Far Away

CHAPTER XXIV

“What the hell had gotten into you?” Jack groaned after he yawned (which was painful). Jack sat up, in a bed? (which was painful). He looked around the room, seeing nopony there, he struggled to sit on the edge of the bed (which was also painful). Where was this place? White walls, high roof, golden accents on walls to contrast with the white, balcony. It struck Jack that he was in Canterlot. Not just Canterlot, but in Canterlot Castle.

Jack gingerly placed one of his hooves onto the cold marble floor, testing it before bringing all four down onto the lavish marble surface. The stone was cold to the touch, but nothing he couldn’t handle. Jack slowly placed his hooves onto the cold surface and started to limp towards the large doors that separated his room from the grand hallways of the castle. Almost there… Jack felt his hind legs buckle under him and collapsed into a heap on the marble floor. He was met with a cold draught that blew over him as he struggled to get back onto his hooves. The cold wind tingled on his skin.

He heard the sound of hoofsteps nearing him from next to the door. The door clicked as somepony opened it from the outside. The giant door squeaked slightly as the pony pushed it open slowly. Daring was standing at the door, staring at him. Jack tried to stand one last time, using all his willpower but some deity up in the sky just goes, ‘Nope, that ain’t happening son,’ and Jack fell into a clump again, giving up. Daring walked into the room and slowly closed the door behind her and picked Jack up with a grunt, then carried him back over to his bed.

“What’s happening?” asked Jack hoarsely. It was then when Jack realised that he was so thirsty.

“Well, maybe it’s better to bring you to the throne room right now. I’m not ready to fill you in just yet,” she answered, “Are you all right? I’m sorry for what happened, you know.”

Jack forced a laugh, “Well, at least I didn’t actually manage to jump off that cliff!”

“Well, you flew off tangent pretty quickly, but I digress,” remarked Daring, “Let me get you to the throne room, we can then talk about more pressing issues.”

Daring helped Jack to his hooves and helped him through the large doors and down the long hallway that led to one of the arcing marble staircases. Jack winced in pain down every step. There were at least one hundred steps here. Jack slowly, but surely made his way down the staircase. It took a good fifteen minutes and by that time, everypony in the dining hall had finished breakfast and moved onto their drinks of coffee or hot chocolates.

Jack walked through the doors into the dining hall to find Celestia giving Spitfire a briefing with papers and all at the end of the table and the rest of the ponies sat around it looking sober. Jack walked up to the ponies and sat down listening, also, to the princess give information about what was planned for the next few weeks.

“Oh hello Jack,” said Celestia softly.

“Morning,” was all Jack could manage with a dry throat.

He found the jug of water on the middle of the table and quickly poured himself a tall glass, guzzling it down rapidly. He stole a glance at Spitfire when she was talking to an unmet member of the Wonderbolts, who was fully dressed in his attire, wearing many medals on his chest. “What happened?” asked Jack.

“Well, you should probably know the first part,” said Spitfire who was cut off by the princess.

“I think you owe Jack an apology first,” said Celestia to Spitfire with a shadow of a wink to Jack.

“Uh… yeah… about that…” Spitfire mumbled.

“Don’t worry about it Spits, it’s fine, ok?” said Jack.

“Ok, thanks,” said Spitfire gratefully. She hated apologizing to others.

“Well, you should probably fill him in on what we were discussing,” advised the newcomer. He spoke with a gruff, deep voice.

“Ok Iron,” said Spitfire.

Jack listened to her with unwavering attention.

“Two days ago, the day before I sent all the Wonderbolt personnel from the facility to the Manehattan base, the Draconian Empire had made an aggressive push over the border. They have also sent their battleships and ironclads to our shores, our MADAR or Magical Detection and Ranging had detected them fifty nautical miles from Manehattan beach. We need to be able to strike or defend at any time. Canterlot royal guards and the Imperial Equestrian Army have been positioned on our borders and we have stationed magical weapons all across Equestria. This is not a ‘magical threat’ so we cannot use the Elements of Harmony to solve this issue. That is basically our current situation.”

