The pony defense system was more robust than one might have imagined. It was also designed to stop the mythical threat of unicorns. It wasn't very good at that job, and fared even worse against the marching paws of the felines that set upon the town. It was hardly a threat, to them at least, and they smashed through the defenses like paper.

One of them roared, and their armor plates rattled against one another. "Attack!" They poured through the streets, scattering the citizens in a panic. Ponies fled in any direction that didn't have a feline in the way, screaming for help and generally being terrified.

One of the felines leaped onto a fleeing pony's back, flattening the earth creature with a heavy thump. "You are mine!" He put his claws to the pony's neck. "And you'll stop screaming or I'll get upset."

Hitch perked at the sudden noises of upset. "Sounds like a sheriff is needed!" He tucked Sparky away. "Be right back, little guy."

He charged out, leaping over a fence and onto the nearest street. "Excuse me!" His hoof came down firmly on a feline nose. "I don't know who you are, but that pony is not yours."

"Yes, he is," purred another voice, Allura leaning in from above Hitch. The soldier feline scrambled to his paws, saluted, and marched off with his pony without resistance.

Hitch just stood there, paralyzed with the hypnotic purrs. Allure patted him gently on the head. "Your little one needs you right now."

He went back to his post and calmly closed the door on all the noise. "I'm Back, Sparky! It wasn't any real big deal at all."

In the Brighthouse, Izzy slammed her back against the door. "Nopony panic, but we're being invaded by a whole load of angry cats! They have two legs and no heart and they're rounding up every pony they can get their other paws on!"

Sunny rushed to join her. "What's going on out there?!" The other three crowded around and peeked out the windows. "There's so many of them." She turned back. "We have to help them!"

Outside, the streets echoed with the noise of stampeding hooves, and the hissing, snarling of angry felines.

Elsewhere, in a normally peaceful library, Amber gaped at the many ponies that had decided it would double as an emergency shelter. "What is going on?! Why is there a sudden influx of ponies?! This isn't a shelter."

A unicorn rushed by, snatching up several books. "We're being invaded by cats! No, really, and not the regular kind, either. Do you have a book on what to do when that happens?"

Misty shook her head. "I don't think we do." She went to a window to get a peek at things. "Woah, they're not lying."

That got Amber and other librarians around her to see the town being invaded rapidly by agitated felines. Amber fell back, hoof to her cheek. "They'll be here any second. Where's Comforting?!" But the chaos spirit neither appeared nor gave any other sign. "Of all the times!"

Misty whirled on Amber. "We have to help. Maretime Bay is where we live, and they'll take over the library too, I bet. We have to do something!"

One of the felines came up to the window beside Misty. "Hello!"

Misty screamed and fell to the floor. Amber rushed to help her to her hooves, but the cat had moved on already. They kicked open the door to the library, causing the tense still to erupt into a new wave of panicked screams.

Amber pointed at the felines, her horn glowing. She sent out a bolt of energy that bounced between the three that came, knocking them to the ground, but it was a brief respite, with so many more charging in over the fallen forms of the others.

Misty directed her horn, but her magic went down, plucking her from the ground on a disc of light. "What?! How'd you get up there?"

Amber turned. "Misty, watch out!"

The felines were upon them, but the two mages were too stunned to resist. The felines bound Amber and Misty with rope. "Got two!" One called, and a pair of felines took them by the ropes and dragged them out of the building.

Amber growled, which turned into a roar as her body grew free, bursting the ropes as she became too large to even fit in the library. She pinned herself, becoming a great feline version of herself, but her hissing teeth and swiping paws were enough to give the attackers pause. "Back off!"

Several dozen felines turned to her and hissed back. Amber flinched, shrinking slightly by the response. "Or not."

More of them rushed the great form and she was quickly bound again. Her size was too much for the ropes to hold, but she was soon buried in felines and her magic fizzled out as she was pressed. Soon she was just a pony, one thoroughly tied up with an extra helping of rope to be sure it stuck that time.

With Amber secured, they approached Misty, laughing low at that one pony. She swallowed nervously and leaned her disc away, swooping right out a window and towards the Brighthouse. "We need help!" As she went, she could see the felines rounding up every pony in the city beneath her. "This is bad, so very bad." She cringed, imagining how scared everypony had to be, not to even mention herself.

***

Zipp tapped her hoof to her ear. "Hitch, are you there?" She frowned. "I think we lost Hitch. Izzy, can you whip up something for this? You have something crazy none of us saw coming."

"Misty." Izzy pointed outside, where Misty was soaring towards them. "I didn't know she could fly. I thought flying was a pegasus thing."

Misty swooped down to land, her disc vanishing beneath her hooves. She looked at the others with a relieved sigh. "Oh, thank hoofness you're alright!" She gestured back the way she came. "Those cats are taking over the whole city! We have to stop them, somehow. Amber and I tried, but there were too many. I don't know where she is right now." She swallowed nervously. "I'm scared, this is not what I was prepared for."

Sunny stomped a hoof. "We have to help." But the steam fizzled as quickly as it had come. "But there's too many of them. This calls for ponies, all of them." She took a slow breath as she stood up tall. "We have to stand as one to be any match for them. Zipp, Pipp, time to call your mom and report in. Izzy, Misty, we're headed to Bridlewood to recruit the unicorns." With one last clop, her magic wings and horns appeared for just a moment. "We will take back Maretime Bay!"

Misty cheered along with the other ponies. "You tell them! Wait, what's going to keep them from taking over Bridlewood?"

