This was not their first time heading north, but it was the first time that Morgan could recall Sol had prepared them so heavily. Even when they had traveled in a caravan, and even when they had been gathering the army that would now follow in their wake, there had never been such a focus on preparation. Before, Sol had been satisfied to lead and to leave the soldiers to tend to themselves, clearly more interested in them as a representation than any actual united front, but now it was far different. Now, Sol seemed to expect something much more from them than simply a face of unity.
Titan was unnerved by it: part of him worried that this was Sol falling back on old habits, wanting to use pawns to do her fighting for her. And Morgan was almost insulted: she had absolute faith in her own abilities as well as that of her siblings, after all, and believed wholeheartedly that they should be the ones to do all the fighting, if it came to that. In fact, she had grown eager to test herself against these threatening new monsters that had invaded Equestria, whatever they were: her blood boiled for battle, and demanded that she fight these monsters and prove her worth and superiority.
But Sol was neither planning to use these soldiers as merely pawns, and nor did she have ultimate faith in her own family's abilities: for the first time, she found herself questioning whether or not this was a foe they could defeat. For she sensed grave and terrible things, and felt a magic in the air that made her skin crawl and her very soul shudder: there was something poisonous and malicious about this presence, and the more she had studied it, the more worried she had become.
And as they made their way closer to the source of this darkness, this evil, Sol could feel her sense of foreboding only growing greater and greater by the moment. Yes, this wasn't like anything they had ever faced before, and she felt they would need the help of every pony: and not merely as fodder or distractions, but their actual aid in defeating this terrible new enemy.
Sure, Morgan dismissed many of the rumors, and Sol felt like there was no point in trying to correct her: at best, Morgan would scoff, and at worst, her paladin coltfriend would spread rumors into the ranks that they were marching into the battle they could not win, and Sol could not have her forces losing morale and confidence here and now. The rumors that they did hear as they made their way north was bad enough: if the soldiers found out that their mighty leaders, these three legendary heroes of Equestria, might not be enough to fight off this worsening storm...
Sol didn't want to imagine the consequences. No, it was better to bide her time for now: to wait, as they went north, and only keep her soldiers prepared as best she could. Titan trusted in her, and Morgan, even if brash, would always be ready to fight. And this foe, whatever else it was, would require all her cunning and all her strategy to best... not just all of their raw strength. It would require teamwork, and unity... and for a prophecy she had once been told many years ago to come true...
A prophecy, that stated that if they found a way to bring their three races together, ponykind would be unstoppable... and would finally conquer this wild, untamed land of Equestria.
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