Medievil: Equestrian Adventure

by Theblondeknight

Chapter 3: Enemy Within

Ponyville: That's Ponyville, not to be confused with Pony Bill, who was largely renowned for his generous spirit, catchy sayings, and colossal muzzle

"Sis! Twilight!" Applebloom ran out and yelled in great relief as several familiar faces, as well as a new, rather unusual one, travelled towards the farm.

Applejack embraced her siblings as the neared and Twilight introduced the visitor, "Big Mac, Applebloom, this is Sir Daniel Fortesque, from Gallowmere, a land far, far away. He's come to help us with the situation."

"Say, what is goin' on? Big Mac won't tell me nothing!" Applebloom whined, looking at the group with eyes that would melt a gentle heart.

"That's something you don't need to worry about, Applebloom, now go on inside and fix up some refreshments for us with Granny Smith, we're plum near ready to drop down in exhaustion," Applejack told her sister, who with a look of disappointment, began to walk off before turning around, the disappointment gone from her face, replaced with a curious suspicion.

"Say...do you have a cutie mark?" She asked Dan, hoof on her chin and eyes squinted in analysis of the strange hero who helped her sister.

"A cutie what?" Dan asked, looking at the other ponies for help as Applebloom drew nearer to him.

"No Applebloom, he don't. They don't got cutie marks where he's from," Applejack explained.

"Hey! That makes you a blank flank, like me!" Applebloom shouted in delight, slapping Dan in the upper thigh and smiling, eliciting a look of surprise from Dan after the slap.

"Now, now, you'll get time to learn about Dan later, go on and help Granny get us those refreshments," Applejack again told her sister, who this time happily skipped away humming a jolly tune.

"She doesn't know what's going on," Twilight stated, looking for confirmation, but too sure of the answer to actually ask.

"Nope," Big Mac confirmed. The large stallion had been looking Dan over since his arrival and looked as though he was finally ready to make a judgement on Dan.

"What's up Big Mac?" AJ asked, seeing the look in his eye, a look that betrayed calculations and quiet thought.

"Does he seem," Macintosh began, trailing off and lowering his whisper, "a bit under nourished?"

Dan was able to hear the comment, though aside from the whisper Big Mac made not attempt to keep it from from him, and looked down at himself, then quickly looking back up with a shrug.

"He's OK Big Mac, a little odd, but he's willing to help us out and he sure knows his way around a zombie infested battlefield," Applejack affirmed Dan's position to her brother as the group began to walk down slowly to the farm. Now sure that the stranger was confirmed to be trustworthy, Macintosh let the facade go and let his face express the worry caused by stressful incident.

"Glad to have you back, sis. You've been gone too long."

"But it's only been one night, what'da mean we've been gone too long?" Applejack questioned, causing the eldest Apple child to sigh.

"Not too long after y'all left a group of zombies headed towards Ponyville. The zombies managed to whittle down the Ponyville guards until only a hoof's full remained, but that's when the metal ones showed up," Big Mac answered, hanging his head down in the memory of the previous night.

"Metal ones?" Rainbow repeated, unsure of what Big Mac meant.

"They were big, tough, black metal creatures...they kinda looked like him," Big Mac elaborated and motioned his head towards Dan, who gulped in reply upon realizing what exactly the metal men might be.

"What did the metal men do?" Twilight pried.

"Since the guards were almost wiped out they didn't have no trouble taking over Ponyville. They took most of the remaining townsfolk hostage and posted some odd war machines along the border of town. Only the lucky ones like me escaped."

"Aw man! Ponyville was captured by metal monsters during a zombie apocalypse? How could this get any worse?" Rainbow asked in frustration and annoyance, but was soon snapped out of those feelings by the others, each giving her a certain stare that made her a bit uneasy.

"So they captured Ponyville but haven't tried to expand their control beyond that?" Twilight asked for confirmation as the farm house became a mere stone's throw away.

