//------------------------------//
// A Reason to Fight 
// Story: The Price of Harmony 
// by Maverickthepony 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 3: A Reason to Fight

Applejack was busy applebucking. She decided that if they were going to Canterlot, it was a long trip and they would certainly get hungry. She was expecting to leave the next day so she would have time to cook the apples into some tasty treats. What she didn't expect was to be tackled by a sobbing and speechless Rainbow Dash. "What in tarnation! You weren't supposed to be back until tomorrow morning Rainbow."

Forcing herself to speak Rainbow Dash managed to gurgle out "Applejack! The-the wo-worst th-th-th-thing e-v-ver ju-jus-just hap-p-p-p-pened t-t-to m-m-m-me!"

Applejack saw that Rainbow Dash was being completely serious. "Ok then let's get the others together at the library and you can tell us then. Ok sugarcube?" Rainbow Dash just nodded too traumatized to talk.

When Applejack got back to the library Rainbow Dash was still crying. Applejack had carried her there on her back and told Twilight to take care of her while she rounded up the others. Seeing her friend still in distress Applejack walked up and gave her friend a hug. She had no idea what could have made her fearless friend to act as scared as a young filly. "Do you think you can tell us what happened now sugarcube?"

Rainbow Dash simply nodded and taking a giant gulp of the water Twilight had gotten her she began to talk. "S-S-So I was g-g-going to the stadium and I had che-checked on the weather and it was supposed to be sunny all d-day. But when I'm talking to Sp-Sp-Spitfire a maintenance pony came up and told her that there had been a change in the weather. So since I was c-c-curious, I went to t-talk to the weather team captain. He said that they had g-g-gotten a m-m-message saying that it was supposed to rain. He showed me the message and I saw the signature and it was f-f-fak-k-ke. By the time I realized it there was a huge explosion and-and-and Oh please!" Rainbow Dash stopped talking; the look on her face was fear. She was too traumatized to talk until her friends began to comfort her. It was about ten minutes later before she continued talking. "I c-c-couldn't s-s-see anypony g-g-getting out so I went down to help-p-p and I saw... I saw..." she stopped talking for a few seconds, "It was one of those ponies we saw in that army and he had a sword. He was killing anypony that tried to escape!" At this Rainbow Dash couldn't hold back any longer and began to cry profusely. Her friends seeing this immediately gathered around her and tried to comfort her.

They stood there comforting their friend for an hour before Applejack finally spoke up. "We need to go see the princess. We need to tell her that we are ready. After hearing about what they did to those innocent ponies. I don't want them anywhere near Equestria.

"Ok then," responded Twilight, "we can leave whenever you're ready Rainbow."

Rainbow Dash simply nodded.

The six ponies set out for Canterlot immediately. Even when it began to rain they did not stop, they realized that this was too important to let something like this slow them down. Not even Rarity complained.

They were nearing Canterlot when Twilight finally broke the silence, "Does anypony realize how much our lives will change after this?"

"I don't reckon so Twi', but we're just gonna have tah adjust to whatever happens." Applejack responded and with that they were silent for the rest of the trek to Canterlot. As soon as they entered the city it was obvious that news of the attack had reached this town, but it had been censored to an extreme.

Rainbow Dash walked up to a newsstand to read a blaring headline that said; 'Tragedy in Fillydelphia! Fire Believed To Be The Fault Of Maintenance!' "Maintenance's fault my ass." Rainbow Dash muttered under her breath as she walked away. She knew that if anypony heard what really happened they would go into a widespread panic. It was sheer dumb lucky that the only survivor was sworn to secrecy by the princess, but it couldn't have been worse for them since she had survived and was now infuriated at what had happened.

The six ponies walked up to the castle doors. "State your business!" said one of the guards.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle and these are my friends. We have to discuss an urgent matter with the princess." the guards obliged and stepped aside to let Twilight and her friends enter. They began making their way to the royal chamber which is when Twilight began having second doubts about what they were doing here.

Seeing her friend's change of attitude Rarity spoke up, "Twilight dear, we all agreed on doing this. Turning back now will just let things get worse." Twilight nodded and then continued to walk towards the chamber. When they arrived they knocked and the door opened by magic.

Celestia and Luna were sitting on thrones surrounded by other ponies. These were not the guards that were normally seen but these were special guards that Twilight had only seen come out a few days before Nightmare moon came back. "Twilight, my faithful student! To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Princess Celestia? We need to talk alone with just you and Luna please." seeing that her student was being serious, Celestia told the guard to leave. After they had left Celestia turned towards her sister.

