Sunlit Shadows

by Inucroft1

Chapter 3- Deep and shallow Thought

Chapter 3- Deep and shallow Though

Upon leaving the secured hospital room, Iron Flank sighed. His scheme nearly ended in disaster before he even had a chance to reveal it. He chided himself for now sending the Royal Guard to the war room while the two Lunar Guardsmen were there. The joys of hindsight, he thought begrudgingly. While the statement given by Star Watch seemed the truth, Iron Flank decided to make sure that he had all the facts before pursuing any action.

Being place in charge of one quarter of Equestria and directly in charge of the 8th Celestial Legion, gave the old Unicorn enough to worry about without now having to deal with this incident. Looking either way along the corridor, he gained his bearings and headed towards a set of stairs. A few minutes later and having to ask for directions after getting lost on a few occasions, Iron Flank reached a small ward with only four beds. As he neared the door, Iron Flank heard raised voices emanating from the room.

“Oooooh! Stop that, stay still! How else am I supposed to treat you?” shilled an annoyed mare’s voice.

“I’ll heal in time, keep that bloody syringe away from me!” yelled a gruff voice. Probably one of the injured guards, assumed Iron Flank.

“Yes, but this will make you heal faster!”

“Not bucking likely”.

“Ah pipe it Copper,” intervened a third voice, “shut your trap and take it like the stallion you are”.

“Easy for you to say!” retorted the first, “have you seen the size of that needle?!”

Realising this would probably keep going, Iron Flank entered the room. While the shouting had alerted him for what to expect, the sight before him was a tad more excessive than he had imagined. Inside the room were two occupied beds with another two spare. In the centre of the room was a rather exasperated looking Pegasus nurse chasing a bandaged sinopia coloured Earth pony. In the nearest occupied bed was a smitten coloured Earth Pony trying not to laugh, while the bed on the far side the bed next to the window had a fully bandaged pony who’s amber eyes were the only visible feature.

Soon as he entered, the pair of guards stopped and saluted. Using this chance, the nurse plunged the syringe into the now still Earth Pony, resulting in a yelp from the unfortunate pony. Cussing under his breath lowered his salute, rubbing the spot where the syringe had pierced his skin. The bandage pony however, remained unmoving in his bed.

“Well gentlecolts, I hope that you are recovering well,” spoke Iron Flank, trying to stifle a chuckle, “so what actually happened in the command room? I’ve heard one side of the story, what are yours? Please include your names and ranks”.

The grumbling pony standing in the room, watched the nurse move to tend the bandaged pony before speaking in a low gruff voice.

“Legionary Copper Hoof, Sir. We were guarding the war room, those Lunar Guardsmen blighters riled up that Royal Guard by existing, so he assumed we were traitors”.

“Aye,” interjected the smitten Earth Pony, “Private Steel Mane, while I don’t like those Luna guys- they seem better than the Celestial Royal Guard at the moment. At least they didn’t clip us round the head for doing our job”.

“Neither of you are lying? Remember, lying to a superior is a crime and making wild accusations of a Royal Guard can be deemed treason,” Iron Flank decided to make sure that his point hit home, “if you are lying you may be joining the Lunar Guardsmen in the prison!”

A cough from the far side of the ward drew their attention. The amber eyed guard seemed to finally stir from wherever her mind had roamed to. She turned attention to Iron Flank, ignoring the nurse tending to her injuries.

“Corporal Amber Defiance, Sir. What these two said is true, though no provocation was given. While I was not present I can vouch for them Sir”.

“Oh? How can you vouch for an event that you were not present at… miss?” replied Iron Flank.

“Because, Sir, I know these two. While I refuse to trust them with my bits, they’re a good pair. They won’t lie to an officer, to an NCO maybe, but not to an officer".

“All right, if you’re sure. May I ask- if you’re not the guard who got trampled in the war room…. How did you get injured then?”

“Ah, well erm sir, there was an accident on the training fields,” looking down, with an embarrassed tone Amber continued her account, “I was training and failed to notice my surroundings. That’s all there is to it really, sir”.

“Ok, I won’t press the issue. Thank you all for your information. Ah yes, Legionary Copper Hoof, please try not to make the nurse’s job any harder than it already is,” with this parting remark, Iron Flank left the ward.

Once their commander had left, the nurse refocused her attention to Copper Hoof. She was not amused that she had to deal with a patent with trypanophobia, moreover with him showing her up in front of the commander. Still, she had a job to do. Making a mental note to make Cooper Hoof’s stay a living hell she made sure that the amber eyed pony was recovering.

Amber Defiance ignored the nurse, returning to what she had been musing over. While this deep though had led to her… incident earlier she couldn’t help herself. Why were these Lunar Guardsmen here? Why are they not fighting for the Princess they swore to? Similar questions kept bubbling up in her mind, and yet no matter how deeply Amber thought, she was unable to answer the majority of them. All she knew for certain was that the Lunar Guardsmen were supposed to have loyalty so zealous in nature to Princess Luna they would kill themselves on her word. So the issue of the fifty Luna Guardsmen willing to walk away from Luna confused her to no end.

