Look to the Stars

P.M 989, First of April, Fort Oasis, Saddle Arabian border, 9:00

Fort Oasis was bustling with activity. The news had spread and preparations were underway, War was coming. The draft had gone out only two days before and Truthful Mirror had recently arrived, prepared to serve his sultan. The sounds of wagons upon cobblestone carrying grain and spears, the ringing of the Fort's forge crafting blades and armor for the new recruits, the screeches of soaring hawks carrying messages across the sands. Truly a cacophony of sounds bombarded him. The courtyard was filled with new recruits being shown how to don their armor and trained to swing their swords. The Rangers, few in number, glided across the edges, eyes wary. The border of Minoshia was only a few miles of desert away. The Kreel mountains spread across the skyline, spears against the Heavens.

"Hey Truth, you all right?"  softly came the voice  causing Truthful to  snap out from his stupor. There stood his foalhood friend, Desert Blossom. She had left at the same time to join up.

"Yeah. I'm all right Bloss, just got caught up in the bustle, you know?" A blush on his face, his right hand clenched. How stupid to say something like that to Blossom. Why hadn't he said something cool? Celestia dammit.

"Yes, I know." Her ever present smile somewhat smaller then normal, her new armor fitted to her form and long shamshir hanging from her waist.

"Hey Bloss, no reason to be worried we have at least a week remember that's what the Marshal said. Not a lot of time, but we learn fast, right?" A  comforting smile, he hoped, was on his face and optimistic bravado wafting off him.

"We will be all right,"  She stepped towards him to, punch him in the arm. " But don't lie to me like that, It didn't work even when we were foals and you were saying that your mom wouldn't be upset if we had a sugar cube."

Truthful tried to hold in a laugh and failed miserably " Yeah you're right, so when the war ends-"  Then came a sound, an odd whistling noise. He had never heard anything like it. The world turned to fire. The sheer force of the blast, along with the roaring wall of sound slammed him into the ground. The west wall had turned into shrapnel raining down onto the courtyard. He could see others crawling across the ground or staggering to their feet but he could hear nothing other than an odd ringing that utterly overcame his ability to think. The scent of burnt flesh and copper filled his nostrils as more blasts came again and again, reducing the the west side of the fort to nothing more then smoking rubble. He was in something? It was wet and clung to his hands and legs as he tried to get up. Truthful looked down to see what he was coated with. Oh princess. The hair. He stood, staggering forward, vomiting into the sand, as Minotaurs in little more then breastplates, fatigues, and cloaks stormed through the rubble, Pugiones and Iklwa in hand. He watched as those who still could stood and fought but the effective and immediate follow up with a large number of ground forces quickly overwhelmed the few remaining desert guard the first battle of the war was over. Unknown to the invading Legionnaires, Truthful simply limped slowly into the desert drops of crimson not his own fell to the sand behind him only one thing fixed into his mind "Blossom."

P.M 989, Second of April, Canterlot Castle,17:00

Luna strode through the halls, intent on finding her sister. In front of her, the restricted section of the library, the last place Luna could think to look for her sister.  "Is my sister inside?" She inquired to the Royal Guards on duty.

The younger of the two guards answered "No Princess, Princess Celstia's not currently inside the archives."

"Damn. Not here either, where could she be?"

The younger spoke again, "Well have you tried the music hall? Princess Celestia could be there."

A sigh at that. "Yes, I tried there earlier. Perhaps there is somewhere else?"

The elder guard then spoke quietly. "Have you tried the War room?"

"The castle doesn't have a war room, as I am aware it is kept at the military academy? I had one installed in my wing of the castle, but as we understood it Canterlot palace was built for peace and their by didn't contain one, correct?" Her discomfort causing her to begin to slip back into the archaic.

"You have no reason for such worry Princess, the war room in the palace is obsolete and almost never opened. Lady Celestia occasionally goes there to think that's all." The old guard emits a chuckle. "Its also rather hard to find, making it the perfect place for her highness to hide from clinging nobles. As for its location the mirror that doesn't reflect in the royal court."

