Equestrians Veterans Society
I stretched my back, staring out over the stripped out hotel conference room. Celestia walked up behind me and nuzzled my head. “Will you be alright?”
I took a deep breath and looked up towards her. “Yeah, I think so. And uh...thanks for this.”
Celestia smiled down at me. “Do I get a kiss?”
“I don’t really have much of a choice.” I hesitated a bit, but eventually threw my arms around her neck and gave her a quick kiss, lingering on the warm feeling of her lips. She smiled down at me, her soft comforting smile. “Oh knock it off.”
As we pulled away from the kiss I craned my neck to take in the creatures slowly filing into the room and taking seats in the center of the room where a set of chairs were set in a circle facing eachother. Celestia leaned her head against my crown. “You really think this is going to help?”
I nodded. “Can’t hurt. And you never really bring them up much. Not very warlike I guess. Coulda’ fooled me.” Celestia frowned and bopped my crown with her chin. “Hey!”
“Violence isn’t something I like to bring to light, no. Does that mean I don’t care? No!”
I shrugged and looked back to the few arrivals filtering in. Of the ones walking in, I noticed how diverse the group was, a tall griffon wearing a dark navy blue uniform with a few chevrons on the sleeve.
I stuck my hand out and caught the bird. “Sergeant?”
The griffon jerked to the side as if offended by the touch and sudden questioning. “Who the fuck wants to know?” as he swiveled his head to come face to face with Able and Celestia standing no more than a foot behind him wearing a deep scowl that could boil water.. The griffon made a hasty retreat into a low bow.
“I-I’m sorry your majesty, I wasnt aware that royalty would be in attendance to day. Who, may I ask is this… charming fellow accompanying you?” All while still in full bow, this prick knew how to show respect after the fact..
Celestia lifted one hooves “Rise Sergeant, this Able, my husband. He’ll be leading the group today. I believe that many of my citizens can benefit from these meetings. Thank you for choosing to attend sergeant.”
“Sergeant Eagle Eyes, ma’am,” He snapped into an upright position with a crisp salute.
“But most just call me Twenty-Twenty. I’m involved in all of the inspection of all imports and exports coming from The Griffon Empire to the port here in Manehatten. Its an honor to meet you Princes Celestia and Prince Consort Abl-”
“Just Able,” I coughed, as I sidestepped to be a Celestia’s side instead of in front of her. “Never a fan of the title thing.”
The griffon gave me a puzzled look. “Yes Prin- Able. So you’ll be leading this group therapy session?”
“Yep, my idea so, yeah…. If it goes well today, then we might be able to start up more meeting like this” I gave him a shrug of the shoulders and a sidelong glance to a table setup with a variety of food and drinks.
“Got food, got drinks, I’m sure someone here is holding if you needed something heavy.” I swung my arms. “Ham, hay-” I looked over at the card table, filled to the brim with food. “-stuff.”
Twenty-Twenty gave seemed to take special note of the ham at the center of the table, his eyes gleaming with an insatiable hunger. He quickly licked his beak, almost drooling. “Is… is that a real ham? I haven’t had real ham since my last visit to home in the Griffon Empire… If you’ll excuse me, I have to indulge myself.”
I turned to Celestia, who looked a bit confused. “What?”
“The butcher?”
I nodded slowly. “Yeah…?”
Celestia licked her lips and looked towards the window. “Does he still not speak Equestrian?”
I chuckled softly. “Nope.”
I took another glance around the room, taking note of the different peoples milling about the room. I saw a zebra wearing a long white coat that looked like something a doctor would wear. He didn’t fit the bill, maybe a medic, but certainly not a hardened vet.
There was a bat pony with a short, dark red mane and eyes as blue as the deepest ocean with a coat charcoal grey with the Lunar Guard armor jangling at his side.
The one that really caught my eye was a Saddle Arabian. She stood almost as tall as me, an impressive thing for any pony. She reminded me of the smaller horse from back on earth, short brown coat, mid length black mane, and I think green eyes, hard to tell with them covered by her mane.
At that moment, the loud sound of metal on metal moved down the hall and caught my attention. Two guards moved into the room. They must have been off duty, even though they had the body armor, they weren’t wearing their helmets. One of the guards had an armor set I wasn’t familiar with. It was a polished silver that seemed to sparkle all around, the stallion wearing it also seemed to be shimmering along with his armor like some little forest fairy. He also had what looked like crystalline cracks in his coat.
