An Equestrian War Story

by No one is home

The Darkest Day Pt. 2 - Lost in the Shadows

“Fucking bat-ponies!” You have to excuse Jake at that particular moment. There weren’t many lunar pegasi. Outside of Celestia’s Night Guard in Canterlot, most ponies never saw them at all. To the Air Guard, to ponies like us, the only lunars we’d ever seen were our comrades in arms. And when we saw the armies of the night descend from an unnatural storm of shadows… it was a betrayal.

The invaders swooped down to the streets with screeching battle cries, they landed amongst the panicked and cowering ponies, as their commander, a deep grey lunar pegasus mare slowly descend from the shadow of the eclipse, forcing ponies to look away as she landed. “I am Night Wing, of the Captain of the Dusk Guard of her Sovereign Majesty, Nightmare Moon, rightful ruler of Equestria. Return to your homes, this Prefect has been placed under curfew, effective immediately. Looting and rioting will not be tolerated!”

Some of the other parade guards got it in their head about then, that they were gonna be heroes. And I thought I was gonna have to derail a losing fight to pull my buddy out of another problem he jumped into trying to be some kind of Wonderbolt. But Jake had his orders. And he was a good enough soldier to follow orders, and I was a bad enough soldier to not want any part of that fight. So we just sort of snuck off with Mare Bridle and the Councilmare.

“Can’t you two just fly us out of here!” Councilmare Hammer demanded, as we slunk off into the shadows of a nearby alley, “The City Council Building is only a few blocks away!”

“Yeah,” I replied dryly, “Because that won’t draw attention at all! Two royal guards in full regalia toting a couple of well dressed upper crusty mares through the middle of n ongoing air attack!”

“Besides, Dayglow can’t fly too good!” Jake interrupted helpfully, drawing a smirk from the councilmare and and a scowl from myself.

“A flightless pegasus in the Royal Guard?” Hammer’s voice dripped with scorn.

“Oh shut up, you stupid nag!” Mayor Bridal snapped. “Do you really think there’s anything to be gained by antagonizing the only ponies standing between us and those damned bats." Yeah, my respect for the old politician rose ever so slightly, but that didn’t mean I was off the hook. The mare tried to focus her moon-burned eyes on me. “Corporal Pastel, if I heard your commander right… you’re the one they call the Train Wreck?”

I fought really hard to bite back every single word that fought to come out of my mouth. Nightmare in the Moon, but I’d always hated that nickname since I was a colt. But it was pretty much inescapable, given the damnable mark stamped on my flank. Instead I focused on my mission, leading are little group to the relative shelter of a series of dumpsters and garbage piles behind what looked to be a Neiponese carry-out restaurant from the contents of the refuse.

“Jake! Lose the armor!” I barked the command like I had any kind of authority. Me and Jake were the same rank, but luckily Jake didn’t argue, and did what good soldiers do. He followed orders, leaving me to turn to the mares. “Ladies, I ain’t getting fresh, but it’s time to go get naked.”

“How dare you!” Hammer fumed, but Bridle was a smart old nag and seemed to see where I was going with this.

The older mare quickly shed her own finery. “Without the suits and uniforms we’re just confused civilians trying to comply with the invaders and return to our homes. He’s right, Hammer, even if he is being a donkey’s ass about it.”

We left our clothing with are dignity among the discarded food trays and rotting remains of sushi and teriyaki vegetables, and proceeded on hoof through the alley towards the City Hall. The noise was the worst. On the streets there was screaming, both in anger and terror, mixed with all the cacophony of civil disturbance. But that was nothing compared to the despairing wails from the windows of the civilian residences above and around us. Foals crying for lost parents, parents comforting their foals. And sometimes ponies wandering the alleyways, calling out for loved ones they just couldn’t find. But nothing could prepare us for the chaos that we emerged into as we reached to main street.

Tirek in Tartarus couldn’t have brought so much destruction on our city. Carts were overturned and piled together into makeshift barricades. Some had been set ablaze by panicked ponies trying to accomplish Celestia-knows-what and those flames now threatened to run wild and consume the city itself, devouring not just the buildings but the ponies that huddled within. The worst of it was that the damage wasn’t even the work of the invaders, who simply circled overhead like vultures, watching as the pretty little ponies of the sun tore their own city apart.

“Sweet Celestia…” Jake’s pupils reduced to pipricks.

“What is it?” Mayor Bridle demanded, whipping her head around desperately, her unfocusing eyes showing her no answers.

“It’s Discord’s playground…” Velvet Hammer’s voice echoed vacantly in the back of my head, but I wasn’t really listening anymore. This was it. This was how it was all going to end.

A shadowed blur shot down from the sky and the voice of the invader’s commander echoed through the streets. “HAVE YOU ALL GONE MAD?!?! Who is in charge here? Stand down and surrender!”

That would have been a great time for Mayor Bridle to step forward, but sadly the poor mare had just seen too much, literally all she would ever see again for the rest of her life. The once stately mare was curled into a fetal ball, sobbing uncontrollably. She was blind, confused and beyond the ability to help any pony, perhaps beyond help herself. And so it was that cooler heads would not prevail that day. Because the one pony with the presence of thought was a very good soldier. But he was never a very smart pony.

“DEMONS! TRAITORS!” Jake screeched into the bedlam. “They’re the ones who took away the sun!”

I don’t know what Night Wing expected to happen, but I’m pretty sure she didn’t expect the angry surge of rage that followed. The battle of Fillydelphia had begun in earnest.