To Chase The Shadows of Redemption

The first thing to appear in the darkness of his mind was soreness and aching all across his body he felt. Who was he? Nothing made sense. Every sense bled back into reality as as he slowly awakened.

What had happened? Why was he so exhausted?

After a while of struggling to feel things out, he finally began to get a sense of direction. He was laying on his back, on what felt quite soft. Probably a bed. There was a slight weight on the top of his barrel. It didn't really hurt more than anywhere else.

Finally, after much struggle, he finally managed to slowly open his eyes and take in the first view of a world he had thought he had left behind.

Before him his body stretched out in a makeshift bed it seemed. All bandaged up, his entire body that is, to the point he could only see the slightest hints of fur underneath it all in the tiny gaps where he had apparently not needed such thorough wrapping. Small stains of blood splotched several areas, who knew how many times they had been replaced already due to his bleeding.

Before his mind could wonder further why he was still alive, he saw what had been weighing on him.

The head of who he assumed to be Rainbow Dash had lay flat over him, half sitting off to the side in a chair while resting on him. Her mane covered the entirety of her head so that he could not see her face, but the colors were unmistakable. She was snoring softly. It brought a slow smile to his face. Just as quickly dominated by a more profound thought. He was glad. She had actually lived. He had as well, for reasons he had yet to understand. The last thing he remembered gave him the shivers... there was no way.

His tiny view of the world expanded, as light and sound which had previously been a disconnect clicked into place. Dozens of other beds and injured ponies surrounded him, with attendants working vigorously to help all of them. They seemed overwhelmed.

"Where am I?"

A pony, who was clearly not a part of those taking care of the rest, but was observing the inside of the tent, saw him and began approaching him after having seen him woken up. That's right, he was inside a massive tent. It all made sense.

"May I ask your name?"

"Dire... Dire Comet."

Dire just kept noticing things. Most aptly was the fact that this seemed to be a bat pony. Many of them around him were bat ponies that were taking care of others.

"You're lucky to be alive, Dire. Our reinforcements had been lagging behind, but your units heroic efforts holding out as long as you did allowed us to jump in at the last second. We'd all believed you'd have died within minutes, but our medical teams somehow kept you stringing along because of how fast you got treatment. It is truly a miracle that you're alive. You especially have this pegasus to thank, she carried you to our care centre faster than I've seen most free flying pegasi move, let alone holding another. Your vitals being missed just enough being second. Count yourself blessed.

"I don't even know where to begin. I can't believe I'm alive... I will have to thank her when she wakes. Thank you all for saving my life.

"No problem. Rest assured, our position is secure. After you... passed out, we finished the job you had all started. We are currently far behind the current points of conflict, as our forces have pushed further towards the capital. It is just a shame that we couldn't arrive sooner... it was too horrible to see the remains of that battlefield. At least we managed to save you two in the end I suppose, but it is a horrible thing to have to bury so many of our fallen."

Wiped out. It brought ancient emotions back to him. Grief hit him like a wave as he thought of all the shared memories from the past few weeks. He had grown to like and know many of them, even if the time was short. Now, they were all gone. He realized with a start he had been lightly crying without realizing it.

"I just hope all of this can end soon enough. I'm sick of losing friends and fellow ponies."

"Aren't we all. Listen, I'm going to let you rest. Do you want me to move her or...?"

"Let her be. She saved my life after all, and I have gotten more than I could've imagined being here to see for myself that she is okay."

The soldier left him, and he lay his head back and closed his eyes, contemplating everything.

After around twenty minutes or so, the figure on him started to stir. She yawned as she slowly opened her eyes and lifted her head up.

"What was..."

They were looking at each other like this couldn't be really happening.

"DIRE!!"

She slammed into him, which he eventually realized was for a hug. He was too busy wincing from the impact.

"Heheh. Sorry," she said after hearing his 'discomfort'. It was short lived as he heard something he had once wished to never hear again.

"I'm so glad... you're alive, Dire. I can't believe everyone is..." she choked on her words by the end. He felt a warm liquid fall onto his neck from her.

"I could say the same. I've never been more proud of my life than seeing you making it out of all of this. You have my eternal thanks for saving me, as well."

"Yeah... yeah... don't think anything about it dumbo. Don't do that ever again."

They lay there hugging for what felt like forever, until the tears dried up. They were briefly informed that they were to be sent back home, and he was surprised to hear Rainbow Dash argue against it.

"I can still do more! I'm not as hurt as him! Look! I can still save lives! Please!"

But it wasn't meant to be. The orders had already been received and stated, and despite her frustration he felt that she was secretly relieved. He knew he was, for both of them. He held similar thoughts, but was wiser to know that he'd just be committing suicide at his current state. His vitals had been missed by just enough by the bolts he was told later, and that his healing process would probably take around a week before he was back to some level of decent health and able to move around.

They had known reinforcements had been coming, but the timing left him depressed, if only they had come even hours earlier, everything would've been different. So many more lives could've been saved. Apparently the majority of reinforcements had come in the form of bat ponies, who had lagged behind the main forces due to being further away from the griffin lands at the start, and who had also apparently received the news late in their communities. Who bloody knew what happened there to cause that, but they were here now. Fighting for Equestria. They were as good as they came for that reason alone he thought.

