The Arborlands,

Western Equestria,

And The Reinland Steppes,

Western Equestria

“We’ll camp here tonight,” Captain Corsair announced to her small band. “Corporal Dusty Trails!”

“Ma’am?” The tan mare snapped to attention and saluted with a wing.

“First thing in the morning, you’ll fly on ahead to Legume and let them know what happened and that we’re coming.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll leave at dawn.”

“And I’ll have a written message for you to take. Dismissed.” Corsair finally returned the salute with her own wing and turned away from the mare, looking now towards the company’s medic, who was tending to his patients.

The chief’s colt looked to be doing well. He was alert at least, and squirming quite anxiously on his cloud cot. Presumably the only thing preventing him from walking were Cravat’s standing orders not put weight on the injured leg yet. Conversely his other patient, the batpony EIS agent, appeared quite happy to not be on her hooves. She was currently holding a thermometer under her tongue while the dappled earth pony medic examined the stitching beneath her bandages. Corsair noticed that their unicorn envoy was standing a fair distance away from the medic, casting furtive glances his way and chewing on her lower lip. She was also quite obviously favoring her left forehoof.

The pegasus let out an annoyed grunt and marched over to the teal mare. Autumn Brisk noticed the captain’s approach and reflexively flinched away. “What’s wrong?”

“What? Oh! Um, it’s nothing,” the envoy insisted unconvincingly, attempting to waive off the pegasus with the hoof she’d been favoring. “I was just…standing here. For no particular reason―ahh!”

Corsair snagged the mare’s raised hoof with a wing and brought it in close to examine, causing the unicorn to hiss in pain. After a brief look, the cobalt pegasus rolled her eyes and turned towards the medic. “Cravat!” The unicorn reflexively winced at the pegasus’ use of the medic’s name sans title. “The envoy bruised her hoof; you got anything in your bag for that?”

The earth pony stallion glanced up from his patient and thought for a moment, eying his bag. Even with what had been brought back from Little Buck, the company’s medic had only limited supplies and one patient who was recovering from a serious injury. “Most of my ‘sick call’ stuff was in Gallopoli,” he admitted, frowning. Then his eyes drifted over to the cloud cot the batpony was laying on. “Although…” He looked back at Corsair. “Could you give me a hoof, ma’am? I need a pegasus.”

She nodded and trotted over, very nearly dragging the protesting unicorn along with her. “What do you need?”

Cravat pointed at the cloud cot. “Can you shear off a piece of that? Not a lot. Just enough to cover the bottom of a hoof. Can you make it sticky; just on the one side?” He asked, to which the pegasus nodded. “Good. We’re going to make a ‘cloud hoofpad’.” He then motioned for the hoof at issue to be passed to him to examine and confirm the captain’s findings. Not that he doubted the pegasus’ ability to recognize a fairly common injury. He was mostly just curious to see how extensive the injury was. After a few seconds, he cast a flat look at the unicorn. “You waited all day to tell me about this.” It was a statement of fact.

Autumn Brisk winced as she stuttered out a reply. “I-I didn’t want to bother Your Lo―you,” she hastily corrected, though it didn’t stop the earth pony from briefly glaring at her. “I didn’t want to bother you with something minor…is all,” she finished in a meek tone.

The batpony laying on the nearby cot chortled, a sound which quickly turned into a pained groan as the brief laughter exacerbated her own injury. “No laughing,” Cravat reminded her without looking away from the envoy. “As for you,” he stressed, earning a wince from Autumn Brisk, “you really need to get over whatever this whole thing is.” He gestured between the two of them with a hoof. “Nopony else here seems to have a problem with it.”

To prove his point, the dappled stallion glanced around and found his orange unicorn friend. “Hey, Flash; call me ‘Your Lordship’!”

“How about I call you a cuck?!” The other stallion replied immediately without even looking in Cravat’s direction.

“‘A cuck’ what, private?” Corsair narrowed her eyes in the unicorn’s direction, an edge to her voice.

“You’re a cuck, corporal,” Flashover amended with a slightly abashed smile. The pegasus captain nodded and then finally passed over the formed mote of cloud that she’d been shaping in her wings to the medic.

“Thank you, ma’am,” Cravat then looked back at the envoy, whose light blue face had paled to near white as she looked between the three ponies. “Lady Brisk, if you’d be so kind as to cast that cloudwalking spell on yourself?”

