Guardians

I couldn't sleep. I was going to attack the changeling hideout. "Why did I suggest doing such a thing?" I asked myself, lying on my bed.

"I feel you're distressed, and you've possibly killed us. What are you trying to accomplish?" my darkness spoke.

"I don't know, free the zebras, and prevent what I saw. I just feel like I can do something now that I can actually find their hideout." I said.

"You're going to realize just what's coming when this is over. But you still have me alongside you." it said before leaving. I decided it would be best to get some rest before my mission. I woke up soon after dawn and went straight to the castle entrance, where the three reformed zebras and a volunteer zeppelin pilot were waiting, she was one of the best pilots in equestria, Gale was her name. The princesses, Lunar, Blaze, the elements, and Zecora were there to wish me luck. I wanted to leave as early as I could so I didn't lose any time setting up a camp, right near the base.

Once all the farewells were over with, the pilot said she was ready to fly. I asked her, "Are you sure you know what you're getting into?"

"Yes." She answered with upmost confidence. "I am to fly you to the buffalo tribe and wait for you to return."

"Good. We don't know how many zebras well be able to free, so the buffalos have agreed to house any unable or unwilling to come here." I told her, receiving a nod before takeoff.

The trip was long, maybe an hour or two, so I decided to go over the plan with the zebras. "When we get to there, I will turn invisible, and you'll go talk to Chrysalis, I'll follow. After you convince her that you escaped, I'll find the elements while you start convincing zebras to leave. You may need to trick them to get them out." I explained.

"Good plan, but you said you didn't want us to go back to Chrysalis, why bring us then." One of them said.

"This is to free zebras and to get back the elements. I'll make sure you three never have to go back after this." I said.

"Ok." They all said.

We rode for about thirty more minutes and we only reached halfway. "So what are your names?" I asked, realizing I hadn't been introduced to them yet.

"We will not reveal our names; doing so would open us up to her deception again. Though, before Anansi, we were highly respected warriors. Just call us Scout, General, and Lieutenant." The largest one said. He was General, the small one was Scout, and the second largest one was Lieutenant.

"Fair enough." I said

When the large zeppelin landed, the three zebras and I exited the machine. Strongheart met us at the edge of the tepees. "Good to see you. We got your letter from Canterlot, you really want to go to Chrysalis' home?" she asked.

"Yes, mainly to free the zebras from her control, we have to weaken her forces as much as we can. Also to retrieve the elements." I said to her before asking the zebras behind me, "So how far is it to the hideout?"

"About fifty or sixty miles east of here." General answered.

"That will cause a problem, how are we going to get the zebras across sixty miles?" I said looking towards the direction we were headed, noticing a river. "Hold that thought." I said flying up. Just as I expected, the river headed east with only a few tiny curves. "We'll follow the river for as far as we can." I said starting to walk, it was nine a.m...

We walked for a few hours, reaching the hideout a little past noon. The river fortunately went within half a mile of the target.

"We're here." General said.

"I'll disappear; I'll be right behind you." I said, bending the light.

"Hold on, I have a powder that will disguise your strong magical field." He said pulling a pouch from his bag.

"That's going to help a lot. Thanks." I said, forgetting Chrysalis could sense me, and we started to head for the cave.

There were two changeling guards outside the cave, which was in a large mountain ridge. "Who's there?" it asked.

The zebras stepped forward. "We escaped." Scout said. I was sneaking up behind the guards as they spoke.

"That attempt to destroy those element bearers was a failure. Though the fact you escaped shows you're at least somewhat useful." One of the guards spat.

"And the fact you bought this shows how stupid you are." I said, stabbing them from behind. I moved the bodies away from the entrance and began to descend into the caverns. "Let's go." I said to the zebras.

Heading down the caverns took a while, even with three zebras leading me. If I couldn't bend light, my shadow would have given my position away to any of the hundreds of changelings that passed by. We made our way to the one of the dozens of chambers deeper in the cave, where Chrysalis was scheming; she had on Celestia's jewel. My key sense of time told me it was two hours after noon.

"You return?" she said, more out of surprise than confusion.

"We escaped. It wasn't that difficult, they trust a zebra named Zecora, she's the one who let us go." Lieutenant said.

"We're almost ready to attack. No need for you to have come back." She spat.

"We thought you needed the information we managed to get for you." Scout lied. This seemed to get her attention.

"I'm listening." She curiously said.

"That alicorn you despise so much isn't in Canterlot at the moment; he's in the buffalo village." General said, it was slightly creepy how they have conversations as one pony.

"That's good to hear, but I will be attacking Canterlot tonight." She said, heading for a room behind her. We followed, only to see a massive blimp, ten times larger than the one I was captive on. "The final preparations are being made as we speak."

