blank (hey, they said I could)
Darkness.
A hoof smashed into the side of my skull.
Pain.
I panted, reaching for the knife that lay just out of reach.
Blood.
I screamed in agony as the beast bit through my wing, spraying the wall in blood.
Desperation.
I twisted, reaching and praying.
Death.
I snagged the blade in my teeth, tasting blood I spun my neck around stabbing the monster in the throat. Slime sprayed from the wound, splattering against my armor and staining my coat.
Rage.
It tried to scream, letting loose only a weak gurgling before I smashed its skull with a brick.
Sliding the knife out of the beetle like scales, I allowed myself a moment to relax. "Told ya not to mess with Equestria," I spat at the corpse.
He didn't respond.
I sighed, "just stay dead," I ordered, picking up my crossbow from the burning pile of bricks.
As soon as my hooves touched the scorched streets flowers sprouted up and the burning, broken buildings disappeared, becoming replaced with giant faces of the friends I'd lost during the war. None of them spoke...they just sat there, watching me.
"No. You're not real," I denied, throwing a small rainbow colored pebble into Carlie's right eye.
"I don't like you anymore. You left me to die," he sang, every word cracking the earth around me.
Nothing felt real. The world started spinning and I felt my consciousness fading. "stay awake," I ordered myself aloud, stumbling as I tried to keep on my hooves.
"You were always the runt," Dad's voice echoed through my skull, cutting my heart in half with a frozen spoon.
"You'll never amount to anything. All you do is run away," mom scolded, slamming her hoof down on the table.
"We both know you'll never get your cutie mark, only special ponies get em," my brother taunted, punching me in the face.
"Come on kid, stand up for yourself," my teacher berated, as my world inverted and I was sent falling towards the stars.
I twisted end over end. Faster and faster, the stars becoming the gaping maws of a million dragons. I gave up, there was nothing I could do. They were right.
The rain drops splashed against my face, smashing me back into reality. I was captured. A prisoner of war. And there was no hope of the royal guard even coming close for...months at least. I was on my own.
Jenkins screamed as they tore out his insides. He tried to fight, and he did.
They took their time carving him up. After hours of hearing his screams and struggles the room behind the steel door fell silent.
"Fear...Pain...Rage...Hate," Rich repeated to herself over and over, rocking back and forth against her chains like a beaten dog, heck we all looked like whipped dogs and smelled worse.
"Rich, don't worry. you'll see your son again," I assured as best I could, blocking as much of the rain as I could with a hoof.
She laughed, "oh, yeah how are you going to pull that off, Wonderbolt? you can't even fly anymore," she scoffed, sitting up and glaring at me directly.
I winced as pain smashed into my right side, "don't remind me," I spat back, hoping she understood my escape plan.
The bars keeping us in our rectangular enclosure served more than one purpose. In a patch they were loose enough to pop out without too much effort and could be sharpened easily enough, and in a pinch the metal had several properties that made it combustible, giving us a signal for our allies.
She gave me a slow nod, "yeah, if the pegasi had stayed out of the war we would've won years ago," she spat.
Honor.
"Maybe if you philosophers would do an honest day's work we wouldn't need to do everything for you!" my anger burned even without the help my acting skills.
Courage.
She lunged at me, only stopping an inch out of reach by her bloody chains. "You better pray they get their hooves on you before I do because I won't be so nice!"
With a small kick from my hind leg I sent her flailing across the cadge, knocking her into the other bars with a loud metallic "clang!"
"What's going on over here?" the guard demanded, storming into the hut, eyes looking like a green inferno.
Step one.
In slight panic he ran over to the cadge, struggling to shorten the pissed off unicorn's chain.
She wasted no time in turning around and smashing the guard's face into one of the bars we'd managed to bend and sharpen for just this occasion. He froze, eyes bulging out and gasping for air. The green slime that was there "blood" pooled onto the dust floor that served as everything from bed to graves of our dead comrades.
Grabbing the keys in her teeth she tossed them to me.
The keys jingled one as they spun lazily through the air. I caught the foul tasting metal in my mouth, and set to work unlocking my restraints.
