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Prelude: Incoming!2,514 words
Chapter One: Seeking Sanctum1,516 words
Chapter Two: Exploits2,297 words
Chapter Three : Not Everything Goes As Planned2,383 words
Chapter Four: Jerryrigging2,881 words
Chapter Five: Preparing for War3,905 words
Chapter Six: A Battle Breaks the Night3,900 words
Chapter Seven: Skirmish6,933 words
Chapter Eight: Mare in the Machine6,871 words
Chapter Nine: To War!6,244 words
Chapter Ten: An Age Old Battle4,534 words

Chapter Nine: To War!

*AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!*

The scream pierced the expectant silence of the project Red Bird safe room. Everypony jerked at the sudden noise.

*WOOMP!*

Rainbow Dash fell on the ground, quickly discovering that fully finalized particles are affected by gravity. The sudden surprise of the movement stopped her screaming, instigating her to look around.

Her face was pure surprise.

“What the hay....” Rainbow rubbed her head, blinking several times at the smiling ponies that surrounded her. They stayed there.

“Hey Rainbow!” Pinkie’s face suddenly occupied Rainbow’s range of view. Pinkie grinned a huge, toothy grin. She blinked several times, expectantly staring at the pegasus. “How do you feel?”

“Well, I-” Rainbow started, opening and shutting her mouth several times afterward without uttering a word.

“Because I feel like a PARTY!” Pinkie continued. She removed her face from Rainbow’s line of sight. Rainbow sighed at the silence, but only for a few seconds.

“Hmm, how about black?” Pinkie jerked Rainbow’s head to look at a bowl of black confetti. “Na, too depressing,” the bowl slid off into Pinkiespace. “Oh oh! I know! How about purple?”

“Uh, Pinkie?” Rainbow looked at the pink mare.

“Yes?” Pinkie blinked innocently several times directly in front of Rainbow’s face.

“Could this wait?” Rainbow rubbed her eyes.

“Well duh!” Pinkie rolled her eyes. Rainbow smiled. hopeful that she was off the hook. “This is PARTY planning we’re talking about, it can’t wait!” Rainbow’s face swiftly hit the ground.

“I give up....” she groaned.

“Pinkie?” Twilight stepped in now.

“Oh oh! You want yellow, don’t you!” Pinkie shoved a bowl of yellow confetti in front of the surprised unicorn.

“Well, no, but-” Twilight was cut off.

“How about confetti confetti?” Pinkie quickly replaced the bowl of yellow flakes with multicolored ones.

“Hold yer horses!” Applejack stepped between Pinkie and Twilight. Pinkie stared at the annoyed pony with complete innocence.

“Yes?” she grinned, her pink mane flopped over an eye.

“There ain’t gonna be no party, at least not now,” Applejack stared into the rapidly deflating Pinkie. A loud pop was heard as the pink mare’s bubble burst. “We got some serious business to attend to first, and after they’re done, we can have a party!”

“Well duh!” Pinkie rolled her eyes again. Applejack and Twilight exchanged confused glances. “Why do you think I was planning it now? So we can have it after we do the serious work of planning it!”

“You have got to be kidding me,” Applejack rolled her eyes. Pinkie was rapidly attempting to decide between yellow or purple icing.

“PINKIE!” Twilight shouted. Pinkie stopped, turning to stare at Twilight.

“Yes Twi?” she blinked. A visible sound pulsed through the air each time her oversized eyes batted.

“We just need to calm down, and look at this logically. We have to save Equestria, THEN we get to have your party. Order of operations. And we need your help to save Equestria!” Twilight breathed heavily. “So NO MORE PARTY PLANNING!” With a poof of magic, Twilight appeared next to Pinkie, starting to rapidly push her towards the door. Twilight’s face was set in an angry pattern, her brows furrowed.

The doors slammed shut behind them.

“Well, that was interesting,” Rarity commented.

“Yeah, what’s with her anyway?” Rainbow got to her hooves, trotting over to the others.

“Well, you were sort of, well, absent-” Rarity started, her cheeks going a shade of red as sweat beaded on her brow. You can’t really up and say that a pony’s been dead for a time, now can you?

“Dead,” Applejack stated firmly. “Ya haven’t been ‘absent’ or any other boatload of rotten horseapples, you’ve been dead.” Rainbow gulped.

