It's Just A Shot Away

08:06 - 08/10/1014 - Clawcany, Wingbardy

Apple Bloom couldn’t sleep.

She wasn’t entirely sure why either. It was raining lightly, and she’d slept through worse rainstorms before. Their unit was still some distance from any active combat areas. They weren’t due to be sent on any missions for quite a while. Perhaps it was just nerves, knowing she was in a warzone. If she’d heard anything from other soldiers it was that she’d learn to sleep anywhere before her tour was up.

She glanced at her watch for the sixth time in the last hour. However long it had been, she’d been still on her back, struggling to keep her eyes shut. Being on the top bunk meant she could stare up at the canvas roof of the tent rather than the bottom of a mattress, at least. From the sound of it, the others were having a hard time sleeping too. Babs was on the bunk under hers, tossing, turning, and groaning. She heard the others rustling around, some getting up and going out. Sounded like there was a large gathering of some sort outside. If it were important, she’d have been called to it. Maybe she could just ignore it and go to sleep.

Those hopes were dashed when Scootaloo barged into the tent.

“Babs, Babs!” Scootaloo shook Babs awake.

Startled, Apple Bloom heard Babs push herself up. “Wuh? Scoots?”

“Babs! Captain Blaze is here!” Scootaloo was making no attempt to keep her voice down.

Babs’s voice shot up. “No kidding!?”

“Yeah! Quick! He’s in the main tent!”

Heaving out a groan, which she made sure that the others heard, Apple Bloom rolled over the side of her cot. “You two mind telling me what the ruckus is all about?” she grunted. “I’m tryna sleep.”

Scootaloo whipped her gaze up to the top bunk where Apple Bloom sat. “It’s Blaze!” she said, very matter-of-factly. “You know him, right? Captain of the Shadowbolts?”

Apple Bloom rubbed her eyes. “No? Should I?”

Babs hopped up, looking towards Apple Bloom. “Hey, you should come with us, cuz!”

Scootaloo pulled away. “Ooh, ehh.” She rubbed the back of her mane, rustling her little wings. “I’m not sure if it’d really be her kind of crowd.”

“Won’t know until she tries, right?”

In all honesty, the thought of crowding into another tent with a bunch of rowdy soldiers to see some celebrity captain she’d never heard of didn’t appeal much to Apple Bloom. Then again, it wasn’t like she was going to fall asleep any time soon. Might as well be doing something. She shrugged. “Sure.”

Not stopping to wait, Scootaloo and Babs dashed out the tent whilst Apple Bloom climbed down from her bunk.

Before she was even properly outside, Scootaloo and Babs were already galloping out of sight, though it was easy to tell where they were going.

Out in the drizzle, the camp felt ghostly, nearly deserted. The eternally black sky, along with most every small tent sitting dark and silent didn’t help. Only the large central tent glowed brightly against the dark, a beacon of light in the night. From within, the low rumble of voices drifted out, punctuated by bursts of raucous laughter and cheers. It almost felt like she was going to the circus.

Inside was a swirling sea of soldiers packed tightly together. Laughter bounced off the canvas walls as they crowded around something hidden at the centre. Massive kegs lined the edges, explaining the sharp scent of booze hanging heavy in the air, mingling with sweat and smoke. Most of the soldiers towered over her, and by extension towered over Babs and Scoots. Their broad frames and stocky muscles created an imposing forest of bodies that dwarfed her. Scootaloo was hopping up and down fluttering her little wings, her head struggling to peer over the assembled soldiers.

“What's the big idea anyhow?” Apple Bloom asked. “All this for some old captain?”

Panting, Scootaloo stopped jumping and spun around to face Apple Bloom. “It's just not some old captain, it's Captain Blaze! The most famous soldier in the most famous division in the whole armed forces! He’s fought everywhere! From Olenia to Puerto Caballo to South Zebrica! And I mean fought! He could've gone General if he stuck to the career ladder, but no! He turned down every desk job he was offered and stuck to fighting in the field!”

