Gleaming Persona let out a cold shiver as she sat close to the fire. Severnaya was cold, stupidly cold. How did anypony even live here, let alone be warm enough to start a revolution? She let out a sigh, wrapping her mage coat tightly around her. The communist rebels had been trying to get independence, just to live alone here in this frozen wasteland? Why not just let them go? After all, she was a private in the 24th Mage Support company, just got out of her combat training a month ago, after graduating Celestia's school for talented unicorns. This endeavor didn’t seem worth it as she sat there, freezing in the mandatory mage robes she was supposed to wear, her division supposed to be the quite literal magic bullet to stop the Stalliongradian revolutionaries. She remembered seeing the other Equestrian soldiers. They were wearing helmets, warm coats, and had rifles around their shoulders. She'd always wanted to shoot a gun, but it was illegal to own one in Equestria, and her division was forbidden from having one. She let out a huff as she got up in frustration as she stormed back to her tent in the camp and sat down as her horn lit up making a small fireball to keep herself warm as she pulled out a tiny handbook she stole. It was a field manual for an artillery gun. She'd always read it to try to figure out how the gun works, but never was able to put her hoof on it. She'd look at the images and instructions every night for hours on end yet came up with nothing. It was her little ritual, to keep herself level headed and sane in the shitty situations the company has always been put through. She was flipping through it as she heard yelling from around the camp. She hid it in her robes and put the fireball out as she ran out of her tent. The Grandmaster, who acted as the company's highest commanding officer, was the source of the yelling. He went by no name other than Grandmaster, and he was an aged stallion, with a faded blue coat and a white mane, beard, and tail. His mastery of war magic was unmatched in all of Equestria, or so gleaming had heard.
"Gather around!" He shouted repeatedly until about 100 of the company’s mages stood around him.
"High command has given us orders!" He shouted. "We are to move towards the enemy lines and take an old Severnayan fort that the communist rebels are in. We are to take no prisoners. We are beginning said move in 20 minutes. Gather your spell books and put up your tents."
The crowd began to disperse to follow their general's orders, but Gleaming stood behind. She'd never gotten to talk to Grandmaster, only the higher mages being able to him in normal circumstances. But it wasn't a normal circumstance, at least to Gleaming. He was right there, seemingly lost in thought, so Gleaming decided it was now or never to approach him.
"G-grandmaster sir," she said nervously. He slowly turned and looked down at her
"Who are you?" He asked with an almost emotionless voice.
"I-I'm Gleaming Persona sir, I'm a n-newer mage in the company."
"You know the rules, you cannot directly talk to me, you must do so through the mage hierarchy."
"I know sir, but now that we might die soon, I feel like there isn’t enough time to wait the days needed to get a message to you."
"We won't die."
"You don't know that sir," Gleaming said, visibly shaking from her nervousness.
"Calm down young one. We are mages. We control the battlefield with our magic, no weapon can match our will, our will being that of nature."
"Can I at least ask a few things first sir."
He sighs. "You may."
"Why don't we use any modern equipment sir."
"It’s against our code, guns are not born from nature, they are made in a factory. For mages to be effective in combat, we must purge all sense of the unnatural from ourselves, which is why we must use a special uniform as well. And plus guns are inferior. A fireball destroys more than a bullet, as you will see soon. It's easier to summon than to load a rifle as well. No gun will fire faster than magic can be used."
"That makes sense, but why is our command structure different?"
"It makes it to where only the ones who work hard to become powerful mages can talk to me, who has worked the hardest of you all. Unlike you who should now leave and pack up."
"Yes sir." Gleaming began to walk away. "Thank you sir."
She waited for a response, but he turned and walked away. She sighed as she began to take her tent down and put it with all the others, as she began the trek with the others to the Severnayans’ holdout.
...
"How do ponies live here?" Gleaming thought to herself once more as she pulled her robes tighter around her as snow was violently blowing at her and the company. They were getting closer to the fort, but at the same time to the center of a snow storm. She couldn't see more than 5 hooves in front of her in the storm, meaning she couldn’t see nor coordinate with the rest of her company, which posed a problem for her as they approached the enemy position. Everything being not very visible did her another disservice, as she stumbled forward over a rock, straight into a trench. She landed on the snow, which cushioned her fall as she slowly stood up.
