//------------------------------// // Bonus Chapter: Joyeux Noel // Story: The Torch be Ours // by The 24th Pegasus //------------------------------// Cambray, Prance Three Years of War Rainbow Dash yawned at her post. She hated being put on sentry duty. She hated sitting in one place, watching the churned-up muddiness of no-mare’s land under the glow of the eclipsed sun and the flash of distant artillery. She hated sitting out there by herself or sometimes with only one other pony for company, denied what little opportunity she had to sleep in the lulls between fighting. And now that it was winter, she hated the cold, she hated the wind, she hated the snow, and she hated the ice that clung to her helmet brim or tried to freeze the mechanisms of her rifle shut. Nothing about winter was enjoyable at the front. At the very least, the snow and frigid temperatures had similarly cooled off the chateau generals’ desire to feed more good ponies into the meat grinders of the Free States’ trenches. Yet here she was, because the war never ended. There wasn’t a break in the killing when you lived on the front lines, only a pause in the fighting. Every second of every day, somepony lost their life to a sniper, or an artillery shell, or a knife in a foxhole. Every second of every day for three years, ponies had been dying out here, far from home. The only difference was sometimes your mile of front was peaceful while another mile was drowning in blood. And tonight, Rainbow’s stretch of the front was decidedly peaceful and still. Freshly fallen snow decorated the mud, the fortifications, the barbed wire, the trenches, and not least of all, Rainbow herself. She’d been stuck at her post since dinner, and she’d be stuck there until well after midnight. And of all nights to be stuck on sentry duty, she had to have drawn Hearth's Warming Eve. She supposed it could have been worse. After yesterday’s ferocious artillery bombardment against the Free States’ trenches, there hadn’t been any sign of movement or activity on the front. Trench scouts like Lightning Dust hadn’t reported any concentration of secessionists in their sector. It seemed like the Free States were willing just to wait out the holiday and go back to killing Equestrians afterwards. Sighing, Rainbow hunched over and huddled her forehooves under her jacket, propping the trench periscope against a wall of frozen mud. She could see her breath in front of her muzzle every time she exhaled. It was blisteringly cold at night, but at least the wind had subsided. It would have been so much worse with the wind. Hooves crunched along the fallen snow, and Rainbow instinctively straightened her posture an inch in case those boots belonged to an officer. But when she turned her head to the side, all she saw was a muddy turquoise mare shuffling over to her. “Anything to report?” Lightning Dust asked, folding her coat under her hindquarters and sitting down at Rainbow’s side. “Not a damn thing,” Rainbow muttered, leaning against the other mare. Even though their coats were separated by several thick layers of cloth, Rainbow decided she was much better to lean against than the icy, muddy walls of the trench. “They’re sitting there enjoying the holidays while we’re stuck on sentry duty.” “You mean you’re stuck on sentry duty,” Lightning said with a quirk to her eyebrows. “I could be back in our bunker where it’s at least a little warmer.” “But you’re not, so you’re on sentry duty with me.” Rainbow closed her eyes and nuzzled Lightning Dust’s exposed cheek. “Let me guess; couldn’t spare to see me out here by myself, right?” Lightning snickered and shrugged. “Whatever you want to believe, RD. That, and the greenwings were getting annoying, bellyaching about missing Hearth’s Warming and everything.” “I’m bellyaching about missing Hearth’s Warming,” Rainbow grumbled. “Can you really blame them? They want to go home and spend time with their families, not manning our mile-long stretch of dirt and ice. Only the lucky ones got to go home on leave for the holiday.” “The lucky ones are the ones who never had to set hoof into a fucking trench,” Lightning grumbled. “Everypony here’s unlucky. Some more than others.” Rainbow shook her head. “True enough,” she muttered. Sniffing the air, she leaned away from Lightning and raised an eyebrow at her. “Wait… are those…?” “Oh, you finally noticed?” Lightning chuckled and opened her jacket. The mouthwatering aroma of baked apple tickled Rainbow’s nose, and her stomach, hardened off of hardtack and military rations, growled in anticipation of actually palatable food. An aquamarine wing darted into her jacket, and a moment later, Lightning pulled out a parcel of wax paper. “Apple strudels. Some fillies from the nearby town brought them over a little while ago. I made sure to nab two for us before I found you.” Rainbow snatched the strudel out of Lightning’s wing and tore the paper open. She shivered when a fresh dose of apple aroma entered her nose again and could hardly resist bringing the pastry