//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: Fog of War // by Teal //------------------------------// Chapter 8 Captain Wilson slowly opened his eyes as he woke up to a new day. Giving out a yawn, he started to shift his position till he was sitting on his makeshift bed. Like many officers in the regiment, he was given his own private tent, in which he could set up his quarters and rest. It was slightly bigger than the tents an ordinary soldier slept in and was only roomy because he didn’t have to share it with two other people. His bed wasn’t fancy either, for it was a pile of hay that was covered up by a thick blanket. It might not be a real bed, but it was still comfortable to sleep on, proven by the wonderful rest he had. He scratched his head as he sat up, while trying to prepare both his mind and body for the day. Today was going to be a big day, like Col. Newman told them, for the pony volunteers will be arriving at noon. Every man and officer, him included, would be busy, preparing the camp and making it presentable for the volunteers. Assigned to keep watch on the ponies who would be entering the camp, he and his company would be patrolling the camp and making sure that no one was trying to do any funny business, like stealing supplies and sabotaging equipment. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he gave another yawn before shaking away the sleep. He planned on going to the mess tent, where a large amount of food was usually prepared, and join his men in breakfast. But he decided to have an apple first, from the basket of apples that was graciously given to each officer, by the ponies. It was said to be a token of appreciation from them, so he gladly accept it. It was a good thing to, since they didn’t have many supplies. Since they were suddenly picked up and teleported to this world, the supplies they normally had with them had been left behind Not that they had many supplies to start with, being sharpshooter, who were effectively skirmishers, they traveled light and carried few supplies. So it was a good thing to learn that they had fruit that was eatable to man. This world may have been filled by strange talking colored ponies, but at least it still had fruit that weren’t poisonous and could provide some nutrients for them. But he did wish they could provide them with some meat, since he already missed the savoring taste of it. Although he didn’t think they would take kindly on the fact that they were eating fellow animals. So for now, fruit would be fine. Maybe some bread and biscuits later on, but other than that, they would be fine with these forms of nourishment. Besides, he was already used to eating little to almost no meat for long extents of time, since meat was sometimes a rare commodity in the army. He was just about to get off of his bed, when a strange peculiar sound caught his ears and attention. It was the sound of slurping before being followed by a satisfied sigh. The slurping sound was equivalent to the sound of someone sucking on a tube and he started to wonder why that was so. Great curiosity was building within him as he wanted to learn what was causing this strange sound. Looking around his tent, he noticed that no one was there to have caused the strange noise. The tent was empty of anyone, except for his presence. But he also noticed that the basket of apples was also gone. Placed on a small stool on the other end of his tent, the basket was left untouched when he fell asleep last night. But now, as he looked at the same stool, he found that the basket was gone. He tried searching for the basket inside his tent, thinking that it might have moved due to some sort of magic, but found no sign of it. The tent might have been roomy, but there was just no place in there to be able to hide a basket full of apples. As he continued to look around for it, the slurping noise came again, this time even louder. By now, he had noticed that it came from just outside his tent, just by the entrance. So he stood up and cautiously moved towards the sound, making sure to keep his steps and himself quiet. As he reached the entrance, he gently moved the flap to the side and peaked to see who was the one making the noise. From his field of gaze, he saw a creature that looked foreign, yet familiar at the same time. It had a silver coat and a dark blue tail, while its figure looked similar to that off a pony. “What in the world is that?” Wilson murmured to himself. When he ended up in a world of multi-colored ponies, he thought that he has seen everything. Well, right now, it was obvious that it was not true. He knew that this was a pony sitting in front of his tent, but he still found curiosity on its strange looks. Staring at the creature he noticed the small features that make it look different from an ordinary pony. Observing the creature, he noticed that instead of the normal ears of a pony, its ears were more pointed and had denser tuffs of fur on it. The wings were also a noticeable change, with them being bat like, rather than the feathery bird like wings. This made him wonder if the creature was some sort of crossbreed between a pony and a bat. How would that have been possible? Well, he was in a world were magic existed… As he continued to observe the creature in front of his tent, he noticed that the slurping sound returned. That was when he noticed the basket of apples lying next to the creature. He watched as the creature took an apple, before the slurping sound retuned, and throwing its remains off to the side. Where a pile of dehydrated lay, stocked up on top of another. “Those where my apples!” Wilson complained, loud enough for the creature to hear, as it immediately reacted to his voice. It let out a small squeak of surprise, before jumping from the position it was sitting. It then turned