The Final Battle for Equestria

by Songbrony

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Dawn had arrived. The three ponies had stayed up all night working on the bomb. They had finished just a few minutes earlier and had asked for Luna to come to the tent. "So, you built a bomb that can knock down Canterlot Castle's wall, in under a day?" she asked, perplexed. The three nodded their heads. "Well I must say I'm impressed."

"Now that the bomb is built, I'm going to fight in Ponyville. You'll need me, and even if you say I can't join, I'll be there on my own." Blaze said.

Luna sighed. "You just won't give up will you? Fine. You can fight in Ponyville." Blaze grinned. "You're lucky Blaze. How did you get that bomb to be the size of a book?" she asked.

"Very easily. It'll take too long to explain so let's just get this trip going. I'm getting a little restless." Blaze said as he placed the bomb in his bag. They all walked out, grabbed their packs, and walked to join the rest of the army. The soldiers were ready to move despite going into the Everfree Forest. They saw Shining Armor talking to Cadence. She didn't look too happy about him leaving. They gave each other a hug and Shining left to join the army.

"I'm surprised so many are eager to go in there. Your speech must have given them more than just a fighting spirit." Rook said. Luna walked up to the front of the army and motioned them all to move forward. As the army started to move, Blaze started searching for Rainbow.

He found her talking to Applejack and Derpy. Applejack didn't look to happy as Rainbow left them to join the army. She walked up to Blaze and the others and gave a small smile. "Luna told ordered her to stay and help Derpy here. You guys ready to finally bring this fight to Chrysalis?" she asked.

"I've been waiting ever since I was broken out of that jail." Blaze said with a small laugh. They walked and discussed what they would do first after they took Ponyville. "I'll probably visit the library, that is if it's still standing. And if it is gone, I'll just walk around and see what I can find." Rook said.

"You and books." Linus said. "I'm going to head for the tavern. I could use a solid drink and you can bet they kept all the good stuff stocked away somewhere. What about you Blaze? What'll you do?"

Blaze looked at Linus. "Do you have to ask? I'm going to be figuring out how to get into Canterlot and fight there without wings. Shouldn't be too hard, but I'm still not really used to the one wing deal." he said.

"I'll probably visit Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack isn't coming so I told her I'd check the place out and see how it's doing." Rainbow said. They continued their march through the dark, dense forest. They walked all day without any breaks, other than for meals, and finally arrived at the ruins for the night.

"We covered more ground today than I thought we would. Great job! At this rate we'll be at the edge of the city tomorrow before dinner. It's extremely late so everypony rest up and get a good night's sleep." Luna said. The soldiers were exhausted and rolled out their bags. No tents tonight. They needed to be on the move again tomorrow morning quickly.

Blaze and the others went to Luna to discuss the plan. "Once we get to the edge of the forest, Rook and Linus will take one section of the army to the East and move into the town quietly taking out the sentries and others before they sound the alarm. Rainbow, once the alarm sounds, you will lead the Pegasi and attack from the sky when it's time. Blaze, you will take a group west and attack. I will take the remaining soldiers straight through the middle of the town." Luna explained. "Once we take Ponyville, we heal our wounded, and move on to Canterlot the next day. Sorry if you guys wanted to do some sight-seeing, but we don't have time."

"This town is going to be heavily guarded. It's so close to Canterlot that losing it will surely give us a huge advantage." Linus said.

"Now that that is out of the way, you four go and get some sleep. You're going to need it." Luna said, dismissing them. They returned to their bed rolls and laid down.

"You think we'll take the town? Ponyville is so important that I can't help but feel that something terrible is going to go wrong." Rook said.

"Hey don't say that. Everything will be fine. Besides, we have Blaze back to send the bombs flying." Linus said with a smile.

"Don't worry Rook. We got this." Rainbow said.

"If you say so. I'm going to sleep. It's been a long day." Rook said as he turned onto his side. He was asleep within minutes.

"Might as well do the same. Not stopping for any reason other than meals tomorrow. Night you two." Linus said and closed his eyes.

Blaze looked at Rainbow. She quickly turned onto her side. "Good night Blaze." she said in a shaky tone.

"Good night, Rainbow Dash." he replied. He stared at her. I don't understand this. First she's defending me and talking to me, the next she doesn't even let me start a sentence. he thought. He rolled onto his back and looked at the stars. He played the song he sang to Rainbow the night Twilight died in his head. He closed his eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep.
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When the bell rang for the army to wake up, the sun had just barely started to rise over the horizon. Blaze was one of the first to wake up. He got up, shook his friends awake, and began to pack his bag. "Get up you lazy oaf." Rainbow said as se gave Linus a push. He just rolled back into his bag and pulled it over his head.

