I was there 02 (Patreon)

The crowd gathered around Solid Shot suddenly became very quiet as the Captain began telling his story in my Equestria dreamscape. Even gunners from the 45th stopped talking and turned to listen. Solid Shot paused and looked around at everypony. Then he closed his eyes and began his narrative. As his tale began to unfold vivid images started to take form in my mind. His words were letting me see what he’d experienced that day.

    “The 22nd had been assigned with heavy artillery defense of Fort Shield at the fork of Dartus River. Hauling Massive Mare-e up there had been adventure in itself. Fortunately she broke down into several components that made her journey a little bit easier. After much sweating and cursing we got her safely into her new home.”

    “Goodness! You were assigned to Fort Shield!” Exclaimed an old grey earth pony stallion in the crowd. “I worked as stone mason there in my better days. Did some of my finest stonework there!”

    Solid Shot nodded his head in agreement. “And you gave all of us troops as fine of a home as one could’ve asked for in those frigid mountains. It was because of the hard work of masons like you that many a pony’s life was saved. But I fear that like Massive Mare-e the fort will be of not much use to anypony until it is rebuilt again.

    “How big was, uh, Massive Mare-e?” Asked the dappled violet colt. Solid Shot looked at the colt with a wistful smile.

    “Oh, Massive Mare-e was the latest and largest cannon in all of Equestria. An 8-inch steel rifle muzzleloader, our crew had been chosen for the honor of serving her. We even went to Fillydelphia to oversee her final completion and to personally escort her back Mareiland. The ponies at Thunder Stride Foundry really made us a monster of a gun but still we loved Massive Mare-e. “

    “Unfortunately Fort Shield was never designed to house a gun as gigantic as Massive Mare-e. It took a lot of ingenuity to move her into her covered position within the fortress, and space there was really too cramp to properly operate the mechanical rammer that loaded her powder charges and the shells.” Solid Shot sighed. “The engineers at Thunder Stride Foundry had originally wanted to make Massive Mare-e one of those new breechloader cannon, but they just couldn’t get the breech lock to work to their satisfaction. So muzzleloader she was.”

     “The 22nd were housed at Fort Shield with several other heavy artillery units and four batteries of field guns from 36th of Trottingham. Along with a company of earth pony fusiliers from Manehattan there as was a battery of the new rapid-fire volley guns and another battery of quick-fire 2pdrs from Fillydelphia. And that was just the earth ponies, there were four platoons unicorns from Canterlot who provided magical support and two squadrons of pegasus ponies from Ft. Trotterdale who flew recon patrols and CAP for us.”

    Solid Shot suddenly and began to cough violently. He fished a small flask from the black leather satchel around his neck. The pewter flask had a stopper with a chain attached to it. Pulling the stopper from it with his teeth the Captain took a quick swig and then winced.

     “Gah! That tonic is horrible! But the doctors say I have to take it four times a day.” He looked at the flask with a pained expression. “Apparently it is suppose to be helping me cope with the effects of being exposed to Celestia’s war magic.” Gingerly he replaced the stopper then stowed the flask again in his satchel and resumed his narrative.

    “Fort Shield was within a few miles of the territory being contested by the dragons, so things were rather tense at the fortress since we knew if things went bad we’d most likely bear the brunt of it. Everypony there hoped the Royal Sisters would discover a peaceful solution to the crisis but we were taking no chances. We drilled night and day and kept constant aerial patrols running out near the border to act as a picket line.”

    “We were located at the top of a hill that commanded an excellent view of the river valley and the surrounding peaks and glaciers. If any dragon tried sneaking up on us we had a good chance of spotting them first.”

    “It was two days after Hearth’s Warming Eve and up in mountains it would start get dark at around four in the afternoon even on a clear day. However we were still digging out from a storm system that had gotten out of the Weather Services control. Everything from the most Northern borders to Hoofington got buried under an unusually dense blanket of snow.”

    The Captain stopped scuffed his right front hoof on grass. “It hadn’t snowed all day but even with everypony shoveling and plowing since dawn and we’d only finally succeeded in clearing the field gun emplacements on the outer wall defenses. Fortunately the volley-guns and the quick-fires were easier to put back into action“

    “I was up on the roof of our position taking a break when I saw a yellow star flare appear on the horizon near the border. Our fliers were carrying different colored flares with them that they could use to relay information to us. Yellow meant enemy forces had been spotted. Blue meant they were going to engage the enemy. Red signaled a general retreat of all forces in the area.”

    “First one yellow flare and then another; several seconds later blue flares began to bloom in the fading afternoon sun. After about thirty seconds a flurry of red flares erupted across the darkening sky. Then the alarm bell in the high watchtower began to frantically ring warning us of an imminent attack. The dragons were coming.”

To be continued.