War, it changes everything it touches. It ruins lives, but also creates them. It messes with the mind of those involved. It creates fear, and death. Extremists and terror. But what would happen were someone from war entered into a land of peace. Would paranoia still reign? Would the soldier bring harm with him? Would anything change at all? In a world of uncertainty, one can always fear.
My name is Sean. Private first class, U.S Army, 10th Mountain division. I am currently serving a 12 month tour in Iraq. I am a brony but no one knows. I fear what would happen if I were to tell any of my friends. All my life I have feared uncertainty. War was the only thing I knew for certain. My friends all went to serve, so I did too. After basic training we were deployed into the war zone. Within a week three of my friends died. After a month four more followed. % months till the rest of us go home. The only thing keeping me sane is habit. Wake up, drill, eat then go kill. That defines my life, interrupted only by the death of a friend or letters from home. Then it all changed. We set out on patrol, nothing in mind but to get back fast. The jeep in front of mine detonated. We spilled out onto the ground and opened fire on the hills. It was worthless, as much as we fired our soldiers died and theirs kept coming. I emptied another magazine to find a small boy standing next to me. Tears were streaking down his small tan face. His fists were balled around a hand grenade, pin pulled. I looked into his eyes and saw an intense hatred. The grenade detonated and everything went white.
I woke up in a forest. I sat up checking my self, but I seemed to be ok. I checked for enemies nearby, but found nothing. My confusion set in and I began to panic. A light humming blew on the wind from behind me. The leaves crackled under heavy footsteps. I did the only thing that seemed logical; I opened up into the bush. I yelled as I fired, it helped get a weight off my chest. A sharp yelp and a thud resounded from the other side. I crept through the bush to find a small yellow horse lying on its side. But that’s not right, I thought, horses don’t hum. I only just realized other things about this horse. The wings, the pink hair. A voice sounded through the trees. My fear took over and I ran. I ran and ran. I kept running until I puked then kept running. I ended up falling into a small stream. The water calmed me down. Swimming was familiar.
I collected my thoughts and began to take stock of what I had. My machine gun with two mags, my pistol with one, 3 rations, my combat knife and a grenade. My matches were ruined and my fourth ration was gone. I found my compass and followed it north. After about 5 hours the sun set and I made camp. I ate a cold ration and drew myself up a bed of leaves. I was awoken about an hour later. The brush near my camp rustled. I brought my gun up and looked through the night vision scope. A bright light about forty meters out flashed into the air. Knowing I had been found I set of at a run again. The only change being that I was followed this time. I made it to a clearing and set a small trap up using the grenade. After about a minute, after I left, it went off. I ran until I found myself at a solid rock cliff. It was time to make my stand. I placed my back to the wall and brought my guns up.
The shadows darted around in front of me. I took pot shots at as many as I could, but they always seemed to keep moving, never taking a hit. Once the pistol emptied except for a single shot I holstered it. If push came to shove I wasn’t being taken alive. The first machine gun magazine fell empty. I snapped another in and reopened into the forest. It clicked empty. I dropped the worthless weapon and took my knife out. Something dark shot from the forest and struck me dead in the chest. I was pushed against the rock behind me. The knife fell silently from my hand. Something pinned my arm so I couldn’t reach my pistol. I felt a small pain in my back and felt blood running down my shirt. If I didn’t die immediately I would bleed out in a few minuets. The whole clearing flashed into light. On all sides I saw the enemy I had feared to face for so long. In front of me, still keeping me pinned, was a very pissed Princess Celestia. 5 more shadows pulled from the forest. I watched as the main 6, er main 5 walk up near to where I was pinned. They didn’t look very angry, just concerned. I assumed for their friend. The friend I shot.
“Oh shit”
I spoke aloud. I now recall the voice from the woods earlier in the day. My fear had erased it until now. I had potentially killed their friend and now they want revenge. It made sense. That didn’t change the fact that Celestia was pissed and I was dead meat.
“Do you realize what you’ve done?”
A pressure cut off my air. I couldn’t see it, but I couldn’t exactly look down to check. I felt tears fall from my face. The fear had caught up again. My neck was pressed tighter. Again she asked,
“Do you know what you’ve done?”
Darkness peeked at the edge of my vision. Surprisingly I now felt calm. Death was familiar, only a matter of time. The pressure wavered slightly. I got a short breath, and looked to find the five colorful ponies trying to help me. Despite what I had done they wanted to save me. Celestia finally backed away and I slid off the bloodstained stone onto the ground. My ears popped but I managed to hear a small gasp. Darkness pulled closer to the center of my eyesight. I vaguely felt myself being rolled over. It took me this long to realize, they know what I am, that I’m human. I spurted out a small question.
“How.. How do you know what I, I am?”
Celestia’s eyes were a bit wider, now realizing what she had done. It was Twilight that answered.
“We have encountered your kind before. Usually their visits are peaceful, but..”
I nodded every so slightly. I had lost feeling in my legs. I asked another short question.
