I gritted my teeth, nerve endings down my spine feeling like they were shot. My stomach churned and that acid taste was in my mouth as I took deep breaths. Shit. Looking upwards again and to the left, I saw I'd already had their full attention. Fluttershy had frozen, turned mostly towards me with an uncertain frown on her face, knowing something was wrong but not what. Twilight stopped mid walk out onto the stage, her wings still tucked beneath the tailored flaps of her dress, hidden from view. She was looking over her shoulder at me instead, however, eyes uncertainly searching mine. My friends in the front row looked this way as well, and all I had was bad news now.

Keela shivered in the image tucked to the corner of my eye, rapidly shaking her head. "No, Mender. I... I love you, but you can't consider anything else. I'm not worth Equus. C-Cut the link!" she repeated, swallowing painfully. Confusion went through the audience as Twilight just stopped walking and looked behind her. Tia frowned, looking towards me as well. What was I supposed to do?

My right hoof lifted up and I shook my head, then waved it back and forth in a hopefully ‘desist’ motion as I stared at the white alicorn. Her eyes widened just slightly, then she turned and looked back to the audience instead. "Ah, I apologize, my little ponies. I have to attend to something for a moment. My sister, Princess Luna, will continue speaking in my stead," she quickly excused. Luna frowned, then nodded to her as she stepped up, Tia slipping to the side and trotting towards me.

Twilight watched her go past, and Tia leaned down for a moment, whispering something to the new alicorn before straightening and heading for me. Twilight nodded at that, then headed for the podium again, sitting down next to Luna, who had continued the speech I wasn't paying attention to anymore. A glance to the left showed me the rest of the Elements, Spike, and Snapshot gone from the front row, and I sighed. The side door opened again as Tia finally reached me.

Her questioning look said enough, and I shook my head, taking another step back as Spike, Rarity, Pinkie, Rainbow, Applejack, and Snapshot slid in to the left a moment later, the orange mare immediately asking, "Okay, that felt absolutely rotten. What's goin' on, Mender?"

I exhaled, using the distance I'd made to project the image of Keela, the probe, and the soundtrack instead, adjusting the speaker volume down to low. It didn't matter, though, as the second Tia saw the sound wave pattern, she frowned and lit her horn up. A small golden bubble coated us all a second later, and I nodded, recognizing the spell instantly as sound nullification.

"You didn't have to-" Keela started to protest. Snapshot's eyes widened as she looked the Keldarian over, but I interrupted Keela's words with a shake of my head.

"No, Keela. I'm not going to jump to any decision without talking about this. Enough," I interrupted, giving her a frustrated glare before hitting the play button. I went quiet as Nirru's voice started up again, repeating her hateful message to everypony inside the bubble...

To say things moved quickly with threat of a possible dimensional invasion would be an understatement. Regardless, I couldn't help but think that things had been soured a bit, converting the announcement conference into both an announcement of a new Alicorn and a declaration of a national emergency. Honestly, I hadn't anticipated Princess Celestia to actually remain transparent about what was happening. I also hadn't anticipated the decided lack of panic present in the mass populace of ponies at large. For a race that was naturally on the skidish side, they had become remarkably jaded to world-threatening catastrophes, it would seem.

That was three hours ago. Giving a tired sigh, I looked out at the expansive field. It was a familiar place by now, large ocean of grass and flowers with the rather peaceful and gentle Whitetail Woods framing along its side. An even more familiar, if not intimately so, crater was all of a dozen meters from me. The memories it brought upon me, both good and bad, were at least of comfort. A stability. Something that had already happened and was cast in stone.

That was where the comfort of the field ended. My attention instead shifted to the five hundred plus ponies that now inhabited it. Dozens of tents were already constructed, and I saw another six at least going up. A large training field had been set up, with literally hundreds of guards practicing surprisingly sophisticated formations within. Shining Armor was easily spotted in full regalia at the head, and I could hear his distant orders from here, without needing any audio magnification. Color me impressed.

My discomfort was further accelerated by the focus on me, suddenly throwing me headlong into my role as head researcher of Dimensional Regulations, now the leading organization of defense for this hostile threat heading at us. It was my duty to come up with solutions on how to deal with that. All of it.

A hoof lightly lifted my chin, then pulled my head to the side. Looking to my left, I managed to get a slight glimpse of lavender before Twilight pulled me into a soft kiss. Shivering, I pushed back into it for a moment before relaxing and nodding. Breaking off, she gave me a grin and returned my gesture, assuring, "Relax, Mender. We're going to deal with this, and we're going to protect everypony. You're doing fine, and you have lots of help. Nopony expects you to do this by yourself..." At this range, she'd picked up exactly what I'd started to panic about, of course. I was both happy and sad for that...

