"You're sure you're alright to go on, Your Majesty?" The guard peered at the princess' blackened wing, not wanting to let on just how troubling the sight was.

"Its nothing." The Princess of the Sun turned her attention back to the small assembly gathered at the top of the staircase. "I'm entrusting Twilight's safety to the twelve of you. She insist that she's fine, that she should be fighting along with the rest of us. I need you to prevent her from doing that. She is not to leave this library until I return for her.

"Shining Armor, you have command here. I trust your judgement on this matter and I'm certain that if anyone can calm her down, its you. Do whatever it takes to keep her safe. I don't expect any of the creatures to make it this far, but I fear that if they do they may be draw to her. Make sure that nothing enters or leaves this place."

The alabaster unicorn nodded, his gilded helm masking his troubled features. "Of course, Your Highness. Nothing will happen, I promise."

"You will find Spike downstairs with her. He should be able to fill in anything I may have overlooked. Now go!"

The small battalion of guardians saluted and followed Shining Armor down to the library's basement. The little earth pony watched them go with a certain degree of envy. They had a job to do, a concrete mission to carry out. They knew what they were there for and what was expected of them. It was far more than she could say about herself.

Face it, you're only here because you've always been part of the group. They're bringing you along because they're used to you being always being there, but what do you really think your going to be able to contribute?

Her four friends fell in around her as the Princess walked back to where the defenders had gathered. Many volunteers had stepped forward, slightly bolstering the ranks of their patch-work army. Canterlot's royal guard and formal military had been brought in to stand against the approaching storm, acting as the backbone which kept the entire assembly from falling apart. Yet if Twilight's warning held any truth, their force barely accounted for even half the number the enemy was bringing through the portal.

The army was made up primarily of unicorns, with earth ponies nearly matching their numbers. The last portion was made up by pegasi who would be used as scouts until the rest of the assembly reached the battlefield. The force stood around the town square in a great, disorganized sea of bodies. The only significant movement came from the armorers wading through the crowd, passing out hastily forged weaponry to any who needed it.

Spears and lances were in short supply, with the best only going to those trained to use them. The rest were given their choice of moon-razors, small circular blades that had originally been designed for the Princess of the Night's Lunar Guard. The steel crescents were of a size with the head of the pony using it; a razor-sharp blade on one the outside with a dull, flat side that would hook around the sides of wielder's muzzle. A rounded wooden grip was set in the center of the curve for the user to hold between their teeth. A simple shake of the head would be all it would take to inflict deep wounds to anything in the immediate vicinity. As such, most of the soldiers present placed theirs on the ground beside them while they stood idle, not wanting to cause any particularly bloody accidents.

The majority of the "soldiers" were little more than townsfolk who had answered the call to arms in order to help defend their home. Very few among them had even the slightest idea of just what it was that they were about to go up against. Most were finding themselves feeling more and more unprepared for the task as more information on their mission came to light.

Useless or not, she wasn't about to let the herself be the cause of any uncertainty their group might face. She looked around at the others, their faces each shoulder in a fog of sobering seriousness. She refused to be the one to break their spirits even further. Instead she bounced up next to the Princess, turning to face the gathering crowd while hiding any remnants of doubt she might have been harboring behind an infectious grin. "Cheer up, Ponyville! There's nothing to worry about. We'll send these monsters back where they came from and be home in time for all the Nightmare Night fun you can handle!"

The militia went unimpressed, their mouths still set in hard, serious frowns.

"Come on, this'll be a piece of cake! What chance do they really think they stand against all of us?"

A few of the ponies nearby began to mumble their half-hearted agreement. A few chuckled to themselves as the imagined the tide of abominations fleeing back into the darkness at the approach of the impromptu militia. One or two even let themselves smile a little as their minds fit personal meaning into the pink pony's nonsensical statement.

"I mean just think of all the crazy things we've kept the town safe from. This is no different; just another little disaster that, together, we can all help prevent!"

More of the would-be warriors began to let some ungrounded optimism sink in. It was no secret that the town had managed to survive more than its fair share of horrors in the past. Even the soldiers from Canterlot could attest to the overly-confident speaker's message, with many of them having been present for the failed Changeling Invasion that unlikely heroes like her had proved so integral in thwarting.

