A New Purpose

by Sparky Brony

Chapter 9.

“Twilight.” Derpy’s ears fall, she’s tracing circles in the ground with a hoof, “What will we do if we can’t find Nick?”

I look up at the gray mare for a long time, finally, “I’m on the trail of the changeling that has him. He’s been preening out damaged feathers as new ones grow. I’ve found at least a dozen feathers of his.”

Cloud Kicker nods, then she looks at me seriously, “Twilight, I know Nick came to Equestria after Cadance and Shining Armor’s wedding.” Her ears fall as well, “Does he know anything about changelings?”

I think for a moment, then I look down, “I haven’t really had a chance to educate him about the dangers of our world. I keep forgetting that he didn’t grow up in Equestria, he doesn’t know nearly enough.” I find myself sighing, “After I get him back, I’m going to have to teach him, to let him know that Equestria actually has some pretty serious dangers.”

Cloud Kicker looks at me, “Do you know what form the changeling has taken?”

I shake my head, “He seems to be going willingly with the changeling, so it would have to have taken the form of someone he loves and trusts.”

Derpy looks sad, “So, probably you.”

I move over and put a wing over the pegasus, “The list of ponies that Nick is comfortable enough with to follow like this is short.” I squeeze her tighter, “But I’m certain you are on the list too.”

She smiles and nuzzles me, “Thank you Twilight.”

The other pony sitting at the campfire clears her throat, “Twilight, can you teach me? I don’t know any real battle magic, can you help?”

I smile, teaching is something I’m very good at.

***Nick***

“Twilight, I’ve flown over this forest before. We are near Canterlot, but you said it was taken.”

Twilight Sparkle turns and looks at me, “We need to take it back, don’t we?”

I think for a moment, Twilight is one of the Princesses of Equestria, and an amazingly powerful mage. During her pregnancy, I found a book of hers. One she doesn’t keep with all the rest of her books in her library. This one is special. It shows all the accomplishments she has earned as Princess Celestia’s star student. The first page has her diploma from Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns. But that’s not it, the Starswirl award for excellence in time magic, the Clover award for creative spellcasting. Dozens of awards, medals, decorations. Sometimes I wonder how I got to be with this wonderful mare. My only real accomplishment was learning how to fly fighter jets. Then I get pulled into this crazy world. I watch her stalk through the forest, she’s not afraid at all. Something I’ve always loved about her, things can get absolutely batshit crazy, but Twilight will always find a way to fix it.

***Canterlot***

The bugs are on their way. Nothing the Equestrian army has been able to do has really slowed them down. The new time bolt spell has helped, but it hasn’t stopped their advance. Kibitz pauses at Celestia’s chambers. A hoof on the door. He takes a deep breath and opens the massive door, looking in on the dark chamber, “Princess?”

Celestia stalks towards him, already in her armor, Kibitz backs up a bit, looking at the Solar Princess, “Princess, you are already tired, and what you are planning to do will take a lot of energy, you should have rested, there is no more time now.”

Celestia sighs, “I have gotten as much rest as I can. I must help my ponies.”

Kibitz rears up and puts a hoof on her withers, “Princess, I know you are worried, but your effectiveness is based on how much you can give, if you are exhausted, you can’t do as much.”

She shrugs off his hooves as she continues walking, “I will do what I must, Kibitz. My army has done what it can, it’s time these creatures found out what it means to feel the wrath of the Sun.”

Kibitz sighs as he watches Celestia stalk off, her mane is already started to smolder, she’s gathering energy from the sun, he hopes that it’s enough for this.

Soon Princess Celestia emerges from the highest point in the city, looking at the mountain above. These creatures are swarming towards the crown city of Equestria, the mountain location of the city would usually give the city an advantage over a siege, but not with these creatures. They are climbing down the mountain, if they overrun Canterlot, Ponyville will be lost as well. They have the high ground. She’s not aware that her gathering the energy of the Sun has set her mane ablaze, and her shoes are making impressions in the marble with every step. The bugs are getting close. It’s almost time. She glances around, her solar guard is with her, all of them looking at the advancing horde. She spreads her wings, and calls out, “Sister, NOW!”

