Nightmare Moon has just bought in a new reign of terror all over Equestria. Now, with most of the Equestrian populace beginning to die out, a lowly theif named Hot Shot finds himself in an unlikely place, a rebellion against Nightmare Moon.
For a long time, Equestria has enjoyed peace under Princess Celestia's reign. However, the peace ended when the return of Nightmare Moon sends Equestria into great chaos. In the midst of the confusion, Celestia mysteriously dissappears, and the Mane 6 are eventually banished after a Celestia-approved mission crashes and burns due to Nightmare Moon completely eradicating the Elements, and she finally gets her desire for night eternal.
However, Nightmare Moon didn't count on the consequences and repercussions of eternal night, and, eventually, Equestria begins to get colder, as more and more ponies die out.....
Eventually, a rebel force recruits a lowly theif named Hot Shot, who's past is as mysterious as his reputation, and begins to turn him over to their cause.
After that, the rebel army must recruit more ponies to their cause and initiate...
"You're kidding. You're kidding, right?" said Nightmare Moon.
Twilight Sparkle was beginning to go into a charge to retrieve the elements from the evil tyrant who dared bring eternal night. Nightmare Moon couldn't believe what she was seeing, her potential subject getting ready to attack her in what might be a fit of determination.
Before Nightmare Moon could think further, Twilight charged at her and tackled her.
Despite the fact that she was blindsided by the sudden attack, Nightmare Moon managed to pry Twilight off of her with a blast from her horn and retaliated with a buck to the face, which Twilight managed to dodge.
But before Nightmare Moon could buck Twilight again, Twilight teleported in a burst of light to the Elements that she had been so desperately trying to gain.
"Just one spark, come on, come on!" exclaimed Twilight, who was having trouble trying to summon the lost Element, the key to defeating Nightmare Moon.
As Nightmare Moon watched in horror, Twilight was thrown back by a spark in the five Elements.
And, to Nightmare Moon's horror and Twilight's happiness, the spark seemed to summon the Element of Magic........
"Aha!" Twilight exclaimed.
"No!" Nightmare Moon yelled in horror.
......but the spark faded away.
As soon as the reality dawned on her, Nightmare Moon took the time to levitate the five stone balls, and then blasted them with a burst of magic, releasing a powerful rainbow-coloured aura of magic-the magic of the Elements of Harmony-into the air, and thus destroying Twilight's one and only chance for victory.
"But, where's the sixth Element?" Twilight asked in confusion.
"You little foal!" Nightmare Moon yelled in a menacing tone. "You really thought that you were going to get the lost Element? That you and your foal buddies were going to defeat me?"
Nightmare Moon began to crack up, and then began to break Twilight down.
"Not a chance, foal! Now you'll never see your princess, or your Sun again! The night shall last forever!" Nightmare Moon then cackled maniacally, and then pushed Twilight into an arriving Applejack.
"Twi!" yelled Applejack. "You okay Twi? 'Ah heard that you were in trouble, so we-oh no."
In front of Applejack was the source of the sudden pushback, which was Nightmare Moon, with a cackling horn.
"So, so you wish to challenge me, foals?" asked Nightmare Moon.
Triggered by this statement, Rainbow Dash rushed toward Nightmare Moon, but managed to miss her just by a quick teleport from Nightmare Moon and a swift buck, forcing her to the ground.
As the other ponies rushed to her aid, Nightmare Moon trapped the ponies in a force field, trapping them inside and making sure that they didn't escape and try anything.
"Hahaha! You little foals! Can't you see that the night shall last forever?"
As the ponies stood in defeat, Nightmare Moon prepared to force them out of the castle.
"You shouldn't have stuck your muzzle where it didn't belong, my sweet subjects!" Nightmare Moon spat.
Then, Twilight stood up.
"No," said Twilight. "You forgot that we still have our friendship!"
"And what?" mocked Nightmare Moon. "Send me back into the moon through power hugs?" Nightmare Moon particularly spat out the last two words, as if they were poison to her.
"You know that that's just what Celestia did before I took care of her, right?" said Nightmare Moon.
Twilight and the others were shocked to hear her say that. What did she mean "took care of Celestia"? Did she mean that she killed her?
"No, it can't be true!" a distraught Twilight thought.
"Did you mean you killed her?" asked Twilight.
"No, no, no," Nightmare Moon reassured. "you really think that I was going to kill my own sister?"
"So, she's not dead, you mean?" asked Rarity, who had the same thought as Twilight.
"No, I merely sent her into the sun." said Nightmare Moon. "She did, after all, send me to the moon."
Twilight was now horrified at what Nightmare Moon did. Apparently, she sent Celestia to the sun, and did to her what she did to Nightmare Moon a thousand years ago.
But that wasn't what horrified Twilight.
What horrified her, was just one simple fact that Nightmare Moon mentioned.
She was Celestia's sister.
After a while, that feeling of horror turned into a feeling of anger, and she charged....
......right into the force field, which shocked her tremendously.
Twilight screeched as she was knocked back, but she tried something else.
She concentrated her energy into a teleportation spell, and Rarity followed suit, but both ponies felt their magic being blocked by a mysterious force, hindering their magic and preventing them from teleporting outside the force field.
During all this, Nightmare Moon was watching in amusement, but it was after both unicorn's attempt at teleportation that she finally spoke:
"It really looks like you can't even do anything! This is so amusing, I would make you my personal jesters...."
Then, Nightmare Moon's face twisted from an amused face to a stern one.
"....but I'm afraid that the penalty for rising up against me is banishment."
As the ponies pleaded, Nightmare Moon pointed at Pinkie Pie.
"Except this one", said Nightmare Moon. "She seems rather fit for a jester."
Pinkie Pie then broke down at the possibility of losing her newfound friends.
"Now...." said Nightmare Moon, who disabled the force field.
"OFF WITH YOU SUN-LOVING FOALS!"
Nightmare Moon then forced all the ponies out into the Everfree Forest.
A scream rang out through the air as a red stallion with a yellow mane and tail with a red streak ran across the streets of Dodge City, darting across the many ponies, donkeys, and mules on the streets. On his cutie mark, which was a flaming wheel, a saddlebag was wrapped around it. Behind him, the original owner of the saddlebag, a pink mare with electric-blue hair and tail with a cutie mark of a yellow teacup was behind him, constantly screaming "Stop, thief!".
The red stallion darted some more, until he thought he found his exit. Then, he found an obstacle.
Rather, two obstacles.
Two stallions, a pegasus and a unicorn, were standing in front of him, and they were stronger and looked like they could easily overpower him.
Shocked at this sudden turn of events, the stallion tried to turn back, but was blocked by the pink mare.
"There!" exclaimed the pink mare, who was pointing in the red stalion's direction. "He's the thief!"
The two stallions, who the thief now recognized as the Dodge City Branch of the Nightmare Millitia looked at each other, then back at the red thief, and then they spoke: "Hey, is this that thief who always evaded us?"
"Yeah, that Hot Shot guy, he always was such a pain in the ass."
"Why not arrest him and send him to the Canterlot prison?"
"Sounds like a good idea!"
As Hot Shot looked around, a bullet train pulled into the railway next to him. As he looked at it, the stallion soldiers looked at it as well.
"Hey, the train's here!" the unicorn said. "How convenient."
"Throw him on the train. Let him rot." the pegasus droned in an extremely threatening way that sent shivers down Hot Shot's spine.
And before he knew it, he was thrown on the train, and everything went dark.
==================================================================== When Hot Shot came to, he was in a moving train. The first thing he noticed was that there were many ponies, who looked just as threatening as the soldiers who threw him in.
The second thing was that, when he looked out the window, the train was moving across the river near the gorge and the Everfree Forest.
And the third thing?
It smelled. Like, a lot.
Imagine horse shit mixed with manure and the smell of a rotting body.
Now imagine that, multiplied about ten times more.
That was what Hot Shot was smelling, and he couldn't stand it.
Then, he was pushed by a force, and as he fell down, he looked up to see who it was.
It was a big, black pony, with black hair and tail with a gun as a cutie mark. As he stared at Hot Shot, his frown turned into a grin.
"Hey Muscle Milk!" exclaimed the black stallion. "We've got newcomers!"
"Eh?" asked a husky voice.
In an instant, somepony trotted over to Hot Shot, and thus, he got his first look at him.
He had white fur, a sharp contrast to the black pony's, well, black, and he was absolutely huge, with bulging veins and muscle mass everywhere and an absolutely strained looking head. True to his appearance, he had a cutie mark of a dumbbell as well as green hair and a green tail.
"Yeah, Tough Guy?" asked Muscle Milk.
"Looks live we have a new visitor. Would you like to introduce him?" inquired Tough Guy.
"But he looks weak as shit!" yelled Muscle Milk, in a voice that shook the entire train.
"I know, but he could make for a good keyhole." said Tough Guy, in a tone that made Hot Shot extremely nervous.
"Damn right he could." said Muscle Milk. "Besides, what harm could he do?"
"Besides steal, of course?"
Then, the entire train car broke out in laughter.
However, a voice broke through all the laughter, something that Hot Shot assumed was the train conductor speaking through his fly wire.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU ABOSLUTE TRASH!"
"Fuck you!" yelled a pony, presumably a stalion's. "You can never tell us what to do! Soon, the regime that you are a part of will fall apart, and the sun will rise again!"
Many ponies yelled in excitement, but they were soon silenced by the conductor.
"SHUT UP! IT'S YOUR FAULT IF YOU RISE UP AGAINST QUEEN NIGHTMARE MOON! THE NIGHT HAS LASTED FOREVER FOR THREE THOUSAND YEARS, IT WILL LAST FOREVER FOR ANOTHER THREE FUCKING THOUSAND YEARS!"
Then, everything was silent.
During that time, Hot Shot took the time to slip out of the two brutes' clutches and buck the door open and escape to another train car, then another.
"Hey, where'd he go?" asked Muscle Milk, who was the first to notice Hot Shot's disappearance.
"Damn it!" yelled Tough Guy. "He escaped!"
===================================================================== Hot Shot, sure that he had evaded the brutes, stopped in his tracks as he surveyed the area around him. Unfortunately, it was all the same, save the prisoners, which were all new.
While he was in the car, he thought about his life, how he came to become the thief that he was, and about his family.
Particluarly, about his family.
He remembered that he was born without a father nor a mother, how he had been left to fend on his own, and how he had claimed his first steal.
It was when he was nine, in a diner in Applelosa. At the time, he was wandering around the relentless Everfree Forest and the desert, hoping for some food, as he came across the diner.
He remembered walking into the diner and ordering a Applelosa Deluxe: eggs with bacon with a side of Sweet Apple Acre's experimental Apple Fries. After he ate it, he ran out of the store, only to feel a hoof on his flank.
"Now kid," Hot Shot remembered him saying "you've got to pay before you leave!"
Hot Shot also remembered the Applelosa Deluxe's price: 3,999 bits! Such a staggering price for a satisfying meal, and Hot Shot didn't have any bits!
"Sorry, kid, but you've gotta pay up. It's the law in Applelosa, you know."
Everything that happened afterwards was a blur. All Hot Shot remembered was being in the diner one minute, and running for his life as the dinerowner yelled "Stop, theif!" the next.
After he managed to escape from Applelosa, Hot Shot remembered that he noticed something on his teeth.
It was the dinerowner's wallet.
At first, Hot Shot was shocked, but as he wandered through the deserts of the Southern Lunar Empire, he discovered that he can actually get something to eat!
And so, for the next fifteen years, Hot Shot stole from unsuspecting ponies wandering through the desert and, after reaching Dodge City, the town itself.
Due to the darkness of the night giving him an advantage, he was free to steal from anyone and anything as long as no one caught him.
'Well,' Hot Shot thought as he put his mind back into the present. 'it was fun while it lasted.'
As Hot Shot looked out the window, he saw the Everfree Forest giving way to a view of Ponyville. Then, the conductor yelled through his fly wire.
"NEXT STOP, PONYVILLE!"
As Hot Shot looked as the prisoners came on, he heard a sound.
And then another sound.
And then another, and then...
BANG!
A black stallion with a hat and a black tail and mane as well as a cutie mark of a sunburst burst into the car and, before Hot Shot could react, was taken by his hair.
"Ow!" yelled Hot Shot, certainly feeling the pain. "What was that for?"
"You'll thank me later." said the mysterious stallion.
