//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9 
// Story: It's a Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door 
// by Jetfire2012 
//------------------------------//

	The morning light crept slowly into the room where the three Equestrian ponies slept.  Rainbow Dash and Rarity were clustered together, the former's wing stretched over the latter.  Applejack slept next to Rainbow Dash, but at a steeper angle, evidently a latecomer to the large circular bed.  A distant scent wafted up through her nostrils, stirring her from slumber.
BONG!
The great crashing sound pulsed through the air, bringing the orange earth pony fully awake.  She yawned; she had been up late last night.  But she was feeling quite well-rested- it was nice to sleep on a bed after so many nights on the ground.
“Ugh,” Rarity muttered, her blue eyes creaking opened.  “What is that?”
BONG!
“I think it's our cue to wake up,” Applejack said.  She rose to her hooves and stretched, flexing her back and cracking her neck.  She nudged the sleeping Dash with her hoof.  “Rainbow, get up.  I reckon they ain't gonna wait for us before puttin' breakfast on.”
“Just a few more minutes...” Dash mumbled.
BONG!
“No, Rainbow, now!” Applejack said.  “Or you're gonna miss breakfast.”
“Breakfast?!” Dash snapped her head up.  “Let's go, I'm starving!”  She blasted off the bed and  through the door in a rainbow streak.  A few seconds later she flapped back to the doorway.  “Uh, sorry, are you girls coming?”
Applejack put on her hat.  “Yep.”
The three of them left their room and joined countless Daleponies trotting down the hallway.  They rounded a bend and were bathed in light from the great circular window at the front of Grazezeld.  Descending the ramp, they made their way through the hall, and when they reached the entrance to the mess hall, they found Shield Maiden waiting for them.  “Did you sleep well?” she asked them brightly.
“Oh yeah!” Rainbow Dash said.
“It was very nice to sleep on a bed again,” Rarity said.
“I noticed you turned in late,” Shield Maiden said to Applejack.  “What were you up to?”
Applejack smiled.  “Just... immersin' myself in your culture.”
Shield Maiden twisted her head at this.  Her green eyes met Applejack's own green gaze.  “All right,” she eventually said.  “Come on: breakfast is ready, and we must eat quickly.  The Captain will want to make an early start.”
I hope he got enough sleep, Applejack thought.  Ashtail had spent hours the previous night teaching her to stand firm.  It had been difficult at first, but by the time they both agreed to stop she was able to withstand an assault seven times out of ten.  As they had worked, they had talked.  She had done most of it, telling him about her family, about Sweet Apple Acres, about Ponyville, about her friends.  He had responded with information about Gildedale, including some of the early history and the administration of the kingdom.  He had even talked a little about Lord Hammer Hoof, though he had been very reluctant to discuss his childhood.  She had actually gotten him to smile a few times, and not the dour smiles he habitually gave, but real, warm smiles.  Seeing them had made her happy.  He was so relentlessly grim.
Reaching the kitchen counter, Shield Maiden rapped it with her hoof.  “What's for breakfast, Kit Cauldron?”
“Porridge!” the lanky white pony exclaimed brightly.  “With oats and cinnamon!”  Then he leaned forward across the counter.  Raising her eyebrows, Shield Maiden leaned in as well.  “Ah... dearest, I hate to say this, but you snored again last night.”
“Oh!” the gray earth pony flattened her ears a little.  “I'm sorry.  I shall have to go to the medic again.  Did I keep you up?”
“Just a little,” Kit Cauldron said.  “What's important is that you got rest- you're the one who will need it.  Come see me before you leave, all right?”
“Of course,” Shield Maiden said.  The two ponies nuzzled each other warmly.  “See you later.”  When she got down from the counter and turned around, she saw the three Equestrian ponies gaping at her.  “What?”
“Your husband is the cook?” Rarity asked in surprise.
She bobbed her head from side to side.  “What can I say?  I married him for his cooking.  Well, that, and I love him.”  She trotted to the back of the food line, and with some surprised glances at each other, the three friends followed suit.
“Regarding your family again,” Rarity said as they moved through the line, “where is your daughter?  I would just love to meet her.”
“She's in Thatchholm with the other foals,” Shield Maiden said.  “It's the safest place for them while the komagas are running.  I must admit,” she said gently, “I almost have to thank you three for showing up.  Without your excuse to send us to Thatchholm, I wouldn't have been able to see her for another two weeks.”
“It's our pleasure!” Rainbow Dash cried, nudging Shield Maiden in the side with her hoof.  “Happy to drop in!  Just wish it were under better circumstances!”
“Indeed,” Shield Maiden said.  Her green eyes wavered.  “For what it's worth, I believe you all.  I think you really are here to help your friend.”
“That's real big of you to say, sugarcube,” Applejack said.  “Would you mind tellin' Lord Hammer Hoof that when we meet him?”
Shield Maiden's ears flattened against her head.  “I couldn't presume to correct My Lord.  He has made the rules and we must abide by them.”
“Even if those rules will doom our friend?” Rarity asked.
Shield Maiden shifted her gaze away from Rarity.  “I...”
“Shield Maiden?” Kit Cauldron's voice made her turn back to the front.  She was at the head of the line, right at the counter.
“Sorry,” she said gently.  She took her tray in her mouth.  Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash received their trays behind her.
“Maiden!” a voice called out as they walked down the tables.  “Come sit with us, Maiden!”  It came from a table not far from them, where four Daleponies were seated.  Rainbow Dash recognized Sharp Sound and Birdspeak, along with two more colts, another black one and a white one.  Shield Maiden glanced hesitantly head back to the three travelers.  “It's okay,” Birdspeak said.  “Bring the Equestrians!  They can come too!”
“Do you mind?” Shield Maiden asked them.
“Course we don't!” Applejack said.  “I'm always happy to meet new folks.”
Smiling, Shield Maiden trotted over to the earth ponies, the Equestrian ponies in tow.  “I hope you ponies are eating hearty,” she said as she sat down.  “The komagas are swarming all around us- I heard at least two herds in the night.”
“I heard three,” Sharp Sound said.  He stuck his nose in his bowl and swallowed a mouthful of porridge.  “Odds are good we'll have at least one encounter on the way to Thatchholm.”
“We are terribly sorry for inconveniencing you all like this,” Rarity said.  She looked at her tray, saw only the stone bowl.  She wore a resigned expression.  “I suppose you don't have spoons here either.”
“What's a spoon?”
Rarity sighed.  Her horn shimmered, and the porridge levitated from the bowl in a giant, roughly spherical clump.  She broke off a piece and siphoned it into her mouth, where she chewed it carefully.  She did this a few more times before she noticed that the Daleponies were staring at her.  “Is something wrong?” she asked politely.
“Is that what most unicorns use their magic for in Equestria?” the white colt asked her.  “To pick things up?”
“Hmm... I suppose it's the most common thing,” the white unicorn admitted.  “Though it's certainly not the only thing.”
“What else can you do?” Birdspeak asked.
“I heard that unicorns can disappear and reappear in a different place!” the other black pony said.
“Ah, yes... that's called teleportation,” Rarity said.  Her ears flattened.  “I'm afraid I can't do that.  Oh, you should really meet my friend Twilight Sparkle, she's an amazing sorceress!”
“So what can you do?”
“Well, this, obviously,” Rarity said, dropping the porridge slowly back into her bowl.  “I can also use my magic to hunt for precious gems buried in the ground.”
Birdspeak shared a glance with Sharp Sound and the other black Dalepony.  “Anything else?”
Rarity met their gaze levelly for a single, normal moment.  Then she fluttered her eyelashes and smiled.  “Well...” she said coquettishly.  Applejack rolled her eyes.  She knew that tone of voice all too well.  Rarity was getting ready to show off.  “I can also do... this!”
All the lights in the mess hall went out.  Ponies cried out in the darkness.
Suddenly, a single spotlight shone down from above, illuminating Rarity in the center of the room.  “Oh,” she moaned with a fake pout, “dear me, you've caught me so unprepared!  So much attention, and I've nothing to wear!” She smiled again.  “Let me slip into something more appropriate.”  Black waves helixed around her body, spinning and fusing together until they became a black evening gown, trimmed with sequins at its bunching, low-cut shoulders.  “And of course I must do something with my hair,” and her mane flew back and twisted into a tight braid, leaving only the front tress dangling down over her face.  She clopped her front hooves on the floor, and black wrapped around them, forming a pair of pumps that laced up her forelegs.  Every pony in the hall was now staring at her- and all the colts were leaning forward particularly far.  Rarity was in heaven.  “I can't forget my lovely lady friends!” she said, and two more spotlights shone on Applejack and Rainbow Dash.  “For you, dear Applejack, something... appropriately rustic,” she said.  Applejack was suddenly being wrapped up in chambray, which formed into a heathery blue-gray dress, the top of which resembled a pair of overalls.  A white chambray bandana around her neck completed the look.  Rarity winked at Rainbow Dash.  “For Rainbow Dash, something bold!”  Brilliant scarlet taffeta spun around the sky-blue pegasus, transforming into a full gown with a ruffled skirt; lines of brilliant white trim rimmed each level of ruffle.  There were also white spirals around the chest, and a white flower appeared in her rainbow hair.  “And now, for my newest dear friend: Shield Maiden!” Rarity said, with a warm smile at the gray earth pony.
Shield Maiden blanched as another spotlight lit her up.  “Oh, I couldn't, please-”  She was suddenly levitated out of her seat and over the table.