"Thank you." " As she hastened to her sister's side. She arrived at the royal court and gently placed her hand against the mirror, Marveling at how in Tartarus she hadn't noticed one of these mirrors didn't reflect anything.  The spell on the mirror had a strange edge to it, a hint of familiarity yet recognizably foreign in nature, similar to her own illusions in fact but this spell seemed to draw on ambient magic in the air instead of the caster's own. As she put her hand to the smooth surface of the mirror it quickly give way and was replaced with a hallway ending in a door gently carved with the image of a star? Strange. As she put a hand to the door, she could hear something but who was her sister talking to? It was muffled but it certainly sounded like she was talking to someone, heatedly at that. Feeling slightly ashamed but curious she leaned forward to listen and if it turned out this was where Celestia and Discord went when they desired "alone time" she would simply leave.

"You were right you know?" Melancholy in her sister's voice and then she seamed to suddenly swing back to her normal self. "Your descendants are doing well, I'm sure you would be proud of them. They still carry your talents its rather amazing that even after all this time your blood flows so thickly through there veins." A  gentle sigh escaped her next. "What would you do about the current threat I wonder? Truly, The Ash Bearers are waging their fire war on Zebafrica cutting of a flow of allies we have always had.  Vulcan's Children have descended from the mountains into Germneigha, and the Silver Lances are intent on the elimination of Saddle Arabia as a threat." The melancholy once again descended "Then again you can't hear me can you? After all you passed from this world long ago. " To Luna's pain a sob came from her sister a quite but undoubtedly real sob "And yet in this place you still feel so very real. I can almost hear you, endlessly pacing this room moment by moment planing the next battle, the next victory, the next moment of truth. I remember those words you spoke to me on that field before this era was even beginning and I think those days might be over." As Luna stood stunned by what she had heard, that her sister carried some pain she had never spoken to Luna of, her sister teleported out.

"Tartarus Dammit where did she go now."  Pushing what she had heard to the back of her mind. Luna strode off to find her sister again  after all she had the great beast to slay, paperwork.

P.M. 989, Second of April, Acheron, 19:00

A single figure stood on unhallowed ground, gazing at the remnants surrounding him. The blades glinting from the setting sun. A endless howling dirge was the only sound in this place. Created by the wind blowing through the forest of fallen swords, a reminder of comrades long lost on this field and so many others, but it was this the final field, that he kept with him. He wandered among the blades remembering the faces of those he lead to their deaths, those whose blood watered this ground in rivers. As he looked upon this, his temple and remembered, the faces of his foes, those he had lost, those he had slain and from this place he drew strength. It enveloped him this aura of malice, his ever present companion. This was his core, his world, a testament to his remembrance. The hatred flowed through his veins the elixir of life, the only thing that had allowed him to keep his long vigil, his hands bleeding from the pressure he had placed upon them the only tears he shed anymore being blood.

"You've brought forth Acheron, reminiscing of the old days?" came the nobleman, barely of age, yet weighed with time. Large wings of the Thestral at his sides, yet he had red eyes. He was perched atop a war hammer, perfectly at balance like the hawk atop his favorite tree. "You really should stop torturing yourself like this, it will not going to bring them back or make her" The final word spat as curse. "wake up."

As he turned to gaze at the intruder, his armor produced a slight creak, music to his ears. "I know." these words said with a winter's chill..."but, I do not wish to forget, after all these years the urge"

"The urge to just go to sleep, to join in with her dream and forget reality, or to just fade away give in to the weight of all the years piled upon our shoulders. To simply drown in the oceans of time and be washed away. I suppose I am a hypocrite for telling you not to do this when I visit their graves every year." A self deprecating chuckle, false and hollow echos from his throat.

"Our wait is almost over. The time of guards is over, the age of soldiers is returning " The anticipation thrumming inside him.

"And we stand ready, eh General. Just a little longer?" A grin curling unto the face of the perched figure.

"Yes, just a little longer Cold Harbor, just a little longer."  And for the first time in a very long time, he smiled.