They're Here

Dan's Comments
DISCLAIMER: My Little Pony is the property of Hasbro, Inc., Harry Dresden is the property of Jim Butcher, Carl Kolchak is the property of ABC/Universal Television, Ranma Saotome is the property of Rumiko Takahashi, Sailor Jupiter is the property of Naoko Takeuchi.

Harry had been moved up to a room adjoining the royal court, now reconfigured to a war room. He was using the bastardized device that Patrick had cobbled together to scan the area. Now, not only for changelings, but elves too, he thought as he scanned the areas they had spotted the changelings in before, Or rather their lack. He was finding null zones popping up, blanking him out of seeing anything, even obscuring the natural terrain features. He marked those, transferred that information to Patrick, and scanned on.

He was dimly aware that his nulls were being plotted, and discussed as real targets, or perhaps decoys to saturate the scans. Make sense, he thought and smiled at the respite that came with working with other professionals, Not everything depends on me, I could get to like that. He periodically rescanned the nulls even as he looked in other places.

He took a moment to look around at his surroundings, no one could stare into the crystal skull forever, he had to move and change his focus or the demands of his body would distract him. Patrick slid into the duty immediately, taking up the scans while Harry worked the kinks out.

Carl was off exploring. Ranma was talking with some of the soldier bronicorns, although someone might have taken their `discussion` as a half-speed brawl. The ponies and Makoto were looking over the maps of the region, while the map of the city itself, actually a model, lay on a massive table.

"I wonder if this is accurate enough for sympathetic magic to work on," he said to the scholars who were monitoring it.

"It would be if we incorporated items from the city proper, rather than making it of new material," the chief wizard said and smiled, "You should build one of your hometown, it'll let you monitor the whole place, like little Canterlot lets us, and you wouldn't need five mages to power it."

Harry nodded. That's a good idea, Harry thought, Even Bob would like that. Better than model trains. Something to do in my copious free time.

He sampled from the buffet table. Despite the ponies' constant talk about their excellent food, a plain potato or a mayo on white sandwich from home would be a taste treat beyond imagining compared to pony food.

He returned to the table and took over the scrying duties. Nothing had changed, as Harry scanned the critical points.

"What's that?" Patrick asked as Harry concentrated on a change in one of the null zones.

Harry wasn't sure, but he was detecting more of the nulls changing. "Report!" he ordered.

Patrick began reporting the locations that Harry was locating as they moved.
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Makoto watched the controlled chaos erupt as Harry's message delivered the warning. Makoto had set the sun below the horizon and raised the moon just minutes ago. Armor had raised the shield, and the guard, the militia and all the `academy` wizards were hurrying to their posts.

At the plotting table, the scribes were trying to triangulate the vectors Patrick was reporting to where the defenses of Canterlot needed to be shored up.

They were not having any luck, the position kept moving, and changing.

Ranma jumped up on the map table scattering the T-squares and rulers the map-ponies were wielding. He set a french curve down and drew a line perfectly through the developing vectors. But the line didn't lead to Canterlot.

"Ponyville," Armor breathed as the implications of the troop movement descended on him.

"Of course, the sisters of three Bearers are there," Soldier said, "And the Cakes' kids. Hostages."

Makoto looked up and Patrick was charging over. "I'll get there and wake Spike, they'll get a good reception, but this is only part of the force, a diversion."

"Go, we protect the realm, not just one city," Makoto ordered and turned to Armor, "Drop the shield before he hits in." She turned back, but Patrick was already gone. "Godspeed."

'Every night in my dreams,' Sailor Jupiter sang to herself using the music to cast a spell nopony or -ling would notice, 'I see you, I feel you, that is how I know you go on.'

"Soldier, pick your five best, sally out to meet them," she ordered, unnecessarily, they'd helped with the plan, "Let's see if they are eager for the fight."

The bronicorn collected a somewhat motley collection, while Scholar gathered the ten who would sally as a rescue force if Soldier's troop ran into trouble.

"Signal all commands," Armor told his troops.

Makoto dispatched the note to Bruce and another to Celestia. I actually hope they break it off, or better yet, call a parley, but that's not how things work around here, Makoto considered.
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Spike woke from the most amazing dream of eating all the ruby ice cream he could imagine, he looked up at the night sky and was confused for a moment. The face that he focused on answered all his questions.

"They're after the Cakes and the Crusaders," Patrick told him.

If Spike needed any more to initiate his transformation, he couldn't have imagined what it was. A moment later he was airborne, the size of a hill and more angry than he could imagine.