As he and the stallion galloped off towards Star Swirl-knows-where, Hot Shot could do nothing but realize that he should've been more evasive.
"Damn it!" screamed Hot Shot, as he was taken off to somewhere.
Many ponies were panicking by the appearance of a single pony, who took another one with him, and rushed out, a brash action that would've certainly would've killed him had the stallion not been so strong. During all this chaos, the conductor did his best to contain the chaos, but it was no use, as everyone began breaking down doors and pouring out of the train.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" yelled the conductor.
Suddenly, all eyes turned on him as the conductor stood in silence.
Then, a stallion's voice rose from the constant murmuring.
"YOU CAN'T TELL US WHAT TO DO!" yelled the voice.
"OF COURSE I CAN TELL YOU WHAT TO DO, I AM THE CONDUCTOR!"
After the conductor said that, the crowd began to shift, then, as if a spark had gone off in their minds, they turned on him, moving swiftly and jumping on him from every side.
And then, the conductor screamed as the ponies began to crack every bone they can find.
Then, eventually, an audible crack was heard from within the crowd and almost instanly, the conductor screamed no more.
======================================================================== Hot Shot was feeling many emotions right now: Confused, furious, and most importantly, afraid. Afraid that the stallion who took him would do the same to him as the two muscleheads back at the train were going to do.
As if if the stallion had read his mind, he said: "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you. You're in good hands."
Although Hot Shot was not going to believe it for a second, he knew that, even when his reputation was limited to the deserts of Equestria, he still couldn't trust anyone else, and thus, he had to trust the mysterious stallion.
"Hey you, what's your name, and why did you take me from the train? Do you pity me or something?" Hot Shot asked.
"Well, that was rude."
Hot Shot was getting annoyed. Why is the stallion being so vauge about this? He should know why, and yet, the stallion had to act like he was the expert on manners!
"Hey, since when were you the expert on rude?"
"Since when were you the expert on being so ungrateful?" the stallion snapped.
"Damn." Hot Shot thought. He really got him there.
"Okay then, so what is your name?" Hot Shot asked, more politely this time.
"That's more like it." the stallion sighed in relief. "Okay then, my name is Sun Burst, and I am part of an organization called 'The Solar Sun Organization'"
Hot Shot was confused. "The Solar Sun Organization?" Hot Shot thought as he winced from the pain. He had put up with it at first, but now it was becoming annoying.
"Hey, can you put me down? I'm really feeling the pain right there!" asked Hot Shot.
"As long as you don't try anything."
Then, Sun Burst put Hot Shot down.
"You're lucky I'm an earth pony, because otherwise, I would kill you with a single blast!" Hot Shot said.
"You're a fiesty one, aren't you?." said Sun Burst.
A few hours seemed to pass before both ponies reached their supposed destination: a whole forest that the trail seemed to disappear to.
Then, they went in.
==================================================================== Contrary to popular belief, Ponyville only expanded slightly to the north, as all other sides have been either illegible to expand to, or, in the case of the southern border, was next to the Everfree Forest.
That didn't stop Ponyville from being a semi-high priority to Queen Nightmare Moon, which was why the news of the chaos had traveled so fast in such a frightening amount of seconds.
Fortunately, the royal guards had all been present at Ponyville for a census check, and before the rioters could do anything else, they were subdued through tranquilizers and guns and as of now, were being presented to Nightmare Moon in the Castle of the Two Sisters, which was where the queen lived.
"My Queen," the royal guard said. "what do you want to do to them?"
Queen Nightmare Moon looked at the rounded-up prisoners. They had all looked like they could do something dangerous at any moment.
"Release them into the Everfree Forest. Perhaps a month or two with the wild animals in the forest could whip them into shape." Nightmare Moon decided.
Then, a black pegasus with a black mane and tail with a mask and a cutie mark of the moon trotted into the throne room.
"Ah, my good 'ol spy Moon Jet. I see that you have been spying on the fighters."
"Of course I have my queen! What do you take me as, a slacker?" Both Nightmare Moon and Night Jet laughed.
Then, Night Jet got serious.
"Those freedom fighters never give up, do they?"
"Of course not."
Night Jet sighed.
"Yesterday, when I was spying on the Solar Sun Organization, I found out that they were planning to steal some guns from the Ponyville armory. What should you do about it?"
Nightmare Moon pondered for a moment, then she said:
"Tighten the security around this place! They will not get to the armory!"
"Yes, my Queen."
==================================================================== Hot Shot walked around the forest as he tried hard to look for the Solar Sun base. Sun Burst had just left Hot Shot to go check out the aftermath of the chaos, and now Hot Shot was all alone. Not only that, but he was an earth pony, with no way to defend himself in case he got attacked. Sure, he had his speed, but even it had already failed him earlier today, so he wouldn't bank on it.
Then, he heard a rustle.
Then, another one.
And finally, a bear leaped out of the bushes, ready to kill it's prey.
Hot Shot, at first, tried to seem brave and bold, but eventually, that façade broke down and eventually, he was reduced to yelling "HELP!" over and over again.
But as the bear was about to eat him, it was blasted off by a flash of magic.
The source was unmistakable. It was a unicorn.
Particluary, a dark purple mare with a pink mane with a white swirl and a pink tail with the same white streak, as well as a cutie mark of a flower in a pot.
However, Hot Shot wasn't about to let a mare steal his thunder.
Keeping up his bravado, Hot Shot said: "Thanks, but I don't really need saving. I could do just fine without a mare like you."
Hot Shot was sure that he could hear an audible groan from the mare.
"What's that, huh? Too scared to admit that you only saved my flank because I only had half of my strength?"
"I don't even think you had any strength at all!" the purple mare snapped.
"Well, I do, and I refuse to share it with a mare!" Hot Shot snapped back.
"Seriously?! This is the kind of words a foal would say, not a stallion!"
"Says the mare!"
"Geez, shut up, will you? Some of us are trying to sleep!"
Hot Shot and the mare looked at the source of the voice, who was a mint-green stallion with a build that was less stickier than Sun Burst, but was bigger than Hot Shot.
He had a green mane and tail and his cutie mark was of a mint-green ice cream in a cone.
"Oh hey, Peppermint Cream." said the mare.
"Geez, I didn't know that you were having a date with someone, Flower Pot, so why didn't you tell me?" asked Peppermint Cream.
"Because he isn't my stallionfriend!" yelled Flower Pot.
For the second time today, Hot Shot was rather confused by the argument. Both seemed like they had been best friends for years, judging by how they knew each other.
"So, who are you guys, again?" asked Hot Shot.
"Us?" replied Flower Pot.
"Yes, you!"
"Well, my name is Flower Pot and the stallion next to me is named Peppermint Cream, and we have been best friends for years." Flower Pot gestured to herself and Peppermint Cream.
"Childhood friends, actually. But you're pretty close." said Peppermint Cream.
"So, are you a part of this 'Solar Sun' thing?" asked Hot Shot.
"A part of this organization?" Flower Pot was almost bewildered at what Hot Shot had asked her. "No, no, you're not even close to what I represent in this project!"
"So, what are you then?"
"My father was the one who founded this place when he was just 16 years old. Unfortunately, he died when a bunch of Nightmare Moon's troops raided the camp about a week ago, so I'm just getting to being the leader. It's sad, because he never lived to be fourty-four."
"What do you mean 'fourty-four?'" Hot Shot asked.
"What I mean is that he was fourty-three at the time. Rather long time for being part of a race with a lower life expectancy." Flower Pot explained.
"Hey, in case you didn't know, it's getting kinda late, can we go back to camp now?" Peppermint Cream asked.
"Okay then, let's go." Flower Pot said, gesturing to Peppermint Cream. "And you."
"Name's Hot Shot, thank you very much."
"Oh right." Flower Pot mentally facehoofed at the fact that she had forgotten to ask about his name.
"Do you want to stay?" Flower Pot asked.
Hot Shot was confused. What did she mean if he wanted to stay or not? He still wasn't even sure if they trusted him or not! For all he knew, they might be an extension of Nightmare Moon's guard, trying to rat him out to the queen.
But then again, they did seem sincere in their talks about fighting against the regime that they had hated so much, but he couldn't just bring himself to trust them.
"Okay, if you're not going to decide, then I'll decide for you." Flower Pot was really getting tired of waiting, and it showed. "You're going to stay. I don't want you to freeze up. Hell, Peppermint Cream already left, now it's your turn to make the decision."
As much as Hot Shot wanted to argue, there was something in the very back of his mind that told him that the Solar Sun Organization meant no harm.
"Fine, I'll go." Hot Shot said.
"Okay then, I'll see if there's enough space for a bed. Follow me." said Flower Pot.
Then, a bush rustled once more, this time from behind. As Hot Shot tried to keep up his bravado, Flower Pot began to aim her horn at the source of the sound.
However, it was not another bear, but rather Sun Burst.
"So, how did the scoutout go?" asked Flower Pot.
Sun Burst began to stammer.
"What? Cat got your tounge?" asked Flower Pot.
"Oh right," said Sun Burst, as he finally began to speak coherently. "When I scouted out the area for our place to raid, I found out that there were no guards at the armory, so why not choose the time to steal those guns right now and distribute them to the earth ponies and pegasi?"
"That's a great idea, Sun Burst, but we have to do it tomorrow." Flower Pot said. "I'm tired from all the infromation-collecting and infiltration that I had to do all day, or rather, all night."
Flower Pot yawned, then gestured to Hot Shot and Sun Burst. "Come on. With this kind of wintery weather, we're most likely to die in a second."
"You heard what she said. Follow her." Sun Burst said, as if he thought that Hot Shot would go the other way.
Like, seriously huge. Although it was built years ago, it somehow managed to look good as new.
There were buildings across the clearing, and Hot Shot also saw some pegasi doing cloud cover.
"This is your camp?" Hot Shot yelled.
"Hey!" Flower Pot snapped at Hot Shot. "Don't be too loud, no one likes it when assholes yell about shit!"
Hot Shot knew that there was no use in arguing, since Flower Pot would just bitch at him more if he snapped back.
"Fine, fine, whatever." whispered Hot Shot.
"What did you just say?"
"She's really getting on my nerves!" Hot Shot thought. He already knew that she was sarcastic, but he didn't expect her to be this cranky.
"This is the Meeting Place: once an armory for Nightmare Moon until the first raid twenty-eight years ago, and now the center of all activity in this organization. If someone wants to report their findings, or call a team meeting, or do anything related to our project, it has to be relayed through this place." Sun Burst explained.
Hot Shot looked at the large building in front of him. It was a chrome dome, mostly covered with moss.
Before he knew it, all three of them went in.
Inside, there were about a million seats before Hot Shot, only being separated by a pathway leading to a wood podium. The dome's roof reached far, with the center being a mural of Celestia rasing the sun from her castle in Canterlot.
"This is where we make announcements, plans, and speeches." Flower Pot explained.
Then, Flower Pot levitated a device near her, and pushed the button.
Almost instantly, the center of the mural, opened up, and a tube streched down from the center of the mural until it stopped on top of the three rebels. Then, it sucked them up and shuttled them out of the building into the roof.
"And this is the observatory. It's where we can keep a look out for any enemies out there." Flower Pot said.
"And that's all we have to show you." said Sun Burst. "Flower Pot, that's enough. The poor foal's gonna die if we don't get him home!"
Flower Pot was ready to argue, but she knew what would happen if she kept trying to do the tour, so she kept quiet.
"Fine, but we'll do the tour in the morning." she said.
"No, because we don't have time to do this, since we'll have to do the raid right now, before Nightmare Moon fortifies the armory and we lose the chance to defend ourselves!" Sun Burst yelled urgently.
Flower Pot sighed. "Fine."
"Good. Now let the colt rest." said Sun Burst.
"Please stop calling me a colt!" Hot Shot said.
"Okay then, fine." seethed Flower Pot.
All three rebels warped down from the observation all the way to the bottom of the dome, and then walked out.
As they were walking out. Sun Burst suddenly stopped, and Flower Pot and Hot Shot followed suit.
"Sorry, I have to leave. Need to check if there's anyone looking for us." Sun Burst said.
"See you soon!" Flower Pot yelled as Sun Burst flew away.
Once Sun Burst was gone. Flower Pot turned to Hot Shot.
"Come on, we have to get to the apartments." Flower Pot said.
"No way!" Hot Shot retorted. "I can sleep by myself!"
Flower Pot was beginning to get irritated.
"Look, either you sleep in the apartments or we can kick you out! Got that?" she yelled.
