Chapters A visitor to ones home should be greeted fondly, but the silence in the air was anything but welcoming. An uncomfortable quiet hung in the air as both the enlisted ponies and officers sat silently, clearly uncomforting around the Major that sat to one side of the long Officers table.
My name is Azure Light, I'm a shorter unicorn stallion with blue fur and a light orange mane, I had volunteered for the war shortly after the first shots had been fired, and I was desperate to aid my country and I couldn't wait to return to the field. I spoke quietly while I ate my lunch with my supervisor Silver Wing. Contrast to the others in the room, She was the only one at lunch who was courageous enough to be her crude and unpleasant self, loudly regaling me of a disgusting story which should never be told to an underling, let alone said so brashly in front of a group of listening Officers.
She was my best friend, an NCO and the perfect soldier as far as I was concerned. Having such a close relationship with a superior was considered unprofessional, and in peace time could have resulted in us being written up, but they were so desperate for soldiers right now that they were more than willing to overlook what might be perceived to be nepotism. Silver Wing was a Pegasus mare with silver fur and a steel white mane. Pegasi had a reputation for being more brutish and larger than the other races, and Silver Wing unapologetically was more than happy to encourage the stereotype. Even by Pegasus standards she was tall and muscular, towering over most unicorns like me. Fortunately, not only was she unpleasant, but she also had a temper, and without that, I might have had to compete with others for her time.
Most of the officers sat huddled together on one side of the table while on the other side sat a lone light blue unicorn with a lavender mane. She was on the smaller size by unicorn standards, but judging by the darting eyes and hushed voices the other officers were clearly intimidated by her. Even the Base commander seemed nervous, despite significantly outranking her, with him having taken the seat furthest from her where he hid among the other officers. Her most distinctive feature was the odd shape of her horn. It looked as though the edges had been carved out to resemble the grooves that would be found in the rifling of a gun barrel, and the top didn't come to a tip. rather the tip had been ground down by half an inch and in its place a flat face.
"Who's she?" I asked, raising my hoof to gesture in her direction. Silver Wing grabbed my leg and quickly pulled it down. She looked over at the lone unicorn to make sure my rude pointing hadn't been noticed and then she looked back to at me.
"First of all, keep your voice down for Celestias sake, Secondly, that's Chrono Charm she's going to be the commanding officer on our mission tomorrow. so show some respect"
"Yeah, about that, I haven't been given any information on what's going on yet. It’s even weirder that it’s just the three of us and not a full company".
Silver Wing nodded. "I know. I haven't heard much about it either, it's really hush hush, we won't be getting our orders until tomorrow morning, right before we head out"
"Well, that's unsettling" I responded. Silver Wing nodded in response. "Who is our CO by the way, and why do the other officers seem so nervous around her?"
Silver took a deep breath. "Well... there's a lot of rumors about her, but what I do know is that she was one of the top graduates from the Officer Training School for Unicorns."
"The one that used to be called to be called the school for gifted unicorns? I asked. Silver Wing nodded.
"Yes, once the war started, Celestia ordered that any unicorn that showed abnormally high levels of magic was to be drafted and enrolled in the school. Many were forced to do so."
"I applied for the school, but I got rejected" I responded.
"Yes, YOU wanted to join the military, however many didn't."
Out of the corner of my eye I could see her face down on top of her plate, eating her sandwich, shoving it into her mouth with her hoof, eating like this is considered extremely rude for a unicorn. "Why is she eating like an Earth Pony?" I chuckled and gestured in her direction with a nod of my head.
Silver Wing responded with a glare. "See that oddly shaped horn that everyone is trying not to stare at?" I avoided her judging stare by looking down at my food. “I’ll take that as a yes then” she spat. She lowered her voice and brought her face closer to mine. “Some officers have their horns modified to mimic the effects of weapons, some to mimic a shotgun for close combat, some are for anti-infantry and mimic an automatic rifle, but in her case, her horn is modified to mimic a sniper rifle.” I quickly flicked my eyes inquisitively to Chrono Charms horn and back to Silver Wing. “She’s the Commanding officer of an anti-tank battalion, and those who have fought with her tell horror stories of how her magic can rip through the heavy plating of tanks, easily killing the occupants from a distance. The rumor is that hundreds of changelings have died by her own hoof”.
With this new terrifying information, I fought with myself to not look back at the petit pony. “That explains why all the other officers seem afraid of her” I said in a hushed tone.
Silver sighed. “However, all that power isn’t without consequence. Her horn can’t be used safely for anything else anymore, she can’t even levitate something as small as her meal to her mouth safely, and after the war is over, she will never be able to use her magic again. THAT is why she’s eating like an Earth Pony.” she said matter-of-factly.
