Cleaning up

Whinnyam looked out over the newly constructed wooden walls surrounding the small town of Ponyville from the top of the town hall; it had barely been a week since he had left basic training and he had already been in a barfight, nearly killed by changelings, saved by a completely random flowerpot (which apparently Pinkie had dropped when she sensed that somepony was in danger) and oversaw the construction of defences around Ponyville, including wooden staked walls that were soaked and covered in various materials to discourage fire, and a shield over the whole thing to discourage flyers. Caltrops were scattered over the open areas and on roofs to make it difficult to land if they did take down the shield. The atmosphere of misery, fear and pain created by the spikes, barriers and the shield wasn't helped by the fact that an imminent attack was very likely

It wasn’t perfect but for a few weeks it would probably be adequate; it’s not like the ditch was too shallow, the spike traps were obvious and they probably wouldn’t have enough food to last a fortnight under siege.

Whinnyam facehoofed. What have I gotten myself into? He then remembered who had got him here in the first place. What has that bastard uncle of mine gotten me into? He was well aware of the rain, and the darkness, and the gravity of the situation that he was expected to deal with somehow.

He heard a loud rumbling noise and turned to the Private next to him, who had bags under his eyes. Slightly concerned for this tired, hungry and shivering guard he wondered how long the colt had been watching out of this tower, pike in hoof.

“How long have you been on this shift?”

“Twenty-eight hours, sir”

“Forgive me for not relieving you earlier!” The alarm in his voice, although he tried to suppress it, was still very obvious. This pony had barely ate or slept for more than a day! Whinnyam dismissed him, asking up to send another colt from the barracks, and audibly groaned. I suppose this is just further proof of how stupid and incompetent I am.

As he stood there longer, his thoughts started to drift, first to his Captain and his mission, then to the sandwich he would make next morning, then to a white unicorn.

Vinyl

As he saw the pony in his mind he began to close his eyes, to relax, to breathe deeply.

The town hall began to shift; the viewing platform became wider, and lower, until it was only two or three metres above ground. The wide, empty field became a deep, jam-packed crowd of ponies. The only thing that remained the same was the darkness that still made it difficult to make out details.

First he was blind, then he was blinded. Bright stage lights turned on behind and in front of him, reducing everything to blurry silhouettes on a background of white.

A pony-shaped shadow walked out and stood in front of the lights, to which the massive crowd cheered. And then a song began to play; various effects, including strobing, lasers and even the occasional lick of flame projected from the stage.

Whinnyam’s eyes gradually got used to the apparent chaos and he began to see the DJ, dancing, waving her arms and enjoying the music as much as the crowd was. Whinnyam was captivated by this... this energy that he had never experienced before, exuding from this unicorn at the decks.

Near the song's close, where all pre-recorded tracks - the pounding drums, the heavy bass, the overriding melody made up of several instruments and tones, all in harmony - stopped, and it was just the DJ left in a lone spotlight, looking exhaustedly at the audience, but still with eagerness in her face; she was waiting, and while waiting she was lightly bobbing her head.

Then she began to scream, filled with power, not at any particular note but still conveying the emotions she wanted to convey. It was at that point the drums and the bass started up again, and she continued to scream until the synthesised guitars, violins, keyboards and various other instruments started again for one final chorus.

Whinnyam was entranced throughout the performance, unable to take his eyes off her. He had never seen anything like this performance - or anypony like her - in his life, before or since.

Too soon, the performance finished, the crowd melted away, and Whinnyam was left alone with Vinyl, and was suddenly aware that he had been staring at her for the entire thing. Not that either of them minded.

He was also suddenly aware of the unicorn walking slowly, slightly shakily, towards him. Her mane was a mess - as usual - she didn't have the confidence she did earlier, and she was glistening with sweat from the performance. She began to remove the purple lenses that she kept on her muzzle.

Red

She walked closer, her eyes staring into his, taking in his own bleached white coat and his open-mouthed, amazed expression. As she got closer she started to close her eyes.

And kissed him.

He had kissed other ponies before; as one of the more kind-hearted, benevolent members of a very rick family it was difficult for him to avoid. However, this one was special, this one was unique.

He wanted this.

He wanted this pony, he wanted this to go on as long a possible, he wanted this to never ever stop.

He kissed back, ensuring he took as much time as he could over it.

