On a disputed border between the Zebra and Griffin Territories....
In a small, hidden valley just beyond a mountain that long ago housed a mighty dragon's keep, lies a ruin of a time when this land once belonged to Equestria, during the era before the rise of Nightmare Moon. The stone structures of the ruin were overgrown with climbing vines, and beautiful blooming wildflowers, all of them except for one. The structure that had once been the meeting hall for the village still laid completely intact, except for the statue of Princess Luna that adorned the front of the hall, which time, and the weather had worn down, and left with only one extended wing and three legs. Within the ancient stone walls of the hall, a small fire crackled softly under a quickly heating kettle of water. On one side an older looking white Unicorn buck, with a fiery red mane, soft crystal blue eyes, his body was shrouded by a black cloak, and all around his midsection were wrapped magical healing bandages. The older buck looked over the flames at a much younger looking Pegasus mare pensively, her blue coat and dazzling long white mane bathed in the orange light of the fire, leaving her cutie mark of a quill and scroll in shadow. Next to her laid a tape recorder, a notebook and a pencil. She stared at him for a seemingly endless moment, knowing for certain this was the buck she had been searching for.
“Crimson Wing.... Haven't heard that name in a long time.” The buck said, a nostalgic longing in his voice as a small smile crept onto his face.
“So you are the one I've been looking for.” The young mare eagerly said as she readied her recorder and pencil.
“Listen Ms... Quickstudy was it? I'm not sure how you found me, and I'm not sure I want to know..” He said as he lifted a small bundle of sticks with his magic, and poked the embers a bit before adding them to the fire, his face growing serious again. “I doubt I'm the one you seek, my name is Ace High, not Crimson Wing. Besides if I were him, then I'd be a Pegasus with a red wing, not a unicorn.” He said rolling his eyes at the young mare, and her expression grew sad. “but I was attached to his unit, and I could show you what really happened... Keep in mind, this isn't the history you'll find in some library in Canterlot, or some museum in Manehattan; this is not the approved historical record.” He said flatly as he looked in her eyes, studying her.
The ancient building fell silent save for the soft crackling of the fire as Quickstudy set her pencil on the table, and stared the older buck down. He frowned a bit, expecting to hear the young mare come back with the prepared academic answer to a statement like that, a dismissive “scrolls don't lie”, “who are you to question the princesses' records?”, or his favorite a sarcastic “So you're saying all those professor ponies deliberately lied and only you know about it?”. He almost couldn't believe his ears when he heard her catily respond.
“If I wanted the approved historical record I would have stayed in Canterlot and reread my scrolls aga-” She started, only to be cut off mid sentence.
“Except when you really think about it, that version of history doesn't quite add up does it?” He asked, his expression softening again.
“Ace High, I want to know the true history of the Northern Incident.” Quickstudy said firmly, but kindly as she readied herself to take notes once more.
“Northern Incident... That's what they call it now? A full scale Griffon invasion of our northern lands, all those battles, all those lives lost, all that destruction, we nearly wiped the griffons out completely, and now its just called the Northern Incident..... as if it were some minor faux pas, amazing what some ponies will do to protect their interests.” Ace High sighed disappointedly as he hung his head and shook it a bit.
“The truth of the matter is that it was a war, a real war, the likes of which Equestria hadn't seen in generations, and before their unit showed up, we were loosing, badly. We just didn't have the pony power to stop them, the Royal Equestrian Air Force was completely overwhelmed. The griffins were simply far better fighters.” Ace high continued, his voice having an almost bitter undercurrent.
“That's when they brought in the “Equestrian Volunteer Corps”.... They were basically a bunch of mercenaries under the control of the REAF; most of them were low lives who couldn't make the cut in the REAF, and were meant to be cannon fodder thrown into the grinder to dull the griffin's talons, but that unit, and those two in particular... They were better than anything the REAF could have produced.” Ace High explained as he stared into the flames, the fire licking at the bottom of the kettle as steam started to rise from the dinged brass spout.
“Who were they?” Quickstudy asked, her pencil at the ready.
“Crimson Wing and Blazing Glory, along with their unit the Gale Team. They were the ones who turned the tide in our favor, and they were also the ones who were nearly responsible for the end of us all.” He said as his horn began to glow, and he leaned over to Quickstudy touching her on the forehead with it.
In an instant the world faded away and the two ponies sat in a void, surrounded by little sparkles of beautiful light, like tiny diamonds floating in the otherwise bleak endless seeming expanse. Ace High's horn began to glow, and the shimmering lights drew closer, and arranged themselves into neat little lines and columns. Quickstudy tried to focus on the lights, but she couldn't make out the source the brilliant glow.
"What are those, Ace High? Where are we?" She asked, having never experienced anything like this before.
"We are inside of my mind, and these balls of light are memories." He explained, as he touched his horn to one, and drew a line of light between two of the shimmering memories.
"I've never seen a memory spell like this before, usually they're instantaneous and much simpler spells." She said as she marveled at the sparkling sea of light.