"Okay, okay then." Hot Shot said.
As for the apartments, they were a bunch of brick towers that were connected, making them look like a giant rectangle from above.
"These are the apartments of the camp. They're where our members can sleep if they want to recharge their batteries." Flower Pot explained.
They entered the apartments and trotted to a desk in the middle of the room.
Behind the desk was a white mare with a white mane and tail. Her Cutie Mark was that of a pen and paper.
Flower Pot tapped the surface of the desk.
"Pen Mark?"
The old mare looked up from the stack of paperwork and raised a finger in the air slowly.
"Hey, it's you, Flower Pot! Always a feisty one." Pen Mark exclaimed.
"Thanks, that's totally a good name!" Flower Pot said sarcastically.
"And I see you haven't lost your....sense of sarcasm......" said a disappointed Pen Mark.
Flower Pot simply rolled her eyes and said: "And this is the newbie, Hot Shot."
As she said this, Pen Mark shifted her gaze towards Hot Shot as her face darkened.
"Is he a spy?"
Flower Pot stood in silence for a while.
"Well? Is he or not?"
Flower Pot and Hot Shot didn't move.
"C'mon, dearie, just spit it out! I didn't get a medal for 'Best Interrogator' for nothing!"
Then, Flower Pot finally belted it out.
"He's not a spy. If he was, he wouldn't purposefully put himself in danger."
"I don't know," said Pen Mark. "seen some guys who did just that, and they were spies. Just like that Hook Shot gu-"
"Can you not?!" Flower Pot snapped.
"I don't know why she reacts like this," said Pen Mark. "because it seems like she always flies into a rage every time I mention him. The only people she trusts her secret around is me, her friend, and her brother."
Flower Pot took a deep breath and calmed down.
"Are there any available rooms?" Flower Pot asked.
Pen Mark levitated up a paper and looked at it.
"Hmmmm..."
"Come on!" Flower Pot growled. "I don't have all day!"
"Well, there is a room upstairs, maybe you can go there!"
"Finally!" exclaimed Flower Pot. "Let's go, Hot Shot!"
Then, Flower Pot levitated Hot Shot up to his assigned room.
======================================================================= When Hot Shot entered the room, he then retched.
An incredibly powerful smell was wafing through the room like a snake.
"Ew!" Flower Pot said. "That's gross!"
The room didn't look much better, either. A ratty bed was sitting in the center of dirty room. Mold dotted the floors and reached up into the walls.
However, Flower Pot was certain that there was another smell in the room, and a certain pony emitted it.
"HOT SHOT!" yelled Flower Pot. " You smell terrible! Take a shower, now!"
"Fine..." said Hot Shot.
When Hot Shot entered the bathroom, he scrunched his nose up.
'Ugh! What is this smell?' he thought.
The smell was even stronger this time, and reminded Hot Shot of what happened the day before. The sink was rusted in some places, the toilet's water looked incredibly disgusting, and the shower had a lot of insects crawling all over it, and mold covered all three of them.
"How is anyone supposed to wash when they could just get dirty again?" Hot Shot thought as he trotted into the shower and began to wash himself with his right hoof.
"And I hope you're cleaning up everything!" yelled Flower Pot from the room.
"I am!" yelled an annoyed Hot Shot.
He couldn't wait until this shower was over with.
======================================================================= For many years, the Ponyville Armory has protected Ponyville from outside attackers by supplying the town's millita with guns, grenades, and other weapons the town felt could be useful towards the town's defenses.
Case in point: tonight.
Many ponies were guarding the armory, not letting anyone out of their sight for one minute, in case anyone tried to steal their weapons and start a rebellion.
Then, one of the guards heard a sound from the bushes. Quickly, he turned around and alerted the guards. On cue, all of the guards levitated their guns.
A black pegasus landed to his feet to greet the leader, who was a silver pony with a gold mane and tail, a cuite mark of a gun in front of a lightning bolt, and silver armor.
"Welcome back, Night Jet." a guard said.
"You too, good sir." Night Jet responded.
"For a moment there, I thought you were the enemy!" the captian said.
"No worries, Lightning Gun. Just checking up on you, seeing how you were doing." said Night Jet.
"Of course." said Lightning Gun.
Lightning Gun sighed, "Sometimes I wish for the day that the Organization finally starts accepting Nightmare Moon and bask in her moon forever."
"Yeah, but have you considered what would happen when all the ponies die?"
"What?"
Night Jet cleared his throat. "As in, when all the ponies die from freezing to death?"
Lightning Gun laughed, and then slapped his hoof on Night Jet's rump. "Come on boy, don't tell me that you have been listening to Solar Sun propaganda again!"
"Hey, I was just saying what I wanted to say. Just 'Lightning' up!" Night Jet laughed along with Lightning Gun, although it was more at the terrible pun than anything.
"Anyway, you should get to going. Before they suspect that you're gone, y'know?" Lightning Gun said.
"Okay. Goodbye." Night Jet said.
"Be careful out there, Night Jet." said Lightning Gun.
Night Jet took off into the skies.
======================================================================= Hot Shot woke up.
It was still the middle of the night, and Hot Shot felt thirsty. He climbed out of bed and...wait.
Climbed out of bed?
"That's strange," Hot Shot thought. "I don't remember having a bed that I have to climb out of. And where is Flower Pot? She was with me when I went to sleep."
All of a sudden, three realizations came to Hot Shot.
First of all, the room felt bigger, and it intimidated Hot Shot.
Second of all, when he looked back, he saw that his bed was different. Almost like a crib of sorts.
And third of all, the entire room was different.
Every nook and cranny was diffrent and the room looked a lot cleaner than it was when he got to bed.
There was a jack in the box on the floor, several teddy bears, also on the floor, and an alarm clock...which was also on the floor.
Hot Shot began to unconsciously move out of the door and into an unfamilliar hallway. It was dark, and somehow, for a stallion-turned-colt who wasn't afraid of the dark anymore, scared him tremendously.
Then, he began to hear screams, and then a voice angrily screaming.
Hot Shot walked down the hallway, despite the fact that it was intimidating, for some reason, and opened a door at the end.
Before Hot Shot's eyes was an sight that he would rather not see.
A yellow mare with and orange mane and tail was crouched on the floor with blood all over her. She coughed up blood in intervals, all while she was crying.
The cause of her distress was a green stallion in Nightmare Guard's armor with a red mane and tail.
He kept screaming at her, and it was now clear to Hot Shot.
"THREE YEARS! THREE YEARS THAT YOU KEPT IT FROM ME!" the stalliom yelled.
"But Ovoid Moon!" the mare pleaded. "It wasn't meant to be! Honest!"
"HOW IS A WHORE LIKE YOU 'HONEST'?" Ovoid Moon asked. "'Oh, but it was an accident', 'Oh, but I didn't mean to!' WHAT A LOAD OF BULLCRAP!"
Hot Shot was beginning to not like this.
Suddenly, Hot Shot spoke up, and he noticed that it sounded higher.
"What are you doing to her?"
Both ponies' gazes snapped towards the source of the voice.
"Looks like we have a visitor!" exclaimed Ovoid Moon. "WHY DON'T I START WITH THE BASTARD, FIRST?"
"Ovoid, don't!" pleaded the mare. "He's just a colt!"
"A bastard colt!" yelled Ovoid Moon. "You shouldn't have screwed that asshole Jerk Shot!"
"At least he was nicer than you!" yelled the mare. "Had you not ripped up the divorce papers, I would've been free of your womanizing ass! Why is it, when I screw someone other than you, you fly into a rage, but when you do it, it's JUST FI-"
*SLAP!*
Hot Shot stood in silence. He couldn't believe what happened.
"Shut the fuck up, Lime Pie."
All of a sudden, everything froze. As in, everything but Hot Shot.
Suddenly, a familiar voice wafed into Hot Shot's head.
"Wake up...."
Hot Shot didn't know what was happening.
"I said, wake up."
Hot Shot looked around, but there was no one there.
Then, a burst of light appeared in front of him and gave him a painful shock.
Instead of the horrific scene, Hot Shot instead saw Flower Pot begining to bend up again from giving him a shock spell.
"Come on, you've got to wake up, I'm calling a Team Meeting at the Meeting Place!"
Hot Shot got up and found that the room was back to it's dingy self again and that he was at his normal height.
"Sorry, I just had a nightmare." Hot Shot said, noticing that his voice was back to normal as well.
"We have to go, now!" said an urgent Flower Pot, levitating Hot Shot.
"What was that all about?" Hot Shot thought.
======================================================================= The camp was abuzz with activity, with ponies that were talking to each other, ponies sharing a kiss with one another, and ponies who were taking care of their foals.
On cue, a bell was rung from the observatory. The pony responsible for the action came down, and yelled on a megaphone.
"Everybody come to the Meeting Place!" yelled the bell-ringer. "Miss Flower Pot has called a meeting!"
Then, all the ponies in the camp went into the Meeting Place, eager to hear what Flower Pot had to say about the current situation.
As soon as the last pony sat down and the bell-ringer transported himself back into the floor, Flower Pot came on to the podium.
"Everyone of the Solar Sun Organization!" Flower Pot announced. "Lend me your ears, as I have, at last, finally figured out our strategy for Operation: Slip!"
Everypony cheered.
"Calm down, calm down!" Flower Pot yelled.
As soon as everypony was silent. Flower Pot began to speak again.
"Okay, so, for months, I have sent a spy to check out the defenses on the armory, but judging by how he didn't come back, I can only assume that security has been tightened a lot from when we made our last observation a month ago. Of course, I still don't trust Sun Burst, since he said that there were no security when there definitely was some."
Flower Pot glared at Sun Burst, and then continued.
"So now, we have to send a party to check and see if there's some security. If there is, we wait until the right time. If there isn't, we raid the armory and send a few ponies to check and see if there's anypony from the milita, or, Star Swirl forbid, Nighmare Moon's personal tattletale."
Flower Pot shuddered at the thought of him messing everything up.
Hot Shot, who was in the crowd, whispered to a blue stallion with a black mane and tail.
"Who's 'Nightmare Moon's tattletale?'"
"His name's exactly that: Tattle Tale." the stallion said. "Many a raid has failed because of, or at least partially because of, him."
"Wow, he sure sounds annoying."
"Tell me about it."
Then suddenly, they heard Flower Pot clearing her throat.
"If you are done talking, Hot Shot and Blue Zap."
Both stopped talking.
"Good." Flower Pot said.
"So, anyway, we need to send three ponies to entertain the guards and distract them, while a group of twelve ponies will go and split up into two groups of six. One group to do the actual raid, and another to guard the outside from Ponyville's millita. Understand?"
A resounding "yes m'am" was heard all throught the dome.
"Okay, so on Group A, the six ponies who will raid the armory will be lead by my brother: Ion Storm."
Ion Storm, a silver stallion with a silver mane and tail and a bionic eye and left forehoof trotted from his seat to the podium and took the mic.
"Thank you, for choosing me to lead the pack to victory!" exclaimed Ion Storm. "ARE YOU ALL READY TO RAID?"
The dome was silent.
"I'M NOT HEARING A 'YEAH'!" yelled Ion Storm, excitedly.
This time, everyone cheered.
"Alright!" exclaimed Ion Storm.
"Now, Ion Storm, you need to choose who you want for your group!" said Flower Pot.
"Yes, I know, that's what a group is."
Flower Pot and Ion Storm both laughed.
"Well, I choose Bright Scar, Home Slice, Zap Burst, Fly Colt, and Peppermint Cream!" Ion Storm yelled.
As if it was on cue, all five aforementioned ponies stood up and trotted over to the podium.
"And the leader of Team B is going to be Axel Rose. Congrats!" said Flower Pot.
A grey stallion, with brown hair that was dyed blue with the cutie mark of a guitar, came forward.
"Thank you, Flower Pot." Axel Rose said.
"And the other five are going to be Blue Zap, Ice Cream, Lab Rat, Mike Phone, and Screws!"
As the five other ponies went to the podium, Flower Pot began to announce Team C.
"And Team C will be Bolts, Hop Rabbit, and Future Hourglass." Flower Pot, who almost sounded dissapointed, announced.
As soon as all fifteen ponies were on the podium, Flower Pot then announced: "In case you were wondering if I'm going, no, I'm not. Trying to take the armory last time led to me and Ion Storm being gravely injured and Scabbard Apple and Windward Tail both dying, so I don't want to meet the same fate this time."
