It was noon when the Rangers of Harmony strolled around the port of Mountania and looked for a ship home. Rachel looked around.
“So Flynn… How many bits have we left?”

“Nothing… We spend the rest of it on the bread you guys now eat.”

Looking to the loafs of bread Rachel, Sam and Tyler were eating, she held Sam’s arm back and shook her head.
“Don’t haste… Chew your meal…”

Lyra shook her head.
“So we’re going to work on the trip home. What’s the big deal?”

Tyler smirked
“Actually I have no problem with working… on…” He suddenly stopped in front of a ship and glared at the bat pony crew.

Flynn chuckled nervously.
“Oh? Seems like the Alisia is still in at anchor! Maybe they’ll…”

Approaching the Alisia with a determined speed, Tyler instantly walked up the planks and approached the First Commander, whose eyes widened as he saw Tyler.
“Y-YOU!!!”

Tyler nodded and grabbed the stallion at the neck.
“I’m requesting permission to come aboard!”

“Well, I-”

“Oh? Granted? Thank you, Will!”

Pushing him aside,Tyler opened the door to the Captain’s cabin with a kick, where Lily looked up, only to gasp at his sight.
“Jones!”

“You! You left me behind in that godforsaken place! I could have been dead! You minx, you come right here!”

Jumping up on her desk, she confronted Tyler and flew up to him, booping her nose at his with a grim face.
“I thought you were dead already! And if we had waited for you to appear magically out of the sand, all these ponies out there might be dead now as well! I had a choice to make and I made it! And who are you to complain? You’re still alive and kicking!”

“No thanks to you… You will compensate me for this!”

Looking at him aghast, she simply began to shake her head.
“What? No, I will not!”

“Oh yes, you are! I need a trip to Equestria and you will bring us there!”

Lily now arched a brow.
“That’s it? Hmmm… What’s in it for me?”

Hearing this caused Tyler to smile and he nodded.
“I still owe you one for that wrecked ship in your point of view, huh? OK… We can talk about that when we’re back.”

With that the Captain thought for a bit.
“And I suppose you don’t have enough bits for the journey home?”

Tyler shook his head.
“No, we’ll have to work for the trip I think… The good news is, however, that these magic storms are over. We took care of their cause.”

That made Lily smile.
“This truly is good news as this makes things for us sailors much easier…” landing now behind her desk again, she calculated a bit. “OK… If these storms are over now, that means the traffic in these shipping lanes will flourish for a bit. It’s an opportunity worthy to be taken. I will send these messages to some privateer ponies and we’ll share some of the profits. I’m fair here, so I’ll say some of your team mates can journey on the ship for free. These other humans are with you, right?” After Tyler’s nod she continued. “OK… Let’s see… I think we can let the mare and this female human go for free, you guys can help us loading and unloading…” After ten minutes of explaining and discussing the conditions, both agreed and the male Rangers got to work while Rachel and Lyra went below deck and tried to make something useful on their own.

Two days later, shortly after sunset, the coast of Equestria was reached. As the Alisia neared the coastline, the Rangers looked at land. Although this was Equestria, the coastline showed burning cities, smoke was everywhere on the horizon. And in the mountains hovered three war citadels, two of them firing at the castle of Canterlot.
“No!” A certain grade of despair was in Tyler’s voice. It visibly hurt him to see Equestria like this.

But the other Rangers held him back so he couldn’t do anything reckless.
“Easy Jones…” Rachel said. “We have to scout the situation first. For the time being, we should do things like we do them in the Corps.”
Turning to Captain Lily, Rachel knelt down. “Captain, I have to ask you of something.”

Arching a brow, the bat pony mare cocked her head.
“Yes? What is it?”

“I need a long-boat…”

* * * * *

Twenty minutes later, they landed on the beach and Tyler sunk down to his knees to kiss the sand.
“I’m home! And God help me, I will slaughter all of them if they harmed the girls.”

Grinko shook the water out of his fur and kept on walking.
“What are you saying, Tyler Jones? In a land of ponies you humans are strangers as I am!”

With that the human looked up to the Masar.
“This has become my home… And now your debt to me is repaid. Return home to your brothers and sisters, who surely wait for their brother.”

But this made Grinko look down to Tyler with a grim expression.
“And because I love them very much I must not dishonor them!” Grinko’s claws now stretched out without turning to the other Rangers, who slowly approached him from behind with a sack. “I will slaughter any of you who try to keep me from my honor!” Lowering the sack, the three Rangers slowly backed away. Now helping Tyler up, the Masar growled. “You are trying to keep me from harm, which is honorable. But this is the price I am willing to pay to repay you. In whatever mess you go now, Tyler Jones… Rest assured that I will stay at your side.”

Tyler nodded at this with a determined smile.
“You truly are something, Grinko. Good to have you with us.”

Rachel now passed both of them.
"Alright… Whatever happened here, it took hold of some major cities. In the north, there are some smoke pillars over Vanhoover. To the south lies Las Pegasus, also burning and Ponyville in the East… I say we’re going to the Everfree Forest, and on its northern edge, we should approach Ponyville unnoticed.”

Sam nodded.
“When we’re in the Everfree, we could get to Zecora and ask what exactly happened.”

Tyler looked at the smoke pillars in the distance.
“What about the others? Why aren’t we-”

Rachel now grabbed Tyler and shook him a bit.
“Get a hold of yourself, Ponyfucker! We all know you’re worried sick for your girls, but you won’t do them any good storming at the gates with nothing but your clothes! You said yourself on the way here that you used up all your battle magic and Lyra here can only do so much with her magic knowledge.” With a heavy gulp, Tyler nodded while looking into Rachel’s face and she comradely slapped him. “We’ll fix that! OK, Jones?”

Huffing now, Tyler went along with them. Sam arched a brow and smirked.
“That was actually pretty good, Rachel.”

“What do you mean, Sam? He’s an asshole, but he certainly doesn’t deserve to die in haste. I lost comrades that way…”

While entering the Everfree half an hour later, the group looked around quite careful. All seemed a bit tense due to the eerie environment, but Grinko seemed to enjoy it.
“Ahhh… What a wonderful place! The air is wet as is the ground. The smell of prey and predator lies within these woods!”

Flynn grinned.
“Glad you have a great time. But where does she live anyway?”
Tyler pointed a direction. “It’s a bit dark, but from what I can remember, her hut should be that way.”

Three minutes later it knocked on Zecora’s door and the humans entered carefully. Looking from her cauldron, the zebra began to smile.

“The time of worry finally ends…
You are balm to my eyes, my human friends!”

But as soon as the zebra spotted Grinko, she became furious.

“Tyler Jones, have you gone mad,
To bring to my hut this killer cat?”

Fetching a spear, Zecora now went after Grinko.

“Out! Out! And don’t come near!
A Masar is not welcome here!”

Tyler held the spear in midair, just inches before it reached Grinko.
“Grinko, please leave the tree hut, Zecora isn’t pleased to see your kind around.”

Growling a bit, the Masar nodded.
“That much I understood… I will comply for the sake of peace.”

As he left the hut and closed the door, Tyler looked at Zecora.
“As much as I respect and honor your ways, Zecora… Maybe you could have let me explain a bit before.” But the zebra frowned deeply.

“No talk about this cat anymore!
Or you will find yourself outside at the door!”

Tyler sighed.
“Fine, fine… I’ll stop. Just… tell me what happened in our absence. How could things go THAT wrong?” Zecora nodded and went over to her cauldron, threw in some herbs and roots into the boiling water and slowly begin to stir it. As the Rangers peeked into the cauldron, they saw vague pictures as the zebra began to explain

“I was fetching herbs for my daily feast,
When thunder sounded from the coast of east.
In wonder I went to Ponyville,
But the sound of fighting caused me to hold still.
So I approached the edge of the wood,
But what I saw was all but good.
Three fortresses to oppress the land,
Imply that this was well prepared and planned.
With Ponyville under hostile siege,
Our friend Twilight was outside my reach.”

Looking over to a corner of the hut Zecora smiled.

