Duty and Consequences

by Snap Shot

Dangerous Dance

A pack of maybe ten diamond dogs followed the guard’s bloody hoof prints, behind them strode one of the Saddle Arabia mercenaries.

“Hehe, the white pony bled good!” one of the dogs shouted with glee.

“Can it!” the mercenary stallion barked and the dog immediately closed his mouth, allowing him to continue to order his troops. “Secure the west and south entrances; nopony leaves this room.”

Several of the dogs scattered like insects to obey the commands they were given.

I quickly looked over to Show Off, trying to ask him what to do without arousing suspicion. He caught my eye and quickly shook his head back and forth.

“Not now,” he mouthed silently.

He was right; if we made a play prematurely it was likely that somepony would get killed. For now we had to bide our time and wait until an opportunity presented itself.

To my left Misty was shaking uncontrollably, I had never seen this side of her. I wrapped my wing around her trying to comfort her as best I could. She stopped quivering, but she began to mutter softly.

“He’s dead, oh Celestia, he’s dead,” she whispered, her eyes fixed on the bloody guard lying in the middle of the ballroom.

“Misty,” I soothed. “Take a deep breath and calm down, the worst thing we can do in this situation is panic.”

One of the dogs walked in front of us brandishing a blade menacingly. Misty immediately cowed at the sight of the weapon. I stood my ground but didn’t advance on him. The dog continued on past us before returning to the commanding stallion.

“They look rebellious,” he said with a toothy smile.

The stallion scanned the crowd as if assessing a flock of sheep.

“Just kill one of them, the rest will get in line.” he said darkly, and headed back out of the ballroom.

The gathered ponies sucked in a collective breath. I quickly took a head count of my friends. Quill was with Rarity at a back table, they were most likely out of danger but too far a way to help. Famosity was standing in front of Maquillage, shielding her from the pack but she wasn’t going to be able to support us either. I once again looked over to Show Off, this time he nodded and began to move amongst the crowd. We couldn’t wait any longer; the execution order had forced our hand.

“Stay here,” I told Misty.

She gave a small squeak as I left her side, but she stayed where she was.

One of the diamond dogs dove into the crowd, grabbing his unfortunate victim by the mane and dragging her screaming form out next to the guard’s body. She begged for her life as she struggled against his grip, but this just seemed to excite the dog more. Two more members of his pack came help him force the mare to her execution.

Mentally, I went over my hoof-to-hoof training I had received back in basic, trying to formulate the best plan of attack.
Unfortunately, every option I could come up with required me to be closer. I crouched, trying to stay out of sight as I moved behind the gathered ponies, some of which were crying, others had their eyes shut tightly as though that would allow them to escape what was to come.

“You all watch!” The dog shouted to the crowd. “You don’t do what we say, this happens to you!”

I wasn’t quiet at the best angle but I could make out the obsidian coat of my wingman waiting at the edge of the crowd.
The mare fought them as the two dogs pinned her forelegs on the ground. The leader raised the spear he was carrying over his head about to pierce the mare behind the neck.

Show rushed forward, catching him in a tackle the sent the dog crashing to the floor. The dogs pack mates released the mare and attempted to aid their leader. I pushed my way out of the crowd and faced them. These dogs were untrained brutes, and came at me swinging their weapons wildly. I sidestepped as the first one ran at me with his metal tipped spear. Trapping the spear under one forehoof and used my free hoof to deliver a blow to the dog’s throat. He grabbed his neck and staggered backwards, releasing his weapon. I picked it up as his companion rushed me his club raised above his head for a two handed strike. I fell backwards with the spear point up and the dog impaled himself.

I jumped to my hooves to help Show Off, but his dog was already a sprawled out on the floor.

“On your right!” He shouted a little too late.

A sudden impact on my side lifted me off my hooves and knocked the breath from my lungs; it felt like I had been hit by a runaway cart. A massive hoof pinned me down and a blade was placed against the back my neck.

“Well, hello hero,” the Saddle Arabian mercenary said standing over me.

