Times Could Be Worse

by AgentHondo

With A Sister

The five ponies dashed out of Twilight Sparkle's library, all carrying important materials in their saddlebags.

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle were all carrying blast powder for the cannon in Twilight's car, if necessary. After all, Ponyville was officially under attack now.

Twilight packed the plans she decided to use to help advance war efforts rolled up and sticking out of her bags.

The Doctor, or Time Turner as he would be normally known as, was hauling metal sheets, rods, and many other building scraps in his bags. "Can you guys slow down?" He whined.

"We can slow down, or blow up!" Twilight yelled back over the sound of bombs falling from the sky and hitting some houses nearby. "Your choice though."

After a successful getaway to the outskirts of town, the five approached the gates to Sweet Apple Acres. Before they entered, hundreds of ponies in armor with swords, spears, and shields marched into sight with a battle ready Applejack leading the group

"AJ!" Twilight called.

"Can't talk Twilight, we gotta stop the Society's troops before they tear up Ponyville!" The farm pony replied. "We're ready for tha' fight this time!"

"Right, but did I leave the car at your house?" She asked.

"Oh yeah, still parked at the front." She turned her attention from her friend to her filly sister. "By the way, sis, I want you to watch what yer' doin' in Canterlot. Twilight's a smart pony, so listen to her."

"Right!" The cream filly saluted.

The group from the library walked around the army and dashed towards Apple Bloom's house.

They found the steam car parked where Twilight left it. Everypony climbed in and Time Tuner sat in the cockpit.

"You can't drive that, only I can!" Twilight scoffed.

"No, only I can fly the TARDIS. I can drive just about anything else, really." Turner smirked.

He started the motor and accelerated the carriage at full speed, racing back out of the gates to the apple orchard.

They had to drive straight through Ponyville again, but at much greater speeds. In about twenty minutes, the car had blown through Ponyville and raced up the mountain to reach Canterlot.

Just outside of the main gate to enter the city was a large group of tents guarded by ponies with cannons. Twilight scanned the camp until she noticed the extremely decorative, two story tent.

"Oh Rarity." She chuckled. Only a pony like her would dare stay so classy in a war.

After exiting the car, the inventing group went directly to Rarity's tent. They noticed that the field next to them had targets set about half of a kilometer away from a modified party cannon. There were plenty of holes in the soil, and next to none in the actual targets.

Upon reaching the tent, Rarity's front door swung open to reveal the glamorous unicorn.

"There you all are! I've been expecting you!" She gestured for the group to come inside.

"How did she know we were coming?" Time Turner leaned over and whispered to Twilight.

"Magical script... Thingy." She replied with an equally quiet whisper.

Rarity lead them through her tent to a maroon earth pony fiddling with a cannon.

"Ah, you're here! We're gonna need those plans for a cannon real soon." The stallion said, wiping a grease smudge off of his cheek.

"This is Moon Gazer, our man for adjusting cannons to be more accurate." Rarity explained.

"You can call me Moony!" He chimed.

"Okay, we'll we've got the plans!" Twilight levitated her plans to Moon Gazer as he unrolled them and began analyzing them.

"These look amazing, especially since the cannons we have now aren't accurate at all!" He said ecstatically.

"We can help you build them, if you want. It seems like we'll need quite a few." Time Turner offered. "Oh, and by the way I'm Time Turner! That's a pretty normal name for a pony, right? I dunno, I'm not too fond of pony names, but they'll do. They're kin of funny sometimes!"

"Uh, yeah we could use the extra help! And about the pony names, I'm not sure what to tell you I guess..." He replied, slightly confused.

"Well what're we wait n' for! We have work to do!" Apple Bloom cheered.

"Right. I think I can get my coat dirty for once, especially when the fate of Equestria lies in our hooves!" Rarity beamed.

They worked for about an hour to shape the new barrel of the cannon. It was about a meter long and was only about fifteen centimeters in diameter. They forged new cannonballs and made cartridges by packing blast powder into a shell, and sealing it with a cannonball.

