After six months of being at war with Queen Chrysalis, Princess Celestia allows for a secondary defence force to be set up in small towns and cities, in case the Changelings invade.
Rarity decides to take this opportunity and put herself in charge of Ponyville's branch as Captain, with Twilight Sparkle as her Sergeant.
So with her platoon ready for war, with no military experience at all, Things could only get better.
The Canterlot Elite sat outside on the lawn of the palace, a long table was set up with the finest silverware, which glistened in the early evening sun and a warm summer breeze could be felt as they ate quietly. The member of the Elite would often look up from their food and give nervous glances at the guests sitting opposite them. In the middle of the table sat Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, who was talking to her sister Luna, the Princess of the Night. On her other side, sat Princess Twilight Sparkle, the only pony in recorded history to have achieved the form of an Alicorn many years ago. She had not gained immortality like her mentors, but the soft lines in her face and under her eyes made her look more regal than the sisters, and the Elite had noticed that instead wearing her crown that they often saw her with, she was wearing her Element Tiara.
On the other side of Luna sat Cadence, Queen of the Crystal Empire and next to her was her husband, Brigadier Shining Armour who was quietly telling off his youngest son for using his new magical abilities to pull his sister’s hair, while his eldest son sat at the end of the table, looking at a form to join up for training as a Royal Guard.
And then there were the five ponies next to Princess Twilight; the ponies that represented the Elements of Harmony: Loyalty, Honesty, Laughter, Kindness, Generosity and for Princess Twilight, Magic. Each carried their Elements around their necks, and despite each going their separate ways over the passing years, they still talked and laughed with each other as if nothing had changed between them. And on the very end of the table, sat a dragon. He wasn’t full grown yet, as his spikes were still shorter than they would be, and some of his baby scales were still on his tail, but he was still twice as tall as the ponies and he took up the whole side of the table. He was wearing a black tuxedo, and on his chest, were two military medals.
Princess Twilight stood up from her seat, with her glass raised. “Mares and Gentlecolts!” she called out, as everyone fell silent, “It is with great honour, for us to grant one of our party tonight, with that of the privilege to finally join the Canterlot Elite. A mare who has done many great deeds for our kingdom, has stood there in the face of danger when we have been threatened, somepony whom I and many of us here are proud to have fought alongside in battle. The Element of Generosity herself, Rarity.”
Rarity gracefully stepped up, the Elite clapping their hooves on the ground. Her purple mane and tail was a much lighter colour these days, and there were small shades of white in it, but she had maintained the same elegant look on her face that she had since her days in Ponyville. “Thank you, Your Highness.” she said, bowing her head to the Princesses, “Mares and Gentlecolts,” she addressed the crowd sitting opposite her, “thank you for this wonderful opportunity, after all my years of service. But really, I would not be here myself, if it weren’t for my friends sitting next to me.” she raised her hoof, and waved it through the air, stopping it on the ponies and dragon on her right, “We, including Princess Twilight herself, have stood together in many dangerous situations over the years, but when Equestria faced its darkest moment, we became even closer than ever, to triumph and eventually, to win. Those early days were difficult, with bleak news coming in every week, but our spirits, no matter what, were always high.”
The cheering that followed this statement went on for what felt like hours as Rarity sat back down.
It had been six months since Queen Chrysalis and her Changeling Army had declared war on Equestria. The first shot had been fired since the events of Princess Cadence’s wedding, when a few days after, a squad of Changelings had tried to infiltrate the palace in the dead of night in an attempt to assassinate Celestia, but they had been caught and sentenced by Celestia herself. Chrysalis had her revenge when another Changeling attack was focused on the prison, and after the bombing, when the prison was little more than rubble, and her Changelings were free; twenty of the prisoners had been killed, including three guards. Shaken by what had happened, Celestia had demanded increased security all across Equestria, and after Cadence and Shining Armour had moved to the Crystal Empire, they made a pact with Celestia, and set up their own military organisation, sending in their troops all over the country to help prevent the Changeling invasion. Many attempts had been made to invade, but the Changelings were always kept at bay, however Celestia was not convinced that it would last, so she decided that there was no choice but to allow artefacts from the Forbidden Vaults to be made.
Soon, the army were equipped with rifles and bayonets, every home was ordered to have electrical wires fitted in for communication purposes, like radios and telephones. The trains were soon filled with stallions being sent off to various locations to fight. In some of the larger cities, fillies and colts were being evacuated to the countryside and small towns like Ponyville to be protected against the threat, and many family Stallions were being called up to fight; Mrs Cake had already had a teary goodbye on the platform as she watched her husband board the train.
However, with all this security and protection, the Changelings still found ways to try and cripple the pony forces. The food supplies that were sent to the towns would often be intercepted or destroyed by the Changelings, so all food was rationed, and everypony was given a ration book containing coupons, which would allow them to purchase a certain amount of a product each month. The process took some time to get used to, but eventually they were able to in-corporate it into their normal lives. Gas masks were also sent out to homes as Celestia was fearing that the Changelings could be experimenting with poisonous gases and air-raid systems were set up in town halls with search lights and guns that would be used to shoot down any flying Changelings, and everypony was asked to dig and set up shelters in their back gardens, or anywhere that could keep them safe underground until the All-Clear was heard.
One afternoon, as the All-Clear was dying down, Rarity was busy in Carousel Boutique. She had decided to help with the war effort by making uniforms for the soldiers. She was starting to get rather bored of the colour of khaki day in and day out, however it was for the good of Equestria, so she wasn’t going to complain. As she sewed on the straps on the shoulders, Spike came in through the back, carrying a very heavy sandbag; he heaved it on to the windowsill where other sandbags were piled on top of each other. “I think… this is the last one, Rarity.” he panted.
“Thank you, Spike.” said Rarity sweetly. As she turned around, She saw Spike out of the corner of her eye, stand next to her, his claws held out in front of him, “Oh, sweetie, I would give you a gem for your troubles, but I’m afraid jewels are hard to come by these days, they’ve started to ration them as well now, to help pay for the war.”
Spike’s jaw fell open in shock. He grumbled as he headed for the door in frustration, “I just wish Chrysalis would just give up and loose, already.”
Rarity felt bad for him and said, “Look, why don’t I give you some tea? I may have some carrot cake left if you want some.”
Spike turned around, quickly. It may not have been a jewel, but he never could turn down the opportunity for some carrot cake. As they headed out towards her kitchen, the doorbell jingled. They both turned to see Twilight Sparkle rush in.
“I thought I may find you here.” she smiled at Spike, giving a sigh of relief “I was getting worried when the air-raid started. Thanks for keeping him safe Rarity.”
“Not at all, Twilight.” said Rarity, “Would you care to join us for some tea and cake?”
“Alright.” said Twilight and she and Spike followed Rarity into the kitchen.
As they sat in the kitchen, Twilight and Rarity were soon talking about the war. Twilight had been getting information from her brother Shining Armour, who was stationed in the South side of Appleloosa, looking out over the desert, as there had been rumours that the Changelings may come over the sand.
“Well, from it sounds like Twilight,” said Rarity after she sipped her tea, “I would say we are getting close to winning. If the Changelings will be unable to make it via the desert, then I can’t see any other way of an invasion.” but just then, Spike suddenly belched out a scroll of parchment. Rarity grabbed it quickly, unrolled it and began reading, excitement showing in her eyes.
“Rarity, what are you doing?” Twilight asked quickly.
Rarity sighed as she finished reading the letter, “If you must know Twilight, I had recently written a letter to the Princess.”
“Oh.” said Twilight, looking a little relieved, “So, what exactly about friendship have you learnt?”
“It wasn’t anything to do with friendship.” said Rarity, excitedly. Twilight raised an eyebrow suspiciously, “You see, I had written to her, asking if there was anything we ponies in the smaller towns could do to protect Equestria, and here is her response.” she unrolled the parchment again and began to read.
"Dearest Rarity, Having read about your concern, I fully agree that everypony should try all they can to protect our country. Therefore, I have decided to propose a new defence organisation that will be used as a secondary force of protection. I will not give away any more information, but if you were to tune in to the radio at three o’clock on Wednesday, you will understand. Princess Celestia"
Rarity looked at the clock on the wall; it was one minute till three. She rushed out of the kitchen towards her radio, and twiddled with the dials, looking for the right reception, until finally Princess Celestia’s voice was soon heard, addressing everyone.
“With the growing threat of a Changeling invasion, protection is everything. So, as of today, you will be allowed to join up and be a part of the new defence organisation, which will give many ponies, which are not able to join up with the regular army, a chance to still fight. This group, with a properly appointed commander, will involve you protecting your family and friends within your very town, as well as protecting areas of national importance, and this organisation shall be known as the “Local Defence Volunteers” and everypony from the ages of 17 to 65 will have the chance to protect Equestria. If you wish to join, sign up at your nearest military station, with your information ready.”
Rarity knocked off the radio and turned to Twilight and Spike standing in the door, “That was it.” she said excitedly, and she headed for the door, “Come along you two.”
“Rarity, wait.” said Twilight, hastily, “You’re not honestly thinking of joining are you?”
“Why not?” said Rarity, “The thing was technically my idea, so I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t. Now Princess Celestia mentioned that we’ll need a “properly appointed commander”. Ok, that’s me.”
Twilight covered her mouth as she giggled, “Really Rarity, you’re going to be the commander?”
“Yes.” said Rarity, as she stuck her chest out, proudly, “Captain Rarity, and you, Twilight Sparkle, shall be my Second in Commander, by the rank of Sergeant.”
“Thank you.” said Twilight, Rarity missing the sarcasm.
“Now, Spike,” said Rarity, taking a strip of card, and rolling into a cone shape, “I want you to go around town, saying that if anyone wants to join up for the Local Defence Volunteers will need to meet up at the Town hall at 4 o’clock, precisely. I’ll meet you both there with the forms for them to sign.” and with that, she was out of the door like a shot, leaving Twilight and Spike standing there, looking bemused.
“Are we honestly going to go along with this, Twilight?” Spike asked.
“I’m afraid so.” sighed Twilight, and they both walked out of the Boutique, both wondering on how many ways this may fall apart.
The town hall was filled with many mares and stallions, all of whom were all waiting to join up for this new defence organisation the princess had set up. Among them were Cheerilee, Bon-Bon, Lyra, Caramel, Time Turner, Derpy and even Big Mackintosh, since he hadn’t been called up as he was needed to help at Sweet Apple Acres. “4 o’ clock Spike said!” Rainbow Dash grumbled to Vinyl Scratch, “It’s gone 20 minutes past!”
“I know, I’m already wasting some valuable bass-dropping right now.” replied Vinyl. Just then, the front door opened, and Twilight’s head looked in, scanning the room.
“Finally.” sighed Rainbow Dash as Twilight came walking past them, “Thank goodness you’re here Twilight, now we can get this whole thing over with.”
“I’m sorry Rainbow, but we need to wait the Commanding Officer.” said Twilight, still holding back the giggles.
“And you’re not the officer?!” said Rainbow Dash in shock, “Well who is?”
“Excuse me, pardon me.” came a familiar voice from the back of the hall as the sound of the doors closing could be heard.
“Oh no.” whimpered Rainbow Dash, as Rarity came into sight.
“We shall have to find a special room for the paperwork.” said Rarity, and she pushed Twilight forward towards two oak doors, magically opened the lock, and went inside.
“Rarity, we can’t use this.” Twilight persisted as Rarity shut the doors behind her, “This is the Mayor’s office!”
“She’ll understand that this is of national importance.” said Rarity, sitting at the desk.
“So, did you get the enrolment forms?” Twilight asked.
“No, I didn’t!” huffed Rarity, “They wouldn’t let me have them until I signed an application form.”
“Well why didn’t you?”
“Because they didn’t have any.” Rarity then began rummaging through the Mayor’s desk and pulled out some paper, “We’ll just have to use these.”
“We can’t use these!” said Twilight, loudly, “These are papers that are only to be used for passing laws in the town.”
