Letters from North Everfree

by FriscoPony

Prelude

The sky was crystal clear blue above the Air Brigade Academy. Around the valley where the brigade sat, you could hear the sounds of birds chirping, the gentle whispering roar of a waterfall off in the distance, and conversations out in the courtyard around the memorial gardens. It was peaceful, the perfect time for some off duty relaxation for the Cadets. Everyone was having a nice day out, except for the green and grey Commander Ace, who was unfortunately sorting through papers of reports from the incident from members of the Royal Guard. The papers stacked up to the height of the lamp on his desk. He never had a problem signing the papers, he just wanted to get them done and over with.
As Ace continued swiping through the papers, he noticed time to time again that more and more pegasi were coming in with family members enlisted in the Royal Guard. He began to wonder how Hurricane and Winter Chaser were doing after he last saw them, in which the last he heard from them, Hurricane and Comet were planning on getting married as soon as Hurricane got a break from duty. On that thought, Ace picked up a picture from Hurricane and Winter’s graduation. In the picture, Hurricane and Comet snuck in a quick smooch, while Winter stood with a giant smile in place of the faded scar over his right eye, and Spitfire and Ace were smiling wearing their officer’s uniforms. Ace couldn’t help but smile as he placed the picture back in its respected corner with all of his other treasured photos from back home in Ponyville.
“I wonder how those two are doing,” he thought to himself looking intently at the picture. He couldn’t help but notice Hurricane and Comet sharing a brief kiss, while him and Spitfire, due to the occasion, were simply closed off to show all of their professionalism. He immediately began to think back to a different time, when nothing could keep the two apart, not even Celestia herself.
There was a knock on the door. Ace immediately got up from his desk, careful to not knock down any of the papers which stood barely organized. He grabbed his officer’s hat and then stood diligently on two hooves ready to receive whoever was coming in.
“Yes what is it?” he called towards the door.
“You have two visitors,” called a stallion from behind the door. “Major Spitfire and Major Soarin of the Wonderbolts, do you want to see them right now or tell them that you are busy sir.”
Ace looked at the stack of papers, knowing that he had a lot of sorting to do. Among the papers as well as the reports was a letter from Princess Celestia that was sent directly to him. He did not know what it was about but he knew that somewhere in the reports and applications for the Air Brigade that it was in there. Maybe it could be a new award, possibly a higher promotion from Major (even though he was called Commander most of the time he was more known as Captain around the Academy), maybe it could be a letter of gratitude for ending the new threat to Equestria and all of its citizens, or maybe it was just a letter notifying him that one of Celestia’s nieces or nephews was enlisting in the Academy. There were many thoughts that were surrounding what the letter could be, but instead, Ace simply decided to take a small break. He carefully picked up the towering stack of papers off of his desk and he put them in a corner next to a file cabinet. “Perhaps a break would do me some good,” he thought to himself.
“I will see them now,” he called towards the door returning to his desk.
The door soon swung open to reveal Soarin and Spitfire in their officer’s uniforms for the Wonderbolt Academy. Soarin was not a member of the Air Brigade Academy, but he was considered an honorary member of the head board by Ace. Spitfire, on the other hand, had a uniform for both the Wonderbolt Academy and the Air Brigade Academy. She was the head commander at the Wonderbolt Academy as she herself requested that it be built after the war to train pegasi to soar through the skies and keep the peace in Equestria and places elsewhere.
Soarin smiled brightly as he walked through the door. He was happy to see his friend as it had been a few months since they had last seen each other. Ace had to limit these visits due to the fact that everypony was busy with something, whether it is the Academies, training, meeting with Celestia, among other things. It was a very rare time when they simply got together and got a chance to see how they were all doing. One thing that significantly marked that this was not a serious meeting was their nicknames that they had held on to during the days of the war.
“Old air buster,” said Soarin raising a hoof to Ace with a smile.
“Long time no see sky diver,” he said grabbing Soarin’s hoof and giving it a firm shake. “How’ve ya been bud?”
“Oh you know, I’ve been busy while you and Spitfire were out saving Equestria without me,” he laughed.
Spitfire then gave him a gentle nudge, “Oh you,” she said smiling, “You just never seem to be around when we’re out saving the world. Instead you’re usually sitting somewhere having at a pie as usual,” she laughed.
Soarin then tried to give a sarcastic look of seriousness. “Hey, my pies can save lives!” he said. “You know that from experience.”
Ace laughed, “Alright,” he said. “So what brings you two out here in your Wonderbolt officer uniforms? Means of business with the cadets here or are you trying to steal some of them as usual.”
Spitfire laughed, “No thieves here,” she said, “Just a couple of pegasi that just wanted to stop by and say hello to their dear old friend,” she said with a wink.
“I saw that,” said Soarin teasing. “I may a pie hungry stallion but I’m not stupid!”
Everyone then laughed fool heartedly, but just then Spitfire looked at Ace as if she was emotional. Ace was not new to this look, as he had shared it with her many times before. “I need to spend more time with you,” she said sympathetically.
“I know,” said Ace trying to understand. “But we can’t, you know, we have to stand strong and tall for both of the academies and represent our branches of the Royal Guard with bravery and courage, not with dating and sympathy.”
Spitfire sighed, “Yea I guess you’re right,” she said nodding her head.
“Which reminds me,” said Soarin reaching into his saddle bags; “I got this picture from an old squad mate of ours that I haven’t seen in a long time. He told me to bring it to you so that way you can see it, Spitfire already has.” He then placed the brown envelope on Ace’s desk.
“I wonder what this picture is, or if I’ll regret it,” he said as he began to open the envelope.
