A mysterious Alicorn comes from nowhere into ponyville, and the world is going to war.
The country of Marence is on the route to conquest, and after allieing with Gryphony, turns it's eyes to Equestria. At the same time, a mysterious young Alicorn shows up from nowhere, and seems to terrify all the wild life. Nopony knows why, though. The Mane 6 and all their friends are needed on the front lines. But what is the new Alicorn's agenda?
A deep blue alicorn colt stepped out of the Everfree forest into a harshly sunny day. He noticed he was rather near a cottage of some kind, with a yellow pegasus mare standing outside it. He didn't even consider the odd pegasus as he walked by. His mind was occupied with the job he had to complete. Every time he had to do a job, he hated himself a little more. But it was the only thing he could ever do.
The alicorn's mane was black, with red tipped spikes. His tail was the color of space, if every star was bright red. His cutie mark was the strangest anypony could ever remember. A skull embossed shield super-imposed on a sword, surronded by small hearts. It definently wasn't helpful if you wanted to figure out what his talent was. He had decided to call himself Midnight Burn, it seemed to fit the color scheme, plus it wasn't too horrible of a name. The town in the distance held an allure, telling him this was the place his next job had to be completed. He barely noticed the animals fleeing from the area. None of them wanted anything to do with an ancient god. Especially not this one.
Fluttershy was tending the chickens as Midnight trotted by. She was captivated by the dangerous looking pony, and it took her a second to realize her chickens had all fled back into their coop. She knew this was a bad sign, and set out to find all her friends. They needed to be warned.
Rainbow Dash was practicing her tricks over an empty field outside of Ponyville when Fluttershy flew up. "There's a... problem" muttered Fluttershy, to soft to be intelligible. Rainbow didn't even realize Fluttershy had flown up next to her. Rainbow finished her routine, not even realizing as a particularly difficult groups of flips and rolls nearly had her colliding with Fluttershy. Coming to a halt, looking exhausted but pleased with herself, Rainbow looked around to see if anyone had seen the routine. Spotting Fluttershy, Rainbow zoomed up, getting fight next to Fluttershy before throwing a hoof aroud her shoulders.
"Come to watch the next Wonderbolt, huh?" Rainbow bragged, bobbing up and down in the air, painting a scene with her free hoof, "My new sequence is AWESOME! I'm sure to win the tryouts next year!"
"Yes, they were nice..." Fluttershy was barely audible, causing Rainbow to really have to strain to hear her. "But there's a problem."
"A problem? What is it? The Amazing Rainbow Dash will handle it!" At this, Rainbow fluttered a few feet higher, striking a pose reminiscint of a conquering hero.
"Well... this creepy pegasus came out of the Everfree forest, and he scared me. And all the animals, too. They ran away. I think he's dangerous..." Fluttershy cringed at the memory of Midnight, and how her chickens had reacted to him. Not to mention the way his gaze had slid right past her, as if she wasn't worth his time.
"U-huh... well, uhh, where is he now?" Rainbow was trying to hide her scepticism, and failing miserably. After all, Fluttershy was scared of well... everything.
"I don't know... I came to find you... and I didn't see where he was going, I guess." Fluttershy's voice trailed off into oblivion by the time she was done speaking. She hid baheind her mane and dropped a few feet.
"... Well, let's go look for him. And we can tell everyone else, I guess." Rainbow shook her head at Fluttershy's timidness, and took off for Ponyville.
As Midnight descended into Ponyville, he felt that custom probably required him to eat, and decided he should probably try to fit in. Seeing an apple cart in the bustling town square, he headed over. His end destination was the orchard, intuition told him so, and who knew? Maybe he'd find himself a way to get in. Bonus, he thought, this is one cute mare. "I'll take an apple pie, please. And could you tell me about any work in the area?"
"Well, sure. We can always use help wit' the buckin' down at the farm. By the way, that's four bits."
Paying out the bits from the store he made sure to keep, he thought about the job the cart's mare had offered. Since the farm was his end destination anyways, it would make his real job easier. It was bad enough without having to sneak about too much. Doing some real helpful, work may feel good, Midnight told himself. If nothing else, it may ease some of the guilt. "Well, I think I'll take that job. When do I start?"
"You can start tommorow. Name's Applejack, by the way. What's yours?" Applejack inclined her head slightly, waiting for a response. Any new pony made her curious, especially a unicorn that looked this strange.
"Midnight Burn, but just call me Midnight, please. I guess I'll see you..." Before he could finish his sentence, or his pie, he felt a major impact on his right side. All he saw before blacking out was a small blue blur. And a rainbow?
A sunny day, a cloudless sky, and heat rising quickly. The perfect summer day in Equestria, if it wasn't for one thing. Despite the warmth, the situation room in Canterlot Castle felt ice cold. A transmission from Marence in the east, to Gryphony in the west, detailing an alliance, and plans for an invasion of Equestria, had just been decoded a few minutes ago. It was perhaps the worst news in over a thousand years.
"So, General Ironhoof, you say that this is definently credible?" Asked the Sun Godess again.
"Yes Ma'm." The general replied.
"Sister, it seems we must enact a draft if we want to have a chance of survival. We should also inform the populace why they're getting drafted." The Moon Godess said.
"I agree Luna. This is an unfortunate turn of events. But we must do all we can. Even we shall have to fight, I fear."
"Yes sister. I will go organize the draft. I shall also command the industrialists to start producing weapons. We will need them." With that, Luna left her sister alone with the general.
"You may go, General. Good job with that transmission."
"Yes Ma'm." Ironhoof said as he left the room.
The first war in almost 2,000 years, thought Celestia to herself. This will be a much worse threat than Discord ever was. Then she left to check her armor. A leader has to be prepared, after all.
Midnight opened his eyes to a white room. A steady beep- beep- beep was coming from his left side. As he looked around the room, he realized he was in a hospital. An invention of his own, and here he was, trapped in it. The irony dug at him, and he laughed. This brought Applejack into the room, followed by a cyan pegasus mare with a rainbow mane and tail, a small yellow pegasus he vaugely remembered seeing on his way into town, a lilac unicorn, and a pure white unicorn with a purple mane and tail. "So I've got a welcoming party, huh? That's new," he joked. This had the unexpected result of causing a pink pony to pop out of empty space, bringing confetti with her.
"Party?" Pinkie said, bouncing off walls, "Where? No one pulls another suprise party on me!"
Applejack interrupted, saying, "These two," at this she pointed at the two pegasi, "Want to say something."
Fluttershy squeaked out an apology that Midnight couldn't really make, but accepted anyways, while Rainbow just sat and huffed. "I'm not apoligizing! He scared Fluttershy!"
"Whatever, I don't really care," Midnight said as he sat up and started to get out of bed. "No harm done anyways. I'm fine."
"But the doctors said you had three broken ribs!" Twilight exclaimed. "Surely that's not 'fine'."
At this point, Midnight's horn glowed slightly, then he ripped out the needles in his foreleg, took off the moniter patches, and jumped out of bed. "Good as new!" He smiled at the unicorn. "See, I'm just fine!" A nurse burst into the room with a crash cart, just to discover her patient was moving about just fine.
"You should be in bed! And don't take off the heart moniter!" She scolded, trying to get Midnight back in bed.
"Nah, I'm good," he said, and jumped out the window, lowering himself to the entrance of the hospital with magic, no strain showing on his face. "See? A- ok!"
"But... But... that's not possible!" The nurse said, retreating from the window, "And you didn't check out anyways!"
"Umm... ok." Midnight gave an eyeroll at the unnecessary formality. The system he'd created hadn't had that kind of inherent stupidity in it. "Just a sec."
After being given a clean bill of health by an astounded doctor, and discharged, Midnight walked out of Ponyville hospital with his new boss, Applejack. She was one of those rare mares that made him wish it was ok to have a romance occasionally. But love, or even a casual crush, was one of the first costs of being immortal.
"Since yah don't seem to have a place to stay, you can sleep in the barn tonight, 'k?" Applejack instructed.
"Awesome! Been forever since I've had a real place to sleep!" This was only half true. Midnight didn't sleep, and he didn't need to eat either, but he found it was better not to let orthe ponies know that. It invariably lead to difficult questions, or charges of insanity.
"I'd like to introduce yah ta my friends. That ok?"
"Those the ones from the hospital?"
"Yep."
"Alright. Fine by me."
"We're havin' lunch at the cafe. Come on."
The pretty white unicorn took one look at Midnight and gushed, "WHAT have you done to your mane? This simply isn't acceptable! It's so... uncouth! You must come over at the first opportunity, and I will fix it for you!"
"That's Rarity," Applejack said, "And the other unicorn is Twilight Sparkle. The shy yellow pegasus is Fluttershy, and the one that tackled you is Rainbow Dash. The other earth pony, the pink one, is Pinkie Pie."
"Nice to meet you all."
"You know what this calls for? A PARTY!" Pinkie, as typical whenever a party was mentioned around her, popped into the air.
"I think that's the last thing on his mind now, darling. I mean, he did just get out of the hospital."
"But I haven't been able to throw a new pony party since Twilight moved in!"
"Maybe later sugarcube. But he's promised tah work the farm while hes here. He migh' not have time."
"Aweeee. Well, how about a work the farm party? I've never done one of those before!" The pink pony bounced up and soared away before anypony could tell her no. After Pinkie left, the group just devolved into normal discussion.
"Did yah have a good time at luch?"
"Yeah, but you're friends are a little... well, weird."
"Ah know. But you ge' used to 'em."
"Well, I'm gonna go to the barn. I feel kinda tired." Anything to get away from the crazy ponies he'd met today. The pink one actually scared him a little, she seemed unstable. Like an explosion just waiting to happen.
"U-huh... Well, yah can find you're way to the farm, righ'?"
"Yep. I'll be fine."
"I'll see yah all later then. I got a friend to deal wit'."
"Alright! Bye!"
"Yep." As Applejack trotted away, Midnight headed to the farm. A couple of days of break, he thought to himself. It's sure nice to take things easy sometimes.
Applejack took a quick glance back. An undescribable feeling had taken over her stomach for a second there. Figuring she must have just eaten too much, she continued into Ponyville.
As the sun rose over Ponyville, Midnight got up for the day, ready for work. Trotting out to the orchards, he saw Big Mac and Applejack already working. Walking up to Applejack, he looked around at all the trees. Literally acres of red apples hanging heavy on the trees shined in the early morning sun. He figured if he was the only one working, it'd take at least a few days to clear all the trees. But he wasn't alone, it wasn't any harder than his usual work, and he'd only be here for a few days at the most, anyway. Poor Apple family. They had no idea.
He noticed empty baskets sitting around some slowly filling carts. Picking a couple up with magic, he wandered over to Applejack. "What do I do, and where do I start?"
"Oh good, you're awake. You can take those trees over there." She pointed off to her left, at an untouched area. "Jus' put the baskets down and buck the tree!"
"Easy enough," Midnight stated, heading to his stand of trees. Setting the baskets down, he got to bucking. Not quite as fast as Big Mac or Applejack, he still made better time than would be expected for a pony with seemingly no experience. He worked hard, and didn't take breaks. After all, he never tired, and he didn't feel pain. With the three of them working at an amazing clip, the first few carts were full in only a few hours. Big Mac left to go empty them into the barn.
"I'm gonna head inta town, see whats takin' the mail so long. Go ahead an' take a break, ok?" Applejack shouted across the orchard.
"I'll come with. I could use a good walk anyways." At this, Midnight streched out his hind legs, and set out on the path for town.
Applejack came up behind him, keeping pace. "You know, I been wantin' to know, what's up with the cutie mark?" She knew a cutie mark was an incredibly personal thing, but this unicorns was just so... weird. She couldn't help but be curios.
"Huh? This?" He indicated his odd cutie mark. "Well, I always was good at three things. The first was fighting. I was bullied a lot as a kid, so I really got good fast. The second was protecting my friends and family. We lived in a poor neighborhood, it was pretty violent, so someone had to be the protector. And the last... well, let's just say mares were really big fans." He said this last one with a wink to Applejack, causing her to blush. That strange feeling had once again flitted through her stomach, and it was just as uncomfortable as last time.
"And where'd you live?" She barely managed to mumble out.
"Ha. Well, I was born in Babylon. Lived there till I started wandering."
"But.. didn't that city get destroyed... thousands a years ago?"
"Well, it got rebuilt. Duh." Midnight covered for his slip. He wouldn't have expected a farmer pony to know that. The librarian, certaintly, any local teachers, probably, but not a farmer. Clearly Applejack was smarter than she looked.
"If you say so. How'd you get to be so good at bucking, anyways? You were almost as good as me 'n' Big Macintosh. Ain't natural for a beginner, if ah say so myself." She was trying her best to keep her tone from sounding aggresive, managing to eventually bring it off as mildly curious.
"Wandering made me strong, I guess. Lots of stuff out there to be wary of. Toughens one up." At around this time, the pair walked into Ponyville proper. Oddly quiet, the town seemed abandoned, not a single pony out shopping. As Applejack headed off for the post ofice, Midnight headed towards Sugarcube Corner, figuring ponies might have grouped up there. A flash of white showed in his peripheral vision. As he turned his head to take a better glance, he realized why everypony seemed to have disappeared. The white was a poster, and it wasn't a good poster at all.
The poster itself was nondescript, but what it said was a whole other issue. It carried a very important notice that went like this: "Everypony of age 16 or older is to report to their local post office. This is a mandatory draft. You will be informed within the week where you are to report to for basic training." Equestria Department of Defense
Ah, Midnight thought to himself. This screws up my plans to move on. Still, drafts mean wars, and wars forced him to do his job almost daily. It occured to him that he would be at the farm longer than intended. He would have to be careful doing the job. With that, he headed for the post office.
As Applejack walked into the post office, she got assaulted by her most competitive friend.
"Applejack! You got the message 'bout the draft too, huh? This sucks! I won't have time to practice at all. So lame!" Rainbow spoke quickly, doing small arial manuvers at the same time.
"Leave her alone, Rainbow. She probably doesn't want to get beat to death by your wings while waiting to get her draft number." Twilight scolded Rainbow, dragging her down to earth with magic.
"Twilight, sugarcube, what the hay is goin' on? I ain't heard 'bout no draft!" Applejack panicked. She couldn't afford to leave the farm during bucking season. Especially not with Granny Smith and Applebloom to worry about.
"Oh, you didn't see on the way in? The department of defense has put a draft in action. Nopony knows why, though. I mean, we're not at war, and we haven't been for over a thousand years. So whatever it is must be pretty serious. Anyways, we all have to get a draft card, and then they'll send us a letter in a week to tell us where we'll be reporting for training." Twilight had adopted a somewhat stiff tone, as if she was giving her friends a lecture.
"Do you think the Wonderbolts are more likely to take a war hero?" Rainbow bounced back into the air at the thought. She hadn't even realized Twilight had let her go, and celebrated her freedom by doing a lap around the post office, resulting in being grabbed by Twilight's magic again.
"Rainbow! Have some tact for once!"
"Psshaw, whatever. Egghead."
Walking into the post office right at the end of the exchange, Midnight could tell he'd missed some good entertainment. It didn't really matter though, he was there to sign up for service, and that was it. It would be done, then he'd go back to the farm, complete what he was really here for, and wait for the draft letter.
It had been a pretty good day, all things considered, Midnight thought to himself. Even that lilac unicorn, what was her name? Twilight Sparkle? Anyways, even she hadn't been able to see through his disguise. She literally stunk of power, but his ancient spells still held. Now all he had to do was complete his job, and it'd be easy sailing until the draft letter arrived. And he'd be able to do his job in about an hour. After all, Granny Smith Apple was clearly sick. He hoped that the Apple clan wouldn't decide to check on her at a crucial moment. That'd really suck, especially when the one called Applejack was so cute.
As he trudged into the barn, he prepared to finish what he'd come here for in the first place. He'd need to break his spells, just for a little while. Plus, he'd probably need to cast a spell on anypony still awake. Just to be safe, of course. Nothing too powerful would be neccesary. Or so he hoped.
When finally the time came, and the clock was barreling towards midnight, he got up and sneaked into the house. First he checked that everypony was deep asleep. Applejack tossed and turned, but seemed to be fairly much out of contention. Big Mac was out for at least five more hours, and Applebloom was with the CMC's somewhere. Then he made his way to Granny Smith's room.
Unsuprisingly, she was still awake. Ponies seemed to have some sense of when it was their time. As Midnight let the spells fall away from himself, he was clearly revealed as what he really was: a magnificent Alicorn, seven feet tall at the shoulder, with a horn like night soaked in blood, and wings that clearly belongeed only on gods and godesses. A wind from nowhere seemed to blow his mane and tail in random directions. His mane had grown out, lost it's spikes, and become a flowing river of lava, at least in apperance. As his horn started to glow the deep black of the void, he leaned down and whispered in Granny Smith's ear, "I send you to the afterlife, child. But never alone. You will be guided by your own soul guide. The last great journey starts now." At that, he tapped her head lightly with his horn, and the last breath went out of Granny Smith's body. Her soul was visible for just a second before it dissapeared into the afterlife.
"What the hay is going on! Who are you?" Midnight heard from behind him, in the unmistakable Apple accent. Turning around slowly, he let his magic expand, and envelope the new arrival. He finished his turn to come face to face with a shocked Applejack. "But... you look like... the new unicorn..." she stammered.
"What I am about to tell you, you can never repeat. Do you understand?" Midnight responded. He fully intended to make sure she wouldn't remeber it anyways, but if his magic failed for any reason, he wanted an assurance that she wouldn't be giving out his secrets.
With a simple nod, Applejack answered his question. In a practiced and stately voice, Midnight started his speech. "Good. I am the new unicorn. My name is Midnight to you, but it has been many things, in many times, at many places. I was never really a unicorn. Everypony just sees what they want, as far as my breed goes. You wanted to see a unicorn, so you did. The first time Fluttershy saw me, she saw a pegasus. But your decision to see my as a unicorn has influenced the rest to see me that way. So they do. When I said I was born in Babylon, I wasn't kidding, and I wasn't lieing. I'm about 11,000 years old. I was released by a beautiful earth pony named Wonder. She released me accidently, of course, but it was too late. I am two things, at the same time. I am first death, the taker of lifes, and granter of rest. I am secondly life, the giver of existence, and creator of purpose. As such, the night and day are both my realms. I patrol both the land of sleep, and the realm of awarness. No pony escapes me. In fact, the only reason I'm still here is because it's easier to manage wars when participating." This speech knocked Applejack onto her haunches, stunned. It took her a long while sitting on the rough wooden floor to figure out what was going on.
"So... so... you're death?"
"Yes."
"And you're how old?"
"About 11,000 years."
"Ok... so what happens now?"
"Well, it's not your time yet, so I'm just going to wipe your memory and put you back in bed. You'll never even know what happened tonight."
"What if I don't want ta ferget?" Applejack challenged, getting defensive. Even if she was confused out of her mind, she didn't want anypony messing with her memories, especially an important one like this!
After giving an exhasperated sigh, Midnight tersely responded, "It's either this or death. And I am NOT going to send you off early. Understood?" He then proceeded to follow through, without giving her half a chance at another protest. Sending a strong blast of magic through Applejacks mind to wipe away the memory had the desired secondary effect of knocking her out.
After putting Applejack back in her bed and giving her nice dreams about handsome stallions eating apple pie, Midnight recast the illusion spells on himself, and set out for the barn. Determined to catch a good nights sleep after his recent ordeals, he lay down on some hay and got setteled in for the night. He knew tommorow would be a long day, and he knew why, too.
At the crack of dawn , Midnight rose from his fake sleep to a barely rising sun, an empty barn, and perhaps most startling of all, an empty orchard. It was then that the events of the previous night passed through his mind. The passing, being discovered, forced to do a mind swipe... really, the previous night was an all around misery fest. Today promised to be even worse, at least for the Apple clan. With that, he got up and went to work. After all, somepony had to harvest the apples, right?
