the Raid of Ponyville

Royal celestial archives, department of military history

Event:
cardinal points war, surprise attack on Ponyville

Provided by:
Time Turner (also known as Dr. Whooves)
Earth pony
Male
Ponyville timekeeper (rumored to be a Time Lord, unproven to date)

We’d never thought we would do something like this. Equestria was at peace with every major force since the princesses claimed the throne. We never knew that everything would start to change after the changelings and their queen tried to invade Canterlot.

Even though Chrysalis managed to defeat Celestia in a direct confrontation, to us, there was no question that Celestia was practically a goddess. How could we not honor and worship a being that moved the sun according to her will and that was, as far as anypony could tell, immortal?

But, the gryphons took it as a sign that the power of our ageless protectors weakened. We didn’t knew at the time but at this point, the first of them thought about war. I have to admit, gryphons always think about war, they have incredible martial pride and a long lasting history of honorable combat. But this time was different. They prepared for war, a real war, not just some symbolic duels between individuals, they rose an army.

The straw to break the pony’s back however, wasn’t even something we could have controlled. The elements of harmony had been given back to the tree of harmony and where gone. The gryphons thought we were at our lowest point and set their army in motion, the last thing they needed was an excuse to attack.

When the castle of friendship rose in Ponyville, all of Equestria was in awe. The whole town was proud that our awkward unicorn librarian not only became a princess, but rather made Ponyville practically the center of her ‘friendship kingdom’ as we called it. The gryphons however didn’t like the term very much and took it gladly as a pretense to start their war.

The declaration of war arrived in Canterlot only mere minutes before the first blood was spilled. They had prepared this for years at this point and we had been incredibly oblivious.

It was in the middle of the day, ponies filled the market and everything seemed to indicate it was one of the more normal days in Ponyville. Without a warning, a high pitched scream tore the friendly chatter apart. Roseluck had tumbled to the ground, an arrow in her right gaskin. Lilly and Daisy screamed in pure panic while most of the other ponies stared blankly at the bright red pool which formed under Rose. Blood, especially from a fellow pony, was a rare sight for anypony but the doctors and nurses of the hospital, but now there was plenty of it right in front of all of us.

A second scream rolled over the marketplace. It was high pitched and dragged out, but most importantly, it came from above us. A gryphon fell out of the sky and aimed for the wounded Roseluck with a blade on which the reflections of Celestias sun danced. Lilly was the first to snap out of our panic induced freeze and realized what the gryphon was trying to do.

I swear I never saw anypony angry like this before. Her pupils shrank and she pinpointed her gaze at the gryphon. Her front hooves buried themselves in the ground, her flank swung around and before the half bird creature could adjust or retreat it learned the true extend of earth pony strength.

Lillys hind legs connected with a sound like a thunderclap and the gryphon was shot against the side wall of Quills and Sofas. The armor almost exploded away from its body as he hit the massive wall, only to reveal two hoof sized dents at the side of its barrel.

Mere moments later, a sky blue pegasus with a brown mane darted out of the sky and pointed at the sun. “There are more of them. RUN!”

Everypony on the marketplace stared up in the sky, at the sun and watched something no pony had seen since the time of the tribes. There was a gryphon war band.

We all started to run, Lilly and Daisy carried Roseluck away, while the few pegasi which were around started to take flight in all directions. Some of them tried to lure the attackers away from their earthbound friends, while others darted to the palace and the town hall to inform princess Twilight and the mayor.

After our initial shock over Roses injury was overruled by the collective will to protect our loved ones and ourselves, the gryphons hadn’t such an easy time as they hoped or expected. Ponyville may not have known war, but we lived at the edge of the Everfree Forest, we were able to protect our homes and lives.

I darted around a corner and tried to take a shortcut through an alley, when I saw Scootaloo being chased by a gryphon thrice her size. Her little red scooter was only a blur, but the gryphon had the advantage of flying over every obstacle she needed to go around. I was giving chase to the gryphon but they had quite the head start and before I was even at full speed, something hit the gryphon in the chest. A slight squeak was everything to be heard, before the armored attacker fell to the ground like a stuffed doll. The sudden stop was obviously something the gryphon couldn’t take very well, but the projectile that hit him had none such problems. Rainbow Dash stared angrily at her downed foe and huffed at him. “Nobody touches my little Squirt.”

Scootaloo jumped at Dash and hugged her like a drowning pony a lifebelt. “Thank you Rainbow, thank you, thank you, thank you. I thought I was done for.”

The blue mare smiled a smile that was so full of love and gentleness that even Fluttershy would have seemed brash in comparison. “You know, I never leave my friends hangin.”

When I reached them Rainbow looked at me sternly. “Need help?”

She shook her head and pointed down the road to the ruins of the Golden Oaks Library. “The Gryphons try to round up as many ponies as they can around Twilights old tree. Can you do something about it till I got Squirt somewhere safe?”

I gave a chuckle and nodded. "Its all about the timing, you know?"

I tried to keep a low profile to surprise the Gryphons as good as I could at Golden Oaks. It wasn't easy to hide behind crates or bales of hay from flying opponents, but I somehow, don’t know really how, managed to get to Lyras and Bon Bons house without getting spotted. I had a good view on the burned husk of the former library.

Gryphons, almost twenty of them, circled the area. In the center seven Unicorns had set up a shield bubble over a few dozen ponies and managed to keep arrows and gryphons out. I saw Rarity inside the bubble with a suit of armor unlike everything I had ever seen before. Her whole body was encased in hundreds upon hundreds of scales made from gemstones of every color I could imagine. It was stunningly beautiful how it refracted the light that fell upon her. But at this point, I whispered to myself a far more dire question. “How tha buck did she made that thing? … And when?”

My ears shot up when one of the Gryphon raiders flew into one window of Lyras and Bon Bons house. First I thought he was after me, then I thought he was shot down by some pegasus, but then I realized no other gryphon came to his rescue. Somepony was in that house and he tried to do get them out of there.

I started to sneak for a window to enter the house and help whoever was stuck in there, but then a terrible shriek hit my eardrums. The gryphon was hurled through the door like a speeding bullet and smashed against the unicorn shield in the center of the square. His companions looked at each other, they had no idea what happened and from within the house came no sound. There was no scream of anger or fear, just silence. Maybe this was terrifying, even for a bunch like them.

Without a warning at least fifty more gryphons landed around the unicorn shield. They looked bruised and beaten, like they definitely bit off more than they could chew. One of them panted. “We need to retreat. The mission has failed. This purple monster is damn invulnerable.”

A larger gryphon with a much more elaborately decorated armor stepped forward and stared down at the one who had dared to speak. “They are all weak. How could you fail with superior numbers and the moment of surprise on your side?”

The smaller one seemed to shrink in his armor. “Sir, we did everything we could, our weapons were useless. Even the muskets bounced off of her shield like they were mere raindrops. She grabbed over half of us in her magic and hurled us around like puppets. She could have killed all of us if she wanted. I highly recommend to retreat, as long as…”

Suddenly, the earth began to tremble and the gryphons looked puzzled at each other. I never heard something like that before and every instinct told me, this was going to get bad, really, really bad.

The lawn in front of Sugarcube Corners parted and the building itself was lifted up by shining metal rods that seemed to grow out of the ground. The rattling grew louder and louder when finally a bright pink tube emerged from the ground.

Everypony in sight was frozen in place and had their jaw hung open. Pinkie Pie sat inside a huge metal vehicle that was as pink as she was. The tube pointed at the supposed gryphon commander. Pinkie Pie had a wide grin plastered on her face patted her vehicle. “How do you like my Party Tank 2.0?”

A loud bang shot from the castle, a purple stream soared into the sky and the roar of the Royal Canterlot voice rolled over Ponyville. “HOW DARE YOU?”

Inside the still uphold unicorn shield Rarity stepped forward and a small hole opened up to allow her to leave the safe zone. “You made me use all my precious gems for this monstrosity.”

Half a dozen gryphons stumbled backwards out of a dark alleyway and wore faces that were very likely the definition of fear itself. Seconds later emerged the reason of this primal fear out of that same alley. Fluttershy was at least a full head smaller than even the smallest of her attackers but her eyes. Oh Celestia, those eyes. I’ve seen terrible things in that war, but never anything even close to her full powered stare. Since then I knew why even dragons flinched when she got serious.

Rainbow Dash announced her presence it a much less subtle way, she just pulled off a Sonic Rainboom above the gryphons. The explosion effectively grounded all flying creatures except herself and managed to drain the color from nearly every gryphons face. They clearly started to grasp what freaked out ponies lived in Ponyville.

Shortly after the rainbow colored explosion two dead gryphons crashed onto the place. Everybody looked into the direction they came from and saw a third one still mid flight between Sweet Apple Acres and Ponyville. After the last one had also crashed dead onto the ground, Rainbow snorted. “Really, you send only three guys to get Applejack and her family? Seriously?”

I couldn’t believe it at first, but a close look showed that all three gryphons had hoof prints on their faceplates. They clearly got bucked by the two most powerful sets of hooves Ponyville had to offer. But honestly, who would have expected that Applejack and Big Mac could, literally, kick somepony from Sweet Apple Acres back to the town square?

Twilight Sparkle crashed down in the middle of the gryphons. The ground cracked open, her whole body radiated with pure magic and her mane and tail fluttered with a wind nopony else could feel. “YOU WILL PAY!”

This was our command. Our Princess had spoken and like extensions of her will, we all erupted into battle.

Pinkie Pie was the first to react. Her Party Tank fired a massive shell into the gryphons, which exploded into more confetti, cake batter, streamers and balloons than I’ve ever seen in one place.

Rainbow Dash kicked one gryphon that dared to flee in the head and sent him crashing into a nearby building, all while striking a pose which I knew from a Daring Do cover.

Fluttershys stare intensified beyond every concept a mortal mind could grasp and many of the gryphons exploded into a speed even Rainbow couldn’t match, just to get away from those eyes.

Rarity reshaped dozens of gryphon armors into solid shells of metal, which were unable to move and seemed to lack breathing holes.

From the outskirts of Ponyville I could hear hooves and the voice of Applejack. “Yeeha, run ya buckers.” She clearly didn't need any help either.

