As Equestrian troops put on their armor and readied for battle, Iron Wrench was giving his final touch to Spike’s armor.
“Well, I think it’s ready. Go ahead and give it a try,” he said as he gave Spike his armor.
“Thanks,” Spike said dryly in a sad tone.
Iron noticed it, and he sat next to him.
“Listen. What Twilight said, was to protect you."
“You don’t know how it feels, she’s like a mother to me and she's never said those things to me,” Spike said with a knot in his throat.
“You’re wrong,” Iron replied putting his hoof on Spike’s shoulder “Back in the day I used to be a little rebel as a foal, I was stubborn and my mother nagged me about it. But as I said, she only did it to veil for me to do things right. I really do know how it feels.”
Spike looked at the unicorn with the light grey coat, almost white, short blonde mane, while slightly redundant, in a ponytail with small dark framed circular glasses. Then he looked at the ground, searching for an answer to his dilemma.
“You’ve got the Princess’ clearance for it; it’s time to show Twilight you’re brave, strong, and responsible enough to watch over yourself in this war. I assure you, when you meet again after the battle, she’ll wait for you with arms wide open. How about that?”
Spike felt a big relief in the engineer’s words. Nopony that wasn’t Twilight had told him words like those.
“You’re right, thanks. I’ll give my all in this battle!” Spike exclaimed.
“That’s the spirit, but if you want to live to tell the tale, you put on the armor,” Iron ordered.
So, the baby dragon put on his battle suit, it was a simple helm, metal clawed gauntlets and a chainmail covering his area lacking in scales, guaranteeing protection on his weak spot.
“Why do these gauntlets have claws? I’ve got pretty strong and sharp claws here,” he said taking off his gauntlets and showing off his claws.
“As sharp as they might be, you’re still a baby, ok? Those gauntlets will make you capable of cutting and clawing through more flesh, your attacks will be more painful too, that’s a given. You try and see for yourself,”
Iron put a rock in front of Spike, he swallowed, and with his own claws, he struck it and barely made a scratch, more like a notch. Spike tumbled back in pain.
“Alright, alright. Stop crying and try the gauntlets,” Iron said.
Holding a tear in his right eye, he put on his gauntlets which were lighter than they looked, and stepped in front of the rock again. With a quick move, he swiped and cut the rock in several parallel chunks.
“Amazing! I didn’t even feel my claw touching the rock at all,” Spike said, surprised.
“Indeed, although improvised, they’ve got a great edge which compensate for the lack of your cutting power. The rest of the armor protects your abdominal area from your low section to the legs,” Iron said.
“So now what?”
“I think I can show you a few movements to fight, come here.” Iron said.
Meanwhile, Brave Rick was putting on his Crystal Empire armor in front of the girls.
“So how do I look?” he asked.
Everypony nodded positively, but Twilight could only stare at a specific point of his.
“Twilight, there’s something wrong?” Applejack asked.
“Huh? No, nothing. Why’s that?” she replied, obviously nervous.
“You’ve been looking Rick’s horn for quite a while now, something bothering you?”
“It’s just that… I’m surprised he came out a unicorn, I mean, as far as we know, humans can’t do magic like us, so, why a unicorn? Can he use magic?” Twilight asked.
“Well sugarcube, there’s only one way to find out. Hey Brave! Come here for a second,” Applejack said.
At the order, Rick approached them.
“So listen Brave Rick…”
“Just Rick is fine,”
“Okay, Rick. Did you notice your transformation gave you a horn?” Twilight asked.
Doubtful, Rick takes one of his new hooves to the head and felt a horn coming out of it, but he quickly lost his balance and fell down.
“Well, I guess that answers your question,” he said while lying on the floor.
“Good. Strange that you’ve been turned into a unicorn though, you might do magic like I do,”
“So, can I be as powerful as you?” he naively asked.
Rainbow Dash entered the scene and busted in laughs at the commentary, everypony except Twilight followed suit, who looked a bit ashamed.
