Clouds

10

Redheart sat there confused, and slightly pissed she just got to see Caius again, and just when he’s going to fill her in on what’s happened to him over the two years she hadn’t seen him, he can’t seem to remember a thing, except a name, and everything before a few months ago.

“So you really don’t remember what happened?” Redheart asked.

“Like I told you, I would tell you everything, but I just can’t remember anything, I’m sorry” Caius said apologetically.

“Well, I probably wouldn’t like what I heard anyway, I wish we could just end this war already.” Redheart said quickly getting back up.

“Hey, um I have to get back to work, if you need anything just call alright?”

Caius nodded, smiling lightly, watching the white mare walk out the tent, just before walking out she turned around and looked at him once more.

“And Caius . . . . . it’s good to see you again.” She smiled once more before leaving. Caius sat back on the bed, and tried to think back, he tried to remember what happened, who was Steel, and what ahd he been doing, where had he disappeared to. Caius looked up, the tent he was in was small, and filled with all sorts of medical devices, a sudden flash of pain shot up his spine.

“I put so much work into you.”

Caius looked around frantically as he heard those words, but no one was there, he was alone, yet he could have sworn he heard a voice, speaking to him, he dismissed it, and carried on. After a few minutes he decided to take a few minutes to get some air, he squinted, as he got hit by a flash of bright sunlight, as he stepped outside his tent, the sound of ponies chattering, soldier marching in formation, as he took a few steps outside, he heard a voice speaking to him again, only this time it was deep, and almost disturbing.

“MUUUUUURRRDDDDDEEER”
The voice was almost blood curdling, and Caius shuddered violently as the word roared in his mind. For a moment his vision blurred, Caius shook his head.

“What the fuck is going on?” he asked himself slowly walking around the other tents, Caius looked around trying to find Redheart, if anyone could help him, she could. Caius began to move a little faster, looking for her everywhere, but to no avail, she was nowhere to be found. Caius sat on the ground, mumbling disgruntled words, as he tried to think where she might be.

“This is absolutely unbelievable, you of all people” Now Caius knew he heard someone speaking to him, he turned around quickly to see who it was, his eyes widened with surprise, and a large smile formed almost instantly.

“Brother, you should really be ashamed of yourself.” Caius couldn’t believe it, before him, stood a large stallion, with a brick red coat, and a short black mane, it was Caesar. Caius stood up, and quickly galloped over to his brother, who he hadn’t seen in almost two years.

“Caesar, w-what are you doing h-, I thought that” Caius struggled to get the words out, his mind overwhelmed with joy from seeing another familiar face.

“My units here to help, our forces push further into Stalliongrad, we’ve been running ops, in and out for days, this is the first break I’ve had in a two months.”

“Just glad to see your still kicking” Caius said. Caesar chuckled lightly, his face though changed when he noticed the bandages around his brother’s head.

“Alright, you are not doing anything, until you explain this to me.” Caesar said, his tone now extremely serious.

Caius sighed, he himself didn’t know too much about what happened, or at least that’s what he thought, Caius shared what he knew though, his brother hanging on to every word.

“So you don’t remember a thing? I can’t imagine how that must feel.” Caesar said, placing a hoof on his brother’s shoulder.

Caius looked around, trying to change the subject when he spotted a row of tents, they were riddled with holes, and scorched in some places.

“What happened there? He asked pointing in their direction.

“This base is always being harassed, Innies hide up in those mountains, and drop a few mortars on us, we actually got hit just last night, nopony was hurt, thank goodness.”

“And your team hasn’t done anything about it?” Caius asked confused.

“Not much we can do, every time we try to bomb them, they retreat into the caves, and ground troops, can’t get up there, well safely anyway”

“So if I ‘am to understand this correctly, you’re stationed at an aid station, and when the enemy shoots you, you can’t shoot back?”

Caesar grumbled and poked at the ground with his hoof as he nodded reluctantly.

‘Well . . . . . . You’re fucked”

“Caius . . . . .I need to ask you something”

Caius turned to his brother, smiling at him.

