The Final Choices

by GMBlackjack

The Tenth Day

It was technically tomorrow. The night was half over, and by their new clocks that meant it was just after midnight.

No one had gotten any sleep. New Equestria was abustle with near-panicked activity. Every light was on, magic was flashing everywhere, and Twilight was straining herself to her limit.

Her goal?

Empty the Roots entirely. Nobody left behind.

Even with the endless supply of power from the mana fount, this was still excruciatingly taxing. The mana fount would never run out, but it could only give her so much magic at once. And if she was going to get over a hundred individuals out of the Roots… she had to be careful not to burn herself out and not to bring anyone back wrong.

She had been at it for several hours at this point. She realized she would have been done by now had she not spent all that time arguing with Celestia…

(“You did what!?” Twilight shouted at Celestia.

“I did the only thing that would get him to stand down! He wanted the land, I gave it to him. The ponies are more important.”

“Yes! They are! And this is their home - this is all that remains of their home!”)

Twilight focused on bringing the last few ponies out of the roots. Most of them were ponies she couldn't remember the names of off the top of her head, but she brought them out anyway. Spike was there, directing them wherever they needed to go for the evacuation. There were a lot of panicked shouts Twilight couldn’t afford to listen to right now. They were on a very tight schedule, and they needed to get out of here before sunrise if at all possible.

(“Twilight, you are the Queen, you can overrule me. I will not fight it and I will squelch any dissidence against you.”

Twilight gaped at Celestia. “I… I’m not going to do that?”

“Then you agree with my plan?”

“...You’re a manipulative little alicorn, you know that?”

Celestia nodded sagely. “It is one of my talents, yes.”)

Twilight took out Zephyr Breeze.

“Well, Twi-twi, nice to see you again,” Zephyr said with a smile.

“Uh-huh,” Twilight said, catching her breath. “You’re the last one.”

Zephyr’s smile vanished. “Wait. Last?”

Twilight normally would have tried to ease him down, but she had no patience at the moment. Shouting with Celestia for an hour took a lot out of her. “Yes, I specifically left you in there until last. No, I don’t have any patience to deal with you. Fluttershy is over there, she’ll help you. I apologize in advance for when I inevitably feel terrible about brushing you off like a breadcrumb.”

Zephyr stared at her in disbelief. She teleported him over to Fluttershy.

(“This is crazy!” Twilight shouted.

“We do this, or we fight. Even with Discord’s power, he will get some of us. This wa-”

“He’ll hunt us down, Celestia! We don’t know his capabilities, what his armies can do, wh…” She shook her head. “There has to be another option besides FIGHT and RUN.”)

Twilight looked up to where most everyone was being evacuated too. The pegasi had been gathering clouds together for the last few hours and Discord had been enchanting stone slabs to be affixed to the clouds, creating a miniature cloud-city. It wasn’t large enough to hold everyone yet, but it would be soon. It was taking the shape of a large blimp, the hollow exterior holding most the people.

(“Neither is a permanent solution,” Twilight muttered. “Fight, and he’ll keep sending more and more at us. Run, and he’ll probably keep chasing us unless we actually give him what he wants.”

“And we can’t do that.”

“Of course not! I don’t want to know what giving this… this monster absolute control of the Sphere will do!”

“Do you have a better idea?”

Twilight fixed Celestia with a steeled glare. “Yes. I think I do.”)

With the removal of everyone from the roots, it was time to move to her part of the plan. “Rainbow, get our friends, Celestia, and Sunset. It’s time.”

They arrived in a series of teleports, rushes of wind, and in one case excited bounces.

Twilight looked at the seven of them and smiled. “It’s time,” she said.

“Are you sure about this?” Sunset asked. “There’s a lot we don’t know.”

“We have to try. We can’t war - it isn’t our way. But running from threats isn’t our way either. We are going to deal with him our way.” She focused her magic and tore out a part of her soul that coalesced into a sharp, six-pointed purple spark. The Element of Magic. She floated the energy over to Sunset.

“I…”

“You deserve it, Sunset,” Twilight said, smiling warmly. “You’re a friend just as much as the rest of us. You’re just as magical as me. You can carry the Element.”

Sunset swallowed. “T-thank you, Twilight.” She grasped the energy in her hands and was overcome with emotion as the Element absorbed into her body. Twilight enveloped her into a hug.

“You’ll do great.”

