//------------------------------// // Chapter Ninety-two // Story: Freedom Through Harmony // by Electricut //------------------------------// Chapter Ninety-two Laying the dead to rest was the first order of business in the aftermath of the battle. Macintosh was buried beside Ultraviolet's own grave, as Applejack knew he wanted to be. A mass funeral was held the next day for all the many lives lost, and a eulogy given for each soul who still had someone to give it. The whole remainder of that day was given solely to rest and recuperation, and tribute to the dead. The day after that, though- two days after the unsuccessful siege- communication lines were reconnected and our next phase of action laid out in detail. I sat in the library alongside the other leaders of the resistance- Lyra and Octavia, Prince Belenth, Rarity and Lord Blake- as well as Twilight and Xekora. The immortal historian had stayed with us ever since Number One escapes with the Weapon, seemingly more concerned about our success than he was before, but still persisted that he could not personally help. I thought I could detect his determination slipping. Trixie was the first to connect, and also to break the silence when the others joined in. "You guys made it! How'd it go? The fact that you're talking now tells me at least someone survived." "We suffered pretty heavy casualties," Twilight responded, "but the ones they suffered were a lot worse. Moonlight is still on its feet, and Eclipse should still be reeling from having its central army all but destroyed. If we're going to move onto the offensive, we will not get a better chance than now." "Twilight!" The relief in Trixie's voice was obvious. "So you're with us after all? I'm really glad to hear it... Phil is, too. He's in bed right now, says his life cycle is about to end and he can't move much, but he's really happy to hear that news." "So..." I started, veering the conversation back on track, "We should still be in good enough shape to carry out the next phase of our plan. Each of our four armies will need to attack a royal instillation between their current position and the capital, in order to gain a foothold for the final siege. Fortress Apollo is the target we'll be heading for." "The combined forces of Emberton and Trottingham will move out for Los Pegasus, and overthrow the troops stationed there." Rilken confirmed. "If we're lucky, we should be able to bolster our own numbers there as well." "The forces from Baltimare and the other western towns will attack the Canterlot Mines." the representative of the western forces stated. "They don't have many troops stationed there, though it is a highly defensible place, so taking and holding it should be a cinch." "Lastly..." Trixie began, "My team will have to overthrow the troops right here in Manehattan. Luckily though, we've got a few Wonderbolts and a Goldoan dragon here, which should definitely give us a leg up." "A few?" I muttered. "I wonder..." "You heard her, kid." I heard Soren say, "You'll never guess who I've got sitting here next to me." An excited flutter filled my chest. "I don't know, I might have a guess or two." "What'd I tell you, Rainbow Dash?" a voice that could only have been Spitfire's asked teasingly, "I told you I'd pay you back somehow, way back on the night of the meteor shower. For the next few weeks, consider me out of retirement! And the first thing we're going to do is take Manehattan!" I smiled broadly. Could it really be that the Wonderbolts were all back together? Still, there was something else much more pressing I had to ask. "Spitfire, can I ask you something about the Order? Your Number One just made off with one of our strongest weapons, a huge blood-red blade. Why'd he take it, and what's he done with it?" There was a pause, the Spitfire spoke again. "I'm really not supposed to say much about the inner workings of the Order, and even though I don't really care, I don't have the faintest idea what Number One does. As the leader, he doesn't need to ask permission or explain himself for any of his actions. I haven't been home for a few weeks already, anyway, so I have no way of knowing what became of it. Sorry, Dash." I sighed and shook my head. "It's alright. I'm sure we'll figure it out at some point. Point is, we won't have that for the rest of the war. We'll have to be much more economical with the resources we do still have." ____________ "Eclipse itself is only two day's march from here." Octavia explained after the conference, "but we would be too open to counterattack if we camped halfway between here and there. In addition, there would be nowhere to run in the event of a retreat. Fortress Apollo is a day and a half away from here, slightly out of our way, but will provide both additional cover and a defensible retreat point. Additionally, losing their Queen's original home will be a crippling loss of morale for the soldiers of Eclipse." Lyra spoke up next. "Unfortunately, we can expect this to be much harder fought than the last battle. It's no secret to Celestia that we're coming, and she'll probably be ready for us, so a sneak attack is all but impossible. There'll be more soldiers, and odds are they'll be given a huge dose of that Feral drug on top of that. She doesn't care about them losing their humanity, just so long as they get strong enough to stop us." I folded my arms. "Well, when you put it that way, it sounds like we're pretty much screwed." "It won't be easy, make no mistake about that." She stated, "But not impossible. The Goldoans are still a powerful weapon that Celestia has no match for, save for those lumbering light beasts. What we could really use is some expendable summons of our own..." She cast a