The Legend of Brave Rick

Chapters

Dreaming With The Dawn
Sea of Doubts
The Final Report
The First Contact
Sorrow and Alliance
Trust and Darkness
Seeking Help
Completing Missions
An Almost Unanimous Decision
Determined to Fight
Wind War
Prologue
With A Hoof In The Present

Dreaming With The Dawn

“I believe… I believe I hit one, Accelerate,” said one of the invaders, “we must reach them!”

“Roger that.”

The noise of the motorcycles was pointed out with the speedup, but they were surprised when they saw Applejack carrying Twilight, even when she could continue with the escape. Suddenly, they saw a ray coming out of Twilight.

“They have made a spell, cover.”

They stopped their vehicles and hide behind them. After waiting for a minute, they noticed it was just to distract them.

“They deceived us!” One of the soldiers shouted angrily.

“Prepare the vehicles, we can still get them.”

“Wait,” said the captain, “there’s something else ahead, I’ll handle with it.”

“We’ll cover you.”

A half-sized man, caucasian, approximately forty years, descended from the motorcycle, had shaved dark brown hair little grown up, dark coffee-colored eyes that looked serious, and a body that showed he was a soldier. He wore the typical army uniform in various shades of green, and a black helmet.

Slowly, the captain was reaching the bright point, nervous, thinking it was likely a trap. He knew that ponies would make anything to protect themselves, even more, if they knew their time was never.

Getting close enough, he noticed a bright rolled up bit of paper.

“It surely contains important information,” he thought.

“Captain?” asked one of the soldiers. “What’ve you found?”

“Probably some information,” he answered.

He crouched to take the strange paper. When he got it, a violet aura wrapped him quickly, covering him from head to toe.

“Captain!” exclaimed one of the soldiers.

“Come on, we’ve got to help him!”

They jumped off their motorbikes and ran to succor him, but before even touching him, a great explosion occurred, and a beam covered the area.

The captain slowly opened his eyes, searching his mind to figure out what had happened. This means he could not hear his partners, who were trying to wake him. He could only see their worried faces shouting his name over and over again, while his subconscious was immersed in a kind of dream.

The man was floating in the highest part of the sky, but he knew something strange was happening. The stars, the earth, the trees, the buildings that could be a little distinct by that height, everything was grey, without life, sad, and discouraged. But he didn’t have enough time to observe the demotivating background. He started falling, taking a nosedive and quickly reaching top speed. In front of him an arc was formed with the high speed, and when the floor was far enough, a Sonic Rainboom was formed and behind him an enormous quantity of multicolored rings followed by a Rainbow trail. It expanded quickly, replacing that boring landscape, painting every single corner with it’s respective color, finishing them with a bright tone. Just before hitting the floor, he changed his course and continued travelling by a dirt road, he could see how that rainbow still kept painting everything in it’s path, showing the night sky that was over him. He was pleased with the starry sky, although he never remained in the same place for long time. Never stopping to contemplate the marvels around him.

“This starry sky…” He said to himself. “It has something special, I can feel it… I remember… I had this sensation long time ago, when I was nine, in my grandfather's farm.

I had awakened from a nightmare. The dark of my room was surrounding me. I couldn’t see anything except a little point of light, but… it was different, it was of a color that I can´t discover even now, It was different to the lights of my city.

I get close with curiosity, and I wanted to touch waiting don't feel nothing, but I had a big surprise when I felt something unexplained. I wish to know the origin of that sensation. I put my hand on the curtain and ran to the side, allowing the point to get into a mantle that enveloped me while also hypnotizing me. Taking away my window lock, letting in this natural spectacle, feeling its glow light not just my room, all my grandfather´s camp and maybe more…

Although I got a sermon because I left the window open, I will never forget that night, who can imagine that I reunited with that landscape after all that years…”

Closely he can see a forest that has all the trees with autumn leaves; deep reds, light browns, soft yellows, all in the same view. Even with the light of the moon, he can enjoy the beauty. The dirt road made him walk along forest, and as he traveled that path, the leaves fell of the branches. Some of them flew by his side; others went away to find their place on the cold floor.

The forest was immense. It didn't take more than a few minutes find the way out, leaving all the leaves behind. While he watched them fall, he could also see a new landscape that had nothing to envy over his homeland, the falling petals made a sea of autumnal colors, it was almost as if he had made it on purpose, without mentioning the bare trees that not subtract beauty to that spectacle.

For once, he felt that the speed reduced.

“It looks like it ends,” he thought.

The truth is that was far from be over.

His feet floated to centimeters from the floor. In this way he involuntarily toured the streets of Ponyville, waiting to see the desolation of that early morning hours where transited. But all the town was more than awoken. They commented something related to ‘Summer Sun Celebration,’ and ‘It’s good that it be in Ponyville this year.’ But his dream left him unable to walk or gossip.

He got close to a house that was illuminated by a candle. In that house, could see a paternal act. In it, father, mother and their little colt share a pony-tale to make their son go to the dreamland, he was so concentrated that he could listen the final words of the tale.

“... And so fairies and ponies manage to lock the evil wizard Dark Magic,” recounted the father.

“Making the golden glow come back to the center of the fairy world,” mother continued.

“Which would fill in joy…” The father was continuing.

“Magic…” Advanced the mother.

“And happiness,” said the both at the same time with a smile, “to the citizens of Equestria. The end.”

Finishing together and closing the book, they see their son give a last yawn before closing his eyes.

“Look, he’s sleeping. Isn’t it adorable?” The mother asked.

“Yes…Rest my little Wild Adventure, sure the rising sun will bless you.”

“Dear, Princess Celestia is here, I think we have to go.”

“It´s okay, let´s go.”

Both let the house and quietly flew up who knows where.

“Wait a minute, how can I understand what are they saying?” he asked himself, surprised.

“Although… I would have liked to have listened the whole history, perhaps, also feel the same as the child,” he thought.

“But how can I even think that?! Of course I’ve felt that before… but … How long did I feel it?” He wondered while clutching his chest, he felt a slight sensation of heat. In fact, he did not know if it was the training in the military stays, the charging a cold rifle for a long time, or being away from their loved ones, which prevented him from remembering what made him feel like that.

He kept going, this time, in direction where the ponies went. A big crowd of them crushed forward in front of a wood stage, a big red curtain covered what would be a show that, even if a tradition has long, kept to dazzle anyone who watch it.

The frame was deployed, and Princesses smiled and waved to all present.

“Princesses?!” He shouted surprised, but quickly covered her mouth as he realized he said it out loud.

He expected a violent reaction from them, but it turned out quite the contrary, he seemed to be invisible to them.

Behind them came the mayor, predisposed to give a speech about the event that was about to happen and, of course, praise to the Princesses.

“It seemed a wise mare,” he thought to himself. “A good leader….doesn’t seem to represent a major threat to us... then... Why sacrifice in front of the whole village? Was it really necessary? Our superiority was already imposed, it was not necessary to reach this end ....We didn't need to kill so many innocent creatures,” a tear of guilt crossed his face and he dropped to the ground.

Princess Luna shone her horn and bowed before her sister Celestia while this raised his horn and made it glow. Again his body began to feel lighter, but this time accompanied a golden glow. Slowly his body off from the ground and began to take flight. When the first rays of sun did see, his speed increased dramatically, crossed the stage and headed toward the horizon, but this time was much faster than when he made the sonic rainboom and felt different. He went through the mountains, forests, plains, at the end he reached the sea, and for him, the surprises did not seem finished yet.

“Looks like a blue sea ....a mirror, I can see the fish swimming, dolphins jumping next to me, the only time I saw so special beaches, was on a family holiday brochure, but surely our beaches do not compare with this”

Suddenly he turned ninety degrees upward. The brightness that accompanied it became stronger and before him, the greatest show. Dawn. The sun seemed giant before him and was surrounded by a scorching warm, which merged with the natural glow emanating and seemed to be one. That little heat felt when he heard that story became insignificant compared to that, without fear he opened his arms and let all that heat into him body.

Without warning the sun began to make brighter every second, glimpsing everything in its path, until it was completely blank, in that, one last thought crossed his mind.

“What does it all mean?”

Sea of Doubts

“He is waking up!”

“Give him some space, let him breath.”

In effect, the captain was returning to reality. As he slowly opened his eyes, his eyelids were heavy, and there wasn’t any sign of a wound on his body.

Weakly, he could sit up in the hard dirt, he saw his shirtless torso.

“That’s weird, I thought that the gays were in Mike’s division,” he said with a jokey smile.

“Well, well. It looks like after all, that explosion didn’t affect you at all,” answered one of the members of his army.

“Don’t even doubt it” answered the captain.

Quickly he tried to stand up, but his body failed and he again fell on the ground. He noticed that he was incredibly weak, and that was strange, he was unconscious for a while and still he was feeling as the day after his first physical training in his recruit period.

Two of his men helped him to get up, carrying and sitting him on one of the motorbikes.

He drank some water from his canteen, until one of his men spoke up.

“Sir, we lost the fugitives.”

Resigned to the notice, he gave the order to go back to the base, but he was interrupted by an incoming communication in his radio.

“Someone who can get my signal, answer please!”

“Here the captain of the infantry's fourth division.”

“Oh, thanks for answering, I am the captain Samuel Corner of the intelligence division, we are under attack!”

“It’s OK, just tell me approximately the quantity of enemies and the place.”

“The number of enemies is around 40 to 50, the place is off of the normal roads, but I can guide you here with a sky light.”

“Ok, part of my division will be going, I will go to the base as fast as I can to send more reinforcement.”

“Understood, we will keep our position.”

“Roger, shoot your light, my men will get there as soon as possible, over and out”

Not so far from there, a sparkly dark pink-colored shine raised quickly. In the max point, it changed to a shiny green color, ending in free fall until disappear.

Richard watched the show, feeling a slight pressure in his chest, he didn’t know the origin of that sensation, but he didn’t have time to think about it, he already had to help the other division.

“Everyone to the motorbikes!”

The eight soldiers that were with him looked at him strangely.

“Captain, I don’t think you should go,” answered one of them.

“Of course I must go, I have to help them!” He yelled while he was trying to turn on his bike by kicking it, but his tired body prevented it.

The group, surprised by his attitude, he really wanted to help them, as if all that division was his family, with difficulty one of them answered:

“Captain, we know you want to help them, but you are very weak at the moment, you would be just a hindrance and an easy target.”

“I don’t care, the ponies need me!” angrily exclaimed.

Everyone lifted an eyebrow analyzing what the captain had said, until one encouraged to ask.

“What did you say?”

Knowing about what happened, he improvised a quick answer.

“I mean… that… the ponies will need help when the reinforcement get there…”

The group still was looking at him confused. Noticing this, Richard breathed in, and he used his wit for excusing himself.

“These are their orders, due to my condition I will retire of this operation. You go and help the intelligence division to survive, keep your position, meanwhile, I will go back to the base and mobilize the rest of the troops to be reinforced.”

The soldiers looked at him. This was the authority figure, the one who was a good strategist and a born leader.

“What are you waiting? An invitation? Move!”

“Yes sir!”

At that, a soldier turned on the captain’s bike while the others also turned on theirs, producing the deafening sound that characterized by these vehicles, motorcycles Vintage MBW R25 with sidecar. For them, it was like the start of a philharmonic that would continue with the shooting of their rifles and machine guns, and it would end with the deadly silence after the cease of the firing, where they could wait a new ambush or a full victory. All that, while they inspect the fallen ponies and they ensure their fallen ones.

“Remember to keep your position and wait the reinforcement to impose a counterstrike… good luck.”

Instantly, the soldiers mobilized and undertook the march to the combat.

Richard stopped for a moment, meditating the words that came out of his mind.

“Were my words honest?” He thought.

“Or it was just the tension of the moment?”

Before going to the base, he got off his transport, took out his pocket knife, and approached one of the trees, and marked it with an X.

Without losing any more time, he started to go back toward the military settlement, the sound of the engine silencing his thoughts, and it keeping him focused on the road, but inside him something was bothering him, not even the deafening sound could ignore that emotion.

Five minutes passed until he arrived at the entrance. The place was full of dark green campaign tents, some of them bigger than others, that were used as storage for weapons and supplies, resting place, dining room, nursing, and residence for the divisions. There was an extended training field, full of obstacles and pony-shaped mannequins, some of them with stolen armor, where the soldiers were learning to “neutralize” in case of hostility, some chemical bathrooms, an improvised baseball field that provided some recreation to the stressed uniformed soldiers, a wide parking place, where hundreds of motorbikes layed, waiting to be turned on, and next to them, a mechanic fixing shop.

In the center, a high altitude antenna seemed to touch the sky, this one provided radial communication both the base and its surroundings.

He parked his vehicle and headed with weak step to a different tent, some soldiers stared at him strangely and others limited themselves to a salute, but Richard was lost in his thoughts, totally ignoring any kind of distraction.

Arriving, he left his trance, and two guards questioned his access to that peculiar tent, after the typical military salute, one asked him.

“Good morning captain Richard, what is the purpose of your visit?” The soldier at his left said.

“I need to mobilize a part of my division for an armed combat.”

“I’m sorry, but the general is in the quarters, we can’t authorize anything until he comes back,” the guard at his right expressed with authority.

“I understand, but all the intelligence division is under attack, please, I know that the general will authorize the reinforcement.”

The guards looked at themselves for a moment and nodded.

“Okay, enter, but later you’ll have to face the consequences of ignoring the command chain,” averted with a serious tone.

“I’ll do it,” he decided.

Ending the conversation with another military salute, Richard entered the place, this was decorated with marked black and white photos, an American flag that was hanging on a small flag pole, and a well accommodated individual bed with a big desk with some paperwork.

He approached the desk slowly, feeling even weaker, he grabbed a silver colored microphone that was connected to a speakers system that was placed in the center of the base and he turned it on, the characteristic and deafening sound of the speakers turned on alerted everyone present.

“Attention, members of the fourth division report in operation center quickly! Thoughtfully, your captain.”

The speakers turned off and tens of uniformed moved to the assigned place.

The soldiers were waiting anxious inside the big tent, meanwhile, Richard approached to the guard who was guarding the entrance.

“Inform me soldier, how many people are inside there?”

“They’re exactly one hundred and fifty, captain.”

“You have a good eye for a simple guard, it would serve us a man like you in the sniper line.”

“Count with me when necessary, captain!”

“That’s the attitude! But I need you to make a favor for me, don’t let come in any more people, and if they ask why, just tell them that they will find out.”

“Sir, yes sir!”

Without losing time, he surrounded the place, and entered from a lateral entrance, going up through an improvised stage, he verified the number of people in the place and without waiting, he yelled.

“Attention!”

Everyone silenced, and stared at him.

“First of all, thank you so much for assisting but…the two bottom lines and the following half won’t be necessary for the mission, you can retire, and if you ask, don’t worry, I know some of you… will fare with the gossip.”

“Now pay attention,” said while he pulled down a small high rope and unfolded a map of the Everfree Forest.

“As you know, the base’s antenna only covers this area approximately,” he marked with a meter length wooden pointer.

“The intelligence division was investigating the intensity and limit of this frequencies to install a secondary antenna that will serve to extend the reaching of our radial communications but…”

The soldiers stared at him bewildered, they knew that now were coming bad news.

“A group of aggressors ambushed them, it’s unknown if they are low, the members that came with me in the chase went to help them, but they won’t resist for long, your mission is to reinforce them and help in the counterstrike, take the medical team to attend the injured, and liquidate the ponies!”

Suddenly, the fatigue that he carried since the incident with the fugitives ponies increased, and Richard shook for a second, this made the everyone present worry, not one of them spoke as their captain clarified.

“Also, secure the area when the intelligence decides to come back.”

“Sir, yes sir!”

“Fine, brake lines!”

But that was the last thing they heard from him.

Without any notice, he collapsed with his back on the improvised stage. With his eyes not totally open he could see in slow motion how the soldiers lifted up from their chairs and went to help him, carrying him from his torso, head, arms and legs, disposed to take him to the nursery, but before fainting again he thought.

“Not again.”

He woke up.

He was lying in the floor and again, everything was gray, like in that dream in the Everfree Forest, but when he sat, he felt a stabbing pain in his left shoulder, taking his right hand to the wound as answer he could perceive the blood running through his arm, with fear, he started to see around. He was in the middle of one big battle occurring in his base, it looked like the ponies had invaded the place but strangely, there was no sound, not of the weapons, or the crossbows that the earth ponies were carrying, or the yelling of the injured in both teams, but the fight was present.

Slowly, the general approached Richard, carrying a Revolver .22 Long, painted totally with a shiny golden color with a black handle. While he has playing with it, he started to say a monologue, and although he couldn’t hear any words, Richard could perceive a strange mix of deception and anger in the look of his best friend, he rarely has saw him in that way.

“I feel that he is reproaching me but… Why he is not helping me? Can’t he see my injury?”

In effect, the only time he remembered seeing him that way was when he discovered that some recluses were organizing to put marijuana in the installations for their own consume. That day he called all the soldiers in, and gave them a long talk that made them feel guilty and embarrassed at the same time, all that, while he kept the serenity that characterized him, it didn’t matter how mad he was. He didn’t show anger at all, but that didn’t take away the fear of those soldiers that were expulsed after his speech.

“Tell me, Richard,” expressed the general.

This pulled the captain out of thought, surprised to hear him. He wanted to ask desperately, but for his bad luck, he was still mute.

“How does it feel to treason your own specie?”

Richard stared with his eyes wide open as plates and constricted pupils. Perplexed of what was happening, he just stayed there, without noticing, that they were pointing at him with the revolver’s cannon. He stood up slowly, looking at the weapon that was in front of him without showing any emotion, the general didn’t alter this, and with his thumb he pulled down the gun’s hammer, the barrel rolled to the left, and without doubting, he pulled the trigger, letting a small sparkle gave way to the bullet that travelled in slow motion to Richard’s head.

He screamed while he was standing from his bed, with heavy breathing, he took his hand to his head and then to his shoulder.

“It was just a dream,” he sighed, relieved.

“Or a nightmare?” he thought.

He saw around him how his soldiers were sleeping placidly even after his little disturbance.

“Mmm…, my men will be efficient but they have a heavy dream,” sighed for himself.

Still with his thoughts, he stayed sitting looking for an answer to the dream he just had, without noticing how one of his men was sleeping in a chair near of the exit, to the side, waking up suddenly.

“A gay president in 2084!” He screamed startled, and noticed how Richard looked at him with one eyebrow up.

“You are realistic, David,” he said with a funny tone and a little laugh.

“My captain!” He said getting up from the chair and standing at his side.

“Are you alright?”

“What? Yes, yes, everything’s okay but, what were you doing sleeping in a chair?”

“They told me take care of you while you were unconscious”

“How much time…?”

“Excuse me?”

“How much time was I unconscious?!” He yelled, furious, but quickly simmered down.

“I, I’m sorry, I’ve got so much to think about now.”

“Don’t worry about that, tell me, do you need something?”

“Nothing for now David, go to sleep that there will be a lot to do in the dawn.”

“And you?”

“I’ll be awake for a while, after all, I’ve been asleep for a lot of time apparently,” he said, seeing the moon’s light entering from the exit.

“It’s okay, have a good night captain.”

“Same to you David.”

They saluted with the classic military salute and David went lazily to his bed, throwing himself towards it, hugging Morpheus’s arms at that moment.

But Richard was far from being asleep. Tormented by his thoughts, he stood up from his bed, and he left the tent to contemplate. The moon was filling him with unknown sensations, and it seem to be confusing him every second he looked at it.

A while passed looking at that wonder, until a strong abdominal pain invaded him. It was unstoppable. He felt a huge pressure in his stomach while something like the acidity presented in his pit of the stomach and quickly going up through his esophagus, with the burning with it.

Quickly, he took out a lamp from the tent, turned on the lighter, with that weak light and with one hand in his stomach he hurried to the nearest chemical restroom, waiting to don’t faint in the road.

He opened the door, hung the lamp on a hanger, he dropped his pants and sat on the cold plastic aperture.

“Son of a-!” he contained his anger.

“It can’t be so cold!”

Even with the pain and the burning, he pushed waiting for “that” as it relieved the pain, but surprisingly, he didn’t seem to want to “evacuate”, which left him at the mercy of the suffering.

“AAAAAAGGGHHH!” He murmured in pain.

Without any notice, a burp provocated the output of a small violet fire. Scared, he covered his mouth with both hands, waiting to contain whatever could come out of his body.

“I don’t think I can resist much longer,” he thought in pain, “well, this is my end.”

Without any resistance, he slowly put his hands down, and without making himself wait, a big burp with a big violet flare came out of his mouth, and so, he closed his eyes and put his arms on his head as instinctive response, waiting for the flames to end his life.

The Final Report

Just after a few seconds, and after feeling anything, he opened his eyes and for his surprise, the violet fire stayed spinning in the air in a spiral form, being amazed by what happened.

“I didn’t had to get high to see something like this” he thought.

He thought it was an hallucination because of the pain. Something that was stopping him to think about it. His curious eyes gazed the spinning phenomenon while it was sparkling, waiting for something to happen.

Suddenly, a cylindrical shape appeared through the fire. At first he didn’t recognize what it was, until the flames emitted a last blinding flash, leaving a rolled paper on the ground.

Richard picked it up, and examined it without opening it

“This seems like…”

His thoughts were interrupted when he saw the paper roll started shining that violet sparkle that left him unconscious the last time.

Frightened, he threw the scroll against the door, and he covered himself in his arms, expecting the worst.

To his astonishment, the scroll just stayed sparkling in the ground. He wanted to get out without touching it and notify the general so he can take care about it, but he couldn't, something inside told him he should read it. He got carried away by the curiosity and something else, trembling with fear he picked it up, the paper never stopped shining, when he was about to take off the red ribbon that was wrapping it, he could distinguish some symbols over it.

“What the,” he thought to himself.

“This is written on that weird pony language. How am I supposed to translate this thing?”

His eyes could not believe what he saw, those strange symbols began to change shape, one by one, translating itself to something he could perfectly understand.

"Pure Heart"

“How the hell does this…?”

Slowly, he removed the ribbon's knot, dropped it and opened the scroll far as he could. It was written in pony language, until the letters begun changing in front of his eyes, which left him amazed.

When it finished, the letter remained readable, Richard got ready to read it. He stood up, put up his pants and sat down again.

“Let's see…”

Final Report

The objective of this report is provide to readers, researchers, historians and anyone interested in pony history, the more specific and detailed information possible about the events in what surely was the biggest threat to Equestria since Discord.

Everything related, it's based in previous reports, that describe in great detail the adversities that lead to the human invasion.

In memory of the fallen and the destroyed families.

1th Month

The princess Celestia authorizes the "Everfree Energy" project, which was intended to an exhaustive research of the Everfree Forest to show that it possesses some kind of magical potential, which could explain why his ecosystem was autonomous, without needing any intervention at all.

Twilight Sparkle and Zecora are responsible for carrying the project forward.

Everything It's going just well, the estimated time of accomplishment was stipulated in twelve months, the only thing out of place is the arrival of a mysterious pony who called himself "Doom Prophet" warning about a big evil that will be set free if we keep going forward, he was ignored and the project continued.

3rd Month.

The Project continued as planned.

A pegasus named Fluttershy helped us with the monsters that lived in the forest, offering safety to the managers as this beasts interfered in main aspects.

For safety, we keep an eye on Doom Prophet, and according to a reliable source, he is staying in the ponyville library without causing any trouble at all since he appeared.

6th Month.

Since a little time ago, most of the villagers in ponyville, knew about the project, which wasn't in our plans, but it wasn't a real problem, or so we thought.

Doom Prophet managed to send his message to everypony in town, and then summon his "followers" in the central square, perhaps aiming to sabotage everything that had been done so far, but thanks to the quick intervention of princess Celestia, we could stop his plans. Doom Prophet and the others were arrested.

12th Month.

The Everfree Energy project failed. However, something new emerged, a portal leading to a different land, perhaps in another dimension.

The first trip showed results beyond our imagination, beings that were totally different from us, at a simple view. Advanced technology in some ways, big and simple buildings, and other things. But according to Celestia's orders we can't have any contact with those beings until we know if they are hostile.

Doom Prophet escaped from prison, but he was quickly caught, Celestia wanted to avoid any more problems so she sent him to Appleloosa where he will serve the remainder of his sentence doing hard labor.

16th Month.

The Portal couldn't be a secret anymore from the other beings, with no other choice, Celestia allow the entrance and, one by one, the firsts visitors started showing up, families that visited Ponyville and get amazed with the ponies, the culture, the food and other things. They couldn't believe that some "animals" could live that way. Their language was unknown for us, but thanks to Twilight Sparkle we found a spell that allowed us to communicate with them.

20th Month.

The Humans are part of the community these days, both in Ponyville as in Canterlot and for a while there was no problem at all.

An episode of violence erupts at a bar in Canterlot, featuring ponies and humans, both of them were apparently drunk, the polemic of determining the guilty was on the streets, the actions didn't matter, as in any way it was going to have an impact on our diplomatic relationships. By agreement, it was provided that "foreigners" could provide extra security bringing their urban guards or "police" as they call them.

Meanwhile, near the portal, humans built a settlement, in order to host visitors who will spend a long time in equestria.

So far, there are no news of the adventurers that went through the portal, the princesses are concerned.

24th Month.

The human guards were every time more threatening and their number was everytime bigger, this bothered the ponies.

The settlement was expanding near the border of the forest, which was cut mercilessly for that purpose, affecting the living ecosystem.

Given the current situation and no response about the missing adventurers, Celestia went to the human settlement accompanied by her personal bodyguard to talk with the manager of human-pony interaction, Mr. Philip Armander.

After a little argument. Humans declared war to Celestia.

Special Topic: The Human-Pony War.

1th Month

The war has been declared, the human settlement began to take the shape of a military base and increased the movement on it.

By the time, Celestia warned her military forces to prepare for battle, while she sent letters to all the cities on Equestria to inform about the situation and ask their help.

The Elements of Harmony were trying to organize Ponyville so it didn’t panic, later they were sent to Canterlot to think of a strategy.

3rd Month.

According to some informants, the enemy base has tripled its size and will not take much time before they finish it.

to gain more time, Zecora asked the forest to defend itself from the invaders and so, the animals raised themselves against the humans and began attacking them. To our surprise, for every soldier killed, another one came out the portal to replace him, therefore, we don't know the exact amount of enemies we are facing.

For some strange reason, the other cities never answered the letters.

5th Month.

The invaders managed to prevail against the forest and its beasts. As punishment, a few soldiers came out the forest and burned down the Apple family farm, leaving only ashes. They also incinerated Fluttershy's house, killing all the animals inside.

After all impediments, the humans finished their military base, Celestia couldn't believe it when she knew, she didn't even thought on what they were capable of.

One night, a group of assault broke into the hall, taking the mayor as a hostage, but instead of kidnaping her, they waited patiently for everypony to meet in front of the building, after talking about our surrender, General Philip Armander took a golden revolver and shot straight to the mayor's head, causing the output of her brains and blood, injecting fear and helplessness in the ponies, some royal guards tried in vain to rescue the now deceased mayor, but the assault group prevailed and killed them all mercilessly.

A week later, the human armed forces began the invasion of ponyville, at first we thought we had advantage with the magic of the unicorns and the flying ability of the pegasus, but those benefits quickly disappeared with the promise of peace and a harmonious future together, against the firepower of the invaders who managed to overcome the princesses, even the power of the elements was useless against them, allowing them to destroy not only our military forces, but also all expectation of saving our home.

The fallen are hundreds, hundreds of professionals both stallions and mares as volunteers who fought valiantly to protect this land. Luna is also in these statistical numbers, but not because she was captured, because Celestia tried to protect her, sending her back to the moon, at the moment, everybody was shocked by the actions of the princess, but there wasn't another option, when they announced the withdrawal, she wanted to stay at all costs to give their subjects time to flee, but Celestia intervened, sending her back to her prison, but knowing that she will be safe.

Doom Prophet, to our surprise, escaped Appleloosa with the intention of helping, even after he warned us that all this was going to happen and we didn't believe him.

His participation was momentary, but essential, thanks to him and his sacrifice, Twilight Sparkle avoided the cold embrace of death, since Doom got in the way of a knife that would produce a deep stab wound in Twilight's neck, however, he received a long cut on the side of his abdomen, causing him a hemorrhage, he died after a few seconds.

The evacuated civilians were refuged in Canterlot, but some decided to take the train to Manehattan, the last stop before closing the station for the invasion.

6th Month

Canterlot troops were preparing for battle, Shining Armor, the captain of the royal guard, became the captain of the resistance, formed by the royal guard and the soldiers who survived the battle in ponyville.

The objective of this force was to give time to the princess and all refugees to entering the underground hideout, the giant magic shield was already set, now they just had to wait.

Humans seemed to be a step forward, their powerful bombs were able to destroy the shield and they quickly entered the city, taking the streets slowly, ensuring their dominance over the capital of Equestria.

Our objective was fulfilled, thanks to the resistance, all civilians were evacuated successfully, but the remaining soldiers stayed fighting until the end, knowing their destiny and surrendering to it, all in order to give more time to the refugees arriving at the underground hideout.

Richard turned the scroll, thinking he would find more information, but he got surprised when he saw that the other side was blank.

“Are you telling me that I went through all that... just for a report!?” He thought “And it adds nothing new to what we already knew, except …”

He carefully readed again the last words of the report

“Underground... hideout, But where?” He whispered.

His mind drifted among the last events that happened until he remembered the fugitives, and their successful escape.

“Of course! They should be somewhere in the Everfree” His face brightened with a sudden idea “The X!”

He was about to get up when he saw a strange gray stain in a corner of the document, it was too light to be ink... A drop of water perhaps?

His curiosity pushed him forward, he touched it, trying to figure out what that substance was.

“It seems like…” He looked confused “A tear?”

Without warning, the letter glowed a golden color, making his eyes shine, hiding them and giving him a new vision.

He was where the last one ended, floating in the middle of the the ocean, covered in a golden glow and with the rising sun in the background, he turned to see the sun and get wrapped in that warm morning feeling, but he felt empty, it wasn't the same that happened the last time.

The sun changed its color to blood red, likewise, the clouds took a dark red color, while the rest of the things took the same color as the sun, and the shadows became darkness.

A sudden teleportation led to Ponyville, where he could see how lots ponies looked terrified at the doors of the City Hall. Richard slowly came to the scene and saw Philip pointing his revolver to the mayor.

“No, there must be another way!” He shouted in vain.

But he closed his eyes to avoid watching the remains of the skull and brain of the mayor falling to the ground.

Suffering.

When he opened his eyes, the scene had changed, or rather, the time passed quickly to stand in the battle of Ponyville, at the time where the magical shields fell and the humans took advantage, killing several ponies in a few minutes.

The cries of pain of the wounded echoed in Richard's head, like he was alongside each of them, listening the last screams that will put an end in their lives, and they repeated again and again in an endless cycle.

Looking sick, he put his hands on his head and shouted

“It's enough, get out of my head!”

Distress, fear.

This time he teleported to a cave, where the torches lit the sad faces of the ponies hiding in there.

“Mommy?” A little filly asked his mother “When will daddy come back?”

“Very soon ... very soon dear” The mother answered tearfully.

Richard saw the scene sadly, while he turned his head to see another event.

“Why did Mommy have to go deliver mail?, Why couldn't she stay with me?”

A small unicorn white lavender skin with a yellow mane and tail with two yellows eyes said, before beginning to cry in his father's arms.

“Oh my little Dinky,” The unicorn with light brown fur and a dark brown hair said “Don't cry, Mommy is in an important task, if all goes well, she will be one of the heroines that saved Equestria from the humans” He said wiping a few tears from her daughter's face with his hooves.

“Are you serious?” Dinky asked with a tearful and hopeful voice.

“Very serious, and be sure to prepare her favorite muffins when she returns,” affirmed with a smile and a hug.

A red tear came out of Richard's eye and he fell to the ground, staining the ground with a crimson color.

Sadness and pain.

He woke up at the base, were a battle between ponies and humans took place.

"This never happened, why am I dreaming with this battle?".

But something took him out of his thoughts, the glow that was covering him changed its golden color to a bright scarlet red, much like the environment in general.

“What is going on?”

The unique sound of a bullet traveling through the air hit Richard's left shoulder, causing it to collapse and go into a state of shock, the last thing he could see is the general pointing his gun right in front of him.

Regret.

Then he pulled the trigger, and Richard felt the cold hand of death touching his forehead.

Hope.

Richard dropped the report while it gradually lost its glow, he kept his head down with his eyes wide open, reflexing about every word he heard in his mind.

Suffering, distress, fear, sadness, pain, regret and hope. The words were tormenting and confusing him, the guilt took over his body, sadness did as well, tears fell to the ground. His head looking at the ground prevented his tears to wet his face, while the first rays of sunlight of a new day filtered through openings in the roof lit that little puddle of tears.

The First Contact

"I will not allow it!"

With his hands he wiped his teary eyes and stood up, unhooked the ceiling lamp, turned the knob to increase the fire and took a closer look at the report.

“I will not be manipulated by a sheet of paper!” He thought.

He was about to burn it, thinking that it would solve all his mental problems, he will stop dreaming about those strange creatures that he had to fight or at least, the blame will disappear.

“Is anybody there?” someone asked as he touched the door.

Instantly, Richard awoke from his trance and came back to reality. He spent all night fighting with his emotions that he didn't notice the dawn and the light of a new day.

He turned off the burner with a blow, he kept the report in his boot and got ready to leave.

“It's all yours soldier. Try to leave as clean as you found it.”

“Ca-Captain?” He hesitated for a moment “Got it.”

