pony behind him shouted, checking every chamber along the hallway. Unfortunately for the soldier taking his last breaths on the gurney, the improvised surgery rooms were all full, with medic unicorns having a pony on the table while at least another one or two waited on gurneys laid down on the hallway.

“I’m free!” came from a room nearby. 

The unicorn rushed inside as soon as another stretcher carrying a sedated pegasus left the room, and much to his surprise, the surgeon standing by the metal table was no one other that Princess Celestia herself, wearing a stained coat and cloth mask over her muzzle. 

“Your highness, there is another critical with heavy internal bleeding on his way here,” stated one of the assisting doctors. 

“It’s all right, we have time for him; get an artery clamp ready, please,” she asked with a calm that completely defied the situation. 

Celestia floated several medical instruments next to her, and as soon as the soldier was placed on the table, she immediately began operating. Her horn pulsed several times initially, the entire wound area around his neck clearing out of any excess blood. She then pried it open, exposing the severed neck artery to the powerful light coming from the tip of her horn. In mere seconds, the pulsing end was clamped while a small circular needle joined the tiny, life-bearing tube back together. Releasing the clamp, she watched as blood inflated the artery back with a steady, pulsating twitch. The alicorn floated a small bottle to her and poured no more than a couple of droplets over the joined artery. The liquid instantly gelatinized, sealing off the tiny leaks that remained.

She then closed the wound and stitched it with a larger needle, applying a powerful clotting spell. What was mere moments ago an almost fatal wound, had become a fresh scar.     

Just as the soldier was carefully lifted off the table and placed on a stretcher to be taken out, the critical case had entered the door. An assistant padded Celestia’s face with a dry cloth, while offering her a bottle to drink from. 

“Please get in touch with Luna and have them update me on what’s happening at Struthill,” she asked between changing her facemask and rehydrating herself.



***      ***      ***



Information officers and radio operators were working feverishly in the War Room, as Luna stood in front of one of the walls. Near it, several unicorns maintained a special linking spell, projecting a fluid image on the wall in front of them. 

“Why aren’t they engaging with all of their forces?” the Princess asked herself out loud, studying the fuzzy stream of images.

She raised a hoof and swiped in to the left. The entire perspective shifted accordingly, and the initial gaps and broken depth issues fixed themselves gradually, as the unicorns focused on strengthening the spell. 

“Our zebra allies are fighting admirably; they aided us in keeping the right side of the battlefield steady. Still, the enemy is holding back . . .”

Behind the ongoing battle in the air, a large mass of changelings flew in a compact formation along the battle area. The gryphons were still engaged with the pegasi as the battle had moved in front of the side-facing zeppelins, and groups of changelings were fueling the fight from behind. 

On the ground the same tactic was applied, waves after waves of changelings pouring into the field at a constant rate. The ponies were losing hundreds by the minute, and Luna realised she had to call a retreat soon enough. The main plan of hitting the swarms with as much force as possible had failed, as the large part of the enemy’s armada was standing behind their vanguards.

“Princess, we’ve received more news from our main army forces coming from the outer cities,” a stallion floating a parchment in front of him reported. “They are encountering resistance on their way here, mostly changelings left behind with the exact purpose of slowing down any reinforcements. No major losses reported, but they say they’ll be here around dawn at the earliest. Also, we have word that several survivors have been found outside of the Death Valley near Tartarus. The prison itself is unopened.”

“Is Shining Armor among them?” Luna asked with renewed hope. 

“Not from what we know at this time, your highness.”

An explosion coming from a zeppelin’s basket made Luna re-direct her attention back to the magical projection on the wall. The sky was filled with bright, orange flames, spreading upwards and encasing the whole balloon. The ship began falling to the ground immediately, and several pegasi could be seen flying out of it just as the ammunition reserves blew up, creating a second, more powerful explosion. 

“Your Highness, Princess Celestia wants to know how the fight is going on, and if she needs to refresh the shield spell surrounding Canterlot,” asked a pony from behind a radio transmitter. 

“Tell her that we are faring well for now. And you,” Luna said, looking at a pegasus officer, “order our special unicorn troops to enter the field of battle, post haste!”

“Yes, Princess.” He grabbed the transmitter and tuned in to a specific frequency. “This is central command from Canterlot’s War Room, deploy the Avatars, I say again, the Avatars are to engage the enemy troops!”