As Applejack woke to the dawn sun, she felt... odd. Like something was wrong with her head. Musta got pretty drunk last night, she thought to herself. As she got up for the day, she took a glance outside to see the new unicorn already at work. "Well, darn. That one sure is a hard worker," she mumbled to herself. It was at this point she remembered how sick Granny Smith had been. Best check on her 'fore I go work, she thought to herself. With this in mind, she stumbled down the hall. When she opened the door, it was obvious something was wrong. There was no movement, and more troubling, the only breathing she could hear was her own. Terrified of what she might find, but determined to check, even in the failing hope she was wrong, Applejack walked up to Granny Smith. "Granny? You ok?" she asked with the smallest voice she'd ever used. When there was no response, she checked the old mares pulse.What she found brought to the ground, sobbing.
Big Mac, hearing the noise, sauntered in. "What is it, sis?" he was in the process of asking when he got a good look at Granny Smith. When the realazation hit him, he too fell into tears.
After checking on the two siblings to see if they had discovered Granny Smith yet, and finding that they had, Midnight decided he should go to town. Before he got off Sweet Apple Acres, he heard Applejack cry out behind him, "Find Applebloom!" He turned, looking straight at Applejack, and then gave a small nod, before setting off. Now he had a job to do, and he intended to get it done quickly.
Two hours later, he still hadn't managed to catch the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Apparently they'd decided to be Cutie Mark Crusaders: Fugitives! And they were shockingly good at it. He'd seen the three of them briefly right when he entered town, but the moment he called out to Applebloom, her and the other two had dissapeared. After scouring the entire town, from Sugarcube Corner to the Treebrary, he decided he needed help. Desperately. Which was why he was happy to see the menace to life in general, Rainbow Dash. "Hey, you! Rainbow Dash! I need you're help!"
"What do you need? Want me to make a rainbow? Or how about a cloud sculpture? Wanna watch me do my trick routine?" At this point Rainbow was pratically bouncing up and down in the air.
"No, sorry." Rainbow visibly deflated, starting to head back to ground level. "Wait! I need you to help me find Applebloom! She's needed back at the farm, desperatly, but her and her friends have been running from me for two hours now!"
Rainbow perked back up. "Kid catching? Hah! I'll have those little squirts in ten seconds flat!" Without another thought, she zoomed off into the distance, leaving a rainbow behind her. He knew that if he himself hadn't found them with all his spells and power, Rainbow wouldn't find them anytime soon. Still, it was something to be thankful for, that Rainbow hadn't stopped to ask why he needed Applebloom so badly. Leaving Ponyville general to Rainbow, Midnight headed off towards the only places he hadn't checked: Fluttershy's cottage and the Everfree forest.
After another half hour trot, he arrived at Fluttershy's cabin. Knocking on the door, he hoped urgently that the kids were in there, because if they weren't... well, he didn't want to move off any kids today, that was for sure. When ?Fluttershy peeked her head around the door, she squeaked and disappeared back inside. "Wait! Fluttershy! I need help! Do you know where Applebloom and her friends are?"
"No..."
"Oh gods above. I think they're in the Everfree forest! I've already searched all of Ponyville and a good chunk of Whitetail Woods. Only Everfree's left." Midnight gave a sigh, resigned to tearing the forest apart tree by tree if it became neccesary.
At the very moment Midnight finished talking, a rainbow came crashing down to earth, closely followed by Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Twilight. Rainbow hovered up into the air, angst written across her face. "I couldn't find them! None of us could! They're not in Ponyville, and I don't think they're in Whitetail either..."
"I've already reached the same conclusion," Midnight stated. "I believe they went into the Everfree Forest. I'm going after them, the rest of you should organize a search party. Just in case." With that, he turned and galloped into the forest.
"Fluttershy, go with him! Who knows what he might meet?" Twilight admonished, getting Fluttershy out of her cottage, and sending her off to the forest.
Fluttershy trotted into the Everfrre forest, neverousness clearly displayed on her face. The bright sun was quickly swallowed by the gloom of the canopy above. She in no way wanted to be here, but it was for the fillies. And that creepy unicorn, too, but he just happened to be there. Fluttershy fervently wished that the children were fine, maybe they'd been picked up by Zecora, but the forest needed to be checked just in case. She followed the sound of galloping hooves before they dissapeared into the difference. Knowing she was all alone, she continued, her trot just slightly faster now.
Fluttershy was confident she could handle anything that came her way, but the fillies, and the unicorn? What if they met that mean cockatrice? Or a hydra? Or... well, there were more than enough dangerous things in the forest to keep her imagination oocupied. They managed to keep her terrified, too. And that wasn't even counting the plants. Poison joke was bad enough, but what if they ran across something worse? A carniverous tree? A poisonius plant that looked like normal hay? Who knew what the Cutie Mark Crusaders might get into?
In her worrying, Fluttershy missed something important- four sets of hoof marks headed right, and deeper into the forest. She continued to head left, making her way to Zecora's home as fast as her terror allowed.
Midnight had found the young fillies tracks rather quickly after entering the forest. The tracks were already at least a hour old, and how knew where those foalish fillies could have gotten to in that time? He might be to late already, and that disturbed him. It disturbed him so much, in fact, that he took off galloping in their tracks before even realizing fluttershy was following. Hydras, cockatrices, Ursas, both minor and major, dragons, manticores... the terrors of the forest were many, and they were much to dangerous for three little fillies.
He almost missed the tracks taking a sharp right as he came upon the turn, he was already going too fast to stop, so he had to waste time making an extra wide turn. He lost the tracks in the undergrowth in the process. He decided it was time for magic- so he cast a tracker spell. What he found terrified him, it was the worst possible outcome. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had found there way into a large, and inhabited, cave.
"Come on, Sweetie Bell! Nothing's here!" Scootaloo shouted.
"I don't know, guys," Sweetie Bell choked out. "It's really dark and... well, scary in here."
"Ah, com' on, it's fine, Sweetie. Nthin' in here. Anyway' Cutie Mark Crusaders: Forest Explorers can handle it!" Applebloom shouted out to her friend.
"Yeah, stupid. Come on, I bet there's treasure!"
"Well... ok!" Sweetie brightened up considerably, a smile lighting her face. After all, it was just a cave, right?
At the back of the cave, a large purple Ursa woke up, Appleblooms shout having disturbed it's nap. It wasn't sure what had awoken it, but it hoped it made a nice snack. After all, A recently awoken Ursa Major is always hungry.
As it came upon the three fillies, it felt cheated they were far to small to make a good snack. And they wouldn't even give any fun, the oblivious foals. It needed exactly one more pony, preferably larger, and even better, ready to struggle a little. That would be better. But even an unsatisfactory meal is a meal, right?
Applebloom heard some snuffling approaching, and turning to find out what it was, got the biggest shock of her young life- coming face to face with an Ursa Major. "Uhh, guys... I think we should get out of here now!" She shouted in a panicked voice, fear contorting her features.
"Why?" asked Scootaloo, turning around, "I'm sure that we can handle anything!" The bravado faded out of her voice as she completed the turn and found the largest thing she'd ever seen. And it was definently not happy. Uh oh she thought, this is bad... if only Rainbow Dash was here! She .. might be able to save us... the panic scareing her stiff.
"AHHHHH!" Midnight heard distant screaming that sounded exactly like three little fillies. He put on an extra burst of speed, going faster than sound, but not quite sonic rainboom fast. As the birds flew away from a large swath of trees in a cacophany of terror, he knew he had to be fast, but no so fast he hurt himself. He sped off into the forest, attempting to make it to the fillies in time to save alll three of them from the Ursa Major he'd sensed. If they were smart, of which there was no evidence to Midnights mind, they'd run into the forest and hide, quickly. Ursas weren't remarked for their intelligence, but they were still very dangerous.
As he rounded a bend, he found a clearing and a cave, out of which slowly came three little fillies. A purple snout poked out of the cave, followed by a head at twice as large as Midnights entire body in colt form. Still, he could handle it. He was a god, after all. So it was he jumped in front of the three fillies, and shouted "Run to Zecora's! I'll handle this monster."
"But.." Applebloom started to protest, but was quickly cut off.
"GO! NOW!"
Hearing a loud scream, and seeing the birds fly away, Fluttershy trembled in fear. But she knew she had to help the fillies and the unicorn, and set out towards the source of the sound. If she had to, she had The Stare, and hopefully that'd be enough. She was about halfway there when a dark flash clacked out the forest, then passed by, revealing the Cutie Mark Crusaders standing there, trembling and crying, and running towards her. "Oh, Fluttershy! It was so big!" Applebloom sobbed
"What was Applebloom?"
"The.. the bear!"
"What?" Fluttershy was shocked. How had the girls managed to get tangled up with an Ursa? And where was Midnight?
"Is that the unicorn?" Scootaloo asked "He stayed behind to help us get away!"
Fluttershy hadn't realized she'd asked out loud, but she got an answer. And not a good one, either. Deciding she couldn't help the unicorn now, she felt she should take the fillies back to Zecoras and make sure they were ok. "Come on girls, we're going to Zecora's." An unusually silent and timid group of crusaders followed close behind.
The Ursa thought to itself, a feisty one! Just what I wanted. It then procceded to lumber its way towards Midnight, the hunger and anger written all across its face. It hadn't even realized the three fillies had escaped.
Rainbow came zooming in to Zecora's moments before Fluttershy returned. As she banged on the door, she shouted, "Zecora! We're going into the forest to look for the Cutie Mark Crusaders! Can you help us?"
"If the forest you search, wait a while on your perch," came the reply.
"What?" Rainbow was in the middle of preparing a rant for Zecora when Fluttershy and the Cutie Mark Crusaders came up.
"Oh, Rainbow, it was horrible!" Scootaloo burst out, rushing up and nuzzling deep into Rainbow's mane.
"What? What happened? Fluttershy, where were these foals?"
"Well..." Fluttershy looked more than a little disturbed, and definently fearful. "They found an Ursa Major... Midnight found them... he stayed behind." Fluttershy was crying and looking down by the time she'd finished, unable to look at the shock she was sure would be spreading across Rainbows face.
"Where?" Rainbow demanded, then took off before getting a response. She had a stupid unicorn to rescue. Again.
Midnight stared at the approaching beast. He knew the fillies had gotten away, he could sense them running away. Letting go of the magic, he stared down the Ursa. He knew the dumb brute didn't realize who he was, and he knew Ursa's were dangerous, even to him, in some cases. But he was more than powerful enough to handle a stupid bear. He let slip his illusion and was revealed as the oldest creature in the world, and the one true immortal, unkillable force. Even then the Ursa only took a second to wait, before continuing forward to destroy his new prey. The Ursa failed to notice that it's prey was surronded by a swirling black aura, quickly growing tighter, faster, darker. Then it made a fatal mistake- it swiped for the Alicorn. The blast destroyed all the trees near by, sent the Ursa into the next life, and left a young unicorn colt unconcious on the forest floor.
Rainbow saw a massive clearing, looking like it had been bombed out from far above. She noticed a small speckle of Deep blue in the forest, and swooped down to check it out. She found she was right- it was Midnight. She picked him up and carried him back to Zecora's.
Midnight woke for just a few seconds to find Fluttershy and Applebloom nearby, clearly watching him. He reached out a hoof and took one of Appleblooms. He knew he only had a few seconds until his body slid back into unconciousness, but that was enough time to give his message. "Applebloom," Midnight forced out, "Granny Smith... died last night." He missed the renewedlook of sorrow and pain that crossed Appleblooms face as the blessed blackness took back his mind.
Granny Smith's funeral was held at the end of the week, four days later. She was buried in a simple plot on the farm, near where Bloomberg used to be planted. It was a simple ceremony, family and friends were invited. Most of the Apple clan couldn't make it, but Caramel and his family made the short trip over. Applejacks friends were all there, and Midnight had been invited, but he declined, saying that he would feel wierd when he'd barely known her. This was true, but not the only reason he didn't attend. Funerals depressed him, they made his work seem worse than it really was. But he still watched from afar.
The weather pegasi had created a cloud covered day for the event. The threat of rain was there, but not a single drop came down. The ceremony started at ten a.m., and was over in just over an hour. Big Mac helped a destroyed Applejack and sorrowful Applebloom back to the farm house. The others dispersed towards their various homes and jobs, after offering their support and condolences. It wasn't until after the Apples had made it back that the weather pegasi let the rain fall. And still Midnight stood in the distance.
It wasn't until time had reached his name sake that he started back towards the barn. With a little expenditure of magic, he gave Granny one last gift.
"Somewhere, over the orchard, bluebirds sing...
When he reached the barn, he found his draft letter. He left for Camp Ponyton, way out in Coltifornia, tommorow.
Midnight was suprised to find that the draft had sent him, Applejack, and Twilight to the same camp. Himself and Twilight would, of course, be going into a special course for battle magic after basic training. He didn't know what Applejack would be doing, as she had been given an extra weeks leave to make plans for what to do with Applebloom, since herself and Big Mac would both be going into service. Of course, a week wasn't neccesary, but Midnight suspected someone high up had caught wind of Granny Smith's passing, and had decided to give the family more time to grieve.
It was under these conditions that Twilight and Midnight arrived at Camp Ponyton in Stallion Diego for basic training, and the magic courses. They were split almost immediatly, of course, Midnight going into the stallion section of camp, Twilight heading off for the mares' bunkers.
A yelling Earth Pony sergeant quickly had them split into Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth ponies. As Midnight headed off with the other Unicorns, he was approached by another new recruit. "Hey, you look lonely," the new stallion said, "I'm pretty lonely myself. Mind if I stick by you? My name's Icescape. What's yours?"
Midnight, taking a quick glance at this new pony, picked up on a few major things. Firstly, Icescape was accurately named- he was whiter than artic snow, from his mane to his tail. Secondly, his cutie mark was a stylized bird, who knows what that was supposed to mean. Lastly, he appeared to be just a little shorter than Midnight himself was in colt form. He hoped that himself and Icescape wouldn't become friends. Having friends was a little too hard when you eventually sent the to the afterlife. Realizing he'd been looking at the new colt for almost a minute, he grunted out "Midnight," and turned away.
"Oh, what a cool name! Way better than mine. It's been a while since I've had a real friend, you know. It's nice to know we'll be tight!" Icescape beamed at Midnight, bouncing up and down, doing an amazing pinkie impression, randomness and all. "OH! You wanna know where I'm from?"
"Do I have to?" Midnight was starting to become alarmed by this foalish pony. he really didn't need a "friend" right now, especially not one like this.
"Well, I was born WAY up north, in Wetherinton. In Olympony, to be exact. Anyways, it rained more than it snowed, but when it did snow, it was so beautiful..." Icescape launched on what semmed to be his lifes story. "... Anyways, I discovered how good I was at doing nature stills, and then I got my Cutie Mark! Pretty cool, huh? Not as cool as yours, of course, but still. Anyways, I started spending a lotta time doing art after that, which made me kinda an outcast, I guess. Definently didn't get me tons of friends, but I still had a few, so that was ok. And I liked art yah know?..." Midnight had nearly managed to block Icescape out completely when he threw a hoof around Midnight's shoulders. "... And then when I went to college, I was younger than everyone else, so I was an outcast. And then I thought I'd made friends with this one other kid, he was named Flamesear, but then he took all my art and made a bonfire out of it..." At this point, Icescape slowed down, both in speech and movement. "And so I got kicked out of school. That was a couple of years ago, and I've been barely living off comissions in a crappy apartment since then. I had a girlfriend once, but I caught her making out with another colt, and she chose him..." Icescape had finally shut up entirely, his head drooping down to the ground. Midnight was feeling bad despite himself, and was about to reach out and cheer Icescape up, but never got the chance.
"Alright, fillies! Welcome to Barrack number seven!" Shouted out the seargent. "Get your beds set up, go to the mess hall, and get some grub. Enjoy yourselves, Mares, because Basic training starts tommorow!"
At this, the Unicorns marched into the Barracks, giving Midnight a chance to speak to Icescape. "Come on man, I won't treat you that way. Now make your bed, then lets go get some food, huh?"
This perked Icescape up considerably, causing him to move about in a blur, making his bed. God, Midnight thought, if him and Pinkie got together, I think the world would explode. "Done!" Midnight heard from behind, and was shocked to find that Icescape had, indeed, made his entire bed in the space of one thought. Midnight hadn't even started. This is gonna be difficult, Midnight thought with a facehoof.
After making his own bed, Midnight headed out with Icescape towards the mess hall. Icescape was suprisingly funny, telling joke after joke. And even the occasional story. It turned out the kid had near perfect recall, as Midnight found out when they got into a battle over who knew more useless trivia. The challenge culminated in Midnight asking what the exact population of Equestria was two years ago. "147,320,913." Icescape replied. "I read that in the Neigh York Times a couple of years back."
After that, Midnight conceeded defeat. No point in trying to outsmart the world almanac, he figured.
Dinner turned out to be some kind of bean mush, oatmeal blander than dirt, and a hard biscuit at least two months old. A strict no second helpings policy was already being enforced. All in all, not a great first meal for the new recruits. It left them hungry, which in turn made them anxious, grumpy, and irrational. Though somehow Icescape kept his mood up, explaining he'd survived on "Barley bits for days at a time," in the past, and it didn't matter much to Midnight, who didn't actually need to eat, most of the others fared poorly. Midnight figured it might be intentional, an attempt to get the unity of the ponys broken before they'd even begun. Or maybe an attempt to make sure they understtod they were just cogs in the machine. Either way, it was very succesful, Midnight thought to himself, as he fell asleep on his metal bunk.
The next day, the recruits were all woken at three in the morning. The temperature was shockingly low, making Midnight wonder if the weather pegasi had been told to make it as miserable as possible. Celestia hadn't even risen the sun yet, but the rain clouds hanging over the camp would have blocked it out in any case. The recruits got up and stumbled out of the barracks as quickly as they could. It was really an impressive display of grunting, mumbling, and confusion.
Instead of the seargent from yesterday, two officers were standing in front of them. One of the officers seemed to be a lieutenant, the other significantly more important. Maybe a Major, or even a Lt. Colonel? This was beside the point, though, as he seemed to be there merely to observe. The mare Lieutenant steeped forward. "Hello boys. Welcome to the Equestrian Armed Forces, Marines branch, Camp Ponyton training ground. You will be spending the next three months here. You should feel honored." Oh yeah, I should feel honored that I get to spend three months in this colorless hell, Midnight complained, but not out loud. He was smarter than to say that kind of thing out loud. "Only those who had applications that showed great promise got in here," the mare continued, oblivious to the group of stallion's obvious boredom. The boredom and the tiredness had mixed to send three off the group to sleep already, and another four were barely keeping concious, judging by the angles of their heads. "As it is, this is the hardest camp in the entirety of Equestria. By the time we're done with you, your old selves will be gone. You will have become machines of muscle and will. You lucky stallions get to be on the front lines of every battle. Drill Seargent Shine will be your trainer. Have a good three months, stallions." With that, the expresionless mare turned and trotted away. The colonel gave a small smile, more to himself than the recruits, and followed the Lieutenant away.
"Well, that was weird, huh?" Icescape spouted, seemingly the only one of the group who managed to remain alert. A giant lopsided grin grew on his muzzle. "I don't know what makes me special enough to be here. But I got to meet you, so it was worth it!"
"Couldn't have anything to do with surviving on barely any food, could it?" Midnight deadpanned, but with a slight eyeroll. He knew what got him there- under the Unicorns Only section, there'd been a question about magical power. Being a god, he did, of course, have a very large store of magical power, but he figured "Near Infinite" would be hard to believe, so he just put "High." Of course, he'd recently been feeling like something was missing, like his power wasn't quite up to scratch, but he figured it was just stress. Wars always get him down. He hated his job with such a burning-
"Listen up fillies! See that mud track over there?" A yell broke Midnights line of thought. An imposing Earth pony stallion was standing in front of him. Sleet grey, six foot tall at the shoulder, and with seargent's epaulets, Midnight figured the imposing figure had to be Drill Seargent Shine. He certaintly cut an imposing enough figure to be a drill seargent.
