Chapter 3

Commander Star sighed as she looked at the stallion in front of her, he didn’t sit in his straight backed seat so much as somehow manage to sprawl in it. He blew a strand of his cleanly cut black mane out of his face with a bored smile lazily spreading over his face. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was the best spy in the Fourth or any army Commander Star would have kicked his flank across the practice yard. As it was he was an invaluable war asset even if he was possibly the largest pain in the ass that Commander Star had ever had the displeasure of meeting.

“So how did your mission go True Shooter?” Commander Star asked swallowing her anger at his posture and general existence.

“Well I slept with several of the enemy officers, including the general’s wife, and I have to say that I think griffins are beginning to grow on me.” True Shooter said his grin firmly cementing into place. Commander Star resisted the urge to smash her head into her desk in frustration.

“Other than sampling the foul how did it go?” Commander Star asked gritting her teeth.

“The food was excellent, so was the wine.” True replied pretending to take a sip from an imaginary glass, Commander Star almost lost it.

“True, do you know how close I am to killing you?” Commander Star asked him her voice calm as the eye of a hurricane.

“Because I’m the sexiest stallion alive and your secret love for me prevents you from killing me?” He asked her with a silky grin.

“Actually no, it’s because no matter how much of an arrogant asshat you are you always manage to get us the information that we need. Now tell me what you learned before I personally castrate you!” Commander Star commanded her voice tightening and her magic picking up a very sharp looking knife and slowly moving it towards True’s waist.

“Fine, I guess you’ve never heard of foreplay Commander.” True said rolling his eyes “After my little fling with the general’s wife I stole this little document.” True told her tossing Commander Star a bound scroll marked with the sigil of the Griffin Empire. As Commander Star was scanning the missive Stonewall began to eat a bowl of oats, True scowled at him. “Do you want us to get ants Stone, because it looks like you want us to get ants?” True asked the guard who shifted his gaze to regard the arrogant spy with a sneer, what would have been an interesting fight was interrupted when Commander Star gasped.

“Shit! Good work True Shooter, you get to keep your member yet another day. Now get out of my office I have a campaign to plan.” True gave her a little fake bow and backed out of the room with a smug smile plastered across his face. Commander Star turned to her two guards who regarded her with raised eyebrows, Commander Star didn’t swear, that much.

“What disaster are we wadding into today Commander?” Stronghoof asked her with a tiny grin.

“We’re going to the griffin border and stopping the army that is as we speak flying and marching towards us.” Commander Star told them levelly, Stonewall whistled softly to himself.

“Who’s in command?” Stronghoof asked her, he was dreading the eventual answer but he could always be optimistic.

“Who do you think, it’s Stormwing of course.” Commander Star told him, her voice wasn’t fearful, it was resigned. Stormwing was possibly the only griffon, or other sentient being who inhabited her plane of existence barring dragons or gods who could actually plat the game of war like Commander Star.

“Well this promises to be fun…” Stronghoof said dryly.

“Tell me about it.” Commander Star replied with a slight groan. “The feathered hotshot is trying to regain that land that we took last year, I’d let him have it if it wasn’t for the fact that the entire area is full of diamonds.” Commander Star continued rubbing her forehead with her hooves in irritation as she began to think about all the things she’d need to put in motion.

***
Trixie and Twilight were currently engaged in a furious battle of wits that could have driven an outside observer insane.

“All hail the great king of Mal.” Trixie said flatly as she lay down a king on top of the face up deck turning to Twilight to make her move. Twilight scanned her cards eagerly; she was new to the game Mal and was still learning the ridicules rules that came with the wretched game, but it was the most played game in the realm and she was forcing herself to learn how.

“Who’s your daddy?” Twilight said triumphantly laying down the seven of spades, Trixie smiled widely at her.

“Failure to say seven of spades.” Trixie said passing Twilight another card.

“But…” Twilight protested

“Talking.” Trixie said with a malicious grin as she passed Twilight a card “Failure to say seven of spades.” She said and passed Twilight another card.

“Seven of spades!” Twilight exclaimed in annoyance, Trixie gave her a pleasant nod and laid down a six of spades.

“Six of spades.” Trixie said, Twilight tried to remember if there was a rule to go with it but decided that there wasn’t one.

“All hail the great queen of Mal, queen of spades.” Twilight said laying down a queen of spades, Trixie just smiled.

“Failure to say all hail the queen of Mal.” Trixie said passing Twilight another card which Twilight grudgingly accepted with a snort.

“Hey you two we have new orders!” Shouted a honey colored mare excitedly, she was almost bounding with joy.

“Hey there Angeldust, what are our orders?” Twilight asked the mare respectfully, Twilight had only been with the Fourth Army for a week but she had already gained an appreciation for Angeldust’s power. Even if the mare did act bubbly on the surface she could probably curbstomp Twilight into the ground in seconds.

“We head out at noon, and then we march to the griffin border where we repulse an invasion army spearheaded by Commander Stormwing. Isn’t this going to be great!” Angeldust asked happily, Twilight nodded uncertainly looking over at Trixie to gauge her reaction to the news. From the strained grin that spread across her partner’s face it wasn’t going to be ‘great’.

“That’s wonderful Angeldust, why don’t you go tell the others?” Trixie asked her right eye twitching slightly.

“That’s an excellent idea Trixie; I’ll see you two in formation!” Angeldust said as she bounded away with a happy skip in her step, Trixie shuddered slightly.