***      ***      ***



Dash tumbled through the air after kicking herself free from her captor, desperately trying to get a bearing amidst the swarm of enemies around her. A gryphon smashed into her, followed by a close-call from a couple of changelings. 

“No one interferes, she’s mine!” the gryphon in royal armor yelled from the top of her lungs.

“Why are you doing this, Gilda?” Rainbow asked, looking wearily around her as enemy fliers advanced past the two of them. “You lived half of your life in Equestria! Now you’re killing ponies that’ve never done anything to your kind? What was in your uncle’s mind?”

“It’s all politics, Dash, my dear. And why should I care about you or your precious friends when you chose them over me so many times?” the gryphon retorted, flying wide circles around the cyan mare.

“You became an insufferable bully! You made fun of my friends and mocked them even after I’ve told you to stop! Why would anyone want to be friends with you?”

Gilda huffed in anger, narrowing her eyes at who was once her best friend. She charged at her, extending her sharp, metal-covered claws. The pegasus dodged her easily in the last moment, yet didn’t strike back. 

“Gilda, don’t make me do this!” Rainbow Dash warned her again, desperately trying to deter her somehow. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I’ll do it if you continue with this; just walk away!”

“Ohh, the little pegasus making threats. Look around Dash, this war was won when my uncle decided to invade,” she said, flying towards Rainbow, prepared to strike again. 

That time the pegasus dashed forward, navigating through the enemy waves while trying to return to her squad and allies. Gryphons and changelings blocked her path constantly, forcing her to bank and veer sharply just to avoid being shred into pieces of blasted away by green bolts of magic. 

Just as she was about to rise above the path of the enemy fliers, Dash was yanked back by the tail. 

“You are not getting away that easily, Dash!” 

As she turned, the pegasus found herself trapped again between Gilda’s claws, which were dangerously wrapped around her neck, squeezing tighter and tighter. She tried to pry open the claws with her hooves but she was no match against the gryphon’s strength. Finding no other way out of that situation, and with Gilda’s sharp claws already drawing blood, Dash brought her hind legs to her stomach then bucked forwards repeatedly as hard as she could, eventually freeing herself from the death clutch. 

Dash then propelled herself towards Gilda, right hoof readied to the side. With a strong jab, she drove the blade through the gryphon’s armor, stabbing her in the shoulder. Gilda screamed for the sudden burning pain in her arm, flailing her claws at the pegasus. Some of her attacks landed on their target, shredding Rainbow’s light armor and even cutting deep wounds on her neck and wings.

Gilda managed to get a hold of Dash’s right shoulder while her hoof blade was still stuck in her arm. She spun the pegasus, revealing her back, grabbed a beating wing and snapped it in half. The sound of broken bone sent Rainbow in a world of pain, and soon a pained scream left her lips. Only moments later did she realize that Gilda was holding her in the air by the shoulders.

“You should have stayed in Ponyville, now you gave me no choice, Dash,” the gryphon said in a low voice, the shadows of a once strong friendship lingering somewhere in her tone.

With that, Gilda let go of the pegasus, pushing her forwards to her death. With her heart racing at the prospect of death, Dash desperately extended her front hooves and reached the gryphon’s legs, grabbing hold of them.

“Gilda! Is this really what you want?” she yelled at the flier that was now struggling to get her off.

“Our friendship . . . is dead, Rainbow Dash, and so are you! Now have some dignity and let go!” she warned her, raising her metal-covered claws. 

“Then we’ll die together.”

Dash pulled hard, lunging herself upwards. With a swift motion, her blade sliced through the air, taking half of Gilda’s left wing off and an array of her primaries from the remaining half.

Both fliers began losing altitude, as gravity claimed their fates. Rainbow struggled for a few moments to somehow stabilize her descent, however her only functional wings was not enough to keep her in the air or even slow down her descent. Her entire world began spinning, the ground mixing with the air in a storm of colors as she spun, falling to her death. 

“Haylift, do you hear me? Anyone in Haylift, this is squad comman-”

“Dash, are you okay?” Lightning’s voice filled her helmet. “We lost you in our retreat, tell me you’re somewhere around the zeppelins or behind them!”

“I’m falling . . . fast,” she grunted, vainly trying to stabilize her spin. “Just want you to tell my friends-”

“Dash where are you? Tell me your location!”

“Don’t know, between- uggggff!”

She hit something in her fall, most likely a changeling. Her shoulder radiated with pain from the impact, but it didn’t matter anymore, as the ground approached her faster and faster.