“Applejack dear-” Rarity started.

“I don’t need no lessons on etiquette not now, at any rate,” Applejack stated flatly. “I’m tactful, if that’s what yer wonderin’, I’m very tactful. Just don’t see a reason to put the facts lightly.”

“Well dear, tactful means-” Rarity attempted to begin again.

“I know what tactful means! Cows get scared if ya just jump on ‘em, ya need ta be tactful, so I really don’t see why you need ta use cow wrangling tactics in all yer fancy Schmacny etiquette classes anyway. Attended one a those once with you; worst ten bits I’ve ever spent.”

“Darling, I only thought-” Rarity began to defend herself, recoiling from the insults on culture that had just met her ears. Rainbow stood beside the bickering ponies, checking her wings, her mane, everything, her eyes wide with surprise the whole time.

“Alright!” Twilight’s voice cut through the argument. Applejack and Rarity turned to look at the approaching unicorn. “Enough arguing.”

“Right,” Rarity looked at Applejack. “It’s just that somepony doesn’t know-”

“Oy!” Twilight cut through, “I said no arguing!”

“Where’s Pinkie anyway?” Rainbow asked, stretching her wings.

“Oh, she isn’t behind me?” Twilight turned to look behind her. She growled. “I swear, that mare is-”

“Superduperwonderfulfantastic!” Pinkie finished, trotting into the party.

“Hey Pinks!” Rainbow called, hovering on her wings. “Sorry about not being so gung ho earlier.”

“That’s ok, Twilight explained everything to me,” Pinkie blinked. “So you’re feeling good now?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow rubbed her neck,her wings beat by her sides. “I’m doing good, just about as good as any living pony does.”

“Hmm,” Pinkie’s head turned upside down. “I know some living ponies that are doing preeeety bad. Or they just aren’t happy. I should throw them a party!” She leaped up in the air. Everyone glared at her. “After this, I mean,” Pinkie lowered herself back to the ground smiling widely.

“Right, well,” Twilight took control. “Let’s move the antics to the lounge, everypony.” The group moved towards the door; walking, bouncing, and hovering. All focused on one common goal: walking, bouncing, and hovering.

------

“What’s the reason?” Chem Tech walked down the hallway in her nightgown, rubbing her bleary eyes. She had been summoned at five AM that morning, to a “Code Magenta Intel Discovery”.

“We’ve got a problem, ma’am,” one of the many interns working in CEL walked alongside her.

“There better be. Code magenta shouldn’t be called without a damn good reason. At least not a five in the morning.” She rubbed her eyes, yawning. “Was up until twelve last night working on designs of Pinkie Pie’s mech. This had better be big.”

“It is ma’am, I assure you it is,” the intern hurriedly. They stopped in front of a metal door, Chem Tech yawned again as she put her hoof in the scanner. A blue light shined on it and then the door swung open.

“Enough with the foreshadowing. What’s the problem?” Chem Tech asked, obtaining a more awake air.

“Well, our radar data shows that,” the intern gulped, “Canterlot, ma’am... It’s under attack.”

“Great. Well, that was worthy of waking me up to tell me. Nopony loses their heads this time,” she muttered under her breath.

“What was that ma’am?” the pony inquired.

“Nothing nothing,” Chem Tech slipped on a lab coat. “Now, I believe we have a war to fight.” The intern nodded. Chem threw open the door to the monitoring room and stepped in with an important air. Her horn glowed as a clipboard and pen hovered towards her, only stopping once about five inches from her face.

“Chem Tech!” one of the scientists leaped up, “We have an actual war on our hooves!”

“Yes,” Chem Tech nodded, “I am aware. We need the second in command from Shining Armor down here immediately. As you know, we are scientists, not generals.”

“Yes ma’am!” the pony threw a fake salute.

“Oh, and you can stop that,” Chem Tech added.

“Yes ma’am!” the pony threw another fake salute, grinning slightly.

“Alright then... uh, private! Be off and execute your mission!” Chem Tech smiled a little. Jenny always had a tendency to go a little into character on things, so basically the only known way to stop her was to play along until she returned to her normal self.

Jenny walked out of the room, the door slammed behind her.