They released the hug and Twilight turned to them all. “You seven are going to go to the Impervious Ruler’s power and show him how we deal with threats of war and world destruction.”

“The Orbital Friendship Cannon?” Pinkie suggested.

“...I was thinking more Rainbow Death Laser,” Rainbow said.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Either will do. The point is we have the power of Friendship, and that is how we work. We do not flee, we do not war. We fight with Friendship.” She smiled warmly. “You are going to go take him out. If he has a dark entity in him, purge it. If he is corrupt, imprison him. If there is no hope…” She steeled her eyes. “Destroy him.”

They all nodded.

“Celestia, they are under your protection.” Twilight looked to her with pleading eyes. “Get… get them all home safe.”

“Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Celestia said.

Everyone knew what the word substitution in the Pinkie Promise meant. She would lay down her life to fulfill it. They were her little ponies.

Twilight nodded, wiping a tear from her face. “I wish I could go with you…”

Fluttershy hugged her. “We know you’re needed here. Don’t worry.”

“We can take care of ourselves,” Applejack said with a smirk.

Twilight chuckled. “If any ponies could… it’s you.” She turned to Rarity. “Are you ready?”

Rarity shivered. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“All right.” She turned to the cloud structure above them. It looked complete, and there were very few ponies still on the ground. “Discord!”

Discord appeared on the ground. “Yes?”

“It is time.” She pointed at Rarity. “You know what to do.”

Rarity walked up to Discord. “...You will need to control yourself, Discord.”

Discord folded his arms. “Please, I have enough willpower to keep everything organized.”

Rarity nodded, touching him and giving him some of her power. Discord turned into pure light, losing all physical form. He jumped to the cloud structure and enveloped it, mutating the clouds into cotton candy. Large jelly donuts appeared in the back, brimming with chaotic energy. Ice cream guns appeared on the bottom, and fractal patterns billowed off the edges of the craft.

“All aboard the S. S. Discordia!” Discord shouted - for he was the cloud ship now. Attuned to it in every way.

“Everyone on board!” Spitfire shouted. “NOW!”

“Oh, they don’t have to do that!” Discord chuckled, shaking the ship with his laughter. “Beaming you all up!”

Everyone except The Elements, Twilight, and Celestia were teleported into the Discordia.

“One last part to the plan…” Twilight breathed.

(“Twilight… are you certain?” Celestia asked.

“Absolutely.”

“If we cut them off, there’s no guarantee we can restore the Roots afterward.”

“We lived without them before we came here, we can live without them later.”)

Twilight focused her magic into a metaphysical blade, pointing it at the magical aura of the roots.

First, she severed Discord from the Roots.

“That tickles!” he chuckled from above.

“Still the ship?”

“Still the ship. See you later!” He activated his ship-chaos powers and teleported the entire ship elsewhere.

“Good…” Twilight severed the Elements next - all six of them, giving them wholly and completely to their bearers. All six of them shuddered - even Sunset.

“Are we… separate?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight nodded. “You are all free from the Roots. Be careful.”

“And you…?” Applejack asked.

Twilight focused on herself - she was the Roots, in a way. But now… now she couldn’t be. She needed to remove herself, and in a very particular manner at that. She forced all but the smallest amount of harmony magic out of her system, keeping only the tiny nugget and her own natural alicorn magic. She angled the blade at the massive tether connecting her to the Roots, begging her to allow the magic back into her system. To be one with the roots again.

She swung.

It was like cutting off a leg.

She screamed as the tether was severed completely, tearing away her awareness, her magic, her harmony. Her heart skipped a beat and she collapsed to the ground.

“Twilight!” Everypony called.

She allowed them to crowd around her and help her back to her hooves. “I… I’m fine. I did it… I… I…” She felt so empty. “It’s done.”

“Twi…” Applejack said, frowning.

“Go,” Twilight said, lifting her head high. “Go, end the Impervious Ruler. I will protect our people.”

They all pulled her into a hug.

Celestia put her mouth next to Twilight’s ear. “I’m sorry.”

Twilight looked right at her. “It’s okay.”

The two alicorns embraced. When they stepped away, Celestia bowed to Twilight. This time… it was not a mocking gesture. Celestia meant it.

“Rise,” Twilight ordered. Celestia did so. “You made me into the mare I am today, Celestia. I have to thank you for everything.”

“You also need to thank yourself.”