It didn’t look like the unicorn had even heard him as she wordlessly moved her mouth for several seconds before she finally found her voice. “H-He…called you…a…” There was another word, but it came out as little more than an inarticulate squeak.

“A cuck, yes” Cravat said with a shrug and a wry smile. The unicorn let out a second, higher pitched, squeak. “The cloudwalking spell, please?” This time her horn briefly ignited, her hooves taking on a faint glow a moment later before dimming as well. “Thank you. Captain? Just paste it to her hoof.” Corsair gingerly used her wingtips to apply the formed patch of cloud―which was now about as thick as a horseshoe―over the bottom of the unicorn’s frog. She seemed only vaguely aware of the process.

“I think you broke her,” the batpony noted from her cot, to which Cravat only responded with a grunt.

The dappled stallion had his commander make a few slight adjustments to the cloud’s positioning until he was satisfied that the pad would sufficiently protect the bruised hoof from being further exacerbated by walking. Fortunately for Autumn Brisk, their salvation was in sight. They’d reach Camp Legume the day after tomorrow. Her hoof would keep that long at least, and then it could be fit with a proper padded boot. “Thank you, captain; much appreciated.” The pegasus nodded and trotted off to go and find her senior non-com. Cravat released the unicorn’s hoof and looked back up at the teal mare. “You’re good to go, Lady Brisk.”

She wordlessly nodded and wandered off.

“Oh, yeah, super broken,” the leather-winged mare remarked with a snort and a wince.

“No laughing.”

“Whatever you say, Corporal Cuck!” She somehow managed not to laugh at the flat look the earth pony medic sent her way. “What, do you prefer: Doc Cuck?” At that, Cravat rolled his eyes and started to repack his bag. The batpony―carefully―rolled herself onto her belly on the cloud cot and rested her chin atop folding fetlocks, watching the stallion work with great interest visible in her amber eyes.

Cravat paused and glanced up at her. “Yes?”

“How have you not been found out? I mean, you’re not even hiding it!”

“Hiding what?”

“That you’re a noble! I thought titled nobility couldn’t serve in the Cavalry?” She flashed a fanged smile, propping her chin up on one upturned hoof now. She clearly expected some grand story that explained the situation.

If so, she was going to be disappointed, Cravat thought to himself. “Nobles can’t serve as commissioned officers in command positions,” he corrected. “There are no restrictions on simply enlisting. Probably because the ponies writing those regulations assumed no ‘self-respecting noble’ ever actually would.” Then he added after a moment’s thought, “Though that’s not to say I didn’t almost end up getting a commission.” At the batpony’s raised brow he shrugged. “They assumed my enlistment forms had been filled out wrong and tried to slip me in as an officer anyway. I had to convince two separate recruiters that I really did just want to enlist with ‘the common ponies’…and then I had to convince a psychiatrist I wasn’t having a mental breakdown or something.”

“Haha―ooh!” The gray mare cringed and buried her face in the floating cot while she gripped her belly with her hooves. “Oof,” she gasped, “talking with you is bad for my health, doc…”

“The sunbane’s bad for your health,” Cravat quipped absently, earning himself an eyeroll from the batpony.

“Yeah, well, welcome to being a nocturnal species living in a diurnal world,” she returned with a snort. “Any of us that have to interact regularly with you sunshiners have to either take sunbane or walk around like we’re nearsighted as fuck.” To illustrate her point, the mare squinted and scrunched up her muzzle comically tight with a hoof shading her eyes as she pantomimed peering at something in the distance. A clear exaggeration, though likely not by much, the earth pony knew.

Batponies didn’t quite have full on photophobia, but walking around in the daylight for them was akin to somepony else trying to navigate at night while a bright light was being constantly shined in their face. Doable, sure, but frustrating and difficult all the same. Sunbane ‘helped’ batponies get around in the daylight in the sense that it relieved their discomfort and dulled their sensitivity to the light, allowing them to walk around and see normally. However, it didn’t actually do anything to counteract the effects the sun had on their more light-sensitive eyes, which meant that batponies who used it chronically ended up doing significant damage to their eyesight over time.

