“I just don't know how to feel about this.” Rainbow Dash sat in a cushioned chair inside the room where Flash Magnus was staying. She propped her chin in her front hooves as she watched her legendary hero fly back and forth, sort of pacing in midair.
“I've looked up to the Wonderbolts my whole life,” she continued. “And I finally joined the reserves last year. And I've always looked up to you, too. But now you've got nothing positive to say about the Wonderbolts, or the royal guard.”
Flash flicked his red tail. “Try to see it from my point of view, Dash. I was in the Royal Legion at the height of its strength. There were thousands of troops stationed from coast to coast. We were the first line of defense from every threat. We had the most advanced armor and gear available at the time. I've been talking to the guards and other ponies all day, and I don't like what I'm hearing. The castle has only a dozen guards on duty at a time, and about two hundred that patrol the city altogether. And there are only a hundred Wonderbolts even though the population is many times what it was in my day. Starlight told me that she had never even heard of the Wonderbolts until you told her about them.”
“Okay, so maybe they could stand to recruit more. But they're still an awesome team. I've learned so much from the 'Bolts.” Rainbow sat up straighter. “They make me feel like a part of something bigger, the same way the Elements do.”
Flash sighed. “It's great that you feel that camaraderie with the other cadets, but Celestia admitted that they relaxed their standards for joining. If six or seven untrained ponies are more capable of defending Equestria than the entire military, what's the point of keeping it going?”
She squirmed in her chair, torn between her loyalty to her friends and to the Wonderbolts (and the royal guard, to a lesser extent). “I don't know. My friends and I can't be everywhere, even with the Map directing us.”
“Isn't that all the more reason to bulk up our defenses?”
“I guess. But the kind of change you want isn't going to happen quickly. I don't think it should, for that matter. I think a lot of ponies would get nervous if there was suddenly a military presence in every town. It might make our allies nervous, too. They'd wonder if we were planning something bigger.” Dash looked up at the dome ceiling in thought.
“So we tell them the truth!” He waved his forelegs.
“They probably wouldn't buy it, especially not the dragons. And there's another thing you're missing. The military is expensive. I don't pretend to know how the government spends its bits, but we need to make sure we have enough funds for thousands of troops and all the equipment we'll need.”
“Then that's something I have to ask Celestia and Luna about. I think it would be worth the expense to get the 'Bolts good armor. I can't believe you only have those thin flight suits.” He shook his head.
Rainbow knew that the reason they had lightweight uniforms instead of armor was that they did aerial stunts and maneuvers almost exclusively. Yet if they had been wearing helmets when they'd tried to rescue Rarity, maybe her flailing hooves wouldn't have knocked them unconscious. Some protection could serve them well even in noncombat situations. It was certainly something to consider.
“I do like the aviation goggles, though,” added Flash, pausing to hover in midair. “If you have a cost-effective way to make glass, it makes sense to use it to protect your vision.”
“Actually, they're plastic,” said Dash, relieved that she could tell him some good news for a change. “It's cheaper than glass and way more durable.”
Flash rubbed his chin. “Like those headphones you showed me?”
She nodded.
“That's good, but they need armor like mine, or helmets at a bare minimum. I shouldn't have to tell you how deadly a high-speed head-on collision can be.” He tapped his chin. “Now, what about the earth pony and unicorn branches? What kind of equipment do they have?”
“Huh? Are you talking about the royal guard?”
“Not the guard, the branches.” He spread his forelegs. “You know, the specialized forces that train to use their skills together? It's great to combine tribes most of the time, but it makes sense to divide by tribe for training purposes. Learning how to stick a landing isn't practical for a unicorn or earth pony, for example,” he explained.
Rainbow frowned in thought. “I don't know much about them, but I don't think there are branches for just unicorns and earth ponies. The AMA is a specialized force, but they're more of a government peacekeeping agency than part of the military, and I don't know exactly what it is they do. It's very hush-hush.”
Flash landed on the carpet and massaged his temple. “Okay. So either these special forces are in even worse shape than the pegasus branch, or they're secretly powerful and advanced and the princesses are covering it up.”
“Come on,” she said, rubbing her forelegs together. “That's pretty unlikely.”