Swallowing, I looked back to the massive cluster of holographic notes projected in front of me, having been all I was focusing on for the last hour. The diagrams for the armor, shield, and lance modifications had already been sent to the lead researchers that had been allotted to the operation. Supplies were already being delivered, including almost eight thousand kilograms of the phase crystals. I double-checked the notes delivered about them in paper, behind the hologram, then looked to my right display screen.

"How are the calculations running, Keela?" I asked, trying to stay on focus.

The Keldarian looked up to the display again, giving a sigh. "This is crazy, and you're completely insane. Beyond that, they're almost done. I can't believe that this is compiling at all, but... There's no doubt about it," she admitted, looking into the center of the lab space again. Notes were scattered everywhere, and all five of them were working at different stations, and the crystal that I'd sent over was floating in the analysis column in the middle of the room. She stared at it for a moment before slowly shaking her head.

"This is a surprisingly colorful phase crystal, but it's also the purist I've ever seen. There's no doubt at all. This crystal is exactly like the samples that we've been using to make our own phase crystals for the last hundred years or so. That means that Equus is the reason we developed our own variant of Faster Than Light travel..." she admitted, exhaling softly.

Twilight's ears perked up at that, and she asked, "Does that mean they're pure enough to work?" That was the ultimate question. Keela's refinery process for the phase crystals was top notch, but it turned out that the original crystals were about seven to nine hundred percent more pure, which allowed for a much more efficient energy transfer, it would seem.

Kyre turned and nodded towards the display, reporting, "With this pure of a crystal, energy transfer reaches less than three percent average loss."

Her twin continued less than a second later with, "This efficient of a transfer will allow dimensional phasing of phased matter with a one to one temporal sync ratio."

Sighing, Keela snickered after, and appended, "That means yes. This part of your plan is green lit, via two Keldarian genius twins."

Chuckling, I gave a nod to that and looked back at my notes. That just left things on our end to set up. Looking over my shoulder to the left, I spotted Aura still sipping her tea, barely a meter away. She was reading her book still, something about ponies in space or such. It was an amusing concept, but I didn't have time to grill her on it.

Either using peripheral vision, or her heavily altered senses, she noticed my attention and looked up with a smile. "Need contact again?" she asked gently. I gave a nod in confirmation, causing her smile to widen a little, and her horn lit up.

The effect was instantaneous. Colors bled partially away from the world, mist drifting in all around me with my awareness as everything took on a soft blue hue. The ambient light started to spread gently off objects around me, as if a bloom effect had been applied to my perception. The three of them faded in, visible now that my view was overlaid with the local Ether. They’d been there the entire time, of course.

Dad looked up and smiled as he watched Aura start using her spell again. “Ah, welcome back. I see the rest of the plans appear to be falling smoothly into place. How are things on Keela’s end?” he asked, causing my two moms to look up as well, Gem starting to smile immediately.

“She’s finished the calculations. Less than three percent average loss of energy transfer. It’ll work on their side,” I assured, giving a nod to him. Auraprism finally smiled at that, relaxing a little.

“Thank Celestia. It’s… been a while since I’ve said that, but… at this point, I think we’re past that. We all need to pull together regardless to make it through this,” she murmured, exhaling softly.

My mother giggled on the other side of Dad, then shook her head. “It was never Princess Celestia’s fault anyway, and you two knew it the whole time. We’re going to make up for it by helping our son kick some seriously invader flank as well!” she chirped, pounding her right hoof into her left with a grin towards me.

Bastion lifted one of his eyebrows up, tilting his head towards her before pointing out, “You didn’t do anything to Princess Celestia. You don’t have anything make up for…” Auraprism frowned and nodded behind him.

Chuckling, I shook my head then explained, “She just wants to watch the fireworks…” Both he and my other mother got a dawning look of realization and nodded, but Mom stuck out her tongue at me instead, still grinning.

“Hey, you heard that monster’s message. I want to see her eat those words just as much as you do. Literally, if possible,” she growled. My turn to tilt my head towards her, and this time Auraprism snickered instead.

“Just write it out on a letter and force feed her the paper after winning. That should make her happy,” she suggested, earning a laugh from dad.

I slapped myself in the forehead, but Gem started laughing at that. “Awesome idea! I’d pay good bits to watch that!” she agreed, grinning towards Auraprism instead.

