Instead of the usual blue sky with the occasional white, puffy clouds floating high above the earth, and the bright, yellow sun bringing warmth to the air, there were dark clouds shrouding the sky. Billowing towers of thick, black smoke rose from the small island city of Manehattan, a major harbor to Equestria, and one of the many backbones to it's economy. That day, ponies did not trot through the streets, or rode in horse-driven taxi carriages, colts and fillies did not play in the park, and the birds did not chirp. Debris lay everywhere across the midtown and port regions of the city where explosions took tolls on it's infrastructure. A light breeze swept through the quiet town, blowing newspapers from their stands. Instead of the usual happy news report on the front cover, it read 'War Imminent!' in thick bold.
Just a few days earlier, the Griffons were angered at the thought of ponies moving into their country a sea away. Although the Equestrians and Griffonians had always been allies, they never found peace between each other and were always at conflict. Finally, things took a turn for the worse, and war was declared by the Griffons on Equestria. Two days after the war declaration, Manehattan and Baltimare were devastated by attacks claimed responsible by the enemy.
Without prior warning, numerous lives were taken unexpectedly. Just three hundred years earlier, Princess Celestia was heartbroken when she was forced to banish her sister, Princess Luna, to the moon. Not much time later, she was forced to erase all of the bat pony race when they refused to be neglected any longer. Now, she was forced to handle another war by herself, this time by a much greater power. With little hesitation, she deployed large squads of Royal guards into the two cities where a majority of the Griffon army were supposedly still located. Each squad prepared themselves for battle, then went in in full force.
The first day of battle did not go as the soldiers hoped, but they made some progress. That following night, the temporary base in Manehattan was attacked, which took the lives of twenty-three guards, with five more as prisoners to be executed in time, leaving only seven left to fight off the much larger Griffon army. Celestia heard the news and prepared to send more soldiers in, until the next day when more progress was made when a massive and bloody battle took place in the heart of the small city.
One of the few remaining guards limped away from the battle, which was at it's most intense point at the time. Blood soaked his ice-white coat, turning it a dark red. He tossed his blood-covered and damaged spear to the side, which made a faint wooden clank as it bounced off the concrete sidewalk. Close behind, another guard followed, a much younger pony than him, who looked to be still in his teens. He held his spear tightly, only with two or three minor cuts and bruises.
"Damn it..." The older pony coughed, "damn it all!"
"Lieutenant, we have to find you a medical kit asap," The younger guard kept a look out behind and around them.
"Screw medical kits, I'll be fine," The lieutenant limped more, leaving a thin trail of blood behind him.
"Y-you're bleeding badly...over here!" The younger guard trotted past the lieutenant and into a half-destroyed concrete building, sitting him down against a wall. The lieutenant groaned as he did. "Stay here, I'm going to look for something to soak on your wound sir."
The lieutenant nodded once. "Of course," he groaned some more. The younger guard trotted around the destroyed shop, which had broken flower pots and seed bags for planting scattered.
"Y' aren't going to find much in a floral shop, private."
"Shit..." The private trotted back to the lieutenant. "I'm sorry sir...th-there's not much I can do to stop the bleeding!"
"Leave it...it'll stop sometime."
"Yeah, but it's not safe to kee-"
Before the private could finish, he was struck by a light green beam of energy from far behind. Screaming out in pain, he stood up on his hind legs, shielding the lieutenant from the blast, which was from a new type of weapon developed by ponies, and modified by griffons. The beam stopped, and the private collapsed to the ground, trembling softly with shrunk pupils.
"L-lieut-tenant...I..."
The lieutenant gasped the moment the other pony collapsed in front of him. Painfully leaning forward, he tried to stand them up, but found he couldn't either.
"Don't talk...look, you're going to be alright, you're not dying today!"
"I-it...h-hurts..." The private spoke in a weak tone, just barely talking at all.
"I know, I'm sure it does," The lieutenant took a hold of the private's hoof and held it. "Y-you'll be fine...trust me. Everything will be fine...damn it, I knew I shouldn't have let Celestia send you here with us!"
"I...it's fine...r-really..." The private slipped a faint smile, tears building in his glassy eyes as he stared up at the stallion. "I-I'm sorry V-Vapor..."
Vapor stared down at the private, still holding his hoof tightly as his own tears began to build up. He slowly looked over to his back, spotting where the beam had hit, and burnt his armor badly, as well as jagged areas of his armor which impaled into his back, and even a hole in his back which dug into his spine clearly. Cringing at the sight, Vapor returned his attention to the private's face. His body was no longer moving, and his eyes had lost their color altogether and were now grey.
