Shining Armor is at the Royal Guard Train Station, overseeing a hundred Royal Guards being loaded up on a train painted white with the Sun of Equestia on it. The Equestrian government has finally made it mandatory for all guardponies to be equipped with a brilliant invention called a “battle saddle”. Granted, ballistic weapons have been in their armory for a while, but they are notoriously hard to handle, especially by non-unicorns and something needed to be done, especially after the waves of violence that started tearing through Equestria.

But luckily something did appear in the defense industry. After the ibex nation of Bernese developed a saddle with weapon capabilities, the Royal Government quickly commissioned the Flim Flam brothers to design one for them. They delivered quickly and efficiently, so now anyone can control their choice of weapon with a simple, yet effective, bit that acted as a joystick. The battle saddles have not been out long, but they had been produced at a large scale and it took the largest retraining in Equestrian history to get the soldiers up to speed.

With the new weapons, the morale in the soldiers jumped exponentially and Shining Armor has heard the newer batch of Royal Guards joke about how they would like to see the terrorists try to pull off any attacks now that they have battle saddles. However, the Captain would really like it if the terrorists just surrendered, but that’s just as likely as the sun suddenly imploding.

The train station has been seeing a flurry of activity recently when Shining Armor drafted up plans to fortify cities where the violence has dramatically increased, or where important events are being held. He, Celestia, and a few other high ranking officials have also crafted a plan that would slowly replace local guards patrolling their state borders with the Royal and Night Guards. The Royal and Night Guards are better trained and more reliable than the local guards, anyway, so it had been an easy choice for Celestia to make. However, when being forced to give up nearly twenty thousand of his guardponies because their cutie marks said they were better at gardening than protecting, it makes the task more difficult than it should have been. On top of that, the news of their growing presence is not being taken too well by most, especially in the small towns or country cities like Ponyville, which is where he is going to personally oversee the election.

About forty five minutes later, Shining Armor finds himself watching the scenery zip by the window in a blur, listening to the casual conversations taking place between his soldiers. The conversations are built around basic questions. Questions such as what they plan on doing when their tour is over, or which celebrity they’d marry if they got the chance, or if anypony has heard of the fatal poisoning of dozens of griffins in Detrot. The last part butchers the good mood on the spot and brings in a silence that remains for most of the trip after a couple minutes of heated debate surrounding the said incident.

A few hours later, and the train comes to a grinding halt at the Ponyville Train Station. As the soldiers hop out with their jumbo battle saddles and gleaming gold armor, they are met with suspicious gazes. Most of the soldiers ignore them, but some of the recruits thought that now would be a great time to hit on the locals, obviously forgetting about the presence of Shining Armor and their commanding officers. But after a quick scolding, the rookies regain their senses and head towards the temporary base being set up.

Terra is sitting in her rented out room, caressing the mechanical box found in Redheart’s safe. She watches the soldiers march into town and she chuckles softly while levitating the box over her back. When it is above her back, it splits open in the shape of a saddle and wraps around her back and chest, and when she a pushes a large button on its chest a cannon with gems and Tesla coils on the side attached to a rod on a ball-and-joint system slides out from the side. A multi-jointed appendage also pops out from the robotic saddle and she grabs it in her mouth like a bit. She tests the cannon by swinging it around on its swivel and charging the cannon without firing it. The cannon makes a satisfying humming noise, and an electric orb appears at the end with the crackling and popping sounds of powerful energy. Then it all goes silent. Terra pushes the button again and the cannon retracts to the suit and she spits out the bit, which also retracts to the suit, and she smiles at the chances she’s getting to test such a powerful weapon.

Pinkie Pie silently goes through her journal of doodles for ideas while trying to listen to the happy-go-lucky party music she’s famous for blaring at basically every event. But the music is almost completely silent to her, her mind is too busy going places that no mind normally goes to. She heard about Redheart and Vigilance’s murder, despite the local guard’s best efforts to keep it quiet. Pinkie Pie is certain that it was the unicorn who bought her blender is the assassin, her Pinkie Senses nearly made her lose it at work when she saw her in front of Mrs. Cake the other day. She is certain that it was the same organization that Redheart worked for that ended her, and they never leave a job unfinished. With that thought in mind, she hopes she can find and stop the new assassin before anyone is hurt.

