The years after the fall

That was the day Equestria died. We all know the stories, know about how the Equestrian Army was destroyed by the changelings. Sergeant Snow was an inexperience leader, who had never seen a real battle in his life. The fall of Equestria was inevitable...

"Hey Tup" my friend and roommate Jet Stream said, "Can you get me a candy bar from the machine?"

The room was dark, we hadn't seen light in a while since the changelings took over the surface. We lived in an underground world, much like moles, but instead the walls were made of steel, and the tunnels were larger and also had different sectors.

"Why can't you get it yourself?" I asked irritably

"Because I ain't the one standing up. You are" Jet replied from the couch, watching the TV.

"Grr. Fine" I said, and I moved to go get him some snacks.

We were in our dorms, because there were no houses underground, we are forced to live in smaller dormitories. But hey, at least they were a decent size.

As I moved back to hand it to him, the news came on.

"Attention, we have a missing persons alert. If anypony has seen or heard from Daisy Blue or Tuxedo Changer, please report to authorities."

Well damn I thought. I knew Daisy, she was a nurse from the hospital. She didn't seem to be the kind of pony who would run away without good reason though. She was a pink pony, with greenish hair that covered half of her face, similar to Fluttershy, except curlier. I definitely had never heard the name of Tuxedo though, maybe he was new to this sector.

"Hey maybe we should go talk to them" I suggested to Jet after the rest of the news was over. "We knew her, maybe we could help find her"

"Ya man, I know she would do the same for us" Jet's purple hair shifted slightly as he turned to look at me. "Why do you think she ran?" He asked. "Dunno" I replied, "But I do know she wouldn't leave without a good reason to." The rest of the morning was spent trying to figure out what we would say to the officials. Finally, by lunchtime, we had it. "Alright so we tell them that she wouldn't leave here without a good cause and then we go" Jet said, "I have to go down to the gym for tryouts for the new pony basketball team."

"Agreed"

As we were walking down the office, we overheard some ponies talking in hushed voices

"Hey, did you hear that they are trying to bring back the Army?"

"No" said an orange mare, "And I don't want to join. Every time that somepony tries to bring it back everypony thats in it dies"

That didn't sound to reassuring

We couldn't hear any other part of the conversation, because they had moved around the corner, past the office.

"What was that all about?" I wondered aloud.

"Dunno, but there was something about the Army coming back" Jet's eyes lit up. " All I know is that I want to join up!" He said enthusiastically.

I opened the metal door to the office, and it opened like an air lock.  Jet stepped inside and as I followed, I noticed a poster that proved the rumor about the Army true. The poster was the only bright thing in the room, the rest was all the same color as steel. The poster hung above a desk, and seated in it was the recruiter. It showed of a rearing white stallion, with light shinning in the background, and across the bottom it said in bold letters " THE E.A. WANTS YOU!"

The recruiter just stared at us in an uncomfortable way.

We took a seat along the wall, waiting for our turn to talk with the O.C.

"Do you think they'll find her?" Jet whispered as some ponies came out of the questioning room.

"I hope so."

Daisy was a very cute pony who had never done anything wrong. She was a pretty good nurse as well. When my leg broke a few years ago, she was my nurse and doctor, because the official doc was out visiting his relative in sector 6. She was very nice about it, and did the best she could, which fortunately for my leg, was more than enough to help heal it. She wasn't even a Unicorn!

My thoughts were interrupted by a pony who accidentally bumped my hoof upon exiting the questioning room. Our turn was next. We stood up, and moved to the door. The recruiter still had been staring at us for the whole time.

The room was dark, almost like an interrogation room. There was one officer in the room, standing to the side. There was a table in the center and a pony scribbling down notes as we took our seats.

"Good morning boys, I am detective Snip" the pony said, "today I will be asking you a little about your friend Daisy"

"Ok" we replied in unison.

"So, let us begin, question one, did you personally know Miss Blue?"

"Kind of..."

"What do you mean 'kind of'?"

"Well she was my nurse and doctor, as well as an acquaintance." I replied, staring into the form of Snip. "She didn't have any reason to do this, I am sure something bigger happened that nopony knows about"

"Anything else Mr String?" The pony sure was impatient

"No"

"Then that will be all, Mr String. Have a good day." And with that, he led us to the door and quickly closed it behind us. Jet was looking confused "Why did they kick us out so quickly?" He asked.

"Hey" I replied, "It doesn't matter, what matters is that we gave them the information they needed".

"Hey did you notice that the recruiter was looking at us funny?" Jet asked

"Yeah man, I am going to ask her what she was doing"

"Hello sir" I said to the recruiter as we stopped a foot away from her desk. "Would you mind telling us what you were doing?"

"Oh I was sent here to get the attention of potential new recruits, and apparently I succeeded." she replied "So are you boys up for the challenge?"

"I don't know"I admitted and then I turned to Jet. "Are you?"

"A chance to join up with the Equestrian Army? Don't mind if I do" he said with a grin. "Especially if the mares look like this...." The recruiter laughed, and then handed the signup papers to Jet. She turned to look at me. "You sure you don't want to sign up? We could help you find your friend."

"What?" I was confused "But I thought that the Army was only for military uses, not to go on petty rescue missions"

"Ha" the recruiter laughed again, "I was talking about Tux, because he is a very important asset to our military research. I am assuming Daisy is with him because they both disappeared around the same time"

Ok well this was weird. I felt my hoof stamp the paper, and gave it back to the recruiter. "Here" I said, "I want in"

"I thought you might say that" The recruiter looked amused.

"Hey I never caught your name girl" Jet was being Jet. No big deal.

But this was weird. It was like an employer being hit on by an employee and it just seemed wrong. Much like the reason Equestria fell.... Because of Preacher and Tribute.....

The recruiters voice brought me back to reality "Show up to boot camp and I MIGHT give it to you." She looked amused, and Jet seemed to suddenly enjoy the idea of joining even more. "Oh, I am sure you will see me there." He replied.

Well he WAS pretty hard to miss. He was beet red, with huge wings, and a curly purple flow. It would take a miracle for the recruiter mare not to see him.

"Boot camp starts tomorrow" the recruiter informed us, "So you better get ready for it"

Ready.... Yes of course Jet would be ready, but would I? I didn't want to sign up for something that could get me killed, as much as I wanted to find Daisy. I wondered if it would be too late to find her by the time I was a soldier, or if she would have been found already. I pushed the thought from my mind. No. I had to believe that she was ok, and that she wasn't going to be found until I found her and nopony else was going to stop me.

We returned to our dorms, Jet pumped and excited for the next day, me not so much. I had a lot of things to think over tonight and I needed sleep. "Goodnight Jeb, see you tomorrow"

"See ya buddy" Jeb seemed to have calmed down a little. Maybe it was the fact that it was already late at night - the walk to the office took up most of our day. I fell into a deep sleep, and dreamed of what tomorrow would bring......