Prologue
The streets of Yanhoover were in full swing. Noise filled almost every street, and most restaurants were filled. Search Team Eclipse roamed the streets looking for one, under the consent of Lieutenant Feathers. They still wore their ceremonial golden armor, although they had left their weapons behind.
It was a pleasant city to live in during the war - the farthest west out of all of Equestria's cities, so the effects of the war had been slower to reach it. While the food that came was dropping slowly, many residents had taken the time to grow crops in their gardens. While it did not match the drop in food, things were more or less the same than before the war.
"Wow, this place still has cherry pie!" a tan colored stallion exclaimed.
An orange pegasus mare next to him rolled her eyes, "Of course you'd be the first to mention that, Cola Cherry."
"Don't pretend you don't want one, Apricot!" Cola Cherry replied.
"Actually, I don't."
"That's enough," a grey stallion told them.
Cola shrugged and continued walking, and Apricot opened her mouth to reply, but said nothing.
“You think we should stop there Craggy?” a brown unicorn stallion pointed towards a restaurant.
“Clover, I think we’ll just argue about where over and over, so yes I do,” Craggy replied.
Just as they were about to enter, they were stopped, “Wait!”
The four turned around to see Lieutenant Amber Feathers flying overhead like a scout. When she was sure that she had gotten their attention, she quickly descended.
“Sergeant Craggy, I’ve just received a letter from Princess Twilight!”
Craggy raised an eyebrow, “What does it say?”
“Three search teams will be reassigned to the front line. I’ve decided that yours will be one of them.”
“Wow,” Cola cut in, “that’s pretty cool. It’s so boring just searching.”
Apricot glared at Cola and then responded, “But why us?”
“This isn’t a particularly large decision, so that’s not important.”
Apricot took in a deep breath and decided to not press it further.
“What about our weapons?” Clover asked.
“You’ll be issued them at your destination,” Amber responded immediately
Afterward, silence hung in the air for a while. Amber, satisfied that there would be no more questions for now, gave more details.
“There’s a train to Canterlot at noon. Here’s the money for the tickets. When you arrive, report to Canterlot Castle for further orders.”
She paused and looked at the four. When there were no questions, she smiled and flew away.
Shortly after, Craggy stated, “It’s only half-past eight, and the security at the train station isn’t too tight. We have time for breakfast here.”
Chatter filled the air, and ponies occupied almost every table. The scent of pastries and maple syrup invaded every corner of the building. Nopony was there to direct them to a seat, so they merely found one instead.
They quietly sat down at a table, all four picked up the menu and began to read the menu. After a while, a mare stopped by their table.
“What would you like?” she smiled, pulling out a notepad.
“Give me your orders,” Craggy said.
“A slice of cherry pie,” Cola responded immediately.
“Pancakes,” Apricot said shortly afterward.
“Pancakes too,” Clover shrugged.
“I’ll just have some toast,” Craggy told her.
The mare licked her lips, wrote a bit more on her notepad, and then left saying, “Thank you.”
After a few minutes, Craggy’s toast arrived first. He weakly smiled and took the plate. He began to absentmindedly chew, taking no notice of the crumbs running down his mouth. He took a copy of the newspaper, completely disconnected from the environment of the building.
After a while, the same waitress came over holding two piles of pancakes. There were three, neatly stacked on top of each other. Both Apricot and Clover smiled and thanked the waitress. Apricot brought up her knife and fork and recklessly sliced a chunk of the stack off, which was promptly stabbed by her fork. With the precision of a surgeon, Clover levitated his fork, and made two nearly perfect intersecting cuts. Afterward, he dropped the utensils and levitated one of the neatly cut slices to his mouth.
By then, Cola was fumbling around and kicking in anticipation. There was the constant banging of his fork on the table, and would kick the pole holding it up, the impact resonating through its hollow body. Shortly after, his order arrived. Steam visibly wafted out of the slice, curling, rising, and expanding until it disappeared from sight. The crust was a golden brown, its scent blending with the cherries.
As soon as the pie was set down on the table, Cola had raised his knife to slice off a bite, not even bothering to thank the waitress. The cherries were a shade of dark red, coated with a sauce of the same color. Cola shoved piece after piece into his mouth, red streaks running down his mouth as he groaned in appreciation.
Several minutes passed by with barely any words being exchanged. After a while, Craggy spoke without looking up from his paper.
“Some scouts have reported multiple blockhouses, trenches, cloud patrols, and fences constructed by the griffons. About half of them didn’t come back.”
“Wow,” Clover said after he stopped chewing, “are they building any more of them?”
“They’re steadily building over any ground they gained. Seems like they’re trying a change of tactics.”
“Wow, the griffons usually just rush,” Clover said, “do they even have enough troops for that?”
“Apparently they do - somehow,” Craggy responded.
Apricot groaned, “So now we have to go there. Great.”
After an awkward pause, Cola spoke up, “Y’know, can’t we just send pegasi over behind them?”
Almost immediately, Clover responded, “That isn’t going to work. They can’t just kill all those griffons at once. I mean, how many blockhouses, trenches, and fences do they have?”
“There aren’t any definite reports, but the surviving scouts said it was about a few hundred meters of them.”
Cola swallowed his last bite of pie and said, “Oh well, I’ll think more about it.”
Shortly after, a waitress returned with the bill.
Upon reading it, Craggy looked up, “Why aren’t there any military canteens around here?”
“It’s way too far off from the frontlines for that to be true,” Clover pointed out.
“I know, but this bill makes me wish it was true.”
Compared to the streets, Yanhoover Train Station might as well as been a cart stop. There was the occasional conversation, and words were still passed around regularly, but there weren’t nearly as many ponies around. The queues were quite empty and many of the ponies around were arrivals. If they wanted to be as far from the war as possible, then they already were.
“You know, this almost feels like the good old days,” Clover blurted as they entered,“back when you didn’t have to worry about griffons knocking on your door.”
“Maybe for you,” Cola said, “You’ve been living in Baltimare for the better part of your life. It’s just a lull down under in Ponyville.”
“True.”
“None of that will matter when we’re in the field of fire,” Apricot solemnly stated,“We aren’t changing where we’re going.”
“Why do you always have to be such a buzzkill?” Cola complained.
“Alright, I’ll go hand out the tickets,” Craggy said as though he never heard the conversation,“Remember, we’re on the second train down and third one from the front.”
"Celestia damn it," Apricot said.