Streaks of fire rained from the heavens, slamming into the venerable stone buildings lining the wide boulevards. Attractive apartments and fancy fashion vanished in an instant under the bombardment of high explosive shells and rockets.
There was screaming in the streets as the silver-haired, silver-eyed, pale-skinned people of the city ran for whatever safety might exist, but not as much as there had been even ten minutes ago. Fires cast the scenes in an eerie orange glow, as gleaming metallic spider-tanks marched in precise ranks across the bridges into the heart of the city.
The Legion was here. The populace of the Republic of San Magnolia, who believed themselves the only true people, were about to pay the price for their hubris and dismissiveness.
They’d pushed out all who were not silver-haired, silver-eyed pureblood Alba, then forced them to fight the Legion as it slowly ground them down. Those people were called “Eighty-Six” because they’d been excluded from the 85 districts of the Republic.
“The Legion will be gone in a few years” they said. Now it looked like it was the Alba who would be gone.
Shells streaked out from a waterfront park, slamming into the flanks of the Legion units crossing the bridge. The terrible robots sparked and fell, some exploding as their internal ammunition reserves cooked off. The remaining robots crossing the bridge turned their turrets toward the park and fired their tank-caliber guns into the area the shots had come from, but their targets were already gone.
The so-called “Juggernauts” the Eighty-Six were forced to pilot for the Republic were tiny by comparison to the gleaming metallic monstrosities crossing the bridge – squat, off-white, comically misnamed toys. Their guns were smaller, their armor was worthless, and despite their tiny size in comparison their powerplants constantly strained to keep their four legs moving.
They had come to their oppressors' aid, because they would die if the Republic’s logistical infrastructure could not supply them with fuel, ammunition, and replacement parts.
And also because she’d asked.
Even at its most urgent, the voice sounded melodic and beautiful, like a silver bell. “Bloody Reina to Fleetfoot Squadron, move back to the roundabout behind you and get ready to reposition again. Radar spotted artillery inbound.”
Vladilena Milizé stood in the center of what used to be a playground before it had been shot up by 120mm cannon fire, her command post sheltering between a collapsed carousel and a gingerbread house that had melted but not burned when the cars near it caught fire.
Her frame was slender, and her silver hair and eyes marked her as one of the Alba, one of a half-dozen working the command post. She wore the uniform of an army captain, dyed black. One streak of hair had been dyed red.
She was probably the highest-ranking officer still fighting anywhere in the country.
A glowing device, an oval with wings, sat attached to the back of her neck with a choker. The Republic had conducted highly unethical experiments on Eighty-Six with unusual abilities, creating a form of technological telepathy that allowed her to speak and listen to the units under her control.
She’d served as a “Handler” for over a year, her job to order around the Eighty-Six actually doing the fighting and dying as if they were units in a computer strategy game, but many handlers displayed somehow less care for their lives and deaths than that.
Lena had been different, trying to treat her assigned squad like the people she knew they were. After being assigned to the “Spearhead” squadron, she’d finally understood the distance between them and her. She wasn’t fighting on the battlefield with them, after all. She was the oppressor. But she was able to help them, in the end, even if she couldn’t save them herself. And they’d thought she could grow strong, and become a true leader and warrior. She’d never been quite as close with her next squadron, but they’d accepted her in their own way, giving her the “personal name” assigned to an Eighty-Six who lasted a year in combat: hers was “Bloody Reina.”
And now she was on the battlefield, whether anyone liked it or not. She was only seventeen, allowed to work as a handler because there was no expectation of any real danger. And if the situation didn’t improve, she might not make it to be any older. She was in command of units across the country, but for the moment she was in tactical command of the men and women standing between her and the nearby murder machines of the Legion.
“Bloody Reina to Spitfire squadron, the Legion are advancing down the main boulevard, come to point 334; the roofs there should be able to support your units and let you fire on them from above.”
The main problem was how many Legion there were, compared to how many Eighty-Six. Republic doctrine relied on Juggernauts to fight the legion, having few man-portable weapons capable of dealing with them, and none whatsoever capable of dealing with the heavier types. Lena had already taken control of the remote-controlled artillery units, but none of them were mounted to fire into the capital. Who would want to do that? She was just glad they were barely able to target the frontier wall to clear a path through it and the minefield for the Eighty-Six to come in and aid them.