“Rainbow, are you okay? Just tell us-”

“Shut up, Lightening, and just remember to . . . damn it, remember to tell my friends they meant everything for me. You’re pretty okay too, I guess . . .”

The pegasus unlocked her helmet from the main armor piece and let it go, the voice of her friend coming from it fading into the wind. Her multi-colored mane was now free, dancing wildly in the air. With her back facing the ground, Dash could see the swarms of enemies advancing above her, their entire forces now heading towards an engagement. Higher in the air to her left, Gilda was struggling to remain up, but was essentially in the same situation as her old friend. 

“I’ll miss you guys,” Dash whispered, the image and recollection of all the moments spent with her friends going through her mind. Tears lost themselves in the wind, and her eyes closed one last time. The ground was only a few seconds away.   



***      ***      ***



The twin-barreled machinegun ate the remainder of the ammo belt, spitting the last strands of death at the multitude of targets whizzing around the zeppelin.

“More ammo, I’m out!” Crank Shot yelled from his nest underneath the basket.

The entire crew was working at full capacity. Most of them were moving cannonballs and loading them into the large artillery pieces, and some were firing their spear-muskets through the cannon hatchets. The basket shook and trembled every time one of the large 42 pounders spat out their charge. They were either explosive cannonballs for the enemies below, or special fragmentation projectiles that blew up into thousands of shrapnel pieces soon after leaving bursting out of the cannons.

All the zeppelins were facing Canterlot at that point, slowly heading back and dragging the front line along with them. The pegasi forces were continuously engaged in clashes around the airships, their cannons alternating between providing air support and assisting the battles taking place at ground level. 

“Captain, they’re everywhere,” Silver shouted while changing the magic coal from his musket. “Purple Barron is down and Blue Bird’s crew is now evacuating, we need to fallback faster!”

Pearl looked to his left, and then to the hill below, considering his options. His right hoof was holding the acceleration control steadily, while his eyes darted across the battlefield around him. “If we go faster, we break the damn frontline and lose everything. Keep firing those cannons, we don’t retreat until we’re told to!”

“Skip, hurry, you need to see this!” Crank Shot said, his head sticking out of the hatched behind the captain. “Six o’ clock, I’ve never seen anything like that,” he added, pointing his hoof towards the back of the basket. 

Pearl and Siler rushed to the back, and slid open a couple of visors to peer through. “What’s that thing, captain?” Silver asked, noticing a large flying shape hurdling down towards the ground somewhere behind enemy lines. “Looks like a flying contraption of some sort, attached to-”

“I think I’ve seen him before in Ponyville once,” Pearl muttered, eyes glued to the strange object in the distance.



***      ***      ***



The constant, fast rhythm of propellers cutting through the air made its way to Dash’s ears. She opened her eyes at the familiar sound. The ground was only feet away. 

Suddenly, she was yanked up, something large grabbing hold of her back armor piece. The sharp deceleration threw her body to the side, her hooves almost dragging across the fast moving ground as the sound of spinning blades above grew stronger. The fall stopped, and Dash found herself gaining altitude again. She looked behind at what was holding her and immediately broke into an ecstatic sob. The large, deep, warm eyes of her beloved pet stared back at her, his powerful jaw clamped tightly around the pegasus’s back armor. 

“Tank, what are you doing here?” she asked between tears, raising a hoof behind her back and patting the huge tortoise along his neck. “I can’t believe you saved my life again, how did you even know?”

Tank’s response, as usual, never came, but if he would have had his mouth free, his large smile would have been the only answer needed. The two magic-powered helicopter blades attached to his thick shell spun in both directions, providing enough speed to allow them to easily outfly any attacks coming from the ground troops below. 

Soon, they flew past the front lines of the ground troops, making their way to the medical field near Struthill’s ridge. A couple of green magic bolts flew past them, while one of them hit Tank’s shell. He grunted deeply into Dash’s armor, but kept his heading.

As the hostile passed them, he didn’t account for the tortoise’s spinning blades, which severed one of its leg and cut a deep wound into the insect’s body. Fatally injured, the changeling came crashing towards the ground below, while Tank and the injured pegasus kept to their destination. 

Just as it was about to hit the ground in a clearing on the hill, the changeling instantly disappeared in thin air, follow by a bone crunching sound.  

