Author's Note
Alea iacta est
The die is cast
SCHISM
Schism
Arc I: Conscription
A welcoming morning light leaked through the window of the small room. Toys were scattered all across the floor and lined up on the shelves. Socks and scarves were hanging from open drawers and spread out into piles on the floor, joined by half-opened foals' books. The window was covered in streaks of orange and blue paint complemented by a dozen of assorted stickers. That only thing that was orderly in the room was the deck of Ponymon cards sitting on top of the dresser next to a felled toy robot.
If the room was messy, then the bed was equally atrocious. Pillows and blankets were swirled together in a jungle of unorthodox chaos. More piles of clothing and toy plastic blocks littered the scarred landscape. The layers of blankets were no longer in order, strewn out and mangled beyond recognition.
On one spot in the blankets, there was a particularly unusual bump.
"Blaze!" a feminine voice called out in a light-hearted chime.
A light brown pegasus mare trotted into the room, her sky blue eyes surveying the post-apocalyptic landscape around her. She scrunched her face into a frown as slowed to a walk. Her head turned side to side, her gentle eyes glazing over, trying to compute what had happened in here.
“What in the name of Luna's Snatch did you do in here?!” she yelled, her eyes wide open in shock as her mouth dropped open.
Gazing at the disaster displayed blatantly before her hurt her brain.
There was a mountain of puzzle pieces sitting in the corner of the room, next to a wide open closet door. Perched at the very top of the puzzle mountain was a Rubik’s cube that was missing all of its stickers. As Nixie’s eyes slowly fell down the mountain, she realized what had happened to all of them. Every single color of sticker was littered around the mountain, but what had caught her eye, in particular, was the trail of stickers leading directly up the mountain, stopping just before the cube.
“How come nothing he ever does makes sense?”
She fearfully craned her neck to look up at the ceiling. What she saw next made her groan in anguish.
“You’re an earth pony! How did you get crayon on the ceiling?!” she whined in exasperation.
Blaze whimpered under his bedsheets, shuffling his hooves around in an attempt to hide. He heard the flap of soft wings and his heart skipped a beat. He struggled not to move when he heard the hooves touch the ground and approach his bed. He couldn't see her but he knew that she was out there. He quieted his breathing as he awaited the inevitable.
“Are those bite marks? I told you that the ceiling fan was not a ride!”
His hind legs were in position, ready to spring into action.
"I can see you under the covers, Blaze."
In that moment, he knew that his cover had been blown for sure. But he was ready this time. Before she could snatch him up, he would attack first! It was the perfect plan and he had her right where he wanted her. He felt the jolt of force from his hind legs followed by the sensation of being airborne dropping into his stomach.
"Mama!" he cried as he emerged from his blankets and pounced on her.
The pegasus jerked back in surprise as she saw a tiny brown earth pony spring from his bed and launch himself at her. After the quick second of surprise had worn out, she caught Blaze in her hooves and wrapped her wings around his form. She chuckled at his interesting way of greeting his mother. She nuzzled him as he burrowed his face into her chest.
"Blaze, you’re such a silly little pony,” Nixie cooed in a babying tone, rubbing her snout against his with a wide grin.
Blaze licked his mother on the snout and hopped onto her back. He curled himself into a little ball and swatted at one of her ears with a hoof.
Nixie playfully rolled her eyes as she trotted over to his bed.
“Acting adorable will get you nowhere.”
The small earth pony ignored her as he sniffed at her neck. After brushing his snout against a part of Nixie’s mane, he playfully chomped down on her ear. He growled and whined like a puppy before releasing his bite. He wrapped both of his hooves around her neck and rubbed his cheek against hers. He squealed in delight while wagging his tail furiously.
“Hey! I told you that playing the adorable card won’t work with me. You’re still cleaning most of this ruddy mess,” Nixie said with a victorious smirk on her face.
“But Mama-” he pleaded with puppy-dog eyes.
Nixie picked up Blaze with her forehooves and held him out in front of her. He pedaled his tiny hooves at her only to watch his mother shake her head at him. He continued to squirm and attempt to break free from her grasp but his small form couldn’t budge. He tried to gallop away, his hooves striking nothing aside from empty air. After a few seconds of panting, his body went limp when he realized that he had been beaten.
