Chapters A/N: I just want to say thanks to Parafrap for allowing me to upload this story he made. His original, non-edited story along with others he had made can be found in the description link.
Today has been one of the worst days ever since I started working at Ponyville Hospital.
It began last night when my neighbor, Berry Punch, decided to throw an all-night party. Of course, she was the only pony there because nopony in the right mind would want to party with her drunk all the time.
"Hey, Berry, you want to like, shut it?" I yelled.
Like always, I could tell when she had a bit too many bottles: "Ah' is that you there Redheart?"
Oh goodness, when that mare drinks, she gets really drunk. I was up all night like an insomniac, forced to listen to the loud music blaring right through the paper thin apartment walls.
"C'mon Redheart! Party with Berrrrrrrrry!." She then proceeded to giggle at herself for the next hour. Every once in a while I would hear her crash into the walls, floor, or oddly enough, the ceiling. All I could think about was when this pony would just stop. Why am I cursed with this failure of a pony living next to me?
Why?
I tossed and turned all night. Whenever I began to doze off, the next song would start and wake me right up. I did, eventually, manage to fall asleep. Well, at 3:00 in the morning. Four hours of sleep later, I woke up on the floor and realized that I was extremely late for work. I didn't have to time to do my mane or even eat a bowl of hay.
I ran outside as quick as possible and ran into Fluttershy, literally. She was pulling a cart of squirrels, for whatever reason only Celestia would know, through the middle of the road. Fluttershy toppled over like a helpless filly, but was fine otherwise. The little animals ran away, startled.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized, "It's my fault… I'm sorry, please don't be mad."
Ugh, as bad as this day was, nopony could be mad at Fluttershy. I helped her look for the critters all over Ponyville.
"You have to sing to the little critters," said Fluttershy. I was not going to sing. No way at all would I sing. I tried to round up every one of the animals as fast as I could, but failed to catch even one. All of the animals hid under Fluttershy for safety. Eventually they calmed down and hopped with Fluttershy to the park. Because of this incident, I missed the morning carriage to work. Oh Celestia, by this time I was praying that nothing else would happen.
I galloped to work, checked in, and was scolded by the head Doctor for my apparent 'laziness' and 'inability to take my job seriously'. I was assigned to the Nursery department for my morning shift, and I can't express into words how much I hate that job. Imagine this, tens of baby colts and fillies screaming at the top of their tiny bodies whining, screaming, and crying.
"Why aren't you doing your job?" all the other doctors said, while lying down and watching me.
Being an earth pony, I can't chase after the pegasi whizzing through the air or control the unicorn's magic. Better yet, add on the fact that I have to be constantly changing their diapers and cleaning up after their… waste. Also, if I accidentally make one small mistake I would be suspended without pay for neglecting the 'sensitive needs of these little ponies' . Then all the ponies in Ponyville start to talk about how cruel you are to these innocent little angels . It just makes me want to vomit. After this I decided to take a lunch break, until I remembered that all my bits were sitting on my bedside table. Great! No breakfast or lunch. At least I have time on break to take a nap. I was wrong again.
Somepony just decided to have a baby now . I rushed down the stairs to the delivery ward. It was the Cake's first child. That Mr. Cake, as handsome as he is, kept bugging me with the same questions:
"Is she going to be okay?", "Yes";
"Is this normal?", "Yes";
"Is the baby coming?", "Yes".
Seriously, I was not in the mood for such annoyances. On the other hand, Mrs. Cake was yelling, "Oh it hurts!" What is it with Ponyville ponies and their yelling? Why, when I was a little filly nopony put up with this behavior. You stood in line and did as told, it's easy as that. It only got worse after the delivery. I placed the little foals in the care ward where they could rest. The Cake's adopted daughter, Pinkie Pie, decided to have a party and sing loudly to all the sleeping foals. I prayed that the foals wouldn't wake up. Please, please, please.
"Shh, the babies are trying to sleep!” After shushing her twice she began to sing a birthday song. That's it. I grabbed and tossed her out. Ponies that don't follow the rules aren't allowed in my hospital. As Pinkie was leaving, she slammed the door behind her, scaring all the foals.
