parades, captains, and war
chapter 1: the parade
"Hurry up or we'll miss it!" scootaloo pleaded
"you go ahead,dad and I will catch up" a rainbow mained pegasus said to her newly adopted orange filly
A little sky blue foal waddled under her strongly built dad. She was about 5 months old and just starting to walk.
"we did good soarin", Rainbow Dash said to her husband of 2 years, "little firefly is doing so well" she smiled at her daughter; the blue foal was starting to flutter her wings as she wanted to chase a small hummingbird.
"yeah, dash, we did" soarin gave a smile then walked over to where a few of his friends where (big Mac, spitfire, mr. Cake)
Dash then scooped up her little foal onto her back and trotted to where applejack and rarity were watching the cutie mark crusaders play with rubber ball
"howdy thar partner" AJ's southern twang rang into Rainbow's ears
"hey guys, where is fluttershy and twilight?" Dash said puzzled at a lack of people to talk to
"fluttershy is helping with the nature float and twi is in canterlot for lunch with the princess" rarity piped up
"you guys want a drink?" rainbow said, rummaging through her saddle bags for some beers and firefly's bottle
"I'll take one, thanks" Aj said as dash gave her a beer
The music was heard coming down the road and everypony cheered for the parade. first was a blue and gold float with a high school band on its perimeter, next Was a blue wonderbolt float with three ponies dressed in wonderbolt costumes, the parade kept moving on with glowing lights and loud music until, a small green float with a fence around it came up, on it was bunnies, birds, turtles, and a yellow Pegasus with a butterfly cutie mark. As the float came around fluttershy saw her friends and smiled as they waved to her awesome work.
"HEY, GUYS!" chimed from a high pitch voice that came from behind, Pinkie Pie had just got off her shift at sugarcube corner
"shoot, Pinkie you just missed fluttershy on her float" rainbow said, seeming a little upset
"no I didn't" Pinkie said "I saw it earlier through my window"
Dash instantly perked up. The parade then finished with an equestria guard float, after fluttershy had put away the animals she came over to say hi to her friends. They proceeded to mingle about life, while the cutie mark crusaders played together.
"you were great!" scootaloo yipped at fluttershy while bouncing around
"thanks" fluttershy said blushing "awww, hi firefly" she pointed at the foal smiling
"scoots, get your scooter, we need to go" Rainbow said remembering she had an appointment soon
"but Rainb-, mom, can't I stay here with apple bloom and sweetiebelle?" begged the orange filly
"it is quite alright for her to stay with me if you don't mind" Rarity said to Dash. Scootaloo gave the puppy dog face
"wellllllll, okay" Dash gave in.
"yaaayyyyyyyyy!!!!" sweetiebelle and scootaloo yelled
"Apple bloom, you get your flank over there and play with your friends!" Applejack said smiling
"thanks Rarity, I have to meet dr. Hooves in 15 minutes!" dash said starting to fly away
Dash zipped around buidings and through marketplaces as she made her way to ponyvile hospital for her physical. Se burst through the front doors into the reception area. she was then ushered to an examination room, where the one and only doctor whooves was standing.
"hey doc!" Rainbow dash said to the doctor as she plopped her honches on the exam bed. "so i wanted you to check my wings, they are hurting after work latley" she said rubbing her wings with her hooves.
"i'll see what i can do, probably fatigue though" the doctor said taking out a light to check her eyes. as the routine physical examination went on Rainbow relaxed, she was fne, she was the fastest flier in equestria by the way!
"well you are in great shape. You are going to be fine, just ice your wings after flying if they hurt" dr. Hooves said to a relieved rainbow dash
"thanks doc, see you later" dash said as she walked through the doctor's door
she was then greeted by a tall, buff, tan pegasus that had a silver star cutie mark and his mane shaved down to about centimeter
"uh hi, you must be here to see the doctor, he is in their" Dash pointed her hoof at the door she just walked out of.
