Nebula's War

"Silver! Silver, wake up! You have a visitor." As Silver lifted his head and opened his eyes, he saw EagleHeart and an unfamiliar mare standing in the doorway. "Silver, this is Zecora. She's a friend of mine, and Equestria's most brilliant alchemist."

"I have come to offer some assistance to Azure and his brave resistance." Zecora explained.

"…Pardon?" said Silver.

"She's here to help us." EagleHeart said, and added in a whisper, "She speaks in rhyme. Please don't make a big deal of it."

"Um, okay." Silver said. "It's nice to meet you, Zecora. I'd get up to greet you, but… you know." He wiggled his stump of a hind leg.

"That is why I've come to see." Zecora said, and pulled out a vial of green paste. "You need a doctor, and that is I." She trotted up to Silver and began rubbing the liquid on his leg. A cold, tickling sensation ran through Silver's stump, as if tiny worms were crawling over his flesh. Zecora watched Silver's leg for ten seconds, and then raised it toward the ceiling; to his amazement, Silver saw that the raw red flesh was now covered with sleek silver fur, as if the leg had never been there in the first place.

"That's amazing!" Silver cheered. "Can that stuff regrow my leg?" Zecora turned her sad eyes on Silver.

"Regrow your leg? It can't be done." She said. "I'm sorry, but it's dead and gone." Silver's face fell.

"I'm sorry, Silver, but nothing but the most powerful magic can regrow lost limbs. All Zecora can do is heal the wound." Silver looked back at Zecora and smiled.

"It's okay, I never liked that leg anyway." He said, and Zecora returned his smile. "Besides, with a little practice I’m sure I’ll be able to walk on three legs just as well.”

"Well, maybe not." EagleHeart said, and lifted Silver into a standing position. He fell over several times, but with EagleHeart's help Silver was able to manage a slow trot.

"Come on, I've got something to show you." EagleHeart said as he and Silver left the cabin. Moments later, Silver saw that they were approaching a large tent that was issuing smoke and loud bangs.

"You're taking me to see the blacksmith?" Silver laughed. "I can barely walk, much less use a sword." EagleHeart shook his head.

"No, not a sword." He chuckled. "Nox is working on a very special project." As they entered the tent, their vision became tinged with orange: a burning oven stood in the back of the tent, from which a muscular bat pony pulled a red hot block of iron. He set the metal on an anvil and began hammering it into shape with a large mallet. However, Silver was more interested in the blueprints pinned to the wall, blueprints that looked like…

"A leg?" Silver gasped. "You're making a prosthetic leg?" At this, Nox saw that he had visitors.

"Oh, you're awake! Great!" The blacksmith said as he removed his goggles. "Hi, I'm Nox, the resident blacksmith and I'm building your prosthetic leg." He trotted up to Silver and shook his hoof with surprising strength and enthusiasm. "I'm really excited for this, by the way. I love to smith, but I've never built a prosthetic limb before." He tore a blueprint down from the wall and showed it to Silver. "See, I took some measurements of your other hind leg for reference, and now I'm bending the metal into an identical shape. I'll attach a belt to hold it in place, and maybe a little cushion on the hoof to keep your steps quiet." Nox reached into a drawer, from which he pulled out a small, emerald green stone. "And this baby is the key: it's a magic stone that'll create a telepathic link between your mind and the leg."

"Meaning…?" Silver invited.

"You can move the leg by thinking." EagleHeart explained. "I enchanted the stone myself."

"But until I finish the leg," Nox added. "I've made you a temporary replacement." He reached behind the bench and pulled out a small log with a cushion at one end. "It's not pretty, but it'll get you walking again."

"That's fine with me." Silver admitted, and tied the log to his stump. "I'd rather have a log for a leg than no leg at all." He took a few cautionary steps, and found that he was able to walk with relative ease. "Awesome! Thanks, Nox!" Silver shook Nox's hoof and followed EagleHeart outside. "So, where are the others?"

"They're sparring with Azure." said EagleHeart.

"They're doing what now?"

"Sparring. They're learning how to fight. Times like this, it's a valuable trait." On the opposite end of the clearing, their friends were attacking each other with crude poles.

"Jacob, less power and more speed!" Azure barked. "Melody, don't be so gentle, your enemy won't show the same courtesy. Anamir, keep your shoulders loose, it makes it easier to counter!" He looked over his shoulder and saw EagleHeart and Silver approaching. "Morning, fellas. Nice to see you up and about, Silver. How's the leg?"

