//------------------------------// // VII: The Woman with the Machine Gun // Story: Thirteen Moons // by Silent_Witness //------------------------------// Chapter VII: The Woman with the Machine Gun Twelve moons remain until the portal opens.   “…but you guys are okay, right?” Pinkie asked. “Yeah, we’re okay,” Sunset replied. “Rainbow needed a week to recover, but we’re on the road again now. We’re actually just about to pass through Mustangia.” Silence. “And what about you? How are you guys doing?” “We’re doing just fine. Twilight says we’ve almost made it to Cloudsdale.” “That’s good.” There was another short silence. “…How about the others? Have you heard anything from them?” “Nope, sorry. I’m sure they’re just fine, though. But… I should probably give them a call once we reach Cloudsdale. I’ll talk to you later, Sunset!” Pinkie hung up and put her cellphone away, before climbing out of her tent. The Unicorn Range lay far behind the trio of Pinkie, Twilight, and Flash. The three were now deep in the Whispering Woods, a thick forest that skirted the edge of the mountains and stretched all the way to Cloudsdale. Although they couldn’t see the city, Twilight assured them that they grew closer with each passing day. Pinkie looked around their campsite as she climbed out of her tent. Twilight hadn’t come out of her tent yet. Flash sat nearby in front of the fire, his sword stabbed into the ground next to him. For some reason, he was focused intently on his hand. Pinkie sat down next to him. “What are you doing?” “I have no idea,” he replied. “But watch this.” He held out his hand, and strained- in response, a number of small white lights appeared in the air just above his palm. Once Flash stopped focusing, however, the lights immediately vanished. He then brought a hand up to his head and rubbed his temple. “Ah…” he moaned. “It really hurts if I do it for more than a couple seconds.” “Unsurprising,” Twilight suddenly said. Both Flash and Pinkie jumped in surprise, and looked to see Twilight sitting in front of the campfire across from them. She hadn’t made any sound, or given any other sign to indicate her arrival. After a moment, the two collected themselves, and Pinkie asked, “What’s unsurprising?” “When first learning to harness their abilities, magic users often overexert themselves in their attempts to cast spells.” She drew closer to Flash. “I must admit, I am curious about your abilities. Could you provide another demonstration?” “Uh, sure.” As before, Flash held up his hand and concentrated- small white flashes appeared above his palm, but they quickly disappeared, and he once again brought his hands to his temples. After a moment of silence, Twilight said, “You continue to surprise me, Flash Sentry. I had not suspected that you held any affinity for magic, much less white magic.” Flash raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about?” Before Twilight could answer, Pinkie blurted out, “Ooh ooh! I know! I know!” Twilight looked to Pinkie. “Do you?” “Yeah! There are two types of magic: white magic, which can heal people, and black magic, which hurts people.” “The divisions between schools of magic are more nuanced than that, but your explanation is sufficient for these circumstances.” Twilight looked to Flash. “In ancient times, the two most widely-practiced magical disciplines were known as white magic, and black magic. As Pinkie said, white magic is focused upon healing injuries; black magic harnesses the power of the elements to vanquish one’s foes.” “Really?” Flash looked down at his hand, then back to Twilight. “Can you teach me? How to do magic?” Twilight shook her head. “Unfortunately, no. Despite my efforts, mastery over white magic remains beyond my capabilities. I can advise you to the best of my abilities, but that is the most I can do.” She then stood. “But we have more pressing matters to attend to. Cloudsdale is less than an hour away now- to not reach it now would be inexcusable.” “Hey, not to be a downer…” Pinkie began, “but how do we even know that Cloudsdale is still safe? Like you said before- the world is a dangerous place now.” “It is my understanding that Cloudsdale is home to one of the largest military bases in Equestria. I highly doubt that monsters could overrun a city filled with highly-trained soldiers, regardless of their number.” Suddenly, the earth shook, and heavy thumps filled the air. Twilight drew her dagger. “Speaking of which…” Flash pulled up his sword. “I’m really starting to hate that sound…” Soon enough, the source of the sounds was upon them: grass-green dragon smashed its way through the surrounding trees, and roared furiously at the trio. Flash readied his sword. “Oh boy.” Pinkie whipped out her naginata and her knives, clutching her gun in-between her teeth. “Alright!” she shouted, her voice muffled by the