“In times of peril Twilight, we shall need to improvise for the time being.” said Rarity as she took a quill and dipping it in the ink, “Let’s see, just cross that out… change that to “Enrolment”… put in “LDV”, and voila! Right, can you send the first pony in, please?”
Twilight rolled her eyes, opened the doors and stuck her head, “Would one of you mind stepping this way, please?” she asked politely.
“Twilight.” Rarity called to her, beckoning her to the desk, “I intend to turn those ponies out there into complete fighting unit, lead them to victory and inspire them, and I’m hardly going to be able to do that if you ask them to “Step this way” all the time. I would have thought that, with your own brother a Captain himself, you ought to know the correct term is “Quick march”, Darling.”
Twilight sighed and turned back around, “Quick march!” she shouted, only to see Rainbow Dash standing in front of her.
“No point in shouting, I’m here already.” she said as she approached the desk.
“Name?” Rarity asked, not looking up from the paper.
“Rarity, you don’t need to ask that, you already know my name.” Rainbow grumbled.
Rarity looked up from the paper and stared into Rainbow’s eyes, a stern look on her face, “Rainbow Dash, these things have to be done in the correct order, whether I know your name or not. Now, name?”
“But you just said my…” Rainbow groaned in frustration, “Fine, Rainbow Dash.”
“Good.” said Rarity, smiling sweetly at her, “Now, you have no military experience, correct?”
“I did try and join the Royal Guards once.” said Rainbow Dash, “I was actually a trained Private.”
“Yes, and I take it you got kicked out of that as well.” said Rarity.
“I was not kicked out!” cried Rainbow, sounded offended, “They just told me my services would no longer be required.”
“And why’s that.”
“Because I kept missing morning Parade.”
Rarity stared at Rainbow Dash for a few seconds before saying, “Sign here, please?” and turning the paper round for Rainbow Dash to put her signature on.
After doing this, Rainbow didn’t move from the spot. “Are you swearing?” she finally asked.
“Rainbow Dash, I never said a word!” cried Rarity, in shock.
“No, no.” said Rainbow Dash impatiently, shaking her head, “I mean, are you swearing an Oath of Allegiance?”
“Oh, right.” sighed Rarity with relief, “Well, we’ll do that later, so if you could kindly wait outside please?”
Rainbow Dash turned on her hooves and walked out of the door. When she was out of ear-shot Rarity whispered, “I know she’s our friend Twilight, but we may need to watch her in future. Send in the next Pony.”
Twilight called for the next Pony to step in, but the one that did step in was the last Pony she would suspect in a million years to sign up to fight.
“Hello Rarity, Twilight.” said Fluttershy, meekly as she walked in.
“Fluttershy?!” Rarity certainly was surprised by this, Fluttershy would normally have preferred to live in the Everfree Forest than to fight the Changelings, “You want to sign up to fight?”
“Well, not quite.” said Fluttershy, quietly, “It’s just that, I was wondering if, maybe, there could be other things I could do, to help in the… war.” she had said the last word so quietly, it was barely audible as she slowly crouched down in front of the desk.
“I have a suggestion.” said Twilight, after some thinking and she put her hoof over the shaking pony, “Fluttershy, we’ll enlist you into the LDV, but how would you feel about being our Platoon’s own Medical Officer, you won’t have to handle a rifle at all.”
“Oh, that sounds lovely.” said Fluttershy, perking up now, taking the quill in her hoof and putting her signature next to her name, and walked out smiling. Before Twilight could call the next pony to come forward, the door opened.
“Howdy, ladies!” said Applejack, standing in front of the desk.
“Ah, Applejack.” said Rarity happily, as she took her name down, “We haven’t seen you for a few days.”
“Yeah well, with apples goin' on ration, the farm just ain’t been getting the profit it normally would around this time of year.” said Applejack, a little disappointed, “So since then, ah have been taking up a secon' occupation.” and she pulled out a card from her hat and handed it to Twilight. It read “Applejack: Wholesale Supplier”.
Twilight handed the card to Rarity, “What does this mean?” she asked Applejack.
“It means ah’ve set up my own store on the farm and ah’m able to supply essential supplies, providing ah’ve got it, or ya'll got the bits.” said Applejack, her eyebrow raised mischievously.
“And you’ve got no military experience, have you?” said Rarity, ignoring the end of that statement.
“Well ah’ve got a cousin in the ATS.” said Applejack.
So Rarity asked her to sign her signature like the others, and when she was gone she called Twilight over again and whispered, “If we don’t get a Stallion signed onto this, this’ll be part of the ATS.”
The next pony to come in was another unlikely choice. “Hi Twilight, hi Rarity!” said Pinkie Pie, grinning from ear to ear, "I'm so excited about this whole defence thingy, are you excited? Well you must be excited since you did start this up, and I can't wait to sign up, where do I sign up?" she said without taking in a breath.
Twilight and Rarity shared nervous glances, and this time, it was Twilight's turn to ask Rarity for a private word taking her to a corner of the office, "Rarity," she said in a low whisper, "I was able to give Fluttershy a chance to be in this, but Pinkie?! She'll just think it's all a joke and won't take it seriously. I mean, if we leave her alone with a rifle, Ponyville's going to look like it has been bombed by the Changelings." She then stopped, noticing Pinkie was standing next to them, still grinning. They both turned to face her with nervous smiles.
"Oh, by the way Rarity." said Pinkie as she took out a carefully wrapped package from her saddlebag and placed it on the desk in front of her, "I've got you two muffins, the ones with the light cream centre, your favourite."
Rarity looked down at the package. Since baking goods had gone on the ration as well, it was quite difficult to get muffins or cupcakes from SugarCube Corner these days. She levitated the package into saddlebag, "Well I suppose we could give her some discipline training when we get our weapons." she said, still smiling.
"Rarity!" said Twilight, looking shocked, "I can't believe you would stoop so low as to accept a bribery!"
"Don't worry Twilight, I've got you two muffins as well, with the Midnight-Blue icing." said Pinkie, taking out another package and holding out to Twilight. Twilight looked away for a few seconds, but eventually she took the package and put it in her saddlebag, however as soon as she had done that, Pinkie asked, "Can I have a rank?"
"No, I'm afraid not, Pinkie." said Rarity, calmly.
"Oh." said Pinkie, her ears drooped slightly, "Well in that case, I'll take the muffins back."
"Wait, wait!" said Rarity quickly, levitating her saddlebag away from Pinkie's outstretched hoof, "I'm sure we can come to some sort of arrangement. What rank would you suggest. Twilight?"
"Well, if I'm right, I would suggest a low rank, but still one with some sort of authority." said Twilight, thinking carefully, "How would you feel about being a Lance-Corporal?" she asked Pinkie.
"Well, I was hoping for Major-General, but still, YAY!" screamed Pinkie, bouncing up and down and out of the room, and before Twilight and Rarity could call her back, she bounced back in again, signed her signature next to her name and bounced out again, leaving Twilight and Rarity to breathe a sigh of relief.
Outside in the hall, the Mayor had entered to find it completely crowded, "What in the world of Equestria is going on in here?" she called out, but since no one was able to hear her, she forced her way to her office, but when she opened the doors, she was surprised to see Rarity sitting at her desk, and Twilight Sparkle standing next to it.
Twilight quickly noticed her and nudged Rarity in the shoulder to get her attention. Rarity looked up and immediately shot out of the seat, "Afternoon Madam Mayor." she said calmly, "I hope you don't mind us using your office."
"You could have at least waited to ask me." said the Mayor darkly, but then the door opened again, and in walked a pony that Twilight and Rarity would certainly have not signed up to join, even if she had begged them.
"Are you two in charge of those ponies out there?" asked Trixie.
"We maybe." said Rarity, glaring at Trixie, "Why?"
"Well get them out now." she ordered.
"What right have you got to tell us what to do?" Twilight demanded.
"This!" said Trixie, grinning maliciously as she placed a white tin helmet on her head, with a large black W on it, "Trixie has been made Chief Air- Raid Warden of Ponyville, and in five minutes, She intends to use that hall for an ARP lecture, so get that lot cleared out NOW!!" and with that, she walked out, slamming the door behind her.
"Well, now what do we do, Rarity?" Twilight sighed, "We've only enrolled four ponies so far."
"There's only one thing we can do now." said Rarity, straightening up, "Get them all in here, and I'll explain."
This was not the best solution Rarity could have thought of, as there were fifteen Ponies waiting outside to join, and the Mayor's office was not exactly the biggest room ever, so when Twilight called for them all to come in, there was a tight squeeze as ponies fidgeted in and were elbowing each other in the ribs to try and get comfortable, and Rarity had suddenly found herself pushed up against the back wall, however she was able to get her head high enough for it not to get squashed and call out to the crowd.
"Listen everypony. You have all come here to call on Equestria's aid. We are all here to protect our loved ones and friends. As of this moment, we have no guns, but we do have one thing in our armoury; ingenuity and improvisation..."
"That's two!" Rainbow Dash called out.
"Now I want you all to go to your homes, find any weapon you can, and come back here at 6 o'clock!" Rarity continued, "Because tonight, we will be able to say, "Come on Chrysalis, we're ready!" So don't forget your Gas-Masks!"
Everypony cheered and turned around to leave, but it did take a while as they were all fighting over who should go through the door first.
Meanwhile, over on the far side of the border, across the forgotten seas and through the Mountains of Reckoning, stood the Changeling Empire. A vast and open area of land stood at the front under a black sky as shapeless clouds loomed overhead, where Changelings of many sizes and had been bred for different functions, were busy with an assortment of weapons that were being tested for the first time, construction of vast and horrible tank-like machines were underway while many of the changelings were out on training grounds, practising with large cannons that would certainly looked like it had the force to destroy a town with only three shots as it fired shots of dark green like fire, that exploded like a bomb once it had made contact. Some Changelings could be seen returning after a battle, and even some were carrying unconscious ponies, to be either tortured for information, be tested for their weapons, or to be put in their work camps as a Prisoner of War and manufacture the cannons.
There were bunkers stood around the area, each one leading to an underground system of tunnels where the Changeling scientists could work in peace, perfecting the combinations of a different bomb each week, or testing out its new gases on the prisoners to see how fatal they were.
On the top of the nearest mountain stood the castle where Queen Chrysalis resided. Unlike Canterlot, with its white buildings and bustling high streets, this was black and crumbling, its dark winding streets were all cobbled together as Changeling soldiers marched up and down them on patrol, and in one certain building, one of the largest Military bases for the Changeling government and army, a selected group all stood around a giant map of what looked like the South side of Equestria, where small pins were placed on the map, a different colour indicating each of the ponies defences, many were placed around Canterlot itself.
“Comrades!” came a loud, snarling voice, from the General as he walked smoothly, as if he was gliding, into the room, “Tonight, her Majesty has allowed us to draw out a new plan of attack. It shall go under the name of “Operation Manticore”, and everything must be planned out to the very last detail! But we must not underestimate our Pony enemies, for they do share one common entity with us; they have always been great organisers.”
At 6 o’clock, the Town Hall was filled again, as the ponies were all standing in three rows, each carrying an object that they felt could be used as a weapon. “Platoon, attention!” Twilight barked and all the ponies stood to attention as Rarity walked up alongside Twilight, “All the ponies are ready for inspection.” said Twilight, raising her hoof into a salute. She still felt that this was a ridiculous idea, but she decided that if they would be acting as an army, she may as well treat Rarity as her officer.
“Excellent, Twilight.” smiled Rarity, and she turned to face her soldiers, and looked at Pinkie Pie with her choice of weapon; an egg whisk, “I really don’t think that is going to pose much of a threat, Pinkie.” she said, her eyebrow raised.
“Oh no Rarity, I’ve thought it all out.” said Pinkie grinning, “Watch.” and she stuck the whisk into Rarity’s hair and began twisting it vigorously, and then she pulled it out quickly, leaving her mane to be knotted and sticking out in various places. Rarity stood in horror for a few seconds, but before she could make a scene, Twilight quickly used her magic to put it back to normal, “See, if I do that to a Changeling, he’ll be in so much shock about his mane, that it’ll give someone the chance to shoot him.” finished Pinkie, still smiling about this excellent idea.
