Author's Note

It's been a long time coming, it's mostly unedited, and it's nearly triple the length of the other chapters... But here you go, everypony! Enjoy, and make sure to be as relentless as you can with my grammar and spelling errors, as most of this was written during inspired bursts between 1-2am every other morning or so.

Chapter 5 - In Love and War

Twilight had known fear before. Every pony had, it's a natural reaction caused by a pony's instinctive fight or flight instincts. Of course for ponies, the 'flight' side of the equation was significantly more common than the 'fight' response. Twilight however, did not display this common trait of equinity as she stood just inside the entrance to her castle, runes etched into every surface and spiral circles spinning in geometric designs around the floor where she stood. While her face was clearly full of fear, one other emotion had enough sway over her mind to allow her to stand her ground. Determination.

Yet despite all of her extensive preparations, Twilight knew she wasn't going to last long. She just hoped she could keep everything up until Celestia arrived, at which point she could hopefully speak to her teacher, and find what was causing this drastic behaviour. Murmurs began to grow outside the massive crystal entrance as the sounds of ponies approached. Twilight bent her neck and lowered her body, her eyes staring forwards with all the focus she could muster. The moment they pound the doors open, she would let her prepared barrage of non-lethal enchantments fly.

Yes the slam of ponies forcing the door open never came. Instead, a rapid knocking, followed by a familiar voice. "T...Twilight! Open up! T-They'll be here any minute! I brought the girls!" Spoke her assistant from the other side of the door. Twilight let out a relaxed sigh and stepped forwards, quickly opening the massive gate to allow Spike and whoever he brought with him inside. The lavender alicorn's eyes widened as she took in the sight of each of the five ponies standing before her, each with different degrees of worry and confusion on their faces. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and even Fluttershy had dropped everything to help her.

She nodded for them to enter and they did so quickly, sensing the tension and speed of the situation. Immediately once the door closed, Rainbow pounced Twilight, slamming the poor princess's back against the floor and leaning in with a frenzied look on her eyes. "What is the name of my favorite stuffed animal?!" Rainbow Dash shouted, her voice sounding strained and panicked, her hoof held just inches above Twilight's face.

"Gah! S-Spits! Spits! You named her after S-Spitfire the first time you saw her fly!" Twilight shouted back, causing Rainbow to let out a sigh of relief, before blushing when she heard a slight snicker from Rarity. The athlete gave the fashionista a death glare before helping Twilight back to her hooves.

"Sorry about that, Twi. Spitfire told me something crazy about you being taken captive by a changeling queen, and I needed to make sure you were the real you." Rainbow said, shrugging slightly. Twilight was about to point out that had she been mind controlled, she still would have been able to answer the question correctly, but decided that it would not be a good idea to mention at this time.

The rest of the girls were staring at Twilight, their mouths slightly ajar. Rarity was the first pony to recollect herself as she gave an awkward smile. "Twilight, darling, I think it would be easiest to everypony if you would just explain what's going on here, and why there's an army the size of Manehattan just outside your castle?" Asked the fashionista with a worried grin.

Twilight let out a sigh and nodded. "Alright, I'll give you the simple version. But I have to ask that none of you interrupt me until I'm done. We don't have much time." The five ponies quickly nodded and crowded inwards slightly, forming a crescent around Twilight as she began to speak quickly. "Three days ago, I received an unexpected visitor in my entrance room. That visitor was, indeed, Chrysalis." Pinkie and Rainbow both opened their mouths to interrupt her, but were both stopped by an identical orange hoof. Applejack nodded at Twilight to continue, her expression focussed. "Sensing that she was about to leap at me, I casted a number of defensive spells. Unfortunately, I overdid it, and caused severe damage to her carapace." Fluttershy gasped loudly, placing her hooves against her mouth.

"I held her contained in a guest room for a couple days as I tried to mend her shell with magic, but it resisted all known healing incantations. Fearing the worst, I sent an emergency letter to Celestia." The five ponies smiled in relief. Celestia would handle everything! "She responded telling me to contain her with an illegal spell designed to trap powerful being in searing agony, the kind of pain that none should wish upon any pony in existence." She spoke, watching as her friends expressions turned from hopeful to horrified. Nearly all of them tried to speak up at once, but she silently shushed them with a hoof before finishing her tale. "The letter continued to list every military unit she was sending, which included the majority of Equestria's armed, winged, or arcane forces, and a sizable portion of the Crystal Empire's. Additionally, she called upon Cadence and my brother to lead the attack. Lastly, she stated that I should leave the castle immediately and seek no further contact with the queen." Twilight's jaw was set in a firm line as she let her friends take in the news.