Seargent Shine was pointed behind him, and slightly to the left. A long track of churned mud, with quite a few walls and hurdles, barb wire strung on posts that left just enough space to crawl, and what apperead to be a mine field and a firing range completed the grueling course the seargent was indicating. "By the time I'm done with you, you'll be able to clear that course in five minutes or less. As it is today, I'm going to put you in groups of two. Whichever team finishes first gets the rest of the day off. Now, I know it's only four in the morning, but you'll learn to deal with it. They don't call this Camp Hellton for nothing!" At that, the seargent gave out a chilling laugh. As he started to pair up teams, Midnight took a moment to feel bad for the others. Being normal, and untrained, certaintly wouldn't help them any. Without the need to sleep, and having been the deciding factor in every major battle in history, gave Midnight a slight edge. Not needing a morning meal may have helped, too.
"You two!" The seargent barked, pairing Midnight up with the pony next to him. Looking to his left, he got a face full of white as Icescape jumped him.
"This is great! We're already team mates! Let's rock!" Icescape sad in his super fast, nearly intelligible speech pattern.
"Uh, yeah..." Midnight got a slight grimace on his face as he looked away. "Let's 'rock' this."
"Stop talking, fillies!" The seargent had somhow gotten right up into Midnights face in the last half second. "And run the course!"
Picking up a rifle, a pistol, and some extra ammo, Midnight and Icescape set off. The mud grabbed at hooves, but it was all just an issue of brute strength. Figuring he was stronger, Midnight let Icescape go first. He was understandably shocked when Icescape set a near gallop pace, with little effort, or so it seemed. Following quickly, Midnight managed to stay on Icescape's tail all the way to the first wall. Now, here was a combo of strength and technique, thought Midnight. If you toom it right, it'd take so little...
"Come on Midnight! I didn't take you for a slowpoke!" Icescape shouted from the top of the wall. "Get up here, we're in third!"
That jolted Midnight into action, and he pulled himself up by the power of his forelegs, and an iron grip on the rope with his mouth. He quickly joined Icescape, and the pair jumped into the mud, setting off for the next wall even faster than they had for the first. Midnight quickly let his mind relax into the physical activity. But he was feeling something he'd never felt in his life- fautigue, he thought to himself. But that's not possible, is it? he wondered as he jumped off the top of the final wall.
Deciding to ignore the feeling, Midnight set off towards the hurdles with Icescape. The hurdles were a major challenge in the mud. It was nearly impossible to get a high enough jump to clear them, so half the time he and midnight pushed and pulled each other over them. By the end of the hurdles, they were tied for first with two earth ponies. It looked like the physical part of the race would be down to the barb wire crawl. Thank Luna for the skill portion, Midnight thought. If it weren't for that, we might lose. With that reassuring thought, he dived under the barbed wire after Icescape. They were making good time, and were managing to keep pace with the two earth ponies. Icescape and the first earth pony popped out of the crawlspace at the same time, with Midnight coming less than a hair after the second earth pony. All that remained now was the mine field and the firing range. Their magic gave the two unicorns a massive advantage in these two skill- oriented areas.
"You... can *pant* go first," Icescape got out. "I'm a little tired."
"Alright," Midnight said, already concentratin on his finding magic, avoiding all the mines he saw. "Just follow me."
"Alright..." Icescape was barely keeping pace, and Midnight wasn't even moving very fast. They reached the firing range at least a minute ahead of their closest opponents, though, so they still had time. The challenge on the firing range was a two man, assault scenario set up. Multiple targets were set up, moving in and out of Midnights line of sight, and into or out of Icescapes, and so on. They had to identify and eliminate all enemy targets. "No civilian casualties allowed!" Seargent Shine screamed.
After having a quick planning session, Icescape and Midnight got to work, they magically marked targets in red, and non- targets in blue. They would then take out the target when it was in a clear line of sight. Icescape turned out to be a wicked shot, getting even more kills than Midnight. They finished after only six minutes of constant shooting.
They were the clear winners, and as they wearily stumbled off the training field, Seargent Shine recommended they "take a shower, you stink worse than a mare in heat," and sent them to the showers.
After finishing, Midnight and Icescape decided to go get some food. Midnight asked the question that was bugging him worst. "Where'd you learn to do all that, Icescape?"
"Oh, I was part of a survival camp for a few years. Why?"
With a facehoof, Midnight conveyed the utter absurdity of his entire experience so far.
Midnight emerged from a forest and into a clearing, an unnatural one that had to be burned away. A pegasus walked out of the forest a little to his left. The pegasus looked exactly like Midnight, not just in color, but the same exact cutie mark too.
"Where are we?" Midnight asked the pegasus. Before the pegasus could respond, another Midnight clone walked out of the forest opposite. This one appeared to be an earth pony, however.
"I'm glad you ask," the earth pony responded. "This is a dream, but not a normal one. I have an important message."
Midnight jerked awake. He'd had this dream every night for at least two months. At first, he thought that basic training was just getting to his mind, but he knew that wasn't right. He just knew that if he could get all the way through the dream, he'd know why he felt so bad. He was getting fautiged by extreme excersize, something that'd never happened to him previously. His magic, while still stronger than natrual, was weaker than it should be. One night, when he'd stayed awake out of sheer will, he'd tried to bring out his wings and fly, just to discover he couldn't. He'd never been unable to fly before, and it scared him. But not as much as needing to sleep. That was wrong. In fact, it was all wrong. He knew something was going on, but he could do nothing about it. With a sigh, he went back to bed.
An earth pony clone of himself stood straight across from Midnight, on the other side of a long table made of black granite. The stone was colder than space, and as the earth pony slowly made it's way to Midnight, he found he couldn't move. Looking down, he discovered he was frozen to the table. The ice was a strange red, and reflected better than the average mirror. Which was how Midnight discovered he looked like Icescape.
"Hello," the earth pony said with a small frown, "I know that you're who I was expecting, but you look like someone else. I wonder... I think the dream is telling me that tonight isn't the night. Again. However, it seems to think you could do some good in anothers dream. Good bye for now. I will speak to you at another time." At this, the earth pony extended a hoof to Midnight, and with a tap on his head, sent him on. The earth pony turned, and seemed to ask nothing in particular, "When?"
"Soon," came the reply.
Midnight crashed down onto the barrack floor. He could have sworn that he was Icescape for a second, but looking in the window glass, he could tell that he was, in fact, still himself. Creepy, he thought to himself. If this is what dreaming is like, I don't know that I want to dream anymore. With a shiver, he gave up on going back to sleep, which would be impossible after that last dream anyways, and considered his situation. Basic training was over in just a few days, and then it was on to the special magic training. He idly wondered if he'd get to see Applejack or Twilight before they all want different places. He'd seen them in passing a few times during the last few months, and had even gotten to have a short conversation with Applejack, but nothing significant. "Oh, hay," he thought out loud, "I need to stop thinking about these people like we're friends!" Deciding a good one a.m. lap around the track would get things off his mind, he stood and went to the barrack door.
Which opened into a northen rain forest. Dumbfounded, Midnight stopped in his tracks. As he tried to figure out what in hay was going on, he heard a scream in the forest. None of the other soon-to-be marines stirred at the sound, but Midnight noticed Icescape was missing. Oh, hay no, Midnight thought as he burst into the forest. He may not have any idea what was happening, but he knew he had to help Icescape.
The earth pony Midnight watched himself as a unicorn ran out into the forest without a second thought. If only he knew the consequences last time he did that, the earth pony thought. If only. The Midnight clone went back to watching himself intrude in Icescapes dream.
As Midnight crashed through the forest, he picked up on the scream, and realized they were coming from his left a bit more. As he turned to go after the sound, he burst out of the trees, just to see Icescape cowering in front of... a larger pony? The second pony looked like Icescape, except for the mane, which was a fairly normal brown. On second thought, the second pony was actually grey, not white. His cutie mark was impossible to see in the dark. "Freak!" he screamed at Icescape, "You're a freak! And your cutie mark, a bird? HAH! You're no good at art, maybe it's telling you to take a flying leap!" The pony, whos face had been getting redder as the speech went on, finally had enough. He raised a hoof and let something fly. A bottle made contact with Icescapes face and broke, causing multiple small scars. Icescape ran off into the night, crying heavily, and dissapered into the gloom. "Humph. Freak," the gray pony said as he went back inside.
Horrified at what he had jut seen, Midnight nearly went in and confronted the pony, but before he could move, the pony reappeared. This time he was carrying what appeared to be luggage. "If that kid thinks he's going away he's stupider than I thought," he murmured under his breath.
A mare stepped outside. She walked over to the stallion and appeared to be begging him not to do whatever it was he intended to do. The gray pony gave a a short answer and marched off. The ponies had been getting farther from Midnight this whole time. As he started to creep closer, so he could actually hear what they were saying, the gray stallion pulled a quick turn, raised a hoof, and brought it down on the mares face, knocking her to the floor.
A gasp sounded out from some bushes nearby, and Icescape ran out, and then away, tears streaking his face. He looked so young, not yet out of colthood, Midnight thought. Could it be a memory? Am I still in a dream?
Just then the world started to dissolve, and Midnight felt a hoof on his shoulder. "You're not supposed to be here," Icescape said in a flat voice. Not only had he lost his cheer, but all emotions what so ever had fled him. "This is a private memory. Come on, let's get you back to the barracks." And with a firm hoof, Midnight was pushed back towards the barracks. He couldn't say anything, his mind was too deep into questioning mode. I don't remember THIS being mentioned when Icescape gave me his life story, Midnight thought. How'd he get to be the pony he is with that past? Is it all a front?
In what seemed to be no time at all, he was back in his bunk in the barracks. He couldn't even remember how he got there. Before falling into a dreamless sleep, Midnight had one last thought. Is Icescape ok?
Midnight waited for the same lieutenant from day one of training to finish giving her speech. Sure is long- winded, he thought. He wasn't really listening, but he did pick up the occasional phrase. ".. For the good of Equestria..." and "Hero's of our great nation!" particularly stuck out to him. He laughed to himself. He knew from personal experience that there were no heros in war. Only survivors and corpses. Not to say soldiers weren't brave, but most of them would perfer to be anywhere else.
"You will be getting your assignments shortly." The phrase meant the end of the speech, and the end of the most boring ceremony he'd ever sat through. Kinda made him wish for the days of the United Kolts, where you graduated, and went out into the world to fight the empire's battles. His line of thought was interrupted, like usual, by Icescape. He never had gotten a chance to ask about what he saw... he wasn't quite sure how he'd mention it, even if he did get a shot.
"Were all going out into town for drinks and a party! Wanna come?" Icescape seemed pumped at being a full blooded Marine. If the few times they'd managed to get away from base and get a beer were any indication, by the end of the night, Icescape would be unbarebly hyper. Midnight didn't know why, but alchol just made him worse than normal.
Heaving a sigh, Midnight replied, "Yeah, probably. I wanna go check on some friends first though. Alright?"
"Ok! But be quick!" Icescape zoomed off like a rocket.
After he left the base, he headed towards the apartment that Applejack and Twilight shared. Himself and Icescape had one too, though Midnight was questioning having Icescape as a roomie. It was good that they'd been let off base to go secure lodgings the last few days. If they didn't, they got to stay back on base. After Basic Abuse, as it had come to be known, that was the last thing anypony wanted.
As he walked up the stairs to the apartment, Twilight passed him on the way down. "Hey," she called behindher, "you going to the party?"
"In a minute," came the reply. Midnight turned back and knocked on the door before letting himself in. "Hey Applejack, you headed to the party?" His question came out in a hushed tone of its own accord. Something about the way the apartment was decorated lended itself to quite, calm reflection. Kinda like a library.
"Nah," came the reply, from the bed on the other side of the room. "I jus' don't feel like it."
"Awwe, come on Applejack. It'll be fun! I can introduce to Icescape properly!" Midnight slowly approached as he tried to cajole Applejack into getting out of bed. "Plus, even Twilight's going. Don't wanna seem like more of a recluse than an actual hermit, do you?"
"Ah'm not goin'. That's that."
At this point, he was right at her bedside. "Please?" He was practically begging, but for some reason, it felt worth it.
"No."
"I'm not leaving until you get out of bed!" Midnight declared, a smug smile settling on his face. He was sure that would work.
"Alrigh'." Applejack still hadn't even looked at him. Her tone of voice hadn't changed even a little bit the entire time Midnight had been bugging her.
"Alright, whats wrong, AJ?" It was the first time Midnight had even thought the nickname, but it felt right. "You can tell me."
"If Ah tell yah, will yah let me alone?"
Midnight considerd this for a while before responding. "PRobably not," he admitted, "but it might make you feel better."
"Ah'm worried 'bout Applebloom, 'k?"
"And what's really got you down?" Midnight felt he had the answer, but couldn't think of any tactful way to approach the issue.
"That is mah problem."
"Ok, what's the rest of it?" Midnight was getting ready to find the drink stash he was sure Twilight had somewhere. A strong drink couldn't do him any bad, could it?
"Tha's it."
"U-huh. You wouldn't happen to know where Twilight keeps her booze, would you?"
"Kitchen, bottom shelf a the cabinets."
"Thanks." After getting a strong drink, and prepping two more, one for each of them, Midnight walked back into the bedroom. It was then that he noticed AJ had the look of someone who had only recently finished crying. The puffy red eyes and wet pillow were a give away, but Midnight was suprised it didn't come across in her voice. TOugh as nails, he thought,setting the drinks down.
"I figured you could a drink too," Midnight stated matter of factly, taking a seat on the carpet and downing his in a single gulp. Probably a good thing he couldn't get full blown drunk, he'd be in a hospital somewhere for sure. Probably for running out in front of a carriage, or something equally stupid.
AJ downed her drink in one go.She sat up looked at Midnight and asked something that must have been weighing on her mind for a very long time. "Why'd it have to happen?"
Despite the ambiguity of the question, Midnight knew what was going on. He'd have to be careful, in case he hadn't done a good enough job erasing the memories of that night from AJ's mind. "It happens to everypony, eventually. She made it much longer than most, though. She musta been quite strong willed to have lived that long."
"Ah think Ah need another drink." Applejack almost asked it instead of saying it.
"Of course. Just a sec." Midnight returned to the kitchen and made three more drinks. He figured AJ could have two of them, and he'd drink the other.
He set two glasses down on AJ's table, and downed the other. Sending the now empty shot glass back to the kitche, he turned his attention back to AJ. "Are you still torn up about it?"
She gave a slow nod, and after downing another drink, said "It don't hurt like it used to, Ah reckon. Ah mean, it's been awhile, right?" She looked at Midnight and drowned the other drink in a single go.
Midnight realized why AJ still felt so bad. She was starting to move on, and felt like she was betraying Granny Smith's memory. He pulled her into a hug and gave her a quick nuzzle. "AJ, it's ok. She would want you to move on, I'm sure of it. It'll always hurt a little, but you can't hold on to that pain. It doesn't honor them, it's selfish. They want us to live, and the best way to honor them is to follow their wishes, isn't it?"
By the end of this little speech, Applejack was bawling into Midnights mane, and he didn't care. He just held her tighter and let her cry. It wasn't until at least forty minutes later she stopped crying and went into snifling mode. "Ah'd thank yah to tell nopony 'bout this. Please?"
"Of course not, AJ. I'd never do that." Midnight slowly let her go, and checked the clock. Eleven at night. Not too late to go to the party, but that didn't really seem enjoyable right now. He'd rather make sure AJ was ok. He looked at her out opf the corner of his eye.Ahe looked a mess, her mane was free and badly tangled, her eyes were even redder than earlier,and she had a general look of downness about her. And she's still damn cute, Midnight caught himself starting to think. He knew he couldn't allow anything like that,eho knew what'd happen, but he still wished sometimes. With a sigh, he started to get up to prepare more drinks, but had his hoof grabbed by Applejack.
"Please just... stay right here, ok?" she asked, pleading with her eyes, the light gleaming off a last few tears. Midnight felt his will give way, and he sit back down next to her. But she wasn't done, he realized, as he felt a hoof snake around his neck. Oh, please just let it be a hug, he silently prayed, right before Applejack kissed him.
It was a feeling that suprised him. Not quite like fire in his veins, but definently something hotter than blood rushed to his face as he found himself helpless top resist Aj's gentle hoof. As he pushed back into her kiss, returning the affection, he felt her tounge snake into his mouth. Once again, he couldn't resist,but the bumping of teeth almost solved thast problem. After a short second and a very uncharateristic giggle, Applejack was back to kissing him. Gods above, I like this, he thought, as he tasted apples combining with city air to make a strange, but delicious, mix of flavors on Aj's tounge.
Later, bfore he fell asleep,and for some reason, before Twilight made it home, he heard Applejack whisper in his ear. The words were a plea, and one that he was determined to fulfill, at least as long as he could.
Midnight sighed as he settled into his seat, taking a hold of AJ's hoof. Himself, AJ, and Icescape had all been assigned to the same company, which was stationed all the way across Equestria, in Manehattan. Their new Company was Marines third company. They were in the fifth platoon. This would be unremarkable, except for what this platoon did. It was nicknamed Awe, and for good reason. These were supposed to be among the best Marines in the country, and as such, they were almost always used as shock troops, being air dropped into important objectives. They didn't neccesarily want to capture the objectives, but they definently wanted to weaken them.
It was a suprise to everyone that three fresh recruits got into such an elite unit. Midnight was personally suprised that Icescape had made it instead of Twilight. He was powerful, but nowhere near as powerful as Twilight, who paled in comparison to Midnight. Instead of Awe, Twilight got placed in a battle artillery position. Oh well, Midnight thought, who knows what kind of politics goes into these decisions. He gave a quick glance at AJ, squeezed her hoof, and closed his eyes.
Though it was still early, he was only pretending to sleep. His mind had gone into overdrive, and the thoughts running around his head were getting more and more sobering. I think Iove her, but I know I can't, but I do, and does it even matter? Would Big Mac give her away, even if I asked? I wouldn't ask anyways, because I would have to leave her, and that's not right. How did I let this happen? I've got a marefriend, and a best friend, and a group of ponies that I'd give the world for. It's not right, he insisted in the confines of his mind, It's not right, and it's all gonna come crashing down, I know it. Just like what happens everytime. But I've never been in love before... so maybe it'll turn out differently this time?
Midnight knew that was a false hope, if only because everypony dies eventually, even the princesses would. He still couldn't get rid of it, though. He was tired, he hated his purpose for existing, he hated being the only truly immortal thing in the world. It dragged him down, even after millenia of doing it, and knowing how to make sure ponies felt the greatest joy they ever had when they passed. He was still, for all intents, the ultimate murderer. Midnight had no doubt that if anyone found out, they'd charge him with the worst rap sheet in history, and he also had no doubt that he wouldn't deny any of it. Probably get a life sentence for it.
The thought of a life sentence struck him as funny, and broke his current line of thought. Oh, life in prison for death! He thought to himselfit was the best thing he'd come up with in a long time. Thinking things like that, he was finally able to sleep. He was dreaming by the time the train left the station.
Pacing back and forth in a room made out of black granite, Midnight the earth pony turned to speak to his queen. "When will I be able to?" he asked it more out of habit then any an expectation of a real answer. He'd given up on those months ago.
"As soon as all three versions are in Manehattan," the reply came as Luna stepped out of the gloom at the back of the room.
Midnight was shaken awake by Icescape hours later, as attested to by the fact that they were travelling through massive grain fields which shined gold in a noon day sun. They were in Neighbraska, or Maressouri, perhaps. "Come on! I'm bored!" Icescape whined, getting Midnights attention. "I brought all these games, and I have no one to play with!"
