A Whole New World

As soon as I had let go from the cliff, I pulled my wings round my body and curled myself up, hoping that the rocks I hit were flat enough that I wouldn't be impaled. I heard an explosion from the vial that had made me fall, and I closed my eyes as I braced for the inevitable pain.

It didn't hold back. I was gritting my teeth and covering my head with my arms as the rocks hit every inch of my body. It seemed to go on forever, and I think I felt something crack as I fell. Thankfully, it didn't last much longer after that, and I felt the ground level out as I rolled to a stop.

I waited a few seconds to make sure I was actually on solid ground, I let my wings relax and sat up. I managed to reach the bottom of the cliff, and I could make out another pony about 50 metres away. I stood up, trying to ignore the dull ache that covered my entire body, as well as the stinging on my face, and limped my way over.

The figure was Shadow Breeze, and he climbed to his hooves as I reached him, "You alright Shadow?"

"I think so. Just some bruises," he brushed himself down and turned to face me before gasping, "Oh... buck me,"

"What?"

"Your face is messed up. We need to find Battle and the others."

I put my hand up to my face, only to find it was caked in blood, "Yeah, that sounds good."

We headed round the corner, where I saw Steel, Hammer and Flurry heading toward us. Hammer and Steel looked alright, but the unicorn had a hoof on his head, wincing with every movement.

"Where's Battle?" I said as I approached.

"No idea sir," Hammer said, "Steel and I managed to get down ok, but Flurry wasn't so lucky. He's cracked his horn."

I looked over at Flurry, and sure enough, there was a long crack down the length of his horn. No doubt any attempts at casting spells would only result in pain. A special gel that filled in the gap until it healed was standard issue for each squad, but Battle Plan was the medic, and had most of the supplies.

"We need to find Battle, get ourselves patched up, then find out a way to contact Gold."

"Don't worry about that first part Dutch," Steel said, "Battle's over there."

We all looked in the direction of Steel's pointed hoof. I saw a brown unicorn stumbling in view from behind a rock. He looked a little dazed, but I didn't see any apparent injuries.

"Battle! You ok?" Flurry shouted as he galloped over.

Battle shook his head and coughed, "I... I think so. Just a bit shaken up," he looked back up the cliff, "How in Tartarus did we survive that?"

"Doesn't matter," I said, kneeling down and putting my rifle to one side, "Flurry's wounded. We need the gel for his horn."

"Sure, but I think you need tending to as well, sir. Your face is a mess." He levitated an antiseptic cloth from his pack and gave it to Shadow, who started to wipe the blood and sand out of the wounds. It hurt like hell, and the large area that stung made me wonder exactly how much of my face was still intact. While Shadow did this, Battle pulled a tube out of a pocket and squeezed the gel into the crack in Flurry's horn. He winced as it filled in the gap, and when Battle was done, he left it to harden. The medic then returned to me and lit up his horn again, and I saw a number of splinters getting pulled away from my face.

"Christ, how bad am I?" I asked rhetorically.

"You might want to see for yourself." Battle said, and summoned a reflective circle made of magic. Looking into the fake mirror, I understood why Shadow said I was messed up.

The explosion had torn my face apart. I could count at least six deep cuts on the right side of my face. They varied in length; the shortest being the length of an eyebrow, while the longest went from the bridge of my nose to my right sideburn. Two of them overlapped, and I could see flesh of my cheek starting to peel off where they met. There were smaller cuts that would heal fine, but the six that mattered covered the entirety of my cheek, and would leave horrible scars no matter what.

"How the hell am I still standing?" I asked to no one, tearing my gaze from the reflection.

Battle ignored me as he pulled out a bandage and wrapped it over my head, "How capable are you, sir?"

Shadow picked up my rifle in his teeth and handed it to me, "Thanks Shadow. I'm alright Battle," I stood up and began to take in our surroundings, "We need to get back to better ground, we're too exposed here. I'm going to go back up to the road and try to get our bearings. Steel, on me."

Steel jumped into the air and waited for me, but as soon as I tried to flap my wings, a searing pain went up my back, and I fell onto my knees again, "Argh, son of a bitch!"

Battle was by my side again in an instant, looking over my wings. He gave a heavy sigh, "You're left wing's also broken sir. That's going to need wrapping up too."

"God damn it all," I said, "Alright. Shadow, Steel, get up to the road, see if there's anywhere we can lay up. Wadis, rock collections, I don't care. Battle, get this bloody thing bandaged. Hammer, Flurry, all round defence."

