Loose Ends

by TheCrazedTurkey

Chapter 8

September 23 (cont.)
Vigil opened the door, holding it open for everypony as they entered. The area was crowded, as expected; everypony in town and several from all over Equestria had come today. The area was overlooked by a balcony where Celestia was supposed to appear.

And so, we waited.

Eventually, a hush fell over the crowd.

A loud fanfare performed by whistling birds filled the room. As the music ended, the mayor of Ponyville walked onto the stage beneath the balcony. “Fillies and gentlecolts,” she announced, “as mayor of Ponyville, it is my great pleasure to announce the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration!” At this, everypony in the crowd cheered, and the mayor continued confidently. “In just a few moments,” she said, “our town will witness the magic of the Sunrise, and celebrate this, the longest day of the year!

“And now, it is my great honor to introduce to you the ruler of our land, the very pony who gives us the sun and the moon each and every day: the good, the wise, the bringer of harmony to all of Equestria, Princess Celestia!” As she finished, another fanfare began, and a curtain covering most of the balcony rose. All of the spotlights turned to it.

The balcony was empty.

Soon after, a dark mist appeared, followed by a large, black mare whose size rivaled that of Princess Celestia herself. A great commotion started, but I didn’t hear any of it. I became completely unaware of everything around me. I was completely numb. I continued looking up to the balcony, I didn’t see. I listened, but I didn’t hear anything. Eventually, though I did feel a shake, and snapped back to reality.

Bolt, as it turned out, had been the one shaking me. At the same time, he was looking up to the balcony. As my eyes refocused, I saw that Nightmare Moon still stood there, laughing insanely. The dark, starry mist that must have been her mane had grown into a large cloud that covered the ceiling. Three Pegasus guards flew at her, probably in an attempt to capture her. As Nightmare Moon saw them approaching, she conjured up bolts of lightning that struck the three of them down. After that, the crowd went into a mass panic. Nightmare Moon then resumed her laughing as she was consumed in the mist. It was thick, but I could tell that her body was rapidly deteriorating. I soon realized that she was, in fact evaporating, becoming one with the gaseous mass that enveloped her. The cloud squatted, as if about to jump, then flew out the door, followed by a rainbow-colored Pegasus.

Twilight Sparkle then began sprinting out. Juggernaut ordered his team to follow, but they waited two minutes, so as not to look like they were following her. Before they left, four other ponies made it to the door. After that, they left hastily, leaving me in charge of my team. I climbed up the stairs to the balcony alone after telling Vigil and Bolt to stay behind, so they could help everypony evacuate. “Alright, everypony, listen up!” I yelled over the commotion. Instantly, everypony froze and looked up at me. I pulled my guard’s badge out from under my hat (where else would I keep it?) and tossed the fedora aside. I held my badge up for everypony to see. “I’m with the Royal Guard,” I continued as they continued to watch me intently, “Now, I’ve got nine undercover colleagues down there in the crowd with you. Each one of them should be wearing their badges about now.” As I said this, I saw a few ponies in the crowd searching through their backpacks, of wherever they had been keeping their badges. Once they all had them on, I continued.

“I’m gonna have to ask each one of you to calmly find the nearest exit,” I said, “Once you’re outside, I want you to find a partner. It could be anypony, just as long as you’ve got someone to stay with you. If you can, get more than one partner."

“Once you’ve found your partner, I need you to head back to your homes. If you don’t live with the pony you select, then settle on a place for both of you to stay. I recommend you stay close to any guards you come across; you’ll know them by a badge, similar to the one I’m wearing, or they’ll be in full uniform. We’ve got snipers positioned on rooftops throughout the town in case there’s any trouble. Alright, now move out!”

With that, everypony began calmly moving towards the exits. Well, they did seem kind of confused, terrified, and not calm in any way, but hey: they managed to stay in a single file line until they got out and follow my instructions.

