Scootaloo had woken up to the sounds of a loud buzzer going off and a gruff voice shouting “Rise and shine ladies!” As the lights switch on to full power. Scootaloo reluctantly rose out of bed, looking around she noticed their drill sergeant standing in the doorway, not caring that he was blatantly looking into the filly's barracks. He then commanded the platoon to report to roll call. She along with her squad mates, hurriedly changed into their uniform, which was a blue, camouflaged, combat shirt that had the flag of the Pegasus Liberation Army emblazoned on the shoulder; she also placed a cap that had the same design as the shirt. she then followed the group onto a large courtyard, where she fell into rank with her fellow cadets, the colts had quickly joined them. She noticed her only friend, Lightning Bolt, who had also been snatched from Ponyville, despite his father being Blue Bolt, one of the Supreme Generals of the PLA. Lightning hated his father with a passion, from what intel she had gathered from talking with him, his father had left him and his mother when he was born; his hatred only grew when he had his troops, forced him away from his mother. This had happened at the same time as all the pegasi foals were rounded up to be sent to training camp. She didn't dare talk to him while on roll call though.
Suddenly the Commander of the training camp marched onto the courtyard, the cadets acted on instinct and immediately stood to attention. The Commander responded by saying "Platoon, stand at ease!" the cadets quickly followed his orders. The commander then nodded his head before announcing in his authoritative voice "Congratulations on passing your basic training I am proud to say that you now have your first assignment. Each squad will have their own assignment."
When the pegasi had first arrived at the camp, they had been arranged into three different squads: squad A, squad B, and Squad C. Scootaloo and Lightning Bolt had both been sorted into Squad A.
The commander then started to give each Squad, their first assignment "Squad A, you are to head to Ponyville and help the garrisoning force convert the village into a forward operating base as well as to also help construct a new Prisoner of War camp. You will be under the command of General Steel Wings. Squad A you now have two minutes to ask any questions"
The cadets all looked at each other before Scootaloo raised her hoof to ask a question, the commander gestured to her to speak. "What will happen to the civilians, sir?"
The commander gave a twisted smile before replying "Who do you think will be living at the POW camp"
This made Scootaloo's eyes widen in shock before quickly hiding it "Thank you, Sir"
He then asked if there were any other questions before moving on to Squad B "Squad B, you are to be sent to Las Pegasus to help with the main push into southern Equestria, you will be under the command of General Spearhead. Any questions?" This time no pony raised their hooves.
He finally told Squad C what their assignment was. "Squad C you to assist the commandos in setting up ambushes in the mountains on the Equestrian-Crystal border. You will be under the command of General Shadow Frost. Any questions?" again no pony had any questions.
He then ordered the squads to gather all of their belongings, which was practically just their spare uniform and toiletries that had been given to them by the drill sergeants, before heading to the large front gates where Squad B and C would travel to their destinations in airships, however, because Squads A's destination was much closer they will be traveling to theirs via chariots.
Scootaloo had jumped into a chariot when Lightning quickly joined her. “Heading back home huh” he spoke up.
Scootaloo merely nodded before sitting in silence. The chariot was flying through cold air when Scootaloo suddenly blurted out “This aint right. We cant be keeping innocent ponies as POWs”
“Shhhh, keep your voice down” he wispered hurriedly before looking around to make sure that they weren’t being overheard. He then added “you can’t be saying stuff like that. I know its not fair but theres nothing we can do about it besides its not like they’re not doing the same thing to us pegasi.”
This made Scootaloo give him a weird look before asking “what do you mean?”
Lightning looked around again before replying “I heard rumours that the Equestrians are building a city that is dedicated for pegasi and that it’s basically going to be one giant prison”
Scootaloo merely waved her hoof in disbelief “there’s no way Celestia would allow that”
“You sure about that? Because she allowed us pegasi become dirt poor and she allowed us to live in economic ruin”
Scootaloo didn’t answer before saying “They’re our friends though”
Lightning merely snorted “Are they still our friends even after the uprising?”
