The Rays of the Moon

        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.