//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Rarity's Army // by BronyDan //------------------------------// “Well, are they here yet? The rifles?” asked Rainbow Dash as she swaggered into the hall, but halted when she saw everyone’s face, “Rats. Well I’m not walking through town with this anymore.” she said holding up her shovel, “I’m constantly getting told by a bunch of fillies that they’ve enlarged a bucket and can they borrow my spade.” “That young colt Rumble offered me his little toy pistol.” said Fluttershy, “I wasn’t sure if he was joking or not.” “He offered it to me as well.” said Pinkie, “I took it.” and she held up the pistol in her hoof. “At this rate, we’d probably be lucky to get our rifles in time for the victory salute.” grumbled Rainbow Dash as the door opened and Rarity and Twilight walked in; Spike right behind them carrying two carrier bags. “Platoon, attention!” Twilight called out in her officer’s voice. Everyone fell into their ranks and Twilight noticed somepony was missing, “Has anyone seen Applejack?” At that moment Applejack ran in after them, panting for breath, “Rarity, I was gonna try and see you before Parade, but you’d already left. Listen I’ve been in contact with a friend and he says he can get us the rifles. Six bits each, the ammo may cost an extra two.” “Certainly not, Applejack.” cried Rarity, “I will not be seen to partake in such dealings, now would you kindly please fall into your rank?” Everypony groaned in exasperation as Applejack stood in-between Spike and Pinkie Pie. Rarity stood in front of the platoon to address them, “Now I know some of us are getting a little irritated about our lack of weapons,” there were a few murmurs and nods of head, “however, I have decided that if we shan’t have rifles yet, we shall have to make our own weapons. Now if everypony will kindly stand around this table for me, please?” Twilight helped Rarity with the bags and took out the jerry cans of petrol, the roll of fuse, the empty bottles and the matches and laid them out on the table. “Now we shall be attempting to make our own Petrol Bombs.” said Rarity, “It’s fairly straight forward; what you do is that you simply fill the bottle with petrol and put the fuse in with it, but leaving a little piece to stick out over the top. Now if a Changeling tank was to be coming towards us, one pony will prise the cap of the tank open, another shall light the fuse and will pass it to another pony, who will then drop into the tank. Any questions?” “I’ve got one.” said Applejack, raising her hoof in the air and looking quite sour about her idea being scrapped, “While we’re doing all this, what’s the tank gonna be doing?” Rarity didn’t answer; she just sighed and asked Twilight to start handing out the bottles for everypony to start filling. Meanwhile outside the church, a cart had just pulled up next to it being pulled by two stallions and with the Vicar sitting in the cart, “I do wish I didn’t have to say goodbye to my bells, it will certainly affect my campanology.” the two stallions looked at him confused, “Bell-Ringing, it’s a social hobby of mine. Still if they must be taken away for weapons so be it.” “Don’t worry Reverend.” said one of the stallions with a gruff cockney accent, “We’ll leave you with one bell, that’ll be all you need.” “Yes I suppose so.” sighed the vicar as he led the two of them into the church and into the tower at the end where the ropes swayed casually as the wind blew through the open window. “Getting good service lately vicar?” asked the other stallion as they entered, “I mean, folks tend to pray more in war times, don’t they?” The vicar chuckled a little to humour them and showed them through an archway that led to the higher levels of the tower. When they had gone, he looked up to see his four magnificent bells staring down at him. “I shall have to hear them one more time.” he said dreamily, and he grabbed one of the ropes with his forelegs and pulled. Back in the hall, Twilight was pouring the last of the petrol into a bottle and gave it to Bon-Bon, “How many have we got, Spike?” she asked. “That’s about two dozen.” said Spike, ticking off bottles on a piece of parchment. “Now pay attention, please?” Rarity called out, “These Petrol-Bombs shall be the substitute for our main armoury, and these could cause some damage from around 25 yards at least.” Rainbow Dash’s eyes drooped slightly as Rarity talk continued, but then her ears pricked up slightly, “Rarity, listen!” she called and the whole hall fell quiet. Outside they could hear the church bells ringing outside, “It’s the bells!” Rainbow shouted, picking up a Petrol-Bomb, “The Invasion’s started!” Everypony scrambled over to the table to pick up as many of the Petrol-Bombs as they could, and were about to head for the door when Rarity and Twilight called them all back. “Listen to me.” said Rarity in a serious whisper, “This is it. Now it is quite possible that the Changelings could be here at any moment, now we haven’t got enough fire power to stop them entirely, so I suggest that the best we can do is to slow them down until we can properly deal with them hoof to hoof. So I suggest our best method would be to try and make a barricade across the road that leads into Ponyville, so don’t forget your Gas-Masks!” she shouted as everypony headed out of the door, Rarity staying behind to collect the rifle she had taken from Fluttershy that she kept hidden in one of the cupboards. When they were on main road leading into town, Rarity and Twilight had split up into two groups and were going around Ponyville collecting pieces of furniture that they could use to make the barricade. The local shop, Quills and Sofas had been completely emptied of all the sofas, and Spike and Applejack had even gone into Carousel Boutique and