//------------------------------//
// 160 - Nice World You Have There 
// Story: Putting on a Silver Robe and Wizard Hat 
// by David Silver 
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Silver woke up in his hammock and rolled to his hooves with a yawn. The horn played outside loud and clear. It was time to wake... up?

Wait, where was he? He looked around the barracks with a raised brow as other stallions and mares stirred themselves quickly and began getting prepared. It looked like a camp, or some kind of military thing. That seemed silly though, as he was no member of the military. He tried to feel if he was sleeping, but no such feeling of being asleep came to mind.

"Why're you looking so spaced out, Private Silver?" A pegasus mare trotted in. It was Rainbow Dash, but she was missing a wing, replaced with cold metal. "We have to get moving." She reached out and put a hoof on a stunned Silver's shoulder. "I know you're nervous, we all are... but we have to face His army here, or all of Equestria will be overrun." She slapped him lightly. "So shake the sleep from your eyes and get out there." She turned and trotted out, most other ponies saluting her as she went past.

Silver found his foot (hoof?) locker and started getting dressed even as his mind raced. Where was everyone he knew? Why wasn't he in Canterlot? How could this not be a dream?! Rainbow Dash couldn't have lost her wing overnight, not with that prosthetic. She acted like this was normal, just like everypony else.

Maybe it was normal...

Silver shook his head quickly as he emerged from the barracks, his helmet jostling around but held in place with a strap under the chin and by merit of being pinned on his horn. He spied a line of other... soldiers? and quickly joined them, standing in row alongside the others. Everything was wrong, so wrong. These were no royal guards. They were normal ponies. They looked haunted. He got the impression most of them didn't want to be there, but there they were.

"Alright! Today is an important day..." Rainbow Dash trotted back and forth along the line. She was flanked by Pinkie and Maud Pie, who looked deadly serious. "If we can stop them here, we'll buy the rest of the army some needed time. We can turn this around, and we will. Today is the day we shine." She slapped a hoof on her metal-plated chest. "We're going to change history! For Princess Celestia!"

"For Equestria!" echoed all the ponies around Silver as if by rote activity.

Change history... change... Shit! Silver scowled. Had Starlight's intervention gone so horribly wrong that this is what Equestria was reduced to? He looked around with a building panic.

Suddenly Pinkie was standing before him. "Turn that frown upside-down, soldier. We have a nation to save."

Silver blinked at the stern Pinkie and tried to ease his expression. "Sorry, uh, ma'am. Have you seen Night Watch?"

Pinkie raised a brow at him. "She's scouting the enemy movements, as usual. Look, I know lots of us would rather be with our loved ones about now, but if we don't pull this together, there won't be a place to be with them in. Do you want to live in a world controlled by Sombra?"

"No?"

"I can't hear you." Pinkie leaned in closer.

"No ma'am!" Silver offered a clumsy imitation of the salute he'd seen others doing.

"That's better." She returned to Rainbow's side.

Silver internally relaxed a little. Night still existed, doing something she'd probably take pride in. Not all was lost. In fact, gauging from Pinkie's reaction, they were still an item in this crazy world. He followed with the others as they got to marching, presumably towards some site they intended to... fight...

He swallowed with renewed nervousness. He was really marching out to battle. His horn glowed softly as he conjured a low-level version of his personal shield, testing it both with and without the added flames. He had no intention of getting wiped out in an alternate Equestria. More importantly, how did he fix it? How was the spell even used? Starlight had it, and he didn't, and he had no idea what change and specific time she went to.

"Still nervous?" A stallion walking beside Silver asked. "It's cool. We'll stick together."

Silver glanced aside to see who was speaking and started. It was Rough Tumble, trimmed with regular work and wearing the same battle-ready outfit as everyone else. 

"What? You look like you saw a ghost." He leaned over and kissed Silver on the cheek. "I'll protect you."

Silver burned a bright red. Tumble would protect him?! Were they an item in this timeline too? Gah! At least one timeline where his lovelife was nice and simple would be nice. "T-thanks, uh..."

"Just focus on blasting the crystal ponies, bonus points if you can knock those crazy helmets off of 'em."

Silver raised a brow. "Crazy helmets?"

Tumble frowned a little. "You really are shaken up." He threw a leg over Silver and pulled him close. "Look, relax. I'll be there. You do that unicorn thing and I'll keep them off you."

Silver nodded stiffly. "Right, unicorn stuff. So, helmets?"

