Five days had passed since Twilight and her envoy arrived in Neigh Zealand. Since their arrival, they had been feasting on apples, mutton, oats and drinking plenty of cider. Shining Armor was starting to think that they should be departing for Faustica. He looked at Twilight and said, "Twily, we have been here for five days. When do you think we should be leaving?"
Twilight glared at her brother and said, "Look big brother, if you are wanting to leave immediately, it isn't happening. We still need to get enough food on our ship for the voyage to Faustica, which could take anywhere between 10-14 days."
Shining Armor, while he knew his sister was the pony in charge, was not thrilled with the way she talked to him. He growled, "Look sis, I just want us to get through the tropical areas of the ocean before the height of hurricane season starts. You know how powerful hurricanes can be in the Pegasus Ocean this time of year."
Twilight replied, "Yes big brother, I do. Ok, I will start having our ships stocked with food and water immediately and we will leave after breakfast the day after tomorrow. How does that sound to you?"
Shining Armor sighed and replied, "Well alright little sis. That will work just fine."
LaurFa interrupted, "You know what Shining Armor? It better work because Twily is our leader and what she says goes."
Twilight walked over to where her dark Alicorn officers were discussing the upcoming voyage and was very happy that they were planning ahead. She said, "Well guys, I am glad to see that you are already planning for the next leg of our journey. I need you guys to start stocking the ships with food and water. We will be leaving for Faustica the day after tomorrow after breakfast."
General Dark Hooves replied, "Alright Twily, we got you covered. Do you want us to get Black Lightning, Green Dust and some of the other soldiers here to help?"
Twilight replied, "Yes, I do. It could take us up to two weeks to get to Faustica from here. The weather can be very unpredictable this time of year in the Pegasus Ocean."
Twilight headed off to the throne room to clear her mind as her officers headed to the training yards to grab the help they would need to prepare for the upcoming journey.
Dark Hooves approached Black Lightning and Green Dust with a stern look on his face. He motioned for them to come over to him and said, "Look guys, we will be leaving her the day after tomorrow. We need to stock the ship with apples, oats and plenty of water. Do you think you could get some of your soldiers to wash out the empty cider bottles around here and then fill them with water?"
Black Lightning asked, "Yes we can but who will handle the apples and oats?"
Dark Hooves replied, "I along with Twily's other officers will handle those. We aren't the ones to stoop down to washing out cider bottles."
Green Dust snapped, "Stoop down to washing out cider bottles? Oh, so you think you are better than the rest of us since you came here with Twilight? I hope a nasty storm hits you guys up on the way to Faustica and you wind up getting killed!"
"Whatever," grunted Dark Hooves "Just get to work. I will have no problems notifying Twilight and trust me, she will punish those who disobey orders."
Black Lightning threw his hooves up in the air and headed off to gather some soldiers to handle the issue of stocking the ship with water.
In Ponyville Colgate is watching this and is contemplating making their journey to Faustica very difficult. She heads down to Scootaloo's office. There she finds her second in command going over different battle plans depending on the direction their enemies approach from. Colgate shouts, "Scootaloo, we need to have a meeting tonight after supper. We need EVERYPONY present."
Scootaloo asked, "When you say everypony, do you mean those that are on reserve as well?"
Colgate replied, "Yes, those that are on reserve as well. I need the entire Apple family here, I need Fluttershy here, I need Rainbow Dash here, I need Pinkie Pie here....."
Before she could finish her sentence Scootaloo interrupted, "What about Rarity? Do you need her here too?"
Colgate thought this was one of the dumbest questions she had ever heard. She growled, "No Scootaloo. Remember she moved to Manehattan 500 years ago when Canterlot was being abandoned? I released her from all military duties since she would not be living here."
Scootaloo replied, "Oh yeah, I completely forgot about that."
Colgate asked, "Do you think you can go get everypony we need and bring them here? This is an important meeting tonight. While you are doing that, I am going to go notify the chefs that we will need more food prepared."
