Without Question

Without Question

Chapter Three - Why We Fight

As Silus stepped outside, the initial warmth of the sun had become a grueling heat.  Indeed, he had already begun to sweat.  The bright light was also hard to adjust his eyes to.  Though he was supposed to be in a hurry, neither he nor his escorts did any kind of hurrying.  When his eyes finally managed to adjust, he was able to take in the harsh reality of his situation.

All around him, he saw nothing but suffering.  The city, which had obviously seen far grander days, had fallen into disrepair and refugees crowded the streets.  Had his new Queen not told him this was the capital, he would never have guessed it himself.  He wiped the sweat from his brow, unable to take his eyes away from the depressing sights.  Many shops and homes had shattered and boarded-up windows with weeds growing through the stone bricks.  The refugees had constructed flimsy wooden shacks everywhere.

As he passed by the crowds, the majority of them stared at Silus.  He could see the crushing sadness and confusion in the eyes of every Changeling citizen.  Some of them whispered, but for the most part, there was a deafening silence.  One by one, they went back to whatever they were doing.  A few smaller Changelings (Silus assumed these were children) kicked a rock around, doing their best to cope with their unfortunate circumstances.  Their parents looked on with slight envy, wishing they could do the same.  Adult and child alike were covered in grime and scratches.  Many of them appeared malnourished and weak.  Some wore shredded clothing, if it could even be called that.

As Silus and his escorts waded through the crowd, a filthy child ran up to Silus’ feet and stared up at him.  An adult quickly pulled it away and gave Silus an apologetic look before disappearing into the crowd.  He looked at his escorts.  All of that black obsidian chainmail was absorbing the sunlight and overheating them.  They were sweating far worse than he was.  He had seen a great number of horrors in his young life, but things like this never got old.  They always shook him to his core.

“Do you see?”

Silus heard an escort speak from behind him.  He continued walking forward, but turned his head slightly to indicate that he was listening.

“Do you see how we suffer?  Do you see why we cannot fail?”

The escort spoke quietly, and Silus had to strain to hear him.

“The Equestrians delivered an ultimatum.  None of us are to be spared.  We live in squalor every waking moment, just hoping that Our Queen will lead us to salvation.  It has become obvious that our invasion was a mistake.  But we went too far.  There are no more second chances.  No amount of apologizing or reparations will save us from them now.  We must now show our will to survive through blood and battle.”

Silus hung his head a bit as he walked.

“Do you know what it is like to watch everyone and everything you have ever loved die and crumble before your very eyes?”

A chill slithered up Silus’ spine.  He knew pain.  He knew it very well.

“I was there when the first of our cities fell.  I watched as my home burned with my family still inside.  I couldn’t do a thing.  I was too weak.  Now that damned memory tears at me with every beat of my broken heart.”

The escort’s words struck a chord within Silus.  He felt a great deal of sympathy for this Changeling and his people.

“We deserved to be driven out of Equestria.  I understand that now, and I believe Our Queen does as well.  She acted blindly out of revenge and pride.  But we do not deserve this.  No race deserves to be driven to the brink of extinction and wiped from the face of the world.  See my brothers and sisters?”

Silus took another long look at the endless crowd of refugees before him.  It was a lot to take in.

“I won’t let them go quietly.  I won’t accept this injustice against them.  You are one of us now.  I can tell you know the brutal nature of war as well as I do.  I hope Our Queen’s hope and trust in you is well-placed.  If you can save us the way she believes you can, then I will defend you with my life, just as I would for every Changeling here.”

Silus felt a deep gratitude at hearing this.  How one of these creatures could accept him so easily was astounding.  A sense of pride for his new home stirred within him.

“Now you see.  Now you see why we fight.”

Silus stopped and spun around to face this bold Changeling.  The escort was taller than the others, his head reached up to Silus’ chest.  He seemed aged, but by no means was he old.  His legs and chest were quite muscular, but a jagged scar led from the right side of his neck to halfway down his right foreleg.  The Changeling escort’s left eye was pure white, a sharp contrast to the light blue of his other eye.

“What is your name?” Silus inquired.

The escort had firmly locked his eyes with Silus’.

“I am called Grimsoul,” the escort responded.

Silus furrowed his glistening brows and he gave a small grin.  He then held out his hand.

“I am glad to call you ‘brother.’”

The escort remained silent for a moment before returning the grin and shaking Silus’ hand with his hoof.

“We need to keep moving,” Grimsoul stated.

Silus nodded and the group quietly continued for the next two hours.  The city was truly huge.  When he had finally reached the colossal stone gates of the city, he looked back at the castle.  Even from what seemed like four miles away, its huge dark spires menacingly twisted towards the sky.  Once the gates had opened, Silus spotted a railroad station just outside.  A train sat waiting with plumes of black smoke billowing out from its furnace.

“That will be taking us to Opaque Ridge.  We best board as soon as possible,” Grimsoul muttered.

The group boarded the train without further ado and Silus sat with two escorts on each side of him.  He was thankful at how much cooler it was in the car than it was outside.  Only a few other Changelings were in the same car as them, and they all wore a different kind of armor.  It looked like plate armor, though made of a shiny plastic.  Not only that, but the armor seemed embedded into their skin.  Silus figured they were new recruits being shipped to the front.  The train gave a loud whistle and slowly accelerated.

After a few minutes, they were chugging along quite fast and were passing through some barren farm fields on the outskirts of the capital.  Though the fields were fairly large, only a few sparse areas had any crops, and even those were brown and decaying.  A few Changeling farmers were attempting to harvest what they could, but it was futile.  Silus even witnessed one particularly bony farmer collapse in a field as others rushed to his aid.

“Our primary source of food, our livestock, has all but run out due to lack of trade with our other now-conquered cities.  As if that weren’t bad enough, it appears as though even nature itself fights to end us by yielding withered grains.  This is the worst famine I have ever seen in my life.”

Silus was intrigued at how Grimsoul seemed to know what he was thinking.  It really did feel like the Changeling was close enough to be a brother.  As the train now hurtled full speed along the tracks, the scorching sun began to set.

“It will be a few more hours until we reach the outpost at Opaque Ridge.  There is no point in showing up exhausted.  We should all get some sleep,” Grimsoul advised.

The escorts all leaned back and slowly dozed off.  Silus glanced around the car.  The fresh recruits had also fallen asleep.  With nothing else to do but pass time, Silus closed his pale blue eyes, and let his mind ease into slumber as well.