to her mouth right then and there. “Celestia, bless the Prench. They make fighting out here actually tolerable.” “If it wasn’t for their wine and their food, I’d have thrown myself on a grenade ages ago,” Lightning joked. “I wouldn’t have had anything to keep me going.” “Oh, what am I then, chopped cabbage?” Rainbow gave Lightning’s shoulder a friendly punch. “I see how it is.” Lightning rolled her golden eyes and leaned back against Rainbow. “Shut up, RD. Eat your stupid strudel before the snow freezes it.” “Way ahead of you,” Rainbow said, and in a split second, the strudel disappeared into her mouth. The overwhelming sensation of flavor, actual flavor, was an ecstasy all its own. For almost a minute, Rainbow was lost in that sensation, tasting every gooey morsel of appley cinnamon. When she opened her eyes, she saw an almost identical expression to the one she figured she’d had on her face reflected in Lightning’s features. “Fuck, that was good.” Lightning swallowed the last morsel in her mouth and licked her lips. “Yeah. I wish I hadn’t eaten it so fast, but it was so tasty.” “Think we can snag any more off some Prench filly?” “I doubt it. I bet they’re all gone now.” Sighing, Lightning stretched her bundled wings, the joints stiffly popping and snapping as they reached their full span. Within moments, though, she tucked them back at her sides to conserve their heat. “I used to love flying in the winter. The world was so calm and peaceful then. So quiet.” Rainbow’s ears flicked toward the south, where a distant artillery barrage added its own thunder to an otherwise tranquil twilight. “How the world has changed,” she muttered, shaking her head. “The damn sun doesn’t even go down anymore. Night and day are all messed up.” Lightning chuckled and nodded along. “I never would have thought three years ago that I was taking the sun and moon for granted. The world’s so much bleaker when it’s just the same stupid glow for twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. You’d think it’d get the other nations to intervene.” “Yeah, well nopony wants to get involved in our spat with the neighbors. A lot of them trade with the Free States now. They owned sixty-three percent of Equestria’s prewar industry, you know.” “When did you become a historian?” Lightning teased. “When I got really fucking bored on the front lines,” Rainbow shot back. “Which is always. We spend more time fighting trenchhoof and killing rats than actual fighting. It’s bullshit. At least fighting is something to do.” “Doesn’t look like there’ll be any tonight. Or tomorrow, for that matter.” Lightning shook her head. “Guess you aren’t getting that for Hearth’s Warming.” “Well, I wasn’t a good filly this year, so that figures.” Rainbow scoffed. “Heck, I would’ve taken the coal. At least you can burn coal.” Lightning chuckled and fell silent at Rainbow’s side. She was like a ghost on such a silent and peaceful night; even though Rainbow could feel her weight on her side, she felt like she had to blink and rub her eyes to check that her partner was still there. Life was so fickle in the trenches, and there were a million ways it could be snuffed out in the blink of an eye. Lightning Dust was one of the few soldiers from Rainbow’s company that had survived the three years of Tartarus they’d suffered through together, and she didn’t want to lose her. Some part of her believed that if she just held onto Lightning, the turquoise mare would never leave her. So that’s exactly what she did, wrapping a wing around Lightning’s muddy barrel. The other mare raised an eyebrow in response. “You got something you want to say, RD?” “Yeah,” Rainbow said. “I’m fucking cold, and you’re fucking warm.” “Can’t argue with that logic.” Lightning’s eyelashes fluttered a few times and she grunted as she snuggled in closer against Rainbow’s warmth, interlocking like two pieces of a puzzle. Their cloudy breaths joined into one rhythm, their beating hearts synchronized in a cold piece of mud in a frozen wasteland of death, simply reminding them that they were both alive. A quiet cheer and applause faintly crawled its way across no-mare’s land, perking Rainbow’s ears. Lightning rolled her eyes and pressed her face against Rainbow’s neck, frigid strands of her goldenrod mane tickling Rainbow’s chin. “Sounds like the secessionists are having a good time,” she muttered. “Bastards.” “It’s Hearth’s Warming Eve,” Rainbow quietly retorted. “Just be glad they’re drinking and celebrating instead of shooting at us.” “It could just be a front,” Lightning grumbled. “Make us think they’re not going to attack, then cut our throats while we’re drunk on cider and eggnog.” “Do you always gotta be such a downer?” Rainbow nuzzled the top of Lightning’s frigid mane and smirked at the scout’s dour expression. “They’re ponies like us, LD. They hate being stuck in the trenches as much as we do.” “Those fuckers have been trying to kill us for three years,” Lightning insisted. Her jacket ruffled as she crossed her forelegs. “If there was any