The moment Moxi stepped off the cart at the base camp she was approached by a unicorn pony, concern etched all across her features, “Agent Moxi, is Dreamcatcher…?” Moxi turned to face Melody, the unicorn was dressed in fine robes adorned with a red cross and as hard as she tried to keep her voice solid, Moxi could hear her voice quaver in concern for the earth pony.
Moxi gave her a comforting smile, “he was injured, but it’s all surface damage, he’ll be up and wreaking havoc on the Solar Empire before you know it.” Melody looked somewhat relieved, but still eyed Dreamcatcher’s body warily as they moved him to the medical facility. “Right,” she muttered, “he’s resilient, I’d be shocked if this did him in, what happened out there? This was just supposed to be a routine mission, and I can’t see Catcher getting wounded this badly on a smash and grab.”
“We got bad intel, Melody,” Moxi scowled, “for whatever reason, this information was more important to the Empire than we were lead to believe. We were attacked by an alicorn assassin before we were able to get out of the facility, he got the drop on us, squad from the 32nd was dead before we even knew the facility was being retaken and by the time Catcher and I realized he was there, Catcher had been wounded badly.” Moxi squinted up into the rain, still gently falling from the roiling clouds above, “We got lucky, if the assassin hadn’t been distracted and I had been even mildly wounded, we’d both be dead back there…”
Melody eyed Moxi with shock in her eyes, “I-I’m sorry…” Moxi waved a hoof, dismissing the unicorn’s apologies, “It’s not important now. This is war, ponies die. I know that, Dreamcatcher knows that, and the ponies of the 32nd know that. No one went into that facility thinking it was impossible that even all of us would be killed in the line of duty. The ponies of the 32nd know where their loyalty lies, and Dreamcatcher…”
“Dreamcatcher would never abandon Princess Luna,” Melody finished Moxi’s statement for her, “even at the cost of his own life, though I know she and I both lament the thought of it coming to that.” The unicorn’s eyes suddenly flashed to life, “By the night! I almost completely forgot! Princess Luna will want to know that you and Catcher have returned! Come quickly, we must speak with her immediately!” With that, Melody led Moxi into the palace-like structure, to speak with the High Commander of the New Lunar Republic.
Four Months Earlier
The hoof and hops was fairly crowded, but Moxi paid it no mind, instead she held her attention on the dregs of brown liquid in her glass. The world shook and wavered around the glass, but Moxi paid that no mind either. How had her life come to this? Nearly homeless, drinking herself to death in this little Manehattan pub. She pondered to herself over how she had arrived at this point in her life. That she even needed to think on it at all was proof that her tactic was working, as the moment she began to think on it, the memories flooded back to her.
She found herself standing on a train platform, saying goodbye to the only pony she ever loved as she boarded a train for Canterlot. Heard the exchanged promises to write as frequently as possible, and saw the train pull away, leaving her alone and friendless in a city which hated her kind.
Chillwind had been true to her word for over three years. Moxi would send out letters telling Chillwind about her day to day life in Manehattan, and how much she missed her, and she would receive letters back every few days telling her about Canterlot, telling her how beautiful the city was and how Chillwind wished Moxi could be there to share it with her. Chillwind’s letters promised that she would save up enough money soon that she would be able to buy a train ticket for Moxi to come join her in the glorious Equestrian capital.
Moxi started receiving packages of money along with Chillwind’s letters, but as the number of bits in each package increased, the number of words shared between the two lovers dwindled, and her last few packages had been nothing but money, not a single word scratched onto the parchment save her address. Moxi hadn’t heard from her beloved in over two months.
Tears fell from Moxi’s eyes into her glass, and she could see the bar pony pretending that he didn’t notice the crying mare in front of him. “She’s probably found herself some high-class hoity toity city filly,” she slurred into her empty glass, her words both bitter and remorseful, “why didn’t I go with her? I could’ve found some way to go… hic.”