"Why'd you do that?" Midnight asked with a small groan and a yawn as he slowly woke up. He determined that AJ was still asleep with a quick glance, then stretched out and went to find water.
"So I wouldn't be bored, duh," Icescape said. Midnight could be really silly for such a serious pony. Especially in the mornings. This gave Icescape an idea, and he shot off to the cafe cariage like a white bullet.
"Uh... ok...?" Midnight really wasn't awake enough to deal with this. Deciding he liked being unconcius better anyways, He sat down next to AJ and promptly fell asleep.
Icescape came back a few minutes later, a very large black coffee in his hand. Awe, he's asleep, thought Icescape. The thought was somehow halfhearted, like it didn't really want to exist. "I wonder what this stuff tastes like, anyways," Icescape thought out loud. He then drained the twenty ounce coffe in just a few gulps.
Midnight was shooken awake by AJ. "We're here, sugar," she said with a small smile. Midnight got up and went to get his stuff. He grabbed his bags, then did a double take. The cabin had changed colors- and now looked like a jungle. A very accurately painted jungle, complete with animals.
"What happened?" Midnight asked, still a little slack jawed by the change.
At this point, Icescape jumped out of nowhere, covered in paint. "Hi Midnight! You went to sleep so I drank the coffee I got for you and then I remembered my paints so I got them out and then-" He was stopped by a hoof getting stuck in his mouth.
"Forget I asked," he growled, getting his luggage and getting off the train before someone asked why the carriage looked like it did. As far as he was concerned, it had been done, and there was no reason to stick around.
Icescape and AJ waited for him on the platform. After checking one last time to see that he had everything, they walked out the doors of Grand Central Station, and into Manehattan proper, and the early evening shadows of monoliths.
After finding the place Twilight had said she was staying and depositing their luggage, the arguing started. Icescape and AJ wanted to go see the city, Midnight wanted anything but, having seen the city literally millions of times. He gave in, mostly because he was afraid what would happen if Icescape were left to his own devices. He left a quick note for Twilight, and they headed own into the lobby.
Which just happened to have a number of ponies Midnight recognized. Great, he thought, all of them in one place. The world's going to hay in a handbasket, and I'm going to be worried about a whole bunch of ponies. Midnight gave up the line of thought as the others noticed AJ and Midnight.
"Applejack, doll! It is so great to see you again!" Rarity declared, but didn't quite get close enough for a hug. "You must let me do you up for a night on the town! Maybe we can find you a stallion!"
"Well, th's nice ah yah and all, Rarity, but you see-" Applejack was cut off as a rainbow blur took her down, accompinied by a piece of cotton candy come to life. Or that's what it looked like to Midnight, before he could make out that it was Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.
"It'sbeensolongIthinkweneedapartytocelebrateusallbeingheretogether!" Pinkie managed to get out before taking a breath. She was about to launch back into her spiel, but was cut off ny a hoof in her mouth.
"Maybe later, Pinkie," Rainbow laughed, "But let's all get caught up first, alright?" Pinkie nodded agreement and bounced back to the group.
Fluttershy was just staring at the ground. She was shaking slightly, and she seemed unable to move.
"You ok, Fluttershy?" Midnight asked, getting a squeak and a nod in answer before Fluttershy hid behind Rainbow. His question had effectively gotten the others' attention, however.
"Oh, hello darling! I still want to spruce you up! Just Imagine! When I was done, why, simply every mare would gush over you!" Rarity's smile was getting wider the whole time, as she started to think of designs and what she could do to Midnight.
"Umm, about the whole finding a mare thing..." Midnight started but was interrupted by Pinkie nearly crushing him to death with a hug.
"Hi! Do you want a party?" She asked, a giant grin on her face, her eyes growing wider, her mind wandering to party planning.
Geez, he thought, I don't remember them being this crazy last time...
"Uh, guys, can we get out of the lobby?" Twilight had a tight smile on her face, her left eye starting to twitch. She indicated the stairs with a hoof, and started forcing the group up them. Midnight went willingly, happy for an excuse to stay in tonight.
Icescape walked next to him and whispered in his ear, leaning close so it would be extra quiet, "That pink one is a little crazy, isn't she?" The irony of the situation nearly sent Midnight down the stairs, sides heaving. As it was, he had to stop and remember to breathe for a few seconds before continuing.
At this point they were waiting outside Twilight's apartment, waiting for the pony to open the door. Rainbow took the opportunity to sidle up to Midnight and hiss threateningly in his ear. "I saw how you looked at AJ. If you try anything, and I mean anything, with her, I'll personally kick your flank to the moon and back. Understood?"
Midnight, after giving a short chuckle in response, tepped up to Applejack and took her hoof. After a quick suprised look, she happily accepted. Midnight knew he shouldn't be taunting Rainbow like that, but her attitude had irked him. And he still remembered their very first encounter.
Icescape was excited. Here he was, in the biggest city in Equestria, and he'd be going out on the town with his best friend and his marefrined. He felt like a third wheel for a second, but he squashed that feeling quickly. He knew that wasn't true. Applejack and Midnight had both accepted him so whole heartedly when he met them. So had Twilight, but she was gone somewhere. But that was ok, she was still his friend. He hadn't had a real friend, ever. He'd had aquantainces he had liked, but no one ever seemed to want to be his friend. Go away, they'd say, or they'd call him wierd, or a freak, or a even a mutant, once. But he knew his friends cared more for him than that. After all, Midnight had even called him his best friend.
Aftter Midnight wrote a note for Twilight, they headed down to the lobby. Icescapecouldn't wait to see Manehattan, and the rest of Neigh York, too. He was headed happily towards the door when he noticed Appleejack and Midnight slowing and stopping. Looking around, Icescape recognized Twilight with a group of ponies. He figured they had to be why they were stopped in the middle of the lobby. Are these more friends? He wondered. His question was answered when a unicorn, a beautiful white mare with a styled mane and tail, turned and saw Applejack.
"Applejack, doll! It's so great to see you again!" Icescapestopped listening after that, waiting for the moment when they'd ask who he was. He felt sure that they would be his friends, too. The thought made him happier than he'd ever been. A whole life without friends, then to make so many in such a short amount of time! He wondered if the draft was the best thing to ever happen to him.
As the conversation moved to Midnight, Icescape was sure his chance was coming. But then Twilight had them moving up the stairs. Just like that, he felt his chance for new friends fly away. As he slowly started up the stairs, Twilight walked up next to him, giving him a smile and a warm hello. He nodded back, giving a hello as well. Even if I don't get any new friends, at least I stil have these ones, he thought to himself, unconvincingly. He was afraid, deep down, that he'd lose his only friends.
Walking up the stairs, he leaned over and whispered in Midnights ear in a conspiritorial manner, "That pink one is a little crazy, isn't she?" He saw Midnight laughing hard, but trying to contain it. Icescape had no idea why Midnight was laughing, but it still made him feel a little better. If he could make them laugh, they'd stay his friends, right?
Midnight walked into a clearing. It was clearly unnatral. The trees had been torched by something, and there was no grass in the clearing at all. There was a pond, but it was shallow and dirty. The place seemed farmiliar to Midnight, like he'd been there before. Just then a pratical clone of himself stepped out of the burnt forest to his left. The only difference was that the new pony was a pegasus, instead of a unicorn. "Where are we?" Midnight inquired of the new pony. The pegasus just gave a shrug, easily as confused as Midnight was. A figure stepped out of the tree line opposite. It was another Midnight clone, this one an earth pony. "Welcome," he stated . It was said in the kind of way that made it clear argument was futile, and questions would not be tolerated. "We have a lot to talk about, brothers..."
Midnight woke to the morning sun streaming through the window. "Why aren't the blinds down?" he asked himself grumpily. He slipped out of the guest bed he'd slept in last night. As he went to pull down the blinds, Pinkie jumped out of thin air with confetti, screamed "Suprise!", and disappeared again. "Ok... now I know I'm crazy, without a doubt." Midnight mumbled to himself. He realized that there was no chance of him falling back asleep after his near heart attack. With a sigh, he got up and headed to the kitchen, hoping himself and Applejack could have some alone time.
But he had no such luck. AJ was in the kitchen, making pancakes, but so were Rainbow and Fluttershy, with Rarity coming in just after him. Great, no chances to be with AJ today, he thought. He had already forgotten Rainbow's threats, but he could tell he must be missing something, the way he was getting glared at. Probably nothing, his mind sluggishly concluded, before turning to the more important issues- food, water, a serious need to remember what happened in that dream last night. He felt he'd finally got his answers, and now he couldn't remember them. Oh well, I'll be annoyed by that later, he decided. Right then his stomach decided to let everyone know what his very first concern should be.
"Oh, hey, Sugar," Applejack said, turning to see who's stomach had decided to be so obstentious about it's need for food. "The food'll be done in a sec, Ah reckon."
"Has anyone ever told you your an angel?" Midnight lowred himself into a and put his head in his hoofs. "Cause you are, you know."
Applejack just gave a light chuckle and got back to cooking. Rainbow was shooting daggers at Midnight, apparently thinking if she glared hard enough, she'd actually be able to shoot daggers out of her eyes. Rarity sat herself down and humphed a little, getting comfortable. "Only one for me, Applejack darling, a lady must watch what she eats."
"Rarity, we'll all be goin' to get our new assignments today, Ah don't think they'll let yah be a lady much longer."
Rainbow snickered a little at that, but her heart was more in to trying to claymores to shoot across the room telekinetickly.
"Well, I must be a lady as long as possible then, sgould I not, Applejack?" Raarity responded, sounding very confident of her rightness.
"Ah guess," Applejack conceded, knowing that Rarity would fly off in a huff if she tried to debate the point anymore. "Well, here yah all go," she said as she placed the pancakes on the table. Taking a few herself, she sat down next to Midnight, who was already half way through his first, two more waiting on his plate. True to her word, Rarity took only one, as did Fluttershy, who was, once again, hiding behind her mane. Rainbow decided that this looked like a good opportunity to have a talk with Applejack, and inclined her head out of the room. Applejack finished her pancake and left the room, following Rainbow.
"Why?" Rainbow hissed at Applejack.
"Why what, Sugarcube?" Applejack said, confusion on her features.
"Why would you choose him? He's no good, Applejack! He'll use you, then he'll discard you and move on to someone else!"
"Ah would like it if yah didn't accuse mah coltfriend of bein' a user. Do yah understan'?" Applejack leaned forward, butting heads with Rainbow. "It's mah choice who to date, and Ah know he wouldn't do that to me. He's too good of a colt for that!"
"Applejack! Would you listen to me? I know what I'm talking about! I've seen his type over and over, he fits the bill perfectly!"
"Leave it be, Rainbow! Aint none of your buisness anyway!"
"FIne! But don't come to me when my prediction comes true!" Rainbow's voice had escalated from a hushed but angry tone, to a full out yell. She opened a window, and rocketed out into the Manehattan sky.
Applejack shook her head, turned and went back to the kitchen.
After reassuring Fluttershy multiple times that everything was just fine, the ponies got back to what they had been doing. There was an unspoken consent that no one spoke of what they had heard. Even Icescape picked up on it when he entered the room, sitting next to Midnight and shooting him a questioning glance. Midnight just shook his head, trying to convey that he didn't know anything. He turned back to the conversation going at the table, now missing only Rainbow.
"Listen, darling," Rarity was saying to Applejack, "Tonight, let me make you over, then we can go out on the town and maybe find some good stallions? It would be so fun!"
Applejack gave a little snort. "If you'll leave me alone, fine. But you'll be the only one that's lookin' for a stallion, Rarity."
"Oh! I didn't realize you went that way, Applejack."
"What're yah talkin' 'bout? Course I don't!"
"Then you're just not interested in Stallions right now?"
"Ah've already got one, sugarcube." Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity gave out a beautifully coreographed breath.
"WhoisitcanwemeethimwheredoeshelivewhatdoeshedoWHOISITCAN-" Twilights hoof cut off Pinkie's rapid fire questions, but Pinkie was still bouncing all around the room.
Completely ignoring her pink friends excitement, Rarity went ahead and asked the same questions, albeit a little more calmly. "Yes, who is it, darling? Is it someone we know? Or is this a stallion you met out in Coltifornia?"
Before Applejack answered, Fluttershy squeaked out her only question, then hid behind her mane again. "Is he nice?"
"Everypony calm down!" Twilight commanded. "Now, AJ, do you want to answer their questions?"
"Alright, here goes. Course you've met him, I wouldn't do that to yah girls. Of course he's nice, Fluttershy, you know Ah wouldn't date a cruel stallion. He's a soldier, just like all of us, just like about everyone else, I reckon."
"Yes, but who is he, darling?" Rarity leaned forward on the table, excitement in her eyes. "I can't wait to get started on the wedding dress! And I'll make his tuxedo, too!"
"Don't yah think that's a bit in the future, sugarcube? I mean, we've only been datin' a month."
"Never too early to plan! But you're avoiding the question, dear. And if you won't tell me who he is, I bet Twilight will!" Rarity gave an expectant look at Twilight. For her part, Twilight felt incredibly pressured, and felt like she was heade for a break down unless someone did-
"Go ahead, Twi'." Applejack waved her hoof a little as she said it, granting further permission. Instead of speaking, Twilight just pointed at Midnight, who had been doing his best to dissapear from existence entirely. He really wasn't prepared for this. He sent a pleading glance at Icescape, just to discover his best friend was quietly laughing at him.
"OH! I should've guessed!" Rarity exclaimed. "It was so obvious! The way you stayed by each others sides like that! I feel so silly now!"
"It's ok, Rarity. Ah didn't expect any of ah to guess it."
Pinkie popped back up out of nowhere. "You guys haven't done it yet, have you?" She asked, perfectly innocently. Seeing everyone's expressions, she said, "What? You guys didn't sleep together last night, so I figured that-"
Twilight's hoof, just a little late, had finally stopped her questions. Twilight was red in the face, though wether from emberassment or anger was hard to tell. "Pinkie, you're just as bad as Rainbow!" she scolded. "Try to show some restraint!"
The group finally relaxed with a laugh.
A lone rainbow zoomed across the horizon, stooping at the top of the Equestria State Building. Rainbow rested on the top of the building, cooling down, arguing with herself. On one hoof, she knew she was in the wrong. Applejack could date anyone she wanted, and Rainbow knew her current coltfriend was probably not a bad pony. But on the other hoof, she wanted to protect her friends, and even though she'd realized long ago that it was impossible, it still hurt that Applejack would take a partner. Not that Rainbow had ever made any actual advances, but still. Trying to think logically wasn't Rainbows strong suit, she knew that, but who could she ask? Immeadiatly the answer popped into her head. Her favorite eggheaded friend. So a second rainbow formed in the sky, just above the other, treating Manehattinites to a sight they'd never seen before, and probably never would again.
As Rainbow landed on the balcony outside Twilights window, she second guessed herself. After all, just cause the egghead was, well, an egghead, that didn't mean she knew how to handle this situation. In fact, it probably meant she had no idea. Rainbow gave a sigh, and turned around to leave, but before she could leave again, the window behind her opened. "What are you doing out there, Rainbow? Get inside!"
Giving another sigh, Rainbow did as Twilight said. She knew she was in it now. She'd have to talk to Twilight, no chances of escape. "Well... I wanted to talk to you..." she eventually answered.
Suprise flitted across Twilight's face, but she wrestled it under control quickly. "What about, Rainbow Dash?" Twilight's voice was a little too sweet, and they both knew it. Rainbow was definently unsure about talking to Twilight now.
"You know, you seem, uh... pressured! Yeah, pressured! I'll just leave you to deal with it, ok?" Rainbow said, backing towards the window and opening it with a back hoof. A pull of magic dragged her away from the window, which promptly slammed shut, rather too forcefully.
"You wanted to talk, now talk." Twilight's voice had a tone Rainbow didn't think she'd ever heard before. It was, frankly, almost as scary as Fluttershys stare. Rainbow felt herself sitting down, trying to come up with something to say, in ten seconds flat, but nothing came to her but the truth. So, she decided to stick to it, despite wishing otherwise.
"Yeah, well, you see... I don't like AJ's new coltfriend, he creeps me out, plus he seems like an all around bad guy! And she won't listen to me, and I can tell just by looking at him that he'll use her then discardher, just like that!" Rainbow clapped her forehooves to enunciate the last sentence. She'd been growing slightly more worried with every word. The stone-wall impression Twilight's face was doing had grown better every time she'd let a word out, and she had a horrible feeling that this would turn out very, very bad for herself if she wasn't careful.
"Do go on," Twilight's voice did an amazing impression of a stone wall, one that made her face look like a pillow in comparison.
"Well... that's really all..." Rainbow uncharecteristically stuttered. She liked to pretend she was fearless, but that wasn't true. Anypony who'd been paying attention before the Young Fliers Competition would know that. But the way she felt right now, at this exact moment, made that feel like a slight, confused kind of fear, the kind you have after a very non descript nightmare. She didn't dare look into Twilights eyes, because she was sure they would cause her to fall apart the rest of the way with just a quick glance.
"Have you ever considered," Twilight began, trying to force some warmth into her voice and getting the opposite effect instead. "That maybe the best thing to do is let your friends make their own decisions?"
"N... no?" Rainbow was slowly sinking to the floor.
"Have you ever maybe considered," Twilight continued, as if Rainbow hadn't spoken, "that your friends are adult mares themselves? That we can make our own decisions?" The chill in Twilights voice had become cold enough that it may even have affected Luna. When Twilight finally finished and bothered to check, she was shocked to see Rainbow sniffling on the floor, looking like she was about to have a full out bawl. Twilight had intended to bring her down a few notches, but not like that. It seemed she'd overdone the coldness in her voice.
"No..." Rainbow choked out, barely avoiding tears. "I was just.. trying to protect AJ..." she mumbled into the carpet. She'd felt bad before, but never like this. She'd never felt the "ball of iron" in her stomach, but she knew now that itwas an accurate description. A strange mix of fear, regret, and sorrow had infected her when she felt a hoof on her back.
"Oh, Rainbow," Twilight sighed heavily. "I didn't mean for you to get down, I just wanted you to think. I mean, maybe your taking the whole 'Element of Loyalty' thing a bit too far, right?"
"Maybe.." Rainbow still didn't want to risk bringing her head out of the carpet, just in case Twilight was still angry.
"Rainbow, it's ok. We don't hate you, and I'm not angry at you, though Applejack may be." Twilight pulled Rainbow into a hug, then held her by her shoulders finishing, "But she'll forgive you. Especially if you apologize,don't you think?"
"Yeah... yeah." Rainbow got up to leave, having mostly recovered from the emotional tumult that had finally crashed down on her head a few minutes ago. "Hey, thanks, Twilight. I owe you one." With that, she walked out of Twilight's room, closing the door behind her.
Well, I'm not using that voice again, Twilight thought. Unless Spike slacks off his chores again, that is.
A few hours later, the group prepared to split up again so they could head to there respective groups. Applejack, Midnight, and Icescape would be heading to the docks, where their platoon was stationed. Rarity and Fluttershy would both be heading to the Military hospital across the river in the Princess district. Twilight would be boarding a ferry for Nework, Neigh Jersey, home of the artillery for the region. Pinkie Pie had to head out to a temporary Equestrian Army instillation in the Broncs. Rainbow would also be heading to the ports, but she was headed to the carrier fleet. With a final good-bye, they all set off for their various destinations.
This gave Midnight a chance to talk with Icescape, finally. Something had been off all day, and he wanted to know what. "Hey, bro, you ok?"
Icescape, as transparent as ever, simply asked "Do you think they liked me?"
"Well, no duh. They treated you just like the myself, and everyone but Rainbow Dash likes me," He said th last part hushed, not needing AJ to hear.
