Chapter 5: Act1.Ch4 - Making camp and crystal inclusions
Previous ChapterMost ponies would have felt a bit nervous leading their friends and town towards an encampment of thousands preparing for war
Most ponies would have felt even more conscious if they were escorting a changeling they had captured themselves.
Most ponies would have struggled to stay composed as they felt the eyes of hundreds of ponies burning into them as they marched towards them
But then most ponies aren’t bearers of an element of harmony, young flier competition winner, generally heroic and the only Pegasus to fly four times the speed of sound.
Rainbow Dash was eating up the attention that was being thrust upon the final company to arrive into the camp, and if she hadn’t have been taught a certain lesson a number of times in her short life already, it would have easily gone to her head.
She knew that word would soon spread that she took on three changelings and defeated them without breaking into a sweat…and captured one without getting her hooves dirty. Everypony, if they already didn’t know her, soon would.
She suspected that after the war, the legendary stories of how Rainbow Dash saved the day time and time again during the war, became lead pony of the Wonderbolts and the most famous flier ever would echo down the ages.
Little did she know…
*****
Most ponies don’t have a princess as a foalsitter, and don’t have to cope with all the attention that brings as a young foal.
Most ponies don’t have the abilities to get into Princess Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns, let alone become the personal protégé, and best friends, of the Immortal Princess of the Sun.
Most ponies don’t have to juggle learning all there is to know about magic, whilst raising the only baby dragon in the whole of the kingdom
Most ponies don’t get to be an element of harmony, and only one gets to be the most important of them…magic
So, walking into a massive crowd of ponies pushing a changeling inside a magic forcefield was nothing out of the ordinary to Private Twilight Sparkle.
She knew how to cope with the attention, and pressure, of being known in such a group. Being the element of magic, the pressure was going to be on her shoulders to excel during the war.
She knew how to handle herself in a tricky situation, having saved the day many times already. Her knowledge of when she could assist others, but also when she also needed help, was a lesson learnt the hard way a number of times already. You’ve been in tricky situations before, and you can do this Twilight thought to herself.
Little did she know…
*****
Most ponies are either extroverts or introverts
Most ponies are either bold and brave, or shy and scared
Most ponies either love or hate attention.
The yellow Pegasus of the group definitely fell into the second categories, and Fluttershy desperately tried to hide behind her own mane as they approached camp. As far as she was concerned, they couldn't have deliberately have attracted more attention to themselves if they had arrived with Rainbow Dash performing a sonic Rainboom whilst on fire, Twilight rolled into camp on a wagon pulled by a team of Urisa Minors, and Pinkie set off hundreds of pounds of firecrackers.
She could never get used to the attention, and would have either frozen still or run away if not worried about being trampled by the hundreds of ponies marching behind her. It was only that, not being courageous, that keep her moving forwards.
She knew herself well enough that when the going got tough, the tough got going…whilst she would hide in a cupboard in her cottage, with either her teddy bear or an animal friend.
Little did she know…
*****
Most ponies are not like Pinkie Pie.
In fact, luckily for her friends, family, Equestria and the whole of Time and Space, there is only one Pinkie Pie
She was in a bit of a quandary – the party pony had only once before been anywhere where so many ponies had gathered, which was the opening rally of the war, without there being a party or celebration of some sort. Even Winter Wrap Up was an all day party…well, it was if you skated around all day rather than rake the ground.
She could feel something in the air she didn’t like…negative feelings. Ponies were excited, but many were also nervous, scared, concerned, worried and afraid about themselves, friends and family.
She tried to come up with a single word to cover that, but without the invention some new vowels she couldn’t.
She wanted to make friends with everypony there, to cheer everypony up, but knew that there was no way she was to be able to unite thousands of ponies into a single celebration of friendship. For she was just one pony, and only the Princesses could ever command that sort of respect.
Little did she know…
*****
The Ponyville Company made their way through the outskirts of the camp, being guided by a few of Luna’s own guards who were in charge of organising the camp and all security arrangements. They were all trying to work out what to do with the prisoner, but felt it best that it stayed near Twilight until another powerful unicorn could watch over the changeling.