“Which one?” He narrowed his eyes at her.
She looked away. “Uh . . .”
“That's what I thought. We're not recruiting, we're not training, we're not equipping, and we're not utilizing our ponies' strengths. Can you imagine how helpful it would be to have a squadron of unicorns using battle spells and shields, and using their magic to stop enemy combatants in place? Not to mention an earth pony cavalry that can throw projectiles with incredible speed, break up rocks and tunnel underground with their bare hooves. I tease Rockhoof about his shovel, but it's actually a good tactical skill to be able to dig a trench quickly.”
Rainbow put her hoof to the side of her face. “Well, maybe the AMA does some of that stuff. I don't know. We could ask one of the guards. Or we could visit the AMA headquarters ourselves and find out more about them.”
Flash sat back and folded his forelegs. “All right, where is it?”
She raised her hoof. “I . . . I don't know. It's somewhere in the city.”
“Do you even know what AMA stands for?”
“Of course I do. It's . . . Something something agency.” She held her head in her hooves, not sure whom she was more frustrated with – Flash or herself.
“All right, that's it! I'm waking up Luna.” He rose into the air again.
Dash zoomed up in front of him. “Flash, why do you feel like you have to do something about this now? We just stopped the Pony of Shadows and freed Stygian from the darkness. Can't you take one day to relax?”
“No.” Flash's ears lay flat. “I can't relax! If I try, I know I'll start moping around, feeling sorry for myself like Rocky and the others. I'm not going to let myself do that.”
Rainbow winced. “I'm s-”
“Don't say you're sorry, Dash.” Flash was rubbing both temples at that point. “It's not your fault that our friendship problem almost eliminated all the light and hope in Equestria. And now I really am feeling sorry for myself. I hate this.” He rapidly shook his head. “The point is, everypony has bad things happen in their lives that they can't do anything to change.”
Rainbow's ears drooped. “Do you think it was a bad thing for us to bring you and the other Pillars back from Limbo?”
Flash hesitated for a few seconds, but when he responded, his voice was firm with conviction. “No, this was a good thing. It doesn't feel good right now, but the Map wanted you and the other Elements to bring us back for a reason. There's still a lot we can do to change things for the better. That's what we need to focus on – not what we can't change, but what we can. Besides, my friends and I knew that we would have to make sacrifices for the sake of Equestria. What we're going through right now is just another sacrifice,” he finished.
“Wow, Flash.” Rainbow blinked at him. “I knew you were smart, but I had no idea you were such a deep thinker.”
Flash offered a wry little smile. “It's like Rocky says – there's a reason they decided to keep me around.”
“I'll say,” said Dash with a laugh. “I don't know how quickly we can start some of the changes you want, but I'll help you any way I can.”
“Thanks, Dash. That means a great deal to me. I know that you have earned the respect of the ponies, and your opinion holds a lot of clout.”
“I am pretty awesome,” said Rainbow, her grin spreading wider, “but this is the first time anypony told me I had clout.”
“Well, it's true.” He soared around her toward the door. “Come on, let's see if we can find the AMA headquarters.”
“Right behind you.”
No clue what AMA stands for but I think Flash is taking it better the the other name for the organization, S.M.I.L.E. He probably would start to question just what Celestia was up to.
No clue what AMA stand for honestly xD
Flash is defo my favourite out of the pillars
...if only that guy is an earth pony, maybe the rest of them are in the AMA? I mean, that one guy was stationed in the frozen north, and surmised "the crystal empire" as an 'it'. Maybe he just didn't make the cut.
Anti-Monster Agency
Love the chapter, but one thing I wanted to point out. The griffons don't have a government. I don't think they'd care/know if Equestria was increasing its military
Is anyone wondering why no one saw Tempest's ships heading toward Canterlot even though they were surrounded by unscheduled thunderstorm clouds? You'd THINK those would be visible from Cloudsdale.
And, of course, the whole Royal Guard, Shining Armor, and the Royal Equestrian Air Force suddenly disappeared that day, too...
8546026
What did SMILE stand for anyway? My guess would be Special Monster Investigation ??? Equestria.