"hello, i am captain iron bar" the colt spoke in a deep voice much like big macintosh's "I'm with the equestria guard, and I'm
in charge of checking physicals, say you look like your in great shape, and that mane is familiar, have you ever been to canterlot?" he caught rainbow off gaurd with his question
"uhh, yeah I Was up their a few times with my friends, and Iwas in the wonderbolts for about 2 years" Dash said
"ahh, yes you are Rainbow Dash!, i saw you last year when i was recruiting pegasi" he spoke words that made dash very happy "so why did you quit?"
"oh, uhhh, i couldn't keep going back and forth from home to canterlot after i had adopted my orphaned friend who was too young to stay alone, then i married soarin, and recently had a baby filly" dash rambled on
"oh well nice meeting you, mises rainbow dash" iron bar said giving a smile
as rainbow trotted out of the hospital she saw twilight in a royal chariot flying overhead
"hey!, hey twilight!" rainbow dash yelled to friend, she then took off towards the chariot and soon caught up "hey twi!" rainbow said landing on the chariot
"Rainbow? how did you get in here?" twilight said to a rainbow mained pagasus "oh yeah" she looked at dash's wings
"how was canterlot?" dash said "did you see your parents?"
"yes, I did, and I had a nice lunch with the princesses" twilight said to her friend
"miss twilight, your stop will be coming up in a few minutes" one of the royal guards said to twilight
"thank you" twilight said in return to the snow white pegasus
"so, what's going on twi?" Rainbow asked to be polite
"nothing much, I saw the princesses and I saw you on an old wonderbolt poster" twilight said cheering up at the end of her sentence
"wow, I miss that team a little, but I have firefly and scoots to take care off. plus soarin is always looking to sneak up there to see his pals." Dash said as the chariot touched down and made a complete stop
"well I'll see you later dash!" twilight said to her friend as Rainbow flew towards her cloud house
Dash zipped down the roads as fast as lightning, she zoomed past the library, past Rarity's shop, only stoping to get a cupcake at sugarcube corner. she finally made it to the egde of town, where if you look up you would see the giant cloud mansion Dash had built herself. she bolted straight up to the door and pulled a key out from her saddlebags and unlocking the door
"i'm home!" dash said after bursting in through the door
"hey honey, scoots is still at rarity's and firefly is in here!" soarin said to dash who was already closing the door and taking off her saddle bags
"did you get the mail?" dash asked her husband as she walked into their living room and nuzzled her baby pegasus
"uuuuuuuhhhhh......" soarin muttered an uncerimonial grunt "fiiiiinnnneee"
"oh it's a 10-foot fly, and you probably have just been sitting here all day anyways!" dash said looking blankly at soarin
there was an awkward silence as soarin lifted himself up off the cloud chair he loved so much. he then walked out of the living room, down the hallway, and through the door.
a knock on the door a few minutes later broke the silence of rainbow just watching the foal, she birthed out just 5 months earlier, play on the floor.
"that foal must have locked himself out, again" dash said to no one in particular, she walked to the door and opened it to let her husband in, but instead she saw a tall, buff, tan pegasus standing there.
"oh, buck" dash barley muttered as her stomach felt quesey, she thought she would puke right there and then
"I was wondering who lived in such a nice house" iron bar said in his gruff voice "but I can see it belongs to two retired wonderbolts"
"what do you need, sir?" Dash said confused
"war has broken out between gyphons and equestria, our army doesn't have many soldiers so we have to draft all able bodies" his word scared Dash
"are you taking soarin?" Dash was about to cry, with joy for a 'no', and sadly for a 'yes'
"no, we need you" iron bar said with almost no emotion in his voice, Dash felt a pit of hatred, sadness, and plain emptieness growing in her heart, tears streamed down her face, her knees buckled under her, as she fell she hit her head on a desk they kept next to thier door, the last thing she remembered was the cloud floor coming at her face and a blackout.
