It was well after she had received her assignment papers and walked down the hall, out the door, down the steps, and half way across town before Comet Shimmer realized just how much of a mistake she had made. She looked down at the roll of parchment in her hoof as if seeing it for the first time, staring at the golden Equestrian Royal Air Guard wax seal. Glittering in the setting sun, it seemed to become a knife in her chest, and the indigo mare suddenly found herself short of breath. In a daze, she floated into the nearest pub and absently ordered a tall mug of whatever, silent otherwise. Her leathery wings twitched at her side until the barkeep, a big earth pony with a jaw like the side of Mount Canterlot, came back with her drink.
“Anything else for ya, Miss?” the keep asked as he set down her mug.
And that’s when the sobbing began. She hadn’t meant to, she wasn’t waiting for him to say anything, the fuse had just picked that particular moment to run out. Her shoulders shook like autumn leaves as hot, stubborn tears betrayed her. What had she done? How would she, a stupid little chiroptequus, make it in the ERAG? And in the midst of a war, no less? Comet had seen the sorrow in their beloved monarch’s eyes as she announced the declaration of hostilities from the Dragon Clans to the south. She had been moved, she felt compelled to help. Apparently, suicide was the only thing she had managed to come up with.
Spontaneous crying was nothing new in Oak Barrel’s pub. Fillies and colts alike would come for peace, quiet, and drink only to find their emotions getting the better of them. Often times, though, it required a few rounds for the dam to break, not the mere sight of one. Now he once again had a crying filly on his hooves, like as not just dumped by her coltfriend, letting her composure go all to pieces. That was his reckoning, until he saw the scroll in her hoof, gold wax seal and all. A huff caught in his upper lip; this kid looked barely old enough to bear a cutie mark, and she was supposed to be fighting dragons in six months’ time?
Does that seem right to you?
With a sigh, Oak Barrel slid her mug of ale off to the side and reached under the bar. He came up with a squat, sparkling glass and a bottle of a rich, golden liquid. A small orb of ice, a smooth pour, and a hint of cinnamon, it was one of his signatures. He set the glass in front of the puffy-eyed filly. “Drink. On the house.” She hiccuped air for a moment, grabbed the glass, and managed to down it before the kick set her to shivering. “Good. Now wait here.”
His voice reminded Comet Shimmer of a low cello, gruff and powerful yet strangely soothing. Whatever that drink was seemed to have burned away her tears, so she sat at the bar, trying to steady her breathing until the keep came back. A soft blue pegasus was beside him, his gaze a mix of confusion and worry. A cyan sash with sunny emblems sewn to each end sat across his shoulders, little pins glittering in the soft light. The earth pony whispered something in his ear, and the pegasus took a deep breath and straightened.
“Thanks, Barrel. Her drinks are on me tonight.” Oak Barrel nodded and left to clean some tables. The pegasus sat on the stool by Comet and set his sash on the counter. “Oak Barrel tells me you just joined the army.” The chiroptequus passed him her papers. The pegasus knew the scroll well; he’d had an identical one years ago. He rolled the ribbon off and looked over its contents silently: name, home, where to report for basic training, the usual. “So, Comet Shimmer, hm? Pretty. I’m Rainbow Strike. Wing Sergeant, First Class.”
Comet reached for her near forgotten mug and mumbled something.
“What was that?”
“Sorry to be wasting your time, Sir...”
Rainbow gave her a lopsided smile. “Taking care of our own is part of our duties, recruit, and an often overlooked one at that.” The pegasus tapped the bar and flashed a few bits. Oak Barrel came by a moment later with two more mugs. “So, having second thoughts? Thought joining the military would be an adventure and now you’re getting cold feet?”
“About being dragon food? Yeah, kind of.” The ale was starting to warm Comet’s blood again. “What was I thinking? As if signing up for the Air Guard was a good idea at any point.” Her mouth quivered. The tears were building again. “I’m not a soldier. I don’t belong here, and I’m going to die.”
