Times Could Be Worse

by AgentHondo

"Home"

As Twilight drove through the now compounded town of Ponyville, she noticed structural changes in the buildings to match the odd appearance of a wall surround them.

Nearly every building in Ponyville consisted of a wooden base with a straw roof. Over a slight difference in time every house with a hay roof now had either copper, brass, or aluminum shingles.

Many smokestacks had risen from the buildings, spewing cloudy smog into the evening sunset.

They must be in need of some more energy Twilight thought as she drove down the cobble streets.

Most of Ponyville was empty. None of the ponies Twilight Sparkle was familiar with would out watering their plants, buying groceries, or meeting friends.

"I guess mah' sister got all the ponies to stay inside." Apple Bloom said gloomily.

"Then they should be safe for the time being." Time Turner said.

Twilight parked the carriage at the front of Town Hall. The team of ponies exited the vehicle and entered the building.

Inside, a round table occupied most of the room. In the seats sat many military leaders dressed in the royal ceremonial outfit. Mayors of other towns that had migrated to Ponyville sat in the chairs alongside Twilight's Apple friend, Applejack. Facing the door in the largest seat sat Princess Luna, sister of Twilight's mentor Celestia.

"Howdy Twilight!" Applejack greeted. "We've saved seats for ya'!" She gestured to open seats beside her.

"Indeed." Luna followed. "We have important matters to discuss."

Twilight and the Cutie Mark Crusaders sat in their designated seats, but the Doctor decided otherwise.

"I think I'll just stand. Thank you though." He said.

"And who might you be?" Luna asked. "You must be important for Twilight Sparkle to admit companionship. Are you a mate of Twilight's?"

"I, uh... Twilight is a very pretty and intelligent mare," he blushed. "but no. We're just friends."

"Choose as you wish." Luna replied.

"Wait," Twilight started. "Do you mean choose to stand or-"

Luna only gave a warm smile.

"Now then, please direct your attention to miss Applejack."

"Alright folks, let me start off with welcomin' ya' to Ponyville! As ya' know, there are some ponies from a long forgotten civilization that want t' destroy us all!" Applejack seemed to use a little more enthusiasm than necessary.

Murmurs rose from the city leaders as tensions seemed to rise in the room.

"But, don't ya'll fret none!" Applejack reassured. "We've built ourselves a darned good army with the talented folks from around Equestria. We even have somethin' they don't! This is where ma' friend Twilight comes in." The farm pony gestured to Twilight, who was ready to address the ponies around her.

"If we're right," Twilight started. "our cannons should be more accurate by quite a lot. Me and my team here are even developing a way to make cannons handheld."

"You, three fillies, and a seemingly insane stallion are going to build a more advanced cannon?" The mayor of Fillydelphia asked, dropping multiple hints of sarcasm and disbelief in her tone. She even pointed at Time Turner as he stood leaned against the wall, muttered more gibberish that didn't sound like any language on Earth.

"Why yes," Twilight pulled the four together in a hug. "

The room full of leaders burst into argument, some taking the side of Fillydelphia's mayor, and some siding with Twilight.

The chatter didn't last long though. Luna rose from her chair and slammed her hooves against the table.

"Enough of this incessant arguing!" The Princess of the Night was using her Canterlot voice. Everypony in the room became silent immediately, turning the face their Princess.

"Now," she had ceased use of the impossibly loud voice. "I trust Twilight Sparkle with my life, as should you. She and her friends were the ponies who freed me from the delusions of Nightmare Moon, battled the spirit of disharmony, Discord and reveal Queen Chrysalis's true form to Canterlot. Without her, Equestria would not even be, well, Equestria."

Many looks of shock and amazement came from the ponies in the room. Murmurs such as "I never knew" or "that was her?" Came from the crowd. Everypony knew that somepony had been savior to Equestria, but they would have never guessed that a typing mare and her friends could accomplish even one noble deed.

"That's right everypony, we got ourselves a real handy unicorn here!" Applejack stated with a grin. "And that's why you need to help us out. We're gonna need supplies, and workers to help assemble the cannons once they're ready. For now though, me n' ma' army should be able t' hold the attackers back fer' now."

"I think it's the best chance we got" said the governor of Manehatten.

"Agreed." Came Baltimare's leader.

Many more began to compromise with AJ, willing to help the cause of winning a war.

"Then it's settled!" Applejack cheered. "If I know ma' friend Twilight, she's gonna bust her chops working on this project!"

Twilight gave a reassuring nod.

"Then ya' better git after it!" The mayor of Appleloosa a rather old stallion, said.

"Right." Twilight replied.

"Then c'mon team! Allons-y!" The Doctor bounced off of the wall and burst out the door. The Cutie Mark Crusaders cheered and followed their new role model. Twilight heaved a heavy sigh and smiled, trying to catch up with her friends.