gun. “Now things are starting to get interesting!” She leapt at the dragon, swinging her naginata and cutting a deep gouge into the side of its neck. Then she grabbed her gun and fired a burst of bullets at their foe. Twilight thrust out her hand, throwing out a stream of freezing cold at the beast. As it was distracted, Flash charged, and swung his blade with all his might… but it glanced off the dragon’s scales without even leaving a mark. He swung again, but before he could make contact, the dragon whipped its tail at him, knocking him off his feet and his blade out of his hands. As Flash struggled to his feet, Pinkie Pie attacked- she ran at the beast, pulling out her katana, before she leapt and stabbed it into the dragon’s skull. The dragon roared in a mix of pain and fury; then it reached up, grabbed Pinkie in its claw, and threw her against a nearby tree. There was a tremendous crack, and Pinkie slid down the trunk, motionless. Twilight threw one last ice shard at the dragon before running to Pinkie. “Flash Sentry!” she shouted. “Distract the creature! I will tend to Pinkie Pie’s wounds!” Flash grabbed his sword and turned to face the dragon. He gripped his sword tightly, glaring. “Is that it?” he said. “You think you can hurt my friend and get away with it?” Pinkie Pie was everyone’s friend, technically, but Flash brushed that thought aside as the beast moved toward him. The dragon swiped its claw at Flash, and Flash swung his sword at the dragon. But Flash was faster, and he severed one of the dragon’s talons with ease. The dragon staggered back, but then lunged at Flash with a deafening roar. But Flash stood his ground, and batted the creature’s head aside with the flat of his blade. As the beast was stunned, Flash swung his sword over his head and leapt into the air, the sword’s momentum pulling him much higher than he could have jumped normally. For a moment, Flash seemed to hang in the air, his sword held back to strike. Then, as he fell, he swung his sword at the dragon with all his might. With ease, the sword cleaved through the flesh of the dragon’s neck, severing with a tremendous spray of blood. Flash hit the ground hard. The head hit the ground nearby, lifeless. The dragon’s body stumbled back, a claw reaching up to feel for its missing head, before it slumped over, dead. Flash stood with his sword ready for several moments. He waited for any movement, not trusting that the beast was dead… but there was none. And as he looked on the dragon’s lifeless body, a thought slowly began to dawn on him: I just killed a dragon. Then, he planted his sword in the ground, and stood triumphantly. “I told you no one hurts my friends.” His pride was instantly shattered when another roar sounded behind him. Flash turned and raised his sword, to find himself facing a second green dragon. His jaw dropped in disbelief. “…Now that’s just not fair.” The dragon charged him- he held out his sword, hiding himself behind its massive blade, but the monster rammed its head into him. Flash was knocked clear off his feet, and his sword was again sent flying from his hands. He scrambled to his feet, but his sword was nowhere to be found, and the dragon was rapidly closing in. But suddenly, a black object fell from the sky and struck the dragon. It roared in pain and stumbled back, shaking off whatever had struck it. As it backed off, Flash could see that the object was… a ship’s anchor. A man then ran past, and with ease, picked up the anchor and rested it on his shoulder. Now that the man was still, Flash could see that he was blonde with white skin, and had the biggest muscles of anyone he had ever seen. The man was followed by two more people- a woman with fiery-orange hair armed with a machine gun, and a blue-haired man with a pair of strange blades. “Looks like you were right, Captain,” the blue-haired man said. “There were some stragglers out here.” The fiery-haired woman pulled back the slide on her gun. “Alright boys, let’s show them how it’s done.” The blue haired man scraped his blades together and replied, “Yes ma’am.” The muscular man slammed the anchor against the ground with an earthshaking thump, before shouting a hearty “YEAH!” The second dragon roared, and charged at the trio. Without hesitation, the blonde man gripped the ring of his anchor and swung it with all his might. The anchor struck its mark with a resounding clang- blood and teeth flew from the dragon’s mouth, and the force of the blow lifted the beast off its feet, sending it crashing through the nearby trees. Before the beast could rise, the blue-haired man rushed forward, and stabbed his blades into the dragon’s side. He then began to swiftly climb up the dragon’s body, driving his blades deep into the beast with every movement. The dragon began to reach towards the man, but the fiery-haired woman fired a