Dad finally just sighed and shook his head, chuckling tiredly before looking back to me instead. “Things are almost ready on this end regardless. With the complete diagrams of our prior device, this has been a breeze. The new layout is both far more simplistic with new technologies available, and far stronger with the new focus on this shielding technique of yours. Could you trace this diagram, please, Auramirror?” he asked gently, sliding the hazy sheet of paper over past me, to my niece instead. His very distant granddaughter…

She smiled and nodded rapidly to him, moving the paper in front of her and looking it over before her magic started to function, translating the image onto the page underneath of it, which was real outside of the ether. I nodded to her, and all three of them waved, giving me smiles. I nodded, adding, "See you all tonight, then."

They were gone after that. Of course, if this went badly, I'd be seeing them permanently in a few days. As would a lot of other ponies, I imagined. But no, I wouldn't let it come to that. Closing my eyes, I steeled my resolve again. No, the plan had come together nicely so far. Now it was on to the hard parts...

Looking over to Twilight again, I saw her get a momentary look of recognition, and nod. She instead turned to look out into the field, and then mentally called out, "Girls! It's time..." Five other perks of mental activity shot in, and I swallowed. This should be entertaining, at the very least...

"Are ya sure this is essential? Ain't Ah strong enough?" Applejack asked hesitantly, looking to her left and down at me as I adjusted more enchantment runes on her side.

Twilight gave a sigh, looking up at the counter-weight she lifted with her hooves, standing on her back ones as she wedged herself upwards between the ground and the weight. The counter-weight was attached to a pulley system, which was attached to, so far, twelve thousand kilograms of random objects that we tossed into the large wagon we were using as a 'tray' of sorts. She had the entire thing lifted almost a meter off the ground...

Shaking her head, Twilight explained, "This isn't about the weight, Applejack. You're lifting this much by syncing your energy with the bar. Mender is making sure that the energy feedback throughout your entire body is perfectly in sync with your output. He's not making you 'stronger'. He's making you use a hundred percent of your strength." The enchantment magnified that by a bit, but the goal was the same. I estimated that, horrifically, she actually was strong enough to lift at least six thousand kilograms unassisted, which was just disgusting. That put her lift to weight ratio into absurd levels. I didn't even want to try this with Big Mac. But no, the syncing was the important part.

"Okay, so this ain't ta lift tha gun thingy, which is actually rather light. This is ta sync with it, right?" she confirmed, furrowing her brow as she looked to Twilight instead, who nodded.

I made three more adjustments and watched everything sync up again with a smirk. Applejack widened her eyes a little as she suddenly stretched out entirely, shoving the bar upwards and lifting the entire wagon over two meters off the ground. Giving a nod, I moved to the other side of her stomach, then gently rested against it, starting to push her slowly backwards as she readjusted herself and let the wagon back down without breaking anything, either herself or our equipment.

"We're set for test four, now. The sync should be just about perfect," I ordered, nodding towards her then gesturing to the harness we'd left a few meters away. She gave a smile to me and trotted past, slipping back into it and raising it up with her forelegs after she sat down. It wasn't that heavy, barely fifteen kilograms. She felt its weight for a moment, and then focused, syncing with the harness, even though her strength was overkill. The enchantment on the harness mirrored it, and she stood again, the harness floating free of her body this time as she literally lifted it with her aura alone. Earth Pony Empathy Magic at its finest.

Her eyes opened again after, and she examined it with surprise yet again. It had drifted around a bit on the second attempt, and the last one had it hovering lopsided near her. Now, it floated perfectly and she looked even more amazed. She was levitating something, so I imagined it was special, yes. Well, even if it was specifically made to be levitated like that. It was still special!

The large floating gun lifted up next to her, exactly matching her harness movements, and she nodded to me, her strength of aura lifting it, too. "Ready then, Mender. This thing's loaded with safe stuff, right?" she asked again, giving a frown.

Twilight giggled, then nodded, assuring, "Water balloons, courtesy of Pinkie." Because only she could think of using a magical rail cannon to launch water balloons...

Smirking, I nodded, then looked out into the field towards the pink one in question. "Pull!" I called out. I heard her excited cheer from here, and she grabbed one of the garbage can lids near her. The flare of pink from her own enchantment activated, the disk on her back right hoof touching the can. It stuck a moment later, and she suddenly did a complete back flip at surprisingly high velocity, whipping the can lid up with her back legs, then launching it almost straight up into the air.

