War of The Gods

April 5th
New Richmond, FRD

A heavy knock at the bedroom door awoke the girls.

"What's goin' on?" Rainbow Dash asked, rubbing her head as she sat up in her cot. The knocking continued until Twilight got up and answered, still in her purple nightgown.

"Princess Twilight," The Military Policeman behind the door greeted "Thatcher needs you at his office in twenty minutes," The MP saluted and turned around to leave.

"Twenty minutes? That's not nearly enough time!" Rarity complained as she too started getting up. Within five minutes all the girls had quickly washed up and gotten dressed, a task that was in no way easy, and were outside of their boarding house. The six girls were greeted by three other policemen who gestured for the group to follow them, the six girls and three MPs started off down the sidewalk.

"I tell ya what, y'all better be careful 'round Thatcher this mornin'," One of the men said.

"Why?" Twilight asked.

"There was another raid down south, normally they just come in and burn the place. Ya know, send a message, they don't usually kill people. Well, last night we got a call in that a town got ransacked, didn't burn a damn thing, and robbed the church, it was a Catholic Church so it had some goodies in it. On top of that, there was two folks that got killed and it's all got the Ole Mule pissed the hell off,"

"That sounds awful!" Fluttershy, who hadn't said a word all morning, stated as loud as she could muster, which wasn't very loud.

"Hey kid, that's life for ya, if there wasn't any killin' we'd be out of a job," Soon they reached the old red brick print shop that made up the command post for the Confederate Military. They walked up a short set of concrete steps and were let in by another MP, who led them through the radio room, which was abuzz with the clatter of telegraphs and ringing of radios, and upstairs to a large open space separated by gray sheets and curtains like some sort of blanket fort. They were led to the back of the floor to a conference room hidden behind yet another gray curtain. Inside was a long table surrounded by metal folding chairs that sat empty and lit by a single bright propane lamp.

"Just wait here, Governor Thatcher will be here in a few minutes," The policemen closed the curtain behind him, leaving the girls alone and in silence with only the low hiss of the lamp keeping them company. The girls were shaken by a sudden bout of shouting from the floor above, then the slam of a door followed by more footsteps as someone let out a slew of curses. The footsteps thundered down the stairs and drew closer, allowing them to finally hear what the person was actually saying:

"Those Goddamn savages, I'll string 'em up with rope myself if they lay one more foot across the border!" It was Thatcher he was furious. "I'll strangle the sons of bitches with my bare hands!" Thatcher yanked the curtain open, nearly pulling it from the cable holding it up. He was about to spew out another string of curses when he saw Twilight and her friends sitting at the table. He glared at them for a moment, rage flashing in his green eyes, he turned to whoever was with him and said: "Send the welp of a king... An ultimatum," Thatcher stated, his anger. "Tell him... Either he can keep his tribes under control... Or I will for him," Thatcher turned back to the girls, took a deep breath, and put a smile on his aging face. "Sorry 'bout that," he said in his regular tone of voice. He sat at the head of the table across from Twilight at the opposite end, setting a manilla envelope on the table.

"So..." Twilight began awkwardly. "Can we uh..."

"Talk about that plane?" Thatcher asked. "We'll do it once Hughes gets in here, he was a lawyer for a while so he's gonna look over this little document of ours," he patted the folder. A few minutes of awkward silence passed, Twilight twiddled her thumbs and Thatcher sat there with his hands folded, occasionally glancing at his watch. Finally, after a good ten minutes had passed, Hughes slid open the curtain and stepped into the room, closing it behind him. "Good morning, Marshal Hughes,"

"Good morning, Governor Thatcher," Thatcher stood up and the two shook hands before Hughes took his seat next to Thatcher. Thatcher handed Hughes the folder.

"It's all yours, Saul Goodman," He said with a laugh. Hughes took the folder, opened it up, and looked over its contents before closing it and handing standing up to hand it to Twilight.

"It's all yours, Princess," Twilight looked inside, finding only a short bit of text with a signature line beneath it and a colored photo of the aircraft in question clipped inside with it.

"That's it?" Twilight asked rather shocked.

"Well of course," Thatcher answered "What'd ya expect?"

"I was kind of hoping for like an alliance or something, maybe a bit more paperwork," Twilight exclaimed disappointed.

"I didn't think we'd need more than that, I mean you're here to talk about the plane right? I didn't think we'd need a lot of fluff, all I want is my plane back," Thatcher scratched his chin "Although... We haven't got any real allies here yet... Hmm, I tell ya what, you sign that little document saying that we can come to get our plane back. Then we can further discuss an alliance over breakfast. What do ya think Hughes?"

"I think that's a great idea," Hughes answered grinning, Thatcher took a fountain pen from his pocket and reached over the table, handing it to Twilight, she quickly signed it and the group started to leave.

"I say we avoid the mess hall," Thatcher stated as they exited the building "I ate breakfast there the other mornin' and I was coughin' my guts up all day,"

"Is that why you were in the infirmary?" Hughes asked as he started to laugh.

"I spent maybe an hour there, and that was just to get the pill," Thatcher answered with mild annoyance. "I spent the rest of the day in my office... Much to my dismay, I might add,"

"Where are we going?" Twilight asked the two.

"There's this new diner opened up by a family who moved here from Mesquite Texas, I hear it's a damn good place," Thatcher replied. Before long they had finally made it, the diner wasn't too impressive, a simple brick corner building with bay windows. The eight of them went inside, sitting down and splitting up among two four-person tables, and ordered their food. "Now that we're here," Thatcher began, he and Hughes sat with Twilight and Rarity, "You wanna talk more about this 'alliance' idea of yours?"

