Torn Apart

When I awoke, all was silent. It was night time. I felt my neck. The bleeding had stopped, and I felt I could manage it. As I started to survey my surroundings, I came to a horrific conclusion. Our assault was not successful. Bodies of our lads litter the ground. Some of them lay in the most peculiar positions. I turned my attention from the corpse-littered ground, to the enemy fort. That Lunar flag still waved defiantly. I needed to get back to our lines. And if possible, find the remainder of my company. That is, if there were any. As I began to move, a bullet hit the ground beside me. I fell back down, still as a rock. I knew that this was not going to be easy. I very slowly moved my arm towards one of the bodies, and slowly pulled him in front of me. I took two more and placed them beside me. In a no time, I had made me a box of cover. I would have to stay here, and see what dawn brought us.

I opened my eyes to the glaring sun. I saw a lad who was in the same predicament as I was squirm around before being shot. Those bastards were still going at it. A few hours of waiting later, one of our commanders rode up with a white flag, asking an audience with the Lunar commander. His request was granted. After a few minutes of talking, they had agreed to a temporary cease fire. This provided time to get the wounded off of the battlefield and for other things. Once it took effect, I slowly raised myself off of the ground. After not being struck with a piece of lead, I ran back to our lines.

“Any of you seen Toothpick?” I asked around. “Who?” one asked. “Colonel Toothpick, 1st Canterlot.” I replied. “Ne’r heard of him.” This continued until I found a few familiar faces. “Hey gents, uh..do you know where I can find Toothpick?” I asked. “Aye, he’s paid a little visit to Sawbones!” Sawbones was a slang term for the surgeon. “Is it serious?” I continued.  “Tis just a li’l scratch, dinne fret!” the soldier replied. The remainder of my company and I spent the rest of the day trying to reorganize. A while later, we heard Toothpick was going to be put on furlough for a while to recover from his wounds. I wondered who are knew commander would be.

A day later, we received our commander who would replace Toothpick until his return. His name was Toadsticker. He was a wildcat for sure. “Gentlecourts, I am your temporary commander until Toothpick returns. Under my command, things will be done differently. You will respect me, and I will respect you. If you fail to respect me, you will be severely punished! And under my command, we will drive those heathens back into the hell from once they came!” I could tell this was going to be a wonderful experience.

That afternoon, we began to pack up. We were going to have to find another way to Luna’s Castle. We packed up camp and marched out. I was glad to be getting out of this forest. We were going to go back into Ponyville. That town had somewhat become our home camp. About half way through the march out of the Everfree, I began to here running. I thought it must be the enemy pegasi. The running got louder and more intense. “Company, brace for pegasi!” Toadsticker yelled. At that moment, our column of fours split. Two columns were facing the left, the other two were facing the right. Our bayonets were fixed and at the ready and our rifles cocked. However, what came out of the brush was not enemy pegasi, it was a horde of manticores. “What in Celestia are those things” One said. “Ready, aim, fire!” We poured lead into them. Many fell, but the rest kept coming. We braced ourselves for the impact. The manitcores ran themselves onto our bayonets. Our colonel was shooting them with his revolver. Pretty soon, it was all over. The survivors retreating into the woods. After a minute of waiting, new orders came out. “Company, form column of fours! Forward, march!” We continued our way out of the forest without incident.