//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Borrowed Time // by Gambit Prawn //------------------------------// All stood at attention as our instructor stepped into the classroom. A bearded, long-haired man of sixty, Lt. Davies had an aura that demanded respect. Few cadets liked him—if a few hushed complaints in close-knit conversations could be extrapolated. After all, few were foolish enough to risk a demerit. The room was adjacent to the practice gym, where we had just been. Prior exertion, combined with the summer sun beating down on the concrete floor, meant most of us were sweating heavily. Nonetheless, we stiffened our bodies and erased any signs of discomfort, saluting methodically as Lieutenant Davies passed through each row in a circuitous path to the front of the room. Though I—a three inch-tall pony—was one of the tallest boys in the class, this short man still towered over me. As he passed, I raised my left hoof to my forehead, finding it difficult to get my bunched-up fingers into position. Fortunately, it seemed he had missed my botched salute. After a tense minute and a half, our teacher came to a sudden stop at the front room, facing the blackboard. Suddenly, he turned on a dime and stamped his foot, commanding, “At ease, cadets!” As if a wave was rippling through the room, the class of sixty took their seats row-by-row, and he began: “With the completion of yesterday’s practical, you should now all be thoroughly versed in channeling our planet’s energy. If by chance you are still uncomfortable, then you should be well prepared to be made mincemeat of on the practice floor.” He cleared his throat and scanned the room for the slightest sign of inattention. “Three days from now, your first official training matches will commence. These will be the backbone of your education for the next four years. Proving your mastery of geomancy through them could grant you a starting rank of sergeant or higher. Consequently, let me make myself clear: Under no circumstance will you hold back. Yes, you will be fighting your friends and brothers, but the enemy will not hold back, so neither should you! Is that understood!?” “Yes, Sir!” the chorus of students rang out. “Now, before we move on to combat applications of geomancy, it is imperative that you understand the nature of this conflict, the only reason you are sitting before me at this moment. After all, a soldier is not the weapon in his hand; rather, they are defined by what they protect, the ideals they uphold.” I was excited; it wasn’t very often we would get a history lesson. Without turning my head, I was able to clearly see the reactions of my neighbors: Jerich to my left looked moved, while Marcia to my right probably thought the lieutenant was getting too full of himself again. “Following the depletion of Rhod’s eponymous rhodium veins, our people were released from the shackles of slavery, and the world was placed under probation by the powers that govern this corner of space. Little knowledge of them remains; our entire understanding of them hinges on rumors passed down and what we can gather from the Arbiters’ Accords. Still, it is clear we were allowed to rebuild with the promise of eventually rejoining the community as equals rather than spoils of war. And in a few short centuries we had gone from what was essentially a blank slate technologically to early industrialization—that is, until they showed up. I had to quickly stop myself from pouting; I knew exactly where this was going “Those wild animals, suddenly awakened from their extended hibernation and wasted no time in making enemies of us. With little warning—other than tree-hugging nonsense about unsustainable practices—they began their campaign of sabotage: destroying our factories, razing our crops, caving in our mines…” Davies paused and looked over the class, his eyes shining with conviction. “This is what this is all about, cadets. We have a great dream—rebuild our culture and one day rejoin the rest of humanity in the stars—but these rabid things tell us we should be content to live in the dirt with them, never aspiring for more. “We are fighting for our right to exist! Do you understand!? To abandon progress, to abandon innovation, is to abandon being human. Rhod itself is but a means to an end. We’ll use it as we please, for this is our planet!” “This is our planet, sir,” we boomed, echoing the slogan. However, I was a little late to respond for some reason; something just felt... off. “They are but barbarians who seek to destroy all we have strived for! However, we would be fools not to recognize their advantages. Who can tell me what those are?” We were silent, for he had not given anyone explicit permission to speak. The lieutenant looked almost disappointed nobody had taken the bait. “How about you, Liu?” he said. A dark-skinned girl of ten stood up at the front of the class and recited, “Their magic aptitude is better than ours, allowing for combination spells; their stamina is greater, limiting how long we can melee with them; and they require fewer resources to sustain due to their metabolism, rendering them hardy against attacks on their supply lines.” “Very good. You may sit,” Davies said. It had been a textbook answer—as in literally every word had been