A sad smile crept onto Cravat’s muzzle as he nodded in understanding. “Yeah. This is the part where, as your doctor, I’m supposed to recommend considering alternate career or lifestyle options that aren’t as detrimental to your future health. But, given what I know about the EIS, I’m going to assume that you didn’t just join it on a whim and you put in a lot of work to get where you are. So we can just skip to the part where I recommend you limit the sunbane to two doses a week, you’ll tell me you will, but we both know that’s a lie and you’ll keep taking it daily.”

The earth pony cleared his throat, sat up a little straighter, and schooled his features into a more ‘doctorly’ look as he regarded his patient. “If you’re going to continue to take sunbane potions, I recommend you limit yourself to two doses a week.”

The mare quickly caught on and likewise acted as though she were receiving a genuine medical consultation. “Of course, doctor. Thank you for the warning; I didn’t realize sunbane was so dangerous. I’ll be more careful in the future.”

“Glad to hear it. See the receptionist on your way out to schedule your next physical.”

Once more the mare snorted and winced. She sucked in a deep breath, shaking her head ruefully. “Whoever said ‘laughter is the best medicine’ was not talking about gut wounds,” she hissed through her fangs.

“Or pneumonia, or broken ribs, or honestly a lot of medical conditions,” the dappled stallion nodded sagely. “I think it’s more about just having a positive outlook; and I must say that I am having a pretty positive outlook on your condition. You’re bouncing back pretty fast for somepony who was laying in a ditch with an arrow in their gut for two days.”

“I am sustained by my desire for revenge,” she replied easily even as her amber eyes flashed with a sudden cold fury that Cravat felt grateful to find was not directed at him.

Now it was the stallion’s turn to snort in amusement. He raised a hoof as though holding a pad of paper and pantomimed mumbling around a pencil in his mouth while writing. “Patient Rein Doe lists ‘bloodlust’ as palliation…”

The batpony mare cocked her head in confusion. “Rein Doe?” She almost immediately recognized the placeholder name given to mares for whom an identity wasn’t known and then frowned at him. “Hey, why haven’t you asked what my name is anyway? Isn’t that supposed to be something doctors ask patients for?”

“You’re EIS. What are the chances I’d get your real name if I did ask for it?” Cravat countered, casting the mare a wry look.

To which the batpony had the good grace to acknowledge his point with a noncommittal wobble of her wing. “Ehh…”

“Exactly. If I was just going to get an alias anyway…” He shrugged. It wasn’t like knowing the mare’s real name was going to change anything about her condition, or their doctor/patient dynamic.

The pair sat in silence for a while after that, Cravat finishing up packing the last few supplies into his bag, and ‘Rein Doe’ lounging on her cloud watching him. When the dappled stallion finally finished up, he hesitated and asked, “So…how fucked are we? Really?”

There was no sign of the earlier mirth on the leather-winged mare’s face when she looked her amber eyes on the medic. She didn’t respond immediately, seeming to consider how up front she should be with him.

“Pretty fucked,” she answered bluntly. “If those mercs had a roster for your unit and were checking bodies, then they’re going to know that they missed a few.” Her eyes darted around to the other members of Bronco Company within view. “This whole thing doesn’t strike me as a ‘loose ends are okay’ kind of deal. Somepony’s going to come for you. If they find out I’m alive, they’re going to come after me too,” she added. “If Bitter Creek really has a connection in the Cavalry…” She glanced in the direction of Captain Corsair, who was still in quiet conversation with her crystal counterpart. “How sure is your commander that getting to Legume is a good idea?”

Cravat followed her gaze to Corsair and Shillelagh and swallowed back the sudden dryness in his throat. He regretted asking his question now. Sometimes ignorance was bliss, it seemed. “I should probably go talk with―”

“Gusty!” The cobalt pegasus suddenly snapped, summoning the pegasus stallion from Whirlwind’s detachment over. “Sorry, private; no sleep for you tonight, I’m afraid. I need you to take a message back to the LT…”

Miralay Qasam lay upon the small hilltop as he watched the eagle fly overhead, noting its smooth glide towards the ground and unerring course. A raptor on the hunt would be riding thermals in circular, seemingly listless motions. This one wasn’t seeking prey. It was on a mission. The aging horse closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh.