“But Twilight’s magic had sent Spike to me,
To store away a remedy.
When I returned home, he was already here
Holding a vial close so very dear.”

Tyler now looked to the little dragon, which was sleeping in a basket of feathers. He could see that the baby dragon was rolled together like a frightened child; maybe this whole situation was a bit much for Spike.
“A remedy you say? In a vial? What is it?”

“A vial of blood red as good wine
Was what Spike brought to this hut of mine.”

Taking the vial of blood into his hand, Tyler carefully inspected it.
“Curious! It’s charged with magic. I wonder what she stored in it…” Zecora now shrugged before pointing a hoof at Tyler.

“What’s in this blood I cannot say,
But surely Twilight thought of a way.
To aid you and the Rangers here
To rescue what we all hold dear.”

Rachel now woke up Spike.
“Hey, little one… Come on! Wakey-wakey…”

As Spike opened his eyes, he jumped up as he saw the Rangers.
“Wah! Tyler! You have to come! These Descendant guys are in Ponyville and-”

Calming the little dragon down the Rangers raised their hands.
“Easy, champ…” Tyler said. “We all know that by now… We need to think of something that can bring Ponyville back into our hands.”

Spike now pointed at the vial in Tyler’s hand.
“That’s why Twilight teleported me to Zecora! She said she had something worked out to give you guys some help.”

Sam nodded.
“Do you know what’s in this blood?”

Spike looked up to the vial, but reluctantly shrugged and shook his head.
“No… But she said I was to remain at Zecora’s place until you guys show up. She made that a very important order.”

Flynn looked at the others. “Maybe she expected the others to be captured in a way… Then Spike would be the only one to deliver us the aid she deemed helpful to get them free again.”

Tyler now looked at the glittering blood in the vial.
“Well… Since I don’t have a syringe with me… there’s only one way to get this stuff into me.” With that he uncorked the vial and downed the blood with two hasty gulps, only to grimace at this. The iron taste of copper mixed with a prickling feeling of soda on his tongue. Was that the feeling of magic? But as soon as Tyler had drunk the blood, his eyes popped open as he realized the kind of spell Twilight had sent him. “Oh, Twilight, you are a genius!” Turning at the baby dragon now, he raised his hand towards Spike. “Sorry, Romeo… But your cute little days are over for the time being. What Ponyville needs now is another Spike… Step outside the door.”

The little dragon wasn’t excited over this news.
“What? Me? But I… Uaaaahhhh!” With that he tried to escape to the front door, ran outside as a shot of magic hit him from behind and caused him to fall down. “Owww….”

As the Rangers approached Spike, Tyler shook his head.
“Sorry, Spike… But I didn’t tell you to run.”

But nothing yet happened. Flynn looked over to Tyler.
“What was this spell anyway? A dud? I mean nothing happens to… the… small… fel-” His sentence never ended as Spike began to grow into something massive and grew tremendously until his shadow was cast down to the Rangers and the hut.

A fierce roar now went through the Everfree Forest. The roar was loud enough to let the Descendants in Ponyville look up.
“What in Tacitus’ name was that?” When Twilight heard the roar in the distance, her eyes began to sparkle again and it gave her new strength to fight the fatigue she was currently under. For several days now the Descendant tried to break through her force field, but the librarian’s magic was stronger than theirs. Now, with this roar in the distance, the fighting spirit once more returned to the librarian and the fluctuating force field gained new strength. Just a bit more… she thought. Just a bit more and they’re back!

And then it arose from the woods. A gigantic dragon beast in purple and green, 100 foot tall with massive scales approached Ponyville. The muscular body of the bipedal dragon pushed the trees away, breaking them apart like matches.
The Descendants looked up in awe as they saw the dragon approaching. “Oh you have to be bucking kidding me…” Another Descendant looked on the rifle in his magic grip. “We… We need bigger weapons… Uh… Uh… SIEGE WEAPONS! ATTACK!!!” As the gigantic Spike approached the outskirts of Ponyville, the stomps and steps he took shook the ground and signalized everypony that another wave of dragon rampage was about to hit the town.

Rachel, hanging around at one of the many horns and spikes just behind the gigantic jaws saw the careful steps the dragon took in order to harm Ponyville not more than needed. Seeing this, she shook her head. “Don’t hesitate! Just imagine what horrible things they could do to Rarity…” As her words reached his mind, the giant dragon opened his eyes wide. Somewhere deep within the beast the baby dragon remembered that his friends were in dire distress. Looking over to the fluctuating force field around the library before shaking his head, he roared in rage.

Tyler, who held himself on top of Spikes giant head, nodded down to Rachel.
“I agree with you, Spikezilla! Time to get these guys away from Rarity and the others! Sick ‘em, boy!” Trampling over some barricades, the carriages and boxes with military supplies on the ground were tossed aside like toys.

That was the moment when the command came.
“FIRE!!!” Heavy stones were hauled from wooden trebuchets at the dragon and several large arrows were shot from ballista. But the arrows only stuck in the hardened scales of the dragon and the stones only had the effect of slapping the head to the side, enraging the dragon even further. As Spike roared at the siege weapons, the Descendants on them almost froze in fear. “Oh buck…” With quick jumps they galloped away before the fiery stream of dragon breath took care of the siege weapons and burned them to ashes. Now within the city limits, Flynn and Grinko jumped off from Spike’s tail and began to fight on the ground.

Some unicorns fired their magic at Spike, but the bolts bounced off the sturdy scales. But Spike only stomped once and the pressure wave as well as the quake were enough to bring the unicorns to the ground and sent their ears ringing. Gritting his teeth, one of the Descendants looked up to the large beast.
“Fall back! EVERYPONY FALL BACK!!! PONYVILLE IS LOST!!! IF WE STAY HERE, THAT BEAST WILL FEAST ON EVERY ONE OF US!!!”

Now in full retreat, the still standing Descendants tried to flee the small village, only to be hunted down by Grinko and Flynn, who knocked out the majority of them. Grinko, who was tempted to kill each of these enemies, held back as Tyler’s one and only command for the Masar still lingered in his mind.

These were Tyler’s words. Although he wasn’t making any solid promises, he let the possibility open. And this was what intrigued the Masar right now. Tyler was a most interesting warrior and deserved further study. Now Grinko and Flynn tied up all the Descendants.
Tipping his claw at the chest of one of the Descendants, Grinko bared his fangs.
“You there… You look stringy… but tasty all the while…” His tongue now slid over his bare teeth.

Tying up another pony, Flynn looked over to Grinko with a big grin.
“No Grinko… We won’t eat them… Not yet that is…”

“Not yet? Oh, alright…” Grinko said reluctantly.

“Yeah… You guys still have time to decide whether you liked to be served with ketchup or mayonnaise.” It was in this moment when one of the captured Descendants fainted in fear. Roaring in triumph, the dragon reared up again before he embraced the force field with his entire body, shielding it with his body from further harm. Growling, Spike came to a complete halt and watched as Tyler jumped off and Rachel secured the place before the library.

Breaking through the force field with some effort, Tyler kicked open the library door.
“AJ! Twilight! Girls, are you all alright?!?” As he stormed into the library, the others looked at him.

Twilight rose up, looking tired with tears in her eyes.
“Tyler!!!” As she jumped at him, he caught her in midair and pressed his lips on hers. In an instant, she backed off and stuck her tongue out. “Ewww….”

Tyler looked at his herd mate, aghast.
“Ewww? I kiss you and you say Ewww?"

“I’ve never kissed you with a beard before! And you smell like you haven’t bathed in days!”

Pointing outside he shook his head.
“I… Well! After sea fights and crossing a desert, what almost killed me, held prison in a Changeling hive for some hours, freeing a Masar, escaping said hive and destroying a war citadel, not speaking of the humanoid Changeling that almost killed all of us, I come back here, only to find Equestria taken over by the Descendants and you talk about my personal hygiene? I mean… Really? What in God’s name had happened in our absence?”

