The Rays of the Moonby NobodyslamentChaptersPrologueAn Unexpected BattleHospitals are BoringIntroductionsPrologueHello. If you are reading this, I am dead. Maybe not physically, but definitely emotionally. How can I tell this you ask. Simple, I already am. Long ago my heart was wrenched out by soldiers who didn’t do their job. Now I sit and start the story of myself, one that isn’t meant to be told, but relived in my old age. For those to whom I may pass this on, my name is Distant Nights, I am currently a staff sergeant in the New Lunar Army, and I have seen the horror of war. The useful parts of my story don’t start until the battle for Stalliongrad, but I might need to give background in case this makes it into some third-tier museum. I was born to Canterlot nobility. This was before the split, and the kingdom was peaceful, if you discounted the scheming nobles. Because of this, I was trained from a young age into the arts of ‘background warfare’ as my father called it. I knew how to disguise, poison, and even slit some throats, if the need had arisen. My teaching was cut short however, when my parents were killed, Nopony knew who did it, but a noble who had recently risen in power mysteriously fell on his own knife blade. It was tragic. My childhood cut short, I moved on. As with most young stallions, I met a mare. We went out for a while, before the split came. The split itself was... odd. Luna decided the way to keep her personal demons in check was to make her own country and continue her duties from there. Her sister agreed, and they parted on amicable terms. I talked about it for a while with my marefriend, and revealed I would be joining the New Lunar Republic for a few years. She took it relatively well, made me promise to come back though. Not that it matters much now. I signed up for the army to help out the fledgling country. After all, every country besides Equestria was gunning for it. After a year of training I came out as a corporal. It seems low now, but at the time, I felt like a general. We started making defensive formations around our borders, with the least reinforced area being, surprise, the Equestrian border. I tried to point out the folly in this, but I was pretty low on the totem pole. I had to watch as it all burned down. I was stationed on the Equestrian border. We were a ragamuffin crew of patchwork soldiers. We called ourselves the Silent Knights, and each of us were also the most sure footed sons of whorses you ever met. I was one of about twenty pegasi in the three hundred pony force. I was a team leader in second platoon, first squad. We trained hard, and played harder. When Solar guards got close I even caught sight of an old friend. But that all changed on the night of tears. It was the start of a new month, and with it, a new paycheck. Half the force was gone, and would never come back. I can’t say I blame them. We got a notice from up top. A nation had declared war. I was in the comms room at the time, but before I heard much, I got kicked into formation. It was small, in fact I had the only full team there. Our three hundred had shrunk to maybe a hundred. Our captain got up and once the word patriotism escaped his lips I went numb. There were keywords for every species we fought. Not many ponies knew them, but they were there. For dragons it was bravery, since you have to be homicidally brave to take one on. For griffons it was hope, because with griffons you hope they get bored and fight someone else. With ponies, it was patriotism, because you had to believe you were killing for a good reason. I thought of all the countries that had ponies. A treaty with the Crystal Empire was already in effect, so I was left to mull over the rest. The news hit me right before our captain said it. The only country with a pony populace not yet in a treaty with us was Equestria. Suddenly those formations outside our base were a lot more threatening. The battle that followed was completely pointless, a lot of good ponies died due to an overzealous solar guard. I died that day, I was always a sucker for duty though, and couldn’t leave with this war raging. The Silent Knights got shuffled out. Our next big engagement was where we earned our names, and where most of us lost it. An Unexpected Battle We were the first battalion in actual combat, and due to its nature as an unneeded slaughter, we were allowed to back out of service then and there. Over half accepted, leaving our giant force into a mere 103 ponies. I never thought of accepting for a moment. I still had to stay until the country was safe from outside invaders. Because of all the cuts, I got promoted to a squad leader. It was a simple gig, leaving me in charge of four other ponies. It was a small squad, but we were some quick-witted folks, and we never got into any huge trouble. Everyone got shifted over to Stalliongrad for a more peaceful experience. It was still a border city, but it was the most fortified, so it should have been safe. Everything started on the last guard shift of the night. I was stationed on the watchtower on the Equestrian side. I had technically taken over one of my friends guards shifts, and since he was an earth pony it meant I had to deal with the uncomfortable rifle. It was compressing my wings with the over body lay, and to top it off it made me side heavy. I zoomed in with the optics on my glasses. The Solar base was within 1,000 meters of us, and the zoom let me see most of the base. I saw a pony pulling the same shift as me. I waved. He waved back. I almost didn’t notice the clop of hoofbeats behind me as a pony went up the stairs. Before I could face him, he spoke. “So boss, how goes the watch?” I smirked, and turned to face the very pony I was covering for. He was named Grimy Gears, but we just called him Gearhead. I brought up my hoof and we bumped them together, a smile coming across my lips. “What in hay are you doing here Gearhead? I told you you had the night off.” He shuffled side to side, and I guessed what had happened. “NIghtmares again I’m guessing?” He nodded. I took off the rifle and hoofed it to him. “We all got ‘em man, just keep swimming, you know?” I walked off while hearing him whistle one of his crappy metal songs. If I had known it would never happen again, I might have stayed for a bit longer. I fell asleep one one of the couches in the rec room, some old Bit Eastwood movies playing in the background. I got startled awake almost an hour later thanks to a loud alarm in the base. The continuous blaring grated on my nerves. I thought briefly that they plan these tests stupidly before I felt the thunk of a magic mortar hit the ground outside our base. I hauled flank to the armory. Only guards and patrols had weapons, and Luna knew that I needed one. The armory was on the other side of the base. Stalliongrad was a big base, and it took almost five minutes to reach the armory. They were handing out weapons. I smirked, you knew things were bad when they were skipping the paperwork. I grabbed a wing blaster and slapped it on. The optics tuned into the magical frequency of the little box and gave me a cross to signify where I was aiming it I flew into the air, seeing most of the Silent Knights still in line. I heard a sizzle and looked towards it. My mind never clicked what it was, but I rolled away from it I watched as a purple monstrosity rolled through the air, and crashed into the armory. I saw a spectacular light show of misery and death. The original spell mixed with the reserves of magical ammo. The end result was a fireball that propelled forward, into the darkness of night. Light fluttered across my vision as I started to get up. It was the light of a flashlight. Also known as the least welcome light you can wake up to. I moved a bit before seeing a unicorn in full armor before me. I blinked again, nopony wore full armor, it was too heavy. I looked her over again, she was big, with an obvious mare body. Though, I could only see her front. I grumbled as I stood up. “What in the name of Luna herself are you doing here?” The gravelly voice that could only be the crappy speakers of a helmet responded. “We thought you might require assistance. Admittedly, you seem to have awoken fine enough to fight.” I looked at her again. Her armor was the rich purple of some high ranking combat personnel. Maybe an old paperwork mare who got stuffed into combat duty. I still wasn’t in a good mood. “Look, the Solar army just blew up our