Equestria's Finest Hour

Sunday May 5th, 2013

12:32 P.M.

Twilight had just received a letter from Spike, she immediately noted the sun seal on the front of the envelope indicating the letter was from Celestia herself, in any other situation she would have torn it open on the spot, but as tired as she was it would have to wait until she reached Golden Oaks library.

Twilight had just got done with a day of flight training with Rainbow near Rainbow's cloud home, it had only been three months since Twilight's coronation in Canterlot and she still needed some fine pointers on flight. Having been well read on the subject was an entirely different story from actually flying, it was like learning to walk all over again, maybe even harder. Lift, drag, pitch, roll, yaw; she knew the concepts, the science, the math, the anatomy, she knew everything she could know about flying yet she still struggled with the physical part of it all, but what better teacher than one of her best friends, Rainbow Dash?

"Say Twi, you  wouldn't mind if we stopped at Sugar Cube Corner for some punch or something, would you? I'm parched." Rainbow asked as they both donned their saddlebags and made their way into town towards Twilight's.

"Actually I was just about to ask the same thing. After all, I'm the one that's still learning to fly, right? I would like to get the drinks to go though, I want to read the letter from Celestia as soon as we get back to my place, I wasn't expecting anything from her today so I'm curious as to what it is she sent for." Twilight responded.

"Fine with me, I'm not feeling very social today anyway." Dash replied, just not in the mood to chat with anypony aside from her friends at the moment. The two made small talk the rest of the way into town.

~10 minutes later

As the two entered Sugar Cube Corner they were immediately greeted by Pinkie Pie and happily at that...

"Hey, Twi, Dashie! What can I get you girls today?" She asked with her ever so present infectious smile.

"I'll just have the normal Multi-Berry punch to go please." Twilight stated.

"Normal?! Our Multi-Berry punch is the best punch in Ponyville! Probably the best punch in all of Equestria! Maybe even the bes-" Was all she could get out before she was cut off by a slightly irritated Rainbow Dash.

"Okay, okay, we got it Pinks. I'll take the same thing Twilight's ordered." Dash barked flatly.

"Geez, somepony's a grumpy pants today. Any particular reason why?" Pinkie asked with a small hint of concern as she started topping off two mugs of punch.

"Sorry, we're just a little tired that's all; long day of flight training, you know." Dash said as she tossed two bits on the counter, paying for both hers and Twilight's cool beverages.

"Yes and I just received a letter from Celestia also so I would like to read it as soon as I can get back to the library to relax, I would invite you to come along, but I know you have to work for a bit yet. I'll let you know if it's anything important as soon as I can." Twilight commented as she and Rainbow rounded to leave the diner.

"Okie dokie lokie! I have to look after the cakes for a bit after work anyway, so it's okay. I'll see you girls later then." Pinkie said, and with a friendly wave from both Twilight and Rainbow they were back on the streets of Ponyville and headed towards Twilight's with more idle small talk along with their newly acquired refreshments.

It was another five minutes before they reached Twilight's, and as they stepped into her library they both instinctively slung their saddlebags on some coat hooks as Twilight removed the letter from her right saddlebag and Rainbow made for Twilight's couch as Twilight made for her desk. Twilight sat down and looked at the letter as she set her mug on her desk, still curious as to what Celestia sent for, she didn't think much of it since they had been doing this for years, yet something seemed off this time and she'd soon find out why as she opened the letter and read the contents.

Rainbow Dash noticed the look of concern on Twilight's face soon after.

"Twi? Something wrong?" Dash asked, slightly concerned herself. It wasn't usually a good thing to see Twilight concerned as it had mixed results.

Twilight walked past Rainbow leaving the letter on the coffee table in front of Rainbow and grabbed her saddlebags off the coat hook before trotting up to her room.

Shuffling about could be heard from Twilight's room as Rainbow read the letter:

"Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I request that you come to Canterlot immediately, there is something I need to discuss with you urgently, and in person only. I will explain later but take the most direct route here ASAP, we will have time to notify your friends later on.

Your Princess, Celestia."