good in them, they’d have surrendered long ago instead of fighting this stupid… stupid war.” Rainbow shook her head and sat up, shedding Lightning’s weight. “I bet they’re partying over there right now and we’re stuck here doing nothing. Lemme see what they’re up to.” She put her hooves on either side of the trench periscope and raised it back above the edge of the trench. Squinting through the scope, she moved it up and down until she finally saw what she was looking for in the glow of the perpetual twilight. There were the Free States trenches, separated from the Equestrian trenches by only about fifty or sixty meters of no-mare’s land. They were brightly lit up with torches and gas lamps, way more than they usually were, and she could see helmets and colorful manes moving around just beneath the lip of the trench. Several hooves shot into the air with a cheer, and each one carried a tin tankard of some liquid Rainbow figured was probably alcoholic. Something green flickered near the edge of the trench, and Rainbow adjusted the periscope just in time to see a stallion place a tiny Hearth’s Warming tree on the forward edge of their trench and duck back down in case an Equestrian sniper was watching for him. Rainbow knew he didn’t need to worry, given the snipers were enjoying the peace and quiet just like everypony else, but old habits were hard to break, and you never peered over the trench for more than a split second if you wanted to keep your skull. “What do you see?” Lightning asked. “What are they up to?” “I told you, LD, they’re just celebrating Hearth’s Warming,” Rainbow shot back, lowering the periscope. “They’ve got fucking mini-trees and everything.” Lightning blinked twice. “Well, damn,” she said, shaking her head and chuckling quietly to herself. “And we got squat. Now I kinda want to defect.” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Last time you said you were gonna defect when you saw they got fresh shipments of beer from Brayvaria every Sunday.” “Can you really blame me? We only get shit out here. Their military command at least treats them like ponies, not rifles with legs.” “Go complain about it to Shining Armor if you want,” Rainbow said with a shrug. “You know I can get a letter through to him whenever I feel like it.” “Maybe I’ll take you up on that. Just you wait.” Blowing a foggy breath out of her mouth, Lightning pulled back a frigid fold of her winter coat to look at a cracked watch around her fetlock. “It’s twenty-three hundred. Only a few hours left, right?” “Yeah. Honestly, I could leave my post and be confident that nothing will happen. Too bad I can’t make the officers see it that way.” “I’m sure they’d see it that way if they were stuck out here like us.” “Yeah, right.” Rainbow set the trench periscope aside and rubbed her numb hooves together. “I could almost believe that. Almost.” Lightning opened her mouth to respond, but a distant melody cut her off. Her frostbitten ears pointed toward the east, and Rainbow blinked and looked over her shoulder. The Secessionist trenches had fallen silent, save for a stallion’s voice ringing out over the frozen killing grounds. It was beautiful, rich, and carried a mournful timbre to it that betrayed the joyous song he’d taken into his own words, in the native tongue of Germaneigh. “Die Freundschaft ist, wer wüsste das nicht, ein Gut, das uns eint, welches niemals zerbricht. Ein Streit, der entsteht, vergeht und verfliegt, weil unsere Einigkeit stets obsiegt. Drum sind wir Ponys auf ewige Zeit zur Freundschaft bereit, die niemand und nichts entzweit.” Rainbow blinked as she picked out the melody. “That’s the Heart Carol,” she murmured in wonderstruck awe. “They’ve got the same songs we do.” “It’s an Equestrian song,” Lightning said. “And three years ago, they were Equestrian, too…” The air hummed as a mournful cello began to play from the Equestrian trenches, somewhere off to Rainbow’s right. Both her and Lightning gave each other confused looks and craned their necks in that direction, trying to figure out why that was playing. Within a few seconds, however, they realized the cello had picked up the next verse of the song in a more upbeat key, the way Rainbow remembered it from the Hearth’s Warming carol she’d performed in so many years ago. Not only that, but several Equestrian soldiers, mares and stallions alike, joined the cello and added their voices to the song. “Though the winter brings all its cold and storm, The glow in our hearts keeps us warm. The friends we now call our family Will always see us through.” As the attitude of the song shifted, so did Rainbow’s. She felt a smile worm its way onto her frigid and frozen face, and she stood up tall to peer over the edge of the trench. Lightning Dust immediately sprang to her hooves and put a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder, trying to press her back down. “What are you doing?!” she hissed at Rainbow. “You’re gonna lose your fucking head!” But Rainbow didn’t pay her any mind. As the next verse of