The stallion stood tall, his black armour glinting in the gleam of the battle that he so often craved for. This battle was a piss poor excuse of a challenge though! The soldiers were week, and any strong opponents seemed to have been taken. On the outskirts of the battle field his mistress’s dragon Draig had been taken by another dragon! Now that would have been fun fighting a new dragon, being able to take his scaly coat as a trophy for when he returned to the kingdom of Celestia!
The refugee’s would have been the next choice of a decent fight, yet they had seemed to have vanished from sight! So now the unicorn commander was forced too wander the battle field dealing with any small fry that tried to challenge him. They never lasted long, e few spell and a good thrust or two was all they had in them before they tired. Before this stallion ploughed his glistening sharpened horn through their chest.
He had fought his way into the centre of the fight, looking for any white unicorn guard that could pose a decent enough challenge. He had heard a scream from not too far away, he looked up to see one of his own Pegasy plummeting to the earth, a discharge of magical energy glowing around him as he fell. A moment later he saw another guard fly through the sky, thrown by some unseen enemy. Interesting...
After fighting his way through a line of battling white and black soldiers, he saw him... or them in this case. The stallion gave a ecstatic grin at the sight, not only was he facing the legendary draconequus of chaos, but he was also standing behind a stallion unicorn, far different from the rest of the soldiers surrounding them. The stallion spotted a captains badge embedded on the haunch of his armour. With a determined smile, commander Shining Armour stepped forward challenging the stallion who was an exact copy of him. Finally a challenge!
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Shining Armour stared at the stallion just ahead of him and Discord, the exact copy of the captain gave a menacing smile and shouted over the racket of the battle around them. “Shining Armour! This is a great day! A chance to fight myself! FINALLY! A challenge!” And with that, without even a seconds warning, the black armoured soldier charged, his horn tilted down towards Shining armours chest. In an instant of battle analysis that Armour had studied for years, her spotted the sharpened horn of his opponent, spiked into a deadly point that was fast approaching the silver chest of the captain of the guard.
Using all his strength, Shining Armour dived aside. He felt the breeze as the other stallion passed, he thought he was safe, but in that instant the attacker turned on the spot, stopping instantly. He reared back, slamming hiss forehooves into Armour’s back slamming him straight onto the dirt floor beneath them. The impact sent the captain toppling to the floor instantly. “Is that it?!” Cried the black armoured unicorn in angry disbelief. “Is that all the Shining Armour of this world has to offer?” Shining Armour pushed, trying to get back on his hooves, but his back flared up, with a scream of pain, the captain fell back to the floor weekly.
Through a haze of red pain, Shining Armour looked up at the unicorn above him. He had the same face, and yet her look nothing like the other. Scars riddled his face, making a giant crisscrossing maze of marks across his muzzle. His eyes were those of a stallion who’d lived a life of somepony far older; they were dark, angry and bitter. The towering stallion snarled, raising a strong forehoof above the captains face without another word. Shining Armour looked around, searching for his ally from a few moments ago, where was Discord? He searched for the site of an alligator leg between the countless forehooves of the guards surrounding them. There!
The stallion gazed up, scanning up the body, to the face of the draconequus. Discord looked back, a faint smile on his face, with a wink from those red eyes, Armour heard the chimera’s voice inside his mind, as loud as though the lord of chaos was lying beside the captain. “Like I said, this is going to be interesting, Interfering would take away all the fun, don’t end the show now captain.” With that the voice vanished and the draconequus charged back into the fight.
The commanders hoof came soaring down inches from Armour’s face. The hoof made contact with the ground, as Armour rolled away to the screaming protests of his back. He gritted his teeth, fighting through the pain and bouncing back to his hooves. The two stood there staring each other down, each waiting for the other to make their move.
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“My dear? Yours or mine?” Asked the chimera with a dry chuckle, addressing his bouncing wife as group of guards approached the battling couple.
“Throw me!” Commanded Pink, the chimera obeyed immediately taking hold of her left foreleg and hind leg he pulled her up and began to spin on the spot. “WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!” Cried the blood drunk Pony as she was released and bowled down a group of five black guards at once.
“Pfft!” Laughed Pink as she bounced up and bounded away to the next group of enemies. Discord watched her gently, a slight grimace on his lips, his eyes travelled to the stomach of his wife, the womb that was carrying his and her child. If Pink died... No, keep fighting that’s the whole point of luring Celestia to this world, ‘We have a chance here! We can do this!’
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“How should I kill them Tia?” Cackled the empress as her horn clashed against that of the princess. a shower of silver sparks exploded into life around the grinding horns. Celestia glared back at the copy of her, it was like looking into a funhouse mirror, familiar, but wrong beyond repair! With the princess’s silence, Empress Celestia laughed once again madly. “Maybe I should burn them alive? Or do you think I’ve done that enough already with that Macinstosh?” Princess Celestia pushed hard, grinding her horn to the very base of the empress’s.
