The Black Squirrel Brigade

by Lamasioux

Act 4 - Glassware

“Chaos and War are two separate things.
One is full of entertainment while the other is just death.”

-Discord,

a week after the Changeling Invasion

January 1st, 1014

The sizzling of food is a unique sound.

When you're starving, it’s a welcomed sound that makes your mouth water as the aroma of the food wafs through the air, but when you’re full, it’s enough to make you throw up at the faintest sound.

For Watermark, it was a welcomed one.

The chef currently stood behind the grill as they waited for the eggs to finish cooking on one side of the grill while they worked on a pot of grits on the other. The chef looked like a tough son-of-a-bitch, especially given their size as an earth pony, so it had come as a surprise to Watermark when they answered with one of the softest voices possible.

It would be a moment before any of Watermark’s food was ready though, so he was busy sitting at the diner reading the back of a ketchup bottle.

Suddenly, the waitress came by with a mug and placed it onto the counter with a nice thud before sliding it towards Watermark. “Your coffee hun.”

Watermark brought the mug closer to himself as he gave thanks to the waitress, who then proceeded to go wait the two other ponies in the diner.

Because of the sugar rations, all coffee was currently served black, which wasn’t Watermark’s favorite. Thankfully, unbeknownst to him before coming to this diner, they served small cups of honey for anypony who ordered coffee.

Watermark had never tried honey as a sweetener with coffee before, so he poured it in with watchful eyes to see if it reacted weird. When nothing weird happened, he stirred the coffee until he no longer felt the clumps of it in the mug. Once mixed, Watermark took the mug of coffee and gave it a small blow before taking a sip.

“...oh…” Watermark mumbled a moment as he let the steam from the coffee rise over his nose, enjoying the scent of it before taking a few more sips to savor the taste.

After those first few sips, Watermark lowered the mug back down, which again hit the table with a heavy thud, before he moved the mug away, but still in reach. He wanted his area clear for when his food was ready.

While Watermark let his coffee naturally cool off, he let his eyes wander around the diner as he sat there waiting.

The chef was still busy with making the eggs and grits, which looked like they were close to being finished. The waitress was cleaning up the table the two other ponies had been at before she moved over to the checkout lane where the other two customers now waited.

One of them was a small colt that was nudging the bigger mare he stood with, while the mare seemed to more so ignore him.

“OOHHHH COME ON! Just let me get another waffle! Please! I promise I’ll be good tonight!” The colt was nearly hanging off the mare.

The bigger mare finally caved and gave attention to the smaller colt, “Mom will get mad at me if I let you have another waffle. You’ll be bouncing all around the house if you do, so please stop asking!”

The colt gave a whine as he continued to cling to the mare, “Just pay for it with your own money! She won’t know! I’ll go to sleep once we get home, I promise!”

The mare let out an annoyed sigh, “We’re already in line, and I won’t spend my own money on a waffle. You can break your piggy bank if you want an extra waffle next time.”

The colt again whined as he did everything possible to annoy the bigger mare.

The whole while, the waitress stood at the checkout with a big smile of patience. “Will that be everything tonight?”

The mare gave a nod, “Yes, that’s it, we won’t be getting anything else, trust me.” The mare gave a very worried look, along with a shake of her head to the waitress to not push it anymore.

“Ok! That was one waffle, two cups of coffee, an omelette and four slices of bread. Your total will be seven bits,” the waitress said with a nod of her head after reading off a sheet of paper.

The mare dug through a coin bag she carried and dished out exactly seven bits before placing them on the counter for the waitress.

After the waitress took the bits and counted them, she gave another big smile, “Thank you for visiting! We hope to see you again!”

The mare grunted her goodbye before she tugged the colt out of the diner, going out into the dark and heading off. As they left, the bell on the door rang a few times before it finally came to a stop.

It was currently dark, past the prime time for when things happened and when most shops and stores were open, but this diner still was, which was common, but that meant Watermark was the only customer inside, besides the waitress and chef.

They were currently just north of Las Pegasus along the highway next to a small town. After this town, there was next to nothing until Raspberry Grove, which had been taken over by the military, which was Watermark’s destination once he finished getting a quick night meal.

