The Siege of Stalliongrad

Chapters

Prologue: The City of Ice is Burning
A City on a Hill
Castle Stalliongrad
The Archduke and the Farmer
The Tyrant's Vanguard

Prologue: The City of Ice is Burning

Carrot Top ran, because her life depended on it.

She was on top of one of Stalliongrad's office buildings, a twelve-story structure situated on the southern border of the downtown area. The building ahead of her, fortunately, was eleven stories tall, so she'd have somewhere to go when she ran out of roof. Or, for that matter, when the roof she was on caught on fire. Carrot Top glanced at the southern end of the city to see pillars of smoke rising from the remains of houses and shops. And Corona isn't even here yet...

"Carrot Top!" It was Raindrops, whom Carrot Top had last seen trying to rescue the workers in the weather factory above the city. Her voice buzzed in the communicator crystal jammed into Carrot Top's ear. "Run! You've got three on your tail!"

"I'm going as fast as I can!" yelled Carrot Top.

"Well, go faster!"

Carrot Top leapt to the next building, thankful for once that Stalliongrad was such a dense, cramped city. The street below her was full of debris that had been knocked out of the buildings, but she didn't have time to look down. She landed on the next roof, took a fraction of a second to ensure that nothing was broken, and was off again.

Wings beat behind her. Carrot Top looked behind her to see a large pegasus pulling ahead of her companions, two thin longma, and preparing to swoop. The knight glanced ahead of her and saw a taller building to her right... one that had a blasted window at about her height. She raced for it, trying to outdistance the pegasus. "Come on, come on..."

She leapt at the last minute, timing her jump so that she passed through the window as high as she could without slamming her head into the concrete wall and falling eleven stories. The pegasus chasing her froze for one crucial moment as she worked out whether to break off or duck and follow the knight. Carrot Top winced as she heard the pony smash into the wall behind her. "Clear. For a moment."

"Get over here now. We've got to bail out as soon as the civilians are gone."

"How close are we on that?" Carrot Top heard wings behind her and knew that the two longma had entered the building and were in fast pursuit. She raced up two flights of stairs and burst onto another roof, then ran for the next skyscraper. Some wit had scrawled, in block letters several feet high, 'STALLIONGRAD IS OUT OF TIME.' "Because I'm--"

"This city's got a million ponies in it," snapped Raindrops. "And, despite the best efforts of Corona and the maniacs running this place, most of them aren't dead yet. We're working on it."

Carrot Top would have said something else, but she heard sounds from above her and looked to see another unit of longmas peeling off and diving down. Gritting her teeth, she pressed on, but the ones who were diving were faster and she knew they were about to catch her. She tensed--

"HELLO!"

The voice blasted from a speaker a few feet to Carrot Top's left, as well as hundreds of others in the city, and was loud enough to startle the knight and almost send her plummeting off the building. The diving longmas weren't so lucky and plowed into the roof, and Carrot Top raced on.

The voice continued. "Welcome back to the live destruction of STALLIONGRAD! I'm your host, Radiomare, and this is your hourly update!" There was a pause. "Yep, we're still all gonna die! But the jury's still out on how. I'm going with burning, myself, though I gotta say, exposure's looking more and more likely. Junkers, thoughts?"

Carrot Top tuned out Radiomare's calmer, but equally insane, cohost Junkers. It wasn't like anything could be done to stop them, anyway. She instead looked ahead and found that she had reached the end of another roof, this one too far away to jump to. She skidded to a halt and took a few deep, shuddering breaths as she worked out her next move. "Um, girls--"

"That's her!" Carrot Top looked behind her to see the two longmas who had been following her for several minutes. They looked just as winded as her, but they put on a burst of speed and approached.

There was a raised structure several feet tall next to Carrot Top on the roof; Carrot Top didn't know what it was for, but she did not that someone had removed most of the screws and bolts connecting it to the roof. She didn't know why--trading the metal on the black market was her best guess--but it gave her a chance. She turned and gave the structure a mighty kick, sending it leaning over the roof, then quickly climbed on top of it. As the longmas blasted closer, she ran out to the edge of the structure, her weight bending it just a little bit closer to the next building. Talons snapped at her tail, the structure snapped and began to fall down, and Carrot Top jumped...

And barely grasped onto the ledge of the next rooftop. One longma hit the wall next to her, then slowly dropped down to the ground. The other overshot and passed out of Carrot Top's sight. The mare opened her mouth to take a single deep breath.

Which, of course, was when a huge explosion rocked the building.

"Oh, by the way!" chirped Radiomare as the building began to tilt at an unpleasant angle. "We'd just like to remind you that those explosions you're hearing from the south part of the downtown are not, in fact, Corona's arm dropping sunfire on the city. Those are the Demolition Unit dropping buildings on Corona's troops." Pause. "Now, if you're in the north part of town, yeah. That's probably Corona's army."

Carrot Top squeaked as the building tilted backwards. She hauled herself up and ran towards the opposite side of the roof, but did no better than keep pace as the building tilted and the roof descended. Then she found herself standing at the opposite side, perched over empty space on a crumbling building, and for one moment she thought she was about to die.

But then she saw the longma next to her, staring at the falling building in stupefaction, and she seized the pony as the building fell away beneath her, to crush whoever lay around it. The longma immediately began trying to buck Carrot Top off, then knock her off by banging itself against other buildings, but Carrot Top hung on until she could jump down to another roof. And then the chase resumed again.

"Hey everypony!" called Radiomare. "Corona just entered the city from the north side! Flew right on over the walls. Hey, Tyrant! Do you like what we did with the place?" Something blew up, loud enough to rattle the speakers. "We redecorated just for you!"

"Oh, shut up," muttered Raindrops.

"This looks like a job for the Elements of Harmony, don't it?" continued Radiomare. "Too bad we executed the Element of Generosity last week!" She laughed. "Wow, that sure was boneheaded, wasn't it?"

"What?!" Carrot Top yelled into her communication crystal. "Nopony executed me!"

"Don't complain," said Lyra. "If they think you're dead, they won't chase you."

"They are chasing me!"

There was more fire in the city now, and Carrot Top heard the longma screaming that one of the Elements of Harmony was in her area. Above her, more of Corona's forces -- and now she saw griffins, the mercenaries the Shadowbolts had warned her about, as well as some ponies, flying with the longma-- broke off from other parts of the fighting to descend. The smoke was increasingly filling the air and making it hard to breathe; the weather factory was clearly nonfunctional; but Carrot Top wasn't dead yet and so she pressed on. And, after several minutes of running (and increasingly dire updates from Radiomare) she did seem to be making real progress. The skyscrapers were thinning out ahead of her as she neared the western portion of the downtown area. Ahead of her, to the right of one last big office building, she could see Castle Stalliongrad. It was the biggest structure in Stalliongrad's historical district, and it was being used for its original purpose for the first time in hundreds of years. Carrot Top saw lines of magic crisscrossing as they blasted out at the attackers. A kirin was leading the assault against it, but to no avail.

"Maybe we're already dead," said a new voice, as Carrot Top turned and bucked a pursuing griffon. Bonbon's voice, she thought. "Maybe we've been dead all this time."

"Bonnie--" Lyra began.

"Maybe the train crashed," whispered the confectioner. "I mean, Stalliongrad is where bad ponies go when they die. Isn't that what everypony says? Were we bad, Lyra?"

The graffiti certainly agreed with her. The building west to Carrot Top--the farmer was now running north along the western side of the downtown, trying to keep at least one building between her and the historical district, so the forces at the castle couldn't see her--had, written on its side, "STALLIONGRAD IS WHERE BAD PONIES GO WHEN THEY DIE."

"We weren't this bad!" yelled Raindrops, and then Castle Stalliongrad exploded.

The castle vanished in a purple blast that swept out, destroying everything in its path. Stone blocks the size of Carrot Top's living room blasted into the buildings around her, battering the western row of skyscrapers, almost knocking Carrot Top down to the street, and driving away the flyers pursuing her. When Carrot Top looked again, there was a gigantic crater standing where the castle had been... and one battered kirin who seemed to be screaming in rage.

"Woah," said Radiomare, actually sounding shocked for a moment. But then the moment passed. "Come on, guys. Did you have to destroy that building? It was only, like, two days from retirement!"

In the name of Luna, shut up, thought Carrot Top.

"I wish Trixie were here," said Lyra, suddenly. "She'd know what to do so we all get through this."

"She doesn't deserve this," gasped Carrot Top. It was a feeble joke, but the other two did laugh. "I wouldn't wish this place on my worst enemy."

"I would," said Raindrops. "Take Greengrass or Zizanie, for instance. I wish they were here."

"What? Why?" asked Lyra.

"Fisher would have executed them by now."

"...point," managed Lyra.

The next building's roof didn't have any of Corona's forces on it, but it was occupied by wild combat nonetheless. Carrot Top saw a dozen ponies in the yellow-gold of the sun cult struggling against a half-dozen soldiers--their blue uniforms visible, though tattered--with three of the anarchists, wearing red, fighting as well. None seemed to have noticed or cared about Castle Stalliongrad vaporizing. Carrot Top stopped before she reached the roof and chose to take a detour. None of those groups would have been happy to see her.

At least two of them would probably just drag me to Corona to be executed. Carrot Top wondered, not for the first time, if Corona was happy about the suffering and destruction in the city. She doubted it. But then again, Fisher and Hirsute probably weren't thrilled either, and it wasn't like they could stop it any more than she could.

She was running by more buildings, including the radio tower, a monstrosity that shouldn't even be able to stand up, yet somehow did. Radiomare and Junkers were inside, protected from capture by a bunch of staircases that literally went nowhere. Carrot Top didn't understand how the building worked, except that strange Chaos magic was likely involved. At this point, it wouldn't surprise her if the whole city ran on it.

This was a bad city, she thought. And I think everypony here knew it.

When her legs began to tremble so badly that she could no longer run, she had found herself in the heart of downtown. There was an open space before her, the central park of the city, which had City Hall at its own center. City Hall, like most of the buildings, was on fire and partially ruined, as mobs fought at its door--including Corona's forces, though to Carrot Top's eyes they looked like they were trying to break things up and stop the fighting rather than actually destroy the enemy forces. But Carrot Top didn't care about what was going on down on the ground. She craned her neck and found the floating weather factory hovering above the city. Its cloud was lopsided and sinking, and on its side, somepony had scrawled, 'NO HELP IS COMING.' "Um, Raindrops? You okay?"

"Working on it." Raindrops' voice was tight. " Gotta land this thing. If this factory crashes the entire downtown'll be uninhabitable."

"The entire downtown's on fire."

"Look, this thing's got all the crap it's filtered out of the city's factories since the siege began--it's almost bursting. You let that stuff get out, there won't be anypony left to rescue, cause they'll choke to death. Give me a..."

Her voice trailed off. When it came back, it was flat and harsh. "Carrot Top. You need to run."

"I can't." Carrot Top looked down at the burning city and felt like she'd collapsed. I tried, she thought to herself. I tried my best... I gave everything I had to help everypony. I tried! But--

"Doesn't matter." Raindrops was silent for another moment. "Carrot Top, behind you."

Carrot Top froze, then turned--and almost jumped out of her skin.

She was looking at The Volk.

The Volk was strong and burly, with a build akin to Big Macintosh's and the personality of Parlay, the mafia stallion who had tried to abduct Dinky over a year ago. The Volk carried a battle-ax, which he had since Carrot Top had known him, although it was now tinged red, which was knew. Carrot Top chose to believe that was rust. The Volk smiled with the good half of his face, then turned the burned side to the knight. "Heya, knight."

"Volk," Carrot Top whispered.

"The Volk. Only one of me." He tossed his battle-ax from side to side. A longma above swooped down towards them, but he casually smashed it aside with the flat of his blade without even looking behind him.

"Right." The knight hesitated. "I--what happened to your face wasn't my fault."

"I know." The Volk's voice was unusually calm.

"None of this is my fault."

"I know."

"I just want to keep everypony alive, and--"

"Carrot Top." The Volk smiled easily. "I told you, I know."

Carrot Top exhaled. Maybe, she thought, even a crazy pony like The Volk could put aside his... thuggishness... in circumstances like this.

But then The Volk swept up the ax. "I just don't care."

"But--"

The Volk laughed and charged. "LET'S JOUST, KNIGHT!"

Carrot Top forced herself to keep running, but The Volk was an elite fighter and she knew she couldn't delay him for long. She scrambled from rooftop to rooftop, chest heaving, heart pounding, hooves slapping the roof at odd angles because she couldn't focus enough to hit it right. Half the time she was skidding on ice; the weather team hadn't stuck it out any better than the rest of the city, and until the battles had lit half of it on fire, the city had been almost completely snowbound. She almost pitched off a roof to plummit fifteen stories, but caught herself at the last moment and jumped instead. And behind her, The Volk gave chase, running at an almost leasurely rate.

"Hey girls," called Lyra's voice. "Finished evacuating the southern quadrant of the city. That just leaves--"

"Busy!" gasped Carrot Top. "Later!"

The next voice she heard was Radiomare's. "Now, I'll bet all you little ponies thought you'd seen every disaster known to ponykind," she rambled. "But I gotta admit, this one's new to me. Junkers, how would you describe it?"

"It appears to be an ice storm," said the calm, serene voice of Junkers. "But what's unusual is that it's banking. Like it's chasing somepony."

"Ice storms that chase you. Who'd a thunk it, huh?"

"Certainly not me, but on the plus side, anypony wishing to avoid being incinerated by the Tyrant Sun should feel free to seek shelter within the storm, as--if they aren't crushed to death by flying chunks of ice--the freezing temperatures may stymie even the Tyrant's fire."