“I’ve set the intercept cannons onto the highway to the north, that should buy us some time to deal with this.” A glasses-wearing Alba girl Lena’s age turned towards her and spoke, then turned back to the bank of flat-screen displays she was monitoring.
“Thanks Annette. Bloody Reina to all units, watch out for free-fire zone north of the highway interchange.” Lena looked down at her own display. “Bloody Reina to Cyclops, have you found any firefighters?”
“That’s a negative, your majesty.” There was a certain rich velvety-ness to the words, as if from a much worldlier woman. “Might be some up to the west, looks like the fire there went out.”
“Good, if you find them, tell them we need them down in the third arrondissement immediately. It’s vital to keeping the flow of evacuees going.” The Legion had bombarded the south of the capital district with long-ranged incendiary missiles, likely to intentionally trap any who tried to flee the main advance from the north. Unlike just about everyone else in the rotten, corrupt military she’d listened when the members of Spearhead squadron told her about the Legion’s ability to assimilate the minds of those it had slain. They could think, they could plan, and they were after a supply of fresh brains.
“It’s nice to be on break here but I’d really rather be shooting at the Legion. Even if I found somebody I doubt it would be possible to get them to listen to me.”
“I know Cyclops. If you find them, tell them General Karlstahl has activated Defense Provision 1, and they’re subject to penalty for fleeing in the face of the enemy if they don’t do what I say.”
“Really?”
Lena smiled bitterly. Karlstahl’s last words to her, possibly his last to anyone, had included telling her to do whatever she liked. And now she was considering that as an order passing his authority onto her, as if he’d left her a set of signed blank orders. “Of course.”
She was issuing false orders and had seized almost the entire surviving military force of the nation for herself, save for some Eighty-Six refusing her orders and looking after only their own.
It was probably treason. Still, in order to cut off her pretty little head, the Republic would have to survive the week. And until it happened she’d do everything she needed to stay alive, to fight until the end, and to save as many as she could.
A sudden feeling of vertigo made her grip the edge of her screen. She took a moment to look at the connection status. The Republic supposedly maintained a nominal status of 100,000 Juggernauts active at any one time, but she’d only been able to connect to 75,000 and a third of those had refused her orders. Still, she was maintaining telepathic contact with fifty thousand people for almost twenty-four hours now. She didn’t know exactly how long it had been, or even what time it was right now: the Legion’s swarm of cicada-like Eintagsfliege EM distortion drones literally blotted out the sky. She couldn’t tell whether there were stars or sun on the other side. She wasn’t particularly interested in checking the time, there was no meaning to it, nothing to wait for other than an endless present of battle. Nobody outside would come to their aid, if there even was anyone else left.
“Bloody Reina to all units, be advised the Legion are securing the north flank of the river with Stier nests, cease operations along the bank until we can clean out the spotters. Fall back to the memorial park at point 287.”
Lena wanted to say “until we find some artillery support” but the party she’d sent to the old armory found that the Legion had beaten them to it. Curious that the Legion knew exactly to go for a depot that hadn’t been used for a decade and made it a priority, but that was a mystery for another time.
“Legion!” Another of her compatriots, a male Alba soldier about her age, shouted a warning and Lena looked up. A massive Legion walking tank emerged from the flaming debris blocking the road, its gigantic angular turret pointing a 155mm gun directly towards them. Dinosauria. A single burst from a small machine gun mount on its turret cut him down where he stood, his body torn in half.
This is it. I only regret not doing more. Lena stared at the muzzle of the huge gun unblinkingly, expecting any moment for it to fire. Instead, explosions blossomed along its side, causing it to rotate its turret towards the source of the fire. Then a second volley of fire slammed into the rear of its chassis. A billowing sheet of flame poured out of its backside as it slammed to the ground.
“Your majesty! Get outta there, it’s gonna blow!”
“Roger. Command post relocating, please stand by!”
