Chapter Zero: The Weekly Chat
"The place is covered with mud and bodies, the sky is gray and dusty due to the manufacturing keeping this war going on, magic synergies down and broken, the dust is blowing hard and I keep my only abled hoof to cover my eyes, the 'dark troopers' he calls them, my other foreleg broken, with blood left as my only taste, I'm down, I'm dead but they just stop and stare before everything goes black."
"The dream is always the same, me waking up in the hooves of those slaves being controlled by that piece of shit, I open my eyes to see that broken dark crystal throne, King Sombra being on top of it all and him whispering some shit to one of his minions and he laughs, over the dead corpses of my friends, my teammates, millions of lives fucking subjected to torture, slavery, or death and all the while one of his puppets come with the same metal bucket that keeps them all in line while I can only stay and watch as it slowly reels in and goes black again."
"This is shit!"
"Commander Rainbow, please!"
"NO! How can a dream help me! I don't need help! I need to keep fighting, the only reason I joined this shitty schedule was because the Princess ordered me to but this is wasting time we don't have!"
"Breathe Rainbow, breathe" I fucking hate when she does this, I close my eyes and breathe, I slow my heart rate and just breathe, everything can't be solved with rashness, that's what the old commander said, I looked around the room. The same usual shit, the room was gray, meant for '~interpretation~' more like budgeting, some ponies didn't believe in the system of free counseling for soldiers and paid other bigger ponies to sign against it, a load of horse apples if you ask me. Overall no real improvements to the decor, just the same old setup of patients getting the only colored furniture of two that was a cyan, the other chair seemed to come out of a real budgeted vault since it was just a metal chair.
"Okay, I'm good" I open my eyes and see the nurse, well used to be nurse but- I shut my eyes and shake the thoughts off, I turn away, Doctor Red heart's white coat seemed less clean and more dirty, I'd hate to have a coat like that in this line of duty...
"Rainbow" I snapped my head to her but she met my eyes with just as much intensity, "This 'shit' is a reoccurring nightmare that keeps you up for hours and is jeopardizing your job so I suggest you work with me or you don't work at all.
She breathed heavily out through the nostrils at the end of that.
I rested my back on my chair with my wings outwards, I can't really control that part so still uncomfortable as always so I stand back up in my chair, "This is stupid, I could be training newbies, teach protocols! For celestia's sake I could even be repairing the magic synergies!" I moved my hooves up in the air with my emotions but I just went back to laying on the chair and sighing, I could be doing a million better things then do some stupid therapy session, I don't need help, my friends do!
"Rainbow, this is serious, you've been on the front lines for 3 years and you're telling me you haven't had difficulties sleeping or eating or even living?"
"I- w-well, not constantly" I could barely respond with something good, not that there was much to say, she was pretty spot on.
"See?" She exclaimed with her hooves going to the air.
"I- ugh okay! Fine yes I have some issues sleeping, happy?" I was frustrated! How could I not? I never liked admitting a weakness and having to say I was mushy and weak to fear isn't one I take without a frown.
She straightened up with a frown and a disappointed expression, "Commander Rainbow, my whole job is to make you feel happier, this war has been affecting everypony whether directly or indirectly." she seemed to loosen up a bit after that but kept going "And you know what the princess always says, 'It takes-"
"'everypony's hooves to take down this war, yeah I've heard it in drills constantly, seen posters with it everywhere and I understand it but," I sighed, I think I was able to let go for a bit, for even a small bit I did feel a little better letting some of it out, "there could be worse ponies that need this attention, I can handle it but some ponies could have-," I looked away, there was too much shame I could've shown "had, it much worse." I close my eyes to try to block out those gruesome images of my teammates, my friends, all down to becoming a statistic.
"Rainbow, I understand that you may feel like the least deserving pony to have this option open to you but you have to understand, for this war to be won, we need ponies like you to be able to hold the burden. I won't lie to you, we've been through five whole years of Tartarus, losing cities, villages, ponies, friends, and family but we need ponies like you to keep a smile and push through, without you we wouldn't have stood this much of a chance." She seemed to be genuine, never have I known her not to be but, something about her really just putting it out there with no subtlety or vague context within it was a bit, sad, to see her really digging in and speaking to me directly like this.
"I-" I couldn't look at her eyes, how could I? After all this shit, the blood, the corpses, the amount of bodies that have piled up to this point, how could I, 'Rainbow the dashing light' look up to Doctor Redheart the 'medical miracle' like I couldn't see how either of us really got our titles, with the ponies that piled up just for us to keep going, like there weren't shackles on either of us. I closed my eyes, I didn't wanna be in this world, why couldn't it be so much different? A world full of nations with friendships and treaties, having a long lasting peace period, why couldn't this world be like my old dreams.
"Rainbow," I opened my eyes and looked into her eyes, "whether you like to admit it or not, we need ponies like you to keep going with heads high, with ponies like us, we would be worse off, I don't like how we got here as much as you do, but death is a close friend to everypony on the front lines and we can't keep treating like it isn't, we need to keep going, for the better future, for foals and fillies like Scootalo."