“How’s the fabricating of the other mechs going?” Chem asked, walking over to chief of fabrication operations sitting at his desk. The stallion looked up from his coffee cup.

“Very well. The rigged second lathe we have going is holding, we only have Pinkie’s to finish before they’re all out,” he replied, stretching his wings a little. Being a pegasus with a desk job is never very comfortable, but he loved what he did.

“Good. Is Rainbow Dash’s replacement mech ready?” Chem Tech asked, curious.

“Well, considering we just discovered we’ll be needing it about three hours ago, it’s almost complete, just give us about fifteen minutes,” he turned back to his monitor and unhooked a radio from the wall next to him. “Status report on mech BETA mk 2.”

“Status on mech BETA mk 2, fabrication ninety percent complete. Estimated ETA, fifteen minutes,” a data officer stated flatly. The radio stopped crackling with reception after the voice stopped. The stallion turned to look at Chem Tech, who was checking more things on her endless clipboard.

“Thank you,” she stated and moved to the next pony she needed to talk to. “Recon report, please,” she asked a mare standing by her desk, gently tapping a keyboard with her hooves. Keyboarding with hooves is different, somewhat magical, as we think. In Equestria, it’s just another one of those ‘things’ that we’d call anyone senile around here if they did it.

“Canterlot is about to suffer collateral and direct damage from a staged assault, Chem,” the mare said seriously, looking at a map on the screen in front of her. Little dots moved and flickered on a map of Equestria, displaying movement of the enemy’s troops.

“Alright,” Chem Tech scribbled a few more things onto her list, “Estimated size of the clashing forces?”

“About five hundred each, at least,” the mare replied, her blue mane falling over one eye. The insubordinate strand of hair was swiftly removed from her cornea by a strong updraft of air, originating from her mouth. Chem Tech whistled a little as she jotted down the numbers.

“Thank you,” she walked to the next pony on her list. Jenkins of the royal guard first class (general’s division) stood straight up in her presence. Well, not actually straight up, that’s Lyra’s job, but attentive.

“Chem Tech, ma’am!” he saluted. Chem blushed a little.

“You outrank me, general, I should salute you. Jenkins, sir!” she threw a salute as well. Both remained stone faced during this exchange.

“At ease,” the general relaxed in his posture slightly. Chem Tech nervously moved a little... She was never ‘at attention’ in the first place.

“Please, follow me,” she began to walk out of the room. Jenkins followed. “We have a war room just around this bend.”

“So we have a war to fight?” the royal guard first class (general’s division) asked, following the Chem Tech around the bend.

“Yes,” Chem Tech said, “On epic proportions.”

“Woohoo!” the general half shouted in glee. Chem Tech glared at him, he shrank under the stare. “I mean, right, yes, sorry about that, hope I can help end it as soon as possible....”

“We’re here,” Chem Tech said flatly. The duo walked into a dimly lit room; a glowing green board in the center illustrated the battlefield. It was the Canterlot and Crystal Empire areas, hovering in a hologram like state. Different colored and different sized dots moved about on it, masses here and there. Appaloosa also showed up on the map, to the west of Ponyville. A large concentration of dots signaled a base there, and likewise in Canterlot.

“Wow,” the general whistled a little as he looked over the projection. “So I assume those dots are enemy troop movements?”

“Yes,” Chem Tech explained, “Radar information is fed straight into this map, providing a live time feed of enemy movements. You can plot our movements by simply dragging your hoof along the landscape you wish to mark.”

The general digested this information for a second, churning over in his battle hardened mind like butter in a grinding stone: It’s small, and whenever you get a good hold on it it slips. He never did very well in academics, but he had a natural knack for battle planning, even had a cutie mark for it. A map with a couple of red pins and lines on it.

“Got it,” he looked intently at the map, walking around it. The dots moved about, forming formations, flanks, phalanxes and many other battle formations the general recognized. The two sides staging was like an intricate game of chess, except each side knew the other too well. They dodged and weaved, imagining what the other would do, checking the radar data, examining the environment, checking the radar data. The ranks were pretty set, but units still went to and fro, finding special places among the armies.

“Good lord,” he muttered, pacing around the map. “Ok,” he started to formulate a plan. “We’ll need snipers here, a flank of tanks and artillery here and here, some air cover fire...”

