"Owwww, my hair's getting tangled!"
That was the annoying voice of Tattle Tale, a baby blue earth pony colt with a yellow mane and no cutie mark, in the midst of getting his mane combed and cut in the barber shop in Ponyville.
"You know what the great minds of the Lunar Empire say: 'no pain, no gain!'" the barber, who had to put up with Tattle Tale's whining for the past fifteen cheese-knife cuts, assured.
"But it huuuurrts!" complained Tattle Tale.
The barber was starting to get annoyed, now, but he kept his cool.
"Now, look son." said the barber, turning on the eye screen in front of the foal.
The screen turned on to show a pony holding a puppet and having it talk to whoever was watching it. The barber knew that Tattle Tale loved that show, and loved the show he did, as he shut up and allowed the barber to cut his mane in peace.
Then, Tattle Tale spotted something near the nearby armory.
It was three ponies, talking to the guards.
Then, they looked at him.
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**Fifteen Cheese-Knife Cuts earlier**
In the woods, seventeen ponies were trotting along a path, the path to Ponyville.
"How long are we gonna go?" asked Mike Phone, a red earth pony stallion with black hair and a microphone cutie mark. His lucky horseshoes, which he assumed were going to protect him and give him greater bucking power, were pratically killing him.
"Just a while longer, Mike Phone." said Axel Rose, a pegasus who was trotting along the trail with everybody else.
"Okay, so...what do we do?" asked Future Hourglass, a red unicorn mare with a pink mane and tail. Her cutie mark was that of an hourglass.
"I propose we disguise ourselves as travelling fortune tellers!" suggested Lab Rat, a brown earth pony stallion with a black mane and tail with a cutie mark of a lab flask.
"Ourselves?" asked a gobsmaked Hot Shot. "You're not even on their team."
"Way to speak for us, Hot Shit!" exclaimed Hop Rabbit.
"What about a travelling circus?" Snips XV suggested.
"I don't know, fortune telling is in my blood, so we can't just throw that idea away!" said Future Hourglass.
"Why can't we combine the two?" Ion Storm suggested. "That way, we can use the best of both ponies' abillities!"
"Sounds like a great idea!" Hop Rabbit said.
"Okay, Team C, you know what to do." said Ion Storm.
"Okay, team, let's go!" exclaimed the unofficial leader of Team C, Hop Rabbit.
Then, the three ponies trotted off.
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**Fourteen Knife-Cheese Cuts later**
"And I say, 'what a hoot, and laugh. But then he says 'That mare last night was a KILLER!', like he thinks that she's a murderer, but she's not! What a hoof-stomper!" a guard joked to another guard.
Then, the guards took notice of three ponies approaching them.
"Hey, who are they?" the guard asked.
" I don't know, but they don't seem like citizens of Ponyville." yet another guard responded.
"Hello, we're a travelling circus, and we are here to entertain!" Hop Rabbit said.
"Wait, I thought I was the carney, you were the juggler, and Hourglass was the fortune-teller?" Snips XV said.
Then, Future Hourglass saw something, something that could potentially jeopardize the mission.
It was Tattle Tale, getting his mane cut by the local barber.
"Hey, Snips, Rabbit." Future Hourglass said. "Check this out."
At Hourglass' cue, they looked at the shop and saw the same exact sight.
Only, now, Tattle Tale was looking at them.
"Oh, goddammit, not him." Hop Rabbit groaned.
'Ignore that!" Snips XV said. "Just focus on what we're doing right now!"
The three ponies then shifted their focus back to the guards.
"Got a little sidetracked there." Snips XV apologized.
"It's okay. Mistakes happen." said a guard.
"Okay then." Hop Rabbit reached into his bag and pulled out an entire tent.
"Damn, that's impressive." a soldier said.
"Step right up folks, as it's the Travelling Circus from Vanhoover!" Snips XV yelled as he got the attention of everypony in the vicinity.
"We've got a juggler who can make a really mean quesadilla, a fortune teller who has actual foresight, and me, the carney who has a real-life lion!"
Snips XV then pulled a tarp off to reveal an actual lion. Everypony who was there was impressed, and many ponies flocked to it.
Meanwhile, in the barber shop, Tattle Tale was watching the eye-screen when he noticed that a circus was going on. Since his show was about to end anyway and he had already gotten his haircut, he asked the barber if he can go.
"Barber Snip, can I leave, please?" asked Tattle Tale.
"Yes, son, you can." Barber Snip said.
Tattle Tale cheered as he went to the circus. Little did the unsuspecting guards and Tattle Tale know that the armory wasn't exactly safe right now...
