//------------------------------//
// Chapter Ninety 
// Story: Freedom Through Harmony 
// by Electricut 
//------------------------------//

Chapter Ninety
Icarus Mansion
Twilight

The young ex-apprentice barely slept through the night, coming to full wakefulness in the early morning of dawn. Sunlight, not warm or dim, completely indifferent to the town’s imminent danger, filtered in through the window of Twilight’s guest room. Her heart began to race again as she remembered what was set to transpire that day, and she threw herself out of bed and rapidly began to get dressed. She slung the golden tome of powerful magic under her arm and rushed out of her room, and was somewhat startled when Fluttershy did the same from the room beside her.

Fluttershy had equipped a set of Icarus’s basic leather armor given to archers, with the exception of her golden helmet. She also had a shiny new golden bow slung across her back, and her normal quiver of arrows at her belt. Twilight’s eyes raised at her new weapon. “Fluttershy! Where’d that bow come from? That wasn’t with your helmet when we were fighting Nightma- er, Princess Luna.”

“I think that whatever force gave us these gifts,” Fluttershy explained, “just wasn’t sure what to give me, so it only gave me armor and no weapon. But now that I’ve found a skill that suits me, it’s come back and given me the other half of my gift. Oh, Twilight, where is your tiara?”

Twilight felt the top of her head, and cursed herself silently when she realized she forgot her tiara in her haste. She dashed back into her room and retrieved it from the desk she had left it upon, and gingerly placed it atop her head. She wasn’t sure if the accessory actually helped her battle skill or defense at all, but she felt more powerful wearing it, and would seem more heroic to the people following her. Twilight grabbed her book again, and joined Fluttershy in moving back to the entrance hall.

The twenty-five man strong unit of Icarus’s soldiers were already gathered outside, ready to march, visible through the wide window above the great doors. At the foot of the stairs, making final preparations, were Rarity, Opal, Blake, Fafnir and Sweetie Belle. Rarity’s golden chest plate and rapier were equipped, among a gleaming new set of stark white armor. She turned her gaze up the stairway at the two girls. “Oh, good, you’re both awake. Though it’s hardly a surprise... Oh, yes, please come down here. I’ve got something better for you to wear than those silly plain-looking garments.”

Twilight and Fluttershy looked to each other, slightly surprised, and joined the other three at the ground floor. Rarity moved over to a table beside the stairway, motioning for Fluttershy and Twilight to join her, and Twilight gasped lightly when she saw what Rarity had prepared for them. There was a full set of leather armor, much higher quality and fancier than the standard-issue wear of the Icarus archers, or even the Silver Arrows. Several yellow cloths hung out as capes and tails, and a small emblem of a pink butterfly was emblazoned at the breast.

For Twilight was a deep violet cloak, one that would hang heavily but comfortably over her shoulders. It was long and with many coattails, so that wearing it would conceal Twilight’s arms and legs completely and turn her into a blur of darkness firing magic at the enemy. Like Fluttershy’s, a unique emblem was affixed to the breast, this one a slightly vertically stretched, six pointed pink star.

"I've been working on these sets of armor almost since the night we met." Rarity said. "I put extra care into customizing them to each of your skills and techniques, as well as taking into account the pieces of armor granted to you by the Elements of Harmony. It took some doing to make full plate mail that wouldn't slow down Rainbow Dash or Pinkie, but I think it should hold up. Fluttershy, your armor is also quite light to support your flight, and I've had the leather reinforced to be stronger against long range attacks, which will be your main concern.

"Twilight, your new mage robes should protect you just as effectively, but in a slightly different fashion. The many folds and dark colors of this cloak generates an effective optical illusion while moving, and makes you virtually invisible while stationary. Even if the enemy can get a lock on you, any shots they take will be certain to miss by miles. The garment is also equipped with the same magic-enhancing properties that all modern mage robes come standard with."

Both Twilight and Fluttershy held up the garments appreciatively, and quickly moved to another room to change. The heavy robes draped over Twilight's shoulders, the ends of the long sleeves almost touching the ground, and the coattails dragging around her, but they attracted no dirt or dust. Her golden-bound spell book an tiara were in stark contrast with the black and violets of the cloak, though they seemed to compliment one another.

She stepped back into the entrance hall, and saw that Fluttershy's armor suited her perfectly, yellow and gold matched by the soft pink of her hair. Prepared as they could be, the three Elements, two Laguz, half-dragon and visiting noble all stepped outside and began to march with the gathered soldiers. They continued to speak quietly as they walked: "Are you sure about letting Sweetie Belle come with us?" Twilight asked, "She's just a young girl, and we're facing war..."

