//------------------------------// // Chapter 11. // Story: Pony of a Different Color // by Sparky Brony //------------------------------// I'm stressed. I look all around me. I can't read the single face I'm really trying to. Twilight is directly across from me, her horn aglow. Rarity and Apple Jack on either side of Twilight. I've got Rainbow Dash on my right, Fluttershy then Pinkie on her right. I've got Moonshine on my left. I've got a decision to make. I look at Twilight, she's been the hardest to beat. She looks levelly at me, not giving away anything. I look at my hooves, back at her. I take a moment to look around at every assembled pony. “I call.” I throw a large stack of chips on the table. The dealer discards a card, then deals out the turn. I have to suppress my emotions. I've got a pocket pair of aces, and the turn just had a king join the nine and two kings on the board. I've got a full house. Everypony else has already folded, it's just me and Twilight. We both are pretty evenly matched. I check. She slides her entire stack of chips forward with her magic. “All in.” I've never seen her smirk like that. I look hard at her face. Her smirk remains, but I can't see a speck of nervousness or anything. I seize Saidin, using currents of Air, I push my equal sized stack of chips to the middle of the table. “Call.” The dealer deals the river. It's the four of clubs. Nothing. We are both all in, so I simply put down my Aces. “Full house.” I reach for the pile of chips as she shakes her head sadly. “You should have folded.” She slaps down her cards, a deuce, and a...King. She beat me, with four of a kind. I shoot Rainbow a glare as Twilight takes the winnings. Rainbow stifles the guffaw she was preparing to unleash. For a moment, until my daughter does a silly face at Rainbow, and pokes me in the ribs. “Dad, you lost your flank right there.” I grin back, “Well, at least I kept my cutie mark then.” It's about three in the morning. We are all in the work room I built under the cloud house. It's actually pretty extensive, I've been using flows of Earth to bring up solid granite walls to frame the building. I reach behind me and grab my pipe. With a flow of Saidin I puff it alight. I lean back in my chair. “I should never have taught you girls poker.” I grumble as I blow out smoke. Applejack was able to hook me up while I've been here, keeping me in tobacco. I know it's a bad habit, but I've been smoking for a long, long time. I'm not about to stop. “Hey, Dad, you gonna buy yourself back in?” Moonshine asks. “Hell yes I am.” I toss a few gold crowns at the dealer and collect some more chips. It was a wonderful idea to have a dealer from Los Pegasus come down for me to teach the girls poker. Although, Texas Hold em hadn't made it to Equestria. I can tell that it's going to be catching fire in Los Pegasus when this dealer heads back home. “Alright... Deal.” The next morning, I wake up, slowly. I glance over at the clock, it's eight in the morning. I've gotten less than three hours of sleep. Why am I awake now? A knock at the door. Oh. A first knock must have woken me up. Of course, Rainbow Dash is still out, I plant a kiss on her cheek as I stumble out of bed. I need to not hit Applejack's hard apple cider so hard. I don't get hangovers, but my mind is still a little cloudy. I shuffle slowly to the front door. The knocking is getting more insistent. “I'm comin, I'm comin.” I finally get to the door, I wrench it open. A Pegasus is standing before me, golden armor glinting in the morning sun. My eyes bug out. What have I done now? The Pegasus salutes. “Sir Sparky. I am Major Gullwing of the Royal Pegasus guards.” That earned a surprised start from me. What are the Royal Pegasus guards doing here? “And you are here.... why?” I ask. “Sir, Princess Celestia ordered us to come here to train to combat the humans who invaded earlier in case they come back.” Oh. “Alright then, where are you staging? How long are you planning on staying?” “Sir, we are in the process of setting up camp, one hundred forty four elite fliers and the same number of Unicorn and Earthy pony guards are also setting up.” “Son, my military service is far back, well before you were born. I'm a civilian now. Not only that, my service was in a completely different universe. I have no authority here, you don't have to call me sir.” The Pegasus stiffened, if that were actually possible. “Actually sir, you have been commissioned into the Equestria Royal Guards, you have the field rank of Marshall of Magic. Sir, you are in command. This order...” he holds out a scroll with Celestia's royal seal on it, “confirms it.” We'll see about that, I'm going to have to have some choice words with the Princess about this. I was talking about some training, I had no intention to join her military. Fine, if they want military, I'll show them military. I'm thinking to myself for a moment but something he said caught my ear. “What was that, Major?” “The Wonderbolts, sir. They will be showing up at noon for some training.” “The Wonderbolts... okay.” Rainbow will be thrilled to have them show up here. I'm finished pondering. I cut the major off. “Alright Major, I'll find your command tent in an hour, and we can start. Have all of your senior officers there. I need to make myself presentable. Do you have any uniforms? No worries about armor.” He takes it all in stride. A very well trained Pegasus. He salutes. “Your uniform will be