“ Where were you for the past two months?”

Caius began to feel uneasy, slowly beginning to back away.

“Ponies don’t just disappear, brother for the sake of our kingdom, and the ponies that call it home, tell me! WHAT. HAPPENED. IN. STALLIONGRAD!”

Just then Caius felt a pain unlike any he ever felt shoot through his entire being, he screamed in agony as he experienced unbearable pain, he fell to his knees, and suddenly the pain focused on his horn, Caius felt as though his head were being torn apart with ice picks, and bits of barb wire, Caius rolled on the ground in immeasurable pain , and agony, until he fell unconscious. In the 60 seconds of hell, Caesar had called over medical help; Caesar had never seen anything like this before, if Caesar was to get to the bottom of this, he would have to dig deep.

Caius woke up a few hours later, this time both Redheart, and Caesar were standing over him, he winced as he tried to get up, only to feel a hoof keep him down. Redheart shook her head.

“You’re staying in bed this time big guy” She said, her voice cold, and stern.

“You’re going to stay there until the doctors find out what’s wrong with you”
Caius looked up at his brother “I’m f-“

“HORSESHIT!!!”

“Caius, you are not fine, what you did out there isn’t fine, it’s scary that’s what it is, and we don’t want to lose you again.” Redheart said, her tone now softening. Caius looked up at her. He noticed tears beginning to form in her eyes, she couldn’t take it, Redheart was obviously carrying a lot on her conscious, the deaths of ponies she knew, ponies she didn’t, the pain, and suffering of the war around them, it was starting to take its toll on her.

Caesar cleared his throat to get his brothers attention before speaking “Listen, I don’t think it would be wise to do anything stupid at this point, you need to rest more, and we need to look into whatever it is that causing you all this pain”

Redheart walked off, crying quietly trying to hide her sobs, still Caius, Caesar knew just what was going on in her mind.
“Brother?”

“Caius, pleases I need to know. If you tell me what happened to you over the past month while you were MIA, I might be able to help narrow down what happened, please Caius, please for the love of Celestia tell me, try to remember.”

“I can’t” Caius muttered softly, rolling on to his side facing away from his brother “I just can’t alright.”
Caesar slowly backed away from the bed; he looked back at Redheart, and looked at Caius.

“Caius, I’ll take care of her for you, in the mean time you need to rest”

Caius just nodded lightly, as he buried himself deeper in his blankets.

“The crystals here. . . . . .They aren’t normal”

“It’s like I see myself in them, not a reflection but an actually copy of myself . . . . . inside the gems”

“Their light . . . it makes you see things”

“I put so much work into you”

Caius eyes shot open, and he nearly flew out of bed as he awoke from, whatever that qualified as. He had a cold sweat,
and his eyes darted back and forth, scanning the room he was in, soon he spotted a figure in the back of the room, the large pony just stood there, staring at him, Caius could feel it, the other ponies eyes burning into his mind, suddenly an image flashed into his head, a large grey stallion smiling with a dark red scarf, and a short grey beard. Suddenly the image left his mind as quickly as it appeared the pony across the room with it. Caius shook his head, and looked around again.

“H-hello?”

No response.

Caius looked at the clock on the end table next to him, it was about one in the morning, Caius sighed and threw his head into the back of his pillow, trying to process what he just saw.

“What happened to me?” he asked whispered.

A quiet voice almost inaudible, responded to his question even though there was not a soul in the room.

“You survived my friend, you survived”

“Survived? Survived what, what did I survive?”

The voice spoke once more.

“Hell”

Caius closed his eyes, and despite his frustration listened to voice.
“What do I do now?”

“Kill a god!”

Caius’s eyes shot wide open as he heard those words, he listened again not completely sure he heard correctly.

“Overthrow those self -proclaimed gods, sometimes when the holy sin, heresy is the only answer”

Now Caius was sure he wasn’t just hearing things, and he knew what this voice was demanding, still the message seemed like a riddle.

