Fires in the Dawn: Tales of a Civil War

The Friendship Express pulled into the Ponyville Station with a screeching of its' brakes. After the Conductor hollered for us to get off, I trotted by way into the town. What was once a small-town smack-dab in the middle of Equestria, was now a rapidly developing city. Where single and two-story buildings once sat, now were replaced by modern condos and apartment buildings. What used to be the tallest building in town, Town Hall sat dwarfed by the skeletons of in-development skyscrapers and shopping centers, seeming inferior to the changes around it. Ponyville was only receiving this kind of attention due to the massive need of rebuilding and the sudden tourist boom.

The cause of the tourist boom?

Ponyville was a battlefield.

Despite the best efforts of the clean-up crews, tank hulls and infantry positions remained where they sat, untouched by the modernization occurring around them. If one were to look hard enough, they would still find bullet casings and blood splatters from the street fights that happened between the Solar and Lunar forces. Much like what happened in Stalliongrad, Ponyville endured the second longest confrontation of the war.

The first longest confrontation was the Battle of Stalliongrad, which beat the Battle of Ponyville by only a week in length.

Outside Town Hall, a marble monument sat in dedication to those who defended Ponyville with their lives. The Battle of Ponyville only occurred due to Princess Luna's interest and close relationship with the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. In Luna's attempt to turn them to her cause, Celestia intervened by deploying troops to protect her student Twilight Sparkle and her friends. It was only a week later that Lunar forces pushed into the town, hellbent on killing the protection troops and kidnap the six mares. However, what started as a skirmish, turned into a full blown battle for the small town.

As I walk, I approach a olive drab unicorn buck as he sat at a table in front of the war monument. He was passing out fliers to the tourists and giving information to whoever asked about the battle. What the tourists didn't know was they were talking to a survivor of the very same battle. He pulled the informed historian act better than the Veteran act. Despite being young, his eyes held no youthful glint. That was extinguished by the brutality of what he had experienced and what he had done in order to survive. After a pair of Griffon tourists leave the table, I approach and clear my throat.

"Sergeant Rally?" I ask, adjusting my glasses as they slipped down my snout. The Sergeant looked up, his eyebrows raising a bit.

"My my, what a pretty young lady! What can Ol' Sarge do for you?" he asks, giving a charismatic smile. I giggle a bit and shake my head.

"Sorry sir, but I prefer the company of mares." I say. He looks a bit deflated at this news, but his smile continued.

"Well, if you're not here for me, then you must be here for some information? What would you like to know?"  he asks, leaning back in his seat a bit.

"Our records indicated that you survived the Battle of Ponyville by leading a charge against Lunar forces in what was the last push of the battle. What we would like to know is, what was the battle like in the very beginning?" I ask, looking at him. His smile vanished, replaced by a grim frown.

"You must be Miss Quill. Manehatten Times, right?" he asks, pointing a hoof at me. I nod in confirmation and he returns his own nod. "Mighty appreciate what you're doing at the paper, getting our stories and such. But be careful, some of us won't be as open as others. You're just lucky enough that I'm willing to talk about it." he says with a small chuckle. With a sigh, he reclines in his chair and leans his head back towards the sky, a look of remembrance overcoming him.

"In the beginning, we were just assigned to protect the VIPs. There were reports that Princess Luna was constantly making trips to Ponyville in order to recruit the VIPs. Acting quick, Celestia sent an order for a detachment of infantry to deploy to Ponyville and to guard the homes and even the mares themselves. There was only one more encounter with Princess Luna after she teleported into Twilight Sparkles' room in the middle of the night. After driving her off, the troops were on edge, including me. I was guarding Miss Rarity when the report came in about Luna having been spotted in the Golden Oaks Library. Naturally everypony went on edge, and we were like that for a few days. I remember when the very first artillery salvo came roaring in." he trails off, taking a deep breath to steady himself.