His ears drooped in defeat as he whimpered continuously, his watery green eyes locking with his captor.
“You can start by picking up those blocks I nearly stepped on, and then you can fold your clothes. We can have breakfast when we’re done cleaning. It’s Saturday after all and I know you don’t want to miss cartoons, right?”
Despite knowing that Blaze was watering his eyes on purpose, Nixie still hugged him close and patted him on the back with her hoof.
“What am I going to do with you, little weirdo?” she sighed as she stroked his mane.
The foal turned around and nipped at her hoof with his teeth. She played along and jerked her hoof back cautiously, trying to avoid his bites. She twirled her hoof, making circles in the air while Blaze’s eyes followed it like a cat would a laser pointer. He tried to bat his own hooves at hers but she pulled away and dodged before he could land a hit.
Nixie giggled as she put her hoof back down onto the floor.
“Come on, let’s clean up your art in here already. I bet you’re hungry, right?”
The foal buried his face into her neck and licked her a few times before hopping off of her back and onto the floor.
After closing the door to her son’s room, Nixie trotted down the narrow hallway with him riding on her back as he typically did. She bounced slightly in her gait as she turned the corner towards the living room and the kitchen. She never thought they would be able to clean up that quickly, but she was glad that her little helper sped things along.
“What do you want for breakfast? We’ve got cereal and blueberry muffins,” she said.
Blaze spun in circles on her back before sitting down on his haunches.
“Pancakes?”
“Sorry Sweetie, but we’re out of batter again and Mama doesn’t get paid until Tuesday.”
He got up and walked onto her shoulders, frowning in disappointment.
“I thought Mama did a college,” Blaze replied, crouching down and sniffing her neck intently.
Nixie chuckled as she stepped into the kitchen and opened the pantry. She pulled out a wrapped bag of blueberry muffins and pulled a single banana from its batch on the counter. After that, she stuck her head into the refrigerator and began to search for the milk.
“Yes, Mama goes to Uni but she also works at the factory.”
“Oh! You mean for Mrs. Doucheface?” the colt’s voice squeaked excitedly as he tilted his head to the side.
Nixie turned around and laughed in surprise as she stroked a hoof under Blaze’s chin.
“Aww…looks like somepony has been listening to Mama when he was supposed to be asleep.”
She poured two glasses of milk, one larger than the other. The brown pegasus peeled the lone banana and sliced half of it onto a plate in small pieces. She put half of a blueberry muffin next to it and set the plate on the table next to the smaller glass of milk.
“Eat your breakfast and then you can watch cartoons, okay?”
Blaze shook his head with enthusiasm.
“Okay, Mama!”
Nixie smiled at him as she sat down next to Blaze with her own plate.
As she began to eat, her mind turned to her studies and her work. Living in a tiny one-story home was definitely not how she envisioned life for the future. Sometimes, she wondered if she could even pull something like this off. Raising a five-year-old colt by herself was not a task she had expected but she was powerless to change the past.
“I wanted to be a journalist, but now I’ve ended up at a weapons factory making artillery pieces for the Army…what happened? I still practice my writing and researching a lot to keep my skills fresh. I’m only twenty-four so I can still do this if I can just make it through school first. Hopefully, our budget can carry us through this...”
As she fell deeper into her own mind, a hideous squelching sound yanked her right back out. The sound was easily recognizable but felt horribly out of place to her. She turned her head slowly, fearing what would reach her eyes next.
“Are you…putting ketchup on your muffin?” she frowned apprehensively.
“Yup!”
Blaze looked up at her with his tongue sticking out as he was squeezing and shaking the ketchup bottle in his hooves. His face and mane were covered in red tomato paste and his eyes were cheerful and oblivious.
Nixie stared down onto her son’s bizarre creation as bewilderment overcame her.
“At least I got him to stop licking the television screen…”
“Why?!” she groaned in torment.
The small colt sniffed the ketchup-covered muffin and turned back towards his mother. He stared at her awkwardly as he tried desperately to formulate a response.