Applejack watched it go up. The harness and the cannon followed her eye movement. My own empathy link with her let me 'feel' that she synced with her own vision. She saw the lid, and it was locked on hard now. It reached the apex of its forward momentum, and Twilight called out, "Fire!"

So it turned out that Applejack’s special talents were in apples. It made sense to me. More specifically, she was particularly practiced at harvesting the apples, which involved very specific targeting of her synced magic to the apples as she hit the tree. We discovered that if you made a cannon sync with her as she targeted, she could also aim it through the same principle! In theory, she could then ‘harvest’ pieces off the enemy ship. At range. With cannons.

The water balloon hit it dead center, before the sound of the gun firing even reached my ears. The small shockwave hit next, like the sound of a whip cracking, as the partially shielded balloon momentarily broke the speed of sound. Well, technically it was moving at a little over five thousand meters per second, so closer to fifteen times the speed of sound, but same difference.

Of course, I realized that 'safe' was a subjective term. Applejack winced as the shockwave from the balloon impact reached us, then looked more than a little horrified at the broken remains of the lid as it fell out of the sky at the other end of the field, a good seven kilometers from where Pinkie had tossed it up.

Twilight looked to me, and I nodded. “Target testing is a success. Move on to phase two with Applejack. Rarity’s next,” I reported, standing up again. Sending out the call towards her, I got a very distinct ‘one moment, dear’ back down the link. She was currently outfitting the guard armors, so I imagined she was pretty busy, yeah.

Applejack perked up at that, then asked, “Phase two? We saw Pinkie’s an’ Rainbow’s upgrades, but Ah don’t think there’s exactly ah ‘safe’ way ta test mine out further…” Twilight gave a giggle and waved her hoof towards the mare instead.

“Relax, we kept the prototype cannon,” she revealed, sliding a rather small gun over that wasn’t much larger than the harness Applejack was in. Getting the shield layering and magical acceleration to work had been a serious pain, having taken over an hour, and several cases of ‘almost swearing’ accidents. To work with just the physics involved, we had it firing little orbs of water instead, at a much lower velocity, thankfully.

Nodding, I called Pinkie as well, who came bounding over within seconds, looking ecstatic. “Yeah, getting hit by those things might sting a little, but it won’t do any lasting damage that taking a shower wouldn’t. Regardless, phase two is live fire. Pinkie, your system is entering phase three at the same time. You’re up…” I announced, nodding over to Applejack.

“Yes!” the pink one shouted, then flipped backwards, balanced for a moment entirely upright while standing on her forelegs, then flipped back off them with a small push, landing on all fours again. “So ready for this! You’re on, Applejack!” she dared instead, a moment later.

The orange mare looked momentarily surprised before smirking and narrowing her eyes, the prototype gun floating into the air next to her and locking on. “Fine. Ya wanna do this this way, Ah won’t disappoint ya,” she almost growled, grin widening as Pinkie’s did.

They stared at each other for several seconds before the cannon suddenly whipped in and fired right at Pinkie! The mare was already turning, however, her back right hoof lashing out and hitting the orb of water in the air. The glowing disk that coated the underside of her hoof flared with energy as the blast of charged water smashed off to the side, spraying glowing water. Oh boy…

Fluttershy gave a little shiver as I adjusted the wing enchantments on her back. “Mmm, that tickles. I, um… I’m not sure if I can do this, though, Mender,” she murmured, looking uncertain as she glanced back over her right shoulder at me.

Pinkie’s hysterical laughter nearby made it hard to consider her statement. The pink one flipped, spinning as she blocked two more shots, then knocked aside a faint energy ball sent from Rarity as well. Everything that was shot or thrown at her, she was deflecting with her hooves as she flipped and spun, rolled, and jumped. It was quite amazing to watch, her own enchantments maximizing her speed and agility, while attaching the disks to each of her hooves. Rarity’s ‘ribbon network’ enchantment took advantage of her extreme magical precision, allowing her to control a flowing ribbon of individual attacking units that grew as long as she desired it to be. Setting up complex attack patterns were a lot easier with that.

The surprising part was that Pinkie was taking attacks from both her and Applejack’s guns, and still hadn’t even been grazed. She was sweating now, but so were they as they continued the running, gunning, and blasting that they’d been doing for the last twenty minutes.

My focus shifted back to Fluttershy after, and I gave her an assuring smile. “Fluttershy, we talked about this. You did get passing grades and excellent marks in the normal flight school courses after first year. You also got notes of excelling in midair stability,” I reminded, sliding my hooves up off the enchantment to instead softly massage her shoulders.