the song arrived, she added her voice to the growing chorus in both trenches. “Loyalty binds us and makes us strong. Honesty shows that we belong. And kindness shared will unite us through each day. The fire of friendship lives in our hearts As long as it burns, we cannot drift apart. Though quarrels arise, their numbers are few Laughter and singing will see us through.” Something shifted at the other trench, and soon a stallion in Secessionist uniform climbed halfway out. He looked surprisingly clean for fighting in the trenches like everypony else, with what looked like a freshly pressed and ironed uniform, and no mud matted to his coat or clumping his mane together. His pale magic picked up a Hearth’s Warming tree, and he turned to project his beautiful singing voice across no-mare’s land as he finished the song. “Drum sind wir Ponys auf ewige Zeit zur Freundschaft bereit, die niemand und nichts entzweit!” The clopping of hooves up and down both trenches marked the end of the song, joined by a few whistles and shouts. Smiling, the stallion trotted into the open, put the miniature Hearth’s Warming tree on a rock in the middle of no-mare’s land, and bowed to the Equestrian side. To Rainbow’s infinite astonishment, nopony shot at him, and nopony had taken the chance to take her head off as well. It was almost like nopony wanted to fight anymore. There’d been too much death the past two Hearth’s Warmings, and even Rainbow, hardened as she was, felt sick of it. Ponies shouldn’t be killing ponies on Hearth’s Warming. It was a holiday of togetherness, of friendship, of remembering how the three tribes came together to found a new nation and save their people from the windigoes. The stallion with the beautiful voice bowed once more to the Equestrian trench and turned around, ready to return to his side. But before he could, Rainbow snapped her frigid wings open at her side and fluttered out of the trench. “Wait!” she shouted, catching the stallion’s attention. “Don’t go just yet.” “Rainbow Dash, you fucking idiot!” Lightning hissed at her from her trench. “You’re gonna get yourself killed!” Rainbow ignored her, her eyes instead settling on the singer and the ponies from his trench. The Free States trenches were lined with curious, mud-streaked and snow-covered faces, watching her every move. She saw a few sparks of recognition in some of their eyes, and swallowed hard. She knew she was a big target on the battlefield, given her connection to the princesses and her status as a former Element Bearer. Any one of those ponies could grab a rifle and drop her with a single shot if they wanted to. But the longer she stood out in the open, standing on frozen mud and gray snow where so many had died before, the more confident she became that it wasn’t going to happen. And then she was standing across from him. It was a strange feeling; Rainbow almost thought she was dreaming. Here was a Free States soldier, a secessionist, standing no further than two or three meters from her, and they weren’t locked in a fight for survival. They were just two ponies, separated by ideals and language and the tiny tree between them. Gulping, Rainbow put on a nervous smile for the stallion. “Your voice is beautiful,” she said. “I didn’t know secessionists could sing like that. I thought when they took your marks you just… I don’t know, became bad at everything.” To her surprise, the soldier answered, and in Equiish. “I still have my mark,” he said. “Many of my comrades do. Though the Equalists spurred us into action, I fight for Germaneigh, my home, not for their ideals.” Chuckling, he added, “Perhaps, the irony is that I fight to make us equal to you. All we ever wanted was to be seen eye to eye with Equestria, not treated as a client state.” Rainbow nodded. “I only wanted to rescue my friends,” she said. “I don’t want to fight. And honestly, I hate politics.” Sighing, she looked up at the pallid, twilight sky, with the sun and moon hanging motionless above them. “It’s such a shame that we have to fight.” The stallion nodded. “It’s der wärmende Vorabend des Ofens—Hearth’s Warming Eve. Ponies shouldn’t fight tonight.” “I can’t agree more.” Looking over her shoulder, Rainbow was surprised to see a number of Equestrian soldiers standing at the edges of the trenches, watching the exchange in the middle. Across from her, the secessionist soldiers had done the same, some with their rifles close by, but many forgotten in the trenches. On both sides, everypony, even the officers, seemed too enthralled by the magical moment in no-mare’s land to care. It was like the war had disappeared. “We should petition our officers for a cease-fire,” the stallion said. “Just for the night.” “That’d… I’d like that a lot,” Rainbow said. “I’ll talk to mine.” “And I, mine,” the stallion said, touching the lapel of his uniform. Rainbow lifted a hoof to start walking back to the trench, but instead offered it to the stallion. “Rainbow Dash,” she said. “But I feel like you already knew that.” “I did,” the stallion