Pinkie Pie looks out her room window a moment to watch the Royal Guards marching in the street in uniformed formation with their new battle saddles. She sighs depressingly and goes back to her journal to look at her plans for a better Mare-Do-Well outfit. Armored and more high-tech than the simple jumpsuit that the current design has. It will still hold the same color scheme and basic design, but the way she has it planned out is that cuirass and leg pads will provide the protection, but will be equipped with little gel pads that help break the falls and reduce trauma. As for the jumpsuit in general, it would be made with reinforced stitching, like wearing a sandwich of material. Bottom, regular cloth; middle, chainmail; top, regular cloth again. The cape will also be more suited for gliding and made with memory fabric, rather than flapping around. She likes the cape and figures it will be better if it served a purpose rather than just a piece of decoration. The only downside she sees for the suit is that it’s expensive. Incredibly expensive.

“Spike! Spike! Get up!” yells Twilight excitedly.

Spike groans and groggily rolls out of his much larger, round bed while his massive jaws open as wide they can with his tongue flexing as he yawns. Once out of bed, he cracks his back and reluctantly walks down the stairs while rubbing his eyes.

“So much for my afternoon nap,” mumbles Spike.

Twilight teleports in front of Spike's eyes with a very large, excited grin, making him scream and jump back. He clutches his heart and glares at Twilight as she lands in front of him, staring up at him with that admittedly adorable grin she gets when she’s so excited she can barely sit still.

“Don’t do that!” scolds Spike.

“Guess what, Spike!” says Twilight, completely missing the anger in his tone.

“Uh... A stallion finally asked you out?”

Twilight’s smile instantly disappears and her ears droop and she looks down, pouting. “No, but that would be nice. Seriously, I followed every step down to the letter in all the dating secret books and books on how to get a stallions attention.”

Spike scratches his ear like a dog, uninterested in Twilight's lack of dating skills. “Uh huh.”

“And what do I get? Mares hitting on me!”

Spike stops and looks at Twilight with big eyes as his leg slowly drops. His interest has been peaked and his hormones can’t help but picture Twilight and another mare making out in the library. His mind then wanders into the realm of pure fantasy when he imagines Twilight and Rarity getting really frisky on the library floor.

“Go on,” say Spike while leaning forward, eye ridges raised in anticipation for what's next.

“I mean, don’t stallions like strong, independent, intelligent mares?”

Spike frowns in disappointment and resumes scratching his ear. “Obviously not.”

“What?”

“What?”

Twilight eyes Spike suspiciously and he smiles innocently, doing his best not to let his nervousness show. A few seconds into it and Spike starts feeling like Applejack when Pinkie Pie practically interrogated her at her own barn that one day she forgot about her birthday.

“Today’s Election Day!” says Twilight happily and completely unexpectedly.

“Yeah, I forgot about that. Silly me,” says Spike with a yawn.

“Are you still tired? I let you have a nap in the middle of the day.”

“What can I say? I’m still a baby dragon at heart.”

If Spike hadn’t helped Pinkie Pie catch Redheart before she carried out her attack, then he’d be in a completely different mood. Like uptight, worried, and very jumpy, but at least the threat is locked away in jail so now all he has to worry about is the cramps he’ll be getting from Twilight’s checklist. He doesn’t really mind, he’s actually used to getting the cramps, but he really wishes that Rarity wasn’t touring Equestria with her new line up. He’s glad that her years of sleepless nights, sweat and tears have finally paid off, but still, he has more fun with the fashionista than Twilight in most cases. Plus Twilight is more willing to let Spike go if Rarity needs or wants Spike’s help, and the two also share a fondness in ice cream.

“Spike, snap out of it.”

Spike blinks and looks at Twilight with a duh expression. “Huh, what? What’s wrong?”

“You were zoning out. I was saying we need to help organize the reading of the results and then we have to say our greetings to Shining Armor. Oh, I’m so excited to see him again! It feels like it it’s been forever!”

“Right. Organize and say ‘Hi’ to big bro and then sleepy time. But, Twilight, I got a quick question.”