Twilight herself didn’t move. She had no need to do so, her magic was everywhere. She held gryphons in place with telekinesis, encased them in solid blocks of ice with beams of magic and projected shields wherever ponies could not defend themselves. She protected us and we all carried out her will.

The raiders had no chance, they had far underestimated Ponyville and our more or less crazy citizens. Of course we had losses, especially in the first minutes of the attack, before our fight-or-flight instinct switched to fight. But the most of us were mainly unharmed, our princess was alive and well and we sent the gryphons back with their tails between their legs.

We had many breakdowns from the ones of us who had killed, when they realized what they had done. But ponies are pretty tough if they need to be, much tougher than most of us thought. I for myself hadn’t spilled any blood that day, neither my own nor that of a gryphon. But I could wait, after all, my cutie mark was an hourglass for a reason.

After the last gryphon was out of sight, the princess fell to the ground and started to weep. Many of us were startled at this sight, but between unintelligible mumbles we could hear names. Some of the ponies that worked at the castle when the attack started must have been killed. In retrospect, I have to admit, that this would explain her rather violent outburst at the time.

Fluttershy hugged the princess and started to hum a melody I didn’t recognize. Her voice was barely a whisper, but nopony dared to make even the slightest noise and so this gentle tune was clearly audible all over the place. Some of us cried in silence with the princess, while others hugged their loved ones.

Only when Applejack and Big McIntosh arrived time seemed to resume its course. “Alrigh' everypony, ya round up the wounded here and carry em' over to the hospital!”

Her voice grew softer and she deliberately lowered her volume. “And ya'll know the gravedigger could use some mighty fine help caring for the dead.”

It was a good thing that Applejack gave us some instructions, we would have stood like this for hours otherwise. All of us who weren’t wounded, but had friends who were, started to take care of them. Everypony else started to collect the bodies of ponies and gryphons for a proper burial, or at least everypony who could handle this much death.

All the while the mares of harmony took care of princess Twilight and brought her back to her castle.

A few hours later the golden chariot of princess Celestia herself took down in front of the castle of friendship. Followed mere seconds by the dark purple Chariot of princess Luna. The princess of the night wore a stern expression, steel in her gaze and an aura of righteous fury all around her body. If she had been my enemy back then, I would have wet myself right on the spot. But what startled me more was princess Celestia, the omnipresent smile, which always beautified her muzzle, was gone.

The princess of the sun took flight and hovered high above Ponyville. It was the first time I heard Celestia use the royal Canterlot voice. “WE THANK YOU ALL DEARLY MY LITTLE PONIES. YOU REPELLED AN EVIL AND UNPROVOKED ATTACK AND DEFENDED PRINCESS TWILIGHT. BUT FOR NOW, I MUST COMMAND YOU TO NOT COME NEAR THIS CASTLE.”

When a flash of light blue magic revealed a pink alicorn in front of the castle, accompanied by a white unicorn stallion, I had the first foreboding of how grave this all really was. All four princesses gathered together in Ponyville, only shortly after one of them was attacked directly. I didn’t know at the time, but this was the beginning of the cardinal points war.

the Guard marches

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Royal celestial archives, department of military history

Event:
cardinal points war, first deployment of the royal guard

Provided by:
Onyx Buster
Earth pony
Male
sergeant of the royal guard of Equestria

The day started really nice. I had quite the arousing dream, the captain didn’t feel like he needed to scream us out of bed and Celestias sun was bright and warm. It could have been such a beautiful day.

I had a rather small breakfast, which mainly consisted of the strongest and darkest coffee I could find. Around 7:30 a.m. I got my armor, put that golden monstrosity on and went to take over from Midnight Jewel.

She entered the guard just two months ago and was assigned to guarding the hallway to the diplomats’ wing of the castle. It was a boring task and it was quite regular for rookies to get jobs like that.

I for myself was anything but a rookie, but I was also no morning pony. The last time the captain saw it fit to yell at me before my shift started, and before I got my cup of liquid tolerance for the world, I threatened to buck his private parts. And I did so in a language that was quite colorful, to say the least.

Anyway, my foul mouth had earned me three months of the most boring post in the whole castle, but at least I met Midnight Jewel. She was a small, slender unicorn mare with a coat as black as the darkest of nights. Her mane and tail were orange, with a single gray line in them. Her cutie mark was an arrangement of three small white stars. Her eyes had a similar orange to her mane, only a few tints lighter.

I loved that mare, although at first I thought she was just a pretty face and nothing more. I always took over from her in the morning, so we met every day. A few days after my transfer we started talking. At that point she only knew me and the third buck in rotation, Winter Gust. He was a hyperactive young pegasus, barely old enough to join the guard in the first place. Midnight asked me what my name was, how I got this position, why I always look like I was ready to kill somepony and many more things. After a while, I gave in and replied.

I soon learned that she was quite bright and wanted to join the guard as a supporting mage. Her special talent was light magic. We spend some evenings and weekends together and I decided to ask her out when my sentence was over.

When I arrived at our post she looked as beautiful as always and smiled at me as I rounded the corner. I made my way over and grumbled something that was supposed to be a ‘good morning’ to her.

She just laughed. “You know you look funny when you glare daggers at everything like this?”

I raised one eyebrow and cocked my head slightly. “You do remember that I’m no morning pony, do you?”

She walked around me and attempted to inspect me. “You look like an earth pony to me and I kind of always thought all earth ponies were early risers. You know, strong connection to nature and stuff like that.”

I huffed. “I have a strong connection to the nature around 11:00 a.m. until then, nature can bugger off.”

Midnight giggled at me and shook her head. “You’re cute when you’re grumpy, Onyx.”

I said nothing and tried my best not to smile like an idiot for being called cute by her. But I think she already knew at the time that I adored her.

After that, we switched posts and I started my shift by staring blankly after her when she left. A few minutes after Midnight was out of sight, I smiled slightly and nodded to myself. “The Armor of the night guard really looks way better than ours, regardless of the fact that the mare you’ve fallen for wears it or not.”

A slight chuckle came from right behind me and my eyes widened in horror. Somepony had heard me. “We are very pleased that you seem to appreciate our design … and our guards.”

I knew that voice. Even without her very distinctive speech pattern I would have known who that was. I slowly turned my head and tried to crack a smile. “Good morning princess Luna, your highness.”

Another chuckled escaped her. “You can stand at ease, Onyx Buster. I’m here for informal matters.”

Even if she would have ordered me, my whole body was as tense as it could get. “You honor me by knowing my name, your highness.”

Luna shook her head. “It’s nothing. I prefer a more personal approach towards my subjects. My sister likes her guard to be as uniform as possible and therefore has slight problems getting everypony's names right. My night guard however is smaller and every pony in it is far more individualistic.”

I bowed my head before her. “They must all feel very special.”

Luna took a deep breath and smiled a little bit mischievously. “They all are something special. But, you already knew that … at least in regards to one of my guards.”

I simply nodded, denying was useless at this point and no guard would lie towards one of the princesses. Meanwhile Lunas gaze took on something warm and motherly, normally things rather attributed to Celestia than her. “I saw in your dreams how you feel about Midnight Jewel. If you would want to, I could pull some strings to arrange your redeployment into my night guard.”

It took me whole five minutes before I could close my muzzle again and another two before I could form a coherent thought. “Why would you do that? ... Your highness.”

Luna smiled. “I just want my subjects to be happy.”

I thought she was yanking me around. “Princess, I’m very grateful, but I don’t know if…”

She raised one hoof to silence me and suddenly looked very serious. “I would never make fun of the honest feelings I saw in your dreams. My offer stands as long as it needs to. If you feel like taking me up on it, you know where to find me.”

I slowly nodded and stammered. “Thank you, your highness.”

Luna left, with the kindest smile I’ve ever seen on her lips and whispered. “The dreams and the night are my domain. It’s my pleasure to help those who seek for love in one of them.”

As the time went by, I thought about Lunas offer and what to do with it. It was almost too good to be true, but it was a word form a princess. Why would she lie about it? She even knew my and Midnights names. After all, there was not much to lose, but all the more to win. I decided to stick to my plan, I would ask Midnight out after my sentence was over and if she agreed I would suggest to her to join the night guard. That would make for an excellent surprise.

It was only a few minutes after noon when suddenly my armor made a sound I never heard outside of training. The so called ‘emergency order spell’ was coming to live. The blue star in my armor, which carried the enchantment, bellowed a single order. “All guards, get ready for deployment! This is not a drill.”

The blue Star my armor had encased in its chest plate repeated the order two times over. Not many ponies knew, but the gems that were built into every guard armor carried powerful enchantments within them. One enabled the princesses to relay their orders to every guard pony, no matter where they were.

I bolted past the first corner and into the direction of the barracks. The first thing to get when we were deployed was the full battle armor and our weapon of choice. Next step would be the assembly at the front yard of the castle, where we would get our orders.

Only two minutes after the initial order I reached the barracks and made haste for the armory. The halls were cramped with ponies and it felt like an eternity until I was in for it.

Earth pony battle armor was extremely heavy and for one pony alone nearly impossible to equip. Two unicorns assembled my armor around me with precise telekinesis. After every plate was in its place I grabbed my spear, attached it to my side and left for the yard.

Only twenty minutes after Celestias order had been magically relayed to every royal guard in Canterlot we stood in the front yard of the castle. Exactly one thousand ponies of each tribe, plus roughly 500 night guard.

Princess Celestia appeared in a flash of golden light in front of the formation of her guard and allowed herself a moment to let her eyes wander over every single pony in sight. “Guards, we are at war.”

Nopony made a sound. We all knew that something bad was going on if Celestia ordered the full deployment of the guard, but we expected a Monster, not a full scale war. “Not even half an hour ago, a messenger from the gryphon empire delivered a formal declaration of war against Equestria and all its allies.”

Princess Luna touched down in front of her own guard and continued her sister’s speech. “We hoped it would never come to this, but we have to fight.”

Both princesses spread their wings and seemed to tower over every one of us like giants. “WILL YOU STAND WITH US?”