“Nonsense!” Rarity exclaimed, setting Shield Maiden down right next to her.  The white unicorn appraised the gray earth pony with intense scrutiny.  “Hmm... a short skirt, I think,” she said, and white silk spun around Shield Maiden's flanks.  “No!  Something with one piece!  How about a cheongsam?”  Silvery silk stretched up Shield Maiden's body and knitted itself tightly around her, forming a single unit of a dress with a high collar and short sleeves.  “As for the color: green!  To bring out your beautiful eyes!”  The dress turned emerald green, with white trim at the sleeves and collar.  Somewhere back in the kitchen, a bowl dropped and shattered.  “Now just a sprinkle of jewelry-” gold earrings hung from Shield Maiden's ears, “and voila!  C'est magnifique!”  Water sprang from somepony's cup and floated through the air in front of Shield Maiden, forming an impromptu mirror.
Shield Maiden gasped.  She had never before felt so... pretty.  “I...” she stammered, “I...”
“Well, darling?” Rarity asked, arching her eyebrows.
“I-”
“ENOUGH!!”
In an instant the lights were back on in the mess hall.  The water splashed to the stone floor.  The dresses, shoes, and jewelry vanished.  Applejack wasn't surprised.  Rarity was not a powerful enough magician to actually make clothing appear out of thin air.  Everything had been an illusion, albeit a very realistic one.  Ashtail stood in the door of the mess hall, looking particularly stern.
He trotted between the tables, which had grown deathly silent.  He stopped and glared at Rarity; the white unicorn responded by flinching, though she tried to be brave.  He glanced around at the assembled ponies.  “Dale Guard!  I want you armed and armored and ready to ride at the doors of Grazezeld in twenty minutes!  On the double!”  He glanced at Shield Maiden.  “That includes you, Lieutenant.”
Shield Maiden met his gaze evenly.  “Yes, Captain.”
“And you-” he glanced from Rarity to Rainbow Dash and Applejack, “arm yourselves with what you were provided in the armory last night and meet me outside.  We can't afford any further delay.”  He turned abruptly and trotted out of the mess hall.
Rarity glanced sadly at Shield Maiden.  “I'm so sorry, Shield Maiden,” she said.  “I didn't mean to get you in trouble.”
Shield Maiden shook her head.  “The Captain is merely tense,” she remarked.  “Journeying to Thatchholm through land thick with komagas will be... an adventure,” she said tentatively.  “Yes, that might be the best way to put it.”
Rainbow Dash swallowed.  “So... it's gonna be dangerous?  I guess it is, right?”
“Don't worry, you're with us!” Shield Maiden said.  “The Dale Guard of the Eastern Quarter is, I think, the finest contingent of fighting ponies this side of the Drackenridge Mountains.  You have very good odds of getting to Thatchholm alive.  I have to get my armor on!  I'll see you at the doors!”  she hastily ran off.
The three Equestrian ponies exchanged nervous glances.  “This is going to be unpleasant, isn't it?” Rarity said with a sigh.
“Well... we can do it!” Dash said with a stomp of her hoof.  “You heard Shield Maiden!  We've got the best of the best with us!  And we're not that lame either!”  She summoned as much of her courage as she could muster, willing herself to face danger with a smile.  She laughed.  “Let's go meet those komagas and kick their butts!”  She hovered in the air, kicking out with all four legs.  She was really getting into it now!  “Ha!  I bet when one of those big ugly komagas gets a glimpse of me flying right at 'em they'll-”
“Rainbow, we oughta finish our food!” Applejack said, hastening back to her porridge.
“Right!” Dash cried.  She blasted over to her porridge, picked up her bowl with both hooves, and slurped the whole great chunk of the stuff down in a single gulp.  “Done!” she cried, slamming the bowl back to the table.
Rarity looked like somepony had stepped on her tail.  She gaped at Dash with pained eyes.  “AAAAGGGHHH!” she screamed, falling on her stomach and pounding her hooves on the ground.  Several Daleponies looked quizzically at her, but returned to their food quickly- they had to be quick.
A few hurried mouthfuls of porridge later, the three travelers were clopping up the ramp to the dormitories, where they had to pass the rest of the Dale Guard briskly entering their rooms to armor up.  When she reached their room for the night, Applejack looked apprehensively at the hoof-axe lying next to the round bed.  I don't want to kill nothin', she thought.  But Ashtail had instructed her to put it on, and she had grown to value his judgment, if not fully trust it.  She slipped the leather band around her left front leg.  She took care to position the head of the axe facing out, at a slight angle.  Then she reached down with her mouth and began to lace up the cord, threading it between the holes with careful twists of her tongue.  When it was threaded through all the holes, she pulled it tight, and with more tongue-twisting she tied a tight knot to hold it in place.  She stood up.  It was surprisingly light on her leg.  Bouncing back on her rear legs, she gave it a swipe; it sang in the air.
“Whoa!  Watch it!” Rainbow Dash cried.
“Yes, please be careful with that thing,” Rarity said.  She slid the horn-blade onto her horn, and with magic fastened the leather straps to bind it tightly around her head.  It did give her an elegant and majestic appearance, but the white unicorn had no appreciation for this kind of beauty.
“Come on, y'all,” Applejack said, trotting out the door.  “No sense keepin' 'em waitin'.”
The three ponies headed down the ramp and turned sharply out the great double doors of Grazezeld.  The Dale Guard was almost fully assembled, a few stragglers hurriedly taking their place in the rows of earth ponies, their upright spears looking like a naked grove of trees.  They seemed to be more heavily armed today: nearly all of them had hoof-axes on one front leg.  Some had hoof-axes on both front legs.  At the front of the ranks, Shield Maiden stood, a hoof-axe on one leg, while high on the other leg a shield like her cutie mark was fastened.  Ashtail came trotting up behind them.  He had a hoof-axe on his right front leg, and he wore a knife in a leather holster on his left shoulder, just within reach of his mouth.  He surveyed the three Equestrian ponies.  “Was there no armor?” he asked Shield Maiden.
“None to spare,” she said.
“Hmm,” he muttered.  “You three will have to be careful, then.”  A long, rolling howl echoed across the fields.  The dark red earth pony grimaced.  “Very careful.”  He trotted forward, toward the ramp to the gates.  “Grazezeld Guard!” he yelled.  “The Marshal of the East embarks for Thatchholm to seek audience with the Lord of the Dale!  Grazezeld remains retired from judgment and arbitration!  You are to use your own discretion in opening and closing the gates of Grazezeld, as danger and safety shift!  OPEN THE GATES!”  The two ponies removed the thick wooden logs barring the heavy gates and began to push them open.
Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash took their places behind Shield Maiden.  Ashtail trotted back to the century of ponies and stood at Shield Maiden's side.  Before them, the gates groaned open, unveiling the fields gleaming gold in the rising sun.  “Here we go...” Rainbow Dash said, tensing herself.
“Dale Guard!  MOVE OUT!” Ashtail yelled.  The ponies launched themselves into a gallop, one row after the other in regular sequence.  They powered down the ramp and out onto the fields, where Ashtail and Shield Maiden banked hard to the left.  The ponies curved around the corner of Grazezeld, galloping past the foundation and pointing themselves due west.  Their pace rapidly matched what they had achieved the previous day, and Rarity's muscles instantly complained.  But she kept up as best she could.  The fastness quickly fell behind them, and they were off.  Applejack looked over her shoulder; Grazezeld was already a small spot on the horizon.
Rarity's muscles only hurt more as they traveled further.  She forced herself to push on, wanting to travel through what she knew was dangerous territory as quickly as possible.  The news about the komagas had put their journey across Gildedale in an uncertain new light.  Even if they could convince Lord Hammer Hoof to let them pass through his kingdom, would it be safe?  She doubted very much that he would give them an escort; what she had learned of him did not paint him as the charitable sort.  Applejack had told Rarity and Rainbow Dash what Ashtail had told her about the komagas, and it was enough to give Rarity a new round of dreams the previous night, these decidedly unpleasant.  My dreams keep getting more vivid, too, she thought, and for the first time it occurred to her that perhaps her magic was seeping into her subconscious.  Unicorns did not typically dream prophetic dreams.  Indeed, seeing the future was not standard magic at all: fortune telling was superstition and scrying was folk magic.  But newspaper clippings and family stories and even scholarly medical journals were filled with records of unicorns affected by magical influences that resulted in glimpses of the future.  Yet she had dreamed nothing that resembled what they were facing now.  Perhaps she needed an interpreter?  She wished Zecora were here, or even Twilight, though she knew the lavender unicorn would scold her for putting any stock in prophecies.
The golden fields rushed past them as they traveled, the sun pursuing its course across the sky.  Presently, Ashtail called “Dale Guard, WHOA!!” and the ranks slowed to a trot, before he cried again, “Heel!” and they stopped.  “Sharp Sound,” he said over his shoulder, and the black Dalepony swiveled his long ears around.
“Nothing yet, Captain,” he said.
“Dale Guard!  You have twenty minutes!  LUNCH!”
The earth ponies immediately broke ranks, but they did not lose their organization.  They began splitting off in groups of three and four, roaming away from their captain and lowering their heads to nip at the grass growing beneath their hooves.  Ashtail turned to the three Equestrian ponies.  Applejack and Rainbow Dash were standing alert, panting, their coats streaked with sweat.  Rarity had collapsed to the ground, the blade on her horn resting on the earth as she laid down her head.  She swiveled a sapphire blue eye up at him.  “Oh, do forgive me, sir,” she murmured, struggling to her feet.
“Take this opportunity to eat,” Ashtail told them.  “We won't be stopping again until we reach Thatchholm.”  He turned away from them and began to walk with his head low, sniffing at the ground as he slowly moved along.
Applejack glanced at her friends, then followed after the dark red earth pony.  “What are you lookin' for?” she asked.
“I had thought there would be a plot of carrots somewhere in here,” he said without looking up.  “I hoped some of them might be ready to eat, though if there's not enough for the whole Guard I won't bother.”