“Sure thing, Spike. What’s on your mind?”

“Oh, nothing much, I was just wondering if we could grab some ice cream or something before we do anything today?”

Twilight giggles and walks out the door with Spike following close behind.

“Oh Spike, we already relaxed today. We have work to do. But I promise that we’ll get some after all this is over,” says Twilight lightheartedly.

Spike pretends to be crying as he closes the door behind him, this actually makes Twilight turn around with a worried expression, but when she sees him grinning at her, she rolls her eyes amusingly and holds back a laugh. However, their good mood is ruined when they start walking through Ponyville.

Spike gets a nervous feeling when he sees what the Royal Guards are doing. Even though Redheart had already been arrested, the Royal Guards are forcing ponies living near the Town Hall to leave their homes and other buildings to inspect the places for anything unusual. There are protests, but the Royal Guards are quick to silence them with harsh language and threats of arrest for not cooperating. Twilight also seems concerned about this, but she refuses to question why her brother is allowing this to happen.

“What the heck is going on? Didn’t the news say that the would-be assassin was arrested?” asks Spike worryingly while staring a group of soldiers guarding a scarred family while another inspects their home.

“Spike, I know this looks bad, and I’ll talk to Shining about it later, but he doesn’t do anything without Princess Celestia’s permission and she always has a good reason for what she does,” says Twilight.

Spike is unconvinced, but it is no use in trying to convince Twilight that what’s going on is a cause for concern. Just implying that Celestia could be in the wrong is enough justification for her to chew you out and then ignore you for a week.

Shining Armor is overseeing the Royal Guards setting up the command center for their temporary base. At this point he is almost too exhausted to stand, not due to lack of sleep, but for the lack of help. He knows his position calls for a lot, but some of the fresh Royal Guards seem to lack common sense, and oil and water get along better than the Ponyville and Royal Guards. This means he is a mediator every five minutes and has to double check his triple checks that he already double checked earlier that day. Only to find out that somehow someone messed up something that should not have been ruined in the first place, leading to him having to babysit and give step-by-step and hoof on instructions so they can fix it.

Though, his mood brightens considerably when he hears the cheerful voice of his sister calling him.

“Shining!” squeals Twilight happily.

Shining Armor instantly turns around to see Twilight bouncing towards him with Spike and a couple of Royal Guards casually walking behind her. He laughs and they hug each other in a tight embrace while Spike stands back and tries to look cool with his arms folded across his chest. The duo had shown up at the temporary base and with their high prestige they were able to get inside easily and got a personal escort to Shining Armor.

“Aren’t you supposed to be doing homework?” teases Shining Armor.

“I thought I’d take a break,” says Twilight with the same tone.

“That is not like you at all. You’re getting lazy.”

Twilight and Shining Armor share a chuckle, and then Shining Armor excuses himself so he, Twilight, and Spike can talk without being in the presence of the other soldiers. He leads them to the cafeteria, which isn’t much, just a bunch of fold up tables and chairs. The food is not even out yet. After taking a seat in the back, Shining Armor asks where the rest of her friends are since they’re almost always together.

“Well Rarity finally got her big breakthrough and is now showing off her lineup with other fashion designers around Equestria. Last I checked she was in Detrot and she already got a deal with three big clothing stores to sell her stuff in,” says Twilight proudly.

“Oh that’s nice,” says Shining Armor with a smile. “What about the others?”

“Rainbow Dash also had a big breakthrough. She’s off training with the Wonderbolts,” says Spike.

Shining Armor grins and can imagine the joy Rainbow Dash got from getting that acceptance letter. He remembers when he was accepted into the Royal Guard he fainted from the immense joy, that almost made the Royal Guard change their mind, but that’s another story. The Captain wonders if Rainbow Dash fainted when she got the letter since, despite all the claims the colorful pegasus makes, she can be quite the drama queen.

“Well if anypony deserves to be a Wonderbolt, it’s her,” says Shining Armor cheerfully.

“Yep, and Applejack actually went to visit Braeburn, and Pinkie Pie is trying to start a business selling blenders. Speaking of Pinkie Pie, we haven’t seen her all day, have we, Spike?” says Twilight.

