//------------------------------// // Attack At Sector Z // Story: Foals Next Door-Operation:R.E.C.O.M.M.I.S.S.I.O.N // by Th3FileWriter //------------------------------// ... Operation: R.E.C.O.M.M.I.S.S.I.O.N... ...Ruler Eventually Controls Omnipotent Mortals, Making Informant Seemingly Surface Incentives Of Newcomers... Ring Ring! The door opened hitting the small bell. Inside was a pink pony sitting in front of the main desk, she looked up with glee seeing 4 little foals and a dragon walking inside the small room towards her. She bounced up and lunged her whole body in their direction, now usually the owners wouldn't accept this behavior in their store, but they were out of town and not much ponies came into the shop today so this could count as an exception "Well hey there little munchkins of Equestria! what brings all of you to Sugar Cube Corner" Said the playful pink pony as she smiled at the 4 foals and the dragon. "Ughh... Hey pinkie" said the dragon, with a small grin on his face " we would like 5 cream puffs, 2 muffins, and a small cake." The pink pony grabbed all the pastries 1 by 1 and shoved them all in a pink box, and tied it up with a little ribbon. Till now they still were unsure of how Pinkie was able to grab so many items at once, shoved them inside a medium sized box without everything being squished into a giant pastry mess that a 5 year old would make when baking for the first time. "That'll be 17 bits" Said Pinkie as she gave an awfully big grin. The dragon dropped the coins on the counter, picked up the box and the 5 went on their merry way. They walked out of Sugar Cube Corner and into the streets of Ponyville. The bright rays of the sun bounced off of every building and and were aimed at an angle towards the ground, the multi colored houses lined up along the street 1 by 1 as they stretched all the way into the horizon. They walked on til they reached the middle of the Ponyville, there lay a tall coned shaped building with a mix of white, pink and red colors, with bright red ribbons draped along the outer edges of the balcony. Yet something seemed off to them, like it wasn't normal. They couldn't put they're hoof on it. The Town Hall was always bright and shiny with same color patterns, the only difference today was that the ribbons were strung along the balcony of the Town Hall for the Heroes Reward Ceremony. It was to celebrate all those who have done heroic deeds in small and large ways, they would be given a medal which would be presented by Princess Twilight. Then Suddenly it came to them, there was nopony around to be seen, and yet they were sure that earlier many ponies were gathered to watch the Celebration. Suddenly a loud CRASH echoed from a distance. As they looked behind there was a giant smoke cloud that seemed to go up for miles. Then all at once hundreds of ponies came running past them trying to escape the impending danger that lay ahead. The giant smoke cloud seemed to have become larger than it was before.. no it wasn't becoming larger, it was coming closer!! Then a large grey swarm flew up from behind the giant smoke cloud, it enveloped the entire sky almost like an extension of the giant smoke cloud. Although what differentiated the swarm from the cloud was that its movement was very unstable. Before they had time to make out what exactly the black swarm was, all of them made a mad dash towards the opposite direction. Hundreds of ponies galloping, neighing, and screaming filled the streets of Ponyville. They could barely make out where in Ponyville they were due to their small stature compared to the other ponies running past them. They kept on running but were lagging behind, soon enough they were at the back of the large stampede as they all tripped and fell on each other. Suddenly a loud buzzing sound increased in the distance, the gigantic swarm was catching up with them. As they got up Spike looked around trying to asses the situation, knowing that if they kept going straight they would just be slowed down by the other ponies. Then suddenly it hit him. "Follow me, quickly!" exclaimed the dragon, as they all made another mad dash hoping to escape the impending doom behind them. Spike knew if he took the side road that led out of Ponyville they would arrive at Sweet Apple Acre. Hopefully there they can seek shelter to pass the oncoming storm. As they arrived in Sweet Apple Acres they noticed that the Swarm had already infested the area and was trying to push them back towards Ponyville. They had no choice but to run back the way they came. Although as they were about to flee they heard a voice calling out to them. The five of them looked around until they saw a large red stallion at the base of a tree, with a small structure on top of it. It was Big Macintosh. "All of y'all quickly come this way!" exclaimed Big Mac. They all ran towards his direction as the sounds of buzzing increasingly became louder. "Down Here!" Suddenly one by one they all tripped over the root of the tree, bumping into each other like dominoes before eventually falling into a large hole. The hole was connected to a series of tubes that weaved in and out of each other like a slide, quickly separating the five friends from each other. As all that was heard was the sound of screams from some frightened and thrilled ponies as they slid all the way to the bottom. In unison they all fell out of tubes and landed on top of each other in a large pile. Two sliding doors on the other side of the room opened revealing Big Mac who was walking towards the pile of