I continued to stare down at my food, feeling so ashamed of my comment that I didn’t want to meet the gaze of Silver Wing again.
The forest had a damp and earthy odor to it, with the uneven ground made it difficult to walk. Silver flew overhead, just above the tree line to get a baring of our direction, but low enough to not be spotted. It was only a couple miles, but I could have sworn it was nothing short of a death march in terms of distance. This was the most important mission, or likely event of my life, and I was feeling more than just a little nervous.
Silver quietly flew down and landed next to me and raised her hoof and pointed. “There” she said, pointing at a clearing near the edge of the woods. “Maps that Intel provided confirm that this will be the best position to take the shot. We will be sitting at the top of a hill that overlooks their base of operations at a distance of one mile from where we believe the target will be standing. There will be some tree cover for hiding, and the angle of hill will make it harder to spot us.” I stepped out of the forest and looked down at the encampment. Changelings could be seen moving about the depot and from this distance. They looked liked black ants from up here, and they scurried no differently.
“Now we just need to wait” I whispered, you and I will sit at the the top of the cliff and try to spot the target and Chrono will wait in the tree line until we call her”. Silver gave a small grin and stepped forward to take her place beside me. Chrono, finally showing the smallest glimpse of emotion, frowned. She stood there for a moment before turning and walked back into the woods, taking cover behind some foliage. I hovered a set of binoculars to my eyes and hovered a second set from my bag over to Silver who grabbed them with her wing and placed them up to her eyes. “Once the shot is made, we will have to flee. They’ll immediately know our exact position.”
Silver and I lay on our bellies at the top of the hill and scanned the base below us silently, searching for our target. Even without a photo we would recognize him in an instant. He was infamous among ponys for leading the initial assaults on the Equestrian border. He had taken a significant amount of territory quickly, and he rapidly got a reputation for poor treatment of prisoners of war and civilians in annexed regions.
We lay there for some time, scanning the base below for our target for some time before I broke the silence. “Why didn’t you tell me you failed out of the Wonderbolts?” I whispered to Silver, never taking my eyes away from my search.
She sighed. “This isn't an appropriate time for this Azure, and I... I was embarrassed, ok? Everybody sees me as such a good flyer and leader, and I still wasn’t able to make the cut”. Her voice had a tone of sadness to it. I was so used to Silver just saying something crass when confronted with anything personal as a deflection that it genuinely surprised me.
I tried to hold back my next question, but it still managed to slip out out. “How did you not make it? You’re one of the fastest flyers I’ve ever seen, you have a huge wingspan due to your... well... being huge for a pony.”
“Yes, that’s the issue, I’m extraordinarily fast, but because I’m so big my acceleration is terrible, and they couldn’t overlook that problem. They tried to get my acceleration rate up because they saw potential in me, but I didn’t reach the bare minimum for the program; so I was kicked out.” She paused as though she was deep in thought. “Honestly, I consider that to be the biggest failure in my professional life”.
I had never seen this side of her before, and it felt so strange to feel sad for somepony that had seemed so perfect to me, but she was my friend and I felt the need to be there for her. “Silver I...”
“There.” she whispered with urgency in her voice. “He’s by the barracks on the left side of the base speaking with some low-ranking officers, but we have a problem. He's at a far greater distance than intel predicted. That’s almost one and a half miles away, intel had him at 1 mile. This shot will be only a little less than a world record distance.” Chrono who had been listening intently emerged from behind some plants. “Chrono, can you make the shot?”
She stoically nodded and took a few steps past us, and looked down at the base. I pulled from my back pack the special long range scope and held it to her eye. She braced her back legs, and began to charge her horn for the shot, at first we only heard a small hum, but it became louder as her horn became increasingly bright.
As a spotter I didn’t need to do much. A bullet takes time to travel, the wind can change its path, temperature can affect the rate at which it falls, distance is accounted for as the bullet falls as it travels as it's not immune to gravity, and even the rotation of the planet under hoof must be considered when calculating a shot at this distance. However, with magic-based weapons, the beam of energy was instant, and immune to most physical forces, making such calculations no longer matter. I had identified the target, and now my job was to follow the commands of the shooter.
we gritted our teeth as the charge reached it’s apex, the sound and light became increasingly intense until a sudden silence. “THOOOOOOOM!” a deafening roar ripped through the air as a lavender beam of light lit up the base and cut a path to the target. I frantically searched for the target through my binoculars to confirm the kill as I waited for my eyes to recover from the blinding light, and my ears from the deafening sound. Finally I found the target, I could see Trimmel. His front right leg was missing. She had missed.
