One Soul, Two Worlds

by Sparkleman

First Strike

We rode to Canterlot on four different chariots drawn by pegisi. The princess were in one, Twi and I in another. The others were divided between the remaining two except for Dash and Trevor who flew themselves. We had been flying for two hours now and were almost to Canterlot.

"It should be another ten minutes 'till we arrive," Celestia shouted to us over the rushing air.

"Where are we landing?" I asked.

"In the place gardens," Luna replied, "we have smiths already waiting to greet you."

"Remember, once we touch down you will be sent to be fitted with armor and weapons," Celestia said, "time is not on our side."

We had close the gap by half when we noticed smoke starting to rise from the city.

"Is everything ok?" I asked Twilight

"Probably just a fire, they happen on..."

Twilight was suddenly cut off by the sound of a roar coming from the city. We looked at each other. I could tell the sisters had fear in their eyes from the sound. I thought fast for out next course of action. I turned to Trevor and Dash.

"Dash, Trevor," I shouted to get their attention, "fly ahead and see what that sound was. We'll meet you in the gardens, you can brief us there."

The two nodded showing their understanding before taking off with ingodly speeds. I looked around, checking out how the others were reacting. The sisters had calmed down, while the rest still seemed to be shaking. As we came closer to the city more columns of smoke began to rise. We touched down right when dash had reached the garden.

"Where's Trevor?" I asked as I jumped from the chariot.

"Right here," he said as he touched down next to me. I let out a breath of relief.

"What's the status?"

We had formed a circle. Celestia sent a guard to fetch a table, a map of the city, and some pens to help us coordinate better.

"Well, it isn't pretty," Trevor began, "we have two manticores, some harpies, and what looked like undead pony warriors terrorizing the town."

"Manticores and harpies, they don't usually leave Everfree Forest, much less come this far out," said Fluttershy.

"I think I can guess why their here," I said. All I got in response was confused looks. I facepalmed before speaking, "really, it's pretty obvious. This is Prometheus's doing. Who else could have done it?"

"If what you say is turn Dylan," Celestia said, "then we need to act fast."

"Already on it sister dear," said Luna as she walked up followed by six ponies dragging carts willed with weapons. Luna also had the table and supplies. I didn't even notice that she left, but I'm grateful she did. "Now, these smiths will fit you quickly."

Everyone/pony went up to a smith to get fitted, while Twilight, the sisters, and I stayed at the table to discuss our next plan of action.

"We should stay in our pairs, it will let us get to know each others strengths and weaknesses better," I said.

"Yes, that is a good plan," Luna replied.

"But we need to know where the creatures are," Twilight mentioned.

"Hey, Trevor, Dash," I said over my shoulder. "Can you come here for a second?"

They walked over to the table. Luckily they had already been fitted. Trevor had a quiver of javelins on his back, was fitted with leather armor, and was carrying what looked to be two short swords at his waist. Dash was plated with a light steel armor and blades along the front of her wings. I have to say, the blacksmiths did a damn good job for the two minutes they had with them.

"Ok you two, were did you see the monsters?"

"The manticores were here, at the Southern Plaza," Dash said pointing to the location on the map. twilight marked it down.

"The harpies were over here to the West," Trevor said. "I was a little confused though, they couldn't really fly, just glide around."

"That would be our defenses," Celestia said.

"What defenses?" I asked.

"My sister and I put some spells up around the city to try to help prevent monsters from getting in," Luna said, "those seemed to have failed but as backup there are spells that restrict flight in canterlot to those with monster blood in their vains for a short time."

"Ok, now where are the undead ponies?" I asked. Trevor pointed to the North-Eastern side of the city. "Great, we're going to have to split up to fight these things. Everybody, over here. Now!"

Everybody gathered around the table as Twilight and I explained the situation. Everyone seemed to be equipped with a variety of weapons. The only two, other than Twilight and me, that didn't have anything was Fluttershy and Andy. I shrugged it off, mainly because of the personality of the two.

"We decided to split into three teams of four," I said, "Andy, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Luke, you will go and face the undead soldiers. Andy, you will be leading your team. Dash, Pinkie, Will, and Trevor, you four have the harpies. Will, I trust that you will be the most collective during you fight, so you the leader. Applejack and Alex, you're with Twilight and me against the manticores. Any questions?"

"Yeah, I have one," said Pinkie, " do harpies like to eat?"

"I believe they do, why?"

"Oh, just because I brought some super delicious cupcakes and was wondering if they would want some."

"Oooook then. Any more questions?" Silence was my answer. "Good, now everyone, good luck out there. Don't die on us now, and may the gods be with you."

