The quarter
Twilight had been experimenting with her spell over the past few weeks. She didn’t invite her friends to try it with her after last time. She cast it again to see what would come up. Sparks flew from her horn as she re-cast the spell, only to end up, not in 1813, but 2014.
The spaces were confined and the floor was hard, almost like a storage house. One thing she noticed is that it was cold; very cold. There must have been a door open somewhere because it was so cold. Then she heard the shouting.
Men screamed at a doorway where supposedly enemy troops were trying to break through. Flashes of red and yellow were everywhere as well as the roar of gunfire. The noise was deafening, she could hardly hear herself think.
Twilight didn’t dare look around the door for fear of getting her head blown off. Men screamed into little boxes which Twilight could only guess were telecommunications devices.
“This is Bad-Wolf; we are pinned at entryway one-bravo, repeat: we are pinned at entryway one-bravo. Over” One bravo, what does that even mean? The door, a place on a map? She didn’t have much time to think it over as an explosion rocked the room as red flares were thrown into the doorway in hopes of blinding the enemy.
The lights went out, the only illumination were the flares and the flash of gun-fire. Twilight flinched at the flashes, this was almost too much. The men at the door trying to invade were gunned down by the defenders. If they lost this room, they lost the entire building, and losing the building meant no base for the apparent military.
More gunfire, and another explosion, this one less deafening than the last, either that or she was beginning to get used to the feeling. The red flares were beginning to go out, so the soldiers threw out a few more. Soldiers began to die around Twilight and she was absolutely terrified. She was somewhat amazed that the men could hear anything over this thunderous roar of war and hate.
Another man spoke into a box; “We require air support outside of the warehouse!” He screamed.
“Roger that, air support en route,” a voice responded.
What felt like hours later, a whistling was heard with a muffled “Brrrrr” of Gatling fire from allied aircraft. The plane had assumingly left soon after the attack on the outside.
Men continued to die around the purple Alicorn. She was frightened and horrified. How could humanity be so hateful to itself? Yeah there were some things to get slightly riled up over, but not to kill each other for.
That’s when she saw death up close and personal. A man, possibly at the age of 27 was killed in front of her. His back exploded against the red light of the flares. He collapsed, writhing in agony. He screamed for his mother, the poor soul. A medic came up to him, tried to fix him up, but to no avail. The man had stopped his writhing and laid still, a large hole in his back with blood all around him. Tears stung Twilight’s eyes, threatening to break through.
This was almost too much, but Twilight felt it a duty to gather as much information as possible to bring back with her. The horrors of humanity started to get to her. The fog of war, the hate, everything.
“I’m out of ammo!” One shouted. After a few seconds, a man handed him three ammo magazines to load. He reloaded, only to fire around the corner and to be shot through the head, spraying blood across the wall in a fine powder-like fashion. The soldier who had given him the ammo quickly retrieved it and threw a grenade around the corner.
Smoke filled the room as flashes of gunfire lit it up with the light of the flares. The soldiers daren’t give up, they wouldn’t. She had to give them credit, they were determined.
This was not like the battle for that fort that seemed so long ago, times do change.
There is one thing for certain: She didn’t want this back home, she was going to make sure that this path of hate wouldn’t happen.
She felt as ridiculous as the time when she put her hoof-shoes on the wrong hooves, coming here was a massive mistake; this spell was a mistake and she made it! She was horrified at what she was seeing, at what she had seemingly created.
Twilight was going to make sure that this spell wouldn’t get out; that her friends would keep it in the dark, Discord especially, she knew how he could, quite literally, let things slip from his mouth.
The rattling of the guns was starting to get to her. She needed a break, so she walked through a hole in the wall into a snowy blizzard, but even there she couldn’t escape the battle. Just as she stepped out, a man fell from a small dip to her left, blood seeping from his wounds and staining the snow a dark red. Twilight immediately stepped back inside, just wishing for the fighting to stop.
She knew that she was trying to gather information, but these terrible things were such a burden, if she kept this up, she was bound to go mad, or worse.
Twilight then considered sending a letter to Princess Celestia as soon as she had enough, but ultimately decided against it. If she knew of this, who knows what would happen?
Another explosion rocked the room, dust clouded her vision. As the dust settled, all she saw was the bodies of the dead and the dying, the rest of the soldiers were apparently obliterated, gone from existence. Upon seeing what the battle had cost, she decided to cut the spell, this was too much.
Maybe friendship isn’t as magic as it was made out to be by her mentor… Just maybe.
Author's Note
A sequel to my previous story.