Rainbow Dash now knew why Twilight looked concerned as Twilight always took her mentor seriously, and with good reason. It was very rare of Celestia to request any sort of meeting on such short notice. Rainbow also noted that the letter looked hastily written yet read remarkably well, something expected from all the years experience. Still, Celestia wouldn't usually conduct a letter as hastily as it appeared.

"So Twi." Rainbow stated loudly.

"Yes, Rainbow?" Twilight yelled back, sounding a bit flustered as if she were looking for something she had misplaced.

"What do you think this is about? You know something I don't?" Rainbow asked, feeling a bit left out of the loop.

"No Rainbow Dash, I wouldn't lie to you. I'm actually kind of nervous as to what's so urgent." Twilight replied as she quickly trotted down the stairs from her bedroom, with saddlebags that were definitely packed tighter than before.

"Well since the letter didn't say you couldn't bring friends with and it did say that you would be notifying us later I would take it that it's okay for me to come along then? The weather team isn't scheduled to do anything until next Thursday anyway so I'm pretty much free all week. My saddlebags even have the essentials already packed." Rainbow asked with a bit of bravado knowing her exploits couldn't be argued.

Twilight looked at Rainbow with slightly narrowed eyes knowing she couldn't afford to argue with the element of Loyalty at the moment, she had conceded to Rainbow as soon as she had asked the question, yet she didn't like the idea of such an easy defeat.

"Okay Rainbow, but only because you're the element of Loyalty and we only have FIVE MINUTES!?" Twilight yelled as she looked at the clock.

"Rainbow, let's move! We have five minutes to catch the one o'clock Canterlot express!" Twilight yelled in semi terror.

"Relax, Twilight, it's only half way across town. And you do have wings now, remember?" Rainbow stated sounding a bit jaunty.

"Still, Rainbow. This is no time to be slack!" And with that the two made out the front door of the library, Rainbow grabbing her saddlebags as they went, Spike silently throwing himself on Twilight's back. They might have tried flying to Canterlot but Twilight wasn't confident in her skill to fly long distances just yet and Rainbow knew it.

The two flew at a brisk pace over the center of town, as they approached the station they heard the locomotive conductor yell out "All aboard, Canterlot!" and just as the conductor stepped into the engine, Dash arrived at the platform with Twilight and Spike hot on her hooves, getting their tickets on the way they just barely made the 1:00 express. While the normal train to Canterlot would take 3 hours by going through Dodge Junction, the express would take only 30 minutes by cutting through the edge of the Everfree Forest and going straight to Canterlot.

It was a relatively quiet ride to Canterlot as the air was almost saturated with foreboding. Rainbow could see that Twilight genuinely didn't know what they were going for and the building worry on Twilight's face only got worse as all she could do was speculate as to what it was the letter entailed.

Although Rainbow could hide her emotions fairly well it was no surprise that she was feeling similar as well, if her friends were feeling off it meant she felt off, her Loyalty binding her to those who've earned it.

As they approached the Canterlot station, not easing Twilight's growing worries the trio immediately noticed the increase in Royal Guard, something reserved for only high level Defense Conditions as the citizens didn't like the feeling of being under a sense of Martial Law.

While the Royal Guards presence wasn't the same as it was during the Canterlot wedding for her brother a year ago in terms of defensive posturing it was more structured towards training and preparation with squads and platoons conducting fitness jogs and various other PT regimes around Canterlot.

As the trio stepped off of the train onto the platform they took to the air once more and headed straight for the Canterlot Palace, it was a few minutes before landing near the front gates of the keep and with that they were approached by a pair of Royal Guards, the first one, a brown unicorn, greeting them with a friendly "Good afternoon. How do you do?" and the other, a white pegasus, with a stern nod.

"Oh, I suppose I could be better, is something wrong?" Twilight asked wondering why the guards approached them as they normally stayed their posts at the gates.

"I feel terrible for having to do this ma'am but we have been requested to scan everypony going into the keep, identification measures for security reasons, I'm sure you understand." With no objections the unicorn quickly scanned the trio, with nothing amiss the guards went back to their posts and ushered the trio through the gates. Again, the comment about 'security reasons' didn't help ease the feeling in Twilight's stomach.

