Far Neigh: The Valley

The first thing Twilight felt as she slowly regained consciousness was the soreness. She felt it all over, in her legs, her wings, her head, everywhere. Her eyes slowly fluttered open, and she could make out a small fire burning in a stove in the corner, but not much else, as the room was drowned in shadows.

Twilight attempted to stir, but when she rolled, she suddenly felt the sharp pain in her right wing, and she let out a pained cry as she rolled back onto the bed, not moving to minimize the pain. She then heard the sound of hoofsteps approaching, followed by the door to the room opening.

From the door, stepped a light green Unicorn mare with a purple mane and tail. She was levitating a plate containing a flask and a bowl with silverware. She glanced over to the bed, and lit up with a smile upon noticing that Twilight was awake.

"Oh my goodness! You're awake!" the mare said excitedly as she brought the tray over to the bed. Twilight tried to sit up in the bed, but the mare stopped her.

"No. I'm sorry, but you need to rest a little longer, you've been out for three days, and that wing still needs some time. I patched it up as good as I can." the mare explained as she opened up the flask and offered Twilight some water. Twilight took a sip, hydrating her dry lips and throat. It felt so refreshing.

"Uh, what happened?" Twilight said in a hoarse voice. The mare then offered her a spoonful from the soup that was in the bowl.

"Me and my husband saw you floating down the river, we pulled you out, brought you back here, and bandaged up your wound as best as we could. We didn't find the bullet, it must've gone straight through." the mare explained as she fed Twilight the soup.

"Thank you, so much. What's your name?" Twilight asked.

"My name is Weeping Willow, and my husband is Blue Cross, and we know about your mission Miss Sparkle." Willow said, feeding Twilight another spoonful. Twilight slightly flinched upon hearing that this mare knew about her.

"How do you know my name?" Twilight asked.

"My husband and I are part of the Kashmir Militia, we've been trying to fight back against Iron Fist, and we intercepted a few radio signals from them about you and your friends from Equestria." Willow explained. This made Twilight jolt up and once again try to get out of the bed.

"My Friends! What happened to them? I need to help them!" Twilight shouted as she got out of the bed, only to fall on her face. Willow helped her up and got her back in the bed.

"Princess, please, you need to rest, or you won't be able to do anything. We can help you, but you need to help yourself first by resting." Willow said sternly. Twilight was about to argue, but decided against it, as her whole body still felt awful.

Twilight simply let herself get back into the bed, and Willow continued to feed and hydrate her. Eventually, Twilight felt herself falling asleep again after Willow gave her medicine for her wing.

Twilight opened her eyes once again, this time, not feeling as sore. She sat up in the bed and stretched her legs as she shook her messy mane out of her eyes. She now noticed that there was some sunlight shining through the window. Twilight carefully stood up from the bed, slightly wincing as she looked at her bandaged wing.

Twilight yawned as she opened the door to the bedroom she was in and walked down a short hallway before entering a large room that was half kitchen, half dining room. There were two ponies sitting at the table, one was Weeping Willow, the other was a white earth pony with a short, shaggy mane and tail.

"Oh, Twilight, your awake." Willow said as she stood up and guided Twilight over to a seat.

"I feel much better too." Twilight said as she sat down, "Thank you so much for your help." Twilight said.

"It is nice to finally meet you Princess, I'm Blue Cross, I'm a medic in the Kashmir Militia." the stallion said, introducing himself.

"Now that your awake, we can get down to business." Willow said as she went into the kitchen to retrieve some food.

"What business?" Twilight asked.

"Well, after we saved you from both the river and the massive OOTI patrol chasing you, we took you back here and started to monitor the Order's radio waves. We found information about a team from Equestria coming to negotiate for the hostages from that crashed Zeppelin, and we discovered who you and your friends were." Blue Cross explained.

"Yeah, me and my friends were meant to do this peacefully to avoid conflict, but it was all a setup and a trap." Twilight said, thinking back to the meeting and how her and her friends were attacked.

"High Caliber, the leader of the Militia says that he'll help you save your friends if you can help us." Willow said as she levitated a plate of sandwiches over to the table. Twilight nodded.

"I'll do anything to save my friends from that asshole, who is he anyway? I read up on Kashmir Valley before we came here, but I barley found anything on him apart from the Iron Order or whatever." Twilight asked. Willow and Cross gave eachother sad looks before Cross sighed.

"Iron Fist, and his group calling themselves, "The Order of the Iron", came here to the Valley around 20 years ago. When they came here, Kashmir Valley didn't really have any leaders or government, we all just lived here peacefully. We also didn't really think anything of the Order, but then they began to expand, and get stronger, until Iron Fist declared himself ruler of the valley. Ever since, the Militia has been fighting against his soldiers, but its been a stalemate in recent years." Cross explained.

