EARLY WINTER, 123 ALB: BORDER OF NORTHWESTERN EQUESTRIA AND SOUTHERN OLENIA.
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The smoke from our campfire dances in the cold new year’s air, mingling with our frosted breath. I let out a long sigh as I watched the fire dance, “So… tomorrow morning then?”
Einar glances up at me, pausing his polishing of his sword, “Mhm, why? Getting cold hooves, kid?”
I shake my head as I peel my eyes off the fire and meet his gaze, “No, sir,” I pause for a moment before continuing, “what exactly are we to do again?”
He blinks a few times before looking down and going back to polishing his sword, speaking softly, his voice rough and heavy, “We sail, we grab all we can carry so our people can eat for the next months or so, and we make off before the royal guard shows up, then we do it all over again when our people need more food,”. He begins stuffing the rag he was using to clean his sword into his side bag, “We don’t usually have any resistance, it’ll go smooth, don’t worry,” he sheaths his sword and gets up, “I’ve done this more times than I can count; almost never have those ponies thought to go against our demands,” he turns his head fully to face me, a battle-scarred cheek contradicting his calming words as he shoots a soft smile.
He slowly meanders back to his tent calling out to me before fading into the dark, “Don’t stay up too long, we leave at first sun.”
I look over to where his voice was coming from and can only see the occasional flurry of snow, only hear the sound of the wind fighting the campfire, sounding like that of ripping fabric. I take one last good look into the campfire and sigh again, the truth is I am scared… I’m only doing this for the promised cut of what we get. It’s no wonder why deer like Einar come back time and time again even after acquiring a nasty scar like that.
I remind myself that my siblings, my mother, they need this, I need to stand in place of my father now that he… I cut off my thoughts before it can affect me, shaking my head slightly as I stand up slowly and kick snow into the fire, snuffing it out before making my way to the tent I’ve been assigned. The wind howls as snow begins to dot my fur, the snow crunching beneath my hooves, the only light being that of which glows softly from the oil lamps in the tents.
I open the flap to mine and lay softly on the hay, ruffling beneath me as I reach out to dim the lamp. I lay fully, resting my cheek on the hay as my eyes trace the patterns on the tents wall, slowly flowing and rippling with the wind outside. I let my eyes fall closed and I drift off to sleep, the sound of the wind soothing me like a lullaby.
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I slowly awaken to the sound of a bell ringing rhythmically, I pull myself up, groaning as a piece of hay falls from my face back onto the pile beneath me. I stretch and put on my side bags, tightening the belt and equipping my sheath, examining my sword for any rust or nicks before sheathing it and making my way out of the tent to join the others. The snow crunches beneath my hooves as I approach the crowd of excited mumbling deer.
I spot Einar and saunter over to him, “Have you been assigned your boat?”
His head flicks over and down to me and he smiles warmly, “Yeah, think we’re in the same one, I’d double check the paper though. Check boat four’s listing,” he returns his attention to the deer he was talking to before I interrupted. I nod slowly and make my way through the crowd to the table, it got harder and harder as I got closer, more densely crowded. There were easily over a hundred deer gathered here for this, all wanting to come home either a hero or a provider.
I finally squeeze my way to the table and scan over boat four’s list… ah, there I am… Naemer. I back away from the table as another deer takes my place, walking back to Einar, “Einar!”
He pauses his conversation and looks back to me, “Were you on the ship’s list?”
I nod softly and smile softly, “Sure was.”
He laughs softly, “You seem much more excited than last night, were you really just tired then?”
My smile falters slightly, a pang of anxiety begins to broil in my gut; my smile returns as I nod again, “Yeah, I was just tired was all, you know where breakfast is?”
He nodded over in a direction where more deer were crowded, “I’d grab some before it’s all gone,” he pats my back softly, nudging me towards the table.
I saunter over to the table and pile up carrots and kale onto my plate. I take the plate in my teeth and walk over to a rock and sit against it, setting the plate on the ground and feeding off it, saving the carrots for last.