He went to the tent so he can't left the lamp and start with his daily tasks, but the guilty was present and didn't seem to leave him be, just like if the battlefield had moved into his head and the confrontation had no end.

“Maybe I'll find the solution in the origin of it, only I have to find an excuse to leave.”

Before entering the tent, David intercepted him at the entrance.

“Good morning Captain, how are you?”

“I'm fine, thanks for asking.”

“Do you need something?”

“Nothing, just came to leave this lamp that I took last night.”

“Allow me to do it sir,” David said as he grabbed the lamp, “I got it.”

“Thanks. Now, soldier, it's time to do our work. I told you we will be busy at dawn,” Richard said as he turned to leave.

“Wait!” David shouted “I have to tell you something.”

Richard stops and turns.

“Last night I forgot to tell you to go to the nursing for a check and then you must go to report yourself to the general, everything before starting your daily activities.”

“Thanks for the warning, but you are not relieved of your responsibilities, go and do them!” Richard ordered.

“Sir, yes sir!”

The captain went to the infirmary, the place had medical beds where the less urgent cases were attended, such as bruises or minor injuries. Behind a curtain was a room with a medical team to treat the seriously injured, in general, if a soldier received a deadly wound, first aid was applied there and then the soldier would be moved to a hospital on the Earth. If he got incapacitated, he was relieved of duty and sent home for incapacity.

Richard sat on one of the couches and waited for a nurse to attend to him, the place was almost empty, only a few soldiers being healed. A nurse makes its way towards him.

“Good morning Captain, How do you feel today?” She said while using a flashlight to light his eyes to see his reactions.

“I feel good, and if it isn't too much trouble…” he asked while the nurse hit his knee with a hammer to check on his reactions, “Can you please do this faster? I need to report myself to the general as fast as I can.”

“Don't worry, this will not take long,” she replied as she took his pulse with her fingers placed on his throat.

“Well done Captain Richard, this is the last thing to do. Just relax and don't move,” she said as she wrapped his arm in an artifact for measuring pressure, while she put a tight band in his wrist, Richard couldn't help feeling that someone was watching him, without moving his head he turned his eyes to one side and noticed that the soldier with a wounded shoulder never took his eyes off him.

“That's it, Richard, everything is in order, you are welcome if you feel sick.”

“Sure, lady.”

He was about to get up to leave, but a gentle touch on his uniform caught his attention.

“Excuse me, are you Richard Senedor?” the wounded soldier asked.

“Yeah, what do you need soldier?”

“I am Samuel Corner, the captain of the intelligence division, Don't you remember me?”

Richard was thoughtful for a moment, he didn't seemed to remember him at all.

“Thanks to you and your men, a part of my division could survive, I owe you my life.”

A spark ignited in his head, and he recognized him instantly.

“I Remember, what's up man!” He said while he hugged him.

With a grimace on his face, Samuel replied.

“I appreciate the gesture, but you should remember that I …”

“The wound!” He said as he walked off “What happened...?”

“It was the result of the battle, but it isn't deadly.”

“And how it turned out?”

“You should know, I thought that your men told you.”

“I had some... setbacks, and no, they didn't told me anything.”

“Well, get comfortable because this is going to be long.”

It was a sunny day without a cloud in the sky, the big forest prevented the passage of the sunlight and made it more terrifying than usual.

A dozen soldiers walked through it, while examining the range of the radio frequencies with multiple transmitters and measurers.

“Come on guys, if you want to return for lunch we must have marked the place for the next antenna” Captain Samuel said while they continued the exploration.

After a few hours, one of the soldiers reported.

“Sir, we have reached the limits of the signals.”

“Well, mark this place.”

They took a map of the forest and marked the place with an “X”.

“Eric, get the telephone ready to report to base.”

There was no response, which enraged Samuel.

“What part of get the...!”

His only answer was a muffled sound, as if he was trying to speak without air on his lungs. The scene shocked all the intelligence division, a sword with a blue aura passed through Eric's body, destroying the telephone he was carrying on his back, drops of blood fell from the tip of the sharp weapon, a lot of it flowed from the wound and a small wire of it was coming out of his mouth.

“He... Hel... Help me.”

It was the last thing he heard saying out after coughing blood and dying.

The unicorn pulled out the sword from the corpse, the two soldiers were about to shoot when, from the trees, a storm of arrows killed them almost instantly.

“It's a trap, take refuge behind the trees!”

Everyone ran and hide, but one of them was hit by three arrows in his back, killing him instantly.

“Take the emergency pistols, but be cautious and don't waste bullets.”

They quickly began exchanging shoots, bullets and arrows were breaking branches and impacting on trees, the minutes seemed eternal. The humans kept their heads down to avoid arrows on their skulls and the fear invaded them, they had the strange feeling of being outnumbered and the arrows were just the tip of the iceberg.

By the fear and the shortage of ammunition, Samuel took his radio and he tried to communicate.

“What are you doing!?” the uniformed who beside him asked “You know we are out of reach, leave the damn radio and help us save our asses!”

“I have to try, is the only way out of this mess!” He said as he turned the radio station to find any frequency that allow him to ask for help.

“I am Samuel Corner, captain of the intelligence division, we are under attack! we need reinforcements immediately.”

No one answered, just the sound of dead signal is heard.

“I am Samuel Corner, captain of the intelligence division, we are under attack...!”

The transmission was interrupted by a strong impact on the tree where he was hiding, he saw the magical shots came from the other side, making things more difficult.

“We need reinforcements immediately!” He shouted desperately.

But there was no response, he dropped the radio and sat down. He wanted to give up, get out his hideout and let the arrows do their thing with his body, make God laugh at his peculiar destiny as if it were a comedy and finally end the waiting. The day he was told to go to war in a place never seen before, he never thought he would fight in another world with ponies. At first he didn't cared about it, but then he realized that he was no different of a bullfighter or an organizer of dogs or roosters’ street fights. He was killing conscious and intelligent animals, living in society and organized, whatever the reason he was fighting for or whatever he was told in the military, didn't care anymore.

He turned his head to see who considered his brothers die, no matter what was his stance on the war, he had to help them, he slowly grabbed the radio and lit it, taking air he shouted:

“Someone who can get my signal, answer please!”

He put the horn on his forehead, begging God for a sign, whichever was it, he was about to drop a tear and surrender, until:

“Here the captain of the infantry's fourth division.”

“Oh, thanks for answering, I am the captain Samuel Corner of the intelligence division, we are under attack!”

“It must be a sign from the Almighty” he thought.

While receiving Richard's instructions by radio, the situation didn't let them catch their breaths, a soldier was shot down by a magic lightning in his head, for some strange reason, the magic they used to fight didn't go through as arrows and bullets, but a good shoot given with enough power could break bones and kill anyone.

After the transmission ends, he pulled from his bag a flare gun and fired into heaven without delay, which produced a bright spark in two colors to inform their location to backup.

The ponies looked stunned at the lights, for them it was something majestic and hypnotic, one pegasus came out of his trance and asked the officer:

“Can I leave now? I have to deliver an important letter to the governor of Manehattan”

“Until we clear this area we can't allow you to continue with your task, Miss ...?”

“Derpy Hooves” The pony said reluctantly.

“Don't worry, we have a plan to exterminate this group of humans.”

“Okay.” Derpy replied as she sat and pulled a Muffin out of her bag and took a bite.

The officer saw her with tenderness and looked at the battlefield with a neutral expression, hoping his strategy would work.

The minutes were eternal, Samuel was waiting for reinforcements, the ammunition was almost over and there was no sign of help, suddenly, from a bush, an Earth pony emerges holding a sword between his teeth, his plan to sneak proved successful, he was positioned behind the captain, ready to cut his head off.

“Hey, dwarfish horse!”

Both the pony and Samuel turned around, the soldier that shouted opened fire, leaving the pony in a pool of his own blood.

A group of soldiers positioned themselves on the battlefield, Samuel reported the situation to the manager while others fired at will.

“Damn!” The officer shouted “We were so close!”

Derpy just looked at him, confused, as she took another muffin his saddlebag.

“Prepare the magical shields, we will end this once and for all!”

The sound of machine guns and rifles took over the battlefield. Snipers had great difficulty in finding their targets. Without notice, on the other hand, the ponies came in two, which were formed by an unicorn and a knight accompanying him with shooting arrows as they walked slowly towards the soldiers, because although the used medieval weapons, those had an advantage on melee-fight, which humans left behind over the centuries.

“Get the grenades ready!”

The soldiers took their grenades from their backpacks and they undid the safeties.

“Throw them!”

The grenades flew through the air, some fell in the hooves of some ponies and others hit and bounced off the magic shield, a big explosion filled the woods with dust and smoke, but it wasn't enough. From that haze, the ponies came out intact, the shield had several signs of cracks that were fixed quickly, without hesitation, the soldiers kept throwing grenades, hoping to break that powerful magic defense that had caused troubles some time ago, but their firepower wasn't enough, as evidenced by the steady and threatening advance of the ponies.

“Hurry up captain, we need it” His men thought.

They were a few meters from them, the grenades were over, it seemed that at any moment they'll jump and kill them all using their vengeful swords, some ponies begun unsheathing them, when suddenly, three missiles came out of nowhere and hit the shield, breaking it into pieces like some glass broken by kids playing baseball in the street.

“Fire at will, and don't leave any of them alive!”

From all sides, the soldiers broke into the field, outnumbering the ponies that didn't give much resistance to the attack of the human's reinforcements.

The pony officer looked around terrified, he saw his comrades being exceeded in all aspects, explosions, gunfire and cries of pain, a show that no one should ever watch.

His eyes stopped on the gray pony that has been intersected while serving his role as mailmare, she was stunned, his face showed a reflecting of terror, anguish and fear, her half-eaten muffin was lying on the ground.

The officer felt something inside of him, something he remembered from his training at the academy.

"Defending the innocent."

Derpy's expression represented all the innocent ponies who died in the war.

“Derpy, snap out of it!” the officer shouted, but he received no response.

His mind was a mixture of bad emotions. The officer didn't know what to do, every second was a death sentence, as a last resort, he took Derpy's face with his right hoof and kissed her.

"Talk to me please, I need you to do it."

With his eyes closed, he kept kissing Derpy's lips, waiting for a response, such was his cluelessness of the situation that he didn't saw the slap coming from Derpy hooves that made him fall to the ground.

“You pervert, How dare you?!” she said angrily.

“There's no time to explain, retreat!” He shouted at the remaining soldiers, throwing a smoke bomb to distract the humans.

The gray pegasus was about to take off, but the officer grabbed his hoof and brought her to the ground again, and dragged her through the floor.

“What are you doing? I can fly ya' know?!” she said angrily.

“I know, but…” in that moment, a missile passed over them, exploding in front of them and cutting off the road, they turned in another direction and continued their escape “...but if you took off there, the enemy had you seen and you would've been dead by now.”

Derpy gave him the reason whit a helpless face.

“Don't worry, hold on a little more and you can go to deliver that important message” the officer said.

The forest seemed infinite and with no apparent exit, the shots broke branches and penetrated the armor of the few ponies that were still standing, killing them without any mercy.

Derpy and the officer continued their escape until, through the trees, they could see an armed group of humans who were going towards them, trying to intercept them, knowing that they were going to be surrounded, the official told Derpy:

“Go away, fly as fast as you can and send the message!, I’ll distract them.”

Without hesitating even a second, she spreaded her gray wings and took off, leaving the officer alone.

Samuel with a group of soldiers surrounded the alone pony.

“Do you think that we should take him as a prisoner?” one of them asked.

“We should, we'll get some useful information” Samuel said.

On that moment, a soldier looked up and saw a pegasus flying away.

“Captain Samuel, look there!” He warned while he pointed at her with his weapon.

Some set the target to shoot, but Samuel interrupted them.

“Leave this one to me.”

He loaded his rifle and pointed it at Derpy while the others watched, anybody realized that the pony officer was grabbing something, in a matter of a second, he took a crossbow and shot Samuel to prevent him for hurting the pegasus, but a millisecond before the rifle emitted a thunderous sound accompanied by a spark. The arrow went through Samuel's right shoulder, leaving him bleeding on the ground, while the soldiers riddled the pony officer and took care their injured captain.

Derpy wasn't a normal flier, which made it a difficult ascent, as it was like it, she touched her lips and remembered the kiss of that pony that didn't produce anything more than anger, but it brought back happy memories of Dr. Whooves and her daughter Dinky.

“Soon ... I will be with you” she whispered to the wind.

Suddenly, she felt pain in his neck which caused her wings closing and began to fall in a big free fall, although she tried, she couldn't open her wings, she only had to wait for her death as she saw the blood going out of her neck and "flying" with her.

“My dear Doctor…” she said in a muffled voice.

“... My dear... Dinky” she continued with opened eyes.

“... I will always take care of you, I promise I will, no matter how ridiculous that sounds …” his body was hit by several branches, producing her serious injuries “... I will be back.”

she hit the ground with her head, breaking her skull and killing her instantly, blood rained down for a second and finally, two tears wet her face, sealing, a promise of unconditional love.

The soldiers came to where the pegasus fell, they looked in her backpack and they found a letter.

“Let's take it to the general, he will translate it.”

“Got it.”

They kept the letter and left, leaving another pony corpse forgotten into oblivion.

The bandages on Samuel's shoulder dried completely, while he was ending his story, leaving Richard perplexed, feeling sorry for the fallen and the thinking of the difficulty that victory resulted for his men.

“Captain Samuel, you are ready,” The nurse said “Seeing your condition, I'm afraid we'll have to put an end to your service, we will prepare the papers and you prepare your things and retire to your home, a compensation will be granted to you any time.”

Samuel nodded, he stood up and went to his shared tent. Richard accompanied him to help with his stuff.

After a talk with the members of his division, both went to the portal, the fresh air of the earth was going through it, inviting him to cross it and go back to his normal life, but carrying all the weight of this senseless war.

They hugged slapping their back with his hands fraternally.

“Take care Samuel, thanks for everything,” Richard said.

“Don't mention it, I should be thanking you.” Samuel answered.

They ended their hug and Samuel got ready to go, but turned and looked at Richard.

“Listen” Samuel said “I'm going to tell you this now because if I told you before, I would been shot for traitor.”

“What are you talking about?”

“This…”

He quickly got close to Richard and whispered to his ear. Like a knife that penetrated his brain. Something that surprised him, thought he was the only one who had these doubts and concerns, maybe that was the reason why he seemed happy to leave.

He walked away from Richard and entered the portal, leaving Richard whit his mouth wide open, how he would deal with that issue? Certainly, he already had his own mental problems and now this revelation only added more weight to his thoughts, but he ignored it, and reported himself to the general.

Meanwhile, Philip Armander was inspecting a bloody letter, covered with a scarf to avoid soil his desk. With a cold and indifferent look, he grab the knife and opened the letter as if it were a statement from his mother-in-law. When he was about to read it, a known figure walked through the entrance of his tent.

“Captain Richard reporting sir!” Richard said doing the classic military gesture of greeting.

“Rest captain” Philip answered, leaving the letter to pay attention.

“I've come to take responsibility for all the events that took place yesterday, for make decisions that were beyond my range and the consequences” Richard nervously said.

“Let's leave the formalities behind Captain” Philip replied standing up “If it weren't for you, we would have lost an important squad. We are also at war and, as bad as it sound, can't be sorry for every dead man in a valuable and sad way, unfortunately it is a burden that the families and loved ones must endure, but we must move on.”

Richard didn't seem happy with that answer, he already knew the cold and serious attitude that the general had, but for some reason, he never could deal with it, he was never ready for it, which bothered him at times and made him more nervous for question he was about to ask.

“General…”

“I told you to leave formalities aside, I don’t call you Rick for anything.”

“All right, Phil, why we invaded this place?”

The general wasn't expecting that question, but he knew the captain since high school, they were the typical friends of a lifetime, which kept them in touch after high school and were surprised when they knew that both of them were in the military, Philip before Richard, explaining why he had a higher rank.

Expressionless, he grabbed a bottle of water and took a long sip, closed it and give it to Richard inviting him to drink, and he said.

“Listen Rick, I swear that if you were another soldier who had asked me that, I would lie, telling him patriotic things that you only see in movies or in Uncle Sam's advertisements. Giving him the thrill of being able to defend himself using weapons and making him feel ridiculously invincible”

He said while holding the US flag.

“But you, you're someone I trust, it seems strange that you asked that, when not long ago I told you the real reason, you know the answer and I see no need to tell you again” he concluded sitting back in his chair.

Richard froze in place, all what his superior said was true, he just didn't want to admit it, why he asked something that already knew? Perhaps the blame spoke for him, wanting to punish him for what happened, but the general didn't cared about it.

Seeing the expression on the face of his friend, Philip felt bad.

“Listen, if you feel confused in some way, we can arrange you a little vacation, you can afford it thanks to these victories you had, since we have to manage all the acquired territory and take control of the remaining cities. We need you healthy and focused,”

That proposal seemed tempting, but Richard couldn't escape of his problems, not anymore.

“Phil I'm fine, there's no need for that” Richard said with fake smile.

“That's my captain!” Philip said friendly hitting Richard's forearm “I knew I could count on you!”

“Of course my general” He replied with a sigh.

“Well, that's all, I think you can retire already, there is a lot to do today.”

“Okay General” Richard said.

As he walked to the exit, he stopped, remembering the reason why was there.

“Actually, there is one thing I wanted to say.”

“Tell me captain.”

“I know how to find the fugitives.”

“You know Richard, I don't think we should spend resources to search two rogue horses” he laughed “it's better spent that time finding the refugees” he said while he was reading the letter he left earlier.

“Listen, the possible hideout of the fugitives is probably the hideout of the refugees“ he said.

“I see …” Philip said paying attention to the captain.

“If resources are the problem, I can go alone on foot with only the essentials, bringing periodic reports of my activity and my findings” he said, decided to go.

“And how long will the expedition take?”

“Only the time needed.”

The general was thoughtful for a moment, I was a little sceptical for a minute, but he always trusted his sidekick.

“All right Rick, go and take care of this, don't forget your Telephone to contact me to reportarte, travel fast and don't take too long, who knows what this ponies are capable of, good luck captain” he concluded with a military salute.

Richard answered the salute and left the tent to grab the things he needed.

With a great determination and a giant backpack, not counting how heavy it was, Richard began a slow walk so he didn't have to take too many breaks and arrive as quickly as possible to the marked tree. Part of the way reflected on the track, in the way he thought about the clue he had, that embarked him on this misadventure, made him feel guilty, he made him live dreams and nightmares, he had the feeling that if he found these ponies he could clear his thoughts.

When he least expected it, he could see the “X” in the hollow tree, he touched it with his right hand with a vague memory of what happened and he continued his travel to nowhere.

A rock formation was the first unusual thing that Richard saw, it had three points that anged as if they were a wet cave's stalagmite. He went around the formation, trying to find a secret entrance, but it was all in vain, there was no access.

Leaving the option of hideout behind, he got frustrated and went back to the beginning of the formation, thinking that more boring walks that will lead him to who knows where were waiting for him.

He took the phone to send the first report. At the base, the general raised his phone as he finished chewing a piece of bread that he was eating with his soup.

“Base, this is General Philip Armander."

“I'm here to give a general report of my research” Richard said, while Phil swallowed the last piece of bread.

“Well, I hope you have good news for having interrupted lunch,”

“Actually... It isn't general” he said with some interference “I found in a rock formation but there's no way in.”

With an annoyed sigh, Philip replied.

“It doesn't matter, you have three days to find, at least, a hint of the location of the hideout.”

“Alright, got it” Richard concluded.

He put the phone in his backpack and he closed it, wondering if it was worth the effort he was putting on that travel. He heard several birds suddenly cross the sky, as if something scared them, clueless, he stood up and as he was about to pick up the backpack, some kind of lightning hit his back, throwing him to the ground and causing a great pain in chest area. His mind was blank and his face was eating dust. He was slowly turned by the responsible of the attack, all he could see was a blurry multicolor figure, with a last effort, Richard raised his hand to touch the creature but the pony stopped him, hitting him on his stomach, removing any remaining of air and knocking him out.

Seeing that man couldn't resist, the pegasus loaded him on his back and flew over the formation, and at the top of the highest stalagmite, she threw him to what looked like the entrance to a fireplace, getting lost in a dark tunnel.

Sorrow and Alliance

Arc 2: Hand of Hope

A discussion took place at the shelter, the dim torchlight in it was just another witness. Princess Celestia and the elements were deeply analyzing the current situation with this new "element" they had found.

Richard was aware for some minutes, without knowing how much time had passed since his passed out, he closed his eyes, he was pretending so the ponies didn't realize that he was already awake, but he didn't understand what they said, he didn't want to face the consequences of being awake with them in the same room. His body was tied to a big rock, sitting with his legs free, his military jacket was in a corner being examined, he was only wearing his shirt, pants and boots. Moving his feet he noticed general's report still there.

Whit no more alternatives, he started "waking up" and opening his eyes, the room was very cold, the tension could be cut with a knife and a stifling air of sadness was present, it was unbearable, breathing was a very difficult task, but being tied may also be an influential factor.

“Gi-girls” Rarity said trying to alert the others “He's aw-awake.”

The ponies turned to see the nervous human who noticed the surprise face in the ponies.

Within seconds, Rainbow dash quickly approached Richard, which invading his personal space. A lot.

“It's time to sing. Where are the Wonderbolts?!” Rainbow said, staring menacingly.

Richard just stared at her straight in the eyes, hiding the fear and nervousness.

“Come on maggot, you can say it by hook or by crook!”

She didn't receive an answer.

“Rainbow, stop!” Twilight protested.

“Oh, you want to do it the hard way? let's do it the hard way!”

She lifted his helmet to hit him, but a violet aura stopped her.

“Leave me hit him, he deserves it!” Rainbow said almost in tears.

“Everypony wants to take revenge on him, but remember that we need him, plus, he can't understand you and you know it.” Twilight said.

Rainbow just snorted at that logic and relaxed.

“Leave him to me,”

Twilight put her brilliant horn in Richard's forehead, he only managed to close his eyes and expect the worst scenario.

“I'm done.”

A bright flash lit every corner of the cave, Richard was expecting the worst pain and torment, but instead he got something he never expected to experience.

“Are you okay?” Twilight said in a slow-pace “Can you understand me?”

“Y-Y-Yes, I understand you.”

He was very surprised by what happened, although he had seen this spell before but he was intrigued to know why they charmed him to understand.

“Now yes, begin to talk, Where. Are. The. Wonderbolts?!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

“I do not know what you're talking about,”

“Don't lie, you know exactly who I'm talking about.”

“I telling you, I don't have that information!”

“That's It, set him free and let him catch a breath.”

“Your wouldn't have a chance against me pegasus, you better surrender peacefully so I don't swat you." Richard said trying to sound calm.

“Come here you piece of…” Rainbow said throwing herself against him.

Twilight teleported and stood between them.

“Relax you two!” Twilight shout “Rainbow, stop bothering him, and you, whatever your name is, you're not in the best position to act like a bully.”

Richard didn't said a word.

Princess Celestia appeared from behind.

“Welcome invader,” she said with emphasis on the last word “I'm Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, as you may have noticed, you are in a compromising situation, and it's better you cooperate if you want to leave here alive.”

Richard waited for the time to talk.

“I'm surprised that you venture alone in these lands, humans are too confident” Celestia said.

“That's the same confidence that led us to victory over your capital, majesty” Richard said with a mocking tone.

“How dare you talk to the Princess that way you...!?” Twilight shouted, being silenced by one of Celestia's hoofs.

“Since you're here, tell us your name, stranger.” Celestia continued, ignoring what he said before".

"My name is Richard Senedor, Captain of the Fourth Infantry Division of the United States of America."

“Well, you seem to have an acceptable range within the organization, I'm sure you have valuable information for us.”

“Princess, forget it, I'll not saying a word, you are wasting your time with me.”

“That's what you think” Celestia said looking into his eyes “We'll see.”

With this, the princess and the elements left, leaving Richard alone with his thoughts, inside, he was cursing himself, he sought an opportunity like this and was wasting it.

“This will be harder than what I thought, I must stop being such a stubborn.”

Meanwhile, the ponies were planning how to get information from Richard.

“What do you think princess, can we get some information?” Asked Twilight.

“When I approached enough, I could feel his inner emotions, this guy has a big guilt complex” Celestia explained.

“And how can we use this to our advantage?” Rainbow said seeking how to torture him.

“We can make him feel more guilty, although he seemed tough and determined, surely he's using it as a mask, we must break his will” Rarity said.

“Break,” Rainbow laugh.

“Rainbow stop joking,” Twilight said “and Rarity... I didn't knew you thought that way.”

“Twilight,” Rarity said with a muffled voice “in the past I cared about things without much meaning, now there are more important things ... to be scared about” she said with a tear in her eye and a broken voice."

“Oh Rarity, we all go through difficult things, better times will come... difficult things... That's it!” Twilight exclaimed “Girls get together.”

Meanwhile, Richard was making a mental map of the place to escape later.

“Hello Richard,” Twilight said.

He only answered with an indifferent look.

“Before deciding what to do with you, I want you to hear a few stories.”

“If you'll give me a history lesson, I don't care.”

Twilight hold the urge to yell at him.

“Have you ever heard the stories of war victims in your world?”

Richard was shocked by the question, but he refused to answer.

“Well, if you think you're different because we don't have feelings, you're wrong, it's time for you to see some of all the damage you have caused in this conflict. Come here girls.”

The mane 6 were approaching, this war not only impacted on their physical appearance, but also had its psychological consequences.

The rainbow maned Pegasus was the first one to speak.

her state showed that had participated very actively in the conflict, two legs were half bandaged, her body had several cuts, some of them more marked than others and his forehead was bandaged in a manner that seemed to have a representative band the battle.

“My name is Rainbow Dash, My task was to help with the weather in Ponyville, I love the speed and challenges, my biggest dream is to one day be part of the best flying group all Equestria,”

She paused, trying to articulate their thoughts

“Or at least it was, until you humans kidnapped them and made them who knows what things…”

She cleaned her eyes to avoid a tear falling while she coughed, keeping her voice to break up

“Not to mention that you made the pegasus look like cowards, they all hide in Cloudsdale…”

“It looks like you only think of yourself, don't you see what happens around you?” Richard said.

Rainbow felt offended, she wanted to grab him and make him her punching bag, she was not used to open up to strangers, but the situation dictated It.

“Of course I know” her voice broke “but... my friends know me for being strong in most situations, I can't afford to be weak and sentimental when others need me!” She shouted crying “DAMN YOU SON OF A BITCH, YOU WILL PAY FOR ALL EVERYTHING THAT YOU DID TO US!”

Rainbow throws herself at him again, the girls grabbed her and forced her to retreat and stay calm, she walked against Richard whit her eyes all red and swollen.

“I'll only ask you something, don't you see beyond your uniform and guns?”

Richard felt a knife in his chest for a moment, his guilt again took his body again, the images of that dream where he listened to the cries of the wounded ponies roamed his mind like a high speed slide show, he swallowed saliva and shook his head to keep those visions away and maintain his composure, he couldn't feel.

Twilight was the next to come, unlike Rainbow, this one only had a bandage on her right hoof product of their last meeting, she seemed exhausted with well-marked circles and a twitch in his right ear, his mane was disheveled, as if she didn't took care of her mane in weeks.

“I'm Twilight Sparkle, faithful student of Princess Celestia, I used to work in the Ponyville's library and my favorite hobby is reading and learning magic, also I have a brother named Shining Armor” she said, pausing briefly “Do you have any brothers Richard?”

He hesitated to answer, but he wanted to finish this quickly.

“Yes, two to be exact, a brother and sister” he replied.

“And how's your relationship with them?”

“Well, I have a normal relationship with my brother, but my sister is different.”

“How? Do you hate her?”

“In fact it's quite the opposite, she is very precious to me…”

“That much to protect her from any harm?” Twilight asked.

“Exactly, I would give my life just to see her smile” He replied with an air of melancholy.

“I'm sure you remember all the good times you had with her when you were little, right?”

“That's... true” Richard was wondering why she was so interested in that topic.

“Now, imagine that your sister It's called to fight in a battle she can not win, no matter the effort they put…” Her voice reflected sadness with each new word “and... and…” the tears started to show up and slide through her fur “That don't know if she will return alive, if you're going to hug her again or hear some of her stories again!”

Twilight burst into tears, remembering the last words spoken before breaking abruptly.

“Tell me that he is alive, that you have him like a prisoner, BUT PLEASE TELL ME THAT HE IS ALIVE!” Twilight shouted losing all composure.

“I ... I don't know” Richard replied.

“But how it is possible…”

“I wasn't at the Canterlot's battle, I was wounded by an unicorn in the shoulder and I couldn't participate, as far as I was told, the city was already fully taken.”

The elements, the princess and the ponies present were astonished, the equestrian capital had fallen, if any pony had a spark of hope it was already extinct and many had only one question in their minds "what now?"

Twilight dropped a tear and she walked away, She said and heard enough.

That tear fell into Richard's hand, experiencing a familiar feeling for him, he tried to remember, but he couldn't get anything.

Pinkie was the biggest physical change, her hair was straight, just like when she had that misunderstanding in her birthday, except for one thing, it was cut to half its original length. At first the girls were concerned about the decision she made after the Ponyville's invasion, but they ended up accepting it, she had his personal reasons after all, she became more passive and quiet, her spirits died and she speaks only when It's necessary.

“I'm Pinkie Pie, I used to work in a bakery called Sugar Cube Corner, I used to love laughing and making others laugh, that was the meaning of life for me, everyone in Ponyville were my friends, each of them, until you arrived, at the beginning I wanted to make you my friends, you know, not every day an opportunity like this was presented, be friends with someone from another world”

It seemed that she was recovering her energetic way of talking

“But at my surprise my supposed "friends" no just didn't want to get along, but they also wanted to kill me…”

Richard felt her voice was cheerful and lively, but that it was surrounded by an aura of sadness and bitterness, which give those feelings to anyone who she speaks to, he blinked for a second and it was gone, he thought she was gone, but he got scared when he saw a pink hoof holding a picture coming out from behind the rock he which tied to.

“This is me,” she said pointing at the photo while she was lying over the stone “they are Mr. and Mrs. cake and their children, if you're wondering, they are safe in Manehattan, hoping that all this is resolved, along with other refugees in the same situation.”

He noticed something strange on the photo and he didn't hesitate to ask.

“What happened to your hair?”

Twilight smiled, she was expecting him to ask that.

“After knowing the number of deaths that occurred in Ponyville, I felt a great void in my heart, knowing that I would never see them smile anymore, It was too much for me, my disheveled hair as it was in the picture didn't meant anything anymore, and as a way to not forget, I picked up some scissors and I made a smooth cut, leaving it this way” she began to cry, but it was not his usual waterfall cry, this was one full of sadness and sincerity “maybe…” she sobbed saying this words “you doesn't care at all, but I lost many friends in this stupid war.”

Pinkie walked away, wiping his face full of tears, but before leaving, she share a few last words.

“It's the first time in my life, I hate someone with all my being.”

The last words left everypony speechless, they never thought the day would come when Pinkie hate someone.

Richard was thoughtful, if something like this could change the happiest of ponies, then he wouldn't imagine what happened to others.

Applejack was the next to take the floor. Her hat had a bullet hole from the flight, his blond tail had black tips and imperfections produced by burns suffered in a fire at her farm. Her front legs and abdomen were bandaged, trying to extinguish the flames.

“My name is Applejack, I represent the element of honesty, I like athletic things, especially rodeo” her accent was identical to the southern habitants of his country “I lived and worked on an apple farm, farming, gathering, make cider and every so often we harvested special apples called Zap Apples”.

She paused for a moment.

“I used to live with my older brother Big Macintosh, my sister Applebloom and my grandmother, we used to call her Granny Smith. You know sugarcube, I still clearly remember when you attacked my farm and burned down the barn, the house and apple trees, the fruit of several generations of work disappeared in a moment and the worse thing is that…”

She said hoarsely.

“My brother sacrificed himself to save us, we didn't opposed resistance, we let everything burn in order to insure the life of my grandmother and my sister, but your wish of blood and destruction was endless and inexplicable, my brother stood against you and you killed him... he…”

She covered her face with her hat to hide her disappointment and guilt of not being able to stand up for what her grandmother and parents had worked all their life, she was furious with herself for not being able to change the rhythm of things.

“I don't think that your people can understand it, you are not the victims here.”

Richard felt guiltier with each story he heard, like that night he read the report in the chemical bath, but at the same time, the history of Applejack brought him a vague memory of a documentary that he saw long ago, it was about the second world War, more specifically, refugees from the war, they had to travel great distances to contact their families, to publicize their situation and in some cases, fighting for their lives, leaving behind their destroyed and burned homes, bringing a unique garment and memories of bygone days.

The scene that perpetrated his mind was one of a mother and her little daughter that were about two years walking through rubble of buildings in a desert town, the small sobbing in the arms of her mother begging for something to eat, while Mrs. was falling on her feet by the fatigue and hunger, the camera followed them until they were lost in the desert, the scene went black and some white letters adorned the screen "They were found dead near the limits of the city, the mother was laying on a tree, her daughter was found drowned in a lake not far from the place ", ending with photos of both victims in their respective places of death.

Richard saw Applejack reflected in the face of the woman who would do anything to take care of her daughter no matter what.

Rarity was next, her hair was in a deplorable state, it looked like it hasn't been touched the water in days, it lost its elegant shape and it fluffed, plus it had lots of split ends, her white coat now was gray and it had brown spots and some bruisings and her tail seemed like Rainbow's.

