//------------------------------// // Chapter One: The General // Story: Conflict of Embers and Souls // by Lord of Flies //------------------------------// Two Years Later… Western Border of United Equestria A unicorn sat in his office, reclining back in his chair, legs propped up on his desk. Being the commander of the guard post, he frowned as he thought about his assignment. “A dead end career in a dead end post,” he sighed. “Oh well, at least I’m not one of those sods that are on the frontlines of war…” “Captain Splash!” Splash shrieked in terror as his lieutenant burst into the office. In his panic, Splash fell back onto the floor. Upon regaining some composure, he barked, “WHAT?!” “General Stormwinds is here to inspect the guard post!” “Right! ...Right!” The lieutenant rolled her eyes, sighing in disappointment. *** Captain Splash, now clad in his full plate armor, noted how well his soldiers stood at attention and in a line. He and his officers stood at attention, as well. A small smile formed on his face. General Stormwinds, an old pegasus stallion clad in full plate armor unlike that Splash had ever seen before. The armor, the color of old gold with bronze trim on the pauldrons, seemed heavy for the pegasus' frame, while his helmet bore a transverse emerald green crest. The general was not wearing his helmet, however, allowing his short* light gold hair to blow a little in the wind. His olive green eyes seemed to be too young for his face. These were surrounded by light blue fur. The general was walking down the line of soldiers, calling for their weapons to be brandished, allowing him to inspect the weapons. After a brief look over of a weapon, Stormwinds handed the weapon back to its owner, making a short comment about the weapon’s state. Staring straight ahead, Splash felt his palms become sweaty as the general neared him. The General would surely find a way to… “Weapon.” Stormwinds had come to the younger captain. Presenting his glaive to the general, Splash felt anxiety wash over him. Looking over the glaive, Stormwinds nodded, and handed back the polearm. “Well,” he said, “everything’s in order. Good job.” “So,” Splash prompted, “is there anything we can improve on?” “Ya’ll need some good ol’ fashioned discipline. That’s what you need.” Splash suddenly found the ground interesting and directed his gaze to the ground. A chuckle drew his attention back to the general. “Anyway,” the general said, “I’m done with my inspection.” “Sir?” Splash was surprised. Inspections usually took much longer than Stormwinds’ inspection. “I could inspect all of the guard outpost, as I normally do. But, since this outpost is on the western border of our country, I inspected your men only.” “Why?” “An inspection of a garrison naturally means that the garrison is unprepared for an enemy attack. I will not have a border outpost be easily captured because I decided to inspect its garrison.” “Oh,” Splash nodded, more out of respect for the general than understanding, “I-I see.” Stormwinds tapped the captain on the shoulder. “Come on,” he said, smiling slightly, “let’s go have some something to eat. I hear that your chef is superb!” Splash nodded, “Yes, yes, she is!” *** While the general and the captain had taken the officers to go have the chef make them some food, the rest of the garrison were ordered to return to their duties. This did not bother most of the soldiers, all of whom understood that the general was not going to stay at the post for very long. However, a few of the soldiers took offense. “How can the general come here and waste our food stocks?! Can he not go and waste some other garrison’s stocks?!” “Easy, sister,” the soldier’s younger sister, sitting at a wooden table, replied, “if General Stormwinds is like any of the other generals, he will not take kindly to those words.” The other mare opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it, seeing the wisdom of her sister’s words. She merely nodded in response. “Besides,” continued the younger mare, “he’ll likely leave tomorrow morning.” The older mare nodded, sighing. “Alright, alright.” “Come,” the younger sister said, as she gestured to a chair across the table from her, “sit.” “You’re right,” the older sister agreed, and sat on the chair indicated by her sister. “I do need to sit down.” The younger mare grabbed a rag and a bucket of water and removed her armor, intending to clean it. “There’s just one thing I don’t get.” “What’s that?” “Why would the general come here?” “This is an outpost along the Western Border,” the younger sister replied, not looking up from her armor, “and while General Stormwinds may not be the stallion in charge of this region, that honor is Lord Malachite's, he is the military leader of this region.” “I know that,” the older sister retorted, “but why here? Why this border outpost in particular? What makes this place so special?” The younger sister frowned, pausing her cleaning, “I don’t know, sister. I don’t know.” The sound of metal-shod feet walking across the dirt near them drew both mares’ attention. General Stormwinds, once again fully armored, with the exception of his helmet, was marching toward the wall. He extended his wings and flapped them powerfully to propel himself up to the wall’s top. The mares, watching from their table, knew that the pegasus had been called by one of the wall sentries. *** “Something you wanted, soldier?” The soldier nodded, and pointed down the valley. Stormwinds looked where the soldier pointed, and frowned. “I don’t see anything,” he said, “not in great detail, anyway.” “Oh,” the soldier said, slapping her head, and offered the general a portable telescope. Taking the portable telescope, the general looked again. He made a soft growl. “What is it, sir?” Handing back the portable telescope, Stormwinds replied, “Get the captain. Now.” “Yes, sir!” Zzap! The soldier, being a unicorn, teleported away. Stormwinds frowned, shaking his head. The sharp, pungent smell that hung in the air after a unicorn teleported was one of the few smells that Stormwinds hated. He sighed and looked at the horizon. “It’s come to this. A trial by fire for a lot of these soldiers.” He looked back at the outpost, frowning slightly. He knew full well that the soldiers within the walls were not as well trained as he would have like. He looked away. Zzap! Captain Splash teleported next to the general. “You called, general?” “Yes,” Stormwinds replied, “there’s an enemy force advancing toward us. They’ll reach us in the next six hours.” “I’ll prepare the defenses.” Stormwinds nodded. “Don’t worry, sir,” Splash said, confidently, “my men, while not as well trained as you’d like, are far superior to the enemy in every way. ‘Cept numbers, of course.” “I just hope that their training will be enough for them to get through this upcoming battle… alive.” “As do I, sir, as do I.” *Short being a relative term for this era. “Long hair” generally refers to hair long enough for a mare to sit on it. “Short hair” means roughly shoulder length and longer.