The Final Report of Thunder Crescent

Thunder looked on in awe of space, there was such a feeling of hope coming from every corner of the area. Laughter and smiles, jokes and games were being played and all of the ponies looked happy considering their situation.

"This is the red section, it is the area that I alone have full control over," Lisea said as other soldiers either saluted her passing or raised a mug and cheered.

"Are they...drinking?" thunder asked he didn't think that cider of any kind could be smuggled down here.

Lisea sighed "I wish, the scouting groups only come back with food and materials, since we have an underground lake at our disposal they don't bother looking for other sources of drink" she shuffled past the tables and stood at some stone stairs which led to the next floor, she turned around to look at Thunder who was spinning in circles trying to look at everything.

"How did you manage all this" it was beyond believe this area wasn't like the crudely crafted rock houses he saw on his way in, these ones were made out of wood even the floor had been seamlessly covered in oak planks with a shiny finish "It looks like one big Tavern" he said Lisea smiled taking it as a compliment.

"Well the grey walls weren't good for morale, so when there were fewer changelings we'd go out en masse to recover as much wood as possible, before the changelings corrupted it you see," she said as Thunder began making his way to her "while Beety thinks it's a waste of materials I think it was worth It, it looks homier and definitely boosts morale. Beety doesn't understand that high morale is just as important as keeping warm and keeping bellies full, she always comes at it with her calculating approach only ever looking at the practical use rather than the emotional" she finished as Thunder was now next to her and they began heading up the stairs.

There were three floors the first floor was a training area of sorts different rooms had signs outside with a weapon on it to indicate which room was for practising with what. once up the first flight they needed to head to the opposite side of the second floor.The second floor was filled with shops that sold food, drink supplies and some materials.

"Do you sell things here? what do you use for currency" Thunder asked.

Lisea looked at the stalls "Some ponies develop hobbies like wood crafting, rock crafting, painting and while it's hard to get them supplies they make do with the scraps no-one uses plus it allows the guards to have some furnishing. But Beety doesn't see little figures, trinkets and paintings as proper furnishings, she wants beds and tables and chairs and doors and baths!" Lisea rolled her eyes "She doesn't want amateur work and instead insists that my men take whole beds and whole tables," she looked at Thunder "I hope you understand why I can't have my men bring a whole piece of furniture back" Thunder nodded.

"Aside from making them slower it's harder to move and if it's a stealth operation two ponies moving a table would be much easier to see," Thunder said still wondering what they used for currency. As they approached the final set of stairs Thunder noticed that left of the stairs was a banner with an Insignia on it.

"Don't mind that," She said, "It's just to let them know that my room is up here".

Thunder immediately began wondering why she was taking him to her room, wondering what he had done to garner special treatment "you do this for all the new colts and mares," he said as he pushed forwards up the stairs.

She was waiting for him at the top, and giggled slightly "Not quite, there's just something I want to talk to you about, commander to commander" it didn't lead to another floor instead at the top of the stairs was a wooden door. Lisea walked in first the door closing automatically behind her "Don't worry its hinges just make it slam shut automatically, come in" a muffled voice said from the other side of the door.

Thunder was about to open it when he realised he'd left Quartz back at the meeting, he bit his lip and rubbed his mane "well I'm probably going to get berated about this later" he said sighing then opened the door.

The room was large enough but filled with the diferant things. much like outside the floor was all wooden in fact, but what struck him the most was a large stained glass window directly opposite the door on the wall. He slowly walked towards it.

"wow..." he mumbled as Lisea took off her armour and put it on a mannequin revealing somewhat ordinary clothes with a flowing flower pattern on the shoulder, she stretched then walked towards Thunder.

"It's impressive right," she said smiling "I used to pray to it every day as a filly" she added as she threw herself onto a nearby piece of furniture "though I suppose I stopped a long time ago" she added picking up some papers "so which town were you from" she asked getting down to business straight away.

Thunder turned to her "Silverstone, It was a bat-pony city. one of few existing I believe," he said vaguely recalling his time there. It was a good place without question but before the town was overrun with changelings he was warned by the scouting part captain, the rest of his unit had taken their families and fled in the night and he came to give Him the news, Thunder would have stayed and fought but when he told the barracks of this news some went with their families and fled while others stayed behind to ensure their escape...he remembered their insistence of his survival. He felt like each of them deserved life just as much as he. But he put the issue aside, he'd dealt with that emotional can of worms already.