“Well, if there’s a war, I’m fighting,” declared Jack with finality.

“No you’re not, Jack,” said Daring immediately.

“I must agree with Ms. Do here,” said Celestia, “During this breakfast, your friends have told you about your abilities. You shall aid in defending Canterlot if all else fails. You shall also assist Spitfire and I with our paperwork. I take it that you know how war works? You seem like that type.”

“Uh… Yes, I do, but how will that help? Why will I assist you?” asked Jack.

“Well, you have information about my sister, that was the deciding factor for me, but you have some qualities that I think would be suitable for a commander,” Celestia said as she winked at Spitfire.

Jack, who was drinking another glass of water chocked while he swallowed. Daring bashed his back comically as he spluttered. How can he do it?

“Me? Why me?” asked Jack, voice ragged.

“Haven’t you listened?” said Celestia. She stood up and started walking out of the dining hall.

Jack stared at her with wide eyes, not believing what he just heard. He was in a confusing state of mind. He? As commander? Jack was bewildered at the thought. If he was going to be a commander, or an assistant, hundreds of thousands of lives would be in his hands. One false move could end it all. Jack drank his coffee thoughtfully, not giving a thought about what was happening around him. He stared at the giant crystal chandelier hung on the ceiling. The way it reflected light and split it was… truly stunning.

“Hey, let’s get to it then!” said Spitfire, her voice coming from directly behind Jack, “We’ve got some work to do, you heard the princess.”

Jack flinched at the sound of her voice and how close it was. He was not paying attention to his surroundings. He turned on his chair and slipped onto his hooves with a grunt of pain.

“Hey!” called Daring from beside him, “Let the stallion have a rest, will ya?”

“But…”

“Weren’t you the one who inflicted harm to him? You owe him one,” Daring cut the commander off.

“Oh all right!” said Spitfire with an annoyed expression, eyes burning with the fires of hell. You did not want to mess with her right now.

Jack looked at her… then back at Daring…

“It doesn’t bother me, let’s go,” said Jack to Spitfire. She had that glare about her, like anything bad could happen. Remember kids, Murphy’s Law; anything that can go wrong, will go wrong…

“You are not going!” Daring said with gritted teeth, pulling Jack back down to his seat, “You are going to rest today.”

Spitfire looked at Daring with hate burning wildly in those golden eyes. She spread her wings, ready to pounce. Jack looked helplessly at the situation. When you try please all, you please none. Jack braced himself for what was about to happen, shrinking into a small ball in his seat. Spitfire suddenly pounced at Daring ferociously with a whoosh of wind. A sudden streak of grey and blue appeared to block Spitfire completely.

“Iron Skies! What the hell!” Spitfire whined at him.

“Nope,” said Iron, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No!” Spitfire yelled at him, giving him a pout.

Spitfire swiftly dragged Jack by his hoof out of his chair.

“What do you want to do then?” asked Spitfire roughly.

“Uhh… I don’t mind going with Spitfire,” answered Jack nervously staring at Daring, giving her a look that basically translated into, ‘Please shut up!’

“Alright! Fine!” said Daring looking very annoyed at Jack.

His hind legs still hurt. They looked like they are bruised badly. Jack limped his way over to Spitfire. The two went out of the dining hall and approached one of the large flights of arcing marble stairs. Jack looked at the stairs like a dumb beast.

“Come on!” Spitfire said as she nudged him in the ribs.

“It hurts…” replied Jack.

“Gosh, is it that bad?” said Spitfire, “I only meant to chase you down the stairs but you jumped down and tumbled the rest of the way.”

Spitfire surprisingly grasped him at his waist and started to haul him slowly up the stairs with the power of flight.

“You’re heavy!” remarked Spitfire as she panted, flapping her wings furiously.

