As the rubbish cart came to a halt at the path leading up to the church hall, Rarity climbed down from her seat and thanked the driver. She gave the cart a few hard taps on the side, and the rubbish began to stir. One by one, the platoon popped their heads out and pulled themselves put of cart, their noses wrinkled. “Trust Rarity to sit at the front, away from the rubbish.” grumbled Rainbow Dash as she pulled a rotting cabbage leaf out of the end of her rifle. As Twilight helped Spike down to the ground, Rarity told her to give the stallion, who had pulled the cart, something for his troubles as she walked up to the church hall.
Inside, the two Changelings kept their revolvers pointing at the nervous crowd. Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo stood petrified as Granny Smith held them tightly. Just then, there came a knock at the door. All heads turned in its direction. “BlackNight, go see to that, and send them away!” said one of the Changelings, the other nodded as a green flame engulfed him, swirling around his body. The crowd gasped in horror as the flame died down, and now standing in the place where the Changeling had been, was the Mayor, who turned on the spot and marched over to the door.
Rarity stood patiently outside the hall as the door opened. She was surprised to see the Mayor opening it. “Good evening, Madam Mayor.” she said, tipping her hat.
“You can’t come in.” said the Mayor, in a sharp and snappy voice.
“Why ever not?” asked Rarity, “This is… was my HQ.”
“It doesn’t matter, you can’t come in.” snapped the Mayor again.
“Is there something wrong?” Rarity asked, a worried expression on her face. “I just need to come in and get some…”
“NO!” the Mayor cried out and with that slammed the door in Rarity’s face. Rarity just stood there, dumbfounded for a second, until the sound of gravel could be heard behind her.
She turned around to see Twilight leading the platoon up the path. “Everything alright Rarity?” she asked as Rarity came towards her.
“Absolutely not!” Rarity said, sounding insulted, “The Mayor’s in the hall and she’s refusing me access. She was acting rather peculiar, if you ask me. It may have been my imagination, but when she just told me to leave, I could have sworn her eyes changed to green for a split second.”
The ponies inside the church hall began shouting in protest as the Changeling (now back to his original form) walked back into the room. “This is disgraceful!” the Mayor shouted, “You cannot go impersonating a senior member of government in such an insulting…”
“SILENCE!” shouted the lead Changeling over the crowd, but nopony listened. He then raised his hoof in the air and fired one shot in the air; the whole room fell silent again.
The platoon heard the shot outside and Rarity ordered everypony to take cover by crouching behind the corner of the hall, looking over at the door, their rifles ready. Trixie slowly raised her head over the wall, and when she saw the Home Guard crouching down, she climbed over the low wall and quietly ran over to them. “I have just called for help.” she panted.
“Take cover, Trixie!” Rarity hissed, “I think the Mayor’s gone mad. She’s firing a gun.”
“That’s not the Mayor, you fashion obsessed twit!” Trixie snarled back, “It’s Changelings.”
“Changelings?!” cried Pinkie suddenly, and she began to quickly attach her bayonet onto the end of her rifle. Everypony held her back as she was about to charge in.
Just then, more hoofprints could be heard coming up behind them. They all turned around to see a small squad of soldiers running up the path and came to halt where they were standing. Rarity was not pleased to see that General Hoofard was leading them. “What’s happening here?” he demanded as he came to a halt. He frowned as he spotted Rarity, “Oh not you again.”
“What in the wide world of Equestria are you doing here?” asked Rarity.
“Because Trixie called him!” butted in Trixie.
The lead Changeling grabbed Scootaloo by the hoof and dragged her away from Granny Smith. “You are going to go outside!” he snarled, pointing his gun at her as she struggled, tears forming in her eyes, “You will go and tell your friends that we demand a boat. If we do not get what we demand, we shall start killing everypony in here one by one.” and he dragged her towards the door, opened it and threw her out, closing the door behind him.
Scootaloo stood on the spot, too terrified to do anything. She didn’t want to betray her friends, but if it meant sparing the lives of everypony in that room. Just then she heard the whispers from the corner of the hall, and she instantly heard Rainbow Dash’s voice among them. She began galloping as fast as she could towards them and when she rounded the corner to where the Home Guard were standing, she jumped straight into Rainbow Dash and threw her forelegs around her, sobbing loudly. “Whoa Scoots, calm down.” soothed Rainbow Dash as she gently stroked Scootaloo’s mane, “What are you doing out here? What’s happened?”
“Changelings… Apple… Belle… gunpoint.” was all they could get out of Scootaloo through her crying, but Rarity and Applejack picked up certain words that made their blood turn cold.
“What?” breathed Rarity.
“Applebloom is in there?!” cried Applejack. When Scootaloo nodded, she then began attaching her own bayonet to her rifle. “Right, I’ll slaughter every Changeling in there if they’ve hurt her!” she shouted.
“And they … want a boat,” sniffed Scootaloo, “to get across the seas, back to the Changeling Empire.”
“Well the only they’re going to get a boat will be over my dead body.” said General Hoofard.