As they were walking through camp, Fluttershy and a couple of younger colts were called to one side to leave the pony Company and join the support sections in the auxiliary camps. They were given a few minutes to say goodbye to their friends and families.
“Well girls…this is it” Twilight started, as tears formed in the four fillies eyes
“I can’t stand to be away from you guys for so long” Fluttershy wept.
“It’ll be over by Hearth Warming season” Rainbow tried to sound as confident as possible, looking at her hoof like it was more interesting.
Twilight gave Fluttershy a quick hug, and Pinkie followed. Fluttershy was about to pick up her bags when Rainbow dashed over and gave her a deep hug.
“Now you take care of yourself!” Rainbow cried into Fluttershys mane “I expect you to stay out of trouble and when all this is over, will go away together like we always planned. I know you’ve always wanted to fly some of the other kingdoms and meet the exotic animals, and I’ve been delaying it. Well, stay out of trouble, and we’ll do it, okay?”
Rainbow's three friends, but especially Fluttershy, was shocked at the display of emotion from the pegasus, and the words which would have been more appropriate coming the other way around – based on history one of them was much more likely to get herself into trouble than the others.
“Okay Rainbow, I promise” Fluttershy squeezed back, knowing that for Rainbow to be so affectionate she must be really worried. They slowly peeled away from each other, and with one final wave, Fluttershy left her three friends.
The changeling looked on during this scene, and drank deeply from the well of emotions that were flying around. It had started to recover, but knew that whilst it was being watched by this super fast peagsus, and this powerful unicorn, it was best to fake weakness.
The Ponyville company than continued its way through the camp, but the company’s mood had already fallen a little. Seeing some of it’s members leave it just brought home the stark reality that they won’t be seeing their friends, families or loved ones for weeks, if not longer.
They reached the main parade ground in the middle of camp and lined up, whilst all the other companies of ponies also started to line up. After a good while, everypony in the camp was gathered and Colonel Buttercup addressed the crowd.
“Everypony. Welcome to Camp Gamma. This will be your home for the next few weeks, until we are ready to march into the Changeling Kingdom”
“You are some of Equestria’s finest ponies, but you are not yet soldiers. Tomorrow, main orientation and training will begin, turning us from a rag-tag bunch of ponies into the finest fighting force this side of the Griffin Empire… The South Equus Regiment”
Many stallions gave a hurrah at this remark.
“Whilst training starts tomorrow, I will take this opportunity as a reminder to all soldiers that fraternisation with fillies and mares is strictly forbidden during times of mass mobilisation. The ponies of the transportation, medical and supply cores must feel free to do their duties without feeling discomfort. Anypony caught acting inappropriately with any other member of Luna’s Army will be disciplined as appropriate.”
“However, we are lucky enough to have three excellent fillies in our fine company – Royal Protégé Twilight Sparkle, Young Flier Winner of 1801 Rainbow Dash and fellow bearer of the elements Pinkamena Pie. They are the only three females in the whole of active front line duty, and we should honoured to have these fate chosen ponies in our regiment”
Most ponies gave another hurrah at this remark.
“They may be famous, but they are only Privates and you will treat them the same as any other Privates in this fine regiment. For all regulation and practical purposes they will be treated as colts…and you should do the same.”
Rainbow and Twilight started blushing at this, whilst Pinkie didn’t quiet get the implication of the addition. This was something that most of them had each individual thought about when they first signed up, but had not discussed as a group. They were the lone females in a large group of males.
In Ponyville where three of them grew up, females outnumbered males by a large percentage, so much so that most of their friends were naturally fillies. Twilight was of course a bit more used to seeing more colts and stallions in Canterlot, but except for her brother and he dragon brother, she never really socialised with males...or anypony else come for that. Her only interaction had been bossing everypony around as All Team Leader for winter wrap up. Rainbow Dash also had the same level of interactions, only talking to male pegasi when arranging the weather teams.
But now they were going to be surrounded by them all day and all night, which was a little unnerving for the young mares.
