The wind howled as it blew past, causing the banners to snap about wildly. A midnight blue mane moved in the stiff breeze, and the gaze of the Lunar Princess was as dark as the incoming storm. Her troops shifted as they listened to the distant cries of the enemy, and several adjusted their helmets and battle standards.
"Lieutenant," Princess Luna said suddenly, without turning her head.
"General," was the automatic reply from the pegasus beside her, wondering what the order was going to be.
"Summon the Stormriders."
"General?" the lieutenant said questioningly, looking askance at the battle-hardened princess.
Luna glanced over at him, and the warpony suddenly felt a terror settling deep into his bones as her rage registered within him. "Right away," he said, the words rushing out of his mouth as he hurried to obey his Commander-in-Chief.
Striding rapidly to the top of the hill they were standing on, the warpony took a specialized horn out of his saddlebags, that looked somewhere between something both holy and unholy. 'May the gods help us all,' he thought to himself, holding the horn aloft with his teal colored magic before blowing the notes to summon the most dangerous force Princess Luna had to offer the kingdom of Equestria.
As the hauntingly sepulchral notes rang against the hills and over the valley where the enemy's army resided, he put the horn away. He hoped that Celestia would find it in herself to forgive her sister for summoning forth the only ponies he feared more than anything else he had ever known.
King Sombra stood tall, confident that he had put fear into the hearts of the Equestrians with his potent army. His soldiers chanted war songs to further intimidate the ponies, and he listened with a note of pride. They were mightily disciplined, and he felt that had he been on the other side of the valley, he would be afraid of the songs promising violence and death upon the kingdom of friendship.
The notes from a distant horn reached his ears, and they flicked forwards with interest. What was this? A summoning? What could they possibly bring forth to combat his robust forces? Taking out a telescope, he used his dark purple magic to hold it to his eye and survey the landscape. Nothing was out of place, not at first.
It took several moments of observation before he realized that what looked like a growing expanse of clouds with flashes of lightning was rising up behind the Equestrian militia, and just when he was about to put the scope down something caught his eye. Were those... Ponies in the clouds? What in the world?
“Commander!" he barked, turning and in the process yanking on the chains that held Celestia against him, causing her to choke loudly. With a growl he allowed slack into the line, and she wheezed while lying on the grass. The Solar Princess had been captured recently, and was not completely broken to his will yet. "What on Earth is going on over there?"
"I… I don't know sir," his second-in-command replied, looking frightened at the visage across the horizon. Sombra scoffed at his recalcitrance, nearly cuffing the pony for his ridiculous qualms about the enemy.
"Pull yourself together, it's just pegasi. We have nothing to fear from mere pegasi playing games in the clouds as though they're actually a threat," Sombra spat, all but grabbing his second-in-command's ear. "If they come in range, use the crystal shard throwers. That'll put them down like the dogs they are."
"Sir?" the other pony questioned, which did earn him a sharp blow to the helmeted head. He staggered, trying to remain on his feet as Sombra deftly entered his mind to force the idiotic weakling to obey his orders and stop whining at him like a useless filly. The tell-tale emerald sheen flared in his second-in-command’s eyes, and the pony then nodded to show that the order would be followed without question.
A grunt from his left got his attention, and Sombra sneered at Princess Celestia. "Come now, you know all you have to do is let me in," he crooned at her in a not-quite mocking tone. "After all, a good princess submits to the will of her King, and a better one would tell me just what those pegasi think they're doing in the storm clouds over there."
"I'll never submit to you," she hissed, and he smiled at her in a way that made her ears flatten against her head.
"My dear sweet Celestia," he said, sibilating his words and making her simultaneously bristle in anger and shiver in fear, "You're already mine, you just don't know it yet. You'll submit in due time." With that he turned away from her, dismissing his prey from his mind as he concentrated on the matter at hoof.
His army was ready, still chanting their songs to keep the Equestrians on edge. There was the sense of eagerness entwined with impatience, and Sombra felt like he could taste the growing bloodlust among his ponies. There was also the sharper, more refined flavor of the rage from across the valley, and he supped at it like it was a fine wine.
King Sombra knew the source of this anger, and he was anticipating breaking into the regal mind behind it with barely concealed glee. He was confident that he could break Princess Celestia by the day’s end, and once his army wiped out the other he could take his time bringing her sister to heel beneath his hoof where she belonged.
