After talking with Silver Spoon, Sophia left the filly to gather more information on her friends while allowing her to tell them that Sophia had a special project in mind for them that would help in the protection of Equestria.

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Spike were excited about the idea of helping to protect Equestria. For Spike, it meant that he had a chance to finally make something of himself instead of being limited to being an assistant to Twilight and Starlight.

The only one who wasn’t feeling enthusiastic about this was Diamond Tiara. While she was happy that her friends had a chance to contribute to Equestria’s defense one day, Diamond wasn’t sure what she could do to help in all of this. Apple Bloom was good with making explosives, Scootaloo had some special pegasus magic that hadn’t been seen in millennia, Sweetie Belle had all sorts of interesting gadgets in her body and she had psychic powers on top of that. Diamond could also see Spike as the muscle of the group if that incident with his greed growth was any indication of his latent strength. With Silver acting as some info gatherer, Diamond could see that everyone had a role in Sophia’s project, except her.

Well, that wasn’t quite true as Diamond had an idea about how she could be a part of this, the only problem would be if they were willing to accept her as such. Her memories of the times she bullied three of them rose to the surface, how she always made fun of them for having no cutie mark so she could feel better about herself after all the times her mother made her feel helpless before her authority. Even if they were friends now, such bad experiences were not so easily forgotten.

With Silver Spoon helping her with her information gathering, Sophia turned her attention to the adults whom she had shown interest.

She didn’t need to watch Rarity for the time being since that was Ingram’s task now. Her nephew reported that the presentation to the pony inventors had gone off without a hitch thanks to Sweetie Belle and that they were preparing to create forges of their own to refine gems into metal.

Unfortunately, Sophia knew that Equestria would be slow to awaken to their wartime potential after centuries of peace. Sophia always believed that a healthy nation needed a healthy balance of peace and conflict. They were two sides of the same coin. A nation needed conflict to make it strong but it also needed peace to keep a nation happy. These ponies have been at peace for so long that they would be vulnerable to invaders.

Celestia never embraced the philosophy of being prepared for the war that she hoped to never fight. Her incredible power acted as a deterrent to invaders until now. However, she never encountered an enemy who valued their greed above their own lives. Even if she could destroy the pirates with her power, the act would change how ponies viewed her. Sophia had to be careful as well, given the powers that she had yet to show the ponies.

Putting her thoughts aside for the time being, Sophia decided to check on the other Element bearers since her progress with her project was going smoothly. She thought about who she should check on today and what they are doing.

Pinkie was going to be busy for a while as the couple who let her live with them had recently given birth to two foals: a male pegasus and a female unicorn, which was strange considering both parents were earth ponies and the foals’ colors didn’t quite match the parents’ colors and this went against the idea that a foal inherited their colors from their parents. However, Sophia wasn’t in the mood to consider the genetics of the foals as she had other matters to deal with.

The point was that Pinkie was going to be foalsitting the twins whenever both parents needed to operate the store or whenever they needed to be away from the foals.

Applejack was getting ready for cider season and would be busy harvesting the apples with her siblings and parents. Whenever this happened, the Apples would often put out help wanted posters around town looking for ponies to help them with the harvest. Bright Mac would keep the help limited to ten ponies to avoid getting swamped by ponies looking for first dibs at the annual cider sale.

Rainbow Dash was always among the first to apply and much to the dismay of other ponies, the Apples felt that her speed was necessary for an efficient harvest so they could convert the apples into cider sooner and that meant plenty of cider the the rest of the town.

Rarity was currently working with Ingram to perfect the refining process while also coming up with potential upgrades to Sweetie Belle’s body and Sophia felt that she didn’t need to be a part of that.

Twilight was receiving weekly therapy sessions with Violetta. Sophia still couldn’t wrap her head around the idea of a harbinger of chaos and madness helping others through their issues with psychoanalysis. The thought still floored her, but at the same time she was happy that her cousin could do something constructive with her life.

The sessions had helped Twilight to think more flexibly instead of clinging to the facts written in a book as if said words were the gospel of the universe. Violetta had helped Twilight to understand that not everything written in a book was true and there would always be a bias by the author which could leave a margin for error. Starlight assured Twilight that she and Moondancer would always find time to hang out and test whether facts written in books were indeed facts which Twilight was happy for.

With the others accounted for, Sophia decided to check on Fluttershy to see what she was up to. When she got there, she spotted Discord leaving the house through the door, probably out of respect for the one pony who actually cared about him.

“See you next week, Fluttershy,” Discord said as he closed the door and prepared to snap his way home. That was until he spotted Sophia in front of him and he frowned. “Oh, it’s you.”