I heard the guard's skull give out under her hoof with a loud "splat!"
"Rich. Keys," I hissed, sliding the keys across the floor with my good wing.
She unlocked her shackles much faster than I did, but in my defense she didn't have her wing nearly chewed off...and she's a unicorn. They have weird skills.
Step Two.
The rain slacked off by the time we reached the armory. It was a small metal building with a straw roof...and a dog.
The massive black lab snoozed uneasily in the late night rain...right in front of the door, of course.
"Hey, Wonderbolt. Put the pooch out of its misery," Rich ordered, tossing the knife the guard had at my hooves.
I stared at the cruel jagged blade, shocked that she wanted me to kill the thing...with this monstrosity. "Nothing deserves that kind of death," I argued, clenching my jury rigged dagger in my hoof. A long moment passed. I took a breath and threw the knife.
The dog didn't even wake up. The sharpened blade ensuring instant death...I wish we had those benefits.
Step Three.
Captain Sparkle paced nervously along the floor of the forward command center. It'd been three weeks since they heard from the scouting party or that Wonderbolt colt they sent to find em. "Pie, get me some good news," he ordered the usually stoic stallion who monitored the signals from the front lines.
"Does no news count," Pie asked, a failed attempt at humor.
"Tell me something!" Sparkle raged, ready to pound the Pegasus into the dirt floor that he'd worn down overnight.
"Sombra's shadow guard finally surrendered, and we won the coast against the Diamond Dogs...I know it's not the news you want but the end of the war is coming," Pie replied, brushing his blond mane out of his eyes. How he kept it that long in the military was anypony's guess.
Sparkle sighed, "keep watching those channels...and the trenches," he ordered. Leaving the door open he went for a midnight stroll through the broken remains of Center Park, 'the edge of the green zone," he thought as he walked, 'I wonder if they're even alive. The bugs would no doubt keep them for interrogation...but what if they said something?' The question had plagued the aging captain ever since he filed the reports. "Two companies of the finest soldiers you could ask for," he wrote, hoping with every fiber in his body that they would come over the river. He could just see that young colt leading them across the river, flying over some raft that they invented on the way out of the prison, 'I would've chewed them out for being late...and then bought the first round.Why I would...' he stopped. What was that? No. It couldn't be.
"Sir...we made it," the bleeding pegasus reported with a salute before passing out in the grass.
"Medic," Sparkle barked, picking up the young colt and tearing off for the field hospital. Rich following weakly, barely keeping up but fortunately passed out half a foot from the hospital door.
The white coated unicorns took the patients inside with practiced precision, shutting the old stallion out in the dying night.
23:51
I woke up slowly, finding my wing covered in fresh bandages and a powerful thirst. Finding myself unrestrained I dropped off the bed to the floor.
'Okay...now to find some water," I thought, checking off the "survive the night" box on my mental checklist.
There was a knock at my door followed by, "Hey Wonderbolt, you up yet?"
"Rich, I know how to take care of myself," I replied, slowly pushing the door open.
Rich was casually leaning against the wall across from my room. She looked sad and had a long white scar running down the left side of her face. "This came for you," she informed, kicking a white envelope across the floor towards me.
"What is it," I asked cautiously picking up the heavy packet. I noticed she had a similar one in her pocket.
"Just open it," she ordered, sounding like a Ursa major who woke up on the wrong side of the cave.
Gripping the top of the envelope in my teeth I tore it open. something heavy and metal clattered to the floor. I flinched, expecting an explosion. None came.
Feeling rather stupid I picked up the medal...my medal. It was heavy and shaped like a four leafed clover. It was a jade green with a purple heart in the center of the clover shape, 'why would they give me this?'
"There's more," Rich told me, nodding towards the packet on the floor.
There was a large document with the Wonderbolt's emblem proudly taking up the entire first page. I opened the letter, dreading its contents.
"...we regret to inform you that, due to situations not under our control, that your injuries are too severe for your return to the team. As per instructions from headquarters we are giving you the option to leave the battle field and go home for the duration of the war. As a result of your termination we are required to find a replacement for you..." the rest was just a bunch of that government nonsense. but the last page was hoof written.
