"Across that mud field you'll find the training grounds where you will experience life within a trench as well as open fire; you will also learn all the tactics necessary for battle. Three kilometers west there's the main fort which lies along our border with the Sorceress's. Whether you are deployed there or not depends on how well you can adapt to the base lifestyle of our territory."
Aria trudged in front of her ghastly ensemble of rag-tag mares. All four of them were vile, awful creatures sent from the underworld. Even the little one back in Luna's presence and the cloaked and bandaged one most of all.
"We run on nighttime only — obviously, for the moon never sets in our Republic — and we keep track of the nights with a clockwork system of the standard twenty-four hours. Every seventh bell toll we eat our portions at the main tent about a mile from Her Highness's castle. There is the serving tent and five eating areas. You are allowed to hunt if you so wish, but we've been warned by King Aspen of the deer to keep off his subjects. We abide strictly and if you decide to hunt deer anyway, it is a crime punishable by death.
"The sleeping grounds are stationed all around Princess Luna's castle for we are her fortress and her guards," Aria said with a brief sweeping motion to her left at the scattered black and blue tents. "We sleep from the eleventh bell roll to the first, and on nights we go to war we sleep only from the first to the second toll. If we come home later than the second, we do not rest. We can go without sleep for days at a time so do not complain or you will be punished as seen fit.
"When you all go to battle you are enforced to wear New Lunar Republic gear and regalia. If you refuse, not only will you be punished by our princess herself, but you will more than likely be succumb to not-so-friendly fire for not everypony will get the pleasure of meeting you and being able to identify you all as our own."
Aria took a breath and stopped walking through her muddy home. She looked back at the mares who also froze in their tracks. Unsurprisingly, Silver Star was a few paces ahead of the others; Sanako and Anna were side by side and the cloaked unicorn was one pace behind them. It was impossible not to feel her mouth stretch into a grimace looking at them all in their... horrid clusterbuck of a group.
As she stood judging them, Aria could not help but notice that Sanako had enflamed another cigarette.
"Also, our smoking policy," Aria stated, staring straight at the midnight blue unicorn. "Everypony is allowed one pack of cigarettes a week, for too much of the stench and tainted air could begin to harm the cadets, newborns and the sick."
Sanako snorted and puffed on her little stick of death. "Yeah, ok," she muttered, adverting her astonishing eyes.
"Which means the pack you have on you is your last until the new week begins," Aria responded coldly.
Sanako's ears flattened and the ashes on the end of her cigarette glowed with embers. A hearty laugh escaped from Anna, startling Aria for a brief heartbeat. Sanako shoved the pegasus's side that hardly moved Anna; whereas the gray mare pushed her playfully back with only her wing, which sent the smaller pony nearly three feet away.
Aria felt a soft twinge and bit her cheek to stop her smile. She was not going to grow close to these unruly mares. Nor would she even grow to like them. She hated them, for now and for always.
"Every three weeks we receive letters from family or friends who've evacuated to distant lands such as Saddle Arabia or Trottingham," Aria continued, turning away from them as she took off again. The squelch of mud under her hooves would get annoying eventually if all they got was rain for the next few weeks. "We all bathe and relieve ourselves further into the forest to keep our area clean and healthy."
"Question," Silver's heavenly voice said.
"Ask away," Aria answered without stopping.
"What if we decide not to follow Luna anymore?"
A deep chill rocked Aria to her core as she whipped around. Silver looked smug and her followers seemed intrigued; even the strange unicorn in the back had their dusty ears perked.
Aria glanced quickly around; a couple of soldiers who had been sitting around dirty fires looked at Silver Star as if she had sprouted an extra pair of wings and another head. The earth stallion of the two narrowed his eyes and rested a hoof on the hilt of a knife beside him. Aria quickly hooked Silver around her neck and rushed her over a few more paces away from any pony else.
"Why would you say such a thing?" she asked the pegasus in an angry whisper.
Silver swiveled her ears calmly and smiled in a rather infuriating way. She raised one of her wings to the height of her head and her group stopped before they could flank Silver again and stared at the two mares facing off. A white glimmer of aura from Sanako's horn illuminated her dark and greasy mane and her pale pupils flicked from Silver and Aria repeatedly. Anna's jawline was tense and her wings were folded, stiff at her sides. Even the bandaged unicorn seemed distressed, digging at the mud which appeared to have dried around their hooves.
"It was a simple question," Silver Star insisted softly, her one eye staring deep into Aria's.