“Hello, my name is Rarity and... and…” she tried to hold back, but she felt touched by the story of her friends “Enough of this circus!” She screamed “Because of you my sister is fighting for her life in a hospital, very, very far from here, I can't tell you how sorry I am that I can't go see her, I can only be here helplessly as you take over Equestria, I can only think of the moments that would have happened if I had been a better sister, I don't I deserve it, I hope you rot... IN HELL!” She burst into tears, hitting weakly Richard in his chest.

He only looked at her pity, she really was emotionally unstable and those hits prayed for the company of his sister to come back safe and sound, for the first thing they'll do to when they get to see each other would be a unique and fraternal hug.

The girls took the disturbed Rarity away and left the floor to Fluttershy. She expelled the smell of smoke from her body, besides the obvious burns on her, she didn't wanted to be treated, it was a reminder of her losses. Her pets were everything in her life, her passion and vocation. Sawing them scream and burn whit her house was the most shocking thing she had ever experienced.

Since that day she didn't said a word, if anypony asked her something, she'll responded with gestures, she was looking at the ground and her badly burned mane covered her eyes, she had suffered the most psychological damage, her nightmares were just repeated films of that event, she couldn't dream of anything else. Her friends tried to spoke to her without results, her wings were tied, avoiding her to go out and commit suicide. For her, this wasn't living, even if there was a miracle she couldn't go and leave everything behind, her innocent world became a world full of blood and fire, a hell on earth, as she described it with what'll be her last words.

She stood in front of Richard, he couldn't take it anymore, at any instant, feelings will swallow him and he'll make a scene, for some reason he couldn't let them go, as if he needed a missing drop for overflowing the sentimental glass. Fluttershy moved her fringe enough to see with her left eye, that eye reflected nothing, some say that the eyes are the windows to the soul, it seemed that her soul disappeared, like an abandoned house that was only sustained by its structure and that the time was in charge of worsening it's condition. She stared at him for a moment, Richard expected to hear her story, a tear came out of her discovered eye down her face, and it touched the ground. A sound toured every corner of the cave, all ponies turned to see what it was, the mane six were shocked, Richard stayed with his face looking to the side, also surprised, he had a hoof's mark on his cheek.

Fluttershy hit him, a fast and clean hit, she backed off, that was all she wanted to do.

In his mind, clearly saw Fluttershy's hood hit the glass and spilled its contents.

In real life, Rick stayed with his head down and with a cold stare, the ponies waited a moment for the possible reaction, seeing that nothing happened, they felt dumb thinking that their suffering would make a human soldier change, defeated, they begun to walk away and to think what to do with him, until:

“I'm... I'm…” He whispered.

The ponies stopped for a second.

“I'm... I'm sorry…” he whispered inaudibly.

They thought they misheard it until...

“I'm sorry!” He shouted, breaking the funereal silence of the cave, producing an echo that is heard throughout all of the cave.

“I'm so Sorry! I regret all the ponies I killed, I regret all the suffering I caused, I can't speak for all my people, but by my actions, I don't know if you'll ever forgive me, or let me fix my mistakes or leave me even live, but I ... I ... I'm willing to help, I just ask you to trust me” he said bursting into tears.

The ponies gasped, at the end their plan worked perfectly, but they still didn't trust him, how about if it was just only a trick to escape?

Twilight looked at the scene, all of this reminded her the last words of the prophet before dying in Ponyville.

“Tears are the relief of a soul tortured by guilt, they are an unmistakable sign of sincerity that reveals the essence of his carrier, that he is different from those who manipulate him, keep that in mind next time you see someone cry.”

She thought all that was weird, as if the prophet would have known that he would die and then she would find a helping hand, literally.

Princess Celestia still had her serious face, except for a rebellious tear that escaped from her body to hear the heartbreaking stories of her subjects, she noticed the empty star of her faithful student, she wanted to know what was she thinking, but there were no time for it.

“What should we do with him?”

Twilight thought It for a second, it was the perfect time to get some information. She approached Richard who had teary eyes.

“You want to be useful to us? Then answer, why did you invaded Equestria?”

The question surprised him, in his mind there was only a memory about the talk he had with the general, only this time, Richard was in the shoes of the general, sitting at his desk about to read a bloody letter when suddenly an emotionally and mentally unstable captain enters his store to ask a question, which was represented by Twilight, on that occasion, Philip didn't answer as he expected, but he couldn't repeat the same situation, he had to stop the denial aside and accept the fact that he invaded that place.

“Why did we invaded Equestria…” He said thoughtfully, making the words to answer “the thing is, our scientists predicted that human activity began to affect the Earth's climate…”

“But if they know what the problem was, why they doesn't do anything to fix it?” Twilight asked.

“The problem is money, is the most powerful thing in our world, maybe it sounds funny to you, that money dominates our world. closed-minded entrepreneurs handle us like puppets only for their interests. When you came along, we were afraid of what we might find, but more than scare us, we were impressed by the exuberant amount of resources you had, you used gold to trade daily, in our wildest dreams we imagined something like it, and that diamonds and other gems were used in the making of beautiful couture gowns” Rarity got blushed “and in some cases used like food, do you know the monetary value they have in my world?!” in his face appeared a grimace of greed, which the girls already knew for experience.

Richard noticed that and regained his composure.

“So we took action on the matter, everyone who you knew, either buying your products, living in your parks, and in some cases, working, were our informants, who had the mission to give us information on where to get these jewels and to achieve an unparalleled wealth, and that was our primary goal, until we found something that was unimaginable for us, something that we can't play whit.”

“What was it?” Celestia asked.

“The pegasi, these winged creatures who could handle the weather at will to schedule rain, snow, storms, sunny days, cloudy days and more. To relieve that information to the base, we were asked to catch a few copies to make experiments and test them, then we allow the entry to the ponies into our world, obviously we had to organize the media for the news of multicolored magical horses will come to our world never leave the confines of the city.”

“You aislated them from the world” she said.

“Something like it, we are very selfish in that aspect, if we could have pegasi to work in our weather, we would do business with that too, that's what I meant, money makes the world, everything is subordinated by it, and slowly, the pegasi and unicorns were tricked into staying longer and in some cases, were abducted, all his suspicions were correct.”

Rainbow felt pressure in her chest, her heart beat was slow, she had a deep breath and her eyes got wet.

“So ... the Wonderbolts ... are held there?”

“I really don't know, if the ponies refuse they were slaughtered without any more, but as I said, I don't know where are the missing ponies, that's not my business.”

Rainbow's blood melted, with tears in her eyes she grabbed Richard's shirt and she shouted.

“How can you just don't care about it!? You should be ashamed, come here!” She said while shaking Richard and repeatedly hitting the rock.

The girls took her away while Richard reincorporated himself.

“The discussion didn't last long, Princess Celestia appeared and after a short talk, the war was declared, our superiors saw it as an opportunity and prepared everything, now we were going to get what we wanted by force” he paused “I hope that this answers your question.”

Certainly, the ponies were surprised, they thought that humans were intelligent and peaceful beings, but turned out to have more facets. Proud, greedy, anxious, warriors and the list goes on.

“But ... don't judge all mankind by the ambition of a few, on the other hand, there are good-hearted people, we are the bad seeds.”

The mane six moved away to discuss.

“What do you think?” Twilight asked.

“It's not worth any forgiveness” Rainbow said.

“We're not debating if we forgive him, I wonder if we can trust him... as an ally” Twilight said.

“Wake up darling!, he is a human, I don't think he's capable of betraying his people to help us” Rarity said.

“We have to put ourselves in his boots, surely it would be difficult for any of us if we were in the same situation” Twilight replied.

“But he's the enemy! Why do you insist on defending him?”

“It's for the prophet's words, I feel he was referring to Richard…” the others looked at her

“Okay, if you want to see otherwise, he may be our last hope, with the information we gathered, we will have an opportunity to end this war, plus, we are not in a position of wasting opportunities when we played all our cards.”

They analyzed the situation for a moment, coming to a conclusion. They approached Richard and Twilight spoke.

“I think after all we can trust you, Want to join us?”

He thought a moment, He knew that after agreeing with them, there was no turning back, he questioned everything lived in this war and now was the time to help those who really need it, the words of Captain Samuel before going home resounded in his head.

"It's disturbing to discover that you fight for the bad ones when we were teached from kids that you always have to fight for good and justice"

Twilight extended his hoof as a way to seal the deal, Richard attempted to extend his hand, but remembered he was gagged, Applejack laughed innocently as she untied him, with free body, Richard looked into Twilight's eyes, those bright eyes, he stretched out his hand and took a firm grip to the hoof, being joined by a few seconds.

“Well, it's bedtime, Twilight you are in charge of guarding tonight” Princess Celestia said.

“Yes princess.”

“Richard come with me, I'll give you a place to sleep.”

Celestia gave him a pillow and a blanket, he layed down on the floor and he closed his eyes, thinking in what happened on that day.

“Justice, in the end it turns out its a term used very badly in my world,” he thought before falling asleep.

Trust and Darkness

Twilight watched over like an eagle, her horn glowing, ready to summon her spells quickly. Her eyes were heavy and she fought sleep. Twilight descended from the watchtower that she had improvised with stones and headed to an ever-shrinking pond, splashing her face with water to fight off her tiredness. Water was becoming scarce, so she used only enough to fill her canteen and wash her face. As for the rest of her body, she hadn't washed it in days. She looked into one of the caves, expecting to see Spike, but he was already gone. Spike and the other ponies were out searching for food. Though she knew he’d return soon, she was afraid she’d never see him again.

In the shadows, Twilight saw a figure sneaking through through the cave’s other entrance and followed in pursuit. The cave was humid and dimly lit by torches. Twilight lit her horn. Her ears pricked up when she heard the splashing of water deeper in the cave, and she started galloping towards the sound. She was gaining on the figure, until it stopped suddenly and turned to face her. She recognized him and he recognized her. He immediately turned to flee again, but Twilight caught his foot with her magic, causing him to tumble.

“Well hello, Richard,” Twilight said, her horn beginning to hum. “Give me one reason not to shoot you, right now.”

“No, wait!” begged Richard as Twilight lunged at him.

“You were trying to escape to reveal the hideout's location,” she said, pinning him to the ground.

“It's not what you think!” he exclaimed. “I was just looking for something I left outside.” He turned so he could look Twilight in the face.

“Please,” he continued, “it’s really important to me.”

Twilight had no reason to trust him, but he did sound genuine. She supposed it wouldn’t hurt to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“Fine,” she sighed. “I'll help you find what you’re looking for. But,” her voice became serious, “I'll be keeping my eye on you, so don’t try anything.” She stepped off of Richard. “So what is this thing that’s so important to you?

“I left my bag outside by a big rock. It has a phone inside that speaks directly to base. The General uses it to receive my reports,” Richard explained.

They arrived at a stone wall. Richard was confused. “Isn’t this supposed to be the exit?”

Twilight shrouded her horn with magic to cast a spell. “Hold on. I'll open the door for you.” She pointed her horn towards the wall and started transmitting magic, drawing a violet semicircular figure on the stone, making it translucent and allowing the forest outside to be seen. Richard’s jaw dropped to see such a display of magical talent, but he was also worried. Twilight saw that, and hurried to explain. “Don't worry, it's a two-way mirror spell. We can see out, but nopony can see in. It’s a useful way to watch the area and check that it’s all clear.” She transferred a bit more magic, the mirror disappeared, leaving only a faint magical glow on the solid stone wall. “Now, walk.”

“What? But it isn't…”

“Just walk. Now.”

Richard didn't fully understand the unicorn's order.

“Let me show you,” said Twilight and she passed straight through the violet threshold.

Richard was perplexed at the intangibility spell, he had never imagined ponies were capable of that. He had seen combat spells before, but this was something new, something far more useful and marvelous and he spent a while trying to analyze it. Twilight suddenly poked her head out out of the wall, starting him. He stumbled backwards and tripped over, falling backwards onto the floor.

“C'mon, Richard! We don‘t have time for you to sit around!”

He nodded, and with trepidation he reached through the wall. It was an indescribably weird sensation. His right leg followed. With half of his body still inside the cave, Twilight was growing impatient. “I don't have all day!” She bit Richard on the hand and dragged him through to the other side.

“Ouch! You didn't need to bite me!” he complained.

“Oh, I'm so sorry,” she said in a sarcastic tone. “Now move, before somepony sees us!”

Richard ran to get his bag where he had left it. He checked that everything was in there and put it on his back. Twilight laughed at the fact that the big bag stuck out above his head.

“All done. We can go back,” said Richard.

They stepped through the threshold again. Richard still felt a unsure around her. The walk back through the cave seemed to be longer than on the way here now that they weren't running.

One question had been bothering Twilight since the moment she’d been introduced to Rick. “Hey, Richard, how was it that you got interested in searching for us?”

“I wasn't. I didn't care what would happen to you at all.”

“I see…” she said sadly.

“Well, not until the day you and your cowgirl friend came out of nowhere. We chased you for a while and…” He stopped a moment, thinking about it.

“And what?” Twilight insisted.

“I'm sorry…”

“What do you mean?” she asked confused with a frown.

“About your hoof. I was the one that hurt you when you were escaping.” He said, clearly grieved about it.

“Oh… this? It's no big deal. You only grazed it. But I accept your apology. Carry on though.”

“And… oh yes, then you threw lightning that had a scroll. I found it and…”

“Wait!” she interrupted. “Did you find the report? How did you survive?”

“Survive? What do you mean?”

“Well, I accidentally dropped the report, so I cast a spell for it to become a bomb so that it couldn't be found. The spell should have caused anypony who touched it to fall into a deep coma, living only with nightmares.”

Richard looked terrified. He felt lucky to be alive. He looked at Twilight who was trying to figure out what had happened. Had she cast the spell wrong? Was she ready for a spell of that level? Was she worthy of being named the princess's ‘faithful student’? It seemed it was affecting him too much.

He put his thoughts aside and Twilight asked, “do you have it?”

“Have what?”

“The report, do you have it here?”

“Oh yeah, give me a moment.” Richard loosened the knot of his right boot and took it off. An unpleasant smell emanated from both his boot and foot. Twilight's face turned green from the horrible odor and with a spark from the tip of her horn, she sprayed a lavender-scented deodorant over it, leaving the boot perfumed. With a clothespin on her nose, she asked Richard to give her his foot so that she could do the same. He accepted and she left him with a similar scent.

Richard took the report out and gave it to Twilight. She read the first words to confirm that, in fact, that was the same one she’s written in the library before she’d met with Applejack. The same report that should have been delivered to Celestia. “Tell me what happened after you found it.”

And so Richard told her his dreams, his nightmares, doubts, guilt, the talk with Samuel, the General, the expedition, and the encounter with Rainbow Dash. Twilight was astonished, how could a simple human escape from her spell? Although more than just an escape, it looked like the spell had been an aid to him. Maybe something about him made the spell change its nature, she didn't know, these were just speculations. She rolled up the scroll and saved it so that she could give it to Princess Celestia.

When they arrived at the hideout, they didn't realize ponies were still sleeping. Twilight returned to her post, while Richard lay back down on the hard rock. He didn't know when the others would wake up, but a few more minutes of rest would be welcome.

Hours later, while the soldier slept like he hadn’t in a long while, the elements and the princess discussed how to use Richard in their favor.

“We could send him back to the base with a bomb and blow him up into a million pieces!” suggested Rainbow Dash.

“Can’t you think of something other than hurting him, Rainbow?” Applejack asked.

“Besides, we need him alive,” Twilight said, emphasising the final word.

“So what should we do then?” asked Rarity.

“I had been thinking of a plan that we could use if we ever had an opportunity like this one. And if Richard gives us the information we need, then I think it could work.”

Rarity was intrigued. “What's the first step, dear?”

“Wake him up” Twilight answered. The ponies looked at Richard with malicious faces.

“Wake up maggot!” A bucket of cold water surprised Rick, the girls looked him with smiles on their faces. Rainbow, who had thrown the bucket, was laughing proudly.

“What? How? When?” he said as he coughed, wiping water off his face with his hands.

Rainbow stood over him. “You say you’re sorry. You say you want to help us. Well, now it’s time to step up and prove it. Show us you’re on our side!”

“Listen, Richard. We need you to draw us a plan of your base, including weaponry locations, supplies, guards, and the portal. Think you can help with that?” Twilight asked.

“Sure, I'm willing to give you all the information I have,” he said purposeful.

“Good, now I will need the Elements of Harmony.”

“What?! But the Elements were useless against them, sugarcube, why would you need them?” asked Applejack.

“First I need to know that we count with them. I'm not going to waste time creating a plan that won't work,” Twilight replied. “What do you think, princess?”

“I'm sorry, Twilight,” said Celestia, “but we left the Elements in the castle vault. I didn’t think they’d be much use anymore. If I went to get them, they'd most likely catch me. We need someone with stealth to retrieve them.”

“Do you have someone in mind?”

“Only Luna, but…”

“Excuse me, princess” Rarity asked, “shouldn't Princess Luna have come back from the moon by now?”

“I'm worried about that too, my little pony,” Celestia said sadly, her eyes welling up in tears. “Surely she must think I'm a monster for sending her back to her old prison.” Everypony looked at her with pity, but Celestia composed herself. “Twilight, talk to Richard and get started on that plan. I'll bring Luna back, just wait for me.”

The princess unfolded her wings and left the hideout flying. She looked for the nearest cloud and sat on it. She closed her eyes and made her horn glow. There was only one way to get in contact with Luna. She had used it during the first years of Luna’s banishment to try to reason with Nightmare Moon before she’d realized that that was hopeless. She never thought she'd have to use it again.

The rest of the ponies huddled around a desk, Rarity holding a quill in her magic.

Twilight began questioning Richard. “Okay, tell us the layout of the base.”

“The base is something like…”

He stopped, an unusual sound penetrating the cave’s silence. The ponies desperately looked around to find the source of the noise.

Twilight was honing in on the origin of the sound, and was surprised to see Richard heading to his bag. At that instant she remembered what he had told her about "reporting to the General” with a strange object. “Hey where do you think you're going?! Applejack, Rainbow, get him!”

“What the...?” Richard exclaimed as a lasso ensnared him, preventing him from answering the phone.

“You're not going anywhere!” Applejack said, barely intelligible because of the rope in her teeth.

“I knew we couldn't trust you, you treacherous rat!” Rainbow said coming from behind Applejack and flying towards Richard.

He looked behind him, and saw a very mad pegasus flying straight at him. Without thinking twice, he dropped to his knees, managing to dodge Rainbow's attack, and making her crash against the wall.

“Listen to me! I don't want to betray you, but if I don't answer this call, my General will think that that something happened to me, and won't think twice about searching for me everywhere. He'd blow this whole place up if need be.” The ponies looked at him distrustfully. “Please. Applejack, right? Untie me. I can give you more time to put together Twilight's plan.”

“Don't listen to him, Applejack! Don't be fooled!” the pegasus cried. “I don't care how you created that double… triple… quadruple,” she added, as her vision blurred from the collision. “There is enough Rainbow Dash to take on all of y--” Her head flopped over and she passed out on the cave floor.

The phone was the only thing making a sound. The ponies looked at each other searching for an answer in each others faces. Applejack's mind was going at a thousand miles per hour. Could she really trust him? When Twilight grasped her hoof with his hand, she realized that if her friend trusted him, then why shouldn't she?

Applejack approached Richard and bit the knot, untying it. He headed for his bag and opened it, took a deep breath and picked up the phone. “Captain Richard here!”

“Richard, any news on the ponies? I called you a while ago but you didn't pick up. Was there a problem?”

“Problems? No… no problems. There wasn't any, it was just that… it seems like… I overslept.” In fact, Richard wasn't the best at lying. During his upbringing they had been very strict on him, and all that enforced honesty had left its mark on him. Twilight facehoofed and Richard hoped he didn't mess up too badly.

“That's fine, Richard, but remember you have a limited time. If you don't have any clue, you should return immediately, and I want you to call next time. You got that?”

“Understood, General, over and out” he said cutting the transmission.

The General hung his phone, deep in thought. He picked up a picture of his squad, his best friend was on the top right corner. The General’s face was indecipherable, he was worried about the last events that were taking place. “I know you're lying to me friend. Just think clearly before contacting me again.”

“Pardon sir?” a soldier asked. He hadn't realized the soldier was there, waiting for him in the front of the desk with pile of papers.

“Ah, sorry, I didn't see you there. What do you need?

“I came from the other side. HQ sent me to deliver you these papers. They need to be signed urgently.”

“Alright, leave them here.” He flicked through the pile of papers. “This may take some time. Take a walk around the facilities if you wish, or go back to Earth and come back later.”

“Thanks, General. Oh, one more thing. My superiors beg you to use a better handwriting next time you fill in papers. Now, if you excuse me, I'll take my leave,” said the soldier leaving the General alone.

“Better handwriting? I'll give you ‘better handwriting’," he said, angrily picking up the first paper in the pile. “Now that I think about it, that vacation doesn't sound so bad right now.”

Back at the hideout, Richard stared blankly at nothing. Twilight walked over to him and with sympathetic voice she said, “I know it's hard, but you're doing the right thing.”

Richard couldn't agree more. He started at those sparkly eyes of hers. It was a rather emotional moment until a roar from both their bellies asked for food.

“I'm really sorry, Richard, there is no food. Spike and some of the ponies went in search for some but they haven’t come back yet.”

“I don't wanna be a burden. Besides, I'm your prisoner.”

“Don't think of it like that. You're our ally, not our prisoner. But we can make the most of it. It's time for you to tell us all about your base.”

“Look over there!” Rarity exclaimed.

Entering from the other part from the cave, Spike's group came back from their search, loaded with the fruits and forest berries that Zecora had checked to make sure they were edible. Spike ran up to Twilight and gave her a hug. The other Elements of Harmony threw themselves at him.

“Oh, Spike, you're safe!” Rarity said happily.

“Yes, we were so worried about you!” Twilight added.

“Well done, cowboy, you got us food!” Applejack cheered.

“Food!” yelled Rainbow waking up from her swoon and knocking Spike down.

“Easy, Rainbow! There's enough for everypony,” said the dragon, moving away and taking out some fruits from a brown bag stained with red.

Twilight was intrigued. “Where did you get that, Spike?”

Spike looked at her seriously, almost sad, remembering the origin of the bag.

“Twilight, where's the Doctor?”

“Why do you…”

“Just... just tell me where he is, please,” he implored.

Twilight pointed with a hoof. “He's over in that corner.”

“I'll be right back.”

He walked with the bag in his claws, a knot in his throat. He approached the Doctor who was laughing and playing with his daughter, Dinky. Spike instinctively hid the bag behind his little body.

“Hello, Doctor, how was your day?” the dragon greeted him.

“I gotta say it was good, there is no point in being negative,” he responded curtly.

Never had Spike broken news this in his life. It was hard for him, but he had begged the group to be allowed to be the one to do so.

“I've got bad news, Doc. I found this in the woods,” he said, showing the Doctor the bloody bag.

The Doctor seemed to recognize it. “Wh-where did you find it?” he said as his voice faltered.

“It was… it was next to Derpy's body. I'm sorry.”

“How is that…? No, no that's not possible… Not my dear Derpy! This can't be…”

The girls watched the scene. Bad news just kept coming and coming. The last messenger was dead and there was no other way to contact other cities about the situation.

Spike tried to comfort the Doctor on his shoulder. Dinky asked what was happening, but hearing her father repeat the name of her mother between his tears was enough for her to cry next to her father.

Richard was crestfallen. The memory of Samuel's story gave him goosebumps. He hadn't been there, but he still felt guilty for it.

Twilight noticed the look of her friends, and hurried to say, “c'mon girls, let's go eat.”

With Spike and Richard, the ponies gathered in a circle. They ate the forest fruits, but they were hard to chew and swallow given recent events.

Twilight looked up towards where the sky would be. “I hope you're lucky, princess.”

Somewhere on the barren moon, Celestia's soul emerged from a crater. It was strange coming back after all these years. Memories flooded her mind, but there wasn't time to reminisce. She stepped out of the crater with a skip, helped by the reduced gravity. She wanted to find her sister to explain the situation. Even though much time had passed since her time as Nightmare Moon, Luna still suffered from after-effects. A situation like this would only serve to worsen her depression.

After exploring some of the lunar surface, Celestia stopped to rest on a rock. Droplets of sweat ran down her neck from exertion. Once she had recovered her breath, she started running with all her strength. She propelled herself upwards with her hind legs when she saw a wide crater, and rose higher than before. She looked down, and noticed a light shining out of the side of the crater. She tried to drop down but the lack of gravity played against her and left her rising slowly into space. Her wings were useless without any air and didn’t help at all. She remembered every spring she spent with her sister, running through the royal gardens, growing up, fighting against Discord and King Sombra until the fateful day of Luna’s banishment.

Space was making her its prey, playing with her a moment before engulfing her completely. Then a glowing blue lasso with a grey center caughted her hoof and pulled her towards the cave in the crater. She plummeted to the ground, making dust fly everywhere from the impact.

On recovery, Celestia saw a shadow sneaking through the corridors. “Luna, wait!”

She roamed the hoof-crafted corridors. It seemed that her little sister had kept herself occupied during the millenium she was up here. The corridors were lit by stone lanterns burning with a strange light blue flame. The shadow was faster than Celestia, she could barely keep up with it. Her eyes widened once she stepped into an enormous cavern. A giant lamp hanging from the ceiling illuminated walls filled with carved drawings of events from Equestrian history. But the most surprising thing was the drawing on the ceiling, which showed Nightmare Moon taking over Equestria, with the power of lightning shaped as a moon. It was painted in a melancholy colour that Celestia couldn't put into words. In the middle of the room sat her sister, looking at the ceiling in despair.

“Luna? Are you okay?”

“It didn't seem like a bad idea at first…”

“What do you mean?” she asked, worried about her sister’s response.

“I mean this! About using my prison to bring you eternal night. But not even all the stars in the universe could have given me the power I'd need to bring my plan to fruition. It was frustrating at first, but I discovered how to use them to return to that fateful day.” Luna's voice started to change, it was becoming more evil, as a black aura started to form around her on the floor.

“Luna, I… I am sorry about acting the way I did. I only wanted what was best for you…”

“That was the same thing you told me the first time you sent me here. Has nothing changed?”

“But this time I did it to protect you. The humans could have captured you, and you know it,” Celestia said.

“Lies!” Luna howled. “I'm sure you've already won the war, and you are now in the newspapers as ‘the Great Celestia, our Savior’ while the weak and defenseless Luna takes refuge on her precious moon just to protect her royal plot!” Darkness covered Luna’s legs and tail, rising through her body and turning her coat as ebony as the night sky.

“Luna, please, you're scaring me! Let's talk civilly… You know it doesn’t have to be like this…” Celestia said, retreating, knowing that Nightmare Moon was now talking in her sister’s place.

“Surely telling me that you wanted to be my friend was also a lie! Tell me, sister! WAS THAT ANOTHER OF YOUR LIES?!” she shrieked. Her body released a powerful dark flash like an explosion, obscuring the room in an instant.

Seeking Help

Discord was walking happily through the forest. His stomach growled so he grabbed a rock, played with it a little and threw it upwards. As it was falling, it turned into an apple, which he devoured with pleasure. He kept walking before being stopped by a chill that ran through every scale of his body. This was strange, he had only felt that before when the princesses were going to capture him.

Danger, the source of his goose bumps, but this time he felt it stronger. They were facing a formidable enemy. He unfolded his wings and flew over the land to see if there was anything out of place, but it was no use; he was still too far away to be able to see anything at all. He descended slowly, not able to shake the feeling from his head.

“I must be hallucinating, I better stop eating those apple rocks before they’re ripe,” he thought, resuming his walk.

Meanwhile, in a makeshift hive formed of rocks, the changeling queen looked through the hole which served as her window. She, as much as the rest of the hive, had begun to feel anxious about the recent scarcity of love.

A changeling servant entered her chamber. “My beloved queen, how are you feeling?”

“I’m worried. I feel like Equestria’s love is not reaching us like before.”

“Does love have that much reach?” he asked.

“Yes, their kindness and love are literally in the air, and that’s what satisfies us, or at least staves off this bad mood that is permeating the hive now.” Chrysalis paced up and down. “It’s like their love has evaporated, like something else has overshadowed it.”

The servant regarded her with a strange look. The queen wasn’t so usually so open; she did not normally speak so freely; the lack of love was affecting her.

Chrysalis suddenly turned to him and snapped, “What are you looking at, commoner?! Return to your duties, or better yet, bring me something to eat, quick!”

“Very well, my queen, I’ll be right back” the servant said.

He exited through the hole of the cave, glancing back to watch his dear queen who was looking through the window, almost in a trance. He admired her figure for a moment, before leaving the place.

Shadows devoured the place; Celestia didn’t know if she had her eyes open or closed. She screamed her sister’s name over and over, trying to find her. Dark winds blew from every direction; Celestia searched to find the source of the night winds.

She lit her horn and projected a protecting light sphere that lit up just a small area around her, but it was enough to find Luna, wrapped in a dark ball. “Luna!” she screamed, her heart aching and she fought against the winds to reach her.

Luna was curled up in a fetal position, crying as Nightmare Moon spoke to her. “I know what you want, Luna, I can make you stronger than Celestia and you will be able to finish the humans. You’ll be the heroine, and your sister will be left as the weakling.”

“It sounds… tempting,” Luna whimpered.

“Accept my offer and we’ll be Equestria’s salvation, think about the number of subjects that will love you after this.”

“Love… subjects… respect…” she murmured.

“Do you accept?” Nightmare Moon asked, extending a shape resembling a hoof in front of her.

Luna reached out to touch it, but at that instant, Celestia appeared inside the black ball. “Luna, no!” she shouted. She was quickly caught by dark claws, tendrils of Nightmare Moon; she struggled while they pinned her against a wall of the dome. “She’s using you! If she manages to end the war, she’ll dominate Equestria with eternal night! Please, sister, listen to me!”

“Don’t pay her attention!” Nightmare Moon soothed Luna while wrapping her tendrils around Celestia’s mouth. “Join me.”

Just as their hooves were about to touch, Celestia made her body explode with light, burning the dark hands that bound her. “Noooo!” she screamed and teleported to Luna’s side hugging her. Luna’s hoof froze in place; Nightmare Moon’s too. “You’ve got friends that love you! Think about Pip and the Elements!” The bubble started to crumble. “Ever since Nightmare Night, all of our subjects adore you! You’re loved by them!” The bubble blew up, leaving Luna with a black mantle. “What’s most important, I didn’t lie to you when I searched for your friendship!”

“Don’t listen to her!” Nightmare Moon said, with a voice similar to Chrysalis coming out of the darkness behind Luna.

“You’re my sister, but more importantly, you’ve become my best friend, Luna!” Celestia said, her horn glowing and coming into contact with Luna’s. “I love you, sister!”

A glowing aura emerged from Celestia’s horn, covering every part of her body, removing the darkness from her sister, and making their bodies shine. The shadow that tormented Luna was suffering on the floor.

“It’s time for you to disappear, monster!” Celestia yelled at Nightmare Moon’s receding shadow.

“Foals! I’m still a part of Luna, I will never disappear. As long as there is Luna, there will always be Nightmare Moon!” The light of their horns drove the shadow away and she disappeared.

Luna was weakened having almost allowed Nightmare Moon to possess her, but in the arms of her big sister she couldn’t stop herself returning the hug that had saved her life. “I love you too, sister,” she said as she broke the embrace.

“Don’t you ever forget it” Celestia said with a smile. They looked into each other’s eyes.

Luna started to feel guilty. “I-I’m sorry. I let my emotions control me and allowed the worst part of me to come out, sorry, sorry! I shouldn’t have.”

“Don’t worry, there will be time to discuss that. But now I need you to help us, Luna.”

“I don’t know. I don’t think I’m strong enough, after what happened in Ponyville. I don’t think I’m ready. It’d be more useful if I stay here and…”

“Don’t say that! You’re not useless, Luna, they outnumbered us and had more firepower. Although they seemed like such simple creatures, they turned out to be intelligent. They cannot run at our speed, but those things they use and make so much noise, allow them to do that and more. They can’t fly like the pegasi, but they found a way to soar the skies in their metal birds. But we have a plan, and we need you, I need you, to ensure a future for our subjects.”

Luna turned this over in her mind, picturing the possible future that awaited Equestria if she didn’t help them. “Alright Celestia, I’m coming back to the battlefield with you,”

“Excellent!” Celestia exclaimed with relief.

“But I have a question; how did you manage to come here?”

“The Soul Reflect spell, do you remember?”

“I have vague memories…”

“It doesn’t matter. How will you get out of the moon, sister?” she asked.

“The same way I did last time — the stars that aided me are not out of orbit yet.”

Celestia had no idea what was her sister talking about. “Is there some way I can help you?”

“It won’t be necessary, come with me outside.” In a blue spark, Luna teleported them both outside. “Let me show you how I did it.”

She lifted her horn, progressively gaining magic, reaching five layers of magic almost instantly. Celestia looked on with awe — her sister’s power was impressive given that she had been weakened by recent events — at full strength, her power had the potential to be unstoppable.

Once she was done, Luna shot a triple bolt of lightning that hit three different stars, these lit up and connected between one another, forming a silver triangle with dark blue edges.

“Is that a portal?” Celestia asked.

“My sister, you know I don’t have the power to cast a portal that big. This is something far less complicated.”

Celestia looked to her sister for an explanation. “How so?”

“As you know, we can’t fly through space in our actual forms, but stars are capable of traveling in space without problems. So, I used all of my knowledge to transform my physical body into a star and that way I can travel safely to Equestria.”