around to face his tent and had a shocked and worried look plastered on its face as it looked at him with its large blue eyes. As it faced him, Wilson noted the pair of sharp teeth that protruded from the top of its mouth. This only increased his support for his theory of this creature was a crossbreed between a bat and pony, as nopony he has ever seen before had fangs as sharp as those. In fact, he had never seen a pony with fangs in the first place. It narrowed its eyes at him, before immediately looking at the almost empty basket, then back to him. An embarrassed look then fell upon it face as its cheeks started to turn to a light shade of red. Realizing what it has done, it suddenly felt shy with his presence. Looking down and shuffling its hooves, it apologized with its sweet and smooth feminine voice. “Sorry…” It said, as Wilson stepped out of his tent to stand in front of her. “…I didn’t mean to take you basket of apples. It was just that, I flew all the way from Canterlot to here, and when I got arrived I was really hungry. Then I smelled the sweet fragrance of apples and decided to follow it. I wanted to ask for your permission, but you were asleep and all…” She continued, still embarrassed. “Well, ummm…you do know that the mess tent is just a couple of tents away, right?” Wilson said, pointing towards the direction of the mess. This statement made the poor creature shrink in embarrassment. Wilson felt sorry for it and decided to just forgive her. It’s not like those were the only apples in this world, there were plenty more somewhere else. “You know what, forget it.” He said, making her look up with hope as a small smile grew on her face. “I could get more apples later.” “Now if you don’t mind me asking…what exactly are you. Now, I’ve seen a couple off ponies here and there, but none that looks exactly like you.” He said, changing the topic to an even more interesting one. His early suspicions were right, she was a bat pony. But what was she doing here? “I’m a bat pony!” It chirped, with her embarrassment and shyness gone. “The bat like creatures of the night. We’re are commonly known for our job a Lunar Guards. In fact, I’m a member of the Lunar Guard, myself.” She said, patting the gray armor, which matched her silver fur, with her right hoof. “The Lunar Guard?” Wilson asked, as he raised an eyebrow. He had heard about the Celestial Guard, knowing that Feather Wing was a member of it, but he had never heard of Lunar Guard. Well, he was fairly new here and there were still a lot of things for him to learn about. “Yup, name’s Lt. Dawn. I’m a member of the Lunar Guard who is supposed to be attached as a liaison to this regiment, if I could find where your colonel is.” “Well you would probably find him faster if you weren’t munching on my apples.” He said, teasingly. She giggled at this remark and rolled her eyes as a reaction. “Anyways, my name is Capt. Wilson, of the 1st United States Sharpshooter, now attached to this regiment; it’s a pleasure to meet you.” “Wait a minute…” She said, trailing off as she thought about what he said. “…did you say captain?” With that sudden realization, she immediately stood straight and brought her right hoof to a salute. Her gaze suddenly became straight as she kept them looking forward. “I’m sorry for disrespecting you, sir. I didn’t know that you were a captain, sir.” She said, with a tone of voice that was used by any soldier of lower rank when talking to an officer. “At ease…” He said, trying to calm her down from her stiff position. He was usually relax towards the soldiers he commanded and preferred to talk with them casually. He didn’t like to apply the strict military discipline most other officers used, as he found it too bland and choking. He was a volunteer officer, meaning he had an ordinary civilian job before the military. He believed that being casual and normal to your command was a key part in gaining the trust of your soldiers. “…none of that stuff now. You seemed to be fine with talking with me casually earlier, so you should be fine doing it now. Unless you want me to make that an order?” “No, sir.” She said, her body relaxing. “Also, none of that, sir stuff. Please, just call me Wilson. The sir thing is only for disobedient soldiers.” He said, smiling at her. She smiled and nodded. “Yes, si…I mean, yes Wilson.” “Good…” He said nodding. “…now you said you were looking for the colonel? How about this, let me just put on my coat and I’ll gladly take you to him, sound good?” “Yup.” She said, chirping once more in satisfaction. When she was ordered by Princess Luna about this mission to be the liaison, she was told to keep up her guard. The Lunar Princess had warned her that these creatures were be dangerous, even though they were supposed to be allies. But after her first contact, those warning seemed to be wrong, seeing how friendly and gentle they were. In fact, she might have made her first human friend! Since Equestria remained as a peaceful nation for hundreds of years, the need for a standing army was low. The government decided to choose a peaceful policy against the nation’s enemies, which seemed to have worked till the day the Griffons declared war. Having a standing army, when a nation was always at peace, was said to be a waste of money. So the old army was disbanded eight hundred years ago, immediately after the last war fought. The only unit they had to equal as an army was the Royal Guard. But they could hardly be called an army, for they were a small elite group whose job was to protect the Princesses. So that left Equestria with no force that would be able to defend it during a war. This problem occurred to the government before, making them seek for a solution to it. To solve it, they created the Volunteer army, which was said to be an easy solution to face any threat that