Both of them spoke in unison in their royal Canterlot voice, but our reply managed to drown them out nevertheless. We screamed our compliance loud enough for the whole city to hear it. These were our goddesses, every pony in Equestria would’ve followed them to wherever they led us.

Celestia and Luna had their chariots brought over and gave orders to their captains in the meantime. Celestias royal guard would be dispatched to the western coast and deployed around Baltimare, Filly Delphia, Horseshoe Bay and Manehatten. In the meantime Luna and her night guard would take post at the eastern coast, even though no pony knew if and what may live beyond the great eastern sea, the princesses wanted it to be guarded.

I have to admit, I was little bit depressed over the fact that Midnight would be dispatched on the other end of Equestria.

While our formations shuffled to start deployment I made my way over to her. She looked uncertain and maybe a little bit frightened. I managed to get next to her before she noticed me. “Afraid rookie?”

Her head snapped around and she was about to yell at whoever called her a rookie. But when she recognized me, and saw the sarcastic smile I always put on when I teased her, she snorted. “Buck you, Onyx! Aren't you even slightly worried about ponies dying? Maybe that some you know might die?”

I nodded and put away that unfitting smile of mine. “We all are. I have to admit, the last few years we had more operations than in the whole last century, but we all are a little bit afraid of what might happen.”

I lowered my head to her ear and whispered. “And none of us had expected a full scale war.”

Midnight blinked one time, very slow, like she was contemplating about something I said. “Understandable.”

An officer of the night guard gave a sharp whistle and screamed Midnights full name and rank, which is never a good sign. All soldiers know exactly that their officers are really, really pissed when they call out for them like this. It’s like your mother calling you by your full name, you just know that shit is about to hit the fan.

With a sheepish smile she looked up to me and pointed one hoof into the direction where the call originated from. “I think I have to go, otherwise ‘daddy’ might really lose his temper.”

I looked at the colt and glared daggers at him, before returning my gaze to Midnight. “Take care of yourself. … I don’t want to guard that hallway all on my own.”

The Mare in front of me nodded and her eyes became hard as steel. “You too. I couldn’t stand that jerk Winter Gust all by myself. I swear if I catch him staring at my flank ever again I will neuter him.”

We both snorted and shared a hearty laugh.

I watched after her when she left and the night guard marched out of the castle yard, with only half a dozen remaining around Lunas chariot. More than once I had thought about telling her how I felt right then and there, but I didn’t know if that would be a wise choice. She was right, one of us could easily bite the dust in the next weeks or months. I just wouldn’t want to put neither her nor myself through the constant fear for a loved one. And I may have been afraid to be rejected, ... maybe, ... just a little bit.

Suddenly, somepony nudged me and hissed into my ear. I just shifted my gaze and hissed back, but when my eyes again searched for Midnight I already lost track of her. She just vanished in the midst of the night guard.

When I was nudged a second time I was kind of angry and turned myself around. Another guard pointed at something behind himself and whispered. “Hey sergeant, the princess has called for you.”

My first impulse was to yell at him for denying me the last few glances at Midnights, admittedly, beautiful flank. But my subconscious sealed my mouth and screamed at me to comply with whatever the princess wanted.

I stepped forward and saluted to Celestia, while she nodded with a serious expression. “You are sergeant Onyx Buster?”

My hoof was set back onto the ground and I took the stoic, stature like, pose for which the royal guard was famous. “Yes your highness. Sergeant First Class Onyx Buster, second lancer squadron.”

She nodded again. “Captain Winternight told me you may be one of the best lancers in the guard. Is that correct?”

I didn’t understand the significance of that and therefore was mildly confused, but that’s nothing which leads a royal guard to drop his stonily act. “I currently hold the record for the most breached phalanxes in lancer training, your highness.”

The princess tapped one hoof on the ground and seemed to be satisfied with my answer. “Very good. Onyx Buster, from now on, until this war is over, you are relieved from your duty in the regular royal guard forces and henceforth serve as one of my personal guard. You only have to answer to calls from the princesses of Equestria, nopony else is allowed to give you any orders. But in the same manner that no other guard can give you any order, you can’t order them. Did you understand?”

I knelt down and lowered my head. “Yes, your majesty.”

The motherly smile, which normally was omnipresent on Celestias muzzle, returned to a certain degree. “I thank you for your service, my little pony.”

She turned around and made way to her chariot, where five other guards already waited for her. “Princess Luna and I will attend a meeting with the other princesses in Ponyville. Captains, you have your orders, forward march!”

The gathering of ponies around Celestias and Lunas chariots were their newly assigned personal guards. Though, I doubted that we could deal with anything that posed a real threat to one of the princesses.

The first ones who climbed their chariots where Luna and Celestia themselves. While two pegasi each strapped themselves to the harnesses of the vehicles. Everypony else climbed into the chariots afterwards and waited silently for the take off.

While Canterlot grew smaller the princess addressed us. “Does none of you have any questions about the situation?”

We all looked at each other, not sure if it exceeded our privileges to ask the princess any questions about what was going on. In the end, one of the two unicorns cleared his throat. “Your majesty, I would like to ask why we are going to Ponyville. The town is rather remote and beside the fact that Princess Twilight Sparkle takes shelter there, there isn’t much it has to offer.”

Celestia fixed her gaze on the unicorn stallion and nodded. “You are right Sapphire Twister, but Luna and I need to talk to Twilight. Hopefully before it is too late.”

One of the pegasi who pulled the chariot, the mare was called Amber Snow, turned her head. “Too late for what, your highness?”

The Princess heaved a heavy sigh. “Technically the gryphons didn’t declare war to Equestria as a whole, but rather personally to Princess Twilight and what is called ‘the friendship kingdom’ by most ponies. I fear they might try to kill her.”

The second unicorn stallion tapped his hooves and seemed to talk to himself. “Equestria is a federal kingdom, the gryphons should be aware of that. They wouldn’t mistake the, metaphorical, friendship kingdom for a single state. And even if there would be a province that’s called ‘friendship kingdom’, it would still be part of Equestria and therefore war against it would mean war against ponykind as a whole.”

We didn’t knew if he was talking to himself or to us, but the princess took it as his contribution to the conversation. “Magic Step is absolutely right. The gryphons didn’t make a mistake, they did this on purpose. But the reason is something we can only guess, at best.”

The flight from Canterlot to Ponyville took a few hours and when we finally took down in front of princess Twilights castle, everything was over already. The gryphons had timed their attack perfectly, they attacked only mere minutes after we received their declaration of war. But the attempted assassination of an alicorn, as well as the bearers of the elements of harmony, did backfire on a surprisingly epic scale. Not only had the gryphons been repelled, their losses outnumbered Ponyvilles civilian casualties three to one.

While princess Celestia commanded the citizens to keep their distance from the castle princess Luna started to caste a few spells on the location itself. We assumed she was casting different wards and protective spells, even our unicorns had no idea what she was doing. And all non-unicorns agreed to not startle her, who knows what might happen if one of her spells became unstable. After she was done, Magic Step only mumbled a few sentences. I only overheard ‘overkill’ and ‘way out of our league’ and stuff like that, obviously I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

After Luna had cast her spells and Celestia touched down from her little speech, a bright blue flash appeared in front of the castle door. Princess Cadence and her husband had arrived, both were panting heavily. I’ve knew Shining for years before Cadence decided to get him a promotion to the rank of ‘prince’, but I’ve never seen him as exhausted as this.

Magic Step, Sapphire Twister and the two unicorns from Lunas guard rushed over to them with sheer terror plastered all over their faces. Each of them instantly started to cast a spell, which they later explained as some sort of energy exchange spell. Obviously Shining and Cadence had teleported the whole way from the Crystal Empire to Ponyville. I’m an earth pony, so you could guess my magical expertise, but even I knew that this was nuts. Celestia flew to ponyville in her chariot for a reason.

Right when Cadence and Shining recovered far enough to talk a whole sentence without gasping, they instantly made use of that ability. “What has happened? Why are we at war? Is Twilight alright?”

I felt it was mildly disturbing that they managed to speak in perfect unison, although they both where exhausted almost to the point of unconsciousness. Luna came up next to them and hushed the pair. “We too just arrived. But as far as we can tell Twilight Sparkle is unharmed and Ponyville, though it suffered a surprise attack, is in remarkably good condition.”

Celestia stepped over to her niece and nodded. “Luna is right, although the gryphons managed to catch the town off guard, they were repulsed with only minimal losses for the ponies of Ponyville.”

Shining armor and the three princesses proceeded to the gate and Celestia raised a hoof to knock, only for a pink earth pony to tear open the door before the princess had even touched the wood. “Hi princess, the others already thought you were delayed.”

Some of us guards already dropped to a battle stance, but the Princesses were far less surprised and signaled us to stand down. Celestia just giggled slightly. “Hello Pinkie Pie, It seems you are still at your very best when it comes to you pinkie sense. Can we come in?”

Pinkie Pie stepped aside and made way for Celestia and the others to enter. “Of course you all can come in. I made special princess council party cupcakes. I even made them with everypony’s cutie marks on top, so we all knew which cupcakes are ours and which not.”

Her tone suddenly became really serious, almost angry. “This time Dashie will have no excuse if she ate all of my cupcakes.”

After the princesses had entered, Pinkie Pie examined us all and smiled as wide as she could. “Sorry, but the princesses don’t want anypony else around for their chat, you will have to wait outside.”

Her eyes grew wide for a second, then she immediately looked at Sapphire Twister. “My tail is twitchy, you should keep an eye for falling thingies.”

The whole scene was surreal and strange to a degree I hadn’t witnessed ever before, although I have to admit, it was the first time I met Pinkie Pie in person. After she had closed the castle door I leaned over to Twister. “What the buck is a pinkie sense and what does she mean with that stuff about falling things?”

His face was deadpan. “I have no idea.”

Within mere moments of that answer we heard a call from a balcony of the castle. “Caution!”

We managed to look up for whatever was the source of that call and Twister took a dented gryphon helmet right to the face. All the while a small purple dragon stood on the balcony and watched down onto us. “Sorry, that thing slipped away.”

Twister rubbed his muzzle and grumbled. “I already don’t like that pink mare.”

