Green Sun: Anthology

History

“... and that is why the Princess is elected now rather than being hereditary.” an earth pony stated plainly to the colts, fillies, griffons chicks, and changeling nymphs filling the desks in front of him as he sat at the back of the classroom, “Before The War, leadership was essentially just left up to the alicorns because they happened to be alicorns, though before the Tiberium Age, their leadership did have merit.”

“What about Twilight?” one of the students asked, getting a short chuckle from the earth pony.

“She was originally a unicorn and ‘earned her wings’ so to speak by creating new magic, so they bestowed some responsibilities to her before things… declined.”

“Before tiberium.” another student chimed in.

“Exactly. Now we have just a few more minutes before the bell rings so before we get into the War tomorrow, I need a volunteer to tell me the two main factions that fought…. Golden Apple?”

“GDI and the bad guys.” the young farm filly stated matter-of-factly.

“I… yes, GDI and the Brotherhood of Nod.” the teacher corrected, "We'll go into more detail about both sides tomorrow before the timeline of the conflict. For now, go ahead and pack up and when the bell rings you can leave.”

With a gentle wave of his hoof, the lights turned back on and the projector shut off and once the students began putting their belongings away, he trotted leisurely to his desk at the front of the classroom. All the while, he ignored the holes being bored into the back of his head by some of his students accompanied by the barely audible whispers that stopped only when he walked by. Once he took a seat at his desk he had to refrain from letting out a sigh of relief when the bell rang and his students all galloped to go enjoy recess.

Once clear, he ran a robotic hoof through his mane and slumped back into his chair.

“Bad guys…” he mumbled bitterly, eyes lingering on his prosthetic limb as he let it rest on the desk. The Marked of Kane emblem had been polished off shortly after the war, but the construction was iconic to anyone who had survived the fighting and the inscription never truly went away.

“Bad guys…” he repeated under his breath, sighing once more, “Fighting for freedom… fighting for friendship… equality.”

He almost spat that word out, looking back up to the now empty chairs that had held the various races that made up this post-war world. The next generation of GDI was sitting in his classroom and they saw him as the enemy. He made no attempt to hide his past, an old photo taken of him and his unit before he became Marked was on the book shelf by his desk and the flag of both factions were hanging at the back of the room on either side of a tattered Equestrian flag.

Impartiality was treated with contempt, and his service in both armies was vilified.

“Let me guess, something a filly said got under your skin.”

The female voice cut through his brooding like a laser through paper, bringing his attention to the doorway where a griffon was leaning against the frame. Like the stallion she was part machine, sporting wings of GDI make and a gleaming blue eye to contrast with her natural brown one that better matched her earthy plumage.

“Well you know me, not much skin left so what’s left is really sensitive.” Inky Parchment deadpanned, gesturing to his remaining tan fur with a mechanical limb. The seriousness dropped quickly as a smirk turned into a chuckle, and soon enough they were both laughing.

“So right on the head?” she asked.

“It’s hard not to when we get to the War, Gena, I se-”

“‘Served in both armies. Honorable service for what I thought was right!’ and all that. I’ve heard it before, Inky, and you can’t keep dwelling on it.”

“At least let me get one monologue off this time.” he chided, standing up slowly and trotting over to her, “Lest I lecture our lunches and radicalize our water bottles.”

That comment got another laugh, as well as a cautionary finger waggle from the griffon as they both began towards the teacher’s lounge. The last time he joked about that a colt worriedly told his parents that his teacher was trying to bring back Kane in the cafeteria, and neither of them wanted to get another talking to from the principal.

“They’re still children, Inky, that’s why you’re here, to put something in their heads worth remembering.” Gena told him as they rounded a hallway corner, only to have to both sidestep to either side of the hallway as another stampede of fillies, colts, fledglings, and nymphs went running past with another teacher trotting behind trying to keep up. After the flood of screaming, giggling little ones passed by, Gena and Inky traded knowing smiles and started forward again.

“Uh oh, someone sounds like a Conf-”

“Don’t even think about it, I will tape a fake power button to your flank again.”

“Oof, low blow.” Inky teased. The two veterans made their way to the lounge, enjoying their lunch and trading quips. They had always been the most comfortable with each other compared to the rest of the faculty, that bond of surviving a war rather than seeing it on the news kept them close despite the usual divide between history teachers and math teachers that seemed to always exist regardless of school.

Their day was on track to be a normal one, but as always happens in institutions of learning, a vice principal sticking their head into the teacher’s lounge heralded a midday shakeup. Before he even spoke, Inky and Gena looked at each other with concern.

“Mr. Parchment… uh…” he older mare whispered, her body language showing just how uncomfortable she was, “There’s been an incident in your room…”

“Who’s been hurt? How can I help?” The cyborg replied instantly as he shot out of his chair. Before he could get too far he was stopped by a hoof on his shoulder.

“No one, no one. However, there’s been a uh, graffiti incident.” the vice principal stated nervously, causing Inky’s shoulders to slump and Gena’s expression to fall.

“Again…?” Gena asked, getting only a solemn nod.

“Let me guess. They painted ‘Traitor’ on my door again.” Inky muttered, getting yet another nod.

“If you want to call it quits for today, go home and recov-”

“No.”

“Mr. Parchment, there’s no weakness in setting boundar-”

“Mrs. Quill, I appreciate it. I really do.” Inky said, his voice coming back to him as his mismatched eyes met hers, “But I’m not going to run away with my tail between my legs because a child acted on impulse. I won’t press charges, same as last time.”

Vice Principal Quill was taken aback, but gave yet another nod before gesturing out of the teacher’s lounge. Gena was quick to follow after as they got to Parchment’s room to observe the graffiti, only for him to let out a barking laugh.

“They misspelled it!” he exclaimed, “I guess I’m a tractor, not a traitor!”

Mrs. Quill did her best to not engage, an effort that Gena didn’t even give thought to as she broke out into laughter as well, her light tones making her coworker smile.

“I change my mind, I want whoever did this to have lunch detention for a week, and extra spelling homework. If they’re going to vandalize my room they should at least do it properly.”

“You’re still not offended?” Mrs. Quill asked incredulously.

“Of course I am. But I’m not destroying a student’s life because they did something stupid. They’re children, they make mistakes, we all did at their age, some more severe than others. Discipline them, let me teach them why what they did is wrong, but don’t get the courts involved… besides..” Inky told her, his firm tone softening a bit. With a smile he walked up to the graffiti, gesturing for Gena to pull her phone out and take a picture as he posed with the barnhouse red paint and let off a gleeful grin.

“Whoever did this? They’re not entirely wrong. It’s always nice to have a backup job ready, and enough of me is metal that I could legally be classified as farm equipment.”