Thunder boarded the train as the last call from the whistle sounded with an ear piercing screech. The train started with a lurch and then it moved smoothly along the tracks. Soon the sprawling mess of slums passed to show the complex system of farms that each city has to provide basic food to the residents, unfortunately the towns have grown but the farms have not, ending the period of comfort among the ponies. As the train passed the food production areas Thunder started to walk around the train due to getting bored of looking at trees and bushes.
Soon Thunder walked into a carriage with at least ten different ponies, mostly Earth ponies with three unicorns and one pegasus, so Thunder walked up to this pegasus. Upon closer inspection the stallion had a grey mane and tail, his coat was a coal black one eye hidden behind a eye patch, the other, mustard yellow.
“Excuse me?” The stallion said in a gruff tone “Can I help you? Or do you just want to stare at me all day?”
“Sorry sir., I was just looking around for something to do” Thunder replied, trying not to look at the stallion’s eye.
“Sir? Do I look like an officer to you?” Somehow the stallion sounded aggressive but was laughing at what was said. “calm down kid, and stop being so formal. they are no high ranking soldiers on this train. not even your commander you saw at the station”
“What makes you think that?” Thunder grinned thinking he had caught the stallion in his lie.
“Simple … But first I will need to trust you before I tell you” The stallion walked away before he said anything else that might alert any of the soldiers who don’t have the backbone to think for themselfs.
Brave found himself on an empty carriage, it was quiet and peaceful, apart from the occasional pony walking through the carriage talking about what they are going to do to the ice cult’s army or the first pony who they “shared their bed with”. Despite the inconvenient interruptions Brave spent most of the train ride thinking of his past, what things might have been if he did something different; but all the time one memory kept appearing, one Brave didn’t fully understand the situation didn’t seem familiar it sempt almost alien. He decided that he was going to find something to do to distract him from the strange and unfamiliar feelings, he found himself at the end of the train. A canopy was erected from glass, providing a cover from the rain whilst not obscuring the view. This place was nice. Brave, being slightly inquisitive looked for some of the supports and found that the entire glass roof came around from the roof of the adjacent carriage and sloped down to the end of the one Brave was stood in. I wonder why it was built like this.
A voice from the doorway, seemingly on cue to Brave’s question said “I think it was built like that to stop any of us from bringing our inevitable demise any faster than what it will be”
Brave looked over to the where the voice came from; he could only make out the pony’s body shape showing he was an earth pony. “What do you mean?”
The Pony sounded like he was chuckling slightly “Really? Don’t you want to just end it now before you get to know any of your squad and think that they are actually nice ponies and not just soldiers?”
Brave began to sound defensive, for he was a smart pony and to question this was like attacking him with a sword “I knew what you meant, do I look like a Pegasus that has his head in the clouds? or an Earth whose entire family pushes ploughs in a field -”
The pony cut Brave off, “Do me a favour and shut the hell up and stop thinking unicorns are superior to everypony else before somepony pushes you into a spear. Second, think about this entire situation this “war” who are we fighting? and no it’s not the ice cult, it’s not the enemy it’s …”
Brave sounding slightly dumbfounded asked “who are we fighting then”
The stallion began making his way back to the carriages “Think, who is making you come here”
The doors closed slowly, and once again the glass carriage was pludged into silence. Brave was thinking about what the stallion had said when suddenly he saw a large mountain range beginning to appear from the east. Soon it encompassed the train. This meant one thing, the train was near it’s final destination.
Thunder was back in his carriage, thinking about all the things he could've done if he just had taken a stab at the dark and went for it. Then he began to see the giant wall of Bittering, a marvel of engineering. built entirely from fire hardened stone, it dwarfed even the largest mountains of the Qrith Mountain range and the Vlyk Mountains that split west and east. Thunder looked to the wall, the towering wall of black stone;the banners on top of it where battered and weathered by the strong gale force winds that thunder would come to learn where at times more dangerous than an arrow or crossbow bolt being fired at him.
well, I wonder how many of these ponies will die in the first battle. chances are I will. best make my father and mother proud. this is for you mom, dad.
Thunder soon made his way to the barracks where he would spend the rest of his days when not fighting. how long that would be however was any ponies guess.
“good news, they have arrived and our agent made contact with them. the bad news however is that our agent is not sure if he can trust them, or if they can do what we all hope they can”
“We will find away, we always have done in the past”
“Shall I give the order?”
“Yes, and make sure that you stress the point that this is our last chance.”