//------------------------------// // Interlude: Preparations // Story: A Song of Ice and Ponies // by Wargame //------------------------------// Lyra Heartstrings Pacing around her small, messy house, Lyra had to make sure that everything was absolutely perfect. Sighing to herself, Lyra began making a mental checklist of what she had already done to make the house as calming of an atmosphere as possible. Quite frankly it wasn't every day that possibly hostile monsters were brought into your house for some tea and casual conversation to see exactly how homicidal they are. Her window was repaired to light the room naturally. The old coffee table which had previously been cluttered with awful sketches and beer stained music sheets had been replaced with a far nicer coffee table. One with fancy drawers to hide her awful sketches and beer stained music sheets. Looking around to make sure that nothing was out of place, Lyra turned to the two militia ponies trying to scrub out a stain in the corner of the living area with a single wet sponge. "Don't even try with that," Lyra told the militia ponies, "I've tried using practically everything to get that stain out, and it keeps coming back. I don't think your sponge is gonna make too much of a difference." Glaring at Lyra, the first militia pony made no effort whatsoever to hide his indignation. "Look we came here on orders to make sure that your house was in presentable order," Dance Fever was the tan militia pony's name if Lyra remembered correctly, correcting his posture to sit taller he followed, "She should be more respectful to volunteer militia ponies, isn't that right Cosmic?" Startled at the sound of his name, the light yellow militia pony visibly jumped. "What was that?" Cosmic looked over at his partner, "I wasn't paying attention, this stain won't come out." Sighing loudly, Dance brought a hoof to his forehead and relaxed his shoulders. Lyra smiled slightly to herself. "Never mind Cosmic, just stop scrubbing the carpet, we should get on our way anyhow," Cosmic's face lit up as Dance Fever spoke, "Just one more thing to sort out before we head back to City Hall." Rising up on all four hooves, Dance Fever approached Lyra, "I'm pretty sure I've got everything covered so far you two, I can handle a few conversations with these things," Lyra waved Dance Fever off dismissively, "Just some quick questions so we have something to tell the Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends when they get back from the Equestria Games." Dance Fever shook his head at the mare. "That's the thing though, your first talk isn't going to be with one of the humans," Dance Fever paused to let the fact sink in, "Your first interview is going to be Big Macintosh." Lyra was taken aback at this, she didn't couldn't think of a reason why Big Macintosh would need to be questioned. As she opened her mouth to ask Dance Fever, Cosmic stood up and approached the mare. "The thing is," Cosmic spoke slowly, "After what Big Macintosh told us when he came back with those things, we ain't too sure if we should trust him." "Why wouldn't you trust him?" Lyra turned her gaze to the second militia pony, "Isn't Big Macintosh Thuderlane's go to stallion when it comes to this militia stuff?" Dance Fever shook his head. "Usually he's the second in command, and one of the only stallions around who nopony else would question when he would tell us what to do," Dance Fever shook his head, "But what he told us about what happened in the Everfree, we don't know what to think." Lyra's mood took a shift for the worse, if Big Macintosh had lost the militia's trust, then this was something far more serious than the standard Everfree afair. Cosmic shifted uncomfortably. "If that's all, we should take our leave now," Dance Fever nodded to Lyra. "We'll bring them over one at a time starting at nine in the morning so you can have each interview separately," Dance Fever nodded to Lyra, "Now if there's nothing else you need from us we'll be headed back to City Hall." Taking a moment to glance around the house one more time, Lyra could only think of one more task for the militia ponies as they left. "If you'd just go grab the box marked 'Emergency' from my shed and bring it in here I think that'd be enough." With that Cosmic and Dance Fever went outside, Dance Fever came back a minute later with the box balanced on his back. "With all do respect ma'am," Dance said with a hint of concern, "This is just a box filled with alcohol." Dance Fever turned to leave as Lyra levitated the box off of his back. "Emergency whiskey," Lyra said to herself as the front door closed behind the militia pony, staring at the three remaining bottles packed into the box she grimaced, "Tomorrow's gonna be a rough day."