It’s stuck,” the officer reported. The heavy rain blanketed his words with a steady thrum of noise. Only about half of the police force that had assembled had rain-resistant riot gear while the other two hundred and five were left with water seeping between the joints of the armor.
The Chief of Police began to say something back but was interrupted by another crack of thunder. The lightning proceeding it better illuminated them in the dark for only a second. He repeated over the noisy static of the heavy rain. “What’s squad five doing?! I told them to shut down those weather ponies!”
“Fried!” the officer replied and glanced back to the armored wagon that was now stuck off the road. Something had gotten all over the tires and then the axle. Whatever it was, it was not coming off. “It’s like they knew we’d try coming up. We can’t even get close now that the cloud screen is so thick. It’s supercharged. They could have enough resource up there to last until morning.”
“Forget it!” the chief angrily shook his head. “Get the rest of the force around the flatbed and we’ll advance in one unit!”
“We have you surrounded! Come out peacefully! You are under arrest!”
The words could be heard via megaphone through the windows. Rainbow Dash was looking out at the police force that had assembled outside. Rather than be impressed with what appeared to be a solid wall of riot police surrounding the inn, she was amused by the look of discomfort on many of their faces. Being soaked, cold, and in the dark wasn’t fun, she guessed. Especially for those who were standing in mud and having to fight to keep their gear from toppling them over.
They were illuminated only by the inn’s front lights and nearby streetlamps. Some might even call it a gloomy or perhaps spooky display. Some of the officers’ faces couldn’t be seen properly in the dark. But even the ones in shadows could be seen by silhouette against the moonlight. If need be, Twilight had the power to turn the moon to a full and bright glow.
Instead of a frown, Rainbow had a smirk. Tendrils of green electricity danced in her eyes and she felt her power burn within her chest. She looked to her queen, who was just sipping some white tea one of the Soleil maids had given her.
“Want me to suck them into a hurricane?” Rainbow gave a toothy grin.
Twilight held back a laugh. “That won’t be necessary, Dashie. Though I would like you to help look out for the citizens when they arrive. I want to keep injuries on their side to a minimum if possible. They need to take care of this, but that doesn’t mean I want any of them to get hurt.”
Fluttershy carefully peeked up from the bottom of the window, not as audacious as Rainbow with standing in plain sight. She ducked back down after getting a look. “I don’t see a wagon.”
“I told you she was resourceful,” Twilight smiled and saw her reflection upon the surface of the tea. She had her regalia on and couldn’t help that smile because of the changeling crown upon her head. It used to be Chrysalis’ mark of being a queen.
If she had to do so, she would step outside with all the confidence she needed to end the situation in a heartbeat. But no. This opportunity was too great. A victory here by the common ponies of Las Pegasus would help give them the confidence they needed to govern and protect their fellow ponies.
“You have thirty sec-”
The Chief-of-Police’s megaphone was interrupted by another.
“You have thirty seconds to drop your riot gear,” the other megaphone boomed over the rain.
Fluttershy popped back up to look out and saw the wall of police was now looking about in confusion. It was hard to see because of the thick veil of night rain, but she could just make out another staggered line of ponies further out on the other side of the police.
Direway reported in over the hivemind the number of citizens still forming up for a practically guaranteed confrontation. Twilight nodded to herself and set her teacup back down. It would be more than enough. All she had to do was be ready like she had told her multi-colored mare.
“Three hundred eighty-four,” a pony came up and spoke right into Turnip Toss’ ear.
The muscular mare gave a “humph” in return. She held the old megaphone away from her mouth. “Just like pulling weeds.”
One of the assistants nearby told a pegasus next to her, “aim for the ground between the forehooves.”
Turnip looked to both her sides. Their group was still lining up at both ends, but it was more than adequate already. Since the ponies had been on the streets the last few days anyways, it was not as hard as she thought it might be to assemble a host of the bravest. One thousand, seven hundred forty-six. About two hundred lined in the front were ex-Guard veterans from the East, North, and South Las Pegasus Retired Veterans Association. They had the most experience with bows and all but nine had been equipped with ice arrows.