whole ammo dump. If you wanna help me fine. You should have gone and helped the others fight off the rest of the attack though.” I shook my head and stood up. The mare stayed still, leaving a feeling of unease in me. I started to turn to the battlefield when she finally spoke up. “I wouldn’t head back there if I were you. The battles over, but there were some... complications.” I looked at her. She stood like a statue. Her armor distracted me for a moment, it was scarred and dirty. She was not some paperwork mare, this was a Lunar elite, one of Luna’s personal guards. I filed that away mentally, and continued on towards the main battlefront. I looked over at a scene of art. A unicorn moved about fortifications as if they were nothing, the white fur stood out like a drop of innocence on the Hell of battle. A rainbow contrail darted across the sky, blasting away Solar forces like nothing. I stood raptured to the spot, until a word escaped my snout. “Beautiful.” The mare moved to my side and nudged me. I faced her and waited for an explanation. She simply moved the mouthpiece of her uniform, allowing her deep blue fur to be shown. Her voice exuded authority as she spoke. “Reinforcements arrived a few minutes ago. They were two deserters from the Solar Empire.” She smiled a bit. “But allow me to ignore such things and ask you a question. Do you know what happened to Stalliongrad my little pony?” My sentance bled off. I wasn’t going to think about that, it would end badly. SHoving all thoughts aside I turned to the mare. She moved to face me. “Yes, the whole city is gone, every pony stationed to Stalliongrad base has been... eliminated. Your uniforms missing a patch, which unit are you with.” It was an order, not a request, but I ignored it for a moment. She said everypony had been eliminated, as in killed. That meant no more GearHead and his quirky inventions, no more Moonlight and her soft voice playing songs before lights out. I thought to the last two members of our squad, no more Windstream and his quiet skill, and no more Doctor and his quirky personality. I lost myself in my own world for a moment before snapping back to reality. I looked to my shoulder before I answered the nameless mare. “I was a squad leader in the Silent Knights. Ready and willing for a reassignment.” I saluted at the end of the sentence. The mare looked me over. “I assign you to follow me to the nearest medical facility, no complaints, no worries. After that you’ll get a full psych evaluation Then I might have a proposition for you.” A shadow moved, and before I could voice any complaints she backed into it, disappearing. Not knowing what else to do, I followed her. Hospitals are Boring The shadow I stepped through felt like a doorway. I was surrounded by a claustrophobic blackness, before walking into an open meadow, with a hospital in the distance. I moved forward before I saw the armored mare, still facing me. She beat me to the first word. “You’ll have to excuse the transport, only way to get you here quickly. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go check how the battle is going.” She stated to make another portal. I moved in between the two. “NO, not until you tell me your name.” He moved her head to the side. One ear folded in curiosity. “I would have thought saving would be nice enough. Instead of a name, how about a promise. You’ll be in the hospital at least two days, I’ll come visit.” I tried to protest, but she melted into a shadow behind her. I silently cursed as I walked to the hospital. I went to the front office and rang the bell several times, warranting confusion from the duty nurse. “Yes, may I help you?” I looked around, the waiting room was empty. “Yes, one check in, from the ongoing battle of Stalliongrad.” he looked at me for a minute and nodded, running back to the back room. I figured that I would get called up when a doctor freed up. I heard some noises from the back room. A hushed conversation, the dialing of a phone, and finally a gasp. The doctor came through about a minute after that, with a small layer of sweat on his forehead. He motioned towards me, and I followed him to a room. He picked up a needle and put out his hoof. “Now Mr.Nights, we’ve been told by your superiors that you have at minimum a few broken ribs, and maybe some magical burns, after seeing you walk, I’m in a mood to agree. Any comments?” I looked at him like he was crazy. “What do you mean sir? I feel great!” I moved up to show him. He pushed me back down in a gentle manner. “Have you seen yourself?” I shook my head. He moved a mirror in front of me. I almost retched. My dark brown fur was matted with dried blood. Parts of my fur were burned to the skin, and a part of my skull was showing through my burned fur. I shook my head, too tired to worry about it. The doctor moved the mirror with a red tinted glow. “Now here’s a shot to put you to sleep. The lack of pain is probably a side effect of an adrenaline flood. I’m giving you fair warning, this will hurt like a bitch when you wake up.” I sucumbed to the doctors words and stuck out my hoof. In one second a needle plunged into my fetlock. In two seconds my vision blurred. In three seconds blackness overwhelmed my vision. I didn’t count to four. I woke up several times. The first was a vague blur before another needle was jammed into my system. The second time was more of the same. The third one was in a private room tinged purple. I fell back asleep without a needle jammed into my hoof. I fell into a natural slumber. The last time I woke up there was a few things I didn’t think were there last time. I saw a bunch of armor sorted on a small table. A book sat on a chair, a bookmark hooked into the middle. I rolled to the side and a jolt of pain went through my body. I didn’t move until the pain subsided, then I summed up my feelings on the situation. “Fuck.” I looked around my bed, hoping for some sort of pain meds. There were none. “Fuck.” I leaned my head back, slowly to keep from hurting myself. I almost moved when I heard the voice. “Well, I don’t think I heard a pony talk like that with me in the room for twenty years.” I didn’t want to move, so I let the voice keep its own company until it talked to me. All was quiet for a few moments. “Oh, you’re chatty when you’re sick aren’t you?” That was a question, so I answered it. “No.” “Are you only going to respond when I ask you a question?” “Yes.” I heard a sigh, and a bit of movement. I felt my bed slowly moved to being upright. I winced from the pain of moving. I then saw who I was talking too. Her coat was a deep blue, like a midnight sky. She stood taller than some stallions, and wore it well. Of course, she also had this look on her face like I should be in awe. In her defense, it was Luna, ruler of the nation. In my defense, I really didn’t give a shit at the moment. I went back to being quiet. She looked at me expectantly. SHe sighed again and folded up her wings. “This isn’t right. I’ll return in a moment.” She turned around and walked away leaving me to my thoughts. I sat still and tried to get back to sleep, but I couldn’t. So I was forced to it and think about everything. I lived again. The thought was accompanied by a wave of euphoria. I had beaten the odds, and managed to live through the battle again. I moved, and thought of trying to get ahold of my other squadmates, but something in me made me stop thinking about that. I tried to locate something to do, but the only thing near me was an ancient Daring Do book. It was hardly a challenging read, that, and I think moving my hoof would cause a large rush of pain. I heard the clopping of hooves outside and a hushed conversation. After a minute of talking Luna walked through the door accompanied by another pony. He was short, like the size of a foal short. He was wearing a labcoat covering his entire body. He walked up to me and extended his hoof. “Hello there, I’m Quiet thoughts. I suppose your Distant nights?” I looked him over. He entered trying to establish control by showing he already knew my name. He was a doctor of some sort, I guessed psychologist. I nodded, keeping from moving too much. He smiled. “I’ve been told to ask you a few questions.” He sat down in the chair opposite me, keeping eye contact. “How are you doing right now.” I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “Well, I’m currently hurting like I just got blown up by a huge magical blast.” I lay there for a minute, watching