"I got it." Rook yawned. He grabbed his bag and dropped it on Linus' head.

"Ow! What the hay was that for?" Linus asked.

"You wouldn't get up. Where's my tea?" Rook said. Linus rubbed his head as he got up. "It can't be morning already can it?"

"Stop complaining Linus. It's too early for that." Rook said.

"It's too early to be awake! How many hours of sleep did I get? Like 6?" Linus complained. "That can't be healthy."

Blaze looked at Rook who just shook his head. They had a small fire going that Rook was using for his tea. "I still don't see how that relaxes you, but I'm not complaining. I don't want to know what you're like when you aren't calm." he said.

"You don't." he replied. They put their things together once Rook had his tea fixed, and left for breakfast. Since they were on the move, they had to deal with Luna's cooking.

"Not this stuff again. You know what? Screw getting a drink. Once Ponyville is ours, I'm getting myself some real food." he said as Luna slopped the food onto his plate.

"Your lucky I learned from the last time I cooked. Don't want this to walk off now do you?" she asked Linus. He shook his head quickly laughing.

"No ma'am. That stuff was disgusting by the way." he said and rushed off before Luna could fling something at him.

"I take it your first attempt at cooking wasn't that great of a success?" Rook asked.

"It's not that atrocious! At least it isn't moving!" she exclaimed. Rook laughed. "I will admit, that was one of the livelier days in camp though. Maybe I'll make your food walk." she said.

Rook quickly moved out of the way with a grin. "In all honestly it's not that bad Luna." Blaze said.

"Thank you-" she started.

"I mean sure it has no taste and it's a little chunky, but it isn't downright disgusting." he said and dodged shot of breakfast that Luna flung at him.

"Keep moving Blaze! Sometimes I wonder if I should feed you three at all!!" she said with a small laugh. She gave him his meal and he went to sit with the others. Rainbow went up to for her turn. "Do you have anything to say about my cooking?" Luna asked.

"Nope. Nothing at all. I'm just hungry." Rainbow said with a smile. As soon as Luna put some food on her plate, Rainbow made a comment. "While I'm sure it does have a better taste to it than gravel, I think gravel may keep my mouth clean of cuts." she said as she walked off. Luna just smiled. She knew her cooking was terrible, but the cooks were back at the camp with those too wounded to fight. She cleaned the dishes and gathered the army after breakfast.

"So now that you have bested my cooking, how about we move on?" she said and they continued through the ruins and on to Ponyville. It took about 8 hours to get to the edge of the forest. The army voted to skip lunch not just so they could get to Ponyville quicker, but also because they knew that it was Blaze's turn to cook. Last time he made beans and the air around them had turned toxic.

The army set up their tents this time since they had time and didn't need to get up as early the next day. Blaze and Linus were called in by Luna to discuss somethings. "So we are about three miles out from Ponyville. Tomorrow, we should attack in the morning. This way we can get the Leasath when they are slow and groggy. They need sleep too so it'll be our best shot." Luna explained.

Blaze and Linus nodded, agreeing with what she had planned. "Tomorrow morning, the greatest battle of this war will erupt. This will decide our fate." she said. When they left they found that Rook and Rainbow had put all their tents up for them. They walked into a tent and sat down.

"Well, this is it. We move in tomorrow and seal our fate." Blaze said. They were all quiet. They thought about what could go wrong, what could go right, and what it would mean when they took Ponyville. "I say we get some sleep. We're all in charge of some group and we need to be on top of things." he said.

Everypony except Rainbow Dash left the tent. She looked at him this time. "Blaze, about what I said earlier at the camp. I was just upset. I know you didn't mean anything you said, but I couldn't help myself. I let my pride get in the way. I know I said I wasn't as prideful as before. Yet somehow it always comes out again." she said.

"It's ok. I understand." he replied. Rainbow stared at him.

"I don't want to lose you tomorrow. You could easily be killed in the battle." she said as her thoughts came back to her.

"We'll be fine Rainbow. I survived getting tortured, burned multiple times, wings broken, and then losing one of those wings. I'm not that easy to kill." he said with a small grin. "Here, take these." He pulled out some small bombs and handed them to her. "When you attack, use these to destroy key points; barriers, gorners, leaders, anything of importance."

Rainbow took the bombs. "I'll be fine Rainbow Dash. Don't worry about me." she nodded her head. She got up to leave, but gave Blaze a quick kiss. She left and headed to her tent across from him. Blaze crawled into bed as he held on to her kiss and fell asleep.