------

“Ok, we’re here,” Twilight pushed open the doors to the lounge. Two other ponies occupied seats, reading newspapers. A reader of the magazine ‘Clop Daily’ looked up with a cigar in his mouth.

“Heya little ladies,” he said. As he spoke, small wisps of gray smoke curled out of his mouth and found their way to the ceiling. A white hard hat sat on his head, tinted gray from the smoke it had endured.

“We aren’t little, we’re, well, medium sized!” Pinkie bounced up to the stallion. “Is that a pipe you’re smoking? Cool! But you really need to get better at making bubbles, they shouldn’t be all wispy like that! Here, I’ll show you!” She reached for the cigar.

“Pinkie!” Twilight shouted, her horn starting to glow. Pinkie’s hoof was surrounded in a glow and dragged back to the group of friends, bringing its owner with it.”

“Aw,” Pinkie stood up, the rude surprise of her hoof being pulled back where it was supposed to be wearing off. “But I was going to show him how to- ooooh, look at that!” Twilight turned to look where her friend was pointing, only to be greeted by grandfather clock.

“What’s that doing here?” she asked, looking at the archaic machine. It’s gears ground on, slowly, uncomplaining. The pendulum swung back and forth, as if trying to escape the constant stare of a certain pink mare.

Rarity sidled up to Twilight and coughed. “I don’t see why they shouldn’t try to at least put a little bit of culture into a place like this,” she looked at the concrete ceiling, tsking in distaste. “And a grandfather clock is a NOBLE machine. All the finest homes in Ponyville have one.”

“Uh, hon?” Applejack addressed Rarity. “Ya know that it looks like it’s been through three world wars, one of Twilight’s tantrums (Hey!) and a timberwolf attack, right?” It was true. The ‘noble machine’ had hole here and there, the paint was scratched, and the wood look like it predated Celestia.

“Well,” Rarity stuttered a little, “Age makes everything classier.” She turned a fluffed her hair at Applejack, closing her eyes and emitting a ‘huff’ noise.

“Just wanted to make sure that you knew an’ all. Hey!” Applejack dashed to the back of the room, eyeing a rainbow tail dangling from the ceiling. “Wh- you- think- you’re doin’?” she asked Rainbow Dash as she held onto the pegasus’s tail.

“Just being awesome,” Rainbow replied nonchalantly, looking down at her captor. “Would you mind letting go?”

“What in the hay are you doing?” Applejack asked around the tail in her mouth.

“I told you, being awesome,” Rainbow sighed, “Do I really have to get all technical about what awesome means?”

“You know right well what I meant,” Applejack gave a firm tug to the tail, “Now what were you doing?” Rainbow landed with a thump after the jerk of the tug pulled her loose.

“I was duct climbing,” she got up, rubbing her head a little.

“What’s that?” Applejack narrowed her eyes. Rainbow opened her mouth, but before she could speak, interruption on four hooves bounced over giggling.

“Silly! You can’t climb ducks!” Pinkie said, wrapping a hoof around Rainbow. “Well, you can, but you need a really big duck, or a really small pony…” Pinkie scratched her chin in thought, her face screwed up with effort.

“What is duct climbing?” Applejack asked again, ignoring the intruder.

“You climb ducts,” Rainbow replied, recovering herself from laughing at Pinkie’s misinterpretation. “It was big at the Wonderbolts Academy. You fly up through a vent, and then navigate the building through the tunnels!”

“Ok, that is kinda awesome when you think about it,” Applejack looked at the duct. Before she could continue her train of thought further, three guards burst into the room.

“I believe this is yours?” one of the guards walked up to Twilight, holding a very angry dragon by the tail.

“Whattaya think you’re doing! Twilight won’t let you get away with this! Oh, great,” Spike said, crashing to the ground as the guard let go of him.

“Spike?!” Twilight cried in surprise.

“What, think I’d miss out on all the fun?” the little dragon got up, rubbing his neck with a claw. “‘Cept big fella here said I’m a pet! How stupid is that! I’m not a pet, I’m a dragon! And I don’t belong to you, I just choose to live with you….”

“Oh Spike,” Twilight laughed a little, rubbing Spike on the head. “Don’t let them scare you, they’re only doing their jobs. And you aren’t a pet to me,” she added, embracing the little reptile.