"But why didn't they talk to me then?" Icescape was trying to work out the disconnect, but it still didn't make sense. They'd liked him, but the never spoke to him?
"Well, did you talk to them? They had no idea how you'd react to anything they said, so they were probably waiting for you to make the first move."
"Oh!" It finally clicked in Icescapes mind. They knew nothing about him, so they wanted to make sure they didn''t ask any stupid questions. How... nice. Icescape definently liked nice. He got his glow back.
It took a while, but they had finally reached base. As they were about to check in, Icescape turned to Midnight, saying, "One more question."
"Yeah?" Midnight was distracted with getting his authorization papers.
Icescape pointed into the sky, were a slowly growing black mass was starting to block out the sun. "Is that natural?"
"General, what was the meaning of this meeting? It was an emergency, you said." Luna spoke calmly, wondering if the dreaded event was finally occuring.
"Yes, Princess. Not ten minutes ago, our forward scouts saw a massive Gryphon naval fleet in bound. Estimated arrival time was placed at twenty minutes. However, a large number of Gryphons were seen preparing to launch into flight. Their ETA was twelve minutes. They will be upon the city any moment now. We have already ordered out combat ships out of the harbor. They are not a large enough force to defeat the Gryphon fleet, however, we believe we can harass them badly, and perhaps even destroy a few vital command ships."
"That's all well and good, General Ironhoof, but what of the city itself? What kind of forces do we have on the ground?" Luna asked, becoming slightly worried that her plan may not work.
"We have four ground battalions placed in or around the city. In addition, there are three Pegasi air divisions, though only two of them will be available, as the last is departing with the naval group. We also have an artillery battery in Neigh Jersey, and multiple field hospitals and armored calvary groups moving into the city."
"Good General. We do not want to lose the largest city in Equestria. You are dismissed." Luna turned in her chair, contemplating. After hearing the general leave the room, she contacted the Dream God. "Remember, not until the battle has been decided," Luna reminded for the last time. She didn't wait for a response.
"I don't see how," Midnight responded, squinting at the blocked out sun. "Clouds don't just block out the sun from nowhere." He'd barely finished speaking when a siren buzzed inside the compound. The gaurd went pale, then ushered the three inside.
"I don't care who you are, go find some weapons and armor. The worlds about to go to hay," the gaurd said, turning and running deeper into the base.
"Lets go find our unit, guys!" Icescape heade off in a random direction, but without anything to tell them he was wrong, Applejack and Midnight followed. They eventually realized Icescape had noticed something they hadn't- signs outside of buildings saying what platoon, squad, and unit occupied it. Icescape eventually found the 5th platoon building and ducked inside. Midnight and Applejack followd to find Icescape being confronted by an officer of some kind.
"... Do you think you are?" The officer demanded of Icescape.
"I'm Private 1st class Icescape Shine. My companions are Corporal 3rd class Applejack Apple, and Corporal 1st class Midnight Burn," Icescape finished introducing the three of them, then snapped into a salute. "We were instructed to join 5th platoon, 2nd squad, sir."
"I'm just gonna take your word for it." Reaching behind him, he grabbed three rifles, handing one to each of them. He then gave each some body armor, extra ammo, a small med kit, and a pistol. "There. Standard battle armament. Now, you're gonna go two doors down, it'll be on you right. Talk to Captain Thorn, he's your commanding officer. See you on the other side." With that, he gave the three a salute and sent them on thier way.
They had barely entered the door before a black earth pony, already fully combat ready, approached them. "You all must be the newbies. I'm Captain Thorn, and you will do whatever I tell you. I'd normally give you the run through, but right now, we don't have time. Welcome to war, by the way." With that, the Captain walked out. Having nothing else to do, the three followed him.
They were making their way to the exit gate, all three silent, all three varying shades of white, when they were thrown off their feet. A powerful shock wave had shaken the ground. Looking up, Midnight saw hundreds, maybe thousands, off gryphons flying into the city. Some carried some kind of bomb, and they dropped their payloads on the unprepared city, causing a destruction not seen in Equestria in thousands of years.
This was just an attempt to cause shock and weaken resolve, however. Not much irreplacable damage had occured. But it gave the gryphon army time to get into the city and land, quickly over running unfortified areas. "To me!" Captain Thorn shouted, waving out the gate, then leaping out, taking a chance to fire off a few shots.
Midnight, no longer quite aware of what was happening around him, followed the captain out the door. He felt slightly disorientated, and his left ear was sticky, but it didn't really register. He was mostly just looking at the gryphons landing all around him, the earth ponies and unicorns flowing out of bases and fortifications to attack the invaders, the pegasi rising into the air, chainguns mounted on their backs, firing into the never ending waves of gryphons.
Then he found himself face to face with his first enemy, and resorted back to basic training. "Never hesitate!" he remembered the drill seargent shouting everyday. So he didn't. Midnight shot the gryphon point blank, and never even realized what had just happened. As memories of old battles came back, he felt confident that he could handle whatever was thrown at him.
But one pony, no matter how mighty, could turn the tide on the docks. The gryphons were easily pushing the Marines and Army back, and they had to retreat, or they'd be surrounded. They fought tooth and nail, horn and hoof the entire way, leaving a great number of dead gryphons in thier wake, and a smaller but significant number of their own. The pegasi were trying to deal with the incoming hordes, but didn't have the ammo or the personnel do much more than make a dent. And so they slowly retreated, too.
After breaking free of the docks, however, things became a million times more hectic. There were now hundreds of ways to go, and groups of ponies flowed out of the area, taking down gryphons the whole way. Many got lost, ending up with the wrong group, or getting seperated from thier squads.
This happened to Applejack and Icescape. While they managed to stick together, they quickly lost Captain Thorn and Midnight in the chaos. Icescape protected the two with his magic, allowing them to break free with another small group, consisting of a unicorn, four earth ponies, one of whom carried a machine gun, and a pegasus that had been shot down. The new, unofficial squad broke for the financial district. They would be able to construct a reasonable defense there, as well as regrouping with whatever other forces made it there alive.
Luna and Celestia looked at the whirling smoke, the scattered bodies, the small sparks of guns being fired, and retreating ponies. "This is not good, Sister," Luna tried to state it in a matter of fact tone. She wasn't at all close to succeding. "It was a good idea to move the last remaining civilians out of the cities, it seems."
"I agree, sister. But let our soldiers fall back and regroup. They will be more prepared, and thus, more competent in battle. It's unfortunate we got no early warning, we may have been able to severly damage any landing forces earlier." Celestia had a grim look on her face. The battle was not going well at all. It very much appeared that Manehattan may be lost within the week, and the rest of Neigh York shortly afterwards.
"No use speculating in what could have been," Luna said. "When the armored divisions make it to the front, I think we will have a much greater chance."
"Yes, sister," Celestia replied. Luna had always been the better strategist, and even if she didn't quite grasp all of the new weaponry and machines, she knew more than enough to be a competent general. "Let's hope that's so."
Midnight had been pushed back, out of the dock, by the extreme number of gryphons, and by the rest of the retreating ponies. Quick sighting with his rifle, he took out a gryphon machine-gunner, saving a large number of retreating ponies. He soon found himself nearly alone as the ponies broke out of the docks, into the main streets. Not knowing what else to do, he bolted south, towards the abondend apartment complexes. The smoke was making it hard to breath, and the smell of blood didn't help very much. Coughing and stumbling, his eyes irritated, Midnight made his way into the resdiential area. He was glad to discover that the gryphons had mostly avoided this area while bombing. The lack of smoke was a good thing, and so was the lack of rubble, as far as he was concerned.
He was just about to stop and figure out what was wrong with his ear when a rainbow fell out of the sky in front of him. Rainbow Dash was streaked with smoke and looked exhausted, but still managed to portray self confidence. "Come on," she said, lifting a little into the air, "You're all alone out here. Most everypony else headed either to Central Park, or the financial district. We need to get you to them before the gryphons make it impossible." Rainbow had been bobbing and weaving in an agitated manner the entire speech, and now floated up high, taking a quick glance around before decending back to earth. "Here," she said, giving Midnight a small microphone, "put that in your ear, so I can tell you which way to go from up there."
"Why are you doing this?" Midnight was thankful, but confused. He had been sure Rainbow hated him.
Giving an annoyed sigh, she zoomed up, gave the sky a quick check, then came down again. "Because," she explained, her voice getting harsh with worry or annoyance, Midnight couldn't tell which, "You're a soldier, and so am I, and we need to stick together. Also," she struggled with what to say for a few seconds, before deciding that it didn't really matter, "I may not like you, but AJ obviously does. So that makes you a friend by extension. And I don't leave my friends hanging. Now, let's go!" She zoomed up into the sky, starting to fly down the road. At least she hadn't either broken down or hit him.
Midnight accepted the answer and ran down the street, trying to keep up with the rainbow blur ahead and above. "All right," crackled throught the headphone he'd hastily put into his right ear, "You're gonna turn right at this next intersection." Midnight did as told, knowing the eye in the sky had a major advantage on choosing a good route to the main body of the army. He just hoped no gryphons had spotted the two of them. He was sure he could handle himself, but if Rainbow got ambushed, she'd be alone.
"All right, take a left at this upcoming intersection," Rainbow barked into the microphone. Heh, she gave a small internal chuckle, it felt good to boss the unicorn around. Doing a quick 360 check, she spotted no incoming gryphons. Good, their still regrouping, she thought. This might give us enough time to get back to Central Park before anything can attack us. She forgot to check above herself, and didn't notice the shadow on her back.
The small make shift squad made it to the financial district, just to discover it had been decimated in the bombing. "Well," the machine gunner earth pony, who's name was Gear, said, "I bet we can use this rubble to make fortifications. With you two unicorns, I think we could build a lotta small walls to fire behind, maybe even a pillbox." This was the way Gears mind worked- he saw what things could become, not what they were. His cutie mark was a blueprint depicting a gear.
"We'll need someway to place some kinda fortifications on the roofs, then get up there, though." Bluebird, the downed Pegasus, explained, "Cause their gonna fly up there the second they see the pillbox."
"True," Gear responded, "So maybe one of the unicorns can work with me, the other with you?" He looked to the rubble, starting to drag out good pieces even as he spoke.
"Works for me," Bluebird stated, taking the other uniorn aside, and explaining what he wanted. They got to work building a way up immeadiately.
"You," Gear said, pointing at Icescape, "come help me. I need to move these," pointing at four massive blocks, " and a lot of those," indicating many smaller peices of rubble, "and I need you to build the pillbox. But remember to leave a way in 'n' out, ok?"
Icescape gave a nod, getting to work. Moving and sealing heavy objects together was a fairly hard task, and normally required multiple unicorns, but adrenaline made Icescape more powerful. He had the base of the pillbox constructed quickly, but building the actual walls would take some time. He just had to hope no gryphons made it to the financial district before he was done.
Not long into his construction project, a number of ponies walked into the area. There were a couple Army engineers among the group, and they quickly got to helping build both the pill box and the roof fortifications. In about an hour, not only had a pillbox been constructed on the ground, but multiple firing walls had too. The roofs had a large number of firing walls, along with sniper points that had been constructed in the high windows of the buildings still left standing.
"Well, Ah reckon that'll be better at holdin' them gryphons then the open docks were." Applejack was examining the fortifications the engineers had managed to throw together in record time. " Ah think-"
"All right, everyone!" An officer that neither Icescape, nor Applejack recognized, stood on a firing point, getting everyponies attention. "Here's what were gonna do! We need two machine gunners in the pillbox, and the rest of them I want on the roofs! Rifleponies, two or three to a firing wall. Any extra, go to any open sniper spots! Do we have any explosives specialists in the crowd?" Three hoofs went into the air in response. "Alright," The officer barked out, "I want you three to place traps where pertinent. Leave an open path, so any other ponies who show up can be let in, understand? Then, I want you to take a rifle, and go find someplace to fire! Those are your orders!" The officer walked back into the crowd, and dissapeared.
"Well, come on then, AJ. We'll go to a firing wall near the pillbox, then we're just gonna have to wait." Icescape walked back towards the pillbox, Applejack following closely. All we have to do is wait, she thought to herself.
Captain Thorn reached an untouched Central Park a little late. He found all but three of his Platoon there. All but the rookies, he thought, scanning the faces. Hopefully they're ok, I don't need to be losing any ponies. "All right ponies!" He barked to what was left of the platoon. "We're going to take positions in the trees! Get ready, it shouldn't be long now."
The messanger ran up to Twilight. "Lieutenant Sparkle, we have just recieved confirmation that the docks have been completely abandond by our forces." He snapped a salute and ran to the next gun commander.
I hope my friends are ok, Twilight worried inside. But her voice was completely steady when she gave her orders. "Full battery target the docks!" Artillery guns rotated, adjusting up or down at the same time. Eventually they all stopped. "Load!" Multiple unicorns levitated shells into the guns' breaches. "Fire!" The guns didn't all go off at once, but they nearly did. The sound was like the sky breaking into shards and falling to earth, the smoke darkened the sky, the ground shook like it had during the last stampeed in Ponyville. A few seconds later, bright lights flashed into and out of existence on the docks as hundreds of heavy artillery rounds crashed into them, raining hell on anything still there. "Repeat!"
Gilda had seen Rainbow during the first mass landing on the docks. She had been unable to get to her, however, during the chaos of the initial invasion. But she had Rainbow now. She should have, could have just shot her, but where was the satisfaction in that?
With a sudden screech, Gilda dropped down, hitting Rainbow square in the back. Rainbow flipped around, no doubt trying to kick her attacker off, but froze, a look of horror on her face when she realized it was Gilda. Gilda took advantage of the moment, ripping a three- taloned claw across Rainbow's chest. She smiled angrily at the sudden blood, but before she could ensure her once friends death, she felt a sharp pain in her head, and fell to earth, her heart no longer beating, missing the top of her head.
Midnight caught Rainbow as she fell. "Oh no you don't," he said through gritted teeth, pulling his burden inside the nearest building. "You don't get to go and die now!" He practically spit the words in his anger. But looking at three gashes, he wasn't sure he could anything, even if he combined his magic with the emergency packs he'd swiped. The gashes were very deep, and bleeding an awful lot. But he had to try, right?
Rainbow Dash was in a black space. There was a slight light coming from directly in front. Being unable to find any other way out, she headed towards it. At one point, she tried to fly, but quickly found she was landlocked. She felt that should have frightened her, but somehow she was above emotions. She stepped out of the darkness, into the light, and found a walled city. It was not long before she noticed an earth pony standing next to her. He looked vaugely farmiliar, with a deep blue coat, a short black mane tipped with red spikes, and a cutie mark that was certaintly unique, a skull embossed shield super imposed on a sword, surronded by small hearts. The strangest thing about him, however, was how the bright sunshine seemed to flow right through him, almost as if he was a colored glass sculpture. "Walk with me," he commanded, starting off around the walls. Rainbow, seeing no reason not to, followed. "Look at the city," the earth pony instructed, "and watch carefully." Rainbow did as told, looking down at the city. A brief flash lit the center of the city, then a flame exploded. Rainbow knew she should be shocked, or horrified, or terrified, but it really didn't matter to her that much.
"See that?" The translucent earth pony said, no emotion in his voice. "That used to be my home. Many thousands of years ago. This was the first war I ever experienced. This was the first time I had a friend die. Now, come." The earth pony walked farther along the wall. Rainbow had decided she didn't want to follow, but found she had no control of herself. She still couldn't bring herself to be emotional. The other pony walked into a guard tower, and Rainbow followed. The door shut of its own accord, then opened again. The earth pony led Rainbow out, into a field of the greenest grass she'd ever seen. On either side were large groups of soldiers. As the pair continued along, the groups shifted, then one moved forward at an increasing pace. The charging ponies passed right through Rainbow, almost as if she didn't exist. "This was my second war. My second friend lost." This time, Rainbow saw an earth pony that looked exactly like her guide charging alongside a unicorn of the brightest red. She watched as an arrow lodged itself in the red unicorns neck, taking him down. The pony that looked like her guide skidded to a stop, grabbing the pony, crying and trying to drag his dead friend off the battle field. Looking back in front of her, she saw her guide waiting in a river turned red. When she stepped in, they sank.
They emerged in a dark room in an old house this time. A pegasi version of her guide was sitting next to an empty bed. "This was the first time I'd lost a pony I'd fallen in love with." Rainbow approached, ending up next to the pegasi, realizing that an extremely frail unicorn mare was in the bed. As she watched, the pegasus took the unicorns hoof, and looked her in the eye. The unicorn smiled slightly and gave a wheezing breath, before becoming limp in the pegasus' arms. "She died of Swamp fever. It's incredibly rare now, but it wasn't uncommon in those days." The earth pony walked on, leaving the cottage. Rainbow disn't want to see any more, but no matter how much she struggled internally, her body kept moving forward. She was slowly growing panicked, reealizing that something was wrong, that she should be in control, and why couldn't she feel her wings?
Her mind seethed, but her body walked her through the door and into a stone tower filled with ponies. There was no roof, and the sight in the sky was intimidating. She saw two alicorns fighting fiercly in the sky. At first she thought it might have been Celestia and Nightmare Moon, but then her guide approached, stopping next to her. "The one on the left is me, in my true form," he stated, and when Rainbow looked losely, she could see the similarity. Glancing at the other alicon, she saw nothing farmiliar. It had a body with the appearance of white gold, with a silver flowing mane and tail. The two alicorns were battling fiercly, and neither was winning. "This is a terrible day. The alicorn on the right was the god of life, I was the god of death. Our magic grew so strong during this battle, everything that was alive died, and everything that was dead came back to life. We were both in love with another alicorn, one of the few truly immortal alicorns, in fact. She was the godess of dreams. In the end, our magic twisted all three of us together, into one immortal being. On that day, death became the strongest of the three forces. So the god of death took control of the new body. But life and dreams are still in there, and their powers are both usable. They are, however, dead in all but name." The earth pony walked away, sprouting wings and flying through the middle of the battle between the alicorns. Rainbow unwillingly followed, but at least she was flying, though she still couldn't feel her wings.
"And now for why I showed you all these memories. You are caught between life and death, hanging in the balance. I have recently been seperated back into three different ponies. This means I can't force you to stay alive. In fact, the death part of myself is currently trying to save your life. But it's your decision. No matter which way you go, you'll forget all of this. Now," the earth pony turned pegasus indicated two doorways she'd missed initially, one on each side. "You can head left if you wish to live, and see your friends again, though you will be in pain. If you head right, you will die. You will see your friends again, eventually, but maybe not for a very long time. Before you decide, remember what I have shown you, and consider the implications."
Rainbow headed left with a will, determined to live. After all, her friends needed her. After she had gone, the scenes faded, revealing a room with a black granite table. "I'm glad that worked," the god of dreams thought out loud, before returning to his earthly body.
Midnight’s horn was a covered in the deep black of magic, and had been for minutes. He was attempting a spell that fleshed skin and muscle together, but it wasn’t designed for massive wounds like the ones Rainbow had. The magic always focused on the worst wounds first, due to its design, so he was healing a ripped lung. Rainbow’s torn capillary had already been fixed, taking a shockingly massive amount of energy. It hadn’t even started to wear on him yet, but if all the wounds required that energy, he’d be dipping into the supernatural side of his powers before he’d finished. Shaking his head, flaring his nostrils, Midnight went back to work. He needed to concentrate; just to get to the point that med-packs would become useful would take more magic than anypony but himself, and maybe the goddesses of day and night, possessed. His body and Rainbows became encased in deep black as he redoubled his efforts.
Icescape levitated another piece of rubble, passing time. He was half way through crushing it with magic when a shout came from around the corner, followed quickly by an explosion. A horrific scream, a cross between a screech and a hiss, filled the air briefly. Icescape levitated his rifle onto the placement he and Applejack were behind, grabbing the yoke in his mouth. More explosions came from around the corner, then a rush of gryphons. Icescape bit down on the yoke at the same time he heard the machine guns open fire behind him. The Battle of Manehattan had reached the financial district.