“I don’t know,” he replied, gazing up at her with his clueless green eyes.
Nixie sighed and shook her head at him, the laughter visibly building up on her face.
“He may be terrified of slinkies and charge headfirst into glass doors, but he is still my little Blaze,” she thought warmly as she giggled at her son’s antics.
Blaze’s ears twitched and his eyes were glued to the bright colors on the television above him. He was sitting on the carpet, with his tail slowly swaying from side to side. When something happened on the TV that he really liked, he would hop up and down or run around in circles with glee.
Nixie’s favorite part was listening to him sing along with the songs in the cartoons. She swore that she would put a lot of money on Blaze getting a singing-related cutie mark when he was older. Even though he was only five, he could already hold notes and keep in good rhythm with the music. His voice was very clean and it seemed natural for him to know exactly how to change his pitch and put true emotion into the lyrics. She knew that if he kept practicing his vocal skills, then he would be astounding when he was older.
It was too bad that she couldn’t afford any special classes for him.
“He could get rich and famous and I wouldn’t have to work another day in my life,” Nixie mused, lost in her own thoughts.
"Wait a second, does that make me a bad mother? Shit, it probably does."
She watched him from the kitchen as she cleaned up. She was immediately thankful that none of the ketchup missed Blaze’s plate, aside from what he had gotten on his face. What had perplexed her even more, was the unbelievable fact that he had actually eaten his entire ketchup-blueberry muffin. She sighed as she tossed both plates into the sink and proceeded to wipe down the kitchen table.
The ringing of the doorbell made her jump and knock over a glass with the end of her wing. It shattered violently against the kitchen floor, catching Blaze's curiosity.
"Shit!" she cried out reactively.
"Mama?"
"It's fine, Sweetie."
The brown pegasus mare sighed as she hopped into the air and flew over the glass shards. She took off towards the front door with a simple right bank. Landing softly on her hooves, she turned back toward the living room and called out.
"Don't go near the kitchen, Blaze. I don't want you hurting yourself."
She returned her attention to the door, silently wanting to give whoever was on the other side a piece of her mind. As far as she knew, there weren’t any plans for visitors today. It was just supposed to be a quiet Saturday with her son. She grumbled to herself at the thought of who might be at the door.
“I swear, if another ruddy salespony tries to bug me about some stupid magazines, I’ll pop him in the throat.”
After a second of calming herself, she opened the door and revealed who had been waiting for her. The instinct to slam the door closed died as she froze on the spot, bile threatening to rise up her throat.
Now that she thought about it, perhaps the salespony wouldn’t have been so bad after all.
"Hello Nixie, it's been awhile," the middle-aged voice of a stallion said.
She certainly wasn't expected for there to be three ponies at her door.
"May we come inside?" the voice asked.
The green pegasus that had spoken was in the center of the trio and was easily the most elaborately dressed of the three. His black service uniform had two, light blue stripes running across both of his forelegs, parallel to each other. The black service cap on the stallion’s head looked like a bus driver hat. The stallion's uniform was covered in shiny decorations and ribbons, and there were even holes cut into the uniform for his wings.
The escorts that flanked the eldest on either side appeared to be much younger than their superior. They donned solid black combat uniforms, and the design of the Stahlhelms on their heads gave them a slightly sinister look. One of the soldiers was a white unicorn mare, around the same age as Nixie herself. The other was an orange earth pony stallion who was staring at Nixie apathetically. While the older pony was not armed, the other two both had a silver rifle slung over their backs.
Nixie saw that there was a small, silver dot on the front of the senior pony’s cap.
"Hmm...I guess Glitch finally got that promotion he always yammered about. What could he possibly want now? I thought the Army was done with us."
"May we come in?" Powder Glitch asked once more.
Nixie ground her teeth together, trying her best to keep her anxiety down. Inside, her lungs and stomach began to burn in anticipation as her mind started to race.
"Why are you here?" she managed to squeak out.
Glitch turned back to both of his escorts, both of them catching his glance. Sighing, he looked back at her.
"Nixie, let us in."
“And what if I don’t?”
“I’m afraid you don’t have that choice.”