Now that fucking got me, "Don't you DARE bring Scootalo to this!" I could barely believe she would fucking bring SCOOTALO OF ALL FILLIES to bring into the conversation, I glared at her and exhaled heavily out through my nose.
She softened a bit "I'm sorry, your right but you understand what I mean, don't you?"
I hate when she has a point, "I get it, be better for everypony or die like a scared coward" I got out of the couch before she could speak a word and went for the door.
"No, Rainbow-" She tried to speak out but I didn't let her.
I opened the door and turned around to speak to her before I leave "It looks like our time's up Doc, I'll see you next week" I slammed the door behind me, I was furious, typical though, I never liked talking about mushy things like emotions, I need something hard to hit.
Luckily the path to reaching the gym wasn't that hard, the perks of being one of the higher ranked soldiers was being able to have a facility that you share with other corporals while being able to train and practice. They offered me to train the royal guards at the castle but I declined, too fancy, the battlefield is the only ball room I really need.
Nothing was too interesting about the decor of it all though, they treat you lasting longer than others like an honor to flaunt but with no real backing to it, the bland gray walls told it all 'we want you to get better at surviving so it'll keep us alive for a bit longer' atleast that's what I took from it, the ponies that try to "support soldiers" are really just money snubbing blue nosed dicks that try to keep the image of purity while trying to minimize the amount of effort of their initiative that is "for the greater good" they say, they wouldn't even be in the positions to take the glory if princess Celestia wasn't so busy with the war, if she realized what they were doing all along, I shake my head, I would feel bad for the blue blooded shits if they didn't deserve it as much as she'd dish out. But that's assuming the war will end in the same life span they have, ugh, there I go again.
I looked up to see the door leading to my destination, walking through these hallways have become second nature to me that I practically know where everything is, but that doesn't matter right now, I'm pissed and I need to blow off some steam.
I open the door to see a couple of old faces, sergeant gum drops, while sounding sweet, is as slippery as a snake, commander Flash and his second in command Thunderlane. All taking spots in the room, sergeant was taking reports while Flash and Thunderlane were sparring one on one but the room itself was probably the most stuffed in the facility, having training mats for hoof to hoof, horn to horn, or even hoof to horn practice matches, the first one being the one they were practicing on, both their wings were tied to their backs while they carried their weight to their hooves. While any other day I'd appreciate to see them practicing I was really just itching for a fight.
While Flash was going for a right hook and Thunderlane lowering his front half of his body to dodge I spoke up, "Yo, Flash"
Flash turned his head to see me but with this second of distraction Thunderlane thought this was a great time to strike with a upper cut, lifting his body with the attack but he was completely wrong when Flash changed his attention to the attacker and started to fall backwards, he twisted his body to face the ground, set his front hooves as support and spranged his back hooves to buck Thunderlane right in the face.
Flash went back to all fours and started to trot towards me, "what's up?"
"Well I was going to ask when you guys were going to be done but by the looks of it-" I turned my head towards the now infamous Thunderlane having a buck form on his face and holding a hoof to his snout. "-you guys are done."
"Heh, well hope that shows Thunderlane I don't drop my guard so easily" Flash smirked at the now pissed Thunderlane.
"Ah, I'll take this nose bleed as a remembrance, asshole" Thunderlane snarled while Flash just laughed.
He spoke back to Thunderlane to show him some respect, "All part of the job, now come on"
"Wait" I stopped them both before they could get any more steps in.
"What's up?" He turned his head sideways to respond while looking at me.
"What was that stance you were using while fighting, you were on two hooves with the other two being used to fight, what's with that?" I was pretty shocked, I've seen all kinds of styles and fighting methods on hooves to hooves but nothing like that before.
He turned his body to get what I was saying till a light bulb turned on in his head,"Oh yeah, Spitfire was teaching me it, well tried to, I couldn't get it down as you saw me resorting back to a buck hit but still, it was interesting. I'm trying to adapt it but it's harder than it looks."
"Huh, so why the use for a new one?" I was legitimately curious, Flash was known for pulling something up his ass in time for a save so him actually learning a new one was..interesting to say the least."
"Well, I hear bipedal creatures like the griffons or more used by dragons actually think of this style as a standard."
"Really?"
"Yeah, that was my exact response when she told me, well I better get the sneaky bastard to the nurse, colt am I going to have a time with this one" Flash was laughing at the idea while Thunderlane was more so grumbling and pissed at the idea he has to explain how he got that hoof imprint on his face.
"Alright" originally I wanted to use Flash as a sparring partner but after this I think he could use the laugh right now, everypony could.
Author's Note
This was the story I wanted to put out first, anyway hope you guys keep tabs on this one because I do plan a big project for this.
Thanks for supporting me with this story or any other, it keeps my spirits high and motivates me to make more!