Lena grabbed a computer module and ripped the cables out of it. She couldn’t carry the screen while moving, but with a little luck they could find an electronics store or something. Annette and the other survivors had done the same and their group sprinted down an alley as Cyclops’s Juggernaut scuttled backwards along with them, gun sweeping the area for threats.
After a few minutes of running, Annette pointed out a townhouse and they busted down the door. “This is one of my old potential fiancees, he was very proud of his gaming rig.”
The team looked around, the floor covered in action figures that had fallen from their display shelves.
“Looks like nobody’s home.” Lena began picking her way through the debris.
“There we go! Let’s get back on the air.” This was the third time they’d relocated the command center, as hard pressed as they’d been. They hadn’t even tried using the military HQ in the palace, which had come in handy when it was hit repeatedly by long-range artillery.
Annette unplugged and then unceremoniously shoved a few video game consoles off a shelf, then placed her computer there and began plugging it into a display. Lena sat hers on top of a monolith of a box that must have been his gaming pc, disconnecting it and replacing the cables into her unit.
As she did, Lena used an idle moment to ponder that the office of her superior had been on the side of the palace that wasn’t hit, so he might be alive. He certainly wasn’t in contact with anyone, so she’d written him off as “might as well be dead.” There was plenty of opportunity for him to have died somewhere else.
“Bloody Reina to all units. I’m back on the air, my apologies for the wait. Looks like a big cluster of Legion on the central plaza below the palace.”
“Melusine to Bloody Reina, I can confirm from my position. They’re acting odd.”
Lena glanced at the tactical map display. The Eighty-Six that were fighting now were barely any older than her. Many were younger, but there weren’t any younger than 14 left. None of them would have a real education in military theory. “They’re forming a defensive perimeter!”
Self-preservation wasn’t normally a thing the Legion did. They were supposed to be autonomous robots, fearless and emotionless. Perhaps this was a side-effect of assimilating human brains? Or perhaps they had been ordered to do by someone?
“Bloody Reina to Melusine. Is a Dinosauria present?”
The answer came momentarily. “Melusine to Bloody Reina, there’s one in the center.”
“It’s a Shepherd!” Lena snarled. The largest of the frontline combat Legion, they were the chassis of choice for the Legion leadership, the Shepherds. “If we take it out we can make some real progress.”
“Absolutely, your majesty!” Cyclops’s rich voice broke in again. The Eighty-Six had learned about the Shepherds by careful observation of Legion behavior. They were the result of the Legion getting the intact head of a corpse, and could retain all the skills they had in life as what was effectively a roboticized ghost. On the plus side, if they did manage to take it out its death would disrupt the local network and leave the Legion nearby scurrying randomly. Naturally the foolish Republic military had ignored the findings of “pigs” to the last moment.
“That reminds me, Cyclops. Did you find some firefighters?”
“Yeah! Forgot to mention that in the excitement, it wasn’t too hard. They only called me a pig a couple times, so I had to tell them the Karlstahl thing. Didn’t even need to try threatening them with the gun or anything. Incidentally someone else in my squad picked up Marie on our way back, I’ll have her sent over.”
It was good to know at least one member of the party she’d sent to the old armory had made it out, but for now it was time to focus. Lena glared at the screen, looking at the sensor reports of the plaza. The other units had formed a cordon around the Dinosauria, which had dug itself into the fountain at the center, shielded on its rear and sides by concrete.
But not below. “Brísingamen squadron, I need a couple volunteers to go into the sewer and mess with the gas mains. I’ll transmit a schematic once I know who’s going…”
The gas explosion in the sewer sent a massive eruption through the stones of the plaza in a line cutting through the center of the damaged fountain. The Dinosauria rocked forward as the ground bulged up, then tipped back as the collapse began. The massive machine skittered as it tipped, visibly panicking, but wasn’t able to prevent itself from ending up stuck on its side.
Its consorts were equally panicked, its defensive line breaking as they swung their weapons to and fro in search of a target. Two of the Löwe, the second-largest of the Legion’s general combat types, with eight legs and a turret like a tank’s, moved forward to try to pull the Dinosauria out of its entrapment.
