"Do I...uh...have Any Volunteers?"
"WILL YOU NIT-WITS CALM DOWN!?"
The battle cry, although voice cracking, was enough to drown out the heaping balls of flames and the whines of the surrounding guards fearing for their lives. All those that heard the voice stopped in their hysterically induced prancing, or from their empty bow plucking – calling to attention even those who had passed out due to their fears of the scene they resided in.
All those who heard the voice had one thing in common: searching for the owner of the battle cry. They were quite surprised when their eyes fell on a slightly smaller orange mare, bearing the Element of Honesty.
"Ah, miss?!" One of the guards from afar earned the aforementioned mare's attention, erecting his hoof into the air just to be safe. "Was it just you that unleashed that cry?"
"Yes, it was." Applejack gave him a nod before her eyes went to circle all the on-looking guards. "But now I need for all of you to be quiet and pipe down as I try to get a message across your frantic heads."
Even though the sky went unseen by all their eyes due to the heavy layers of smoke; despite the distant roars of the dragon looming above all of their head, some of the guards still had the nerve to complain about they way they were being talked too, even though the ground they all stood upon was mostly lit aflame.
"You may be a bearer of an Element of Harmony." One of those snickering guards said as she trotted toward her. "But do you really think you have enough battle experience to order around soilders of the Royal Gaurd?"
That particular gaurd felt a smirk wash across his muzzle as he noticed all the surrounding attention was on him. Too bad the momentary fame was stripped away from in an instant, as he was put in his proper place by the smaller mare before him.
"I do." Applejack glanced to all the on-looking guards. "Especially when you shoved a fellow guard in front of ya to avoid being caught being caught in the dragon's claw. I guess that brotherly bond you boys swear too is shattered when the trouble really hits the fan."
The stallion had no words to contest with, only displaying a shocked expression on his face as he attempted to fall back into the crowd, where that expression would hopefully be hidden by the judging eyes surrounding him. With the disputes about her character put to ease and all the attention she could ask for, Applejack began her battle speech.
"Look y'all, I'm not going to pretend to be someone who I ain't in order win everyone's trust in this situation. All I can is that with the way things are going, even those who stand a chance against the dragon are goin' to be devoured with the rest who apparently lost their minds."
Those said ponies who had been snapped into reality by the earlier call blushed a shade of embarrassment, retreating further into their armor as their hysteria threaten to return.
"The only reason the dragon hasn't come down here to take us all on is because we're too large of a number for him – it's the reason why he's slowly plucking away our numbers from the safety of his smoke clouds. We all need to come together as one in order to stand a chance against him, and not go crazy with despair just because our rulers need a few moments to recover their strength."
Applejack heaved a heavy sigh as she felt the weight of all their eyes upon her back as if each and every single one of them were judging her resolve as if she were one of their unquestionable princesses. Even though she didn't feel fully confident, the simple farm pony bore the weight and continued her speech. "Earth ponies are able to feel the change in weather by the subtle vibrations in the ground, and for some reason, I'm able to feel whenever the dragon is ready to attack. I've already managed to dodge him once, and I'm sure I can instruct others on when to do the same...maybe even when to launch an attack when he ain't expecting it."
A wave of surprise and unsurely spread across the supposedly stone-cold faces of the guards, each coming closer to their faux leader of the moment.
"I don't know anything 'bout battle other than my occasional run in with a changeling or the bouts I get in with Rainbow Dash, so I'll need someone to help me order you, folks, around." Applejack gulped as she felt her speech lose that 'oomph' factor. "Do I...uh...have any volunteers?"
Silence reigned over the crowd of ponies as the rising feeling of hope began to falter from their hearts. That, and the continuous roars of the dragon, and his ever closer beams of concentrated fire.
"I'll help." A familiar voice entered Applejack's ears the perked them with that tantalizing vision of hope. "I'm the leader of Squad Bravo, you can call me—"
"Afro-stallion!" Applejack glee as she raced to meet the said stallion in the middle, almost tempted to throw her hooves around his neck. "I can't believe you're still standin' even after treating the princess's wounds!"
The now dubbed Afro-Stallion wasn't sure to object to his new name or to simply roll with the flow of things. "Uh, yeah. I may not be useful in the battle itself due to the exchange of wounds, but I should still be able to help you order these guards around. Honestly speaking, this probably something I should've done from the gecko, and not burden you even further from your primary objective."
