Author's Note

I decided to make this a side chapter of sorts since the negativity in my life was getting to me. So, technically this chapter only has them arming themselves, a little background of fluttershy's during her recovery, them saying their goodbyes, and foreshadowing.

Chapter 4:Call to arms

"Prepare?!" mostly everyone yelled out. They already knew this was inevitable, all the evidence was there. Celestia looked at all of them, her brow furrowed.

"Yes, if they had come on peaceful terms, then I'm very certain they would have made contact with us a long time ago. We're going to have to mobilize our forces in case of them being of hostile intent, if not then all of this must be dealt with great care. We don't know anything about their culture or beliefs, the last thing we would want would be to go to war with an alien race over a simple misunderstanding," celestia looked at each and everyone of them. The Griffin King rose.

"The Griffin Kingdom would not be standing here today, were it not two of your subjects, your highness. The griffins will aid you!" Wise flyer smashed his claw outspread on the table, making it a declaration.

"Same here!" chrysalis spoke up. "You could have wiped us all out, but you didn't, you spared all of us instead. The Swarm, the Hive, and their future generations owe you their lives. The entire Changeling race will stand by you!" chrysalis declared. Ember got everyone's attention clanging the scepter on the ground.

"Even though I'm the Dragon Lord, it will be impossible to gain help from the adults, but I may be able to persuade the younger ones to help us," she said, with a confident smile. Now everyone was in agreement.

"Then it is settled, we will go to the frozen north!" she said. The other leaders nodded their heads at this.

"Well then I'm going to give you all a head start then, so you can mobilize your forces, ta ta." Discord snapped his fingers and everyone, except Celestia, Luna, Chrysalis, Twilight, her friends, Night fury, and Blueblood, who is still unconscious, was gone.

The doors to the room opened. The group passed Flash Sentry and Black Flame, who were both blushing.

"I see you two were quite busy, while I was at the meeting." Night fury smirked at the two, who were blushing even harder. "I'm gonna want a full report on the two of your little activities." She smirked one final time, before leaving. Flash and flame both breathed a sigh of relief, until they started laughing, when they saw blueblood, still unconscious and rainbow-fied, being dragged by fluttershy.

"Twilight I would advise you and your friends to get ready, since you will be coming with us, and you should make preparations at home since you will be gone for a while," celestia said.

"Alright then, discord." The purple alicorn looked towards the draconequus.

The God of Chaos simply replied, "Alrighty then." He snapped his fingers once more and they were at the castle.

"Okay Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie pie, you girls are the only ones that need to say their goodbyes. We'll wait here okay?"

"Alright partner I'ma say goodbye to Applebloom, Big Mac, Granny Smith, and Scootaloo." The orange earth trotted off to Sweet Apple Acres.

"Well, applejack darling, I'll see you their later, since I'm going to need somepony to look after Sweetie Belle." The fashionista trotted towards Carousel Boutique.

"Actually I don't need somepony to look after the animals, I just need to get something," fluttershy said.

"Oh how right she is!" Discord floated along side her, and they both went to her Cottage.

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Rarity

"Sweetie belle! Come here please come here!" sweetie belle came running down the stairs, from her room, at hearing her sister's voice.

"What's going on rarity? You seem a bit sad," she stated, upon seeing her older sister's face.

"Yes, well come have a seat with me." Rarity sat down on a couch, with sweetie belle sitting right next to her. "You see...their have been confirmations of...aliens." Rarity stopped talking to await her little sister's response.

"Really?!" rarity shook her head. "That's the most amazing thing I've ever heard!" sweetie belle exclaimed, upon hearing this come from her older sister.

"This isn't a joke sweetie belle. I will have to go on a diplomatic mission involving them. I'll have to meet them with the others and the princesses, and discuss peace negotiations." Rarity lowered her head and closed her eyes as she knew what was gonna happen next.

"Can I come?!" the over excited filly stated, not even thinking if her sister was just toying with her. Rarity's eyes opened, she slowly inhaled, and exhaled.

"No." Rarity got off the couch and started walking to the door, sweetie belle looked at her with disbelief. "Come on now, I'm going to drop you off with applebloom and scootaloo at sweet apple acres," sweetie belle ran in front of her before she opened the door.

"You're telling me that you're going to talk to a bunch real life aliens and you're not letting me join you?"

