//------------------------------//
// Farachan 
// Story: Farachan 
// by QTXAdsy 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 3

Farachan


As the journey to the Farachan capital, Coltfast, carried on, the stormy weather wasn't making things for those on board the ships any easier. And one certain stallion, named Blue Arrow, couldn't handle it anymore. Though he had not told anypony this, but he was probably the most prone pony to get seasick on long sea journeys, and this one sea jaunt was unfortunately one of those moments were he would not be wanting to try again anytime soon. The stallion had been having a hellish voyage; he just couldn't fall asleep as the ship kept swaying side to side and a fear that he would throw up while sleeping. The stallion just knew that it was only a matter of time until it happened and during the middle of the night, he finally couldn't take any more of it.

Though his fellow comrades were asleep at this point, he had ran out on deck to vomit instead of in the room with the other Hooves, as he didn't want to answer any questions they might've had if they saw his pile of vomit lying on the floor there. It made matters worse for him as it was pouring down with some atrocious rain; it was almost like the gods were making life difficult for Blue Arrow.

By the time a stumbling and tried looking Blue Arrow made it back to his bed, the heavy rain outside had completely drenched the blue stallion to such an extent that it look like that he'd gone out for a midnight swim in the ocean. He was only thankful that the other stallions were sleeping like logs while he was having a horrid time.

"Why'd I agree to do travel by ship?" Blue Arrow thought to himself angrily as he slumped onto his bed completely soaked all over. Wasn't this a pathetic image? A highly trained Red Hoof solider, an elite solider who was part of possibly the greatest fighting force that Equestria had ever seen, just couldn't handle a sea journey if it was to save his life. Thankfully now, he was feeling a little better, but only just. Nevertheless he could finally begin to get some shuteye and hope that land would come sooner that later…


XXX


With it being such inclement weather that night; the journey from the mainland to Farachan had been longer than what it should've been. Originally the group of ships were to arrive at roughly five in the morning, but with choppy currents had delayed their arrival by seven. (Later on, the crews of those ships would say that they believed that Alacann forces were using magic that night to make sea crossing difficult for them or even sink them.) Thankfully by the time they docked port at Coltfast, the storm had died down and the sea was finally gentle again. Celestia had raised the sun that morning as the port city was basked in the morning orange glow of sunlight.

At the moment when the ships were heading into dock, every Red Hoof was woken up to the announcement that they had finally arrived. Many were in high spirits that the journey was over and that they could get out of the dorms they stayed in. For Blue Arrow, along with others on the ship, the sound of arriving at their final destination was probably the most welcoming sound they'd ever heard in their lives. As they heading out on deck to catch their first glimpses of Coltfast and the surrounding landscape, Blue Arrow's fellow comrades couldn't help but notice of how terrible the dark blue Pegasus stallion looked.

The night before, Blue Arrow, combined of being sick and tired, had gone to bed without drying off and now his mane and tail were jagged in different directions. His normal red eyes were even redder from his lack of sleep. And as he walked, he looked like that he was going to collapse at any point. Thankfully in the vicinity with the others and not trying to look weak and pathetic, he didn't.

The sunlight nearly blinded them as they made it out on deck covering their eyes with their fore hooves. Before they went out on deck, they could hear the cheering roars of a crowd outside, no doubt cheering on the other Red Hoof ships that had arrived earlier.

"The same type of response here like back home?" Said a voice nearby Blue Arrow. Turning his head round to the side, he could just make out Shadow's black hide and dark red tail through some gaps in the crowd of soldiers.

Though with a lot of pushing and shoving going on, Blue Arrow lost sight of the stallion as he was pushed forward with others on to the deck. As they went outside, they could only stare on in amazement around them.

All along the dockside in the morning sunlight, it seemed like the entire population of Coltfast was there to welcome them to the city and to Farachan itself. Many Red Hooves couldn't help but smile and wave back at them, especially as they could also see in various parts in that crowd other Red Hoof soldiers were welcoming them, the first Red Hooves that had been staying in Farachan previously a year ago now.