While Changeling bombing runs ran in the area, this small town had yet to be hit by anything major. There had only been a few bombs that dropped on the rail system then ran through the town, but those never resulted in anypony getting injured or killed. It was a surprisingly good source of money to go deal with for the locals though, who were constantly doing repairs on the rails in the area.

But right now, a steaming hot bowl of grits and a plate of eggs caught Watermark’s attention as they were brought over to him by the waitress, who placed them on the table. She slid the plates towards Watermark, just as she had with the coffee before giving him a smile, “Cheese grits and eggs hun. If you need anything else, just holler,” and without waiting for a response, the waitress left Watermark for his meal.

The food was brought in with thick plates, ones that could take a beating with being tossed around, though obviously not too much given they were still made of glass.

Watermark adjusted the two plates so they sat to his perfection before bringing the coffee in to join with them.

The bowl of grits had a nice layer of yellow and white cheese coating the top of it, which Watermark mixed with the grits with a spoon. As he dug the spoon in through the cheese and pushed it into the grits, a dense cloud of steam escaped from the opening, which felt near scolding for a moment. Watermark was then careful with mixing the grits together after being jumped by the trapped heat.

Once mixed, Watermark moved onto the eggs, which he sliced into small chunks. As he did, the yolk inside the egg spilled out and made a small pool. The pool’s depth increased as he cut into the second egg, which began soaking into the white parts.

Once the eggs were cut into slices, Watermark lifted the egg plate and slowly poured the pool of yolk into the grits until the plate was drained of the majority of the yolk.

While the yolk began seeping into the grits, Watermark took a quick bite of the egg whites before he took the spoon again and went back to mixing the grits together with the new addition.

A few moments of mixing later, the grits were done.

Watermark left the spoon in the grits and went for a sip of his coffee before he finally went for a bite of his obvious main meal.

One spoonful of cheesy egg grits later and Watermark was nearly melting into his seat from the flavor. After giving the bowl a few big blows, Watermark began shoving spoons of it into his mouth, taking the occasional sip of coffee while he basically ignored the egg whites.

While some might think Watermark’s choice of food is weird, the two diner employees didn’t seem to care at all, at least not at the moment. The chef was busy making two more eggs while the waitress was cleaning some dishes.

The peace of the night began to settle in as the three did their own thing until the bell from the door rang as a pony rushed inside screaming their head off.

“MEATCHOP! MEATCHOP! THE RADIO! TURN IT ON!”

With how loud and sudden the pony was, you might’ve had a heart attack if you weren’t prepared, which Watermark wasn’t. He had dropped a spoonful of grits back into its bowl.

While Watermark looked over at the new pony with a bit of annoyance, he was curious what they were yelling about. The new pony was entirely out of breath at this point, but he was busy trying to get any possible words out, “THE RADIO! ON! TURN IT ON!”

The chef left the grill and stood at the table bar, leaning over it to speak to the other pony, “Quickbuck, you need to go slow. What has you going on about the radio?”

“Turn it-” the pony took a very quick breath, “Dammit! TURN IT ON!”

The chef let out a grunt as he turned around to reach for the radio that sat on the counter near the grill, “Fine, fine, whatever you say.” As the chef turns the radio on, the static of the cosmos plays through the speaker, which prompts the chef to speak up. “What channel bud?”

“Any!” Quickbuck yells out as he leans against the counter, nearly trying to get over it.

“What has you in such a rush to get us on the radio anyways? You look tankered,” The chef says as he’s tuning through the channels while looking at Quickbuck.

“Celestia’s dead!”

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There was no noise at this point besides the static of the radio, the sizzling of the eggs as they cooked on the grill and the breathing of Quickbuck as he panted away. Those were the only three noises that filled the diner at that point.

There were a few blinks between the three already inside as they processed what was just said, and Quickbuck dared not to interrupt any of them.

The chef was turning the radio’s dial ever so slowly while this went down that it finally came across an active channel, which made his ears perk up and break from his stillness to look at the radio.