After a second of hesitation and an awkward moment of silence, she finally ceded. She swung the door open completely and began to step back. She held a single hoof to her chest as she did so. The presence of the two other soldiers was unsettling her the most and made her wonder why they were necessary.
"Sorry about this," Glitch said as he crossed the threshold indoors, “I could only guess how uncomfortable this must be.”
“It is,” Nixie replied as she watched as the other two Karalian soldiers entered her home as well.
She was apprehensive about the vibe she was getting from the younger stallion.
Both of the armed soldiers saw Blaze sitting by the TV, looking right back at them with curious eyes. The soldiers both looked at each other and began to step forward before being waved off by Powder Glitch.
“Stay by the door until I am done talking with her,” he ordered them both.
The younger soldiers both looked at each other and complied, the orange stallion nodding to his superior in acknowledgment.
He trotted over to the kitchen and offered Nixie a stool next to the counter. Nixie looked up at him awkwardly, mostly confused but also a bit fearful about his presence. After all, when Karalian soldiers entered a home, it was usually for a reason. Whether the reason was trivial or dire, Nixie was uncomfortable regardless.
As they both sat down in their respective stools, Nixie noticed that both of the soldiers were still waiting by the front door. In the back of her mind, she really wished that young stallion soldier would stop staring at her with his piercing blue eyes.
“There’s glass on the floor.”
She could see that Glitch was glancing down at the area where she had dropped the cup earlier, shards still littering the surrounding area.
“Sorry about that,” she replied sympathetically, “I dropped that when you rang.”
Glitch shrugged.
“It’s not that big of a deal.”
“So, what is with them?” Nixie asked, poking her head at the two soldiers.
The white unicorn mare frowned as she watched Blaze chase his tail with his maw wide open. The orange stallion was turning his head to and fro, scanning the small house passively.
The green pegasus looked back at Blaze and then smiled at Nixie, nodding with approval.
“You two seem to be doing well for yourselves. Am I right?”
“Yes,” Nixie nodded, “We can get by.”
Nixie continued to stare at Glitch, even as he turned to gaze at her son again. She bit her lip and swallowed as an uncomfortable feeling churned in her gut.
“That has to be him. Even though I’ve never seen him myself, it’s so easy to tell. I’d recognize Cipher’s green eyes anywhere,” Powder Glitch droned, still fixated on the little colt.
Nixie ground her teeth together in discomfort. She didn’t like the way he was talking about her son. There was something about the soldier’s body language that seemed almost alien to her. The current situation that she was in was so uncanny that she had to remind herself that it was real.
“I won’t ask again, why are you here, Powder Glitch?” she demanded, applying some force in her tone.
Powder Glitch continued to stare at Blaze, not acknowledging Nixie’s question. He sat there in a frozen stare before he turned in his chair to face Nixie once more. He removed his cap with a hoof and stroked a part of his blue mane a few times, exhaling in exasperation as he did so. He put his cover back on and rapped his hoof against the kitchen countertop briefly, eyes to the floor.
“Cipher was one of my best friends, but you remember that, don’t you?” he gazed up at her as he spoke.
Nixie remained silent as she glared at him coldly, forelegs folded over her chest.
“Listen, I know you probably don’t want me here, but when I saw Blaze’s name, I knew that I had to be the one to do this,” he said with sincerity.
Nixie eyes widened as she listened, her heart dropping into the pit of her stomach.
“What do you mean, ‘saw Blaze’s name’? You better tell me what’s going on here,” she ordered, jabbing a hoof at him.
“Cipher is the reason why I am still alive, so I felt that being here during this was the least I could do,” he continued on as if he hadn’t been interrupted.
“During what? Stop avoiding my bloody questions!” she yelled, catching the attention of Blaze and the soldiers.
Following Nixie’s outburst, a moment of silence overtook the entire room. All of the other ponies had their eyes fixed on the two of them in a mix of surprise and anticipation.
Powder reached into the chest pocket of his uniform and slapped an envelope on the table more forcefully than he expected to.
Nixie could see that she was starting to annoy him.
"Good."
“There.”
Powder looked at her expectantly and slid the letter over to her.
