My name is Quills. I am the sole survivor of what many now know as the endgame gambit. I was asked by the three princesses to provide an eyewitness account to the events that lead up to the event that changed Equestria forever. I hope that after reading this story, ponies will be warned to never make these same mistakes again.
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Before I start my story, I should probably include a narrative the start of the war and a basic account of the main players. in this chapter of the Equestria legacy .This is necessary, because, up until just a short time ago, any information related to the war was strictly classified. First, I will tell you how it all began.
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The time was 1376. Equestria was prosperous and peaceful, as was normal for the small country. Many ponies detested the very idea of having guards. They reasoned, “Why do we need them? They are unnecessary, and their training and equipment takes up taxpayers bits.” Nevertheless, Celestia and Luna refused to do so much as lower the guard presence. This was a fortunate decision on their part, and it may very well have saved Equestria.
Two months after the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, a patrolling squad went missing. They were never heard from again. This was the first act of the horrible chain of events that occurred over the next year. It was also a red flag that was, unfortunately, ignored. After all, the conditions down where they went missing are very dangerous. Why make assumptions that might cause mass hysteria?
We, the ones gifted with hindsight, see the foolishness of that decision. Unfortunately, they didn’t have hindsight. They didn’t know the consequences of our actions. When, one month later, we had lost a number of squads and had sightings of the creatures, the princesses decided to act. Nebulae, the most secretive, led the war efforts. We began to boost our patrols, and we gave them orders to attack on sight. They were slaughtered.
We did not have enough good materials to fight whatever those things were. We were a nation that was against technology, but then, the one thing that we hated, was the only thing that could save us. The princesses began to funnel bits into programs to develop tech. Fortunately, we had several such programs already, and they were able to produce several weapons in record time.
These included projectile weapons that were attached to the hoof and were activated using electromagical pulses. These pulses were harnessed from the brain, and they created a very minor magic that could be used to levitate objects and pull the hoof-guns trigger. Nebulae began to vie for attachments for the hoof gun. Soon, the scientists presented the stasis field and the pulse rope.
The stasis beam was used to immobilize enemies, by tying them up using pure magical energy. The stasis field put the target into a coma, shutting down their body. It was especially useful on infected patients. The patients would be frozen at a certain point in the stages of infection, to be treated later.
Unfortunately, the weapons weren’t in high supply, and thus, only a handful of squads were granted these weapons. One of the squads that did receive these was the squad of the late Sergeant Maelstrom, known for his last great heroic act. Maelstrom was an alicorn. One of the last seven alicorns, although only two were known to the general public.
Maelstrom grew up in Canterlot. Much of his early childhood, meaning the first one hundred years of his life, are shrouded in mystery, due to his recent death and the Princess’ denial of the existence of more than two alicorns. Whatever the case, he dropped into the history books under a different name, Midnight. As Midnight, he was the general who defeated the dark cult of Nightmare when they rose up in 1023.
That is not the focus of my narrative, however. About five years ago, he became the commander of the black operations division of the Equestrian Guard. He and his troops were quickly flung into combat at the start of the war. They lost forty-two percent of all active personnel before they were given the hoof guns. After that, they began to give as good as they got. It wasn’t enough.
Although the mainstream of the Equestrian population remained blissfully ignorant of these horrible events, the creatures, who became known as ponyspawn, had already overrun the southern border of Equestria. Several towns, including Stalliongrad, Los Haygas, and several others were lost.
Nebulae, without consulting Celestia or Luna, commenced the construction of a weapon to end all wars. The code name of the construction, placement, and use of this weapon was Endgame Gambit. This weapon was the final hope of Equestria, and it did it’s job. It did its job far too well.
(Sorry y'all, but I suck at writing long chapters. However, hopefully, I can write short chapters at a fair pace.)
My squad and I were the ones chosen to drop the package. We were the best, they were right to choose us, but sometimes I stare up at the stars and wish that they had chosen Zeta squad, even Bravo. However, there’s no use in wishing for such things.
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On July 13th 1377, Epsilon squad, consisting of me, Maelstrom, Stonewall, and Archer, lifted off in a stealth plated Pegasus gunboat. We flew for several hundred miles before we entered a deep grey fog, floating over what was once Stalliongrad. Now it was the center of command for the strange invaders.
Our gunboat flitted in the mist, the pilots relying on their sensors to find their way out. Fortunately, the mist protected us from being spotted, saving us from receiving an anti-air up our flanks. It also gave us a critical element of surprise. One of the pilots quipped, “Better fasten your foal harnesses, our ride might be getting a bit bumpy once we leave this mist.” We all strapped ourselves in without a word.
