PONIES IN ARMS-3. MARECENARIES

Chapters

parting ways with major read and our first encounter with greyhoof
our meeting with the leader of the m.a.i.t.p
the day after the meeting, my first real meeting with blackwidow, and planning our deployment to appleloosa- part 1
the day after the meeting, my first real meeting with blackwidow, and planning our deployment to appleloosa- part 2
leaving for appleloosa, and surveying the situation in town
information as to what exactly is in manehatten, rare insight into stable tech, and a request from stable tech- part 1
information as to what exactly is in manehatten, rare insight into stable tech, and a request from stable tech- part 2
Reliving my life in 2 alcohol induced days
waking up, and putting together a plan of action against the n.l.r- part 1
waking up, and putting together a plan of action against the n.l.r- part 2
waking up, and putting together a plan of action against the n.l.r- part 3
the morning sandstorm and our introduction to buckshot's rangers- part 1
the morning sandstorm and our introduction to buckshot's rangers- part 2
the truth about buckshot, and a request from the n.l.r part 1
the truth about buckshot, and a request from the n.l.r part 2
getting ready for dinner with buckshot, and having dinner with the n.l.r, part 1
getting ready for dinner with buckshot, and having dinner with the n.l.r, part 2
the truth about blood flank, hard choices, and our promotions into the n.l.r- part 1
the truth about blood flank, hard choices, and our promotions into the n.l.r- part 2
the flat out execution of the raider leader in appleloosa
an abrupt end to the party, and news of the death of digger
Making amends for past mistakes, part 1
Making amends for past mistakes, part 2, and the shots heard throughout Equestria
promotions for both me, and harmony, spending the day getting ready for the meeting, and buying a dog for the unit

parting ways with major read and our first encounter with greyhoof

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"NEXT STOP BITTER CREEK. ALL PONIES GETTING OFF HERE I’LL BE STOPPING FOR AN HOUR THEN I’M ON MY WAY TO NEIGHVADA. REPEAT NEXT STOP BITTER CREEK."

I had hoped to Celestia that this was all a dream, but it wasn't. This was real, I had been chosen for this task due to its sensitive nature. I had tears in my eyes, not just because I was once again home and would be here for a while but also because this was where I and Major Read would part ways. I was in his hooves half asleep as Smoky made the announcement and wanted to wake up from this dream and find myself forever in his hooves. This would be the first real time we would be apart and I felt very upset at the turn of events but understood them as well. This group of mares and fillies would never accept the help of colts, and to be honest I didn't blame them one bit. As we got off the train he kissed me and Twilight didn't say a word. Instead she was crying at the fact that we were all parting ways. she was on her way to Neighvavda with the major and me and Harmony were staying here.

We all went to my house for a bit of food and something to drink for about fourty five minutes and soon were saying our goodbyes to each other. I trotted along his side to the train station and as he got on it I told him I loved him and that if he went and got himself killed i'd never forgive him for it. Twilight simply laughed and told me I had nothing to worry about and that she wouldn’t allow him to die, and that she enjoyed our time together. She also said that she enjoyed both me and Harmony and that if we ended up dead she would bring us back to life just to kill us for dying in the first place. "YOU HAVE NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT TWI, WE'LL BE FINE. YOU TAKE CARE OF HIM AND I'LL TAKE CARE OF HARMONY OK. LOVE YOU BOTH, AND WE'LL SEE EACHOTHER AGAIN SOON OK." I yelled to them as the train departed the station. After the train left the station I got my ponies together and let them know what would be going on while we were in Bitter Creek and got them all squared away.

"OK EVERYPONY GATHER YOUR GEAR AND FOLLOW ME TO WHERE WE WILL REST FOR THE NIGHT. GAURD SHIFTS WON'T BE REQUIRED SEEING AS WE ARE IN FRIENDLY TERRITORY. SO GET ALL THE REST YOU MARES AND FILLIES CAN GET. I HAVE TO MEET GREYHOOF ALONG WITH HARMONY, SO BLACK VELVET IS IN CHARGE UNTIL WE GET BACK. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS BRING THEM TO HER. IF ANY PONY FEELS THAT THEY NEED SOME PRIVATE TIME TO THEMSELVES, OR A DRINK BY ALL MEANS GO FOR IT. JUST REMEMBER THOUGH, DEPENDING ON WHAT GREYHOOF SAYS WE MAY BE HEADING OUT EARLY IN THE MORNING. I’LL WAKE YOU ALL UP WHEN WE GET BACK FROM THE MEETING AND LET YOU ALL KNOW WHAT WILL BE GOING ON OK." The group made up of mares of all ages from eighteen and up all gave me a hoof salute and with that me and Harmony were off to meet Grey Hoof.

"YOU MUST ME RUBY" A voice came from a table in the bar. "Ye,, yes I am, and this is my second in command Harmony." "NICE TO MEET YOU BOTH, NOW DOWN TO BUSINESS. First off Major Read has told me all about you two mares and to be honest your reputations precede you. Killers to the core and yet very mare like when need be. That’s just why I knew this task would suit you two perfectly. Now that Blood Flank is dead the N.L.R are looking high and low for any pony having anything to do with the N.C.E for revenge. In that right the N.C.E has made their name very clear to the N.L.R and they are now scared of us. That being said though, they have changed their tactics of just going into a place and killing any and all they see. Instead they are now taking any and all female ponies and sending them to their headquarters at Shattered Hoof Ridge. The N.L.R aren’t stupid and know that by taking any and all female ponies from places the resistance will be forced to show themselves, and that’s just what the N.L.R wants. Ponies across the land are now being killed for no other reason than the protection of mares and fillies. This is where your group of marecenaries comes in. the N.L.R will never suspect a group of mares and fillies to be protecting their targets. I have set up a meeting with the mare that wrote the note that major read gave to you. They have agreed to meet with you in your own hometown in a day. They also have agreed to meet with me as well. So what do you two say to all of this?" I looked at Harmony for a minute, and in one voice we both said "WE'RE IN." We spent the rest of the meeting talking about how the killing of the general had made the N.L.R take sudden notice of the N.C.E and how we had accomplished our goal one hundred fold. "Thanks to you and your team, Canterlot has been freed of the remaining N.L.R ponies, and all but the castle is free of them. We figure we'd let them have the castle. Besides its not like they can go anywhere now without being killed on site. I know you are missing Major Read, but all things come with a price. This mission is very important seeing as Harmony has already been made to suffer at the hooves of the N.L.R I’m sure you know just how much this will mean to Equestria."

our meeting with the leader of the m.a.i.t.p

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Finally 1630 rolled around, and we were all gathering in the town hall waiting to finally meet the leader of the m.a.i.t.p. The door to the building opened and in stepped a pure black alicorn with a cutie mark looking like a red hourglass. “Allow me to introduce myself, I am Black Widow. I got the name and cutie mark by doing what I do best, seducing n.l.r ponies, and acting as though I like them, and after gathering all I need to know, I kill them. In today’s world we live in one must adapt to their surroundings, and situations. I wasn’t always a coldhearted killer, but the day my family was killed at the hooves of Blood Flank and his raiders, I vowed revenge, and have recruited many fillies, and mares to my cause, allow me to introduce you all to my fighting force." She called out an order, and just like that we were surrounded by armor wearing ponies all with the same mark as the leader on their flanks. "Allow me to introduce you to the Black Widows, a force dedicated to the end to the sex trade that the n.l.r has put into practice, yes we often have to go into shady places to gather Intel, and do things we may not want to, but in this new age as I have said, we all must adapt, or die."

At that we all started to introduce ourselves, as dinner was served. The conversation went many different directions, and in all honesty I couldn’t follow any of them, I was focused on the alicorn calling herself Black Widow, I knew a bit about the spider but had no clue that the red hourglass could ever be a cutie mark. I was a bit weary of her to be honest, for one why would a powerful alicorn take up the cause she has, and if she really was doing this for the protection of mares, and fillies why make up some lame name as the m.a.i.t.p, why not just sign the letter the Black Widows. She looked at me as though she knew what I was thinking, which to be honest I had no clue if that was an ability of hers. She asked me to follow her outside, and for just me to go with her. "Look I can indeed read minds, but that’s not what I’m talking to you about ok, that mare in there, your second in command right? She has gone through a lot at the hooves of the raiders, I read her mind, and she is grateful to have us around. She feels more at ease when you’re around her am I not right? Look that poor filly actually lost her family to the raiders, I know she probably told you that they were still alive, but they aren’t. You take good care of her, you along with your unit both here, and in Neighvavda is the only thing close to family she has, and she to be honest loves you. Now about your questions, none of my unit hardly ever take off their armor, they are mares, and fillies that have been disfigured at the hooves of those raiders in some way or another, some are so emotionally wrecked that this unit of ours is the only thing keeping them from committing suicide. Still others have physical wounds, missing cutie marks, missing limbs, burns, scars, and many other things. Yes I am powerful, but that means nothing if I use it to only help myself, those ponies in there have seen hell, and lived through it they will follow me anywhere, and I have convinced them that you and your company will be able to help us in aiding any town or city that needs protection from those filthy raiders. They look to me for guidance when in reality I have heard all you along with Major Read, and his ponies have done for Equestria, and I knew that if I ever had the opportunity to meet any of you I would follow you into hell as well. The m.a.i.t.p is nothing more than a fake name used by us to disguise who we really are from any outsiders, I mean come on a group going around gathering Intel from the n.l.r, and then killing them calling themselves the Black Widows, and writing letters about those very acts while putting the name of our group in those letters would kind of get us killed don’t you think? No pony is going to think twice about a group calling itself the m.a.i.t.p right, it sounds legit and as though it is simply a support group for mares, and fillies going through a hard time dealing with the n.l.r, so therefore we use that name rather than the Black Widows."

Now it was time for me to talk, but in all honesty she had answered all I had to ask her without even thinking about it as though she often got the same questions. I guess when you have been doing the same thing for all your life some answers just come natural, and are almost like pre recorded messages that one would simply play to any pony asking said question. I couldn’t think of a thing to say, and thought it was probably best that I had nothing to say anyway. We went back inside, and I trotted up to Harmony, and gave her a huge hug, and kiss. She looked at me as though she had done something wrong, and I told her that she had done nothing at all, and I loved her. It was now out in the open, I loved Harmony, that light grey filly that had it not been for Major Read, and his compassion would not be here today with me. I started to tear up and think about what the major was up to, when suddenly I found myself being hugged by Harmony. "I love you too Ruby, and always will." Dinner went on into the night with all of us laughing, and chatting, in all honesty it seemed as though Black Widow, and Grey Hoof knew each other, but I didn’t want to think it out loud for fear of being approached by her for thinking such a potentially private thought. I quickly changed my thought process, and went on to think more of Major Read, and what he was up to tonight, and how Twilight was doing.

The meeting which to be honest had turned into a mingling of pony’s from bitter creek, and from the black widows eventually made its way to the saloon, and to music and dancing amongst grey hoof's troops, my troops, and the black widows. The bar was closed to any outsiders, and Joe the owner told us we could crash there, the place had a few rooms that would be used by special guests of the bar from time to time, and to be honest none of us were really going to be going anywhere tonight. Grey hoof was on the floor with black widow who had a sappy grin on her face as he whispered something in her ear, it was quite a meeting. From a somewhat awkward introduction to now cutting lose, and partying the night had been an interesting one to say the least.

the day after the meeting, my first real meeting with blackwidow, and planning our deployment to appleloosa- part 1

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Both me and Harmony ended up getting to my house at around 0300, we thought about crashing at the bar along with every pony else, but thought the sight of us in a deep and passionate night in public would be a bit much for the small town, and both agreed to go back to my house instead. We had our bit of fun before going to sleep, the rest of the ponies in all 3 of our groups were scattered around the bar, and around town.

The light of noon was the next thing I saw, we made it to my house at 0300, and it was now 1300 a fair amount of sleep for us since we hadn’t had that much sleep since the day we spent in that hammock in Neighvavda while every pony else got drunk. I got out of bed covering the still sleeping Harmony, and went to look for my father to ask him if anything important was going on today. I found him asleep at his desk in town hall with Black Widow asleep on the couch; I gently woke up my dad and asked if there was anything that needed to be taken care of around town, or if Black Widow had said anything to him. She stirred a bit, and to my surprise Grey Hoof came into the room from the kitchen, "great coffee mayor, it kind of hits the spot. Thanks for giving us the place to crash for the night, I wasn’t about to allow Black Widow to sleep in a bar, it would just be wrong." "No problem captain, besides I knew you needed a place to crash, and she would too." Black Widow was just getting up and going through some paperwork on the desk in front of her. There was a map on the desk that she told me to look at, in blue were all friendly places some we had been to, and others we hadn’t yet she directed a hoof to Appleloosa and told me that we would be going there. Then she showed me the same map, this time it had a lot of red on it. "The map I showed you first was a map that I had taken off a dead e.l.f pony in the first war, we had a lot of friendly places we could go back then, the map I just showed you however is a map from a few days ago that I got from the Canterlot Castle, I just so happened to be in Canterlot as Major Read along with you and your units took out Blood Flank. I was gathering Intel on any and all friendly units we had at our disposal, and to be honest we don’t have much anymore. The n.l.r has taken over just about any place around Appleloosa, and that’s not good, I have friends in Appleloosa who have reported n.l.r movement within the town, a good sign that the raiders are going to do what they always do. They gain the trust of the town, when they have it they then turn into animals; they kill any pony that stands in their way protecting mares, and fillies. I want us all to go there and drive out any and all n.l.r units around there ok." I looked at her, and asked her how long these ruses by the n.l.r usually last before they did what they came to do. She told me that it would often differ from place to place, and that they would take up the responsibilities of any law enforcement that needed to be taken care of, and gain the trust of the town doing such things as that. "I will get every pony ready if you wish to leave today." She told me that it would be best to do it when every pony was not hung over, and I agreed. "We will move out in a day and a half ok" I agreed with this, and went back to my house to wake Harmony up to tell her. I made it back to my house just as Harmony was getting up and asked her if she had any plans for the day. She said to me that she wanted to get some target practice in before we left for Appleloosa, and I agreed with her.

'That sounds like a great idea; in fact I may just have every pony in our outfit train today on their weapons. I went to look for them all; the vast majority of them were all passed out at the bar, still drunk from the night before. 'Ok you lazy ponies time to wake up, we have some training to take care of, and I don’t care if you’re hung over or not. We have a mission coming up in a day and a half, and I want to see just how you all are with your weapons, so get up and get ready to train." Soon after I ordered them all to get ready to train I had them all lined up and working out. I along with Grey Hoof, and Black Widow was working out my unit, and having them all work out together was a good way to build team cohesion along with friendships. After doing our work out routine all 3 of us told our groups to gather their weapons, and combat gear for some drills, and target practice. I gave them an hour to gather all they needed, along with eating breakfast and to meet us all at our target range at 1000, and not a minute later. Those that were late were going to be doing punishment work outs the rest of the day, "I am a fair commander, and I don’t ask any pony to do anything I can’t, or won’t do myself. I understand you all don’t feel all that great, but still this is very important and vital for our upcoming mission ok."

the day after the meeting, my first real meeting with blackwidow, and planning our deployment to appleloosa- part 2

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After an hour every pony was back, and ready for some target practice. It was going to be a good thing to see just how accurate every pony would be in the event of something big happening, and I was a bit rusty myself, as was Harmony. I was really shocked at just how deadly accurate the Black Widows were, and how efficiently they worked together, as was Grey Hoof who himself was an amazing shot. I guessed that if we were going to work together with these 2 groups of ponies it would be best for all under me to be able to shoot as accurately as all of the others we were with, so I urged them all to shoot to the best of their abilities. In no time at all I had several expert shooters in my group, and none below sharp shooter. After almost a full day of target practice it was getting a bit dark, and I asked the other 2 leaders of the other groups that were joining us if they wanted their units to get some night training taken care of while we were in the process of training, and they both agreed.