"Guys I found something!" She nervously shouted. She was always afraid to speak up, the entire company seemed to have no chemistry nor synergy. It felt less like a team and more of just a group of random ponies forced to work together. Gleaming was no expert, but watching the other Equestrian soldiers joke and laugh and interact, made her feel like it was necessary to have some sort of bond.
Luckily she wasn't ignored and some ponies came over to see what she was talking about.
"Well," one stallion said, carrying a spell book. "Seems like the communist defenses tore up the soldiers here."
He hopped down into the trench and poked a frozen dead body, as they saw a beam of light pass by them. Gleaming squinted in the direction it came from but saw nothing that could be its source through the wall of snow the storm made.
"I think it's a searchlight!" Gleaming said to the stallion who hopped into the trench.
"Alright. Everypony, hop in the trench and get down, we don't want to be caught," The stallion said. "These rebel bastards seem to know what they’re doing."
The group of ponies that were nearby Gleaming all hopped in the trench and looked around. They sent a higher ranked mage to contact the Grandmaster to get him to do the same. While they were all still somewhat close together, the storm’s noise disjoined most communication, which was usually done by shouting messages. But hopefully the messenger didn't have to go far. However the searchlight stopped, fixated on a certain spot.
"Oh no, I think they found them," Gleaming said.
"Yes...." The Stallion said. "Seen any fighting before?"
Gleaming shook her head.
"Me neither," he said. "I'm Fire Encendo. You?"
"Gleaming Persona."
"Well Gleaming, I hope we make it through this."
Just as he said that, a small, faint flash came from where the search light was at, and following it was a faint crack. The Severnayans were shooting at them. Shouting could be heard from where the search light was at, as Gleaming could make out a faint blue magic shield where the beam of light rested, and began to move towards the direction of the trench. More cracks could be heard along with their muzzle flashes, as the shield eventually was put down. Most of the ponies had made it to the trench and were filling it out.
"What happened?" Encendo asked a mage running down towards them.
"Sir, the rebels were shooting at us. They got a few but we got a shield up right away," the mage said. "Grandmaster wants us to bunker down here until the weather clea-"
Before he could finish his sentence a loud explosion, especially loud in this weather, was heard. Gleaming put her hooves to her ear and ducked, as more explosions could be heard.
"T-they shouldn't be able to hit us in this weather," Gleaming said, wincing at every explosion.
"Hit us with what?!?" Encendo said, panicked.
"Artillery guns!"
"How the fuck do starving rebels have those?"
"I don't know!"
Another shell went off, hitting a target down their trench, causing screams and then a thick red substance to be flung up into the air, standing out in the harsh white snow.
"You were saying Gleaming?" Encendo shouted, squinting down their trench line. "Everypony else seems to be putting their shields up, let's do so too."
Everypony’s horn lit up and Gleaming followed, creating a blue dome as a shell nailed straight into it. Gleaming let out a small scream.
Now that there was a link of shields, a new messenger came running down and kept shouting "When you hear the bell take the shields down and charge! When you hear the bell take the shields down and charge!"
"Well it'll get us out of this damn hole in the ground," Encendo said. "Goddamn couldn't we move the weather with Pegasi?"
"They probably have planes..." Gleaming muttered.
"What?"
"You know, planes. Those things that were made so ponies without wings can fly? They'll shoot down any pegasi we send up."
"I know what a plane is, but how the fuck do these no good farming rebels have planes?"
"They aren't farmers. With this amount of equipment they have to be industrial workers. Their issue is that they have factories but no food."
"Celestia told us they were farmers!"
"Celestia was wrong!"
Encendo looked at the floor as his ears drooped through his hat. "Oh no...."
"Oh no what? Encendo, what's wrong?"
Then the snow storm began to turn into light snowing as the sun began to come up. They could now see the Severnayans’ position. The fort that they were supposed to charge was revealed to be nothing but rubble and ruins, as a singular search light was on its only somewhat stable pillar, with a pony with a rifle at his side standing looking around. When he saw that the weather had cleared up and trench Gleaming was sitting in he jumped in shock and began to frantically climb down the ladder. In front of the fort's ruins was another trench line, this one filled with Severnayans. She could see the pony run around the trench, and she could faintly hear him shouting, then the shouting got louder, as she saw ponies get behind machine guns, and watched as the artillery guns recalibrated to get a proper shot. Gleaming held her breath. The sun was continuing to rise as she squinted harder at them. She could see determination in their eyes. When she looked back at her fellow mages, all she saw was cockiness and laziness. And then she heard the sound she dreaded to hear. The sound of a bell ringing. She heard all the shields go down as all the mages climbed out of the trench and charged. Gleaming was hesitant, but she finally got a hold of herself and climbed out, wishing she could have stayed back.