I spent my time in the afternoon trying to stop the crying and screaming and yelling. Oh, Celestia, please make this stop. The unicorn foals' magic created chaos in the room. The nurses just watched, laughing at my humiliation as I desperately tried to keep calm. After what seemed like an eternity the foals were quiet and sleeping without a care in the world. The head Doctor came into the room. "Good job everypony!" He applauded the nurses for doing such a great job that he let them take a break for the rest of the day. As for me, he just asked me why I wasn't doing my job at the Nursery. I begrudgingly walked back into the Nursery, listening to the giggles of the nurses.
I looked at the clock, Eleven. End of my shift. I took a carriage home, thanks to the nice driver who didn't charge the hospital staff. At least one good thing happened today. I arrived at home and saw that my door was ajar. Seriously? I moved to Ponyville because it's the 'safest place in Equestria'. Whatpony breaks into homes in Ponyville?
I rushed inside and found Berry Punch going through my cabinets.
"OH HEY, REDHEART," she said, drunk, "WHERE WERE YOU ALL DAY?"
I snapped at her, "Working, someponies aren't spoiled brats that get everything they want from their rich parents."
At this point, I didn't care about anything; I was too hungry to get angry. I took the bottle from Berry and took a swig from it. Berry looked offended, "HEY, THAT'S MINE!" She took the bottle and drained it in one gulp.
I rolled my eyes, as if she were conscious enough to recognize sarcasm. I pulled out another bottle, opened the top downed it. Berry looked sad, "HEY! Share some of that!" She reached out to me like a helpless foal and knocked me down onto the floor.
"Get off me, Berry!" I said angrily. I tried to roll her over, but she wouldn't move.
I took out my last bottle of berry wine. "Alright, but this is my last one.” We sat on the floor taking turns sipping from the one bottle.
"You know, Berry, you shouldn't break into houses, it's what some ponies would call illegal."
I hit my head with my hoof. "What in Equestria would make it seem alright for you to just waltz into my home and take my food?"
Berry kept rambling, "You know, we're best friends!"
"No, I am not your friend, I hate you. You always keep me up at night with your partying, you come into my house and take my things, you're an embarrassment to ponykind with your drinking, and nopony likes you!” I didn't know if it was this terrible day or the wine that was speaking, but I knew that I didn't mean the things I said. Berry looked at me, for once seemingly not drunk. Her eyes were in tears. I tried to apologize, "Berry, I didn't mean…"
She cried in my lap. "I'm sorry Redheart. I just thought that you would understand me."
I looked down, ashamed of what I had said.
"If you really hate me, why didn't you move away?"
I couldn't answer that question because I myself didn't know why. I mean, she has been the most inconsiderate pony I have ever met in my whole life, but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to even remotely hate her.
"Berry," I brought her closer to me, "I don't hate you."
She looked up at me and stopped crying.
"For whatever crazy reason, I can't hate you."
We both sat there on the floor, taking sips, more slowly.
"It's just so hard to fit in with these ponies." I've never confessed these feelings to anypony before. "Life is just so different from where I came from."
Berry grabbed my mane and held me close to her. This was the first time anypony had embraced me like this. For once, I felt as if somepony cared for me, the outcast.
"Tell me. Tell me everything."
Cannon shells exploded around me. The air was thick with the scent of blood and roasted flesh. All I could see was smoke from the craters riddling the battlefield and the injured ponies who desperately tried to drag themselves away from the front lines. Individual lives didn't matter; everypony knew that the front lines meant assured death.
I reached out to a young stallion, barely out of his colthood, who was desperately calling for help. His foreleg had been torn off clean by a stray cannonball. I reach out further to grasp his only foreleg remaining. Bang. Another shot landed directly into his face and out the back. Whatever remained of his head was launched twenty feet away. Blood squirted out of his neck, spraying and covering the ground which hungrily drank it up.
Nopony questioned why I, a little filly, was in such a dangerous place. All they cared about surviving the day, then the next, and if they were lucky, the one after that.
"Everypony, into the shelter!" the Commander pegasus ordered.
Everypony retreated into the safety of the crudely dug bomb shelter. All we could hear were the sound of cannons outside, booming like thunder. The ground shook randomly, some tremors stronger than others. The injured ponies were lying on cots in the emergency care ward.
There was only one nurse there to help us, Nurse Trueheart. She was a middle-aged mare, mane tied in a simple knot to keep it out of her eyes when working. Her blood spattered cap was embroidered with the symbol of the red cross. She was a true medic, saving the lives of everypony and leaving no pony behind. Every pony's death while under her knife would be a death to her morality.