That was when the Juggernauts attacked. The Löwe’s armor wasn’t nearly as heavy on the back, so the two moving to help the Shepherd were taken out instantly. Lighter Legion all around them began exploding as the Juggernauts pressed the assault, leaving the surprised units unable to fire back effectively.
The Shepherd extruded its nanomachines, forming silvery arms with which the Dinosauria tried to push its way out of the crevasse it had fallen in. They were never designed for such a weight, and couldn’t lift it.
As the Shepherd struggled, the Juggernauts cleaned up the stragglers and then arrayed themselves like a firing squad aimed at its belly. “Fire!” someone shouted, and the Juggernauts pumped nearly two dozen tungsten darts into the belly of the Dinosauria. Even that wasn’t enough to quite put it down, its underside being reinforced to protect against mines. The squadron shot again, and this time were rewarded with a magnificent fireball as the cracked armor finally gave way.
“We got ‘em your majesty!” cried Cyclops. For the first time, there was a feeling that some sort of victory might be possible.
“It’s… too early to celebrate yet.” Lena looked at the display. There were still quite a lot of Legion, even if they did seem to be moving in a much more disorganized fashion. “Let’s start with… let’s get the flying purple unicorn due north of your position.”
“What.” Cyclops rarely got snippy with Lena anymore, but this seemed to get her confused and annoyed.
“The map is showing a flying purple unicorn to the north. Now there’s more of them!”
Annette got up and looked over at Lena’s tactical display. As it should, no unicorns, flying or otherwise, were indicated anywhere. Her eyes narrowed and her mouth compressed into a flat line.
“Lena, are you ok?”
“Of course! I… uh…” Lena swayed slightly in her chair. After she caught herself, she turned to look at Annette. “I… Why are there two of you?”
“Ok, that’s it.” Annette brought her forearms up and crossed them to form an ‘X’ in front of her face. “In my official capacity as technical officer in charge of your para-raid settings, I order you to cease resonating and get some rest. You’re starting to hallucinate from overuse of the system.”
“What?” Lena gasped, mouth open and eyes wide in shock. “No, I can’t. None of them are getting any rest and I’m not going to slack off with them depending on me.”
“Actually, your majesty, I think we might do that. With the Shepherd down we might do a quick rotation of naps. We’ve been in combat for more than a day continuously and our fleshy bodies are just about at our limits. You lie down too, you hear me? Don’t go martyring yourself for no reason.”
“But…”
“Don’t worry, your majesty. I’ll send someone to watch the door for you while you get some Zs, you just get yourself back into fighting shape as fast as possible.”
“Right…” Lena slumped, her posture defeated. She looked exhausted, a day and change’s worth of adrenaline draining from her system.
“Ugh, his bed is awful. I threw a tarp over it so just lay down on that.” Annette grabbed Lena’s hand and began pulling her towards the bedroom. As promised, a tarp laid over the top of a single twin-style bed. Lena lay on it without undressing and was asleep the instant her head touched down.
Lena awoke with a start, feeling the sensation of soft light from above. Instead of the dingy bachelor suite she’d been in, instead there was a beautiful star-filled sky above and a grassy hill below.
She’d only seen such a night sky once in person, the night her father had taken her to see the truth, and perished in the process.
Behind the hill was a lighthouse, and below the hill seemed a quaint seaside town, or perhaps small city. The buildings were dark and the signs on them couldn’t be made out at this distance, but she could see the outline of a broad bay beyond the end of the buildings.
Did I die in my sleep?
It wasn’t an unreasonable thought. Surely if she was in danger of being turned into a Legion, whoever was with her would shoot her in the head or blow her up with a grenade to prevent giving the Legion a free shepherd.
Or possibly the building had been hit by a shell, or a missile, or the powerful long-range artillery type had been used to suppress her meager resistance.
It certainly would make more sense than the odd pony walking towards her.
The pony was a brilliant orange, and its eyes both faced forward like a human’s. It had a shocking purple mane and green eyes, as well as a set of saddlebags covered in pinned-on symbols. It even had visible eyebrows.
