//------------------------------// // Preparing For The Battle // Story: Police Of Ponyville Episode 10: She's A Star // by Shadow Storm 44 //------------------------------// Shadow Storm grunted when his alarm clock went off on his nightstand beside his bed. Storm wasn't used to this type of alarm clock yet. He ended up destroying his last alarm clock by throwing it at the wall so hard it broke on impact. After Storm bought a new alarm clock he promised himself not to throw it at the wall ever again. That promise lasted a whole week. Being woken up from a beautiful dream by an annoying beeping sound early in the morning caused Storm’s patience to reach and ignore his common sense. This resulted in Storm grabbing his alarm clock and throwing it at the wall. To his surprise, it was still beeping. “Shit.” Storm grunted. Not only did he possibly make a hole in the wall with that throw, now Storm has to get out of bed and turn off the alarm clock rather than still be lying in bed. Storm throws off the covers and rolled out of bed. He walked to the corner of the room where he threw the clock. Storm picked it up and shut it off. He inspected both the clock and the wall. Neither seemed damaged from the throw. “Lucky me.” Storm said. “I guess old school technology is better than a new school.” After putting the alarm clock back where it belonged Storm went into the bathroom to get ready for the day ahead. Inside just before he got in the shower he turned his radio on to hear the latest music and news both the town and Equestria had to offer. Storm hardly listen to the music or the news he just had it around for noise. If something had come up that piqued his interest he would be all ears. “Good morning, Ponyville, this is your host DJ Lead. Today is the day. It’s the first day of the summer festival.” “Summer festival?” Storm said to himself. “Was that today?” “I know everyone in town and beyond is just as hyped as I am. All the big names are going to be here. Terror Shot, 42 Slash, Center C, and the top music group that’s been breaking records ever since they were formed Emoraled kiss.” It was today. Today was the day of the music festival being held in Ponyville. A four-day-long festival that’s going to be caped off with a big music performance by Equestrias top music performers. Storm remembered Chief Night said something about this one day. She said that Ponyville will be hosting a music festival and it was going to be a nightmare for everyone. “Today is the first day of the festival which means that all of the artists will be arriving this afternoon. Which means today’s main destination will be The Ponyville Train Station.” Storm turned the water off, got out of the shower, and dried himself off. He also turned off the radio. “Oh boy,” Storm said. “The next two days are going to be fun. Real fun.” X On his way to the Station, the town looked way different. Decorations were placed everywhere, Steel barriers were placed in front of the entrance to neighborhoods and apartment buildings to make sure no unwanted guests would enter. Storm also noticed that there were no clouds in or near the town. Once again Mayor Sky has ignored the town's weather schedule for his own personal reasons. Now the town is two weeks behind their weather schedule and needs to be made up some kind of way before the start of Fall. Finally, arriving at the station the lobby was packed. The room was filled with ponies he didn’t recognize. Passing by Storm noticed that most of them were shop owners and were worried that they would be robbed since the shopping district didn’t have any barriers. In the meeting room where it was pretty empty, it was full. Just like the lobby the room was filled with unfamiliar faces everywhere. In the back, Storm noticed Phantom along with everyone else sitting with him in the back. “Who are these guys?” Storm asked standing beside the table. “I don’t recognize any of them.” “That because they aren’t from town,” Clover said. “Some are from Hayfield and others are from Cloudsdale. They're here to help us with the festival. That’s what I heard Chief said yesterday. Is it really going to be that bad?” “Probably,” Star said. “Getting out of my building was annoying. I had to go out the back door because the front was covered with bars and the doors were locked.” “Is the festival really going to be that bad?” Phantom asked. “Don’t think it’s going to be that bad. But, I think they don’t want a repeat of what happened last time.” Storm reminded. “What happened last time,” Phantom asked. “Long before any of you started to work here. The town had a get together for New Years.” Storm said. “Fireworks, Roasted Corn, Live music.” “That doesn't sound too terrible,” Phantom said. “What happened?” “Unfortunately.” Storm resumed. “Things go wrong. Fireworks went off when they were 10 yards in the air, Buildings caught on fire, the corn was