***

Princess Luna stands on the hilltop, flanked by her night guards, a look of stern resolve on her face. She knows this spell. It is one of Star Swirl’s. Though there had never been a need or use for it in modern times, she is one of the few that remember some of his more esoteric spells. Most ponies would scoff at such, the idea sending shivers down their spines. This is Luna’s domain though, this is part of her paradigm.

“Are you sure about this?” Night Eyes asks.

“It is what my sister needs. It will give her the chance to do what she has to.” Luna says, “Star Swirl created this spell just for this purpose. The words to it are as ancient as the spell itself. The Serpents Breath.”

Even the name sends a tremble through Night’s Eyes leathery wing. Nodding slowly, he steels himself for what will follow.

Glancing up Luna hears the call. “Sister NOW!”

Closing her eyes Luna speaks coldly in the ancient tongue. “Anáil nathrach, ortha bhas betha, do cheol déanta.” Spreading her wings wide, her eyes glows pure white as her horn lights. A low hiss fills the air like an exhale of a thousand dragons. From her wings a grey fog spreads fast. It rolls across the advancing army like a storm, covering everything within it in a blanket of darkness. A fog so dense that the bright sunlight does not penetrate more than a foot.

*** The Crystal Empire ***

Cadance stands as the Crystal army is slowly pushed back. Thousands of bugs are nothing but corpses now. The few mages she has that are versed in the time displacement spell have had to retreat, they have nothing left to give. She had just gotten a report that at least one mage has died from extreme magical exhaustion. She looks at the oncoming bugs, how is she going to stop them?

“Onward to the Crystal Army!” She hears a shout from behind her. She rears back in shock, thousands of ponies, dressed in makeshift armor, carrying all sorts of weapons are pouring through the shield. They fall into positons, relieving ponies at the front lines, and pushing back against the bugs. Shining Armor comes up next to her, nuzzling her.

She looks at the mass of ponies pushing the bugs back, “What is this?”

Shining Armor smiles, “I was working to refresh the shield, when a pony came up to me, asking me how to help. I said she needed to stay in her home, and pray for the best.” He chuckles, “She slammed a hoof on the ground, and said that she didn’t want to wait in her home to see if we win or lose, she wanted to help.”

Cadance looks around, “And then?”

He shrugs, “I told her if she really wanted to help, she had to see how many other ponies she could bring, and maybe we could find armor and weapons for them. Next thing I knew I’ve got ten thousand volunteers, and more streaming in all the time. I had my guards ransack the armory to outfit as many ponies as they could.”

Cadance smiles at her husband, “Thank you, love, but you need to head inside, make sure the shield stays up.”

Shining Armor nuzzles Cadance once again, “Yes my Princess.”

Cadance turns and looks again at the incoming clouds from the west, will this new blood be enough? Or simply more meat for the grinder?

*** Canterlot ***

The serpents breath has worked, Celestia can see through the fog, though nopony else can. The bugs are confused, they don’t know what to do at this point. With a scream, she launches herself towards the bugs. At the same time, all of the guard pegasi take off as well, carrying throwing spears, or bows that a pegasus can operate in flight. They have been cautioned not to enter into the fog, so they start firing arrows, any time they see a bug try to get out of the fog, they feather the bug with arrows immediately. Each of the arrow heads have been modified with a small bit of time magic, to make their effect more pronounced. Celestia pulls on the power above her, the beam of her magic cutting through the bugs. Bodies, and parts of bodies are flung all over as she howls her rage. Celestia has not had to get involved in fighting like this in centuries, and she can feel it. Every blast takes more energy than she would like, and very rapidly, she is panting in exertion. She doesn’t let up, though, hundreds of bugs die from her magic. And soon she starts using the time displacement bolts, green bolt after green bolt arcing into the fog. The fog resonates green as the bolts arc from bug to bug, flashing them out of existence. And she’s not the only one using that magic.