“Yes, quite.” breathed Rarity, her heart slowing back down, “But I think you need to remember, Changelings don’t have manes.” she added, but before she moved on she turned to back to Pinkie and hissed, “Don’t ever demonstrate that again.” and then saw Spike standing next to her, her eyes looking at his choice of weapon.
“You said that if we didn’t have anything, we can tie a carving knife to a broom handle." said Spike.
“Yes Spike, I did say that.” said Rarity, smiling sweetly, but Spike could easily tell he had done something wrong, “But I didn’t mean that you keep the broom on at the end of it.” she sighed and walked on. She nodded at Rainbow Dash for her choice of bringing a shovel, which she would use for shovelling the clouds, and when she walked up to Fluttershy, “Where did you get that?!” she demanded, as Fluttershy stood there, with a rifle in the right hoof.
“Well, I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to bring a weapon, and I thought you would be disappointed if I didn’t have one, so I just found this in my attic.” said Fluttershy, innocently.
“Yes.” said Rarity, uncertainly. She grabbed Twilight by the foreleg and dragged her back a few paces, “She’s got a gun.” She whispered, as she looked over at Fluttershy, “Well, I’m the Officer, you’re the Sergeant; we ought to have it. Go ask her to hand it over.”
Twilight turned reluctantly around and walked back over to Fluttershy, “Rarity is asking whether you could hand us your gun, Fluttershy.” she asked kindly.
“Oh my.” said Fluttershy, “I’m not really sure I could let her have it.”
“Look, Fluttershy,” said Rarity, in a commanding voice, “as your new Officer, I insist you hand over your weapon.”
“But I don’t even know if it still works.” said Fluttershy.
“And we may not know if you do not hand it over.” said Rarity, “As a Medical Officer, you shouldn’t be entitled to a gun.” but when Fluttershy still wasn’t sure about co-operating with this, Rarity tired another way of persuasion, “You do realise that if you fail to follow orders, we could have you shot for it.” she said in a more serious tone.
“Well, that’ll be tricky, as she’s the only one with a gun that probably don’t work.” smirked Applejack. Everypony started to giggle, until Rarity called for everyone to settle down, and told Fluttershy they’ll discuss it after Parade.
After the inspection, Rarity and Twilight stood up in front of the platoon, “Splendid everypony.” said Rarity smiling, “If in a few hours we can achieve this fighting potential, just imagine what we will be like after a few weeks of training. Now I believe our first objective will be to memorise the stretch of land that we shall be protecting. Do you have the maps, Twilight?”
“Sort of.” said Twilight, uncertainly as she levitated a small book out of her bag, “I’m afraid that “The Walkway Guide of South Equestria” was all I could find on such short notice.”
“Well I guess it’ll have to do.” sighed Rarity as Twilight opened the book to the appropriate page and holding it up, “Now, as you can see, Ponyville is one of the closest towns to the South Coast, and…”
“Rarity.” called Pinkie Pie, “I can’t see Ponyville.”
Rarity rolled her eyes again, “Look, if you can’t see very well, you can move forward.” and when she said that, all the ponies fell out of their ranks and all gathered around the book, some at the back craning their necks, “Moving on,” said Rarity, taking a tube used for rolling her fabric out of her bag, and pointing it at the book, “now then…”
“Here is the South Coast of Equestria.” said the Changeling General, pointing at the map on the table, “Now we shall send five hundred of our aquatically bred Changelings along the far edges, and taking the seventh, the eighth and the tenth Divisions with them. And along this side of the south, five hundred more Changelings will attack and taking a fourth Division from the sky. As a result, the ponies shall have to deal with a maximum total of 1100 of our soldiers.”
“Now the Changelings may attack along these areas.” said Rarity, dragging the tube along the Coast in the book, “Now I don’t expect to have all of us spread across the entire area, so a few of us will defend the beach from the local park here, while the rest will be on lookout from the old lighthouse, on the other side.”
“All Division captains will be in contact with me with the use of the newly developed short transistor radios.” continued the Changeling General.
“All section leaders will be in contact with me with the use of the Filly Scouts.” continued Rarity.
“A message from the Queen, sir!” said a Changeling soldier, entering the room, “She wonders if she will be able to see a full detail of the plans by tomorrow.”
“A message from your sister, Rarity.” said Fluttershy, after getting off the telephone, “She wonders if Orange Juice will show up much on purple fabric.”
Over the next few days, Ponyville’s new LDV was in operation. Rarity had originally decided for them to meet at the Town Hall for parade, but the Mayor was still not impressed with them using her office without her permission and had denied them this, since she was already allowing Trixie to use it for her ARP lectures, however the Vicar of the town’s church had given them access to use the Church Hall instead on the other side of town, and had promised them that if a Changeling army should invade he shall ring the bells as a warning. Parade would then start in the evenings at 5:30, since many members of the platoon such as Cheerilee, Applejack and especially Rarity, had jobs to maintain, it was seen best that it wouldn’t clash with their occupations. Rarity had also managed to convince Fluttershy to hand over her rifle, and she had swapped it for a Medical bag which she had slung over her shoulders, while everypony else stood in their ranks with their choice of weapons.
They had gotten excited when they had been told they were receiving their uniforms and weapons a week into their training, but were extremely disappointed when it turned out to be just a white armband with “LDV” written on the side, (Rarity, Twilight and Pinkie were given two armbands each, with Rarity’s having “Captain” written on it, Twilights had three stripes and Pinkies just had a single stripe)and their weapons just turned out to be a box of pepper, with instructions telling them to throw it in the faces of Changelings. Eventually, they were soon starting to get irritated with all the waiting, but Rarity kept re-assuring them that their rifles will come soon enough, although she was starting to doubt her own words.
Halfway into the second week, Rarity told the ponies that while without their weapons, they would be continuing with their un-armed combat, (“That’s about all we can do.” Rainbow Dash had sniggered to Spike) and she called for them all to fall out and form a circle around the hall to watch that nights’ demonstration, Pinkie Pie standing next to her.
“Are you volunteering to be the attacker again, Pinkie?” Rarity asked.
“Of course, silly.” smiled Pinkie, “I have to do something to keep the morale up.”
“Now, last night,” Rarity told the platoon “we were dealing with the ways to stop an assailant with a dagger, however after last night’s incident,” she lifted her left hoof which was heavily bandaged, “we better not use Mrs Cake’s best knife this time.” and she took away the knife Pinkie had brought with her, and Pinkie jumped onto her hindlegs, in an attacker’s position with her left hoof just under Rarity’s chin and her right hoof raised, as if to strike.
“Now once you use your left foreleg to cushion the blow, you will remember that you then push your hoof under the attacker’s hoof joint, like so.” said Rarity as she demonstrated the manoeuvre and pushed Pinkie’s right foreleg down, “That was correct, Twilight?”
“Yes, that was as far as we got until Nurse Redheart had to be called.” said Twilight.
“Now the next step is to try and knock out your opponent.” continued Rarity, “This can either be done by the edge of the hoof against the throat, or if you wish to, you can use both hooves to jab them in the eyes.”
Rainbow Dash raised her hoof in the air, “I have a question Rarity. This whole idea of ‘jabbing them in the eyes’ thing, how are we supposed to do that if the attacker is wearing a Gas-Mask?”
“Ah.” said Rarity, putting her hoof to chin and thinking, “That’s a good question Rainbow; what to do if he’s wearing a Service Respirator. It’s probably best to call them by their technical terms. Is there anything in the manual, Twilight?”
Twilight picked up the Learner’s Manual that GHQ had given and scanned through the pages, “There doesn’t seem to be anything written on the subject.” she finally said.
“Well there you are, ladies,” said Rarity, “Rainbow Dash has found and considered a problem that even the desk sitters of GHQ have not considered.” Rainbow sat up straight, looking proud and smug at Rarity’s comment, “However that doesn’t mean we can’t find a way, we shall improvise. Pinkie, put your Gas-Mask on.”
“Service Respirator.” Twilight whispered.
“Yes, thank you Sergeant.” Rarity hissed, as Pinkie open the box around her neck, took out her Gas-Mask, placed her face into it and pulled the straps back over her mane until it was as tight enough not to let outside air escape into it. “Now obviously, we can’t jab our hooves into the eyes.” she continued after Pinkie had prepared herself, “So, what do we do?”
“Breathe over the little window so he can’t see.” Applejack suggested as a joke, as everypony started to giggle.
“Well I don’t believe that will work Applejack.” said Twilight, missing the joke, “You see, the window is made out of celluloid material, so it doesn’t get steamed up.”
“That’s a very good point, Twilight.” said Rarity, “So I believe our only other option is to try and cut off the air supply.” and with that, she put her hoof over the air-intake of the Gas-Mask, “Now in some cases, you may have to grasp on to the air-tube and squeeze it if they have one, which this one does not. Now we all know, that no matter how big the fighter is, whether it be a Changeling or even Chrysalis herself, he or she cannot survive long without an air supply.”
The words had just left Rarity’s mouth, when suddenly Pinkie Pie keeled over onto the floor. Rarity suddenly realised she had left her hoof over the air-intake throughout the whole discussion and the lack of air must have caused Pinkie to pass out. “Quick, get her mask off!” she shouted in a panic as they all crowded around the unconscious pink form.
A few minutes later, Pinkie was sitting in the Vicar’s office with Rarity and Twilight, breathing heavily as Twilight passed her a glass of water. “I’m sorry about that, Rarity.” she gasped as she got her breath back.
“It wasn’t your fault, Pinkie.” Twilight reassured her.
“Yes, it’s entirely my fault.” said Rarity, patting her hoof, “I should have just asked you to take out your Gas-Mask, rather than having you put it on.”
“I only did it to keep their morale up.” breathed Pinkie, “But when your own morale is broken, it’s not so easy. I’m used to throwing parties to keep ponies smiling, balloons, cake and streamers and all that, but these past few days have not been so super fun at all.”
“Yes, I completely understand, Pinkie.” said Rarity, in a motherly tone, “It’s going to be difficult, but we will pull through.”
“It’s not just that.” continued Pinkie, her head hung low, “I’m struggling to balance this with my personal life as well. With Mr Cake off fighting, I have more work to do at Sugar Cube Corner, helping Mrs Cake with the baked goods, while trying to baby-sit the twins on top of it. But all we can offer really now is just a few muffins and a candy cane. You don’t understand the precision in it, you beat the dough as hard as you can, you put it in the oven, and if it’s just a centigrade off, the Gates of Tartarus open up.”
“Well it does happen to the best of us, Pinkie.” said Twilight.
“Yes, we just have to keep remembering there is a war on.” finished Rarity.
“Yes, but I can’t help it.” Pinkie whimpered, her bottom lip shaking and her eyes were starting to brim with tears, “I mean I’m always there, with the cakes in the display window, day in and day out, and after I finish my shift I have to nurse the twins and put them to bed, and then I have to go down and help Mrs Cake count the coupons, and then I come down to parade and I think ‘They’ll give me a rifle tonight’, but… there never…”
Pinkie couldn’t finish her sentence as all the stress and waiting finally took over and she burst into tears. Twilight magically made a handkerchief appear and gave to Pinkie as she sobbed uncontrollably in her seat.
“Our first casualty, Twilight.” sighed Rarity, “I never thought Pinkie would be the one to collapse like this.”
“I guess this shows she was never one to be in a situation like this.” said Twilight, feeling sorry for her friend.
“Nonsense.” said Rarity, “She’s just as eager to get to the Changelings like the rest of us. We have to get those rifles here quickly.”
“Well you can’t just keep saying that they will be coming.” said Twilight sternly as she helped Pinkie onto her hooves, “Unless something comes up by the end of the week, I’ll be very surprised if anypony comes again.” and she led Pinkie out through the other door that led to the courtyard as she walked her back to Sugar Cube Corner, leaving Rarity deep in thought.
