Buck galloped through the trench line, bumping into soldiers frantically carrying ammunition to the machine gun nests. He knew that an attack was coming soon and that he needed to get to the northern section as fast as possible, not only because he needed to bring orders for the commander there but also because his only friend was stationed in the section above him.

Buck had met Solar Flare in training camp in 1008 ALB. Buck had just signed up to join the Equestrian military when he turned 18 and wanted to get back at the changelings after the attack on Canterlot. After the death of his parents, he was found by some members of the royal guard and brought to the nearest orphanage in Canterlot. Buck had always looked up to them and decided he would become a royal guard for Celestia and Luna if he could. Even more so since they had saved them.

After he was brought into the orphanage, Buck stayed there for the last six years of his childhood. He received a basic education but lived an isolated life. He was never able to make friends with the other orphans. He never knew how to interact with them, and they never shared the same interests. After a while, Buck stopped trying to make friends for the rest of his childhood and secluded himself in his own studies and interests from there on out.

Once the fateful day came when he turned 18, he packed his small bag with the few things he owned. A few pairs of clothes and a picture of him and his parents. He then made his way up the street with his small bag, passing plenty of posh ponies on his way to the newly built recruitment office. He knew Equestria had been gearing up for war recently as more recruitment offices were popping up everywhere and more and more patriotic propaganda was appearing.

He slowly walked through the capitol, taking in the beautiful sights, for he knew that he would never come back here unless things went horribly wrong. As much as this place harbored bad memories for him, it was still a sight to behold, and he wanted to have a good last memory of it.

Finally, Buck arrived at the recruitment office. He stopped outside the door and looked at the building before entering. It starkly contrasted the vibrant storefronts and houses one grows accustomed to seeing in Canterlot. It was a plain building built with a dull grey stone. It had a sign above it labeling it as a recruitment office; otherwise, one might mistake it for an abandoned building. The last noticeable thing outside was a poster next to the door. It depicted Celestia pointing towards the reader with the elements of harmony in the background with bright, bold text saying, "We want you to join the Equestrian military today!"

Buck gave one last wary look to the outside before entering the door. Upon entering, he was immediately greeted by an enthusiastic recruiter. After a few hours, Buck was registered and sent to the nearest training camp to join a standard infantry division. From what he had gathered, there was a ponypower shortage in the military, with not enough ponies signing up to fight for their country and Celestia not wanting to sign conscription laws in order to not anger and worry the public.

Eventually, the truck that Buck was riding in arrived at the training camp somewhere in the Minneapolis plains, and he got out of the truck with his bag. He slowly meandered towards the field in the center of the camp, where he saw other recruits waiting to be separated into groups for basic training. As Buck walked towards the field, he slowly became lost in thought. Buck couldn't believe he was here, training to be in the military, protecting his country, and getting revenge against the changelings. It was strange to him to be entirely on his own now. No family, no guardians or caretakers either. It worried him somewhat as Buck realized he was alone and had no one to rely on. Buck was lost in these thoughts about the present and future when

*WHAM!!!*

Buck had wholly lost awareness of his surroundings and had walked into a unicorn who was going in the opposite direction. Buck had dropped his bag and fell back on his haunches, rubbing his shoulder where he had collided with the unicorn. Buck was shocked to see a unicorn in the military, as most unicorns were well-off and pompous. He would never expect a rich pony to serve in the military, even if they were the most zealous pony out there. However, he quickly grabbed his bag, got back on his feet, saluted the unicorn, and promptly apologized to the unicorn.

"Sorry, sir, I didn't see you there," Buck quickly said, figuring that the unicorn might be his drill sergeant or someone even more important.

The unicorn then turned around and completely stunned Buck into silence. The unicorn was a mare! Buck was already surprised at a unicorn being here, much less a unicorn mare. The unicorn finally spoke, bringing Buck back into focus.
"Sorry, hon'. I musta been in the way. I'm Solar Flare. What's your name?"