"Stay with me!" she commanded to the injured unicorn.
The unicorn's horn was snapped in half and the left half of his ribs punctured through his skin, revealing white among the red. There was no hope for this soldier, his time has passed. The unicorn took his last breath and ceased breathing.
Nurse Trueheart banged the table in rage. "Damn it. I told you to stay with me!" She took out a fresh white blanket and covered the corpse. She carried the body over to another room, filled with bloodstained bundles of ponies and pony remains. This was life in the front line bunkers. Death followed by death with every day. Nopony really knew why they were fighting anymore. All they knew was that one day they would have to fight no longer; either with victory or their own deaths.
"Doctor!" somepony shouted from one end of the shelter.
"Medic!" another pony shouted.
Everypony ran frantic around the treacherous base. The flickering lights that hung from the low ceilings were the only source of light, other than the sparks from the unicorns' horns.
"You, filly," Nurse Trueheart handed me a scalpel, "you're going to be my assistant."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is when I first learned about medicine. Everyday more wounded soldiers would come in, and with each one I was able to hone my medical abilities.
I saw so many ponies, all bleeding and on the brink of death. Most of them did die, but for everypony I was able to save, I was reminded of the preciousness of life.
One pony had explosive fragments lodged in his chest. No vitals were seriously damaged. Procedure: extract fragments and stop internal bleeding. Survival rate: 95%.
I knew at once that dragons were involved in the war when a rush of ponies with 2nd class burns was carried in. Every inch of these ponies' bodies were severely burned. Even the bones had imploded due to intense heat. Procedure: amputation and skin graph. Survival rate: 30%.
The war proceeded to become more brutal. One pony with multiple stab wounds, most likely from bomb shrapnel, came in near dead. There was major damage to all vitals. There was nothing I could do but pray that his suffering would end. Survival rate: 0%.
This is how I earned my cutie mark, the mark of the 'red cross'. I didn't even realize that I had my cutie mark until after the war, not that I would have celebrated it if I had known. No joy comes from war. I was in those bunkers for the next month, and I gained mastery over surgical skills. I would not accept death, "I would fight him at all costs, and with these hooves I shall save everypony."
The noises outside continued to boom throughout the night, nonstop. It was unbearable to listen to the moaning and crying within those bunkers, but I knew that I had to continue on, brave and strong. These ponies were counting on me. for their own lives.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One day the commander shouted in terror, "Code 130, incoming! Get down now!" Code 130, that was the order to brace yourselves for a massive airstrike.
The ground began to shake violently and the walls started to crack. Ponies tried to run out before the whole base collapsed. Some ponies didn't even have a chance to escape; they were immediately crushed by boulders of dirt and rocks. The ones who reached the exit were met by dragons which shot white-hot napalm onto anypony who tried to escape. The ponies immediately dropped onto the ground, screaming in pain. The napalm was like tar which stuck and burned every inch of their bodies and slowly killed them from the outside in.
I watched as a pony, missing both hindlegs, use his only good foreleg to drag himself outside. He died immediately when a pile of burning bodies fell on top of him.
Then enemy ponies armed with iron studded hooves rushed into the base. The remaining ponies on our side lay down with hooves up in surrender. The enemies forced us out into the battlefield where our executions were watched by our comrades. They would take one pony at a time into the largest crater and put on a 'show' for us which we were forced to watch.
The enemies were ruthless; torturing then killing the helpless. We all knew it was over. Nopony would come to help us.
I witnessed a unicorn hung from his horn while two ponies used clubs with rusted nails embedded in it to beat him to death. First, blood splashed everywhere like jelly. Then, the chunks of flesh littered the ground below him. As the flesh ripped away, the fragments of organs began spilling out. The unicorn looked on in horror as he saw his entrails being torn out, his red blood painting the dirt below him. They left him hanging, dangling in the wind as the last of his fluids dripped out.
The enemies were pleased with what they had done and brought up another one of our men. He was a fine blue pegasus, with a brightly colored mane. I recognized him as the second-in-command of our division. His flight skills were unmatched by anypony in Equestria. He would always talk about this family, back in some town in the sky untouched by war. He was a loudmouth, sure, but in a good way. He always bragged about his rainbow maned wife which he carried a picture of in the locket always kept close to his heart.