removed Rarity’s Drama Couch and unused mannequins. Beds and tables were all thrown on together and Twilight had come back to organise it so that every piece fitted was in perfectly. Soon the barricade was built, spreading out across the whole road. Everypony stood on the other side staring out into the Everfree Forest, Petrol Bombs in their hooves and some were using their own weapons they always brought with them. Spike had manages to crawl through a gap in the barricade and sat in an open little hole, holding his broom with the knife tied into it. Rarity and Twilight were in the middle, Rarity pointing the rifle at the bridge that led into town. “Twilight.” she whispered as she reached into her Gas Mask box, “There are five cartridges for this rifle. Now if anything happens to me, you are to take responsibility for the gun, and if anything happens to you, pass the gun to Rainbow Dash.” Twilight nodded her head slowly and went back to looking out towards the forest. The air had fallen silent now; many ponies who hadn’t joined up with the LDV were looking though their windows, daring not to breathe loudly just in case the Changelings might hear it. Suddenly they felt the ground rumbling slightly underneath them, they tensed up ready to fight, but there were no sign of the Changelings anywhere. Twilight listened carefully, “Sounds like they’re coming from behind us Rarity.” She whispered. Rarity turned around; the sound was definitely coming from the main street. “Quick, everypony around the other side!” she shouted and they all scrambled to the other side of the barricade as a cart emerged round the corner that led to the church, being pulled by two stallions with a large tarpaulin covering the cart. They stopped at the barricade, looking confused as Rarity popped her head over the top, “What are you doing?” she called out, “Didn’t you hear the invasion call?” “That weren’t no invasion call, luv.” chuckled one of the stallions, “That were only the vicar having a last pull of his bells before we took ‘em for weapon purposes.” Rarity felt embarrassed at this. It certainly didn’t help matters when Trixie came running up, wearing her ARP helmet to see what the commotion was all about, and was soon telling everypony to take everything off the barricade and back where they belonged, hearing the other ponies sniggering and chuckling to each other as Rarity and Twilight put the sofas in Quills and Sofas back where they had been originally on display. The next day, Rarity was extremely quiet. She had never felt more humiliated in her life and it was all because of a silly misunderstanding. The whole LDV thing clearly wasn’t working and she had half a mind to tell everypony that she was going to disband it permanently. In fact she decided that was the best option, but then the door opened and Twilight and Spike entered, “Ready for Parade, Rarity?” asked Spike. “Not yet.” breathed Rarity, “In fact after tonight, I will not be going on Parade, because I have decided for it to be disbanded.” “What?!” said Twilight in shock, “But Rarity…” “There’s no good trying to persuade me otherwise Twilight!” said Rarity, her voice louder than usual, “We’ve become a laughing stock of the town, it’s been two weeks and still no weapons have come, many of them are actually getting fed up of waiting, I am done with the excuses and ridiculous plans to get them in the mood, so there’s nothing else to do.” she had just ended her rant when the phone rang in the kitchen and she went to answer it. She returned shortly afterwards, still looking sulky, “No it’s not the weapons!” she cried as Spike opened his mouth, “That was GHQ informing me that we are no longer known as the Local Defence Volunteers; from now on, we’re the Home Guard.” “Well that sounds quite good.” said Spike encouragingly. “Oh yes,” said Rarity sarcastically, her voice rising up an octave again, as if she was going hysterical, “that will really terrify the Changelings, knowing that they have to go up against an unarmed pack of Home Guard rather than an unarmed pack of Local Defence Volunteers!” Twilight and Spike backed away slightly, as Rarity breathed in and out heavily, “Look, go over to the hall, I’ll meet you there.” she sighed as they turned around and she closed the door behind. She began pacing the room slowly until the bell jingled again and a stallion in uniform waked in, “Miss Rarity?” he asked her, and when she nodded he asked her to sign a roll of parchment, which she did without looking at it and then she headed upstairs. When inside her bedroom, Rarity put her LDV and ‘Captain’ armbands on for what she thought would be the last time and looked in the mirror, going over in her head about how she would break the news to her platoon that she was considering cancelling all action from now on and get life back to normal. When she made up her mind, she turned around, walked down the stairs and out the front door. She then came running back in two seconds later and her eyes travelled to the corner of the room. There standing in groups of five, were fifteen brand new rifles, each with its own bayonet, and a box tied around the barrel that contain five rounds for each one. Rarity’s mouth hung open for a long time, her eyes beginning to swell up with tears. She quickly gathered herself up and examined one of the rifles. It seemed to be in working condition, so she slung four of the rifles over her shoulder and levitated the rest out the door with her. Soon she was standing outside the church hall, the voices of everypony inside was coming out of the open window. Rarity breathed in proudly and entered. The air went quiet, and suddenly ponies in their beds woke up and looked out of their windows towards the church hall as the sounds of cheers and clapping came travelling through the streets.