Izzy peeked out through the window. "There's a lot of them, but enough to hold here and take Bridlewood at the same time? I doubt it. Sunny, you rush there and get them to head to Zephyr Heights. From there, we can make our move."

Sunny nodded at that. "We've got a plan, let's make it happen!" She looked at Izzy. "Can you build us something to get there faster, and get back with a bunch of unicorns?"

"Faster, no." She went over to a tarp. "But loading up the unicorns, I've been planning for this!"

Pipp leaned aside towards her sister. "Why was she planning on loading up a load of unicorns?"

"Better not to ask." Zipp clapped instead as the tarp came off, revealing a sizable trailer ready to be attached to their flying machine. "That looks perfect. Get the unicorns in there."

Izzy threw up her hooves with excitement. "Yes, yes I will!" She hopped onto the flying machine and started it. "To Bridlewood, zoom!" She zoomed off the moment Sunny and Misty were on board, leaving behind a cloud of dust.

Zipp was hovering in the air, wings flapping. "Hey, mom. You're not gonna believe this." She waved for Pipp to follow as they headed towards Zephyr Heights. "Turns out keeping the guards ready for a fight wasn't a terrible idea after all."

***

Izzy pulled in for a bouncy landing in the middle of the unicorn village. "Welcome home!" That applied to at least two of them. "Let's get out there and tell them impending doom is coming towards them."

Sunny laughed nervously. "Let's not phrase it that way. We don't want to create a panic in two pony places at once. Misty, ready to go?"

She nodded, hopping out the other side. "Let's get the unicorns together." They had barely landed before they were off, galloping around Bridlewood, spreading their urgent message to anypony they passed.

Unfortunately for them, the unicorns seemed more baffled than ready to surge into action. "Hey!" One spoke up, a purple unicorn. "What do you mean 'cats are taking over'? That sounds like nonsense."

Another, orange, joined in. "Besides, we're perfectly safe here." Several unicorns nodded in agreement with that.

An older unicorn waved a hoof at them. "Just because the bay ponies have a problem don't mean it'll come for us, here in our safe forest."

"Right!" The purple unicorn stamped. "If they want a piece of us, they'll have to get through the whole forest, and none of us are letting them through that border!"

Izzy gasped and pointed. "It's already happening! Look!"

They all turned to see a housecat looking back at them. The small creature meowed and jumped out of sight. "False alarm," Izzy laughed out nervously. "But they will come, and when you see them, it'll be too late!"

A blue unicorn folded her hooves. "Then they'll get a hoof full of magic. You're not making a very convincing case. Why don't you go back and take care of this yourselves?"

Sunny sighed, but didn't back down. "Other ponies need your help. As ponies, we need to stand together. An attack on any one of us is an attack on all of us. Those cats aren't just going to stop with one town. If we don't stop them there, they'll come here next. Then, when Zephyr Heights hears about Bridlewood, it'll be too late for any of us!" She swept a hoof towards Zephyr. "Speaking of that, we're mobilizing them as we speak. Our plan is to meet with them and face this feline menace, together, as a united pony front."

That got them to pay more attention to her. They began talking amongst themselves in quiet murmurs. A pink unicorn approached them. "We should help them. What use are our magic powers if we're not using them to protect our fellow ponies?"

"Yeah," piped another.

A colt tapped his head. "I'll pull their tails! That's something cats don't like."

The murmurs of agreement grew louder and more excited. Izzy nudged Sunny. "Looks like you're not half bad at this."

Sunny smiled. "Thank you, but, hmph, this feels so strange in front of a real battle. We don't usually prepare for that." She coughed into a hoof, raising her voice, "Everypony, head into the trailer! We'll fly you all to Zephyr Heights, where you'll be safe, and ready to move with the pegasi against those cats."

They all agreed and started filing into the trailer, but a blue unicorn stopped, "What about Comforting?" Her eyes were filled with worry. "She's always there for us. We should ask her, first."

Sunny shook her head. "Comforting isn't here, right now. I don't know when she's getting back, so we'll have to go on without her." She laughed with worry. "Sure could use her right about now, but we'll have to use our own skills and teamwork to get past this."

Despite her assurances, several of the unicorns seemed more wary, but they filed into the trailer, leaving it far more crowded than when it started. Sunny checked inside. "Are you all ready?" A crowd of yesses, maybes, and a few muffled nos reached her. "We're off!" She circled around to the inside of the Marestream. "Let's go."

Izzy nodded and got the vehicle off the ground, pulling the trailer with her into the air. "Wohoo! Unicorns fly!" She laughed, "And, to think, I thought they wouldn't before today." She pressed a hoof to her cheek. "Which is silly, come to think. I was flying before now. Anywho! Zephyr Heights, here we come!"

They flew over the treetops, and over the plains and rivers that separated them from the heights. Sunny leaned back and shouted to the ponies in the trailer. "Can you hear me?" A muffled sound replied. "We'll be there soon. Don't be scared. The moment we're there, we'll let you all out."

Misty was staring at her magic book. "I had these spells, and I just froze. All I could do was get myself away. At least Amber tried to fight them. What kind of wizard am I? I couldn't cast a single spell!"

Sunny turned to her. "You'll get a chance to show off what you can really do, soon enough. I know you can do it."

Misty sighed, but nodded, looking out the window. Sunny threw an arm over her, hugging Misty gently.

Author's Note

War, huh, what is it good for? It sure won't validate my parking, I'll tell you that.

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