After what turned out to be an emotional day for Celestia, the following day she woke up more focused. While the fond memories of Twilight's distant past had surfaced the previous day, she knew that those memories were something she couldn't carry into battle if they were to win.

When she entered the dining hall, she had her head held up high and appeared to be her normal self, the self prior to her handling Twilight's spell book. Luna was the first to notice this and commented, "Sister, we take it you are feeling better today?"

Celestia stood tall and replied, "Yes sister, I am."

Ruby asked, "Princess Celestia, do you think handling Twilight's old spell book may have......?"

Celestia interrupted, "Don't, just don't. We need to eat and then ready ourselves to attack the black tower."

LaurFa asked, "Today?"

Celestia replied, "Yes, today. I have a feeling that the less time we give her to prepare, the better our chances are of victory."

Her fellow leaders gave her stunned looks, Luna in particular, "Sister, are you suggesting we gather the soldiers and do this immediately after breakfast?"

Celestia replied, "Yes, little sister I do."

Luna questioned her, "But don't we have to duplicate the unicorn soldiers? Don't we have to use that enlarging spell on the pegasi? Don't we have to transform the unicorn soldiers into Alicorns?"

Celestia replied, "Luna, I shall transform the unicorns here. Once we get within eyesight of the black tower, I will transform the pegasi and duplicate the Alicorn soldiers."

Ruby had her own concerns, "Princess Celestia, if we are within eyesight of the tower, won't Colgate just attack us before we can cast any of those spells?"

Celestia replied, "Ruby, I know how her mind works. She would want us to come at her with full force. She doesn't like easy battles, she wants a good fight."

The three sighed in frustration but given that Celestia seemed to be the one who would be leading the charge, they realized that it would be her decision when they left so all they could do was hope for the best.

After breakfast, they began to leave the palace when something crossed Luna's mind, "Sister, hadn't we better get that enchanted armor and our swords?"

Celestia sighed in frustration that she would forget to get something that important. She replied, "Give me a minute and I'll be back with it, alright?"

Celestia headed back into the restricted section of the library where their armor and swords had been being stored, including Ruby's diamond sword. Celestia put her armor on and she felt a surge of strength flowing through her. She levitated her sword to herself and said, "Well Colgate, let's see how you fare against us now." Her voice became more determined as she continued, "Soon you shall answer for your crimes, soon you shall pay the price for killing my parents."

She grasped the others' armor and swords in her aura and carried them out to the waiting leaders. When Ruby grasped her sword, she held it up close to her face and began to examine it. After a minute of looking it over, she developed a smile and said, "And now the time has come, the time has come for us to avenge the death of White Magick and Blue Star."

Once everypony had got into their armor and had their swords, they headed to the base. Once they arrived, the soldiers were shocked to see them in armor as they did not know that they were going to be heading out that day. When they arrived Celestia yelled, "Attention!"

Once it was clear that she had every soldier's attention she began, "Alright troops, the time has come. The time has come to march on the black tower and avenge the deaths of my family AND save this planet from the iron hoof of Colgate."

The soldiers remained quiet waiting for her to continue her address, "Alright, I am going to need only five pegasus soldiers but I am going to need every last unicorn soldier." She pointed her wing towards the courtyard and ordered, "Follow me."

The unicorn soldiers all followed but the pegasi soldiers could not understand why only five of them would be needed. After a few seconds of looking at one another, five soldiers finally stepped forward into the courtyard. Once they had all arrived, Celestia ordered, "Alright troops, I need all the unicorn soldiers to my right."

The soldiers gathered to her right and Celestia ordered, "Stand still."

The soldiers did as ordered and Celestia readied herself to cast the spell. While she was confident in her spell casting abilities, she hoped that she would be able to cast it given that it was written by the pony that for a very long time was her nemesis. She flared up her horn and recited,

"The unicorn who has no wings is bound to the ground, they can not really get around, their smarts are great yet without flight they will be late, with these smarts they will be great and they shall never have a bad fate."