“And then they were all ‘you can’t come down here’ and I was all ‘yes I can’,” Spike went on. “And then I flamed one of them in the kneecap-”

“You what?!” Twilight looked at Spike in shock.

“I flamed a guard in the kneecap,” Spike said, unaffected by Twilight’s horror. “What?”

“I suggest you use better means of containment of that… that thing,” one of the guards said, pointing at Spike. His kneecap was bandaged and the edges showing were black.

“I am so sorry,” Twilight apologized to the guard. “He just gets a little mad sometimes, I’m sure I can fix up that knee in a jiffy-”

“That will not be necessary,” the guard stated, “I have an appointment with the palace doctor as soon as my shift is over.”

“I’m so sorry,” Twilight said again as the guards walked out of the room.

“You had better be,” the injured one grumbled before the door slammed shut. Twilight turned and stared at Spike, a serious eye in her glare.

“Spike, I don’t want you flaming anypony!” Twilight said, rage in her voice.

“I’m sorry Twi. Its just they were keeping me from seeing you and I really wanted to see you because we haven’t talked much in the last few days and all, and I just got so mad-” suddenly, he broke into tears. “Don’t send me to a kennel!” He groveled in front of Twilight, pouting. Twilight’s stern face softened.

“I’d never send you to a kennel, Spike,” she nuzzled his neck, “It’s just I don’t want you to hurt anypony.”

“Alright, thanks Twi,” Spike looked up and smiled. Everypony in the room let off an ‘aw’ at the heartwarming scene. Everypony, that is, except the smoking hard hatted stallion.

“What, you ALL lost on the slots?” he asked grumpily, “Bunch o’ stickin’ losers is what I’m sittin’ with……”

“Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity!” a voice cut through the heat of the glares directed at the smoking stallion. The door was thrown open and two guards marched in. “Chem Tech, Princess Cadence, and other authorities of the crown, request ye to appear in the briefing room as soon as possible!” The scroll he was reading from snapped shut, and the duo prepared to leave.

“Excuse me, but where’s the briefing room?” Twilight asked, raising a hoof. The guards stopped. Then very slowly one of them turned his head and answered.

“Down the hall to the left,” he said grumpily. “There goes our exit,” he grumbled to the other guard as they walked out of the room.

“You heard him gals!” Applejack called, galloping to the door, “Down the hall to the left!” She swung the door open a charged through, the others following in her wake… the others, except Fluttershy.

“Come on Fluttershy!” Rainbow groaned, pushing the yellow pegasus towards the door.

“No! I mean, no thank you,” Fluttershy said in her soft voice, “Do they actually want us to FIGHT? As in, you know, kill things?” She flinched as she said the word ‘kill’. Rainbow rolled her eyes as she pushed Fluttershy closer to the door.

“Yes. They actually want us to kill things,” she stated, “But we have to, Flutter!”

“I know, but, there has to be another way!” Fluttershy said, defiantly taking a stance in front of her pushing friend.

“Well, there isn’t! So you better come along!” Rainbow started pushing again.

“What in the hay are you two doing?” Twilight’s voice cut through the scene. Her head was poked in the door, and a confused look on her face.

“Fluttershy- *umph* -doesn’t want to- *umph* -come to the- *screech!* -meeting because she doesn’t want to- *umph* -save Equestria!” Rainbow explained between pushes and small nods and ‘eek!’s from Fluttershy.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Well, that’s her problem, and we certainly shouldn’t be shoving her around, shouldn’t we? That must hurt.”

“Oh yes,” Fluttershy turned to show Twilight her red behind. Twilight flinched. “But I really don’t want to kill things, I just can’t!”

“Well, these don’t have thorns in their paws, they aren’t even made out of flesh!” Twilight shouted, exasperated by her friend’s perpetual kindness. “They’re a bunch of hostile pony killing monsters that are going to destroy Equestria by accident if we don’t obliterate them!”

“By accident?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yes, by accident! They only want to fight each other; damage they do to the environment is a bi-product.”

“So they aren’t mean, they’re just inconsiderate” Fluttershy pondered, pressing for more facts. Twilight growled.

