//------------------------------// // (Non-canon) Chapter 7 // Story: Moving Day // by Timothy48 //------------------------------// Chapter 7 Cut Content “A group of no more than three ponies, two would probably be better, but three is the max that should go. We’ll first have to make it look like we’re pulling back, or at the least make the guardsponies look less threatening, I can’t imagine seeing hundreds of guardsponies trotting around its home is very reassuring at the moment.” “No, I doubt that it is,” replied Blueblood absently, the majority of his concentration currently being occupied by the piece of parchment in front of him as he wrote down his thoughts, along with Lyra’s recommendations. Glancing up at Lyra, he gave a nod to continue. Seeing his nod, Lyra said, “Well anyways, once we’ve reduced the perceived threat by the guardsponies, we send two or three hoof picked ponies in with visible and non-threatening gifts, such as food or some flowers maybe.” “Anything else?” “Well obviously the ponies going in have to be friendly looking, so it might be a good idea to have someone who is non-threatening in appearance, and mannerisms, be the first to approach. But at the same time we need somepony who is familiar with humans, and can take care of themselves in case things get out of hoof.” “And I suppose you have the perfect candidate in mind?” asked Blueblood dryly. “I might know a pony or two who could be convinced to help out,” replied Lyra, an innocent expression on her face. Blueblood wasn’t fooled in the least, and said as much, “Ms. Heartstrings, while I’m sure you are...excited at the idea of making proper first contact, I must protest that the situation as it currently stands, poses too much of a risk to allow you to go.” Lyra’s innocent expression immediately morphed into a sad pout, and cranking up the doe eyes to eleven, she replied in a tone of voice that was just short of a whine, “But, Your Grace! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and plus, I’m the only pony here who has any kind of experience regarding humans! ” “Yes, book experience, but no practical experience when it comes to interacting with humans. Besides the situation is unstable enough as it is without sending in untrained ponies to deal with a potentially dangerous being.” “But-” Blueblood’s hoof slammed into the table, cutting off Lyra’s reply, and in a calm voice that brooked no argument, Blueblood finished, “No, means no, Ms. Heartstrings, I refuse to risk you or any other civilian pony’s safety, especially when we don’t know what this human is fully capable of, and what we do know is second hoof information that is potentially thousands of years out of date. So as it stands, I cannot condone making first contact with a human who is already presumed us to be hostile because of the massive cock-up that was yesterday. “ “But, you promised that I would have unlimited access, and that I would have a major say in what happens to it!” yelled Lyra, as she slammed her forehooves down on the table in front of her angrily. As if to match her, Blueblood likewise jumped up from his seat, knocking it over in the process, and slammed his hooves down on the table, and leaning forward so that he was nearly muzzle to muzzle with the angry mare and yelled back, “Yes, you will be granted those things, but only after we’ve established that the human isn’t a threat! Moreover, you are our only source of information on humans, and as such, I refuse to take the risk of potentially losing you, and the knowledge that you possess, trying to talk to the human, when it would be better to have somepony else do it!” Breathing heavily from his outburst, Blueblood, gave himself a small, but visible shake, as he recollected himself and slowly sat back down, his every moment overly controlled. Taking a deep breath, and running a hoof through his mane, he quietly said, “My apologies for my outburst Ms. Heartstrings, it was uncalled for. I’m afraid that the past few days have taken their toll on me.” Lyra, still standing with her forehooves on the table, and a hurt look on her face, shakily sat back down, her ears pressed flat against her head. After several awkward and tense moments, she gave a single sniff, and said, “Apology accepted,” and looking up continued, “and I’d like to apologize too, I guess I got carried away there for a little bit.” Blueblood felt his ears fall flat and winced slightly, “Regardless, Ms. Heartstrings, my actions were not justified, and I could have handled that...confrontation much better than I did. In any case, it’s no use crying over spilt milk at this point. Princess Celestia will be raising the sun soon, and now is our best chance to figure out what we’re going to do while we still have some options.” Lyra blinked in confusion, “What do you mean?” “While I would love nothing more than to have you go and talk to the human, I doubt that we can, given the situation, safely do so. Therefore, it might be necessary to conduct a more...straightforward method.” “You mean attack it,” was Lyra’s blunt response. Ranger Ash Fall decided to come to his friends aid at that point, and interjected saying, “Not necessarily, it might be best to subdue the human now in a non-violent way, perhaps the use of a sleep spell, after which we remove it from the house and transport it to a more favorable location from our perspective.” “Of course, that’s implying a sleep spell would in fact work on it,” pointed out Palisade, “I mean, for all we know, it could be immune to magic or that it would be less effective.” Ranger Ash Fall rubbed his chin thoughtfully, after several