The Road To Toronto

by Alden MacManx

Chapter 5: Fight Night

Inside Ponytown, Stormy encountered Serge and Morgan, Morgan pulling a wagon loaded with tear gas bombs and flash-bang grenades. “Where do you want these, Stormy?” Serge asked.

“The bank down by the library. I want these locked up in case Tammy gets curious. You have not seen her, have you?’ Stormy asked.

Morgan answered that question. “Knowing her, she is busy coloring with Rhonda in their room, while Rhonda is busy studying.”

“Tammy does know what is important to her.” Serge added.

“That she does. Now, get the stuff out of sight. I have to find Marian and talk to her. I just observed the band of invaders and I have some more questions to ask.”

“Odds are she’s in the kitchen, with Jenn,” Morgan said.

“Okay, then. We have a battle to fight and win. Knowing is half the battle.”

Stormy did find Marian in the kitchen, resting on a pad, her left foreleg on a pillow. Jenn was busy fixing dinner for the crew. “Marian, we need to talk some.”

Marian looked up. “Sure, Miss Storm. What you need from me?”

“More information about Attila’s band. Who is most likely to be in the front lines of the battle?”

Marian thought for a short time. “Attila and Samson, for sure, with the weapons. Tinker and Nimbus will hang back. The pegasi could fight, but they are not good fighters. Those like Attila and Jenn will be in front. The unicorns and pegasi will be back in the second rank, ready to move up when an opportunity presents itself.”

“That makes seven in the front rank, five in the second, two back with the slaves, and five more who could be anywhere. That makes the odds more even. None of us here at Ponytown are what you can call skilled warriors. True Sight and her squad are, but that’s only five total. Plus, they have firearms,” Stormy observed.

“That they do, but why should you let them come here? Why not hit them in camp, when they are NOT expecting us to attack?” Marian asked.

Stormy looked a little surprised at that question, like it had never occurred to her. “I should bring that up with True Sight. If we hit them at night, we could hit them without their weapons.”

“I’m no warrior, just a history student.”

Stormy looked closely at Marian. “I thought you said you were a math professor,” she said sharply.

Marian blushed brightly. “Yes, well, if I had said that, my life in Attila’s pack would have been much rougher,” she managed to stammer out, clearly embarrassed.

“Let me guess, you weren’t a female then, either.” Stormy said dryly.

Marian openly stared at Sudden Storm. “How did you know?” she squeaked, alarmed.

“I didn’t know, I made a guess. Parts of your story didn’t add up to me. Also, you’re not the only case of gender swapping known to have happened,” Stormy said quietly, patting the rattled pegasus with a hoof. “It was how you described Samson’s assault that rang a bell to me.”

“Can we talk about this later? We have other work to do first before we have the luxury of looking at my psych profile,” Marian asked.

“Sure. Just relax and get better. That’s more important to you than anything else. When we start the fight, I’m sending you to the cow pasture, for safety. You’re in no condition to fight.”

“Sounds good to me,” Marian said, struggling to her feet, Stormy giving her a nudge up. “I’ll be in my room. Wake me at dinnertime, okay?”

“Will do, Marian. Get some sleep.”

Before dinner, Sudden Storm gathered together True Sight and her team, along with most of the population of Ponytown. “It has been suggested to me to stage a night attack, and catch the band asleep. Any suggestions?”

“Not a night attack, but a night raid. I and my team can scout the area tonight and make plans for a raid tomorrow night. What I plan on doing is either taking or damaging their weapons, to make any future combat a little more one sided, to us,” True Sight suggested.

“What bothers me is how youse ponies can get in and out without being detected.” Artie spoke up.

“Tonight, we fly in, Featherlight and I, to look around. The other three will do a perimeter check. Tomorrow, during the day, I want to see if we can get you in for a look, Artie. Hopefully, you can telegate us in, getting the drop on them.”

“Getting him close enough to spot the camp without being detected won’t be easy.” Soaring Heart said.

“No, but that will be part of tonight’s scouting raid. Find where the weapons dump is, and raid it tomorrow,” True Sight replied.

“Raid it? Why not drop an incendiary or two on top of it and blow it into the next county?” Artie asked. “The less they have, the better for us, right?”