said. “Call me Ruhe. Hopefully we’ll be able to talk more in a moment.” “Yeah,” Rainbow said, finally beginning to step away. “As friends, not soldiers.” “Ja,” Ruhe replied, turning back to his trenches. “Freunden.” And then they wandered away from each other, the formalities of the military forgotten and ignored; they were simply two ponies tired of fighting and death, and too tired to care about military pride. Almost immediately, Rainbow recognized Lieutenant Spitfire watching her from a throng of dirty, war-weary soldiers. She shifted course accordingly and prepared herself for the court martial of a lifetime. “Fraternizing with the enemy is treason,” Spitfire warned Rainbow. The orange mare’s already raspy voice had only gotten worse through years of fighting, and every so often she’d be seized by coughing fits, old wounds from a laughing gas attack four months ago. Now, however, she simply glared at her soldier. “You could have been killed going out there.” “I could have,” Rainbow said, figuring she was already in enough trouble that failing to salute her superior officer wouldn’t land her in any worse. “He could have, too.” Spitfire held her stern gaze for a few seconds, but it collapsed with a weary sigh moments later. “Come on, let’s get back down,” she said, wrapping a wing around Rainbow’s shoulders. “You heard me, that’s an order!” she shouted to the rest of the Equestrians sitting on the edge of the trench. “Everypony back down before they start shooting or—!” The former Wonderbolt immediately doubled over as a bout of coughing stole her voice. Rainbow seized the opportunity to share the secessionist’s request with her. “The Free States want to negotiate a ceasefire,” she said. “Only for tonight, and only for our stretch of the front.” Whispers and murmurs broke out among the Equestrian soldiers gathered around the edge of the tent, but it was a little longer before Spitfire recovered enough to speak again. “A ceasefire?” she croaked, whipping scarlet-flecked phlegm off her muzzle. “Why?” “It’s Hearth’s Warming Eve,” Rainbow said. “Ponies shouldn’t be killing each other.” “Yeah, if only the war worked that way.” Still, the lieutenant slowly scanned over her soldiers, gauging the hope and exhaustion in their eyes. Then, looking back out over the trench, she saw a Free States officer marching over from his side. Ultimately, she shook her head and flexed anxious wings at her sides. “Ah, Tartarus, why not.” She marched away, on an intercept course with the enemy officer while Rainbow and the rest of her comrades watched with bated breath. Somepony bumped into her side, and she saw Lightning Dust standing next to her. “What’s happening?” she asked. “Why’s everypony just standing around?” “Because something magical’s gonna happen,” Rainbow said. “We’re gonna celebrate Hearth’s Warming like ponies, not like Equestrians and Free Staters. The way it was meant to be.” All eyes from both trenches were glued to the scene taking place in front of them. Spitfire stopped right next to the Hearth’s Warming tree in no-mare’s land and waited for the other officer to approach her. When he did, they both pulled sharp salutes with their wings, but quickly tucked them back inside the warmth of their heavy winter coats before too long. And then they talked. The seconds seemed to drag on like minutes. Rainbow idly bounced back and forth from hoof to hoof, much to Lightning Dust’s annoyance, as she kept bumping against her. But a little bit of broken Equiish here, and a little bit of broken Germane there, and the conversation toiled on. And then they shook hooves and smiled. That was all Rainbow needed to know that the cease-fire was a success. The exhausted, relieved cheering from both trenches thundered like no artillery ever could. ----- It felt weird to be standing out in the open. Nopony was left in the trenches tonight. Everypony had climbed into no-mare’s land, but there wasn’t any fighting to be found. Instead, there was only laughter, smiling, and singing. Rainbow and Lightning sat side by side on the snow, watching the scene unfold in front of them. Ponies from both sides mingled together, talking where they could despite the language difference. It wasn’t uncommon to see Equestrian blue mixed with Free State gray in small clusters. Some had even taken to dancing on the mud and ice, moving sore limbs and tired bodies to jovial music played by cello and lyre and violin, the performers brought together from both sides of the divide. Everything was peaceful. Everything was happy. The Secessionists had broken out their beer stores, and the Equestrians added cigarettes and chocolate to the mix. Everypony took what they wanted freely and shared with the soldiers at their sides, regardless of faction or creed. Somewhere in the background, some soldiers had organized a game of buckball, using potato sacks for baskets and an old rubber ball somepony had produced from somewhere as the buckball. Lightning nuzzled in closer against Rainbow’s neck. “This is beautiful,” she