The British Grenadiers

In the middle of the foggy darkness, standing tall amongst the rolling hills of the Equestrian landscape,the silent town of Ponyville rested it's head on a cotton pillow. It's inhabitants, driven by the peaceful lull of the night, laid their warm bodies under the sheets of their subconscious fantasies, dreaming of unimaginable joy, happiness and tranquillity. In their dreams, there was no pain, no suffering, only themselves, and what made them feel special.

This was not the case, however, of a certain lavender coated alicorn. Princess Twilight Sparkle, the local librarian and recently crowned princess, could not help but stare through her bedroom's window, admiring the little light the stars brought to her eyes. Still covered by her blanket, laying on a soft mattress, she began fantasizing with the stars, trying to hear their graceful twinkling through the peaceful, silent night.

Soon, the scholar's heavy eyelids began dropping. The trance of sleep slowly taking away her consciousness, her dreams intermingling with reality. The outside world began losing it's grip from her, and soon, she found herself floating in her own fantasies, joining the other sleeping inhabitants of this rural town.

Sadly, her sleeping did not last for long. It only took a couple of minutes for her to wake up again. For the fifth time that night, her wings snapped open, striking the hard wood of the bed's headboard. Jumping back into reality, Twilight opened her eyes with utter disgust, exposing the sore, reddened surface that surrounded her irises. The lack of control for her wings, together with the subsequent lack of sleep, were turning that night unbearable for the poor pony. Having nothing better to do, and knowing she wouldn't be able to sleep that night, the alicorn stepped out of her bed and headed downstairs, towards the kitchen.

Carefully, as quietly as she could manage, Twilight made her way down the stairs, doing her best to keep her wings folded. Once in the kitchen, she used her magical telekinesis to grab a mug from one of the shelves and filled it with water, utterly unaware of the baby dragon looking at her from the doorway.

"Twilight?" asked the little creature, scratching one of his eyes.

"AH!" Startled by his sudden call, the princess' wings snapped open, accidentally hitting the porcelain mug. Upon contact with the hard wooden floor, it shattered into hundreds of tiny little pieces, scattering all over the kitchen and emptying the liquid over the wood.

Frustrated, the librarian sighed, facehoofing and shaking her head in disappointment.

"What are you doing up so late? Please tell me you didn't stay up all night with that book again."

"No... Can't sleep... Wing problems," she muttered, grabbing another mug from the shelf and filling it with more water. After drinking it down, she took a glance at the porcelain-covered floor. "Spike, would you mind cleaning this?"

"Later. Go back to bed... It's two in the morning." The dragon walked off back to his makeshift bed, loudly yawning and stretching his limbs. Once inside his basket, Spike covered himself under the sheets, fading away into the grasp of sleep.

Suddenly, coming from outside the library, the loud noise of a bell ripped through the silent lull of the night. Piercing into Twilight's ears, the loud chimes began drilling into her brain, making the night worse and worse. Utterly pissed off, the newly crowned princess opened the closest window to her, poking her head through it. Twisting it from one side to the other, she noticed, a light brown earth pony galloping around, shaking a cowbell on his neck while shouting his lungs out.

"RALLY THE GUARD! RALLY THE GUARD! PONYVILLE'S IN DANGER!"

That pony was Caramel, crying wolf again for a twelfth time in three months. Ever since he was attacked by a timberwolf, the pony became fairly traumatized and cowardly, and every now and then, for some strange reason, he shows up in the middle of the night, crying that those confounded creatures are chasing him again. The townsfolk believed him the first three times or so, but nopony ever found a single wolf outside the Everfree Forest.

In the end, the brown stallion got tagged as a cowardly liar, thus ruining his reputation.

"Oh... not this again..." muttered the alicorn, quite displeased with her acquaintance's actions. Using her magic to plug her ears, she shut the window close and walked back upstairs, trying her best to ignore the stallion's loud yelling.

The spell helped a lot for that matter.

Lying back in bed, she covered herself with her blankets and tried, for a sixth time that night, to sleep. Her eyes still sore and itching, made the task close to impossible.

Ten minutes and quite a few eye scratches later, the lavender mare still found herself unable to sleep, shifting her position in the mattress countless times. Giving up, she opened her tired eyes and stared at the night sky once again. The stars, still displaying their graceful light, showered her with their beautiful choreographies, twinkling and maybe even slightly moving in a random pattern.

"Hey, Twilight!"

