In the Eyes of Death

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, stuff happened and is already told in another story.

This is not that story. It’s related to it in some ways, but completely different in others. For starters, this isn’t Equestria. This is the Canadian/American border where World War Three had recently visited. The Canadians had turned off all resources flowing into the States and the States just wasn’t having it. However, since they had already deployed most of the American military into Afghanistan, they were left weakened just long enough that the Canadians could mount a full scale defence against the tyrannical neighbours.

Thinking about it now, I think the only similarity that our world shared with Equestria was how I had Rainbow Dash sitting in my pocket, rearing back proudly as she does. Granted, she was a tiny, three inch figurine that my daughter had sent me, but the thought remains. Dash had been with me ever since then, guiding me and my scope as I struck down enemy snipers with my own.

Today had been especially difficult, I had learned that a couple friends of mine on the opposite side of the border had been deployed to my battlefield. I’d already been ordered to shoot them both down as they tried to cross the barbed wire trenches. Still, Dash was there with me even after I’d put a bullet through their spine and ended their lives. She was still with me now even as reports of missiles were being screamed through the radios around me. She was with me as I followed the plumes of rocket exhaust as I looked up from my scope at the sight of hundreds of rockets being launched from the horizon, aiming in all directions.

Rainbow Dash was with me even as the rocket aimed straight for my front lines tilted and ripped through the air like a banshee out of hell to claim my life.

She was with me when the rocket hit the earth and exploded. She was with me while I burned.

She was with me when I died.

The sensation of wind ripping at my skin wasn’t exactly new. I’d been deployed from aircraft before, so I was familiar with the feeling of skydiving. What I wasn’t familiar with, was how I’d gotten into the air in the first place.

I was rolled from my laying position on my belly into a curled up free fall, back first and with limbs flailing free, in the air as my mind tried to figure out what exactly had happened to me, where I was and why I was falling. Had I been blown away by the explosion and left to fall wherever I happened to splatter? More importantly, with how close the explosion was to me, how did I even survive and how was I not bits and pieces on the ground?

Continuing my uncontrolled free fall in my state of delirium, I started to feel my back begin to heat up while streaks of flames surrounded me. I felt like screaming out in pain, and I would have done if it wasn’t for the fact that my throat felt like it’d swollen almost completely shut. Instead, the licks of flames merely ripped and tore at my skin, bubbling or just shredding it all together before they died away completely. How high would I have had to been launched into the air to achieve something like re-entry?

Now with less than optimal skin on the back of my body and the wind biting into the damage to add insult to injury, I took a few minutes to focus myself just long enough to work at flipping myself over and regain control. Just as the ground reached me.

Death is unbecoming of you. Get up, try again.

Darkness is really not that uncomfortable if you’re used to it. It can be cold, it can be warm depending on what you do with it. Darkness provides options to the mind, a mental security blanket to protect someone from… whatever it is I just went through. It’s like an open ended ticket to go wherever you want to go, do whatever you want to do and be whoever you want to be. Darkness is a fresh start.

Darkness can also be uninviting, scary and distressing. It can peel the flesh from your bones in ways that are only felt by you and remain unseen by other eyes. It can crush, it can consume. It hides and seeks and won’t give up till it’s taken everything from you. It’s binding, restricting and infinite. It’s the complete absence of light in every form.

It’s also itchy as hell. Or was that just my face?

Trying to lift my hand to scratch at my cheeks and forehead, I not only found that I couldn’t move, but I couldn’t actually feel my hands. Or arms... Or legs. I actually couldn’t even feel my torso. Or could I? I don’t know, I couldn’t be sure. I did notice, however, that as I tried to reach out and feel for something that I began to feel the fires of hell lick at my body again, covering everything that I could no longer feel. My hands, arms, legs, torso and probably like… seventy percent of my body were aflame and it hurt like a mother fucker.

