Dawn Heart:
The name’s Dawn Heart. I was once a member of the Royal Guard in Canterlot, but have recently been transferred to the front lines. I am a Sergeant in the Solar Empire’s army, and leader of my four pony squad. Everypony’s combat armor looks the same, a gold colored metal helmet and chest-piece. The only way to tell rank is by the small patches of color on the front of the armor.
This war is being fought against an army of rebels lead by our leader Celestia’s sibling Luna. They seek to destroy the government we have created and all that goes along with it. Thus far, the war efforts have done nothing to help either side.
Our main base of operations is in Canterlot, but our main base camp in the field is in Garden Gait. The location is just close enough to Canterlot that we can send troops to and from the base camp in case of emergency. The enemy hasn’t made any moves recently, and that only makes me worry.
It was night, the time that the enemy forces prospered. I wandered out of my tent, and decided to go for a walk. “Sergeant Dawn.” Called a familiar voice. I turned my head and saw my squad’s sniper, Talndis. “Mind if I walk with you, sir?” he asked.
“Not at all.” I reply as I start to walk to the borders of our camp.
“If you don’t mind my asking, sir, what do you think of the war? I mean, about the whole thing that is.”
“I feel we need this war. They threw down the gauntlet 10 years ago when the so called ‘New Lunar Republic’ started getting aggressive. This was a challenge that we shall not deny them. They want to fight for power? Let them try to take it from us. It is said that history is told by the victors, and we’ve already started writing the books. It’s just a matter of time before they see that and surrender. What do you think about all this?”
“Well, I think that the war needs to end already.” He laughed a bit, “However, I do feel it is necessary. The Lunars issued the challenge, and us Solars will keep on fighting as long as they do. What both sides aren’t seeing is that the longer this goes on, the worse off we all are.” I stopped walking, pondering his insight.
“What’s wrong?” He asked.
“Nothing. Just thinking about what you said.” I replied. “How do you think the war will end? Who will be the victor?”
“Permission to speak honestly sir?”
“Always.”
“I think the NLR has a good shot at this.” He paused, awaiting my reaction. I simply stared back at him, waiting for him to continue. “They’ve got the son of a military genius as one of their sergeants. The guy’s got to have his old man’s bag of tricks plus some. Seems like a valuable advantage if you ask me. I’m not saying I hope they win though. I feel just the opposite actually. Just as a hypothetical question, what if they win after all? What would change? What would you do?”
“Well,” I started, “I would probably do like ole Midnight Flare and go into sanctuary somewhere where the new government can’t get to me. Maybe somewhere up near the Tarpan Mountains. You know? Just the other side of the Painted Pinto Desert. As for what would change, we would have to completely recreate the government. Sure they would use some of the same laws and regulations, but there’s a lot they would change. For instance, as a small change, Canterlot may no longer be the same as it is now.”
“What would change?” Talndis asked “It’s always been the alicorn’s home. Neither one would want to destroy it.”
“All I’m saying is that things will be much different than they used to be. Not to imply that they aren’t already.” At this point we were almost a mile outside of camp. We were walking faster than I had thought. “Perhaps we should turn around. We’re a bit farther out than we should be.”
“Of course sir. But if I may ask, why did you sign up for the Solar Empire’s army? Don’t say something like ‘Because the NLR challenged us and you felt threatened’.”
“You want to know one of the reasons I signed up?” I pulled an old wrinkled photo out of my chest pocket. “This is one of my reasons. My brother. This picture was taken when we were just foals. I can’t remember much about him, but we were the best of friends. For reasons I won’t mention, we were split up, and I haven’t seen him since. He’s one reason I fight. I fight to keep him and ponies like him safe. I just hope he isn’t caught up in this war. And if he is, I hope he’s on the right side.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Talndis said sounding sincere. “At least you have a good reason. I was drafted. I used to live in Fillydelphia with my family. As soon as I hit 18, I was shipped to Canterlot for training. I had the honor of joining the sniper trainees one day, and found that the far away, less confrontational combat was what I’m good at. It always pains me to kill, let alone kill, another pony no matter who they fight for. If I have to, I will, other than that, I look for other ways out.” He stopped walking, and I looked up to see that we were just inside the camp.
“Well Talndis, I must retire for the night”.I said. “This has been an enlightening conversation. I trust it won’t end up in your journals?”
“No it won’t. Good night sir.”