"AH! PINKIE!" A frightened Twilight jumped out of the bed, utterly terrified by the pink pony poking her head through the window. She literally hit the ceiling, getting her horn stuck up there and her body hanging down. Quite a hilarious sight.

"Pinkie! What are you doing?! It's almost three in the morning!"

"I came to say 'hi', silly! You would not believe what happened!"

"At three in the morning?" The alicorn, tired and irritated, was already used to Pinkie Pie's sudden intrusions in the middle of the night. It happened quite often, in fact, but she never managed to avoid getting a bit angry.

"but of course! You see, I was peacefully sleeping in my bed when my pinkie sense woke me up, warning me about a terrible doozie! So I got up and walked outside and you would not believe what I found! I-"

Using her ear plugging spell, Twilight decided to stop listening to her friend. Although she liked Pinkie Pie, that mare could become a burden for one's ears, and it was for the best not to listen. Instead, she focused on getting down from the ceiling.

Once she managed to loose her horn, she dropped on the mattress and bounced off, falling face first onto the wooden floor. Wincing in pain, her spells dissipated, and Pinkie's ramblings once again stormed her hearing senses.

"so then they asked about you, and I told them to come here!"

"Wait... who's asking for me?"

"Didn't you listen, silly? I said my friends Butley and Roguey coming! They should be arriving any moment now!"

**knock** **knock** **knock**

As Twilight recovered her bearings, a loud knocking came from downstairs, echoing it's rattle all around the library. The princess turned her head and faced her pink companion, meeting her big smile and cheerful expression.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Oh! Oh! They're here! Come on Twilight! Let's go greet them!" With a bright grin, Pinkie gracefully bounced downstairs, completely disregarding the laws of physics. Behind her, and in the worst possible mood, an annoyed Twilight Sparkle followed suit.

Expecting this whole ordeal to be nothing more than a silly prank, she slightly opened the library's door poking her head outside. Right in front of her, two stallions she had never seen before met her gaze. Side by side, a brown and white pinto and a dark furred stallion eagerly awaited her arrival. Both were wearing strange saddles on their backs, strapped all around their torso, neck and part of the head.

"Hello?" asked the lavender mare in an effort to hold her yawns.

"Excuse us for disturbing you at this hour, ma'am," said the pinto with a stern expression carved in his face. "We're looking for the town's librarian. It's a bit of an emergency."

"That would be me... What's going on at this hour? Is everything okay?"

"HEY GUYS! HOW'VE YOU BEEN!" Cheerfully as always, Pinkie interrupted their conversation with a big grin.

"Pinkie! Don't do that!"

"Oh no.. not this again," muttered the stallion with discontent.

"But Twilight! Look! They're new in Ponyville! That means WE'RE HAVING A PARTY!"

"PINKIE PIE! Don't shout! It's three in the morning! And this is serious!"

"Oh! Okay! I'll be back when this isn't serious anymore. Bye!" And just like that, she bounced away, making her trademark 'boing' noise every time she landed. Sighing in relief, the librarian turned back to the two stallions in front of her, going back to 'serious mode'.

"So... as I was saying, what's going on?"

"Quite a lot I dare say, lass." The black stallion took a step forward, speaking in a thick Yokeshire accent. "The apple orchards are being raided by those blasted wooden wolf things. We need to rally the guards fast!"

"What?! Sweet Apple Acres under attack?!"

"Aye, our mates and us tried to hold 'em back but..." He trailed off with remorse, sadly lowering his head. "The officers told us to come 'ere and get help. When we left, the lads were trapped inside a red barn."

"Ohmygosh! Timberwolves aren't supposed to leave the Everfree Forest! We've gotta do something! I'll send a letter to the Princess!"

She darted back inside in desperation, trying to find her faithful dragon assistant. The two stallions, without thinking twice ran into the library, chasing after her.

"Come on Spike! This is important!"

"Wha? Wha's going on? Twilight it's late in the morning... I wanna sleep." The baby dragon was forced out of bed by magic, waking up to Twilight shaking his little body up in the air. Once awake, she dropped him down on the floor, landing on his back against the hard wood.

"We need to send a letter to the Princesses! Get me a quill and parchment!"

"Oi! Lass!" chimed in the black earth pony, "that won't be necessary. We've got our own letter to send out." He produced a small bent parchment from his saddle bag, grasping it with the mouth and letting the unicorn grab it with her magic. "Your friend Applejack, the one who sent us here, said it would be a good idea."