burned, and we couldn’t see anything because of the smoke. Not a single Star.” “Speaking of Star,” Clover said looking at Star. “Where’s Starlight? I haven’t seen her for a few days.” Star sighed. “Since this festival is being hosted here and it’s for five days, she decided it would be best for her to stay with her parents until this whole thing blows over.” “Do they…” “No,” Star said. “They don’t know that she’s pregnant.” “What about your parents?” Comet asked. “Do they know.” “Nope.” “Who does know?” Phantom asked joining the interrogation. “They know about Starling, but not her being pregnant.” “Dude.” Storm said. “Are you serious? “Look, I’m just waiting for the right time to tell them.” “When will that be?” Comet asked. “The day the baby is due.” “That’s assuming if your mother doesn't kill you,” Phantom said. “The female gender doesn’t like to be the last to know about their grandchildren.” “Alright,” Night voice echoed throughout the room. Beside her were two ponies. One is a pegasus the other is a unicorn. “Everyone knows what’s happening today. If you don’t, it’s the first day of the five-day festival here in town. Many of you know that we are going to have quite a crowd for a town our size for the next four days. So the mayor asked for help from Hayfield and Cloudsdale.” Once again, Night pulled down the map of the town. “Till the festival is over we will have a few laws in place. One of them will be a flight restriction around the town mainly near the V.I.P.s hotel. The station will be Homebase. Basically, this will be a command post for all of us.” “How are we going to patrol the town?” Comet asked. “Even if we have help from two other departments how is that going to work without us getting in each other's way?” “I was getting to that,” Night said. “On to the groups, there will be three in general. Group one will be commanded by Heavycloud, a Lieutenant from Cloudsdale. His group will be the air unit. Your job will be to watch the sky’s and be a spotter if there is something the ground units can’t see.” “That right,” Heavy Cloud said. “Our job is overwatch. There will be some occasions where we will have to help the other units.” “Next, is the crowd control units.” The sliver unicorn said. “My name is Silver Flash. I’m a Sergent from Hayfield. The crowd control unit will be keeping the peace. Guarding the V.I.P.s, clearing out the crowd, stopping fights in the areas, and guarding areas when needed.” “Finally, I’ll be in control of the last unit.” Night said. “I will be the commander of the patrol unit. Everyone knows what that is so no need to explain. Everyone understand?” “YES, MA'AM.” Everyone shouted. “Good,” Night nodded. “Now onto your groups.” Night pulled out a clipboard. “When your name is called stand up.” X Miles away from Ponyville a city train zoomed down the tracks far faster than any train that has come through these tracks for a long time. Inside the train, a gray mare stared out the wind watching trees and rock pass by faster then she could get a look at them. Almost as if it was running instead of standing still. “Ponyville,” She said. “The festival is going to be held there?” A pink mare put down the magazine she was reading. “You sound disappointed Silver Flash. I thought you wanted this festival to happen.” “I am happy,” Silver Flash assured. “I just thought that the festival was going to be in a major city. Not a small town.” “Midsize,” A light blue mare corrected. “It’s a midsize town, not a small town.” “Thanks, mom.” Silver Flash said. “You always know what to say.” Rose tossed her magazine. “I’m glad we're not performing in a city this time. It's nice to get some fresh air and not have a ton of traffic everywhere we go.” “Well, I grew up in a small town,” Silver Flash remarked. “Let me tell you, there is nothing to do.” “Nothing?” Snowflake asked. “Nothing,” Silver Flash replied. “Besides getting beer and the parties in the summer. We had nothing to do. You worked and went home that’s it.” “Girls,” A voice called out. “We are almost at our stop.” “Hey, Copper,” Rose said. Copper is the manager of Platem Kiss. He didn’t find the group by any means but he did get them pretty good gags. “Hey, Copper.” Silver Flash said. “Why is the festival going to be in this town and not in a city?” “Is was changed last second,” Copper said rolling his eyes. “It was supposed to be in a city called Rockview. But, something happened and instead of canceling the whole thing the mayor of the town insisted that we have it here.” “Wow,” Rose said, “The town was willing to host a festival for us?” “I know it's pretty odd. Anyways once we arrived at the station will head towards the hotel and prepare for tomorrow.” Copper said. “A four-day Festival filled with the biggest artists of all time in a small town. This could be either a great thing or a total disaster.” Snowflake sighed. "All we can do now is wait."