//------------------------------// // 2: Changing Times // Story: Black and White // by SeriouslyLuna //------------------------------// "...When the night comes for us, What will we do or say? Will we hide and wait for the morning come, Or light a torch to guide the way?..." Chapter 2: Changing Times The Captain of the Guard Shining Armor stood at a window and watched the citizens of Canterlot milling about aimlessly, attempting to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. None of them were sure what to do, war was such an alien concept to them. They were all innocent of any crimes, yet they were the ones that would be paying the price in the coming war. They were his people, his subjects, and he felt a responsibility to do whatever he could. And when the Princesses came for the war council, he would tell them himself that he's stepping down as Captain of the Guard, and joining the army, where he felt he could make a difference. He heard the door open behind him, and he turned to find Princess Luna, who looked as apprehensive as he felt, but something looked strange about her... Her hair. Her mane, which was normally a brilliant deep blue, had turned light and completely opaque. She greeted him awkwardly, then took her place at the round table in the middle of the large room, occupying herself with pretending to look at the map of Equestria set into the table. He sat opposite her, placing his helmet on the table, and tried not to glance at her too often. An awkward silence followed. Eventually she sighed, "Look, it's the daylight okay? This is the first occasion on which I have been awake during the daytime since... since my return. My mane looks the way it should in the light of the moon. Now would you kindly stop staring? Celestia should be here soon." And with that she went back to staring intently at the map. Five minutes later, he was fiddling with the crest of his helmet when Princess Celestia entered, a sky blue unicorn with a white mane behind her. Celestia took a seat next to her sister, who mumbled a greeting, and the unicorn sat beside her looking nervous. Not ten seconds later, one of Twilight's friends walked in, a pretty white unicorn with a curled purple mane. When she saw the other unicorn, she huffed in disgust and sat next to Luna. "Ah, there you are Rarity," Celestia greeted the newest arrival, "I understand you and miss Trixie have already met before. But where is Twilight?" Shining Armor twitched. She meant to bring his sister into this? Rarity cleared her throat nervously, "Um... yes, about that. She's... not coming." He could hear the surprise in Celestia's voice when she spoke, "I thought you said you could convince her! We need Twilight." Trixie rolled her eyes. Shining Armor spoke up before either of them could continue, "No you don't! I'll not have you dragging my little sister into this!" Celestia looked at him sadly, "If we're to win this war we need everypony, and Twilight is one of the most intelligent ponies I've ever met. Her mind may be crucial to securing our victory." He fumed, but before he could say anything, Rarity said "She said she doesn't want anything to do with the war. I'm sorry, I tried, your highness..." The Princess looked solemn, "It can't be helped. Did you talk to any of the others?" Rarity gave a weak smile and said "Oh, yes actually. I played the 'duty' card and Applejack was convinced rather quickly. She'll be at the initiation ceremony in, ooh, half an hour. Rainbow Dash asked to sign her up before I had the chance to try to convince her. She'll be there too. Pinkie... she's in a bad way. She hasn't said a word since..." She trailed off and frowned at the table, as though it were to blame for everything. Celestia nodded patiently, "And what of Fluttershy? We need her to lead the peace corps." Rarity bit her lip nervously, then she said, almost defiantly, "I'm sorry Your Highness, but I couldn't ask her. War is not a place for ponies such as her. I'm afraid she's going to take it pretty badly as it is..." The look of desperation on the Princess' face was not one Shining Armor was used to; she was a wise ruler and, if history books were anything to go by, a brilliant strategist, but here she had put all of her trust in a select few ponies, and her best laid plans were crumbling beneath her hooves. She didn't say a word. Shining Armor cleared his throat, and said "So what of the front lines? Where is this mysterious enemy coming from?" Princess Luna, the quieter of the two sisters, spoke up, "They are... zebras. From the east. They conducted a naval assault on Manehattan..." she emphasized this by prodding the island on the map titled 'Manehattan', "...and they appear to have made it their base of operations. I have had no word from the citizens inside the city, but it appears to be bad." He sat down again, and said "Zebras... why zebras?" in surprise. "We are unsure, they have not made any effort to contact us in any way." After a short silence, Celestia looked around, then asked him "We're still missing Cadence, do you know when she will be coming?" He coughed nervously, thought for a moment, then said "She's not