Twilight looked out of the window.
“It happened a few days after the rest of you Rangers left. They waited until Rainbow Dash was at the Wonderbolt Academy again. They attacked at night, when most ponies were sleeping. With the Wonderbolt Academy taken hostage, the air supremacy was theirs in an instant. The other two citadels are bombarding Canterlot, holding both princesses in place. And then the incursions began. We were simply overrun from the inside. The royal guard had heavy losses. At least I think so. Smoke over every major city. Manehattan, Baltimare, Las Pegasus, Cloudsdale… With Canterlot under lockdown, there even is no way for calling help from the Crystal Empire.”

Applejack now hugged Tyler as well, not minding the smell of sweat on him. The kiss only made her chuckle.
“Twilight’s right with one thing: That beard tickles!”

Tickling her ear a bit, Tyler nodded.
“I’ll get a shave and a shower once we’ve cleaned up this mess here. Deal?” All three herd mates now agreed with a nod.

Sam now came back in with Lyra.
“Ponyville has been secured. Flynn tied these guys up really good and Rachel and Grinko keep an eye out on them as well as guarding the city limits. Some Pegasi are helping them with that.

Stepping outside, Twilight looked up to Spike, who still embraced the force field like it was his most precious hoard treasure. Embracing the gigantic snout with both her front hooves, Twilight nuzzled him. A feeling of pride filled her now as she stepped back a bit.
“Alright, Spike! Well done!” Zapping the giant dragon now with another spell, she undid the growth spell and Spike shrunk back to his former size, only to be surrounded by Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, who praised him.

Tyler looked towards Canterlot. Still the shield dome around it was under bombardment, a sight that equally angered and frightened him. Inside there were Celestia and Luna and needed help.
“We need to do something about this! But without the certainty about the other-”

He was interrupted by an earth pony stallion and a Pegasus mare who approached the village from the north.
“Excuse me? This IS Ponyville, right?”

Tyler arched a brow.
“Depends… Who wants to know?”

The stallion nodded.
“Oh yes, of course! I’m Thunder Plain, Manehattan resistance.”

“I’m Blazing Wind, representative of both Las Pegasus and Cloudsdale Resistance.” Said the Pegasus mare.

Tyler’s eyes widened.
“Resistance?”

Thunder Plain nodded.
“You see, when the Royal Guard couldn’t hold the Descendants off, the reservists of the old Changeling militia watch took arms and came to their aid. Currently the remnants of the Descendants that we kicked out of our cities have fled towards Canterlot.”

Blazing Wind also nodded with a smile.
"We have information that according to our Changeling militia watch ponies in all Equestria came to the aid of the loyal members of the guard.”

Rachel chuckled.
“To think that these Changelings did something to save Equestria from being overthrown…”

This made Tyler smirk. Shiria would hate this thought.
“They may have failed to overcome the other cities, but Canterlot still is under heavy siege. They want to take it at all costs… These three war citadels are proof to it.”

Flynn now nodded.
“If I understand it correctly, two of them are bombarding Canterlot and one is holding the Wonderbolt Academy hostage? And Rainbow Dash was in the Academy at that time? Clever… Not only does this grant them air supremacy, they also separated the Elements of Harmony!”

Twilight gave this a reluctant nod.
“That’s right. If only one Element is missing, we can’t combine our powers.”

Tyler’s face grew grim at these words.
“Alright folks… No fucking Descendant takes over this place on my watch! These bastards aren’t just vile brutes; they also have an unnerving amount of wit, intelligence and worst of all: patience.” He then looked down to Twilight. “You look like you haven’t slept in a while. Take a nap, honey, I’ll need you and your strength in the impending battle.” As she received a kiss on her forehead, his herdmate nodded with a tired smile and returned to the library and to her waiting bed. With the Rangers as Ponyville’s guardians now, the Elements of Harmony finally had the chance to get some well-deserved rest.

Tyler went over to Applejack and the other members of the Apple family.
“I haven’t looked at Sweet Apple Acres yet, but the barn and the farm house both seem fine from what I could see.” Leaning over the cradle, he looked at his daughter. Appleseed was sleeping safe and sound despite the entire ruckus that had happened outside. Seeing his daughter alive and well prompted Tyler to grab Applejack’s cheeks once more, only to place another deep kiss on her lips. “I’m glad you decided against holding the farm against the Descendants on your own, honey.”

Applejack grinned.
“Well, Ah’m not a fool, ya know? Farm houses and barns can be rebuild, trees can be replanted. But all is for the family…”

Granny now smiled at the two of them.
“Ya two also get some rest. Ya seem tired as well.”

* * * * *

In the morning Rachel stood on a crate and tried to persuade the ponies to follow the Rangers.
“We are looking for volunteers now to fight the Descendants! We have a plan, but it will still be dangerous.” Although the ponies came to hear her out, they all hesitated. The mentioning of danger spooked the most of them and as some of them began to trot away, Rachel shook her head. “No pony? Not one of you? I don’t believe this! You all prospered under the princesses’ reign. And you saw what awaits you under the Descendants! How can you not fight in order to keep the princesses as your diarchs?”

It was in this moment when Tyler’s hand rested on Rachel’s shoulder.
“It’s no use, Rachel… Just look at them! They’re scared as we would be when this would happen in our world and we wouldn’t have these powers. The princesses were the ones who always protected them from harm, now they’re on their own.” He now looked at all the ponies gathered together. “We might get this land back, folks… But for this we need the help of each and every pony of Equestria!”

A murmur went through the crowd as the ponies were visibly uncertain whether or not to take this risk. But all of a sudden, Grinko’s roar sounded off from one of the roofs.
“Ponies of a foreign land! Look at me! My name is Grinko derka Khass’ra!” He then pointed at Tyler. “I stand united with this man until my debt to him is repaid! And by the blood in my veins I swore… I shall fight with him to honor those I love at home! Fight for those you love! Fight for your princesses to repay them for all these many years they guarded and guided you!” Tyler looked at Grinko with a smile. It was a good speech, but there was no guarantee that the ponies would think so as well. Right now the eyes of all ponies wandered from Grinko back to Tyler and Rachel.

Among the many silent ponies, one hoof now stretched out. One gray stallion with clover leaves as cutie mark looked up and nodded.
“I go with you, Rangers…”

Mere seconds later, a mare nodded as well.
“My bow will aim for you as well, good sir!”

More voices emitted from the crowd.
“I offer all my bravery!”

“They’re right! We toss those goons out of our beloved Canterlot!” In a matter of minutes, the ponies all enlisted for the march towards Canterlot.

An hour later the Harmony Rangers and Elements of Harmony stood together around a table. Twilight smiled as she brought good news.
“Hearing that you guys returned and are up to fight the Descendants has brought a positive effect to every city. We get news from all Resistance groups that the cities were secured and are ready for our plan.” Showing the cities on the map, she then pointed her hoof down on Ponyville. “Well… We have all the ponies we need for the march on the capital… But…” Twilight looked up from the map to Tyler. There was heavy concern in her face. “The Descendants have muskets and pistols; we have melee weaponry and only a hoof full of weapons. If we approach them head on, lots of ponies will lose their lives!”

Tyler nodded and looked onto the map.
“I have an idea how to disarm their weapons… or rather how to let them waste almost all of their ammunition.”

“How?”

Looking over to the other Rangers, Tyler pointed at Sam.
“Sam? How fast could you scribble the blueprints for one complete knight armor together?”

Scratching his head, Sam shrugged.
“Uh… About half an hour? We are talking about scribbles, not artwork, right?”

With a short nod, Tyler turned to the unicorns.
“Scribbles are fine. Twilight! You and Rarity, can you craft together whatever Sam is scribbling?”

Twilight looked over to Rarity and the seamstress shrugged.
"NORMALLY I prefer softer materials than metal plates, Darling, but I could work the scribbles out to make it fit.” She shuddered a bit. “Functional clothing… Yuck!”

Twilight nodded and looked up to Tyler.
“I could help Rarity to assemble the armor… But what is your plan, Tyler? Metal plates won’t stop bullets from being lethal…”

Tyler rewarded Twilight with a smirk.
“Don’t worry about that now, my love… Next question: If you two have this one armor together, could you duplicate it around… two hundred times?”