Applejack shook her head.  “I still can't rightly figure how y'all farm without constant tendin' o' the crops,” she admitted.
“I told you, the crops we grow are partly wild,” Ashtail responded.  “They don't need the attention that your crops in Ponyville need.  Just some rain now and then, and some organization by whatever Dalepony happens to stumble onto them-”
“So whoever finds 'em farms 'em?”
“It's part of our duty to the kingdom,” he said, raising his head and looking at her.  “Everypony a farmer, everypony a builder, everypony a teacher.  The Guard is the only specialized part of our society.”
The orange earth pony shook her head.  “But that means y'all don't get as much done.  If I had to take turns doin' every job in Ponyville, I wouldn't be good at any of 'em.”
“You'd be surprised how proficient a pony can get,” he said.  “Besides, it preserves our freedom.”
“I thought this was all because o' the komagas,” Applejack said.
“Much of it is,” Ashtail told her.  “But even if we could settle down and specialize into jobs, I do not believe I would want to.  As we live now, ponies are free to roam the land: they are at home in whatever fastness or patch of grass they lay their head in, they can travel anywhere they like without fear of trespassing, and they are provided for without any need to assign them a job or tie them to a salary.”  He slowly smiled.  “I think it's how ponies were meant to live.”
Applejack blinked her green eyes.  “I don't agree,” she said.  “It sure sounds like how ponies used to live; I'll bet that's what things were like in Equestria before we got real settled.  But just 'cause that's how things started don't mean that's how things are supposed to be.  A little progress is good.”
“But when you move forward, you have to leave something behind,” he said.  “That's the way it works, right?  We preserve our way of life because changing it would mean the loss of the freedom we cherish.”
Applejack smiled.  “You sound like Rainbow the other day.  All this talk o' freedom... but how safe is it?  What about your foals?  How do you bring them up?”
“Our foals are educated as they need to be,” Ashtail said.  “We teach them how to speak, how to figure, how to tend the crops and maintain the borders.  When the komaga running is finished for the year, the wise old ones among us will lead troops of sons and daughters from one end of Gildedale to the other, teaching as they go.  Our foals learn with their minds as they learn with their legs, and they know what they need to know in union with the land where they need to know it.”
Applejack pondered his words.  So they had a kind of school after all, but it didn't seem very complete- nothing like what Apple Bloom got at school in Ponyville.  But from the sounds of things, they didn't need that level of schooling in Gildedale, because Gildedale didn't seem to have jobs, or money, or any of the social framework she was used to in Equestria.  It was so different, however similar the ponies themselves were.  “I guess I can see some advantages,” she admitted, surprising herself.  Could she?
Ashtail gave her a smile.  “Oh, you can?”  He stepped closer.  “Like what?”
She grinned.  “Well, all y'all seem to be very brave,” she said.  “And real common-sensical, too.  And loyal- y'all seem real loyal.”
“We value all of those things,” the dark red earth pony said.  “And you do too, it would seem.”
“I do,” Applejack said.  “But in Equestria we come by 'em our own way.”
“And in Gildedale we have our ways.”
Applejack chuckled.  “I guess neither way's really so bad...”
A howl burst through the air- very close.  Ashtail and Applejack whipped their heads around.  “Too close,” the dark red earth pony growled.  “Dale Guard!  ASSEMBLE!!”  The ponies quickly converged.  Another howl rang across the fields.  “Sharp Sound!” Ashtail barked.
“From the south, four miles- and closing!” Sharp Sound said.  “They're coming for us.”
A ripple of fear ran through the Daleponies.  Rarity's eyes went wide, facing the prospect of meeting the terrible creatures about which she'd heard.  “Dale Guard!” Ashtail barked, snapping them all to attention.  “Battle Formations!  Base Guard, Midguard, Vanguard, form up and assume positions, due south!”  He turned to Shield Maiden.  “Lieutenant, plant the flag!”
Shield Maiden reached back into her armor and yanked a rolled up flag out from some hidden crevice.  It was triangular, the dark red background with the spreading golden grass.  One of the stouter earth ponies had mounted two spears on his armor; the gray earth pony took one and stuck it in the ground, then reached up with her mouth and slid the flag down the shaft, where it immediately began to flutter.  A sharp wind was picking up, billowing the grass and the ponies' manes.  As Shield Maiden worked, the Guard broke up again, this time splitting into large waves that began to advance to the south.
Rainbow Dash felt an itch deep in her bones.  You wanted action, she told herself, here it is!  She willed herself not to be afraid.  She willed herself to think that no creature in the world could withstand the full force of RAINBOW DASH, and she pawed the ground with her hoof.
“You three!” Ashtail called to them.  “The Guard forms three waves in the face of a komaga attack.  The Base Guard will stay around the flag and protect our position- they keep us from retreating.  The Midguard stays ahead and receives the komagas before they reach the flag.  The Vanguard charges out and meets the komagas head on, past the Midguard.  Choose your positions!”
“Oh, my goodness!” Rarity cried.  “I'd really rather stay here!”
“I'm on Base Guard, Rarity!” Shield Maiden said.  “You can stay with me.”
“I guess I'll be in the Midguard,” Applejack said, though it twisted her stomach.  She didn't want to fight!  “How about you, Rainb-”
“I'm going to the front!” the sky-blue pegasus shouted, stomping her hoof on the ground.  She snorted loudly from her nostrils, flapped her wings, lifted off the ground with a rustle of wind.
“So be it!” Ashtail said.  “Rainbow Dash, come with me!  I lead the Vanguard!  Applejack, the Midguard is already in position!  Rarity, your duty is not to move!  Do not let the komagas push us from here!  Shield Maiden, the flag is yours!”
“Yes, sir!” Shield Maiden said, thumping her chest with a hoof.
“You all be careful!  Promise me you will!” Rarity cried.  “I couldn't live if something happened to either of you!”
“You look after yourself for a bit, sugarcube,” Applejack said, nuzzling Rarity reassuringly.  “We'll tend to our business.”
“Come on!” Ashtail shouted.
Ashtail and Applejack galloped forward, rushing over the fields that suddenly seemed increasingly tall and hilly.  The golden plains rolled beneath them as they rushed toward the front, Applejack slowing when she saw the spreading wave of ponies that made up the Midguard.  It made her nervous now for practical reasons: all the Midguard was pulling out their spears, and that was another thing she lacked.  I'll just have to stick close to one of 'em, she thought.  She spotted Birdspeak and headed toward her.  “Be safe!” she shouted to Ashtail and Rainbow Dash as they pulled away from her.
“You too!” he said over his shoulder.
Now it was just Ashtail and Rainbow Dash, the latter flying low to the ground.  The dark red earth pony was running flat-out now, and his pace was surprising; she actually had to put forth some effort to keep up with him.  The Vanguard was up ahead, their spears bobbing on their flanks as they rushed over the golden grass.  Rainbow Dash climbed, surging over him and looking out across the golden fields.  The horizon was at first unbroken, but when she went a little higher, she could see: dark shapes squirming on the line between gold and blue.
Ashtail reached the rest of the Vanguard.  “SPEARS OUT!” he shouted, and the earth ponies reached back for their spears in unison, a single motion of long wood leveling out, the sharp tips almost tingling in anticipation.  Nervous energy crackled in the air, whipped to a frenzy by the wind.
Dash was breathing hard.  She had never before entered battle.  She had fought before- she'd fought more than her share of fights, her loud mouth and arrogant pride getting her into plenty of trouble all through flight school, right up to the day she was kicked out.  She wasn't ashamed!  Her mother told her that she was unique, and that she should be proud of that, so she was.  But this was different.  This wasn't about defending your honor.  This was life and death.  There could be killing today.  Am I ready for this?, she wondered.
Fear not.  That's what Shield Maiden had said.  Rainbow Dash had faced fear so many times, and each time she had beaten it.  Fear kept getting back up- but she kept knocking it back down.  If fear wouldn't quit, neither would she!  This is for Twilight Sparkle!, she thought, her friend's dire need flashing in her mind.  This is for Rarity!  She thought of the white unicorn's frightened terror; she didn't want to see her heartbroken.  This is for Applejack!  This is for Shield Maiden and Ashtail and all the other ponies!  If it was kill or be killed, she'd charge forward, and she wouldn't be the one to die!  “EQUESTRIA!!!” she shouted in a battle cry!  She reared back, flared her wings, and blasted forward.  A rainbow streak and a clap in the air gave testament to her speed and power.
Ashtail's eyes bulged.  “WAIT!” he shouted in the pegasus' wake.  “LET THEM COME T-” but Dash was already out of hearing.
The sky-blue pegasus flew faster and faster, the world stretching into a blur around her.  There were a dozen komagas ahead of her now, and in less than an eyeblink she was right in their midst!
Her first thought was that they were giant lizards.  Nothing fancier than what Ashtail had told Applejack.  Second glances revealed some differences.  They had stocky, muscular bodies atop thick legs.  Their legs weren't really splayed to the side like smaller lizards' legs, but held under their bodies like those of a pony.  The front legs ended in something like a hand, a huge paw with long fingers and even longer claws.  The back legs ended in flatter, shorter paws with duller, shorter claws.  Their long tails ended in tapering tips like a whip.  They had a medium-length neck, again different from a small lizard, and at the end of it was the head, long yet thick, ending in a rounded snout.  They had eyes on either side of their head.  The eyes were dull yellow, with slits for pupils.  They had scaly skin colored dark gray, and their claws were dull white.
In another instant Dash flew past them.  Coming to a halt, she whirled around and looked back.  The komagas were still surging forward, galloping almost like a pony.  They had missed her completely!  She scowled; they wouldn't ignore her for long!  She flew back to the head of the herd and aimed right at the leader, bigger than the others.  She streaked right up to it, yelled “Take THAT!” and kicked it squarely in the mouth.
