Innocence Once Lost

by Scorched Earth

Marching feet(UNEDITED)

Trixie woke up when someone knocked on her door. She had taken a room from a new motel in the Ponyville. it had been easier than just heading back to Canterlot. She was quite surprised to see one of her troopers behind the door.

"Sorry to wake you up, Captain, but all leaves have been canceled. You are rest of the unit are to move out ASAP."

"Wat?"

"There has been a new development. Discord as struck against humans. Humans are requesting imminent assistance in reinforcing their border."

"Wut?"

"The chariots will arrive in few minutes Captain. We will be in the first wave to reinforce humans."

"Wot?"

"... I go get some coffee for you, Captain. Please try to awaken into this day."

"Huh?"

"That's good."

---

"Several human outposts have been defeated and humans have fallen back to their second defense line. A battalion of griffins as well as what Zebra Volunteer Corps members we still have, alongside a Royal Guard regiment, will reinforce their regional command post." General Tattered Flag said, pointing the map. "Meanwhile, we will gather the second wave here, in New Hope City. We will then march against Discords forces."

"Very well. I will have my regiment move out as soon as possible." General Battle Banner said. "Will the Elements of Harmony be with us or will they arrive with the second wave?"

"The second wave, we need to see what we are dealing with here."

"Generals." Celestia said as she walked in. Luna was following behind her, "Have you decided our response?"

"Yes, Your Highness, we have. We will send a regiment for now and more in a second wave. The first wave will help humans to keep their positions, while the second wave will assist in counter-attack."

"Hmm... Sister, I will go with the first wave. I have bad feeling about this. Something is not right. Where are the dragons? How can these changelings get so close to human outpost without being detected?" Luna asked her sister

"Luna, I don't think it's a good idea. What if something happens to you?" Celestia said. Luna simply took quick peek at her missing wings and then at her leg.

"Well, it's not like I have much to lose." She said with a grin. Her grin however faltered when she saw the sad look on Celestia's face.

"Please, don't joke like that. Last time was too close."

"Sorry Tia.... but I need to be there. I can't explain it, I just... have to." Luna said with a shake of her head. For some reason she had strange compelling need to be where the fighting was.

"Luna. Tell me, what is going on. Lately you have been acting little bit.. weird. Ever since you came back from the moon."

"I don't know. I just... get these compulsions to do something. Like this one. I can't explain it. It's like it's natural thing to do."

"I fear humans did something to you, but... there is no trace of anything. Nobody could find anything that might affect your judgment, but you have been getting awfully well with the humans."

"Is there something wrong with that? It helps to smooth over the issues to know their culture."

"Yes and I am not angry about it... but sometimes, it feels like you are closer to them than you are to ponies. What was that one idea you had, one with setting up a space program?"

"Well.. I just got this idea, that we really haven't studied the skies that much. I mean, now that we know we can go there. It's... very different feeling to physically to be ON the moon. It's hard to describe. The feeling when you stand there, on the moon and look upon the stars, with nothing blocking your vision."

"*sigh* I guess I just have to trust you in this one, sister. Just, please, be careful. At any sign of trouble, please get out of there. Okay?"

"Yes, sister. I will."

---

"LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT COMPANY! HALT!" Sound of thousands of boots coming to halt filled the air. Luna watched as humans arrived to the rendezvous point they had agreed on. Main human force had already taken airlift to the base they were supposed to reinforce, with the company they were meeting being there for purely ceremonial purposes. Humans were equipped in the full gear. There apparently had been some discussion whenever or not have ACES suits participate in the march, but eventually it had been decided that they would not participate. "Princess Luna, Colonel Cortex of 11th Expedition Force. Reporting for duty. My division is ready to join you for the march to the front lines." Colonel said and saluted Princess Luna.

"Colonel Cortex, please to meet you." Luna said answering the salute. She pointed towards a grey pony besides her. "May I introduce you to General Battle Banner of 31st Royal Guard Regiment," Then she pointed towards a griffin in chain mail armor" Major Whitefeather of 3rd Schwingesteinbrech Legion" Then she pointed towards a diamond dog in similar gear as human soldiers, except tailored for them. "Colonel Bark of 8th Division of Protectorate Army" Finally she pointed towards a zebra in ornate plate armor "and Legate Xander from 5th Union Army." Each one of them did their own salute, which Colonel Cortex answered.

"I assume you are all ready to move?"

"You are not going to give your men time to rest?" Major Whitefeather asked. Her soldiers had been quite tired after the trip, so she had assumed they would take a day for humans to rest.

