Shadow and Flame

It all began four hundred and twelve days ago, just over fourteen months, when the sky had been ripped open and the first contact was made.

Though in all honesty it was less of a contact as it was a free-for-all between two flying castles and the combined strength of the princesses above the plains surrounding Canterlot.

On that day the princesses had unleashed the fury of the sun and moon upon these strange invaders and as their castles had been torn apart they had fled in all directions in streaks of blue light and in the bowels of metal birds.

For sixteen days disappearances, sightings of bipedal creatures and skirmishes with these creatures with drastically different cases of them avoiding a fight or actively looking for one were reported across the kingdom, inciting panic amongst the towns and villages near wild areas such as the Everfree Forest, even in cosy little Ponyville, ponies were considerably more cautious.

Finally, in the dead of night, just as the seventeenth day had begun three of the bipedal creatures infiltrated Canterlot Castle and approached Princess Luna.

At first the Princess had lashed out in self defense wounding one of them severely and in a bid to appease her the creatures threw their weapons to the floor and prostrated themselves swearing upon their "Honor as warriors of the Aeon Empire." that they meant no harm and that Equestria was in grave danger.

After Luna had summoned her sister and healed the warrior she had attacked the trio explained the apparent danger.

They claimed that throughout a large swathe of the Cosmos, within hundreds of worlds they referred to as "Planes", two superpowers were pitched in a cataclysmic war.

On one side the Illuminati, the conglomeration of the holy and mighty angels of the Twelve Mounting Heights, the malevolent but honor bound devils of the Nine Infernal Pits and the industrial, magical and technological powerhouse of the Aeon Empire from the Cradle of Eternity, who fought side by side with any mortal race who stood for the preservation of any form of order or sanity.

On the other stood the Shadow, a loosely aligned force of semi-deities and corrupted powers leading a seemingly endless horde of demons, aberrations and tainted mortals on a crusade to plunge the Cosmos into bloody chaos hailing under the banner of a twisted true-deity known as Variarneer.

According to the three aeon Equestria had been hidden in the fabric of the Cosmos, protecting it from detection and the war raging on around it until just a few months ago when some strange force had caused Equestria to surface, appearing on the Illuminati's and the Shadow's radar. After sending scouts to prospect the world they discovered the world's incredible abundance of resources and of greater importance the wide variety of abundant life that the Shadow would take glee in destroying and corrupting it became a high priority on the Illuminati war agenda.

The Aeon Empire, who had taken the role of initiating first contact out of the three Illuminati factions, had originally planned to arrive peacefully, to avoid panic or misunderstandings, but spies reported that defectors from the Empire were planning to invade much more recklessly forcing the Empire to move into action early to stop any unneeded bloodshed.

Despite the preemptive move to secure the plane and by some twist of fate the so-called Sky Forts of both the Empire and the defectors arrived simultaneously above the fields around Canterlot and they had naturally opened fire on each other, abandoning fort when the Princesses had come to defend their home with devastating force.

Now after over two weeks of hiding, regrouping and fighting the Shadow aeon they had managed to contact the Aeon Empire and reinforcements were on stand by simply waiting for news of whether the Princesses would accept their aid or not.

After a time for thought and deliberation the Princesses accepted the Aeon Empire's aid and from that moment forward Equestria had been at war.

"Twilight! Twilight hey wake up!" A gentle shaking and moderately loud voice drew the purple unicorn from her slumber. "Come on you're gonna be late."

Twilight Sparkle lifted her head off of the book she had been reading, then using as a pillow and blinked a few times at her draconic assistant. "Huh? Late? Late for what?"

Spike, who was now almost as tall as Twilight and no longer chubby, with a lanky and far more serpentine body due to a growth spurt, dashed off grabbing a brush and a fresh cup of coffee he had just made then dashed back.

"Come on Twi, the meeting!" The purple dragon said offering the beverage and brush. "It's starting in ten minutes!"

Twilight's eyes bugged momentarily and a sparkling violet glow enveloped her horn, the brush and the mug of coffee as the two items were taken from Spike's paws.

The lavender mare drank the steaming, caffeinated drink, burning her tongue and throat, while running the brush through her messy mane and tail at a breakneck pace.

After painfully attempting and failing to tame the wild hair she grabbed her notes and several folders jamming them into her saddle bags which she levitated onto her back then galloped out of the door of her study/bedroom and down the halls of Canterlot Castle, nearly bowling over several servants and guards of the night shift.

