Blaze looked over the map, the pieces moving into place as his magic slowly swept over the board. In his mind’s eye he could see the pieces turn into large companies of soldiers, charging through the battlefield. He smiled as one of his small brigades slipped past the reptilous line with only minor casualties. The small group continued on towards the walls of the city, slipping in through a drainage area.
Blaze bucked the grate out of the wall, the weakened, rusty metal giving out easily under his strength. The soldiers around him poured in through the gap, each ready for the horrors that would be on the other side. Blaze looked around quickly, ensuring that none of the enemies had seen him, and was satisfied that all of them were looking in other directions, or were otherwise occupied. Blaze turned and charged inside, his sword and shield at the ready. Surprisingly there were was no resistance to be seen.
“Move up, but stay careful.” Blaze ordered in a low tone as he began running up the slope as quietly as possible. Suddenly an arrow shot past his ear, slamming into the door post behind him. Blaze fell to the ground, lifting his shield in time to stop the next arrow. Blaze looked at the angles of both arrows, and looked to where he figured they came from, and sure enough, there was a silhouette in the dimly lit night sky. Blaze took the arrow that was lodged in the door post beside him, and launched it, though unstably as it were, right back at his target. The figured moved down, but popped back a moment later, another arrow slamming into Blaze’s shield.
“I got him, commander.” A soldier said as he charged past Blaze, reaching the other side of the street, with the sound of an arrow striking the cobbles behind him saying how close he had been to being hit. Blaze put away his shield and sword, his aura dissipating as he did, putting him back under the cover of darkness as he charged up the street. Blaze looked over to his comrade, watching as he used bins to jump u from the alleyway. The pony kicked off the wall, flapping his wings once to gain sufficient altitude to land on the roof. The pony shot along the roof top, jumping over the gap between his building and his target’s position. Blaze lit his horn for a second before diving into an alley, an arrow slamming into the wall where he had just been.
A sound of a bird tweet told Blaze all he needed to know, as the pegasus glided down with puckered lips, back to the street while giving the signal to advance. Blaze shot out of the alleyway, turning back into the street, relieved to not have to deal with arrows anymore. Blaze lit his horn once again, this time teleporting to the front gate of the fortress, appearing between two, quite surprised enemy guards, who quickly fell under Blaze’s surprise attack. Blaze stole one of the guard’s rings of keys, taking the first one in his mouth, and testing it on the lock, only to find it to be the wrong one. Blaze flipped to the next key and tested it, the lock giving a click as it popped open.
Blaze stampeded up the path towards the main building of the city, his group of soldiers directly behind him, taking care of a few more guards that had appeared. Blaze switched back to the key he had first used while nearing the doors. Blaze skidded to a stop, quickly inserting, and turning the key, the lock clicking happily as the door began to swing into the main hall. Blaze shot into the room, torches lighting the alabaster halls as he ran up to the main door that led to the mansion like structure’s main room. Blaze pivoted as he reached the door, and bucked it, sending the doors sprawling open for his comrades to charge through.
Blaze entered behind them, quickly noticing the lack of enemies in the room, but more so, noticing the disappearance of his own. Blaze lit his horn, taking his sword and shield out, reading himself for a fight. Suddenly an enemy soldier jumped out, only to have Blaze take him down with a single swipe.
Blaze scanned the area, trying to find any of his fellow soldiers, only to be faced with three more enemies who fell down from the ceiling, weapons at the ready, but Blaze was able reacted quickly, shooting a fire bolt at one, the force of the blast sending him flying backwards. One of his enemies jumped forward, bringing his weapon down hard on Blaze, but Blaze was able to bring his shield up in time to block the strike while striking back, ending his enemy quickly, only to have his other enemy tackle him. Blaze shot another blast at the enemy soldier, only to have him dodge the blast. Blaze then shoved his foe away with a blast of magic, the sword his enemy had purposed for his demise narrowly missing his muzzle.