While all this cheering was going on, it was a good chance for Blue Arrow to gaze at the city for as far as he could see. Coltfast defiantly felt modern with nearly all of the buildings looking like they had just been built. The buildings as far as Albian stallion could see were in whites and brick red colour schemes (the buildings seemed what Blue Arrow thought to be housing and older buildings were red while the white buildings seemed to be the new type and working locations.)

However, the blue Pegasus couldn't help but notice that quite a lot of the buildings around him seem to have black marks on them. Blue Arrow didn't really think much of it and assumed that it was weathering.

"Attention!" Yelled one of the commanding Hooves at the front looking back at the fellow troops. At once the Red Hooves and stood to attention. "Please leave this ship at once and rendezvous with the other Red Hooves already down there, understand?"

"Yes, sir!" The other Red Hooves yelled back.

The commanding Hoof briefly looked to the crowd at the docks, then back to the rookie Red Hooves standing to attention. "Then get going boys, make Celestia and Equestria proud!"

At once they started flying off the deck of the ship and landed on the dockside just to get a feel of being back on solid ground again. The cheering itself only increased as they all landed, some members in the crowd, mostly mares, had their fore hooves out trying to touch or even grab them. This was an obvious cue to get out of the way and meet up with the other Hooves there.

"So that's what it's like to be famous," Blue Arrow said to himself, though nopony could've heard him with the crowd being that loud. Even though the Red Hooves already there in the vast crowd were quite easily seen with them being dressed in their red armour, meeting up with either of them proved to be somewhat of a challenge as this required quite a bit of pushing and shoving to get through the crowd to land beside those Red Hooves.

Thankfully for Blue Arrow and his fellow comrades, the Hooves there could see that they were finding the massive crowd a bit of a problem and started hovering in the air and motioning them to follow them.

Getting this, Blue Arrow along with the other Red Hooves followed them flying into the city. As they followed on, all along the route below them, more ponies had filled up the streets and a good few were waving out of windows from many buildings. Suddenly, it only just dawned on Blue Arrow that despite them being a secret service, the attention all around here was anything but secret.

"Oh Celestia, bet this ain't what ye were wantin'," He sighed to himself with a small smile on his lips as he carried on following the Red Hooves while looking down below at the crowd below him.

Despite all this warm reception they were getting and that they seemed confident for what their task out here in Farachan, Blue Arrow though seemed only interested in meeting with an old friend…


XXX


After following their fellow comrades and escaping the crowds, the large platoon of red armoured stallions arrived at a private part of the city that sat towards the large white brick wall that surrounded the city, with the rest of the already stationary Red Hooves waiting for them there.

Blue Arrow and the rest of his troopers found themselves at what seemed to be a long row of semidetached red brick house down a street with little front yards. Those Pegasai who arrived with Blue Arrow could only ogle at their surroundings, trying to find what they would've thought would be a compound or base for them.

"Where's the base?" Said a fellow Red Hoof troop looking around like the rest of them.

"Don't tell me it's in one of the houses here?" Said another annoyed voice nearby Blue Arrow.

They then began muttering among themselves at what had been going on while the more experience Red Hooves looking on couldn't help but keep a smug look on their faces, Blue Arrow himself could see on their faces that they knew the answer.

As all the muttering was going on, a golden clad armoured solider walked up, and the strangest thing that made the newly arrived Red Hooves gawk was that this stallion, while was a Pegasus, wasn't a Red Hoof.

In fact, this stallion was a Royal Guard and Blue Arrow remembered that Celestia has mentioned that she would send over a few of them (though the others couldn't be seen as far as Blue Arrow could tell) to keep an eye on them in case any Hoof turned rogue. Though knowing the mad loyalty the Red Hooves had for Celestia and Equestria, they would never in a million years would do that, though nopony could ever be too careful.

The Royal guard pony stepped forward as the arriving Red Hooves all landed. Though dressed in his golden armour, the Pegasus was that of grey colour, his eyes blue and had a clean cut black mane and tail and his Cutie Mark was that of two crossing swords.