The violet unicorn barreled into a large circular room containing a massive table which had an accurate three dimensional map of Equestria and it's neighbouring nations carved into it's surface, a variety of ponies and a few griffins and aeon, standing almost as tall as Princess Celestia, standing around the table.

Twilight's sudden and less than quiet entrance drew some attention and a dark skinned aeon gave a wry smile.

"Miss Sparkle." The feminine aeon who's name was (if Twilight's memory served) Karedena said. "Your punctuality is impeccable."

Twilight smiled weakly back at Karedena and approached the large table after catching her breath.

The aeon always had such odd names but then they thought the same thing of pony names so who was she to judge?

A scarred griffin gave a derisive snort and opened his beak to say something, no doubt insulting to everyone other than his fellow, but was interrupted by a bright flash announced Princess Luna's arrival.

The ponies and griffins bowed low while the aeon placed their hands over their chests and bowed their heads.

The night themed goddess nodded in acknowledgement and everyone relaxed slightly.

Her horn glowed a deep navy blue and the double doors leading into the room slammed shut and the map on the table of Equestria, the Western Barrens, the mountainous regions of the Griffin Kingdoms and the Frozen North lit up in a mixture of red, blue, green and grey.

The glowing red terrain represented the Shadow's areas of control and filled most of the Griffin Kingdoms and almost all of the Frozen north as well as a sizable portion of the north east of the Western Barrens.

The blue sections represented the Aeon Empire, the Equestrians and their allies’ influence, covering all of Equestria and most of the west along with a few scattered blotches along the southern portion of the Griffin Kingdoms.

The green, splotched at random about the red sections, represented areas of resistance against the Shadow but separated from the Aeon and Equestrian armies.

The grey areas, mostly situated around the north, deep within the red territories, were where all signs of resistance and activity had fallen disturbingly silent without warning.

Everyone remained silent for a moment, scanning over the map.

If Celestia had been heading the meeting they would have had to go through a variety of procedures such as a roll call and announcements of meeting protocols, Luna however was not overly fond of arduous protocols and the meetings began unannounced upon her arrival and everyone present had been to enough meetings to know each other and the procedures well enough.

After a few minutes of silence a pegasus stallion with a green coat spoke up.

"There are more grey zones."

"Five more..." The scarred griffin growled. "I trust someone here has at least some intel on that? Four of them are in the mountains."

"Well um... I'm not sure if it's relevant but I think I might have something." A light blue unicorn mare with white splotches across her body and a blue and white striped mane half mumbled. She was the newest member to the council and appeared intimidated by the non-ponies.

"Well spit it out then!" A large but young griffin barked at the unicorn prompting her to fumble with her reports.

The griffin received a few glares from a couple of aeon and some of the ponies.

Relations between ponies and griffins had always been stressed but they got along well enough.

The aeon however had a mutual animosity with the griffins even though they were both more or less warrior races as their attitudes were drastically different. The griffins were persistently loud and rude and throughout their divided kingdoms they clung to old traditions that grated against the aeon's nerves. The Aeon were passionate and forward thinking, throwing aside old traditions and showing respect to all who stood for what was right. But despite their differences they respected one another enough on the battlefield for their own reasons to be able to resist gutting each other in the war chamber.

"R-right here it is." The light blue unicorn said levitating a sheet of paper out of a folder. "The border town of Cherry Blossom out in the Barrens near the edge of the Shadow’s territory in the Barrens and the Northern Griffin Kingdoms found a deranged and traumatised griffin male wandering about aimlessly in the desert." She read from the report sheet.

"He rambled about monsters and that 'They're all insane' and 'They're all dead'. He also appeared to experience night terrors and would have to be sedated or else he would harm himself and others. After being..." The mare trailed off into a mumble and stared at the paper for a while.

"What is it?" The dark skinned aeon asked.

"I... I hadn't read the report in full..." The unicorn began.

An aeon with red tinted skin frowned and spoke before she could say any more. "You should have done. That was irresponsible of you."

"I'm sorry... It's just it hadn't seemed that important at first..." She said looking away.

Twilight gently took the report from the mare who just sat there looking uncomfortable.

Twilight skimmed over the report and continued where the blue unicorn had left off.

"After being held at Cherry Blossom's medical centre for five days the griffin..." She reread the last part to make sure she hadn't misread it. "The griffin wrote a message on the walls in blood and died of a violent explosive head trauma." Twilight put the report down. "Oh my..."

The aeon looked at each other and started to talk quietly amongst themselves in their native tongue.

"What... Why didn't we hear of this sooner?" One of the griffins half shouted.