Anyway, pretty sure the MA in AMA stands for monster agency. Just to figure out what the first A means then. Alternate? Adamant? Atrocious? ... awesome? All right performing?
8546087
SMILE stands for Secret Monster Intelligence League of Equestria
Well, Flashy, you have to agree those suits are damn sexy.
On a serious note, he has a point. With monster attacks alone Equestria has its share of things to deal with. Some of the officers the princesses have put in place are incredible assets—such as Shining Armor, who's a monstrously powerful shield caster. But they can't shoulder everything. Especially not with Equestria's territory increasing faster than its recruitment. Cadance has the right idea, methinks, the Crystal Empire has a sizeable guard force for being a city state.
Moreover, both the Mighty Helm and the Legions Flash Magnus was a part of had stallions and mares. The regular guard now is a sausage party. Are they just there to be Celestia's eye candy or something?
Unfortunately the moment they find this "AMA" they're gonna get Deflected. >:/
Such is the way of S.M.I.L.E.
8546099
We're everywhere AND we're nowhere.
8546087
Probably "Anti"
8546087
I figured the first A would be Anti
Anti Monster Agency.
One thing Flash has yet to ask himself is if a stronger Equestria military presence is necessary. Out of the major threats the Bearers have faced, conventional military could've dealt with; at most, the first changeling invasion. And yeah, better training and equipment there might have helped there, but most of the threats were decidedly unconventional. The Guard as it is seems to keeping Equestria respectably safe from most non-season-ending threats.
8546043
That's my guess.
8546052
Yeah, and that's one thing Flash probably hasn't considered yet - A large military (in proportion to the country's size), just like everything else, exists for a purpose. It's quite possible that things were different back in the day and things were much more dangerous, but modern Equestria doesn't have too much of an use for a large standing army.
The Gryphon "kingdom" is a desolate aerie that can't even be called a city state, much less a country, with population probably half of that of Ponyville. The Yaks are an angry Eskimo tribe to Equestria's Canada. Zebras don't have any nation that we would be aware of.
The only thing in Equestria's vicinity that might pose any sort of threat (besides godlike monstrosities like Discord and Tirek and so on, against which regular troops won't do squat anyway) to it are the Dragons ... but then again they haven't seemed to be a real problem since forever as well, assuming they ever were, as opposed to sticking to themselves. Changelings need a proper spy agency and detection spells to dealt with, not a bigger army. And Thorax is an ally anyway.
Add to that Equestria's political and diplomatic clout that Celestia has cultivated over a millennia (and her personal clout as well), assets that simply didn't exist back then ... and one indeed has to wonder what purpose a large standing force would accomplish for Equestria. There are no real nations bordering it after all.
I mean, if Equestria has more cash than Celestia knows what to do with and all government agencies are getting all the funding they could ever want, I guess there is no harm in expanding the army, which is an expensive endeavor - so long as one realizes it's not a particularly effectively spent money and likely won't serve any real purpose. But if Equestria's budget is more constrained than that, finding funding for a military that serves no discernible purpose might be hard. Which is probably what lead to the decrease to it's army size in the first place. Or, which is more likely, Equestria just kept growing and expanding without bothering to similarly expand its army (I rather doubt that present day Equestria actually employs less Guards than it did in Flash's time, just that current Equestria is probably at least ten times as big and thus has much lower troop density), because it ended up serving no real purpose over the centuries.
8546133
Have you considered that since males tend to be the physically inclined for combat among mammals like us humans? Thus it would make sense for the military to be predominantly stallions. Also its possible that the mares in the Legion and the Mighty Helm were the exceptions not the rule?
AMA-Association for Monster Assasination
Loved this chapter! Very interesting to see Dash talking from a military perspective, but I suppose she would be the most familiar one out of all the Mane 6 with that. Nice catch to realise that she has that in common with Flash Magnus.
Though I'm wondering why you decided to not make her a full 'Bolt yet. After all, she moved up from the Reserves way back in season 6.
8546026
I don't know if I've seen SMILE used as the organization's name. If the Pillars are like the pony Avengers then SMILE could be like the pony SHIELD.
8546043
Ding ding ding!