"Private True Shot and I were changing guard duty from Miss Rarity to Miss Fluttershy outside of Carousel Boutique. We were only a feet yards away when the shell came in and blew the Boutique apart. I remember hearing Miss Rarity scream bloody murder, both in terror of what happened to her shop, and what happened to her new guards. The two bucks were crushed under a wooden beam, their spines shattered under the beam. Miss Fluttershy had fainted at the sight, and I ordered True Shot to get her to safety. I rushed over to Miss Rarity who was on the ground sobbing her eyes out. I tried to help her up, but she was in an absolute fury. Her horn flared up and she picked up both rifles from her dead guards. She swore bloody vengeance against whoever blew her home apart. I managed to stop her from running off and got her to drop the weapons before taking her to safety. After meeting up with True Shot and Miss Fluttershy, we hunkered down in a nearby flower shop as more and more artillery rounds came in." he trails off once again, leaning forward from his reclined position.

"The bombardment lasted for about an hour before the ground troops came marching in. Gunfire began whizzing through the air from both sides as enemy light bombers roared in, dropping small bomb payloads into the town. After initial contact, both sides began to dig in. True Shot and I could tell things were going to go on for quite a while. A few hours passed before a messenger ran to our position. He reported that our armored forces were rolling in from the Army base at the bottom of Mount Canterlot. True Shot and I made sure the Miss Rarity and Miss Fluttershy were okay to move before we left the flower shop. But before we could even leave the doorway, one of our light tanks came rolling up and stopped to fire. Seconds later, a magic blast slammed into the front corner of the tank, flipping it onto its' side and into the store front. With the front door blocked, the four of us moved to the delivery entrance to try and get out, but only three of us were forced back inside due to some enemy fire that strafed the doorway. Private True Shot was the first pony I've seen killed before me." he trails off for a third time, resting his head in his hooves. It took me a bit to realize that a crowd had gathered around me and Rally, listening intently to his story.

"What happened next?" called a buck from the crowd. Rally looked up and chuckled, surprised at the crowd surrounding him.

"Well now, quite the audience it seems." He said, sitting back up again. "Well, what happened next was just a series of the three of us moving from building to building. At one point, Miss Rarity took a bullet to the shoulder, but she managed to get along just fine. The three of us were passing through an intersection when an one of our M2A2s came screaming around a corner, driving full force towards us. We dove out of the way and into an alleyway, only to see three enemy light tanks speed by in pursuit of that M2A2. Few seconds later, there was a large explosion down the street, followed by two of the enemy light tanks retreating and into cover. They took turns pulling forward and taking potshots, only to get sprayed down by the M2A2s' fifty-caliber turret. I don't know what happened after because the three of us had to keep moving. By nightfall, we made it to the Command Tent and Miss Rarity and Miss Fluttershy were reunited with their friends. The six of them were evacuated to a safe location away from the battle. After getting restocked and patched up, I was attached to an M13 Multiple-Gun Carriage with a small squad of six. We were ordered to meet up with the Second Armored Division and to defend the Town Hall at all costs. For two-months, it was a tug-of-war between our troops and theirs. For every step they took in, we pushed them back four steps. For every advancement we made in our defensive line, they would drive us out of our little foxholes and trenches, only to be driven back themselves a few hours later. By end of the first month though, Ponyville was nothing but smoldering ruins, which made combat a tad bit easier, but it also made it easier to get killed. Days turned into weeks, which became months, and soon into a year, which turn into more years. But for me, it all started with an artillery round blowing Carousel Boutique to pieces." he finishes.

The tourists and I all give applause at the end of his tale, some wiping tears, others going up to the buck to thank him for his service. After checking my notes, I approached him as well and thanked him with a hug. He returned the gesture and sighed. "Thank you again for listening to my story. It's not often that I tell it, or get a crowd that large willing to listen to it." he says with a smile, happy to have shared his experienced with so many listeners. "Still a shame that you're into the ladies. You are quite the cute one." he says with a chuckle.

"Thank you sir. Good to see your flirting skill survived with you." I shoot back, grinning slyly. Waving goodbye, I leave Rally's company and make my way over to a pastry shop. Stopping, I turn to look at Rally again. However, his gaze isn't towards me, rather towards the statue that sits behind him. Looking from him to the statue, I realized that the most prominent figure on the statue was Rally himself, his face contorted in a war cry as he leads a group of soldiers from the safety of a trench.

Turning away, I entered the shop, got myself a large cinnamon bun, then caught the train out of Ponyville on my way to Appaloosa for my next interview.