Twilight’s words stayed with Rarity as she walked back to Carousel Boutique. She knew she was right, it was no good telling the ponies that the weapons were coming, when she knew it wasn’t true. She would have to think of some other way to get the rifles, but she didn’t know how. She felt it wasn’t proper to continue phoning GHQ for them, which was something she had been doing every time somepony asked about their whereabouts, because they would surely tell her to stop pestering them like a schoolfilly. She opened the door, walked up the stairs, climbed into her bed and stared up at the ceiling, wondering how she could possibly boost her army’s morale, but the answer always came back to weapons and rifles, so she eventually gave up and rolled over onto her side and closed her eyes, praying that Princess Luna would enter her dreams and give her some suggestions.
Next morning, Rarity awoke with a buzz of excitement. She had decided that if they were unable to get the weapons, then they would just have to make their own. She then headed out to the market to get the appropriate equipment, asking stall after stall where she would be able to get items like pieces of fuse and matches. She was able to get several empty bottles from Berry Punch , the only items she needed now was this new liquid called petrol, which was not going to be easy to get since petrol was being produced by the Canterlot Defence Corps to power those strange new machines called ‘Tanks’, but she decided that there would only be one way to get the stuff.
“I don’t know, Rarity.” said Applejack when Rarity met her in her new store in Sweet Apple Acres, “That petrol stuff is very difficult to get a hold of if, however if we’re only using them tonight, I do happen to have three jerry cans of it available.”
“Do I want to know how exactly you required them?” asked Rarity.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got connections to a friend in the corps.” said Applejack, waving the accusation away, “Now normally, I would think to charge about five bits, but since these are hard to come by, and since you’re a friend, I’ll say about two bits for each can.”
“That’s still a bit steep, isn’t it?” said Rarity has she took out her purse.
“Yeah, like I said, they’re hard to come by.” said Applejack.
Later that day when she had put all her ‘shopping’ in the back room, Rarity was back to work adding elastic straps to uniforms. She had asked if it was possible if she could make the uniforms for her platoon; however GHQ had informed her that the LDV uniforms were being produced in Canterlot with the weapons, which made Rarity doubt even more that they were going to get anything at all. Just then the doorbell jingled, and Rarity looked up to see an unfamiliar stallion standing there in the doorway. He had a light brown mane that was flecked with grey, and his cheekbones were sunken into his face a little bit. His eyes were quite small, and they had a cold piercing feel to them. Rarity however did not flinch at the sight of him. To her, he was just another customer who needed service.
“Welcome to Carousel Boutique.” she said, giving her traditional polite tones, “How may I help you?”
The stallion didn’t answer straight away, he just pulled out a shirt and placed it on the desk in front of her, “Yes, repair that for me, will you please?” he said in a rather bored and rude tone.
“Certainly.” said Rarity, dropping her polite tones slightly. She held up and examined the shirt; one of the buttons that held the collar down was missing, and there was a small hole under one of the arms. She sniffed slightly and levitated some thread and a needle out of one drawer, and then a small plastic box of buttons out of another. As she was about to start work, she looked up at the stallion and said calmly, “So, you don’t live around Ponyville, do you?”
“Well, obviously.” said the stallion with a slight drone in his voice. He smirked slightly and continued, “You know I was passing that church just on the edge of this town, when I saw a sign outside saying, ‘LDV Headquarters’. Honestly I don’t know why you bother; they wouldn’t be able to stop a filly catching a cold than an invasion.”
Rarity lowered the needle and looked at the stallion squarely in the eyes, “You know I don’t entirely admire your tone sir.” “Meaning?” said the stallion, an eyebrow raised.
“Well, as a believer of the phrase ‘Careless Talk Costs Lives’, I must admit that I do find your choice of words in that statement quite suspicious. For example you said, ‘I don’t know why YOU bother’ as opposed to ‘I don’t know why WE bother’.” said Rarity suspiciously, “And I don’t entirely believe it is common to say something as serious as that where one could possibly give out important information.”
“What exactly do you mean?” asked the stallion dangerously.
“Well as I don’t know you, I have to be cautious about what to say if you are to say things about the Local Defence Volunteers, and we do have to be very careful about security. For all I know, you could be a Changeling spy.”
“What utter nonsense!” snapped the stallion.
“It is not nonsense, sir.” said Rarity, as calmly as she could but there was now a hint of venom in her voice, “You hear stories about how Changelings have been sneaking into Equestria, disguising themselves to get information out of anypony, and I’m afraid I don’t intend to take that risk.” and so she handed the shirt back to him, without having repaired it.
“Are you refusing to fix this?” demanded the stallion.
“I am afraid so.” said Rarity, “I have never turned down a customer before, but in sight of your behaviour and attitude you have unfortunately leave me no choice.”
The stallion glared at her seething slightly and put the shirt back into its bag, turned on his heel and marched out of the shop. Perhaps Rarity would have been more polite if she had known that the stallion had arrived in a private cart, with another stallion dressed in military uniform with three stripes on his forelegs.
“Everything alright, General?” asked the Sergeant as the stallion sat back down, breathing heavily.
“Damn seamstress.” was all the stallion said as the cart pulled away.
After seeing the stallion out, Rarity turned to look at the clock. It was nearly 5 o’clock, there was only half an hour before she would go out on parade. She went upstairs to her bedroom, put her armbands on and examined herself in the mirror, wishing that someday she would be able to see herself in proper uniform with three pips on her shoulder. She sighed and headed back downstairs just as the door rang again, she looked and saw Twilight and Spike entering, Spike carrying a newspaper.
“Have you seen the news Rarity?” asked Twilight, “The war news is not looking good.”
Spike handed Rarity the newspaper. Rarity scanned the front page, eyes widened the further she read. Somehow the Changelings had managed to advance fifty miles across the desert, and were now setting up camp somewhere in between Appleloosa and Dodge Junction undetected.
“Heavens!” Rarity breathed, “How ever did they manage to move so quickly?”
“Shining Armour reckons they were moving slowing alongside the canyons, he sent a letter telling me about it this morning.” said Twilight, “ He also told me that Princess Celestia has suggested on sending in more ponies to guard Appleloose and Dodge Junction as soon as possible.”
“Yes, providing they haven’t destroyed the tracks yet.” said Rarity, folding up the newspaper and putting it on the table, “We will need to be extra careful, now that we know how close the Changelings are. Come on, we better go down to Parade. Spike, would you be a darling and pick up the bags in my sitting room would you?”
“What exactly do you have planned?” Twilight asked when she saw Spike carrying two heavy bags, one sounding like it was full of metal.
“I have devised an interesting solution for our lack of weapons.” Rarity grinned as she walked out of Carousel Boutique and up the road towards the Church Hall.
“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.
A few days later, the news broadcast gave an important report. At 2:23 PM on the 4th June, the Vice Admiral had announced, in agreement with the Griffins, that ‘Operation Diamond’ was completed. A grand total of 338,226 ponies and allied troops had all been safely evacuated from Wingkirk; 239,446 had been saved from the harbour, while another 98,780 were rescued on the beaches and that the last of the 933 armada of little ships had safely returned to Equestria Harbour. 40 Griffin and Chimaera vessels had also participated in the evacuation, and just before midnight the Equestrian Rear Guard had embarked to help. Summing up the experience to members of Parliament in Canterlot, Princess Celestia stated “We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuation.”
Twilight and Rarity were sitting in the back room of Carousel Boutique with some tea, listening to the news on the radio. Rarity switched it off when it ended, “Well, that’s some good news.” she sighed, “getting some of our soldiers back home to Equestria is quite frankly a remarkable achievement.”
“Yes, it’s a pity we couldn’t have found some way of keeping them in Talonce.” Twilight muttered to herself. Rarity looked over at her with a raised eyebrow.
Over in Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie was working the counter and the customers while Mrs Cake w in the kitchen. She was certainly a lot happier now that the rifles had come, and she was now back to her usual bouncy self. As she stood by the counter, Matilda Donkey walked up, holding out her coupon book and gave it to Pinkie. “Oh, you haven’t got a lot left for this week Matilda.” said Pinkie looking through the book, “I don’t think you should have had that extra slice of cake.”
“Oh well, you know what Cranky is like.” chuckled Matilda, “He will insist on having his weekly bit of chocolate. How much have I got left?”
“Well it adds up to about three small gems and two bits.” said Pinkie as she gave the coupon book back.
“Oh.” sighed Matilda, “I suppose I better have a cupcake then.”
“Well I’m afraid we can only allow 1 7/8 ounce cupcakes these days dearie.” said Mrs Cake as she backed out of the kitchen with a fresh tray of baked cookies, “Baking supplies are getting quite slim these days, so you may have to have the rest made up of frosting.”
“Very well.” said Matilda, but as Mrs Cake went to check on the twins, Pinkie leaned over to Matilda and whispered, “If you want, I’ll put a small amount of frosting on the cupcake, but I’ll throw in two small slices of Carrot Cake to balance it out.”
Matilda nodded in agreement, and Pinkie took the Carrot Cake off the shelf, carefully cut out two slim pieces for Matilda and Cranky and placed it back carefully. Matilda waved her goodbye and walked out into the street.
Outside, Applejack was walking through Ponyville carrying her new briefcase where she carried her goods for selling. She gave a few polite nods to ponies as they passed and then snuck down another dark street and into the gloomy Undertaker’s shop.
The walls were lined up with empty coffins, their covers propped up next to them. Cobwebs covered the ceiling and grit and grime coated the wooden floor. Applejack walked over to the counter and rung the bell, “Mr Tomb?” she called out, her voice echoing slightly. Another door could be heard to open somewhere in the back, possibly the parlour, and out from the shadows walked a tall, stooping stallion, wearing a black coat over his suit. He had dark shadows and deep lines under his eyes and his cheeks were quite sunken into his face. His mane was a short shocking white, that stuck out in places and his Cutie Mark was that of a tombstone.
“Well, what do you want?” he asked in a croaky and oily sort of voice.
“Now, is that any way to talk to a mare who has come to make an offering?” said Applejack, as she put her briefcase down on the desk and opened to reveal a collection of handles, “Proper brass copper handles for your coffins, you ain’t gonna get them anywhere else.”
Mr Tomb picked up one of the handles and held it close to his face, his eyes darting to and fro. Finally he threw it back in the suitcase, “That not brass,” he croaked, “that’s just cheap rubbish! If I used those on my coffins, they will have rusted through after a week underground.”
“Yeah, I see your point.” said Applejack thoughtfully, “But after a week, who’ll know the difference?”
Mr Tomb paused for a moment to think this over, “Good point.” he said at last, “Alright, I’ll take a dozen.” but as Applejack was taking out her notepad to write his name down, they heard the low droning sound of the Air-Raid siren starting, “Better make it two dozen.” Mr Tomb whispered.
Air-Raids during the day were slightly different from when they happened at night. At night everypony would immediately run to the shelters and make sure that all lights were out in their houses, however in the day, they would like to dawdle in the streets to look up at the small dots in the sky flying overhead. Trixie however wasn’t one of those ponies; she ran out of her travelling caravan with her ARP helmet on her head and would try to get everypony down to the shelters even though they ignored her for a few seconds.
Twilight and Rarity quickly ran out of Carousel Boutique and headed for the library where Spike had walked outside to watch. “Come on Spike.” said Twilight using her magic to place Spike onto her back, “We have to go down to the cellar!” and they ran back into the library with Rarity looking over her shoulder at the dots in the sky.
Pinkie and Mrs Cake walked out into the street as well, each carrying one of the twins and looked up. “Good heavens, they like bees.” Mrs Cake gasped.
“What are you doing?” Trixie shouted at them as she ran towards, “You can see them in the air, so get undercover!” and she ran on to another group down the street.
Pinkie stuck her tongue out at her and went back to looking; “Whee, well done boys!” she shouted at the top of her voice at the sky, “Show them we can beat them nasty cheeselegs!”
“Pinkie, those aren’t ours.” Mrs Cake whispered, as she turned back to the store and walked quickly around the back, “Those look like Changelings.”
