The Red Sun Rises: Homefront

by The Atlantean

5. Training Accident

Princess Cadence woke to the roar of artillery at about five in the morning. She rushed outside the Everfree Castle and saw the Equestrian army using its cannons on an unknown object in the sky. To her, it was a relief to know that Crimson was equipping his soldiers with technology, and was probably in the middle of a training session.

The flying object shattered from a cannon shot; its crew cheered to be the only one to have hit the thing after about ten rounds. Then a second object took flight and they went back to work. The battery was more accurate this time, and blasted it to pieces after only seven rounds. That apparently wasn’t enough for Crimson. He had them keep practicing until they were almost dead on with the first round.

Down in the camp, which was barely seen with the naked eye from the Everfree Castle, the Atlantean steam tanks were in a tiny wedge formation. It was clearly meant for either a blitz or to protect whoever was inside the wedge - likely a platoon of soldiers. They advanced towards the dummy enemies, pelting them with bullet holes. Training for all sorts of things had started only an hour ago, and it was going quite well.

Twilight stood down in the army’s camp, observing the progression to Atlantean weaponry and tactics. She took every session seriously, cringing at each unit in the beginning and applauding them by the end. Atlantean battle lines were just different, and more effective. She watched them charge, pull back, entrench, and retry later. Melee combat wasn’t high on the list of priorities, as every soldier already knew the basics. Ranged using rifles, however, was much more important, and it was up to Crimson to teach his army how to do it right.

“How long are we talking ‘til they’re ready to go offensive?” the princess asked Captain Midnight Shadow.

“A few weeks, maybe more, ma’am,” he replied. “Sorry, but I can’t rush through the training sessions. I got one tomorrow for the officers, myself included.”

“That’s good to hear, Captain.”

Midnight saluted her and walked to the firing range. “Come on, could you please hit the target today?” He was just exasperated from doing this at least ten times by now.

“Captain, do you mind if I take over? You should take a break.”

Midnight was about to argue with Twilight, but instead nodded and walked to his tent. He plopped down on the bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

The Princess of Friendship began as soon as the captain left. “As you were. Fire as a unit, like a line, and have somepony behind you to fire while you reload. When they get down, you fire, and repeat the process. I’d like for this to work by noon.”

“I didna know ya were one fer war stratgees, Princess.” one commented.

“I used to be a nerd on pretty much everything. Still am. So I do know a thing or two, but that knowledge is nothing compared to Colonel Dawn’s experience.”

Twilight observed a steady improvement over the next several hours. She noticed that this particular regiment seemed to be better at skirmish tactics like the one she told them to practice than standard battle lines, and put that in the back of her mind for future reference. Something like this was a good sign; it meant that these guys knew what they were doing.

As the session drew to a close, one of the rifles misfired and hit Twilight in her right foreleg. Intense pain shot up her leg and she felt on fire. She fell and struggled to get up, but saw the regiment she was training had formed a circle around her as soon as the princess had started to fall.

“My leg…” She groaned and continued to try getting up. Each time, the pain intensified, and she fell back down.

Looking at the source of her misery, she saw blood oozing from a hole in her foreleg. The hole was small, like the ones in the targets down the range. Putting two and two together, she figured that a rifle misfired and the bullet hit her.

A couple medics raced through the regiment’s protective circle and put her on a stretcher. She cried out from the pain, but otherwise stayed quiet. Addressing the regiment as she was carried away, she told them not to worry; it was only a misfire. They were dismissed to the mess until further notice. Though inside, she was quite proud of them. Everypony in the unit had dropped their current task and instantly came to her aid.

An hour later, Cadence and Crimson stood next to Twilight’s bed. The main concern was the leg. Hopefully it didn’t have to be amputated, and that seemed to be the case. But she wouldn’t be able to walk normally for two weeks, and until then, she was confined to Everfree Castle, the Equestrian fallback point.

“At least it isn’t worse. I could be stuck with a pegleg for the rest of my life.”

“Yes it could, Twilight. Your brother hasn’t received the news yet, and hopefully it’ll stay that way. He’d never forgive me for letting you go with the soldiers.” Crimson said.

“Colonel, I was relieving Captain Shadow. He’d been up all morning, and I wanted to help.”

Right then, the Captain of the Royal Guard walked in as if Crimson’s worries had summoned him. He was quite upset about his sister, but didn’t say a word to the colonel. Instead, he talked to Twilight. “Why do you always get yourself into situations like this, Twily? You could’ve been killed!”

“I’m fine. The doctor says I’ll make a full recovery.”

As the siblings conversed, Lieutenant Silver Comet zoomed in. “Colonel, Manufacturing says we’ll have the next steam tank tomorrow morning if they’ve done it right. At the current unrealistic speed, we’re talking about the other two by the end of the week.”

“Excellent. I want all of them tested and our selected teams are to begin training after trials, if the tanks pass. And only if the tanks pass. If not, back to the drawing board.”

“Yes, sir.” Silver Comet raced back out of the hospital tent as fast as he came in.

Shining Armor cocked his head at the Atlantean. “Steam tanks? How exactly will containers of hot water help us on the field of battle?”

Crimson spent the next hour explaining the concept to the Guard.

Comments

[Bluecatcinema]

Poor Twilight. Things just haven't been going her way lately.