“Another drink for the lady, barkeep,” a brown earth pony with old gray eyes slammed some bits down on the bar top beside Moxi. She glanced up at the earth pony, “an earth pony buying a drink for a pegasus pony? Hope you’re not lookin’ for a date, fella.”
The earth pony smiled at her, it didn’t touch his eyes, “No ma’am, I just saw somepony I thought might need a little help paying her bar tab.” Moxi waved a dismissive hoof at him, “nah, I’ve got a few bits socked away, I’ll just use those.”
“You mean your rent money?” the earth pony eyed her knowingly as the bar pony set a glass of whiskey down in front of Moxi.
“What’s it to you?” She said, taking a pull on the glass, the burning in her throat helping to distract from the aching in her chest.
“I’d just hate to see a pretty young filly like yourself out on the streets,” he said, “and there’s someone else who would’ve had something to say about that too…” The earth pony turned an intense gaze on her, “Chillwind wouldn’t want this.”
Moxi blanched at the mention of Chillwind’s name and turned a scowl on the newcomer, “Yeah well she apparently wouldn’t want me either!” She turned back to her drink, eying the earth pony hotly out of the corner of her eye, “Who are you, anyway?
“My name is Dreamcatcher,” he said, frowning at her, “and Chillwind and I worked together until fairly recently.”
“Pull the other one.”
“What?” Dreamcatcher reeled at her retort.
“You expect me to believe you worked with Chillwind?” Moxi said hotly, her glass frozen halfway to her lips, “Chillwind worked on the weather team, you’re an earth pony, ordinarily I don’t mind ponies lying to me, but this takes it a step further and I’m too drunk right now to deal with it, fuck off.”
Dreamcatcher sighed, “yes, I figured she wouldn’t have told you what was really going on, too much risk of the letters being intercepted.”
“What part of ‘fuck off,’” Moxi muttered, turning to face him, “do you not understand? Is it the ‘fuck’? or maybe the ‘off’? or some combination of the two?” She suddenly slammed back the drink, taking half the glass in one pull before slamming it back down on the counter before turning to walk out of the bar, shouting to the bar pony, “put it on my tab, Al.”
“Wait!” Dreamcatcher scrambled to his feet, chasing the young pegasus out the door, “please listen! There is no weather patrol in Canterlot! There hasn’t been since the secession!”
“Right,” she shouted back at him, “and I should just believe you over all the letters Chill has sent me?”
“I can prove I knew Chillwind!” he shouted at her retreating back, “That scarf you’re wearing! She gave it to you the night of the thousandth summer sun celebration, the night when Nightmare Moon escaped! She made it herself!”
Moxi stopped dead in her tracks at these words, turning to face the earth pony with angry tears in her eyes. “Ok so you knew her,” she said, “so what, you’re here to tell me that she’s dumping me or what?”
“No, Moxi,” he said, “Chillwind loved you, she loved you to the end. I came here to tell you that she’s dead.”
Moxi felt the bottom drop out of her stomach at these words, the whole world around her grew hazy and she slipped to one side falling down down down into the black abyss…
When she awoke, it was to find a cracked ceiling unfamiliar to her. She turned to find Dreamcatcher standing beside her as she slept in the bed. “Most of the alcohol should be out of your system by this point,” he said.
“Great,” Moxi muttered, “now I can face the most terrible time of my life without any buffer…”
“Look, Moxi,” Dreamcatcher said, “I understand that this is difficult for you, but I felt you needed to know, I felt you deserved to know.” She turned away from him, facing the wall before speaking, “How did she die?”
“She was killed in action,” Dreamcatcher replied. Moxi’s eyes widened at his words and she immediately turned to face him, “What!?”