Carrot Top looked behind her. The Volk was gaining. Then she looked down at her winter coat, the one possession she had left in the city. It was designed to be perfect for Stalliongrad--impervious to the fires of even the hottest factories, yet warm enough to fend off the worst cold. It was the kind of coat everypony in Stalliongrad could use, now that they were down to the last few hours of fuel and the city was burning down on top of them. Unfortunately, there were only four such coats in existance.

But Carrot Top had one, and she thought it just might save her life. "Where's that ice storm, girls?"

"Three blocks east. It's moving fast," said Raindrops. "Why?"

"I'm going in," said Carrot Top, and ignoring Raindrops' protests (as well as those of her own sanity, which told her that ice storms didn't bank), she used the last of her strength to press on. Meanwhile, on the speakers, Junkers was providing a musical interlude:

Fly, mare, fly, mare, fly, mare, fly.
The flames will kill you mare, fly mare, fly.
The ice will kill you mare, fly, mare, fly.
Fly, mare, fly, mare, fly or die...

But Carrot Top ran, working harder than she ever had, even harder than she had during the increasingly dangerous and draining days of the siege. And, somehow, she reached the edge of the storm--a swirling mass of chunks of ice, devastating whatever remained in its path.

Carrot Top ran in. And The Volk followed.

Little could be heard within the storm. Little more could be seen. Carrot Top stumbled around, trying to avoid falling off the roof and hoping that The Volk was as lost as she was. She heard what sounded like Archduke Fisher's voice--he was still alive, though given what his last few orders had been, that was a definite negative for every pony still within the city limits--but she couldn't make out what. And then she was stumbling through the storm. Another building was across from her, she jumped...

And missed. One hoof barely managed to wrap around a drainage pipe, which immediately began to crack away from the wall. Carrot Top screamed.

The Volk jumped over the gap, then turned, and raised his ax high. "Knights out," he joked.

"No," hissed Carrot Top. "Lyra, Bonbon, Raindrops, Vinyl... somepony... please--"

The Volk hacked his ax at the drainage pipe. A chunk split off and the whole structure shuddered.

"By the way," said Junkers, suddenly. "We have been informed that the remaining Elements of Harmony, as well as such citizens as have not given up completely, are attempting to organize an evacuation. We would just like to inform you that, thanks to Corona cutting the rail lines, there is no place to evacuate to. Attempting to walk from Stalliongrad to any neighboring community will only result in you dying of exposure or starvation on the frozen steppe."

The Volk hacked at the pipe again.

"But look on the bright side!" yelled Radiomare. "Based on her performance thus far, Corona isn't strong enough to rescue her troops either. They'll starve and freeze right alongside us!"

Radiomare's laughter degenerated into hysterical shrieks, and then The Volk split off the pipe and sent Carrot Top falling to the ground.

And as she plummeted, falling past a frozen city that was burning down and knowing that there was nothing more she could give to save anypony, even herself, Carrot Top had time for one final thought.

I hate this city.

***

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

From Ponyville:

Bonbon, confectioner
Carrot Top, farmer, Element of Generosity, and knight of the realm
Lyra Heartstrings, musician, Element of Loyalty, and knight of the realm
Raindrops, weathermare, Element of Honesty, and knight of the realm
Vinyl Scratch, DJ

From Stalliongrad:

Bobbing Fisher, CEO of Fisher Industries and Archduke of Rushia
Sweet Heart, clinic manager
Hirsute Lord, Mayor of Stalliongrad
Svelte Lord, Representative of the Night Court of Luna to Stalliongrad
Majordomo, butler
Thundering Storm, garrison general
Stryker, Storm's subordinate
How Sun, airship operator (engine room)
Faqzak Taks, journalist
Tank, security chief
Volk, bodyguard
Widgeteer, airship engineer
Shining Zephyr, CEO of Zephyr Incorporated

From elsewhere:

Corona, deposed princess of Equestria
Diggity Doggy, treasure hunter
Fiddlesticks, musician
Gloriosis, kirin general
Agent Piledriver, Agent Suplex, and Agent Uppercut, Shadowbolt operatives
Dusty Tomes, historian

Historical:

Platinum, princess of the Unicorn Kingdom

Her advisor, Clover the Clever

***

Many days earlier...

Carrot Top knocked on the door of Bonbon's Confectionarium. "Good afternoon!" she called as she entered. "I'd like--um, am I interrupting?"

A few suitcases were spread out on the confectionary floor, and Lyra raced from shelf to shelf, apparently having a lot of trouble deciding what to pack. Bonbon was smiling bemusedly as she worked the register for a group of six foals that had all chipped in to by her Chocolate Bunny Deluxe. "Not at all," said Bonbon. "Afternoon, Carrot Top."

Lyra tilted her head up. "Hi!" She smiled. "How's it going, CT?"

"Going good. Packing for a trip?"

"Uh huh!" Lyra nodded. "Bonnie's cousin got a big promotion, and we're heading up to Stalliongrad to throw her a party!"

Bonbon grinned. "Yeah. Sweet Heart just got put in charge of her entire clinic. It's pretty awesome. She's been working there ever since it opened, and I guess they finally noticed how great she is at it." She nodded at Lyra. "So yes, we're heading up there... although, as I keep pointing out, they do sell candy in Stalliongrad. We don't need to bring half my shop."

"But it's not like yours!" protested Lyra. "Your cousin deserves only the best!" She paused. "And so do I, when I'm snacking on the train!"

"Stalliongrad?" Carrot Top went to one shelf and selected a big crunch bar. "But it's... winter. Won't it be cold? And, uh, boring?"

"Maybe a little," conceded Lyra. "But who cares? This is a big celebration! We can bundle up for a few days!"

Bonbon nodded. "I've been to Stalliongrad before. It's not all that much fun in winter, but it's certainly liveable. Plus, there's a lot of stuff to do indoors there. When we're not with my cousin, we'll check out the castle and the rest of the historical district. And the surrounding suburbs have their own cool stuff."

"Want to come with?" asked Lyra. "You're not doing much on the farm in the dead of winter, right? Could be fun to get away for a few days. Eat new foods, see new things..."

"And try new hypothermias?" joked Carrot Top. "No thanks."

Lyra rolled her eyes. "Aw, come on. It's not that cold. Plus, the trip's free as long as you do something knight-ly, helping somepony or the like. So there's no cost as long as you can find a little old mare who needs help crossing the street, or a foal who can't find her puppy or something. And weren't you just saying last week that you want to see more of the world?"

Carrot Top blushed. "I was drunk. And was... annoyed that Cheerilee had all these great stories, and the most interesting pre-Element thing that happened to me was the time I fell into a big carrot hole and somepony watered my tail." Still, she couldn't deny that it was tempting. Seeing new things was the most fun part of being a knight, at least for her...

"Actually," said Bonbon. "Remember how you had so much fun looking at those magical plants on the train ride to Noam? Stalliongrad's where they do the research. Maybe you could check out their main facility. Or the other agricultural operations. I heard they're trying something called 'hydroponics', growing stuff without soil. Could be cool."

Carrot Top blinked. "I'll believe that when I see it," she said. "But... honestly, I kind of want to see it." She was a farmer, after all, and she'd react to the prospect of radical farming innovations like Twilight Sparkle might react to a book she hadn't read yet. "Okay, I'm in."

"Great!" Lyra began tossing her stuff. "You'll need half a dozen mixes of hot chocolate, two pounds of gummi worms, three crunch bars..."

Carrot Top laughed as she caught the candy. "I will?"

"Trust me." Lyra winked. "When it comes to figuring out exactly how much of Bonbon's candy you'll need per vacation, I'm an expert."

***

And so the three ponies were at the train station bright and early the next morning, waiting for the train that would take them east towards Canterlot, then north to the vast land of Rushia. To their surprise, though, they were soon joined by a fourth.

"Hi," grumbled Raindrops as she flew over to them and dropped a very full bag. "Where are you three headed to?"

"Stalliongrad," said Lyra. "Why?"

Carrot Top expected a joke about traveling to Stalliongrad in the winter, but Raindrops just looked confused. "You too?"

"Wait, you're also going?" said Bonbon. "Why?"

"Rainbow Dash." Raindrops sighed. "Okay, so the weather patrol has this annual meeting thing where captains from every province in Equestria get together and talk about clouds and stuff. This year, it's being held in Stalliongrad."

"...what?" asked Carrot Top. "Why? Nopony's going to want to go to that."

"Officially, Stalliongrad has one of the biggest weather teams of any city. They have their own factory, which doesn't just produce clouds, but also filters out the smoke and stuff from the factories. So their team says they want to show off their factory and give some insight into large weather operations. Real reason, according to Rainbow Dash? If nopony shows up, then the conference budget doesn't get spent, so the Stalliongrad weather team get to spend all the money on hay pizza and cider." Raindrops rolled her eyes. "And she's probably right."

"But you aren't a captain," protested Lyra.

"Sure, but as it turns out, the captain can send a replacement if there's a 'compelling financial reason.' And lucky me, I get my train ticket and hotel paid for since I'm a knight helping Equestria. So Rainbow Dash gets to snooze, and I'm off to the coldest city in the country." Raindrops sighed. "I swear, if the smallest thing goes wrong up there, I'm going to deck her again."

"Don't," said Lyra. "Remember that mess with Neighsure Crane?"

"Unfortunately."

The train came soon, and the four ponies got their gear on. Carrot Top sat down on a bed and took out a book, a murder mystery Trixie had lent her, and smiled. This is going to be so much fun! I can't believe I'm doing this!

"WAIT!"

Just before the train left, a fifty pony--levitating more electronics than Carrot Top would have guessed possible--staggered onto the train. Vinyl dropped her gear and gave a loud sigh of relief. "Okay. Now we can go!"

Carrot Top laughed. "What's up, Vinyl?"

"Got a gig! In a big city this time too." Vinyl grinned. "Journalist named, uh, something I can't pronounce. Faxie Taxes, I think. Hosting a party for his crew and wants me to DJ. Pay's good too, and the exposure--I mean, a Stalliongrad concert's all kinds of awesome. Might even hang around a few days, see what else I can get."

"Wow, so you're going to Stalliongrad too?" said Carrot Top. "This'll be quite the trip."

"Five friends heading to the great white north!" cheered Lyra.

The quintet laughed as the train pulled out of the station.
***

My little pony, My little pony
Ahh ahh ahh ahhh...
My little pony –
Friendship never meant that much to me
My little pony –
But you're all here and now I can see
Stormy weather; Lots to share
A musical bond; With love and care
Teaching laughter; It’s an easy feat,
And magic makes it all complete!
You have my little ponies –
How’d I ever make so many true friends?

Author's Note

I don't think the REMM is going to be much help this time.

Nice of Corona to try using her forces to break up all the mob fighting, but I don't think it's going to be enough.

Behold, my first story so complex I need a character list to keep them all straight!

As I've noted before, this story is in part a homage to Spec Ops the line, which means we need the in media res beginning with everything falling apart and the protagonist plummeting to seemingly-certain doom. Radiomare is the other major Spec Ops influence. She's a lot of fun to write, even if she sounds completely and utterly nuts. There are some other shoutouts to multiple pieces of media--and historical incidents--but I'll be discussing those more when they become relevant.

Also, re: Spec Ops, it's worth noting that the first scene--when you play it again, ten levels later, having reached that part of the timeline--has very different overtones than the first time. So just keep that in mind.

A few notes on pronunciation:

Svelte is pronounced Svel-TAY (which isn't how the word itself is pronounced in English, but I need it that way for specific reasons. Plus, I like it better).
How Sun's last name is pronounced Soon (this is based on romanization of a Chinese word).
Faqzak Taks' name is pronounced 'Facts That Tax,' him being a journalist and all.

A City on a Hill

Carrot Top reared back on her hind legs as the gigantic carrot carried her through the clouds. "I'm flying!" she yelled. "Wheee!"

A passing pegasus turned and looked at her. "Huh?"

"Oh, hi Ditzy!" Carrot Top grinned. "How do you like my Giant Flying Carrot?"

"Carrots fly?"

"They do when you crossbreed them with Essence of Growthspurt and Wings-On-A-Vine!" Carrot Top pulled on the leafy stalk and did a casual loop-de-loop. "It's like an airship you can eat! Plus, I grew some for the foals so they can fly too!"

As if on cue, Dinky flew past on her own carrot. "Hi Miss Top! Thanks for giving me your carrot!"

"Giving?" Carrot Top looked down and realized that she indeed wasn't flying on a carrot anymore--Dinky had somehow gotten hers. In fact, she was falling instead. Very quickly.

"Eeek!" she squeaked as the ground rushed up--

Carrot Top's eyes snapped open and she jerked her head up, still bracing for the rough landing even as she realized that she wasn't falling off a giant carrot but was instead resting in a nice, comfortable train car with the rising sun shining brightly through the windows. The farmer took a few breaths. Okay, new rule--when Lyra dares you to eat the ultra-daredevil traincar chili, just say no. Even if you've had a couple mugs of cider. She paused. Especially if you've had a couple mugs of cider.

"Yo! Morning!" Carrot Top turned to see Vinyl, who was reclining on her own bunk and writing some notes on score paper. "How'd your dreams go?"

"Dinky stole my giant flying carrot," said Carrot Top.

"Yeah, been there," said Vinyl. Carrot Top elected not to question that.

