Second Chance

by Subject 19

The Price of War

It was about three o’clock in the morning when Matthew heard a loud knocking against his bedroom door. Without waiting for a response, a white guard pony entered the bedroom.

“Sir, we’ve lost contact with Ponyville,” the guard regrettably informed. “The two infantry divisions you sent are still on route.”

“The Elements of Harmony, did they get out of there in time?” Matthew nervously asked.

“Yes sir, they managed to leave on the last train to Canterlot before the Prench attacked. They’re sleeping in the guest rooms right now.”

The blue eyed unicorn let out a sigh of relief. With those five ponies safe and Twilight still staying in the castle, he could launch a more effective retaliation against the Prench. “Get the field corps here prepared for mobilization within the next twenty-four hours,” he ordered. The guard nodded in compliance and left the room, closing the door behind him. Matthew lay his head back down on his pillow, figuring he could get at least three or four more hours of sleep.

At seven o’clock, Matthew got up and headed to his office. The two guards standing outside the door to his office moved out of the way to allow the stallion to enter. After checking all the usual paperwork that was put on his desk overnight, Matthew went to the dining hall for his breakfast. When he entered, he saw that the five new guests were already eating with Twilight and the princesses.

“Good morning Matthew,” Princess Celestia greeted. “How are you doing?”

“I’m doing well, now that I know these six are safe,” Matthew honestly replied. “Have you told them what’s happened yet?” The princess shook her head ‘no’ and earned six curious looks from the Elements of Harmony. Matthew sat down at the large dining table next to Luna.

“What’s going on?” Twilight asked trying to keep herself from sounding too nervous.

“As of three o’clock this morning, we lost contact with Ponyville,” Matthew explained. “Our scouts have confirmed that the Prench have taken control of the town. I’m just glad we were able to get your friends out of there before it was too late.” Matthew calmly took a sip from his cup of coffee in front of him.

“And you just let them take the town over?” Rarity shouted. “You made us unknowingly leave all our friends and our families in the hands of the Prench!”

There were few things that Matthew couldn’t stand, and two of the biggest ones were being yelled at and being insulted. He immediately shot a powerful glare at the young designer. “Do you really think I willingly let those Prench sons of bitches take over your town?” Matthew retorted. “I tried to send in support but they were too far away to get there before the Prench. I got you five out of there so that you could help me take back the land that we’ve lost to our enemy.”

“Yeah let me guess,” Rainbow Dash said. “You sit back and have us and your so called soldiers do all of the fighting for you. Some leader you are; your army can’t even do what you said they would.”

It took every ounce of willpower for Matthew to stop himself from murdering the rainbow colored pegasus with extreme prejudice. However, his anger was at an all time high. “I’m trying to my best to protect this kingdom, but it’s exceptionally hard to do that when your army is composed of a bunch of morons who don’t have the slightest fucking clue as to what they’re doing!” he roared. “You’re pissed because I couldn’t save your cesspool of a town, but because of my army’s incompetence, I have to rely on you ungrateful bastards to once again save this damn kingdom!”

Everypony in the room was completely taken back by the normally calm stallion’s outburst. Rainbow Dash had completely cowered into her seat, terrified by the stallion’s unholy glare. Matthew’s expression went from raw anger to complete regret the moment he realized what he had just said. Before anypony could say anything, Matthew silently left the table and quickly walked out of the room.

“I’m going to go talk to him and make sure he’s okay,” Luna said, excusing herself from the table to chase after Matthew. She finally found him sitting in his office, regret still on his face. “Matthew,” Luna said quietly.

The unicorn kept his eyes fixed down on his desk. “I know, I shouldn’t have gone off on them like that,” Matthew said.

“You shouldn’t have,” Luna agreed. “But we all lose our temper every now and then. You’ve been under a lot of stress lately having to deal with this war all by yourself.”

“Do you have any idea what I’ve done?” Matthew questioned. “I just blew the one chance to have those six ponies help us in this war. Now that they know what happened to their town, they’re going to go back and try push the Prench out.”

“Wasn’t that what you wanted them to do?”

“Yes, but with the support of our army. Without support, those six ponies are marching to their graves.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I’ll lead a field corps into Ponyville and take back what I can. I’ll have the two divisions outside of the town for additional support should I require it. This is going to be a very bloody battle.”

“You know, you’re really hard on yourself when you don’t have to be,” the midnight colored princess commented. “How about I convince them to help you?”

“If you were to do that, it would greatly reduce casualties on our side,” said Matthew. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do. I need to start setting up contingencies in case this operation goes south.” Luna gave him an understanding nod and quietly left the pony’s office. Matthew looked over the paperwork on his desk, mostly regarding the extensive background checks on all the Prench immigrants in the kingdom. Matthew made a mental note to form an intelligence agency when this was all over. Having the Royal Guard check over every Prench immigrant’s records wasn’t exactly effective.

Luna had returned to the dining room where Celestia and the mane six were having a serious discussion over the current state of Equestria.

“How is he, Lulu?” Celestia asked, turning her attention towards her sister.

“Not as well as he’s led us to believe,” Luna admitted. “He really is sorry for the outburst,” she told the mane six. “It’s just that he’s been under an immense amount of stress lately with this war going on.”