I shook my head. “He’s not dead, we can hope he bleads out, but we to go now”.
Right on cue, gunfire could be heard in the distance as approaching changelings fired in our direction. Their weapons lacked the range to effectively reach us, but this would quickly change as they closed the distance. I heard a familiar hum start to fill the air again. I looked over at Chronos. She was charging for another shot.
“Chronos, stop. We don’t have time, and now he’s going to be moving now, that shot is impossible, we don’t want you killed, you’re too valuable as an asset”. This got an actual response from her; she glared at me intensely out of the corner of her eye, with what was the first real emotion I’d seen from her. I could tell she wasn’t going to move. I took a deep breath and hovered the scope back to eye as silver stood paralyzed while she took in the situation.
The hum and light grew louder, barely overshadowed by the roar of gunfire as bullets sped past us. Their rifles were still out of range, but it only took one lucky bullet for that to not matter. The charging horn grew louder, as did the enemy weapons, but even with the chaos around me, all I could hear was the beating of my own heart. The charging horn reached its peak, and the lavender beam of light shot across the base with an ear splitting "THOOOOOOM"
This snapped Silver out of her daze. She flew towards us, grabbing one of us with each leg and kicking off the ground hard. Flapping harder than she ever had in her life she bolted in the direction of the teleportation specialist. As we flew the sound of bullets faded as the distance between us and the enemy increased.
“The target was eliminated” said Chrono meekly. This caused both Silver and I to turn our head towards her as she had finally spoken, causing Silver to narrowly miss a tree as she returned her focus to flying.
Something felt wrong. I felt... wet. I rubbed my hoof along my fur and found a sticky substance. My heart dropped. Had I been hit? I frantically searched my body for a bullet wound but found none. I turned to Chrono and saw that she was holding her hoof tightly to her neck. She had been clipped by a stray bullet and was bleeding profusely. “Chronos, are you ok?” She was able to shake her head only slightly “no”.
Silver landed next to exit zone, setting us both down next to her. Chronos collapsed to the ground and curled into a ball. Seeing the urgency, Daybreak immediately teleported us without saying a word with a familiar popping noise. I felt my body stretch and strain as my body passed through the ether.
We arrived back at the base in a slightly different location than we had come from. “Oh Celestia I missed my return target” said daybreak with chagrin. “Silver, come with me quickly, we need to find a medical team immediately, I won’t be able to teleport again for a moment and you're faster than me. Azure, put pressure on her neck.” I held my hoof firmly against her wound as they both dashed off towards the base, shouting for help.
I looked down at Chronos. I stood over her and held my hoof tightly over her wound, but it did little to hold back the deluge of blood. Her eyes were half open, but she was... smiling? she sighed, reached up and placed her hoof on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes.
She spoke softly. You would never know what a effective killer she was, based on how sweet and delicate her voice was. I motioned to stop talking, but she paid little attention to my request. “Before the war I worked with my father in a little clock shop. Clock making is such a delicate art that no Earth pony or Pegasus could manage the needed precision. Only a Unicorn with an extremely delicate touch can handle it. I joined the School for Gifted Unicorns before the war because I wanted to learn to be even more accurate with my magic. I was so excited when I got in, and I can still remember the look of joy on my fathers face when we found out. I wanted to make our business to the envy of every clock maker in Equestria, but that dream died when the war started, my father, a civilian, died in the early days of the war when the Changelings made their first aggressive push. I stayed in school hoping that one day I could still carry on his legacy.” I could see a tear forming in the corner of her eye. “That was until I was ordered into a special program where my horn was modified to make me into a weapon and after that, I would never be able to return to my trade after the war. I fought in the war, and I fought hard, maybe looking for revenge, maybe seeking out some new purpose, but I felt nothing, I felt empty, and I doubt that would ever change, I'm just a weapon now” she said in a whisper. Her smile widened as she removed her hoof from my shoulder “You did a good job today soldier. Please don’t mourn me, I died a long time ago”. She closed her eyes, her smile faded, and... she was gone.
One week had passed since she died next to me, and in that week both Silver and I had received promotions and recommendations for Officer Training School, we had both received any number of medals, and had even been given time off for us to recuperate.
Killing their top general had caused major issues, as generals and resources were shuffled around while a new Field Marshall was being chosen. The death had caused a logistics nightmare for the Changelings. This allowed Celestia to lead a breakthrough on the front lines and gain back a significant amount of Equestrian land before the Changeling front lines were able to stabilize. We were told that this could potentially shave months off the length of the war and save the lives of countless ponies. Despite knowing all of this I felt numb to the world.