The spotted mare tried to answer but the griffins and some of the ponies had begun to talk and shout at each other.

"SILENCE!"

Everyone fell silent instantly and looked at Luna who glared back.

"Can thou not see that Frozen Waters is attempting to explain herself?" She said in her old Equestrian manner. "Now be silent and listen to her!"

Everyone's attention turned to the blue and white unicorn.

She swallowed thickly then spoke.

"I only received the report this morning and the event only occurred a few days ago."

A few griffins and ponies grumbled before a pale aeon stepped forward.

"Does the report say what the message on the walls was?"

Twilight picked up the report again and ran her eyes over it.

"No but it does say that the body and pictures of the scene are being transported to Helsinki."

The aeon nodded with a frown. "Well that's a nuisance... Who wrote the report?"

"Sergeant Butter Biscuit."

"Trust a pony to screw up." The young griffin sneered.

"You're one to talk." A green tinged masculine aeon growled back. "If your people weren't so backwards and didn't brainwash your citizens to your corrupt kings' wills the mountains wouldn't be such a headache to liberate."

The griffin hissed at the aeon.

"Say that again." He leaned forward. "I dare you."

Luna stomped a hoof warning the two to stop bickering.

"Apologies Princess Luna." The aeon said pressing aer hands to aer chest and bowing aer head.

The griffin just snorted and stepped back.

"Well, if we're quite done insulting each other." The dark skinned aeon said giving the green tinged aeon a glare. "I have some good news."

Everyone turned their attention to the aeon and ae cleared aer throat before speaking.

“In a combined effort the devils and aeon have managed to quell the Lazarus Insurrection and have made sure they won't try and rise again." She put emphasis on "again" and a few of the other aeon snickered or shook their heads in what appeared to be pity.

"So now the resources that had been put into quelling the insurrection are now being brought here."

She shuffled a few papers absent mindedly before continuing.

"The figures aren't exact at the moment as they may increase or decrease but we're definitely receiving at least one Beta Class Sky Fort with a complement of eight hundred to nine hundred personnel and a full complement of aircraft and land assault craft. We may also be receiving several mobile weapons platforms and one or two small land boats. They should be arriving in a week at the latest." The aeon put aer notes away and a pleased murmur ran through the ponies and griffins.

"That is indeed good news and the timing couldn't be better!" One pegasus said.

"Indeed." The dark skinned aeon concurred. "Now onto the next topic."

She held her hand over the glowing war table and small illusory scale models of towns, cities, forts, villages, Sky Forts, prisoner camps, battalions and supply routes among other things flickered to life across it.

"In the past week, as we all know, our forces have dived into the Eastern Kingdoms and have begun to uproot the Shadow and liberate the enslaved griffins and ponies on the edges of the mountains. But now as the majority of you know the Shadow are amassing a counter attack, spear headed by the Nightmares. They will be ready to strike in approximately six days according to our infiltrators, most likely before reinforcements arrive."

She ran a hand through her grey streaked, dark blue hair.

"What we have to decide now is whether to fortify the supply routes running between the Western Barrens and Equestria which has been weakened by a reshuffling of forces or to reinforce the strongholds on the threshold of the East. Either way we'll be hoping that they won't attack the less defended area and if they do that they'll be able to hold off until off plane reinforcements arrive."

A unicorn picked up the monologue without missing a beat levitating a wooden rod to act as a pointer.

"If they do attack the strongholds, which we suspect they will, it will be directed here, here and here." The pointer flicked between three small adjacent strongholds squeezed into a natural bottle neck.

"Battalions seventy two, forty, sixteen and seventeen are stationed at these strongholds, battalion seventeen specifically..."

Twilight's ears perked up at the mention of battalions forty, sixteen and seventeen.

As Twilight and her friends had joined the army they had been split up due to their differing specialities and the seventeenth, sixteenth and fortieth battalions were ones some of her friends had been assigned to. Specifically Rainbow Dash in the fortieth (recently transferred from the nineteenth), Fluttershy in the seventeenth and Applejack, alongside her older brother Big Mac, in the sixteenth.

Twilight hadn't seen Dash or Fluttershy since they had enlisted but Applejack's battalion had made camp on the outskirts of Lower Canterlot while they had been moving between positions a few months ago. She had excitedly made her way down to the encampment and hunted down her old farmer friend, however upon finding them Twilight had found it confusing and a little frightening how little they had been able to talk to each other. It was as if Applejack had become a completely different pony, she had become incredibly quiet, she refused to leave her brother’s side and her eyes had adopted what could only have been called a haunted shadow.

