But You Were There

The pistol went off and a bullet found itself lodged in the Solar soldier’s front leg, causing them to flinch enough for Spectrum to have a second shot. Just as he was about to fire again the scream of artillery whizzed overhead and landed near the distracted Solar soldier, making him vanish in a plume of smoke. Now was his chance to run back to the trenchline, he wasn’t going to waste it. Crawling out of the shell hole, he holstered his pistol and began running as fast as he could towards the nearest Lunar trench. Shouts and shots rang out behind him as the remnants of the retreat were either being wounded or killed off before they could reach the Lunar line; his hooves ran on autopilot as adrenaline fully consumed him. He heard the infernal motor of a tank approach him, with a turn of his head he saw that a Solar tank was gaining on him with the main armament belching fire at him and those not in cover. He quickly looked around frantically for any kind of cover, then he saw the remains of a field gun. It would have to work, what other choice did he have? He along with two others found themselves squeezed behind the metal corpse as they waited for the metal beast to roll by. He checked what he had on him, his shovel, his pistol and two grenades, one being an improvised anti-tank grenade.

They watched as the Solar tanks drew near, their fronts belching flame and their sides picking off whoever remained, when suddenly the field guns came alive. The first shots were fired, the tank on the left was a direct hit, its front horn exploding and the surviving crew evacuating as fire engulfed them. The tank on the right, the one closest to them, was hit at an angle where the shell bounced off of it. A moment later a second shell was fired, and it suffered the same fate as its counterpart. Spectrum motioned for the other two to go now as he began running yet again, his heart pounded in his ears, his blood was boiling, he was going to make it. Then he heard the sound of artillery from the Lunar side and his eyes widened. He began running faster, looking for a nearby hole big enough to sustain him. The initial shells hit the ground and turned small holes into crater, perfect he thought. As the second round of artillery fired, he ran for a hole, any hole he could find: there was no other way to survive this bombardment. He neared a crater when a shell landed by him, detonating in the ground and sending him flying. He let out a pained scream as his side began to burn intensely, more so when he landed unceremoniously in a nearby shell hole. A third barrage began as he landed and, as he was getting up, another shell went off nearby and sent half of a Solar soldier into the hole with him. When their helmets collided with force, everything went black for him.

Hours after the attack Spectrum would find himself regaining consciousness, the blue sky turned to gray, and the ground was soaked. That was not a good sign especially if he was in here for a while, he feared that trench hoof would settle in and the field surgeon would amputate his leg off. He looked over and saw a rat approaching him, even though it had already feasted on the poor soul who was thrown on top of him.

“Hey! Go away!” he exclaimed while whacking it away with his wing, prompting an angered hiss by the rodent. It skittered away from him and went over the ledge as if there was no danger to be found. Outside the crater however he did hear something: movement; groaning; the distinct sound of a rifle; screaming and talking. He pulled the corpse higher up onto himself, coated some mud on his face and laid waiting. He played dead and when he listened in, he heard an unsettling exchange.

“N-Nien! Nein don’t shoot,” the young voice called out, followed by laughter.

“Aww vhat is ze matter little bat?” the voice asked in a mocking tone, “did zomeone get stuck in ze barbed wire?” it asked followed by more laughter.

“I think this little bat looks cold, why don’t we warm him up?” a second voice called out, followed by the creaking of a tube.

“NEIN! PLEASE LET ME G-” was all that Spectrum heard before the guttural scream cried out briefly before it died down into a gurgle and the creatures walked away. The power of the sun mounted on your back, he thought, no creature should be allowed to harness such power, such...cruelty. He began to wonder though; how much cruelty was created in a short amount of time? It is only a matter of time before someone makes a superweapon that can wipe everyone out in an instant as if it was the word of the gods. A short bit later he heard more gunfire than nothing more. He laid there and thought on this for a while until he believed the coast to be clear, when he tried to get up, he realized how much danger he truly was in. He felt a sharp pain in his side, just below the wing, and looked at the mess that was made. Pieces of shrapnel had been embedded in his side causing a sharp sickening pain to go through him when he moved. For the first time in this war, he felt disillusioned. He laid there for what felt like an eternity, rain gently falling on him and half a corpse to keep him company. Those dead eyes looked into his with an expression of fear on his face.

“What are we doing here?” he asked the former Solar soldier. “We should be home with our families or in school or anything but fighting in these Gods damned trenches. There is nothin’ here ta gain except a one-way ticket into the ground.” He sighed and looked at the stiff pony in front of him: “Look at you, your Ma doesn’t even know you’re gone. She’ll be waiting for you every day until she gets that letter. That damned letter that every Ma in Equus is afraid to get.” He opened the front pocket of the soldier’s tunic and removed an envelope from it. The name on it was female and the mailing address was somewhere in Canterlot, he looked at the fearful face and stroked his mane slowly: “I’ll make sure she gets this one too, I promise ya” he said while looking at the soldier’s identification tag,” Dewpoint? I promise.”

