PONIES IN ARMS- WAR IN EQUESTRIA

DATE- CLASSIFIED
TIME- IRRELEVANT

WELCOME TO PONY HELL.

I had to read the sign twice; yup that’s what it now said. No longer the welcoming cheerful sign to my old hometown but a grim and dark message, me and my unit made it to the Ponyville bridge just after sunrise, and were greeted by a rather large and well-built pony asking who we were and why we were in their town. I showed the stallion my id, and told him we were under orders to hold Ponyville at all costs. The stallion calling himself big Macintosh had no real weapon other than a shovel he had sharpened to a razors edge. We all showed our id’s and were permitted to cross the bridge, having heard what I had from Dash, and Derpy I really was expecting hell. What I got was actually quite a shock instead, yes Ponyville had become a stop for refugees, and some low lives but in all honesty it wasn’t all that bad. A lot of the stores were open for business the Sugar Cube Corner was busy as usual, and no pony seemed to even have a clue as to what was going on around the rest of Equestria, or if they did they just didn’t seem that worried. I flagged a pony down and asked her who was in charge and was directed to the town hall. I along with my unit was escorted there and had a face to face meeting with the mayor of Ponyville. I asked her if they were aware of the carnage and war that was going on around them, and she took me for a walk, one I’ll never forget. Yes we know about it she said showing me a small steadily growing graveyard with fresh graves being dug, "bombing raid" one of several in the last few days". Turned out that the inner part of Ponyville was not being targeted, rather the raids were targeting the outlying areas making Ponyville a perfect target for a massive strike when the time was right, one that could have wiped the entire population off the maps for good, "we had a small band of mercenaries come through saying that they could protect us for the right price. We had no choice but to accept the offer, they didn’t even last a night, turns out they were so strung out and drunk that a group of 3 E.L.F ponies took out a squad of 6 mercenaries ". "Pathetic mercenaries ", I said "when will they ever learn that yes they often provide a good service, but they just don’t have the combat skills to deal with hardly anything even remotely close to real combat". I told the mayor that we were in Ponyville for the long haul and were ordered to hold the town at all cost.

My first act as new acting commander of Ponyville was to get the town as ready for attack as possible. This was easier said than done. Rainbow Dash and Derpy already knew about all the new ways of doing business in Ponyville, and how to avoid getting into trouble with any outsiders. They both became quite valuable assets to me, seeing as I didn’t know how to deal with the outsiders who now took up residence in Ponyville, I would use them to gather any Intel they could get from them and in return, either Derpy would offer to send their family a message, or dash would offer them whatever she could spare at the time. Seeing as Ponyville was rather spread out and I now had a role to play in the town’s defenses, I would have the Pegasus ponies become their very own unit, kind of a town air force. Dash proved time and time again in her time with my unit that she was capable of being a leader, so I put her in charge of the new Ponyville air force. She would be in charge of recruiting, and training new recruits. She did an outstanding job and in no time flat had a sizeable air wing all her own, not including the 4 I had as my personal air cover. Next was gathering Intel on enemy activity in the area, yes I could gather Intel from outsiders, but I wanted to have up to date Intel. This came in 3 ready for anything fillies who all lived in Ponyville, and often would take adventures into the ever free forest where the E.L.F had set up a small base of operations. The 3 fillies called themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and were very adept at gathering Intel. At first I was against the idea, but then they proved to me just what they had been doing this whole time, and showed me their clubhouse with maps, names, security codes, you name it these fillies could get it needless to say I now had spies. Next was armor something that we found in a very unlikely place, a dress shop. "Hello there I’m Rarity" a fancy if not alluring voice said to me, shaking off the thoughts I had of being a naughty colt I regained my composure and extended my hoof "I’m Pvt Read" I said with a firm hoof shake. "Nice to meet you" rarity said, "Anyways the reason I’m here" I said quickly changing the subject "oh yeh you need armor don’t you for your unit". "Yes,, yes I do and I was told that you could make it for us", she looked at me and gave me a smile "sure I can do that for you". With that the meeting was over, I turned to trot away when I heard her laughing when she entered her boutique. I looked into the window seeing her with a member of my unit, I was going to say something but thought better and said to myself "they deserve it" besides had I known the outcome of the impending attack I would have wished they could get married and get out of the military.