“What’s so funny?” Rick asked.
“Oh Rick, I don’t think you know who you’re talking to,” Rainbow said as he wiped her tears laughing.
“Dear, she’s the Element of Magic itself, she’s no ordinary unicorn, she can do things nopony else can,” Rarity said.
“Stop it girls, I’m not that special,” she said blushing.
“The thing is, you’ll do basic unicorn stuff, grab things with your magic and sort,” Rarity said.
“You got me at grabbing stuff in the air, when do lessons start?” Rick asked.
“L-lessons? You want me to teach you magic? Together like… student and teacher? Disciple and monk? Or apprentice and…?” she got silenced by one of Rick’s hooves that pressed on her lips, which made her blush yet again.
“Yes Twilight, I want you to be my mentor, teacher… and all of the other things you said, I want to be ready when I have to fight against them,” he said enthusiastic as he retrieved his hoof from Twilight’s mouth.
“If that’s what you want, come along then, we’ve got work to do if you want to learn the basics on telekinesis,” said Twilight as both parted from the group.
“Uh, girls? Call me crazy but…”
“Crazy,” Rainbow said, interrupting Rarity.
“Har dee har har, so funny Rainbow. I was saying that am I crazy, or do I feel certain… how should I say it… attraction between Rick and Twilight? Do you feel the same?”
“I’m not sure sugarcube, you may be right, at least Twilight shows, can’t say the same about Rick though,”
“Oh oh! Twilight in love with the human, so romantic, if some day they become coltfriend and marefriend I swear I’ll throw a huge mega party in their honor with balloons, streamers and a DJ, and everypony will be invited!” Pinkie said cheerfully.
“Just thinking about it disgusts me,” Chrysalis joined them after returning showing off a glossy black armor with emerald green details.
“Interspecies love is an enigma even for me,” said Discord waking up from a rock bed, putting a rock blanket next to his oval rock pillow.
“Slept well?” Celestia asked sarcastic.
“Better than ever,” he said as he thundered the bones all across his body in a twirl. “The rocks in this cave are comfier than some huts’ beds for tourists.”
“Hey! Nopony asked for your opinion!” Rainbow yelled.
“As far as I’m concerned…”
“Enough!” Celestia yelled, muting the place. “We’ve got to get ready, so go do that while you can,”
As everyone broke away, a voice emerged from the shadows.
“Hold it!” the voice was deep, and had a different accent from the rest. “If to win this war you want, my help I shall provide.”
Everyone was shocked, nopony expected to see that mare make an appearance after the low profile she maintained all this time in the cave.
“Zecora the Zebra,” Celestia addressed formally “it’s an honor for us to know you’re still with us and give us your aid. Tell me, what do you got to offer?”
The zebra just smiled and from her brown saddlebag took out a flute made from the forest’s wood.
“Everypony heed, for one of you to help me I need.”
And so Zecora told the Princesses of her plan to give her help on the battle.
Meanwhile, Twilight was about to start her express magic class for Richard.
“Okay then! First off we’ll check the assistance list,” Twilight said holding a notepad with her magic, she had her mane tied up and was using red framed glasses.
“Twilight… I don’t think that’s necessary, I’m the only one in… this place… and this is not the school,” Rick said.
“Organization first young man… Brave Rick," said the purple unicorn looking at her pupils list.
“Young man? I’m forty years old; I’m surely much older than you,”
“Please, young man, do not interrupt while I name for assistance, let’s see again… Brave Rick,”
Playing along, seeing as he had no other choice, Rick raised his hoof.
“Perfect attendance, I’m glad,” Twilight said, leaving the notepad on the floor “Alright class, we’ll do some pre-basic magic today, focusing on telekinesis.”
Once she finished that sentence, she brought a chalkboard and, obviously, some chalk.