The other guard was a one of Celestia’s, decked out in golden enchanted armor that changed his coat color but without the helmet, her mane was left a sandy blond, with eyes of deep grey. It was unsettling just how damn grey her eyes were, it was like they were pulling all of the light around her face in like deep, endless, voids of nothingness. Her face looked really rough, like she hadn’t slept in years. Her already dark eyes were accented by deep circles running under them, her mane looked like it hadn’t been combed in an even longer time.
Celestia stepped a little closer to me motioning to the guard in gold. “The one in gold is one of the guards I had working under me during the changeling invasion. She’s been having great deal of difficulty dealing with what happened during the invasion.”
I shrugged“Well I make no guarantees, but I really fucking hope these meetings do something. Seen what happens when you don’t talk about war stuff. Ken, Marky, people lose their shit when they don’t let it out.”
Celestia motioned to the guard to come over. The guard snapped away from whatever thought she was locked on and made her way over to us, crossing the circle like the others didn’t even exist. Shes a quick little thing, over before us in a moment.
Celestia smiled down at her. “Taffy Puller, I’m glad to see you made it.”
The mare tapped her hooves on the ground and drew a semicircle on the floor. “Thank you ma’am, not really sure I should be here though--”
Celestia shook her head. “Ah- none of that now, I need my guard strong and healthy, and I’m sorry to say your, problem, is starting to impact your performance.”
The mare pursed her lips, her eyes twisted up and watery. “Yes ma’am, I apologize for the inconvenience I have caus-”
“Ah- no apologizing. The best way to apologize is to get better.” Celestia looked over to me. “Have you met my husband?”
The mare turned to me. Her eyes looked over me for a moment before bolting to the ground. “I haven’t. Hello.”
I knew that look, I’d seen it way too many times before coming to Equestria. “Go have a seat, ya look a little tired.” No one deserved to wear that look, especially not anyone in Equestria.
“The mare nodded a few times and slunk over to the chairs. “Alright, I’ll get out of your way.”
With that done Celestias horn lit and in a flash was gone to perform her daily court duties, leaving my to the roomful of jaded fantasy people, thousand-yard stares burned into their faces. “Alright.” I turned to face the crowd.
Ponies, a griffon, a zebra, all of them sitting, staring at their hooves, or paws as it were. I had no idea what to do, I’d only ever been on the receiving side of this sort of stuff and now here I was, pretending I knew enough to understand these sword wielding horse-people.
There were twenty chairs, only six of them full. The room was overly spacious with a hardwood floor that shined in the sunlight filtering in from the three single, floor to ceiling windows. the walls were a stark white, reflecting light to brighten the room with what little sunlight was coming in. In the corner sat the table loaded with food that was hardly touched by the occupants.
I took one last look around the room, The clock on the wall was reading five past one. It was time to get this party going. I could only guess by the number of shouts and screams whether or not things were going well. “Fuck…. Well, time to get this shit started.”
I made a sweeping gesture to the group. “All right, gather up, take a seat, bring your food if you’ve got it. We’re here to talk, so--start talking.” The room went quiet as the few people adjusted in their seats. I pointed to the zebra. “Alright stripes lets start with you.”
The zebra pointed at himself. “Me? Well, ok. My name’s Doctor Sing-Song and I’m a general practitioner working for Manehatten General Care Hospital.” He spoke with a clean accent, something I’d expect out of a pony or a human, not a zebra.
I turned my chair towards the doctor. “ Alright, so what happened to you? No offence, but I set this up for veterans, not doctors with survivor’s guilt.”
The doctor looked at me with a slight glare. “My story isnt about some patient I’ve lost or guilt for not giving out enough meds to ponies. You think I don’t know why I’m here!? You want me to tell you!?”
I nodded. “That’s why we’re here.”
The doctors eyes began to slowly glaze over. “It wasn’t even that long ago. Ponies-- zebras, we’re all too old for what happened, but it still...it just happened, and I could stop it…” He rambled on, lost in his own head. He was going back to that day. You couldn’t stop his story even if you wanted to.
***
I was looking over the latest patients charts. He was a human that had broken his arm earlier that day and he needed his gauze changed. I looked over the the unicorn nurse that was assisting me at that time. “Nurse, can you go to the supply closet and fetch a set of gauze for the me? I’m all out and I still need to finish wrapping this patient's arm.”
The nurse made a trot towards the door. ”Yes doctor, I’ll be back in a moment.”