Twilight smiled. “...Yes, I do, don’t I?” She laughed. “Celestia, now it’s my turn to protect the ponies, and your turn to face the evil. Make me proud. But also… make yourself proud.”

Celestia put a hoof to Twilight’s face. “I will, my friend.”

Twilight closed her eyes, squeezing out a tear - but she was smiling.

“Thank you, Twilight, for being the mare you are.” Celestia spread her wings and teleported them all away.

Twilight was alone on New Equestria.

She levitated her throne out of her castle and set it in the grass. She teleported one of Discord’s donuts to her and started munching on it.

The sun began to peek out from behind the shadow in the sky, heralding the start of day.

Now, she had to wait.

~~~

The blairne army did not stop marching. They had been told New Equestria had issued a surrender, but the Impervious Ruler ordered them to keep going just in case. Everypony certainly hoped they wouldn’t have to fight in the middle of the wilderness up a cliff face but the Empire had received the false white flag before.

An air-element blairne by the mane of Hopps was in charge of ‘relations’. Which meant he was being sent up the mysterious ‘escalator’ thing, alone, while general Sparkwheel organized the army for a possible assault.

Hopps carefully set his hooves on the moving stairs, sure to keep his fear buried deep within. It would not do to give off an air of weakness for the Impervious Ruler. Hopps was the representative, after all, and he would do his job proud.

Which meant putting on a menacing snarl and cruel eyes. This was always the worst part of his job but he understood why it was necessary. Give them no quarter.

He arrived at the top of the escalator to find a mostly abandoned square in front of what he assumed was the School. Sitting in the middle was none other than Queen Twilight Sparkle, with bound and gagged Ashen and Nirix at her hooves.

“I am Ambassador Hopps,” Hopps declared, striding forward. “Why are my fellow blairne imprisoned?”

“They’re not, you can take them right now,” Twilight said without a hint of emotion. “I simply did not trust them to behave.”

“Hmph.” Hopps began to walk around her. “And where is everypony else?”

“Gone. We didn’t exactly trust you not to burn this place to the ground.”

“Rest assured, we will respect our agreement so long as you hold up your end of the bargain.”

Twilight nodded. “The land is yours.” She pulled a disc-shape device out of her mane and gave it to Hopps. “This contains a mental recording of how the mana fount was activated. We do not understand why it reacted to the harmony magics the way it did, but I have severed myself from the Roots so you will have all the tools we had at your disposal.”

Hopps nodded, placing the disc into his pocket.

“The green button plays the recording, by the way.”

Hopps narrowed his eyes - he knew when he was being talked down to.

“Goodbye, Ambassador Hopps. We will not be seeing each other again.” She lit her horn and teleported away in a flash of purple.

Hopps nodded, untying Ashen and Nirix. “Do you know anything pertinent?” he asked them.

Ashen immediately started yelling swears, so Hopps took that as a no. Nirix, on the other hand, frowned. “Do we know the recording has what she said it has?”

Hopps pressed the button, playing back the moment Twilight found the mana fount and activated it by getting the Root near it. It contained magical scanning data as well.

“This seems wrong,” Nirix advised. “She would not do that. I know there was much shouting with her and Princess Celestia. Analysis indicates the deal should have changed.”

“I will keep that in mind.” Hopps walked back to the top of the escalator and called down. “Did you get all that, Qw?”

Qw appeared behind him in a flash of dark red energy. She was a blairne filly, so small that some dogs would eclipse her size. She wore a long, flowing red robe that paired well with her fiery mane. Arcane designs were imprinted into the fabric with gold leaf and she held a wand of pure sapphire in her front hoof. “Yes. I got that,” she spoke in a high-pitched but deadly serious tone.

“Can you confirm it?”

Qw tapped her wand into the ground. “On the surface, everything seems as advertised. I will need to work to craft spells to control the Roots and analyze them further. It will take time. Where are all the ponies?”

“They fled somewhere,” Hopps said with a shrug.

“Suspicious. I recommend finding them quickly. And you?”

Ashen stared at her in disbelief. “Are you… a child?”

“Yes. And you, unfortunately, do not have a clearance high enough to know of my existence.” A sharp white spark shot out of her wand and hit Ashen in the head. He fell to the ground without so much as a squeak, dead.

Hopps shivered.

Qw turned to Nirix. “Go, take control of the army, occupy this place. Find anything they may have left behind and put my colleagues on the task of locating the otherworlders.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Hopps shook his head - why did he have to be so good at his job? He didn’t want this clearance or all this death…

~~~

Twilight appeared in a flash of purple on the Discordia. “Now, Discord!”