His name was Sky Dash. He was a rebel, like his father, and refused to show any weakness to the enemy. As a result, his punishment was made gruesome, twofold. They tore his wings off with their bare hooves. 'Crack. Crack. Crack'. We could see the shattered remains of bone as the wings ripped clean off. I tried to turn away, but my head was forced back.
Even still, Sky Dash refused to show pain. Angrily, the enemy poured a keg of explosive powder down his throat, suffocating him.
"One more chance. Scream for me and I'll let you die faster," one of them said to Sky Dash.
His friends pleaded to Dash to give up. Nopony could watch their dear friend suffer anymore. But still, he showed no emotion.
Then they poured napalm over his body. We could see that even still his will to live was unshattered. He did not scream. He did not cry. He did not surrender.
He dropped to the ground and began to crawl. After a moment his body exploded as the napalm and powder came in contact. He died instantaneously. I remember his last words, as he crawled slowly away, which haunt me to this day: "My Little Dashie".
My eyes grew to the size of saucers as I saw the next prisoner: Nurse Trueheart. Those savages pinned her down and laughed at her futile attempts to fight them off.
"Get off, you brutes!" she yelled.
Then I felt myself being lifted by my mane. "Hey, look what I found here! A little filly!" my carrier brought me to the crater, now knee deep in blood.
The one on top of Nurse Trueheart laughed. "If you keep resisting, you know what's going to happen to this pretty filly." He pointed to me.
She stopped protesting and only watched in fear as the stallion mounted her marehood. I was forced to watch, and was unable to make any sound. Nurse Trueheart, the pony who lived only to serve and save everypony she loved was being forced into submission. Her blood was added to the pool as the stallion continued to violently abuse her.
"AGHHHHH," she screamed, "MAKE IT STOP!"
"Shut up," said the stallion as he pushed her head into the pool. He grunted hard and then unmounted her.
Nurse Trueheart lifted herself out and began coughing blood. Two of the enemies restrained her and held her bloodied face up... at me. All the ponies were staring at me.
The stallion came up to me and smirked, "Your turn." I tossed and turned, trying to avoid the inevitable. He took a knife to Nurse Trueheart's neck. "You know what happens if you don't listen."
I had to. I had no choice. I couldn't lose her too. I stopped resisting.
"Good girl."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I had been rambling on to Berry about my story and hadn't noticed her mouth ajar, horrified at my tale.
"Oh," I forgot that other ponies would be extremely sensitive, "sorry, I think I've said too much." Berry shook her head, "No. It's okay, keep talking."
There was a look in her eyes, not of empathy, but of guilt.
But why?
"I mean, I think I've said too much, sorry, I don't want to..." she pulled me back down as I tried to scoot away. "Redheart, when I said that I would be here to listen, I meant that."
I guess I had no choice.
They did things to me; things so horrible and revolting that it scared me both physically and mentally forever.
I closed my eyes, trying to escape the truth, but what I imagined was by far worse than reality. I could smell the stink of the sick stench of the thick black pool of blood that I was submerged in. I could hear my body being violated and the enemy cheering him on. Cheering and watching on as if stripping away my purity was a sporting event. Worst of all, I could feel it.
The filth, the shame, the powerlessness to defend myself, I could feel all of it. They forced Nurse Trueheart to watch as these things were done to me. This was the only time I've seen her cry. She saw everypony in front of her, dying, and after devoting her life to saving everypony, in the end she couldn't save anypony at all.
I truly believed that I would die then and there. In fact, I wished for death to come and take me away from the pain and humiliation.
After all the stallions had taken their turns mounting me, pleasuring themselves, I was thrown violently aside. In the reflection of the blood I could see that I resembled something more of a rag, rather than a pony. They walked away from me to finish their humiliation on Nurse Trueheart.
My back was to the wall as I lay slumped against the side of the crater. Catatonia came over me from both the physical fatigue and the sights I saw. My body was no more the color of snow white, but of yellow like bile.
My fur was in clumps, caked in blood, spit, and other bodily fluids. I looked down and saw a bloodied flower, cut, torn, and mangled. All around me lay the scattered fragments of my comrades. None of them escaped. None of them ever had the chance.
Nurse Trueheart was tossed beside me. "A moment for a prayer," the leader said. But, he turned and scoffed, "if Celestia was ever watching." I heard his laughs as he slowly walked away.