The mess hall which had returned from it's unusual quite to its regular dull roar. Silver Wing once again was sitting next to me at our table and for the first time in her life she had nothing to say, instead opting to sit quietly, barely nibbling at her food. I turned to look up at her, she looked down at me and met my gaze. Wordlessly, the numb look on her face told me all I needed to know about how she was feeling. She placed her wing around me as a small token of comfort, she tried but failed to muster a smile for me.
I looked back at my food; a plain bread sandwich with tomato and lettuce. I levitated it up to my mouth, and the wirr of the magics sound filled the air as I hovered the food in front of me. As I went to take a bite and just before my teeth met the bread, I stopped. I levitated it in front of my face for a few seconds before setting it back down on my plate. I leaned my head forward and started to eat directly from my plate, my face was down and I pushed the food into my mouth with my hoof, just like an Earth Pony.
Why didn't They explain our Mission?
We arrived at the meeting point in the early morning. We were just outside our base; the sky was still a deep black, dew still clung to the wet grass, and the uncomfortable dampness could be felt under hoof. Chrono was already there, standing silently, facing a solid orange stallion unicorn.
Seeing that we had arrived, the orange pony spoke up. "You're late".
I was confused. "We were ordered to be here by 0400 it's 0355" I responded.
"Yes, that's late, don't let it happen again" He snapped. I wanted to argue, but I thought better of it and kept my mouth shut. “Now that you’ve arrived I can debrief you, I’m sure you have a lot of questions, and I will answer to best of my ability, but know that we’re on a tight timetable. My name is Daybreak Gleam” I raised my hoof so as to indicate I had a question. Daybreak gave me a dirty look, “This isn’t a classroom kid, if you have a question, just ask.” I went to open my mouth but before I could get any words out he started speaking again. “What you’re doing today is the highest of top-secret missions, and your actions today will have a major impact on the war”.
“What are we doing exactly?” I blurted out, causing both Silver and Chrono to turn their heads in my direction.
Daybreak smiled. “Today we’re going to kill their top general, today We’re killing Trimmel”.
Silver and I both gasped, Chrono remained stoic and nodded. “How are we going to go about this exactly?” I asked.
Daybreak dropped his smile, becoming serious. “Yesterday we got intel that their top general will be visiting near here at a Changeling supply depot, not far behind enemy lines for a meeting with some Officers. Now, he absolutely loves to talk endlessly to any troops present. He's known for being extremally personable, not batting an eye at chatting with low ranking enlistees. so what we’re counting on is that after the meeting. He will get in front of his troops, out in the open to speak with them where he will stand still, and that’s when you will take the shot. Your mission is to identify a good position to take the shot and to keep Chrono protected should anything go wrong. I on the other hand specialize in teleportation, I will teleport you a great distance, two miles outside their encampment to be exact, and I will wait at the drop position until you return".
Silver piped in “Why were we chosen exactly? Azure and I aren’t exactly special forces”
Daybreak nodded quickly. “The short story is that this is the best we could get on short notice, we got this intel recently, and we can’t get anyone else in time, so we choose who we evaluated to be the best soldiers at this base. You barely missed the bar for entering the Unicorn Officer program and Silver Wing failed out of the Wonder Bolts. That might sound mediocre, but even being considered for either program puts you at the upper echelon of soldiers.”
I turned my head to face silver “You failed out of the Wonder Bolts and didn’t tell me?” She blushed and turned away from me. Since when does Silver Blush? I thought to myself.
“Your roles will be as follows. Azure Light, you will be carrying equipment and will act as Chronos bodyguard as well as her spotter, Silver will be acting as reconnaissance and will be taking lead in the field. I will teleport you about two miles outside the supply depot, teleporting this far will exhaust me, and I will remain at the teleportation target while I recover and prep for another teleport. At that point you will not be able to use any magic other than flight or you will risk being detected. For the same reason, you will have no electronics on you, and you will be given only low-tech rifles. You will be alone out there. Are there any more questions?”
Silver and I shook our heads “no” while Chrono just stood motionless, seemingly unperturbed by this new information.
Daybreaks horn began to emit a glow and with a loud popping noise I felt my body stretching and distorting before finding myself within a forest. Chrono seemed mostly unaffected by this unusually powerful teleport, but Silver and I immediately collapsed, and struggled to regain our sense of balance, while Chrono was able to catch herself before she hit the ground. I pulled myself to a standing position and looked back at Daybreak. Daybreak pointed into the forest. “You will be walking two miles in that direction at which time you will identify your target. Silver make sure proceed in the correct direction” Silver gave a salute and flew up into the trees, with Chronos and I following closely behind.