"We humans have an unmatched endurance. This is not a boast, but a scientific fact. We may not be the fastest or sturdiest creatures, but we can keep on marching much longer than anyone else. Besides, we were dropped not far away, this whole march to here was pretty much just for a show."

"Very well. Then we shall take out leave. I believe the marching order has been explained to you already?" Legate Xanders asked.

"Yes. We will take the front. Behind us, Ponies, follow by Zebras. Griffins will follow us on the sky. Diamond dogs are taking the underground route and will most likely arrive before us. Correct?"

"Yes." Colonel Bark answered. Even if diamond dogs could march on the surface, many of them felt more confident underground. Besides, if they could arrive and reinforce the human positions early, it would save some time.

"Alright, I just go collect my men and make sure everything is OK. We will march in 1 hour." Major Whitefeather said. Colonel Cortex nodded and left to prepare his own men. Luna walked little bit away to look at the army that had gathered. Every side had pretty much gathered what they could in a few moments and send it to this meeting. From here, it would be 40 kilometer march to San Palomino Desert Regional Command Post, or The Desert RCP as humans called it. 9 500 ponies, ,5 000 griffins, 4 000 diamond dogs and 7 000 zebras, alongside 2 500 humans were gathered at this pace currently. Rest of the human force, 7 500 soldiers and 500 ACES suits, had already went ahead.

it was largest multinational army ever on the world. Even during The War. A total of 28 000 able bodied soldiers. United pony/griffin forces had never exceeded collection of soldiers here. Celestia would be proud to see all species working together. However, to Luna, it was irrelevant what species they were. It was the results that mattered. Her sister was not really good at whole fighting department. She had thousand years of peace to grow soft. On the other hand, Luna came from a time when smaller conflict were relatively common, so she still had the correct mind set to fight. How had she told her once? Peace had defeated her sister.

Still... she wished that the mind set for war wouldn't be needed. She didn't enjoy war. At first, she had little longing for days of glory, but after The War and then The Lunar Crisis... she longer had any wish to gain glory on the battlefield. Even looking back now, the "wars" they had fought with others had been little else than kindergarten fights compared to hell that humans could unleash.

Another thing that had recently surfaced between them, was Luna's sudden curiosity of things outside Equestria. It was not that Celestia didn't value knowledge, but she also preferred Status Quo over change. Luna, on the other hand, had grown curious of things. Even magic, that so far been more or less something just was, had become interesting. She had been writing with human scientist who were trying to break down magic to it's basic components, to understand what made magic work. Celestia herself had shot down the idea of setting up dedicated research team to study magic as an eject itself. She was content with just studying how to use it, instead of trying to understand the fundamental basics of it.

Then there was Luna's sudden interest in worlds beyond the planet they inhabited. Ever since her trip to the moon, she had grown curious of seeing the other worlds. She knew there were few other planets in their little star system. All of them were devoid of live and unable to support any life, as humans had found out. Still.. she wanted to reach to them and like humans, she wanted to reach to other stars. So go to them, see the worlds that circled around them.

The march began. It was largely a one boring one. Luna found herself respecting Earth Ponies a lot more, since she too was forced to march alongside everyone else. Only thing lightening the march was a sudden song contest. It started when one pony had started singing marching songs to speed up a time. After the rest of the unit had joined and ended the song, zebras started to sing their own song. This lead to griffins showing off their own songs. Humans, not wanting to be left out, brought their own marching songs into the fray. Pretty soon, each side was trying top each others in who could sing the bloodiest or the most rowdy song.

She heard all kinds songs during the march, including "Discord only got one ball", "Charlie comes marching home", "Trip to Tartarus", “Blood for the blood god”, “I have a spear, your argument is invalid” and sadly canceled "Guess what I'm gonna do with the Princesses?". She never heard that one, since the moment humans tried to sing that Colonel Cortex gave very clear order to choose some other song. Then again, if it followed "The Loot and Pillage" song, she didn't really want to hear the song to know what it involved. Griffins had the lead for a pretty long, followed by humans. It was until the last human song that the victor was decided.

Come to the nightmare, come to me, deep down in the dark where the devil be,
in the maw with the jaws and the razor teeth, where the brimstone burns and the angel weeps.
Call to the gods if I cross your path and my silhouette hangs like a body bag;
hope is a moment now long past, the shadow of death is the one I cast.

"Alright, we give up. Who the hell comes up with that kind of songs?" Came a shout from the skies. Ponies and zebras had given up when griffins had rolled out "Scourge of the skies", since it's hard to beat a song that wishes for the most goriest killings. Somehow humans had beaten that too.

