//------------------------------// // Final Report // Story: Mission to Appleloosa // by GJT_Productions //------------------------------// Guard Lieutenant Meadow Song smiled as he looked out at the scenes of ponies and buffalo mingling peacefully in the Appleloosa streets that had once been their battlefield. He was currently preparing to write the final report of his squad's mission to send back to Canterlot, attached to Twilight Sparkle's "friendship letter" intended for Princess Celestia. His typing desk had been positioned outside Sheriff Silverstar's office, and from his post he could see the town getting back into its previous cycles of life, the only evidence of a battle having been even there was the clock tower some earth ponies were reconstructing after the buffalo knocked it down in the battle. This effort was being supervised by his second-in-command, Aide Cherry Fizzy, while the rest of his squad - Guard Upper Class Caramel, Guard Upper Class Noteworthy and Guard Upper Class Lucky Clover - was assisting the Appleloosans in transplating trees of the apple orchard and clearing a path for the buffalo to travel through, both of which following the terms of the preliminary agreement crafted between the Appleloosan settlers and the buffalo tribe lead by Chief Thunderhooves. The Element Bearers would leave as soon as "Bloomberg" was planted and the preliminary agreement had been fully implemented, but Lieutenant Meadow Song decided on his own initiative to stay longer in order to lead crafting a more permanent agreement as well as to follow up with "Quesadilla Polka", the mysterious orange-coated earth pony operating under a codename. This pony had returned to Appleloosa the day after the battle, and vowed to help support the new peace with his own talents whenever he could. The aid request for the town to replace the supplies used in the town's defense could wait until the Guard squad returned to Ponyville, and "Quesadilla Polka" had provided firm evidence there were no ex-Agents of Chaos rebels operating either in the Wastes or the area surrounding the town. All that remained for the Guard Lieutenant was to type up the report, so Meadow Song snapped himself out of his reverie and focused on the "typewriter" (really a hoof-operated keyboard which imprinted letters into pieces of parchment) in front of him. He begins typing, carefully pressing forehooves on the appropriate letters to compose the final report: "Report Issued By: Lieutenant Meadow Song, M.E.W.S. Tower CO, Ponyville Special Command - Currently Operating at Appleloosa Report Intended For: Captain of the Canterlot E.U.P. Guard Gibraltar NOTICE TO WHO IT MAY CONCERN: This report is being sent via the special transmission ability of Spike the Dragon, with the usage being approved by Twilight Sparkle, and is thus expected to initially be delivered to Her Majesty Princess Celestia - this is being done to faciliate the report's arrival to Canterlot as quickly as possible. This report is to be detached from the 'friendship letter' by Twilight Sparkle it is being sent with and delivered to Captain Gibraltar at the earliest possible opportunity by her current bodyguards. However, as I do not have the means of preventing Her Majesty from reading the report herself while utilizing this transmission method, receipt of an opened letter by the Captain should NOT be constituted as a breach of the chain of custody unless it can be proven a pony other than Her Majesty did indeed open the letter. We have completed all three objectives with varying degrees of success, although I fear that civilian cover was broken before the mission was completed. It does not seem to have affected the successful completion of Objective #1, however. We will not return with the Element Bearers from Appleloosa, but instead stay there longer to craft a more permanent treaty between the settlers and the buffalo tribe, and intend to bring a written copy back to Canterlot for Her Majesty Princess Celestia to endorse and archive. Contact was established with 'Quesadilla Polka' and an interview was conducted with him about rebel activity. Between this and further interviews with the buffalo tribe leader, Chief Thunderhooves, it has been conclusively established there is no rebel activity or instigation in the area of Appleloosa or the Wastes to the south of the settlement. It is recommended to focus further intelligence gathering to the road between Canterlot and Las Pegasus, as 'Quesadilla Polka' suggested the rebels primarily operate in that area. Sheriff Silverstar has requested aid be provided both to defray the expenses of defending the town and repairing the damages to it - this aid request is still being outlined and will be sent along with the draft treaty to Canterlot. I will give a second notice upon my squad's departure from Appleloosa so as to allow time for reassignments to be drawn up before the return to Ponyville. All is well with the squad and am in optimistic mood for further successes. End Report Transmission - Signed Off By: Lieutenant Meadow Song, Ponyville Special Command" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lieutenant Meadow Song looks up from his typing work to see his mate, Apple Fritter, smiling beside him. She chuckles and states to Meadow Song: "Twilight Sparkle's waiting for you, you know. You keep her waiting, it's like keeping Princess Celestia herself waiting." "Sorry, dear, let me just get this parchment tied up..." Meadow Song replies with a blush, carefully working the typed-up piece of parchment out of the typing "machine" and then using an awkward combination of hooves and snout to start rolling the parchment piece up into a scroll. While Meadow Song works, Apple Fritter continues talking: "So I decided to stay here instead of leaving with Applejack and her friends like I planned out. Those buffalo can't get enough of the pies, it seems, and I'm gonna have to figure out how not to run out of apples a different way than all the trees being knocked down!" "Might need to set up shipment contracts for supply with Sweet Apple Acres. Make sure you talk to Applejack about this - I'm sure between you two and Granny Smith, you can come up with something." Meadow Song answers, finishing rolling the parchment and holding it in place with one hoof as he sticks his snout into a saddlebag