"That's the only upside to all this," Big Mac responded.

"Well, you're the expert on all this stuff Dan, these metal guys sound familiar?" Rainbow asked as they all looked over to the foreign knight.

"They sound like Boiler guards," Dan replied, a frown forming on his jaw.

"Boiler guards?" Rainbow echoed before Twilight spoke up:

"And I take it that's pretty bad news?"

Dan let a melancholy nod roll as Applebloom came bursting from the door.

"Come on inside everypony, apple cider's ready!"

The inside of the farm was quaint and charming; Granny Smith had shown true Apple Family hospitality to the visitors, especially upon learning that they had a guest among their ranks. While the food and beverages were excellent, the attention and care given to little details like the lighting of the room and the presentation of the house as a whole spoke volumes about the owners. Of course the ponies were quite used to all this, though even they noticed the changes brought on by the looming zombie apocalypse, but Dan was pleasantly surprised by the show, especially given the circumstances of his arrival. And they didn't much judge him by the way he looked either. Dan decided he could bear to spend a while with them, but of course, there were some negatives.

"Say, Mister, why aren't ya drinking the cider? Ain't ya had cider before? It's super delicious!" Applebloom encouraged Dan to take part of the refreshing meal, but the knight kindly, and perhaps a bit sheepishly, declined. That did little to stop Applebloom, however.

"Here," She told him as she grabbed a large cup of cider with her hoof, "it's great!" Despite the mild and largely unenergetic physical refusal by Dan, the filly took him by surprise, hoisting the cup to his jaw and pouring it down, a large frown forming as the delectable beverage splashed through Dan's armor and onto the chair and floor below.

Dan looked down at the sticky cider drip from the upper portions of his hidden ribcage and sighed. Applejack, Big Mac, and Granny Smith held looks of annoyance and embarrassment.

"Sorry about that Mister...I only wanted you to enjoy yourself more," Applebloom apologized and began wiping up the cider with a rag as Applejack went to retrieve the mop. Big Mac took Dan out back to wash out the cider; Twilight followed close behind while Rainbow talked with Applebloom and Granny Smith, who, to her knowledge, did not know the full extent of the crisis.

As Dan began to apply the water from one of several large, wooden barrels out back, Twilight emerged from the house, wasting no time in her approach.

"Dan, we've got to free Ponyville. Besides rescuing all the citizens, it's our only way of quickly contacting Princess Celestia. So how do we deal with these boiler guards?"

"Never get too close and be ready to duck and cover," Dan replied, almost as if he wasn't actually paying attention to Twilight and was merely saying the first thing that came to his mind. Twilight didn't care, or at least didn't notice, and continued her planning and smiling when Big Mac came back with a bar of soap for Dan.

"Hey, Big Mac, how many ponies were able to escape the boiler guards?" She asked as Dan gladly retrieved the soap, reaching down his armor to get to the stickiness.

"Not too many, why?" The stallion responded and moved closer to Twilight, giving Dan more space to do what he was doing.

"Well I was just thinking it over, and I think we can retake Ponyville, but I have to ask, did the boiler guards erect anything along the perimeter except the war machines?"

"I don't think so, been watching 'em from a distance now and again, and last time I checked there wasn't no wall or nothing."

"Good, that means it'll be simple," Twilight responded with a tad more glee than Dan thought appropriate, but he still acted as though the biggest problem in the world was the cider in his armor and on his bones.

Big Mac gave a look of confusion, prompting Twilight to explain her plan in detail:

"OK, since the boiler guards have put up war machines, they obviously want to keep Ponyville in their position for some reason. Since they haven't tried taking over anywhere else, even relatively easy to conquer places like Sweet Apple Acres, they should have most or all of their power invested in keeping Ponyville under their rule. With the knowledge Dan has about the guards and the element of surprise, I think we can take it from them. We'll have to send someone in to disable the war machines to make an opening for everypony else," Twilight elaborated and Dan's head perked up at the noticeable difference between 'someone' and 'everypony else'. Looks like he had been drafted.