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"The guards are distracted. I repeat, the guards are distracted." Snails XV said through Ion Storm's ear-com.
"Good. Now we begin." said Ion Storm.
Then, Ion Storm turned to the other fourteen ponies.
"Move out!" Ion Storm commanded.
Seven of the ponies galloped over to the back of the armory.
Then, Lab Rat went over and stepped on Peppermint Cream's back and pulled out a flask and splashed it on the wall, being careful enough to not let any stray splashes of acid hit him, Peppermint Cream, and the others.
Then, the wall melted and showed the inside of the armory, which was full of boxes.
"Spread out!" Axel Rose commanded, and his team did just that, spread out all over the outside of the armory.
As soon as the other team seperated with Ion Storm's team, the latter team went inside the armory through the hole that they made.
Inside the building were tons of boxes, containing guns, grenades, parts for a plane, and more guns.
"Everypony, spread out and take as much boxes as you can, since they might be useful for future missons." Ion Storm commanded.
Then, everypony did just that. All except one: Hot Shot.
Hot Shot started to try to smash the boxes with his hoof, and succeded, but before he could smash some more, Ion Storm stopped him by levitating a box up into the air.
"Remember, smashing boxes may help you take the guns, but it's much better to just take them, instead, because it will make it much easier to do."
"Hey, just trying to show my strength!" Hot Shot said.
Ion Storm sighed.
"Come on, I'll show you a better way."
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In the camp, Flower Pot was pacing around the outside of the dome.
"Flower Pot," said Sun Burst. "you've been pacing ever since they left! What's wrong?"
"Oh, I don't know, maybe because I know that Hot Shit is just going to drag the team down?"
"Okay, that's harsh."
"Well, that's because it's fact!" Flower Pot said.
"Yeah, but this doesn't mean you can't have a sense of confidence in Hot Shot."
"I can't because his personality is toxic!"
"You should still have confidence in him."
"Yeah, but..." Flower Pot was at a loss for words. On one hoof, she felt that Hot Shot might jeopardize the mission. On the other, it's possible that Hot Shot might not do damage at all, and that they might win.
However, Flower Pot quickly hardened her heart again.
"I shouldn't, Sun Burst, because I know him, and I know that his self-centerness and bravado could get in our way!" Flower Pot argued.
"You don't know him, Flower Pot." Sun Burst argued back. "You've only known him for a day, and you're not going to find out more about him by just knowing him for a day.
Flower Pot stopped and the thought of trusting in him entered her mind once more.
What if Hot Shot was more than meets the eye? What if he, behind his "cool" and "badass" exterior, he's actually a pony who's past had been hard for him. After all, she did meet him in the forest, and he looked almost ragged.
'But then again' Flower Pot began to think again. She had met many ponies who had acted just like Hot Shot. Those kinds of ponies greatly annoyed her when she was just a foal, especially Wind Breeze, who was a rather.....intresting stallion.
Flower Pot was confused. She didn't know if to trust him or not. Hot Shot was, well, a hot shot, but it seemed that he had another side to him.
"Flower Pot, you there?"
Flower Pot turned around. There was Sun Burst, standing right behind her.
"Sorry, I didn't know that you were waiting for me." Flower Pot answered.
"So, are you going to trust him?" Sun Burst asked again.
"No, he's obnoxious and loud, and after what he said to me in the forest, he might as well drag the team down." Flower Pot answered.
Then, Sun Burst looked at the slice of cheese.
"Sorry, have to leave. Be back before you know it!" Sun Burst said.
Then, he flew away.
Flower Pot watched, and then went back to impaitently pacing.
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Meanwhile, in the Ponyville Armory, Ion Storm's team was beginning to bring the boxes into the forest as Hot Shot, Peppermint Cream, and Zap Burst, an electric blue pony with a yellow mane and a cutie mark of a lightning bolt, were gathering the rest of the boxes.
"Okay, why do we have to carry the boxes, though?" Hot Shot asked.
"So we can easily take the boxes that the objects are in rather than break them, duh!" Zap Burst, who didn't want to let Hot Shot go about the subject, said as he levitated some boxes.
"Besides, carrying the weapons individually would mean that the mission would go a lot longer if that would happen." Peppermint Cream explained.
"Yeah, but having boxes on your back shouldn't be the right way to go!" Hot Shot yelled.
"Ssssssh! There's still guards in the tent! They may be distracted, but they can notice if someone makes a sound!" Zap Burst whispered.
"I regret nothing!" Hot Shot rebutted.
"I know." Zap Burst replied. "That's exactly why I'm pushing your buttons."