She stood up, stretching her arms. She was average in height, but had over a head of height on the pony. If I’m dead, is this a valkyrie to take me to Valhalla or Fólkvangr? If so, I guess I’d prefer the latter. I’ve had quite my fill of drunken warriors. But what does one say to their psychopomp? I should try to make a proper impression.
Before Lena could say anything, the pony looked her up and down, then flopped over on its side, lay back, and uttered a cry of disappointment in a distinctly feminine voice. “Arrrgh! Even in my dreams I can’t get away from this human junk!”
Lena pouted down at this silly pony, then placed her arms akimbo on her hips. “Excuse me! I did not die just so a pony could call me junk. Psychopomp or not, I will kick you if you insult me again.”
“Huh”? The pony rolled right-side up and stared up at the teenager. “You’re not dead, silly. You aren’t real. I’m just dreaming about humans because of the stupid Sunset Epistles.”
“What?” Lena’s fury had turned entirely into confusion. “Annette was right, I am hallucinating. Rather badly, I guess.” She’d heard of a means of telling if one was dreaming or dead, and pinched herself on the thigh. The pain made her wince, and she jolted back. “Pain. Am I… what’s going on?”
“Huh. Well, maybe the dumb thing is working after all.” Sunny stood up, then dipped her muzzle into the saddlebag on her left, and carefully pulled a book out with her teeth, then flipped it in the air and caught it with her hoof. Lena was struck dumb for a moment by the display of dexterity she would never have imagined a hoofed animal could make.
“Here we are.” Sunny announced. “Supposedly, the original journal used by the explorer Sunset Shimmer to inform the great Twilight Sparkle about the land of the humans. In the real world I fell asleep clutching it.” The book was brown and had two strips of binding across the spine, and in the center of the cover was a starburst with one side yellow and red and the other two tones of purple. “If it does still have the ability to communicate with another book somewhere, nopony’s answering. I can’t even read the language it’s written in, nopony can.”
Lena reached out a hand for it, and her fingertips found it quite solid. “May I?” Receiving a nod from the pony, she opened it to the first page. “I can read this!”
“What?” The pony stared at her openmouthed. What does it say?”
“Well, let’s see.” Lena looked down, quickly absorbing as much context as she could from the first page. “It’s Sunset Shimmer thanking Twilight Sparkle for ‘enchanting’ the book for her, and promising to write more about ‘your counterpart’ soon.”
“Counterpart!” The pony pranced in place with excitement. “This could open up the mystery of the ‘counterparts’ mentioned in discussion of the Epistles. What are they counterparts of? The Guardians of Harmony?”
Lena translated another few pages of pleasantries and gossip, only to suddenly find the next page was nothing but gibberish. And the next one. And the next one and the next one and the next one and…
“Oh. The pony sat down, splaying out her back legs as her ears folded as well.” I guess this is a dream, and the only text in that book is stuff I remember from when I actually read it. You can’t translate something that I don’t know. You might not even be translating, just my subconscious saying what I want to hear. I have no way to verify this, after all.”
“I still think I’m real, thank you very much.” Lena walked up and pinched the pony’s cheek.
“Ow ow ow ok ok you’re real let go ack!” The pony flailed under her grip, but Lena let go, having satisfied herself that her point had been made.
“Now that we’re both satisfied that the other is real, we should introduce ourselves. I am captain Vladilena Milizé of the Army of the Republic of San Magnolia.” She offered her hand.
“Uh, Sunny Starscout. I run a smoothie stand and live in the lighthouse.” She awkwardly extended a hoof, and an awkward combined hand-hoof shake was had.
Lena looked up at the lighthouse behind her. “That one?”
“Yeah.” Sunny rubbed the back of her head with her hoof. “I live there, just me now since my father… passed.”
“Ah.” Lena bowed her head in sympathy. “I lost my father when I was younger. I may have lost my mother tonight, although I have no idea for the time being.” It was a strange thing to think about, in this odd space where she had a moment of peace to contemplate. The idea that many of the people she knew and cared about had been killed in the past day or two and she simply had no idea if they had survived felt oddly cold and distant. Perhaps the armor she’d built around herself was affecting her even here.