“Luna’s sake!” one of the stallions shouted, the carcass of the enemy landing inches away from him. “Quantum Light, you could have added a darn shield component to your cloaking dome spell!”

“Sorry boss, I wanted to save my magic as you’ve told us to. Screw that tho’, have you seen that flying giant turtle holding the pegasus?”

Eight other ponies underneath the invisibility dome looked at the body that landed in the middle of them, then back towards the top of the hill, where the tortoise was headed. 

All of them were unicorns, and wore dark-gray, full-body armors. Each of them also had two tanks attached to their backs, with tubes coming out of them and into the upper parts of their helmets, underneath their ears.

“ . . . I say again, the Avatars are to engage the enemy troops!”

One of them raised his hoof, grabbing everyone’s attention. “You heard them, boys, that’s our cue. Spread out, thirty feet apart. The zeppelins and the rest of our own are seventy degrees above us. Everyone will aim below that line, all right? Our nitrogen will give us cooling for about eight, maybe ten shots if we’re lucky. Remember, two-second bursts, ten seconds apart to let your horns cool back down. Now move out!”

The long-horned unicorns starting moving slowly along the hill, spreading as instructed. 

“Bunsen, hurry up, they’re getting closer,” one of the armored ponies said to his friend behind him, while keeping his eyes on the approaching changeling swarm.

“I know, I know, but this damn lead armor is so fucking heavy! I don’ know how we’re going to get out of here after we fire our charges.”

“Relax, they told us to pop the yellow flare when we’re done and some unicorns will be kind enough to teleport our flanks outta here.” 

“They’d better,” Bunsen muttered, stopping in his spot. “See ya later, Quantum!” 

Thirty feet or so later, Quantum stopped as well. His horn glowed underneath the metal encasing around it, and pieces of his armor resembling mechanical legs extended out, digging themselves into the ground to his sides. He moved his hip and shoulders around, making sure he was secured in place. The stallion then floated a small container from an armor compartment, then pried it open, throwing the case away. He took the thin vial inside containing a murky green, minuscule rock and attached it to a socket on his head piece, right under the base of his horn. 

His helmet came to life, a light turning on and making a few small dials visible inside his visor. “They could have made a simple heads up display for these readings,” he huffed, checking the tanks pressure and radiation levels. “All good, okay, let’s do some science in here.”

The modular horn protector burst open piece by piece, until the entire cartilage was exposed. Liquid nitrogen vapors sprayed along the base of the horn, keeping it as cold as possible. 

“Final ready check on Avatar squad, please confirm,” a voice said on their radio channel. 

All ten unicorns confirmed, and the final order came: “Burn them boys, burn them good.”

Quantum immediately began casting the spell. The tip of his horn lit up, creating a more powerful pulsating light a foot away from his head. His helmet ejected a tiny fragment of the radioactive matter, which flew into the bright beacon. The unicorn then created a half-sphere shield, in order to re-direct the upcoming blast. 

The light and heat coming from the central focusing point of the spell in front of him was getting stronger by the moment, as he focused to create the perfect conditions to facilitate a small-scale fission reaction. He made his final adjustment to his aim, and dropped a matte screen in front of his helmet’s visor in the last moment. 

The ground trembled, a powerful burst of energy emanating inside the shield inches away from the unicorn’s horn. The explosion ejected outwards, blasting through the air in the form of a concentrated yet thick column of pure flames and heat. The beam hit a changeling swarm that was just about to engage one of the zeppelins, tearing through them with no resistance whatsoever.

After exactly two seconds, Quantum canceled the reaction, and the column of fire dissipated almost immediately, while a thick gust of nitrogen was already cooling down his horn. Similar blasts followed soon enough, tearing through the air and burning gaping holes into the ranks of the enemy fliers.

Quantum kept his eye on the small temperature gauge, after having peaked at more than two hundred Celsius at the tip of the horn. The nitrogen worked fast however, bringing down the temperature to under twenty in several seconds. A pulsating beacon of light formed again in front of him, as he repeated the entire process, aiming towards another, larger group of changelings.  



***      ***      ***



The black armored stallion with a gigantic floating hammer to his side patted himself on the body. “This is the real deal, eh?” he asked, turning to the two unarmed, identical looking ponies behind him. 

“Spared no expenses, all four of us are wearing the same kind of hydra armor.”

“There goes the whole magic conservation plan,” said another. “I feel we have less than half available, and that’s between the four of us.”

