A Thousand Yards to Glory
Sky stepped out onto the muddy ground and stretched his wings out. The moon lurked ominously in the sky glowing brightly amongst the multitude of stars. He stared at it for a while admiring its beauty.
He took a deep breath and walked forward folding his wings back to his side. The trenches were only a short distance away from the main camp. He made the journey quickly however, you never knew when a Solar mage might take pot shots at the camp.
He reached the incline into the trenches and slowed to a walk when his head had passed below the walls. He pushed his helmet up above his eyes, it had fallen during his run.
He was not accustomed to wearing the cumbersome attire. He had only joined with the Lunar Republic a few months ago. Then everything had gone to shit.
They had been winning, and for a while it almost seemed as though victory was within reach.
Then came Canterlot. On the final assault Celestia called upon the elements of harmony to banish Luna to the moon once again. He cast his eyes up towards her prison once again. The craters that formed the mare in the moon were once again clearly marked upon its surface.
After the push, without their leader, things began to fall apart. General Crecent Fall had assumed command. They fought but without their leader, soon they started to be pushed back.
He was only half way through training when they called every recruit to the Lunar Republics base of operations. He had been here for a few weeks, watching as scattering of troops slowly arrived.
The Solar Empire was ruthless in their attacks. Seizing the loss of the Lunar Republics princess they stormed every City, Town and base of operations they held. Within a period of two months they had fallen back to their main base of operations.
The base was located at the foothold of the Griffin Mountain range, it was located in the many caves that occupied the lower reaches of the mountains. At the base of the mountains they had set up trenches. A thousand yards across from the muddy trenches, The Solar Empire lay in wait.
The first contingancy had arrived a few days ago. It had been a small smattering of troops. Nothing to set the guards on edge, but then over the past few days, more and more had started to arrive.
According to their scouts the Solar Empire had ammased nearly 10,000 troops at the foot of their stronghold in the mountains. It completely dwarfed the one thousand that stood still defending the Lunar Republic.
He stopped his walk through the trenches and lifted himself onto his hind legs. Peeking over the top of the trench he could see the fires burning in the Solar Empire’s camp.
Dropping to his hooves again he continued his walk down the trench. He didn’t know how or why he had been put on final night watch shift. The soldierss that had already been there a while, and that shared his bunk space, told him it was because, ‘the real soldierss needed to be rested.’
He huffed, even though he hadn’t finished the training he was as much a soldiers as any of them. He continued on his path down the trenches, he was supposed to stop at the bunker in the middle. There he would meet the two other unfortunate souls that had been given watch duty.
He looked along the side of the trench, there were assorted suplies along the walls, arrows in barrels, an extra sword here and there. All ready to be used at a moments notice if and when the Solar Empire attacked.
Finally he saw it, it was a large stone structure that was nestled in the trench, its roof poking up a few feet above the trench. He had only been down in the bunker once, from inside one could look out and see across the entire battle field.
Stepping through the entrance way his hoof made a loud noise on the stone floor. He looked around the room, there were two other ponies inside the bunker.
One was an older dark grey pegasus pony sitting up the stairs at the veiwing station in the bunker. The old pony had to at least be twice as old as Sky himself. Sky looked him over, He was wearing the uniform that Luna’s royal guard had worn. He had the yellow dragon like eyes, and his wings were the same leathery bat kind. Sky wondered why a pony of such distinguished honor would be down in the bunker on watch. His face was worn, and he had a long scar that stretched over his right eye and across his face. For being an old pony he looked to be in exceptionally good shape.
Sky turned to look at the other pony who was sitting on a box in the corner. He was a dark blue unicorn, adorned in the midnight blue steel that made up the foot soldierss armor. In one hoof he had a long knife, the other a whet stone. He was rythmically sharpening the blade. His helmet was off and his long black mane fell infront of his face. The pony looked up at Sky.
Sky stood up straight and saluted, “Private Sky reporting for watch!”
The older pegasus paid no attention to Sky and continued to stare out the slit in the wall. The Unicorn however slid off the box and trotted over to Sky.
“No need for that brother, Names Skorn. I would introduce you to our third member but he hasn’t said a word since I got here.”
“So… this is my first time on watch, what’s the routine.”
Skorn turned and trotted back to the box he had been sitting on and hopped back onto it. He pulled the knife out and went back to sharpening it.
“This is it, we sit… and we wait.”
“Oh…” Sky looked around the room, trying to find a spot to stand or sit that wasn’t in the middle of the room. He finally decided to go and sit on the box next to Skorn.
“The silence past for a long while, Skorn eventually put away the knife and took of his helmet. Skorn eventually got bored of inspecting his helmet and put it down. Turning towards Sky he started to speak.
“So how long have you been a part of the Lunar Republic?”
“Well I was still in training when we got called here.”
“Oh… so you’ve never actually seen combat?”