Blaze stood up, shooting a blast at each of the seven doors in the lounge. While several of them revealed a mass of enemy soldiers, one showed him his target, the leader of this detachment of soldiers. Blaze's horn grew brighter as he prepared a spell, quickly teleporting into the room with his target, using another wave of magic to jam the doors behind him as he charged straight towards his prey.
Blaze threw a fire blast at him, the pony falling over in the blast. The stallion slowly stood back up, shaking himself from the blast. He hit a small device, which gave a happy little bell sound. The stallion gave a whistle before jumping down the steps.
"Not bad, not bad at all." Flint, who still insisted to be called such, stated with a small grin as he used his golden aura to lift his hood back up. "Ten minutes and forty-two from the starting flare to the time when you got in here and struck me. You're getting amazingly efficient at these quick entrance tactics." Blaze nodded in response, thinking quietly as he walked back towards the doors. The doors flew open, the enemy ponies pouring in, only to realize the exercise was over.
"Good job ponies, but remember, defense team, you’re also trying to win." Blaze shouted as he entered the main hall of one of the unused mansions of the great unicorn city. "Remember, you are training to be able defend any city from a reptilous attack. I want you to really feel as if my team and I are reptilous, or changelings, if it helps." The ponies nodded, several barring an ink mark on their sides, showing their injuries received through the course of the practice battle.
"Alright, soldiers get down the hill and wash up." Flint ordered as he came up beside Blaze. "Defense is now the attacking side, and you all already know your parts in the plan we discussed. I want us to be able to beat Blaze's time." The soldiers that wore a red sashes all gave a cheer as they exited the building, some wiping their marker marks as they went.
"Take up positions; I want to be able to stop them cold in their tracks." Blaze shouted, his blue wearing soldiers giving a cheer as they went to their positions. Blaze turned around, three of his soldier following him into one of the seven possible throne rooms. The third time for their defensive turn was the time Blaze was hoping to use to show his true tactical prowess, though his soldiers were tired, and probably wouldn't be able to perform as well as they probably could.
Blaze sat down at the table that had been set up, pieces quickly arrange in their previous positions. Blaze quickly looked over them, the three main routes appearing like neon streaks, but somehow Flint had made it past him without triggering any alarms. Blaze was bound and determined to find out how, even if it would mean using some less than usual techniques.
The training had gone on for the rest of the night, and far into the afternoon hours, and yet Blaze kept his soldiers going, determined not only to stop Flint, but also determined to make a fighting machine that could defeat the reptilous, no matter the odds.
Each time Blaze attacked, he'd set a record, while each time Flint attacked, his time would be so close to Blaze's that it got on the young unicorn's nerves as he called on his soldier to perform better each time, even having them stay on their position for five hours longer than Flint's, only calling the refresher troops in at twelve in the afternoon when they were far too exhausted to continue after taking their fifteenth turn at attacking Flint's force.
The results of the long hours of training were a bunch of exhausted soldiers that were proud of their progress, and a commander who could only think of way to improve their performance. Even though he had been awake since seven in the morning the previous morning, Blaze continued to fight off fatigue as he trained harder and harder in mental, physical, and magical abilities until he too fell to exhaustion, finally collapsing while running an obstacle course at nine in the night.
"We need more supplies, the rations we came with are nearly out, and the city is nowhere near able to support a sudden population increase the size of our army." A lieutenant stated, pushing a small board filled with paper to Blaze.
"What would be necessary to make them able to be able to handle an increase of said size?" Blaze asked, pushing the paper back without looking at them. The pony tapped his chin in thought.
"They'd need about four times the amount of farmland, and the problem with that, most of the ground around this city is frozen and is untilled." The pony stated."So unless the terrain suddenly began tilled and unfrozen it would be impossible for this city to be able to support our soldiers, and that would only help next year during the next harvest."
"Consider it done..." Blaze said plainly as he stood and walked away, leaving a confused pony, who quickly became concerned, and then with a dash of realization, became shocked.
"S-sir, you can't possibly think t-that you'll be able to clear out all the ground in time for planting?" The soldier asked in desperation as Blaze walked on, seemingly unfazed.