as the psychologist hastily levitated a pencil over and began taking notes, as soon as he was about to comment I spoke again. “Oh wait, ... I was.” Thoughts sat there a moment, unused to sarcasm apparently. Luna was quietly snickering in the corner. He recovered enough to ask his next question. “It said in your earlier psych reports you have a girlfriend, how’s your relationship with her?” He just stepped on a landmine. I would’ve punched him if I could move. I calmed down immediately afterwards, I really just stopped caring. “Oh, it ended a while ago. I mean, after the night of tears, it would’ve turned into necrophilia, and that just isn’t right.” I laughed, a short, bitter laugh. “Ha, who said she was on our side? Glittering clouds, solar guard of the Purity division. She stayed with Celestia.” The scratching resumed, and Thoughts slowly moved upwards. “Well Mr. Nights, I think that’s all I need. Thank you for your time.” With that he walked out, Luna in tow. I sighed, I just bombed the psych evaluation. I would probably get discharged with full honors, but I would still be sent home. I sat there again doing nothing. Luna came back after a minute or two, a large pile of paperwork levitating beside her. She sat down beside me and started filling it all out, not telling me what was going on. I didn’t deal well with being out of the loop. I rolled my head over to see her. “What’s with you being here? I doubt you visit every wounded pony in the war.” She smiled, which scared me. “Actually, I have. Every combat wounded has gotten a visit by me. Counting you I’ve visited one pony.” I shook my head. “Whoo, go me. First injured in a war. How was the report the psychologist gave me?” Luna looked at me with mild surprise on her face. “He said you were... um.” She looked through her files and did air quotes. “Ill-suited to do anything more emotionally taxing than sorting cans.” I snorted with laughter and immediately regretted that decision. Pain welled through my head and slowly dissipated throughout my body. Luna looked at me. “I however, have a different opinion. I think you seem to have gotten a giant kick in the pants. I won’t offer you revenge, but I’ll offer you the ability to keep your job.” I cut her off right there. “Stop building up suspense and tell me the offer.” She huffed at me. “Fine. I’m need a pony to make a squad. Not big, five, maybe six other ponies. You get funded by me, and get pointed where you need to go. You would be the leader.” I looked at her. I opened my mouth, closed it again, then said what was on my mind. “Are you high right now ma’am?” She looked like I punched her. “You see a pony, in bad mental condition, who just got blown up and think ‘oh he’ll make a great leader’. Ask one of the ponies who lived. I’ll join the squad if they want me. ” She sat there for a minute. “Nights, you just almost died. Know that that singular fact just saved your life.” I scoffed a bit. She kept talking. “You are the only survivor of that battle, discounting two mares who are currently at a briefing for the armies they command. You managed to live, and when I found you didn’t hesitate to try and head back to the fight, so you are my first choice.” My brain took a minute to compute this new information. “Wait, when you found me? You mean to say you have been sneaking out to fight during a war? Princess, with all due respect thats stupid! If you die the whole nation will fall apart.” Luna took more offence. “QUIET!” I screamed in pain. The full force of the Canterlot voice vibrated the bed, moving my injuries to open one of the scars and clack the broken bones together. Luna moved to my side much faster than I anticipated. “Sorry, sorry. Here, let me help.” Before I could voice a complaint, a horn touched my chest. My wounds slowly closed, and my bones healed up a little bit. When the magic ended I could move a little bit, and didn’t feel like I got shot. I moved out of bed and rolled my hooves around. After stretching out muscles that hadn’t been used in at least a day. It felt good. I turned to Luna. “Now I can’t refuse your offer. Alright, I’ll lead your squad.” I sat back down before I remembered one of the passing remarks in our conversation. “Wait, what do you mean the only survivor?” Introductions Luna sat down in her chair, levelling her eyes to look into mine. “Nights, lie back down. Thats an order.” I listened and lied back down, keeping my eyes trained on her. “As I’m sure you guessed, the magical mortar crashed into our ammo dump, your flight area allowed the force to propel you into some softer mud, saving your life. Nopony else was so lucky. The mortar itself was of immense power, leveling the base. When it reacted with the ammo in the bunker the whole city was leveled.” She looked at me, I let out a chuckle, a low bitter chuckle. “So that’s it huh? Now that they’ve done something to us, I get a nice little team and everything should work out? Well, I like it. Give me a list of names, I’ll get a team together.” Luna looked at me, an eyebrow raised and water on the tip of her eyes. “Are you really ok? Do you not want time to mourn, maybe something to distract you?” I looked at her. “Well, I think I learned a valuable lesson today. That no matter what, ponies are gonna die, might as well make it a good story to go out on. My girl, she had a pretty bad story, she was killed for no reason. Now those ponies on base they got a great story, killed by an overcharged mortar. That’s a hell of a story for the pearly gates. Me, I’m gonna lead this squad through the gates of Hell, and we’re gonna have some stories. If we are very, VERY, lucky, we might get to live to tell them.” Luna just sat there for a minute, thinking over what I said. She then stood up quick enough to send the chair spiralling away like a loose ball in a schoolyard. “DO YOU NOT CARE THAT YOUR BROTHERS ARE DEAD!!! HAVE YOU NO IOTA OF REGRET FOR THEIR VALIANT SACRIFICES!!?! WELL, DO YOU?” Her screaming fit was able to rock the room a bit, but no ponies came to investigate the noise. I sat there as she breathed heavily, gasping to replenish her lost air. I already knew my answer. Luna slowly calmed down, giving me time to best phrase my answer, Sadly, none of it actually helped me find a polite way of saying my thoughts on the matter, so I did it bluntly. After Luna sat back down I started talking. “To be honest, no I don’t care. We all signed up knowing we might die, now they have. I can’t change it, you can’t change it, so why bitch about it. I’d prefer to go and try and give some meaning to their useless deaths, even if it is only justification.” I stood up and faced her, and looked up to keep eye contact. “I am not a coward, I’m disillusioned. We’ll all die, except you Luna. I just acknowledge that, and let the chips fall where they will. If anything we should swap how much we care.” My voice began to pick up in volume, slowly becoming a small roar. “You’re a general now! Ponies will die because of you, if you can’t live with that, then surrender now!” I took a moment to compose myself. “I’m considering this as my hospital discharge. I’m heading to Stalliongrad, if you want me to have a squad bring me fifty recruits, I’ll cull the weak from there.” I jumped through a small window on the opposite side of the room. It would have been less painful if the window had been open, but I was focused on the task at hand. Which was mainly to figure out where the heck I was. I had to adjust my eyes to see in the darkness. I circled the hospital twice, keeping it in view. I saw a glimmer of light in the distance and flew towards it, keeping a contrail of dark grey as the only hint I was in the air. The glimmer in the distance turned out to be none other than Las Pegasus. It’s lively lights were visible even though I was almost an hour away. That left me a lot of time to think, which was an unfortunate activity for my well being. I had known that nopony survived. I had thought that right after the battle. Why had it hit me so hard in the hospital? I had never been hit that hard by death. When my parents died, I had been angrier at Celestia then their killer. After all, I could kill their killer. I couldn’t even touch the bitch who ignored her nephew as he cried for her to save him. I blinked hard and did a quick 360 check. Nopony should see me like this. I was not being calm or rational, just angry and bitter. I looked at my destination. A mere minutes flight from where I was. I was