Grapple Guardians: Dark Beginnings

An hour after the Queennaping, Victoria is with Buck near a bed. Buck has several cores attached to him; the cores are connected to things helping him recover. Buck also has a mask covering his eyes.

Victoria’s goat head asks, “Do you think he can still hear us?”

Buck answers with a yawn.

All of Victoria’s heads are surprised by the yawn.

Buck asks, “Did we win?”

The Tiger Head answers, "Negative.”

“Is there someone that is going to kick her butt? I don’t want her getting away with making me blind.”

The Snake Head says, “Don’t worry you’re not blind, you just have a sleep mask.”

Buck tries to get up, but his body refuses.

A nurse pony notices the conversion and interrupts, “Mr. Hooves, you should go back to sleep to recover. We need you asleep before we transfer you.”

“Transfer, why do I need to go to a different room?”

“It is the Royal Guard that ordered us to move our patients to the train station. We ask you to try to sleep and you will wake up in a safe place.”

“With that demon alicorn on the loose, I can’t just lay down and let more bad things happen.”

The Tiger Head asks, “We will help him go to sleep. You should get to other patients.”

The nurse pony says, “I will come back in 10 minutes. If he isn’t ready, I may have to drug him during the transfer.”

The nurse pony leaves to go to another room.

Buck asks, “What happened while I was out?”

The Tiger Head summarizes, “The Dark Alicorn declared herself queen of the night and Equestria.”

The Goat Head laughs, “Too bad for her, the old queen needs to declare that she is giving up the Throne in Canterlot for that to be close to being true.”

“At least that is what the Royal Guard told us.”

Buck asks, “So are we running away?”

“The commanding lieutenant of the Royal Guard ordered that every civilian and the severely wounded guards to the town of Dodge Junction."

The Goat Head says bluntly, "yes."

A pony guard from Grapple rushes in and announces, "Guardian Victoria, Captain Beehive is demanding you to go to Golden Oak Library to discuss a new plan to combat the dark alicorn, Nightmare Moon."

Buck comments, "So she is named after the fairy character."

"She is the fairy tale villain. Besides, you should be getting prepped for the next train."

Victoria asks in unison, "Do we have more time to help him to get ready?"

"No, ma'am. We need to move him quickly."

Buck says, "I'll be fine. Go on and be a part of history or at least a part of the news."

Victoria forces herself out the door with the pony guard.

The Snake Head says, "We will see you, later."

As Victoria and her escort walk to Library, they see ponies in Ponyville are trying to pack what they can and trying to be first to the train station. The Royal Guard helps them pack and to look out for Nightmare Moon.

Later, at the Golden Oak Library, Victoria arrives and gets seated. Victoria sees some of Captain Beehive's troops and several town ponies sitting on the stumps like chairs. Captain Beehive sees Victoria and gets ready for his announcement.

Within minutes, the room darkens and a projector lights a screen. Captain Beehive and a purple unicorn stand nearby the screen.

Captain Beehive screams, "Eyes forward!" This ensured that the whole room is paying attention. "We are here to try to save the Queen and possibly find the ancient weapons, THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY, and defeat Nightmare Moon with it or them. This operation is called Pigeon Heroes." The first slide reveals the words Pigeon Heroes are big bold letters and a quickly drawn Pigeon wearing a helmet.

A mare comments, "Aww, he looks cute."

Another mare says, "I am not a pigeon; I am a Hawk."

Captain Beehive interrupts, "Most of you volunteers are baby chicks, for all that I am concerned. Next!" The next slide, shows several groups of the ponies that are in the room including Victoria. "Command squad that is made of me, my second in Command Lt. Mage Claw ( a unicorn), and our 2 unicorn volunteers. Next is our commando is Victoria she is a squad within herself."

A mare wearing a cowboy hat asks, "Can we trust that thing on its own and not trying to plan to eat because I..."

"Our Town Guardian has proven herself to be a trustworthy guard and one of the greatest assets of my town and Equestrian Forces. If you're not comfortable with that monster covering you from a bigger monster, then walk out that door and kiss your farm goodbye."

The mare takes a moment to remember what she has to lose and replies, "I will work with that thing."

"Next is our pegasus squad made of all of our pegasi with Lt. Sandstorm as the squad leader. Everypony else is in the baseline unit led by the newly promoted Lt. Turnip." The next slide shows the Everfree Forest. "Our first objective is to get through the Everfree forest with the least amount of causalities possible. We have to avoid fights as much as possible. We need as many troops as we can to get in the castle and fight Nightmare Moon." The slide changes to a simple picture of a castle. "Until we get to the castle and learn more, our major objective is to get the Queen into a safe zone. Finding the Elements of Harmony and defeating Nightmare Moon is secondary."

A purple unicorn mare argues, "We need to find the Elements of Harmony and stop Nightmare..."

"I have been in enough battles to know what we can do and what we can't. Besides, we don't know if the Elements even work anymore or if they are still in the castle. Are you and your volunteers ok with that fact?!"

"I'll be ok for now."

Captain Beehive announces to everyone, "We leave in 30 minutes, make sure the volunteers get some equipment before we leave."