Before Apple Bloom could reply, Scootaloo resumed fruitlessly jumping and flapping.

Then, out of the centre of the mass of ponies, an orange pegasus flew up and over everyone else. Whoever he was, he caught the attention of a good few ponies, including Babs and Scootaloo. Apple Bloom’s eyes were drawn to his spikey, styled-back mane, a vibrant fire of hot colours that got brighter the closer they were to the roots.

Apple Bloom tilted her head, pointing at the orange pegasus. “That him?” She thought she’d figured out why Scootaloo and Babs were so giddy.

Again stopping her hops, Scootaloo scoffed. “No, that’s Captain Fireblast, he’s a marine from-”

“Hey.” Captain Fireblast waved to the centre. “Bring the shorter ones to the front!” From his accent alone it was obvious he was a New Marelander.

Like a book being opened, the crowd parted for them. Babs and Scoots dashed through without a moment wasted, a few other shorter ponies shuffling towards the centre as well. While no physical pressure was put onto her, Apple Bloom still felt herself tugged along by Scoots' and Babs' invisible leash. Dozens of pairs of eyes pulled her further in, her hooves walking without her. A good few ponies she didn’t recognise, under and around her height, walked through with her.

Once she’d been pushed through to the centre of the audience, she gave a fleeting look back hoping to spot her friends. Then she turned forward, and froze. A pair of icy, azure eyes locked onto hers, belonging to an imposing pegasus stallion who could only be Captain Blaze.

Under his gaze, Apple Bloom couldn’t hold back a gasp. His mane burned orange and yellow, and his eyes shone like ice. Yet the ice in his eyes was offset by a generally jolly demeanour across his face. He wore a form-fitting bodysuit of purple and black, with yellow highlights, giving off a distinct glossy shine, unmistakably marking him as a Shadowbolt. That suit left nothing to the imagination, showing off toned definition in his muscles, suggestive of enough endurance and strength to outmatch most earth ponies. Yet his wingspan was broad enough to humiliate the average pegasus. Now she knew why her two friends were so excited.

“Ah, tankers!” Blaze peered down on Apple Bloom, grinning. While he appeared welcoming, Apple Bloom still inched back. “What might your name be, young mare?”

Before Apple Bloom had to answer, Scootaloo rushed in front of her. “Scootaloo, sir!”

“Scootaloo, then!” he chuckled. “Seen combat yet, Scootaloo?”

“No sir, this is my first deployment!”

“Then you have quite the adventure ahead of you, young mare!” Blaze patted Scootaloo on the shoulder, eliciting a squee from her.

There was a small entourage of other soldiers around him, including a few other pegasi and thestrals in Shadowbolt uniforms, and even a deer in an Equestrian officer’s uniform.

“Now, where was I?” Turning away from Scootaloo to face the audience more generally, Blaze stroked his chin. “Ah, yes! What you all need to remember about the northern side of Griffonia is that things up there are a lot less, mmh…” He twirled his hoof in a circle. “Developed, than they are here. This is relevant, you see, because while the norm down here is all brick and mortar type buildings, up there they still use a lot of timber. What’s so special about timber?

“It burns!” One pony in the audience yelled out.

“Yes, yes!” Blaze flapped his wings, hovering for a moment. “So what do you think I do when I find a wooden barracks with no windows and all the griffons inside soundly asleep?”

He thrust his hoof into the air and flames sprouted forth. It flared as the brightest thing in the tent, illuminated the surrounding faces with a flickering, fiery glow. Many gasped and recoiled, a few screamed. But, as the flames danced around his hoof and caused no harm, the tension melted away. First, Apple Bloom felt relieved. Then, the implication hit her like a brick to the face.

The fire went out, as quick as it started. “One of them got out, tried the old ‘stop, drop, and roll’, you know?” Blaze lowered his hoof and let out a giggle. “But I finished her off with my blades!”