The train car door opened and Lyra, Bonbon, and Raindrops came in with big trays of food. Lyra passed a plate of syrupy, sugary hay pancakes over to Carrot Top. "Morning!" she said. "Conductor says we should be seeing Stalliongrad really soon from the left windows, once the track turns."

"And we get into town within an hour." Raindrops looked out the window. "Which on one hoof, is good, because I have got to stretch these wings. On the other, I'm pretty sure they'll freeze off in this weather."

Carrot Top giggled. "You survived Noam," she said. "I'm sure you'll get through this."

"I'm totally bringing a snowball back just to throw in Rainbow Dash's face." Raindrops smiled. "That'll show her."

Bonbon sat on a bunk with another big pile of hay pancakes and began to cut them up. "Hey Lyra, how do these compare to mine?"

Lyra took a bite and chewed, eyes rolled back as if deep in thought. "Hmm... well, they're not that much better..."

Bonbon laughed and hit her with a pillow.

Several minutes later, the five were happily chatting and eating their pancakes when Carrot Top felt herself pushed back into her bunk slightly and realized that they were turning. Remembering what Lyra had said, she put down her food and trotted over to the window. "Let's see what this... woah." And her mouth dropped slightly.

It was a city on a hill. The walls of the city stretched out in a massive circle, encompassing the entire top of the hill in an area that had to be at least as large as Fillydelphia--probably larger. Though the walls were old (Carrot Top had read that the Stalliongrad fortifications and castle were among the oldest buildings in Equestria), they looked as strong and indomitable as if they had been built yesterday. And behind the walls, Carrot Top could see the tallest buildings of the city. In the center were the skyscrapers, the office buildings that almost seemed to pierce the sky. Along the east were the factory smokestacks, which even at this early hour were pumping great plumes of smoke into the sky for the city's weather team to catch and funnel into the weather factory (Raindrops had gone into detail about their operations the night before, mostly in the context of grumbling about the tours she'd have to endure). And on the west side was Castle Stalliongrad, the last defense and final refuge of those in the city, which stood guard over its inhabitants day and night.

The effect of the hill was enhanced by the surrounding environment, the featureless and barren steppes that extended for miles upon miles in every direction. Carrot Top had felt, looking through the train window a little bit earlier, like they were stranded in some featureless void--no matter where she had looked, all she had seen were snowdrifts and the occasional stubborn bit of tall grass poking through. The endless emptiness just made the hill look all the taller, though, and Stalliongrad the more notable. It was the only outpost in a sea of nothingness.

"We sure are far away from everything," mused Raindrops. "I wonder why they built a huge metropolis in the middle of nowhere?"

"There's a castle, so it was probably a military outpost at some point," said Vinyl. She was the only one who wasn't looking out the window by this point, continuing to work on her music. "Probably just grew from there."

The other four turned to her.

"What? I didn't knock out all my brains with wubs, you know."

Lyra laughed. "There's a few different stories, but since it's Sweet Heart's day, I'll let her tell you the official one before I go into the bardic lore. It does mean you'll need to wait a few more hours to hear the zombie version, but trust me, it's worth the wait."

"Zombies?" Raindrops wrinkled her nose. "I had to talk with Snails the other day. Apparently he'd been pestering Twilight to teach him a spell to zombify dead bugs. And then Trixie showed him how to make illusions of zombie bugs. That was a weird evening."

Carrot Top laughed. She was with her friends, heading to see a fascinating new land. Life was good.

***

Everything about the city was huge.

Carrot Top hadn't been able to get a good view of the city gates since of course the train had to go into those head-on, which made it hard to see from out the side windows. But she had seen them, briefly, as they went through, and all she could do was gawk. The gates were easily three times as tall as the train. They were the biggest doors she'd ever seen.

Her mouth remained open as they passed through the interior of the wall, then through the inner gate and into the city proper. Now on elevated rail, they passed buildings without number, smaller houses (still taller than Ponyville structures) growing into larger apartment buildings and condominiums as they neared the city center. A branch ahead of them diverted freight trains to head to the industrial sector of the city, but their train just kept going, only stopping once it reached its terminus in the center of the city. And even that--once Carrot Top stepped out onto the platform, her head trying to look in all directions at once--was so big she couldn't take it all in. Her mind felt like it would pop.

"BONNIE!" The knight turned to see an earth pony, bundled up in a thick yellow coat, run over and give Bonbon a big hug. Bonbon grinned and hugged her back, and the newcomer continued. "I'm so glad you could come all this way! I have so much to tell you!"

"Sweetie!" Bonbon, herself wrapped up in a cream-colored down coat, turned to the others. "Everypony, this is my cousin, Sweet Heart. I understand she's the new manager of Clinic #9, right?"

"I am!" Sweet Heart hopped up and down on her hooves, and Carrot Top couldn't help but grin. "I can't wait to tell you all about it! Who're your friends?"

"Well, this is my very special somepony, Lyra Heartstrings." Lyra bounced over to Sweet Heart and tapped hooves with her. "This is Raindrops, and that's Carrot Top; you probably read about them in the papers. And--"

"And the one you haven't heard of is DJ PON-3," said Vinyl. Unlike everypony else in the train station, she wore only a light jacket and earmuffs, allowing her neon-blue mane to hang freely around her neck. "Nice to meet'cha."

"Charmed!" Sweet Heart smiled. "And it's a huge honor to meet the Elements." She bowed her head slightly, causing all three knights to blush. "Now... shall we? My place isn't huge, but I think I can fit you all in for a nice cup of tea."

She undersold it, Carrot Top thought a few minutes later. Sweet Heart had threaded them through the streets of downtown Stalliongrad, pointing out the occasional famous building, until they reached what would probably be considered the border between the downtown and the northern part of the city. She then led them into an apartment building and up several flights of stairs until they reached a spacious set of rooms near the top of the building. Carrot Top looked out one of the windows, watching the ponies down below go about their business. It was spectacular.

"So, what exactly do the clinics do?" asked Lyra as Sweet Heart, now revealed to be a yellow-coated, blue-maned pony, served the tea. "I don't think Ponyville has them."

"We have the hospital," said Raindrops. "And a vet."

"But the clinics in Stalliongrad aren't just for medical care, right?"

"Right. They're more general." Sweet Heart sat on a cushion and sipped her own mug of tea. "They were our Representative's idea, Svelte Lord. She was concerned that new ponies in the city, especially the poor ones, weren't getting the support they needed to acclimate. It's a big place, and a lot of the new ponies are from really little rural towns in the countryside. They were getting lost in the shuffle. Plus, even longtime residents sometimes need a helping hoof, y'know?"

Carrot Top smiled. "That sounds nice."

"It is. Ponies can go there to get help with almost anything. If they're need directions, we have maps. If they need some particular product--I had a father in yesterday whose foal was really sick and would only eat this one kind of orange--we can tell them where to go. If they need some service; clogged plumbing or a broken window or something, we have contacts and can direct them to professionals, and if they're poor, we can subsidize it." She grinned. "When I was just one of the workers there, I sometimes got to help thirty, forty, even fifty ponies a day. It was a really awesome feeling. And now I'm running a whole clinic. I'm going to run it so well we'll be able to help thousands of ponies a day! We'll be a shining light that lifts the spirits of all Stalliongrad!"

Lyra laughed. "That's the spirit!"

"Isn't it?" Sweet Heart drained the last of her tea. "What's really great is that the clinics are finally picking up steam. The political gridlock in Stalliongrad's usually terrible, but Svelte wouldn't back down until they let her set up one clinic, just to shut her up. And it was such a success, they had to expand it. Now there's a dozen of them, and Svelte wants to make two more next year. If this keeps on, nopony in Stalliongrad will be left to suffer, not while there's anything anypony else can do about it!"

"Gridlock?" asked Carrot Top. "This is Archduke Fisher's province, right? He's... kind of a jerk--"

"As in, he tried to destroy our town for political gain," muttered Raindrops.

"--but Trixie said he cares a lot about efficiency. I'm surprised he'd let the city's government do that," said Carrot Top.

Sweet Heart snorted. "He's half the problem. Here." She went to a desk and rummaged around for a bit, then came back with a map of the city. "Okay, really brief history lesson--according to legend, Stalliongrad was originally the southernmost fort in the Unicorn Kingdom. Also according to legend, Stalliongrad held off a bunch of different armies, including some really famous ones--Neighpoleon's in there, and also Alexander the Galloping, and Julioates Caesar, and a few others I can't remember right now. It's the City That Can't be Conquered, or at least that's what our brochures say. And there's a lot of ponies in the city--including our Lord Mayor of thirty-two years, Hirsute Lord--who think that heritage is the most important part of the city." She tapped the western sector on the map. "Most of the wester part of the city is devoted to the historical structures, including the old castle. Hirsute's governmental initiatives are almost all focused on restoring more of the old buildings, and also reimplementing some of the older cultural rules and mores."

"Whereas Fisher's an industrialist, and only cares about the latest and greatest," said Carrot Top.

"Exactly. He cares about the eastern sector, which is the factories, as well as the military garrison on the south side of town." She sighed. "So every time they meet, it's the same thing. Hirsute wants to shift resources away from the factories and towards the historical sector, which Fisher blocks. Fisher wants to knock down some old shacks that Clover the Clever once took a nap in so he can build more factories, which Hirsute blocks. Repeat forever, and if you want to, say, change the regulations on carriages, or pass a salt tax, it'll take months to even get heard. And if you tell them they're sacrificing aspects of the town so they can keep bickering, Hirsute just tunes it out, and Fisher gets all pompous and says that our sacrifice will be remembered, but there's a greater good, and yadda yadda." She rolled her eyes. "It was absurd.

Sweet Heart was silent for a moment. "Look, it's not like the city is terrible. Between tourism, the huge industrial base, and trade--we're the northernmost big city in Equestria, so we get a ton of merchants from the elkin and hippogriff kingdoms, even some griffins--we're a wealthy city. There isn't widespread poverty or anything, and Fisher and Hirsute are at least competent enough to make sure the trains run and the buildings are up to code. But ponies still slipped through the cracks, and there was so much bureaucratic inertia that I didn't think anything would ever get done for them. It was really depressing. But... when I learned about what Svelte was doing, I knew that it wasn't impossible. Things could be improved. And they were. And Stalliongrad is better now. Stalliongrad is--"

Carrot Top saw a paper and walked over to look at it. "Stalliongrad is where bad ponies go when they die?" She frowned at the headline to an article written by a 'Faqzak Taks.' "Huh?"

Sweet Heart rolled her eyes. "That's just some muckraker. This infamous pirate named Coarsair died recently, and apparently they sent his body here for burial rather than Stalliontown, his actual birthplace, in Hyasanguia. Bureaucratic screwup, nothing more. Seriously--Stalliongrad's fine now. It's a good place to live."

"You should tell us more about it," said Bonbon. "What kind of food do you eat?"

"What's the weather like?" asked Raindrops.

"How's the music?" asked Vinyl, balancing her sunglasses on her muzzle.

And so the conversation continued.

***

Two blissful hours passed before ponies had to leave. Raindrops had her conference; Vinyl had to start getting ready for her show; Lyra, Bonbon, and Sweet Heart had more catching up to do. Carrot Top told them she would go for a walk.

"Are you sure?" asked Sweet Heart. "I can show you around--"

"No, you three should catch up. I'll be fine." She smiled back at them. "Have fun!"

And so she walked downstairs, in her coat (with a bright carrot pattern), hat, boots, and scarf, to walk through the streets of Stalliongrad and see what she could of the city.

As she left the building, she failed to notice no fewer than three pairs of eyes watching her from various concealed positions. She just continued on, humming merrily.

***

Some distance away, the alicorn known as Corona smashed away one final sea monster. "The treasure! Zecora, now!"

Her zebra minion, a prophetess named Zecora, scampered down onto the tiny rocky isle and ran to the pedestal in the center. A large jewelry box sat there, which she immediately seized before racing back to Corona. The alicorn grinned. At last! I am invincible with this!

"Princess!" Corona turned to see General Gloriosis, the kirin warlord whom had recently entered her service, along with his entire force--ten thousand ponies, mostly longma. "We have defeated the last of the beasts."

"Good." Corona smiled. "I have what I came for. The time to use it approaches. Follow me, General, and you will get the glory you desire."

"Of course. PONIES! LET'S MOVE!"

Corona laughed as she flew over the seas, using her magic to help the longma follow her at speeds faster than ponies could normally travel. She had her army now, and she had one of the most powerful magical devices in all Equestria. She could not lose.

And she knew just where to go first.

Stalliongrad...

Author's Note

The father who needs oranges for his son is a reference to Lone Wolf & Cub, a spectacular manga series.

Yeah, arc words are going to be big in this. Hence the Stalliongrad=bad pony death thing. A few others will start cropping up soon.

Castle Stalliongrad

One of the first things that Carrot Top noticed was the remarkable efficiency of the city.

Ponies moved fast. Nopony was galloping, but even trots and canters were brisker in the big city than in Ponyville. Carrot Top couldn't help looking all around her as she watched ponies going everywhere, from the suited ponies walking into the big office buildings (the doorponies opening the doors so quickly that the suits didn't even have to break their strides) to the uniform-clad ponies going to work at the restaurants, clinics, and other service-oriented businesses of Stalliongrad. Even the newspaper vendor on the corner was moving so crisply that she sold an entire stack of newspapers before Carrot Top had traversed a single city block. It was remarkable.

Still, I bet I'd put 'em to shame at harvest season, thought Carrot Top with a mental giggle.

