The Story of Aperture

Aperture awoke in a dimly lit room, dark and oppressing, strange shapes moved in his vision. Suddenly Aperture sat bolt upright. He flailed for a moment, then the pain kicked in and he collapsed back onto his back.

”Hush, lay still, you took a lot of damage out there” said a kindly looking pony looking down on Aperture. She had a pink body, and wore a white hat with a red cross on it.

“I’m Nurse Hope” she reassured him “I’ll patch you back up, but you’re beat up pretty bad. Looks like you are quite the survivor, that fall would have killed anypony else”

“You-you saw that?” asked Aperture. He was still coming to terms with the fall himself, he realised that in all realism he should have died in the explosion, let alone surviving the fall from the castle too. He suddenly thought about what might have happened to his legs, or worse his horn! A life without the benefits of magic flashed before his eyes, and horrified him.

“Hope, how bad is the damage?” he asked, dreading the response.

“Only minor injuries, a few greenstick fractures, mostly flesh wounds. You’re lucky Bowdler found you when he did.”

“Bowdler?”

“One of our leaders. I should probably explain, we are the resistance against the Seventh Sanctum, we’ve just formed, we’re mostly guards who fell out of the battle of Canterlot. We are an underground organisation; literally. We are underneath Canterlot now. It’s a cave network. We are going to ship civilians out of the battle zone. You’ve been recruited to assist. Commander Bowdler will see you now.”

“Seventh Sanctum?”

“The cultists who attacked you”

The nurse send  a warming white glow from her horn down Aperture’s body, aiding his body’s own regenerative capabilities.

Aperture tipped himself onto his legs; he stood unsteadily but stood none the less. Into the chamber strode a confident stallion, stocky and muscular and sporting an unusual pair of wings. He had a purple body with deep red patches; a small chunk had been cut from his left ear, a scar of a previous conflict. His eyes were purple, deep and calculating. Aperture could see why the nurse had elected to call Bowdler one of the leaders of the resistance. Suddenly, he realised that this was the pegasus that had saved him outside the castle.

Aperture stretched his body out one limb at a time. Bowdler surveyed the patients, then with a nod to Aperture turned and left.  Diagnostics completed, Aperture determined the greenstick fractures the nurse had mentioned were in his left back leg and it’s flank.  They were, as in most ponies, healing rapidly.

“You might need some time to rest” said the nurse gently. “Remember those who didn’t make it out.”

Aperture was overcome with emotion at the nurse’s sentence. He remembered the brave guards projecting the shields, and the princesses. Luna had been in there. He weakly wondered whether anyone else made it out alive.