As the bright light of the dreamscape faded, I found myself standing back in the throne room, looking about me. "Huh? What happened?"

I noticed my fellows all seemed to be equally dazed and confused, and as they regained their composure from their experience we all tried to process what we had just seen.

"Talk about a weight on our shoulders, huh?" Sunny said, the first of us to speak after that moment.

"Speak for yourself," Izzy said. "I feel nothing on mine!"

"Not what the phrase means, Izzy," Sunny replied, before glancing over to me. "Zipp, what did you see?"

"I finally know who brought us here," I said, focusing on my friends and periodically glancing to other ponies in the room. "I met Princess Twilight in there. She told me it was our destiny to stop Chris, and that she brought us here to stop him when he kept killing the originals." I paused, aware of just how crazy that sounded when spoken out loud. "We've been brought here to defeat him, and avenge those he has destroyed."

Sunny scratched the underside of her chin with her hoof. "That suggests Twilight knows how to send emails."

Hitch looked over in confusion. "That's a strange non sequitur."

"I can't see any hedges that need trimming," Misty chimed in, helpfully.

"Latin," Hitch explained. "It means 'it does not follow.' Often used to denote a line of reasoning that doesn't make much sense. In this case, I'm not sure how Sunny got from stopping Chris to Twilight sending emails."

"The inciting incident for me was being sent an email," Sunny explained quickly. "That was after I'd bought the badges you see on the main strap of my bag."

There was a moment of silence, before Misty spoke. "Interesting."

"Anyway," I said, "We need to be ready to fight. There's no way we can take Chris on with just our own strength. We need allies, support, help even."

Pipp looked over. "I got, like, totally the best idea we could have for getting this show rolling. How about we get the other tribes onboard!"

"This was exactly why I tried to get the earth ponies to rearm!" Sprout said. "With their added strength and the combined firepower of all three tribes, we should be able to send Chris packing!"

"I applaud your enthusiasm," mom said, interjecting once again, "but diplomatically this will be very challenging. Our three tribes have rather been locked in a state of cold war for the last thousand years, and undoing all of that cannot be done overnight."

"Mom, we have to try-" I began.

"I never said I wasn't going to. I am just warning you not to expect instant results. Though given that Alphabittle and his cohorts owe us one that should make things a lot easier."

Sunny trotted to the centre of the room and looked back. "Looks like it's our turn to step up to the plate, just as Twilight and her friends did a thousand years ago. Let's go!"

And so, the process began. Owing to the centuries of tension, we rapidly figured out it would probably be best if we each addressed our own tribe- pegasi would hardly react well to a unicorn or an earth pony lecturing them, and I can hardly imagine the unicorns or the earth ponies would react well to a pegasus doing the same to them. Or an earth pony to a unicorn. Or-

You get the idea.

Each of us largely went our separate ways in the ensuing time. Myself, mom, and Pipp remained in Zephyr Heights to rally the troops and get the populace ready, whilst mom was constantly on the phone to the earth pony President and the unicorn General Secretary to try and apply some soft power in the scenario.

Sunny and Hitch headed back to Maretime Bay. We decided it would be best for Sunny to take the crystals with her, given we already knew about how they fitted together and that they could be placed in the lighthouse. This would be done when the time came for them to be put together. But not now, as we didn't want to reveal our plan to Chris just yet. Sprout, it seems, headed for Fillydelphia, but don't quote me on that- my memory of where they said they'd go is a bit hazy.

Izzy and Misty went to Bridlewood, back with Alphabittle. I can only assume he was still unaware that Sprout had the hots for his daughter- boy would I not want to be around when he learned about that one. Their job was to rally the unicorns for the incoming war and get their military back into shape. They had a tough job given they hadn't fought a proper war in a pretty long time.

And so what were me and Pipp doing, I hear you ask? Well, Pipp was mostly occupied with drumming up support over social media. Having a sister who has her hoof on the pulse of the community is quite handy, and let's just say Pipp is pretty skilled at getting ponies to act in certain ways. Though, of course, our cause was altruistic, as we were wanting to save the world rather than go on some jingoistic joyride through somepony else's country. The looming threat made getting ponies onboard easier than expected to say the least.

Which, I guess, brings us on to me. As Heir Apparent I had the important task of trying to rally up patriotism in the face of mom being a bit busy (though she fully planned to address the populace at some point). I guess it was good practice for what was to come in the time when I advance to the throne. Not that I particularly want to think about that, of course."

So, it was a rather wet day when I made my first address to the ponies of the Pegasus Empire. I was in one of the rooms of state where the Wishentine Address was traditionally delivered from, and TV cameras had been set up to record the event and broadcast it to the nation.

"Boy am I nervous," I said, quietly to myself.

Thankfully, Pipp was in the room to give moral support. "Just imagine you're talking to me," she said, with a smile. "I always imagine I'm speaking to somepony I know when I'm delivering an address or talking on social media- as I sorta am!"

"That's actually pretty helpful," I said.

"If it helps, think of speaking to somepony, not at somepony."

I nodded.

"We're live shortly," said a ZBS camera operator.

I breathed in as a short snippet of the ZBS jingle played.

"And now, Her Royal Highness Princess Zephyrina addresses the nation on behalf of Her Majesty Queen Haven."

I took a deep breath. Here we go. Here's hoping these public speaking classes in secondary school pay off.

"My fellow citizens," I said, trying to focus on Pipp. "I address you this morning not as a Princess, not as a member of the Royal Family, but as a fellow pony. As you know, we are facing dark times ahead. The enemy is about us, and his strength may seem great.

"But there were other times we faced similar struggles. A thousand years ago, Twilight Sparkle and her friends faced similar obstacles- but in the face of the impossible they triumphed over the danger that evil faced to their homeland. And as I gaze upon the calender, I notice that we are coming up on the anniversary of the Battle of Thunder Bay, the day we celebrate our Independence and the birth of our nation.

"Once again, we find ourselves fighting for our freedom. We are not only fighting against tyranny, evil, and oppression. We are fighting for the right to live, to love, to stand on our own four hooves. What we are fighting for are not merely abstract concepts. We are fighting for the very right to exist, against those who would deny us those freedoms."

I took a deep breath, knowing where this speech was leading me. "And so, when we emerge victorious over those who would destroy us, I say to you this day will no longer be a pegasus holiday, but a day when all of ponykind- yes, all of us!- stood up and cried out in one voice 'we will not go quietly into the night! We are going to live on! We are going to survive!'"

"We are only as strong as the links that bind us! So help us, and we can truly celebrate our Independence Day!"

As I finished my speech, I noticed Pipp turn her screen round to show the faces of people viewing. There was cheering from the crowd, and the ponies were clearly hyped up by my words.

"Nice job, sis," Pipp smiled. "I think you've rallied them."

I felt relieved. For a first speech, that actually wasn't too bad.

Let's hope we could keep up the fight.

Author's Note

Hello, and welcome to another chapter! Following the revelations of last chapter, we are now moving onwards into the endgame and the moves against Chris and his armada.

The concluding speech will be familiar to anybody familiar with movies; it's heavily inspired by the one from Independence Day (the 1996 film).