Far Neigh: The Valley

"I think Weeping Willow is the best choice for the taking these farms, no offense Blue Cross." Twilight said, giving a sympathetic nod to Cross.

"None taken Twilight, just make sure you bring her back in one piece, okay." Blue Cross said as he hugged his wife.

"Oh, don't worry yourself Blue, I'll be fine." Willow said in response. Twilight took the knife, as well as the rifle and pistol she was given from yesterday, downed the rest of her coffee and wiped her lips with her hoof.

"Let's get started."

Twilight and Willow exited the main farmhouse and walked to the edge of the farm, where there was a small hill. Upon reaching the top, Willow pointed her hoof out towards the northwest.

"You see that farm over there, that's our first target." Willow said. Twilight squinted her eyes, and she could make out the farm in the distance. She could see a few buildings as well as several rows of tiny trees.

"What kind of farm is it?" Twilight asked.

"Sunny Grove Farm." Willow began, "They grow citrus fruits, oranges, lemons, limes, etc. It used to be run by decent folks until the OOTIs came." Willow said, her tone saddened as she finished.

"Alright then, are we walking there?" Twilight asked. Willow nodded.

"We should avoid the main roads for now, no doubt they've doubled the number of patrols after last night's attack on the convoy." Willow explained. Twilight nodded and the two began to walk.

They walked over several hills and through a few small fields, at one point hiding from a small patrol, until they reached the outskirts of the farm. Willow pointed out a good vantage point and the two walked to it. When they reached the vantage point, Willow handed Twilight a pair of binoculars.

"Scan the area, and find out what we're dealing with." Willow said. Twilight looked through the binoculars and surveyed the area.

The farm was fairly standard in layout, with a barn, main farmhouse, silo, and 2 extra houses, probably used as the slaves' quarters. Then there was the field of trees, with each row marked with a sign signaling the fruit in that grove. Twilight also scanned the field of slaves, seeing several, but no sign of anypony she knew.

She then began to count the number of guards, which was fairly easy, since the uniforms distinguished them so well. She spotted 6 wandering around the houses, and 4 patrolling the area around the groves. totaling only 10 guards. Twilight also noticed the tower by the barn that was glowing green.

"What's that tower for?" Twilight asked. Willow looked up from assembling her rifle.

"That's the alarm, if it's rung, any OOTI soldiers on standby will come to handle the situation." Willow explained.

"Any way to stop that from happening?" Twilight asked.

"Don't get caught. Or you could easily disable it, though it takes a few seconds, or you could just smash the thing, though that'd probably make some noise." Willow explained as she finished assembling her rifle by screwing on the silencer.

"Okay, I'm ready. Take this." Willow said as she gave Twilight a small white cord. "It's an earpiece. use it to tell me which guards to take out and I'll send em to tartarus." Willow said. Twilight nodded and put it in her ear before turning and heading down to the farm.

"Good luck." Twilight heard Willow say through her earpiece.

Twilight snuck along the edge of the farm, eventually finding herself on the far side of the farm by the slave houses. She crept through the bushes to avoid being seen when a guard walked around the corner of the house. Twilight noticed that no one could see him if he was taken out and whispered into her earpiece.

"Take this one, by the slave houses." Twilight whispered.

Twilight heard a small ping before she saw blood spurt from the guards head before falling to the ground.

"Got em." Willow said.

Twilight knew that she couldn't risk the other guards finding the body so she quickly used her magic to levitate the body into the bushes to hide it before moving on.

Twilight snuck quietly into one of the slave houses and froze. There was a guard standing in the room, listening to music through a radio, and bobbing his head to the beat. The room was filled with bunk beds, confirming this to be some kind of slave living quarters.

(Music he's listening to )

Twilight looked at the windows and knew that Willow wouldn't be able to make a shot through them, so she needed to take this guard out herself.

Twilight silently crept up behind the guard as he sung along to the lyrics of the song, and quickly but quietly, took out the combat knife and covered the guards mouth before stabbing him in the back of the throat. He dropped quickly and quietly.