Our copter burst out of the mist, flying like an eagle. Almost immediately we were spotted, and the enemy batteries began sending explosive shells in our direction. The pilots expertly guided the attack copter. They spun and dropped. They took flight into an art form. I decided then and there to never look down at our buddies in the EAF.
Maelstrom motioned us to get into our drop harnesses and begin preparing for our insertion. As soon as he finished speaking, the gunboat dropped like a rock, I began praying to Celestia to forgive me, we dropped 10 feet, then 20, then 30! We were gliding 10 feet above the ground before we finally leveled out and stopped dropping. Maelstrom slid open the side doors with a mighty surge of magic, and we jumped. Pegasi were not allowed to use their wings due to several accidents involving bodies and turbines.
As we jumped, I thought to myself, How the hell did I get caught up in this idiocy, we have no chance of getting out alive!, but I said nothing. A second before my hooves hit the ground, I unhitched my harness, and dropped, rolling, to the hard earth. I stood up quickly and swung my gun around, checking for hostiles. Then, I set my signal to green on my HUD.
To my left and right, two pegasi, wearing black jumpsuits, grey body armor, black goggles, and a hoof-pistol, stood up, each wearing unique emblems on their uniforms. I looked behind me, another pony stood up, an alicorn. The whole squad had made survived. Maelstrom, the alicorn dashed ahead of me and motioned for his squad to make a break for our entrance, a sewage vent, large enough for one pony walking on their knees.
Maelstrom entered first, then came me, followed by angel and stonewall respectively. The muck in the pipe made it impossible to smell anything, let alone anything good. We slogged on forward. About ten minutes passed before Maelstrom, stopped suddenly. I bumped into him, but we made no sound. He switched his pistol to cut, and a small blue magical blade slid out. He made a circular cut in the grate and used his magic to catch it before it fell.
We slipped out of the pipe, grateful to be away from the sewage. Stonewall made a gasp of relief, immediately regretting it as sewer water dripped into his mouth. He gagged, and angel snickered at his misfortune. Maelstrom hushed them both, and we stealthily trotted down a small maintenance hallway with light grey, concrete walls. By Angel’s calculations, we were in the labyrinth, the nickname granted to the maze of maintenance hallways and tunnels beneath Stalliongrad Air Base.
Fortunately for us, nopony was in the tunnels at that time, and we exited into a large hangar bay unchallenged. Maelstrom checked our HUD map, before setting off down one of the six hallways leading off of the hangar. We followed him. We were much more vigilant there than we were in the labyrinth, due to the fact that several motion sensor blips popped up on our radar. We stopped, around the corner was one of these blips. Stonewall peeked around the corner. He slowly raised his hoof, pistol with it, and took aim.
A slight cough sounded, and the creature around the corner grunted and crumpled to the ground with a bloody hole in his skull. We crept forward and stepped warily around the corpse. We continued this action several more times before a siren started and shouting was heard. They’d found the bodies. We abandoned all stealth and began sprinted down hallways to our destination, gunning down hostiles as we went.
We spun around a corner, and bumped into an outstretched gun. The creature had remained stock-still, fooling our detectors. He fired three times, and Stonewall’s head exploded in a cloud of red mist and gore. Angel screamed and tackled the savage, driving her blade into his temples again and again.
Maelstrom put his hoof on her shoulder, and she stopped. Angel looked up, tears streaming down her face, into Maelstrom’s kind eyes. We moved on. Finally, we reached our destination, a high-roofed, dark grey room with metal walls. This was where we were to place the package. Maelstrom lowered the long cylindrical capsule to the ground with his magic.
Once it was secured, Maelstrom contacted our pilots. They answered, whirring and explosions in the background. They would be here in six minutes, give or take. Maelstrom commanded us to take positions around the device, nopony was to get to it. The three of us made a perimeter around the device, listening to the running hoofsteps growing ever closer.
Three of the creatures burst into the room, waving their claw-like appendages at us. The began firing shots at us, but they missed, due to our trained agility. We began firing, picking them off one by one, mindful of our ever-dwindling supply of ammunition. My pistol clicked empty first, and angel tossed me an extra clip off ammo. As she did so, a creature dashed forward and drove a sharp claw through the back of her skull. She gasped, and her eyes, once so full of life, glazed over. I sent a barrage of bullets ripping through the creature. Its body ripped in half by the force of the pistol.
Shortly after, I heard a whirring sound, and half of the roof exploded inwards, revealing our gunboat. It lowered to the ground, and the pilot motioned for us to get in. I sprinted for the doors. I turned as I realized that Maelstrom hadn’t followed. I shouted at him to hurry up, but he shook his head. I asked him why he won’t come, and he told me that the device could only be activated automatically.