“Wait until they think they’re in the clear before jumping them,” Captain Thorn whispered into the walkie-talkie. He got nods and many a “Yes, sir,” in response. The gryphons walked and glided into Central Park, moving slowly, carefully, at first, but relaxing when nothing jumped them. A gryphon Major gave the ponies an unbelievable gift, calling for his troops to halt in the Park. Captain Thorn grabbed a rifle, supporting it with his fore hoofs, then sighting down the barrel; he focused on the gryphon Major. With a quick grin, he grabbed the gun’s yoke and opened up the firefight.
Twilight as the gryphon naval fleet made it towards the harbor, a sharp frown spreading across her muzzle. The harassment planned by General Ironhoof had only been partially successful, wounding some of the heavy cruisers, but not touching the smaller, faster ships, or the capital class Carriers and Destroyers. “Aim for the incoming ships,” she barked in a strangled voice to the gun operators. The smoke from the dock fires made this a difficult task, but they quickly complied; anticipating the order to load, unicorns loading armor-piercing rounds into the breaches of the big guns. “Fire,” Twilight’s voice had been brought under control; now it radiated complete calm. As the rumble of heavy artillery once again filled the air, Twilight picked up her binoculars with magic, waiting for the shells to hit home.
Multiple heavy armored divisions headed south, into Manehattan proper. Pinkie sat in her gun turret, hair flat, mouth already on her machine guns yoke, ready for whatever they encountered.
Farther back in the column were some Armored Personnel Carriers. The drivers had been instructed to stop at the hospital and pick up anypony trained as a field medic. That was how Rarity had come to be sitting in the back of an APC, saddle bags full of tourniquets, morphine, and other necessary medical supplies. Her stomach was doing flips, an unseemly terror hiding in her eyes.
Fluttershy had watched Rarity being picked up and taken away to the battle field. She hid her head in her mane and trudged back to the on call room, waiting to do what wasn’t possible in the field. The bright lights of the hospital seemed obscene at such a time, but the white of the walls fitted the place well.
Midnight finished stitching together Rainbows lungs and got to work on blood vessels. The tiny tubes took seconds to complete individually, allowing him to complete this task much quicker than the previous two. Taking a second, Midnight opened a med kit and found a small vial of hemoglobin; he injected it into Rainbows foreleg. Reigniting the magic, he took a swing at the last serious wound he could fix without shifting to a whole new spell. As the black aura of Midnight’s magic sank into Rainbow, her skin slowly started stitching together.
Midnight noticed as Rainbow’s breathing slowed dramatically. Good, all I have to do is fix the bones and she should live, he thought, relieved. A magic aura lit up his horn and pierced into Rainbows body, targeting broken ribs; when it receded, Midnight became aware that he hadn’t managed to fully heal her, inside or out. Blood was still leaking through small gashes in the pegasus’ chest. Worry ate away at Midnight as he debated the costs and benefits of teleporting Rainbow directly to a hospital, instead of attempting to fix her broken body with magic another time. The realization hit him that he couldn’t do anymore than he already had. He picked up rainbow gently, draping her across his back, and disappeared in a flash.
The gryphons wouldn’t stop pouring around the corner, and Icescape was running out of ammo. Getting fed up with the measly power of his gun, he chucked his extra ammo to Applejack, tapped into the magic, and used it to set a group of gryphons in the distance on fire. With a savage grin, he sent more pulses of magic into the oncoming swarms.
Applejack had stopped paying attention to Icescape as soon as gryphons had started moving towards their position. She bit down on the yoke of her gun again, sending another Gryphon spiraling to ground, a bloody hole in its chest. She was about to take down another enemy when a bright white orb flashed out from beside her, and exploded into flames, taking down her target, along with several others. “Ha!” The savage cry left her lips before she even realized she was making a sound. Applejack got the kind of look she’d had at the Iron Pony competition, getting back to work. Crack! Another gryphon went down, this one missing part of its face.
The gryphon Major fell, a red stain spreading out from the dime sized hole in his chest. Captain Thorn kept grinning, even with the yoke in his mouth. Turning, he started shooting panicking gryphons at random. A deadly light sparked in his eyes, traces of madness clear in his joy. He was killing with joy, with a zeal that wasn’t natural. As the gryphons finally recovered enough to start trying to find targets, Thorn reloaded, switched to automatic, and let the bullets rip through those unfortunate enough to be in front of him, whether they were gryphons or ponies. He cackled as he reloaded yet again. One thought had managed to form in his head - Finally, he had a chance for revenge!
The armored unit found its way to the city center, and Central Park, right as gunshots rang out for the first time. Pinkie pulled her helmet on, checked her gun, and got into firing position. It was no party, but she would do her best anyways. After all, her friends were all depending on her. And so was just about everypony else.
As the PT- 35 rolled around the corner, it was met by a scene much worse than hoped. Despite the initial slaughter the ponies had managed, the gryphons had managed to regroup and quite much of the resistance. A lone machine gunner was still hidden in the trees, as were some normal rifle men, but the gryphons were able to catch them one by one. Some they would just shoot, but occasionally, they would drag the poor pony out and rip him apart with their claws. Pinkie felt a rare rage coming over her as she swiveled her gun into position. Her first burst took out six unwary gryphons, leaving little of them behind. The rest of the force was alerted, but it was too late for those in the parks. Between the soldiers in the trees and the tank gunners, they were eliminated quickly.
On a rooftop above, a gryphon scout waves on the incoming force. Hundreds of gryphons take to the air, rifles in claw, headed to Central Park.
Midnight appeared outside the hospital, the magic glow retreating from around himself and Rainbow. He forced the sliding doors open with magic, saving perhaps a second, but time was critical. He’d forgotten how screwed up a body could get during a teleport, especially a damaged one. The gashes in Rainbows chest had opened back up some, and several of the veins and arteries he’d healed had burst again.
He marched into the hospital, blood leaking from Dash being absorbed by his coat. The nurses and doctors had stopped doing what they had been, mouths wide, with wide eyes. Grabbing a gurney with magic, Midnight deposited Rainbow face up. Taking a quick glance around, seeing all the medical staff frozen, he shook his head. “Is anyone here a surgeon?” He asked the question with force, making it sound more like a command than anything else. A red unicorn stepped up, nodding, and took the gurney from Midnight.
“All right,” the surgeon commanded, “get me some hemoglobin for the operation, and hook her up. I’m heading to OR #1, understand?” A quick nod from the nurses confirmed they’d heard him so far. One nurse took off, down the left hall, returning quickly with an IV and multiple bags of what looked to be blood. The surgeon headed back down the hall, still shouting orders. “I’m going to need stitches and some plastic tubing, I think it’d be smart to get a few unicorns who know how to keep a body in stasis in here, too, or else she’s going to bleed out before I can finish.” With that, the surgeon rounded the corner, disappearing deeper into the hospital, nurses and doctors following.
A yellow Pegasus walked up next to Midnight, becoming even more timid than usual at the sight of blood all over him. “Umm… what happened? If you don’t mind telling me…” Fluttershy barely got the words out, and hid behind her mane.
Midnight couldn’t place her for a few seconds. When he did, he immediately had an internal struggle if he should tell her or not. Figuring she’d find out eventually, he looked her in the eye, despite her best attempts to shy away. “Gilda attacked us, Fluttershy. Well, her. She couldn’t react in time to defend herself.”
“Where is… Gilda?” Fluttershy started to back away from Midnight, slowly but surely. “If you’re ok with me asking…”
“I put her down, Fluttershy.” Midnight had to struggle to come up with terms that would make sense to Fluttershy, without upsetting her anymore, if that was even possible. Judging by the horror on her face, he guessed he must have failed horribly. Fluttershy gave a strangled squeak and sprinted away to whom knew where.
Icescape let another blast of white magic go. He was unleashing some incredibly powerful spells, and it didn’t seem to be doing much to stop the gryphons from advancing. He was sweating heavily, his ears were pressed flat against his head, his sides were heaving, and he still hadn’t put a stop to the waves of enemies. He knew he had to have killed at least ten with that last blast alone, but the holes he made were filled up seconds later. The ponies at the front had already been pushed back, at least those who had managed to retreat in time. The roofs had been held, but the pillbox had gone silent almost twenty minutes ago. The earth ponies had become useless, all but a very few having run out of ammo long ago. Now the unicorns unleashed magical assaults on the gryphons, and the earth ponies stood with knives in their mouths, ready for close combat.
The Major who had organized the defense had called in for Pegasus support almost an hour ago, but they had been denied. Apparently, all the pegasi still able to fly had been called to a major battle in Central Park. The artillery wasn’t willing to fire on the area, fearing they would hit the ponies on the ground. So it was that a handful of unicorns, a couple of wounded pegasi and many earth ponies waited for the inevitable end, all while watching the sun slowly slip below the horizon.
Captain Thorn left his hiding just as the first few gryphons came over the rooftops and rushed towards the ground. Before he could react, a machine gun roared out, taking them down. Good thing I just reloaded, Thorn thought to himself, else I’d be screwed. Then hundreds of gryphons flew over and around the buildings, some opening fire in the air, some streaking for the ground.
Thorn laid himself on the blood soaked grass, steadied his gun with his fore hoofs, and opened fire on the flying terrors. He knew that without more support, the battle was hopeless, but it was his job to die for the country. Plus, he could deliver some hard vengeance on the race which had produced the creature that had killed his family.
Focused as he was on suppressing the waves of gryphons, he didn’t notice the APCs enter the park and divulge the soldiers inside. As the remaining infantry from the battle in the park was joined by hundreds of fresh troops from other areas, the gryphon assault was slowed. The addition of tanks and their machine guns gave the infantry the ability to hold their positions, at least for the time.
Pinkie sat in her turret, slowly moving her machine gun back and forth. She was fairly sure that every bullet took down another gryphon, or at least wounded them, there were so many of them. It wasn’t long before she ran out off ammo, having to take a second to reload. The second nearly cost Pinkie her life, but the gryphon aiming for her was taken out by an infantry soldier with a mad gleam in his eyes. Pinkie gave a shudder, hoping she never got like that, and got back to firing. The sun was only now starting to go down, and she’d been in the tank for half the day. She just wanted the battle to end.
Rarity made her way out of her APC, along with a few other combat medics and a large unit of infantry. She got her first case almost immediately, a soldier who had been jumped by a gryphon he’d thought dead. He’d killed the gryphon with a kick to the head, but not before getting a nasty beak slash along the left foreleg. Rarity cleaned out the wound, taped it up, and gave the unfortunate infantryman some pain pills, before heading off to the next case: a soldier who was still alive, despite having lost an ear and bleeding profusely on the red grass.
Luna looked up from the scenes of horror shown in the magic mirror. Taking a quick glance at her sister, she realized this wasn’t any easier on Tia than it was on herself. Lines creased Celestia’s normally smooth face, unnamed emotions played behind her eyes. “Should we help them, sister?” Luna asked, wondering privately if it would make a difference at this point.
“No,” Celestia answered wearily, “No, wait until night falls, then we will help wherever we can.”
“Yes, sister,” Luna replied, looking back to the mirror.
Midnight turned, exiting the hospital. Certain that he’d done all he could for Rainbow, he needed to decide where to go next. Rainbow had told him that the majority of the retreating troops had headed to the financial district or Central Park. He was loath to use any more magic, but he knew it was the only way he could make it to either location with anything close to good time. His horn glowed black, preparing to move him.
Icescape unleashed another blast of magic, taking down a few more gryphons, and then collapsed. His tongue was hanging out of his mouth; his eyes had rolled up into his head. Applejack gripped the knife in her mouth a little harder. With a glare at the oncoming gryphons, she prepared to do her job. It was time to fight for her country, for her friends, and for her family.
Pinkie reloaded yet again, nearing the end of the ammo stored aboard the tank. No matter how many the ponies killed, the gryphons kept coming. Soon it would become a melee battle, and the ponies couldn’t hope to win then. They might be strong, they may have knives and hooves, but the gryphons had claws and wings. Not to mention their beaks. Pinkie kept firing, hoping to make as much of a dent in the opposition as possible.
Captain Thorn had run out of ammo quite a while ago. The earth pony pulled his double-bladed knife out of his saddlebag and prepared for the storm to break through the wall of lead. He knew he would probably die when it did, but he’d go down fighting.
Rarity wrapped up a wounded pegasus’ wing, instructing him not to use it. She moved on to a unicorn whose horn had been blown off by a lucky shot from a gryphon. There wasn’t really anything she could do, so she injected him with a generous amount of morphine and sent him to the closest field hospital. She moved on again, looking for another wounded soldier.
Twilight watched the artillery rip into the ships, preventing many of them from reaching the docks. “Aim for the transports,” she commanded. She didn’t know for sure how the battle was going in Manehattan proper, but when the smoke cleared and she could get a good look, she felt it wasn’t going well at all. Hundreds, maybe thousands of gryphons were pouring into the two main areas of resistance: Central Park and the financial district. But all she could do was prevent any more reinforcements from arriving. “Load!”
The unicorn surgeon magically sealed another piece of plastic tubing into yet another torn blood vessel. “Alright, start transfusions,” he instructed, turning back to the task at hand. He had more to do yet.
Fluttershy cried in the on call room. She couldn’t lose Rainbow, she was her oldest friend. Before she could sink too far into depression, she was called; the wounded from Central Park had started showing up.
Midnight appeared in Central Park just as the sun finished setting. The smoke acted like clouds anyways, making it seem like it had been night for hours already. What he saw surprised him. Piles of dead gryphons littered the road outside of the park, and many wounded or killed ponies littered the entrance, but the rest of the park seemed untouched. Midnight went to grab his rifle and join the fight, but discovered he’d left it behind at some point. I guess I’ll have to do it with magic, he told himself. Black flashed from his horn, the magic striking down all gryphons in its path.
Midnight didn’t notice as his eyes began glowing a deep red, his cutie mark shining like the rainbow. An aura slowly formed around him as he unleashed magic on a scale not seen in thousands of years. A pegasus that looked like Midnights twin, except for the wings, descended next to him. The pegasus stood in place for a second, then took back into the air, coming down seconds later, a black air cone surrounding it. It ripped through the gryphons still coming over the rooftops, leaving a trail of bodies in its wake.
The gryphons were charging the remaining pony positions in the financial district. All the unicorns were out for the count, leaving it to the earth ponies to win in hoof-to-claw combat. Applejack reared up, slamming her fore hooves into the first gryphon to reach her, and proceeded to work with the knife in her mouth. Despite her best efforts, the enemy was breaking through. Nothing her or the other ponies did was quite enough to stop them from being forced back. The exhaustion of fighting for hours without break wasn’t helping their efforts any, either.
Applejack was in the process of being overrun when many of the gryphons were hit with throwing knives and stars, all at once. A practical clone of Midnight walked forward, the only thing missing was the horn. Midnight the earth pony had a massive double bladed knife in his mouth, reminiscent of the one Captain Thorn possessed.
The pony walked right up into the midst of the gryphon column and started working, using quick slashes and powerful stabs to dispatch gryphons left and right. He moved a sight faster than most would believe possible for a normal pony. Seeming more like he was dancing than fighting, the earth pony did quick turns, sliding left, then right, bloody blades flashing what little moonlight made it through the smoke. The gryphons that had been previously threatening to overrun the financial district had met an impassable wall in the steel of the pony’s knife.
Luna watched the scene with great interest. So, it worked, she thought. My plans to save the city worked. “Sister, we have been saved,” Luna spoke calmly, as always.
“How? What has happened?” Celestia rose, moving over to watch the scenes unfold in her sister’s magic mirror.
“Allatu fights with us, sister. Though I believe he goes by the name Midnight now.” Luna spoke cautiously, believing her sister wouldn’t take the news well.
“What?” Celestia roared, confirming Luna’s suspicions. “I will not have that monster fighting for us!”
“Sister, he will be involved anyways, and you know we have a much better chance of victory with him on our side,” Luna reasoned, attempting to calm her sister down. “Anyways, he seems to have become attached to a few of our subjects.” Luna paused, considering if it would be wise to tell Celestia the next part of what she knew. Knowing the Sun Goddess would figure it out the second she calmed down anyways, Luna pressed ahead. “Specifically, he has bonded with the holders of the elements.”
Celestia sat down, a rare but terrifying anger simmering just below the surface. Her usual calm demeanor had fallen apart, an ugly grimace contorting her features. “I want him gone the moment this war is over,” Celestia commanded her sister, momentarily forgetting who she was speaking to.
“Sister, you know I can’t do that, and neither can you,” Luna stressed the last part. Who knew what Celly might do? “He’s more powerful than either of us; he’s more powerful than both of us combined. He’s the only truly undying thing in the world, remember?” Luna was scolding at this point, doing whatever it took to destroy Celestia’s crazed ideas.
“Yes,” Celestia answered, head drooping in defeat. “I just hope his curse doesn’t effect the elements.”
“I know, sister. I know.”
The earth pony had made quick work of the gryphons still in the financial district. After tucking his knife back into the saddlebags he wore, he galloped off, headed north. Well, that was surprising, Applejack thought to herself. A look around confirmed that the other ponies left standing concurred. One had actually dropped his knife, his mouth hanging wide open.
Applejack picked up the unconscious Icescape, draped him across her back, and started walking north; following the direction the mysterious pony had gone. It wasn’t like she could have gotten much farther south, even if she’d wanted to.
Midnight was no longer in conscious control of himself. He was just aware enough to make sure he was targeting gryphons with his powerful blasts of magic. He was vaguely aware of a pegasus in a black con of air ripping through the gryphons as well. But his magic wasn’t affecting it, so it didn’t matter to him. He was even less aware when an earth pony stepped up next to him, until the pony put a hoof on him. It had the effect of cutting off his magic- fueled massacre. Looking around, he was shocked to see that three buildings had collapsed, and the number of dead enemies scattered around had at least tripled.
He was even more shocked when he looked to the pony that had been brave enough to touch him. What he saw was himself, as an earth pony. And on the other side of the earth pony was himself as a pegasus. With a jolt, he remembered last night’s dream. “Brothers, we are one and the same. We were split apart for a reason I do not know. We are all headed towards Manehattan, where Princess Luna suspects we will need to rejoin if the city is to be held. We need to rejoin anyways, because we aren’t at full power as it stands. I will see you then.” The short speech had been given by the earth pony know standing next to him.
“Hello, brothers,” Midnight spoke in hushed tones to the earth pony and the pegasus. “It is time, is it not?” The other two gave an affirmative nod, and the joining began. A black orb surrounded the three, blasting outwards and blinding everything it touched for a short while. Inside the orb, the three ponies slowly combined, their respective bodies melting into one another’s. As they rose into the air, the three came together, reviving what they really were: The alicorn named Allatu at birth, who became the God of Death, Life, and the In Between. Slowly flapping its wings, the alicorn turned towards the remaining gryphon army. Its body became encased in a black aura which spread out over the gryphons, sending many of them into the next world. The aura then touched down on all the dead bodies, pony and gryphons alike, liberating the trapped souls, and sending them into the bliss of the next world.
Its task done, the alicorn sank back to earth, taking back its unicorn form. Midnight no longer felt weary; the pain he’d felt had disappeared, along with his exhaustion. He knew he was whole again, and he knew that nopony would ever be aware that he wasn’t whole in the first place.
As the blindness wore off, Pinkie shook her head, looking for the three that had caused the event. All she found was Midnight, which confused her, but then she realized the gryphons had been defeated. Her joy at being finished, at least for now, had caused her mane to poof back up into its original shape.
In a hospital operating room to the north, a unicorn surgeon finished magically attaching the last plastic tube to the last torn vein. He took a second to breathe, and then got to work fixing a tear in the stomach. “She needs more blood! And get me a sanitary needle, please.”