A chorus of amazed yet disturbingly sadistic shouts and cheers erupted from the crowd. Each and every ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ sent a shiver through Apple Bloom’s skin.

“You want more?” Blaze asked, knowing the answer.

An immediate roar of “Yes!” burst forth from almost everyone in the tent. Almost everyone.

“Okay okay!” Blaze laughed. “This must have been a year ago or so, down in western Colthaginia. You all know where that is?” The gathered ponies all gave various signals of affirmation. “Yes, yes, so, the Colthaginians still use mercenaries to shore up their forces and, ehe, the thing about mercenaries is that they're not nearly as motivated as an actual soldier. Right? Right, right, we'd ambushed this one mercenary company of harpies, like a hundred of them, and they surrendered without much of a fight.” The more Blaze spoke, the more his words were laced with little tinges of laughter. “Then, hehe, then, rather than drag them all the way back to camp and go through the trouble of sheltering them or feeding them and all that stupid bullshit, let alone the paperwork… We herded them into a barn. And you know what we did?”

A thestral soldier on the other end of the tent leapt into the air, wings flapping frantically. “You cooked up some grilled harpy!”

“You really are my kind of ponies!” Blaze pointed out the thestral, speaking through chortles and giggles. “You should have heard the way they screamed! Like-” Blaze stood on his hind legs and flailed his front hooves. “Kwaak! Kwaak!”

Like a volcano spewed liquid magma, the crowd spewed a bout of laughter. Shrinking away, Apple Bloom glanced side to side searching for some sort of reassurance.

Instead, she found that Babs and Scootaloo were laughing along. It felt like a crowbar had struck her in the gut.

“Now, now.” Blaze cleared his throat and put on a stern, stoic expression, prompting the rowdy crowd to quiet down. His tone of voice changed to cold and serious, like a switch had been flipped. “I want to be absolutely clear. The Equestrian military does not deploy chemical or biological weapons on any level of operations. The same is true of the New Marelander military, and of our Aquileian allies.”

A low rumble of laughter came from the audience. Apple Bloom blinked, her brow furrowed. What an oddly specific-

A broad grin crawled onto Blaze’s face, dropping the pretence. “Chiropterra, however!”

That rumble of laughter escalated to an earthquake. It shook Apple Bloom enough for it to feel like one, her teeth chattering.

Once that died down, Blaze continued. “There was this village, somewhere in the north Zebrican territories, hippogriffs and a whole lot of them. Now, we’re special forces, we could’ve gone through the usual routine of swift fire and manuever with the weapons we had and we could have taken the village. But there were so many of them and so few of us and we’d done this so many times that-” Blaze stopped to giggle. “-that it was easier to just call in some artillery. But, we were with the Chiropterrans then and we wanted to have some fun, so we’d all brought our gas masks…”

Apple Bloom knew where this was going. The snickers and giggles of the ponies around her made it clear they did too.

Blaze himself was struggling to speak through his laughs. “Before- Haha! Before any of them knew it the entire village was flooded with sarin gas!”

And the crowd spewed forth another bout of laughter. The air felt toxic enough that Apple Bloom wondered if the tent had been flooded with poison gas too.

“That was you, wasn’t it?” Blaze nudged the deer next to him. “You ordered that strike!”

The deer looked caught in headlights. Several moments later they spoke. “In my defence, I-I didn’t know the settlement was populated.”

“Pfft!” Blaze flicked one wing dismissively and wrapped the other around the deer to pull them closer. “They’d have gone against us in the future anyway! Two problems solved in one, if you ask me! Come on Laurits, smile!”

All the while, a sour taste reached up Apple Bloom’s throat like she was about to throw up. Disgust piled up, coal was shovelled into a furnace. That furnace burned, hotter and hotter with every passing second, every laugh and taunt at the victims of these massacres was another heave of the shovel. The bile inside her twisted into something else, something raging and burning, something all consuming. The feeling in her throat turned ragged. Her eyes had locked onto Blaze. Where once she felt green, she was seeing red.