“What does that mean exactly?” no response, Caius slammed his hoof against the bed. He couldn’t seem to understand what the message meant, more importantly where the voice came from, he looked around the room again, and still nothing but emptiness, and silence. Caius kicked off the covers, his brother told him to rest, he didn’t say how long, and Caius felt like a spring wound tight, ready to burst. He quickly got up, and trotted back outside. Caius looked up into the night sky, the full white moon glowing, he admired the night sky, with all the stars sparkling, and shining brilliantly. Caius smiled softly, and began to briskly trot between the tents, weaving around them like a maze, after a few minutes he found an opening, he looked around, quickly ducking behind a supply crate, as he heard the approach of a sentry, the guard pony stopped a few feet from the crate looked around, and after a moment moved on. Caius cautiously got back up from behind the crate, and looked back up at the sky, the night was beautiful, it practically left him in awe, he always thought of the night sky as the ultimate work of art, a picture no pony could duplicate, a master piece only achievable by Princess Luna herself. Caius exhaled as he felt a soft breeze roll over him as he stood there enjoying the peace of the night, suddenly a quiet chirp came out of nowhere. Caius looked around, trying to track the sound quickly following it with eyes to a small bat that was flying around in circles over him, Caius watched as the small creature orbited him several times before losing interest and flying off a few minutes later. Slowly Caius turned and headed back to the tent, he didn’t want to be gone too long, and risk somepony (his brother more importantly) discovering he was on yet another stroll, he trotted back as quietly as possible, and when he reached the tent, slipped in the tent flap.

“Beautiful nights always seem to get my spirits up.” Caius thought to himself, he heard a low rumble in his stomach, only now realizing just how hungry he was, he looked around his tent for some form of nourishment, luckily he found a small grain bar sitting on a table, Caius quickly levitated it over to himself, opened and happily began to chew. Caius looked around so more, getting to know his environment a little more, the tent was actually quite large, at least five or six more patients could easily fit in here, there was a small window in the tent, and a few tables sat across from his bed, which were covered in various papers, clipboards, and other miscellaneous items. Caius sighed, nothing really interesting, he thought to himself continuing his search, he looked under his bed, and found a bag, he quickly took the bag out from under the bed, and opened it, his eyes widened in surprise, and slight horror at what he found. The bag was filled with pictures, and notes, the pictures were of him, obviously taken while in combat, due to the low quality image, but one could still tell it was him. Caius became increasingly concerned as he rummaged deeper into the bag, as he dug deeper and deeper the items he found became stranger to him, he began to find personal notes, medical reports, charts, training manuals, and in the bottom of the bag, was a small sidearm. Caius levitated the sidearm to himself; he magically disassembled it, the pistol coming apart, every piece floating in close proximity of each other, after a minute of examination he reassembled it, and began to examine other items in the bag. Caius began to feel sick, as he read the medical charts, every last bit off information on it fit him to the detail, his height, weight, race, eye, allergies, everything. Every last bit of information one could get about him was written down, or printed, and all that information was lying at his hooves, another oddity about the documents was that all names were crossed out, he could already assume his name had been there originally, but wherever it said name on the document, there was a large line of black ink. He flipped through the documents, now instead of medical info; he began to find military documents, combat records, after action reports, the works. Caius couldn’t believe what he was seeing , someone had all this information on him, and- he paused for a moment, how did he know that someone he knew hadn’t placed it there, but that idea was absurd, but still how did he know. The thought was interrupted by the low sound of heavy thumps, they were heavy, and far away, the sound one usually heard when a piece of artillery was being fired, Caius fell to the ground, as an explosion struck a nearby tent, and hell began to break loose. Caius galloped outside, hearing the cannons fire again, he quickly galloped for cover, as more and more shells rained down on the camp.

“THE BASE IS UNDER ATTACK! ALL PERSONELL ARE ORDERED TO EVACUATE IMMEDIATLEY!” A loud voice boomed across the base, and everywhere he looked, Caius watched doctors, nurses, and soldiers scramble as they began to prepare for evacuation.