"Severed." Silver chuckled, and tapped the peg leg for Azure to see. "But seriously, thanks for saving my life."

"Yeah, no problem. You want to join the next round?"

"… You know what? Sure. I've got nothing better to do." Silver did very poorly, but not for lack of trying: in the span of an hour, Silver had sustained over a dozen bruises, several scrapes and a black eye, but he always got back up and tried again.

"I'll be right back," Anamir announced. "I'm going to start work on the garden." She trotted off to an isolated corner of the camp, where they had agreed would be a good spot for a garden. As an earth pony, Anamir had sufficient strength to till the soil with her bare hooves, and the knowledge necessary for organizing seed patterns. An hour later, dirty and exhausted, Anamir had planted crops of lettuce, corn, cucumbers, and beans in neat little rows.

"There! That should do it." She said. "In a month or two, we'll have a bumper crop of delicious, home-grown vegetables to eat! I just need water." As Anamir returned to the sparring match to get a rain cloud from Chiarascura, she noticed Jacob sitting on his own under an oak tree.

"Hey Jacob, what's wrong?" She asked. "You're looking kind of down."

"N-nothing, I'm fine." Jacob sobbed, wiping his eyes on his hoof.

"Oh please, don't be like that. I know something's going on." She sat down next to Jacob and lifted his chin so that they made eye contact. "Please, I just want to help."

"… Okay." Jacob conceded. "I'm sad because I miss Twilight. She was my best friend in the world, and they took her away from me."

"Yes, I know how that is." Anamir explained. "Chiarascura and I worked with Pinkie Pie until she disappeared. She made the bakery a joyous place by just walking through the door. It's not the same without her or Twilight or their friends, but I promise you this: we will find them."

"Do you think they're still out there?" Jacob sniffled and wiped his muzzle. "You don't think Nebula… killed them?" Anamir shook her head.

"Twilight and her friends have saved Equestria more than a dozen times. A lousy creep like Nebula couldn't kill them if he tried."

"I… I guess you're right." Jacob admitted, and gave Anamir a hug. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Anamir replied. "Now come on, let's see what the others are up to." Back at the sparring match, Silver was covered from head to hoof in bruises and scratches, but thanks to Azure's guidance he was steadily improving. Using his natural agility, Silver ducked and dodged Azure's attacks, only retaliating when the opportunity presented itself. Azure was still the more experienced warrior, but sweat was pouring down his face and his attacks were becoming more clumsy. Finally, Silver jabbed Azure in the chest, causing Azure to drop his pole.

"Okay, that's good for today." Azure announced. "But as long as I have you all here, I'd like to set down a few ground rules: as long as you're staying here, everypony needs to help out. You need to weed and water the garden, sharpen the weapons, gather food and supplies. If you don’t work, you don’t eat, it’s that simple. We all need to pull our weight if this is going to work." Everypony nodded in agreement.

"Of course we'll help, Azure." Melody promised. "This camp is our home now, and we'll do all that we can to protect it."

"I'd rather see this country destroyed than under Nebula's control!" Aaron declared.

"Yeah well, let's hope it doesn't come down to that." Silver added. "But yeah, I'll help out however I can."

"We all will." Anamir said.

"Good to see we're all in agreement." Azure said, and gave a rare smile. "Silver, go to Zecora, she'll take care of those bruises for you. The rest of you, ask Eclipse, Night Shade and Nox what they need help with." He looked around the camp. "It's not much, but with a little time and hard work, we can make it into something great." The team spent the rest of the day making improvements to the camp: as Melody relocated a rain cloud to water the garden, Chiarascura created a series of lovely paintings to adorn the cabins. Jacob shared his knowledge of demons with Azure, including the names and abilities of Nebula's allies, which Azure used to create a wealth of tactics and battle plans. EagleHeart and Trixie set to studying the spell books from Twilight's castle, which mostly involved disguise spells but were helpful nonetheless. Aaron, Eclipse and Night Shade flew into Ponyville and pilfered several bales of hay, which made for a simple, but delicious dinner. Silver helped tend to the garden and built a series of wooden swords, wooden knives and padded arrows to help add some variety to the sparring matches.

"Wait, Silver!" EagleHeart called as Silver walked by. "I have something for you." EagleHeart trotted over and pressed a book into Silver's hooves, a book that had a red and yellow sun emblazoned on the cover.