"She would be no safer anywhere else in town." Rarity stated ominously, "Besides, it's not as though she can't defend herself. Young as she may be, she has received more training than many others older than her with a bow. I've insisted she stay on the back lines with the other two Crusaders, but I believe that is the best place for them to be right now."

Twilight understood Rarity's reasoning, sad as it was, and decided to change the subject. "So, what is the meaning of these symbols on our armor? I've never seen them before." Rarity's new armor also bore an emblem, though it was on her shoulder piece instead of the golden chest piece, and it was of a trio of blue diamonds.

"Oh, these?" Rarity chuckled slightly, "To be honest, most of them only have fairly vague meanings, but I thought it suitable for the heroes to each have a symbol to go with their names. In dark times like these, the people need heroes and symbols to rally around and give them morale and hope, and the Elements of Harmony are the only ones for the job. Of course, the name 'Moonlight Resistance' begets the memory of Princess Luna and her first rebellion, and we can take hope that this time will be a success."

Twilight nodded, preferring to remain silent for the remainder of the short trip. The group soon reached the northern barricade, where, even in the earliest hour of dawn, the Silver Arrows were already stationed and ready for combat. Commander Octavia and Colonel Lyra stalked back and forth across the wide line, ensuring that their troops were in position and ready for the storm. Pinkie sat beside Kyle behind one of the barricades, comforting him until she was needed as well. 

The young baker saw the others approach and waved, but remained where she was. Clearly, some kind of deeper connection had been made between her and the winged soldier. Her golden spear and double bucklers sat at her side. Rarity called over to her, and to one of her soldiers to step forward. The soldier of Icarus brought forth a bundle of some sort, which Rarity took from him and laid on the ground before Pinkie. The cloth covering the contents was thrown back, revealing a full set of magenta armor.

Pinkie's eyebrows rose, and Rarity explained that she had created armor for each of them, then began to explain the details of the armor. "Yours, much like Rainbow Dash's, had to be able to protect you without subtracting from your speed or maneuverability, though at least I didn't have to account for wing holes. It should be able to keep up with all the random attacks you do just as well as the clothes you normally wear into combat. I've also left spaces on the arms for your bucklers."

"Oh, wow, thanks Rarity!" Pinkie said. Coming as no surprise to anyone, she stripped off what armor she was already wearing right then and there, then began fastening on the new armor, soon assisted by the other Elements. Intricately painted on her breastplate was an emblem of a trio of balloons, two blue and one yellow. She bounced on her heels a few times to test the weight of the armor, and smiled in satisfaction. “This must have taken a lot of time to make... and money.”

Rarity held up a hand to dismiss the issue. “Money is no issue when it comes to keeping my friends alive, I assure you. Seeing the finished product shine in glory, and do it’s job and protect you, is reward enough. Besides, I enjoyed making them. It’s an art.”

“Alright, soldiers of Icarus.” Lyra said, the local troops snapping to attention. “Since there aren’t many of you, I want all of you to stay by the barricades. Mages and archers among you, take your places with the Silver Arrows. Everyone else, I want you spaced roughly evenly along the length of the wall for general support: medical evac, assistance reloading, messengers, or fighting close-quarters if the enemy gets that close. By the time that that happens, reinforcements will already be fast on the way, and you’ll just need to hold them off until you can join the bigger fighting force.”

The Icarus soldiers all gave a quick salute and dispersed among the deserter battalion. Two more soldiers left a pair of bundles on the ground beside Rarity before scurrying off to their positions, and Twilight guessed that Rainbow Dash’s and Applejack’s armor was stored within. Octavia strode up and took a few moments to size up the four Elements gathered, deciding on orders for them. “I think it would be preferable if the soldiers could see you among them, so they have a source of morale to draw on. Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity, you can all fight at long range, so you should help fire upon the approaching soldiers as much as you can. As for you Pinkie, and the others, you should remain with the troops and offer encouragement and support, then help to lead the charge when the tides begin to shift.”

The four nodded, and Twilight scrambled up to a slightly higher vantage point. She peered out in the distance, towards the city of Eclipse, but saw no sign of their enemy. A few fluffy but gray clouds floated across the sky, but the sun still shone low in the east. She sat for several minutes, allowing the wind to run through her hair and toss her flowing robe about, waiting for something to happen but dreading when it did.