spray of bullets at it- the creature roared in pain and swiped its claws at the woman, but she rolled back and out of its reach. The dragon thrashed and shook, but the blue-haired man held on, climbing all the way up the dragon’s neck, and onto its head, before stabbing each of his blades into the dragon’s eyes. The dragon roared in pain. With blinding speed, the fiery-haired woman grabbed something from her belt and threw it into the dragon’s mouth. A moment later, the monster’s throat exploded in a spray of gore and red mist. It let out one last shrieking roar, before collapsing. Flash could only stare at the trio of strangers in stunned silence. It was clear that whoever these people were, they were professionals: it hadn’t taken more than a minute for them to take down that dragon, and in all that time, the dragon hadn’t managed to lay even one claw on them. Calmly, the fiery-haired woman hung her gun across her back, and turned to Flash, Twilight, and Pinkie. “Are you guys alright?” “Our injuries are manageable,” Twilight replied as she helped Pinkie to her feet. “To whom do we owe our thanks?” The fiery-haired woman approached Twilight. “Commander Spitfire, head of Equestrian Air Service base Camp Easy Glider.” She motioned to the two men with her. “These are my comrades, Lieutenant Soarin’, and Bulk Biceps.” Pinkie quickly bounded up to the muscular man- Bulk Biceps, presumably. “Hey, don’t you go to our school?” Her freshly-bandaged wounds didn’t seem to slow her down even a little. “It’s not safe for civilians to be on the road, you know. Especially around here,” the blue-haired man said- that one had to be Soarin’. “Still, there aren’t a lot of people who can take down even one of those green dragons, even in Cloudsdale. So I’ll give you props- you’re stronger than you look.” “What were you doing out here?” Spitfire asked. “We’re heading north,” Pinkie replied. “We were gonna stop in Cloudsdale to pick up supplies before heading out.” Spitfire looked to Soarin’, and then to Bulk Biceps, before beckoning. The two men approached, and they began to speak to one another in hushed voices. But Pinkie concentrated, and overheard their conversation. “What’s up, Spitfire?” Soarin’ asked. Spitfire brought a hand up to his chin. “I’m not sure… something doesn’t feel right with these kids.” “Hey, they’re just kids. I mean if they were normal bandits, they would’ve shot us already. And they seem to know Bulk Biceps. Right, B?” Bulk Biceps nodded. “I know that. The other two are okay, but, the purple one…” Spitfire shook her head. “It’s probably nothing. Just forget it.” She turned towards Twilight and the others. “Alright. You don’t look like troublemakers, so we’ll bring you to Cloudsdale. Soarin’, you head to the gate and let the sentries know we’re bringing company. And try not to get yourself killed in the meantime.” Soarin’ saluted and sprinted off into the trees. As though nothing had happened, Spitfire continued “Biceps, you and I will escort the civilians to the city. Everyone, keep your eyes and ears open. Now let’s get moving.” A howl sounded from the surrounding woods, deep and alien. Spitfire drew her weapon- the others did likewise. “It’s best not to stay out here too long.”   “A wandering merchant,” Sunset muttered to herself. “This is almost too convenient…” “Hey Sunset!” Rainbow called. “You sure you don’t need anything?” “Why not have a look?” the merchant added. He was a gaunt man, with grey hair and thick-rimmed glasses. “I’m sure I have something that could catch your eye.” Sunset looked over. “I’m fine, really.” Sunset, Rainbow, and the merchant were stopped on the road a few miles away from Mustangia. As they’d walked down the highway earlier that morning, they stumbled across a beat-up RV parked on the side of the road, the first car they’d seen since leaving Canterlot. Its driver was a merchant, traveling across Equestria, selling his wares as he went- Rainbow and Sunset had their doubts at first, but once he brought out his wares, they reconsidered. Rainbow looked at the assortment of weapons laid on the table in front of her- mostly guns, but also a handful of other weapon types. One in particular caught her attention- it was an unusual Y-shaped object roughly the size of a car’s hubcap, with a short blade extending from the end of each arm. She picked it up to examine it more closely. “What’s this?” “No idea,” the merchant replied. “I picked it up in some refugee camp outside Las Pegasus. If you know how to use it, it’s yours for twenty bits.” Rainbow turned the object over in her hands, trying to find the best grip. “…Yeah, I know how to use this.” She stepped away from the table, pulled her arm back, and threw the object with all her might. It flew out over the abandoned farmlands that lined the highway, before it banked hard, and returned. With