brought up in ten minutes. Sir.” I smile at him. You won't be very happy with me at the end of the day. I was trained how to make efficient fighting units. I'm going to work these ponies tails off. I watch him launch himself off the house and look down for a moment. They are well organized. They are setting up tents in straight rows. I see a large tent being set up, looks like a command tent. Both good and bad, I'll let them know when I get down there. I turn and go into the house. Rainbow is shuffling around. “Coffee. I need coffee.” She says as she stumbles to the coffee maker. I had hit the button to start it by reflex as I passed. We both sit in silence for a few minutes, letting the dark liquid clear away the morning cobwebs. I decide to break the silence. “It looks like your little valley here has been invaded.” A quizzical look from her. “Celestia is up to something. There is a contingent of Royal Guards here. And I've been promoted by Celestia to be in charge.” Her eyes bulge, I'm glad I waited until she swallowed the last of her first cup of coffee, otherwise I would be soaked. “What the hay?” She sputters. “Why, you?” “Because I'm the only one with knowledge of the invaders.” A knock on the door. A sergeant is at the door with my uniform. I grab it with a flow of Air and nod acknowledgment to her as I close the door. “And Celestia is taking this seriously, as she should.” I start dressing. The uniform is a dark Forest Green. On the shoulder is an epaulet with my apparent rank on it. An alicorn in gold with a circle around it. So, that is what Marshall of Magic is. Very nice. I flair my wings for a moment and fold them comfortably. I give her a kiss. It goes on and on. I break for air. “I had better be careful, you keep kissing me like that and I won't want to meet the Wonderbolts later today.” She breaks off kissing me. “Ohmygosh Ohmygosh, Ohmygosh, Ohmygosh, Ohmygosh, the Wonderbolts are coming here? Too see you?” She's gone from sultry to bouncy instantly. She's flitting around. She's loving it. “Yes, I have to train them on dealing with humans.” “Oh my Celestia. I can't believe they are going to be at my house.” “Yes, in a few hours. But I need to get started with them.” She smiles, that devilish smile that just reinforces how much I love this pony. “You are aware, you aren't going down there without me.” “I think the guards down there would have an issue with it.” She sidles up next to me, nuzzles against me, and then bites my ear, hard. I swear, that mare is going to shred my ears someday with as much as she likes to bite them. “Sparky... William. I want to be down there with you.” You know, that's all she needs to say to get my cooperation. We head down. I'm gliding along Dash's little valley with her. Every tent is set up with military precision. The halberds they use as primary weapons are stacked in cones to be grabbed at a moment's notice. We land in front of the largest tent, two earth pony guards are in front with those vicious looking halberds ready to go. They salute me as I walk in the tent. As I pass through I hear the halberds clang together and a “Hey.” from Dash. I whirl around. “She is with me, you let her in.” “Sorry, sir, orders. No civilians.” One of the ponies says. Dash looks about ready to do murder. I silence her with a look. “Now see here, that right there is Rainbow Dash. She's one of Princess Twilight Sparkle's best friends, she's a former bearer of the Element of Loyalty. She's a personal friend of Princess Celestia and Luna, and most of all, she's with me. Let her by.” The earth pony wilts a little bit under my diatribe, but he firms up. “I'm sorry sir, my orders had a royal seal. Only members of the Royal Guard are allowed into the command tent unless they have a specific duty.” I'm glad he's following his orders, but this is getting frustrating. “She's also a reserve member of the Wonderbolts, not the direct flying team, as of yet, we don't have any openings, but she is a reserve member. That makes her a member of the Royal Pegasus Corps.” A new voice interrupts. I turn, Spitfire is there, not in her performance costume, but in her uniform. Sunglasses on her face. She looks at me, smiles, then looks back at the guard. “Let. Her. By.” “Yes sir.” {authors note: in many Military organizations, it's common to use the masculine pronoun when addressing a superior officer, no matter that officers gender.} Rainbow Dash sticks out her tongue at the guard as he moves aside for her. She goes up to Spitfire and salutes. “Sparky told me the Wonderbolts would be here in a few hours.” Spitfire laughs, “The team will show up, I'm the Captain of the Wonderbolts, this is a senior staff meeting, you are here as Sparky's assistant, and you can practice with the rest of the team when they show up. We'll get you a uniform. I wasn't lying when I said we don't have any openings on the performance team, but the Royal Pegasus Corps isn't just the performance team. You earned that by completing the academy.” Spitfire turns to me. “You are twenty minutes early. Most of the officers have shown up, but we are waiting for a few.” I brush past her, “If you aren't early, you are late.” I saw a smirk as I pass, she knows what I'm talking about. I direct Rainbow Dash to a seat near the front dais. There is a podium ready for me. “Good Morning Mares and Gentlecolts. It's time for you to learn how to fight, and win, against the humans who will likely invade our world.”