As I swallowed the last bite of carrot I looked up towards the shore, our boats lined up prepared to launch at any moment against the pebble beach, there were a few deer on each, checking over the sails and ropes of each before filing off one at a time. I watched as they all spoke to one deer who held a clipboard, checking off a list with each ship.
The deer with the checklist makes his way to the center of the camp and rings the bell loudly, I nod and sigh and slowly get up. My legs shake slightly, but I push my fear aside, trotting to the center of camp.
I slow my pace as I stop at the edge of the crowd, pushing my way to the front, the deer with the checklist speaking to everydeer, “... of you will now board your assigned ships, if you do not know what ship you’re on, consult the papers over there,” he nods in the direction of the list of names for each ship, “otherwise, may Harland watch over you all, goodluck,” he begins to walk out of the crowd along with several other guards who escort him further into the camp.
The deer begin mumbling and filing onto their respective ship. As I enter the fourth I turn my head over my shoulder, seeing the sunrise peek over the mountain range in the distance, further into the heartland of my home. I nod and turn my attention forward, boarding the ship, the feeling and sound of creaking hardwood filling my ears as I take my first step onto the deck. I look around and begin searching for Einar.
I explored the deck of the ship, it's rather crowded, hard to move around. I’m surprised nodeer has gotten pushed off the side yet by accident. I make my way to the upper deck and spot the familiar scarred face, walking up to him. He’s looking off the side, over the ocean. I stand next to him for a few moments, trying to figure out what he’s looking at.
“Yknow,” as he suddenly starts speaking my head snaps to him, locking onto his face, “those ponies, they’re lucky,” He glances down at me.
I raise an eyebrow, “lucky?”
He nods, “Yeah. Lucky. They don’t have to live in the snow every day of the year… see only the green of the pines every day, they can live where the ground is green, with no snow,” he pauses for a moment, “they don’t have to worry about not getting their next meal, they can turn any land into a farm,” he smiles softly, “it’s kind of amazing to think about… growing food out of nothing instead of having to fight for it,”.
I nod slowly, “... so, why haven’t we asked to just trade with them?”
He chuckles softly, “What do we have to trade? Snow?”
I laugh softly before continuing, “Well… we have metal, don’t we?” I look up at him curiously.
He shakes his head, “Not enough to be valuable to them. Ponies don’t usually fight, and those ‘royal guard’... they have gold plated helmets, purple plumes sticking out the top,”.
My eyes widen slightly at this fact… an army so rich that they can wear gold into battle; not care about losing purple dyed plumes. It boggles my mind, I’m not even able to comprehend it. If I were even to lose my steel sword I’d be ashamed until the day of my death. I speak softly, “So, I would assume they do not wish to trade?”
Einar nods softly, “Mhm, we’ve been doing this for about a hundred years now, my father did it, and my father before him did too. We do it because we need to, though some here do it out of spite. Some simply dislike the ponies for existing,” he goes back to looking over the sea as the boat launches, sending me stumbling back into another deer.
I look back and up at him and move forward a little, “Oops… sorry, won’t happen again,” the older deer simply rolls his eyes and goes back to his conversation, I turn my focus back to Einar, “Well… I hope one day… we can live in peace, where we don’t have to resort to this,” I try to smile softly.
Einar smiles warmly and reaches a hoof over to ruffle my hair, “Maybe one day, kid, but I don’t think that will happen in either of our life times… it’ll be at least another hundred years before any sort of peace will be established I bet,” he lets out a short huff as water crashes against the side of the ship.
I watch the waves roll and crash as we get further from shore, I can feel that anxiety working up in my gut again, I clear my throat as I start speaking again, “How long does it usually take to arrive?”
He hums slightly in thought, “not long, I’d say… an hour, we’re only going a few miles down shore, just around the shore line,” he nods softly in thought, “at least twenty minutes,”.
I nod and begin to slump against the wall of the ship, “I think I’m gonna take a nap, let me know when we get there please,”.
