The Rainbow Resistance
Chapter 1
The Brown merchant pony trotted down the cobbled street, a positive outlook firm in his head. He'd recently been named sole Apple provider for Lord Terra Firma's royal army, a position that would fill his saddle bags with many bits. He was on his way to fill his first order, three wagons full of Apples to be delivered to the outpost outside of the sleepy town of Ponyville. He glanced back at his two hired hoofs, two burly stallions that anyone would have to be crazy to take on, both pulling two of the three carts while he pulled the last one. He turned his eyes back to the road, a smile forming on his face. He knew that just this one order would leave him set for life, he could retire if he wanted to after this. Images of him living the high life filled his head, him lounging by a pool, him meeting the best and brightest of upcoming stars of the theater, maybe even buying himself into a cushy government job, maybe a clerk to some duke somewhere. All he had to do was make sure this shipment made it to Ponyville with 'not one apple out of place or bruised' and he would never have to worry about anything ever again. He looked up at the early morning sky and thought 'there's no way today is going to be anything less than perfect'. That's when he noticed a mare crying at the side of the road. She was bubblegum pink in color, her perfectly straight hair hiding her face, her cutiemark was that of three balloons. Her whole body convulsing with sobs. Hitched to her back was small covered wagon, one of it's wheels laid on the ground, a thin crack through it's rim. Three stallions approached her, all of them trying to angle their faces so they could see her face, to no avail.
"I say, lass!" the merchant called to the crying pony, "What seems to be the problem?"
"It's my wagon," the pink pony sniffled, still not looking up, "I'm supposed to be taking medicine to my sick granny in Appaloosa, but then one of the wheels fell off, and I don't know how to fix it." The pony broke down into even more sobs.
"Now don't you worry, lass," the merchant said, trying to calm her down, "I'm sure there's something we can do to help." the merchant had always been told by his mother to always help a pony in need, especially a mare, it's just good manners and he didn't intend to go against her wishes now. The merchant turned to face the two other stallions. "Do either of you know how to fix a wheel?" both of them nodded, "good, so, go do whatever it is you do." The two stallions nodded again and slowly looked up at the Pink Pony, suddenly they both froze, their eyes widening. The merchant turned to face the mare again, who had suddenly perked up, her mane and tail poofing out to an absurd degree. The broken wagon had also folded out to revel a small blue cannon with pink wheels. The previously crying pony had manned the cannon... and was pointing it straight at them!
"Surprise!" the Pink Pony shouted, smashing the button on top the cannon down. All three stallions expected their lives to be cut short by a quick explosion, what they got instead was a furious stream of assorted party supplies, which included a party hat with little drawing of balloons on it that landed on the merchant's head. The three stallions stared at the not-as-malicious-as-previously-thought pony, who was giggling at the expression on their faces. In fact, they were so distracted by her they failed to notice a red coated, orange-yellowed maned stallion wearing a yoke, an orange cow-pony sportin' a stetson, and a rainbow maned cyan Pegasus, all armed with shovels. At least, they didn't notice until they all felt the clang of metal against their skull, after which they all promptly blacked out.
"I think your acting lesson are paying off there, Pinkie." The cyan Pegasus said with a grin, dropping her shovel with a clatter.
"Thanks, Dashie," Pinkie giggled, "and you're getting a lot better at hitting ponies with shovels."
"Rainbow," the stetson sportin' pony said while checking on the merchant, "is your guy out cold?"
Rainbow Dash lifted the stallions eyelid to see that his eyes were very unfocused. "Oh yeah, he's counting sheep, Applejack."
"How about you, Big Mac?"
"Eeyup." Big Mac said, his face a perfect example of neutrality.
"Good, now, Pinkie, get the party cannon packed and hitched up while we drag these fellas outta sight. We gotta be outta here as soon as possible."
"Okie Dokie Lokie." Pinkie said before setting off on her task, folding the walls of the wagon back and popping the supposedly broken wheel back on to the wagon. Meanwhile, the other three ponies had dragged the unconscious stallions behind a rather large rock about ten feet from the road and, after scribbling out a quick note, galloped back to the three apple carts, hitching themselves up in record time. Before you could say 'apple carts, what apple carts?' the four ponies had disappeared, heading down a cleverly disguised side road.