Sunny trotted up the path to the Lighthouse and Lena followed. The door seemed to gain detail and definition as the pony approached, until finally she opened it. Lena wasn’t quite sure how the pony had used a doorknob with hooves, even having watched it at close range. “Come on in, for what it’s worth.” The door was a little short, and Lena, despite being only average height for a woman her age, had to duck to get through it. Fortunately there was a little room at the ceiling.
The entryway reminded Lena of the home of her friend, Annette. It seemed upper middle class, but there were boxes of items scattered about that were filled with things she couldn’t identify. It also seemed that there was a significant deficit in cleaning due to being lived in by a single pony who was likely busy with many things. More or less like Annette, again.
“So what do you do here? I don’t know much about smoothie stands but none of this seems like cookware.”
“Ah, most ponies don’t like it when I talk about it.” Sunny seemed to sag under the weight of her words. “Hitch is the only one who puts up with it and he’s really the only friend I’ve got. I research the old world, the way things used to be. That’s why I had the Epistles there.”
Lena took a deep sigh, closing her eyes. “I know what it’s like to be politically isolated. The people of my nation refused to listen to me. Their desire to not know what they were doing was wrong blotted out all sense of reason or morality.”
Sunny began to dig into some of the boxes, looking for something. “What is going on with your country, anyway? It sounds like there was something serious going on there.”
That took Lena by surprise. She’d talked with many foolish or ignorant people, and a great many who were ‘and’, but this was the first time she’d talked to someone who really didn’t know what the Legion was. To the Republic, it was a fact of life like the weather or the common cold.
“My country, San Magnolia, was invaded by the Giadian Empire ten years ago. They’d developed automated weapons called the Legion that would fight in place of people, allowing them to fight wars without casualties.” She looked out the window, at the peaceful town below. “Our forces at the time were absolutely annihilated. We were vastly overconfident about our ability to defend ourselves from Giad, and we were driven from half our lands.”
“That’s horrifying.” Sunny looked up from her boxes with sad eyes. “And you’ve been fighting all this time?”
Lena shook her head. “That’s not even the bad part. The Alba, the majority race of the Republic, looked about for someone to blame for their overconfidence. Giad was an empire that encompassed many different ethnicities, so it was decided all non-Alba were potential enemy agents and were relocated away from the heartland. In reality, it was an opportunity to exploit them as slave labor and loot their property. The exiles, now termed the ‘Eighty-Six” after the fact that they’d been driven from all eighty five remaining districts, were offered the “opportunity” to regain their citizenship by serving in the military for six years. This was a lie, they intentionally got anyone who would succeed in that killed.”
“That’s…” Sunny appeared to have locked up in horror. “That’s insane. I know we drove out the Pegasai and Unicorns, but to enslave and murder the people that used to live alongside them? I can’t possibly imagine all that.”
“And now the Legion are inside the walls, and the remaining Eighty-Six that were driven out have returned to do their best to save us. Not because they forgave us, but because it’s the only thing they can do to stay alive.”
“Well, that’s a good thing.” Sunny’s lip quivered like she was trying to stay positive.
Lena thought back to the speech her uncle had given her, about the possibilities if the Eighty-Six had instead chosen revenge. “It’s certainly better than the alternative. I have no idea what will happen if we somehow manage to hold them off.” She looked away. “I’m surprised by how willing they were to work with me.”
“Maybe they can tell.” Sunny perked up a little.
“Tell… what?” Lena cocked her head confused.
“That you’re a good person. That you’re better than the people who did all that to them. That you want to make things right.”
“That’d be a dream come true.” Lena clenched her hand. “But I can’t make myself believe in that, not now.”
“Ah, here we go.” Sunny carefully set aside some books from one of the boxes she was digging in, then pulled out a glass case. “This is believed to be the only existing photograph of Princess Twilight Sparkle’s Guardians of Harmony.”
Lena took the proffered object. It consisted of two pieces of glass and a small photograph sandwiched between them. She could make out a large purple pony with features somewhat similar to Sunny, but in much larger scale and with added wings and a unicorn’s horn. Around her seemed to be five more ponies and an indistinct purple blob. “This photograph must be rather old.”