coming." The truth of it was that he had shared with her his plans of joining the army, and they had argued. A lot. For all he knew she was still at home in tears. He didn't want them to ask where she was, so he instead asked "So what part do I play in this?" Both princesses looked at him in confusion, "Well, you're Captain of the Guard. The homefront needs protection." He closed his eyes. This was it. "No I'm not, not anymore." Everypony in the room stopped what they were doing, and he continued "I will not sit at home in Canterlot while everypony else goes to die on somepony else's orders. I... I want to join the army." Celestia looked shocked as she said "I can't let you do that! With no Peace Corps, and no Captain of the Guard, the homefront will fall apart!" He sighed and gritted his teeth, "I'm sorry, I know you were relying on me, but I just can't. I'll help you find somepony else." "It's not only that. You're royalty, you and Cadence are the heirs to the throne, if anything happens to myself or my sister, you will be needed to keep Equestria safe." She's not making it easy. "I'm sorry, I truly am, but I don't think I would make a good ruler if I sat at home and gave orders while everypony else dies. If you want me to rule someday, I need to prove to them that I'm worthy of ruling." He stood up again and said in a resigned voice, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a ceremony to prepare for." and walked toward the door. Big Macintosh 30 minutes earlier... "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Twilight Sparkle asked, looking around at her friends sadly. They were all standing at the train station in Canterlot saying their goodbyes. Applejack took a step forward and said "We sure as hay don't, but I know one thing; this war's gon' affect all of us whether we sign up or not. So I figured we should do our part." She embraced her friend, said "Goodbye, Twilight. I'm gonna miss you." then turned and trotted back to stand next to Rainbow Dash, who was preoccupied with trying not to cry. Next Rarity came forward looking worried, and said to Fluttershy "Fluttershy darling, I'm afraid I won't be able to make it on Thursday..." she sniffed, paused, then continued "...But do have fun without me. Look after Opalescence while I'm away? And... I need you to be strong for me." Fluttershy looked distraught, "But... I've never been strong, and now you're all leaving to go to... and I won't have any friends, how am I supposed to be strong? I need you! All of you! Oh, please don't go!" Rarity put her hoof on her shoulder, looked her in the eye and said "Fluttershy. You have always been strong, and, at times, a little scary. How many other ponies can claim that they've faced down a dragon? Or a manticore? How about a minotaur? You are stronger than you think. And... Listen, I need you to take care of Pinkie, okay? I worry about her." Fluttershy sniffed and nodded. Then Rarity turned apprehensively to Twilight and said "Twilight, please reconsider, the Princess is relying on you." Twilight looked at the ground, then said, "I'm sorry, I know Celestia was relying on me, but I can't do it. I've spent all of these years studying friendship, and now they expect me to go against everything I've learned! I just can't..." Silence hung in the air, a hundred unspoken words screaming into everypony's mind; nopony knew what they should say. Finally Twilight looked up at her friends and simply said "Goodbye, all of you. I hope we can all see each other again someday, but I guess our paths lead in different directions." Rivet came forward and, without a word, tentatively hugged her. He let go, and ruffled the spines on Spike's head, still without a word, then went to stand next to Rarity. Twilight smiled sadly at them, and added "Rarity, please keep an eye on Rivet, he has a tendency to get himself into trouble." Before anypony else could say anything, she turned abruptly and trotted onto the train. Spike quickly waved goodbye, then hurried after her. Somewhere, somepony shouted "All aboard!" in a hoarse voice. Applebloom, struggling to hold back tears, waved, turned and headed into the train. "Take care of the farm while we're away, Applebloom!" Applejack called after her. From habit, Big Macintosh added an "Eeyup." Fluttershy didn't even look up at them, just turned and walked away, sniffing to herself. They all stood and watched the train leave the station with their old life on board. They watched until it was out of sight, then kept watching. "Hey, Mac." Applejack looked nervously over at her friends, then said in a hushed tone "I need ya to tell me we're doin' the right thing. Because all of... this, it feels wrong." Looking off down the tracks, he said “What else can we do?” After an indefinite amount of time, Applejack started, then said "Oh shoot, we'd all better get ready fer the ceremony. Come on, y'all." Rivet The midday sun beat down relentlessly on Rivet’s back, as he stood lost in a crowd of hundreds of other ponies, all willing to do their part for ponykind, which, as he reflected later, was what made him uncomfortable. ‘Ponykind’ did not include griffons, and