[Redacted]

by McPoodle

Chapter V1: Acceptance

Vinyl Scratch was at the Manehattan Stock Exchange when she lost her mind and enlisted.

For two months after the declaration of war (three months if you counted from the news of Stalliongrad’s disappearance), she had resisted the siren call to “do her part”. She was in Equestria’s biggest city to prepare her company for its initial stock offering, and that effort offered more than enough of a distraction. Equestria Acoustics was in the business of manufacturing compact discs and CD players. The CDs reproduced an artifact of the Ancients, while the magic that powered the players was the joint creation of the DJ and Twilight Sparkle. The decision to take the company public was a natural consequence of the tremendous success of the company in recent months.

But none of that meant anything to Vinyl now that the IPO was complete. The blind unicorn stood quietly on the sidewalk outside the exchange, wondering what to do. And that was when she was caught by the sound of several elderly ponies singing:

We wrote the stories of the old brigades.
We know the glory of yesterday’s parades.
We’re celebrating yard by yard:
The soldiers of the old Home Guard.
The soldiers of the old Home Guard.

As the troupe of former soldiers marched past, Vinyl smiled and joined the growing group of following ponies.

Call out the navy, call out the ranks.
Call out the air force, call out the tanks.
From the cliffs of Plover call out the gulls,
And don’t forget the loyal territorials!

Who’s sticking in here? Who will defend
Every hoof of ‘Questria no matter what they send?
Who’s standing firm in our own front yard?
The soldiers of the old Home Guard.
That’s who!
The soldiers of the old Home Guard!

“DJ Pon-3, volunteering for duty!” Vinyl proudly announced at the recruitment station.

“Oh hey, I’ve heard of you!” the officer on duty exclaimed. “But, um, aren’t you…”

“Blind?” Vinyl answered. “Sure, but I’ve got plenty more to offer than just ordinary sight.” For a moment, Vinyl marveled at how well she was able to deal with other ponies knowing about her vision. Just a few months earlier, she was willing to go to extraordinary lengths to keep that fact hidden, so sure was she that she would be treated as an object of pity and scorn if it were ever to be discovered. “Thanks to my horn, I can see anything smaller than a grain of sand or larger than a city. The former might not be very useful, but the later surely could be used to detect the movements of armies being kept hidden from normal vision?”

“Hm…” said the recruitment officer. “I’ll make a note of that ability, and if Central Command finds a need for it, they’ll be sure to call you up. In the meantime, however, I think you can best serve Equestria as a morale officer.”

“A…morale officer?”

“Yes.” The officer took on a rather official voice. “Vinyl Scratch, also known as the DJ Pon-3, you are hereby accepted into the Princesses’ Army in the adjunct role of Morale Officer, Second Class. You are to report to Morale Officer First Class DJ AJ4X in Canterlot, there to work to maintain the morale of the civilians of that city until you are given a new assignment. Here is a copy of your official paperwork. Present it to him at 18:00 hours at this address…” The officer looked down at the slip of paper she was in the act of sliding across the table towards the sightless pony before her. Instead she took the slip back and read it out loud. “Can you remember that, Officer?”

DJ Pon-3 saluted. “Ma’am, yes ma’am!”

“This ticket will get you aboard the next ground transport to Equestria, departure time 10:00 hours sharp. You should have at least two hours to orient yourself in Canterlot between your arrival time and when you need to meet with your superior officer.”

Vinyl took the wristband of cardboard she was given. “Um, why not a dirigible?” she asked. “Wouldn’t that be faster, and able to carry more ponies?”

“All air transport for non-pegasi has been cancelled for the duration of the crisis. They are far too inviting a target for the enemy. For the same reason, unauthorized teleportations for those unicorns capable of it are also strictly forbidden.”

“Understood.”

“You are dismissed.”

Vinyl Scratch stepped away from the recruitment office, her space immediately taken by the next pony in line. Well, Pon-3, she said to herself, what have you gotten us into this time?

The transport to Canterlot contained a few mares who had volunteered to fight, plus more stallions than Vinyl had ever met in her entire life. Where did they all come from? she asked herself in bewilderment.

She discovered that the recruits who were slated to fight on the front lines were taking the transport all the way to its final destination, Fort Solaris at the far south of Equestria, which had been converted into their boot camp. Once they had been sufficiently trained, they would take the same transport across the whole of Equestria to the far north, to the area occupied by the Dragons. Only a small number of adjuncts and territorials would be disembarking at Canterlot or Fillydelphia.

Fillydelphia!

Vinyl realized as she stepped out of the transport at Canterlot Station that she still needed to inform her family of her sudden change in plans.

As soon as she had arrived at Canterlot Station and confirmed that she had some free time, she got at the end of a very long line for the Telegraph office. As she waited, she tuned her horn into the Canterlot Etheric Network.

“After last night’s sightings, there is no possible way that the government can deny the existence of flying saucers,” said the voice in Vinyl’s mind of Oars In Wells, noted Etheric producer and popular guest on mid-afternoon talk shows. “The public demands to know the truth: are these…these ‘Unponied Flying Objects’ Ours, or Theirs? Or are they neither pony- nor dragon-made, some totally alien visitor to Equestria, here to observe and judge this little war of ours? And what happens if they do not judge in our favor?”