Chapter Three. The First Exchange

5 am Alkais Mountain Trenchlines, 1.5 miles from the border, 50 days before outbreak of violence

The Mist had made everything, and Everypony in the trench damp and cold as the construction of the underground bunks and shelter areas hadn't quite been finished.

The crack of rifles and machine guns from the training grounds back at the camp could be occasionally heard in the distance, when the wind wasn't so harsh that is; which wasn't often. Sargent Nightly Wonder, who had been on lookout duty for the past seven hours, tucked her muzzle into the heavy great coat she was wearing to try and get some feeling back into it again.

They had been in the mountains for two days now and it would still be another three before a rotation would be made. Looking over to some of the others Nightly saw they were shivering from the cold more than she was.

"I'm sure a towl would be warmer than these... winter rags" Nightly muttered to herself. While looking above the trench, just to see more heavy mist, something that the Alkais mountains in particular were notorious for, thick heavy mist that could dwell for days at a time. Looking up at the sky Nightly noted the clouds, most likely snow, which would only add to the inhospitable conditions.

A sudden commotion from a little ways down there trench brought her to her senses again, looking over it seemed that a Equestrian scouting party had gotten lost in the heavy mist and ventured a little too close to the border, or rather they had stepped right over it and had come face to face with the trench line.

Nightly shouted down the trench "Need any help down there".

The responce she received was a rather roughly toned "Get over here one of the bastards is trying to run!"

Nightly hopped down from the shooting step and ran towards the clustered group of ponies, only for then a gunshot to ring out and a audible "Sweet celestia, shit!" From over the trench. One of the Corporals ran over to the pony that had fired the shot and took the rifle from his hooves, and proceeded to yell into his face at a eardrum jarring volume.

Private Swift Eventide had his ears completely flat against his head from the tirade erupting from the furious NCO, only ending when the Sargent who was in charge of the current shift came storming over to him with a furious look on her face. "JUST WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE MOON DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE FUCKING DONE" She yelled at him before sending two other Privates to fetch the injured Equestrian.

At this point nearly the entire trench had been woken up, and most were looking in surprise at the four Equestrians already in the trench and looks of surprise turned into shock when they saw two Privates coming back over the trench lugging a Unicorn with a bullet wounds in his side while leaving a trail of blood behind him.

Lieutenant Arvo Noon came rushing down the trench from where he had been sleeping in his private quarters and noted the Private being yelled at by two NCOs and looked in horror at the 5 Equestrian troops, with his eyes practically bursting out of their sockets at the sight of the wounded Unicorn.

"What have you pillocks done? You lot know this could lead to open warfare!" Everyone turned to look at him, with Swift wearing a scared expression. "Who shot her?" Several of them pointed out Swift immediately, upon so doing Arvo marched up to the Thestral. He lent in a quietly whispered In his ear with a less than friendly tone "I can smooth this out but you do anything with such a complete lack of regard for the Nation, I'll have you shot", retreating from Swifts ear he then growled "Understood?" To which Swift gave a timid knod. Turning to face all the expectant faces looking at him, including the clearly scared Equestrians, he blandly stated "Get a transport for them and a medical team the Warrent Officer will be in charge until I return, this'll require some diplomatic bullet dodging as I'm sure you would expect." He waited several seconds but was just met with stares, "Get on with it then, get a transport and medical and those of you that require more sleep, get some".

The Trench became a flurry of activity as ponies rushed to their respective tasks, many just wanting to get back to sleep.

A short while later a handful of personal from the Royal Logistical Support Corps and a medical evacuation team from the Royal Slazic Medical Corps. As the Equestrians were carted away, the Lieutenant departing with them and the injured one given advanced first aid.

Sargent Nox Gust picked up one of the four Equestrian Rifles that were still resting on the trench wall.

"Weird looking things" Nightly remarked looking at the weapon in her her friends hooves.