Rainbow wrapped a wing around the younger pony, shuffling his stool so they were closer. “There was a saying in my training group, you know? ‘The line between bravery and stupidity is so fine that you won’t know you’ve crossed it.’” She responded by downing the rest of her ale and grabbing the next one. “You’re scared. That’s normal, good even. It means you have some idea of what war is. Means you’re not stupid.” Rainbow chuckled. “My boss has no patience for stupid.”
“But I’m not a fighter. My brother stepped on a cricket once on the way back from school and I cried all the way home.”
“And you were… five?”
“Four…”
“Then I don’t think that’s really relevant,” Rainbow snorted. He smiled, and he swore he saw the faintest hint of a smile on her lips too. “The ERAG ain’t all about fighting. What’s your talent?”
“Reading…” The smile was gone, but there was a certain warmth in the way she said the word. “I’d spend weekends at the library a lot, just reading whatever. Other ponies would leave around sundown, but I could go on into the night since, well,” Comet waved at her eyes, her tangerine eyes glimmering in the candlelight of the pub.
“The Guard always needs messengers and lookouts. Good eyes are worth ten good spears.” Rainbow took a slow drink from his mug. Two more were waiting when he set his down. Oak Barrel would be getting a lovely tip tonight. “It’s not all fighting and dying out there, kiddo. The ERAG tries to fit its recruits to capitalize on their skills. You could very well-”
“Wing Sergeant Rainbow Strike, ‘teeenSHUN!” The pegasus didn’t even look before spinning off of his stool and snapping a crisp salute. A pink pegasus mare stood in front of him, clad in the light armor of an officer fresh off her shift. Under a crop of brilliant blue mane, her face was trying to decide between a smirk and a frown. A few other pegasi who had entered with her, similarly dressed, sauntered off to a large table in the corner. After glancing at Comet, the mocking smirk won out. “Enjoying your night off, soldier?”
“Without fail, Ma’am.” Rainbow remained stiff as a board until his commander nodded. The way he limbered his joints and shared the mare’s smirk made it seem to Comet as though this was some running game the two had between them.
“So, Rainbow, you going to introduce me to your date? Bit young for you, isn’t she?”
“D-date?” Rainbow’s head snapped to Comet and right back. “It’s nothing like that. She’s a recruit.”
“Ah.” The mare’s eyes once again found Comet. “Ahhhh. Well then, why, recruit,” her voice chilled with every syllable, “are you not standing at attention alongside this pile of feathers?”
“M-m-ma’am, sorry ma’am!” Comet stumbled off of her stool and mimicked the pose Rainbow had taken earlier. “Recruit Comet Shimmer, Ma’am. I just got my assignment this afternoon.”
“Didn’t ask your name, recruit.”
“Fly, give her a break, she’s-’
“Green as grass and about as smart.” The mare held out her hoof. Comet glanced at Rainbow, who nodded repeatedly at her papers, so the filly offered over her scroll. Firefly grabbed it and set it on the bar, not an inch unrolled. “So, recruit, you want to kill some lizards.” The pink mare started pacing around the chiroptequus. Her hooves seemed to deliberately bump into Comet’s, inching them into an ever tighter bunch.
“Excuse me, ma’am?” If Comet’s hooves could have been any closer together, they would probably merge into a single limb. Her wings fluttered nervously at her sides. Sweat started to gather under her fur. She was, for all purposes, a baby seal being circled by a shark.
“Young mare volunteers in wartime, signs up for the first war Equestria has seen in over a century. Not many chances for glory in the Guard until now. Scent of blood drew you in.” Rainbow stood by, watching back and forth between the mare and the filly. But Comet’s eyes couldn’t leave the rocky purple ones staring her up and down. “Well?”
“M...Ma’am?” One could have heard the bead of sweat that dripped off the filly’s nose hit the floor.