As the trio entered the keep they noticed Celestia was not to be seen in the main hall and they were again approached by a Guard member, this one a charcoal earth pony officer, shown by the armor he was wearing.

"Celestia is in her personal quarters, I'm sure you know the way." he said sternly and with a nod from Twilight the trio headed off and up towards Celestia's personal quarters.  With not a single word shared between the three since the train ride, they stopped in front of the doors to Celestia's room.

"Alright, the moment of truth." is all Twilight said before swinging the door knocker twice.

A muffled "Come right in." could be heard from Celestia and with that, Twilight opened the doors to find Celestia staring out her balcony windows. The trio quietly walked in shutting the doors behind them, while Rainbow and Spike stayed back a few feet, Twilight approached Celestia.

"You sent for me, Celestia?"

"I did indeed." Celestia stated, sounding more flat than usual.

This just about broke Twilights collected self as hearing her mentor so void of emotion really put a damper on Twilight but she knew the key to any situation was to remain calm.

"Princess, is the nation under threat? It looks like DEFCON 4 in Canterlot." Twilight asked a small hint of dread in her question.

"We have reason to believe King Sombra is preparing an assault against Equestria, as well as other nations. It is in our best interest to prepare as well, lest innocent lives are lost and we fall to the hooves of his tyrannical influence." Celestia said plainly as she was now facing with Twilight and the others.

"King Sombra? Army?" Twilight mumbled, in shock from the gravity of the statement Celestia had just posed. Meanwhile Rainbow had a stern, defensive posture to her while Spike stared off into the distance, looking as if he was on another planet.

"B-But how? ... King Sombra was destroyed by the element of Love! I saw it with my own eyes!" Twilight said, still trying to grasp the situation in its entirety.

"We now believe that was just an apparition of Sombra, or maybe even a clone from the Mirror Pool. Suffice it to say, at this point it matters not." Celestia said while magically floating a folded letter to Twilight.

As Twilight opened the letter, a look of sheer horror consumed her features, she may have even been shaking slightly Rainbow thought - Rainbow could see the letter from her position as well and while it did turn her stomach upside down, her demeanor never wavered. Spike had now moved himself to right outside the room, nearly hyperventilating as he was coming to terms with the situation himself. It was at this point Twilight lost her magical grip on the letter and it swiftly made its way to the ground, revealing itself for the world to see - Blood - the only thing on the parchment. Blood smeared from the top right of the parchment making a slight arch and stopping near the bottom.

"W-W-What does this mean? I mean, how have you come to the conclusions you have? What i-" Twilight muttered at a quick pace before Celestia cut her off.

"Twilight Sparkle,  I would not merely make conclusions. And Rainbow Dash, I am actually glad you came along, you will know why soon enough." Rainbow's curiosity piped up just a bit, yet she retained her demeanor. "Now if you both would be so kind as to follow me we will discuss the rest of this in the presence of the others." Celestia stated sounding well in control of the situation. She then made for the doors leading out of her room, finding Spike on the other side she let him know he could go down to the dining area off of the main hall and relax if he'd like, and that he did.

Celestia was now leading Rainbow and Twilight past the main hall and to a wing of the Palace Twilight nor Rainbow had ever been in before. The room they arrived at had a bronze colored plaque above a set of doors that simply read 'War Room.' Twilight collected herself as Celestia swung the double doors open while Rainbow still retained her demeanor.

Inside there were maps, tables, chalk boards, pin boards, and other various items as well as some recognizable ponies, and some that Twilight nor Rainbow had ever seen before. Among the recognizable ponies stood Luna, Cadance, Shining Armor, Spitfire,  Discord who caught the two a little off guard but he seemed to be of healthy mind, and even to more of their surprise, Prince Blueblood was in attendance as well as Braeburn from the Apple family, dressed in his signature vest and cowpony hat. Before the trio reached the group of idly chatting ponies Twilight stopped and asked Celestia why Prince Blueblood and Braeburn were there.

"As to the former, that would be Knight-Prince Blueblood. After the Gala 2 years ago I sought to teach him a thing or two about virtue, let's just say it worked out better than planned. Now as to the latter, that would be Royal Marshal Braeburn. He's been a Royal Marshal for 3 years now, I'm surprised you didn't know that already." Celestia said in her normal tone as they continued over to the group of ponies.