“Oh. BUCK OFF CHEESELEGS!”
That evening, Twilight and Rarity entered the Church hall to find everypony already standing to attention, holding their rifles in their right hooves. The atmosphere was certainly different these days, everypony was now putting all their efforts into the training now, and Rarity had now finally decided to train them how to charge with bayonets, shoot at enemy changelings and how to knock somepony out using the butt of the rifle. “Slope forelegs!” Twilight called out. “One, two three, one, two three, one!” said everypony in unison, lifting their rifles and swapping forelegs until their rifles were in their left hooves.
Rarity walked along the front of the line, eyeing each one of them, when she was satisfied, she ordered them to stand at ease. “I have some good news.” she announced, “We have been given some new armbands, but also an issue of field service caps.” everypony all nodded their heads and muttered to each other in agreement. “Now on the command ‘Fall out’, you will come over to the table where Lance-Corporal Pinkie will hand out a cap and armband, and I shall give out tonight’s patrol order. Fall out!”
Everypony walked over to the table and Pinkie (who was already wearing her cap) handed them out with the new armbands. They weren’t white with ‘LDV’ crudely written on them, they were now a light green with ‘Home Guard’ printed on them instead. They all stood in small groups, admiring each other with their first piece of uniform.
“Do you think this green clashes with my colour?” Lyra was asking Bon-Bon.
“Am I wearing it right, Doctor?” asked Derpy.
“Well yes if you’re retreating.” chuckled Doctor Whooves, “You’re wearing it back to front.”
"Twilight, could you shrink this for me?" Spike asked. Because he was smaller than the ponies, Twilight had to use a shrinking spell on his rifle and ammunition so that he could use it properly, she figured she would now have to do it for his uniform.
When they had all settled, they all stood back to attention in their lines as Rarity addressed them, “Now tonight, I shall want everypony on high alert after what has happened at Wingkirk. Private Cheerilee you and your section shall patrol the area from the bridge to the edge of the Everfree Forest. Private Turner, you and your section shall be on watch at the windmill and, if you can, try and get somepony into the Town Hall. Corporal Pinkie, your section shall be on watch from the East side of town. You can set up your headquarters in the Library tonight. Do you mind Twilight?”
“No, not all.” said Twilight, “Oh, and Rarity, we also need somepony to be on Coast Duty as well.”
“Of course.” said Rarity as Twilight pulled the chart out of her bag, “So whose turn is it tonight?”
Up on the cliff side looking out over the sea, Fluttershy shivered slightly as the sea wind hit her. Even though she turned it down, Twilight had given her a rifle just in case, and a pair of binoculars. As she looked over the sea, the sun was beginning to set, and she then heard the sound of rustling grass behind her. She gave a squeal of terror, picked up the rifle and held it up, “Halt, who goes there?” she tried to call out, but her voice shook as it slowly became a whisper. The two figures came closer, and Fluttershy lowered the gun as Rarity and Twilight drew level with her.
“Well done Fluttershy, keep on your hooves.” said Rarity, “Any sign of them?”
“Not yet.” whispered Fluttershy, fearing the Changelings might be listening.
“Well they already flew over today.” Twilight observed, “I don’t think they’ll attack again so quickly.”
“You can’t be too sure Twilight.” said Rarity, “These Changelings could come at any moment. Alright Fluttershy, stay for another fifteen minutes and you can head home for the night.”
“Thank you.” said Fluttershy as she brought the binoculars up to her eyes, still shaking.
As Twilight and Rarity headed back to town, Twilight looked behind her as she saw the sun slowly descending, changing the colour of the sky to that of bright orange. “It’s a beautiful sunset tonight.” She sighed dreamily.
“It really is a beautiful land altogether, Twilight.” said Rarity as she stood next to her friend, “They shan’t get it you know. They will not get their hooves on it. We shall fight to the last pony, until we are down to one round each, we shall keep firing to defend what is ours.”
“Yes Rarity, we will.” said Twilight, as Luna took over from her sister and stars were beginning to appear in the sky.
As the next few months went on, the Changeling forces were slowly moving backwards and forwards in their goal to conquer Equestria. They had made a pact with the race of Lethifolds with a promise of fresh pony flesh for them, and the stories of what had happened to the prisoners who would had refused to co-operate, or had out-lived their usefulness had reached Princess Celestia and the description of their deaths were too gruesome to tell the public.
Cloudsdale had agreed to help in the defence by training their Pegasus soldiers for Air-Combat, and when Chrysalis had heard of this, she began an air superiority campaign over Equestria and so the ‘Battle of Equestria’ went underway. There had not been any large bombings since the attack on the prison at the start of the war, but now Changelings would be travelling in large groups, each carrying a large bomb underneath their bodies. Canterlot was the first to feel this, as one night three large bombs were dropped over the city, one practically on the castle, almost destroying the West Wing. Princess Luna had already sent word out to Cloudsdale, and soon the air was thick with Pegasus and Changeling fighting each other with their rifles, bayonets or even with swords and in some occasions, hoof to hoof.
By morning, the battle had ended, but the attack had greatly shaken Celestia. Many houses had been destroyed in the bombing, and the casualties were very large, both from when the bombs hit the city, and from the Pegasus soldiers were had fought. They had managed to send away the surviving Changelings, but this would not be the last bombing attack, nor did it make Celestia surrender as Chrysalis had been hoping; instead it only made the Ponies more determined to fight and to win, and nowhere was that more prominent than in the small village underneath Canterlot.
“Well done ponies!” Rarity called out to the platoon as they marched through the streets of Ponyville carrying their rifles, “If you were to look at us now, nopony would guess we’ve only been formed for nearly two months. We have our rifles and caps, but I believe we can go further if we can manufacture our own weapons as secondary protection. If anypony has an idea, they shall report to me or Sergeant Twilight immediately.”
At that, Pinkie then stopped in her tracks and began bouncing up and down in front of Rarity, “Oh, oh, I have an idea. Pick me, pick me!”
“Oh, excellent Pinkie.” said Rarity, “What exactly is it?”
“I can’t say, it’s a surprise.” Pinkie giggled and she went back in next to Cheerilee and Doctor Whooves. Rarity and Twilight gave nervous glances at each other and carried on marching.
A few days later, Pinkie led Rarity and the platoon up to Sweet Apple Acres, where a large tarpaulin was covering a large object in the yard. As they drew nearer to it, Pinkie ran forward and pulled the tarpaulin off to reveal three slanted wooden planks on an old pram with three large drain pipes tied on either side of the middle one, pointing up to the sky. They were all linked up to a single fuse.
“Allow me to demonstrate my new Rocket Firing Anti-Dive Bomber Cannon Gun!” said Pinkie loudly, “Let me explain a few details of this superly-terrificly great machine. These six drain pipes are all tied together onto this pram for mobility, and the gun powder in each of the rockets will be made out of the following; eight ounces of weed-killer, a pound and a half of sugar and a tiny pinch of Bicarbonate of Soda.” she then showed everypony a thin cylinder with a cone on the top, “This is the rocket in question, with the gun powder inside it. Now when I fire this, the rocket shall shoot straight up and shoot down whatever it happens to hit.”
Pinkie then placed the rocket into one of the pipes, went around to the back of it, and called Spike over to her. After a few seconds of talking, Spike then picked up the fuse and breathed a small jet of green fire at it, and a small spark travelled down the length of the fuse and into the drain pipes. There was a loud bang as the Rocket Launcher jolted backwards slightly, billowing out smoke. As everypony looked up, they could see the rocket speeding up into the sky with a thin trail of smoke coming from behind.
“I must say, that is marvellous Pinkie.” said Rarity, smiling up at the rocket, “I shall hate to be on the receiving end of that.”
Everypony chuckled and applauded, but then their smiles faltered slightly when they then realised that there wasn’t anything in the sky for the rocket to hit. Then all their faces turned into that of panic as the rocket curved around in the air and was falling back down to Earth. Rarity shouted out for everypony to take cover, but their only option was to hide in the barn, so as the rocket sped back down, they all clambered into the barn closing and the doors behind them, but a sudden wind change blew the rocket off slightly and still speeding, it crashed through the roof of the barn. The explosion shook the barn as bits of the opposite wall was blown off completely and parts of the roof caved in.
Soon everypony was forming a chain from the house to the barn, passing down buckets, saucepans, bowls and anything that could hold water to put out the fire the explosion had caused. They were all covered in black soot and dust and bits of hay were sticking out of their manes. Rarity staggered over to Pinkie, who was being shouted at by Applejack, “Pinkie,” she coughed, “I don’t think you should have added the Bicarbonate of Soda.”
The next week, as Twilight and Spike were waiting in the Church Hall Rarity backed in levitating a box and looking very pleased. “They’re here!” she giggled, “Field Service jackets!” and she placed the box on the table.
Twilight and Spike looked inside to see seventeen carefully folded khaki green jackets, but when Spike picked one up, he noticed something about them. “This one hasn’t got any buttons, Rarity.” He pointed out.
Twilight picked up another one and looked at it “None of them do!” she said, sounding shock and annoyed.
“Now don’t worry.” said Rarity, levitating the two they had taken out back into the box, “I shall just quickly take these back to the shop, and prepare them. I’m sure I have some buttons lying around somewhere.” and she then quickly rushed out of the hall and back to Carousel Boutique.
A few minutes later as everypony was standing to attention, Rarity rushed back in with the box. She had managed to find enough buttons for each one, and she was now showing off her work by wearing one of them. She did look like a proper soldier now. As Twilight called everypony forward to collect one, Rarity leaned over to her, smirking, “These also came with them.” she whispered and Twilight looked at the straps on her shoulders and saw three polished pips on each one, “I am now officially a Captain.” she said proudly, “Oh, and here’s yours Twilight, and Pinkie I have yours as well.” Twilight and Pinkie took the jackets she was holding out and put them on. Twilight looked down the arms of her and gasped to see Rarity had sewn on three military stripes to show her position as Sergeant and Pinkie looked to see a single stripe on hers which showed everypony she was a Lance-Corporal.
“Soldiers.” Rarity sighed with pride as she looked at her small army, standing in full uniform at last, “That’s what we are now; official soldiers. Now, I would like to start off tonight lecture with…”
“Oh, oh, oh oh!!” said Pinkie Pie waving her hoof in the air, “I have another defence idea, Rarity!”
“After last time Pinkie, I think we shan’t need any more firearms.” said Rarity.
“But I promise, this one won’t be as explosively bad this time!” said Pinkie, now bouncing on the spot.
“Oh, very well.” Rarity sighed.
“Wee!” Pinkie squeaked excitedly, “Just give me a few minutes.” and as she turned around towards the door, she then grabbed Applejack, who was standing next to her and bounced out of the hall.
A few minutes later, the platoon were standing out in a field with Pinkie standing next to her next invention; which was just an upside-down tin bath, balancing on a flat wooden cart and the plug had been removed completely, so that the pipe that was still attached could swivel around like a periscope. “I would like to show you all my One-Pony Bullet Proof Tank!” Pinkie called out, “Private Applejack is currently assisting me with this demonstration.”
“I never had a say in it!” came Applejack’s voice from under the bath. Pinkie ignored her and carried on.
“I shall like to demonstrate how bullet proof it is.” And she picked up a hammer and banged repeatedly on the bath, the noise was left ringing in everypony’s ear, but none so much in Applejack’s, “See? Not a dent in it.” said Pinkie putting the hammer down, “The periscope can do a full 360 degree turn, so it gives whoever is inside a full view of the area.”
“What’s the fire power?” asked Twilight.
“Allow me to demonstrate.” said Pinkie, and she remove the glass cover on the periscope and shouted down the pipe, “Applejack, Twilight wants to see the fire power!”
There was a groan from inside the bath, a little bit of shuffling; the sound of somepony banging their head, until eventually, the end of Applejack’s rifle could be seen sticking out of a hole cut out the front of the bath. “Doesn’t seem to be very mobile, Pinkie.” said Rarity, looking at the tank.
