Nephila woke up in a cold sweat, her heart pounding in her chest.

It was the same nightmare she had been having for weeks. Forced to relive the events of that dreaded night over and over again, the screams, the crying, the death, hell even the fear and the terror she could taste in the air. She could still smell the sulfur from the flames and the smell of burning carapaces as she roamed the halls of the destroyed hive. The sounds of the terror of the nymphs as she was knocked unconscious echoed through her mind causing her stomach to twist and turn, the countless cries of her hivemates begging for their lives in the hivemind in their final moments haunted her to no end. She felt so helpless reliving the events over and over again, the what ifs constantly coursing through her mind. She kept thinking about what she could have done to save her young ones. Could she have truly saved them?

She was torn from her thoughts by the blaring of reveille, she’d sit up sharply in the bed to look around while panting heavily. There she’d see half the damn barracks looking at her in concern, then she tasted it, the worry, the sympathy, even the sorrow. These ponies felt bad for her and they couldn’t begin to imagine what she went through, all they knew is it was bad enough to make her whimper and cry in her sleep. Regardless she was brought down to earth as a Pony placed a hoof to her shoulder and rubbed her back, she’d look up and noticed it was Gleaming trying to comfort her, she smiled softly as she rubbed the tears from her eyes resulting in Gleaming shooing the ponies away getting them to get to their respective duties, there was another emotion that Nephila was gathering from Gleaming, compassion. It warmed her up and she fed lightly off the emotion with a sweet smile. “Thank you Gleaming, I-I’m sorry for getting so choked up-” she was interrupted by Gleaming who placed her hoof to Nephila’s muzzle to shush her, after she did that she told Nephila, “It’s quite alright, losing your town was no doubt traumatic… How about this, you need a place to stay correct? There's a small town being built due east of here, about a few days journey, we usually get our supplies from the guard depot that was propped up in the town, I’m sure they’ll be willing to let you stay and work there in the town, you can probably get a nice house for cheap and work at the hospital they built there, given that you are a nurse after all.” She said with a sweet smile as she gave her a comforting hug and released her, “Come along, let’s get you on the supply run, I’ll have my troops take you there, all you have to do is rest on the wagon, it looks like you could use some extra sleep.”

Nephila nodded to Gleaming and got up off the bed and stretched a bit trying to get some of the knots out of her back that the bed gave her, she wasn’t quite used to sleeping on Equestrian beds, she was used to the soft hammock like beddings that were built into the walls of the hives, the nursery drones always got the better bedding and she truly missed it in this moment. She pulled herself from her wandering thoughts and cracked her back a little before she began walking with Gleaming. As Gleaming led Nephila to the wagons in the center of the fort she said, “Hey Nephi I hope you don’t mind, but you’ll be eating on the way to town.” Nephila looked at her surprised about the new nickname, “Nephi?” She had said in confusion which in turn caused Gleaming to giggle then promptly laugh, “What you never had a nickname before Nephi?” She exclaimed between her small giggle fits. “N-No I’ve never had a nickname before.” Nephila said shyly, causing Gleaming to look at her in shock before asking, “Are you joking?”. Nephila responded with a shake of the head causing both mares to stand there in silence for a few moments before Gleaming went back to showing Nephila to the wagon she is supposed to rest in during the trip.

It was filled with some items to trade with the town including some building supplies such as stone and wood as well as some broken weapons that were to be sent to the depot in town for replacement. There was also a single passenger wagon that was set up in the middle of the wagon train that Gleaming led her to, that’s at least what she thought it was till she entered it and saw a weird contraption that was set up on a rotating tripod, it was a system that had a crank upon the side and eight of the magic casting spears attached to a cylinder in the middle, “What is this Gleaming?” She asked with confusion as Gleaming looked into the wagon and said, “Oh! That’s a new weapon that’s issued to wagon trains and forts on the borders of Equestria, some egg heads in Canterlot designed it, it’s a rapid fire weapon that rotates the spears in a clockwise fashion when the crank is turned causing the spears to fire a beam of offensive magic everytime a spear hits the 12 o’clock position. We have four in the fort at each corner, and one for each wagon train, try not to activate the weapon as you rest in here alright?”

Nephila nodded to Gleaming and she laid down in the back of the wagon and said, “I hope to see you again Gleaming, please come and visit! Oh also do you happen to have a book or something that can help me kill time?” Nephila lit up when Gleaming used her magic to float over a small crate and placed it next to Nephila before saying, “This has everything you’d want, a couple books, grabbed a few medical ones that I hoped you’d like, and there’s a few things the colts that fancied you donated.” She said the last one with a wink as she turned to walk away causing Nephila to blush not understanding how to properly react to that, she never had anypony find her attractive before, she was just left there completely speechless and very quickly decided to open the box and found what was inside, there was several books like Gleaming had told her, as well as there being some chocolates, a small lunch box that had some fish sticks and a tuna fish sandwich, and a small bundle of flowers with a name of the Pegasus guards, and finally a small bag of bits that had a note on it with the name of half the guards on it that said, “Hopefully this can help you start your new life”. It seemed that most of the gifts had come from the Pegasus guards that had met her in the mess hall, the rest seemed to just be from random guards, probably ones she assumed had heard her tale of woe and saw how she was when she woke up. She went and grabbed a medical book going over pony anatomy and the like as well as one of the bars of chocolate and began slowly eating the really bitter and waxy ration chocolate that had the name “D Ration Bar” on the cover of the box it was inside of, as she ate the chocolate she began reading through the book, as she read she quickly learned how accurate the knowledge she was given over the years about caring for injured ponies was. Something she knew would come in very useful in her new life.

Author's Note

Hope y'all enjoy the story so far, chapter 6 is coming along nicely!