"Once the war machines are down, the rest of us and come in and attack them knowing any weaknesses they have. Our problem is that we'll probably have fewer forces and will probably have less weaponry. Still, I think we can do it, and if you can help me find the ponies that were able to get away from the boiler guards then I know we'll have a chance. The bottom line is that we've got to take Ponyville back, and I need your help to do it, what do you say?"

Big Mac looked at Twilight with the same expression he had looked Dan over with. An expression of deep thought and calculation, measuring the validity and truth in Twilight's words. His eyes never batted and his lips never moved until he had made his decision.

"Eeyup," He answered with a smile.

"Great! Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy should be back from the Everfree sooner or later, but it'll take a lot of work to track everypony else down I'd imagine. We should get started right away. I'll go tell Rainbow the plan and then I'll be right back to join you," Twilight told him and began to head back into the barn, stopping just as she opened the door. She looked at Dan and smiled with a sly expression, "Don't you have to get going, Dan?"

Dan rubbed his skull with his hands for a second and walked off with a posture that clearly told anyone who could see him that he was doing what he was of his own will, but was not particularly pleased of it.

...

The plan was so simple, yet the reality was so very far from it. Firstly these boiler guards were not exactly as Dan had remembered them. Some of these guards were better armed than their Gallowmere counter parts, quite literally actually, for this new breed of metal militia had four arms, two regular and two new attachments: one a sword-like cutting device, the other an electrified flail of some sort. In addition, other guards could not perform limited acts of flight, thanks to thruster-like augmentations to their natural physiology.

The good news was that the war machines were relatively few and far between, only about seven or so around the perimeter of the town. Though it was not a large force of guards per se, the enemy numbers were easily large enough to crush Dan and a ragtag group of ponies if they were not careful.

The captive ponies were held in several different make shift prisons around the town, including locations such as the Golden Oaks Library, Ponyville General Hospital, and the Town Hall, so several guards were posted there at all times. Dan knew the old boiler guards well enough to know they would harm innocents if given the order, but were they smart enough to do so of their own free will in order to stop him? Probably not...but these were not the same boiler guards. These were stronger, faster, and if chances had it, smarter boiler guards.

His approach was as silent as could be, and he timed his arrival to coincide with two guards passing each other, leaving a blind spot behind both of them, and allowing Dan to jump into a nearby bush patch. Point Fortesque. Dan vigilantly maneuvered through the town, almost making it to the first war machine when two guards met and struck up a conversation.

"The pony captives are clamoring for food and water. Shall we give it to them?" One of the four armed guards asked the other, one of the more familiar models, a surprising amount of emotion, but not of any particular kind, wrapped around his words.

"Give them food and water, but keep them restrained inside the prisons. We've just received orders to shift the war machines to augment the strategy and to make ready for more when they arrive."

"When will that be?"

"We should receive them by the end of the day, but there are no promises. We must keep watch and be ready, it is highly unlikely that the ponies will retaliate given the circumstances, but we can never be too careful."

"Understood, I'll have the men shift war machine positions as soon as the captives are attended to."

"Very good."

The two guards went off to attend to their duties and left the war machines as unprotected as they'd ever be. Now was Dan's chance. He crept to the closest machine and inspected it for weaknesses. It was a metal, catapult like device, and it had plenty of ammunition waiting to be used on the ground near it. This was definitely a planned invasion, and whoever sent these guards was probably the same one who brought about the zombie apocalypse.

Dan equipped his axe and began hacking away at the joints, doing as much damage as quickly as he could to the machines in the hope that they would fall apart or seize up when moved or fired.

"You there! Stop!" A four armed guard called out, aiming his long range weapon at Dan and exciting the electricity in his flail arm. Dan threw the axe at the guard, who though upgraded, was still not able to effectively dodge the attack and was momentarily stopped as the axe cut open his side, the flames crackling as they were exposed to the cool, late morning air.

