Renaissance

Act I: Terminus ut Exordium
Chapter I: Stranger

War. War changes everything.

This thought, although it had come to her mind before, rang through Fleur de Lis' mind louder than ever before as she quickly copied the Lunar Empire's battle plans onto a separate parchment with a simple copy spell. She couldn't remember how many days it had been since the war between the Solar and Lunar empires had begun. All she could remember was the work she had undertaken once it did. Stories of mares partaking in adventures of cloak and dagger had always intrigued her as a filly. And to be able to perform such missions for a righteous cause was a thrill in and of itself, but she never let that go to her head. She always kept in mind why she was doing it, lest she stray from her path. Ponies like her walked a road that lay between two other paths, but she knew that those would only lead her to ruin. And besides, she wasn't one to blindly follow the desires of others. Everything she did was of her own volition, her own choice, and her decision was to walk the thin gray line between justice and punishment, light and dark, ...day and night.

She shook her head and focused as she rolled up the parchment containing the copied battle plans and put it in the scroll bag on her left thigh. The mission came first, she could ponder upon other things afterwards. Her work was too important for her to get caught up in philosophical strings of thought in the middle of a mission.

Information gathering was always the easiest of missions, especially when you were considered a member of the army you were getting the information from. It was sneaking in and out of the tent where the information was kept that was the hard part. Luckily, she had been born with a horn. Magic always did seem to make things much easier than they otherwise would be.

Using a thermal vision spell, she was glad to see that the guards she had sent off with words of an intruder were still gone. She swiftly exited the tent, and with hurried but calm steps she began to make her way back to the center of camp, where some soldiers were chatting amongst themselves about advice on weapon usage, and others were eating.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, leaning against a lantern post, the light of the flame in the glass and metal dancing off of her pale pink mane and white fur. In her line of work, most ponies couldn't hide in plain sight everywhere they went. But she was a different kind of mare. Her horn glowed as she stood straight off of the lantern post, and she grabbed her double-bladed glaive from her back, the magnetism disabled by her magic.

She knelt on the ground as her free hand reached into her hip pouch, grabbing a whetstone. She began to sharpen the edges of her blades just a little, knowing they couldn't have dulled that much since the last time she wielded it. She didn't know what drew her to glaives, if it was the stylishness of the attack patterns and drills or simply the look of the weapons themselves, she couldn't tell.

Anypony who was in her line of work would have been able to tell that she was stalling. But she was doing it for a good reason, rather than out of simple laziness or cowardice. She was waiting, waiting for her chance to do things without having to worry about being asked an array of questions or getting caught. It was essential for her to carry out the rest of her plan and get away undetected.

She was to be a stranger, who let them think they knew her. She wondered for a moment what the Solar Empire would do with the intel she had just acquired. Daybreaker was both ruthless and efficient in her planning and carrying out of attacks, having intel on exactly where the Lunar Empire was sending, and already had troops; would allow her to easily grasp a vicious victory.

Time always seemed to pass slower in moments like the one she was in. She was ready, but forced to wait. It made her a little anxious, but she knew that patience was a virtue, especially in her line of work. It did give her time to pause and think however, still sharpening her glaive's blades all the while. She found herself feeling... a little nostalgic for some reason.

...I wonder how mum and mom are doing. I hope they aren't having a hard time with me being gone almost all the time... She took a deep breath, setting her whetstone on her thigh for a moment. Her now free left hand came to rest on her right arm, covered by a mix of cloth, chainmail, and ultra light plate like her left. I left right after I was conscripted... It's been so long since I've seen them, and so long since I've been home. I miss them. ...I miss my room too, ...and my car.

Fleur snapped out of her thoughts, back to focusing on her current situation. She knew it was only a matter of time before she could make her next move. It wasn't officially part of her mission, but she had always considered herself a bit of a heroine. And so, she'd personally added it to the list of objectives in her mind. Come on, give me the distraction I need... It should be about time for it to happen, I know the intel I received was accurate, but it didn't state the exact minute that-

"THE SOLAR EMPIRE IS CHARGING! EVERYPONY GET TO YOUR STATIONS!!!"

There it is. Fleur smirked as she pocketed her whetstone and stood up. She brought her glaive around to attach itself to the magnets on her back once again, and her feet began to move once more. She knew where she was going because she had seen it on her way to the intelligence tent, and knew that under an attack it wouldn't be guarded. It was time to initiate part two of her operation.

Helping those who cannot help themselves.