"Because this spell is classified, its a top secret spell used by the Royal Equestrian Intelligence Service to keep records. All memories of battle are extracted before a pony who has seen action is sent home. Those memories are stored in the minds of unicorns like myself." Ace explained as he continued connecting the memories.
"So to keep the secrets of the war a secret, they removed the memories of everypony involved?" She asked.
"Well that and to keep the veterans sane." He said as he drew a few more over, placing them within the web of interconnected memories.
"What do you mean by that?" She asked, looking at him with a puzzled look.
"Ponies have fairly fragile psyches when it comes to trauma, some of our kind have had complete mental break downs over being tardy, how do you think we'd handle having memories of war?" He asked with a small chuckle as he finished connecting the memories.
"Well I guess that makes sense." She replied, as she stepped closer to the stallion.
She looked down at his flank, within his mind he was no longer covered in the cloak that obscured his body and she could see his cutiemark, 5 aces one of each suit fanned out, although the one in the center did not bear a standard mark, but instead bore the image of two pegasi rearing back in a fighting stance, back to back.
“See Something you like?” He asked as he caught her staring, to which she responded with a shy squeak.
"Are you ready?" He asked her, a little smiling on his muzzle.
"Y-yeah, so who's memories are all of these?" She asked, praying that he wasn't mad at her for staring so obviously at his flank.
"Everypony's." He said and raised a hoof and waved it over the complex interwoven web of memories.
"Wha...?" She whispered in disbelief.
"Seeing it from any one perspective would not give you the full truth of what happened, so I have taken every memory stored in my mind, from ponies, griffins, dragons, and even imprints from the data recorder spells in their armors, and connected them so that you may see things how they truly happened without compromise. We will see all they saw, hear what they heard, know their thoughts, feelings, and desires." He said as he put his hoof on her shoulder, pulling her close to him.
"I'm ready, let's do this." She said shakily, wanting to get started. before she lost her nerve.
"Then let us begin." He said simply and the blackness was suddenly bathed in the most dazzling and brilliant of lights, and they were gone.
..................................................................................................................
The bed in the barracks wasn't the most comfortable bed in the world, but after a hard night out it felt wonderful on Blazing Glory's tired body. As he laid there under the blanket he felt so pleasantly warm and comfortable, the kind of perfect half asleep feeling that always seem to end rudely and abruptly.
"Blaaaze, wake up sleepy head." A soft male voice cooed.
"Mmmmm ah don't wanna go to school today." Blaze groggily responded as he turned over in the bed.
“Hmmmm, well I tried being nice.” The voice said once again before its owner snickered evilly.
The next thing Blaze knew the warm blanket had been torn from his grasp, and the warm embrace of the heavy wool blanket was replaced with the sharp cold of a snowball being smashed into his sensitive underbelly, making him jump clear out of the bed, and shoot up so high he nearly bashed his head off the ceiling. The silver coated pegasus shook his head, sending his fiery red and orange mane flowing into his face, as he glared down at the other pegasus who had given him such a rude awakening. Below him, snickering wildly at Blaze's over the top reaction, stood a slightly older buck. His coat was a soft cream color, his mane and tail both being sky blue with a white stripe down the middle, and emblazoned upon his flank were the outlines of two pegasi hoof to hoof fighting. His wings were flared a bit as he looked up at Blaze, putting his single bright crimson wing on full display. It was such a sharp contrast to the soft colors that made up the rest of his body, that even his gentle blue eyes could not draw ones attention away from it.
“Crimson you asshat! What did you do that for?!” Blaze yelled down to the snickering buck below him.
“Well maybe if somepony hadn't spent all night having a bit more than he can handle, he would have gotten up when I asked nicely the first time.” Crimson replied, in an almost singsong voice.
“I can handle my liquor just fine.” Blaze replied as he landed back on the bed, the shock of the cold having finally past.
“Suuure and that's why you were trying to make out with me while I dragged your drunken flank back here last night.” Crimson responded in a cocky “i gotcha” tone, while blaze stood on the bed, his face so flush it looked almost as red as crimsons wing.
“Why do you always say stuff like that?” Blaze asked, clearly a bit bothered by what Crimson had said.
“I'll stop saying it when you stop doing it buddy.” Crimson responded as he threw blaze an insulated flight suit, which he quickly put on.
“Show me some proof, and I'll believe you.” Blaze replied as he put a pair of mirrored aviator sunglasses over his ruby red eyes.
“That's it, next time you do it I'm gonna take you up on it, and then in the morning when your flank is sore, you'll have all the proof you need.” Crimson said, in an obvious joking tone, as he wrapped a leg around Blaze's shoulder.
“Fine, but you better at least buy me breakfast in the morning.” Blaze replied, and the two friends shared a hearty laugh as they stepped out into the frigid cold of the early morning snow.