Dan's axe returned to him like a boomerang and he retrieved it just in time to jump out of the way of the swing of the electrified flail. The guard did not give up so easily, and fired his long range weapon at Dan, the knight being able to evade only barely. Another throw of the axe caught the guard across the face and allowed Dan to take cover behind the war machine when the next bullet was fired. The bullets continued to fly and the next time Dan threw the axe it was shot down mid way between him and the guard.

Dan pulled out a few more daggers and prepared to make an opening when the guard began to make a loud alarm noise, giving away Dan's plot and putting the pressure on the skeletal hero.

Before any more guards could arrive on the scene Dan was able to puncture a few good holes into the guard who found him out with the daggers and used his cracked shield to block the close range flame attack as he went in for the final blow with his axe. Though the guard was now incapacitated and the first war machine was damaged enough for him to move on to the next one, his shield was now totally worthless and it burned up as Dan hurried off to evade detection.

Though he managed to evade sighting from any of the other guards, the enemy knew full well there was trouble afoot, and began locking down the prisons, shutting all the captives in with a few guards while the majority combed through the streets. An order was given to immediately reposition the war machines and the large weapons began to move into more tactically appropriate locations. When the guards attempted to move the seventh, damaged war machine and found that it had been sabotaged, another order was given:

"Three guards or more at every war machine! The intruder is trying to spread our ranks thin; keep organized!"

Dan had found himself in a nice little hiding place quite near another war machine. He sat quietly and nervously within a mound of pony apparel near Carousel Boutique, the accessories having been dumped to make room for more prisoners. Though it was not a colossal heap of clothes the many colors helped Dan blend in nicely and several guards passed right in front of him without noticing his presence.

He waited for the right opportunity to present itself and it was about to, the three guards near the catapult had been distracted by a strange noise on the opposite side of the war machine. Dan didn't know what it was, nor did he care, for he found an excellent chance to escape, as no other guards were nearby at the moment.

Just as he prepared to leave the mound something grabbed him swiftly from within the mound, causing him to jump right out and begin to scream, though he luckily was able to cover himself and prevent the noise from escaping. In response a light blueish-green unicorn pony shushed him and dragged him angrily back into the mound of clothes before the three guards could notice him, the distraction now over.

"Hey! What's the big deal," She asked in a mildly angry whisper, eyebrows arched, "are you trying to get us caught?"

Dan stared at her with a similarly angry expression before replying a few seconds later, "You're the one who almost scared me out of my armor!"

"You were about to go blow our cover!"

"When did you even get here?" Dan asked, the animosity between the two beginning to die down.

"I've been here since these guys showed up. The real question is..." She trailed off after having finally given Dan a good look over, her mouth opening up wide. Dan observed her reaction and slowly inched back a bit before the unicorn almost violently grabbed him by the shoulders and brought him forward in a hug.

"I'm Lyra Heartstrings and you are the first living human I've ever met," She exclaimed in a loud whisper, "this is great! I have so many questions!"

"Wh-What...what happened?" Dan asked, staring blankly at the clothes stacked atop Lyra, who was still clutching his armor like a filly with a stuffed animal.

"OK, so if you only have one eye, what do you put in the other socket?" She eagerly inquired as Dan continued to look dumbfounded.

Dan took the situation in almost numbly, answering her question despite being totally lost as to the sudden mood swing the unicorn exhibited, "Foreign magical genies."

"No! Way! That is TOO COOL!" Lyra exclaimed, still refusing to let go of Dan until he forced her arms off of him.

"Hey, what's your name anyways mister human?" Lyra questioned before Dan could do anything else. Most ponies he had met he didn't mind...but this one was something else.

"I'm Sir Daniel Fortesque, here on a noble quest to save Gallo-Equestria!" Dan told her with a commanding tone and heroic presence, managing to correct himself in time so that the statement's impact was not lost, doing his best to take control of the interaction and get back to the task at hand.