I glanced back over in the nurses direction. “Thank you nurse.” I turned back to the patient. “Seems like a lot of humans end up here. Okay then, tell me again how you managed a compound fracture by falling off a street curb?”
The patient looked up at me with an embarrassed look. “Well doc, I don’t really know what to tell you but it felt like someone was stabbing my leg with the biggest fricken knife ever made. How bad was the break though?”
I pulled out the patients x-ray giving a quick glance. “ Well, the extent of your injury wasn’t too bad, easily managed but you’ll be in a cast for a few months. You broke both your ulna and your radius, sprained your wrist, and it looks like you over stressed you shoulder and elbow joints. Although it seems your humerus didn’t suffer any damage. We were able to reset the forearm bones fairly easy because is was a clean break, but it did stab through the skin. Again, all in all, nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a good dose of meds and some time to let the injury heal”
I started to walk to the door to look out the hallway. “I was hoping the nurse would be back by now, the bleeding is controlled and you’re not in a any danger, but I’d like to add a bit more wrapping before we move you to get an arm cast” I looked out into the hall, the clean white, sterile environment, devoid of the sound of clattering hooves or feet.
I paused for a bit, watching the patient scratch at his stitches. As I walked back in the nurse trotted up next to me with the packaged gauze on a medical tray with medical tape as well. “Here you are doctor. The closet was low on supplies so I had to go down a floor for the supplies.”
“Thank you nurse.” I motioned to the door. “ Could you go and get the next three or so charts for the next set of patients?”
“Yes doctor, I'll meet you in the next patient’s room and I’ll have somepony restock the supply closet on this floor.” The nurse made her way back out of the room.
I picked up the medical chart for the patient. “Well if everything goes well, the you should be out of here sometime today, with a bottle of painkillers and a fancy new cast to keep that arm immobile while it heals for about three months. You’re lucky, if this break was any worse we would have had to do surgery and set the bones with some screws and metal bracers.”
The patient shifted in the bed a little. “Well, thanks for patching me up Doc. Hopefully I can get some time off from work and rest up for a bit”
I gave a slight grin and chuckle. “Yea, well the injury shouldn’t be keep you off your feet so as long as the job doesn't require you to use both of your arms, you should be good to go. If you need anything just call a nurs--”
At that moment, my pager started beeping. “Uh-oh, its never good when this thing goes off.” I looked down to the little plastic box with a small screen and saw the two words that I hoped that I would never see.
Code Triage, lockdown.
I had to rely on training at this point, I had patients that needed me to step up and keep things in order. I quickly made my way to the door and caught the attention of one of the nurses moving room to room. Her hooves loud as she raced towards me.
“Nurse, What’s the emergency?” I asked in hushed tone
She frantically trotted to me. “Code Triage, doctor, theres an armed assailant on the lower floors. The guards have been alerted but they’ll take time.” She then took a step back and continued down the hall looking into every room and closing the doors.
“Shit shit shit, this is bad.” I looked up down the hall for any sign of somepony else to speak to. I stepped back into the room and took a few deep breaths.
The patient shifted towards me again. “Hey Doc, everything ok? you don’t look so good. I guess if you gonna get sick, a hospital is the place to do it, right?”
I shook my hooves out. I had to start enacting lockdown procedures for patients rooms. “Sir, I need you to listen to me carefully, something has come up and I need to leave and when I do. I’m going to lock the door, and don’t answer it to anyone. I’m afraid you’ll have to stay a little longer than expected”
The man became visibly nervous, twitching slightly as he grabbed the bars of his bed with his unbroken arm. “Doc, I don't know if this is some kinda joke you’re pul-”
I stamped my hoof off the ground hard. “This is no joke sir, now stay calm, Somepony will come and unlock the door until it’s safe, but you keep it locked until then.” I quickly made my way out of the room and down the hall, only leaving after using a special key to lock up. Most of the doors could be locked, but the older ones on this floor could be unlocked by the patient if need be. I had to organize my staff and get everyone situated and safe.
I became acutely aware of just how dire the situation was becoming as nurses were already securing patients rooms and barring doors that led down stairs. there wasn’t much we could do to keep doors closed with chairs and overturned gurneys but it would have to do.
I spotted the nurse that I spoke to moments ago and stopped her. “Nurse, have the doors been secured?”
The nurse nodded. “Yes, all exits have been blocked with what we could find.”