True Sight sighed quietly. She knew of Artie’s defensiveness, and it could be tiresome at times, because he was no fighter, not at all. “Artie, we MAY do that tomorrow night, but we have to find it first, then observe the patterns they use during the night, to get in and out undetected.”

Artie had the grace to blush some, the insides of his ears reddening. “Sorry, Sight. I just want this threat removed. They is good ponies up here, and the more help I can give them, the better my heart will feel, is all.”

Sudden Storm looked at Artie in a slightly different light. “You really mean that, don’t you? You really care about us, a bunch of strangers up in the northern reaches of nowhere?”

Artie first looked at Stormy, around the table, then back at the mayor of Ponytown. “Lady, there ain’t enough of us to waste time and resources fighting each other. The sooner this menace is removed to a place where they can’t hurts anypony, da better I is gonna rest at night.”

The ponies from Alexandria knew when Artie was speaking from the heart- his Bronx honk became more pronounced. “So, let’s complete our planning,” Softer Heart said quietly. “Maybe some aerial reconnaissance photos tomorrow will help.”

“You have a camera you can operate, Heart?” Swift Quill asked.

“After a fashion. It fits onto a harness I have, and has a two to four-hour chip life before it fills. I can’t operate it in flight, so it’s best turned on and left on the whole time,” Softer Heart explained.

“If you finally got the aiming points right, Heart,” Featherlight commented, remembering early trials in Alexandria.

“Thank you for the vote of confidence, dearie,” Heart replied in her driest tones.

That night, an hour after sundown, Artie and Swift Quill drove out to within half a mile of Attila’s camp site in the Tesla, which had cardboard masks placed over the headlights. This was done to minimize the time and effort True Sight’s team would have to use both in getting to the site and back from it undetected. Finding a suitably isolated spot, Quill shut off the car. “Okay, Artie, here we are. Think you can bust into this building here without calling attention to yourself?”

“Heck, no. That’s what you are here for, oh superior unicorn. I’m just a hack with talents. Hack as in the taxi driver, that is.” Artie replied.

“Point taken,” Quill said as she got out of the car, going to the door she had parked in front of, the garage door of a service station. “If I can get the door open into the service bay, think you can get the door tracks greased?”

Artie held up the cans of WD-40 he had brought. “If this doesn’t do the job, we’ll just have to find another place, right?” he said as he put the cans down.

“This is the best place nearby. Out of sight, out of hearing, out of touch. This will be a good sally port.”

“Just get the side door open quietly, willya? I gonna do the big doors,” Artie said a bit peevishly.

Swift Quill just smiled gently as the small door in front of them let out a faint thunk. She pulled the door open with a flourish. “How’s that for you?”

Artie shrugged as he picked up the cans again, along with a flashlight. “Not bad,” he grunted as he headed in. Picking a door, Artie lofted a spray can and thoroughly greased the tracks of the door. It took him three full cans to get it done to his satisfaction. He then proceeded to the door itself, looking for a lock on it. Finding it, he swiftly unlocked the door before lifting gently.

When nothing happened, he lifted a little harder. The door wobbled, but held. “Come on, ya samminabeetch, LIFT!” Artie grunted as he gave it a harder pull, his horn glowing bright silver.

“Er, Artie, you forgot something…” Swift Quill said quietly.

“What that?” he snapped.

“There’s more than one lock. You missed the other.” Swift Quill said, pointing out the second lock, then unlocking it. “Try it now.”

Artie tried again, and the door slid silently up the tracks to its raised position. “Who’da thunk they’d put more than one lock on the damn door?” he grumbled.

“How many garages you break into, Artie?”

“None. Why?”

“It shows. Think you got a good enough fix on here to bring True Sight and her gang over?”

“After that little escapade, I damn well ought to. Be right back, Swifty,” Artie said as he opened a telegate and trotted through. Three minutes later, the five members of True Sight’s team appeared out of nothing, followed by Artie.

“Okay, team, let’s go do this.” True Sight said as she took to the skies, followed by Featherlight. The other three, shod in silencing shoes, marched off in the direction of the camp.

“I hope they know what they are doing,” Quill said.

“Trust me… they do.”

