"So, I have spoken with Doctor Haywalker," Shadow began, filing some papers neatly and setting them down on his desk off to the side. "He's filled me in about your... condition." He gave me a strange look at that word.
I nodded. "I would have guessed he did, sir. He has suggested personally that I take one to two weeks of leave, or more depending on how I am feeling. Otherwise, he has not made it too clear what I do after that." I paused.
"Well, if you truly do have dysthymia, and as the doctor has said, this is just his preliminary thoughts. He still would like to make some final examinations before he can confirm your condition. Nonetheless, vacation may do you some good," Shadow then picked up a blank report and a pen. "I will put in for the second lieutenant that you will be taking fourteen days of leave, full pay. How about that?"
"That sounds good, sir. In spite of all of this, I hope you don't believe I'm mooching to get some time off." I gave a faint smile.
"Not in a million years would I conjure that up in my mind, not with you. Others, maybe. But not you. I know you too well." Shadow gave a reassuring smile and a nod. He took the pen in his hoof and started writing down on the commanded leave form. "What do you think you'll be up to on leave, Star?"
"Well," I took in a deep breath and let it out. "Most certainly relax at home, in Canterlot. Not really any other places for me to go. I know the doctor said take a vacation, but I don't think he truly realizes how expensive it is to go to luxurious and pristine places to unwind."
"I understand that completely. You could try just exploring central Equestria, like Ponyville, Whitetail Woods, Rainbow Falls, etcetera. Simply places that are reasonable to take a few days off to visit and check out what's in the area," Shadow replied, returning his focus to the paperwork.
"I'll consider it. Thank you, sir."
"No need to be formal, it was a friend-to-friend suggestion."
I chuckled softly. "Copy that."
***
With the leave papers signed, I left Shadow's office to begin a later-than-usual shift. I would only have another one after this tomorrow before my leave would officially kick in. Then I would be off to Canterlot, or wherever else I decide to go that wouldn't hurt the budget I'm on.
Grabbing the gear I needed, I made my way to the north wall where the guard post was. From there, I took Halberd's position while he went off to rest. I still felt bad for the poor stallion having to put up with the elements. Luckily for him, as of lately, the weather hadn't been all too bad. Cold, still, but not rough.
I took up post on the wall, for what I now remembered to be the first time since prior to the attacks. I never missed such a harmless job as much as I did now. It was very nice to be back on a normal job once again, all the while giving me somewhat of a view of the reconstruction occurring across the water.
For once, the afternoon went by like clockwork. No hiccups or disturbances, nothing. Maybe the doctor was wrong, this was very relaxing. No, wait. He wanted me to take time off to relax from work in general. Damn it.
An hour after lunch, the rain had started up again. As usual, it was a gentle shower. A gentle, cold, shower. Any colder, and it could have turned into tiny pellets of hail. Luckily this didn't occur, and even then if it did, the hail would have been more annoying than anything else.
Walking back to the small heated structure on the interior side of the wall and out of the rain, I took a seat in the chair and looked over the multiple computer monitors showing live security camera feed. All appeared normal. As I stood up to continue my rounds, however, the phone rang. I stopped and looked at it for a moment, then picked up. "Private First Class Star Shooter, to whom am I speaking?"
"Huh, I didn't think you would answer, honestly," Shadow spoke from the other end. "Anyways, how is your shift coming along?"
"Aside from the rain, it is going well. Is er, is something wrong, sir?"
"No, not at all. However, I called to let you know I've received word that both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are coming out to Manehattan. Celestia wishes to make a speech to the city, while Luna is to visit home base. Her intentions are... unclear as of right now. But, I thought I would make you aware."
"So, another busy night tonight?" I sighed quietly. "Great."
"Don't sweat it. They will bring their own guards, we will just be here to welcome them. Carry on, Marine."
"Yes, sir."
Shadow hung up, allowing me to as well. I sighed once more, lips flapping this time as I did, and trotted out of the small watch tower to continue my shift for the remainder of the afternoon and early evening.
Somewhere near seven-thirty is when I clocked out and replaced by the night shift. I turned in my rifle and headed to my barrack to take a quick shower and put on a dry uniform rather than the rain-soaked one I had on. At that time, it remained to be unknown exactly when the princesses would arrive, nor what Princess Luna was going to do when she got here. My assumption was it had to do with how the situation a week ago was handled.
I yawned softly, slipping on a blue t-shirt and taking a hanger with one of my coats from the closet, undoing the buttons and I slipped my hooves into the sleeves. Sooner than I could button up and head back out, the door opened and in trotted a rather excited-looking Nightpath.
"Star! Star!" He galloped up to me with a big grin. "Have you heard the news?"
I nodded, fiddling with the first couple of buttons on my jacket. "The princesses are coming to town. Supposedly Princess Luna is holding a meeting or something here."
"Not a meeting, Star. She is here to congratulate us." Night waved a hoof.
