The Eclipse Civil War

Undercover of Night

With the visit on the planet finished, Fenrir now had another problem on his hands back at the ship. Meeting with his friend in the command room, an atmosphere of pressure greeted him. Arceus made no effort to hide the reason and began speaking directly.

“Fenrir, there were recent sightings of three unknown ships. We eliminated them as soon as they did not respond to any of our communication efforts. Judging by the sizes and numbers of ships, we catalogued them as raider squadrons. Though their origins are unknown, we believe they were pirates.”

Fenrir, who just came back for the visit to the moon, now faced a crucial decision. To either continue the visit to the moon or postpone it, though it will most likely be a forfeit. Because the situation was bleaker than it looked. There was no way any ship could enter these coordinates unless someone gave it to them. Not only they were the most secret coordinates that were unrelated to the Saurian Union, but also those coordinates were lost. Not the black market, not the deepest archives of the highest possible authority in the universe had them and not even their own archives. Fenrir, who only saw these lines of code decades ago, had them written on a piece of paper and kept it closest to him and Arceus only. It was a heritage of the past. Should this heritage be known by unsafe hands, it could mean disaster for the local species. With so much secrecy from both of them regarding the subject; How did those ships receive the coordinates in the first place? There were only two answer in the presidents mind.

“I see. And how much time did those ships stay in the sector? And more importantly, how much resistance did they have in terms of firepower and combat experience?” Fenrir asked, his gaze meeting his friends eyes with unmatched seriousness.

“They did not last more than fifteen minutes in the sector, with a 5 minute fight. They had an impressive non-combat equipment: Tier III visual cloaking devices, comet-class afterburners, adaptive shields, excellent maneuverability and also discrete jammers. They were loaded with Flak cannons Mark IV and Plasma cannons Mark V and Tadeus-Class Missiles. Above average equipment, and judging from the way they fought,  I believe they were something more than just some ordinary pirates. They did have military experience, as they proved it from their own maneuvers during combat.” Arceus responded, cold in his voice.

‘Tier III Cloaking devices, Saurian equivalent being the Phantom class: Illegal and unobtainable for the civil society. Military Standard issue in the Universal Council army for advanced recon missions, to see such a thing you need something to augment your vision. Comet-Class afterburners: Legal and obtainable. These are used by mostly skilled racers and are too dangerous to be used by non-professional racers. Adaptive shields…’ Fenrir temporarily broke his line of analysis.

“How were the adaptive shields?” The president asked.

“They were slightly above average adaptive shields. Cargo analysis suggests that it was Class III; damaged, mind you. When we analyzed it, we compared with one first-hand example and they were weaker. And you know those shields have an awfully large span.” Arceus responded as he looked at the sector landscape, searching for anything out of the common letting Fenrir back to his trail of thought.

‘And the discrete jammers are the surprise here. Illegal punishable with one of the five ultimate penalties if you are see carrying it anywhere and you do not have authorization. Top military class jammer; the black market forces can’t reach this thing unless it makes a mini war with the defenses of the bases where it is held. These jammers are do not damage the signal of anything, but it hides and deletes all the possible signals a ship could have, as if it wasn’t there at all. You need a special type or radar for that. And that radar is harder to get than the jammer itself.’ Fenrir chuckled at the thought.

‘As for the armament; it seems they were quite prepared. Flak cannons to blast the interceptors away and plasma cannons to inflict strong damage from long range. Tadeus-Class missiles: Anti-Capital missiles. Used by missiles frigates to cripple the command ship of the fleet and also greatly damage the hull of any capital ship with a rather weak hull. Again, illegal and unobtainable except through black market. No surprise on that… the missiles are not as defended as they may look, compared to the rest of the equipment.’

‘Damn... That much equipment on just one ship would mean those have to be smuggled all-purpose H-class ships. Heavily armed, damn fast and agile AND equipped with military equipment that black market barely if at all have? I don’t like this. Either these pirates have an insider. Or they were not pirates.’ Fenrir revealed mentally.

“Arrange a meeting  with the line of command on this ship in a few hours on the subject of recent events. The meeting with the New lunar republic can wait. Send in scouts throughout the sector and keep me up to date with everything regarding non-friendly activity. Don’t let anything unsupervised.” Fenrir commanded and then left the bridge for his private chambers.

And as Arceus was carrying out the orders, a thought ran through his head: ‘Wait. New Lunar what?’

***

“Hey, Twilight?” A whisper talks in the darkness lightened by the moonlight.

