Ponykrieg

by Bro-Nie

Chapter 1-1

High above the battlefield, I was flying. Or rather I was gliding. I had spread my wings wide after passing through a thick sheet of clouds, which I was now flying above in wide circles, on the lookout for any enemy activity. In reality nothing was really likely to happen today. After all, we’d taken control of the skies here a few weeks before, but that didn’t give me an excuse not to be vigilant.

All this hovering was starting to annoy me. It it was just up to me, I would’ve started to zip in every direction, trying new stunts, tearing this leather helmet off just to feel the wind in my rainbow mane again.

But I couldn’t do that. I had to stick to the orders I’d been given, and they were too important for me to ruin on impulse. I opened my mouth a little, filling my lungs with fresh air. It was delicious. That’s really one of the many privileges of being a pegasus: having a fresher air to breathe than the one earth ponies and unicorns were used to. But you gotta be careful: past a certain height, breathing too fast and too much became dangerous. Back when I was at flight camp with Gilda and the others, I saw a pegasus one day that had made the mistake of trying to go as high up as possible, just to impress us. He’d gone up so high that the only thing the other students and teachers could see of him was a little colored dot in the blue sky. Then suddenly, he started free-falling, and was caught by two flight instructors. The pegasus had simply fainted from going up too high.

Naturally, all the students at flight school started taking the stupid challenge of who would manage to stay up highest in the sky for the longest amount of time. Needless to say I won, narrowly escaping death twice: once by myself, and the other by defending my title against Gilda. And we were so proud at the time, in our foolish childishness.

I sighed bitterly. Long gone were the days of flight camp. Just like the days of my life in Cloudsdale and Ponyville, in fact. It seemed to me like it had all gone up in smoke. Maybe when the war is over I’ll be able to recall exactly the taste of Applejack’s apple pies, of all the fun we would have at Pinkie Pie’s parties or of the pretty dresses Rarity would make for us when we were going out. But right now it’s like all of that never really happened. Right now, I had a battle to fight.

A noise, like the buzzing of a bee, snapped me out of my nostalgia trip. I turned towards the source of the noise, and I saw it: judging from its cockade, it was a British airplane. It came from a hole in the clouds below me, flying at a good speed.

I was pretty sure it wouldn’t stay for long. Judging from its gait and its general lack of machinery, it was only a recon aircraft. The English must have sent it to spy on our camp and take pictures to bring back to their headquarters. I was sorry for the plane, but I couldn’t let it do that.

I went into a dive towards a cloud below, poking my head through its gaseous bulk to assess my enemy’s position. It was strictly maintaining its course. I was willing to bet that it wouldn’t stay up here for a single minute more than what its mission demanded. It was going to fly right above its target, dive, take some pictures and then hurry back to its airfield.

Now was the time for me to act. Forelegs straight in front of me, I took off so fast I actually surprised myself. I felt the wind whip against my body and tail. I still loved flying at full speed. That’s when I saw the English plane coming close to me. Very close to me.

Without slowing down I pointed my hooves straight towards its tail rudders, gritted my teeth, closed my eyes shut and braced myself for the impact. The metal casings on my armored hooves tore through the rudders of the English plane like through paper, in a thunderous crash.

I heard a gunshot and saw a bullet zipping not far from me. Had the pilot managed to take out his firearm and aim at me while I was attacking him from behind? Not bad, he was skilled. Not as skilled as me, though.

I gained a little distance from the plane, and speed. I then went into a curving movement and arched myself so that I could strike my enemy’s underbelly, where he wouldn’t be able to get me. The English pilot realised immediately what I had in mind and went into a nosedive, to have me straight in front of him. While we were both flying towards each other at full speed, the lack of shooting made it clear to me that the pilot’s revolver was his only weapon. Otherwise he would have shot me down long ago.

As I saw the aircraft’s propeller grow bigger by the second, I made an effort to distinguish the plane’s pilot. It would be when he extended his arm out of the cockpit that I would have to break off my course.

A few seconds passed and still I waited for the right moment. I had to time it just right. Too soon and he would be able to shoot me in the back, too late and he would lodge a bullet in my head, that is, if I wasn’t torn to pieces by the blades of the propeller yet. Not yet... Not just yet...

I saw his right arm extend through the window of the cockpit and aim at me. Almost there...

I saw him cock his gun. Really close now...

Now!

Suddenly I turned to the right, placing myself on my enemy’s left side. The surprised pilot didn’t have time to change his shooting hand that I was already breaking his wing holders. The left-side wings of my enemy’s aircraft crumbled under their own weight and the plane took a steep dive. Satisfied with my performance, I stayed high up watching the enemy plane disappear into the clouds. No need to go further. It was rendered incapable of completing its mission but not so damaged that it would crash immediately. The British pilot would be able to flutter back to its airfield or at the very worst would crash far from the no man’s land.

Both of us would be better off that way. I don’t like having blood on my hooves. Maybe that doesn’t fit the type of an Equestrian Air Force pegasus but that’s just the way I am. I like flying, and I like winning.

Not killing. That I left to the infantry.