"Hey, this looks familiar." Silver noted. "Isn't this…?"

"Yes, it's the book you threw at Nebula back at the castle." EagleHeart confirmed. "I thought it was a spell book, but as it turns out it's just a journal." Silver rifled through the pages, half of which were conversations between Princess Twilight and 'Sunset Shimmer'.

"I thought you might like to keep a record of your thoughts and experiences while we're here." EagleHeart explained.

"Actually, that sounds like a great idea." Silver replied, and shook EagleHeart's hoof. "Thanks, EagleHeart. I'll see you later." Once Silver had returned to his cabin and sat down, he opened the journal to a blank page and extended his wings.

"Well, I've been meaning to preen myself anyway." He noted as he plucked a loose feather from his wing. Silver dipped the feather into a jar of ink and began to write: 'My name is Silver Lining, and I'm part of the resistance. It all started when I was a little colt growing up in Cloudsdale…' Time passed, the sun sank over the horizon and Silver continued to write his life story. Eventually, Anamir returned to the cabin and prepared for bed.

"How are you feeling, Silver?" She asked. "You've had a long day, all those hours of sparring and helping out in the camp."

"Feeling better by the minute, thanks." Silver said. "I'm just writing some notes in this journal EagleHeart gave me. How are things going with the garden?"

"The garden is coming along great, thanks! I planted the seeds, Chiarascura watered them, and in a few weeks we'll have a bumper crop of corn, cucumbers, carrots, apples and spaghetti squash! In fact, it might not even take that long, if EagleHeart can find some gardening spells to help the plants grow."

“Yeah, it might." Silver yawned as Anamir climbed into bed. "Can't wait to try some of those delicious veggies!"

"Neither can I." Anamir replied. "Now don't stay up too late, you need your rest."

"It's okay, I only have one more paragraph to write, and then I'll go to bed." Silver picked up his quill, dipped it in the ink and concluded, '… so when I threw this book at Nebula, the spell hit the mirror instead of Azure, and Nebula tried to kill me. He got my leg, but my friends and I escaped to this camp in The Everfree Forest. I'm kind of nervous, going up against somepony as powerful as Nebula, but we won't give up until Equestria knows peace once again.' Once the ink had dried, Silver closed the journal, climbed back into bed and fell fast asleep.

The camp was completely silent, but that wasn't to say that everypony was asleep: Azure, Eclipse, Night Shade and Nox sat outside, looking up at the full moon.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Azure sighed. "Only Princess Luna could be the true master of such a glowing sphere of purity and hope."

"Yeah, it sure is beautiful." said Nox. "Though I don't know how it's rising and falling without Princess Luna to move it around."

"It's probably Nebula's work." Azure snorted. "He's smart enough to know that without the constant movement of the sun and moon, the planet is doomed. Finding a spell to move them on a cycle was probably his first priority, and he probably has a team of unicorns using the ‘move sun/moon’ spells for him. As if he could ever be its master." As he spoke, Azure held his hoof to the moonstone pendant that hung around his neck.

"Well, I guess that makes sense." Eclipse remarked. "But I'd rather have Princess Luna taking care of the moon."

"Same here." Night Shade chimed in. "And I'd like to have Princess Luna looking after The Dream Realm, too. Have you noticed that nightmares have become more commonplace without Princess Luna to bring good dreams?"

"Actually, I have." said Eclipse. "I wasn't sure if I was the only one. Do you think we'll ever find Princess Luna and the others?"

"What kind of talk is that? Of course we will!" said Nox. "We're The Night Guard, we guard the night and protect Princess Luna!"

"But that's just it. Princess Luna was kidnapped while we were guarding the castle. Do you think it's our fault that she's gone?"

"No, don't talk like that!" said Eclipse. "We couldn't have known that she was going to be kidnapped, but we can still work to set things right."

"Hear hear!" Nox cheered, and turned to Azure. "Say Azure, you've been pretty quiet lately. What are you thinking about?" Azure was holding Luna's flower close to his chest as he stared up at the moon.

"Planning." Azure stated firmly. "Always planning on how to take down Nebula and find Princess Luna."

"Yeah, but how can we stop Nebula?" Night Shade asked. "We're talking about the stallion who kidnapped all four Princesses of Equestria in one night!"

"We'll find a way." Azure insisted. "We must."