Tales from the Unification War

“When word came down from the top that we were going to invade Nokshire, I wasn’t onboard with it at first. At the time, I had the attitude that I joined the Royal Guard to protect Equestria. Not to go save a bunch of humans in some other country. I mean don’t get me wrong. I didn’t have anything against humans. It’s just that I knew pony soldiers would die in an invasion. And these were my fellow countryponies we were talking about, you know? So I sort of had the attitude that the life of every human in Nokshire was not worth the life of even one pony. But then something happened that changed my mind.

We’d been marching for days in terrible weather. The weather pegasi were all busy in other areas. We’d gotten bogged down, run out of food, and had been surviving on just grazing grass for almost a week. We hadn’t had a bath in even longer. Needless to say, we were all a mess.

When we came upon the first town in Nokshire, we were surprised to encounter basically no resistance. The humans in the town would later inform us that King Bridrick had moved most of his soldiers back closer to the capital, to defend areas he considered more important.

The humans in the town were nervous, especially the children, and I was surprised to learn that most of them had never even seen a pony before. Not even in drawings or paintings. They had been so isolated and oppressed, that they knew almost nothing of any society outside of their own country. They were living in poverty, and had little food to eat.

And yet, they invited us into their homes. And they fed us, and allowed us to take warm baths. I mean here were these people who had almost nothing, and barely had enough food to feed themselves. And yet, what little they did have, they were offering it to us, and sharing it with us. That’s when I knew we were doing the right thing. That’s when I knew, we had to help these humans.” -- Private Starspark, Equestrian Royal Guard