As the rain continued on, the hole began to fill up with mud and his wounds began to burn more. He looked to the sky, wondering when his last moments would be. He began to think of home and his mother getting the telegram that he wasn’t coming home and sighed. Suddenly he heard the most peculiar sound, was that barking? He lifted his mud covered ear up and yes it was, there was a dog out here! Spectrum began to whistle as best as he could given his current state but after a moment there was nothing. His one chance at salvation was gone, or so he thought. There was a tiny brown face that poked their head over the shell hole’s ledge and began barking. The shepherd dog bounded its way into the hole and stood by his side, licking the mud off of his face. The overexcited dog wore a white medical harness with pouches full of supplies, a short moment later his handler came over the edge and Spectrum’s hope quickly turned to dread.

“Good boy, Antione! You found a survivor!” the pony said as she approached and began assessing the situation. Spectrum, however, was also assessing the situation. The mare in front of him had a blonde mane in a bun, red lipstick, cream fur and a Solar medical uniform topped with a white helmet depicting a red cross. She looked saddened by the corpse on top of her patient and removed him with as much respect as she could but with a sense of haste. “Tell me Ami, where does it hurt?” she asked him while pulling him out of the mud with the help of Antione. At first, he just stared at her, wondering if her soldiers would appear on the ledge at any moment. They did not. He slowly lifted his wing and spoke:

“Here, burnin’ sensation.” he began, “Feels absolutely disgusting and if I try to sit up, I feel sick. "At that she quickly took a cloth and water from Antione’s pouches and started cleaning Spectrum’s side with it. She had a look of horror to her face as she looked into his eyes.

“How long were you here for?” she asked.

“Uh..a few hours, I think? Why?” he asked as he tried to look at the wound before pain forced him back down.

“It is infected, the shrapnel is deep in there. I can do my best, but you will need to go to a field hospital if I cannot get this out. Bite this” she said as she put a rag in his mouth. He protested into the rag but realized what she was doing the moment the tongs and morphine came out. “Hold still mi Ami, this will sting.” She gave him an injection and went to work removing the larger pieces of shrapnel from his side, prompting him to bite into the rag and scream into it, to which she rubbed his arm and calmly shushed him. When the larger pieces were fully removed, and it was only the smaller bits she removed the rag and spoke: “you should be able to recover from that. If it was any longer than infection could have spread wider.” She began disinfecting the wound, prompting him to grit his teeth. “The morphine should kick in soon. I am sorry for the pain, I have to sew your side up. "She continued her work on him, prompting him to wince at the feeling.

“Why did ya help me?” he asked her. “You’re a Solar nurse, are ya going to turn me in?” She stopped for a moment and looked him in the eyes:

“I helped you because it is my oath to help anyone in need,” she replied sternly behind her sweet voice. “I joined the war effort to help every pony, every creature I could.” She sighed at that and muttered that “unfortunately, I cannot bring back corpses. So many sweet young lives were taken away too soon.” As she went along with her impromptu surgery she spoke more: “When I was back home in the Kingdom of Prance, I saw a recruitment poster for the Solar Empire’s Nurse Corps.” she looked him in the eye as she finished her stitching and asked him “why did you come here? You are a Pegasus, this is not you nor your kind’s war.”

He took a deep breath and shrugged: “Honestly? I was lookin’ for someone. Neither of us should be here. My number came up and she took my spot.” Mercy put her hoof on his arm and frowned at the thought.

“You poor dears,” she said solemnly, “what happened to her?” He chuckled to himself a bit and looked at the mare before him.

“She outranks me now” he said with a cheeky grin despite the circumstances. He looked at the mare before him and sighed again, pushing aside any political repercussions that could come from this. “Thank ya for savin’ me. Name’s Spectrum.” The mare in front of him grew a slight smile and met his hoof.

“Mercy, it is my pleasure.” A concerned look went over her face but, as she was about to speak, Antione had begun barking and hopped out of the trench. “Merde, more souls to save” she uttered as she got up. “Please take care of yourself Spectrum, this war doesn’t pick sides on who dies. Get back to your trench and get medical help,” she looked out of the hole and looked back at the Solar lines. “And hurry.”

“You as well, Mercy. When this war is over maybe we can find a coffee shop somewhere and talk on better terms.” She gave him a small smile at that and hopped out of the crater, following Antoine to their next patient.

“There’s someone in No Pony’s Land, tell me when to fire!” one of the Lunar defenders called out. Their spotter looked through a pair of binoculars and raise their hoof about to give them a go ahead, when Stardust came trotting by in thought. All day long her mind had been going rampant wondering where Spectrum is, and she was going to explain what happened to him to his parents. She dreaded writing the letter when she heard the exclamation of the riflemare.

“Give me that!” she said, snatching the binoculars away. What she saw was a Solar soldier alone in No Pony’s Land, leaving a hole in the ground, and was about to give the go ahead when she saw the ambulance dog with her. Then she noticed the symbol on her helmet. “Hold fire! Medical personnel are off limits.” With disappointment she shoved the binoculars back into the pony’s hooves and walked away as the frontline soldiers chattered.