"Sir Daniel Fortesque, here on a noble quest to save Gallo-Equestria, it's an honor to meet you, and if you need anything, I'd be more than happy to help you out. Oh, and you know, when you get back to the other humans you can build me up a bit in reputation, huh? Make them want to come visit Equestria too?" Lyra happily responded, now allowing Dan to speak and more or less proceed as he pleased.

Dan sighed and smacked his skull with the palm of his bony hand, bringing the conversation to an end: "Well, since you're offering, think you could distract the boiler guards out there for me?" Dan smiled and pointed backwards, towards the three guards protecting the weapon of war.

"Sure thing Mr. Sir Daniel Fortesque, here on a-"

"Just go!" Dan interrupted and drew his sword as Lyra nodded and jumped out.

"Catch the saboteur!" The boiler guards called out as the fired they bullets and chased Lyra away from the now unprotected weapon of war. Finally something was going right.

This time, Dan formulated a plan to take out multiple weapons in one fell swoop. There were six siege weapons to destroy in total. Four were to his right, the last one to his left side. He took aim and fired at the farthest one down to the right, crushing it with one strike.

The guards from the nearest of the siege engines came running to stop Dan, who had gathered up the explosive barrels for the war weapon, and rolled them down at the angry guards, most of whom were not able to get away from the explosives and were destroyed with a loud bang. With little time left before more came after him, Dan aimed and fired the weapon again, this time destroying the one to his left. Three down, four to go.

At first the guards were not eager to destroy their own war machine, but now that Dan had dealt them serious damages, the single war machine was no longer a concern, and they fired multiple rounds at the machine and nearby it. Dan took off running and cut the corner behind the Boutique, leading the guards away from the war weapons as the one he had used against them was blown to smithereens. Only three left.

Dan was, to put it a certain way, experienced with running, and the boiler guards were slower than him by nature, so after a few minutes he had almost completely lost them. He was going to turn the next corner and disappear again when it hit him. Or rather, when she hit him.

"Oof!" Dan cried as Lyra's body ran itself his, throwing him up into the air and causing him to land on his back.

"Hey, mister human, I don't know how much longer I can keep this up! Can you help me out?" She asked him as he struggled to get to his feet. The guards who chased her were still a ways off but not giving up, and the ones Dan was escaping from were closer still, and just as determined to catch the trouble maker and the pony with him.

"Come on!" Dan grabbed Lyra by the hoof for a moment as he ran off, leading her towards the outer limits of town, the two groups of guards merging as they gave chase.

"Can you use magic?" Dan asked as the pair ran for their lives, the buildings becoming more scarce as the open country got closer with each passing second.

"Of course I can!"

"Move that barrel onto the road after we pass it!" Dan told her, drawing a dagger.

Lyra did as she was told and moved the indicated storage container onto the road as they ran past it, the guards still a ways behind. Within several seconds they too were passing the barrel and Dan threw the dagger, oil leaking out along the ground and making most of the guards slip and tumble onto the ground and into each other. Within seconds their own heat caused the oil to ignite and the majority of the group was caught in the ensuing inferno.

"Thanks for help!" Dan called out as he swerved right and headed back into town while Lyra looked at him longingly and continued heading straight, soon afterwards halting to a stop and watching Dan go back into town to finish his job.

...

Dan had snuck back in behind one of the three remaining war machines and frowned upon seeing that reinforcements had arrived. He actually managed to take out a sizable portion of the guards, but somehow they got back up while he was distracted. Somewhere, someone was plotting something big, and Dan had a feeling the zombie apocalypse was just the beginning of it all.

The good news, however, was that the reinforcements did not bring extra war engines with them. Yet, with so many guards surrounding the war machines, his mission seemed completely hopeless, and he was worried that Twilight was leading the others into a massacre. Dan began to panic as he ran through every idea for destroying the machines that came to mind, but they were all suicidal or too dependent on luck to work.