Once she finished reciting the spell, a bolt of energy shot from her horn and suddenly each one of the soldiers, all fifty of them were circled in a ball of light. Celestia had a feeling that was what was supposed to happen and five minutes later, an Alicorn soldier floated down from each ball.

Celestia gave the troops a smile and said, "Well it worked! Now we can fly to the battlefield much quicker."

One of the soldiers asked, "But there are only fifty of us and who knows how many Colgate will have."

Another added, "And why only five pegasus soldiers? That is so few that you may as well not take any at all."

Celestia replied, "I will duplicate all of you when we get near the battlefield and regarding the pegasus ponies, I have special plans for them." She turned towards the other leaders and ordered, "Follow me troops, we have a long flight ahead of us."

Once they arrived where the other leaders were, Luna was the first to say anything, "So sister, are we just going to fly straight into battle or are we going to be stopping somewhere to rest along the way?"

Celestia replied, "Luna, that forest where the portal to Unicornia used to be is not too far away from the black tower so we will take cover there and then the following morning, I will cast the necessary spells on the Alicorn soldiers and the pegasus soldiers before going into battle."

Celestia was not sure what kind of reaction to expect out of the soldiers given she had never led an army like this before but would be pleasantly surprised when they began to chant, "Celestia, Celestia, Celestia!"

The reaction did bring a smile to her face but she knew that if she were to start gobbling up any of the attention, that she would likely suffer the same fate Twilight often did, failure because of overconfidence. Once the soldiers quieted down, she pointed her wing towards the east and yelled, "To war! To victory!"

Again the soldiers cheered and they all followed as Celestia took off to the east. Her fellow leaders were happy to see that Celestia was being something they never thought she would be before, a strong and confident commander.

As they were flying east, Ruby began to get a sick feeling in her stomach. She was unsure what to make of it but she knew she had to talk to somepony about it. Luna had sped up to where she was flying by her sister in the front while LaurFa remained behind the soldiers with Ruby. Ruby turned to her and said, "LaurFa, I have a bad feeling about this. I feel like Celestia is rushing into this and to be honest, I feel like we're flying to our doom."

LaurFa extended her hoof and patted Ruby on the shoulder, "I know how you feel but we have our armor, we have our swords and Celestia will be duplicating the army many times over so I hope we will be ok." She paused momentarily before continuing, "And I know your desire for vengeance will be more than enough to push back any nervousness you may be feeling."

Ruby knew that LaurFa made great points and began to think more about how it was because of Colgate that her family had been taken from her. Soon that nervousness began to fade and instead, visions of her slaughtering Colgate began to fill Ruby's mind.

After many, many hours of flying, their destination was not too far away. The sun was about to drop below the horizon but their final target was still visible, just barely. Celestia stopped and pointed off to the east, "You see that? That is our final destination, that is where we shall be victorious." She then pointed down towards a clearing in the forest and continued, "And that shall be our resting place for the night."

She flew down into the clearing and was followed by her forces. Much to their delight, there was a good sized lake along with plenty of fruit bearing trees. Celestia gave her troops a smile and said, "Alright, I'm sure we are all hungry and thirsty."

Immediately the troops began to drink water, as did Celestia and the other leaders. At this point, Celestia was very tired and the other leaders could tell it. Luna, who could see her sister having trouble even keeping her eyes open, asked, "Sister, so are we going to do this tomorrow?"

Ruby added, "I am curious because we are all very tired and I'm sure the soldiers are."

LaurFa continued, "Celestia, you said that Colgate would want to wait until we march on the tower rather than coming out after us. I'm thinking that maybe we should wait until the day after tomorrow to do this."

Celestia was extremely tired, so tired that she thought that perhaps that would be a good idea, "Alright, we'll do that. I shall inform the troops. This way, we'll be fully ready to take Colgate on."

Once it appeared that everypony had got a good fill on fruit and water, Celestia ordered, "Attention!"