I climbed back down the stairs as civilians began leaving the building. I came across Vigil, who was guiding a family toward one of the doors. As he saw me, he pointed right ahead of him and said to the mother, “Alright, the door should be right up there. You should be able to make it back on your own, okay?” The mother nodded and motioned for her husband and son to follow. As they left, Vigil turned to face me and saluted with a smirk on his face. “At ease, soldier,” I said with mock authority. He obeyed my command just as Bolt ran up to us. “Hey guys,” he said casually, “So… how’ve you been these past… five minutes?” I shrugged as Vigil said, “Never been better!”

By now, everypony but us had managed to leave. The guards who had been here were outside, escorting particularly large groups. “Ready to go?” I asked my companions before heading outside.

It was just then that I heard gunfire.

The three of us sprinted outside, looking up to all of the rooftops where the dragons were supposed to be positioned. Atop the building to our right, we saw something very unnerving: a changeling had gotten its hoofs on one of our sniper rifles. As we continued looking around us, we saw one of our dragons get impaled on a changeling’s horn. Similar events were occurring on each rooftop. Not just changelings, either. I saw two griffons, three zebras, and one minotaur attacking the dragons. The dragon being attacked by the minotaur killed his adversary and several others managed to get airborne before their attackers even arrived. All of the civilians were indoors, it seemed, so the six surviving dragons gathered around us, along with all of the guards from our regiment. Several other guards looked at the dragons warily, ready to attack them. “Stand down,” I ordered, “They’re with us.” This explanation seemed good enough for them, as they let their guard down, somewhat. “Is there an armory nearby?” I asked the guard who seemed to be in charge. “Yes sir,” he replied, “It’s only about thirty yards south of here.” “Thank you,” I said, “You and your team stay here and hold a defensive position, since you’re already armed. You six dragons, come with us.”

With that, everypony in my team left to get armor and weapons.

The trip down to the armory was quite uneventful. Obviously, whatever was going on was just starting. We arrived at a concrete building on the edge of town, which looked very out of place among the greenery. No other houses had been built in the area, so this place was relatively secluded. “Alright, you six,” I said, turning to the dragons, “Stand guard out here. If you see any signs of trouble… tell us.”

They saluted and pulled out their pistols. When I realized that these were all they had other than their sniper rifles, I told them that once we had finished getting ready, we would stand guard while they geared up.

As we went inside, we saw that all of the lights had been turned off, and it was pitch black. One of the colts who had a bag on him pulled out a flashlight, which he held while I looked for a switch. After two minutes, I found such a switch, and flicked it. Instantly, fluorescent lights that ran along the ceiling illuminated the hallway we had apparently been standing in. We moved forward, looking for where all the supplies were kept. Eventually, we found a room that contained racks that held spears, swords, guns and various other weapons. There was a closet on one side of the room, which had thirty suits of armor. Each and every one of us grabbed some armor and a holster to carry pistols. I grabbed a sword and strapped it to my back, Vigil got a shotgun, and Bolt Just went for a few grenades. Others grabbed spears, some went for rifles and others still were content with just the sidearm they had obtained. Once we were ready, we went outside and waited for the dragons, who didn’t take nearly as long as us, admittedly.

Now that every single one of us was armed, we headed back to where we’d just come from to find all of the guards taking cover behind trees. Once one of them saw us, he motioned for each of us to get behind cover. Apparently, the snipers had begun shooting while we were gone. Each member of my group hid behind something, and a gunfight ensued. It wasn’t very thrilling, since we just popped up whenever an opponent was reloading. The dragons had their own tactic of flying around, landing just behind an enemy and throwing him off. I don’t know exactly how many enemies everypony had taken out, all I know is that after fifteen minutes, we were safe. As soon as we were sure of this, we got out from behind our cover and searched the area for additional threats. “Well, that was easy,” Bolt sighed as he got up. “Too easy…” Vigil pondered. Just as Vigil said this, we all heard Juggernaut’s voice on one of the dragon’s walkie-talkies. We heard gunfire in the background, along with yelling. “We’re on the edge of the Everfree Forest,” said Juggernaut’s voice, “We need assistance! The subject, Twilight Sparkle has gone in along with five companions. We’ve taken up a defensive position. We are surrounded by hostiles! Repeat, we need-”