"Don't fret over it." Applejack turned to face the amassed amount of guards, who had formed into assembly upon watching the exchange of their now two leaders. "Does anybody have any complaints about the new leadership?"
The only response to the question was the sounds of stallions shifting inside their armor and some clearing out their throats, though all those who did open their mouths to oppose even in the slightest of ways was silenced by the strike of orange lighting from the smoke infused sky above them all. With a common enemy set, the group of ponies began the final retaliation that would declare their fates.
The Afro-Stallion bent his head toward the ear of his fellow leader. "So have you come up with a plan yet, or are we playing this move by move."
A memory of an equivalent catastrophe played when Applejack found herself atop the balcony of the Crystal Empire, seeing King Sombra in the distance as she waved a hoof meant to bring relief to the worried crystal ponies below her. She hadn't know why, but she started doing the same to the current guards before her. "I'm going to bring them the hope that comes from having a plan and wing everything afterward."
She saw an expression on the other stallion's face that she couldn't quite describe after he pulled away and too began waving. "If that's what you think is best."
Swallowing the lump that had formed in her chest, Applejack took a note from her princesses as she hid her fears behind a mask of determination. "Now, I'm going to start listing off the division of ponies and what I want em' to do, as simply as possible, okay. Archers! Instead of randomly pluckin' your bows at a sky you can't see the dragon past, I'm gonna give you a signal to aim your bows in the direction I point at. I want you to only fire when you have confirmed sight on the dragon, ya hear?"
Those golden outfitted guards carrying bows on their back only nodded, not daring to speak a word in fear of their earlier inicdent being exposed like the brother betraying guard from before.
"Now fellow earth ponies bearing arms, I want for most of you to try and hide from the dragon's sight, and for the rest to lure him out by looking weak and as crazed as before. This will prompt the dragon into taking the bait, which the arches will try and aim for his eyes in order to blind him. If this works, those of you who are hiding will hit him with all you got – try and take off his wings if ya can. But if the bait fails, or the dragon is not blinded, then I want for you exposed guards to get to safety as soon as possible, capeesh?"
The earth ponies of the guard nodded their heads.
"Unicorns! I know you may not like this, but I'm going to be placin' a rather large weight on your shoulders." Applejack to take a moment from her speech in order to wet her dry throat and to allow the said guards a moment to prepare themselves for the burden that they would come to bear. "You boys and girls will be responsible for applying the dragon's attack against him, as well as casting a protective shield over your brothers and sisters attacking the dragon straight up. All energy should be invested first in protecting each other, and the excess spent on fending the dragon off."
Applejack felt a familiar pair of lips close to her ears once more. "I'm sure you already know this, Applejack. But the longer we spend fighting off the dragon, the sooner we're all going to tucker out. If we don't end this sooner than later than all our lives end at the maw and claws of the dragon."
She looked up to the stallion with a glint in her eye. "But us losing numbers isn't gonna help us neither, nor is it worth losing even a single life just to end this battle sooner."
"Then I hope your wit is enough to finish this dragon before stamina becomes an issue." The stallion said that not as an insult to her character, but as a genuine fear that he also bore.
Applejack felt herself succumb to the same fear as he, eyeing the fallen princess in the distance who she wasn't sure were napping to restore their powers or just gone for the day. The fact that she never leads before troubled her soul, and that her plan was everything short of genius made her wonder why she even stepped up in the first place.
Fears and worried clouded her mind that not even the cheers of her five closest friends could even hope to pull her away from doubt.
So Applejack had to pull herself out with just one simple fact: that none of these fears or worries would do anything to make the situation better, and that all she could do is believe in herself till the end. Death was certain the other way, so might as well fake it till she made it.
"Don't you worry, Afro." Applejack shook her head as she rose her voice. "But I want none of you to worry, for that get's us nowhere. Focus on fighting the dragon and that alone, for anything else will just make certain your death. If we all work together for the common goal of keeping the dragon away from the recovering sister then surely our dedication will touch the princesses' hearts and bring them back to us all the sooner.
"Just you watch! This battle will be over before you even know it, and the other Elements and I will be sealing away this dragon like we once did Discord."
Even though there was only silence, Applejack felt the aura of engery euxding from her gaurd of soilders. Deciding fully to seal her fears behind the mask, the guard's new temporary leader called for a cheer. "Now let me see a wave of rising hooves and a hoorah!"
Every single mouth screamed out in unison their battle cry.
"Hoorah!"