Good, doors are blocked. “Are the patients rooms secured?”
“Yes doctor” She nodded again.
“What about any visitors?” I continued to move down the list.
The nurse looked down the white hall. “Those that were with patients have been secured in those rooms and the visitors in the waiting area have been moved to the designated safe zone.”
“Alright, good job nurse, we need to get the rest of the staff to our safe zone and pack in and wait for the guard. have you heard anything from the lower floors?”
The nurse became pale. “Yes, reports are of a crazed unicorn stallion moving through the hospital with a machete and he’s already attacked several patients. Some with fatal injuries.”
My heart jumped into my throat. “Ok, Im going to make one last round to make sure everything is secure, get yourself and any other staff you see to the designated safe area immediately!” I pointed down the hall for the nurse to get going.
I started down one of the wings and quickly glanced side to side to see that all the doors had been shut. When I reached the end of the hall there was a fire escape with gurney hastily tipped on its side and pushed against the doorway. I could feel myself start to shake from the fear and anxiety of everything that was happening. The sound of injured ponies crying out in agony, calling for help, and begging to be saved, then I heard it. The sounds of someone coming up the stairs, tapping, constant, loud. The pony was muttering something to themselves and laughing from time to time.
He was coming up the stairs, he was coming up the stairs that I was right next to. I had to get out of there. I needed to hide. I ran down the hall trying to gain traction on the smooth tile. I made it to the nurses station in an intersection down the hall from the fire door. I heard the stallion at the end of the hall began yelling and throwing himself into the door, attempting to get in. I quickly got behind the desk and rifled through the counter for anything to defend myself. All I found were small scalpels used to incise boils and abscesses, and a box of syringes. I grabbed a scalpel in the crook of my hoof and and hid behind the counter.
No sooner had I grabbed my improvised weapon, had I heard the door crash open causing the gurney to slide across the floor. He was finally through the door, and his rambling voice echoing down the hall sent a chill down the back of my neck. I could hear him making grunts and half yells, swinging the machete around with his magic as he walked down the hall, banging on all the locked doors along the way. He slashed at everything in the hall that was with in his range. I clutched myself close to the counter I was peeking out from, and covered my mouth as he came closer and closer to the nurses station. I swore I was going to have a heart attack with how fast my heart was beating, mortal fear causing me to shake in place.
Clip, clop, clip, clop, the only sound I could hear as he passed the nurses station and continued down the hall. I heard him stop just a few hoof steps past the nurses station and I hazarded a peak around the corner from my hiding spot, he was staring at one of the doors to a patients room. He had this crazed look in his bloodshot eyes, like everything had finally snapped inside of his head. he may have been moving, but he wasn’t there anymore. Whoever he was, it was gone. Replaced instead by this raving beast..
He stared at the door to room seven-twelve. Little Abigail's room. She was a young human child here being treated for a bad case of pneumonia and fluid in her lungs. The stallion slowly raised his blade and began to slash at the door, smashing his hooves in an attempt to gain entry and swinging the machete into the wood. I knew if he got in he would kill her, there wasn’t any doubt in my mind about it, but all I could do was sit and hope the door held and the guard would make it in time.
He continued to smash into the door until it finally gave way, the lock clattering loudly against the ground. “Theres no way this is happening, theres no way, this stuff doesn't happen,” I whispered to myself. His steps echoed loudly, then went muffled as he stepped into the room. “Turn around, please, turn around.”
“W-who are you?!” I could hear Abigail say. She sounded so weak and frightened. I could hear the stallion start to mutter to himself. All I heard was Abigail scream followed by the dull thud of metal rending flesh from bone as Abigail went silent. The heart monitor that had been beeping rapidly now only held the monotonous tone of a flat line reading.
I had to do something, I could just sit and hide, hoping that someone would stop this mad stallion. I had to move, I couldn’t--wouldn't let him harm anymore of my patients, I needed to act. The sounds of the girl’s screams digging into my neck wasn’t something I could let hit me again. I felt my muscles tense, my heart race, and my stomach began to tighten. I quietly opened the drawer and grabbed as many of the syringes as I could hold in my mouth and pulled the plunger out, filling them all with air. An embolism wouldn’t be instant, but it’d stop him if I could get close enough.
I finally dawned on me, I was about to do the unthinkable, I was about to kill somepony. No he wasn’t a pony anymore, he was a monster that just killed a little girl who couldn’t defend herself. He didn’t give a second thought, so neither could I. He had to die.