A bright beam of light went over their heads, cutting through a cloud of fliers way above them. 

“Avatars are on field, I guess,” the one bearing two swords and the spiked chain said, admiring the view. 

One unarmed Blink sprung forwards, galloping towards the advancing enemy lines. “I haven’t split myself into four to watch the fireworks, we got things to do!” 

The remaining three dashed onwards as well splitting up to cover as much of the front line as possible. Fierce clashes were still happening across the battlefield, the ponies now stacked into groups, using their shields to form large circles and exposing themselves only to strike the enemies around. 

Some Crystal Guardians still fought on among the others, most of them however missing either armor parts or even limbs, their immortal will however remaining as strong as it was in the morning.

The hammer-wielding unicorn struck powerful blows, sending changeling carcasses flying about. Occasionally, a minotaur would attempt to engage, yet he would be swiftly crushed by the magically summoned weapon. To the right of the field, the second weapon-bearing shadow pony sliced and dashed among the enemies that were constantly reinforcing their own. His twin katanas cut through the air in swift, focused blows, claiming the body parts of those that were unfortunate enough to be near him. As more and more enemies noticed him, he quickly became their main focus. 

The two remaining stallions galloped into the enemy lines somewhere between their armed variants, engaging into close combat with whoever was closer to them. As they approached their first group of targets, their horns lit up in sync. They turned and bucked two separate changeling soldiers, sending them into a few other behind them. Almost instantly, a large group swarmed around the two, hissing and spitting at them while aiming their horns.

“Ready?”

“Ready.”

Four changelings rushed into them, but a couple of them were met with a strong hoof in the head. With their hooves locked, the two stallions spun around, delivering similar blows to the other changelings. Green bolts of magic shot through the air, hitting them in various parts of their bodies. Their magic-resistant armor absorbed the blasts, which left only thin smoke trails emanating from the impact area. The two ponies then counter-charged, fighting in perfect synchronization with each other, their backs never facing anything else other than themselves.   

A furious minotaur broke the changeling circle surrounding the two soldiers, and brought his large axe down upon them. They never blinked however, as the blade passed right through both them as if they were made of air, and embedding itself into the ground. He didn’t even had the time to act surprised; a hoof surrounded by a blue glow smashed into his side. The armor piece cracked, then burst into flying pieces, the hoof carrying on and dealing the same damage to his ribcage. 

“Close one!” one of them exhaled for a short second, before resuming the melee fight with the rest of the changelings in the group.  

“That also took out quite a bit of juice,” the other one shouted, sending his hind legs into another skull-crashing buck. 

“Don’t be cheap with your defense! If one of us dies, we all die!” 

Their attention was distracted by a low tremble in the ground, coming from somewhere to their left. 

The hammer-wielding variant struggled to keep his balance, as the ground in front of him rose, something very eager making its way up. 

”Whoa, you’re a big one!” he shouted with a grin, readying his heavy weapon.

The creature that broke through the ground was very similar to other changelings, but three times the size and wearing an odd-looking, multi-layered chitin armor.

The unicorn wasted no time and hurdled the hammer at it, yet the creature did the unexpected and pranced to its left, dodging the hammer with uncanny agility before letting out a primal roar. 

“Good, but not good enough.” With a swift spell cast, the hammer that was still flying through the air disappeared in a blue puff of magic, before re-appearing right above the changeling’s head. Since the weapon’s momentum remained strong, the hammer smashed into the beast’s back, cracking its armor and making it cry in agony. 

Flailing for a moment, the changeling showed no signs of defeat, and in the next second it was charging at the unicorn with impressive speed.

“Oh shit, help!” he shouted to the other three, dashing back towards the hill.

The other weapon-wielding shadow stallion blinked right on top of the running beast. He rose his blades and then plunged them into the changeling’s back. The two katanas broke into shards at the contact with the hard carapace armor. 

“No frikin’ way!” 

Wasting not a moment, he then levitated his spiked chain from around his neck, wrapping it around the elite insect soldier. It immediately began struggling, jumping and bucking in place, trying to break free. 

“Dodge this!” the stallion yelled, and his magic pulled hard at the chain as he held himself on top of the changeling. With the force distributed evenly along the chain’s length, it began to drag along its body, while continuing to wrap around it. The spikes scratched the hard armor, but dug deep into the unprotected joints and flesh covering its underside. A deep shriek left the beast’s mouth, thrashing wildly until it crashed to the ground with a large thump. 