"That's to be expected. They usually—"
"No, Star," Night rested a hoof on my shoulder, stopping my actions. "She is congratulating us. Us, as in, you, me, Silver, and Anchorage. Somepony... leaked word of what we did and that is why she is coming with Princess Celestia. We are getting promoted as well."
My eyes widened just slightly. "A ceremony for us? Promotion? Surely there's not much truth to that. Who told you?"
"Arc Nobis. Well, he pointed toward it. What I got out of what he said told me that is what will happen. Either way, isn't that exciting?!" Night's grin grew further.
Eyes still widened slightly, I then looked away. "I mean, it's cool, but..."
The brown stallion's smile faded, he moved his eyes and narrowed them onto me carefully. "But what? Aren't you happy about that?"
"Well, I..." I stopped, keeping my mouth open to speak, but no words came out. I looked floorwards. A second later, I faced Night.
"This is no cheerful ceremony, Night. While we may be getting promoted, if that rumor is true, it still won't be a good time, and definitely not one we will want to remember. She is just going to give us our patches, say a few words about us and then the ponies we lost in recent months, and then it will be over."
Night stared concernedly a moment, then with a deep nasal exhale, he looked down, gulping softly. His gaze slowly worked its way up towards mine again.
"Won't it be better to go with it? The sooner you accept the ceremony and what ever is given to us, if anything, the quicker we can move on from all of this."
I felt a shy bit of anger form in my chest. Like a small spark from a cut wire. My teeth clenched slightly and as I spoke. "There is no moving on from this. Can't you see that, Night? What we have witnessed will never be unseen. There is no reverting for our minds. Both attacks, the ponies being killed, we cannot go back to our old selves anymore!"
Night took a slight step back, his ears pinning as well. "Star, I... That... was not what I was talking about. At all."
The realization struck me like a brick. My eyes grew wide and ears perked up. "Oh... I'm... sorry... I'm so sorry, Night."
"I... um... I'm going to pretend we never had this discussion," he walked further into the room, then to the small closet to take his dress uniform out. "Let's just... get ready. The princess is expected to be here in an hour."
I eyed Night carefully and nodded shortly afterwards. Changing my focus, I removed the jacket I had on and too grabbed my dress uniform to put on. The both of us changed into them, and checked over ourselves carefully prior to heading out.
***
The service was to take place at an on-base entertainment center. Believe it or not, this place had plenty of accommodations even I wasn't aware of. Heck, the entertainment center, or movie theater, whichever one it was, stayed out of my knowledge for this long.
We walked in with the crowd of others gathering the see the princess, upon doing so, Sergeant Hardstaff met us in the main theater and showed us to the front row where we were asked to sit, alongside Anchorage and Silver Edge. Both sat patiently, dressed nicely with us. Then again, everypony else was, apart from a couple who must not have received the memo for the dress code. Not that it mattered to anypony.
While the theater was not too terribly large, it managed to pack just about everypony with the exception of some having to stand toward the back until more chairs were brought in. Any moment now, Princess Luna would enter through the front door with her own guards and stand up on the wooden stage. At the same time, I kept repeating to myself mentally that it would be just like graduation again. Same circumstances, minus a few extra ponies other than ourselves being honored, and certainly not as big of a crowd.
Over the course of a couple of minutes, the room filled with chatter as Marines and sailors exchanged conversations throughout the duration. I remained speechless, as did Night, Anchorage, and Silver. All had small smiles on their faces, though. Not exactly fake, but not completely genuine either. I still saw pain in their looks, their postures, everything. Maybe it was best if I wore a plastic smile, too.
Minutes later, the door to the theater opened and in walked a dark grey pegasus in her highness' purple and royal blue-colored armor, a helmet on his head unlike the others and resembling that of Canterlot's city guard's helmet build, except it matched his hoof guards and breastplate perfectly. The mane piece was a lighter purple on the bottom, which a short stripe of dark purple on the top. Just hardly visible, the stallion had slight fangs sticking from beneath his upper lip, and ears just barely with fluffier tufts than that of a normal pony. The insignia on his armor also told he was a captain. Likely the captain of Luna's personal guard, or second in command, one of the two.
Clearing his throat, he spoke up. "All rise! I present to you, Princess Luna!" He called out, walking up to the stage and standing off to the side, the dark blue alicorn mare following just a little bit behind. Everypony in the room stood up, watching carefully as the princess approached the podium. Following her was another guard, this time, a grey unicorn mare.
Unlike the graduation ceremony, the princess wore the most beautiful of dresses I'd ever seen in my entire life. It was a silver-and-night blue dress with tiny diamond-like gems all down to the bottom. It sparkled strikingly alike her wavy, night-sky mane, also like the stars of a calm night. She wore matching shoes of pure glass with the pointed tips reaching up to knee-level, each with the moon on the front. The train of the dress rested just an inch off of the floor to ensure it would not snag on anything, not even the stage as she walked up.
On top of it all, her mane was put up in a bun and wrapped by a ribbon of her coat color perfectly, as well as a more fancier version of the necklace she normally wore. This one was silver rather than black, and the moon was made of pure crystal that shone brightly in the light, even giving her body as a whole a gentle glow.