"Well, heh, you kinda put me on the spot..." Twilight let out a nervous chuckle, Thatcher rubbed his face, muttering something in a foreign language out of frustration.

"I reckon you didn't hear my little tangent earlier," Thatcher began leaning forward "I'm already pissed off, I don't need to be more pissed off," Twilight apologized profusely:

"Sorry... Uhm... Well, there's... Shoot!"

"Take it, easy darling," Rarity said, entering the conversation.

"Uh... How about this? You come to Equestria and speak to Princess Celestia about a more thorough alliance," Before Thatcher could answer their meals were placed in front of them.

"Thank you, ma'am," Thatcher said to the waitress before turning his attention back to Twilight. "That sounds good to me, I mean it beats sittin' in this... City... all day,"

"Honestly I wouldn't mind leavin' here too, this place is so damn... Bland," Hughes exclaimed as he started buttering up a biscuit.

"Yep," Thatcher said agreeing with Hughes as he poured some creamer packets into his coffee, stirring them with a spoon. "Now that we're through with that, how's about I tell you some tales from my time in the army?" Thatcher asked smiling before sipping from his coffee.

"Oh, Christ..." Hughes said, facepalming, Thatcher scratched his chin as he tried to remember one.

"Ohohoh, I got one for ya, this 'un's got you in it, Eddie," Thatcher said laughing as he slapped Hughes on the arm. "So it was back in 2012, now this was when they just put me in the airborne and trained me up on how to drop out of a plane. We were launchin' out of Argentina and were headin' to the Falklands to fight some Commies. We were just 'bout to drop and let me tell ya it was cold, what month was it?"

"March," Hughes answered.

"Right, March of 2012, as I said we were 'bout to jump, we've stood up and clipped our lines and checked our gear and I hear Hughes cry out from behind me 'Hey, I ain't got my belt!'," Thatcher tried his best to imitate Hughes, who was trying to hide the fact he was laughing. "Now ole Lieutenant Colonel Joe Iron Ass McMillan didn't give a shit cause right after we got the green light," Thatcher sipped from his coffee and leaned in dramatically. "So we all jump, our lines pull out, and our chutes open, it's pitch black outside, it's loud as fuck cause there's at least fifty planes and you rode in one so you know just how loud them sumbitches are. So I'm cruisin' slowly to the ground with the rest of the boys when I catch somethin' fall past us out of the corner of my eye and I mean zoomin' down. Now everybody's confused, 'cause we're thinkin' one of our boys got shot down. Now that don't make sense cause there ain't any Commies in the area, so we think chute failure. Well, we get to the ground, kinda freakin' out 'cause we don't know who just fell and our medic goes to check. 'They're just pants!' The medic shouts, now we're confused 'cause who the hell just lost their pants? Well, not a minute later ole Eddie Hughes lands right with us in his damn skivvies, shiverin' in the cold," The two men burst out laughing, luckily the diner was mostly empty. Rainbow Dash started snickering before eventually joining in on the laughing fit.

"Oh, that reminds me of the time during training when this one guy called Spring Pollen had a fuel line in his plane burst and somehow get all over his cockpit," Rainbow Dash was still laughing "And of course, in his infinite wisdom, he had lit a cigarette in the cockpit,"

"Which is against Regulation?" Thatcher asked, smiling like a child.

"Yep, and while he was freakin' out he got some ash on his pants and they lit! He's lucky he hadn't even started movin' yet 'cause he jumped out his plane and started dancin' like crazy until he got his pants off!" The three laughed vigorously, Applejack and Pinkie Pie joining in on it.

"Oh hell, I remember when I was trainin' back in the 90s and there was this one feller who kept disobeying the sergeant," Thatcher began "Well, the sergeant finally had enough when he shot his gun off right next to his ear during a firing drill. I'll never forget the sight of that short old man cupping his bleeding ear and shouting every imaginable swear he could at that private," The barrel of laughs went on forever until Thatcher's finally turned to a heavy coughing fit. Soon they were all finished and were sent back to their boarding house to pack their things for their return to Equestria. They met Thatcher at the landing strip sometime later, he and his top officers had gathered near a plane that matched the one the six had ridden in on in all except the color. Rather than forest green it was sort of off-white color.

"Oh dear, I'm not flying in one of those again..." Rarity exclaimed distraught as they saw the plane.

"Don't be afraid, now," Thatcher said as he met the girls just before they reached their flight "This 'un here's made for flyin' passengers, it'll be a smooth and quiet ride to Memphis I guarantee it,"

"Well that does sound much better," Rarity responded with a sense of relief. The girls started boarding, finding its interior made up of rows of cushioned wicker chairs rather than springy metal seats. Hughes boarded with them, Thatcher sticking his head in behind him.

"It's a damned shame to see y'all off so soon, but tell the ole Princess we'll be there within a week," Thatcher exclaimed.

"Don't worry," Twilight began. "We will," The girls settled in and the plane started off, its roaring radial engines muffled by the less bare interior. Hours later the plane landed in Memphis and the girls offloaded themselves and started down to the dock. Hughes sent the girls off as they boarded their plane, fueled and loaded to return. Twilight remained on the dock with Hughes "Thank you... F-for the hospitality, your people are kind,"

"Oh, you're welcome, Princess Twilight, it was a pleasure havin' y'all and I hope to see y'all again soon," The two waved and Twilight turned to board, when she did she caught a glimpse of the battleship that had been moored in the port days prior. The beast slowly rolled by going north, the ship had been huge from above, but on the ground, it was a much more menacing sight. Twilight boarded the plane and they were soon back off to Equestria.