I for myself didn’t say anything, I was quite busy laughing my flank off.

Council of the Princesses

View Online

Royal celestial archives, department of military history

Event:
cardinal points war, first war council

Provided by:
Princess Celestia
Alicorn
Female
Solar diarch of Equestria

As she walked us to the central room of Twilights Castle, Pinkie Pie seemed rather cheerful, to say the least. In all honest, I never really understood what was going on in her mind, this pony is an enigma beyond comparison. In all my life, I’ve never met any being that was even remotely like this pony, except Discord maybe. She had expected us, despite the fact, that she simply could not have any knowledge of our coming whatsoever. Twilight once told me about her so called Pinkie Sense, it’s one thing to know of an ability like that, but experiencing it first-hoof is something else entirely. Needless to say, it was kind of disturbing to see her predicting immediate events with such ease.

But in the end, politics and social encounters are always only about two things, charisma and composure. I learned from the best that you don’t need to know everything, it’s enough if your opposite thinks you know everything. Starswirl had a particular liking for this saying.

Anyway, I digress, Pinkie lead us to the throne room. It was the first time I actually saw the map of Equestria in its center, shortly after Tirek’s defeat there were only the thrones of Twilight and her friends. Luna and I were baffled about the gorgeous details, everything seemed like little sculptures made of light. It made me sad that we had to use a work of art like that for war, it was a true waste of beauty.

When we approached the map, we saw tiny red dots moving away from ponyville, heading as fast as they could towards Equestria’s western coast. Twilight sat on her throne and watched the dots with an illegible expression on her face. It stroke me as a mixture of anger, sadness and relief, but with something darker deep inside her, an emotion I rarely saw in one of my little ponies, bloodlust.

I approached her with the same gentle and motherly smile I always gave her when she was still a little filly. She looked at me, tears welling up in her eyes, mere moments before she jumped down from her crystalline throne and ran towards us. The fact that she not simply ran, but rather jumped half the way, galloped the rest as fast as she could and used her Wings all the while to propel herself forward made it obvious that she was near her breaking point.

If you have enough experience reading the body language of other ponies, you will notice even the smallest things. Even though Twilight was now an alicorn and had wings, she normally ignored them. She tended to do things like she always did and this meant simply doing things without using any wings, in that regard, her mind was still that of a unicorn. But in moments like that, when your mind can’t form a coherent thought, your body tends to fall back to it’s own reflexes. In Twilights case, that meant that her body was receiving the Order “Bring me to Celestia!” and carried it out on it’s own, with wings and hooves alike.

I admit, it may be bit exaggerated to analyse a simple situation like that to this degree, but honestly, it comes naturally to me. I’ve seen so many things, knew so many ponies, those thoughts just happen. In most cases I don’t even perceive them consciously at the time, I simply react according to them.

When Twilight slammed into my chest, I just wrapped my wings and forelegs around her, nuzzled her mane and whispered into her ears. “Shhhhhh Twilight. It’s over now. You did good. You protected your friends, ... all of them.”

She started sobbing immediately and we sat like this for about ten minutes. Luna, Cadance, Shining and Twilight’s friends just waited for her to let it all out.

When she had calmed down a little, she locked up at me, the same expression she always had when she thought I was angry at her for not studying enough. Her eyes were bloodshot, the coat on her cheeks wet from her own tears, snot running down her nose and her huge violet eyes filled to the brim with fear, the fear of having failed my trust in her. “I almost killed them ...”

I touched her horn with my own and cut her off. “It’s ok Twilight. You don’t need to apologize. There was nothing you did wrong. Maybe you think you were close to do something you think is evil. You might even be right about that, but there is an important difference between a good pony doing an evil deed and an evil pony. A good pony might sometimes need to do something evil, but they will never feel good about it.”

Luna had approached Twilight from the side and put a hoof onto her shoulder. “Twilight Sparkle, always remember, evil is not sorry for being evil. That you are sorry for what you thought and almost did, show’s all the better that you are a good pony...”

Shortly after Luna had joined our conversation, everypony else also drew closer and one after another we all hugged Twilight and Luna whispered “… one of the best.”

Even though she normally didn’t gave too much thought about her appearance, Twilight excused herself for a few minutes after her crying fit had faded, she wanted to refresh herself. It may have been the fact that virtually every major figure in equestrian politics was present in her home or that I called her cute, after the release of the group hug. But essentially, she felt the need to make herself presentable again.

In her absence, everypony had the opportunity to recall why we were there. The gryphons had declared war on us and this was the first war council since Sombra’s occupation of the Crystal Empire. There was much that had to be discussed.

When Twilight returned, we all sat down around the map of Equestria and steeled ourselves for what had to come.

Luna was the first to speak. “We heard a brief summary of the attempted attack on Ponyville when we landed outside your castle. Would you mind to give us a more detailed recollection of the events?”

Twilight nodded and with a brief flash of her horn, the map in front of everypony zoomed in on Ponyville and it’s surroundings. A moment later, numerous small red dots appeared in the south west area outside the town. “Today, around noon, a force of eighty gryphons reached Ponyville. The main force headed towards this castle to presumably kill me in a surprise attack. Thirty of the assembled gryphons, including their commanding officers, split off and headed towards Ponyville. After their initial assault Rarity managed to establish a defensive position in the middle of the town square, where the present unicorns generated a magical barrier that managed to keep the gryphons from harming a great deal of civilians. After that, twenty gryphons proceeded with their attack on the barrier, while the remaining ten split up and started to search for the former bearers of the Elements of Harmony.”

As always, when you asked her a question, Twilight switched to her lecture mode. It always impressed me, whenever she’s stressed, angry, frightened or on the brink of a mental breakdown, you only need to ask her a single question or request her to explain something and she instantly transforms into the bees knees student she admittedly is. I admit, I often used this little switch in her head when she was a filly and I took her as my personal student. She was frightened of the castle at first, it was so big and pompous and everypony was serious and whatnot. But as soon as I asked her about a book she read or how a spell she studied worked, she simply shut off her bad emotions, explained whatever I asked in great detail and was the happiest filly in the world when in nodded in appreciation.

So, I did what I always did. I smiled at her, like a proud mother smiles down onto her foal when it takes it’s first steps, and nodded.

Rarity was the next who speak up. “These ruffians tried to break our shield, but we had almost twenty unicorns gathered and took turns in providing the necessary power. We were never in real danger, … well except maybe if they had remained there for a few days. After their unprovoked and barbaric surprise attack those uncivilized gryphons were barely more than a nuisance.”

Rainbow Dash nodded and opened her mouth to speak, while she slammed a hoof onto the map. Surprisingly, the crystals that made up the table and projected the map reacted to this abuse with a short, yet impressive, display of prismatic light and miniature rainbows all over the place, quite stunning I admit.

Her own jaw slightly dropped at the sight of the maps reaction to her outburst, but after the small light show was over, she quickly resumed to speak. “It was the same for me. Two of the buckers spotted me and thought it was worth a try to chase the most awesome pegasus of Equestria. But I had my fair share of races against Gilda in flight school, I know how gryphons fly. They may be fast, even faster than an average pegasus, but for starters they stand no chance against me...” The all too familiar cocky grin on Rainbow’s face made me giggle a little. “... and then again, they are large and sluggish. Every pegasus I ever met could easily outmaneuver even the nimblest of those bunch.”

Rarity huffed. “Especially as long as they wear this eye insulting armor of theirs. These things are heavy, brute and make them incredibly slow. Besides, these things seem to be of inferior quality. I witnessed a few of the gryphons taking a buck from ponies and even unicorns and pegasi were able to dent these things.”

A deep harrumph from Applejack made already quite clear what she had to say next. “Mac an’ I dealt with em’ buckers that came for us liquedy split. They thought they the big deal with their mighty fancy armor an’ stuff. Can ya imagine how they turned tail after Mac bucked the first of em’ righ’ in the face.”

Applejack giggled slightly as she remembered how she and her brother defended their farm and family. The Apples had always put their family first and I wasn’t that surprised to see that they would use excessive force to defend their loved ones. Nevertheless, it was strange to see one of my ponies having no trouble with her conscience about having taken a life. I couldn’t decide if I was happy that it seemed that Applejack wouldn’t have to deal with some sort of trauma or if it made me sad that one of my ponies could kill this easy and without obvious remorse.

Shining Armor nudged his sister and spoke rather quiet. “Twi? Do you want to tell us what happened in the castle? You said that almost fifty gryphons attacked this place.”

It was obvious that it was a painful memory. Twilight turned her head sideways and had to fight the urge to break down and cry again, but even with all her will, a few sorrowful tears still rolled down her cheek before she managed to explain. “At first they tried to crash through the windows, but the dense crystalline structure of the castle itself and the fact that the windows are made from the same crystal as the building rendered their efforts useless. Next they gathered at the entrances and broke in. Every balcony, door and even the chimney were used to enter. At first I didn’t know what was going on and searched for spike. I found him in our bedroom, he spat fire on a gryphon in full plate armor that tried to stab him with a sword. My memories after that moment are blurry and incomplete, it feels like I was merely a spectator.”

Luna had walked around the table and put a comforting wing around Twilight’s barrel. “It is fine Twilight. What you describe is perfectly normal. You were filled with rage and I assume a single thought dominated your consciousness?”

Twilight nodded slowly and nuzzled Luna’s neck. “I wanted to protect my friends. I didn’t care what happened to this gryphon, all I wanted was that he stopped attacking Spike.” Another tear rolled down her cheek, this time it carried the remorse for what she did to the gryphon. “I remember that my magic suddenly manifested around my horn. It grabbed the gryphon with telekinesis and simply threw him out the window. I used his body to smash the exact same window he and his peers tried to break in vain.”

Luna nuzzled Twilight and whispered gentle promises of time healing her wounds into her ears. This was what my beloved sister could do best. Since ancient times, far beyond the memory of every pony and history book Equestria had, she was the guardian of the night. I always wanted to be like a mother for my little ponies.

While I nurtured Equestria with the life giving rays of the sun and all the gentle care I could muster, Luna simply protected us all. Many mistake my sister for being silly and childish, but have they ever thought to ask why she is like this whenever she can?