The komaga roared, and then it reared up on its hind legs, and Dash watched it tower over her.  It was huge.  Oh yes, it was enormous, it was massive, a giant, not as big as the dragons she'd seen, not as big as the Ursa Minor, but the biggest thing she'd ever seen after those two.  It swiped its front paws at her like a bear and she spun to the side, dodging the blow that would have knocked her head off from its sheer force.  The komaga slammed down and opened its mouth, and rows of sharp teeth gleamed.  It snapped at Dash and she swung back, cartwheeling in the air and kicking the komaga in the mouth again.  It roared and gave her a swipe with its front paw, then spun with heavy slowness and kicked at her with a back paw, and finished with a swipe of its tail, the thin end cracking the air like a bullwhip.  All of these Rainbow Dash dodged, and she laughed.  “Gimme your best shot!” she taunted.  The komaga swiped at her.  “Too slow!  Gimme your best shot!” Slash!  “Too slow!”  She glanced out of the corner of her eye.  The other komagas were still moving forward and had left her behind.  “Let's play keep up!” she called, flying backwards.  The komaga roared, and followed her, snapping at her with its jaws, but she kept just out of reach.  She looked back over her shoulder; she could just make out the Vanguard.  Dash grinned at the komaga, flitting to the side to dodge another paw.  “Time to take you out!” she cried.  She flew in a circle around the komaga, then another circle, faster and faster and faster and the wind whirled, whipping into a tornado.   The great lizard sank its claws into the ground, but Dash kept spinning, and the twister grew stronger.  Finally the beast was ripped up and hurtled into the air, rising over her head and corkscrewing, bouncing off the walls of moving wind.  Then Dash stopped.  She blasted away, and the tornado collapsed, sending the komaga crashing down.  It hit the fields with a faint crunch.
Rainbow Dash flitted back above the beast, lying prone on the ground.  It didn't move.  Her smile faltered- what did I just do?!  She had been caught in the intensity of the action.  Had she really intended to kill the thing?  She slowly flapped closer-
A huge paw raised up and slashed.  She backed away, but the claws caught her tail and dragged her to the ground.  She hit it hard and the air was knocked out of her lungs, dazing her and leaving her prone.  She sputtered and rolled over; the beast had broken a back leg but was still right above her, and it opened its jaws, teeth like meat cleavers, eyes wild and mad-
THUNK.
The komaga howled and jerked away.  There was a spear growing out of its neck.  Sharp Sound blurred into the corner of her vision, a black streak tinged with dark red leather.  The Dalepony reared on his back legs, wrapped his front legs around the spear, and shoved.  A second howl died in the komaga's throat as the sharp steel pierced its neck completely.  Sharp Sound pulled the spear tip back into the neck and twisted.  The komaga's head gave a freakish jerk to the right, then the beast collapsed, tongue lolling out.
Dash was panting.  Her eyes were wide.
“Are you all right?” Sharp Sound asked her.  He pulled the spear out of the dead lizard and trotted to her side.  “Are you all right?”
Dash shook herself.  “I'm fine,” she said.  Shakily, she pulled her tail free, got to her hooves.  “What about the others?”
“The Vanguard's already engaged the komagas- they've got a few of them occupied, but some broke through.”
“What?!”
“Some always break through,” the black earth pony said.  “That's why we have the Midguard and the Base Guard.”
“Applejack!  Rarity!” she cried.  “We have to help them!”
“What we have to do is kill or drive off the komagas that have engaged us- that's the point of the Vanguard.  Then we help the other guards.  There's no sense running off to them and letting our round of komagas through, then they'd just have to deal with more of them.”
The sky-blue pegasus nodded.  “Right, right, I get it.”
“Come on,” he said, turning.  “Oh, also,” he narrowed his violet eyes, “go for the head and the neck.  It's the only way to guarantee a kill.”
Kill.  Right.  “Do you wanna work together?” she asked.
Sharp Sound gave her a sidelong glance.  “Sure.  That tornado you summoned could be handy.  Now let's go!”
Eight komagas were barreling toward the Midguard.  Applejack bounced on her hooves.  The ponies around her leveled their spears.  She was standing near Birdspeak.  “I don't know if you've noticed, but I ain't got no spear.”
“I'll handle the spearwork.  If I cripple one, you can cut it down to finish it.  Aim for the neck!”  The brown Dalepony clenched her spear tightly in her teeth.  She dug her hooves into the ground, and her body suddenly went rigid.  “Stand firm!” she said through her teeth.
Applejack nodded.  She sidled some distance from Shield Maiden, dug her hooves into the ground, and focused her mind.  Loyalty, she thought.  That's what Ashtail had told her.  Her love and her devotion to her friends and family would be the strength she needed to become immovable in the face of danger.  She focused on that now.  She thought about Twilight Sparkle.  The lavender unicorn was depending on her to get her the cure to the Horn Rot in time.  She thought of her family- that was something Applejack knew all too well.  She thought of Big Macintosh, Granny Smith, Apple Bloom.  She thought of Ashtail...  Why am I thinkin' of him?, she wondered.  The dark red earth pony surged to the front of her mind.  It didn't make any sense, but she felt as loyal to him as she felt to her friends and family right now.  Don't ponder about it- just use it!  So she thought of Ashtail along with the rest.  Her body suddenly tensed, strength flowing from her hooves up her legs.  She could actually sense the earth beneath her.  She looked ahead.  The komagas were almost there, huge and awful.  Two of them were barreling side-by-side toward her.  The orange earth pony breathed hard, determined to face the monsters with boldness.  She suddenly wished she had some rope.  They moved closer and closer-
They passed her completely, one on either side.  It took her a moment to realize it.  She turned and watched them run.  They didn't seem to have any interest in turning around...
“Go after them!” Birdspeak shouted, taking up her spear in her mouth.  “Don't let them reach the flag!”
Applejack nodded and galloped away, quickly catching up to the rushing beasts.  Birdspeak came around the komaga on the right and gave it a slash with her spear, causing it to veer and attack her.  Applejack leveled with the other one, coming up to its head, and glanced across, looking into its yellow eye.  It surprised her.  There was none of the calm alertness of a predator.  The komaga's eye was alive with madness- with panic.  But why?
“Attack!” Birdspeak yelled, swiping the beast before her with her hoof-axe.  “ATTACK!”
The orange earth pony gathered herself, galloped faster, getting out in front of the massive lizard.  Then she planted her front hooves, twisted to the side, and bucked!  Her hooves cracked the komaga hard in the jaw, sending it skidding away from her.  With a howling roar it faced her, opening its mouth full of razor sharp teeth and charging.  She suddenly realized just how big it was, how imposing and immense; fear overcame her, and all thoughts of standing firm vanished.  It gnashed its teeth, and she flailed, striking out with her hoof-axe.  She nicked the great lizard on the lip, a dribble of golden blood squirting out.  The komaga reared back and swiped again with its paw.  Applejack danced to the side, but she was hit by the back of the scaly forelimb, sending her flying.  Her hat flew off her head; she shook herself, struggling to get shakily to her feet.
A red blur streaked along the komaga's side suddenly and made it howl in pain.  Ashtail broke away and skidded to a stop, his spear between his teeth, its tip dripping blood; he glared angrily at the enormous lizard.  The komaga turned to face him, and once more Applejack saw that panic in its eyes, the mad desperation.  But it lunged, swiping with both of its massive paws.  Ashtail rolled to the side, somehow spinning the spear between his four legs while keeping them all on the ground!  The long weapon twirled between his legs, then came out and he spun it around his neck.  He reared back, took the spear between his hooves, and thrust, catching the komaga in the cheek.  It lunged at him again, but his whole body went rigid, and he held the spear out between his teeth and the komaga fell onto it, its own weight thrusting the speartip deep into its shoulder.  Pulling away, the great lizard staggered back; the dark red earth pony sprang to his hooves and leapt atop it.  He turned the head of his hoof-axe around, facing the blade inward, scooted down the swaying komaga's body to its neck, and sliced-
Applejack turned away.  It hadn't seemed a fair fight, to be honest.  Ashtail trotted over to her.  The head of his axe was covered in gold, his leather armor scuffed.  “Are you all right?” he asked her.
She blinked a few times.  “I'm fine,” she said.  She was ashamed that he had done all the work- he had saved her like she was some damsel in distress.  “Sorry I didn't help.”
“You can help me now,” he said, trotting over to her hat and picking it up with his teeth.  He offered it to her.  “There are three komagas headed toward the flag, and the Base Guard is the smallest of our three waves.  I need to go head at least one of them off- come with me?”
Applejack flipped her hat back onto her head.  “Sure,” she said, though she was still feeling uneasy.  A whistle on the wind made her turn her head; a tornado rose up in the distance.  Rainbow seems to be helpin' well enough, she thought.
Shield Maiden turned her right side to the komaga, and its claws bounced off her shield.  “Rarity!” she called over her shoulder.  “Can you use your magic?”
The white unicorn's wide eyes flickered across the scene: the twenty Daleponies were warily striking at the three enormous lizards that had attacked their position.  Shield Maiden and five others were dancing around the one nearest her, which snapped its jaws and lunged at one of them, a brown earth pony with gray eyes.  The wicked teeth scraped against the armor on the Dalepony's back, leaving deep gouges in the leather, but his flesh was unharmed; he slashed up with his hoof-axe and nicked the great jaw.  The komaga spun around with surprising speed and whipped its long tail, knocking several of the ponies off their hooves.  Shield Maiden stabbed it with her spear, but it ignored her and loomed over another pony-
“No!” Rarity cried.  Her horn shimmered, and she could feel a great surge of power, more than she was used to.  The crystal horn-blade on her head lit up from within, shone brilliant white, the golden vines etched onto it gleaming.  The Dalepony was yanked away from the komaga, skidding across the ground further than she had intended.  She glanced briefly up at the horn-blade: had it just amplified her magic?  She used her telekinesis again, this time on all the fallen ponies, pulling them safely away from the lizard.