8546052
Good point. I've seen fanfics that have a larger griffon kingdom outside of Griffonstone, but there isn't any evidence for it in the show. I decided to take that part out and just say "the dragons." A lot of the dragon population is still slow to come around to being friends with ponies.
8546053
That's been bothering me as well. One of the background ponies claims that "everypony from Manehattan to Saddle Arabia" was in Canterlot for the Festival of Friendship, but it doesn't seem plausible that literally the entire population aggregated to that one city in the middle of the country. What about hospital workers, for example, or ponies who simply didn't want to go? Could Canterlot even contain that many ponies? I guess there could have been so few ponies remaining to the south that they couldn't get a warning to the princesses in time, but it still seems like a bit of a stretch.
8546133
Makes as much sense as anything I could think of.
8546195
8546199
Flash is above all very driven. He wants to do something now even though he doesn't have all the information. However, the princesses aren't going to take his advice seriously until he becomes more knowledgeable about current world events.
It's true that Celestia has been carefully avoiding conflict and fostering peaceful alliances where she can. And for over a thousand years she was successful. But when Luna returned, suddenly Equestria was hit with one thing after another - Discord, two changeling invasions, King Sombra, Tirek, the Pony of Shadows, and before long, the Storm King. Admittedly, military might wouldn't have done much to stop Discord and Tirek, but it could've helped with the others. Plus, a national guard could be deployed to help with natural/magical disaster rescue and relief. I think Equestria may not need as many troops as Flash thinks they do, but they at least need more than what they have now, and the existing troops really do need better training.
8546379
Here is where I got S.M.I.L.E. from. I have seen it used elsewhere. Still use what you want for your organization!
8546379
The problem with stories that give the griffons more than Griffonstone, is that they fail to explain why an empire would let one of it's major cities utterly collapse like that, and why they would let it stay that way. Not to mention, the show demonstrates that it's in griffon nature, at least for the majority, to be miserly as all hell.
8546228
Honestly, it slipped my mind that she moved up from the reserves. Though RD simply says that she joined the reserves last year, not that she is still on the reserves, so it could still work.
The thng is... Flash is right. Equestria is dependent on a tiny number of champions for its defence and that is simply not practicable. Literally every season there are huge security breaches and the Princesses are usually the first targets hit and disabled. So, Equestria's defence strategy is grotesquely flawed. It is one thing to be a peaceful nation but it is something else to be an open goal for anyone who wants an easy conquest.
One way to get around the surrounding nations' suspicion would be to recruit dragon and griffon mercenaries to help train up the new 'Equestrian Self-Defence Force' (ESDF). Having their nationals deciding policy and procedure would probably ease tensions a lot.
8546053
Thankfully the movie occupies the same not-really-canon space as Equestria Girls, so personally I simply choose to ignore its existence as it has no real bearing on the show itself. The Idiot Ball carried by much of the cast (and, indeed, the whole of Equestria if we want to start seriously analyzing it and taking what happened at face value) kinda ruins the experience. Thankfully it's not necessary to account for.
8546197
Sensuous and giving.
8546216
Well, the Wonderbolts are a coed group, so they don't ascribe to that paradigm. And Equestria's army during the Crystal War timeline also had female soldiers, though apparently in special forces. It seems like it's the Royal Guard who is made up entirely of males. And not just mainly, I can't even remember a single female guard even being shown.
So yeah, maybe the Royal Guard is primarily Celestia's personal army, and she likes to watch big buff studs whenever she has the chance.
Nice chapter. can't wait for more.
by chance, have you watched Anne of Green gables?8546847
So you acknowledge that females in the military are the exeception?
8546518
Love the idea of the Equestrian military reaching out to griffon and dragon mercenaries.
8546936
Today. Wasn't that the point? As for the past, no, the numbers look relatively even back then.
AMA anti monster agency? Regardless they won't find it as the agency was erased, S.M.I.L.E. likely took up all the AMA's duties and recruited most agents.
