Chapter 1
Sun Runners and Newspapers
The scouting party was on the move. They flew fast and low above the barren ground of the wasteland around them. The fading light of the late afternoon sun burned on their backs as they flew back towards the border with their homeland. Their pursuers were gaining on them, and they were still hours away from the border.
“Give up!” A gruff voice called from behind them. The three of them kept flying, putting every ounce of energy they possessed into their wings.
“Sir,” said a tired and exasperated voice, “how’re we going to get away?” The voice came from a young alicorn wearing full military attire and a private’s crest around his neck.
“I don’t know kid.” Sergeant Coron responded sadly, fatigue cracking his voice. He was in charge of this operation, and he blamed himself for their failure. The third alicorn of the group was also a private. He flew silently, not wanting to waste his breath on words. They were all tired from a day of work, sneaking across the hostile territory they were now desperately trying to escape. Their pursuers on the other hand had probably spent their day waiting and watching, ready for the unlikely occurrence of alicorns ignoring the border treaty. The ponies faltered and their pursuers used this slowing as a chance to finally close the gap between them and their prey. Once they were on top of the alicorns escape was impossible. The beaked faces of guards looked at the alicorns with expressions of both smugness and anger.
“Gotcha.” Growled one of the griffins as he unsheathed his claws and readied his talons.
The moon glowed softly in the sky, as a form listed lazily in front of it. The form was named Luna; she was a smaller alicorn with a midnight blue coat and deep teal eyes. She shined in the moonlight, and proudly wore the Sun Runner crest around her neck. She floated, rarely flapping her great wings as she gazed across the vast lands of Athelta, and as the mare glided the moon followed making its nightly journey under her guidance. Luna was a Sun Runner, an alicorn so gifted with magic that she could change the heavens. Luna and her Sister Celestia had been Sun Runners for almost seventy years now (which is quite a while, even considering the long life of an alicorn) and Luna enjoyed every moment of her job. She took her shift once every five days and had few responsibilities outside of her job. The night was nearing its end, and Luna picked up some speed for the final descent beyond the horizon. After the moon set she landed in the middle of a forest outside her home town of Passington. She just sat there for a moment, drinking in the smells and sound of a waking forest. Eventually she began to make her way into town. Trotting down the path into town she saw that her timing had been perfect. The bakery was opening its doors and the news stand was up and running. After two quick transactions Luna was in possession of a Newspaper and a Cinnamon Bun, both of which she floated in front of her. She ate and read as she walked, such was her daily routine. Every, “Good morning.” Sent her way was greeted with a friendly nod or a wave of a hoof, but she never looked up from her paper.
Luna always read the paper, in fact she hadn’t missed a morning edition in around six years now, and because of this she was always the first to know about anything big or interesting. She read every section thoroughly (except for the comics, for she thought the quality in them was slowly wearing away more and more each week) and remembered almost every story each day. But on today one headline in particular caught her eye, a headline at the top of page three. Getting home would have to wait, because at that moment she took off into the sky and began to fly north towards the capital.
While she flew she reread the article four times, until she finally stored the paper in her saddle bag and began to focus on her flight. She made good time to Trottington, just under half an hour. She landed outside a smallish but cozy house on the outer edge of town. The blue mare galloped up and knocked on the door, only then realizing how early it was. The door opened to reveal a sleepy-looking tan stallion who seemed rather surprised to see her,
“Luna,” Sothe said, “What brings you here at this hour?” Luna responded by floating the newspaper out of her bag, into his face.
“The top of page three.” she said sadly as she walked past him into the house. Once in the living room, an annoyed squawk greeted her.
“Well good morning to you too Philomena,” Luna said to the disgruntled looking phoenix that her arrival had obviously awoken. The annoyed bird looked away, as if to deny Luna any greeting for interrupting her sleep. Luna chuckled at the spirited bird and dung into her bag, producing a sweet roll.
“Would you feel better if you had some breakfast?” She asked the bird who perked up at the mention of food. She tossed her the roll and watched, amused, as the firebird snatched it out of the air and chewed happily on the treat.
Soft hoofbeats announced the arrival of another Alicorn into the room, Luna turned around to see her sister standing in the door looking half-asleep and more than a little confused.
“Sothe, who was at the door?” She asked, but her mate was too engrossed in the newspaper to hear her. Luna cleared her throat, and Celestia tuned and finally noticed her.
“Luna!” she said, brightening at the sight of her sister, “I didn’t know you were coming, why didn’t you send us a letter?”
“It wasn’t exactly a planning planned visit,” Luna said solemnly, “There was an article that Sothe had to read.” Celestia looked over to her mate, only then registering his expression, one of grief.