I waited for him to walk from the room and begin walking back down the hallway when I made my move. I had to, I’d hesitated too long already and somepony was gone because of it.
I jumped from behind the counter and charged him. Pure adrenaline carried me faster than I’d ever ran before I got him off guard, slamming into his side and taking both of us to the floor. While he was disoriented, I picked myself up and jammed the needles into his neck and upper chest, and then pressed the plungers down hard and quick, causing several of the needles to bend and break inside of his flesh.
The effect was almost immediate, he cried out in pain as air was forced into his veins and muscles, causing the magic around the machete to dissipate. The wet metal cleaver clattered against the floor, filling the halls with a new sound above the beeping machines.
I grabbed the blade and threw it down the hall away from the crazed stallion as he continued to cry out in pain. The air was beginning to circulate and his muscles convulsed, he lost control of his bodily functions making a mess of the floor under him. His breathing became laboured as he attempted to clutch his chest. Heart attack. He slowly began to become still, his body jerking less and less, his breathing stopped. The beeping took hold again as the spastic twitches and flailing stopped.
As the adrenaline began to wear off, the flat tone of the heart monitor in Abigail's room became the dominant sound as I backed away from the body. I began to hear the clatter of metal rushing up the stair from down the hall as several heavily armoured city guards filled the hall and surround myself and the body.
One of the guards started shouting. “Don't move! State your name!”
Another guard came around my flank, cutting me off from the body and forcing me to step back. “No sudden movements, take it easy!”
I responded. “I’m Doctor Sing-Song.” I looked over to the nurse’s station. “Staff files, there.”
A guard checked the station, flipping through folders and papers that littered the station and then stepped forward. “Doctor, are you ok?”
I looked at him and shook my head. “No, I lost one.” I pointed at the corpse. “I couldn’t move.”
Three of the guards surrounded the body, two of which had spear pressed to his neck while the third checked for the pulse that I knew wasn’t there.
The guard turned to the other. “Dead sir.”
The tallest of them all turned to face me. He wore a hard grimace and nodded at me.
As the guards began to clear the rest of the floors and move the wounded from the lower floors I made my way over to Abigail’s. I had to see, something drew me to her room, I’m not sure what but I had to see. In that room was something that would be forever burned into my mind, something that would haunt my every waking hour. Her mangled body where he had stabbed and slashed at her. Blood was everywhere, it was pouring from her stab wounds and from the stump that once was her left arm. Her face was the only thing that wasn’t damaged. Her mouth hung slightly open, lips beginning to turn blue, the rosie red leaving her cheeks, and her cold, faded, soulless eyes staring at me, asking me why I didn’t save her, why I didn’t do something sooner, why didn’t I stop him, why me? Why Abigail? What did she do to deserve this? What did any of them do to deserve this?
***
“I found out later that he was targeting humans. Some job dispute.” The doctor shook his head. “All of that, just because of work.”
I rubbed my mouth. “It’s never just work.”
The doctor looked up at me, mohawk slumped over one side of his head. “It was! I know it was, he--”
I shook my head and held up a finger. “I saw men rip each other apart for a chance at work. I saw men kick each other to death, for opportunity.” I rubbed my eyes and let out a long sigh. “It’s not work, it’s food, it’s fulfillment, it’s betrayal at a system.”
The zebra cocked his head. “You’re defending him!?” His voice high pitched and indignant.
I stared him dead in his grey eyes. “I’m saying there was a reason. Just like there was a reason for you killing him.” I leaned forward, my hands digging into my knees. “You killed, he killed, what’s the difference?”
The zebra stood up. “The difference is I’m supposed to save people! I let him kill someone, I let him! I should have stopped him! I could have stopped him, but I didn’t!” He kicked his chair away and marched up to me. “I could have stopped him sooner! I should have!”
I sat back in my chair. “Remorse is a good difference.” I relaxed and looked him in the eyes. “Remorse is a good start, good as any.”
The doctor glared at me, eyes narrow and watery. “Remorse for what!? Killing him?”
I licked my lips. “Yes, for killing him, for not stopping him, whatever you’re remorseful about!” I leaned forward, my chair creaking under me. “You’re really not a veteran. Being a vet means walking headlong into something you know will be hard, something you know you’ll probably regret. You sign your life to a cause you’re willing to die for--”
“I am willing to die for my cause! Don’t you dare insinuate that I’m not!”
