Smiling On
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“Good day, everypony!” said Surprise with a toothy smile.
There was no answer, as usual, but the white mare wasn’t deterred. She closed her eyes, letting the sunlight hit her face, inhaled the fresh air and then walked down the row, the flowers held under her wing.
“It’s a really beautiful day, isn’t it?” she said to the nearest slab of white marble, one bearing the name of Iron Heart. Predictably, the gravestone remained silent. “I haven’t been around lately,” continued the pegasus as she kept walking further away from the fortress wall, “so I decided I’d pay you a visit. I know nopony has the time to visit you nowadays.” she finished, smiling apologetically.
She kept walking, smiling and bowing her head, until she reached the fourth row of the small graveyard. The gravestones there, resting in the shadows of the trees, were newer than others. Surprise reached under her wing and took one flower, putting it in front of the stone bearing the name Heavy Weight. “I should’ve visited after that earthquake, I know you were all worried. But we had to find out what was going on,” she said, reaching for another flower. This one went to Bright Eyes, a pegasus filly.
“To be honest, it’s all still a mess,” she added, and for the first time her smile disappeared, replaced with a tired frown. She continued along the row, leaving flowers on the next gravestones, ponies who succumbed to imperfect spellstitching procedures or training accidents.
The seventh grave was Gentle Touch, the first fatality of war. Surprise stopped there. “It was Libra and the guys,” she said, “turns out they did something really stupid. We still don’t know how to fix it.”
She looked around warily, the opaque, pupiless orbs of her blue eyes scanning the surrounding area. “I can’t really talk about that,” she said, sighing, “military secret.” The pony leaned forward towards the stone. “But the Emperor has been merciful. They still have a chance to prove they’re his loyal soldiers.” Suddenly she smiled. “I know they’ll make it. You know Libra and Gloria. And especially Lightbringer.”
The next two graves were empty, slabs of stone commemorating the two ponies that were never found. Surprise put a flower on each even so.
“Daisy Field? I’m still taking care of your flowers. I was thinking of planting them here, what do you think?” she said, leaning closer to the gravestone, her ear twitching. Then she nodded sagely. “Yes, this is not the place. It’s a military graveyard, after all; somepony might get rid of them while landscaping. I will look for a different place for them, some sunny hill near a stream or something.”
She tapped her hoof on the other gravestone, one marked with the name Jade Horn, before passing further along the line. The next three graves belonged to Storm Front and his two wingponies, Lightning Flash and Thunderclap. Surprise stopped in front of the middle grave. The stone was slightly taller, breaking the symmetry of the row to signify the alicorn’s higher status, a breach of the rules pushed by his aristocratic father.
“You’ve heard me talking earlier,” said Surprise. “I can’t say more now; I’m sorry. On the bright side, Shooting Star is doing great with Loyalty. The soldiers really love him. I’m sure it’s thanks to your example.” She leaned closer to the stone and finished in a whisper. “we all miss you.”
Straightening in a salute, Surprise walked to the end of the line, to the two newest graves. She put the last two flowers there.
“We’ve pushed them back,” she said. “Still no sign of your foci, but we’re using the…” she hesitated, then leaned very close to the grave. “flower… to look for them. We’ll get them back soon; you’ll see.”
She turned around and walked in the opposite direction, until she was standing in the middle of the row. She then took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
“Rest your bones in Gaia’s soil, dream a dream of happy times.
Let Indigo take your soul to his realm among the stars.”
She reared and clapped her hooves, before stomping on the ground.
“That’s a unicorn prayer,” said a voice behind her back.
Surprise turned rapidly. Lightbringer and Enigma were standing in the path, mere steps from her. The orange pegasus walked past Surprise, heading straight for the grave of Gentle Touch.
“What are you doing here?” asked Surprise, squinting at Enigma.
The stallion didn’t meet her gaze. “I’ve found a way to get us past the wards. He insisted, so…” he paused, now finally looking straight at her face. “We aren’t going to escape. We have our honor.”
Surprise raised eyebrow. “Why would I think you were escaping? You know I know you better than anypony,” she said with a small smile.
“She shouldn’t be here, this isn’t right,” said Lightbringer behind her back.
Surprise turned around. Lightbringer was standing over the grave, head low, his wings shaking slightly.
“Unicorn prayers, unicorn rites, that’s not right,” he said. “She’s a pegasus. She should fly. She should be returned to the wind, not lie here like this, trapped under a piece of rock.” He turned his head towards Surprise. The mare was walking up to him, her first instinct to hug him, but something stopped her, the sudden tension in his body as she approached, a cornered predator ready to pounce. For a moment it looked as if Lightbringer was about to buck the gravestone. Then he relaxed his stance and folded his wings. Surprise saw his angry eyes glisten with sudden moisture.
“When we go to battle tomorrow…” he started, talking through a clenched jaw. “Don’t let me end like this. Promise you will have me burned.”
Surprise looked at Enigma, who watched the whole situation with his usual expression of faked disinterest, then back at Lightbringer. She smiled, showing him her fangs.
“I know you too, Light. Trust me, You will not die tomorrow.”
Within a split second, Lightbringer’s faced changed back to anger. “How do you know!?” he shouted in her face. “some weird premonition!? That sure would have been useful before, when we…” he stood there, red, struggling for words.
Surprise shook her head. “No, silly. It’s because I know you. You’re the most stubborn of us all. You never give up. They don’t have a weapon there that could make you lie down and die. You’ll just keep fighting until you win.”
Lightbringer moved closer to Surprise, nostrils flared, her sharp-toothed smile met with his angry snarl.
Enigma walked up to him, putting a wing across his withers. “Light, we’ve been here long enough. It’s time for us to come back before somepony finds out.”
Lightbringer glanced aside at his friend, and then released a long breath, calming down. He looked at Surprise one last time.
“You can’t kid yourself forever, Surprise. This is real life. You can’t make all the nightmares disappear by laughing at them.”
Surprise was no longer grinning, her muzzle back to a small smile. But just before the two stallions left, she spoke once more.
“That’s what I do.”
A shorter one this time.
I've been told some names might have unintended second meanings - this was not my intent. There is some hidden information here as usual, but it's not that. 
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Hooray for burial rites!
Wonder what those for earth ponies look like...
A great many graves. Many names Surprise must have known. And there is even an alicorn grave. The whole chapter just gives one the feeling that any of the characters could die, no matter their importance to the story.
On that note, Enigma's denial of an escape and Lightbringer's belief in his coming death just shout, "Better prepare x coffins for our characters." It seems like their situation will only get worse from here, and I do not see it getting better any time soon.
6341044 Well, it is a war. Though I do admit I went Martin on the characters at a couple points. The "class" that originally underwent the enhancement program had 40 ponies, but between the nameless extras who got crippled by side effects, or simply failed the training, and those that ended up in the graveyard, there are 14 still left, 13 of them in active duty. (the last one lost a horn in battle, and though a prosthetic crystal allowed him to recover some, the command decided that putting him back alongside his friends would make him a red shirt, and that's bad for morale.)
6344014 Command was certainly genre-savvy.
6344479 Not nearly enough, sadly. Just like book one, this is like a Greek tragedy on some levels.
I haven't read the original one (yet), but I gotta say that this is looking good!
the way they are structured, they can be read in any order - it just makes a different experience
Pretty good chapter.
I think you did a good job setting up the mood, especially with the descriptions within the graveyard. It was moving at times.
I especially liked Surprise in this chapter. Optimistic, but not childish, even though she seems that way. She does what she does to lift the spirits of others, but seeing her in that setting is a bit tragic.