The Mane Six Militia and The Shadow of a Phantom

    That night had been restless for many of the ponies in the camp. Most were deciding on whether they were willing to continue and fight. Some were anxious to finally have the pony power to strike back against the enemy, tired of waiting. A few had left almost immediately after Twilight's announcement, upset that the kingdom was taking control of the militia.

    When the sun had finally rose on that day, Twilight waited by her convoy. She was pleased with the number of pony that had decided to stay and fight on as they slowly gathered around the Royal army's carts with a few of their belongings in tow.

    Dash who was in the crowd had suddenly remembered Kumori, who he hadn't seen that morning. "That bastard." Dash mumbled. "He ditched us after all." She scoffed, shaking her head.

    That's when she spotted him for a brief moment, sitting a short distance from everypony. "Well what do you know." Dash said. "He didn't leave, guess I owe him some sort of apology."

    "Rainbow, Hey Rainbow." The familiar voice that Dash had learned to dread called her name. Alsvid pushed her way past some ponies to get to Dash. "Hey Dash, what gives with the unicorns?"

    "What do you mean?" She rolled her eyes. 'Great, more questions.' She thought to herself.

    Well when I was defending the medical tent I noticed a group of unicorns fighting the Solandians, and I'm no magic expert, but they were only using telekinetic and blast attacks. Why didn't they just burn them away or just toss them aside with their magic?" Alsvid asked. "Its not like the enemy has Unicorn soldiers casting counter spells."

    "Its their armor. Nopony knows how but they were able to enchant their armor to protect them from magic. So the unicorns use telekinetic spells to wield their weapons more efficiently and blast attacks because that's more of a physical energy, though the enemy's armor still shields them from the brunt of the the damage." Dash explained. "If they had declared war on unicorns without some kind of protection from magic the war would have been over before it started."

    "Hmm... I guess that makes since. I should have known but that was the first time I had seen the conflict up close."

    That's when Dash remembered Kumori saying something about the three alicorn. 'They must have enchanted their armor. That's why none of the unicorns can break the enchantment.' She thought.

(Twilight)

    "I guess that's everypony." She told the guard captain. "Lets get going."

    "Right away Princess." He replied.

    Twilight roles her eyes and sighed.

     "Not what you thought it would be, is it?" Trixie asked.

    "No... but somepony has to do it." She replied as she trotted back in the direction of her carriage.

    It took almost an hour for the guard captain to round everypony up that had decided to stay, and to get everything ready to go. Very few of the militia pony intermingled with the Royal army soldiers. Rainbow Dash figured they were just sticking with who they knew, and hoped it wouldn't be a problem later.

    Kumori trotted at the very back of the convoy, not wanting to talk to any pony. He felt dumb for letting that gray mare get so close to him the other night. She had caught him in a state of vulnerability, still she had been right about something's.

    According to Trixie, the town should be half a days trot away, however given the terrain they would have to cross, such as the hills, mountains and cliffs it would take them a little longer than expected. They stopped only twice that day, just to eat and rest their hooves.

    A scout had located a small path between two of the steep cliffs that was not on the map. Trixie made a mental note to get that drawn in. The path was wide enough for two carts to travel side by side comfortably yet the sun was beginning to set and the darkness put some of the ponies on edge.

    The convoy stumbled upon an open gate leading into the town, but no local guards or otherwise were around. The guard captain stopped the convoy, called for four of his guards, and instructed them to recon the town. No guards at the gate sent up a red flag.

        The four soldiers entered the gate, staying along the edge of the cliff, listening and looking for any signs of life. The silence made them nervous. When they entered the town itself, they found nothing, everything looked normal... Even worse.

    They trotted slowly up to one of the buildings, which seemed to be a general store. The door was cracked open, and everything was dark inside. They lined up outside the door, reared up on their hind hooves, drew their swords and shields from their sides. The first guard bashed the door open with his shield and the four rushed in.

(Convoy)

    "They've been in there a while sir." Another of the soldiers told the Captain.

    "Actually here they come." He replied pointing toward the gate.

    "Anything?"

    "No sir, its a ghost town. Everything is missing from the stores though, maybe they left after all." He replied shrugging.

    "Alright, well I'll report this to the princess." The captain replied.

    "No need." Twilight said as she trotted up from behind. "I heard everything. Lets go and bed down for the night and we will figure out everything in the morning." She suggested. "Work out some kind of watch for the night." She told the Captain.