"You really forgot?" Tumble released him. "The control helmets? They're how Sombra controls his army. Knock one off and the pony goes down, but it's a lot harder than it looks. Still, a slap to the head is still a slap to the head. Figure if you knock one out, that's just as good." His shoulders lifted mildly. "That's all you have to focus on. Don't worry about the rest, that's my job."

Silver gave a firm nod, his mind whirring. He obviously wasn't as talented in this timeline if Tumble was busy convincing him to just use a basic unicorn blast and nothing else, but if he had become a unicorn and was almost immediately pressed into the army as his service instead of what he had done in his original timeline... that made sense. He might have never learned the unicorn alphabet at all, or any spells besides what a unicorn could learn without it, namely force bolts and telekinesis. He was just thrust, wide-eyed and probably scared witless right into a war.

"Tumble."

"Yeah? You're looking better."

Silver smiled. "I am... I won't just be doing what you said to do."

Tumble frowned a little. "Don't get carried away. We're a team."

Silver nodded quickly. "Right, I get that, but I've been practicing some... other spells."

That surprised Tumble. "Huh? When? Are you sure that's a good idea? I heard spells you don't know good are pretty bad."

Silver bumped against him. "Have faith in me."

That relaxed him and he smiled gently. "I do. Look, do your best, just stay behind me, alright?"

Silver began letting loose the power within himself, letting the current flow hot just to see how well that rush of energy moved in his subtly different body. Surprisingly, it was about the same as before, but he quickly decided that wasn't so odd. In this timeline, working on output was probably a daily activity, even if he didn't get a good education on spellcraft. A sudden thought made him twist his head around, but his flank was covered in armor. "Say, uh, Tumble, do I have a cutie mark?"

Tumble raised a brow. "Not unless you got one this morning. That'd explain why you're acting so funny." He smiled. "That'd be great if you did. A sign from destiny right there."

Silver wondered if his brand still burned bright on his flank, but he certainly remembered his most treasured spells, even if he didn't have his spellbook with him anymore, a fact that bothered him a little.

The trail they were following opened up into a larger field, huge cliffs on either side overlooking them. Across the way, another army approached. They were crystal ponies with pelts that looked cloudy. There was no shine in those ponies, except the glaring green slits in their helmets. The two opposing armies lined up across from one another, as if waiting for some signal from someone.

Celestia herself strode to the fore of the army. "You will be turned back, Sombra. Not one hoof further will fall to your hooves this day or any other!" She slammed a hoof into the ground, and the battle began with a tremendous roar of hundreds on hundreds of ponies on either side, charging wildly towards one another.

Sombra was there. Silver caught a glimpse of him just before he conjured a huge pillar of stone to stymie some brave royal guards that had tried to charge him directly.

This was a true war. He didn't even think Equestria could physically support such a thing. He ducked back as one of those green-slitted ponies came rushing at him, only to catch a hoof across the helmet from Tumble. "I got this!"

Silver reached out with his magic in all directions, and it was a mess. He could feel countless ponies moving through his field, fighting in the field, falling... He focused on one of those great control helmets and sent his magic flowing around and into it through every crack and pore, though there weren't many. Fortunately, mind-controlled or not, they had to breathe. There. There was a hatch on the inside, burned shut with magic, but he could feel it.

With a sudden seizure of his field, an intense pressure built around that welded joint and the helmet exploded off the dazed pony's head. She collapsed into the dirt and Silver smiled, panting from the effort. "One down..." There were countless more to go.

An enemy soldier threw himself at Silver, crashing into his shield in a show of color and heat. Shields of that sort were poorly made to handle whole bodies being thrown at them and began to buckle dangerously, but the heat pouring out was intense, like a geyser of flame across the face and barrel of the controlled crystal pony. He didn't even cry out as he sank to the ground, burned savagely.

Silver sank to a knee, heaving for breath from the exertion, eyes stinging with tears. The idea that he'd just watched... no, he had killed that pony. He hadn't had to kill since his dream. Was this all a dream? His senses kept telling him no, even as his mind wailed for it to all be a horrible nightmare.

"Silver!" Tumble was over him, standing watch. "Get up! You alright?" Another pony approached and Tumble began wrestling them away, carrying the both away from Silver.

He struggled back to his hooves. Ponies were counting on him. This would be a terrible time to have a mental breakdown. He could... cry later. He locked eyes on the pony Tumble was wrestling fiercely with and let out a sudden shout of fury. The helmet burst free of the pony and they sank to the ground with blank eyes, stunned and out of the battle. He knew where the catch was. He could dismantle those cursed helmets, one by one, if he had to.

The fog of war pulled back to reveal Sombra approaching them on calm hooves, his armor jangling with each step. "What have we here?"