Once arriving, everypony in attendance quieted down and gathered around a great table in the middle of the room which had a map pinned down to it, a map of the world.

World map

"So, to get Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash up to speed on the situation we will be going over some of the key points of intelligence we have gathered thus far."

"Excuse me but should I go wait outside or something? I feel like this is meant for the ponies in charge of operations." Rainbow asked with a bit of reluctance as she really did want to know what information had been gathered.

"Don't be so quick to disregard yourself in this matter Miss. Dash." Celestia said jovially. "This actually provides me with a good opportunity to tell you that you will now be acting as Commander for the Pegasus Combat Wing of Cloudsdale ." This was the highest rank for the PCW in ponydom, equivalent to an O-10 in the U.S. Airforce.

If this didn't ruin Rainbow's demeanor then who's to say what would?

"I-I uhh, I don't think I heard you correctly, could you repeat yourself, Princess?" Dash said at a loss for words.

"You did indeed hear me correctly Miss. Dash. Since all able pegasi are obligated to partake in combat training starting at an early age due to their lineage as warriors and in turn superiority in such matters I would be honored to have someone with your virtues lead our armies." Celestia stated with a hint of humility.

"...Even so Princess, I lack hardened experience in these matters and therefore am not fit to command such a massive combat unit." Rainbow responded, feeling true in her words and not wanting to make a mistake ending up in a situation where she regretted her actions.

"Rainbow Dash, you are one of Twilight's best friends and are the element of Loyalty. You have proven yourself time and time again that you know what's right in heart, mind, and soul. What more could somepony ask?" Celestia said with no small amount of reassurance. "And we'll get you up to speed in the arts of war later on, so don't worry about that."

"R-Right! I'm honored, Princess." Rainbow said with a textbook salute.

"No, like I said, the honor is mine." Celestia said flustering Rainbow slightly.

"Now let's get back to the matter at hoof shall we? So where were we...Ah, right. So after we received the bloodied letter from the Heliopolis Palace of Alexmanedria, and after a few days of not receiving any sort reply from Alexmanedria we decided to send Braeburn and Spitfire across the Antlertic Ocean on a export of grain, they acted as members of the ship's crew in order to conduct reconnaissance operations on the northern continent, what they reported thereafter only worsened our growing worries to say the least." Celestia stated in a militaristic tone, looking to Braeburn and giving a small nod.

"Right. Well when we got to the port city there was hardly a pony in sight, and the ones Ah did see looked more nervous than'a pony in the Everfree. When Ah asked one of the dock workers if everypony was normally like that he said they'd kill his family if he told anypony. Now we can't have that now can we? So after'a few more attempts Ah found myself asking a local bar keeper the same question, this time all Ah got was fer him was slip me a note and nod." A note was then pulled from a file from a small drawer on the great table and placed thereon.

.

"King Sombra, King Chrytian and Queen Chrysalis ... Working together ... Took most local males to a grand mine of some sort ... Making war material ..." was all that was scribbled on the note.

"Wait a minute, just who in the hay is this King Chrytian anyhow?" Rainbow asked bashfully.

"Well from what we have gathered, King Chrytian is the king of the changelings with Queen Chrysalis as his mate, we don't have any information on his abilities yet as he has only revealed himself just recently." Celestia responded.

"So how do we know if this information can be trusted?" Twilight asked, a bit skeptical.

"And that is where I come in." Spitfire touted. "After Braeburn had gotten his intel he and I met up back at the ship for our scheduled rally, after a small debate we decided it would just be me going out this time to try to gather some intel by air.

So I took to the sky toward the west in the direction of the capital city. I stopped at about a half mile outside the city after I spotted obsidian colored crystal in dense clusters throughout city where they had never been before. These crystals also seemed to match the description of the corrupted crystal from the intelligence reports from the Crystal Empire incidents. I also noticed a railway with several cargo loads arriving from the north, they were carrying ore of similar color to the crystal, which indicated that there was indeed a lot of activity in relation to the old obsidian mine that had been shut down years ago due to safety concerns...