She gave a little exhale, closing her eyes again as she leaned back against me fully. “I just… you know what I’m like, Mender. Um, I panic. It…” she muttered, feelings of frustration drifting down the link towards me.

Giving her a gentle nuzzle, I reminded, “You also don’t stay behind when things you love are in danger, I recall. I have every ounce of faith in you that you can pull this off, flawlessly. All of Equus is in danger now, and I know you’re not going to stand for that. You also know the safety tethers that Twilight and I have set up. I’m not going to put any of you in danger over this…” If I had my way, nopony would be put in danger. While having the six of them there with me also gave access to the Elements of Harmony, I was somewhat reluctant to actually suggest firing it. Picking up on just the residual energy from the Elements was how the other dimension found Equus in the first place. I didn’t want to even think about the residual energy left behind from actually firing them off in the other dimension entirely…

Her soft nuzzle under my chin snapped me out of it, and I relaxed against Fluttershy again. She murmured softly, then licked the underside of my neck before admitting, “After you’re done with our upgrades, we should all get some rest. We didn’t end up sleeping last night.”

I swallowed weakly, then nodded. The plans were in motion, and their upgrades were my last steps for it. I looked over at the three of them fighting still, and slowly agreed with, “All right. Once Twilight’s enchantment is completed, I’ll rest. You guys can go rest now, of course.”

Applejack stopped shooting and instead glared over at me, shaking her head rapidly. “No way! We gotta practice as much as we can with these new thingies, an’ if yer still workin’, so are we!” she declared stubbornly, stomping her hoof down in front of her. The vibrations were felt over here from the impact, and she gave a jump of surprise, sheepishly looking down at the ground in front of her with a soft blush appearing. Okay, that was adorable.

My proximity alert went off before I could fully open my mouth to reply. I didn't have time to fully turn and look before a distorted after image of a cyan pegasus shot in, her own inertia field causing a full color spectrum that washed off from the two massive jet streaks her wings had become. The distortion settled, sliding in next to me as she spun in the dirt, the field around her lessening before fading entirely and letting her connect to the ground again. She wore a huge smirk, of course.

"This, is, awesome! We're going to kick their flanks all over space!" she declared, excitedly hopping back and forth on her left and right sides. Well, some of us were tired, anyway. How she wasn’t was beyond me. I’d upgraded her after learning that pegasi had an inertia shield to help them with g-force dampening, boosting it as well as hooking her effects directly into her Ether Furnace that had developed in her back. That may have been a bad idea, but the full effects would prove or disprove that in the near future, I imagined. She was… Well, she was quite a bit faster now, and much better at turning and managing her own speed.

"That's the general idea. The more overwhelming advantages we have over them, the better. Them thinking we're 'defenseless' is a nice advantage right from the start," I agreed. In theory, overkill was actually a very good thing. Use your best weapons and techniques right out of the gate, before your enemy even realizes you're attacking yet, and crush them without mercy. It was the best way to ensure victory and safety in this case.

Twilight listened to me for a moment before looking more fully at me, eyes locked upon mine. "I... Be truthful, Mender. You know these creatures. What opposition are we really looking at?" she asked cautiously, sounding uncertain.

I considered it for a moment, well aware of their tactics and strategies, but missing a crucial piece of information. Sighing, I explained, "It depends. If they treat this as a standard invasion, we're looking at what they call a 'Preliminary Invasion Force'. They're methodical to a fault in their tactics. The PIF consists of a flagship, three supporting bombardment warships, and a support fleet for all four vessels that ranges between forty to seventy fighters and bombers each. It's the same force that destroyed the Keldarian's home planet with the 'Planet Buster' beams from the bombardment warships."

"Planet Buster?" Rarity asked, stepping back towards the group with her two sparring mates following her.

Slowly, I nodded to them as they approached. They were all sweaty now, Rarity and Pinkie breathing hard. Applejack less so, but I imagined she was more adjusted to physical labor.

“It’s a particle beam, basically. It fires a stream of high density tachyons at the planet they’re targeting. That’s a quantum particle that moves faster than light. They collide violently with the atmosphere once pulled into real-space, causing molecules to literally fuse with them. The process is called fusion, and it releases an immense amount of energy from the impact. But the stream just keeps going, punching a large hole down through the atmosphere and blazing a trail downwards. It ignites localized parts of the atmosphere, then just crashes through the crust of the planet. They use it when they want to make sure there’s nothing really left of the planet in question,” I explained. We didn’t have the secret of their tachyon generators. In the small handful of skirmishes won, the ships always activated self-destruct mechanisms to obliterate all the vital technology before we could even get close.