He grunts and nods, not taking his eyes off the waves. I glance over the rest of the ship as I lay down, my eyes travel over the cloth sails, watching them fill with air and occasionally ripple as the wind changes direction ever so slightly.
I sigh and close my eyes, resting my chin against my forearm as I begin to drift to sleep.
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I feel myself nudged and I wave a dismissive hoof at whatever is trying to interpret my nap, I hear Einar's voice, “... Naemer, we’re nearly here,”
I grumble and shift, “ughh,” I feel a hoof kick the back of my head, my eyes shooting open, “ow…” I rub the back of my head and slowly rise. I rub my eyes and look out over the edge of the ship, seeing the coast line, green ground… It's unfamiliar. Houses made out of a reddish material I’ve never seen before. “Is this…?”
Einar nods, “We’re in Equestrian waters, we’ll land in three minutes… you ready?” He offers me a warm smile.
I try to flash the same smile back and I nod slowly, feeling the anxiety building up more, my joints beginning to ache purely from my worry, “Yeah… how long are we usually here for?”
Einar thinks for a moment, “An hour or two without any resistance,” he sighs as he shifts, his hooves stepping against the hardwood, “with resistance… that really depends… we could leave in ten minutes, three hours, a day later… really depends if we’re in the position to fight or not,” he looks over at me, “but, they haven’t resisted at all the past ten or so times. I think they’ve learned we won’t hurt them if they just don’t get in our way,” he returns his gaze to the shore for a moment before backing away from the side of the ship, beginning to make his way to the back where we would get off.
I follow behind him as others gather towards the back, the captain calls out to us from his steering wheel, “Twenty seconds!”
I take a deep breath to try to stele my nerves to no avail, my breath shaky and my legs wobbly. Damn. If any pony sees me in this state they might get ideas… ideas that we’re weak, that they can fight back. I bite my foreleg to try and quell the shakes, this works paired with another deep breath. One deer throws a ramp down and more begin filing off the ship and onto the ground. I feel myself getting pushed forward from the crowd behind, running down the ramp.
I run with the herd of my kind as they rush towards the pony village, they all unsheathe their swords and maces and axes alike. I follow suit, brandishing my own as the crowd begins to grow more spread out as we get closer to the town. I try my best to follow behind Einar as others start bellowing their war cry, screams of what I assume to be terrified ponies echoing from the streets as I make my way past their houses and down their streets.
I spot Einar burst down a door and I hear crashing, I rush in behind him, my mind spinning and dizzy with adrenaline as it struggles to take in all that is happening around me. I spot a male pony brandishing a knife at Einar, speaking some language I’ve never heard before… he’s about to hurt him. I need to help him, now! I begin trotting over to Einar’s side, my heart pounding and my sword trembling in my magic.
The pony's eyes darted over to me, he’s terrified. Me and Einar begin closing in on him, Einar speaks to me, “Make sure he cant take a right,” he glances at me only for a moment to see if I heard him.
I nod softly, “Alright,” I begin moving to the side of the pony as we corner him, “we don’t want to hurt you… just… lay down the knife…”
The pony yelps in the same tongue, focused on me, repeating a phrase over and over again, as if pleading for us to not get closer, “Einar… I think we don’t need to-”
I’m cut off and before I can blink the knife the pony was wielding clangs to the floor, blood runs down the ponies neck, dripping to the ground as he falls limp with a thud against the hard floor of the kitchen, what… what just happened. I look up from the knife and watch Einar pull his sword back, the pony laying on the floor not a foot from me, my heart pounds as my eyes widen, looking down at the pony as he stops moving, his eyes unblinking and wide, never leaving mine.
“E-Einar… you… you didn’t… why did you… why did you do that…?” I glanced up at him, horrified.
Einar is cleaning his blade of the blood with a cloth that was on their table, “he was threatening us, he was about to lunge, no big deal,”.
My brow furrows, “No big deal?! He… he’s dead, Einar…”
He simply shrugs, “so…? He's a pony,”.