“TWO HUNDRED TIMES?!?” Recollecting herself, Twilight looked around. “Spike? Spike!!! Go search in the library and find me all spells that could work for this! I will see to them for myself later.” Saluting briefly, the little dragon dashed back to the library.

Tyler then turned to Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.
“As for you two: You help Twilight and Rarity in every way you can! Fetch them needed materials, help them if they need a pause, such things…”

Applejack now raised her head.
“What do Ah do, Sugarcube?”

"First off, get all the fillies, colts and foals to Cherilee and Granny Smith. Second, you and Big Mac will look at the farm for every piece of tool one could use as a weapon. Also fetch your Apple Cannon and your Hydrakiller. I want you two prepared for the worst.”

The farm mare nodded with determination.
“We’ll do that! Come on, big brother! We have stuff to do!” Everyone now followed his part of the plan and the Rangers looked at each other.

Rachel whistled a bit.
“If that works, you bring them the idea of unmanned drones, you know that?”

Tyler sighed.
“Fortunately these ponies tend to forget these stressful times quite fast once peace comes back. I just hope that this doesn’t leave too much of an impression…”

* * * * *

In the evening, Twilight called for Tyler’s presence behind the Carousel Boutique, where an improvised warehouse, nothing more than a large tent was built up in haste. As he entered the tent, both unicorns came from behind a veil.
“It’s getting dark, now’s the time to attack. How far have the preparations, girls?”

While Twilight’s horn was glowing red from all the magic, her mane as well as the mane of Rarity was messed up from all the tedious work.
“You are more than lucky I found this spell, but it’s limited to 12 hours…” With that she unveiled her result Here! 126 human armors in weapons are all I managed to reproduce in such a short time… What you intend to do with them is beyond me… We have four humans, You can’t each wear 31 of these armors.”

“These armors aren’t for us, Twilight. They are for you, the Element of Magic!”

“For me?” Now Twilight was even more confused.

“Yes… I give to you a lifeless army you can move to your own free will to come to the aid of your mentor and herd mate.”

“Tyler! If you think I could make these armors alive like Princess Luna awoke these toy spiders during her first nightmare night, you are sadly mistaken. That’s alicorn magic!”

Shaking his head, Tyler patted her shoulder. “No, you dummy… These armors are simple hollow shells… Puppets! And you, Twilight… you will be the puppeteer…”

Twilight’s eyes widened as she understood his plan now and looked at the armors with a smirk.
“I see… Yes, I should be able to do that…”

That said, Twilight charged her horn and let her magic work. And while the magic moved through the hundreds of armors, nothing really happened at first. Pinkie Pie arched a brow.
“Heeeyyy… it’s not wormph-” in an instant, Fluttershy and Applejack held her mouth shut, shaking their heads to signal the pink mare to have a little more patience.

Then, shortly after that, drums were suddenly played, shortly before fanfares began to play on their own. The banner of Equestria was raised and began to levitate in front of the armors. Rarity beamed up as she saw the armors draw their swords.
“Wa-ha-HA!!! That’s more like it: Human chivalry!” After taking their first steps forward, the armors now marched outside and Twilight kept an eye out for each of the armors so none of them would march astray. Her horn quickly supercharged and she wasn’t sure if the magic struggle wouldn’t be too much for her, but right now this was their only chance to regain Equestria.

Near Canterlot, a Descendant came hastily into the tent of his commander.
“Commander Belram, sir! Before the small groups of the Equestrian resistance army marches another army. Sir, it’s a human army!”

Hearing this prompted the commander to widen his eyes.
“A human army? But there are only four humans! How…” Then the idea sprang to his mind. “Tyler Jones! No doubt he’s behind all this! In his absence he brought more humans to our world! Alright! Send this message to Commander Dunatran: He shall make sure that all these humans die! And defeat that pesky resistance groups!”

As the messenger arrived with the note, Commander Dunatran simply sneered.
“A human army? Pah! Let them come! We’re prepared for them! We no longer use magic to combat humans! Our rifles will bring them all a swift and decisive death.”

Lining up in formation at the slopes of Canterlot, the armors, visor all pulled down, raised their shields and swords and kept their discipline as Twilight controlled them. Fluttershy patted Twilight’s shoulder and wiped the sweat from unicorn’s forehead.
“Just a bit more, Twilight… How are you feeling?”

Another drop of sweat rolled down Twilight’s forehead.
“I’m OK. It’s just… Controlling so many armors needs full concentration.”

Both Fluttershy and Rarity looked over to Pinkie Pie, who simply shrugged.
“What?”

Standing next to Twilight, Tyler looked down to her, his smile showing how glad he was to be at her side in this very moment.
“I promise you, once this is over, I’ll take care of all your errands for one week. OK?” Twilight peeked over to Tyler for one fraction of a second and smiled, before she concentrated on the armors. Looking over the fields Tyler then nodded as he raised his own sword. “Sound the advance!” With another spell of the unicorn, three armors raised the fanfares in order to signal the advance and the army of armors began to march against the enemy. Behind the 126 armors, the Equestrian resistance followed the slow moving train in safe distance. In an unprecedented march all of Equestria marched up the railroad tracks towards Canterlot. Now lighting their torches, the Descendants could see the incredible amount of hundreds of thousands of ponies marching towards the capital.

Commander Dunatran gritted his teeth.
“I see they’re coming. And Tacitus be my witness, they seem to have brought all of Equestria into the battle. Well by the time they reach us, they will have more holes in their bodies than a Changeling! Get ready! For Tacitus’ glory!” Animated by their battle cry, several dozens of Descendants jumped into the entrenchments, others used a crate or a barrel as makeshift cover and some hid in the bushes.

Some of the Descendants already gulped.
“So many humans… It’s gotta be some kind of trick!”

But already their comrades looked grim to them.
“Yeah right… One hell of a trick! You dumb mule! Like what? These Pinkie clones? Even when they cloned one of them, we will kill all these guys in the armors!”

But the commander narrowed his eyes with determination. Whatever the cause for these new humans was, the Descendants would be the end of it this time.
“Aim!” While some of the Descendants aimed for the hearts, some aimed for the legs and others aimed for the heads. Only the sound of clanking metal echoed over the foggy fields, making the ponies gulp. The train came to a halt at the end of one of the many tunnels tunnel and the armors alone marched on. Tyler made sure that these armors had to be alone for the plan to work and the metallic echo of the march became audible for the Descendants.

Then the order finally came.
“Fire!” A barrage of bullets hailed down into the army of armors, but the lifeless objects only marched on. This visibly unnerved the Descendants. Frightened glances were exchanged, before their commander raised his voice again. “FIRE!!!” Another hail of bullets turned the armors to Swiss cheese, yet still they marched on. Step for step the armors approached the Descendants, without fear and without mercy. Terror was in the eyes of the soldiers as the enemy just kept coming. Flynn smirked through the binoculars for a moment and whispered something into Twilight’s ear, making the mare giggle a bit. After another short spell the armors began to get red glowing eyes within their visors, making them look even more frightening as they marched almost unharmed through the barrage of bullets.

Then suddenly, one of the armors pulled off one of its boots and emptied the bullets from it. In awe, one of the Descendants slowly approached the armor, not believing what he was seeing. There was no leg that this boot could protect in the first place. As the pony was close enough, the armor took the boot and whacked the pony’s head with it, causing the stallion to hold his head in pain.

Another earth pony stallion rammed his sword into one of the armors, only to repeat the attack as no visible effect came to be. Why was there no blood oozing out of this body? But suddenly the metallic hand took hold of the sword stuck in the armor while the other hand bitchslapped the stallion, what made him run away.
“W-WITCHCRAFT!!!”

A unicorn mare charged her horn and caused an explosion, ripping apart one of the armors. Satisfied with the result, she nodded. But her satisfaction turned into fear as the armor reassembled itself into a grotesque form with arms for legs, a boot for a head and the helmet for a hand. Yelling for her mommy, she began her escape.