“Did I …. Kill anyone?”
The princess responded this time. I didn’t quite hear what she said but then I heard her call out to the woods.
“Fluttershy, you can come out.”
The yellow mare walked slowly out. The sight of her walking and alive brought a lone tear to my eye. Everything moved slower now. I barley remembered to pull out my death letter. A letter I had prepared for my family for weeks, in case of my dying in action. I lifted it in shaking fingers towards them. All of them stepped back slightly. I coughed out a small
“Please”
Twilight walked slowly forward and took the letter from my hand. She started to back away but I couldn’t be left alone. I didn’t want to die without a friend.
“Please don’t…. g.go”
Of all of them to stay the one I least expected to, did. Fluttershy walked up and held my outstretched hand. I whispered
“I’m scared”
She looked down at me, no anger in her eyes. Just a soft sadness with bowls of forgivness. Then she started to hum again. It was the same song she had been humming earlier. I wanted to say so much more but my mouth wouldn’t move. The darkness closed in and the last thing I managed to say before it all came in was a soft thank you. …………..
Author's Note
A sad story. Not what i usually write but it came to mind after a long day. I wrote this late at night because i couldn't sleep. The philosiphy involved is dark. Don't read if you can't stand sad endings.
The mans’ body slumped after barely speaking a soft thank you. A pair of guards began to drag the body towards a line of other fallen warriors. 7 died that night. Everyone turned to Twilight who still had the small, bloodied scrap of paper. She opened up the paper and read what it said aloud.
Dear Mom,
If you’re getting this then it means I won’t be coming home this year for Tommie’s birthday. I need you to take care of him. I now it’s been hard since Dad and Marcy died but I need you to be strong. Raise him to believe his mother and father were heroes. Never dwell on me. Be sure to know that I passed among friends. I will never be alone again, so don’t fear for me. Make sure he grows to be a brave man and never lose faith. One day soon he will see me. Make sure its not today.
Your loving son,
Private First class,
Sean Baxter
The situation had taken a turn. Celestia flew off to avoid being seen grieving for her acts. The first pony to speak up was Fluttershy.
“That poor man, now nobody knows what happened. If only he could have told someone at his home. Now no one will care for his son.”
They all sat in a small circle. They had no idea what to do. This hadn’t happened before. They usually sent the humans home with happy hearts. But this time, a man had died in fear. Fear of being left alone. I wish we could have done more.”
Rainbowdash was quick to try and deflect the blame.
“It wasn’t our fault he came here and tried to kill you! If anything it was his…”
Fluttershy jumped to her feet in a rage.
“Don’t you dare blame this on him! He was scared in a place he didn’t know! So what if he almost hurt me? I’m still fine! But he died believing he didn’t have friend! Now his mother will just get the news that her son died, without a word from him!”
Rainbowdash settled back onto the ground.
“I guess I didn’t think about it that way.”
She mumbled. Twilight jumped to her feet her nose stuck in a book.
“Their may be a way for us to get the letter to his parents.”
Everyone turned to look at her.
“This spell allows for the transportation of non-living objects across dimensions. If we had something else from the other dimension we could transport them back to that world.”
Applejack walked over to his body. She yanked to small metal disks on a chain from his neck.
“Would these do?”
She asked through mumbled teeth. Twilight nodded and said,
“Yep, now put them with the note.”
With intense concentration the note and chain disappeared. They all stood silently until Rainbowdash asked,
“So how do we know if it worked?”
Celestia came floating down from where she had run off to.
“Don’t worry about the letter, his mother received it fine.”
In a small house in Kentucky a woman stood in her kitchen, making brownies for her grandson’s birthday party. He would be turning four in five days. She was going to pick up her son at the airport tomorrow. He had managed to save up leave for Tommie’s birthday party. Tommie had been so excited that he could finally see his father again. It had nearly brought her to tears when Tommie asked about his mother.
She shoved the thoughts from her mind and continued to stir the batter. Tomorrow was going to be a happy day and nothing was going to ruin it.
Behind her near the front door a small clattering came to her ears. Then someone knocked on the door. When she answered a tall woman was standing there with tear streaked eyes. One look at the tall woman told her all she needed to know. The old woman fell to her knees and cried. The tall woman knelt next to her and placed a small envelope into the old woman’s hands. She quietly said,
“I’m sorry”
Then left. The old woman opened the envelope and pulled out his broken dog tags and a small bloodstained piece of paper. It started, Dear Mom,. Tommie walked behind her and said with all of the innocence of a child,
“Whats wrong grandma?”
She hugged him tight and just said
“I just miss your father is all, nothing more.”
She let him loose and said,
“Go upstairs and play, I have to cook the best dinner ever for my Tommie.”
He ran upstairs to his room while she stood and finished the letter. She stood and closed the door. She walked to the kitchen wondering if her son had died with a friend. He had so few.
Author's Note
Conclusion. All seems right except for the untold scars on any who met him.