With the diarchs out of the way it would be no problem at all to conquer the rest of the ponies, and he could rule unchallenged for as long as he saw fit. A chuckle slipped from his throat as he surveyed the valley again, keeping an eye on the storm clouds that were blowing in. Lightning flashed from both sides, but fear was not known to the king.
After all, it wasn’t like the ponies flitting about the bolts were actually a threat to him and his army. They were just silly feather-brained creatures who thought they actually stood a chance against the might of the king. It’s not like they were beings summoned from beyond the grave by the princess they’d sworn fealty to.
Spitfire felt the power behind her wings as they beat at the air, as she kept an eye on the lightning from the storm they’d been summoned from. The magic of the horn had brought her and the other riders to the plane of existence, which was highly unusual. Hovering above the Equestrian army and facing towards the enemy, she flew down towards Princess Luna and landed on the grass on her left, opposite of Luna’s lieutenant.
Her translucent hooves made no sound as her weight settled, since she was not among the living. “Hello, ma’am,” she greeted, her informality a contrast to the overall situation. Luna merely glanced at her, before returning her attention to her own forces below her and that of the Sombran army.
“Hello, Spitfire,” Luna said, her words calm despite the fury within her. “Good to see that the Stormriders have answered the call.”
“Of course, ma’am, we will always come when we are summoned forth,” Spitfire replied, bowing deeply to the princess to show her respect. “The Stormriders are ready, we just need the word and we’ll fight.”
Luna raised an eyebrow, and though amusement crossed her face she said nothing for a few moments. “Good to know I have your permission then,” she said, then looked over at the apparition with a smile. Spitfire ducked her head, grinning.
“Sorry, sorry, force of habit. Used to leading the Wonderbolts and all,” she explained apologetically. Spitfire looked up at the other pegasi in the air, watching as a few of them did a few flips and turns in the clouds to keep from being too restless. Inhaling deeply, she let a spectral breath of unnecessary air out of her lungs before she too looked out over the expanse of the twin armies.
"Ma'am, not that I'm complaining about the feel of grass under my hooves again, but you usually call on us for more..." Spitfire trailed off, searching for the right word to use.
"Material threats?" Luna provided, her face grim.
"I was going to say 'mortal'," the current leader of the Stormriders said, pawing an insubstantial hoof at the turf. "All kidding aside, Ma'am. Why are we here?"
"Sombra has sworn dark pacts with powers best left alone," Luna growled. "He has awoken them from their ancient slumber and they need to be reminded that Equestria is defended."
"Fair enough," Spitfire replied, and something made her ask, "Anything else?"
"He has my sister," Luna snarled, in a voice that could have frozen helium.
"And?" Spitfire said, pressing her liege for the truth.
"He. Has. My. Sister!," Luna roared, eyes glowing white. "There is nothing beyond an alicorn if they have cause, and now because of him, I have that cause."
The wind shifted, and the battle standards snapped against the poles from the force against the cloth. The sound wasn’t new to the ponies, but it helped to know which way it was blowing while thunder boomed overhead. Princess Luna stood firm, her armor gleaming in the light while she took one last assessment.
“Have the archers ready their bows, and tell them to fire once the lancers advance. From there, King Sombra will likely retaliate with an aerial attack,” Luna said smoothly. “Once he does, I want the Stormriders to come in, but stay just out of range of whatever he has waiting to deal with any air attack. Keep his attention on the skies as best you can, and while you keep him busy our ground forces will work on eliminating the bulk of his troops.”
She stared down at the approximate location of where King Sombra and Celestia were likely to be, before adding, “I want the other pegasi forces to give backup to the Stormriders, but also to attack his ground forces whenever they can.”
“Yes General,” her lieutenant replied, grabbing the appropriate horns and beginning to blow to convey the messages.
“Yes ma’am,” Spitfire echoed, then leapt into the sky to convey Luna’s orders to the others. They began forming their battle formations while Spitfire barked orders here and there to ensure that everything was in order. Once that was done, she dropped a small bolt of lightning to relay that they were ready to begin. Luna looked up, reading the sky and absorbing the information from her aerial squadrons.
She then looked back down and nodded to her lieutenant, who sounded the charge on his horn. The lancers began moving forwards, weapons at the ready while they began to sing their own songs of war. As arrows from the archers began to rain down upon the Sombran army, the pegasi forces began flying in to lend support.
Spitfire didn’t hesitate, not in life and not now in death. Summoning a bolt of lightning, she used the forks of electricity to signal her squadrons and as one they began zooming towards the enemy before them. King Sombra wouldn’t know what hit him.
