“I count roughly forty or so survivors in the camp. How many do you see?” The voice crackled across the headset attached to the radio unit. There is one thing about true Equestrian military gear--it is top-notch stuff. Dash’s voice comes through nice and clear. I give a click in response, letting her know that I concur with her assessment.
It has been a week since the attacks. The remains of Ponyville have been turned into a prison camp. So far, all we have seen is Diamond Dogs and Changelings running the place. I count maybe thirty of the enemy total. How we will rescue the ponies in this prison camp, I have no clue, but Dash says she has a plan. Yeah, right. Usually, her plans are whatever she pulls out of her flank, and are harebrained as Twilight when she got all worried about missing a report to the Princess.
Thinking of Twilight brings me a pang of grief, but I have to shove that aside. We have work to do.
I hear movement in the bushes and hunker down, waiting. When a prismatic mane pokes out and I hear her call to me over the encrypted radio, I crawl out from my hiding spot. “Damn... not many survived. Those damned dogs went on a fucking killing spree, I guess. And a lot of the prisoners look wounded or sick. We gotta get them out of there, Spike,” she tells me with a pained look upon her face. The loss is killing her as badly as it kills me, but she tries her best to hide it. She lost a lot of friends herself, and not just in Ponyville, but in Cloudsdale and Canterlot as well.
She had been in Cloudsdale when it was attacked by Griffins and Changelings. The sheer numbers she described to me seemed impossible. Then again, it would take enemy forces that huge to take down Cloudsdale. When Rainbow found that she could do nothing, she blasted the largest force she could find with a Sonic Rainboom, then flew off to Canterlot.
What she had found there was utter devastation and the place crawling with more Griffins, Diamond Dogs, and Changelings than she could count. She knew that the capital had fallen and there was not a thing she could do. As for the Princesses, she had no clue, but she could only assume the worst because the castle was a pile of rubble. From there, she flew back to Ponyville, and then found him in the bog to the south.
She is hurting just as much as I am, but she remains strong. I wish I was as strong as she is. I feel weak. Powerless. Dammit.
I won’t fail her. Not like how I failed the others.
“Hey Spike, you with me?” she asks, snapping me out of my darkening thoughts. “We need to focus, dude.”
“Sorry. Yeah, I’m here, Dash,” I say.
“Good, because I have a plan. All the prisoners are within the fenced in area that used to be the Market Square. From what I can see, the dogs and bugs for the most part, all eat in the bar. And they eat as a unit, except for the ones in each tower. Now, when they have dinner,” she looks towards the setting sun, “that’s when I will swoop down and Rainbomb the building.”
“That’s all and good, Dash, but what about the towers? I see guns up there. Each tower is occupied and armed. Machine guns, in case you haven’t noticed. And I don’t know if anyone has told you, but you know those little metal things that come out the front of them? They fucking HURT!” I tell her, rubbing my bandaged leg. Maybe I should not be so snarky with her, but I guess old habits die hard.
“Don’t worry. As fast as I will be flying, they won’t even come close to hitting me!” She smirks.. “And once I attack, you come in, climb a tower, and take them out. I suggest the one opposite from the bar. Then you can use their own weapons against any surviving guards. Think you can get within fifty yards without being spotted?”.
“Hell, I could probably get within thirty.”
“Don’t get too cocky, Spike. That’s my job,” I’m informed. Yeah. Can’t have anypony be more awesome than her. That wouldn’t be right.
Looking towards the ruined town, a part of me realizes something. I bring up my concern with Dash. “I think we may have forgotten about something, Dash.” When I get an inquiring look as her reply, I vocalize my thoughts. “What about patrols? What happens if one, or more, come into Ponyville while we are doing this? We’ve seen them around, and on a couple occasions, they have even brought a pony in. And that Sonic Rainboom is sure to draw their attention.”
“Then we’ll just have to be quick about this. Let me know when you’re in position.”
The spot I have picked out is only about five hundred yards away. Should be easy for me, I know, especially with good cover available. It takes me nearly an hour to get there. I manage to get within the thirty yards as planned.
From the looks of things, the dogs and bugs are getting ready to eat. They had just brought the ones in the towers their food, and the remaining ones were heading inside. I see no sign of returning patrols. Things are looking good. I quietly radio to Rainbow that I’m ready. I see her take off, flying low for a ways before going almost vertical, gaining speed rapidly. I hope her plan works. I have no intentions of becoming dog chow today.