I couldn’t move, he was much larger than I was, and had all of his weight on my back pinning me to the carpet. I felt the blade raise and my blood chilled; I realized that I was about to die. Suddenly, in a brief moment of clarity, I had a brilliantly stupid idea. I flared my wings, and the silver synthetic feathers cut into his stomach. The slice wasn’t deep enough to cause any real damage but the sudden unexpected pain made him jump, giving me a little leverage to buck out with my hind legs. My hoof caught his rear fetlock joint, and with a sickening snap, it bent in a direction it wasn’t designed to go. He cried out in pain and released me. I shot forwards, propelled by a down stroke from my wings and grabbed as much altitude as the ballroom ceiling would allow. I circled back and dove, using all of my momentum to add force to the punch I landed on the side of his head. The large stallion dropped to a heap on the floor. I looked around the ballroom trying to assess other threats.

While Show and I were stopping the execution, it seemed that other ponies, most of them military, had taken advantage of the distraction to subdue the other dogs. Several were sporting wounds on their bodies; one was lying on the ground as two other ponies tried to stem the flow of blood from her side.

Show Off came galloping up to me.

“You alright?” He asked.

My wrist ached from the impact on the horse, but I didn’t think it was broken. My ribs were a different story; at least one was certainly cracked from where the merc had hit me. Neither injury was serious enough to put me out of commission. I was more concerned with the situation at hoof.

“Yeah, what the hell is going on?”

“No idea, Fam and Quill are trying to get everypony organized.”

Show Off pulled the spear out of the dead diamond dog, as I kicked the Arabian over. He had a small curved blade attached to his hoof and a larger one strapped to his back. I relieved him of his arsenal and his radio, he groaned in pain as I jostled him.

“Tie him up,” I instructed an able bodied stallion. “But don’t kill him; he’s a prisoner of war.”

I followed Show to the group of ponies in military garb; most were enlisted with a smattering of officers. The latter were arguing over who was to take command as the palace was now apparently under attack. A lone colonel was shouting at the others as he pointed to the epaulets on his shoulder. Any higher ranking officers would have likely been in a VIP room when the attack started.

My wingman regarded the proceedings with a mix of concern and disgust. He walked in between the arguing stallions and drove the spear into the ground. The metallic clang of the spear against the marble floor ceased all of the bickering immediately.

“Alright, put a bridle in it,” Show said in hushed but serious tone. “There are ponies, civilian ponies, counting on us and you lot are squabbling like foals. I’ll make this simple, those dogs tried to kill us, so this is now officially a combat situation which means we need a combat experienced officer in charge. Who here has had combat experience?”
The colonel didn’t raise his hoof, nor did the only major. Two captains remained with their hooves in the air; Famosity and a crimson pegasus stallion.

“When did you make captain?” Show said pointing at the colt.

The flier hesitated at being put on the spot.

“Um, three months ago.”

My wingman turned to Famosity.

“And you?” He asked, though he knew perfectly well when she had been promoted.

“13 months,” she replied without hesitation.

In this situation, it was probably best that the others didn’t know that we were in the same unit. The last thing we needed was a power struggle that would waste time.

“Alright, you’ve got seniority so you’re in command.”

Fam looked around nervously before regaining her composure. The mint green unicorn had always been a great tactician but she had never been willing nor able to lead other ponies. However, she was lucky enough to know somepony who was.

“Lieutenant Weave! Front and center,” she said with as much authority as she could muster.

Quill stepped forward, standing next to Fam looking as strong and noble as possible. He addressed the other officers and began our brief council of war.

“Our first priority is getting the civilians out safely…”

The colonel stepped forward, determined to voice his opinion.

“Lieutenant, shouldn’t our first priority be protecting the Princesses?”

Quill refused to back down from the superior officer.

“Colonel, if Princess Celestia were here right now, what would she tell us to do? Those dogs all had radios; reinforcements will likely be on their way if they don’t check in on time. Celestia would not want us to leave close to a hundred souls to be massacred at the hands of those mangy dogs because she herself was under attack. She would order us to evacuate them and that’s what we are going to do. Famosity what are our best options.”

The unicorn thought for a second and then began to draw a map of our immediate area in mid air. It floated as if it were resting on an invisible table; she used this to her advantage to diagram the escape route.

“Our best bet would be to take emergency exit out into the garden. The mercenaries forces will probably be spread thin so there should only be one or two guards on sentry duty. If we can make it to the wall and outside, we should be safe. The hard part will be getting this many ponies out unnoticed.”