“Amazing,” she said, her mouth agape, astonished at her sister’s abilities.

“Thanks, see you in Equestria, sister.” Luna waved goodbye.

She kneeled, opened her wings and gave a big leap, flapping her wings once for extra momentum, to reach her spell. She traversed the stellar wake, and her body transformed into a silver star with dark blue borders. Celestia waved from below while Luna, like a shooting star, plowed through cold, dark space, homeward bound, ready to help her subjects, her friends, and her sister.

Celestia thought for a moment. A tear crossed her cheek while she slowly undid the spell that had brought her here, vanishing from sight into nothing.

At the hideout, Rarity was levitating her pencil and sighed: a job well done. Laid out before her was the completed map of the enemy base, including every possible detail to avoid mistakes.

“Finally, we’re done,” Twilight said.

“The place doesn’t seem like that big a deal,” Rainbow said with an air of grandeur.

“Believe me, there’s a lotta movement there — people, weapons, and there’s more. It’s a lot bigger than how the plan makes it look. By the way, good job uh…” Richard said as he tried to remember the name of that white unicorn.

“Rarity.”

“Yes, Rarity, very pretty drawings, very polished.”

“Thank you, dear.” Rarity smiled.

“So now what, Twilight?” asked Applejack.

“Well, we have to wait for the princesses to-”

“That won’t be necessary!” Celestia descended from the higher entrance and landed resoundingly on the floor, kicking up a cloud of dust.

“Princess Celestia!” the girls cheered.

“Where’s princess Luna?” Spike asked.

Suddenly, a star appeared above, slowly descending and spinning while leaving a dark glowing trail. Once it touched down, it expanded and started to rise again, slowly revealing something — first, two pairs of hooves, then a body and tail that flowed on it’s own, and finally a head and mane. The star disappeared, leaving in its wake a very cheerful and smiling princess Luna.

“Princess Luna!” cheered Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity, who ran to her and hugged her tightly.

“Please, girls, let me breathe! I’m asphyxiating!” Luna implored.

The girls broke the hug and gave Luna some space while some other ponies approached to greet her. After all the welcomings, the environment turned serious again.

“Twilight Sparkle, how can I be of help?”

“Alright, now that you’re here, I need you to search for the Elements of Harmony that were left in the castle’s vault — that’s the only way I can carry out my plan.”

“I’m sorry, Twilight Sparkle, only Celestia has access to that vault,” Luna replied, which saddened Twilight.

“That is not true sister. Do you remember that day when I asked you to insert your horn into that slot? It was to register you so that you could dispose of the Elements whenever necessary — it wasn’t to watch your plot like you complained about all day.”

Luna’s face reddened after hearing that commentary; the Elements’ faces were indecipherable with faint blushing; Richard could only raise an eyebrow.

“A-alright,” Luna said, “I’ll bring the elements back.”

Luna took off and left the cave, flying towards the taken city of Canterlot.

Celestia put her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Twilight, Luna will bring back the Elements; be sure of that. Now we have to continue with the plan.”

“Fine. Listen up, everypony. I’ve been analyzing the situation and I believe there is a slight possibility to defeat the humans. That’s why I have asked the princesses to bring the Elements back. This is just a theory, but it might work…”

Her friends listened carefully to Twilight’s plan, and although that it was based on conjecture, long shots, and theories, they had to trust her, it was the last hope they had. Richard didn’t understand much about magic, Elements, and the sort, but he was ready to help the ponies, whatever the cost.

Finishing with her short explanation, Twilight waited to hear her friends’ thoughts on the matter.

“Is that our last option?” Rarity asked a bit scared.

“I’m afraid so girls, it is our last chance.”

“I don’t know, sugarcube. I don’t think these ponies want to fight,” Applejack said, gesturing towards the ponies in the cave, “who will fight with us then?”

“That’s the other part of my plan. We can use the princess’ magic and mine to make portals to the other cities and ask them for help face to face. But for that, I need the help of my friends. What do you say? Do you want to save Equestria again?”

Impotent, Richard could only look on. Twilight seemed to have some hope ever since they got a hold of the soldier; she wanted her friends to have that feeling too. But would her plan work?

“If helping you means I get to kick human butts, then count me in!” Rainbow Dash cheered, bumping her hoof with Twilight’s.

“It’s time to take part in a new rodeo. You can count on me, sweetie!” Applejack joined, bumping hooves with Rainbow and Twilight.

Surprisingly, Rarity joined her friends, the others looked at her a little surprised.

“Rarity, I don’t think it’d be a good idea to participate…” Applejack said.

“Nonsense, I also want to throw away those brutish invaders from our home.”

“Oi! I’m right here!” Richard protested.

“No offense” was her only answer.

“Pinkie? Fluttershy? What do you say? Are you helping?” Twilight asked.

Fluttershy turned around and left the place. There was no need for words — she had already clearly stated that she wouldn’t be a part of this.

Pinkie, on the other hand, was thoughtful about it. “I dunno girls, I don’t know if I can keep on with this.”

“Please, Pinkie, we need you. We’re not asking you to fight. We just want you to help us ask for help from the other cities…” Twilight said, waiting for her pink friend’s response.

“Alright then, but nothing else,” she replied bumping hooves with the ponies.

All eyes turned to Richard now, like they were waiting for him to do something.

“What?” he asked.

“Aren’t you going to join us?”

“I don’t think I should,” he answered, “it’s a personal moment for you girls.”

“Fine, if you don’t want to, don’t do it.”

The girls broke apart, ready to listen the second part of the plan, princess Celestia readied her horn with the portal spell.

“Applejack, you’re going to Appleloosa to talk to the sheriff, and then you’re visiting our buffalo friends to convince Chief Thunderhooves to support us,” Twilight said.

“Ya got it, Twilight.”

“Rainbow, you’re going to visit the ponies of Cloudsdale. Make them come around and convince them to support us. I know they’re afraid because they’re the prey that the humans are looking for, but they must help us if they want to cast them away.”

“Consider it done, egghead!” Rainbow cheered.

“Rarity, you’re going to Manehattan. Go and talk to the governor; inform him of the current situation.”

Rarity shuddered due to the place she was assigned, but kept her composure. “As you wish dear, I’ll do it with pleasure.”

“And you, Pinkie, you’re going to Fillydelphia. Just like Rarity, you have to find the governor.”
Pinkie drew a little smile on her face, one that the girls haven’t seen in a long time, Twilight picked that place just for her.

“Count on me, Twily!” Pinkie said euphorically, something that her friends noticed.

“I want to go too!” Spike proposed.

“No way!” Twilight answered “You’re staying here to help with the food.”

“Twilight please, I want to help. Also…”

“I said ‘no’, Spike. Don’t be such an insolent dragon!”

“Twilight would you listen to me for a second?!” the dragon yelled, leaving Twilight mute. “I know you do it to protect me, and I know that I’m just a baby dragon, but this is not the time to act like this. You said it yourself, we have to do anything that’s within our reach, and that’s why I’m not leaving you do all the hard work while I simply do these chores. Please, Twilight, at least listen to my idea.”

Everypony looked at Spike in wonder, specially Rarity.

“Tell me, then. What’s your plan?” Twilight asked dryly.

“It’s the time of dragon migration. If the princess can make me a portal, I’ll be able to talk to them and convince them to help us.”

The memories of that adventure to find his identity returned to Twilight’s mind, the way they treated and bullied him made her blood boil. But Spike was right, they couldn’t miss opportunities like this.

“Alright, Spike, you can go” she said sighing in defeat.

“Really? Thanks, thanks, thanks!” Spike said as he hugged her.

“In case of an emergency, take this,” Twilight said as from her horn a little white ball came out, like a pearl.

“What is it?”

“If things get tough, smash it on the ground and it’ll produce a blinding glow, leaving you with a chance to escape.

“You got it, Twilight,” Spike responded.

The violet unicorn looked at her friends and dragon, and thought for a moment of the old times, and the good times they spent, then she turned to see Richard, which turned into the hope they were waiting for.

“Ready princess?” Twilight asked.

“Ready,” she replied. Celestia shot her magic several times, creating five portals that would take the heroines and dragon to their destinations.

“Do all of you know what to do?” asked Celestia.

“Yeah!” they yelled at the same time.

“Good luck. May the Elders watch over you.”

Then, everypony crossed the threshold of their portals and put into action their last desperate plan to save Equestria.

The sun was burning hot in the afternoon, assaulting the streets of Appleloosa. There were a few ponies walking about, with carts used like taxis, and the orchard ponies were hard at work trying to keep the plantations topped up with just the right amount of water. Braeburn was as a volunteer for this hard work; sweat covered his body; not even the shade of the trees was a retreat from the heat.

“By a thousand applepies! This weather is not letting up! What’s going through the princess’ head?” Braeburn complained to himself.

“Stop complaining, Braeburn. Use that energy to water the apple trees. We can’t lose any more of them to this drought,” a young pony said.

“Alright… shucks, she’s totally right,” he said as he kept on with his work.

Suddenly, a strange gleam threw Braeburn off his thoughts. He went to check the place, finding the portal. Never having seen one before, he climbed the first tree he saw and shrieked.

“By grandma’s teeth! What the hay is that thing?!” He trembled with fear, hanging onto one of the branches with his eyes closed.

Applejack stepped through the portal and saw her cousin scared on the top of a tree. The branch snapped and he plummeted to the ground. Without hesitation she assisted him. “Ya’ alright cowboy?” she asked.

“Uh, it’s nothing cousin… cousin!” he said, recovering and hugging her energetically. “Wow! If your visit isn’t a nice surprise. What brings you to Appleloosa’s apple tree fields, my dear cousin?”

“Listen, sugarcube, I need you to come with me to the sheriff as fast as you can,” she said as she galloped full speed.

He galloped after her, trying his best to keep up. “Wow, hey! Easy, cousin! Why are you in such a hurry to see the sheriff? What’s the matter?”

“I’ll tell you on the way,” she said, heading for the trees.

On a green hill, another portal opened letting through a pink pony. This was the city of Fillydelphia. Her face had a melancholic smile, like she was hoping to see somepony special.

She saw two little foals playing with one another as their parents watched over them. Pinkie approached them.

“Excuse me, could you tell me where the “Golden Hooves” hotel is please?” Pinkie asked pleadingly.

“Sure, follow that road up to the exit of the forest, then five blocks north. You’ll see which one it is once you get there.”

“Thank you so much. By the way, cute colts you have,” Pinkie said.

“Thanks,” said the parents.

And so, she walked through the city streets, watching ponies go by, ponies running to get to their jobs in time, foals being taken in their baby strollers, some colts playing hoofball, just normal daily activities, which reminded Pinkie of her life in back in Ponyville before this had all started. Those days meant a new adventure full of laughter and joy. A bakery full of vivid colours caught her attention, through the window she could see cupcakes of every colour; gummy strips hung from the ceiling near the lights; candy canes adorned pieces of cake on the corners; cookies were piled high inside glass jars. Her mouth watered and her stomach growled begging for something sweet to delight itself. But she shook her head to focus again on the mission. Although images of the Cakes flooded her mind, she knew she had to carry out her duty and that every second was crucial, but she couldn’t leave without visiting the reason for her happiness.

A 5-star hotel was the marvel of the block, with a classy but modern look at the same time. The building looked like it was touching the sky.

Pinkie entered and asked the clerk, “excuse me, are Mr. and Mrs. Cake staying here?”

The clerk shuffled some papers on his desk. “Let me check the book. Yup, here they are, ninth floor, room 97. Do you want me to tell them you’re visiting?”

“No thanks,” said the pink pony.

She took one of the elevators. It had a red tapestry with golden details and mirrors on opposing walls that seemed to provide an infinite effect. Pinkie fixed her hair so that it didn’t look too messy. The doors opened and a couple entered the elevator as Pinkie left, then she walked a long corridor, with pretty lamps that lit her walk. Finding the Cakes’ room, slightly fearful, she knocked on the door and waited.

“Pinkie Pie!” the Cakes cried out in joy after opening the door.

Pinkie could only hug them affectionately. It was something she had needed for some time.

Rainbow entered the portal quickly, she lifted her wings and headed straight for the mayor’s offices. Cloudsdale’s streets were empty, wooden planks covering the doors of the buildings. Rainbow was the only pegasus roaming around. The clouds weren’t white, but grey, like a rainy day. The Rainbow Factory was also closed, the place seemed like a ghost town.

As she flew full speed ahead, the rainbow maned pegasus remembered the Wonderbolts and her broken dream, the time she was at the gala with Soarin’, the time when she went to the Academy with Spitfire as captain, and her partner Lightning Dust, the numerous times she saw them perform in air shows when she was just a little filly. Tears fell from her eye and got mixed with a trail of rainbow, until she heard a faint noise coming from below. She landed and searched for the source of the noise. The street looked a bit spooky but it didn’t matter to her.

“Is somepony out there?” she called into the void.

A shadow sneaked through and toppled over a trash can. Rainbow looked back but didn’t see anybody. She jumped, seeing a few shadows move, but couldn’t figure out who was there.

“Wh-who’s over there? I’m warning you: I’m a black belt in karate!” She made a fighting pose.

But her warning was in vain. From a dark alley, a net shot out, catching Rainbow and immobilizing her completely.

“What’s going on?! Let me go, you hoodlums!” she exclaimed.

There was no use, they dragged Rainbow down the alley, and her demands became less audible until the streets were quiet again.

At the base of a big rocky mount, there was a little dragon, his mind filled with memories of the last time he was there. Ready to help his friends, he started to climb, and quickly reached the top. The dragons were sleeping peacefully, some were big, and some were less so, but without a doubt, he was still the smallest around. He was looking for a place where he could hide, and wait for the bigger dragons to talk to them, so he hid behind some rocks. He didn’t really know when they would wake up, so to pass the time he laid down and closed his eyes for a nap.

“Do you think he’s dead?” a dragon asked.

“He’s still breathing, don’t you see?” another one said.

“Let me try something,” said a third one and poked Spike with a stick.

The latter started to open his eyes annoyed.

“Just five more minutes, Twi,” he said groggily.

His eyes flew open once he saw that dragons were waking him up.

“Look what the princess’ trash brought here, it’s the little pony dragon,” said a red dragon.

“Hi g-guys, it’s been so long, how’ life been treating you?” asked Spike with a nervous giggle.

The bully trio smiled maliciously, imagining the things they’d do to the little dragon. Their claws were approaching slowly, while Spike braced himself, awaiting for the worst.

A refreshing wind cooled the rooftop of Manehattan’s tallest building. “Thank you, Celestia. You couldn’t have sent me to a higher place?” Rarity thought.

She found the building’s stairwell descended to the ground floor before setting off to the hospital. It was a cloudy day in the city, and the ground was being splashed by soft rain. Rarity was past caring about her looks; very deep in her heart, she just wanted to get to a very important compromise. She stopped, trying to figure out where she was. There was no sign of a hospital nearby.

She approached a guard to ask him. “Excuse me, officer. My sister is hospitalized somewhere. We’re from Ponyville and—”

“Ponyville? Come with me, miss. I know where your sister might be.”

“Oh thank you, thank you!” said Rarity as they galloped through the streets.

While the unicorn was in the waiting room, the guard got the information she wanted. “Is your sister’s name Sweetie Belle?”

Rarity nodded eagerly. “Yes officer, is she here?”

“She in observation, you can go and see her since you’re family. Good luck.”

“Thank you so much for everything officer.”

Rarity entered the pavilion where her little sister was being kept. With a slow walk, she traveled a hall that seemed infinite. She looked through each door as she walked the corridor. Ponies of every age were fighting for their lives. She stopped at the last door of the hall, her sister was there, with a respirator on her face, her neck bandaged, and an intravenous tube supplying blood. She was pale and her eyes were closed. Rarity entered the room. Her sister was in a coma; the only sound was the machine monitoring her heartbeats. She walked in and sat next to her, with a hoof caressing her face and her mane, appreciating her, wishing she’d come back to normal.

“It was all my fault, if I didn’t make you take all those things that tragic day, you wouldn’t be here now. It was all because of my selfishness,” she thought as she laid her head down next to her.

“Please, Sweetie, wake up! Wake up so that I can apologize and turn everything back to normal!” she begged while she sat beside the bed, shedding tears that refused to stop.

Completing Missions

Burning buildings erupted smoke that reached the sky. Using that as a screen, the Princess of the Night soared full speed ahead to cross the city without being recognized, she dropped down slowly in a dark alley near the castle where she used to reside. The humans were still looking for any survivor or treasure left that could be of some use to them.

Remembering her old times as Nightmare Moon, she turned her body into a shadow that traversed the streets of Canterlot. Several pony knights’ bodies were on the floor, they were abundant compared to the human bodies. On her way she noticed several buildings that were being examined. Arrows, swords, and other weapons were littered around, memories of a siege, but Luna didn’t have time to stop to meditate about a battle that she didn’t take part in, and kept going on her way.

She entered the building where the Elements were stored. A few soldiers were trying to break the door that contained them. Luna quietly chuckled to herself, there was no way to enter the chamber without magic. But to avoid detection, she’d have to wait in a corner until they’d given up.

“Place the bombs, quick. Surely what lies on the other side will make us incredibly rich. Hop to it!”

“Understood.”

“They’re dumber than I thought” Luna mused while they were preparing the last bomb, which had a timer to allow them time to find shelter.

One of them activated the countdown sequence. “Get to cover!”

Luna threw up a shield as the bombs detonated, filling the room with dust and smoke, along an incredible noise. Luna hadn’t taken the sound into account and was deafened, her ears ringing. As she scratched her ears, the soldiers examined the door.

“Shit! It didn’t work. Let’s get back to the base and inform the general, get him to authorize something stronger next time.”

“Alright, let’s get outta here,” said another soldier as they all filed out of the room.

Luna materialized in front of the door, her ears still buzzing. She inserted her horn into the slot and made it glow. The image in the center lit up dark blue, as did the lines that separated it. Luna’s power flowed through every crack of the door, a sound of whirring gears was heard, and the vault opened, revealing a small chest, adorned with jewels. Luna opened it to make sure the Elements were still there. With a smile of a job well done, she unfolded her wings and took flight through a broken window, heading back to the underground hideout.

While her friends were on their quest to find reinforcements, Twilight sketched some calculations on the floor with a stick. Her mind was working at a mile per minute, analyzing every possible situation that they might find themselves in.

“Let’s see, if I take into account that Pinkie won’t bring the Fillydelphia army, we’ll have to move a number of soldiers to even it out, but what if…”

“What’s going on with her?” Richard asked Celestia.

“She’s can be a bit obsessive with organization, and that’s not even taking into account how stressed out she is about the whole conflict” she answered seriously.

“Don’t you think she needs help?”

“No, I don’t. In this case, it’s showing the effort she’s putting on her part,” she said as she saw how Twilight left the stick on the floor. Celestia and Richard approached Twilight, and they looked at the calculations she’d performed.

“So, my loyal student, what did you find out thanks to all these scribbles?” Celestia asked.

“Listen princess, even with the additional troops, I don’t think we’ll manage to defeat the humans,” Twilight said.

“If you’re so sure of that, what do you suggest we do?” she asked without losing her temper.

“We’ll need to form an alliance with those that were our enemies, princess.”

“Which enemies?” Richard asked.

“Discord and Chrysalis. With them fighting alongside us, we’ll definitely win.”

Celestia thought about the proposition for a couple seconds.

“Alright, Twilight, we’ll search for aid in Discord and Chrysalis.”

“But how are we supposed to find them?” Richard asked.

“Finding Chrysalis won’t be a problem, Discord though… we haven’t heard from him since he reformed. How are we going to find him?”

While they sought an answer, Twilight noticed that Fluttershy was eavesdropping the conversation. The Pegasus looked away quickly, hoping she hadn’t been caught. She seemed to be hiding something.

“Princess… I think Fluttershy knows something about Discord’s whereabouts,” Twilight whispered to the princess’ ear.

“Hmm… let me talk in private with her, Twilight.

“Okay.”

Celestia approached, and sat next to her yellow subject. The latter didn’t look at her and they stayed still, looking at the wall for quite some time, until the princess broke the silence.

“Listen, Fluttershy, if you know something about Discord’s location, then you must tell us. I won’t make you do it, but bear in mind that you’d be helping us a lot if you gave us that information,” the princess said in a kind tone.

She stood up, and was about to walk away before the gentle touch of a hoof caught her attention.

“Will you help us?”

Fluttershy nodded.

“So you do know where he is?”

Fluttershy started making circles on the ground with her hoof. She seemed to feel sorry talking about the topic. From her bag she took out an open envelope.

“Were you in contact with him via letters?”

Not stopping with playing with the ground, she nodded with a slight blush.

And so Celestia read the letter slowly to find out the location of the possible ally, while Fluttershy kept with her timid demeanor, like the princess was reading something private and embarrassing for her.

“This letter… is he on his way?”

Fluttershy nodded again, blushing more. The princess thought about the situation for a moment.

“Fluttershy, would you like to see Discord again?”

The pink maned pony eyes brightened in a way they hadn’t before. She nodded energetically.

“Then I have a proposal for you” Celestia said.

On the other side of the cave, Richard was talking with Twilight.

“And that is how Equestria was made,” Twilight concluded.

“Wow, excellent summary,” Richard praised.

“Thank you. If you’re going to be on our side, you might as well know a bit of our history. Now, tell me some of your world’s history.”

“I thought you found out about it already, you know, when you visited my world.”

“No, I didn’t find out all that I wanted. In the library they gave me certain carefully selected books. I couldn’t delve into your history…” she said while looking at Richard. When he noticed he was being watched, he turned around and Twilight quickly looked somewhere else “so… will you tell me something, anything?”

“I’m not a history teacher but, I think I can tell you something.” He thought of the right words to begin. “Let’s see, it all started with…”

“Twilight!” Princess Celestia yelled, galloping with Fluttershy beside her. “I think we’ve pinned down Discord’s location, Fluttershy offered to go to look for him.”

“Really? Fluttershy?”

She just nodded.

“Oh, Fluttershy, it makes me so happy to hear that!” she exclaimed, hugging her. Surprised, Fluttershy returned the embrace.

“Good, it’s time to get going, I’ll go look for Chrysalis, and Fluttershy will go look for Discord. Twilight, plan the rest of the strategy with Richard” the princess ordered.

“Princess, isn’t it dangerous for you to go by yourself to changeling territory?”

“Have no fear my loyal student. Surely in times like these, they don’t have enough love to face me down, and I don’t think they’d be too proud to do it either,” Celestia said.

“If you say so. Take care, both of you,” Twilight said, worried.

Celestia made her horn glow again, and opened two new portals. She and Fluttershy each assumed their positions and stepped through.

“Good luck,” Twilight thought. She returned to keep Richard company.

He noticed her worried look. “What’s wrong, Twilight? Don’t you think your friend and the princess can do it?”

“It’s not that, it’s just… even with Discord and Chrysalis, I’m not sure we’ll be able to defeat them. That’s all,” she said reluctantly.

“What do you mean? I thought you had everything planned, right?” Richard insisted.

“I learned the hard way that things don’t always go the way they’re planned. Why would this be any different?”

“Yes, but even when things don’t go the way you planned them, it doesn’t mean they end up wrong. Most of the time they turn out better than you expected.”

Twilight was surprised at the human’s words, and thought about the situation. “You know, you might be right,” she said as she opened a portal with her magic.

“Wait, where are you going?”

“Don’t worry, I know exactly what to do. If the princess gets home before I do, tell her I went looking for help!” she said as she stepped through the portal, which sealed up behind her.

“Thanks for the encouragement, Richard,” she thought and gazed up at the entrance of the Crystal Empire.

A troubled Braeburn and Applejack were waiting for the sheriff’s answer after telling him about the situation.

“I know you’re going through a difficult situation, but there’s not many ponies in this town, and I wouldn’t like to risk the life of my citizens and friends.”

“How can you…?”

“Leave it, Braeburn, he’s right. His responsibility is to the ponies of Appleloosa.”

“My deepest condolences to all the dead, especially your brother dear Applejack, but if it means anything, when the conflict with the buffalo ended, we built a road to their lands. Take it, and it will take you to them. They may be able to help.”

“Thank you, Sheriff.” said Applejack heading to the door.

“I hope you come out victorious. We’re counting on you,” the sheriff said before Applejack closed the door to his office.

“Are you mad at the sheriff’s decision, cousin?” Braeburn asked due to the sudden silence.

“A little, but I don’t blame ‘im. Nobody is forcing him to help us.”

“Listen, forget about him. It’s time to go to the buffalo.”

“Do you seriously think they will help us?”

“If it’s about defending their land, the buffalo will be willing, I assure you. Remember when we first came here, and we had to fight them with pies?”

“Yeah, I remember, but these ain’t pies, they’re weapons of mass destruction made to kill,” she said as she galloped along the road. “I don’t know why anypony would really want to fight for us…”

“Applejack, most ponies are not selfish. They wouldn’t turn their back on a world that needs them, ‘specially when it’s the Elements that are asking for help. You must have a little more faith cousin,” Braeburn said.

“Let’s see if what you said is true.” Applejack skidded to a halt as she reached the buffalo’s land.

The buffalo were getting ready for their weekly run through the desert; Little Strongheart noticed the arrival of some old friends. “Braeburn! Applejack!” she cheered energetically as she hugged them. “It’s always a pleasure to have you here, but we’re about to go on our weekly run, it’d be nice if you stopped by another day.”

“You don’t understand, we have to talk to the chief as soon as possible,” Braeburn begged.

“I’m sorry, but the chief has to be at the head of the herd.”

“It’s urgent!” Applejack insisted. “We can’t afford to keep wasting time!”

“I’m telling you that…”

The voice of Chief Thunderhooves interrupted her. “Little Strongheart, you’re in charge of guiding the herd now.”

Her eyes opened up like plates. “Do you mean it?!” she asked excitedly.

“I mean it. Now go and guide them; I’ll take care of this business.”

“I won’t disappoint you, I promise,” Little Strongheart said as she hugged the chief.

“I know you won’t,” he said as they broke the embrace.

She ran to where the buffalo were gathering and shouted, “the chief delegated to me the task of leading the herd. Follow me, my brethren. Sunset awaits us!” At that instant, and without thinking twice, they started to run through the desert land to a destination unknown to the ponies.

In a tent adorned with feathers and other hoof-made objects crafted by first level artisans, Chief Thunderhooves lit up a small bonfire, even though it was broad daylight. He looked at Applejack while Braeburn waited outside.

“Listen chief, I need to ask you a favour. An other-worldly threat has conquered Canterlot, the capital of Equestria, and Ponyville. Our last hope is to search for allies to avoid everything we love being erased,” Applejack said. She waited for the chief’s response.

“So that weird feeling I had some time ago was that,” he said gazing into the fire.

“You mean, you already knew?”

“No, no, it was just a hunch. You see, we have a special connection to the land that we inhabit. That’s why we respect her by running on inhospitable places. That’s what she wants, for us to admire her, and tour her without fear. She’ll bless not only us, but all that inhabit her,” he said as he moved the sticks on the fire causing it to blaze up.

Applejack was nervous. A chill crawled through every part of her body. Her heart was beating rapidly as time went by without a clear answer. “So, what do you say?” she asked impatiently.

His expressionless face did not calm the pony, as she awaited the answer.

“Oh Pinkie, we didn’t know the situation you were going through. We’re so sorry, dear,” Cup Cake said as she picked up her daughter.

“We’ve been lucky to come on this little ‘business trip’ right, my cupcake?” Mr Cake said, somewhat nervously.

“Pinkie, Pinkie, Pinkie!” said the babies in unison, inviting her to play.

“Sorry, babies, but I’m not really in the mood for playing games now,” Pinkie said to the insistence of the babies, which she considered like her own little siblings.

Both parents looked surprised at Pinkie’s attitude.

“So you say you’ve come to see the governor? We can take you to the Town Hall, I’m sure he’ll be delighted to receive one of the Elements of Harmony.”

“Well let’s go, let me just get the babies ready.”

“Alright,” Pinkie replied, and then her stomach growled, asking for food.

“Are you hungry? Here, it’s the last one left from yesterday’s batch” Mrs Cake said, giving her a vanilla cupcake with strawberry frosting.

Pinkie took it with her hoof, and remembered the good old times.

“Wait!” the pink pony exclaimed. “Could I stay with you, until this all ends?” she asked with a broken voice, almost in tears.

The Cakes looked at her with worry and sorrow, but it soon turned into understanding.

“Listen, Pinkie, I know you want everything to be like it was before. Believe me when I say you’re not the only one that wishes that,” said Mr Cake.

“That’s why the princesses, your friends, and the rest of the ponies depend on you. They trusted you on this mission because they knew you’d manage it. Imagine what they would think if you gave up. Do you think they’ll win this war if you decide to run away?” Mrs Cake asked.

Pinkie just shook her head and looked guilty for having even suggested it.

“Remember, we’ll always be with you, whatever happens. Now eat, dear, we can tell you’re hungry.”

She took a bite. A tear rolled down her face and a wide smile spread across it. She looked at the Cakes for a moment as she held back her tears and her smile started to falter.

“What’s wrong Pinkie?”

Without anticipating it, Pinkie hugged both of them and burst into tears. They returned the hug and consoled her. She let go the bitterness of her heart on the shoulders of those she considered family.

“I promise, I’ll finish all this, and we will, no, everypony will get back to their normal lives. That’s a Pinkie Promise. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” she promised, as she smeared the rest of the cupcake across her face.

Even with her mane cut and straight, an important part of that pink pony had returned, desperate to fulfill that promise.

“Well, Pinkie, clean your face. You have to look nice for the governor,” said Mr. Cake.

“Oki doki loki,” she said as she stuck out her tongue, wiped her face with it, and swallowed the rest of the cupcake.

“Alright, let’s go. The Town Hall is a few blocks away.”

Without noticing it, the baby pegasus broke free from his bounds and and flew across the hallway. The Cakes were about to catch him but Pinkie stopped them. “Leave it to me. Wait for us in the lobby. I’ll go get him.” Pinkie chased him, leaving a trail of smoke behind her.

“Now that’s the mare we know,” they both said.

Pinkie stood outside the Town Hall doors, and prepared herself for a difficult meeting.

“Listen, wait here while I talk to the governor,” she said while delivering Carrot Cake, wrapped in several hotel towels, to prevent him from escaping again.

“Good luck, Pinkie,” the Cakes said.

Once inside, Pinkie walked to the receptionist.

“May I help you, miss?” asked the receptionist.

“I want to speak to the governor about a situation of utmost importance. It’s extremely urgent,” Pinkie said. She was wearing pink formal wear, a medium skirt, a buttoned up coat, shirt and white earrings, and thick-framed glasses with no lenses.

“I’m sorry, but the governor is dealing with other business with more important ponies than you. You’ll have to request an appointment and wait your turn to discuss your complaint or whatever problem you came for. Next!” the receptionist concluded.

Pinkie was about to leave, but then she had an idea.

“Yes? How can I help you?”

“I’m the minister for the economy. I have an appointment with the governor at 2:30,” said a moustachioed pony in a severe business suit to the receptionist.

The latter looked at the minister suspiciously. His straight pink hair seemed strange. It didn’t fit his brown fur, and his voice was too high-pitched for a stallion. After examining him for a second, the receptionist figured out the ploy.

“I know what you’re trying, kid, now do us the favor of taking off that ridiculous disguise and leaving before I call security,” the receptionist warned.

“What are you talking about? I want to talk to the governor about a situation of utmost importance,” he said, offended.

“That’s it!” she yelled, slamming the pen she’d been using down onto her desk, and grabbing the minister’s face in an attempt to rip off the mask.

“Stop it, you mad mare! The bloody hay are you doing?” the minister screamed.

“Quit your acting, crazy mare!” she yelled, trying to unmask Pinkie.

After a struggle, the enraged minister stormed out of the lobby, shouting, “now you listen, psycho… you’ve earned a very powerful enemy! Once I’m done with you, you won’t work again as a secretary, not even cleaning floors, for the rest of your existence!”

The receptionist adjusted her mane and glasses and got back to work, muttering, “that mare thinks she can outsmart me.”

A pony with extravagant glasses, dressed in a gift box, balloons and swimming fins, firing confetti from hidden cannons walked towards her and coughed a couple of times to announce her presence.

“Wasn’t disguising yourself as a minister enough? Now you’ve come in that stupid party costume?” she said angrily.

“Minister? But I was in the bathroom putting on this disguise, silly. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Pinkie replied.

“Then, the one that came was… it actually was,” she said desperately as she brought out a notebook and checked it.

Terrified, she confirmed that the stallion she kicked out was, in fact, the minister of economy, and had an appointment at 2:30.

“Wow, that pony has funny hair, it looks familiar” said Pinkie after seeing the straight and pink mane of the minister.

That only helped raise the fear and anxiety of the receptionist, she pissed off an active member of society, the warning rushed through her head, sweat and nervousness flowed through every part of her body.

“If you excuse me, I have to go speak to the governor,” Pinkie said as she waddled along in her costume.

“Oh, no, you’re not getting through! If I’m getting fired, at least I’ll prevent you from seeing the governor as my last duty. Security!” she shouted, attracting the guards’ attention. “Get her outta here!”

They approached the pink pony menacingly. Without hesitating, she drew out her party cannon from nowhere.

“Don’t move!” she exclaimed, “I’ve got a cannon full of confetti and I’m not afraid to use it!”

The security agents, the secretary, and the other ponies present in the lobby laughed at such a threat.

“Young lady, you need to come with us,” said one of the guards about to surround her completely.

“It’s time for you to witness the power of my… PARTY CANNON!” she yelled, firing it, but she was more surprised than the others when the cannon shot flour instead of confetti. “Whoops, wrong one.”