---

"Let's go, let's go! We don have all day you hooligans! Help me raise this wall! You there! Attach that prop! Hurry, they'll reach Ponyville in no time!"

---

"Come now boys, ready your cartridges, if we're going to fight, we're going to fight in a fashionable manner. We are a support group, that means we are elite. The ones you call when you really need help."

---

"We have to make it back to the library in time and begin work ASAP! If we're going to build this thing, we'll really need to put our heads together for this one!"

---

"Alright boys, lets saddle up!" Ordered the orange farm pony. "This war ain't gonna fight itself!"

Applejack was no longer wearing her signature Stetson hat, but now adorned an iron helmet and breastplate. A She and her older brother, Big Macintosh stood before an army consisting of thousands of ponies on their farm.

What used to be a simple apple orchard was now a military base for the ground forces of Equestria. Hundreds of tents were squeezed into every space possible to fit the immigrants from other cities.

"Alright, everypony ready?" Applejack yelled. "'Cause we're headin' to the front lines for this! Last time y'all got off tha' hook thanks to Twilight's machinin' skills and Rarity's accuracy. This time though, y'all have to do your part!" The armor-adorned ponies took the opportunity to cheer and scream out battle cries.

The army that was now assembled in a formation that created a large wall in front of Ponyville.

"Alright y'all, this is where we find out if yer' snails or stallions!" Applejack addressed to her army as she trotted back and forth.

Minutes passed by. Ten twenty, then thirty had gone by as the attention of each soldier was lost.

"Where are those stinkers?" AJ asked her older brother as they stood at the head of their forces to look over the hills of Equestria. "That colt said that he saw em' comin'!"

"Eeyup." Was the only response the Element of Honesty got.

Applejack sighed as she turned to face the bored soldiers. "Alright y'all, looks like we're gonna be out here for a while. A few of ya' from each of yer' platoons can run back to the farm to retrieve the tents. If need be, grab a cart to haul em' and some food back."

As some ponies ran back to camp, Applejack could only turn away from those under her command so she could hide her look of uneasiness.

---

"It's getting late Twilight," Scootaloo prodded the unicorn's tired body with her hoof in an attempt to keep her from dozing off on top of her workbench. "you should get some sleep. Things like this don't happen overnight. Even the Doctor had get some shut eye."

"Maybe you're right, but I'm so close! The only difference between the larger cannons would be that these take such precision to build, I can't make them fast enough! I mean, I've even got a prototype!" Twilight shoved a long rod that had a strap to attach to the hoof for easy firing.

"Man, I wish we could just clone them or something. " Scootaloo replied.

"Clone... Clone! Scootaloo you're a genius!"

"What? You know a spell for that?"

"No, I have something almost as good. Get the others. We're going to meet up with Fluttershy in the forest."

---

"I'm glad you could meet us here Twilight." Greeted the soft voice of none other than Fluttershy. "We haven't done much to help yet, but we aren't really, you know, prepared."

"Prepared?" Twilight asked as she and her pegasus friend trotted through the Everfree forest. "I thought that you and your group was supposed to receive weapons and shelter."

"Well, we got the shelter and food," the yellow mare gestured to the camp of about thirty or forty ponies. "But we've been waiting for the weapons." A look of fear creeped over her. "But Twilight, what if I can't teach these ponies? I don't think I can even fight!" Fluttershy's eyes began to bead up as she began shaking, her breathing growing to a rapid pace.

Twilight grabbed hold of her friend and looked at her straight in the eye. "You can do this Fluttershy. I- we believe in you. If we're going to keep Equestria safe, we're going to have to fight for it."

"You're right. For Equestria." The same expression of confidence showed from the time Cloudsdale required water from Ponyville.

"Alright then!" The Doctor seemed to appear out of nowhere. "What about this cloning business?"

"Um, right." Twilight stammered. "Oh, and Fluttershy, this is Time Turner. Time Turner meet Fluttershy."

"Um... Hi" Fluttershy scraped the ground with her hoof.

"Hullo!" Turner grabbed Fluttershy's hoof and shook furiously, moving not only her hoof, but the whole pony.

As soon as the the Doctor set her down, Twilight asked, "So Fluttershy, do remember exactly where we sealed the mirror pool?"

"Yes, but why would you ever need to use that? The only thing that pool has caused is trouble."

"I think I might have found a practical use for it. I'll explain on the way there."

Author's Note:

I need to stop reading Homestuck and really buckle down on writing...

Literally none of this would be possible without the help of:

-Banjoman (He just wrote his first fic under the account of CoolStoryBro, so go check it out!)
-RagingBonus
-PinkiesManeBrony