As for the merchant, he awoke a couple hours later with a sore head and a note that had been left on his chest. This is what the note read,
Dear Merchant,
We are so sorry that we took your three apple carts, but, don't worry, they are being put to good use.
Sincerely,
The Rainbow Resistance Movement.
P.S. Pinkie says you can keep the party hat.
Needless to say, the merchant had a much less optimistic out look on life than he did the hours before.
---
The four ponies managed to skirt around Ponyville without being spotted by any guards who had the misfortune of having early mourning guard duty. They trotted into Everfree forest with none the wiser and soon found themselves at what appeared to be a mountain's rock wall, overgrown with vines. Applejack boldly grabbed a seemingly random vine with her mouth and yanked on it three times. Instantly, the vines changed form, showing that they were really ropes, one in particular showing the stress of being chomped on multiple times. One portion of the rock wall, about twenty feet in diamter slowly started moving aside, a light rose colored aura surrounding it. Behind the wall was a torch lit road, leading into the mountain. To the to the side stood a white Unicorn stallion, his blue mane and tail unkempt, exhaustion, whether due to exertion of his magic or the fact that he had been guarding the entrance all night, evident in his eyes. He shot the new arrivals a smile.
"Nice to see you guys back, safe and sound."
"Nice to be back Shinin'." Applejack responded, returning the smile.
"So... did you see her?" Shining Armor asked, an involuntary bit of hope pushing some of the exhaustion out of his eyes. The four ponies shared a look, they had to deliver the bad news multiple time to the hopeful Unicorn and it never got any easier no matter how much they did.
"Sorry, Shining," Rainbow said, taking on the burden this time, "but we didn't, we're not even sure if she's alive, not to mention what she looks like, I mean, all we have to work with is a picture from back when she was filly." Shining Armor's face fell, any semblance of hope exiting his body.
"Don't worry though," Pinkie interjected, trying to cheer up the depressed Unicorn, "we'll keep looking. I'm sure we'll find your little sister... sooner or later." A small smile found it's way back onto his face, although it was more bitter than anything.
"Remember to reseal the entrance," Applejack said, starting her way down the secret road, "we'll make sure the illusion get's set back up." The rest of the ponies fallowed her, leaving Shining Armor to stare out into Everfree forest. A minute later the group heard the groan of the rock sliding back into place.
About a hundred feet down the road they found an alcove. In the alcove sat a Unicorn Mare with an azure coat and white-blue mane and tail, wearing a slightly torn outfit of a stage magician, she fixed the group with an annoyed glare.
"Trixie, the illusion ne-" Applejack began.
"The Great and Powerful Trixie, has already reapplied the illusion, she does not need dunces such as yourselves to tell her how to do her job! Now off with you!" Trixie then noticed the carts being pulled by the ponies. "Ah, good to see you've managed to not screw-up getting food. The Great and Powerful Trixie advises you hurry, the other ponies here are not as patient as Trixie." Applejack, Rainbow, Pinkie, and Big Mac had already started walking away, paying little attention to Trixie as she started going off on why she was such a great pony. They'd heard the whole speech once and they didn't care to hear it again.
After about a mile they came upon a wide open cavern where many a pony were bustling around, delivering a letter here, seeing a patient there, some Pegasus fluttering down from the hidden entrance at the top of mountain. It was a diverse gathering, from the relatively young to the alarmingly old, from Earth-Ponies, to Unicorn to, of course, Pegasus. Ponies from all walks of life, musicians, scientist, even ex-guards from the time of Princess Celestia, the missing ruler.
Applejack, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, and Big Mac all turned their heads when they heard the sound of a Pony trotting up to greet them. What met their eyes was a Unicorn mare with a white coat and meticulously curled and groomed purple mane and tail. She had a thankful smile on her face.