I divided the units into an opposing team, and a team to take them out, and told them all to load their rubber rounds for this training. Kills would be confirmed by all of the leaders of the groups, and those that were injured would have to be taken off the field as in a real combat experience. Grey Goof, Black Widow, me, and Harmony would each lead our teams, Black Widow's team would be the opposing force, and Grey Hoof's unit would be a wildcard, i.e. neutral until provoked, or becoming friends with either side. The battle would be over as soon as all the Black Widows were neutralized, or my team was dead, it would be a draw if both teams lost too many ponies or if one side befriended the other in non combat negotiations which I was really good at by the way, it often came in handy crossing Equestria, and dealing with the n.l.r checkpoints, so I would try to use diplomacy anytime I was able to do so, so I was planning to use it during tonight’s training to see just how I would need to adapt it to certain circumstances. I told Harmony to take charge of the Special Forces that I had with me, and told them all to make their move only if need be, otherwise I had no real use for them, and they were an insurance policy to keep me and my unit safe. She agreed and had them all stay out of sight, the objective for us was to clear Bitter Creek of an n.l.r element that had taken the town over, every pony in the town was involved in this training, and were in fact civilians in a mock combat zone making the realism of it all sink in as some of them would pose as informants for the opposing force, and have mock bombs strapped to them as well increasing the realism as well. Grey Hoof's forces were in the town as well, and were posing as a mercenary team that was there to try to take out the n.l.r, and gather Intel on them as well and were neutral for the time being. To make it more real I had my father have the town take up arms against the occupying force, to cause a since of something really bad about to happen and add that since of urgency to get the mission done, and save the town. The mock war went on into the following day and almost up to the time we had to deploy to Appleloosa, my side lost. We made a mistake and ended up killing the entire mercenary team, and the leader of the n.l.r got away in the confusion, it was a valuable learning experience for us all, and in the 2 hours before we deployed we had our a.a.r and went over the whole mission from start to finish going over all that went right along with what needed to be improved upon.

The only thing that saved my hide in the battle was the fact that I had my special forces ponies come to my aid and help me escape after losing almost half my unit in an ambush set up by a small n.l.r unit inside the mayor’s office. The breach had been good, but we got bad Intel on the size of the element that had taken over the office and I made a mistake in not double checking the Intel twice. That mistake cost me almost 10 lives, and 6 wounded, it wasn’t my shining moment to say the least, but that was what the training was about, to see what if anything would happen if we were put into such a situation, and what would the outcome be. The only thing that saved the leader of the mock n.l.r team was the fact that she as well had not seen a use for her Special Force ponies and had them as a backup unit as I did, it came down to the 2 s.f teams going head to head, and in that right it was an instant mission success in both our eyes. We had both found a use for our heavy armored units, and they worked just as we had thought they would. My ability to use non combative skills to solve problems came in handy once, and that was only due to the fact that the leader of the mock n.l.r unit had told some of her ponies to act as though they were new recruits and to also try to see just how good I was in fact at persuasion for ponies to join my side, it was kind of an ego boost for me that she had taken the time to do so, and I thanked her for it. Grey Hoof had some things to say about his ponies as well and congratulated some of them for using false information until proper payment was acquired for services rendered. They indeed had provided misinformation just as a real mercenary group would in some cases and it was really interesting to see them interact with the towns ponies as well. They would help some of them actually, especially the older and younger generation for no cost whatsoever and in my opinion that was just how we would be from now on, and I made that clear to all with us.

leaving for appleloosa, and surveying the situation in town

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After our a.a.r I had every pony quickly grab all they would need for a semi long march to Appleloosa, and say goodbye to any ponies they would be leaving behind. It was going to be a few hours’ march to the town and we all were exhausted but we had to be there in a hurry because we had no clue as to when the n.l.r were going to turn the town into a slaughter. I had all Pegasus ponies with me flying ahead of us to the town and told a few of them to stay overhead of us as well. I was going to make arrangements with Smoky to pick us up with the train, but I completely forgot about that as we started training and was kicking myself in the flank for forgetting about doing so as I heard the sound of the train coming down the tracks. "Speak of the devil, ask and you shal receive I guess" I thought with a chuckle. Grey Hoof along with Black Widow was somewhat surprised at the fact that the conductor knew me. Smoky told us that Major Read had made the arrangements with Smoky to check up on all of us so I asked him if we could get a ride to Appleloosa and he agreed to take us.

"Now this is the way to travel why do we trot, or canter everywhere when in fact we have our very own personal train?" Grey Hoof asked us all, to which I simply told him that Major Read was the one to thank for that. He looked at me and smiled, "that Major Read boy I have got to give credit where it is due and it certainly is due, I mean to go from military pony to nothing, and then to adapt to life as a mercenary its impressive, also the fact that anywhere he goes ponies are willing to drop everything to follow him, his compassion for any and all he comes across as well is something to be admired. I hope one day after this entire war is behind us that I can just sit with him, and chat, the stories he must have to tell. Growing up in Ponyville joining the military at the age of 18 and now being in command of a military all his own due to circumstances beyond his control and yet taking it on as though it was what he was meant to do in life, he truly is an amazing pony and I will follow him into the depths of hell if need be."

"He really is a kind hearted pony and I am extremely glad to know him, he showed Harmony compassion when he simply could have killed her on the spot something that I more than likely say I would have actually done if it were me. The way he interacts with any pony he comes in contact with makes one wonder if he even has any enemies at all, I often wonder where I would be had I never met him and often find myself with tears in my eyes thinking such thoughts and quickly change the subject to better thoughts, and memories. I know that I’ll see him again I feel it in my heart and I hope to Celestia that I can prove to be just half the leader he is when it comes down to it, I don’t want to lose any ponies in combat but I know it may happen, I just hope I can comfort every pony the way he does anytime anything happens to any of us. I also hope that I can prove to be a great leader as he is in combat and that my ponies will follow me into the depths of hell if need be as well, it would be a reassuring thing to know that they would, I know that a lot of the ponies I have been with since meeting the major will but as for any new ponies I am not too sure." "Don’t worry Ruby your an amazing leader and I know you will do an awesome job at keeping your ponies safe. Just remember everything you have been taught and learned throughout your time with the major and you will all be fine trust me. He has trained you to be a leader and it shows with each choice you make follow your instinct and you all will be fine I know it."

We sat and talked for what seemed like a few hours until Smoky made his usual announcement he would make anytime we were nearing a destination. "NEXT STOP IS APPLELOOSA, I WILL BE STOPPING FOR AN HOUR THEN THIS TRAIN IS HEADED FOR HELL,, ER OLD MANEHATTEN. AGAIN MY NEXT STOP IS APPLELOOSA” I made my rounds waking every pony up and telling them to be ready for anything in the town, I had told my Pegasus ponies to meet me at the train depot after gathering any and all Intel they could in the time it took for us to get to the town and they had actually gotten a lot for me to go through. The town wanted the n.l.r out and were all too willing to aid us in whatever way they could. This worked to our advantage it meant that we were trusted enough that we had free roaming abilities throughout the town and outlying places as well. We learned that the n.l.r had set up a post in the sheriff's office and had quickly taken over the duties of the law enforcement just as we all had a feeling would be the case.

The Apple family had a settlement on the outskirts of the town and told us we were just like family and if we needed anything at all, all we would have to do was ask and we'd have it. This made me very happy seeing as I had met Applejack in Ponyville and had talked to her a bit about things that we somewhat had in common, she loved to farm and work hard just as I did in fact that’s what I would sometimes do in Bitter Creek when I wasn’t on guard duty at the border, I had a small garden at my house which I often would eat from to save cash. Applejack had told me that if I needed any advice on anything plant related all I had to do was just ask and she would help me.

information as to what exactly is in manehatten, rare insight into stable tech, and a request from stable tech- part 1

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I had wanted to talk to Smoky about what he was going to Manehatten for and why he had a few Stable Tech ponies on the train, so I asked him if he could extend his stop in Appleloosa and he agreed to do so. I already had all the information on the location's and size of the n.l.r unit in the town so I felt it was time to gather as much possible Intel as to what exactly Stable Tech was and who they were.

"Well to be honest I don’t have all the information I feel I should I mean they asked me if I could take them there but gave me no more information as to why. As for what is in Manehatten, I have no clue but what I can tell you is that Stable Tech has been making trips there nonstop for the last few weeks, each time I pick them up they load a lot of cargo and tell me to make it out as fast as the train will go. To be honest again with you I would much rather stay away from the place, it's still a radioactive wasteland with bands of thieves living there along with raiders who I am always on the lookout for, they scare the hell out for me when they ask to check my cargo, but a saving grace is the fact that Stable Tech travels with armed guards at all times and that often detours the raiders from even getting close to my baby. The only thing I have been able to figure out is that Stable Tech has picked up activities there ever since Blood Flank was killed this strikes me as odd since they had no real set times as to when they would go, but now they go on a weekly basis although why I have no clue, if it were me I’d stay the hell out of there. The radiation levels have stripped the paint off my train and I am forced to wear a radiation suit within 5 miles of the place. I know for a fact that the city used to be a beautiful place where almost a million ponies lived and now there isn’t a living soul anywhere to be found with the exceptions of the bands of gangs and raiders, why such a cool place to live and enjoy one’s self was ever destroyed I’ll never get, I do understand that it had become a major hub for the e.l.f in the first war and that the commander that gave the order felt he had no other choice, it would have been a slaughter had he sent any pony in to the place because it had been heavily fortified and it would have turned into a bloodbath for both sides. The first war now makes a hell of a lot more since to me though since having to bring the Stable Tech ponies there though, I have been able to only talk to one that I have gotten to know quite well and you know drunk ponies, as soon as they are nice and lose so are their lips. As it turns out, the fallout shelters under the city actually house many ponies who now live under the ruins of the city. On one trip there in particular I asked this pony if he would show me these underground shelters and he not only did that but he introduced me to the leader of it and even had me spend a night there since raider activity was high at the time and it wasn't safe for me to pull out of the city. If you have any real questions pertaining to stable tech id suggest talking to some of them, I’ll stay here for a couple of hours while you talk to them if you like."

I pressed him for anymore information he might have had knowing that eventually we would all be making our way there and he really had no more other than what he had given me already and the fact that Manehatten had an underground rail system that he would never in his life take again thanks to almost being killed by mutated creatures that had taken refuge in the tunnels under the city, it made since that creatures would mutate due to the high levels of radiation throughout the place. I then went to look for one of the Stable Tech ponies to gather any and all information he would freely give up to me. I found one in the saloon already pretty fucked up and talking his ass off about nothing in particular so I took the opportunity I was now given to talk to him. I trotted over to the bar where he was and instantly caught his eye so he bought me a drink which I gladly drank.

"Well hi there stranger you must be new to this town allow me to introduce myself, I am Ruby and you are?" He told me his name was Digger and that he was one of the ponies that helped dig the shelters and that he was on his way to Manehatten to which I replied, why would you want to go to such a place and that if it were me I would stay as far from the place as I could, trying to get him to tell me any and all he knew about the place.

"Well my pretty you obviously haven’t been there have you? If you had then you would know that even though yes the city is in ruins there are several underground shelters throughout the place and those are quite nice to be in, they are governed individually from any outside influences making laws a lot more easy to keep up on the equestrian government system has failed causing a power vacuum of sorts within the land I’m sure you have noticed this am I right? Well when the first war broke out in Equestria we were already up and running you see we had advanced knowledge that something was about to happen thanks to our being in the know with both Luna and Celestia. Stable Tech was formed originally with one intent, and that was to provide ponies with a safe place to stay in the event of any bombing in any place no matter the city or town we would go there and build shelters at no real cost to the government, it was a very lucrative business and we were approached by not only the government but the e.l.f as well to provide them with underground facilities in which to hide from enemy's and to do top secret research and development on some of the technology you see in today’s battle field including the armor you see the n.l.r.s.p wearing. I have worked for stable tech almost as long as it has been around and to be honest I would much rather be in the heat of battle then having to fill out reports all day long and deal with asshole over ponies of these now out of control shelters in Manehatten. That is why we are on our way there in fact, one of the over ponies of our biggest one there has gone mad with power and has cut any and all communication with Stable Tech off, we travel with our own military forces to solve such problems, often times having to replace the over pony of the place with one of our own pony's and bring order to the place once more. Speaking of which I have noticed you have a lot of military looking ponies with you in this bar and the fact that you are wearing oak clusters, you're a major aren’t you?" To which I said yes.

"Interesting I thought so but wasn't going to say anything, hmmm in that case we are always looking for ponies to join our special forces team and it just so happens that we have a bit of a situation. You see we have lost touch with one of our shelters in Saltlick city and seeing as ponies have basically been banned from ever going there by the griffons maybe you could act as a mercenary group to uhhm gain access to that shelter, by force if need be. I know the stories of Scar and how he has fallen off the radar ever since the death of the one pony he trusted with any information and that no pony has heard from him ever since that but something tells me that if you can find and talk to him about the possible bad situation there he may understand that we don’t wish to invade but rather find out just what the hell is going on in that shelter. It would be greatly rewarded with one of our non used shelters in the city they come fully stocked with an armory medical unit chow hall you name it is like home, and it would be all yours if you did this for Stable Tech. Of course such a request should be slept upon we plan on being in Manehatten for about a month and if we haven’t heard anything from the shelter in Saltlick city by then I may just come looking for you to help Stable Tech out.

As for Stable Tech's involvement with the n.l.r, it is a sad thing to have to deal with them. You see dealing with the e.l.f was bad enough but we got paid really well by them where as now with the n.l.r we don’t see a dime until our work for them is done. A lot of the cargo we pull out of Manehatten is material we are trying to keep out of the hooves of the n.l.r and moving it to a secure underground facility in the heart of Caulifornia in the middle of the Mojave desert far from the reach of the n.l.r the vast majority of the stuff is simply old worn out parts from the shelters, however since Blood Flank was killed we have had to start moving weapons grade plutonium from a nuclear power plant there that the e.l.f was using as a facade to come up with its very own nuclear weapon, a few of which have not been accounted for since the beginning of all of this new situation with the rise of the n.l.r and Luna's government takeover. With no Celestia to be seen anywhere any pony who now works for Stable Tech also works on a fringe agreement with the n.l.r that being if any weapons grade plutonium comes up missing from this facility Stable Tech will be held fully responsible for what the n.l.r considers war crimes against Equestria and comes with a sentence of death, however after seeing how the e.l.f made themselves known to all as the n.l.r with the perfectly executed ruse of attacks on Equestria on the second anniversary of the end of the first war, we at Stable Tech had a bout of conscious thought as to where the nukes came from and most if not all of us made a vow to have all of the rest of the plutonium removed from the secret research labs under the power plant so that no more nukes could be used against Equestria. Stable Tech is not just a government pawn anymore we help ponies now whereas before it was all about the money and quick payment, however after Manehatten was blown off the maps by the very same product that we all thought was powering the city Stable Tech no longer wanted anything to do with building shelters or research labs for the now n.l.r, several ponies were tried for not following government orders and were executed for their acts and I lost several close friends. Well young filly I have got to be going but stay in touch ok, we just may end up calling upon you for a bit of help."

information as to what exactly is in manehatten, rare insight into stable tech, and a request from stable tech- part 2

DATE- CLASSIFIED
TIME- IRRELEVANT

I wanted more information as to any and all he knew and knew he was holding some back. Smoky was in the bar as well with us and I knew that either this pony was trying to get away from answering anymore of my questions, or the initial thoughts he had of me were now fading. Going with the latter thought I motioned for Harmony to join us hoping that having a new reason to stay and chat would loosen up his muzzle a bit more. Harmony quickly set to work turning on her usual charm trying to get Digger to open up a bit more and it worked perfectly.