ease, Rainbow caught it. The merchant adjusted his glasses. “Twenty bits it is then.” As money exchanged hands, the merchant asked. “You sure you don’t need a lift? To the next town, at least? It’s a tight fit, but I’m sure I could manage something.” Rainbow looked to Sunset, who merely shrugged. So, she looked back to the merchant and said, “Yeah okay. Kind of sick of walking anyway.” A few minutes later, the RV was speeding down the highway. The three were crowded into the front- the back was absolutely laden with boxes filled with all sorts of things. Things were silent for a moment, before the merchant asked, “So, where’re you girls headed?” “Manehattan,” Sunset replied. “You?” “Well, I just got out of Foaledo, so I wanna go somewhere warm for a change. Mareami, most likely. So, we’ll probably be splitting up once we get to Mustangia.” “Mustangia?” Rainbow asked. “Well yeah. It’s the closest town. That’s not a problem, is it?” “No. I’ve… just heard a lot about it. Country music capital of the world, right?” “That’s what I’ve heard. You a fan of country?” “No, but one of my friends is. She’s gonna be so jealous when she hears we passed through there.” “We’re not on vacation, Rainbow,” Sunset interrupted. “We have a job to do.” “I know. And like I keep saying- we can handle things.” Silence. “Hey guy, I don’t think you ever told us your name. …You know, in case we ever run into each other.” He glanced over for a moment. “Shill. Just… call me Shill.”   The walls surrounding Cloudsdale were much different from the walls that surrounded other towns in Equestria. They were not simply ramshackle collections of whatever the townspeople could scrounge up- rather, the walls were made of packed earth, fifteen feet high, held in place by barricades of wood and metal and topped by strips of barbed wire. In front of the wall was a deep trench, with sharp spikes planted in the bottom in some places. In all, it was an expertly crafted fortification- perhaps unsurprising, since unlike the majority of Equestria’s citizens, the residents of Cloudsdale had been specifically trained in the art of war. The steel gate separating Cloudsdale from the outside world slid open. The group crossed a narrow bridge over the trench and into the city proper. “…Some people have set up shop by the school, but I gotta warn you- pickings are gonna be pretty slim,” Soarin’ said. “Why’s that?” Flash asked. “We’ve been rationing supplies for the last few days,” Spitfire replied. “We’ll give you what we can spare, but we’ll need everything we have for our mission tomorrow.” “Mission?” Pinkie asked. “What kind of mission?” “Nothing you need to worry yourselves about. Cloudsdale can handle its own business.” “Very well,” Twilight replied. “I trust you will have the situation under control. We shall gather what we need and take our leave.” She began to walk away… But Flash reached out and grabbed Twilight’s shoulder. “Hold on, Twilight,” he said. She didn’t turn, or even look back at him. “You mean for us to stay. To help these people. Do not bother to deny it- I know that is what you intend to ask me.” “Well…” Flash hesitated, “…yeah. I mean, they did save us from that dragon back there. We owe them one.” Twilight pulled herself free from Flash’s grip. “These people are soldiers- it is their duty to protect those who cannot defend themselves. We owe them nothing.” She began to walk away once more. “Oh come on!” Flash shouted after her. “Someone saves your life and this is how you repay them? The Twilight I knew would never turn her back on someone!” Twilight turned and strode up to Flash, glaring, teeth gritted. “I am not the Twilight that you knew. And it will do you well to remember that.” Her anger faded. “…If you truly wish to stay and assist these people, then I will not stop you. However, if you choose to stay, then you must know that we will not wait for you. Pinkie Pie and I have a mission of the utmost importance, and we must see to it. Farewell, Flash Sentry. I wish you the best of luck.” She turned away. “Come, Pinkie Pie.” But Pinkie Pie didn’t follow her. Twilight soon noticed, and turned. “Did you not hear me, Pinkie Pie? We must take our leave.” “I think Flash is right on this one,” Pinkie replied. “We should give these people a hand.” Twilight gave Pinkie a hard glare. “Our mission is infinitely more important than resolving the insignificant grievances of one city. We do not have the time to-” “Then we’ll make time.” Flash had stepped forward to protest, but it had been Pinkie who spoke, in a harsh tone that he had never heard from her before. Twilight stumbled, as though she too had been unprepared for Pinkie’s sudden outburst. But, she quickly collected herself. “…I can see that there is nothing to gain from attempting to dissuade you any further. And I will not delude myself into believing that