If anypony thinks about Luna and myself, it’s mostly a question of time until the titles ‘bringer of day’ and ‘guardian of the night’ or something similar come up. How I come to be known as the bringer of day should be fairly obvious. In Luna’s case however it’s not that easy. She earned her title by performing two deeds. The first would be that she guarded all our dreams in eternal vigilance since millennia before ponies even started the reckoning of time. And the second one would be her leading Equestrias armies. She always lead and protected our ponies when they marched to war. She willingly shed blood, so I could keep my hooves clean. She gently closed the frightened eyes of dying soldiers, so I had not to look at them. She sacrificed the purity and innocence of her very soul, so that I could keep mine.

When my beloved sister wrapped her wing around Twilight, she comforted her wounded soul in a way I never could. She knew exactly what Twilight needed to hear, what gently promises needed to be made and what terrible deeds needed to be forgiven.

Twilight told us about the rest of her fight inside the castle and of frightening new weapons the gryphons used, called muskets. The unicorns in our guard forces had to be informed of this new weapon. It was a strange device, it was some sort of firing weapon, like a cannon, only smaller. Essentially, the projectiles of these muskets were as fast as arrows, but powerful like a cannon, the only drawback was that they needed very long to reload. Overall I still thought of them as a truly terrifying weapon. Our only option seemed to be that ponies had to keep attention when the enemy was trying to make use of those muskets and then inform the present unicorns to immediately erect a powerful, multilayered magical barrier.

After Twilight and her friends had told everything they had tell about the attack, everypony sat in grave silence, contemplating over what they heard.

Luna was the first to speak. “My sister and I already have deployed our guards to defend positions of strategic importance on our eastern and western coast. If nopony has anything else to say, I would like to explain our plans for the immediate defence and the later counterattack against any external aggressor.”

Twilight and Cadance nodded slowly, with doubts and fear on their faces. I myself, closed my eyes and whispered the answer I had not given my beloved sister for a very long time. “Equestria is your’s to defend.”

Luna took a deep breath, closed her eyes and waited for a few moments in silence. It was an old ritual of ours, in peace I was the first among equals and in war, we switched places. It was something we both didn’t enjoy, but it was necessary and we both cherished this tradition. When she reopened her eyes, her voice was unmoving like stone. “As already said, the royal guard and the night guard have been deployed in full strength to establish a defensive perimeter around certain locations at the coast.”

Rainbow Dash raised a hoof, but had either the decency or simply a healthy amount of fear so that she waited until Luna nodded for her to speak. “You said you send those guys to the eastern and western coast, right?” Luna nodded. “Why do you even bother defending the western coast when the gryphons are living beyond the eastern sea? No living thing ever came from the western ocean, only large rain clouds.”

I turned my head towards my sister and waited for her approval to explain. She knew that I was better at telling stories of old times like this and she recognized my attempt to do so. After an almost unnoticeable nod I turned towards Rainbow. “That nothing ever came from the western sea, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s uninhabited, doesn’t it? In fact, the reason for the deployment of the night guard is also the reason nothing ever came from the west.” I turned towards Twilight. “Twilight, you remember the sirens that attacked your friends at this Canterlot High, you told us about?”

She nodded with a puzzled look on her face. “Yes, I do remember them. But weren’t they just three power crazy lunatics that Starswirl had to banish to another world? Yes, they were quite powerful, but mainly because at Canterlot High, nopony had magic to resist them. I don’t think they would have posed an actual threat to Equestria.”

I turned back to everypony else and couldn’t help but sigh. It felt like only the first of many hard truths I had to share that day. “Twilight is absolutely right. Those three where hardly a threat to us, because they never had the chance to feed on great amounts of negative emotions, but there was a reason why Starswirl banished them and not simply destroyed the source of their power. Here in Equestria, the gem that gives a Siren her power is no amulett, but a part of her body. It’s simply impossible to take their powers away, the only way to deal with them is to kill them. That was out of the option of course, so we needed a different approach. Furthermore Sirens need to be handled with extreme care, if one of them manages to influence a powerful unicorn or even one of us, they would become nearly unstoppable. The most sirens live in the depths of the great western sea and are content with the negative energy they can drain from other sirens. But war always brings forth a huge amount of negative emotions and a few of them might feel tempted to feed on those to gain more power.”

At that point, Luna gave me to understand that she wanted to take the conversation back to it’s main point. “Because of this unique properties of the sirens, we decided that the night guard was best equipped to deal with any potential Siren incursion. My guards are far more subtle than those of Celestia and therefore can take care of a siren faster and easier than any royal guard ever could. A single knife in the darkness can be more devastating than a whole army in broad daylight.”

Shining Armor was the first to nod. Aside from Luna he was the only other pony with actual military experience. Cadance never had to fight and therefore never even attempted to learn how to do so. She could hold her own in a small clash with feral beasts, but a real battle was far beyond her abilities. Twilight and her friends had a similar problem. They almost only had experience in fighting a single opponent or small groups. The only thing they ever faced that comes near an army were the changelings and those managed to take them down rather quickly with superior numbers, although not as easy as Chrysalis might admit. I for myself had only theoretical knowledge. Luna had always insisted that I needed to learn how to fight a real battle, in case she could not do it for me, but I always sticked to the books and never even attempted to get any real field experience.

Luna took a few deep breaths before she continued to lay out our overall strategy for this war. “Now that the discussion about the western coast is done, let me tell you more about your specific roles in my plan. First the obvious, my sister and her royal guard will protect the eastern coast against the gryphons and any of their raids. Since their first attempt to kill Twilight Sparkle was a tremendous disaster they will very likely alter their approach. I do not expect any more assassinations, instead they will try to force us to fight great battles where the general and the soldiers can achieve glory and fame among their people. If they gain any decisive victory early on, their ranks will be bolstered by new soldiers, as civilians will volunteer to also earn glory for their families. That being said, it is clear that we must deny these early victories at all costs.”

She turned towards Cadance and Shining armor. “For you and the Crystal Empire I have a rather easy, but nevertheless highly important task. You need to secure our northern border with the Crystal Heart.”

Cadance and Shining Armor cocked their heads and looked with puzzled faces towards Luna. “Why and against what?” They asked in unison.

Luna cleared her throat and looked at them sternly. “As you may know, the Crystal Ponies have the power to project their feelings onto their immediate surroundings as well as other ponies to spread physical and metaphorical warmth around them. Furthermore, this power can be amplified by Cadance’s magic and the Crystal Heart. With this combination the empire is able to thrive even in an environment like the Frozen North where nothing else can live. But as with the sirens, I believe this war will awaken an old enemy, the windigos. The winter always got colder and longer when we marched to war, a clear sign for the presence of at least a few of these foul creatures. But this war will most likely be longer and more intense than those of ancient times, this leads me to believe that the windigos will arise and that they will do so in great numbers. Unfortunately, the Crystal Empire will be their first target, but with your magic, your ponies love and the Crystal Heart, you should be able to hold them off almost indefinitely. You need to give them hope for the future and then in turn use it to protect us all.”

Twilight was the last to be addressed and she was definitely the most uncertain of all of us. Luna of course already caught up on that and smiled, her expression suddenly warm and reassuring for the first time since she started talking. “You Twilight Sparkle will have two important tasks to perform. The first will be to crush the impending second changeling invasion…”

Twilight jumped up and looked at Luna with eyes as wide as dinnerplates. “Changelings? How do you know about that? Why are they attacking right now? Why...”

Dark blue magic held Twilight’s mouth shut while Luna had put a hoof to her muzzle to emphasize her point. “Shhh, keep calm Twilight Sparkle, I will explain everything shortly.”

The magic around Twilight’s snout faded and she tested a few times if her mouth was still in working order. “You didn’t have to be this rough. I could have bitten my tongue you know?”

Luna giggled slightly before she shortly bowed her head. “I am sorry Twilight, but you were rather upset and this was the easiest and fastest way to calm you down.”

A slight whisper came from a certain blue mare behind Twilight. “Rarity, you should keep that trick in mind, could come in handy when she snaps next time.”

While Twilight graced her friend Rainbow with a stare that was probably as close to being able to kill as possible, Luna continued. “As I was trying to say, your first task will be to crush the changeling invasion which Chrysalis is currently preparing, while the second will be to assist any of us afterwards if the need for reinforcements arises at our respective fronts. As for how we learned about Chrysalis’ plan. After her last attempt to abduct and brainwash Twilight we stationed dedicated scout pegasi along the southern border, which kept an eye on changelings moving in that area. On our way here I have received intelligence that a great number of changelings had started to gather at Chrysalis’ hideout. This assembly started shortly after the gryphons attacked ponyville. Since changelings are able detect emotions I believe that chrysalis has felt the fighting and thought it is a great time to deliver her own blow.”

Luna’s magic erupted over the great map that was displayed in front of us and her plan was suddenly displayed for all to see. “Of course Twilight will not be able to do this alone, even with the help of all the former bearers of the elements. Since Equestria has no military forces aside from the guards we will hold a draft in every city. We must call out ponies to take up the arms and fight with us. Within a few weeks we should be able to provide ten thousand soldiers that can be divided between the royal guard and Twilight’s army. The night guard will remain at its current strength, losses will be substituted of course. The Crystal Empire however has to hold his own draft, you will need every Crystal Pony yourself, so we will not call them to fights where they are are not of utmost importance. There will be no unified high command, so every princess has the sole responsibility for her sector, but we will inform each other regularly about the progress of our operations. Furthermore, I will try to enter the dreams of gryphons to provide my sister with as much intelligence as possible. Sadly, since neither changelings nor windigos have any dreams I can enter, I can’t do the same for you Cadance and Twilight.”

Applejack grunted and gave Luna a defiant look. “Why are ya makin such a fuss about all that? Couldn’t Celestia and yaself not jus’, ah don’t know, use your sun an’ moon moving powers to give em’ gryphons a mighty spank or somethin?”

Luna fixed the orange mare with a fierce glare of her own. “Do you really think we would waste the lives of our ponies if it could be avoided by any means at our disposal?”

