Flash

Pain.

Quiet Watch's eyes snapped open. His mind struggled to make sense of his situation. He was sprawled across a cold wooden floor. He tried to look around but dust clouded his sight. He tried to take a breath. He gasped in shock as a sharp throbbing agony spiked through his lungs. He groaned and coughed, trying to clear the dust from his eyes and take in a full breath. His whole body from his wings to his hooves felt like it had been used for company bayonet practice. Gritting his teeth, he rose and shifted his weight onto shaky hooves. He tried to think, where was he, why, how?

"Hello?" He called out in a tinny voice. His throat felt like it was on fire. A moment passed with no reply. He shook his head and finally cleared the pricking dust from his eyes. He yelped with fear.

He was inside what used to be a building, likely a medical clinic judging by the fancy metal tools and stretchers that lay scattered around the room. The walls creaked in protest as a wind that he could not feel washed through the building. He shivered anyways. He coughed again, trying to clear his throat. His brain caught up with the circumstances. He fumbled around the kit strewn about his ratty woolen uniform until he found his boxy respirator. He hastily attached it to his muzzle, uncomfortably aware of how tight it felt. The rational part of his mind quickly pointed out that he'd been lying unconscious for at minimum a few minutes, long enough for any contaminant to have already rooted itself deep inside his body. He opted to keep the mask on anyways, if nothing else the confining filter kept his breaths steady and measured.

He took stock of his other equipment, his submachine gun lay a short distance away from him, looking bent in a few places. His helmet came loose sometime before or during the event that knocked him out. It lay across the room, cracked in half. He picked up his damaged weapon, for comfort if nothing else. None of this made any sense. He tried to remember where he was supposed to be.

Manehattan. His memories briefly rushed into him before dripping away like sand through his hooves. That made sense, but the building's state of decay made it seem like he'd woken up in some ancient ruin, not one of Equ-bad thoughts- the Solar Empire's biggest cities.

He called out again, "Jade! Tassel! Are either of you out there?" There was no reply.

Muttering to himself, Quiet Watch stepped carefully across the wreckage towards what he thought was the exit. He kept his submachine gun level with the door, he was supposed to be fighting... something. He couldn't remember who exactly. Could he have fallen? Through a window maybe? He glanced to his left and saw the shattered remains of a mirror, the largest piece reflected yellow draconic eyes. Gifts of his Thestral heritage, from Lu-her. He flexed his leather wings and let out a hiss of pain, his right wing was clearly injured. Flying is out then.

He reached what must have been a reception area and felt his jaw go slack. The room was no better than the one he'd come from, chairs and other objects were strewn about it, but the entrance stole his breath. It had once been some elaborate double-door setup, likely with all the high-class pomp Manehattan was famous for, but now it was totally destroyed. It was as if some giant monster had torn the doors out of their frames and thrown them away. Moreover, the outside didn't look like where he was supposed to be at all. Manehattan didn't have dirt roads.

He cautiously stepped outside and nearly dropped his gun in shock. He was in Manehattan, or at least, what used to be Manehattan.

It wasn't gone exactly, but the soul of the city had been ripped out of it and scattered to the four winds. Looking down both ends of the street in disbelief Quiet saw that every building in sight mirrored the one he'd woken up in. Windows blown out, walls cracked and crumbling, smoke rising over the horizon. He couldn't see the sun in the sky. He could scarcely imagine what had caused such untold devastation. This is worse than the rebellion. He shuddered violently and fought to repress the memory, but confronted by such destruction and without the ~~tyrant~~ loving sun shining down on him, he could not resist.

It all came flooding back. Before the Federal Republic, before the Changelings... they'd tried to stop Celestia from falling to her darker nature. They'd failed, and so, by Luna's grace, they'd tried to save Harmony in Equestria, and they'd failed at that too.

They'd made their stand in Manehattan, all or nothing. He'd been a freedom fighter for barely three days before their forces were overrun and liquidated. Quiet Watch remembered being herded into prisoner pens by the thousands. He remembered the firing squads, the fiery Inquisitors, and the terrible decision he'd been forced to make.

Convert or die.