The lights in the hospital left nothing hidden; every surface shined under the white fluorescents. The waiting room left a lot to be desired, but no one noticed. They were all too anxious for news to care that their chairs were hard plastic, or that they hadn’t eaten in nearly a day. The bustling of nurses and doctors rushing back and forth could be heard through the doors, if anyone had been listening.
The silent grimaces on the group’s faces spoke to their concerns. Even Icescape, who barely new Rainbow Dash, and didn’t particularly like her, was frowning, with his eyes narrowed, ears flat against his head. The surgeon had said he’d be back in half an hour, unless something went wrong. It had been almost four hours.
The ward doors opened up right at the four hours mark, letting a doctor in surgery scrubs enter. He looked exhausted, and he still had a little blood on him. “I’m sorry it’s been so much longer than I said,” The surgeon started, sitting down with a sigh. “Another patient came in and needed immediate attention. Anyways, your friend is still asleep, but I expect her to awake within the hour. She will be out of it; we have her on a large number of pain meds. We got all the major surgery done, but there are still some smaller, less important things to take care of. When she wakes up, I’ll have a nurse come get you.” With his speech finished, the surgeon stood back up and departed back through the ward doors.
A noticeable sigh echoed from around the room. Pinkie Pie popped out of her chair, rushing away while shouting about a get well party. “She can’t be stopped, can she?” Twilight’s voice was raw, but a crooked grin slowly grew on her face.
“That pony’s a disaster waitin’ to happen,” Applejacks voice wasn’t quite as raw as Twilight’s, but it still hadn’t gone unchanged. “I think we should stop her ‘fore she gives Rainbow a heart attack.”
“Too late now, darling,” Rarity said, somehow maintaining composure, despite having cried almost as much as Fluttershy, “If we want to stop her, it will have to be at the last second.”
Midnight gave a nod to this, wondering if Rainbow would remember her near death experience. He hoped not, it would result in too many impossible questions for him. Personally, he wouldn’t have done that… or at least he thought that he wouldn’t. Though, it was himself who showed her all those visions in the first place, so who knew what he would do if he hadn’t been split like that. Questions for another time, he thought to himself, I’ve got other things to worry about right now.
Rainbow lifted her head slowly. She thought it must be daytime, but her room had no windows, so it was impossible to tell. Without any idea where she was, she tried to get out of bed. This led to the revelation that she was having trouble moving her limbs. Must still be tired, she thought, groggily, I’ll just give it a few minutes. In the middle of this thought, she realized she wasn’t in her hotel room. This room was too clean; the white walls, fresh bed sheets, and the rack full of bags holding strange liquids right next to her were all out of place.
It took her a little while longer before she reached the conclusion that she must be in a hospital of some kind. She really couldn’t figure out why she was there, last she remembered, she had been guiding Midnight through the streets of some residential district. Then Gilda had come out of nowhere, and… oh, right, she thought. Gilda attacked me. I’m surprised I don’t hurt, she continued, must be on a lot of something.
This line of thought took Rainbow a little longer than she usually wanted to spend thinking about anything. Of course, she didn’t really mind, just as she didn’t mind anything else. Even a Pinkie Pie surprise party wouldn’t affect her at this point. This was probably a good thing, because this was exactly what Pinkie had planned. As her friends walked into the room, Rainbow got a face full of confetti at the very moment a giant banner reading “Get Well Soon, Rainbow Dash!” unfurled in her room.
“Pinkie!” Twilight shouted, shaking her head. “Was that really necessary?”
“Yep!” The pink blur said as it made its way to crush Rainbow Dash in a hug. Pinkie never made it, her tail having been grabbed by Applejack. As Pinkie crashed to the ground, Midnight gave a small, inaudible chuckle. He took a seat just inside the door, waiting for the girls to finish fawning over Rainbow. He was just glad she survived.
An hour later, the group had been kicked out of the hospital. They stood around in a huddle, not knowing where to go. None of them had to report for duty until tomorrow at the earliest, and their Manehattan suite had been destroyed in the fighting. Pinkie hopped off to an unknown location, and nobody followed her. They didn’t know what she was doing, and truth be told, most of them didn’t want to.
“Well,” Twilight started, “I think I’ll go to the library. I’m going to see what I can find on magical medicine.” She executed a quick turn, heading the opposite direction of Pinkie.
“I’m going to find a new place to stay. I absolutely refuse to stay in those army barracks again!” Rarity declared, a determined grimace on her face. She too walked away.
Fluttershy had stayed behind to help keep an eye on Rainbow. Rarity had tried her best to cajole Fluttershy into leaving, but to no avail. None of the others had even bothered. For such a shy pony, Fluttershy could be very determined if she really wanted to be. Midnight shook these thoughts out of his head. After all, Fluttershy would be fine, but Applejack, Icescape and himself still had nowhere to go. And the sun was starting to go down.
“Hey, we need to find a place to say,” Midnight voiced his thoughts to his companions, “Before the sun goes down, if we can.” The other two merely nodded in agreement, even if Icescape did so very vigorously. “Well then, I vote we go find an affordable place nearby. But not a motel. Ok?” With another nod from Applejack and Icescape, the trio set off.
They arrived at an acceptable hotel about half an hour later. It was a very unremarkable place, the same brown as every other building in the area. Rooms were cheap though, and it was pretty close to the hospital. Plus, it was very clean, for someplace that seemed to be such a dump from the outside. After booking a two room suite, the trio headed upstairs. They had grabbed some food while looking, so they had no need to eat. Icescape bid Applejack and Midnight a good night, then headed to bed. He’d been the first awake, and had stayed up latest the night before. Midnight thought he was running himself ragged, and couldn’t figure out why. He forgot all his questions as Applejack led him into their room.
Rainbow had fallen asleep shortly after her friends had left. As she woke again, she found a clock she vaguely remembered asking for was on her bedside table. It read 11:24 PM. This helped compound her surprise when she looked around and saw a lavender heap lying on the ground. “Uhh, Twilight?” Rainbow asked, a small tremor in her voice, “Are you awake?”
“Huh?” Twilight said, thinking she must sound like the stupidest nerd in history. “Oh, Rainbow! I didn’t think you’d wake up.”
With Twilight’s head moved, Rainbow could see she’d started to doze over what looked to be a pony anatomy book. “Well, I’ve been sleeping all day… I couldn’t do it anymore. What’s with the book? And how’d you get in here, anyways?” All these questions suddenly started hitting Rainbow at about the same time as the pain in her chest came back. “Ahhh… hay.”
“You ok?” Twilight’s eyes narrowed as she asked. Deciding Rainbow would just lie, Twilight left the room to find Fluttershy. She returned a few minutes later, the other mare in tow. Fluttershy refilled Rainbows IV with pain medication, before stammering out some kind of apology and rushing out the door.
“Heh, good ol’ Fluttershy.” Rainbow could already feel the meds clouding her mind. She didn’t know what this stuff was, but it was without a doubt powerful, and she liked it. She tried to focus on Twilight, who was answering her questions, but only managed to catch a few broken sentences.
“I had Fluttershy… Looking for a spell… figuring out what was torn… don’t want to… it could hurt. Rainbow? Can you hear me?” But Rainbow Dash had already fallen asleep.
Midnight left the hotel shortly before the sun rose. He wanted to be able to talk with Rainbow before anyone else could get to her. He needed to know what she remembered about the battle.
As he rounded on last corner, lost in his thoughts, he bumped into a white unicorn. A very familiar white unicorn, in fact. Icescape wasn’t alone, either. He was supporting a rather exhausted looking purple mare, who was also instantly recognizable. Midnight stopped, slightly shocked that either of them were awake. He’d been told by AJ that Twilight had a reputation as a late sleeper, and he’d though Icescape would be out of it all day, the way he’d been going.
“Hey,” Icescape said, taking most of Twilights weight. “What are you doing up?”
“I think I should be asking you two that,” Midnight scowled at the two of them. “I’d say neither of you should be up this early. Especially you, Ice. You need to sleep. Get some R and R.”
“Yeah, well,” Icescape gave a half chuckle, slowly shrinking under Midnights hard glare. “I woke up, and… uh… couldn’t fall asleep, so I went to check on Rainbow, and Twilight was sleeping on the floor…”
“U-huh.” Midnight’s thoughts were running a mile a minute. Did Icescape like Rainbow? That couldn’t end well. Rainbow could be mean at times, though Midnight felt it probably wasn’t intentional. But if she did that to Icescape… well, he probably wouldn’t handle it well. “Whatever. Take Twilight back to the apartment, get some rest man. I’m worried about you, you know.”
“Alright.” Icescapes head drooped a little, and then he leaned back into Twilight, leading her away. With that little ordeal over, Midnight started heading towards the hospital. He had a pony to see, after all.
Icescape felt lucky he’d gotten away without being questioned more thoroughly. He had seen the suspicion in Midnight’s eyes, and had figured that he either thought Icescape was in love with Rainbow or Twilight. He wasn’t in love with either, of course. But he may have broken down during questioning, and revealed that being around Rarity made him feel funny. He got kind of a tingling in his stomach, nervousness, and an increase in the inability to speak. Of course, he was never going to tell anypony about any of it. He felt it was irresponsible for Applejack and Midnight to be dating, given the state of the times, and that it would be even worse if he did it. But it wasn’t his place to tell others how to act, so he’d just have to try not to be a hypocrite himself.
He heaved a sigh. He’d almost missed the hotel due to his wandering thoughts. Helping Twilight up the stairs to the room he was sharing with Applejack and Midnight, he decided a nap might be just the ticket.
Midnight reached the hospital to find Rainbow deep asleep. Too bad he wouldn’t get to talk to her, but it did give him the chance to ensure she wouldn’t remember anything, without any risks to himself. A short spell later, he’d clouded the day she got shot enough that there was no way she’d ever pick out anything specific. He figured the pain would account for the memory loss. With that, he picked himself up, and left the hospital.
Rainbow was released later the same day. She had been told that she wasn’t fully recovered, of course, but the hospital needed the rooms desperately. Applejack had come to pick her up, explaining that everyone else had returned to their respective bases and command centers. Applejack had gotten leave to guide Rainbow home, or at least to the hotel.
Rainbow had been told that she couldn’t fly, and may not ever be able to again. Her wings hadn’t been touched; she was confused as to why she wouldn’t be able to. After a rather lengthy lecture from the doctor, which barely caught Rainbow’s attention at all, she found out two things. Firstly, flying could put a lot of strain on her internal organs, which had been damaged, and secondly, Pegasi were able to fly because of some kind of air sack in their stomachs. Strangely, the air sack actually held magic, but the magic made it so that the Pegasi could support themselves off the ground. Rainbow’s had been ripped; while the surgeon and Midnight had done their best to heal it, it was impossible to know how well they’d done. So, she’d been told not to even risk any flight for a long while, and especially not something like a Sonic Rainboom. Apparently, the power in one of those would tear her apart. Or so she’d been told.
That was how Rainbow found herself sluggishly trotting alongside Applejack, headed to a hotel she could have flown to faster than thought. She was useless to the Pegasi corps in her current state, so she hadn’t been recalled for service, either. Eventually, she thought, I will be able to fly again. Maybe not as fast, or as far, but more than well enough for the Wonderbolts, or the Pegasi corps.
Rainbow looked up into the clouded sky, seeing the sun just barely starting to poke out from behind the cover. Someday, I will be up there again, she told herself.
Midnight looked at the same sun. He had just gotten out of debriefing, and didn’t have any specific plans for the rest of the day. He knew Applejack would be taking Rainbow to the hotel, but since Icescape hadn’t been debriefed yet, he wouldn’t even consider checking in on the girls. It’s not like he would get permission, anyways. Captain Thorn seemed to be fairly pissed about the battle still, having chewed out himself and Icescape earlier, for not being with the rest of the platoon.
Midnight didn’t like Thorn, for more than the obvious reason. There was madness in the Captains eyes, and it wasn’t the kind that was funny. It was the kind that scared the hay out of anypony who could see it. It was the kind of madness that led to killing sprees, bombings, and general hay. That is, the violent kind. Midnight had run past plenty of ponies like Thorn before. The things he’d seen sickened him. A few of them even went so far as to be cannibalistic, which disturbed even him.
Of course, he didn’t think Thorn was that bad. In fact, he pondered to himself, it could just be too much pent up anger and aggression. That was bad, but at least it was solvable. As long as the war was happening, ponydom was probably safe, at least. These assuring thoughts fell flat, even in his own mind, and he was glad he wasn’t trying to convince somepony else.
Icescape left the debriefing tent just then, carrying a manila folder in his mouth. He spit it out onto the ground before taking a quick glance into the sky. “Nice to see the sun out. Anyways,” he looked back down at the folder, “These are mission orders for us. Applejack and Twilight are both included, too. It seems to be something about shipping over seas, to the Bridle Islands. They’ve stood against Gryphony, somehow, and we’re to go support them. We leave in a week, I think. Until then, we’re to get our affairs in order. That’s what the officer back there told me.”
“All right man,” Midnight replied, as Icescape picked the folder back up. “Let’s go find the others, they may want to know about this. We’ll just wait with Rainbow back at the apartment, they’ll show up eventually.” Icescape gave a quick nod, then flashed himself away. Midnight was impressed he had the energy to teleport still, as he’d teleported to the temporary camp, too. Giving a quick shrug, he ignited his own magic, already making a mental list of what he would need to bring with him.
Midnight watched the sun set from the deck of the cruiser. Icescape, Twilight, Applejack, and he had all departed what still stood of Manehattan three days ago. Applejack and Twilight had been put on a different ship, sensibly, if you were military brass. This left all the colts and stallions in one ship group, which was getting annoying, and fast. He couldn’t wait until they reached the Bridle Islands; not only did he miss AJ, he was feeling cooped up on this damn boat. It didn’t help that Captain Thorn was on the boat, too, though he had a different bunk room, at least.
Of course, as much as these minor issues annoyed and irritated Midnight, they didn’t really worry him that much. What he was most worried about was the threat of a naval battle. He’d heard stories of massive engagements on the passage over, and while he was sure the fleet could handle it, there was still some risk of the ship going down. They seemed safe for another day, though, he thought as he watched the sun finish dropping below the horizon. Only a little over a week left, then they’d be in the islands’ defenses. That would be reassuring, he decided, before turning and heading off to his bunk. There were always appearances of normality to keep.
Icescape grunted in pain as his head hit the metal wall of the bunk room. While he was glad to stop having freaky dreams about the wall-eyed, muffin obsessed mailmare, he rather wished whoever had awoken him had been kind enough to not slam his head into the wall. As he put together semi-coherent thoughts, his whole body hit the wall. This time he was awake enough to notice that the entire ship seemed to have tilted a little to the starboard. As he went to get out of his bunk and look for the cause of the commotion, he realized that the ponies that slept on the port side of the bunk room were crumbled on the floor. Oh, hay, Icescape told himself, this can’t be good.
Midnight noticed the ship tilting over seconds before it actually rolled to the starboard. Using his magic, he stopped himself from merely flying into the opposite wall, and then lowered himself to the ground. This is bad, he said inside his head, I didn’t expect any problems at night. Lost in his thoughts, he almost missed the second blast. He managed to stop himself from sliding just in time, proceeding to rush out the bunk room door and to the deck.
Applejack had been given night duty on the anti-air guns. It was a boring job, but important if anything should actually happen. The destroyer she was on didn’t have the new automatic magic guns, so it was up to earth ponies to ensure the ship survived. As Applejack started to daydream about her favorite things, Midnight and apple cakes, a bright light flashed in the sky about two miles to the east. She craned her neck around in shock, just quick enough to catch a second explosion rock a ship. The ship appeared to be a cruiser of some kind. Fear twisted in her gut. It couldn’t be Midnight’s ship, could it?
Captain Thorn was supposed to be asleep, but he had one of those feelings. A certain flutter in his stomach, a few short breaths, a quick up swing in his pulse. He’d had these exact same feelings twice before, and both times had turned out very bad. Which was why he was on deck, staring into the ocean. He would have bet the world that one of the ships in this column was going down, and it was probably his.
Just as he picked up his gun to check it for the third time, an explosion ripped through the side of the cruiser. A bright flash went up into the sky, a ball of fire shooting towards the heavens. Thorn was tossed backwards before he could tense up. He climbed to his hooves quickly, seemingly undamaged, despite being thrown a good twenty feet into a solid metal wall. He braced himself, knowing worse was coming, as it soon did. The second explosion left the cruiser listing fairly far starboard. This had no effect on the Captain however, as he just ran to the edge, waiting for gryphons to appear out of the night, gun at the ready. He didn’t even notice the flames splattered across the main deck.
Icescape stumbled onto the deck just in time for the main guns to start firing. A pony ran by, screaming “Torpedoes! They were torpedoes!” Icescape shook his head, looking for an officer to get an assignment from. It seemed that most of the electricity had been cut off by the blasts, but the fire illuminated whatever it didn’t destroy. The long shadows were jumping around, causing the whole seen to be somewhat disconcerting, but Icescape was focusing on more important issues. He found an officer, who only told him to go help patch up the bow.
After sprinting through the bowels of the ship, Icescape came upon engineers, already getting to work lifting heavy sheets of metal into place with magic. The fires had been extinguished in this area; small battery powered lights had been strung up to provide light. The hole in the side of the ship was surprisingly large, opening up three floors like the lid of a can. Water was rushing into the bottom floor, barely being held back by the combined force of magic and auto vents. A piece of steel slid into place on the bottom of the hole, and was quickly welded into place by the earth ponies. An engineer grabbed Icescape by the tail, pulling him aside just before a piece of metal went flying through where he had been seconds ago.
“What do you think you’re doing, son?” Gear shouted at Icescape, “I saw you back in Manehattan! I know you’re smarter than that! Now get to work, we need all the help we can get!” Gear ran off towards the hole, grabbing a welding torch as he went. Icescape numbly did as he was told, levitating a large piece of steel towards the gash. As he settled it into place, a series of bright flashes lit the sky, causing a number of small black shapes to fall into the ocean.
Thorn looked up into the sky, sighting again. He’d already taken down three gryphons that had been stupid enough to get too close, but they were still coming. Just as he prepared to shoot again, bright flashes lit up the sky, and the sound of rolling guns hit him from behind. Bodies fell to earth, some smoking and twisted. As Captain Thorn readjusted his rifle, pulses of magic started shooting into the night. A wave of black caught a large group of gryphons, dragging them down, into the drink. Midnight stepped up to the edge of the ship, preparing a new blast to unleash on the unlucky foes. “Hello, Captain,” He said through gritted teeth.
“Hello, soldier,” Thorn replied, “I see you have already gotten to work. Good job,” Thorn said, shooting yet another gryphon out of the air. He quickly sighted again, taking another enemy down. Five down, he thought, and a few hundred to go.
Applejack looked out over the ocean towards the flames, seeing them slowly go out. The top decks were still burning brightly, but she was too far away to pick anything out, except the large number of shapes descending out of the clouds, and the cruisers guns booming. She looked around towards the carriers in the group in time to see the first wave of pegasi take off into the night. Hundreds of pegasi seemed to be heading into the sky, but for every pony that launched, three gryphons descended on the cruiser. And now blasts and booms were coming from outside of the column, causing flashes to burst into the sky from the carrier and its fleet. Applejack got back behind her gun, waiting for the hell to reach her. All she could do now was hope that everypony would be OK.
Twilight had been awoken by the first few explosions, the sound ripping her from her dreams. After establishing that her ship was fine, she headed up towards the deck, and the gun emplacements. She hoped they wouldn’t be necessary, but one never knew when ships artillery would be necessary. Seeing the flashes coming from multiple directions, she knew there would be combat before the sun rose. Her suspicions were confirmed as the destroyer turned to the port.