"They're supposed to be infused with magic" She slid the bolt back to look into the chamber. "Look at this blue glow, wonder what damage that'd do"

"If these idiots don't stop shooting at them we'll most likely find out soon enough" Nightly replied in a semi joking tone, her face changed to be more serious as she queried, "They loaded?"

"Yup." Came the reply "If you could just fetch a bag I'll unload them, they'll probably want the bullets for testing"

"Won't be a second then" Nightly said as she went off to find a container for the ordinance.

Coming back a few minutes later they unloaded the rifles between them and placed the rounds into canvas draw bags, setting them down by the rifles.

"Should properly try and find the other rifle and get back to duty shouldn't we, rather than you two chattering on like fillies" remarked Noon Dust as he approached them.

"Yes Warrent Officer right away" They both replied in almost exact unison, Nightly going off to return to her post and Nox rushing off over the trench to try and find the rifle.

9 pm, Same day

The mood around the fire was a merry one, with the Soldiers justo mucking around and having a period of rest, and the smells of warm broth emanating from the various pots over the fires, and a rare crate of beer might of had an affect upon the general mood among the participants of the dances and singing. Every soldier had gotten a single bottle of beer as a unusual treat for the King's Birthday. One of the Privates got off his rump and raised his bottle to the sky while announcing "Here's to the King! Long live Aszure Moonlight! Long live Slazic, Glory!" Which was met with a round of cheers coming from the other Soldiers.

It was a clear night with Luna's sky being seen by the entire area, now the mist had dissipated slightly. A few ponies however were not enjoying the festive atmosphere in the rear support trenches, Temno Moon being one of them. She kept moving from hoof to hoof on the spot to try and keep warm in the close to freezing temperature.

As the minutes ticked by Temno sliently wondered to herself when this would blow over, or hoping it would blow over and not turn into a full blown conflict, something that would benefit no pony. Looking at the faint flashes of gunfire coming from the Equestrian training grounds she wondered how they must be feeling, most of them being so far away from home.

The next hour of her shift of the watch passed uneventfully, after handing over her post to another pony she yawned and set off to the step where she had taken to sleeping on. Temno took off her webbing and saddle bags, which weighed a ton, and after taking out the heavy blanket from the saddlebags, placed them along with her gun beside her and quickly went to sleep.

[centre]Next Morning, -49 Days before outbreak of violence[/centre]

There was lively chatter as each pony collected their daily ration of, 10 biscuits, half a loaf of bred and a small portion of various fruits along with the daily newspaper.

Private Long Wind sat down on the shooting step with his two friends, a still shaken up Swift Eventide and Night Dusk. Looking at the front page of the Slazic Standard he let out a "huh?" Upon seeing the headline plastered on the front and flicked to the page with the story.

STALLIONGRAD AMBASSADOR MURDERED
Police have announced yesterday that the Stalliongrad Ambassador to Slazic (Gorkiy Sladkiy) was found murdered in Loughty Lane, Trotslan in the capital nine days ago. The official statement about the injuries only revealed that he was shot a total of 7 times, inquires and still underway as to the identity of the perpetrator(s)

Long kept reading until Night Dusk looked over and remarked "What's so interesting? Any nice Mares in there?"

Looking up Long replied "The Stalliongrad ambassador got himself killed in a alleyway, looks like an assassination of some sorts according to this"

"So they don't know who done it?"

"Nope, I hope it isn't related to Equestria in anyway last thing we need is more tensions" Long said while reading the sports section of the News Paper, looking up and saying with a chuckle "You've caused enough of that already eh Eventide?"

"Well what else was I supposed to do? He was going to get away and tell them whoever knows what" Swift retorted with a hint of annoyance present in his voice, they had been on about the incident since they got up.

"Well shooting the bugger aren't going to smooth things over with them" Night hit back.

"We'll be alright, if they invade I'll eat my own cap" quipped Long

"Better start learning how to season fabric then" Night Responded jokingly

"Well..... even if we do go to war we have the advantage of the mountains, if the Equestrians ever got past these then I'd have to eat the rest of me uniform too"

All three had a laugh at the last statement.