"How about while you do that, we take all zebras to attack the buffalo." Scout offered.

"Hmm… excellent idea, glad I thought of it." She laughed.

The three of them began to go round up all the zebras. General whispered something to me, "Well get them all outside, meet us when you can."

"Ok." I whispered back, he then went on with his plan.

I looked again at the giant machine. "The elements must be in there." I thought. I jumped down to the floor below, as to sneak aboard. I walked around trying to find the door; I noticed a large cannon on the opposite side of the door. The ship was just as confusing on the inside.

Halls kept winding around in circles, all meeting a central area. "Where do I go?" I asked myself. After a half hour there was only one more corridor I hadn't gone down. I started walking soon finding a spiral staircase. I went down into the engine room where I found what I was looking for, the elements of harmony, though they were guarded by several changelings. I had a crafty idea; I bent the light in the room, creating a perfect illusion of an angry Chrysalis. This managed to scare away the guards. "Nice, now to grab the elements and get out of here." I thought. I was quickly stopped by a force field.

"Did you really thing I would leave the power source of my ultimate plan in the care of my incompetent henchmen." Chrysalis scowled behind me.

"I knew this was too easy." I said, revealing my presence.

She lunged at me. "Why do you always get in my way." She yelled.

"Come on, it's my favorite hobby." I said sarcastically after I successfully dodged her. I began running for the exit, heading through the caves. Of course I wanted to try my new illusion tactic, so I made an illusion of me heading down a side cavern. She fell for it. I passed by several changelings in the tunnels, all starting to chase after me when they heard Chrysalis. I got out of the cave and collapsed the entrance.

"That'll stop them for a bit." I said before turning to two of my zebra comrades. "Did you convince them to abandon Chrysalis?" I asked.

General looked at me with a slight grin on his face. "Once they heard Zecora was alive and that they could once again be happy, they were glad to leave. They're already heading for the buffalo tribe. Lieutenant is leading them." He said.

"Good, we should go too." I said, beginning to walk.

We were rushed to get back to the buffalos. We only spent two hours for the trip back. Once there, I saw dozens, if not hundreds of make shift tents alongside the teepees. "Amazing how fast they set up." I thought. "Never mind that now."

"We should prepare for battle. Chrysalis might attack." I said.

"You know she will." Lieutenant said, walking up to us.

All looked well until a group of tents exploded. I looked up seeing the giant blimp from the cave. I could hear Chrysalis yelling angrily, "You thought you could trick me!"

"Buck. She's here. Buffalos, zebras, defend yourselves." I screamed towards the tents.

"We have to fight back." General said.

"No. I have to fight back. You've already done enough, and I don't want any more lives to be lost to Chrysalis." I said taking off. I flew up to the window Chrysalis was at. "Aim at me; I'm the one you want."

She yelled again, ordering for the cannons to aim right at me. I flew away from the camp, avoiding one blast of fire after another. "I need to destroy the cannon and get the elements."I said to myself.

"Don't fight fire with fire." My darkness said.

"Right, I can't match their power with my own, so I'll use my wits." I said. I flew down to just above the ground, heading towards the airship. I continued to dodge the heavy fire from the cannon, explosions happening behind me, getting closer and closer. I eventually got under the ship where the cannon couldn't aim at, and began to hover next to the weapon. I quickly looked over it and realized I couldn't take it apart. "I wish Marcy was here, she would be able to figure this thing out instantly. If I can't take out the cannon, I have to take out the entire ship." I said to myself.

"He's hiding, aim for the camp. Those traitors need to learn their place." I heard Chrysalis say.

"No! I promised Zecora." I yelled, not wanting to disappoint the zebra enchantress. I flew out from under the zeppelin and landed by the river, which was between me and the changelings, and I was the only thing between the cannon and the camp.

"There you are. Trying to protect the traitors, just like last time. Pathetic." Chrysalis spat.

"Fire at me if you want, but you won't win." I said.

"I'm going to kill you if it's the last thing I do! I'm tired of you ruining my plans." She yelled angry now. The cannon got ready to fire; I could see the flames building up.

"Focus on what you want the earth to do, it will listen." My darkness said.

"What does that mean?" I asked puzzled. The flames continued to build.

"Focus and do." It said. I thought about it for a second. I wanted a way to stop the cannon from firing. I thought about the previous day and how my darkness got the zebras of the cliff and saved the train. The flames continued to build.

"I know what I can do." I said calmly. The cannon fired, time seemed to slow down. I could feel the heat reaching my face. I slammed my hoof down, causing two boulders to pop out of the ground, both floating in front of me. I knock the two rocks towards the massive airship. The first one went through the fire and hit the cannon, causing an explosion. The second one hit the engine, the machine began to lose power and fall.