He glanced over his shoulders and two other dragons took up flanking positions. One so black he was a hole in the night sky, and the other the color of wet ashes. Both nodded to him and let him take the lead as hundreds of changelings spilled out of a hole in the sky.

While the urge to kill them to protect the Crusaders, his friends, and the Cakes' babies, he stifled it and concentrated on Ranma's lessons. His hands flashed out grabbing and slightly crushing the changelings as he yanked them from the sky, crushed their wings and left them wounded but alive to fall to the ground in growing heaps.

The other two dragons kept the changeling from being able to flank him as he drove straight into the thickest of their formation. As quickly as he'd begun, he was done. The few changelings left in the sky were fleeing with the Weather Patrol pegasi and a few guards racing after them. The urge to land and stomp on the icky bugs was nearly overwhelming.

The disappointed faces of Rarity, Twilight and Celestia loomed up in his mind, drawn there by the training he'd undergone. He plummeted through the air, only to land on the back of the gray dragon.

"Well done," the dragon rumbled, "But a swipe at Ponyville was to draw us from Canterlot."

"As long as we can get back here in a hurry," Spike told the dragon.

"We can indeed," the dragon accelerated and they were in the skies of Canterlot, an image of them trailing along behind.
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"Dragons!" Blueblood announced as the three of them formed up. Purple, black and gray.

The swarm over Ponyville was gone, and now the forces which advanced on Canterlot were facing the same force. 'Far across the distance, and spaces between us,' Makoto sang to herself, 'You have come to show you go on.'

Soldier's force separated to let the dragons through, then closed in to give distant escort. The swarm tried to evade and disperse to prevent their falling to the same force that had taken the Ponyville force. It availed them nothing, Spike-dragon simply winnowed through a row, then turned to cut another channel.

"Keep your eyes open," Armor ordered, "This could be a feint to divert our attention."

The watch-ponies grumbled but returned to scanning their own sectors.

Makoto thought of Patrick out there fighting, and Ranma who was searching out Carl, to use his ability to stumble into bad situations to find where the fighting would be the heaviest. More than anything, I want to be out there with them, she thought, But here is where I'm needed.

Why did you assume they would go after the children, Nightmare said, Even I wouldn't do that, despite the stories.

Because I can make myself worse than you for brief moments, Makoto thought, then sang to herself, 'Near, far, wherever you are, I believe that the heart does go on.'
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Celestia had read the report, and had to practically tackle the Bearers to prevent them from charging off to defend their homes and families.

"We must trust our friends to do that for us," she told the Bearers, and signaled Luna and Cadence to step back from the nervous mares, "This is what battle means, we can't do everything. We must do our part, and trust that others can do theirs."

"But Spike -"

"The Cakes -"

"Mah folks -"

"Sweetie Belle -"

"Are safe, thanks to our friends," Celestia said, "We have to be ready to rescue them, after they have rescued our dear ones."

None of the mares were happy about that, but they accepted.

I wish they were accepting on the strength of my arguments, Celestia thought, Instead of 'because Celestia said it'.

The song she'd been half-hearing intruded on her thoughts for a moment. 'Once more you open the door, and you're here in my heart, and my heart will go on and on.'

She acknowledged the sentiment, but thought not being able to charge to the rescue galled worse than the blows that would be received.

"So this is how you feel all the time?" Cadence asked, her concern for Armor obvious on her face.

"Yes, but I must not, or how will ponies grow?" Celestia asked.

Cadence nodded. Not happy with the implications, but understanding them.
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Spike flew through the last of the large formations of changelings. Below, the guards and bronicorns were policing up the fallen. 'Love can touch us one time,' Spike heard in his head, he felt the rage not lessen, but not try to break its bonds, acting as plow horse rather than a wild mare, 'And last for a lifetime, and never let go till we're gone.' That thought stabbed at Spike, and his anger, but for different reasons.

They are ponies, unless they become alicorns, I'll out live them all, he thought, Even Twilight.

While his anger screamed 'They will never take them from me!' it too felt the hopelessness and melancholy that no matter what he did, it might not be enough to keep them.

He signaled to the other two that he was headed back to the castle. He was still a youngster and the fighting while it had been fun, had also been exhausting.

He swooped close to one of the gates, let go of his rage and greed, and dropped to the ground as himself. One of the mares from the nursery was waiting, she waited as he sniffed her, changelings couldn't fool his nose. When he was satisfied, she picked him up in a basket, tucking him in before she flew to the castle proper. Spike was asleep before they arrived.