“My name is Twilight Sparkle, but you must call me Miss Sparkle,” said Twilight writing her name on the board “Before getting practical on telekinesis, we’ll start talking about history. As you all know, telekinesis is by far the very core of unicorns ever since their beginnings as a species, which functions as a way to levitate objects for several purposes…”
Twilight kept on talking on history, but Richard didn’t seem to care and thought they were only wasting time on such an explanation.
“…in the passing of the years, the cost of using magic for telekinesis reduced with the new needs for the ponies, getting to what it is now, where only unicorns of high level can levitate heavy objects with magic. But there was a time where things were a little different…”
“Twilight?”
“In this part of the history, a unicorn named Star Swirl the Bearded was the protagonist in one of the darkest eras of magic…”
“Twilight!” Richard yelled interrupting her lecture.
The purple unicorn freaked out a bit from the soldier’s attitude.
“W-what’s wrong Rick?” she stuttered a bit scared.
“Listen, it’s not that I don’t value what you’re teaching me, but we have no time for that, I need you to teach me how to wield a sword with that telekinesis stuff as quick as you can,”
Twilight dropped her head to the commentary, Richard’s eyes showed seriousness. She didn’t fall behind and returned the expression.
“If that’s what you think, fine,” Twilight said as she took off her glasses, her hair garter and pushed the chalkboard away “Come here.”
Richard cautiously approached Twilight.
“Magic is an extension of you, one that, as a unicorn, you’re capable of projecting and controlling at will. The magic level varies with each unicorn and the main factor is the cutie mark, it depends on your talent. Seeing as you’re just a blank flank, we only have to go over the basics… let’s see,” said Twilight searching around, until she pointed at a nearby rock “See that rock? I want you to close your eyes and feel the magic flow all over your body, the first time feels like that, happened to me at least. Then project that energy as an extension of your body and lift it from the ground."
He closed his eyes self-confidently, and aimed his horn for the small rock. He could visualize in his mind the scenery that surrounded him and the rock he had as an objective without much trouble. He thought about Twilight’s words to feel the magic and be able to project it. But his attempts were for naught, he wasn’t capable of more than making his horn glow golden.
“Don’t feel bad Rick, first time is always hard, it’s just a matter of time and practice,” Twilight said, consoling him.
“That’s the problem, I don’t have time, if I can’t deal with this telekinesis thing I will only be a burden in the battle, and the last thing I want is to make things worse for all of you,” he said with a sad look.
“Don’t be sad, I’m sure you’ll be able to manage; you’re a strong and brave pony,”
“No…” Richard said interrupting her “I’m not a pony, I’m a human that decided to help you, don’t mix things up,”
The statement felt like a bucket full of cold water poured on Twilight’s head, bringing her back to reality, because those words were nothing more than the absolute truth; he was a unicorn physically, but that was just a façade to go unnoticed and nothing else. In her head she knew it all too well, but there was this warm feeling in her chest that makes her forget about it all and think unthoughtful things in that moment.
“Be it a human or a pony it’s the same for us, you came here with the sole intention to help and that’s what matters, and that’s why I think you’ll be able to cast magic like we do,” Twilight assured putting her hoof on Richard’s shoulder. Feeling her touch relieved him.
“Thanks Twilight.”
“You’re welcome, I learned from the best.”
For a moment they looked at their eyes, where they were only them and everything else vanished, gone completely for reasons beyond logic and understanding. Something deep inside the human was awakening due to the changeling spell, his pony instincts were being born. They slowly closed in, Twilight blushed in a way that the fur on her face could have been red this whole time, and Rick was just caught in the moment.
“I think I can help with that,” a voice said near them all of a sudden.
Twilight and Rick broke apart in haste and looked away of each other; it wasn’t until a while that they noticed that Princess Luna was now with them, interrupting the magical moment. Rick was still a little confused for what happened, but stopped thinking about it.
“Princess Luna, do you need anything?” Twilight asked, more than just a bit annoyed.
“I think I can help Rick with his magic problem,” Luna repeated.