The eagle was still too high up for the stallion to be able to tell for certain whether or not it bore a message sheath on its back, but he could feel down in his heart that it did. Likewise, there was also no way for him to know that the orders it carried would command his army to finally make the crossing into Equestria propper. It could just as easily be the announcement that an unforeseen epidemic of sanity had broken out amongst those in the diplomatic corps of both Equestria and Saddle Arabia and the whole matter had been resolved and now he and his militia could go back home.

…But Qasam could feel in his heart that the orders did not say that.

The old stallion made no effort to rise and returned his gaze westward. His command staff would review the orders that had been sent and come to find him. When that happened, the illusion that the world was at peace would be forever shattered. And he wanted to preserve that feeling. Just for a little while longer.

Qasam had spoken with Equestrian ponies before. Visitors who had come to Saddle Arabia for one purpose or another. Many would make similar comments in regards to the much more arid nature of the horse lands, and how different they were compared to the lush greenery which prevailed where the ponies lived. They would tell him that he should go and see how much more beautiful Equestria was, with its expansive forests and fertile meadows of tall grass. To them, green was synonymous with life and beauty. Tans and browns represented drought and desolation. Things that were, and could not be, “beautiful”.

He didn’t begrudge the ponies those attitudes. They saw their home as being beautiful and preferred it over other places. That was wholly understandable. Even reasonable.

Which was why Qasam was on this hilltop now, looking back towards his own home. To him, the desert possessed its own kind of beauty that wasn’t any lesser than Equestria’s. It just took a horse’s eye to appreciate it. The smoothness of the sandy slopes of the dunes. The rippled textures created by the winds, making those desert expanses look not entirely unlike an oceanscape captured in a moment in time. The clear night skies bathing those same dunes in brilliant moonlight. The peaceful serenity of the nights that were so quiet sometimes that it felt like you could almost hear the heartbeat of the planet itself.

Saddle Arabia, to him, was a truly gorgeous land, and he would miss it dearly. His heart already ached from the knowledge that he was leaving it behind.

The hoofsteps behind him pulled the old horse from his reverie, though it was clear that there had been an attempt by the new arrival to not let their approach disturb him. Qasam’s lips creased in a small smile at the effort even as he massaged his chest with a hoof to dispel the dull discomfort. “What does the sultan bid us do?”

“...We are to cross the border, miralay; and lay siege to Camp Legume.” The voice of a familiar young colt replied.

The old horse nodded and let out a heavy sigh. Knowing those would be the inevitable orders hadn’t made hearing them confirmed any easier.

“I trust that nohorse requires me to be there to hold their hooves while the camp is dismantled and our forces readied to march?” He asked, casting an aside glance back at the young lieutenant.

“No, miralay.”

“Good. Then see that the sultan’s orders are carried out. Return when the army is ready to cross.” He heard the horse behind him clap their hoof to their barding in salute and his hooves move on the ground as he turned. “Chiaus?”

The lieutenant paused. “Yes, miralay?”

“Can I trouble you to see to it that my things are packed up for me? These old bones of mine could use a few more minutes of rest before the day’s march.”

“Of course, miralay. I’ll see to it personally.” The older stallion heard another clapped salute, followed immediately by the patter of swiftly moving hooves as the more youthful colt cantered off to do as he’d been bidden.

Qasam closed his eyes. Already he could pick up the distant cries of orders being given out, and the clattering of steel and leather as barding was donned and weapons slung. In less than an hour, the tents would be packed up and his horses formed into a marching column. An hour after that, they would be in Equestria. They’d be at the walls of Camp Legume in three days. It was difficult for him to envision a future in which Equestria and Saddle Arabia were not embroiled in an all out war within the week.

So this is how peace dies, the old horse mused, with the sound of a tent stake being pulled…

Sergeant Dew Point of Canter Company, Fourteenth Light Hoof, Frontier Corps, arched her wings, banking in a wide left turn as she and the other pegasus with her continued to sweep their assigned section of the Arborlands that morning. They hadn’t been out quite long enough for her eyes to glaze over entirely, but it was a near thing. A pony could only stare down at so much green canopy for so many hours before everything just started to look like a tree to her.

I’ll never be able to look at broccoli again without thinking about this damn forest, the mare grimaced to herself.

She shook her head and tried to blink away her eye strain one more time. There wasn’t much further to go in their sweep before they were supposed to turn back and regroup. Then she and her partner would be afforded a short break before going back out to comb another sector.