“Wait a minute.” said Pinkie and she removed the glass cover again, “Applejack, I’m going to give you a bit of a push.” she shouted again, and she went to the back of the tank, and gave it a small shove. The tank began to roll slowly across the field; however it slowly began to pick up speed as it reached a dip in the grass and it suddenly disappeared. As everypony ran after it, they heard a splintering crash and a splash.
When they reached the drop, they saw that the tank had gone and crashed through a fence and had landed in a nearby pond. Applejack was sitting in the bathtub, which was now quickly filling up with water where the periscope had broken off in the crash. “Quick Applejack, put the plug in!” Rarity shouted, but before Applejack could reply, the bath completely sunk underneath the water, “Never mind.” Rarity sighed as Rainbow Dash flew down to rescue Applejack.
After that, nopony came up with any ideas for several weeks. However one day as Twilight was standing in the Church hall, Rarity walked in levitating something wrapped in brown package, “I just thought I spoil myself a little.” she smiled as she used her magic to remove the paper as well as taking off her service cap. The package turned out to be a brand new official officer’s hat, which she placed carefully onto her purple mane as she stood in front of a mirror hanging on the wall. “I think this does rather suit me, don’t you?” she asked over her shoulder, but before Twilight could answer, she realised the hall was completely empty. “Where is everypony?” she asked.
“They’re all waiting by the bridge into Ponyville.” said Twilight, “Apparently Rainbow Dash is revealing her own idea of defence so I hung back just to let you know.”
“Oh thank you, Twilight.” said Rarity.
“It’s also good timing as well, because today we’re receiving a visit from a General Hoofard to see how this device could help.”
“What?!” Rarity cried out, “Is that today?! Oh my, we must get over there straight away!”
When they reached the bridge, the first thing they saw was a tall wooden frame with a large oil-can on the top, with a pipe leading onto the tank of a toilet, with another short pipe attached to the bottom of that, and ending with a hosepipe nozzle. When she saw Rarity and Twilight approaching, Rainbow Dash stood to attention. “Permission to demonstrate my new Anti-Vehicle Device.” she asked, and when Rarity nodded in agreement, Rainbow Dash sprung into explanation, “Now picture this; you can see an enemy cart approaching, you pull down on the lavatory chain, the oil comes out and pours all over the road, and the wheels and hooves will not be able to grip properly.”
“Quite ingenious Rainbow Dash.” said Rarity; however her eyes fell upon a small puddle dripping underneath the hose. “It’s a little bit leaky.” she pointed out.
“Oh, that’s just a drop, that won’t do anything.” said Rainbow Dash, waving the problem away with her hoof.
“Rarity, staff cart approaching!” Pinkie and Spike called from the other side of the bridge.
“That’ll be General Hoofard coming to expect this.” said Twilight enthusiastically.
“Excellent.” said Rarity standing to attention next to Twilight, “This will show him how well we can improvise. Hurry along now Pinkie. You too, Spike!”
Spike jumped onto Pinkie’s back and she galloped over the bridge to stand next to Rarity. But then as she slowed down, her hooves slipped on the oily puddle and Spike in a panic threw himself forward and grabbed onto the lavatory chain for support, but accidently pulled on it. Oil shot out of the hose, covering the two of them with the stuff and onto the road. Everypony ran forward to try and stop the flow, but the oil continued to gush out. “You airheaded idiots!” Rainbow Dash was shouting above them, “You’ve ruined my demonstration!”
Pinkie managed to push the pipe to the right, but the road was still covered in oil, and before anypony knew it, a cart came over the bridge and the stallion saw the oil and dug his hooves into the road, but it was too late. His hooves slipped and the cart skidded along the road almost toppling over to one side. The entire platoon covered their eyes as the back of the cart made contact with the tower, knocking it sideways and the empty oil drum rolled off the top and then rolled away into the forest. Rarity and Twilight ran forward to see if the General wasn’t hurt, while evrypony looked sourly at the oil covered Pinkie Pie and Spike.
As Rarity came closer to the cart and saw the General close up, her heart missed a beat. She recognised him at once as the stallion whom she had been quite rude to in Carousel Boutique a few months ago. She hoped he wouldn’t recognise her. He did. As soon as he saw her standing next to the cart giving an awkward salute, his eyes widen and a vein could be seen pulsating under his hat as he blurted out, “It’s that damn seamstress!”
A few weeks later, as more ponies were suggesting even more plans of defence, Rarity decided to address everypony one evening with a new system. “Now, due to the overwhelming large ideas of defence, I have decided that we shall be holding a monthly competition for Best Improvised Weapon or Method of Defence. You shall be given a chance to demonstrate your method here in the hall, and when all have been shown, we shall have a vote for which is the superior to use. A prize will be rewarded, which will be paid for out of the platoon’s funds, and will be provided by Lance-Corporal Pinkie Pie. What is the prize Pinkie?”
“It’s two muffins and ¼ pound of Jaffa Cakes.” said Pinkie, holding up a carefully wrapped package.
“Excellent.” smiled Rarity, “Now we have two entries this month, Private Rainbow Dash and Private Applejack.”
“Hey Pinkie, could ya’ll help me with mine?” said Applejack, standing up and leading Pinkie Pie into the office.
“Well, while they’re getting ready, I suggest we listen to Rainbow Dash’s new Anti-Tank Device.” said Rarity, as she and Twilight pulled out two benches from the back of the hall, and indicated for everypony to sit down on them.
Rainbow Dash reached into her bag and pulled out five dinner plates. “Now, imagine this floor is the road.” she said as she began putting the plates down in front of her, “So when a tank is coming, I put these plates, upside down, in a row along the road.”
“So this is supposed to be an Anti-Tank Device?” asked Twilight.
“Yeah that’s right.”
“With dinner plates?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright, carry on.” sighed Twilight rolling her eyes. Rainbow Dash continued with her demonstration.
“Now the Changeling tank is coming along the road, but suddenly he sees the row the plates in front of him. He doesn’t know what they are, they could be mines, so he stops, climbs out the tank and gets out to have a look. In the meantime, we shall be hiding under cover, and as soon he gets near the plates, BAM!! We let him have it!”
“Yes, not bad Rainbow.” said Rarity, with a little bit of uncertainty in her voice, “I suggest we call on Private Applejack with her idea.”
The office door opened and Pinkie Pie waddled in, with four halves of tyres across the top of her body and wearing her steel helmet. “Alright mares and gentlecolts!” said Applejack loudly, as if she was in the market, selling something, “What we have here may be the most sophisticated piece of defence ever, as this shall guarantee you 100% protection from any…”
“Applejack, you’re not in the market.” said Rarity, sternly, “Just show us the demonstration.”
“Well, it’s an All Body Protector from shooters in the air.” said Applejack, picking up a bat she had brought with her, “You see it’s made out of two tyres cut in half, and this will protect you from and blow of a weapon, let me demonstrate.” She then stood on her hindlegs, and began whacking the tyres with the bat. “Feel that Pinkie?” she asked when she finished.
“Feel what?” asked Pinkie.
“Well, that really is a remarkable idea, Applejack.” said Rarity standing up to face the platoon, “Now I think it is best that we vote on the winner in the usual democratic raising of hooves. Now who likes Rainbow Dash’s idea?” four ponies raised their hooves and Spike raised his claw, “Now all those for Applejack’s?” the majority of the platoon raised their hooves, “Well I guess that makes Applejack the clear winner.”
Rainbow Dash grumbled to herself, kicking one of the plates and smashing it. “Don’t feel too bad Rainbow.” said Applejack as she picked up her prize, “I’ll share some of my Jaffa Cakes for you.”
“Yes, well done Applejack.” said Rarity, “In fact I may consider equipping the entire platoon. Let’s see, there are seventeen of us, two tyres for one pony, so that will mean getting thirty four tyres.”
“Well, there is a snag Rarity.” said Applejack, rubbing the back of her neck with her hoof, “You can’t get tyres anywhere, they’re very hard to find.”
“Well then why did you suggest it then?” Rarity sighed, “Well, in that case the prize ought to go to Rainbow Dash.”
“Now hold on, Sugurcube!” said Applejack standing up, “Just because they’re hard to find doesn’t mean it’s impossible. I do have some tyres back on the farm, and as it’s for the platoon shall we say, three bits a tyre?”
“Absolutely outrageous!” Rarity gasped.
“Excuse me, Rarity.” said Fluttershy, raising her hoof nervously in the air, “I happen to have some spare tyres, I had them when I was looking after some terribly ill monkeys a few years ago. You could have them for nothing.”
“Now that’s better. Thank you Fluttershy.” said Rarity, nodding her head.
“Well, how about I help cut them? One bit for each half?” said Applejack quickly, desperately trying not to lose a profit.
“That will be all, Applejack!” Rarity shouted, and Applejack sat back down sulkily. When everything had gone quiet, Rarity said “Now I have some important news. Next weekend, we and all the other Home Guard units in the area, will be taking part in basic training on large scale manoeuvres. Now I have no reason to believe that with all our resources, we shall certainly have the edge on the other units. I have also arranged for transport, so be ready at 12 o’clock on Saturday.”
As the train came to another sudden stop at the next station, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Fluttershy tumbled off of their seats and into Rarity and Twilight’s laps. They had all been crammed into different compartments, and everypony agreed that the journey was quite uncomfortable. “When you said you got us some ‘Transport’, we were expecting actual military transport!” grumbled Rainbow Dash as she clambered back into her seat.
“Well this train does stop at the station quite close to the camp.” said Rarity, “We’ll be able to walk the rest of the way.”
“It also doesn’t help that some of us had to pay for our own tickets!” said Applejack, crossly.
“Well, I would have happily paid for all the tickets ,” said Rarity reassuringly, “unfortunately with these times, one cannot overspend their wages, and besides, I haven’t actually been making as much money as I usually would because of this war.” When Rainbow Dash and Applejack looked at her with suspicious glares, Rarity looked over at Twilight, “What time are we due at the camp?” she asked.
“1500 hours.” said Twilight. Rarity gave a bit of a confused look to her, “three o’clock.” Twilight sighed.
At half past two, the train finally reached their stop and they all clambered out onto the platform, carrying their rifles and saddle bags. As Pinkie tried to get everypony in line, Rarity and Twilight walked over to the end of the platform, Rarity pulling out two sealed envelopes. “Sealed instructions for opening sealed orders.” she read to herself, rolling her eyes a little; surely they didn’t need instructions on how to get the sealed orders. However she opened the envelope, unfolded the paper and read on, “‘Break the seal on the sealed orders and then destroy these instructions.’ Set fire to those please, Twilight?” she then handed Twilight the instructions.
“I haven’t got a match.” said Twilight.
“Well get Spike then.”
“Yes, but he may just send the instructions to Princess Celestia.”
“Well, don’t you know a fire spell, or anything similar?”
Twilight was starting to get quite irritated by Rarity’s constant ordering, so she folded the instructions up and placed on the platform. She lowered her head so that her horn was pointing at the paper, and her horn began glowing its familiar lavender glow. Then a jet of fire shot out of the end and hit the paper, which was engulfed in a ball of flame. Rarity jumped back in shock as the ball hit the ground and disappeared instantly, leaving a circular scorch mark on the platform and bits of black, burnt pieces of paper were slowly falling around them.
“Yes.” said Rarity slowly as a large bit of paper, still on fire, landed right at her hooves. She opened up the second envelope, which was a lot larger than the first one, and pulled out a map. Her eyes scanned over it. “Now, we are here,” she said pointing at one of the squares, “at ‘X’ railway point, map reference…” she then followed one of the horizontal lines from the left side of the map, and then a vertical line from the bottom until both met where the station was. “There is the hill over there and there is the battle school at map reference 21A.” she then folded the map back up and put it back in its envelope. “Well it’s only a mile away. We should be there in no time.”
“Platoon is ready!” came a loud voice behind them. They turned to see Pinkie Pie grinning and standing to a salute.