“I wouldn’t mind her so much if she wasn’t so peppy.” Trixie said with a grimace “Then again she’s the most powerful mage in the army and a bloodknight besides so I guess that makes up for her being creepy.” Twilight shrugged, in her opinion Angeldust was creepy as hell and no amount of dead enemies would make up for that.

“So what do you know about Commander Stormwing?” Twilight asked her partner as they walked towards the mess hall so that they could get one last good meal before they headed out.

“Well he’s the only Commander that I’ve ever heard of actually beating Commander Star, they both have nearly flawless records and any time they go up against each other victory is a tossup.” Trixie sounded worried Twilight looked at the silver maned unicorn next to her anxiously.

“Should I be overly worried about dying?” Twilight asked as they filed into line behind several others who had decided that now would be a great time to have a good meal.

“No more than usual, don’t worry Twilight we have a bunch of very firm meat shields between us and any incoming danger.” Trixie told Twilight with a grin to show her that she was joking. Several of the troopers around them chuckled to themselves; they’d long ago learned that being called a meat shield was an honor only befitting the staunchest of stallions.

“I know it’s just, it’s my first actual battle I really don’t want to die.” Twilight said in a small voice, Trixie looked at her companion with compassion in her eyes and patted Twilight on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry Twilight you’ll do fine, besides who could possibly kill two of the most powerful mages ever to grace Equestria?” Trixie asked her with a smile.

“Ha I wonder who you’re talking about there sweet cheeks.” Said a black maned pegasus from behind them, Trixie turned to regard the pegasus who was leering at them with a sleazy smile.

“Why if it isn’t True Shooter, how was your latest mission?” Trixie asked keeping her voice neutral.

“Oh you know I bagged myself some griffin women, including one of the generals’ wives. Although I’ve got to say the feathers are annoying, they get everywhere.” True said with a shrug “So who’s the new girl and why haven’t I had the honor of sleeping with her?” The pegasus asked Trixie, Twilight’s horn began to glow but Trixie motioned for her to stop.

“This is Twilight Sparkle our newest battle mage, and my partner.” Trixie said eyeing Twilight protectively, Twilight blushed.

“Oh I see never mind then, although I pegged you for more of a teen dragon girl Trixie.” True said with a smile at this point Twilight felt like sinking into the floor to escape the embarrassment.

“Ohlookwe’reatthefrontoftheline, nicemeetingyoucomeonTrixie!” Twilight said in a rush grabbing Trixie and pulling her towards the chefs who were smirking. After they took their seats Twilight turned to glare at Trixie furiously. “Why in the hell did you do that?” She asked Trixie angrily.

“Would you rather be sexually harassed every time you see him, the only thing that stops him is that he looks down upon messing up relationships.” Trixie told her before taking a bite of her sandwich.

“But we aren’t in one!” Twilight exclaimed angrily “And didn’t he talk about screwing some griffin general’s wife?”

“Sorry what I meant to say is that he doesn’t mess around with his friend’s relationships.” Trixie replied.

“We aren’t in a relationship though!” Twilight told her angrily.

“You know that, I know that, everypony else knows that, but he doesn’t.” Trixie said with a smile, Twilight shook her head in frustration at the pony sitting across from her but bit into the scone instead of replying. The two ate in silence for several minutes till they’d finished and Trixie led Taillight towards the staging ground.

There were ponies everywhere lining up in neat uniform ranks, their crimson armor shined in the sun and their black bladed weapons seemed to cut the air around them. Trixie made for one of the carriages that were ordered in straight rows and nodded to the earth ponies who were attached to it. She received small grins in return and she gestured for Twilight to follow her into it. Twilight looked at the interior of the one that she had ridden in both to and from the Citadel, except this one had three of their six squad member waiting inside. Twilight may have been with the fourth army for a week but the other members of the squad had been on break all week and had only gotten back last night. Twilight had only had the chance to meet each of them for a few minutes but they seemed nice, if very odd, then again considering Twilight’s old friends odd was old news.

“Well I’m glad you two decided to finally show up.” Stardust, a black coated pony said as she pushed her white mane out of her face. Oddly she was Angeldust’s partner, no one really knew if it was a coincidence, or if some strings were pulled to make it a joke. Regardless Stardust was much less peppy then her partner.

“Don’t be mad at them Stardust, I’m sure they were just catching a few quite moments… alone.” Inferno Blaze, a red coated stallion said with a snicker. Twilight glared at him, he just smiled at her, apparently fake news moves fast around the Forth.

“Cool it Blaze, we all know why she’s doing it.” Blaze’s female partner Aqua said shaking her blue mane at him; Blaze rolled his eyes but remained silent.

“So how long do we wait till we move out, and didn’t Angeldust say something about marching?” Twilight asked uncertainly, Blaze chuckled.

“Twilight we’re battle mages, we don’t march anywhere unless we’re in real trouble.” Aqua told her, looking at Twilight with slight bemusement in her sapphire blue eyes.

“Isn’t that unfair?” Twilight asked Stardust shook her head.

“Without us the army would most be destroyed, yes the infantry do most of the actual fighting and the archers are invaluable, but we keep them from being turned into living torches.” Stardust told her seriously, Twilight nodded and thought a little about what Thunderhead had said about mages. ‘Mages are the grease that makes everything work, without us soldiers would die by the thousands in a matter of seconds’.