"Yes," the other white unicorn merely stated.

"Why not?!" the younger pony complained. The older sibling looked back at her sister.

"Because we're traveling to the Frozen North. There's many possibilities of death! We could lose our way, treading through uncharted territory, we could die of starvation, we could freeze to death, or we could find out if the aliens will react hostile to us." Sweetie belle started glaring at her.

"And how do I know that you're not just playing with me?" rarity went to the door and, with a neutral, calm expression, opened the door.

Pinkie pie flew in, squeezing sweetie belle, whilst crying in a cartoon like fashion.

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Applejack

"No, neither of you'all can come with me,"

"Well then how do we know your not lying to us?"

"I'ma terrible liar! Plus the trip is dangerous. You do realize that one itty bitty misunderstanding could escalate to total war between us and a bunch of aliens right?" the orange mare looked down at the two fillies. They were almost as tall as her now. Applejack had become more worried with scootaloo, after she found out about rainbow dash things took a turn for the worst.

Everyone found out that she was really an orphan and rainbow dash was about the closest thing to consider family. Applejack decided to take her in, during the beginning she was in a great amont of depression. Rainbow dash was the only beacon of hope she had in her world of darkness, and at some point it became very bad to to the point where she nearly committed suicide.

Applejack shook herself to forget about those memories. The two fillies looked down in disappointment.

"Oh sorry,"

"Oh sorry,"

"Oh come on!" all three of them turned their heads to look at where the noise had come from. Rarity was walking towards them with sweetie belle in tow.

"The answer is still no." The young unicorn started grumbling as she walked over to join the rest of her friends. "Ah, applejack darling wold you care to come back to the others with me?"

"Sure but first," the applejack turned around to look at the three fillies. "Ah want the three of ya to stay here and not cause any trouble capeesh?" the trio nodded their heads. "Alright then." She started walking away with rarity right beside her. "And don't try an' follow us," She called out to them before disappearing along the horizon.

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Fluttershy

Fluttershy entered her cottage with discord to see a pony that looked exactly like her.

"Hello discord, hello fluttershy," the look-alike said.

"Hello fluttershy number two! It's so nice to see you too! Especially so soon!" Discord started snickering at his own rhyming.

Fluttershy walked up to her look-alike. "F2 I need you to look after the animals while I'm away," fluttershy stated, sounding more like a command rather than a question. F2 was a clone created by discord to tend to the animals while she was away for things or out of the house.

''Okay," F2 responded. Fluttershy nodded. She headed upstairs to her room, discords was watching, while clapping the tips of his claw and paw together in anticipation. Fluttershy was moving her bed from it's place. Discord was having tea with F2, Angel bunny, and Mr. Bear, he looked up when he heard something coming from upstairs.

"What do you suppose she's doing up their," discord said, whilst smirking. Mr. Bear shrugged. Angel bunny nervously looked at his tea cup, he new as well as discord what happened after it happened.

Fluttershy had gone on a long trip trying to sort herself out. The trip led her to Jai-Pone, their culture revolved around being a warrior, yet still it also influenced harmony, inner peace, honor, and the emotion of calmness. Fluttershy's timing was poor, for as she arrived, much like everywhere else, a civil war had broken out. Fluttershy was intrigued at how during the conflict they were all able to remain calm, even the ones that had lost so much because of the conflict. She decided to study and learn their ways, even research the entire history of Jai-Pone. Normally it would take years to master the art of combats they practiced, yet fluttershy strangely was a quick learner in the kind of state she was in, some might call her a rare and exotic snake, others a pink and deadly rose, never the less fluttershy became a very respected figure after she had aided in the war, albeit fluttershy admitted that a piece of her had died back in Jai-Pone and she was not the same pony anymore.

"Discord we're leaving," fluttershy said said as she came downstairs.

"Alrighty then," discord answered before walking out the door with fluttershy.

"Gee it must be that bad," F2 stated. Angel bunny hid behind his tea cup.

"Alright everypony's here except for discord and fluttershy?"

"Evera'pony's present and accounted for," the farm mare replied.

"Tank and Owlicious are at fluttershy's cottage?"

"Been there ever since this morning!" her number one assistant called out.

"Okay," twilight gulped, "everypony head to the cave."