"I was the commander, the highest ranking present in the city, my men and I were a close-knit force, I trusted them as much as I did myself," he thought trying to choose his words carefully and keep his information clean "the day before the city was overrun, the captain of the scouting unit returned to me, his report overdue. He told me that a changeling horde was massing for an offensive siege of the city...." he looked down briefly then began walking around the room "He urged me to take my family and leave, the rest of his unit had taken their families already and flown to the winds," Thunder stopped and took a deep breathe "And so I told the garrison, I couldn't condemn them to death by changeling, no one deserves that fate. And in the end some stayed and many left...before the siege hit I took my family and anyone who'd join me" he ended his story there before he dragged up any more painful memories "the next day the city was overrun and eventually here I am" he was saddened but regained his composure.

Lisea looked at him in astonishment "I'm sorry, I didn't know it was that bad" she said looking down feeling like she had done something wrong, but she too quickly regained her composure she lay back and looked up at the ceiling "My teams have always been a family, never had one myself," Thunder looked at her with a confused look.

"Orphaned," he said, she nodded.

"war and combat were all I knew, I got good at it too. But somewhere along the way I started caring about other ponies and after losing my whole army in an offensive siege only myself and Granite survived, of course I found him here wrapped up in changeling goo, and I didn't give them the pleasure of catching me" she said then sighed "listen, until you officially choose my section or Beety's we can't give you a bed, we must accommodate enough room for you to live in, I won't force you to join us but we could really use your skill, both in combat and knowledge you have something that many of the soldiers here don't have...experience" she ended there was a knock on the door "Till then you'll have to sleep in the grey quarter.

Thunder turned to her "the grey quarter?".

"yeah it's the section of building without my Red banners or Beety's green ones, it's where all new escapee's go until they choose or leave".

There was a knock at the door again, Thunder looked towards the door "Some leave ?".

"Yes, the tunnel we use to go to the surface takes you far into the wilds we used to have a base camp at the end of it but changelings found us because of it and we narrowly missed being found out only Granite and two others survived the attack".

"It sounds like you've had a fair share of losses to the changelings".

"Of course, if they found out where our base was we'd be done for," she smiled hearing the knock at the door frequent and loud.

Thunder walked towards the door .

Lisea smiled at Thunder.

Thunder looked worried at Lisea, he opened the door.

Quartz looked angrily at Thunder.

"oh goddamnit" he muttered as quartz uppercut him in the jaw, he let himself be hit and flew into the air spinning then slamming to the ground.

"did ya forget somethin', " she said an angry smile across her face.

Thunder stood up "now you see I had intended to see you, right now in fact" he bluffed with a poker face.

"Is that right?" she said, the bluff seemed to be working " well if you were coming you should'a said somethin', wait a minute you left me!" she said her anger returned.

"I was only getting a tour from Li-".

"oh you got so cozy with her you know her first name did ya" she looked more irritated.

"well, i was-".

"No! you know what, I'm going to take you to Beatrice's section and show you how great it is there, then you'll have to choose her's".

Thunder was now perplexed by a number of things, one of them why she was so angry at him and why as recompense he had to spend tomorrow with her, it hardly seemed like a fitting punishment "could be worse I suppose" he said walking past Quartz "we'll have to talk again sometime" he said.

Lisea nodded "I shall look forward to it," she said exchanging a menacing glare at Quartz who returned with sticking her tongue out a shaking her flank slightly as she walked. It was apparently a form of insult that Lisea had yet to grasp, as the door slammed shut. his time in the Scarlet section soon ended.

Thunder was escorted back to the grey area by Quartz who tried to suade him into believing that tomorrow was going to be the best day ever or something, once he was shown where he would be staying tonight he quickly flopped onto the bed which was literally a slab of rock with hay on it there was a patchwork blanket thrown on it. he found himself struggling to sleep with so many things on his mind.

"well, hopefully, they're doing just as well as me," he said thinking fondly of his family before falling asleep after many hours of struggling to.
Despite it not being the comfiest bed being able to sleep at all was a blessing to his worn out body and once comfy fell into a peaceful and much welcome slumber.

Meeting new ponies and remembering the lives that had perished, Thunder was filled with gratitude and before sleeping said every single name that perished, and thanked them.