//------------------------------// // House of Plans // Story: Stick N' Move // by HybridSoldier //------------------------------// The camp was huge. Like, seriously huge. Although it was built years ago, it somehow managed to look good as new. There were buildings across the clearing, and Hot Shot also saw some pegasi doing cloud cover. "This is your camp?" Hot Shot yelled. "Hey!" Flower Pot snapped at Hot Shot. "Don't be too loud, no one likes it when assholes yell about shit!" Hot Shot knew that there was no use in arguing, since Flower Pot would just bitch at him more if he snapped back. "Fine, fine, whatever." whispered Hot Shot. "What did you just say?" "She's really getting on my nerves!" Hot Shot thought. He already knew that she was sarcastic, but he didn't expect her to be this cranky. "This is the Meeting Place: once an armory for Nightmare Moon until the first raid twenty-eight years ago, and now the center of all activity in this organization. If someone wants to report their findings, or call a team meeting, or do anything related to our project, it has to be relayed through this place." Sun Burst explained. Hot Shot looked at the large building in front of him. It was a chrome dome, mostly covered with moss. Before he knew it, all three of them went in. Inside, there were about a million seats before Hot Shot, only being separated by a pathway leading to a wood podium. The dome's roof reached far, with the center being a mural of Celestia rasing the sun from her castle in Canterlot. "This is where we make announcements, plans, and speeches." Flower Pot explained. Then, Flower Pot levitated a device near her, and pushed the button. Almost instantly, the center of the mural, opened up, and a tube streched down from the center of the mural until it stopped on top of the three rebels. Then, it sucked them up and shuttled them out of the building into the roof. "And this is the observatory. It's where we can keep a look out for any enemies out there." Flower Pot said. "And that's all we have to show you." said Sun Burst. "Flower Pot, that's enough. The poor foal's gonna die if we don't get him home!" Flower Pot was ready to argue, but she knew what would happen if she kept trying to do the tour, so she kept quiet. "Fine, but we'll do the tour in the morning." she said. "No, because we don't have time to do this, since we'll have to do the raid right now, before Nightmare Moon fortifies the armory and we lose the chance to defend ourselves!" Sun Burst yelled urgently. Flower Pot sighed. "Fine." "Good. Now let the colt rest." said Sun Burst. "Please stop calling me a colt!" Hot Shot said. "Okay then, fine." seethed Flower Pot. All three rebels warped down from the observation all the way to the bottom of the dome, and then walked out. As they were walking out. Sun Burst suddenly stopped, and Flower Pot and Hot Shot followed suit. "Sorry, I have to leave. Need to check if there's anyone looking for us." Sun Burst said. "See you soon!" Flower Pot yelled as Sun Burst flew away. Once Sun Burst was gone. Flower Pot turned to Hot Shot. "Come on, we have to get to the apartments." Flower Pot said. "No way!" Hot Shot retorted. "I can sleep by myself!" Flower Pot was beginning to get irritated. "Look, either you sleep in the apartments or we can kick you out! Got that?" she yelled. "Okay, okay then." Hot Shot said. As for the apartments, they were a bunch of brick towers that were connected, making them look like a giant rectangle from above. "These are the apartments of the camp. They're where our members can sleep if they want to recharge their batteries." Flower Pot explained. They entered the apartments and trotted to a desk in the middle of the room. Behind the desk was a white mare with a white mane and tail. Her Cutie Mark was that of a pen and paper. Flower Pot tapped the surface of the desk. "Pen Mark?" The old mare looked up from the stack of paperwork and raised a finger in the air slowly. "Hey, it's you, Flower Pot! Always a feisty one." Pen Mark exclaimed. "Thanks, that's totally a good name!" Flower Pot said sarcastically. "And I see you haven't lost your....sense of sarcasm......" said a disappointed Pen Mark. Flower Pot simply rolled her eyes and said: "And this is the newbie, Hot Shot." As she said this, Pen Mark shifted her gaze towards Hot Shot as her face darkened. "Is he a spy?" Flower Pot stood in silence for a while. "Well? Is he or not?" Flower Pot and Hot Shot didn't move. "C'mon, dearie, just spit it out! I didn't get a medal for 'Best Interrogator' for nothing!" Then, Flower Pot finally belted it