Every time this blasted pegasus opens her mouth its like cold water through my veins, Aria thought, furrowing her brow and feeling heat bubble in her chest and face. Nopony should be this calm in a war; I don't care how many battles she's fought in or won. She is cocky and selfish and—
Before Aria knew what she was doing, her horn flared to life in the depths of Silver's eye, her blood-red dagger was against the pegasus's throat and Aria's magic gripped the joints of her wings; a magical barrier surrounded them both and Aria clenched her teeth and her heart pounded. It felt as if fire and fury fueled every nerve in her body. Silver's group hadn't moved, too stunned from the sudden violence on Aria's behalf; yet a little more confusingly, none of them looked particularly interested in interfering. Silver herself merely lifted her chin and she stood still.
"I suppose this means questions aren't allowed," she murmured, lifting her brows.
Aria pressed harder into the mare. Yes, she should bleed; show all of them she was merely mortal and not untouchable and definitely not this Republic's last hope for victory. Aria was Luna's weapon. Princess Luna didn't need the foal back in the war room and she didn't need these pathetic, disheveled mares whom had no respect nor gratitude to be invited into the Republic.
Her Highness only needs me, Aria's mind boomed.
And that was when the pain slithered from her horn to her neck to her chest and shoulders. A brief slice of coolness and then a violent, racking agony that burned and screamed with white-hot intensity. Aria's magic faltered, red sparks crazed in her eyes and a deafening ringing clouded her head.
Her dagger dropped to the mud as a sick warmth ebbed her pain. It plitted to the churned ground and as far as Aria could tell, she was bleeding only from around her neck and chest. The muscles of her shoulders and stomach were taught and she felt ill. After the warmth from her own blood was felt, thorny pricks of ice nicked at the edges of her wounds. She sat back with a gasp, panting and blinking back the tears that swelled in her eyes.
"It's not particularly polite to press a knife to another's throat for minor inquiries," Silver said bitingly. Her voice was darker than before. All the comfort of it from before seemed to drip off her lips and leave behind an aftertaste of something foul.
"And it's not particularly polite to injure your superior."
With a wince, Aria turned her head as a tall purple-furred unicorn paced forward, his black-metal helmet gleaming in the light of the moon. His dark eyes were faded into his mane and fur, but they still caught every star in the sky, a cold glassy surface of his being.
"Shadowbane, it was my fault—" Aria began, only to be cut short as he took another step toward the mares.
"I beg of thee, please do silence yourself," he muttered softly to the side to her. "You mares — I will guide you to your resting areas and fill in on any questions you may have."
The group looked stunned momentarily but as Silver followed Shadow, Aria was left staring at their retreat. No word nor glance was thrown back to her.
That dumb warhorse….
The dull throb in her sides sent her to her hooves and she wiped at the wounds gingerly. They were all shallow; minor cuts at most. Nothing serious, however if she continued to move and let them heal haphazardly they would scar.
I've got too many of those to even care at this point, Aria thought, snorting softly. She sighed, looking at her home. Dark tents. A looming castle at least half a mile behind her now. An unwavering yet dying moon. All of it, a part of her for as long as she could remember.
A brief, blinding flash and scream set her gaze to fall onto the mud that gulped at her hooves. Suddenly she wasn't the war-worn mare, renowned for being Her Highness's go-to soldier despite her rank.
Aria was back to then, when the war was young and full of unknown fear. She had lived in Ponyville, always moving between Canterlot and the small town due to her parents' indecisiveness. Her two little brothers were ugly, little and rowdy but she loved them both if they were on one of their good days.
Aria's father was hardset. He had many old injuries that haunted his frail, callused body, and his fur was like dragonsmoke. His mane was black like the pits of a predator's eyes and his eyes were as bright as pure gold. Aria's father, Storming Song, was an earth pony, which is where her dominant traits arose from when she was born.
Aria's mother, Flaming Moon, was a guard for the Lunar Princess. She was a soft-hearted unicorn with gentle eyes and a kind touch. Her fur was a modest orange and her mane was whitish with slivers of deep blue. Her eyes were arctic pools of heaven and Aria couldn't remember who had called them that.
Aria's brothers, Chorus Night and Melodic Dance, were like her. Dark fur, dark manes, piercing eyes. Night was a unicorn and Dance was an earthpony. Both were almost unbearable but now she wouldn't hesitate to do anything to have them back. To have any of her family back.
"Ma'am?"
Aria lifted her eyes to see a gray-furred flight cadet.
"Oh, Rumble," she muttered. "What is it?"
The pegasus opened and closed his wings, shuffling his hooves. With his dark uniform and ugly cadet cap, he looked ridiculous as did all the young bloods.
"Have the scouts in the Solar Empire reported back?" he asked at last, squishing a small mound of mud with one of his back hooves. His ears flicked back and he flushed lightly. "Um — ma'am."
"No," Aria answered immediately. She lifted her chin and set her brows. "We aren't expecting any reports unless something extreme occurs in the Empress's domain."