About fifteen minutes after their arrival, she heard several more people approach, and turned around to see Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, and the Apple family. Rarity greeted them as fondly as one could in the situation, and quickly explained once again that she had made equipment for all six Elements. Both the cyan and caramel-orange armor sets were similar in shape to Pinkie’s, only with slight differences in the dimensions, and a pair of gaps in the back of Dash’s for him to slip his wings through. His bore an emblem of a cloud and tri-colored lightning bolt, and Applejack’s a simple trio of bright red apples.

“Rainbow Dash, yours was easily the most difficult to engineer, as I had to make the metal stand up to your potentially supersonic speeds, but I think it should hold. You’ll also find that it’s light enough to fly normally in. Applejack, yours will most likely simply act as any other suit of armor, but knowing that you now have ice abilities, I slipped in some emergency thermal protection. Since your golden arm-guard would not be as noticeable against orange armor such as this, I made sure the design would be different in order to give it distinction.”

Rainbow Dash soon walked over to where Twilight sat, clad in his handsome new armor but with hair as messy and eyes as tired as always, and sat beside her. "How're you holding up?" he asked. "I know you've lost a lot, we all have, but you're going to want to focus whatever rage you have instead of rushing blindly at them. A little rage can be a good thing on the battlefield, though. It'll give you a reason to not give up, and keep yourself alive."

Twilight nodded appreciatively, still a bit unaccustomed to how kind Rainbow Dash had seemed these past few days. Had the pressure of war gotten to him? Or was he like this all along, and Twilight's own perspective had changed? Unbidden, her gaze drifted over each of her friends gathered behind the barricades, as though to test and compare her past and present convictions of them.

Applejack. There was never any secrecy or sugarcoating with her. She said what was on her mind, what needed to be said, and had nothing to hide from her friends. That wasn't to say she was brutally honest, though, and would never say something just for spite. Her relatively simple nature allowed her to see the bare-bones of any problem, and when one of her friends was hurting.

Fluttershy. Even when her own heart was in turmoil, she lived to ease the suffering of others. Using the gift of music given to her by a dear, departed friend, she was able to calm the storms raging in people's minds and avoid countless conflicts that would have spilled unnecessary blood. Her kindness was infectious, and Twilight knew that she would help to calm the violence of the world.

Rarity. Twilight only had to look at the clothes that she and the other Elements wore for a demonstration of her generosity. Rarity had everything one could need in life, and demonstrated again and again that she was willing to give it all away for the ones she cared about. Even if none of the members of her remaining family were fully legitimate- if that- she cared about them all more than anything.

Pinkie. To try and rationalize anything she did was a futile and maddening effort, but once you took a step back and saw her bigger picture, you began to appreciate how good a friend she was. She was in eternally good spirits, and even now- in the face of peril- she was cracking jokes, giving people encouraging hugs, anything to evoke a little laughter. Devoid of any true family, she thought of the whole town as hers to protect.

Finally, Rainbow Dash. Stubborn and short-tempered were words that came to mind in a person who had just met him, and while there may have been some truth in those accusations, he was nothing if not determined. Even for his own safety, he would never back down and abandon the things he believed in. And even to the ends of his life, he would stay loyal to his friends and convictions. Twilight had hated him at first, but now was glad to have met him.

Rainbow Dash shifted where he sat. "There was one other thing I wanted to do, just before all of this starts." he explained. "There are enough clouds in the sky right now that I can play around with the morale of both sides a bit. If I put all of the clouds on their side and get them to rain, the enemy soldiers will be all damp and feel pretty lousy, and hopefully in less of a fighting mood. Meanwhile, our guys will have the sun at their backs, and things will look bright."

Twilight nodded thoughtfully, looking towards the horizon again. No soldiers, and a few clouds, just as Dash had said. "I see what you mean... Are you sure you can make that work?"

Rainbow Dash laughed. "Sure I can! Shouldn't even take more than a minute or two to get everything just right. I'll just need to borrow a few more Children of Air..." as he spoke, his gaze drifted inward to town, and Twilight followed along and saw a new group of soldiers approach, ready to defend the town. "Ah, here's New Dawn's troops. I'll just pull a few from them for a minute." He slid from his perch and began talking with the commander of New Dawn's troops, the Hatarian Vomora. Twilight had been hesitant at first to trust him, since this was the same man that had tried to kill her seven years ago, but she had been convinced his intentions were now pure.