They spent another hour on the firing mechanism. A bolt would slide out of the chamber so the cartridge could fit in. When the bolt slide back, it was ready to be fired. To fire the cannon, a lever on top would be pulled to ignite the blast powder, causing the cannon to explode and travel down a much longer barrel, increasing accuracy. Even a sight was made to you can look down the barrel and line up your target.

After they had finished their hard work, the seven sat back and relaxed a bit. After a couple of minutes, a pony burst into the tent.

"Miss Rarity, I am sent to inform you that Cloudsdale has fallen and the forces are pushing through to Ponyville! The ground needs support!" The young colt gasped in between breathes.

"We'll let's see if these cannons work!" Time Turner said excitedly.

The group had managed to build twenty five cannons. They quickly taught the soldiers how to use the cannon. The seven that made the cannons would be making more cartridges to fight back.

The marks ponies took aim at the cars traveling towards Ponyville. They were moving at an alarming rate.

The first pony took a shot and missed. Every other shooter did too with the same results. But after time, they managed to adapt and successfully damage a carriage.

The ponies firing the cannons were exceptionally good marks ponies, with the right cannons of course. They focused on attacking vehicles, rather than the foot soldiers. They could let Applejack's army deal with them.

Every vehicle in the whole fleet was damaged by the sharpshooters. The vehicle pilots had to stop, and attempt to fix their carriage, leaving themselves exposed to the battle outside.

"They're doing it!" Turner cheered. "It's actually working!"

"Of course, never doubt Equestria dear." Rarity replied with satisfaction.

"Should we get going?" Apple Bloom asked.

"I don't think so." Twilight answered. "These cannons are far from perfect. We need to stay for a bit, and we can also build the other inventions while we're here."

"And we can explore Canterlot!" Sweetie said as she and her friends jumped up and down.

"And explore Canterlot." Rarity said with a warm smile.

---

"Okay, cut a slot there."

"Right, but what if we weld this piece there?"

"It'll lose space for the magazine."

"I see. Okay then."

"Do you guys want any apple juice? Apple Bloom brought some with her." Scootaloo said as she and her friends walked into Rarity's tent. Moon Gazer, Time Turner, and Twilight Sparkle were all working on improvements for their cannons. They all sat around one of the new cannons with some small changes done already.

"Sure I'll take a glass." Twilight answered.

Scootaloo handed her some juice as she sat down next to her.

"Whatcha doin'?" She asked.

"We're making adjustments so the cannon fires faster and is compatible with Lyra's graspers." The purple unicorn replied.

"How does that work?" Sweetie asked as she and Apple Bloom plopped down next to their filly friend.

"Weeeeell, see this box thing here? Think of a water bottle bubbling around." The Doctor pointed at a rectangular box sticking out from the bottom of the cannon.

"Is that what it's like?" Apple Bloom asked.

"No. But it is like a box with springs pushing the cartridges up."

"Uh, that helps ah' guess."

"Good! Now that just about does it!" Time Turner cheered.

"Onto the hands!" Moon Gazer stated. "With these graspers, we can fire the cannon with the trigger system!" He pointed to a small hook-like lever protruding from a handle on the bottom of the cannon.

---

The team finished a prototype of the hands in a matter of hours, which was coincidentally when the next wave of intruders mustered the power to make another attack on Ponyville.

The same messenger that relayed the news of attackers burst through the door of the tent.

"They're back Miss Rarity! What are your orders?"

"Give them hell, boys! We've got a new weapon in our arsenal!" Rarity said as she slipped the grasper on and lifted a sword with ease.

"Yes ma'm!" The messenger hurried out the door with Rarity behind him.

The marks ponies, or "snipers" as the Doctor called them, were lined back up on the edge of a cliff with Rarity in the middle of them.

"Do you need any help Rarity?" Twilight asked.

"Not at all dear. Thanks to you, we aren't letting those ruffians anywhere near Ponyville. Now on your side, there's a new invention ready to fight this empire with. You need to get this to the rest of our friends, or they'll be finished in no time!" The once fashionista answered.

"Right. Thanks for all of your help!" Twilight said as she and the group got into the car.

