Blitz And Balance

by Ennelly Von Swortts

17 Magic Master

Author: Ennelly Von Swortts

Co-Author: ElectroPHX228

Chapter Seventeen: Magic Master

Nightmare Horn smiled as his army of Fears moved out of the town they had just hit. They marched toward Ponyville now. The Nightmare was sure its army would wipe that miserable town off the map, as it had already done to a few others. It laughed as it watched the few survivors flee ahead of its army. It wouldn't matter if they beat the army to Ponyville. It would give them precious moments to prepare, making the battle more interesting.

...0...

Silver had gotten cornered by a curious Twilight soon after the other Princesses and Changeling had left, Nyx had disappeared into the library. Something about looking for some spell. Silver had been talking with Twilight for a couple hours now, just answering questions about Balance, the Elements, how the enemy faught... Silver managed to get her thinking on how to create a balance in her mind.

"So, I just need to accept every part of myself as me?" Silver nodded. "I don't know of anything I haven't accepted. Besides getting used to these wings."

"I have a spell that could help us know if you've shunned a part of yourself..." Twilight made a 'go ahead' motion. Silver cast his spell, and watched the Alicorn's shadow. When nothing happened, he raised an eyebrow. "It appears you have nothing you shun. Consider me impressed. Doesn't mean you've accepted every part of your soul."

A royal guard ran into the room. "Princess Twilight! A nearby town west of here was attacked a day and a half ago! And the group who did it is on their way here!"

Twilight turned to the guard. "How long till they get here?

"Hour, max, Princess."

"Sound an alert. Any refuges are to be taken care of." The guard nodded. Silver noticed a faint magical trace of Balance coming off Twilight.

"This should be interesting." He muttered to himself. He followed Twilight out to a balcony, and quickly spotted a large black blanket nearly half the size of Ponyville itself. "Looks like lesser fears. All Unicorn. If I had to guess, Nightmare Horn is leading that army. Which means this attack, if not handled, will mean the destruction of Ponyville. It is up to you if you want to try to save those ponies or not." Twilight nodded before she took flight. "Remember! The Elements of Harmony will not help you today!" He called.

...0...

Twilight wasn't sure what she was going to do. Just that she wasn't going to let them get to her home. Her friends. She landed a dozen yards or so in front of the army of Unicorns, the setting sun in her eyes. She felt large amounts of magic behind her for a moment. Glancing back showed a black magic barrier surrounding Ponyville. "Nightmare Horn! Show yourself!" She called.

The army parted as the Nightmare walked to the front of the ranks. "Princess Twilight Sparkle I presume?" Twilight made no response. "No matter. It is not long now, my master will rise soon after we march onto Canterlot. But first... Ponyville. The Elements of Harmony and Chaos will fall with it. Starting with you." It turned to walk back the way it came.

Laughter caused it to turn back in annoyance. "You really think it will be that easy? Your talking to the Alicorn with the talent of magic, of all things. I hold the power to raise and lower the sun and moon. The only two ponies who can match me for power are Celestia and Luna themselves!" Twilight was smiling. "Of course, even a hundred years from now, I'll be more powerful than both of them together." Her smile slowly faded. "And you've marched on my home, you've threatened my friends... And even if you DO take Ponyville today, you will still have to defeat two more Alicorns at least as powerful as I. As it is, I'm not happy with you. But I'll give you ONE chance to release these ponies from your control."

The Nightmare looked at her over its shoulder for a few moments. "You state a good fight..." It snorted, tossing its head as it walked away. "Kill her." The Fears close by instantly turned to her, magic glowing around their horns. At the same time, Twilight fired a spell directly into the Nightmare's behind, sending it flying. She put a shield around her just in time to catch the barrage of magic flying at her from several directions. She started throwing stun spells through her shield, before noticing they were ineffective. Her mind raced, going over everything she knew about Fears. Which was limited to what Silver had told her, and the couple times they were mentioned in Stories of Balance. Slowly an idea formed in her head.

...0...

"Well? What's going on?" Ditsy asked.

Time Turner glanced up from his telescope. "I don't know, she's over the hill. Along with the front of that army. He turned back to the telescope in time to see a flash from over the hill. "Hold on," Another followed the first. Moments later, the flashes grew bright enough to see without the telescope poking out of the barrier's perimeter.

Silver smiled. "I do believe she mixed a stun spell with something else. I wonder what that might be?"

...0...

Twilight nearly fell panting. The sun had long since set, the moon high in the sky. Around her were piles of unconsus ponies. "Give up already, Celestia {....} it!" The Nightmare she was facing growled. Twilight responded by blasting it in the face as another wave of Fears descended on her. She threw up a shield as they fired spell after spell at her. She started firing her counter spell, quickly knocking them out. She wasn't sure how much longer she could keep this up. Their ranks seemed un ending, and her magic was already stretched thin.