I can continue this journey alone.” She approached Spitfire. “Commander Spitfire, we wish to aid you in your… mission in whatever way we can.” Spitfire, who had been watching in silence, crossed her arms and replied. “Alright then.” She began to walk down the road, the others moving to follow. “I know I said Cloudsdale handles its own business, but right now we’re stretched pretty thin. So I’m glad you decided to stick around.” “H-Hold on,” Flash said. “Aren’t you gonna tell us what this mission is all about?” “We will. Just not here. We’re having one last briefing for our volunteers at Cloudsdale High. You’ll learn everything you need to know there.” Silence fell within the group as they made their way to Cloudsdale High. Pinkie was familiar with the route but Flash was not, so he looked around, taking in the city. The buildings were low, no more than four stories high- no doubt because of the nearby airfield. They passed only a few people on the streets- soldiers, from the look of them, and nearly every one of them was armed. This didn’t concern him, however- Twilight had told them that people in the cities of her home country had armed themselves against the monsters, and perhaps this was doubly so in a town with such a large military presence. Pinkie noticed something as they walked, however. The other soldiers wore standard uniforms, but Spitfire… Spitfire wore a bright blue jumpsuit, crossed with vibrant yellow lightning bolts. Soarin’ wore darker clothes, but also wore a scarf with the same pattern. And that lightning bolt pattern was extremely familiar. Pinkie said, “Wait, I know you guys. Aren’t you-” “The Wonderbolts, yeah,” Soarin’ replied. He pulled up his scarf. “We were actually supposed to do a show out here a couple months ago. Then, the monsters showed up, and we’ve been stuck out here ever since.” “Oh. By the way,” she began, eyeing Soarin’s blades. “Are those… katars?” “What? Oh yeah, that’s what they’re called.” He held one up so Pinkie could get a better look-a triangular blade, attached to an H-shaped handle. It glinted faintly in the sunlight. Pinkie leaned in close. “Wow. I’ve seen pictures but I’ve never had the chance to see one up close. How did you get them?” “A friend loaned them to me. I don’t know how he got them, though. If we rescue him, you can ask him yourself.” “Your knowledge of weapons is truly frightening, Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said. Flash looked to Soarin’ “Wait, did you say-” he began. But he was interrupted when the street ahead buckled, and a tremendous creature shot up from beneath the earth. It was a massive snake with dark grey scales, and great bony spikes emerging from its body. The ground trembled as it slithered towards the group. But they heard someone shout, “Anacondaur!” and in seconds, the creature was surrounded on all sides by armed soldiers. Twilight drew her dagger, asking, “What is that?” “Anacondaur,” Spitfire replied. She aimed her rifle. “Big snakes that like to dig under our fortifications.” Soarin’ stepped forward, readying his katars. “I’ll handle this one, Commander.” He lowered himself down, as if preparing to run forward… and vanished. The great snake recoiled from the sudden motion, but Soarin’ did not reappear. Its gaze settled on Spitfire and the others, and it leaned close, its size transforming its hiss into a deep rumble. Suddenly, Soarin’ reappeared in front of the monster. Before it could recoil in surprise, he pulled his arm back and stabbed his blade deep into the anacondaur’s neck. Blood fell from the wound like a waterfall, and the snake withdrew. But after only a moment, it wavered, and then collapsed, the earth trembling as its body fell. For a moment, all was still… but the Spitfire stepped forward. “Alright. The target’s down but that’s no reason to take it easy. You-” Spitfire pointed to one of the nearby soldiers. “-get the work crews over here. We need to get this hole plugged up, ASAP. The rest of you, form a perimeter- there could be more down there.” The soldiers scattered at her order. Soarin’ approached her and said, “Another anacondaur. That’s… what, the third one in the last two weeks now?” He put his blades away. “Hey B, do you think there’s a nest of them under the city?” Bulk Biceps shrugged in response. “I hope not,” Spitfire replied. “We don’t have the equipment to handle something like that.” She shook her head. “But we can’t worry about that now. We have bigger problems we need to take care of.” The group moved on. As they walked, Pinkie caught up with Soarin’ and said, “That… was amazing! I’ve never seen anything like that!” Soarin’ smiled. “The Deathblow. A special technique I’ve been working on for a couple months now. With the Deathblow, if it bleeds, I can kill it.” “You’ve gotta teach me how to do that.” There was a twinkle in Pinkie’s