The entire place was beautiful, it was a garden with lots of animals and plants in it, there was artificial weather, today it was sunny. Rainbow's cloud house at the center of the entire area. Everyone frowned as they walked past it into an area that looked like it was from a castle. Corridor to corridor they traveled until they reached the armory. There mounted on the walls were six different armors with their color schemes. Twilight, Starlight, and Sunset's armors all were standard versions and had both of their colors on them, Rarity's armor also had both of her colors on the armor, but appeared more detailed and ceremonial, Applejack's armor was the color of a light tinted bronze, it looked slightly more bulkier than the others and warrior-like, and Pinkie's armor was a lighter version, wearing a body glove underneath and lots of armor pieces attached to her.

"Weapons," twilight said and soon enough everyone moved towards the chests that were lined up below where their armors were hung. Twilight picked up a shield with rotating blades on it and attached it to her left arm, she then picked up a sword with purple particles floating around it and a purple orb floating on the end of the handle. Twilight pressed a button on the handle and the handle grew longer, making it look like a similar, yet simple, weapon like ember's. She shrunk it back down and placed it on her back. Sunset had two twin swords with hieroglyphics and symbols representing the sun and were glowing, Starlight had two large daggers with electric knuckle dusters on the handles for non-lethal combat.

"Where'd you get those?" twilight questioned, because last she checked her apprentice was still looking for a weapon to use in combat.

"Pinkie gave them to me," her apprentice answered. Twilight's mouth fell. "Yeah, I don't know where she got'em either, so don't ask," twilight merely nodded.

While sunset and twilight put on their holster belts around their waists for two flechette pistols, starlight had two, one hung from both her shoulders for her daggers to be holstered on just above her waist, the second one hung from one shoulder across her chest and carried two flechette pistols. Rarity had an elegantly made rapier with a lightning bolt at the end of the rapier's hilt, holstered on her back was a strange variation of the flechette launcher, it was skinnier, had a long barrel with a curving blade underneath, extending past it, improved iron sights, and a handle on the side of the barrel angling downwards for better handling of the pump action. Applejack started putting on extra pieces to her hooves and a final piece to her chest. The pieces on her hooves made a locking sound, while piece on her chest suddenly started creating metal straps to lock itself to her. The results were incredible mobility, strength increase, and the magic she had, from being an earth pony, was amplified. Applejack turned to twilight as a helmet formed over her head and face.

"Hey, Twi' what ya' say about this fancy shmancy new and advanced tech?" she asked as she towered over her friend. The appearance of her height and bulk were increased by the pieces.

"I said that you'll be the only Next Generation Heavy Class Super soldier, with advanced weapons," she said, taking in the appearance of her friend.

"Riiiight," the so-called super soldier dragged the word on, as she attached an extra piece to her right arm. It expanded on her arm with pieces that had blue lights on them. Glowing blue tubes suddenly grew from the pieces and attached themselves to the chest piece.

"Yes, and there are some reasons why I didn't mass produce them, such as the magic amplifier piece on your chest being too dangerous, since it can overload a pony's magic capacity limit and cause either exponential release of energy from said pony and then cause them to explode. Which is why I built the arm cannon to filter amplified magic into pure magical energy for ammunition," the purple unicorn concluded her argument.

"Ya even added an upgrade to it just for safety," the orange mare smirked underneath her helmet. Twilight pressed a hoof to her face and let out a sigh. "Hey how'd you even come up with this repulse hammer?" she asked, as she pulled out the weapon she was talking about. It had three large axe-like blade on it's sides, with three miniature ones one the top. The large blades spun right while the smaller ones spun left, when activated the silver blades had a glowing blue trim on them, much like celestia's weapon, the handle was a shiny black, and when spinning the smaller blade would open up to allow powerful blasts of energy to be released.

"Hmm, I don't know. I was inspired to make it by a strange dream I had," the unicorn explained origins of the weapon. Applejack smiled.

"Heh, sooner or later your gonna be like rarity. Bein' able to be inspired by the slightest thing. No offense rarity," the armored pony turned her head to the fashionista when she said this.

"None taken dear," the white unicorn called out. Applejack finished putting on the rest of her equipment, another strange variation of the flechette, this one was larger with a drum-looking thing on the bottom gun and a handle underneath the barrel of the gun. Applejack put on a belt holster modified to carry a heavy flechette pistol behind her, two folded up tactical tomahawks next her waists, large flechette ammo. Applejack found a weapon and ammunition on a modified shoulder that she knows it wasn't there before.