suddenly glad that teleportation matrices were the most used form of travel. Only two other ponies were even on the road, and they were both earth-ponies with a small carriage. I shook my head and got further bearings. I was on the east side of the gambling hub of Equestria, and Stalliongrad was due north. I flew straight as an arrow, and guessed at a three hour flight time. Damn it. I sped up as much as I could, and cut two hours off my estimated time. I saw almost nothing. It was a field of dead grass and scorched earth. I kicked a bit off ground. It came up in an uneven, unnatural shape. I threw it aside, and it fell back into dust. I lied down in the field, putting my fetlocks under my head. A nap would do me good, and keep me from thinking too much. I heard a click after I closed my eyes. I opened them and light flooded my vision. I would’ve sworn that it was night when I got here. I sat up and stretched my wings. They popped and loosened rather quickly, leaving me free to turn around towards where the click came from. I saw Luna, in her armor, with half a battalion standing behind her. It took my brain a minute to recap why they were here. I stood up and faced Luna. “Ma’am, these the recruits you want me to look at?” The voice modulator kicked in, muffling her words. “Indeed, you may select five for your squad. Then you may begin your missions.” She turned around, addressing the recruits. “You’re all under this stallions command now. Keep him happy and he’ll probably kick you out. Dismissed.” With a wave of her wing she fell through her own shadow. I looked over the recruits, all of which were staring at where Luna stood but a moment ago. A few had figured out that they were dismissed, and moved to talk to someone beside them. I let them do so for a minute before breaking their dreams. “Recruits, fall in!”They instantly snapped to attention and fell in, keeping themselves presentable. I looked them over, and gave them my speech. “Watch where you’re standing. We’re on a mass grave right now.” A few of the recruits jumped up and looked around fearfully. “Anypony who just jumped up, leave right now. I need some ponies who are unfazeable, and won’t feel bad slitting a few throats.” Half of the ponies left, leaving me with a little more than twenty recruits. “Anypony who wants to slit a throat, leave now.” About ten more ponies were left. “Alright then. Everypony rest up, in thirty minutes we’ll do PT until five of you drop out. Until then, you’re free.” I moved to the side, and watched how they socialized. THey seemed to be averse to talking to each other, which suited me fine. I sat down and readied myself. My stay in the hospital gave me some rest, but left me physically weakened. I would have to cheat to put these ponies through their paces. I fluffed up my wings, moving my body slightly above the ground. I would use a trick I learned in basic. I saw all the other ponies had fallen asleep, except for a black-maned loner who sat and watched them curiously. I moved up and looked them over, it had been about thirty minutes. “Recruits! Shake off the sleepies and form up!” They slowly surfaced and jogged over to me, getting themselves up for some torture or another. I smiled as they lined up in front of me. “Everypony, we’re doing my favorite drill to separate the great from the gods. Line up with three hooves between you.” They did so, keeping themselves spaced right. “Outstanding, now we’re doing synchronised combat jumps. I’ll fly above and check while everypony jumps over the pony in front of them. Repeat until you pass out. Start it up.” They all went in perfect synchronisation, keeping themselves spaced out well. As I flew above I saw signs of fatigue on a few, but they kept it up for an hour, then two, at three two of them fell over unconscious. “Jump over them! More practice for you.” They did just that, as I moved the two ponies to a flat, cushioned area and moved them to be comfortable. I looked back to see three more walking away, leaving five still exercising. I walked over to them. “Stop.” A few of the ponies almost stopped in mid-air, and on the lone pegasus pony did. “Relax.” They all untensed their muscles, and a one of them fell over dramatically. I chuckled. “You’ve all made the cuts, welcome to the team.” They all collapsed. I took a moment to look over the successful recruits. One of them was a pegasus with black hair, a gray stripe was all you could see of his mane, it was trimmed to almost-skin levels. He was moving slowly, as if he’d hurt something. He made no complaints about it though, so I assumed it wasn’t bad. Next up was an earth pony pair. One was light brown, with a spiky mane. He simply lied down and closed his eyes, presumably to sleep. The other Earth pony was tan, with a small derby shoved on his head. It kept his white mane from spilling out, so I ignored it. The last pair were both unicorns. One was white, with a yellow mane, her horn was softly glowing as she hummed to herself. The last one was a light red, with his yellow mane making the illusion of a full-fledged inferno. He simply flopped down and moved his head side to side, as if dancing to an imagined beat. I moved to the side and centered on the remaining recruits. “Everypony, listen up. I’ve got a family meeting planned. Wake up and get together.” It took a lot of coercion, and one or two kicks, but I finally got everyone to line up in a semi orderly line. By that I mean, they were all lying down so that they could see me, but that was good enough for me. “Okee-dokee folks, we’ve got a nice little squad of five and a great lack of missions, so I need to get to know you all. I’ll call you up one by one and ask a few basic questions. Any volunteers?” The black pegasus walked forward. “Very well, everyone else, thirty minute break.” I moved towards the middle of the field, checking once to make sure I was being followed. He was almost impossible to hear, keeping pace with me in a silent march. I turned around in the when we were well out of hearing range. He was still right in front of me. I scooted a few inches back and looked him over. He was in good physical form, so all I had to judge was his mental state. He cocked an eyebrow at me. “We gonna talk, or are you gonna stare at me for a while?” I smiled and locked eyes with him. “Name?” He didn’t flinch away from the eye contact. “Quiet Solace, rank of specialist in Lunar army scout corps.” He smirked at me. “You mean the military or the squad?” I had to stop myself from kicking him. “I meant the military, but why don’t you go ahead and tell me both?” He deadpanned. “I picked the military because I wanted something to do, and I picked the squad because, well, why not?” I looked at him. “Cool, then the last thing I need’s gonna make me sound like a selfish bastard. What’s your base opinion of me?” Solace looked at me. “Honestly, you kind of remind of a teacher I had nce. Always serious, with a huge chip on his shoulder.” I nodded. “Good enough, send me whoever wants to go next.” He fell back towards the group and rolled. Turning it into a silent takeoff. After briefly hovering beside the group he flew off, he was on break, so I didn’t care. Next up was the the pony with a derby on his head. He spoke with a cockneigh accent after bowing to me. “ ‘Allo mate, what ‘cha need from ole Magpie?” I looked at the ball of energy that was in my squad, and sent a quick prayer to Luna. “I’m guessing your name’s Magpie then?” He let loose another bow, this time flourishing off is hat with his hooves. “Sergeant Magpie at your service. In charge of explosives and supply at Lunar base 3.” I sighed. “Great, I’m guessing you’re the one that accidentally blew up the officers mess hall?” He smiled as big as his head. “That’s me alright. They kept filling out forms for more whiskey, somehow a bit of nitroglycerin fell in. Damn shame ‘bout it to, nitro’s pretty rare around here.” He was crazy, batshit crazy. I smiled. “Welcome to the team. Go ahead and ge-” I was cut off by a armored alicorn landing beside me. Her voice modulator crackled on, mildly annoying me. “You have a base, ten bedrooms. Move your team there. A handpicked recruit, and a mission briefing will be there in two hours.” With that she flew back off. Magpie sat down and looked at me sideways. He had probably guessed who that was, but all my thoughts currently centered o something totally different. Eventually MAgpie voiced my current thoughts. “What’s at bitch mean by a new recruit. We not bleedin’ good enough?”