Realising the threat, the empress abandoned her smile until she had levelled out her side of the dual, making their horns push each others at around the mid way point down the shaft. The sneer slowly crept back to her lips as she looked into the hateful eyes of the princess. “Should I make it quick?” she began to force the princess back. “Should I just snap their pretty little necks?” Her horn began to reach the princesses skull. “Maybe I should just over dose them. Yes it’ll only work on the unicorns, but I don’t mind. I’d like to see that purple one squirm!”
“NOOOOOOO!” Cried the princess, struggling to push back against the strong enemy, Twilight! She needed to protect her student! The stink of the empress’s dark magic filled Celestia’s nostrils, it smelt rancid and decaying.
Still fighting to push back against the dominating empress, Celestia’s eyes darted about, analysing the battle. Yes some ponies –the pink double and Shining Armour mostly- were holding their own against the empress’s dark forces, but her own white guards seemed to be dwindling in force. This wouldn’t last much longer! Equestria was losing!
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“How dare you try and touch my Rarity!” Screamed Spike as he twisted around Drag’s hulking body, the local dragon’s slim figure made him quick and agile. Which is what he needed against the huge mass that was the other dragon. Using his snake like figure, he intertwined himself around the dragon’s arms, using his tail told hold the left while his body just beneath his own arms twisted around the right arm. The large dragon let loose a angry roar, and with a flex of his rippling muscles, he broke the grip on his left hand.
Draig now pulled his right arm down, dragging the slim dragon off of his back and back into sight. With an angry growl, he bore his teeth, pushing his nose against the smaller dragons. “Heh, oops!” Laughed Spike nervously. Draig opened his mouth, the smell of smoke that his breath emitted hinted at what was coming. Spike saw the tell tale signs, the green glow emitting from behind the scales on the dragon’s scales as it travelled up towards his throat.
The gaping mouth before him gave the dragon an idea, “Let’s see if this works!” The smaller dragon bellowed before taking a quick breath, his smaller lungs filled quicker, and with a large belch Spike shot a small ball of emerald fire into the gaping mouth of Draig, who immediately dropped the dragon, spluttering and backing away in discomfort, his own fireball dying suddenly with his lack of concentration.
Spike landed squarely on his feet, he stood for a moment, regaining his sense of direction, before dropping to all fours and charging speedily after the retreating Draig. The speedy dragon made a mental note, fire + dragon’s insides=not so fireproof!
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“So? Biggest threat?” Asked Rainbow, peeking around the corner of the cafe, looking for the strongest enemy within the fight raging on ahead of them. The answer was unanimous, “Celestia!” Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, I guessed!” she turned to her friends “Well? You think we can use the elements?”
“Elements? You mean like fire and stuff?” Asked a confused and scared Dashie as she imagined them burning the enemy forces, she could almost smell the burning flesh, she’d smelt it before, on the funeral pyre’s of Cloudsdale, she shook in fear as she backed away from Dash nervously.
Twilight took over. “The elements of harmony are our best hope! But we don’t have them...” She looked worriedly to Applejack and Pinkie, who both returned the same crestfallen look.
“B-but...” Began Fluttershy, the group all snapped towards her. The yellow Pegasus squeaked slightly in surprise, the shock forced her to blurt out the best news Twilight had heard all day. “We didn’t need to HAVE them when we faced Nightmare Moon, they just came to us!” Her friends beamed with realisation of how right Fluttershy was.
“I’m guessing that means we have a plan now?” Asked Twi, her eyebrows raised in curiosity.
“Eeyup.” Said a deep voice from behind the group. The friends all turned to the sight of Big Macintosh.
“Big brother!” Cried the two Applejacks in unison. AJ bit her lip at her mistake. Then shook her head, now wasn’t the time for sentimentality.
“How’d you know we needed some help bro?” Asked Applejack, Big Mac raised an eyebrow.
“With all that noise, I couldn’t help hear it! I brought some people to help.” With a whistle, a hidden group of ponies in a bush nearby emerged.
Two Pegasy and a unicorn quickly approached the group. Rainbow’s eyes widened with surprise. “Cloudchaser? Flitt? What the hay are you doing here?” The two aqua mane’d pony’s gave a nervous smile to the group.
“Well, we were in the town centre when they came.” Flitt mumbled, looking to the raging battle just ahead.
“We ran, but then we wanted to come back and help. Macintosh was headed this way, so we tagged along.” Finished Cloudchaser, her spiked mane seemed to droop slightly in fear at the sudden sound of a screaming stallion from the battle.