The city also seemed remarkably clean. Teams of pegasi swooped through the air and scrubbed the windows of the skyscraper buildings, and what seemed like an army of street sweepers passed the farmer as they gave the street an extra coat of shine. One carriage dropped a little can of paint as it hurried past Carrot Top, and it wasn't three minutes before a cleaner appeared and scrubbed up the mess. Stalliongrad gleamed.

The farmer had intended to just wander around for a while, but she quickly found that she was spending a lot more time than she had anticipated while still within the first few blocks of the downtown area. Most of the skyscrapers had shops and restaurants in their bottom floors, and to the rural farmer, the selection was astounding. Carrot Top found herself pausing at a place offering 'authentic Tapiran cuisine', as well as the shop next door that sold artwork from the hippogriff kingdoms and was called 'King Buckbeak's Choice.' Then there was the three-story building that proclaimed itself to be an emporium for magical charms, where Carrot Top spent fifteen minutes browsing through glasses that gave one the eyesight of a hawk, horseshoes that let one walk on water, a set of false teeth that let one speak a half-dozen different languages, and even an amulet that could give one vast magical power (though it had a label reading, "Caution: may contain evil.") The farmer had to force herself to stop staring at the proffered goods and move on, telling herself that there was a lot more than stores to see, but it was tough. And the next store just arrested her attention all over again.

And so--despite originally planning to visit the Stalliongrad Market, which Sweet Heart had said was with City Hall in the very center of the downtown area--Carrot Top wound up drifting somewhat west, where the most interesting shops seemed to lead. It wasn't until she tore her gaze away from 'Farmer's Fantastic Field Supplies', a smaller store which had gleaming hoes, rakes, and wagons in its windows, that she realized that the skyscrapers were thinning out. There were only a few smaller ones in front of her, an office building on one side and a suite of apartments on the other. And when Carrot Top passed them, she was in a different world.

There were stone huts before Carrot Top, really old ones, as well as some larger buildings that looked like traditional meeting halls. A mill stood a block behind them, though it looked out of date even for Ponyville. There were shops and storefronts that looked like those of any small town, except with archaic spelling (one storefront even had 'thee' in the title, although--if Trixie's comments on historical Equestrian were correct--it should have been 'thou.') They spread out for blocks, a little village parked next to the gleaming metropolis as if the two had simply grown together. And in the back--almost at the distant city wall--was a massive stone structure with a drawbridge, ramparts, towers, and a huge central keep. It had to be Castle Stalliongrad.

"Hail and well met!" said a unicorn dressed in a historical period costume to Carrot Top as she approached. "Art thou a tourist, prithee?"

I don't think 'prithee' goes there, thought Carrot Top, though she just said, "Yes."

"Then might I recommend one of the historical district's finest attractions? Castle Stalliongrad hosts tours every hour on the hour! You'll get to see the ancient keep and even the throne where Princess Platinum made her most momentous decisions! Just gather in the courtyard to the front and left of the castle, and a guide will lead you inside."

Carrot Top checked the sun. It was almost noon, the traditional hour when ponies went inside and hid from the sun. "I guess the next tour's at one, then. I'll--"

"Nonsense!" The guide laughed. "Stalliongrad was built as an outpost of the Unicorn Kingdom, its southernmost fort, and following their tradition--not to mention good sense--this part of town runs just as it did back when Princess Platinum held court in that very castle! And they never cowered from the sun back then!" The guard gestured at the other ponies in that part of town, many of whom were in period dress, and none of whom seemed worried about noon. "Fear not, traveler. Not even the Tyrant Sun could breach these walls."

Carrot Top wasn't sure she believed that, but at least it meant she wouldn't need to wait another hour for the castle tour. "That's good to know. Um, anything else I should know about the tour?"

The guide grinned. "As it happens, I do have a few more things..."

***

It took Carrot Top about five minutes to find a rubbish bin to dump the mountain of flyers and brochures the guide had pushed on her. The farmer had tried to beg off after the first ten pamphlets, but ultimately she had wound up taking the lot. I've got to learn to say 'no' better. Maybe Fluttershy and I could work on it together...

But she did ultimately make her way to the courtyard, and--though she kept throwing increasingly nervous glances at the climbing sun--noon came without the Tyrant Celestia swooping out of the sky and incinerating them all. There was just another guide who greeted them, a very hairy unicorn with a moss-green coat that almost swallowed up his face and his fancy robes, and he led them into the castle to start the tour. And at first it was very interesting. The guide discussed the walls and drawbridge, how thick they were and how they had managed to fend off an army of beasts led by the Dark Lord Lavan. She showed off the courtyard and even allowed the tourists to try out the historically-accurate archery range (Carrot Top couldn't shoot anything, though the pony next to her, a peach-coated earth pony with a flowing blue mane and an orange neckerchief got a bullseye within three tries). Then she brought them into the castle and showed the various rooms, culminating in the throne room--a massive open space with gem-studded murals on every surface, gleaming precious metals inlaid into every piece of furniture, and a throne so bright and beautiful it was hard to look at directly. Everything seemed amazing to Carrot Top.

However, when the story-telling began, and things got weird.

"...and so," the guide said, "The windigos had pushed all three historic kingdoms to the breaking point! It seemed for a time like nopony could stop them, and that their hate would turn the entire land into a nightmarish landscape of eternal ice. Things truly seemed bleak."

Carrot Top--who had actually met a real windigo, to her displeasure--had to agree with that assessment. Full-blooded windigos did make everything seem bleak.

"But then there was a breakthrough. Princess Platinum and her aide, the great Clover the Clever, realized that windigo were specifically weak to friendship!" The guide galloped towards the throne and then sat on it, as if presiding over a Court. "It was on this very throne when Platinum summoned Chancellor Puddinghead and Commander Hurricane and then cast the Spell of Friendship, which immediately forged such a strong bond between those three leaders that the windigo were forced to retreat! And Equestrians lived happily in unity from then on.."

Carrot Top blinked. That... isn't how I remember the story going...

The guide, it seemed, noticed her confusion. "Is something wrong?" he asked, pointing at Carrot Top.

"I heard a different version of the story," said Carrot Top. "I thought it was the aides who became friends--Clover, and Smart Cookie, and Pansy. And they didn't do it in the Unicorn Kingdom, they--"

The guide waved a hoof. "Different versions of the story are told all over Equestria. In some parts of Neigh Orleans, I believe, there's a bit of a voodoo component--the aides also befriended an undead monster of some sort, which demonstrated a more complete form of friendship. In Latigo, they say everything took place in Ponizawa, even though records show that city did not exist back then." He shrugged. "This is our version of the story--but I should point out, it's also the version backed up by historical records. Stalliongrad's library is one of the oldest in Equestria, and it includes several diaries and spellbooks by Clover the Clever. The story is recounted therein."

"But how do you know those stories are true?" asked the peach-coated pony next to Carrot Top.

"Because so many of those stories have already been so clearly validated." The guide's voice sounded vaguely condescending to Carrot Top. "For instance--there is a legend that when Stalliongrad was first built--its walls almost complete, its castle within days of opening its drawbridge--a massive earthquake struck the region. Every other city or village in the region was devastated, and even Stalliongrad--though its citizens survived thanks to our leader's efforts--was damaged, with its castle and many of its important buildings sinking into the ground. Later, ponies wanted to move. Rebuilding would be impossible, they said. But the great rulers of Stalliongrad could not be stopped by a mere earthquake! Princess Platinum led the rebuilding efforts, and within five years, not only was the entire city rebuilt, but the ground was reinforced such that no earthquake could happen here ever again. This was thought to be myth for centuries--but not three weeks ago, some foundation engineers broke through a crumbling wall in the city's catacombs and subterranean crypts and found themselves in what certainly was the ruined courtyard of an ancient castle that had sunken into the ground." The guide laughed. "Those books are quite true."

Carrot Top had never heard any of this before. "Did you read those books yourself?" she could not help but ask. "Are they available to the public?"

The guide shook his head. "No, they're too fragile for the public to use them without special permission from Canterlot. But as for me..." His hair shifted as if he was smiling somewhere underneath it. "I am Hirsute Lord, mayor of Stalliongrad. I have access to all the city's archives, and I like to participate in these tours now and then. My family has lived here ever since Platinum's time... in fact, although we never technically substantiated it, I am said to actually be a direct descendant of hers." He waved off the crowd's applause. "As a pony who has benefitted from the rich historical culture in this city, I feel it is an important part of my duty to share that culture with those who visit it."

Carrot Top opened her mouth, then shut it again. She wasn't sure what to say to that.

"Moving on!" Hirsute threw one side of his robe over the rest of himself. "As you can tell from my robes, I am in period dress as the city's regent--the closest thing they had to mayors back then. Now, the regent had a few special duties. They set taxes within the city--as I do now--handled trade with southern kingdoms, and, as this began as a military fort, were personally responsible for justice for the worst offenders." He gestured to a narrow column of stairs. "Alexander the Galloping, who tried to burn Stalliongrad, was hung from the tower at the top of those stairs, as were other enemy leaders and traitors whom deserved the death penalty. I can't take you up there, but in the next room we have paintings of Alexander and an account from the soldiers there of how that battle was won..."

***

It was half past two by the time Carrot Top left the castle.

"Hey!" The farmer turned to see the peach pony racing after her. "What'd you think of the tour?"

"It was a neat castle," said Carrot Top, completely honestly. "I'm not sure about all the stories, though."

"With something that far in the past, I would doubt the Lord Mayor's insistence that his books are perfectly accurate. Still, as a knight, perhaps you could examine them for yourself?"

Carrot Top blinked; she had not introduced herself at any point during the tour. "How did you know that?"

"I've seen you a few times in passing. I performed at the Trottingham Farm Competition--I'm a fiddler--and I was at Vicereine Puissance's little party in Husao. I was also at the Grand Galloping Gala, as Marquess Copper Truncheon's plus one. I wanted to talk to you then, but I think you left before I got the chance."

Carrot Top didn't want to think about why she had left--having to mix up an antidote to two wine glasses full of truth serum had not been a fun journey. Nor had the chaos that followed her reappearance at the Gala. "Well, let's remedy that! What's your name?"

"Fiddlesticks. A pleasure." The mare bowed.

The farmer blushed. "And... why did you want to talk to me?"

"Because you are a hero." Fiddlesticks smiled. "As an artist, I am always looking for that which is extraordinary, superlative, above and beyond--only that, I find, makes a sound foundation for the greatest music. To be near you as you square off against one of Equestria's many enemies, and to see the look on your face as you prepare to battle against evil... that would be incredible."

Carrot Top knew that the look on her face when she battled evil was usually along the lines of 'stark raving terror,' but she wasn't going to say that. "Well, I'm hopeful there won't be any evil while I'm in town, but I'd be happy to talk to you. I'm here for a few days; maybe we could meet for lunch sometime?"

"That would be wonderful." Fiddlesticks stretched languidly. "But really, with this being the last city in Equestria I could expect to find you at this time, even this conversation is enough--"

"Wait, what?" Carrot Top stopped. "Why is this the last city in Equestria I should be in?"

"Oh... didn't you know? I was waiting to speak with Lord Hirsute about a public performance when I heard him talking about Archduke Fisher. Fisher was very upset that the Elements of Harmony do not always stay near each other, since then they cannot use their Elements. He would be very unhappy to see you here, in his city, unless all your friends were with you."

Carrot Top groaned to herself. Great. Now a noble might get mad at me just for taking a vacation. "But he's not here. Trixie said the Court is 'snowed in' until next month. The nobles, including Fisher, can't leave Canterlot except for emergencies--"

"Actually, he did. He came in to town last night. I don't know why... perhaps it has to do with that new castle Hirsute mentioned finding." Fiddlesticks shrugged. "But I know that I saw him leaving the train station last night."

For a moment, Carrot Top felt a sharp twinge of despair. This was supposed to be a fun vacation! Now I have to spend it dodging some other noble jerk! But she knew she should put on a strong front so as not to bother her new friend, who clearly saw her not as a simple carrot farmer, but as a hero, like so many other ponies who barely knew her. "Well, I won't worry about it. It's a big city, and even if he sees me, he can't just order me to go home. I'll be fine."

Fiddlesticks nodded, and Carrot Top was relieved to note that she was still smiling. "I am glad," she said. "In any event--I would also like to see the catacombs today. Why don't we meet at City Hall tomorrow for lunch?"

"Of course," said Carrot Top, her mind many miles away. I need to find the others and tell them that Fisher's in town...

Fiddlesticks went back into the historical district and Carrot Top returned to the canyons of downtown Stalliongrad. Opting to take the least confusing path back, she opted to go directly west until she reached the correct street, then turn north. That would put her at the apartment without much trouble, at which point she could talk to Lyra, Bonbon, and Sweet Heart, then work on finding Raindrops. That, she figured, was the best plan she had.

The skyscrapers stopped in the center of Stalliongrad and revealed a nine-block park--or rather, one block with the massive City Hall, and the eight surrounding blocks covered in grass and tents. This was the City Market, and Carrot Top saw griffins, hippogriffs, elk, zebras, and even a family of tapirs selling various goods. She wanted to stop, but knew she had to talk to her friends first. She raced through the stalls, turned when she came to City Hall, and almost crashed into a pony leaving through the side entrance. "Oh! Sorry!" she said, ducking her head and blushing.

"Watch where--" began the other pony. Then, "Wait a moment. I know you."

Carrot Top looked at the pony in front of her and her heart sank.

Figures... she thought as she stared at Archduke Bobbing Fisher.

Author's Note

Looks like there's some ponies who expect Carrot Top to be a mighty hero. Soon we'll see how that plays out when an actual dangerous scenario develops. Hope she can handle it!