True Sight and Featherlight sped through the skies to the camp, the low clouds helping them approach unseen. At the camp, the thestral and the pegasus split, circling in opposite directions over the camp, taking in details. Several campfires burned brightly, ponies doing chores before bed. Only one tent had any form of artificial light on, one of the bigger ones.

“If Marian’s intelligence is right, that has to be Tinker’s tent. I wonder what he’s doing now.” Featherlight said over her radio.

“Probably making more rounds of ammo, or some other sort of nastiness. I can’t hear what’s going on down there, just four radios all tuned to Ponytown.” True Sight said in reply.

“I wonder which one the ammo dump is?”

“The ammo dump should be in that metal trailer. We have to take that out early.”

“I agree. Any idea how?”

“Limpet charge.”

“That will work. On the roof?”

“On the roof.”

The thestral and pegasus lazily circled over the encampment, noting any and all activity, occasionally spotting one of the other team members as they ghosted about. After half an hour, they headed back to the garage, where Artie and Swift Quill were waiting.

“Find anything useful over there?” Artie asked.

“We think so. We’ll find out for sure tomorrow if we were right or wrong. Let’s get out of here, and restore the place to rights before you leave. We’ll use it again.” True sight said.

“That’s good. Let’s get out of here!” Swift Quill emphasized. Artie opened the gate, the five fighters trotted through, then Artie closed the gate and the shop doors before following Quill back to the Tesla.

At Ponytown, True Sight and her crew outlined the quick, sharp raid they had planned for tomorrow. “If we got our targets right, tomorrow, we will remove the firearms from play. It’s amazing what a little bit of explosives can do, when applied right,” she explained to the Ponytown group.

“Explosives? How so?” Serge asked.

“We have some small explosive charges. Not big, but more than enough to take out wagons and carts. If we can render them weaponless and immobile, they should be much more amenable to reason.” True Sight said patiently.

“Or more desperate than ever to avoid capture, if they think we are as bad as they are.” Morgan chipped in with.

“True, but there are twenty-three of them, counting slaves, and more of us. We can handle them, once the firearms are taken out.”

“If they do give up, what can we do with them?” Sudden Storm asked. “We don’t have the supplies to handle such a population jump.”

“I’ll get them to Alexandria, Stormy. You don’t have to put up with them all.” Artie told the mayor.

“I’m going to have you add one more thing to your weapons package. A satellite phone, with a note attached. I’ll give Attila a chance to end this peacefully. If he chooses not to, well, Ponytown belongs to US, not THEM, right?” Stormy said. The Ponytown crowd cheered.

“You aint standing alone, Stormy! We stands with you!” Artie declared, to the cheers of the Alexandria contingent. “Ponytown will NOT fall! I’ll defend your town to the last drop of… HIS blood!” he went on, pointing at his son, Coppertop, to much laughter.

“Gee, Thanks, Dad.” Coppertop said drily.

“Do you have the explosives you talk about, True Sight?” Jeff asked, standing close to Karin.

“Not here, but at our base in Alexandria. They are not big, but we don’t need them to be very big. The detonators, though, are triggered by a means they have not figured out yet.” True Sight explained.

“Magic, I take it?” Swift Quill asked.

“Correct. Shining Spiral, here,” at which she indicated the unicorn in her group, “has developed a means to detonate a substance at a distance with a spell. What is good is that we can sow the explosives and he can detonate them at a distance. He can choose which one to detonate at each time, so one can go off at one place, then another in another place a minute later, and so on.”

“Not bad at all. Hope it sends them into fits.” Swift Quill commented.

“That’s the idea.”

The next night, Artie took the assault squad back to the garage using the telegate. “How long you want me to wait here?” he asked True Sight.

“If we’re not back in an hour, call us on the radio,” the thestral told him. “We’ll call you on our return.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” Artie said as he unlocked the garage door and opened it. The squad made their way out into the cloudy night silently.

The squad approached in a similar way to the night before, just from a different direction. They crept around, watching over the camp as a few ponies went about their business, others asleep in their shelters. The explosives were planted on wagons, carts, trailers, but not the shelters. They were not out to deliberately hurt anypony, just remove as much of their offensive capability as they could. True Sight herself left the most important package, the preprogrammed sat phone which she left right outside Attila’s shelter.