Being this close, I’m able to get a much better view. The prison camp is basically a chain-link fence with numerous rolls of razor wire all around the inside. There is a single gate, but no way to get to it from the inside to open it. At each corner is a tower with the pairs of occupants about thirty feet up. Yeah. The guards in the towers are armed. Six dogs and two bugs. Lovely. This is looking more and more like a suicide mission.
Looking into the camp itself, I see several ponies I know. Lyra, Roseluck, Time Turner, Aloe, Nurse Redheart, Amy Bolt, Caramel, and some others. It’s good that Nurse Redheart survived. We’ll need her if we get all these ponies out. The Unicorns seem to have magic nullification bands secured to their horns, and the Pegasi have bands around their barrels, securing their wings to their sides. Next to the far fence is a large, canvas military tent. It is the only shelter that the ponies inside the fence have, and I am betting that they were lucky to get that.
I notice several ponies looking up and I do so as well. Time to get ready, because Rainbow Dash is coming in hot! At the last moment, the guards in the towers notice, but it’s too late for them to do anything. Tough shit for them.
The blast is tremendous. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the bar collapse. Excellent. None got out that I can see. The blast from Dash’s attack is enough to topple the two towers closest to the bar. Thank Celestia for that! My job just became a whole lot easier.
I quickly scramble up the nearest tower’s ladder as the guards track my friend with their guns. They let off bursts of fire as she rockets past, but don’t even come close to touching her. Damn! That mare can FLY!
Reaching the covered platform at the top, the two guards barely have time to turn their heads as I kick at the Diamond Dog’s gut with my clawed foot. He lets out a blood-curdling scream as his insides become his outsides. I sink my teeth into the Changeling’s neck. It crunches nicely, thank you.
Now, time to fuck shit up in the other tower. Grabbing the machine gun, I sight in on the other tower, but hold my fire. I see a pony kick both of the mutt guards out of the tower. Dayum! Should have known Amy would do something, given a chance.
Well, now... that was easy.
“SHIT!” Bullets flying past my head tell me that it ain’t over. Looks like a small group of Changelings have made it out of the building. Aiming in on them, I open up with the gun.
SWEET LUNA! Feels like this thing is punching me in the friggin shoulder, but I walk the bullets into the bugs, and they start to splatter. “HELL YEAH!” I yell excitedly.
Then the gun just stops. Damnit! One moment, it’s making insect chowder, and then the next, the thing fails on me. Ducking quickly, I just manage to avoid what must be a hail of bullets flying at me.
Knowing that I’m about to die, I start mumbling whatever it is you’re supposed to mumble to Celestia right before you bite it, when I hear another machine gun open up. Looking across, I see Amy is somehow firing her gun, finishing up the job.
Awesome! My flank is SAVED! But how in Tartarus is she firing that thing? She has hooves, last I knew. Heck with it! I don’t care. She saved my scales from looking like a purple, green, and messily-red Changeling.
“Awesome job! Though not as awesome as me, but still,” I hear. Looking up, I see blue mare. Yeah... she had it easy. Do something that she has done on more than one occasion, and then fly around and annoy them. Something she has done repeatedly.
As she flies down to open the gate, I look over to the other tower. Amy seems to have strapped the machine gun to her back and is making her way down the tower. I look around and see ammo boxes. Grabbing them, I do the same.
Down on the ground, I run over to where a crowd of ponies are gathered around the remains of a Diamond Dog. Half the ponies are covered in blood and gore, and they’re struggling with one pony. Lyra’s whole head is covered with gore, and looking on the ground, I can see why. She had just about gutted the mutt herself and then proceeded to stomp him into dirt burgers. She seems totally berserk right now, screaming things I never thought I would hear her say.
Looking over to the razor wire fence, I see another Diamond Dog tangled within it. From the looks of things, his neck was broken in the fall. Damn… would have been nice for the son-of-a-bitch to suffer.
Amy came up alongside me, machine gun across her back. The thing looks huge on her diminutive frame. Iguana Ponies never get very large, even the males, so she was only a little larger than Apple Bloom would be.
“Ya wanna take this off me? I think with your claws, it would be best for ya,” she says. She looks over to the remains of the bar, where a few lumps of chewed-up insect lay. “Packs a friggin wallop, don’t it?” she adds with a grin.
“Fuckin A, it does!” I reply. “Hey, how in hell did you fire that thing, anyways?” I ask.
With a toothy grin, she demonstrates how she propped the stock against her chest and used a cleaning rod through the trigger guard to fire it. Creative little pony. That would only work if the gun was secure in a mount, like they were in the towers. Still, it saved me from having a lot of extra holes.
“SPIKE!” I turn around at the sound of a familiar voice. A voice I did not expect to ever hear again.