moments, he nodded and looking up, said, “You raise a valid point lieutenant, however, if the human can be affected by magic, then it might work, though at this point, our options are rather poor to begin with. What do you think, Ms. Heartstrings?” Lyra frowned thoughtfully before saying, “It should work, according to the old records, humans were just as susceptible to spells as ponies were, though, we can’t know that for sure in the case of this one.” Ranger Ash Fall gave a hum in agreement. “You’re right, we’ll need a backup means to put it to sleep in case the magical spell fails.” The sound of Palisade suddenly clearing his throat caught the rest of the group's attention, and giving a big smile, he said, “I think the Royal Guard can help you out there, Ranger Fall, if you all would follow me please,” and with that, he turned and trotted out of the barn, a happy look on his face. The other four ponies looked at each other in confusion for a moment before quickly following the lieutenant, so as not to lose sight of him in the controlled chaos within the Apple Family’s farmyard. After several minutes, the group found themselves standing in front of a wagon that had the words, “Caution! Handle with care!” emblazoned on the sides in big, red letters. Coming to a stop beside the lieutenant, Ranger Ash Fall asked, “What’s this all about Lieutenant Palisade?” Turning to regard the ranger with a gleeful grin, Lieutenant Palisade happily replied, “Oh, this is just a little something that we recently got from the ponies in R&D last month, and we’ve been sort of itching to try it out in the field.” “But, what is it?” asked Twilight, a confused look on her face. Whirling around and extending a hoof to point at the wagon behind him in a dramatic fashion, Palisade declared, “This, Ms. Sparkle! Is the Royal Guards new Crisis Response, and Emergency Wagon! It’s designed to be used in emergency situations and comes packed with things such as medical supplies, as well as crowd control devices! With these, the Royal Guard, and police departments, all across Equestria can quickly arrive on the scene and have everything we need to bring it quickly under control! In our case, Canterlot was given the opportunity to be selected as the pilot program for these wagons, hence why one is here!” “That’s...great,” replied Twilight, a slightly uncomfortable look on face at seeing Palisade gushing over the wagon, “but that doesn’t really explain how this will help us deal with the human.” “I was getting to that,” he replied, “like I mentioned before, these wagons come equipped with crowd control devices, such as easily erectable barricades, and traffic cones. However, they also come equipped with some new stuff that will help the Royal Guard and police ponies break up any potential riots without doing any major damage to civilians or property. Plus, the stuff in here can be used by anypony, so if we don’t have enough unicorns trained in sleep spells, it’s not a problem as we have, these!” he finished, having opened one of the many compartments on the side of the wagon, while he had been talking, and pulling out a small cylinder with the outline of a sleeping pony on it, and a white band around both ends. Hoofing it over to Ranger Ash Fall for him to inspect, Palisade continued, saying, “These cylinders contain a special gas inside, that when released, creates a large cloud that can, when inhaled, put a pony to sleep in seconds, turning even the most unruly crowds into an easy clean up job! The best part is, these can be used indoors as well, and the gas dissipates pretty quick too!” “Hmm,” hummed Ranger Ash Fall as he hefted the cylinder in his hoof for a moment before then looking up at Palisade and asking, “Has this been thoroughly tested on both ponies and non-ponies?” Palisade nodded happily. “Yep! Will put a full grown Minator down in a couple of seconds no problem!” “No adverse effects?” “None that have been noticed.” “Ms. Heartstrings,” said Ash Fall as he turned to her, “I believe that we might want to consider using the gas in place of magic, seeing as how we’re unsure of whether or not it will be effective on this human.” Lyra bit her lip nervously. Looking over to Palisade she asked, “Are you sure it’s safe?” Palisade nodded, “Yep! Everypony in my detachment had to go through training on how to use these. Plus, as part of our training, we were also exposed to the gas as well, you feel a little sleepy and then the next thing you know you’re out like a light.” Giving a tired sigh, Lyra said, “Then...I...guess I have no objections to it, what about you Twilight?” Twilight shook her head. “I see no real issue either, beyond the fact that we’re, for all intents and purposes, about to commit ponynapping, plus breaking and entering.” Ranger Ash Fall gave a soft chuckle at Twilight’s reply. “Yeah, when you put it that way, it does make ya feel a little dirty doesn’t it?” But his smile quickly morphed into a frown and he continued more seriously, “However, in this case I would say it’s justified. If we can successfully subdue this human and bring them into a more secure location, it’ll make things easier, and safer, for everypony involved. Besides, when everything's all said and done, we can always apologize and make amends with the human if it turns out to be harmless.” “Yeah, I suppose so, but still...” she said, an uncertain look on her face. ‘This is the hoof we’ve been dealt Ms. Sparkle, and frankly, it’s not the best. The way I see it, no matter what we do, it’s gonna stink, so might as well pick the best that we can pick and move forward from that. Now,” Ash turned back to