She looked worse than I did. Cuts and bruises covered her body. She had resisted more than I had and paid for it dearly. She was like a mother to me, well, the only mother I had known. I still had hope. We could escape now and live a free life away from this war! I looked to her, but her eyes were lifeless, hollow.
"We will make it! We will make it!" I tried to make myself believe this lie.
The leader of the enemies gave a shout off in the distance and started to stride towards us. We could clearly in the reflecting sunlight that there was something metallic between his teeth, a knife.
A hundred feet.
Nurse Trueheart, with whatever strength she had left, grabbed my limp hoof and tried to drag me away.
Sixty feet.
We both realized why he left alone. He knew that we wouldn't be able to escape; they wanted us to have hope of survival. Then kill us.
Thirty feet.
Nurse Trueheart knew that at this rate we wouldn't be able to escape. In a final attempt to save me she threw herself on top of me.
Ten feet.
I was frightened to death. Not for my own life, but for hers. I could see between her forelegs that the malicious blood-shot eyes were right upon us. I repeated the same lines in my head: "We will make it! We will make it!" I couldn't lie to myself any longer. I cried. I couldn't stop crying. I didn't know why, I've never cried in my life before.
Maybe… I've accepted my fate and now the moment I've anticipated has come. I would soon be free.
Zero.
His shadow loomed over us. The weapon in his mouth was encrusted in the blood of our dear friends. "Please!" Nurse Trueheart embraced me closely, "not the filly!"
He laughed. And smiled.
How could he smile like that?
He raised the blade and swung down. It pierced right between her shoulders and splintered her spine. He jerked the blade out with ease and swung again, this time slashing at her hindleg. Her blood splashed into my mouth. I could taste it. This was reality. She was dying.
I could see that the knife had embedded itself deep into her thigh. He slowly, and brutally, sawed the knife with difficulty, back and forth, through the bone until her appendage separated from the body. Blood was everywhere, dripping in streams onto my body. I felt her grasp on me becoming tighter and tighter with every stab. He stabbed her once more, this time the blade sunk right into her heart. Blood mixed with vomit came gushing out of her mouth.
I closed my eyes. I didn't want to live this nightmare anymore. I could feel her body twitch in pain as every consecutive stab pounded through her flesh. Bones would crack and shatter into bits. Now, with every blow her grip would loosen. He laughed. He laughed as he twisted the knife. Her forelegs went limp. She was dead.
I could hear his friends cheering. They were hollering to this "hero" to finish the job. He grabbed Nurse Trueheart's corpse off of me by the hair. Blood dripped down in a stream, down her mane, down her body, down to the tip of her tail. A puddle of blood accumulated quickly. He took the knife and stabbed her neck.
'Crack.'
Her spine severed from the head and the body. He lifted her head up high for me to see. Her decapitated body dropped to the ground. Pure white nerves were seen protruding from the core of the spine, like an angel's hair.
He brought the head to my face. I could her eyes, wide open with blood dripping out of them, as if she had cried tears of blood. He then dropped her head onto the bloodied mud and smashed it to bits with his hoof. Little bits of what was her head scattered in an explosion of blood and brain. Red and grey jelly splattered all over me. This was too real.
He raised the knife, this time directly over me. Everypony I had ever known was dead. Memories flashed back: the day I was orphaned, the day I was brought into my first bunker, the first time I saw Nurse Trueheart. It was at last time for me to join them. I saw the glint of the knife as it fell. Everything went black.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I opened my eyes. I saw stars glittering against the night sky. Was I dead? No. I could still feel the pain and smell death's perfume.
"She's awake!"
I immediately jolted up and saw that I was in a run down apartment building with a broken roof. Then I fell back down in pain.
"Hey, filly, you should rest. It's been a hard week for all of us."
I searched the room for the source of the voice and found a dark red stallion lying in the corner of the room.
"Good thing we were there right then. We were just in time."
'No. No you weren't.
She's still dead.
You should have been faster.'
The bubbling rage inside me wanted to scream these things at them, but pain forced me to be quiet. "What happened?" that's all I could mutter.
"We found you in the middle of the front lines, filly. Some of those rebel ponies were going to kill you right there," he sighed. "Everypony was dead. Except you. I'm sorry."