"You told them? We agreed that we wouldn't tell them unless the entire land depended on it!"

"The entire land DOES depend on it." replied Luna.

Rainbow Dash spoke up first, "Princess Luna, what you told us back in the forest, I didn't want to believe you. But, well, I just got back from Fillydelphia." At this Princess Celestia's and Luna's eyes opened wide. These six already knew the truth of what had happened in Fillydelphia. They knew what was coming next. "And well, I decided that, if those creeps are going to try something like that again, I want it stopped!" and with that the other five nodded their heads in agreement.

"You six do realize what the country of Forshan is like? It is not the like rural area I showed you everywhere. It is mostly a desolate and forbidding desert. That is why they are so war hardened and toughened, because the environment helps them to become that way." Princess Luna said to them.

"We agreed that no matter what it is like there we will just adjust to it as well as we can." Twilight said.

Celestia responded to this by saying, "You may be surprised how they live outside of the main cities. It is a constant war where ponies are killing others for money and they will even hire ponies to do the killing for them."

Twilight gulped, she hadn't expected to hear that. She thought that they would have all been soldiers if they were violent, not that they fought a war against each other. "You will need to be extremely careful", Luna added, "If you are not somepony may hire a mercenary to take you out. The Forshan desert's people are truly terrible. It is a place where life has no value but death sometimes has its price."

Twilight looked back at her friends, the looks on their faces (with the exception of Fluttershy, whose face was hidden as she looked down) said that they would fight. But Twilight could tell that in their minds they all had doubts, but they had agreed that no matter what they would do their best to protect Equestria. "We understand this, we still want to fight."

"Ok then, I guess that no matter what I say you are going to stick to your decision. Follow us." with that Celestia and Luna turned around and went into a trapdoor behind the thrones. Twilight and the others followed them wondering why it was there. Celestia seemed to know this and answered the question for them. "Canterlot hasn't always been the capital of Equestria; it was just where the elements of harmony, well the original ones, stored all of their equipment. The castle was built on top of the original storage to keep a citizen from stumbling into it. If any word got out about this place it would result in us having to tell everyone about the past, and we do not want to do that."

Twilight understood, even she had regretted seeking out the true history of Equestria, but her curiosity had gotten the better of her and there was no turning back at this point. They exited the long tunnel into a large room with several containers. Luna spoke up, "each element of harmony carried its own weapon and none of the weapons seemed to be effective in the hooves of any of the others, so we kept them separated based on which element used what. The club and light leather armor for kindness, the leg blades and light leather armor for loyalty, the heavy metal Armour and double-bladed sword for honesty, the rapier and medium leather armor for generosity, the spear and the medium metal Armour for laughter, and the onyx encrusted cloth armor for magic."

Each pony went to their respective element and saw that the princess was right. Twilight looked into hers and spoke up, "Princess, you said that there was no magic in Forshan because there were no unicorns there. I think that I will need a weapon to defend myself."

Luna responded to this by saying, "Twilight, there is no weapon that you would be skilled with. That is why the onyx is placed into the cloth. When a unicorn dies its magic goes into gemstones, and the darkness of the gems determines how much magic it can absorb. Because Onyx are so black they can store an infinite amount of magic. There is more than enough magic aura in those gems to last you a year of consistent casting in Forshan."

Twilight looked back at the cloth, she had heard that onyx could hold an unlimited supply of magic, but she hadn't ever seen one to be sure. She gave the centermost gem on the front of the cloth an experimental prod and was shocked at the sudden burst of energy that she felt throughout her body. She quickly brought her hoof back afraid that the flow of magic into her body would kill her, as soon as her hoof left the gem she felt the flow stop and she felt like she had so much extra magical power. She looked over at the princess who nodded showing that she understood.

"Now, I'm going to teleport you six to Forshan into a secluded area as soon as you are ready." with that Twilight and her friends quickly got their gear on. When they each finished they went and gathered around the princess and waited for the others. Applejack was the last to finish since she had to put on the most, when she finished she went and sat next to Fluttershy who had finished just before her. "Ok, I know exactly where you will end up, but I have no idea if there will be anypony there when you arrive so be ready for a fight as soon as you get there." They nodded in understanding and the princess cast the spell.

When they arrived they quickly turned looking to see if anypony had been around to see them teleport in. When they decided that they were alone Twilight looked up and was astonished at what she saw. A massive wall of sand that looked to be a couple hundred yards high was rapidly approaching. They needed to find shelter and fast. Their first battle would be one of survival.