Not intimidated in the slightest, Applejack shrugged. “Ah don’t bunkin know, but ah know that ya’ll are the most powerful things righ’ around here. But instead of some mighty fine flank whoopin, all ya do is asking us for help.”

Luna clenched her teeth, while a deep and frightening growl escaped her throat. Before she could vent her anger however I stepped in front of her and shook my head. “Please sister dear, don’t get mad at her. You know that Applejack has no bad intentions and doesn’t mean to insult you. She is just worried about her friends and family. Please be understanding.”

The anger in Luna’s eyes remained, though her posture grew softer and less intimidating. She watched me in the eyes and sighed. “You are right sister, she doesn’t know the full extend of our reasons.”

We both took seat again and Luna started to explain. “Celestia and I might be powerful by normal standards, in terms of raw power we are not nearly as omnipotent as everypony thinks. In our current forms we have the magical capabilities of about fifty unicorns combined. This might sound much at first but think about how many unicorns do live in Equestria. None of us would be able to beat Tirek on her own, even before he absorbed most magic in Equestria, including Discord’s. To be honest, right now we are not even as powerful as Twilight might be.”

All eyes suddenly darted to Twilight and she looked rather surprised. “What do you mean by that? And what does it mean when you say ‘in our current forms’? I don’t understand.”

Luna shook her head. “You don’t need to fully understand, but to answer your questions. In terms of raw magical power you are at least 20 times stronger than any of us. The only reason you never could raise the sun or the moon without our magic is that magic itself isn’t enough to do that.”

Twilight rubbed her neck and laughed awkwardly. “I never tried to raise the sun … or the moon.”

I couldn’t help but giggled at the sight of Twilight’s face. “Twilight, Luna and I are quite aware of your, repeated, attempts to move sun and moon. We found it rather funny to be honest. Anyway, without our magic, which is tightly connected to sun and moon, no pony is able to control them.”

A slight blush remained on Twilights face as she spoke. “Ok, I think I will stop to try that then…” her gaze returned to Luna and became serious again. “but you still haven’t explained what you meant with this ‘current forms’ thing.”

Luna nodded and continued where she left off. “This simply means that the forms of my sister and I, that you see right in front of you, are not our only possible appearances.”

“You mean you can transform yourself?” Cadance interrupted.

Luna shook her head. “No, that is rather easy, I do that regularly on nightmare night to humor the foals. What I meant is a complete change of one’s essence, an alteration of the very core of your own existence. Celestia and I are very closely connected to the celestial bodies we guide. In the same manner you and Twilight are connected to love and magic. Because of those close relations alicorns are capable of drawing power from the very thing they are connected to. Essentially, this means Celestia could draw power from the sun and her light, I could draw power from the moon and ponies dreams and in a few hundred years, you and Twilight might be able to draw power from love and magic respectively. But not for now, you are still very young and do not have the full range of your powers at your disposal.”

Applejack grunted again. “So? Why don’t ya just go righ’ ahead and do that whole drawing thingy ya’ll talked about. Ya get more powerful that way ain’t ya?”

Luna sighed. “It is not that easy Applejack. The power of neither sun nor moon are limitless, for everything we take away from them they need time to heal and regenerate. If we draw to much of their power into ourselves they might crumble and never be able to heal. Besides, it’s not that we are simply raising our own power level by doing that, we also become more and more detached from the world. If an alicorns draws in power, she becomes more unified with said power. Which in turn means that she becomes less and less of a pony. If I for example would draw in power from the dreams, I would sooner or later become one with them, but like this I would create a second consciousness inside the plain of dreams. This consciousness would interfere with the dreams of every living being, which ultimately might lead to the destruction of the plain of dreams itself.”

Twilight gulped and slowly opened her mouth. “That … sounds unpleasant.”

Luna shrugged. “It could be worse.” She pointed at me. “Celestia would simply explode in a brilliant flash of light if she drew in too much power.” Then she pointed at Twilight. “You would become the magic of friendship itself and would likely mindcontrol every living thing to become friends with each other.” Her hoof switched to Cadance and she smirked. “And Cadance might just end up become love incarnate. She would love every pony, animal, plant and possibly even any object she ever lays eyes on and they would love them back.” Her eyes fixed Shining armor. “This would of course include every stallion and wouldn’t be limited to platonic love.”

Shining looked at his wife with eyes wide open and mouth agape. “You would … with everypony … and animals … and ...”

Cadance shoved a hoof into his mouth and glared at him. “I swear if you follow that train of thoughts even one heartbeat longer I will never do … that thing … for you again.”

Shining Armor seemed to try his best to turn pale, but with a white coat his capabilities in that regard were rather limited. So, he simply tried to apologize, still having Cadance’s hoof in his mouth.

Twilight looked over to them and raised an eyebrow. “What is ... ‘that thing’?”

I cleared my throat as loud and politely as I could and looked at Luna. “Dear sister, if you have nothing else you think we need to know for now, I would suggest that everypony is granted an opportunity to think about what was said and make their decision in the matter.”

We had agreed on a thirty minute break so we all could eat something and think about how we would vote. As always, there wasn’t much talking, these sort of decisions had to be made alone, at least for me and my sister.

Cadance had snuggled up against her husband’s side and looked troubled, to say the least. She was obviously worried about many things. Her eyes spoke of fear for her beloved Shining Armor, but also of concern for her subject in the Crystal Empire. She knew exactly that she had no choice as to follow whatever course of action Equestria would decide upon, so she was terrified to lose those dearest to her in a war she herself didn’t want.

Luna’s expression was as calm as it always was when things like this were discussed. While everypony else might have simply took Luna for being cold, I knew all too well what was going on. She was furious, millennia of experience had granted her an unmatched composure, but I knew exactly that she was ready to do unspeakable things to the gryphons, as retribution for what they had done today. She was always eager to protect our ponies, but when somepony she considered her friend was involved, her righteous fury knew no limits. Even though the necessity dictated for the night guard to be deployed at the western coast and thus far away from the gryphons, I was already pretty sure that she had planned to fight them personally at one point. She was not just ready to fight this war, she was willing to show the the world why Equestria had not seen a full scale war for thousands of years.

Twilight sat in a small circle with her friends and they whispered about what they thought would be best to do. She may have been a princess and because of this only her decision counted, but these were her friends, which made them the best advisors any princess could ask for. These ponies were all heroes in their own right and together they were the greatest heroes we had to offer. Their friendships were most likely the key to our survival.

Finally, after the appointed break was over, we all sat down around the map again. I let my gaze wander across the room. I watched at anxious faces, eyes full of terror for what might come and still, I saw the will to fight back. No pony would stand by while others got hurt.

Luna took a deep breath, slowly rose up to her full height and spread her wings. Her steely gaze fell upon Cadance and Shining Armor. “What is the decision of the princess of love?”

Shining Armor and Cadance watched each other in the eyes. A single tear rolled down her cheek and she nodded as the white stallion slammed his hoof onto the map in a declaration of anger. “The Crystal Empire will fight. We are not standing by while the gryphons make cheap excuses for attacking Equestria and slaughter ponies far and wide.”

Cadance put a hoof on his shoulder and pulled him back, even though she was only barely able to contain her tears, she needed to say it herself. “The Crystal Empire, the Crystal Ponies and I are willing to fight. The light of the Crystal Heart will shine in everypony’s heart, love shall protect their souls.”

Luna turned towards me. “Sister, what is your decision as princess of the sun?”

I closed my eyes and nodded. “I will fight for my little ponies.”

Luna slowly turned towards Twilight, but before she could ask the question Twilight and her friends answered with one massive voice. “WE WILL FIGHT TO PROTECT OUR FRIENDS!”

Luna simply nodded and sat back onto her haunches. “You may hear my own vote now. As princess of the night, I will not rest until ponies can sleep safe again.”

I couldn’t help but mumble. “The chains are broken, we let loose the ponies of war.”

the Ponyville First and Only

View Online

Royal celestial archives, department of military history

Event:
cardinal points war, initiation of the equestrian conscription law in Ponyville

Provided by:
Mayor Mare
Earth pony
Female
Mayor of Ponyville

I’m quite sure that the day this war started was, by far, the most bustling day I ever had. First we had to fight back a band of gryphon raiders in the middle of the day, then we had to handle the wounded and even the few dead and to top it all off the princesses showed up. I’ve seen royalty before and since Twilight Sparkle became a princess herself I had gathered notably more experience in dealing with our immortal rulers, but this was far beyond the scope of even my worst nightmare. All four existing alicorn princesses gathered in Ponyville, a city with a little less than 4.000 residents, and I had no speech prepared.

Anyway, since the princesses quickly retreated into Twilight’s castle and forbade any disturbances, I had a little spare time to put something together.

After we attended our wounded and dealt with the remnants of the gryphons, I had a few craftsponies build a small platform in front city hall and positioned my speaker’s desk upon it. I myself gave my best to write the most inspiring and memorable speech ever held. It was so perfect, you wouldn’t believe me. Even I had tears in my eyes when I wrote and reread it.

But, based on the principle that nothing ever goes according to plan, everything was in vain. It was almost time for princess Celestia to set the sun when the doors of the castle flew open and the four princesses, accompanied by Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and prince Shining Armor, marched towards our improvised stage. I had prepared everything for their official welcome and was ready to give them my glorious speech.

I took a deep breath when princess Celestia reached the proximity of the stage and started. “My fellow ponies of Ponyville I ...” I didn’t come any further though.

With a single beat of her huge white wings, Celestia jumped up the stage, landed graceful in front of me and firmly shook her head. “We thank you for your concerns mayor, but this won’t be necessary.”

The other princesses, as well as their entourage, had entered the stage at that point and I stared blankly at the ageless features of the white alicorn in front of me. After a few attempts to form a coherent sentence I finally squeezed out a few words. “But, ... princess? I dont understand. We wanted to give all of you a proper welcome.”

Celestia’s motherly smile effectively rendered me speechless, as she explained herself. “We all are very thankful for your efforts, although they were not necessary. But, you may rest assured that they weren’t in vain either. My sister has something that the ponies of Ponyville need to hear and, even though you didn’t know, you prepared a fitting stage for her. Thank you for that, mayor.”