looking around at the masses packed into the courtyard, he couldn’t see anything save a sea of ponies. He started to feel the beginnings of panic rise in him, and had just started wondering what he was doing there, when Rainbow Dash nudged him and whispered “Hey, is this awesome or what? We are going to kick some zebra butt! And then we’ll all come home and be big darn heroes!” He felt his eye twitching from nerves, but covered it up by giving her a cocky grin and saying, “Yeah, this is gonna be great!” before looking away and attempting to subtly wipe some sweat from his brow. The crowd murmured in apprehension. The sun burned overhead. A bead of sweat rolled down Rivet’s back. And still they waited. Just as he felt like he would have to sit down, an almost audible silence spread across the crowd, followed by more than a few gasps, and a “Whoa” from Rainbow Dash, as Princess Celestia stepped up onto the makeshift stage that had been erected earlier that day. Now, everypony who had even visited Canterlot had seen Celestia at one time or another, but the Princess that stood in front of them all was not the same Princess they had seen walking the gardens talking with her students, this was a Warrior. The entire crowd was in awe of the image before them, gleaming from head to hoof in golden armor, a gilded sun decorating the breastplate, and her entire body seeming to glint with the slightest movement, reflecting light such that one would think she wore the sun as armor. The shimmering Goddess of the sun stood before them in silence, looking out over the crowd. She looked at Rivet and their eyes seemed to connect, and, despite having never met, he thought he saw a flicker of recognition cross her face. Then just as suddenly, her face was a mask again, and she looked away. Beside him, Rainbow Dash made a kind of fangirl giggle and said “Did you see? She looked right at me!” The Princess stepped up, paused, seemingly for effect, and started talking in a soft voice that magically carried to everyone in that courtyard, even in the back, it sounded as though she were whispering in his ear, she said “My friends, thank you all for coming. I will not keep you long, and I will not do you the discourtesy of avoiding the truth. I understand that some of you have joined in search of fame, or glory, or perhaps you were swayed by some other such notion. I tell you to put those thoughts out of your heads as of today. This is not an adventure, this is not a vacation to Los Pegasus, this is war. You must all be prepared to kill, to spill zebra blood so that your families can live free of oppression, but you must also be prepared to spill your own blood, for blood is the price of war. In all things, remember that, brothers and sisters. Remember the price we must all pay, but also remember why we pay this price.” She looked out at the crowd, as if lost in memory for a second or two, then continued in a more formal voice “Now we must all prepare, war is on the horizon. I will now vacate the stage, and your new General will brief you on the events in the coming months. Thank you all again.” And with that, she walked off the right of the stage, her armored hooves making loud clomping sounds on the hollow wood of the stage. A moment later, a somewhat flustered looking unicorn stallion wearing a red uniform stepped up and cleared his throat. Rainbow Dash made a confused noise and whispered “Shining Armor?” “Uh... Hello everypony, my name is Shi-... Er, General Shining Armor. I will be in charge of Their Majesties’ Royal Army... of Equestria. Over the next month, you will all receive training in combat, basic medicine (herbal and otherwise), and formations. The pegasi will receive special defensive flying training, and will train separately under the division titled ‘The Royal Equestrian Airforce’, and will provide aerial support to troops on the ground...” He paused and pulled a scroll from his uniform, and squinted at it, “Over the next months a fleet of airships will also be manufactured, and a select few will be chosen to be their crew, and will transport supplies, weapons, and for the larger of the ships, even troops. Now, we are aware that not all of us are able to use magic, so to this end, Pegasi and Earth ponies will be trained in the use of a ‘mouth-grip’ blade.” He put the scroll back in an unseen pocket, and put on a determined look, “You all heard the Princess, it’s going to cost a lot if we want to win this war, but I think we have what it takes. Now, you’ll all be living here for the next month before you ship out, and you live with those who you train with, get to know them, your life may just depend on them one day. I now ask that you all follow the Commanders, where you will all become familiarised with your respective barracks. Pegasi, follow Commanders Spitfire and Rainbow Dash, in the airspace above the courtyard,” Rivet glanced over to where Rainbow Dash had been, but she was already gone, along with every pegasus pony there, slowly ascending above the crowded courtyard. “Earth Ponies, you will follow Commander Applejack at the west entrance,” Half of the remaining ponies began filing