“Yeah and the infantry know it so they treat us right.” Blaze said as he slid his forehoof around Aqua’s shoulder, she narrowed her eyes at him but let him keep it there.

“Hey there everypony are you as excited about this as I am?” Angeldust asked as she literally jumped into the carriage with a happy grin on her face.

“Yes Angel, I’m sure it’ll be a blast…” Stardust told her partner rolling her eyes.

“I hope not explosions annoy me, too much containment work for me…” Angeldust said sounding uncharacteristically serious “…then again I love fireworks!” Stardust sighed and began to gently hit her head against the side of the carriage as her partner sat down next to her. “You’re so silly Starry; you shouldn’t hit your head against things.” Angeldust said, the light pounding continued for several more seconds. Angeldust frowned before she leaned closer to Stardust and whispered something in her ear, Stardust immediately turned to look at her, one eyebrow raised.

“You better be serious about that.” Stardust told her partner who smiled.

“Of course I’m serious Starry; you know I love it as much as you do.” The honey colored mare replied with a saucy smile, Twilight blushed causing laughter to break out around her.

“Oh man I love the new ones.” Blaze said with an almost evil grin as he looked at Aqua for assessment “They’re so innocent.” Aqua rolled her eyes apparently not as amused by Twilight’s reaction as her coltfriend.

“Like I said Blaze cool it.” Aqua told him as she reached into her pack to get a book out, the carriage suddenly jerked forward.

Twilight looked out the window to and saw that the army had started to move; the sight of fifty thousand armed and armored earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns was enough to take Twilight’s breath away momentarily. The majority of the army was made up of earth ponies who despite they’re lack of magic made up for it with their intense strength and durability. Add to it enchanted crimson colored armor and magical swords whose blades could cut through just about anything and you had a very strong offense or defense capable of fighting enemies many times their own size and strength. They also had that incredible healing factor working for them that Twilight wished she could possess. Massive internal bleeding, millions of cuts, a pierced lung, keep them stable for twenty minutes and their healing factor could fix all of it.

Twilight’s eyes drifted to the pegasi who flew in close ranked formations, although trying to keep track of them in the air was a very difficult task. The pegasi couldn’t bare the weight of the armor that the earth ponies could so they’d decided upon a slightly more, esoteric means of protection. The pegasi armor was blanketed in many layers of magic allowing them to match the sky directly above them, it wasn’t foolproof of course. If you knew what to look for you could see where they were, but to the untrained, impatient, or distracted eye they were effectively invisible. The pegasi acted as scouts, archers, and occasionally weather driven bombers for the armies, although they could hold their own against flyers thanks to the serrated blades that incased their wings. Twilight sighed; watching them flicker in and out of her vision reminded her of Rainbow Dash, the blue pegasus would probably fit in great here.

“You ok Twilight?” Trixie asked her quietly.

“Yeah, I’m just thinking of an old friend.” Twilight replied with a wistful smile. “Now that I think about it, I’m two years ahead of them now.” Twilight said rubbing a tiny tear away from her eye.

“Don’t worry Twilight, they live in Equestria nothing all that terrible ever happens there except for the occasional escape of an eldritch creature that is somehow defeated by love, tolerance, and the rare song.” Trixie replied with a slight grin, the rest of the carriage was looking at them, as if waiting for something. “Piss off.” Trixie told them crossly and they all returned to their own activities except for Blaze.

“You two come from a real sugar bowl don’t you.” He said with a hint of laughter entering his eyes. Trixie rolled her eyes and went back to messing with some minor spell; Twilight’s eyes returned to looking out the window, her gaze fell upon the unicorns.

There were far fewer unicorns in the army than any other type of pony in the army, from what Twilight had learned it was a condition that had affected the country for years nopony knew why but unicorn birth rates had been low since around the time that the plane had been sealed. What they lacked in numbers they made up for with skill and power. The unicorns entered into one of three classes when they enlisted, paladin, war mage, or adapt. Each class fulfilled a different purpose in the armies, war mages were fairly self explanatory, adapts were doctors, surgeons, or scientists, paladins acted as specialized military units they were identified by their silver armor. Stronghoof and Stonewall were paladins and had the honor of guarding Commander Star; others were formed into kill teams who could respond to almost any problem the army encountered.

“So Twilight, are you ready to roast some turkey feathers?” Blaze asked her snapping Twilight’s attention back to the present.

“I’m not sure, I don’t really know what to expect, and Thunderhead never had any griffins for me to fight.” Twilight replied honestly.

“Well I can speak from experience; this isn’t going to be a cakewalk.” Stardust told Twilight with a slightly worried expression.

“Don’t worry Twilight if any of those mean old griffins get to close I’ll turn them into birthday candles!” Angeldust told her with a slightly maniacal smile that caused Twilight to shiver slightly, she reminded Twilight of a crazier version of Pinkie.

“What’s the big deal about the griffins, I thought the fourth was the best army on the planet?” Twilight asked.

“Well we are, but they’re the second best, and their s commander is a genius on the battlefield.” Stardust said with a sigh returning her eyes to the moving countryside.

“Who is it?” Twilight asked.

“Commander Stormwing, he’s one of the toughest commanders in the world, and if the rumors are right he was Commander Star’s old flame.” Aqua said looking up from her book. “Although I’m not sure why she would griffins are…messy to many feathers.”