The room was completely white, the guard ponies blinking and coughing. Pinkie saw this as an opportunity and traveled further into the Town Hall in search of the governor, her crazy outfit still on.

“Miss Lovejoy, contact minister Golden Coin to verify his assistance with the meeting. If it is impossible, check what comes next in the agenda,” said the governor, waiting for a response from the receptionist through the communicator. “Miss Lovejoy, are you there?”

Without warning, Pinkie burst into the office, slamming the door shut behind her to prevent the guards from seeing her. Her costume was ripped in several parts and she was missing a swimming fin.

“Mister governor, I finally found you! I need to speak with you urgently,” the pink pony said, a little out of breath.

“I’m sorry, but you are…?”

“I am…”

At that moment, the guards entered and tackled the pink pony. They struggled but manage to grab hold of her. Just as they were about to take her away, Pinkie screamed, “Hey, let me go! What are you doing? I may be the Element of Laughter but this is nothing to laugh at!”

“Let her go,” the governor ordered.

“But mister governor…” one of the guards tried to explain.

“I said, let her go,” he repeated.

The guards put her down. Pinkie got rid of the costume, and tossed it aside.

“I am Pinkie Pie. I am one of the Elements of Harmony,”

“Oh dear, Pinkie, if you’d just started with that, you’d have saved yourself the whole turmoil. An Element of Harmony is always welcome here. I’m Silver Boss, by the way, governor of Fillydelphia. Now, how can I help you, dear?”

Pinkie blushed a bit.

“I need… no, all Equestria needs your help.”

Rainbow was tied to a chair and gagged, her mouth and eyes covered completely. She was asking herself a lot of things as she tried to break loose from the knots. Had humans colonized Cloudsdale finally? Had the pegasi gone mad? She really didn’t have the time to be dealing with this.

Suddenly the bandage on her eyes and the gag were removed, allowing her to see a faintly lit room. A pegasus appeared in front of her.

“What do you think you’re doing?! I need to speak with the mayor now! It’s something of utmost importance!” Rainbow Dash screamed.

“Talk all that you want. You’re just a traitor to us,” the mysterious mare said.

“Traitor?! I’ve been busting my back fighting in the battlefield, risking my life, just so that you could cower here, you selfish cowards!” Rainbow exclaimed, earning a slap from the mysterious pony.

“Shut up, tramp! We’re not stupid! We know the humans are searching for us pegasi, and our forces have been overpowered almost immediately. Canterlot has fallen and our hopes gone with it, so tell me, what opportunity do we have against them?”

“If you’d let me talk to the mayor, I’d tell you everything I know, about the last great plan to finish the humans. Please, let me free,” Rainbow begged.

The hooded pony pondered for a moment. “It won’t be of any use to talk to the mayor. You’ll have to let the pegasi hear the message and accept it. Only then will you be able to take them to battle.”

“So, what do I have to do?”

“Come with me,” said the pegasus, untying Rainbow from the chair.

They left the room and traveled down a long hall until they reached a different room. There, the pegasi were in refugee condition, sad, heartbroken, and long faces filled the place.

The mysterious pony put her on a stage, but nobody noticed.

“Good luck,” she wished Rainbow.

Rainbow looked at her compatriots, took a deep breath, put her thoughts in place, and said, “uhm, excuse… excuse me… listen to me!”

The ponies looked up to the rainbow-maned pegasus.

“Some of you know me. I’m Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty in the Elements of Harmony. Alongside my other friends we’ve saved Equestria countless times. No threat seemed too big, or that’s what we thought… until the humans came.” Only a few pegasi seemed to be paying attention. “Our dear princess Celestia did not want to make you get involved in something you didn’t want, so she did everything within her power to dispense with you. But the truth is, it wasn’t enough, and that’s why we need you.”

The pegasi looked at each other, doubtful. “Tell us the truth. Is there a chance to win this war if we take part in it?” one in the crowd asked.

“I’m not gonna lie to you, the humans are smarter that we hoped, and we don’t know if they’re capable of doing even more. But we’re sure about something, with your help, the odds are in our favour. It’s time to show those bipeds who is the superior species! Who’s with me?!” Rainbow exclaimed.

The pegasi looked at each other, each waiting for somepony else to say the first word. Incredibly, the mysterious mare under the hood walks to the stage, surprising everybody.

“What do you say my brothers? She has my full support!”

“And who do you think you are exactly?!”

The pegasus smiled confident and took her hood off, revealing her identity, the pegasi were astonished and little by little they were standing up and approaching the stage.

On the top of a mountain, the baby dragon was being beaten by the bullies who had tormented him in the past. Hanging from a rope and in the form of a punch bag for boxers, Spike thought about the situation.

“So, not only did I not talk to the dragons, I’m also being beaten without the possibility of escape. There might be a chance if I…”

“What are you thinking about, lil’ dragon? Are you waiting for your pony mommy to come?” said the red teen dragon.

“Yeah, lil’ dragon, are you waiting for your mommy?” another one repeated.

“Listen to me!” Spike screamed.

The bullies stopped.

“I’ve come here to give you an important message. You can keep treating me as a punch bag after I’ve told you, please. It will only take a second.”

The bullies thought about the proposal, but with sly faces they gave away the fact that they were not interested. To their surprise, the dragon took out from his pocket a strange white pearl. When they tried to take it away from him, he bit it and a blinding light left the bullies dazed and on the ground.

Spike untied himself and scrambled to the top of a nearby hill. The other dragons just looked at the scene, some of them laughing, others eating diamonds, most were indifferent.

“Come here, little dragon, I’m not done with you yet!”

“If you don’t listen to me, all of Equestria will be in danger, even our mighty race. Celestia herself sent me on this mission to ask you for help,” said Spike as he avoided his pursuers.

One of the dragons listened to the purple scaled dragon’s petition. A little groggy from getting his nap interrupted, he raised his tail, and hit the earth, calling the attention of all present, before grabbing Spike with his tail.

“Don’t eat me, oldster, please!” the little dragon wept.

“I’m not gonna eat you, boy,” the elder dragon said, “I’m going to help you tell your message.”

“Oh, thanks, oldster!” Spike said, being lifted to a high place.

One of the other dragons jeered. “What are you doing, grandpa? Get him down and stop meddling where you’re not wanted!”

The elder only roared at those words, shutting everyone up. Spike took this chance to speak up.

“Listen, you’re not aware of this, but for some time the ponies have been battling against beings not from this world, and things did not go out as we expected. But now my friends are willing to take the risk after an unknown subject…” Spike said, as a memory formed in his mind.

“Twilight, what is that scum doing in our hideout?” he whispered as he chewed on some wild berries.

“Spike! Don’t be rude! This ‘scum’ as you call him will be part of an important plan I have to get rid of the humans,” she whispered back, more aggressively.

“I don’t trust him, Twilight. I just can’t. I can’t forget the damage he caused to ponies and especially…” he said as he looked at Rarity chewing her food.

“I know how you feel, but if you don’t trust Richard, trust me, ok?”

“I don’t know…”

“Please, for me?”

“Alright fine, for you, Twilight. Wait, since when do you call a human by its name?”

“Since he told us his name. Besides I’m the first one to trust him, if it weren’t for me, Rainbow would have turned him into her personal boxing bag.”

Twilight and Spike laughed. The rest of them looked at them doubtfully. Richard, on the other hand, just laughed as he took the stem from a cherry.

“Now I have to trust him,” he said as he returned to real world. “That’s why I come before you, to help us save Equestria from a threat like we’ve never seen before. What do you say? Are you with me?!”

Every dragon looked at him seriously. Nobody gave a sign of caring about the speech of their smallest of brethren.

Spike finally decided to try something that would most definitely guarantee their help. “I understand. Don’t help me if you don’t want to. I’ll leave and bother you no more. But remember, the humans will come here in the search of your treasures, and I’m aware that they are even more greedy than all of you together, even with their small bodies.”

Spike climbed down from his makeshift podium and acted like he was going to leave, waiting for the greedy instincts of his brothers to kick in.

Suddenly, the bully trio stood in his way. “Where do you think you’re going little dragon?!”

A field full of dandelions stretched into the distance. Rarity walked some paces through the magical scene, trying to find something, or somepony. A breeze started to guide her to nowhere specific. They were just dandelions, could it really mean something?

The dandelions rose and danced in the air. One of them turned into a hundred, like snowflakes they we falling down to the ground, starting to form a known figure for the white unicorn, small stature, same white fur, no cutie mark, and eyes that melted her more than once.

“Sweetie Belle?”

Her little sister had a smile so cheerful, warm, and beaming, that it lifted the weight in Rarity’s heart.

“Sweetie Belle!” she cried as she ran to her and hugged her like she’d never done before.

Words were not needed at that magical moment. Hugging each other, with the slight breeze playing in their manes, Rarity wanted the moment to never end, even if it was just a dream.

“And what will you do now?” Sweetie Belle asked.

Rarity ignored the question, still in her embrace.

“What will you do now?” her sister asked again.

Rarity was still not done with the moment, but fed up of being ignored, Sweetie pushed Rarity away to break the hug forcefully.

“What are you doing Sweetie Belle?”

“I asked you: what will you do now?”

“I just want to stay embraced by your side, little sister. Is that so much to ask?” she said as she closed in for another hug.

Sweetie Belle stopped her sister with her hoof.

“But what’s wrong with you? I thought you loved me,” said Rarity between tears.

“Of course I love you big sister, it’s just that… you know this is just a dream, to clear your heart.”

“But… but… if this is a dream, I don’t want to ever wake up! I want to stay by your side, Sweetie,” she said as her voice faltered.

“Listen, Rarity, I felt your hoof caress my mane. I felt your other hoof touch mine. I even heard you when you regretted your actions…”

“Did you? All of it?” she asked intrigued.

“Every bit, and I just have to say… I forgive you for everything. It was not your intention to mortally wound me, and I know you’re sorry for the deed.”

“Sweetie Belle, I…”

“I know what you’re going to say. I don’t want you to waste your life regretting this incident. Instead of crying for the time that we didn’t spend together, I want you to remember with joy the time that we did spend together. I will, and I want you to do that too,” said Sweetie Belle wiping her sister’s tears.

“But… Sweetie… you’re saying it like we won’t see each other again.”

“Don’t worry, we will meet again, I’m sure. But look, Equestria needs you. You have to keep going with your mission. You can’t quit when your friends need you the most.”

Rarity analyzed the proposal. “I promise… that when this all ends, I’ll come back and stay by your side until you’ve recovered.”

“Thanks. Now wake up and fulfill your mission, dear sister.”

“I will, for you dear,” Rarity replied.

Once she’d turned around to leave, Sweetie Belle suddenly hugged Rarity from behind. “Good luck.” she whispered.

And so, a dandelion tornado surrounded Rarity, lifting her from the floor, and flying towards the blue sky.

With a messy mane, Rarity woke up from her dream. She was still in the hospital with her little sister. She glanced at the clock, and realized she’d lost a whole hour in there. She entered the bathroom and washed her mane, combed it and styled it the way it always used to be. She left her sister’s room, but not without looking at her one last time, remembering the promise, and with a quick gallop headed for the exit.

Luckily for her, the officer who had accompanied her was still in the place.

“Excuse me, I need you to tell me where the Town Hall is. It is of utmost importance to talk with the governor as soon as possible.”

“Follow me, ma’am, we’ve got a long way to go.”

An Almost Unanimous Decision

Discord was still roaming in the woods; he was close to reaching Ponyville to reunite with his pony friends, especially Fluttershy. It had been so long since he’d been reformed and decided to explore Equestria to celebrate. So many places and unforgettable memories were recorded in his mind, but that chilly sensation from before was becoming stronger the closer he approached his destination. He could teleport and find out about it in a pinch, but he felt like enjoying the walk and dropped the idea immediately.

As he strolled on, admiring the views, he saw a weeping figure at the base of a tree. Curious, Discord headed there cautiously. The sobbing was became clearer and he recognized a familiar pony. “Fluttershy?”

The pink maned pony wouldn’t move even in his presence. “Fluttershy are you alright? What’s wrong? What are you doing so far from Ponyville?” The crying broke Discord’s heart as it vented all that had pent up. “Why are you crying? Is there something wrong?”

“I… I can’t take it anymore…” she said in tears.

“But what is…” He was interrupted by the sudden hug she gave him. At that moment he understood that he had to remain silent, let her relax, and tell him all that happened. There were moments, not seconds, nor minutes, nor hours, of sadness and agony. Once his chest was dry from the tears, he gathered the courage to speak. “So you’ve come here to ask for my help?”

With her eyes closed she nodded, still leaning against him.

“Look at me, Fluttershy,” Discord said as he grabbed her by the chin with his claw and made her look at the eyes.

She opened hers, red and swollen from crying, to oblige.

“I’ve never seen you in this condition, Fluttershy. I’m surprised that a pony like you, who’s been through so much, still wants to fight. You really are a special pony,” he said as he stroked her mane.

Fluttershy was enthralled by Discord’s words, caressing, and eyes. She felt special at his side. A warm feeling filled her chest, but she had to contain herself, this was neither the time nor the place to lose her mind.

Discord seemed to read the pony’s mind, so he courteously pushed her away. “For you, I’m willing to help you in any way necessary, even if I have to put my life on the line,” he said as he kneeled and pledged like a medieval knight.

Fluttershy blushed after such a refined act, and with a gesture she pointed that they had to go back to the hideout. So Discord and Fluttershy started to walk back through the woods and find the portal to the hideout.

After crossing through the portal, Princess Celestia was confronted with a deserted expanse as far as the eye could see. She unfolded her wings and flew.

After a while, a rock formation could be seen on the horizon, it had several entrances on the base, and a few openings across the whole surface. Changelings fluttered galore, like something has irritated them.

Celestia landed and walked the rest of the way. Once she was near the hive, five changelings dropped and landed in front of the princess. One of them growled at her menacingly. “Warn the queen that Celestia is here! We’ll hold her off as much as we can!”

“That won’t be necessary,” Celestia said. “I’m not here to fight. I’m here to talk with your queen about a most important situation. If you allow me to have an audience with her, I’d be very grateful.”

They looked at her suspiciously. It was too much of a coincidence that she wanted to speak with their queen, just at the time when they were weaker than usual, but something in Celestia’s words and calm gaze gave them the trust to believe that what she said was true. “Warn the queen. We’re staying with her.”

Sometime later, the changeling messenger returned and whispered something into his companion’s ears. The latter addressed Celestia: “The queen has approved of your audience ‘request’. Come! We’ll escort you to her chambers.”

“Thank you, and sorry for the inconvenience,” Celestia said.

As she was escorted, she noticed that things weren’t going too well in the hive. The queen’s lackeys were in a bad mood, and in certain corners there were some of them amidst a fight or dispute that the guards tried to hold off. Although their species was not generally considered peaceful, it was strange to see them fight one another.

“Here it is. The queen awaits you,” said the changeling.

“Thank you.”

It was not the throne chamber. It was just a simple room, humble and with little decoration. It mirrored the hive’s lifestyle in general. Chrysalis was looking through the window when she noticed her presence. “You’ve come here to take advantage and exterminate me, right?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t act like you don’t know. I’m sure you’ve seen how my subjects behaved while you walked through the place.”

“True, but I haven’t come here about that,” Celestia said with a serious face.

“So what did you come for?”

“I’m here to ask for your help.”

Chrysalis eyes opened wide.

“A threat with a power like we’ve never seen before invaded six months ago and managed to defeat us. Canterlot was taken by their hands.”

The queen was astonished by the facts narrated by the princess.

“And now we have a plan to finish them. But for that we need something that we didn’t have before: allies, we need all of Equestria fighting beside us. I’m sure that with you on our side, we’ll succeed.”

“And what if I refuse?”

“Well then, you will become one of their targets once they decide to conquer the rest of Equestria.”

Chrysalis was listening carefully. “And if I accept, what do I get in return?”

Celestia smiled, she seemed to have her where she wanted. “We’ll offer you and your changelings sovereignty, a land for you to live and fight for.”

“What good will a land be for us if we are too weak and hungry to defend it?”

“If you’re talking about where to find love, I won’t allow you to invade Canterlot and the surrounding towns everytime you’re hungry, but I can find a way to nourish you when the time comes. What do you say?”

Chrysalis looked back to the window, and noticed how several of her subject were engaged in a fight in midair. “Deal,” she said reaching out her hoof to her.

Celestia bumped it, which surprised Chrysalis. “I need you to come with me to the underground hideout, so that we can seal this truce.”

Celestia closed in and invaded the queen’s personal space, their noses touched and so did their horns. At that moment, the princess’ horn shone and transmitted energy to Chrysalis, her vitality augmented as the hunger disappeared little by little. After some seconds, Celestia finished the spell and waited patiently for the queen’s commentary.

“I feel… strong. What did you do to me, pony?”

“To guarantee my trust towards you, I gave you some love,” she said blushing “I hope your strength has returned.”

Chrysalis flew through the room, did some maneuvers and stretched her muscles, it’s been quite some time since she felt this strong and satisfied.

“I know you’re happy, but now I need you to accompany me to the hideout for more details,” Celestia said.

“Alright, let’s go.” Chrysalis replied.

So, both of them set out back to the underground hideout, but not before telling the unbelieving changelings to keep calm and stay in the cave.

Two monoliths reach up to the sky; three crystals shine and float in between them. Twilight was at the Crystal Empire’s entrance. She sighed in nostalgia and walked slowly to the castle. The citizens, the buildings… everything sparkled like the next valuable crystal. Ponies greeted her, and she returned the gesture back but with less enthusiasm. She didn’t mean to be rude, but there was no time to do sightseeing and the sort.

At the entrance, the guards received her and escorted her to the throne room. Cadance was talking with a few merchants from the region until she noticed Twilight’s presence.

Courteously, she finished the session and the promoters left the throne room with a big smile. Twilight and Cadance ran until they met in the middle of the room.

Sunshine sunshine

Ladybugs awake

Clap your hooves

And do a little shake!

The chant was quickly followed by the emerging laughs from their special melody.

“Oh Twilight, what brings you here?” asked Cadance.

Twilight looked at her sternly. “Cadance, take a seat. There is something very important I have to tell you.”

“But what’s wrong? Did something happen?” she asked with a sense of distress after hearing her sister-in-law’s serious tone.

“Cadance, please, do not ask anything until I am finished, it’s urgent.”

The crystal princess was perplexed. She’d never seen such severity on the face of the little filly that she used to babysit when she was small.

“Okay, Twilight, I won’t interrupt. You may tell me,” she said as she sat on the crystal throne.

Twilight wanted to explain to her the whole situation, everything that had happened up to that point in time, even warning her about the possibility of not seeing her husband again, but she was speechless. Her head was a dictionary, with a wide vocabulary and the ability to find synonyms, antonyms, paronyms and every derivative from the language. But her vocal chords had gone mute, they didn’t want to react and let her speak the truth. Meanwhile, Cadance waited for her sister-in-law to speak.

But as she understood that any form of speech was impossible, she thought of another way of telling her, and then she remembered she still had the report on her possession. She took it out and levitated it towards Cadance, who grabbed it with her magic and opened it. Confused, she looked at Twilight. Twilight’s eyes begged Cadance to read, and without Twilight asking, she did so.

On her face there was a grimace of worry, and once she got to the last part, it changed into one of fear and angst while Twilight could only hang her head with closed eyes, waiting for a response from Cadance.

“Twilight, tell me you know something about…” she said with tears in her eyes.

“No, I don’t know whether he’s alive or not. That has me distressed also,” she said, spiritless.

Tears formed in Cadance’s eyes, the anguish of knowing whether Shining was dead or alive gnawing on her conscience. As she cried she caressed her stomach in a circular motion.

Twilight noticed and hurried to ask, “are you alright, Cadance?”

Before Cadance could respond, she suddenly vomited.

“Cadance!” Twilight cried, who could just manage to make her sit on the throne to rest.

After some moments, Cadance was the one to speak first. “Listen, Twilight, I don’t know if I’ll be able to tell Shining, and since you’re so dear to me, you should be the second one to know.”

“Know about what?” she naively asked.

“I’m pregnant… you’ll be an aunt, Twilight,” said Cadance with a tear running down her cheek.

“I’ll have… a niece or nephew…” It was the only thing that Twilight could respond with her surprise before jumping to the arms of her sister-in-law, both with tears of joy. “Congratulations Cadance, that’s excellent news.”

“It’s bittersweet next to all that has happened in Ponyville and Canterlot. I wonder if I’ll be able to raise my future treasure in the middle of all this chaos.”

“That’s why I’m here,” Twilight said. “I have a plan that will make the humans leave Equestria forever, but for that, I need your help. Better said: your military forces, because there’s no way I’m letting the mother of my future nephew or niece to go to battle.”

Cadance seemed happy about how anxious Twilight was about the news while she thought about the proposal. “I’m sorry Twilight, it hasn’t been long since the Crystal Empire returned to Equestria, and we still don’t have much of a military force,” Cadance said, disappointing Twilight. “But we can help you with equipment. As you know, the Crystal Empire is unique in certain aspects and this is one of them. Let me show you.” She clopped her hooves to call one of her maids.

“Princess Cadance, do you need anything?” the maid asked.

“Tell the blacksmith that I need a sample armor.”

“Right away, princess,” the pony said as she trotted away quickly.

And mere moments later, the mare brought what the princess asked for. “Here you go, a complete set of armor for torso, head and legs.”

“Thanks, you may go now.”

“Thank you princess.”

Twilight looked at the armor puzzled. “It looks like the armor we wore the first time we came to the Empire.”

“That’s because these are the official crystal military armor.”

“What makes them so special?” she asked curiously.

“It’d be easy to tell you right now, but it’s better for me to tell you all in the hideout, of course, if you agree.”

“No problem, Cadance. Let’s go!”

Twilight trotted to the door, but the princess stayed in place, looking at her with a raised brow.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to use your teleportation spell?”

“Yeah but, isn’t it risky for the baby?”

Cadance shook her head. “It’s not if you’re the one casting it. The risk exists if I use too much magic in a short period of time, but since you’re doing it there’s no harm. Trust me.”

“Alright, just because you’re saying so, okay?” Twilight made her horn glow and in an instant they were in front of the portal, about to pass through it.

Richard stared at the portal that Twilight had cast so suddenly. He wanted to follow her wherever she went, but he’d just be a nuisance.

Without much else to do until somepony returned, he went to the water fountain and washed his face and hair. He sat against the wall next to his bag and closed his eyes for a moment. He needed a rest.

Minutes went by and he could not sleep, the muttering of present ponies making it hard for him to rest. He did not notice, but three ponies approached him, covering him in combined shadows.

“Hey,” said one of them.

“Hello…” he responded, a bit surprised.

Silence reigned for some seconds, until Richard broke it. “No offense, but, can I help you?”

“In fact, you can,” the Doctor said as he took a step forward. “We wanted to ask you a question.”

“Hmm, sure, go ahead.”

“Do you have any idea how many ponies you’ve murdered these last months?” he asked with effrontery.

The question shook Richard, the accusing tone leaving him with a bittersweet sensation in his mouth. He wasn’t going to answer that, there were more important things to think about.

“So?” the Doctor insisted.

“I’m not going to answer that.”

“Oh, of course you will,” replied one of his companions.

“Yes, you will,” said the third one as they menacingly closed in on Richard.

Having a bad feeling, the soldier stood up. “Listen, I don’t want any trouble please. If you could just give me some space…”

“We won’t leave until you answer us,” the Doctor said.

“I told you, I’m not going to answer that,” Richard insisted.

“Then you don’t give us any other choice.” The Doctor bite the soldier’s tank top, and threw him even deeper into the refuge.

Amazed by the pony’s strength, Richard stood up, watching how the rest of the population in the place made a circle around them. The Doctor and the stallions that were with him stepped out of the crowd, willing to fight with Richard. “We only wanted you to answer a simple question, but if the only way to make you do it is by beating you, then so be it.”

The three ponies took on attack positions, rubbing their hooves against the ground menacingly. Richard could only stay in a fighting stance, leaning forward with arms open.

Richard didn’t mean to hurt anypony, he just needed to contain them, but for how long? Without messing around, the Doctor charged at Richard with the intention of tackling him, but the latter stood his ground with the hope of stopping him. The Doctor put his head in front and headbutted Richard. Surprised, the pony saw that although in pain, the human withstood the impact.

“I really don’t want to fight anyone, please. Stop this nonsense!” Richard pleaded, trying to make them reason.

The Doctor wanted to keep going. Richard’s legs were about to give way under the pony’s force.

“Well then, you don’t leave me any other choice,” Richard said, grabbing the Doctor by his front legs and lifting him up enough to throw him off the same way, though with less force than he expected.

“Don’t you just stand there! Attack him!” the pony yelled as he stood up again.

The other two ran in circles around Richard, while he could only wait until one of them dared to attack.

Without warning, one of the ponies broke the formation and attacked Richard from behind, who could only manage to sidestep to avoid being trampled. The same thing happened when the other pony attacked him from the front. He used even more strength than when he took the Doctor out of his way.

Third time’s the charm. Once he stood up, the Doctor was standing in front of him, inciting him to fight. As a last resort, Richard spun and hit the Doctor’s neck with a heel kick. The effect was multiplied due to the boot being worn, but it didn’t seem to have any effect anyway since there was a little magic circle covering the impact zone.

“Hey, that’s cheating! That unicorn is helping you!”

“Life isn’t fair, is it?” said the Doctor as he bit Richard’s ankle.

With a fast movement, Richard made him swing around at the same time his partners in crime leaned on their front legs to kick him with the back ones, just like Applejack did when bucking the apple trees.

Defenseless and without chances of escaping, Richard could only wait for the hit, as he quickly remembered a warning that he’d been told before entering the battle in Ponyville. “The back kick of a pony aren’t as powerful as their horse counterpart, but they can ditch a pain that can leave you limping for the rest of the week if they get you in a leg, they could leave your arm out of commission, and make you faint if they get you in the head. If firing at them from long distances is a no-go, approach them cautiously and close in to them only if you’re sure you’re not going to get hit. The neck is the preferred place to attack, whether with a gun or a melee.”

An accurate hit echoed through the cavern, followed by a silence from a grave. Richard had his eyes closed. He didn’t feel any pain. He knew he was hit, but he did not feel pain.

He slowly opened his eyes, discovering that a purple force field was blocking the kicks of those ponies.

“Halt!”

Suddenly a purple aura surrounded Richard and levitated him away from them at the same time he was being trapped in a bubble.

“What is going on here?!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Oh, thank goodness you came, Twilight! This human tried to escape. We tried to hold him off, but he started to fight with us. We were just defending ourselves,” the Doctor said.

“Is that true, Richard?” Twilight asked, hoping it wasn’t the case.

“What?! No! Of course not! I was just resting against the wall when they approached and asked me something. I didn’t want to respond and they attacked me! I was trying to defend myself but fat lot of good it did me!” he said, acknowledging that the attack had been too much for him.

Twilight considered both theories.

“Twilight? You’re not thinking… about believing this invader, right? Think about all the damage his species has caused in so little time,” the Doctor argued.

The face of the unicorn was filled with seriousness, but her eyes were a window to her mind that was between a rock and a hard place. For one, there were refugee ponies asking the wind for help. For two, he was what she considered the last hope to save Equestria, and even though she had full trust in him, it didn’t change the fact that he was a human. And if he’d chosen to help them, couldn’t it be the possibility that it was all just to save his butt from death? She didn’t know, this was all just speculation, the result of stress and the current situation.

“Listen to me, Twilight, you know how much I’ve been through before I came here. It was not my plan to find you and give the capture notice. I wanted to help you, hell, I want to help you!” He paused for some moments. “But if you think I’m lying, do what you must with me,” he said, closing his eyes.

At that instant, she broke the bubble and let Richard fall from seven feet in the air. With no intention of standing up, he expected Twilight to apply any punishment she saw fit.

She slowly approached the soldier with an indecipherable look. Her horn was glowing, ready to cast a spell. She stood in front of him and shot her magic, trapping the Doctor and his goons in a magic energy field.

“What the bloody hell are you doing?! He’s the enemy!” the Doctor cried.

“Twilight, I thought—” started Richard as he was being hushed by her hoof.

“I know you were telling the truth.”

“But how did you know?”

“You’re a terrible liar, remember? I knew that if you were trying to lie about something like this you’d expose yourself sooner or later.”

“Thanks, Twilight,” Richard said as he knelt down quickly and hugged the unicorn.

Dumbfounded in many ways, she returned his embrace. Meanwhile, Cadance looked at the scene with certain endearment.

“Twilight? Aren’t you going to introduce me?” Cadance asked.

“Oh yeah, sorry,” she said breaking the embrace, a bit embarrassed. “Richard, this is the princess of the Crystal Empire, Mi Amore Cadenza. Mi Amore Cadenza, this is our ally and hope, Richard Senedor.

“It’s a pleasure, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,” Richard said as he made a bow.

“The pleasure is mine, Richard, but you can call me Cadance. Given the circumstances I don’t think it’s necessary for such formalities.”

“That’s fine, Cadance,” Richard replied.

“She’ll be helping us by supplying our troops with weapons and armor,” Twilight pointed out.

“I… understand,” he said confused.

“Where are your friends? Wait, where are Celestia and Luna?” she asked worried.

“They’re carrying out the missions I’ve assigned to them all. They shouldn’t take too long now.”

And as if it were that the deities had listened to her, Celestia stepped through the portal along with Chrysalis. The ponies got scared and ran to take cover in the caverns and nearby rocks.

Understanding the reactions of her subjects, Celestia exclaimed, “my dear little ponies, fear not, for Queen Chrysalis has offered her help to expel the humans from Equestria!”

Unsure and fearful, the ponies came out of their hiding and went to the changeling queen to thank her for the help. She was not accustomed to such attention and could barely say, “yes, yeah, don’t thank me. I too have to look after my people.”

At that moment her eyes fixed upon Richard, and stepped closer to ‘inspect’ him.

“So this is the shaved monkey you’ve told me about. He doesn’t seem like a big problem,” she said as she stroked Richard’s arms and torso with her holed limbs. Twilight frowned at the queen’s inappropriately familiar behavior.

Celestia stepped forward. “He’s completely unarmed now, and thus he represents no threat, but the others do have tools of destruction, not to mention their numbers are unknown, but enough to conquer Ponyville and Canterlot.”

Chrysalis sniffed him. “So they managed to do what I could not… interesting.” Twilight’s frown was more obvious by now.

“Uh… is it normal that I feel weak?” Richard asked as he noticed his muscles feeling suddenly tired.

Celestia noticed how the queen’s horn had a slight green hue, and understood the situation. “Chrysalis, get away from him… right now,” she warned.

“Hmm… delicious. You do have love to give. Oh well, I was just tasting him. His heart is as strong as his will, a great warrior. Shame that he’s so scrawny.”

Richard thrust his chest forward. “Hey, I’ve got 165 pounds worth of muscle!”

“Yeah… whatever you say, wimp,” Chrysalis replied.

After moving away from the human, Chrysalis noticed that somepony was fulminating her with their stare. Cadance was looking at the queen with anger, remembering back to her wedding. Taking advantage of her distraction, the pink alicorn tackled the queen to the closest wall. Standing on her back legs, Cadance pinned the changeling’s neck to the wall. Chrysalis winced in pain.

“Wait, Cadance!” Twilight yelled trying to separate them, but deep down, she wanted to leave her sister-in-law to take care of her.

“That’s enough!” Celestia ordered, pushing herself between them and freeing Chrysalis.

Cadance growled angrily at the changeling queen. “She deserves that and much more!”.

Celestia put a hoof on her niece’s shoulder to calm her. “Maybe, but she’s our ally now and we must put our differences aside so that we can assure a future for Equestria. Did you forget?”

“Fine, but I’ll be watching you,” Cadance warned, as she pointed with a hoof. “And by the way, why do we need the queen of parasites?

Chrysalis ignored the ‘parasite’ jibe. “My changelings are well adept to fight. We can take advantage of their ability to shape-shift in the battlefield.”

“Ba… battle?” Richard asked nervously.

Twilight looked at him seriously. “Yes, for the battle. Now all that remains is to wait for Luna to bring the elements.”

As if she’d been summoned, Luna descended through the hole in the roof, bringing a big wardrobe with her. She put it on the floor and approached her sister.

Celestia gave her a big hug. “Sister!”

“Easy, Celestia! You’re choking me!” Luna begged.

“Sorry.”

“Luna!” Cadance exclaimed as she hugged her even tighter than Celestia.

“Oh, here we go again,” Luna said, making her niece to let her go embarrassed.

“Did you bring them?” Twilight asked.

“Of course, Twilight, here they are,” she replied showing her a little decorated box.

Twilight opened it to make sure the elements were still there. Her wide smile let the others know that they were.

“Hey, Luna, where’s the engineer?” Celestia whispered to her sister.

“He insisted that he wanted to make an spectacular entrance, so he’d hiding in that wardrobe waiting for you to open it,” Luna whispered back.

“Well I hope there’s enough air in there, because it’s still too soon to open it,” she said as she hid her laugh.

“Uh princess? What’s inside that wardrobe?” Twilight asked.

“I’ll show you later.”

Luna glanced around. “It seems your friends haven’t come back yet, Twilight Sparkle.”

“They are on their way back. I’m sure. I can feel it,” Twilight assured.

At that moment, from the portals, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Spike emerged. Twilight ran to them to give them a group hug. Once she broke off she asked, “how did it go girls?” Spike rolled his eyes. “And boys!” Twilight added sheepishly.