She didn’t answer and they both stayed silent throughout the rest of the trip.
***
When they finally arrived at Ponyville the recruits were told to form up into their squad and to stand by for further orders. Suddenly a grey pegasus with a silver blue mane and tail came out of the town hall and walked up to the recruits before introducing himself.
“I am your new commander. I am General Steel Wings. You will address me as either General or Sir. As I am sure you are aware, we are converting this mudblood hovel into a bustling Forward Operating Base, this means that we are very close to the frontlines and are therefore the first line of defence. You’re first task today is to round up the population and to force them to dig trenches at the North Western border of the town. You will then keep guard over them. If anyone acts out of line then whip them until there backs are raw it they try to escape then kill them!”
This task made Scootaloo extremely uncomfortable however she knew what happened to those who forbade orders.
***flashback***
Scootaloo was sat on the top row at the cloudiseum where she looked down to see three pegasi strapped to a wall two of them were proper soldiers while one of them was a cadet. The soldiers looked to be in their twenties while Scootaloo who recognised the cadet from the training camp was 13, one year older than Scootaloo, althought she didn’t know his name. Suddenly Supreme General Blue Bolt flew into the centre of the arena. She could feel Lightning next to her bristle in anger.
Blue Bolt then announced into a microphone “Welcome my fellow pegasi to this trial where these cowards will be judged and punished”
He then walked up to one if the soldiers “Cloud Walker here, abandoned her fellow comrades and tried to run from her own platoon but not before being tackled and arrested. For the crime of cowardice, how do you plead?”
“Cloud Walker looked around at the angry crown in fear and stuttered “n n not guilty”
Blue merely looked down on her before saying “Wrong! This court has found you guilty of dewinging!”
Dewinging, depending of if the victim survives or not is a form of execution or banishment. Dewinging is where a pegasus had their wings cut of before being pushed of a cloud. If the condemmed survives their fall then they may live the rest of their days as an earth pony, however most don’t survive this brutal punishment.
“Noooo, please I have a daughter, please show mercy!” Cloudy screamed however Blue merely smiled before moving onto the other soldier.
“Fire Arrow you have been brought before this court after you was seen conspiring with the enemy. For the crimes of espionage and treason how do you plead?”
The red pegasus merely growled in anger before spitting at Bolt. He wiped his face, smiling he then pulled out a knife and stabbed Fire in the gut which caused him elicit a scream of pain. Scootaloo cringed from the howling.
“This court finds you guilty I hereby sentence you to dewinging”
He then moved onto the terrified Cadet where he smiled sweetly before saying “Flash Dive you have been brought before this court after you was seen disobeying orders. For the crime of insurbordination how do you plead?”
The young colt started to shake in fear as he begged “please, I'm so sorry. I don’t want to die”
Blue just kept smiling before handing down his verdict “Flash Dive this court finds you guilty, I hereby sentence you to dewinging!” The cadet started to hyperventilate.
Suddenly soldiers walked up to the condemned prisoners and pulled out meat cleavers. Both Cloudy and Flash started to shake their heads in fear and cry.
However the executioners ignored them. They each walked to a prisoner and stood infront of them and then with one fell swoop in pure synchronisation their left wings fell to the floor, completely seperate from their body, the joints pouring out blood. All three pegasi screamed in agony however the soldiers weren't finished they then moved onto the right wings and cut them of too. The screams were unbearable. Scootaloo tried to block it out however she could still hear them.
The soldiers then dragged the prisoners over to a hole in the ground where one by one they thrown through the hole.
Despite it being far down they could all hear the sickening crunch of each body as they slammed into the hard ground. A pegasus then went down to check on the three prisoners before flying back up to announce that all three prisoners had been killed.
To this day months after it happened Scootaloo still could hear their terrifying screams and everytime she closed her eyes she could still see the look of fear on Flash Dive’s face.