“Although I remember that one night when…” Blaze was cut off by a glare from Aqua that could have cut through a block of steel. “…I’ll shut up now.” Blaze said in a small voice.

“That would probably be best; we wouldn’t want you sleeping on the couch for a year.” Aqua told him curtly with an icy smile that Twilight thought could have frozen the fires of Tartarus. Then she turned to Twilight “The griffins are ferocious fighters who utilize some of the deadliest spells, weapons, and tactics in the world. Their main infantry are a mix of lightly armored claymore fighters who wield blades as tall as they are which is around twelve feet when they’re standing on their hind talons. The other main type infantry are spear and shield wielders who keep their enemies at a distance while they’re slowly chopped to pieces. Their air warriors are equally impressive combining the speed of pegasi with the around twice the strength of normal earth ponies. Worst of all though are their mages; they use a specialized type of magic that’s very hard to counter unless you’ve been properly trained for it, which means that you Twilight will be tasked with keeping Angel, Stardust, and I alive.” Aqua said pointing at Twilight with a hoof.

“So I don’t get to cast any real spells?” Twilight asked Angeldust shook her head.

“No silly, it means that you have the fun job of roasting any of those mean griffins who get close enough to hurt us. I remember my first time defending, it was super extra exciting, and there was lots of blood everywhere!” Angeldust said her eyes shining with glee; Trixie put a comforting hoof on Twilight’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry Twilight we’ll be fine between the six of us we’re some of the best mages in the army, honestly we should have nothing to worry about besides the occasional flyer who makes it past the pegasi.” Trixie told Twilight, her voice sounded confident but Twilight could tell that her partner was nervous.

“So remind me again when you two are making it official.” Blaze said with a wide grin, Aqua promptly doused him in summoned water and he started to sputter. “Come on Aqua you know it’ll happen just like I do!” Aqua eyed him venomously.
“Could be, could not, either way you being an idiot doesn’t make it happen any faster.” Aqua told him her voice hard. “Now if you’ll stop pressuring the new girl I need to read this book.” Aqua said turning back to her book silencing her coltfriend, who began fiddling with a tiny flame spell that he held in his hoof. They sat in silence for a little while each occupying their minds with something until the silence became too much too take.

“So Twilight I just met you, and I know you probably think I’m crazy, but I want to get to know you, so will you tell us about your old life maybe?” Angeldust said, for some reason the way she asked it made Twilight want to kill her, but the odd urge passed.

“What do you want to know?” Twilight asked uncertain of where she should start.

“How about what you did, did you have a job?” Aqua asked looking up from her book.

“Yes and no, technically I was the librarian of Ponyville…” Twilight began but was cut off by snickers from Blaze, Aqua kicked him. “…But really I was there on research for Princess Celestia.” Twilight told them, Stardust raised an eyebrow.

“You were working directly with a princess, that’s actually pretty impressive.” Stardust told her with a hint of a smile appearing on her face.

“Well Celestia had been training me in magic since I was around eight, being an alicorn and all she was the best teacher for somepony with as much power as me.” Twilight replied with a shrug.

“YOU TRAINED WITH AN ALICORN?” Blaze yelled and the fire in his hoof rushed up to the ceiling of the carriage causing several of the earth ponies pulling their carriage to look at him with varying degrees of annoyance. Blaze blushed slightly surprising Twilight by making his face somehow more read while he snuffed out his flame, the earth ponies shook their heads and went back to ignoring their charges.

“Hmm… I had been wondering why Grand Master Thunderhead himself would take an interest in you, this resolves that.” Aqua said tapping her hoof to her chin in thought. “So if you were apprenticed to a god, why would you leave?”

“Well uh, I was kind of an introverted nerd who preferred books and scrolls to mares or stallions.” The others looked at her a few seconds aghast till Twilight realized what she’d accidentally implied. “Wow, that expression just went somewhere horrible.” Twilight said hiding her face in her hooves to cover the large creeping red blush that was sweeping over her face.

“Don’t worry Twilight, you know I used to have a thing for a certain kind of scroll, then again I doubt your scrolls had any nice centerfolds.” Blaze told her with a cheeky grin.

“No not really, although Celestia did leave some trashy romance novels lying around and those were very entertaining.” Twilight said with a small grin.

“You must have loved the Citadel library almost as much as I did.” Aqua said with a slight smile, Twilight nodded. “So back to the point, you were a light hating book hugger, which still doesn’t explain why you were living in someplace called Ponyville.”
“Well Celestia decided that I needed to make some friends, so she sent my baby dragon Spike and I to Ponyville to prepare a celebration. One thing led to another and I gained friends while we defeated Nightmare Moon and turned her back into Princess Luna.” Twilight told them.

“Who’s Nightmare Moon, she sounds super duper awesome?” Angeldust asked with a grin.

“Not really no, she was an evil spirit who possessed Celestia’s sister Luna and turned her into an evil creature bent on bringing about eternal night and casting the world into darkness forever. My friends and I blasted her with the Elements of Harmony and drove the nightmare out of her. She turned back into Princess Luna and then I stayed in Ponyville to continue my studies on friendship” Twilight told them, everypony but Trixie stared at her.

“You and your friends resanctified an alicorn under possession of a creature from the outside, and then went to study FREINDSHIP!” Blaze exclaimed before he started to smack his head against the side of the carriage.

