Clouds

Sketch smiled a little as he came back to reality. It was one heck of a memory, and one heck of a night, something truly memorable. Sketch, chuckled a little as he put the picture under his pillow; he turned to Morning who sat there next to him smiling.

Thank you, this picture means so much to me” He said with a smile on his face.

Morning nodded, she noticed Sketch beginning to look out the window.

“So how long are you supposed to stay here for?”

“Doc said it'd be another week, let the burns recover, he also wants to run some tests, see if there’s anything else…..damaged.” Sketch tapped a hoof against his head, he sat there silent for a moment looking at the door as he finished that sentence. He frowned a little. “I don’t like ponies getting into my head; you wouldn’t like what you’d find in there.”

“Why?” Morning asked tilting her head slightly.

“That’s for me to know only, don’t ask about it” Sketch said his voice suddenly becoming cold as ice. Morning noticed a small scar behind his horn, its was hardly visible, and most of it appeared to be covered by his mane, she felt concern rise in her mind, but put it off, he told her not to ask, so she wouldn’t. Sketch noticed Morning felt slightly pushed away by his statement, he loosened up his expression a little trying not to scare off the only visitors he had.

“So, how’s your daughter doing, with school, what was her name, Star, right?” Sketch asked with sincere interest, he tried to get the subject turned to Morning.

“Yes, she had the most wonderful time, she maturing so quickly, she’s made so many friends, although I’m worried, she mentioned something about somepony bullying her.”

Sketch shuddered as he heard her mentioning of a bully.

“Still she must be popular amongst the others; she told me some colt stood up for her.”

Both chuckled a little, Sketch smiled again, glad to hear that everything was going well; it made him happy as well. He began to ask more questions, asking about where Star went to school, how she was doing, how work was holding up, Sketch tried to Morning to talk about herself as much as possible, Sketch filled with joy, he loved to listen to her, her soft melodious voice, he loved her, the only problem he didn’t know how to tell her, even now where she is so close, he couldn’t bring himself to say it. Time seemed to stop as he listened to her for an hour. Just as Morning finished talking about work, they heard a knock on the door.

“Come in” Sketch said trying to speak loud enough that he was audible to the ponies on the other side. Sketch’s eyes widened a little as he saw who entered, he felt his spirit lift a little as he watched a tall brick red coated Pegasus stallion, and a grey colored mare trotted in the room, his parents.

“Sweetheart we came as soon as we heard” The cream colored mare with a greying golden mane said as she hugged Sketch.

“Hey Mom, hey Dad’ Sketch returned the hug to his mother.

“Son, are you alright” The large powerful stallion said with a voice of concern.

“Yeah, yeah I’m still in one piece, I’m hanging in there.”

“Oh dear I’m so sorry this happened, you could never deserve such a thing” Sketch mother sat next to him, and then she noticed Morning.

“OH, my apologies dearie, we’re Caius’s parents, and may I ask who you are”

“Morning, I was just here to visit him” She smiled a little.

“So you found yourself a fillyfriend did you?” Sketch’s father said in his deep loud voice. At this both Sketch and Morning blushed furiously, Sketch starting drawing a line in the air with his hoof, Morning shook her head rapidly”

“Oh dear, don’t embarrass the two I’m sure the young lady has another reason for being here. Morning nodded a little.

Sketch just buried himself in his bed again, embarrassed by his father’s assumptions”
Morning giggled a little looking at Sketch as her continued to try to bury himself under his sheets.

“So,” Sketch asked trying to break the silence “How are Caesar, and Manaeus doing, have you heard from them?”
Sketch’s father shook his head.

“We haven’t heard from either of them, must be pretty busy out there, the situation in Stalliongrad, is a snowball rolling downhill, its only getting bigger, it’s getting worse.” Sketch lowered his head and a frown formed on his face, He missed his brother’s it had been 2 years since he’d last seen them.

Sketch’s parents stayed for a while, they talked about family, and all that had happened over the past few weeks, they talked of their trip to Las Pegasus, which Sketch seemed to be interested in even if only about the description of the designs of signs and architecture, if there was anything about pegasi that Sketch was truly fascinated with, it was the buildings and structures they made of clouds, he always thought that they were a spectacular feat of construction and the design that went in to them, a pony was limited to what he could do with things like stone,, or concrete, but with clouds you could form the most bizarre of structures this is what always got Sketch interested. After talking incessantly Sketch’s parents said goodbye, and wished him the best, Morning however stayed.