The squad made their way back to the garage, where Shining Spiral cast the spell to detonate the explosives. Over the course of a minute, ten small bombs went off, the booms audible even at the garage distance. The last bomb was the one on the metal trailer they presumed held munitions. That boom was followed by an eleventh, bigger boom. Flames shot up from that trailer.

“I think you put a little too much sugar in that one, Butch.” Artie commented.

“They must have had something quite flammable in the last one.”

“Well, it flammed good. I can see the fire from here. Think we should check out the scene?” Artie asked.

True Sight and Featherlight took off immediately, heading for the campsite. The two earth ponies also left, leaving Shining Spiral with Artie. “Looks like that’s a yes.” Artie said.

“We will kill when we must, not at whim. Now was not a time for killing.” Shining Spiral said quietly.

“Let’s hope our opposition feels the same way.”

“Rapid Transit, return to Ponytown and bring all that can be brought. The fight may begin now.” Shining Spiral said in level, even tones, which Artie knew meant ‘do what I say or I will kick you from Alexandria to Equestria in one shot’. Artie formed a telegate and ran through.

At the campsite, the four came upon a scene of minor carnage. Flames licked from several of the shelters, ponies running about, some with burns. Attila had come out of his shelter, shouting orders, trying to regain control of his panicked camp. The tent that had been lit the night before was in flames.

I think it’s time we made our presence known.” True Sight said over her radio link as she landed in the center of the camp, Featherlight by her side.

“Attention, followers of Attila! We have known of your presence for several days, and had hopes of dissuading you from bringing the fight to Ponytown. Our intent was to remove your capacity for war, but apparently some of your secrets were quite explosive. Renounce your intention to invade Ponytown, and we will assist you in resettling elsewhere,” she declared in a loud voice, her two earth pony members moving up to stand alongside her and Featherlight.

Attila came up to the foursome, rage apparent on his face. “Now, we will kill all who stand in my way! You harm my gang, you harm ME! We repay blood with blood!” he shouted, going to attack True Sight, only to be blocked by one of the earth ponies.

“We are willing to live in peace, but if you want war, we will give you war like you have not seen before!” True Sight said, spreading her wings wide, baring her fangs.

“Attention! Everyone rush the invaders! Tear them apart! Suffer them not to live!” Attila shouted, trying to rally his troops.

“Screw that, Attila! I need a hand here with Tinker! It’s bad!” another voice shouted from beyond the blazing tent.

Attila glared at the foursome. “Tinker had best not die, or you all will,” he growled.

“This Tinker need not die. If he is wounded, we will help him. Show us where he is, do not attack us, and we will give him the chance to recover, as will the others who are wounded.”

Attila backed up a few steps. “Neb, can you bring Tinker here?” he shouted.

“On my way!” A moment later, Nebulous Nimbus came out of the dark, carrying Tinker in his glow. Blood seeped from Tinker’s burned hide, his limbs limp and still.

“If Tinker dies, so will you all. If Tinker recovers, we will leave. You have the word of Attila on that.”

“We know the word of Attila is good.”

A minute later, the sound of hooves in full run was heard, approaching from the direction of the garage. A light appeared in the dark, followed by four more. Shining Spiral was in the lead, followed by Swift Quill, Rich, Greg, and Artie. Farther back were Jeff, Coppertop and Morgan, followed by Laddie and Vanna. All were bearing packs, except for Artie and the dogs.

“Which is the worst casualty?” Shining Spiral asked. Five hooves pointed to Tinker, held in Neb’s glow. Shining Spiral nodded, and a sheet came out of his pack, unfolding as it was placed on the ground. “Put him there and give me space.” Neb did so and all backed off.

From above came a shout. “All hooves, go around and help the injured! That’s what we’re here for!” Sudden Storm said as she landed, along with Soaring Heart, Serge and Randy. The Ponytown crew scattered to do what they could.

Storm walked up to Attila. Looking up at the big black stallion, she said, “So, you intended to take Ponytown as your own, eh?”

Attila looked down at Sudden Storm, neither cowed or defiant. “It is my destiny to rule. My brand says so,” he said, turning to show his cutie mark, a gold crown and a silver sword.