beside him and uses teeth to extract a ribbon to wrap the parchment with. "Right... wonder if Barnyard Bargains will open up here any time soon, that would really help with supplying the other ingredients for the pies..." Apple Fritter speculates, referring to the shopping chain founded by the Rich family and which was built on a business deal between the Apple and Rich families. "Not here, dear, don't think there's been enough time for the market to get established. Heard rumor that Dodge Junction might get one to cover the whole region around it, again that's something you'd want to ask Applejack about." Meadow Song answers through clentched teeth as he ties the ribbon around the parchment scroll. "Sure, keep that in mind. I'll take that if you ready, darlin'." Apple Fritter comments with a twittering sugar-sweet tone and a beaming smile that reminded Meadow Song of an aspect of the mare that charmed him in the first place. "Yeah, I'm ready. Did I mention yet today how proud I am to have you as my mate?" Meadow Song beams in return, letting his mate take the scroll. "Of course you have, sweetie pie." Apple Fritter answers, giving Meadow a kiss on the cheek before departing with the scroll. Meadow Song is briefly lost in his giddy joy before calming to a more satisfied happiness. Sure, there was more work to be done, but right now he deserved a little break from his duties... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A LITTLE LATER, IN CANTERLOT CASTLE... The wisp of magically transported green flame sailing through an open window into Princess Celestia's suite was a welcome and anticipated event for the princess of the sun. However, the alicorn was puzzled when two scrolls materialized out of the flame and dropped in front of her - curious, she uses her unicorn magic to open and unroll one of the scrolls, quickly realizing what was going on once she started reading the scroll she had chosen, which had the report Lieutenant Meadow Song intended for Captain Gibraltar written on it. "Oh, well they did put on a good show... Guard?" Princess Celestia comments, calling over a guard with the last word of her statement. "Yes, Your Highness?" a pegasus stallion that had been posted at the doorway to her suite answered, clattering over to beside Celestia as he does so. "Please take this to Captain Gibraltar straight away, he should be in his office. If not, leave it with Lieutenant Biro and he'll get it to the Captain." Celestia answers, holding up with unicorn magic the scroll she was talking about and leaving alone the other scroll with the "friendship letter" from Twilight Sparkle. "Right away, Your Highness." the guard stallion replies - his partner in the duty was still at his station, so Celestia would not be left unguarded while the guard ran the errand. He takes the scroll with a wing, then pulls the wing partly in as he turns to perform the errand requested of him. The pegasus stallion exits the suite and makes several turns down the castle corridors at high speed, but skids to a stop after hearing somepony call out behind him. He turns around and sees two unicorn stallions, one wearing a Lieutenant's star pinned onto his work "scrubs", pushing a cart in front of them loaded with cleaning supplies and equipment. "Where are you heading off to in such a hurry, Guard?" the unicorn stallion with the sewn-on Lieutenant star says to his pegasus counterpart. "Delivery to the Captain from Princess Celestia, sir!" the pegasus answers with a salute - the Lieutenant's star marks the unicorn as a superior officer despite the implication of the work "scrubs" otherwise. "We need to check in with the Captain ourselves now, I'll take that off your hooves and save both of us some trouble." the unicorn Lieutenant offers with a beckoning foreleg gesture. "You sure, sir?" the pegasus asks with a skeptical look. "Positive. I know you're guarding Celestia's suite, get back to that important assignment and we'll take it from here." the Lieutenant reassures, his comrade pushing the cart beside him adding a grin as an attempt to help out. "... Alright, sir..." the pegasus answers with continuing skepticism, holding out the previously-opened scroll until a sickly-green magic aura surrounds it - a sign of the unicorn Lieutenant's magic taking hold - and then letting go of his own grip on the scroll. Warily, he turns away as he sees the scroll hovering in mid-air, but he does not see anything move before rounding a corner to head back to his previous posting. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Phew. I didn't think he would fall for that, Lyacon." the Lieutenant says in a relieved whisper as he "reels in" the hovering scroll closer until it is at a position where he can read it. "Never mind, Troilus. Are you sure it's safe to be reading that?" Guard Upper Class Lyacon asks of Lieutenant Troilus beside him, both retaining a hushed tone for the rest of the conversation. "Nah, we're safe. Chain of custody was already broken by Celestia, can't get in trouble for it. See the note at the top?" Troilus points out. "... Alright, I see. Anything good in there?" Lyacon asks again after briefly scanning the scroll himself. "Hmmm... looks like the planted false lead about the rebel presence has been exposed - we're out of distraction options now." Troilus answers sadly. "Our timetable for secretly gathering support for the expedition will have to be sped up." "But how? We don't have any good opportunities to rally..." Lyacon begins to complain, but is silenced by a gesture from Troilus. "There are ways to get the support we need more quickly. I know a potential ally that will help us rally potential supporters more quickly, I just need an opportunity to meet with him." Troilus states assuringly as he lets the scroll roll back up, the parchment still being held in mid-air by the green magic glow. "Who, sir? Who are we talking about?" Lyacon naturally asks. "I'll explain when we're ready to meet him. Now, keep pushing, we'll drop this scroll off at the Captain's office and, with any luck, won't get in trouble for reading it." Troilus orders. "Yes, sir." Lyacon answers, resuming his previous pushing stance and helping his superior in conspiracy wheel the heavy cart down the hallways of Canterlot Castle, their next scheme already beginning to unfold in their minds...