I debated putting in a ponyfied version of 'heigh ho' into this chapter, particularly since I know an awesome dark reprise that was made later, but it didn't fit. Ah well, maybe later.

The Archduke and the Farmer

Though having only seen him for five seconds, Carrot Top quickly determined that Archduke Bobbing Fisher--a tan-coated unicorn whose brown mane had rusty-red stripes running through it--was an imposing figure. Part of it was his height, the farmer thought, and part of it was that his body looked fit enough to buck through brick walls. And, of course, part of it was that he had a glare that put Fluttershy's share to shame.

She knew that because he was fixing it on her.

"Dame Carrot Top?" Fisher's horn glowed a metallic blue and the monocle on his right eye shifted a little. Unlike Carrot Top, who was bundled up in a thick coat and fluffy hat to deal with the cold weather, he was only wearing a light windbreaker. Still, the chill didn't seem to bother him at all; it certainly didn't distract from the glare his left eye was shooting at her. "What are you doing here? Why was I not notified?"

Carrot Top gulped as she tried to work out what to say next. "Um. Well, there, uh, was a very good reason..."

"Majordomo!" called Fisher. An older unicorn with very long legs and a faded orange coat stepped out of City Hall directly behind the Archduke. "Get over to my estate and prepare it to support the knights. Thanks to Mayor Hirsute's negligence, we don't have much time... so begin immediately."

"Yes, sir," said Majordomo before hurrying off.

Carrot Top raised a hoof. "Er, Archduke, sir, it wasn't Hirsute's fault. He didn't know either. We just came up without telling anypony--"

"Irrelevant. If there is a crisis severe enough to warrant summoning the Elements of Harmony into Equestria's most important industrial city, then I--the Minister of War--must be notified, regardless of whether Trixie Lulamoon forgets once more to file the travel plans with the appropriate authorities." Fisher scowled at what Carrot Top assumed was a vision of Trixie. "Where are you staying, knight? City Hall has bedrooms for visitors on government business. I will send word to your lodgings that you six can be moved immediately. It is appropriate that you be housed there, as near as possible to the communication lines and officials of the city, so that we may all work together to defeat whatever trial has brought you here."

"Well, the thing is..." Carrot Top paused. "Um, there isn't a crisis. We came up here for personal reasons." She forced a smile. "But if something bad does happen in Rushia, now we're even closer and ready to deal with it, right? I mean, we can't assume that the Elements will only be needed around Ponyville. So some of us--"

"Some of you?!" Fisher's eyes blazed. "Do you mean to say Lulamoon allowed your group to separate during this national emergency? That the Tyrant Sun no longer need fear the six united Elements--"

Carrot Top felt herself backing up a few steps; the Archduke's anger was almost palpable. "No! I mean--uh--first of all, it wasn't Trixie. She doesn't handle our travel, ever since she took a wrong turn going to the bookstore and wound up in the Mild West. And second..." She struggled to remember what Trixie had told her about Fisher before the Gala. He was very concerned with perception; she had said, and had struggled mightily to assert more control over the free press in his province and Canterlot. "If we spend all our time clumped together, we'll frighten the populace, won't we? They'll think the Tyrant Sun could attack at any time. But if we show we aren't afraid to live our lives, that helps reassure ponies that there's nothing to fear."

"There is something to fear." Fisher glanced up at the sun, as if it was mocking him. "Though our research labs continuously attempt to devise weapons that can hurt the Tyrant, we have had little success. Your Elements are absolutely essential to national security. Dividing them..." He trailed off. "I will have words with Lulamoon."

"Well," said Carrot Top, deciding that trying to convince the Archduke that Trixie wasn't involved would just be a waste of time, "I mean, it's not actually a law that we have to stay in the same town, is it?"

"No. I tried, but Princess Luna told me she would not allow me to present it to the Court... something about violating freedom of movement."

Carrot Top really didn't know how to respond to that.

"But... if the Princess believes that there is some value in you six being allowed to separate, I will assume that she is acting wisely, and not object further. Besides, as you say, it is valuable socially to see that the knights who have fought the Tyrant personally are so unafraid of her that they do not even need to remain on their guard at all times." Fisher nodded. "How many of you are here?"

"Er, there's three of us. Myself, Dame Lyra, and Dame Raindrops."

"I see." Fisher paused for a moment. "Tonight, then, I will prepare a suitable reception for you three, in recognition of the great good you have performed for Equestria, and the sacrifices you have made."

"Thank--"

"Oh, and one more thing."

Carrot Top gulped as she saw the focused glint come back into his eyes. She knew that the pony in front of her was an industrial tycoon whose employment rolls exceeded Ponyville's population by at least one order of magnitude, and that, as an Archduke in the Night Court--not to mention the Minister of War, at a time when Equestria was in something of an undeclared War with the Tyrant Sun--he was quite possibly the second most powerful pony in Equestria, after only Luna Herself. She knew--from what Trixie had told her--that Fisher thought nothing of destroying business rivals and political opponents, and that, if he wanted to obliterate a pony for having the temerity to enter his city against his wishes, he likely could. And she knew, from what she had just seen, that he had a very strong temper. "Yes, sir?" she managed.

"I have an hour before my next meeting. As long as you are here, I'll give you a tour of the factory district."

It wasn't what the farmer had been expecting. "Me? But, uh--bwuh--"

"Of course. I'm thoroughly aware of all that you sacrificed and struggled in order to set up the Farmer's Union--an agency which benefitted your entire town, and has proven to be a viable and profitable business entity besides. Our nation needs businessponies who are as industrious and generous as you. I thus consider it part of my duties, as an industrialist and a leader of this nation, to support such ponies whenever I can."

"I..." Carrot Top blinked. She hadn't imagined that such a major industrialist would know about a farming collective in one tiny town. "I--"

"This way," said Fisher, walking off. And Carrot Top found herself following him.

***

The factories were smaller than the skyscrapers, but wider as well. Carrot Top saw block after block containing just one massive building, usually with a single large name at the front and a few smokestacks on top. All of them seemed very busy, and many of them had Fisher's name on them. They read like a list of Equestria's biggest industries: "FISHER AGRICULTURE", "FISHER RAILWAYS", "FISHER CONSTRUCTION", and so forth. There were other names too, the most common of which was 'Zephyr'--another industrialist, Fisher explained--and even a couple Carrot Top recognized. "POSEY WEATHER", for instance, was the label of the floating weather factory, which purified the smoke and soot that the city's weather ponies fanned into its massive portals.

"As you can see," said the Archduke, "this entire district is oriented around maximal efficiency and production. We consider it a moral duty to produce the goods that Equestria needs to survive and prosper, and the ponies of Stalliongrad work tirelessly to fulfill that duty." Fisher smiled, and Carrot Top could feel the pride radiating from him. "From the education of our foals to the exact path the weather factory takes through the sky, literally everything that we do is geared towards giving our all and doing our best for the greater good of Equestria."

"Education?"

Fisher nodded. "Yes. For instance, the average age at which a foal earns his or her cutie mark in Stalliongrad is just over seven months younger than the national average. A full year younger than other industrial cities like Detrot and Bitsberg, where foalish adults often insist that their foals spend their time preparing for the same jobs as their parents, even if it isn't their destined talent! But in Stalliongrad, we've found a more efficient way to do things. All foals take, in addition to their regular classes, a cutie mark discovery class. Psychologists analyze them and carefully determine what their special talents are likely to be, and then they are given projects based on those estimates. This permits them to discover their talents far quicker than even, say, the elite foals at Manehattan's Sharpwhinny Academy."

"But what if the foals don't want to rush getting their talents?" said Carrot Top. "Some of the foals in Ponyville like being blank flanks because that means they have the potential to be anything."

"That is what education is for," said Fisher. "We make sure that foals know the importance of developing their cutie marks as early as possible--after all, cutie marks are some of the most potent and powerful magic known to ponykind. Even Luna cannot change them. And, once they have unlocked their powers and know what their destiny is, they are able to begin vocational training as early as high school, which in turns results in their being more experienced and better trained when they enter the workforce. Its results are undeniable... and if you wish to implement this program in Ponyville, I would gladly loan you some of the psychologists and project developers."

Carrot Top thought for a moment about what would happen if somepony proposed this plan to Cheerilee. Shifting aside the resultant image of Cheerilee throttling Fisher, she said, "I can see how that would result in better factory workers."

"Not only that, but it permits truly long-range planning." Fisher led Carrot Top up to a big factory labeled 'FISHER AEROSPACE.' "When I first decided to pursue research in blimps and zeppelins, for instance, I determined about how many of each type of worker I needed, and then checked the lists of foals to determine how many research scientists, engineers, technicians, pilots, and so forth I might be able to obtain. There weren't enough pilots, for instance, so I paid for a few performances of the Wonderbolts to excite the foals, which convinced several of them that they were destined for flight--and their cutie marks bore that out. When I saw that we lacked research scientists, I offered scholarships to bright foals from other cities and led them down the right path to nurture their talents. We had, that year, far too many foals with 'crafting' or 'technician' cutie marks, so I knew that I could afford to have very high standards for those jobs because there would be many ponies who wanted them. The results are clear--Fisher Aerospace has already produced ten airships, to be launched next month, which are faster and more luxurious than anything currently in the air."

Carrot Top was still processing all that Fisher had told her. "And your own cutie mark," she said, gesturing at the hammer that was shooting out two stars on Fisher's flank. "It relates to... building the city? Knocking it into shape? Producing 'star'-quality goods?"

Fisher laughed. "Actually, no. I was originally a research scientist; that cutie mark relates to magical crafting and enchanting objects. But, as a noble, I was obligated to sacrifice that career in exchange for the more important task of running my factories, my province, and the nation." He shrugged. "I'm sure you're familiar with that sort of sacrifice, Carrot Top. Unless your cutie mark refers to business as well as farming?"

"Er." Carrot Top could too easily understand the frustration of having to deal with business nonsense instead of what she was good at and loved doing--growing delicious carrots. "Yes, I suppose."

"Good." Fisher gestured a hoof at a building next to them labeled 'FISHER AEROSPACE' and rapped on the door. "Why don't we--"

The door blasted open and a pony jumped out, almost colliding with the Archduke. Faster than Carrot Top could watch, a pony broke away from a small group behind them and raced to intercept. The latter pony tackled the first, and the two collapsed in a heap.

Carrot Top stared.

Then Fisher sighed as he looked at the two of them. "Volk, let him up," he grumbled. "Taks, what do you want?"

Volk--a mangy pony with a build akin to the Manehattan mafia thugs who had tried to abduct Dinky once--reluctantly got to his hooves and stepped back a few feet. "Sure, boss?" he asked. "He tried to jump you."

"He's not dangerous. Just an idiot." Fisher turned to Carrot Top. "Dame Carrot Top, this is Volk, my bodyguard."

"Charmed, mate," said Volk, with a smile that didn't really reach his eyes.

"Um. Hi," managed Carrot Top.

The other pony got to his hooves. He was wearing a tall hat, though--like Fisher--he wasn't otherwise dressed for the cold. His coat was a lime green and his mane was a frazzled black; his cutie mark was a line that curved into a spiral. "Faqzak Taks, Stalliongrad Times," he announced. "Got a few questions for you, Archduke!"

"Schedule an interview with my secretary," snapped Fisher. "I have work to do."

"Yeah--in Canterlot. What brings you back here when the Court's in session?" Taks grinned. "Does Luna know?"

Fisher turned slightly red. "For your information," he snapped, "The Minister of War is permitted to leave the Court freely to deal with national security concerns. As I'm sure you're well aware, being the gossipmonger that you are, our... esteemed lord mayor claims to have found an ancient castle buried beneath the city, which may contain powerful magical artifacts and weapons from the Unicorn Kingdom. I am here to ensure that the excavation process proceeds competently and that any useful weapons are identified and distributed to our military. Professor Dusty Tomes, from the Canterlot Archives, will be arriving in town this evening, and you may confirm this with him at your leisure."

"Oh, so that's why you came all this way." Taks grinned, waving a waggly leg at the Archduke. "'Cept the castle was discovered three weeks ago. Why wait so long?"

"It took that long to determine this was not another of Lord Hirsute's fever dreams. I'm sure you remember when he was convinced he had unearthed Princess Platinum's tomb, only to discover that it was that of another pony who had been buried in a platinum coffin due to vanity."

"Right..." Taks let it trail off. "Oh, Dame Carrot Top, right? Pleased ta meet'cha! Faqzak Taks, investigative reporter. Love the mane."

"Uh, thanks--"

"Right, so, anyway! Archduke, are you sure you aren't here to cover up the Coarsair scandal?"

Fisher put a hoof to his forehead. "That was caused by an idiot--I mean, by a bureaucrat in Canterlot who mistakenly shipped the body here instead of Stalliontown. There is no scandal."

"Okay, how about the Tribe X scandal then?" A few passing ponies, who had stopped to watch, gasped. "I mean, first that whole thing at the Gala--"

"First of all," said Fisher, now glaring so hard Carrot Top was surprised Taks didn't burst into flames, "Any comments I made at the Gala were obviously as the result of a poison which forced me to say things I did not mean. It's not as if we were given some kind of truth serum. Second, the 'Tribe X' scandal was caused by the antiquated census categories, which Lord Hirsute refuses to update. Complain to him if you find it offensive."

Taks smirked. "That's your best defense? Come on, Bobbing, the readers are gonna want a little more than that!"

"Tribe X?" asked Carrot Top.

