That Others May Live

War. War never changes.

Funny. I used think that was just a line out of my favorite video game, Fallout: Equestria, but I guess it has some truth to it.

I remember where I was when it had all started. I was just a young colt then, a freshman at the local university. I was geeky, sure. I was socially awkward, sure. But there was one thing I had that nopony else did.

I was the master of videogaming.

Any game you can think of. Pac Mare? Made it through all the levels. Portal? Piece of cake. Colt of Duty? I ate noob-tubers for breakfast. Legend of Zelda? I was the bucking Tri-Force.

The thing was...nopony really cared about all of that. All they saw was me—the local videogame freak.

I admit, there was some definite truth in what they said. I did absolutely love video games. However, I was far from a video game freak. Believe me...I knew video game freaks. You did not want to meet them. Still, to them, that was what I was: a freak.

Which is why I chuckle, even today in my old age, when I see the ones that I had served with in battle. You know why? It’s because those same ponies were the ones who had teased and bullied me all those years. Now, they respect me more than ever. They had changed. But, then again...everything changed when they attacked.

My name is Airman First Class Button Mash, Equestrian Air Force, retired. This is the story of my service in the Second Avol World War.

2092, Ponyville Universty, Ponyville, Equestria

The Equestria Empire, the nation I live in, is one of several countries that make up the planet of Avol. The others are the Griffon Kingdom, the Zebra Nation, the Dragon Badlands, and the Changeling Hives. Why do I bring this up, exactly?

Well, apparently, I was going to use this in my future job as a video game designer. At least, that’s what my professor said. I was in History class, which to me seemed like a pointless class. Most of the time, by buddy Pipsqueak and I spend the time battling each other in Pokemon on our JoyBoys. In fact, I had just beaten Pipsqueak's Pikachu when our professor spoke up again.

“And so, these are the five kingdoms that make up the world.” Professor Strong Hooves said, his hard voice echoing in the lecture hall. “Of course, the one we live in is Equestria. Now, you need to know these things. Anypony who even wants to go into business will need to know at least a little bit about the culture of our neighbors, lest they want to start another world war.” He scowled. “If there is one, I definitely am staying away from it.”

We all rolled our eyes. Old Strong Hooves was a bitter old war veteran. He brought up the subject of the last war almost daily.

I cleared my throat. “Sir, with all due respect, how will this help me in the real world?”

Strong Hooves scowled. “The real world? You think there’s such a thing in your naive existence?”

“Well, as far as I’m concerned, yes.” I said, shrugging. “What else is there for me?”

Pipsqueak snickered. “I don’t know, welfare? Maybe a mare or two a week…” He yelped when I punched him in his side. “Yeesh, no need to get feisty, mate.”

“All jokes aside,” Strong Hooves said, glaring at me and Pip. “You all need to know these things because there’s a storm brewing.”

I rolled my eyes. “Sir, I think we’ve heard enough about the last war and the lasting effects.”

“You mean you haven’t heard?”

I looked around at my class, trying to see if anypony else knew what the geezer was talking about. All I saw were blank stares.

Professor Strong Hooves shook his head. “Sweet Celestia, no wonder why you ponies are so stupid.” He reached over and flipped a switch, turning the lights off. The old pegasus then walked over to his computer, pressed a few buttons, and soon, a video was playing through the powerpoint projector.

It was a griffon army, marching down the streets of their capital, Las Aguilas. They were in dark camouflage, with rifles shouldered in parade formation. The look that each of the soldiers gave were blank, hard stares. They showed no emotion as they marched down the street, with the residents cheering and throwing confetti as their military passed them.

Despite my easy going nature and slapstick humor...I couldn’t help but shudder at the sight of them.

“So what’s the big deal?” Yawning in spite of myself. “It’s just some old war footage.”

Nervous coughs were met at my comment. I once again looked around. Nopony was agreeing with me. In fact, they all looked dead terrified. Even Pipsqueak was scared. Frowning, I turned back at the screen and started looking closer at these griffons. Images from my textbook of the First Avol World War griffon soldier popped into my head. I compared them to what I saw on the screen, expecting a mirror image. However, as I stared longer, I soon began to realize differences. Instead of dark blue of the past, these griffons in the video had on a dark digital grey pattern. The patch on the shoulder of their uniform matched nothing from the past either: it was a golden shield with two wings coming out from the side, and a lightning bolt and a sword at the center. Their headwear was different as well; instead of a simple beret like before, they had on modern kevlar helmets. That’s when it hit me.

Strong Hooves spoke up before I could. “Don’t you see it now, kid? This isn’t old footage. This is recent. Just a few weeks ago...if you go by the video upload date.” He scowled again. “Of course, if you’d been paying attention to the news, you’d know that these damn bird brains were breaking the treaty months before that and were amassing an army.”