After a few more hours of chatting they had to split up for their different duties, Swift had been given the lovely task of cleaning up the toilet area while Night and Long had been put on watch duty.

[centre]Equestrian encampment, Same day, 5 miles from border.[/centre]

The Equestrian Seargent Major was pacing up and down with worry, five personel had gone missing and it was a source of concern for her and the ponies in front of her. She knew that she would not only get a public dressing down but also a possible demotion as the 3rd Royal Skirmishers were considered an elite fighting force and her superiors wouldn't be pleased about a tarnish on its reputation.

Every pony in the room immediately snapped to attention and gave a salute as Brigadier General, Emerald Ground, walked in with various other officers with a look on his face wasn't exactly what could be called one of joy, as he had come for the necks of whoever was responsible.

"Five ponies, one Corporal, one Private First Class and three Privates. Any explanations as to why they've gone missing in the mountains near a nation that is currently less than friendly with us?"

The Seargent Major replied with a cautious degree of confidence "Sir, for all we know they could have simply gotten lost and we are already making preparations for a search party to try and find them, if you could just give us some time we'll most likely find them."

"You'll get your time, but mark my words if you don't find them in 48 hours heads will roll, understand"

"Yes Sir, of course Sir I understand"

"I'm glad you understand Seargent Major, because if you didn't I'd have you declared mentally incapable and shipped off to broadhoof" he turned and looked at the collection of other ponies in the room. "And the same goes to y'all also" This was followed by a series of gulps.

Emerald turned and left the office and walked out into Camp Fetluck's central area, which was populated with pre fabricated wooden buildings, something that had only been developed in recent years and was proving a valuable asset to the Army in being able to set up temporary bases in a matter of days, not months.

He dismissed the two Lieutenant Colonels and continued down the central road of the camp, he glanced up at the towering Alkais mountain range and spotted the usual glint of sunlight reflecting off a pair of binoculars. "Do they ever stop spyin on us?" He thought to himself. He turned a corner and started toward the training ground where a large contingent of 1,000 was conducting a mock battle against one another. The guns they were using had been another recent invention, they used magic to temporarily freeze any pony hit by one, which helped troops become accustomed realistic combat and (in theory at least) enter a battle ground with some sort of experience.

Emerald looked on as they conducted exactly what they had been trained for. He watched silently for a couple of minutes one side started to get an edge over the other before continuing on his way towards the officers mess. Opening the door and going inside faces turned to look at him followed by a flurry of salutes. "At ease" Emerald ordered in his thick southern American accent. Walking over to the serving area he picked a simple Daisy and Tomato Sandwich, quickly getting seated at the nearest table and tucking in.

Six hours Later, Alkais Mountains Trenchline Line

The Mist had settled on the trenches again, causing the temperature to plummet to a crisp 4 degrees when Lieutenant Arvo Noon was trudging down the trench on his way back to 3rd Battalion. He found that his unit had returned to normal from the earlier Incident, and proceeded to make his way to his underground office. Entering the damp domain he took his heavy great coat off and put it on the coat rack just past the door and went over to the fire to light it, being an officer did have its perks after all. After a short time the fire was kicking out a decent heat that quickly heated up his Office-Bunk.

He went over to a locked chest that he had brought with him and unlocked it, having to dig a little for the item he wanted, a 500ml bottle of Stalliongrad 49% proof Vodka, cost him a few bits to get it too. He looked at it for at while having a argument with himself wether or not to break his dry spell, shrugging he opened the bottle placing the lid to one side, looking at it for a little while more he then took a significant gulp from the strong liquid and swilled it around his mouth for a few seconds before swallowing and feeling the heavy warmth spread from inside.

The bottle didn't last for very long before Arvo was passed out in a drunken sleep.

Lunch was being served at the cookhouse in the rear trenches, with the various personel lining up for yet another mysterious hot lumpy broth, but it filled a hole and was warming so there were no complaints. Temno Moon and Star Finder had sat down together to eat the meal, the lack of Dusk Mist being due to her drawing the short straw and being assigned Lookout Duty, which ment they'd take her food to her as all 3 had agreed to do for each other.