We sat in silence as Battle tended to my other wound. I began to think how we were going to get ourselves out of this mess. Once we found somewhere to check ourselves over properly, we'd contact Gold and get extracted. Simple. Although with the current outcome of this day, I didn't get the feeling it would be that simple.

A few minutes later, Shadow and Steel returned, "There's a pretty long wadi a few hundred metres to our south. It looks like a dried-up riverbed, so it should be deep enough to hide in."

"Better than nothing." I said, standing back up now that my wing was bandaged, "Alright squad, move out. Hammer, take point."

Crossing the open desert to the wadi, I couldn't help but feel nervous. Unlike the rocky terrain of the cliffs, we were now on sand and earth. Diamond Dogs could dig through this like it was tissue paper, and made me worry that we were going to be attacked at any moment. Of course, being blown up hadn't helped my nerves.

Fortunately, that didn't happen, and we arrived at the wadi without hearing a noise. Taking turns to keep a lookout, we took inventory of our supplies. Because this should only have been a brief mission, I had left my rations back at Gold, along with most of the ammunition for my rifle. I only had two magazines with me, giving me 40 rounds, not including the ones I had used in the ambush. Along with the water in my canteen and a map and compass, it was all I had brought with me. My iPod had been in one of my trouser pockets, but a piece of shrapnel had gone straight into the middle of it, rendering it no more useful than a paperweight. I couldn't toss it though; if dogs came back here, they could use it to find a scent and follow us. The photo of my friends in Ponyville was still intact, and I smiled when I found it.

I looked over at the rest of the squad. They were battered and bruised, but they were still alert. I found myself feeling proud at their integrity, before focusing on the task at hand. I focused on my thoughts and tried to contact Gold, "Gold, Element 0-5, come in."

There was silence. We must have been out of range, "Gold, this is 0-5, do you copy?"

I gave up and turned to the one who would have a stronger connection, "Flurry, how's your horn?"

He brought a hoof up to his head, carefully running it up the crack, "It's going to hurt, but I should be able to contact Gold now."

"Are you sure?" I asked, "I don't want you getting any worse than you already are."

"I'm sure. If we don't contact them, they won't find us without attracting more dogs."

"Battle," the brown unicorn trotted over as Steel took his place as lookout, "Think you can dull the pain for Flurry while he contacts Gold?"

"Yeah, but it won't be completely effective." he lit his horn and prepared the spell.

I put my hand on Flurry's shoulder, "Alright buddy, it's on you. Whenever you're ready."

He took a few deep breaths, before lighting his own horn. He winced as the aura surrounded it, and sparks of magic sputtered out of the crack, but his face relaxed slightly as Battle cast his own spell. The gel managed to do its job well, and after ten seconds of silence, Flurry managed to concentrate enough to send out a signal.

"Gold, this is Element 0-5, come in."

Almost immediately, I started hearing a voice that didn't belong to my squad, "0-5, this is Go... ...read you."

I looked over a Flurry, "You ok?"

He was panting, and I could see sweat through his coat, "It's... difficult to keep a connection. We'll have to... make this quick, sir."

I tried again to contact them, this time using Flurry as a bridge, "Gold, if you can read me, the convoy was a trap. We're hiding in a wadi at map grid 244352. We have two wounded, including myself, classed P3. Requesting extraction."

"Roger 0-5," said the pony talking to us, "Aerial transport... ...the way. ETA..."

Before the pony could tell us how long we had to wait, the connection wavered and Flurry collapsed in the dirt, breathing heavily.

"Quick Flurry," I lifted him up and made him make eye contact with me, "Are you alright?"

"S-Sorry sir," he said between breaths, "My horn got the better of me,"

I patted him on the shoulder, "You did good. Just get some water down your throat and catch your breath."

He did as instructed, and I looked over the edge of the wadi, scanning for threats. I heard Flurry's breathing slowly go down, and Battle's voice as he checked his horn again.

"So what do we do Dutch?" Shadow asked, agitation in his voice, "Any idea how long it'll take for them to get here?"

"No, but they're coming. Just sit tight, wait for the ship."

We sat in the wadi, waiting, for thirty minutes, keeping our eyes on the ground and in the sky, looking for dogs or the ship. As time went on, we became more and more paranoid from the total silence around us. We kept our senses by each taking water breaks when we weren't keeping lookout. Flurry had volunteered to watch as well, but seeing as he couldn't use his horn, he would have no offensive capabilities if dogs attacked.