"You never said you had a cute friend with you, hi there I am Digger and I work for Stable Tech" it was way too easy for us to make Digger give up all he knew, all it took was a few drinks Harmony throwing on an extraordinary amount of charm and he was all ours in fact if we wanted to know where Celestia was, if he knew he would more than likely have drawn us a map to exactly where she was. Our charm was now going to be used in any situation we would ever find ourselves in from now on and we were going to show the mares, and filly's in our group just how to get what they wanted as well.

As it turned out Manehatten was being used as the first of its kind self run lab for Stable Tech, meaning there was no over pony in the biggest one and that he had made a mistake earlier in saying that they were having a problem with the over pony but instead meant they were having a problem with the mainframe of the shelter itself and that it had taken it upon itself to start to make calculated killings of what it assumed were non vital ponies and that something had happened with the life support systems of the place and it was in all reality becoming a tomb for those inside. If they couldn’t over ride the system they were going to have to make a major choice in blowing it up from the inside killing all who remained alive inside, I could tell that he had a bad feeling in his gut that it would have to come down to that due to the fact that the shelters were all equipped with radiation detectors that were meant to keep the doors to the places shut until none was detected but that in the cases of having to inspect or do checks to them they all had an over ride to bypass this setting and that only the over pony could authorize such an action, however in this case the over pony was in fact the system itself and all attempts in the past had failed to bypass the detectors. If this time failed they were going to have no choice other than to blow it up basically killing hundreds of ponies due to a dumb computer taking on the role of a basic god. I was going to ask him why they felt they needed such an experiment when he came out and told us both the reasoning behind it.

"When stable Tech first started we had no real idea as to what kind of company we were going to be, were we going to be a supplier of a basic shelter or were we going to be making places that ponies were going to eventually live for extended periods of time. The answer pretty much fell from a clear bright day in Manehatten with the very first ever nuke being dropped in Equestria. For us it became a gift of salvation due to the fact that we knew that the war was ending soon and we would lose our government contract if bomb shelters were no longer going to be necessary where as now we had a new mission, knowing that with a nuclear attack came the need for fallout shelters we quickly set to work figuring out every possible thing that would be needed for such an endeavor, from how long ponies would have to stay in the shelters, how many ponies they would house, what the layout of them would be, and last but not least who would be qualified to run them.

"You see we had originally thought that a single pony could run the shelters all by themselves along with a bit of supporting help, but we weren’t sure as to how to properly train them or see if they were fit to take on such responsibilities so our first ever shelter in Manehatten became our first real test. Oh sure at first everything went well what with the making ponies feel at home and all but soon after the initial first few days things started to go wrong, there were laws in place yes but they weren't being followed and soon the place was in utter chaos. Ponies were getting out of hoof and the over pony assigned to take control was quickly overthrown leaving the place in well, chaos. That was our first real problem from there we learned to do background checks on any and all ponies coming in to the shelters from then on, a strict screening process was put into place soon after and if any pony had a criminal background they were not permitted access to the shelters. That helped a lot but we wanted to see what we could do to eliminate the need for an over pony seeing as ponies get old and cannot perform their duties and eventually die, so we developed a program that would replace the need for an over pony all together. We put the system in place in Manehatten getting rid of the over pony and it actually worked perfect for about a year, but like all things in life something went wrong and now the system has malfunctioned. If we cannot gain control of the place we will be forced like I have said, to blow the shelter up to prevent a complete system failure we hope that we are able to do so but another bad thing is that these shelters are equipped with a complete military all their own to prevent a reoccurrence of what first happened in the first shelter. The military aren't related to any government agency and act on their own with orders from the over pony, which in this case happens to be an out of control computer.

At least the shelter in Saltlick city is run by an over pony and if need be he can be taken out, where as in this case the military is being directed by the computer. As far as the possible favor to Stable Tech from you, as I have also said we plan on being in Manehatten for a month. If we haven’t heard anything from that shelter by then we will call upon you to take care of the situation. Stable Tech has been watching all of your actions from the taking of the Neighvada state prison to the execution of Blood Flank don’t think that we are simply sitting by and not paying attention to things going on around Equestria, we are and you ponies have grabbed our attention, enough so that I am willing to freely share some valuable information in to Shattered Hoof Ridge. Yes it may be our biggest project that we have done but that being said it is also our strongest and most armed project, it was originally meant to be a shelter to protect the entire city of Las Pegasus but was quickly turned into a facility used by the e.l.f in the war as a r.n.d lab along with a basic military post underground. Stable Tech has nothing to do with the place any more ever since the e.l.f proved who in fact they really were we have turned our backs on the place and really would rather see it destroyed than in the hooves of the n.l.r sad to say but true. There is a silver lining to everything in life and in this case there is a back way in, not too heavily guarded and hopefully unknown to the n.l.r it is in an old silver mine in the hills to the west of the entrance about 10 miles, Shattered Hoof ridge Takes up the entire Silver Mountain range it is huge and can house up to 50,000 occupants at one time it is self sustaining with a working farm schooling system hospital along with almost anything any pony could ever want or need. It is sad to know that in our haste to make money during the first war we let our greed get the best of us and allowed the place to fall in to the hooves of the now n.l.r and like I have said we would rather see the place destroyed than a base for them.

I’m also going to let you in on something else, I am sure you know about the mines under the Canterlot Castle. Well those are now gone and have been replaced with a shelter if Canterlot is wiped off the maps the royalty of Equestria will be safe and able to still run the land or at least what will remain of it seeing as the n.l.r are hell bent on taking over the land in the name of Princess Luna. Celestia only knows who the real winner of all of this will be but knowing that there are ponies like that Major Read along with Grey Hoof and you I think the n.c.e has a fighting chance in this and that through it all Equestria can learn from it and grow stronger and more unified rather than falling apart, as it stands right now for all the wrong Stable Tech has done in the past we have seen the error of our way's and are now in the process of fixing those errors if it takes a life time we will make things right I Pinkie Pie swear it."

I couldn't believe my ears at all I had just listened to and was in utter shock at it all. The very ponies who built Shattered Hoof Ridge now wanted it taken out rather than to see it as a base of operations for the n.l.r and I had a feeling that they would call on us to do it for them, that part didn't bug me though. What really got to me was the fact that even in the beginning of all of this they could have been saving several million ponies but instead had made arrangements with the enemy of Equestria and had justified it. I was happy to hear that they soon regretted that choice, but that regret had come too late for a lot of ponies and all it would have taken was a simple no on the arrangement with the e.l.f but all they saw were dollar signs. I wasn't sure if I wanted to kick the living shit out of him or sympathize with him so I just ordered another drink for all of us and kept him talking, I figured if he was willing to put his life on the line and leak such valuable information as to what Stable Tech really was up to and how they were trying to make up for past mistakes that he was a pawn in a big chess game as we all were.

"You along with all of Stable Tech seem to have kind and caring hearts, we all have done things in life we regret however it is how we deal with those that makes one who they truly are and you ponies all seem to know what you have done wrong and want to fix it all. That is admirable to say the least I wish you all the best of luck in saving those ponies in that shelter and I know you will be able to do so, also going back to your request about the shelter in Saltlick City sure we will help you out if needed, I’ll let Smoky know to keep you updated as to where we go so you can stay in contact ok. Again good luck to you all and any time you need any help we’ll see what we can do to help you out, now go save those ponies for us." I along with Harmony gave him a kiss and watched him get on the train and looked at each other with tears in our eyes. "Wow and I thought some of the stuff we have gone through was tough, gees I don't know if I could ever deal with the possibility of having to potentially kill hundreds of ponies just to in all reality save them from a slow and horrible death." Harmony said to me as we trotted back to the saloon for a much needed drink.

"I know what you mean Harmony but if any pony can do that and do it successfully it is him, I know he has a kind heart and is only doing the best he can to put the past right and if any pony deserves to have things go right for him it would be him and his team." When we both got back to the bar we both raised a toast to Digger and his team and wished them good luck on their task ahead and proceeded to get drunk and come up with ways we could deal with the n.l.r in the town.

Now drunken ideas are often lame and to be honest foolhardy to say the least, needless to say a lot of the ideas thrown around that night were both of those along with just plain stupid. They ranged from just trotting into the sheriff’s office and killing them all to somehow turning them to our side in what could only in my opinion be described as deviant ways which I quickly threw out the window knowing just what that would require. I even came up with the thought of ambushing them in a situation where they would have to play the law enforcement role, to my surprise that idea won the night and a lot of drinks.

We now had an idea but it was just that, an idea. Putting it into practice would require some planning on our part and in our state of mind that would be a non event right now, we were so far gone that the bar owner just let us pass out where we fell and locked up after closing, something that I noticed was becoming a continuous thing for us and a bad thing to be honest. Yes we all deserved to enjoy ourselves but at what cost? It seemed like anywhere we went and not just us but the major and his group as well, we would all end up sleeping at a bar or wherever we happened to fall for the night. I was going to talk to every pony about it soon anyway so I just pushed the thought out of my head and took another shot of apple whisky knowing that I would hate myself in the morning but not really caring.

Reliving my life in 2 alcohol induced days

DATE- CLASSIFIED
TIME- IRRELEVANT

Well here we all were again in a situation we all had been in several times in the past only this time I really was fucked up, I had drank so much that I was on the edge of passing out which I would have done already had it not been for this shot I had wrapped in my magic which I quickly took. Now having just done that I wanted to die, I had not drank so much in my life and started to feel light headed not a fun feeling at all let me tell you. The last thing I remember was sitting at a table playing cards with Black Widow, Grey Hoof, and Harmony then nothing but blackness.

"No daddy I can’t do it, I just can’t swim I have tried to several times but I sink like a rock I won't do it and you can't make me. Only if you promise me I will not sink I will get in the water with you ok, "YAY I DID IT, I CAN SWIM LIKE A BIG PONY MOMMY WOULD BE SO HAPPY WOULDN’T SHE DADDY?" "Ok Ruby I am going to give you something that I had as a little colt ok, now you have to be very careful with this ok." What is it daddy I want to know please tell me is it an early present for my birthday?" "Close your eyes and no looking ok, now feel for it with your magic, I honed my magic skills doing this very same thing, if you can learn to feel using you're magic rather than your hooves life will go so much easier for you ok Ruby, I want you to remember this it is important ok." "Ok daddy I’ll try, hmm I feel a wood part, some metal, hmmmm, is it your old BB gun?" "Very good Ruby wow I am impressed as would be your mother you are growing up so fast it seems like only yesterday I was holding you in my hooves and changing you, now you are almost 10 years old, my how time goes by."

"Wow dad they elected you as mayor huh, congratulations it's about time they recognized you for all you have done for every pony here, I mean ever since this stupid war started they have complained way too much about not having proper leadership in this town and now they have it." "I have become quite a shot with that old BB Gun of yours dad you have to admit it I just want to be a part of the town defense team, I mean come on most if not all of my friends have gone off and joined the eqng, leaving me with no ponies to hang out and talk to but you, not being rude but I am almost 15 years old ok I am old enough to be able to take this responsibility on and you know it." "No Ruby you are too young to be on gate guard it is a dangerous job maybe in a couple of years ok, besides I need you to help me run my office that is more important right now because we are a major stopping place for any ponies escaping the e.l.f and if anything happens to the office of mayor all heck will break loose and you know that as well as I do so just wait a couple of years ok."

"Well Ruby you are now 17 years old my how time flies, well seeing as this war seems to be dragging on and Manehatten has been wiped off the face of Equestria the time has come for you to take on the responsibility of gate guard I know you have wanted to do this for quite some time and this is your shot at it ok, don't let me down ok Ruby." "Thank you dad, you will not regret this I will be the best gate guard there has been yet just watch I won't let you down."

"Oh my sweet Celestia I just had to make my first kill to be honest dad I don't know how I should feel I mean I did prevent an e.l.f raid but I also killed another pony in doing so, I am so confused dad I don’t think I want to be a gate guard anymore." “You are fine Ruby being a gate guard is a tough job like I told you before and now you have just had to do your duty to Bitter Creek I just hope you remembered all the training I gave you with that hunting rifle of yours and took your time on the shot, I am not concerned about the fact that you feel bad to be honest I know it sounds mean and cold hearted but you have done your job and that is all now take the rest of the day off ok go gather your thoughts and come see me when you are done ok, we have something to discuss ok."

"Wow really no way dad you a part of the resistance what about the town won't that put us in the crosshairs of the e.l.f? I mean won't that add to what we have been trying to avoid all this time and allow for more mercenaries to just come trotting in to our town and make it a target?" “Yes in a way we will be defeating all we have worked for but think about it Ruby this will increase the town income and Celestia knows that would be a good thing for all of us, plus it would make the town a bit safer as well seeing as you are now in charge of the gate team and haven't lost a single member yet I figure you could create your very own gate unit as your own team not just have the names drawn every morning, it would be your first real command in a role I know you are well suited for, what do you say Ruby?” “I am at a loss for words dad I mean wow that means a lot to me to know that you think so highly of me and I will not let you down in this new role of mine I promise."

"Great just bucking great my second week in command and Trixie and Gilda are killed, I am happy don't get me wrong dad but what does this mean for my team and I? Are we done or can we continue the gate guard I mean with the end of all of this will come new threats such as spies, rouge mercenaries with no real jobs to do anymore what are we going to do to protect ourselves from those situations dad?" Ok,, ok Ruby I get your point wow I trained you well I was going to ask you what should happen with the gate guard but wow you truly are a leader I am very proud of you."

"Well here we are 2 years after the end of the war with the e.l.f and a lot has been done we live in a hill my daughter is the head of the gate unit and so far has not lost a single pony under her command and I am an official member of the resistance all in all the past few years have grown us all and I hope the next few treat us all kindly no,,,,, what Ruby what is so important that you feel the need to interrupt me in the middle of my,,,,,, Holy sweet Celestia no fucking way, really? Mares and colts something has just happened in Haywaii i don’t usually do this in the middle of a speech but I am turning on the TV ok."

"Ruby grab your gear and get to the gate, the rest of you ponies it looks as though the resistance has just become a military, gather all you can from the weapons stores and meet me at town hall it is going to be a long night be on alert for anything."

"Stop right there and show me your hooves, and horns any pony thinking about crossing in to our land with such a vast amount of weapons must be,,,, DAMN IT THEY ARE FIREING AT US, QUICK RETURN FIRE AND GET TO COVER damn it all to hell why did I let Buck have the day off he is our sniper but no he just had to be sick today, just bucking wonderful. Well I don't plan on losing any ponies today so I hope that we can hold I mean this is a fairly small unit of them so it should be an easy fight especially since we have the whole town behind us, if need be I can send for my dad but I doubt that will be necessary"

"Who in the hoof are all these ponies that have just come from nowhere and who’s side are they on, I mean yeh they just made short work of the n.l.r and are taking one of them in to town for questioning but where did they all come from and are they staying in town or are they just passing through? The one calling himself Major Read is kind of cute maybe I will introduce myself to him, after all I am somewhat of a welcome wagon all my own."

waking up, and putting together a plan of action against the n.l.r- part 1

DATE- CLASSIFIED
TIME- IRRELEVANT

I was remembering almost my entire life while at the same time apparently throwing my guts up at the same time, I made my choice right then and there to stop drinking so heavy I mean after 2 days of being passed out dry heaving and wishing I was dead it was no longer worth it to continue to drink so much and in all honesty I wanted to tell every pony I was with the same thing but chose not to at this time, they were all adults even if some were young adults.