Scootaloo immediately took off to round everypony up. She first headed to Cloudsdale. She headed to Rainbow Dash's favorite cloud but she was not there. She flew all over Cloudsdale when she finally ran into Fluttershy and Brevity Thrash. She asked them, "Have either one of you seen Rainbow Dash? Colgate needs all of us there tonight for supper and an important meeting afterwards."
Brevity replied, "Brevity thinks Rainbow Dash was planning on spending the whole day in Ponyville."
Fluttershy added, "She said something about joining Pinkie Pie over at Sweet Apple Acres for some sort of cider celebration."
Scootaloo said, "Well I need you two to come with me while we go round up everypony else."
The two Alicorns replied in unison, "Well let's get going then!"
They flew down to Sweet Apple Acres to find them making cider for the upcoming sales. The only problem was that Rainbow was drinking cider almost as fast as they could make it.
Finally Granny Smith had enough of this. She shouted, "Rainbow Dash, you are going to break us doing that!"
Rainbow choked on her cider she was so startled. Once she was through coughing she asked, "What do you mean Granny Smith? Isn't there a lot of cider?"
Granny replied, "There is a lot of cider but you don't know how much it costs for us to make it through the winter. We can't grow in the cold and we do need both cider and apples to eat and drink."
Rainbow asked, "Well can't you just use your magic to create more apples to make more cider with? I know! Why don't you just make more cider with your magic? You are all Alicorns you know!"
Granny Smith smacked Rainbow over that comment. She replied, "Well of course we know we are Alicorns! But we are also Apples! Despite us having all this advanced magic, we still do thing the way we have done since we first settled Ponyville!"
Applejack added, "Ya know Rainbow, cider made by just using magic doesn't taste nearly as good as cider that is made the old fashioned way. I mean come on, remember when you tried making cider with your magic and how disgusting it was? Think about that."
Pinkie interrupted, "Yeah Dashie, you don't change something that is perfect!"
Rainbow asked, "But you are Apples and Alicorns! Wouldn't your magic make better cider?"
Applejack replied, "Rainbow, you don't......"
During their argument Scootaloo, Fluttershy and Brevity landed in front of them in the south field. Scootaloo asked, "Can I talk to all of you for a minute?"
Applejack replied, "Sure Scoots, what do you need to talk to us about?"
Scootaloo said, "Well Colgate needs everypony who is in the military reserves to come to the dark tower for supper tonight and then we are having a meeting."
Big Mac asked, "What is this meeting going to be about?"
Scootaloo replied, "Colgate didn't tell me for sure but given the timing of it, I have a feeling it involves Twilight. After all I overheard Lyra and Colgate yelling over something happening in Neigh Zealand."
Sweetie Belle asked, "Really? Are the ponies in Neigh Zealand under Twilight's control now?"
Scootaloo replied, "Look, I don't know. What I do know is that I need all of you to follow me to the tower now."
Applejack said, "Come on y'all. We don't want to keep Colgate waiting. You know what a rage she goes into if anypony isn't at least fifteen minutes early."
They all took off towards the dark tower and headed towards the dining hall. Colgate, her officers along with Lyra and Lemon Hearts were already there when they arrived. Colgate sighed and said, "Scootaloo, couldn't you guys have got here sooner? Supper starts in fifteen minutes."
Scootaloo replied, "I'm sorry Colgate, I just lost track of time."
Very soon their supper arrived. While the other ponies were used to Colgate's large meals this was the first truly huge meal that Lyra and Lemon Hearts had eaten with Colgate. Lyra said, "Wow Colgate, I never knew that you served such huge meals!"
Colgate replied, "Yep I do and I have a feeling you are going to like it much more than you do those salads you eat at the cafe."
Lemon Hearts had already began to scarf her food down. She stopped eating just long enough to say, "I love this food Colgate! It is so much better than those salads at the cafe. I'm through eating rabbit food, I want to eat hearty meals like you do!"
Lyra added, "Me too! With you feeding all of us like this, we're sure to defeat Twilight and her minions!"
Colgate replied, "I knew you would like it. Now I say we should enjoy our meal before we head to the throne room for our meeting. Oh, and don't be afraid to ask for seconds, we have plenty of food."