Mussorgsky

It was a sunny day above the flowing green fields in the south of the great nation known as Equestria. The birds flew through the air, dancing between air currents as they sung their happy songs. The rabbits down below hopping through the blades of grass, playing their games and searching for food.

The silence of nature was shattered by the sound of war drums and hooves. The animals watched from their hiding spots as the armies of the Frozen North passed through their field, en route to the southern border to bolster the Equestrian armies that were massed to prevent a human invasion. Some of the soldiers complained about having to walk so far in such a short amount of time.

“Ugh, I hate having to just up and leave my family to help some ponies I don't even know.” Some of the recruits nodded in agreement, also expressing their distaste.

“Stop complaining and get a move on. I know it's sudden but if we don't we'll have humans trying to get at us soon enough,” Said Shining Armour as he poked a recruit with the hilt of his blade. The recruits mumbled but never said a word for the rest of the journey.

Canterlot

“Sister, I do not think this decision is wise. We're sending troops to defend against a threat we don't know will even attack us.” Princess Luna was sitting with one hand on her chin, tired from having been awoken from her weekly nap.

“That's what you said about the Diamond Dogs. Look what happened to them.” Celestia was examining a map, trying to figure out defense plans should the human armies get past the first line of defense. She had no idea of their capabilities, so planning was difficult.

A scout slowly opened the door and poked his head in. Celestia looked up at him and held out her hand. The scout ran up to the table, handed her a scroll and departed with a bow, returning to the armies he had flown from.

“It seems the Northern army has joined up with ours. We should head out.” Celestia stood and opened the window. Luna took a running start and jumped from it, Celestia soon following. “You fly on ahead, I need to visit Ponyville.” Luna frowned at her sister. She nodded and turned to the south as Celestia turned east, to Ponyville.

As Celestia landed, she noticed something strange. The town was empty. She had been here few times, but she knew that this was the time of day everyone was out and about. She dismissed this and walked to the treebrary in the middle of town.

“Hello Princess.” Celestia turned on the spot and saw Spike holding a bag of shopping. He had quite the muscular body, one she wou- No, no, stop it.

“Hello Spike, good to see you. You wouldn't happen to know where Twilight is would you?” Spike opened the door to the library as he thought.

“Yeah, she went to Applejack's with the girls. What do you need her for?” Spike was dreading the answer. He knew they'd been preparing for weeks.

“It's time, which means I'll need your assistance aswell.” Spike sighed and nodded, putting the shopping on the table and following the Princess to Sweet Apple Acres. This would be a long day...

Southern Fields

Princess Luna arrived at the rendezvous location, momentarily taken aback by the amount of soldiers there. After a second of scanning the armies, she spotted Shining Armour in the distance and flew towards him.

“Good afternoon, Shining Armour.” Shining spun on the spot and hugged Luna.

“It's been a while since we've spoken, Luna. How are things back in Canterlot?” Shining glanced to his other generals, who were watching through narrowed eyes.

“Indeed it has. Buisness in Canterlot is the usual. Boring. How's Cadance?” Luna watched the generals from the corner of her eye. She never liked the Crysal Empire's military leaders.

“She's fine, she should be here so-” He was interrupted by one of the generals, who informed them they needed to plan this defence. Luna and Shining both sighed. This would take a while.

Crystal Empire

“You see her?”

“No, she'll be leaving soon though.”

“Aye, I'll go inform the others, you stay here and give the signal if she comes out.” A human disappeared into the shadows, leaving behind is comrade to stand watch.

A minute or so later, Princess Cadance left the castle, slowly walking through the empty streets of her kingdom. The human who had been left to watch clicked his tongue four times. Cadance looked around for the source of the noise. She spun around and jumped backwards, seeing a human behind her.

“Katon: Gokakyuu no Jutsu!” A fireball erupted from the humans mouth, speeding towards Cadance. She only had enough time to jump to the left. Her jump landed her infront of another human, who launched another attack.

“Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu!” A large torrent of water was blasted at Cadance, who's wing was clipped by the rushing force of water. She flew across the ground, bouncing off it and eventually sliding to a stop. She got up, scrapes and bloody scratches all over her body.

“What do you want?” Cadance coughed, wind knocked out of her lungs from the flight.

“Well isn't that a stupid answer, Cadance. We want you dead!” A third human ran at her with a ball of lightning in his hand.

“Chidori!” He extended his arm to strike her in the chest, to deliver a fatal blow to her heart.

“Katon: Nensho Senki.” A calm voice sounded behind Cadance and a ball of fire rushed past her head, intercepting the lightning before it hit her. Another human had joined the fray. This one however, seemed to be protecting Cadance, instead of trying to kill her.

“Who would have thought you'd be this far north.” The human who had attacke Cadance growled as the two techniques cancelled each other out and both users were blasted backwards. The human who had protected her grabbed Cadance as he flew backwards, creating distance between her and the others.

“You can either back down now or face a painful death.” The human who had saved her was wearing a long cloak that covered hid his face from view. He had strange symbol on his right hand that disappeared up his cloak.

“If you think we're going to back down that easily, you're wrong.” The three humans stood side by side and inhaled.

“Katon Renkeijutsu: Karura!” They breathed fire that merged into a single stream forming a dragon head that raced towards them.

“Shit, what do we do?” Cadance was panicking. Wait, she had magic, what was she panicking about? Right as she was about to cast a spell, the friendly human stepped forward.

“Doton: Dosekiryuu!” A dragon made of stone and earth erupted from the ground, slamming into the fire, smashing it to small cinders.

“It seems the Yami no Dangan lives up to his name.” The lead human smirked and clicked his fingers. Two more humans appeared from the alleyways. They both had different markings on their shoulders. The one on the right had a marking on his right shoulder that said 'Fire', while the other one had a marking that said 'Wind'. This was bad.

“Princess, we need to leave. We can't take them, these two are famed for their raw power.” Cadance looked at the two humans who had appeared infront of them. They suddenly began a technique. “Shit, Cadance, teleport us away, now!” Cadance thought of the fields where she needed to travel to and activated the spell just in time. Her and the human narrowly avoided a devastating wind and fire combination.

“DAMNIT!” The lead human cursed the air. “FIND THEM, BRING THEM TO ME DEAD OR ALIVE!” He screamed to the air and walked back to their camp, seething with anger.

Southern Fields

Cadance and the human appeared in a small clearing. A small clearing filled with ponies; ponies who immediately raised their spears at the human.

“This was the best place you could teleport us, eh?” Cadance gave him a sheepish grin, telling the ponies to lower their weapons. They did so hesitantly. A guard rushed off to get the others.

After a minute or so, nine very important looking ponies came racing towards them, looking mildly pissed off.

“This can only end well,” the human said as he sighed, preparing himself for anger.