Children of Darkness and Light

by Aquaman

The Pilot

“You think you’re fuckin’ smart, don’t you?” the pegasus sniped, each word tinged with a barely suppressed snarl. On the other side of the mahogany desk dominating the pony’s sparsely decorated office, Spike shrugged and tapped his claws idly against his notepad.

“I don’t think anything,” the dragon replied. “Just a neutral observer.”

“Of course you’re neutral,” the pony scoffed. “You smart creatures always are. Hear it from every politician and Guildmaster and civilian in their nice suits and ugly fuckin’ ties: both sides did bad things, it’s all complicated, I’ll say anything you want to hear as long as I keep my job. Here’s the thing, though: it wasn’t complicated, not at all. It just makes you feel better to act like it is. You want the world to be something it’s not: bloodless, and simple, and safe.”

“Can you elaborate on that?”

Across the desk, the pony’s nostrils flared, and for a moment Spike thought he’d have to duck away from a gold-embossed nameplate flying at his skull. Instead, though, the pegasus rolled his neck and straightened his jacket, medals jangling together on both breasts. “About Waldbewohner? You want a political answer or an honest one?”

“Both, if you could.”

The pony sighed and massaged his temple with a hoof — polished to a glossy shine, fetlock neatly trimmed. “All our intelligence at the time suggested the city was a valid target. Dozens of factories, thousands of soldiers, artillery positions and anti-air… resources that would’ve kept Senna in the war for another two years, and would’ve turned the push for Bärentatze into a siege even worse than Tersk. We flew our missions, we hit our targets, and the war in Senna was over before summer.”

“Was that the honest answer or the political one?”

Spike’s question earned him a glare and a tightening of his interviewee’s jaw. “What do you think?”

“I think there are a lot of questions the Alliance hasn’t answered about Waldbewohner,” Spike said, glancing down at his notes. “About the targets chosen, where the bombs actually fell. The Artificer’s Guild estimates the civilian death toll was close to–”

The pegasus laughed — a single, short “Ha!” meant to unsettle Spike and successful only at briefly shutting him up. “Civilians…” he grumbled. “What’s the Guild have to say about our side? What were the Sennan bombers targeting in Trottingham, Manehattan, Canterlot? They killed more of our citizens — more of their own citizens, for Heart’s sake — on an average Tuesday than we did in the whole damn war.”

“They did. And the creatures who did that are now in prison, facing trial for war crimes.” Spike looked the pegasus in the eye. “You aren’t. Neither are your crew. I was just wondering what you thought about that.”

The pony leaned forward, his desk creaking under his weight. “What I think about it,” he growled, “is that we won. I think we were attacked by a nation hellbent on world domination, and that we fought back, and that every creature in that crew you’re so quick to criticize is worth a million of you half-measuring spineless Guild fucks. We followed orders and we served with honor, and we put our lives on the line, gave our lives, so you and everybody else in the Empire could be free to just ask questions about the manner in which we saved yours.” He flopped back heavily in his chair. “Put that in your fuckin’ report. And get out of my office.”

Spike scribbled on his pad, stood up, and nodded politely as he made for the exit. Just before he left, though, he asked one last question.

“You followed orders, you said. Given by who? Who ordered you to firebomb twenty-five thousand civilians to destroy a hundred factories?”

The pegasus sneered, and his eyes darted towards a portrait on his wall — three feet tall, in a polished silver frame, depicting a pale magenta mare with a violet mane striped arctic blue and an icy stare painted into her opal eyes.

“What does it matter?” he growled. “We did what we had to, and we’d do it again. We won. Now fuck off.”

Comments

[Sunny]

Hello, Dresden~

[Lurks-no-More]

Is that a portrait of Starlight Glimmer on his wall, by any chance?