PrologueHello. If you are reading this, I am dead. Maybe not physically, but definitely emotionally. How can I tell this you ask. Simple, I already am. Long ago my heart was wrenched out by soldiers who didn’t do their job. Now I sit and start the story of myself, one that isn’t meant to be told, but relived in my old age. For those to whom I may pass this on, my name is Distant Nights, I am currently a staff sergeant in the New Lunar Army, and I have seen the horror of war. The useful parts of my story don’t start until the battle for Stalliongrad, but I might need to give background in case this makes it into some third-tier museum. I was born to Canterlot nobility. This was before the split, and the kingdom was peaceful, if you discounted the scheming nobles. Because of this, I was trained from a young age into the arts of ‘background warfare’ as my father called it. I knew how to disguise, poison, and even slit some throats, if the need had arisen. My teaching was cut short however, when my parents were killed, Nopony knew who did it, but a noble who had recently risen in power mysteriously fell on his own knife blade. It was tragic. My childhood cut short, I moved on. As with most young stallions, I met a mare. We went out for a while, before the split came. The split itself was... odd. Luna decided the way to keep her personal demons in check was to make her own country and continue her duties from there. Her sister agreed, and they parted on amicable terms. I talked about it for a while with my marefriend, and revealed I would be joining the New Lunar Republic for a few years. She took it relatively well, made me promise to come back though. Not that it matters much now. I signed up for the army to help out the fledgling country. After all, every country besides Equestria was gunning for it. After a year of training I came out as a corporal. It seems low now, but at the time, I felt like a general. We started making defensive formations around our borders, with the least reinforced area being, surprise, the Equestrian border. I tried to point out the folly in this, but I was pretty low on the totem pole. I had to watch as it all burned down. I was stationed on the Equestrian border. We were a ragamuffin crew of patchwork soldiers. We called ourselves the Silent Knights, and each of us were also the most sure footed sons of whorses you ever met. I was one of about twenty pegasi in the three hundred pony force. I was a team leader in second platoon, first squad. We trained hard, and played harder. When Solar guards got close I even caught sight of an old friend. But that all changed on the night of tears. It was the start of a new month, and with it, a new paycheck. Half the force was gone, and would never come back. I can’t say I blame them. We got a notice from up top. A nation had declared war. I was in the comms room at the time, but before I heard much, I got kicked into formation. It was small, in fact I had the only full team there. Our three hundred had shrunk to maybe a hundred. Our captain got up and once the word patriotism escaped his lips I went numb. There were keywords for every species we fought. Not many ponies knew them, but they were there. For dragons it was bravery, since you have to be homicidally brave to take one on. For griffons it was hope, because with griffons you hope they get bored and fight someone else. With ponies, it was patriotism, because you had to believe you were killing for a good reason. I thought of all the countries that had ponies. A treaty with the Crystal Empire was already in effect, so I was left to mull over the rest. The news hit me right before our captain said it. The only country with a pony populace not yet in a treaty with us was Equestria. Suddenly those formations outside our base were a lot more threatening. The battle that followed was completely pointless, a lot of good ponies died due to an overzealous solar guard. I died that day, I was always a sucker for duty though, and couldn’t leave with this war raging. The Silent Knights got shuffled out. Our next big engagement was where we earned our names, and where most of us lost it.
An Unexpected Battle We were the first battalion in actual combat, and due to its nature as an unneeded slaughter, we were allowed to back out of service then and there. Over half accepted, leaving our giant force into a mere 103 ponies. I never thought of accepting for a moment. I still had to stay until the country was safe from outside invaders. Because of all the cuts, I got promoted to a squad leader. It was a simple gig, leaving me in charge of four other ponies. It was a small squad, but we were some quick-witted folks, and we never got into any huge trouble. Everyone got shifted over to Stalliongrad for a more peaceful experience. It was still a border city, but it was the most fortified, so it should have been safe. Everything started on the last guard shift of the night. I was stationed on the watchtower on the Equestrian side. I had technically taken over one of my friends guards shifts, and since he was an earth pony it meant I had to deal with the uncomfortable rifle. It was compressing my wings with the over body lay, and to top it off it made me side heavy. I zoomed in with the optics on my glasses. The Solar base was within 1,000 meters of us, and the zoom let me see most of the base. I saw a pony pulling the same shift as me. I waved. He waved back. I almost didn’t notice the clop of hoofbeats behind me as a pony went up the stairs. Before I could face him, he spoke. “So boss, how goes the watch?” I smirked, and turned to face the very pony I was covering for. He was named Grimy Gears, but we just called him Gearhead. I brought up my hoof and we bumped them together, a smile coming across my lips. “What in hay are you doing here Gearhead? I told you you had the night off.” He shuffled side to side, and I guessed what had happened. “NIghtmares again I’m guessing?” He nodded. I took off the rifle and hoofed it to him. “We all got ‘em man, just keep swimming, you know?” I walked off while hearing him whistle one of his crappy metal songs. If I had known it would never happen again, I might have stayed for a bit longer. I fell asleep one one of the couches in the rec room, some old Bit Eastwood movies playing in the background. I got startled awake almost an hour later thanks to a loud alarm in the base. The continuous blaring grated on my nerves. I thought briefly that they plan these tests stupidly before I felt the thunk of a magic mortar hit the ground outside our base. I hauled flank to the armory. Only guards and patrols had weapons, and Luna knew that I needed one. The armory was on the other side of the base. Stalliongrad was a big base, and it took almost five minutes to reach the armory. They were handing out weapons. I smirked, you knew things were bad when they were skipping the paperwork. I grabbed a wing blaster and slapped it on. The optics tuned into the magical frequency of the little box and gave me a cross to signify where I was aiming it I flew into the air, seeing most of the Silent Knights still in line. I heard a sizzle and looked towards it. My mind never clicked what it was, but I rolled away from it I watched as a purple monstrosity rolled through the air, and crashed into the armory. I saw a spectacular light show of misery and death. The original spell mixed with the reserves of magical ammo. The end result was a fireball that propelled forward, into the darkness of night. Light fluttered across my vision as I started to get up. It was the light of a flashlight. Also known as the least welcome light you can wake up to. I moved a bit before seeing a unicorn in full armor before me. I blinked again, nopony wore full armor, it was too heavy. I looked her over again, she was big, with an obvious mare body. Though, I could only see her front. I grumbled as I stood up. “What in the name of Luna herself are you doing here?” The gravelly voice that could only be the crappy speakers of a helmet responded. “We thought you might require assistance. Admittedly, you seem to have awoken fine enough to fight.” I looked at her again. Her armor was the rich purple of some high ranking combat personnel. Maybe an old paperwork mare who got stuffed into combat duty. I still wasn’t in a good mood. “Look, the Solar army just blew up our whole ammo dump. If you wanna help me fine. You