Torn Apart

We may have lost, but we took a good number of rebels with us. I had hoped we had disrupted them in some way. As the sun began to come over the horizon, I could see what kind of panic our army was in. Rifles, cartridge boxes, canteens, knapsacks, clothing, all sorts of junk littered the road, while Utter devastation littered the landscape. I wondered about Bulls-eye, I hoped he was alright. I really liked the pony. After what seemed like half a day of marching, our column passed a road sign. It read “Ponyville: 20 Miles” I sigh of disappointment consumed me. We marched on. At nightfall, the colonel gave words that I couldn’t of been more happier to hear. “Company halt.” Men straggled over to the two sides of the road and collapsed. We were exhausted. We were going to stay here for the night. Pickets were posted ¼ of a mile away from us. I undid my belt and quickly fell asleep.

At the crack of dawn, we were awoken by Toothpick shaking us up. It was quieter than a bugle call; we didn’t want to attract any unnecessary attention. We ate a fast breakfast and marched on. We marched, and marched, and marched, the hot sun shining down on us all the while. Sometime in the afternoon, a courier pegasus came soaring down out of the skies. She fluttered toward our colonel. “Are you Colonel Toothpick?” she asked. “That’d be me” he replied. “Our scouts have spotted the enemy advancing towards Ponyville. They’re only a few days away. Once you reach the town, you are ordered to prepare defenses to defend it.” “Yes ma’am” Toothpick replied. She gave him a salute and flew back in the opposite direction. She looked rather odd to me; I’ve never seen a pony with those types of eyes before.

At the end of the day, we finally reached the town. Defenses were already being set up. We were by several members of the local militia, which escorted us into town. We were once again exhausted. I unpacked my knapsack and took out my blanket. I fell asleep in no time. At daybreak, we were up. We started to assist in the building of defenses. Sandbags and fences were built up. We worked side by side with the militia, which we were to be fighting beside in the upcoming battle. Most of the unused metal was torn down and casted into bullets. Food production was increased. Civilians boarded up their homes. On the night of the 2nd day here, the preparations were finished. After meandering around town, I found a familiar face, Bulls-eye. I approached him casually. “Hey Bull, how’s it going?” I asked him. “Oh, hey Paradox.” “Haven’t seen you in a while, how are things going for you?” “Besides two days ago? Great.” “What do you thing about this whole thing?” I asked. “What do you mean?” “I mean, you know, about defending Ponyville.” Ah. Well, frankly, I think if Ponyville falls, the war’s lost.” “I agree...we’ve got to hold here.” “What did you thing of Whitetail Woods?” “Scariest day of my life yet.” Bulls-eye replied. Tattoo sounded in the distance. “Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then.” I said. “Right, ‘night Paradox” “’night Bulls-eye”.