The darkness responds with murmurs.

“Twilight. Wake up.”

“mmmgh. What? It’s twelve midnight, Rainbow. We have to sleep. Tomorrow we are going to train.” Twilight finally woke up to respond, showing little effort to hide her annoyance.

“Where’s Pinkie Pie?” Rainbow asked silently. And after a moment of silence…

“Hi!” Pinkie chirped.

“SHHHHH! Pinkie! Quiet!” Twilight

“Oops. Sorry.” Pinkie responded.

“So. How about a walk in the middle of the night?” Rainbow dash offered.

“Are you crazy? In the middle of the night? In a military base? What are trying to do, Rainbow? Get us into trouble?” Twilight asked, she really wanted not to have this conversation.

“C’mon, Twilight. A short one. Nothing bad will happen. We have military training. We can do this. Plus, I can’t sleep. And I thought you may like it.” Rainbow argued.

“I’m for it.” Pinkie responded.

“Pinkie! Don’t you want to sleep?” Twilight asked desperately.

The military training was very intense for her particularly. While she enjoyed magic lessons, if she could call it ‘enjoyment’, don’t even get her started on the physical exercise. She was ‘the adorkable bookworm’ as the soldiers mocked. Al books and no sports; this is how they saw her. Despite her friends protests and comfort, she felt left out. Having an entire military training camp mocking you was not the best thing somepony could ask for. The good thing is that the magic section of the camp ‘worshipped’ her for her talent. Although she was undergoing in a different training procedure, in her free time she sometimes offered to help other soldiers who could not do that spell. There weren’t many friends to make here either. Possibly because of the civil war affecting everypony.

“The punishments are huge if you try to sneak out. I can’t let you go. What if you get into trouble? What then?” Twilight insisted.

“They won’t find us. Some of us have special physical training.” Rainbow said proudly.

“And other have special magic training! Come on Twilight, it will be fun!” Pinkie exclaimed silently.

“Which are partially complete. Sorry but no. And that is final. I am not going to put myself into a broken body tomorrow because you want to have fun and feel adrenaline. And neither do I want to face the ‘court’ of this place either.” Twilight finally responded as she turned around and tried to go to sleep.

“Suit yourself.” Rainbow dash said as she went down, opened the window and waited for pinkie pie.

“Night Night, Twilight!” Pinkie said as she jumped out the window.

“Yeah, good night. We’ll be back in no time. Promise.” Rainbow said after sending a short gaze to her friend and then after leaving the room, she closed the window silently.

And so they left. Rainbow dash and Pinkie pie left for a simple walk outside the base. Leaving Twilight to her sleep. But what they did not know is that Twilight, at the moment they left the room, she woke up from her bed and glanced at her two friends.

***

Rainbow dash and Pinkie Pie had a simple objective: to go outside the base without making any noise, have a walk in the Canterlot Public park. They had the night on their side and with their military training should let them pass with ease. So they began.

Together, they sneaked at the side of the pavement, between bushes and went behind high objects so that they stayed hidden. Rainbow dash could not fly, since she would be discovered in a second from her position and pinkie could not jump since she would be discovered in a second from the noise. So they walked slowly and sneaked cleverly. Shooting glances at every corner they were. Left and right, no activity? Go. They repeated the action many times. Staying hidden in the bushes when a couple of guards passed by, controlling their breathing so that they will not be heard. Fighting their negativity, so that they do not quit their mission.

They continued and proceeded with such tactics until they reached the exit of the base. Guarded by two ponies in the inside and two on the outside, they needed a different plan.

“Ok. We made it this far. No backing down now. Any plan, Pinkie?” Rainbow asked as silent as the night.

“Let me see. We can’t get through them, they will see us. We can’t jump the wall, they will see or hear us. We can’t sneak either, they can get us. What is we use a transport?” Pinkie looked around for a minute and she saw a caravan of supplies.

“That.” She said pointing at the caravan. “That can help us get through them. It’s a caravan of supplies, maybe it goes outside?”

“Pinkie, that caravan has ponies loading of the supplies. How are we supposed to get through them?” Rainbow asked dumbfounded.

“Oops, didn’t see them sorry.” Pinkie smiled sheepishly.

“What’s worse is that they won’t any earlier than tomorrow either. If only Twilight was here.” RD sighed.

After a few minutes of looking everywhere, they realized they didn’t plan this all the way through. Both sighed silently and started to return to their rooms.

“Not yet.” A familiar voice objected.