Dash awoke on a wooden surface, not fully awake, she tried to feel around. As her senses came back to her she realized she was moving, she stood up and looked around. She was on a cart being dragged through a muddier, smellier, and unpleasant ponyville, she was being hauled towards town center, she knew this because they had just passed sugarcube corner. The sweets shop was not as Dash remembered it earlier, the roof was partially destroyed, the door seemed to have been kicked in, and the wall had a large hole in it. Later as they passed the library that twilight had lived in since she moved to ponyville, Dash was shocked as she saw the tree house burning as twilight stood outside of it crying to a small purple dragon.
“Twilight, Twil-“, Dash felt a hoof on her shoulder; she looked and saw a grey earth pony standing there
“ma’am, stay quiet, please, it is okay to mourn for our loved ones at this time” he spoke with sorrow in his voice.
“What is going on?” Dash asked the pony she didn’t even know was there until now
"you must've been out a while, some griffons and some wierd machines burned down ponyville and killed many of us" Dash had her mouth agape, she was astonished, how could this happen? why would the griffons attack? what happened to her friends? they suddenly luched forward, throwing rainbow and the grey colt forward aswell.
"get out, follow the brown colt in the uniform over there!" the driver was a tall, buff, stallion, he was also grey. Dash and the grey colt got of the cart and went to the brown colt standing there in a green battle uniform and a helmet with goggles over the eyes.
"follow me, we will pass two tables, one with a uniform and one with a helmet, pick them up, put them on, and head to the center of town" his voice boomed, Dash and the grey colt followed the soldier. standing on a podium was a strange creature in camofluage clothes and had a weird item in its hand.
And that's when i came into the story. hold up, you might be confused, well let me tell you MY story.
first of all, i am cpl. josh "viper" wells, i am (was) a U.S. army sniper. i was on a helicopter with my squad, bravo 6, and we were heading to a huge firefight in the city 2 kliks from our base.
"wells! you got your ears on?" i snap out of a daze i formed when i was staring at a cluster bombing, it was the c.o., seargent connors, "i need you to keep focused, we got insurgents all over." he yells over the noise of our gunners on the side of the chopper.
"yes, sir!" i scream aswell."when do we land?" i ask, but the thump from the helo answers my question. we piled out the side of the chopper and dove to the ground. i got up and ran to the edge of the rooftop and placed my trusty m14 into position.
target 1, distance 50 yards, no wind, bang dead. target 2, distance 57 yards, bang dead. target 3, distance 75 meters, incoming rpg, wind almos-, wait rpg? rpg!!!! *BOOOOOOM*
i fly off the building from the massive explosion behind me, oh, look the ground is coming right at me.*CRUNCH*
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i wake up to a startiling scene, the middle of a field with some weird orange thing in a cowboy hat staring at me.
"oh god, im dead arn't i" i groan.
"well should be after that fall, plus hitting that apple tree." the creature says, in a country accent. "anywho, what in thee name of celestia are you?" i t becomes clearer in my vision, its an orange horse with a stangleley more humanized look to it,but how is a horse, or should i say pony, talking, let alone southern english. i must think of something to say, something intelegent. so i say "gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, it's a talking horse!!!!" yeah, intelegent. it is startled by my scream. "oh, sorry sorry sorry, i don't want to hurt you, odd talking horse thing." i say.
"i aoin't no horse, im a pony! any ways names applejack. and you?" it says
"uhh, my name is corporal joshua wells, but my friends call me viper." i say as i start to get up, look around, i seem to be in a field of apple trees. i look down to see if im intact, i'm still in my digital fatigues with all of my gear, even my m14 is still strapped to my side.
"well mr.wells, what are you?" she asks
"a human, what country is this anyways?" she looks shocked
"this is equestria, land of ponies. and we dont have humans around these parts." applejack says with a confused look on her face.
"well, i guess im stuck here, so can you tell me where i should go?" i ask
she smiles and says " you an stay with me until we figure out more things about you" she says almost to happily. hmmm applejack i wonder why that sound familiar? i thinnk to my self as we walk to a barn looking structure.