Most ponies fancied themselves as heroes. Proudly, they'd proclaimed to one another their willingness to die for Harmony. One by one they'd whistled the tune of the Equestrian anthem as Solar Militia took them to the pits. Quiet Watch had listened as, one by one, the whistling was abruptly cut off by cracking rifle volleys. He didn't know why he'd been overlooked again and again by the steely-eyed Inquisitor who chose which prisoner would next go to their deaths. Maybe it was his light-grey fur that stood out against the sea of deep black and blue Thestrals. Maybe it was his silence during the boasts and death oaths of his comrades. Maybe it was because he never once could meet the eye of the Inquisitor, unlike his defiant friends. Maybe it was fate. Whatever the reason, he was eventually the last one left in his pen. He remembered the feeling of his heart sinking when the Inquisitor finally beckoned him to his hooves. To his credit, he had not broken instantly.

"Ready to recant, heretic?" The tall Unicorn Inquisitor wore a resplendent greatcoat and carried a wickedly large-looking pistol. Quiet Watch did not have the courage to speak but jerkily shook his head no. The Inquisitor just laughed and yanked him forward with his magic. He dragged him, kicking and crying, all the way to the edge of the pit and held him aloft over the edge. Quiet Watch, try as he might, was forced to remember finally opening his eyes and looking into the faces of his erstwhile comrades staring up at him with no life in their eyes. He remembered his squeal of fear and beginning to beg.

He had not been the only turncoat amongst the defeated that day. Ponies from other pens, or who'd sided with Luna elsewhere in Equestria, who'd made the same choice as him. Enough to create a new military position: Auxilia. A step into both worlds. Trusted enough to hold a rifle, but not to be left unattended. They'd been split up and placed in the service of the most diehard Solaris army regiments. They'd found no friends, but they quickly learned unquestioning obedience to the Empire and how to grovel.

Then came the Changelings, then came the Federal Republic. Quiet Watch was a veteran of hundreds of battles. Years of war. It had taken that long for his unit to refer to him as anything other than "the turncoat Thestral". Still, that did not stop the reprimands, the extra duties, the beatings...

Quiet Watch blinked his eyes back into focus, putting the awful memory behind him. That was then, this was now. He had to find his unit. Bastards they were, but they were all he had. He tried to remember what had happened prior to him waking up but could only picture blurry images and half-spoken orders. Defend the city, some sort of troop landings. Yes, That was it! The Federal Republic, ponies of the East who'd successfully democratized the griffons. They'd finally come to save Equestria. Quiet Watch had briefly entertained the idea of defecting to them... but he was not suicidal. He'd tried fighting a Goddess before, and that was with Luna at their side! He'd seen the Changelings annihilated at Vesopolis and Tall Tale. If the Federal Republic ponies wanted to die young, they'd come to the right place.

Then again, why was the city in ruins? Did Daybreaker decide it was worth destroying to hamper her enemies? It was possible but it left more questions than answers.

I've got to find others. In truth, Quiet Watch wanted to find someone to tell him what to do. Though lacking initiative, he had become a formidable warrior in service of the eternal sun. He'd gained significant combat experience fighting the Changelings. Experience that he'd sorely lacked during Luna's revolt. He shook the semi-treasonous thoughts from his head. He was going to survive.

He picked a direction at near random and began making his way down the street. Slowly, carefully avoiding possible ambushes or snipers, he traversed deeper into the ruined city. Devastation was too kind a word for what was wrought on Manehattan. Each building he passed was a corpse, gutted and rotting. Fires were spreading quickly, so much so that he had to alter his path several times to avoid the worst smoke. He'd stopped and laid low twice when he thought he'd heard voices. He couldn't be sure there weren't enemies inside the city and without being able to see them it was better to be safe than sorry. He didn't hear any gunfire, however, which was very strange. If Daybreaker had scorched the city to deny it to an invader, why wasn't that invader even there?

Then he started finding bodies.

He'd wondered where everypony had gone. Now he knew. Charred corpses strewn around abandoned barricades, civilians in huddled masses. He called out but nopony responded. He was thankful for the respirator, it helped mitigate the stench a little. Any sane pony would have turned and run. Failing that, they would have broken down crying and waited for death to claim them.

Quiet Watch was far from a sane pony, though. He pushed forward, barely sparing a thought for the gruesome scenes around him. He had no love for his fellow soldiers, at least those not from his unit. To him, they were the same fanatics who'd stormed Manehattan the first time, come to join the original defenders in their grim fate. A biting voice in the back of his mind reminded him he had joined those same fanatics, but he tried to ignore it.