Now wasn't the time for that it was time for gathering ourselves and putting together a plan of action against the n.l.r and a plan that would guarantee our safety at the same time I really wasn't in the mood to kill any ponies if I didn't have to so we had to come up with a plan that didn't involve doing so, one that instead would give me a chance to talk to them and try to make them chose between being killed or joining us. The idea I came up with 2 nights ago seemed like a reasonable plan to be honest and it would give us the element of surprise and the upper hoof on the n.l.r, so we set to work on just how we would go about making this plan work to our advantage without putting any of us in danger or in harm’s way.

As most plans go there was a lot of discussion as to who would put all of this in to action, who would all be involved in this plan, what it would in tale in terms of weapons, or no weapons, what would happen if shit hit the fan things like that. I really hadn't planned anything like this before and this was all new to me so I let Grey Hoof hammer out the details on all of the logistics and I would focus on who was going to be involved in this operation and a backup plan if all of this went to hell. meanwhile Harmony and our dog were outside on the lookout for any n.l.r coming our way and the rest of the ponies in my group were in town gathering as much Intel as they could gather form the town on just how big the n.l.r unit in the town actually was, this would help in our planning and would give us a number as to how big my team would have to be and how armed they would have to be too.

We all agreed on one thing for sure and that was that if any ponies refused to join us they would have to die, there was no way around it I wished to Celestia that there was but there simply wasn't we would have to kill them to prevent them from escaping and warning other towns across Equestria about us that was a given. Grey Hoof was already talking about having me and Harmony stay out of this one but I quickly told him it'd be best to have us involved in it due to our way of putting our charm to great use in the past and he just smiled at Harmony and laughed, "oh yeh i forgot about your charm you 2 fillies and just how it saved a few lives in that mountain pass, ok you 2 are in. Major Read told me about that by the way and I must say you do have a way with words." So it was official we would be in on this now we just had to figure out just what this was, we had a good plan but no real way of execution for it yet, I thought about talking to the local bank about staging a mock robbery but thought better when I saw the place, it would have been a death trap for all of us being so tight and cramped. The other thought I had was to make it look as though there was a fire somewhere but seeing as it was so dry out lately that would be a bad idea as well we would have to somehow break the law bad enough to have the n.l.r feel they had no choice but to show up in force so we could gain control of them all at once but how would we do it? Black Widow had an idea that involved pony napping an n.l.r member and holding him ransom until they showed up to collect the pony, it sounded like a good idea and it would give us the upper hoof seeing as if we had one of them they would be more willing and likely to sit and talk instead of fighting. That being said we would have to avoid having any of us pony napped at the same time, something that could very well happen if we weren't careful about what we were doing and where we were at all times so I made a mental note to hold an emergency meeting with my entire group and tell them all to not go anywhere without a partner.

Later that night I called every pony into the mayor’s office for a quick meeting and made it a mandatory meeting at that, I wanted all of them to know just how dangerous this was going to be and wanted all of them to be aware that we were planning to pony nap an n.l.r pony within the next few days. "If any pony feels the need to go anywhere please do so in pairs and make sure you are armed ok, this is going to be a very tense time for all of us and if any of you are put into a situation where you don't feel right take note of that feeling as it may just save your life. Now here is Grey Hoof to talk to the team that will be responsible for pony napping the pony we are looking for."

"Thank you Ruby, now remember what she has just said and keep it close all of you. Now on to what we have planned for the leader of the n.l.r unit in town. We know for a fact that they have taken the sheriff’s office over and play the law enforcement role if they feel the need to. That will be their mistake in this operation of ours. We plan on making some sort of ruckus to make the n.l.r come out in force, it is then that a team of ponies will make their move and grab the leader and take him to an undisclosed location for interrogation. While all of this happens we will have a team in place for any emergency’s that may arise including air support by our Special Forces team and ground support from the same team. In the event that something happens we have permission from the town to do anything necessary to avoid having the town be overrun by the n.l.r and will be on standby with launch codes to the nuclear arsenal, Smoky is on standby to evacuate the town as well. We are hoping that it won't have to come to that though and are in fact hoping that after the interrogation of the leader that they are able to convince the rest of his unit to join us, in all honesty I am looking forward to this mission it will give us all a chance to do something worthwhile instead of just sitting in the saloon and drinking our lives away. If any pony has a question now is the time to ask them there will be a meeting tomorrow to chose who will be in each team, our special forces ponies along with the ponies in Black Widows unit are already in the know on this and have already started to do some training I would suggest that the teams selected for their roles in this train as well. Now here is Ruby again to say something else that she wants to get out in the open."

"Thank you Grey Hoof and we will set to work on training as soon as this meeting is out, now on to something I have wanted to talk about that has been bothering me lately. I know that saloons and bars are excellent places to gather Intel on anywhere we go. However that being said I think it is about time we refrain from drinking so much that we pass out where we happen to be at the time, i.e. at the bars or saloons. Look I like to drink as much as the next pony but you all have to face it, it has gotten out of hoof lately especially 2 nights ago when I passed out for 2 days. That was a wakeup call to me to cut it down and that is what I am doing, from now on any pony caught completely wasted while in a town or anywhere we happen to be will be pulling watch for the next week with me, and I like my sleep so I will not be in a good mood. This will be reiterated any time we end up in a town with a bar or saloon so soak it in all of you."

The meeting went on for about another hour and after it we all had an idea of sorts about what exactly was going to take place, and we all left with a since of accomplishment to be honest. Training did start right after the meeting with a live fire exercise to hone our night firing abilities along with enhance team cohesion seeing as each pony that happened to be firing at the time was being spotted by another who would tell the one using the weapon to adjust their sights accordingly.

waking up, and putting together a plan of action against the n.l.r- part 2

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The night went fairly slow due to all of us having to train and when the sun finally did come up we were all ready to basically go to bed, that however would not be an option seeing as we would have to hold our meeting to see where all of us would fit in this upcoming task and who would end up doing what. Grey Hoof was already in meeting mode when Harmony and I came in to the mayor’s office where Black Widow and her group were already eating and chatting amongst themselves. "There is fresh coffee and some food here we are just waiting for some ponies to get done putting their gear away and we will start when they get here. I honestly didn't expect you and Harmony to be such amazing shots I must say you both surprised me, of course I am sure a lot of it has to do with Major Read and his extensive training schedules at times am I right?" He asked with a chuckle knowing the answer.

"Sorry Grey Hoof it took a bit of time to make sure everything was put away and make sure all weapons were clear, we are here now so let’s get this meeting going." Black Velvet said as she trotted in to the room with another pony. "Ok well we all know what the plan is but what we are not sure on is just what role every pony is going to play in this operation so that is why we are here this morning. I know for a fact that all the leaders and co leaders will have a role but I am not too sure just how big our backup force should be for the actual pony napping, I know that we can overwhelm the n.l.r in the confusion of a ruckus just as was done in Canterlot with the killing of Blood Flank. All leaders will take their groups and have them stand in formation I guess we could have names in a hat or something but I think that a pt test will be better, that way we can see just who will be placed where i.e. fast runners will be part of the pony napping team for the speed, fast flyers will be used for quick air support, and so forth.

The Special Forces are already training as you all know and will only be used in the event of something going wrong otherwise they are not going to be involved in the actual event. The go codes for the nuclear arsenal are on standby and in the event of the town being overrun by the n.l.r we will evacuate the town and be forced to nuke it rather than have it fall into n.l.r hooves but we do not foresee anything like that happening so,, yeh, any way’s the pt test will be taking place tomorrow morning so if I were any of you I would get as much sleep as I could, something that we all will be doing so I am going to follow my own advice as well.

Now we do not have a set schedule for this to all take place but we want to take care of it before they prove just what they are really doing here, if that happens before we can’t stop it we will have all failed our mission, not only that but we may as well already have killed all the mares and fillies in town so we must get it taken care of soon because if all hell breaks loose before we do this I already have permission to stop the n.l.r at any cost meaning the town will be put on full lock down and no pony will be allowed to leave without proving who they really are to me and my unit, he wanted you to know ruby, but he thought you had enough on your hooves in the planning of this operation so he made me the one responsible for the protection of Appleloosa in the event of the n.l.r proving why they are really in town before we can stop it. That being said quick, precise, and stealth are the name of the game in this one ponies so let’s make it a good mission. Now we have the rest of the day for yakking about all of this but now it is time for some food so let’s break for now and meet back in a few hours ok? Let’s see the time right now is 1100 so we will meet back here at 1300 every pony got that? Now if there isn’t any more to be said I am starving and want to eat any pony else feel the same let’s see a show of hooves,, ha ha ha ha just kidding. I am not even going to start with the whole military thing so I’m just going to say this, GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE AND LETS EAT." Grey Hoof's last words made the room burst out in laughter and with that we were all leaving with huge grins on our faces laughing still.

We all went to the local diner where we,, we being the leaders and co leaders of the groups of ponies we were in charge of were going to have a meeting all our own about just what we were going to do with the n.l.r leader and where we would keep him while the arrangements were made to stop the n.l.r unit. We all thought about keeping him in Neighvada in the solitary confinement cells of the prison but thought better of it when I realized that the very ponies that had killed Blood Flank were in fact at the prison and if the n.l.r got wind of our plan every pony in the prison would be in danger. "Well there are some un used rooms at mare mar deep underground those could work the only issue would be transporting him there, Smoky would need a lot of security and to be honest we already have a sizeable force in town as it is, maybe we can have them travel with him on the train as an added security force. I am sure he wouldn't mind having the added muscle and besides they would provide excellent security for the transport team as well so I think it is agreed then right? We are going to send word to Smoky of our plans, and give him use of some of our extra forces until we need them ok I think that would be best for now seeing as things as of late around Equestria have driven most ponies to do desperate things including train robbery or worse."

Harmony had a great point and to be honest the only plan that would make perfect since to any of us so we went with it, after all it was Harmony and none of us wanted to get on her bad side for disagreeing with her seeing as she was kind of a short fuse at times, though none of us have seen this yet we all knew it was there. We knew because of the way she took command of the 10 ponies who attempted to take over the train in the mountain pass; she had been the one to save them all at the objection of most of the entire train. They all wanted to kill them but Harmony had seen the way they worked together and wanted them alive as her own protection detail, even to this day they were still very loyal to her and would take a bullet for her at the drop of a hoof. The meeting of ours went on for an hour over a bit of wine and food and we all enjoyed getting to chat with each other when out of nowhere Dinky showed up at the diner in her post mare uniform. "Hey every pony hope I am not interrupting your meal, if I am I ca,,,," "Interrupt what Dinky you’re like family now come here and sit with us. How have you been Hun it has been a long time hasn’t it?" We all looked at each other in confusion at the fact that Harmony knew Dinky, and by the sound of things very well and Dinky had no hesitation in sitting next to her and chatting with her basically cutting off our conversations.

"Ohh sorry every pony I’m sure you are all wondering how me and her know each other? Long story but nothing sexual or anything like that, just a simple day of mixed mail in Bitter Creek and the most professional mail mare ever,, with the exception being her mother. Anyways we got to talking about Major Read that day and it was almost a few weeks before my ordeal with the n.l.r so it is actually a good memory of that time leading up to that. She happened to deliver a parcel to the wrong address and I helped her find the right one we have been friends ever since. I already knew she was in the eqng, and the official mail mare for Equestria so I gave her my contact info we really haven’t seen each other for a while seeing as the last time I was in Canterlot and Ponyville we were on a mission. I invited her here because I know you have some information you would like to have sent to the e.c.i.a and I figure what better way to have it delivered safely than Equestria’s very own mail mare/ military courier. I know what Digger said Ruby but that information can sink or make Stable Tech, and I know that the e.c.i.a have the technology to be able to decode any and all information that may be missing. With all of this new information I am sure that if we were to fall in to enemy hooves they would torture us until we leaked it and just kill us afterword anyway. Besides you said yourself that you didn't want this information getting out, well what better ponies to take it than our trusted friends who have never shown any sign of betrayal at all." "I,, I don't know what to say Harmony I mean yeh I wanted the information kept safe but this, wow you are amazing yeh of course I will give the information to Dinky for transport to Mare Mar. You never fail to amaze me Harmony I am glad you are my second in command."

"Think nothing of it I just know when something important like that needs to be taken care of Dinky is one of the most trusted ponies’ to take care of it and that it will make it to where it needs to go. Now enough business chat lets all eat I know Grey Hoof is starving as are we all right? Dinky you are more than welcome to join us I mean since you are here anyways you may as well eat before having to head back to Mare Mar."

waking up, and putting together a plan of action against the n.l.r- part 3

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We all were chatting back and forth pretty much killing time before we had to return to the meeting and to be honest it was a fun time just getting to know every pony, Harmony was sitting with Dinky and they were just laughing about something none of us got since we weren’t there for the event in the discussion. I was just sitting back enjoying a bit of wine and conversation with Grey Hoof, we weren’t really talking about anything in particular rather just bullshitting pretty much. In all honesty we really didn't want to hold another meeting it seemed as though that’s all we had done since we got in to town and we were all sick of just talking about the same damn thing over and over, I asked Grey Hoof if we could just hold the pt test and call it that in the morning and he pretty much agreed knowing that he too was sick of meetings he basically told us all to go and enjoy our day. It wasn't that he was in charge so much rather we all had a role to play in the new lives we had been given thanks in large part to the n.l.r and the fact that we really had no real leadership other than Major Read who at the moment wasn't here to order us around, not that he really ever would unless he had to for the most part he was a relaxed leader and would let us all have a day off if there was nothing going on and since I was basically the leader of us all along with Harmony and Grey Hoof we all agreed that today would be a day off.

As we all got done eating I asked Dinky if she was in a hurry to leave town or if she could stay a while, she told me that she really had no plans either way but that she hadn't seen Harmony in quite some time and asked me if she was welcome to stay for a bit to which I simply laughed and told her that she always was welcome to hang out with us and that she in deed was like family to us all. Grey Hoof was already going his own way with Black Widow to who knows where but they did have their weapons in tow, as he was leaving he asked me to tell every pony that the pt test was still tomorrow and to try to avoid drinking if possible. I told him that the message would be delivered to them all and he took off to practice shooting with Black Widow. The diner was now empty except for Harmony, Dinky, and I so we just ordered some more wine so we could sit and chat about better times before all of this. We sat and talked for about an hour before Harmony of all ponies suggested that we all head back to our room at the local motel to which I being a basic bi curious pony pretty much squeed at the thought, Harmony simply gave me a seductive look along with Dinky, we paid for the meal along with the wine and bought a bottle for the room and left.

Now it wasn't that I and Harmony's relationship was strictly sexual or anything but when it came to certain things we just had our breaking point and seeing that we now had Dinky with us whom Harmony was already friends with, the natural course of things took hold besides it was only 1400 and we had plenty of time before dinner with Grey Hoof along with the rest of our 3 company's so we let the heat of the moment take hold of all 3 of us. Needless to say it was a wonderful time Harmony and Dinky went at it like animals where as I was more of a lover and very slow but thorough either way you look at it, it was fun. Dinky seemed as though she had already had some experience but I thought better than to ask where she got it instead I just enjoyed the love of my life and her friend for the time being. After we had our fun I invited Dinky to eat with us and to stay in town there was a few things that needed to be taken care of anyways at the post office in town the postmaster was sick and I knew that dinky could take on the responsibilities of the office for a while until the stallion was better and able to resume his duties. Dinky thought about this for no more than a minute and agreed to help out seeing as she hadn't really been in Appleloosa for a while she could get to know the post routs around the town along with develop a relationship with the post stallion for future business dealings.

