The White Tail

-Somewhere in the Canterlot Castle field grounds-

“SPARKS, I WANTED YOU IN LINE TWO MINUTES AGO, MOVE IT!”

Sparks muttered something under his breath as his captain harassed him for being late.  They had just returned from a twenty-mile trot in full armor, on one of the hottest days ever. It was a wonder that they were all still standing.

He was part of the select few soldiers that ran missions of importance to his country. They were known as the Dwarf Star Regiment, which was made up of only one hundred members of the best of the best Equestria had to offer.

“I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO BE A PART OF THIS REGIMENT, SON, BUT YOUR SORRY FLANK SAYS OTHERWISE!”

Sparks was getting very annoyed by his captain, but orders were orders as he stood silently in line with the other nine members of his squad.

Moving on, the captain addressed the rest of them, “Alright… We have a special day today, and considering the hard work we did while the Elements of Harmony were taking down Discord…”

The soldiers chuckled, remembering that delicious chocolate rain from the heavens. One recruit was tempted to sing the song but decided against it. Making sure there was no such interruption the captain continued, “Everypony in the regiment is allowed to take three days off, but be sure to be back right at this exact spot! Is that clear, Dwarf Stars?”

“SIR, YES SIR!” yelled all ten soldiers.

“DISMISSED!” the captain barked.

As he fell out, Sparks couldn’t believe his luck.  He went into the barracks to take off his gear. His armor covered nearly all of his body, which included a mask to cover his face from dust, which also served to protect his identity. His cutie mark was made up of a sword and shield, and he had pure blue fur from head to hoof.

“YO! SPARKY!” Sparks turned around to see his old friend, High Tower. The red Pegasus had a funny look on his face as he trotted into the barracks. This punk had a pair of dragon wings on his flank. Smiling, Sparks responded.

“How’s it going, Tower?”

“Fine; thanks for asking, you jerk.” He playfully punched Sparks’ shoulder. Sparks retaliated by returning the punch and asked, “Any luck on that dragon thing you have going on?”

“Oh, you mean dragon taming?”

High Tower’s job is that of a dragon tamer. It was a job highly exclusive to Pegasi because they were the only ones to have wings. Unicorns had tried but apparently dragons can only relate to ponies that fly, and if anything the female dragons found them adorable.

“Yeah, I heard another dragon was trying to sleep in the cave above those mountain ranges again.” He had taken all of his armor off at this point, and was finally able to relax.

“We stopped him this time, unlike that jerk that nearly smoked out Ponyville.” Tower remembered that, and was annoyed by such an occurrence. “And it still took a group of Pegasi to make him move.”

“How’s the city been while I was on duty?” Sparks hadn’t been able to see his hometown of Canterlot ever since Discord broke free, and was glad that it was all over now.

“Ah well you know, the same old snobs. Pay is a little higher, and we had free cake for an hour…AN HOUR.” Sparks knew that meant everypony scrambled for cake. He silently cursed the sky for the misfortune of missing that. Suddenly, there was a growl from the deep end of his belly.

“Let’s get out of here; I’m craving for some food.”

“AH, YES FOOD! GLORIOUS FOOD!” Tower flew out of there within a blink of an eye.

“You’re supposed to come with ME jerk!” yelled Sparks as Tower was already out of reach. With a sigh he began his trot to the city of Canterlot. Luckily he knew where High Tower was already going.

-Celeston, later in that same evening-

Seaponeh walked back through the Palm Family Farm gates, and noticed that there was still a mark where the mail mare had crashed.

“I’m probably going to end up fixing that…” he groaned out loud to himself as he casually walked to the main house. There were three houses. The big one in the middle was where everypony lived in. The one closest to the water was where they worked on the coconuts. The one on the left near the tree line was a storage house for equipment and other fancy stuff. He opened the front door to the main house and walked in, feeling the warmth and a welcoming smell…home.

“Sea, is that you sweetie?” Aedre asked as came around the corner.

“Hey mom.”

“Where is everypony today? I made pumpkin pie and hay penne pasta.”

“They’re coming; things just got interesting in town.”

“Oh you mean the fact that we’re not just getting guards, but LUNAR guards that are coming to town tonight?”

“How did you…”

“Your father went into town and everypony was talking about it.”

So much for it being a secret. Seaponeh smiled, thinking this was the result of a “Mayflower Ramble.” She had a tendency for telling such things too. The poor mare is never going to hear the end of it from Branching.

The door burst open to reveal an out of breath Mayflower with the look that said she is on a mission.

“You…have got…to go…to town…they are…so cool!” With that, Mayflower plopped onto the floor, gasping for air. Seaponeh casually closed the door and paid no heed to his sister’s dramatic performance.

“There is pumpkin pie in the kitchen, May, if you want any.” Miss Palm teased.

“Okay…just saying though…” Mayflower slowly crawled her way to the kitchen. Seaponeh couldn’t help but laugh at this un-lady like display.