"HAH! Told you we got the best ones! Ain't that right, soldiers?" Colonel shouted back. This lead to hearty "HU-RAH!" from humans and hearty laugh from everyone else.

"Got anything less violent?" General Battle Banner asked.

"Well, let's see... Alright troops, let's give them 'Praise The Moon'". Colonel said. Luna's ears perked. She was pretty sure she had heard that one before. The song started, much more mournful and slower than the other songs sang so far.

Look to the moon's rays
Behold and offer praise
Look to the moon's rays
Comfort in the grace

Now she more than sure. The song was something she had heard earlier. Song went for a while, continuing forward towards it's end. It was rather mournful song, detailing rise and fall of unnamed civilization, though it was not very hard to figure out what civilizations the song meant. In between the verses, song offered it's praises to the moon that had saved the civilization. She found herself humming alongside the song. Few minutes later others started to hum alongside her, giving humans a "music" to follow. As the song neared the end, she surprised her herself though by singing the last verse alone.

Climb from the prison
That you've built in your soul
When the night has arisen
Then your legend will be whole

That caused the Colonel to turn to face her. She pretty much felt human stares at her back. She didn't know where those words had come from, but she hoped she had not angered anyone.

"...I didn't know you were interested in human music, Your Highness."

"Umm... I haven't really listened to it. It just... the song felt very familiar. Perhaps it is similar to some old song from Equestria?"

"I am afraid to say Your Highness, but as far as I know there really hasn't been a song like that in the past." General Battle Banner said.

"Besides, this song is barely 300 years old. It became rather popular among the soldiers. That last verse, however... it's rarely sung." Colonel continued.

"I... really can't explain it. I just knew the word. Now, why don't we General show some of our own? This march has been going so well so far, hasn't it? No need to ruin it by starting asking questions nobody can answer?" Luna said, wishing to turn attention away from the subject.

"Very well, Princess, if you say so." Singing began once again and the subject was forgotten pretty soon. There was still several kilometers to march.

---

Desert RCP, HQ of all human forces in the region, came in to the view of marching troops. It was a long awaited relief. Once they would reach it, they could finally have some rest. San Palomino Desert Regional Command Post was one the smaller RCPs. It normally housed mere 2 500 soldiers, who rotated between 6 outposts that had been build in the desert. However, it did have a capacity to hold much larger force. It was build on a large plain that bordered the desert. There was clear vision for about 30 kilometer radius from the CP, with radars this could be extended to 300 and with the satellite coverage that humans had started to build, it could cover the entire desert.

Luna watched it as they approached the base. It had several anti-air emplacements on it's walls, making any attempt to enter it through air suicidal. It's walls were thick, made based on (very) ancient human designs. Someone had once explained that if humans were to fight someone with the same technology as themselves, the base would be near useless. However, since most of their potential enemies were in what humans called “medieval” technology level, these old designs served them well. What however had surprised her, was that the design was apparently “prison” style, not castle style.

In the end, it didn't matter. What mattered if they could hold it. If they could hold it against whatever Discord could throw at them, they could easily reinforce and resupply all military forces in the region. That was the reason why this ad hoc allied force had been gathered: to make sure that the base would not fall. As they approached, Luna could see the small hole in the ground, no doubt a hole that the diamond dogs had used to reach surface. Humans build their bases on at least meter thick concrete slabs, which were near impossible breach. At least, by normal means available to non-humans.

Doors opened for them. Unlike in other castles, these were rather small, barely enough to have three ponies walk side by side. This, it took some time for everyone to pass through. Humans relied more on their airborne transport to move large amounts of troops rather than conventional marches through the lands.

It was rather interesting method Luna had noted and had considered starting a program to develop Equestria Air Forces into a new direction. Instead of relying on pegasis and griffin volunteers, they should develop machines that could move large amounts of troops, allowing the Guard to quickly respond to situations with large enough force. However, once again, her sisters conservatism had reared it's head.

That was another thing. At first, she had been the conservative one, one able to cope with the changes. Now, suddenly, she was the one who was pushing changes forward while her sister tried to maintain status quo. It was complete reversal of their normal roles. For reason she didn't know, she was no longer content by just sitting what they already had.

She wanted to see more, feel more, experience more. She had seen the moon, for the first time really seen it. Now she wanted to see the other worlds that she knew where there. She knew that there was so much to learn, so much to discover. Normally ponies understood “learning” as studying old tomes, to relearning what was once discovered. She no longer wanted to relearn old things: she wanted to discover new things.