“He doesn’t have a problem, he just needs practice, he’s technically a newborn unicorn,”
“If that’s the case, I’ll just give him some words of advice, if you allow me of course,”
“Uh, sure, go ahead.
As they talked, Richard tried again to levitate the rock.
“Don’t try too hard soldier,” Luna said.
“Oh princess, I’m giving my best but I simply can’t,” Rick replied sadly.
“Listen Richard, this is not as different as in your dream, just picture in your mind what is it that you want to do and focus,” Luna said as she pointed at the rock.
“As in my dream… okay, got it.”
He closed his eyes again, and imagined the scenery where he was standing,with the same rock in the ground. He used his horn as if it was his hand and concentrated energy in gold color.
“Imagine it…imagine it,” he thought.
With his eyes closed, the energy started to manifest in his head. From his horn protruded an unstable hand of magic, which traveled the room to that imaginary corner until it was in front of the rock.
“Imagine it… imagine it.”
He clenched his eyes making a frown, as sweat drops fell from his forehead. The hand that his mind was controlling opened, revealing deformed fingers, which stayed static for a moment.
“I have to… imagine it!” he screamed to himself.
He took the stone in his magic hand. He opened his eyes to make sure that, in fact, he managed to do it.
“Time to lift it.”
He closed them again. With some force, the imaginary hand started to steadily lift the rock from the ground, rising until it was at the height of his head.
In the real world, both Twilight and Luna were happy to see the rock levitating in such a short time.
“Rick you can open your eyes! You did it!” Twilight said euphorically.
Afraid of breaking the spell, Richard slowly opened them, taking in a nice surprise.
“Did I…? I did it… I did it!” he said jumping in place, but because he was yet not accustomed to his new body, he misstep and ended up in the ground again, breaking the spell.
Rick felt down a little but Twilight cheered him up again.
“It doesn’t matter Rick, now that you can do it, you just need practice. Up, we got a lot to do before the battle,” she said extending her hoof to help him up.
Smiling, Brave joined his hoof to hers and got up again.
“Luna,” Twilight said as she looked at the princess “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome Twilight Sparkle, good luck you two,” she said as she winked at Twilight and left the room.
“You know, the princess is nice. But what did she mean by that last thing?” he asked naively.
Twilight replied with a scorn as she insulted him in her mind.
“I wonder that too…” she said in a sigh of defeat. “Alright then, time to keep training, you still need to develop the control for telekinesis and learning how to use a sword with it,”
“No problem, let’s start,” Rick said excited.
The hours went by quickly. As the ponies got ready for the fight with armors and swords, the humans in the base were too mobilizing at the same time each division captains organized them, some were carrying M14 auto carbines or manual scoped rifles for the snipers, rocket launchers, flame throwers and mortars, all of them weapons of choice for the battle, not to mention the service pistols that every soldier had to carry with them at all times.
In his personal tent, General Philip was cleaning the barrel of his golden tinted revolver as he thought of a strategy they were going to use, but was interrupted when the captains of each division made their presence.
“Here we are general, reporting for duty!” the Captains said in unison.
“Alright gentlemen, this is the situation. As you’ll know, given the data that one of our disappeared brothers provided us, the ponies will attack from the North side. I have a feeling that they will group on the border limits of the forest before storming and attacking the base. We’ll make an ambush while they prepare, taking them by surprise and breaking their plans. I propose to begin fire with the launchers, weaken them with snipers taking off those unicorns, and pick off the remains with the rest of the battalion. Any questions?” Philip explained.
“Sir, what do we do in the case of an emergency?” One of the captains asked.
“Hold your position in the forest, backup will be sent to you in the case of force majeure,”
Some silent seconds went by.
“Very well, if there are no more questions, you are dismissed. Prep yourselves for battle,” Philip said.
“Sir, yes sir!”
The Captains left the room, leaving the commander alone to resume cleaning his weapon as other thoughts occupied his mind.
“I hope you’re okay Rick, we’re coming for you.”