“No jokes this time Ace,” she said. “You’ll like the picture, I guarantee it.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” he said as he pulled out the picture. On the picture was a photograph what appeared to be a camp. There were tents that were shaped like small houses, ponies walking around in uniforms and helmets, and a big sign over the camp the read “The 115th battle group, the screaming eagles.” Next to the lettering on the banner was an emblem of an eagle blazing towards the lettering with great neck speed. The wings merged into the shape of a pegasi flying through the air. Below the banner there were 6 ponies: Soarin, Asteroid Run, Prince Universae, Star Shine, and at last Spitfire and Ace; they were holding hooves at the time that the picture was taken.
“This is a really good picture,” said Ace smiling.
“I know it is,” said Spitfire also smiling. “I do miss those days even though they were long and some of our closest friends didn’t make it.”
Ace then closed his eyes and turned towards the last drawer of the file cabinet. He browsed through every single letter of the alphabet, while Soarin and Spitfire looked confused.
“What are you looking for?” asked Spitfire.
“I think he has flipped his hoof up the wrong place again,” laughed Soarin.
Ace smiled as he finally got to the back of the file cabinet. “Aha,” he exclaimed, “Here it is!” He pulled out a small tattered flag with holes in it. It was green with a white stripe running down the middle. On the tattered flag you could still make out the emblem of what is now the Air Brigade symbol. “Remember this?” he asked showing them the tattered flag.
Spitfire was shocked, “I can’t believe you still have it!” she said excited. “It needs a little bit of restoration but still, it looks pretty good!”
Soarin smiled, “I remember that flag,” he said smiling. “That flew high over our three tents at the camp in North Everfree. I wanted to have a pie as part of the emblem but you said no, CAPTAIN Spitfire.” Spitfire had previously been a squad leader of the squad the three were in. She wouldn’t share the rank with Ace until later in the war.
Spitfire nudged Soarin again. “You and your stupid pies,” she laughed. “Those were good times though; remember swimming down in the river?”
Ace laughed, “I remember that,” he said. “Soarin almost got me killed as he couldn’t swim, so I had to save his sorry flank.”
Soarin merely looked embarrassed as Spitfire and Ace laughed hysterically.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. The trio softly panicked as they then put themselves back in a serious mode as they straightened their uniforms, put hats back on, and of course Spitfire straightened her shades. Ace quickly positioned himself behind his desk, but what he didn’t know is that he forgot to put the flag and the picture in a respective place so they weren’t lying on his desk.
“Permission to enter sir?” asked a young cadet talking from behind the door.
“Granted,” called Ace towards the door. “Come in Cadet.”
The door soon opened to a Cadet slowly trotting in, he then saluted Ace and the other two Wonderbolt officers. “At ease,” said Ace pointing to a chair. “Have a seat.”
The cadet trotted into the chair, not even realizing that Spitfire was in the room as well, but it was clear he was a fan of the Wonderbolts as he carried around a trinket around his neck of the Wonderbolt symbol. Ace saw this, and hid a smile. He given a small look towards Spitfire as Spitfire winked back. Ace was then assured that when whatever the issue was solved, that she would sign a picture for the cadet.
“Now, what is it that you need cadet?” asked Ace putting his hooves together on the desk.
“I never received a paper from orientation this morning on where my dorm is,” he began. “I know who my partner is, and apparently he didn’t get one either.”
Ace was baffled by what he heard, “I see, that is a problem,” he said. “What is your name cadet?” he said as he trotted over to his file cabinet.
“Emerald Skies, sir,” he said.
“Emerald Skies, Emerald Skies,” said Ace as he browsed through the papers in the cabinet for an extra copy. While he was doing that, the cadet looked down and noticed the picture. He had never seen anything like it before, more-a-less had never heard of the Dark Pony War. Ace didn’t know this, but he was soon to find out.
“Sir,” he asked still looking at the photograph, “What is the picture? I can recognize you, Spitfire and Soarin of the Wonderbolts, but I don’t recognize any of the others…”
Ace then got up and trotted over towards the desk to notice that he had forgotten to put the picture inside of a frame earlier. He then smiled. “That is a picture from my days in the Dark Pony War,” he said proudly.
Emerald looked very confused at him. “The Dark Pony War sir?” he asked confused. “What is the Dark Pony War?”
Ace was baffled. “You have never heard of the Dark Pony War?” he asked angrily. “Did you decide to call in sick when they taught you about it in flight high?”
The cadet began to shudder, “We had nothing in our textbooks relating to the Dark Pony War sir, more-a-less no pony has really heard of it.” He then calmed down and breathed gently as now he noticed that Ace was more concerned than angry. “We heard some of the teachers talking about it, and when we asked they said that it simply was far beyond our knowledge, so we left it at that.”
Spitfire then walked up next to the cadet, removing her shades. “I can understand that,” she said placing her shades next to Emeralds hooves. “They don’t teach anything relating to the dark pony war in schools anymore; as they think it would give Equestria and other countries a bad name.”
Emerald turned around, and noticed that it was Spitfire but he didn’t go completely insane, he just softly smiled. “Spitfire, ma’am” he said, “you fought in this war?”
Spitfire nodded. “Yes I did,” she said. “So did Soarin and a couple of other Wonderbolts. Your own commander fought in the Dark Pony War as well Cadet Emerald.”
Emerald was now enlightened as he was learning something that very few of the other cadets knew about; He was now intrigued. Ace then grabbed the picture and the flag from his old camp and placed it in front of Cadet Emerald. “Well,” he said, “The story of the Dark Pony war is a rather gruesome one. A lot of ponies died in the defense of Equestria and its allies.”
“Why didn’t the princess’ stop the war from happening?” he asked.
“Well,” he said, “there’s a reason for that, but we have to go back in time about 10 years, if you want to know about the war,” said Ace placing his hat on his desk, “I will tell about the war, from how I saw it.”