The princess had commended my efforts and thanked me personally, you can surely imagine what a bliss that was for the mayor of a small town like ours. I admit, I was about to glee like a foal on Hearth's Warming Eve when princess Luna walked up next to me and nudged me slightly to make room for her. It took a second for me to again realize where I was, but after it dawned on me I bowed deeply to her and retreated to the corner of the platform. There I waited eagerly for what she had to say.

While princess Luna took her stand behind the speaker’s desk, Twilight and her friends positioned themselves to her left, while princess Celestia, princess Cadance and prince Shining Armor stood to her right. Finally, she cleared her throat and began to speak. “Citizens of Ponyville, today was a dark day, not only for your peaceful town, but for Equestria and all of ponykind as a whole. Today, at noon, the gryphons declared war against us.”

The crowd began to whisper and the growing unrest was impossible to miss. Princess Luna raised a hoof and within an instant the crowd went silent again. “Your concerns are understandable and I am sorry to say so, but we have no choice but to fight. The gryphons seem to think that their empire is threatened by princess Twilight’s ascension and therefore feel the need to deal with this threat. You all did a great deed by repelling the troops that attacked Ponyville and princess Twilight, but this was only the first blow of this war.”

Princess Luna turned her head towards her sister, as if she was asking for her opinion in an unspoken matter. Celestia nodded slowly and I heard her whispered words. “These are Twilight’s friends, they deserve to know first.”

Luna threw a slight glance at Twilight before she looked back over the crowd in front of her. “As of tomorrow, Equestria will reintroduce the military service and the first conscription in over one thousand years will begin. We will levy the greatest army the world has ever seen and we will defend our families, our loved ones and our friends. But ... even though the situation is dire and our very way of life is in danger, nopony will be forced to serve against their will. You all have a choice, you are the only ones who can decide if you want to fight or not. Even in war, we will not abandon our ideals of tolerance, love and friendship.”

The crowd started to cheer and stomped their hooves on the ground. Luna smiled onto them as if they were her children, though she seemed kind of sad. While the applause continued, a few hooves shot into the air and voices rang out. “I volunteer.” “I want to kick their flanks.” “Buck those guys, let’s show them what ponies are made of.”

I didn’t pick up every shout and neither was I able to recognize most of the voices. I think I heard Big Macintosh among the first, as well as Lyra Heartstrings and Lily Valley. They all seemed eager to fight and pay those gryphons back for what they did, but princess Luna simply waited for them to calm down, she didn’t show any reaction other than smiling upon the ponies before her.

As the crowd had finally settled down, the night princess shook her head. “I am deeply sorry to say this to you, but it is foolish to volunteer right here and now. I understand that some of you hunger for battle and revenge, but going to war is nothing that should be decided on a whim. Let your minds calm down and take your time to think about your decision. For today, go home and think about what it means to go to war, the draft will not start until tomorrow’s sunrise.”

Princess Luna turned towards me and quickly waved for me come over to her. As I stood next to her she looked at me with a serious expression. “Mayor Mare, I hereby entrust you with the task to administer the draft here in Ponyville. For now you will have to take note of the volunteers and keep track of their numbers, within the next three days supervisors and instructors will be dispatched to take care of the training and organisation of the forces.”

I bowed as deep as I could while stammering my acceptance. “I will do my best to satisfy your wishes princess.”

After the other princesses had left Ponyville, Twilight filled me in on everything she thought I would need to know. She didn’t share any details about her meeting with the other princesses with me, but she was very clear about certain things. She told me that she would be the one in charge of all war efforts in the southern region of Equestria, most importantly Apple Loosa, Dodge City and Ponyville. Also, she gave me a few things she wanted me to consider when accepting volunteers for the army. She was quite adamant that there would be no more than one conscript per family, so that there would remain enough ponies in town to ensure that the normal life of it’s citizens wouldn’t be impaired. Furthermore, she gave me a list with certain ponies I was explicitly forbidden to accept as volunteers, most memorably Big Macintosh, Cheerilee, the Cakes, Vinyl Scratch, as well as Aloe and Lotus. Although she persisted that these was because of these ponies being too important for Ponyville to risk them in combat, I thought she simply wanted to protect her friends and their loved ones.

Obviously I promised her to do so. If a princess asks you to do something for her you don’t simply ignore it, especially as a politician. But even without this little extra motivation of her being able to fire me, I would’ve taken her request to heart.

In the next morning, I arrived at the office bright and early, only to find a huge line of waiting ponies already standing in front of it. Even at first glance it was obvious that there were several hundred ponies present, all waiting with quiet determination.

When they noticed me, they opened up a path to let me pass, unlock the doors of the city hall and officially start the draft.

The first one to volunteer was nopony else than Big Macintosh himself. He walked into my office, sat down on his haunches and looked at me with his typical calm expression. “Alrigh’, ah would like to join that new army of yours.”

I didn’t exactly know what to tell him, but I was determined to keep the promise I made. “I’m very sorry Mac, but I’m not allowed to accept you as a volunteer.”

He slowly tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. “Ah reckon ah got that wrong. Would ya’ be so kind to say that again?”

I was pretty sure to spot not just minor annoyance in his face as he said that and in all honesty, he was sort of frightening. So, I decided to be honest and to pick my words very, very carefully. “Big Macintosh, you see, I got a list with ponies that I’m not allowed to accept for military service. Simply because these ponies are too important for Ponyville’s continued existence to risk their lives in a war.” I gulped and took a deep breath before I continued. “And you are on this list, pretty much on the top spot, to be honest.”

He looked me in the eyes while I spoke, but showed no further reaction to my words. Only after I finished he closed his eyes and seemed to think about something. When he finally reopened those huge green eyes of his, I suddenly had this feeling like something was weighing down my chest. Slowly, like the lumbering giant he is oft mistaken for, he rose to his hooves and walked towards my desk. I nearly froze in place. When he reached it, he straightened his form and looked at me with an iron resolve. “Those gryphons dared to threaten AJ, Bloom an’ Granny Smith. Ah’ve promised ma’ ma and pa to keep em safe and nopony will keep me from doin jus’ that.” A few tears shot to his eyes and rolled down his cheeks. “AJ will follow her friend into this mess, ah’m sure. Are ya’ really thinkin anythin short of death itself will stop me from protectin ma’ little sis?”

It was incredibly hard to deal with. Everypony always thought Big Mac was as solid as a rock. Never losing his cool, always showing a gentle smile and probably the strongest pony to ever exist, in body and spirit. And here, right in front of me, this huge stallion was crying because he feared for his sister’s life. But what was I able to do? I had more or less direct orders from a princess to not let him join the army.

He brought down his head and looked me in the eyes. “Please, let me protect ma’ family.”

That was the straw that broke my back. I couldn’t just send him away and even if I could, he would certainly not be the only one to put me in a situation like this. I definitely saw Octavia Melody and Vinyl Scratch in the crowd, the latter of whom was also forbidden to enter the military. Same was true for Cheerilee, who already stood in the floor in front of my office and would be the next in line after Big Macintosh. If even half of the ponies whose names were written on princess Twilight’s list showed up and gave me the same heart-wrenching pleas Mac had given me I would be an alcoholic before the day ended.

But I was not done yet. You may be able to become mayor with a winning smile and a few good ideas, but you don’t stay mayor if you don’t have a few tricks up your sleeve. Especially when it comes to getting your ideas sold to your superiors as the greatest thing since Celestia started to raise the sun.

I slowly stood up, walked around the old, wooden desk and put a comforting hoof on Big Mac’s shoulder. “It’s ok Mac, I may not be able to grant your request, but it’s far from being a lost cause.” I handed him a tissue. “Wipe away those tears and let’s get going.”

Mac blinked away his tears and looked at me with an expression somewhere between confused and hopeful. After he had, soundly, blown his nose, we walked out of my office side by side. Surprisingly enough, he remained silent, although I had expected him to at least ask me what I had in mind.

Bon Bon, Lyra and Cheerilee were the first ponies we encountered. All three of them already waited outside my office, most likely to also enlist. When I came out with Big Mac next to me, they all gave us curious looks.

Lyra was the first to speak up. “Mayor? Where are you going to?”

I gave her my best politician smile. “Well miss Heartstrings, I’m taking Big Macintosh to get an audience with princess Twilight. There are things that need to be discussed.”

Cheerilee looked at Mac and seemed to realize that something important was going on. For a few moments she held eye contact with him and it seemed like they had a full scale discourse, despite the fact that nopony said anything. When she finally turned her gaze towards me, she looked rather serious. “There is something going on with the draft. Am I right?”

Lyra and Bon Bon looked at each other and tilted their heads. Finally Lyra turned back to face Cheerilee and asked the obvious question, which was practically written on both mares faces. “How do you know that?”

Cheerilee couldn’t suppress a slight chuckle and smiled at both of them. “You do realize I’m a teacher, do you? How do you imagine me handling class a full of little fillies if I can’t pick up what they are up to at first glance?”

I cleared my throat and looked at Cheerilee. “You’re absolutely right Cheerilee. I received a list from princess Twilight that states certain ponies who have to be rejected from military service under any circumstances. One of those is Big Macintosh, who made had few arguments up his sleeve that made me reconsider the given instructions. You and Lyra here are also on that list. So, you might have a personal interest to accompany us.”

She simply nodded and started to follow me as well. Lyra and Bon Bon, after a few moments of whispering, decided to do the same. Until that point, everything worked out according to plan.

We explained the situation to everypony we met inside the city hall and when I stepped out onto the town square, I had already more than fifty ponies with me, all willing and ready to go along with my plan.

The ponies became slightly anxious when they saw me coming out of the city hall, but that was no real surprise, I anticipated that much. What I hadn’t expected however was the amount of ponies present. The place was crowded with hundreds upon hundreds of ponies, at least double the amount that were here when I first arrived. If I had to guess I would have said that almost every mare and stallion that was suitable for military service was here.

I decided to be as informal and honest as possible, at least as much as I could without risking to lose my job. I signaled the ponies to calm down and tried my best to make myself clearly audible. “My fellow ponies, I need to tell you something regarding the draft that is held since today.”