Quill nodded in agreement.

“Second priority; protect the crown and drive them back. These blaggards know that reinforcements will be sent as soon as the Princesses doesn’t raise the sun tomorrow, so they will have to find them and force them to surrender before the morning. I say we rain on their parade, where are the closest garrisons to Canterlot?”

The crimson captain spoke up.

“Probably the 49th Combat Flier Group out of Cloudsdale or the 12th Cavalry regiment out of Ponyville.”

Famosity looked around at all of the soldiers assessing our fighting strength.

“Even if we could contact them directly they wouldn’t get here in time. We are going to need to fight, bide time for the reinforcements to arrive. To do that we’ll need weapons…if we can get to the armory we’d be able to mount a valid defense with what we have here. But the armory is bound to be heavily guarded.”

“We could use a distraction,” Quill added his two cents.

Show Off looked over at me, as if asking if I would volunteer with him. I responded with a nod.

“Snap and I can handle that,” my wingman responded.

Quill looked at us but hesitated.

“Sergeant, that is honorable but…”

“I said we can handle it, lieutenant. Look, if we head towards the royal chambers, hit anything that’s not a pony, and just cause general chaos they’ll have to pull some troops...”

Famosity interrupted my wingman.

“That’s all well and good…but there’s one problem, you don’t know your way around the castle. The last thing you want to do is get lost and run into a dead end,” she looked around at our small group. “Has anyone here been to the palace before?”

No pony responded and the unicorn sigh audibly, this wasn’t what she was hoping for when she had formed her evacuation strategy.

“I was afraid of that,” she muttered.

Quill looked out over the crowd of civilians who were now starting to stir with anxiety

“Faust forgive me,” he said solemnly.

The lieutenant jumped up on a table and tapped his hoof on the stained wood to get everyponies attention. He took a deep breath and addressed the ponies who were now looking for answers; an air of authority and charisma radiated from his words.

“May I have your attention please? As you know by now the Princesses are in danger from an attack by those entrusted to protect her. As soldiers of the REA we have sworn to protect this country and its citizens at all costs. Our top priority is to make sure that every single one of you returns home to see your families once again. However, I must ask for two volunteers who have a knowledge of the castle grounds. I am sorry, it will be dangerous and I cannot guarantee your safety, but I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t absolutely necessary for the safety of the Princesses and the security of Equestria.”

A small handful of ponies stepped forward out of the crowd; Quill jumped off the table and went to talk to each one. He returned to the gathered soldiers with two mares, both seemed nervous about what was to come, as they should be.

Quill introduced the first of the mares, a grey pegasus with a curled fiery mane that flowed like water back behind her neck.

“This is Bookwind,” he said. “She works in the royal library, according to her the armory is across the garden from the archives, and she’s willing to take us there. We’ll send a small group to evaluate the armory guard and take control of that point if possible.”

“Hi,” Bookwind addressed all of us shyly. Shyness apparently didn’t translate to a lack of courage because it was obvious that she knew the risks involved.

As if bolstered by the pegasus, Maquillage stepped forward, there was blood on the front of her uniform from some unidentified source. A sword she had confiscated from some unfortunate diamond dog was slung across her back.

“Quill, I can take command of the assault team,” she offered.

Famosity opened her mouth to protest but quickly closed it when Maquillage gave her an apologetic look.

“Thank you lieutenant,” Quill continued. “Please pick your team, make sure to have at least one pegasus who will be able to escort Bookwind back to the castle wall. Okay, who are the two fastest flyers here?”

“Probably, me and Hot Streak,” One of the pegasi said, giving a quick nod over to the crimson captain from earlier. “We were the fastest in our squadron.”

Quill evaluated the pony; he had a blue coat, a fiery red mane and the build of a racing pony. The lieutenant nodded his approval and gave them their orders.

Okay, I want you two to leave now and got to Cloudsdale and Ponyville. Get our reinforcements.”

The two of them saluted and sprinted off to one of the windows of the ballroom. The radios we had pillaged off the dogs suddenly blared to life and a voice began taking a head count.

“Quill, they are asking for sitreps.”

To my surprise, there was more than just one group that failed to check in.

“Heh,” Show scoffed. “Looks like we weren’t the only ones who put up a fight.”

The radio suddenly squealed and filled with static.