“What gives you the right to march in and take what we have worked to build for a year? Why did you not simply stop and build on your own?” Storm asked, True Sight and one of her earth ponies standing near.

“You saw the winter we just had. It was too cold to build. I found your station on the radio shortly after my resurrection, and decided there is the place I must be. By the time I gathered enough horses, the first snows had started to fall. So, we made our way here, despite everything.” Attila said.

“That you did. Marian told us about the trip. That’s how we knew you were coming.”

Attila snorted and stomped a hoof. “I was advised to go after her, but I demurred. Maybe that was an error on my part. Samson was injured, and I was worried about him,” he said, then looked around. “Where IS Samson?”

Attila called out, “Neb, search the area. Get a head count!”

“Yes, boss.” Neb said from where he was watching Shining Spiral work on healing Tinker.

“Marian did say you inspire loyalty in some. I see she was not wrong in her observation.”

“Marian refused to join the gang, so she remained a slave. She would not willingly accept my leadership. The others did, and did not suffer from it. No slave of mine suffered. They just had no say in my planning.” Attila said matter-of-factly.

“So, I have heard. You did give of yourself as much or more than anypony else. You showed remarkable drive to get your troupe here in the weather conditions we had, all the way from Detroit. Why not channel that drive into building an encampment of your own? With spring coming, you will have time now to establish your own town before next winter. We can assist you in setting up.”

“Once we establish, will you interfere with my leadership methods?” Attila asked with some suspicion.

Sudden Storm looked up at the big earth pony stallion. “I would prefer that you not keep slaves, but other than that, no.”

Attila considered Sudden Storm’s words. “I must think some on that. Shall we survey the encampment and check on casualties?” he asked.

“Sounds like a good idea. I can also get an estimate on what help you will need in the short term.”

“Let us go, then. I want to see which of my gang is injured, and how badly.” Attila started walking, deliberately away from where Shining Spiral was working on Tinker. “You can teach my unicorns and pegasi how to use their abilities?”

“And teach your earth ponies, those like you, how to use your own special talents, like growing food from seed to harvest in a few days. We can do that. Once having done so, I do want assurances that your town and mine do not attack each other to take what the other has.” Sudden Storm said in a serious tone of voice.

“I can agree to that. We must mutually decide on where such a town can be situated without interfering with each other.” Attila said as they came across Coppertop treating one of Attila’s unicorn’s wounds. They were not serious, but any wound needs treating.

“Close enough to assist and trade with each other, yet far enough away so we are not in each other’s pockets. Both we from Ponytown, and the ones from Alexandria, will be willing to assist you in getting your settlement up and viable. Assistance you will need to ask for. We will not do it for you, but we will tell you how we established Ponytown, and let you make your own decisions,” Sudden Storm said as they walked.

“You are smarter than you look and sound, Sudden Storm. Had I but the means to contact you, maybe I would have. The conditions we were in made such a luxury impossible. Surviving came first.” Attila said slowly, considering every word as he thought quickly. Bending low to put his mouth by her ear, he whispered, “Thank you for letting me keep my pride, as well as not making me look weak in front of the gang.”

Sudden Storm whispered back. “Attila, I know how fragile leadership can be. I can’t lead by sheer power and strength, like you do, so I have to use more guile and cajoling. Your troop needs a strong leader. You have proven your ability to lead. Now, to find a place to have you and yours settle.”

“I have an idea, not far away. A Wal-Mart in Milton.”

“Not bad, but not much tillable acreage nearby, nor pastureland. Maybe tomorrow or the next day, we’ll go hunting together.” Sudden Storm said before both of them pricked their ears up and raised their heads as the sounds of a commotion reached them.

“Kill the invaders! Destroy all that stand in Attila’s way!” they both heard.

“That’s Samson! Something’s wrong for him to say that!” Attila said, startled.

“Follow me!” Sudden Storm said as she took to the nighttime sky. Hoofbeats were audible, heading towards the shouting, Samson’s among them.