younglings as they were trying to get off one another. "Hope y'all enjoyed the ride" He remarked. "Seriously! you made you made us go down that death trap of an entrance, when we could've gone down where you were." Exclaimed Spike as he slowly picked himself up, still wincing from the pain of four bodies landing right on top of him. "What? I would've gone down with y'all except i'm too big to fit through that tube and the hole at the top. Speaking of which.." He walked towards to what seemed like a giant control panel, then flicking a lever which caused a loud screeching noise then soon after a loud bang. Big Mac sighed then slowly turned around to face the group of foals and the dragon. "So i suppose y'all have questions" "Yeah!" Spike exclaimed. "Like WHAT IN THE SWEET NAME OF CELESTIA IS GOING ON OUT THERE!" "Alright, alright calm your hooves Spike. I'll.... explain everything" He then took a deep breath before starting. "Long time ago in the early days of Equestria, the armed forces that they had back then were not like what we have now. You see those that were part of it, were usually just the royal guards who had to serve, protect and defend the princess from any intruders. This caused a slight problem when Celestia had to face Sombra's army of dark crystal ponies. Now i'm not saying that her forces were few and far between completely the opposite, but in comparison to Sombra's it was about 1/3 of it. This led to the creation of many militias formed out of civilians to help fight in the battle which increased our numbers. Eventually they started to push his forces back, but Sombra ain't done yet. He concocted an idea to put many fillies and colts under his control and form them into an army. This would've resulted in many ponies surrendering due to the fact they couldn't in their moral beliefs fight foals." "Wait... but then where does all this fit in?" Button Mash Interrupted. " I was getting there" He responded "So when news spread about Sombra getting fillies and foals to make an army. Somepony from high tribunal decided to make a.." "Whats the high tribunal?" Button interrupted once more. Big Mac took a deep breath before continuing. "The Tribunal... was a group of highly respected individuals who would assist Celestia in any high making decisions whether it would've been battle tactics, law making, all that sort. So an idea was made for an organization to be made which would teach young foals to fight and defend themselves. Now of course there were many who were opposed to this, believing that we should not teach children to fight. Although there were just as many who were for it too. Supposedly after hours of debating Celestia finally put her hoof down and declared that this proposition would be put into action So on that day the proposition was initialized which became to be known as OPERATION F.N.D which stood for Fight, Nurture, and Defend. Over a couple of weeks foals ages 5 to 12 across Equestria were taught how to fight, perform espionage, infiltrate enemy territory and even build make shift weapons. Now keep in mind this was just the bare basics so..." "Wowee they were taught how to be like... like... secret agents" Button interrupted once again. "Yes.. Button..." He responded as he grinded his teeth. "Because of that a lot of secrets and tactics were leaked to our forces due to having spies on the inside and eventually it lead to Sombra's downfall. With our victory Celestia realized how much of a useful factor the foals were in the battle that it was decided to keep them and make it a somewhat official organization. Liking the Initials F.N.D the organization was formally named the FOALS NEXT DOOR. Over countless decades the F.N.D were a major factor into Equestria's multiple victories over enemies whi..." "Like What?" Button once again interrupted Big mac, causing him to get more infuriated. " I...I dont know Button! there's a bunch alright!...." He then took a second to regain his composure before eventually continuing. " With overwhelming success the organization was praised by many who knew of its existence. Until that is... about 20 years ago. i was seven years old when it happened, at the time Equestria was in high alert due to a threat known as the Red Buccaneers which was led by a falcon named Argos. He wasn't so much a big threat, but that didn't mean he wasn't a force to be dealt with. We had spying and gathering information on him and his crew for months. The executive board of the F.N.D had met up with the tribunal on deciding what the next course of action was. Eventually it was decided to hold off on any attacks until further notice. However there were some that weren't to keen on that idea, like a unicorn named Jinx. She was very skilled and powerful but still a novice when it came to experience. In fact her entire sector was, but they all agreed to take this mission alone. In the end she almost got her entire sector killed and revealed a lot of things about Equestria, that if it had gotten out could've caused the downfall of Equestria. Luckily Celestia caught wind of what happened and sent her troops to deal with the matter. In the end Argos was defeated and we were safe once more, however due to the events that occur she made an official statement that required the complete decommission of the entire F.N.D organization." "Wow i cant believe she did that, that has to be the most stupid thing i've..." Button interrupted again before being interrupted himself. "BUTTON, I SWEAR TO SWEET CELESTIA! IF YOU DON'T SHUT YER YAPPING MOUTH, I'M GOING TO