Looking over to Temno, Star started a convosation with "Only one more day of this after today, can't wait for a tent again"

"Atleast the tents are warm, might as well be in the article up here, maybe we'll get another few crates of beer as a reward" chuckled Temno

"I'll be surprised if we do, was looking forwards to the leave... just had to happen right when we were about to get 2 weeks at home"

"Atleast we're not being shot at, gotta look at the positives"

"Suppose so." Star paused for a few seconds before continuing, "Heard anything about that Equestrian that was shot by one of our idiots?"

"I mean I haven't heard anything official about it but few ponies have mentioned secret meetings with the Equestrians, but it's most likely nothing"

They both stopped talking for a while as they just sat there eating. After several minutes Temno looked at Star and asked "Suppose we did go to war, I wonder how many of us would die"

"Hearing what they did in Stalliongrad? I'd guess that quite a fuckin few of us would get to meet the Pale Mare"

Temno looked at the ground for several seconds before replying "I just don't want my little sister to loose me" She looked up at Star "Plus I send half my pay back home to help mother, I'm not sure she would live if I died, She's sick enough as is"

Star looked at Temno cheerfully replying "I'm sure they wont attack, these mountains are heard enough for us. They'd get slaughtered if they tried"

Temno was visibly assured by this as she responded with a little knod.

They finished eating and downed the cup of awful tea, going over to the barrels of soapy water to wash their mess kits out. They then headded off to where Dusk was on watch duty after picking up some food for her.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully with the trench soon drenched in darkness.

Slazic-Equestrian border crossing, next morning, 49 Days before outbreak of violence

The carriage being pulled by two stallions was part of the Equestrian cultural assistance programs for the non Thestral inhabited areas. The carriages were ment to be carrying books and education material however underneath the boxes of innocent goods there were crates of guns, ammunition and various other bits of combat equipment. This illicit cargo was destined for the Equestrian Unitary Army, a Paramilitary wing of the Equestrian Unity Party. The EUA had only been founded a mere 2 months previously under the guise of a uniformed volunteer organisation called Ponies Unity Association, conducting training in secluded areas in the south and east alon with the pockets of the north.

Trundling along the carriage came to the border checkpoint where a member of the Royal Slazic Border Defence Corps came over from the small wooden hut by the side of the road. "Papers?" He asked in a deadpan voice, to which one of the stallions quickly retrieved from the pair of saddle bags he was wearing.

Checking over the list the Border Guard asked "Books, and Equestrian Flags, that all?"

"All we have on this here carriage, heavy enough as it is partner" The pony that had given him the papers replied in a country drawl.

The guard just looked at him, unamused by his attempt to sound friendly, as he was in his eyes atleast something of an enemy to his own nation, but it was a bit too much work for him to search yet another one of these carriages so he replied with "Continue then" as he walked back to the small hut.

The carriage continued for several hours and after dropping off its legal cargo it kept going until it arrived at a quiet secluded road that headed into a forest. The carriage turned and started trundling up the dirt track with the shadows cast from the tall evergreens making their surroundings become shrouded in darkness. Soon enough they arrived at the small training camp, equipped with a training area and even a few pre fabricated wooden buildings with the flag of Equestria flying alongside the flag of the EUA, the design of which being two golden stripes at the top and bottom followed by a purple with the middle third of the flag being a pale blue, with the centre being adorned with a round insignia consisting of a map of Slazic with no border with Equestria with EUA over the top of it.

The ponies that greeted them were dressed in either green coloured clothing or Crystal Empire uniforms, with all insignia taken off along with a few items of Slazic uniform. The only common identifying insignia between the approximately 450 ponies was a legband on the right foreleg that was the colours of the flag with EUA in bold black letters adorned over it.

The leader of the group, Coco Hazel, a Dark brown earth pony with a greenish cream mane trotted towards the carriage which had now stopped in the middle of the camps parade ground.

