They Read
“We can not guarantee success, we can strive to deserve it.”-General Cherry Tree
Fires touched the night and licked at stars, the world, the air was muffled for the crackle of inferno, the roars of war, and a myriad of instruments playing an incessant song.
I close my eyes against the blinding light, I call out, and listen for the response of my echo, and still, I can make nothing of the chaos of war.
“One of the earliest accounts of pegasi and earth ponies working in league involved the lighting of fires, and playing instruments of music on the ground, and in the air (utilizing the balloon, a new military technology at the time, see chapter 12) to distract and illuminate the enemy.”- Strix Struma, The Luner Wars a Compendium Pg. 238
Just in the nick of time, I heard it, the reflection of my shrill shriek, a septem of pegasi just ahead, zooming at me from above all seven of them holding line against me, an impenetrable chevron.
All I can do is fall. My wings drop. I plummet, a stone. A whistle screams through the torn leather of my injured wing. Twisting, writhing, I corkscrew into a reversal and recovery. I wince at the sting.
I flapped, gaining altitude but eating away at oh-so-precious speed. I evaded the first and a second squad plummeted upon me. Again, I repeat the maneuver. Another set of echos revealed the true horror of my predicament: three squads, I was alone and three squads of pegasi were taking their turn at my tail.
I feel my heart beating, my chest a resounding cadence. I feel the air burning in my lungs. I charge, I swerve, and still, they stay on me.
I had to change tactics, I couldn't think, the lights, the noises, and the unending chase, the ever-impending tear in my wing. I called out to my peers, although I doubt any could hear me through the fog of war, or the insistent singing of ponies.
I cut right, the above formation dives to meet me, I cut left the next is again on my tail, I gain, they gain, I drop and again they are on me, and but for the briefest of glimpses I fly blind.
For every of their score, there were six scores of us, and yet they managed to rout.
I for once managed a climb to such an altitude at which the fires no longer blinded me, where for a time the music did not deafen me, for a single moment I could perceive the battle as it was.
Despite our larger forces, the pegasi's tight formation pierced through our swarm. Our lines were cast into disarray, they hunted us down with systematic precision. Any attempt to rally our forces was dispelled by the incessant battle hymn, assaulting our ears and scattering our feeble echoes to the wind amidst their assault.
And then again I plummet, having reached my apex and having lost the breath to climb any higher, and again the pegasi were on my tail.
I dodge, and weave, evading at every turn, but only just.
And then, at last one got me, a gust of breeze from their powerful wing as they passed, sending me spinning out, all too near the ground.
The world was suddenly dark and silent.
“Twi, look. I appreciate your history stuff, but like, how is this supposed to help me succeed in the Icarainion Sun Salutation for the Squad competition? I need to show those judges that I have the best squad in the Wonderbolts,
I should be out there training my team, not in here sorting through old books."
Twilight blew off the cover of yet another ancient tome.
“No that's not it,” she set it aside and reached for the next levitating it upon her sparkle. “Haha, that's it!
I'm sorry Rainbow Dash, I know you don't like to be cooped up, but I'm telling you I'm close, I can feel it. Could you imagine showing up to your competition prepared with the original Icorinion-Sun-salutation, not just the vague imitation ponies invoke today, how much that might delight Princess Celestia?”
“Yeah… I guess”
Rainbow Dash continued to wobble on her chair, as again Twilight began to read.
Although the EUP wouldn't be formed until after the war, Earth-Ponies and Pegasi had been working together in combat sense at least (Unfortunately the date here is smudged out) at the fording of White Tail-Daisy Fables, EUP a Guidebook, Chapter 4, Pg 15 ”
She looked almost peaceful, lying there concussed in the grass. Combat churned above us, and the air tasted of ash.
There was this myth that bat ponies had fangs.
I had to stop myself from checking.
I almost left her there. Even at a glance, I could tell that she was no threat to me, a torn and crumpled mess strewn upon the ground. The Earth Pony line couldn’t be far. I could see their now dwindling fires, I could make it. But something stopped me…chivalry? A respect for a fellow warrior, even an enemy? A fevered madness?
I knelt beside her.
She was breathing if only in ragged rasps.
I place the clasp over my bolt so that she could not easily draw it, and I disarm her, tossing her weapon into the field. I remove my canteen from my belt, and slowly I drip water into her fanged muzzle, (yes fanged of all things) her strange thin tongue laps greedily at every morseled drop.