“Redheart” Caius immediately thought of her, he needed to find her, Caius quickly galloped off, searching furiously, asking everyone where she might be, to no avail, he continued looking around, until a large maroon figure collided with him.

“Caius, you need to get out of here now!” Caesar barked at him as he quickly got back onto his hooves.

“Where is she?” Caius asked

“Don’t worry we’ll get her out, right now you need to get out of here!”
Caius’s face began to turn red with anger “ Where is she?” he asked once more.

“Are you deaf, get going I’ll get her, just go.”

“Caius finally snapped he tackled his brother, and pinned him to the ground.

“WHERE IS SHE!?!” he spat.

Caesar looked his brother in the eyes, he could tell there was no stopping him, he slowly lifted his hoof and pointed to the southern end of the camp, with that Caius took off in the blink of an eye; Caesar knew his brother could move, but he’d never seen his brother move so quickly in his life.

Caius practically flew, as he weaved between tents checking each of them as quickly as possible, still he couldn’t seem to find Redheart, Caius began to panic, he couldn’t bear the thought of losing her. Caius began to round a corner when a shell impacted near him, throwing him into a nearby tent, he shook his head trying to regain focus when suddenly a hoof came down with a crushing force, Caius rolled to the side, the hoof of his attacker missing his head by inches, Caius looked up to see a large unicorn standing before him, the unicorn was different though, no eyes, strange markings and lines covering its coat, and its mouth stitched shut, a Ragnarok. Caius quickly dodged another assault from the dark unicorn, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, a Ragnarok, a pony summoned by magic created to fight to the death. Caius struggled to avoid the attack launched at him by the creature, dodging punch , after punch, Caius swiftly threw a punch back at the creature, only for it to grab his hoof, and flip Caius over its back and on to a operating table, the Ragnarok, quickly dashed over to Caius and began to violently assault Caius, beating him endlessly with the intent on killing him, Caius shielded his face with his forelegs, and looked around, to his left he spotted a scalpel just out of his reach, he quickly kicked the Ragnarok in the gut, which in turn fell back a few feet, Caius quickly grabbed the scalpel, jumped of the operating table, and with one swift motion, sliced open the Ragnarok’s throat, which to Caius’ dismay didn’t do anything. The creature quickly got back up, and started attacking Caius again, Caius now grabbed the Operating table, and flipped it onto his opponent, who in turn turned around and kicked it away, Caius cursed as his opponent avoided yet another attack, Caius quickly used his magic to levitate a large saw, which he began to spin rapidly, once it spun fast enough he launched at his oncoming enemy, the saw sliced the Ragnarok’s right foreleg clean off, yet the creature just kept coming, even with a major lack of balance, Caius kick the Ragnarok to the ground, retrieved the saw, and launched it at the Ragnarok again, this time removing the left foreleg, the Ragnarok then wobbly at first, quickly got on is hind legs, and began to charge at Caius using it horn. Caius facehoofed as he simply sides stepped to avoid the attack.

“Ok I know I’ve seen this somewhere before” Caius thought to himself, he then swiftly removed one of its hind legs. Now Caius could say he’d seen it all, as the creature simply stood there, bouncing on its last limb quite literally, Caius just decided to get it over with, he rolled his eyes as he cut off its last leg, he laughed as he watch the legless being drop to the ground, wriggling around try to kill its opponent, Caius slowly trotted over to it, the story said the only way to kill the Ragnarok without the curse affecting you was to crush destroy the horn, or skull, and with that Caius lifted a hoof and swiftly brought it down on the abominations horn with a satisfying crack, Caius watched as the Ragnarok turned to dust before him, he stood there watching as it slowly turned to nothing but ash, and dust. Caius looked down on his fallen enemy for one last moment before a shell going off outside the tent reminded him of his mission, he quickly galloped out, the base was now in flames tents were burning, and shells rained endlessly from the sky. Caius looked around and found a pony trying to get away from the shells barrage, Caius quickly stopped him.

