The Soldiers of the Great Equestrian War

“In war there are no victors, nor defeated. There is only the dead, and the guilty. I am both.” ~Last words of Cpl. Rod, Twilight Crusade Marine Corp.

Three years, a reporter for three years, yet I have only seen one story come my way, not because I am bad at investigating, but the story took three years mind you. My name is Inkblot, and I can tell you the stories of the war, because I interviewed some of the survivors from all sides, I may also be able to tell you what I saw. I think I still have some contacts as well, unless they are all insane, this was Equestria’s second Civil War, and the first World War, it is... interesting to think about, how both events happened at the same time. Most assume Discord had something to do with it, I however call bull, he was killed in the first few days, if Discord caused it he would have stopped it before then. What did him in? Well, it was an IED placed in his sandwich that killed him, splattered him all over the castle’s kitchen, it was a mess. The only way we could tell it was Discord was because the blood kept changing colors. This is probably the only story you will hear that is first hand, I was reporting on the Political situation which, by the way, was a dead end, when it happened. It was the start of the Civil War, a Purple banner rose up above the castle, and Twilight was sitting on Celestia’s throne. Celestia retaliated, and both were severely harmed and sent to a hospital, Luna seized power and tried to keep it, but Cadence, who came late due to her long distance, attacked HER so they both ended up in the hospital, ponies sensing a Civil War started choosing sides. Pegasi, Unicorns, and Earth ponies all choose sides, none remained neutral and all four sides had an Air Force, Army, Navy, Magic Division and Marine Corp. It was a mess especially outside of Equestria the Buffalo attacked Griffons, Griffons attacked Zebras, and Zebras attacked Buffalo, and of course they all attacked Equestria as well. There was no way out. We all just had to sit there and fight. Even the Elements of Harmony fought against each other, and the only one left alive is a sadistic killer now, she is locked up in a ward somewhere, and she won’t be laughing anytime soon. So, now that I have given you a brief overview, do you still wish to know more? Well okay, this first story is from the Air Force of the New Lunar Republic, one of their aerial snipers, 1st Lt. Quick Sliver, this is the story of the beginning of the Civil War, and of choices that must be made.

TWILIGHT AND CELESTIA IN HOSPITAL AFTER DUEL FOR POWER, LUNA NOW TAKEN THE THRONE!!!!! The headline still runs in my head from that newspaper, that day my family got the letters, each a recruitment letter from the three factions of Canterlot, the Solar Empire, the New Lunar Republic, and the Twilight Crusade, we knew it was coming, there were banners being raised, reminiscent of the Stallion era of Moscow. Painted onto walls, secret meetings. Everywhere each side gained momentum, gangs started in the name of their “True Princess.” Families were split apart, some even killed each other for being Night instead of Day, or other such trivial difference. My family didn't care, so long as we all lived, yet we had to choose two things that day; the first was who was going to go? My father, 50 years of age, or me, only 18. The second was, who do we support, we knew it wasn't going to be possible, Trottingham would fall to one of the factions at one point, open battle in Canterlot on the streets not to mention the two duels tipped the entire country off that civil war was brewing, my family banked on the New Lunar Republic being able to seize and control this particular area, as our building were being painted blue and black, with splashes of the purest white, even against our will, as I looked out the window as Mother was telling father that he cannot go, basically damning me to the war, I see our neighbors, and my best friend Light Rail, leave, their Solar Empire flag waving behind them, I shut the blinds and cover my ears as I see four ponies in purple masks jump from the darkness. My parents look at me, at the window, and sat beside me. I uncovered my ears, and my father gazed out the window, and sat next to me. We spent the evening sitting together in thought by the fire. We fell asleep in each other’s arms, and something changed in me, as I awoke, in the middle of the night, the full moon was out, and my parents were asleep. I softly grabbed my saddle bag, and looked outside, Light Rail was still dead in the street, the flag of his parents choice resting in tatters on him. I softly opened the door, and left, hearing the click behind it, my hoofs rest on the cobble. I gaze at the moon once more, and travel to the New Lunar Republic recruitment center. I enlisted in the NLRAF. The Nocturni of the NLR High Command gave me the look over, and gave me an assault rifle, 10 targets popped up and I flew while pulling the trigger, each bullet hitting between the eyes of each target, of course I was significantly slower than the others, so they gave me a sniper and set me out a mile, 2 targets popped and I pulled the trigger twice. The Nocturni nodded in approval, then told me to fly and do the same thing. One target, one mile, one hundred miles per hour, one shot, one kill. He stared at me, assigned me a Sniper, and told me I was deep aerial infiltration. They gave me an assignment they had only 3 people for, so I become close buds with my superiors, who oddly enough were only an Airman and Tech Sergeant. We were new, naive, and the best infiltration force of the war, for the most part it was Tech Sergeant Cream trying to be a leader, and Airman Shot trying to calm him down about not being good enough. I will never forget them, they have saved my life many times over.

That is one of the happier stories of this war. 1st Lt. Silver had the highest hit ratio, the most confirmed kills, and a particular fondness of killing Twilight Crusade soldiers. His tales are horrifying, of dark infiltrations to head quarters of entire units, slaughtering an entire battalion by darkness. Their unit was code named, Shadow Beast, every single army, weather they be Buffalo, Griffon, or Pony, when they intercepted the transmissions of assistance and heard any phrase meaning that Shadow Beast would be sent out, all non-Lunar forces’ moral took a crippling dive. They were so good their name was a weapon, a political scientist calculated that their indirect killing totaled over four million of the 60 million killed during the war. Of those four million, two were Twilight Crusade, and only 100 thousand were Solar Empire. I still have many stories to tell about each side, every facet of war from logistics to traditional, to tales of survival, of attack and defense, of deep ops, and of terror. Nothing was spared in the First Great War of Equestria.