“Yeah, it’s not in good shape. But in my head it’s perfectly clear. I know what those ponies look like.” Sunny took a deep breath, and in Lena’s hands portions of the photograph cleared up. She could see the details of their coats, their faces, the marks on their flanks, and the feathers on their wings and the spirals of their horns.
“Oh!” Lena carefully put the photograph down, then reached into her own pocket, and hesitantly pulled out a photograph of her own.
It didn’t work, her photograph of the Spearhead Squadron was the same as it always was.
“Dreams are a little malleable, but there’s nothing that can be done if you don’t know what they actually look like.” Sunny shook her head. “I found an old book on dream stuff when I was looking for Twilight’s things, it has her library’s stamp on it. There used to be dream art.”
“Well.” Lena considered. She was pretty decent at sketching. A little concentration, and an outline of a figure was standing in front of her. It was taller than her by about a head, black and white, and its face was a caricature with beady flat eyes.
“What the heck!?” Sunny jumped back as she stared at the apparition.
“I never met him in real life, but this is how I drew him. If I ever did meet him, I doubt it’d be in this life. They sent him on a mission to die deep in enemy territory, with the rest of his squad.” Four more apparitions joined the first, a tall and short boy, and two girls, one with longer hair.
“That’s awful.” Sunny seemed like she didn’t know what to say to all this. The situation must be completely beyond her ability to comprehend. “And I thought our situation was messed up…”
Lena shrugged. “Don’t think about it that way, suffering isn’t a competition. And since I have no idea if we’ll ever talk again, we shouldn’t dwell on things we can’t change.”
Sunny nodded, then after a moment screwed up her face in concentration. “Ugh.” She shook her head. “I wanted to try and show you the Guardians of Equestria like that, but I can’t seem to do it.” She looked down. “Maybe you’re a better artist than me, and that’s why…”
“I don’t think I’m that good. Sketching was required at the officer academy.”
“Wait, I still have these.” Sunny knocked over a box nearby, spilling its contents. “Don’t have to clean up after dreams!” She kicked at items until six toy ponies were lined up in a row on the floor.
Lena bent down to examine the group. They seemed to be made of plastic, but very old - what should have been seam lines had been smoothed over by long periods of use. These were the ponies from the photo, but now she could see them fully. Two without horns or wings, orange and pink, two with wings, blue and yellow, one with a unicorn’s horn, white, and a last one with both, purple.
“They were heroes of a past age.” Lena paused. “And you’re worried they’ll be forgotten.”
“That’s only part of it.” Sunny shook her head. “What they worked for was forgotten, and that’s the real problem. I have to imagine they’d care more about that than their names. Well, maybe Rarity and Rainbow Dash would care about that.”
“Regardless.” Lena shook her head. “No doubt they fought for what they believed in all their lives. Such people should not be forgotten. Promise them you won’t forget.”
“Uh…” Sunny looked down at the figures. “Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle. I won’t forget. I won’t forget. I won’t forget. I won’t forget. I won’t forget. I won’t forget.”
“Thank you. Now, what you need to do is keep fighting.” Lena stood and swept her right arm to the side dramatically. “If nobody else is with you now, recruit. Try and find anyone to join you. I thought I was alone, that there was nobody else in the whole Republic willing to do the right thing, but as I kept fighting I found more allies.”
“I… I think everypony in town thinks I’m a laughingstock.” Sunny folded in and looked away from Lena.
“Look at me.” Lena waited for Sunny’s eyes to meet hers again, feeling it stretch out awkwardly until she did. “You’re the only one who can do this. If you don’t honor their memory, nobody will. I want you to understand this. You can do this. You will do this. Am I understood?”
“Yes ma’am!” Lena felt drill-instructor-like pride as the pony snapped to attention and saluted. “I’m going to keep goin!”
“That’s right!” Lena felt pumped up too as she straightened and belted out her words at Sunny. “Honor them by fighting to the end!”