quizzical glance at the historian sitting by the stairs, almost a glare. Xekora sighed heavily. "Make it worth my while, and I'll give you an army of Stalfos. It's becoming apparent that I can't be uninvolved, but I want to keep things strictly business. I'll need the mother of all secrets to record in my books, though." We all thought silently for a few minutes, then Twilight smiled. "Tell me, Xekora, did sir Starswirl ever teach you the technique behind his energy spell?" The historian's eyes widened in interest, and he shook his head. Twilight's response was to call up a ball of magenta, element-less magic in the palm of her hand. Xekora remained motionless for a few seconds, then he tossed a small core of darkness into the floor, which began to widen. "Please, someone fight this summon and tell me if it is to your liking." From the pool of darkness on the floor, a pale figure began to rise, and after a second I realized it was in fact a skeleton. Its only equipment was a small round shield and a slightly notched scimitar. It seemed to have similar anatomy to a human, but it was slightly too short, it's skull too round, for it to be true human remains. Lord Blake stood, his own scimitar drawn, and he and the skeleton circled each other in the dance of a duel. The animated bones lunged forward, Blake dodged around the strike, and he spun around and slapped it on the back with the flat of his blade. The skeleton turned and swung in for an overhead strike, but Blake parried the hit and kicked its chest in, breaking it apart an causing it to fade back in a puff of darkness. "Not the strongest, but I couldn't expect that." the young Lord assessed, "We don't need strong, just cheap and plentiful." Xekora clapped his hands together. "Then the Stalfos knights are your men! I can make a dozen of the blokes in an hour. They may not be the most heroic thing to be comprising your army, but it's not like they're monsters. They'll follow orders. So, what do you say? Do we have a deal?" Twilight nodded. “I’m sure my ancestor would understand the necessity. I’ll begin transcribing immediately. How many of these... Stalfos, can you make?” Xekora shrugged. “Depends on when you’re planning on laying siege to the fortress. I would say that a week would be an intelligent amount of time, for all your human fighters to recover their strength, and it would give me enough time to bring at least a thousand, perhaps fifteen hundred, into temporary existence.” Octavia nodded thankfully. “Thank you, sir Xekora. In addition to our three hundred and twelve surviving human soldiers, we should now stand a solid chance of victory.” “Well, you heard him.” Lyra stated. “Everyone take a week to rest, but don’t let your skills get dull. Even with a thousand bags of bones fighting for us, we’re still going to have a rough time of it. I’m going to gather the residents of town and everybody, and tell them the plan.” Lyra strode out of the library, and I turned to Xekora quizzically. “Are you really trying to stay neutral here? You seem pretty eager to help.” Xekora sighed heavily. “It’s... more complicated than that. I made a promise, long ago... to the six original Elements of Harmony, to Princess Luna and the old Celestia, and to myself... You would have too if you were responsible for making things much worse than they should have been by getting involved. Had I just minded my own business, Celestia would never have known to use the Quest Bed, and she wouldn’t have achieved immortality... And in addition, I want the people of the future to be ready. They need to be able to live without an all-powerful entity ruling over their lives for all eternity. That is why I will not fight. But I will make an effort to set right the things I set into motion long ago.” ________________ I should have been thankful for the time we were given to recover, as we had all suffered, either physically or emotionally, but all I could do was worry. The hours crawled by as we continued the regular training drills, not allowing anyone's skill to drop in even the slightest. Whatever time I had left over, I spent with what was now unquestionably my family, and we tried our best to enjoy our time together despite the circumstances surrounding us. No matter how many times I brought it up, neither Applebloom nor Scootaloo would even consider leaving for safety. I convinced myself that it would be better with me watching their backs than them hiding out on their own, and it made me feel a little better. Just as before the siege, the days ticked by as an eternity, but seemed all too short when I looked back. Before I knew it, the eve of action was upon us once again. All of our most essential belongings were packed up to be taken with us. In the morning, everyone in town would begin marching for Fortress Apollo, and would make camp just beyond the line of sight of their patrolmen, with the army of Stalfos knights a short distance behind us. Helpful, definitely, but it would be hard for anyone to sleep with a bunch of skeletons walking around outside. Everyone remaining in town would come with us, including those who could not fight, as we couldn't afford to divide our forces. The non-fighters would simply stay back at camp. I was glad for this decision for two reasons: it would be much easier to keep everyone safe, and Granny Smith would make sure the army ate well. "You all ready to go?" I asked the next morning, after a universally sleepless night, and hefted my pack over my shoulder. Everything I needed- a tent for me and Scootaloo, armor, clothing and a few other odds and ends- was stored within. Even so, I had packed light. Applejack slung another pack onto her back and nodded wordlessly. She and I, accompanied