"Welcome new Red Hooves," He greeted them as he examined them from were he stood. "I' am Captain Sixer. Some of you may know me as one of the few commanders chosen by Celestia all those years ago when we came to find each of you to join the Red Hooves."

A small amount of members in the pack with Blue Arrow rapidly realised who he was as they could be heard with some giving a chorus of 'ah's' and some giving the stallion a salute in acknowledge. Obviously they would have been the few that the Royal Guard would've been sent by Celestia years ago to track down the candidates that were to become the Red Hooves.

A small smile appeared on Sixer's lips with him seeing several Hoof troops remembering him. "Now then," Sixer continued as he cleared his throat. "I can tell by the look in your faces that you possibly are wondering where our HQ could be, am I right?" He raised an amused eyebrow when he saw the many Red Hooves muttering in various agreements to their non-Red Hoof captain.

The grey stallion turned his head to look back at the other set of red armour soldiers behind him with them both grinning in the know about where the base was. "Well, I can guarantee that you'll be in for quite a surprise for quite a unique compound we have here."

He pointed over to the long row of houses beside them on the left. Blue Arrow and the rest of the new arrival Red Hooves looked on in confusion as to why the captain was pointing over to those houses. Then Blue Arrow noticed that on one front lawns that a long flagpole stood proud and tall. Then, along with the others one-by-one, noticed that the flag flying was none other than the Red Hoof flag.

The Red Hoof flag itself had a dark red background (that almost looked maroon) with a white cross and in the centre of this cross was the Red Hoof Cutie Mark itself.

Then an impulsive realisation made that set of Red Hooves understand why Sixer was pointing at the set of houses.

"That's our base?!" Cried a voice near the front of the mob in disbelieve.

"You've gotta be joking on us!" Said another.

"Heard of keep bases a secret, but this takes everything!" Added another.

Blue Arrow could only just gape at what was their base. The stallion couldn't even say the words to what he was thinking. With him silent like that, the crowd of Red Hooves with him started quarrelling to Sixer of how ridiculous they thought of the situation and thought that this was a joke.

Quickly seeing that these elite fighters were about to turn their back on him, Sixer quickly hovered up in the air bi-pedal style and started shouting to get their attention.

"Hold it boys!" He barked at them, gradually, they stopped disagreeing and turned their attention back to him. "I know this'll sound crazy, but that is our base."

Blue Arrow was one of a few Hooves there who chuckled, still not buying it.

Sixer however knew what to do as he was there when he introduced the first Re Hooves to their base a year ago. "What you must know is that we've had to go for a secret hiding spot for our compound, and this row of houses have been converted to our base…on the inside."

The pack of Hooves suddenly went quiet. Then a sudden thought came to Blue Arrow's mind. It may have look like a row of ordinary homes, but maybe it was bigger on the inside?

"I suppose you'll be wanting to see what I'm talking about," Sixer concluded as he looked back at the other set of Hooves behind him and raised a fore hoof up, ordering them to head into the barracks.

At once the ordered Red Hooves started to enter the many front doors to get in. Blue Arrow and several others in his rank only just look back at one another, wondering what was going on.

"Ok boys," Sixer said looking back to the new Red Hooves. "You follow them in, inside…well, it'll say everything."

Reluctantly, the newly arrived Hooves headed to some of the front doors, with the occasional troop saying 'Budge up then' or 'Make some space' as they went in. The blue stallion still thought that when they entered the base, it was going to be like a normal home. When they got in…

…It was a giant grey space with a weaponry and armour sections on each side of this giant room.

A collection of gasps followed those Red Hooves and some started looking behind them of what was a long row of semidetached homes. As all these houses were all semidetached, the walls separating them had all been knocked through, creating the giant area before them.

Blue Arrow was utterly speechless at the sight before him. Who ever thought of this idea of a base should deserve a war medal from Celestia herself. "Bloody genies," Blue Arrow finally uttered in a barely audible level. Several others alongside him couldn't help but let out disbelieve chuckles at what they were seeing too.

