//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: The Emergency // by Wheller //------------------------------// Chapter 3 Summer Lightfall let out a sigh of relief. Her entire body ached from the day's training, and it was time to relax. She had an hour until lights out to do as she pleased, and she knew exactly what she was going to do. The mess area had an old style videophone, and they were allowed to use it in the hour before lights out. One call, five minutes. There were a lot of people who wanted to use it. Summer waited patiently for Joker, the cyan pegasus pony that she'd talked to earlier about Lieutenant Wolsey, to finish up talking with his girlfriend, or wife, or whatever. 'Hey, I got to go; we've only got five minutes to use this. I love you! And I'll talk to you next week', Joker said with a smile before hanging up and moving aside to let the next person in line use it. 'Jeeze, took you long enough, eh Joker?' Summer called out to him with a grin. 'Eh piss off!' Joker snapped back without bothering to look over his shoulder. Summer couldn’t help but smirk as she stepped up to the videophone and deposited a fifty pence coin in the coin slot. Private Joker was particularly easy to mess with, despite his name; he was a rather serious pony. We’re it not for the fact that he annoyed the hell out of Drill Sergeant Gunmetal, he would be their company’s vote for most likely to become an assistant instructor. ‘Please speak the name of the party you wish to call’, the videophone’s automated voice said in a soft tone. ‘Lightfall residence, Fillydelphia, 6226’, Summer said simply, and waited for her call to connect. There was a flash on the screen as the call connected, and Summer smiled brightly at who had just picked up. ‘Summer!’ Aurora cried out in excitement. ‘Hey kid! What’s up? I hear you just started school yesterday?’ Summer asked. ‘Oh I’m doing great! I really like my classes! Cheerilee Academy is much nicer than my old school’, Aurora said, hardly able to contain her excitement. Summer smiled, if there was anyone who belonged in the Cheerilee Academy, it was her little sister. Cheerilee Academy had been founded in Year 45 of the Republic in honour of the first Minister of Education herself. Cheerilee had been responsible for the formation of the modern standardised education system herself, and had a good number of schools named after her. What made the Cheerilee Academy different however, was its focus on small class sizes for gifted students. One student at the Cheerilee Academy had an IQ bigger than half the members of parliament combined, and Aurora Lightfall certainly fit into that category. ‘I can’t wait to hear all about it! Unfortunately we just don’t have the time, they only let us have five minutes to talk’, Summer said, watching as a look of disappointment formed on her younger sister’s face. ‘However, you can always send me a holostate and tell me all about it that way!’ Aurora’s face lit up with excitement and she nodded her head in agreement. ‘I will!’ she said simply. ‘Are mum and dad home?’ Summer asked. ‘Nope, they went out to dinner, Ms. Carmine is watching me for the evening, but she’s asleep on the sofa again’, Aurora said with a shrug, adjusting the camera on her end to point towards the sofa to show that the Lightfall’s elderly neighbour was indeed asleep on the sofa. Aurora turned the camera back to face towards her. ‘But I’ll certainly tell them that you called!’ Aurora said, promisingly. ‘I knew I could count on you kiddo, hey listen, I got to go, but I look forward to your holostate about your first day of school! I love you!’ Summer said with a smile. ‘I love you too sis!’ Aurora said with a smile, outstretching her forelegs as wide as she could, simulating a hug. Summer stretched out her forelegs as well, returning her sister’s ‘hug’, for a couple seconds and closed out the call. Summer Lightfall loved her little sister, and let no one have any doubt of that. ... Training wasn’t easy, that was for sure, Summer had been here at Camp Trixie on the outskirts of Fillydelphia for almost two weeks, and at this point she was starting to feel like a real soldier. Here she was sitting in the mess hall, eating her morning oatmeal as she always did, watching as the earth ponies and pegasi struggled to eat it. Silverware was a long standing joke in Equestrian society. Everyone in the regiment was given a spoon, a fork, and a knife at each meal, and the officers got a kick out of watching each of the recruits try to use them. Being a unicorn, Summer had no issue, of course. Much to her amazement, Joker, who happened to be sitting next to her had gotten particularly good at balancing his spoon between two feathers of his wing and eating his oatmeal in such a fashion. The rest of the earth ponies and pegasi, however, discarded their silverware and plunged head first into the bowl. Summer had to wonder, what was the point in continuing to make these when two thirds of the population couldn’t use them? ‘That’s pretty clever’, Summer said, gesturing to the spoon in Joker’s wing. ‘Took many years of practise’, Joker said, folding his wing and taking another spoonful of oatmeal into his mouth. ‘Hey! Everyone! You all got to see this!’ One of the other recruits, an earth pony mare named Pender called out, waving everyone over to her table. Joker dropped the spoon onto the table and jumped up from his seat, interested in the matter. Summer stayed put, not particularly interested in anything other than eating her oatmeal, or at least until Joker came back over to her. ‘Lightfall, you’re going to want to see this’, he said, a look of complete seriousness on the pegasus recruit’s face. Summer took one last bite of her oatmeal before standing up and heading over to Pender’s table. Someone had set up a small holographic emitter on the table, tuned to this morning’s local newscast. ‘... fighting has broken out in the streets of Miri on the Island of Sarawak, as members of the Harimau Liberation Front, a communistic guerrilla warfare group, have taken to the streets en masse, seising control of the isolated city. The HLF have promised that this was only a beginning, pledging that take control not only of Sarawak, but the entirety of the Salayan Archipelago. A spokesman from the Præsidium Foreign Ministry has pledged it’s support to the Harimau Liberation Front, applauding them for finally taking a stand against the, quote ‘Highly Corrupt Federal Government’. The Præsidium statement has been met with protest by Equestrian Republic Prime Minister, Desert Rose, who in an official statement made to Parliament today pledged to stand by the willingly elected government of Salaya, and pledged their full support against the HLF. Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Firestar, has commented that a naval battle group has already been assembled, and will depart to assist the Salayan Government in suppression of the uprising once orders from the Prime Minister come in. Further escalation in troop deployments are likely, and come as a shocking surprise to many Equestrian Citizens. This will be the first time that Equestria has deployed its troops in nearly sixty years. The last such deployment was during the Great Patriotic War, which began in Year 35 of the Republic...’ Summer’s jaw dropped wide open. The Republic was at war. And here she was, one of its’ soldiers. The realisation finally hit her. She had joined the army to pay for university; she had never expected that there would actually be a war. ... ‘All right maggots, you’ve all heard the news! War has come, which means we need troops to send. We will be accelerating your training, to a focus on marksmanship! Harimau are an incredibly dangerous foe up close, which means that if they get to you, you are screwed! Which is why you must shoot them down before they can get close, however, you have an advantage that that they do not, in a wide array of advanced technology to assist you in the fight!’ Drill Sergeant Gunmetal said as he walked up and down the rows of recruits before him. Summer watched nervously as he paced back and forth, the idea of going into battle frightened her very much. She honestly didn’t know if she had it in her, what was she going to do? ‘You there! Private Lightfall! Front and centre!’ Gunmetal cried out. Summer stepped out of rank and stood at attention before the drill sergeant. ‘Sir!’ she cried out, struggling to keep herself from squeaking in fear. ‘Put these on’, Gunmetal said before passing her a pair of goggles. Summer did as she was told, and placed the goggles over her eyes. She was surprised to see that Drill Sergeant Gunmetal was now surrounded by a green targeting box. ‘What do you see private?’ Drill Sergeant Gunmetal asked. ‘There’s a box around you, sir’, Summer said plainly. ‘Correct! These are smart targeting goggles, each of you will be issued one of these, it will mark friendly units with a green box, and likewise, it will mark hostiles with a red one! You will be able to see your enemies coming! It will tell you exactly where to aim! So you wait for a targeting solution! You do not eyeball it! You are not a cowpoke firing from the hip!’ Drill Sergeant Gunmetal said. Summer nodded in understanding. All the while thinking to herself: ‘what have I gotten myself into?’