"Bye Rarity, I'll miss you." Sweetie Belle hugged her sister before returning to the car.

"I'll miss you too sister, but you've got a destiny out there! Be sure to look out for your friends, you're meant to do great things, Sweetie."

"I will! But you still owe me a trip to Canterlot." She smirked

"Of course, dear sister. Next time." She gave Sweetie one last hug before sending her off.

"Now lets see if these fools have figured out what hit them the first time!" The group could hear the sophisticate yell as they sped deeper into Canterlot.

---

The explosions of cannons were heard in the opposite direction as the group entered the gates of the capital city with proper identification.

"Okay," Twilight started. "Rainbow Dash says that now Cloudsdale is down, the pegasi are stationed in Canterlot gardens. They're working on new clouds so they can make small battle ships. I don't think clouds are very stable anymore considering what happened to Cloudsdale. There has to be a better way to make airships."

"So let me get this straight," Time Turner said. "Pegasi can make clouds, and move on top of them?"

"That's right, how does anypony not know that?" Scootaloo questioned.

"Short term memory loss?"

"Whatever." The filly turned back in her seat to chat with her friends.

"Alright, we are here!" Twilight parked the car at the front of the entrance to the gardens behind Canterlot Castle.

A cyan mare with a rainbow mane greeted the group, only it wasn't much of a greeting.

Rainbow Dash's face tried to uphold a smile, but her eyes were red from crying and she looked like she could really use a nap.

"Hey guys." She said as she embraced Scootaloo for a hug. "How's Rarity?"

"Well, we've got good news." Twilight tried to use a comforting voice. "We designed a cannon to fight these ponies with actual results. It managed to turn them around the first time they attacked, but they're at it again."

"But what can the pegasi do? Our greatest advantage just got blown back to Sweet Apple Acres."

"It's time to build us some ships that are actually made for war."

"You saw what happened to Cloudsdale! Nothing but explosives messed the whole structure up!" Rainbow screamed as tears began running back down her face.

"What about rainbows? What if we could restructure rainbows to act as an armor for clouds? They're the only other thing that sticks to clouds!" Twilight said excitedly.

"Woah, rainbows? Are you serious? You manufacture rainbows?" The Doctor interrupted.

"Twilight, is this guy kidding me?" Rainbow sneered.

"He's... New around these parts." She answered sheepishly.

"Um, okay. But you're right! We can use rainbows like that! Packing enough liquid rainbow together should solidify it! Slap it on a cloud ship, and blam! Armored fortress in the air."

"Then let's do it!" Scootaloo jeered.

"Right, I lemme find some pegasi willing to help out with building."

"Why can only pegasi do this?" Time Turner leaned over and asked Twilight. He wasn't going to be foolish again and ask anypony else.

"Only pegasi can touch clouds and weather." The lavender mare whispered back.

"Ah, clever!"

"Isn't it? But with the right spell, I an make anypony walk on clouds, just no wings, things went bad last time I gave anypony wings..."

Rainbow Dash came back out of the garden. "You guys ready? We've already got some basic cloud ships ready. We could use some more fancy junk from ponies like you Twilight."

"Ponies like me?" Twilight repeated, slightly agitated but still curious.

"Yeah, eggheads!" The pegasus cracked up and began rolling on the ground giggling.

Twilight rolled her eyes. At least Rainbow's okay she thought.

"Well," Rainbow Dash pulled hereof together and got back onto all four hooves. "We've got some work to do, am I right?"

"You bet!" Apple Bloom said. "Fixin' obscure items is mah' specialty!"

The ponies all walked back into the gardens, each trying their best to ignore the popping of the cannons in the distance.

Author's Note:

Okay, so forget the weekly schedule. I'm updating when I can, which is about every week and a half. This was a tough chapter to write. Why? Celestia knows. But did anypony get a little feely around the sister parts? My poor attempt to get somewhat emotional. Please tell me! I want to make this story better based on your opinions!

Couldn't be possible (as per usual) without:

-PinkiesManeBrony
-Banjoman
-RagingBonus