“This is why I’m here.”
Nixie had a muddled expression on her face as she picked up the letter in her hooves. She continued to eye Powder Glitch with skepticism before returning her attention to the envelope. She studied the letter for a moment, flipping over to back side of it. While the front side was completely blank, there was a seal that enclosed the message.
A diagonal red stripe, in the form of a piece of tape, was holding the opening down.
She recognized the symbol immediately.
The envelope fell back onto the counter, fumbled out of Nixie’s shaking hooves. She held her head with her hooves as her breathing intensified. The initial shock had caught her completely off guard, leaving her frightened and jittery. Her brain churned at full bore, trying to make sense of why she had seen what she just saw.
It was such a simple design, bland and seemingly unimportant. Nothing stood out about its appearance, there was no eye-catching element of its image, and anypony who did not know the meaning would bypass it as if it was trivial.
“Why is this here?”
Powder Glitch frowned at her as he reached for the envelope. He picked it up and began to tear the seal as Nixie watched nervously. When he finished, he pulled out a folded sheet of paper from within and straightened it against the countertop.
“Do you want to read it?” he asked as he smoothed out the creases of the message.
Nixie shook her head, her eyes riddled with doubt.
“I don’t understand.”
He slid the letter over to her.
“Please just read the letter, Nixie.”
Hesitantly, she touched the letter with the tip of her hoof, maneuvering it daintily as if it was dangerous to the touch. She kept it straight in front of her, the paper flat on the table. She took great care not to pick the paper up or make any unnecessary contact with it.
With many typed words now on display for her to see, she began to read.
NOTICE OF CONSCRIPTION
Property of the Karalian Government
Memorandum 3 – 74
Grand Army of Karalia
43rd Recruitment Battalion
In accordance with current laws and regulations, the validation of the Republican Senate of Karalia and Chancellor Apex Splittail, this official order is to be observed and adhered to by all citizens of the Republic of Karalia. If this order is not obeyed, appropriate disciplinary action can and will be taken by any and all bodies of federal enforcement.
All recipients of this order are expected to be compliant to its contents.
-By order of the Republican Senate of Karalia
-By order of Chancellor Apex Splittail
-By order of Colonel Luch Razorfire
To Selected:
If you are reading this, then yourself or a separate individual at your current residence has been chosen for compulsory servi-
Nixie shoved the paper away from herself and turned to Powder Glitch, her face seized up in disbelief. Her mouth dropped open and remained agape as she tried to process what she had just stopped reading. She felt like a rock had been dropped into her stomach, and that the room had begun spinning.
“Is this some kind of fucking joke? What is this?” she chuckled at him.
“You should have read thro-”
“What is this!?” she demanded.
Powder opened his mouth to answer when he felt a tap on his uniform. He looked over his shoulder at the other stallion, who now had the stock of his silver rifle in his shoulder.
“What?”
“KIV’s outside. We better make this quick,” the orange earth pony said.
Powder nodded as Nixie continued to yell at him and wave her hooves around violently.
“A conscription letter!? I can’t join the fucking Army, I’ve got to take care of him!” Nixie screamed at the top of her lungs, jabbing a hoof at Blaze.
Blaze was watching the scene before him unfold, not really understanding what had made his mother so angry. Conflicted on what to do, he just curled his quivering body up into a little ball on the carpet, frightened by Nixie’s rising volume. He had never seen her so upset before.
“Nixie-”
“Where is he supposed to go without me?!”
“Nix-”
“This is bullshit!”
“Nixie!”
After Powder Glitch yelled back at her, Nixie quieted herself immediately, not expecting his rebuttal.
“This better be some kind of sick j-”
“It’s not for you.”
Nixie rose an eyebrow at the green pegasus, dumbfounded. The gears in her brain got caught in an unexpected gunk as Powder’s words sank in.
“Wh-What?” she asked at almost a whisper.
The sharp contrast between her volume was apparent as she tuned herself into what he was saying.
“This letter was not intended for you,” Powder stated simply, biting his lip anxiously.
Nixie’s face scrunched up in confusion.
