The Changeling army took a moment to move towards its command target, merely due to the tremendous size of it. The Changeling’s proceeded to cloud the shield that still blanketed Canterlot, as though in an attempt to suffocate the ponies within it.
Shining Armor kept his shield spell focused, knowing that it was integral to the initial attack of his side. Once Celestia gave Shining Armor the signal, three continuous flares of her wings, Shining Armor dissolved his shield spell entirely, forcing the Changeling’s who had piled upon it in the false belief that it would need to be broken, to fall quickly towards the ponies and other creatures stationed throughout and around Canterlot.
“Roast em!” Everypony heard somepony shout, upon which the volley of dragons in the center of Canterlot unleashed all their contained fire.
The one who commanded the dragons was none other than Spike, as Rarity and Twilight had predicted. Spike now controlled the other dragons he had once feared on many different occasions, aware of his situation both intently and ironically.
Spike had also come to glean a new ability he possessed as a baby dragon born to the most powerful unicorn Equestria had seen since before its founding. Spike began to think of all the ponies that needed him at that particular moment, all the ponies that needed him to grow up and defeat the Changelings. Upon that realization, Spike opened his eyes as they glowed pure green for a second.
Everypony who had witnessed that moment in the battle could never fully explain what they had seen then. Spike rapidly grew, far faster than he had when he had become greedy with birthday presents. Within mere seconds, Spike was larger than half the buildings in all of Canterlot. Once Spike had reached his full size, he unleashed a burst of green flame that brightened even the dark shadow the Changeling Armies had brought with them.
After the initial dragon fire volley, it was the pegasi who were next in line to begin attacking. Led by Rainbow Dash herself, the pegasi who still had the ability to fly flew up to meet the Changelings with speed that disoriented the Changelings greatly. Spitfire was able to attack the Changelings at nearly twice the rate of the rest of the pegasi, helped along by the Wonderbolt’s signature Thunder Stream. Snowflake and Thunderlane also powered through a large number of Changelings on their own. Though each pegasi was functioning on their own amongst the group at large, Rainbow Dash helped to keep them all united as a single force with two distinct goals in mind with the influence of the Element of Loyalty.
Once the pegasi had succeeded in their secondary job of directing groups of Changelings at specific targets within Canterlot, after also dealing a great amount of damage to them as a whole, Twilight, Rarity, and Vinyl Scratch began their respective attacks.
Twilight led a group of the strongest magic users Equestria had to offer, strengthened further with the help of the Element of Magic. Trixie duplicated everypony successfully multiple times, at last allowing the ponies to fight at even numbers with the Changelings. Twilight let loose the spell Pinkie had made her use against the Changelings last time, feeling all of her copies use it as well, to great affect among all the Changelings. Blueblood was also able to decimate quite a large number of the Changelings on his own, with the occasional bit of backup coming from Shining Armor, Night Light and Twilight Velvet in the form of covering fire and the occasional magical shield.
Rarity led another group of powerful unicorns, these unicorns being less attuned to powerful feats of magic, preferring instead an artistic flair to their magic. The Element of Generosity helped to allow them all more uses of their most powerful spells though. Rarity used her detection spell to co-ordinate large scale attacks by the remainder of the group. Lyra, Flim and Flam, Lemon Hearts, and Holly Dash paved the way for the remainder of the unit, always unleashing the most amazing feats of magic against the Changelings first.
Vinyl Scratch led a group of musical assault ponies, attacking select groups of Changelings and the army as a whole. Sweetie Belle was right up front, magically magnifying her singing so as to disrupt the Changelings and allow others the chance to attack. Twinkleshine and Sea Swirl also assisted with the group, magically applying back-up to the musician ponies that needed it. Octavia stayed near the back with Vinyl Scratch, helping to co-ordinate the magical music attacks of the group and Vinyl herself towards the areas of Canterlot that needed it the most. Pinkie Pie remained in this group as well, the Element of Laughter allowing her to keep everypony inspired and focused on the task at hand.
Up next in the attacks were Applejack and the other remaining earth ponies and injured unicorns and pegasi. Applejack led the group as a whole charging at the various Changelings who dropped to the ground but were not fully defeated by the various other attacks being co-ordinated. Braeburn and Apple Fritter were near the head of the pack and doing quite a bit on their own, but Big Macintosh and Junebug were also doing some damage on their own. Applejack’s Element of Honesty influenced all their attacks to land true, allowing a large amount of Changelings to go down and stay that way.
Last to appear was Fluttershy who arrived with a large variety of help in the form of an Ursa Minor and Major, a cockatrice, some families of Phoenix, several buffalo, a sea serpent, and a manticore. Fluttershy had volunteered to go outside Canterlot last night and attempt to convince some of the nearby Everfree wildlife to assist in their fight. The Element of Kindness had helped Fluttershy explain to the animals both why it would be good if they helped and who not to attack if they did decide to help. Fluttershy herself stayed back from the fight, instead helping the animals to fight properly.