"You can't stop us that easily." Chrysalis said. The zeppelin lurched forward, intending to crash on the tents. It was still on the other side of the river.

"Ok, now I'm mad!" I yelled. I took off once more, and began to push against the airship with the wind helping me. "It's no use." I flew down once more. As I neared the rushing water of the river an idea came to me, "I can use the river!" I exclaimed. I began to fly, spinning fast, close to the surface of the water. I could feel the spray being pulled to me, eventually becoming a mid-air stream. I shot up, pulling as much water with me as I could and used the force of the spiral to push the falling scrap of an airship backwards, away from the camp. I could hear cheering from below as I got the zeppelin far enough away so it couldn't do any damage. "Hand over the elements Chrysalis, you've already been beaten bad enough." I said, landing next to the now drenched ship, soaked myself.

"Come get them." I heard her say. I looked up to see her with the seven elements, along with Celestia's pendant on top of the crash. I flew up and landed a few feet away from her.

"I understand why you took the elements, but why take Celestia's necklace?" I asked.

"You don't know anything do you? You're so incompetent. I couldn't control them, just like Celestia. She needed this necklace, infused with harmonic power, to control them until the true elements appeared. She used the gem in this necklace to channel their powers for her purpose." She explained, she spoke with just enough honesty that I knew she wasn't lying, rare as it was.

"Makes sense now, but I still need all of them." I said. Changelings now circled us. I looked around, all of the changelings were ready for attack, and I had somehow lost my weapons in the assault.

"Still willing to take them?" She asked. "Or are you starting to lose hope."

"… I haven't." I said calmly. "Nothing will cause me to stop."

"So be it." She hissed. "Attack!" Changelings began to rush toward me, I tried to escape but they managed to dog pile (pony pile?) on top of me. I quickly made me coat steel hard, protecting me from the creatures. I heard one crossbow fire, then another, and then another, until all I could hear was crossbows and changeling shrieks. Changelings fell, and soon began to retreat. I could finally get up again and saw one bolt go through all the element necklaces and Celestia's as well. Another bolt knocked Twilights crown off Chrysalis' head. She was so confused in the volley she didn't even realize that everything she had on was now on the ground. Seeing my chance, I swooped down and grabbed what was stolen and quickly found my swords. The volley stopped, Chrysalis was furious, but she realized she no longer had a chance of winning. "I will defeat you!" she yelled as she and her army retreated.

I flew back to the tents where Scout, Lieutenant, and General were waiting for me along with Strongheart and Chief Thunderhooves. "Nice work with the arrows." I complimented them.

"Not too hard, crossbows are a preferred weapon among us zebras. I myself am the best markspony in the entire zebra nation." Scout bragged proudly.

"That water spiral was spectacular, I assume you defeated Chrysalis and got the elements back." General said.

"You're right. I did manage to get them back, once one of the crossbow bolts broke the necklaces." I said putting the elements and pendent in a small wooden chest Strongheart brought me.

"Now is just one victory, and many more are needed." Thunderhooves said. "We need to move closer to Canterlot, and farther from the changelings."

"I say in the morning you should move, I myself am going back tonight. I need to return the elements to their actual owners, and also I need to think about a few things." I said. I grabbed a chest the elements were put in and started to head towards Gale and her zeppelin.

General stopped me. "Before you go, I need to thank you." He said.

"What for?" I asked.

"For giving all the zebras a taste of freedom, the first any of us have had in a long time. We're free now." He said.

"You're not free yet." I stated. They looked confused. "You're free from Chrysalis, but not her power. She will go after you at some point. Only when she's gone, will anypony be free." They nodded. I turned to Thunderhooves. "I think the next few days will be safe to travel, but if you could please try to be in Canterlot within a week." I looked at the moon, which was a quarter of the way up in the sky.

"We'll meet you there." He said before going back to his teepee. I got back in the zeppelin I had arrived on, the zebras wanted to stay and help lead the other zebras. I got on and took off.

(With Chrysalis)

"Every single time!" she yelled. "How is he so strong? So determined? I cannot let another plan fail! Minion, how far back have we been set?"

A single minion entered the room. "Three months your highness, it would only have taken one if we hadn't lost the zebras." It answered.

"So be it, I can't wait to kill that bucker of an alicorn." She whispered.

(Back with Blade)

I fell asleep on the ride back only waking up when we landed. Everypony was waiting for me. I handed a guard the chest and he took it to the safe. I on the other hoof, went straight to bed, being tired from the fight, I agreed to tell them what happened in the morning.