"If they need four times the ground to be tilled to support out soldiers, I think that said soldiers can help till that field which will bare them food in the war to come." Blaze replied, not turning to look at the soldier as he marched on towards where his soldier waited every morning for orders about their daily training.
"B-but sir, it's freezing out there! There's no way you'd be able to till that ground without taking away the ice that permeates the ground all the year round." The soldier clambered desperately, attempting to reason to the head strong Blaze. Blaze simply lit his horn, a ball of fire appearing beside him. The soldier froze in his tracks as Blaze expanded the fire ball until it obscured his vision of the young unicorn. Blaze then made the fire disappear as he continued to walk towards the balcony.
"It seems ponies keep on forgetting who I am and what I'm capable of." Blaze muttered as he approached the doors that led out to the platform, his orders already forming in his mind, the words settling into a cohesive speech.
Blaze stood in the freezing cold plains, the wind that rushed around the city making the ponies behind him shiver. He took a few more steps into the snow, lighting his horn as he went, gathering his magic for a spell that would get the job over and done with. He released the spell in a burst of silver magic that quickly began morphing, forming into a mass of fire that descended on the frozen fields before him. The ice began melting, forming pools of water that began boiling off into gigantic plumes of steam that floated off into the sky as Blaze continued to lower the field of fire onto the ground, the frozen earth slowly becoming mushy with melted permafrost before sizzling off into dry earth. Blaze spread the fire out, the snow, ice, and water dying away to reveal fertile, if not slightly rocky terrain, and even though the temperatures were freezing, Blaze began sweating as he continued to pour magic into his spell.
Blaze shut his eyes as he continued to make the spell even larger, sending occasional waves of fire over the already defrosted terrain to ensure it was remaining unfrozen; the fields around the castle slowly began to look more and more like unattended farmland instead of forsaken frost wasteland as Blaze's hooves dug ever deeper into the ground below him as he pulled every last bit of magical power from his being and into the spell. He began gritting his teeth as he continued to pull in more and more energy, draining power from the land as he continued to do his spell.
At long last, Blaze collapsed, unable to continue the tiring task of remaking the land. He cracked his eyes open to see the ground all around the castle looking like freshly turned ground, even holding some ancient farming tools that had been left behind when it had first frozen over. Blaze shakily rose to his hooves and turned to the crowd of farm ponies and soldiers that watched him in a state of wonderment.
"I'd say that..." Blaze began, cut off by a sharp pain in his head that made him fall to his knees as he fought against it, "T-that there's work needing... to be done." Blaze said in nearly a whisper as he closed his eyes again and gritted his teeth against the searing pain in his skull. Several soldiers rushed out to help him, but Blaze pushed them back with what little strength he had remaining, and began to march back to the city's walls, only to collapse after a few steps.
"Sir, you’re hurt, we need to get you to the infirmary. Please stay calm and let us help you." One of them pleaded with Blaze. Blaze stubbornly stood back up, walking ever slower as the pain grew several magnitudes greater.
"I won't be weak. I can make it on my own." Blaze hissed through the pain as he continued to walk forward, the soldiers flanking him as he did, ready to catch him if he even teetered too far to either side.
"Sir, you're unfit to doing anything right now, please just rest and let us take care of you before you hurt yourself any further." The soldier continued to reason with Blaze. Blaze zoned the soldier out, his vision set firmly on the front gate of the city, his nerves screaming out as he continued to fight against them. "Sir, please, just stay calm and let us assist you back to the clinic."
"I'm not going to give up, I'm never going to surrender; I need to win." Blaze growled through his gritted teeth. "I need to show them that I'm not a weakling, I... I need to show them that I'm as strong as any of them, if not all of them."
"Sir, hurting yourself won't prove anything, you need to rest." The soldier begged, but his pleas fell on deaf ears as Blaze pressed on, continually slower as the pain grew greater and greater. "Sir," The soldier said in a more assertive tone, "You need to let us help you before you hurt yourself more than you already have." Blaze shot him a death glare before pressing on, gaining little ground, his target seeming even farther away than when he had started.