That desensitization lasted until he made it to Manehattan Central Square.

"In Harmony's name!" He shouted in as much awe as raw fear.

Manehatten Central Square was a massive area comprising the most famous shops across Equestria. The latest dishes were featured in its restaurants, the trendiest fashion lined its viewing windows, its enterprising inventors advertised the newest magical innovations, and much more.

Now, it was gone.

Reduced to a hole in the ground.

A massive crater was all that was left. Not even the stoic Quiet Watch could process that. He looked to his hooves and saw he was shin-deep in ash. This had been the epicenter of whatever had been done to Manehatten. The crater was hundreds of meters across. He could barely imagine what monstrous power could have done this. Total annihilation, the deaths of thousands, no, tens of thousands! He could not understand how it was possible.

Then Quiet Watch heard a noise, looked down into the bottom of the crater, and knew how it was possible. She had done it.

What happened next was as much a surprise to Quiet Watch as it was to anypony who may have been watching, not that there was anypony left to watch. For so long he'd kept to his namesake. In the face of trauma, he'd thrown his beliefs to the wind to preserve his meager hide. He'd bowed low, scraped the mud, and debased himself to survive. It was his nature.

Instead of any of that, he charged down the steep slope of the crater right toward a Goddess.

His warcry would have been pitiable even if it wasn't muffled by his respirator. The loose ground beneath his hooves slid out from under him, and he scrambled to recover his footing in the shifting dirt. Failing that, he spread his wings to balance himself, which turned out to be a mistake.

He cried out in pain as his right wing folded back flowing with sharp pain. He tumbled end over end and rolled down the crater slope, feeling every impact on his bruised and battered body. After an agonizingly long fall, he slid to a stop at the bottom of the crater. Briefly regretting his foolish actions, Quiet Watch opened his eyes and remembered exactly why he had reacted that way.

In front of him, right at the lowest point of the crater, the Alicorn of his nightmares sat, facing away from him. Her white fur was pristine as ever despite the falling ash and smoke. Her crown, horseshoes, and other accouterments were gone, discarded, or destroyed. Her mane flickered strangely from a fiery blaze to the soft multicolored hue he remembered from his youth. Before the rebellion, his betrayal, or the wars that followed. It toyed with his nostalgia and made him angry.

"You monster! How could you do this to us?!" All notions of self-preservation tumbled away in the face of this atrocity. What was there left to give? She'd taken their freedom, their hope, and now, their country. Quiet Watch leveled his battered submachinegun, uncaring of how futile it would be to stand against an Alicorn.

For her part, Daybreaker did not even notice he was there. She was mumbling to herself, over and over again, while cradling something in her hooves.

Quiet Watch sputtered in rage. He tore his respirator off to make himself louder. "You can't ignore me, you can't hide from this!" He screamed, trying not to choke on the poisoned air. He pulled the trigger of his gun.

The old submachine gun clattered out three shots before stopping with a loud KA-CHUNK. Quiet Watch growled in frustration and threw the weapon onto the ground. He took a rasping breath, it was getting harder to breathe, and drew his combat knife. He could see he'd hit with all three shots, but they'd barely scratched the Alicorn's hide. However, they had stirred her from her stupor.

She rose and whirled around to face him, her face twisted in outrage, then despair, then back to outrage. He could see she held a gold and jeweled tiara in her hooves. It was not her size and though Quiet Watch thought he recognized it, he did not care.

"How could you!" He cried in indignation as he stumbled forward. To his surprise, he wasn't instantly annihilated by Alicorn magic.

"Y-you dare accuse us?!" Daybreaker shouted as she straightened to her full height, towering over him. Her facial muscles twitched rapidly, and her mane flickered between fiery and colorful at faster and faster intervals. "It was not us who did this, a bomber got through... we had not thought a single plane would-" Her head jerked violently to the side. When she blinked her golden eyes were replaced by magenta ones.

"W-what?! No! Not this, this is not what I had wanted-" another jerk and the fire surrounding her grew brighter and hotter. Her hateful golden eyes returned.

"Silence, weakling! This is merely a new stage of the conflict, we will win, we will w-" she paused, not because of another personality transition, but because the Thestral in an Auxilia uniform was trying to stab her to death.

Quiet Watch summoned every ounce of strength he had left and thrust with his knife. It slammed into Daybreaker and finally managed to cut a small gash through her pristine coat. She hissed, more in indignation than pain.