Another unicorn Descendant roared in anger as he levitated two rifles up and reloaded one while firing with the other. But one of the armors walked up to him and took both rifles, only to break them over the knee. Stemming both gloves into the waist, the armor bend over to the pony, and the helmet took off and slammed onto the Descendant’s head.

When one Descendant stormed into the tent of the Commander, the Commander simply rolled his eyes about the ongoing annoyance.
”Commander Belram, sir!”

“Yes, yes… What is it? Has Commander Dunatran taken care of these human soldiers already?”

But the Descendant stammered.
“S-sir, you… you have to see for yourself!”

Rolling his eyes, Belram left the tent, only to widen his eyes at the sight before him.
“Well, what do I have to… see…? What in the Tacitus’ name…?”

The Descendants who were under the command of Dunatran were chased towards the fortified entrenchments near the city limits by several armors.
“AND I TOLD YOU IT WAS A TRICK!!!” One of them shouted.

One yellow mare was crying as one of the armors spanked her flank red, ignoring her pleads for mercy, a stallion was carried in his own armor while being kicked into the butt several times, yet another one was stuck with one of the helmets as two armors drummed on the helmet. It was bedlam and the enemy was making complete and utter fools of the Descendants and behind these humans in armors waited even more pony armies to battle the Descendants.
“Retreat! Back to the city! BACK TO THE CITY!!!” Behind the train, which now got in motion again, the ponies of the Resistance cheered and looked up to the citadels. It was in this moment that one flare was fired up into the sky.

Seeing the signal from a hatch, Flynn nodded and looked over to another white unicorn mare. While the armors and ponies marched on the ground, Tyler had brought the two of them up to the citadel over the Wonderbolt Academy. “Awesome! Seems like the guys on the ground kick these Descendant’s asses! Come on, dude! Bring these orbs with you that you human guys prepared.”

Looking back to the hatch, Flynn arched a brow.
“Uh… Maybe this is the wrong point of time, but how are we supposed to go back down once we’re done here? If this works, this citadel will be toast!”

“Nah, man… it’s cool! Two Pegasi are waiting outside of the hatch. They carry us down.”

“Well, if you say soummph!” Just as he looked forward again, his face bumped in-between her hind-legs. There was a feeling of something soft and warm around his nose for a second as his face was buried within her butt cheeks. “S-sorry!”

Looking back over her shoulder, she slowly took down her DJ glasses and arched a brow.
“Dude, not now, OK? This is not the time for making out! You do that again and I kick your face! Got it? Vinyl Scratch is not an easy mare!”

Blushing deeply, Flynn silently nodded. Why do these things keep happening to me? Climbing out of a ventilation shaft, both of them looked around. Flynn held the mare back.
“If I’m correct, the engine room should be that way…”

On the way to the engine room they stumbled over a guard, but Flynn reacted fast and threw one orb at the pony with a grinning “Peekaboo!” on his lips.

“What the…?” Like before, the Descendant tried his best to catch the orb, but this time, the pony failed and the orb shattered on the ground, resulting in a bright flash and a barrage of sonic waves knocking him out.

Flynn arched a brow and grimaced a bit in awe.
“Cool! What is charged in these orbs?”

“Oh, nothing special, just some magic for my bass cannon!” As Flynn looked at Vinyl, the DJ simply grinned wide and nodded.
“Ok… But we better get going, the loud sound of that thing might attract more of these goons.” Mere three minutes later, both of them ran towards the hatch and jumped out. Flynn first yelled out in fear, but the two Pegasi caught the two of them and carried them down safely.

But the Pegasi weren’t the strongest ones and dropped them in midair, so Flynn and Vinyl landed in front of the others in a bush. Vinyl was cracking up in laughter.
“Dude! That was actually quite funny!”

Flynn got up and forced out a smile.
“Yeah… Stay with dropping the bass instead of dropping the human. I prefer to fly for myself, then I can blame myself for the landing….”

Tyler and the others ran to them.
“Flynn! And? Did it wo-” In that moment, the citadel detonated in half and a group of sonic waves obliterated the cut in half fortress from inside.

Vinyl grinned widely at this.
“Duuuude! Destroy it with wubs! Yeah!!!”

Tyler chuckled a bit at this comment.
“Well, at least you got a new idea for your next remix, Vinyl...”

Once the citadel over the Academy was destroyed, the shield dome over it crumbled together and Spitfire turned around.
“I want to see every wing of this Academy in the air! NOW!!!” Within seconds, hundreds of Pegasi prepared their liftoff and grouped together in their wings.

As she went into her office, one of her co-instructors arched a brow.
“Ma’am? What are you doing?”

Spitfire only smirked as she stepped into her suit.
“I am a Wonderbolt, Sergeant… Me and the boys… We have to fly in this battle! Besides… With all these rookies we need some coordination up there, don’t we?” Squadron after squadron now ascended into the air as the whole academy came to the aid of Canterlot.

After searching her friends for a while among the many, many ponies, Rainbow now landed between the other Elements of Harmony and gave each of them a big hug.
“Folks! I’m so glad to see you! I almost gave up hope to meet you all again! So… Do we unite our elements against these things?”

Twilight shook her head.
"The Elements of Harmony are nothing that can do damage, Rainbow… Even if we unite our powers it would bounce off their armor of stone. I doubt we ponies can destroy any of-”

Now Tyler interrupted her.
“No! As you just saw they are not indestructible! The enemy has mighty fortresses but from the inside they can be destroyed. We’ve seen it in Zebrica, we have just proven it to all of Equestria. And because we know of their weakness, they will fear us.”

Twilight now shook her head even more determined.
“Tyler! It would need days for you to fill blood into new orbs! The blood for these final orbs was mixed together from all of the Rangers!”
Flynn grimaced. “True… And although the effect of Vinyl’s sound detonations compensated a bit for it, the detonation was weaker this time. We won’t get down the next citadel.”

A sly grin formed on Tyler’s face now.
“Yes… But they don’t know that!”

Narrowing her eyes, Twilight eyed Tyler for a second before she smiled.
“Alright, let’s hear your idea.” Bowing down to Twilight, Tyler whispered his idea into her ear, causing her eyes to widen slowly.
In the next moment she looked at him aghast. “You DO know that if they don’t fall for that…”

Tyler nodded with a sober face.
“It would become a slaughter, yes. If that happens all we Rangers can do is to kill as many of them as possible to save as many of you as we can. The odds are heavily against us and if we fail, certain doom is what we get…” As he walked away a bit, he turned back to Twilight with a wide grin. “It’s going to be one hell of a ride!”

While he walked away, Rainbow came to Twilight’s side.
“You know… Right now I don’t know whether to envy or to pity you for this daredevil…”

Twilight shook her head.
“Rainbow… Sometimes he just gets reckless in his will to stop at nothing while fighting for us… Then there are times when I just love him for being that way…”

Now the army of ponies, unicorns, earth ponies and Pegasi alike… Every pony marched on to fight the threat, to fight for the Princesses. Lead by the army of human armors the ponies approached the city limits. But just as the unicorns in the citadels tried to aim at the equestrian ground forces outside of the shield dome, they were attacked by the many squadrons of the Wonderbolt Academy which flew so close at the citadels, they attacked the unicorns standing on the many patios, prompting the Descendants to duck for cover before they could fire. The heavy bombardment fire to the ground now changed to spread out Anti-air fire, but slowly this fire ceased as more and more Wonderbolt Recruits managed to kick some unicorns unconscious. That’s when it finally happened in the midst of battle.

A gigantic hologram of the four Harmony Rangers now appeared in the sky over Canterlot’s shield dome with Flynn raising his hand to greet the entire city.
"HELLO, EQUESTRIA!!!"

Everypony now looked up in awe at the gigantic hologram as Sam continued.
“Whoever takes Canterlot castle, takes this land! But bad news, everyone… ‘Cause guess who’s back in business?”

As the citadels fired at the hologram, Rachel arched a brow and pointed at them.
“Hey! You folks up there! Could you guys stop firing at our hologram for a minute? BECAUSE WE ARE TALKING!!!”