The unicorn spoke with a thick Applossean accent, which was strange to Buck as it was primarily known as a more "rural" region. Giving the mare a once over, Buck noticed they had similar coat colors, both being yellow; however, hers was a brighter and more vibrant shade of yellow. That's where the similarities between them ended, though. Solar Flare was shorter than Buck by about half a head, had a shorter muzzle, and had a bright orange mane compared to Buck's dull brown.

"My name is Buck… McFlourish…what exactly are you doing here?" Buck said cautiously

"Well, I'm waiting to be assigned to our training groups. Like you, I presume," Solar retorted while looking Buck over.

"Wait?! Are you a volunteer? I figured you were a higher-up or something. Not some footsoldier!" Buck exclaimed

Solar then stepped up to Buck and looked up to him, standing almost muzzle to muzzle with a smirk on her face. "I will have you know," she started in a pompous voice. "This footsoldier is training to be in one of the world-renowned mage
companies in the Equestrian Military!" she ended while teetering on the edge of laughter.

Getting over the shock, Buck looked down at her and decided to play into it. "Ah yes, the great and powerful Solar Flare is gracing a common infantry soldier with her presence and assistance. I can't express how honored I am," he gave a mock bow and felt a smile creep across his face.

Solar stepped back and gave Buck a wide smile. "exactly, you get it! All the other ponies don't believe the true power Solar Flare wields," she then paused and pursed her lips for a second before saying, "Say… I don't want the great and powerful Solar Flare's only believer to have a hard time during training… Why don't we stick together? For your sake of course!" she tacked on at the end.

Buck froze up for a few seconds as he was surprised at Solar proposing the idea of staying together and potentially becoming friends. Buck immediately began anxiously running through scenarios in his mind. What if this is just a prank? What if I become friends and she leaves me and gets assigned to a different division… or worse, what if she dies while fighting? But Buck quickly shoved aside his worries and awkwardly agreed.

"Great!" Solar responded with her warm voice, "Say if we're going to be seeing more of each other, you can just call me Sol. No need for my loyal friend to repeat my grandiose title every time," Sol snickering at the end

Buck also gave a light chuckle and responded, "I think that sounds great, Sol…" when he was cut off by some pony in a higher-up position screaming for all the recruits to fall in line. Buck and Sol quickly got in line together and waited for the groups to be assigned, and as luck would have it, they ended up in the same group together.

For the next ten weeks of basic training, Buck and Sol stuck together and became close friends. Mostly because—and what Buck later found out—they were each other's only friends. Sol learned of Buck's tragic sob story, and Buck learned that Sol had run away from her parents to join the military. After that, their division was officially deployed.

They had never seen combat; Equestria was a peaceful country. They have only read manuals and participated in simulations but have never truly experienced enemy fire coming their way, and Buck was upset about it. It's not that he had a death wish or anything along the lines of that. He just wanted to kill changelings and protect harmony, though the latter wasn't necessary. Shortly after their division was deployed, the Changeling Lands invaded Olenia, and Buck was chomping at the bit to go to Olenia to fight them.

Unfortunately for Buck, however, Celestia didn't want to help Olenia directly, and on top of that, the Olenian front collapsed so quickly that fighting was over within weeks of the conflict starting. The one small silver lining was that Sol wouldn't have to kill him for dragging her to fight a winter war in the mountains. Outside of that, however, there wasn't much action. An eventful day for Buck was playing cards and talking with Sol, maybe even firing the machine guns at the shooting range.
Eventually, they were moved up to the Acornage line after rumors that the Changeling Lands were gearing up for war. As much as Buck was excited for his hopes to be realized, he was also worried as he knew from just the number of soldiers and under-equipped divisions that Equestria would have a tough time withstanding a sustained changeling onslaught. Although Buck was concerned, he still was ready to fight for Equestrian, and now that day has finally come.