So I really was the last one. I eyed the room and saw maps and charts scattered across the walls. "WAR" one newspaper read in bold capitals. A colored string connected this article and then to another. A whole spiderweb of colored strings connected the compilation of papers.
"Interested in these papers?" He saw that I had been eyeing them for a while. "Well these papers tell the story. The true story about the war."
I didn't care what the reason for this war was. I just wanted it to be over.
"You do know about the war, right?"
In actuality, I didn't know anything about the war. My earliest memory was of myself digging trenches for the air raids. I shook my head.
"I thought you'd be too young to know." His eyes were downcast. "But you ought to know. There's a reason why we're all fighting. Even a little filly like you." He walked over to the web of information and traced a single black string to an article in the center of the wall. He pulled that article off the wall and held it close as he read it aloud.
"It all began long before Equestria..."
The Great Equestrian War
Long before the founding of Equestria there were three tribes who lived in constant discord with one another. And it wasn't a surprise because these tribes were so diverse in cultures.
The Earth Pony tribe was composed of peasants who grew the food with their mastery over the land. The swift Pagasus Ponies provided a military against non-pony hostiles and controlled the weather. The Unicorn Ponies provided magic which controlled cycles in nature. These ponies refused to share their talents, and as a result, they quickly drifted apart from each other.
Outraged at the the Earth Ponies, the Pegasus Ponies refused to protect them from wild beasts. The Earth Ponies tried to defend themselves, but without an army, they could not survive if an Ursa Major happened to wander into their little cities. The Unicorn Ponies seemed to enjoy this as they watched and laughed safely from the tops of their castle walls as the Earth Ponies perished.
However, the Unicorn Ponies too began to die out once they ran out of food. Starvation and disease ran rampant within their fortress. Inside, disease would eventually kill them slowly, while outside, the other tribes would hunt the stragglers who were brave enough to try and escape.
Meanwhile, the Pegasus Ponies staged a bloody coup against their monarch and the kingdom resulted in anarchy. Chaos reigned in the Pegasus Kingdom and nopony did their jobs to keep the weather under control. After years of conflict, these three tribes where forced to tolerate each other in order to survive the worst winter ever.
The fairytale we tell little foals ends with these tribes finding harmony .
However, it is the untold story afterwords that everypony fears today. The truth is, after the tribes escaped the grasps of the stormy winter, they quickly degraded back to hatred. The leaders met, once again, to write a charter for alliance to ensure that the incident would never occur again. All leaders signed this charter, but secretly the unicorn elites plotted an Equestrian-wide massacre. Their leader, the Unicorn King, who lead and executed this plan.
It was that fateful day when all of Equestria was forever changed. The Unicorn King and his secret army lead the bloodiest purge, wiping out millions of Earth and Pegasus Ponies in a single day. Stallions, mares, foals. All of them were herded and massacred.
The King read his speech in the Royal Canterlot voice, booming and powerful. "We are the superior race. We shall rid this world of the inferior races! Together, Equestria will be ruled by the pureblooded!" He raised his hoof in the air and the Unicorns chanted, "Hail the King!"
The leader of the Earth Ponies and Pegasus Ponies would not watch as their tribe was being wiped out. They formed a strong alliance against the Unicorn Ponies, and together they fought side-by-side.
Eventually, the war ended, and the Unicorn King was forced to surrender. His lingering disciples scattered, forming cults and awaited to fulfill the prophecy of their King. The descendants of these disciples created a secret underground society which prepared for war.
***
"The war started when I was just a colt, twenty years ago. At the time, I didn't understand what or why everything was happening the way it was. But, i understand now. This is why we are fighting in this war. The Unicorns must be stopped once and for all. Otherwise, we shall perish."
"No. No!" I was flooded with rage, "This war is terrible. Nopony should die because of some bucking grudge." I could see Nurse Trueheart in my head. "It's not fair." I cried out, tears in my eyes,"It's just not fair."
'Why did she have to die like that? Was it because of the Unicorn King?' No.
It was those unicorns that attacked us. I hate those unicorns. I want to kill every last one of them for what they did to us. I wanted to feel every muscle tear, every vein split, and every breath they took as they choked to dead on their own blood. I wanted to listen to their screams and begs for mercy. But I wouldn't stop, no, I'd continue stabbing, ripping, tearing until they took their last breath.
What was happening to me? Why am I thinking these things? Nothing I do would matter. I couldn't save her. All I did was hide. I'm scared. I'm scared of the world, and even more what I have become.