A howl broke through her thoughts, and she turned, and she screamed.  A fourth komaga had appeared, and it was barreling right toward her!  She turned tail and ran, ignoring Shield Maiden's cries to hold.  The beast was still on her tail, and it was gaining ground quickly.  Then the worst thing that could have happened, happened: she tripped.  The white unicorn tumbled to the ground, and looking back over her shoulder saw the komaga nearly upon her.  Rolling onto her back, she faced it as it came, and suddenly, struck with courage, she summoned her magic.  “Ruffian!  Brute!” she shouted, collecting her telekinesis around the lizard's head and jerking it hard to the side.  The komaga staggered as though it had been struck.  Rarity smiled at herself for her bravery, but then realized the komaga hadn't actually been hurt.  And now it was angry.
It howled at her and lunged, and she struggled to her hooves.  Skipping away from it with inches to spare, she ran, and it followed, its slower pace more than made up for by the length of its stride.  The white unicorn's path abruptly came to a halt- she had run up to the summit of a particularly tall and steep hill, and she was at the edge.  “Aah!” she screamed, turning around.  The komaga advanced on her, mouth open, teeth gleaming in the early afternoon light.  It charged her, and she had nowhere to go, and it lunged-
Rarity ducked.
The beast sailed over her, skidding along the ground behind her.  The dirt began to give way.  Suddenly she felt a horrible pull on her tail.  She began to slide backwards, and she turned her head to see the komaga biting down on her tail, taking her with it as it slid further toward the edge of the hill.  She scraped at the ground with her hooves, but she was no match for its horrible strength.  “Let go!” she screamed.  The komaga clawed uselessly at the earth.  They continued to slide backwards, more of the hilltop beginning to give way; the great lizard's massive weight was collapsing it faster.  In desperation, Rarity remembered her magic.  She focused her power on the komaga's jaws and pulled with all her might, forcing them apart.  She was getting closer to the descent, the komaga's grip on her tail still ironclad.  Come on!, she thought, focusing with all her might.  Beads of sweat began to break out on her forehead-
She forced open the komaga's jaws.  Her tail was free, and she stopped her slide just as the ground gave way beneath the beast.  It tumbled off the hilltop.  It didn't fall far- but when it hit the ground, it landed right on its head with a sickening crunch.
Rarity rolled back onto the top of the hill.  She glanced off the crumbled side gently, seeing the body of the komaga sprawled on the ground below.  Something snapped in her head.  “Aah!” she screamed again.  She turned around and ran, ran down the hill, ran all the way down, running to the base, swinging the blade on her horn wildly.  “Aah!  Aah!  Aah!”  Her eyes were wide.
“Rarity!”  Shield Maiden called, running down the hill toward her.  “Rarity, wait!”  She ran ahead of the white unicorn and blocked her path, rearing up and catching her between her front hooves.  Rarity heaved herself forward, but the gray earth pony held firm.  She looked into Rarity's blue eyes, filled with panic and fear.  So like the eyes of the komagas.  “Rarity, it's all right!” she said, wrapping her front hooves around her.  “It's dead!  It's dead!”
Rarity breathed in and out in great heaves.  She shuddered against Shield Maiden's body, closing her eyes tightly.  Slowly, she calmed down, her breathing returning to normal.  She opened her eyes.  “Thank you, Shield Maiden,” she said softly.  “I... I don't know what came over me.”
Shield Maiden released her, nuzzled her.  “Fear.”
The white unicorn turned away.  “You told me not to be afraid...” she murmured, flattening her ears.  “I'm sorry... I've let you down.”
“It was your first taste of battle- you said so yourself.”  Shield Maiden smiled at her.  “Besides, I thought you were very brave.”
Rarity smiled.  Shield Maiden released her, and the two of them trotted up the back side of the hill.  When they reached the top, they saw Ashtail and Applejack gathered  with a cluster of the Base Guard around the flag.  The dark red earth pony burst from them, and Shield Maiden left Rarity's side to meet him.  “Lieutenant, your report?” he asked.
“Four komagas dead.  I don't know if there were any more that got through.”
“I fell back to the Midguard, and they were handling about three.  The Vanguard did its job for five.”  He swiveled his ears around.  “I don't hear them any more... but Sharp Sound is with the Vanguard.”
“I think we've gotten them all, Captain,” Shield Maiden said.  Her face turned grim.  “Did we lose anypony?”
Turning away from her, Ashtail galloped out into the field, the golden grass broken here and there by the massive body of a komaga.  “DALE GUARD!  ASSEMBLE!!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.  “DALE GUARD!  ASSEMBLE!!”  He galloped far afield, shouting over and over.  “DALE GUARD!  ASSEMBLE!!  DALE GUARD!  ASSEMBLE!!”  A rumble filled the air, growing into a thunder as the Daleponies appeared over the hills.  They were scraped and scuffed; some of them were missing leather plates; a few bled.  Applejack and Rarity were overjoyed to see Rainbow Dash fly in with the gathering earth ponies.  She spotted them and landed neatly beside them as the Dale Guard formed its orderly rows.  Ashtail galloped into view, trotting anxiously toward the Guard.  When a few minutes passed and no more ponies came, he trotted rapidly down the length of the group, counting under his breath.  Nineteen rows of five, one row of three.  Shield Maiden.  Rarity.  Rainbow Dash.  Applejack.  Himself.  He breathed slowly out as he returned to Shield Maiden.  “Everypony's here- thank the gods.”
Rainbow Dash nuzzled Applejack and Rarity.  “Are you girls all right?” she asked.
“A mite scuffed, but not too bad,” Applejack said.  “How about you, sugarcube?”
Dash looked away.  “Oh, I'm fine,” she said softly.  “I... I was a big help.”
The orange earth pony leaned in closer.  “Did you kill anything?”
“I don't want to talk about it,” Dash said.
“Please do, Rainbow,” Rarity said.  “You simply must.  You won't feel better until you do.”
The sky-blue pegasus shook her head.  “I didn't actually do any killing.  But I helped.  I helped a lot.  Those things don't take falls very well.  I worked with the rest of the Vanguard.”  Her rose eyes wavered.  “I've... never actually used weather to hurt anything before.”
“Ponies of Equestria!” Ashtail's voice broke into their midst.  Turning, the three saw him standing with Shield Maiden at the head of the Dale Guard.  “We have a long way to go yet before we reach Thatchholm.”
Nodding, Applejack led the way as they advanced to their assigned place.  “Please let's talk later, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity whispered.  The sky-blue pegasus nodded as they took their places behind Ashtail and Shield Maiden.
“Dale Guard!  MOVE OUT!!”  The ponies resumed their previous mighty pace, leaving the killing fields behind.
The world rushed on around them as they galloped, pushing further and further west.  Applejack's mind was consumed by a single image, an image that had haunted her since her first glimpse of it: the panic in the eyes of the komagas.  They hadn't looked ready to attack at all.  In fact, she was sure they would have continued to run past if the Dale Guard hadn't attacked them first.  They reminded me o' somethin', she thought.  Those eyes, that frantic pace, they had brought to mind an idea that was on the tip of her tongue.  If only she could recall what it was.  “Rainbow?” she called over to Rainbow Dash.  “When you were attackin' them komagas, how long did it take you to get their attention?”
The sky-blue pegasus churned her mind as she ran.  She didn't really want to think about the komagas, because that brought to mind all the times she had lifted them up into the air with her tornadoes, only to drop them, send them crashing down, see them break tails or legs or even necks.  She hadn't technically killed any of them... but there was one.  There was one she had broken the neck of, and it had obviously been dying.  The Dalepony that came to slice its throat had been unnecessary.  She had drifted close and looked into its eye as it struggled.  It had stared at her stupidly, as though it had no idea what was going on.  Dash blinked.  It had made her feel horrible.
“Rainbow?” the orange earth pony called again.
Dash focused on the question she was asked.  “I guess... I had to attack them first, and really hit at them to get their attention.”  She thought more.  “Honestly, they seemed distracted.  Like they were thinking about something else.”
“Somethin' else,” Applejack repeated.  The enormous lizards had been focused wholly on their forward progress.  They were oblivious to the world around them.  It was like-  Her eyes widened.  No, that couldn't be it, could it?  The komagas were agents of destruction, weren't they?  Ashtail had said so.  Ashtail couldn't be wrong.  Could he?
The sky was burning orange by the time the horizon was broken again.  Applejack had been stewing in her thoughts for several hours, always returning to that one idea.  She looked ahead and saw a structure on the horizon, already very large.  “Is that Thatchholm?” she yelled.
“Yes!” Ashtail cried over his shoulder.  “We approach the center of Gildedale.  You three had best get your arguments ready.”
Applejack swallowed.  No time to think about the komagas now.  She had to think about what she would say to Lord Hammer Hoof.  Ashtail had talked of him as hard and distant, but not cruel.  He was fiercely protective of Gildedale and its ponies, all of whom he considered surrogate children.  According to Ashtail, he was also very proud.