“Rude. So how’s your weekly visits with Fluttershy?”

“Are you sure you want to be having a conversation with me, especially since you don’t have that vial anymore?” Discord playfully asked.

“It’s just a simple question. Plus, you know of Violetta’s existence. That means she’s always watching you no matter where you are. And yes, I know that’s creepy. Everycreature who knows about her knows how creepy she is.”

Discord sighed in defeat as he realized how true that was. He could feel the eldritch horror’s tentacles wiggling around in his mind, mainly because of his nature. To that he could only just do his best to ignore that feeling and continue like usual. “Well, I’m glad that your cousin got rid of that disturbing image she put in my head at least. I’m actually surprised that Fluttershy still wants to hang out with me despite how she’s afraid of me.”

Sophia giggled, “She’s one courageous pony, alright. Anyways, I won’t keep you. I wanted to pay her a visit myself.”

“You mean despite that enamored rabbit of hers?” Discord smirked.

Sophia sighed, “Yes, I have plans for Fluttershy for the coming war and I will tolerate that rabbit for the sake of those plans. I wish he’d take the hint though, he acts like a kit despite his age. Fluttershy spoils him too much.”

“Good luck dealing with that then, ta ta.”

Once Discord snapped himself home, Sophia approached the door to Fluttershy’s cottage and knocked on the door. A few moments later, the door cracked open while the resident peeked outside to see who it was. Once she spotted Sophia, Fluttershy opened the door the rest of the way. She gave a gentle smile toward her new guest. “It’s good to see you again, Sophia. Come in, I was just about to serve lunch to my animal friends.”

Fluttershy closed the door once Sophia was inside before she walked over to her table to grab a box of animal pellets and poured the contents onto the floor. “Lunchtime! Who’s hungry?” That was when she was swarmed by a number of hungry critters who piled themselves into the pile of pellets. One mouse grabbed the box from Fluttershy and gobbled down the remaining contents, eating twice their body mass in pellets which amused Sophia. Much to the mouse’s dismay though, Fluttershy brought out another box of pellets and offered more to the mouse only for him to decline. Sophia could only imagine how much that mouse would regret eating that much food later.

When it came time for Angel to receive his portion, Fluttershy poured it into a bowl only for the rabbit to kick it into the air where it landed on Fluttersh’s head while the contents spilled on the floor around her. Thankfully the animals still had room in their stomachs for a little more so they helped with the cleanup.

Sophia frowned and rolled her eyes at Angel. He appeared to be as disappointing as ever.

However, Fluttershy was willing to compromise with Angel by offering him a salad from the table. Angel responded with an overly dramatic death scene the moment he tasted a cucumber.

“Hmph, what a kit,” Sophia commented.

Angel ended his act and hopped over to Sophia and glared at her. “Hey, I am an adult, you know!” Angel complained in a series of squeaks.

“Could have fooled me with your behavior,” Sophia responded with the same squeaky language. “Fluttershy is trying to ensure you have a healthy diet and you practically spit in her face for it. Only a kit would show the one who truly cares for them such disrespect.”

“Please don’t fight you two,” Fluttershy interjected. “Look Angel, what do you want to eat?” Angel then showed her a book with a recipe for what looked like a fruit salad with lettuce, orange slices, surprisingly cucumbers, a pineapple slice, whipped cream and a cherry on top. “I’m not sure I can make that.”

“I wouldn’t, Looks like there’s too much fruit in that salad to be healthy for Angel. Fruit and root vegetables should only be given as an occasional treat. A proper meal for a rabbit would be mostly hay with some fresh vegetables and a few pellets.”

“Why are you trying to sabotage my attempts for something that’s more suitable for my palate?” Angel squeaked in outrage.

Thankfully, that was when Fluttershy’s training began to kick in. “No, Sophia’s right. I really should have paid more attention to my friends’ nutritional needs. I need to go to the library later and find a few books on animal dietary requirements. Oh, but you said Angel needs plenty of hay? I should go to the market and buy some.”

Once Fluttershy left for the market, Angel continued to give a death stare at Sophia. Sophia gave Angel a look that challenged him to try anything and see what happens.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy arrived at the market looking for bundles of hay and some fresh vegetables. She found the stall that sold hay but she found that the salespony was charging two bits for a bundle which was twice the normal price for it. “Excuse me, why are you overcharging for hay?” Fluttershy asked.

“Price went up because I said so,” the salespony responded.

“That seems rather greedy of you.”

“Too bad! Two bits or get lost.”

“Hmph, you really are a greedy pony,” Fluttershy complained, a little louder than she intended before turning around to walk away.