by Applebloom, Scootaloo and Granny Smith, made our way out of the Acres and to the fields outside of town, where the rest of the army was waiting. A few humans had already arrived, but many were still getting ready. A short distance across the field stood the massive troupe of skeletal soldiers, before which stood Xekora. I placed my pack on the ground next to Applejack's, and walked over to him. "So, what's your grand total? How many bags of bones will be fighting for us?" "Approximately twelve-hundred fifty," he said simply, "give or take a few. This is compared to the six hundred or so professional Eclipse soldiers that ought to be waiting for us at Fortress Apollo. I think you may just stand a chance, if you ask me." "It is reassuring." I thanked him, "Still, we're going to have to fight smart if we want to have any humans left to take the capital. We need all four resistance factions, a four-pronged attack, to even have a hope of cracking that nut. Plus a bunch more Stalfos knights. Can they be ordered to avoid hurting civilians?" He sighed. "I can order them to only target people in white and silver armor. If someone's wearing normal clothes in those colors, they'll just have to be intelligent enough to stay out of the Stalfos's way. They are just fake animated skeletons, you see, not much inherent intelligence in them." I nodded, then moved back to the others. We waited for around an hour before every last person had arrived, and after Octavia gave us some inspiring words to keep our spirits high, we began our bloody march. ____________ Manehattan, That Evening Phil Another shiver wracked the young human phoenix's body. For almost two weeks, Phil had been all but useless, his current life cycle coming to a close. He had wanted so badly to speak to Twilight during one of the conferences through the sending stones, to tell her that he loved her and would be with her soon, but he simply lacked the strength. However, he could feel that this pain was almost over, and that tonight, just in time, he would be reborn into his most strong and healthy state. Spike sat by his bedside, having no other duties to attend to, and Trixie made sure to check up on him every once in a while. Things were busy in the small safe house, as the next phase of the rebellion was soon to begin. The numbers in the Manehattan resistance force were still pitifully small, so they had to come up with a different sort of plan. Under the cover of this night, each member of the resistance would branch out throughout the city, stealthily killing any royal soldiers in sight and hiding the bodies. Everyone already knew where they needed to go, and if all went well, the city would be under Moonlight's control by the break of dawn, and its residents would be left wondering whether a fight even took place. “You alright, Phil?” Spike asked, sensing his discomfort. "Yeah, I'll be alright..." Phil responded. "Ugh... Feels like it could be any minute now, I feel like crap..." "Hang in there, kiddo." Spike reassured him. "Well, I mean... You know. You'll be alright, and once your new cycle begins, we'll go show those Eclipse bastards what we little guys- heck, what we Laguz- are made of!" Phil nodded gratefully, not particularly needing reassurance, but glad that someone familiar was there beside him. He often forgot that he and Spike had a bond that most other people in Equestria didn't: that both knew how it felt to see through the eyes of another, animalistic body, but that was still just as much theirs as their human ones. It was Spike that had taught Phil to use and control this gift embedded in his blood. Another heavy shiver passed through Phil, and he groaned. "A-alright, get me on the floor. I-I can feel it coming." Spike obliged him and lifted the sickly young boy off of his cot and placed him on a clear patch of ground, where his flames would have nothing to set ablaze. A few other resistance members cast curious and concerned glances at him, but Spike assured them that there was nothing to worry about, and that this was supposed to happen. Phil suffered through a few more convulsions, and with a sudden cry of pain, the human phoenix burst into flames on the floor. His old body quickly disappeared in the blaze, leaving only a pile of ashes in its place. Just as the last wisp of flame was departing, a fresh, new hand shot up from the ashes, followed by the rest of the boy. His hair and wings once again carried the same shine of life that made them resemble the flames they had just arisen from. Phil hurriedly slipped a set of clothes on, and Spike clasped him on the shoulder. "Good to see you well, kid. Now, let's go mess up those Eclipse soldiers." Phil nodded with a devilish grin on his face, and the pair moved outside, where the rest of the tiny force was waiting. Spitfire still wore her Order cloak, almost blending in perfectly with the night, and the rest of the Wonderbolts had donned normal street clothes to avoid suspicion. Trixie still stubbornly wore her black mage ensemble, and the other fifteen or so men and women wore the same clothes they always did. "You two guys ready to help take the city?" Spitfire asked, taking charge. Her iconic battle axe had been switched out for a normal, cheap iron one to stay under some level of cover, but she still carried it confidently and heroically. All the other rebels carried iron as well, or in a few cases, unadorned steel, and minimal armor. "As we'll ever be." Spike answered, hands on the hilts of his twin knives. The whole group gave silent confirmation that they were all prepared, and the twenty-five rebels all set off in different directions, stealing off in the night to overthrow the second largest city in Equestria.