//------------------------------//
// Crash Sale 
// Story: Rebirth of Magic: Cold, Cold Heart 
// by JimmyHook19 
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Now that I had assembled the concerned citizens into an action league of sorts, I had to figure out how in Equestria we were going to make all the weapons we would need to drive off that threat, should he ever decide to attack us again. This required me to look at spreadsheets, which has the potential to be seriously boring to those without the know how to look at them. Like me.

CanterLogic could easily be put onto a war footing. There was more than enough space in the factory to allow for the making of heavier and larger weapons of war. I mean, Sprout of the movie had managed to build a tank without too much trouble, so there clearly was the space for the larger machines to be made. But could we make the heavier machines with the resources we had.

I took a close look at the information sat in front of me, and it didn't look promising. Anypony with a passing knowledge of anything will know that maintaining and building an army requires a lot of resources. But most importantly it requires a lot of money, and based on the frankly shocking state of our own defenses we needed to step up the game before we got blasted to smithereens by any invading army. And not one formed of unicorns or pegasi, as the citizens seemed to think would be the case.

But there lay the problem. I had looked in the budget for the money needed to initiate equipping my militia with proper weapons such as rifles and equipment such as armour and helmets.

And there lay the problem. There wasn't enough of it.

As we hadn't fought a full on war in a very long time, our budget had shifted towards personal defensive gear (which didn't work properly).

I sighed. This left us in a serious mess. As impressive as that machine I'd found had proven to be in combat against that guy, I was only one pony. And one pony is not an army to say the very least. I was going to need help.

Back in the land where I had once come from, although regional defensive units had existed, the core of military power had been under the control of the government, who had maintained one of the largest fighting forces on the planet. If this place was in any way similar, they could be a sensible thing to look to.

But how to contact them? Based on looking around there was a distinct lack of Internet or the equivalent near here, as I hadn't seen anypony with a cell phone (those only came in after Reunification, when C-Net Towers were installed across the country).

So where to go? There had to be some sort of telegraph, as how else would the army coordinate when on the move? Luckily, my office soon gave me an answer.

Earlier on, I had spotted a map in the room which indicated the locations of the major cities in Equestria. Maybe that would give me a clue.

I glanced to it and saw several cities marked. Amongst them were Vanhoover, which fell squarely within unicorn territory, Zephyr Heights (which was firmly inside the pegasus lands), and Fillydelphia, which lay to the north of my current position (probably the same route that Hitch took when he chased after Sunny and company). I noticed that all three of them were marked with stars rather than dots. I also only recognized two of them from Generation 4, suggesting these cities survived to be repurposed into capitals after Canterlot ceased to be the capital at some point in the past.

The key gave me a clue. If a city was marked with a star, it meant that it was the capital of the region. I glanced back and saw that Fillydelphia was, indeed, the capital of the UEPS. Well, that probably made things nice and easy. All I needed was to go there, speak to whomever was in charge, and then return here and tell the locals the good news. Weapons production usually generates lots of jobs. And ponies like it when there are jobs to go around, right?

I just needed to figure out how I was going to get from here to Fillydelphia. I pulled out another map, this one on a much smaller scale, and looked closely at the route before me. It was a long one, to say the least. I checked the scale on the map and noticed that it was pretty small, so it was at least 100 miles between here and there.

Having said that, the entire journey was on a paved road, at least according to the markings I was looking at. Numbers usually indicate paved roads, right? This would at least be something resembling a fun journey of sorts. Provided I didn't get attacked on the way, of course.

I then remembered what else was going on and what else I needed. Considering the movie didn't show much of a highway culture in Equestria, I couldn't assume there would be roadside restaurants like there were back in Oregon. If I was to be travelling for a long time, I was going to need some food. And drink. And other useful things that a pony travelling a long way might need as they roam across the nation in all its wilderness.

To this end, I began to dig through the items at the station. I found a box in the bottom cupboard that seemed to have something in it. I took it out and took a look closely.

It was a pizza. Probably one Sprout had been historically eating before I came here, as I would never leave a pizza sitting about in a box for no reason. Having said that, the pizza was surprisingly good condition considering the fact it had probably been sitting out for quite a while. I closed the box again and turned back to the desk as I adjusted the hologram.

My attention was briefly distracted by the door opening. I turned to see who it was, my eyes moving to track the new entrant to the building.

It was Phyllis. "Hey mom!" I said. "Anything concerning you?"

"Sprout, I have bad news," she replied, her voice fraught with worry.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

She took a deep breath. "There's not enough money in the budget!" she said. "As you know, money for arms production is partly supplied by the state, and we simply don't enough in order to start rearming, as it would put us into debt."

"I know," I replied. "I just ran the math myself."

"Oh," she said, looking surprised. "That's unlike you." She stopped, and then glanced at the map. "Why do you have a map of the route to Fillydelphia out on the table?"

I glanced up at her. "That's part of my plan. Tomorrow, I'm going to be taking a long journey."

"Where?"

"To Fillydelphia. If I can talk to the government and convince them to provide money and official support for rearmament, it'll make equipping the militia easier. After all, big flying robot things are less likely to attack if we have troops, right?"

Phyllis looked concerned. "Sprout, you've never travelled outside Maretime Bay before! Are you sure you know where you're going?"

I pointed to the route. "Follow the road signs. That's how roads work, right?"

"Well, that's rather self explanatory. But what about the other things? Such as transport to get there? It's 100 miles by that road, and not all of it is tarmac paving- some is cobblestones! And what if you get attacked by bandits? Or- Faust forbid- a unicorn or a pegasus?"

I glanced to my monitor as the message jingle had played. Although we didn't have phones, we did have computers and similar technology of a roughly 1980s level. Something about a fish being stolen. I could sent one of my deputies to deal with that.

I turned my attention back to Phyllis. "There's a first time for absolutely everything in the world. How are we supposed to move forward and grow as ponies if we spend our entire lives confined to one settlement? We can travel and get the help we need, and then I'll return as soon as I can. The extra funding will help us be prepared for whenever that thing comes back. Besides, as you say yourself, to be scared is to be prepared."

Phyllis huffed, but otherwise nodded. "Alright, Sprout. You've made your point. Have a safe journey." She then left through the door and turned left.

"CanterLogic's the other way!" I called.

I immediately saw the familiar beehive hairdo going the other way.

That was easier than expected. I grabbed the information I had access to and prepared to set off for my other desk to compile it. It was time to take my destiny into my own hooves and step forward into the future.

And hopefully save the world whilst I was at it.