Over all, the princess was dressed impeccably. She surely had a great taste for clothing. I'd imagine she looks like this at the Grand Galloping Gala.
"Thank you, everypony," Princess Luna cleared her throat quietly. "Please, be seated." At her word, every pony in the room did so, excluding her and her guards.
Spawning seemingly out of thin air with magic was her speech script. She flipped through the pages carefully, then setting them down on the small podium below the microphone.
"It is an honor to be once again in the city of Manehattan, even more so to be surrounded by the mares and gentlecolts that have fought for the freedom and safety of our fair nation since day one. We have come to honor each and every one of thou, as well as present awards to a special group of ponies who, despite how despising it may sound, went against their orders to be a last line of defense when all went wrong just across the river from this base.
"Not only did they stay behind when all others deployed to the city of Baltimare, a far distance away, they marched into a city under attack, into the rain of bullets, and the hail of destruction caused by a tyrant army of griffons and ponies, known well now as the Great Gryphon Constitution. Without these ponies' contributions, it remains to be unlikely that any of us would be sitting here tonight to commemorate these fine stallions." She paused to flip to the next page.
"Without these brave actions of valor, more innocent ponies may have been injured, or possibly brutally murdered by said militia. They stood up for the ponies, fighting back against the invaders with no hesitation, and no remorse. Unfortunately, however, one of their own had fallen in their efforts. This pony, Private Solar Wave, sacrificed his very life to protect the ponies he loved and cared for, to provide a shield for them when none was available. He will be remembered, and both me and my dear sister have distinctly determined that he will be awarded with the Celestia Cross."
At her last two words, my jaw parted slightly. The Celestia Cross was the highest of awards. Ever. Nothing stood above the Celestia Cross. This was because it was only ever awarded to ponies lost in battle. But Solar deserved it. He most truly did.
"The medal, will be personally given to Solar's dear guardians by myself and Princess Celestia. While we were unable to attend his funeral, nor anypony else's, we are deeply honored to personally meet with the parents of those lost." She stopped once more to swap papers. "And we ask of everypony to take a moment to remember the ponies whom had fallen in these terrible acts against Equestria."
The princess' head lowered, eyes closing. Her guards followed suit, then myself and everypony else occupying the room. Beyond the beat of my heart, a pin could drop outside and it would sound crystal clear. The moment itself was long. A couple of full minutes at the least. I liked that.
Glancing back up to the crowd, the princess continued softly. "Second importantly, we are all gathered tonight to meet those ponies who have contributed to Equestria's very freedom, and the liberation of Manehattan from enemy control. Furthermore, all four will be provided with their own service medals, including promotion from their current rank. They will come up beside me for all to see." Princess Luna flipped to yet another page, her eyes running over the names listed.
"Petty Officer Third Class Anchorage, Lunar Navy." She called first. With a deep breath, Anchorage, in his fancy naval crackerjacks, stood slowly and stepped up to Princess Luna's side.
"Private Silver Edge, Lunar Marine Corps."
Next was Silver. He stood and made his way up beside Anchorage, both standing at attention.
"Private Nightpath, Lunar Marines."
After Silver went Night, standing on Anchorage's opposite side.
"Finally, Private First Class Star Shooter, Lunar Marines."
I eased myself slightly and rose up out of my seat, strolling up to the stage and positioning beside Silver.
"Lieutenant, would thou care to bring the medals and patches?" Princess Luna said, glancing over toward Lieutenant Snow Storm.
The white pegasus nodded, bringing a couple of small cases up. He stopped just beside the princess, opening the top case. It contained four rank patches that went with our dress uniforms. One a Lance Corporal patch, two a Private First Class patch, and the final one, Petty Officer Second Class.
Taking one patch at a time from the case with a light blue magical aura, Princess Luna turned to us respectively. Using her magic, the current patches were removed, and thus replaced with the new ones. Private First Class for Silver and Night, Petty Officer Second Class for Anchorage, and finally... Lance Corporal for myself.
Upon finishing, Snow swapped the steel cases and opened the second one, four shiny medals waiting inside. The princess took one, a blue-white striped suspension ribbon with an attached stainless-steel cross with twin crossing anchors engraved, the Navy Cross. She took it carefully with her magic, Anchorage lowering his head slightly as he faced her, and Luna moving the ribbon around his neck to rest it there. When it lightly tapped against his chest, he raised his head once more, still at an attention stance.
The remaining medals were all of the same. All silver crosses, this time with twin-crossing rifles rather than anchors on them, with dark blue and silver suspension ribbons. Each one, Princess Luna levitated up and rested around our necks, hanging them there. When finishing, we turned to face her, saluting simultaneously. The princess gave a salute back, as well as a proud smile.
"What you four have done for this country shall be remembered for generations to come. Your story will not go untold by many. More importantly, you all will not be forgotten. We will make certainty of that. Justice has been served, and I as well as my dear sister, and the rest of Equestria, are grateful for your heroic actions. We are forever indebted to you four."