Thatchholm grew closer, and Applejack could tell it was enormous, dwarfing Grazezeld from the previous day.  No, it was past enormous.  Its size defied reckoning- was it really one big barn?  It quickly filled the whole of her vision, enormous timbers piled one on top of the other, fixed together with burnt red mortar and supporting slabs of solid stone.  The rocky foundation towered above the plain.  The floor plan of the structure was at least a third the area of all of Ponyville, and the foundation was even broader!  Huge stones were fixed together, slid into place so tightly that a sheet of paper could not have passed between them.  The basic design of Thatchholm was similar to Grazezeld, but on a much larger scale.  It had a huge round window at its summit that seemed to look down into not one, but two additional stories!  Gold and silver lined the edges of the roof.  And that roof- the name made more sense now.  Instead of wood timbers and planks, the roof was thatched with the golden grass of the plains.  It rippled in the fiery glow of the sunset, lines of pure gold running down its length likewise gleaming.  Across the top of the facing side, around the great window, an image had been carved in the wood, then stained white: ponies racing out of the shining golden aura surrounding the window, which Applejack supposed was meant to be the sun.  Is that where they think they come from, the sun?, she thought.
Rarity was likewise awed by the enormous building.  The sophistication of these Daleponies did not cease to amaze her, especially when it contrasted so sharply with their rustic surroundings.  She was astounded by the intricacy of the wooden etchings and the precious metals.  How did these ponies do so much without magic?  They built, they carved, they sculpted, all with their mere hooves.  She would have to ask one of them to give her a tour, if there was time.
Thatchholm continued to swell as they drew closer, coming up to a set of huge wooden gates set into the foundation, just as at Grazezeld.  They began to creak open, and a set of four Daleponies galloped out, all of them wearing armor and bearing spears.  “Dale Guard!  Whoa!” Ashtail called, and the ponies in his wake slowed to a trot.  The approaching ponies likewise slowed, until both groups came to a halt a few feet from each other.
Rarity noticed that the ponies from Thatchholm had devices on their champrons, the golden compass like Ashtail's, but where Ashtail had only a single silver arrow pointed to the right, to the east, these ponies had four silver arrows pointing every direction.  The one at the lead, a white earth pony with a black mane, raised a hoof.  “Hail, Ashtail, Marshal of the East!  What is your business at Thatchholm?”
Ashtail raised his own right hoof.  “Hail, Bright Tongue, Captain of the Royal Guard!”  He stepped to the right, Shield Maiden stepping to the left.  “I bring three travelers from Equestria found crossing the Eastern Quarter!  They seek audience with the Lord of the Dale, to sue for passage across the remainder of Gildedale!”
Bright Tongue did not hide his surprise at seeing the three Equestrian ponies.  “You know the law, Marshal.  Pegasuses and unicorns are not permitted in Gildedale.”  Rainbow Dash was clearly about to say something, but Rarity and Applejack both put hooves on her withers.
“At present they seek an audience, nothing more,” the dark red earth pony said.
Bright Tongue narrowed his eyes, glaring one by one at Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack.  “They will at least have that,” he finally said.  “Evening court will soon be in session; their audience will be at once.  Come!”  He turned, and the rest of the Royal Guards turned with him, heading back toward the gates of Thatchholm.
“Dale Guard!  Advance!” and Ashtail's ponies moved forward, trotting at an even pace.  Rarity didn't even notice the fatigue in her muscles; her nerves were working crazily.  This was it.  This would determine whether they would be allowed to cross the rest of Gildedale.  If they failed here...  Twilight Sparkle, Rarity thought, we can't let you down.  I can't let you down.
Thatchholm loomed high overhead as they passed through the double gates, so tall that ponies were actually standing on ledges built into them.  The stone ramp led them up on top of the foundation, where Rainbow Dash noticed for the first time several smaller buildings situated at the corners, each one the size of a normal house in Ponyville.  They had thatched roofs just like Thatchholm, but were constructed of stone.  The whole complex was the closest she had seen to a town in this country.  The gates creaked shut behind them.  Bright Tongue halted, and Ashtail called the Dale Guard to halt as well.  The white earth pony turned to face them again.  “I shall inform Counselor Checkboard of the Equestrians' arrival.  They are to be ready for their audience in twenty minutes.  In the meantime, Marshal, you will come with me, and we shall see about accommodations for your Guard.  Lord Hammer Hoof will want to know of your arrival as well.”
“Understood,” Ashtail said with a nod.  He turned around.  “Dale Guard!  DISMISSED!”  The earth ponies broke ranks, beginning to mill about.  “Be ready to disrobe and report to lodgings as assigned!”  His gaze fell on Shield Maiden.  “Lieutenant, will you stay with our guests?  Please prepare them for their audience.”
“Yes, Captain,” the gray earth pony said.
Ashtail turned back to Bright Tongue.  “Lead on, Captain,” and with that, he followed the Royal Guard Captain into the huge double doors of Thatchholm.
Shield Maiden gestured with her head, and the three Equestrian ponies followed her into the barn.  The interior was every bit as enormous as the exterior suggested.  Huge pillars of wood lifted the ceiling of a massive great hall,  and the ceiling flattened at the top where it was reinforced by wooden beams.  Flickering torches lined the pillars at their highest heights, alongside which small balconies protruded from the ceiling, a further hint that the structure was multi-storied; the large round window from the exterior could not be seen.  The Equestrians' eyes widened as they looked at the ceiling.  It was carved with intricate displays, each more marvelous than the last: there were shifting shapes locked in wavering combat, topped with what looked like antlers; there were starbursts and rays and what looked like crumbling mountains; there was a sun with a pony inside it; there was a strange creature flailing back before two winged unicorns; there were two columns of ponies separating, one galloping toward flat plains, the other toward mountains where the sun was rising.  Finally, there was a great carving of the branching grass symbol of Gildedale, covered in gold leaf.  It was at the very end of the hall, far off, and below it, a tall wooden ramp rose high off the ground, leveling off where they could not see.
Rarity glanced from side to side as they trotted; it seemed that between each set of pillars a hallway lined with torches branched off.  The Daleponies they passed lingered with wonder, staring at her and Rainbow Dash and turning to their fellows to whisper.  “Pardon me, Shield Maiden,” she asked, deciding to satisfy her curiosity, “but I have noticed so little in the way of trees in Gildedale.  Wherever did you get all this wood?”
Shield Maiden bobbed her head.  “Where exactly it came from, I don't think anypony knows,” she said.  “Thatchholm is almost as old as Gildedale itself.  But there is a large forest in the northeast, at the base of the Drackenridge Mountains.  Perhaps it came from there; that is where we found the wood to build the other fastnesses.  Although... I suppose it could have come from the Shimmerwood.  I'm not sure if they would have needed permission in those days.”
“Permission?” Rarity repeated.  “Permission from-”
“Lieutenant Shield Maiden!” a voice cried out through the hall; a hush fell over the Daleponies.  A painted white-and-rust colt with a white mane advanced on them, his eyes gray, his frame thin.  He had a cutie mark of a chess piece on his flanks, a black pony-headed knight.  He wore a simple golden necklace.
Shield Maiden nodded.  “Counselor Checkboard, I have brought the travelers.”
Checkboard peered intently at the three Equestrian ponies.  Applejack smiled brightly, Rainbow Dash grinned, Rarity nodded daintily.  “So you have,” he said.  “Court will be in session for the evening in ten minutes.  Due to the... strangeness if your business, you will be first to be heard.  Do the Equestrian travelers intend to speak for themselves?”
“We'd better get to!” Dash shouted.  “We've waited really long to-”
“They will be advocating their own case,” Shield Maiden said, stepping to the side to block Dash from view.  She took a deep breath.  “I would like to be announced as a second to their petition.”
The painted earth pony raised an eyebrow.  “Are you certain, Lieutenant?  The record cannot be modified after the fact.”
The gray earth pony's green eyes hardened.  “Are you questioning my decision-making, Counselor?”
The sudden surge of ferocity made Checkboard flinch.  “Not at all, Lieutenant.  You will be recorded as a second.”  He nodded to her.  “I must make the Court in order.  Equestrians,” he nodded to the three travelers, then turned and trotted up the tall wooden ramp.
Shield Maiden turned to face them.  “Have you any experience in court matters?”
“We've met Princess Celestia before,” Dash said.
“But hardly in a formal setting,” Rarity observed.  “Certainly never in an audience at the Solar Court.”
“It is enough here for you to be courteous,” Shield Maiden said.  “We do not stand much on pomp and circumstance.  The royals and their aides are as much warriors as they are rulers, even scrawny Checkboard.  Do not speak until spoken to, and answer all questions honestly.  Also,” she gave them a sympathetic look, “I think Applejack should do most of the talking.”
“Is there something wrong with Rainbow Dash and I?” Rarity asked sharply, though she already suspected the answer.
“An earth pony will be more credible in My Lord Hammer Hoof's eyes,” she admitted.
“I-I don't... I ain't...” Applejack stammered.  She had hoped Rarity could make the petition.  Applejack had never been good at formal announcements.  Besides, the white unicorn was so good at making everything sound formal and proper.
“Whoever wants to talk should talk!” Rainbow Dash said.  “I'm getting real tired of this thing you ponies have about pegasuses and unicorns!”
“Pegasi,” Rarity said weakly.
“Please,” Shield Maiden said.  “I say it because I want you to be successful.  If Applejack speaks, Lord Hammer Hoof will hear her words with a more open mind.  He does not think highly of pegasuses and unicorns, fairly or no.”
The sky-blue unicorn ground her teeth.  “Oh, fine!” she spat.  “If it'll let us get going and save Twilight, Applejack can talk!”
“But I just don't know,” the orange earth pony said.  “I've never been good at speakin' proper-like.”
“As long as you speak honestly, I believe he will listen,” Shield Maiden said.
Honesty.  Applejack could do that.  She was the incarnation of Honesty, after all.  “All right,” she said.
“We'll be right behind you, dear,” Rarity said.
A horn blew through the vast hall.  “That is the call to assemble,” Shield Maiden said.  She turned back to the ramp.  “Come,” and she led them forward.