She snapped out of her musings as Colonel Cortex suggested to assembled leaders that they should meet the base commander. They needed to plan their defenses. They didn't know if or when the enemy would attack, but sooner they would have their defenses up, the better.

---

"They wiped out an entire human outpost!?" Came a shout from the assembled ponies. Celestia had called the Elements Of Harmony to Canterlot and told them to bring their counterparts too. She had just finished explaining the situation to them.

"This is bad. Very bad. If humans can't beat them..." Native Twilight said, tapping her chin.

"We might be bigger trouble than we ever thought." Native Applejack finished the thought.

"Okay, so it was an outpost. Ain't those pretty small?" Rainbow Dash asked her double.

"Yes, but you don't understand. Human outpost is same as attacking zebra fortress. You need a lot of ponypower to do it. The fact that it happened so fast just makes it worse."

"So, what are we gonna do?" Applejack asked. She wasn't sure if they could do much, this whole world worked too different from theirs. Then again, two sets of Elements of Harmony might be just what they needed.

"My sister has already gone ahead with the first wave of reinforcements. I want you to stay here, to prepare for the second wave." Celestia continued. "For now, you all will be 'assistants', or to use the correct term, 'adjutants' to each others. I hope that having two sets of Elements of harmony will be enough to defeat this menace, once and for all. Now, you should go and prepare for the trip. It will take some time before everything is ready."

Ponies and their doubles left the room after giving their bows and farewells to the Princess. As they walked towards the chariots walking to them, Twilight spoke to her double.

"Um... I... I wanted to apologize for my actions. I... no... I don't have excuse for it." Her double answered. After Rarity had explained that she might be suffering from WTSD, she had decided to forgive her.

"Okay, I forgive you. It's better we work together. Discord is a threat to all of us."

"Yes he is. More than you cant think. This time, he is not playing around. This time he is taking us seriously."

"Yes, but we can do this, right? I mean, he got allies this time. This ain't just us versus him." Rainbow Dash asked.

"Of course we can! We got each others and the might of the whole world against him!" Her double said. She couldn't believe how much, well, less awesome her double was.

"Right, right... I guess we need to tell Scoots to take care of the house while we are away. If this is anything like Los Pegasus campaign, we will be away at least a week... I need to someone make sure she doesn't throw parties while I am away..."

"What!? Parties are good! You should not stop her!" Both Pinkies said in unison, with horrified expressions on their face. Rainbow Dash simply rolled her eyes.

"Yes I do. I want to have a house when we get back. You remember the time you gave your apartment for her to house a party? The one which she didn't tell you that she had gotten human alcohol?" She asked Pinkie Pie. Other one simply cocked her head to side, while other one suddenly shuttered.

"Okay, maaaaaybe you may possibly have tiny point somewhere in there..."

Comments

[sgtnolisten]

Lol Pinkie don't wanna admit it, but she knows she has too.

[La Vallett1]

I know it's late, but I want to say this:

This universe, for some reason, makes me think of Sid Meigher's Civilization games. Makes me imagine of many diplomacies, technology discovery and random wars between countries or empires.

[Scorched Earth]

1395323

That's one of the things humans in this universe caused: They totally broke Status Quo that had existed for thousands of years. Other species and nations can no longer just sit tight and live happily, the fact that there is now someone who can absolutely destroy them in few minutes forces them to move forward.

Where as original universe lives in more or less "Medieval stasis", this universe is on the it's first steps to experience Industrial Revolution.

Couple of hundreds if years forward and humans actually need to fight to gain their victories. No more steam rolling over everyone else with superior technology.

Also, it's Sid Meier

And since we are talking about Sid, it reminds me of Firaxis.

Which reminds me to tell every single on of you, that you have 3 days to pre-order new XCOM from either Amazon or Steam and receive free Civ 5. Also, the new XCOM feels and looks awesome.

[Biker_Dash]

WOW!!! Someone who parties harder than Pinkie Pie!

img.izismile.com//img/img2/20090429/selection_144_19.jpg

[Scorched Earth]

1395983

Pinkies parties rarely if ever have anything stronger than apple cider. Scootaloo managed to get 50% alcohol(That can kill you if you aren't careful) from a smuggler who makes deals with humans.

Now, I want you to image near adult Crusaders and their antics. Now I want you to imagine them completely smashed.

[Biker_Dash]

1396004 Yeah, i remember partying like that lol

A wild chicken sauced up on 101 proof Wild Turkey, and her two best friends thrown in... WHY IN HELL WAS I NOT INVITED TO THIS?????