“Wait, then what-”
“It’s a Conscript Cadet letter. If you had read through its entirety, you would have seen the Splittail’s Youth signature at the bottom,” he explained.
Nixie’s eyes widened in realization. Her heart pounded in her chest even harder as everything came clear in her mind. Now she understood what the red stripe’s purpose was. As all of the puzzle pieces in her head came together, her eyes began to water. Through heavily labored breath, she barely managed to produce a response.
“Splittail’s Youth?”
Powder nodded in confirmation.
“Yes.”
Nixie choked back a sob as tears began to fall from her eyes. Her chest heaved and she suddenly felt very sick. It all seemed so unreal to her, as if this was not really happening. She hoped and prayed that this was just a nightmare and that she would wake up any second now.
“I’m sorry Nixie, but we don’t have much time,” Powder Glitch said with a sympathetic tone.
Nixie’s flooded eyes and quivering mouth were still staring him down. Her heart twisted and her insides churned as the news sank in like a dagger to her chest.
Powder turned and nodded to his underlings.
“Now,” he ordered.
At his command, both of the soldiers approached Blaze together, who was still lying down on the carpet. The white unicorn mare wore a forlorn expression as she charged up a spell with her horn. The other soldier stood next to her, still keeping his rifle at the ready.
“I’m sorry about this sweetie,” the unicorn thought as she leveled her horn at the small colt.
Blaze’s emerald eyes grew wider as they advanced on him, unsure of what they were about to do. The sight of two ponies moving towards him while his mother was distressed put him on edge. He squeaked with fear as they got closer to him.
Nixie glanced over to the soldiers when she heard her son cry out. She saw Blaze staring up at the two larger ponies with terror in his eyes. The small colt was too petrified to move, his tiny body shivering all over.
“What the fuck are you doing!? Get away from him!” she barked as she took off into the air.
The brown pegasus barreled into the unicorn mare at full speed, causing the unicorn soldier to grunt in pain as she was hit. Both mares rolled on the floor as a result from their collision. Watching the tackle and hearing Nixie’s hooves bang against her target’s steel helmet, prompted both of the stallions to rush in and help their comrade.
Nixie recovered swiftly and came out of the roll at the hooves of the earth pony soldier. She bit one of the young stallion’s ankles while she was still lying down. The stallion yelped in pain as he squirmed and wiggled his foreleg in agony. Nixie crunched down even harder to latch onto his ankle while beating her wings as fast as she could.
The young soldier gritted his teeth as he wound up his body, plunging the butt of his KPR into her clavicle with his free hoof.
Nixie heard a crack as the metal connected with her collarbone, forcing her to release her bite to cry out. She stumbled and nearly fell over when an overwhelming spike of pain shot through the entire left side of her body. She limped and staggered as she backed away from the soldier towards Blaze.
“Nixie, think about what you’re doing!” Glitch urged.
“You’re not fucking taking him!” she snarled back.
“He was selected. Six thousand foals are selected every year, you know this! Even if you do stop us, somepony else will come for him and they’ll keep coming for him! It’s inevitable!”
Nixie stood in between Blaze and the three soldiers, wincing in pain as she flared her wings out protectively. With her rear hoof, she pushed Blaze’s trembling form further away from the soldiers.
“He is my colt and you are not taking him from me!”
“The Cadets’ parents always act like this when foal conscription comes around. She’s predictable and obnoxious,” the earth pony soldier growled, the barrel of his rifle pointed at Nixie’s center of mass.
“Don’t shoot this one,” Glitch ordered as he briefly turned to the soldier before reverting his gaze, “Nixie, I know this is hard for you to take, but you just need to trust me when I say that he’ll be fine.”
Nixie huffed and gnashed her teeth at the soldier in defiance.
“Sod the fuck off!”
Blaze whimpered repeatedly, nearing the point of complete panic. He laid there on the carpet with tears streaming down his cheeks and his body convulsing as he watched his mother lose her composure.
“Don’t you pull the wool over my eyes, you bloody bastard! I know exactly what happens to foal conscripts! He’ll get killed! I won’t let you do that to him!” Nixie barked furiously with reddened eyes and a tear-stained face.
“You don’t know that!”