The yelling was so intense the ponies in the citadels had to cover their ears for a second and the shooting stopped, causing Tyler to continue.
"Now the question of the hour is: Who’s conquering Canterlot? Answer: We Rangers are! Next question: Are you Descendants willing to fight us for it?” As no answer came, Tyler frowned for a second. “Come on, look at me! Banished guy, no weapons and no defenses! And thus there’s another thing I don’t have: Anything! To! Lose! So! If you’re sitting in there in your little war citadels with all your magic warfare and you got any plans on pissing off the equestrian ponies tonight…” Tyler now pointed at the crater that formerly was a big and proud mountain. “Just remember who leveled Dragon Mountain…” Tyler then pointed at the west, towards Zebrica. “Remember who brought down the zebrican war citadel Sagarod as well as the one over the Wonderbolt Academy! And then decide if you’re stupid enough to mess with us Rangers and our friends…” The war citadels now slowly backed away and went southeast, fleeing in a panic.

The Descendants on the ground, however, gritted their teeth.
“Curse these Rangers! And these two citadel commanders! Bucking cowards!” The retreat of the two war citadels caused the majority of the Descendants to mass up into the castle. Too much time and resources had been wasted already.

Outside the city, the Equestrian Resistance was cheering anew, the recapturing went well and all their presence showed the Descendants their determination to stand up against them.
It went too well in Tyler’s eyes. He expected harsher and longer resistance. These Descendants had so many citadels, yet they fight like they don’t know how to use them... His thoughts were interrupted as some of the Wonderbolts landed near the Rangers. Seeing them made Tyler smile. “Captain Spitfire! Good to see that the Wonderbolts still have their best officer.”

But the Captain of the Wonderbolts waved the thought away.
“I wouldn’t be a Wonderbolt if I couldn’t avoid fast approaching hazards, Mr. Jones.”

Flynn nodded.
“Did you have many losses up there?”

Spitfire let out a heavy sigh.
“Two dozen recruits didn’t make it, four dozen are injured. These two dozen ones shall receive their Wonderbolt membership retroactively. They died while performing their duty.”

Gritting her teeth, Rainbow now looked down.
“I shouldn’t have stayed on the ground… I should have been up there with the others.”

The Wonderbolt Captain arched a brow.
“Is that so? Then maybe you would have been among the dead or injured ones, ending or risking your career as a Wonderbolt.”

“Yeah but I-”

Spitfire raised a hoof.
“You may be one of the best cadets in the Academy, Rainbow Dash, but you also serve as an Element Bearer. This task is far more important and I won’t tolerate questioning the importance of this. It’s just… that sometimes we have to make decisions against our personal judgment because the choices that are right are not to our liking.”

Rainbow snorted, this truly wasn’t to her liking.
“I guess I’ll have to learn quite much before I’m ready to be a Wonderbolt Captain…”

Hearing this prompted Spitfire’s ear to flinch and she arched her brow.
“Is that so?” Eyeing Rainbow for a minute, the mare nodded. “You have the potential, kid… but it’s going to be a tough ride, in more than one way.” With this Spitfire turned to Tyler again. “I’m going to gather these squadrons together; I don’t think we can do much in urban warfare other than scouting from above. We Wonderbolts don’t bear arms.”
Tyler nodded. “Every bit of help is just fine…”

* * * * *

As the Equestrian Resistance entered the City of Canterlot, the Rangers gulped. Flynn looked around in the desolate streets.
“It looks like the city was attacked by the walking dead…”

Tyler gulped.
“Don’t say that. They have advanced warfare technology; we don’t need zombie ponies next!”

Twilight shook her head.
“There are NO such things as zombie ponies!”

“Of course there are no zombies here, but the city looks dead anyway… Where is everyone?” Turning around to the resistance leaders of the other cities, Tyler nodded. "Alright! Every resistance group is taking another district. Help out the remaining groups of the guards, but trust nopony! Remember they infiltrated us. In the meantime we Rangers and the Elements of Harmony go for Canterlot Castle!”

Meanwhile in the throne room, both princesses were surrounded by their most trusted guards. Celestia looked up as the bombardment on the town suddenly ceased.
“Oh, what are they doing?”

Peeking outside, Dusk Aegis looked out of a window and returned back to the royal sisters.
“Your highness, it seems like the Harmony Rangers have returned and are leading a resistance!”

Luna now looked over to Celestia.
“This small force field here will withstand everything the Descendants throw at us, my sister. But the castle is seemingly crowded with them. Thou may consider unleashing him…”

Celestia gulped.
“I don’t know… He’s an erratic factor…”

“That he is, my sister. But you never once gave him the chance to proof his ‘reformed’ loyalty. Maybe now is the time. The alternative is a massive bloodshed in this our castle…”

This made Celestia frown.
“Not when I can help it!” With that her horn gave out a noticeable sound wave that carried forth her call.

Celestia’s call for the Spirit of Chaos was quite quiet in the throne room itself, but echoed through the halls of Canterlot Castle, where some of the Descendants listened up. None of them noticed the giant mosaic on the ground that depicted the Draconequus.
“That’s the princess… Do you think that this Discord is on the loose?”

“Nah… That guy got reformed. I doubt he would do anything. You know… In fear she might punish him…” But as soon as they had said that, the princesses’ call became audible once more, this time even louder.

With the second shouting of his name the eyes of the mosaic sprang open and narrowed a bit. 'What does she want now? Letting me do what I want all of a sudden…'

As the eyes recognized the ponies on top of the mosaic, a big grin formed on the depicted mouth. With that last call a great thunderstruck shot from the ground of the hall and Discord’s mosaic crumbled apart, stood up from the ground with a maniacally burst of laughter as the Spirit of Chaos was called to arms. The Descendants in the hall slowly backed away in fear.
“It’s playtime!” For far too long he was limited to do only good and these Descendants ought to be good playthings for him. With a demonic grin he hovered above the ponies that looked up in terror.

Mere seconds later, the Harmony Rangers stormed the hallway before the castle’s main hall and tried to open the strong wooden door. Tyler was worried sick. He could swear that he heard Celestia yelling. Maybe she was combatting the Descendants who tried to storm her throne room? But from the other side of the door a manic laughter echoed through the hall as hooves slammed against the door in panic.
“Let us out! LET US OUT!!! WE SURRENDER!!!” With that Tyler and Rachel nodded at each other and the Rangers broke through the wooden doors. In the center of the hall, a lone creature hovered in the air. No more Descendants, no trace of fighting… It was like they were all… vanished.

Recognizing the shape of the Draconequus, Tyler went into a fighting stance and aimed his hand at him ready to attack; Rachel and the others followed his example.
“Discord!!! I should have known someone like you would be around here in all of this chaos!”

But in an instant Fluttershy galloped in front of them and hovered in front of the Draconequus.
“Wait! He’s not our enemy!”

Tyler arched both brows as the timid Pegasus stood up for one of the most dangerous beings in Equestria.
“What? But Fluttershy! You and the others, you told me what he did to each of you! Chaos, chocolate rain and abandoning each other!”

Rachel and Flynn both arched a brow.
“Chocolate rain…?”

Standing tall in front of the Rangers, Fluttershy shook her head as the other Elements of Harmony galloped into the safe hall.
“Oh, I know this is complicated, but this was the old Discord… This here is the new Discord. He’s changed now. He’s my friend!”

Tyler looked at Discord, and then his look turned back to Fluttershy. She didn’t seem to be manipulated in any of the explained ways. She wasn’t gray or had shades of gray on her. Slowly, Tyler lowered his arm and the Rangers eased down as well. Approaching Discord, Tyler grabbed the goatee of the floating Draconequus and pulled him down to the ground.
“Listen good, pal… I don’t know what happened in our absence here regarding you… But I trust in the judgment of the girls. If they say you are OK now, so be it. I advise you to stay good for the time being…” With this a sadistic grin formed on Tyler’s face. “Or the next time you’ll end up as a statue I’ll fetch myself hammer and pick and try myself in abstract art…” With that he returned to the other Rangers. “Let’s go! We still need to get rid of the Descendants here in the castle…”

The Draconequus looked after the leaving humans.
“Was he serious about this?”