Before they could respond, Chief Thunderhooves, Fillydelphia’s governor Silver Boss, Manehattan’s governor Blue Fire, and the mysterious mare who had held Rainbow captive in Cloudsdale arrived behind the girls.

“Who’s the one in the hood?” Twilight asked.

“Don’t worry. She’s Cloudsdale governor, the eccentric but excellent pegasi leader, Miss Storm Cloud.” The pegasus took off the hood to reveal a blue eyed mare, with a dark grey curly mane and white fur, just like a cloud.

“Um, Princess, could you make my portal a little bit bigger?” Spike asked Celestia.

She did so, allowing the head of the elder dragon to make it’s presence, the dragon that defended Spike from the bullies.

“Governors, welcome,” Celestia said in a formal tone.

“Always a pleasure, our dear sun monarch,” Blue Fire said as he bowed.

“It’s been a while since the last boring official meeting, aye, Celestia?” said Silver Boss as he echoed the previous governor.

“Your presence alone makes the buffalo herd proud, princess,” said Chief Thunderhooves as he lowered his head.

“Oh, monarch, I’ve got no governor title. I’m just an old dragon who is respected in his migration place, but it fills me with bliss to be in your presence,” said the elder dragon leaning his head a bit.

“A pleasure to be in front of such a deity like you, oh sun monarch and goddess of the breaking dawn, I bow before you as your humble subject,” Storm Cloud said, paying her respect to the princess like all of her comrades.

“I appreciate that you’ve come here due to the current situation. The Elements went on your search to request support so that we might banish the humans once and for all,” Celestia said. “This is Richard Senedor, our human ally that brought us logistics support.”

Richard saluted the gathered officials. “A pleasure to meet you, gentlemen. I’m honored to be by your side.”

Celestia gestured to her sister. “My sister, Luna, who recovered the Elements of Harmony from Canterlot castle.”

“A pleasure to see the governors again,” Luna said with pride.

The sun princess gestured to Cadance. “And this is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza from the Crystal Empire, who’ll provide us with military equipment unique in its class.”

Cadance bowed to them. “Distinguished gentlecolts.”

“And before you, here’s the changeling leader, Queen Chrysalis.”

The governors looked at each other doubtfully, but they understood that if the princess trusted her, so should they. They bowed to her feet.

“Well, I could get used to this,” Chrysalis joked.

“And this is my most faithful and promising pupil, the Element of Magic, Twilight Sparkle.”

“It is a pleasure to be before such high ranked ponies,” Twilight said as she bowed to them.

“And at her side, is the Element of Kindness, Miss Flutter… Fluttershy?” Celestia paused, surprised at the sudden appearance of the pegasus. “If you’re here, then… where’s Discord?”

Appearing from behind, Discord made his appearance with lightning, thunder, and a big malicious laugh, scaring the Elements and the governors except Chrysalis, the elder dragon, and Fluttershy who most likely expected something like that from him.

“You should have seen your faces! Priceless!” Discord said as he laughed at his prank.

Celestia sighed and rolled her eyes. “Aaand, that’s Discord, who has also offered to help us.”

“So, what did you choose governors?” Twilight asked impatient.

They looked at each other, knowing they all came for the same reasons, and with the same answer.

“I think I speak for all when I say we’re willing to sacrifice everything, if it means saving Equestria. I’m with you,” Silver Boss said as he extended his hoof to the center.

“I’ll be joining in too,” Blue Fire said putting his hoof over Silver’s.

“The buffalo will run by your side,” Chief Thunderhooves said putting forward his hoof.

“We pegasi will wreck any human fool enough to get in our way!” Storm Cloud exclaimed as she put her wing above the hoof.

“My weapons and armor will protect and arm our brave soldiers.” Cadance extended her hoof with the others.

Chrysalis approached with her hoof. “My changelings will assist in any way they can.”

“I’ll use my power to confuse and scare those dumb hairless monkeys,” Discord said, extending his claw without moving from his place. “Uh, no offense,” he added, looking at Richard.

“The fire in me and my brethren will burn everything on their way,” said the dragon, who could only extend his head and offer the horn that protruded from his chin.

Everyone looked at Richard, waiting for him to join them, but the latter was astonished. Was it true what they had planned? To murder and massacre every one of his brothers in battle? It was certainly something he had not been expecting. He had naively wished that they would throw out the humans in a way that didn’t generate so much victims, but he was wrong, and now the ponies were expecting him to join them to help fulfil his gory duty, a duty he had chosen by his own will. His mind was a mess, what was he supposed to do now?

Twilight noticed that something was not right, and quickly asked, “is something wrong Richard?”

“I don’t know if I can…”

“What do you mean by…”

“I don’t want to murder those I consider my brothers, my pals, my friends!” Richard screamed, making himself heard across the whole cave.

Twilight got scared, but she maintained herself. “Listen, you’ve helped us in every way that you could. We accepted you and gave you our trust. We need you to come to the battlefield with us, please.”

“Are you deaf or just stupid?! I’ve said I don’t want to kill any one of them!” he yelled furiously.

“Please, just listen to me…” she said as she approached slowly.

“Get away from me you stupid mare!” he shouted as he pulled Twilight away from his side.

Devastated, Twilight ran away, heading deeper into one of the caves as tears streamed down her face and fell along her path.

Richard didn’t hesitate, he turned around and headed into another cave, getting as far away as possible, leaving behind him a lot of ponies confused by his attitude.

Determined to Fight

With a mixture of emotions, Richard walked with the hands on his pockets. Every now and then he would look back in case somepony was following him. what for? He wanted to be alone with his thoughts that were torturing him again. He was wondering if everything he was living was real or just a long dream that had transformed into a nightmare and then turned back to a dream again.

Fight against humans. Was that something he wanted to do? Should he? Could he wield a weapon and murder those he considered friends, relatives, family and so on? And besides, what would happen if the plan doesn’t work out and lose the battle? Would he be called traitor before dying? And if they won, would he return to Earth? How could he live with the guilt, hiding the truth from his family and friends? Or would he live the rest of his life in this fantasy land?

He got to the end of the tunnel, no one would be able to get through the entrance unless somepony like Twilight intervened magically. He remembered how he treated the only one that, so far, he could call a friend. The friend that gave him her trust while everybody else wanted to hurt him, that stood up between group conflicts, that called him an ally, instead of slave or prisoner, and that represented her last hope to try, somehow, to return back to normal, even if normal was just a mere word for them right now.

His body clock was telling him that it was now time to sleep, not knowing if it was night or if there was still sunlight outside. He sat down with his back against the ‘exit’ and slowly began to close his eyes, he didn’t what was coming in the future for him, but he had to be well rested for it.

Aside from the last dreams he had, back home he never had a lucid dream, one that he could control at will and, in the better of cases, he’d remember after waking up, but there he was, standing on a white place, no forms or dimensions to be seen, save for the floor where he was standing on. He was looking at it amazed and doubtful, what was that place supposed to mean?

“Don’t be afraid, you’ll soon be able to do whatever you wish here,” a mysterious voice said.

“Who, or what, are you?” he asked cautious, as he was searching for the source.

Surprised, he saw a star darker than the place up in the air, which dropped down slowly until it was at eye height. Richard approached his hand, almost touching it, but a force repelled him and he stumbled backwards. Fading into existence, Princess Luna made herself present.

“Princess? What are you doing here?”

“We’ve been not introduced properly, I am Princess Luna, co-governor of Equestria and monarch of the night,”

“I’m Richard Senedor and I… I’m… not sure who I am anymore,” he said as he raised both hands to his head.

“Here, before we begin to talk, we should make ourselves comfortable,” Luna said as she laid down on the ground.

Blushing, Richard asked:

“Comfortable?”

“Of course, I don’t know about you, but this is a lucid dream. All that you see here in white is a canvas that you can paint at your desire, try.”

Seeing it that way, Richard raised his hand and a golden glow covered it, he closed his eyes to picture the scene and, without a doubt, shot a magic current that traveled a long distance, and didn’t seem to ever stop.

“Don’t worry Richard, first try never works. Perhaps, if you try again and focus, then maybe…”

She couldn’t finish the sentence when Richard fired a second stronger shot without a warning; it traveled slower, only this time, an explosion occurred in the distance and a shock wave stirred Luna’s mane, which forced her to cover her eyes with her hoof…

Once she opened them, she was surprised as to how a unique landscape was created, Luna and Richard were now on a reef while the waves crashed violently, as some drops made it to the top, delicately touching the princess’ fur and mane. At the same time, a towering sun has risen on the horizon, intensely glowing, but not blinding.

Satisfied with the results, he sat on an indian position, and just admired such scenery that captivated him like the first time he dreamt it.

“This is…wonderful!” Luna exclaimed, fascinated.

“You think?” he asked.

“Of course I do! Only a few of my subjects could create such a marvelous thing so quickly.”

“Well, thanks, even though you’re just an illusion to my disturbed mind, I appreciate it,”

“What? You think I’m an illusion?” Luna said as a wave hit the reef, creating a big water wall before them without getting them wet.

Richard didn’t know what to answer that, making up a nervous face.

“Sometimes, I forget you’re not a pony,” she said giggling.

“What do you mean?” was the only thing he could say.

“One of my powers as the princess of the night, is to enter the dreams of my subjects and help them with their fears and insecurities, from a safe environment like the dreams are.”

His eyes couldn’t believe what he was seeing, as unreal as it was. If Twilight’s intangibility spell was surprising, this was a whole another level, unthinkable and impossible to do in his world.

Surprised, he asked the princess:

“If you are real, what are you doing in my dream?”

“I came to talk about what happened back there,” she said with a serious look.

Richard could only frown as he looked to the floor.

“Listen, I’m no fighting against them, I thought I left that clear, and you are not making me do it,” he said.

“I know,” the princess replied “We talked with each other and we decided that we won’t make you do something you don’t want to,”

“But there’s something I want to know,” she continued “How did you get to us?”

Richard wanted to be careful with what he was going to respond to what questions he was being made. Without delaying, he told her the same he told Twilight at the given time, from the report to Rainbow Dash’s hit, with every detail.

The princess was surprised by the dreams and nightmares he went through to get to her, his determination and most of all, his will, which has not subdued by his military ideals at the time to question his duty as a soldier.

Once he finished telling his story, Luna said:

“I see you’ve gone through a lot to get here, but most important, you did it on your own free will. I was impressed at the part about watching the moon devotedly, makes me feel special and loved.”

Richard, who was expecting a lecture from the princess, was curious about the her statement.

“Special…loved…aren’t you loved in your kingdom?” he asked.

Hearing that, Luna looked down sadly. Richard noticed he shouldn’t have asked that and hurried an excuse.

“S-sorry, I shouldn’t have asked such a personal thing,”

“It’s okay. You have the right to know anyway,”

Once she recovered her composure, she began her tale.

“A long time ago, there was an evil mare that desired the night to last eternally, she was called Nightmare Moon. But when she was about to fulfill her wish, her sister used devices of magic called the Elements of Harmony to banish her for a thousand years on the moon. Once that time was out, with the help of the stars, Nightmare Moon managed to escape from her prison and return to her prime objective, bring along the eternal night. But thanks to Twilight and her friends turned into the Elements of Harmony themselves, they defeated her and turn her to her original form,”

“Nice story and all,” Richard said “But, if you say that she returned to her original form, it means that she was another mare that transformed into her in the first place. So, who was Nightmare Moon?”

Luna looked sadly at the human, she knew he wasn’t stupid, it was in vain to hide the truth from him.

“You’re smarter than you look. Fine, if there’s no other choice…” she said with a loaded sigh “I was Nightmare Moon, happy?”

Sadness invaded her, a knot formed in her throat, she wanted to burst in tears, the memories of how she almost let Nightmare Moon take over her again made her feel guilty and disappointed in herself for almost falling into darkness’ temptation. Shamefacedly, she brought both her hooves to cover her face.

“I know there are still ponies that fear me and don’t trust me as their governor, not to mention that most of them don’t like the night that I create. It leaves a picture of a monster of myself” she said between sobs.

Suddenly, the scenery of the dream changed, sunset was blocked by storm clouds covering the stunning sun as they roared their lightning and thunderbolts, these started to make Richard shake in fear. Knowing that her tears were the ones causing the change, he did the first thing that popped into his mind to help her.

Thunders and lightning ceased when Luna felt how Richard was embracing her, taking her aback.

“W-what are you doing?” she asked.

“Listen, you’re not a monster, you’re one of the most important beings that Equestria has,” said Richard on her shoulder. “You bring night itself, you’re capable of helping your subjects in their dreams. Even if you’ve been on the evil side, you changed, and let out what makes you unique and special.

A hole in the clouds gave pass to a light beam that covered the scenery with its brightness.

“But what about my subjects?”

“If there’s something I know about politics, is that governors are called that way for two reasons, because they know how to play their roles as leaders, and because they have the respect of their subjects. You already have the first one. As for the other, well, if you want them to love you, you must get close to them and co-exist with them. I don’t think I need to remind you that things changed in this millennia that you’ve been absent, even customs, traditions, and your own subjects.

“Thank you Richard,” Luna said as she returned the embrace, after the talk “Sometimes I forget you’re a human after all.”

And so, the filled with doubts and sadness grey clouds vanished, leaving the place as immaculate as it started.

They stayed like this for who knows how long, until Richard slowly broke away from the alicorn, who revealed an inimitable smile.

“Thank you for the words of encouragement. You know? My sister tends to tell me that all the time, but I always thought she did that just to make me feel better. But coming from you… those words are not only true, but also feel more special,”

“You have nothing to thank me for,” Richard said “But, if it isn’t too much to ask, can you show me?

“What do you mean?”

“The night, well I mean, your night.”

“Alright, if you insist.”

Luna made her horn glow and shot a magic current similar to Richard’s, which traveled through the sky and sea, until it crashed against the sun and exploded, making the whole dream change, revealing a clear night, full of shining stars and a wild moon, white and big that lighted on the horizon.

“It’s so beautiful… just as I remembered!” he said marveled.

“Do you think so?”

“Of course I do, it’s as spectacular like the first dream I had after finding Twilight’s report,”

They both stared at the full moon for some moments, until Luna had to break that magical moment.

“Listen, I think I’ve taking enough time from you in your dream, I believe I must take my leave,” said the princess as she stood up “But think of the important decision that you must take. We won’t make you do anything.

“I understand, princess,”

“One more thing, it doesn’t matter what you choose, I think you owe an apology to certain unicorn,”

“You’re right, now that I’ve calmed down, I can’t justify how I treated Twilight, she didn’t deserve it. I’ll talk to her once I wake up.

“Great! Now if you excuse me, I must go, sweet dreams.” Luna said.

She raised her horn and made it glow, making her body turn into blue shiny dust being carried by the sea wind.

Richard stayed put, watching the seascape for a while until he decided to stand up and swipe off the dust from his trousers. Soon after a sound called his attention. He looked backwards and heard the laughter of his military companions, it was a laughter of joy and celebration, along with the clinking of bottles and cups between one another in a toast manner.

Curiosity overcame him and he walked slowly to the recently formed forest where those cheering were taking place, with every step, the voices of his friends were getting more audible, until he stopped in place, once he figured out what they were saying.

“Those ponies were too easy to defeat,” David said.

“Tell me about it! It did take us some time to get to the hideout, but damn, was it worth it,” said another one of his companions.

“Of course it was worth it, now that we’ve captured their leaders and some of those ponies as prisoners, we can continue and conquer the whole territory,” somebody else said as the group started laughing.

“Gentlemen, I don’t mean to interrupt your fun, but has anyone seen Richard anywhere?” Phillip asked.

“I dunno General, he went for a walk some time ago,” David replied.

“Surely he must have a lot to think about, who knows what sort of things the ponies have done to him while he was being held captive, it must have been traumatizing,”

“Traumatizing? Forget about it! Those are ponies you’re talking about,”

“Those ponies did put up a good fight, ever since the beginning they showed themselves as a powerful species, shame that it wasn’t enough to outmatch us,” Philip said as he sipped his wine.

“So? What’s next?” another soldier inquired.

“The books and maps that I’ve been brought are enough to know. There are many more cities beyond the hills, plus there are mineral deposits with all sorts of precious stones, if we exploit them we can bring military personnel, equipment to exploit the mines, we could even move our camp to Ponyville. What’s more, there are rumours of more species other than ponies, like griffons, buffalos and so on,” explained the general as he left his cup on the table.

“But don’t worry, if we’ve already defeated their leaders and taken over their capital, the rest will be a piece of cake. Get some rest everyone, you deserve it.” he concluded as he walked away from the group.

Richard could not believe what he was hearing, he was sure that he was asleep and this was only a dream, but imagining the situation and his partners mock and delight themselves, brought him a feeling of repulsion and disgust, he couldn’t believe that everyone seemed to agree with all of that carnage.

A thought flooded his mind. What happened to the Princesses, to the Elements, to the other ponies… to Twilight? Picturing the scene where each one of the girls were on the floor, lying down on a puddle of blood while the soldier’s boots left crimson marks wherever they went, made him almost vomit those wild berries he lunched on.

Determined, he turned around again and walked to where he was admiring the sunset now turned night by Princess Luna. Stood on the edge of the mountain, looked at the rocks below and the waves that crashed against them, he looked back and looked at the forest where the soldiers were still celebrating. A bit fearful, he brought his foot forward, leaving it dangling in the air while he balanced himself to not fall without warning.

“If I had to choose, I choose… I choose…”

He plunged into the void, from the mountain he created, determined to do what he believed was the best for everybody, but for that, he first needed to wake up and he found no other way rather than killing himself. Gravity was pulling him to the sharp rocks at the bottom as he remembered the talk he had with those colourful ponies that considered him an ally, specially that violet unicorn that called him “hope”.

“Hope… I’m… her hope.” was the last thing he said before smashing to the spiky rocks.

Shuddering and scared, he opened his eyes, waking up in the same spot where he sat down to sleep, he looked around to recognize the place and stood up, stretched his arms, thundered his fingers and neck, and walked back to the hideout.

Rainbow Dash was taking watch from the air, flying in circles around the refuge, she didn’t like to stand still in one place and this was the only way to avoid that. Nothing out of the common she said to herself, just ponies sleeping together, save for Twilight who was still nowhere to be found, her friends tried to talk to her, but they were only rejected without a chance to even say anything.

As she flew, she noticed how a familiar figure peeked his head from one of the tunnels, she quickly dived and landed in front of him.

“Well, well, look who decided to come back,” Rainbow said.

“I haven’t got the time to talk Rainbow, I need to see Twilight now,” Richard said.

“What for? So that you can keep treating her like garbage? I don’t think so,”

“Please Rainbow, I want to apologize. Please let me go to her.”

“Fine, fine, don’t start a scene here. She went through that tunnel,” Rainbow pointed.

Then Richard hugged Rainbow out of the blue, making her to open her eyes even wider.

“Thanks, thanks, thanks!”

“H-hey! You better hurry… before I change my mind!” she said tossing him aside.

Richard started to run and entered said cave that Twilight went into the previous night.

Once a bit after the half of the tunnel, he took a break to catch some air, he didn’t see any signals of Twilight so far, but her kept running into the tunnel, where the only sounds were a drop falling into a puddle of water and Richard’s boot stepping the rocky ground.

“Twilight!” he yelled, expecting a response.

No answer, he tried again.

He stopped running once he almost got at the end of the tunnel, he stood there to talk to her from a distance, in case she didn’t want to see him after what happened.

“Twilight, I know you’re mad and angry, and… and you have every right to be,” he said as he got closer “But I came here to tell you that… Twilight?

Richard noticed there was a different kind of silence, he approached the end of the tunnel just to see there was nopony in there, but something in the wall caught his attention. The same intangibility spell she used to help him recover his bag was still active. He braced himself and went through it.

Once outside, he went looking for her, but without yelling, there was a chance that there still were watch patrols around.

“Twilight? Where are you?” Richard asked, his voice close to a whisper.

“Hey, come on, help me carry her,” a voice said from afar.

Fearing the worst, Richard runs to the place where he thought he heard the voice.

“She sure is heavy, I didn’t know ponies were this heavy,”

“If you want her to be lighter, then come help me and stop blabbing for once.”

Once he got there, Richard sees in terror how a pair of soldiers captured Twilight, he didn’t know if she was dead or alive, there was only one way to find out.

He sneaked through the trees and bushes, picked a rock the size of his fist and waited for the right time to throw it.

“Wait ‘till the general finds out we captured…”

Silenced by the strike on his head, the soldier falls unconscious, while his partner looks around in search of the culprit.

“Who’s there?!” he yelled as he waved his gun.

He felt movement on a nearby bush, so he approaches it and moves it away to uncover what’s behind it, but seeing as there was nothing, he turns around to keep searching, without noticing that Richard placed himself behind him and hit him with a branch which was considerably big.

“Good thing they didn’t wear helmets” Richard said once made sure they were not an annoyance for the moment.

He quickly approached Twilight, who was on the floor, unresponsive.

“Twilight! Twilight!” he called as he checked her in case she had a wound. “Twilight come on, please!” he said trying to wake her up.

He placed his ear where he believed was the heart, luckily it was the right place and he heard her heart beating.

Without wasting time, he carried her on his arms and travelled back to the hideout, crossed through the intangible wall and ran faster than ever to find the rest of the ponies and ask for help. It didn’t matter if his arms or legs were in pain, he’d keep going, he promised so.

The ponies were sleeping peacefully, or as peaceful as it could get for a place like that, until a scream alerted them.

“Help! Need some help here!” Richard yelled.

Exhausted, he knelt waiting for someone to grab Twilight, but until then he held her and stayed with his head down waiting for her to wake up.

The princesses and Elements ran to them quickly, they were frightened to see Twilight, unconscious on Richards’s arms. Celestia enveloped Twilight with her magic and placed gently on the ground.

“We need a doctor here!” Celestia exclaimed, desperate.

Some ponies woke up from the racket and approached to see, terrified because the Element of Magic was passed out on the floor, impotency was the right word to describe those ponies.

Nurse Redheart entered the scene.

“For the love of Celestia, what happened?” she asked.

“I… went searching for her, thought she was at the end of the tunnel but… she got out with one of her spells or something, and when I went for her… a pair of soldiers knocked her out and were planning on taking her hostage… I took them out and I brought her back,”

The ponies exchanged suspicious looks; it was something hard to believe.

“Listen sugarcube, it’s not that we don’t trust you, it’s just that your story is… uh, how to say it…”

“It’s… barely believable, yes that, barely believable” Rarity said taking the words out of Applejack’s mouth.

“Oh you… don’t be so kind to him!” Said Rainbow standing in front of Richard “Truth is, we all think you’re lying.”

“Wait… why would you think I’d lie? Are you thinking I hit Twilight and then came here to ask for help?”

The ponies thought for a moment, but were still uncertain.

“Alright, look, if I wanted to betray you guys, I’d have escaped while Twilight was still unconscious, but no. I brought her here because she needs the first aid!”

“Or maybe you did that to trick us and make the soldiers enter through the door spell while we’re talking to you!” Rainbow accused.

Richard’s eyes opened wide when he found out of that detail.

“The entrance! Somebody must go and close it before they find about it!”

“Princess Celestia, what do you think?” Rainbow asked.

“Please, you must believe me!” Richard begged.

The princess looked at her subjects and Richard, she had to make a decision that would change the course of action, but when she was about to give her verdict, a voice stopped her.

“He’s telling the truth,” Twilight said as she got up with a bandage on her head.

“Wha- really?!” Rainbow said incredulous.

“Yes Rainbow, really. I was sleeping at the end of the tunnel when I heard steps getting closer; I didn’t want to talk to anypony so I went out and ran. When I thought nobody was following me, a soldier was pointing me with his gun until I felt a pain in my head. Last thing I remember was Richard next to me, checking if I was alive and breathing,” she said as she turned to face him,

“Thank you for bringing me back, it’s the bravest thing that somebody has ever done for me ever” she added as she hugged him.

Once they broke the hug, Richard said,

“Listen, I went looking for you because I wanted to apologize about yesterday, I shouldn’t have treated you like I did,”

“No, I’m the one at fault, I shouldn’t have made you do something you didn’t want to do, for a moment I forgot the tough situation you’re going through and, well, pressure took its toll on me,” Twilight corrected.

“I must insist, I was the one that…”

“Oh for the love- We got it, would you just shut up? Get a room!” Rainbow said.

Both of them blushed at the comment, giving away the fact that all was forgiven.

“Oh, one more thing, I thought about it and thanks to certain help,” Richard added as he looked at Luna “I’ve decided I’ll join you in the battlefield,”

The girls smiled and cheered, throwing themselves at Richard in a group hug, all of them except Twilight who was just looking at the scene somewhat happy, her eyes shifted to look at Luna searching for an explanation to that ‘certain help’. But why did she care that much about what Luna did to him?

As Luna noticed Twilight looking at her, the princess approached her and whispered,

“Don’t worry, nothing happened, I’ll tell you later,” she said as she winked at the unicorn “Well I better go close the entrance before we’re discovered, I’ll be right back.” she added with her normal voice, and left the place.

“Very well, now that we’re all gathered, and Twilight’s alright now, it’s time to introduce you somepony very special,” said Celestia as she levitated the big metallic wardrobe from before and put it vertically on the ground “Here he is, one of the best graduates from Equestrian Technical and Magic College in magical engineering, or the ETMC, Iron Wrench PhD.

So, she broke the lock and released the wardrobe from its rusty chain boundaries, opening it, for her surprise, the engineer fell down unconscious in front of the ponies who were surprised.

“Um, princess?” asked Rarity, warning about the state of the pony.

“Oopsie, he’s just playing around,” Celestia said with a giggle as she poked the engineer with a stick.

At first he didn’t react, but soon enough he woke up slowly from the princess’ poking, he sprung to his feet once fully awake.

“Sorry you had to see that, but I told certain princess, to open the box as soon as I got to destination!” Iron Wrench said staring at Celestia.

“And I told you, I wasn’t gonna open it until later, you didn’t have to make such an entrance,” the princess defended.

“But I like making spectacular introductions and you know that!” Iron replied.

The girls were looking strangely at the discussion between the princess and the engineer, it looked like they’ve known each other from before, maybe it was one of those friendship that were outside any royalty.

The discussion seemed to go on forever, it wasn’t until Twilight coughed on purpose that they shut up.

“Excuse me?” she said.

Once she got their attention, the both of them got back to business as it was supposed to.

“I’m sorry for the scene, it’s so nice to see a beloved friend after all these years,” Celestia explained.

“Oh Celestia, the feeling is mutual and even more so when last you came just to ask for a favour,” Iron replied arrogantly.

“Oh please, you know I did it for an emergency and it was the first time I asked you a favour,” Celestia said, whose voice turned from steady to kind and friendly, one that very few occasions was heard.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait… where do you exactly know him from?” Twilight asked.

“The first time I met him was when he visited the castle for an investigation, it was at that moment that I realized how smart he was, he gave me an interview and thanks to that, he passed with a hundred percent,”

“Actually it was ninety-five percent, I did make some mistakes,” Iron corrected.

“You passed with flying colours, which is the important thing, the second time was at the graduation ceremony, and I offered him a job at the castle about technological advances investigation, but he declined,” the Princess said as she looked at Iron.

“I didn’t want to be under the pressure of having a boss judging my work, so I decided to create my own business and give my services to those who hire them, in this case it’s Celestia,” he said pointing to the said pony.

“I’m sorry, services?” Twilight asked incredulous.

“That’s right, ever since your struggle with King Sombra, I was worried that future villains were more dangerous and I asked Iron to forge special armors for each one of you.”

From the metal wardrobe, six armor sets were taken out, each one with different forms and colors.

“I think we’ll start with… Twilight!” Iron exclaimed pointing at the unicorn.

Twilight approached and Iron quickly put her torso armor, leg plates and greaves and helm, her suit was a bit darker than her fur in colour, with golden details in almost all of its extension, the helm let her mane poke out and the openings in the front left uncovered part of her eyes, nose and mouth. The armor covered all of her middle zone up to her cutie mark, leaving her hindquarters and tail uncovered.

“Wow, it’s magnificent, it’s like I’m wearing nothing at all,” Twilight said as she waived her plot around.

Iron blushed at the action, but kept his composure.

“Indeed, all armors were made with a metal alloy, light and resilient altogether, so, who’s next?”

“Me! Memememe! Pick me!” Rainbow rushed at the front.

“Let’s see…”

Iron put the armor on Rainbow the same way he did with Twilight’s, this was a French blue colour, with the same golden details.

Rainbow was admiring her new armor, until she felt somepony touching her wings, angry she raised her guard.

“What are you trying maggot?!”

“Hey, don’t get your pants in a knot! If you let me do my job, I’ll add a special gadget for your wings,” Iron said covering his face.

Rainbow huffed without having much choice.

With a bit more care, Iron lifted some strange parts with his magic, and put them on the pegasus’ wings which were folded to her body. He got closer to give the gadgets a couple hits, putting some gears inside them to work.

“They’re ready. Now, unfold them and marvel yourself.” Iron said with confidence.

Rainbow did so, she unfolded her wings quickly, revealing that they were also covered in a special armor for them the same color of her armor, giving them a special mechanical look to them.

“As you can see, Rainbow’s wings are covered in a thin layer of refined metal, so flexible that’ they adjust to their natural movement without any hindrance as Iron explained, Rainbow played with her wings’ position to check it out-, plus they have an extra function, the ends of the feathers are extremely sharp, so, you can use your wings as swords if you wished to. Swing next to an enemy at full speed, and he’ll surely pay a visit to the hospital, if it isn’t too late for him.

Rainbow was astonished, and with a determined look she took off and did a few stunts to test her new suit, there was almost no difference and she could easily make use of her wing gadgets on the battlefield.

“Okay then, who’s next? Uh..you...Applejack!”

“Alright then,” the farm pony said as she took a step forward.

Iron placed the chest plate and helm in their places, both of them were mandarin orange with white details, her characteristic ponytail from her mane came out from a hole in the back part of the helm.

“So, where the hay are the boots or greaves of this thing?” Applejack asked.

“Oh, they’re right over there,” Iron said pointing to two pairs of grieves.

Applejack approached them, and was surprised at the size of those boots, it wasn’t how tall they were that surprised her, but how wide. There were so many metal parts that gave them a sturdy look, it was a little bit excessive.

“Don’t fear Applejack, they don’t bite,” Iron assured.

Still a bit doubtful, Applejack tried to put on the boots, but these were too heavy and couldn’t move them, she looked at the engineer pointing out the issue with her stare, to which he replied.

“Just put them on without moving them,”

Still confused, she stands in the middle of the boots and places her hooves inside them, fitting perfectly, she tried to move them again but they were too heavy even for her.

“How the hay do you want me to move if these… things… don’t let me!” she said between each pull.

“What? Oh sorry, I forgot, I’ll fix it right away,”

He went closer to Applejack and gave each part two hits, just as he did to Rainbow’s wings, the boots soon started gearing down, which made the parts to accommodate themselves, shrinking in size and adjusting to Applejack’s legs. Once that was done, the boots were just like her friends’, Applejack trotted around to test how they were.

“Okay, so, after those interruptions, let me explain what’s special about these boots,”

“Special?” she repeated.

“Of course, for you see, even though they’re smaller now they still have some extra power, can you stand on two legs?”

“A little while, yeah…”

“Good, see that rock over there?” Iron asked pointing behind him, at the rock where Richard was first tied up to “I want you to stand on your hind legs and give it a good kick,”

Applejack headed to the rock, looked at the engineer again, but he only nodded. So she stood on her hind legs.

“Take this!” she cried.

Applejack’s hooves smashed on the rock, making it tremble, leaving a mark double as deep as her hoof’s size.

Everypony were surprised at the damage done, Rainbow was agape.

“As you can see, Applejack’s boots augment the strength of the hits she deals, the Princess told me you used to work on an apple farm and were used to kick apple trees, so I designed the armor so that you can be stronger in close quarters,” Iron brags.

“It’s amazing,” Applejack could only say.

“And that’s not all, see that little button on the side of your armor? Push it and give the rock another go, in the same spot if you’re so kind,”

Applejack readied again, and pushed the button which makes the gears go. She stood on her hind legs again, cried, and just as her hoof was going to make contact on the rock, compressed air leaked from the apertures on her hoof, expanding rapidly to their original size. Thanks to the momentum she didn’t miss much from her original target, despite the sudden weight gain, making an impact on the rock, only this time, it exploded to the force of impact, obliterated in several pieces.

“No way!” Rainbow exclaimed “It’s too much power!”

Logically, Applejack was astonished and shocked, much like the rock was, she tried to move but the boot was still on its big form.

“Don’t worry,” Iron told her, and the instant next to it, the boot was coming back to its compact size “Let me do some explaining here, that button makes the boots enlarge to their original form, and with it, their strength as you may have noticed, which the reason of their huge weight was. There’s a catch however, the bigger the momentum, the stronger the force of impact, but the longer it takes to shrink back to adaptable size. It’s simple physics, you’ll get the hang of it.

“Alright, who’s… no wait, don’t tell me… Pinkie, I know you’re behind me with both hooves up.” Iron guessed at the pink pony.

“How did you know what I was doing? Are you some sort of psychic? Can you read my mind? Can you see the future? Can you read my palm? No, what am I saying? I’ve got no palm, Richard is the only one here that does and has two! So you can read two fortunes for the price of one! Can you, can you, can you?” Pinkie said before being shut up by Iron’s hoof.

“Celestia did a good work describing you all, though I think she missed by the…” he was interrupted after seeing the signals of the other ponies to stop talking.

“Oh you mean my hair? Don’t worry, it’ll come back to how it was, no reason to be sad anyway!” she said euphorically.