I pulled out the list of names princess Twilight had given to me, which I luckily had put into my saddlebags this morning before leaving my house. I held it high above my head and continued. “I received this list from princess Twilight Sparkle. It states names of more than fifty ponies that I’m simply forbidden to accept into the new equestrian army. Furthermore, I’m only allowed to accept one volunteer per family or household. After discussions with a few of the affected ponies, I have decided to ask the princess to withdraw her orders and allow every mare and stallion who is willing to protect their loved ones. Are you willing to accompany me and commit our plea to the princess together?”

The ponies cheered and stomped their hooves hard enough to make me feel like I was in the middle of a small earthquake. Of course, my wording wasn’t entirely true, but it wasn’t false either. That’s just how a good politician deals with delicate subjects. You tell enough of the truth so you’re not actually lying, but at the same time you make the necessary changes at said truth, so you look a better than you actually are.

The result I got was exactly what I aimed for, the ponies would support my cause and when they got what they wanted, they would thank me for it, at least partially. What else could any politician aim for?

After the cheers had settled down I slowly made my way through the crowd and took the lead of our makeshift army of volunteers.

With so many ponies in tow, it took almost twenty minutes to make it from the city hall to princess Twilight’s castle, although it normally was barely a five minute trot to reach the huge crystal tree.

When we had arrived at the gate, the ponies behind me had already gave a fair warning that we were coming. This had led to Applejack and Rainbow Dash already waiting at the balcony when I knocked at the door. I presumed that Twilight already knew about our arrival and the fact that she opened the door merely seconds after my knock further emphasized that point of view.

I had to suppress a giggle when I saw that Twilight’s jaw dropped the moment she laid eye on the crowd behind me. She looked like she originally wanted to tell me off, but obviously the sheer amount of ponies present made her mind struggle. If I had to guess, she was assessing what we were here for and what she could do about it.

After a few seconds she shook her head and looked at me. “Mayor, may I ask why you and, roughly estimated, half of Ponyville are doing here?”

I, once again, pulled out the list she gave me the day before and presented it to her. “I’m sorry Twilight, but I can’t proceed following the instructions you gave me. The ponies of Ponyville want to protect their families, their homes and Celestia knows how many other things. I simply can’t tell them off, it would break their hearts and doing so would break mine.”

Twilight chewed on her lower lip. Her eyes darted around, assessing me, the silent ponies behind me and the mumbling crowd behind them. She heaved a heavy sigh and looked at me. “Please, mayor, I don’t want to see my friends wounded and dying in this war.”

Big Mac pushed me aside, rose to his full height and looked into Twilight’s eyes. “Twilight, ya’ can’t forbid us to protect everythin we love. AJ is goin to this war with ya’ll, do ya’ really expect me to jus’ sittin here, hopin ya’ bring her back fine an’ dandy? Ah’ ll protect ma’ little sis, no matter what ya think or order.”

Applejack shouted down from the balcony. “Mac, ah know ya’ only mean good and ah’m mighty thankful for it, but please, stay here. Ah don’t wanna lose ya in this buckin war.”

Mac turned his head up to his sister and smiled warmly at her. “Would ya’ let me go into that mighty fine mess all alone?”

The Apples watched into each others green eyes and stayed silent for a few moments. Suddenly a violet hoof touched Big Mac’s massive shoulder and Cheerilee stepped forward, only to smile at Applejack too. “You don’t need to worry, I’m planning on keeping an eye on your brother. You don’t need to protect him, I will take good care of him.”

I can’t say for certain, but I was pretty sure I heard a few faint snivels from the crowd and Applejack concealed her face behind her Stetson. Rainbow Dash said something I couldn’t understand and put her hoof on her friend’s shoulder. Big Macintosh, all the while, looked at Cheerilee with eyes as wide as dinnerplates. It was obvious that he was surprised, but the reason for this was surely not the not so subtle statement Cheerilee just made, but rather the fact that she made it in front of most of Ponyville. Even though many of us sort of suspected that these two were more than simple friends, they never actually confirmed anypony’s suspicions.

After a few moments, Applejack mumbled something unintelligible and marched back into the castle. Rainbow Dash looked over the railing of the balcony down at Twilight. “Hey Twi, I think you should reconsider your decision.”

While her friend followed Applejack inside the castle, Twilight looked at Big Mac and doubts creeped into her eyes as well as her words. “Mac, I don’t know what to say. I only meant for your best, I just wanted to protect as many of you as possible.”

Before Mac could say anything, Lily Valley shouted from the crowd. “The gryphons hurt Roseluck, I want to pay them back. I don’t need and don’t want any protection. What I want is simple revenge for my friend.”

Bon Bon stomped a hoof with enough strength to pulverize a small rock that had the misfortune of being between said hoof and the ground. Before the attention of the crowd could shift somewhere else again she started to shout out. “One of those guys burst into our home and tried to drag Lyra and me out like two bags of garbage. They started this and we are going to end it.”

Lyra flicked her tounge and locked at her marefriend with half opened eyes. “Have I ever told you how beautiful you are when you’re furious?”

A cream colored hoof hit Bon Bon’s face in an all too familiar motion and a painful groan escaped her muzzle. “Lyra, why do you have to say stuff like this in public?”

The mint green unicorn snuggled up against the still face hoofing earth pony. “You know it’s all in good fun.” She turned her head to princess Twilight. “Bon Bon and I are going into this together, we're going out the same way!”

Twilight’s eyes started to water and her lips quivered. “You all want to do this? I don’t understand. Why do you want to go to war?”

Octavia Melody was the next to speak up, somehow managing to make herself audible without even raising her voice. “We are quite aware that this war might cost some of us their lives and I am absolutely positive that nopony is willing to let those barbarians roam free in our homes.”

Even though her words were nothing short of a declaration of war, her Trottingham accent still made them sound polite and refined, absolutely fitting for any social gathering of the Canterlot high society.

Next to her, a white mare with an electric blue mane threw a hoof up in the air and cheered. “Oh yeah, Tavi is right. We know we could bite the dust, but we don’t give a buck.”

It was typical for Vinyl to phrase everything she had to say as direct as possible. She may be a little blunt, but she is an honest pony and simply spoke what the majority of the ponies present thought.

And when the majority of the crowd started to cheer, repeating the things that were said just mere moments ago, a bright pink hoof tapped Twilight’s shoulder. Behind her were her friends, lead by Pinkie Pie. “This is nooooooooooooooo party we can throw all alone, ...” Her hair slightly deflated mid sentence and her pupils shrunk. “The more friends you bring the more fun it gets.”

Fluttershy nodded slightly, looked at her hooves and tried to hide behind her mane. “I, ahm, I think that Pinkie is right. These are our friends after all and they want to do is helping us. We shouldn’t turn them away, that would be mean. So, if nopony minds, we should accept their help. I think.”

Rarity sighed and tilted her head. “Fluttershy is right darling. Personally, I don’t like the thought of dragging more of our friends into this ugly business, but what would it say about us if we turned down the most generous offer a pony can make?”

Rainbow Dash stomped a hoof and grinned like a mad mare. “At times like this you see why Ponyville is the most awesome town ever. Come on Twi, they want to help us, the Change...”

An orange hoof punched Rainbow’s side and knocked the air out of her. “We don’t do any talkin abou’ those righ’ here and now.” Applejack hissed under her breath.

Rainbow coughed and threw an angry glare at her orange friend. “I know that!”

Applejack tipped her Stetson and turned to Twilight. “Ah think the others are righ’ Twilight. Ah know that ah was all happy go lucky about that mighty fine list our yours, sugarcube, but Mac migh’ be righ’. If he would try to go into somethin like that all by himself, hell even ya’ll together couldn’t hold me back. Ah would drag that sorry flank of his back from the pits of Tartarus if ah had to.”

That was the straw to break the pony’s back, so to speak. Up to this point princess Twilight was torn between the happiness that her friends wanted to help her and the fear of losing any of them. But now, after all of her closest friends had also sided with us, the situation tipped in our favor.

She closed her eyes and started to take deep breaths. When she finally opened them again, she looked at her five friends and a huge smile dawned on her face. “I thank you for your advice.”

Twilight turned back to me, still smiling. “Mayor Mare, I’m sorry that I put you through this and hereby declare the list null and void.” Her voice became louder and she turned her gaze to the ponies behind me. “Please forgive me everypony, I was worried about you all, but I shouldn’t deprive you of the choice. When you still want to join the military, I won’t hinder any of you.”

The ponies started to cheer and stomped the ground with joy. More voices than a single pony could identify screamed their allegiance to princess Twilight and with every shout her smile grew bigger and brighter.

When the screams didn’t die down, even after a few minutes, she finally spread her wings and, with a bright flash of magic, teleported herself and her friend up on the balcony which overlooked the whole scenery.

The ponies seemed to register the small display of magic, but it only managed to stir up their excitement even more. Twilight closed her eyes for a short moment and suddenly her enhanced voice boomed over the crowd. “Please, calm down everypony.”

It wasn’t quite the royal canterlot voice, but nevertheless loud enough to drown out every other sound. Everypony looked at Twilight in awe, except for Vinyl, she had a broad grin on her face and muttered. “She could use a little more bass.”

When the crowd had finally calmed down, Twilight continued. “I want to thank everypony for their generous offer to help and their unwavering loyalty to their families, friend and Equestria. I will promise that I will do everything I can to protect you all and that I will honor all of you.”

Twilight went silent for a few seconds, as if she tried to feel the full weight of the situation on her shoulders. When she continued, her voice was amplified again. “As a princess of Equestria I hereby declare the conscription of my personal royal guard department. From this moment forth, all of you who volunteer are part of my personal guard. We will fight, win and survive this war together, we are friends and family.”

Despite the fact that Twilight wasn’t done yet, screams of joys erupted from the ponies in front of the castle, but I think she was happy to hear those screams anyway. Nevertheless, she continued, this time with a full powered royal canterlot voice. ”WE ARE THE FIRST AND ONLY PONYVILLE REGIMENT!”

Equestria Unchained

by Scout Charger

the Raid of Ponyville

the Guard marches

Council of the Princesses

the Ponyville First and Only