They lay there resting and talking the rest of the day, until Rainbow decided she actually needed somewhere other than him to sleep. That night he slept feeling strange just before dozing off. When you thought it was the end and suddenly were thrown back to life, this happened he supposed.

In a darkened room cut off from light, several ponies were speaking with hushed tones.

"You say you can hire upwards of fifty to a hundred?"

"Yes. Yes I can. It will be expensive, so you better not be lying to me about this. The only reason I considered it at all is because there was multiple of you backing it."

"It's serious, Flawless. We need to see if there's anything else. We know something is up, and now we need to look to see how far it may go. She," he pointed softly to an uncomfortable mare off to the side, "has provided the last shred of evidence we needed to escalate all of this. We're going in."

Flawless looked around nervously due to the conspiratorial nature of all of this.

"Fine. But you better keep my name out of your mouths if this all goes up in flame. I'm helping you because of our history but goddess forsake me if this comes back to ruin me!"

"Relax, Flawless. Once we procure anything we'll work on getting it spread as far as possible. Besides, we know everything about the castle. This war has left every position thin. It'll all go smoothly. I say again, relax."

"Just... don't fail alright? I expect results, as always for my investments. Even if the reward is something none of us dare even speak of."

The entire room burst into laughter.

"I can't believe it actually worked! Those ponies act so posh and arrogant and they fell for such a basic trick! Shows them not to mess with us!"

Roeshak was joined by those working directly under him as they celebrated the massive success of their trap for the princesses force. Roeshak had practically placed all of his hopes behind it in a crazy gamble that would get him killed if it failed, and it had worked! Actually worked! They had spent days scrounging every explosive they had and moving it underground to make it happen. He still couldn't believe it.

Drinks had been clanged and dumped into voracious bellies, and Roeshak was no different. He was not drunk, not nearly, but the lightest of buzzes elevated him with the recent news, and cause for celebration.

It was when they were about to start another round that a messenger burst into the room. God, he hated messengers, they always gave him anxiety. He tried to not let it show in front of his men as the messenger came forward.

A whisper in his ear and he was flabbergasted.

"What?!"

All of the griffins around him had sobered up real fast seeing his reaction, eyes wide.

"You're telling me... that thee Princess Celestia, has come here alone to finish this? What kind of blasphemy is this?!"

"Sir...! She is standing several kilometres away on the plains before us awaiting our response of surrender or challenge. What shall we do?"

Roeshak cursed everything. Still, this had to be a bluff right? Firstly, he was convinced that she wouldn't actually destroy their capital itself, so that was some relief that she couldn't just blow them up like she had done to a large portion of his forces earlier in the war. This was a defensive advantage. But still... it had to be a bluff right? Was there ponies waiting in the forests behind her somehow? Or was she really that over-confident in her ability? He hated to admit it, but she was truly a monster. But was that really enough to fight all of them here? He had recalled most of his forces back to the capital as the ponies had pushed inward, and she'd be facing ten thousand to one. Not only this, but artillery could be used as they had it here from the old times of the kingdom, which they had recently restored. He felt like if they played their cards right, they could overwhelm her. Attack from every angle, wear her out, and then eventually finish her when she eventually made a mistake. Was that really so unrealistic?

The other side of him hesitated against his better judgment. He had heard the reports of her actions so far. The pure destructive potential was ridiculous. They could only really do what they could to prevent disaster was to spread out and hope she didn't actually want to genocide their entire race. But she had asked for surrender, had she not? Surely that meant there was something there. She was not killing mercilessly and without pause.

That made him lean towards fighting, even though the mere thought of it sounded crazy. Who could even say that aloud in a serious manner?

But it was not lost on him that this was it, considering she was here at the heart of their kingdom. They didn't really have much choice anymore, she had gotten here regardless of all of their efforts to slow them down. The earlier success drained away from his mind quickly as he got serious. Well, looking around the conclusion had always been the same. They may have been off put like he had been hearing the news, but once again he knew that surrender was not an option, lest he wanted to forfeit his life for free and allow an even worse fate to befall his people by the replacement they'd eventually have. Some other incompetent, he figured.

No. It was crazy and surreal, but they were going to have to do this. And if... and if they actually won, the war was as good as over. The ponies would never recover from losing their princess. He believed that with all of his heart.

"Send out the word, we will not surrender, we shall fight. Give her our answer," he motioned "ALL MEN! PREPARE FOR BATTLE! I WILL BE PERSONALLY COMMANDING OUR FORCES! MOVE OUT AND STAY READY! YOU ARE ALL TO STRESS THE IMPORTANCE OF FOLLOWING THE COMMANDS TO A TEE TO ALL YOUR MEN! DISMISSED!"

He tried to mentally prepare for the grand odyssey that was tackling this Goliath before him, and stressed. He was just going to have to do what he could, just had like had so far. This was the battle for his life, and all the griffin race.