Fisher turned to Carrot Top. "The census rules for this city have not been updated in centuries, and Hirsute Lord has blocked all my efforts to do so. As a result... in this city, a 'unicorn' is classified as a 'pony who has a horn that is capable of casting magical spells.' An 'earth pony' is defined as 'a pony who was born with neither horn nor wings.'" He paused. "My wife, unfortunately, though born with a horn, lost it a few years ago and does not have it now. As such, a very stupid census worker classified her as 'Tribe X' rather than a unicorn--"

"So it's not your position that your wife is less of a unicorn without her horn? Even though you're on the record as having said that magic is the most important--"

"It's Hirsute's fault, not mine!" yelled Fisher. "If he would get his part of the city out of the past, perhaps these things would not happen!"

"Well, isn't it true that your own estates are only accessible to unicorns? Doors that can only be opened with telekinesis, things like that?"

"That is to help train the youngest members of my family in using their magic; by rendering them incapable of moving through the house without it, they learn to use it when young--and additionally gain experience using magic while sick, tired, or otherwise incapacitated, which would not be the case were they only to use it when in the best of spirits. Why not complain about how every building in the historical district is only unicorn accessible, because that is how the Unicorn Kingdom built it? At least there is a reason for it in my estates beyond stupefying nostalgia, and I recommend the same for every unicorn family--just as I would recommend that any pegasi family live in a house that requires flight to get from room to room!"

Carrot Top decided not to mention mixed families, like Raindrops'.

Fisher turned on his hoof and, beckoning for Carrot Top and Volk to follow, began to walk off, but Taks chased after them. "Alright," he yelled, "What about Fisher Botany? Are you here to cover that up?"

"There is nothing to cover up!"

A crowd was now beginning to form around Taks, and it wasn't entirely friendly Carrot Top realized that, as the biggest employer in the district, Fisher probably had a lot of friends. "Um--"

"Why can't anypony get into it?"

"Because it is quarantined, you foal! That is standard procedure whenever dealing with a new type of plant that may or may not be safe!"

"Is it true your staff died?"

"No! Nopony died!"

"Is it true that Shadowbolts are investigating you?"

Before Fisher could answer, a big pony with a gear cutie mark rose up on his hooves. "You watch your tone around the Archduke!" he yelled. "He's done more for this city than all your muckraking--"

"Thank you, Gear," said Fisher. He seemed to calm upon seeing the support of his workers and staff. To Taks, "Nopony died. Nopony is investigating me. Now get away from my factories before I arrest you for trespassing."

Taks laughed. "Go ahead and try, Fisher! I am the news, and you can't stop me!" He darted through the crowd and down an alley before leaving.

"Um," began Carrot Top. "If this is a bad--"

"No. It's just him. He moved here about three years ago, and every week it's some stupid drummed-up scandal. He's about the only thing my wife, Hirsute, and I agree on--we'd be better off without him. But our Princess has decided we nobles are not to influence the press, and so..." He trailed off. "Wait. Gear, get over here."

The pony approached.

"It's not your break. Why are you outside?"

"Foremare wanted me to take a message to you."

"What is it, then?"

"Widgeteer's out on the northern steppes with the prototype airship and half the staff. Reported on the communications crystals that something weird's approaching. Looks kinda like a really big, slow snowcloud. Moving kinda odd too."

Fisher paused. "Natural? Or a windigo?"

"Widgeteer discovered the last windigo, and he's pretty sure it isn't that. It's just a massive, heavy snowcloud--probably some weather factory acting up again." Gear paused. "Um, we already contacted the garrison to help get the researchers out of its path, and Commander Storm's heading out in five with a company. Standard procedure--"

"Yes, I know. Good job. Contact the clinics and see if they're willing to put together some ponies to help too; I don't want any of our equipment to get frozen." Fisher frowned. "It's unusually cold for this time of year. If they get enveloped in a snowcloud on top of that, they could be seriously injured, even freeze... tell Storm to move on the double, Gear."

"Yes, sir."

Carrot Top blinked. "Um... if ponies are in danger, I can help too."

Fisher looked at her for a long moment. "I can't stop you," he said at last, "but I recommend against this. For all we know, this could be the work of the Tyrant Sun."

"But it could just be a bunch of ponies who might get frozen if they don't get help getting off the steppe," said Carrot Top.

"...in that case, knight, go with the garrison. They can protect you in the worst case. I'll get to my research lab and see if anything about that snowcloud seems suspicious; Gear, guide Carrot Top to the garrison." Fisher nodded briskly. "Until later, Dame." And then he was galloping off.

***

As it happened, just as Carrot Top was leaving the city--surrounded by hundreds of ponies in gleaming armor--Corona's advance scouts had moved within sight of the research teams.

"There," said one tall longma to General Gloriosis. "There's maybe fifty ponies two miles south of us. Looks like they've got a ship too."

Gloriosis was a kirin and looked every inch the warrior. Dressed in gleaming golden armor and carrying a diamond-studded sword on his back, he grinned. "Excellent. By the time Corona finishes her preparations, we may have already gained enough hostages to make the rest of this mission trivially simple--as easy as turning over one's claw."

The longma was silent for a moment. "Did Corona... authorize this?"

"She authorized me to use my judgement, Bladebeak. That's what it means to be in the vanguard."

"But, her preparations need to be--"

"Bladebeak." Gloriosis's voice grew low. "I'm sure you know of my reputation against enemies. Don't make yourself one of them."

"Yes, sir."

Gloriosis turned behind him. His entire unit was there, as were griffins and the other mercenaries and soldiers Corona had obtained for her army--a truly massive force, easily ten thousand strong. The city, he was certain, would crumble before the mighty Warlord Gloriosis, and his backer, the Sun Above. Certain victory, he mused, was sweet indeed. "Alright! We keep flying under the cover of this massive cloud until we're right on top of them, then swoop in and capture every pony there! I'll lead a team to take over that... floating thing. Remember, the Sun has promised us vast riches if we help her take this city!"

The soldiers cheered, and continued on.

Author's Note

So, the Lord Mayor is living in nostalgia, Fisher's kinda fascist, and the city design is maybe a little bit tribalist, what with all those unicorn-only buildings. Oh, and Corona's coming. This is going to be a fun vacation for our favorite farmer!

Plus, on the bright side, it seems like Fisher is impressed by Carrot Top. Hopefully he's not so impressed that his wife gets mad, though, although given his tribalism and her missing horn, I'd guess they don't get along too well anyway.

Taks is kind of a jerk. But at least he's a jerk pointed at other jerks. That works out, right?

Next time, the Sun's vanguard attacks! Also, we'll meet the last of the important folks-Zephyr, Widgeteer, Storm, Hao Sun, and of course, Svelte. But mostly, the Sun's vanguard attacks, and the actual siege begins!

The Tyrant's Vanguard

Carrot Top could see why the ponies of Stalliongrad were concerned about the approaching snowcloud. It was easily the largest one she'd ever seen, a solid sheet of thick, white fluff drifting slowly towards the city. It was also drifting, Carrot Top noticed, at a suspiciously even clip.

"Hmm." The farmer turned to see Commander Storm, who was standing on the crest of the hill with binoculars. Storm was a large pony with a bright blue coat and a darker blue mane; at the moment, he was wearing heavy silver-colored armor that obscured all but a few tufts of his mane and coat. He also, Carrot Top had noticed, had a thicker Neigh Orleans accent than Trixie. "Widgeteer was right. That ain't normal."

Three hundred ponies of the Stalliongrad Garrison--plus one Knight of the Realm--were standing just outside of Stalliongrad's northern gate. Behind them was the massive city wall and then the city itself; ahead of them, a steep descent down the slopes of the hill, and then the open steppe. And on that steppe were ponies, easily hundreds of them, clustered in small groups. None seemed to take notice of the approaching storm cloud.

"What should we do, sir?" asked one of the lieutenants, a short and stocky stallion named Stryker. "If we're going to get all those ponies up this hill, we need to get moving."

Storm gave a short nod. "Agreed. Ah want twenty pegasi to go investigate that cloud." He gestured at a captain, who saluted, then took to the air with nineteen other soldiers. "Everypony else, break into squads, get ahead of the research teams, tell 'em they might need to leave an' so they should get ready, then establish a perimeter--on the double. If that cloud's dangerous, we've gotta protect the scientists as they get back inside the city walls. Knight, you're with me."

Carrot Top blinked. "Uh?"

Storm laughed. "Got a special job for ya. Alright, everypony--move out!" And the soldiers began to charge down the hill.

Carrot Top found herself running too, struggling to keep up with the charging Commander Storm. She suppressed shivers as she descended the hill, noting ruefully how even though she was wearing a thick down coat, hat, and scarf, the cold still cut through them all like a knife. How can those researchers work in this weather? It's even colder out here than it is inside the city! "Who are they?" gasped Carrot Top after a few minutes. "Why are they out here in the cold?""

"Stalliongrad scientists!" said Storm. He didn't even sound winded, despite the rapid gallop. "When lab conditions won't cut it an' ya've gotta test in the real world, that's when they come out to the steppes an' play with their toys. Every day when the research shift starts, whole bunch of ponies leave the city with all these gizmos an' they don't come back till late at night." He smiled. "That ain't gonna stop fer a little chill."

Little chill? Carrot Top shivered again. Try big freeze!

The two ponies soon reached the bottom of the hill and began to run across the steppe, heading for one of the most distant research teams. Carrot Top saw one group of ponies working on what looked like large a huge drill that was powered by magic and was cutting into the frozen ground, and another setting up some kind of antenna. She didn't recognize most of the projects, though. "What do you need me for?" she asked Storm. "I don't understand this stuff and--"

"Talkin' ta these folks. See, if that cloud's dangerous, we gotta get 'em back inside, right? Can't just leave 'em out ta freeze. But Ah know these ponies, an' they won't want ta go--specially if they'd have ta leave behind all their projects. Now, Fisher tells ma you're a real persuasive mare. Convinced a buncha little farms ta unite into somethin' capable of takin' on a juggernaut, right?

That wasn't really how Carrot Top remembered it, but she didn't want to get into that at the moment. "Why wouldn't they just go inside if it's dangerous?"

Storm somehow managed a laugh despite their rapid gallop. "These ponies are among the most dedicated scientists in Equestria! Believe ma, Fisher an' the other industrialists can afford the best an' the most passionate, an' they don't skimp on either, not in Stalliongrad." He leapt over a larger snowdrift. "Remember when Corona returned? Most of the cities shut down, ponies ran away and hid everywhere else, but not here! Factories and research labs kept going just the same. Our scientists wouldn't let something like Corona keep them from their work--so they definitely won't want ta abandon it fer a little snow!" He was silent for a few moments as they passed another set of research teams; they were moving out towards the fringes of the groups now. "There's a couple groups in particular Ah know'll be hard ta talk sense inta, so Ah was hopin' ya might be able to help."

"Uh, sure." Carrot Top forced a smile. "Happy to help."

"Much obliged," said Storm as they passed what looked like a small portable greenhouse that had a bunch of blue banana-shaped fruits in it. "Fisher'll be grateful too. He'd hate it if somepony got hurt, or worse."

"I guess that would hurt his productivity," said Carrot Top.

Even though he was galloping at full speed, Storm somehow managed to turn his head and give Carrot Top a small glare. "Hey now," he said. "Ya think all he cares about is the bottom line?"

"Uh--"

"Let ma tell ya somethin'. This armor we soldiers wear, it's from Fisher Armor. It's the absolute best armor in Equestria; protects 'gainst fire, water, ice, acid, energy, an' of course physical damage. All our swords and spears are Fisher Armaments; also the best. He has entire factories devoted ta keepin' us safe so we can keep y'all safe, an' he don't make a jangle off any of it--all his sales ta the Equestrian Army are at cost." Storm was silent for a moment. "Ah'm one of his oldest friends an' Ah know him better than almost any other pony, so Ah can tell ya, he don't have a selfish bone in his body. He'd gladly sacrifice a few profits if it kept Equestrian ponies--like his workers--alive."

Carrot Top wanted to argue, or at least point out what Fisher had helped do to Ponyville. She could remember those days of agony, when the town's food stores had been destroyed and its rainclouds dispersed, when the pegasi had struggled through triple shifts to try to drive enough dew and humidity from the atmosphere for a few paltry clouds to save their farms and their crops. But she didn't know how to tell any of that to somepony whose life, and the lives of his comrades, had probably been saved at some point by Fisher's cheap, high-quality weaponry.

So she just stopped talking and focused on the rest of the run.

***

Storm stopped at one of the furthest research groups, where two dozens ponies had surrounded a gigantic rigid balloon attached to a box about the length of half a city block--in other words, Carrot Top thought, a zeppelin. The airship was floating about six feet off the ground as ponies walked beneath it and did things with fancy devices she didn't understand.

"Commander!" A plump pony wrapped in a huge fluffy coat trotted up to Storm, who seemed more interested in looking around with his binoculars and making sure his forces were positioned between the research teams and the approaching storm cloud--which wasn't more than twenty minutes away at this point. "Is there a problem?"

"Maybe," said Storm. "Ah'm gonna need ya ta get ya'r team ready ta leave, Zephyr."

Zephyr paused. "Is it that bad?"

"We don't know, but better safe. Get everypony ready ta leave in five. Trust ma, nopony'll be gladder than ma if it's a false alarm, but we can't take that chance right now."

Zephyr paused for a moment. "My own employees, sure--I can get them ready to leave. But a dozen of Fisher's employees are here too, and I don't have the authority to order them around."

"Who does?"