The troops immediately gave her their attention and she continued, "Alright, as you all know we flew a very long way today with out any rest and I for one am exhausted. Because of that, I have decided that we shall put our attack off until the day after tomorrow."

One of the soldiers asked, "But what about Colgate? What if she was to come attack us here?"

Celestia replied, "I know how her mind works. She is not the type that likes an easy battle and she will want to fight us there by her tower so that IF she was to win, she could celebrate on her own turf" Celestia then decided to make a more snide comment "close to her precious bed so she can get her beauty sleep because she'll be so tired."

The comment caused all the soldiers to break down laughing. Even her fellow leaders broke down laughing. Luna couldn't help but chuckle, "Oh dear sister, that is too funny!" She then became more serious and continued, "But Colgate won't be getting any beauty sleep, all she will be getting is a permanent sleep after we're done with her."

LaurFa and Ruby yelled, "Here, here!"

Celestia had a huge smile on her face as not only were her soldiers behind her but she could tell that her sister, Ruby and LaurFa too were behind her. That night, as they turned in, Celestia felt a greater confidence than she had in many millennia. As she laid there trying to get to sleep, unlike she would have in the past when a battle was imminent, she felt a sense of calm. She felt as though that after all was said and done, that the world could eventually return to normal.

Colgate had spent a majority of the day monitoring Celestia and her troops through the eye. She was monitoring their activities in the forest more closely than she normally would. Once she heard Celestia mention the day when they would attack she said, "So Celestia, the day after tomorrow huh?" She became more cheerful and continued, "Thank you so much princess! Thank you so much for giving me an extra day to prepare."

Colgate then decided to head down to the base and inform the troops of the current situation. She headed to her balcony, took off and headed down to the base. When she arrived, the soldiers were casually talking among themselves sharing a few laughs. Colgate landed on the platform she normally gave her addresses from and yelled, "Attention!"

All the conversations stopped and she had their attention. Dark Night asked, "Colgate, what is it? Is the enemy on the move?"

Colgate replied, "Even better than that general." She raised her voice and continued, "Troops, right now the enemy is resting in a clearing not too far away from here in the forest. I was listening in on them and they plan on attacking the day after tomorrow so tomorrow we are going to prepare for this."

Lightning Storm asked, "Intense exercises?"

Colgate replied, "Actually no. I believe that all of you are ready for this and what I want everyone to do tomorrow is clear their minds and ready yourselves for the battle of your lives, the final battle, the battle to end all battles." She then stood taller and finished, "The battle that will end all warfare on Eqqus 1 for all eternity!"

The soldiers began to cheer and chant, "Colgate, Colgate, Colgate!"

Once the soldiers had been chanting her name for a minute Colgate finished her address, "Calm down, calm down." Once the troops had calmed down she said, "Dismissed."

Colgate then headed back up to her balcony to monitor Celestia and her forces some more before turning in for the night. That night she was full of confidence as she laid there trying to go to sleep. While she knew that Celestia had spells to create her own large creatures, she couldn't help but snicker thinking about them having the fatal flaws of normal ponies, flaws that could cause them to flee during the battle.

Author's Note

"The unicorn who has no wings is bound to the ground, they can not really get around, their smarts are great yet without flight they will be late, with these smarts they will be great and they shall never have a bad fate."

"From one to two, two to four and so much more. When one is simple mere, more and more shall appear."

"The pony is one of us,
That is something that is a must.
His loyalty to our cause is great,
Without it all that could be spread is hate.

His aid will improve our chances much,
Yet his size must be large for this to be such.
A large pony is what he shall be,
One which will bring about victory for all to see."

"With only one
we are certainly done,
Multiplying them is a must
Otherwise our mission will be a bust.

More and more forces there must be
For it is terror in our foes we want to see,
With so few it is us who could suffer a loss
With many we can show our foes who is boss.

With many many soldiers it is their blood we shall spill
Lots and lots of foes they shall kill,
Strength in numbers shall cause us to prevail
With my huge army our enemies are guaranteed to fail."