“Alright Everypony!” ordered Rarity, as she pulled out a revolver. Her eyes were wide with anger now, and her breathing was coming out in sharp bursts, “This is a dangerous matter we about to handle, and many lives will be at risk but we are going in there and…”
“You will not be handling anything.” said General Hoofard, “This is a job for the regular army. You can get these civilians out of here.”
Rarity stood her ground. “Sir, my sister is in there, with a Changeling gun to her head! You do not expect me to…”
“What I expect from you to shut up and get lost!” shouted the General, “After seeing what you’re capable, I shouldn’t even begin to think about putting those ponies lives in the hall in more danger, by sending in the most incompetent excuse of soldiers I’ve ever seen, and a Captain who probably can’t use a gun properly for fear she’ll clip a hoof! Now clear off!” Rarity stood, flabbergasted. A few gasps of shock and disgust were all that came out of her mouth, before she turned on her hooves and marched off, signalling her platoon to follow. The general smirked proudly at himself, and turned back to the situation at hand. “Now we’re going to have to be very careful with how we handle this.” he said to his Captain, “If we open fire, some of those ponies may get hit.”
“Ya not honestly givin’ up, are ya Rarity?” asked Applejack as they walked down the path back into town.
“And why not?” snapped Rarity, her face turning red from frustration, “If they won’t let us go and save our own family, I see no reason to stop them! This whole thing has just been a stupid mistake from the beginning, I should never had written that letter to the princess.”
“You know, Rarity,” came Pinkie Pie’s voice, “If you really want to rescue Sweetie Belle, why don’t we just sneak into the hall through the crypt?”
“Pinkie, I have had just about enough of your ridicul…” Rarity started, but then her eyes slowly began to widen. “That’s it. Pinkie, that is brilliant. We shall show our dear friend General Hoofard just exactly what we are capable.” her smile then began to flicker slightly as another thought came to her, “But wait, the old Ponyville crypt is linked to the catacombs, a series of passages, linking to each other the further you go down them. How will we possibly find the right route?”
“I’m sure I’ll be able to find an old record of the Ponyville Church up at the library.” said Twilight, “There may be map plans from when the crypt had been built.”
“Excellent Twilight.” said Rarity, “Oh and if you’re passing my shop, could you go and pick up my rifle for me?” Twilight gave her a nod as she and Spike ran towards the library. “Alright Everypony.” said Rarity as she turned to her platoon who all saluted, “This may be dangerous, but lives are at risk if we don’t act, so let’s get in there, and show those Changeling scum just what we’re made of!”
Nopony had ever seen Rarity talk like this before, but they all gave a “Yes, ma’am!” and Rarity marched them down a back alley, leading to the cemetery at the back of the hall.
Rainbow Dash kept a good lookout as Rarity helped some of the ponies over the stone wall. She could just see the backs of the General and Trixie, and waved to Rarity to show that they were safe. They all tiptoed quietly through the tall grass, pass the old headstones of deceased ponies long forgotten, until they came across a small rectangular building, mounted on a plinth of circular stairs. Slowly but carefully, Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash pulled the heavy door open and peered into the darkness.
There was nothing inside, except for a steep spiral staircase leading downwards. “Alright.” breathed Rarity, “Rainbow Dash, Applejack, you lead the platoon down. I’ll stay behind and wait for Twilight to come back.”
“Got it!” whispered Rainbow Dash. She and Applejack picked up their rifles, and slowly crept down the stairs until they were out of sight. Pinkie Pie followed, with Fluttershy, (shaking with terror)close behind her with Bon Bon and Lyra.
As Rarity was waving Vinyl down the stairs, she heard rustling behind her. She turned to see Twilight and Spike coming towards her, Twilight levitating an old and battered book, and Spike trying to keep balance as he held Rarity’s rifle. “I’ve managed to find the book. ‘Ponyville Building Development over 1000 Years’.” said Twilight, “Do you think you’ll be using that?” she asked as Spike handed the rifle to Rarity.
“I pray to Celestia I don’t.” said Rarity as she slung the strap of the rifle over her shoulder and she, Twilight and Spike walked through the open door and when all three were inside, Spike pulled the door closed completely, until they were encased in darkness.
A light purple glow filled the small space as Twilight’s horn began to glow and she led Rarity and Spike down the steps. They continued on until the steps straightened out like normal stairs and Twilight and Rarity could just see the outlines of the standing in a huddled group at the bottom of the stairs. “I think we may need some proper light in here.” said Twilight. She closed her eyes and began to concentrate, until all around them, fires were slowly beginning to appear in the torch brackets that hung around the wall.
They could finally see what the Ponyville crypt actually looked like, and it wasn’t a cheerful environment. The damp ceiling was held up with large archways, which were cracking in certain areas around the bottom. A wrought iron gate could be seen at the back, and as their eyes started to grow accustom to the gloom (the torches didn’t provide that much light) they could see large stone tombs lined up on the centre, and on a few shelves within the archways, they could see quite clearly, the skulls of ponies, and a few bones. “I don’t like this place, Twilight.” shivered Spike, “It’s just like that movie we saw, ‘Drakeula’.”