Rumble's shoulders fell.
Oh, blasted moons, Aria realized as Rumble looked at his hooves with distressed, pale purple eyes. He's asking about Thunderlane.
"But — uh," she fumbled as the cadet began to leave. He paused and Aria pushed forward. "I'm sure we should be receiving letters soon from all over."
The cadet nodded half-heartedly and saluted her before taking off. Aria smiled sadly at his back and turned to walk back to the castle.
The seventh bell rung solemnly over the camp as soldiers, officers and simple residents filed their way to the eating tents. Aria wasn't hungry enough to follow in their wet march.
Her princess was more important than food, regardless of how long she'd gone without eating.
Aria swerved out of the way of ragged ponies; mares guiding their young with weak knees and stallions with scarred faces and fresh patches or pus-riddled wounds they refused to clean so it'd scar. These were her ponies. These were her brothers and sisters. She was part of a family. A broken, battle-worn and ugly and sick family, but a family all the same.
Aria was one with the Republic, fighting for the right way and the right ruler. Fighting for Her Highness, Princess Luna.
A loud squash and a skid indicated a messy pegasus landing as Aria continued on her way.
"Evening, Reign," she greeted politely.
"Hey," Blaze said as she flicked mud from her white hooves with slight disdain. "Where's the hell-hounds?"
"With Shadowbane."
"Thought you'd be the one to tame them and tie them to their cots, not your coltfriend."
Aria snorted.
"What? You two are practically married with the way you both flank each other," Blaze laughed and resettled her wings.
A silence encased them as each drowned their minds with thoughts. Twenty-minutes passed.
The goddess-awful squelching of their hooves silenced once they got closer to the castle. There was a specific time that castle guards ate so there would always be somepony with the princess. Aria couldn't remember when.
"I'm going to have an audience with Her Highness to discuss the conscripts," Aria said softly as they passed a few of the guards on post.
"I thought the matter had been discussed thorough enough," Blaze said in return, raising her brows boredly.
"She didn't discuss shit," Aria replied. Blaze cackled so suddenly that Aria barely withheld her flinch.
"What?" she asked the pegasus as they entered the castle. Crimson Lock and Hourglass were replaced by two unicorn sentries whom Aria didn't know.
"Her Highness said a whole lot more than you think, Weaver," Blaze said as their hooves clicked against the marble floors. "You need to watch her less and see others more."
Aria flushed and raised her chin as the two of them entered Luna's war room.
The dark blue alicorn was glaring at her table, her horn glimmering with blue magic as a battalion of turquoise sentinels marched through the Alliance and into the heart of the Solar Empire. The turquoise holograms were swiftly stained red the further they went and soon the whole army was bloodied and fallen. Her Highness scowled and shook her head, sending a scattering of shooting stars in her mane to streak across space.
"What is it, Commander Spellweaver?" the princess asked, monotone.
"Your Highness, deepest apologies for intruding," Aria said as she walked closer to the circular table. In the corner of her eye, she could see the youngest of the conscript party. She was curled up on the floor, blubbering about something and holding her head. Aria frowned and stepped beside the princess, ignoring the other unicorn. Blaze set herself on the opposite end of the table, inspecting the holograms thoroughly.
"I wanted to speak with you about my thoughts on the veteran and her company," Aria stuttered, briefly glancing at her ruler.
"There is nothing to speak of," Princess Luna said swiftly. "They are accepted into the Republic on behalf of my trust that they will protect my ponies and support our cause."
"Your Highness," Aria said, her voice full of strain. Arguing with her princess would not end well. "These mares can't be trusted at all. Silver Star asked what were to happen if they chose not to follow you anymore. We don't need their toxic hides."
"Actually, we need more of them," Luna sighed, rubbing her tired eyes. She paced away from the table, looking at her multiple Equestria maps, all territories lined with respective colors to who owned them. Pins indicated posts and "X"s showed battles. If the X was in blue, the Republic has won. If not, then the Republic has lost. Photos and drawings of the other princesses scattered the rest of the walls; posters pleading for assistance and other war propaganda were amongst them.
"What?"
"I have been thinking of hiring mercenaries," Her Highness continued. "Violent stallions and mares who's kill anything and anypony for bits or food. Loyal, not so much, especially if another pays them higher. But I doubt any of my enemies can outpay these monsters."
Aria stared at Luna's back in shock. More mercenaries? Unknown foreigners who could easily kill the Republic's leader if another offered more?
"Blazing Reign, send out a message to the Badlands and our southeastern posts. Anypony willing to be hired as mercenaries are welcome here."
Aria's stomach clenched as she watched her friend go.
They were all doomed if they let a single hoof of an outsider in the Republic, Aria was sure of it.