Turnip gave a thankful nod to High Dive who was two rows behind her. His dark green coat was hard to pick out in the dim moonlight and ambiant light from the spotlights they had brought help her to see his tall wild mane. The meeting had given them a host of ideas for handling the officers but High Dive’s Extreme Sports Company was the real gem. His business manufactured the ice arrows used for the Equestria Games and he was more than willing to open his stock for use.
One of the ex-Guard veterans was next to her and, though his bow was pointed to the ground now, he was in a ready stance and his body didn’t shake in spite of the cold. “This’ll cool their heads,” he commented dryly.
“No jacket?” Turnip said casually to keep her nerves under control. Maybe it was her imagination, but it seemed reasonable that the heavy rain – even though they were themsevles excluded from it – caused the cold night to be even colder.
The stallion smiled at that. “Bulwark,” he identified himself without looking away from their opposition. “Spent my life up north on station before becoming an instructor. Around where the Crystal Empire is now. This is nothing. Just a little late summer weather.”
“I repeat!” blared the megaphone of the Chief-of-Police. “Go home peacefully or we will be forced to break you up! This is an unlawful assembly!”
“Yep,” Turnip just muttered without her own speaker and then raised it to her mouth on a whim. “I’m looking right at the unlawful assembly! You are all guilty of conspiracy, attempted assault, trespassing, and probably accessory to a hundred past crimes I’m not even aware of. Last warning! Drop your gear and turn yourselves in to the community police present or you will be taken in anyways.”
The Chief, who had moved from the front of the line facing the inn to the rear facing the forming wall of citizen ponies, threw his megaphone towards Turnip. Of course, it only went a dozen hooves before falling into the mud. He was clearly just agitated and not willing to give up, but even Turnip could see the fear in the eyes of the officers around him. Not even the rain, thick air, and black shadows could hide that.
Looking down her sides again, Turnip knew her fellow ponies were at least as nervous. But they were courageous in spite of that fear and most at the front were equipped with all manner of heavy padding from the sports warehouses that donated it. However, Turnip anticipated only a minimal clash given how many bows they managed to get a hold of.
The riot police gathered closer side-by-side to get their shields up and together before advancing. They came as fast as they could manage in the mud without falling. Turnip didn’t waste time and noted Bulwark’s glance to her.
“Ready!” she ordered with her megaphone.
Nearly two hundred ponies raised their bows and pulled back their ice arrows.
The wall of riot police was charging at only a hundred hooves distance now.
“Fire!”
At first, the Chief-of-Police couldn’t believe who he saw on the line of ponies opposing them. Perhaps the darkness and sheets of rain was affecting his ability to identify. The common rabble he didn’t care for but some of the Guard veterans there were ponies he thought he knew. They had talked before casually on streets or restaurants about law and freedom.
It took this moment for him to realize that all that had apparently not been real. Whatever law and freedom they had spoken of, and that he thought he agreed with, was something very different from what he himself believed in. Traitors. All of them.
So he ordered the charge. They would break up the crowd easily with their armor and shields. The stubborn ones could just be beat into submission. The bows he spotted on a few would be useless even if they had the gall to use them since their shields would be more than adequate for such crude weaponry.
But then as they half-ran as fast as they could to break the heart of the line, the arrows flew. More than he realized. Much more. There must have been a couple hundred arrows sweep up and then down in a short arc, like a cold omen of doom. For in that moment as the arrows flew, he recognized the frosty sparkles they left in their wake.
They were ice arrows.
And his entire force was wet.
When the wave met the locked shield of his advancing force, they instantly froze together in a blinding flash of white and icy blue. The sudden locked rigidity and weight caused the line to stumble. The shield wall fell forward into the mud, tipping the officers over who had been holding the grips. The line behind them tripped on the falling row before them even as the first line was tangled in the mud. Over half of the downed row had half-frozen joints that had been iced over by the feverish effectiveness of the arrows in the cold soaked conditions.