...0...

The Lunar Guard in Canterlot were on edge. They had been informed by the Solar Guard Ponyville was incased by a defensive bubble just before sunset. The flashes from west of the town didn't help. Luna herself was checking on it throughout the night, which only set their nerves farther on edge. Silent Bloodmoon, Captain of the Lunar Guard, was keeping a much closer eye than any other pony there.

"Winter, I'm officially putting a request to temporarily set up a command post in Ponyville. I will personally set up there. Please pass my request to the Princess." The white Pegasus nodded as he turned and trotted toward the throne room. She returned to watching the flashes. "I'll have to collect a few Psychologists." She muttered to herself.

...0...

Silver watched the sun rise. The flashes had ended only an hour before, and now a team of Ponies from Ponyville were collecting to find Twilight. Nyx opened a hole in her barrier, allowing the group of thirty or so ponies to exit the town. Silver was one such volunteer. They quickly made their way up the hill, quickly spotting a near mountain of ponies. On closer inspection, it became clear they were all Unicorns.

After several minutes of looking, they spotted Twilight. Silver instantly recognized magic drain. She had used so much magic, she had fallen unconsus in the middle of a literal ring of ponies. Silver turned to one of the ponies of the search party. "It looks like we have a lot of refugees to house. Go inform Mayor Mare to prepare for them." The pony nodded as he galloped toward town. He levitated Twilight as he started getting the team into gear carrying the piles of ponies toward Ponyville.

...0...

Everypony watched as the first wave of unconsus ponies were brought into Ponyville. Nyx had dropped her shield when Mr. Cake had galloped into town with his message. They were quickly directed to the north side of town where ponies were working on setting up a field of tents. A number of medical ponies from the Ponyville hospital were walking among the tents, getting the incoming ponies settled into the tents. Other ponies were already moving toward the piles of ponies still outside town limits.

Trixie was sitting outside her carriage watching everypony move. Silver walked past with Twilight held in his grasp. She followed him inside to the throne room of Twilight's castle. Just as Silver left, Spike ran into the room. "Starlight! The Princesses want to know what's going on!" Starlight picked up a piece of parchment and quickly wrote out a letter before handing it to spike. He read over the contents before sending it off.

Only a few moments later, Spike burped fire and caught the letter before it hit the ground. Spike's eyes widened as he read it before racing out of the room. Starlight followed him out. Derpy entered moments later. "Thought I'd find you here. Trixie, I know how you feel. And I-"

"How could you." Trixie said looking up sharply. "How could you possibly know how I feel? You know nothing about me!" her gaze fell to the ground as fresh tears made their way down her face.

Derpy stepped over and put a hoof on her shoulder, slowly rubbing up and down. "Your right, I don't know what you feel. But I do know just sitting around doing nothing isn't going to help. I also know more about you then you think. You're an amazing mare with talents for showmareship. Some of the best I've ever seen. Your smart when you put your mind to it, and loyal to those you see as your friends. Even if that is one pony, it is still admirable. Yes your past isn't the best, but you dealt with it better then some. And you've overcome so many things. You've accepted life here close to Twilight despite your strong dislike for her."

Trixie couldn't form a reply for several moments. She opened her mouth as the door opened and nurse Redheart stepped in. "Sorry to interrupt. Just came to check on the Princess." Ditsy pointed to the Alicorn in a bundle of blankets close by. Redheart nodded as she walked over. While she was performing the checkup, Trixie sat silently watching. Ditsy continued to rub Trixie's shoulder. Redheart nodded to the two of them on her way out of the room.

Trixie stared off into space. "When I was a filly, my father came home drunk every night. He was vary abusive to my mother and I. My mom was just an empty shell. Had been almost since the day I was born. Made for a difficult fillyhood."

"Maybe you could tell me about it sometime. I'm sure it'll help." Ditsy replied as she stepped around to face her. "In the mean time, come help me with my mail route."

Trixie gave her a quizzical look. "Why would I need to help you?"

Ditsy smiled. "It's my way of getting your mind on something other then the past. Your not as cute when your depressed. Come on!" She dragged Trixie out of the room before she registered what had been said.

Twilight carefully raised her head, watching the door the two mares had just left. "She really is different... I'll have to talk to her later. But for now-" She yawned loudly. "for now, sleep." Laying her head down, she passed out nearly instantly. The only other pair of eyes in the room left with a barely noticeable flash of light in the upper reaches of the room.

Author's Note:

And I'm back!! To be honest though... This chapter has been written for months. It is the next few chapters that took me forever to write.

As always, hope you enjoy.