Together till' the end

By the time the two had found some placed sheltered to rest, the adrenaline in them both had worn of and the cold was beginning to seep back in. They made their way into a cave embedded in the hillside. Twilight cast a light spell so that they could see what was inside.

"Nothing much here. Just lots n' lots of cave."

"It's better than nothing, Twilight."

The cave mouth was pretty large. Twilight guided them through safely with her light spell. They past the point of which the wind swept in a everything was all quiet. Searching around for a place to wait out the night was next priority. The cave had plenty of open spaces but most were very uneven and there was no way they could ever get any rest in them. They trudged along, following the wall and trying not to snap their ankles on the rocky floor of the cave.

"You never told me your name."

"Cross Hair, Part of the Day Guards finest."

They reached a circular, flat area free of stalagmites and Twilight sat down and provided light for Cross Hair to work with. He started to remove the saddlebags that dotted his body.

"Let me help you with those."

She lifted them off with her magic and placed them carefully down beside him.

"Thanks Twilight."

"Don't mention it. You saved my life, helping you with some baggage is the least I can do for you."

He ran his hoof across them and stopped at a particular one. He unclipped the top and reached in. Pulling out a clump of sticks and placing them down in the centre of the clearing, he grabbed another clump and rested them down with them.

"Ah, firewood. How much of these do you have?"

"My squadron had enough for 3weeks between us. I have enough for 3 days."

"Was your squadron the only unit posted to rescue us?"

Cross Hair started arranging the sticks into something that more resembled a camp fire.

"Four squadrons were sent out as a rescue party. That's an entire platoon. We were split up by cannible bandits and picked off from there. I don't know if any others are still alive out there. You wouldn't mind finding some rocks to hold this together would you?"

Twilight got up and saluted.

"No problem."

The place didn't have any rocks just lying around, but she could break of ones from the stalagmites that were abundant in the cave. She collected them all and brought them back to the clearing where Cross Hair was taking of his armour. As he removed the gold plating from his head and neck, a rustled blue and red mane emerged. It was longer than most stallions liked their manes, but it wasn't so long that it looked feminine. She walked over and placed the rocks down.

"Er, yeah. They're fine."

She put them in a circle around the base of the wooden structure to prevent it from collapsing. The clanking behind her told her Cross Hair was taking off all his body armour. She didn't look as she didn't know if he would mind. Ponies were weird like that. They didn't normally wear attire, but some felt uncomfortable being watched getting undressed. She didn't understand psychology enough to have any idea why, so she just accepted that it was. He walked up with his helmet under his wing.

"Why do need your helmet?"

She noticed a line of scratching down the snout of the helmet. He picked up one of the spare rocks from the ones she had collected and put it down next to him.

"You can use metal objects and stone to create a spark and start a fire. Gold and rock is not the best combination but it works."

He placed the helmet next to the stone and took the stone in his hoof. Angling the movement toward the structure, he struck the helmet with the stone. Nothing happened. He tried again, and again. Eventually a spark flew at the sticks and created an ember. Blowing gently, he encouraged the ember to grow into a small flame that began to take hold. Smiling, he pushed the helmet aside and turned to the building fire, staring into it blankly. His light blue eyes reflected the orange glow in perfect harmony.

"I'm surprised were still alive, both of us."

Twilight lay down next to him and joined his staring.

"I know. When Sombra attacked The Crystal Empire, I thought help would come and the guard would storm in with the princesses and banish him to the moon. What stopped you?"

"Sombra had the cannible bandits kill any recon units we put in the area. All we knew was that he would attack. We didn't know when or with what forces. Celestia had also received death threats from various known assassins and bounty hunters that said she would be killed if she made a move before Sombra attacked. So she built up a relief force instead of an invasion force. Two platoons were planned to sweep the area around the Crystal Empire in waves. Platoon Alpha, my platoon, was the first to begin our search before this happened."

"How did she know there were escapees outside the city?"

"Shining Armour had a letter sent out to Canterlot that said he would try and get out as many civilians as he could using the attack as cover."

"So basically, Celestia had no intel on what was happening, so she decided to wait it out?"

"Yes."

"That's strange. Celestia is the most powerful creature in the known world. She could have dismissed the black mail and moved on the Crystal Empire with lots of guards or have them perform one of these sweeps of yours around the city to take down these assassins and bounty hunters."

"Easily, yes. But remember Chysalis and the changelings?"

Twilight grimaced.

"How could I forget?"

"It turns out their attack on Equestria had been constucted to weaken Canterlot if it failed, and make the job easier for Sombra to take the Crystal Empire. They had been working with each other for a while. And they were waiting to pounce on Equestria again if Celestia ever left with all of those guards."

"So Celestia was in Check Mate, and was pinned?"

"Yes."

"That explains a lot. But if you're out here, won't that leave Canterlot vulnerable?"

"Not really. Chrysalis' forces, as you experienced first hoof, are not good fighters. They relied on the element of surprise and confusion to attack us on that occasion. There would be no way they could invade again unless Canterlot was completely unguarded. Which is why we came up with the whole waved idea for the rescue party. As one platoon is out searching, another is at home keeping watch."

"Clever. What are you planning on doing about Sombra?"

"We'll hopefully, we can find this cannible encampment and destroy their home and find a way too message Canterlot that there is no need for the second wave. They can keep Platoon Bravo and fix the Changeling problem. And after that they can start on a liberation plan for the Crystal Empire."

"And we are the inside sources for information?"

"Exactly. And once the liberation plan commences, we can join in and give Sombra what he deserves."

They both resumed their staring. The fire was now turning into an actual fire, and gave out some form of heat. It's brilliance reflected across the caves walls and danced in their eyes.

"Anyway, its well past dark..."

Cross Hair took two rugs from his saddle bags and gave the thickest one to Twilight.

"We'd better be getting some sleep. We'll need all the sleep we can get for tomorrow."

They both rolled the rugs out and laid themselves out on them.

"Good night, guard pony."

He smiled and closed his eyes. Twilight did the same. If they were gonna be out here for a long time, they were done for. They would have to rely on finding that encampment for supplies, as a guard only has rations for three days. And that's only to feed the individual. So that's one and a half days before they would need to find those bandits. It could probably be stretched into two if they were careful, but they need to find the cannibles and resupply before sending the message back home. This was gonna be a long couple of days.

As she began to drift into sleep, she thought about her friends. She had let them die, but she would redeem herself and prove herself to Celestia. And it all started tomorrow.