The rest of our day was spent just going about the town and introducing Dinky to the post stallion of the post office, after that we took our dog out for a walk and just basically wasted time before dinner. The day besides the entertainment with Harmony and Dinky along with the meeting earlier really was a boring one to be honest. Boring day’s meant only one thing though, excitement soon. It had been proven time and time again throughout all of this and we all had the feeling that something big was about to happen, the problem was we had no clue what. For the time being however every pony just kept their thoughts and feelings to themselves and got ready to eat. We all met at the diner as was the new custom for us all and we all sat down. The diner was closed to the public and extra outside seating was added to accommodate the 3 companies of ponies that we all commanded. The owners didn't mind having to serve so many ponies though we were there to save the town from the n.l.r and they all were grateful to us for it.

the morning sandstorm and our introduction to buckshot's rangers- part 1

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As we all sat and started to eat all of the conversations were based around what every pony had done during the day off, and to be honest I was quite impressed with a few of them for actually taking it upon themselves to go to outlying places to gather any and all Intel they could get on the n.l.r in town and made a point of letting them know that they would get recognized for their acts in the morning. Other ponies had gone and done some shopping for ammo, and other supplies for any future movements we may have had to make, and still others just lounged around not doing much at all. I was very happy to hear that none of them had gone to the saloon or if they had it was just to talk to the locals and smoke a cigarette and play pool not to drink, so in that right I was a very happy commander in deed.

As we all ate and chatted amongst ourselves we all had that since of something was about to happen but no pony said a thing about it, it wasn't the time or place for it and besides the wind had started to pick up a bit and the waiters of the diner were having trouble trying to keep the tables outside from blowing away so I told a few of my ponies to help them out which they did with no argument at all the diners owners had in fact been so kind as to let us take over for the night and it was the least any of us could do for them and they were grateful for the help as we all knew they would be anyways.

As we all got done eating the wind was really howling and it was hard for any of us to even see a hoof in front of our faces, we knew that if the wind wasn't going to let up by morning we would not have the pt test but decided to hold a meeting anyways to see who would host what event in the pt test. We all gathered in a cafe out of the wind and cold and got to work on making the choices as to who would host what event, there were 3 events and 3 of us so the choice could have been easy for us but no, they turned it in to a joke. No pony wanted a certain event and it came down to drawing straws kind of foalish if you ask me but hey it was either that or hoof wrestling and I wasn't about to do that, after all I am a mare and we don't partake in such activities unless we have to. As the straws were being drawn some pony turned on the weather report for the night and following day basically putting any thought of a future pt test out of sight for the next week.

"Well there's our answer you ponies sounds like we are in for this wind for about a week so I guess the pt test is out of the question then to all of this foal like behavior, I for one am happy about this I mean look were we really going to hold a pt test to see which of our ponies would be involved in a mission? Kind of lame if you ask me I mean in any mission or task we do we should do it together, not separate if we stay strong and united we can never lose a fight but if we separate then things can happen and we don’t want that do we? I am glad for this wind it casts aside any thought of a pt test and gives us some clear thought as to exactly what we can use this wind for. MAYBE IT IS A GIFT IN DISGUISE DID ANY OF YOU THINK ABOUT THAT? I mean think about it we are planning to pony nap the n.l.r leader in this town right? What does blowing dust cause? Low visibility am I right think about it we pony nap him during a windy day and there we go the n.l.r will never know about it due to not being able to see problem completely solved right there."

Once again it was Harmony who was the voice of reason to bring us all back to the point of what we were in fact doing, she had taken on a whole new role in my company since she first joined the mercenary group of Major Reads and she was proving in fact to be a capable leader all her own. I knew what this would mean and I couldn't bring myself to admit it yet but she was ready for a command all her own meaning if need be missions all her own as well. I wasn't the only one to notice this either in fact every pony we had under us was thinking it as well or I wanted their thoughts to quit invading my mind. Now was not the time to be thinking such things, not when we had a task ahead and we all knew it. The same had been done with the note that the major had given me after the death of Blood Flank, Major Read had received the letter prior to the mission but had chosen not to give it to me until the mission was complete as would be the case in this as well.

Harmony's bit of rational thought had pretty much put an end to the need for a meeting and we turned the conversation to bed. We were all tired weather we wanted to admit it or not and we all needed sleep as well so we wrapped things up and said our good nights and went our separate ways for the time being

the morning sandstorm and our introduction to buckshot's rangers- part 2

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As we all went our own ways for the night the wind just continued to remind us of how bad it really was by blowing dust, pebbles and any lose items around the town making it difficult to even see what was in front of us. Me and Harmony managed to make our way back to our motel which took about 30 minutes due to being blown back 2 feet every time we gained 4 it seemed. The wind kept us both up all night just blowing harder and harder until we thought the town was going to be blown off the maps, it was about 0100 in the morning when we both got to sleep and in all honesty it was the worst sleep I or her had ever gotten. Dinky was in the room across the way from us and she couldn't sleep either but kind of had to since she would be taking over the post office in the morning so she just let herself drift off, whereas me and Harmony allowed for some fun before taking a shower and trying to go to bed again. A fruitless act to be honest seeing as it was almost 0500 by the time we remotely were ready for bed.

Since it was already morning and we had no plans for the day I let her sleep in and went to check on Dinky who was already getting her morning coffee in the breakfast area of the motel along with Grey Hoof and Black Widow who both looked exhausted like they hadn't gotten any sleep either. I was going to say something but thought better seeing as Black Widow had the ability to read minds and was already shooting me a glare for my thoughts that had escaped my head, I simply blushed a bit and quickly went to sit with Dinky hoping that I wouldn't think anymore thoughts about the subject.

Dinky seemed a bit nervous and kept looking over her shoulder at a group of ponies that had just trotted in to the dining area and had taken seats along a back wall. I looked them all over and saw that the only weapons they had were pump action shotguns and .44magnum revolvers, and I also noticed that they were all colts and unicorns. I looked back to Dinky who was in a hurry to get done eating and get the hell out of there in a hurry and asked her why she was afraid of these ponies. She told me that it wasn't the ponies that were making her nervous rather the fact that she would be taking on the responsibilities of an all new post office, and in fact that the colts were in her own words very handsome to look at to which I simply laughed and nudged her with a hoof to introduce herself to them, something I in fact was about to do they were indeed very handsome and I also hadn't seen them around before so I figured we both had a reason to talk to them. I pretty much had to drag Dinky over to them and she fought me the whole way there but when she got to the table of the leader her shyness melted away and she actually blew me away with the way she seemed to gain his attention just by talking about nothing in particular.

"Hi there I am Dinky Hooves of the Equestrian postal service, you need it delivered I am the mare who can get it there day, night wind, rain, whatever the weather I am always on the job, ohh sorry allow me to introduce you to my friend, this is Ruby of the n.c.e military she is a major in the n.c.e. I was in the eqng before it was disbanded and now pretty much am also in the n.c.e military as the official mailmare/courier. Anyways boys I have to get going but uhhm I will be off work at 1700 so maybe we can get together than huh?" Dinky had completely caught me off guard on that one, she in fact was a very persuasive mare and they all agreed to meet back here for dinner, with that Dinky trotted out the door and was gone leaving me alone with the leader of the group of stallions who called himself Buckshot.

"Your friend seems quite interesting to say the least and it is interesting that we should come across some former eqng ponies, I thought that Luna ordered all eqng members to report to Shattered Hoof Ridge, oh well just goes to show that some orders aint worth followin. Allow me to introduce myself properly, I am Buckshot and these are my rangers. We hunt down the n.l.r wherever they happen to be hiding out and we got wind of a cell in this town, but the way it looks things here are pretty much covered to say the least, I mean gees we went by the diner last night and wow that’s a mighty big group yal got there makes mine seem a mite small to be honest. Anyways we aint planning to be in town that long, we have to get back to Dodge junction to check on our families, or at least what remains of them. The n.l.r made a raid on the place about 2 weeks ago and to be honest we have been out of touch with any pony living there, I’m just hoping that we can make it there before all the towns ponys decide to leave and we have no ponys to go home to. Damn n.l.r raiders I got wind of the attack from a single pony who happened to be in the town passing through as a trader, he told us the killing was intense and that the only reason they didn't kill him was he managed to trade some food basically for life. We are on our way back from a mission in Detrot and were low on a few things when we happened upon this here town, the towns ponys have been real nice and have helped us a bit with supplies so we should be out of here this afternoon if all goes well."

the truth about buckshot, and a request from the n.l.r part 1

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I was going to ask him about any information about Detrot had just how the city had fared in all of this I knew some friends of mine that were from there and wanted to ask him if the city was ok along with the ponies in the city, he told me that everything was fine and that they had driven out a small force of n.l.r with no problem. Harmony asked him if it was a band of raiders that were in the city but Buckshot said that it was not them but a force of new recruits for the n.l.r, I wanted to ask him why it seemed that anytime the n.l.r was anywhere it was always a band of new recruits and not any real threats.and he was wandering the same thing.

"It seems as thought them n.l.r higher ups just don't get what real combat is if they did then we would at least get to see some real action with them every now and then, but nope they always send the new ponies with no experience and we end up in a stale mate not wanting to kill any of them due them just giving up and joining the resistance. I will never get it but i just hope to Celestia that they eventually give us a real fight one day, we are all a bit rusty to be honest and could use a real fight to hone our skills in combat."

I told him that we often would hold training sessions when we had down time and he looked at me in agreeably and shook his head. "We do that also and to be honest it really helps us out a lot, we will hold target practice and other events anytime we have down time as well. We did a lot in Detrot when we got done driving out the n.l.r but that was our last time doing it, that was almost a month ago though and we haven't done it recently. I was going to have my rangers do some before we left today but this wind is just not cooperating with my plans, damned wind."

"Yup this wind is a pain in the flank for sure i can't disagree with you on that Buckshot, we were going to hold a pt test today but this wind just wrecked our plans, it's fine though we just came up with a plan to pony nap the leader of the n.l.r in town while the wind was blowing so that we had the upper hoof on them, our plan should be put into action here soon enough and we can move on to other missions." Just as i got done telling Buckshot all of this Grey Hoof trotted up to us and asked me to talk to him outside so i excused myself and trotted outside to talk to Grey Hoof.

"Do you realize just who you are talking to Ruby or are you blind? Haven't you asked him why he is keeping his right shoulder pointed away from you? I saw it when he first entered the dining hall, he is an n.l.r stallion Ruby, more than likely counter intelligence by the look of it. They aren't just passing through either they are the brainwashing detail of the raiders and that can only mean one thing, that feeling we all got last night was correct, they are planning to make their move soon and we aren't ready for it at all gather every pony together and dont make it obvious that you now know just who Buckshot is ok, we will meet at town hall as soon as we are all gathered ok.

I was in complete shock at this, i hadn't noticed that he in deed was keeping his right shoulder pointed away form me yes he was in black but i figured it was just their uniform not the uniform of the n.l.r. DAMN IT RUBY HOW COULD YOU BE SO STUPID, YOU SHOULD HAVE REALIZED THAT SOMETHING WAS UP BUT NO YOU WERE OBLIVIOUS TO THE OBVIOUS, IT'S OK JUST GATHER YOUR THOUGHTS AND CALM DOWN" the thought in my head was absolutely right i had to calm down and think clear right now. "Well Buckshot i hope all goes well for all of you and good luck with all your future endeavors, watch out for the n.l.r they are everywhere these days." I said with a slight chuckle knowing now that he in deed was with the n.l.r after coming up to him from the right side and seeing the distinctive moon patch on his shoulder. He looked at me as though he was about to either shoot me, or say something to me so i stayed to end anything that might happen in the dining hall unbuttoning my holster to my colt.45 and getting ready to draw in if need be. Then he spoke, "i take it you now know what and who i am don't you? but what he didn't tell you was this, yes we do wear the uniform but that means nothing these days. If i wanted to kill you and your units i would have last night while you all were at the diner, however that is not what i want. We all have chosen sides in this war we are in yes, but to be honest we are the best of the best the n.l.r can give you and we have a favor to ask of you all. While we do serve Luna we don't all like the fact that Blood Flanks raiders are still active and making us all look bad. Don't get me wrong we are enemy's and you can tell me to buck off if you like, but this will be mutually beneficial to all of us if you do this for us. I didn't lie to you when i said we hunt the n.l.r down ok, we are hunting the same ponies to be honest, those raiders have gone way to far in their ways and must be stopped that is where I and my rangers come in to the picture. We hunt them and kill them simple as that yes the n.l.r is strong and we more than likely will soon face each other in combat, I hope not because to be honest i have nothing against any of you and wish we could have met in another life or time and been friends, i mean your friend Dinky will be crushed if she finds out the truth about us and to be honest I am hoping to still have that dinner with her if you don't mind. Anyway about the favor, we would like it if you in deed do kill the leader of the n.l.r in town don't waste your time on pony napping him the group he is with aren't the new recruits you have dealt with in the past, they are highly trained and are a splinter cell of the n.l.,r as are all the raiders and that is why they all must die, either by our hooves or yours doesn't matter to Luna as long as they die she will be happy her own words not mine."

I wanted to kick the living shit out of him right there in front of every pony there but thought better of it, yes Luna had started all of this but the raiders were a threat that needed to be dealt with and if Luna saw it then that must mean that she in some strange way that she cared for Equestria and so i pressed him for any and all he was willing to share with me as Grey Hoof came to sit with us due to me motioning for him to do so. "So let me get this straight, Luna the leader of the n.l.r and reason for all of this even happening in the first place is actually saying that she in some small way cares for Equestria but is still hell bent on it's destruction am i getting that right so far?" Buckshot looked at Grey Hoof in shock and simply said this to him. "Look to be honest i don't know what Luna's plans are she is very secretive on such things and second if things hadn't of happened the way they have yes a lot of ponies would still be alive today, but the fact remains the past and the future is the future if we allow those raiders to continue to do what they are doing in towns across Equestria there won't be an Equestria left for any of us to live in. Do you realize that all the nukes that went off during the second anniversary of the end of the war with the e.l.f were all set off by Blood Flank and his troops and that Luna was against the idea from the start but was talked into it happening by Blood Flank himself? Luna was shocked and thankful for his death at your and Major Reads hooves and made it a goal of hers to have you help her personally get rid of the raiders once and for all and tasked me with finding you and delivering this message to you in person for her. She in fact wishes to meet with you and your entire group of ponies and have a meeting to see if we can end all of this once and for all, what would you say to a meeting at Shattered Hoof Ridge with her and her commanders Ruby and Grey Hoof?

the truth about buckshot, and a request from the n.l.r part 2

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I looked at Grey Hoof and just stared at him for a minute thinking he was about to kick the living shit out of Buckshot when he spoke up finally. "Sounds to me as though we are being invited to the very place we were going to eventually end up anyway right? I mean as soon as we hear back from Digger we were going to be on our way either to Saltlick City or Manehatten depending on where we would be needed right Ruby, but this sounds like too good an opportunity to pass on I say we take it. After all Digger did say he would be gone a whole month right, so why not take advantage of this." Grey Hoof had a point I mean we were only in Appleloosa to rid the place of the raiders, and after we did that we really had no plans other than what we would be able to find in town or other places, but I did tell him that the choice would ultimately be up to Major Read and him alone, to which Buckshot agreed.

It was almost 0700 when Harmony decided to come downstairs and get something to eat when she noticed us around Buckshot. Now knowing her thoughts and feelings towards the n.l.r I didn’t know just what she was going to do, but she surprised all of us by trotting up to him and first slapping him, and telling him that was for being sick on the day of the n.l.r raid on the border, and second ordering him a drink. "Damn you buckshot why is it that anytime we see each other you are always surrounded by ponies, it is a common thing to see with you. I mean first you go off and join the n.l.r which my dad couldn't believe, and then you are found anywhere the raiders are. What are you hunting them down for what they have been doing and what they did to me in Detrot? If so I thank you, but wow give it a break the past is the past for Luna's sake. Oh sorry every pony this is the knucklehead that should have been on sniper detail the day we all met, had he been I think we all more than likely would never have met, I guess I owe him in a way for that. What is he telling you all about how he is in the n.l.r and has been hunting the raiders down, figures it was when I first encountered them and he was the one to make sure I was treated right by the n.l.r, we have been friends for a while now and he is a big part of the reason i can get along with the n.l.r. Most if not all of them know me I’m sure you noticed that with the n.l.r on the train before we got to Canterlot, and well I just wasn't expecting to see this ugly mug anywhere around here." She said with a chuckle, all of us just had blank faces and were looking at each other in shock that not only had she not tried to kill him, but they actually knew each other. It kind of did make since I mean she had been a member of the n.l.r for who knows how long before we met and it was obvious that she did know how to fight judging from the way she did at the border of Manetana. It was a bit of a scare that things could have gone the other way and it just so happened to be the day the sniper was sick, I looked at Grey Hoof and gave a weak smile at that fact and he just nodded back to me.

