Equestria 2150

“What do you mean, he’s alive?”

“I just couldn’t. It wasn’t right. He couldn’t fight, so I spared him. Besides, he’s got a broken leg. He won’t be fighting back anytime soon.”

“I gave you the order to kill him, or die trying.”

“I’m sorry.”

“He’s still alive. This means this operation was for nothing. Nothing. Now, you get out of my sight. I cannot deal with this right now.”

-

Razgriz was given a sleeping spell while he healed. He was monitored in the medical bay of the Lunar Army FOB. He was hooked up to medical equipment to keep track of his vitals, but other than that, it was up to time to heal him.

He dreamed of nothing for most of his rest, seeing nothing but blackness in his mind. The silence scared him; knowing what true darkness was like, having to hide from Luna for many years. Razgriz had thoughts on the war at hoof. He bashed this pony he encountered on the battlefield.

How dare he leave me like this… I would rather be dead at this point. He thought.

“Well that’s no way to talk.” A voice said, startling him. It wasn’t his, and it wasn’t anypony he recognized. It was far away, as if someone were yelling across an open field.

“You know, you’re very lucky at this point. Rough Cut’s the only pony in the army that would leave you like that.”

Razgriz had only one thought at this point. He knew somepony had entered his mind through telepathy magic. It was very advanced, and mostly used to read minds. Razgriz was taught how to counter it, and started his defence.

Rubber ducky, you’re the one! You make bath time so much fun!

“Ow! That really hurts my head!”

Good, so get out of mine! Razgriz thought in reply, making it as loud as he could.

“You really need to knock that off. I’m trying to help you.”

Can’t hear you! Not listening!

“I can tell you’re in a deep sleep. This must be magical sleep induction. You know, I can hang around all day pestering you to let me talk. I don’t think you’ll be waking up anytime soon.”

Razgriz stopped making loud noises at this point.

“What do you want?” the sleeping colt relented.

“Oh, good, you’ve warmed up to me.”

The voice trailed off, going silent for a moment.

“There!” the voice said as a purple mare popped up in Razgriz’s vision. He gasped.

“Twilight?”

“Good! You remember me.” She said. Her voice sounded much clearer now. “Although it could do some good for you to show yourself. It would make talking to you a lot easier.”

Razgriz had just come to realise that his form was not present.

“All you need to do is concentrate and-“

“I have been alive for ten of your lifetimes Twilight, I know how this works.” Razgriz blandly said, making his form appear. Razgriz now stood as himself in front of the princess.

“Alright, what did you invade my brain to tell me?”

Twilight sighed slightly.

“Well, I knew that this was the only way that you would talk to me. I needed to tell you what I recently found out.”

“And that is?”

“This war is a hoax.”

“What? How so?”

“Well, as you know, after the faction wars that tore the county apart back before Equestria was founded and Celestia and Luna took over the government, it is said that once they formed Equestria Luna tried to kill Celestia out of jealousy of everypony playing in the daylight and-“

“Whoa whoa whoa. Luna raised the Lunar Army under the impression that Celestia ignored her ponies’ pleas for help in the wake of the faction wars. So she tried to overthrow her sister to make the country right.”

“That’s why I’m talking to you. I was able to acquire some information from some POWs that we have.”

“…”

“I didn’t hurt them if that’s what you are thinking!”

“I don’t know. You’re in my head, you should be able to tell what I am thinking of.”

“I’m not that deep into your thoughts. I can only understand what you want me to.”

Razgriz held back his anger, wanting to learn more.

“Well, what did you learn?”

“Just your side of the story. Pretty much word for word of what you just told me.”

“Well then this is possibly just a bias from both sides. They just told us what we wanted to hear.”

“That would be the first guess. But I wanted to confirm what I heard. So I looked in the archives for the events of the time. I am one of four ponies that have access to this information. And I was able to find reports on the whereabouts of Celestia and Luna in the last few days.”

“And?”

Twilight paused for a few moments.

“From the reports of my side, Celestia went missing for three days just before Luna declared her intentions. It says she went to Manehatten to talk to the mayor at the time about new infrastructure.”