“Magical encoding?” One of the ground grunts asked.

In order to hide our radio communications from the bears, unicorns had developed a way of scrambling the radio frequencies with magic. In order for the Arabians to do the same they would either need to have a diamond dog shaman or…

“A unicorn?” one of the privates asked concerned.

Quill ignored the question; the more prudent issue from the radio was that hostile reinforcements would be on their way to check on the missing team. The lieutenant stepped forward and quickly put the evacuation plan into action.

“Colonel, major, take three soldiers apiece and guard the doors, you are going to be the rear guard. Maquillage, take your squad and get to the armory. Show, Snap get acquainted with your guide and get to the Princesses. Be careful, radio communication is now ineffective because of the jamming, so we are now operating as individual groups. Everyone else be ready to escort the civilians.”

We both saluted as Quill jumped back up on the table and began to ask the gathered ponies to remain calm.

I turned to head out and found myself nose to nose with Misty.

“You are going out there aren’t you?” she said quietly.

“Snap, we have to leave,” Show interrupted urgently.

“Two minutes,” I begged.

“Alright, meet us at the door.”

I turned back to Misty.

“I have to do this,” I told her.

“Why?” she asked, sorrow in her voice. “Why do you have to rush out to your death?”

“I have a duty to the princess…and I can’t sit idly by and lose somepony I care about again.”

I nuzzled her gently, trying to make my reasoning clear.

As if knowing he’d be ruining a moment, my wingman called out from the door.

“Snap! Now!”

I gazed deep into the mare’s eyes which were now filling with tears.

“I have to go,” I told her as I gave her a soft kiss on the forehead.

“Wait!” She cried out as I galloped off to where Show was waiting.

“Famosity!” I called out over my shoulder. “Keep Misty safe!”

I didn’t look back to see how the captain responded. I knew that if I looked back it would make it that much harder to run out into the fray. Show was standing impatiently by the door, eager to get to the Princesses. He busied himself by adjusting the harness that held the spear he had armed himself with.

“Everything alright?” he asked, seeing the expression on my face.

“No,” I replied tersely.

I pulled out my good luck charm and gave it a kiss. At this point, any luck I could get would be a gift.

“Okay, better,” I lied.

Show nodded started briefing me.

“This is Butterbeam. She’s a waitress here at the palace. She’s going to show us the fastest way to the princesses.”

Show looked at the colonel guarding the door, who gave us both a pitying look. He was pretty sure that this was a suicide mission, I wasn’t sure that he was wrong.

“Everypony ready?” My wingman asked.

“Yes…” Butterbeam said with a shaky voice.

I took a deep breath and felt my nerves settle down.

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go!” Show Off shouted and he took off down the hallway.

I flew up to the ceiling and our civilian guide followed. A sudden sense of déjà vu washed over me.

“I feel like we’ve been here before.”

“Outnumber and out gunned while Quill has to try and get everypony out alive…yeah.”

He was referring to our evacuation of Fort A almost two years ago. We had barely survived that mission, I was in no hurry to repeat the operation, but I was hoping for the same result.

“There! Three flying ponies!” A raspy voice shouted.

A pack of six dogs was massed up ahead of us; we hung a hard right to and shot down a hallway. The tight space of the corridor was not conducive to flying and we were hemmed in by the walls and ceiling. I could hear the dogs running behind us.

“Double Time!” Show shouted.

We increased our pace, the tapestries and statues rushed past, becoming a continuous blur of color. The growls and shouts of the dog pack slowly dulled as they grew further distant.

Looking back I saw Butterbeam was having difficulty keeping up, she was physically fit but obviously not as conditioned as we were.

“Hang in there, Butterbeam!” I called to her.

“I’m alright,” She wheezed out. “Make a left up here!”

We banked left into a narrow hallway, but found ourselves facing a dead end.

“What are you doing girl?” Show called out as he landed.

He quickly drew his spear, and rushed back to the main corridor to guard against the inevitable attack.

Butterbeam pushed past him, ignoring the dark look he shot at her. Breathing hard, the golden filly galloped to the wall and put a hoof on the embossed shield that hung on a hook.

There was a clicking sound, as if something was falling into place, and suddenly the marble glowed green briefly before parting. I found myself staring into a dark hallway.

“Come on!” she cried out.