"What about me?" Hot Shot asked.
"You're not going." Flower Pot said. "I don't trust you enough to hold a battle on your own, let alone a raid."
"Hey! I know I can hold a battle on my own, I just need my strength back!"
Flower Pot leaped down and trotted over to Hot Shot as everypony stared at them.
"'Strength'?" Flower Pot laughed in Hot Shot's face. "STRENGTH?"
"Yes, strength."
"HA! You, have strength?".
Flower Pot laughed even harder.
"Last time I checked, I found you in the outskirts of camp, cowering from a bear and screaming 'Help!', 'Help!', like a little filly!"
This time, everyone roared in laughter.
"I-I wasn't!" Hot Shot said, while he began to blush.
Flower Pot leaned in Hot Shot's face.
"Well, Hot Shit, to me, it seemed like you were!"
Hot Shot felt embarresed by this and was about to gallop away, when he was stopped by Flower Pot's magic.
"Okay then, I'll humor you." Flower Pot said.
"You're on Team A."
Then, Axel Rose trotted over to Flower Pot.
"Hey, what about my team? It's not fair for Ion's team to get seven members, while mine gets six..."
"Okay then, so I guess the seventh member of Team B will be Ginger Ale."
"Ginger Ale?" a shocked Axel Rose asked. "But why, though? He's the worst pony in the entire Organization!"
"Don't worry, Axel, I don't think Shot and Ginger can last a minute in an important misson!" Flower Pot whispered in Axel's ear.
Axel nodded and trotted over to the podium along with Flower.
"The team meeting is over." Flower Pot announced.
Everyone began to leave, except for the eighteen ponies who were at the podium.
"Okay then, so who's going first?" Ion Storm asked.
"Team C, definitely." Flower Pot said.
"We don't know what to do, though.." Hop Rabbit, a white pony with glasses and a red mane and tail, with a rabbit cutie mark.
"We could masquerade as a bunch of fortune tellers. After all, it can put Future Hourglass' powers to use." Bolts9 suggested.
"Okay then." said Axel Rose. "Everypony, move out!"
That was the annoying voice of Tattle Tale, a baby blue earth pony colt with a yellow mane and no cutie mark, in the midst of getting his mane combed and cut in the barber shop in Ponyville.
"You know what the great minds of the Lunar Empire say: 'no pain, no gain!'" the barber, who had to put up with Tattle Tale's whining for the past fifteen cheese-knife cuts, assured.
"But it huuuurrts!" complained Tattle Tale.
The barber was starting to get annoyed, now, but he kept his cool.
"Now, look son." said the barber, turning on the eye screen in front of the foal.
The screen turned on to show a pony holding a puppet and having it talk to whoever was watching it. The barber knew that Tattle Tale loved that show, and loved the show he did, as he shut up and allowed the barber to cut his mane in peace.
Then, Tattle Tale spotted something near the nearby armory.
In the woods, seventeen ponies were trotting along a path, the path to Ponyville.
"How long are we gonna go?" asked Mike Phone, a red earth pony stallion with black hair and a microphone cutie mark. His lucky horseshoes, which he assumed were going to protect him and give him greater bucking power, were pratically killing him.
"Just a while longer, Mike Phone." said Axel Rose, a pegasus who was trotting along the trail with everybody else.
"Okay, so...what do we do?" asked Future Hourglass, a red unicorn mare with a pink mane and tail. Her cutie mark was that of an hourglass.
"I propose we disguise ourselves as travelling fortune tellers!" suggested Lab Rat, a brown earth pony stallion with a black mane and tail with a cutie mark of a lab flask.
"Ourselves?" asked a gobsmaked Hot Shot. "You're not even on their team."
"Way to speak for us, Hot Shit!" exclaimed Hop Rabbit.
"What about a travelling circus?" Snips XV suggested.
"I don't know, fortune telling is in my blood, so we can't just throw that idea away!" said Future Hourglass.
"Why can't we combine the two?" Ion Storm suggested. "That way, we can use the best of both ponies' abillities!"
"Sounds like a great idea!" Hop Rabbit said.
"Okay, Team C, you know what to do." said Ion Storm.
"Okay, team, let's go!" exclaimed the unofficial leader of Team C, Hop Rabbit.
"And I say, 'what a hoot, and laugh. But then he says 'That mare last night was a KILLER!', like he thinks that she's a murderer, but she's not! What a hoof-stomper!" a guard joked to another guard.
Then, the guards took notice of three ponies approaching them.
"Hey, who are they?" the guard asked.
" I don't know, but they don't seem like citizens of Ponyville." yet another guard responded.
"Hello, we're a travelling circus, and we are here to entertain!" Hop Rabbit said.
"Wait, I thought I was the carney, you were the juggler, and Hourglass was the fortune-teller?" Snips XV said.
Then, Future Hourglass saw something, something that could potentially jeopardize the mission.
It was Tattle Tale, getting his mane cut by the local barber.
"Hey, Snips, Rabbit." Future Hourglass said. "Check this out."
At Hourglass' cue, they looked at the shop and saw the same exact sight.
Only, now, Tattle Tale was looking at them.
"Oh, goddammit, not him." Hop Rabbit groaned.
'Ignore that!" Snips XV said. "Just focus on what we're doing right now!"
The three ponies then shifted their focus back to the guards.
"Got a little sidetracked there." Snips XV apologized.
"It's okay. Mistakes happen." said a guard.
"Okay then." Hop Rabbit reached into his bag and pulled out an entire tent.
"Damn, that's impressive." a soldier said.
"Step right up folks, as it's the Travelling Circus from Vanhoover!" Snips XV yelled as he got the attention of everypony in the vicinity.
"We've got a juggler who can make a really mean quesadilla, a fortune teller who has actual foresight, and me, the carney who has a real-life lion!"
Snips XV then pulled a tarp off to reveal an actual lion. Everypony who was there was impressed, and many ponies flocked to it.
Meanwhile, in the barber shop, Tattle Tale was watching the eye-screen when he noticed that a circus was going on. Since his show was about to end anyway and he had already gotten his haircut, he asked the barber if he can go.
"Barber Snip, can I leave, please?" asked Tattle Tale.
"Yes, son, you can." Barber Snip said.
Tattle Tale cheered as he went to the circus. Little did the unsuspecting guards and Tattle Tale know that the armory wasn't exactly safe right now...
====================================================================== "The guards are distracted. I repeat, the guards are distracted." Snails XV said through Ion Storm's ear-com.
"Good. Now we begin." said Ion Storm.
Then, Ion Storm turned to the other fourteen ponies.
"Move out!" Ion Storm commanded.
Seven of the ponies galloped over to the back of the armory.
Then, Lab Rat went over and stepped on Peppermint Cream's back and pulled out a flask and splashed it on the wall, being careful enough to not let any stray splashes of acid hit him, Peppermint Cream, and the others.
Then, the wall melted and showed the inside of the armory, which was full of boxes.
"Spread out!" Axel Rose commanded, and his team did just that, spread out all over the outside of the armory.
As soon as the other team seperated with Ion Storm's team, the latter team went inside the armory through the hole that they made.
Inside the building were tons of boxes, containing guns, grenades, parts for a plane, and more guns.
"Everypony, spread out and take as much boxes as you can, since they might be useful for future missons." Ion Storm commanded.
Then, everypony did just that. All except one: Hot Shot.
Hot Shot started to try to smash the boxes with his hoof, and succeded, but before he could smash some more, Ion Storm stopped him by levitating a box up into the air.
"Remember, smashing boxes may help you take the guns, but it's much better to just take them, instead, because it will make it much easier to do."
"Hey, just trying to show my strength!" Hot Shot said.
Ion Storm sighed.
"Come on, I'll show you a better way."
====================================================================== In the camp, Flower Pot was pacing around the outside of the dome.
"Flower Pot," said Sun Burst. "you've been pacing ever since they left! What's wrong?"
"Oh, I don't know, maybe because I know that Hot Shit is just going to drag the team down?"
"Okay, that's harsh."
"Well, that's because it's fact!" Flower Pot said.
"Yeah, but this doesn't mean you can't have a sense of confidence in Hot Shot."
"I can't because his personality is toxic!"
"You should still have confidence in him."
"Yeah, but..." Flower Pot was at a loss for words. On one hoof, she felt that Hot Shot might jeopardize the mission. On the other, it's possible that Hot Shot might not do damage at all, and that they might win.
However, Flower Pot quickly hardened her heart again.
"I shouldn't, Sun Burst, because I know him, and I know that his self-centerness and bravado could get in our way!" Flower Pot argued.
"You don't know him, Flower Pot." Sun Burst argued back. "You've only known him for a day, and you're not going to find out more about him by just knowing him for a day.
Flower Pot stopped and the thought of trusting in him entered her mind once more.
What if Hot Shot was more than meets the eye? What if he, behind his "cool" and "badass" exterior, he's actually a pony who's past had been hard for him. After all, she did meet him in the forest, and he looked almost ragged.
'But then again' Flower Pot began to think again. She had met many ponies who had acted just like Hot Shot. Those kinds of ponies greatly annoyed her when she was just a foal, especially Wind Breeze, who was a rather.....intresting stallion.
Flower Pot was confused. She didn't know if to trust him or not. Hot Shot was, well, a hot shot, but it seemed that he had another side to him.
"Flower Pot, you there?"
Flower Pot turned around. There was Sun Burst, standing right behind her.
"Sorry, I didn't know that you were waiting for me." Flower Pot answered.
"So, are you going to trust him?" Sun Burst asked again.
"No, he's obnoxious and loud, and after what he said to me in the forest, he might as well drag the team down." Flower Pot answered.
Then, Sun Burst looked at the slice of cheese.
"Sorry, have to leave. Be back before you know it!" Sun Burst said.
Then, he flew away.
Flower Pot watched, and then went back to impaitently pacing.
====================================================================== Meanwhile, in the Ponyville Armory, Ion Storm's team was beginning to bring the boxes into the forest as Hot Shot, Peppermint Cream, and Zap Burst, an electric blue pony with a yellow mane and a cutie mark of a lightning bolt, were gathering the rest of the boxes.
"Okay, why do we have to carry the boxes, though?" Hot Shot asked.
"So we can easily take the boxes that the objects are in rather than break them, duh!" Zap Burst, who didn't want to let Hot Shot go about the subject, said as he levitated some boxes.
"Besides, carrying the weapons individually would mean that the mission would go a lot longer if that would happen." Peppermint Cream explained.
"Yeah, but having boxes on your back shouldn't be the right way to go!" Hot Shot yelled.
"Ssssssh! There's still guards in the tent! They may be distracted, but they can notice if someone makes a sound!" Zap Burst whispered.
"I regret nothing!" Hot Shot rebutted.
"I know." Zap Burst replied. "That's exactly why I'm pushing your buttons."
'What is he thinking?' Hot Shot thought. 'Is he trying to make an enemy out of me? Me, the greatest pony on earth? Me, a pony who has been a master theif since he was a child? Me, who was admitted to the Solar Sun Organization? '
"Now come on and help me out with those boxes. You deserve to be knocked down a peg, and this is to help you get started." Zap Burst said.
Hot Shot scrowled as he went under the floating boxes, thinking that Zap Burst was going to gently set the boxes down.
However, Zap Burst dropped the boxes down hard, and it delivered a metric fuckton of pain to Hot Shot.
"Ow!" Hot Shot yelled. "Fuck, that hurt."
"Zap Burst!" Peppermint Cream yelled. "Why'd you have to do that?"
"Just because."
"Look." Pepermint Cream scolded. "Just because you hate Hot Shot doesn't mean you should be dickish about it!"
"Come on," Zap Burst pleaded. "it was all in good fun.
"But we should all get along!" Peppermint Cream said.
Hot Shot shot a smug look at Zap Burst. In response, Peppermint Cream shot him a look of annoyance, and muttered under his breath:
"Even if they annoy us a lot."
Hot Shot's look faltered upon hearing that.
'Aw, fuck.' Hot Shot thought.
====================================================================== It was fun being a spy.
Night Jet was crusing along the night sky as he was flying back to the Castle of the Two Sisters.
He felt as free as a bird, for it was his dream to make it into the Nightbolts, which were the Wonderbolts' succesors, taking on the night skies as much as their ancestors did. He felt free to cruise along the night sky, feeling the breeze of the wind in his face as he spread his wings and flew away.
But then, Night Jet spotted something.