"Yea!" Shouted everyone before taking off. Alex and AJ stay to wait for my and Twilight to get equipped. I took a bow and a quiver of steel arrows and dressed in leather armor. I also equipped a short sword just in case. Twilight just put on a robe and sheathed two daggers at her sides. As we walked back to AJ and Alex I saw what they had. Alex was wearing full steel armor, excluding the helmet, and had a claymore on his back. In his had he had a medium sized circular shield and a long sword. Applejack had hard leather armor on with steel spiked boots on her rear hoofs. He front hoofs were bare but she was carrying a short sword in her mouth.

"Lets go hunt down some manticores," I said with a smirk on my face

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North-East Canterlot (3rd Person)

Four shadows, two human and two pony, made their way across the rooftops of Canterlot towards their foes.

"I have a plan," said Andy.

"Well what is it dear?" Rarity asked.

"It's a long shot, but since I'm now blessed by Hades, maybe I can somehow control these beings."

"Good idea," replied Luke, "but we're gonna need a back up plan in case that goes sour."

"Um, I have one, if you don't mind hearing it."

"Of course not Fluttershy," said Rarity, "what do you have in mind?"

"Well, since Luke has a bow, he could, um provide cover from the roofs. Rarity, you could use your magic and sword together to, um, keep them off of Luke. That is if you don't mind."

"That's a brilliant idea Fluttershy," said Andy, "but don't count me out of this fight." Andy proceed to pull out two curved daggers from under his cloak. "I can fight too you know."

Fluttershy's face brightened at this new found discovery. "Well, then, I could use my stare while you finish them off with a decapitation." Everyones face went into a state of shock at Fluttershy's idea. "What, they're hurting innocent ponies, we have to stop them."

Shaking the disbelief of the timid pony's thoughts, Luke noticed they had arrived. "Hey, guys. We're here."

The gang of four stopped on the edge of the roof they were on and looked at the carnage in the plaza before them. There were about twelve ponies cladded with leather armor and a mix between axes and swords. Around them bodies of recently killed ponies were littered across the ground. Blood had been mixed into the central fountain, making the water turn red. Fluttershy held back tears while Rarity held back vomit. Andy and Luke just looked at disgust to the scene before them.

"Luke, over there," Andy said pointing to a nearby rooftop, "get over there with Rarity and get ready to shoot. We're going with my plan, if that fails, I counting on you to get me out of there in one piece."

"Sure, come on Rarity."

Luke and Rarity jumped across two roofs and settled in position. Luke notched his bow and Rarity pulled out the katana she had equipped herself.

"Fluttershy, stay here," Andy said, "I might get injured. I am counting on you to stay here so when I come back you can heal me, ok."

"Ok, I'll try," Fluttershy said still holding back tears.

With that Andy jumped off the roof onto the ground below. The thud sound of his landing made the zompony warriors look at him and slowly advance on his location. He drew his blades just in case his plan failed.

"Hades," Andy murmured under his breath, "if you truly are behind me, please take these monsters away." At that Andy shot his hands forward, yet nothing happened. The zomponies continued there advance. Andy looked up to Luke and was about to give the signal to fire when the ground shook. A chasm opened up under six of the ponies and closed just as fast crushing them into oblivion.

"That is the best I can do," said a voice in Andy's head.

"That's plenty," He replied in his thoughts. He looked up at Luke and yelled, "Now!"

The warrior ponies were stumbling after the chasms opening and closing as the first of Luke's arrows pierced on through the chest. Rarity's sword came down low and chopped off the pony's legs, leaving him unable to move.

As Andy dashed in he yelled, "The head Luke, aim for the head!"

"I know, I know. I'm not as good of a shot as Dylan! Give me a break!" He yelled back.

"Rarity, same goes for you, go for a decapitation."

"Sure darling."

Andy had reached the closest warrior to him. He jumped in the air with blades pointed downward and slammed them right into it's skull.

"One down," Andy thought, "Just five more, holy shit!"

An axe wielding pony had charged Andy as he was pulling his blades out. The axe swung strait down, clipping Andy's left shoulder as he dodged in the nick of time. The pony swung again as Andy started to scrabble to get up, but as cut short as an arrow pierced through it's skull.

"I got your back buddy!" Luke yelled triumphantly.

"Thanks Luke!" Andy replied as he charged the next pony. "Lets get this one together."

"Sure." Twang, another arrow ripped through the air, hitting the sword wielding pony in the flank. The pony turned to see Andy charging and raised it sword to block his blades. Andy struck down hard, but with only the left blade. The right was coming from underneath and slashed the pony through the next, successfully decapitating him.