“Fight to the end!” Sunny saluted with a hoof, almost causing Lena to break character with how cute it looked to her. “I’m going to keep trying. I’m going to the product showcase and I’m going to tell everypony the truth!”
“That’s the spirit!” Lena returned her salute and then sat down. “I’m glad you’re feeling better. Since we can’t really get much else done in this dream, maybe we could get to know each other some more?
It was difficult to say how much time passed in the dream. They chatted, laughed, cried, and had tea and cookies.
And then the light came. All the scenery outside began to turn white, as night faded not into a normal day but an all-consuming glare.
“I guess we’re waking up.” Sunny reared up and hugged Lena, wrapping her forlegs around the girl’s neck. “Thanks for giving me a pep talk when I really needed one.”
Lena wrapped her arms around the pony’s barrel. “And thank you too. This was all very restful for me. If I do wake up, I’m sure I’ll need it.”
The light was now inside the room, furnishings growing indistinct.
“Goodbye, and good luck. I hope you meet them again.”
“Keep going, fight till the end. And good luck to you too.”
Light filled Lena’s eyes as she blinked them open.
“Ughgghh.”
“Welcome back, your majesty! We weren’t sure you were gonna wake up!” Lena turned her head groggily. She was resting on some sort of pad or mattress, in what seemed like the bed of a truck. The puttering of the engine could be heard, as well as the sounds of other engines nearby, but overhead she could see only a beautiful blue sky with scattered cirrus clouds.
She turned her head. The speaker resolved into a busty woman with dark skin and two mismatched eyes, wearing an old-style enlisted Republic uniform. “Cyclops. This is my first time seeing you in the flesh.”
“Well, more or less the same for me. You’ve been out for almost fourteen hours. Your buddy Annette didn’t want to move you but we really needed to.”
Lena sat up groggily, propping herself up with her right hand. She closed her right eye to make sure the left one was still working, then repeated with the opposite. She opened and closed her left hand, then wiggled the toes of each foot. “I think I’m ok. What’s going on?”
“Well, while you were asleep the remainder of your group and the Squadron Captains in the area held a quick conference, we busted out your notebook of plans and voted on the ‘National Redoubt’ one. We’ve packed up everyone and everything and we’re hauling it all towards the east-southeast section of the wall. We sent some people on ahead to start removing the interlocks on the mounts so we can get three-sixty coverage with the interception cannons, and we’ll have the river and incline there to provide us with favorable defensive terrain. We’ve blown all the bridges we’re not using to evacuate.”
“That’s good, I’m glad you all kept going in my absence.”
Cyclops grinned. “Wouldn’t want to disappoint you.”
Lena realized something. Her sleeve was far too loose for her uniform. “Yii! When did I get changed?”
The grin got wider. “Oh, that. Annette changed your clothes when you’d been out for ten hours and we had to load you. This is a medical truck, so it’s me as your lovely nurse and a couple other wounded with you.”
Lena looked to her side to see two other girls, Eighty-Six by their looks, lying on similar padding, covered in bandages and completely asleep. “Where’s Annette?”
“She’s driving. Now that you’re awake we’ll probably swap and refuel. She probably wants to poke your brain a bit to make sure you’re ok.”
“I feel pretty good actually, I feel like I can keep fighting.” Lena reached around to check her back, and found that she was wearing the robe that Annette would normally use for adjusting her para-raid device rather than a hospital gown.
She looked up at the sky and smiled. Its brilliant blue seemed oddly comforting in the midst of all the devastation she’d witnessed.
In time, she would fight on, and on, until one day she looked to the east and would behold a single machine locked in combat with the mighty Legion long-range artillery unit. She would save him, and he would defeat the enemy.
And she would be reunited with her lost comrades, although she wouldn’t know it yet.
And then would come a second reunion, and joy.
Sunny would the next day go on to make a speech at the Canterlogic showcase. And then she would meet a unicorn, and a lot of other things would happen.
As she scrambled through the lighthouse trying to retrieve the crystals, the phrase “fight until the end” occurred to her, although she couldn’t remember why.
And when the magic really came back, at one point she had the ghostly memory of fingers holding her. And she whispered “I won’t forget.”