The transmission was cut off. We stood silence for a few moments, thinking, calculating. The forest was about one mile east to our location, but, by the sounds of the transmission, we didn’t have very long. If we were to run, it would take about ten minutes, probably. There was, however, one other option…

“Flight,” Bolt said, stating everypony else’s thoughts. “Wait,” said a guard, “They’re only six dragons and… four Pegasi here. How’re we all gonna fly?” Vigil was the one to answer this question with, “Well, most unicorns can levitate objects. The skilled ones could probably levitate two or three ponies at once. Dragons are pretty strong, too, so maybe they could each carry somepony… if that’s alright with you, of course.” Vigil looked at each one of the dragons. Eventually, one jet black dragon who, based on his voice, I recognized to be Quartz spoke up. “If that’s what it takes to get the job done, then I’m all for it,” he stated, all of his fellow dragons nodding in agreement. After this exchange, I spoke. “I could probably carry five ponies, plus myself,” I said, “That should be enough at first. Everypony who isn’t carried by a dragon or me and isn’t a Pegasus should stay here and wait for my signal to start heading over. Does everypony understand?” They all saluted in acknowledgement and I selected the five who would be going with me (Bolt would be one of them, of course, and Vigil’s a Pegasus, so he could go himself.) before getting everypony separated into groups. The dragons each grabbed their designated ponies to escort and I created a spherical force-field around those who would be going with me. Once everypony was in their positions, we took off, with me levitating Bolt and four other ponies, while those who would be staying behind were already preparing themselves for what lay ahead of them. Including everypony from the group we had just teamed up with, the dragons, and myself, there were fifteen of us in the air, while twenty remained on the ground.

After less than two minutes, we saw where the action was. Similarly to the situation we’d just encountered, a wide variety of creatures were involved in the fight. Dragons, griffons, minotaurs, changelings, zebras, dogs, even a few ponies fought against our allies… and we were losing. I only spotted two unicorns and one Pegasus still fighting on our side, with more than seventy adversaries.

“Call the others,” I said to a random guard. He looked up from the horrific sight, then pulled out his walkie-talkie. “Calling all units. Begin heading for the objective. Over.”

I looked at Bolt for a few moments.

“You ready for this?” I asked.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Bolt replied, smiling nervously.

I nodded reassuringly, then opened a small hole in the top of our bubble so that my team could hear me as I yelled, “NOW!”

As soon as those words got out, I closed the hole and threw the bubble we stood in downward with all my might as the dragons and Pegasi dove toward the ground. As we plummeted, I created a smaller shield around every one of the ponies going with me. The larger shield crushed several changelings once it hit the ground and shattered immediately afterward. I looked around, making sure everypony with me was still okay, then let their shields dissolve. As I pulled out my sword and we dispersed, I saw that our dragons had dropped off their partners, then returned to the skies as they rained down fire upon the enemy. I made my way through the battlefield. A minotaur threw a punch at me, which I dodged. Immediately afterward, I impaled him on my sword and ran forward. I had to see if Juggernaut was okay. At one point, a group of zebras fired at me with machine guns, so I created a force-field around myself until they reloaded, then threw each of them aside with my magic.

Eventually, through all of the confusion, I saw the Pegasus whom I had seen fighting against impossible odds.

It was Juggernaut.

I wouldn’t have recognized him if I hadn’t seen his cutie mark, a shining cutlass; the flesh on part of his face had burned off completely, and the rest of his face was badly bruised and cut. One of his wings seemed to have completely come off, while the other one looked badly broken, but even as I watched him, he was still fighting. He still grappled with a griffon, throwing it to the ground with his front hooves and punching it repeatedly until it was coughing up blood. He panted, and looked up, right at me. As I made to speak, he picked up his enemy’s pistol and shot it right past my ear. “WHAT WAS THAT FOR?” I yelled over the madness. In reply, Juggernaut pointed behind me, and I looked over my shoulder to find a dead dog. “Oh…” was all I could manage to say when I saw this. “Glad to see you could make it,” the captain said nonchalantly, grabbing a changeling that had been sneaking up behind him and snapping its neck. “What’s going on here?” I asked, looking around and beheading an oncoming zebra with my sword. “I’m just as clueless as you, but I think we I’m speaking for both of us when I say that now isn’t the time to look for answers,” Juggernaut said, grabbing a thrown grenade out of mid-air and throwing it into a crowd of enemies.