I continued my recon flight for another two hours before I headed for the base. I gingerly left the blue skies behind to return to brown mud and the green forest. I was still flying high enough not to be shot by a trigger-happy flak cannon.

More than a pegasus had already been lost that way. I was soon back to our base, and I passed the ranks and progressively slowed down as I neared the village where we had set camp.

The airfield was no longer anything more than a vast field of dirt from which pegasi and airplanes took off and landed all day. I set myself down smoothly on the edge of the field. A few pilots, human and pegasi, saluted me as I folded my wings and finally removed the leather helmet that was keeping my head prisoner. I ran my hoof several times through my mane to undo all the little knots that had made themselves there and to remove the slimy beads of sweat that stuck to it.

A nice hot bath would have been just great right now

My aide-de-camp, a pegasus with a pearly grey coat, came to relieve me of my stuff. I gave him my helmet and my war pilot harnessing, a leather jacket and the metal casings of my hooves. I did keep my scarf around my neck, a white scarf with a multicolored thunderbolt. It was hoof-woven for me by Rarity as a present for when I left for the front, and I avoided taking it off as much as possible. When I wore it, it felt a bit like my friends were here with me.

“Did your flight go well today, lieutenant?” my aide-de-camp asked me.

“If it hadn’t gone well I wouldn’t be here to brag about it,” I replied without missing a beat. “If you could just wash all of that and bring it to my quarters, that would be very nice of you,” I said, gesturing towards my belongings. “And get a hot tub ready for me.”

My aide put his hoof to his temple

“It’ll be done lieutenant! And lieutenant, before I forget, kommandant Koëning wishes to see you as soon as possible.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Did he say why?”

“Negative, lieutenant,” replied my aide-de-camp while shaking his head. “Only that your presence was requested at headquarters as soon as you had finished your flight shift.”

Well, so much for the bath then.

I left the airfield, making my way to the village right next to it. The place wasn’t big at all, like most of the local villages. About fifty people must have been living here before the war.

Many long months ago, all of this part of the front had fallen into our hands, and since the French and English trenches stopped us from moving forward, we were stuck in a struggle for position.

I passed in front of abandoned houses, some of which had been turned into ammunition bunkers. On some of them there were still traces of fighting for the control of the region.

The town hall was a big building of white stone that commander Koëning had obviously turned into his headquarters. I passed in front of sentry guards, walked down the building’s tiled hallway and arrived at the dimly-lit back courtyard, where the commander usually held his meetings. And sure enough, Koëning and his staff majors were all there, sitting around a wooden outdoors table, smoking a fat cigar and stroking his graying mustache with care.

When the commander was discreetly informed of my presence, he invited me join them.

“Come lieutenant, please, come closer!”

I took a few steps towards them but didn’t want to get much closer than that. The officers had the disgusting habit of pairing each intake of breath with a puff of their cigarette, which made a nauseating cloud of smoke hang above them. The smoke above them was so dense, even though we were outside, that I could hardly make out the black, white and red of the imperial banner that hung on the entire inner wall.

Seeing how reluctant I was to make another step forward, Koëning took upon himself to close the small distance between us and extended his hand out to me. I touched it with my hoof. The commander smiled.

“I’m glad to see that you’ve returned in one piece from your mission.”

“It was only a routine flight,” I replied with a shrug.

“Nonetheless,” insisted my commanding officer. “Wilfried!” he said, calling out to one of his men, who came to join the two of us.

This guy was the spitting image of a prussian officer: tall and lean, with a monocle and a golden cigarette holder, complete with a ridiculously long mustache.

“Wilfried,” said Koëning with a smile that only grew wider as he spoke, “allow me to introduce lieutenant Rainbow Dash.”

“And so we finally meet,” said the prussian in a surprisingly high-pitched voice. “Rainbow Dash, the best flyer in all of Equestria. Do you know that your exploits are the talk of all the salons of Berlin? From what I hear, his majesty Kaiser Wilhelm himself has an ongoing bet with one of his cousins as to which of you or captain Richthofen is the best pilot of the imperial army.”

“With all due respect, Colonel,” I replied while inspecting his grade, “I am not technically part of the imperial army. The expeditionist Equestrian corps--”

“We understand you,” cut in the officer. “I shan’t keep you longer, lieutenant, I can imagine you have much business to tend to. However, I am to stay for a while longer still on this part of the front. I hope therefore that we have the pleasure of meeting again.”

I didn’t know what to reply, so I simply nodded to the prussian colonel as he retired to the group of officers nearby, leaving me on my own with commander Koëning.

“I believe you called for me, sir?”

“I simply wished to introduce you in person to colonel von Aesch,” he replied while chewing on his cigar.

That’s it, then? He stopped me from enjoying a nice hot bath and cleaning my wings only to show me to his friend?

Clearly, the more I hang around with military types, the less I like them.

“Permission to retreat, sir?”

“Granted,” said Koëning. “You may leave and rest now, lieutenant. At ease.”

I nodded, turned around, sped down the hall while deploying my wings, and within a few seconds I was flying above the village.

Walking from the airfield to headquarters had allowed me to stretch my legs a little, but there was no way I’d walk all the way back to our quarters, which were a bit far from the rest of the sector.