The freezing cold wind whipped hard against the two pegasi as they trotted between the rows of barracks toward the large stone building complex that dominated the relatively small base that sat upon a large outcrop, halfway to the summit of Mount Horntip. Upon the side of the building sat slightly obscured big brass letters that spelled out "Morninglight Airbase". A tall spire with arcane sensory arrays on top rose from the center where the command and control ponies orchestrated the pegasi, wagons, and airships that were constantly coming and going from the isolated station.
"C-c-couldn't they just let it be sunny f-for one day around here?" Crimson asked as he shivered, a thin layer of frost breaking free from his wings as he moved them to shield his face.
"But then the Griffins would figure out this base, that they watched the entire time they were building it, is actually still here." Blaze replied with a sarcastic gasp as he heard his friend's teeth begin to chatter.
"A- At least Tealeaf got some more of that Ginseng Green Tea with the Powdered Berry Blend I like yesterday." Crimson said, his voice trailing off dreamily as he described his favorite tea.
"Ewwww, I still don't understand how you stomach that stuff." Blaze said, contorting his face and shaking his head as if he had tasted something bitter.
"Not everypoony can stay a foal forever and just drink hot chocolate to warm and wake up." Crimson replied, and tussled Blazes mane a bit.
"Hey when it stops tasting so good I'll stop drinking it, deal?" Blaze shot back and stuck his tongue out him playfully.
"That's what you said about that Cider and Bourbon last night, and well, were I not such an honorable stallion that could have ended happily for me." Crimson said with smug little snicker as Blazes wings flared strait up sending a bit of snow flying off the tips as he blushed again.
"I thought I told you to cut that out!" Blaze whinnied as he nearly fell over into a drift of snow as he slipped on the ice coated ground, his cheeks fully flush.
"I'll make you a deal, learn your limits with the drink, stop having such a cute flank, and stop drunkenly offering it to me on a silver platter, and I'll stop ripping on you in the morning for it." Crimson replied, chuckling a bit while Blaze silently mumbled something as they approached their destination.
The converted barracks was no grand 5 star restaurant, but the food was far tastier, the selection broader, and for the volunteer corps, it was far cheaper than eating at the mess hall with the REAF regulars. The tables were weathered, the couches were second hoof, and the bar had little dings and chips taken out of it, but the little bar and restaurant, that bore the Airbase's nickname, was beloved all the same by everypony in Morninglight. The two uniformed pegasi gingerly stepped in past the hanging sign that perpetually whipped in the wind that read "Camp Frozen Flank Canteena, come on in and warm up". They were greeted by the delightful smells of a busy kitchen at breakfast time and the quick and alluring melody of a Spanish guitar having its strings plucked and strummed skillfully by a small framed unicorn buck at a corner table. He was flanked on one side by a very large framed pegasus buck who was chewing his grass flapjack and rocking his head along with the beat, and on the other by a slightly annoyed looking dark gray coated pegasus mare, who was blowing bubbles in her orange juice and trying to ignore the unicorn. Two earth pony mares, both wearing the uniform of the maintenance team stared at him dreamily, as if under the spell of the music. Crimson and Blaze put in their orders then took their places around the table just as the unicorn's song ended.
"What do ya call that one Radar?" Blaze asked as he shivered a little, still chilled from the blizzard outside.
"I dunno, I was just playing to play, not any song in particular." He replied as he set the instrument down and levitated his hot cider up to take a sip.
"Well looks like somepony has some fans." Blaze said as the two earth pony mares waved at him, making him shyly sink into his seat.
“So Where are Sunrise and Cloudburst? They're usually the first ones up in the morning.” Crimson asked as he tuned his head too and fro looking for the missing members of his unit.
“Well, it was their anniversary last night boss.” The olive drab coated large framed pegasus responded, his voice deep and booming compared to the rest.
“That would explain why you're even more chipper than usual Misty.” Blaze said sarcastically and she looked up at him with slightly bloodshot eyes.
“They were at it until zero three hundred this morning, I don't even know how two fillies could do that for five hours strait.” She said and slammed a hoof down on the table, quickly followed my her head, her mane drifting over her eyes as she fell asleep, leaving the rest of the table snickering.
“Alright well we'll give them until zero nine thirty hours, if they aren't here by then they're going to have to sit today's mission out.” Crimson said, as he looked over his watch before taking a sip of his tea.
“Hmmmm, five strait hours of doing it loud enough to keep Misty up, sleeping in the morning after, and not having to fly through the blizzard barrier, and all they miss out on is a normal patrols worth of pay... Which one of us is getting the raw deal again? Ooooh!! Hot chocolate!!” Blaze pondered before his hot chocolate was set before him, the tiny marshmallows already halfway melted in the piping hot frothy beverage.
The rest of the unit aside Misty, who was still passed out on the table, rolled their eyes in amusement as Blaze sipped deeply from the cup getting the frothy chocolatey mix all over his muzzle.
“What are we gonna do with you Blaze?” Heavy Lift asked, shaking his head a bit at the chocolate muzzled pegasus.
“Buy me another hot Chocolate?” He promptly replied with an eager smile, giving the whole unit a little chuckle as Heavy facehoofed.