“Seaponeh honey, please go fetch your father and brother for me. I don’t want dinner to go to waste”

Seaponeh gave a little sigh before saying, “Alright I will, see you guys in a little bit…I guess.” He opened the door and flew off into the bright moonlit night sky.

Landing softly in the bustling town, all of the streetlights as well as all of the businesses were lit up and decorated, all due to the arrival of the Lunar Guards.

Heck, there were banners that said, “Welcome, Lunar Guards to Celeston!”

It wasn’t hard to figure out where everypony was as he came across a huge crowd of ponies gathered around a small stage in the middle of the town square.

“I assure you, good citizens of Celeston, we will make your town safe from the danger that the god of chaos created. It will be like we never existed.”

This was obviously the leader as Seaponeh looked on. He wasn’t a rookie when it came to military topics; Mr. Palm had made sure of that. This guy looked like he was pretty new at his job though.

“So exactly what kind of “danger” are we in for, Captain Nighthawk?” As always the Daily Celeston News journalist spoke first, being the only local newspaper company in town.

“We don’t know specific details yet, but we know that it is a threat to this town, no more, no less.” The Captain said with a most sincere look on his face that reassured everypony there.

Seaponeh decided to start looking for his father and brother as the captain continued with his speech.

“We also would like to thank the Mayor for his hospitality, allowing us to set up our base in his workplace.”

Seaponeh chuckled, knowing it was the only place they could really hold operations without a hitch. He continued to make his way through the crowd when he finally spotted Mr. Palm, along with his brother and Doctor Clover, near the front of the crowd.

“Of course, they would be in the front.  Why didn’t I look there first?” Seaponeh thought as he rolled his eyes. As he moved towards his two targets, the captain continued to talk.

“Us being here will be temporary, so that...excuse me.” Seaponeh looked up to the captain as a recruit whispered to him in either fear or excitement; he guessed both.

“*Ahem* It seems that we already located what we are here for, so I’m going to have to cut this short and ask you to stay in your homes for the remainder of the night.”

With this, everypony in the crowd broke up, and Seaponeh walked over to Mr. Palm and Branching.

“Sea! You just missed this pony’s speech! Where have you been?” Mr. Palm put on a small smile while Branching just stood there with a poker face.

“Oh, nowhere, I was home, hoping you guys would get there SO WE CAN HAVE DINNER!” Seaponeh playfully shook Mr. Palm by the shoulders.

“Oi lad, take it easy. The old geezer can only handle so much, ya know?” Doctor Clover teased, as it seemed he was on the offensive tonight.

Ignoring this, Mr. Palm said, “Yes, yes, dinner. I have forgotten that my wife can still cook.” Seaponeh and Branching looked at each other, praying Miss Palm will never hear that remark in person.

“Well I guess I’ll be heading home me-self. See you lads later now” declared Doctor Clover as he walked back to his clinic.

“Anyway…so I guess we will go home now, Sea. Let’s go boys!”

As Mr. Palm trotted off, Branching whispered to Seaponeh, “I wish you had come sooner; it was the most boring thing I have ever been dragged to…”

Laughing at this, they both went to catch up to their father.

Back in the family house they smelled dinner, which was already ready.

“She planned this…” Branching declared.

“Your mother is a smart mare, so I suggest that we watch ourselves” Mr. Palm said jokingly.

“When you boys are done talking, there is food on the table!” The three stallions looked at each other in surprise, agreeing that Miss Palm had some kind of voodoo magic going on tonight.

-Somewhere in the forest near Celeston-

A Lunar guard was running for his life, taken aback at what they had found. He nearly ran into Captain Nighthawk and the rest of the platoon before he went into a complete stop.

“PRIVATE TUCKER! WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU, SON?!?”  The Captain made sure not to look concerned in front of the rest of the platoon. It was common sense to have the leader not looking scared, otherwise everypony else would be in more of a panic than they are already.

Breathing heavily the private stuttered, “S-sir…*cough*…W-w-we f-f-found it b-b-b-but it’s acting d-d-d-differently from anything else we d-d-dealt with!”

The Captain had a sudden cold chill crawl up his spine, and with a hoof on the private’s shoulder, he looked into his eyes.

“What do you mean, son? Calm down, and tell me what you saw.”

The poor guy took a few big breaths before he started again.

“It isn’t some…”Looney” thing that Discord created that would throw pie or something. Cloud, Comet, Emerald and I cornered it. We only heard it laugh before it attacked us…”

The private was at the point of tears, “T-t-t-their dead sir…all of them…”

The Captain went wide-eyed, not sure what to do in a situation like this. The rest of the platoon stared at their captain, waiting for orders. With a deep breath, the captain told Private Tucker, “Alright son, you need some rest. Just point me in the right direction.”

“N-not far sir, just beyond those trees…” The whole platoon suddenly heard laughter emanate from somewhere deep in the forest. Hearing the laughter, Private Tucker rolled into a ball on the ground.

“Sir, something is coming right for us!” yelled one of the soldiers.

“Everypony, form up!  We will not let this creature be the end of us!”