“What’s that pony doing right now that’s so important he couldn’t apologize to us himself?” Rainbow Dash demanded, clearly not taking in a single word Luna had just said.

“He is trying to get a group of soldiers together so that he can lead them into Ponyville,” Luna growled. “I don’t think you realize this, but Matthew will sacrifice his own life in order to protect this kingdom and its ponies.”

Rainbow Dash felt a pang of guilt as she finally realized what she had done. Before the blue pegasus could speak up, Matthew entered the room and headed straight towards the princesses.

“Your highnesses, the Prench have engaged the two infantry divisions to the north of Ponyville,” he informed.

“How are they doing?” Princess Celestia worriedly asked.

“Not well, I’m going to go down there with a field corps in order to prevent them from reaching Canterlot. I’m going to divert most of our forces back here, since it’s very clear where the Prench are trying to get to.”

“Is that all?”

“Actually there is one more thing. I want the Elements of Harmony in my office immediately; I have something they need to see,” Matthew said, leaving the room when he saw the six ponies get up to follow him.

When the seven of them entered the office, Matthew took his seat behind the black desk, numerous papers covering most of the surface.

“What did ya’ll want to show us?” Applejack curiously asked.

“This,” Matthew answered, holding a sheet of paper in his magic and giving it to Twilight.

The lavender mare took the paper and began reading it aloud. “Scouts have returned from their recon mission. The Prench seem to be using Ponyville as forward operating base. Our findings lead us to believe that the number of civilian causalities is over 1,000. Our scouts managed to find small groups of survivors in the nearby forest. I’m sending them to Canterlot via aerial transportation to ensure their safety. They should arrive by the end of the day. I strongly advise launching as strong of a retaliation we can manage before the Prench get too close to Canterlot. Signed, General Swift Strike.”

Matthew could see the fear in each of the ponies’ eyes, even more worried about their friends and family now that they knew the true extent of the attack. “That was sent about an hour before the Prench continued their assault past Ponyville. My field corps and I will be leaving tomorrow morning, and I’d greatly appreciate it if you six would assist us.”

Twilight looked over to her friends, who each gave her a small but firm nod. “Of course we’ll help you.”
The sun had set about an hour ago, and Luna’s moon was clearly visible in the dark night sky. The aerial transports, pulled by numerous pegasus ponies, had dropped off the ponies that managed to escape Ponyville. The Night Guards brought them into the castle and to the throne room where Celestia, Luna, Matthew, and the mane six waited for them. When all of the ponies were in the throne room, Matthew walked up to one of the guards.

“This is it?” Matthew asked quietly. Right now there about less than fifty ponies in the room.

“This is all of them, sir,” the guard confirmed.

Matthew slowly nodded his head. “Thank you, you can return to your post now.” With that said, the guard pony motioned to the other two guards and they quickly left the room. Matthew now realized that during his short conversation with the guard, the six element bearers had already searched the group for their friends and family. Taking time to look at everypony in the group he realized that Granny Smith, Scootaloo, and the Cake family were missing. For the first time since Matthew met Pinkie, he saw her completely break down crying when she heard that the Cake family was killed during the attack. Applejack cried on her brother’s shoulder when he told her the terrible news, and Rainbow Dash bolted out of the room when she couldn’t find Scootaloo, knowing exactly what it meant.

Walking up to Luna and Celestia, he saw their pained expressions clear as day. “Try not to dwell too much about this,” the gray stallion suggested, his own face filled with sadness. “You both can take comfort in the fact that neither of you are to blame for this.”

“Not to blame?” Celestia questioned. “These are our subjects; of course we’re to blame for this.”

“No,” Matthew challenged. “In case you forgot, I’m the pony in charge of this kingdom’s security. All this blood is on my hooves and mine alone. I couldn’t act fast enough, and they paid the price.” The tired commander let out a heavy sigh, letting silence fill the air around them. After a few minutes, the unicorn silently left the throne room to get some much needed sleep.

Rainbow Dash was sitting at the end of the hallway right outside the throne room with her head in her hooves, sobbing as tears flowed uncontrollably down her face. She heard somepony coming towards her and quickly tried to wipe the tears away, but to no avail. Matthew walked up to the mare and sat down next to her. He felt bad for Rainbow, knowing just how much the little orange filly meant to her.

“I never expected the Prench would have the will to go through the Crystal Mountains,” he sadly told the blue mare next to him. “By the time I found out that they had attacked us, I didn’t have enough time to get soldiers to Ponyville before the Prench.”

“She was just a filly,” Rainbow choked out, fighting to keep herself from bursting into tears.

“I know,” Matthew said. “You should go back in there and be with your friends.”

“No, I can’t let them see me like this,” the rainbow colored pegasus protested.

“Your friends will understand. Pinkie’s in there right now balling her eyes out because she just lost the closest thing she had to a family.” After a minute of silence, Matthew got up. “It’s been a long day for all of us, and right now I need to get some sleep while I can. I think you should too, you look exhausted.” All he got in response was a small nod from the mare. Wasting no more time, the gray stallion retired to his bedroom for the night.

Author's Note:

Yet another chapter finished! Before I know it, I'm going to be done with the story. But don't worry, there's still quite a few chapters to go. If you have any suggestions or comments about the story be sure to leave a comment! Thanks to all you people who are taking the time to read this story!