Discord obliged. His essence within the ship grabbed hold of every little bit of it, teleporting them clear across the Sphere. They appeared overtop a large, icy mountain. Here, it was the middle of the night.

“And now they’ll never find us!” Discord laughed from all around.

“And it’ll take them far too long to realize what we’ve done.” Twilight spread her wings, flying through the cotton-candy cloud interior of the Discordia until she arrived at the very center. There, fused together from numerous small crystals, was a chunk of the Roots larger than Twilight. It was weak, pitiful, and had basically no power.

But it was where Discord himself was affixed to.

And it contained the magic signature that allowed the Roots to access the mana founts.

The Blairne Empire had a source of harmony magic, this was true. But it didn’t have the Elements and it couldn’t activate the mana founts. All it really had was a currently-empty dreamscape that wasn’t connected to anything.

Twilight had every intention of reactivating the dreamscape… but that depended on Celestia and the Elements, not her. Twilight just had to be here to guide her people and make them feel safe.

And protect them in the case of being attacked. They were so far from the Blairne Empire they didn’t need to worry about them, but who knew what the other side of the world contained?

She looked around the interior of the Discordia. Ponies that had been stuck in the Roots so long were celebrating despite the tense nature of their situation. To Twilight’s surprise, the wraiths were getting along with everyone just fine, almost like they were part of the community.

Twilight teleported herself to the top of the Discordia. Looking at the sky, she could make out the shape of the continent they had been on. The Blairne Empire was there, the shaper kingdoms… and the wilderness. The triangle of New Equestria was too small to see, but she knew exactly where it was. Right next to that forest…

Ichor phased through the cotton candy Twilight was sitting on and sat next to her. “Geez, cold out here.”

“We are on top of an ice mountain,” Twilight admitted. “...Hmm. Mountains are closer to the sun, shouldn’t they be warmer? The atmosphere doesn’t work the same here…”

“Mom?”

Twilight put a wing around Ichor. “Yes?”

“Is everything going to be fine?”

Twilight smirked. “Yes. The plan will work.”

“I… I mean between you and Celestia. That was… a lot of shouting last night.”

Twilight frowned. “I understood why she did it. Why she had to work quickly. In truth, she did leave the option of war open to me…”

“Would you have taken it had she not done what she did?”

Twilight didn’t have the answer to that question.

Ichor looked at the ground. “I don’t even know what I’m saying. It just… I want to say you’re right, but Celestia also knows a lot, and the argument…”

Twilight smiled sadly. “Ichor, friends argue. Even really close friends, like Celestia and me. We are fine, Ichor. Even if I am a little miffed, she’s also stressed out. It’ll all work out, we’ll meet up, and then everything will go back to the way they were.”

Ichor frowned. She didn’t vocalize any thoughts about what if it doesn’t work out?