Swords clashed against each other as two unicorns sparred, one of them was Brave Rick, who was showing signs of tire after all the continuous training on telekinesis and learning how to wield a sword.
It wasn’t an intense training, but not light either, he spent hours levitating the same stone and doing several acrobatic tricks to learn how to handle his new body. Then came the focusing part, which consisted of maintaining telekinesis on the stone while Twilight threw several objects at him, Rick thought this was the most annoying exercise. Now it was time to learn how to use a sword with magic, which Twilight had to borrow one of the princess’ guards for the training.
“You’re getting better! You’re no guard but you’re certainly not a mat either, you can take out a few of them if you put your mind to it. Wanna keep practicing?” the guard asked.
“Yes,”
“No Rick, you've gotta rest for a moment,” Twilight interrupted “Thanks for your help,”
“But Twilight, I’m not ready, I have to keep training,”
“Of course not, you’re not going to the battle if you’re tired,”
“I hope I’m ready,” he said clumsily sheathing his sword.
“You’ll be, but now it’s time to go to sleep,” Twilight said as she took Rick’s imperial armor off.
“Wait! I gotta ask you a favor first. I know I said I’d go to the battlefield with you girls but…”
“You’re not bailing out on us at the last moment are you?” the unicorn asked, worried.
“What? No! Not at all, I wanted to ask you, please, if you can teach me how to shoot my magic,”
“You mean this?” she asked as she fired a single magic shot that fizzed weakly against a wall.
“Yes, precisely. The thing is, I don’t want to kill anybody unless I need to, but for that I need you to teach me at least that,” Rick begged.
Twilight thought about it, bringing a hoof to her chin.
“I’m not sure, it’s late and dawn is almost a few hours away, we should rest,”
“C’mon Twilight, just for a while, please, please, please?” he asked with a puppy face.
“Fine, just a while, and if you manage to do it quick, if not, we’re going to sleep. Understood young boy?”
“Uh Twilight? I told you I’m pretty sure I’m older than you,”
“What did you say?” she said in a rude tone.
“Nothing ma’am!”
“Excuse me?!”
“I mean… miss!” Rick said looking at the front.
“Now move your furry butt soldier because we have until dawn to train you!”
“Yes Miss Sparkle!” said the recently transformed unicorn following Twilight at the other side of the cave.
The moon was traveling calmly through the night sky. The pre-battle hours seemed to affect Princess Celestia, which seemed like she couldn’t sleep. Her sister was in the same situation.
“Hey, are you awake?” Luna asked her sister which had her back turned at her.
“Yeah,” Celestia replied as she sat down “I can’t sleep, I can’t stop thinking of tomorrow. How about you?
“Same, but we have to rest, we can’t go fighting humans with bags under our eyes,” Luna joked.
“I see you’ve almost mastered it, let’s practice a little more and we can go to sleep” “You got it Twilight” was heard in the distance.
Celestia looked the scene with a maternal stare, forgetting about Luna’s last sentence.
“Do you think we’ll be able to come out victorious tomorrow sister?” Luna asked almost whisper-like.
“Hey stop it, quit shooting me! This stopped being funny at the third time, Brave Rick, hold it!”
“Nuh-uh, this is actually funnier each time” Richard said as he shot magic at Twilight’s hooves while he was chasing her.
“Celestia?”
The sun goddess didn’t take her eyes off that comical moment.
“I feel safer about it than before,” she replied with a smile “And a bit more sleepy. Let’s go back to sleep,” she added as she lay down again.
“Yeah, ok.” Luna said as she cuddled next to her sister.
“Alright I think it’s time to sleep now,” said Twilight a bit exhausted “It’s surprising how you managed to master that spell this quick, I believe that you’re ready for battle tomorrow,”
“You’re… right… I think… I think…” he couldn’t finish his sentence because a big yawn came out from his mouth “I think I should get some shut-eye,” he said wheezing.
“I warned you it’d be too much for you, you certainly are stubborn,”
Both walked to where Rick had his sheet and pillow.