She had longed for a chance to meet the prisoners when she had first heard about them when she had arrived along with the legion. After weeks of persistence badgering of her CO she had managed to get a duty, abet a short one, to escort the Lunar Guardsmen second in command. The downside was that the other escort, Corporal Wroth, his hatred of the Lunar Guardsmen existed long before the rebellion though nopony knew why. All they knew is that his hatred grew all the stronger after the first attack. Amber could understand why his hatred, and the creation of many other hateful ponies, had grown after the attack. Which was all the more reason to hear from the perspective of those who had been at the heart of Luna’s organisation, though Amber, rather than listening to hearsay.

When the nurse had finished tending to her, Amber turned over in her bed drifting off to sleep watching the eclipsed sun set behind the horizon. As it has done dozens of times since the start of the Lunar Rebellion.
__________________________________________________________________________________

“So Star,” spoke Lieutenant Bolt, watching the Field Marshal leave the room, “what shall we do?”

“Well Red Bolt, sir. It’s a.... interesting idea. Can we trust him though? We’ve been locked up for weeks and treated worse than rock bottom. Now he expects us to jump at this with open hearts?”

“Do we have any other choice Star? If Nightmare moon wins, we’ll be executed as traitors. If Celestial wins who knows what she shall do to Princess Luna and her name shall never be cleared. All that will happen while we rot in prison waiting for things to happen to us. If we grasp this chance we can forge our own destiny! Prove Luna’s innocence and clear the Lunar Guardsmen name! ”

The change occurring in front of Star Watch took him aback. For after their defeat, all of them had broken spirits. None had any real energy or lacklustre on their long march. Even when their conditions had improved during their detainment only a handful, likes those in Star Watch’s section, improved. Red Bolt was not one of those that had improved, yet Star Watch observed as his battered commander revitalise. Hope etched across his face, more so within his deep violet eyes.

“Well, I may have been too cynical. Yet you can see where coming from sir?”

“Yes yes, but this is our chance!” noticing the continuing lack of enthusiasm on Star Watch’s part, Red Bold decided to curb his own, “well.... ok, there is bound to be a major catch. Most likely that we won’t be seeing any combat till the war is over, but it’s bound to be better than suck in a tiny room for Luna knows how long!”

“Ok, if you’re so set on it sir. I’ll support you agreeing with this scheme, but I must add on the record with reluctance Red”
“Noted, Star, I’ll note it down in the company war diary. Now he told us to fetch him soon as we reached an accord, shall we postpone that? We don’t know when next we’ll be able to meet”.

Stealing a quick glance over his shoulder, Star Watch nodded.

“Now look, neither of us really know each other that well Star. You were a lowly corporal and I was the new officer. Sure I’ve heard rumours about you in the mess, but you know how rumours get”.

“Yes I do, but I can say the big main one is true... can I just leave it at that?”

“Just leave it at THAT?! But you were-“

The door opened interrupting Red Bolt’s outburst. Standing in the door way was one of the Guards assigned at the door.
“Have either of you made your decision? If not I’ll be escorting the pair of you back to your, quarters”.

The pair looked at one another, clear frustration etched onto Red Bolt’s face. Nodding, Red Bolt turned to the Guard.
“Yes we have, please inform Field Marshal Iron Flank that we have”.

___________

The eclipsed sun had set for a few hours before Star Watch was escorted back to his quarters. Much to his dismay the other two were still wide awake.

“Sarge!” exclaimed Typhoon Chaser, embracing him in a tight hug much to his annoyance, “We thought you were a gonner!”
“Alright, now Chaser, you can let go now. I’ll explain what happened”.

“I don’t want to!” she wailed.

“Come on. Let Sergeant go now Typhoon” calmly spoke Brawny Boulder, placing a hoof on TyphoonChaser, “we don’t want a repeat of what happened last time”

Eyeing up the Catalina Blue Pony, Typhoon Chaser realised her grip on Star Watch. Trotting to her bed, pausing only to flick her beige tail in Boulder’s face, she sat down in a slight huff.

“Spoil sport”, snorted Typhoon Chaser.

“Ok... now that both of you have calmed down. I’ll tell you what happed after I was escorted to the keep” Star Watch spoke in his monotone voice trying to ignore the jesters and funny faces being made by Cloud Chaser.

Author's Note:

Urg... i kept coming up with plot ideas for later chapters but not for this one.... sorry it took so long.

Edit- changed "Cloud Chaser"' name to "Typhoon Chaster" cause turns out Cloud Chaser is a name for a backround pony.... who knew?
Edit 2: gramatical and punchuation improvments

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Though there are a number of gramatical mistakes, but they're very well hidden