Chapter 7

Chapter 7

 

 

“I’ve never been incarcerated before!  Oh my…I…I…I didn’t mean to do anything wrong.  I just…I mean…”  Fluttershy had been whimpering for hours about her lack of morality in the Archives, and she desperately wanted to get out of prison.

 

“Now don’t ya worry now, Sugarcube, we’ll a-find ourselves a way outta this mess,” Applejack reassured her.  She had spent over an hour trying to concoct a plan of escape, but none of the plans she thought of were practical.  The walls were too strong to smash, the floor was too concrete to dig through, and there weren’t any apples to throw at the guards.

 

Rainbow Dash had spent the first half hour of her prison stay smashing repeatedly against the wall, but it was useless.  She too sat dejectedly on the filthy floor, unsure of how she allowed herself to get caught and let down her friends.

 

A guard walked over to the cell and opened the lock with his unicorn magic, much to the surprise of the three ponies.

 

“What’s going on?” asked Rainbow Dash.

 

“The manager of the Archives just came over with a purple unicorn and a pink earth pony,” he explained.  “She said that there’s sufficient proof to let you three out, since there’s some kind of urgent emergency to which you must attend.”

 

The ponies were ecstatic.  “Why thank ya very much, sir!” exclaimed Applejack.  “Those’d be our friends right over there.”

 

Twilight and Pinkie stood in the doorway of the room, happy to see their friends.

 

“Oh, thank you so much for getting us out,” Fluttershy said as she flew out of the cell.  “Did you find the map?”

 

“Yes, we did!!”  Twilight held the map in front of her enormous smile and explained how Fortch-An was the island of the trolls, and it was just across the ocean from Los Pegasus.

 

Rainbow Dash smirked.  “Humph, doesn’t sound too tough!  So it’s called Fortch-An…”

            “Bee!” Pinkie interjected.

 

Twilight felt compelled to correct her.  “No Pinkie, it’s called Fortch-An.”

 

“Bee!” repeated Pinkie.  “There’s a bee in the prison!”

 

The other ponies looked around, and sure enough there was a bee buzzing about the room.

 

“It is a cute little creature,” commented Fluttershy.

 

Twilight was becoming upset.  “Everypony, stop!  We don’t have time to be standing here looking at worthless insects!”

 

“Oh, he’s not worthless, Twilight.  He’s-“

 

“Enough, Fluttershy!  We have to get to Fortch-An so we can rescue the Princess!”

 

Everypony became silent after Twilight’s outburst.  They filed outside the prison, only to see what they had been fearing since their arrival:  trolls in Fillydelphia.

 

Ponies, colts, stallions, and mares were galloping down the street in the direction of Twilight and her friends.  A thick black smoke was visible in the distance, and it was getting closer by the second.  The bright city lights provided a daunting silhouette of the approaching hordes.

 

“Hurry, we need to get out of here!” Twilight exclaimed as she began heading towards the building where the chariot was parked.  After a moment, however, she looked back to see her that her friends were not following behind.

 

“Guys, what’s taking you so long!?  We’ve got to run!”

 

Her four companions gave her solemn looks before Applejack finally spoke.  “Ah just can’t leave these here ponies behind, Twilight.  Ah just can’t.”

 

Twilight took in her surroundings for the first time since the arrival of the hordes.  Everypony was screaming; mothers were frantically rushing through the crowd in search of their children.  Buildings were on fire and statues were toppling.  The collective work of generations of dedicated ponies was being destroyed as the city was falling.

 

“We can’t just let them die here,” continued Applejack.  “We’ve a-got to do somethin.”

 

Rainbow Dash began flapping her wings and ascended into the air.  “I’ll meet you guys back here once the trolls are all gone!”  And with that, she flew off.

 

“Rainbow, wait!” called out Fluttershy, whose weak voice was no match for Rainbow Dash’s speed.

 

Twilight lowered her head.  “But…but…isn’t saving the Princess more important?  If we don’t save her, many more ponies will become victims of the hordes.”

 

Applejack slowly walked up to Twilight.  “Ah know, Sugarcube, and we’ll be right on our way as soon as we finish workin here.  But we’ve got here an opportunity to help these ponies �" a chance to save them all.  We can’t just walk away from this and let them be eaten by those varmints.”

 

“Fine,” said Twilight with a sigh.  “I still think we’re wasting time, but we can’t go on without Rainbow Dash.  While we’re waiting, we might as well help out these ponies.”

 

“Now that’s the spirit!” replied Applejack with a smile.  They began walking towards the direction of the incoming hordes.  It wasn’t until they had passed seven city blocks that they actually saw the destruction of the trolls first-hoof.

 

“We can be heroes!” blurted Pinkie Pie.

 

“Ah, we was a-finished talkin’ bout that ages ago,” said Applejack.  “Could’a used your help talking to Twilight a little earlier.”

 

“Oh, I’m sorry,” replied Pinkie Pie in an uncharacteristically serious manner.  “I was just thinking about something.”

 

“Well, no time for thinkin now!  We’ve got ourselves a battle to fight.”

 

Fluttershy had been walking with her head down for the entirety of the conversation, but she now looked up and glanced directly at Applejack.

 

“I, I mean you, or, well, anybody I guess, should, um, always think before doing anything major like that, Applejack.  We can’t go into battle without a plan of some sort.”

 

“You’re right, Fluttershy,” said Twilight.  “We need to come up with a plan before charging to our deaths.”

 

Applejack scowled at Twilight.  “Now here here, I thought we already went over that.”

 

“Oh, we did.  I’m just saying we need a plan of action.  Haven’t you ever read Sun Hoof’s The Art of Ponywar?”

 

“Well, to be downright honest ah haven’t.”

 

“You really should.  It details all the necessary strategies for a conflict such as this one.”

 

“And what does it say we should do here and now?”

 

“Well, this would be a perfect time to utilize the Flanking Procedure,” Twilight explained matter-of-factly.

 

“And what might that’n be?”

 

“Bee!” cried Pinkie, who distractedly swatted at the air before realizing that there were no insects in sight.

 

“Basically,” continued Twilight, “if you charge at the enemy head-on, they’ll be able to see you coming and they’ll be ready to kill you.”

 

“Oh dear,” muttered Fluttershy.

 

“There’s no need to worry,” Twilight assured, “because the Flanking Plan is foolproof!  We split up and each attack them from a different side!  It’ll be perfect with these tall buildings; if we jump from high windows and get the trolls from the sides, they’ll never see us coming!  And since we’ll be going from different sides, they’ll have to split up to fight us.  Even if we can’t take them on all at once, we’ll be able to chip away at them if they’re divided.”

 

“But won’t we be divided, too?”

 

“Don’t you worry, Fluttershy.  We…um…well…  You see, that’s a teensy little flaw in the plan.  But hey, it says so in the book, so it’s got to work.”

 

“Okay…” answered a hesitant Fluttershy.

 

“Two of us will go on each side of the street and look for a tall building to jump from.  Fluttershy, you go with Pinkie Pie.  Applejack, you come with me.  Let’s go.”

 

The ponies split up into their groups and entered buildings across from each other on the street.  They didn’t bid each other farewell, as they expected to see each other again within the hour.

 

They were wrong.