We both followed in behind her and the door imidiately closed behind us with a whoosh of air.

“What the…?” I said looking around. I was astonished that something like this existed in the castle.

“Secret passage,” Butterbeam smiled. “They’re everywhere around the palace. This one leads to the VIP area where the princesses were.”

“No time to lose then,” Show said urgently. “Where’s the light?”

“The glow lamps are magic, they’ll light as we go. Come on!”

To demonstrate, she ran down the passage a short ways and the light seemed to follow her, as though it were alive. Show and I galloped to her.

“Hey,” Show said. “You rock, Butterbeam.”

The three of us ran as hard as we could the lights chasing us as we progressed. The sound of our hooves echoed out into the empty space.

“What I wouldn’t give for a lightning gun right now…” Show Off mused, filling the silence.

Butterbeam took up the conversation, acting like she was our tour guide for an evening stroll.

“Lightning guns have been banned in the city,” she stated knowledgably. “The princesses believed that it wasn’t safe to have them around a civilian population, and as long as the lines were holding they wouldn’t be necessary.”

“Well, at least we won’t run into them ourselves,” I said hopefully.

We came to another dead end, our guide walked up to the blank wall, caressed it gently and it took on a golden hue before being absorbed into the floor.

“Okay, let’s go,” the filly said with a smile.

She walked out of the passage and stepped out into the main corridor. Her eyes went wide and she stopped dead in her tracks. Her mouth opened to scream but I quickly grabbed her and pulled her close to me.

“Shh,” I whispered as comfortingly as I could.

A dead pony lay before us; his eyes open, staring vacantly at us. His blood dripped off his golden armor pooling beneath him. There was a gaping hole in his neck where his throat had been ripped out; it was truly a grizzly sight. Three dead dogs lay around him; he at least took a few of them with him. Show Off trotted over and gently closed the guards eye’s with a hoof.

“It’s okay,” I said to Butterbeam. “Which way?”

I tried to get her mind on anything other than the dead guard. She didn’t respond, she was too catatonic to even know I was there. I took her muzzle in my hooves and looked directly into her eyes.

“Look at me,” I told her. “Listen to the sound of my voice.”

She blinked and her ears perked up.

“Take a deep breath.”

She inhaled.

“Okay, close your eyes.”

Her eyelids fell shut.

“Feeling better?”

She gave a quick nod and exhaled.

“Now, walk with me.”

Cautiously, I took her by the hooves and guided her past the dead guard. The poor mare simply followed everything I had asked of her. Her mental state had deteriorated to the point that she would comply with any instruction. Once we were a good distance away, I stopped and tucked her away into a recess in the hallway containing a stone effigy of Commander Hurricane.

“Alright, rest here a while,” I told Butterbeam.

“Snap,” Show glared at me. “We don’t have time for this!”

I tried to keep my voice even.

“Buck it all Show, she’s got battle shock. Until she calms down we can’t do anything.”

“If she’s useless, then we should just leave her.”

I stood up slowly, not wanting to startle the mare who was now curled in a ball using her wings to cover her eyes as she cried.

“Lunatic will you listen to yourself,” I said quietly, using his callsign. “You need get your priorities straight!”

“I do, and it’s the princess!”

Understandably, he was getting frustrated. I did my best to keep my voice level as I tried to reason with him.

“You once told me that Luna protected foals from their nightmares, what do you think Butterbeam is going through right now?”

My wingman looked past me at the pathetic mare. He glared back at me and let out a weary sigh before finally relenting.

“You’re right, Shutterbug. She wouldn’t be happy with me if we didn’t help her.”

“Look, scout ahead a little and then come back in five, hopefully she’ll be back on her hooves by then.”

He nodded and took to the air, speeding off down the hallway. I returned to our charge, she had stopped crying and was looking at me with a tearstained face.

“I’m okay now,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry. It’s just…I know him.”

Tears began to roll down her cheeks again.

“He’s my friend; we just talked right before the party. I can’t believe he’s…”

I hugged her tightly.

“I’m sorry, I am so sorry,” I whispered in her ear.

I looked up at the stone pegasus, who was on her hind legs, wings spread in a heroic pose.

Such a brave warrior race¸ I thought, as I looked down at the crying filly. We weren’t meant for this.