"I got one, I got one!" Squealed Rarity in delight. Andy had enough time to look over to see the first pony that the rooftop pair had attack now lied without a head.

"Good job, have the guts for another?" Asked Andy.

"Why of course, I am Rarity, the most beautiful and deadly in all of Equestria! HA HA HA!" Yelled rarity with a rather disturbing delight.

"Good, we got two left. Luke, Rarity, get the sword wielder. I got the axepony."

A simple twang of the bow, and an arrow had already gone through the sky and hit the swordspony in the knee. It was quickly followed with a gladius decapitating it. Andy charged the final pony, as it charged him. The pony swung hard right, but andy powerslided underneath the axe and pony. As he slide under the pony he brought his lades us and ripped down the warrior, cutting it in half and spilling blood all over himself. Andy picked himself up as the other three came down from the roofs.

"Are you hurt?" Asked Fluttershy immediately.

"Just a graze to my left shoulder, nothing much though," Andy replied.

"Here let my fix that." Fluttershy pulled out a first aid kit from out of nowhere and began to patch the wound.

"Andy, were did you learn to fight like that?" Asked Luke.

"I took martial arts and jiujitsu for a few years. The swords-play just seemed natural," Andy replied shrugging.

"Ok, I mended the wound," said Fluttershy, "but we should get you to a doctor soon, it seemed to be slightly infected."

"Thanks Fluttershy, I will," Andy replied smiling.

"Well, now that the fun and games are all over, lets get back to the castle. I'm in dire need of a shower," said Rarity.

"Yea, we all need one," Andy replied. The four of them began the return trek back to the castle to debrief.

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West Canterlot-25 minutes before the defeat of the undead warriors. (3rd Person)

"How many harpies did you say you saw?" Asked Will as his group made their way to the western plaza.

"About seven or eight, there could be more though," replied Trevor.

"We'll deal with that later, Pinkie, do you have those cupcakes?"

"I sure do! I also have three super yummy scumptilicious cake as well!" She replied as she hopped from roof to roof.

"Were are you, you know what never mind. Here's the plan. Harpies are infamous for having ravishing appetites in Greek mythology, so we can use that to out advantage. Pinkie, I need you to place all the sweets that you have on you in the center of the plaza then get out of there fast. Trevor and Dash, while the harpies are distracted, you two will swoop i and kill as many as possible."

"Sure can do," said Dash, "I can't wait to get some real action."

"Dash, remember, those who go looking for blood will find it," said Trevor.

"Well duh, why wouldn't they," she replied.

"That's not the point," said Trevor, "I'll explain it to you later."

"Guys, heads up, we're here," said Will.

Pinkie gulped, "That looks more than eight." She was right, above the four heroes flew about twenty-five harpies.

"Shit, more came," said Trevor.

"You, sure you're not just going blind?" Asked Will.

"No, there are definitely more," said Dash defending Trevor.

"No matter, Pinkie, get ready. Pinkie?" Will looked around frantically seeing as the pink pony had disappeared.

"She's down there," Dash pointed out. Sure enough, pinkie was placing cupcakes, cakes, and all sorts of sweets and goods around the plaza.

"How does she carry so much on her without it being seen?" asked Will.

"Trust me, we've been asking that for years. You just learn to deal with it," Dash said shrugging.

The three sat on the roof in cover so the harpies couldn't see them as Pinkie finished the trap. Suddenly the three heard Pinkie yelling, "Hey all you harpies, dinner is ready!" As soon as she finished, Pinkie was back on the roof next to the others smiling. The harpies seeing the food dived down and began to gorge on the food set before them.

"They're all yours now," Pinkie said.

Trevor pulled out his twin swords as he and Dash took flight. They reach a certain point and dived at the harpies. Dash took the right side as Trevor took the left. Dash and Trevor sliced trough the harpies with ease. The harpies were completely taken by surprised, and almost instantly killed. Four from the back reacted fast enough to take flight and avoided death by the two air-born attackers. One was tackled instantly though by Pinkie who pinned it to the ground and stabbed with her spear. Will climbed out from the cover spot in time to catch a harpy. I scratch his face and he lost his grip. The harpy began to fly frantically away for it's life.

"Oh, hell no," said Will now infuriated. He pulled out an axe and threw it at the harpy with all his strength. It sliced through the harpy's right wing, causing it to free fall back onto the roof. "No on messes with the Will man's face and lives." Will took out another axe and brought it down hard on the already dieing harpy, ending its life.

Trevor, still air-born, sliced at one of the remaining two harpies, barely missing his target. Angry at hiss miss he threw his blades at the creature, missing once more. Yelling out, he pulled a javelin from his back as threw. He pierce the harpy in the back of the head, letting the lifeless body fall to the ground with a thud.