"I can do this; I'm not a weak colt who needs to be looked after. I'm a soldier of the princesses, and I will not lose to anyone, not even to my own weakness or physical limitations!" Blaze roared as he pressed on, several of the soldier and farmers that stood watching growing more and more shocked as they watched the young stallion continue his death match towards the city. Several began walking beside him, giving him a shoulder to lean against.
"Yes sir, you'll make it to that city." One of them said with a confident smile. "And we are with you every step of the way." Blaze continued push onwards not even noticing the soldiers around him that began clearing the snow away from the path, ensuring a clear path for his journey. As he continued, several soldiers on the walls turned to watch, seeing one lone blazing red figure in armor surrounded by stallions ready and willing to help him, and as if they were watching a mighty warrior slaying Greyhield, they began cheering loudly, calling for their commander to continue pressing on against the odds.
Blaze finally stepped through the gates, a mass of medical officers waiting for him with a small on site clinic set up in the street. Blaze slowly walked into the tent, the soldiers moving away, to let him take the last few, heroic steps into the white tent, a cheer passing over the crowd that assembled to watch the weakened, and yet stubbornly confident, warrior finish his journey, as if he had finished a march all around Equestria and back. Blaze finally collapsed into the embrace of a soft medical mattress, a horde of doctors surrounding him as he did, already beginning to examine him as he slowly drifted into unconsciousness.
Blaze slowly began to wake up, strangely feeling the absence of bandages that he had expected after waking up in a strange bed after having no memory of how he had fallen asleep. Blaze shifted onto his side, a bolt of pain shooting through his skull. Blaze recalled small details about his long trek back to city, vague images and sensations as if he were surrounded by a mass of ponies.
"So, is he going to be alright?" Blaze heard Flints voice ask somepony else. He had apparently woken up in the middle of a conversation, almost serendipitously when the conversation seemed to turn its focus on his well being.
"The only damage he received is to his magic." A pony replied, most likely his doctor. "Like any muscle of physical ability, you can train your magic, accomplishing greater tasks which force your magic to grow in power and magnitude, but also like a muscle, you can over do any work out and strain yourself to the point of breaking. Without any testing while he's awake, I can wager that his magical abilities will be going through a season of inability to accomplish any task, even the most minor of things."
"Y-you mean I can't do magic anymore." Blaze interrupted hoarsely, propping himself up shakily to face the two ponies, still feeling rather drowsy. The doctor looked at him and gave a sigh.
"Oh good, you're awake." The doctor mumbled to nopony in particular. "To answer your question, you will be able to use your magic again eventually, but not anytime soon unless you want to completely destroy your magical abilities. By what I'm told, you did something rather insane earlier today, melting more than half of the fields around the city in one go, and then proceeded to give an encore in your performance of stupidity by stubbornly walking back here without letting anypony help you in any way which would have actually been beneficial to your condition."
"Doctor," Flint interjected, "I think he gets the picture. He went a bit overboard with his actions, but he had the best of intentions while doing so. I'm sure if this was anything else he'd taken it easy." The doctor huffed, obviously disgruntled at Flint for the interruption.
"Good intentions or not, he's hurt himself in such a way that it'll take more than a bandage to fix him up." The doctor retorted. "If he wasn't such a stubborn piece of work, he'd be long gone by now." The doctor finished, taking a few steps towards the door. "Oh, and if your good intentions take you to death, don't come crying to me, because one of these days, mark my words one of these days..." The doctor trailed off, the flap of the medical tent waving behind him as he exited. Flint gazed after the medic, his thought elsewhere, made evident by the look Blaze saw in his eyes.
"I messed up royally..." Blaze groaned, laying back down into the rather uncomfortable cot. Flint looked over at him, a look of surprise plastered across his face. "I should've known when to stop. I have my limits, it's... it's just so hard to not try and show the other ponies I'm worth the trust they put in me."
