Rarity's Army

by BronyDan

Chapter 11

“Well Ms Rarity, it’s not a very pretty picture, is it?” said General Hoofard with a calm but serious tone in his voice.

“No, sir.” sighed Rarity. They were standing inside the General’s private tent, with the General flanked by his own Captain, while outside they could hear the sounds of ponies packing up their supplies and taking down their tents and putting them in the waiting carts.

“Let’s examine your record for this weekend, shall we?” said the General, taking out a sheet of paper out of his desk. “You arrive late, crush and ruin 100 sets of equipment, a dozen tents, break a pontoon bridge and nearly drowned me in the process. And let’s not forget that five months ago, you refused to repair my shirt!”

“Yes, but I didn’t really know you back then, sir.”

“Well you bloody well do now!” said Hoofard loudly slamming his hooves on the desk. He breathed in slowly and sat back down in his chair. “You know, Ms Rarity, no matter how good troops are, if they are badly led, they become a disorganised rabble. Which is why in light of what’s happened this weekend, I may have to reconsider your whole future as commanding officer of the Ponyville platoon. In fact I may reconsider the entire platoon being in operation and have your section disbanded. I shall write my views tomorrow and you may receive a letter from GHQ within the next few days. That is all.”

Rarity said nothing. She just slowly raised her foreleg into a salute, turned on her hooves and walked out of the tent.

Rarity didn’t speak at all that afternoon as the platoon helped to clear the field, and when they had finally finished, it was nearly five o’clock which meant that they had missed the last train to Ponyville, so they were now forced to walk along the dirt roads, all the way back to town, which would mean they would arrive home well after midnight. As they continued to march, Twilight came up alongside Rarity. “Are you okay, Rarity?” she asked, “You have spoken a word since you left the General’s tent. Did he say anything?”

“Nothing important.” breathed Rarity.

Twilight could tell what was bothering her. “I shouldn’t take it to heart Rarity. It wasn’t all your fault. You were just a victim of circumstances.” Rarity gave a weak smile to her friend as Twilight slowed her pace down and fell back in line.

At around half-past seven as the sun was beginning to set, they could hear, somewhere in the distance, the sound of an air raid siren. Spike looked overhead as clouds began to form above them. “Changelings are a bit early.” he said aloud, “How far are we from home, Applejack?”

“I don’t know, Spike.” sighed Applejack, just as the sound of a low humming sound, like that of a giant insect, was beginning to get louder. “That was quick. I could the Changelings overhead now.” She added, nervously.

Overhead in the sky miles away, two Changelings flew high within the clouds, each with a small radio attached to their ears, and carrying a gun and were shooting down the Pegasi fighters as they circled the sky. One Changeling was carrying a small camera and was taking photographs of the ground below and the surrounding area; these were to be part of the final stages of the long awaited battle plan of Operation Manticore, as Chrysalis had ordered for strategic areas of weakness to be photographed, so that they will know where best to attack before bringing the final movement to Celestia.

The Changeling took one final picture of the mountain ridge under the south side of Canterlot, until signalling the other Changeling for them to turn around and head back to the Changeling Empire, but as they turned around, a squadron of Celestial Air Defence, (CAD), Pegasi flew from behind a cloud and opened fire. As the Changelings fumbled for their guns, they were too late; the CAD fired at their paper thin wings, until there was very little remaining. As they began falling to the ground, one or the Changelings turned on his radio. “We are hit!” he called through, as the pain at the loss of his wings struck him with every breath.

Over at the Military Headquarters, the Communications Officer reported these words to the General, who galloped over to the Radio and pulled the headphones off of the Officer, “CF1, CF1, do you read me?” he called out, “Get those photographs back here by any means necessary! Without them, the Operation is lost!” but then suddenly the radio turned to static and the General threw the headphones down in frustration.

In the Everfree Forest, the two Changelings helped each other up and out of the mud and checked the camera. There seemed to be no damage to it or the film, but they were now stranded in Equestria, and the CAD were surely going to hunt them down and capture them. They decided to move quickly in case they came to search the area, so they began pushing through the thickets and brambles until they disappeared between the thick trees.

As the trees began to thin, it was already dark and the Changelings emerged from the forest, scratched, torn and bleeding slightly. They walked across the path and passed an empty cottage close to the entrance to the forest, and in the distance, they saw a small town just on the other side of a small bridge; Ponyville. They pulled out their hoofguns, loaded them and began slowly walking towards the town.

The streets were completely empty, and were bathed in an orange glow from the street lights, giving it a very eerie atmosphere that suited the Changelings. As they crept up the high street, one of the Changelings quietly called the other forward and pointed up one of the side streets; they could see there were lights on up in the Church Hall, so they decided that would be where they will make the necessary arrangements and negotiations.

“Attention please mares and gentlecolts.” called the Vicar from the Town Committee Table which faced the crowd. “Now this meeting tonight as you know is to discuss our upcoming War Weapons Week. So to start the ball rolling, I call on the Mayor to start the meeting.”

Many of the ponies stamped their hooves on the ground gently, as the Mayor stood up from her chair. “Thank you Vicar. Now as you all know, at this moment, our brave soldiers are in combat with the Changelings. Now as they are doing their part, it is only fair that we should do our part. Our plan was to develop a Communication Guidance System to help the Pegasi in our area, but raising the money will not be easy. So Ponyville will be willing to pay for the new Satellite that will be installed on the top of the Town Hall, while the Princess has agreed that she will be happy to send specialists over here, to deal with the technological stuff. Now if we were to…”

“HALT!!” the doors to the hall burst open as the two Changelings marched in, brandishing their guns. Everypony looked in horror at the sight of the enemy that were now marching along the outside of the arranged seats. “Now all of you, move over to that wall now!” demanded one of the Changelings, the light buzzing note in his voice echoed throughout the hall over the sounds of the scraping of chair legs as everypony stood up.

Trixie was just leaving the mare’s toilets when she saw the scene in front of her, and she slowly backed into the toilets and ran towards the window, unlocking the hatch with her magic as she approached. As she pulled herself out, she saw three shapes underneath the window and by the light shining through, she could see that it was Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. “What are you three doing here?” Trixie hissed.

“Since Granny Smith as at this meeting, we thought we would try our hooves at Cutie Mark Crusader Church Guards and meet her when she comes out.” said Applebloom.

“Well that hasn’t work.” said Trixie as she landed on the grass, “The hall is full of Changelings! I must find a phone box and get help.” and she galloped down the path into town leaving the CMC behind.

“Do you think we should follow?” asked Sweetie Belle nervously.

“Unless you want to get your Cutie Mark in being a Changeling Hostage.” said Scootaloo, but before they could chase after Trixie, they heard a clicking sound behind them.

They slowly turned to see a Changeling pointing a gun at them. “In!” he ordered and he grabbed Applebloom by the tail and pulled her through the window and Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo followed, too terrified to say anything.

Comments

[Darth Wedgius]

Was that a cute Civil Air Defense reference? Being of the yank persuasion, it took me a while to get it.

[BronyDan]

3159918 Don't know, I just thought it sounded cool.