Rainbow Dash launched into the air, three more Children of Air following close behind. A large number of New Dawn troops joined the other archers and mages at the wall, while the rest lingered behind, ready to leap into action. Behind them, Twilight could see the reserve forces of the town's hastily assembled militia, including the Crusaders, who were checking their weapons to make sure they were ready. Applebloom had equipped a pair of short katanas, while Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had their normal spear and archery equipment, respectively. She hoped that they would not have to fight at all, but they seemed ready if push came to shove. 

Rainbow Dash skidded to the ground a few minutes later, his face all business, and the three following him showed signs of panic in their eyes. "They're coming." the blue-clad swordsman stated, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Just beyond the line of sight of town. They were waiting too, but they noticed my men and I screwing around with their cloud cover and started shooting at us. Jessie here got a little singed, but otherwise the pot-shots all missed."

A medic quickly began tending to the soldier's wound. Twilight knew that these medics knew what they were doing, since because of them, her once sprained arm was almost as good as new. "How many are there?" Lyra asked Rainbow Dash, just as tense as he. "And how long will it be until they arrive, now that they know we're planning something?"

"It's just as we feared." Rainbow Dash said, shaking his head. "They've brought out the whole central army. In addition, there's a few rather nasty looking light-based summons among them, probably courtesy of the Queen herself. I estimate that, now that they're on the move, we have about thirty minutes before they get within firing distance."

Twilight could not repress a slight shiver. As the soldiers around her all scrambled to finish any last-minute preparations, she kept her eyes glued on the horizon. Her heart leapt when she first saw the mass of enemy knights approaching, the flag bearing the sunrise emblem of House Apollo and Celestia's throne waving above them. Rainbow Dash's idea of setting up a rainstorm for them seemed to be working, a the clouds they were marching under were heavy with moisture, and only needed a small spark to begin their downpour. Gritting her teeth, Twilight charged up a large lightning spell, then sent it racing forward at the clouds. Rainbow Dash gave a nod of approval, and the spell was sent splintering through the clouds, illuminating the approaching soldiers a moment before the rain began to pound on their armor.

“Hold your fire!” Lyra ordered, loading a clip into her crossbow. “Let them draw in close enough that we can hit them with everything we’ve got! It won’t do to let them know the extent of our range!” The gathered soldiers nodded and found their final place to shoot from. Twilight flipped through the pages of her golden tome, found a lightning spell more powerful than any she had ever tried, and read over the ancient words silently.

Five minutes passed, then ten. The soldiers of Eclipse grew ever closer, and hearts all around were racing in anticipation. Twilight could plainly see the soldiers approaching now, marching briskly, but organized, and soon she could even hear the clinking of their armor. Among them were several pure white forms, somewhat resembling Spike’s dragon form, twice as tall as the soldiers they marched with. Just as Twilight was beginning to worry, that Lyra had waited to long to give her orders, she heard the commander scream ‘FIRE!’ from a few feet away. All at once, hundreds of arrows, bolts of lightning and flashes of fire and light launched forth, striking down countless Eclipse soldiers. Several of the light summons were dispersed as well, but only after heavy concentrated fire.

The fire from the mages continued while the archers all reloaded. The soldiers of Eclipse all got their wits about them a few moments later, and began to return fire. Spells crashed into the barricades and splintered off chunks off wood, as well as putting out of commission two ballistas before they even had a chance to fire. Twilight shut her ears from the screams around her, and focused on casting the next spell. Another scattered volley of arrows launched forward into the crowd of enemy soldiers, accompanied by several large ballista bolts and rocks lobbed from catapults spaced along the length of the wall.

Twilight focused on striking down one soldier at a time, not allowing herself to take in any of the other destruction surrounding her. No matter how many times she attacked, there was always another soldier to take the last one’s place. Eclipse’s troops more than doubled the forces defending the town, and while they had suffered noticeable losses already, the long-range defense did not seem to be slowing them down. Magical and physical bullets continued to pound away at the barricades, and those soldiers who could make it to the walls began to strike at it with axes or swords. 

“Second wave!” Lyra commanded. “Charge! First wave, direct your fire! Kill the remaining light beasts, then aim for their rear!” With a mighty battle cry, the melee troops lying in wait rushed forward, led by the two Goldoan dragons. Twilight wiped her sweaty brow and swallowed hard. The battle had cost many lives on both sides already, but it was about to get a whole lot worse.