The two of us quit talking for a while as a few minotaurs came at us. We managed to take them out, but I took a nasty blow to the head and Juggernaut lost his only remaining wing. A few minutes afterward, I saw Vigil in the distance, who was clearing out a path for him to move forward with his shotgun. He made his way to us, just as a series of explosions signaled Bolt’s arrival. The four of us kicked some ass (literally, in one instance. Donkeys seemed to have become involved, too.) together for a few minutes, and the confusion of our opponents, followed by more soldiers on our side running through the battlefield showed that the other team had arrived.

Juggernaut was obviously growing weaker every minute. He was soon struggling with even the weakest of enemies. Vigil, Bolt and I decided to find him a place to hide and, eventually, came to a ditch with a convenient bunch of wooden boards piled up next to it. We laid Juggernaut in the ditch and set the wooden boards across it, concealing him, but leaving a few holes so he could see and breathe. Vigil slipped his pistol down into the ditch with him, so he could defend himself if danger came, and we went back into the action. We continued fighting off several enemies of all species until the ground shook and we heard a loud booming noise… almost like something huge had just landed.

We all looked up to see a dragon, and not just the teenage ones that we had fought (and worked with) on multiple occasions, but a full grown dragon. It towered above the treetops, probably more than forty feet tall. It let out a deafening roar and swung its tail, sending several of our guys flying.

“Oh, come on!!” Bolt yelled, more than a little frustrated, “Why don’t we get adult dragons?” “Well, the Dragon Adoption Program’s only been up for eighty years, and since…” Vigil said before I cut him off. “Vigil, I don’t think now’s a good time to be a smart ass,” I said. “I know. I just couldn’t help myself,” Vigil replied, shrugging. We looked around, noticing that all of the enemies were leaving, now. None of our guys tried to capture them, though; we were all distracted by the enormous dragon that loomed over us.

And it did not seem friendly.

It drew a breath, then flames spewed from its mouth and nostrils. All thirty of the remaining soldiers scrambled for cover behind boulders and trees. It stopped for a bit, and one group of five soldiers came popped up from behind their cover to start shooting at it. This turned out to be a bad idea, as the bullets just bounced off of its scales, doing little more than annoying it. It swung its tail again, shattering the rocks the soldiers hid behind and sending the guards themselves flying. The dragons on our side flew with agility around the head of the big dragon, breathing fire on him. Eventually, he managed to swat one out of the sky.

“I don’t think we’ll last very long like this,” Bolt stated.

“We need to do something,” Vigil said.

Suddenly, an idea began forming in my head.

I remembered how Vigil had broken the sound barrier all those years ago. I remembered how Bolt could shoot pure magic strong enough to propel him in backward.

“I have a plan,” I told them.

I explained it to them, how Vigil would fly around, shooting at it. Bolt would be shooting at it with his magic, and I would be running around with a shield surrounding me. That was all I could think of at the time, but, with everypony of the twenty-five soldiers still standing and all attacking it at once, the dragon should be confused enough for me to formulate a better plan. Vigil took a few grenades from Bolt, then took off. Bolt then jumped out from behind his tree and shot balls of fire at the dragon. I waited a few seconds, the ran out and created a force-field around myself. Strangely enough, I seemed to be the one who caught its attention. It looked at me for a few seconds, then took a swing at me with one of its claws. I was sent flying, but I managed to keep the shield up. When I crashed into the ground, my head was hurting like crazy, but I hadn’t hit my head on anything. I’m guessing it was from the stress of keeping the shield up. My vision was blurred for a few moments, but I could make out a white figure flying around the dragon. It must have been Vigil. From what I could see and hear, he had shot the dragon in one of its eyes. That probably did little more than blind it somewhat, but we’d take what we could get. After my vision cleared up, I threw myself (still in the shield, of course) at the dragon, hitting it in the gut with enough force to send it flying. I flew backward some to get ready for another strike when Bolt threw a ball of fire at its opened mouth. It exploded in the dragon’s mouth, and it yelled in pain. It got up and started thrashing about blindly. I think it forgot that it could even breathe fire, it was so frustrated.