“Yes, what’s wrong with that?” Twilight asked in confusion.

“The waste of talent!” Blaze exclaimed “By Cosmosmia you should be years ahead of where you are, to be honest you should probably be in charge of this unit! No offense Angeldust.” Blaze told Angeldust who shrugged.

“I agree it’s a waste of talent and if I had the chance to meet this ‘Princess Celestia’ I would rip into her for squandering such potential.” Aqua said with a grimace.

“But I really needed to learn about friendship, without it my friends and could never have defeated Discord!” Twilight replied angrily defending her beloved teacher.

“You defeated Discord! How could you have defeated a being like Discord?” Blaze asked her in shock.

“You know about him?” Twilight asked in astonishment, she received four flat looks.

“Well of course we know about him silly, he was one of Cosmosmia’s most dangerous enemies who routinely destroyed castles with a wave of his paw. From what I’ve heard he also invented chocolate milk!” Angeldust said excitedly, her eyes glowing at the prospect.

“That sounds about right…” Twilight said thinking back to that traumatic day when disharmony had almost won. “…it was close but my friends and I managed to defeat him and incase him in stone.” Twilight told her squadmates who just stared at her.

“How did friendship help you seal away a god?” Stardust asked her uncertainly.

“Well we used the Elements of Harmony.” Twilight said as if it should be obvious, she received blank looks from everypony but Trixie who had returned her gaze out the window.

“And what are the Elements of Harmony?” Stardust asked raising her eyebrow.

“They’re mystical gems created by Celestia and Luna to combat evil, each element corresponds to a certain part of friendship. They are Honesty, Loyalty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, and Magic.” Twilight said easily falling into a lecture mode that she’d developed while training with Thunderhead. “Each Element can be used by one pony that best represents it and it boosts their natural endurance and makes them braver and more dependable. When you bring all six elements and all six bearers together they can conduct a beam of magic that can stop almost anything. The only time that it hasn’t been successful was at my brother’s wedding, the changeling queen beat us to them and we never got to get a shot off. Luckily my brother and his alicorn fiancé were able to blast them with the power of true love.” Twilight finished with a smile, the other four ponies were regarding her with various degrees of shocked silence.

“I call bullshit.” Blaze said “There’s no way, no way in hell that any of what you just told us is true.” Blaze said calmly his eyes meeting Twilight’s steadily.

“But everything I just told you is completely true.” Twilight said holding his gaze.

“And I’m telling you that you’re full of shit!” Blaze exclaimed.

“Want to bet?” Twilight retorted their faces had begun to get closer to one another till they were only a few inches apart, before they could get any farther Angeldust smacked their heads together.

“I don’t know if Twilight here is telling the truth, but if you two keep up like this it’s going to get me killed on the battlefield. And trust me I would definitely haunt the both of you if you let that happen, late at night you’d hear a noise that sounded like far off singing but instead it’d just be me, always me…” Angeldust said her head was cocked to the side as if thinking about being a ghost. “…anyways don’t get me killed.”

“We’ll make sure to remember that Angeldust.” Blaze said rolling his eyes.

“Awesome!” Angeldust said excitedly “Now that we got that out of the way we can all sit and wait till the next part.” Angeldust said with a large grin, the silence that followed was truly something to hear…

***

Twilight looked down at the surrounding landscape from her unit’s perch on the tall perch of the plateau that overlooked the terrain. Stardust was the one who had raised their stone high ground literally pulling it out of the earth with a flick of her horn leaving Twilight in awe of the way the mare manipulated the living stone with such ease. Twilight’s squad was set up in a standard position with Aqua, Stardust and Angeldust sitting in a small circle at the center of the obelisk of stone. Twilight Trixie and Blaze were spread out around them each scanning the skies for singes of enemy approach. The army was spread out along the flat plain that stretched out into the distance, their crimson armor casting a bloody shadow behind them. Twilight’s squad was one of eight, forty eight mages willing to give their lives in order to protect the lives of their fellow soldiers..Standing proud in the very center of her army was Commander Star; Twilight could identify her from the top of the plateau thanks to her distinctive red leather coat that stood out from the silver of her personal guard.

Twilight was snapped out of her observations by the sound of approaching pegasi wings, Twilight turned her head up to see a grey pegasus angling towards her position, a mane of unruly blonde hair fell over the back of her neck. She was dressed in the standard blue armor of the pegasi troops but with the exception of an eye patch that covered her right eye, the eye patch had a little red circle in the center that stood out on the black background. The pegasi alighted next to Twilight with a slight smile on her face; across her back was an enormous bow and strapped to each of her front legs were two sharp looking knives.

“Hi, I’m Deadeye and I’ve been given orders to keep your mages safe from enemy griffins.” The mare said offering Twilight her hoof, Twilight shook it readily but couldn’t help herself from starring at the pagasus she really looked like an older war scarred version of Ditzy Doo. The pegasus sighed and rolled her eye before saying. “Go one ask…” she said it in a voice that spoke of years of dealing with questions about her eye, Twilight smirked.

“I was wondering if you like muffins…” Twilight told the mare who started to laugh hysterically, after five straight minutes the mare pulled out of her laughter and wiped a tear form her eye.

“By Cosmosmia I haven’t laughed like that in years…” She said giving her eye one last wipe. “To answer your question, yes, I love muffins.” Deadeye said with a large smile stretching across her face as she reached into her pack and withdrew a chocolate chip muffin. “How could you have known?” Deadeye asked her around bites of muffin.