Just as concerning were the numerous scars that now dotted the large red stallion and when she had inquired Big Mac had simply stated that it had been a "stroke of bad luck." and politely refused to elaborate.

This short but painful reunion had planted a seed of fear for her friends that had grown into a vine that choked her thoughts whenever she thought about them.

"Twilight Sparkle?" The moon princess' voice pulled the purple mare back to reality.

"Huh what?" She said looking around to find all eyes on her.

"Art thou unwell?" Luna said with a look of concern.

"Oh sorry, no. I was just thinking..." Twilight gave a weak smile. "Guess I didn't have enough coffee."

She flinched as a few eyebrows were raised at her.

"A-anyway, what was it you were asking?"

"We were asking thee on thine opinion on the matter of the allocation of our forces.

Twilight gulped and her eyes lost focus for an instant.

Upon enlisting Twilight had been recognised quickly as a tactical genius and she always carefully calculated using logic to come up with the most beneficial decisions towards the war effort she could.

She had been asked to make hard decisions before but this...

This was almost painful.

Twilight clamped her eyes shut, took a deep calming breath and dived into cold logic.

One of the first things Twilight had been taught was that an army functioned on it's stomach.

Without sustenance even the hardiest warriors would be reduced to a starved wreck even the Aeon who could pick themselves up from even the most fatal of wounds admitted that food was their major weakness, their metabolisms requiring as much nutrition as possible to run their ridiculously strong bodies.

But still the strongholds were not without importance, being the first proper gateways to the feet of the eastern mountains and if they were to lose them it would be months before they could retake them or gain another hoof-hold of similar advantage.

Not to mention that if the strongholds didn't hold her friends could...

No! What would they say about you thinking like that?

If the supply routes were cut the armies would be severely handicapped even with the off world supplies brought in by the aeon and would be cut in half jeopardising the entire war.

Twilight opened her eyes and looked down at the map.

Her gaze hovered over the three glowing models guarding the bottleneck between the Alicorn Alps and the small Shattered Talon mountain range.

The purple eyed gaze wandered away from the strongholds down the length of the Alicorn Alps.

An ordered retreat would allow the enemy attack force to spread out and move more freely once they had passed the stronghold as well as cause the ponies stationed there to lose their advantage of the bottleneck, thus it was out of the question.

She glanced at the glowing lines representing the trade routes between the west and south.

Although to an untrained eye the routes appeared well defended Twilight could see at least eight weak points where the enemy could easily charge through and bunker down.

If they lost the strongholds the aeon and equestrians would be delayed by half a year to a year at most.

If they lost the trade routes they could lose the war in a matter of months.

The choice was simple.

But agonising.

Twilight looked up at the moon goddess and met her gaze.

Was that a glint of concern she saw?

Or was it pity?

The vine of fear and doubt strangled her thoughts momentarily.

She took one more calming breath then spoke.

"We should defend the trade routes. The war is more important than a single stepping stone."

The assembled aeon, griffins and ponies all nodded murmuring approval and Luna spoke.

"Very well. The vote is unanimous. We shall send the order out when the meeting is concluded."

Twilight was vaguely aware of what was going on for the rest of the meeting, most of it consisting of status reports from various regions along the Shadow border and a few farms suffering from drought the only thing really capturing her attention being the mention of a group “Dusktreaders” coming to oversee the war effort, but her mind was fogged with fear and doubt keeping her from concentrating.

As the meeting was concluded she left quickly, feeling a pair of worried eyes on her back. She knew it was the Princess’ pitying gaze but she couldn’t care less.

She arrived at her sleeping quarters which was made up of a study area and two separate bedrooms for Spike and herself.

Spike was sitting at the small table that served as a dining table with a mug of steaming hot chocolate in his claws and another steaming mug across from him.

"Hey Twilight I made you some..." His expression fell from a smile to a concerned frown as he saw Twilight’s downtrodden expression. "What's wrong?"

"I'm fine Spike." She replied dully. "I just need some alone time." She opened the door to her room with a violet aura. "If anypony comes tell them I'm busy."

Spike said something but Twilight didn't hear him as she had already closed the door.

The violet mare climbed up onto the bed and rested on her belly letting her head sink into the soft pillow.

A strangled sensation gripped her and tears began to flow down her cheeks.

No matter how hard Twilight tried she could shake the strangling fear for her friend's lives.

"Oh please, please don't let them die." She said in a choked sob, curling into a tight ball.