Jack did not reply. After a minute of slowly finding their way up the stairs, Spitfire set Jack down and gestured for him to follow her and Jack did so obediently. Spitfire led him through many corridors, so many that Jack could’ve sworn that this Castle was a maze. After minutes of following Spitfire, they ended up in a room that was actually decorated with a light blue, and many Wonderbolt posters on the walls with a mahogany desk sitting in the centre with a battle simulation table beside it. The small, delicately crafted wooden pieces designed to be used with the battle simulation table were scattered on the floor beside it.

Spitfire trotted to the table and flicked a few switches. The lights on the lamps above the battle table flashed on and the map on the table changed quickly to the coastal area of Manehattan. She placed the wooden carved pieces in specific locations. Jack now saw that the pieces were meant to represent different types of troops.

“Let me explain,” said Spitfire, walking to his side of the table. She held up a piece carved with wings, “These are cavalry, the pegasi and those – she pointed at the cavalry pieces emblazoned with the Wonderbolt badge – are special operation cavalry like the Wonderbolts. Those – she pointed at the carving of the shield with two guns crossing the front of it, one of the barrels billowing smoke – are the main army force. Each flight of cavalry contains a squad of pegasi and each commandment contains twenty squads, those pieces are the commandments of cavalry. Each special ops cavalry contains a squad of five. These – she picked up a ship from the water – depict our navy. Each ship piece contains a convoy of five ships. There are different types of convoys and those will be marked onto the bottom of the convoy piece. Finally, these are our land units – she picked up a piece that looked like artillery – these are artillery units,” she finished.

“Is this how our forces are currently spread?” asked Jack.

“Yes.”

“How could such a talented commander like you not see the weakness in this configuration? Your defences are too dense. An enemy artillery strike could finish them all! You should move those battleships."

“Ah… Yes,” replied Spitfire thoughtfully as she moved the pieces across the board, “How did you know?”

“Logic,” replied Jack.

“Well, let’s see how good or logical, as you put it, you really are,” said Spitfire flatly. She brought red pieces onto the table as well and gave them to Jack. “The good thing about this table is that it can simulate battles. We use it to train our higher ranking Wonderbolts in the art of war,” said Spitfire as she laid out her troops. The table showed tactical advantage points and barriers like hills, marshes and high mountains. “It can also track the moral and other stats of our army. Place your troops how you like on your side of no-pony’s-land.

Jack thought and placed his ten army units all on slight hills in an entrenched position, shown by pushing on the ground troop piece slightly, making them kneel and extend a wall in front of them. He stationed his artillery not at the back of the board but on a small mountain to the right side of his main attacking force. He was also allowed to take a hidden troop that was not revealed to the opponent. His opponent would need to use a spy piece to detect it. Jack stationed his spy next to his main force and his cavalry behind with the tanks pieces and ready to launch.

“Ok, bring it!” said Jack.

“Hope you can handle it!” said Spitfire grinning.

It was her turn first. She launched her cavalry on a patrol mission and moved her ground troops forwards two units into a trenched position. She thought for a while and decided to move her other two cavalry pieces up, ready to launch a counterattack. Spitfire grinned. She still could make two turns. She fired her artillery, the table simulating the shell tracers as the artillery barraged his troops. No casualties, her artillery piece was too far back to be accurate. Spitfire launched two of her cavalry commandments to attack Jack’s main force. The battle table simulated what is was like, small holographic images of the two armies clashing. Spitfire yelped as Jack’s anti-air defences, his hidden weapon barraged her pegasi. She gritted her teeth in annoyance. Her commandments got totally demolished. No survivors.

Jack looked at the situation thoughtfully. He moved three army units up and set them up on a hill in counterattack mode. He moved his cavalry forwards and launched an attack. Two of the commandments attacked Spitfire’s main army force and revealed her secret weapon, a spell shield. She suffered minor casualties in her army but her artillery pieces got demolished completely by Jack’s third commandment. Jack had one turn left. Cogs and gears were turning slowly his mind. His artillery was in a good position and… He gasped. He realised the spell wall could only work once, in a turn. He fired his artillery and as sure as day, the strikes were not deflected. All he had do now was to surround Spitfire’s army in a pincer. He knew the moral of her army was low.