"N-no...private! Wake up!" Vapor shook the stiff pony. His body was as limp as a rag doll, and his wound was no longer bleeding. "Sh-shit..." Sitting back against the wall, Vapor panted hard, glancing around him at the destroyed shop. His vision was fading briefly, and was becoming blurrier. He then felt something warm flowing down his chest. Looking down, he saw a small hole in his armor where shrapnel from the hit that took away the younger pony in front of him went through, and he was now bleeding more. His heart was hurting badly, and he then realized the small piece of debris took almost a direct hit to his chest. Vapor's ears slowly pinned back, his eyes keeping locked on the new wound to his chest. Wiping a shaky hoof over the wound, he slowly pulled it back, and found it covered in his blood. He tried to stand up once more, grunting as he struggled to get on all fours again. After a few moments, he gave up and leaned back, gritting his teeth as more pain stung throughout his entire body. As much as he wanted to cry out, he lost the motivation to.
"God damn it..." He panted. "Screw those griffons...they'll get what they deserve.." Tears built up in his eyes as he stared back down to the deceased guard in front of him. As he stared, he slowly pushed the thought of getting up to fight again out of his mind, and instead finally accepted that he wasn't destined to go on much longer. He slowly laid his head back, staring up at the ceiling quietly. The air outside went silent as well, almost as if the war had just stopped. His vision blurred again as he stared ahead of him, until he gradually zoned out and faded into a trance of memory as he shut his eyes slowly.
Vapor's world seemed to have faded into light, although he still felt alive, he wasn't transitioning to the other side after someone passes. He woke in a warm, sunny field, on what he felt to be another summer day. Looking down at himself, he wasn't bloody, in fact, he wasn't wearing his armor at all. His coat was back to it's original color of light blue, while his mane and tail were a near-perfectly brushed dark brown, all no longer altered by the magic embed in the average guard armor. Vapor slowly stood up, looking around him. He saw nothing but grass, with the sun shining in the bright blue sky a ways above the western horizon. The scene felt familiar, but he couldn't put his hoof on it. "Where am I...?"
Feeling a faint zap, he looked at himself again. He was wearing his armor again, which appeared to be brand new, and wasn't damaged or covered in blood. One thing he noticed, his coat color never changed, nor did his mane and tail. His ears then perked at the sound of a filly and mare giggling in the distance. Vapor glanced up and turned to his side, spotting two ponies, one bigger than the other, sitting on a hill and watching the sunset. He cracked a half-smile on his face, and walked towards the two ponies on the hill. As he came closer, their colors appeared. The mare was dark-red coated with a brown mane similar to his, while the pegasus filly sitting next to her was light grey with an auburn mane with a pink bow in it. Vapor stopped behind them, smiling at the two, then cleared his throat to grab their attention. Turning their heads, their eyes were both grass-green, and they had smiles on their faces. The filly smiled brightly, and ran up to Vapor, hugging him tightly.
"Daddy!" She said cheerfully, hugging Vapor's hoof tightly. The mare then stood slowly and walked up to him, both smiling at each other. The two wrapped hooves around each other, Vapor resting his head in the mare's mane, beside her horn. The filly giggled and bounced around them happily as Vapor and his wife embraced in a tight hug.
"You're home..." The mare said in a soft, happy tone.
"I am...after all of this time," Vapor said back, keeping his eyes closed as he smiled.
"Sergeant, I found him!"
The sounds of hooves clopping as they approached quickly could be heard. One guard stood before Vapor, staring down at him worriedly. Another ran up beside him, panting softly. He lit his horn in a faint yellow aura, checking over the motionless earth pony. He soon stopped and turned to the pegasus beside him.
"He's gone...we're too late."
Vapor walked up beside the two guards. Neither of them noticed, and instead were talking to each other with worry on their faces. He then looked at the body of the pony, who's dog tags sat on the ground in his limp hoof. They read 'Lieutenant Vapor Streak'. Vapor looked over his body sadly, his ears nearly horizontally down.
"I guess it was my time..." He said mentally. "But I'm back with my family...and that's all that matters."
Author's Note
I hope you all enjoyed that! I had some trouble writing about halfway in, but I'm glad to have it done. Not as emotional as my other stories, but I hope everyone enjoyed this story!