Once the welcome speech was over, the captains of each company started organising the unit arrangements. He called out the names in groups of fives to form the training and living units whilst they were at camp. The girls had expected the three of them to be placed together. But when Private Sparkles name was called out in a group along with three stallions she had never heard of, and fortunately one she had in Time Turner, they all just looked at each other dumbfounded.
“We’ll still see each other around” Twilight grinned nervously as she lifted up her belongings to walk off with her camp unit.
“Yeah, but only a little…we’re all going to be trained separately” Rainbow moped
“Still, we’ve always made time for each other before, no matter how hard we were studying, flying or…erm…baking. Why would now be any different?” Twilight cooed as she gave Rainbow and Pinkie a hug.
Not surprising that the element of Loyalty is having the hardest time of letting go Twilight thought to herself as she trudged off, still escorting the imprisoned changeling. She went over to the four ponies she was to spend the next few weeks with and shot them a nervous glace. “Don’t worry, it can’t break out of here”
Little did she know…
***
Meanwhile, in the Crystal Empire, Princess Cadence and Prince Shining armour were having preliminary peace summit with leaders from all their nighbours, and their neighbours’ neighbours, including the Griffin Kingdom, Saddle Arabia and the mysterious sub-continent of Zecora’s birth. Zecora herself had travelled up to the Crystal Palace to assist in the peace summit, understanding from her friendships with the bearers that this wasn’t a hostile attack on a neighbour, but a kingdom acting in self defence.
However, the dignitaries were a little less sure. They had got on fine with Equestria’s ruler Princess Celestia for over a millennium with absolutely no difficulties. However, in the past few years, a number of things had changed which caused some concerns.
Princess Luna, who most still considered to be the powerful Nightmare Moon, had returned. This coincided with the rediscovery of the most powerful magic artifacts known on the planet, the elements of harmony. The god of Chaos, Discord, had allegedly escaped and recaptured, but there were rumours that this was a smokescreen for him to be used as a weapon. And the Crystal Empire had returned out of nowhere, along with a third Alicorn Princess.
Any one of these was enough to cause concern, but having all of them in such a short space of time was highly suspicious. Then came this allegedly act of self defence against the Changelings, but could be the start of a wider campaign of aggression. Even the Changeling invasion of Canterlot was considered a possible bluff of actually being a cover for a joint war-game exercise between two new allies, and this “war” being a cover for more training. Afterall, none of the other leaders could believe that the power of two ponies love could defeat a whole army.
That was until of course until they met Princess Cadence and Shining Armour for the first time. Meeting the dignitaries in the grand throne room, even the less magical of the creatures could tell there was something special about this third Alicorn. Celestia always had a powerful presence in the room, and a poker face to beat any of the professionals. Luna equally had this presence, and being able to control the sun and the moon gave them a absolute power over their neighbours.
Princess Cadence gave off a lot of power like her Aunts, but this was a different kind of power. They could practically feel love seeping out of every strand of fur. And unlike the two Celestial Sisters, she had dressed up for the occasion with a very fancy mane do and dress, showing a much softer side then they had ever seen from Celestia. They looked into her eyes, and saw nothing but love and kindness.
And when they had all travelled up to the palace through the new crystal empire, all they saw were happy contented ponies going about their daily lives.
Of course for some of the more aggressive nations, this could be considered a sign of weakness, until they saw the Crystal Prince. When they looked at Shining Armour, the first impression was one of a physically powerful pony, and an extremely powerful Unicorn. But they also saw how he felt towards his wife and co-ruler, clearly a young stallion who adored his wife
Powerful, and in love with a beautiful mare, normally a very dangerous combination most of visitors thought to themselves However, it looks like there is a softer counterpoint in his wife, so perhaps it won't be too bad.
Overall they did not appear to be the figureheads of aggressive empire preparing for war, but that didn’t mean Celestia wasn’t up to something…
*****
The day had been long, and had not been easy. Apart from the distrust of the other nations towards Equestria, there were also various old rivalries, distrusts and broken pacts between all the visitors. This was infact the biggest problem facing the whole world now.
