Arms of Arceus

Over the next five days the ponies of Equestria came to befriend the Pokémon of God’s Breath. The council explained the ritual their king had used in sealing Dark Arceus’s prison, and after a day of research and preparation, the ponies returned to the city to cast their own version of the spell. But despite all of their efforts, the prison would not be sealed. Three separate attempts had been made to seal the dark god, but each attempt brought about terrible tremors, as if the sleeping monster was lashing out at its captors in its sleep. The last attempt had resulted in a beam of dark lightning shooting forth at Cadance, who had barely been able to block it with a shield spell. After the failure of the Elements to seal the prison, Celestia and Luna began spending all of their time studying the tomes in their library for a solution.

Carpenters and builders from the surrounding lands were called into the damaged city, and with their combined efforts God’s Breath was rapidly rebuilt. Those structures that had sustained extensive damage were reinforced and turned into traps for the coming battle, while new shelters were built underground for the young and injured. The allies worked day and night, pushing themselves almost to exhaustion in their desperate attempt to make the site of the battle as advantageous to them as possible. Even so, God’s Breath had lost much of its majestic sheen, and there wasn’t enough time to do more than reinforce and patch most of its structures. Twenty thousand ponies had taken up positions outside of the city, stretching the guard thin but fully encircling the battle site. Barricades were erected, magical shields were set in place, and defensive positions were created under the advice that the enemy would be overwhelming.

The princesses had called an emergency summit with the representatives from the Pokémon High Council as soon as they had arrived in Canterlot. Through many long talks and extensive explanations, the ponies learned much about their new allies. Strengths and weaknesses were discussed, enemy tactics were explored, and battle strategies were made. By the fifth day the battle lines had been drawn, both inside and outside of the city. Many curious ponies had begun spending time with the Pokémon. Through hours of observation, Twilight had begun to notice that the Pokémon had many distinct quirks about them. Sasha loved being around others, but became shy when the conversation turned to her. Joan was a delight to be around, but she gave off the sense that she was still quite young, and new to her position. Potpourri had been well behaved and pleasant, despite her reputation among her peers. The others claimed this was because her rival was not present, but the ponies were just glad to have such good friends in the face of a coming disaster. Twilight considered their good fortune as she made her way around Canterlot.

Stalking through the streets, Twilight Sparkle moved from house to house looking in their windows only to be greeted by the same sight. Chairs and tables had been upturned, beds had been moved into kitchens, and the interiors of each house had been covered in small cotton balls. Her guards moved with her as they marched stealthily through the darkness, until one of them pointed out two shadowy shapes in front of a house further down. A large creature was silhouetted in the darkness, standing in the yard of a vacant home. From the window of that home, a small creature crawled out from under a windowsill that had been left partially open.

“Stop where you are!” Twilight yelled as she and her guards ran for the figures. The small creature stood next to the larger one, but neither made any attempt to flee.

“We stopped,” said a happy, fairy voice. “What now?”

“Welshi?” Twilight said as she came to stand before the waving Whimsicott. “What are you doing here? Why were you in that house?”

“I was just stacking the chairs on the bed,” Welshi said as Twilight and her unicorn guards lit up the street with their horns. “I also decorated the couch with all of their clothes, and left a bunch of cotton balls all over the place!”

Welshi pulled a tuft of cotton from her hair and put it in Twilight’s mane with a smile. The Venusaur behind her had a long-suffering look on his face, but he still smiled as his mistress gave Twilight her present.

“But why? Why would you do something like that to so many houses?”

“Why?” Welshi said, tilting her head as if she didn’t understand the question.

“She is a Whimsicott, your majesty,” the Venusaur said. “She needs no other reason to play pranks.”

“It’s not a prank, Morrison. It’s a favor! All of those houses are so pretty now!”

“As you say, milady.”

“Do all Whimsicott do this?” Twilight asked Morrison.

“Their species has a strong reputation for it, your majesty. They mean no harm, and they very rarely steal. Lady Welshi sees this activity a bit differently than others of her kind, though.”

“Well, I wish you would stop. I don’t mean to be rude, but you’ve worried a lot of ponies with these nighttime outings. Just because somepony isn’t home doesn’t mean you can sneak into their house and rearrange their furniture.”

“Alright,” Welshi said, her voice sad and dejected. After a moment an idea hit her and she perked up. “I’ll talk to Rarity about my design ideas. Perhaps she can help me convince the ponies around here that they should embrace my talent and use it themselves!”

“Perhaps she can,” Twilight said, humoring the tiny creature as she climbed atop her Venusaur servant. “Fluttershy sent word that they need more supplies in God’s Breath to treat the wounded. Cadance took them out with several other guards. Honestly, I’ve never seen such awful injuries.”

“Dark Arceus is evil incarnate. Such vile emotions can only bring pain and suffering.”

“I don’t look forward to our meeting. But if the Elements of Harmony can put a stop to this evil, Equestria is glad to bring our power to bare.”

“Your majesty,” one of the guardponies said as he pointed at Twilight’s mane. She pulled her mane aside to see even more cotton balls had been stuck to her hair.

“Hey!”

“What?” Whelshi said as she prepared to throw another cotton ball. “They’re pretty!”

“Yes, but I think that’s enough cotton for now.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled as they made their way back to the castle.