“You didn’t answer my question. Do you want to kill lizards?” The mare stopped in front of Comet, eyes locked with no chance of escape. Comet’s mind raced. The answer her superior would want to hear, and all her fears and all her doubts chased each other until they threatened to leap out of her stomach and on to the floor. She wanted to close her eyes, block out the mare, block out the pub, block out the day, and wake up in her bed, realizing that none of this had happened. But those eyes kept her’s open, blocked her escape; only an answer would set her free. So she blurted the first thing that came to mind.
“I don’t want to kill anypony!” The pink pegasus tilted her head, but her gaze held. “I don’t want to kill, or be killed, or hurt anyp- anyone. Equestria is my home.” Her jaw wavered, but she held fast. “My parents own the barber shop on 5th street. My dad runs it, mostly. My mom works at the library part time. Everypony likes our shop even though chiropteqi get a bad reputation sometimes. But everypony’s been good to us. I’ve lived here all my life, and my parents can’t leave the shop to protect us, so I have to, and I have no idea what I’m doing, but I… had to do… something… to help.” The tears were nearly back, threatening to spill over her cheeks and admit her weakness to the pegasi before her. But through all her rambling, her superior never once broke her gaze, never changed her expression, never twitched. The entire night, no, the entire war seemed to blur by while their eyes remained bound together.
“Good.”
Comet hadn’t realised she had been holding her breath. Her gaze suddenly freed, she focused on forcing air into her lungs while the mare went to the bar and said something to Oak Barrel. The earth pony nodded and added something about her earning her nickname before leaving to grab a tray and a stack of mugs. The mare returned to where Rainbow and Comet were still standing. The two pegasi exchanged a look, Rainbow’s a warning, the mare’s a confirmation.
“I’m Firefly, Lietenant in the Guard and this featherbrain’s C.O.” She nudged Rainbow in the barrel. The stallion smiled reassuringly. Firefly focused back on Comet. “And as of this second, I am your god. I raise the sun and moon in your world. I tell you where to fly and when. If I say flap, you ask how hard, if I tell you to sing, you give me your best voice. You will say your bedtime prayers to me. Your flank is mine now, recruit.”
“...What?” The words circled around in Comet’s head. “But my orders-” She turned to the bar where Firefly had left her scroll to find it half submerged in a mug of ale. The noise that came out of her mouth was something between a whimper, a sputter, and a croak.
“Squad Assignment won’t miss one greenhorn. You’ll go to Basic, newbie, but you’ll be in my squad as soon as that’s over, at which point we will be responsible for your training. If you manage to not be awful, you might even end up flying my wing one day.” Firefly put a broad, pink wing around Comet and pulled her close. Comet closed her eyes, expecting anything from threats to a preemptive reprimanding. Instead she felt a warm breath by her ear. “We look after our own.” Comet opened her eyes and gaped at her new boss. Firefly was smiling. It was the first genuine smile Comet Shimmer had seen her make. “Now enough drilling for tonight, I’m supposed to be off duty and you two boneheads have got me all riled up. Barrel, keep the drinks coming.” The pink pegasus steered the filly around to where the rest of their squad was already seated.
The night was stuffed with drink, song, food, and warm company. There was no particular reason for it all, save for the lingering notion that such days might be few and far between in the months to come. Rainbow drank his share, but managed to keep one eye on his boss and one eye on his new fledgeling of a squaddie. Firefly, as captain of Cyclone Company, led the festivities. And Comet Shimmer, having a head start on the drinks, took her sips slowly but eagerly, smiling at jokes and sitting quietly in the revelry.
Two hours ago, the filly had made the biggest mistake of her life. She had been lost, alone, and more scared than she had ever been. The future was dark and full of terrors and questions with no answers. And maybe it was still just as dark, sitting at that table with her new squad, as it had been sitting at the bar. But she smiled anyway. At least now she wouldn’t face the dark alone.