Buck had been galloping for about 10 minutes straight, cursing the officer for not giving this redundant message to a pegasus or over the radio, but Buck still pushed on. Finally, he made it to the next command dugout up the line, indicating that he had arrived at the next section. Buck quickly veered inside and flagged down the first officer he saw. He explained the situation to him all across the front and left as soon as he came. Buck yelled out that he had to deliver orders to the machine gun nests, figuring that was where Sol was since she loved to hang out with them.

After two more minutes of straight galloping and avoiding other soldiers, Buck had finally arrived at the machine gun emplacement. His legs shook from exhaustion, and Buck thought he would faint for a second before steadying himself and looking around for Sol's unmistakable orange mane. After scanning the vicinity for half a minute, Buck gave up, assuming that Sol was among the thousands of ponies hurrying around the trench line, and figured he could find her later. Giving a snort and feeling exhausted, Buck turned around when suddenly somepony pounced on his back.

Surprised, Buck immediately brayed and stood up on his rear hooves, tossing the assailant off of him before turning around and putting his hoof down on the pony's chest, pinning them down before instantly noticing thereafter that it was Sol, who was under his hoof.

"Dear Celestia, Sol! You couldn't have just greeted me normally?" Buck started, letting Sol wriggle out from under him, "I could have seriously hurt you, Sol! What would've happened if I had stomped and tried to crush my attacker instead of just pinning them?!"

Sol, now finally out from under him, brushed herself off, stood up, and looked him in the eyes. "Oh please, Buck, I could have stopped you if I was in danger," she said while her horn glowed, brushing the dirt off her uniform. "Plus, look at you! If you had any weight to you, you could do that, but with your skin and bones state, I doubt you could hurt a fly,"

Bucked rolled his eyes before smiling and pulling Sol in for a quick hug. "it's great to see you, Sol, though I do wish we could be hanging out without the threat of attack coming,"

"I will agree to that," Sol said while slowly letting herself go from the hug. "but aren't you supposed to be somewhere, though?" she asked slyly. "I thought you were supposed to be stationed in the section below me,"

Buck gave her a sheepish smile. "I may or may not have lied, saying that I had to deliver orders to the machine gun nest here, figuring you would be ogling one of the newer models."

Sol let out a warm chuckle "You know me too well, what can I say? I'm a sucker for good weapons," then switched her tone to be more serious, "But Buck, listens to me, Okay? I know you want revenge for your parents, and I understand that, but I need you to stay alive out there. For me and for yourself," Sol was glaring into his eyes with radiating intensity," do you understand? If you die out there, I will track down your wandering soul and kill you again,"

Even though Buck was bigger than Sol in every possible way, he still felt as though she was towering over him with her words. Ultimately, Buck relented. "Fine," he snorted before lightening his mood. "But that goes for you as well. No charging over the top without your shield," Buck said as he tapped her horn.

Sol returned to her regular playful attitude and laughed. "Sounds like we have a deal, no dying on each other. " She then walked over to Buck, put her arm around his shoulder, and started leading him further up the line. "Might as well make the most of our time before the steel wave comes."

Buck was led up the line some more, brought to a clear area of the firing line, and sat down on the fire step. Sol sat down beside him and let out a long sigh. Buck looked up into the sky and saw beautiful black flowers blooming everywhere. He figured the air war had started, but it was impossible to discern which dots were fighting on his side. Buck decided to not worry about who was winning for a brief moment and enjoyed the morbid serenity of the scene. He closed his eyes and let his thoughts wander. First to his parents and then to Sol, about how every moment of his life since that fateful day had been leading towards. Finally, he looked up one last time and noticed dark clouds approaching from behind them with the low rolling sound of thunder. Both from the clouds and the sound of the motorized, mechanized armor making their way to his position.

Author's Note

last exposition chapter i promise. and believe me i am exited as yall are for the action if you want a hint on what the next few chapters will be like. it will be very similar to
All is quiet on the western front more specifically the scene with the Frenchman in the artillery hole
that's all for now!