“Ghhh”
She stirred, groaning in pain. “Ugh my head”
“Easy there, you took quite a fall… I saw you maneuvering up there, you fight bravely…. I, I don't think I've ever seen anypony move like you did up there, feathers or no, I certainly have never seen any pony climb quite as high or quick as you did”
I offered her my canteen, which she takes in both hooves and chugs.
“I know we are enemies…but…shucks, I figured we could take a breather, while, while we are down here…grounded as we are.”
I shrug my broken wing displaying its odd and distorted angle, as I nod at her mangled appendage.
She winces in pain setting the canteen down, and there is a moment of estranged silence.
…
…
…
My name is Easy Glider…what can I call you?
“You can call me Icaria, Icaria Starflitter”
“Wait wait wait, you're telling me Icaria, The Icaria was a bat pony!?”
“That’s what it says in the book, but let's not get ahead of ourselves Rainbow Dash, she is an Icaria, but she isn't necessarily the Icaria.
This document references a manuscript that has an excerpt directly from Commander Easy Glider’s personal diary. I think I have a copy of that somewhere around here.”
As long as I live I could never forget that moment.
“The bright abyss
Touched my nose
a simple pat-Quillsworth”
An illusion of serene silence blanketed us.
As we sat there watching, the war raged on above.
In the sky, the Lunar forces and the pegasi clashed and swerved, constellations in plight, and all we could do was watch.
Here or there, a balloon would burst and fall engulfed in flames, or a Pegasi or Bat Pony would plummet screaming from the sky.
The shock must have had us pretty bad, both me and Icaria in our hollow stare, as for a time all we could do was watch.
I do not know how long we sat there but when we did stir again, the sun which had first kissed the horizon during the fray was now high upon us, and the battle had long since moved on.
“I erm… don't suppose you can walk? There is an earth-pony encampment not far from here… and I know we are the enemy, but I'm sure we will treat you right… at the very least will get a hot meal in your belly. I think I can smell them cooking up some hot citrus porridge even from here.”
“I... I think I can manage” Shakely she rose from the ground, before again, slumping back over.
“I err, don’t suppose I could use your shoulder to lean on” She asked.
It was just so, as we hobbled our way over the pitted field over to the encampment.
I answered the challenge phrase with the correct response and the sentinel earth ponies helped me with my haggard companion of a prisoner.
“Make sure she gets a hot meal, she has been through a lot, we all have. Who can I talk to in order to get in contact with Aviation command?”
“But sir, your wing?!”
I wince, hopefully not visibly.
“There will be time for that later. I need to report in, now who can I talk to?”
“Our commanding aeronaut took a bad fall when the bats took out his balloon, Major Firefly of your ranks has taken charge of the aviation unit for the time being. I think he is in the command tent, can't miss it, center of camp.
I nod. “ Thank you, Cadet. Make sure she gets the proper care, she fought bravely.”
“Yes sir!”
“Ugh, it just ends! It doesn't mention anything about the famed maneuver, or what became of this Icaria, whether or not she is the one. There's just pages and pages of poetry about how good Oatmeal is.
“Rainbow Dash stopped bouncing her ball for a moment. “It doesn't say anything else?... I mean I guess that’s understandable. I wouldn't have much to write about being bedridden either, nothing happens and it's so boring.”
“That's it! Medical records! I'll have to write a letter to the Canterlot Archives. Spike, can you come in here please!”
“Oatmeal oh Oatmeal,
Oh, how I love Oatmeal!
The way that it burbles and Plops
There is nothing quite like it
Thats true indeed
But doc won’t you just let me be!”
I was bedridden for months. The Bat Pony who had bucked into me had managed to break my port wing in at least ten different places. The doc was amazed that I had managed to land at all, let alone as softly as I had (as to say not soft at all).
Any landing one can walk away from right?
Starflitter was not so lucky. Her poor port wing had been completely torn open, probably ice shrapnel from the initial cloud bank which we had used to disguise the presence of the balloons during the bats' initial assault. They had managed to sow her wing back together, but there was no telling whether or not she would ever fly again.