eye… …but Soarin’s response extinguished it. “Sorry, but I don’t take students.” Spitfire looked back at Pinkie. “Don’t take it too personally. The Lieutenant spent a long time working on that technique. He’s really protective of it.” After a few more minutes, the group arrived at a white building that was very familiar to Pinkie. The sign out front read “Canterlot High School.” Spitfire looked up at the building and sighed. “Here we are, finally. Field HQ.” She began to climb the steps leading to the school’s front entrance. “Soarin’, take our visitors to the briefing room. I’m going to see if Fire Streak and Wave Chill are having any luck with their project.” Soarin’ saluted and replied “Yes, Commander” before turning. “Alright, follow me.” But Pinkie was already bounding up the steps. “I already know my way around, Mister Lieutenant. It’s not my first time here.” So the group followed Pinkie into the school. The interior was startlingly similar to Canterlot High; the only differences were that the walls were predominantly white… and of course, the soldiers that milled about the halls. Signs were taped haphazardly over almost any surface that could accommodate them, pointing to various rooms: “Barracks,” “Armory,” “Briefing Room,” and so forth. Naturally, the group followed the arrows pointing to the briefing room, until they reached a large set of double doors and entered… “Hey, isn’t this just the gym?” Pinkie asked. Indeed, the room beyond resembled the gym back in Canterlot High- the bleachers were pulled out, and its hard wooden floor was painted with lines marking the boundaries of a basketball court. But it was clear that the room now served another purpose: its basketball hoops were pushed up towards the high ceiling, far out of reach, and the wall opposite the bleachers was dominated by various maps with unknown markings and other papers with writing too small to make out. “You guys should go sit down,” Soarin’ said. He didn’t seem to have heard Pinkie’s statement at all. “Spitfire’ll probably want to start the briefing as soon as she gets here.” Twilight looked to the nearly-empty bleachers. “Is this all the people that will be assisting us?” “Yeah,” Soarin’ replied. “There were only nine volunteers. Well, twelve now, counting you guys.” The three- along with Bulk Biceps- took a seat in the bleachers. And not a moment too soon; the room suddenly darkened, and Spitfire stepped forward from the darkness to address them. “Alright everyone, listen up. I know we’ve been talking about this for the last few days, but we have some new volunteers, so we’ll go over the details one last time to bring everyone up to speed.” A projector flickered to life, bringing up some sort of map of the surrounding area. Several circles were drawn over it, with all of them crossed out. “As many of you already know,” Spitfire continued, “monsters have been building nests for themselves in the wilderness surrounding Cloudsdale. Many of you have already taken part in missions to exterminate these monsters and destroy their nests.” The projector flickered again, showing the same map, but with different markings: an arrow was pointing from Cloudsdale to something marked by a large red circle. “Two weeks ago, a scouting party tracked a herd of monsters back to a nest in the Smokey Mountain west of the city- the biggest nest we’ve found so far. A team was organized, and dispatched to clear out the nest three days ago… but so far, no one sent out has reported back. Our mission is to head to the Smokey Mountain, determine the fate of the first team, and- if necessary- complete their assignment. Are there any questions?” Someone in the bleachers asked, “Is it really a good idea to send another team out so soon? I mean, some of these missions take us longer than we expect sometimes.” “We sent out a good number of the city’s magic-users on this mission,” Spitfire replied. “With their support, we expected the mission to be accomplished in less than a day. Besides, if the team did run into trouble, at least one of them should have returned to Cloudsdale by now. Without a report from a survivor, we have no way to know if the nest was destroyed or not.” She turned to the rest of the crowd. “Any other questions?” “Yeah, I’ve got one,” Pinkie said, standing. “Don’t you guys have any radios you can talk to them with?” Spitfire crossed her arms as she looked to Pinkie. “Interference from an unknown source has rendered our communications equipment almost completely useless. Even our most powerful radios now have an effective radius of only two-hundred-fifty feet… and Smokey Mountain is seven miles west of Canterlot. Anything else?” Silence was Spitfire’s only answer. “Alright then. All of you are to report to the South Gate tomorrow morning at oh-eight-hundred hours.” She stood upright. “You are dismissed.”