The expeditionist Equestrian corps, which the German called Die PegasusKorps -- the Pegasus group -- because of the high level of winged ponies within the battalion, had set camp in a large fortified farm a little ways from all the local villages. The farm and its dependences had been left entirely for ponies to adapt to their morphology.

Atop the farm’s bell tower, the banner of Equestria, a white and a black alicorn turning around the sun and the moon on a starry background, fluttered proudly in the wind. I landed in the dirt courtyard, which scared a group of small chicks which went to hide behind a bush. Fluttershy, true to her convictions, couldn’t stand to see the animals of the farm and its surroundings living without anyone to care for them and as a result a good deal of the farm had become a true natural reserve.

I found my friend in the grange, which had been turned into a pony infirmary where wounded Equestrian soldiers came to rest and gather their strength before going back out to battle. Fluttershy flew from one patient to another, giving them medicine, changing their bandages or simply holding their hooves for a few minutes. Technically, given her grade, she wasn’t the one supposed to do this job but Fluttershy had insisted to take care of the wounded personally. When I entered the grange, Fluttershy cut her conversation with another pony nurse short and fluttered towards me.

“Rainbow?” she asked, in her usual tinny voice, “How did everything go up there? You’re not hurt, are you?”

“I’m ok,” I said immediately for reassurance.

“Oh but you’re not ok!” she replied, alarmed. “Look at your right hind leg!”

I checked it out and discovered to my surprise that indeed, there were a few dried blood stains on my blue fur. I must have scraped myself while fighting the English plane.

“It’s just a scratch, Fluttershy,” I assured her. “I don’t even feel anything. Trust me--”

“I need to tend to it right now!” she cut in, dragging me by force to a nearby bed where I sat down while she galloped across the entire grange to find the necessary things to heal my leg.

I felt kinda stupid, awkwardly lying down on an impersonal bed, my right hind leg laid out on the covers as my friend returned to my side, her hooves full of tissues, brown bottles, sewing thread and bandages. She also asked one of the nurses to bring her a clear water basin.

Fluttershy’s muzzle was practically touching my scar as she pushed aside the fur covering it to better see it.

“Looks like it’s healed already but I don’t want to take any risks,” she mumbled to herself while taking a tissue and soaking it in the basin before applying it to the wound. “Now let’s clean this up and disinfect it.”

I couldn’t help sighing in annoyance, but I said nothing. Fluttershy was the perfect nurse for the expeditionist Equestrian corps. Only she sometimes went a little overboard. Especially with me.

That being said, I could understand that. The war which our nation had joined more than two and a half years ago now was beyond anything we could have ever imagined. The battles were huge, like the casualties, for both Equestria and the Triple Alliance and for the Triple Entente. Whereas in August 1914 -- I’d never get used to the Human calendar -- the number of volunteers was very high, especially among pegasi, today they were too few.

“There we go,” said Fluttershy as she finished applying a cotton drenched in a pink liquid that smelled bad to my leg before wrapping it in a thin strip of gauze. “Keep that bandage at least till tomorrow and then you’ll be able to remove it without any trouble.”

“And what about my bath, huh?” I snapped. “How am I supposed to take a bath with this thing on my leg?”

“Oh...” Fluttershy stammered. “I-I’m sorry... I thought that... Well, um, that--”

“It’s cool,” I said after a few seconds. “I’m just teasing ya. I’ll manage.”

“Oh... I... A joke. Yeah. Yeah, that was funny,” she giggled. A pony passing by only a few inches next to her would have hardly been able to hear her laugh, but I could feel it, and sharing this little joke with my friend did me good. Humor was actually one of the best ways to cope with the atmosphere on the front.

“Tell me, Fluttershy,” I asked her as I stepped down from the hospital bed and walked towards the exit of the room. “If you’re free tonight, maybe we could have dinner together?”

My friend seemed to be embarrassed.

“Well, it’s just... It’s just that I have to take care of all the farm critters and there are still wounded ponies to tend to not to mention that--”

“I’m just asking you for an hour or two,” I insisted. “I haven’t had a real meal around a table in weeks. And I haven’t eaten with a friend in even longer.”

“Okay...” Fluttershy finally said after a long while. “I guess I can find some time.”

“Awesome!” I said, leaving the grange. “See you tonight then!”

Once outside, a strong gust of wind made me shiver. I looked to the countryside and was surprised to see how beautiful the landscape could be, even though just a few miles from here, folks were being gutted out and were swimming in their own blood, for reasons much more complex than the simple nature of things.

A soldier from the PegasusKorps came to tell me that a hot tub had been prepared for me in my room. I nodded in silence before walking to the Equestrian officers’ barracks. I was going to wash up, bask in the hot water and just unwind. Then, I would have dinner with Fluttershy and we would both laugh and talk about the old days. Tomorrow I’d leave for another routine flight above the fields of death; but not tonight. Tonight I was going to try to remember the taste of a normal life with one of my best friends, like an echo of the time when the six of us would live out peaceful days in Ponyville.

An echo of a world that no longer existed...