faced Equestria. The concept of the volunteer army revolves on the idea of having each region in Equestria create volunteer regiments, that would help serve in the nation’s defense. Each regiment would be composed of volunteers from each region of the nation, they will be trained and fitted with the necessary equipment, before being merged to form the needed army to defend the nation. The number of regiments of each region would vary, as some places could provide more than others. But the basic concept called for at least one regiment for each region. In theory, Equestria would be able to deploy enough regiments to raise a decent sized army to defend the vest nation from any threat. With the volunteer army, ponies would be able to enlist to defend their country and once the war is over return to their homes. It would solve the problem of only having to pay the maintenance of such an army during war and having a force to face the foe. But the concept was never tested before. Being at peace for hundreds of years, no threat proved to be big enough for the need to call for volunteers. It had never been put into practice till the day the Griffons declared war. When it was implemented during that war, the Equestrian government was about to learn how hard it was to equip and train ponies, who lived humble and peaceful lives, and turn them into fighting machines. They never expect the amount of time and preparation needed to handle the logistics so that supplies could reach the new regiments that were forming all over Equestria. The numerous amounts of equipment would have to be distributed throughout the land, while qualified instructors, which there was a lack off, must be found to train these ponies. Day by day, new recruits signed up to fight, as the small military system of Equestria started to show its fault. “Hey, Bon-Bon, look over there, right over there! Can you see them? I think they might walk pass us!” An excited mint green unicorn said, with an enthusiastic tone on her voice, as she jumped up and down. Looking towards the distance, she pointed her hoof towards the small group of blue coated soldiers who were making their rounds pass the vast sea of volunteers. Excitement filled her mind as she saw them draw close, while her heart beat to an unbelievable pace. She was just so excited at the thought of having so many humans in one area and she just couldn’t her feelings. After years of being berated and treated as a joke, she finally had proof to the existence of the creatures she has studied for years. But for Bon-Bon, who was bombarded by the loud squeals and exaggerated motions of her friend, the situation was less than exciting. Sure, she found it cute at first, seeing her friend excited like a filly in candy shop, but after half an hour of listening to her babble and call her attention; she just found the whole thing annoying. “Lyra, are you sure you volunteered because you wanted to defend Equestria? Or is there another goal in there in your head?” Bon-Bon told her flatly as she looked towards the mare. Lyra stopped at her human gazing when she heard this, as she gasped at the remark. “Are you trying to tell me that I’m unpatriotic? Because I can assure you that I’m just as patriotic as anypony in this camp here.” She said with a firm voice. Bon-Bon rolled her eyes as she watched her friend overdramatize her reaction. “I’m not saying you’re unpatriotic, Lyra. I’m just saying that you might have signed up just because you wanted to meet these ‘humans’ up close.” “Now, now, Bon-Bon, whatever gave you that idea?” Lyra giggled, as the idea of meeting a real human up close swirled in her head, feeling her fantasies. “Yeah, yeah…” Bon-Bon said, not believing what her friend was saying. “…say what you want. But deep inside, both of us both know what you’re really planning. So I’m going to say this now, please stay out of trouble. I don’t want to wake up one morning to suddenly find you arrested for assaulting a ‘human’ just because you want to hug him or because you snuck into one of their tents to observe them in their sleep.” “Don’t worry, Bonnie, I can assure you that-“ Lyra’s sentence was cut short as her short attention span diverted its resources somewhere else. “Oh, wait, look! They’re passing us right now.” Lyra then brought her eyes upon the small group of three humans who were passing right in front of her. Despite her mind going wild, as she desperately wanted to go up and tackle them, she managed to fight back the urge and keep herself back. It wouldn’t do her any good if she was suddenly kicked out of the camp, especially for the reason of attacking their instructors. Turning her attention towards the three humans, Bon-Bon could hear their muffled words and noticed that they were counting something. Wondering what they were counting, she gave a guess that they were trying to count the number of ponies that were all gathered here right now. Packed on a field, which acted as the camp’s waiting area, hundreds upon hundreds of ponies from different parts of the Ponyville region have gathered here to join the Volunteer army. Answering their nation’s call for volunteers, these ponies, including her and Lyra, had signed their names and gathered at this camp, so that they could be trained as soldiers. Looking from left to right, Bon-Bon could see a seemingly endless sea of ponies who were sitting on top of the soft grass, waiting for their orders. She found it hard to imagine how their commanders were going to handle them all, as there seemed to be too many ponies to properly command. To her, it just seemed to be a great feat, to be able to organize, feed, equip, and arm all these ponies here. But then again, she was no military expert. She knew nothing about how an army is made. Maybe something like this looked more complicated than it actually