“Thank you Corporal.” said Rarity. She and Twilight followed Pinkie back over to the platoon who were standing in their usual three rows. “Now pay attention.” said Rarity in her officer’s voice, “As I have read the map and know exactly where the battle school is, I will be in front and Sergeant Twilight Sparkle will take up the rear. Now… right turn!” and on that command, they all turned their turned their bodies in unison, facing the slope off the platform. Pinkie took her place in front of Applejack, Twilight stood at the back and Rarity took the front. “Quick, march!” Rarity ordered and the platoon marched off the platform and just beyond the station ramp, a gate stood open leading down a dirt road. “Right wheel, forward!” Rarity shouted and she led the platoon through the gate.
As they marched through the countryside and rounded a corner, they came across a fork in the road. Rarity halted the platoon and consulted the map. When she was certain of the direction, she led them down the right-hand path. After another 15 minutes of marching, they came across another fork in the road and again, Rarity stopped to check the map and this time, led them down the left path. The other ponies started to see a continuous pattern; every time they came to a point where the road split, Rarity would first take them down the right road, and when they reached the next point, she would lead them down the left. This went on and on, until they found themselves walking onto a station platform. Rarity stopped them again as Twilight ran up alongside. “Rarity, I think we’re back where we started.” she said, knowingly.
“Yes, I know Twilight.” huffed Rarity as she took out the map, “I simply took a wrong turning. Shouldn’t be too difficult to get us back on track.”
Meanwhile over at the battle school, it was full of activity. Soldiers were marching up and down the rows of tents carrying their guns, while carts would arrive carrying supplies. “Now make sure that all the soldiers have all their equipment.” said the Captain to the Drill Sergeant as they strolled across the campsite, “Major General Hoofard will be wanting a full kit inspection within the hour.” He then stopped and looked at his watch, “Now where on Earth is the Ponyville platoon. They’re three hours late.”
“No, no, if we go that way, we’re likely to completely miss the camp and end up on the other side of that river.” The map was now laid out on the platform floor and everypony was huddled around, trying to map out a correct route.
“Look, why don’t I just fly ahead and try and spot the camp from above?” said Rainbow Dash, flying into the air, “I’ll come back and lead the way.”
“I will not have somepony in my platoon going off on their own, we’re all sticking together.” said Rarity and Rainbow Dash fluttered back down crossly. “Look,” Rarity continued as she put the map back into the envelope, “we’ll just go back the way we came and ask for help by one of those quaint little farms.”
Everypony groaned as they fell back into their rows and started marching back through the gate they had come through.
General Hoofard walked in front of the rows of soldiers standing to attention. His eyes looked down at the supplies in front of each pony, each with their own drink canister, food tins and an array of other items. He sighed heavily as he turned to address them; he felt he ought to be handling real soldiers instead of babysitting the Hole Guard, but he couldn’t deny that they did keep themselves in order. “Very smart men.” he said at last, “Now as you know, equipment is in short supply, so we must be great care of…”
His speech was cut off by the sound of ‘Chuff, chuff, chuff’ coming towards them. He turned his head to see a steam powered roller driving slowly into the campsite, towing a small cart in with fifteen ponies crammed into it. Rarity was sitting in the driver’s seat with Pinkie Pie standing in front of her, steering it.
“Alright Pinkie,” said Rarity over Pinkie’s shoulder, “We’re here, you can stop now.” but Pinkie wasn’t sure if she knew how to stop. She pulled down a lever and the roller started to go a little faster than what it usually went.
Suddenly, the rope tightened suddenly as the wheel of the cart was caught on a large rock outside the camp, until finally it snapped causing the cart to tilt backwards and everypony fell out into a crumpled heap on the road, their supplies tipping over them. “Rarity, the rope’s gone!” Twilight shouted to the still moving roller as she struggled to pull herself out of the pile.
“Pinkie, stop!” Rarity cried out frantically and she pushed Pinkie to the side to try and help stop it, “There is only two things you need to do!”
“I’ve done the two things, Rarity.” Pinkie cried out as she spun the steering wheel madly. The roller at the front shook from side to side until it was heading towards the line of supplies in the front row. The sound of plastic and metal being crushed could be heard as the roller steamed on showing no sign of stopping.
General Hoofard stood there, his mouth hanging open as it rolled past, looking at the two ponies on it fighting for control. “It’s that damn seamstress!” he shouted angrily as he saw Rarity, who now had grabbed hold of the steering wheel herself and steered the roller to the right and down the gap in-between the soldiers. But she had steered it too far and it was now crushing the line of tents behind.
As everypony watched this mishap, Twilight had pulled herself out of the pile of ponies and walked over to the Sergeant Major. “I’m so sorry sir, but I think we may have ruined your tents.” she said smiling innocently.
“Not to worry, Sergeant.” said the Sergeant Major, grinning maliciously, “YOUR lot were the ones who were going to sleep in them!”
Next morning as the sound of the bugle could be heard throughout the camp, Twilight left the wash tent feeling much more refreshed than she had been yesterday. Many of the other units were out either cleaning their rifles or were on early morning drill sessions. She watched as one of the platoons marched in front of her and then she walk over to the back of the field. There was a long piece of tarpaulin stretched out like a blanket and underneath it was the entire Ponyville platoon fast asleep, using their bags for pillows and all tightly squeezed together like a tin of sardines that neither of them were able to roll over.
As Twilight put her food canister, Rarity opened her eyes looking very groggy. “Twilight, what are you doing?” she asked, yawning slightly.
“Well, I’ve just had a wash and some breakfast.” said Twilight.
“Why didn’t you wake me?” yawned Rarity again as she rubbed her eyes.
“Well, I wasn’t sure exactly when you usually wake up Rarity, so I decide to just let you get up at your own accord.”
“Well, what time is it?” asked Rarity.
“Twenty to nine.”
“What?!” said Rarity, sitting up straight and alert. She rolled over to her other side and saw Pinkie Pie asleep, holding her service cap like a teddy bear. “Pinkie, wake up!” she shouted, nudging her in the foreleg.
“Yes, Madame LeFlour!” said Pinkie suddenly, waking up and sitting up straight looking quite confused.
“Quick Pinkie, wake everypony up, it’s twenty to nine!” shouted Rarity as she leapt out from under the tarpaulin and started buttoning up her jacket. Pinkie pulled herself out of the tarpaulin and began running across the top and was shouting into everypony’s ear to get up as quickly as they could.
As soon as she had finished at the end, a cry of agony could be heard on the other side. “My wings!” Rainbow Dash shouted; she was trying to open her wings out to stretch, but they stayed closed up and every force attempt she tried only caused her more pain.
Fluttershy picked up her Red Cross bag and went to examine Rainbow Dash. She gently placed her hoof on Rainbow Dash’s right wing muscle, which made Rainbow give another cry. “Oh my, Rainbow Dash. I think you may have stopped some of the blood going to your wings, and the muscle feels quite tight. I don’t think you’ll be able to fly for a few hours.”
Rainbow Dash glared over at Rarity, but she didn’t notice. She was just putting on her hat, when the Sergeant Major marched up behind her. “Might I ask where you’re going, Captain?” he asked after Rarity had saluted him.
“Well, we were going to get some breakfast.” said Rarity.
“Breakfast ended half an hour ago.” reported the Sergeant Major.
Everypony groaned in frustration and disappointment. “But we’ve already missed two meals!” insisted Rarity, “Do you realise that we have not eaten for nearly 24 hours?”
“That’s not my problem.” said the Sergeant Major, “Breakfast ends at 8:15. You better get your ‘soldiers’ ready, they’re due on parade in ten minutes. The general will be giving the whole camp the outline for today’s manoeuvres.” he saluted and marched away as everypony threw down their food canisters onto the grass. Rarity said nothing; she just sighed with irritation.
All the Home Guard units all stood to attention in their groups as General Hoofard explained that for today’s manoeuvre, they were to be against a detachment of the Royal Marines. However while most of the units were wide awake and ready, the Ponyville Platoon were swaying slightly on the spot, their eyes half closed and some were leaning on their rifles to support them. “Starved, having to sleep outside on hard grass, wings too stiff to fly.” Rainbow Dash grumbled under her breath, “And it’s all Rarity’s fault. She’s turned this whole thing a complete shambles.”
“Oh come on, Dashie, it’s not entirely her fault.” Fluttershy whispered back, “It’s just the misfortunes of war.” Rainbow Dash sniffed in disagreement.
“The Manehatten Platoon shall attempt to get round behind the enemy and attack from the rear.” General Hoofard continued explaining, “In order to do this, they must first cross the river over the pontoon bridge. That bridge shall be guarded by the Ponyville Platoon. In conclusion, I shall remind you that you shall be up against regular troops. But I’m sure that you will be able to prove that the Home Guard can take anything that anypony, anywhere, can dish out at them. So good luck.”
Over at the river, one of the Royal Marines was crouching behind a tree on the bank. As he peered around the tree, he could see in the distance Rarity and the Ponyville Home Guard approaching. He ran back along river to the pontoon bridge, where other Royal Marines were cutting through the ropes that kept the wooden sections of the bridge together. He called out his warning to them and so they pocketed their knives and ran on ahead.
A minute later, the Ponyville platoon stopped on the bridge. Rarity ordered that Pinkie’s section was to remain on the bridge and stand guard while the rest would head on in front. Pinkie saluted and the rest of the platoon marched over to the other side, leaving her, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Spike behind looking out over the river. As they stood there with their rifles out, Applejack’s eyes caught sight of something in between one of the gaps. “Whoa Nelly, that don’t look right.” she bent down and picked up the rope and saw that the end was frayed with knife cuttings, “The rope’s been cut!” she shouted and at that moment, they started to feel that the section of the pontoon they were standing on, was starting to slowly detach itself from the rest of the bridge.
Pinkie grabbed the rope and pulled hard to get it back into place and to allow her friends to jump across safely onto the immobile section she was on. “Keep it tight, pass it on.” she said to Applejack who had also taking the strain and passing the rest of the rope to Spike.
As they held the rope tightly, General Hoofard came marching along the riverbank. He could see five Home Guard members; their rifles abandoned next to them, standing awkwardly on the pontoon bridge and went over to investigate. He stopped on the bridge, (the section that was loose) and glared at them. “Where is Captain Rarity?” he demanded.
“I think she may have gone on ahead, sir.” said Pinkie as she was starting to feel her grip on the rope weaken.
“Well, who are you?” asked the General.
“Lance-Corporal Pinkie Pie, sir.”
“Well have you never learnt to salute an officer before?”
“Yes sir, but if we…”
“SALUTE!!”
At this order, they all let go of the rope and threw their right forelegs into a salute. The moment this had happened however, the broken section of the pontoon finally came loose and began drifting down the river, the General still on standing on it. Pinkie watched in horror as it floated further away and began pushing everypony off the bridge and running after Rarity.
Further down the river, Rarity had stopped the platoon to get their bearings. There was no sign of the Royal Marines anywhere, but before Rarity could initiate a plan to find them, the rustling of leaves could be heard behind them. They pulled out their rifles, pointing in the direction of where the noise was coming from, but then they lowered them when Pinkie came running into sight with her platoon, gasping for breath. “Rarity…” Pinkie panted, holding a stitch in her side, “the bridge… broken… General…”
“Don’t tell me the General knows what happened.” Rarity gasped.
“He more than knows.” gasped Rainbow Dash, “He’s standing on it!” and she pointed at the river. Through the long reeds, Rarity could see the broken section drifting past them, the General seething at them. She ordered everypony to run alongside it and to try and think of a plan to save the General.
“Don’t just keep running up and down!” shouted the General, “Telephone HQ for help!”
“But I’m afraid there aren’t any telephones.” Rarity called back.
“I KNOW THERE AREN’T ANY PHONES ON THE BANK!” the General raged, “Send a runner!”
“Can’t you swim across?” suggested Pinkie.
“He’s a General, not an Admiral.” shouted Rainbow Dash from the back. The platoon kept on running until they had rounded a corner and in the distance, was another bridge. The archway underneath it was large enough for the pontoon section to drift through, and this gave Rarity another idea.