BUCK YOUR FACE SO DAMN HARD ITS GONNA BE SENT TO THE MOON!" He exclaimed with an astronomical amount of rage. The rest of them quickly went to Big Mac's side to try to calm him down from his rage, while Spike gave a dead stare towards button who was already cowering in fear. "Big mac... umm please continue" said Spike as he was trying to get him to relax "Alright.." said Big mac as he huffed loudly from his snout. "Anyways after the executive were debating on whether or not they should at least choose a few members not to be truly decommissioned as they had done in previously. In the end 13 out the current 4,525 members were chosen to retain their memories of the F.N.D. Although instead of having them as adult operatives and spies, this time it was to preserve the F.N.D in case there was a time where we may need to revitalize the organization. So I among 12 other Ponies have been living in secrecy waiting and watching, until now where.... well i guess y'all can figure what happened" They all looked dumbfounded at each other still trying to process the massive amount of information they were forced to ingest in their heads. Until finally Spike spoke up to break the semi-awkward silence that had pervaded the room. "All right i guess that explains alot... although there's still one thing I don't understand" "And what's that?" He said as he gave him a puzzled look. "How has Sombra return after being defeated... TWICE!" Big mac pondered for a quick second before he eventually looked up at Spike. "To be truthful i don't know.. see when this whole thing happened. I was contacting an old colleague of mine, one of the non-decommissioned about recent disturbances occurring in their area. He had been doing a bit of reconnaissance for a while and picked up some info from Sombra Worshipers. But before I could've gather any more information outta him, the signal crashed and I hadn't been able to reconnect since. Then before you know this dark swarm starts appearing and attacks all of Ponyville.." "So.. this entire thing.. was because of Sombra?" questioned the orange filly "Most likely but I'm not sure" Big Mac pondered for a second. "But what i do know is that if anyone has the answers we need it's my old colleague." "alright then! What're we waitin' for lets get em!" Exclaimed Applebloom as she jumped up from her sitting position with bright stars in her eyes. "Hold yer horses lil' missy... yer not goin anywhere." Replied Big mac as he grabbed the little filly with his teeth dragging her back to where she sat. "Yall are goin to stay here like the good foals and fillies yall are, and I'll be the one dealing with sombra aight?" "But-" "No buts Applebloom. Look believe me I know its gonna be tough doing it on my own, but yall ain't ready to fight and deal with these fella yet. Plus if anything happens to me I will rest easy knowin that yall will be here safe... and maybe in the future repopulate or something..." His eyes stared at his little sister who had her head hanging low with her face aimed towards the ground, causing her mane to slight obscure her right eye. Big mac went over to give her a big hug as a type of reassurance that everything will be alright, before getting all the equipment he needed for the trip. A silence hung in the air filling the entire room. Nobody spoke a word due to them all having a sense of worry and fear of what would happen. Big mac took his time suiting up and grabbing the different equipment required, with every action he made having a slight hesitation questioning whether or not what he was doing was the right thing. He then started to walk over to the elevator, but right before he entered he just stood there and then took a big breath. "Spike... I'm leaving you in charge to watch over everyone... you're the only one I can trust who can keep watch and make sure nothing gets destroyed or no one gets hurt" he once again took a deep breath as he stepped in side. "Well I'll see yall real soon... take care..." The elevator doors shut closed and right after a low humming sound was heard indicating that the elevator was moving. Then another wave of silence fell across the room before the entire room started to shake violently in unison with the sound of engines as it blasted away. The 6 younglins all sat there in the dimly lit room. None of them dared to look at one another and none of them has the guts to say anything. But Scootaloo was getting fed up with the whole silence and finally spoke up. "Are we really just going to sit here and doing nothing!?" "But you heard Big Mac.. he said to stay put and not help him. Replied Button with a slight tone of defeat in his voice "Yah I know what he said but that hasn't stop us before! Whenever someone was in trouble or needed help, we would always be the first ones to step up and do something" exclaimed the pegasus getting annoyed at the sense of defeat that had filled everyone. "But Scootaloo this time were outnumbered by both force and skill. Of we tried to do anything we'd get our flanks kicked before we'd have a chance to fight back, then Equestria's last hope would have just fallen into the hooves of Sombra. Besides if we do want to do something, we wouldn't even know where to begin" Spike replied. This caused Scootaloo back down even though she wanted to say a rebuttal to his statement, but his point made to much sense and she couldnt think of way to overcome it. Another wave of silence flooded the room once more causing any last sense of morale to be grounded into dust. "Well maybe you could start with this."