Stormy got enough altitude to look around. She could see a pony rearing, the one identified to her as Samson, standing over Artie’s body, Laddie barking ferociously, lunging at Samson to keep him away from Artie. Samson came down from his rearing position, right on the black Labrador. The dog let out a loud whine, and dropped on the spot, blood coming from his mouth. Samson reared again, only to get a hoof to the head by a fast-moving white pegasus. Before the dazed earth pony could figure out what was going on, a teal blue earth pony came charging in, vaulting over Artie and Laddie to impact her shoulder into Samson’s chest, sending Samson flying a short way before falling to the ground, where a blue glow held the dazed pony down.

“You’re NOT going to kill one of ours tonight!” Serge shouted as he circled for another strike.

“Yeah! If anyone’s gonna kill Artie, it ain’t gonna be you!” Morgan snarled as she got up from the ground, where she fell after impact.

“Ponies, he can’t hear you. He’s unconscious.” Rich said from where he stood, head lowered, the glow from his horn surrounding the fallen pony. “Someone has a hard hoof.”

Sudden Storm circled the scene as other ponies ran up. “Why did you do that for? You don’t even like him!” she called down.

“Stormy, Artie may be a bastard to get along with, but he’s OUR bastard! Even if he IS a Jets fan!” Morgan called up as Attila came into the area.

“How is he?” Attila asked Rich.

“Out colder than the lake is now.” Rich said, moving his glow to Artie. “So is he. Artie must have been taken by surprise.”

As Coppertop came running up to check on his father, Vanna went over to sniff at Laddie. She then sat down and let out a pained howl. “That can’t be good.” Soaring Heart said quietly.

“Rich, how bad is my father? Can you sense that?” Coppertop asked as he started examining Artie.

“Bad lump on his head. He should be waking up in a while.” Rich said as Samson started to stir.

“Samson, you have done a bad thing here. Say why I should not kill you where you lie.” Attila said to his former second, who looked up at his boss with total surprise in his eyes.

“Attila, Ponytown struck first! Kill them all and we can take it! Show no mercy!” Samson whined from where he lay.

“Samson, matters are now on a different level. Ponytown is offering us a chance to build on our own. I will take that offer. We will have power and fresh food again.” Attila said seriously.

“No, Attila! What we need, we take, and let the others submit to us! Show no mercy!”

Attila grew stern. “Do you want to fight me for leadership? You can, or you can leave. Now. Pack your possessions and go. Those are your only options, Samson.” He said, standing over the earth pony.

The two locked eyes as the others gathered around. “I will fight you, Attila. Even now, I can defeat you.” Samson growled as he got to his feet.

“Everyone, get clear! This is a leadership duel!” Attila called out. The other ponies drew clear, Swift Quill and Rich moving Artie and Laddie aside. The two big earth ponies stared at each other.

“Attila, you went soft! You are supposed to be a conqueror! If you cannot conquer, step aside and I will!” Samson said, his eyes still not quite focusing.

“If you wish to conquer, you will have to go through me to do so.” Attila said, before rearing back and, striking swiftly, struck Samson’s head with a forehoof. Samson dropped like a sack of potatoes, blood leaking from above his left eye.

“Attention, all! Samson has lost his bid for leadership of us, and so now, I, Attila, declare that Samson is no longer part of the gang. If he stays, he stays as a slave.” Attila declared. “Nebulous Nimbus, record this fact.”

“Will do, boss.” Neb said from his spot in the surrounding circle of ponies.

Sudden Storm landed next to Attila. “I also will declare that Attila’s tribe are to be thought of as friends of Ponytown. A place for them to settle will be determined, and we will, working together, bring your town up to Ponytown standards,” she declared, to the surprise of Attila’s gang and the delight of the others.

As the cheering commenced, Artie woke up from unconsciousness. “What’s all the shouting about?” he asked his son.

“Peace is breaking out all over, Dad. I think we won.”

“Not without a cost, though.” Soaring Heart said, landing next to her husband and son. “Samson killed Laddie, who was defending you.”

Artie looked heartbroken. “He killed Laddie? Laddie was defending me?”

“Yes, he did, Artie. Samson was about to stomp your skull in. Laddie deflected and took the blow.” Sudden Storm said, joining the group.

“I’m gonna miss him.” Artie sniffled before breaking down, held by his family.

Author's Note:

This scene I sweated over for a long time. Final product does not match original concept. Life of a writer.