“Well, just don’t try to lift up any lids.” Twilight whispered, as she opened the book to the page about the construction of the crypt. “Now, from what I can see, there are actually three entrances into the hall from here. One is obviously through the door in the back room, but there are two secret passageways in case of emergencies. One by the entrance, underneath one of the large tiles, and the other is in front of the stage, presumably underneath that old silk mat.”
“Well, that’s what we’ll do.” said Rarity, and she took the book away from Twilight and began scanning the page. “Cheerilee, you lead your section down that left corridor until you reach a ladder of sorts. That will lead you to the passage by the front door. Time Turner, same instructions, only you’ll be taking the right passage.” Cheerilee and Time Turner saluted and walked down their separate tunnels, leaving the mane six and Spike on their own. “Now I believe these steps lead up to the back room of the hall.” said Rarity, indicating a separate set of stone steps at the right end of the crypt. They stood onto their hindlegs, took out their rifles and Rarity led them upwards.
As they began climbing, they could start to voices above them, and a thin ray of light could be seen in front of them. When they got closer, they could see that they had reached the door to the back room. Rarity opened the door slightly and poked her head out; the room was empty and the voices were coming from the door on the other side of the room. “Now listen everypony,” she whispered to the others, “I have a plan on what to do next, I’ll explain when we’re inside.” and she gestured for them to enter, but she then held her hoof out, stopping Fluttershy, “Fluttershy, darling. I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to do something very brave for me.”
Inside the hall, one of the Changelings looked over at the clock on the wall. “Their time is up.” he said to the other, “Let’s set an example and show them what happens when they don’t comply.” and he slowly raised his revolver to the Mayor’s head. A faint sound could then be heard drifting into the room from the back door. It sounded like singing:
“All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures, great and small.
All things wise and wonderful,
Celestia made them all.”
The door opened, and six ponies and a dragon came slowly walking out, wearing white choir robes and the one in front, (Rarity) was carrying a purple velvet cushion.
“Rainbow, stand behind him.” sang Rarity quietly, still in tune with the hymn.
“And I will get his gun.” Twilight continued.
“And I will take my bayonet.” Pinkie sang, “And stick it up his…”
“HALT!!”
The Changelings turned around and the leader then aimed his gun at them now. “I think they’re onto us.” whispered Spike.
Rarity said nothing. Instead she continued to walk slowly towards the Changeling, her eyes darting around the crowd, until she spotted Sweetie Belle and Applebloom with Granny Smith. She gave a small sigh and stopped in front of the Changeling. “What is this?” he demanded, looking down at the cushion.
“This.” snarled Rarity and she threw the cushion aside, revealing her own revolver and pointed it at the Changeling’s face, and he did the same thing as well. Everypony gasped in terror at this standoff.
“If you don’t put that gun down, I will shoot you.” said the Changeling.
“And if YOU don’t put that gun down, I will shoot YOU.” repeated Rarity.
“I am giving you one last order.”
“And I’m giving YOU one last order.” Everypony’s eyes darted from side to side, watching the heart pounding banter.
“One.”
“One”
“Two”
“Two”
“Three!”
“Three.” the Changeling’s gun was now right in Rarity’s face, and she could see his own magic slowly pressing on the trigger. “You shoot me, there are six others to take my place.” she breathed quietly.
The Changelings looked around and saw three of the ponies jump onto their hindlegs, and they and Spike pulled out a rifle, from under their gowns. They looked up behind them, and found themselves staring up the barrels of two more rifles, held by Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.
Suddenly, one of the tiles on the floor by the front door, suddenly burst out and five other ponies in Home Guard uniform scrambled out, holding their rifles, while the silk mat in front of the stage was blown into the air by another five ponies as they too appeared out of the floor, all with rifles and all pointing at the Changelings.
The Changelings just stood where they were, their eyes frantically looking for an escape, but there was none. The Changeling leader lowered his gun and threw it on the floor as Bon-Bon and Lyra came up behind him, and Time Turner and Big Macintosh captured the other. As they were forced into the corner of the room, the hostages slowly began to applaud and cheer their heroes. Sweetie Belle broke free of Granny Smith’s hold and ran into Rarity’s outstretched hooves and Applejack and Big Mac went to comfort Applebloom and Granny Smith.
Outside the hall, General Hoofard could hear noises coming from inside. A large crowd had gathered now, including ponies from the marines, the police, the fire brigade and an ambulance pony. “What on the world of Equestria is going on in there?” he asked himself. He gestured for the group to follow him and they burst through the door, only to have two Changelings escorted out of the hall by two ponies he knew were part of the Home Guard and given to the police. Everypony was now cheering as the Home Guard ponies stood in the middle of the room, Rarity holding onto Sweetie Belle tightly and Applejack holding AppleBloom. Scootaloo took this chance of celebration and leapt into Rainbow Dash’s hooves and hugged her as well. Rainbow Dash, looking quite embarrassed, gave her a small squeeze of affection.
The General’s eyes fell upon Rarity, who gave him a small smirk, and he muttered, “Well I’m damned.”