“What is it Sothe?” Celestia asked, Sothe said nothing, instead he just floated the paper over to her. She read the article,
Loss on the Frontier
On July 17th a border patrol party scouting the southwestern border with the griffin wastes came across a horrific sight. A scouting party that had been deployed a week ago lay slaughtered on the border with griffin talon marks scoring theirs flanks and a blood-soaked note bearing the mark of the griffin warlord Voltag pinned to their side. The bodies found were later identified as Sergeant Lithe Coron, and his two privates, Pinto Acres and Cal Greatwing. Sgt. Coron was a decorated veteran of the Third Border War, having nearly laid down his life in defense of the Council Chamber in the 20 Hours Battle. Pvt. Greatwing is the younger brother of High Commander Sothe Greatwing, respected leader of the fourth aerial strike force. Chancellor Greathoof had the following statement.
“It has been obvious from the events of the previous months to see that the griffins no longer care for our border treaty. These scouts were border patrol, which of course means that the griffins in question must have crossed the border and attacked them. In my mind this is the final straw. I will not stand for mindless slaughter on alicorn grounds. Voltag will pay for what he has done.” The other council members were unavailable for comment.
The crushing realization of the meaning of the article hit Celestia the moment she read the name of her mate’s brother. She ran to Sothe’s side and braced herself against him as the tears finally broke free from his eyes,
“I’m so sorry,” Luna whispered. Philomena let out a low coo, even she could feel the sadness that had taken hold in the room. The tears only ran from Sothe’s eyes for a moment. He sniffed and looked at Luna with bloodshot eyes,
“Thank you for coming to me first,” he said. The soldier then did his best to hold his composure, but broke back down and returned his muzzle to his mate’s shoulder.
Luna watched them for a moment until she decided to do something more useful. She trotted into the kitchen and began to make breakfast for the others. After about fifteen minutes of rummaging around the unfamiliar kitchen, Luna found the ingredients she needed and slowly put together a breakfast for her grieving brother in law. When she emerged from the kitchen the other two Alicorns looked a little better. Sothe’s eyes looked somewhat empty, but he smiled when she offered him some oatmeal. Celestia just took a biscuit. Philomena happily accepted the some of the toast. They all sat quietly for a time, chewing on their respective breakfast until Sothe mumbled something about a funeral.
“How soon do you think we should hold it?” Celestia asked her grieving mate. He shrugged sadly and returned to eating.
“Sometime this week.” He said, “Tomorrow I’ll look into setting it up.”
After much talk, the two convinced Luna to spend the week with them. The date for the funeral was Friday, five days from then. On the second day Sothe managed to drag himself to the Council Building for work. Luna and Celestia spent the day catching up, the sisters had not seen each other for months now. They talked of friends and family, foods and work. Celestia asked if Luna had her eye on any stallion, Luna would answer as always that she enjoyed her solitude and that she was not in a rush. Celestia took her shift pulling the sun the third day, and Luna spent the day watching after Philomena. The days passed and the funeral approached, the days spent with her sister reminded Luna of their childhood.
On the fifth day Sothe did not go to work. In place of his usual military crest, was a black crest of mourning. The gray stallion looked at his mate sadly as they got ready to leave, she returned his gaze reassuringly. The three Alicorns left the house and flew towards the Council building where they spent the afternoon. The funeral was long, with at least forty different ponies going up to the podium to talk about Cal. Sothe was the last to go up. His speech was short.
“Cal… Cal was headstrong. He was brash, and prone to split decisions. Despite this he never left his mistakes unfixed. He took responsibility for his actions and was a better brother then I could have ever hoped for. Goodbye Cal.” Sothe slowly trotted down from the podium and walked back to his seat. Everypony milled about for a while, talking quietly amongst themselves. Friends of Cal traded stories, and condolence after condolence was offered to Sothe. Luna took her leave as the sun began to set, and flew off to raise the moon.
She glided over the country, staring at the quiet land below, glad to have escaped the countless tears shed that afternoon. She felt sad for Sothe, and happy to get some time to herself. The night was beautiful, a full moon illuminated the endless expanse of trees below her. She gazed across the great forest stretching far into the east, the Everfree Forest, the untamable land. The forest was beautiful at night. The place was… for lack of a better word, different. It worked of its own accord and bent to the whim of no leader, be they Alicorn Griffin, or Dragon, no one tamed the forest.
As she flew she saw something out of place. There was light coming from deep in the forest. Torches blazed, casting their flickering light across a clearing hundreds of feet wide. From her vantage point above the clouds Luna could see everything in the great clearing, and the hundreds of Alicorns inside it. There were rows and rows of tents, all lit by hundreds of torches. All of the ponies moved with purpose. Luna knew that something was wrong. Nopony ever went into the forest, this many in here all at once was completely unheard of. She watched as the ponies below her moved in formation, practicing attack patterns and evasive maneuvers. Swords glinted in the torchlight as the weapons floated in front of sparring soldiers. A small forge could be seen churning out armor at a breakneck pace. These ponies were the beginnings of an army. Someone was preparing for war.