"Oh yeah, that's a gift from fluttershy. She made it by basing it off a weapon she found during her time in Jai-pone,"

"Well Ah'll be," she silently exclaimed as she looked over the weapon. It was small, had clip on the side of it and a cylindrical revolver for ammunition, and a foregrip on the bottom the barrel. "Ya know, rainbow would say something, well, awesome......," applejack looked up as she began to think, "She'd say 'Let's kick some flank!'," she jerked the grenade launcher down and caused it to pump itself.

"YEAH!!!" pinkie yelled. She had pieces similar to applejack's, except there were only two on here front hooves and one on her chest. The magic amplifier, which she obtained somehow, fed magic into the pieces on her hooves, allowing them to be lightning fast. Pinkie modified the two pieces to make them have pink flames and electric sparks come out of them. She had a belt holster that was packed with flechette ammo, shoulder holsters modified to allow both of her hooves to easily draw her two pistols, a backpack full of explosives, and two holsters on her upper arms, below her shoulders, carrying two daggers shaped like lightning bolts. Pinkie modified the pistols to have extended mags, fast reload, hold two clips instead of one, a flashlight, and automatic/high rate of fire. She even has a miniature rocket launcher built in on her right hoof.

"Sorry I'm late," they all turned to see fluttershy with discord, "I was paying my respects," she said remembering the cloud house.

"Whoa," spike simply stated. Fluttershy wore a body glove underneath like pinkie and a hoodie on her upper body with a shiny, black, armored vest over that. Her armor consisted of black and red crystal and a bit of gold. Her legs were covered with black crystal armor pieces with two gold talon like blades at the front and one at the back of her lower hooves. Running up the back of her hind legs were two rows of retractable red blades angling downwards, on her front hooves were two golden bracelets over two built-in flechette launchers, underneath her arms were red elbow blades, and around her neck wasn't a scarf or a bandanna, it was a mask with gold and red pieces on it that formed a skull with a red flame on it's head and sharp fangs and teeth. During her time at Jai-pone fluttershy had become a member of two clans. The Dragon clan, they held the dragons as their gods, making their armor designs to have traits from different dragon species, they favored heavy fighting styles. The Death clan saw death as their god, they were feared because of their fast, complex, and stealthy fighting style and viewing themselves as the children and aspects of death.

A katana sword with Jai-ponese writing, translating to "Angel of Death", and a handle with a white-gold dragon spiraling around it, acting as a handle guard of sorts, was sheathed on her back on a one-shoulder holster with two flechette pistols on her front. A belt holstered around her waist carried knives and magazines, on her legs a pair of spring-loaded knives were holstered there, and sheathed behind her waist was a retractable sword. It's handle was black with a red crystal sharp point on the end, two seperate blades, each adorned with a single barb and were the length of a huge combat knife, formed a single blade on top of the handle, red crystals in the shape of wavy patterns, making it look like it had at the area where the handle and the two blades met with wavy streaks around the length of the handle. The reason that her sword was a retractable one was because there was a strange mechanism in the handle that caused the two blades to separate further by moving next to their respective sides of the handle, leaving a slit-like opening on the handle's top. There was a button the on the handle. When pressed a blade extended out of the slit. Fluttershy looked at each and every one of them, looking them over.

"Are we ready to go?" she simply asked.

"Yep!" spike said, as he holstered his two weapons on his back. Like his dragon compatriots his armor was similar to theirs in design. He carried a heavy long sword blade with a spear's long handle. His other weapon was a simple long sword, albeit more light and fluid in motion, despite it's appearance. Just like applejack and celestia's weapons the sword had a trim on it, except the color was greenish-yellow.

"LET'S KICK SOME FLANK!" pinkie hopped past fluttershy, soon all them followed in tow when suddenly they remembered something. Fluttershy was still dragging an unconscious blueblood behind her. They all looked towards twilight...she merely shrugged not knowing what to do.

Fluttershy looked at the Cloudominium one last time. Fluttershy felt there was more to it than just aliens being discovered. She felt like it was something familiar yet powerful? Like a form of energy. What was it? These thoughts were the only things that were on her mind as she pondered what was about to happen, other than meet hostile or friendly extraterrestrials. Fluttershy turned her head away from the cloudominium.

What could it be?

What could it be?