“Nice parents” she said letting out a small giggle, as she watched Sketch’s mother exit the room.

“Yeah they’re the best.” Sketch said smiling. He looked over to Morning who had another beautiful smile on.

“So, how do you feel now that you’ve had some contact with ponies OUTSIDE the hospital?” she asked

“I’m just glad to know so ponies care about me” He said laying back against his pillow.

“I’m glad you came” He said “I hate being all alone here, nothing to do, nopony to talk to.”

“well I guess if it isn’t too much trouble I could come back tomorrow.” Morning smiled at Sketch, who seemed to be
absolutely elated to hear that.

“I would very much like that” He said . He looked at the clock “Uhm I don’t want to force you out, but um, when does Star get out of school?”

Morning looked at the clock as well; it was still one in the afternoon, so she still had an hour.

“I’ll have to go soon” She said, as she repositioned herself in her chair, she looked at Sketch to find him staring at her, her face turned red.

“What’s wrong?” she said

“Nothing at all, I just love the color of your mane, the dark shade blue in your mane, it’s beautiful” he said almost infatuated with the mare sitting next to him.

“Well thank you” She replied running her hoof through her mane, she blushed more now from the compliment.
Sketch, felt himself fade away as he gazed into Morning eye’s and for a moment both of them seemed to lock onto each other’s eyes, their focus unwavering, at that moment though a nurse came in.

“Sorry Ma’am, but we need to do a check up on Mr. Cirrus and after that he’ll need to rest” The nurse said with a a deep seriousness in her tonality.

“I’ll see you tomorrow” Morning said as she got up and began to leave.

“Bye” Sketch said quietly almost inaudibly.
Sketch pulled the picture back out from under his pillow and looked at it, he looked at his brother s again, as his mind lingered again.

2 Years Ago

Ruin, rubble, dust, and fire. It was all you could see for miles down the road. Caius looked to his sergeant on his left, who was looking at a map of the area they were entering. Caius team was sent earlier that morning to the area in response to a recent ambush on a patrol squad, down the road. It was his teams job to get to the patrol units last know location, and to check for survivors. Caius checked his combat harness, full ammo, and well maintained. He peered over the low wall they were sitting behind; the road ahead was empty, seemingly devoid of all signs of life, and uncomfortably quiet. BitterRoot, Caius’s sergeant looked up again.

“Alright men, were gonna move on down the road, Cirrus, you take point”

Caius got up immediately, and began to march down the road, all his squad-mates in tow. Caius looked around, he nearly vomited at the sight around him, the corpses of dead ponies everywhere, rotting, burning, it was unbearable, still he had a job to do, and Caius wasn’t going to chicken out of his duty. He continued down the road, searching for the missing squad that had been ambushed by rebel forces just hours ago. After a few minutes of marching down the road, they reached the crossroads, Caius looked around the corpses of fellow soldier littered the streets, shell casings lie on the ground, blood pooled, and ran freely through the dirt, and the stone. Caius felt something surge from his stomach to his head, as he absorbed the pungent odor, of scorched, rotting flesh. It was the patrol.

Caius inspected one of the fallen troopers, something was off, there were no bullet wounds, no holes, no immediate wounds, what he had noticed was the series of burns in the cloth of their uniforms, and the serious burns on their bodies. Caius began to wonder, most Insurrectionist’s were only armed with combat harness’s, which of course use magic charged cartridges, yet these bodies, these wounds there was no sign of body penetration. His thoughts were swiftly ended when all of the sudden, CopperBeat, the squad support gunner, seemed to light up, as a bright blue bolt of light struck him. Caius dove to cover looking back to see Copper’s body disintegrate into nothing.

“RETURN FIRE!” BitterRoot screamed as he stood up and fired a short burst from his harness. This action would be his last however, as a bolt of red lightning struck BitterRoot square in the chest and sent him flying back into ditch where they took cover.

“Sarge is gone” Caius looked for the voice which led to Vineyard the squad marksman.