"What's the delivery this time?" Coco inquired

"Guns, ammunition and webbing, pretty sure they chucked some grenades in too along with some bayonets." Grunted one of the stallions.

"Fantastic!" Beamed Coco "Let's get them unloaded then" she said to the ponies around her, waiting expectantly for orders. The carriage almost instantly became a flurry of activity as the crates were efficiently unloaded and taken into piles to be taken to storage areas. The task was finished in an matter of minutes, with the crates neatly stacked and sorted into their respective items.

The carriage trundled back down the road as the ponies of the EUA started carrying the crates to the wooden storehouses.

Alkais Trenchline, Same time

Corporal Winter Sun walked down the trench with shadows under his eyes from lack of sleep, it was the same nightmare as always the night when his parents had been murdered. He held a special contempt for non Thestrals, it was after all one of them who had stolen his foal hood away from him. He was one of the very few who actually wanted war, actually wanted a chance to face battle with the enemy, but he wanted to do so to in his eyes avenge his parents and keep Slazic "pure".

Celestias sun was lowering with the chill of darkness coming over the trench in a matter of minutes. Winter watched as the sun went down, another day gone by without anything happening. "Atleast I'll be in a warm tent tonight and not this muddy trench" he thought to himself as he continued heading towards the road that would lead them back to Camp Fetsund. 2nd Battalion had already arrived to take over from 3rd Battalion and they were already grumbleing about the wet and damp conditions.

3rd Battalion loaded up into the carriages which would take them back to camp Fetsund and within an hour had arrived back at the camp, and wouldn't leave for the next five days until it once again became their turn to enjoy the conditions that the trenches offered.

The Battalion were in their beds withint the hour and very quickly fell asleek in the nice warm beds.

Two days later, 47 days before outbreak of violence

Privates, Long Wind, Swift Eventide and Night Dusk had gotten themselves arrested by the local police for starting quite a nasty fight in the local town pub and had been dragged back to camp Fetlock by Constable Beet Top.

Lieutenant Arvo Noon was less than pleased to see Swift Eventide yet again causing trouble. "So, what did they do exactly?"

Beet could've sworn she smelled alcohol but shrugged it off and said in a annoyed tone "These three got into a fight with one of the locals, glassing him over the head which then got his mates involved, might want to get that ones" She nodded to Night Dusk "Eye seen too, looks pretty swollen. And I assume you have a military police contingent with your unit?"

Arvo replied "Yes we do, they're on the other side of the camp"

Beet nodded and took a small bundle of papers from the pocket of her uniform and gave them to Arvo. "Here's all the required paperwork, and please keep your soldiers under control, you know how the locals already didnt like them in the first place. Good day" Beet then turned around and started walking back to the Police Station.

Watching her leave Arvo glared at the three ponies in front of him. "You two, toilet cleaning duty and help clean the laundry, and you're not going back into Fetlock until I say you can, now go and get back to doing something productive" he said to Night Dusk and Long Wind. "Oh and get that eye seen to". The two were visibly releaved by the punishments being relatively minor but left wondering if Swift would be so lucky. After they had left Arvo turned his attention to Swift Eventide. "Fancy seeing you again, atleast you didn't shoot somepony this time." Swift felt a rising feeling to dread slowly enimating from his chest and was wondering what punishments Arvo would have in store for him. "So, what do you have to say for yourself?"

"Well, Sir it really isn't as bad as it sounds the pony was alright he could still get up it was only a minor cut he got Sir" Swift blurted out practically tripping over his own tounge.

Arvo stepped out from behind his desk and looked Swift direct in the eyes. "I wouldn't consider any sort of behaviour of this sort from a solider let alone one who already got in trouble for almost starting a war." Arvo paced around Swift for several seconds before stating "If we were not currently in a state of high alert I trust you know chances are you'd be thrown in prison?"

Swift merely gave a small knod in responce.

"You'll be getting the same punishments as your two friends with the addition of cleaning guns for the rest of your available free time for the next two weeks" Arvo looked into Swifts slitted eyes again "I'm letting you off somewhat lightly, I hope you appreciate that. And if you put a single hair out of line again I'll fuck you over big time, understand?"