murmured. “We don’t deserve this.” “Why?” Rainbow asked. “Because we’re murderers and terrible ponies?” “Yeah. It’s so sweet I feel sick to my stomach.” Rainbow rubbed Lightning’s shoulders with a frigid wing. “Cheer up, LD. You know I don’t like it when you get all mopey.” “Can’t help it I’m a pessimist,” Lightning muttered back. “I still feel like I can’t let my guard down or something bad will happen.” Rainbow planted a tiny kiss below Lightning’s ear. “Get over yourself, eh? It’s Hearth’s Warming, and all I want is a happy green mare.” “Some Hearth’s Warming wish. I would’ve asked for a puppy.” “I’ve already got a tortoise back home, you know.” Rainbow’s eyes lifted as a gray uniform approached her. “Oh, hey,” she said, lazily waving a hoof. “Happy Hearth’s Warming.” She did her best to ignore Lightning’s tensing against her side. The secessionist nervously looked around. “Do you mind if we join you?” the navy blue pegasus with a white mane asked. “Sure,” Rainbow said. “Pick a snow pile, any snow pile. It’s better than mud, and it’ll keep your ass clean.” The other soldier chuckled a little at that. As she sat down, Rainbow felt like she was looking in a mirror. She was a soldier just like her, suffering just as much as she was, wishing the war was finished like she did. Mud, snow, scars, and dried blood sticking to matted hair settled into a semi-comfortable position on the hard and frigid ground. Rainbow imagined she looked much the same way. “Thank you,” the navy blue pegasus said. “I just… well, I was wondering where you were. I was a huge fan before the war.” Lightning Dust rolled her eyes. “Don’t give her any more than that. Her ego can only get so big.” “You’re wrong about that one,” Rainbow quipped. “But thanks,” she said, smiling. “You speak pretty good Equiish too, by the way.” “Not all of us are from Germaneigh,” the Free States soldier said. “I’m from Equestria. I’m just helping ponies fight for equality.” After a moment, she extended a wing. “Night Glider.” “Nice to meet you,” Rainbow said, briefly clapping her own against it before quickly pulling it back into the warmth of her winter coat. “The grumpy green one’s Lightning Dust.” Lightning rolled her eyes but didn’t change her position or make any effort to bump hooves or touch wings. “Great to put a name to a face I’m trying to shoot from fifty meters.” Night Glider faltered but tried to maintain a friendly smile regardless. “Well… at least we aren’t shooting each other tonight, right?” “That’s all that matters,” Rainbow assured her. “Let’s enjoy the time we have now before we go back to trying to kill each other tomorrow.” “Hopefully not tomorrow,” the navy pegasus said with downturned eyes. “It’s still Hearth’s Warming then. It wouldn’t be right.” “It’ll never be right,” Lightning grumbled. She shrugged and looked away, watching the buckball game being played out in the snow. “Can’t do anything about that.” Rainbow hummed her reluctant agreement and let her eyes fall. “Yeah… I’m certainly not looking forward to that.” She remembered the pack of cigarettes she had under her coat and decided to break them out to fill in the void in conversation. Prying one out with her lips, she first offered one to Lightning, who accepted, before holding it out to the Free States soldier. “Smoke?” “If you’ve got a light,” Night Glider said, taking it from Rainbow. “Yeah, LD’s always got matches. They might be a little chewed up, though.” Lightning Dust rolled her eyes and took out a dirty matchbox. “Can’t smoke when you’re scouting the trenches, or somepony will smell it and find you. At least chewing on matchsticks keeps me busy.” “You’re a trench scout?” Night Glider asked, watching Lightning fumble with the matches before managing to get one lit. “I don’t envy you.” “Consider yourself lucky,” Lightning said, sucking down a lungful of smoke from the cigarette before offering the matches to Rainbow. “You make a noise and you’re dead. I’ve fought ponies with knives before, both of us too scared shitless to yell or make a sound in case machine guns tear our foxhole to ribbons. Most of the time, though, we just pass each other by.” “It takes a special kind of stupid to go out there all the time. To volunteer to go out there, even,” Rainbow said, quickly lighting up her own cigarette before passing the light to Night Glider. “What can I say, maybe I’m hopeful somepony will kill me and end my misery out here.” Night Glider grimaced as she drew on her lit cigarette. “I hate to admit it, but sometimes I feel the same…” “How long have you even been out here, though?” Rainbow asked, feeling a lot more satisfied now that the heat of the smoke started warming her from the inside. “Me and LD have been here from the start.” “Same,” Night Glider said. “Me and the other ponies from our town, we were the first to start the movement to make ponykind equal. We helped spread it, and from there, things just took off.” Lightning Dust narrowed her eyes at Night Glider. “So it’s your fault we’re in this mess to begin