“....Schhueiiildclesitaiathi…What…Ca…” click, “--Fancy Pants has issued a statement regarding the situation. He says that those among the upper class are willing to come together and bring forth an improvised government to fill the gap of Celestia’s wake. He hopes to bring his plans forth with Princess Luna as soon as possible in hopes that they can get a stable hoof in the castle.”

“While Princess Luna has yet to make any comments regarding Princess Celestia or Stalliongrad, we believe she is currently working to the best of her abilities to prepare something soon.”

“While the situation in Canterlot is currently in complete chaos, Princess Cadance has already issued a statement. Currently, we are waiting for a full transcript to be brought to us before we relay her exact words, but from what was heard, she is issuing orders to the Crystal Army to march east so they can try and stall the Red Army’s advance.”

“For everyone out west, north of the Twilight Valley, we implore you, on word from Field Marshal Blueblood, to evacuate east. Just ten minutes ago, at this time, a massive Changeling push began into the city of Marechester, Honeycomb Grove, and Oleander. It is believed that Changeling infiltrators snuck past our lines and are currently sabotaging all garrisons and military bases, so it is important that you avoid all military creatures and facilities at this time.”

“For everycreature to the far east, we implore you to head west, as Stalliongrad forces are expected to start pushing into Equestrian territory. Everycreature in the Novochernushsk region is urged to get to safety and avoid contact with any creature tied with communist affiliations. The current reports are that communist cells have popped up along our border with Stalliongrad and are currently fighting local militias for control of towns and cities.”

“At this point, our eastern forces are mobilizing and making their way to the east, to try and halt the advance of the Red Army. While we don’t know if they are our enemy at this point, we urge you to avoid any and all contact with those associated with Stalliongrad.”

“Now, I would like to bring every new pony tuning into 108.2 about the current situation that is going on.”

“At a time of around, 4:37pm Canterlot Central Time, south of Novochernushsk, near a city called Cumulus, the Alicorn One, which was carrying Celestia, was shot down by a Stalliongrad fighter pilot. The Royal Guard, who were escorting Alicorn One, engaged with the Stalliongrad fighter but were unable to stop it before it crashed head on into Alicorn One.”

“After ten minutes, ponies on the ground were able to make contact with the wreckage site, but they did not find Celestia alive. While we don’t have more details about the situation, they have confirmed that Celestia is dead.”

“Further, there has been no announcement or declaration of war from Stalliongrad at this time, but there are reports that Stalliongrad forces are mobilizing and moving west and south, into Equestrian and Crystal territory.”

At this point, with everything that was said on the radio, Watermark entirely tuned out.

Everything went mute.

No static, no sizzling, no nothing. Just mute.

Watermark lifted a hoof and looked at it as he failed to feel any senses in it.

Watermark then extended his wings lightly to feel if there was anything in them as well, but also failed to feel anything.

His eyes darted back down to his food before moving to the waitress and chef who both listened to the radio. They were both in states of shock as they stared at the radio.

The first sense that came back was Watermark’s smell, and all he smelt was burning eggs.

Watermark looked at the grill, where the eggs that the chef had been cooking, were now smoking intensely.

Just as Watermark noticed, so did the chef. The chef quickly moved to turn off the grill and stop the smoldering eggs, all while the waitress fell onto her rear and held hooves up to their mouth.

Right before Watermark regained all of his senses, the pony that had run into the diner quickly left once everypony inside learned of the news.

Watermark stood up and stepped away from the table as he went for the door.

A little bit of sense regained in the waitress as she watched Watermark begin to leave, who spoke up, “Your food!”

Watermark stopped in his tracks and looked at his plate of food and the waitress, who obviously still wanted some form of payment despite the shocking news. Watermark was quick to dig out his S.M.I.L.E badge and flash it to the waitress.

“Sorry, government business,” was all Watermark said before he put away the badge and left the dinner.

And after Watermark left, the waitress fell to the ground again and let out a scream of terror that was muffled by the sounds of the diner’s windows, all of which left Watermark’s view as he got into his car and sped away from the diner and back towards Las Pegasus.