Chapter 3: Stone Mason, Spike, and the Mane Six are Drafted
Stone Mason, who sat next to the Mane Six while his little brother, Pebble Mason, sat with three of his best friends that he met when he first transferred schools to Ponyville.
His best friend was a yellow earth-pony with red hair named Apple Bloom, who, as it turns out, was Applejack’s younger sister. Another was Scootaloo, an orange pegasus with purple hair who had an admiration for Rainbow Dash, but was not related to her. The third was a white unicorn with pink and purple hair, Sweetie Belle, who happened to be a sister to Rarity.
As Stone spoke with the six mares about these coincidences, particularly Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Applejack, he couldn’t help but wonder (and neither could they) what Empress Luna meant by a “drafting list.” The word “draft” has so many definitions in the dictionary, but the most likely definition used by the Empress of Equestria was the one that meant that the people mentioned on the drafting list were to be forced into the Equestrian military.
Judging by the drastic changes Empress Luna seemed to be making, starting with the one to put people to death for trivial matters, this seemed to be the most probable use of the word “draft.” Stone knew that his new friends thought this too, but were about as optimistic (albeit stupidly so) as he was, and were more than willing to keep the subject on the coincidences involving Pebble and his friends. But, the topic had to come up at some point, and Rainbow Dash was the first to realize this.
“What did Luna mean,” she asked with a hint of demanding in her voice, as she almost always did. “when she said ‘drafting list’?”
“Well, if I’m correct, it means she’s going to decide who enters the army,” said Twilight Sparkle. Her tone then changed to one of the stereotypical irritable, rogue policepony serving up rough justice with his/her hard-hitting, no-bullshit attitude. “If anything, we should be careful now. The system’s changed, and I have a feeling we’re going to have to live our lives just like everypony else.”
“If ‘everypony else’ means we’re going to live under a tyrannical leader,” said Rarity, flipping and fixing her hair for the umpteenth time. “Then I almost hope we get drafted into whatever ‘imperial army’ our Empress is building. It can’t be much worse than the lifestyles of the hundreds of thousands of ponies in Equestria, which might change significantly. For all we know, we could all be communists!”
“I don’t think that’s the definition of communism, Rarity,” said Twilight.
“What’s the difference?” asked Rainbow.
“Well, the type of government Rarity is thinking of is totalitarianism,” answered Twilight. “Communism is when the central government of a nation takes control of trade, particularly prices and trade rates of items as they choose, which distinguishes itself from our capitalistic and guild-based society because such things are controlled by the seller of said goods, usually relying on the system of supply and demand.”
Everypony except Stone and Twilight stopped for a moment to grasp the concept. Seeing their difficulty in doing so, Twilight tried to think of a way to simplify her explanation. Seeing that nothing came to mind, the rest of the ponies simply ignored it and caught up with Twilight and Stone.
All seven ponies (including Stone, who was now a part of the Mane Six’s group) stayed at Twilight’s house in mourning. They each reminisced with all the great memories they had with the late princess. Twilight was still, by far, the most upset by her death. She was still yet to fully heal, since she had only found out several hours ago.
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By around seven at night, the seven ponies had fully grasped the fact that Princess Celestia was gone, never to grace them with her presence or hear a lesson Twilight or the others learned about friendship. Stone Mason spent most of his time consoling the other six mares, and Spike, who had just finished understanding that he would never need to write another letter to Celestia again. Normally, Spike would be happy that he wouldn’t have to do that kind of work anymore, but seeing as the reason was the fact that she was dead, he just sat by one of Twilight’s many bookshelves in silent grief, the occasional tear running down his cheek.
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It was almost nine o’clock now, and, as promised, Empress Luna was about to announce the drafting list. The radio blared its telltale static and everypony in Twilight’s house was anxious to know how exactly this “drafting list” was going to work, and who would be on it.
“ Attention, citizens of the Equestrian Empire!” yelled Empress Luna’s “Nightmare Moon” voice “We, Empress Luna, are about to announce everypony who will be drafted into the New Equestrian Imperial Army, or, for short, NEIA (pronounced neigh-ah)! The Empire salutes the ponies that are on this list, and honors them should they die in battle! The names of the ponies will go by alphabetical place of town! The names themselves are in no particular order! The first town on the list is Appleloosa!”
The Empress announced the names of the drafted ponies in Appleloosa. Twilight counted one hundred and forty seven names. This was a lot of names for one town, but the most outstanding moment during the announcement was when Applejack cringed in a mix of fear, sadness, and hope as she heard the name of her cousin, Braeburn.
The next town on the list was Baltimare, on which there were written two hundred and twelve names. Next was Canterbury, then Canterlot, then several more.
The ponies paid extremely close attention when the list got to Ponyville. The first one the list was a familiar pony named Golden Harvest. She was one of Pinkie Pie’s friends and she whimpered when the name was called.
“Merry May,” continued Empress Luna. “Sea Swirl, Shoe Shine, Bon Bon, Lyra Heartstrings, Apple Jack,”
The ponies (and Spike) gasped in horror as the list continued. They glared hopefully at Applejack, who glared back with melancholy anger. She squatted down in shock, and ultimately fell over in sadness to her left side.
“Rarity Belle,” the radio blared as they all glanced at her, who portrayed basically the same feelings as Applejack. “Rain Drops, Pinkamena D. Pie, Rainbow Dash, Dizzy Twister, Flutter Shy, Derpy Whooves, Stone Mason, Carrot Cake, Beauty Brass, Twilight Sparkle, Spike Sparkle, Octavia-” Twilight turned off the radio. She had heard all eight of their names, and was prepared (or at least thought she was) for the worst.
“So, what happens now?” asked Pinkie Pie, in the optimistic, hopeful manner she is known for.
“I’m not sure,” answered Stone, pacing over to the bookshelf Spike was leaning against. “but all I know is, things around here are going to change.”
And with that, everypony fell silent, hoping for the best.