“She’s probably trying to keep Fluttershy company. You know she’s almost living in complete isolation because of what’s going on, and Pinkie Pie doesn’t like seeing others alone,” says Spike casually.

Shining Armor sighs and looks down. “Yeah, I can’t really blame her for being afraid.”

There is a moment of silence before a Royal Guard approaches Shining Armor and informs him that the temporary command center is fully functional now. Shining Armor thanks the Royal Guard and then looks at Twilight and Spike.

“Sorry, guys, I gotta cut this conversation short. Duty calls,” says Shining Armor.

“Oh it’s alright, Shining, me and Spike have some work to do too,” says Twilight sympathetically.

“Oh the joys of hand cramps,” quips Spike.

The three chuckle and go their separate ways.

A group of four Royal Guards march up the stairs to the inn where Terra is staying. Before kicking out the caretaker, she told them that she was staying there and they just wanted to tell her that the inn will be off limits for the duration of the reading of the results. When they enter her room they find her staring out the window in a trance like state.

“Ma’am, we’re going to have to ask you to...” begins the lead Royal Guard.

The Royal Guards notice the odd saddle she’s wearing and they aim their weapons at her nervously when they hear it hum and see a barrel with Telsa coils sparking around it. When she turns around and gives them a devilish smirk, they take a step back. It is like her very presence sucks all the goodness out of the atmosphere.

“Ask me to do what?” asks Terra innocently.

She pushes the button on her chest and the cannon pops out, and before the Royal Guards can fire, two rocky daggers fly forward and impale two of them in the neck and then her cannon shoots the third in the chest with an electric beam. The beam burns through his armor and his organs easily and is dead before he hits the ground. The surviving Royal Guard is so terrified that he drops to the ground, whimpering, as Terra walks towards him. The knives are yanked out of the corpses and float next to her, dripping blood all over the floor.

“Please don’t kill me,” whimpers the Royal Guard, obviously fresh from camp.

“Base to Team Four. Is the inn clear? Over,” says a pony on the radio.

“Tell them that the inn is clear and that you are requesting to stay to keep a high ground,” orders Terra.

The Guard nods and after taking a gulp he says into his radio: “This Private Hayseed. The inn is clear... And base... Bass is requesting we stay in the inn.”

“Why? You’ll get your cider when this over. Over.”

“Um well-well the inn has a-has a uh great view of where the reading is and-and we um we would like to use it as a vantage point to-to keep watch... Over.”

A minute passes before the radiopony makes contact again. “Captain Armor says it’s a good idea. Also, Hayseed, is it?”

“Yes, sir. Private Golden Hayseed.”

“Private Hayseed, relax.”

“...Yes sir.”

“Base out.”

The radio clicks off and Terra smiles and rubs her hoof across Hayseed’s cheek in smooth strokes. “That’s a good boy.”

“Wi-Will you let me live?” asks Hayseed pathetically.

Terra taps her chin. “Hmm... Nah.”

Before Hayseed can say another word, Terra stabs him through eye and then pushes his corpse away.

Back at the temporary base command center, Shining Armor is using his magic to put on a battle saddle with a radio pack attachment while giving out orders. The reading of the results is in just an hour and he needs his soldiers to have the area quarantined. The Ponyville Guards are also involved in the quarantine, but they seem distracted and he really does not need that at this crucial moment.

Thirty minutes later, Shining Armor heads out with his escort to the Ponyville Town Hall. When they get there, he can tell Twilight and Spike had been busy. The whole Town Hall courtyard is decorated with exquisite decor that would make Rarity proud. There is even an orchestra band playing upbeat music to keep the crowd lively. The ponies that arrive have to undergo an extensive and embarrassing search by the Guards, which leads to a lot of disgruntled civilians. Shining Armor sees Twilight and Spike coordinating a last minute touch up, Ivory Scroll chatting with Golden Harvest on the stage, and a purple blur jumping across the rooftops. The blur actually makes Shining Armor jump in his spot, and he fumbles with radio for a few seconds before he gets in contact with the pegasi patrolling the sky.