The girls were glad that Pinkie was returning to her usual self, at least in her attitude, it wasn’t known whether her hair will be the same as before or not.

Iron dressed Pinkie in her armor, dark pink colored with white details, her straight and downhearted heart popped out of her helm.

“So? What does it do? What does it do?!” Pinkie asked.

“I’d be glad to show you all of them, but they are hidden and there are so much that it would take me forever to explain all of them in a single stand. Plus, they are a surprise! I’m sure you’ll find them all, like them, and give them plenty of good use,”

“Next! You, the white unicorn!”

“Moi? I’m sorry dear but there’s no way I’m getting my hooves dirty on a battle, and even less display one of your armor sets that have so many functions and no sense of fashion,”

“Rarity… I thought you’d help us,” Twilight said giving her a puppy face.

“Sorry sweetie, I think I overreacted, of course I’ll help you but there’s no way I’m using these barbaric suits,”

“Just as I pictured you, but fear not, this armor was made especially for you,” he said as he gently placed the armor on her body.

Rarity was left with her eyes open and gleaming once she saw the armor, ice grey colored with details matching her mane color, and it had a gloss job that deemed it astonishing, the helm did not mess with her mane and did not overshadow the unicorn’s beauty.

Spike was dumbfounded at the pony, admiring her figure, checking every inch of her sculpted pearl white body.

“So what do you think? Up to your standards?” Iron asked.

“It’s, beautiful…” Spike said letting his thoughts drift, once he noticed, he took both of his claws to his mouth and blushed.

“Spike is right, this armor is beautiful, splendid, magnificent, worthy of a queen marching to the battlefield.” Rarity said as she tried several poses.

“Alright, you keep checking your gear while I see the last one… uh, Fluttershy right?”

The girls looked at each other concerned about their friend, understanding the obliviousness of the engineer about Fluttershy’s delicate moment that she was going through.

“Excuse me, Doctor Iron?” Twilight inquired.

“Please, just call me Iron” he insisted.

“Alright, Iron, Fluttershy is not in conditions to fight in the battle, we appreciate you’ve thought about her and made her a suit,” the Unicorn expressed.

“Oh, what a shame, marvelous creation if I do say so myself, but I won’t push the matter further,” Iron said as he put several green parts in a box, and closed it.

“So where’s my armor?” Spike asked innocently.

Everypony looked at him, each one with a brow raised.

“Surely you must be joking,” Twilight said, hoping that he was indeed.

“What are you talking about? I’m talking a hundred percent serious,”

“Well then you’re crazy, there’s no way I’m letting you go to that dangerous battle!” Twilight exclaimed.

“But Twilight…!”

“But nothing! You stay here with everypony else!” she yelled enraged.

“I want to be useful in some way! Please girls, help me out with this,” Spike begged on his knees.

“Sorry cowboy, I’m with Twi in this one, we can’t let you go,”Applejack said.

“My dear Spiky Wykie, as brave as you are, I will not let you set a foot outside this cave,” Rarity joined.

“The girls got a point Spike, it’s very ugly out there and I don’t think it’ll be the place for a baby dragon,” Rainbow pointed.

The dragon looked at his friends in defeat, he really wanted to help prove his worth and warrior within, in tears of frustration, he turned back and headed for a destination unknown, until the elder dragon’s head made its presence and stopped him.

“Hey there little dragon, why the long face?”

“It’s just… it’s just that I want to be part of this, and my friends don’t let me, I want to be useful,” said Spike as he wiped the tears with his claw.

“If they overprotect you it’s because they love you little one, they just want you to be safe,”

“I know, I know, but I really want to help,”

“That can be arranged, leave it to me,” said the elder.

“Are you serious?” Spike asked in hope.

“I am, we just need to wait until they arrive… huh, what do you know, it looks like we don’t need to wait at all.”

From the other portals, the governors from all over the land made their presence in the cave once more, each one wearing their own battle armor.

“Oh Celestia, our troops are ready, just give us the order and we’ll start to mobilize,” Blue Fire said in his particular formal tone.

“My pegasi and I are ready to dish out some kicking to those humans!” Storm Cloud cheered.

“This will be an unimaginable show, my Fillydelphia warriors are ready for anything,” Silver Boss said.

“My buffalo brethren will run at your side in battle,” said Chief Thunderhooves.

“Celestia, I’ve been able to recruit brave dragons for the cause, but we have a problem; we need a leader, someone that can take us to the battlefield,”

“Not a problem dragon chief, I’m sure somepony will be willing to guide you,” Celestia said.

“Please my monarch; call me by my name, Kantrugajh. And there’s no need to search, I’ve got somebody in mind already for the mission. Come little one, don’t be afraid,” said the elder dragon.

From behind his head, Spike pops out shyly, Celestia did not flinch, the Elements, particularly Twilight, regained their stance.

“Spike… I thought I made myself clear, when I said… you’re not going to the battle!” she screamed angrier than before.

Foreseeing the situation that was going to take place again, Celestia decided to take the word.

“Spike, you are only a baby dragon and I understand the acting on my student’s part towards the situation,” said Celestia while Twilight showed a triumphant grin “But I also know that we’re on a reality that demands us to use every last resource we have available” Twilight changed her expression to one of doubt and fear.

With a knot on her throat, Celestia asked:

“So Spike. Are you sure you want to go to battle to us, to take the risk that it entails?”

The surprise at Celestia’s proposition left everyone shocked, all of their jaws were practically inches from the ground, while the dragon only looked at his governor, determination on his face.

“I am Princess, I want to fight at your side,” Spike said.

“So be it,” she said with her eyes closed, and quickly opened them “Iron, is there any way you can fabricate an armor for Spike?”

The unicorn, surprised by the question, starts to look around in search of an answer, until his watch lies on that metal wardrobe, where he brought the girls’ armors. With a glint in his eye, he brings the wardrobe closer to him with his magic, puts Fluttershy’s armor on the ground and and takes the door and compartments apart, leaving only metal pieces lying around.

“You’re asking for this out of the blue Celestia, but I think I can manage. Spike, come here for a second, I’ll measure you and make something out that fits you,” Iron replied.

Spike walked with the engineer, once he passed by Twilight he noticed that she had her head down, a shadow covered her cold stare, her expression was one of disappointment.

“Twilight… I…” Spike muttered as he tried to explain the situation.

“No… don’t say a word, if you want to go out there and die, just don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Twilight said dryly.

“But Twilight…”

“No. Leave.” she said pointing to the engineer with her hoof without looking at Spike.

Understanding her anger, Spike goes with Iron to start making his armor, after some completely silenced seconds.

“Alright, the battle suits are done, now we need a strategy,” Celestia said to break the silence.

“Wait,” Twilight said as she looked at Richard “Richard? What are you doing?”

The human was looking in front of him with a hand on his chin, without paying much attention to the ponies, thinking until the question took him off his trance.

“What? Sorry, didn’t hear anything you guys said, I was thinking about a strategy,”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah, that was my specialty in the army, so listen up,” he said as the Elements, princesses and governors approached, the elder dragon could only lean his head to them “I think I have the way to get to the portal. Did anyone here hear about the saying “divide and conquer”?”

Everyone nodded, except Rainbow.

“Well, the thing is, I was thinking that if we can manage to make the army at the base go fight somewhere else, we’d have more chances of carrying out what Twilight has planned,”

“You mean like bait?” the unicorn asked.

“Exactly,”

“How are we supposed to do that, human?” Luna asked.

“I’m not saying it’ll be easy, but I could trick the general into making him believe that you’ll attack the base and have your armies at the forest, while the rest will go straight to base when the soldiers quantity that where there has dropped.”

“Hang on, hang on, if humans are as tough as they say, how will we split the armed forces to confront them?” Rainbow asked.

“I covered that too. Seeing as most part of the army will fight outside, then I think it’d be fair to deploy most of ours there too, that group might be buffalos, dragons, and ponies from one of the cities, the governors of course leading their own groups. The other part will mostly consist of ponies from the other cities, pegasi, and changelings, led by the Elements, the princesses, the governors that are left and Discord. What do you think?”

Everyone looked at each other, some shared looks of agreement, others however disagreed.

“Sounds like a plan Richard. Does everypony understand what to do?” Celestia asked.

“I do too think it’s a good plan boy,” Silver Boss said “But it’d be better for all governors to share the same front,”

“I agree with Silver,” Storm Cloud said politely “I’d rather prefer to join my fellow governors in the noble mission of saving Equestria together,”

By this point, everyone was confused at Cloudsdale’s mayor attitude, sometimes she was energetic and outgoing, in others, refined and polite, nobody could understand her. Save for the other governors and Princesses who knew exactly the reason to that erratic behavior.

“But if you go to the other front, who will lead your troops?” Richard asked.

“I think Celestia and Luna are qualified enough to lead my troops, I trust them because they saved me several times, do you remember Princess?” Silver said laughing. While Celestia only smiled to those memories.

“As for mine, I think I know the right lady for the job,” said Storm as she looked at certain blue pegasus “Miss Rainbow Dash, would you do me the honor to guide your Pegasi brothers in the battlefield?

The said Pegasus’ eyes widened in surprise, and took one of her hooves to her mouth in excitement.

“Do you… do you really want… me to lead your troops?” Rainbow asked.

“Absolutely dear, you’re qualified to the task I’m leaving on your shoulders and… and,” she muted out for a second “And I hope you get out there and kick those humans outta here!

“I won’t disappoint you mayor,” Rainbow said making the military gesture, Richard smiled when he saw they did have some customs of them.

“So, as a final note, governors will go to the forest outskirts, and the rest to the forest itself. If everyone agrees, then the only thing left is to star to mobilize the troops,” Richard said.

The ponies looked at each other and nodded along, first the governors, then the princesses, and lastly the Elements, ending with Twilight.

“Alright then, everyone’s got their orders, time to move out!” Richard ordered.

Everypony looked at him with a brow raised, once he noticed, Richard scratched his head in shame, for a moment he forgot who he was dealing with.

“Uh I mean, just… nevermind” he sighed.

And so, the leaders left for their portals to bring their soldiers for the final battle.

Meanwhile, it was time to set the plan in motion.

“So if you’re a terrible liar, how will you trick the General in sending his men?” Celestia asked.

“That can be fixed; I’ll call the base pretending I’m enslaved by you and revealing your ‘plan’,”

“You didn’t answer my question,”

“I was getting to that. I need someone to hit me, hard enough to agonize, not enough to knock me out, volunteers?”

“I’ll do it!” Rainbow called getting her friends out of the way and getting closer to Richard.

“Somebody else? No one? Please there’s gotta be someone else, seriously?” Richard said nervous and terrified.

“Don’t be afraid, it’ll be quick, the strike I mean. The pain? Not so much,” the Pegasus said maliciously.

“If that’s how it goes, go ahead, let me warn you though, I’m a little…”

He couldn’t finish because Rainbow flew full speed ahead and hit him in the stomach, as fast as a wink, a drop of water falling into a water puddle, a word lost in the wind.

Richard was static, processing both the pain and what just happened, the only reaction he had was stay with his mouth agape and try to say any word, but the only thing he could make up were pain sounds.

“I hope that’s what you wanted,” Rainbow said satisfied, letting him go and standing up again.

Richard could not stand on his own however, and dropped in front of everybody, Twilight went to help him, at least making certain that he was still alive.

“Are you nuts Rainbow?! You could have killed him!” Twilight yelled angry.

“Relax egghead, I could have, but I restrained, I may have overdone it because I forgot I still had my armor,” Rainbow said laughing.

“Rainbow!” Twilight repeated.

“It’s okay… I’m fine,” Richard said forcefully, coughing saliva “Quick… get my bag.”

Quickly Twilight levitated the bag towards him, he took out his phone and put the speaker on his face, thinking about what would he say to the general once he picks up at the other side.

“Colonial Base, this is General Philip Armander,”

“Phil… help me,” Richard replied, restraining himself from throwing up.

“Rick is that you? Where are you? What happened?”

“I’ve been caught Phil… I’m hurt,”

A shudder traveled through Philip’s body.

“But how did that…?” the general stuttered.

“I’ve been knocked out by surprise… I woke up in a cave and… and…”

“Don’t worry, I’ll send out some help,” Philip said alarmed.

“No… listen… I sneaked through them to tell you…” he coughed “They are preparing themselves… to attack the base… from the North side.

“How do you know that?”

“I’ve been cast the same spell they cast on you for interrogation… I couldn’t resist general… I’m sorry,”

“No, no don’t be sorry, I promise you, when we’re done with those rebel ponies we’ll come looking for you, thanks for warning us. Hang up before they spot you and… don’t do anything stupid until we’ve come for you, understood?”

“Al…right Phil, good luck,” Richard finished hanging the phone quickly.

“This is bad, so bad,” the General said while he pressed a button on his desk, making the whole site to blare by the sound of an emergency siren.

He grabbed the microphone on his desk, turned on the speakers and said:

“Attention, we have a situation in process, all personnel get ready for the expedition, and captains reunite at the operations center to discuss battle strategy,”

He ran out of his tent and to the operation center, losing himself between the running and hustle of the available soldiers.

Back in the cave, Richard was thoughtful as he looked at the phone, he knew that from here on out, there was no turning back.

“Rainbow… mark my words,” Richard said without looking her “Someday, I’ll get back to you, even if it’s the last thing I do,”

“In the next life maybe,” Rainbow replied with a confident laugh.

“Come Richard, let me help you up,” Celestia said.

He leaned against the sun monarch and with his left arm helped himself up with her neck.

“Hey everypony!” a cheerful voice said from behind them all.

Everypony looked back to see Cadence, who was coming from inside a portal.

“Twilight, could you do me a favor and make my portal bigger? I need to bring some carts along,”

“Sure, give me a second,” Twilight said as she made her horn glow and made the portal grow.

Each of the carts had huge boxes in them, some guards from the Crystal Empire took one down and opened it.

“In these boxes there are the special armors for the soldiers, but I don’t think you need these. You look amazing!” Cadence exclaimed.

“Thank you!” the girls said in unison.

“But what’s special about those armors?” Rainbow asked as she held a torso piece which brought her good memories.

“Oh I almost forgot!,” Cadence said “I need to show you the power of these armors, who wants to be a volunteer?”

The Elements looked at a tired Richard, he warned them:

“Oh no, I won’t be your testing guinea pig this time, I’ve got enough pain to endure already,”

“Sissy,” Rainbow whispered..

“I think I know who will be the perfect test subject for this,” Twilight said.

Trapped in a magic bubble, Dr. Hooves and the ponies that helped him attack Richard were laying down looking at the floor, thinking about the situation.

“Hey Doctor,” Twilight said, he just ignored her “Time to pay for what you did, put this armor on and step to the center”

The Doctor looked at the strange armor, but did not hesitate in putting it on and accompanying the unicorn.

Once in the middle, Hooves is surrounded in a circle, and Richard came from behind the crowd, wielding a M14 assault rifle set to manual fire. The Doctor was scared for seeing that unknown weapon to him, he tried to run away but something stopped him, a rectangular purple block engulfed his legs and put him steady in place.

“What’s all this?” he asked terrified.

“Just a little experiment we’re doing, if you stay calm you won’t get hurt,”

“Do you know what will happen if Dinky sees this situation?” he asked distressed.

“Don’t worry,” Luna said “She’s in the Dreamland now and I don’t think she’s waking up soon.”

“Okay Richard, please proceed” Twilight said as she casted a protection barrier for the watchers.

In a swift motion, he pointed at the Doctor with his gun, he tried to escape from that purple block but it was useless, he could only lean his head away and close his eyes, waiting for death.

The gunshot was heard all around the refuge, the ponies looked astonished at the scene, Cadence and Twilight had a satisfied look after seeing the results, a confused Doctor opens his eyes slowly and untruthful, surprised after finding himself unharmed, he looked at Richard’s gun and noticed the bullet cap was on the ground.

“W-what happened?” Hooves asked.

“As you may have noticed, Doctor, the Crystal Empire armors are unique in its kind, they are made with magic that when it fuses with molten iron, they make an armor capable of resisting physical harm better than common armor. Richard, do you mind shooting once more?

“My pleasure,” he said as he shot the Doctor again without giving him time to react.

With the same result, Cadence continued with her explanation.

“As you can see, the armor’s magic made the bullet disintegrate completely after making contact with it, like it didn’t even touch it. The problem is, this magic is limited and is bound to run out after a while, any questions?”

While everypony was surprised because of the explanation, Celestia raised her hoof to ask something.

“Yes Celestia?”

“When did you turn yourself to crystal magic and armory expert?”

“Last night when we were packing the armors,”

“Good. Doctor, I hope this is lesson enough for your previous act. Without much else to do, every royal guard present must come pick up an armor set and change, we’ll go as soon as possible at the battlefield,”

“Yes ma’am!” the guards saluted.

At that moment, the governors made their presence and little by little, their troops started to fill the place.

“So what are you going to do now? You can’t go to the battlefield as a human,” Twilight said a bit worried.

“Well… I thought you could help me with that thing, you know, a spell or something,”Richard said.

“I’m sorry, but there are no disguise spells, not even the princesses have something like it. Stupid, stupid, stupid me for not thinking this through!” Twilight said hitting herself with her hoof “Wait, I’ve got it! Chrysalis can turn you in a pony with her changeling power!

Chrysalis, who was strangely quiet recently, loomed from behind Twilight scaring her.

“What?! I don’t know what’s going through that pony head of yours, but only changelings can have this power,” she said.

“Oh please, can’t you at least try?” Twilight asked.

“One thing is turning us into other beings, but use our magic to transform a third party is something I’ve never tried.”

“It’s never too late to try, besides it’s just one shot. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Gee, I dunno, losing my life is one of them!” Richard jumped in.

“If that’s the only risk, I’ll do it.” Chrysalis said with an evil smile.

She loaded her horn, a small green orb created on its top, which emitted small electric discharges of the same color, he didn’t feel pain, just a huge pressure on the impact zone.

After some seconds, green flames rotated on the floor around Richard, these rose until they covered him completely, and after what seemed an eternity, a small explosion dispelled that green fire, leaving smoke in its place.

“Richard? Are you okay?” Twilight asked.

But there was no answer, the thick smoke couldn’t let her see anything and imagination toyed with the ponies’ minds, even Discord’s, who was thinking about a failure leaving him almost as grotesque as he is.

There was the sound of clumsy walking hooves in the smoke took them all off of their trance, giving away the fact that the spell was a success.

“Richard? Are you feeling alright?” Twilight asked again.

-I think… I think so, I still can’t figure out how to waaaaooww,” he said as he tripped in front of the unicorn and dissipated the smoke.

Twilight laughed at the act, but in fact, the spell was actually successful, as a result, there now was a pale yellow coated unicorn, light brown eyes, medium brown tail and mane with a green stripe and no Cutie Mark.

“Wow! It looks better than I expected! Who did you picture to transform him?” Twilight asked.

“To be honest, nopony, I just used my changeling magic to ensure positive results. I’m surprised he came out a unicorn,” the Queen said thoughtful.

“So now that you’re almost a pony, you need a proper name, got any nicknames?”

“Well, my close friends call me Rick,”

“Rick, that’s a start, but it needs something else…” Twilight thought.

“Something elegant and sophisticated? How about Fancy Rick?” Rarity suggested.

“No not that, something a bit…”

“A bit more partying! Party Rick!” Pinkie said.

“No, something like…”

“…like Ugly Stupid Rick?”Rainbow said.

“Aren’t you satisfied with the blow, that you’re still pestering me?” Richard asked.

“Would you stop fighting already? I’m trying to focus!”

“I think I’ve got the right name for him,” Celestia said “How about you call yourself Brave Rick?

“Brave Rick… Brave Rick! Oh it’s the perfect name! Pick it, pick it!” Twilight said cheerful.

Richard thought for a bit, that name didn’t sound so bad to go to the battlefield.

“Okay then, from here on out, just call me Brave Rick.”

Wind War

As Equestrian troops put on their armor and readied for battle, Iron Wrench was giving his final touch to Spike’s armor.

“Well, I think it’s ready. Go ahead and give it a try,” he said as he gave Spike his armor.

“Thanks,” Spike said dryly in a sad tone.

Iron noticed it, and he sat next to him.

“Listen. What Twilight said, was to protect you."

“You don’t know how it feels, she’s like a mother to me and she's never said those things to me,” Spike said with a knot in his throat.

“You’re wrong,” Iron replied putting his hoof on Spike’s shoulder “Back in the day I used to be a little rebel as a foal, I was stubborn and my mother nagged me about it. But as I said, she only did it to veil for me to do things right. I really do know how it feels.”

Spike looked at the unicorn with the light grey coat, almost white, short blonde mane, while slightly redundant, in a ponytail with small dark framed circular glasses. Then he looked at the ground, searching for an answer to his dilemma.

“You’ve got the Princess’ clearance for it; it’s time to show Twilight you’re brave, strong, and responsible enough to watch over yourself in this war. I assure you, when you meet again after the battle, she’ll wait for you with arms wide open. How about that?”

Spike felt a big relief in the engineer’s words. Nopony that wasn’t Twilight had told him words like those.

“You’re right, thanks. I’ll give my all in this battle!” Spike exclaimed.

“That’s the spirit, but if you want to live to tell the tale, you put on the armor,” Iron ordered.

So, the baby dragon put on his battle suit, it was a simple helm, metal clawed gauntlets and a chainmail covering his area lacking in scales, guaranteeing protection on his weak spot.

“Why do these gauntlets have claws? I’ve got pretty strong and sharp claws here,” he said taking off his gauntlets and showing off his claws.

“As sharp as they might be, you’re still a baby, ok? Those gauntlets will make you capable of cutting and clawing through more flesh, your attacks will be more painful too, that’s a given. You try and see for yourself,”

Iron put a rock in front of Spike, he swallowed, and with his own claws, he struck it and barely made a scratch, more like a notch. Spike tumbled back in pain.

“Alright, alright. Stop crying and try the gauntlets,” Iron said.

Holding a tear in his right eye, he put on his gauntlets which were lighter than they looked, and stepped in front of the rock again. With a quick move, he swiped and cut the rock in several parallel chunks.

“Amazing! I didn’t even feel my claw touching the rock at all,” Spike said, surprised.

“Indeed, although improvised, they’ve got a great edge which compensate for the lack of your cutting power. The rest of the armor protects your abdominal area from your low section to the legs,” Iron said.

“So now what?”

“I think I can show you a few movements to fight, come here.” Iron said.

Meanwhile, Brave Rick was putting on his Crystal Empire armor in front of the girls.

“So how do I look?” he asked.

Everypony nodded positively, but Twilight could only stare at a specific point of his.

“Twilight, there’s something wrong?” Applejack asked.

“Huh? No, nothing. Why’s that?” she replied, obviously nervous.

“You’ve been looking Rick’s horn for quite a while now, something bothering you?”

“It’s just that… I’m surprised he came out a unicorn, I mean, as far as we know, humans can’t do magic like us, so, why a unicorn? Can he use magic?” Twilight asked.

“Well sugarcube, there’s only one way to find out. Hey Brave! Come here for a second,” Applejack said.

At the order, Rick approached them.

“So listen Brave Rick…”

“Just Rick is fine,”

“Okay, Rick. Did you notice your transformation gave you a horn?” Twilight asked.

Doubtful, Rick takes one of his new hooves to the head and felt a horn coming out of it, but he quickly lost his balance and fell down.

“Well, I guess that answers your question,” he said while lying on the floor.

“Good. Strange that you’ve been turned into a unicorn though, you might do magic like I do,”

“So, can I be as powerful as you?” he naively asked.

Rainbow Dash entered the scene and busted in laughs at the commentary, everypony except Twilight followed suit, who looked a bit ashamed.

“What’s so funny?” Rick asked.

“Oh Rick, I don’t think you know who you’re talking to,” Rainbow said as he wiped her tears laughing.

“Dear, she’s the Element of Magic itself, she’s no ordinary unicorn, she can do things nopony else can,” Rarity said.

“Stop it girls, I’m not that special,” she said blushing.

“The thing is, you’ll do basic unicorn stuff, grab things with your magic and sort,” Rarity said.

“You got me at grabbing stuff in the air, when do lessons start?” Rick asked.

“L-lessons? You want me to teach you magic? Together like… student and teacher? Disciple and monk? Or apprentice and…?” she got silenced by one of Rick’s hooves that pressed on her lips, which made her blush yet again.

“Yes Twilight, I want you to be my mentor, teacher… and all of the other things you said, I want to be ready when I have to fight against them,” he said enthusiastic as he retrieved his hoof from Twilight’s mouth.

“If that’s what you want, come along then, we’ve got work to do if you want to learn the basics on telekinesis,” said Twilight as both parted from the group.

“Uh, girls? Call me crazy but…”

“Crazy,” Rainbow said, interrupting Rarity.

“Har dee har har, so funny Rainbow. I was saying that am I crazy, or do I feel certain… how should I say it… attraction between Rick and Twilight? Do you feel the same?”

“I’m not sure sugarcube, you may be right, at least Twilight shows, can’t say the same about Rick though,”

“Oh oh! Twilight in love with the human, so romantic, if some day they become coltfriend and marefriend I swear I’ll throw a huge mega party in their honor with balloons, streamers and a DJ, and everypony will be invited!” Pinkie said cheerfully.

“Just thinking about it disgusts me,” Chrysalis joined them after returning showing off a glossy black armor with emerald green details.

“Interspecies love is an enigma even for me,” said Discord waking up from a rock bed, putting a rock blanket next to his oval rock pillow.

“Slept well?” Celestia asked sarcastic.

“Better than ever,” he said as he thundered the bones all across his body in a twirl. “The rocks in this cave are comfier than some huts’ beds for tourists.”

“Hey! Nopony asked for your opinion!” Rainbow yelled.

“As far as I’m concerned…”

“Enough!” Celestia yelled, muting the place. “We’ve got to get ready, so go do that while you can,”

As everyone broke away, a voice emerged from the shadows.

“Hold it!” the voice was deep, and had a different accent from the rest. “If to win this war you want, my help I shall provide.”

Everyone was shocked, nopony expected to see that mare make an appearance after the low profile she maintained all this time in the cave.

“Zecora the Zebra,” Celestia addressed formally “it’s an honor for us to know you’re still with us and give us your aid. Tell me, what do you got to offer?”

The zebra just smiled and from her brown saddlebag took out a flute made from the forest’s wood.

“Everypony heed, for one of you to help me I need.”

And so Zecora told the Princesses of her plan to give her help on the battle.

Meanwhile, Twilight was about to start her express magic class for Richard.

“Okay then! First off we’ll check the assistance list,” Twilight said holding a notepad with her magic, she had her mane tied up and was using red framed glasses.

“Twilight… I don’t think that’s necessary, I’m the only one in… this place… and this is not the school,” Rick said.

“Organization first young man… Brave Rick," said the purple unicorn looking at her pupils list.

“Young man? I’m forty years old; I’m surely much older than you,”

“Please, young man, do not interrupt while I name for assistance, let’s see again… Brave Rick,”

Playing along, seeing as he had no other choice, Rick raised his hoof.

“Perfect attendance, I’m glad,” Twilight said, leaving the notepad on the floor “Alright class, we’ll do some pre-basic magic today, focusing on telekinesis.”

Once she finished that sentence, she brought a chalkboard and, obviously, some chalk.

“My name is Twilight Sparkle, but you must call me Miss Sparkle,” said Twilight writing her name on the board “Before getting practical on telekinesis, we’ll start talking about history. As you all know, telekinesis is by far the very core of unicorns ever since their beginnings as a species, which functions as a way to levitate objects for several purposes…”

Twilight kept on talking on history, but Richard didn’t seem to care and thought they were only wasting time on such an explanation.

“…in the passing of the years, the cost of using magic for telekinesis reduced with the new needs for the ponies, getting to what it is now, where only unicorns of high level can levitate heavy objects with magic. But there was a time where things were a little different…”

“Twilight?”

“In this part of the history, a unicorn named Star Swirl the Bearded was the protagonist in one of the darkest eras of magic…”

“Twilight!” Richard yelled interrupting her lecture.

The purple unicorn freaked out a bit from the soldier’s attitude.

“W-what’s wrong Rick?” she stuttered a bit scared.

“Listen, it’s not that I don’t value what you’re teaching me, but we have no time for that, I need you to teach me how to wield a sword with that telekinesis stuff as quick as you can,”

Twilight dropped her head to the commentary, Richard’s eyes showed seriousness. She didn’t fall behind and returned the expression.

“If that’s what you think, fine,” Twilight said as she took off her glasses, her hair garter and pushed the chalkboard away “Come here.”

Richard cautiously approached Twilight.

“Magic is an extension of you, one that, as a unicorn, you’re capable of projecting and controlling at will. The magic level varies with each unicorn and the main factor is the cutie mark, it depends on your talent. Seeing as you’re just a blank flank, we only have to go over the basics… let’s see,” said Twilight searching around, until she pointed at a nearby rock “See that rock? I want you to close your eyes and feel the magic flow all over your body, the first time feels like that, happened to me at least. Then project that energy as an extension of your body and lift it from the ground."

He closed his eyes self-confidently, and aimed his horn for the small rock. He could visualize in his mind the scenery that surrounded him and the rock he had as an objective without much trouble. He thought about Twilight’s words to feel the magic and be able to project it. But his attempts were for naught, he wasn’t capable of more than making his horn glow golden.

“Don’t feel bad Rick, first time is always hard, it’s just a matter of time and practice,” Twilight said, consoling him.

“That’s the problem, I don’t have time, if I can’t deal with this telekinesis thing I will only be a burden in the battle, and the last thing I want is to make things worse for all of you,” he said with a sad look.

“Don’t be sad, I’m sure you’ll be able to manage; you’re a strong and brave pony,”

“No…” Richard said interrupting her “I’m not a pony, I’m a human that decided to help you, don’t mix things up,”

The statement felt like a bucket full of cold water poured on Twilight’s head, bringing her back to reality, because those words were nothing more than the absolute truth; he was a unicorn physically, but that was just a façade to go unnoticed and nothing else. In her head she knew it all too well, but there was this warm feeling in her chest that makes her forget about it all and think unthoughtful things in that moment.

“Be it a human or a pony it’s the same for us, you came here with the sole intention to help and that’s what matters, and that’s why I think you’ll be able to cast magic like we do,” Twilight assured putting her hoof on Richard’s shoulder. Feeling her touch relieved him.

“Thanks Twilight.”

“You’re welcome, I learned from the best.”

For a moment they looked at their eyes, where they were only them and everything else vanished, gone completely for reasons beyond logic and understanding. Something deep inside the human was awakening due to the changeling spell, his pony instincts were being born. They slowly closed in, Twilight blushed in a way that the fur on her face could have been red this whole time, and Rick was just caught in the moment.

“I think I can help with that,” a voice said near them all of a sudden.

Twilight and Rick broke apart in haste and looked away of each other; it wasn’t until a while that they noticed that Princess Luna was now with them, interrupting the magical moment. Rick was still a little confused for what happened, but stopped thinking about it.

“Princess Luna, do you need anything?” Twilight asked, more than just a bit annoyed.

“I think I can help Rick with his magic problem,” Luna repeated.

“He doesn’t have a problem, he just needs practice, he’s technically a newborn unicorn,”

“If that’s the case, I’ll just give him some words of advice, if you allow me of course,”

“Uh, sure, go ahead.

As they talked, Richard tried again to levitate the rock.

“Don’t try too hard soldier,” Luna said.

“Oh princess, I’m giving my best but I simply can’t,” Rick replied sadly.

“Listen Richard, this is not as different as in your dream, just picture in your mind what is it that you want to do and focus,” Luna said as she pointed at the rock.

“As in my dream… okay, got it.”

He closed his eyes again, and imagined the scenery where he was standing,with the same rock in the ground. He used his horn as if it was his hand and concentrated energy in gold color.

“Imagine it…imagine it,” he thought.

With his eyes closed, the energy started to manifest in his head. From his horn protruded an unstable hand of magic, which traveled the room to that imaginary corner until it was in front of the rock.

“Imagine it… imagine it.”

He clenched his eyes making a frown, as sweat drops fell from his forehead. The hand that his mind was controlling opened, revealing deformed fingers, which stayed static for a moment.

“I have to… imagine it!” he screamed to himself.

He took the stone in his magic hand. He opened his eyes to make sure that, in fact, he managed to do it.

“Time to lift it.”

He closed them again. With some force, the imaginary hand started to steadily lift the rock from the ground, rising until it was at the height of his head.

In the real world, both Twilight and Luna were happy to see the rock levitating in such a short time.

“Rick you can open your eyes! You did it!” Twilight said euphorically.

Afraid of breaking the spell, Richard slowly opened them, taking in a nice surprise.

“Did I…? I did it… I did it!” he said jumping in place, but because he was yet not accustomed to his new body, he misstep and ended up in the ground again, breaking the spell.

Rick felt down a little but Twilight cheered him up again.

“It doesn’t matter Rick, now that you can do it, you just need practice. Up, we got a lot to do before the battle,” she said extending her hoof to help him up.

Smiling, Brave joined his hoof to hers and got up again.

“Luna,” Twilight said as she looked at the princess “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome Twilight Sparkle, good luck you two,” she said as she winked at Twilight and left the room.

“You know, the princess is nice. But what did she mean by that last thing?” he asked naively.

Twilight replied with a scorn as she insulted him in her mind.

“I wonder that too…” she said in a sigh of defeat. “Alright then, time to keep training, you still need to develop the control for telekinesis and learning how to use a sword with it,”

“No problem, let’s start,” Rick said excited.