As they stood on the bridge waiting for the General to float past, Rarity turned to Bon-Bon and Lyra and asked for Lyra to dangle Bon-Bon over the side of the bridge; the plan was that Bon-Bon would grab the General just as the pontoon floats under the bridge and pull him up to safety. “I can’t do that.” Bon-Bon protested, “I’m not going to able to reach him when he approaches.”
Rarity looked over the side. Bon-Bon was right; the bridge was slightly higher than she had anticipated, so she decided on another suggestion.
As the General floated along and caught sight of the bridge, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. They had kept with their original plan of dangling Bon-Bon down to grab him, except now Lyra was hanging upside down as well, clutching Bon-Bon’s hindlegs, while Big Macintosh held onto her hindlegs over the side of the bridge. Rarity had also decided that if the General was to miss, then there would be somepony dangling on the other side as well, which turned out to be Pinkie Pie, with Derpy holding onto her while Doctor Whooves and Vinyl Scratch held one of her legs trying not to drop them both into the water.
General Hoofard had no choice but to stand on his hindlegs and raise his forelegs; it felt completely undignified for a stallion of his rank to be rescued in such a way, but there was no alternative. Bon-Bon was lowered further down a little and the General wrapped his hooves around hers, but instead of allowing to be pulled up, he clambered over Bon-Bon’s and Lyra’s bodies and pulled himself over the parapet, refusing all helping hooves. He turned to look at Rarity, breathing heavily. “You bloody fools!” he shouted, but before Rarity could explain, a sudden cry and a thud on wood was heard from behind them.
They all rushed over to see that Pinkie was lying, spread eagled on the raft as it continued to float down the river. It was obvious what had happened; Derpy had clearly let her slip through her hooves by accident, and when they pulled her back onto the bridge, she just shrugged apologetically.
“You know, I could fly over there and help,” said Rainbow Dash in a loud voice, “but if it hadn’t been for somepony, my wings wouldn’t be so stiff that they hurt!”
“Oh, do stop grumbling Rainbow Dash!” Rarity snapped, “Quick, everypony after her!” and they all ran off the bridge after the pontoon again, leaving the General still standing on the bridge.
As they continued to chase the raft into an open area of land, where they were no trees blocking the view of the countryside, Rainbow Dash spotted a small boat tied to a pole stuck in the ground. “Excellent!” said Rarity excitedly, “Twilight, Rainbow Dash, get in the boat and take an oar each. I’ll take charge.”
“Why are you taking charge?” said Rainbow Dash hotly, “I was the one who found the boat.”
“Just do as you’re told.” ordered Rarity as she sat down at the back of the boat and began undoing the rope, “Everypony else, keep on running down the bank.” Big Macintosh and Applejack stayed behind to help push the boat off the bank and into the water, and when that was done Rainbow Dash and Twilight lowered their oars into the water, (Twilight using her magic to hold hers up) and began rowing towards the raft.
Meanwhile Applejack and Big Macintosh had managed to catch up with the rest of the platoon, but they had all suddenly stopped in their tracks. Applejack fought her way to the front to see what the trouble was and it wasn’t hard to see; the track they had been running across along the bank had completely disappeared and now lead down into a boggy stretch of the river. “Well we ain’t gonna be able to get through there.” said Applejack thoughtfully, “We shall have to turn around and head back to camp.”
“But Rarity said we have to keep going on.” Spike insisted.
“Well if you wanna try and swim across Spike, be my guess.” said Applejack, “but right now, I think turning back is our best option.” Spike looked at the water, then back to Applejack, and decided to go back to the campsite with them.
Pinkie was still lying on her stomach flat on the raft, not wanting to topple it over. She kept her eyes closed as she felt it rock slightly, however she opened them slightly when she heard somepony calling out to her. She turned her head round and saw Rarity, Twilight and Rainbow Dash in a small boat rowing to her rescue. When she heard their hooves step onto the wood, she pulled herself back onto her hooves and pulled Rarity into a hug. The raft wobbled dangerously beneath them. “Pinkie, please.” said Rarity rather embarrassed as she pulled Pinkie off her, “Now we’ll just get you back in the boat and we’ll…” she stopped talking when she noticed something; the boat that they had rowed over to the raft was now floating further away from, so now all four ponies were stuck on the raft. “Rainbow Dash!” she shouted in anger, “I thought you would have secured the boat!”
“Why was I to do it?!” Rainbow shouted back, matching Rarity’s anger. She was now fed up of all of Rarity’s ideas and superiority over her, and now this was the last straw, and nothing was stopping her from letting it all out, “You’re the ‘Captain’, you should have done it and show us how to do it properly, when really you would have been making it worse!”
“How dare you use that tone at me!” Rarity cried, beside herself now, “Any case, YOU were the last one out, so YOU would have been responsible…”
“Girls!” came Twilight’s voice. The two mares stopped arguing for a minute to look over at her. “This is not the time for petty fighting. We have to stop this raft.” her eyes darted around them, trying to think of a solution, and she then noticed a branch hanging over the river. “Quick Pinkie, climb onto Rainbow’s back and try and grab that branch when we get under it.”
Pinkie swung her right foreleg into a salute and began climbing over Rainbow Dash until she was standing on her hindlegs, (Rainbow Dash winced slightly as she felt Pinkie’s hooves dig into her wing joints) and Rarity and Twilight grabbed onto each leg for support. As the branch got closer, Pinkie leaned forward until she got her hooves around it, but that still did not stop the raft and as Pinkie clung onto the branch, Rarity and Twilight was being dragged backwards towards the edge of the raft, so they had no choice but to let go, leaving Pinkie to dangle over the river as they continued on their way. “I don’t think it’s worked, Rarity!” Pinkie called after them.
“We’ll meet you further down the bank!” Rarity called back as Pinkie swung her hindlegs upwards and wrapped them around the branch and began shuffling back to dry land.
They continued on floating down the river for another few hours, until at last, the raft came to a halt in the middle of the river. Rarity looked over at the bank and then at the water. “There is only one thing for it, Twilight.” she sighed, “I shall have to swim across and get help.”
“Look Rarity, why don’t I just teleport over instead?” asked Twilight.
“No Twilight, I shan’t send somepony into a situation that I can handle alone.” said Rarity as she removed her hat and jacket. “Just hope I can avoid getting any of that water in my mane.” she muttered to herself. She stood on the edge of the raft and looked down at the water, drew in a deep breath and jumped.
The water level was just barely over her hooves. Rarity stood where she was and looked back at Twilight and Rainbow Dash; the latter trying not to laugh. She gave a deep sigh and began walking slowly back to the bank as Twilight and Rainbow Dash climbed off the raft after her.
Eventually, they caught up with Pinkie Pie and suspecting that everypony else had gone back to camp hours ago, they began the long trek back the way they came. They trudged through mud, scrambled through bushes and walked through fields until they could see a row a tents in the distance. When they finally walked through the gate back into the campsite, battered, weary and silent, the sun was already beginning to set, and they didn’t greet the platoon when they saw them, they just walked over to the tarpaulin that was their bed, climbed in and drifted off to sleep.
All in all, the weekend had not exactly been a success.
“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.
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.”
News was slowly turning good over the next few days. The two Changelings who had held the hall hostage had been taken and put into a prisoner of war camp, the Changeling forces were lacking to take control of Equestria from the skies, and the Pegasi had managed to guide strong northerly winds over the south coasts, making the passage over the seas hazardous, and then combatted that with strong southwest winds to throw off the Changeling Air Forces. After a meeting with her Generals on the invasion, Chrysalis was convinced that their strategy was unlikely to see them a victory, so she ordered the postponement of ‘Operation Manticore, and for all plans to be pushed back until the time was ready.
Over in Ponyville, as Rarity walked through the streets, ponies would stop to wave at her, others who had been in the church hall at the time would shake her hoof and say ‘thank you’ for saving them, fillies and colts could be seen re-enacting the rescue in the school yard, (with a few bits exaggerated by the CMC, saying how Rarity ran in and knocked out one of the Changelings, or how Rainbow Dash had swooped in and carried five ponies out of the hall to safety), and as she passed Sugarcube Corner, she could see a large cake in the display window which read, ‘Thanks to our Heroes’.
“Hey Rarity!” came Pinkie Pie’s voice. Rarity looked and saw her bouncing out of the store, with Mrs Cake walking behind her, “We showed those Changelings, didn’t we?” she laughed.
“Yes Pinkie, we certainly did.” Rarity smiled.
“I’ve actually made a special cupcake for you, dearie.” said Mrs Cake, and she handed Rarity a small box. Rarity opened it, and saw a cupcake with white frosting with light blue frosting that had been cut up into three diamonds, (the same as her Cutie Mark) and along the sides was thin gold coloured cream, crafted to look like the pips that signified Rarity’s rank of Captain.
“Thank you, Mrs Cake.” said Rarity, as she closed the box and put it in her saddlebag. She shook Pinkie’s hoof and heading towards Carousel Boutique.
As she neared the store, she looked up towards the library, and saw Twilight and Spike leaving it to collect more supplies. She gave a small wave and they headed over towards her. “Morning Rarity.” said Twilight as she came closer, “I was examining that Changeling’s gun the other day. Did you know that it was empty all along?”
“Was it?” smirked Rarity; “Well if you must know Twilight, so was mine.” she gave a small giggle and walked into Carousel Boutique, closing the door lightly behind her.
The winds blew hard over the coast, causing large waves to crash along the shores of Equestria. Up on the hillside looking over it, Rarity stared out into the horizon, with Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Spike standing on either side of her, all in full uniform. “The sea’s blowing rough today isn’t it?” observed Twilight.
“The Changelings will never cross it in this weather.” said Rainbow Dash.
“Ah reckon we’ll be fine till spring.” put in Applejack.
“So I guess we can have the weekend off then.” chuckled Spike.
“Weekend off?” said Rarity, looking down at him, “This is war, Spike. It doesn’t just stop at 5 o’clock on Friday evening, and then start up again 9 o’clock on Monday morning. We need to always be prepared for whatever happens.”
“That will be a treat.” came a voice from behind them. They turned around and saw Trixie standing a few yards away from, the wind blowing the bits of her mane sticking out from under her ‘ARP’ helmet over her grinning face.
“And what are you doing up here?” asked Rarity.
“Just listening to your wishful thinking’s.” chuckled Trixie, “So you just managed to stop two Changelings, but that’s nothing to celebrate. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, what good would you lot be against real soldiers? They’d walk straight through you!” she then turned and walked back down towards town, still chuckling to herself.
“Trixie’s not right, is she?” said Spike to Twilight when Trixie was out of earshot.
“No Spike, she isn’t. Take no notice of her.” said Twilight as she put a comforting hoof around Spike’s shoulder.
“Well, I don’t really want them walking through me.” said Fluttershy, quietly.
“They won’t get a chance to.” said Rainbow Dash, “I’ll stick by your side, Fluttershy, when it comes to it.”
“We’ll all be by your side.” said Rarity as they moved in closer together to keep warm from the wind, “We shall all stick together. If anypony will try to take our homes from us, they will know what we are capable of. Anytime of the year; spring, summer, autumn or winter, from over the seas or across the skies, we shall be ready for them. And ready to fight. And we’re not alone in our opinions. There are thousands of us all over Equestria. Ponies ready to stand together when their country needs them.”
“I agree, Rarity.” smiled Twilight, “And while we’re not exactly real soldiers, I do believe that a small branch of the Home Guard is just as important to the safety of our country, than a hundred trained soldiers.”
“Wise words Twilight.” sighed Rarity, as she lead them back down the hill towards Ponyville, to be prepared for whatever trick or scheme that Chrysalis plans next, to be ready for the moment when they would have to sacrifice their lives for their country.
But until that time was to come, the citizens of Ponyville could sleep well, knowing that their town was kept in the safety of that small platoon, the ponies that started as a joke, were now heroes in their eyes, and as Rarity stared out of her window that night, looking out over the streets, she gave a small sigh knowing that all this land was now under the protection of what she like to call, ‘Rarity’s Army’.