However, this caused the ponies nearby to overhear where they started discussing their concerns for the hay booth. The salespony could tell that if he didn’t do something quick he was going to have a bad reputation. Sure, he was hoping to use the extra bits to redecorate his house but it wasn’t worth losing his reputation over.

“Alright alright, one bit for a bundle,” the salespony hastily said. Fluttershy gave a gentle smile and gave the pony the coin before using a wing to put the bundle in her saddlebags.

Since then, the ponies at the market developed a newfound respect for Fluttershy, including Pinkie and Rarity who watched the whole thing.

News traveled fast around town which made getting the vegetables a non-issue for Fluttershy as the vendor had a feeling that she wouldn’t be able to get away with overcharging the animal caretaker.

Angel would soon realize that Fluttershy’s new assertive side would mean that he wouldn’t get away with as much as he used to and would have to be content with whatever Fluttershy fed him.

Feeling satisfied with this latest change in Fluttershy, Sophia left the mare to her devices. The cherry on top were the wails of despair she heard from a spoiled rabbit

Soon after, Sophia found a hedge maze and a stage in the center of it manned by a team of goats while the one running the show was a blue minotaur wearing a black tie. The minotaur soon introduced himself as Iron Will and he seemed to have a tendency to speak in the third person. However, unlike Trixie, Iron Will did so as part of a stage persona and could speak normally whenever he wanted.

Iron Will seemed to be giving a seminar on assertiveness which amounted to making someone act bossy to the point of looking like a jerk to others. Of course, some of his lessons could prove useful to help ponies develop the courage needed to face the pirates. However, she didn’t need ponies potentially turning on each other with such behaviors either so she would need to help the minotaur shape his plan into something that would be beneficial for the future.

“Now, to demonstrate that Iron Will's techniques will work for anypony, I'm gonna need a volunteer,” Iron Will requested. However, before he could pick someone, Sophia appeared on stage. One of Iron Will’s goats tried getting in her way but one look into the bunny’s eyes made the goat move aside so she could see the minotaur. “Uhh, that wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“Don’t worry about him, I am on stage because I would like to turn this seminar into a lesson ponies need for the coming days,” Sophia informed. Ponies started chattering amongst one another.

“What lesson are you talking about?” Iron Will asked.

“As all of you know, Equestria is under threat from a force that cannot be defeated so easily, even by the Elements of Harmony. The duty of protecting your friends and loved ones may one day fall upon you and you must be prepared to show them that you won’t back down. Equestria must be prepared to do what is necessary to confront the invaders who seek to take everything from you.

“While I commend Iron Will’s lessons to become more assertive, remember that it is the invaders who deserve nothing but your ire for threatening to take everything away from you. As Princess Celestia prepares Equestria for war, all ponies must find the will necessary to fight for their homes, their families, their friends and their livelihoods, for they will take all of that away from you otherwise.”

The ponies’ chatter became more energetic as Sophia’s rallying speech filled them with determination.

After the speech, Sophia met with Iron Will privately behind the stage where the goats found chairs for the two to sit in. “So, care to tell me why you jumped into my seminar like that?” Iron Will asked.

“It’s simple, I saw your lessons in assertiveness, but I felt that it needed to be adjusted,” Sophia replied. “Ponies will need a sense of camaraderie for what is coming. The lessons you offer seem to take such aggressive feelings toward ponies around them when they need to be focused on a common enemy. However, ponies will also need to learn not to turn such feelings on each other and while that would be much more difficult, giving them something else to focus on that isn’t each other is the best strategy available right now.”

“So you want me to focus on igniting a sense of patriotism in ponies?”

“Would you be able to do it?” Sophia asked.

“How much would I be getting paid?”

Sophia rolled her eyes, “I’ll pay you a commission of a bit per unique pony in your seminars, no repeat customers.” Her tone suddenly turned cold, “I have my ways of finding out if you try that stunt to get more bits out of me.”

Iron Will gulped, “Understood. So, all I have to do is go on a tour around Equestria and rally ponies in the spirit of camaraderie against the invaders?”

“Yep,” Sophia affirmed.

“Alright, Iron Will at your service.”

Sophia gave a light smile as they came to an agreement with the minotaur using his surprisingly small hands to shake Sophia’s paw.

Author's Note

One thing about war is that you need some propaganda to increase war support. The matter of Iron Will's propaganda campaign won't be mentioned much in this story, I just wanted to give the minotaur something to do since he won't be a bad influence on the Element of Kindness.

Hope you enjoyed Angel's treatment. Also, for those who don't know, a kit is also a term for a young rabbit.