Her jaw was set, teeth grinding, hot air rushing out of her nostrils in sharp shallow bursts. Without even realising it she'd slipped her legs into something resembling a combat stance. She was face to face with a mass murderer. A mass murderer who got away with it. A mass murderer who was celebrated for it. A mass murderer who likely would never face any consequences or justice for what he did. But as her hoof pawed at the ground, Apple Bloom knew she could change that.

Every fibre of her being thrummed with the desire to punch that smug smile off the killer’s face, every chuckle only fuelling the firestorm within. She'd get in trouble for it. So what? She didn't want to fight for this armed gang of murderers and thieves. If she was going to fight, better to fight against it. Her mind's eye was already seeing it. All it would take would be a quick swing. She made no effort to hide her disgust. She made no effort to hide her intentions. She made no effort to hide her hate.

And Blaze noticed. His gaze locked onto her, like icicles stabbing into her chest. “You don’t look so happy either. Something the matter?”

“Uh-” Apple Bloom flinched. That flicker of uncertainty was enough for the flame to falter, for her thoughts to take in her surroundings. Blaze wasn’t the only pair of eyes locked onto her now that she’d been singled out. The laughs and cheers of the gathered audience died down, and for a moment that seemed to stretch forever, every new look another bucket of water poured on the furnace. Her lips sealed shut.

“Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo popped into her field of vision. So did Babs. “You good?”

“It’s-” Apple Bloom coughed. “It’s nothing,” she eventually spat out.

Her and Blaze shared a look for another tense moment. He grinned, eyes still cold. “Alright!” He spun away with a flick of his wings, facing another part of the crowd. “Well, anyway, I’ve got more, much more…”

Blowing out a breath she didn’t know she’d held, Apple Bloom scooted back and ducked. Keeping her pinned back and mouth shut, tried not to listen to the words being said. Maybe she’d find cover in the crowd. The very crowd that had just pressured her into silence.

She felt a nudge on her right. She turned, seeing Babs again.

“You can go if you want, cuz.” Babs patted Apple Bloom on the back. “Nopony’s gonna hold it against ya if this ain’t your thing.”

The cousins held their look for another moment, Babs giving a reassuring smile. It was enough to make the last few minutes fade out of her immediate thoughts, for the moment. Apple Bloom nodded, then took her chance and slipped away. Thankfully, nobody seemed to notice.

As she stepped outside, letting the rain hit her in the face, regret followed.

How how how how how HOW could she be such a COWARD?! She dropped to her haunches, her breath escaping in jagged, frosty clouds as she replayed the events over and over again in her mind. She could feel it in the moment, she could feel a righteous fury searing through her veins like electricity. And the force of the crowd short circuited it. Groaning, she buried her face in her hooves. She didn’t have to punch him, just say something. Say anything! Even if just one pony listened, even if just one pony took the time to think about what they were gloating about, then it would’ve been worth it.

With a grunt, she rose to her hooves. She turned back to the tent, seeing the entrance flap flutter in the wind. Momentarily, the thought of going back in and saying something, doing anything! It bounced around in her mind, but she knew what would await her at this point. Indifference at best, rejection at worst. Actually, given the crowd, more likely a beating. She sighed, turning away and walking back to her tent.

When she returned to her tent and went back to bed, she had about an hour to herself. Part of the time she kept her eyes open and watched the wind ripple through the tarp of the tent. At other points she forced her eyes shut. Regardless, she didn’t sleep a wink.

Later, the others returned. Gleefully chattering away about something that Apple Bloom tried to block out. Maybe if she shut her eyes tight enough she could will herself to sleep.

Babs jumped onto the bunk beneath Apple Bloom, jostling her up and forcing eyes open. “I’m gonna remember this for the rest of my life!” Babs said.

Apple Bloom shuddered. She didn’t know what would be worse. Forever living with the memory of tonight, or forgetting that she’d backed down and that her friends laughed with monsters.