"How come you haven't asked for help from Equestria?" Twilight asked.

"Nopony except Iron Fist and his inner circle can leave the valley without permission from them. They control the airspace here, which is why they shot down the Zeppelin. Several Pegasi have tried to escape the valley by flying out themselves, only to be shot down. The closest way to escape is to scale the mountains surrounding the valley, but even that's a long shot." Willow explained.

"We should focus on one thing at a time. When I get my friends back, then we can focus on getting out of the valley." Twilight said.

"Okay, Willow, get the map." Cross said. Willow nodded and turned to go back down the hallway.

"Where am I now?" Twilight asked as she glanced around the rustic little house.

"You're at my family's farm, it's been in my family for generations, now it's one of the Militia's camps, there are more of us outside. Willow's gonna get you the map of the valley, so we can form a plan to save your friends." Cross explained.

Twilight nodded as she looked around the house, noting the very old light fixtures flickering like they haven't been changed in ages. She then glanced over to a shelf adorned with photographs of several different ponies, some of which Twilight could recognize Blue Cross at various times in his life.

Willow then re-entered the room carrying a map, compass, and a pair of binoculars and placed them on the table before unrolling the map out on the table.

Twilight leaned over the map and began to study it. The valley itself was divided into 5 different environmental regions. To the north was the White Pine Forest, as written on the map. Blue Cross pointed his hoof to it.

"This is the White Pine Forest, it's a dense forest where there's a few scattered towns, as well as a few mines, and lumber mills. Blue Cross then shifted his hoof to the West, which was labeled Cattail Swamp. "This is the Cattail Swamp, it's where the Zebras in the valley live. They've been trying to hold their own against the OOTIS, but they haven't been doing well." Cross explained.

"What do you mean by OOTIS?" Twilight asked.

"Order Of The Iron abbreviated, that's what we call them in the resistance." Willow explained. Suddenly, before Blue Cross could continue explaining the map, there was a knock at the front door.

"Come in." Blue Cross shouted. The door then opened, revealing a tall, crimson colored earth pony stallion, wearing a cowboy hat and a patch over his right eye. The stallion closed the door behind him and walked over to Twilight.

"Are you Princess Twilight?" The stallion asked. Twilight nodded silently, a bit intimidated by this stallion. He then stretched out his hoof for her to shake and she shook it.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm High Caliber, the leader of the Kashmir Militia." he introduced himself before taking a seat across from Blue Cross.

"Your just in time, I was just showing Twilight the map." Blue Cross explained, he then pointed his hoof to the southern region. "This is the Tangerine Desert. Not much to see down there apart from a few towns, and where the central prison camp is, and where the OOTIS train all their soldiers." Cross explained before pointing to the east region.

"This is where we are right now, the Kashmir Plains, this is mostly flat, lots of farmland." Cross explained before shifting his hoof to the final area, the area directly in the center of the valley. "This is the Oasis, this is where Iron Fist's compound is. This is the last place to focus on, so we can only focus on the closer stuff." Cross explained. Twilight nodded, taking in the info as Cross folded up the map and gave it to her.

"So, do you know where my friends are?" Twilight asked.

"We've been monitoring the radio chatter throughout the valley, and we've found something out. It seems your friends have been separated and given to each of Iron Fist's lieutenants." High Caliber explained. Twilight then remembered the six other ponies that were at the negotiations.

"Are there six of them?" Twilight asked.

"Yep" Caliber nodded, "There are six in total, with them spread out and controlling each region, acting out Iron Fist's orders of course." Caliber explained.

"They're Iron Fist's most devoted followers, they're so devoted, that they let Iron Fist change their names to live out his power fantasy." Willow cut in.

"And each of them are holding my friends?" Twilight asked. High Caliber nodded.

"We haven't tracked them all, but we've tracked the ones being held in the east. Virgo, the one in charge of food for the OOTIS, controls the east, and he has your friend Applejack." Caliber explained.

"Virgo?" Twilight asked, raising her eyebrow.

"Iron Fist named his lieutenants after zodiac signs. We've got Virgo here in the east. Aquarius, the one in charge of the pegasi and the air of Kashmir Valley, controls the west. Gemini, the one in charge of manufacturing supplies such as weapons and vehicles, shares the north with Libra, the one in charge of recruitment and propaganda. And finally, Cancer, the one in charge of the prison camps, shares the south with Scorpio, the one who trains the OOTI soldiers." Caliber explained.

"It's all so much, I don't know where to start." Twilight said.

"For now, we start here in the plains. After we get the plains back from Virgo, we can branch out from there." Caliber explained

"Okay, where do we start here?" Twilight asked.

"We overheard on the radio that a convoy was delivering prisoners from the white Pine Forest to Tangerine Desert tonight, that's where we'll start." Blue Cross said.

Twilight nodded. "Okay, sounds like a plan."