The guards were being vigilant and were ready for Dan to appear again. The one eyed knight had no alternative, and no reasonable plan that could work, and he almost gave up. He almost let himself walk away. Almost.

Before he did so, the boiler guards started murmuring amongst one another. There, on a hill outside town stood the force. It was too late, Twilight was going to walk the force right into a trap and get them killed. Dan's eye went wide and he shook his head, covering it with his hands as the orders went out:

"Prepare to charge and fire siege engines!"

From the hill, Twilight gave a shout of her own, leading all five of her friends, Zecora, Big Mac, Mr. Cake, Lyra, Bulk Biceps, Thunderlane, and a few others into battle, storming down towards the boiler guards.

Dan motioned from behind the mass of guards for them to stop and run, desperately jumping up and down to warn them, but then stood still as Twilight, with the help of Rarity, Lyra, and, Dan though, Zecora created a force field around the 20-30 charging ponies, blocking all three war machine attacks.

Rainbow and Thunderlane took to the skies, racing up and coming down hard to weaken one of the war machines and drawing some of the boiler guard fire. Twilight used her magic for ranged blasts and to shield herself and the group from attacks. The earth ponies largely drew the boiler guard attacks and laid traps for the charging enemies, most of whom ran right through and were captured or incapacitated.

Dan shook himself and joined in the fight from behind, racing over and attacking the guards manning the war machines. With the assistance of Rainbow Dash, Dan managed to gain control of one of the war machines and fired at the other two, successfully destroying them, then breaking the one he had used to finish the job.

Now the only problem was the boiler guard forces, and they were a big problem, already having taken down several pony attackers while the losses to their numbers didn't seem so significant. Fluttershy and a couple others tended to the wounded while the rest of the ponies were fighting the guards, with Dan doing his part to divide their ranks and make the guards deal with him at their backsides.

Realizing the next best move, Twilight called out to Rainbow high above her, "Dash! Free the captives!"

Rainbow nodded and raced down to the Golden Oaks Library, crashing through the door and rallying the detainees. Dan ran over to aid Rainbow, who was struggling to deal with the four guards stationed at the library, watching over the bound and gagged ponies. Dan was able seize a fallen guard's weaponized arm and used it to great effect while Rainbow flailed away at them simultaneously.

Soon enough the library hostages were freed and the able bodied ponies joined in the fight while the boiler guards were running out of numbers and ammunition. Dan and Rainbow repeated their tactic again at the hospital, and by the time those ponies joined in the guards were almost extinct, only a select few remaining in the fight. The next part was not one Dan was looking forward to.

Though he was relieved that Twilight and the others managed to pull it off, and very proud to have helped the ponies retake their town and stopped many minions of evil at the same time, loss was unavoidable. In total, 19 ponies had given their lives to retake Ponyville and several more were injured in the process; they weren't the concern, however. The 19 deceased should be honored as heroes, dying to save their town and prevent any more evil from occurring, but instead they had to have their bodies desecrated. In the wake of a zombie apocalypse, fresh corpses were the worst kind of danger waiting to happen.

Dan attended to the task alone as Twilight regrouped with her "assistant dragon, Spike" and sent a message to Princess Celestia, who arrived soon afterwards. When it was all said and done, Dan was quite overwhelmed, and very glad to have a chance to stop and take things slowly for a while.

...

The ponies gathered around the skeletal knight as he stood bashfully in front of town hall. Princess Celestia smiled warmly as Dan met her gaze. She went over to him and stood by him in silence for a moment, then addressed the citizens of Ponyville.