Rarity looked suitably horrified before asking, “How barbaric! So they basically just blow everything up until the planet rips apart?!” Err, well, yeah, actually. That was about the sum of it.

Dash’s nose twitched. “That… sounds kinda cool, but kinda bad at the same time. So, uh, how do we stop that?” she asked after, looking over to me again expectantly.

I nodded, then revealed, “Tachyons are weird. We don’t know much about them at all. I think our allies knew more, but they never shared the secrets of their FTL engines, so I don’t know. The Keldarians developed their own FTL drives using fabricated crystals made from these crystals taken from Equus…” I gestured down to one of the many scattered prismatic shards near me.

Twilight picked one up and examined it again before appending, “They built the display device using these. When it exploded and tore open the temporary hole, some of the crystals fell through alongside Gemstone Weave…” Looking at her, I swallowed lightly, then gave a single nod to that.

“Yes. That was the event that did it. But the point originally was that we only know the very, very basics of how tachyons function. Apparently they chill in subspace for most of their existence, and have some sort of intrinsic link with it. When weaponizing them, we’ve discovered that they have to be within a certain gradient of gravity with their target before they can fire. We’ve seen them try to do desperation shots from outside of that gradient. The tachyons never enter real-space, however, and the beam passes right through the planet instead, entirely harmless,” I revealed after, nodding back over at Dash.

Her ears perked, and she gave me a nod, causing her colorful mane to flick to the other shoulder. “Got it! So don’t let them get close to Equus…” she assured, smirking again now. I smiled too and decided to add the last bit.

“That, and the charging coils for the cannons produce so much heat that they’re mounted externally. We can also blow them up before they even think about getting in range…” I tacked on. Her grin widened, of course. Yeah, I figured she’d like that option.

Twilight was taking notes, of course, looking them over as she examined the rough drawings she’d made of the ships I described. I gave her the dimensions, too, of course, and where all the parts were that were important on it. Knowing what to smash was a vital bit of a successful battle strategy. She looked them over again, then glanced back to the large map that Keela had passed over of the area in question, marked off with quadrants. “So what’s the overall plan, then, so far? Not the actual tactics stuff we already went over, but the strategy,” she asked a moment later.

I flicked the projection overlay down with a thought, setting up the strategy so far. The area that contained the proper sync ratio with Equus was highlighted in red a moment later. “This area we have to keep the enemy out of at all cost. Major defensive perimeter. Chances are, the support vessels are going to be too small to initiate a dimensional transfer. That would be impractical, so our goal is to prevent one of the four larger ships from reaching that zone,” I explained.

“And if they get through…” Fluttershy asked, sounding uneasy at the thought. I slowly shook my head to that, though.

“Our strategy is to halt them on their side, but we have plans in effect for if that fails. It will become a lot harder, however. Once they’re through the bottleneck that’s the portal area, we’re not going to be able to focus on one kill zone anymore. We’d be at a strategic disadvantage then, but hardly defenseless,” I assured. Princess Celestia had also made reference to a last ditch effort strategy she was working on, but I hadn’t gotten the chance to speak with her about it yet, so I left it off the table for now.

Applejack gave a firm nod regardless. “Then, they won’t get through. What’s our strategy, assumin’ they don’t?” she asked after, leaning down and looking the map over.

Nodding to her, I gestured back to the map again. “Extensive. They assume we’re defenseless. They’ll expect, us having been warned about it, to set up some sort of defense on this side of the portal and attempt to use the gate itself as a kill zone, probably. That’s the best defensive measure I myself could come up with at first. Which is why our current strategy is going to be deployed,” I explained.

Rainbow nodded, then summarized with, “They expect us to roll over and try to fend them off, not fly down their throat and tear them apart on the other side of the portal…”

I activated to overlay with that, showing a directional arrow, then circling several of the larger planet chunks around the battlefield. “We have significant speed and mobility with our main attack force. Abusing that will carry us quite a ways. Shielding also doesn’t work statistically well with smaller ships versus objects of significant mass. These planet bits can be detonated with primary weapon fire, creating temporary clouds of high density debris around the field of operations,” I pointed out, then animated one to ‘detonate’ on the display, showing it turning into multiple smaller shards.

Twilight looked it over for a moment, frowning at that. “You’re… ooooh, it’s denying them from entering those areas for a while, splitting up their forces,” she deduced, causing me to smirk and nod.

