After only two days, Birthright’s personal specialized legion were assembled and awaiting departure. There were three hundred soldiers in the group: one hundred from each tribe, hoof-picked from all the real divisions of the military, as the Royal Guard's members wouldn't suffice for such a force.
All of them were outfitted in enchanted black steel armor covering their entire bodies with invisible magic visors over their faces, leaving only part of the wings exposed on the Pegasi, though the protective enchantments would extend to the unarmored parts of the wings. The armor was enchanted to repel most physical blows as well as energy attacks. They had analyzed the properties of the residue from the energy weapons used by the Clerisy in the previous battle and had managed to create a spell that would highly resist the plasma and normal laser blasts, but the quantum-based blasts were more difficult to counter, as were the blasts originating from an entirely unknown source of energy.
The Earth Ponies were equipped with “gun-saddles” that drew on the magic stored in a set of six crystals connected to twin barrels attached to a swiveling base to fire heavy blasts of magic, and their spears had been replaced with twin-bladed battle axes with blades made of pure red magical energy emanating from a crystal right below the spike at the top of each axe.
The Pegasi were equipped with magic-based guns of their own sprouting from the shoulders of their armor, which would assist them in combatting the flying machines, as well as having hidden enchanted blades attached to the bottom of their boots so they could attack the flying machines at close range, which they obviously wouldn’t be able to fight back against.
Every Unicorn had only one weapon added to their armor, but it was the only one any of them needed: each one had an Alicorn Amulet, raising their magic powers to insanely high levels so they could deal heavy damage to the Clerisiac forces who had seemed impervious before.
And finally, there was Birthright herself. Outfitted in an enchanted red steel armored dress with her Cutie Mark of a gold sword crossed with a silver sword emblazoned on her chestplate, her helmet-tiara combo, and on the back of her metal skirt, she was the spitting image of a mare of battle. Her Great Aunty had even said that just like every other Alicorn Princess, she should have a title, and her Great Aunty declared her to be the “Princess of War”, just like Celestia had declared her Daddy to be the “Prince of Order”.
Beneath the metal skirt, she still had a full suit of armor, but the boots had black royal slippers over them that hid the same blades as the Pegasi boots. She also had both a gun-saddle and shoulder cannons, a magic axe of her own, and finally, she had her own Alicorn Amulet, sending her already powerful Alicorn magic skyrocketing to be even stronger than that of her Great Aunty Celestia, and since she was an Alicorn, the Amulet didn’t exaggerate any aspect of her personality, allowing her to act as a proper general for her troops, especially the Unicorns. In spite of them all being hoof-picked to ensure they were the most level-headed Unicorn troops Equestria had to offer, the Amulets still had a bit of an effect on them, making them a bit bloodthirsty and impulsive. Except when Birthright used the powers bestowed upon her by the mysterious force of pure harmony to ensure they followed her commands.
While Celestia had magic to move the sun and Luna the moon, Twilight had some kind of friendship powers, Cadance had love magic, and Blueblood had been bestowed with power to command attention and maintain perfect order among all who worked with him, Birthright had been blessed with the power to command any troops assigned to her, whether level-headed or impulsive, whether rookie or veteran, and enable them to carry out her commands flawlessly in spite of any aspect of their nature that would normally hinder them in carrying out her orders.
“Attention troops!” Birthright announced. “Once our glorious leader Princess Celestia addresses us, we’ll take the portal to the area near New Hoofington!”
After Birthright grabbed her legion’s attention, Celestia trotted to a position in front of the assembled three hundred soldiers and began her short speech:
“Brave warriors of Equestria!” she began, amplifying her voice to carry to the entire legion, “You have all been carefully selected and outfitted to counter a greater opponent than Equestria has ever seen! These Protean beings can take any form they desire, and are humans who have artificially enhanced themselves to be a much greater threat than the humans who resisted us in the past! The humans of what is now New Equestria were highly advanced beyond our wildest dreams, but we managed to overcome them. These Lalandeans are even more advanced, with immunity to ponification and military forces almost completely impervious to damage. But you have all been outfitted with armor and equipment specifically designed to allow you to match them blow for blow! Make Equestria proud, brave warriors, and bring at least one of the Proteans back with you as a captive so we can learn how to overcome their immunity!”