Her company was being worked a lot harder than they usually were on their missions, but Dew Point understood why. This mission was a lot more serious than a lot of the assignments that they tended to get. One of their own had gone rogue and slaughtered a whole town full of civilians, was the background that she’d been given. For whatever reason, the commander of that rogue company had come back to Equestria with a small escort; and it was extremely important that they be detained and given over to the proper authorities for questioning, trial, and sentencing.

The pegasus non-com suspected that the questioning would be a long―and hopefully also a painful―process. She hadn’t made up her mind on whether she wanted their sentencing to be drawn out or done quick―ideally with an ax.

It disgusted the mare that not only had an officer of the Frontier Corps committed such a heinous act, but that she’d somehow also apparently managed to get her whole company to participate in it. How deep could the rot have possibly gone for something like that to happen? It was unthinkable.

“Sarge, I see something!” The stallion with her called out. Dew Point glanced over and saw the other flier extending a hoof towards the treetops. It didn’t take the mare any time at all to spot the mote of blue streaking above the verdant canopy below. It was a tan pegasus with a white tail and wearing cerulean cavalry barding, skimming southward just above the forest.

They weren’t wearing a courier’s sash. At least, not that Dew Point could see. Nor was she aware of any significant military installations or even any towns that lay along the path of the flier’s travel to the north. It certainly wasn’t the Captain Corsair that they were looking for. But, whoever they were, they weren’t part of Canter Company or the Fourteenth Light Hoof. That meant they needed to be detained and questioned, as per her orders; in case they were part of the rogue frontier company they were out here to find.

“Follow me in!” She called back a moment before she angled her wings and sent herself into a steep dive. The pegasus slipped into the mare’s wake and the pair of ponies hurtled towards the canopy. Their target didn’t notice until Dew Point and her partner were upon them, pulling up sharply and encircling the wayward flier, eliciting a whinny of alarm and surprise as they reared up into a hover. The Canter Company non-com came to a stop directly in front of the detained mare, while the stallion with her pincered the other pegasus from behind in case she tried to fly off.

“Identify yourself, soldier!” she barked. “Who are you with and why are you out here?”

The tan mare continued to flap her wings idly as she hung in the air between the two Canter Company pegasi, looking between them with a confused expression. “Corporal D―" the mare coughed and cleared her throat before beginning again. "Corporal Cravat, Bronco Company, Second Light Hoof…” Her eyes darted briefly to the chevrons on Dew Point’s legband. “...sergeant. I’m headed for Camp Legume with a message from my commander.” She patted a hoof against her saddlebag.

Both Canter ponies found themselves exchanging wide-eyed looks. Honestly, Dew Point had been of the belief that none of their patrol teams would actually find any sign of the ponies they were looking for. Any half-competent member of the Equestrian Cavalry would know exactly what tactics would be employed to find them, knew where the deficiencies in those tactics were, and would be able to come up with a way to avoid being easily spotted. Finding Captain Corsair and her ponies would have been more of an exercise in luck than sound planning, in the sergeant’s opinion.

She definitely wouldn’t have thought that she’d stumble onto a Bronco pony out in the open, and that said pony would immediately cop to being part of the wayward band. The corporal hadn’t seemed to bat an eye that they were part of a group wanted for the wholesale slaughter of an entire town. It was honestly a little unsettling how cavalier this mare was being about who she was with.

“...You’re with Bronco second? For real?” Again Dew Point found herself flashing her partner a brief look, and wasn’t sure how she felt that the stallion was clearly just as surprised about how smoothly this was going as she was.

“Yes, sergeant.” Again there was no hesitance, either in the mare’s tone or expression.

“...With orders from your commander. Captain Corsair?” Another unflinching acknowledgement from the detained pony. “Captain Voight Corsair?”

Now the tan-coated mare was frowning. “Yes. Sergeant, no disrespect meant or anything, but is there a reason you two stopped me? I kind of do have my orders and a message that the general needs to see.” Again the corporal gestured at her saddlebag and the missive it purportedly contained.

“Corporal, I’m afraid I have orders that supersede yours,” Sergeant Dew Point informed the mare with a severe expression. “You need to come with us. Now.”

Author's Note

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