“They are mean! They want to kill the other side! But they always destroy things out accidentally in the process,” Twilight explained, beads of sweat forming on her brow.

“So maybe we can just tell them to settle their diff-” Fluttershy began. A glow surrounded her lips and they clamped shut.

“They’ve been fighting for four-thousand years! They can’t be reasoned with!” she growled again, staring at Fluttershy. Suddenly, Fluttershy found herself floating in the air, surrounded in a bubble of magic. “Come on,” Twilight said, walking out of the room, Fluttershy following her, bobbing slightly in the sphere of purple energy. “You’re going to destroy some insentient pieces of metal if it’s the last thing you do!”

And that statement had the possibility to be sadly correct.

------

“Commanders, we have a green light on launch. Proceed.” Chem Tech’s voice crackled on the six radios, signaling the first launch of war Equipment since the test runs. Twilight sat, braced in her command seat, face set with determination, as she began the walk sequence.

Pinkie Pie sat, a smile on her face, breathing heavily through her filter. The buttons and joysticks around her worked in physics defying unity. All the while, she giggled, pressing only a few buttons with her actual hooves.

Rarity’s horn glowed from inside her helmet. The blue magic twisted it’s way around any control that didn’t move fast enough. That would be all of them, because controls don’t move. She sat with grit and determination in her face… Determinedly trying to straighten her mane.

Applejack’s hooves flashed around the cabin, manipulating levers at an impressive rate. Tactical control was enabled, as was on all of them, and Applejack was taking her orders as the director and manufacturer of land armies pretty seriously.

Rainbow Dash grinned as she queued a row of aircraft plants into her mech’s database. Fluttershy meekly poked at a few buttons, a nervous wreck.

“Fluttershy,” Twilight’s voice was heard on the meak pegasus’s radio. “We need to do this, or they will KILL your animals!” Fluttershy’s eyes shot open at this remark, her hooves frozen with realization.

“They- They would?” she stammered. A growing rage blossomed in her.

“Yes,” Twilight confirmed, “Along with everypony and everything else you care about!”

“They can destroy mountains,” Fluttershy heaved, “But they. Will. Not. Touch. My. Animals!!!!” Suddenly, Fluttershy’s cabin was filled with the flashing of a determined pony. She worked the joy stick and touch screen of her tactical display like an overused amassment park. Solar panels, geothermal power plants, wind generators, these all were queued with a new anger, a new rage that Fluttershy had befallen to.

And in the circumstances, it was not only necessary, but essential to the progress of the plan.

Everyone worked. Hard. A base erupted out of nowhere, sprawling out of the boundaries of the Crystal Empire. Robots patrolled the edges, fighters flew overhead, and numerous defense towers imposed on the landscape. The team had left advancement to tech level two far behind, already beginning to populate their base with advanced radar stations, advanced unit facilities, and advanced Diamond Dogs-metal extractors.

The work divided among the parties made the laborious work by a single commander in hours into only fifteen minutes.

“Air factories are up!” Rainbow called.

“Great,” general Jenkins’s serious voice said, “Get a patrol of ‘Pegasi’s Lance- Fighters’ up.”

“You got it, general!” the aircraft factories unfolded. Four nanolatheing turrets emerged from compartments around the circular structure of the factory. In the center, a stretch of runway sat, a turntable on it turning with the green form of a fighter on it. Nanolathe from the turrets swathed over the fighter, layer after layer of particles assembled themselves. Eventually, the fighter took to the air, patrolling around the vast boundaries of the base. It was a lone sight, but soon three more followed it, then three more, until there was a thick cloud of fighters patrolling the air.

“Nuclear power plant is under construction,” Fluttershy stated, her voice angry but calm.

“Great, I’ll send over some construction units to help it go along,” Twilight said, and ten slow flying aircraft meandered over, green nanolathe emitting from their bottom. They circled the green outline of the plant, building, helping.

“Yeehah!” Applejack called, glee in her voice, “We’ve got yer army, general!” Rows of metallic robots covered the ground in front of the yellow mech, their weapons folded and their eyes blazing red.

“Good,” Jenkins stated, “We need some gun ships from Rainbow Dash, and then we can mobilize.”

“You got it!” advanced aircraft plants unfolded, and twenty brawlers appeared down the row of factories.