The Chief stopped in his tracks as the rest of his force slowed down in panic. He ran. There was no recovery from this because he knew that the second wave was already being released from the bows. There was no way in Tartarus he could break the hundred plus veterans with only a hundred and fifty or so remaining officers. He started to grab his crossbow on his back even in retreat, but his hoof stuck to his back and the grip of the weapon when an ice arrow struck dead onto it.
He tripped in the rough muddy terrain after that and tumbled until he stopped somewhere off the road in a daze. A nearby streetlamp gave him only the faintest visibility. He didn’t get much farther, however, because a purple alicorn stepped up to him from the darkness further down the road. His hoof was still stuck to his back in a case of ice, but she tied his other hooves in a green magical bind.
The queen’s changeling accessories had jagged green accents that glowed with the magical force. That was the last thing he saw before resting his head on the wet ground in defeat.
It was over.
Twilight Sparkle shielded her eyes from the sun with a forehoof. Enough clouds were now gone from the thick dark blanket that it could poke through. Morning. What a long night it had been. Although Applejack might have described it as “smooth as an oiled pig in summer.” It hadn’t been that long ago that the last riot officer had been carried off for detention.
Turnip Toss was as awake and busy as hundreds of her fellow ponies in dealing with this mess, but one elderly stallion did come to see her. He stepped up to Twilight on the road outside of the inn she had just departed.
“Bulwark,” he introduced himself. He still had a bow and a pack of a few remaining ice arrows strapped on his back, so she didn’t have to guess his role even though he gave it. “Helped the new police last night. Just wanted to check on you again. Make sure everything’s alright.”
“Yes, indeed,” Twilight gave her calm and diplomatic smile. “Thank you very much, Bulwark. I will be thanking all of you again later today when Turnip Toss makes the public announcement to precede the trials. You sure stopped them cold,” she couldn’t help adding the joke.
Bulwark chuckled. “Yes we did. Honestly, I hadn’t expected it to be as effective as it was. I’m used to these things,” he jostled his bow and arrows, “in tundra where they just add to the freeze. Stopping the whole line of them at once was as much a shock to me as it was them.”
Twilight made a gesture for him to walk with her down the road as they talked. The cobblestone was still wet and covered in more mud than usual due to the recent events, but it still made for a pleasant enough walk. The queen’s two on-duty guards were behind her along with two of the maids, Fluttershy, and a very eager-looking Chrysalis.
“I’m sure the rest of the volunteers were glad,” Twilight commented. “I heard there was only about a dozen physical fights.”
“Yeah,” he nodded his head. “A few stubborn ones got up to us. Just a few we couldn’t freeze in time.”
“You got the Chief-of-Police, though,” Twilight looked over at him with a grin as they got closer to the city. “That was a very difficult shot and you got him right when he could have pulled that crossbow and hurt somepony.”
The veteran looked genuinely surprised. “I’m shocked you saw that. It was pretty dark and chaotic. I didn’t even get to drag him in until somepony else had cuffed the rest of him.”
“I was keeping my eye on him,” Twilight explained with a shrug. “And one of my guards was watching your front line too. Let’s just say I have special mental coordination abilities that allow me to put two and two together.”
The ex-Guard seemed to ponder that for a time. They continued to walk down the road until they were entering into the city’s outer market district. It had been quieter out by the inn even though it had been a troublesome scene only the previous night. Not much besides the newly arranged dirt and sparse leftovers of ice demonstrated that. But here, in the outer market of Las Pegasus, there was the constant drone of ponies talking, browsing, buying, and selling.
Twilight saw groups of ponies become gradually larger as they walked further in towards the market square. This part of the city was mainly one for tourists to buy gifts for visits. Las Pegasus was, after all, very big on tourism. News of the night’s events might have spread and kept some ponies indoors but, by the looks of it, most were out and talking up a storm.