Bluebird took off, leading his flight group, chain gun strapped to his back. He headed for the cruiser just in time to see the first blast of enemy artillery hit home on the ships. But he had no time to concentrate on that danger, as the gryphons were quickly approaching. He bit down on his guns yoke, blasting many of them out of the sky. As his flight group started dog fighting, he picked a target, chasing them in a dive, pulling up just in time to avoid hitting the sea like it was cement. His prey wasn’t quite so lucky. The gryphon slammed into the ocean, and quickly sunk. He zoomed back upwards, pursuing a new target.
Twilight adjusted her artillery piece, letting off a barrage, which slammed into an enemy carriers deck. The havoc it wreaked was intense, stopping the gryphons from being able to launch another wave towards the cruiser. Though not badly damaged, the ship turned and started to head away. It’s protective detail started to follow, still launching shells towards the Equestrian transport column. This was a tactic Twilight had noticed from the enemy fleet in general. As soon as a ship, or group of ships approached, or launched an assault, the ships attacked would lay down covering fire and retreat. It was more as if they had been trying to lower the moral of the column than cause any real damage. Twilight shook these thoughts out of her head, adjusting her gun yet again.
Icescape lifted another piece of steel into place. He was foaming at the mouth, but this last piece would secure the hold against anymore incoming water, or so the engineers believed. When the sheet of metal was welded into place, Icescape collapsed to the ground, exhausted. Another unicorn, one he didn’t know, stepped forward, taking his place. Gear trotted up, dragging him out of the way. “Good job, kid,” the earth pony said, voice flat, “You were a big help there.” Gear gave him a cuff with his hoof, then headed back to do more welding.
Bluebird sent another gryphon down with a well-timed blast from the chain gun on his back. The gryphons had really thinned out, either because they had died, or because they had fled. As another Pegasus chased one of the last gryphons away from the cruiser, Bluebird came in for a landing, exhausted from the battle. He landed next to a dark blue unicorn, who was sending small concentrated blasts of magic into the sky every once in a while. After taking off his gun, Bluebird stretched out, falling asleep.
Applejack watched as the last of the gryphon ships departed, leaving the night dark, but for the fires still burning in a few places on the cruisers deck. She hadn’t even fired a shot. All she could hope now was that everyone on the cruiser was still OK. And that the ship wouldn’t sink before they could get to harbor. She slumped down in her seat, resigned to a long night on her gun.
The cruiser limped into port, still leaning starboard. They hadn’t made it to the Bridle Islands yet- they were still four days away. The engineers on bored were worried that the repairs they had made while travelling wouldn’t hold up, though. They argued that sheets of steel thrown on in less than a day, while effective for short amounts of time, invariably broke down rather quickly. Their arguments had been supported by the water that was starting to leak in on the bottom deck. The ships captain had seen no choice but to pull into the closest friendly port. This was how Icescape and Midnight found themselves in Iceland.
Iceland was a fairly small island nation. The main reason it was still independent was because it was too far out of the way to really be a concern to anybody. Equestria had a small naval yard here, which said it would be able to fix the ship properly in about a week. This left the soldiers being transported with empty time on their hooves and no idea what to do with it. Midnight had talked Icescape into going and seeing the mountains, all of which had ridiculous names. Icescape had said ok, on the condition he could bring a few others along. Midnight figured there was no valid reason to say no, even if more ponies was the last thing he wanted, and was forced to say yes.
Icescape had found Gear and Bluebird, both of whom were willing to go on an adventure, Gear because he wanted something to get his mind off of the ship, Bluebird because he was bored. Bluebird was already regretting volunteering for the emergency protection detail long before the cruiser pulled into port. If he wasn’t quite so impulsive, he never would have done it. But impulse had long ruled his life.
As Icescape led the other two ponies back to the agreed upon meeting place, Midnight teleported in front of them with a large pack in his mouth. He dropped it onto the ground, being careful to make sure it didn’t hit too hard. The others noticed that there as already another sitting at his feet. Gear had brought his own pack, as had Bluebird. Midnight gestured at the pack he had just dropped, saying “That one’s yours, Icescape. The other is mine. So, if this is it,” he looked at the three ponies in front of him when he said that, “Then I say we hit the road!” The others gave quick nods in the affirmative, setting off for the hills at a slow trot.
Applejack was just getting into bed. She had been given the night watch, again, and was thoroughly exhausted, even at a time she felt she should be getting up for a hard days work. She watched the sun rise over the horizon through her porthole, illuminating the ships in the column. As she started to drift, she wondered about Midnight, and Icescape, for that matter. She had heard the day after the attack that it was their ship, and she had seen it leave the column for Iceland yesterday. They were going to be at least a week late, the ship captain had read off of a telegram. Once they restarted for the Bridle Islands, they would be lone targets. Hopefully they could make the short run into Bridle territory safely, she thought, as her eyes closed.
Twilight was not having the best day. She still had tons of paperwork to fill out from the night of the attack. While paperwork didn’t normally bug her too bad, she was feeling a little sick. It was partially sea sickness- she’d been feeling bad ever since she first stepped on the boat- but she was pretty sure she’d picked up a strain of the flu that had been going around the ship. In addition, she was too worried about her friends to be able to pay attention. Applejack had been exhausted by the frequent night shifts, which she would get used to, eventually. But Icescape and Midnight had been aboard the ship that had been attacked, and Twilight had been unable to get any information as to the status of her two friends. Not to mention Rainbow, trapped back in Manehattan, unable to fly, possibly forever. And Rarity, who was coming over next, who had discovered a previously unknown claustrophobia, and Fluttershy, who was just so scared in general, and Pinkie, who… well, Twilight was already always fretting for Pinkie anyways.
Heaving a sigh, Twilight stared down the large amount of paperwork on her desk. It’s not too bad, she thought to herself, then followed that with I wish Spike were here to do it for me…
Midnight looked back at his three companions. Bluebird and Gear had explained how they met Icescape during the Battle of Manehattan. While they didn’t know each other well, they seemed to be good friends already. Midnight had rather unwillingly been filled in on Bluebirds entire back-story; it was surprisingly similar to Rainbows. He had wanted to be a Wonderbolt all his life; he was employed as the head weather manager of Skychester before getting recruited; he had discovered a passion for racing young. The most major difference was that he had gotten his cutie mark during a fierce storm one day. An engine in the weather factory had broken down, allowing a storm to get far out of control. Bluebird had sneaked in, stealing a few pieces from the metal shop on the way, and got to the engine. He hadn’t been able to fix it, but he had somehow managed to reroute control to a different computer bank. After finding the computer and getting the storm back under control, he flew out and pushed the clouds away with a small wind he had whipped up. His cutie mark was a dark cloud being pushed by silver wind.
Gear’s cutie mark story was filled with technical terms that caused Midnight to lose focus quickly. He looked back to see that Gear’s cutie mark was a half built bridge on a piece of blueprint paper. He figured this explained why the earth pony was so good at building things, and had naturally taken control of the ships repairs. Midnight chuckled to himself as he realized how suiting the pony’s name was.
Icescape was already having a great day. He had told his cutie mark story to Gear and Bluebird, listened to theirs, and made two new friends, and it was only noon! Of course, he was even happier to be able to go backpacking with his best friend, even if he had packed a lot of stuff into Icescape’s pack.
Icescape shifted his pack again. He had no idea what Midnight had packed for him, but it was definitely more than was necessary. He wondered how his best friend could carry his own pack with such ease as he watched Midnight laugh at something Bluebird had said. Realizing he was falling behind, Icescape hurried to catch up.
“Twilight?” Applejack asked, pushing open her friends door. It was getting on towards eleven o’clock, and Twilight hadn’t been at a single meal all day. Poking her head in to her friend’s room, Applejack discovered why Twilight had missed all the meals- she was asleep. Twilight had her head on a pile of half completed paperwork, muttering and occasionally giving a ragged snore.
Applejack picked her friend up, moving her to the bed. It was funny that Twilight, who was the most precise, exact, and concentrated of her friends, had somehow managed to fall asleep to paperwork. Applejack gave a low chuckle; almost missing Twilights sleep induced ramblings. “Rainbow…”
Rainbow looked out the window at the harbor. She watched as a ship pulled out, taking Rarity away. Now it was only herself and Fluttershy. She had been told that she would be moved out as soon as she could fly again. She wasn’t stupid, though; she had heard the doctors talking to her friends, and knew she may never fly again. As she watched the sun set, she wished she could be in the sky with it.
Luna huffed as she walked out of the conference room. I had forgotten how much of a pain negotiations are, she thought. A few papers were levitating around her head, all but one having her signature, as well as that of the Prime Minister of the Bridle Islands. The day had fairly much died while she had been in the stuffy conference room, but some important issues had gotten resolved. Luna looked out the large windows of Westmuzzle, watching her sister’s sun start dipping below the horizon. She turned, her horn glowing as she started raising the moon from the east. As soon as that task was done, she disappeared.
Celestia was fuming in her rooms in Canterlot castle. As soon as her sister appeared, she leapt to her hooves; eyes squinted in what almost seemed to be agony. “I don’t like it,” She spoke calmly, but gritted teeth betrayed her. “If it wasn’t for him, none of this would have happened in the first place!”
“Now, Celly,” Luna said, with the smallest sigh she could manage, “You and I both know that isn’t true. Just because you’re angry about something that happened so long ago, you can’t stop being rational.”
“I almost think,” Celestia’s voiced carried a rare imperialistic tone, “that you no longer care yourself. Or have you just completely forgotten what that monster has done?”
“Celly, I’m being a ruler. Sometimes we have to put aside our emotions. And you knew that was going to happen someday, there was no other possible outcome in the long run. Even we will have to answer to him, someday.” It felt to be the thousandth time Luna had explained this, but she was well aware it wasn’t to be the last. “He is the only force that can never be defeated.”
Celestia flared her nostrils a little longer before giving in. “I still don’t like it,” she stated.
“You don’t have to,” Luna responded, “I don’t like it either, for that matter. But it must be done. Having him on our side is an invaluable benefit.”
“Why did he have to bond with the elements, though? That’s the most dangerous thing he could have possibly done!” Celestia knew she was trying to nitpick, even if she was expressing a valid concern.
“I don’t know, sister,” Luna said, shaking her head.
Midnight helped Gear pack up his tent. They had to be back at the naval yard tomorrow, so they were headed back now. It had been almost a week of beautiful weather, snowbound peaks, and other cliché descriptions. It really had been an amazing trip. Icescape had somehow managed to not destroy anything important, and Midnight had learned an awful lot about Bluebird and Gear. But no matter how much fun he’d had roaming the hills of Iceland, Midnight could never fight off a feeling of dread. He started walking faster as he thought about the days ahead. He was almost hitting a full gallop before he realized he’d let himself get too far ahead of the others. He sat on the top of the next hill, waiting for the others to catch up.
Bluebird landed next to him with a thud, dropping his pack. Midnight was spared a quick glance before Bluebird looked back at the other two. “What’s wrong, man?” He asked, a crease adorning his forehead.
Midnight stared at a lonely cloud in the sky, replying only with “Everything.”
Rainbow was on her way to the hospital to visit Fluttershy when she was stopped by a gray pegasus mail mare. “Hey Derpy. What’s up?”
“Mail for you!” Derpy replied, handing Dash an official looking envelope, taking off for another destination immediately. Rainbow became focused on the letter when she noticed the return address- Ponygon, Castle Loop, Canterlot. She ripped open the envelope, dropping it on the sidewalk, paying attention only to the letter.
Dear Cpl. Rainbow Dash, Due to injuries you sustained during the Battle of Manehattan, you have been awarded a Purple Wing. Additionally, your inability to fly for the foreseeable future has led to you being transferred into the Army, 7th battalion, 12th platoon. You are to report to the Manehattan docks at 12 o’clock in the afternoon on Saturday, the 20th of October.
Signed, General Ironhoof Rainbow stared at the letter for a few seconds before noticing that a small medal was indeed attached to the bottom of the letter. After examining it, she reread the letter. Shoot, she said to herself, I leave tomorrow! She turned and rushed back to the hotel room. Fluttershy would just have to wait for later.
Twilight’s ship pulled into the harbor of Trottingham. She had finally finished all her paperwork a few days ago, which gave her the chance to relax. No other incidents had happened along the trip, something to be thankful for. She found Applejack, and they departed the ship together. Lodging and food were being provided by the Equestrian military, which meant they wouldn’t be getting any hotels this time around. “So,” Applejack glanced at Twilight, raising an eyebrow, “What’s with all this mumbling in your sleep?”
“Huh?” Twilight gave her friend a look suggesting Applejack should check into a mental hospital, before continuing, “I don’t talk in my sleep. And when would you have heard it, even if I did?”
“All those times yah fell asleep over paperwork, tah answer your question,” Applejack replied, causing a little heat to rise to Twilight’s face, “An’ yah do talk in your sleep. Kept hearin’ yah say Rainbow’s name.”
“I… I did?” Twilight certainly hadn’t been aware of her words. “I don’t know why.”
A few days later, the lone carrier pulled into the Trottingham dock. The crew had dubbed it the Hydra, in honor of it being too stupid to sink when it should have. Gear, Bluebird, Icescape, and Midnight all stepped onto the docks, one after the other. The checked the postings on a message board, discovering that they were all being separated, with the exception of Icescape and Midnight. They had all started away when Icescape, still back at the board, spoke up. “Hey guys, you might want to see this…” he trailed off.
Midnight returned, checking where Icescapes hoof was pointing. A notice had been posted by the colonel in charge of the base. It simply said that any Ponies belonging to Marine divisions 1, 2, 4, 5, or 7 were being airlifted into enemy territory later that week.
As Midnight finished reading the notice, Captain Thorn trotted up. “Wonderful, isn’t it,” He dead panned. “We get to go into that hay hole a little early.” He wandered off again, but not before narrowing his eyes threateningly at nothing in particular.
Oh well, Midnight thought, Looks like I won’t get to rest very long before I’m working again.
The night sky was even darker than usual, mostly due to the large amount of steely gray clouds covering it. Bluebird was lugging Icescape over gryphon territory, a dangerous task even when one knew where they were going. Bluebird was to stay behind with the landed troops, as were a small number of other pegasi. Their job was to make sure no gryphons could ambush the group from above. But right now, they were all lugging either ponies or gear over the danger zone. Just a few more minutes, Bluebird repeated in his head. Just a few more minutes.
Midnight looked down at the top of dark clouds. He couldn’t see the ground, but he knew that the group must be close to its final destination. Just then, every pegasi in the group started to descend. Back into the hornet’s nest,Midnight thought.
Midnight used magic to push the bushes in front of him out of the way. The foliage was convenient, if you were trying to hide. Which everypony was. Captain Thorn slide up next to Midnight, getting off a shot into the dark, before sliding away again. Midnight, knowing what was about to come his way, scrambled out of the hedge, back into flooded rice fields. He wasn’t a second too soon, as his previous cover turned into nothing more than stripped branches. He got up and trotted to the only solid cover available- an old, crumbling stone wall. Wet and shivering, he sat down, taking a quick look over his protection. Just another day in the life, he thought to himself with only a hint of sarcasm.
Twilight was boarding a ship. Again. This was supposed to be the last time, though. As she hauled her pack on board, the metal boarding plank creaked slightly. Great, she said to herself, stupid thing is weak. She and her troops were trusting this thing to get them as close as possible to safety before they had to disembark.
After depositing her gear near the launching stage on the ships fore, Twilight headed for the bridge. All the officers had received orders directly from General Ironhoof. They were to meet in the bridge of the ship they were being transported on as soon as their equipment had been stowed. Supposedly some massive secret was waiting for them. Personally, Twilight thought that it was just an official confirmation of what everypony already knew. Namely, they were launching an amphibious landing. Walking through the door, Twilight discovered she was the last officer to have arrived. That wasn’t much of a surprise, since her squad had been second to last to load. “Lieutenant Sparkle?” A mare with a naval commander’s vest on directed her question at the newly arrived Twilight. “Yes, Ma’am,” Twilight responded, quickly finding a place to sit. “Everypony is here then,” The commander stated. “I am Commander White Wash, captain and pilot of the H.M.S. Fillydelphia. As you have all most likely deduced on your own,” here the mare paused to activate a projector and shine it on a blank wall, “Equestria and its allies are launching an invasion of Gryphony lands.” The commander stepped down on a small button set into the floor, changing the projectors image into a map of the landing area. “These are where we will try to land the majority of you. Now,” another click changed the view to a photo clearly taken by a flying Pegasus. It was covered in red and gray marks in no recognizable order. “These red marks are fortifications built by the gryphons over the last several months, and these gray marks are approximately where all the large ships of our fleet will be anchored. The ships will not be able to escort you into the landing stage, so you’ll have to do your best to make it there alive. Now that I’ve covered what you all had figured out,” another click, this time bringing up a map of the lands just beyond the beach, which had black exes at regular intervals, “I’ll tell what you don’t know. These black marks are where elite special units from both the Marines and the Army have been dropped, along with small groups of pegasi. Their objective is simple- they will attempt to make it to the largest guns and fortifications before we launch the landing ships tomorrow. They are going to attempt to disable as many gryphons as they can along the way. That is all you need to know.” With that, the commander turned off the projector and called back in the ships crew. Twilight was glad to learn that the fortifications were going to be weakened before they attempted their nearly suicidal attack, even though she was still worried about her three friends who she now knew must be inside Gryphony already. She figured that they could all handle themselves though. After all, they were the best in the entire armed services.
Midnight was pinned down. He couldn’t risk even taking a quick glance over the wall without losing his head. Even though that wouldn’t kill him, it would certainly hurt horribly. As well as forcing him to flee to an unknown area once his head grew back. All in all, it was much better to remain in cover.
This had its own problems. For one, he was effectively taken out of the battle; taking up the cover space another pony could use didn’t exactly make him happy either. He wasn’t the only pony hunkered down behind any shred of cover possible. Everypony was cowering just the way he was. They only luck they had at all right now was that the gryphons were too afraid to take to the air. Though they seemed to have recently gotten a hold of some kind of mortar. They were testing their aim at the moment, but every shot got closer to Midnight.
With the pegasi unable to fly, and everypony basically unable to shoot at the gryphons without committing suicide, they didn’t have much time left. Icescape and the other unicorn with their group had exhausted their magic long ago, and Midnight wasn’t willing enough to put his platoon at risk to launch a blast massive enough to take out the gryphons. Though, at this rate, none of them would ever make it to the objective. Except maybe Thorn.
The Captain had disappeared almost an hour ago. Most of the platoon thought he had died, but Midnight knew better. He would have felt if any lives had been snuffed out anywhere near recently. It was just one of the many skills of Death.
An incredibly close explosion rocked Midnight out of his trance. The gryphons had finally finished adjusting their mortar it seemed. Now they were just attempting to kill all the ponies, which really left Midnight no choice. He took a small step back from the wall he was behind, charging his horn, preparing to unleash a magical explosion slightly stronger than the guns on board an Equestrian destroyer could. Just as the black light around his horn started to slowly expand, he felt a little nag in his mind, and then another. He released his magic, attempting to figure out what was happening, when he first heard the pop of guns from in front of the wall. Lifting his head just slightly above the wall, Midnight felt another tug in his mind as he saw a gryphon collapse.
Realizing what was happening Midnight quickly lifted his rifle to a firing position and bit the yoke, causing a flash and a small pin of pain in the back of his mind. As more gryphons fell, the ones remaining started taking to the sky, leaving guns and ammo behind. Even more fell out of the sky as the last survivors fled into the blue cloudless day at a speed most pegasi could never hope to match. Bluebird growled next to Midnight, muttering threats towards the fleeing gryphons under his breath. After a quick check, Midnight was relieved to see that almost everypony was fine. The only casualty was a pegasus private. Midnight knew he had died quickly and painlessly; fairly comforted by the lack of agony, he started trotting towards the landing beach. The sun was already rising.