"Well I have to get going I’m going to see how Dinky is doing at the post office I’ll see you later you ponies, oh and yes we will all be there for dinner Buck count on it ok. I won't tell Dinky about who you really are I'll let you do that ok." With that I trotted out of the dining area of the hotel and was on my way to the Aplleloosa post office to check on Dinky. I made it there at about 0800 and trotted in to find her hard at work sorting both military and civilian mail with a big grin on her face when she saw me. "So tell me what Buckshot said, was he interested in us at all, come on spill it. Is he going to see us at dinner or no?" I started to tell her the truth but quickly gathered myself and told her that yes he was interested and that yes we would all be eating dinner together to which she squeed in delight. "We have to get hoovecures and a spa treatment before we meet him you know that right? I'm not going to meet him a sweaty mess form work I can tell you that for sure. After I get off we are both going ok and there is no arguing Ok!” All I could manage was a simple ok and nothing more kind of funny seeing as she was hell bent on being proper for this dinner considering what I Harmony and her had done not too long ago, but I figured id indulge her and just agreed to go with her.

I left the grey mailmare to her work and trotted out the door telling her I would be back when she got off work. I trotted back to the hotel and went to meet with my companions and let our dog out for the day and looking for Harmony to chat with her. "Well then Harmony you truly do surprise me every day I thought you were going to kill him to be honest, but just as I thought things were going to get ugly, you go and surprise him with a slap and a drink I am always in shock of you dear." "Thank you Ruby I have always had a way with ponies and it always comes in handy at times of course you already know that." She said to me with a chuckle to which I just gave her a kiss and went outside with our dog in the side yard of the hotel.

getting ready for dinner with buckshot, and having dinner with the n.l.r, part 1

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As we watched and played with our dog I thought back to better days, something I would often do when I had time to myself, Harmony could see that I was in a trance and gave me a slight kick and a kiss. "Snap out of it sweetheart you're fine I know you just get lost in thought sometimes but that's not going to help you, the past is the past and we can't change it." I looked at her and simply said to her that I knew that was the truth but I just wanted to have some time to myself, and her giving her a loving glance which she quickly caught and motioned for me to go upstairs with her. Knowing just what was on her mind and knowing that Dinky was still at work I gave in to my second in command.

As we got done with our fun I looked at the clock to see what time it was, and said I had to be at the post office in an hour, time was a strange thing these days sometimes it went slow but others it went by way too fast for its own good, for it was now just about 1600 and I had an hour before I had to meet Dinky. I kissed Harmony and trotted out of the room asking her if she wanted to join us to which she nearly squeed so loud I thought it was going to be heard all the way to Neighvada and motioned for her to join me. I along with Harmony went out the door with our dog again, this time we went to the post office to meet Dinky.

"Well then Dinky are you ready to do this, I mean it was your idea and I figured Harmony would wish to join us." 'Well then that sounds fun, shall we go then?" Dinky trotted out of the doorway of the post office followed by us and we were on her way to the spa for the treatment we all were looking forward to. We got there at 1630 and went inside to chat with the spa ponies who told us this one was going to be on the house and there would be no need for payment. "OH MY SWEET FUCKING CELESTIA!!" the spa was filled with steam and we all just melted it was a much needed break form planning, meetings and other garbage, I simply enjoyed the time off from any form of work and just chatted with my friends for an hour. After an hour I was indeed a new pony, I felt amazing and as though I could sleep all night long but it wasn't going to happen, more than likely it was going to become a drinking night and we all would get drunk, but I wasn't going to allow that to happen and was going to make that clear.

We all had a meeting in the little fillies room talking about the upcoming night, "now I don’t want tonight to turn ugly ok, if we do drink we will do it in moderation and if any pony decides to get out of hoof they will be dealing with me in the morning, after all aren’t we all still in the n.c.e aren’t we." The two mares looked at me and agreed, this will be a fun night Buckshot seems to be a very nice colt doesn’t he? If anything happens tonight it will just be in fun ok you 2 I want nothing to do with it ok." I had a sick feeling in my gut knowing just what and who Buckshot was along with Harmony, but Harmony had a huge grin on her face almost giving away the fact that she in fact knew him, but not saying anything incriminating.

All 3 of us met up at the town hall with the rest of the ponies we were in town with, and to see just how the Black Widows would react to the news that we would be having dinner with the n.l.r. "I am not a fan of this you ponies I mean you do know that the n.l.r is the enemy to us all right, if something happens I want to have my weapons with me while we eat ok. If anything happens trust me we will all have our weapons on hoof, but seeing as Harmony knows these ponies I think everything will be fine." I said back to her to which she agreed to eat with them.

Dinner was set for 1900 at the same place we had been the other day and the wind had at least died down and was no longer a problem. As we got close to the place it became apparent that there were going to be a lot of ponies there, almost 150 ponies were supposed to gather in the small place but they had the outdoor seating as well so it wasn’t all too bad. The night started fairly awkward with a few tense looks, and comments. I along with Grey Hoof put a stop to the situation by allowing Harmony to introduce us all to each other. "Dinky was a bit shocked at the fact that Harmony knew them all and the truth was finally reveled to Dinky.

"How do you know these ponies Harmony? Where did you meet them I mean I just met them this morning along with Ruby, so how do you know each other?" "Well Dinky the truth is that Buckshot is in the n.l.r don’t be alarmed though he’s on our side in a way, and I have known him and these guys ever since I was in the n.l.r. I met them in Detrot and haven’t seen them in forever. I was myself shocked to see them chatting with Ruby and Grey Hoof in the dining hall of the hotel when I came down to eat this morning and let them know that first hoof. Now I would like to properly introduce you both to each other ok. Dinky Hooves, allow me to introduce you to Buckshot, Buckshot the same. Now let’s not just stare at each other like a bunch of want to be tough ponies, LETS EAT!"

Harmony had a way with words and after her shout out to just eat we all got to work on getting to know each other, even the Black Widows got into the swing of things and in no time it had gone from a tense almost stand off to a party atmosphere with chatting and music. I sat at the table we designated for leadership along with Black Widow, Grey Hoof, Buckshot Harmony and Dinky and got to hear some of just what Harmony had been through while she was with the n.l.r, most of which was pranks and jokes on each other no real fighting at all, yes she had her first encounter with the raiders, but those weren’t the ponies she was paired with and she had been lucky to be placed with Buckshot in fact. It was interesting to say the least having dinner with a sworn enemy but it felt somehow right.

"Luna has been waiting to see the major again, and feels sorry for the way things have gone. Don’t worry though as soon as she sees all of you I’m sure she will once again smile, seeing as she hasn’t since any of this started it almost seems as though she regrets al the choices and events leading up to all of this and wishes to just go back to the way things once were. I have had the distinct honor of being a personal guard to her and have been close to her since the beginning and let me just say this, as much as it may upset any of you and please don’t try to hurt us, but the Celestial empire is to blame for all of this. From Celestia condemning Trixie to death to breaking up the eqng Luna has been against everything of the sort, in fact she valued the eqng with saving all of Equestria not just Ponyville in the first war, yes she was there the night that Trixie was killed but she really had no clue just how it all would play out and even told Trixie to wait on advancing on Ponyville knowing that it was so heavily defended but she just wouldn’t listen to reason and in the end it got her killed.

getting ready for dinner with buckshot, and having dinner with the n.l.r, part 2

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If she had just waited and listened to reason from Luna things may be different, yes I do know all about the fact that the eqng claimed that she was killed by Luna herself leading her in to a trap, but the truth of the matter is this. Trixie was already fucked up in the head she had many successes on the battle field and she was getting cocky thinking she was untouchable by any pony, a tragic mistake on her part. Luna even told her that it would be suicide for her to enter Ponyville but she was all hopped up on these new things called party time mentals, some new drug that made one think they were indeed Celestia’s gift to the world. When in reality they acted out of pure impulse sure they gave her a gifted tounge to be able to talk Gilda and her air wing to join the battle but that was all it did, there was no advantage to be had and even Gilda knew this. It was the final acts of a desperate pony with no way out of her own nightmare and in the end it killed her."

If the first war made no since before, it sure as a bucket of manure made no since now, what we had all just been told made us think long and hard about just what we in fact were all fighting for and gathering Intel on. Why had it come down to Trixie being the one to enter Ponyville when in fact Gilda had an absolute legitimate reason to go without having to be talked into it by Trixie unless that was Gilda's plan all along, in which case Luna who for the longest time had been looked at even by us as a traitor and a ruler hell bent on her own ends would have to be exonerated by all of us for false accusations of murdering Trixie. Something that did not sit well with some in my group, but as they took the time to put things together they too would have to face facts, the n.l.r who by all accounts was in fact the true enemy of our land was in fact turning out to be a saving grace in a lot of ways, and it made each of us grow a bit un comfortable in Celestia who in deed had started the end of the first war by first condemning Trixie to death, and then putting a ban on any and all e.l.f communications throughout the land except those deemed worthy of being played something that we all had taken notice of in the first war in the end days of it.

"That makes perfect since, I mean think about it, makes since that the griffons’ wouldn’t like ponies after the first war if you look at it this way. Look Trixie talked Gilda into going in to Ponyville right? and in the end they both died, but the only one who didn't want to go in to the place was being talked into it by a pony and she had no choice in the matter, therefore when Gilda was killed at the hooves of Major Read the griffons must have taken it as a sign that Celestia had given the order, thus creating what Celestia wanted all along. War not just a war that pitted ponies against ponies, but minds against minds if things had even gone a fraction of the way differently Luna would be put on trial for war crimes and Celestia who would have a chance to save her little sister wouldn’t do it, we all know this her hooves would be tied and sole rule of Equestria would go to her and her alone due to laws that were already in place even before any of this happened. It is a scary thought I know, but it makes since, why is it that Luna was the only one with a plan of action when all of this started and Celestia just allowed her sister to put it all together while sitting back and not raising a hoof to help her? She knew the laws where as Luna didn’t and she was letting Luna dig herself a grave for if it had leaked that Luna was holding meetings with Trixie during the war it would have resulted in Luna's death for being a traitor, even if it was to try to stop things from getting worse which we all knew it would when Manehatten was nuked. I was in the e.l.f with Trixie that night, I knew just what was waiting in the town ahead of us but said nothing to her Luna had told me not to but to allow her to make her own choices knowing that she was so fucked up in the head there was nothing she could have said to her at that point so she let it play out the way it did.

I was one of the very first n.l.r ponies there was a meeting soon after the deaths of Trixie and Gilda to announce the birth of the n.l.r and to discuss all that had happened just as the major was being rushed to the Ponyville hospital we were gathering our dead and wounded, I saw the death and destruction first hoof. I vowed to follow Luna to the depths of hell if need be to overthrow Celestia and her cold calculating ways for it had in fact been Celestia who had made the order in the first place by giving them to the commander of the eqng, had she not done that Trixies death would have simply been a fault of war and her stupidity, but Celestia was cold in her order and had the commander not only have the order turned into an actual military order but had the commander give the order to a pony he knew would execute it no questions asked thus sealing Trixies fate and making any interaction between Luna and her a war crime. Celestia knew about the meetings but chose not to say a word until the end of the war, which is why Luna seemed a bit disheveled at the ceremonies in Ponyville marking the end of the war. They had gotten into a heated argument in which Celestia basically banished Luna from the castle for about a week. During that week the n.l.r had a series of meetings and that is where Blood Flank comes into the picture. As mad at Celestia that Luna was she was still her sister and she had no ill will towards her, what she had done was wrong she knew it but at the same time Celestia had seen that Luna was in fact trying to bring an end to things and just needed a cool off period, or so Luna thought."

Needless to say there really was no eating going on, and we all were looking at each other in shock. The first war in deed was not over, the 2 years was the time it took for the n.l.r to gather the strength it needed to be able to put into action just what it was formed to do, and that was to not only overthrow Celestia, but to possibly kill her. It sadly made since though and I could see Grey Hoof fumbling with his n.c.e patch on his uniform almost trying to rip it off, I was in complete shock and asked Black Widow if I could talk to her outside where I found out the horrid truth. "He's not lying, I can read minds and he is not lying there isn't a hint of deception in his head in fact looking at him there isn’t a hint of it anywhere around him, let’s just go back inside he was going to talk about Blood Flank anyways I really would like to hear this."

the truth about blood flank, hard choices, and our promotions into the n.l.r- part 1

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Both me and Black Widow stepped back in as dinner was being served, the conversation really had not put us in the mood to eat yet and we told them to hold off on bringing it out until we were done listening to Buckshot, and they agreed taking the food away.

"Now where was I at? Oh yeh Blood Flank. Well he was in Manehatten the day it had been nuked you know that much right? What you don't know is that he was there on a mission for the n.l.r getting the word out about us, you see even before the war ended Luna knew she was in hot water doing what she was doing but she was hell bent on ending the war so bad that she was willing to even break the laws of Equestria which she had no clue she was doing to start. Blood Flank was a double pony he worked for the e.l.f and us at the same time, Major Read's commander at the time knew all about this and he also knew that if the e.l.f could take over such a huge place as Manehatten they could do the same in other places as well. It would have been suicide had he entered the city, trust me I know the e.l.f was dug in tight and they were willing to defend their base of operations to the last pony. That's where Blood Flank tired to draw the line, he was the one to actually try to talk some since into the ponies at Manehatten telling them that if they just gave up a small portion of the city that they would be fine. However after getting into the city he gained his notorious name and reputation, he saw just how many mares and fillies there were in the city and quickly organized a group of colts and stallions into what are today Blood Flanks raiders. His actions are what caused the nuke strike on the city, not the fact that the e.l.f had taken controll of the city in fact the e.l.f did more good than bad in the city, accepting the key to the city from the mayor in fact. They really had no intent on what went on the minuet Blood Flank got there and tried to have him expelled from the e.l.f which didn't go the way they hoped it would seeing as he was a commander in both the e.l.f and n.l.r, Luna simply dismissed it all as a drunken night that had gone too far and reprimanded him for it nothing more.

If only Luna had known what she had done she would have had him killed on the spot knowing her the way I do, she didn't realize that she had just let a monster lose on Equestria she really didn't, she figured he would learn his lesson and act more civilized in the places he would go next. She was dead wrong, the next place this happened was in San Franciscolt the poor city stood no chance, and the raiders entered the city under the guise of an e.l.f company assigned to protect the city from the eqng. What happened next is what made Luna take notice and have us start hunting them all down. The bloodshed was beyond anything any of us could comprehend and Luna even had Celestia have a look at it showing her that it wasn't the e.l.f or at least all of the e.l.f that was causing all the death and destruction around Equestria. That is when Celestia made the executive choice to have Manehatten bombed, hopefully killing Blood Flank and his troops. That is the real story behind the nuke strike on the city not the fairy tales you have all heard. After the strike on the city that is where Trixie's meetings with Luna began to discuss a possible end to the bloodshed and the war all together. It is also when Celestia took her stance on all enemy’s of the land and had her sentenced to death, but you all know that story plus I have already gone there so no need to kick a dead pony so to speak."