Applejack looked up the Discord.
“He was dead serious, Discord… And Ah deem him able to do that. He’s not as forgiving as Princess Celestia or us ponyfolk as a whole…”

A broad mischievous grin now formed on the face of the former Spirit of Chaos.
“Hmmmm….. Interesting species, these humans…”

Twilight pointed a hoof at him in an instant.
“Don’t get any wild ideas, buster! He meant it! If you mess up now, you can pray that we get a hold of him before he gets a hold of you!”

Pinching Twilight in the cheek, the Draconequus grinned.
“Oh, you couldn’t stand the thought of losing all the fun with me, could you Twilight?”

Slapping his lion paw away, Twilight rolled her eyes in minor annoyance.
“Yeah, right…”

Fluttershy looked up to the former Spirit of Chaos, concerned for him to fall into relapse.
“Discord? Promise me you won’t do anything reckless?”

Clenching his paws, Discord trembled a bit in anger. These ponies… He then let out a sigh and raised an arm.
“Have it your way then… I promise I won’t provoke trouble…” With a smirk he looked away. “Nothing serious that is…”

Looking around Rainbow noticed the lack of enemies.
“What did you do to the Descendants in the castle?”

“Oh this… I stored some of them quite good in here…” With this he patted a small bag.

Twilight’s eyes widened.
“A bag of holding! You arrested them? Good!”

But the Draconequus simply rolled his eyes.
“Imprisonment? Oh please… I have… other things in mind with these here… Too bad our precious little princesses will demand them back for their…” Now he gestured quotation marks. “Justice…Ewww… Gag! Well if you excuse me? I’m having a blast in there and I want to have the most of it while I still can!”

With another snap of his eagle claw and a mischievous grin, he vanished with a flash. Twilight arched a brow.
“I can’t say I approve of his methods… But at least he’s trying to channel his craving for chaos into a productive way… In that bag he at least doesn’t bother Equestria. We’ll let the Princess handle him later…”

* * * * *

Meanwhile down the dungeon, the Rangers faced the final group of Descendants. They were grouped around a mare in uniform of the Royal Guard. It was Shimmerwind. Tyler sighed both physically and mentally. Not her… Not the Captain of the Guard herself a traitor… But it was the sad truth. It was her cutie mark. While the other Rangers went into fighting stance, Tyler raised his arm and Rachel pointed her rifle at the mare.
“Your plans are finished, Shimmerwind! There is no escape for the rest of you!” Tyler said with an angered voice.

The former captain of the guard giggled dark as she turned around, looking grim at the four Rangers from the corner of her eye.
“Don’t you four ever tire of being a nuisance? You’ve really messed up our operations far enough now…” With that the unicorn mare gave them an evil grin and levitated the alicorn amulet in front of her and placed it around her neck.

Tyler’s blood froze in this moment.
“It’s this alicorn amulet! Watch it folks! She’s way more powerfoaaahhh” With that Tyler was swatted away like nothing by the powerful magic of the amulet.

Grinning broadly, Shimmerwind charged her horn.
”No more magic absorbing for you, fool! Now I will squish all of you insects.”

Flynn stormed right at the Descendants, but despite the instant defeat of the ones around Shimmerwind, all his punches, as fast as they were, simply failed to hit the Captain’s magically enhanced body, which evaded all his attacks. As his melee attacks all failed, Flynn tried to reach for the amulet. Once he got it in his grasp, he pulled at it, but his eyes widened as the amulet’s chain seemed unbreakable. There was a moment of complete stillness between Flynn and Shimmerwind when the mare suddenly looked up to him, her eyes glowing red. In the next moment, Flynn went flying back to the others after a massive punch. The others stormed at him.
“Flynn! Are you OK?”

Holding his broken nose, Flynn snapped at Rachel.
“Get kicked into the face by a magically enhanced hoof yourself and tell me YOU feel OK, stupid!”

Rachel looked up to Tyler.
“He’s OK…”

Readjusting his nose into order, Flynn wrinkled it as the regeneration already took place.
“FUCK!!! That stupid bitch is toast!!!”

Noticing the many pillars of the dungeon that could serve as cover, Tyler looked grim at Shimmerwind and the alicorn amulet.
“That thing obviously won’t come off of her even if we try to get it. We don’t come around this…”

Rachel gritted her teeth.
“We have to kill her!”

Tyler nodded.
“OK… SAM!!! Give me a volley high and wide!”

Sam nodded and jumped to another pillar while Tyler stayed at his one.
“Shimmerwind! You still owe me an explanation! Why? Why siding with the Descendants?”

Firing two shots at Tyler’s pillar, the unicorn mare gritted her teeth.
“’Why?’ he asks… And yet the answer is so simple! Every day I see ponies complacent and all satisfied with what they have. They lack motive and determination! When I saw the Descendant’s progress not only in technology, but also their goal to work for, I knew what Equestria lacked. That was when I knew I was helping the losing team…” Tyler teleported to the next pillar just in time before his old one was blown to pieces. “We were promised progress and goals to achieve and this is everything Celestia denied us!”

Tyler gritted his teeth.
“Progress has to happen slowly! Boost it too much and you’re on the way towards destruction!” Jumping away, the pillar which served as his cover now blew up as well.

Shimmerwind’s eyes glowed red in wild anger.
“And who are you to talk, Tyler Jones? Your world is FILLED with technology! All the progress you humans make should be for us ponies as well!”

Rachel now gritted her teeth.
“And you think that technology in the hands of a very few serve good for all? Or is it just for these very few? No! Some of us humans believe that such a thing could end in a prison planet!” Now Rachel’s pillar detonated.

When Tyler peeked over, he could see Rachel’s bleeding shoulder at the neighboring pillar. She made her escape.
“That’s right, Shimmerwind! Technology is a double edged sword! We humans are the best example for it. We poison the air we breathe, the water we drink and the earth we plant our crops on. All in the name of technological progress…”

“SILENCE!!!” Shimmerwind now snapped at them. “Do you really think that I would fall for the babbling of Celestia’s lapdogs?”

Gritting his teeth, Sam grabbed one large piece of rock and jumped up and took aim at the mare.
“No, bitch… We can deliver SOLID PROOF!!!” With that he threw the rock slightly up, only to punch it hard with his fist. With the electric shock he delivered with the punch, the resulting detonation wave caused the rock to fly at Shimmerwind, prompting the mare to evade. It was in this moment when Tyler jumped at her with a sword in his hand. But too soon she recognized him and levitated him directly above her.

Stretching Tyler’s limbs now, the unicorn laughed like a maniac as Tyler screamed up in agony.
“Oh, how I waited for this very moment… Now you’re finally in for in for it, Tyler Jones… I will rip you apart limb by limb and shower in your blood!”

“Like hell you will!” With this Rachel pulled the trigger and the detonation of the magic bullet caused Shimmerwind to tremble for a short moment.

Feeling her chest, she laughed in triumph!
“HA!!! This amulet also makes me bulletproof to all your puny weapons!”

Rachel smirked as she raised an eyebrow.
“I didn’t aim for your damn chest, bitch!”

“What?!?” Looking down, Shimmerwind recognized a crack in the red crystal of the amulet. Rachel had aimed right at it and caused severe damage. The magic holding Tyler now fluctuated before it ceased completely.

Tyler collapsed to the ground and used the final healing magic in him to counter the stress the mare had inflicted on the tissue of his limbs.
“Th-Thank you, Rachel…”

Short green pulses of healing magic went through his body, before he looked up to the now frightened Shimmerwind.
“No! Why won’t this thing obey my commands? Come on! COME ON!!!” More and more magic accumulated inside of the amulet, growing red hot in its glow. In panic, Shimmerwind tried to get it off, but the amulet didn’t comply. Its breech was stuck too heavily by the fighting damage. While Shimmerwind screamed in terror, the crystal exploded in a detonation wave, prompting the Rangers to turn away from the mare, which now was in the epicenter of it. Half a minute later when the bright light ceased, Shimmerwind lied on the ground, the coat singed and smoking on some parts, but scorched heavily on other parts. Her mane was a singed mess. Some of her coat and skin had merged with the ground due to the heat and was ripped off her flesh as she moved. With a bloody and shaking hoof, she tried to crawl towards a communication crystal. “Must warn… the Darkness Sisters…”

But just before she could reach the communication crystal, Tyler’s boot stepped on her hoof, prompting her to scream in pain. She was grabbed by the neck and lifted up by Tyler.
“Oh yeah? Who are the Darkness Sisters? Are they another branch of your sick and twisted brotherhood?” When the guards arrived, Tyler tossed Shimmerwind at them. “Get this traitor out of my sight!”

