Chapter Nine: Night

The scene before me as eerie, and silent. I was positioned in an observing view of a massive flat area. A battleground. I saw masses of ponies on one side of it, masses of humans on the other. Moments passed as I slowly surveyed the scene. Each and every one of the beings present had a look on their faces that simply said: "Why?". Both masses charged in force over the empty field. Scattered amongst the human horde were soldiers and war material; tanks, armored personnel carriers, missile launchers, and artillery guns. A huge fleet of bombers and warplanes could be seen flying overhead. On the ponies' side, I saw only confused, terrified faces. A mere few royal guards, and no equipment of any kind.

Countless thousands of pegasi took to the sky. They were met by explosions and automatic gunfire. Pegasi fell by the hundreds, and the rest of the two colossal armies began their clash. Rocket salvoes and bombs from ground attack aircraft impacted the earth ponies and unicorns on the ground below. I saw magical barriers form to deflect the explosions, but far too many projectiles hit undeterred. Our powerful weaponry, controlled by only a few individuals, was shredding the hapless ponies. Earth ponies and unarmed humans charged, but few earth ponies were there to meet the human mob as it swept across the center of the field, having been cut down by the machine guns, airstrikes, and rifle fire of a dozen armies. I saw pufts of smoke as the many large guns fired. Unicorns focused their power, and sent massive fireballs, ice balls, and other lethal projectiles in incredible numbers towards the approaching humans, summoning a massive thunderstorm to send against the aircraft. The humans may have had the first salvo, but the ponies had magic on their side; thousands of unicorns loosed their power at that moment, creating a fury that the power of the sun must have been rivaled by. The pegasi, though strong in number, did not manage to stop the flights of bombers overhead; They dropped what had to be thousands of tons of bombs at the very moment that the unicorns released their magic. A blinding flash obscured my vision as both payloads hit their targets. Both sides were completely wiped out. Nought moved, and all was silent once more.

I woke in a cold sweat. I immediately looked out the window of my suite, seeing Luna's beautiful night sky, devoid of the light pollution that one would find in a human city. I pulled out my watch, which I had forgotten about. 3:30 AM. I climbed out of the bed, which was a tad small for me, and left my suite. I wandered the halls of Canterlot Castle for a good ten minutes, making sure I could retrace my steps. The castle had even fewer guards at night. These guards were dark in coloration and wore armor to match; Luna's guards. They paid me little mind. I came across a chamber, lit by a fireplace. Sitting in the center of it was Princess Luna herself, writing. She noticed me in the doorway, and turned to face me. She set aside the quill that she was magically manipulating.

"Hello, Princess Luna. I'm sorry if I've interrupted what you were doing," I said politely.

"It is nothing, we are not offended. What are you doing awake at such an hour?" Luna asked in her signature manner. I was going to re-state her question, directed instead at her, but it only took me an instant to realize that was a silly question to ask a creature whose domain was nighttime.

"I woke up. A nightmare. I decided to take a walk before going back to sleep," I explained. The dream had disturbed me greatly.

"What is it that troubles you, child? Is it your universe? We have fretted over the situation as well." I was not surprised to hear this. Every entity in both universes should be concerned.

"I dreamt of a terrible battle between ponies and humans. At the end of it, all of the combatants were dead; both universes were lost. I fear that this is what will happen if we fail to stop the decay of the barrier." I entered the room and sat down beside her.

"Our elder sister has informed us of the situation. It is most distressing to think of it. If you are to fail, so be it. This task that you have is not an easy one to complete. Listen to us; you cannot and will not give up. Twilight Sparkle and her friends are strong allies to have in this endeavor; we can testify to their determination, and we are confident that you will succeed with their assistance." Luna's speech was very reassuring. I stood once more, and looked at her.

"Thank you," I said sincerely. I started for the exit.

"Sleep well."

I returned to my room, and thought about Luna's words. She was right. I had excellent allies to help in my cause; we would not fail.

*****

I opened my eyes to see Rainbow Dash, who had jostled me awake. She was hovering beside me. "Helloo! Wake up! It's time for breakfast!" I groaned, and sat up. "Come on, let's go!" She zoomed out of the room. I rubbed my eyes a few times, and followed to the dining hall. All were in attendance, save Luna. Breakfast was heated, flavored oatmeal and fruit. It was delicious. Celestia drank tea, and had nothing else.

"What are we going to do today?!" Pinkie asked excitedly to no one in particular. Her excitement I would never understand. The last forty-eight hours were certainly interesting, but exciting?

"Maybe we can do some heroic things, like... defeat an ursa major, or put out a fire. Or maybe we could do something cool, like go see the Wonderbolts!" Rainbow Dash retained her enthusiasm though these trying couple of days, and craved action. She had finished her breakfast first, and had announced herself triumphant at doing so, as though it were a competition.

"Rainbow, dear, we don't have time to be doing such things. There are far more important matters at hand," Rarity declared. She was brushing her mane carefully with her magic. She had not eaten much.

            "Yeah," The pegasus sighed.

"I don't know what we should do now. There doesn't seem to be anything we can do that's heroic at the moment." Twilight Sparkle had gotten up a few hours earlier, and had been reading reports. "All that seems to be going on is Discord sightings. None of the reports indicate that he has done anything overly chaotic yet." Twilight was relieved and sounded proud. She had thus far been proven right about Discord.

"We should make sure everypony everywhere knows that Discord isn't against us this time." Fluttershy was worried about everypony else worrying.

"That won't be necessary. I've already addressed the citizens of Equestria that he is not to be worried about for now." Celestia had been quietly sipping her tea.

"Maybe we should return to Ponyville, await further developments." I suggested calmly. Going looking for trouble to stop was likely to be just as effective as waiting for it to appear, I thought.

"Sounds like a good idea to me. Big Mac shouldn't have to handle the farm by himself." Applejack agreed.

"The sky must be out of control without me there!" Rainbow Dash also agreed.

"That's that! Let's go home and wait. Maybe we can have that party I promised you, Zach!" Pinkie's party planning. I forgot all about that. I wanted to remind her of how urgent it was that we not be distracted by trivial things should anything come up, but she probably already knew that, and probably didn't care.

"Well, I guess I can always look for more information at home." Twilight wasn't excited to leave the company of her mentor in a time like this.

"You can take my personal carriage," Celestia offered. "I can fly myself if I need to go anywhere." With that, she led us out of the dining hall to a large balcony. Eight pegasi, obviously guards, were waiting there. Obviously available 24/7 should Celestia need to go anywhere. They prepared the carriage for flight, and we stepped aboard. It was somewhat cramped inside, but not uncomfortable. As we were about to leave, Celestia remembered something. "Oh, Zach. I thought you should have this, just in case." She produced the man's pistol, and levitated it over to me. I took it. The carriage took flight toward Ponyville at a high speed. Anything could happen in the next twenty-four hours. We had to be ready, no matter what.