“I’m gonna sleep Twilight, have a good rest,” Rick said as he covered himself in the blanket.
“Sweet dreams Brave,” said Twilight as she left the place to sleep.
The sun rose from the horizon.
After doing her duty, princess Celestia stays in position and, after drinking a sip of water, starts to tune a melody using only her voice, much like Fluttershy used to do to the birds back in the day.
Little by little, the ponies were getting up and heard their princess sing, they were marveled at her beautiful voice.
“My ponies, make yourselves ready, we’re moving as soon as possible,” Celestia said in her formal voice.
The cave quickly started to mobilize; the soldiers put on their armors and equip their swords.
The girls grouped together to wear their own custom armors.
“You all look amazing in those armors,” said Iron who was approaching them with Spike.
“You’re just saying that because you made these,” Rarity said.
“Am I that obvious? Everypony should feel a bit of egocentrism with their creations so that they can be exhibited properly. Though I was sincere when I said that you all look beautiful."
“Thank you,” said everypony at the same time.
Spike however frowned at the engineer’s commentary.
“Oh, by the way, check out what I did for Spike,” said Iron pointing at the dragon.
“Wow Spike, I never thought you’d actually look menacing at some point in your life,” Rainbow mocked.
“Don’t listen to Rainbow, you look brave and adorable in that suit,” Rarity said, to which Spike blushed, but went unnoticed thanks to the helm.
Twilight however, looked at him indifferent.
The princesses arrived with Brave Rick, who was wearing a Crystal Empire armor. Celestia was wearing white armor with silver and gold details and Equestria’s insignia in her chest. Luna for her part had foggy grey armor with details in dark blue fading to purple; she too had Equestria’s insignia.
The governors, Chrysalis and Discord showed up as well, ready to begin the travel.
“Alright Celestia, give us the order and we’ll follow,” Silver Boss said.
“Easy Silver, we’re just a zebra short, then we’ll move,”
“You mean Zecora?” Twilight asked.
“Yes, she offered her help. We just have to wait until…”
A green smoke explosion interrupted them, Zecora revealed herself dressed in brown ceremonial robes, resembling a tree’s crust adorned with symbols that only she could understand.
“Here ponies, I have arrived, I hope my help won’t be declined,” Zecora said “Now where is that pony, who offered to help me in my plight?”
Twilight wondered who it was that wanted to assist her, most importantly, what was her plan anyway? Her gaze casually met Fluttershy who was putting on the helm of her custom armor. Much to her surprise, Zecora stepped in.
“Easy Twilight, on her own will Fluttershy is here to help me with this mission deal,”
“What mission?”
“To Froggy Bottom swamp she’ll me take, in that place I for help will pray,”
“To whom will you ask for?”
“To the few critters hidden from the menacingly human creatures,”
Twilight wanted to keep asking but Celestia stopped her.
“I’ll tell you her plan on the way, but right now it’s time to leave,”
“Wait, wait!” Iron yelled “You can’t go without these!”
He grabbed four bracelets and golden rings from inside his saddlebag.
“Twilight, Rarity, princesses, put those rings in your horns. The rest put on the bracelets in either of your legs,”
Without further ado, the ponies followed the engineer’s order, and put on their rings or bracelets.
“So what is this jewelry supposed to do, dear?” Rarity asked.
“You see, I’ve been told how destructive the human’s weapons are, and I realized how useless my armors would be against most of them. But then I remembered there were add-ons I forgot to give you all. These things protect you from humans’ projectiles the same way the Crystal Empire’s armor do,” he said knocking lightly on Rick’s armor “Here, I’ll show you,”
Iron picked up a few stones with his magic.
“Twilight, care to activate your horn for a bit?”
She complied, and covered her horn in a purple light.
“Look over there! A missing first edition book!”
“Where?!” she turned around euphorically.
