Fires in the Dawn: Tales of a Civil War

I watched as the autumn sun began to dip below the Canterlot skyline, pulling Luna's evening sky behind it. My hooves carried me to the lower South Side of Canterlot, taking me to the Cracking Dawn Tavern. As I approached the tavern, I could hear the cacophony of the bar-goers as they shouted and laughed. I opened the door with a quick telekinetic pull and paused.

The bar was packed to the rafters, quite literally.

Ponies were crammed into booths with pyramids of empty ale mugs at the end of some, all in various stages of height and width.  All of them had smiles of drunken happiness, enjoying a good time with their friends before the weekend officially kicked off.

Finding my first assignment is going to be impossible in this crowd. My higher ups assigned me to this project to publish a series of stories for the Manehatten Times, all centering around the stories of our war veterans. Oh yeah, the names' Quick Quill, reporter for the Manehatten Times. Pushing my way into the packed tavern, I pulled my way towards the wooden bar counter and found myself and empty seat. The bartender approached me, an exhausted look on his aged face.

"What's your poison?" he asked, his voice deep and booming.

"Strawberry daiquiri, extra on the strawberry." I said, casting my gaze around the bar-goers. A light brown colored earth pony mare with a buzz cut mane of light blonde sat next to me. She was cute, but had a hardened look about her, especially in her emerald green eyes. My eyes ended up wandering down to her flanks, well-toned and adorned with a pair of cinnamon sticks bent into a heart.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer..." she growled. My eyes immediately shot up to hers, our gazes locking. The two of us sat there in silence, heat rising to my cheeks.

"U-uhm...sorry ma'am. I'm looking for somepony..." I stutter.

"Aren't we all?" she asks, taking a drink from the whiskey sitting before her. "She got a name girly?" she asked, looking at me from the corner of her eye.

I mumbled as my magic pulled out my notepad from my saddlebag. "U-Uhm...her name is Cinnamon Crunch." I say, looking to her. She stares at me, a grin pulled across her lips.

"Well, you found her. I'm not into mares, but I'm up for giving new things a try." she purred. My cheeks exploded into heat as I realized the retired Air Captain was coming onto me.

"U-uh-no, no! I'm Quick Quill, reporter with the Manehatten Times!" I said, waving my hooves before me to repel her.

For a while, there's silence between us as she stares at me. In the background, a jukebox begins to play a catchy big band tune under the din of the bar crowd. Then, Cinnamon Crunch speaks.

"Oh yeah...I got a letter from your boss..." she trailed off, a frown forming on her lips. "So...you actually want to hear my story...?" She asked, unsure if this was actually happening.

"Uh, yes ma'am. The Manehatten Times is interested in publishing the stories of our veterans, to help the citizens get a feel for what war was like." I explain. The cinnamon brown earth pony mare looks at me, scanning over my features, probably determining whether or not I was worth her time. Finally, she shrugs and sighs.

"Five seconds. That's all it takes for your world to go from being happy as can be to being shot at by your fellow ponies. I was pilot for the Solar Empire, assigned to the First Pursuit Squadron in Vanhoover. My job entitles me to flying around in these flying machines built for Earth Ponies like me, keeping the skies safe from threats to my homeland. In training, we were told our most likely enemies were Griffons, but...I never expected the enemy to be our own kind..." She takes a drink of whiskey from a shot glass before setting the glass back on the bar.

"My flight and I had taken off at 0630 hours, early morning patrol flight, just as the sun began to come up. We had just received a new shipment of a lightweight fighter we liked to call the 'Peashooter'. All-metal construction with two gem-powered machine guns in the nose. Beautiful little fighter, if I do say so myself. Anyway, the four of us were flying our patrol route over Vanhoover, our heads on a swivel. We heard there was some major upset in Canterlot, so our Commander told us to be on alert when we were out and about. That's when we spotted it; a recon aircraft with Lunar Republic markings." She trails off, staring hard at the shot glass before signalling the bar tender to give her a refill. The puce unicorn buck trots over with the whiskey bottle in his magical grasp, refilling her glass.

"The plane was by itself with a crew of two. The one behind the pilot was leaning over the side and taking pictures with a camera as they flew over. I tried radioing them, but they didn't respond. I ordered Rays and Fog to split off and buzz the recon plane. I didn't even notice the rear mounted machine gun until Fogs' plane began smoking from his engine. Seconds later, his engine erupted into flame and he went spiraling in. Rays pulled off and circled around, rejoining me and my wingpony. We grouped up and began to shoot at the recon plane. I can still remember seeing the rear gunner snarling at he shot at us. Rays took a few hits and peeled off while Brass and I continued the attack. A few seconds later, Rays reported new aircraft coming in, but that was the last I heard from him. I could see a fireball in the clouds nearby before three flights of Lunar Republic fighters came in through the clouds. They flew these biplanes, meaning they had two sets of wings instead of one set. And, while we had one set of two guns, they had two sets of two guns; and they could shred your plane apart." She stops, taking her shot of whiskey and knocking it back.

"We had to split from the recon plane to engage the fighters. We were outnumbered two to ten. We had the speed advantage, roughly by five miles per hour. But what they lacked in speed, they made up for in maneuverability. And boy, did they use it. We were forced to pull into these harsh turns and dives while reducing out speed just to keep the bastards in our gun sights. The biplanes were metal like ours, so their structures took quite a beating before showing signs of major damage. Brass and I managed to even the odds before Brass got an idea. We were running out of ammo, and Brass decided to lure the fighters over our airbase. I thought it was crazy, but Brass made the point that the Triple-A crews on the ground could pick them off with their machine guns. Running with the idea, Brass and I turned around and high-tailed it to base. I radioed the Commander to get the base on alert and get the guns ready. When we got over the base, Brass and I began circling over the base, waiting for the fighters." She trails off again, letting her mind think over the next part of her story.

"But they never showed up, did they?" I asked, taking down a few notes. Cinnamon sighs and turns the shot glass over, signalling she was done.

"Nope. Fifteen minutes of waiting later, we were ordered to land. We got quite the scolding from the Commander when we got back on the ground. After blowing up in our faces, we were debriefed and looked over the damage to our planes. They got a few good hits on Brass and I, but nothing too serious. The repaid crews weren't too happy with us, but can they blame us for engaging in the first air fight of the war? No! It was only a few hours after we landed that the declaration of war was issued by Luna against Celestia." She stops, only to give her mane a vigorous scratch.

"Records show that after the declaration went out, hundreds of troops left the military. Why didn't you?" I ask, flipping through my notes as I asked my question.

"Why?" She asks, her temper rising rather quickly. "Because I have a family to defend. Because I have a country to defend. Those ponies who signed up then backed out at the first signs of a fight? They are cowards to me. When your home is at risk of being taken from you, you do all you can to keep it safe, even if it means putting your life on the line in the skies above Equestria." She says as she leans forward towards me aggressively, her hoof tapping the bars' counter top to get her point across.

"Okay, okay, easy ma'am. I understand, it's difficult to understand why they backed out so suddenly." I say, waving my hooves before me to calm her down. Giving a deep sign, Cinnamon ribs her temples a bit before speaking.

"Well...if that's all...?" she asks tiredly.

"Uhm, I do believe so ma'am. I thank you for your time and service." I say, giving her a sincere nod before getting up and leaving the bar.

"Hey!" she calls after me. I turn around at the door, looking at her. "Thank you for caring...not a lot of ponies know of the truths of war...or even care to hear them." she says before turning back to the bartender and signalling for another round. With a nod, I put my notepad and quill away into my saddle bag before leaving the bar and entering the Canterlot nighttime.