“We can do this,” Twilight told herself, “We will do this, and we will. Not. Fail.”

Meanwhile, in Canterlot:

The dust cleared. The Jethro packed it’s weapon back up again, the loud mechanical clink resonating across the silent landscape. Luna plunged off of the balcony, her mind still processing what had just happened.

There was a loud explosion, a fireball engulfing her sister, and then a thump as Celestia hit a nearby hill. Luna unfurled her wings, accelerating with all her might towards where her sister fell. She remained low, under the peak of the mountains so the anti-air fire couldn’t reach her.

“Sister?” Luna alighted next to the smoking crater. The smoke was not smoke, it was dust. Luna’s horn glowed and the dust was quickly shoved aside, allowing for the princess of the night to see her sister. She gasped.

Celestia lay sprawled on the ground, her mane was thin and her mouth was lined with blood. Her chest rose and fell in uneven breaths, her face tensed with pain. One of her legs was completely broken off, and the others were bleeding rapidly and looked broken.

“Celestia!” Luna raced towards the princess, jumping over the singed white flesh that scattered the ground. One of Celestia’s eyes opened in a display of extreme effort.

“Lu- Lulu?” she groaned, blood falling from her mouth as she spoke. Luna quickly examined her sister.

“You’re badly hurt, you need to heal, NOW!” Luna shouted, fear and rage overwhelming her.

“Lulu, I’m- I’m trying,” Celestia choked. Her horn was splintered on the tip, but the fibers valiantly reassembled themselves, surrounded in a faint yellow glow.

“Good,” Luna quickly looked around. She cringed as she saw Celestia’s other leg lying on the ground a short distance away. Her horn glowed and the appendage floated over, surrounded in deep blue magic.

“We need to get you to the doctor,” Luna’s horn barely stopped glowing before the two and the leg were teleported straight into the doctor’s office in Canterlot. Doctor Reed leaped up from his desk in surprise, looking at the two deities that had appeared in his office.

“What the- Oh shit,” he raced over to Celestia, picking her head up in his hooves as he examined her. “Stay with her, try to stop the bleeding,” the doctor cried, bucking the door open with his head. He shot down the hall.

Immortal alicorns are not immortal. They merely have the ability to use incredible healing magic, the kind of magic that can seamlessly reattach legs. An alicorn can die, like all ponies, but they need to be seriously wounded to do so.

Celestia’s horn at this point had stopped repairing itself, and she moved onto the dismembered leg. The white leg was surrounded in a yellow shroud as it wiggled across the floor. Luna picked it up and set it next to the socket.

Luna’s horn glowed, clotting the blood flowing from the gashes that her sister suffered from. Suddenly, the door was flung open and Dr. Reed galloped in, followed by several orderlies guiding a gurney.

Luna lifted Celestia onto the gurney, her horn fizzling with levitation and clotting spells. Bandages were wrapped around Celestia’s legs as the team rushed through the hallway.

“I need a some donated blood, type A,” Dr. Reed shouted to a few nurses as he passed with the team towards the ICU. “Get some magical specialists down here!”

Luna followed close behind, her face serious. Inside, she was angry. Angry, but fearful.

“Anypony here an expert on healing badly injured alicorns!” Dr. Reed shouted through a communication spell maintained by a unicorn orderly.

Celestia’s leg dragged closer to it’s point of origin, the bonds of flesh already beginning to form. Bandages prevented bleeding from other points in her body, mostly at any rate.

“Almost there,” Dr. Reed said, “Keep changing those bandages!”

The door to the ICU was thrown open and the band of ponies around the gurney charged in. Dr. Reed barked orders at the attending nurses and doctors, but Luna didn’t listen.

“Tia,” she breathed. The white form was surrounded by doctors, trying to keep her from bleeding to death before she healed. “I am so sorry.”

“She’s got internal bleeding!”

“Damn, we need to butterfly this!”

“Stitches, we need stitches!”

“Heart rate is decreasing!”

“CLEAR!”

*ZZZAP!*

“Heart rate stabilized.”

Luna sighed as the chatter in the room became overwhelming. Celestia’s leg would take awhile to heal, even with alicorn magic, and her natural instincts saw it as the biggest threat to her life.