"Y..Yes Sir" replied a very small feeling Swift

"Good, now go." Swift very quickly left the room, as Arvo sat back down in his chair. He took the small flask of Vodka out from his pocket and drank a little bit from it before putting it back. "Fucking idiots" he muttered under his breath.

Dusk Mist and Temno Moon happened to be on the same rifle practice roster that day and with eight other ponies were sharpening their shooting skills. Temno, who was a particularly good shot already, was getting each shot spot on nearly every time.

"Didn't know you were that good" Dusk said looking over at Temno

"My father taught me when I was young how to fire a rifle, always useful to know in the northern parts of the country" Temno replied as she fired another shot off, and once again it hit ting dead on.

"I've always been a city mare, might explain my lack of skill compared to you" Dusk chirped.

"You just need to completely let go of all other thoughts and focus on steadying the rifle Dusk, take a deep breath and just focus on those crosshairs and with time it'll come, that's how my dad taught me to do it anyhow"

"Could maybe teach me how to do that sometime?"

Temno looked away from the target for a second and replied "Of course, you only have to ask me for help with anything."

"Thanks" Dusk said as the two continued shooting at the targets.

Truru, That evening, 180 miles away

Truru was Slazics second largest city and one of its main industrial hubs, with plumes of smoke coming out of smokestacks that reached to the sky. It was also one of the most diverse areas of Slazic in terms of population with the city being home to a 46% non Thestral population, which was highly unusual for any settlement in Slazic.

But tensions were growing within the city with it playing host to sizable branches of the EUA and the National Slazic Patriotic Guard (NSPG) the Paramilitary wing of the National Party. There had already been violence in the last few years with one of the largest riots Slazic had seen only occurring only 8 months ago.

The local NSPG contingent was guarding a National Party conference in a abandoned warehouse In a secluded part of the industrial area of the city. The National Party, well known for being extremely nationalistic, had been climbing in the polls along with the Equestrian Unity Party.

The leader of the National Party, a Dark Grey Stallion with a deep blue mane and, unusually, red eyes called Evening Shine got onto the stage to make a speech to the several thousand expectant faces in the audience.

"Slazic is a nation of tradition, of honour and a nation of thestrals. The EUP and their armed goons threaten the status of peace within not only out city but our nation, our government is reluctant to tackle the issue head on instead persuading a middle ground of compromise, or what is obviously bending over backwards for them. They threatened openly in parliment to use militaristic action, so I'm here to announce to them and I know that you'll be here, if you threaten our countries peace and ponies with your thugs who are too cowardly to openly say what they actually are, we will respond even if the government doesn't. And our force doesn't hide behind a veil of a volunteer movement , no, we openly shout in the streets that we are ready to fight you every step of the way should to try to harm our families and our friends and our way of life. Our results in recent elections gives us a rightful mandate to execute the will of the ponies who put their trust into us and our movement, their trust to protect their interests and their families interests, their trust that we will deliver a country that will shake off the compromises, the money drain and stand up to our bully of a neighbour. Slazic will never submit to the personality cult that is Celestia and should they force us we will fight until the last of us fall to the ground dead.

I promise you this, we will not allow our only homeland to become another Stalliongrad, you've all heard what is happening there with executions being common for minor crimes. I finish on this my friends, Slazic will never fall, Slazic will live for 800 years more and beyond."

The speech was met with a thunder of applause with shouts of support coming from throughout the building.

Soon after the conference had finished and the attendees poured out on their way home. The usual fights in the usual areas happened and we're dispersed by police. The sun set over Slazic, the powder which had always been present now for the first time was linked to a barrel, a barrel filled with black powder and all its would take is a single match.

Author's Note

Some more info on the different factions and some more insight into the Military. Any suggestions for the story would be appreciated as I'd like to see what direction you'd like this to take.
Next chapter should be out within the week with maybe a short bonus Chapter of some sort.