The other Rangers nodded at each other.
“Looks like the Descendants were only the tip of the iceberg…” Sam stated.

Tyler sat down on the ground.
“Whatever! These investigations come AFTER I took a bath and AFTER a week of sleep!”

Rachel smiled over to him before looking at Shimmerwind.
“Jones! The Descendants may be thrown out of Equestria… but they will continue to fight.”

With a determined nod Tyler looked over to Rachel.
“Maybe they will continue to fight… But so will we!”

Five minutes later Tyler barged into the throne room and approached the two regal sisters. Luna ceased the force field for him, but arched a brow at his face. What was he up to?
“Celestia! That’s it!” With the sound of his boots echoing in the throne room, Tyler smirked as he was allowed to enter Luna’s force field. Taking his time, he strolled over to them, humming “Back in black” while doing so and slammed his flat hands on the strategic map table before them. “Equestria is mine! I conquered it…” Leaning over the table with the map of Equestria, he grinned broadly and took one of the tiny flags on it, wrote down a T on it and stuck it into Canterlot. As he looked up from the map, both sisters looked very serious at him, not sure what to expect now. Tyler, however, smiled and turned around, went towards the exit. “You know, I’m horrible with politics, you can have the whole place back. You’re way better at this than I am anyway. Oh yeah! I have a report about a humanoid Changeling! This banishment of mine? Forget about that crap, OK? I will hand the report to you later this week… So if you excuse me? I’m having a shower and a shave.”

As he left the throne room, both princesses felt their hearts racing as they blinked at the doorway in surprise. Celestia blushed slightly as she found the words again first.
“Two war fortresses, turning and fleeing into the south… Another one destroyed… Also an entire army defeated… And he just swaggers right in here and tells us that he doesn’t want the land he just reconquered…”

Luna grinned and bumped her flank into that of her sister.
“The big conqueror presenting thou peace and already I hear the wish for a foal in thy words?”

Celestia cleared her throat.
“I never said that…”

“Thy scent does it for thee, big sister…”

Blushing in even deeper shades of red, Celestia now stammered a bit.
“I…”

Seeing her older sister out of control made Luna giggle.
“It’s alright, Tia…I can relate... He IS a big conqueror, but the thing he conquered wasn’t Equestria.” This made Celestia smile. She doubted Tyler ever intended to conquer anything. And this only made it easier for her to surrender her heart to him.

* * * * *

In the morning fanfares were played when the Harmony Rangers and Elements of Harmony approached the throne room. Dusk Aegis, now the new Captain of the guard nodded at Tyler, proud of his new position and his human friend. With a prim “A-ten-hoof!” the royal guard sprang into a respectful stance towards the throne.

Before the throne Princess Celestia and Princess Luna stood in front of the 12 heroes.
“Equestria was saved this day by those who are loyal to it and those brave enough to face the forces of evil trying to break us apart! We honor each and every one who stood united with his fellow pony and showed Equestria that everypony has the potential to become a hero if we show determination to stand up for our beliefs.” Uncovering the window, it showed the four Rangers, Lyra, Grinko and the Mane Six leading the equestrian ponies against the three war citadels and was the most detailed window until now.

One after another, the Mane Six got a medal. Flynn, Rachel and Sam got Ranger stars, forged by the Canterlot Royal silver smiths. When it was Lyra’s turn to receive her medal, she raised a hoof.
“I’d prefer a Ranger medal, if that’s possible…”

Celestia arched a brow and looked at the Rangers. Flynn gave a nod and looked at the others, so did Rachel and Tyler. Sam frowned at Lyra with a smile, but nodded as well, prompting Celestia to smile as well and after a glow of her horn, the round medal was formed into a Ranger star medal. Standing beside Sam, Lyra wore it with pride. Finally, it was Tyler’s turn to receive his Ranger star. But he held up his hands and looked around.
“Part of this honor goes to someone I like to see here as well! She deserves it! I’ve sent for her, is she here?”

The eyes of the throne room turned to the door and a highly unsure Trixie peeked inside.
“Oh, I… uh… I must have taken the wrong door, I…”

But Tyler waved her in.
“No, you are right here! Come on, the ceremony can’t continue without you!” As the showmare approached the throne, she looked around quite embarrassed. All these important ponies around that judged her with their eyes… But Tyler knelt down to Trixie and raised her chin. “Your spells helped me out on sea when things were going bad. In a manner you saved my life on sea. I don’t care what others say: You deserve to get a reward here and now as well.”

As Tyler looked to Celestia, the princess nodded with a warm smile and looked over to Trixie.
“Trixie Lulamoon… Will you step forth?”

With a gulp, the mare took off her magician hat and stepped in line.
“Y-your majesty?”

Smiling down to her, Celestia nodded.
“It has been quite some time since our last meeting. You were used by the enemies of our country. I’m sorry that they caused so much harm upon you. But you brought great effort to correct all wrongs you caused in this state. Helping Tyler was only one of this. And it fills me with joy that your magic finally starts to bloom within you.” With this, Celestia put the medal over Trixie’s head and nodded. “I’m eager to see what more you will bring forth.” Looking up to Twilight, Trixie felt close to tears. Twilight smiled, happy for Trixie to get some well-deserved confirmation in her talents.

Luna now harrumphed briefly, causing Tyler to get back into line as well.
“Oh! Right! I must get something as well!” Winking at Luna, Tyler smirked before looking at Celestia again as she pinned the Ranger Star onto his cloths. “Thank you for this honor… Princess Celestia.”

“Welcome home again, my brave, beloved defender…”Tyler bend down to embrace her, but she intercepted him in the motion for a kiss both long and deep. When Tyler realized her intentions, he smiled a bit and embraced her for an even deeper kiss, stroking through her ethereal mane while doing so.

While everypony else in the throne room gasped, Rachel leaned over to Twilight.
“Hey… Is he even allowed to do that?” Twilight laughed at this question, nodded briefly and beamed proudly at her two kissing herd mates.

Dusk Aegis harrumphed a bit.
“Your Majesty, everypony is watching…” But Celestia was giving a damn. Her beloved companion had returned to her and her sister as well as to his rightful place in his herd. Forgotten were the accusations of murder, wiped away from their perfect harmony as a herd. And she saw it as her responsibility to welcome him as warm as possible right now. While the guards were already snickering behind him and the nobles began to whisper, Dusk tried his best to discipline the princess a bit. “Your Majesty… Your Majesty!”

* * * * *

Meanwhile, far in the southeast under mountains of volcanic ash and fire, deep beneath the ruins of the Palace of Darkness, the once mighty center of the kingdom of King Tacitus, a unicorn mare looked up to her two mistresses.
“I assure you, my mistresses… Such failures are not tolerated among the Descendants… Once we have retrieved our agents from the enemy, they will be punished properly… Severely punished!”

The two shadows looked down to the mare. They both exchanged a glance before they were looking down to the Descendant again.
“Actually your agents served our plan quite well. We didn’t expect them to succeed in the first place. They were mere messengers and that message… got delivered…” A horn glowed on the forehead of one of the shadows, not bright enough to shed light on their faces.

Tyler’s face now was shown on a giant screen, saying but one sentence:
“Who are the Darkness Sisters?” In a loop that video snippet was repeated over and over on several screens, as the light of the many screens revealed a highly engineered control room, a giant dome of steel.

Next Chapter: 25 - Epilogue * Estimated time remaining: 10 Minutes