After Celestia finished, the soldiers cheered and stamped their hooves before Birthright returned to standing front and center.
“Now, listen up!” she barked. “We’re using the portal to the place closest to New Hoofington, which is only an hour’s march from here! Once we pass through, we march for New Hoofington, where we’ll continue to make it more and more fortified until Clericorum finally attacks! Forward! March!”
“We obey your every order, Princess!” the soldiers shouted as one before Birthright took to the air and led them at a double-time pace to the portal, which was about ten miles north of Ponyville.
Upon arrival, Birthright and her Unicorn troops combined their magic into a massive spell that widened the portal to be wide enough for the legion to march through in only three rows. On the other side, they let go of the spell, returning the portal to a hole in spacetime only four ponies wide.
The troops continued their march, heading south from New Manehattan along the east coast in almost complete silence, the only sounds being the clinking of armor and two hundred sets of armored hoofbeats sounding in unison.
After hours of marching in silence, Birthright and her troops arrived at New Hoofington and started work on building both physical and magical fortifications for the town that would soon become a fortress. The newfoals of the town were conscripted to assist, but they didn’t mind at all. As long as it was for Celestia, they were incredibly eager to follow any command they were given.
Over the following days, they erected self-sustaining magical barriers, magic-based ground-to-air guns, high walls around the town for both defense and patrolling, watchtowers so the Lalandeans couldn’t take them by surprise, living quarters for the troops, and a training facility to keep everypony at the top of their game.
As they continued to increase the defenses of the town-turned-fortress, Birthright grew more and more giddy as she awaited the Proteans’ eventual assault. She was sure they’d meet with disappointment when they tried to attack.
Over the course of the same two weeks, Henry, Martha and Takoda had allowed biorobotic implants to be temporarily connected to their brains to collect data from their knowledge of the state of Earth and how Celestia ran things. This data was stored at the complex they stayed at during that time: the MILitary QUantum Experiential Training Operation And Simulation Technique (MILQUETOAST) control facility in Elder Lodge. MILQUETOAST enabled troops all over the nation to train based on the experiences of previous soldiers, so they were all experienced veterans before they even saw their first battle.
The three were still required to speak with the troops who were picked for the first operation and train them in changing into ponies and using the various abilities that came with each form. Some soldiers and spies could pull off combining aspects of two forms at once with ease, but every single one had at least some difficulty with turning into Alicorns, for the form required a lot of concentration for one who hadn’t lived for twenty years as a pony to pull off.
The first week dragged on, and little progress was made on the aspect of blending all three into one. However, the troops showed great promise, and by the end of the week, they hadn’t exactly gained easy use of mimicking Alicorns, but they had still made great strides, even managing to shift coat, mane, tail and eye colors in an instant, and even being able to create fake Cutie Marks and change those at will.
After the week ended, the chosen spies and soldiers were outfitted with newly-designed MonoSkin armor that would change shape with them, and could even change color and turn into saddlebags in a pony form to enable blending in better. Their clothing under the armor had been similarly altered to change into an inner lining for said saddlebags, allowing them to not have to add or remove clothing at all before or after transforming. However, there was a split-second delay that made the armor and clothing transformations slightly out of sync with the transformation process, which could at some point give them away and would have to be dealt with eventually.
Outfitting the soldiers and tailoring the new sets of armor took the remaining week, as did the Chimeron going over strategies with Henry, Martha, Takoda, and several Clerisiac generals. The Defense Minister himself didn’t attend, for he was too busy arguing with the other members of the High Council to be of any help at all.
Eventually, five AENEACs, five Dropships, and five Flattops were loaded down with the newly-equipped troops, plus many other military units—Proteans, artificially-created beasts, and “Mechanized Robotic War Machines” (MRWMs)―with Henry, Martha and Takoda tagging along, but the Chimeron stayed behind, for his people didn’t want him to put himself in danger unless absolutely necessary.
As the fifteen ships took to the air, every living thing heading for the EarthGate tensed. It had taken two weeks to get to this point, and the enemy had to have been preparing for them the entire time. They could easily try to attack a different target that the ponies wouldn’t expect, but liberating the former capital of the great nation that sent their ancestors to the cosmos so long ago had significance, like honoring the grave of a deceased loved one.
This time, they knew they were heading to war, and they wouldn’t be taken by surprise.