Fluttershy was the first to find her voice, somehow. Her timid squeak barely audible over the deafening silence. "But... the Princess would never do something like that. Even as cruel as Chrysalis is... that's... that would be k-k... killing a defenseless being." She mumbled, turning to look at the doors.

Rainbow Dash responded to that with a grunt. "But, Chrysalis is a bad guy! Maybe she just... really wants to ensure that she gets captured!"

Applejack scoffed. "Enough that she tells 'er student to use torture? Ah don't think so." Rarity had nothing to say, her mouth still slightly agape as her brain processed the news. Pinkie Pie had disappeared halfway through the story, and was nowhere to be seen.

"Now... I know Celestia is a wonderful ruler, and the wisest pony I know... but I disagree with her orders. I have the right as a princess to grant sanctuary to a foreign being under conviction if I do not agree with the penalties assigned to them. This protection is guaranteed until an agreement has been reached between all current princesses. For some reason, Celestia is not granting me this right... which brings us to now. I need your help to keep the Queen safe until Celestia has arrived, where I can talk to her under the rules of parlay." Twilight stated, sounding exactly like a military tactician.

Applejack blinked. "An' how do you know all this fancy war stuff?" The farmer asked, raising a suspicious eye.

Twilight smiled sheepishly in response and levitated up a stack of three books labelled 'The Genhoova Convention', 'The Ethics of War', and 'Rights and Responsibilities of Equestrian Government (Second Edition)'. "I... read when I'm panicking."

Rarity stepped forward, nodding her head to Twilight. "You read all the time, darling. Regardless, of course I'll stand by you any time, dear. I trust you completely, and it would be horrid of me to turn you away."

Fluttershy followed behind the alabaster unicorn quietly, giving Twilight a soft smile. "I might not be able to do much when it comes to fighting, but I'll stand by you. As a true friend, it's the right thing to do."

Applejack soon trotted steadily on her hooves. "The princess is the wisest pony ah' know. But she doesn't sound too wise right now, and ah have a feeling you're being honest with us. I'll stand by you Twilight, as ah don't know what else ah could do."

That left Rainbow, who despite symbolizing loyalty, looked extremely conflicted. "You're one of my best friends Twilight, and if what you're saying is true, then I have to be a loyal friend. But Celestia... and the Wonderbolts..." She looked off and out towards the door, biting her lip before she narrowed her eyes and shook her head "...buck it, I'll stand by you too, Twi."

Just as Twilight was about to ask where Pinkie had gotten to, a loud crash sounded from her basement. Turning to face the stairs, all of their eyes widened as a familiar pink pony strode out of the basement, a helmet loosely sitting upon her fluffy mane and two blots of war paint staining her cheeks. In each front hoof she leant against a wheel mounted party cannon, and her eyes were narrowed in a grimace. Chewing a toothpick between her lips, she spat it out onto the crystal floor. "Let's roll." The pony spoke in a short, clipped voice as she pushed her cannons into a barricaded position facing the door. The five other ponies and one drake who had just reentered the room blinked in confusion. They were used to Pinkie being Pinkie... but... this was another level entirely.

The train station was a frenzied area of soldiers running left and right, grouping and regrouping to the orders of their superiors. As Shining Armor stepped off the train, he laid a hoof around his wife's shoulders. "It's gonna be okay. We're gonna find Twilight, and free her. Then we're gonna find Chrysalis, and let that whorse know what happens when you hurt the two most important mares in my life."

Cadence nodded sadly, though bit her lip in doubt. "I know... but the letter from Celestia was so informal. If it wasn't for the perfect hoof writing, I don't think I would have believed it to be real. And it was sent through the right dragonfire channel... so it had to be her... but..." The Alicorn of Love spoke, staring out towards the Crystal Castle.

A brown coated soldier trotted up to Shining, giving him a firm salute. "Sir, the Element Bearers have been seen entering the building. No visual or auditory contact since.

Shining cursed under his breath before nodding towards the soldier. "Lieutenant Zinc Helm, Let the others know that the other Elements are to now also be considered possible hostiles. Use stunning spells only. Do not harm them if possible." The soldier nodded and trotted away to relay the orders and Shining let out a long held breath.

The first sounds the elements heard were the shouts of some indiscernible pony, followed by what sounded like a large swarm of bees. Twilight carefully lifted the blind of one of the windows to look out, but her heart nearly stopped at what she saw. A squadron of unicorns stood in line, at least a dozen a row and half as many again thick. Each one of them had they horns charged identically with a spell ready to be released against the crystal castle turned fortress. She saw some unknown unicorn in a bright vest and hat at the front, holding his hoof in the air. The hoof then lowered, and all hell broke loose.