"Oh, it's so good to see you all right, darlings." the white Unicorn exclaimed, catching Pinkie and Applejack in an embrace, before moving on to Big Mac and Rainbow Dash.
"Howdy ya to, Rarity." Applejack laughed.
"So," Rarity said, taking a step away from her friends, "tell me, how well did the camouflage tarp work?"
"Didn't know we were there until we beaned them with the shovels." Rainbow answered.
"Hey, Rarity," Applejack said, unhitching the wagon from herself, "you wouldn't happen to know where Fluttershy is, would you?"
"Oh," Rarity took a second to think about it, "I do believe she's in the nursery, helping Nurse Redheart with the newborns."
"Alright then, hey Carmel!" Applejack called to a yellow coated stallion that happened to be passing by, "I need you," Applejack said to the stallion, "to take these wagons of apples over to food storage and make sure it all gets accounted for, I don't want a repeat of last time, you hear me." The stallion nodded and set about hitching the wagon. "Good, and you three," Applejack said, addressing Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, and Big Mac, "Remember, we've got a meeting in 'bout an hour. Y'all need to be there, so I don't want any of y'all forgetting about it. Understood?"
There was general sound of agreement.
"Good," Applejack said, turning to head her separate way, "see y'all in an hour."
Applejack started threading he way through the crowd of ponies, Rarity following closely behind.
"So, how long are those apples going to last, darling?" Rarity asked, trying to avoid bumping into anypony.
"If we're lucky," Applejack said, considering the question, "three months."
"And if we're unlucky?"
"... two weeks." Applejack sighed.
"Oh dear."
"Any good news from the other bases." Applejack asked, trying to ignore the growing sense of pessimism in her gut.
"Yes actually," Rarity said with a smile, "we got a letter from Braeburn. He said they successfully raided a prison camp near Trottingham and freed most of the prisoners. Unfortunately," Rarity continued, sensing what her friends next question would be, "they didn't see any sign of your parents."
"Well, I guess that is good news." Applejack said, although the continued absence of any signs of her parents blunted the news a bit. They continued the rest of the way in silence, chewing over the news.
As they neared the nursery they herd a familiar tune wafting out of it, being sung by an equally familiar voice.
"Hush now, quiet now,
It's time to lay your sleepy head.
Hush now, quiet now,
It's time to go to bed."
Applejack and Rarity stuck their heads through the curtain that had been set up to act as a divider between the nursery and the rest of the compound. They saw their yellow coated and pink maned friend walking among the cribs, singing the lullaby to the new borns. Also walking among the cribs was Nurse Redheart, who was tucking in the babies or calming some of the fussier sleepers. Fluttershy happened to glance at the door and saw her friends peeking though the curtain. They silently waved her over, indicating that they needed to talk to her. She glance quickly at Redhear, who merely smiled and waved her on. She trotted over to her friends, careful she didn't make any noise.
"Sorry, I didn't know you were going to be back so soon." Fluttershy whispered.
"We got back a bit earlier then we expected," Applejack whispered back, "we just came around to remind you we have a meeting in a hour."
"Right." Fluttershy nodded, "I'll leave to get ready in a little bit, I just need to make sure Nurse Redheart doesn't need anymore help with the foals."
"Alright then sugarcube," Applejack responded, "we'll see you in a hour." Applejack and Rarity then left to get ready themselves.
"What's the news from Canterlot?" Applejack asked as they continued on their way.
"Terra made a statement about 'soon squashing the so called Rainbow Resistance Movement'." Rarity responded.
"I think he's said that a couple times now."
"More importantly, Spitfire and Soarin were able to gather that they plan to search the Everfree forest as thoroughly as possible."
"Great," Applejack grunted, "we're gonna need to beef up the watch a bit, I'm thinking."
"I concur." Rarity responded.
"Well, just add that to the agenda for the meeting."
"Yes, well if you'll excuse me, I still need to make Sweetie some breakfast."
"Oh, right go ahead, I need to go check on Applebloom anyway."
"See you at the meeting." Rarity said, the two of them exchanging a small hug before going of to check on their little sisters.