out to where Applejack stood at the far side of the courtyard. It was just the unicorns left... and him. “And Unicorns will follow Commander Rarity and myself, by the East entrance.” Satisfied, he stepped down off the stage and started trotting over to the East entrance where Rarity stood waiting. Rivet, in a panic, flew quickly over to Rarity and asked “What do I do?” Rarity looked startled and stammered “Oh, er... I, hm?” General Shining Armor stepped over and asked “Is there a problem, Commander?” Rivet stood completely still, wishing that he would shrink, at least a little bit, all of the unicorns staring at him quizzically. Rarity cleared her throat not ungracefully and said “Um, no. Well yes, of a sort. This is Rivet, a friend of mine. He’s, well..." She gestured vaguely at him. The General turned and looked at him, and said “Ah, of course, Rivet! I have heard of you, Twily- er... Twilight Sparkle, that is, speaks very highly of you. But uh, yes, I can see what your problem is. Well, are you particularly good at flying? If you’re half as good as Rainbow Dash you’d be much better suited for the Airforce. But... No, I think it would be best if you joined the unicorns, I doubt you could hold a sword in your beak. Er, no offense. Yes, the unicorns! You could probably hold a sword in your claws as well as we could with our magic. Well I think that settles it then! Our camp is down at the base of the mountain, so we have a way to walk.” And just like that, they set off. Rivet spared a passing glance at the cloud of pegasi flying off over Canterlot, and flapped his wings dejectedly. Big Macintosh One month later... “Nice form Mjӧlna, but try ta keep yer blade steady.” As had become routine, Applejack’s voice rang across the training yard, providing advice and encouragement to the trainees. Applejack was a good teacher, he reflected, even if she was a little soft on them. Over the past month they had trained in many different forms of combat, including hoof-to-hoof, blades, polearms, which he seemed to pick up the fastest, and even the use and maintenance of cannons. But while the training felt almost light-hearted with large communal meals every day, complete with cider and music and friendly conversations with fellow soldiers, tensions had slowly been rising as word came from the front lines. Word of the ruin that was once Manehattan, word of living war machines from over the sea. Even word that the zebra forces had started to expand out of their foothold in Manehattan. It all painted a very grim picture. “Alright Mac, let’s see that thrust!” He started as Applejack’s voice brought him back to reality. She stood beside him, smiling, and nodded toward the training ‘dummy’ in front of him. He looked at the sack of straw propped up in front of him, nailed to a post for support and painted with vague black stripes, and squinted in concentration. After a pause for thought, he tilted his head to the right, so the point of the spear in his mouth was aimed squarely at the target. Just like he’d practiced, he breathed right in, breathed right out, tensed his neck muscles, and thrust. The tip just barely caught on the edge of the sack, and he felt the shaft ripped from between his teeth. Beside him, a tough-looking pink mare with a lavendar and white crew-cut mane snickered around the scimitar in her mouth. Applejack gave her a glare and said “You focus on gettin’ that swing right, Diamond Tiara.” Then to him, she said “Now, do ya know watcha did wrong?” He shook his head sullenly. She sighed and said “Yer thrustin’ with yer neck. Yer supposed ta tense yer neck muscles, then thrust with ya shoulders. Straight neck. Now... Try again. I know you can do it, I’ve seen you.” She picked the spear up between her hooves, yanked it from the sack, and passed it to him. He took the spear in his mouth, and set himself to try again. Turn... breathe in... breathe out... tense... thrust. There was an immense crack! and the burlap zebra exploded satisfyingly into a cloud of straw. He took a step back, leaving the spear embedded in the splintered wood where it pinned the remains of the striped sack to the post. Applejack gaped for a moment, cleared her throat, and said “Well I’ll be. I knew ye had it in ya, but that was...” She took a step forward, bit into the shaft of the spear and tugged at it... to no avail. She stepped back again and scratched her head. “That thing’s stuck harder’n an unripe apple! Keep up the good work, Mac!” Then she turned around and, as was traditional for that time of day, hollered “Alright folks, getchaself a trainin’ weapon, getchaself a sparrin’ pardner, and let’s get to it!” He grabbed a wooden sword from the rack, and looked around at the other ponies, wondering who would challenge him today. Being the biggest, he was the one ponies came to when they wanted a challenge, or lost a bet. Nopony in particular caught his eye, until he saw Diamond Tiara grinning around the wooden sword in her mouth. She waved at him, then made a cutting motion across her throat; the intent of the gesture was obvious. They both stepped into opposite sides of one of the circles of rope scattered