“I know you!” Shouted Twi, staring at the unicorn wearing dark tinted glasses. “You... you were at the camp, I saw you...” The magenta pony shuddered at the memory and turned away. Twilight gazed at the unicorn for a moment, trying to place the face.
“You’re...” She began as the pony used her crystal blue magic to take away her shades to reveal her almighty red eyes. Dashie squeaked at the similarity of the unicorn and the empress’s eyes. With a blur she shot away, hiding in a trembling heap behind AJ. “Vinyl.” Realised Twilight. The music playing unicorn nodded; her face direly serious. “The DJ?!” She asked of Big Macintosh, who simply shrugged.
The stallion nodded to the two Pegasy, “They told me what had happened, I was just happy to get whatever help that was bein’ offered.” He turned to his sister, “You alright darlin’?” The country mare nodded happily to her brother, her spirit’s lifted greatly at the red stallion’s presence. “Good.” Smiled Big Mac before turning to the rest of the girls. “So, the plan?”
“We need to get to her!” explained Twilight, pointing to the empress in plain sight fighting the princess, who was struggling to hold the dark queen back. “The elements of harmony are our only hope! But we need to get to her first.” The magenta pony’s face fell. “I don’t see how we can though, this isn’t my kind of thing, I can’t see a way around the fighting...” a silence spanned across the group for a moment, then, very slowly... Dashie stood up.
“Umm... we know what to do.” She looked to Twi and AJ, “We’ve had to fight... for most of our lives, and I guess this is the best time to use what we’ve got.” AJ gave her cyan friend and encouraging nod. The Pegasus gulped, glancing to Fluttershy for only an instant before breathing out a shaky breath. “Ok... AJ?” The pony stood to attention ready to obey. “You’re pretty strong, so is...” She looked up at the towering stallion near her. The mare couldn’t bring herself to say the name ‘Big Macintosh’ so she just nodded to him.
“So if you two went ahead of the rest and pushed, we could make a hole big enough for the others to get through.”
“Sound like a plan if ever I heard one!” Encouraged the hatless country pony as she went and stood beside the stallion that looked so much like her brother. “You ok with that?” She asked of the stallion who nodded simply, not sure what to say to this copy of his sister.
“What about us?” Asked Cloudchaser, Dashie turned to them, her eyes seemed to fill with terror at what she planned to say.
“You two come with me, we can destract any straggling guards, so that they don’t focus on the others.” Cloudchaser wished she hadn’t asked, she looked to her friend, and the two gave a large gulp of fear.
“Twi?” Asked Dashie, her magenta friend came close to listen intently. “Do you think you and...” She looked over to the red eyed pony. “Vinyl?” She asked, the DJ gave a firm nod and a smile. “Well, do you think you could focus on helping that dragon?” Rarity gave a faint noise of worry at the mention of Spike, but kept quiet. She knew she was needed elsewhere; at least someone would help him.
“I’m cool with that.” Said the blue and white unicorn, coming over to stand beside Twi; ready to start.
The group stood there, unsure of what else to say. Fluttershy opened her mouth to speak to Dashie, but her nerves took hold and left her speechless. Rainbow puffed out her chest, preparing for what was to come, ignoring the growing weight of dread lodged in her stomach, she spoke quietly. “For Flutt.”
“For Flutt.” The group echoed. And with that they were off!
Twi and Vinyl cantered towards the warring dragon’s determined to save the slim Spike from the powerful Draig. As they rushed away into the fray, their horns began to glow in preparation for their battle. “A’ight!” Hollered AJ coming to the front of the pack of ponies closely followed by the red stallion in toe. “We all ready to make a break for it?” Twilight gave a nervous nod that was mimicked by all her friends, all of them with the same sickening nerves sinking into their stomachs.
“Dashie?” Asked the orange pony. The Pegasus looked terrified, yet determined. Inside the cyan pegasus's mind a switch had clicked in place, perhaps it was losing Flutt, or maybe the coutnless deaths happening around her life had finally made her realise. No more running! No more crying!
NO.
MORE.
FEAR!
Rainbow couldn’t help stare as the copy of herself who began to stand tall and proud and slowly began to unfurl her wings. Rainbow could only think of how simalar she now looked to herself. Dashie gave a quick flick of her head, tossing her fringe away from her eye. This wasn't the Dashie that had arrived in Equestria, Twilight could see it, as could the astonished Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus felt so happy to see the shy pegasus come out of her shell.
“You ready?” AJ asked of her cyan friend. The last traces of terror seemed to finally vanish as the quills of Dashie's wings twitched in the breeze for the first time in years.
“Cloudchaser. Flitt.” Dashie whispered. The Pegasy mares looked to the determined rainbow pony, her pink eyes set in the direction of three black Pegasus guards floating over the crowd of fighting stallions.
“Let’s fly!”