Suddenly, the two ponies were in the Canterlot park. They were surprised, but they were more happy when they turned around and they saw a familiar ‘adorkable bookworm’ figure behind them, smiling.

“Twilight!” Both exclaimed as they ran to hug her.

“But how? Didn’t you say you wanted to sleep?” Rainbow dash asked confused.

“I decided that sometimes I have to put my friends interests before mine, especially when they are doing crazy stuff and possibly get in trouble. So I decided to follow you. You were good. I barely caught you.” Twilight responded happy.

“Oh, Twilight. Without you we would not have some fun! You are not even the bookworm they say you are.” Pinkie exclaimed smiling.

Twilights response was a stare. “Hey!”

“Sorry! Didn’t mean to.” Pinkie smiled sheepishly again and RD laughed.

“Alright I have a watch. We have two hours of a walk. Then I would want us to go back and get some sleep, since the training is, you know… hard.” Twilight suggested.

Her friends agreed to stay two hours in the park. They never had a real break from the training and the rules inside the training base. So they had a relaxing walk in the park. And they lay down under a tree. Away from the stress. Until a question that was stressing Twilight out finally broke out:

“Hey, Girls? Do you think we will make it out? Alive?”

RD and Pinkie pie looked at each other. From the looks of it, they were also asking the same question themselves. It was a big question. Odds are that they may not make it out alive and be killed by some lunatic. It was a war, after all. Ponies die sometimes of unknown reasons. There were so many ways to die in a war that it was overwhelming. Bleeding out, poisoned with some plant, cut with a sword, killed with destructive magic, physical death like broken parts of the bodies being hit hard. Anything could happen. Ant just the question alone stroke fear in Twilights heart. But she would not quit. She would not disappoint her mentor. That is, if she did not disappoint her already. After a period of silence, one pony spoke.

“You know what? Whatever happens, it happens. We can’t predict the future. If we could we would not be in this position. We would be a happy world. Not that we are not happy, no, but we are distressed. We are cursed with the spell of war. Misery, despair and bloodshed. This is what characterizes a war. None of us want to kill our own kind. But we can’t help it. In defense of our dreams, we send people to their deaths. Whether there is an afterlife; a place where everypony lives happy with their loved ones,  dead or alive, to be away from the horrors of this life and live somewhere safe where nothing can attack, terrify or even disrupt your inner peace. I will let you decide that. War happen everywhere, and we can’t help it. We cannot prevent war. We are not princesses. We are not war heroes. We are not even simple heroes. It is our own decision whether we want to die in a war or not. It is in our very essence to determine our future. This is why we have cutie marks. This is why some of us decide to go for a different destiny. There is nothing written for us nowhere. We craft our own destinies. And we will craft this one as well. Whether we will make it out alive or not. This is your very own decision. Good luck finding out.”

And Twilights jaw dropped alongside with the second pony at Pinkie Pies determined response.

***

Nightmare moon waited patiently  for Salzar to return with the preparation plan for the visit. However, when he returned, Salzar had other intentions in mind. He did have the list, but he also added another paper to the list.

“Your Majesty. How are you this night?” Salzar asked.

“I am fine. Waiting for us to do the preparations. For the visit. Do you have the list?” Nightmare moon replied.

“Indeed I do. However, I also wish to add that the Saurians will not be able to attend at the current period of time stated in the letter. I have received a letter of their own right here. I recommend we keep the list and use it as soon I receive another letter from the president, don’t you think?” Salzar showed the letter to the queen.

As much as she was surprised, she was more afraid. The letter says that the president could not attend since there was an attack and they have to ensure it is safe for him to leave. Nightmare Moon knew that they had no defense whatsoever against attacks from space ships. They were defenseless. She put the letter away and accepted the situation.

“From what I understood from the letter, this attack stopped the president from visiting us. How can we ensure that we are protected from such attacks?” Nightmare moon asked, her gaze meeting Salzars.

The ambassador ginned and responded simply: “Let me worry of that. You just ensure that your resistance is successful.”

With that, Salzar turned around and left. Nightmare moon used this opportunity of having the letter to analyze the writing of both the old one and the new one. Closing the door, she levitated both letters in her blue aura, she aligned them perfectly one behind the other. She focused and her eyes glowed slightly. Being now capable to see every single letter, curve and size of both letters, she also checked with her magic if the new letter was the same type of paper and ink as the old one. And after a detailed analysis she came to horrible conclusion.

The letters were both from the president.