"Blaze, these ponies couldn't ask for a better leader than what they already have." Flint said calmly. "You combine the knowledge of tactics along with the ability to join them in battle and hold your own, and even excel far beyond what they expect or can do themselves. Don't despise your youth because it means you've had less time to gain experience. Your age is your greatest advantage because it allows you to grow into a role that others might have a hard time fitting in, and it also means that you aren't at your fullest yet."
"It also means I have trouble with my temper, my tendency to show off, and the overall fact that everypony else under estimates me, no matter what I say or do." Blaze shot back. "Sure, I'm not at my peak performance, but I need to be for all these ponies sakes, but even though I try so hard, they still think I'm weak because I'm not even seventeen yet, much less the mean age of twenty-one of the other soldiers."
"Well," Flint began, taking a few steps out towards the entrance of the tent, “I think at least a few of the soldiers now think you're at least worthy enough to give a chance." Blaze turned his head to look at Flint, watching him as he left with a curious look. Blaze rolled out of the cot and onto his hooves, pleased to find his legs didn't give out when he depended on them the most. Blaze walked out the tent, the beams of sunshine he was met with almost blinding him, but the fact that he actually felt slightly warm was the thing he felt most surprised about. The thing he was most surprised about was the fact that there was a crowd of ponies all around him cheering his name.
Flint turned to look back at him with a smile that was barely visible under his hood. Blaze took a few more steps out into the open, still reeling as his mind tried to understand why so many ponies would be cheering for him, especially as he was exiting from a tent that showed that he was as weak as many of them doubtlessly though he was.
"I believe some of these ponies might have found it amazing you singlehoofedly melted more than half the fields around the city in one go, which, by the way, is equivalent to adding almost six and a half times the amount of farm land they had previously to the total." Flint stated matter-of-factly. Blaze gave a small uncomfortable chuckle as he looked in awe at how many ponies were gathered around him. "I think there's a slight chance they might be expecting a speech, especially after the fact that they helped you get back here on your own four hooves." Blaze looked over at Flint, who nodded his head towards a small stage that had been set up. Blaze swallowed and began walking over to it, feeling a sense of déjà vu as he did. Blaze stepped up onto the podium, his gaze looking over all of the ponies that were gathered around him He cleared his throat and began his impromptu speech as best as he could.
"I've been told that in my absence that everypony was banded together to start working towards a year in which we can feed everypony," Blaze began, "I've also been told that some among you are, in certain ways, impressed with what I was able to accomplish. I want to tell you that what you are doing, tilling the ground, preparing it for planting crops, is truly the hard work. You all are this cities heroes, and deserve a great deal of praise. No matter what I had done, if it weren't for your hard work and sacrifice, we'd have a field dirt and nothing more, but because of all of you working as hard as you have, we will have enough fields to plant food for all the ponies of this city and of the Equestrian army." Again the ponies cheered as Blaze stepped off of the stage. Flint walked up to him, his grin visible.
"If I didn't know you as the hotheaded, show off you were, I'd think you were being sincere." Flint said jokingly. "I'd suspect you boasting about how your abilities have surpassed the physical plain and how you are now with the very magical essence of the universe and are now more than able to defeat Greyhield without so much as batting an eye." Blaze shook his head with his own smile growing.
"I was being honest. No matter what I might have done, directly after I was put out of commission, I would've had no way of making sure they had worked at all, and yet I know they have begun the work of preparing the fields." Blaze replied.
"That's another thing, how did you know that they had started the work already? I didn't tell you, and I doubt you were awake enough to see them start while you were limping back to the city." Flint commented, looking Blaze up and down.
"It was easy really," Blaze explained, "More than half the crowd was covered in dirt. I honestly had a hard time telling if some of the ponies were naturally brown, or just extremely filthy, but when they were cheering, it became all the more obvious as they made a dust cloud appear." Flint gave a hearty laugh in response.
"I guess that would make it pretty obvious that they had been working out in the fields, huh?" Flint said, continuing to laugh, not even noticing Blaze had already moved on, his path heading straight for the fields.