The War of Darkness

In Gaia's room

Gaia was doing some push ups in her room. She was wearing a baby blue shirt and dark blue sweatpants that went up to her ankles. Her build she gained from all her training was impressive. Her strength rivaled, even Del himself. her, Del, T and Prism often competed with each other when she visited Ponyville with her brother. T mostly just competed cause his sister, Claire forced him to... and to get Annie's attention. She got up to wipe sweat off her brow with her towel. She was about to do some sit ups when Celestia knocked on the door.

"Honey...it's me. May I come in?" Celestia said in a soft tone.

"Sure mom." Gaia replied.

Celestia entered the room and stood beside her daughter, who had started doing her sit ups.

"Gaia could you please stop your sit ups for a minute I need to talk to you." Celestia said.

Gaia got up and sat cross legged on the floor and looked at her mother, who had sat beside her. Celestia wrapped her soft, warm wing around Gaia and pulled her close.

"Gaia.......you know Illusion.......didn't say that to you on purpose....right?" Celestia said.

"Yeah.....sorry about overreacting at dinner mom." Gaia said.

"No Gaia you have nothing to apologize for. Illusion just spoke out of line. I'll make sure to have a word with him later." Celestia said.

"Mom.........it's not his fault. Can you just drop this?" Gaia said.

"No I can't. Your my daughter Gaia, if anypony makes you feel weak and powerless they got to talk to me about it" Celestia said in a stern, but motherly tone.

"And me as well" a familiar, sinister voice said.

"Dad?" Gaia said.

"Your my baby girl, and I love you. If somepony makes fun of you they are gonna face my chaotic wrath!" Discord said.

"Thanks mom and dad." Gaia said and hugged them both.

"Your welcome dear." Celestia and Discord said in unison and hugged her back.

After a couple of minutes they broke the group hug. Then they heard a knock at the door.

"Come in" Gaia said.

Illusion hesitantly opened the door and walked inside.

"Illusion is there anything you want to say to your sister?" Celestia asked knowingly.

"I'm sorry about what I said at dinner." Illusion apologized.

"Hey it's cool bro." Gaia said holding out her fist for a fist\hoof bump, which Illusion gladly excepted.

Suddenly a unicorn guard came through the door.

"Captain Gaia! It's an emergency!" the guard said panicked.

"What is it private Nelson?" Gaia asked in a professional tone.

"We've lost contact with the soldiers we sent to Hoofington. We think the minotaurs are behind this." Nelson said.

"I'll be right there." Gaia said.

"Please hurry Captain." Nelson said before leaving.

"Mom, Dad, Illusion I have to go." Gaia said.

"Don't let us stop you from doing your job." Celestia said.

Gaia snaped her fingers, and in a flash she was wearing her armor. Then she teleported away.

In the guard headquarters

Gaia appeared outside the guard headquarters. She quickly entered, knowing there wasn't any time to waste. When Gaia entered the room every guard saluted her, and she returned the gesture.

"Captain. We lost contact with the troops when they were 30 kilometres south of Hoofington. By the looks of it they were ambushed by the minotaurs."

"Good to know first lieutenant Golden Sword." Gaia said.

"Captain, they're hacking into the computer system!" a guard said.

Before Gaia could respond King Sterling appeared on the screen

"Hello puny ponies and monkey girl." Sterling said. "I told you I would get Hoofington back by any means necessary." Sterling taunted.

"King Sterling!" a familiar voice boomed.

"Princess Luna" the guards, including Gaia bowed before the princess of the night.

"If you release our soldiers and stop your siege of Hoofington before it begins we can forget about this entire incident." Luna said.

"I'm afraid I can't do that your majesty." Sterling said. He, then disappeared from the screen.

"How should we respond Princess Luna?" Gaia asked.

"I don't know Captain. I will address the situation to the high Princes and Princesses tomorrow.  Captain you will be required to attend."

"Of course your highness." Gaia responded.

In the throne room the next day 8:00 am

At the summit, Princesses Celestia, Luna and Twilight and Princes Flash Sentry, Discord and Supernova were all present. Gaia was there as well. After Luna and Gaia explained what had happened the previous night Flash Sentry spoke up.

"I think we should consider this an act of war against Equestria and that we should respond." Flash said confidently.

"I don't know, the minotaurs are a strong race...and their army is almost as big as ours." Twilight said.

"Permission to speak freely your highnesses?" Gaia asked.

"You may." Supernova said.

The minotaurs may be strong, but I think that we are stronger. Their army may be big but not as big as ours. I think we should declare this an act of war." Gaia said.

"Let us vote on it. All in favor of going to war?" Celestia asked.

Flash, Supernova, Discord and Luna rose their hooves and Discord rose his eagle talon.

"It's settled then. We shall make the announcement tomorrow morning. Captain, have your soldiers ready by sundown tommarow to depart to Hoofington." Celestia said.

"Of course your majesty." Gaia said.

The next morning 10:00am 2 hours before the radio broadcast.