I barely get turned around when a yellow and red blur tackles me, hugging me tight enough to pop my head off my shoulders. “Thank Celestia that yer alive! We’ve been so worried ‘bout a! Sweetie an’ Scoots are gonna be so happy ta see you!”
Hearing those words lift my spirits so much right now. With all the losses we have suffered, knowing that these three fillies survived is something to be thankful for.
Such thoughts are interrupted by Dash coming out of the tent and gathering everypony around her. “Listen up everypony! We need to get moving. We don’t have much time before patrols show up. We need to gather what supplies we can and get out of this area.”
Turning to Amy, she has her look for a key, or something that she can use to pick the locks on the magical and wing restraints on the Unicorns and Pegasi. Then, she tells others to start gathering what they can for ammo. And with that, she grabs a Changeling shotgun and blows the lock on the gate, opening it so we all can get the hell out of Dodge.
While Amy is removing the restraints from the ponies wearing them, I help Apple Bloom and Nurse Redheart get the few ponies who cannot move on their own ready for transport. A total of five are sick or wounded enough that they’ll have to be carried out. It’s decided that makeshift litters will be used to carry them with us. We will leave nopony behind.
In thirty minutes, we have as much food as we could find, as well as medical supplies, weapons, and as much ammo as we could carry. Amy has shown me how to load the machine gun, and I have a ton of ammo for it. It’s a good thing, too, because as we are leaving Ponyville, we run into a patrol. Amy, Caramel and I have the lead, walking ahead to make certain that the path ahead is clear.
Four mutts, all armed with rifles. I immediately open up with the gun in my claw, sending a hail of metal in their direction. They all take cover and quickly return fire.
All three of us dive for cover, and we’re quickly exchanging fire at a rapid rate. Caramel pokes up firing his gun, takes out one of them, and then is hit in the chest from a burst of fire himself. I open up full blast, screaming as Amy pumps rounds into the remaining three as well. In seconds, it’s all over.
Scrambling to my feet, I run across the road to where Caramel lay on his side, screaming in agony and terror. “Oh Luna! Don’t leave me! Oh My Celestia! Help me..” he cries out, before coughing up frothy, bright red blood.
Nurse Redheart quickly runs up, followed by Dash and several others. There is nothing that she can do for him. Trying to lift himself to his hooves, he collapses, crying out for Luna to save him. His cries fade as he convulses for a moment, and then it’s over. His eyes glaze over as his bowels and bladder let loose in death.
I turn away. I failed again. “Damnit!” I curse, feeling sick with disgust towards myself.
“Ain’t your fault, Spike,” I hear from the side. “Let’s just go.”
Turning to the line of ponies, she tells them to continue marching. We have to get moving. We can’t stick around.
“What about Caramel?” a pony calls out.
Rainbow Dash pauses only for a moment before replying, “We have to leave him behind.” And with that, the line starts moving again.
“NO!” The line stops at my one word. “We’re not leaving him.”
Time Turner steps up to speak. “Spike, we can barely carry all we have as it is. How are we going to carry his body as well?” he asks.
“I said, we’re not leaving him behind! We’re not leaving ANY pony behind!”
“Look, there is no way we can carry him and everything we need! Are you willing to place all of us in--”
“CELESTIA DAMNIT! I said we are bringing him!” I scream into his face. I suddenly want to tear him limb from limb.
He does not quit. He keeps his shit up. “Listen to reason, will you?”
“FUCK YOU!” I yell, raising the gun in my claws to his face. His eyes grow wide in sudden mortal fear.
Rainbow Dash steps in between the two of us. “WOAH! BACK THE HELL OFF! BOTH OF YOU!” she screams. She is livid right now, but I honestly couldn’t give two shits. Then, I feel a hoof on my arm.
Looking to my side, I see Amy looking me in the eye. “Don’t do it, Spike. Don’t kill him.”
Damn… she’s right. If I did this, I would be as bad as those who attacked us. I would be the enemy. Is this what war does to us? Divide us? Turn us into cold blooded killers willing to blow each other away over the least thing?
I just want all of us to live. I just want us to be free. But how can I leave Caramel behind? He gave his life for us. Unlike me, he didn’t cut and run.
From the line comes a weak voice. “Trixie will walk. Use Trixie’s litter to carry him,” she says, coughing a bit and walking weakly. Nurse Redheart starts to object, worried that she is not strong enough to make it on hoof, but Trixie raises a hoof to silence any objections the nurse has. “Trixie will be OK,” she says.