As she began to run forward, the sound of heavy gunfire filled the air. The cracks coming from the rifles, the loud poundings coming from the artillery, and finally the thing that Gleaming would hate the most, the constant bangs coming from the machine guns. The machine guns held no mercy, they took no prisoners. The first few soldiers to meet its wrath met a terrible fate. Entire limbs coming off from the large caliber of the bullets as they would fall to the ground, as blood spilled out from where the limbs once were, as the ground and snow became soaked in scarlet red as their screams continued until there was no more blood left to be drained. Everypony quickly gathered together and put up magic shields, Gleaming cowered behind one of them as she held her breath as the shields slowly advanced towards the enemy trench. The machine guns focused their fire on the shields, and the shields deflected the bullets making the sound like glass was shattering. Gleaming hoped it would hold, they were getting so close to fireball range, just if they made it a little bit further. But then the shield broke, the shards of the magic glass going everywhere. Gleaming dropped to the ground immediately as she saw the bullets go through everypony in front of her. They fell to the ground like rag dolls, Gleaming watching as their limbs were torn off, holes being violently formed through their chest making large holes that sometimes had their insides fly out from the back. One who was standing by Gleaming had a bullet go through his head. Like a needle through a water balloon, his head popped as blood began to flood out from his neck. Gleaming felt some of it fling onto her face as she rubbed her cheek and looked down at her hoof, seeing the sticky red substance. She looked down at the floor and began to vomit out what felt like every meal she had for the past year. When she was done she crawled through the corpses, knowing it was her best way to avoid fire. When she stood up and began to run to the trench again, her robes and floof had red stains all over it.
The machine guns kept focusing on the remaining groups of ponies with shields, ignoring the individuals that were not behind one. When she got close to the trench, Gleaming's horn lit up as she concentrated on making a fireball. When it finished forming she chucked it at the closest machine gun operator. He let out a loud scream as he fell back into the trench, lighting others near him on fire. Gleaming winces as she made it to the trench as a Severnayan shot her in the right shoulder with his rifle, causing her to fall to the ground, not able to put weight on her shoulder anymore. She summoned a sword with her magic and sent it straight through his neck as blood spurted out of it as he fell limply to the ground. Gleaming gagged as she threw another fireball into the trench, lighting anypony else by it on fire. She let out a tired pant as she used her magic to pull out the bullet from her shoulder as she let out a cry of pain. She slowly layed down as she looked down the trench line. She saw fireballs being flung at the machine gunners, who in turn kept mowing down more and more mages. Gleaming swore as she began to heal her shoulder with a spell, watching the hole that was gushing blood come together and reform to what it once was. She slowly stood up and hopped into the part of the trench that wasn’t burning, and did an ice spell to put out the flames. She began to slowly walk down the trench line, making a magic sword with a spell. But before she got to any of the Severnayans, she heard them shouting and running away, getting out of the trench. Some mages still threw fireballs at them but the enemy dispersed well and the fireballs mostly whiffed. The few that were hit were rolled in the snow by their comrades to put them out, and then dragged away somewhere.
“Holy shit!” A mage shouted. “We won!”
“No way they would just retreat,” another said, slightly concerned.
“Sometimes a loss is actually a loss!” The first one said again.
“They have another trench.” Gleaming said flatly, peeking out of the trench that they took.
“What?”
“They vanished into the ground. There is no way they got far enough away to disappear out of our sight.”