It was a large tarp, not unlike those circus tents that were commonplace around the summer.
'But in the start of winter, of all things?' Night Jet thought. Usually, the circus would show up during the summer, when the impressionable little foals would have school off. Sure, there was winter break, but circuses usually wern't scheduled for that time.
'I have to just check it out for myself.' Night Jet decided. Then, he swooped down to where the circus is.
====================================================================== The trio of Rabbit Hop, Future Hourglass, and Snips XV were beginning to lose steam.
Everyone who wasn't a guard or Tattle Tale were leaving in droves, conveniently avoiding the armory, as the trio were trying their best to keep the guards' and Tattle Tale's attentions up.
Rabbit Hop, who was juggling balls, said: "Geez, I'm becoming tired. What about you, Snips?"
"Well, I am. And you, Hourglass?"
"I hate to say this, but my predictions are pretty...lacking, to say the least."
"Okay then, so what do we do to keep their interests up?" Snips XV asked.
"I think we should-" but Rabbit Hop didn't say any more, though, as he heard hooves touch the ground outside of the tent.
Then, a voice broke out.
"Lightning Gun, if you're in there, then come on out!" the voice yelled. "We have visitors, and they're not the kind that you'd be all 'buddy-buddy' with, either!"
Then, another voice broke out from outside the tent.
"Knock 'em down!"
Then, everyone in the tent heard sounds of struggle, and Lightning Gun had enough.
"Troops, go get your guns!"
"We can't." a guard said. "We left our guns in the armory."
"And?" an impatient Lightning Gun asked.
"I have a feeling that someone is raiding the armory."
"Oh no, not again." Lightning Gun sighed, having become tired of the Solar Sun Organization attempting to "liberate" Ponyville.
'Why are they still hung up over Celestia?' Lightning Gun thought to himself. 'Celestia was banished to the sun about a thousand years ago, if memory serves correctly, so they should've forgotten about her! Why are they still persistent? Why?'
Then, Lightning Gun gave them a signal, which was simply pointing a hoof onwards, and he trotted out of the tent, and the rest of the guards followed.
"Damn it, I knew that it was going to all fall apart." Future Hourglass sighed.
"Hey, Hot Shit," Zap Burst said. "You don't hold the box on your back."
Hot Shot dropped the boxes, confused.
"You hold them with your teeth!" Zap Burst yelled, trying to hold back laughter.
Hot Shot bent down, then clamped his teeth on the dropped box.
Zap Burst burst out in laughter.
Hot Shot, finally figuring out why Zap Burst had told him that unhelpful tidbit of advice, dropped the box in anger.
"Dammit, Zap Burst, you just made me make a fool of myself!" Hot Shot yelled.
"Did you seriously not understand that I was joking when I said that? I even said Hot Shit, and yet you never noticed. For someone who claims to be 'cool' and 'badass', you sure are easily fooled." Zap Burst said.
"OH REALLY?" Hot Shot yelled, as he dragged his hooves on the ground, ready to buck the pony into oblivion. In response, Zap Burst concetrated his magic signature into his horn, about to zap Hot Shot out of existence.
Then, Peppermint Cream went in front of them.
"Stop!"
At the command, Zap Burst stopped concetrating his magic and looked at Peppermint Cream. But Hot Shot was still readying his buck.
"You too, Hot Shot." Peppermint Cream said.
Grumbling in annoyance, Hot Shot stopped almost imediately.
"We're not going to get anywhere if you two keep arguing this point!" Peppermint Cream scolded.
"Hey, he started it." Hot Shot said, pointing a hoof at Zap Burst.
"But you were the dumbass who took the bait, so technically, you started it." Zap Burst responded, also pointing a hoof at Hot Shot.
"Are we going to play the blame game, now?" a fed up Peppermint Cream asked. "If we are, then fine."
Peppermint Cream pointed a hoof at Zap Burst.
"You shouldn't have told that to Hot Shot if you knew that he was going to respond like this."
Hot Shot pumped a hoof in the air. He had been vindicated.
However, Fate wasn't going to let Hot Shot off the hook yet, as Peppermint Cream pointed a hoof at him.
"And you shouldn't have taken Zap Burst's "advice" at face value if you knew that was a joke!"
"But-" Zap Burst and Hot Shot both tried to say, but they were cut off by Peppermint Cream.
"You're both at fault, here!"
For about a minute, there was silence.
Then, Peppermint Cream saw something past Hot Shot's head.
It was a black pegasus, coming down and basking in the night sky, judging by how his black mane was shimmering.
Then, he looked at them, and began to look absolutely terrified.
Then, the black pegasus yelled into Team C's tent.
"Lightning Gun, if you're in there, then come on out! We have visitors, and they're not the kind that you'd be all 'buddy-buddy' with, either!"
All three ponies began to panic. They've been found out, and now they might be imprisoned and executed in front of an audience in Canterlot. Not only that, but Flower Pot had the same fierce glares as her father and founder of the organization: Bell Apple, who looked down on anypony who failed and harshly told them off.
Then, Hot Shot did the unthinkable.
He turned around and bolted out of the armory, and then yelled.
"Knock 'em down!"
Before the black pony can react, Hot Shot jumped on him and the two ponies began to roll around in the grass like foals, trying to punch each other, but they were both failing to land a punch.
"This is sadder than sad." Zap Burst lamented.
"Yeah, I know." Peppermint Cream said.
"Talk about it." another voice said. It was a yellow unicorn stallion with a blue mane and tail. He had a cutie mark of a blue lightning bolt. This was Blue Zap: Zap Burst's older brother, four years his elder.
Then, a considerable amount of guards came out.
'Oh crap, we're busted.' Axel Rose, who was watching the event, thought.
Then, Lightning Gun gave them a signal.
"Attack!"
The clearing broke into chaos in an instant. Ponies were rushing out and were combating the guards. Since the guards were without their guns, they had to fight the old-fashioned way: by bucking and headbumping.
"Why did it have to be this way?" Zap Burst asked to himself. "If I would've known that Hot Shot was going to be here, I would've stayed back at the camp."
"I don't know, but I need some help with a guard here!" Peppermint Cream, who was dealing with a pony who had tackled him, answered.
Not wanting to anger the normally nice Peppermint Cream further, he went to help him.
As for Hot Shot, he was still locked in combat with the black pony, although the nature of the fight had shifted quite a bit, as the two stallion's punches began to connect a bit, even if it still looked sad compared to the rest of the battle.
"Come on, everypony, attack!"
Ion Storm's voice rang across the clearing as the ponies, who had just come back from bringing the crates back to the camp, ran over to the scene of the battle.
"Finally, you're here!" Ginger Ale, who was struggling with a guard, exclaimed.
"Where's Nightmare Moon when you need her?" Tattle Tale asked as he galloped away, probably to warn the queen of the night.
The three members of Team C also slipped away, although that was to go back to the camp to provide a status report to Flower Pot.
Blue Zap was bucking ponies left and right, not making sure any of them got up. However, he was too distracted to notice that a guard had snuck up on him, and before Blue Zap knew it, the guard had tackled him.
"Not so invincible now, is it, you sunspot?"
Blue Zap tried to break free, but the guard clamped his teeth on his horn, threatening to bite it off.
"Help me, brother!" Blue Zap yelled.
Near what was happening, Zap Burst was already taking care of another guard who had tried the same thing on him, until he saw Blue Zap.
Now, Blue Zap and Zap Burst wern't the best of brothers. Not by a long shot. Zap Burst hated how Blue Zap was such a killjoy, while Blue Zap hated it when Zap Burst picked on whoever he can get the biggest reaction out of.
But, even through their differences, they were still brothers, and they still looked out for eachother.
And that included right now, for instance.
Zap Burst came over to the guard, aimed his horn at the guard. When he looked over to Zap Burst, he became so terrified that he lost his grip on Blue Zap's horn, giving Blue Zap an opening to concetrate his magic on the guard, instantly killing him.
"Great job, Zap Burst!" Blue Zap said.
"You're welcome, brother!" Zap Burst said back.
Then, the guns were picked up by the ponies who had them, those being Ion Storm, Bright Scar, and Home Slice, who shot the guards mercilessly, effectively mowing down any guard who wasn't attached to a pony right now.
"What do we do, Lightning Gun?" a guard asked. "Many of us are dropping like flies!"
"Come on, stallions, we can't let those sun-loving ponies win!" Lightning Gun barked to his troops as he was wrestling with Fly Colt.
The remaning troops, which were either retreating, or were still wrestling with the ponies of the rebellion, perked their ears up to hear that command. Then, they began to get ruthless.
They began to hit a lot harder, risked their brains to headbump them as hard as they could, and began to have no qualms about killing ponies.
Night Jet himself began to get a lot more ruthless on Hot Shot, and his punches began to do some damage on him.
"Why won't you just accept Nightmare Moon?" Night Jet spat.
"How should I know about Nightmare Moon? I was a thief for most of my life!" Hot Shot yelled.
"A thief? Like who, the most famous theif from Southern Equestria?"
"How were you supposed to know that?" Hot Shot asked.
"Word travels fast in the great Lunar Empire." Night Jet answered.
After hearing that statement, Hot Shot began to hit a bit harder.
Meanwhile, Peppermint Cream and Lab Rat were back to back, bucking every guard who tried to rush them, until the last two guards who rushed them were shot by Ion Storm's machine gun.
Meanwhile, Fly Colt was cornered by a guard, who was about to headbump him. However, he was shot in the head by Axel Rose.
"Thanks." Fly Colt said.
"I don't need a thanks, I just saved you!" Axel Rose answered.
Then Home Slice, who was bucking a pony off of Zap Burst, saw several more ponies were on the horizon.
Lead by Tattle Tale, they were Nightmare Moon's elite millita, with Nightmare Moon herself in the center.
Then, they all retreated and went back to where they came.
"Chase them into the forest!" Nightmare Moon yelled to her troops. "Make sure that their sun-loving faces never show up again!"
The elite millita, with no choice, galloped aftet the retreating army.
====================================================================== Nightmare Moon surveyed the damage and missing and surviving contents of the armory.
It seemed that whoever raided the warehouse did so by melting a part of the wall off, as the "smear" on the wall indicated.
Then, there were the contents.
Only a few guns and a few parts of a prototype plane survived the raid. Nightmare Moon couldn't help but grimace. Among the contents that were lost was an incredibly important patent saying that a type of gun called the "CC Gun" was being upgraded into a much better version: "CC Gun Mark II", as the patent dubbed it.
Then there were important millitary-related decrees that were also lost, along with a huge chunk of gun prototypes.
Nightmare Moon stonped her foot down.
"Everypony, I want this wall fixed by next week!"
"Yes, our Majesty!" the guards yelled.
"You are all dissmissed for now."
Then. Nightmare Moon flew away in her chariot.
====================================================================== All fourteen ponies trotted home after meeting back up. The millita had chased them, yes, but they eventually got lost due to the extreme manuvering skills of the ponies.
"Everything was going swimmingly, until you began to ruin everything!" Zap Burst yelled at Hot Shot
"Are you being serious right now?" Hot Shot asked.
"I am, and don't deny it!" Zap Burst yelled.
"My god, you're actually worse than Flower Pot!" Hot Shot exclaimed.
What Hot Shot didn't realize, however was that Flower Pot was right in front of him.
"Worse than who?" Flower Pot asked.
"Oh no..."
"She's gonna beat you uuuup." Zap Burst said.
"Zap Burst, shut up." Peppermint Cream said, clearly tired of all this.
"What do you have to say for this?" asked an irate Flower Pot.
In the forest, a hot pink mare with a red mane and tail was galloping away from something that was chasing her. She galloped between trees, darted past some leaves, and leaped over branches.
However, before she knew it, she tripped on a branch and heard the cause of distress galloping towards her.
"You won't escape from me, whore!" she heard someone yell. "I will find you, and I will get my pleasure out of you, whenever you like it or not!"
She cowered in fear as the hoofsteps got closer.
But finally, she gathered the courage to gallop away. The hoofsteps stopped after a while, and so did she, as she stopped to take a breath.
Then, as she heard the hoofsteps get farther away, her eyes began to get blurry, as she struggled to keep her balance.
In the Meeting Place, all of the ponies who were in the Solar Sun Organization sans Sun Burst were all seated in the area below the podium. On the podium were a considerable number of ponies, sans Sun Burst, that were seated on the seats that the dome provided.