Suddenly, Hammer's ears perked up. He sat up straighter and shouldered his crossbow, "Sir, I think something's happening."

"Can you see the ship?" I asked.

"No Captain. I can feel something in the earth. There's something below us."

That wasn't good. Earth ponies have a natural connection with the land, and Hammer was too professional to pull jokes, especially at a time like this.

"Stand to, stand to." I said. Everyone was up on the ridge of the wadi immediately, their eyes scanning the desert. After a few minutes, I started hearing a faint rumbling in the ground. There was no denying it now. They had found us.

"Contact front!" Battle shouted.

Half a dozen had Diamond Dogs erupted out of the ground fifty metres away, armed to the teeth and swiveling their heads, taking in their surroundings.

"Take 'em down!" I ordered. We quickly opened fire, catching two as they turned to face us, while the others jumped behind some rocks. One of the dogs let out a howl, and the rumbling under our feet started again.

"I think he just called his friends." Steel shouted.

"They've been looking for us," I replied, "Be ready to fall back if this get ugly."

The dogs started peering over the rocks and firing their crossbows at us. We ducked as an explosive bolt sailed over our heads and took a chunk out of the opposite side of the wadi. As two of them kept us pinned, the other pair moved forward, taking cover at another section of rocks closer to us.

These guys are smart. They've been trained, I thought as the pair fired from their new position. The rumbling under our feet reached its peak, and more dogs burst out of the sand.

"I'm counting at least fifteen dogs, sir." Flurry shouted, "Scratch that, make it twenty!"

This was too much. Outnumbered and outgunned, we needed to move, "Fall back! Move through the wadi. Battle, on me, we'll keep Flurry covered."

While Shadow, Steel and Hammer fired at the dogs, we ran further along the riverbed, stopping by a collection of rocks and turning to give the others covering fire. They started moving as soon as they heard Battle and I firing. They shot past up and around the corner, taking up a position behind us to cover our retreat. When they started firing at the dogs again, we ran past them and took up another position further behind them. It was basic fire and maneuver, and I hoped it worked long enough for us to get away.

We ran for almost a mile, and the dogs didn't let up throughout; every time I confirmed a kill, there seemed to be one to replace it. At one point, my rifle gave a click, and I saw a casing caught in the mechanism. I had to fall back before I could clear it, and by then I was running low on rounds. I was beginning to wonder if it was actually going to end, when all of a sudden, it did just that. I turned to face the dogs, but none of them came. After the noise of the contact, the wadi became deathly silent. I tested the ground beneath me, to find we were back on top of rocks. The dogs couldn't dig through to us.

"Form up, all round defence."

We regrouped and formed a circle facing outwards. I took Flurry and Battle into the middle and said, "Flurry, I need you to get through to Gold again, let them know we had to relocate."

He nodded, and gritted his teeth as he readied himself. I looked at Battle, who nodded too.

"3, 2, 1, now."

Both unicorns sparked their horns up at the same time. While they did this, I tried to contact the FOB, "Gold, Element 0-5, come in."

"Roger 0-5, we read you."

"Be advised, primary LZ has been compromised. We're holding position roughly several hundred metres south, awaiting new pickup."

There was a moment of silence, before a new voice came on, "Element 0-5, this is Commander Ironhoof. That area is inside enemy territory. There's no way we can pick you up there without attracting more attention. Wait until nightfall, then move to grid 239517. There will be an airship waiting for you there."

I found the location on the map, but had to question that order. That couldn't have been right, "Sir, that's more than 15 miles east of here. We're in no condition for long range walking."

"There's no other option, Captain. You're a Royal Guard, act like it. Gold out."

I heard nothing else, and Flurry dropped the spell, breathing hard again. I took another look at the map, before sighing and pulling out my compass.

"What's the plan, boss?" Battle asked.

"If the dogs are chasing us, it'll be better to move fast," I said as I looked east, "We'll move as the crow flies and make it a straight shot across the desert. If we're lucky, we'll get there in good time. Until then, Steel and Flurry, get some rest, we'll take turns to watch every hour."

By 2230 hours, it was dark, with a clear sky and a half moon. Visibility was decent, and I could see at least 100 metres in front of me. However, as there were no clouds to hold the sun's heat, the temperature dropped like a rock, and I was beginning to shiver. If we didn't move now, hypothermia would set in, and that was not something I wanted to experience again.