“I’ll answer your question if you answer mine.” Twilight said with a grin.

“What’s the question?” Deadeye asked.

“Would your last name by any chance happen to be Doo?” Twilight asked and was rewarded by a gasp of surprise.

“How could you possibly know that, I’ve never told anypony my last name except for Commander Star?” Deadeye’s voice had grown strained and she was obviously preparing for some kind of combat.

“Sorry, I had no idea, I’m from another dimension and you look exactly like a friend of mine!” Twilight said urgently apologizing for any slight; the blonde mare cocked her head to look at Twilight uncertainly.

“There’s a pony who looks exactly like me…well that’s a refreshing change.” Deadeye said with a wry grin.

“Oh?” Twilight asked in confusion.

“I’ll explain more after the battle, let me put it this way, I thought I was the last Doo alive…” Deadeye said with a slight grimace, suddenly any further conversation was cut off by an unfamiliar sound.

The sound was odd, it was like someone was squeezing air out of a bag, but they were somehow able to control it and turn it into a rhythm that set an unexpected fire in Twilight’s heart. Joining the odd sound was the impact of thousands of talented feet impacting against the ground in symmetrical rhythm. The griffin army appeared over the horizon marching quickly in time with the rhythm of the odd instrument that Twilight could now identify as some kind of pipe attached to a bag. The griffin army came to rest a hundred meters from the Fourth, now that they were closer Twilight noted the two distinct types of infantry. One group wore nothing except for a loose kilt of some kind, in their talons they carried huge golden claymores, the other were less odd looking wearing traditional heavy armor and carrying a large shield and spear.

“Wa are ya doin in ma path ya bloody ponies?” Cried out a voice in a strangely accentented male voice, the voice must have been magically magnified because Twilight heard the voice as if it’s speaker was right next to her.

“Preparing to kick your sorry feathered tail you mangy winged kitten!” Twilight heard Commander Star reply once again as if the mare were standing right next to her.

“Ah don’t think so lass, but yer welcome ta try as always!” The first voice replied, several minutes later a large contingent of the griffins wearing the kilts charged towards the front line of earth ponies who as one drew their swords and prepared to meet the enemy rush. They met with a mighty crash as the pipes in the background tore through the air, from what Twilight could tell the earth ponies and griffins were fairly evenly matched but she also knew that this was nothing but both armies testing each other’s strength. Twilight caught glimpses of long claymores sweeping down in glittering arcs resulting occasionally in severed armored heads which rolled away grotesquely. The ponies responded by cutting through the griffins’ chests their black blades shining darkly as ribs cracked and hearts were sliced out. Beside her Deadeye suddenly drew her bow and let fly an arrow that punched through the eye of a griffin who was sweeping down at their position.

“We’ve got company, let’s cook us some turkey!” Blaze yelled as he shot off a stream of fire directly at two griffins who were closing rapidly, the puffs of smoke and the sound of charred bones hitting the ground far below attested to the kill. Twilight’s subconscious took over and her battle sense came awake with an internal roar.

A griffin dropped down from the sky and landed in front of Twilight stalking towards her with predatory precision, a short sword was held in one talon while a round shield was strapped to the other. The griffin charged her but Twilight moved sideways and swept it off the platform with a strong blast of kinetic energy, when the force hit the griffin Twilight heard the satisfactory sound of bones breaking. Two more griffins landed and charged her; Deadeye leapt into the air and shot towards one of the griffins her knives flashing as they stabbed into its stomach tearing intestines aside as if they were paper. The other griffin continued towards her preparing to kill the purple unicorn with a quick stroke of her sword, this notion was expelled from her head along with her brain as Twilight fired a nearby rock through it with a telekinetic blast of force.

Trixie was busy handling a trio of griffins who had deiced to attack her; the blue unicorn closed her eyes before a swarm of lightning bolts from the sky. The griffins dropped immediately their feathers burned black. Blaze was handling eight, the griffins had him surrounded but that didn’t faze him, in fact he had a smirk on his face. One of the griffins ran towards him sword raised, Blaze ducked under the blade and let out a spark of fire that spread along the griffin’s frame. The griffin ran shrieking off the edge of the pillar desperately trying to extinguish the flames. The other griffins sprang foreword to attack the red unicorn but with an almost casual wave of his horn they to erupted into blazing infernos. Twilight and Deadeye stood flank to flank as they repulsed griffins; to Twilight’s embarrassment she had the lowest kill count.

***
The battle shifted and danced around Commander Star as she led her personal guard against a breach in their right flank, griffin soldiers in their traditional kilts carrying their giant claymores leapt out at Commander Star but the red coated commander easily dispatched them with contemptuous cuts of her thin sword. Beside her on an instinctual level she felt Stronghoof and Stonewall killing the griffins with the same ease, and they say it’s hard to find good help these days, she thought to herself with a wry smile touching her lips as Stonewall bisected an enemy with his sword.

Suddenly the battlefield cleared and Stormwing was standing in front of her a large claymore carried lightly in either talon. Stormwing was impressive even for a griffin easily capable of wielding both claymores with a grace and beauty that left most opponents stunned by their beauty, that feeling normally passed very quickly as said opponent’s heads rolled. His black feathers complimented his grey fur very nicely and Commander Star observed his golden eyes observing her with equal intensity looking for changes since their last encounter. Suddenly Stormwing gave her a smile and bowed, shaking her head with an amused smile on her face Commander Star followed suit.