On the podium itself, Flower Pot was on the microphone, as the teams of Ion Storm and Axel Rose were next to her.
"I'd like to announce that our mission was a faliure." Flower Pot announced.
All around the dome, many ponies groaned as Flower Pot lightly tapped the microphone with her hoof.
"Now, now, that does not mean that the mission was a total faliure." Flower Pot reassured the audience. "We still got a considerable amount of weapons from the armory, enough to go and liberate Ponyville."
The ponies cheered.
"However, what I intended was for us to take all the weapons, without getting caught."
"Hey, she's talking about you again." Zap Burst said to Hot Shot.
"Shut up!" Hot Shot whispered harshly.
"That was why Team C had to do what they did." Flower Pot explained. "However, someone had to ruin it."
Everypony shot a hard glare at Hot Shot.
"Yeah, I'm looking at you, Hot Shit."
"But it wouldn't have happened had that black pegasus not spotted us!"
"Yeah, but you made a fool of yourself by wrestling with him!" Flower Pot yelled. "Instead of taking this in a mature manner, you instead decided to throw caution into the wind and risk your life to look 'cool'!"
"Hey, don't you think that you're greater than me!" Hot Shot yelled. "You still know that you're a mare!"
Flower Pot was seeing red right now, knowing that Hot Shot was deliberately egging her on.
"Yeah, that's right," Hot Shot said. "accept the fact that you're a mare!"
Flower Pot was getting furious, and it showed.
Then, Hot Shot was zapped by Flower Pot's magic.
"Ow, fuck, that hurt!" Hot Shot screamed.
"That's what you get for being sexist, you sexist prick!" Flower Pot responded.
"I was going to let you go on our next mission, but now, I have to leave you out!" Flower Pot continued. "From now on until further notice, you're on cleaning duty. Consider yourself lucky that you wern't kicked off the organization!"
Hot Shot groaned.
"Hot Shit, on cleaning duty?" Zap Burst blurted out.
"Not just that, but he's also on escorting duty. Serves him right." Flower Pot said.
Then, the entire dome burst out in laughter.
Hot Shot felt embarrassed. He had never been humiliated in his whole life, at least until now.
"He's on escorting duty, too?" a pony in the audience asked. "Isn't that the worst job?"
"Depends on how the escortee feels." another pony answers.
"Yeah! I heard that, when Bell Apple was still alive, Flower Pot and Ion Storm both had to escort Merlin Lulamoon. He was yammering on about how great he was, and almost killed both of them with his sorry excuse for magic tricks!"
Both ponies burst out in laughter.
"Both of you, I kindly ask you to please shut up!"Flower Pot said to the two other ponies.
When there was silence, Flower Pot continued.
"But everyone, I need you to take on a huge project of mine." Flower Pot said.
"We need an underground bunker, where we can store the weapons that we recently obtained."
"So, what do we do?" a beige pony with a black mane and tail with a cutie mark of a hammer and sickle with a hard hat asked.
"Good question, Building Block." Flower Pot answered. "We should gather some wood for the stairs to the bunker so some unicorns can strip them of their bark, while a few earth ponies will dig down until they see a stoney ground, then they will mine the ground to the desired place for the bunker surface."
"Who will do this, though?"
"Well..."
"For the earth ponies, it'll be you, Gold Digger, Crystal Ice, Mike Phone, Home Slice, Peppermint Cream, and Hot Shot, while Lab Rat does the math for how deep the hole should be."
Zap Burst pointed a hoof at Hot Shot as the latter facehoofed.
"Now, Zap Burst, while Hot Shot deserves what he gets, he's still a rookie. He'll mellow out soon, so don't try to damage his confidence." Ion Storm said.
Zap Burst sighed.
"For the unicorns who'll collect wood, they'll be Zap Burst, Blue Zap, Ion Storm, Night Gale, Quick Zip, and Ice Cream. I'll lead them."
"The pegasi will be taking care of other things around the camp, such as cleaning out the buildings in the camp, taking care of the old ponies, spying on other cities to check on their defenses, and the such." Flower Pot said.
"So, is anybody ready to build those bunkers?"
A resounding "yes" sounded around the dome.
Flower Pot, satisfied with the response, stepped down from the podium and beckoned the ponies she chose to follow her.
As the other ponies got up to follow her, Zap Burst pushed Hot Shot with the weight of his body.
"Hey!" Hot Shot yelled.
"Come on, Hot Shit, you haven't felt something like this before?"
"I have, you dick!"
Then, Flower Pot spoke up.
"If you're going to argue like that, do it after you work."
Hot Shot and Zap Burst shut up instantly.
======================================================================= The fifteen ponies trotted into the woods, which was behind the hotel. The woods would normally look good, but right now, they have been devoid of all their leaves, and with the darkness of the night, all of the tree's bark were dark.
Flower Pot signaled to the earth ponies, as they stopped.
Then, Flower Pot began to talk.
"Everypony, pay close attention to me as I explain what you all are supposed to do."
All the earth ponies nodded.
"What you need to do is to dig up the dirt below you and continue until you've reached the surface of the ground. Then, you get the pickaxes that I've supplied you with and mine the ground until Lab Rat tells you to stop. I'll come back and tell you what to do next when you are done."
"Yes, ma'm!" everypony said, except for Hot Shot, but Flower Pot didn't care.
"Now get to digging!" Flower Pot yelled.
Almost instantly, all the earth ponies, except for Lab Rat, who stuck around.
Flower Pot herself left the earth ponies to their own devices.
======================================================================= Flower Pot trotted to a clearing in the forest along with the other unicorns.
"The kind of magic you'll be using is a magic that allows you to skin anything, and that includes the bark of a tree. Then, you'll cut the branches off of a tree, and-well, you'll have to find out for yourself."
Flower Pot began to concetrate her magic on a nearby tree and intensely focused on it. In a second, her magic wrapped around the trees and began to uproot it, pulling it off the ground and levitating it near her.
Then, the tree's bark began to pull itself off by warping around it and turning it into liquid, dripping down on the ground.
Before the unicorns thought it was over, the tree itself began to pull apart. First, it's branches, then it's own main branch. The branch began to break apart into wide rectangles as the rectangles were levitated down into another part of the clearing.
"Okay then, now if you paid attention, 'cause I'll know if you have, you can see that that spell can and will be very useful in the future."
Then, before Flower Pot could speak more, she heard a harsh coughing in where the liquid-bark was.
As the ponies trotted over to the pony, they saw that it was a mare, judging by her volvolptrous (by pony standards) body and feminine look. Her cutie mark was that of a microphone and a pony singing into it.
The pony stood up, and screamed as she fell back down.
"Don't worry," Flower Pot said. "we're not here to harm you."
"Oh, good." the mare said. "For a moment, I thought that you were associated with them!"
"Who?" Flower Pot asked.
"Them!" the mare answered. "The people who are trying to 'take me down a peg'!"
"Wait, slow down, what?" Flower Pot asked.
The mare sighed.
"You'll see what I mean if you could just get me to another place." the mare said.
"Okay then, I'll try." Flower Pot said.
"Thank you very much!" the mare said.
"Ion Storm!" Flower Pot yelled. "Lead those unicorns until I get back!"
"Okay, sis!" Ion Storm yelled.
Then, Flower Pot and the mare galloped to the apartments.
======================================================================= At the apartment lobby, a silver pony with a dark-grey mane and tail with a cutie mark of a yin-yang symbol was arguing with Pen Mark.
"For the last time, we don't even have any rooms left!" Pen Mark yelled.
"Not even one?" the pony said.
"No!" Pen Mark yelled.
The doors in front of the apartments opened, and Pen Mark saw Flower Pot and the pink mare enter the lobby as the doors closed.
Pen Mark gasped.
"Is that....is that......." Pen Mark gasped.
"Come on, Pen, spit it out! Flower Pot said.
"That's Lemon Pie!" Pen Mark yelled.
Flower Pot looked at the hot pink mare.
"You mean her?" Flower Pot asked.
"Yes, it's her!" Pen Mark responded.
"Yes, it's me." Lemon Pie said.
"But if you're the sexiest and most entertaining icon of this current decade, then why were you in the woods?" Pen Mark asked.
"Well, can I even trust you to hear my story without getting shunned?" Lemon Pie asked.
"Don't worry, the Solar Sun Organization has got your back." Flower Pot said.
Lemon Pie sighed. "Okay, thanks."
"I first got a taste of stardom about seventeen years ago. The regular singer was out sick because he had to have his appendix removed after it ruptured the day before. When I entered the nightclub in Canterlot, there were a lot of ponies who were beginning to riot due to the absence of the singer. Then, I stepped up to the microphone and began to sing. The moment I said my first words on the mic, everypony stopped to hear me belt out an entire song. From that night forward, I was the toast of the town. Everypony loved me so much, that the previous singer was replaced by me."
"Then what happened?" Flower Pot and Pen Mark asked.
"For two decades, I was popular. I had never looked any older than thirty. In fact, I kept looking even better as the decades flew by."
"Anywho, I was popular for sixteen years. Then, all of that changed last year."
"What happened last year?" Flower Pot asked.
"Well, there was this pony named Knight Shield. Apparently, he was a real womanizer, and the stories I heard about him before implies that he was a rapist. That should've bought on my first red alarm, but I ignored the rumors."
"Okay, then, so what happened. Did you approach him, or the other way around?" Flower Pot asked.
"It was the other way around, and he started to talk to me, and asked if he can kiss me."
"Okay, then..." Pen Mark said, while jotting down notes on her notepad.
"Naturally, since I was married, I said 'no'."
"And then what did he do in response?" Pen Mark asked.
"While I was walking away, he forced himself on me. He said that if I didn't kiss him, then he will ruin my life." Lemon Pie said.
"So, what happened next?" Flower Pot asked.
"He kissed me on the muzzle, and the worst part of all of this, was that my husband was watching, and after that happened and once Knight Shield left, he came over and yelled at me. Asked me why I was flirting with this womanizer, and then he slapped me and trotted away."
"Were there any divorce papers involved?" Pen Mark asked.
"Yes, he divorced me and everything." Lemon Pie said. "The papers were finalized by Christmas, and I reverted to my maiden name: Lemon Pie."
"What was your ex-husband's name?" Pen Mark said.
"He was named Scabbard Apple." Lemon Pie said.
"Scabbard Apple?" Flower Pot asked. "You mean the guy who was killed last week?"
"He was killed?" a horrified Lemon Pie asked.
"Unfortunately. He sacrificed himself to save me from an assassian." Flower Pot said.
"So, he was good until the end?" Lemon Pie asked.
"Yes, he was. He taught Peppermint Cream and me the art of a certain technique named the 'Top to Bottom Buck' and was the one responsible for introducing me to Peppermint Cream. He also-"
"I KNOW! I KNOW!" Pen Mark screeched. "CAN WE JUST MOVE ON?"
"Okay, fine." Flower Pot said.
"So, from that moment on, I began to spiral into depression. I dabbled in cocaine, I tried to find ways to escape from Equestira. But the worst part was seeing....those."
"What do you mean by 'those'?"
"Those as in, the grafitti on the outside walls of my mansion. At first, they were just messages like 'shouldn't have kissed him' and 'told you so', but then they evolved into things like 'slut' and 'whore'." Lemon Pie said.
"And how did you get here?" Flower Pot asked.
"Well, the vandalism started to get worse. Windows were being broken, my eye-screen was stolen, a robbery happened at my house, and I gained a stalker, ready to take advantage of me, now that I was considered a 'free prostitute'."
"And how did you end up in the forest?" Flower Pot asked.
"I eventually ran away from my mansion, giving full ownership of it to my butler. In the forst, my stalker returned and tried to rape me several times. Eventually, I passed out, and that's how I ended up here." Lemon Pie said.
"So, are you safe anywhere else?" Flower Pot asked.
"The only place that I'm safe is Manehattan, where I grew up. It would be nice of you to escort me all the way there." Lemon Pie suggested.
Flower Pot thought for a moment, and said.
"Sorry, can't do it. We're busy with a project to expand the camp's boundaries and recruit more ponies for our cause." Flower Pot said.
"Then what about this pony?" Lemon Pie asked, pointing to the silver pony, who, until now, was listening to what Lemon Pie had to say.
"What?" the silver pony asked. "But I haven't gotten my room yet!"
"For the last time, youngster, we don't have a room! Pen Mark yelled.
"Okay then, fine, so, what does she want?" the silver pony asked.