Having the Queen of Equestria walk by with a few ponies in her wake only stirred up the conversations even more, which were a flurry of opinions. Not all were favorable and more than one might have been from relatives of the captured conspirators.
“We really are lucky that Princess Celestia chose you of all ponies,” Bulwark said, breaking the silence they had held for a time now.
Twilight was headed for the West Street square where she needed to talk to some organizers about the announcement to come. She figured Bulwark was just continuing to accompany her to collect his thoughts and speak whatever came to mind. The praise was appreciated, though, and she voiced as much.
“Thank you,” she couldn’t help glancing down. “To be honest, I wasn’t sure if it really would be a good idea for me to lead Equestria. Princess Celestia has overseen the land for so long, I figured there was no chance I could do as well. But I would be lying if I said I didn’t like how matters were progressing here. It’s reminded me that a ruler isn’t the one that makes a land good or bad, but the ponies who reside in it and decide how to live their lives.”
Bulwark chuckled.
“What?” the purple pony looked to him with a grin. She took his laughter as being playful.
“Just funny hearing it that way from a princess-turned-queen,” he gave her a cheerful look of his own. “Reminded me of something I used to say to my trainees. Not such pretty words, of course. Just told them that if a rank gave them an order they knew was against the spirit of Equestria, not to follow it. Was more important for the lot of them to do what was right than blindly follow a bad superior.”
“Isn’t that bad for discipline?” Twilight questioned frankly.
“Not with the way I taught them,” he shrugged and then stopped on the road. She stopped as well before he continued. “No point in having loyal soldiers following orders if their orders are to crush the rights and freedoms we hold so dear. Seemed to pay off because my best pupil in the academy did right back in Canterlot.”
“Storm Sword?” Twilight rose a brow and kept her grin.
“How’d you know?” he widened his eyes and pursed his old cracked lips.
“She has your spirit,” the queen looked into his eyes with a sight beyond the raw senses.
“Heh,” the stallion looked down and shook his head. “That kid has the most stubborn sense of integrity I’ve ever seen.”
“I know sompeony else that’s a little like that,” Twilight tapped her chin in jest. A certain farmpony came to mind.
Bulwark looked back down a side street they were near. “My turn is here. I’ll see you at the announcement, my queen.”
Twilight was about to tell him not to use the formality, but he was quick and precise in bowing and then trotted off. The alicorn’s forehoof was still raised in the air as he left, but she put it back on the ground with a sigh. Chrysalis came up and brushed against her side before speaking in her buzzy voice.
“Am I going to get that breakfast late?” the tall being purred.
Twilight looked sideways at her with a different expression. It was one of contemplation.
“You promised,” the changeling whined pitifully.
The queen giggled at that. “Yes, yes, Chrysy. I think you will be quite full afterwards. The announcement is not until much later so I just need to talk to some ponies now and then we’ll be back at the inn until then.”
Flame Haze had been a scout ever since she had passed training almost nine years ago. With no superior positions needing to be filled, she was never promoted. It didn’t bother her, though. Her dream was to serve Equestria and her position not only allowed that but also let her explore it to. Equestria had many biomes within it and now, flying on her seventeenth hour, she was sure she had crossed them all.
It was supposed to be a short flight, but the winds were against her and she had a fadeout five hours ago that cost her a lot of time. Normally it would never happen. But she had been on watch before the changelings had discovered them, then participated in the fight before leaving. She had been up and under stress for so long that she just had nothing left to give. The pony who had found her had given her water, food, and refilled her empty rations in her pack.
It would take her even more hours now, though. The kind stallion had informed her that Queen Twilight was not presently in Canterlot but instead Las Pegasus. She could still make it by noon and tried not to think of her fellow Guards she had left. It was probably already too late for them, but if she got to Twilight perhaps a few could be saved.