“WELL CORPORAL WHAT’S THE PLAN” Vineyard exclaimed, now shouting at Caius. Caius came back to his senses as he heard the stallion next him shout in his ears.

With this Caius looked over the edge, he looked across the ruins, there just across the street the Insurrectionists were holed up in what was once a bakery. Caius dropped as a glowing white bolt nearly hit his head. The situation was becoming dire, they already lost two ponies and the sergeant, Caius had to conjure up a plan, and fast the survival of him, and his squad mates depended on it. Caius took another look, the way he saw it, dig in and wait for the enemy to come out into the open, or lay down suppressing fire and order a few ponies to flank the enemies inside the shelled out bakery. He chose the latter, and gave the order.

“RawHide, SteelFlint, were going to lay down suppressing fire, while Boron, Blaze, and Mist, you will flank them from the left, use the alleys and collapsed buildings for cover, avoid open areas they’re in the bakery’s ground floor, Vineyard get up on the second floor across the way, you’ll have a better angle to help cover the others as they roll hard to take out the targets, alright lets settle this, move on my mark.

ONE! Caius looked to his left and saw as Hide, braced himself.

TWO! Caius now looked to the right, he saw Boron taking, what would hopefully not be the last time a look at a picture of him, and his daughter.

THREE! Caius shot up and opened fire, joined by the others. In a heartbeat the others were moving down the alleys weaving between rubble, and ruin to reach their goal, Vineyard postioned himself in the overgrowth that had taken over a balcony on the second floor of the building next to the foxhole, his squad mates were sitting in, he looked through the scope, watching over the large windows, at the front of the bakery, the moment he laid eyes on it, an insurrectionist stood up to return fire, vineyard punished the mistake with death.

In the alley, Boron, took cover behind an over turned carriage, he looked at the area ahead, the last area they had to clear before hitting the bakery, he peered over the carriage, the road was empty, and lifeless , he took a deep breath, “So much could go wrong here.” He thought to himself, the road they were about to cross could be crawling with enemies, or the building’s might have snipers hiding in them, still it was a risk he would have to take, he drew another long breath, he forced himself up and galloped across the road, the others mere inches behind him. Boron looked back, everyone was still with him, and ready to go, he approached the side door of the bakery, he motioned the other who lined up at the door, Boron reared up and buck the door as hard as he could, he kicked the door right of its hinges with a satisfying crack, no sooner had the door been kicked open the other ponies rushed the room, firing on everything that moved, Boron turned and entered the room joining in on the killing. From the hole they were in, Caius could see it all, he felt an overpowering sense of satisfaction as he saw bright, rapid flashes of light coming from the fire of his teammates weapons, he watched as his plan came together, and ended in seconds, after a moment of silence Caius looked up, he spotted Boron giving the others the all clear.

A few minutes after the fighting, Caius went around checking with the others, making sure everyone was still good to go. Caius walked into the bakery, a question still laid heavy on his mind, what sort of weapons had the innies been using that left, no open wounds, and could incinerate a pony in a second. Caius lowered himself to closely inspect the body of an Insurrectionist, Caius was confused. The dead pony that lay before him had nothing on him, aside from a bag full rations, he had no weapons, no harness, nothing, not even a knife, it all made sense though when he noticed a certain detail that each of the insurrectionist had in common. They were all unicorns. Caius nearly lost his balance as the concept developed in his mind. The unicorns were trained to use they’re magic as a weapon,, that could kill more efficiently, and cleaner than a harness weapon, Caius then noticed other details, the eyes of the unicorns, they were glossy, and white, they were blind. Caius could feel the contents of his stomach rise; he hadn’t seen anything like this before, Rebellious terrorists using the blind to wage war, but something about them, something was off, he notice that the bodies were muscular, and well formed, the scars, and physical build showed that they must have had extensive combat experience, how could these blind ponies be so skilled in combat. Caius looked at this like a large puzzle with the pieces in a mess and no picture to go off of, Caius couldn’t wrap his mind around it, Caius decided the question could wait he grabbed any supplies and documents he found on the bodies, and trotted off to the others in his unit, the question still weighing heavily on his mind, buried, but nagging endlessly, for the first time, he didn't know who he was fighting.