“No, I mean there was an attack on our encampment the day before i left but they ordered a full retreat.”
Skorn nodded, “The Solar empire is really pushing hard…” He smiled though. “But they will never breach this base!”
Sky let the silence sit in between them for a moment before turning to look at the lunar stallion.
“So whats wrong with him,” He asked.
Skorn followed his gaze and looked at the older pony for a little while.
“You know, they tell stories around the camp about ponies who see to much, they start to go crazy. They get this glazed over look that they took to calling the thousand yard stare. A pony can just sit… staring into the darkness.”
They both sat in silence staring at the back of the lunar stallions head. Sky wondered what the pony was thinking, If he had been a part of Luna’s guard had he been at Canterlot? What horrors had he seen, the guard was always at the front of the pack on the field of battle.
Skorn picked his helmet back up in his hooves and placed it on his head. He proceded to pull his sword out with magic and begin sharpening that. Sky pulled out his own blade. He had been given one when he arrived at the mountain base.
He had never really gotten to take a good look at it. The blade was chipped on the edges in places. There was a scratch on the side of the blade near the hilt. The leather of the handle was worn and there were grooves where a pony had bit to hold it.
He wondered if this blade had belonged to someone who was no longer living. He thought about if this blade had taken life… it had obviously seen battle judging by the state it was in. The thoughts turned to the Solar Empire camped only a thousand yards across the muddy field.
“You.. you think we can win?”
“Ha! What kind of a question is that, of course we will. We fight for the freedom of ponies everywhere! We fight for justice! For glory!”
The lunar stallion up at the slit let out a sharp laugh.
Skorn looked up at him, his stoic look had turned into a glare, “And whats so funny old man?”
The lunar stallions words were deep and slow, “Glory…. Glory isn’t out here.”
Skorn slid of the box and took a step towards the lunar stallion, “Of course it does! What are you talking about! When they attack and we fight, we will earn glory, our names will go down in the history books. They will write songs about us!”
The lunar stallion turned to look at Skorn his gaze was peircing and hard, “Son you have no idea what your talking about, there is no glory on the battlefield…”
Skorn skoffed at this, “Oh yeah? What do you know anyway, you’re just some senile old pony.”
The lunar stallion stood, he turned and walked down the stairs and stood before the them.
“What do I know? I know I have seen ponies much like you fall and die on the bloodsoaked earth of fields much like this. I have heard grown stallions call out for mothers who will never hear them, cry names of loved ones that they will never see again. I have a thousand names burned into my memory, and no faces to go with them. All because a stallion by my side has screamed it out only seconds before he dies.”
The lunar pony paused, both Sky and Skorn sat silently.
“So what do I know? I know this isn’t a game… I know that every second out there someone is aiming to put a sword or arrow through my heart. Glory isn’t out there, do you think glory was there for the thousands who have died? Do you think their name is written in a book somewhere?”
Skorn opened and closed his mouth a few times, no words came out.
“Son… chaos is all you will find on the field. You can only stand and pray that you hit the person aiming for you before they hit you. No…. glory is a myth, something that foals like you cling onto… to give you purpose, to make you feel like what your doing is right. So we fight we fight for this glory... all so that someone can have a chance to place their ass upon a metal throne somewhere.”
Silence fell over the trio, Skorn was staring at the lunar pony his mouth hanging open slightly. Sky looked at the lunar stallion he opened his mouth to speak.
“Sir… um.” He began.
“Orion, you can call me orion.” The lunar pony responded roughly before turning and walking back up the stairs to the slit.
“Orion… if glory isn’t out there… where is it?”
The old pony looked away from the slit and stared down at Sky. His yellow eyes stared hard at him.
“Glory… glory is given not earned, and even then glory is all in a matter of perspective. Heros of this war, the ones that we sing praises to, we cheer for and remember with honor. To them-“ Orion turned his gaze back out the slit. “To them those ponies are devils, monsters that curse the very ground they walk upon… true glory true glory is something that everypony can appreciate, no matter what side your on. Someone who deserves respect, who holds a torch that shines light for both sides….”
The old pony fell silent, a ray of light suddenly poked through the slit in the wall. Outside the bunker Sky could hear hoofsteps walking through the mud of the trenches. The other soldierss must be up now.
Then he heard it… it was a long loud blast from a horn, he had heard it before. He had heard it the night when they had called a full retreat in his training camp.
Orion sat up and turned to face them, Skorn and jumped off the box, shaking his head he glared up at the old pony.
“You’re wrong, I will win my glory today, and tomorrow when we have won, I will win even more!” With that he charged out the side of the bunker into the trenches.
Orion slowly walked down the stairs, stopping before Sky he turned and looked into his eyes. “Look son… I hope whatever it is you’re searching for out there on the field… I hope you find it.”
He walked to the door of the bunker before stopping to look back at Sky one more time.
“Because it never found me.”