I took a long breath through my nose. “Then act like it. You lost someone, how many did you save?”
The doctor shook his head, not breaking eye contact. “Not enough--”
“How many. Give me a number!”
“Not enough!”
I pointed to the quiet guard. “How many?”
The quiet guard slinked away. “Held the streets while ponies evacuated. I didn’t count.”
I pointed to myself. “Quebec, Montreal, Ontario. I don’t have the population numbers.”
The doctor shook his head. “I lost too many--”
“How many did you save!?” I stood up. “You killed one! You are responsible for one death!”
The zebra shook his head and reared up. “I could have stopped him sooner!”
I leaned over him. “And what if you didn’t stop him after the first? What if you let him go on? How many more would be dead?” I cocked my head. “Too many?”
The zebra settled back onto four legs. “You don’t know what it was like--”
The griffon coughed into his talon. “Arson on a small village, 6 dead.” He gripped his chair, his talons ripping into the underside of the metal. “Don’t tell me I don’t know what they look like, don’t tell me I don’t know what they smell like.”
The zebra turned to face him. “Six?”
The thestral guard scratched at her chair. “Only six?”
The quiet guard shifted uneasily. “You only lost one….”
I stared dead on with the zebra, waiting for him to turn and face me. “You lost one. How many did you save?” I sat back down and pointed to his chair. “We all know what it’s like. You can’t focus on what you lose, you focus on what you saved.” I rubbed my mouth. “And you had a choice, you really need to decide if it would have been better if you’d done nothing or if you did what you could.”
The zebra stood square between us all. “What do you want me to say?”
My chair groaned as I settled back. “I want you to be thankful, some of us couldn’t save anyone.”
The zebra sat down in the middle of the room. “But I could have done more--”
“What was she like?” I scratched the side of my chair. “Abigail.”
The zebra stared at me “Abigail was a human, she was around thirteen or fourteen, around--”
“Was she nice?”
“She was wonderful, full of laughter and smiles no matter what.”
I nodded. “Sounds familiar.” I rubbed my eyes as a few memories of home seeped in. “Sorry you lost her.”
The group bustled softly with condolences. The zebra sighed heavily. “I could have stopped it.”
The griffon’s talons scraped his chair. “You stopped a lot worse from happening. That’s more than some of us could do.”
I turned to the griffon. “So you’re next?”
The griffon shook his head. “Not today….”
I nodded. “I think things went alright for day one anyways, keep this short and...bitter I guess.” I stood up and walked over to the zebra. I ducked down and leaned over towards his ear. “Reflect on what you still have, about what you saved. Those people in that hospital wouldn’t be alive without you.”
The zebra looked at me “Alright, I’ll think about it.”
“Good. Because I guarantee it would have been worse without you there.” I stood and turned to the crowd. “Same time next week.”
I watched them leave, the zebra limping along, head hung low, but eyes scanning. Searching for some reason in what I said. I could only hope he found it.
I glanced at the clock hanging from the wall on the far side of the room. The other members of the group milled about near the food table, they picked from the assorted fruits, vegetables, drinks, and assorted meats that had been provided for the group.
I clapped my hands together. “Alright people, let’s get this meeting started.’ I pointed to the griffon that was currently stuffing his beak with the ham and sliced roast beef that was piled high on his plate, causing him to squawk in surprise. “You, you’re up.”
The griffon glared back at me, “I’ve got a name, you bipedal fuck! It’s Eagle Eyes.”
“Oh you want to be a fucking dickhead? Okay! You’re still up, jackass.” I shot him a dirty look and walked back to my seat..
Everyone shuffled over to the ring of chairs and found their seats. The griffon was last to take his seat after grabbing one last quick hand-full of meat. “It’s sorta of a two parter.”
He wilted in his chair and brought his talons chair and began to tap his chair, “I was working in a Disaster Relief Unit on the outskirts of the Griffon Kingdom a few years back. There was a dragon attack that was real bad. I thought I was finally over it after I moved the Equestria. I started working in the shipping yards of Manehatten. About a month or so back I was unlucky enough to discovery a smugglers crate with six griffon bodies in it.” After mentioning it his feathers drooped further.
He heaved a heavy sigh “The bodies had been there for some time, they had died of starvation but not before they tried to cannibalize each other. The bodies were riddled with beak and talon wounds. Blood was caked on the interior of the container.”