Trying to settle myself down and ignore the pain as best I could, I tried to open my eyes and get an idea of where I was or what had happened to me but nothing actually happened. I felt like I had opened my eyes, I know my eyelids moved because of that feeling you get of the muscles in your face moving every time you blink or hold your eyes closed still seemed to work. I just couldn’t see anything…

From somewhere off in the foggy distance, I could hear a voice: female in nature and certainly adolescent in age. Maybe, late teens? “Oh my gosh,” she sounded like she was whispering, but I figured she was just a ways away from me. “What happened here?”

“I ‘unno, but it doesn’t look like a good time…” another female, higher than the first and quicker than the average person in terms of tempo.

“Whatever happened here, it looked like some poor creature was ripped apart!” the first one remarked as she grew closer towards my position. I’d still love to be able to see who was coming to my rescue…

“Uhm, I don’t know about you, but I don’t think it’s from around here…” the second one remarked as her voice stopped where they were. “Look, I think that’s what’s left of the main body!”

“What?” The first one questioned before she gasped. “Oh my gosh! Go get the guard to bring the princesses here! We need to get this into study!”

Study? I’m not a thing to be studied… Could the ladies have found something else? Something newer than me? It’s possible I suppose.

“Sure, I’ll be right back!” the second announced before the sound of the both of them took off hard away from my direction. I thought the first one was staying here…

“Hey, now you’re a strange little thing…” the first one remarked as her voice grew close to my ear. I thought she’d left? “Or… not so little…”

Okay, now hold on! I’m by no means a small guy, probably around 5’10 give or take and by no means am I a big guy, averaging out at about 170 pounds or so… Healthy and in shape. I took offence to what she said, but I wasn’t entirely sure why I did. Just the way she said “Not so little guy” irked me.

“Just what are you exactly?” she whispered again, her voice echoing around from all around me. I’d have liked to have moved, given her some indication that I was alive or look at her, but I felt like if I tried to move, something was holding my head still.

Letting out a low, guttural rumbling from my throat, trying to establish some means of communication.

“What was that?” the female inquired, stopping where she was to look around her. I let out another weak rumbling, feeling my stomach roll where it was and almost loosen up more than it ever actually should.

The sound of two women running towards me had me wondering who the second person was, since they were so quiet and seemed to follow the first one around like an obedient dog. Another groan from me and the female gasped, sounding like she’d jumped back in tandem with the second person.

“It’s alive!” she exclaimed in fear. A tingling feeling washed over my head and the sweet embrace of darkness greeted me again.

How long was I out? How long have I been gone? Where was I now, I didn’t feel the familiar stabbing of rocks under me and my face no longer itched. A prolonged self-examination and I could even feel my arms and legs now. Progress!

A groan from within and I opened my eyes. Darkness. Still with the darkness.

Starting from another groan, “H- hello?” I croaked out to the nothing around me. Clenching my fists, I tested my ability to feel my fingers but found that for some reason or another, they felt… wrong. Tiny and too smooth for them to be normal.

“Great, it’s awake now.” a male sighed before a pair of people walked off with what sounded like solid steel shoes on their feet. “Better go get the brains.”

“I’ll stay here.” a female remarked, sounding suspiciously military in tone. There was always something about a soldier’s speech that said, “I’ve seen things, I’ve killed people.” and she had it.

“Where am I?” I croaked out weakly, still unable to see anything. I lifted a hand to my face, trying to feel what was blinding me but found nothing over my face. That, and my hand felt really, really small.

“I am not at liberty to tell you, Prisoner.” the guardswoman replied simply. With that last word, I reactively snapped my mouth shut and remained completely silent. Not sure why I did that, but something hardwired into my mind told me to do that.

After a couple minutes of silence and me trying to feel my way around where I laid, I figured out that I was strapped down to a table of some kind. My torso and legs couldn’t move, but my arms were for the time being freed. I figured that wherever I was, I wasn’t going to have this much range of motion for long if the straps built into the table where my arms laid were any indication.

“It’s awake? Did it say anything?” the female voice from before asked, sounding eager to begin her tortures on me for my information. I wouldn’t give it.

“Yes ma’am. It seemed to have awoken and said hello.” the first guard replied, the male one specifically.

