The Rays of the Moon

        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?”