The Battle of La Frontière

by Archive Scribe

A Chance Meeting

Fancy Pants was making his way to the Telegraph Shack, now at the second week of his time in La Frontière. After being introduced to the ponies he would be working with he spent the rest of his first day having Cypher teach him telegraph decoding. It was a simple task and Fancy Pants was able to grasp it with ease. Machinery always fascinated him and the telegraph was no exception. However over the course of the week and once he looked past the novelty, he discovered it was dreadfully boring.

When the Army advertised this opportunity they said it would be an exciting visit to other countries defending forts from possible invaders. Instead he was stuck in a small shack listening to dots and dashes with the only notable thing being that beautiful mare he saw when he first got here and couldn’t get out of his head. He really hoped something would happen to alleviate his boredom or it was going to be a long tour.

“Fancy Pants.” Sargent Realis’ voice came in, knocking Fancy Pants out of his thoughts.

“Sir?” Fancy Pants asked paying undivided attention to avoid an incident like last weeks.

Realis levitated a piece of paper to him. “ Listen this is a message that Doctor Chirurgien has been waiting for and wants immediately. Since Swift Glider is still out delivering the last batch of messages and Cypher is better at receiving telegrams than you. I need you to deliver this for me.”

“Alright …..Sir…” Fancy Pants responded before another thought came to his head. “Where’s the medical wing?”

Realis chuckled. “Oh I forget you don’t know where everything is yet. It’s on the other side of the fort, just look for the building with nurses entering and leaving. Just go in there and ask for Doctor Chirurgien Okay?”

Fancy Pants nodded. “Yes Sir.” He took the paper and put his kepi on before heading to the medical wing.

---

Finally spotting the building with the nurses entering and leaving Fancy Pants walked over to the front door and went in the building. Once inside the building he found himself in a reception area with a front desk towards the back and a sitting area with other soldiers, both prench and equestrain waiting to see a doctor.

“Excuse me sir, can I help you with something?” A mare’s voice came in as Fancy Pants looked around.

“Why yes you…” Fancy Pants started as he turned around to look at the receptionist. When he turned around he noticed that it was the same prench mare that distracted him when he first got here. “-can. You ….see….umm….I have a ….message for Doctor …..Chirurgien that he wanted immediately. Miss……”

The receptionist raised an eyebrow in confusion at his stuttering. “Uh…. alright, let me go find him, ok?”

“Thank…..you.” Fancy Pants nervously replied as she left for the surgery room.

After she left, Fancy Pants sat down in one of the chairs for waiting patients, fanning himself with his hat, trying to collect his thoughts. He didn’t know why he felt this way, this was the first time he was even within ten feet of her and yet here he was stuttering and nervous when finally meeting her.

As he sat there thinking the mare came back out followed by an older prench unicorn stallion. He had a faded green coat with his mane, tail and finely trimmed goatee turned grey from age. Along with that he was dressed in more civilian clothing of grey wool trousers and vest, a wrinkled white button up shirt with high stand collar, a black bow tie and a white smock over his clothing.

The older stallion approached Fancy Pants and spoke in prench with a gruff voice. “Bonjour. On m'a dit que vous avez un message pour moi.” (Hello. I was told you have a message for me.)

Fancy Pants just stared at him not understanding what he said beyond Bonjour. The older stallion took note of this and sighed under his breath. “ Equestrians baise. Vous ne pouvez pas putain leur enseigner la langue du pays qu'ils séjourner.” (Fucking Equestrians. Can't fucking teach them the language of the country they're staying in.) “Hello. I’m Médecin en chef Champ Chirurgien. Now I was told by my nurse here that you have a message for me.”

Fancy Pants used his magic to take the message out of his blouse and gave it to Champ Chirurgien. “Yes….. Sargent Relis said you wanted it immediately.”

Chirurgien used his own magic to take the paper while taking out a pair of reading glasses. “ Thank you.” He started to read the message his face showing more anger the more he read it. “ Abrutis Damned . Me attend pour exécuter une aile médicale sans fournitures putain .” (Damned morons. Expecting me to run a medical wing with no fucking supplies.) He threw the message on the ground and stormed back into the surgery room.

Fancy Pants and the mare just stared in the direction of the door before she broke the silence. “ Don’t worry about him. He’ll calm down eventually Mr…. I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name.”

Snapping out of his blank out Fancy Pants realized that she asked for his name . “Oh …..err…. sorry about that, my name’s Fancy Pants.”

She smiled. “ Fancy Pants. What an interesting name. Well I’m Fleur De Lis.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you Miss De Lis.” Fancy Pants said, finally composing himself.

She looked over to the clock on the wall. “ Thank you, but I really need to get back to the front desk, I’m covering for somepony else right now.”

Nodding Fancy Pants looked toward the outside door. “Yes and I must get back to the Telegraph Shack. Thank you for your help and I hope to see you too.”

As Fancy Pants headed for the outside door Fleur called out to him. “ If you get hurt just come to me and I’ll make sure you get treated.”

“I’ll be sure to do that!” Fancy Pants told her as he left the building.

As he stepped outside and headed to the stairs to the ground level of the fort he heard a voice.

“Hey there Greenie.” Swift Glider said flying into his face.

“Gawh!!” Fancy yelled jumping back at the sudden appearance of the pegasus. “Swift Glider what are you doing here?”

Swift snickered “Oh nothing. Realis wanted me to make sure you found the place.”

Fancy Pants adjusted his hat as he looked up to him. “Well don’t worry I’ve found where it was. He wasn’t happy about the message though.”

Swift just shrugged at this. “Oh Old Pod there? Don’t worry he’s never happy.”

“I see. Well I better get back to the shack.” Fancy Pants said as he started towards the stairs.

“Well as long as you didn’t find anything else interesting while you were there, then I suppose you can leave.” Swift said between snickers, stopping Fancy Pants in his tracks.

Fancy Pants turned around to face him, gulping as he did. “H...how much of that did you see?” He asked nervously.

The Pegasus landed on the ground and started laughing. “Oh, just enough to know you have a thing for one of the nurses.”

Fancy Pants just blushed as he tried to hide himself with his hat.

“Oh don’t worry greenie.” He said putting a foreleg over Fancy Pants’ shoulder. “It happens to the best of us. Cypher had a thing for one for a while but when he finally approached her it turned out she was already engaged.”

Fancy Pants got nervous at the thought of him embarrassing himself only to find she was already taken.

Swift caught on to this. “Don’t worry, I don’t think that one’s taken.” He said thinking. “Do you know her name?”

Fancy Pants nodded. “Yeah, her name’s Fleur De Lis.”

“Alright, you’re already better off than he was.” He said thinking some more before a thought came to his head. “Ok she’s a nurse right.”

“Yeah.” Fancy Pants said, not liking where this was going.

“Well I know how I can get her to talk to you!” Swift said leading Fancy Pants to the stairs.

“How’s that?” Was all Fancy Pants could say before Swift Glider pushed him down the stairs.

“Enjoy the flight, I don’t think so? I’ll be back with the nurse, so just... stay there.” Swift said, leaving Fancy groaning at the bottom of the stairs before he passed out.