out. "He's not a spy. If he was, he wouldn't purposefully put himself in danger." "I don't know," said Pen Mark. "seen some guys who did just that, and they were spies. Just like that Hook Shot gu-" "Can you not?!" Flower Pot snapped. "I don't know why she reacts like this," said Pen Mark. "because it seems like she always flies into a rage every time I mention him. The only people she trusts her secret around is me, her friend, and her brother." Flower Pot took a deep breath and calmed down. "Are there any available rooms?" Flower Pot asked. Pen Mark levitated up a paper and looked at it. "Hmmmm..." "Come on!" Flower Pot growled. "I don't have all day!" "Well, there is a room upstairs, maybe you can go there!" "Finally!" exclaimed Flower Pot. "Let's go, Hot Shot!" Then, Flower Pot levitated Hot Shot up to his assigned room. ======================================================================= When Hot Shot entered the room, he then retched. An incredibly powerful smell was wafing through the room like a snake. "Ew!" Flower Pot said. "That's gross!" The room didn't look much better, either. A ratty bed was sitting in the center of dirty room. Mold dotted the floors and reached up into the walls. However, Flower Pot was certain that there was another smell in the room, and a certain pony emitted it. "HOT SHOT!" yelled Flower Pot. " You smell terrible! Take a shower, now!" "Fine..." said Hot Shot. When Hot Shot entered the bathroom, he scrunched his nose up. 'Ugh! What is this smell?' he thought. The smell was even stronger this time, and reminded Hot Shot of what happened the day before. The sink was rusted in some places, the toilet's water looked incredibly disgusting, and the shower had a lot of insects crawling all over it, and mold covered all three of them. "How is anyone supposed to wash when they could just get dirty again?" Hot Shot thought as he trotted into the shower and began to wash himself with his right hoof. "And I hope you're cleaning up everything!" yelled Flower Pot from the room. "I am!" yelled an annoyed Hot Shot. He couldn't wait until this shower was over with. ======================================================================= For many years, the Ponyville Armory has protected Ponyville from outside attackers by supplying the town's millita with guns, grenades, and other weapons the town felt could be useful towards the town's defenses. Case in point: tonight. Many ponies were guarding the armory, not letting anyone out of their sight for one minute, in case anyone tried to steal their weapons and start a rebellion. Then, one of the guards heard a sound from the bushes. Quickly, he turned around and alerted the guards. On cue, all of the guards levitated their guns. A black pegasus landed to his feet to greet the leader, who was a silver pony with a gold mane and tail, a cuite mark of a gun in front of a lightning bolt, and silver armor. "Welcome back, Night Jet." a guard said. "You too, good sir." Night Jet responded. "For a moment there, I thought you were the enemy!" the captian said. "No worries, Lightning Gun. Just checking up on you, seeing how you were doing." said Night Jet. "Of course." said Lightning Gun. Lightning Gun sighed, "Sometimes I wish for the day that the Organization finally starts accepting Nightmare Moon and bask in her moon forever." "Yeah, but have you considered what would happen when all the ponies die?" "What?" Night Jet cleared his throat. "As in, when all the ponies die from freezing to death?" Lightning Gun laughed, and then slapped his hoof on Night Jet's rump. "Come on boy, don't tell me that you have been listening to Solar Sun propaganda again!" "Hey, I was just saying what I wanted to say. Just 'Lightning' up!" Night Jet laughed along with Lightning Gun, although it was more at the terrible pun than anything. "Anyway, you should get to going. Before they suspect that you're gone, y'know?" Lightning Gun said. "Okay. Goodbye." Night Jet said. "Be careful out there, Night Jet." said Lightning Gun. Night Jet took off into the skies. ======================================================================= Hot Shot woke up. It was still the middle of the night, and Hot Shot felt thirsty. He climbed out of bed and...wait. Climbed out of bed? "That's strange," Hot Shot thought. "I don't remember having a bed that I have to climb out of. And where is Flower Pot? She was with me when I went to sleep." All of a sudden, three realizations came to Hot Shot. First of all, the room felt bigger, and it intimidated Hot Shot. Second of all, when he looked back, he saw that his bed was