I told him that I would stay and activate him, but he said that he had been alive for hundreds of years, he had no need to live any longer, whereas I had a long life ahead of me. I told him that I was staying, and he looked down. When he looked up, he asked, “How much ammo do you have?” I looked down to check my clip,and he swung around and slammed his back hooves into me, catapulting me into the gunship. He slammed the cargo doors and ordered the pilot to take off.
As I flew away from my friend and mentor, he waved sadly as he stepped back to the device. We zoomed forward, and a bright fireball burst out, chasing our copter and just barely missing us. I looked back, and nothing was there, the explosion had completely destroyed the city and the area, for many miles, around it.
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I stepped out of the copter, a crowd of hopeful ponies stared at me. I stepped morosely out of the troop bay and trotted, my head down, past several lines of ponies. I felt a powerful presence sweep over me, and a hoof landed on my shoulder. I looked up, Princess Nebula stood there, smiling sorrowfully at me. She whispered in my ear, “I’m sorry, there was no other way. Maelstrom knew the price of victory.” I smiled slightly, and continued on.
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An hour later, I trotted through the streets of Canterlot, dreading the following conversation. I had told Nebula that I was the one who needed to do this. I stood at the door of a rather large, ornate house, built in a Greek style. Whatever that was. I stood there for a minute, bracing myself for what was to come. I knocked on the door three times.
A little filly, a dark purple color, with a blue mane, opened the door and looked out. “Oh, hi Mr. Quills, are you here to see mommy?” I nodded silently, and she trotted into a large living room, as she stepped in, she looked at me and asked, “Do you know when daddy is coming home?” I burst out crying and slumped to the floor, sobs leaving my mouth and tears streaming down my face. How could I tell this little filly that her daddy was never coming home again?
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Twilight closed the book, shock written on her face. How could Celestia condone such methods? Even if it crippled the enemy, it still had killed many off the ponies living in that area. That was impossible, the book had to be untrue, but deep inside her, she knew it was telling the truth. She read the last few paragraphs.
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Several weeks after the end of the war, Celestia locked herself in her rooms, nopony knew what she was doing...but me. I had found out that she planned to wipe the memories of this time from the minds of all ponies. She didn’t want us to remember the horrors of these times. Instead, she replaced our memories with other things, explaining all that had happened. I can understand her reasoning, but I don’t think that anything like this should be forgotten. Instead, it should be remembered, so nothing like that ever happens again.
To do this, I am writing this book, and I will hide it where Celestia will never look. Hopefully it will be found by someone who will spread it on, to make sure that what occurred here will never be attempted again. So this falls to you, if you are reading this, make sure that nopony makes the same mistake that the princesses made. Nothing is worth the deaths of millions of innocents, nothing.
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Twilight stood up, she would make sure of that. She would make sure that the story of all who died to end the war would never be forgotten. She hid the book, and she trotted outside, ready to make the long journey towards Canterlot. Celestia and Luna had a lot of explaining to do.
Now that you know the basic facts of the war and of the main players, I can get on with my story of it’s history. For the first half-year of the war, the public remained generally unaware of the war happening just around the symbolic corner. Many good ponies were lost defending civilians who didn’t even know what the Royal Militia was doing for them.
Because of the decreased budget as a result of war costs, the princesses were forced to discontinue many of the civilian well-fare programs in place at that time. As a result, the civvies became restless and some even began rioting after some time. The militia was forced to deal with civilian rioting and a widespread war at the same time. It became a hell of sorts.
Many soldiers were forced to pull double shifts. All of us were tired, and it showed on the battlefield. The next year showed a close doubling of personnel loss. The sad thing was that the many mares widowed didn’t even know how their husband died. They just knew that he was KIA, and any attempts to get more information were met with a stone wall.
Suspicion of the princesses and the royal guards became common, seemingly overnight. The guard soon became unable to even do their job, as civilians didn’t trust us enough to let us help them. Our first war, and we were losing miserably. Some of us began to speculate if this was the apocalypse, foretold by high alicorn αίνιγμα.
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Morale plummeted, and for a time, it did seem like this was the end of ponykind. Civilians were beginning to catch on, as a result of several sightings. Panic spread with the rumors, and civilians began barricading themselves into their homes. More towns were lost, all occupants slaughtered by the strange creatures. The princesses began a program to capture the monstrosities to study them and find their weaknesses.
Several of the creatures were captured and brought to the labs in Canterlot. The scientists studied them, but they found no game-changing facts. The only thing they gained was something that we already knew, that the creatures were approximately four to five hooves tall, walked on two legs, had a hunched profile, and had short claws at the ends of their hands. The creatures were also supposedly sentient and had a similar internal system to ponies. None of these facts could really help us in the field of battle.
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The following eight months saw a personnel drop from 21,345 to 13,567. We lost all hope of ever coming out of this war intact. The princesses began calling for desperate measures. None of us foresaw just how desperate those measures would be.