throughout the yard, and waited for the ‘go’ from Applejack. They stood facing each other, and everything else outside the circle stopped existing. Diamond Tiara cocked an eyebrow and smirked. He hunched his shoulders, bit into his sword, and lowered his head. Somewhere outside the circle, a whistle blew, and Diamond Tiara took no time in charging in and swinging directly at his face. He just barely ducked under her swing. She was playing for keeps! She followed through with a lightning-quick blow that caught the inside of his leg and made him stumble forward. He just managed to regain his footing and leap back, before another fierce swipe just barely clipped the tip of his nose. He made an attempt at pressing the attack, go on the offensive, but she lithely dodged around his attacks, and thwacked him in the shoulder. She went to follow through, but he managed to block, the impact sending a jarring vibration through his teeth. He made another attempt at pressing the attack, but she leapt back, dodging his swing. He advanced, and swung again, but this time she stepped up and mirrored his swing, and their weapons clashed. They were both held for a second, grimacing at each other, sweat already starting to drip down through their coats. She glanced over his shoulder, gave a little smirk again, then slipped her head off to the side, her sword slid down the surface of his own weapon and cracked him across the face. He stumbled back again, and before he even had time to catch a breath, she was taking another swing at his face. He ducked, then jumped forward under her swing, and brought his shoulder solidly into her chest. Her breath left her lungs with an oof! and she took her turn to stumble back, gasping. Taking a step back for a breather, he became momentarily aware of the world outside their little fight, and, more specifically, all of the ponies gathered around their circle cheering them on. This behaviour wasn’t uncommon, and he remembered that Applejack even supported it sometimes, believing it helped to relieve tension. A drop of blood ran down over his eyelid, and he wiped it off. Diamond Tiara took this as an opportunity to resume her attack, and started swinging wildly at him. He couldn’t have hope to block all of them, but the attacks, which were far more random, didn’t hit hard enough to slow him down, but what they did do was make him mad. He kept, blocking, every hit sending shocks through his spine, until he was seething with a rage that he never knew he had, which kind of scared him, and he started acting out of instinct. His opponent knew something was up, now that he was deftly blocking every attack she threw at him. She took an inevitable step forward, and that was when he struck. He brought his weapon down into her left foreleg, much the same as she had done, and started hacking at her guard. From her position, she was barely able to keep from losing all of her teeth, and she was starting to look a little worried. “Mm yurld!” Terrified, Diamond Tiara spat out her weapon and repeated “I yield!” The words fell on deaf ears, and he moved in to finish it. He sweeped low, and brought her hooves out from under her, and she toppled to the ground. He was about to bring his weapon down to smash it across her head, when he realized somepony was shouting at him. Not the crowd... there was dead silence, save for a single urgent voice... “I said that’s enough! She yielded, Mac!” He turned to see his sister looking a mix of worried and angry, and she repeated, quieter, “That’s enough.” Everypony was staring. He dropped the wooden sword and stood, in a daze. Diamond Tiara got up with the help of one of the medics, and scampered off. He opened his mouth to say sorry, to try to explain that he didn’t know what had come over him, when a gray pegasus swooped down out of nowhere, he thought it was Derpy, but there was no way to be sure, and whispered urgently to Applejack. Her ears perked when she heard, and she yelled “Alright, folks! The General’s callin’ a meetin’ in an hour. We just got word that the zebra forces are on the move, and you know what that means! Pack your bags, we’re shippin’ out! ” A cheer went up, and everypony forgot about what they had just seen in the ring and trotted off chatting happily among themselves. Big Macintosh stayed, staring blankly at the training swords lying side by side on the sand that covered the training ground. One of them had a crack running across it, and the other a smear of blood. Behind him, Applejack cleared her throat, “Mac, what was that?” He couldn’t look her in the eye; he could hear the disappointment in her voice, and just said “I don’ know...” She stepped around in front of him, “That’s not good enough, Mac! That wasn’t you. Mah brother is kind. Mah brother is strong an’ soft at the same time. He ain't some ruthless soldier.” He turned away again, “This is war, AJ. Maybe this is who I need to be.” She walked around in front of him again, and said “Okay, I understand that, but just... promise me somethin’. This other you, this soldier... Be him, but don’t become him. Okay?” She gave him a quick hug, and left him standing in the circle.