The next pony I met was named Applejack. I met her in a bombed out outlying area sifting through the rubble of a former home with her dog who was barking wildly at something in the rubble. I trotted over to the scene and helped Applejack move stuff, and to my surprise there was a small huddled filly in a corner alive and well just a bit thirsty. I opened my canteen and gave the tiny scared filly a sip out of it. "Yup" I heard Applejack say to me "this here rubble is clear on to the next", as we walked down what used to be the road we got to talking. As it turned out the Apple family’s property hadn’t been hit yet, despite being on the outskirts of Ponyville and a perfect target for attack. "Nope we aint been hit yet in fact when we have advanced warning of an incoming attack we let the pony folk hunker down in our apple cellars their nice and deep and provide great cover". The tiny filly we had just rescued spoke up and said "thank you Miss Applejack you saved my family on several occasions, but this time they came from nowhere and it was over in a flash". "Awwwh shucks little filly aint nothin at all, glad I can at least do something to make things somewhat better for the pony folk". I spent the rest of my day with Applejack learning new things that would be useful later on when we turned for Ponyville hospital.

"Awwwwww you poor filly" I heard the most delicate voice I had ever heard in my life say, as the pink maned yellow Pegasus took the filly into a room and started gathering information on what had happened. I was in love or at least I thought I was that voice, oh my stars it had melted me from the inside and I could have sworn I was leaking love. I took a minute to regain my composure and went into the room with the pink maned Pegasus and asked her name, oh Celestia I could have just turned to a puddle of goo at her words. In the softest most adorable voice I had ever heard in my life I heard these words, "I’m Fluttershy" no words none I had to leave the room to stop my heart from jumping out of my chest. She had followed me and had a confused look on her face "did I say something wrong?" "uhh no, no you didn’t" I gathered my wits and tried to hold a conversation with her without bursting out and saying I wanted to marry her. She told me that since the war had started, she being the one with a kind heart and ability to help and communicate with the animals, along with being a somewhat medically inclined pony she had joined the hospital staff as a calming and healing care provider. "I try to gather any information I can on what happened, and if need be I console them in times of loss" she told me. "Me being so in tuned with the animals, I use them to gather useful information as to bombed out houses, along with stuck or trapped ponies and pass the information on to Applejack so she can rescue them with her dog sniffing them out they have rescued quite a few ponies since all of this started."

The next pony I was introduced to was none other than Pinkie Pie needless to say my unit got an immediate party welcome, and we partied into the night with her and the rest of the remainder of Ponyville. Sadly this would be one of the very last party’s she would throw in quite some time, for the time being we had a blast at the party. The next day Pinkie introduced me to the Cakes the owners of the Sugar Cube bakery, a place I knew all too well when I was young. The smell of the place made me think of happier days, and when I was a young colt. The Cakes agreed to help in feeding my unit and told us everything would be on the house. We make plenty of cash selling to refugees and outsiders so it’s not a big deal they said.

The last of the 6 ponies representing the elements of harmony I met was Twilight Sparkle, a purple unicorn that represented the element of magic. She lived in a tree err library whatever it was it was her house. She was a very smart and adapt pony at magic, and had several books on subjects that would eventually help us in the upcoming battle for Ponyville. The Elements of Harmony were all here with me, and it was up to me and my unit to protect them "oh goody what fun" I thought. Here I am in a small town that I was once a colt in, now it’s being bombed and is on a collision course with the war that surrounds us all. Sure there were other places in Equestria that needed as much help as they could get, but our orders were to hold Ponyville, so that’s what I set to work on doing. To my surprise a lot of the population were actually members of the resistance and helped us a lot in getting the town ready for the upcoming attack. I placed my sniper pony in the tower on town hall, the 2 heavy weapons ponies joined Big Mac on the Ponyville Bridge he was armed with a rocket launcher mounted in a combat pack. The mine clearing pony became a mine laying pony he placed them on the opposite side of the bridge and around the outskirts of the ever free forest. My machine gun pony was placed inside the library on the balcony facing the forest. The town was as secure as we could make it, and there were a few anti air guns around the city we had plenty of ammo and a decent fighting force the only thing to do now was wait.