"That wasn't pleasant." Twilight thought as she moved to peek out the other door to the house.

Twilight looked outside and saw two guards standing in the middle area, between the slave houses and the main house and barn. One guard was standing in the door to the barn, with the other standing right by the door Twilight was peeking out of, thankfully looking away.

Twilight looked around from her position, seeing a guard on the house's front porch, looking in another direction, as well as 2 other guards walking away down the rows of trees. Twilight hatched a plan.

"Shoot the one in the barn, now." Twilight said softly to Willow. Willow listened and Twilight saw the guard in the barn get shot. Before the guard in front of her could react, Twilight quickly stabbed him in the neck and dragged his body into the house by the other guard's body.

After hiding the body, Twilight opened the door, she could see the guard on the porch still in the same place. Twilight checked to see if anymore guards were near, and didn't see any, so she quickly and quietly snuck out of the house and started to move towards the barn where the alarm was. As Twilight approached the alarm, Willow spoke.

"The guard on the porch is starting to move toward you, I'll take care of em." Willow said. Twilight looked over and saw the guard walk around the corner of the farmhouse. The guard saw Twilight for a split second before being shot.

However, as Twilight was distracted by that guard, she heard a voice behind her.

"Hey!" the voice shouted. Twilight turned around and saw a Guard coming out of the barn, he rose his rifle to shoot her, when he was shot by Willow.

"Break the alarm, now!" Willow shouted into Twilight's ear. Twilight listened and took out her rifle and used it to smash the alarm by the barn. After taking care of the alarm, Twilight turned towards the fields where the remaining guards were emerging from.

Twilight quickly aimed her rifle and quickly shot 2 guards, killing them quickly. Another guard was shot by Willow, leaving only one more guard. Twilight quickly ducked into the barn to reload, when she heard the guard get shot with an automatic rifle, rather than Willow. Twilight poked her head out of the barn and saw a few of the slave ponies looting the weapons off the dead guards.

"Are you with the Militia?" one of the slaves asked. Twilight holstered her rifle and nodded.

"Thank you, so much." the now freed earth pony said. Twilight then saw Willow running over to her.

"I just radioed in, the Militia is coming to take over this farm." Willow explained. Sure enough, after just a few minutes, 3 trucks full of Militia soldiers pulled up and began to get to work. Removing the bodies, cleaning the workers quarters and removing all the Order's symbols.

Twilight and Willow assisted with the cleanup and after a few hours, Sunny Grove Farm looked much better, very reminiscent of Sweet Apple Acres to Twilight. Twilight then heard another voice on the channel in her earpiece.

"Well done Twilight, I just got word that you took back Sunny Grove. Pretty soon, we'll take back the rest of the valley from Virgo, and we'll free your friends as well. You and Willow make a great team. Keep up the good work." High Caliber said.

"Thanks Caliber, happy to help." Twilight said.

After the check in from High Caliber, Twilight walked over to Willow, who was helping remove the clutter from the farmhouse.

"What's next?" Twilight asked. Willow wiped her hooves and stood up.

"Now, we go and liberate one of the other farms, there's 3 more left to go after, then we'll be able to take out Virgo at her farm." Willow explained as Twilight took out her map. They both glanced at the map, with Twilight crossing off Sunny Grove on the north part of the plains. Twilight pointed her hoof to the farm at the western most part of the plains.

"Let's go for this one next." Twilight suggested. Willow nodded.

"That's the breadbasket, where the wheat of the valley is grown." Willow explained.

Twilight nodded and the two set off for the next farm, once again, on hoof to avoid the roads. But during their walk, a voice came through Twilight's earpiece, one she didn't recognize, a female voice.

"Princess, I know you can hear this, so listen. Leave my farms alone, you don't want to make me angry." The voice said menacingly. Willow turned to Twilight with a face of fear, having heard the voice.

"Who was that?" Twilight asked.

"Virgo." Willow simply replied.