Moon Shimmer perused the shelves of the Canterlot library. She had been attending the funeral of her father. He had died only a week ago, defending the Princess from an assassination attempt. So she had come here looking for something that would take her mind off of the funeral. She had read some of the books already, having access to the Ponyville library, but of the thousands of books in Canterlot she had read only a small percentage.
Finally her eyes had alighted on a thick leather-bound tome with cursive letters written in golden ink. Historic Battles and the Ponies That Led Them.
Hmm. She thought, pulling the book off the shelf. It would be interesting to know more about our military.
She thought back to the times her father had come home and told her and her brother Snow Flurry about the kind of drills they had to do, how many stallions were in his platoon that day, whether or not he had seen the princesses. Moon Shimmer had been enraptured by the prospect of being a royal guard, but Snow Flurry had dismissed the idea entirely. These thoughts brought back the pain inside her chest, like she was being squeezed into nothingness and she couldn't breathe.
She brought the book over to an empty table and sat down, opening it. Dust flew up from the pages making her cough, and she was instantly shushed by the old unicorn mare in charge of the library. Moon Shimmer silently apologized and returned her attention back to the book. The first page was of one of the many battles that took place against the Griffins. It read:
By far the bloodiest battle to date, and the most recent, The Battle of Ghastly Gorge took over fifteen thousand lives, both Pegusi and Griffin alike. Fought in the air above the Gorge, most of the lives lost were of Pegusi and Griffins that hadn't been caught as they fell, wounded and crying out. Considered as a great loss, the battle was recorded as a win, with the Griffin army losses equaling over half of the number total. The Griffin army surrendered soon after and left for their homeland.
Shimmer closed her eyes. She could picture what the battle might have looked like to somepony on the ground. Falling bodies, pools of blood, panic, chaos. It was too much for her, and she opened her eyes. She skimmed the next page, but couldn't read anymore so she closed the book and looked up. She hadn't expected to see anypony standing in front of her, but was startled and nearly tripped over her hind legs as she scrambled away from the bright, sea foam green eyes in front of her.
"Summer Streak." Moon Shimmer whispered. "What are you doing here?"
Summer Streak was practically jumping up and down.
"You need to come with me." Summer whispered back. "Snow Flurry is about to get into a fight!"
"What?!" Moon Shimmer shouted. The old librarian shushed her again looking annoyed, but Shimmer wasn't listening. She was already on her way out of the library, Summer Streak on her heels. When Shimmer found her brother she was going to wring his neck.