"Right," I said, standing up, "Let's move out." I took point, with Shadow behind me, Flurry in the middle, then Battle, Steel and Hammer taking up the rear. I don't know why I decided to take the lead with my wounds. Maybe I just wanted to get out of this hellhole badly enough to ignore them. Checking my compass and making sure we were heading east, we set off, walking for our lives into the night.

We must have walked for at least two hours, and the terrain hadn't changed one bit. As far as the eye could see, it was still flat, featureless desert. As we walked, I thought back on my call with Ironhoof. It seemed odd that he would tell us to move such a distance, with wounded, to an extraction point. But I didn't know how far we had gone into enemy territory. If they tried to send the ship again, the dogs might shoot it down, then we'd be in a bigger mess.

Every now and then, to make sure everyone was still with me, I would call back to the rest of the squad, "You ok?" which would usually be answered with, "We're fine," or "Yes sir." At one point, I heard Flurry shout, "I'm freezing my flank off, but otherwise I'm fine!" which resulted in laughter from everyone else, and a bit of warmth against the cold.

But it didn't last long, and within minutes, we were shivering again, trying to move as much as possible to keep ourselves warm. After another ten minutes I heard Hammer shout, "Sir, I can feel them underneath us again."

I brought us to a halt and knelt down. Maybe our walking attracted them, and if we kept still, they'd pass underneath us without incident. Fortunately, that's exactly what happened, and as soon as Hammer gave us the all clear, we set off again at an even faster pace.

By now, visibility had gotten a little better as the moon rose higher, but the temperature dropped even further. By now I was focusing less on my squad and more on the route in front of us. I told myself that they would keep up and cover their sectors.

But then, disaster hit us without warning.

We'd been walking for some time since I had last called back to the rest of the squad, and something off to my side caught my eye. I couldn't make out what it was, but I didn't want to find out, and my pace quickened at the thought of it being a dog. I spotted a dune further up ahead, and made my way towards it. The high ground would give us more of a vantage point to survey the ground ahead of us. When I reached the foot of the hill, I turned round to tell the others what we were doing.

I saw Shadow behind me, approaching with his head hanging... but no one else.

Panic gripped me, and I said, "Where the fuck is everyone else?!"

Shadow looked around too, albeit a little sluggishly, and said, "I... I don't know Dutch. I thought they were right here."

Looking around frantically, I said, "Let's get to the high ground, fast."

I took one last look at the dark object, decided it was a rock, and began to climb the dune. When I reached the top, I stepped over the other side and sat down just below the ridge. I tried contacting them with the spell, but there was no answer. I began to wonder how we had separated so badly that we were already out of range, and if Flurry's horn was damaged, he wouldn't hear us either, even with his larger field of detection.

Shadow sat down next to me and shakily pulled out his canteen. After a few mouthfuls, he lay down against me like he was dead. While he rested, I kept scanning the ground below us, hoping... praying that I would see four dark figures trudging through the darkness. Ponies - especially one as big as Hammer - should have been easy to spot, but I couldn't see anything. It was like the desert had just swallowed them up.

A gust of wind came over the dune, and I felt Shadow shake violently next to me, followed by a quiet voice, "Dutch... can we rest for a sec? I'm just... really tired."

That wasn't good. I had felt like falling asleep back in the forest, and I had frozen to death. But I couldn't ignore him, or he would just pass out. I had to find somewhere which would provide a temporary shelter.

As if fate had thrown a rope, I spotted a small circle of rocks surrounding what looked to be the remains of an oasis. I roused Shadow from his state of tiredness and pointed at the oasis, "See that patch of rocks there? We're going to go down there. Then you can rest for a bit."

"Why do we need to go down there? Can't we just rest here."

"No we can't Shadow. There's no shelter up here. If we stay here, we'll freeze."

Slowly, he nodded, and got to his hooves. Making sure he was by my side instead of behind me, we made our way to the rocks. I gave Shadow constant words of motivation as we moved. Once we were in the shelter of the rocks, I pulled him towards me and wrapped my good wing around us. Shadow's wings were frozen stiff, and I hoped what little body warmth I still had would help him through cuddling in.

Things had gone from bad to worse now. It was just two of us left now. One was pretty much out of the game, and the other didn't want to play. My gun was probably damaged from the stoppage, and a crossbow wouldn't do much in a major attack.