Because the platoon of Red Hooves had been silenced at this genies idea for a base, they all failed to notice that Sixer coming up from behind them to the front, who had been watching them go in first.

Hovering in mid-air, the Royal Guard haughtily grinned with his fore hooves crossed. Sixer cleared his throat to snap the red armoured stallions out of their trances.

"…Well then," Sixer smiled. "I can only imagine that you're going to love your new base."


XXX


Later on that day, Blue Arrow and the rest of his fellow group of Red Hooves started to settle in and explore their new Headquarters. It still had to settle in for Blue Arrow of how well the concept of this hidden base entire base seemed so strange yet genius. In total, there were two levels in this base.

The ground floor, being the first one that Blue Arrow discovered, had a medical wing, a large refectory and an armory room (which would be used for repairs or spare pieces of amour.) The next floor up was the living quarters for all the Hooves present. A long corridor stretched its way across the row of houses with there being many small bedrooms with four bunks for a Red Hoof troop, though Blue Arrow would later retreat to his room.

Finally the next floor up was the commanding officers' section. This was a section that Blue Arrow and neither the rest of the private ranks were allowed up, unless one was sent up to see them.

After exploring their new home for the time of the war, many went around the city to explore. Blue Arrow himself did the same thing, though going separately on his own. Though the housing part of the city wasn't really that interesting, the city itself was a jewel in itself. Everything about this city was modern, with it's large white towers, cobbled streets, it's friendly atmosphere that the locals gave (which their accent was a mix of Equestrian and Albian with mixed cultures over the years) towards any Red Hoof. And with it's stunning tumbling farmland hills that surrounded the city, it was now no surprised to Blue Arrow why many wanted to live here.

Though despite the praise he would be thinking about the Coltfast, he still couldn't help but notice the black marks on the clean looking white buildings in various locations around the Farachan capital. He also wondered how this perfect looking location could be the main target for a war, alas; he had to remember that nopony could ever be too careful wherever they where. Indeed, despite him already starting to adore this city, he couldn't help but feel that the atmosphere did seem perfect…too perfect…

When it was lunch or dinnertime that day, he would've gone back to the barracks to the refectory, but he decided to try his luck in town. As Farachan was part of Equestria, he was able to spend that last of his bits he had brought over from the mainland. By the time he was done with dinner, he went out to have a small stroll along the seafront. Celestia had lowered the sun and would soon be raising the moon, but Blue Arrow sat on a bench on the prom admiring the view in front of him.

"C'mon now don't change now," he muttered to himself looking up at the orange sky. "It makes this place look bonny."

He joked to himself over it. Of course he knew that it would have to turn night soon, still, one stallion was allowed to dream. He was about to watch more of the view when he heard a voice from nearby.

"Blue Arrow? Is that you?"

At once of hearing his name, he looked around wondering where the sound was coming from. But there was something familiar about that rather smart English accent.

"It is you! I'm up here!"

Looking up, Blue Arrow saw hovering in the air bi-pedal style was a brown stallion Pegasus with a blue mane and tail, cream coloured hooves and narrow green eyes. But this stallion had a Red Hoof for his cutie mark, and then suddenly, it dawned on Blue Arrow over who this stallion was.

"Bloody hay!" The Albian stallion gasped in astonishment as he started flying up in the air bi-pedal style next to the brown stallion. "It's Dynamo!"

At once the two old friends shook each other's hooves and a lump of memories came back to Blue Arrow.

"It's great to see you once again old friend," Dynamo smiled warmly.

"Same for you mate," Blue Arrow replied, smiling also. "And don't worry, I won't go shakin' questions out of ye."

The brown stallion chuckled and shook his head. "Ah yes of course, but I'm here anyway to find you, we'd better be getting back to barracks, the commander won't like that."

The blue stallion bit his bottom lip, thinking about that fact. "I see…alright then, let's get goin'."

And without any further words, the two left their present location and headed back to HQ.


