"In war, truth is the first casualty." - Aeschylus

An army of 50 hooded figures and their prisoner traversed the Canterlot mountain which was the manual way to getting into the elevated city. It was nearly one in the morning which meant all of the citizens of Canterlot would be fast asleep. The night also helped the hooded quadrupeds blend into shadows with not a single pony being the wiser.

Luckily for them, no royal guard had spotted the approaching convoy. It would not matter regardless, the pony guards were one of the easiest adversaries to take down in combat.

"Commander Mali, are all our soldiers in check?" asked a stern and commanding voice.

"Yes lord Nigeria." nervously assured Mali. "All of our Shamans have their poison bombs prepared, the humans take one smell of the weapon and they fall. Our spears men have their blades sharpened and the potions provided to us by our ally have completely concealed the noise of our hoof steps."

"What about kinetic bombardment? The humans are capable of many things with their starships." checked Nigeria.

"Before leaving, one our diplomats had informed us that our ally has found an orbital defense mechanism to secure this planet, preventing the humans from any sort of interaction between their star ships and our world." informed Mali.

"Good. That will only mean there will be 4 human beings left to deal with." nodded Nigeria. "Once they are gone, the humans will be unable to ever interact with our humble planet ever again."

"Are you sure we can take them on? I heard they wiped a Griffin battalion and no word has been heard of Trixie who was armed with the alicorn amulet mind you." reminded Mali.

Nigeria turned around and smashed his hoof into Mali's muzzle. "How dare you speak low of the Zebra empire? The Griffons were tactless in their approach and Trixie was a disillusioned fool."

Mali wiped his bloody mouth and continued moving along the convoy.

"The humans will either taste vengeance for what they did to our planet by the might of the Zebra empire or we will die trying!" swore lord Nigeria.

A few days ago, the Zebras were informed that the human race and returned to Epona and were taking refuge in Equestria. Before that however, the Griffins attempted to convince the Zebras of the same thing but the latter race shrugged it off as the Griffins had no proof. When Zecora arrived in Zebrica however to relay first hand news, the entire nation was put in a state of despair.

Word spread across the many races of the planet in a call for mobilization and all races complied, with the exception of the ponies whose ambassador stated that the humans were being offered refuge in their nation.

An entire army, made by the collaborative of all the non pony races was being mobilized and trained by the Griffin empire themselves. They would find these 4 humans and either banish them to their home world one way or another.

Then, an unexpected ally arrived in the midst of the chaos who reminded them that humans were a space faring race capable of more chaos than he was.

Reluctantly, the alliance accepted his aid. He would make sure that it would be impossible for more humans to enter the planet, thus cutting off the four who were already on the planet from any back up.

As for the Equestrians, a thousand shames had been inflicted on them for helping a group of harbingers and offering an alliance with them. They would either hoof over the humans or be punished for their insolence.

"I need to speak to the dissident." ordered Nigeria.

A Zebra shaman nodded and brought forth a constricted and bruised female mystic.

Nigeria gazed directly in the sole of mystic and gritted his teeth. "Are you sure this is where the humans are Zecora?"

The injured Zebra gave a reluctant nod.

"You wouldn't have been in this situation had you come to us sooner."

Zecora mustered the courage to speak. "I did not believe the humans meant anything significant to our race. I was not even aware they had visited this place."

"Cut the rhyming!" spat Nigeria. "Humans are worse than the demons locked in tartarus. Because of your and the ponies' foolish hesitation, they are now in am ample position to wreck havoc."

"There....is some sort of mistake." let out Zecora.

"What are you getting at?" glared Nigeria.

"When I met the humans, they were surprised to see me the same way I was surprised to see them." explained the injured potion master. "What if they do not remember any of the sins they committed on this world?"

Nigeria scowled. "If we can remember history form tens of thousands of years ago, than so should the humans."

"But, they did not want to kill me." gulped Zecora. "When I met them, they did not make any attempt to harm me even when they had ample time to do so."

"The humans have deceived you." accused Nigeria. "They are certainly trying to gain our trust so that we may lower our guard and allow them to attack us when least expected."

The Zebras continued the trek. Luckily, Luna, who guarded the night, was no where to be found. Either she had been asleep or distracted by some sort of ordeal. The Zebras were masters of stealth. All they would need to do was sneak into the city undetected and threaten Canterlot with a poison attack unless the ponies the surrendered the humans or the humans turned themselves in.

The city lights, or the lack of, began to flicker before the eyes of the Zebras. Two royal guards had been stationed in the outskirts of the city, but two Zebra shamans were able to sneak behind them and use a noxious gas to render them unconscious.

"I will say this one last time, are you sure the humans are here?" spat Nigeria.

"Yes, why would I lie?" cried Zecora. She hoped she wasn't telling the truth. She believed that Shadow was still at the defenseless town of Ponyville and that she was leading the company to Canterlot which would mean them facing the royal alicorns.

"Why must the Equestrians suffer as well?" muttered Zecora.

"For they have committed utter heresy by allowing the humans to enter their ranks and put them in a position that threatens the life of us all!" explained Nigeria.

"But the ponies themselves seemed surprised as well by the appearances of the humans!" exclaimed Zecora. "Even Twilight, who knows history from mane to hoof lacked any prior knowledge about their race."

"Then the ponies are foolish for ignoring such a depressing chapter in history." called out a shaman named Congo form the crowd.

"How do we know the humans will want to strike us again?" countered Zecora. "We are punishing humans for a deed they do not remember which they committed thousands of years ago! Revenge is not the answer."

"History repeats itself my dear whether the humans remember the past or not." responded Nigeria. "The humans will no doubt attempt to finish what they started."

"What makes you think they haven't evolved passed their warlike ways?" suggested Zecora while coughing. "The humans I met were armed but had no interest in combat."

"No society strays away from tradition or repeating the acts of their ancestors. Conflict wit the humans is inevitable." hissed a war veteran named Somalia. Nigeria nodded to that statement.

"Sir, wouldn't it be wiser to attack once the full army is mobilized?" suggested Congo. "I have utter faith in our men, but the humans seem beastly powerful."

Nigeria gave a sigh. "By the time the alliance is ready to attack on the 23rd of June, it would be enough time for the 4 assassins sent by the humans to do something horrible to all of us. We must strike now and even if we can not kill the humans, we can at least weaken them and put them in a position that is good for everything but combat."

"As for the Equestrians?" asked Sudan.

"Our ambassador to Equestria has stated the elements of harmony have been destroyed by the humans, again proving how devilish they can be." informed the Zebra commander. "With its only form of defense gone, Equestria will fall in a week from a unified army."

"But who would raise the sun and moon without Luna and Celestia?" realized Mali.

"Our ally has offered to fill in that role if we bring down the humans and seal them away from this planet for good." smiled Nigeria.

The next thing Zecora knew, the hit squad had once again decided to go over their battle plans which left the wounded potion master unguarded.

Taking advantage of their weakness, Zecora used a technique to free herself from the bindings and escape into the city. Even is she was caught, it would at least alert all of Canterlot and ruin the Zebras' plan.

She prayed for the lives that were about to be lost. Pony, Zebra and Human.

Author's Notes:

By the way, if this fic gets 235 likes or more, I promise another epic fight scene.

Take a guess as to who the 'ally' is.