Seventy two identical concussive blasts fired out from the squadron's horns, smashing into the castle one row after the other to cause six consecutive tremors to shake the crystal structure, and all the ponies held within. Luckily, the polyshape forcefield held and dissipated the forces, allowing the building to stand with no structural damage. Unfortunately, less than a minute later, the horns were already charging again, this time with not with a destructive spell matrix, but just with pure energy.

Twilight yelped and shut the blinds, trotting quickly behind the barricade. "They're going to overload the shield! There is no way it can hold that much energy!" She shouted. The theory of how it worked went over most of her friend's heads, but the idea they understood: The shield was going down, get ready.

The sound of the shield failing was so quiet, it was almost too easy to miss. The first sign that they were truly unprotected, was the flashing blue of a wonderbolt flying in at high speed to scout the place out for any traps. And a trap she did find, when she was shot out of the air by a temporal stasis charm, leaving her suspended in place for a moment before being flung back out of the building harmlessly.

Two more high speed fliers were dealt with identically before they decided to go in without scouts, sending in a full wave of armored earth ponies equipped with spears so sharp they could split a pony in two. Luckily for the ponies inside the castle, those spears were not drawn in the guard's hooves, and instead they held large black tower shields in their mouths. Each obsidian barrier was covered in a swirling design of a glowing purple metallic substance that seemed to grow in luminosity with every step the ponies took into the castle.

Twilight recognized the material immediately as peredium, an artificial alloy created through intensive alchemical processes. The name came from the ancient Romane word 'peredo', meaning to consume or devour entirely, as the substance absorbs thaumic mana endlessly, storing up the energy until the point at which it becomes unstable and shatters. Most commonly used in null-magic rings, it seemed that the guard had recently upgraded their equipment to deal with more competent spell casters.

Luckily she didn't have to panic about her magic being ineffectual, as the advancing guard soon found just how ineffective peredium was at stopping physical blows, such as an apple farmer's hooves, for instance. While the shields did take most of the brute force, crumpling in the ponies' mouths, their armor was less suitable for cushioning the blows as they flew backwards out of the castle and into trees, other guards, and one poor mailmare who didn't get the warning to stay indoors. She would wake up ten hours later in Ponyville General with no clue as to what went wrong.

The next squadron of ponies was much more substantially armored, these ones carrying their shields on their backs and leaving their hooves and heads free to protect themselves as the unicorn corps behind them began to fire a barrage of spells in through the open doorway. Twilight began to alternate casting complicated counters to the incoming hexes, knocking the bolts of magic out of the air with split second blasts of her own identically resonating arcana. Rarity stood beside her, launching stunning spells at whoever was unlucky enough to drop their shields as Rainbow Dash and Applejack continued to tussle with the newest wave of guards. Fluttershy stood in the back with Pinkie, helping the partymare turned demolitionist reload the cannons with hard packed balls of confetti.

Things were looking quite positive, the six ponies somehow managing to hold their ground against the approaching forces. Twilight even managed to put on a small grin, her confidence growing that they might make it long enough. That was, however, until a massive azure implosion ripped the entire front wall away from the castle's entrance room, removing the six ponies' choke point that was their only advantage.

Standing before them was the princess of the moon herself, and she did not look pleased. In fact, she looked outright furious. "You DARE?!" She shouted her eyes trained on all of the element bearers at once. "You DARE turn them against us? Use our friends as your pawns?!"

Twilight gulped, her knees weak as her mane blew in the approaching storm. She attempted to speak up, explain why she asked her friends for help, why everything was how it was, but she didn't even get a chance. "Do not speak, witch!" The lunar goddess belted, yet her eyes did not lock onto Twilight's own. Instead, Luna continued to scan the room with her orbs. "We do not care what you have to say through the mouths of your unwilling puppets! Show yourself and end this charade!"

"W...what?" Twilight whispered, her mind a swirling vortex of confusion as she stared at Luna with wide eyes.

Luna growled in response, slamming a hoof against the ground and leaving a small crater. "Do not play dumb with me." She hissed. "We'll just free the bearers and they themselves can point me to your wretched self!" She began charging an incantations, tendrils and bolts of lightning swirling and jolting around her horn in a cacophony of light and sound, before she released the massive blast which quickly cloaked all the bearers inside. When the opaque aura of magic finally fled, the six harmonic ponies remained standing, but looked slightly confused.

"Uh... what was that supposed to do?" Applejack asked.

This was apparently not the correct question, as Luna only let out an annoyed huff."You think you're clever? You used drones instead of the real bearers?"

A large alabaster hoof, donned in a golden shoe, stepped out of the shadows behind Luna. The massive white alicorn narrowed her eyes and grimaced. "Guards. Eliminate the imposters immediately."