At the top of the ramp, Rarity gasped.  A large, tall space greeted them, already filled with Daleponies, some armored, some bare, some with the golden necklaces Checkboard had worn.  A wine red carpet led from the end of the ramp to a raised stone dais, upon which was a broad throne of red wood, cushioned with a pillow of golden thread.  The dais stretched out into broad stone arms, and on either side of the throne a smaller wooden chair was placed.  Above and behind the throne was another circular window, rimmed with gold, with golden points stretching up, down, left, right.  In each point was set an enormous emerald.  Two Royal Guards stood at attention on either side of the throne, each plate of boiled leather sewed with golden thread, the branching grass symbol of Gildedale etched in gold and raised off their champrons.  Between the throne and the ramp were... trees.
Ashtail had called it the Timbered Court.  He had not spoken wrong.  Whole dead trees were rooted into the wooden floor all through the space, bleached white from untold years.  Their gnarled limbs stretched high above everypony's head, and they were full- the trees were full, full of leaves that glistened gold in the flickering torchlight.  Rarity glanced at the branch nearest her, saw the shimmer of the light across the leaves.  There was no mistaking it: the leaves didn't just shine like gold, the leaves were gold.  Thousands of gold tree leaves were neatly attached to the bleached white branches, until each tree was as full as if it were still alive.  She marveled at how much painstaking work must have been involved, how many years of labor and craft had gone into such a wonder.
“Look at that!” Dash said in a whisper, pointing straight ahead.  Applejack and Rarity looked.  The trees weren't the only things protruding from the floor.  A tall, thick slab of black rock rose up from a hole in the floor behind the throne, weathered and ancient.  Its base clearly lay below them, perhaps all the way down in Thatchholm's foundation.
“Are you looking at the Dale Stone?” Shield Maiden asked.
“Is that what that is?” Dash asked.
She nodded.  “We have been recording the history of our kingdom on it since the very beginning.  Each year, we carve a single line into the stone, telling of the most important thing to happen in Gildedale that year.  We have already filled up the back, and you can just see a few lines from this side at floor level there.”
Dash squinted her eyes, training her keen pegasus sight on the point where the stone rose from the hole.  There were several dozen lines carved, in small, thin slices.  If the lines were that small, there were probably hundreds of lines on the back of the stone, and hundreds more below them on the front.  “How old is Gildedale?” she asked.
“I don't know,” Shield Maiden said honestly.  “How old is Equestria?”
Rainbow Dash spoke the line that every Equestrian foal learned: “As old as the Sun and the Moon.”
“I don't think we're quite that old,” the gray earth pony said.
A horn blew from off to their right.  The ponies assembled amidst the trees grew completely silent.  Checkboard stepped out from between pillars on the right and stomped his hooves on the ground.  “Hail, Ashtail, Son of Hammer Hoof, Prince of Gildedale, Heir to the Throne, Marshal of the Eastern Quarter, Captain of the Dale Guard!”
Applejack's eyes widened.  Ashtail strode out, wearing a golden necklace set with a rounded emerald brooch.  The ponies around them bowed low, including Shield Maiden.  “Bow!” she hissed.  Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and finally Applejack lowered to their front knees.
Checkboard stomped his front hooves on the ground again; the ponies rose to their hooves.  He crossed over to the other side of the throne room.  Another horn blew, this time from the left.  For a third time he stomped his front hooves on the ground.  “Hail, Hammer Hoof, Son of Storm Chaser, Lord and King of Gildedale!”  Every pony bowed again, including Ashtail.
Heavy hooffalls thudded on the wood planking.  Unable to resist their curiosity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked up, earning them annoyed glares from Rarity.  An enormous dark red stallion walked slowly into view.  He was several heads taller than the Equestrian ponies- about the same height as Princess Luna, perhaps a bit taller.  He was powerfully built, enormous muscles bulging beneath his coat on his four legs, along his flanks, in his heavy chest.  He wore a golden crest around his neck, set with a large ruby.  His mane was slightly ragged, colored dirty yellow, and he had a beard of the same blond around his snout.  His eyes were blue and piercing, terrible in their intensity.  He walked closer to the throne, putting one hoof in front of the other-
Applejack was startled when his full body came into view.  Hammer Hoof was missing his right front hoof.  In fact, a good chunk of his right front lower leg wasn't there.  In its place was a thick false lower leg of bone-white ivory, covered with gold filigree where the hoof would be.  As the orange earth pony looked more closely, she saw that the Lord of the Dale walked with the faintest trace of a limp.
“His hoof was bitten off by a komaga when he was still a colt,” Shield Maiden whispered, seeing her friend looking.  “But it has never stopped him.”  She leaned in closer.  “I have ridden with him into battle, and I have seen him crack a komaga's skull with a single blow from that hoof.”
Hammer Hoof stopped in front of the throne.  Checkboard stomped his front hooves on the ground a fourth time, and everypony rose to their hooves.  Ashtail walked forward until he was just in front of Hammer Hoof.  He lowered his head.  “My Lord Hammer Hoof.”
Hammer Hoof worked his lips for a moment.  “Prince Ashtail,” he said in a deep and sturdy voice.  “You honor this court with your presence.”
“The honor is mine, My Lord,” Ashtail said.  Such strain and tension in his voice.
The great stallion nodded.  He walked to the throne, turned around, and slowly sat in it, placing his front hooves on the resting platform.  “The Timbered Court is in session!” he said sharply.  Ashtail took his seat in the chair to the right of the throne.
Checkboard trotted in front of the throne and bowed.  “My Lord Hammer Hoof, the evening's first petition is a matter of great importance.  Three ponies from Equestria have appeared in the land.  They request permission to travel across the remainder of Gildedale.  Lieutenant Shield Maiden seconds their petition.”
Hammer Hoof narrowed his eyes.  “Let them approach the throne.”
With a nudge from Shield Maiden, Applejack trotted out of the trees onto the dark red carpet, which cut a straight path to the throne.  Rainbow Dash and Rarity followed behind her, and behind them came whispers, the words 'pegasus' and 'unicorn' hissing through the air.
“Silence,” Hammer Hoof said.  He did not shout, but his voice was like a clap of thunder; all talk ceased.  The three travelers stopped in front of the throne.  Rarity bowed, and glanced at the other two, who bowed as well.  They rose to their hooves, and let the Lord of the Dale examine them for a minute.  They felt that he was staring into their hearts, peeling apart their layers, glancing at their very souls.  Was this magic?  Or simply the force of his spirit?  “What are your names?” he finally asked.
“Ah...” Applejack stammered.  She swept her hat from her head.  “I-I'm Applejack, m'lord, son o'... er, daughter o'... well, I come from Sweet Apple Acres, that's a farm, just outside o' Ponyville, in Equestria.  This here's Rainbow Dash,” she nodded at the pegasus, “and that there's Rarity,” and at the unicorn, “and they both come from Ponyville too.  It's just on the other side o' the Drackenridge Mountains.”
“What is your business in Gildedale?”  It was the same question Ashtail had asked, but the voice that asked it now rumbled like mighty thunder.
“Well, sir, one of our friends, a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle, had a terrible accident, and she came down with a disease, it's called Horn Rot.  Now she's real sick, and she might die, two weeks from the time she got it.  The only thing that can cure her in time is a flower called the Beneviolet, and it only grows in the Archback Mountains.”
“I know of the Beneviolet,” Hammer Hoof said.  He blinked carefully a few times. “You said your friend had two weeks.  When did you begin your journey?”
“It was five days ago, m'lord,” Applejack said.
Hammer Hoof's brow furrowed, and she immediately felt she'd said something wrong.  “It is more than two days' journey from here to the western border of Gildedale at swift gallop, and the Archback Mountains are further still.  You do not have enough time to retrieve the flower and return to save your friend.”
“Oh... well, m'lord, we don't need to worry about goin' back with the flower,” the orange earth pony said.  She trotted over to Rarity, opened one of her white saddlebags, and rummaged through it.  The bottle wasn't in that one.  She looked up, grinned hugely.  “Er, just a minute, m'lord,” she said.  Hammer Hoof did not look amused.  She rummaged through the other saddlebag and finally found it.  “Our friend has a dragon as a- well, he's kind o' like a secretary mixed with a pet mixed with a baby brother- anyway, he has magic fire he can use to send messages and small objects from one place to another instantly.  He gave some to us.”  She held up the bottle of dragonfire, which still swirled and burned purple and green.  “All we need to do is burn the Beneviolet with this fire and it'll go right back to him.”
The Lord of the Dale set his mouth in a narrow line.  “Can you demonstrate this fire and its powers?”
“Uh...” Applejack murmured, “no, m'lord, this is all we got, and we can't waste it.”
“Then you cannot prove it does what you say,” Hammer Hoof said.  “Indeed, none of your story can be proven.”
“Please, m'lord,” Applejack said, trying not to sound like she was begging.  “Our friend really is in danger.  I know you're worried... about us, but all we wanna do is help her.  You have to believe us.”
Hammer Hoof brought his real front hoof to his chin, giving his beard a gentle scratch.  He set it back down.  “Equestrian ponies are not permitted in our land without our consent,” he said.
“I've heard that, m'lord,” Applejack responded.  “And believe me, if we'd known, we would o' sent a message ahead.  But we were in such a hurry we didn't have time to really learn much about your kingdom.”  She smiled gently, in what she hoped was supplication.	
Hammer Hoof passed another long stretch in silence.  Finally, he nodded.  “Very well.  You may pass through my kingdom, both further west and on your return journey.”