“We’ll take him with us,” Rainbow agrees. And with that, we prepare to head down the road as the setting sun makes way for the concealment of night.
* * * * *
The remainder of the trek to the southern edge of Froggy Bottom Bog was uneventful for the most part. Of all ponies, who would have thought that Snails would be walking point with me and Amy? Had to admit, though, that he has a lot of spunk in him. He grew a good deal since me and Twi first came to Ponyville, and actually got fairly proficient with telekinesis. And after demonstrating that he could use a fallen mutt’s rifle, who am I to argue?
When we finally got to the southern edge of the bog, we stopped and made camp. We did so without campfires. Dash said there was too much chance of a Changeling or Griffon flying over and spotting the camp that way. Not the first time I’ve eaten a cold meal, but it would have been nice to have warmth.
Fortunately, somepony had thought to grab as many blankets as possible, so at least we had that. There were not enough blankets for everypony, so some would have to share.
After we had eating a brief meal, watches were set up, and it was universally decided it was time to hit the hay. I was just getting comfortable under my blanket when I hear hoofsteps come my way.
“Mind sharing a blanket?” Dash asks. I lift my blanket for her and she joins me. It feels good, having her next to me. I feel less alone in this world right now.
“Dash, now that we’ve freed the survivors, what are we gonna do?” I ask. With the successful rescue of those few who lived through the attack on Ponyville, it feels like we suddenly have a ton of responsibility. I don’t know if I am ready for all of this.
Dash lets out a tired sigh. “To be honest, Spike, I don’t know. As awesome as I am, can I really lead these guys? We got weapons now, and maybe we can free more ponies, but is that the right thing to do? A part of me wants to fight, Spike. Fight for those we have lost, and fight to give Equestria back to those who still live. But is that the right choice?” she asks quietly, questioning her own desires, trying to find the answers to what is the right thing to do. “Maybe it would be best if we all cut and run for Mexicolt. If we stay and fight, all these ponies we have saved today would likely end up dead. Do I have the right to do that, Spike? What’s the right choice?”
“I don’t know, Dash,” I reply. “I wanna fight as well. A part of me wants to kill all of those bastards. I feel like a fuckin’ failure. I should have stayed and fought. But what did I do, Dash? I cut and ran. I watched them kill…”
I can’t talk anymore. The memory of seeing Twilight collapse, of the look on her face, of her pleading for me to run, and that last memory when the bullet robbed me of the most important mare in my life, all hit me like a ton of bricks. All I can do is cry silently as Dash holds me in her hooves.
After a little while, my tears dry, and I ask her, “Dash, do you think the Princesses survived?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t see their bodies when I flew by the castle, but I did not have much chance to look. The sun and moon still rise, so I would guess that they still live, unless Princess Cadance has taken over doing that. I would think by now we would have heard some sort of news.” She hugs me closer, trying to find comfort herself. “There’s just too many questions that we have no answers for, Spike. That scares me.
“Heh, not very cool, I know, but I AM scared. We’re pretty much all alone out here, surrounded by an army that has torn our world apart, and I just don’t know what to do.”
I wish I had answers for her. I wish I had answers for myself. She isn’t the only one who is scared. I’m so afraid I’ll fail everypony once again. Whatever we end up doing, I silently vow that I will not fail them again.
“Get some sleep, Spike. I’ll wake you for your watch,” she says quietly. I just nod and drift off to sleep.
* * * * *
The scream from a terrified filly wakes me and Dash from our sleep. The blanket flies to the side as I grab my gun and start running. As fast as I can sprint, Dash proves to be faster than me. Damn them wings of hers. I run through the camp as several other ponies jump up and follow, having been woken by the same scream.
Maybe fifty yards into the trees, I find Dash hugging Scootaloo tightly. I’m guessing it was her that screamed. When I get to them, I see why she screamed.
Derpy is slumped against a tree. She looks so peaceful there, as if she was asleep. Next to her is a large knife. She had used it to cut the femoral artery in her leg. The ground under her was literally red with her lifeblood. I guess that she was not able to live without Dinky and Sparkler. The few times I saw her yesterday, she looked as if she had lost her soul. Her daughters were her life. They died on the day of the attack.
Why? Why do the very best ponies have to suffer so much hurt? She no longer has to suffer now. I say a silent prayer to the Princesses that she will be with her daughters now, and that they will be happy, wherever it is that ponies go when they leave this world.
How many more will we lose? Will any of us live beyond the next few days? Once again, these are questions I have no answers for.
Author's Note
This is going on Hiatus Status. The reason for that can be found in this blog:
Hiatus Status for my stories