'What is he thinking?' Hot Shot thought. 'Is he trying to make an enemy out of me? Me, the greatest pony on earth? Me, a pony who has been a master theif since he was a child? Me, who was admitted to the Solar Sun Organization? '
"Now come on and help me out with those boxes. You deserve to be knocked down a peg, and this is to help you get started." Zap Burst said.
Hot Shot scrowled as he went under the floating boxes, thinking that Zap Burst was going to gently set the boxes down.
However, Zap Burst dropped the boxes down hard, and it delivered a metric fuckton of pain to Hot Shot.
"Ow!" Hot Shot yelled. "Fuck, that hurt."
"Zap Burst!" Peppermint Cream yelled. "Why'd you have to do that?"
"Just because."
"Look." Pepermint Cream scolded. "Just because you hate Hot Shot doesn't mean you should be dickish about it!"
"Come on," Zap Burst pleaded. "it was all in good fun.
"But we should all get along!" Peppermint Cream said.
Hot Shot shot a smug look at Zap Burst. In response, Peppermint Cream shot him a look of annoyance, and muttered under his breath:
"Even if they annoy us a lot."
Hot Shot's look faltered upon hearing that.
'Aw, fuck.' Hot Shot thought.
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It was fun being a spy.
Night Jet was crusing along the night sky as he was flying back to the Castle of the Two Sisters.
He felt as free as a bird, for it was his dream to make it into the Nightbolts, which were the Wonderbolts' succesors, taking on the night skies as much as their ancestors did. He felt free to cruise along the night sky, feeling the breeze of the wind in his face as he spread his wings and flew away.
But then, Night Jet spotted something.
It was a large tarp, not unlike those circus tents that were commonplace around the summer.
'But in the start of winter, of all things?' Night Jet thought. Usually, the circus would show up during the summer, when the impressionable little foals would have school off. Sure, there was winter break, but circuses usually wern't scheduled for that time.
'I have to just check it out for myself.' Night Jet decided. Then, he swooped down to where the circus is.
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The trio of Rabbit Hop, Future Hourglass, and Snips XV were beginning to lose steam.
Everyone who wasn't a guard or Tattle Tale were leaving in droves, conveniently avoiding the armory, as the trio were trying their best to keep the guards' and Tattle Tale's attentions up.
Rabbit Hop, who was juggling balls, said: "Geez, I'm becoming tired. What about you, Snips?"
"Well, I am. And you, Hourglass?"
"I hate to say this, but my predictions are pretty...lacking, to say the least."
"Okay then, so what do we do to keep their interests up?" Snips XV asked.
"I think we should-" but Rabbit Hop didn't say any more, though, as he heard hooves touch the ground outside of the tent.
Then, a voice broke out.
"Lightning Gun, if you're in there, then come on out!" the voice yelled. "We have visitors, and they're not the kind that you'd be all 'buddy-buddy' with, either!"
Then, another voice broke out from outside the tent.
"Knock 'em down!"
Then, everyone in the tent heard sounds of struggle, and Lightning Gun had enough.
"Troops, go get your guns!"
"We can't." a guard said. "We left our guns in the armory."
"And?" an impatient Lightning Gun asked.
"I have a feeling that someone is raiding the armory."
"Oh no, not again." Lightning Gun sighed, having become tired of the Solar Sun Organization attempting to "liberate" Ponyville.
'Why are they still hung up over Celestia?' Lightning Gun thought to himself. 'Celestia was banished to the sun about a thousand years ago, if memory serves correctly, so they should've forgotten about her! Why are they still persistent? Why?'
Then, Lightning Gun gave them a signal, which was simply pointing a hoof onwards, and he trotted out of the tent, and the rest of the guards followed.
"Damn it, I knew that it was going to all fall apart." Future Hourglass sighed.
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**Five Cheese-Knife Cuts earlier**
"Hey, Hot Shit," Zap Burst said. "You don't hold the box on your back."
Hot Shot dropped the boxes, confused.
"You hold them with your teeth!" Zap Burst yelled, trying to hold back laughter.
Hot Shot bent down, then clamped his teeth on the dropped box.
Zap Burst burst out in laughter.
Hot Shot, finally figuring out why Zap Burst had told him that unhelpful tidbit of advice, dropped the box in anger.
"Dammit, Zap Burst, you just made me make a fool of myself!" Hot Shot yelled.
"Did you seriously not understand that I was joking when I said that? I even said Hot Shit, and yet you never noticed. For someone who claims to be 'cool' and 'badass', you sure are easily fooled." Zap Burst said.