Celestia, Luna, and Cadance also dashed about, unleashing their powerful magic wherever and whenever it would help. Celestia’s magic was extremely powerful and able to not only defeat many Changelings at a time, but also dissolve the magic that allowed the Changelings to take the form of other ponies. Celestia defeated entire portions of the Changeling forces at a time when she unleashed her magic in this battle. Luna raged across the entire city as Nightmare Moon, unleashing her power to bring misfortune upon the very Changelings who had brought misfortune to them here in Canterlot. Luna’s powers of deception as Nightmare Moon also greatly surpassed that of the Changelings, allowing her to infiltrate occasionally and cause internal chaos. Cadance, while not being accustomed to battle, was a great help against the Changeling hordes as well. Cadance’s spell of love was powerful enough to temporarily intoxicate any nearby Changelings, leaving them open to other forms of attack.
Nopony dared to believe it yet, but a feeling was beginning to spread amongst the ponies that they could win this day yet. Nopony had even yet registered that the two enemy figure heads of this battle had yet to enter it personally.
Discord leaned seemingly against the air itself, counting to himself. Chrysalis sat on her haunches, mentally watching the war through her subject’s eyes. It was Discord who spoke up first once he reached counting to 0 from 10,000.
“I think that’s enough time. Shall we show them how truly outmatched they are now?” Discord asked Chrysalis, seeing her eyes flicker open malevolently at the question.
“I agree Discord. Let us show them how foalish they were to ever think that they may win the day.” Chrysalis responded, taking to the air as she did.
Discord proceeded to glide forward to the center of town, seemingly moving the world around him to do so. Once centered in his favorite kind of chaos, Discord released another bout of his chaos by snapping his fingers. Almost instantly, tons of ponies became disorganized and unable to fight. Twilight and the other Bearers also felt the power of the Elements stop, somehow being overpowered by Discord’s stronger influence.
Chrysalis flew to the center of the winged portion of the battle, flitting between various forms and even attacking some of her subject to make the illusion complete to get her where she was needed. Once in the center, Chrysalis resumed her true form, and unleashed her contaminated love. Being the Changeling Queen, when Chrysalis fed on love, she was able to convert it into a near lethal form of magic capable of harming even Celestia in great enough quantities as she had done last time. This attack widely separated and injured many of the ponies, causing even more disorder as the ponies attempted to rejoin those they could fight better with.
After causing the disorder they had wished, both Chrysalis and Discord boomed their laughter across Canterlot to further attack the ponies. The Changeling armies had also managed to regroup in the aftermath of the leaders attacks. Most everypony was cornered or in severe danger.
“Do you all see now how foalish you were to challenge us with your paltry power?” Chrysalis voiced aloud, shaking the city walls themselves with her voice.
“You had no chance to ever defeat us. The fact you did anything at all today was a miracle of our manufacturing.” Discord added, his voice ripping through the ears of everypony.
“You have not one single chance left.” Discord continued, turning to gaze upon Celestia and the now gathered Bearers of the Elements of Harmony.
“We agree. They have six chances left.”
The voice from nowhere spoke as if from the air within Canterlot itself, shocking everypony and creature who heard it. Within moments from when the voice had begun and finished speaking, a large pulsation of light expelled every Changeling from the streets of Canterlot. A second pulse took the Changelings from the sky away. A third pulse healed all the ponies that were injured. A fourth pulse gathered all the ponies into the groups they had been mere moments ago. A fifth pulse removed Chrysalis from the city. And a sixth and final pulse removed Discord from Canterlot’s confines.
Once everypony and creature could properly see again, they saw that a large bulb of light inhabited the areas where each of the six pulses had originated. Each light was quite large, dwarfing even Celestia herself in stature.
Discord and Chrysalis rushed towards Canterlot once they regained their senses, but were quickly rebuffed by yet another pulse of light. Discord was the first to yell in anger.
“What trickery is this? What have you hidden away Celestia?” Discord pointed accusingly at the pony that had sealed him away for the first time.
“It is not Celestia that has brought us here.” A voice spoke up from one of the large bulbs of light, different from the booming one that had spoken moments ago. This voice spoke with a vast intelligence behind its words.
“Indeed. It is six other ponies that called us here.” A second voice spoke from a different bulb of light, this voice being described as artistic to the ear.
“And it is by nothing but our own wills that we are here now.” A third voice continued, speaking from yet another bulb, this voice sounding happy to be speaking.
“I have never seen such magic as this in Equestria before! What are you?” Chrysalis screamed, confused as to what it was that halted her plans this time.
“That’s cause this magic aint from Equestria.” A fourth voice answered Chrysalis, this one sounding more distinguishable from the rest due to its accent.
“This magic is our own. The magic of humans. The magic of Earth.” A fifth voice explained, sounding as though it came to learn all this as it spoke.
“And we are here to save Equestria, and be with those we love and had to leave.” A sixth voice finished, this one sounding exasperated.
As the last voice finished speaking, forms appeared in the bulbs of light, shocking most everypony. The forms in these bulbs were completely alien to all but six very special ponies among all of Celestia and Luna’s subjects. None of the ponies in question darted to say anything though, worried that speaking aloud would destroy the magic happening before them.
As each of the six men within the bulbs awakened and opened their eyes for the first time, they looked once at each other, once at all the ponies around them, once at the Six Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, and once at Discord and Chrysalis before speaking again in the shared booming voice that had announced their arrival in Equestria.
“And nothing you can do will ever stop us from doing just that.”