I do agree with flash that equestria needs a military, even if only for self defence. I mean take Switzerland (probably the most extreme example), it had about 150,000 active personnel in 2013, as well as 3.5 million available for military service. Switzerland has conscription which is the reason for this massive possible army. However they haven't been in a war since 1847. That's almost two centuries with no conflict. It's only there for self defence. But the army is so fierce nobody dares attack them. Even the nazis knew attacking them was a bad idea. THE NAZIS, keep in mind they thought attacking the Soviet Union was a good idea. Also fun fact, Switzerland is the only country in the world with enough nuclear bunkers for the whole population, with I think 114% capacity. Enough for even a few tourists visiting. Second is Sweden with 80 something percent.
8548071
Great point.
8546199
One thing that needs to be added: The Yaks are an angry Eskimo tribe where every single adult member is about twice the size of one of your big buff guards at the very least, with enough strength to level buildings on top of being durable and fast. And one of their favourite hobbies is smashing things.
They're not a threat on the level of, say, the Storm King or an army of dragons, but they are a threat. In RPG terms, they're like a big tribe of (benign) ogres. Not something you want to simply ignore. We can make light of Rutherford's threat of war, but if he came back with, say, just fifty Yak warriors? They can smash a lot before they could be stopped, including ponies.
8550194
I don't necessarily think that 50 Yaks could do a whole lot actually, depending on what they run in to. A small easily spooked village out in the boonies? Yeah, they could probably scare the locals away and cause property damage. A decently big city? They are going to get arrested by the local police department.
They are certainly strong, but from what we have seen the stronger Earth ponies are actually stronger (someone like Maud would manhandle a Yak no problem), in which case their size actually works against them. And as soon as you get a bunch of unicorns working together it's all over for the Yaks - just lift them off the ground via telekinesis and that's it, game over, and the Yaks can do nothing about it and can be restrained at the ponie's leisure (bonus points if they run in to a very strong unicorn along the lines of Starlight, who can likely do so on her lonesome).
Their threat level is ultimately the same as that of an unruly earth pony street gang numbering 50 members. As in they can cause some damage and a bit of chaos, especially in some remote location, but actually stopping them is fairly trivial once you get any sort of organized response together and have a handful of unicorns available (or a single really strong one). Pegasi can always buck lightning at them as well. They are quite likely the least threatening group that exists around Equestria's vicinity and wouldn't qualify for being any sort of a national threat, not even a local one really.
8550631
I think you're underestimating them significantly. Pinkie broke down under the Yak horn helmet, for example. They're far stronger than an Earth Pony, and I would include Maud in this. Rockhoof is a paragon of physical strength, you really think a Yak couldn't do what he can?
Moreover, Unicorns generally lack the skill to take out enemies via their magic. Even the princesses are lousy fighters, except Twilight herself. She's the best fighter out of all of them. If anything, that's a perfect example why an overhaul of the Equestrian military would be a good thing. You say a team of Unicorns could take out a Yak? Well, only with the right training!
Not that it'll help much if you need a team of Unicorns to stop one Yak, leaving the rest of them to stomp you.
8550657
I would disagree, no Yak ha shown anywhere near the amount of strength that Maud has (as far as Pinkie goes, she's a weird benchmark to use for obvious reasons :P), ergo there is no reason to assume that they are stronger when the show has shown the opposite. Strong, certainly. Stronger than the strongest Earth ponies? No way, based on what we have seen in the show.
As for unicorns, I wasn't suggesting a team of unicorns for a single Yak - I was saying a team of unicorns for the proposed 50 yaks, going as low as one unicorn needed depending on the skill/power of the unicorn. And they don't need to know how to 'fight' - they need to know how to use telekinesis and picking up Yaks from the ground the same way they would pick up sticks and stones and groceries. There is nothing a Yak can do against this. You know, same way Twilight yanked Applejack off the ground during the wedding changeling invasion episode and held her upside down, and all AJ could do was scream "real me! Real me!" - replace AJ with a Yak and you have the result of a "fight" between a Yak and a unicorn.