Palisade, “Lieutenant Palisade, what is the effective range on these gas cylinders?” Palisade replied, “One should be enough to flood the house, especially if we put it in on the second floor, though we might have to break a window to do it.” Ranger Ash Fall’s ears fell flat against his head in distaste at the idea. “I’d rather not add property damage to our list of sins if I can help it.” Palisade nodded in agreement. “Understandable sir, but, the gas is somewhat heavy, and if we put it on the second floor we’re almost guaranteed to have full saturation of the home.” “So you can’t guarantee full coverage unless it is on the second floor?” Palisade shook his head. “No, our training emphasized that when used in multi-story buildings the higher up the cylinder is used, the better the results, though if there are more than two or three floors, multiple cylinders will have to be used, but in our case one should suffice.” Ranger Ash Fall gave a nod, and hummed thoughtfully to himself as he tapped his chin. “Then we’ll have to find a window that is either unlocked or already open, which is doubtful, or we break one of the windows and toss the cylinder inside, either way we’re going to nee-,” “Excuse me, Ranger Fall?” interrupted Twilight, an apologetic smile on her face. Ranger Ash Fall turned to regard Twilight with a calm expression and raising an eyebrow asked, “Yes, Ms. Sparkle, did you have something you wanted to share with us?” “I was just wondering if it would be possible to use a unicorn to teleport the cylinder inside the house, thus negating the need to find an open window or break one.” Both Palisade and Ash blinked in surprise, and turning to each other said in perfect sync, “Now why didn’t I think of that?” before then noticing their synchronization and bursting out into laughter. Quickly bringing his laughter back under control, Ash Fall gave a grateful nod to Twilight and happily replied, “Thank you Ms. Sparkle, that’s a wonderful idea, and while I’m thinking about it, we can have one of the unicorn guards cast a life detection spell to see where in the house the human is currently at. Lieutenant Palisade, do you know if any of your unicorns are qualified to use those two spells?” Palisade gave an affirmative nod, “I do, and they are both close by, so it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to locate them.” Ranger Ash Fall nodded, and turning to Blueblood asked, “What do you think, Your Grace, will you approve this mission?” Blueblood gave a nod, “It seems you have the situation well in hoof, and the plan seems sound,” he paused for a moment, before shaking his head as if discarding a random thought, “I don’t see any reason why this plan shouldn’t go forward. You may proceed,” he finished. “Then give me a minute and I’ll go and retrieve them,” said Palisade in response, and with that he gave a quick salute and took off into the early morning darkness. Seeing that the plan was coming together, Ash turned back to the other members of the group and asked, “If you have any further concerns or additions to the plan that you want to put forward, now is the time.” Lyra sighed softly to herself and said, with a hint of melancholy in her voice, “Other than I’d rather not see us do this, I have no further concerns or additions.” Twilight began to shake her head as well to indicate that she had nothing to add either, and several minutes later, Palisade returned with the aforementioned guardsponies. “We’re back, sir!” he said, coming to a stop, and all three of them saluting. Returning the salute, Ranger Ash Fall replied, “Welcome back, lieutenant, now that you’re here, we can finalize, and go over the plan before we execute it, though I would prefer to do this before the princess raises the morning sun, so time is necessarily short.” “Of course sir,” replied Palisade, before motioning for the other two guards to follow him. Turning to regard both Lyra and Twilight, Ranger Ash Fall said, “I would like to thank you kind ladies for your help and patience in this matter. Unfortunately, there isn’t much left for you to do until we have the human in custody so for everypony's safety, I’m afraid that you’ll have to remain here in the command post until the operation is over.” “Of course Ranger Fall, we wish you all the best of luck and will await your return here,” replied Twilight, with an understanding bow of her head, with Lyra following suit. Glad to see that neither mare was going to raise a fuss over being left out, Ash said, “Thank you for your understanding, Ms. Sparkle, Ms. Heartstring, I know that you both are somewhat used to dealing with monsters and what not, but I’d rather not take the risk of anything bad happening to either of you. In any case, we’ll send a runner to fetch you when we’ve got the human in our custody,” and with that, he gave a final nod to them both, and a quick salute to Blueblood, and trotted out to catch up with the three Royal Guards. “I hope everything goes okay, and no one gets hurt,” said Lyra, a worried expression on her face, Twilight nodding in agreement, as the three of them watched the guards disappear into the early morning darkness. Turning to regard the two mares, Blueblood said, “Well, all we can do is wait, though I have the utmost confidence in Ranger Fall and Lieutenant Palisade and his ponies. I’m sure everything will turn out alright. Now, if you ladies will excuse me, I need to send a report back to Canterlot with an update on the current situation,” and giving a nod to each of them, he departed, leaving the two alone by the wagon, and hoping that everything would in fact turn out alright.