As she fell into his trap, Iron threw the stones against her without her noticing, but before impacting the armor, a magical golden circle appeared and received the stone’s hit. Twilight turned around again and looked at the engineer in a puzzling look.
“As you can see, the ring works in two phases, the first one detects the menace and the second one repels it, and according to the wearer’s magic level they’ll be able to stop even stronger stuff. The bracelets however work with a gem which holds a limited amount of magic, so they won’t last long if you make a collision head-on against a wall of weapons fire,”
Rainbow looked at her own bracelet, skeptical about that little contraption holding magic of its own.
“But the rings do imply an extra magic burn, so you must also be careful,” Iron finished.
“Would you do the honor of joining us in the battle Iron?” Celestia asked “Your intelligence would prove to be most useful in battle.”
“Sorry Celestia, I’m not a pony of fighting and I don’t want to be a burden either, I hope you understand."
Celestia looked at him with a raised brow. She was sure he was lying, but by no means would she make him do something he didn’t want to.
“If that’s what you want, you may take one of the portals and go back to one of the cities, don’t worry about us, we’ll return safe and sound,” Celestia said.
“I sure hope so, goodbye, and save Equestria,” Iron said as he went through one of the portals.
After some silence, Celestia suddenly yelled an order.
“Alright ponies, time to move! Ready the troops for the trip.”
“Wait, now that I think about it, how are we traveling?” Rick asked.
“Those that fight on the outskirts of the forest will be teleported there, the rest are going by cloud.”
“Cloud?”
“There’s a spell that makes earth ponies and unicorns to walk on clouds, it’ll be the safest method of getting to the base without being detected,” Celestia explained.
Everytime Brave was explained something of this world, he was more and more surprised by the time of marvelous and complex things the ponies could do with magic, things that were almost routine to them, but for humans was something dream-like.
“Princess Celestia!” Storm Cloud called “The cloud you asked for is now ready and it’s big enough to carry the battalion.”
“Thank you governor, we’ll move soon, let me just apply the spell,”
Storm waved and left. The Princess of the sun made her horn glow once more and an energy wave expanded and engulfed the ponies with the cloud walking spell, including the changelings and their queen.
“Formation! It’s time to leave,” Celestia said “Battalion A, with the governors, you’re going by teleportation. Battalion B, with me, we’re entering the deep forest.
As the ponies formed, Spike was already ready to go to the migration place to lead the dragons, preferring not to warn his friends. But a sudden hug from behind caught him off guard and blushed once he noticed to who those white hooves belonged to.
“Be careful Spike, I want to see you again safe, okay?” Rarity said.
Spike couldn’t pronounce any word due to the nervousness.
“I want you to have this, before you go,” Rarity said as she turned him around and opened his claw, from her bag she grabbed a few small white crystals with grey lines inside it. With her magic, she stacked the crystals to Spike’s metal claws, at least as décor, a reminder to see each other again.
“Good luck Spike,” she added as she ran to her friends.
When he saw her go away, a feeling of fear and insecurity filled him, afraid of never seeing her again and the rest of her friends, but mostly Twilight who was resented at him.
He looked for a moment at the crystals that his beloved white unicorn gave him and replaced that feeling of sadness for another warmer one filling up his chest.
He turned around and headed inside the portal where the elder dragon awaited him.
“Is it time little one?” Kantrugajh asked.
“Yes. The princess gave the order, we have to move now if we want to get there in time.”
“Say no more. My dragon brethren! Open your wings and fly the battle of our era!” Kantrugajh exclaimed in a roar that could be heard kilometers away before losing itself in the air.
His dragon partners roared the same way at the same time, opened their wings and took off of their migration place. Unfortunately Spike was forgotten in the place until the elder dragon’s tail grabbed hold of him and placed him in his head.
"Hold on little one, the dragons are going to war."
In the meantime, the troops of the refuge were preparing for leave.
“Alright Fluttershy, it’s time, please escort Zecora to the swamp,” Celestia said.
The yellow pegasus nodded and with a bit of force carried the zebra on her back and exited by the upper hole.