should have gone and helped the others fight off the rest of the attack though.” I shook my head and stood up. The mare stayed still, leaving a feeling of unease in me. I started to turn to the battlefield when she finally spoke up. “I wouldn’t head back there if I were you. The battles over, but there were some... complications.” I looked at her. She stood like a statue. Her armor distracted me for a moment, it was scarred and dirty. She was not some paperwork mare, this was a Lunar elite, one of Luna’s personal guards. I filed that away mentally, and continued on towards the main battlefront. I looked over at a scene of art. A unicorn moved about fortifications as if they were nothing, the white fur stood out like a drop of innocence on the Hell of battle. A rainbow contrail darted across the sky, blasting away Solar forces like nothing. I stood raptured to the spot, until a word escaped my snout. “Beautiful.” The mare moved to my side and nudged me. I faced her and waited for an explanation. She simply moved the mouthpiece of her uniform, allowing her deep blue fur to be shown. Her voice exuded authority as she spoke. “Reinforcements arrived a few minutes ago. They were two deserters from the Solar Empire.” She smiled a bit. “But allow me to ignore such things and ask you a question. Do you know what happened to Stalliongrad my little pony?” My sentance bled off. I wasn’t going to think about that, it would end badly. SHoving all thoughts aside I turned to the mare. She moved to face me. “Yes, the whole city is gone, every pony stationed to Stalliongrad base has been... eliminated. Your uniforms missing a patch, which unit are you with.” It was an order, not a request, but I ignored it for a moment. She said everypony had been eliminated, as in killed. That meant no more GearHead and his quirky inventions, no more Moonlight and her soft voice playing songs before lights out. I thought to the last two members of our squad, no more Windstream and his quiet skill, and no more Doctor and his quirky personality. I lost myself in my own world for a moment before snapping back to reality. I looked to my shoulder before I answered the nameless mare. “I was a squad leader in the Silent Knights. Ready and willing for a reassignment.” I saluted at the end of the sentence. The mare looked me over. “I assign you to follow me to the nearest medical facility, no complaints, no worries. After that you’ll get a full psych evaluation Then I might have a proposition for you.” A shadow moved, and before I could voice any complaints she backed into it, disappearing. Not knowing what else to do, I followed her.
Hospitals are Boring The shadow I stepped through felt like a doorway. I was surrounded by a claustrophobic blackness, before walking into an open meadow, with a hospital in the distance. I moved forward before I saw the armored mare, still facing me. She beat me to the first word. “You’ll have to excuse the transport, only way to get you here quickly. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go check how the battle is going.” She stated to make another portal. I moved in between the two. “NO, not until you tell me your name.” He moved her head to the side. One ear folded in curiosity. “I would have thought saving would be nice enough. Instead of a name, how about a promise. You’ll be in the hospital at least two days, I’ll come visit.” I tried to protest, but she melted into a shadow behind her. I silently cursed as I walked to the hospital. I went to the front office and rang the bell several times, warranting confusion from the duty nurse. “Yes, may I help you?” I looked around, the waiting room was empty. “Yes, one check in, from the ongoing battle of Stalliongrad.” he looked at me for a minute and nodded, running back to the back room. I figured that I would get called up when a doctor freed up. I heard some noises from the back room. A hushed conversation, the dialing of a phone, and finally a gasp. The doctor came through about a minute after that, with a small layer of sweat on his forehead. He motioned towards me, and I followed him to a room. He picked up a needle and put out his hoof. “Now Mr.Nights, we’ve been told by your superiors that you have at minimum a few broken ribs, and maybe some magical burns, after seeing you walk, I’m in a mood to agree. Any comments?” I looked at him like he was crazy. “What do you mean sir? I feel great!” I moved up to show him. He pushed me back down in a gentle manner. “Have you seen yourself?” I shook my head. He moved a mirror in front of me. I almost retched. My dark brown fur was matted with dried blood. Parts of my fur were burned to the skin, and a part of my skull was showing through my burned fur. I shook my head, too tired to worry about it. The doctor moved the mirror with a red tinted glow. “Now here’s a shot to put you to sleep. The lack of pain is probably a side effect of an adrenaline flood. I’m giving you fair warning, this will hurt like a bitch when you wake up.” I sucumbed to the doctors words and stuck out my hoof. In one second a needle plunged into my fetlock. In two seconds my vision blurred. In three seconds blackness overwhelmed my vision. I didn’t count to four. I woke up several times. The first was a vague blur before another needle was jammed into my system. The second time was more of the same. The third one was in a private room tinged purple. I fell back asleep without a needle jammed into my hoof. I fell into a natural slumber. The last time I woke up there was a few things I didn’t think were there last time. I saw a bunch of armor sorted on a small table. A book sat on a chair, a bookmark hooked into the middle. I rolled to the side and a jolt of pain went through my body. I didn’t move until the pain subsided, then I summed up my feelings on the situation. “Fuck.” I looked around my bed, hoping for some sort of pain meds. There were none. “Fuck.” I leaned my head back, slowly to keep from hurting myself. I almost moved when I heard the voice. “Well, I don’t think I heard a pony talk like that with me in the room for twenty years.” I didn’t want to move, so I let the voice keep its own company until it talked to me. All was quiet for a few moments. “Oh, you’re chatty when you’re sick aren’t you?” That was a question, so I answered it. “No.” “Are you only going to respond when I ask you a question?” “Yes.” I heard a sigh, and a bit of movement. I felt my bed slowly moved to being upright. I winced from the pain of moving. I then saw who I was talking too. Her coat was a deep blue, like a midnight sky. She stood taller than some stallions, and wore it well. Of course, she also had this look on her face like I should be in awe. In her defense, it was Luna, ruler of the nation. In my defense, I really didn’t give a shit at the moment. I went back to being quiet. She looked at me expectantly. SHe sighed again and folded up her wings. “This isn’t right. I’ll return in a moment.” She turned around and walked away leaving me to my thoughts. I sat still and tried to get back to sleep, but I couldn’t. So I was forced to it and think about everything. I lived again. The thought was accompanied by a wave of euphoria. I had beaten the odds, and managed to live through the battle again. I moved, and thought of trying to get ahold of my other squadmates, but something in me made me stop thinking about that. I tried to locate something to do, but the only thing near me was an ancient Daring Do book. It was hardly a challenging read, that, and I think moving my hoof would cause a large rush of pain. I heard the clopping of hooves outside and a hushed conversation. After a minute of talking Luna walked through the door accompanied by another pony. He was short, like the size of a foal short. He was wearing a labcoat covering his entire body. He walked up to me and extended his hoof. “Hello there, I’m Quiet thoughts. I suppose your Distant nights?” I looked him over. He entered trying to establish control by showing he already knew my name. He was a doctor of some sort, I guessed psychologist. I nodded, keeping from moving too much. He smiled. “I’ve been told to ask you a few questions.” He sat down in the chair opposite me, keeping eye contact. “How are you doing right now.” I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “Well, I’m currently hurting like I just got blown up by a huge magical blast.” I lay there for a minute, watching as the psychologist hastily levitated a pencil