The Sergeant’s dark sapphire eyes fell into the familiar thousand yard stare. With a slight shudder he continued, “The smell of the bodies reminded me of the aftermath of the dragon attack, everything that I had thought I had gotten over had come back in force, I was having nightmares, I was seeing the bodies every time I closed my eyes. I could hear the voices and screams....”
***
“So Captain, what’s the situation we are looking forward to?” I yelled to the leader of the group over the roaring winds as we flew towards the pillars of smoke and orange glow rising from the village in the distance.
Upon hearing my question, Captain Windshear motioned for the unit to land just outside the village in a clearing. “Alright boys,” he started “according to the reports a dragon launched an attack on this town not too long ago, so we need to move quickly, but stay on guard, it may still be lurking around.”
He pulled a broken feather off his head and let it drop down onto the dark crag below our feet. “I want a full search done on the village, no stone unturned!!” he continued “You all know what to do! We are to evacuate all that are left, those that can’t walk will be flown to the designated area for medical treatment. Move out!” He dug his talons into the rock under us and lifted himself back into the air.
With that our group moved on to the village, half of us took to the air while the others stayed on the ground and fanned out to search the outskirts. I was surprised that any of the buildings were left standing after what I can only imagine was and attack from a full grown dragon.
As my team approached the village. A black haze rose from varying parts of the village as bits of buildings crumbled, no longer able to support their own weight. The half built brick road under my feet grew warmer and warmer as the cropped down village popped up over a small rise, I could feel the soles of my boots trying to melt to the ground as I walked slowly onward. Charcoal black buildings soon came into focus as we neared the town.
The place was coated in ash. It clung to everything from the dirt to the rock to the stone ruins of what once were homes and shops. The smell of murky ash hung about with such a heat behind it that one could only stare for so long before your eyes started to water.. As I walked deeper into the village, dark outlines of griffons were etched into the walls, grim silhouettes left after being cooked alive.. Some buildings were still ablaze with bright red fires that sent yet more dark black smoke into the air..
I started my search with what use to be an inn, the sign still swinging briskly away from the center of the village. I walked through the charred door and saw nothing but the charred remains of once good citizens. I could almost make out what they were doing in their final moments, some with empty half melted metal steins set in front of them while others were embracing those that they cared for what would inevitably be one last time. Only charred remains and ash were my company throughout that particular search. The bodies were slowly falling to piles of ash and charcoal. Beaks retained the expressions of the dying as they crumbled to dust.. I left the building as soon as I was sure everyone was dead. I had to keep going, my stomach wouldn’t let me stay much longer.
Next on the list of places to search the town forge. I hurried through the broiled streets and towards the stone workshop. The forge was no better off than the Inn, the charred remains of my fellows as they attempted to hide from the flames were tossed against the iron plates they’d been working on. Some who’d hid were flash fried by the sheets turn fry pans and left burned but not charred.. I turned away from the quiet dead as they roasted where they’d fallen. My heart sank deeper into my chest as I felt my talons start to ache from the constant heat.
As I walked around, looking among the bodies of the griffons for survivors, the smell began to hit me harder. The smell of burnt feathers and flesh was heavy as I made my way to the last place on my list to search in the town, the orphanage. The building looked mostly intact, appearing to be made of mostly stone, several of the windows were blown out and the front pillars were radiating a sweat inducing amount of heat. I walked up to the door and pushed it open. A large plume of smoke and steam blew past me, burning my eyes as it went. I covered my face as the room opened up to a large flat space with yet more dead strewn about. The wooden timbers that made up the floor were dashed and left to smolder, but the smell of dampened wood ash was a welcome change from the usual stink of cooked feathers. Bodies looked like they had been steamed and boiled. Feathers were falling off the bright red bodies as a rattling pipe overhead explained the humidity..
I could hear a faint moaning coming from the back of the building. I ran to the back pushing doors open in a desperate attempt to find what I hoped to be a survivor.
I made it to the back of the building, and into a small side room before I found the soul survivor. In the corner of the empty storeroom was a small griffon chick, buried underneath a pile of flash boiled bodies. I fell back on what they’d told me. Find survivors, and get them out.
“Imperial Relief. Can you speak?” I asked loudly as I approached the wailing mass of cooked griffon.
“Please,” the voice begged from underneath the pile. “I’m scared and don’t know where my parents are, you have to help me get to them!”