“Governors, I hope everything goes alright in your crusade,” wished Celestia.
“You don’t have to worry; my pals and I will take care of the situation no sweat,” Silver Boss said.
“Princess Celestia, how are we warning the other battalion that ours managed to dominate the area?” Blue Fire asked.
“I know how,” the princess said.
She quickly covered herself in golden magic and a magic orb formed to her right. After some seconds the orb started to take a familiar shape, until it revealed itself to be a second Princess Celestia. Both smiled at the surprised look of the rest.
“Before you ask, I made a clone with half my magic; she’ll walk with you to the forest’s outskirts,”
“While the original will go to the deep forest with the Elements,” the clone said.
“Wow, two Celestias, now that’s amazing, now we have our own princess to have fun with in the battlefield kicking human butts!” Storm Cloud said cheerfully, while the others rolled their eyes.
“Alright, we’ve lost enough time, are your troops ready?” Celestia asked.
Everypony nodded.
She covered her horn again and launched a wave to the battalion. From that point on a blanket came out covering the troops covering them in a dome and transported them outside the cave in a blinding light.
“She can transport hundreds of troops with half her magic, and I can barely transport my five friends” Twilight thought in shame.
“Pegasi, lower the cloud to the Southern exit while we move,” the original Celestia ordered.
The marching hooves sounded through the entire cave. In dual rows, the equestrian soldiers marched to the refuge’s exit, where they were slightly blinded by the light of a new day. They haven’t seen daylight for so long, and now could be the very last time; the day when they’d fight to protect Equestria and the inhabitants that knew little to nothing about the situation.
A couple of soldiers were standing watch at the Everfree Forest’s border, awaiting a signal of the supposed pony attack.
“This is dull; the other squad did their thing and already left.”
“Yeah I hear you,”
Both of them stood up and stretched their muscles, then they felt a chill cover their body. Worried, they watched over the horizon, as if a feeling made them. And all of a sudden, a gold lighting came out of nowhere and struck the ground, making a cloud of dust.
The soldiers covered their eyes and waited until the dust came down, only to be surprised at the scene that followed. In front of them, a pony army wearing armors was ready, expecting, waiting for the attack of their invaders.
“Close that fuckin’ jaw and call the General right now!” the soldier screamed.
Princess Celestia looked the scene with a serious look.
“My princess, my buffalo brothers are in position and ready to receive orders,” Chief Thunderhooves said.
“Good… it just a waiting game now,” Celestia said without taking her eyes off the forest.
But something in her voice worried the other governors. Noticing this, Silver Boss placed himself at her right looking at the same scenery than the sun monarch.
“If it makes you feel better, I’m also worried about my colts and nervous at the same time,” he said with a bleak smile joined with a frown “But it’s not the time to show it, and neither to deny it.”
Storm Cloud joined at her left as she floated a few feet from the ground to be at the princess’ height.
“Silver’s right, look at me, I’m scared as shit too but I’m not showing. Besides, it will surely go away once I’ve got the adrenalin pumpin’ in me,” the pegasus said with her hooves crossed behind her head in confidence “How about you Blue?” she said grabbing the unicorn and forcefully placing him at her side.
“I’m too young for a war… but I’ll die for my ponies if need be,” he said coldly forcing himself out of her reach.
“Party pooper,” said Storm as she crossed her legs and made a pouty face.
“The warrior wind is blowing strong comrades. Mother Earth will be thankful that she’s taken part of it. It’s an honor to fight at the side of such brave warriors and eminencies,” Thunderhooves said who was now next to Silver.
Celestia kept with her eyes shut as the wind brushed her white coat. Her partner’s words gave her a renewed hope that gave her a smile. She opened her eyes and with a defying expression looked at her sides to see the governors and then look again to the front, only this time, decided.
The sudden movement of the trees warned them that the humans we’re getting nearer to the battlefield.
“Be ready. We'll show that together, we can defeat anyone!”