"You welp! After the mercy that we showed you!" Her horn lit up with magic. "We should have buried you all when we had the chance!"

Quiet Watch saw his life flash before his eyes. It was strangely comforting. For the first time in what felt like an age, he was no longer afraid. "Go ahead, kill me, what's one more body to your tally?" He gestured to the hell that surrounded them. "You did this, you crushed those who tried to save you. Harmony knows what you did with Luna. You've torn out Equestria's beating heart for your own rotten ambition." He felt the tears flowing from his eyes, but he was not scared anymore, he had nothing left to lose.

"No! You lie! I- She-" Another transition "Luna I'm sorry. Please, I didn't mean for this to happen. Please forgive me!"

Though it did not seem addressed to him, Quiet Watch couldn't contain his contempt. "No! No one will forgive you, especially not her."

Daybreaker, though with her magenta eyes still in control, let out a mournful wail. She fell to her haunches and tears flowed freely down her face. For a brief moment, Quiet Watch saw Celestia in her serene glory, marred by tears and desperation as it was. Despite having just prepared for instant death at her horn, he could not prevent the tiniest seed of sympathy from slipping into his heart. Here was the mare who'd ruled a fair and peaceful Equestria, before the paranoia, the cults, or the fighting. He also knew what it was like to have words unsaid with family. Regrets that could never be resolved. For a moment, he felt he knew her. But, as quickly as the moment came, it vanished.

The wailing turned to a scream of rage and once again golden eyes and a flaming mane resurged from the Goddess. She pushed herself to her hooves and stomped the dirt, the sheer power in her blow nearly knocked him to the ground.

"I- I do not need forgiveness. I am s-strong!" Despite her terrible power, Quiet Watch was far from convinced. "Welp! You will bow or I will destroy you!"

He chuckled morbidly, "You did that a long time ago." Her rage grew as he not only failed to grovel but instead stood up taller and faced her proudly. "Come on then, or else I'll give you another papercut." He hefted the knife again.

His once-Goddess growled and her horn flared with terrible power. He fell to the ground.

"What?" Daybreaker's voice was split with both cooling rage and confusion. Her horn still flared, magic uncast. Quiet Watch tried to rise but his strength had fled him. He coughed and hacked, bloody phlegm left his lips. The air was poison, after all.

In that long incomprehensible moment, the world forever changed.

Daybreaker stood, towering over a broken Thestral, one of her sister's breed. Armies broken, forsaken by fate, her fiery demeanor faded and her eyes settled back to a soft magenta hue. She sighed, deeply, wracked with sorrow.

"No more." She said, more to herself than anything else. She gently picked the Thestral up in a golden aura until he was straddled sideways across her back. "I will fix this." With a single beat of her powerful wings, they were airborne, soaring higher and higher into the sky.

Quiet Watch opened his eyes, his vision reduced to a hazy circle in front of him. He squinted as they passed through the layer of black smog and into the clear skies of Equestria. Bright light filled his vision. He smiled, carried by a Goddess into the heavens.

"You can't fix this." Despite the roar of the wind, he somehow knew she could hear him, "but you can try anyways." And so two kindred and brutalized souls rose into the sunlit sky. Quiet Watch had never been one for optimism, but if there was time to be one it was now.

"I know," the broken Goddess whispered, her voice carried back to him by wind and magic. "but I will keep trying for as long as it takes, even forever."

He exhaled contently at that, the pain having left along with the feeling in his legs. His breaths were shortening, but that was okay. He felt a weight lifted from him, of guilt, of betrayal. It had taken him long enough, but he'd finally stood up for something. He could die happy.

He looked at his savior, restored to what she once was. Princess Celestia ascended higher, determination in her eyes.

It was a sight worth dying for.

The atomic bombing of Manehatten marked the end of organized Solarist Resistance to the Federal Republic and Coalition forces. Bitter fighting continued for several weeks, especially in remote parts of the vast country, and among diehard segments of the Solar Militia, but the war had effectively ended within a few days. Although the majority of the Solarist Commanders either died fighting or received severe punishments at the post-war criminal tribunals, it is with great controversy that Empress Daybreaker evaded custody, no evidence of her whereabouts has been found since. Equestria and the surrounding conquered territories would remain under military governance for [...]

- Strong Diction, Early History of the Equestria Republic, 2nd Edition