“It hasn’t said anything since asking where it was.” the female guard replied. The sound of a steel door rolling open told me I was probably in some kind of cage, since I could hear the three current speakers clearly and without that distinct electronic speaker system sound.

“I wonder why that is…” the first female wondered before the sound of her and the other woman apparently tied to her entered into my cell. “Look at you, this is astounding! Imagine all the things we could heal with abilities like yours!”

What? What abilities? I don’t have any abilities, do I? I turned my head towards the woman’s voice and tried to glare at her, if I could see her and her partner. Question: why was a teenager leading my interrogation?

“Don’t worry, you’re in good hooves now. We’ll take good care of you.” she added, giving me reason to pause as something hard, flat and rounded in nature stroked my forehead. Hooves? What the hell?

“You won’t get anything out of me. Return me to my country or kill me, those are your only two options.” I muttered with as much venom as I could pour into my words and laid my head back again to stare off into the blackness. “Keeping me in the dark isn’t going to do anything so you can turn on the lights.”

“I’m afraid we can’t do any of that.” The female replied, her voice rounding to the left of me before taking towards my feet and back up the right side. “We don’t know where you’re from so we can’t take you back. We don’t seem capable of killing you, so that’s out,”

“What?” I raised an eyebrow again, aiming my thought at the woman beside me. “What do you mean you don’t seem capable of killing me?”

“When my friend and I found you, you were in pieces in a crater. You had a rock spiked through your head, you should be dead.” the female explained calmly. “Yet, here you are, in mostly one piece and still growing. If we can learn how you do that, we can fix so many of our population!” the female announced eagerly. “As for the darkness, that’s not because the lights are out. You’re eyes are gone. You’re blind.”

“I’m what?”

“That rock spike destroyed most of your face, eyes included. They haven’t grown back in like your arms, legs or most of your lower body. Your face has been reconstructed, you’re just missing your eyes for now.” the female remarked as a tingling sensation was applied over my eyes and I felt my eyelids lifted by remained in darkness. “Looks to be growing back in, they’re just not entirely done yet. You’ll probably get your eyesight back once they’re complete.”

“Okay, hold on. What do you mean I was in pieces?” I held a hand up to stop the train of thought bearing down on me.

“I mean, we found only your head and a small portion of your torso on the ground in one piece. The rest of your body was… well it wasn’t pretty. Your dismembered limbs were found in a field a couple hundred feet away. Your lower body was found a good number of feet away from you with your stomach hanging out and your intestines stretched across the impact site. We thought some animal had viciously torn you to shreds and killed you.”

“So now you want to experiment on me? Don’t I get a say in this?” I demanded before an idea struck me. “Of course I don’t, I’m a prisoner of war.” I sighed and laid back in defeat, preparing myself for the endless cycles of being torn apart and let grow back to be shredded again. I wouldn’t put it past the enemy, whoever they were at the time. I remembered faint reports that a group of some religious type had been rounded up and exterminated. Of course, I couldn't quite remember who those people were or why they were exterminated…

“A prisoner of war?” the female reeled back in confusion. “Not at all! We’ve not had a war here in over a thousand years! Why would you be a prisoner of war?” she demanded in genuine confusion.

“What do you mean there hasn’t been a war in a thousand years? I was just fighting in a war!” I shouted back, feeling myself get increasingly heated. I could feel a surge of power in my veins, giving me power enough to sit up through the restraints and begin to tear at the leather bindings holding my legs down. “I was just there! On the front lines, killing people! Don’t tell me there wasn’t a war going on, you all launched missiles at every other country!” I shouted again as the female and her partner scurried from the room while the two guards likely stepped in to replace her.

“Halt! Do not attempt to escape or fight back!” The female commanded as I dropped from the table to my feet and aimed at the sound of the guards’ clinking armour. Strange armour, to say the least.

Taking off at a sudden sprint towards them, I figured death would be a better option than remaining in a country of lies and deception. Let them do with my empty shell of a body afterwards. I’d be dead then, don’t care what they do to me if I'm dead, right?