XXX


The two old friends flew back to base side-by-side catching up on each other how things had been going for the both of them. The two young stallions had been chatting for what seemed like a mile a minute completely positively, but then as they approached their HQ, things between them changed when Blue Arrow asked Dynamo as to what those in the south had been doing. Much to Blue Arrow's surprise, Dynamo had relived that a lot more had been going on in Farachan than what anypony back on the mainland knew.

"What'd you mean, a lot more than what anypony knows back hame?" Blue Arrow questioned raising an eyebrow.

Dynamo remained silent, looking in front off him and sighing to himself. "Well dear fellow," He answered softly. "You might have noticed those black marks on buildings, am I right?"

"Well aye, of course," Blue Arrow replied quickly, the mention of those black marks catching his attention.

The brown stallion bit his bottom lip and then muttered something inaudible. "You see…ever since we arrived about a year ago…we've had…let's say, unofficial attacks. And those black marks are from explosions from spies trying to break into the city on a daily basis."

Dynamo shuddered and shook his head sadly, like he was reveling a terrible confession. Blue Arrow though spluttered out a cough, stunned at what Dynamo had said.

"W-what? Attacks already?!" Blue Arrow blurted out, his pupils seemed to shrink down.

Dynamo looked at him sadly. "Yes…unofficial, the war has already begun. They have been testing us to see if we're strong enough, giving the residents of the city a living a nightmare on a daily basis."

He paused; looking down below to make sure nopony down below was listening to their conversation from the ground. "Now that you and the others are here, the war officially begins, and not a soul in Farachan is safe from Ares' army."

Blue Arrow was speechless. To think that not long ago that he had falling in love with this beautiful place, then again, with things feeling too perfect, he had some doubts in the back of his head. Now Dynamo had only help to confirm this.

"…Bloody hay," the blue Pegasus sighed as stopped flying and started hovering. "I…Celestia knows how you lot here must've been feeling here until we came."

Dynamo had stopped too, facing his comrade. "To be honest…it's frankly been quite strange."

Blue Arrow raised an eyebrow at him. "Huh? How'd you mean?"

The brown stallion cleared a bit of his mane from his face before replying. "Well what I mean is that I was thinking that there would great battles out on the field, but it seems that all this is a series of unrest out here."

Blue Arrow nodded knowingly as he understood the situation that Dynamo has said. "I see…still, Alaccan probably knows that we're here and they'll be determined to have a pop at us soon."

"The sooner the better is you ask me…" Dynamo replied sadly, which Blue Arrow noticed that something was troubling his friend, and for some reason he wasn't thinking that this war wasn't the cause of it. What was wrong with his fellow Red Hoof?


XXX


It had felt quite bad in a way that the conversation the two stallions had on the way to the HQ had now turned sour after it had started out quite warm between the two. As they carried on flying, Dynamo didn't speak a word to Blue Arrow, and the Albian stallion practically decided not to say anything to Dynamo if he needed sometime to think to himself.

By this point in the day, nighttime was creeping in and the majority of the citizens of the city would be turning in for the night, with the excepting of some ponies out at various nightclubs and some doing nightshift work…and some Red Hoof troops standing on guard through the night.

Blue Arrow and Dynamo eventually arrived at their base and headed inside for the night. Now that they were here, Blue Arrow had suddenly realized that he hadn't gone up to find out which room he was staying in, though thankfully Dynamo (now speaking again) knew where he was sleeping, coincidently alongside him. Blue Arrow wouldn't thought Dynamo would've done for all time's sake for them to be sharing the same room along with two other Red Hooves (who Blue Arrow had yet to meet still.)

"I do wonder, mate," Blue Arrow asked Dynamo as they walked up the stairs to their room.

"What's that then?" Dynamo replied turning to look at him.

Blue Arrow cleared his throat before carrying on. "I forgot to ask this, but who are our other roommates?"

Dynamo smiled. "Ah, you'll soon see for yourself, if I'm not mistaken, they both should be in by now."