“I know enough!”
Despite being lost in an ocean of his own dread, Blaze was able to feel the tingling of green aura that now surrounded him. He felt his stomach drop into his lower body as he began to levitate. He instinctively tried to gallop but he found that he wasn’t able to move at all.
“Mama?” he pleaded.
Nixie glanced back at him and gasped before noticing that the unicorn mare was using her magic.
“Put him down, you bitch!”
She flapped her wings sharply as a warning, creating a gust of wind that was felt by all three of the Karalian soldiers.
“Nixie, don’t-”
She launched herself at full bore, determined to take down the unicorn that was trying to take her son from her. Anger and resentment filled her mind and emptied out all other thoughts. She knew that there were only a few feet from her and the unicorn. Her wings were swept and her body was already braced for the following impact. They were not taking her Blaze from her, not without a fight. She had almost reached her target, ready to bash into the soldier’s horn with her shoulder.
A quick flash of steel covered her left eye.
“Mama!”
As he watched Nixie drop to the ground with a thud, Glitch saw that the unicorn was floating the sobbing foal into her arms. The earth pony foal continued to cry out for his stricken mother, attempting to reach out to her with his hooves. He was now caught in the white unicorn mare’s forelegs, crying and trying to squirm out of her grip.
In a fit of desperation, Blaze bared his teeth and bit down as hard as he could on the unicorn’s foreleg. The soldier yelped as she almost lost her control and nearly let him slip out.
Glitch intervened and grabbed the top of Blaze’s mouth and forced it open with a hoof.
The unicorn capitalized on this and used her magic to quickly pull a small pony muzzle out of her uniform pocket and lock it over Blaze’s snout. As much as the tiny earth pony tried to pull it off with his hooves, the device wouldn’t budge.
Nixie groaned as she attempted to pick herself up, holding her left eye with a hoof. She could hear her foal crying desperately, prompting her to recover quickly. When she managed to get up on all fours, she could hear her son blubbering and the front door being opened from behind her.
She turned around and her worst fear had been confirmed.
The unicorn soldier was carrying her son out of the front door.
Before she had a chance rush forward again, the earth pony soldier jammed butt of his rifle against her throat. He pushed her back and pinned her to the wall with enough force to make her gag and hack.
“You’ve been nothing but a pratty nuisance all day. You’re lucky you’re a friend of the Demi-Sergeant or I would have shot you already,” he sneered at her.
She watched in horror as the front door closed, swallowing her son and his captor. Her broken heart shifted and wilted within with such intensity that she had forgotten to gag when the orange stallion applied more pressure with his rifle butt.
“Let me go, you fucking asshat!” Nixie thought but would have said if she was able to speak.
Her eyes bled over to Powder Glitch, who was standing by the doorway, watching her.
The earth pony soldier drew back his rifle butt, allowing her a moment of freedom. Drowning in a myriad of emotions, she coughed and hacked, fiercely trying to right herself and drive onward to retrieve her son before it was too late. As she regained control of her own body, she was puzzled that the soldier had released her. She tossed that meaningless thought out of her head, her mind returning to her foal.
“If you stop now and listen to me-” Glitch started to speak.
She arched her neck back and spit on his face before fluidly pivoting and making a break for the door. Glitch was too concerned with getting her spit out of his eyes to notice her charge. As she barreled towards the front door, she had to cut in front of the opening to the hallway.
By the time she had realized what was happening, it was already too late. At the edge of her peripherals, the other Karalian soldier was hidden at the edge of the hallway, waiting for her to pass by. The trap had already been sprung and she was already in mid-glide by the time she noticed him.
Her eyes shot open wide as she knew that she wasn’t going to be able to save her foal.
“Blaze, I-”
The end of the orange pony’s rifle connected with the side of her head for the last time. With an unceremonious thud, her body slammed into the floor and skidded to a stop, lying on her side with her wings draped out onto the floor.
“Shall I get the militia to detain her?” the winded orange pony asked, trotting up to the Demi-Sergeant.
Glitch nodded as the earth pony turned to leave.
As the other soldier closed the door behind him, Powder Glitch walked over knelt down by Nixie’s unconscious form and frowned with remorse.