The librarian studied the letter for a few seconds, taking special attention on the red wax seal that held it closed. It contained what looked like three feathers, lined up one next to the other and held on their lower part by a crown. She had never seen such a symbol before, triggering her curiosity. However, her sense of responsibility told her to postpone her questions.

"Here you go, Spike. Send it away, will you?"

"Yeah, yeah... Just let me sleep after this."  Grasping the parchment with his hand, he blew a flame over the closed letter. The two stallions stared in horror as the little dragon burnt the message into a green smoke, believing he just destroyed it.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!"

"Everything will be fine, lass. Just hang on." In the middle of the room, sitting on a wooden bed, Colour Serjeant Johnson looked at the wounded orange pony with concern. Lying next to him, a blood-stained Applejack winced and cried in pain, as the serjeant stitched close the bite marks in her haunches. Behind them, by the window, two grenadiers aimed down and discharged their muskets, filling the room with white smoke.

"Don't ye worry, Miss Applejack. It's almost over. Captain, could I borrow some of your brandy?"

"Certainly, Johnson." Mister Williams, who was standing by the doorway, turned around and handed his canteen to the serjeant, who then emptied half the container onto the closed wound. The earth pony, upon feeling the alcohol on her rear leg, yelled painfully, violently jerking her rear legs. Her brother, a red earth pony named Macintosh, stood by her side, holding tightly her sore body.

"Now, lassie, I need ye to drink this. It's brandy, taken from the French at Toulouse."

"Wha... what? The Prench?"

"Just drink down, miss. It'll do ye good." He put the canteen on her lips, and emptied the liquid in her mouth. Without thinking twice, and due to the foul taste, she quickly swallowed it down.

"Good filly. We can't do anythin' more here, sah. She'll be 'aight."

"Well done, Johnson," said the Captain, "Now, get on with your duties downstairs."

"Aye aye, sah." The Englishman got up from the bed and grabbed his spear, which was lying on the wall next to him. Bringing it to his right side, he angled it diagonally to the floor and braced it with two hands, making sure it didn't hit the ceiling. Then, he tipped his hat at the officers in the room and walked out.

The Prince of Wales' Own Volunteers found themselves in a dreadful situation. After the bayonet charge, the hordes of Timberwolves grew bigger and bigger, forcing the Redcoats into the barn. Covered by the dense smoke, they discharged round after round of musket fire, in their best attempt to keep their magicked foes at bay. In the centre of the room, protected behind the colour serjeants' long spears, the two young ensigns held the colours. The two standards, symbols of the 82nd's pride and honour, stood side by side with the company's musicians, who were, under orders from the Major himself, playing the tune "Hearts of Oak".

Outside, hundreds of timberwolves surrounded their human preys. Their distinctive stench and loud barking, storming the Englishmen's heads, filled the Grenadiers with fear. Scratching the entrances with their sharp claws, the creatures were trying to get inside, their mouths watering at the sole thought of fresh meat.

With lead flying and drums hammering, the British soldiers stood their ground. Taking cover behind the thick red walls, some of the men reloaded their firelocks, carefully making sure their shots were properly rammed into the barrel. The rest, positioned by the windows, opened fire at the assailing creatures, shattering their bodies into splinters and branches.

From the second floor, above the battle, the commanding officer inspected the situation with his telescope. With the ammunition running low, James' only hope laid on his adjutants. It had been almost an hour since Butler and Rogue ran away to get help, and for how things were looking, they may as well never come back.

The Major was already losing hope. Sighing loudly, he lowered his spyglass with remorse, regretting sending the two ponies on such a suicidal mission. It was more than possible that the wolves got them right after they left, and their bodies were reduced to mere bones.

Leaving the window, James closed his telescope and sat down by the bed. He noticed Captain Williams walking by the entrance, and with a hint of dispair in his words, he called his attention. "....Mister Williams?"

"Oh?" asked the second in command. "Yes, milord?"

"How are we on lead? How many rounds per man?"

"About ten bullets each, sir. We can stand, but not for long..."

"We are a forlorn hope, Mister Williams... I say we make the best of it." James rose up from the bed and walked outside the room, heading downstairs with the Captain.

"What do you mean by that, sir?"

"I say we take the fight out to those buggers outside, Mister Williams. They are made of wood, are they not? Let's see how they like fire."