The hours went by quickly. As the ponies got ready for the fight with armors and swords, the humans in the base were too mobilizing at the same time each division captains organized them, some were carrying M14 auto carbines or manual scoped rifles for the snipers, rocket launchers, flame throwers and mortars, all of them weapons of choice for the battle, not to mention the service pistols that every soldier had to carry with them at all times.

In his personal tent, General Philip was cleaning the barrel of his golden tinted revolver as he thought of a strategy they were going to use, but was interrupted when the captains of each division made their presence.

“Here we are general, reporting for duty!” the Captains said in unison.

“Alright gentlemen, this is the situation. As you’ll know, given the data that one of our disappeared brothers provided us, the ponies will attack from the North side. I have a feeling that they will group on the border limits of the forest before storming and attacking the base. We’ll make an ambush while they prepare, taking them by surprise and breaking their plans. I propose to begin fire with the launchers, weaken them with snipers taking off those unicorns, and pick off the remains with the rest of the battalion. Any questions?” Philip explained.

“Sir, what do we do in the case of an emergency?” One of the captains asked.

“Hold your position in the forest, backup will be sent to you in the case of force majeure,”

Some silent seconds went by.

“Very well, if there are no more questions, you are dismissed. Prep yourselves for battle,” Philip said.

“Sir, yes sir!”

The Captains left the room, leaving the commander alone to resume cleaning his weapon as other thoughts occupied his mind.

“I hope you’re okay Rick, we’re coming for you.”

Swords clashed against each other as two unicorns sparred, one of them was Brave Rick, who was showing signs of tire after all the continuous training on telekinesis and learning how to wield a sword.

It wasn’t an intense training, but not light either, he spent hours levitating the same stone and doing several acrobatic tricks to learn how to handle his new body. Then came the focusing part, which consisted of maintaining telekinesis on the stone while Twilight threw several objects at him, Rick thought this was the most annoying exercise. Now it was time to learn how to use a sword with magic, which Twilight had to borrow one of the princess’ guards for the training.

“You’re getting better! You’re no guard but you’re certainly not a mat either, you can take out a few of them if you put your mind to it. Wanna keep practicing?” the guard asked.

“Yes,”

“No Rick, you've gotta rest for a moment,” Twilight interrupted “Thanks for your help,”

“But Twilight, I’m not ready, I have to keep training,”

“Of course not, you’re not going to the battle if you’re tired,”

“I hope I’m ready,” he said clumsily sheathing his sword.

“You’ll be, but now it’s time to go to sleep,” Twilight said as she took Rick’s imperial armor off.

“Wait! I gotta ask you a favor first. I know I said I’d go to the battlefield with you girls but…”

“You’re not bailing out on us at the last moment are you?” the unicorn asked, worried.

“What? No! Not at all, I wanted to ask you, please, if you can teach me how to shoot my magic,”

“You mean this?” she asked as she fired a single magic shot that fizzed weakly against a wall.

“Yes, precisely. The thing is, I don’t want to kill anybody unless I need to, but for that I need you to teach me at least that,” Rick begged.

Twilight thought about it, bringing a hoof to her chin.

“I’m not sure, it’s late and dawn is almost a few hours away, we should rest,”

“C’mon Twilight, just for a while, please, please, please?” he asked with a puppy face.

“Fine, just a while, and if you manage to do it quick, if not, we’re going to sleep. Understood young boy?”

“Uh Twilight? I told you I’m pretty sure I’m older than you,”

“What did you say?” she said in a rude tone.

“Nothing ma’am!”

“Excuse me?!”

“I mean… miss!” Rick said looking at the front.

“Now move your furry butt soldier because we have until dawn to train you!”

“Yes Miss Sparkle!” said the recently transformed unicorn following Twilight at the other side of the cave.

The moon was traveling calmly through the night sky. The pre-battle hours seemed to affect Princess Celestia, which seemed like she couldn’t sleep. Her sister was in the same situation.

“Hey, are you awake?” Luna asked her sister which had her back turned at her.

“Yeah,” Celestia replied as she sat down “I can’t sleep, I can’t stop thinking of tomorrow. How about you?

“Same, but we have to rest, we can’t go fighting humans with bags under our eyes,” Luna joked.

“I see you’ve almost mastered it, let’s practice a little more and we can go to sleep” “You got it Twilight” was heard in the distance.

Celestia looked the scene with a maternal stare, forgetting about Luna’s last sentence.

“Do you think we’ll be able to come out victorious tomorrow sister?” Luna asked almost whisper-like.

“Hey stop it, quit shooting me! This stopped being funny at the third time, Brave Rick, hold it!”

“Nuh-uh, this is actually funnier each time” Richard said as he shot magic at Twilight’s hooves while he was chasing her.

“Celestia?”

The sun goddess didn’t take her eyes off that comical moment.

“I feel safer about it than before,” she replied with a smile “And a bit more sleepy. Let’s go back to sleep,” she added as she lay down again.

“Yeah, ok.” Luna said as she cuddled next to her sister.

“Alright I think it’s time to sleep now,” said Twilight a bit exhausted “It’s surprising how you managed to master that spell this quick, I believe that you’re ready for battle tomorrow,”

“You’re… right… I think… I think…” he couldn’t finish his sentence because a big yawn came out from his mouth “I think I should get some shut-eye,” he said wheezing.

“I warned you it’d be too much for you, you certainly are stubborn,”

Both walked to where Rick had his sheet and pillow.

“I’m gonna sleep Twilight, have a good rest,” Rick said as he covered himself in the blanket.

“Sweet dreams Brave,” said Twilight as she left the place to sleep.

The sun rose from the horizon.

After doing her duty, princess Celestia stays in position and, after drinking a sip of water, starts to tune a melody using only her voice, much like Fluttershy used to do to the birds back in the day.

Little by little, the ponies were getting up and heard their princess sing, they were marveled at her beautiful voice.

“My ponies, make yourselves ready, we’re moving as soon as possible,” Celestia said in her formal voice.

The cave quickly started to mobilize; the soldiers put on their armors and equip their swords.

The girls grouped together to wear their own custom armors.

“You all look amazing in those armors,” said Iron who was approaching them with Spike.

“You’re just saying that because you made these,” Rarity said.

“Am I that obvious? Everypony should feel a bit of egocentrism with their creations so that they can be exhibited properly. Though I was sincere when I said that you all look beautiful."

“Thank you,” said everypony at the same time.

Spike however frowned at the engineer’s commentary.

“Oh, by the way, check out what I did for Spike,” said Iron pointing at the dragon.

“Wow Spike, I never thought you’d actually look menacing at some point in your life,” Rainbow mocked.

“Don’t listen to Rainbow, you look brave and adorable in that suit,” Rarity said, to which Spike blushed, but went unnoticed thanks to the helm.

Twilight however, looked at him indifferent.

The princesses arrived with Brave Rick, who was wearing a Crystal Empire armor. Celestia was wearing white armor with silver and gold details and Equestria’s insignia in her chest. Luna for her part had foggy grey armor with details in dark blue fading to purple; she too had Equestria’s insignia.

The governors, Chrysalis and Discord showed up as well, ready to begin the travel.

“Alright Celestia, give us the order and we’ll follow,” Silver Boss said.

“Easy Silver, we’re just a zebra short, then we’ll move,”

“You mean Zecora?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, she offered her help. We just have to wait until…”

A green smoke explosion interrupted them, Zecora revealed herself dressed in brown ceremonial robes, resembling a tree’s crust adorned with symbols that only she could understand.

“Here ponies, I have arrived, I hope my help won’t be declined,” Zecora said “Now where is that pony, who offered to help me in my plight?”

Twilight wondered who it was that wanted to assist her, most importantly, what was her plan anyway? Her gaze casually met Fluttershy who was putting on the helm of her custom armor. Much to her surprise, Zecora stepped in.

“Easy Twilight, on her own will Fluttershy is here to help me with this mission deal,”

“What mission?”

“To Froggy Bottom swamp she’ll me take, in that place I for help will pray,”

“To whom will you ask for?”

“To the few critters hidden from the menacingly human creatures,”

Twilight wanted to keep asking but Celestia stopped her.

“I’ll tell you her plan on the way, but right now it’s time to leave,”

“Wait, wait!” Iron yelled “You can’t go without these!”

He grabbed four bracelets and golden rings from inside his saddlebag.

“Twilight, Rarity, princesses, put those rings in your horns. The rest put on the bracelets in either of your legs,”

Without further ado, the ponies followed the engineer’s order, and put on their rings or bracelets.

“So what is this jewelry supposed to do, dear?” Rarity asked.

“You see, I’ve been told how destructive the human’s weapons are, and I realized how useless my armors would be against most of them. But then I remembered there were add-ons I forgot to give you all. These things protect you from humans’ projectiles the same way the Crystal Empire’s armor do,” he said knocking lightly on Rick’s armor “Here, I’ll show you,”

Iron picked up a few stones with his magic.

“Twilight, care to activate your horn for a bit?”

She complied, and covered her horn in a purple light.

“Look over there! A missing first edition book!”

“Where?!” she turned around euphorically.

As she fell into his trap, Iron threw the stones against her without her noticing, but before impacting the armor, a magical golden circle appeared and received the stone’s hit. Twilight turned around again and looked at the engineer in a puzzling look.

“As you can see, the ring works in two phases, the first one detects the menace and the second one repels it, and according to the wearer’s magic level they’ll be able to stop even stronger stuff. The bracelets however work with a gem which holds a limited amount of magic, so they won’t last long if you make a collision head-on against a wall of weapons fire,”

Rainbow looked at her own bracelet, skeptical about that little contraption holding magic of its own.

“But the rings do imply an extra magic burn, so you must also be careful,” Iron finished.

“Would you do the honor of joining us in the battle Iron?” Celestia asked “Your intelligence would prove to be most useful in battle.”

“Sorry Celestia, I’m not a pony of fighting and I don’t want to be a burden either, I hope you understand."

Celestia looked at him with a raised brow. She was sure he was lying, but by no means would she make him do something he didn’t want to.

“If that’s what you want, you may take one of the portals and go back to one of the cities, don’t worry about us, we’ll return safe and sound,” Celestia said.

“I sure hope so, goodbye, and save Equestria,” Iron said as he went through one of the portals.

After some silence, Celestia suddenly yelled an order.

“Alright ponies, time to move! Ready the troops for the trip.”

“Wait, now that I think about it, how are we traveling?” Rick asked.

“Those that fight on the outskirts of the forest will be teleported there, the rest are going by cloud.”

“Cloud?”

“There’s a spell that makes earth ponies and unicorns to walk on clouds, it’ll be the safest method of getting to the base without being detected,” Celestia explained.

Everytime Brave was explained something of this world, he was more and more surprised by the time of marvelous and complex things the ponies could do with magic, things that were almost routine to them, but for humans was something dream-like.

“Princess Celestia!” Storm Cloud called “The cloud you asked for is now ready and it’s big enough to carry the battalion.”

“Thank you governor, we’ll move soon, let me just apply the spell,”

Storm waved and left. The Princess of the sun made her horn glow once more and an energy wave expanded and engulfed the ponies with the cloud walking spell, including the changelings and their queen.

“Formation! It’s time to leave,” Celestia said “Battalion A, with the governors, you’re going by teleportation. Battalion B, with me, we’re entering the deep forest.

As the ponies formed, Spike was already ready to go to the migration place to lead the dragons, preferring not to warn his friends. But a sudden hug from behind caught him off guard and blushed once he noticed to who those white hooves belonged to.

“Be careful Spike, I want to see you again safe, okay?” Rarity said.

Spike couldn’t pronounce any word due to the nervousness.

“I want you to have this, before you go,” Rarity said as she turned him around and opened his claw, from her bag she grabbed a few small white crystals with grey lines inside it. With her magic, she stacked the crystals to Spike’s metal claws, at least as décor, a reminder to see each other again.

“Good luck Spike,” she added as she ran to her friends.

When he saw her go away, a feeling of fear and insecurity filled him, afraid of never seeing her again and the rest of her friends, but mostly Twilight who was resented at him.

He looked for a moment at the crystals that his beloved white unicorn gave him and replaced that feeling of sadness for another warmer one filling up his chest.

He turned around and headed inside the portal where the elder dragon awaited him.

“Is it time little one?” Kantrugajh asked.

“Yes. The princess gave the order, we have to move now if we want to get there in time.”

“Say no more. My dragon brethren! Open your wings and fly the battle of our era!” Kantrugajh exclaimed in a roar that could be heard kilometers away before losing itself in the air.

His dragon partners roared the same way at the same time, opened their wings and took off of their migration place. Unfortunately Spike was forgotten in the place until the elder dragon’s tail grabbed hold of him and placed him in his head.

"Hold on little one, the dragons are going to war."

In the meantime, the troops of the refuge were preparing for leave.

“Alright Fluttershy, it’s time, please escort Zecora to the swamp,” Celestia said.

The yellow pegasus nodded and with a bit of force carried the zebra on her back and exited by the upper hole.

“Governors, I hope everything goes alright in your crusade,” wished Celestia.

“You don’t have to worry; my pals and I will take care of the situation no sweat,” Silver Boss said.

“Princess Celestia, how are we warning the other battalion that ours managed to dominate the area?” Blue Fire asked.

“I know how,” the princess said.

She quickly covered herself in golden magic and a magic orb formed to her right. After some seconds the orb started to take a familiar shape, until it revealed itself to be a second Princess Celestia. Both smiled at the surprised look of the rest.

“Before you ask, I made a clone with half my magic; she’ll walk with you to the forest’s outskirts,”

“While the original will go to the deep forest with the Elements,” the clone said.

“Wow, two Celestias, now that’s amazing, now we have our own princess to have fun with in the battlefield kicking human butts!” Storm Cloud said cheerfully, while the others rolled their eyes.

“Alright, we’ve lost enough time, are your troops ready?” Celestia asked.

Everypony nodded.

She covered her horn again and launched a wave to the battalion. From that point on a blanket came out covering the troops covering them in a dome and transported them outside the cave in a blinding light.

“She can transport hundreds of troops with half her magic, and I can barely transport my five friends” Twilight thought in shame.

“Pegasi, lower the cloud to the Southern exit while we move,” the original Celestia ordered.

The marching hooves sounded through the entire cave. In dual rows, the equestrian soldiers marched to the refuge’s exit, where they were slightly blinded by the light of a new day. They haven’t seen daylight for so long, and now could be the very last time; the day when they’d fight to protect Equestria and the inhabitants that knew little to nothing about the situation.

A couple of soldiers were standing watch at the Everfree Forest’s border, awaiting a signal of the supposed pony attack.

“This is dull; the other squad did their thing and already left.”

“Yeah I hear you,”

Both of them stood up and stretched their muscles, then they felt a chill cover their body. Worried, they watched over the horizon, as if a feeling made them. And all of a sudden, a gold lighting came out of nowhere and struck the ground, making a cloud of dust.

The soldiers covered their eyes and waited until the dust came down, only to be surprised at the scene that followed. In front of them, a pony army wearing armors was ready, expecting, waiting for the attack of their invaders.

“Close that fuckin’ jaw and call the General right now!” the soldier screamed.

Princess Celestia looked the scene with a serious look.

“My princess, my buffalo brothers are in position and ready to receive orders,” Chief Thunderhooves said.

“Good… it just a waiting game now,” Celestia said without taking her eyes off the forest.

But something in her voice worried the other governors. Noticing this, Silver Boss placed himself at her right looking at the same scenery than the sun monarch.

“If it makes you feel better, I’m also worried about my colts and nervous at the same time,” he said with a bleak smile joined with a frown “But it’s not the time to show it, and neither to deny it.”

Storm Cloud joined at her left as she floated a few feet from the ground to be at the princess’ height.

“Silver’s right, look at me, I’m scared as shit too but I’m not showing. Besides, it will surely go away once I’ve got the adrenalin pumpin’ in me,” the pegasus said with her hooves crossed behind her head in confidence “How about you Blue?” she said grabbing the unicorn and forcefully placing him at her side.

“I’m too young for a war… but I’ll die for my ponies if need be,” he said coldly forcing himself out of her reach.

“Party pooper,” said Storm as she crossed her legs and made a pouty face.

“The warrior wind is blowing strong comrades. Mother Earth will be thankful that she’s taken part of it. It’s an honor to fight at the side of such brave warriors and eminencies,” Thunderhooves said who was now next to Silver.

Celestia kept with her eyes shut as the wind brushed her white coat. Her partner’s words gave her a renewed hope that gave her a smile. She opened her eyes and with a defying expression looked at her sides to see the governors and then look again to the front, only this time, decided.

The sudden movement of the trees warned them that the humans we’re getting nearer to the battlefield.

“Be ready. We'll show that together, we can defeat anyone!”

Prologue

The fire brought warmth to the ponies and colts around them, while they were eating marshmallows and telling short stories about life itself. Their grandfather’s cottage was the perfect place to do it. Twice a year they went on holidays for a whole week there, filling the place with love. An old man was coming, carrying a cane with him, anxious about listening his grandchildren laugh and the experiences of his kids, being an adult, they treat him with all the love and respect that this carries.

He sat in one of the logs, and silence filled the green highlighted area. The little colts were looking their grandfather with anxiety, like wanting something from him. Otherwise, the parents just looked and nodded happily.-

“What’s wrong guys?” The old man asked.

“Don’t you remember grandpa?” One colt asked.

“Last time you promised you were going to tell us a story about our Great-grandfather,” replied the littlest of the fillies, with big puppy eyes.

“Oh, sorry, You’ve got to be patient kids, my memory is not what it was. I thank your parents for letting me tell you this story, I know they also wanted to do it.” The old man turned, looking into his granddaughter’s eyes.

“There’s nothing to worry about dad, we all agreed that.”

“Well, surely you’ll study this in the school. There are written lots of books about it, but the fact of telling the story through word of mouth has something special. You probably you won’t understand it now, but in the future you’ll remember it and relate easily the concept of-”

“Grandpa!” exclaimed all the children.

“Sorry, sorry, let’s see…” The old man trailed off, taking out a book with a leather cover, with old, yellow pages.

“Where do I start from?”

Great news went all over Ponyville, the project “Everfree Energy” was about to become true. Everypony ran crazed, entering the forest with courage, searching for clues of the above-mentioned project.

Applejack was the first to come, and the scene was not so far from the forest’s reality. Twilight and Zecora were giving the last touches of what would be a big event in the life of Ponyville, maybe even in all Equestria.

“Do you believe it will run, Zecora?” Twilight looked to Zecora, a little nervous.

“Fret not my little pony, the threat is in your mind only,” answered Zecora “What sends your voices dulcet? You had no quarry finding the connections of dawn and sunset.”

“I believe it’s just a sensation made by the situation, that’s all,” said Twilight with a little of self-distrust.

It didn’t took long until the place was filled with anxious spectators, more slowly filling in. The project was known by everypony of Ponyville, but most of the information was kept in secret just so as to not distress all the ponies. This was likely due to the fact Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were involved, giving the feeling of something big.

Suddenly, some voices were heard and Twilight could recognise them, with a smile in her face she said, “Finally, you came!”

“Of course sugarcube, don’t ya think that we were going to leave ya in a moment like this” replied Applejack.

“And this could be an opportunity to impress everypony with my new hat, and learn something from this too. Er-Without mentioning that this could be an opportunity for everyone of course.” Rarity faked a smile, looking to her friends.

“But how do we know of it’s utility? We don’t know what it is or what’s made for. I don’t believe that a bunch of roots tied like a circle raised from earth could be of any use for anything ever.” Rainbow Dash hovered in the air, overlooking that tied up roots masterpiece.

Curiosity was too much for her, so she started to put her hoof closer, but Twilight pulled it away.

“Don’t touch it!” shouted Twilight, “It’s extremely fragile. Being built by magical connections from the same forest, a hoof could ruin all the magical flow, and the proj-”

Twilight couldn’t end her speech, ending agaped while seeing Pinkie Pie jumping over the construction as if it was a circus ring.

“Come on Rainbow, let’s see it the fun way. Twilight, will it be funnier when you add magic?” Pinkie Pie jumped from one side to the other, but her entertainment didn’t last long because a force field covered it in one swift moment.

“I’m sorry Pinkie, but it took lots of time making it just to let you ruin it. Wait, where’s Fluttershy?” Twilight looked around, a little confused.

Not so far away, a shaking bush was seen, and slowly Fluttershy rose up, peeping through her pink mane so then showing her head

“Come on Fluttershy, don’t miss this spectacle,” said Rarity.

“No!” Fluttershy one more hid in the bush.

Twilight teleported quickly to her side, “there’s nothing to be afraid of, come, join us.”

“No,” shouted Fluttershy again. “What if... if... if out of that thing, comes a giant fire-breathing dragon, with sharp claws, big teeth and a terrifying roar that wants to eats us?”

“Fluttershy, I promise you that nothing wrong will happen.” Twilight raised her voice, frustration entering it.

“And how are you so sure about what you say?” A random pony from the crowd raised his voice.

“Because...because… ehmm…” And before she could even think of a reply, a blaze blinded all of the ponies.

“Because we will be part of this project, and the same time we will supervise.” Princess Celestia was covered in a glow as she stood next to her beloved sister. Everypony bowed down.

“DO NOT BE AFRAID MY SUBJECTS, THERE’S NOTHING TO BE SCARED OF!” Princess Luna spoke using her “royal voice”, scaring everyone.

“Remember what we talked about princess, be a little soft,” said Twilight in a whisp.

“I’m sorry, it escapes me sometimes,” replied Luna, flushed.

“So Twilight, is everything ready to begin?” Princess Celestia asked.

Zecora agreed with a grin and Twilight nodded.

“Of course princess, everything is ready.”

“I beg to all the present people to take a step back, this could be a little dangerous.” Princess Celestia looked to the crowd as she spoke, her warning reaching their ears.

“Are you ready princesses? Prepare your horns,” said Twilight.

“Upon my behest, unleash magical hell upon the tempest,” ordered Zecora.

And then, she started doing a strange dance around the roots, dropping rare powder every so often and pronouncing unknown words. Five minutes later, she took out a strange green-colored powder from a bag, she threw it to the air and it went over all the Everfree forest, absorbing more of this green stuff from the earth, the plants and every organism from the forest. Suddenly, the sky was covered in that material. Zecora took from the same bag a cross shaped amulet and tied it so it’ll hang in the middle of the roots, that made the powder to transform into a tornado, and in a matter of second the vortex of it was directed to the cross that was hanging in the circle.

“Now ponies, DO IT,” shouted Zecora. “Direct your magic to the amulet!”

Twilight, Celestia and Luna pointed at the amulet with their horns, and with extreme coordination they formed a whirlwind with the colors of their respective magic. The magic hit the amulet and the tornado’s vortex, causing a green flash

“Focus you magic upon the twister until it fades, else these are only wasted days” said Zecora.

The flash was growing and shining more every second, all princesses began to build a sweat. This couldn’t wait, it was not easy to maintain a magic flow constantly for long time, not to mention about coordinating 3 different magics. Suddenly, the tornado was decreasing it’s size, and when it was nearly to disappear, the amulet showed a crack, followed by an explosion.

When Twilight woke up, she knew all their efforts were in vain. The amulet couldn’t contain lots of magic as it was believed. And now the floor was broken into thousands of pieces. However, when she looked up, the root’s circle turned into an oval figure, with the color of the tornado.

Twilight was surprised, she hadn’t expected this result. For her, this abrupt result represented an amazing anomaly.

The princesses were waking up, along with every single inhabitant of Ponyville that had witnessed the spectacle. All gaped at the magic manifestation which they have never seen.

Zecora was the last one awaken, and without much fuss, she examined the failed experiment.

“Know something about this Zecora?” Twilight asked, under the strict look of Celestia, which seem not to be happy with the results.

“Dear friends, grave news I must tell,” said Zecora while she returned to a standing position.

“Our experiment did not go so well,” The spectators were surprised and Twilight quickly closed her eyes in a sad expression.

“But we have not entirely fallen from grace, this magical manifestation precludes a connection to a strange place” Twilight didn’t take long to comprehend what happened.

“So, we created a portal?”

“Exactly,” answered Zecora.

“Princess Celestia, you…?”

“No Twilight, in all the years I have as the ruler, I haven’t seen such thing like this.”

“There’s nothing in all my books.”

“Before making conclusions, we must know what is on the other side of it,” anticipated Luna.

“Here I go!”

Said Rainbow Dash who was launching from the sky to enter quickly into the portal, but she stopped all suddenly, noticing that a rope tied her and held her.

“What?” Rainbow Dash looked back. “Don’t you want to know what is on the other side of this?”

“We can’t rush,” said Applejack, “we must make a plan.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll go,” said Twilight.

“What? Just like that?” Spike looked to Twilight, worried. “You don’t know what is on the other side, please don’t do it, don’t go!”

Spike watched Twilight, a tear coming out of his green eyes and falling to the floor.

“Oh, Spike, don’t worry, nothing will happen to me.”

Twilight cleaned Spike’s face of the wet trail that his tears have made.

Twilight sighed and stood up in front of the portal, looked at it curiously for a moment, letting her imagination to do the rest.

“By Celestia, I wonder what things are on the other side. Could it be a portal to the Changelings? They might have found out about the project, and made a plan to take Ponyville. Or maybe it’ll drive me to a trip to the Earth’s center where the overwhelming heat of the Earth’s core is waiting me for my death. Or death by the absence of air in the middle of the space, or the deep sea. NO! Focus Twilight! It’s not the moment to be negative, probably this benefits us, although I can’t think of something right now, I know it’s going to be useful, I hope, if just… I don’t fail at this…”

“Take this sugarcube,” said Applejack while tying up a rope in her waist. “Pull it if you have problems.”

“Thanks, I’m ready.”

Slowly, Twilight was doing weak steps to the portal. When she approached enough, could feel the air next to her be sucked into the portal, swallowed a little of saliva and stepped into the unknown.

The trip was not so different to the portal that Celestia could have created. Suddenly and without any advice, appeared in a kind of hill, looked to the sides to verify that there is no one there, so she climbed it without wasting time. The air felt different, like the time when a dragon was taking a nap and his snores pulled out smoke that covered the city. Those moments where you can’t breath well without letting the smoke inside your lungs, and then trying to exhale it coughing desperately. This air was practically the same one, but a little less intense, and so, breathable, although she was uncomfortable for that.

Twilight stayed with open eyes, without believing on what she saw.

Not so far away from there, a city a little different from what Twilight was accustomed to seeing. Dozens of tall buildings covered the landscape. Vehicles like the Flim Flam Brother’s were touring the streets, as if every single creature from this planet had one and used it always. A kind of strange smoke was out from the back of all of those cars, which could explain the reason of Twilight’s discomfort. Far away some creatures from this world could be seen, playing basketball in a fenced field, they looked happy, and it was easy for them, they had limbs that they used to throw the ball into the ring. The fact that they were bipeds, which made them taller than the ponies, even more than Celestia!

Immediately, Twilight wrote a report and kept it in her bag. Took a last glance and ran downhill, sprinting fast into the portal.

In that transition millisecond between the strange world and the Everfree Forest, a thought went through her head.

“This is a amazing discovery.”

With A Hoof In The Present

Arc 1: One and a half year later…

“Hurry up and look for Twilight!” shouted Shining Armor “We can’t hold much longer”.

“Alright, I won’t take long,” replied Applejack.

Without warning, a bullet nearly hit Shining on his front right leg, close to his hoof, which left a small bleeding injury.

Startled, Applejack asked:

“Are ya ok? Don’t ya want a little rest?”

“No,” answered Shining somewhat angry. “I must defend Canterlot with my life”.

Unsheathing his sword and leaping the stairs, he disappeared between the burning buildings and fallen partners.

Applejack slammed the door behind her, before somepony saw, and preceded her search for Twilight. The castle was immense, she wouldn't of had any idea of that because she’d only been there a few times with her friends. Never before she had thought about exploring entirely so as to have a mental map in case of an emergency, how could she have known something of this magnitude was going to happen? Her trot could be heard even at the most forgotten corridors. Turned, she scrutinized each room, ran again, ascended stairs, got caught in a dead end, half-turn and continued her way, descended, turned; it was an endless journey. Meanwhile, as she ran through those endless corridors, the sadness for the lost of her farm overcame her.

“Oh Sweet Apple Acres, I can’t believe it disappeared that way. But the worst thing is, the only memory I have of you is my cutie mark, and even though I lived, worked and enjoyed special moments with you. I can’t get out of my head the ashes that filled the air over the field, the fire that burned all in its path, the farm, the barn, the apple trees, everything… everything lost, yet-yet I remember the one responsible of such massacre, they had some kind of green clothes on, in a lot of shades, weird masks and a backpack with two tubes, and one long hose. That’s where the fire came from. The fire that ended everything, and not only Sweet Apple Acres, but everything we ever knew.”

Still running, she let a tear drop from her low hanging head, but she had no time to cry when Twilight finally was in her sights, in the library. Twilight looked like she was guarding some kind of letter, like the ones she used to send to Princess Celestia.

“Twilight!” shouted Applejack, when she jumped and hugged as strong as she could.

“Uhm, Applejack?, What’s wrong?” she asked.

“What do ya mean what’s wrong? I was looking for ya. Why did ya ran away like that? You had all of us worried; I thought you would help us evacuate the city”.

“It’s just that had something important to do and I could not…”

And just before she could finish that sentence, a big blare was heard from afar. The vibrations could be felt under hooves of the both worried ponies, leaving them stunned by the situation until Twilight yelled to Applejack.

“Come on, let’s get out of here!”

They both fled from the library but, just before turning, Twilight stopped her. Something was coming. They stood still and quiet, trying to concentrate in the noise that came from the other side of the corridor, steps, lots of them. It sounded like they were using boots, looking inside every door of the countless rooms in the castle, looking for something, gold?, money? They didn’t know.

Without losing any more time, they ascended to avoid being captured, until they arrived at a room that Applejack had never seen before, it was adorned with a great deal of paintings, diamond incrustations everywhere and on the ceiling, a painting of Princess Celestia and Princes Luna, both looked like they were turning around in a circle, almost like the yin-yang. Whereas one side had a bright color orange and yellow which represented the sun, and on the other side a deep black blue with touches of gray at the borders which represented the moon, but it wasn’t until she saw the throne at the far end of the room until she realized where she was.

“Where are we?” asked Applejack, waiting for Twilight to confirm her thoughts.

“We are…” She hold her silence for a moment just to lock the door behind them “At the throne hall”

“Wow! I have never been here before”

“Here is where the Princess spends the most part of her time, taking care of royal business” Twilight laughed lightly.

“What’s so funny?”

“I was just remembering...” She answered while admiring the rug at the feet of the throne.

“The times when Celestia used to tell me her many adventures, and sometimes I heard them while eating chocolate cake after studying. It was one of my favorite hobbies when I was a little filly”

A tear fell from one of her eyes, rolling all the way from her cheek and splashing into the floor. It wasn’t one of melancholy or nostalgia; it was of sadness, the sadness of knowing that she might never remember those joyful moments again. It seemed like her era of happiness was over just yesterday, and just in one night, everything turned into pain and suffering.

Suddenly, the door started to move violently and the plank that was serving as a lock was getting broken slowly, Applejack was looking nervously at the door, images of her demise flew passed her mind and dread filled her body, Twilight just kept staring at the throne, still lost in the memories of a happier past, maybe trying to lock them in the deepest parts of her mind, just maybe, to never lose them. The door was about to yield when Twilight stands beside Applejack and said:

“Time to go”

Twilight’s horn started to glow. The door was blown up by an explosion just after her famous teleportation spell left just a circular mark over the floor.

A magical shining filled the sky of the Everfree Forest for an instant, following Twilight and Applejack spawning over it, falling over the trees and into the ground.

“I’m sorry Applejack,” apologized Twilight. “It was not my intention to make us fall from that altitude”.

“Don’t worry,” she answered while she stirred her head. “The good thing is we didn’t got hurt”.

But that satisfaction didn’t last long, the buzzing sound of a bullet was head from afar and soon enough, it passed right through Applejack’s hat, leaving a hole on both ends. Surprised by this they looked back and saw they were dangerously close to the invader’s base

“Come on Twilight, RUN!”

“Follow me Applejack; we are going to be fine”.

“Where are we going?”

“To the underground hideout, that’s where they evacuated the rest of Canterlot and Ponyville”.

Running with all their strength and without looking back, the ponies fled away from their ominous enemy, but little by little some strange noises seemed to get closer by each moment. A flurry of bullets flew past them, breaking the branches and hitting the trees. Fear was overwhelming, the fear of knowing that each shot heard could be the one that makes them prisoners, or even worse. The agonizing pain of a bullet and a river of their own blood being the last things to feel before closing their eyes forever.

Suddenly, one of the invaders managed to hurt Twilight on one of her legs, leaving a trail of blood behind her. The wound was too severe, making her fall unto the ground. Applejack saw and went straight back to help her.

“Come on sugarcube, we won’t give ‘em any chance to capture us”.

Picking up Twilight, Applejack carried her over her back and proceeded to flee. Twilight knew Applejack was the best athlete in all of Ponyville, but she was still surprised by the fact that not only she could carry her over her back, but also that she was running even faster than before only with her determination. Twilight quickly noticed she dropped the report she was carrying when she fell.

“Applejack, go back!” she exclaimed.

“Ya know I can’t Twi, if I do, they will capture us”.

“Then you don’t leave me a choice…”

Twilight surrounded her horn with a glowing magic and aimed for the report she left behind. With a great burst of energy she shot a bolt of magic, which hit and enchanted the scroll.

“Don’t attack them!” exclaimed Applejack. “You will only get us killed”.

“I am sorry,” said Twilight ashamed.

“I just hope that spell worked,” she thought.