That shiver from before grew into a deep chill. I looked at him, trying not to sound scared. “Well, isn’t somepony doing something about this? Like, aren’t our ambassadors doing anything?”

Again, the old professor scowled. “Diplomacy. You know what that term really means, Button?”

I only stared at him.

“It means the calm before the storm.” Strong Hooves said, before receding into deep thought. He waved his hoof. “Class dismissed. Get out of here.” With that, he walked into his office at the rear of the classroom. “Enjoy your spring break.”

On that somber note, he closed the door, and we left.

As Pipsqueak and I walked silently down the halls of Ponyville University, all I could here was chatter of a possible war coming up. No matter where I went, it seemed to be the subject of the conversation. I guess it always was; I just never payed attention to it. Now that I had the knowledge, it was like somepony had taken off some earplugs or something, because war talk flooded my ears.

“My older brother signed up with the Air Force already. It’s crazy.”

“No way, man. There’s no war coming up. He shouldn’t have done that.”

“I don’t know. My pops says it’s gonna happen.”

“Your pops also told you that he banged the princesses when he was in the service. Was that true?”

The two of us turned around the corner, not wanting to know the answer.

“Oh my gosh, did you hear?”

“What?”

“Dinky moved to the country side with her family. She said her mother and father didn’t want her to be involved in any kind of draft.”

“Draft? Doesn’t that only apply to guys?”

“Not anymore. Haven’t you been to history classes? After the first world war, it became mandatory for both guys and girls. The only difference is that girls can pay their way out.”

“Weird. Their family’s pretty rich. Why’d they move?”

“I have no idea. Her dad Time Turner is a weird guy. She said he kept rambling on about how he didn’t want her to die like his people did...whatever that means.”

“Maybe he’s a changeling?”

Again, I turned a corner, hoping to escape any talk of the possibility of war. Alas, I had no such luck, as I ran into my best friends—Inkwell, Cobalt, and Starshine..

“Heya, Button.” Starshine said, smiling at me. “What’s going on?”

I shrugged. “Nothing much. Old Strong Hooves let us out early after some old war talk of his.”

“Yup, same old same old…” Pipsqueak mumbled, obviously thinking of the news footage.

Cobalt laughed. “That old geezer. It’s like that’s all he ever talks about.”

“Kind of fitting, really.” Inkwell said, looking worried. “Especially with how things are going to the South. The zebras are apparently also preparing for war. Except this time, they’re not on our side. My sister just said a lot of her friends got deported from Zebraca.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, come on, Inkwell. Not you too!”

“Button it’s serious!” He shouted, his worry showing on his face. “What if war does break out? You’ll have to go to war! You could get killed!”

The thought hadn’t occurred to me until that point. Getting killed...it just seemed like another thing in a video game to me. Except, if war does break out here and I do get killed...there won’t be an option saying “press ‘x’ to respawn.” It’ll be game over. For life.

Still, I didn’t believe it would happen. “Oh, come on, man. After the whooping that we gave the griffons in the last war, they’d be insane to attack us.”

Starshine suddenly looked worried as well. “Still, it does kinda worries me, Button. I  mean, I do have family that live pretty close to the southern border…”

“And what, the zebras are just going to storm across and kill everypony?” Cobalt retorted. “I doubt it.”

Thank Celestia, I thought. At least somepony here is sane.

“Look, the princesses and the Elements of Harmony have made it clear to the Griffon King that if he chooses to invade Equestria, his army will be met with unrelenting force.” I stated. “I’m sure it’ll be the same with the zebras. Like I said...they’d be insane to attack us.”

Starshine hesitated, then spoke. “Still, I want to make sure we do something if it does happen.”

“What, like volunteer?”

“You know what she means, Button.” Inkwell replied, worry still plastered on his face. “We all know that if they invade, it’ll be the start of another world war. There’ll be a draft.”

Another chill ran down my spine. No way. There’s no way that would happen.

“I don’t think—” I started.

Starshine interrupted me. “It doesn’t matter what you think, Button! What matters is if there is one, we all do it together.”

“What?!” Pipsqueak shouted.

Cobalt gaped at her. “What are you, crazy? It’s only mandatory for those who can’t pay the price to get out! We all know that we can.”

“Wrong. Not all of us can.” Inkwell said. He pointed at me and Pip. “Their families don't have enough money to pay them out. They’ll have to go.”

The realization hit me at that point. If we went to war...I’d go to war. The thought of me, holding a real rifle, not a digital one, storming into battle, eyes wide as bullets flew past me...it was terrifying. I looked over at Pip, and I knew he was thinking of the same thing. Despite our tough talk online when the enemies were virtual, we were deathly afraid of fighting real enemies.