“Dude, it’s dead . . .”

The stallion sitting atop the carcass pried his eyes from it, the chain under his spell still grinding away at the lifeless body. 

“I knew that,” he said flatly, retracting the chains around the changeling’s body, wrapping it back around his neck.

“You’re disgusting,” the hammer wielding shadow stallion said to him, while curiously poking the body. 

“I’m you,” he concluded with a grin, idly scraping a bloody piece of chitin off a chain spike. 

“Incoming, you numbskulls!” the two unarmed unicorns yelled, galloping past them towards a wave of minotaurs. 

The ground trembled again, and split along almost the entire front line. The shadow stallions stopped right in time, and as they peered their heads into the wide gap, a column of fire rose from deep underground, rising several feet into the air. 

“You fool!” came a rather familiar voice behind the four stallions. “A full retreat was issued and you’re prancing around with your clones!”

“Dark Shine, a pleasure as always,” one version of Blink said, not doing the best job of hiding his loath for the old Archmage. “And no, I haven’t heard the damn retreat call, I’ve been busy killing this!” he said, pointing at the huge changeling lying dead in the dust. 

“Well if you would have used any of your eight eyes, you would have seen that there are tens of those that just broke through our lines; now fall back!” he ordered firmly, disappearing into a burst of magic.

The four shadow stallions started galloping back towards the hill as the fires from the pit Dark Shine summoned burned away. As they fell back, the eerie sound of burning objects reached their ears, but all four of them somehow shrugged it off as being the fire wall they were leaving behind in their dash. It wasn’t until they started feeling a massive heat wave that one of them looked up. 

“Teleport the fuck away, now!” he yelled, disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

The other three did the same, and regrouped at the base of the hill, among the hundreds of stallions falling back. Looking back to where they teleported from, a burning zeppelin was crashing into the ground, its large balloon set ablaze. Explosions rocked the ground, as the ammunition store inside the basket blew up, sending shrapnel and flaming pieces everywhere. 

Unicorns teleported in and out across the fields around, searching for any injured they might find before leaving the place for good. The last of their forces were already over Struthill’s summit, and the remaining two zeppelins were pushing back at max speed, the entire pegasus force surrounding them. 

The four black-armored ponies stared at what followed in their hoofsteps: up in the air, a still somewhat large swarm of changelings with several gryphons mixed in their ranks followed the pegasi and the zeppelins they were guarding, while on the ground, thousands of troops waited impatiently along the wall of fire summoned to delay them. 

The painful truth however overcame them as they eyes fell on the ground around them. The entire battlefield was littered with bodies, mostly golden armored soldiers that had fallen in the fierce battles against the minotaur vanguard. To the right side of the hill, the gold-armored remains mixed with silver ones, the bulk of the zebra reinforcements having perished in battle along with their allies. Many of the one hundred buffalo were also lying dead, scattered along the furthest point the equestrian troops had reached in their counter attack. 

Fragments of the everlasting Crystal Guardians littered the ground, their bright, shredded armor pieces standing as headstones over what was left of their bodies. They had fought until they could stand no more, waves after waves of minotaurs and changelings chipping away at them as they stood as a funnel between the large enemy army and the equestrian troops. 

Even with the Guardians’ immeasurable help however, their army had taken a massive blow in that fight, and it seemed that the worse was still to come. Blink considered for a fleeting moments if it would have been better if they stood their ground in Canterlot after all, but the deed was done, and he knew at least their entire forces had a short at the enemy.  

The last columns of fire from the Avatars faded away, hundreds of burning soldiers falling in their wake.

“At least that worked.”

“All right, guess it’s time to break the spell,” one shadow unicorn said. 

All four stallions transcended into a dark mist. Out of it came Blink, his senses and mind trying to accommodate with the sensation of being put back together into one. But something was wrong; an odd sensation overcame him, as he felt his magic weaker than before. 

“I believe you forgot something . . .”

Blink froze in place at the sound of his own voice coming from behind him. He turned to the unicorn stallion with blue coat and dark mane, a pony that shared all his physical traits, save for the black armor.

“I think I’m up for my re-match now,” he continued, grinning madly, a spark of craze shining in his eyes. “Last time I had the awful disadvantage of fighting inside your head. Now that I don’t care about what I’m about to destroy around here, not to mention that pesky pet of ours, I think we can have a fair duel. What do you say?”




End of Chapter 26