over and began taking notes, as soon as he was about to comment I spoke again. “Oh wait, ... I was.” Thoughts sat there a moment, unused to sarcasm apparently. Luna was quietly snickering in the corner. He recovered enough to ask his next question. “It said in your earlier psych reports you have a girlfriend, how’s your relationship with her?” He just stepped on a landmine. I would’ve punched him if I could move. I calmed down immediately afterwards, I really just stopped caring. “Oh, it ended a while ago. I mean, after the night of tears, it would’ve turned into necrophilia, and that just isn’t right.” I laughed, a short, bitter laugh. “Ha, who said she was on our side? Glittering clouds, solar guard of the Purity division. She stayed with Celestia.” The scratching resumed, and Thoughts slowly moved upwards. “Well Mr. Nights, I think that’s all I need. Thank you for your time.” With that he walked out, Luna in tow. I sighed, I just bombed the psych evaluation. I would probably get discharged with full honors, but I would still be sent home. I sat there again doing nothing. Luna came back after a minute or two, a large pile of paperwork levitating beside her. She sat down beside me and started filling it all out, not telling me what was going on. I didn’t deal well with being out of the loop. I rolled my head over to see her. “What’s with you being here? I doubt you visit every wounded pony in the war.” She smiled, which scared me. “Actually, I have. Every combat wounded has gotten a visit by me. Counting you I’ve visited one pony.” I shook my head. “Whoo, go me. First injured in a war. How was the report the psychologist gave me?” Luna looked at me with mild surprise on her face. “He said you were... um.” She looked through her files and did air quotes. “Ill-suited to do anything more emotionally taxing than sorting cans.” I snorted with laughter and immediately regretted that decision. Pain welled through my head and slowly dissipated throughout my body. Luna looked at me. “I however, have a different opinion. I think you seem to have gotten a giant kick in the pants. I won’t offer you revenge, but I’ll offer you the ability to keep your job.” I cut her off right there. “Stop building up suspense and tell me the offer.” She huffed at me. “Fine. I’m need a pony to make a squad. Not big, five, maybe six other ponies. You get funded by me, and get pointed where you need to go. You would be the leader.” I looked at her. I opened my mouth, closed it again, then said what was on my mind. “Are you high right now ma’am?” She looked like I punched her. “You see a pony, in bad mental condition, who just got blown up and think ‘oh he’ll make a great leader’. Ask one of the ponies who lived. I’ll join the squad if they want me. ” She sat there for a minute. “Nights, you just almost died. Know that that singular fact just saved your life.” I scoffed a bit. She kept talking. “You are the only survivor of that battle, discounting two mares who are currently at a briefing for the armies they command. You managed to live, and when I found you didn’t hesitate to try and head back to the fight, so you are my first choice.” My brain took a minute to compute this new information. “Wait, when you found me? You mean to say you have been sneaking out to fight during a war? Princess, with all due respect thats stupid! If you die the whole nation will fall apart.” Luna took more offence. “QUIET!” I screamed in pain. The full force of the Canterlot voice vibrated the bed, moving my injuries to open one of the scars and clack the broken bones together. Luna moved to my side much faster than I anticipated. “Sorry, sorry. Here, let me help.” Before I could voice a complaint, a horn touched my chest. My wounds slowly closed, and my bones healed up a little bit. When the magic ended I could move a little bit, and didn’t feel like I got shot. I moved out of bed and rolled my hooves around. After stretching out muscles that hadn’t been used in at least a day. It felt good. I turned to Luna. “Now I can’t refuse your offer. Alright, I’ll lead your squad.” I sat back down before I remembered one of the passing remarks in our conversation. “Wait, what do you mean the only survivor?”
Introductions Luna sat down in her chair, levelling her eyes to look into mine. “Nights, lie back down. Thats an order.” I listened and lied back down, keeping my eyes trained on her. “As I’m sure you guessed, the magical mortar crashed into our ammo dump, your flight area allowed the force to propel you into some softer mud, saving your life. Nopony else was so lucky. The mortar itself was of immense power, leveling the base. When it reacted with the ammo in the bunker the whole city was leveled.” She looked at me, I let out a chuckle, a low bitter chuckle. “So that’s it huh? Now that they’ve done something to us, I get a nice little team and everything should work out? Well, I like it. Give me a list of names, I’ll get a team together.” Luna looked at me, an eyebrow raised and water on the tip of her eyes. “Are you really ok? Do you not want time to mourn, maybe something to distract you?” I looked at her. “Well, I think I learned a valuable lesson today. That no matter what, ponies are gonna die, might as well make it a good story to go out on. My girl, she had a pretty bad story, she was killed for no reason. Now those ponies on base they got a great story, killed by an overcharged mortar. That’s a hell of a story for the pearly gates. Me, I’m gonna lead this squad through the gates of Hell, and we’re gonna have some stories. If we are very, VERY, lucky, we might get to live to tell them.” Luna just sat there for a minute, thinking over what I said. She then stood up quick enough to send the chair spiralling away like a loose ball in a schoolyard. “DO YOU NOT CARE THAT YOUR BROTHERS ARE DEAD!!! HAVE YOU NO IOTA OF REGRET FOR THEIR VALIANT SACRIFICES!!?! WELL, DO YOU?” Her screaming fit was able to rock the room a bit, but no ponies came to investigate the noise. I sat there as she breathed heavily, gasping to replenish her lost air. I already knew my answer. Luna slowly calmed down, giving me time to best phrase my answer, Sadly, none of it actually helped me find a polite way of saying my thoughts on the matter, so I did it bluntly. After Luna sat back down I started talking. “To be honest, no I don’t care. We all signed up knowing we might die, now they have. I can’t change it, you can’t change it, so why bitch about it. I’d prefer to go and try and give some meaning to their useless deaths, even if it is only justification.” I stood up and faced her, and looked up to keep eye contact. “I am not a coward, I’m disillusioned. We’ll all die, except you Luna. I just acknowledge that, and let the chips fall where they will. If anything we should swap how much we care.” My voice began to pick up in volume, slowly becoming a small roar. “You’re a general now! Ponies will die because of you, if you can’t live with that, then surrender now!” I took a moment to compose myself. “I’m considering this as my hospital discharge. I’m heading to Stalliongrad, if you want me to have a squad bring me fifty recruits, I’ll cull the weak from there.” I jumped through a small window on the opposite side of the room. It would have been less painful if the window had been open, but I was focused on the task at hand. Which was mainly to figure out where the heck I was. I had to adjust my eyes to see in the darkness. I circled the hospital twice, keeping it in view. I saw a glimmer of light in the distance and flew towards it, keeping a contrail of dark grey as the only hint I was in the air. The glimmer in the distance turned out to be none other than Las Pegasus. It’s lively lights were visible even though I was almost an hour away. That left me a lot of time to think, which was an unfortunate activity for my well being. I had known that nopony survived. I had thought that right after the battle. Why had it hit me so hard in the hospital? I had never been hit that hard by death. When my parents died, I had been angrier at Celestia then their killer. After all, I could kill their killer. I couldn’t even touch the bitch who ignored her nephew as he cried for her to save him. I blinked hard and did a quick 360 check. Nopony should see me like this. I was not being calm or rational, just angry and bitter. I looked at my destination. A mere minutes flight from where I was. I was suddenly glad that teleportation matrices were the