“What makes you say th-”
The mage was then cut off by a loud noise. An odd noise, unfamiliar to them all. It sounded reminiscent of a tractor, but with loud metal screaming as something was grinding against the wheel, the sound of dirt and snow being scooped up and moved. It sounded like what everypony through a metal machine meant to slaughter thousands would make. And then the culptript to making the noise began to peek above the trench. It was covered head to toe in worn steel, it having two massive caterpillar treads. On its top was a dome, with two barrels sticking out, the top one being larger. From its back, gray smog could be seen pouring out from its exhaust pipe. It was rather fast for how heavy it looked, rattling as its engine churned. Then a small latch was closed shut on what gleaming assumed to be the hole in which the driver could see out of. Soon the behemoth got close enough as it came to a halt. Gleaming looked at it, as it gave her a lifeless look back with the barrel of its gun. Soon the dome began to turn as it stared the Grandmaster dead in the eyes. The old mage scowled as his horn began to glow, and in front of him a massive fireball materialized. He then flung it at the metal machine, the fireball encompassing it. He let out a tired sigh as he closed his eyes, feeling relieved. But that relief meant nothing as the smoke from the fireball dissipated, there stood the machine, its outside red hot, but being cooled by the snow falling on it. All Gleaming could hear was a metal clang as the machine shot a shell at the Grandmaster. The point of it pierced the Grandmaster, his body instantly exploding as Gleaming saw his organs and blood fly in every direction. She let out a gasp as she hid back in the trench. She began to hyperventilate when she heard a machine gun go off, assuming it was the other barrel on the machine. She saw bodies fall, torn to shreds just like they were when charging the trench. She put her hoof to her mouth to stop herself from screaming as tears flooded down her face. Some ponies began to put up shields, but when that happened she would hear the screech of a shell fly towards it, going through the shield and the ponies behind it. All the mages tried to use their best ranged spells at it, but all of it bounced off its armor. One mage tried to run up to it with a magic sword, but the machine just accelerated and ran him over, turning his body into a red imprint on the snow. Some of the mages began to flee as Gleaming refused to leave the trench, thinking she’d be safe. As the others fled, the machine gun on the machine only gave mercy when it had to be reloaded. All Gleaming could do was pull her mage hat over her face and hope she’d live.
After a bit, she decided to peek out of the trench. And what she saw made her piss her robes. The machine was right there. She let out a terrified scream and fell back. She saw the front latch of the machine open as a pony got out and looked at Gleaming.
“I surrender!” Gleaming said, throwing her hooves up in the air, her face covered in tears. “Please don’t kill me!”
The pony jumped down into the trench as Gleaming let out a whimper. He was wearing a thick coat, with a worn ushanka on his head.
“Don’t worry,” He said in Equish with a thick Severnayan accent. “I won’t hurt you.”
Gleaming looked over at the machine. “W-what is that thing?”
“That is what we call a tank. An armored machine meant to be a counter to infantry. You and your friends found that out the hard way.”
Gleaming began to notice the other soldiers coming her way. “What will you all do with me?”
“We will take you back to the bunker we have in our other trench. We will treat you well, like you are one of our soldiers.”
“Why not just kill me, not like anypony will notice.”
“That is not why we fight. We fight against Celestia because she oppressed us. She did not give us aid nor took legal action while the capitalists ran wild in our land, and drained our lives. She let it happen, wanted it to happen. We are trying to do the right thing, and it is not the right thing to kill you because we can. The right thing is to save you.”
“What will I do?”
“You can wait for this whole thing to blow over, and you can go home. Worry not, we will keep you from harm.”
“What is your name?”
“Szhiganiye Snaryady, or in your language, Burning Shell. But my friends call me Snada. What do you go by?”
“M-my name is Gleaming Persona.”
“Well my friend, you look cold, and traumatized. Let us get going, you look like you need some warm soup to eat and a fire to sit by.”
Gleaming nodded as she climbed out of the trench, her artillery booklet she kept in her robes falling out. As Gleaming looked at the tank, less intimidated by its presence, Snada looked at the booklet. It was odd for somepony of a mage company to have, but maybe her knowledge of modern weapons is what got her this far. Magic had always been such an Equestrian thing, the nation justifying their very existence on it.He looked back at her, seeing her now fascinated with the tank that earlier struck fear into her heart. She didn’t seem like an Equestrian at heart, she lived because she wasn’t like her comrades. She lived because she learned to move on, to live with the present, with its new fighting standards, either when she was waiting or in the heat of battle. When the two got back to the Severnayan base, he would talk with her. They got along quite well, as Snada shared parts of the Severnayan culture with her and Gleaming shared her magic expertise. But she always complained about how she never learned how to use electricity, operate a gun, or fire an artillery piece. She said that was the one thing she dreamed of doing. And Snada promised her she would do that, one day. Maybe there would be something grander in the future for her to play with. Gleaming was done with looking to the past. She was done with the old, the scarring, the traumatizing. She was ready to move on with her life, and move on she shall do.