Shit, man. I didn’t want to go to war. I just wanted to play some video games, hang out with some friends, maybe even go on a date with a mare someday. Now, all of that might be put on an indefinite hold because of a war.

Still, I shook my head. There’s no way it could happen. “Come on guys...let’s stop the gloomy talk, okay? Let’s head over to the Starbucks for a round on me.”

Inkwell started to speak up, but Pip gave her a glare. He could tell that this was making me uncomfortable.

I was grateful for his support. In the future, I’d come to depend on it.

Celestia sat on her throne, reviewing over the latest reports of from the East. Queen Chrysalis’ scouts were reporting griffon activity at the edge of the Changeling borders, and were requesting Equestrian aid to help secure the border. In the back of her mind, Princess Celestia cursed. Damn the Griffon King. Had he forgotten the terms of the armistice?

“Something on your mind, sister?”

The monarch jumped as her sister seemingly materialized next to her. She sighed. “Aye, Luna. Some rather...disturbing reports have arrived.”

“Reports from Cryssy, I see.” Princess Luna said, glancing at the envelope. “Is something going on in the Changeling Hives?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” Celestia sighed again, rubbing a hoof on her temple. “As you know, according to intelligence gathered by our E.I.A. agents, the Griffons appear to be amassing another army.”

Luna’s face darkened. “Yes, I know. That bastard King Grey Hawk is a warmonger. How he ascended to the throne after the armistice, I will never know.”

“I’ll tell you how. The sanctions placed on the Griffon Kingdom decimated their economy, leaving the griffons desperate and thirsting for revenge." Celestia grumbled. “The Changelings wouldn’t haven’t any other way. The rest of us were tired of fighting, so we let it go.” The Princess stared at the reports. “Now I fear we are paying the price for our ignorance.”

“Then let us amass our forces once more.”

Celestia sighed. “It’s not that simple, my sister. The other nations do not know this, but our military’s strength is at an all time low. Many of the stallions who went to war the last time never came back, and those who did are not fit to fight another war.”

“What do we have in reserve, then?” Luna asked, beginning to sound desperate.

“Currently, we have a total combined military force of just 50,000.” Celestia muttered. “Majority of those troops are trained enough, but training alone doesn’t win battles. According to our spies, the Griffons have allied themselves with the Zebra Nation, giving them an army almost four times the size of ours.”

Luna paused, then spoke with a chill in her voice. “Wait, the zebras? Were they not on our side in the last war?”

“Aye, but after the war was over they felt that they didn’t get the compensation nor recognition for their service.” The elder sister looked out the window. “Again, a product of our ignorance. Now, we face a war on two fronts, should the Changeling’s lines break.”

Luna stared at her sister, wondering if there was desperation or simply exasperation in her thoughts. Knowing that she had to come up with something, Luna spoke. “Perhaps…”

“Yes?” Celestia turned, grasping for any idea. “Do you have a suggestion, Luna?”

“We could always ask King Malagos.”

Celestia’s face hardened. “No. We cannot go to him.”

“But Tia, he helped us last time!”

“Aye, that he did, but he will not again!” Celestia shouted, silencing her sister. “Do you not realize the sheer power that the dragons hold themselves? Now imagine an entire nation of them fighting on one side of the war.

“The result would be complete annihilation of the opposition. Genocide. Extinction. King Malagos knows this, and as their King, he only chose to fight last time to bring stability to a world in chaos.” The monarch laid her hooves on her head once more. “Now, such a decision could cause a second civil war in his kingdom. He will not risk such horrible bloodshed again.”

“Then we are truly alone.”

“Yes,” Celestia said, obviously stressed.

“And our one ally asks for support that we cannot give.”

“Yes.” Celestia said, frowning now. “Luna, what are you--”

“And it is possible that we are on the brink of a second world war.”

“Yes Luna, that is true!” Celestia shouted, irritated by her sister’s vagueness. “What are you suggesting?”

Luna sighed, and looked at her elder sister, graveness in her voice. “The obvious decision.”

I yawned as Pip chugged down his fifth espresso, obviously trying to hide his worries behind walls of caffeine. Inkwell stared at him incredulously, using the spectacle as a distraction while Cobalt laughed to avoid awkwardness. Starshine sipped nervously from her cappucino, trying not to bring up more war talk.

Once more, I yawned. This was how I dealt with problems: I just act like I don’t care.

But behind my facade, I couldn’t help but worry. The thought of war was scary to me. Maybe it was the thought of boot camp, or having to fight, but I just downright terrified. I guess that was why I just denied the obvious truth, the terrible truth that sneered right in front of me in that video.

War was coming. It was just a matter of time.

But for now, I just yawned, and acted like I hadn’t a care in the world. All that mattered to me was that I had all of my friends here, in front of me, and we were enjoying a nice coffee break.

“Only the dead have seen the end of the war.”

-George Santayana