"Widgeteer; FA's Vice-President of Operations. But he's up in the airship, he wanted to be in the engine room for today's test--"

"Ah'm sure ya can find a way ta get somepony up there ta tell them ta pack up." Storm looked at the horizon, then used the binoculars to follow his troops. "Ah've gotta check on the perimeter. Carrot Top, could ya go talk ta Widgeteer an' make sure he gets why we gotta go? Zephyr, Ah trust ya can get her onboard?"

"Uh--well, yes, but--"

"Good." Storm turned. "Make it happen." And he was racing off towards the perimeter.

Zephyr sighed, then waved to one of the other ponies, who quickly began levitating a long ladder down from the airship. While it descended, he turned to Carrot Top. "So! Did I hear your name correctly? Are you that Carrot Top?"

"Uh, I'm the one that's a knight and--"

"Splendid! So glad to meet you!" Zephyr gave her hoof a mighty shake, then began trotting to the other workers. "I'm Shining Zephyr, CEO of Zephyr Industries--thought I'd supervise my crew out here today. First collaboration with Fisher, had to make sure they were presenting me well." He laughed. But anyway, Zephyr Industries makes everything from swords to plowshares--and anything else that ponies want."

"Anything?"

"Sure. At Zephyr Industries, we know what your hearts desire--and we aim to provide a quality, affordable product for whatever that may be!" Zephyr smiled conversationally, pausing only briefly to snap at one of the workers that they needed to start packing up in case they had to evacuate. Turning back to Carrot Top, Zephyr said, "You run a Farmer's Union, right? Need any agricultural equipment? I assure you, our products surpass even Fisher Industries!"

Carrot Top blinked. She did not run the Union, and she wasn't even in charge of ordering its supplies. "Well, actually--"

"You see, we have this new plow that uses magic to triple productivity!" Zephyr gave a smile that seemed to bespeak a very long product pitch. "It's made out of solid--"

Fortunately for Carrot Top, the ladder had finished descending, and she quickly got on it. "I need to go talk to Widgeteer! Bye Zephyr!" And she raced upwards before Zephyr could respond.

The airship corridors, Carrot Top quickly discovered, were ornate. The paneling was exquisite, there were threads of silver and platinum worked into the walls, and while the rooms Carrot Top passed were unfurnished, she could almost see the fancy tables, beds, and cabinets that she knew would soon be there. It was almost disconcerting to reach the engine room and not see any signs of luxury--just a big industrial environment with pipes, dials, gears, and eight or so ponies operating them. "Um, Widgeteer?" Carrot Top called. "Is one of you Widgeteer?"

The worker nearest to her gestured at a scrawny unicorn who was staring at a few dials in one corner. "There he is, mate."

"Thanks." Carrot Top approached that pony. "Um, I'm--"

Widgeteer jerked, as if startled, then looked at Carrot Top. The farmer blinked--Widgeteer had such a big smile on her face that it looked like might split it two. "Would you look at this?" he asked.

"What?"

"This!" Widgeteer's horn glowed and illuminated a few of the dials. "It's perfect! This is a cold, windy steppe, one of the worst environments to fly in outside of an actual storm, and everything is going perfectly! The new stability spells are keeping our tilt to less than .1% on all three axes! The fuel compression spells let us hold enough gas to cross all of Equestria--without refueling, and fighting wind like this--in just one of our tanks! And this--" He laughed. "These are the speed results we got earlier. This airship is so aerodynamic, so sleek, and has so much magical enhancement, that according to these results, this airship could outfly a Wonderbolt! This is, bar none, the best airship in Equestria!" He hugged the nearest panel. "This is the MOST AWESOME THING EVER!"

Carrot Top blinked. This pony sounded too excitable to be a Vice President of Operations. "This is your airship?"

"Yep. Crafted almost every spell on it--plus the design of the ship itself, from the ground up." The pony turned; he was a youthful, spritely unicorn with a messy cerulean mane, a brown coat, and a pair of steel wings for his cutie mark. "Widgeteer, Head Honcho at Fisher Aerospace. What's up?"

"Commander Storm sent me. You reported a storm cloud--"

Widgeteer's face fell. "Please don't tell me it's dangerous."

"He doesn't know yet. But just in case, he wants everypony to get ready to go back inside Stalliongrad--"

"But... but the science isn't done!" The Vice President looked genuinely anguished. "We just implemented a new coolant formula and we've got to know how well it works! And we have a new spell we want to try to improve its turning radius, and a heat spell so it can survive even colder temperatures, and--"

Carrot Top held up a hoof. "I know," she said. It was strange to her that she was, for the moment, essentially a diplomat, but she told herself that she just had to do her best. And it wasn't hard to sympathize with Widgeteer; she just had to think about how much danger she would withstand in order to improve her farm. As the events at a certain farming tournament had shown her, the answer was 'quite a lot.' She could easily understand why another pony would try to withstand a blizzard in order to perfect a project she had poured her heart and soul into. "But there's a lot of ponies on this ship, and we can't have any of them getting hurt, right?"

Widgeteer bit his lip. "Well... I mean, I don't need most of them for the rest of the tests. These guys can leave and I can run the ship."

"But what if you got hurt?" Carrot Top smiled sympathetically. "Don't you have family or friends that would be upset?"

"Well..." Widgeteer hesitated.

Carrot Top took a step closer to Widgeteer. "How's this: I'm in town for a few days. After this danger passes, I'll help you get this airship--"

"Platinum's Pride"

"The Pride ready for another test. And then not only will the airship show everypony what it can do, but you'll be safe and sound to see it triumph. Okay?"

Widgeteer gave her a long look. "Who are you, again?"

"Dame Carrot Top." It was one of the first times the knight had introduced herself with her formal title, and it was hard to bring the word to her lips, but she managed.

"Wow." Widgeteer smiled slightly and extended a hoof to shake. "I guess you know something about going into danger when you have friends and loved ones, then."

Carrot Top nodded, pleased--and a little surprised--that her experiences as an Element were actually relevant. All too often, it felt like she was being hurled into ridiculously dangerous environments that had nothing whatsoever to do with her actual skills of carrot farming. It was nice that there was a little overlap. "I know you shouldn't do it unless you absolutely have to. And... I don't think we have to, right here."

It took another few seconds, but Widgeteer sighed. "You're right. I'll go tell the bridge crew to get us turned around. We'll pick up Team Zephyr and get back to the city."

Carrot Top grinned.

***

"So your special talent's carrot farming? I would have guessed something to do with being a hero." Widgeteer laughed. "I could never do that."

Carrot Top laughed. "I think what you do is pretty neat too. So your special talent is...?"

"Mechanized and magical flight." Widgeteer poked the airship's wall with one hoof. "I've always loved the idea. Enabling ponies to travel really long distances, in luxury and comfort, without having to walk over mountains or fly through rainstorms... building vehicles that could take even the poorest ponies to exotic, awesome locations in affordable style... and, of course, designing all kinds of spells and machines that can beat gravity and air resistance and all that ugly stuff. I've designed gliders and paper airplanes and all kinds of things like that since I was a foal." He laughed. "Wanna know how Fisher found me? One of my gliders accidentally broke through his front window! I was terrified when he came out, but he just told me it was the best he'd ever seen from a foal--I put a few spells on it too, which really impressed him--and he hired me on the spot!"

They had reached the bridge, a sleek room with a few spots for ponies to work, many instruments, and a big wheel for the captain. The front wall was glass, and Carrot Top could see the approaching cloud through it. "That's the storm," said Carrot Top. "We should go before it hits--"

Before either of them could say anything else, a crystal set into one of the panels glowed. "Come in to all ponies!" roared Storm. He sounded tense. "Everypony, listen up! Pegasi just got back from the cloud!"

Widgeteer sprang to the crystal. "Widgeteer," she began. "What--"

"That ain't no cloud!" yelled Storm. "That's an illusion, an' behind it is a whole lot of griffins, longma, kirins, pegasi, an' basically every flyin' critter ya've ever seen. An' they are not friendly. All researchers and scientists, the military will be escortin' ya back ta the city on the double. Let's--"

The cloud flashed, then vanished, and Carrot Top saw thousands upon thousands of flying soldiers.

"Go! Go! Go!" screamed Storm, and then the enemy army charged straight at them.

***

Widgeteer stared.

"Um, sir? Orders?" asked the pilot. "I don't know what--"

"I'm thinking!" snapped Widgeteer. His eyes had grown as big as saucers. "I just--I--"

Carrot Top looked at the army and gulped, but wasn't frozen. Fighting legendary monsters such as Grogar, Tirek, and of course the Tyrant Sun had a way of making things like regular armies seem less intimidating. "Does anypony need to be picked up?" she asked. "Widgeteer, asked Storm if anypony should be evacuated in the zeppelin. We can probably move faster than the ponies on the ground up the hill, right?"

Widgeteer nodded, a jerky, spastic motion, then tapped the crystal. "Storm, need anypony picked up?"

"Yeah. Their far west flank's gettin' ahead of the rest of them. MIght be a tactic or just lousy commandin', but either way, they're gonna hit the weather research team 'fore Ah can get enough ponies ta drive 'em off. If ya can get there an' pick 'em up, it'd help a lot."

Carrot Top nodded, and Widgeteer managed, "On it." She tapped the crystal twice. "Engine room, heading of west by southwest. Fuel mixture... uh..." She looked at the farmer, who gave her a reassuring smile and mimed taking a deep breath. Widgeteer did, and then managed to finish his order: "Seventy percent fuel tank 1, thirty percent fuel tank 2, mix thoroughly. No coolant; won't need it for a quick burst, and somepony tap the speed runes on the back panel. Steering control..."

When the orders were given and the ship began to move, Widgeteer turned to Carrot Top. "Thanks," he said, blushing. "I totally froze--"

"Hey, don't worry. I almost passed out from fright the first time I went up against Corona."

Widgeteer smiled at that. "Thanks anyway."

"No problem."

The ship swung around, but even as it did, Carrot Top could see the griffins and longma diving down at the perimeter Storm had established. Storm's ponies shot blasts of energy at them which knocked a few out of the sky, but the rest dodged and continued to descend. They quickly split into groups of six, four armed ponies and two carrying a single net between them in each one. And as they dove, the armed ponies tried to knock back the Equestrian weapons, while the net ponies...

"They're trying to capture us!" called one of the bridge crew as two griffins flew up with a struggling sodlier tangled in a net.

Then a blast of energy knocked one of the griffins into a loop. The net tore and the soldier fell, caught by two of her comrades. The pony who had shot the energy blast--Carrot Top saw that it was Stryker--gave a quick wave to the others, then turned back to her post. Then the zeppelin had finished turning and the battle was lost to view.

"What can I do?" asked Carrot Top as Widgeteer began to fidget.

"Get to the entrance port and help ponies climb in. I don't want anypony dangling from a rope as we fly away."

Carrot Top saluted, making Widgeteer smile, and then hurried off.

Her confidence faded a bit, though, once they reached the weather research team and opened the port. The sounds of battle immediately reached Carrot Top's ears, and--as she threw down ladders and ropes to the two dozen ponies who were climbing over each other in an effort to get up and into the zeppelin--she could even see some of the fight. A dozen Equestrian soldiers retreated into the research camp, clearly overwhelmed by three times their number of enemy griffins, longma, unicorns (in pegasus-pulled chariots), and even two hippogriffs. Carrot Top knew that the rest of the Stalliongrad forces would reinforce them, but of course, that wouldn't mean anything if it wasn't soon.

"Help us!" called one of the researchers. "Please!"

"Momma!" Carrot Top realized that there was a foal with them, dressed in an oversized coat and looking like she'd picked the wrong day to follow her parents to work. "Momma, I'm scared!"

The ponies began to climb up, Carrot Top and a few other crew members helping to pull up the ladders as they did so that they would get on the ship more quickly, then throwing them back down again. Carrot Top tried to focus on them, but she kept looking at the soldiers. They weren't shooting energy blasts from horns any more but were fending off the enemy with sword and spear. As the farmer watched, griffins swooped down and grabbed at two soldiers; they didn't pick them up but did snag their weapons away with nets and ropes.

"Momma!" called the foal, who was still with her mother down below. "Don't let the sun eat me!"

"I won't!" promised the mother as she began to climb up.

The airship shuddered as something hit it. Carrot Top wondered how many hits the airship could take before it crashed, or exploded. She gulped and hoped she wouldn't find out. And it was looking like they could leave soon anyway--the last of the civilians down below was now climbing into the ship. The mother grabbed Carrot Top's hoof and crawled inside--

The ship heaved again, and the daughter went tumbling off the edge.

"NO!" screamed both Carrot Top and the mother. They grabbed and both missed, and then the daughter was plummeting to the ground. One of the other crew members grabbed at her with telekinesis and managed to slow her desent to a soft bump, but when she tried to raise the filly back up, the ship shook again and she lost her grip. The mother was thrown backwards into the rest of the crew, and all of them tumbled to the floor in a rough heap.

"Engine room!" bellowed Widgeteer over the crystals. "Get your act together! Constant mixtures of fuel, equal heat on the gas, and we won't shake!"

Carrot Top ignored this and hurled a rope down, but it was clear immediately that the foal wasn't strong enough to climb it. The farmer gulped and prepared to climb down. The military couldn't hold off the enemy, the filly needed her, and...

And then Storm showed up.

His horn glowed a fierce, violent blue, and the wind began to swirl. Within moments, a storm formed around the griffins and other enemies, scattering them and sending them sprawling to the ground. "Retreat!" he roared to the soldiers. "Cover the other research teams!"

"But the zeppelin--" said one of the soldiers.

"Go, ya idiot!"

The foal climbed onto Storm's back. He threw a worried glance behind him, where the enemy soldiers were already regrouping, and then looked up. "Carrot Top! Get ready!"