"I mean, sure there's more of them than there are of us. And sure, they have weapons and magic and who knows what sort of scary abyssal monstrosities with them."

And with that the slowly growing flame of positivity was immediately and brutally extinguished. Smiles were replaced once more with hard looks of cynicism, with genuine fear popping up here and there as well. Seeing the danger in where this was all going, Rarity stepped forward for a moment in a vain attempt to reel in her misguided friend. "Pinkie, darling, this is hardly the time or the place fo-"

"And sure, maybe they did come here for the sole purpose of wiping us out and taking away our home and everything we care about!"

The Princess cringed as the little pink nightmare went on, the words slowly undermining the already faulty sense of hopefulness she had worked so hard to instill over the past few hours. "Pinkie Pie, I think it would be best to just have a bit of silen-"

"And yes, they more than likely plan on eating us once they take over; probably alive, although maybe cooked and seasoned depending on how it is they prepare their food...." She paused for a moment, reorganizing her thoughts as she suddenly realized the kind of tangent her speech had gone off on. "....But that's exactly why they can't possibly win! That's what we're going to be fighting for! We're going to fight for our homes! For everything we love and care about! We're going to fight to protect our families and friends and the whole world!"

The assembled forces continued to stare at her in confusion, many of then still dwelling on the idea that they might end up being cooked and seasoned before the day was over. Still, a few of the veteran members of the Canterlot battalions began to stir; some of the spite leaving their eyes as she spoke of the very ideals that drove them.

"Sure, it will be a hard fight. But look around you! Every last one of you will be fighting that same hard fight together! We'll show these monsters just what happens when you try and take over something that doesn't belong to you!"

A few ragged cheers went up from the back of the crowd. Pinkie was grateful to hear Dash's voice amongst them, instigating a bit of support for her words. She watched as the pegasus stealthily sped over to another portion of the crowd to repeat the process.

"We'll push them back into their weird dimension, and we'll do it together!"

Rainbow Dash got another section cheering before speeding off to the next one.

"We can't lose so long as we're all in this as one!"

More cheering, this time from multiple sections at once. The message was finally starting to hit home as the crowd began to decode Pinkie's ramblings into a rousing, if somewhat vague, battle speech.

"After all, we're fighting for everything that's important to us!"

The crowd cheered in unison this time. Her friends joined in, though their expressions seemed to be more along the lines of surprise than genuine inspiration.

"And everyone knows whoever's defending their home always wins against whoever is trying to eat it!"

The cheers erupted from all sides before dying into a cacophony of confused mumbles as the gathered militia futilely attempted to find some deeper meaning in her closing statement. Pinkie hopped back to her friends, smiling contently at how the rallying proclamation had gone over. As she rejoined the little group, Celestia brought the assembly's attention back to herself.

"Yes, um... Thank you for those words of encouragement, Pinkie Pie... Now then, there is a great deal of distance that we need to cover if we are to have any hope of reaching the enemy before they pose a threat to any civilized part of Equestria. It is time for us to move!

"Air Unit, I'll need you circling overhead while we march. Keep an eye out for anything that may prove hazardous to the main group and keep us informed." The nearby crowd of pegasi saluted their ruler and prepared to take off.

As the winged ponies took to the sky the rest of the army began to lurch forward. It was at least another ten minutes before the army truly started to make any sort of headway, however. Once they were clear of the edge of Ponyville, the Princess leapt into the air; guiding the rest of the militia with a beacon of sunlight emanating from her horn. She sped ahead toward the Everfree Forest with the land-based group galloping full-force as they followed her into the wilderness. Pinkie and her friends had found themselves a spot toward the front edge of the assembly, tucked in just behind a group of unicorns garbed in hooded robes of white, blue, and gold.

The five of them packed in close together as they reached the edge of the woods, passing into the darkness of the forest in a thunderstorm of hoofbeats. The militia trampled through the underbrush as they followed the blazing outline their leader. No matter how thick the canopy became, the raw sunlight that Celestia's horn emitted shone through unobstructed.

Miles faded behind them as they charged onward. Pinkie would have liked to have passed the time talking, perhaps reassuring her friends and herself that everything would work out alright, but her teeth were too tightly gripped around the handle of her moon-razor. The resin sealing the wooden handle filled her mouth with a bitter flavor. She briefly found herself wishing for something to clean the taste from her pallet; candy, cake, soap, anything would have tasted better at this point.