Since the arrival for the Alicorn sisters, Equestria had always been the neutral party, a calming influence in an otherwise chaotic world. All the nations were grateful when the sisters defeated Discord, and provided regularity to the daily celestial cycles. Equestria had been able to set up trade, of goods, services and weather, with all the other countries, and every creature on the planet benefit.
But now everything was cast into doubt. Each nation knew it was no match for Equestria alone, but if they banded together there was a chance of defending themselves. Some of the nations wanted to form such an alliance, others would choose to band with Equestria, whilst most at least wanted to hear what the Crystal couple had to say.
The Griffin kingdom was the most vocal about suggesting this was an act of aggression, rather than defence. Of course, being one of the more aggressive nations themselves meant that they naturally felt this way. “How can we trust that this isn’t part of some form of grand plan to take over all of our nations and our resources?” Commander Talon demanded
“Why would Equestria even want that?” Chancellor Quartz of Saddle Arabia, Equestria’s closest ally, asked “We all know that Equestria has everything it needs within it’s borders, and being most attuned to the magical energy of the world means that they can get what they want without any violence”
“Perhaps they are just bored then and want to go and kill something?” Commander Talon replied with a smirk towards one of the other herbivore species.
Shining Armour jumped out of his seat and growled at the Griffin “My own sister, and my adopted brother, are both taking part in this war. You think we would risk them because we are bored!” the stallion shouted, shifting into an aggressive posture
The Griffon leader would usually respond with equal aggression to any shown, being part of the way they tend to see diplomacy. However, he knew better for two reasons: Firstly, Prince Shining Armour was well known for fighting abilities, as you don’t reach the top of the Royal Guard without being one of the best. Secondly, he knew the colt would do absolutely anything to protect his kingdom, and his siblings. I mean, he even threw his own wife off a balcony towards an enemy to save his adopted brother, that’s pretty hardcore!
The Griffin leader actually had a lot of respect towards Shining Armour for that second one, not that he would let on publically during the summit. During one of the private drinking sessions he wanted to have with the colt on the otherhand…
Cadence quickly stepped in between the two, physically as well as metaphorically “Dear Shining, I’m sure the esteemed Commander Talon didn't mean to suggest that we would risk anypony’s life for fun, especially not my sister-in-hoof”
Despite a hard day, Cadence had always been the softly spoken one in the whole group but there was the first hint of annoyance in the Mare’s voice. It was a subtle change, the sort of reaction a mother would give should someone insult their child, but something every creature in the room picked up on.
“My apologises, Prince Armour, Princess Cadence” The griffin quickly backtracked before loosing too much face. Every creature there knew they didn’t want to start a direct fight with either of the Royal couple, both too powerful to take on themselves and therefore starting a fight he could not win would only weaken the Griffon's position.“I did not mean to suggest you would be risking your subjects for no reason. It is a phrase we have…it lost something in translation”
“Understood Commander, I think it’s been a long day and we all need some time to rest and regroup mentally. Shall we finish for the day?” Cadence asked, her voice back to it’s natural kind tone.
Everybody agreed to this, and all the dignitaries including the hosts retired to their rooms to prepare for the evenings meal. Each had a lot to think about, but one thing was clear…it was not going to be an easy period for the whole of the world.
*****
Back in Canterlot, Princess Celestia was busy organising the kingdom. With a good portion of the country needing to be supplied, it meant the ponies left behind had to produce more, from less. But the biggest issue was simply logistics and transportation.
Whilst there was a growing train network, it was still in its infancy and did not stretch far down south, being more a cross country network linking the east and west coasts to Canterlot in the centre. Therefore, large convoys of ponies were required to move food and water down to the front line. However, there was concern that the Changelings would start to attack these convoys, so protection also had to be arranged.
Scrolls were pilled up all around her, and there were teams of ponies helping her organise the running of the country. Celestia looked over the scene around her, and a little smile crept across her face Twilight would have loved doing all of this organising, perhaps that what I should have said
Just then a scroll appeared in front of her, bursting through a green puff of smoke that only Spike could make. Celestia quickly opened it, thinking Twilight had written to her again, but her face fell when she realised it was only a status report from the Camp.
