Good morning, afternoon, evening, and night, and welcome to the third prompt writing challenge for TAGC! With the passing of the seasons, we can watch the change from dark times to a brighter future for our forgotten tags, or at least we can for the next few months. If we're in the Northern Hemisphere.

Of course, it's not enough just to write stories about these overlooked characters. A worthy part of the process is to give these characters the quality service and attention we routinely give to their more popular counterparts. Their environment, their society, their culture, their relationships, their personas, their minds and hearts, everything.

Masterweaver has introduced this month's theme of MARCHING FORTH, so this prompt will take that theme and use it to flesh out - or outright invent, if necessary - the unconsidered facets of our characters' lives.

Here is the gist of the challenge: Pick any character from our stats list for the month. An army is on the march, and they're involved somehow. Your character is one of the soldiers in the march, or watching the march, or trying to stop the march, or is reminiscing or talking about a past march, etc.

Now think about the various angles of approach, or consider the questions you might ask. For instance, what is the military doing? Are they on parade, going to fight a just war, showing that they've conquered a city, or something even stranger than that?

How does your chosen character feel about the military presence? What are they trying to accomplish: action, understanding, rebellion, or the like? Are they reacting to other ponies, enjoying themselves, feeling patriotic, wishing to join the ranks, worrying about a bigger disaster, or personally connected with a person among the marchers?

For instance, maybe Sky Stinger and Vapor Trail are now Wonderbolts on parade, marvelling at the rocky road they took to success. Maybe Princess Flurry Heart is watching her crystal troops take over yet another Yakyakistan settlement while Prince Rutherford watches his own Yak-Yak Attack troops rush in to smash them up good. Maybe Pony Joe remembers his old time in the Royal Guard, or Coloratura remembers an old flame who marched off to war and wrote to her every day. Maybe Photo Finish is in charge, wants to launch her latest "Army Accoutrements" fashion show, and won't take no for an answer.

In summary: How you interpret this prompt and your character's relation to it is entirely up to you.

There is no word limit.

There is no limit to the number of stories you can submit.

There are no restrictions on whether any of your stories are complete at the end of the month, though it's obviously preferable if you can complete it on time.

Once the story has been submitted to the site itself, you can add it here in a comment and with a link.

The deadline is the end of March, or roughly three weeks from today.

And, of course, the usual site rules apply. As with last time, feel free to ask questions or to chat. There are no prizes except the intrinsic pleasure of a challenge well met. Deadline extensions may be considered if you are struggling, but you're going to have to be persuasive, and this time there's no onus on completion. Remember: this is a casual challenge, not homework.

Shoulders back! Stand tall! Wave the flag proudly! And... MARCH!

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Did it in a bit of rush before I vanish for a few days, but I hope it satisfies. Voila, The Commander's Shilling! The pegasi armies of antiquity need love as much as anyone, after all ... as well as new recruits.

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Darn, and I still have no idea what to do for my own prompt. You leave me at the starting line. Well done! I continue to be impressed by your efforts.

Now, I just need to get my own ideas up and running...

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For what it's worth, I was stuck for a fair while thinking about what I could work with, given the prompt and the characters on offer. I think I even contemplated a Smooze piece at one point, however that would have gone.

Looking forward to whatever you get up and running!

Ah. That could have gone better. Carabas, I honestly wish I had your focus last month, considering your output for both this and the Imposing Sovereigns contest.

Hm. It might be time to try and draw some more users in, if I could think of a way how. Promotion and more activity seem to be the best methods I can think of. At the moment.