“Commander Stormwing dashing as always I see.” Commander Star told him pleasantly.

“Aye lassie, ah must say that it’s good to see you again.” Stormwing said as he swung his right claymore down towards Commander Star’s head, she laughed lightly and deflected the blow with a simple swing of her thin blade.

“You’ve always had such a nice way of showing it.” Commander Star said with a slight grin as she brought her sword up and delivered a parallel cut straight at the griffin’s stomach which was easily repulsed by one of the claymores.

“If ma memory serves me right that isn’t what ya said last time now was it?” Stormwing asked as he brought one of his claymores down across Commander Star’s back, the red coat turned the blow away easily. “Ya upgraded yer coat ah see.” Stormwing said with a grin.

“After last time I thought it was needed.” Commander Star conceded while expertly slashing a shallow cut across the griffin’s chest. The griffin chuckled through the pain and unleashed a rapid stream of sword blows that struck against Commander Star’s defense like hammer blows. One blow made it through and Commander Star now found herself with yet another cut running down her foreleg. Before their battle could continue a massive storm of golden dust swept down from the pillar of stone where Twilight’s squad had stationed itself and spread through the griffin army assaulting the front ranks of the Fourth. Every griffin that the dust touched found themselves suddenly and painfully bleeding from a thousand cuts that seemed to burn with an internal fire.

“Well lassie I’d say that yer mages just finished off mine, pity I always need more of em.” Stormwing said with a grimace. The dust couldn’t touch him because of the layers of preprepared magic shielding that always surrounded him but he still didn’t appreciate the kind of attention he was receiving from the mage casting the spell who seemed intent on breaking down his barriers. Suddenly a long silvery beam of liquid metal shot from the spire and impacted against the griffin army cutting through even the heaviest armored members as if they were made of cheese.

“If I were you I’d call a general retreat Commander, there’s no point in my mages killing all of your troops.” Commander Star told the griffin with a slight smile, Stormwing puffed out his feathers in annoyance but sighed.

“Aye lassie I believe yer in the right about that.” He took a moment to compose himself before in a magnified voice he yelled. “Boy we’re defeated laddies and as much as ah hate to admit it we’d better get back to home.” A great cry of outrage rose up from the griffins behind him. “Listen lads, if ya want ta be killed terribly by the bloody mages that’s yer fate, I fer one am getting the hell out of here.” As soon as he’d finished speaking a large lake appeared in the middle of the griffins army, the water reacted quickly and with an ominous roar a large wave rose up and crashed down upon the griffins, the water changed colors remarkably quickly. “So lassie when can ah be expecting ta see yer pretty flank again?” Stormwing asked her with a smile; Commander Star silently thanked her adopted mother that the only ones around who were paying attention were Stronghoof and Stonewall.

Their relationship was odd… they’d met at the dragons’ command school, he was the son of a wealthy griffin general who wanted his son to go far, and she was the adopted daughter of one of the strongest beings on the planet. They’d put each other in the infirmary within the first week, from there they became friends and eventually something more…physical. Since then they’d been rivals each recognizing the other to be an equal tactical mind and always giving their all when they were fighting directly or leading their armies against each other. Still when one was forced to retreat the other would always keep their troops from decimating the other side, both out of common curtsy and so that their lover wouldn’t end up dead.
“I was thinking the usual time at the usual place.” Commander star said with a slight smile, Stormwing returned it, gave her a little bow and flew back to his lines to get the retreat started.

“Commander you have the weirdest taste in friends.” Stronghoof told her with a slight smile as he caved in the head of a griffin who hadn’t felt like retreating with his hammer. Stonewall shrugged and sliced through another late retreater his sword cleanly decapitating the griffin.

***
Twilight was bleeding from a cut across her forehead as she blasted another griffin off of the spire with a blast of pure force, Twilight didn’t know why but ever since the battle had started the only spells that she’d had access to were the ones that were either pure force or telekinetic. Trixie appeared to be restricted to lightning while Blaze, well it should be obvious enough. Deadeye was busy slicing open jugulars while she flew around overhead killing griffins with indiscriminate ease. Suddenly Angeldust jumped to her hooves her golden mage cloak billowing in the wind behind her.

“All the enemy mages are dead woohoo!” She cried doing a random back flip for no real reason “Now it’s time to party like it’s raining gold!” Twilight was so surprised by the unexpected sentence that she barely had time to notice that it had in fact started to rain gold. The golden unicorn hopped around merrily as streaks of gold dust cut enemy griffins to bloody ribbons.
Stardust revived a few seconds later looked over at her partner doing flips and sighed in resignation before she started to draw upon the fallen griffin and pony armor. After a few minutes she had enough and she unleashed a rapid stream of liquid metal that slammed into the enemy leaving a bloody silver trail in its wake. Aqua was the last to rise; she looked around her and raised an eyebrow. Blaze was currently lounging on top of a pile of burned bones sending out jets of fire at passing griffins while Angeldust skipped about the tower top laughing madly while flecks of blood covered gold flowed around her in a whirlwind.