Chapter 2: Moonlight Shadow
Moonlight Shadow:
My name is Moonlight Shadow, or at least, it’s supposed to be. Here I am known as 11 Charlie, simple code name. Here, everypony has a code name, everypony dressed in black NLR armor, and where nopony knows who you are. We’re here for a rebellion against a government that controls society, yet we’re tossed around like disposable soldiers. They say we’ll be treated wonderfully after we take control, but that’s what they’ve said for years. No war efforts have gone anywhere and seem to still be going nowhere and fast.
Our camp sat just outside of the Everfree Forest by Great Nimbus Lake. It had sat there for months now. We’ve been planning a move to make, but haven’t came to much of a conclusion on a good advance.
I was making my nightly walk of the camp. Not a single smile struck a face of anypony outside. Whether they had been taking it lightly, or working on war efforts, no sign of happiness had been present in such a melancholy place. Hope had seemed to have gone away just as fast as supplies, strategies, and overall determination among the rebel army.
Finishing my walk, I had walked out to my favorite hill just outside of the camp. The view of the moon that our General Luna had brought up for us each night was perfect between the naked trees surrounding the hill and a perfect place for me to smoke a Mareboro each night to look up at the sky and think.
Yeah, I had smoked, but not to look cool or because I loved it so much. It’s because it was one of the only things that kept me from going on a rampage. It kept me cool, calm, and collect while I had my nighttime thinking sessions.
“I thought I’d find you out here.” Night Star, a girl I had known since childhood, and the only one I know her actual name, stood at the foot of the hill. “You know the Sergeant won’t be happy if he finds you smoking out here.”
“Yeah, well he’s gonna hafta get over it, because I don’t care. He can shoot his fire at me day and night if he needs to. You know I’ll snap if I don’t come out here.”
“I know.” By now she had sat down at the top of the hill next to me. “I just wish you saw more chance in our war efforts.”
“Chance? What chance is there? We’ve been trying to take down the ‘high and mighty Solar Empire’ for 10 years now. We haven’t gotten any closer to taking anyone.”
“Yeah, but there’s absolutely no way we’ll get anything done with an attitude like that.”
“What use will optimism do? I’ll be dead by next week, like the rest of us who are wiped out.”
“Fine then Shadow, I’ll let you sit up here being pessimistic. I won’t bug you if you want to be left alone.”
“It’s alright. The company is one of the things that keeps me from killing myself.”
“Okay, but we’ll wanna get back down to camp before our curfew. We don’t want the patrols to come and find us out here. You know what’ll happen for repeated disobedience.”
“The hypocrites can get over themselves.” It had been the irony of this war that the rebel force against control is more controlling than the government we were attempting to overthrow. “I don’t think my life will see another happy day. I’m going to make the best of what I can before I’m executed by the monsters running our military.”
“Don’t say that! Our wonderful Princess Luna is a saint.”
“I don’t object to Luna. She’s the only one above us who knows what they’re doing. Sergeant Flash can get over his high egoed ass, and start acting like a real leader.”
“Are you really going to say that about the son of such an important colt?”
“Our Sergeant does NOT live up to his father’s name. His father is a great colt, and a war hero. It’s too bad he’s working for the Solar Empire. It almost makes me wanna leave this repulsive military and switch to the other empire of control, but at this point, I guess I don’t know what to do.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out. We should probably get back to our tent. It’s almost our curfew time.”
“I’m almost done with my cigarette. Just let me finish.”
“Alright, but don’t take too long. You may not care about what the Serg thinks of you, but I’d rather not have him shooting fireballs at my hooves.”
“Calm your flank. We can go now.” I put the fire out and tossed the butt into the grass. “Let’s go.” We came down to the outside of camp, and the patrol guards were just on their way to start their night scouting.
“Where are you two coming from?”
“We were only out for a walk, sirs. We stayed close to the camp.”
“Just make sure you go out without your Republic Armor. If you go out without it, you’d simply be civilians to any possible Solars..”
“We will keep that in mind, sirs.”
“You know what time it is. Get to your tents before anypony else stops you.” The two guards trotted passed for their nightly scouting of the grounds.
Luckily for us, our tents were just outside the gate we left from. Luckily, Princess Luna let us pick who we’d stay in tents with. I shared a tent with Star and only her. She was the only one I had any respect for here other than Princess Luna and a few of the guards. Anyone else, I wouldn’t care if they died tomorrow. I guess that’s how everypony else felt about me as well. “Have you ever considered how disposable we’re treated here?”
“No. Of course not. Princess Luna loves all of her soldiers fighting for her.”
“Yeah, Luna does, but not our ‘Sergeant.’ Sometimes I think he wants us dead.”
“I’m not sure. I don’t know if I’ll ever understand Sergeant Flash. But I guess we should get some sleep. We don’t wanna wake up late again.”
“Alright. Goodnight.”
“Night...”