Obviously it depends on the unicorn on how many Yaks they could lift at once - Twilight can likely handle hundreds (if not thousands) based on the amount of weight she easily handled when she reconstructed Ponyvilles collapsed dam during the Mare do Well episode, but Twilight's obviously an outlier. But this hypothetical unicorn squad doesn't need to - they need to be able to lift a few at a time, and the fight is over and the Yaks can do nothing about being restrained from that position (or put down, if we are feeling bloodlusty). Add to the fact that Equestria could afford a team of unicorns for every single Yak if they felt the need to (there are probably more ponies in Manehattan's police department than there are Yaks altogether), and well ... and it gets even more unfair if any of them know any mental spells, akin to Twilight's infamous Want it Need it.
There really is no realistic scenario where the Yaks could pose anything resembling a threat to anything bigger than a single small, isolated town. Dragons obviously could (they have both the numbers, as seen in the dragon migration, and the individual power to), and it might be worth increasing Equestria's army because of them (minus the fact that the Dragons have never been a real problem before, and the new dragonlord especially wants friendly relations), but the Yaks are quite irrelevant on a national scale.
8550853
I have to disagree here. We saw Yaks break solid crystal rock, we saw Maud break rock. At the most, they're equal, but nothing suggests she's stronger, definitely nothing in the show.
As you said, Twilight is an outlier. Most Unicorns have nowhere near her abilities, and next to no magic worth anything in a combat situation either. There's zero guarantee they could pick up even one Yak.
Even so, your numbers even with Twilight are off; we saw she can handle two large families of Earth Ponies, but it's straining her to the limit. That's not even going into how lifting them is not the same as restraining them. If the target is fighting your control, it gets much, much harder and uses up more of your strength. Applejack wasn't struggling. A Yak would be.
I say a regular Yak versus regular pony, the Yak wins, Unicorn included. A regular Unicorn would get smashed pretty quickly.
Of all the nations we've been shown outside of Equestria, exactly zero of them are at a point where they either want or are capable of threatening the country. Dragons were barely more than a scary thing on the horizon even in Flash Magnus's day, griffons are so isolated we didn't even know they were a desolated wasteland until present day, yaks cut off communications at some far-off point in history and seemed ecstatic to reconnect, and the new changelings don't know how soup works.
There's a very basic principle at work here: Equestria just doesn't have the kind of enemies that an army would help against.
8589945
A well-trained army or Royal Guard could've fought off the changelings back when they were still a threat, although you're right about the other species. And the Equestrians were blindsided by the Storm King and his satyrs, so some intelligence gathering is necessary to know just what kind of forces they'll need in the future. Flash is not entirely wrong - Equestria really shouldn't have to rely on a half dozen mares and some of their friends for their entire defense. But he definitely needs to learn more about the modern world before he builds up the military in ways that may waste time and resources.
8590824
I will just rebut that, as far as we've been shown, even the worst of these incidents has resulted in zero casualties on the Equestrian side. Ponies don't just live in a world where the military is under-prepared because of peacetime. They live in a world where, as far as can be observed, the good guys demonstrably always win. Always.
Imagine for a moment if we lived in a world where a war could be won by a single man with a sword with precisely zero casualties on either side, but only if he was morally in the right. A world where questions of morality eventually break down because a certain world-view always wins the big fights, and always with the best possible outcome. Realistically, would you field an army in a world that only the completely mentally insane would even try to break down? Would you spy on countries that you know for a fact will inevitably fall apart if they stop being your friend?
It's not that Equestria is forced to rely on six mares. It's just that that's all they've ever needed. And time and time again, nothing has beaten their current defense strategy for more than, at our most stretching-time-out-for-drama estimate, maybe a month.
No no, hes right, if there ARE ponies that deal with things militarily they have been a laughing stock for ages.
I know some tried when NMM first appeared, but they were laughably outgunned, and I know some where around for the Changelings (again laughably outgunned), and even with Tirek they tried SOMETHING (which is about as far as they got really), but in the movie, they weren't even THERE for the attack, I checked, I couldn't find them anywhere in the film
No Rainbow Dash; the Wonderbolts are not cool, they're thugs.
I dont know if anyone said this already but the royal guards formal title is the EUP Guard, for earth pony, unicorn and pegasus.
9400968
Oh you take take that back!
What does that say about Shining Armor ? What would a military buildup, look like to the other nations ? It would be the start of an arms race. It would not be a good look for peacefull relations.