'that's weird," I thought as I read it.
"37, I know you don't care for the legalities that the princesses put into the printed letters, but I have found a loophole in the system, letting you stay with us, unofficially of course. It's not much but I can't discuss the details in this letter, just know it has to do with your skills and condition. I hope you decide to stay with us. You're the best shot I've ever seen. Signed, Captain Dash.
In the bottom of the paper packet there was another medal, this one a red bolt of lightening coming out of a cloud with a black outline and the words, "Harmony, strength, courage" in gold letters along the bolt.
"You got the same," I asked Rich, not able to meet her gaze.
"Nah, the Rangers gave me a hat," she muttered sarcastically, before taking off down the hall after one of the countless officers.
A small scrap of paper was taped to the back of the medal, "My office now." It ordered.
Sighing in frustration I started towards the office of the strategic...something or another.
It was a normal day in Manehattan, the sun was shinning, birds were singing, and artillery whistled all around. The grass inside the camp had been trampled into dust by countless hooves and carts, and tents popped up everywhere there wasn't a building, tree, or crater.
"So much for forts and glorious battle," Red grumbled, "maybe we should just give up."
"Why would we do that," Blue countered sounding irate, "we survived that idiotic Forester campaign, the POW camp, and the harbor! How can we give up with a reputation like that?"
I let them argue back and forth in my head while I walked through the war-torn park.
"Delta 37," a young voice called from behind me, making me question weather or not she met the minimum recruitment age.
"Go away kid," I muttered, picking up the pace a bit.
"Hey, wait." she called, running after me.
Unfortunately I reached my destination before I could loose the annoying filly, and she caught up to me in front of the large canvas building.
She paused while she caught her breath, "don't waste your time in there," she panted, giving me an opened telegram.
"Delta 37, my deepest condolences but Mrs Belle is to accompany you throughout the duration of the war. I realize that she's young, brightly colored, works for the paper, and is rather irritating but I know you'll pull through. P.S.if anyone asks You're her escort. Consider it a promotion, Dash."
"When did you get this," I demanded, wondering why Dash would give a message for me to a reporter.
I looked up from the orange paper...right into the glare of a flashbulb. I stumbled backwards, eyes screaming in pain. Unicorns are all the same, give them a camera and they take pictures of everything. What, don't believe me? Try it.
"Any inspiring words for the boys back home," she asked--wait she was doing an interview?
"Wonderbolts will win the war," I responded without thinking. 'Great quote, now foals taking history tests will call me 'racist,"' I berated my tired self.
"Interesting," she muttered, pen flying across the floating parchment, "you seem to still have strong loyalty to the ponies who left you for dead, care to explain why?"
"One: the politicians wrote me off, Two: they didn't abandon me, and Three: Wonderbolts will win the war," I told her, she looked more and more like a target.
We were interrupted before I could shoot my new target though. A well dressed stallion in a black suit ran up to me with a burning look of determination. "Delta 37, General Mason wants a word with you," he reported with a salute which I found odd.
That stupid flashbulb interrupted me again.
"Congratulations kid you just won a camera," I said sarcastically, tearing the accursed thing from her grip and tossing it to the suited stallion.
He caught the thing, shoved it in his pocket, and ran off into the depths of the camp.
deciding I wanted to stay healthy, I took off at a brisk trot for the General's tent.
"This day kind of sucks."
"I have to agree with you there," I verified, breaking into a full pace run. Red was right for one, even though he doesn't exist.
Ducking under the raising door I felt suddenly uneasy. 'Something's going to happen,' I thought, dreading the meeting all the more.
Author's Note
"Twilight, why is Mason's charge considered to be the single most important battle of the war," the teacher asked, adjusting his tie...again.
"Because it broke the Changeling's hold on the Tiger river valley and gave us back the lands east of the river. It also gave the Rangers courage to fight till the end of the war six months later," the violet filly answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"That's not what your book says...please see me after class, we have much to discuss."