"Well I’m not hungry anymore; in fact I am sick to my stomach excuse me for a minute while I go hack my guts up." That was all Harmony could get out before pretty much cantering to the little fillies room. The sentiment was about the same as all the conversations in the place had ceased and every pony was fixated on what Buckshot had just told us all, in fact there were some who were ripping off their n.c.e patches and actually throwing them on the ground grinding them into the ground with their hooves. Even Grey Hoof who I thought was the most loyal to the n.c.e had taken his off and was actually burning it. It was a hard thing to believe that the one pony in the land we all looked up to could do such things and have the audacity to throw her sister to the wolves just to save her rule over the land. Black Widow had gathered her troops and was in a half circular formation and actually told Buckshot that she would join the n.l.r right there on the spot as long as her team could be the ones to hunt and kill the raiders to which he agreed. I had no clue what to do I mean on the one hoof I had fought hard for Celestia, but the facts were staring me in the face that it clearly was the wrong side to be on. I thought about what the major would say and what he would do if I ever changed sides, and now the choice was no longer a hypothetical but now an all too real choice.

the truth about blood flank, hard choices, and our promotions into the n.l.r- part 2

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Harmony returned to our table after emptying the contents of her stomach and took her seat next to me. "I have no clue what to think anymore, I mean all I thought to be the truth has suddenly become a lie. All I have fought for now means nothing if it means the n.l.r is in fact the right side to be on. I am scared of what the major will say or do to any of us if we do change sides, he is a loyal member of the n.c.e and doesn't take too kind to the n.l.r both you and I know this for a fact." "Everything will be fine Harmony this just means that I have to get word to him somehow now without the n.c.e getting wind of it, strange having to now keep secrets from those we once trusted but this war has now taken a turn none of us ever saw coming, or if we did we wanted to avoid it at all cost. Dinky I trust you more than any other pony to deliver a classified letter to him, if you decide not to due to the turn of events I will whole heartedly understand ok."

To my shock Dinky had joined Black Widow Grey Hoof and all other ponies that had made the choice to join the n.l.r. "Hey what can I say I am the official mail mare of the land am I not? So it makes since that I would take any opportunity I can to make my services available to all in the land right. Of course I'll deliver the message to him, you know I would anyway. Look we all have a choice to make now and I have made mine. Besides we will be granted access to Shattered Hoof Ridge anytime we like isn't that what we have fought and bled for all this time? Only now instead of destroying it we will be able to live there, I mean don't get me wrong the prison from what I have heard is a pretty strong base, but when the nukes fall again I would much rather be underground for the vast majority of them falling wouldn’t you?"

Her question kind of did put me at ease and I made my choice right there on the spot holding Harmony's hoof and joined the n.l.r with her as my second in command which made me feel a hell of a lot better knowing that she would still be right there by my side. "WELL THEN, A TOAST TO THE NEWEST MEMBERS OF THE N.L.R AND OUR CONTINUEOUS QUEST TWORDS VICTORY!" Buckshot said as we all got used to what had just taken place and got ready to eat. The conversations quickly turned to the things ahead for us all and our first glimpse of the inner workings of Shattered Hoof Ridge, and inevitably to what we would now do with the leader of the n.l.r raiders in the town.

Buckshot and Harmony were chatting back and forth along with Dinky who had a sappy grin on her face anytime I saw her look at him, it was very cute to say the least and I knew just what would end up happening tonight and had no cares in the world. In all honesty a huge weight had been lifted from us all and the atmosphere in the place seemed peaceful to be honest. I allowed myself to get a bit tipsy for the first time since the tequila incident and Harmony who was already all over Dinky and Buckshot motioned for me to join the fun on the makeshift dance floor so I did. Grey Hoof was with Black Widow on the floor already and the place became a huge n.l.r party in an instant, the owners of the diner knowing just what had taken place had no worries and even joined us in the party knowing that now the town was in very safe hooves, and thanked us for being in the town telling us that anytime we needed anything to just let them know. "You may now be in the n.l.r but we can see now that not all the n.l.r is bad and we would be more than willing to help you ponies out with anything you may need in the future. This town is in your debt and we can never re pay what you have done in just being here to keep us all safe, again thank you all."

As we were all having a ball dancing and getting to really know Buckshot and his rangers we didn't notice that new uniforms were being delivered to the diner by a courier pony, along with new ranks for a lot of us. It was Buckshot who made the announcement by tapping on a glass and getting every ponies attention. "AHEM, may I get every ponies attention real quickly then we can get back to chatting and partying. I would like to call a few ponies to the dance floor and recognize them for what they have all done for Equestria, not just for the n.c.e that they fought hard for and made sacrifices for as well. I along with Luna have waited a long time to meet all of you, and I must say I am impressed with how tight knit you all are. You have shown me that being in a military doesn’t diminish ones need for companionship and for friends, not just co workers who you simply work with and have no connections with. No rather you are like a family and now your family has just gotten a lot bigger, we look out for each other and we know that you have friends in the n.c.e and to be honest we have no intentions of fighting any of them in battle. We are focused right now on a joint mission and goal, the eradication of the raiders. All of that aside, with new decisions in life and hard ones at that, come rewards. Harmony, Ruby, Black Widow, Grey Hoof, and Black Velvet please come to the center of the floor. Ruby and Harmony, I know how hard this is for you, and don't worry the major will understand as soon as you tell him everything I have told you all here. BY THE NAME OF PRINCESS LUNA, I HEREBY PROMOTE YOU BOTH TO THE RANK OF COLONEL IN THE ARMY'S OF THE N.L.R, HAIL LUNA AND MAY SHE ONE DAY TAKE HER RIGHTFUL PLACE AS RULER OF ALL EQUESTRIA. Next may I have Captain Grey Hoof come here please? I have known about you for quite some time, and how strict you are to the n.c.e and just as Ruby and Harmony I know this must be tough for you, but I also know how much you have been looking for the right side to be on in all of this knowing that when you found it you would make a perfect leader. Well your time has come major; BY THE NAME OF LUNA AND THE N.L.R I PROMOTE YOU TO THE NEW RANK OF MAJOR, AND GIVE YOU YOUR CHOICE OF COMMAND WITH IN THE N.L.R, CONGRADULATIONS MAJOR I KNOW YOU WILL MAKE US ALL PROUD. Next up will be Black Widow, now I know you had no real rank at all, but that is going to change now, BLACK WIDOW I HEREBY PROMOTE YOU TO THE RANK OF CAPTAIN IN THE N.L.R, AND ALLOW YOU TO CONTINUE TO COMMAND YOUR ELITE UNIT OF BLACK OPS PONIES. Last but certainly not least is Black Velvet, I know that you are pretty much put in charge when Ruby and Harmony are away doing business or in meetings, and that doesn’t go un recognized at all, BY THE NAME OF PRINCESS LUNA I HEREBY PROMOTE YOU TO THE RANK OF 1ST LUTENIT IN THE RANKS OF THE N.L.R, AND I ALSO ALLOW YOU TO CHOSE A PLATOON ALL YOUR OWN TO LEAD, CONGARDULATIONS TO YOU ALL, AND NOW LETS GIVE THESE PONIES A LOUD AND WELL DESERVED HOOF STOMP."

the flat out execution of the raider leader in appleloosa

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As the party went into the night our new ranks being proudly displayed for all to see, we got to talking to Buckshot about just how we were going to deal with the raider leader in the town. With a slight chuckle that kind of made me shudder a bit he said this. "Don’t you worry about him; I have a feeling that he won't be a problem anymore in Appleoosa. In fact I think tonight will be his last night alive." He said with a sickening grin on his face. "Hey enjoy yourself this is a party right? He will be dealt with here soon enough and then we can all relax for a bit before having to head to the next town or city they happen to be in, and I can take you all to finally see Luna who has been anxious to meet all of you. For now we will just enjoy what we have going on here ok? Besides I think your friend Dinky has a thing for me and I'm not going to blow a chance with such a pretty mare such as her. OH LUNA APPLES DAMN IT ALL TO HELL. STOP THE MUSIC, STOP THE MUSIC NOW. I FORGOT A PONY WHO WAS GOING TO GET A PROMOTION AS WELL, DINKY COME HERE PLEASE." Dinky looked like she was in shock at the sudden halt to everything on her part and walked to the center of the floor where Buckshot was and looked a bit surprised when he pulled out the new rank for her and personally pinned it to her uniform along with a mail emblem for the n.l.r and all of Equestria. There now you won't catch any heat for being in the n.l.r when visiting other places, that emblem is the official seal of the Equestrian mail service and is only given to the post stallion, or mare general, CONGRADULATIONS MRS POST MARE GENERAL OF ALL EQUESTRIA. Oh almost forgot your rank that would have been a bit awkward. DINKY HOOVES IN THE NAME OF LUNA AND THE N.L.R I HEREBY PROMOTE YOU TO THE RANK OF CAPTAIN IN THE N.L.R AND ALSO NAME YOU THE OFFICIAL MAIL MARE OF ALL EQUESTRIA AND GIVE YOU THE DISTINCTION OF POST MARE GENERAL, CONGRADULATIONS YOUR MOTHER WOULD BE PROUD, I KNOW SHE WOULD."

Well if dinky had any feelings for him before, she would just let them out now. She kissed him and thanked him before regaining her composure and saluting him while blushing might I add. Buckshot simply laughed and told her there was no need for such formalities and kissed her back thus starting the party back up. Dinky and Buckshot hit it off fast I was a bit taken aback at the series of events within the last day or so, to be honest had Dinky not invited Buckshot to dinner none of this would have happened and we would have all gone our separate directions still under the n.c.e and eventualy would have gone to war with our now friend and commander. "Strange how things work out." I thought to myself as we enjoyed the party which was now in full swing with no further interuptions.

"GET YOUR HOOVES OFF OF ME, WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? I WORK FOR YOU AND AM IN THE N.L.R SAME AS YOU AND YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO DRAG ME OUT OF BED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT? I DEMAND TO SEE YOUR COMMANDER." " ENOUGH!" "Well, well, well, look who we have here if it isn’t my old friend Buckshot. How have you been there sir, and what is the reason for such a rude awakening? Don’t tell me you still disapprove of the way we conduct business now, that would just break my little heart. What did Luna send you and your little team out after us to bring us back for our so called deviant behavior? Darn just as we were going to show this town a real good time, oh well I'm all yours commander take me in." The party had been so rudely interrupted that even I wanted to put a bullet in the head of the pony, as he was dragged around the dance floor and spit on, hit, kicked, and beaten he suddenly realized that he was not going to Shattered Hoof Ridge rather he was going to die in Appleloosa.

"I'm sorry, I don’t want to die in this town look I’ll get my raiders out of here just don’t kill me please." "Ahh your attitude changes when you are faced with death now does it? What about all the death, pain, and heartache you and your group have caused throughout Equestria? Does that not count for anything or is it because you now face your very own demise that you now beg for your pathetic life? WELL WHICH IS IT?!! The next words out of your mouth determine the severity of how you die so chose wise former Captain."

"What do you mean the next words out of my mouth determine how I die? I’ve told you I don't want to die, please there must be some other way we can work things out, PLEASE I'M BEGGING YOU!" "Wrong answer pal, what I was looking for was an apology for all you and the raiders have done to make us all look bad and give the n.l.r a bad name. Now if you would kindly follow me outside I’d like to enjoy the rest of my night and get this over with."

Buckshot followed by his rangers and all of us went outside to the center of town and through the former captain to the ground and spat in his face along with giving him a hard swift kick to the ribs breaking a few and told the town to have their way with him. I was in shock and kind of sickened by this turn of events and even told Buckshot but he just grinned at me and said that he was in charge of the eradication of the raiders and that he would do what he felt needed to be done in whatever place he happened to be weather it was simply executing them, or allowing the town or city to do so.

It made since to me in a way, i mean if one thought about just how the raiders had been terrorizing Equestria it made since to allow whatever place they had been in deal with them. Buckshot and his rangers were indeed raider hunters but they were also ponies, and they had thoughts and feelings all their own so to allow justice to be done that way was satisfying to them. The town of Appleloosa that night banded together to basically tear this poor pony apart, it didn't help that he now had a few broken ribs and could barely move but when they started to stab and beat him, the cries of pain went on for almost a few hours before they turned to dull gurgling sounds along with a few fits of coughing followed by silence. The silence however was short lived due to the party jumping back into full swing and a few dogs barking and growling at each other over the remains of the former captain.

an abrupt end to the party, and news of the death of digger

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As we all continued to party and the dogs fought over the remains of the former captain my thoughts suddenly went somewhere they hadn’t been in quite some time for some reason. They went to Digger and his team in Manehatten and what they were up to and if they had any luck with the shelter or if they had to do the unthinkable and bomb it. For some reason he just crept into my mind, and I really don't know why or where the thought came from until we were all taken off guard by a train whistle. It had only been like 2 weeks since they all left for Manehatten and for some reason Smoky was coming into the station and in a hurry at that.

"Ruby I have some news that just wouldn’t be able to make it to you by mail due to the recent developments throughout Equestria and the fact that I wanted to give you this news in person. Digger is dead, killed by the Stable Tech ponies that he was going to Manehatten with, I saw them kill him. He was just minding his own business in his bunk when they attacked him, he stood no chance and they beat and threw him off the train, I hit him I tried to stop but I hit him. I had to stop the train to clean him off the front window and to give him a proper funeral, I knew he had a family and I will be going to San Franciscolt after I get done here to tell them. I don't know how to tell them that he is now gone from them but I have to I owe him that at least."

Buckshot looked at him with a fevered look, almost as though he knew Digger and wanted more information as to what had happened and asked him just why he had been killed to which he pointed at me. "As it turns out you conversation the night he took off for Manehatten was overheard, and as you know there is a lot of loyalty to not just the n.l.r but to every Tom, Dick, and Harry out there and the information he gave you is what killed him. Stable Tech has declared a basic state of war on you ponies for what you all know now and have started to actively hunt you all down." Buckshot looked at him and then to me, "What information did Digger give you and how long ago? This could change everything we have all worked for and fought for as well so I just want to know the basics of what you both talked about and whether or not we now need to go to war with Stable Tech."

"We were drunk and some things about Manehatten, Saltlick City, and Shattered Hoof Ridge. I swear that’s all it was, I don't know exactly why that would get a pony killed but obviously Stable Tech has a few skeletons in their closets that they don't want getting out, look I haven’t betrayed any of you and I never will but if this has somehow compromised anything I am sorry ok." Buckshot looked at me and told me that it wasn't what was talked about per say but the fact that we were even talking to each other. As it turned out the ponies of Stable Tech had a no contact arrangement with the n.c.e and I along with Harmony were both in the n.c.e at the time, and the other ponies had taken it as a sign that he was a traitor so they killed him no questions asked. "Kind of harsh don't you think? I mean yes we did talk, but it was really more about a possible job for Stable Tech. They need help in Saltlick City with a shelter they have lost contact with, and he was seeing if he could call on us to help out if necessary nothing really more else."

Buckshot looked over the paperwork that Smoky had collected from Diggers room after he dropped off the ponies in Manehatten, and his eyes turned a fiery red and he looked absolutely angry at what he was looking at. "Smoky are you sure this is all he had in his room and on him at the time? He is missing something I gave him about a year ago and it is not here. It was an id to Shattered Hoof Ridge, in fact it was the only one I was authorized to give away and seeing as he knew the place so well he would come by and do maintenance here and there to keep the place in top condition. I have known Digger ever since the beginning of the first war, in fact even before that we went to school together and he was the only one I trusted with that pass, now it is gone, that is not a good thing seeing as we have a non contact pact with them on Shattered Hoof Ridge, if anything goes wrong they have pretty much told us to buck off and fix it ourselves. Digger however had helped us out of a jam several times in the past ignoring that pact and helping us out anyway. He was always the type to ignore the rules and do what he felt was the right thing to do, and I knew one day it more than likely would get him killed."