He thought by being here, he could make this process a less painful pill to take. He didn’t anticipate Nixie to still despise him after all this time. He also didn’t think she would resist this ferociously, which was probably a fault of judgment on his part. Perhaps he volunteered for this for completely selfish reasons. After all, the boy’s father had saved his life and maybe he just wanted to be here to ensure that the collection process went smoothly and without too many issues. He had also thought that he could use this visit as an opportunity to make amends with Nixie.
Had he a twisted sense of humor, he just might have chuckled at the irony.
“I’m sorry.”
Blaze continued to struggle as much as he could, but his tears were making it too hard to see and the muzzle they had placed on him was too tight. The sunlight blinded him momentarily, disorienting him even more so. His captor did not allow him much room for movement in her foreleg. He was still sobbing and attempting to call out for his mother despite the muzzle.
Through his flooded eyes, he could make out that he was being taken to a vehicle of some kind. It was parked out in the street next to his home, its loud engine humming. Two more soldiers were standing outside of the treaded vehicle, appearing to be waiting for the unicorn mare and Blaze himself.
The driver and front passenger seats were separated from the rest of the vehicle. Their seats had the luxury of a metal roof at the front, while the rest of the troop transport sported a tarp roof that was being opened from the rear by the two waiting soldiers.
One of the soldiers approached the mare holding him and produced a strip of cloth with his magic. When he reached him, the soldier placed the cloth over Blaze’s wet eyes and tied it together at the back of his head.
With his sight taken away, Blaze panicked once more and began thrashing about again, resisting as much as he could, not cognizant of the futility of it. After a few more seconds of crying, squealing, and squirming, fatigue seized him. He was still huffing when he felt himself being handed off to another pony and then being lifted up. There were a few clangs of hooves against metal and noises of ponies shuffling around.
“Put him in between those two,” he heard a male pony say.
It was then when he heard sniffling that was not his own. His tiny heart thumped in his chest as it threatened to drown out the sounds around him. He could feel the touch of cold metal against his rear as he was sat down on his haunches by the pony who held him.
Blaze tried to struggle again once the pony put him down, but larger hooves held his own in place. He sensed the same cold feeling of the floor now banded around his hooves, completing the diameter with a distinct click. The adult hooves released him as each metal band around his own hooves clacked in place. Once he felt the other pony release him, Blaze tried to move once more, only to be stopped by the metal bands.
He couldn’t lift any of his hooves off of the floor, no matter how hard he tugged. He tried to stand up but the metal bands prevented him from doing that as well. He was completely immobilized, muzzled, blindfolded, and he didn’t know where his mother was.
He started whimpering again.
As he did so, his ears picked up the sounds of other whimpers joining his. He heard the failed sputtering of magic and foalish squealing around him. There was more banging on the metal floor and other racket from what seemed like every direction to him.
“Shut it, Cadets!” yelled the same male voice from before.
“Are we finished collecting from this sector of Karmaden?” another soldier asked.
Blaze heard more shuffling and a thud, followed by the clattering of something being dropped on the floor.
“I actually think we might be done with this entire city,” a female voice joined in.
“About bloody time, it only took a day and a half to get all of them. Hopefully, the other teams were as successful as we were,” a fourth soldier commented.
“We should be heading off to the capital now to drop off all these poor little bastards.”
“Well, at least today wasn’t as bad as yesterday. We only had to shoot two ponies this time,” the female said with a solemn tone.
"Look Zip, I know you're upset and that was the first time you had to, but that old guy was being a prick. Wasn't your fault."
“Damn idiots just don’t get it, do they? No matter how much they resist, we’ll always get them.”
“I hate the recruitment battalions, I wish I could deploy again.”
The words made no sense to the five-year-old foal, who was still seeking to liberate himself from his bindings, despite being unable to make any headway whatsoever. Every last body part he tried to move was restrained aside from his rear, which didn’t help him at all. Blaze suddenly felt an abrupt jerk that made his body bounce for a split second before settling back into his previous position.
He could hear the treads of the vehicle squeaking as he felt the platform he was on slowly lurch forward.