with.” “Easy, LD,” Rainbow said, intervening before things got messy. “Hearth’s Warming Eve, remember? Let’s not be at each other’s throats.” “Mmmrrffff… Fine.” Lightning sucked some more on her cigarette and raised an eyebrow at the secessionist, who was frowning at the cancer stick between her lips. “What’s the matter, don’t like Equestrian cigarettes?” “I haven’t smoked in a long time,” Night Glider said. “We can’t grow tobacco in the Free States. I picked up smoking shortly after arriving on the front, and then we ran out of cigarettes for two years. Figures.” “Same,” Rainbow said. “Except we’ve actually got smokes. But you guys get beer though, so it’s not all that bad.” “Not like we can actually drink it,” Night Glider muttered. “We get maybe a tankard a day if we’re lucky. Officers won’t let us have more, because they don’t want us to be drunk on patrol. And it’s all watered down anyway to make it last longer.” “Oh.” Lightning blew a cloud of smoke out her nose and chuckled. “Maybe I won’t defect now.” Rainbow laughed and nuzzled the mare’s cheek. “Good, then I won’t have to go with you.” “Sometimes I think about doing that,” Night Glider said, “But then I remember that my mark is back in the Free States.” “You’re markless?” Rainbow asked, raising a brow. “Really?” “Many of us are, though not all.” Night Glider shrugged. “It’s not so bad when you get used to it. And unlike what you guys think, it doesn’t make you terrible at everything. Just average, and you can still learn and improve. Not having a magic picture on my butt doesn’t mean I’ll always be awful at everything I try.” “But it’s who you are,” Rainbow insisted. “Don’t you miss that?” “Sometimes. But I don’t need a mark to define me. And considering we’re holding even with Equestria and many of our soldiers are markless, I’d say we’re doing just fine fighting for equality.” “It’s mechanization,” Lightning interjected. “You don’t need a cutie mark in shooting a rifle or driving a tank to do it. Modern warfare is something else.” Rainbow hummed and let her eyes wander as a cheer went out from the buckball game. Apparently, the Equestrian team had just won, judging by the reactions of the soldiers involved. While soldiers from both sides clapped and happily chatted with each other, Rainbow shook her head and stood up. “Wanna get in on the next game? We’ve still got plenty of night left…” “Sure,” Lightning said, rising to her hooves. “It’ll feel good to do some running and flying without dodging bullets.” “Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking.” She waved a wing at Night Glider. “You in? It’ll be fun.” “I don’t see why not.” Grunting, Night Glider stood up and shook some snow off of her muddy and torn coat. “It’ll be fun.” “That’s what I want to hear,” Rainbow said, smiling as she and the two other pegasi set off toward the center of no-mare’s land. “That’s what Hearth’s Warming is all about.” ----- The festivities slowly died down as the hours beat on. Though the sun and moon never moved, Rainbow knew by her internal clock that it was approaching four in the morning, and she doubted that Spitfire and the other officers would let her catch any extra sleep even after the peaceful night. But even though she was tired, she didn’t want to go to sleep, because she knew that when she woke up, the war would return in full force. But before both sides returned to their trenches for the night, all the soldiers gathered around the single tree in no-mare’s land to share a prayer. Nurse Redheart from Ponyville, now an army medic and chaplain during the war, led the prayer service in Old Ponish, a language that both sides were familiar with for religious services. Seeing another pony from home unite two groups that had been trying to kill each other just the day before was the definition of something holy and sacred to Rainbow Dash. It was the culmination of a miracle of unlikely circumstances that had made the night a reality. And then it was over, just like that. Redheart closed her pocket-sized book of Equestrian religious texts and gave the Hearth’s Warming tree standing next to her one last sad look. Then, tucking the book into her uniform, she reluctantly trudged away from the center of no-mare’s land, the center of a Hearth’s Warming miracle. All sorts of colorful eyes attached to ponies from different trots of life, wearing one of two uniforms locked in a titanic struggle of life and death, watched her melt into the Equestrian lines, and with her exit, the magic of the night began to take its leave. Lieutenant Spitfire stood up and walked to the center of the circle. Shivering, she let her orange eyes wander over blue and gray uniforms, mingled and intermixed like nothing nopony had ever seen before nor would likely ever see again. Rainbow could tell that Spitfire wanted the moment to last as long as possible, to linger until the end of the war… but it was something that was never meant to be. Coughing once or twice, she held up a yellow wing. “Alright, soldiers. It’s about time