“That’s odd. Luna went AWAL for the same three days. She told us that she was going to meditate on the matter of how her sister was acting. When she came back, she declared war with Celestia. I was one of the few ponies who sided with her right off the bat.”

“Yes. All this is true. It is also apparent that something may have happened during those three days between Celestia and Luna. It says that Luna talked to Celestia once during those three days. They were seen together one day before the war started in Cloudsdalle. They were flying to the Weather Factory apparently.”

“Does all of this have any credibility?” Razgriz inquired.

“No I don’t think so. It said that the information was given by an anonymous pony.”

“Well then what are we fighting for?”

“I have no clue; all I know is that some things just don’t add up on the political side of things.”

Razgriz was silent for several seconds, pondering if this pony was really telling the truth, or just trying to shake him up.

“Do you think that this war is for nothing?”

“I have always thought that, but now even more so. This just points the finger at not just Luna but possibly Celestia as well.”

“But both sides were told their queen was the one under the knife. So it always has been this way then.”

“Yes but-”

“Twilight. This war is in full swing now. We can’t stop it.”

Razgriz felt light headed, and Twilight’s image blurred slightly.

“You’re waking up Razgriz. We only have another minute tops.”

“Well then, all we can do is try to live through this war. I hope I never have orders to kill you, you’re a wonderful mare.” Razgriz said with a small smile. Twilight blushed slightly, shying away a little.

With rapid a movement, Twilight leaned forward and gave Razgriz a quick kiss on his lips. He stood there stunned as she broke away, a heavy blush on her face.

“We’re in a dream, buck it.” Twilight said, a caring smile on her face. “Good luck.”

Razgriz awoke to a slight shaking on his right shoulder. All he could feel was his whole body like it was beaten with a large club. The red alicorn looked to his right to see his friend Jelly bean standing over him, smiling.

“Hey buddy, how are you feeling?” he asked, pointing to Razgriz’s right hind leg, which felt like it had healed.

“Like shit.” Razgriz said with a groan.

“Well it’s good to know you are still you.”

Razgriz give him an odd look.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the unicorns said they felt a magic presence around like no other, like someone was trying to get inside your head. Did you see anything odd in your dreams, do you remember?”

Razgriz knew precisely what this was about, but slowly shook his head to avoid any sort of panic among his friend.

“No, nothing odd. I didn’t dream much at all.”

“Well that’s good. Guess your body was just doing what it could to heal itself. Not a whole lot is known about the alicorn anatomy.”

Razgriz shifted slightly.

“What happened anyhow? I mean, after I engaged the tank.”

“Well, the convoy took more hits, and that tank showed up as well. It wiped them out.”

Razgriz sat up, and buried his head in his hooves.

“All of alpha too?”

Jelly Bean lowered his head.

“Only Alpha nine, eleven and fifteen crews made it, and they are in critical right now. The rest were executed before the rescue showed up.”

“This is all my fault. How many kills are credited to the commander on the assault?”

“Who would that be?”

“The big bucking tank that I took on and failed! How many did he kill?” Razgriz yelled in anger. Jelly Bean rubbed his hoof slowly.

“Seventy-six lives lost due to his actions, another fifty-four due to the rest of the ambush.”

Razgriz gritted his teeth, knowing full well that it was not possible for the Solar Empire to know what city they would have taken. Somepony tipped them off. The rout itself was all up to Razgriz as to what way to go. Nopony else would have known other than the ponies in the column and Luna.

Infuriated, Razgriz unhooked the cables attached to him, and took out the IV he had in his hoof. Rolling out of bed, he stood on the cold tile floor, only to be brought down in a shout of pain. He collapsed onto the floor, keeping a string of curses inside him. Jelly Bean quickly trotted over to Razgriz and offered to help him up. Razgriz took his friend’s hoof, and slowly got up.

“Look, your back leg is shot. Stay in bed and heal up, the war can fight on without you for a while.”

Razgriz simply flared his wings, and slowly lifted off the ground.

“I still have my wings and three legs. Let’s go.” He said, slowly flying to the door.

“Go where? If I may ask.” Jelly bean inquired. Razgriz spun around, hovering slightly above the ground.

“We may have a traitor amongst us.”