Broken Hearts And Broken Minds

I woke up with one hoof around Wanderlust's waist, and her lying facing me. She was staring at me angrily.

"Sorry. I didn't do that on purpose." I apologized, though I don't think it actually bothered her. I had one of the best nights of sleep my entire time here. I slid my hoof off of her and crawled out of her sleeping bag. It was a cloudy morning, something that was strange for Appleloosa. I checked on Purple Quartz, ate breakfast, wrote a letter about my team's discovery last night and getting the pegasi home, dropped it off at Total War's tent, and then I went to go get my armor on. Just because it was the safe thing to do. When I got there, the rescued ponies from last night had left our tents and dispersed around the camp.

By noon the sky still had not cleared. Everypony in town was becoming nervous. Even the Royal Guard seemed to be more fidgety than usual. I found myself repeatedly looking up at the sky to make sure there was nothing coming down out of the clouds. As I trotted down mane street, I saw a stallion creep in to an alleyway, as is to hide from me.

"Hey!" I shouted at him. "What are you doing?"

"I'm minding my own business." He responded, poking his head out of the alley to look at me.

"You shouldn't be acting so suspiciously while there's an invasion of shapeshifting insects." I told him as I approached.

"Sorry." He answered.

"Don't do it anymore." I ordered him, walking away. Then I saw something strange. There was a group of ponies walking in from the South end of Mane Street. All of them were carrying autocannons.

A royal guard approached them from the side, preparing to ask them why they were there. One of them turned and shot him. I dove into the alleyway where the stallion was, not intending to be killed by a prototype weapon, as the firing continued. I heard eight booms before there was a pause in the noise. Then the stallion next to me erupted into green flames and transformed into a Changeling.

"Buck!" I yelled, flipping my blade out. He attempted to bite my throat, but I held my weapon up, and he instead got a mouthful of razor sharp blade. It drew it's head back screeching, and I stabbed it in the chest. It wouldn't be abducting and replacing anypony else.

The firing started again as I stepped over the body and walked out of the back side of the alley, towards the campsite. I could hear ponies screaming over the sound of the booms, and wooden buildings were getting splintered where the cannons were hitting them.

"Buck this." I told myself as I flew up and landed on the roof of the building next to me. I peeked over the edge to see that the group of 5 cannoneers were slowly walking towards the army's campsite. They weren't paying attention to anything that wasn't in front of them, and they didn't see Grayscale creeping up from behind.

He stabbed one of them in the back of the head, knocking them dead instantly, and then he pulled the body into an alley and out of sight. They didn't notice. They simply kept advancing. Grayscale stabbed another. No reaction. Then he stabbed another. This time, the cannon wielding mare closest to him noticed, and she whipped the weapon around to point it at Grayscale. He reacted by charging and staying right up against her, behind the barrel, as I prepared to swoop in and stab her. I dove down, plunged my sabre into the mare's back, and Grayscale jumped back and stabbed her again wherever he felt like. I landed next to him just as all of the other cannoneers realized we were there and turned to aim at us. The two of us took off into the air in the fastest direction we could. We heard two projectiles whiz over our backs as we arched and dove back down into the streets, away from the cannoneers.

"That was close." He laughed, me turning to look at him. I remember he had the happiest and most relieved look on his face. Then another cannon went off, and his head was gone. I was covered in his blood.

I stood shocked for a moment before realizing what had happened. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. I stared at the corpse that was my friend less than a moment ago and my mind went blank as it collapsed into the dirt. Then I looked over to my right to see a autocannon wielding stallion poking around a corner. My first thought entered my head. Kill the cannoneer. I unfurled my wings and flew straight at the pony, screaming at the top of my lungs. He backed up slowly with a look of absolute fear in his eyes. Running couldn't save him now.

I collided blade-first with him. I felt it puncture his neck with extreme force. I dug my sabre down to my hoof into him before drawing it back out and slashing down into one of his legs, which he was now holding out to try and stop me. My blade went cleanly through, leaving half of his front leg on the ground. He yelled as I tackled him onto his back and thrust my blade into him repeatedly. I efficiently stabbed him eleven times before staggering back off of him and staring down at my victim. Then I realized that to my right were the speared corpses of the other shooters, and standing over them was a large group of soldiers staring at me, open mouthed in shock.

I turned and ran back to Grayscale's decapitated body. I lied down on top of him, squeezed him in my hooves, and began to sob. Then Wanderlust rounded the corner and saw me. She approached silently, sat down on the dirt road behind us, and stared with a blank expression. I forgot about her instantly. All I could think about was my dead friend.