Although everything in the note seemed to be becoming more and more evident I still needed something harder, so I decided that I would land and start looking around but I soon got a eerie feeling that I wasn't the only one doing the looking, as the whole time I was looking for more evidence I felt as if I was being watched. As I got closer to the capital the feeling got stronger and more ominous, to the point where I felt like I would be putting myself in danger if I moved any closer, the reports from the Crystal Empire incidents also listed similar feelings with ponies who lived near the crystals. I went with my intuition on this and decided head west again.

I didn't find anything too revealing aside from more ghostly settlements and before I knew it I was near the coast. At which I spotted the ruins of an abandon port city, and off the coast about 200 hoof or so I spotted another Obsidian colored crystal jutting from the ocean, I would say this crystal was a good 800 hoof tall at the least. Taller than the spire of the Crystal Empire's palace, dare I say.

At this point I stopped for a second to make a mental note of it all and assess the situation. I started scanning the landscape for any other details that might lead to something when that something ended up in my field of view. I was at this point looking north-west out near the horizon when I thought I saw another crystal jutting from the ocean so I flew north to investigate, it took about an hour and a half to get there but when I did found another 800 hoof tall crystal almost the same as the one I had spotted  before.

Now I decided that Braeburn and I would stay a night so I could finish what I had just started. After going back to the ship and calling it a night I set out again the next morning, it took me around 12 hours but I ended up making a rough oval with my flight path, finding 5 more crystals along the way, all the same as the ones from the day before. I marked them on my map I had at the time and in turn I marked them on the map that lay before you here." Spitfire indicated a hoof toward the icons on the map.

"We left port soon after I completed my trip, due to the high chance we may have have been compromised with that last stunt I pulled. Though, after running the information through everypony here we have decided that the most reasonable explanation would be that whomever is running the operations over there is getting ready to set up a super massive shield using these crystals as focusing points for magic, similar to the one Canterlot uses when at a high level DEFCON." Spitfire finished with everypony in attendance giving solemn nods.

It was at this point Shining Armor commented. "And to raise a shield of that size - to cover half a continent would be extremely strenuous. I couldn't come up with any viable methods of how they'd do it as of yet."

Celestia butted in after a moment of silence. "We will also be sending another reconnaissance team over to gather more intelligence. We would still like visuals on key individuals along with visuals on operations logistics. Suffice it to say, somepony is planning something and we need to be ready for whatever happens whenever that may be, so all of us here have been panning, going over tactics, strategies, defense, offence, etcetera for a variety of different situations and scenarios so we will be at our best when times are at their worst."

"Hmm, I don't even know where to begin..." Twilight said while she focused on the map in thought as Rainbow looked to be in thought as well but a more vexed look fell upon on her features.

By this time sun was almost set and Celestia broke the silence once again.

"There will be plenty of time for that later, for tonight I want you all to get some rest. You're all dismissed." and with that Celestial pulled Twilight and Rainbow aside.

"I would like for you two to stay at the palace tonight so we can discuss these matters more in depth over the next few days. Your old study is still vacant, Twilight, why don't you girls stay there? I will help arrange for time where we can have the rest of your friends meet us here as well." Celestia said; now back in her friendly tone.

Twilight and Rainbow couldn't argue as the day had just gotten that much longer with all the information they just reviewed. So with their mutual agreement they made it back to the main hall, Twilight grabbing a slumbering Spike along the way and setting him on her back. Celestia bid them a good night and the two ponies headed for Twilights old dorm, one with a sleeping dragon on her back.

As they entered, Spike was swiftly tucked into his old bed as Twilight and Rainbow both slung their saddlebags on the floor, too tired to hang them at the moment.

"Boy, is it just me or did this day get a whole lot more crazy?" Rainbow said with a yawn.

"Yeah, no kidding. Let's just get some rest shall we?" was all Twilight offered in response.

"I'm always game for a nap, Twi. You don't even have to ask." Dash stated, flopping into Twilights old bed, big enough to fit them both with room to spare.

And with that Twilight climbed in on the opposite side and was soon greeted with the snores from the drowsy cyan mare next to her. But try as she might Twilight would never be able to be out as fast as Dash, especially not tonight - How does Rainbow do it? Twilight thought.