was. Newman stood on top of a hill that overlooked the camp and brought his gaze towards the field which had ponies scattered all over the place. Earlier that day, he had watched as a mixed and ragtag group of ponies marched down the road in a disorganized and scattered column, as they made their way to the camp. Shuffling their way to the field, it was clear that there were at least an entire brigade’s worth of them, as they gathered at ever flat space they could find. Watching them from his position, he could see them mingle to each other and get to know one another, as ponies from different parts of the region gathered to this camp. Some of those ponies probably knew each other for a long time; other may have never known each other’s existence. But now, they were here, as raw volunteers of a force that would soon be a fighting brigade. He knew that they would endure a lot once training began, as they wanted to simulate the stresses of battle as much as possible. But for now, Newman would let them enjoy their last liberties as carefree peaceful ponies, as they enjoyed the presence of each of their companions and peers. Because once they step foot on the parade and training grounds of the camps, they would learn what it takes to make an effective unit that was supposed to fight a war. They would march through dirt, dust, and mud, they would have drills imbedded into them till they know it with their eye closed, and they would learn to follow orders with quick succession and without hesitation. But till then, he would let them enjoy the peace of the countryside. “Colonel, sir.” He heard someone call from behind him. Turning around, he looked to see that it was Feather Wing, who was holding out a salute and waited for a reply. Returning the salute, he noticed that the young pegasus looked tired and battered. The day must have been tiring for him, as he was assigned to help shuffle the volunteers and assist some of his men on counting the numbers that were present. “Anything new to report, Lieutenant?” “Yes, sir.” He said, as he pulled out a piece of paper from his saddlebag. “I would like that our preliminary counting is now finished, there are about three thousand two hundred volunteers present right now. This number could increase when more ponies come to volunteer here directly.” “Good, good.” Newman said as he looked up towards the sky. Basing from the position of the sun, he guessed that it was about two o‘clock in the afternoon. Feather Wing gave a glance towards the ponies on the field below and shook his head. “Sir, do you still think that those ponies over there can be turned into a fighting force? Because to me, they look like nothing but a bunch of ponies on vacation.” Newman looked towards the field and gave a short nod. True they looked like that they were a group enjoying a day off instead of undergoing their first day in the army, as he saw ponies munching on food they brought, while others lay on top of blanket, enjoying the sun. But that was to be expected. You couldn’t just go to a large group of civilians and tell them that all their privileges were gone, that would cause uproar. If he forced them, they might not accept. No, they would have to do it slowly. They couldn’t do it on the first day, but on the next passing days. Slowly reminding them that they weren’t living a cushy life anymore as they were now in the army. “Well…” He said, looking upon the ponies bellow. “…they might not look much right now, but soon they will. Once training start tomorrow, they will start their process of becoming soldiers. But for now, we’ll focus more on organization rather than training.” Newman then began elaborating to Feather Wing what he had in store for his operation on organizing this brigade. “We’re going to separate them to three regiments. The Princess told me that an officer from the Royal Guard would take over these regiments when the time comes, but till then, we will have to assign temporary commanders.” “Sounds like a good plan, sir.” Feather Wing said. “But who do you have in store as regimental commanders. How would you know which one of them is a good leader? Surely you wouldn’t assign a random pony to command a regiment?” “Oh, don’t worry, Lieutenant, I don’t planning on doing that.” Newman assured him. “In fact, I’m not going to be the one to pick the commander.” Feather Wing’s eyes narrowed as he looked at him with confusion. “What do you mean, sir?” “Well you see, I’m going to let the ponies of each regiment decide.” Newman explained. “The ponies of each regiment would be from the same district, so that would mean that they would know each other fairly well. So they would also know which pony has the leadership quality. We’ll just ask them to vote for the best leader and the pony that gets the most votes would be assigned as the temporary commander. A simple yet effective plan.” Father Wing nodded as he listened, understand what Newman said. “Well, I better in from Col. Warren of this, sir?” He asked, ready to go and inform Warren, so that it would accomplish as soon as possible. “Yes, yes.” Newman said, as he watched the young pegasus open his wings and fly off towards the camp below. By now, Newman was greatly fond of the young officer, as he found him as an interesting character. He could see that Feather Wing was enthusiastic to serve with them, as he viewed them as a strong military force, yet he could also see that the young officers was apprehensive on trusting the volunteers, as he viewed them as armed mobbed instead of a well-trained fighting force. Newman found this funny, as the 220th found itself in a similar position as the volunteers here today. From untrained force to disciple fighting force, any mob can be trained as long as they were thought properly. And Newman was determined to show that to Feather Wing.