As I walked through the damp timbers I felt a needle rip from my lung to my stomach. Not only bodies, but children piled into a corner and under one of the staff, its jacket still steaming. The jacketed corpse had taken the brunt from the flash of boiling water, but beyond it I could see where the room had been flushed and the survivors on the outside of the huddle had been scorched until their backs were bare and their coat was so frail it could be dusted away with the lightest touch.
But beyond it all, a single griffon chick, bright red and stripped of fur and feathers, sat within the huddle. Shielded from the brunt, but still kissed by steam. The color of her feathers had been stolen from her, the skin laid bare was starting to tighten up under the heat, and her eyes were starting to forcibly draw together.
The child looked up to me as I move closer, talon outstretched. “Please, my parents dropped me off not long ago, can you please find them? I really want to go home.” She whimpered meagerly and tried to pull herself free of the huddle. “Please, I just wanna go home. I just wanna go home and have some water.”
I stared down at the boiled girl., I could only say one thing to the tiny creature. “It’s ok now sweetie. Just gotta get you fixed up first and then we’ll look for your parents and get you home.” I did it for me, I did it for my stomach, and I did it to ease away the nights ahead. Her talons were hot to the touch, and the soft cooked feeling of the dead surrounding her shot through the muscles in my talons, burying themselves deep forever. A permanent knot wedged into my shoulder as I plucked the half burned girl from the group. “We’ll get you home, I promise.”
***
The griffon clasped his talons together with a silent snap. “They’d started mining in that town.” The room shifted uneasily as I sat unphased. “They ripped into a cave a dragon was hoarding in and didn’t report it. They just took what they wanted.” He dug his claws into his feathers and forced them back. The haggard look in his eyes never faltered.
I nodded once. “The kid?”
The griffon played with his beak a bit. “Gone.” The room went silent. “Not...dead, gone home.” He rubbed his face. “I fucking hate it. They put her back in the system. Her feathers are never coming back, and she’s never going to go to a decent home! And they just threw her back, homeless and alone!”
I nodded. “And? That’s how life works sometimes--”
“It fucking shouldn’t be!” The griffon stood up and kicked his chair backwards. He reared up on two legs and bared his talons. “You think it’s funny? You think I could have said anything!?”
I spread my legs, subtly asserting myself to the hopped up griffon. “Well, you can do something about it if you want.” I ran my hand over my neck. “I was on a burn crew, and you don’t find reason or right in it.” I shook my head and reached under my chair. “I actually bothered to bring this, and a few from Celestia.” I flipped through the notebook I’d pulled from under my chair and looked through it. “Burning pony hair smells like… that’s from Celestia….” I flipped through the papers. “Move on, written about thirty times by me. That was a fun day.” I scratched my head.
The griffon scratched his throat. “So what, I don’t get what you’re doing. You trying to tell me to move on?! I did try, I’m trying--”
“No.” I closed the notes and set them down before the circle of Equestrians. “I’m saying that if you don’t, you never get past it. You can’t rationalize, you can’t make it right, you can’t say you did everything you could have, and especially not you--”
“Whoa hey--” The saddle Arabian stuck her hoof out.
I shook my head. “No, it’s pretty clear you didn’t do everything you wanted to do. And it seems pretty clear you still can.” I crossed my arms and let the clock tick on. “...You don’t get over it while thinking about it.”
The griffon’s feathers puffed out hard before he sat down and slowly returned to normal size. “It wasn’t just her.” He rubbed his face. “The smell...I keep looking back and that smell…. After so long you get-- Not used to it, you get hungry.” He looked over to the table full of food. “That smell shouldn’t make you hungry, but you start thinking back and your mouth starts to water--”
“You’re distracting yourself.” I crossed my legs and looked back to the clock. Time was almost up. “Put your mind somewhere positive, have something to work for or with, and you’ll stop eating.” I pointed to my head. “Celestia, this, staying fit.” I raised my fingers. “The men I’ve killed, the people I’ve lost, the times I’ve fucked up.” I stood up and folded my chair. “You find things to make it go away, it doesn’t just go away on its own, and it seems like you have the perfect start right in front of you.” I watched as everyone got up, save the griffon. “Same time next week.”
I walked across the small circle and looked dead on with the sour faced bird. “I don’t want to see you back here next week.” I kept my voice very calm. “Come back in two weeks, sorted or not, come back in two weeks.” I jostled his shoulder and walked past. “And its not that hard. Especially after they’re babies. You don’t have to worry about them killing themselves, it gets a lot simpler.”