"Third times the charm," Trevor thought happily.

Dash, unlike her three companions, was have a difficult time finishing off the last harpy. Every time she got close to attack with her wing blades, the harpy would claw at her. Dash decided to take another route to finish off the harpy. She zoomed pasted the creature and got above her. She then nose-dived right at the harpy with an ingodly speed. the harpy had barely any time to react as Dash sliced it in half with her left wing.

After the individual battles were over the group meet back up on the building. "That seemed way to easy," said Trevor.

"Well, harpies aren't know for their strength," said Will, "we also did have a pretty successful trap."

"Yea, but I was expecting something harder, at least by twenty percent."

"If it was so easy Dash, how come you're the most cut up out of all of us?" Asked Trevor.

"Oh, shut it," said a grumpy Dash.

"Don't be so mad Dashie," said Pinkie, "you did great."

"Yea," said Will, "I got cut up pretty bad too. We should be happy it wasn't harder than that."

"I guess," said Dash.

"Ok, now that that's settled, lets head back to the castle to debrief with the others and get these wounds treated."

The four anti-harpy warriors began their run, flight, hop back to the castle. Unknown behind them a harpy had quietly flown away from the battle toward the North-West.

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Southern plaza-20 minutes before the defeat of the undead warriors. (1st person, Dylan)

The four of us made our way down the main street through Canterlot towards the southern plaza. Twilight said this was the fastest route there, and we needed any time we could get. As we ran towards the plaza though, we came across heavy traffic of ponies running away from the treat. Alex and I got some questionable looks from some of the fleeing ponies.

"Dylan, any ideas what kind of manticore we're facing?" Alex asked.

"Isn't there only one kind?" Asked Twilight.

"No," I replied, "there are actually several variants. Some are a griffon,lion,scorpion hybrid, others are lion,griffon,dragon,goat, or a some other strange mix. There are also flightless ones, but Trevor mentioned wings to me before he took of, so it rules out another five species or so."

"I didn't know that," said Twilight, "but why did you mention the goat."

"Oh, nothing much, just that the manticore would have the head of a goat on it's tail that removes almost all blind spots and can breath fire. That's the one that came from Greek mythology, so I bet at least on of the beasts is in that category."

"Well, we came across one in our battle with Nightmare Moon," said Applejack, "and it had ah scorpion tail."

"Then we could be facing those," I replied, "we'll find out when we get there."

We were about a block from the plaza now when we heard the first roar. It was quickly followed by another, more powerful roar.

"Shit," I said, "I think we're facing mates."

We rounded the corner and beheld the beasts. Head and front paws of a lion, body and wings of a griffon, with a tail of a scorpion. Thats the gods that it wasn't the goat head.

"Ok, we got lucky," I said, "we can attack from behind. Twilight, did you do any reading on offensive magic at all?"

"No," she replied sadly, "but I have some very powerful defensive spells."

"Ok, we need that too. Aj, Alex," I said turning to our now designated warriors, "I will need you two to distract the manticores while I get into position for a clear shot."

"Ah, sugarcube, Ah don't think one arrow will kill these things," Applejack said with a tone of worry in her voice.

"Don't worry, I'm going to enchant them to explode on impact," I said reassuringly, "that should take a good kick out of their step."

"If you say so," Applejack said still not fully convinced.

"Twilight, I need you to help protect AJ and Alex, ok."

"I'll try."

"Ok, Alex you take the male while AJ takes the female try to keep them separated.."

A large roar from right behind us broke off my sentence as we turned to see what was clearly the male manticore crouched right behind us in attack position. I had just enough time to yell "break!" as we barley dodged the attack.

"Follow the plan!" I yelled as I started to climb a building, "remember to keep them separated but in the plaza."

Alex took a swing at the male, just scratching it's front left leg, but enough to get it's attention. AJ and Twilight had already begun to charge the female, and I lost sight of them. I go to the roof of the building and begun my spell. As I was prepping I watched Alex's battle below me.

The male swung it's tale to stab Alex, but he deflected it with his shield. Alex swung his sword upwards, but only succeeded in cutting some hair off of the mane. The Manticore didn't like that very much and pounced on Alex, pinning him to the ground. Alex lost his shield and was on a frantic defensive with his sword blocking swipe after swipe at his body.

"I could us some help right about now Dylan!" He yelled fearfully.

"You got it." I had finished my first explosive arrow. I notched it and aimed at the beast's tail. I released, hitting it right were the tail connect to the body. A large explosion occurred, sending the beast and Alex flying through the air, and leaving a cloud of smoke blocking my vision. When the smoke dispersed, I say Alex had drawn his claymore and was standing toe to toe with the manticore.