"OH REALLY?" Hot Shot yelled, as he dragged his hooves on the ground, ready to buck the pony into oblivion. In response, Zap Burst concetrated his magic signature into his horn, about to zap Hot Shot out of existence.
Then, Peppermint Cream went in front of them.
"Stop!"
At the command, Zap Burst stopped concetrating his magic and looked at Peppermint Cream. But Hot Shot was still readying his buck.
"You too, Hot Shot." Peppermint Cream said.
Grumbling in annoyance, Hot Shot stopped almost imediately.
"We're not going to get anywhere if you two keep arguing this point!" Peppermint Cream scolded.
"Hey, he started it." Hot Shot said, pointing a hoof at Zap Burst.
"But you were the dumbass who took the bait, so technically, you started it." Zap Burst responded, also pointing a hoof at Hot Shot.
"Are we going to play the blame game, now?" a fed up Peppermint Cream asked. "If we are, then fine."
Peppermint Cream pointed a hoof at Zap Burst.
"You shouldn't have told that to Hot Shot if you knew that he was going to respond like this."
Hot Shot pumped a hoof in the air. He had been vindicated.
However, Fate wasn't going to let Hot Shot off the hook yet, as Peppermint Cream pointed a hoof at him.
"And you shouldn't have taken Zap Burst's "advice" at face value if you knew that was a joke!"
"But-" Zap Burst and Hot Shot both tried to say, but they were cut off by Peppermint Cream.
"You're both at fault, here!"
For about a minute, there was silence.
Then, Peppermint Cream saw something past Hot Shot's head.
It was a black pegasus, coming down and basking in the night sky, judging by how his black mane was shimmering.
Then, he looked at them, and began to look absolutely terrified.
Then, the black pegasus yelled into Team C's tent.
"Lightning Gun, if you're in there, then come on out! We have visitors, and they're not the kind that you'd be all 'buddy-buddy' with, either!"
All three ponies began to panic. They've been found out, and now they might be imprisoned and executed in front of an audience in Canterlot. Not only that, but Flower Pot had the same fierce glares as her father and founder of the organization: Bell Apple, who looked down on anypony who failed and harshly told them off.
Then, Hot Shot did the unthinkable.
He turned around and bolted out of the armory, and then yelled.
"Knock 'em down!"
Before the black pony can react, Hot Shot jumped on him and the two ponies began to roll around in the grass like foals, trying to punch each other, but they were both failing to land a punch.
"This is sadder than sad." Zap Burst lamented.
"Yeah, I know." Peppermint Cream said.
"Talk about it." another voice said. It was a yellow unicorn stallion with a blue mane and tail. He had a cutie mark of a blue lightning bolt. This was Blue Zap: Zap Burst's older brother, four years his elder.
Then, a considerable amount of guards came out.
'Oh crap, we're busted.' Axel Rose, who was watching the event, thought.
Then, Lightning Gun gave them a signal.
"Attack!"
The clearing broke into chaos in an instant. Ponies were rushing out and were combating the guards. Since the guards were without their guns, they had to fight the old-fashioned way: by bucking and headbumping.
"Why did it have to be this way?" Zap Burst asked to himself. "If I would've known that Hot Shot was going to be here, I would've stayed back at the camp."
"I don't know, but I need some help with a guard here!" Peppermint Cream, who was dealing with a pony who had tackled him, answered.
Not wanting to anger the normally nice Peppermint Cream further, he went to help him.
As for Hot Shot, he was still locked in combat with the black pony, although the nature of the fight had shifted quite a bit, as the two stallion's punches began to connect a bit, even if it still looked sad compared to the rest of the battle.
"Come on, everypony, attack!"
Ion Storm's voice rang across the clearing as the ponies, who had just come back from bringing the crates back to the camp, ran over to the scene of the battle.
"Finally, you're here!" Ginger Ale, who was struggling with a guard, exclaimed.
"Where's Nightmare Moon when you need her?" Tattle Tale asked as he galloped away, probably to warn the queen of the night.
The three members of Team C also slipped away, although that was to go back to the camp to provide a status report to Flower Pot.
Blue Zap was bucking ponies left and right, not making sure any of them got up. However, he was too distracted to notice that a guard had snuck up on him, and before Blue Zap knew it, the guard had tackled him.
"Not so invincible now, is it, you sunspot?"
Blue Zap tried to break free, but the guard clamped his teeth on his horn, threatening to bite it off.
"Help me, brother!" Blue Zap yelled.
Near what was happening, Zap Burst was already taking care of another guard who had tried the same thing on him, until he saw Blue Zap.