most used form of travel. Only two other ponies were even on the road, and they were both earth-ponies with a small carriage. I shook my head and got further bearings. I was on the east side of the gambling hub of Equestria, and Stalliongrad was due north. I flew straight as an arrow, and guessed at a three hour flight time. Damn it. I sped up as much as I could, and cut two hours off my estimated time. I saw almost nothing. It was a field of dead grass and scorched earth. I kicked a bit off ground. It came up in an uneven, unnatural shape. I threw it aside, and it fell back into dust. I lied down in the field, putting my fetlocks under my head. A nap would do me good, and keep me from thinking too much. I heard a click after I closed my eyes. I opened them and light flooded my vision. I would’ve sworn that it was night when I got here. I sat up and stretched my wings. They popped and loosened rather quickly, leaving me free to turn around towards where the click came from. I saw Luna, in her armor, with half a battalion standing behind her. It took my brain a minute to recap why they were here. I stood up and faced Luna. “Ma’am, these the recruits you want me to look at?” The voice modulator kicked in, muffling her words. “Indeed, you may select five for your squad. Then you may begin your missions.” She turned around, addressing the recruits. “You’re all under this stallions command now. Keep him happy and he’ll probably kick you out. Dismissed.” With a wave of her wing she fell through her own shadow. I looked over the recruits, all of which were staring at where Luna stood but a moment ago. A few had figured out that they were dismissed, and moved to talk to someone beside them. I let them do so for a minute before breaking their dreams. “Recruits, fall in!”They instantly snapped to attention and fell in, keeping themselves presentable. I looked them over, and gave them my speech. “Watch where you’re standing. We’re on a mass grave right now.” A few of the recruits jumped up and looked around fearfully. “Anypony who just jumped up, leave right now. I need some ponies who are unfazeable, and won’t feel bad slitting a few throats.” Half of the ponies left, leaving me with a little more than twenty recruits. “Anypony who wants to slit a throat, leave now.” About ten more ponies were left. “Alright then. Everypony rest up, in thirty minutes we’ll do PT until five of you drop out. Until then, you’re free.” I moved to the side, and watched how they socialized. THey seemed to be averse to talking to each other, which suited me fine. I sat down and readied myself. My stay in the hospital gave me some rest, but left me physically weakened. I would have to cheat to put these ponies through their paces. I fluffed up my wings, moving my body slightly above the ground. I would use a trick I learned in basic. I saw all the other ponies had fallen asleep, except for a black-maned loner who sat and watched them curiously. I moved up and looked them over, it had been about thirty minutes. “Recruits! Shake off the sleepies and form up!” They slowly surfaced and jogged over to me, getting themselves up for some torture or another. I smiled as they lined up in front of me. “Everypony, we’re doing my favorite drill to separate the great from the gods. Line up with three hooves between you.” They did so, keeping themselves spaced right. “Outstanding, now we’re doing synchronised combat jumps. I’ll fly above and check while everypony jumps over the pony in front of them. Repeat until you pass out. Start it up.” They all went in perfect synchronisation, keeping themselves spaced out well. As I flew above I saw signs of fatigue on a few, but they kept it up for an hour, then two, at three two of them fell over unconscious. “Jump over them! More practice for you.” They did just that, as I moved the two ponies to a flat, cushioned area and moved them to be comfortable. I looked back to see three more walking away, leaving five still exercising. I walked over to them. “Stop.” A few of the ponies almost stopped in mid-air, and on the lone pegasus pony did. “Relax.” They all untensed their muscles, and a one of them fell over dramatically. I chuckled. “You’ve all made the cuts, welcome to the team.” They all collapsed. I took a moment to look over the successful recruits. One of them was a pegasus with black hair, a gray stripe was all you could see of his mane, it was trimmed to almost-skin levels. He was moving slowly, as if he’d hurt something. He made no complaints about it though, so I assumed it wasn’t bad. Next up was an earth pony pair. One was light brown, with a spiky mane. He simply lied down and closed his eyes, presumably to sleep. The other Earth pony was tan, with a small derby shoved on his head. It kept his white mane from spilling out, so I ignored it. The last pair were both unicorns. One was white, with a yellow mane, her horn was softly glowing as she hummed to herself. The last one was a light red, with his yellow mane making the illusion of a full-fledged inferno. He simply flopped down and moved his head side to side, as if dancing to an imagined beat. I moved to the side and centered on the remaining recruits. “Everypony, listen up. I’ve got a family meeting planned. Wake up and get together.” It took a lot of coercion, and one or two kicks, but I finally got everyone to line up in a semi orderly line. By that I mean, they were all lying down so that they could see me, but that was good enough for me. “Okee-dokee folks, we’ve got a nice little squad of five and a great lack of missions, so I need to get to know you all. I’ll call you up one by one and ask a few basic questions. Any volunteers?” The black pegasus walked forward. “Very well, everyone else, thirty minute break.” I moved towards the middle of the field, checking once to make sure I was being followed. He was almost impossible to hear, keeping pace with me in a silent march. I turned around in the when we were well out of hearing range. He was still right in front of me. I scooted a few inches back and looked him over. He was in good physical form, so all I had to judge was his mental state. He cocked an eyebrow at me. “We gonna talk, or are you gonna stare at me for a while?” I smiled and locked eyes with him. “Name?” He didn’t flinch away from the eye contact. “Quiet Solace, rank of specialist in Lunar army scout corps.” He smirked at me. “You mean the military or the squad?” I had to stop myself from kicking him. “I meant the military, but why don’t you go ahead and tell me both?” He deadpanned. “I picked the military because I wanted something to do, and I picked the squad because, well, why not?” I looked at him. “Cool, then the last thing I need’s gonna make me sound like a selfish bastard. What’s your base opinion of me?” Solace looked at me. “Honestly, you kind of remind of a teacher I had nce. Always serious, with a huge chip on his shoulder.” I nodded. “Good enough, send me whoever wants to go next.” He fell back towards the group and rolled. Turning it into a silent takeoff. After briefly hovering beside the group he flew off, he was on break, so I didn’t care. Next up was the the pony with a derby on his head. He spoke with a cockneigh accent after bowing to me. “ ‘Allo mate, what ‘cha need from ole Magpie?” I looked at the ball of energy that was in my squad, and sent a quick prayer to Luna. “I’m guessing your name’s Magpie then?” He let loose another bow, this time flourishing off is hat with his hooves. “Sergeant Magpie at your service. In charge of explosives and supply at Lunar base 3.” I sighed. “Great, I’m guessing you’re the one that accidentally blew up the officers mess hall?” He smiled as big as his head. “That’s me alright. They kept filling out forms for more whiskey, somehow a bit of nitroglycerin fell in. Damn shame ‘bout it to, nitro’s pretty rare around here.” He was crazy, batshit crazy. I smiled. “Welcome to the team. Go ahead and ge-” I was cut off by a armored alicorn landing beside me. Her voice modulator crackled on, mildly annoying me. “You have a base, ten bedrooms. Move your team there. A handpicked recruit, and a mission briefing will be there in two hours.” With that she flew back off. Magpie sat down and looked at me sideways. He had probably guessed who that was, but all my thoughts currently centered o something totally different. Eventually MAgpie voiced my current thoughts. “What’s at bitch mean by a new recruit. We not bleedin’ good enough?”