“Chillwind was my partner,” he said, not meeting Moxi’s eyes, “…in the New Lunar Republic.” Moxi shook her head at him. “No,” she’d obviously heard of the revolutionary military group attempting to overthrow Princess Celestia, headed by Celestia’s own sister, Princess Luna, most of the propaganda she’d seen painted the group as the second coming of Nightmare Moon. “Yes, actually,” he said, “Chillwind joined the cause nearly two years ago, shortly after coming to Canterlot and almost immediately following learning the truth about what happened in Cloudsdale…” Dreamcatcher turned to face her now, his eyes filled with fire, “You’ll recall that Celestia has been making statements for the past several years claiming that the Duke of Cloudsdale is being uncooperative in negotiations for weather patrols. Well uncooperative is one way to put it. The Duke of Cloudsdale is dead. He has been for some time now. In fact, more than half of the pegasus ponies residing in Cloudsdale are. Shortly following the secession, Celestia sent her troops in to create a police state out of the pegasus capital, the Cloudsdale ponies would have none of it, so Celestia had the city destroyed.”
Dreamcatcher slammed a hoof into the wall beside him, leaving a heavy dent where he’d struck, “Thousands of innocent lives, cut short at the word of that… that TYRANT!” Dreamcatcher sat back and rubbed at his eyes, “after that, Celestia became more and more wary of any civil unrest, gone are the days of golden armor and glorious chariots. Now Celestia’s agents watch us constantly, they just don’t look like soldiers anymore, and now Celestia looks at you everywhere you go.” He tossed a coin onto the bedspread before Moxi, the profile of Princess Celestia stared back at her from the coin, “The young among us can’t even remember a time when our money didn’t feature pictures of the Princess. They can’t imagine a world where you’re free to say and feel whatever you will. That, Moxi, is why the New Lunar Republic exists. We’re trying to take back Equestria for the ponies.”
He looked down at his hooves, “I know Chillwind didn’t want you involved in the war. She feared for your safety, and perhaps rightly, but I wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t grant you the knowledge that your mate died for a just cause, and I wouldn’t feel right if I couldn’t grant you the possibility to avenge her death. It’s up to you, do you want to fight for something that truly means something, something your beloved fought and died for, or do you want to crawl into a bottle in seedy pubs?”
Moxi looked up and met the earth pony’s storm cloud gray eyes and her voice came out rough and bitter through her tears, “Where do I sign up?”
Present Day
Princess Luna sat in the palace war room, speaking with General Warhorse, commander of the 32nd Battalion, discussing tactics over a table size map of Equestria. “The Solar Empire has a powerful foothold in Manehattan, but Fillydelphia should be completely taken in a matter of hours,” Warhorse was saying, pointing at spots on the map, “our envoy to the buffalo hasn’t returned yet, but we found a decent sized group of refugees from Cloudsdale, we’re offering them positions in the military as we-“
“That’s all well and good,” Luna interrupted him, her regal bearing cutting off the general’s rough, booming voice with minimal effort, “but don’t forget that our priority is to help these people, not simply to conscript them. Any refugees are to be given food and shelter, and should they decide to sign on with the New Lunar Republic, that will be their choice.”
Warhorse bowed to his princess, “Of course, highness.”
“Are you always this charming, Princess Luna?” Moxi said, entering the room to salutes from the guards flanking the doorway, “Or do you just put on special shows for the special forces?”
“Agent Moxi,” Luna said, her regal bearing never changing, but Moxi could see the sparkle of joy which shot through her eyes at the sound of Moxi’s voice, “I trust your mission was a success, then?” She glanced around, looking past Melody and Moxi as the pair entered the room, “but, where is Agent Dreamcatcher?”
Melody shot Warhorse a glance and he nodded, leaving the room, the guards followed him, leaving only the three mares in the room. Luna’s regal posture immediately slumped and she looked at Moxi with worry evident on her face, Moxi knew the look well, she’d seen it on her own face three years earlier. “The mission was mostly a success, but we were ambushed before we were able to escape the facility, Catcher is being patched up now, mostly surface injuries, he should be better in a day or so, but the members of the 32nd who were escorting us weren’t so lucky.”
Luna looked at her, shock evident on her features, “how many of my sister’s soldiers were there?”
Moxi took a deep breath before responding. “There was just one,” she looked up into Luna’s face again, “that’s the worst news of all… Celestia’s started using alicorns…”