A Hero's 'Tail'

While flying, I noticed something. A rippling line of black was heading directly towards Ponyville about 20 kilometers away. Squinting, I tried to get a count of the vehicles, but they were just too numerous and vastly spread to count.
I decided to just count the types, and I was shocked. Listing them off in my head, remembering the flashcards, I saw APC’s, tanks, recon cars, heavy tanks, assault tanks, mortars, rocket launchers, ground to air missile tows, vulcan anti-air guns, combat choppers, transport choppers, fighters, bombers and many more.
All of them were wearing the black on gray colors indicating Bryant’s masked army.
I began despairing until I noticed the blue on light blue standards of the Equestrian National Guard waving, just barely peeking out from a distant meadow.
Rainbow and Fluttershy joined me from my perch on a cloud.

“Hey slick. Looks like the Guard finally managed to get away from the coast in order to take care of Bryant.” Rainbow said.

Fluttershy grabbed my hoof for comfort as I asked RD, “My question is, where the hay did she get all these vehicles? The compound I remembered wasn’t big enough or funded well enough to support an army of that size.”

She pondered this a moment. “Well, the Griffon territories are very hostile towards Equestria. It’s possible they are supplying her in an effort to throw the place into chaos. Other than that, I have no clue.”

“Will the guard be enough to stop a force of this size?”

She chuckled. “There’s no way. It’ll take a hero or some such to stop THAT force. And believe me, slick; I am NOT a hero. Tried that once, didn’t work out too well.”

She cringed at the memory, taking off back to town to deliver a report about my findings. Fluttershy squeezed my hoof nervously, and then followed Rainbow back, leaving me alone on the cloud to ponder RD’s words.
The yellow Pegasus wheeled back, evidently struggling to say something. She mumbled incoherently.

“Is something the matter, Fluttershy?” I asked, drawing close to her.

“I-I was just wondering…”

“Go on.”

She inhaled; words flying from her mouth faster than a gatling gun could spew bullets. “What I really want to say but can’t because I’ve been so so so scared and unable to tell you out of fear that I’d distract you is that I really really like you and want to know if you’d like to meet at my house for a date.”

I blinked, attempting to process this litany.

“If you’re free.” Fluttershy added and ducked her head sheepishly.

“I’d be honored. It will have to wait until we resolve the Guard situation. We can’t leave them hanging, now can we?”

I grasped her hoof. She squeezed it tightly as we flew back together.

***

After spending a lot of time thinking, I headed back to the town square.

There, I found Grit waiting for me. “Well, commander? It’s your call about what to do about that massive army.”

I blinked at him in surprise.

Gathering myself quickly, I nodded. “Alright. If the Guard gets trounced here, which they most likely will, then the whole of Equestria is open for conquering by any who so wish to, Bryant included. Logically, the only option we have is to pull AJ and Foaler from mutant roundup duty so we can provide full support for the Guard. Go ahead and get the Braves loaded up, as well as the bandits. We’ve got some tail to kick.”