“Defeat in Detail,” I explained, followed by, “Split up the enemy’s force so we can engage them in smaller chunks at a time and defeat them with overwhelming firepower with minimal risk to ourselves. They won’t be anticipating a defenseless species to try this strategy at all. My intent is to cause significant if not catastrophic damage to their forces before they even realize we’re attacking. Further, the debris from the explosions, and Keela’s own magical prowess, will help significantly limit their detection, causing mass confusion, ideally.” I didn’t like Keela saying she was going to help, but it was pretty much the only way I’d calmed her down enough to not just shoot herself and cut the link regardless.

Pinkie nodded rapidly as she looked over the map. “Riiight, because our goal isn’t really to even beat them, right? We just gotta make them give up and run away, which gives us time to bring Keela over here and remove the link!” she reminded. True. We were technically only responding to them to buy time. Keela was almost ready with her generator on that side as well. With the new crystal supply we’d be bringing with us, she’d be able to upgrade the generator in probably less than an hour and create a stable portal for the ship to use. I switched the map over again to show the detonation paths of all the major chunks, then nodded.

“She magically covers us, if possible, then we move in from the flanks, separate out large chunks of their forces and systematically destroy them as fast and decisively as we can. The main force holds the defensive line of course, which they’ll either try to rush or use bombardment tactics against. We have counters for both options, especially a rush, which they’ll pay heavily for. I’m also hoping our flank attack will push them into such a strategy,” I revealed, gesturing to the map again and showing the arrow displays of the enemies moving forward into our defensive position.

Twilight smiled, nodding at the plan overall. “This… is far more than anyone on Equus I think could come up with. War and battles on this scale is something, well, that was theoretical before this. It was a concept. Something to be avoided at all costs. So, well, we’re lucky to have you, Mender. Thank you,” she suddenly spoke up, causing me to widen my eyes a little.

Rarity snickered and cut me off before I could fully register what she said, however. “And no, she isn’t implying that your usefulness is in your ability to plan out this war bit. We value you for you, with your skills simply compounding upon that,” she assured, winking and causing Twilight to give a sheepish smile.

“Of course!” she assured, then coughed lightly and nuzzled into my side. I blushed a little, feeling her fur on mine and the heat it generated. Fluttershy giggled, and the pearly unicorn now next to me on the other side smirked at that.

“Oooh, a decent effort, Twilight. Covering up a mistake by wooing your mate is definitely a viable tactic,” Rarity purred in compliment, causing the lavender Alicorn to flail at her, turning almost red in the cheeks.

After a moment of fluster, she pouted, then yelped, “Rarity! That wasn’t what I was trying to… ugh, just, never mind. It’s, uh, my turn, right?” She looked to me after asking, still looking a bit flustered, but I just chuckled and nodded.

“Fluttershy’s about as synced up as I can get her for her enchantment, so yeah, you’re up next. Then we’re calling it a break…” I warned, giving a tired yawn. I’d started running on fumes over two hours ago. Looking up, I noted the sun was slowly sinking on the horizon, and sighed. Tents were set up all over the field now, lights blazing in the dark from the fires. I still heard ponies talking left and right, too. It was a ‘charged’ situation, of sorts, and sleep would be fitful until we were past it, I suspected, for better or worse.

Twilight nodded, giving me a smile as she slid forward and settled in front of me as well, right next to Fluttershy. “I agree. Let’s get my enchantment done with and then rest up for tomorrow!” she assured, resting against Fluttershy as my hooves lit up again.

“All right. More practice tomorrow, then, and resting up before that night,” I confirmed, and then started working on her enchantment…

I gave an uneasy sigh, my eyes watching as a few leaves drifted past. I stood on the small wooden platform overlooking three hundred and fifteen stoic looking guards. My armor was fully extended as well, silvers and blues shining in the dawn light. We were almost out of time. If things went poorly, this would be the last sunset that Equestria saw.

Refocusing my attention, I turned and looked back out on the crowd, watching them as Shining Armor stood a few meters to my right, going over our strategy and pointing to various areas on the large chalkboard map we had set up on the platform. To my other side stood all six Element Bearers, including the newly crowned princess. That would take some getting used to as well, I imagined. And suddenly, I was a prince. Someone shoot me. Wait, no, never wish for that before going into battle…

Looking past Shining, I saw all three other princesses, watching the presentation carefully. They would be staying here, with Tia and Luna managing overhead and strategy on this side, and Cadance bringing in a huge amount of relief effort for all of the guards. Both food and medical supplies were being managed by Cadance during the event, on this side. Unlikely, but we also had medical tents set up, just in case they were needed. So far, our only injury had been misuse of training equipment. I think the training dummy fell on him. I never got the story straight…