"You trying to kill me too?" He yelled back, but keeping his stance.

"Naw, not this time," I joked back, "but maybe this will help." I notched another arrow and released it. The arrow flew into the beast's left eye, blinding it. As it roared out in pain, Alex jumped in to finish it off. With a clean swing from his claymore, he buried the blade in the head of the manticore. It fell over, now close to death, and roared once more, as if to call it's mate to avenge him. After the roar, the beast spasmed a little, then became still. Alex walked up to the beast and removed his claymore, then went to retrieve his sword and shield. As he did, I looked in the direction the other two went, and became worried.

"Alex, I don't see the others. I think they need help."

"Yea, I was thinking the same thing. They must be holding out though because this one clearly called it's mate and it didn't come."

"That's true, but lets go non the less."

"Yea, get down here."

I climbed/jumped down from the roof. Thank the gods it was only two stories tall. I walked over to Alex as he picked up his shield. We began running in the direction the others went. In a minute we saw what had happened. The female was dead, but Twilight was hunched over Applejack crying. "Ah crap," I thought.

"Twilight, what happened?" I asked as we ran up.

"She, Applejack, protected me from an attack from the tail. I became enraged and shot an icicle spell through the manticore's heart, but Applejack," She said between her sobs, "she's breathing, but it's slow and stagnated. She's be poisoned. I don't think she'll live."

"Alex, grab Applejack," I commanded, "we need to get back to the castle now! Twilight, do you have any more reserve magic?"

"Yea, why?"

"We're teleporting back."

Alex picked up AJ in his arms as Twilight and I charged the spell. A second later we were out of the plaza in a flash of blueish-purple light.

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Castle Grounds-1.5 hours after landing.

A bright light appeared before the royal sisters causing them to squint. When the light dispersed, Twilight Alex holding Applejack, and I stood in the center.

"I guess the manticores are defeated then?" Asked Celestia.

"Yea, but wee need a doctor now," I replied, "Applejack been poisoned."

Celestia face went into a grave shock, luckily Luna was on it. "Alex, follow me. I'll take you to a doctor who know how to cure manticore poison," Luna said. Alex just nodded and ran after Luna into the castle.

"Were are the others?" I asked looking around.

"You are the first to arrive," replied Celestia.

"I thought we were assigned the hardest battle?" Asked Twilight.

"We were," I said, "but also the closest and we teleported back, remember."

"Oh yea," replied Twilight embarrassed.

We waited for another five minutes, then Andy's group arrived. I told them we will fully debrief when the others arrived. As soon as I finished, Will's group walked into the garden. We did our debriefs, with Andy going first, then Will, finally onto mine and Twilight. When she mentioned what happened to Applejack, everybody gasped, and Fluttershy began to plea to go help here. Celestia told her where she was taken in the castle and she disappeared, going to help her friend in need.

We lingered around till sunset. During this time Celestia and I talked future plans and stratigies. The others just relaxed and had small talk amongst themselves. Twilight was worried sick about Applejack when Fluttershy, Luna, and Alex walked back into the garden.

"How is she?" asked Twilight.

"She is fine Twilight Sparkle," replied Luna kindly, "though she will need a week to recover."

"So, we're stuck here in Canterlot for a week," slumped Trevor.

"It's going to be soooo boring," added in Rainbow Dash.

"No it won't be heroes," said Celestia as she and I walked back to the group.

"What do you mean?" Asked Trevor.

"We're going to introduce ourselves to the city of Canterlot," I said.

"And there is much to be rebuilt from the recent attack," added in Celestia.

"So, we're going to be on clean up crew?" asked Luke.

"Yes, and no," said Celestia.

"We are also going to train for the next seven days as well," I said, "Celestia and I agreed that we did good today, but we need more experience. We had the element of surprise behind us to plan and take out most of the foes right off the bat. What if that doesn't happen again, we need to be prepared."

Nods of approval were seen. I sighed because I was happy everyone agreed. I took a seat next to Twilight, and everyone watched as Celestia lowered the sun and Luna raised the moon. Next thing I knew I heard snoring from the others, as I myself drifted off to sleep.

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Yea, three days of work was put into this, while being sick with a cold. Remember that this is my first time writing battle scenes so I did the best I could. My editor helped out a lot, with the idea of putting a battle scene for each battle instead off just summing them up at the debrief. I hope you all enjoyed.

P.S. I am looking for heavy commenting on this chapter for battle scene feedback. Anything I should fix or change now or in the future please let me know.