different. Almost like a crib of sorts. And third of all, the entire room was different. Every nook and cranny was diffrent and the room looked a lot cleaner than it was when he got to bed. There was a jack in the box on the floor, several teddy bears, also on the floor, and an alarm clock...which was also on the floor. Hot Shot began to unconsciously move out of the door and into an unfamilliar hallway. It was dark, and somehow, for a stallion-turned-colt who wasn't afraid of the dark anymore, scared him tremendously. Then, he began to hear screams, and then a voice angrily screaming. Hot Shot walked down the hallway, despite the fact that it was intimidating, for some reason, and opened a door at the end. Before Hot Shot's eyes was an sight that he would rather not see. A yellow mare with and orange mane and tail was crouched on the floor with blood all over her. She coughed up blood in intervals, all while she was crying. The cause of her distress was a green stallion in Nightmare Guard's armor with a red mane and tail. He kept screaming at her, and it was now clear to Hot Shot. "THREE YEARS! THREE YEARS THAT YOU KEPT IT FROM ME!" the stalliom yelled. "But Ovoid Moon!" the mare pleaded. "It wasn't meant to be! Honest!" "HOW IS A WHORE LIKE YOU 'HONEST'?" Ovoid Moon asked. "'Oh, but it was an accident', 'Oh, but I didn't mean to!' WHAT A LOAD OF BULLCRAP!" Hot Shot was beginning to not like this. Suddenly, Hot Shot spoke up, and he noticed that it sounded higher. "What are you doing to her?" Both ponies' gazes snapped towards the source of the voice. "Looks like we have a visitor!" exclaimed Ovoid Moon. "WHY DON'T I START WITH THE BASTARD, FIRST?" "Ovoid, don't!" pleaded the mare. "He's just a colt!" "A bastard colt!" yelled Ovoid Moon. "You shouldn't have screwed that asshole Jerk Shot!" "At least he was nicer than you!" yelled the mare. "Had you not ripped up the divorce papers, I would've been free of your womanizing ass! Why is it, when I screw someone other than you, you fly into a rage, but when you do it, it's JUST FI-" *SLAP!* Hot Shot stood in silence. He couldn't believe what happened. "Shut the fuck up, Lime Pie." All of a sudden, everything froze. As in, everything but Hot Shot. Suddenly, a familiar voice wafed into Hot Shot's head. "Wake up...." Hot Shot didn't know what was happening. "I said, wake up." Hot Shot looked around, but there was no one there. Then, a burst of light appeared in front of him and gave him a painful shock. Instead of the horrific scene, Hot Shot instead saw Flower Pot begining to bend up again from giving him a shock spell. "Come on, you've got to wake up, I'm calling a Team Meeting at the Meeting Place!" Hot Shot got up and found that the room was back to it's dingy self again and that he was at his normal height. "Sorry, I just had a nightmare." Hot Shot said, noticing that his voice was back to normal as well. "We have to go, now!" said an urgent Flower Pot, levitating Hot Shot. "What was that all about?" Hot Shot thought. ======================================================================= The camp was abuzz with activity, with ponies that were talking to each other, ponies sharing a kiss with one another, and ponies who were taking care of their foals. On cue, a bell was rung from the observatory. The pony responsible for the action came down, and yelled on a megaphone. "Everybody come to the Meeting Place!" yelled the bell-ringer. "Miss Flower Pot has called a meeting!" Then, all the ponies in the camp went into the Meeting Place, eager to hear what Flower Pot had to say about the current situation. As soon as the last pony sat down and the bell-ringer transported himself back into the floor, Flower Pot came on to the podium. "Everyone of the Solar Sun Organization!" Flower Pot announced. "Lend me your ears, as I have, at last, finally figured out our strategy for Operation: Slip!" Everypony cheered. "Calm down, calm down!" Flower Pot yelled. As soon as everypony was silent. Flower Pot began to speak again. "Okay, so, for months, I have sent a spy to check out the defenses on the armory, but judging by how he didn't come back, I can only assume that security has been tightened a lot from when we made our last observation a month ago. Of course, I still don't trust Sun Burst, since he said that there were no security when there definitely was some." Flower Pot glared at Sun Burst, and then continued. "So now, we have to send a party to check and see if there's some security. If there is, we wait until the right time. If there isn't, we raid the armory and send a few ponies to check