With a mighty roar, I lifted my arms into a wild haymaker before my advancement was cut short as I felt cold metal slip through my neck.

Death is unbecoming of you. Get up. Try again

“He’s awake again.” the male guard announced, sounding completely bored with things. I groaned in reply.

“What the hell happened?” I muttered to no one in particular. I still couldn’t see, but I was growing to expect that.

“You died. Again.” The female teenager replied with an accompanying sigh. “Decapitation this time.”

“This time?” I raised an eyebrow and “glanced” over towards the female. “What the fuck are you talking about, ‘Again’ and ‘This time’?”

“What, you don’t remember? This is the fourth time we’ve had to kill you in order to stop your rampages. The first time was Decapitation, the second time we had to cut off your limbs, the third time surprised us and I sent you into a wall where you basically exploded, and now this time, your head rolled.” The female replied casually, as though this was just another day for her. Of course, judging by what she was telling me, this could have been another day. “Now then, are you going to calm down and be civil?”

“No. Not till I get back to… my country…” I replied defiantly, crossing my arms over my chest. “I still don’t believe that you’ve killed me so many times and that i’ve come back just as many.”

With a commonplace chuckle, “Yeah, neither I. We’ve already done so many brutal things to you to stop you, I can’t imagine how you’re able to literally pull yourself together again and revive. I don’t think I can even call you immortal…”

“Immortality means I don’t age but still can be killed. You’re thinking Eternal…” I muttered back and let my head roll around the metal plate on which I laid. “Fuck, eternity is not something to look forward too.”

“I don’t doubt it. Living on past the end of the universe… Even after the immortal beings have all died, there’ll be only you…” The female sighed back in agreement with me before the sound of her crawling up onto my table had me pause at the heavy weight of four feet.

“What’s with you and your partner? Why do you two do everything and why is she so quiet?” I wondered as the surprisingly lighter weight than I’d have expected seemed to settle down on my chest.

“What partner? I’m the only one in here besides you. Even the two guards are just waiting outside the door.” The female replied in confusion as my hands went up to carefully touch her body.

Furry? The fuck?

“Why is your body fuzzy?” I whispered in complete confusion.

“I’m more curious about why you’re carrying a figurine of Rainbow Dash.” the voice replied, ignoring my question entirely as I continued to check her body. I had to be delirious, because I could swear that she was a mini-horse.

“That was from… I… Don’t remember… Why are you fuzzy?” I replied then reiterated my question.

“I’m not fuzzy, I’m furry. I am a pony, after all.” The female replied firmly, dropping my face to disbelief.

“I’m sorry what?”

“I’m a pony. I have no idea what you are, though. Allow me to introduce myself. Again. I’m Twilight Sparkle. Who’re you?” The furry thing called Twilight whatever replied, choosing now to get off of my chest and hop down from my table.

“I have no idea, actually…” I admitted after a moment of thought. “Did I have anything on me that looked like identification?”

“Maybe, I don't know. You have some kind of chain around your neck with small silvery plates. I had them taken for testing and it’s just some kind of strange metal.” Twilight replied before my hand was forced open and something was dropped into my palm.

“I have no idea what these are, I can’t see them.” I announced, trying to get a feel for whatever was in my hand. No idea.

“Well, how about we try again once your eyes are fully developed? I’ll tell you what, you behave and I’ll get you moved out of this cell.” Twilight offered as her voice told me she was at my feet again, likely aimed for the door. “You’re obviously sentient and intelligent so you have a choice whether to give up how you’re eternal. Frankly, your eternity probably makes you the most powerful creature on this planet… So I really don’t know what to do.”

“I’m… just gonna stay here then…” I sighed and remained where I was, for lack of options anyways. I couldn’t really walk given the blindness and it’s not like I had anywhere to go. “A blanket would be great, this table’s cold.”

“Sure, here.” Twilight replied, a smile on her voice as something heavy landed on me, covering me entirely to my neck. “Be back later.”