The Wonderbolts are there as well, coming up from the rear, some pegasi drawn carts are there as well, with unicorns firing more green bolts wherever they can see a target. One particular Wonderbolt is laying a path of destruction herself, Lightning Dust is throwing bolt after bolt at every bug she sees.

Soon, the bugs start to retaliate, lighting comes up from the clouds in random bursts. The Serpent’s breath is making it impossible for them to aim. But they do make occasional hits as well. One bolt nearly singes Celestia’s horn. She rolls hard and fires a bolt back at the bug that shot at her, the bug disappearing into nothingness, along with a few of its compatriots.

Panting hard, Celestia calls out, “Enough, Sister.”

Luna lets down the spell, and the bugs become visible, the true nature of the spell becomes obvious, the fog is acid, the exoskeletons of the bugs at the leading edge of the fight are partially melted. The bugs are stumbling, many are blinded, many flail around randomly, even damaging their neighbors, who retaliate, causing multiple bugs to die from within their own ranks.

“Canterlot Guard, advance.”

Thousands of Royal Guards charge up the mountain, and in less than an hour, all the bugs have been stilled. Celestia lands next to her sister, then stumbles to fall to the ground. Luna moves over, her horn touching her sister and glowing, and in moments, Celestia is able to slowly get to her hooves.

Princess Celestia looks over the carnage, “It is done. We need to free the rest of our cities of these…” She moans in pain, and so does Princess Luna. Both putting a hoof to their temples.

*** The Crystal Empire ***

“Even with the added reinforcements, we are nearly done for.” General Snow calls out.

Cadance looks at the fighting going on less than a hundred yards from her. General Snow moves closer, “We’ve done all we can, we don’t have enough pegasi to use clouds to fight, we have done the best we can. It’s time to retreat to the other side of the shield.”

Cadance looks at her General, then out at the army, she sighs, “General Snow…” She trails off, she hears a sharp crack, and sees a puff of smoke in the distance. She cocks her head to the side, watching the curious happening repeat itself, and again, then several more times. The explosions are getting closer. What’s going on here?

She hears a howl of rage, and a dozen more explosions pepper the bugs nearest the lines. Getting many of them to pause and look back.

Cadance looks up, those clouds weren’t clouds, but thousands of Griffins! Each one of them has a satchel, she watches as one of them reaches into their satchel, pulling out a small object, which they hold a small smoking stick too, and then they toss it. She watches one land on the broad carapace of one of the bugs, the object explodes, blowing the bug into pieces.

Screams of joy from the ponies as the griffins continue pelting the bugs with the explosives. A group of griffons break off from the force and angle to land next to Cadance.

This is apparently the leader, he walks slowly to Cadance and bows, “Crystal Princess, Cadance.”

She bows back, he looks out at the next wave of griffins, they are dive bombing the bugs with swords held in their claws, more of the griffins hang back, peppering the bugs with more of the explosive devices.

He turns back to Princess Cadance, “We have received your letters, appealing for help. Never let it be said that the Griffin Kingdom doesn’t help our allies.”

Cadance bows again, more deeply, “Thank you King Guntram We really needed your help.”

He smiles, “Yes… yes you did.”

They both turn and watch, Cadance murmurs, “We might just win this day.”

*** Canterlot ***

Kibitz moves up, “Princesses?”

Celestia looks at Kibitz, how many can they throw at us?”

Kibitz furrows his brow, “What do you mean?”

“More of those portals, and they are close!” Luna calls out. She takes to the air, flying towards the summit where the invaders had come from. In moments she’s back, her voice is mournful, “The last was just the appetizer, the main course is on its way.”

Celestia looks at her sister seriously for a moment, “It is time to retreat, to head south. Ponyville must be evacuated too.” She looks around, “We need Princess Twilight.”

Luna stands up, looking to the south, “We are not yet defeated, my sister. Look!”

Celestia looks in the direction that Luna is pointing, then she smiles as she lets her exhaustion overtake her, “Brygor.”

Comments

[harts fire]

rock on princesses and now the battle really gets going griffins and dragons it is about to get real.
Harts Fire

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Reinforcements have arrived! Let's teach those changelings the true meaning of pain!