”The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself.”
—Thales

Chapter 2: Arrival

The metal tip of the axe pierced through the ice, fixed in the hole just enough for Four to pull himself up. Climbing over the icy top under the morning sun was dangerous as it was refreshing with the clean weather washed over his body. He looked up, there wasn’t much left to climb, one last strike of the axe and a pull was more than enough to find himself on top of the mountain.

Four striked the axe into the snow, made sure it held and with a sigh, pulled himself upwards. He quickly put a hand on the now-less inclined surface and pulled stronger. “Finally.” He was now on top, he took his axe and placed it back in his bag, then stretched out as the sunlight washed over his face. After enjoying the moment for a while, he gazed ahead, there it was. Crystal palace was towering with all its might, among all the ruins around it. The presence of the palace was like the only light source in a dark room, everything else was like a dead body that was left to rot all by itself. Once a peaceful, shiny kingdom full of life, now resembling a ghost town. He knew this place, knew it more than he’d want to know.

War with the Crystal Empire was still far from ending, the bloodshed was fresh on both sides. Apart from the fact that the Empire was the most powerful on the globe, Crystal Empire was putting up a good resistance with the support of the Elements of Harmony. Their participation in the war cost nearly twenty divisions to the empire. Some in the army thought their first loss was about to come. Meanwhile, an execution was about to be committed by the Section E.

“Why are you doing this!? What have we ever done to you!?” Crystal stallion shouted at the surrounding imperial troops around him. Next to him were a bunch of other ponies, two of them were fillies. Stallion’s question on the other hand faded in the air as the commander spoke.

“Quiet, pony!” He then turned to the squad. “Delta Squad, load weapons!” So the men did, except for Delta Four. “E-Delta Four! Load your weapon.”

Delta Four straightened up, “Sir, I must protest.” Commander was taken aback, generally none of the troops would question the orders, let alone rejecting them. “The protocols are clear, civilians are to be brought to the Imperial Containment Chambers.”

“E-Delta Four, I said load your weapon, that’s an order!” Commander snapped.

“Sir, with all due respect, according to the Protocol 81 of the Article 16, the civilians are to—“

“E-Delta Four. Take a step back, now.” Commander gestured with a glowering face. “Rest of the Delta Squad, aim!” The look on the faces of Crystal ponies were terrified, some of them broke down crying as some covered the eyes of the fillies.

“Sir! What you are doing right now is against the authority of the Emp—“ But he was cut off.

“Fire!” The sound of guns took over the atmosphere, mixing up with the cries and screams of the ponies. In a few seconds, silence retook the place as the magazines went out of ammo. Delta Four’s eyes were shot open, scanning the scene of slaughter, he thought the commander would listen, obey the authority… Could he have stopped this massacre? Or was he just punching an already dead horse?

Commander then walked towards him, leaned to his ear and whispered with a sickening tone, “This is not the empire. Here on the front, I am the authority.” With that, he patted his shoulder and left.

Right after, Delta Squad followed but Four stayed there. He just stood still and couldn't take his eyes off the scene. There was only one question in his head, “Why?” He then looked around, heard someone screaming and ran towards there. It was another pony with a troop on top of him, pressing down to his broken leg making him cry out in pain. Before Four could say anything, the troop raised his weapon, with a loud bang, the stallion's head blew off, splattering blood, shards of his skull, and pieces of brains all over.

It was a disgusting, horrible scene to watch. So terrible that he was shaking with fear… But why? He has seen brutality time and time again during his missions in the army but now? What ever changed?

He started to back away from the troop, who on the other hand, just realized he was there, “Hey, is everything alright man?” Four eyed the dead body, then the troop once again before turning back and running away. “Hey! Wait up!” Soldier shouted from behind. But Four couldn’t care less, he wanted to get out of here, he had to get out of there. He will have gone back to the headquarters, lay back in the bed and tomorrow everything was going to be alright.

While making his way back to the squad, he suddenly found himself facing the hard surface, he was tripped. He felt a grip on his ankle, something was preventing him from standing up, that something was no one else than a wounded pony that was lying on the ground. Judging from the wall that fell over her, it'd need a thousand witnesses to call her “wounded” for she was almost dead already.

The mare slowly turned her head to Four, two words left her muzzle, “Please…” she coughed blood, “H—Help…” And for these were her final words, the grip on Four’s ankle softened.

He quickly pulled his leg back to himself and stood up. Just as he turned around, he saw another pile of dead bodies, a stallion cut in half, each part were in different places, his blood stained the ground red as if one half was dragged by someone. “Why…” A mare’s body was on the ground leaking blood from where her limbs should have been. Dead fillies, staked on metal rods and shot and riddled like target boards. “Why?” In front of him now was a Torch Trooper, who was busy burning down the corpses. The smell of rotten flesh burning filled his nostrils. It wasn’t any smell, it was death… It was the smell of death itself. All this scenery, it was nothing else but death. “But why!”

He then ripped himself off the scene and stared at the Crystal Palace ahead for a while without moving… He then opened up his hands that were covered in dirt and blood, “Why do we fight..?”

This was the place he started to see, to hear, to feel… And now he was here once again. He stared at the palace from head to toe, it was less shinier than it usually was. Nevertheless, it was still a beautiful sight to see…

Four took out his pistol and tightened his grip on the backpack, with a sigh, he took a step forward, “Here we go.”

Author's Note

Yeah it’s a short chapter. I’m planning to write the next chapters longer since the events are starting to heat up from now on.