Applejack gasped.  She beamed, grinning from ear to ear.  “Well, howdy-doody!  That's mighty big o' you, m'lord!  You don't know what this means to us!”  She put her hat back on her head.  “We'll leave right away!  You don't have to put us up for the night or nothin'!  So don't worry about-”
“You may pass through my kingdom, earth pony,” the Lord of the Dale said.  “You, and you alone.”
Applejack blinked hard a few times.  “What?”
“Your friends will be escorted back to the Drackenridge Mountains,” Hammer Hoof said.  “You may all stay in Thatchholm tonight before you part ways.”
“What?!” Rainbow Dash growled.  “You can't do that!”
“Pegasi and unicorns are not permitted in Gildedale,” Hammer Hoof said, his voice hardening.  “That is the law, and I shall uphold it.”
“There's nothin' wrong with pegasi or unicorns, least of all just one o' each!” Applejack said.  “What harm could they do?  Why forbid 'em now, when they've already come so far?”
“Because it always begins with one,” the dark red stallion rumbled.  “First one, then two, then a dozen, and soon they are all here, and Gildedale as we know it- Gildedale as I have sworn to uphold and protect it- is gone, forever.  A pegasus and a unicorn in any capacity are forbidden here.  The damage they have already wreaked cannot be calculated-”
“Pardon me!” Rarity said, stepping forward and holding her head up proudly.  “I am sick of being talked about as though I am a thing!  I am a pony, and I shall be treated with the respect I am owed!”
“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash shouted, flapping into the air.  “We're ponies, just like you!  What's wrong with us?  Why do you treat us like freaks?”
Hammer Hoof glared at them for a moment.  “Because you are not just ponies,” he said.  “You are more than ponies.  You are beyond ponies.  Your wings, your magic- they let you do what earth ponies cannot do.  You can do all that we do, but we cannot do all that you do.  In this kingdom, all ponies share burdens equally, from the greatest to the smallest.  But there could never be equality with your kind in our midst.”
“My Lord-” Ashtail started.
“Prince Ashtail, I have not asked for your counsel!” Hammer Hoof snapped.  Ashtail looked away, his ears flattened.
“You may see 'em as bad and different, but they're my friends, and we get along just fine!” Applejack snarled.  “And I ain't goin' nowhere without 'em!”
“You will go on alone or you will not go on at all!” Hammer Hoof thundered.  He slammed his ivory hoof on the stone dais.  “That is my final decision!  This audience is-”
“My Lord!” a voice broke through from beyond the trees.  It seemed to come from far off.  “My Lord!”  Now it was closer.  Whispers rose from the assembled Daleponies.  The two guards at the throne stepped forward, pushing the Equestrian ponies aside; they brandished their spears.  A gray earth pony with a red mane and tail and a hawk for a cutie mark was shoving his way through the ponies that crowded around him.  The guards crossed their spears and blocked his path.  “Please!” he shouted.  “Please, I must see Lord Hammer Hoof!”
“Silence!” Hammer Hoof shouted, and it grew quiet again.  “Let him approach.”  The guards uncrossed their spears, and the gray pony stepped forward.  Applejack saw that he was trembling.  “What is your name, Dalepony?”
“Eagle Voice!” Ashtail suddenly cried.
The pony's eyes widened at the sight of the Prince.  “My Captain!  I didn't know you'd come!”
“You are Eagle Voice, then?”  Hammer Hoof said.  “From the Eastern Quarter, then?”
“Yes, My Lord!” Eagle Voice said weakly.  He bowed, and he almost fell over.  “I... I was on the twilight patrol, when Gasteon- that's my eagle, you see- he came and told me of an enormous komaga swarm.  I didn't believe him but he was insistent, so I followed him-” Eagle Voice's red eyes widened.  “My Lord, a massive herd of the komagas approaches!  I saw them just on the horizon, a solid wall of gray, at least fifty strong!  They are headed right for Thatchholm!  They will be here by morning!”
Panicked murmurs filled the air.  “Silence!” Hammer Hoof shouted yet again.  “You are certain of this?”
“I swear upon my father's name, My Lord!” Eagle Voice said.  “I ran... I ran all the way-”
“From the Eastern Quarter?  Just this evening?” Hammer Hoof said.  His expression softened.  “Counselor Checkboard, take this colt to a warm bath and some oats.”
“Yes, My Lord,” Checkboard nodded.
“Thank you, good Eagle Voice,” Hammer Hoof said.  “You may have saved us all.”
“Yes... the honor is mine, My Lord,” Eagle Voice said.  Checkboard sidled up to him, and the two turned and trotted off.
“This court is adjourned in state of emergency!” Hammer Hoof declared, his voice filling the throne room.  “All ponies present must prepare for battle on the morrow!”  He turned to Ashtail.  “It is good fortune indeed to have you and your Eastern Guard with us, Prince Ashtail.  The fight will be more even now.”
Ashtail nodded.  “That many komagas... they could climb on top of each other.”  Horror dawned on his face.  “They could scale the foundation!”
“Then we must meet them before they have the opportunity!” Hammer Hoof barked.  He rose from the throne, and Ashtail rose beside him.  “Captain Bright Voice, you and Prince Ashtail will sit with me in council tonight,” he said to the white Royal Guard captain at the front of the crowd.  “We must plan well if we are to survive- if the fields are to be covered in more gold than red.”  He stepped down from the throne, Ashtail following, and turned to the left.  “We must be prepared to kill more than we have ever killed-”
“You're wrong!”
Hammer Hoof stiffened.  The whole court fell silent.  He slowly turned around, his blue eyes burning with fury.  Applejack was standing where she had stepped out, her green eyes just as intense.  “What?” he growled.
Applejack was startled by his anger, but she swallowed her fear.  “You're wrong about the komagas!  And I don't think you need to kill 'em!”
Hammer Hoof walked toward her, his hooffalls hard as hammers on iron.  “Equestrian pony,” he growled, “we have been fighting the komagas since the very foundation of Gildedale.  Century after century they have ravaged our land, spilled our blood, and we have in turn spilled theirs.  Do you dare to tell us we are wrong about them?”
Applejack swallowed again.  “Yes, I do!  Because y'all are!  You're just too stubborn to admit it!  And I don't blame you- you've suffered a lot tryin' to fight 'em!  But I don't think y'all have to!”
“The komagas are bloodthirsty monsters!  You cannot fathom all that they have cost us!  Each and every pony in this throne room has lost something- or somepony- to the komagas!”
“They ain't monsters!  They're animals!” the orange earth pony cried.  “I know how you feel!  I know!  Because before I came here I felt the same way about all of y'all!”  She looked with gentle eyes at the Daleponies amidst the bleached trees.  “When I first heard about Gildedale, I thought y'all would all be barbarians.  I thought y'all didn't have any kind o' civilization.  I came here, I saw how empty it was, and I thought y'all were just wild animals.  I was wrong.  Y'all ain't like Equestrian ponies- but it don't make you barbarians.  It just makes you different.  I realize that now.  And I realize that different ain't bad.  It's just... different.”  She turned back to Hammer Hoof.  “The komagas- they're different, too.  They're way different.  But it don't make 'em bad.  And it don't make 'em worth slaughterin', not if you can help it.”
Hammer Hoof hissed through his teeth.  “I have no time for this!” he barked.  He turned around.  “Keep your nonsense to yourself!  I must-”
“I wager you!”
For the second time, Hammer Hoof stopped in his tracks.  For the second time, he slowly turned around.  In the crowd, Shield Maiden held her breath.  “Wager?” he repeated.
Applejack nodded.  “Ashtail told me about your wagers... how you use 'em to help you barter.  So I'm offerin' you one now.  I wager that I can keep the komagas from destroyin' Thatchholm without killin' a single one!”
Hammer Hoof narrowed his eyes.  He chewed on his lip for a moment.  “I will not risk the Dale Guard's safety on such foolishness,” he snarled.
“You don't have to risk anypony.  I'll do it alone,” Applejack said.  “That's the way you prefer me, right?”
Hammer Hoof snorted.  “Alone, then.”
“Not alone!” Rainbow Dash cried, trotting up beside Applejack.  “I'll be with her!”
“As will I!” Rarity cried.  “No matter what!”  She stood at Applejack's other side.
“The three of you, then,” Hammer Hoof said.  “And only the three of you?”
“Yes,” Applejack nodded.
“And every pony in Thatchholm will stand by armed and armored, ready to attack the komagas when you fail?”
“That sounds fair,” Applejack said.  “M'lord,” she added.
Hammer Hoof nodded.  “And what do you wager?”
The orange earth pony took a deep breath, slowly let it out.  “If I'm right, you gotta let us cross the rest o' Gildedale- not just me, but all three of us!”
“And if you're wrong?”
Applejack grimaced.  “If I'm wrong, and we survive, then you won't even have to escort us back to the Drackenridges.  I won't make you send the Dale Guard on that kind o' errand while the komagas are about.  So until they're done runnin', you can lock us up right here in Thatchholm!”
Rarity gasped, Rainbow Dash jumped back.
“Agreed!” Hammer Hoof shouted, stomping the ground with his ivory hoof.  “The komagas will be here within an hour of daybreak, if Eagle Voice's reckoning of them is right.  I suggest you three prepare.”  He turned away.  Ashtail gave Applejack a look equal parts hurt and shock, then followed his father and Bright Voice through the doorway on the throne room's left.
As soon as their lord was gone, the Daleponies exploded into gossip, the chatter reaching great volume in no time.  Applejack remained where she stood.  She felt rooted to the earth.  She had never before felt this firm, this heavy, this strong.
“Applejack,” Rarity said, her voice gentle, “darling... I don't want to be one to second-guess you... you do tend to have great strokes of brilliance in your rustic way... but I don't believe that was a very good idea.”
The orange earth pony turned to her friends and smiled.  “Don't worry, y'all.  I got a plan.”