pulled directly from the text. Liu’s fantastic memory and overall toughness had put her at top of the class despite having joined only a few months prior. Lacking the magical ability most girls were gifted with, she had been reassigned to a career path on the frontlines. Those boys who didn’t resent her for her talent found themselves eerily drawn to her lithe body and sharp wit, myself among them. She made our hearts pound in a way we didn’t understand yet. Come to think of it, I thought, that’s kind of weird, since I’m clearly a filly. For a brief moment the whole scenario started to come undone at the seams. What am I doing among a bunch of preteens? I’m just a foal. None of it made sense, actually. Where was my mom, anyway? But in any case, it was a matter of no importance. I was clearly a student here, so there was no point in questioning it; after all, nobody else found it weird. Realizing I had spaced out, I hopped onto the surface of my desk and crawled forward to get a better view of the instructor. Davies still in the midst of his morale lecture: the bearmen were wicked, while we were brave, industrious fighters; we will prevail because it is our home, our planet; and one day we will beat them all the way back to their capital of Lifesberth. Thinking on it for a moment, I realized that the second point no longer made sense. We had just learned that they had been hibernating possibly before we had even settled the planet, yet he treated the matter of ownership as if it was obvious. Since the topic of the lecture was ethics, I thought it might even come up on the test. “Now is that understood?” “Yes, Sir!” we parroted. “Questions?”  Usually this would be met with silence and prompt dismissal, but today I raised my hoof. “Yes?” The lieutenant seemed almost stunned. “I know we always say Rhod is ours and the bearmen are the enemy, but you said they were hibernating for a really long time. Because I guess they were here first, why don’t they have any stake?” It was a good question. It would clarify parts of the lesson, and I was genuinely curious why dibs did not apply to the enemy. “What do you mean?” The lieutenant’s scowl drove those words right through me. My hooves started shaking as I stammered out, “Well, if I lost my dog… I’d want it returned—not that I’m saying we should give up the fight—more what I mean is shar—share… like a compromise…Not that we should c—compromise anything in our efforts, but why is it obvious—” “Oh, now?” he said with disgust, taking several large strides towards me. “You’re saying you find a stray dog that is untrained, underfed and unkempt. And you spend a century training it into a loyal companion, nourishing it with the fruits of your labor and grooming it with meticulous care—and you say you would just give it back!?” He glowered at me. Standing at four-foot seven, to a child he may as well have been a giant. “No, I sai—I wanted to say—” “And what is this dreck about “sharing”. Did nothing I say penetrate your puerile skull!? They are the enemy—savages! We can no more share a planet with them than your dog could have two masters.. It is us! or them! Is that clear!?” I hastily nodded before giving up and curling into a ball, sobbing. Tears stained my thin fur as it tickled my nose, like a bunch of soggy cotton tips. The insults and the dismemberment of my question continued. I was no match for an adult’s intellect; all I could do was wait for the storm to end. The word treason had been uttered for the third time by the time I dared lift my tiny head again. Surprisingly, not only had Lt. Davies’s tirade stopped but he was seemingly frozen mid-syllable. I saw color slowly leave his face and the surroundings. This was followed by the rest of the room, the students, the bamboo desks. When everything had turned gray, the room fizzled and disappeared, taking even the concrete floor and its radiated summer heat with it. “It is but a nightmare, young foal. Thou mayest now be at peace,” came a serene voice. A colossal, midnight-blue horse materialized into view in a puff of white energy. I had seen similar creatures ridden by great heroes in historic images, but nevertheless, I was in awe of its sheer size, easily a head taller than the largest adult I knew. It could crush me with a single misplaced step, yet I felt strangely calm. She continued speaking in a refined, feminine manner, but the words didn’t register, as my eye was drawn irresistibly to her forehead. Scrutinizing the long horn atop her head, I raised a hoof to my own forehead, feeling for a bump I knew was there. My attraction to her wings was even stronger; I found myself wondering what it would be like to be wrapped in them. My stomach suddenly rumbled, and I looked to her. I thought perhaps this creature would be able take care of me. But it really was weird to think that; in fact, all of my thoughts were getting messed up. I was pretty sure I wasn’t a filly. She said it was a dream, but that’s the one thing people in dreams will never tell you. Suddenly I felt my hooves lose their grip on the ground and gravity seemed to relax. I started to hover, ensconced by a bluish aura. I was confused and panicking, though comfort simultaneously washed through me. Is she doing something to me? Why do I— She opened her