I felt him embrace me. "I know it's not fair," he whispered. He just stood there, motionless, holding me in his arms. "War never is."
Something about his warmth, or the slow and steady heartbeats, calmed me. The visions of blood began to vanish away. Somehow, I didn't feel so scared and alone anymore.
He reached into his saddlepack and delicately brought out a worn square of paper. I looked upon it and saw a beautiful white unicorn.
"My wife," he said slowly. He paused and took a breath, "they took her away after they found out about our relationship."
He continued to speak, but refused to look up. "Being an Earth Pony, and her, a pureblooded unicorn, it wouldn't have worked out."
I could tell that his face had sunk even deeper, "it didn't stop there. The next morning one of the unicorns came to me with a package. Guess what was inside?" My heart froze. 'No. It couldn't be.'
"It was her head. They killed her for being seen with me."
Silence.
"I wanted to kill myself. It was my fault that she died. I loved her, and she loved me. I blamed myself for everything. That's my first encounter with the war." He gazed up, looking into the stars. "But then, I saw the bigger picture. War only brings sorrow and more war. I heard the stories of my comrades, worse than my own. I wanted the nightmares to end."
Silence, again.
"This war is almost over, filly."
I looked up at him. He goes on, "We can finally leave these memories in the past."
'How could I? The only life I'd known was ripped away from me.' He knew what I was thinking, "you should try, at least." His speech reminded me of her.
"Find something you love to do, it'll ease the pain. For me, it's art. It seems like you have a talent for being a nurse?" he looked at my cutie mark.
I saw the red cross, just like Nurse Trueheart's, "I guess..."
"Either way, get some rest. We're going home tomorrow."
"Home? I don't have a home."
"Home is a place where you can be happy. I've heard of this place, Ponyville, which is untouched by war. It seems like a nice place to settle down, away from death."
I mulled it over. What other choice did I have?
"Alright. Ponyville it is. Thanks for saving me Mr..." I didn't even know his name.
"Pie. Call me Pie."
Everypony knew I was different. The adults gossiped about this 'new and strange filly'. "Who was she? Where did she come from? Who were her parents?" The colts and other fillies became quiet when I approached them. All they would do is gaze upon my cutie mark, unusual by the fact that I had one as young as I was. Others nervously backed away and disappeared among the crowds that watched me.
Nopony could understand me. Nopony would understand the war. Nopony at all.
The war ended soon after my arrival at Ponyville. Pie dropped me off at the Ponyville Hospital where I could recover from the physical and mental scars. None of the nurses could even begin to comprehend these wounds: they weren't even aware of the war.
The mental scars were worse then the physical ones, because unlike cuts and bruises, they could never be healed. Events, like stepping into a puddle, would remind me of the blood soaked trenches that I had to wade through every day. My heart would race, and I would see those evil ponies. I would see them on top of me, forcing me to watch Nurse Trueheart's death again and again. It was too much for me.
I would skip school, which Pie scolded me for. Nopony in school liked me anyways. It's better this way. I thought that running off alone into the wilderness would clear my thoughts. But this way very wrong. With every passing day, the memories became even more haunting. I fell deeper into the pit of depression. Then I couldn't take it anymore.
I was in my room at Ponyville Hospital. I closed the doors and folded the shutters on my window. Nopony could see what I was about to do. In my hoof was a needle filled with a blue liquid. Cyanide.
Life was too much for me to handle. It was burdened with the guilt of surviving the war on the sacrifices made by my friends. Whenever I close my eyes, I see them screaming while being tortured. Then I see them mounting me, laughing while soiling my purity. I can't go on any longer, not with this guilt. I held the needle in my trembling hoof. Ten seconds. It takes ten seconds for it to kill. A painless death and then the nightmares will be over.
Ten
My whole life. The pain can finally be over.
Nine
The deed will be done.
Eight
They ridicule me...
Seven
Because they don't know the things i have seen.
Six
All the bodies...
Five
All the blood...
Four
Miss Trueheart...
Three
I'm coming home...
Two
I can finally smile ag-
KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK
"Redheart! Are you in there?" somepony asked, frantically knocking on my door.
I quickly hid the needle under my gown. "Yes..."
I opened the door and a nurse tumbled into the room. "Mr. Pie... he's dying."