we return to our trenches. In another hour or two, somepony’s gonna start shelling our section of the front. This was nice, but we can only escape the war for so long.” The soldiers were slow to move at first, but one by one, blue began to stand up and separate from gray. Rainbow, Lightning, and Night watched everypony begin to disentangle from where they sat, too reluctant to move and accept the night was over. But it was clear that it was, so the three mares unwillingly stood up. And then Night Glider was standing across from Rainbow and Lightning, her back to her own trench. Her hoof shuffled across the snow and ice for a moment, and then she smiled. “I’m happy we had this night,” she said. Rainbow nodded in agreement. “Me too. This is what ponies are supposed to do, not kill each other.” “Too bad that’s what we’re going right back to,” Lightning said. “And tomorrow we’ll be playing target practice with each other’s skulls.” “I… well, I hope not.” Night Glider fidgeted. “After tonight, I’m not sure I could bring myself to shoot at you two. To shoot at friends.” Lightning quietly scoffed. “I wouldn’t go that far. We only met a few hours ago.” “Why not, LD?” Rainbow asked. “You only need a few hours to make a friend. I’d call her my friend.” Winking at Night Glider, she held out her wing. “Next time I’ve got your head in my sights, I’ll shoot high.” Night Glider smirked back and clapped her wing against Rainbow’s. “Next time I see you in my trench I’ll club your head with the back of my shovel instead of driving the edge under your chin.” “I appreciate the thought.” Then, stepping back, she saluted the other mare. “Don’t die.” Night Glider returned the salute to the two Equestrians. “Stay safe.” “There’s no such thing as safe out here,” Lightning said with a little curve to her lips. “But thanks for the thoughts.” Rainbow nodded. “Happy Hearth’s Warming.” “Happy Hearth’s Warming.” “Happy Hearth’s Warming.” And then that was it. The three soldiers lingered in the open for a few seconds longer, and after a few attempts to say something more, to say something meaningful, they instead awkwardly split apart and shuffled back to their trenches in silence. It wasn’t until Rainbow crawled back inside the claustrophobic walls of her world and everything she’d known that it really hit her that the miracle was over. Bit by bit, the Equestrian soldiers sorted themselves out, returning to whatever posts and assignments they had for four in the morning. Spitfire’s weary voice carried through the trenches as she redirected deployments and tried to ready her soldiers for any action they might encounter on Hearth’s Warming Day. After all, the cease-fire was set to expire soon, and then it would be back to the same old, same old. Which Rainbow wanted nothing to be a part of. A tidal wave of exhaustion and grief washed over her, digging into her very uniform and dragging her into the depths, suffocating and cruel. She felt like a ten-ton weight was balanced squarely between her shoulders, trying to crush her flat. One way or another, this war was killing her, and the events of the night had only been a temporary reprieve from the suffering and death. Taking off her muddy overcoat, she hung it on a hook hammered into the dirt wall and flopped onto her muddy cot, dragging thin and muddy blankets over her thin and muddy body. And there she curled up, shivering and struggling to find the tears to cry. Drowning in her misery, she once more prayed that an artillery shell would strike her bunker and kill her in her sleep. But then a warm presence lifted the covers of her cot and crawled underneath them with her. Rainbow recognized the smell of smoke and the feminine grunt the pony behind her made as she wrapped her forelegs around Rainbow’s barrel and pulled her close. Rainbow lowered her nose to those green forelegs and inhaled deeply, smelling a faint tinge of ozone and char that always followed the mare like her namesake. “Aren’t you supposed to be on duty?” Rainbow murmured, snuggling up against Lightning Dust’s body. “I was supposed to be returning from a trench raid in an hour,” Lightning whispered back, nuzzling the back of Rainbow’s ear. “I’m sure you’re aware I wasn’t out there raiding tonight.” Rainbow smiled and rolled over so she could lie chest to chest with Lightning. Lightning pulled her a little closer, and Rainbow squeaked as they settled into a more comfortable position for two on a tiny cot meant for one. Mud and sweat touched Rainbow’s nose and danced across her lips when she kissed the base of Lightning’s neck. “Some Hearth’s Warming, huh?” she murmured, closing her eyes and feeling exhaustion begin to weigh down on her. “I got what I wanted,” Lightning said. Her lips ghosted the base of Rainbow’s sweaty scalp. “Did you?” “Now I did.” Blue wings fluttered for a moment and fell still. “Mmmrfff… Happy Hearth’s Warming, LD.” Lightning snickered back and sighed as she pulled the covers up a little more. “Happy Hearth’s Warming, Rainbow. See you in the morning.”