"These are times of great peril and torment, and with all that had happened I was blinded to the conquest of a town at the doorstep of the capitol. I am truly sorry for allowing this to happen, but were it not for the actions of this individual," she told them and pointed with her hoof to Dan, "Ponyville might still be in the captivity of these boiler guards and all of Equestria in certain danger. So join me in thanking Sir Daniel Fortesque for coming to Equestria and joining my student and the Elements of Harmony wielders in a quest to stop this apocalyptic event and save the land from ruin."

The ponies stomped their hooves on the ground with tremendous power, shaking the ground and making Dan shrug and scratch the side of his head in an awkward and humble pride. Before Dan could say anything, Lyra pounced at him from behind, tackling him to the ground and encasing him in another hug, making everypony giggle, even Celestia herself, though she did her best to hide it.

"We will begin to make changes to prevent this from happening again my little ponies, and we will pray that Sir Daniel and the Elements have a quick and safe journey to end this crisis." With that, Celestia stepped away and let the mass of ponies divulge into conversation, going over to speak with Twilight and Dan, who had just wrestled himself free from Lyra.

"I am quite glad you decided to aid us, Sir Daniel, and am relieved that someone of your skill and experience will be going with the Element users. We're all counting on you," Celestia told the knight, who bowed in respect and smiled brightly in confidence.

"We won't let you down, Princess," Dan told the ruer of Equestria with more stern confidence than Twilight had ever seen him display, evoking a second or two of pure dumbfounded observance from the lavender unicorn.

"And I am quite proud of you, Twilight, for taking the initiative to recapture Ponyville and save the citizens. A job well done; keep up this intelligent and wise way of thinking as your quest proceeds," Celestia complimented and advised her student, who hugged her teacher for a small moment and nodded in affirmation.

"Now, as far as the wicked magic that has caused this disaster, I still suspect Nightmare Moon to be the culprit, and after having done a little research of my own, I think I'll have a lead on her for you all shortly. You must be cautious upon confronting her, and be wary of her magic, for though you have faced great trials, she is in another league entirely. Until then, enjoy a small period of rest. You should be ready to go to Nightmare Moon tomorrow night, perhaps a little later."

What an adventurer has to go through sometimes! Though I was able to enjoy a brief tour of the Apple Family abode, I was soon enough shanghaied into a simple yet grueling plot to recapture Ponyville from the boiler guard invaders, courtesy of Twilight Sparkle's big mouth.(And shall I mention the stain of searing cider?) Twilight's nice enough, and she had good reason to send me in alone at first, but I thought I'd at least be asked about it. Kind of hurt my pride, really. Then, she ran off sharpish with Big Macintosh to gather up a rag tag army for the battle. I made my way into the poor, enslaved town and found it a place abounding with flowers, sunshine, and the horrid smell of pony BO. Oh, and then there were the slave driving boiler guards, and just my luck, the boiler buffoons made some improvements. Ugh...another spit to the face of Fortesque. But wait, it gets better! Met the most annoying nutter in a mound of clothes. Lyra, a name quite soothing but a character rather off the deep end...did like the blouse wrapped around her neck though, matched her coat nicely. (I was, unfortunately, stuck with a pair of high heels digging into the neck for a while. It'll be a bit before this kink comes out.) Well, ended up cleverly inhibiting the boiler forces until the cavalry arrived, although seeing a cavalry without men atop the steeds was a new sight. Makes me wonder what in the world has happened to life as I know it. In the end the prancing ponies put up a powerful offensive in the perilous plight. A job well done. Princess Celestia thanks me for my efforts, and will be sending us off for Nightmare Moon soon enough. With any luck, she'll be cooperative and have a change of heart in these tumultous times, but with any shred of cold, hard logic,the same logic which has never once not haunted me in some way, she'll be waiting to zap us into oblivion. Oh well.

Comments

[Sauron]

4713605
4713813
Yeah, sorry dude, but Rarity would fight. Probably.

Also, heads up, "Chatper 3". You should fix that.

(Alright, I concede... you are the better liked NET writer... for now.)

[firebirdabirdoffire]

If only Daniel had a gatling gun...