“ During the Lunar wars, the weather factory had been put into full war-time production. While Cloudsdailian foals were not expected to fight they were put to work producing Lightning Bolts for the Pegasi legions, and serrated Ice Shrapnel (an implement used to surprising effect, even going so far as to be later declared a war crime). - Onthe Nose, Ponies, and Propaganda Chapter 5 Pg. 136-137”
Her other wing, from colliding with the ground, was fractured into at least twenty parts, and her front left foreleg was also broken. On top of this, the doc estimated that she may have undergone a severe concussion.
If my landing was rough, hers had sent her straight into last week.
With the infirmary being as full as it was, and the earth-ponies not necessarily having a place designated to treat enemy combatants, or perhaps then them figuring that because I brought her in, she was my problem, they put my and Starflitter’s cots right next to each other.
We entertained ourselves, mostly, by swapping poetry about porridge. Don't get me wrong, the food was horrible, but perhaps it was nice to have something warm in our bodies, and to distract us from our pain.
Over those many months, we became fast friends. We talked of many things and not just food.
Of mangos and carrots, and daisies
of cabbages and bees.
Inevitably our conversation turned to the war.
She had lost many loved ones to my allies, and I had lost much to her's, we had our fair share of quarrels over that.
At one point it even got physical, us launching off the cots at each other and writhing on the muddy ground in a heap, doc had to jump in and pull us apart.
I will not comment on who started that fight.
Eventually, we made up. There were reasons why we did what we did, and why each side did what they did. Despite it being against our training, and against all best judgment we talked about that too.
“Although scholars are not certain of the reasoning it is an unequivocal fact that the hours of the twilight of which Princess Celestia has not quite risen the sun nor the moon, the hours of dusk and dawn have been extended ever since about a thousand years before the writing of this piece. Some say it is a sign of the sorrow over the loss of our benevolent ruler’s sister, some say the timing doesn't quite line up right for that- Professor Ticktock, Clocks and Calendars through The Ages a Guide, Introduction, pg 12”
The day far outshone the night, far too brightly for the Bat Ponies to participate in all the activities they needed to do to survive.
They were farmers like the earth ponies, but without the magic to support it, they could only plant and hope for the best, and due to their nocturnal nature, no fault of their own, they could only plant in harvest in the night, night that was far too short.
Earth Ponies and Pegasi such as myself, could terry and labor in the light, even into the thralls of darkness, using fires and lighting bugs to illuminate for us, or take a nap in the noonday sun as it pleased us. The Bat ponies, on the other hoof could not see in the light, could not work under the sun as we did. The bright light hurt their eyes, and shade could only do so much.
We were only trying to protect our princess, but they were trying to survive.
One night I awoke quite suddenly from a dream.
It was the sort of dream that left me in a cold sweat and panting in heaves.
For a moment time was like lead sap as I took in the surrounding infirmary. Suddenly it hit me like a bolt, she was gone!
I ripped my covers from my trembling form, dropping my hooves into the cool mud. I followed the way I was sure she had gone, unsteadily tracing her steps in the moonlight.
And then I saw her. As serene as ever, she was looking up at the moon, her tufted ear tucked over in the way it does when she's deep in thought.
“I thought you would follow me”
… I gave no response and could only stare stupidly at her beauty.
“Are… are you going to stop me… I thought you might try '' She didn't turn to me as she spoke, only gazing up at that great celestial light. Stars crisscrossed the sky in every direction, but the moon, the moon surpassed them all. Her words were so soft.
“I, I..”-
I faltered, unable to put my racing thoughts to words.
She turned to face me, there was sorrow in her eyes.
“Where… where will you go?” I asked
“I am going to go tell Celestia my Hello”
“That is the Icaria of the Icaranian Sun Salutation! It has to be!” Rainbow Dash blurted out cutting off twilight mid-read.
“We can’t be sure of that, there's just not enough evidence, and besides the manuscripts haven't even mentioned the maneuver yet.”
No, I'm certain of it. It all adds up, her name, her proclivity for high-altitude climbing, and her and Commander Easy Gliders’ infatuation with each other. Look, this Oat-Meal poem is a love letter! Surely, she has to be the one responsible for the maneuver, if not the one who inspired it. In Fact, I'm so certain I'll go ask the princess about it myself, surely, she knows something about it!
“You can't ask the princess something like that!”
But before the words had left Twilight's mouth, Rainbow Dash was gone.
History can only ever be what we know it to be, but will always contain so much more than we could ever know-Strix Struma, Thoughts on the Past, Pg.7