“Sky Patrol, do you see anything on the roofs?” asks Shining Armor through his radio as he squints his eyes, trying to find the blur again.

There is a few seconds of silence before he gets his answer. “Yes sir, we’re seeing civilians on the roofs with cameras and Hail said he saw a purple thing dart into an alley.”

“Get the civilians off the roofs and find this ‘purple thing’.”

“Yes sir.”

Pinkie Pie, now wearing her Mare-Do-Well costume, ducks under a motorized wagon to escape the Royal Guard Sky Patrol. She knows that they would find her suspicious for wearing a full body costume and sneaking around during a major event, and if they catch her, then she’ll more than likely be detained. She cannot allow that to happen since there will be a big commotion and while the Guards are distracted the new assassin could strike. Also, she needs to get closer to Shining Armor so she can signal that she’s not an enemy, and that will only be all the more difficult if she is captured.

When she sees the Sky Patrol leave her general area, she crawls out from under the vehicle and sneaks around the town to find a good spot to get her signal out. After short while of sneaky searching she does find a vantage point on the roof of newly built flower shop. She has a perfect line of sight of Shining Armor, and even from her distance she can see how tense he is.

After Pinkie Pie does a quick check to make sure she is alone, she pulls out a slingshot and a ball covered with sticky goo that has a note attached to it.

“Sorry about this, Shining,” says Pinkie Pie to herself.

The event has already started and Shining Armor is waiting in the back, scanning the crowd for any suspicious activity. Then he feels something sticky smack against his head hard enough to jerk it, followed by Guards swearing and laughing. Shining Armor takes a deep breath and yanks off whatever hit him with his magic and sees a note tied at the end of it. He ignores the snickering and reads the note quietly while grabbing a random rag to wipe the goo off of his cheek.

Hey Shining,

You and I are on the same team so please keep your guys off of my back.

Sincerely,
Mare-Do-Well

P.S.
Sorry about the goo, but a paper airplane just wouldn’t work and a slingshot has better range.

Shining Armor groans, remembering when Twilight talked about how she and her friends dressed up as a masked hero to teach Rainbow Dash a lesson, and how they donned the costume again to fight back Eclipse’s criminal empire. It does not take him long to realize that it is Pinkie Pie that is dressing up as Mare-Do-Well again. Rainbow Dash hates the costume, Rarity and Applejack are away, he’s looking at Twilight right now, and Fluttershy is too cowardly to do something like this. Besides, only Pinkie Pie would use a slingshot to shoot someone with a sticky ball that has a note on it to get a message across.

“Sky Patrol, ignore the purple figure,” orders Shining Armor over his radio.

“You sure about that, sir?” asks a Sky Patrol pony.

“Yeah, she’s a friend.”

“Roger that.”

The Royal Guards around Shining Armor stop their giggling and cock their heads, curious about his sudden change about the purple thing, and Shining Armor looks at them.

“What?” asks Shining Armor coolly.

The guards murmur different phrases that translate to “Nothing” in unison and continue to look around to make sure sure everything is okay. Shining Armor sighs and looks at the stage where the candidates, Twilight, and Spike are. As he observes the group he notices that Ivory Scroll's posture looks a little too confident.

“And the winner of this year’s election is... Ivory Scroll!” says Twilight triumphantly.

The crowd stomps the ground in applause and newly reelected Mayor Ivory Scroll walks towards the podium with a smug smile to give her acceptance speech as streamers and confetti float down around her. Shining Armor watches the crowd suspiciously, and then time seems to slow down when he sees a faint, blue, electric glow coming from the top floor of the inn. At first he is confused, but when it grows bigger and sends electric bolts snapping in all directions, he acts on pure instinct and runs straight towards Mayor Ivory Scroll and Twilight with his horn charging.

The charge of Terra's cannon lights up the room in blue, tingling her fur with its raw power and singing the wood around her. When Mayor Ivory Scroll starts towards the podium, completely oblivious to her end, a maniacal grin stretches across Terra's face and giggles madly when she sees Shining Armor bolting towards the fraud. But she doesn't care. Nothing can save them, now.

“Have fun in Tartarus,” snickers Terra.

Then she fires.

Author's Notes:

Edited on 11 Aug 2014