When it did finally stop, there was nothing that he could bring himself to do; it was uncomfortable, having to lean on the mare for support in the embrace, and her leaning on him, and his back was arched in a way it shouldn't be, but somehow it was completely perfect.

When the DJ opened her eyes again, he was still struck by the ruby gems that adorned her perfectly chiselled marble face.

And she spoke; only two words but in a voice that was perfect, somehow not made sore by her loud 'singing'.

"Wake up"

Suddenly the stage began to rise, the sun took its place in the sky, and instead of Vinyl embracing him, it was a guard, lightly shaking him awake.

He found himself back at the top of Ponyville's town hall, lying on the platform near the top, trying to commit as much of the dream to memory as possible before it was lost forever.

Buck All he remembered was that it had something to do with the unicorn from yesterday, and it was amazing.

Then he looked out over the fields, just outside Ponyville, through the glistening purple barrier and he hoped this was a nightmare.

Two large black columns marched towards him, one from the North and one from the East. Each column was equal in size to the garrison of the town.

"Oh, buck"

"SPREAD OUT!"

Gleaming Blade had been shouting this at his platoon of pegasi to the point that he was now very hoarse. He hoped that keeping lots of space between them would help them defend against any ambushes; everypony - and griffon, for they were highly valued by the Equestrian military - was turning their heads round in every direction.

The purple-helmed Captain was a strange combination of nervous and bored, and out of his comfort zone; he was used to covering his entire body with polished plate armour, but to fly the platoon needed to abandon that in favour of silk and leather. At least a third of the ponies went unprotected instead of wearing the hides of sentient creatures.

He couldn't blame them; he would rather not be wearing it, but he was Captain. He couldn't avoid the additional protection being thrust on him by everypony else, because they wanted him to survive; he was the leader they needed.

Even if he was only leading them to Canterlot.

He was bored, and he was wearing the skin of a living, breathing cow... well, maybe no longer living or breathing, but it still felt wrong.

He was looking for distractions everywhere; that oak looked like it was interesting, that hill was looking very green today, those were very big bugs.

Hang on

"UP! GET THE CHARIOT UP HIGHER! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"

The pegasi pulling the chariot responded and pulled the large wheeled box sharply higher, causing Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash to stick their heads out and try and see what was going on.

"GET YOUR HEADS BACK INSIDE!"

The two ponies immediately snapped back inside the chariot, more afraid of the Captain than the attack.

Until they saw who - or more accurately what was attacking them… it was the changelings. More worryingly, Pinkie recognised some of them.

"I shot him with my party cannon!"

"I magicked her with Twilight!"

"Them two cucooned the Princess!"

While this was going on, the chariot climbed, the guards climbed, and the group of changelings split in two; ten of them flew up at the guards while the other thirty went under before starting to climb, and then hovering in a triangular formation. The eighteen guards, four of whom were pulling the chariot, were outnumbered.

The first ten, being unencumbered, got up higher than the guard and immediately started falling, their wingblades pointed downwards towards the guard. They did various corkscrews, flips and pitching to make their aimpoints more difficult to predict; they were far too agile to dodge, but the guards had one advantage… griffons. Because they had claws, they could hold a weapon dextrously without using their wings; there were six spaces in every aerial platoon reserved for these creatures for precisely this reason.

This would be easy for them; throwing their shields in over their heads and holding up their pikes, they braced themselves for the impact; this whole operation occurred without words, as their training had been so effective. The other eight working members of the platoon prepared themselves to push up with all their wingpower.

The ten lightly-armoured changelings broke almost immediately, like a wave against a hard cliff. Three of them were knocked unconscious from the impact and started to fall, another three flew down to save them, and the remaining four flew off in retreat. The guards started jeering them, calling them cowards and weaklings, and Blade breathed a sigh of relief.

And then he turned round and saw the other thirty hurtling towards him at incredible speed.

"TURN ROUND! TURN ROUND!"

But it was too late; before they could do anything, the platoon was hit by the overwhelming force, broken apart and defeated by gravity.

As Blade started to fall, he noticed a large gash down his hindleg, which was spurting out blood very quickly.

He had resigned himself to the very real prospect of death when he joined the guard; only one thought crossed his mind as he fell.

I've failed

And then his world went black.

AN: To anyone still reading this story, sorry it took so long to update. I've recently come back to England from a trip to Florida, and it's the school holidays right now so I've got other stuff on as well. Normal service may be resumed at some point in the more recent future.