Celestia had decided to send Illusion with Princess Twilight and her family to spend the night there. She didn't want him to interfere in this matter. She knew that she wouldn't send her sister, Princess Luna into the battle field if she could go in her stead and she knew Illusion would do the same with Gaia. He was her son after all. Just to be on the safe side Celestia had asked Twilight to put up a barrier around Ponyville's  borders, to prevent him, and only him from teleporting away. She had also sent a guard to spy on him, in case he tried to find a loophole. Then Gaia entered the room.

"Princess?" Gaia called out.

"Yes Captain." Celestia replied.

"My soldiers are ready to leave, so I gave them one last day to see their families and spend time with them. Should I go to Hoofington with the others as well?" Gaia asked.

Celestia stared wide eyed at Gaia. She didn't want to send her only daughter to war.

"Gaia...skip the formalities right now." Celestia said.

"Mother.......should I go?" Gaia asked again.

"Gaia.....you may, but promise me something first." Celestia said.

"Okay mother." Gaia said.

'Promise me that you'll come home...alive." Celestia said.

"Mom.......I can't make any promises. There is a chance I could die, but for you, dad and Illusion......I'll try but I make no promises." Gaia said.

"Okay...Gaia." Celestia said.

"Remember mom, I'll always love you. You, dad and Illusion each have a special place in my heart and I'll love you all till the end." Gaia said.

Celestia couldn't take it anymore. She walked up and hugged Gaia with both her strong angelic wings. Gaia returned the gesture with her arms. Gaia broke the embrace and said.

"Better say goodbye to dad. This might be the last time I could ever see him." Gaia said.

"Of course dear. Go on now." Celestia said.

As Gaia left Celestia watched as she left, worried.

Discord's Chaotic realm 1 hour 55 minutes before broadcast

Discord was in his chaotic realm creating chaos. After he got married to Celestia, he used his old home as a chaotic base. He gave his children and Celestia the spell that allowed them to enter incase they had to tell him something something important. Gaia teleported inside to see that Discord was wrecking havoc on some ponies, probably illusions created by his magic. Discord turned around. When he saw Gaia he smiled and said.

"Ah Gaia just the pony I wanted to see." Discord said. "I've come up with a prank to pull on your mother. Wanna help me pull it off?" Discord asked smugly.

"Not now dad I need to talk to you." Gaia said impatiently.

"What is it dear?" Discord asked.

After telling him about her going to Hoofington, Discord's smile faded, but only a bit.

"Good luck out there. Make sure to kick those minotaurs sorry butts for me while your there. Be careful too. I expect to see you alive when you get back." Discord said.

"I'll try dad, but I make no promises." Gaia said. "I'm gonna miss your humor dad." Gaia sighed sadly.

"Don't talk like that Gaia. You will come back. I know you will." Discord said in a stern, but fatherly voice as well.

"Ok dad. I love you." Gaia said.

"I love you too sweetie never forget that." Dis cord said. He, then picked up Gaia and hugged her like a teddy bear. Gaia hugged him back.

Since she had said goodbye to Illusion the previous night, without giving the reason away entirely as per her parents orders. They wanted to keep it a secret from all the royal children except Gaia until the war started.

Ponyville 10 mins before broadcast 11:00 am

Illusion, who was disguised as an earth pony named Coal. Coal had a black mane and coat, and green eyes, was talking about the whole minotaur thing with Starburst, T, Annie, Del, Prism, Claire and Candy in Sugarcube Corner.

"When Gaia talked to me before I came here....it felt like she was saying her last words to me. That she knew she would never see me again."

Illusion said.

"She is captain of the royal guard dude. It's a risky job" Starburst said.

"Star's right Illusion, Gaia's not the Captain of the royal guard fer nothin. Ah bet she knows alot about how to defend herself." Del said.

"Plus with what you just told us, there could be a war, and Gaia might not come out of the battlefield alive. Don't worry darling, we're here for you and we'll help you through this." Claire reassured her coltfriend.

All of a sudden, the music stopped and was replaced by a familiar booming voice.

My little ponies! Minotaurus has laid siege on Hoofington. Equestria will take this as an act of war on Equestria and we will respond! We will not stand and watch, while there is a force endangering our nation like this! We have sent soldiers over there to aid Hoofington's policing force in the fight and they will arive there by sundown. My own daughter...Captain Gaia is also going to fight.

"Mom?" Illusion gasped. He was so shocked, that he dropped his Coal disguise.

"Guess that answered your question." Prism said.

Before anypony could reply, a voice said

"My son is stationed in Hoofington!" a worried mother said.

"Oh no this isn't good!" another pony said.

"Look it's Princess Starburst and Prince Illusion! They'll know what to do." a pony said.

Everypony started asking them both a lot of questions. After a few minutes Star had had enough and flared her wings and said

"BE QUIET!" she said.

Everypony went mute.

"Thanks Star." Illusion said. "Citizens of Ponyville we were not informed of this before hand and we are just finding out about this like all of you. If you stay calm, we can go and focus on the situation at hoof instead of dealing with an angry mob. Now if you can kindly go to your daily activites we can get to the castle and discuss this with High Princes Twilight Sparkle." Illusion said in a political manner.

The crowd made room for them to go through almost immediately.

"Thank you." Illusion told the crowd. "See you guys later!" Illusion told his and Star's friends.

"See ya!" They all said in unison.