Twilight suddenly found herself capable of unleashing more of her magic and felt her inner self chuckle darkly as she sent a torrent of magic towards the griffins not bothering to give it any shape. There were soon no griffins left standing around Twilight although she was worried about the amount of blood that now covered her mages cloak. Trixie was contenting herself with sending concentrated bolts of lightning through enemy griffins’ bodies causing them to dance darkly before they fell from the air. Aqua turned to see Deadeye who had finally run out of energy being attacked by eight griffins who were looking for an easy kill, with a calculated horn gesture Aqua froze the blood in their veins before causing it to explode outward violently.

“Thanks Aqua, I’m kinda tired after defending you all day.” Deadeye told her stretching.

“Sorry about that, there may only have been fifty of them but Stormwing knows how to train good mages.” Aqua said before sending out a dangerous stream of water that contented itself with strangling two griffins who hadn’t yet had the good sense to flee.

“Oh I don’t mind, although I prefer to use my bow…” Deadeye trailed off and reached for her bow, Aqua shrugged it didn’t really matter to her how Deadeye killed the griffins.

***
“So how many did we lose?” Commander Star asked Knight Captain Jenkins her second in command; the orange unicorn ran his hoof through his dark brown mane before answering.

“Ten thousand earth, five thousand air, two mages, and twenty paladins Ma’am.” Jenkins told her clearly, Commander Star nodded in satisfaction all in all those numbers were perfectly acceptable for the scale of the battle.

“And what of the Stormwing’s griffins?” Commander Star asked Jenkins smiled.

“Thirty thousand, it was close up till our mages won with them only suffering around fifteen thousand, but once their mages were defeated there was nothing to stop the slaughter.” Jenkins told her. Inwardly Commander Star winced in sympathy for Stormwing, but she forced a satisfied smile onto her face, Stormwing had been the one to press the border in the first place.

“Excellent, thank you Jenkins you’re dismissed.” Commander Star told her Captain who nodded and let himself out of the campaign tent. Commander Star sighed now came the part she always hated, writing each and every casualty’s family about their family member’s demise.

***
Empress Cosmosmia was just finishing her evening shower when her adopted daughter’s letter reached her, as always the goddess eagerly opened the letter to see what her favorite unicorn had been doing with her time.Maybe she’s finally agreed to be promoted to General Star, or better yet has decided to finally admit to her sexapades with that griffin and she’ll need me to come and council her about. By Faust I need a life… The goddess thought to herself before she started to read the letter.

Dear Mom, otherwise known as Empress Cosmosmia

Today I led my army in battle today against the renowned griffin commander Commander Stormwing. As always the battle was close, in fact all evidence shows that our victory today was thanks to the efforts of our valiant war mages. This in itself leads me to my next subject; you may or may not remember the letter I sent to you two years ago regarding a purple unicorn who was found bedraggled and scared in one of the ruins in the Everlost forest. You may also remember the fact that she claimed to be from another world which I believed perfectly, what I did not believe was her claim that she was the student of one Princess Celestia. Twilight Sparkle returned from her training last week and with her she brought a letter from Grand Master Thunderhead, the letter went into detail regarding the fact that Twilight Sparkle was telling the truth about being the student of this Princess Celestia. I fear that I have erred in my judgment and so I would like you to send a letter to this Princess Celestia to inform her that faithful student is safe and unharmed, along with my personal apology in regards to not including this in my earlier letter.

Your ever loving daughter Commander Blue Star

“Tia is going to kill me…” Cosmosmia said to herself as she hurriedly ran a brush through her damp mane.
The placid red hair suddenly became animated, and turned black while small motes of light swirled and shifted in the unnatural breeze that flowed through it. She looked herself over in the mirror and decided that her red coat was looking very nice while her feathers could go for a good preening later. Satisfied that she was presentable she walked over to her personal guards’ room doorway from behind which she heard several loud moans emitting.

“Can you two finish up, I’m done with my shower?” Cosmosmia called and was rewarded by two surprised gasps.

“We’ll be right with you Empress!” Strings called her voice still full of surprise.
Cosmosmia chuckled; her two personal guards took every opportunity to sneak off with one another, but they were always there when she needed them. Strings emerged from the room first, her gray coat plastered with sweat with and her black mane looking slightly frazzled, she was followed closely by Disk. The unicorn had spiky blue hair that never seemed to be straight. Tied across her eyes was a black bandana with two eyeholes, even Cosmosmia didn’t know why she wore it, but if idle speculation where to believed then it was hiding a mysterious skin disease. Cosmosmia was actually pretty sure that the white unicorn wore it because it made her look cool, but who was she to say.

“So Empress what’s the plan for the rest of the day?” Disk asked casually as she slid her knives into place on the straps running up and down her forelegs.

“Yes I’m curious as well Majesty.” Put in Strings while she slid her duel rapiers into their sheaves on her back.

“Well I’m writing a letter to Princess Celestia of Equestria informing her that I’ve found her faithful student… who was apparently found two years ago…” Cosmosmia told her two guards as she set out for her desk.

“Ouch…” Disk said with a flinch.

“Yes ouch indeed, I hope she doesn’t get to angry.” Strings agreed with a worried look crossing her face.

“Don’t worry Tia’s always been one of the more in control and compassionate of our family, honestly that’s why she got her portion of reality because if Faust had given her this one ponykind would probably be long dead.” Cosmosmia said with a sad grin as she produced an inkwell from her desk and began to write, with any luck only a day should’ve passed in Equestria.

Next Chapter: Chapter 4 Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 45 Minutes