Well, that just didn’t bear thinking about, now did it?

~~~

Celestia and the Elements stood at the edge of the Gourd kingdom that faced the Blairne Empire.

There was a large wall here made out of tall, blue gourds.

There were six shaper dignitaries behind them - including one from the ever-so-elusive Shroom Kingdom.

“Are you absolutely certain?” the Shroom asked, her voice raspy. “If you are willing to storm the Impervious Ruler’s stronghold… we would pledge our army to the cause... I am not alone in this, I am sure...”

The other dignitaries nodded.

“An excellent chance to rid ourselves of the Blairne Empire’s scourge,” the Flower said.

“You could keep that magic of theirs, do whatever you want, we’d even let you decide what happens to those captured,” the Grass added.

“The Empire would fall like apples,” the Gourd said.

“I thank you for the offer,” Celestia said, ruffling her wings. “But we do not make war. I am truly proud that you are willing to put aside your differences for the greater good, but we will not.” She turned to them. “If it goes wrong, retake the Roots.”

Rarity gasped. “Celestia!”

“It never hurts to plan for the worst possible outcome,” Celestia said. “Do you understand?”

The shaper dignitaries nodded in unison.

“Then go, and prepare, praying you do not have to use the armies you prepare.”

The six of them gave Celestia their farewells and wishes of luck before galloping off.

Celestia turned to the fence of gourds. “I will cast an invisibility spell and then teleport us to the other side. We will be in enemy territory. We will not interact with any of them, and we will spend most of our time teleporting. We will spend some time getting the lay of the land and gathering information. I expect to arrive at the capital in the morning.”

Rainbow Dash raised a hoof. “Are we gonna get to sleep? Nopony slept last night.”

The comment brought a warm smile to Celestia’s face. “Yes, Rainbow, we will take a rest for a the night. I already planned for that. Teleporting means we can cross the Empire rather quickly. We could arrive today, if we wanted, but that struck me as… ill-advised.”

“Well, this is your plan,” Applejack said.

Celestia shook her head. “This part… this is all Twilight. My plan was… rash, hasty, and caused a bit more panic than I would have liked. It was a mistake to unleash it so quickly, though I am not certain exactly what else I could have done…” Celestia frowned.

“Don’t worry,” Fluttershy said, putting a gentle wing on Celestia’s leg. “The plan is here, we just have to do it. Everything’s fine.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie shouted, sending confetti everywhere. “We’re going to beat the bad guy! Woo!”

Rarity smirked. “It has been a while since we wielded the Elements, hasn’t it?”

Celestia nodded. “It has. But I know every last one of you are still up to it.” She turned to Sunset. “Even you.”

Sunset looked at Celestia with a sad smile. “Don’t forget about yourself, Princess.”

Celestia let out a soft chuckle. “I won’t, my faithful student.” She placed her hoof in Sunset’s hands. “I won’t.”

There was a brilliant flash of light blue energy, depositing the massive, bony girth of an arthon mage directly in front of them. The Elements took up a fighting stance, ready to face whatever was ambushing them before they even identified it as an arthon mage.

The arthon mage didn’t attack. It simply looked at Celestia.

“...I think I know this one…” Celestia said, furrowing her brow. The Impervious Ruler?

Too dangerous to purge - alone.

“Yes, it’s the one I met,” Celestia said. “Stand down everyone.”

Everyone but Rainbow Dash left their fighting stances.

You wish to join us?

Strength. Harmless.

You mean harmless to the Sphere?

Vague.

Celestia frowned. “I believe it wishes to assist us.”

Sunset blinked. “Really? ...The Impervious Ruler is its primary target, perhaps it would have sensed our power.”

You may join us, Celestia thought to it.

Purpose gained. Follow designation Celestia. Lead.

Celestia nodded. “It really does wish to assist us. It is now following me.” She lit her horn. “Looks like we have a new ally.”

“Ooh! Ooh! We should name him something!” Pinkie bounced up and down. “What about… Bubbles? I like Bubbles!”

“Pinkie, that’s ridiculous.”

“If somepony’s got a better name they better tell me soon!”

With a smile, Celestia made all of them (including the arthon mage) invisible to the outside world. It was an easy matter of teleporting to the other side of the gourd wall.

After that… all they had to do was move.

~~~

Spike and Smolder sat on the back of one of Discordia’s donut-engines.

“Some date that was,” Spike yawned. “Just gotten to the gems when BWAAAP BWAAAAP DANGER DANGER EVACUATE NEW EQUESTRIA!”

Smolder chuckled dryly. “Yeah.”

“And when I went back it was all gone!”

“Er… yep. Definitely didn’t go back and eat them all earlier.” Smolder coughed.

Spike raised an eyebrow. “Wow. Low blow.”

“I was hungry and tired!”

“You said that two minutes ago.”

“The sun is rising again, Spike,” Smolder said, holding out a claw. “It’s been a day.”

“Oh. Oh.” Spike shook his head. “No wonder I feel so tired…”

“No kidding.” Smolder sat back, watching as the snow blowing from the mountain collected on the edges of the Discordia’s cotton candy.

“...I’ll go get us something to eat.”

“Spike…”

“You’re not in your fancy dress, this doesn’t mean anything.”

“Oh boy, the dress has meaning now, does it?”

Spike scratched the back of his head. “Uh…”

Smolder grinned. “Gotcha.”

Spike rolled his eyes. “Heh. ...Gems?”

“Gems. Got it.” He turned back to the cotton candy of the Discordia preparing to swim through and gather some gemstone treats.

“...I hope they don’t find us and interrupt us again,” Smolder muttered.

“...I hope so too.”