"To be escorted to Manehattan." Lemon Pie said.
"Okay then, fine. I've got my swords, so as long as I have my weapons, I'll be fine." the silver pony said.
"Wait, you have a sword?" Pen Mark asked.
The silver pony sighed. "Yes, I have a sword. My name's Silver Sword, how are you?"
"My name's Lemon Pie, how are you?" Lemon Pie answered.
"Good. So anyway, I need to escort this 'Lemon Pie' to her destination, right?" Silver Sword asked.
"Right." Flower Pot said. "And, oh yeah, there's a Manehattan branch of our organization in the basement of an abandoned building, so if we can just get past the guards, we can move into the city and go to that building. For this, I'm giving you a map of Equestria for you to find your way there."
Then, Flower Pot went to a stand near the wall to her right, but before she can go to give the map to her, she turned her head in Silver Sword's direction and sternly said:
"Do not, under any circumstances, lose this map. If you do, you'll lose your way and, trust me, you would hate it if you were to be lost under any circumstances."
Then, Flower Pot trotted back to where Silver Sword was and handed him the map.
"Now, good luck, and I hope you make-"
Flower Pot stopped, and then a smile creeped up her face.
'Maybe this can benifit from one more member. Maybe two.' Flower Pot thought.
"Hey, what's your name?" Lemon Pie asked.
"Oh, my name?" Flower Pot asked.
"Well, my full name is Floweria Pot-Pie, but you can call me Flower Pot."
Then, Lemon Pie got an idea.
"Do you know a 'Bell Apple'?"
"Yes, he was my father, why do you ask?" Flower Pot answered.
"So that means....that since Scabbard and Bell are brothers, that means that I was your aunt!"
Flower Pot was surprised. Never in her life had Bell Apple or Scabbard Apple mentioned that they were brothers, nor the fact that she was a niece of a famous preformer!
"I am the niece of you?" a gobsmacked Flower Pot said.
"Of course you are!" Lemon Pie said. "I didn't even know about you until now!"
"You didn't?" Flower Pot asked.
"Yeah! How was I supposed to know that you were in the Apple family tree?" Lemon Pie asked.
"Because you're not my aunt anymore now that you've divorced?" Flower Pot asked.
"Yeah, yeah, that too." Lemon Pie answered.
"Hey, can we go now?" Silver Sword asked.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, good luck and all that." Pen Mark said.
Then, the trio trotted away from the apartments.
====================================================================== In the woods, the earth ponies have already moved on to mining the ground and the unicorns have already begun to dig the dirt up for the stairs.
Hot Shot was digging as well, and was not too happy about it.
"Why do I have to mine this ground?" Hot Shot asked.
"So we can give our new weapons a place to be stored so we can defend ourselves, duh!" Crystal Ice, a white mare with a transparent mane and tail with a cutie mark of a snowflake.
"No one asked you." Hot Shot said.
In response, Crystal Ice put her muzzle up in the air.
Then, Hot Shot was disoriented by a large burst from out of nowhere. Before he could react, the burst faded away, leaving Flower Pot, a silver stallion unicorn, and a hot pink earth pony mare in front of him.
"New assignment, Hot Shit!" Flower Pot yelled. "Escort this mare to Manehattan. There's a branch of the Solar Sun Organization there, and she can visit her family once she gets there."
Hot Shot sighed. 'An escorting mission already?'
"But you should wait here, I'm going to get someone to come with you three." Flower Pot said.
Then, she went towards Zap Burst.
Zap Burst was beginning to put the planks of wood down. He couldn't wait to be done with all this so he can taunt Hot Shot some more.
When he was about to put another plank down, he saw Flower Pot.
"Flower Pot!" Zap Burst called. "You're back! As you can see, I master-"
"Yeah, yeah, 'mastered the magic of my spell', stop all that because you've been assigned to escort a mare named Lemon Pie, she used to be famous, now she's a wreck, escort her."
Zap Burst, excited at the prospect of scoring a mare's rump, jumped at the opportunity.
"All right! I finally get to score some rump! Now who with, though, cause it better not be Hot Sh-"
"It is."
Zap Burst's smile faltered.
"But you have to come!" Flower Pot pleaded. "She'll only be safe with three ponies by her side!"
"Who's the third pony?" Zap Burst asked.
"He's a skilled sword-wielder called Silver Sword." Flower Pot said.
"Who's he?" Zap Burst asked.
"He's someone who just became of age to participate in more dangerous missions. He has been teaching himself that since he learned how to walk."
"Damn, that's dangerous." Zap Burst said.
"But it also can be advantageous." Flower Pot said.
"Okay then, I'll go." Zap Burst said.
"Good!" Flower Pot said.
Then, she teleported over to Hot Shot, Lemon Pie, and Silver Sword.
"Okay then, we're ready to go!" Flower Pot said.
"Thank you!" Hot Shot said.
Then, they went up the incomplete stairs and up above ground, and they began to trot, except for Flower Pot, who stayed behind.
Those were the words of Hot Shot and Zap Burst, who were challenging themselves to a race. With them were Lemon Pie, who was standing with Silver Sword.
"Come on, there's no time to wait!" Silver Sword complained. "We need to escort this fine mare to Manehattan!"
"Hey, Hot Shit was the one who challenged me, not the other way around!" Zap Burst responded.
"We haven't even checked the map yet!" Hot Shot yelled.
Then, all was silent.
"Silver Sword," a worried Hot Shot asked. "where's the map?"
"The map?" Silver Sword asked.
"Yes, the map." Zap Burst answered. "Don't beat around the bush."
"I thought I had it with me." Silver Sword said.
"I really hope so. We need to get to shelter as soon as we can!" Lemon Pie yelled.
"Oh no..." Silver Sword realized. "That means that the map's back at camp, and we just trotted a considerable amount!"
Zap Burst gulped. "So, does that mean that-"
"YES!" a frustrated Silver Sword yelled. "It's too late to trot back now!"
"Because of why, exactly?" Hot Shot asked.
"Because I know Lemon Pie, and I know that she's infamous for being impatient!" Silver Sword said. "We don't want to piss her off!"
"Guys, guys, let's not raise a fuss about maps." Zap Burst said. "I can find a way!"
Hot Shot sighed as the four ponies began to trot.
====================================================================== Elsewhere in the forest, there was a bonfire, carefully being tended to to stop a forest fire from spreading.
Around it were three soldiers, clearly of Nightmare Moon's armor.
One, who was a dark blue stallion with a navy-blue mane and a bullet cutie mark said: "We've gotta do something about this 'Solar Sun Organization, and we've gotta do it fast."
"We know, Gun Shot," a green pony with a ginger mane and tail with a cutie mark of a lantern responded. "but we need to wait for the right time to strike. That's when we'll ambush them."
Then, a yellow stallion with a black mane and tail with a cutie mark of a bull spoke up. "Well, Light Shine, that is possible, but we need to wait for an opening so we can find the right time to ambush them."
"That's a good idea, Bull Horn." Gun Shot said.
Then, Light Shine saw four ponies in the distance. They were trotting and talking to each other.
In response, the guards rushed up the trees and sat on the highest branches they could find, watching from the shadows.
======================================================================= The four ponies were still trotting, as usual.
"Is this the way?" Hot Shot asked.
"Yeah, I've been to this forest before, when I was scouting out for a lost piece of a medallion." Zap Burst said. "Therefore, I know this forest from top to bottom."
Then, Hot Shot noticed a bonfire in the distance. Around it were three ponies, clearly in Nightmare Guard's armor.
"Was this there before, Zap Burst?" Hot Shot asked, while pointing a hoof at the flames and the ponies around it.
Zap Burst took one look at it, and freaked out.
"Shit, those are Nightmare Moon's guards!"
Then, the guards headed up the trees.
"Well, they're gone, let's take it!" Hot Shot suggested.
"No!" Zap Burst responded. "It's still dangerous! They just went up to the trees, it's not like they were completely gone!"
"Besides, from what I heard, it sounds dangerous, so yeah, no." Silver Sword said.
Hot Shot just sighed as they trotted another way. ======================================================================= Deeper into the forest, the quads were beginning to starve.
"Hey, I'm hungry," Lemon Pie, who hasn't spoken up much since they left the base, said.
"Me too." Hot Shot said.
"Count me in, I need the food right now." Silver Sword said.
"We could eat grass, right?" Zap Burst asked. "Even though we have grown to accept meat despite our herbivorous nature, we still need some grass."
"You're technically right, there." Hot Shot said.
'Even though I hate to admit that you're right.'
All four ponies promptly bent down to pick up and munch on grass.
As Hot Shot was eating grass, he felt a foreboding feeling welling up in his stomach, but he ignored it.
Then, as he picked his head up, he felt something. In fact, they all felt something.
As they began to hear sounds of strings throwing rocks at them, their hearing began to fade out as they all closed their eyes. ======================================================================= Hot Shot woke up.
It was the middle of the night, and he was beginning to trot around. He was in a forest, and he could that by the trees towering around him.
Once he found his footing, he got out of the forest.
Beyond the forest was a couple of wooden tables lying around. There was a wooden building next to it, and it had a sign. Hot Shot couldn't read it, but it looked like a bar of some sort. Beyond that was nothing, suggesting that the building was built at a sutiable side of a mountain.
There were several ponies on the tables, and one of them caught Hot Shot's eyes.
It was the yellow mare from his dream last midnight.
Taken aback by this, he continued to watch as the yellow mare was drinking a beer. Then, a stallion came in.
The stallion was grey with a blue mane and tail with the cutie mark of an electric buzzer. His facial features were blurred specifically, for some reason, but his mouth was completely visible.
"Hey, pretty filly," the stallion said. "Name's Jerk Shot, how you doin'?"
"Oh, well, I'm not a filly anymore." the mare responded.
"Well, you're not bluffing. You look beautiful." Jerk Shot said.
"What's your name, by the way?"
"My name's Garden Moon." she said. "My maiden name is Garden Shovel."
"So, you're married, huh?" Jerk Shot asked.
"Yeah, I am." Garden Moon said.
"Well, my sex appeal knows no bounds." Jerk Shot said.
"Well, I really needed to get away from him, you know." Garden Moon said, burping due to the influence of the beer. "He's a womanizer, but he's a rather short-fused guy, constantly getting triggered at mundane things."
Then, a waiter came over.
"Do you need anything else?"
"Yeah," Garden Moon burped. "I want something a little stronger for me and my acquaintance here."
"Okay then, two tequilas for both of you, coming right up!" the waiter said, and trotted back over to the building.
"So, how's life at home?" Jerk Shot asked.
"Eh, life's been pretty okay for me." Garden Moon said. "Had to juggle my life as a stripper with life as a schoolhouse teacher in Ponyville. Summer break just came, so I'm taking advantage of the break."
"Okay then," Jerk Shot said. "How about you take the time to do some romance with me."
"No thanks, I'm married." Garden Moon replied.
"Oh well..." Jerk Shot said.
"But I will do it, but only for one night, okay?"
"Okay." Jerk Shot responded.
"At least the 'Restriction' on alcoholic drinks was lifted." Garden Moon said.
"Yeah, that ban was getting annoying at this point." Jerk Shot said.
The waiter came over.
"Here's the drinks." the waiter said as he put the glasses of tequila on their table.
"Thank you." Jerk Shot said.
The waiter nodded, and he left.
Then, the two ponies began to drink out of the glass, as they got closer to each other.
Then, Jerk Shot and Garden Moon let go of their straws and went closer.
And then, as Hot Shot watched, they put their heads together and looked at each other in an intimate gaze.
Then, Jerk Shot took Garden Moon to some trees beyond the tavern, and then he heard....sounds that he had never heard before.
'Am I hearing what I think I'm hearing?' Hot Shot thought in disbelief. 'Two ponies having sex?'
Before Hot Shot could think any further, he then felt tired, and before he knew it, he closed his eyes again.
======================================================================= Hot Shot pried his eyes open to the sight of a prison cell.
The "cell" obviously looked like it was makeshift, judging by how the prison bars were just repurposed branches from trees. Outside of the cell, there were some objects lying around, a few sticks, some slingshots, a few stones, and the like.
However, what caught Hot Shot's eyes was not the prison, but who was outside the cell.
It looked like a rabbit, but it stood up on two legs, had fully red eyes, obviously a busted blood vessel, and looked ragged and war torn. One of it's ears were torn off, and it had a strap that connected to a buckle in the middle of it's body.
