//------------------------------// // Part Two: The War Arrives // Story: Fallout Equestria: Forget // by CivilWarPony //------------------------------// Part Two: The War Arrives The first two years after my expulsion from the Wonderbolt Academy were among some of the happiest of my life. Sunset flights with Thunderlane and trips to Rainbow Falls became a daily ritual. Thunderlane was a balm for my soul and he kept me from sinking back into my old ways. It was a month before the War began that Thunderlane and I were married then soon after I became pregnant with my first child. I had a son named Noctilfire; he was the most beautiful thing that I had ever seen. At first I really didn’t pay attention to the rising tensions between Equestria and the Zebra Empire but when war broke out it was then that I finally took notice of it. It was the first war Equestria had fought in centuries; conflict isn’t in a pony’s nature. Sure we have arguments but we never resort to violence to settle things. Since my time at the academy, I finally had a reason worth living again and something worth protecting. Both Thunderlane and I volunteered for service in the Equestrian military. We didn’t see a lot of action at the beginning, and to be honest I was kinda glad for that. It meant I could spend more time with my family and not waste my time worrying about when I was going to be deployed. But after the Battle of Shattered Hoof Ridge everything changed for Equestria. Thunderlane and I were deployed in separate areas of Equestria while our son Noctilfire was left with Thunderlane’s brother Rumble. My first exposure to combat came while trying to defend the city of Mareston. I hadn’t been to Mareston before the war but I knew it was a popular city to visit in Southern Equestria. By the time I had arrived, the city had already been reduced to block after block of smoking rubble. The battle was grueling and I was nearly killed a number of times. Our forces around the city were hit so quickly that they barely had any time to prepare a defense. Our units on the outer defenses had retreated to secondary defensive lines and were just barely managing to hold the Zebras at bay. I spent most of my time evacuating civilians out of the city. It was only a matter of time before our defenses collapsed and were overrun. It was here that I found my chance to finally start to turn my life and the reputation I had around. One group of civilians hadn’t been evacuated from the outskirts of the city. I could only guess that they didn’t wish to leave their home and decided to remain behind but if we had simply left them to their fate I had no doubt they would be executed. When my squad landed outside of a small home, an Earth pony fired a shot at my hooves as a warning and said, “Don’t come any closer! We ain’t leavin!” I tried to reason with this crazy pony but he was adamant that he and his family weren’t going to leave their home. Just as my squad started to break down the front door to the home, I could hear over the radio on my barding that the Zebra’s had broken through our lines in this sector and were heading our way. Flying to the roof of the home, I could see the Zebra’s bearing down on our position like a pack of timberwolves. I was able to aim my battle-saddle to fire a few shots before a bullet tore through my left wing snapping the bone in half and leaving it daggling like a broken branch. Another bullet knocked me flat on my back as it tore through my right shoulder. I tumbled backwards off of the roof and wasn’t able to move my right forehoof. One of my squad, a Pegasus named Flickerwing was able to help me get me on my hooves before a bullet passed through his head spattering his brains all over my face. I wasn’t used to seeing somepony’s head explode in front of me or in this case explode all over me. I was able to place my wounded forehoof in a makeshift sling and I ordered my squad to carry the unwilling family out of their home before we were all killed. I placed Flickerwing’s corpse over my back and tried to fly back to our own lines, needless to say it wasn't easy flying with a busted wing but I somehow managed it. I wanted to ensure that Flickerwing got a descent burial, I didn’t want the Zebra’s to string up his corpse like I had seen them do with some of our dead. The battle of Mareston became even more desperate after I was sent back to Cloudsdale to recover from my wounds. Eventually I had heard we had lost the city but had managed to halt the Zebra’s advance at great cost. Thunderlane was able to visit me in Cloudsdale at the hospital; I could tell that the war was taking its toll on him. His mane was caked in dirt while his beautiful eyes were hollow and empty. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days and he told me that he was having nightmares about those he had lost. His unit had been wiped out with the exception of him and another Pegasi who I was later told had committed suicide due to survivor’s guilt. Thunderlane’s unit had been transferred to the Mareston front after I was wounded and had been ambushed by a large force of Zebra’s while out on a scouting mission. I reached out to comfort him and I could feel him shaking then looking up I could see he was sobbing. Large pearly tears flooded down the sides of his cheeks and he curled up next to me in bed just crying, none of the nurses who passed by my bed bothered to remove him from the hospital wing instead one of them was kind enough to draw the curtains around my bed for us to have some privacy. We laid together for what seemed for an eternity, just comforting one another. I was glad to have him by my side, even if it was only for a short while. I wanted us to get back home, with our son and live normal lives instead of fighting but we both knew that we had signed up to protect Equestria. I snuggled into him and breathed in his scent it calmed me to know that we were both still alive and had made it out of Mareston at least in one piece. By the time morning came Thunderlane was gone but had bought me a fresh bouquet of my favorite flowers placing them at my bedside table. My wing and shoulder were fully healed thanks to the magic Fluttershy had invented to treat the new kinds of wounds ponies were facing in this war. I was discharged from the hospital a few days after Thunderlane came to see me. I wasn’t really sure whether or not I wanted to even report back for duty but I had made an obligation to fight for Equestria and I didn’t want to see a coward after witnessing the deaths of my comrades in Mareston plus when I commit to something I fully commit to it. I reported back to my unit, and I was glad to see at least some familiar faces but I was sad to learn we had lost so many when Mareston had fallen. My unit alone sustained over fifty-percent casualties. My friend and brother to Flickerwing, a pony named Shadowfeather had survived the battle and I was glad to see him after all of this time. Shadowfeather had lost his older brothers in the Battle of Shattered Hoof Ridge and signed up when his parents had begged him not to, but after losing members of his family to the Zebra’s I couldn’t blame him for wanting to get some pay back. He led me over to a list of casualties that listed the names of ponies that were missing, killed, or wounded during the battle. I saw a few names that I recognized from my days at the Wonderbolt Academy. Cloudchaser was listed as missing in action while Snowflake had been listed as killed in action. In the crowd of various ponies I saw Cloudchaser’s sister Flitter. Trotting over to her I told her that I was sorry to see that her sister was missing. She was actually shocked that I had actually come over to speak with her. I guess her sister must have shared what I had done at the Wonderbolt Academy before the war; she said that she didn’t want sympathy from a pony who wasn’t capable of giving it. I was genuinely hurt by her comment but I knew that I couldn’t be surprised that this was how other ponies would react to me. I am sure that my reputation as a reckless and selfish pony had spread far and wide beyond the Wonderbolt Academy after all when you are expelled from Equestria’s premier school for gifted fliers it is a big deal. I apologized for upsetting her and that I didn’t mean to offend her. I told her I was sorry to see that she had lost her sister then told her that I was sad to see that many of my former classmates were gone. She stared at me for a few seconds before realizing I was actually trying to be genuine with my condolences then said that she was sorry for snapping at me. She was just stressed out for worrying so much about her sister’s disappearance during the battle. I asked her when was the last time she had heard from her sister, she replied spoken with her sister a few days before Mareston had fallen. It seems that Cloudchaser’s squad had been deployed to destroy important documents in the Northern Headquarters of the Wonderbolts before the city was lost. All she knew is that she hadn’t heard from her sister since then and that there was a chance that she had either been cut off and unable to get a message out when the city fell or she had been taken prisoner. I told Flitter that I would search for her sister back in Mareston. She said that I didn’t have to nor did she want be responsible for sending a lone pony back into enemy territory on what was assuredly a wild pony chase. But I insisted that it was something I had to do. I left the camp with Shadowfeather by my side and we stealth fully soared back towards Mareston. Flying high above the battlefields near Mareston, we banked left into the cloud cover to disguise our approach to the city. The air inside the clouds made me gag and I nearly threw up. The air reeked of cordite and decay from the battles fought below us. Flying through