She ignored it, pushing the desire for a better tasting weapon out of her mind as their battalion came to the edge of a ravine. The cliff they found themselves standing on once held the anchor for a rope bridge that spanned the gap; now there was nothing but open air between the two sides. The assemble stopped for a moment as Celestia and her officers attempted to decide how to continue. After a moment of deliberation, the Princess called the squad of hooded unicorns over to her and gave them some new orders. They disappeared into the woods as the rest of the column arrived.

A moment later the ground began to shake violently, as if some massive beast was approaching from just below them. In the blink of an eye a dozen immense oak trees emerged from the top of the forest canopy and flew to the edge of the cliff, suspended by a ghostly blue aura. The uprooted oaks were carefully placed across the gap by the small group of mages and held in place by their magic as the entire assembly crossed.

As the group continued onward Pinkie found herself unable to contain her need to speak any longer. She turned to Applejack as they ran and attempted to ask how long they had been running.

AJ's expression crossed from one of utter confusion to one of mild amusement. "Ya might wanna take that thing outta your mouth first, sugar cube."

" 'ut ah 'lly 'nt 'oo as' oo 'oumin!"

"Well then just wait 'til we stop again and ask me then. We're still gonna hafta' slow down to cross that river at some point in here if we're headin' where ah think we are."

" 'ivuh?"

Rarity answered in her place as Applejack fell behind, momentarily tripped up by an exposed root. "Of course, dear. You do remember when we went after Nightmare Moon, don't you? From what I can tell we're heading back to that dreadful little palace where we found the Elements."

It was another hour before they reached the bank of the river that had once contained a rather flamboyant sea serpent. Pinkie looked around, hoping to find the great reptile waiting for them with some sort of helpful offer. Unfortunately, there was no sign of the creature to be found; leaving them to, once again, rely on the mages and the forest to provide a means of crossing. The column moved hesitantly across the makeshift bridge that the unicorns laid across it as Celestia and the pegasi waited for them to reform on the other side.

Half the group was already across when a disheveled and terrified-looking pegasus came careening over the trees. One of the scouts who had been sent ahead to ensure they would not be taken by surprise, he had flown perhaps a mile out of view before he was forced to return to the main group. As he attempted to land the medical unit surrounded him and tried to calm him down. Celestia landed beside them a moment later.

"Princess! They're there! At the palace, thousands of them! The ground, the air, they're swarming out of every shadow!" He was shaking badly as the unicorns got to work on mending the deep laceration that wound its way across the left side of his body. Magic began to seal the flesh back together seamlessly, yet the sight of the wound itself had sent a fresh wave of doubt through the ranks.

"W-What are we doing?!"

"Yeah, why us? Why are we here? We're not warriors!"

"We didn't ask for any of this!"

"This is suicide!"

"Why should we be the ones risking our lives out here?"

"This wasn't our fault! It... It was Twilight!"

"If it weren't for her none of this ever would have happened!"

The Princess turned at that, a look of utter disgust warping her beautiful face into terrifying visage. She glared at the one who has begun brought her student into the conversation, but was unable to find words to cast his way. Without another word she turned back toward where the injured pegasus had flown in from. She stepped away from the group as her horn lit up once more, glowing with a light of such intensity that it was painful to look up. All around her the grass and undergrowth began to wilt and whither as a sphere of extreme heat enveloped her form. She stopped, looked up, spread her wings, and launched herself skyward; arcing off toward her childhood home just a mile or so away.

In the wake of the Princess's departure, a large portion of the assembly seemed to see the wisdom in the words that had provoked her flight. They had their scapegoat now, they couldn't be less concerned with how the rest of this all played out so long as they had a single pony they could blame for all of it. Pinkie was left feeling what she could only assume was just a fraction of the disgust that the Princess had just experienced. Twilight was her best friend, just as much as Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy; yet somehow she couldn't help but feel that, as her mentor, Celestia may have had just a slightly stronger bond with Twilight than she did.

Unwilling to just sit back as the congregation fell into disarray, Pinkie found herself once more leaping to the front of the group. She jumped up onto an old tree stump and looked down with an ashamed expression upon the ponies arguing below her.