"Hey!" the rabbit said, snapping Hot Shot out of his train of thought. "Are you a spy for the Snake Alliance?"
"What?" a gobsmacked Hot Shot said.
"I said, ARE YOU A SPY?" the rabbit yelled in a tone so loud, Hot Shot had to cover his ears with his hooves.
Then, Hot Shot heard some shuffling somewhere else.
"Hey, where am I?" a voice, unmistakably Zap Burst, and also behind him.
Hot Shot turned around to see Zap Burst get up on his hooves and look around.
"Hot Shot, what are you doing here?" Zap Burst asked.
"I don't know." Hot Shot responded.
However, the rabbit spoke up.
"You are at our prison for spies, and we need to know whenever you're a spy or not."
'A prison for spies?' Hot Shot thought.
As if the rabbit could read his mind, he said: "Yes, a prison for spies."
Then, Hot Shot remembered something.
"Where are Lemon Pie and that sword guy?" Hot Shot asked.
"You mean Silver Sword?" Zap Burst answered.
"Hey, shut up, Zap Burst." Hot Shot retorted.
"They're at a facility where they are being taken to the electric chair to be questioned." the rabbit answered.
"By the way, what's your name?" Zap Burst asked.
"My name?" the rabbit said.
"Yes, your name."
"Well, my name is The Red Eye, and I am considered the best at the art of Tekai." the rabbit said.
"What happened that led to your race into a war with this 'Snake Alliance'?"
"Well, I was recruited after the war began, but I believe that one of the rabbits said something about a 'feast' and a 'betrayal'."
'Betrayal?' Hot Shot thought. 'This is getting intresting'
"By whom, exactly?" Zap Burst asked.
"Apparently, it was by a mutated snail called 'Musk'." Red Eye answered.
"Who's 'Musk'?" Hot Shot asked.
"He was apparently the best soldier on the team, until his betrayal, that is."
"Okay, good." Zap Burst said. "But before you let us rot in this horrible dungeon, can I do one last request?"
"Go ahead." Red Eye responded.
"Can you let us out of the dunegon, please?" Zap Burst said.
Then, Red Eye moved over to the keyhole, pulled out a key, and opened the cell door as the two ponies trotted out.
"Okay then, now you rest." Zap Burst said.
Then, Zap Burst readied his magic to prepare a knockout spell.
"Wait a minute." Red Eye moved back.
"GUAR-"
Red Eye's scream was cut off as he fell to the floor, unconscious.
"Why did you have to do that?" Hot Shot frantically asked.
"Because he was getting aware." Zap Burst said, matter-of-factly.
"How?" Hot Shot asked.
"Well, when I first woke up, I saw that there was no possible escape from here." Zap Burst said as he and Hot Shot began to trot down a hallway.
"But then I remembered something that me and Blue Zap's master, Master Ni-Mar taught me, a technique that I forgot about when I joined the Solar Sun Organization."
"So you wern't originally a part of the Solar Suns?" Hot Shot asked.
"No, I wasn't. In fact, I didn't join until fifteen years ago." Zap Burst explained.
"Before then, me and my brother were taught by a stallion who claimed to have supreme power above even Nightmare Moon, and taught us many tecniques. What I just used on Red Eye was a mind-control technique, which was why he let us go so easily."
"Where were you trained?"
"I was trained at the mountains beyond Equestria, trained to be the best in martial arts, and especially trained to be a 'super-soldier'."
Then, Hot Shot thought for a moment.
"What happened to your master?"
Zap Burst thought for a moment as well, although for a bit longer than Hot Shot.
"Well, fifteen years ago, a group called the 'Solar Sun Organization' entered the training dojo, demanding that the sun rise up again. Leading this group were two stallions, one who was black, and one who was blue. I later found out through the Archives and a young Flower Pot that they were Bell Apple and Whirl Wind, two of the Organization's oldest members. But before that, I didn't think of them as one of the most influental members of the Organization. I thought of them as enemies, instead."
Zap Burst stoped for a moment, then continued.
"They were brutal when they began their attack. They fought with the strength of Celestia and Star Swirl combined. Every super-soldier were getting pushed back, and I hated every second of it."
"So, what happened to this 'Ni-Mar' pony?"
"Well, while the tide was turning against us, me, Blue Zap, and another super-soldier named Diamond Zap rushed up to the stairs to protect Master Ni-Mar, but when we got there, he was gone, leaving only his robe behind."
While Hot Shot was listening he spotted some guards coming their way.
"Uh, Zap Burst?"
But Zap Burst ignored Hot Shot to tell his story. "Eventually, we lost, and all the super-soldiers were killed, except for us, which a filly that I now know as Flower Pot asked to spare. So me, Blue Zap, and Diamond Zap were recruited, and we became a part of the Organization."
"Cool story, since we're going near their guards." Hot Shot sternly said to Zap Burst.
"What?" Zap Burst yelled.
"Halt!"
Hot Shot and Zap Burst stopped as three rabbits: a white male, a black male, and a brown female, who all had gear similar to that of Red Eye's, focused their makeshift spears on the two stallions.
"Why have you escaped your prisons?" the black rabbit asked.
"I don't know, honset!" Zap Burst answered.
"Oh really?" the brown rabbit said.
"Then why did you escape from our prison when we put you there?" the black rabbit asked.
"Well, the bark of the cell was just weak, that's all!" Zap Burst said.
The white rabbit sniffed the two stallions.
"I smell lies..." the white rabbit said. "Take them to the electric chair."
The three rabbits motioned the two stallions to follow them, and follow them did the two stallions do.
======================================================================= Silver Sword slammed his hoof into the arm of the electric chair, a makeshift chair with a 9000 volt battery attached to it's bottom and with wires running arcoss the chair.
"I won't tell you anything!" Silver Sword yelled at the group of rabbits surrounding him.
"You will!" a brown male rabbit said. "Or else, it's the electric chair for you!"
"Do I have to say this a million times?" Lemon Pie yelled. "We are not spies!"
"That's exactly what our last few spies said, before we subjected them to the chair!" another rabbit responded.
"We just ate some grass, that's all!" Silver Sword pleaded.
"And that was exactly what we wanted!" the brown rabbit said.
"How?" Lemon Pie yelled.
"Simple, we just put some dew on the grass to make it look more appetizing to any pony who stumbles across this space." yet another rabbit explained. "Then, we jump at them, shooting them with stones and knocking them out. Then, we take them back into our base, where we interrogate any potential spies that we found."
"But why this paranoia?" Lemon Pie asked.
"Paranoia's all we've got left." another rabbit, who was black, came up and explained. "I don't know what set us off first, or how the pressure was fed."
"But we suspect that the constant war against the Snake Alliance is what's setting us off." another black rabbit said.
"But why?" Silver Sword asked. "Can't we all have peace?"
"No," the black rabbit said. "because the snakes keep eating any rabbit who ventures off of our base."
"That's cruel!" Lemon Pie yelled.
"Yes, but that's not all." the brown rabbit said.
Then, three rabbits came in with two stallions.
"We bought some more spies!"
It didn't take a genius for Silver Sword and Lenon Pie to recognize the two stallions as Hot Shot and Zap Burst.
"Guys!" Silver Sword yelled. "You came!"
"You're with them?" the black rabbit asked.
"Yes." Zap Burst sighed. "We are."
"We found those trotters leaving their cell, trying to escape." the brown rabbit guard said.
"Okay then, take them to the chairs." Then black rabbit said, motioning to two chairs, both looking about the same as the other two chairs."
The three guards did as they told, taking the two stallions to the chair and strapping them.
"Okay then, it's time to find out whenever or not they are spies." the brown rabbit said.
Then, two green rabbits began to move up to the door, blocking it.
"What are you two doing?" a brown rabbit asked.
"Well, they aren't the only spies." one of the rabbits said.
Then, before everyone's eyes, the two rabbits began to contort.
Their small bodies began to strech as their limbs elongated. Their fur retracted into their bodies as scales formed in their place. Their tails and ears were next, retracting back into their bodies. And finally, to top this horror sundae, their faces twisted and streched as their pupils sharpened, their eyes became pink, and their nose and mouth areas streched out to snake-like proportions.
As all the rabbits gasped, they were still, with looks of horror on their faces.
"Spies!" a rabbit yelled. "Attack!"
In a moment, all rabbits rushed to attack the bigger and more muscle-bound anthropomorphic snakes.
A brown rabbit, who, judging by his helmet, was obviously the leader of the pack, spoke.
"So, you're really a bunch of spies?" the general asked.
"Why thanks, General Obvious!" a snake-person said, sarcastically.
The general, enraged by this statement, leaped on to the snake-people, but found himself being knocked back by their tails, which had just grown back.
As all four ponies watched, a rabbit freed all of them.
"Come on, go on, you're not guilty of being spies anymore." the rabbit said, as she freed the last pony to be strapped, Zap Burst.
"Thanks, I owe you one." Zap Burst said.
"You're only just saying that." Hot Shot said.
"Zip it, Hot Shit!" Zap Burst yelled quietly.
While all that was going on, the two lizards had already split up and was now beginning to take victims by eating them whole. While some rabbits grew lucky by managing to escape by finding openings and taking advantage of them, the rest wern't so lucky.
Then, Silver Sword stepped up and trotted over to where the rabbits put his swords.
"What are you doing?" Hot Shot harshly whispered. "You'll get killed!"
"I'd rather die than see innocent lives get wasted." Silver Sword said.
Then, Silver Sword took his swords and trotted over behind one snake-person.
At that moment, the other snake-person took notice of Silver Sword sneaking up behind his comrade.
"Spion, watch out!" the snake-person yelled.
However, Spion didn't notice, as he was chewing on a rabbit and, thus, failed to notice a sharp feeling shoving itself into his back.
"I'm busy eating, Katáskopos!" Spion answered.
Horrified, Katáskopos rushed over to Spion, but he was too late, as Hot Shot and Zap Burst tackled him, forcing the terrified snake-person to watch as the sword plunged fully into the snake's stomach.
Spion, who was eating the rabbit at that moment, realized that the sharp feeling that he felt was not the effect of the rabbit, but before he knew it, he fell down, his last thoughts being about what his family would think if he died.
Once Spion died, however, Silver Sword stood in silence, and he dropped to the ground of the room, which was fully evacuated a moment ago.
'I.....killed him.' Silver Sword looked at his hooves. 'Did he deserve to die? It might be possible that he had a family that he cared about and loved.'
Then, Silver Sword stood up and trotted over to where Katáskopos was.
"I'm sorry." Silver Sword said, seemingly to himself. "I broke the code of honor for the sake of saving a life. I tried to save lives, only to take away another."
Then, Silver Sword turned to his teammates and his escort.
"Guys." Silver Sword said. "Take all his weapons away and take him to the rabbits. And don't let them kill him, okay?"
All three ponies nodded, and then did what they were told.
======================================================================= The four ponies trotted over to the rabbits to determine whenever or not Katáskopos lives or not.
"Silver Sword." Lemon Pie said. "It's not your fault."
"No, it was." Silver Sword said.
Hot Shot looked at Silver Sword. He had never seen what sadness was like in his life before, but he had a vauge memory of him being sad and alone, so he had to know somewhere.
"Silver Sword." Hot Shot said, in a tone that was rare for even himself. "It's okay."
"No, it's not." Silver Sword said, beginning to tear up. "It's not okay."
Then, they entered what they thought was both the exit and the lobby, where many rabbits were.
The two ponies: Hot Shot and Zap Burst, dropped Katáskopos in front of the rabbits, sans weapons.
"You defeated the spies and bought them before us?" a rabbit general asked.
"Yeah, although one was killed in the ensuing chaos." Zap Burst explained.
"Oh, right." Silver Sword, who was calming down, said.
"Well, well done!" a rabbit general said. "We would like for you to join us to defend agains-"
"No thanks." Zap Burst said. "We have to escort a mare to Manehattan to be reunited with her family."
"Oh, okay." the general said. "Good job, anyway, and bye!"
"Bye!" all four ponies yelled.
Then, they trotted out of the base by climbing up the ladder.
======================================================================= Outside the base, the four ponies climbed out.
"Well, that was an adventure." Zap Burst said.
"And may we never speak of this again." Silver Sword said.
"My thoughts exactly!" Zap Burst yelled.
Then, they were stopped by three ponies in Nightmare Guard armor.
As the four ponies backed up, the three ponies got closer.
"This is the end for you Solar Suns!" Gun Shot yelled.