I hear a scream from behind me and turn, its a female pony covering her mouth, a child in toe looking horror as he rushes to the male ponies side, shaking the body. I take a step back towards Einar, “Einar… this… this pony,” I pause and shake my head and I feel sick to my stomach. This was only supposed to be a grab and go, we were supposed to get what we needed. Not leave children fatherless and wives widowed.
I continue shaking my head as I back up, “Einar… lets… let's get out of here,” I turn to look at him.
He looks at me confused, speaking calmly, “What? Why? We haven’t even taken food or stuff we need from here yet,”.
My eyes shift and my brow furrows with anger, I speak softly my voice trembling, “I think we’ve taken enough,”.
I sheath my sword and walk out of the house and slump myself against the rough exterior wall, groaning, watching as another building is engulfed in flames… this… this is brutal… this isn’t out of need. This is slaughter. I shakily get up and move to another house with its door open, I enter and spot their kitchen. I spot vegetables, ripe. I saunter over and begin packing them into my bag, trying to distract myself from the screams and what Einar did, he... I can only see the young pony over what I assume to be his father and think of my own. How I had lost mine. Not in such a graphic way but... it makes my face scrunch up the more I think about it, how much hate that stallion will grow up to harbor against my kind.
I feel myself tear up and begin to collapse to the hard cold floor, some apples falling along with me, rolling on the floor as I cover my mouth and let out a soft sob. I shake my head and try to take a deep breath as I pick myself up and begin packing the apples, my sacks only half full. I begin exploring the house further and hear something move above me, I see stairs leading to another floor and begin going up.
I spot a pony in the corner of the upstairs room looking terrified and… I… I just feel more sick, I try to imagine myself in his hooves, my home being invaded by creatures I've never seen but learned to fear as monsters. I go to the top of the stairs and take an apple out, rolling it to the young pony with a sympathetic and weary smile. The pony shakes his head and I simply nod and begin walking back down stairs, not wanting to cause him any more panic.
I move to another house with its door hung open and begin taking from the kitchen slowly. I begin packing the lettuce and other greens, making sure to pack the fruit last. I spot what looks to be a framed picture of the family that lives or lived in this house. I sigh as it only makes me feel worse. I turn and begin to walk out the door, my sack full of stolen veggies and fruit.
As I walk the streets there are houses half on fire, some fully collapsed. I stop as a pony lay in the street in front of me. Motionless. He’s probably just as old as I am. I can’t look away from him. His eyes are open, looking onward at nothing in particular, his mouth hung open just the same, as if he passed before he could get his last words out. I feel my legs tremble and I’m forced into a sitting expression as I break down, beginning to cry. I lay fully as I hear a house collapse a good distance behind me, succumbing to the fire that had taken it over. I feel embers and ash dot my coat as the smoke rolls through the street.
I slowly and shakily open my sack and take out an apple, placing it with the fallen stallion, tucking it under an arm where it wouldn’t be seen unless he was moved. I give him one final look, mumble a prayer for him and begin making my way back to the ship, dragging my hooves against the dirt street as my mind races over what I had witnessed. As I board the ship, there’s already a decent amount of deer onboard making small talk as if nothing had happened back there. As if families were not slain in cold blood. As if we had not just committed atrocities that our gods would frown upon.
I stare over the wall of the ship, sitting and gazing over the coastline as the amount of screams begin to dissipate over time. More and more deer start boarding the ship, some mumbling, some laughing, some proud and showing off the blood on their swords and axes alike, all of their sacks full of stolen food and other goods. I look down at my forelegs and see they are spotted with the dark red blood of the first stallion we had encountered. My expression only grows weary, my eyes softening as tears well up in my eyes the more I think about it, I feel the wood of the ship bend slightly as Einar sits next to me and I hear him begin to speak, but I tune him out, my eyes glued to my own legs. His voice is muffled, the only sound that's clear being a ringing in my ears. I feel the ship begin to move as I shift my gaze stare off into the sky towards that coastline, watching the flaming and desecrated village grow further and further away… are they really lucky?