It stumbled backwards. After a few seconds, I realized that it was stumbling towards where Juggernaut was hidden. I made to change its course somehow, when I saw something. Juggernaut was limping up to the dragon from behind and was carrying… an RPG? He slung it up onto his soldier and stood on his hind legs so that he could aim more easily. I know from experience how much effort that requires, and, based on Juggernaut’s condition at the time, I knew that he wasn’t up to it. But somehow, he managed to find the strength to do what he obviously thought he had to do. Seconds passed, then I heard him call out in a hoarse voice, “Over here, you son of a bitch!”

It slowly began to turn to face him. Once it had done so, Juggernaut fired.

The projectile flew through the air for what seemed like forever; the world was in slow motion, it seemed. Finally, it hit the dragon right in the face and exploded. The dragon stumbled for a few moments, then fell forward… right on top of Juggernaut. As it fell, the world continued to move in slow motion, and Juggernaut collapsed, finally giving in to his injuries. He dropped his weapon, and looked right at me. He smiled weakly, and saluted.

Just then, Vigil took action. He swooped down, grabbing Juggernaut and taking him to safety, just as the dragon hit the ground with a deafening boom and a cloud of dust filled the air. After this had all happened, I rushed to Juggernaut and Vigil, as did Bolt. “How do you feel, sir?” I asked. Juggernaut laughed weakly as he said, “Terrible.” “We’ll get a medic right away,” I assured him, “You’ll pull through this, you hear me?”

He just laughed again. “Nah,” he stated, “I’m too far gone, trust me. Plus, even if I could make it out of here alive, I’d still rather die than spend the rest of my life looking like this.” He gestured to his whole disfigured face as he said this last part. A few moments passed before Juggernaut said, “I want you to take my place, Shining.” “E-excuse me, sir?” I said. “You heard me,” was all he said, “You’ve got the attributes of a real leader. I’ve followed your career in the Guard very closely, and I can honestly say that you won’t find a more qualified stallion in all of Equestria.” After he said this, he reached up to shake my hoof. I did so, fighting back tears. We had always been acquaintances, but it was then that I realized that it was more than just a business relationship; we were friends. He had come to the Green Dragon with us once before. I still laugh, remembering how he had gotten drunk and tried to hit on a few mares. He had bruises from that encounter for a whole two months.

A few minutes passed in silence before I asked him, “So, where did you get that RPG?” He smiled weakly. “This griffon found me, and… well… I don’t think I need to elaborate,” he said.

A few more moments passed. “It’s funny,” he finally said, his eyes going unfocused and his breaths getting weaker every moment, “all ponies think that death is such a terrible thing, and yet…” He coughed slightly before continuing, “It’s not really all that bad. I’ve done what I had to do, and now…” He began to tear up a bit as he said, “And now… I can rest. My story’s over, and you know what? It was a great ride, but now, it’s time to go.” He looked right at me as he said, “Thank you.”

With that, he drew his final breath, and Captain Juggernaut was dead.

Vigil took off his burned helmet, as did Bolt and I. I closed his remaining eye, so that he could rest. Once this was done, the three of us stood and saluted, reciting the Guard’s Creed:

.

After that, we stood in silence for ten full minutes. Then, the sun began to rise. As we all looked to the east, glad to see another sunrise, despite what had just happened, some carriages pulled by six Pegasi flew in. I told everypony to start getting on as I looked at this battlefield. Some ponies were respectfully placing our fallen allies in ornate coffins and reverently burying our fallen enemies in six foot trenches. The huge dragon was taken by a group of unicorns to an unknown location as I stepped into a carriage with Vigil and Bolt.

As I looked out the window, I saw six coffins holding dragons that wore Equestrian armor.

There will be a public memorial service held tomorrow for all of the fallen pony guards, and a secret funeral held for all of the dragons who had died, knowing that they would go down unsung heroes.

I really don’t feel like writing in this journal right now…