Now, Blue Zap and Zap Burst wern't the best of brothers. Not by a long shot. Zap Burst hated how Blue Zap was such a killjoy, while Blue Zap hated it when Zap Burst picked on whoever he can get the biggest reaction out of.
But, even through their differences, they were still brothers, and they still looked out for eachother.
And that included right now, for instance.
Zap Burst came over to the guard, aimed his horn at the guard. When he looked over to Zap Burst, he became so terrified that he lost his grip on Blue Zap's horn, giving Blue Zap an opening to concetrate his magic on the guard, instantly killing him.
"Great job, Zap Burst!" Blue Zap said.
"You're welcome, brother!" Zap Burst said back.
Then, the guns were picked up by the ponies who had them, those being Ion Storm, Bright Scar, and Home Slice, who shot the guards mercilessly, effectively mowing down any guard who wasn't attached to a pony right now.
"What do we do, Lightning Gun?" a guard asked. "Many of us are dropping like flies!"
"Come on, stallions, we can't let those sun-loving ponies win!" Lightning Gun barked to his troops as he was wrestling with Fly Colt.
The remaning troops, which were either retreating, or were still wrestling with the ponies of the rebellion, perked their ears up to hear that command. Then, they began to get ruthless.
They began to hit a lot harder, risked their brains to headbump them as hard as they could, and began to have no qualms about killing ponies.
Night Jet himself began to get a lot more ruthless on Hot Shot, and his punches began to do some damage on him.
"Why won't you just accept Nightmare Moon?" Night Jet spat.
"How should I know about Nightmare Moon? I was a thief for most of my life!" Hot Shot yelled.
"A thief? Like who, the most famous theif from Southern Equestria?"
"How were you supposed to know that?" Hot Shot asked.
"Word travels fast in the great Lunar Empire." Night Jet answered.
After hearing that statement, Hot Shot began to hit a bit harder.
Meanwhile, Peppermint Cream and Lab Rat were back to back, bucking every guard who tried to rush them, until the last two guards who rushed them were shot by Ion Storm's machine gun.
Meanwhile, Fly Colt was cornered by a guard, who was about to headbump him. However, he was shot in the head by Axel Rose.
"Thanks." Fly Colt said.
"I don't need a thanks, I just saved you!" Axel Rose answered.
Then Home Slice, who was bucking a pony off of Zap Burst, saw several more ponies were on the horizon.
Lead by Tattle Tale, they were Nightmare Moon's elite millita, with Nightmare Moon herself in the center.
"There they are!" Tattle Tale yelled.
"Oh no, it's Nightmare Moon's guards!" Fly Colt yelled. "Pull back!"
"Okay!" Ion Storm yelled.
"Retreat!"
Then, they all retreated and went back to where they came.
"Chase them into the forest!" Nightmare Moon yelled to her troops. "Make sure that their sun-loving faces never show up again!"
The elite millita, with no choice, galloped aftet the retreating army.
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Nightmare Moon surveyed the damage and missing and surviving contents of the armory.
It seemed that whoever raided the warehouse did so by melting a part of the wall off, as the "smear" on the wall indicated.
Then, there were the contents.
Only a few guns and a few parts of a prototype plane survived the raid. Nightmare Moon couldn't help but grimace. Among the contents that were lost was an incredibly important patent saying that a type of gun called the "CC Gun" was being upgraded into a much better version: "CC Gun Mark II", as the patent dubbed it.
Then there were important millitary-related decrees that were also lost, along with a huge chunk of gun prototypes.
Nightmare Moon stonped her foot down.
"Everypony, I want this wall fixed by next week!"
"Yes, our Majesty!" the guards yelled.
"You are all dissmissed for now."
Then. Nightmare Moon flew away in her chariot.
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All fourteen ponies trotted home after meeting back up. The millita had chased them, yes, but they eventually got lost due to the extreme manuvering skills of the ponies.
"Everything was going swimmingly, until you began to ruin everything!" Zap Burst yelled at Hot Shot
"Are you being serious right now?" Hot Shot asked.
"I am, and don't deny it!" Zap Burst yelled.
"My god, you're actually worse than Flower Pot!" Hot Shot exclaimed.
What Hot Shot didn't realize, however was that Flower Pot was right in front of him.
"Worse than who?" Flower Pot asked.
"Oh no..."
"She's gonna beat you uuuup." Zap Burst said.
"Zap Burst, shut up." Peppermint Cream said, clearly tired of all this.
"What do you have to say for this?" asked an irate Flower Pot.
Hot Shot could only think of one thing to say:
"I regret nothing!"