clouds normally didn’t bother me but that was before the war when the clouds were white and puffy. Now they hung like the Grim Pony himself over Mareston, they were dark grey and gave off an uneasy feeling as if the souls of those who died below followed us on our flight to Mareston trying to have us join them. The city slowly appeared out of the smoke and ash. It looked a lot worse than when I had left it. The largest of the skyscraper buildings had all their windows blown out and only a few panes of shattered glass clung to the burnt out metal frames of these once wonderful buildings. The city seemed to glow as it was illuminated by the hundreds of embers that wafted up from the ground. Occasionally I could spot the shape of a Zebra soldier going about his duty. I nodded over to Shadowfeather as we picked up the pace. As we got closer to the Northern headquarters building I noticed a group of Pegasi being held in a number of cages that hung from the over the entrance. I waited while Shadowfeather picked off the few zebra guards that stood below with his silenced assault rifle then I quickly flapped my wings over to the nearest cage and hovered in front of it. The Pegasus, a male sat upright in the cage. His eyes had been gouged out of his head leaving the sockets scabbed over and filled with puss. The zebra’s had taken his blood and painted it into weird shapes all over his body. I cocked my ears forward to listen for a heartbeat but I heard none. Likewise the other Pegasi pony’s had expired long before we arrived. As I was about to leave I noticed one last cage on the far left of the entrance hidden behind one of the columns. Flying over to it, I could see that the Pegasus inside was female and on closer inspection was in fact Cloudchaser. Her grey mane which she had taken so much pride in arranging it into a distinctive manestyle hung over her face. I could barely make out a heartbeat and when I whispered her name she started to move. She opened her eyes and blinked listlessly at me. She didn’t say a word but I told her that we had come to rescue her and get her back to her sister Flitter. Upon hearing the name of her sister she rubbed her leg nervously and I told her that her sister was alive. She smiled weakly at me as I picked the lock on the cage and opened it. She couldn’t fly as I saw that the Zebra’s had mutilated her wings which sagged against her back. I gently pulled her out of the cage and while Shadowfeather hoisted her arm around his neck. Together we flew Cloudchaser out of Mareston and back to her sister. When we touched down at the camp there was already a crowd as we arrived. Somepony, I don’t know who had found out what I and Shadowfeather were up to. I could spot a few of the MP’s standing by. I quickly became worried that we would be shot as deserters but when they saw that we had Cloudchaser with us they backed off. Flitter emerged from the crowd with her eyes beaming with happiness. She rushed over to her sister and pulled her into a big hug. She nuzzled into her sister’s neck saying how worried she had been about her and that she never wanted to be separated from her again. After seeing her sister’s wings Flitter called out for a medic and one appeared in a flash by Cloudchaser’s side. After watching Cloudchaser being taken away on a stretcher, Flitter turned to me and Shadowfeather; she pulled us both into a hug and thanked us for rescuing her sibling. I told her that it was nothing; I couldn’t leave my classmate in the hooves of those Zebra thugs. She told me that I had really changed since my time at the Wonderbolt Academy. It was wonderful to hear that my efforts to change were finally starting to be noticed by everypony around me. She let us go and after she disappeared into the crowd we were swarmed by what seemed like the entire camp. A group of ponies lifted us up onto their shoulders and called us heroes. I felt my face blush and laughed when I saw that Shadowfeather’s face had turned crimson as well. We both laughed as we were carried all throughout the camp as two heroes who had saved a comrade from the clutches of the evil Zebra’s. That night I think I got some of the best sleep I had gotten in a long while. I was content in knowing that I had helped another be reunited with a member of their family. But there was a part of my mind that wandered back to reading the names on that list. I wondered how many more names would be added to that list as the war dragged on. I couldn’t help it when the image of Thunderlane reading my name on the list and then suddenly taking his sidearm then putting it to his head and squeezing the trigger. I woke up with the sound of that gunshot ringing in my ears and shook my head as I breathed heavily. I knew that Thunderlane was safe and that I was having a stupid dream. I went back to sleep after that and was more determined to spend time with my husband the next time I saw him.