So it was up to the doctors to keep a heavily damaged alicorn alive until the healing magic could move on. Luna wanted to help, but external healing magic can mess up the internal compass of an alicorn’s instincts to heal, and possibly render the alicorn unable to heal herself at all.

Luna turned away from the mass of worried doctors and slowly walked to her room, her head dipped low with fears for her sister. It was time to raise the moon.

-----

“Princess? Ow…” the familiar sound of Shining Armor’s voice wafted over Luna’s ears. She opened her eyes in surprise.

“Come in, Shining Armor,” she called. The door clicked open as the stallion entered, rubbing his head. Luna sat on her bed, hooves tucked under her black torso.

“Hi princess! Ow,” Shining rubbed his head again, sitting down in the nearest chair. Luna sadly noted that his head was devoid of horn.

“We see you hath lost your horn,” Luna caught herself. “Sorry, I’ve just been very stressed lately, I hope you-”

“Believe me princess, I’m the last one to judge,” Shining said seriously. “About returning to my duties as royal guard…”

“Aye,” Luna’s mane floated about next to her, “We believe that you do need rest, was that not what doctors stated?”

“Yes, that was what they said,” Shining sighed, “Plus I am a little shocked at, well, losing what I earned my special talent on.”

“We see your dilemma,” Luna nodded, “Oops.”

“I said that’s ok, princess,” Shining nodded.

“Thank you, well. Now when did they say you can go back to work?” Luna asked, folding the book up with her magic and floating over to the bookshelf.

“Uh, about that…”

“Yes?”

“They said I should retire.” Luna looked on in shock. Retire?

“That would put general Jenkins in charge,” she sighed, “And he’s in the Crystal Empire.”

“I don’t want to retire, princess,” Shining Armor flinched as another shot of pain fell through his skull. “But it’s- It’s just, well, you know-”

“I know,” Luna nodded, “Being stripped of Nightmare Moon left me feeling empty as well. I could not return to my duties as princess in the full until six months afterwards.”

“Well, I just came to ask your input on the matter of my career,” Shining said earnestly.

“I think,” Luna gulped, “We do have some very good financial coverage programs for retired guards. Cadence earns quite a pretty penny governing the Crystal Empire, um…”

“What are you saying, princess?”

“I think… You should retire.” The room was silent for several seconds, Shining’s dejected form breathing occasionally.

“Great. Fine. See if I care. I’d love to give up the one job I’ve ever loved,” he directed these words at Luna, who gulped. “I’m sure I’ll find joy in sitting around the house at the age of THIRTY!”

“But I didn’t-” Luna protested.

“It’s not your fault, oh no, it’s nopony’s fault except Celestia.” Luna was quiet. “She was the one that was stupid enough to turn the malice of a previously neutral side against us! None of this would have happened if she hadn’t acted all ‘heroic’!

“And I’m not really blaming her, oh no, it’s not like she intended for me to LOSE MY MOTHERBUCKING HORN! She had good intentions and that’s all that matters, right?” he stared at Luna. “WRONG!” he shouted at her ear.

“Shining I-”

“It wasn’t your fault at all, you don’t need to justify yourself! If Celestia recovers from being heroic a second time, I’m splitting her neck!” The room fell to silence as the last echoes of Shining’s threat finished their path around the room.

“Shining Armor,” Luna stepped forward, “I will not allow you to even consider usurping the throne.”

“But you don’t understand,” Shining Armor went on, “She took this from me!” he pointed to his forehead, “I don’t want the throne, you can have it, Hoity Toity can have it for all I care! I just want revenge.”

“Revenge or no, cold blooded murder of ANYPONY is punishable by death,” Luna’s cold glare bore into Shining’s fiery sole.

“Then I’ll die happy,” he turned and strode out of the room, slamming the door behind himself with his hooves.

“It’ll wear off,” Luna sighed and went back to reading her book.

------

In the dim light of consciousness, Celestia was vaguely aware of her surroundings. But it didn’t matter to her. All that mattered was pain.

Far away, deep in the bowels of her soul, a pain struck Commander Twilight Sparkle. Celestia was deeply hurt, and the bond which surreptitiously connected pupal and teacher was hurting. Twilight shook the feeling off, returning to her duties as commander. But something was very wrong in Canterlot, and they were going to get to the bottom of it.

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