I needed to find something to keep Shadow's spirits up, "Hey Shadow,"

"Y-Yeah?"

"Yours and Fluttershy's child... did you decide on a name yet?"

I could hear his teeth chattering as he tried to remember, "W-We d-did. Morning... Morning Dew if it was a filly. If it was a colt..." he paused, "...N-Nightstreak."

"Those are good names, Shadow," I said, forcing a smile on my face. I couldn't tell if he was smiling too.

"T-Thanks Dutch."

We stayed that way for only thirty minutes, but it felt like hours, before I figured that we needed to start walking again before we froze. Pulling my wing back in, Shadow curled up in my arms, and I shook him awake.

"Shadow, we need to get moving again."

"W-What?"

"We need to keep moving east, towards the extraction. They're still waiting for us."

"Alright," he stood up again, even slower than before, and said, "Just... give me a minute."

He then proceeded to start digging a hole in the sand.

"Shadow, what the hell are you doing?"

"Burying my crossbow," he replied, as if it was common knowledge, "It's too heavy, I can't carry it anymore. The dogs might find it if I just leave it."

"You've got to carry it Shadow."

"I can't."

I sighed, "Then I'll take it." I took the crossbow out of his hooves and put the sling around my neck so that it hang down my back. Giving Shadow a nudge and checking my compass, I checked which way was east and set off again.

As we walked, Shadow's condition continued to deteriorate. In all honesty, I was doing pretty crap myself, but Shadow needed my attention. If I could just keep him moving, he might keep his body temperature up enough to last until morning.

The moon was beginning to descend now, and I knew it would only be a few more hours until the sun replaced it. I was frequently checking my compass, and making corrections if it was pointing a little off. I heard Shadow, who was starting to lag behind again, calling me, "Dutch, you've gotta slow down. I... I need a rest."

I turned and let him catch up, "Shadow, we can't rest, We've got to keep moving, see if we can keep ourselves warm."

I kept walking, but no matter how slow I went, Shadow would continue to lag behind. He insisted I wait for him every time, and eventually, the cold got to me. I felt horrible for what I was about to do, but I felt it was necessary. I started using shock tactics.

I turned and gripped him by his shoulders, shaking him to his senses, "Shadow, if you don't keep fucking moving, you'll never see Fluttershy again. Think about your foal. He'll never see his dad. Now get a grip and start moving."

"Listen," he said, "I just want to go to sleep. I'm so tired, just... give me a few minutes."

I shook my head, "Shadow, we can't stop. If we stop out here, we are going to fucking die. Do you get that? We'll freeze to death, and no one will know."

We carried on walking for a bit, before I heard Shadow calling me again, "Dutch!"

"What?"

"My hooves have gone black!"

Frostbite! My own hands had gone slightly numb from the cold, but Shadow needed his hooves to walk. I went back to him to see him sat on his haunches, staring at his forelegs.

"They're black! They're bucking black!" he almost shouted, his voice shaking with fear.

I took them in my hands and had a look. They were cold as ice, but as I parted the fur, I couldn't see any black skin, just pink flesh. I realised he was delirious, and was mistaking his dark coat for frostbite. Despite this, I tore off part of my sleeve and cut it into two strips. It took longer than I wanted it too, but I managed to wrap them round his hooves.

"There, that should warm them up a bit, now let's go."

We started walking again. The strips of cloth on Shadow's hooves seemed like it had worked, but he was still in a very bad way. In order to keep him moving, I tried alternating between good cop and bad cop. One moment I'd say, "Get a grip!" and then five minutes later I'd be going, "Just keep going. Everything's going to be fine."

I lost track of time as we walked, but it probably hadn't been more than 20 minutes since he thought he had frostbite. My compass was still acting up, telling me we were going one way, then another the next time I checked it, even though I was certain we were moving in a straight line. It was starting to piss me off.

"Dutch."

...

"Dutch!"

That wasn't Shadow's voice. I looked down to see Valiant walking alongside me. He didn't seem to be affected by the cold, and it angered me that he looked so calm and healthy.

"What do you want?"

"I need you to look behind you, Dutch."

"Why?!"

Valiant's brow furrowed, "Just do it, Douglas!"

With a huff of annoyance, I stopped and turned around. A shiver that wasn't from the cold slowly crawled up my spine.

Shadow was gone.

AnonJ17, thank you for letting me do this. I owe you.