Moxi found herself lying in her bunk, flat on her back as sleep evaded her. She thought back on the past couple of days. How had everything changed so quickly? Just a few days ago she’d been in this war for the sake of her missing love. She’d been an idealistic young soldier with hopes of finding Chillwind and going home to their old apartment in Manehattan and living happily ever after.
Sure, on some level she’d always known that things could never be the same as they were before, but still, she’d always hoped for something. Without the hope of finding Chillwind, what reason was there left? She had no real stake left in the war. She could just pack up and leave. Flee the country and start a new life somewhere untouched by the struggle.
But even as the idea floated through her head, she knew she couldn’t do it. Dreamcatcher was right, even if she’d had no connection to the Republic or its ponies in the first place, they were family now, especially Dreamcatcher.
When she thought the word, it bounced through her head repeatedly. “Family,” she muttered to herself, sitting up in bed, “I never asked Wildfire about my family...” She curled up on the bed, her mind wandering back to the last time she’d spoken with her parents “I wonder if they’re ok? I wonder if the conflict has reached Gatesborogh?” …If they’re gone…” Moxi shook her head, straightening up. “This won’t do me any good,” she stood from the bed and left the barracks, “I’ve just got to find Wildfire and ask him if things are ok back home.”
The SpecOps barracks was in one of the castle towers, and Moxi had plenty of time to get lost in her thoughts as she meandered through the twists and turns of the palace interior. She let her instincts take over, taking each twist and turn necessary to get to the courtyard as if she’d lived in the palace her whole life, right up until she plowed directly into another pony trying to take the same turn as her in the opposite direction. The two crashed into one another, rebounding and landing on their flanks on the corridor floor. Moxi rubbed at her head and looked up to see Melody desperately trying to catch all of the papers scattering in front of them. Moxi took the hint that the papers were important and immediately set about picking them up herself.
“Sorry, Melody,” she said, gathering up the last of the pages and giving them to Melody, who immediately set about putting them in the right order with her magic, “I was miles away.”
“It’s alright, Moxi,” she said, shooting the younger mare a small smile, “I’m actually glad I ran into you,” she paused for a moment, “well, not literally of course, but… well you know what I mean… anyway, I just passed off the documents you and Dreamcatcher had me looking at, it’ll be a while before we have any real new information, but I was going to go and give my preliminary evaluation to the princess. Would you like to come?”
Moxi considered for a moment, but ultimately shook her head, “I need to find a friend I ran into back at Sugarcube Acres, for all I know they’re getting ready to deploy him again. I’ll catch up when I can, but could you give me a ‘best of’?”
Melody blinked, but nodded, “Well, I’d say for the most part we don’t have anything to worry about. From the looks of the documents the input required to create a viable soldier would be more than three average unicorns would be able to put in, and since it would require nearly constant refreshing, I don’t think they’ll be able to use this as an effective weapon any time soon.”
Moxi smiled, though it didn’t touch her eyes, “That’s good to hear, Melody.”
“Though I must say, the most disturbing factor of it is not its potential for military application, but rather just how far along they are!”
“How do you mean?” Moxi asked, puzzled
“Well, necromancy and any research pertaining to it has been illegal under Equestrian law for longer than anypony but Luna and Celestia have even been alive, but the research in the documents you gave me is way too advanced.”
“Well I think Celestia probably threw out the rule book years ago.”
“But that’s the thing,” she said, shaking her head, “even if this research had begun the very day Celestia started the war, there’s no way they would be this far along! Creating new forms of spells is hard, I don’t mean to sound elitist, but honestly, you can’t even comprehend. There is so much about the interaction of magic on living ponies we still don’t understand, much less the complex interactions with the dead that this research shows. They would have to have been researching this for decades to have come this far. They would have to have been doing so while I was at the magical university.”
Moxi stared at her in confusion, “So what does this mean, Melody?”
“Nothing good,” the unicorn replied, “but beyond that, I can’t really say what it could mean… regardless, I’ve got to give my report to the princess. I’ll talk with you later.” And with that she was off, leaving Moxi alone in stunned, confused silence.
“Gatesborogh?” Wildfire said, hiking his bag onto his back, Moxi had been right to come and see him immediately, as her old friend was dressed in a crisp new uniform and preparing to be deployed once again, “The town was fine when I left, so far as I know, hardly anypony there is aware that there is a real war going on. I don’t expect Celestia’s going to crack down on it anytime soon, not exactly a strategic foothold, is it?”
Moxi gave him a relieved smile, “No, I guess not.”
Wildfire held out a hoof as the last of his squad was loaded onto the outbound cart and Moxi pounded it with her own. “You take care of yourself, Fire.”
“Aw, you know me, Mox,” he said with a wink, stepping onto the cart behind him, “I’m not one for taking unnecessary risk.”
With that, the cart immediately took to the air and rapidly shrank into the distance. Moxi felt her eyes mist over, but forced the tears away, turning back to the castle. She would see him again, once everything was said and done.