The red and white mane stallion shrugged, he'd soon find out who the other two were. Also coming to think of it, how was Shadow doing? He hadn't heard from him since they arrived earlier today. He presumed that he'd found his quarters and was settling in. His train of thought was soon broken when Dynamo led them not that far down the corridor to a wooden varnished door with the number '92' written on it in brass plates, much like something out of any hotel.

"And this is your room," Dynamo announced as he opened to the door to let Blue Arrow see the room for himself. The stallion could only stare around him; it was a smallish room that couldn't have been ten feet wide each way with a pale yellow colour of wallpaper. Two bunk beds stood on each side of the room with a small table in-between them and a large cupboard stood on the other side of the room, which Blue Arrow thought where the roommates would place their armor in after a day's work.

"No bad," Blue Arrow muttered as he scanned the room looking all round him.

"Well, well, well, another roommate!" Came a voice suddenly from one of the top bunks.

"Huh? Another?" Said another voice from the bottom bunk.

Looking over to where the voices came from, Blue Arrow saw a Grey Pegasus stallion with a messy black mane and tail, dark blue eyes and of course, a Red Hoof cutie mark. He couldn't help but notice a number of many pictures stuck up around that bottom bunk that included a variety of mares posing in various seductive poses. The grey stallion jumped out of bed and walked up to Blue Arrow shaking his fore hoof. "Ah hello there, the name's Macca." He introduced himself with what looked like a forced grin to Blue Arrow.

"And let me introduce myself too!" Said the other voice from the top bunk as he jumped down to meet his new roommate.

The stallion that Blue Arrow saw was unlike any other Red Hoof he'd seen. All of the Red Hooves were either between eighteen or twenty, this stallion looked well into his thirties. The stallion was yellow and had a green mullet mane (similar to Dynamo) and tail and matching green eyes and, like the rest of the pack, had a Red Hoof cutie mark.

"Greeting's youngster, I'm Flying Sunstar, though you can call me Sunstar for short like everyone else does." The yellow stallion introduced himself.

"Well, hi," Blue Arrow uttered, still feeling surprised of seeing quite an older stallion with them. "Um…are you one of the—"

"Well of course he is, dude!" Macca scoffed as he went back over to his bed. "Who'd you think he was? A crazy old guy?"

"Quite you!" Sunstar snapped at the younger stallion before looking back at Blue Arrow. "And to answer your question, yes, I' am one of the specials."

Blue Arrow made an 'ah' shape with his mouth after his thoughts were proven true.

In Equestria, everypony in their lifetime receive a cutie mark of any sorts, though there are some who never get one. When the Red Hooves came about those many years ago, many blank flank young Pegasus colts were training not only to become great fighters, but have the honor of receiving a Red Hoof cutie mark, though they were not the only ones to get them.

There were a few Pegasus stallions out there in Equestria who still remained blanked flanked after all this time, and Celestia knew that several of them could find a place in the ranks of this exclusive fighting force. Sunstar was probably one of a few lucky older stallions that had made it out here to fight for the war effort, though despite their age differences with the rest of the younger Red Hooves, they were still respected like any other Red Hoof fighter.

Blue Arrow now felt a bit at lost for words for anything else to say to them, though thankfully, Dynamo broke the silence. "You'll get use to them…especially him…"

His voice had turned rather cold towards the end of that speech, his eyes narrowing towards Macca. The blue stallion couldn't help but think that Dynamo wasn't impressed by the photo's of mares stuck up on Macca's bed, or that the two stallions weren't practically best friends.

Later on, Blue Arrow settled in on his bed, the bottom bunk with Dynamo on the top bed, started chatting to his two new roommates and later on when they were all sleeping, he started to think things over. There were still things that made him question himself. What were the forces of the south going to be like against the might of the Red Hooves? What was really bothering Dynamo? (who during the time when Blue Arrow had been getting to know Sunstar and Macca, had been silent the whole time.)

He could think for all he might've have liked that night, but soon enough, he would be out on that battlefield fighting the enemy…and his life.

Sixer (C) thunderhawk 6894