and see if there's anypony from the milita, or, Star Swirl forbid, Nighmare Moon's personal tattletale." Flower Pot shuddered at the thought of him messing everything up. Hot Shot, who was in the crowd, whispered to a blue stallion with a black mane and tail. "Who's 'Nightmare Moon's tattletale?'" "His name's exactly that: Tattle Tale." the stallion said. "Many a raid has failed because of, or at least partially because of, him." "Wow, he sure sounds annoying." "Tell me about it." Then suddenly, they heard Flower Pot clearing her throat. "If you are done talking, Hot Shot and Blue Zap." Both stopped talking. "Good." Flower Pot said. "So, anyway, we need to send three ponies to entertain the guards and distract them, while a group of twelve ponies will go and split up into two groups of six. One group to do the actual raid, and another to guard the outside from Ponyville's millita. Understand?" A resounding "yes m'am" was heard all throught the dome. "Okay, so on Group A, the six ponies who will raid the armory will be lead by my brother: Ion Storm." Ion Storm, a silver stallion with a silver mane and tail and a bionic eye and left forehoof trotted from his seat to the podium and took the mic. "Thank you, for choosing me to lead the pack to victory!" exclaimed Ion Storm. "ARE YOU ALL READY TO RAID?" The dome was silent. "I'M NOT HEARING A 'YEAH'!" yelled Ion Storm, excitedly. This time, everyone cheered. "Alright!" exclaimed Ion Storm. "Now, Ion Storm, you need to choose who you want for your group!" said Flower Pot. "Yes, I know, that's what a group is." Flower Pot and Ion Storm both laughed. "Well, I choose Bright Scar, Home Slice, Zap Burst, Fly Colt, and Peppermint Cream!" Ion Storm yelled. As if it was on cue, all five aforementioned ponies stood up and trotted over to the podium. "And the leader of Team B is going to be Axel Rose. Congrats!" said Flower Pot. A grey stallion, with brown hair that was dyed blue with the cutie mark of a guitar, came forward. "Thank you, Flower Pot." Axel Rose said. "And the other five are going to be Blue Zap, Ice Cream, Lab Rat, Mike Phone, and Screws!" As the five other ponies went to the podium, Flower Pot began to announce Team C. "And Team C will be Bolts, Hop Rabbit, and Future Hourglass." Flower Pot, who almost sounded dissapointed, announced. As soon as all fifteen ponies were on the podium, Flower Pot then announced: "In case you were wondering if I'm going, no, I'm not. Trying to take the armory last time led to me and Ion Storm being gravely injured and Scabbard Apple and Windward Tail both dying, so I don't want to meet the same fate this time." "What about me?" Hot Shot asked. "You're not going." Flower Pot said. "I don't trust you enough to hold a battle on your own, let alone a raid." "Hey! I know I can hold a battle on my own, I just need my strength back!" Flower Pot leaped down and trotted over to Hot Shot as everypony stared at them. "'Strength'?" Flower Pot laughed in Hot Shot's face. "STRENGTH?" "Yes, strength." "HA! You, have strength?". Flower Pot laughed even harder. "Last time I checked, I found you in the outskirts of camp, cowering from a bear and screaming 'Help!', 'Help!', like a little filly!" This time, everyone roared in laughter. "I-I wasn't!" Hot Shot said, while he began to blush. Flower Pot leaned in Hot Shot's face. "Well, Hot Shit, to me, it seemed like you were!" Hot Shot felt embarresed by this and was about to gallop away, when he was stopped by Flower Pot's magic. "Okay then, I'll humor you." Flower Pot said. "You're on Team A." Then, Axel Rose trotted over to Flower Pot. "Hey, what about my team? It's not fair for Ion's team to get seven members, while mine gets six..." "Okay then, so I guess the seventh member of Team B will be Ginger Ale." "Ginger Ale?" a shocked Axel Rose asked. "But why, though? He's the worst pony in the entire Organization!" "Don't worry, Axel, I don't think Shot and Ginger can last a minute in an important misson!" Flower Pot whispered in Axel's ear. Axel nodded and trotted over to the podium along with Flower. "The team meeting is over." Flower Pot announced. Everyone began to leave, except for the eighteen ponies who were at the podium. "Okay then, so who's going first?" Ion Storm asked. "Team C, definitely." Flower Pot said. "We don't know what to do, though.." Hop Rabbit, a white pony with glasses and a red mane and tail, with a rabbit cutie mark. "We could masquerade as a bunch of fortune tellers. After all, it can put Future Hourglass' powers to use." Bolts9 suggested. "Okay then." said Axel Rose. "Everypony, move out!"