"I also have some news on the major if any of you wish to hear it. He is in San Franciscolt as of now holding meetings with the rest of the n.c.e, but I have been so busy telling you about Digger that I haven't said anything yet as to why you are all in n.l.r uniforms, why is that by the way?" I told him the entire story from start t finish and when I got done Smoky looked at me then to his n.c.e stickers on the train and his patch on his shoulder and started tearing them all off and joined us. The train is still going to be used for all, but as of now I have nothing against the n.l.r for any reason what so ever. Of course you know the major will have a few words to say about this right? I mean he pretty much is the n.c.e along with the rest of his group, so when I see him next what should I say to him?" He looked at me with a puzzled look and said he would think of something seeing as he now was in the n.l.r as well.

After we all got done talking we raised a drink to the memory of Digger and Smoky had to take off for San Franciscolt to tell his family the sad news. With that the party atmosphere that had taken us all over was now shot to hell, and one could since that something was about to happen, the only trouble was that none of us knew what it was going to be.

Making amends for past mistakes, part 1

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We all must face the choice to continue to do good, or to take a new path and all but abandon the fruits of our previous endeavors. It is only then that we can truly become who we are destine to become, such is the choice we all must now face. Do we continue to fight against an enemy we all can agree is in fact a detriment to all pony kind, or do we all but abandon our efforts for the betterment of the N.L.R.?

The party had all but ended and we were all on edge with this sudden news, and now knowing that Stable Tech was now actively hunting us down due to fraternization with the enemy, I along with Harmony were now considered enemies of the state according to Stable Tech, a company that in fact had a huge impact on everything throughout the land and now controlled a huge influence over any pony in the new government, (if you can call it a government that is) I thought to myself.

(Well this is fantastic, just when it seems as though we don't have enough enemies to be fighting. Such is the life of all of us now, but we aren’t going to let it get to us now are we?) I said to Harmony who was busy talking to Buckshot about the new situation and trying to figure out the best course of action against a large power house in government. (Well we can't just go in and fight them, yes it is a problem but I am quite sure it will resolve itself, after all in this new and bleak Equestria we all now live in there are still bright spots in it, you and your group are positive proof of that and I doubt you will just take this lying down, I know you better than that at least. If it has to come down to it I will alert Princess Luna to the situation and tell her that you still have some things to take care of before we all meet at Shattered Hoof Ridge. I know she will understand, and if you can take care of these problems that Stable Tech has run into I am sure they will forgive you for past infringements, if not) he started to get his rangers gathered around him. (The N.L.R takes care of their own, and will never abandon you at a time of need, we all have your backs.) At that our confidence was restored and we suddenly knew what we had to do. Ordering one of my pegasi to alert Smoky that we had urgent use of his train and to have him return to Appleloosa I gathered my troops at the station and waited.

It was almost midnight when the train arrived back in the small town and we all boarded it. (Where to Major?) (Smoky we are headed for Saltlick City after we get done there I will send word to you that we need to head to Manehatten next, I know you have to get to San Fransiscolt but this is urgent, if this is not taken care of soon I fear we will run out of time to make amends with Stable Tech and thus risk going to war with an entity in the government that is both highly looked upon by the land, and is also heavily armed and I doubt it will end well for either side.) At that we started to pull away from the town leaving Buckshot and his rangers to take care of the town until a proper sheriff could be installed.

(This is going to be a one way trip every pony, there will be no stops due to my having a prior arrangement to take care of, after I drop you all of I will be standing by in San Fransiscolt awaiting your word. As soon as I receive word that you are ready to be picked up I will be on my way, now you are sure that you really wish to head to Manehatten right? It is a very dangerous place I have told you already, just making sure you know what you are getting into.) (Yes we are all aware of the dangers posed in Manehatten but if we do not take care of what needs to be done I am afraid all we have done thus far will be in vain, and I cannot allow that to happen. We are fully aware that Manehatten is a bleak and desolate place but there still are decent ponies living there, if underground, and they deserve the right to live just as any of us and I will not deny them that right. Besides we have a contract with Stable Tech even if we are at odds, we are mercenaries, and therefore will fulfill our contract, that is what mercs do right?)

At that Smoky had no more to say, he knew I was right and he couldn't argue that fact. Instead we all decided to get some shut eye, after all it was almost an 8 hour ride to Saltlick City and we all had to be in shape for whatever happened to lie ahead for us. I was fully aware that the griffons did not allow ponies into their land even mercs, so I thought of a way to get past any griffons we came in contact with. Not knowing if the griffons were at odds with the N.L.R or not I asked Harmony seeing as she was a former member. (Not that I am aware of, I mean sure they don't like ponies for their own reasons, but I don't know if they despise the N.L.R or not, if so how do you plan on getting past any we encounter? I hope not with bullets.) She said almost knowing that it could come down to that, and that was something we were trying to avoid.

(That was not very helpful dear, I was hoping that you would know something of use this time, but I was sorely mistaken wasn't I?) I said to her in a playful voice letting her know that I was not disappointed in her in the least. She just looked at me with those pretty eyes of hers, and I knew what she was thinking right away. Asking smoky if we could make use of one of the bunk cars we both excused ourselves for a couple of hours, after all we were heading into Celestia only knew and had no clue the drama that was about to take hold of us all.

Making amends for past mistakes, part 2, and the shots heard throughout Equestria

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(The road to good intentions is often filled with strife, no matter how hard you try to continue to do what is right, you will eventually fail, we all do.)

Me and Harmony had just gotten done when a worried voice came in over the speakers on the train. (Uhhm Ruby, you and Harmony might want to hurry up and get done, we are being followed and they don't seem content to follow too much longer.) I made my way to the back of the train to see just who was following us when I got a rather shocking surprise, griffons, not just griffons but a few pegasi were indeed following us and keeping up I might add. Before I could judge intent, it was made quite clear by the shower of lead pouring down onto the train.

(GET THE FUCK DOWN EVERY PONY!!, WE ARE BEING SHOT AT!!) Was all I could manage before the train was forced to a stop. We were surrounded, no way of trying to fight them off, and in the middle of a dessert. I along with Harmony disembarked the train to confront our attackers only to stop in our tracks. There before us in the dim glow of dawn were at least 10 griffons, along with what struck the most fear into me than the griffons, it was an almost complete wing of not only pegasi, but the Ponyville air force wearing their N.C.E patches clear as day for all to see. (Stop right there where you are in the name of the mighty Princess Celestia and submit to an id check. If you do not comply we will be forced to shoot.) The griffon leader sauntered up to me a gleam in his eye as if he was waiting for a battle and got beak to snout with me, leveling his eyes on mine he said, ( Well look who we have here boys, if it aint that pretty mare who used to fight alongside the Major. Allow me to introduce to you my merc team lil filly. He said to me in a mocking voice as if he was trying to get a rise out of me, standing still and holding my ground I allowed him to continue. (The name is Grim, as in Grim Reaper and these are the Soul Reapers. We are mercs, however we differ from most mercs in that we will take jobs too difficult for the N.C.E, jobs they need done quickly and quietly.

He went on to say that due to us switching sides the N.C.E were now considering us enemies and had orders to shoot us on sight. (Wait a minute here; you have orders to kill us? From whom did this order come down and I would like to see those orders soldier!) The leader of the wing of pegasi trotted to where I was as he did my unit braced itself for defense at the first sign of trouble. (I am Capitan Wind Chaser of the Ponyville air defense division, and we are under orders. I do not wish to shoot you Ruby, but if you give me a reason to I will. I know who you are; the Major would have a heart attack if he knew about this act of treachery!) Look here captain, I along with my unit are on a strict time limit as of right now and have no time for any of this, the lives of several hundred ponies is hanging on us making it to Saltlick City and to stable 35. If you plan on killing us then get it over with but I do warn you, doing so will result in an act of war and the full force of the N.L.R will be brought to bear upon you, and you will lose. I am acting upon a request from a former Stable Tech pony named Digger if you don't believe me that is too bad for you, but I will complete my task, with you dead if need be!!)

One could cut the air with a knife it was that thick, the sounds of weapons being brought into firing position could be heard along with soft swearing from all 3 sides, the griffons readying for a bloody battle, knowing that it was about to get very ugly I had my medical ponies retreat to the relative safety of the train, Black Widow and her team were on high alert knowing that they were far more armored than the Ponyville pegasi and were ready to do the unthinkable if need be.

(BLAMM,, BLAMM!!) The first 2 shots seemed to come from nowhere, almost as if they were an accident until the one thing I had feared this whole time came true. (SHE'S DEAD!!!!, WHY LUNA WHY!!) One of my ponies had taken both shots from a shotgun to the chest and was on the ground, not quite dead but it wouldn’t take much time unless she got help. All hell had broken lose and shots were being fired almost indiscriminately by both sides to start, after several seconds of this it became more organized and concentrated. I tried to have it stopped by trying to talk to the Pegasus leader but to no avail, his head exploded just as I got to him. (WHAT THE HELL EVERY PONY, STOP FUCKING FIREING DAMN IT!!!) Yelling didn't help at all, the griffons suddenly finding themselves outnumbered left the frightened wing of pegasi to defend themselves and took off leaving their helpless charges to their fates.

Black Velvet the newly commissioned captain and leader of a squad all her own was leading them to flank the ground bound pegasi seeing as they suddenly forgot they could fly in the panic and hail of gunfire, when she was struck in the chest by a machine gun round sending her into a puddle of blood surrounded by the enemy who quickly executed her right in front of us. (YOU FUCKING MONSTER!! HOW THE HELL COULD YOU DO THAT, YOU DO KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE JUST DONE DON'T YOU? THIS MEANS WAR!!, AND THE DEATH OF YOUR UNIT, YOU HAVE SEALED YOUR OWN FATE, NOT ME, I TRIED TO BE CIVAL BUT YOU WANTED IT LIKE THIS, I HOPE YOUR HIGHER UPS WILL BE HAPPY WITH THIS!!!!) I screamed at the pegasi who were now taking to the air only to be shot down by Black Widow and her team.

The battle went on for almost 3 hours seeing as we were fighting pegasi and Black Widow was more content on letting them wear themselves out in the sky rather than having to chase them she sat on the ground with us as we watched the wing of former allies postpone what we all knew was going to be the end of this. I gave them a chance to see just what their actions had done and tried to see if they would see reason, but it was no use, they fought to the last and in the end we beat them into submission surrounding them, or what was left of them on the ground. Knowing what the major would say they tried to beg for forgiveness but I heard none of it, and had them bound and placed on the train, I wasn't like them, and had mercy on them, I would not go down as a cold blooded killer as they would.

As we accounted for our own losses, 4 in total I felt a sudden chill go up my spine. We were now at war with the N.C.E, and it was an act of aggression on their part that had sparked it. Stripping what we could off the dead on both sides, we quickly had services for those we had lost in this first of many battles against our now true enemy.

promotions for both me, and harmony, spending the day getting ready for the meeting, and buying a dog for the unit

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Me and Harmony made it back to where every filly was, and woke those who were asleep up, and gathered them all together. "OK MARES, AND FILLIES WE HAVE A MEETING WITH THE LEADER OF THE GROUP IN A DAY. GREYHOOF HAS BEEN INVITED TO JOIN THE MEETING AS WELL. FOR TONIGHT YOU ALL CAN DO ANYTHING YOU LIKE, BUT DO REMEMBER THE MEETING IS IN A DAY OK, SO DONT GET TOO WASTED." The group all went on their own ways after we all had the meeting. Me and Harmony went to the bar to enjoy some free time away from the mission, and other ponies. We weren’t quite ready for any company with any colts, and made it quite clear as I told Joe to tell all colts that try to hit on us to be kicked out. Joe agreed seeing as I was the daughter of the mayor, and he had known me since we were both foals.

After a while of having a few drinks me and Harmony were already all over each other, kissing, hugging, and making out. The bar was all eyes on us, and we enjoyed it to be honest. We left the bar after a while, and went back to my house for some uhhhmm fun. We woke up in the morning and made some breakfast after our long, hot, and passionate night and then went to gather supplies for anything that we may have needed. Harmony went to the weapons store, while I went to the food store I sent every pony else on their own way for supplies, and other things as well.

I along with the rest of my squad went once more to meet with Grey Hoof again. He wanted to meet my unit before we all were given our duties. "Well then, you all live up to your reputations as I knew you would. Major Read has trained you all perfectly, and the fact that you have a few of your own armored ponies, this should be an interesting meeting. The leader has told me that she is also bringing her own unit as well, and has told me that they will integrate with you all. If any pony has any questions please feel free to ask, I may be in the n.c.e as are all of you, but we aren’t in a military per say, so free speech is welcome. I will be traveling with you all so this is kind of a getting to know you meeting. The fact that the leader has agreed to allow me to join you on any and all missions is a welcome event, and I will be integrating my own troops into your group as well. With such responsibility comes new rank structure. BOTH RUBY AND HARMONY PLEASE COME HERE. THIS IS A REQUEST BY MAJOR READ HIMSELF, AND I WHOLEHEARTEDLY AGREE WITH HIS CHOICE. BY THE NAME OF THE N.C.E YOU 2 MARES ARE HEREBY PROMOTED TO THE RANK OF MAJOR IN THE N.C.E ARMY.

Both me and Harmony were looking at our new group of ponies that were all lined up, and in formation waiting for us to lead them into whatever situations we would end up in, and we felt a wave of confidence wash over us. We were the leaders of our own growing company, and soon almost a double company sized element. I would put Harmony in charge of one company, and I would take charge of the other, Grey Hoof would be the commander as well seeing as he was the one who had set all of this up for us. We both looked at our unit, and gave the first of many orders we would give as commanders. "COMPANY,, DISMISSED" the unit all left for their own things to do for a bit before we were to meet with the pony who wrote the note that had set all of this into motion. The meeting was supposed to be later on in the evening so we all could be relaxed, and in a mood to get to know each other, seeing as this was a bunch of mares, and fillies meeting and not a bunch of colts, there were some things that were different, and just meeting in a packed, and noisy bar wasn’t going to cut it. We instead were going to have the meeting at town hall with all top ranking officials from town present so they all knew just who this group was that was entering their town. We were going to be meeting at 1700 for a nice dinner, and then get down to the actual meeting itself, it was now almost 1300.

Grey Hoof was walking along side my dad as they chatted about the strategic advantage of having a state that was in the control of the n.c.e, and the fact that it would eventually play a huge role in upcoming inevitable events. "yeh I was here when the town was dug into the side of that hill, the relentless bombing of the e.l.f was getting to be too much for any of us to handle, and Stable Tech were in no hurry to help us out, so the town gathered one day and looked at the hill as a possible shelter from the bombings. No pony had any clue that it would eventually become a whole town, it started out as just a simple shelter, but now look at it, quite impressive if I do say so." My father had helped in some of the construction of the town, and was elected mayor after the death of the former mayor in a bombing raid, and so far he hadn’t lost a single towns pony, and wasn’t about to. "Not on my watch" he would always say to the ponies in town. They were just killing time as was the rest of my company until we were to meet for our get together. Me and Harmony had gone to the pet store to get a puppy, we figured having a dog would help us in times of sadness, and loneliness, and besides having a dog would also come in handy for anytime we would have to make a camp for a night, I mean if a dog barks at something in the night every pony is going to want to know why, and be alerted to something in the dark. We picked a slightly older dog, almost the same age as applejacks old dog that died in the first war, and we quickly got to work training it in the 2 remaining hours we had left, after all it was only 1500 by now. The day was taking its sweet time, and to be honest we were all board as hell, there was nothing any of us could do in 2 hours, me and Harmony couldn’t even have any fun in that time, it would be just a waste of energy, and not worth it.