“Where’s Redheart?” He asked, the pony pointed back to where he just came from, with that Caius quickly galloped in that exact direction, he weaved between the tents, and structures throughout the camp, dodging the incoming shells, moving faster than ever before, he finally came upon a destroyed bunker where he spotted Redheart and another soldier pulling another out of the rubble of the collapsed bunker.

“Red!” He shouted out to her . Redheart turned to see Caius standing there, she quickly looked down at the body they pulled from the rubble, and then galloped over to Caius, trying to stop him from going near the wounded trooper.
The other trooper was about to call out for Redheart to help him carry the wounded, when a large purple blade made of magic drove through his chest , lifted him and threw him to the side with force, the figure wielding the blade then removed his cloak and made himself visible as he prepared to finish the broken pony at its hooves, but was struck by a magic bolt before it bbring down the blade. Caius quickly charged the Ragnarok, ready to tackle it before it could regain its balance, he slammed right into the undead beings side, sending it hurdling to the ground. Caius quickly crushed its horn, and watched as it dissolved before him.

“Are you alright?” he asked turning to Redheart. She nodded and rushed over to the wounded pony.

Caius quickly trotted over to her and turned over the pony. Caius felt his heart drop. Before him was he brother, broken and injured, Caius knew it wasn’t the moment to get emotional he threw his brothers body onto his back and carried him as he and Redheart galloped for the evacuation portal. Caius looked at his brother, it didn’t look good, his brother was bleeding severely, and if he didn’t get help soon, his brother would die, Caius pushed himself moving as fast as he could, only slowing himself down so Redheart could keep up. They reached the clearing where the portal was still open, and ponies were still filing though trying to escape, all around where the glowing pink ashes of the undead ponies, Caius could see it, only a short distance to cross and they would be safe, they were almost there when Caius heard his lover scream in fear, he turned and saw as one of the beings reared up ready to impale her with a blade made of magic, Caius dropped his brother, and ran to save her as two more of the abominations seemed to materialize from nothingness around his mare, he sent a swift kick straight to the Ragnaroks skull pulverizing it, the abomination disintegrating in mid-air. Caius fought as he tried to hold off more, and more of the abominations, the black creature constantly appearing around him, the number of them was starting to become over whelming, his horned gave a suddenly flash, and a shockwave shot through the ground, sending the undead flying, Caius rushed to his lover.

“Redheart, REDHEART! LOOK AT ME, YOU’RE GOING TO BE OK, WE NEED TO GO LET’S MOVE”

Redheart stood up, and was about to run when a beam of light suddenly thrust through her neck, Caius watched in horror as another the abomination that did, pulled her body of off its blade and carelessly tossed it aside. That was it, the straw that broke the camel’s back. Caius felt a rage build, at the moment the fires of hell had no fury like his own, and a sense of the darkest and purest form of sheer hatred welled up in his stomach. He screamed with rage, as he charged head on at the black creature, he charged full speed ready the abomination however deflected him as sent Caius flying, Caius recovered quickly and created another shockwave which threw the abomination off its hooves, Caius galloped over and with his magic, wrapped a piece of barbwire around the beings neck, and began to pull, the wire slicing into the monstrosities throat, eviscerating its wind pipe, as blood spurted, and began to flow freely from its mouth, then Caius reared up and with one powerful kick the wire sliced through the abomination decapitating it, and leaving a bloody mess on the ground. Caius trotted over to Redheart, her cold lifeless body lying on the ground, Caius fell to his knees, tears welling up in his his eyes as he sat before the dead body of somepony he loved, Caius felt as though all happiness had been taken from him, any reason to smile no longer existed. Caius was then abruptly reminded of what situation he was in when a shell when off near him he quickly got up, grabbed his brother, and jumped through the portal. He felt a deep pang of sorrow as he thought about her, remembering that night he spent with her. It would be a long time before Caius ever smiled again.