Carrot Top realized what Storm was about to do and carefully braced herself.

Storm whispered a few words to the foal, then threw her and summoned another storm to propel her forewards. She screamed and sailed up, at the airship, through the door... and into Carrot Top's tight grip.

"Got you!" whispered Carrot Top as she fell to the floor, the foal safely nestled against her coat. Another crew member closed the door with telekinesis and yelled that they were clear. The ship began to move a few moments later.

"You caught me!" whispered the foal, hugging Carrot Top tightly. "You saved me! Thank you!"

Carrot Top smiled as the mother began to thank her too. "Hey, I'm a knight," she said. "It's what we do."

***

Carrot Top found Widgeteer in the engine room, screaming at one of the crew members.

"It's not 'a little nitpick!'" yelled Widgeteer at the pony, a tallish stallion with long, scaly wings and an almost dragonic appearance. Carrot Top realized that she was seeing a longma up close for the first time in her life. "You almost killed us, How Sun!"

"Sorry!" snapped How. "How was I supposed to know the fuel mixtures would back up if they weren't babied constantly?"

"Because the manual you were supposed to read--"

"Widgeteer!" said Carrot Top. Both ponies turned to her, as did the others in the section. "It's okay. Everypony's onboard. We made it."

"Not yet," said Widgeteer. As if to underscore the point, the ship shuddered again.

"How many hits can this thing take?" asked How, nervously.

"It was built to ride through thunderstorms. It can take plenty."

"And if it doesn't?" asked Carrot Top

Widgeteer shrugged. "Well, there's a reason the fuel is nicknamed Explodium. But if we can keep flying at max speed, we can outrun the enemy, and if we can remain stable--"

The ship shook three times in rapid succession.

The communication crystal on the wall glowed. "Widgeteer." Storm's voice was flat. "They're sendin' a full detachment at the zeppelin. They might know the knight's onboard--they'd want her more than anythin'. Ah'm moving most of the pegasi ta cover ya, but ya need ta go as fast as ya can."

"We should be over the wall in five minutes."

"Make it three." The crytal cut off.

What followed were three of the most agonizing minutes of Carrot Top's life. Having nothing else to do, she moved to a porthole and watched the battle. The Equestrian army was steadily being pushed back by superior numbers, and while they were keeping the enemy away from the civilians, it was a matter of inches. And the battle was getting more dangerous too. Carrot Top watched as a griffin was blasted with one of Stryker's lightning shots, and it collapsed down, almost taking out an Equestrian earth pony as it fell unconscious to the ground. The research projects that got caught in the crossfire seemed to just add more chaos and explosions to the mix. And the zeppelin was shaking more and more; she saw the pegasus soldiers flying past occasionally, but they couldn't stop all the shots.

Finally, it happened--a loud crunch sound, and then alarms began to wail. Carrot Top was thrown forwards against the window, hard enough to crack it, and then a blast fired by a unicorn--friend or foe, she didn't know--finished the job and blasted a hole through the porthole. The ship lurched, she grabbed at the wall and missed...

And she found herself tumbling off the airship.

The snow, her thickly padded coat, and the low altitude stopped her from breaking any bones, but by the time she recovered her wits and woozily got to her hooves, she could see that she was in the back of the remaining Equestrians. Ahead of her, there was just a steep hill, atop which the walls of Stalliongrad stood. The airship, whose crew probably hadn't even noticed Carrot Top's absence, flew over the walls. More and more ponies climbed the hill and passed through the gate.

Carrot Top realized that she wouldn't be among them if she didn't hurry, and so she began to run.

Ahead of her, to her great surprise, she saw a few ponies running towards her and the other retreating civilians--but then she saw the red plus signs on their coats and realized that these were clinic workers; Sweet Heart had shown them a jacket with the same emblem. As Carrot Top watched, they helped the ponies who needed it; carrying the old, weak, or infirm; providing a shoulder to lean on for those with limps; quick applications of herbs and pastes to those who were in obvious pain. Two swerved towards her. "You okay?" one yelled.

"I"m fine!" yelled the farmer. "Don't worry about me!"

"Then--" began one, and then a hippogriff from above dropped something on them that burst in midair and dumped powder at them. Carrot Top dodged, as did one of the clinic ponies, but the other was hit, and immediately fell over as if paralyzed.

"Hey!" yelled Carrot Top as the hippogriff bore down. "Go away!"

The hippogriff laughed and swept at Carrot Top, clearing hoping to take her down with a few quick claw slashes.

Time seemed to slow. The hippogriff launched itself at her. Carrot Top tensed, wishing she'd paid more attention when Raindrops had talked martial arts to her, and knowing she'd only get one good shot. The hippogriff's claw slashed at Carrot Top; she ducked, and as the claw tangled in her mane instead of her back, she struck.

And she scored a glancing blow off the hippogriff's chest.

It wasn't much, but it did send the enemy spiraling away instead of capturing either the knight or one of the clinic workers. Carrot Top turned and lifted the paralyzed pony onto her back. "Can you run?" she asked the other clinic pony.

The pony was violently shaking. "Is she alive?"

"I think so. Can you--"

Wind from overhead alerted Carrot Top to something swooping at her. Looking up, she saw a longma, this one big and looking mean. A scimitar glittered in its grip. It raised it--and then another pony jumped in and tackled it, sending them both spinning away. "MOVE!" screamed the other pony. "Go!"

The longma kicked her in the side with a massive hoof, but the other pony didn't even seem to notice. She brought up her own hoof and decked the longma into the snow, and then Carrot Top's mind caught up with what was going on. She turned to the other clinic pony. "Let's go!" she said, and began to run. That pony followed, as did their rescuer.

The hill flew by under their hooves. They were still too slow, now they were running with the retreating army, but the gate was just over the crest--it was right there--they were in the internal tunnel--

And then they were back behind the walls of Stalliongrad.

When Carrot Top next realized what was going on, two medic ponies were taking the paralyzed clinic worker off her back, and somepony was thanking her for saving that pony's life. Somewhat dazed, Carrot Top looked around at the massive crowd by the gate. She saw reinforcements from the garrison running to help their comrades retreat, while hundreds of civilians milled around. Fiddlesticks was sitting on a bench, looking at the portal with piercing eyes--and Faqzak Taks, who had climbed a lamppost, was busily snapping pictures. Hirsute Lord, still wearing his ridiculous robes, was shouting for order, but nopony was listening.

"Carrot Top!" The knight turned to see Lyra and Raindrops racing towards her. The bard quickly wrapped her into a hug, which Carrot Top gratefully returned. "Thank the stars you're alright! Somepony said you were in the airship, but then they couldn't find you." She nuzzled him. "Don't do that!"

Carrot Top grinned. "I'm fine, really. But thanks for the concern."

Raindrops cast an uneasy eye at the last of the soldiers running through the gate. "What's going on?"

"Big army just attacked."

"Corona?"

"Dunno."

"I--" began Raindrops.

At that moment, with a massive grinding, the massive gate began to lower. Carrot Top saw one last glimpse of the approaching army, headed by a kirin wearing a thick cloak, carrying an ornate sword, and with the kirin word for 'warlord' stitched into his hat (Cheerilee had made the Elements all learn words that implied 'danger' in a variety of languages). A moment later, a purplish opaque dome flashed into existance, resting on the outer edges of the city's walls and rising high into the air, and covering even the tallest skyscrapers.

"Um," said Lyra. The dome was so opaque that the sun was shutout, and the only light was from the dome itself and a few windows of buildings by the gate. "What's going on?"

"Attention citizens!" Carrot Top heard Fisher's voice, and could dimly see him standing with two other ponies on top of the nothern wall. He had what looked like a large warhammer by his side. "Stalliongrad has been attacked by an unknown enemy. At this time, all entrances to the city have been sealed. For your safety, nopony will be permitted to enter or exit the city until this threat is dealt with--"

"But fear not!" Hirsute Lord shouted. Faqzak took a picture, the flash temporarily blinding Carrot Top, but Hirsute continued undeterred. "Stalliongrad has withstood the greatest armies in Equestrian history. This city cannot be conquered!" There were a few cheers.

Despite the dim lighting, Carrot Top thought that she saw Fisher scowling. "I appreciate that this is a sacrifice, but I promise this--your sacrifice will be remembered. Whatever privations we must endure, I hereby swear that you will be repaid in full." He nodded his head. "Tell everypony you know that there will be a citywide meeting at City Hall in three hours, where I will address the entire populace to inform them of our situation." He turned on his hoof and left, the other ponies--Carrot Top saw that one was Storm, who had apparently made it back inside, and the other was Volk--following.

"Wait, we're stuck here?" asked Lyra. "We can't leave?"

"Apparently," muttered Raindrops. "And given what this guy did to Ponyville, I don't trust what he'll do to Stalliongrad."

"This is his home. He won't hurt it..." began Carrot Top. "Besides, if it is Corona, we can zap her."

"Not without Trixie, Ditzy, and Cheerilee," protested Lyra.

"So they'll come as reinforcements. They know where we are; I'm sure Luna's already planning a response." Carrot Top smiled. "We just need to..."

Carrot Top trailed off. The streetlights were turning on, finally providing some proper lighting, and the farmer could now see the pony that had fought the longma leaving the gatehouse. She was a yellow-coated earth pony with--to Carrot Top's surprise--a carrot cutie mark. In fact, she looked just like Carrot Top, except for her garrish green mane. But more than that, Carrot Top saw her expression. She looked grim.

The farmer hurried towards her, the other Elements following. "Um, thanks for saving me from that longma back there."

"Don't mention it," muttered the pony.

"I'm Carrot Top. This is Raindrops and Lyra--"

"Oh, the knights?" The pony gave a harsh chuckle and looked at the farmer dead on. "Name's Svelte Lord. Pleasure's mine, I'm sure."

"Svelte? The Representative?" Carrot Top blinked. "You--"

"Yeah, it's me. And, on behalf of the Night Court of Luna... allow me to welcome you to Stalliongrad." Svelte flashed a dark, sardonic smile. "I'm sure you'll just love it here." And she walked off, talking to several clinic workers who formed a cluster around her.

Carrot Top stared after her as she went. She also shivered; the sun had only been gone for a few minutes and already the city felt colder. I have a bad feeling about this...

***

"You idiot!"

Corona backhoofed Gloriosis, who was sent sprawling across the snow. "I was very clear that your forces were to use nonlethal attacks only!"

"But--but we did, my queen!" Gloriosis protested. He was shivering, despite the thick cloak he was wearing. So were most of her soldiers, but Corona didn't much care; they could build campfires soon enough. She just focused on the protesting general, who was saying, "We used nets, and lassos, and--"

"Then why did I see them striking the soldiers with claw and talon?" Corona glared at the offenders, who were in magical stocks. "These are mine subjects, Gloriosis! When I once again sit on my throne at the head of the Day Court, they will serve me! I will not see them injured or slaughtered!"

Gloriosis was silent for a moment, before he rose and then bowed low. "Then I tender my apologies, my queen. It shall not happen again."

"It had better not." Corona looked at Gloriosis. "Is this clear?"

"Yes, my Queen."

"Very well. Now tell me: what is our disposition?"

Gloriosis rose. "We didn't get any hostages, but we didn't lose anypony either, and we thrashed their military--our vanguard outnumbered theirs by at least 3-to-1. Got most of their weapons, some armor, and a few of them definitely overchanneled. Their morale should be rock-bottom right about now. Also, according to the train schedule our agent in Moscolt sent us, nothing new is due within Stalliongrad for at least an hour. The vanguard is watching all the rail lines to make sure there are no unexpected trains."

"Good." Corona took the jewelry box that she had recently obtained from a pack carried by one of her soldiers. Opening it, she removed a large sapphire about the size of an egg. "That will be enough time to isolate this city."

Gloriosis nodded. "Do you have any further orders?"

"They should know we are stronger than they are. Now they will cower inside their city while they try to think of some clever strategem." Corona placed the sapphire in a stand that she had previously set upon the ground; the gem glowed with a strange, midnight-blue light. "But there is nothing we can do. We need not waste lives--ours or theirs--in a direct attack around the city. I will guarantee that my sister cannot reinforce them--either with the Elements or the military--and then we need do nothing more than wait for them to realize that their situation is hopeless. They will surrender and we will take the city without spilling a single drop of blood."

She smiled as her soldiers dispersed to make camp. This was it, she thought. The first step towards her recovery of Equestria was well underway.

Author's Note

Storm seems like a nice enough guy, though he perhaps has a one-sided view of Fisher. Zephyr is a good reminder that Fisher doesn't actually run all the city's industry... but hey, nobody dislikes a little competition, right? And Widgeteer... well, I can't knock him. There have been experiments where I would have stayed outside in a driving storm to get results. For SCIENCE!

Speaking of which, that zeppelin's pretty hardcore if it can take all those hits and only suffer one blast through the side of the carriage. Good thing the Explodium didn't, er, explode. (And no, that isn't its real name. But it's a cooler name than the chemical formula or magitech formula Widgeteer came up with).

How Sun, again, is pronounced How Soon. It's a Chinese pronunciation.

Svelte's a grump, but she sure can fight. Let's hope Carrot Top is wrong about interpreting her negativity as a bad sign.

And speaking of fighting, props to the carrot farmer for driving away a mean ol' hippogriff. I think it's safe to say all three Elements may have to grow a lot more comfortable with fighting before this little adventure is done...

Lastly, I like how certain Celestia is that her plan will work. But she's the true Queen of Equestria! How could she possibly make a mistake? :-)