//------------------------------// // Food Fight // Story: Mission to Appleloosa // by GJT_Productions //------------------------------// "EVERYPONY TO POSITIONS!" Sheriff Silverstar's voice booms throughout the small town of Appleloosa, prompting a scrambling of stallions and mares alike toward the defensive positions previously constructed as high noon rapidly approached. With assistance from Guard Lieutenant Meadow Song and Guard Aide Cherry Fizzy, Silverstar had ordered the foals locked in the buildings, shuttering windows so that they couldn't see what was going on outside as well as to make it more difficult for the buffalo to get in. The majority of the adult Appleloosan population was deployed at the front log barricades, each one armed with a small stack of apple pies. The rear defense was constructed of stacked hay bales reinforced with anvils - a donation from the local smiths that would eventually stop a few charging buffalo dead in their tracks. Unlike initially anticipated, there were enough bales to form a two-tiered line, so Cherry Fizzy split the initial dense semi-circle into two lines. Cherry Fizzy himself would be in the front line, accompanied by Guard Upper Class Lucky Clover, while Guard Upper Class Noteworthy was in the second line - placed behind the first in roughly the same configuration - both to help coordinate those posted on that line and minimize the chance of the entire Royal Guard contingent being lost in the initial buffalo charge. Behind that second line, right in front of the railroad station and the tracks, were Meadow Song and Sheriff Silverstar themselves - their mutual responsibility, like that of a captain to his ship, were to be the last defenders to stand in the town, and the last to run should it be necessary. As the morning had progressed and the fortification efforts had been performed to the town's buildings, the Element Bearers were still trying to talk the citizens out of fighting, and in frustration Sheriff Silverstar finally ordered them to stay in the train station and out of the way. Meadow Song did not object to this, even though he recognized it could be later used against him - in the moment, he justified it as "a reasonable demand for non-interference toward civilians considering they would not cooperate in building the defense". ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The tension in the air increased in proportion to the height of the desert sun as it climbed high over the town. Meadow Song looks around in nervous agitation; first toward the crude flag showing a tree, raised up the flagpole near the clock tower, then toward Apple Fritter, who's face showed nothing but bitter resignation over the fact she had no influence over the events unfolding around her, and finally toward each of his subordinates in turn, wondering if it would be the last time he would ever see them alive. As expected, the buffalo herd appeared on top of the ridge, with the apparent chief and the "little buffalo" the Royal Guard contingent recognized from the train raid in the center of the line, and Meadow Song feels his stomach drop. This terrible feeling instantly made lies of the thrilling depictions of battles in Equestria's past - Princess Celestia had once said "War is a foal of Tartarus, not a glory", and the Guard Lieutenant was beginning to understand what the sun princess exactly meant by that phrase. The twelve bells ring out from the clock tower, signalling "high noon", and all attention turns toward the ridgeline. It seemed all Appleloosa held a collective breath, waiting for the seemingly inevitable buffalo charge... but it doesn't come. The buffalo remain along the ridgeline, and sighs of relief begin to be heard on the hope the buffalo won't attack after all. Meadow Song wasn't convinced, though, and looking around for any signs of a potential ambush from the sides he notices to his horror one of the Element Bearers is missing from the group in the train station! He turns to look down the main way of Appleloosa, and his fears are confirmed when he sees Pinkie Pie replicating her previous disasterous dancing effort at the other end of the main way! Before he can even figure out the words to say, the buffalo are enraged and charging down the ridgeline! Meadow Song looks over at Silverstar, and the latter only says one phrase: "She's banned for life." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The charging buffalo reach the bottom of the ridge and head straight for the town, blowing by Pinkie Pie and knocking her around in the process. As soon as the buffalo are in range, the forward defenders manage to get one barrage of pies off before the buffalo smash through the forward barricades and scatter the defenders, turning the attack into a series of chases and duels. Some buffalo slam into the clock tower, causing it to crumble down but knocking them out and preventing more building damage. The rear defenders are furiously firing pies as scattered Appaloosans are being chased around, getting shots in whenever they can. Some buffalo, lead by their chief, reach the rear defense line, breaking the line but the placed anvils preventing any further advance. Quickly, Meadow Song and the others around him are out of pies, and they fall back into the hat shop across from the Salt Block, prepared to fight hoof-to-hoof if necessary but aware the buffalo may just decide to keep going straight through the town to take down the orchard. In the confusion, Meadow Song realizes to his mortification that he lost track of Silverstar's whereabouts, and peeks back out of the building to see Silverstar without ammo and the buffalo chief coming straight for him! Meadow Song only gets a few steps before an apparent rouge pie stops the buffalo chief's charge dead in its tracks - a clean hit in the face that temporarily knocks out the opponent leader in front of the unharmed Silverstar near the railroad tracks. This seems to bring the battle to dead stop, and ponies start coming out of the buildings - the Element Bearers out of the railroad station and the Royal Guard contingent out of the hat shop. The Guards assemble on the hat shop porch, looking over the surreal scene in front of them. Besides the collapsed clock tower, the town itself does not seem to have suffered much damage, but knocked out ponies and buffalo alike litter the main way of the town, and an overwhelming sense of regret and mortification rises in the entire group. They don't know how long they last in this state, but are finally pulled out of it when Apple Fritter beside them points out the buffalo chief beginning to stir again. As the crowd around him watch, the buffalo chief slowly gets on his hooves again, smacking his mouth as if surprised by what he was tasting - more specifically, the pieces of the apple pie that had slid into his mouth. All watch with rapt attention as the buffalo chief briefly gives a puzzled look, as if a realization had just hit him, and then his features light up as he speaks within earshot of the Royal Guard contingent: "Yum! Hey, I've got a much better idea!" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The relief finally emerges among the gathered ponies, but some are still confused about why, one of them being Guard Upper Class Lucky Clover. He asks his superior officer, who for some reason had started looking very sentimentally at Apple Fritter: "Sir, what's going on? What is the buffalo chief trying to get at?" "It looks like the day has been saved after all, Lucky." Meadow Song answers, sharing Apple Fritter's beaming mixture of pride and relief as the bulk of the former antagonists gather nearby around the buffalo chief to hear out his proposal. "How? By who?" Lucky Clover asks again. "Apple Fritter and her special baking talent. The pie recipe must've tasty enough to convince the buffalo chief to look at things a different way." Meadow Song answers for his confused subordinate. "You have to remember, Lucky, Apple Fritter's three-time champ in the apple pie category at the National Dessert Competition. Her coming here turned out to have purpose after all." Aide Cherry Fizzy points out as he stands beside Lucky Clover. "Exactly. And we're going for the fourth title this coming year." Meadow Song points out, letting a moment of sentimentality toward his mate slip out before his serious facade comes back up. "We've still got a job to do here though, congratulations will have to wait. Cherry, get me a casualty and damage report as quickly as you can. Noteworthy and Lucky, I want you two tending to any wounded and help get medical attention to those who need it. I'm going over to the main group and help the Element Bearers get a tentative agreement going." "Sir, I thought we are still bound by the mission parameters..." Noteworthy objects as Meadow Song begins moving. "The buffalo and Appleloosans look like they are ready to talk, that's close enough to call it a successful mission. Besides, I'm sure our secrecy has already been compromised, so I don't have anything to lose now." Meadow Song counters, already moving so as to prevent a counter-argument from emerging... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As Meadow Song carefully worked his way through the throng - now surrounding both the Element Bearers as well as Sheriff Silverstar and the buffalo chief - he could hear Twilight Sparkle's agitated comments: "So much to do... need to do the friendship letter based on this, and get an agreement down... Spike, you have something to write on?!" "I don't even have something to write with, let alone on, Twilight." Spike sasses back out in response. "Excuse me, Miss Twilight Sparkle... Miss?" Meadow Song calls out, now deliberately trying to get Twilight's attention as he squeezes out into the central area where she was. "Oh, Meadow Song, is there something you want?" Twilight asks in reply, baffling Meadow Song by the apparent lack of surprise in her tone. "Wait, you knew we were here the...?" Meadow Song begins to ask, but is interrupted by Twilight speaking again. "I figured Princess Celestia had sent you and the others here for some reason. I just didn't want to say anything about it, or have the others say anything about it, and I already knew about Apple Fritter being here because Applejack..." Twilight starts to explain in a rambling manner. "Applejack told you about her being here first, right." Meadow Song interrupts in turn, rolling his eyes and hoping the emerging blush would be dismissed as simply being a result of the heat. At least he would be able to explain the "whole fiasco" about his mission in his final report, hopefully... "You couldn't have only been here to help defend the village, are you going to help implement the compromise too?" Twilight hazards a guess once Meadow Song finishes his line. "Well, yes, yes in fact." Meadow Song stammers into confessing. "Technically, you don't have authority to implement any kind of agreement between the buffalo and the Appleloosan settlers, but me and my squad as members of the Royal Guard do. I will provide you with the writing materials to draw up a preliminary agreement as well write a report to my superiors about what we're doing next..." "And the friendship letter?" Twilight interjects hopefully. Meadow Song chuckles slightly in response to Twilight's question: "Well, Spike's magic will get anything to Canterlot faster than the standard post, so yes I'll provide you with something for that. Just have you and your friends go to the sheriff's office with Silverstar and sit tight there, I have some other business that needs to be accomplished first." "Right. Chief Thunderhooves and Little Strongheart will be coming with us as well." Twilight acknowledges, pointing respectively toward the chief that had charged at Silverstar during the battle and "the little buffalo" Meadow Song recognized from the train raid as she speaks. "Eh, it'll be a tight squeeze in there, but we're all friends, right?" Meadow Song comments. "Right!" Twilight eagerly replies, giving a sparkling smile that had become one of Meadow Song's favorite quirks about Princess Celestia's former pupil of magic. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lieutenant Meadow Song smiles and shakes his head after working his way back out of the crowd and moving to set up a writing station to use later near the entrance to the Salt Block. Things might work out alright after all, it seemed...