“I brought everything you asked for, Fluttershy,” Cadance said as she walked up to the damaged hospital with a cart full of medical supplies in tow.

“Oh, thank you so much Princess,” Fluttershy said as she walked up to the cart. “Yes, this looks like everything we need for now. All that’s left is to build up a reserve for after the battle is over.”

“Manehatten and Fillydelphia are sending surplus supplies our way. They should be here by early morning.”

“Oh thank goodness. Our new friends are terrified of this ‘Dark Arceus’ creature. Some of them are even afraid to say its name. The council seems confident that we can win, though.”

“Our strategies are all prepared, and Shining Armor has the Crystal Guard under control. I was thinking… I’d like to help you here with healing the wounded until the battle begins. Twilight and the others will be coming here tomorrow morning, as well. It would be appropriate for all of us to be together when Dark Arceus appears.”

“Oh, of course, your majesty,” Fluttershy said, smiling in relief at the offer. “To be honest, things have been quite difficult here. The Chansey and the Audino are the primary nurses and doctors here, but many of them were hurt during the last battle. According to Harmony, they were targeted along with their patients. We would love to have your help.”

“Wonderful,” Cadance said, smiling. “And if you don’t mind, you can call me Cadance. You and the others have been such wonderful friends to Twilight, and you have royal positions now, too. I feel like we could get away with less formal titles.”

“Of course, Cadance,” Fluttershy said, a note of pleasant surprise in her voice. “The more friends, the merrier!”

Just then, a Chansey with a clipboard walked up to the ponies and bowed. She handed the clipboard to Fluttershy, and the Pegasus frowned in worry.

“Oh, my. There seems to have been a number of injured survivors found during the clean up. They’ve just been moved into our critical care ward. Perhaps you can handle this one, Cadance?”

“Yes, I will gladly see to these patients,” Cadance said as she took the clipboard from Fluttershy. She mirrored the other’s frown as she read over the descriptions of the injuries. Then, with a determined glare she ran into the hospital with her friend close behind.

“What are you two doin’, Pinkie?” Applejack asked as she walked into the ballroom of Canterlot Castle. She rubbed her tired eyes as she watched the strange scene before her. Pinkie Pie was moving back and forth, twirling, and jumping all around Sasha, who sat watching the pony intently.

“I’m teaching Sasha how to dance!”

“At six in the mornin’? I could hear you from down the hall, and we haven’t even had our coffee yet. How do you have so much energy so early?”

“Sasha and I already had our coffee, didn’t we Sasha?”

“Yes, though I’ve never drank coffee mixed with chocolate cake before.”

“Besides, we’ve got everything ready now. If we just stood around and waited for the big baddie to appear, we’d start to get down in the dumps. This way, we’re busy and not dwelling on the horrible, unknowable future!”

Pinkie stopped her dancing and pointed to Sasha, who took that as her queue to begin dancing, too. The Absol mimicked Pinkie’s movements, though her dancing was less erratic and more graceful. She twitched a few times, though, her eyelids moving up at a strange angle, but her footwork remained elegant. As she enjoyed the dance, Applejack made a mental note to have a long talk with Pinkie about mixing cake with coffee and feeding it to strangers.

“Oh, that’s pretty!” Pinkie Pie said as she noticed a large, diamond shaped earring gleaming beneath Sasha’s bangs.

“Oh, this?” Sasha said as she finished her dance and held up her bangs to show the others. “It’s nothing, really. It was a gift from my predecessor in the High Council. Krush has one, too, but he hides it better. It’s his fake golden tooth.”

“That’s still some fancy jewelry,” Applejack said as she poured herself a cup of coffee from the table. “You should show Rarity. She’d enjoy that.”

“I will, but it’s more than just jewelry, really. Since I’m a dark-type, I can’t connect naturally with the psychic-types when the council forms a telepathic circle. This device was made by King Siebold long ago to allow dark-types to interact with telepathic circles freely.”

“And Krush’s tooth does the same thing?”

“Yes, it does. He’s half rock-type and half dark-type, so he’s immune to psychic-type abilities, as well.”

“That’s awesome!” Pinkie Pie said. “But now it’s back to dance practice.”

“What are the next steps, Pinkie Pie?” Sasha asked eagerly.

“Ok, this next part is difficult. First you…” Pinkie paused a moment, her eyes opening wide in surprise.

Sasha’s eyes had widened, as well, and her fur began standing on end. Pinkie Pie began shuddering uncontrollably and Sasha’s eyes began darting around the room as she growled in terror. Applejack wasn’t entirely sure what was going on with Sasha, but she knew what Pinkie’s shuddering was about, and she suspected they were both reacting to the same thing.

“Let me guess,” Applejack said, her voice filled with worry. “Something bad is about to happen.”

“Dark Arceus is waking up,” Sasha said. “It’s a day earlier than we expected but... War has come to Equestria.”

“We have to warn the princesses!” Pinkie yelled as her shuddering finally came to a stop. “We have to warn everyone, now!”

Without another word, the three friends darted out of the ballroom to alert the others. The moon turned red as Princess Luna lowered it, and dark clouds gathered over the city of God’s Breath, blocking out the rays of the sun even as Princess Celestia raised it into the sky.