Spike dove into the cotton candy.

~~~

“They’re on the other side of the Sphere.” in a cloud fortress.”

Qw blinked. “Impressive, but not unexpected.” She tapped the tip of the Root with her wand, encouraging it to grow faster. Currently, she was out in the wilderness in the middle of the night, the Root tying her back to New Equestria so she could keep track of what was happening back there. “Have we uncovered anything else?” she asked.

The response came through the Roots. “Nothing. They cleaned out everything. The libraries are empty, the laboratory is bare. All we found was a statue of an unidentified alicorn in the forest.”

“Hmm…” Qw frowned. “Why would they leave that behind…?”

She had to push that thought out of her mind - she was nearing the unclaimed mana fount. Naturally, it was protected by four of the hard-light guardians. Not a surprise at all, anything this far out would still have its protectors. Normally the blairne would spend a few days plotting an attack, setting up armaments, and then engage in an hour-long battle to ensure the guardians were defeated and the mana fount freed.

Today was a special circumstance. She was here. An enchanter - the furthest an enchanter had ever been from the blairne seat of power. Any ponies who saw her who weren't meant to were marked for death. Usually by her hoof.

The guardians, in her mind, could be counted as a pony.

She crawled up the hill, standing tall on the root.

Her wand resonated with the message of the guardians. “Leave.”

She responded with a dual spell. The first spell was a simple response: “No.”

The second was a massive neon-red explosion that shaved off the top part of the hill, leaving only the mana fount standing.

If only enchanters were viable options for claiming the mana founts of the shaper kingdoms… but no, that would be too messy. Too obvious. Already New Equestria had no doubt deduced the existence of enchanters and possibly let the shapers know. That was unacceptable. For them to know an enchanter’s capabilities?

An unthinkable atrocity on the highest level.

She trotted up to the mana fount, ordering the Root to grow up with her. She knew the ritual to claim the mana fount, yes, but she wasn't here to test that old bore. She was here for instant, harmonious gratification. Power given to her for free.

She touched the root to the mana fount. Nothing happened.

No matter, the circumstances may have been unique in the cave. Emulating…

Closing her eyes, she waved her wand around and touched it to the air, mimicking the magical signatures the recording had told her about.

Nothing happened. The mana fount remained dormant.

Qw scowled. “They’ve done something,” she said. “Lied on the recording or did something to the roots.” Looking up to the other side of the Sphere, she wondered which one of the distant clouds was them. “The fools think they can run away. They know nothing of true enchantments…”

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Hoo boy. This is a very risky gambit. Theoretically, the chunk of Root in the Discordia could regrow, but let's call that Plan Q at best. Looking forward to the attempted decapitation strike, and whatever the blairne have planned.

[Venerable Ro]

Assassination, Twilight? Didn't we just get through a tearful round of declaiming about not letting this new place corrode our ponish sensibilities? Success of not, this will likely end in tears and fire. The Impervious Ruler is the keystone of Blairne society, without him their country will fall to bloody anarchy. This disruption will in turn lead their neighbors to avenge past grudges as the opportunity presents itself, taking their own pounds of flesh from the dying empire. And as a final poignant glimmer, the Blairne will always remember the ponies of Equestria as the sole authors of their misfortune, sparking an enduring grudge of rare intensity.

If this is what you call harmony, I'd hate to see your idea of disharmony.

[GMBlackjack]

9751524
Elements of harmony don't always kill things.

And it was either this or fight a war, really.

-GM, master of war.

[Venerable Ro]

9751526

They'll have far worse than a war if they think they can just depose the head of a hierarchal society like that without thought for the consequences.

[RolkFlameraven]

Umm, Twi? Sunset isn't Magic, she is Empathy and now I'm worried she is still attached to the roots and the OFC is going to fail because Twi isn't there.

Still think this was a very bad plan, though this "Enchanter" having more classic magic does point to it being a much nastier fight than one would have thought.

[silvadel]

9751526

And fighting the war would have been far more correct. Remember in a war you don't have to kill all invading forces. All you have to do is demoralize them enough to retreat.

[DemonOJM]

Found a little mistake

Spike and Ember sat on the back of one of Discordia’s donut-engines

I think you meant Smolder

[Nightsclaw]

I love the fact that Twilight got into argument with Celestia about the plan. Leaving the most annoying pony till last seems very fitting with everything going on.
That last line in the chapter is a series something bad is going to happens soon ending.