Spitfire was fuming in rage again. She knew that she shouldn’t lash out and attack too aggressively, or punch Jack in the face. That was always an option. She couldn’t stand a defeat, and this one against an unexperienced wanderer? Not. Going. To. Happen. She couldn’t think straight in her anger. She commanded all her remaining pieces to attack while Jack’s artillery pieces were out of play. She attacked with all her main army and with a supporting shield wall. Sadly, for her, Jack’s main army was in counterattack mode which meant they were loaded with high explosive incendiary bullets. The shield wall bearers tired quickly when the barrage of bullets came upon her army. The rifleponies totally demolished Spitfire’s infantry.

“I swear to Celestia you little piece of absolute shit!” she screamed at Jack. She ponced over the table onto Jack. What was going through Jack’s mind; ‘Shit… really? What’s wrong with her? I’m totally fucked aren’t I? Ok, time to ditch.’ Jack braced himself for the expected punch that was going to be thrown his way. He squeezed close his eyes as he waited. Waited so long for it. What he felt actually surprised him. Spitfire embraced him tightly for a moment… Just a tiny moment but time seemed to stop for Jack.

“Uhh… What?” asked Jack with uncertainty.

“Nopony has ever beat me before on the battle table,” she said, giving Jack a light peck on the cheek.

Jack looked at her with surprise. “Wha-What? Why?”

“Your reward for beating me,” she said with a chuckle. She flashed a grin at Jack.

“Ok…” said Jack. ‘What the hell was that?’ his brain was yelling at him, ‘I was just hugged by the captain of the Wonderbolts… Great… Nothing can get weirder today can it?’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jack walked down the arcing stairs again, feeling his hind legs tug at him with pain with every step. He was flooded by emotions. He did not know what he was hit by, but it was sure good! Euphoria. That was what he was feeling. He felt like he could conquer any challenge, no matter how big or demanding. He made the last few steps down the stairs and bounded into the dining hall for lunch. Platters of salad and cheese sandwiches (I nearly spelt it with a ‘t’) were laid out liberally on the table.

“Hello Daring!” called Jack cheerfully as he entered the dining hall, found a seat and grabbed himself a sandwich.

“Hi,” said Daring, eyeing him suspiciously.

“Any news?” asked Jack, sensing Daring’s suspiciousness towards him.

“Nope,” replied Daring flatly.

“Why are you acting this way?” queried Jack.

“I was about to ask the same thing, Jackson,” said Daring, staring at her glass of water.

That was one of the first times Daring had used his whole name. He knew this just got serious.

“Hello? What?” asked Jack cautiously.

“Awareness, Jackson,” she sighed sadly, “Are you sure you don’t know what you were doing? Why did you like her so much anyways?”

“Well… She’s charismatic, you gotta give her that,” replied Jack, then his expression turned stony, “Don’t tell me you were watching.”

“The problem is… I was,” replied Daring, her voice catching, “Am I not good enough for you?”

“No, no! Don’t say that!” said Jack sternly, wrapping a hoof around the mare to comfort her, “I did not think it meant so much to you.”

The two companions went on to silently eat their lunch, being joined by Celestia and Soarin, who was carrying a number of pies and dumped them onto the table.

“So, any news?” asked Soarin, uncomfortable with the silence at the table.

“Well, I think your commander is trying to steal my stallion,” Daring said with a pout.

“Oh… Well… I’ll talk to her then,” said Soarin, who didn’t know what to reply with.

“Why don’t you talk to her, Jack?” asked Celestia curiously, chiming into the conversation.

“Well… She… She is a scary mare sometimes. She has that look in her eyes,” said Jack to Celestia with a sheepish smile on his face.

“Well, I can’t take care of all your problems, Jack,” said Celestia, “Oh. And here she comes.”

“Speak of the devil…” muttered Jack as she walked in and sat beside Soarin.