Everything matched, regardless. Looking up at the board and lines of chalk, I realized I felt perfectly confident in my plan, and our tactics. Our equipment and enchantments were tested and proven. I’d gotten some sleep with Fluttershy’s and Twilight’s help, and a full breakfast courtesy of Applejack. Rarity had even combed me and straightened my mane, to make me ‘look presentable for the guards.’ Now I felt strong, and ready, standing up here on stage in my armor. Maybe it helped that a light coursing of adrenaline hummed through me. Hanging on to the positive feelings, I kept it close to my heart as I watched him finish up the strategic briefing.

“So, all that said, you all understand our goal, the plan, and the risks involved. I’m going to be absolutely blunt with you all…” Shining continued, stomping his hoof down before stepping forward towards the edge of the stage and looking out at the sea of guards. A few reporters were there, too, solemnly taking notes as they watched. Snapshot was in the front row, taking pictures of us and Shining as he spoke, of course. Spike sat next to her, looking significantly less sure of himself than the rest of the guards present. He’d be helping Cadance on this side with organization and taking care of the guards.

Admittedly, he looked quite imposing and professional in his full armor, helmet at his side. He nodded out at them once more after a long moment of scanning the crowd. “To be completely honest, if we fail here, this is the last day that Equus will see. If we fail here, it will mean the end of our history and culture. If we fail here… We will be erased from history, and every single one of our loved ones, and the very planet that we care for so much, will follow us,” he warned, stoic eyes burning out over the crowd. I saw hesitation in a few, but not a single guard dared even flinch with him watching.

He nodded to them all, going silent as he paced to the right. “If we fail here, it will be the end, and the last day this planet sees. If we fail here, it will be exactly the same as if Discord had won. If we fail here, it would be like Nightmare Moon had won,” he continued, finally slowing and turning in the other direction again, walking back towards the setting sun as a smirk built up on his muzzle. Ears perked. I could see guards draw curious, and I smiled.

“But Discord didn’t win. King Sombra didn’t win. Nightmare Moon was banished, returning our beloved Princess Luna to our sides. We stood fast through all of those events, again and again. When they first appeared, and when they returned and were defeated by our very own Element Bearers. The Elements of Harmony, which are the embodiments of everything true and just in this great world!” he declared, stamping his hoof down in the same instant. The stomp echoed out through the entire crowd in a wave, each guard shifting more determined as they repeated the gesture.

He nodded curtly towards them all, then turned again, walking back into the darker part of the stage. “They did not win. The very spirit of our land has touched upon these mares and magnified their virtues. They’re standing next to us even now, but I will not let them walk into the dark alone. Those enemies of old did not win. They made us stronger, and we’re going to show that to this new enemy. We’re going to march directly into the storm itself, and they will not win!” he shouted, stomping down again. It echoed twice through the crowd of guards this time, their modified armor glowing in the dark as a shout went up to match his.

Shining Armor smiled again, turning back into the light and walking forwards once again, his armor almost blazing now in the glowing sunset. He walked along, smiling for a moment only, then called out, “We’re marching out now, right into the storm of their hatred, anger, and greed. Each and every one of you is making new history for our great world. Something to protect and hold dear. We will not back down and let them destroy that. We will not let them hurt what we love. We’re going to show them exactly what Equus’ light looks like, then burn them with it. By tomorrow’s daybreak, they will learn to run at the sight of our light!” They exploded into shouts and cheers, drowning out everything as Shining stomped down with both his front hooves. I felt the tingling in my chest myself, and smirked to him as he looked back at me, returning it. He nodded, and I mimicked his gesture, looking to the right after at the surprised looking Keela in my view screen.

“Open the nexus…” I ordered, looking right at her. She hesitated, then gave me a smile instead as she reached down and hit three more keystrokes.

“Nexus is opening. T-Minus twenty seconds and counting. Links establishing,” she confirmed, giving me a nod as the sky above us distorted, a purple, scintillating miasma of light shining down over the entire field. My energy readings picked up the distortion, and synced it with the outputs Keela was sending me. It was building just as anticipated. I looked back to Shining Armor and nodded once again.

He turned, then shouted out over all of their stomping with only two words. “We march!” It echoed, and they all exploded with another deafening cheer. I swallowed, my own adrenaline riding high as I looked up into the dark and swirling purple. No, nobody threatened those I loved. We’re coming for you, Nirru, and this time, you didn’t have the ability to log out…