mouth to flash a set of herbivore teeth at me, her tongue reaching out towards my face. Sudden, rational fear took over, and a sense of helplessness gripped my heart, I could only clamp my eyes shut and prepare to be eaten. With my heart pounding, I jolted awake. Finding myself in a finely-made but unknown bed, I exhaled in relief. Ten years later and I still dream about that day, huh? I thought to myself. It had easily been the worst day of my life. For borderline treasonous comments, I had been suspended for an entire week, sullying my family’s nigh-perfect reputation. And my parent-imposed punishment at home lasted several times longer. Needless to say, I had learned my lesson. But despite the traumatic memory, that day was a turning point, and afterwards, I strove to be the best I could for Rhod. Davies may have been harsh, but he had molded me into something great.   I racked my brain to recall more details about the disturbing dream, but found it quickly fading. There also had been something else—something with a horse monster. But before I could recall, it occurred to me that I had no idea where I was. And that I was supposed to be dead. I felt a flash of disorientation as the world shifted once more: featureless white walls melted into monumental mounds of snow, and a frosty sky painted itself into existence above me. Confused, I looked down to once more see little black hooves framed by blue fur. Hmm, I thought, I guess I am a filly after all. Why did I think I was dead? But this thought was interrupted as I felt my hooves squish into the snow. Wait… this isn’t snow it’s—I licked my hoof—ice cream! I looked down again and found I was sitting on a gigantic plastic spoon. Oblivious to any weirdness, I scanned the array of multicolored ice cream hills below, which sloped downwards into a valley of fudge. Well, the hard stuff can wait. This looks fun! Without a care in the world, I shifted my weight to the front of the spoon. I basked in the exuberance of the bumpy descent, giggling. Pulling her consciousness back to the physical realm, Luna opened her eyes to look on the throne room at sunset. It was entirely devoid of ponies, save for her sister’s scribe and a few night guards. The former was too nervous to say a word, while the latter weren’t talkative at the best of times—though their lack of expression did make them neigh-unbeatable in poker. Since the Canterlot nobility had elected to save their trifling concerns until her sister’s return, this left her with nothing to do during standard Day Court hours. Bored, she had defaulted to monitoring the newcomer through his dreams. Despite Celestia’s provisions, the magic of Equestria had already started acting on the alien: his dreams were varied and mostly nonsensical, but in a growing percentage of them, she was the filly Equestria believed her to be. This was an effect well-known to them by now, but most of the time it failed to correlate with actual acceptance of one’s new form. Luna regretted startling the foal, but at the time, she had felt a strange instinct to lick a stray strand of her mane back into place. It didn’t help that the foal’s colors were so close to her own; though that was likely the dream reacting to the older alicorn’s presence. Still, alicorn foals were amazingly cute. She had seen pictures of Cadance, but they simply didn’t do the real thing justice. Even though she was still angry that her sister had broken their agreement, she now better understood what had gone through her head. The Nightmare had so blinded her with selfishness that she hadn’t realized that Celestia too must have been lonely these past thousand years. As much as she loved her ponies, few would see more than infallibility. And now, recently, she had been able to watch Mi Amore Cadenza and Twilight Sparkle grow up before her eyes, but always from a distance. Tia would love her own foal, Luna thought. When forced to choose, she was willing to risk her life for this sliver of a chance. Pondering, she restlessly shifted her body on the throne. But she’s too self-sacrificing, always doing the right thing for everypony else and never once stopping to think of herself—that befits her so.   She scratched her chin with a wing and pursed her lips. While ‘tis noble for her to attempt to return him home, it would be a waste; an alicorn foal could bring much joy to the kingdom—and to her. Nevertheless, she could hardly keep her here against her will, and keeping the truth from him would be no different. How could she get him to want to stay here? Luna smiled. The question suggested the answer—she just had to make her fall in love with Equestria! That would be the outcome best for everypony. Excited, she immediately started devising schemes to make a most splendid first impression! But, pulled back into the moment, she then realized she was almost late to lower the sun. Their ponies could be embarrassingly forgiving about this, chalking up most mistakes as Celestia knowing better than them. In fact, just last Thursday, Tia had overslept by almost three hours, and still, most ponies went about their morning business hours behind schedule, denying anything was out of the ordinary. Yet somehow, Luna doubted they would be as forgiving were she to blunder in her sister’s place...