And just what do you think you're going to accomplish here? They already made their choice; they're going to run back home like the little cowards they are while the world gets destroyed around them, perfectly content as they simply blame Twilight for all of it. Celestia couldn't even come up with a way to change their minds about it. She charged off without us, she'd rather fight that entire army on her own than try winning this uphill battle. Time to call it quits, Pinkie.

Quiet you! I've had just about enough of this. You're not real, this is my brain, and I CAN change their minds!... And I will!

"HEY! All of you listen up! Its time for you all to wake up and look at what's happening here! This isn't just some little mishap that will go away if we just ignore it. This is something that concerns all of us, that concerns the whole world! If we're not going to stand up and fight it, then who is? So sure, you can run back to your homes and hide out until its all over if you really want, but just keep in mind that if you do, then it being 'all over' may have a very different meaning than what you might think it does. Now, come on! If you're ready to stand up and fight for the future of Equestria, follow me! Everyone else, run back to Ponyville and hide like the cowards you are... You'll just get in our way, anyway."

The arguing had stopped and dead silence now filled the clearing. The water running in the river was the only source of sound as the small army of ponies looked up at Pinkie on her make-shift platform. She couldn't decode their expressions, but she was happy to see that everyone was remaining right where they were. Not one among them seemed to want to return to Ponyville after all.

Ha! There, see? That got through to them.

"Uhhhh... Sugar cube, y'all really should think about takin' that thing outta yer mouth..."

She froze, her eyes slowly drifting downward as she opened her mouth just the slightest bit. The moon-razor slipped from between her teeth and stuck into the tree stump. She felt a hot wave of embarrassment rising inside her as she started wondering how her speech had sounded to everyone else. She was just about to leap down from the stump when the noise reached her.

It started small and far away, barely more than a whimper on the wind. As she perked her ears back up she suddenly began hearing more and more. Giggles at first, nervous and reluctant. Then, as more of the crowd found themselves seeing the entertaining nature of her mumbled proclamation, it turned to genuine laughter. Even a few of the hooded mages began to chuckle along, though they kept their enjoyment brief as they moved into position around her.

One of the unicorns joined her on the stump as the others encircled them like an honor guard. "Now this young lady's got the right attitude! So eager to get to in there and fight to protect her home that she won't even let go of her blade long enough to speak!" More laughter came from the crowd as the old mage pressed his opening. He reached down and picked up her razor for her, holding the blade in his teeth as she took the handle once more. As he let go, he whispered to her in a hushed voice. "You did good, kid, now just leave the rest to us."

He looked back over the crowd the laughter died out. "Would that we were all more like her; these invaders would be running scared already if they knew an army with that kind of dedication was heading toward them."

Pinkie couldn't help but notice the mist that was suddenly drifting into the clearing, mist that just happened to be the same subtle shade of blue as the aura surrounding the mages' horns.

"Now then, any of you who feel that this isn't your battle or that it just doesn't concern you, feel free to start marching back to Ponyville. Just understand that there'll be a whole mess of work waiting for you when you get there. After all, our victory celebration ain't going to set itself up!" A bit more laughter came from that, though most of the reaction came in the form of cheers to time. "The rest of you, arm up! We've got a world to protect and a Princess waiting for backup; and its this little pony," he nodded to Pinkie Pie, "that's going to lead us in! Miss Pie, I leave it you to guide these fearsome warriors of ours into the fray. Give those bastards a reason to really regret ever coming to Equestria."

More cheers erupted as the spell set in. No one would be heading off to set up their victory party after all. Reinvigorated and under just the slightest influence of mind-altering magic, the entirety of the ground force began to rush forward. The five Element-bearers led the way, with four of them still attempting to fully grasp what they had just witnessed. In the end, they decided it was probably better not to question it. Over the years they had simply come to accept that strange things always tended to unfold around their energetic pink friend. This was just one more instance to add to the list.

Author's Note

This officially marks the end of my seemingly endless exposition. Everything from here until the final chapter will revolve around the Assault on Everfree and every major and minor bit of action that comes along with such a thing. No more history, backstory, or internal monologues unless they further the story in some way. It's been a pleasure writing this for the past year.... Now let's close it out right.