Chapters The sound. How I hate that sound. It fills my every thought and strikes without warning. It crawls through the bunkers and it even seeps through my body, my dreams, my very soul. I hate the sound. The sound of war.
"Get up you yellow piece of dirt! We need to move out by O-600 hours yesterday!" I open my eyes and see general what’s-his-name standing over me. His face visor is shaded black right now, but I could hear his anger through the com-link. I quickly got up and saluted him. "That's more like it soldier," he continues, "You may have been one of General Fudge's best, but that don't mean nothing to me!" He leaned down, picked up my assault rifle, and shoved it into my chest. Hard. I heard him chuckle and walk away. He was wearing his black, full-body armor suit, just like the rest of us. A small blue square on his shoulder signified his rank in the blue army. I stood there, clutching my gun, regaining my breath, and fuming in anger. I didn't ask to get transferred. I didn't mean to be a crack shot. I just wanted to go back in blue squadron 852, back to my friends...
Great, I thought, Why did I have to think of them now? I quickly put the limp hood around my neck over my head and activated helmet mode with my arm controller. The hood immediately began to solidify and morph to my head. The moment it finished, I pressed another button on my sleeve and a visor materialized in front of my face. I checked to make sure that it was shaded, then sat down, and cried.
My com-link was on 'personal mute' which meant that I could hear the outside world as well as the other soldiers, but they couldn't hear me. So I was left alone with my sobbing. And my memories...
***
These were the first kind words I have ever heard in all my life. I was six, maybe seven years old at the time that I heard them. I had been sitting alone in a secluded part of the barracks. Earlier, I had tried to fire a gun at a target the size of a hippo, and missed by about ten feet. The others had laughed at me. I ran right out of the shooting range. I went and hid in my room for the rest of the class, but I was forced out at lunch. I still had tear stains on my face while I ate.
Alone.
Again.
I never expected someone to care about me, let alone the two kids that were soon standing in front of me then. The girl was standing directly in front of the boy, but I still saw their concerned frowns. They looked about my age. I wiped the tears from my eyes and told them I was fine. I expected them to leave after that, but they didn't. Instead, they sat on either side of me, the girl on my left and the boy on my right.
"No," the girl told me, taking my hand in hers, "You’re not fine," after pausing for a moment, I quickly took my hand out of hers.
"Better listen to her mate," said the boy, "She won't say you're fine till you actually are." He smiled at the girl and held out his hand to me, "I’m Red Dragon by the way, but everyone just calls me Red ‘D’ or ‘Reddy’ for short." I stared at his hand for a moment, and then carefully shook it. Reddy nodded his head and gestured to the girl. She was smiling mischievously.
"My name," she began, "will eventually make the enemy shake in their armor suits! It will haunt them in their dreams and cause them to scream in fright at the very sight of me! And someday, It may even bring them to their-"
"AHEM!" coughed Reddy. I smiled and suppressed a laugh.
"Er...It's Ringer. What's yours?"
"It's Ji-"
"Not your real name!" Interrupted Reddy. I jumped and shrank away from him, and into Ringer. I shied away from her too till I was just sitting between them and looking at the floor. One of them put their hand on my back. I still didn't look up, so they took it away. "Just...just tell us your codename. You know, just in case-"
"No Shot," I said, "Since I can't hit anything..."
"Really?" asked Reddy, "Wait a minute, YOU’RE the one who couldn't hit the...” he saw my depressed face, “uh… I mean... well..."
"It's ok," I told him, "I know that I'm no good at shooting. Maybe you'll see me again as a courier or something..." Ringer, however, had other plans. She stood up, grabbed my chin, and forced me to look up into her eyes. They were green.
"You're not going to end up in a job like that," she said, "It's lucky that you met us then-"
"He is?" asked Reddy, standing up himself and looking at Ringer.
"Yes, because we're going to help him,"
"We are?" Reddy asked.
"You are?" I asked her.
"We will." She said with a finality that made me shake with fear. Or was it anticipation? I didn't know it then, but the biggest grin had been forming on my lips. I liked these two. They showed a rare conviction that was contagious. For a couple of seven or eight-year-olds, they showed signs of being great leaders some day. But for now, they would stick to being my first friends.
***"GET UP!"
I jumped at the sudden voice in my ears. In the midst of my flash back, I had forgotten to lower the volume on my com-link. I did this now and got up again, thinking the General was going to yell at me, but I was instead looking into the face of another soldier. He didn't have his visor shade on, so I could clearly see his face. A small window appeared over his head on my visor's HUD that said he was Captain Braves and he was almost twenty-five-years-old. His face suggested that he was at least fifty though. I un-shaded my own visor and saluted to him. He nodded and continued on his way.
I looked around and realized that most of the other soldiers had already packed up their supplies. Fortunately, I hadn't dispersed my own supplies around that much, so gathering it up into my small bag was easy. As soon as I had placed everything I owned inside the octangular bag, I placed it on my back and felt it slide effortlessly into the back of the suit. I picked up my gun and went to join the others, already in formation.
"Blue Squad 967, atteeeention!" yelled the general into our com-links. A few of the soldiers shook and grabbed their heads, lowering the volume so they could hear again. The general continued without breaking step. "We will be marching through enemy territory. Our goal is to infiltrate their camp and to take it for our own. We will be taking no prisoners," He added. He looked out at us and raised his fist into the air. We all repeated the movement. He kept it there, and then snapped it back to his side, waiting for us to do the same. When we did, he spun around and began to march forward, with us closely behind him. We began to march to oblivion.
________________________________________
The sun was just starting to set on the Apple families' farm. In the distance, two pony sisters were collecting the rotten apples in the fields again. Applebloom, the younger sister, was standing with a large, wooden basket atop of her head, waiting to catch the next rotten apple that her older sister would throw to her. Or, at least, she was about to. Applejack was currently staring off at the sunset with a content smile on her face. She was panting a little from the long day.
Seeing her sister like that, Applebloom asked, "Should we stop?" and placed the basket onto the ground. Applejack looked around and spotted only one more bad looking apple. She pulled her stetson over her forehead and ran over to it.
"Go long!" She yelled. Applebloom set the basket on her head again and ran off into the other direction. Applejack quickly nabbed the stem of the molding fruit with her mouth and chucked it way off into the distance. Applebloom only just caught it. The two sisters started to laugh and went to put the inedible apples into a barrel that was full of them by the barn. As soon as this was done they started toward the house, but Applejack held back a bit. She looked towards the sunset again and heaved a long sigh.
She took in the familiar smells, listened for the soft wind, and stared at how the sun brightened up the orchards; just enough to make it look like it was late autumn. The sun shone brightly on her orange coat and lightened up her blond hair. Smiling, Applejack turned around and set off after her little sister. When she got there, Applebloom was jumping up and down in excitement.
"I can't wait!" She proclaimed. Applejack chuckled and brushed aside the younger sister's bangs so she could look into her eyes.
"You know," she began, "The Summer Sun Celebration isn't for another two months, right?"
"I know... but I'm still really excited! I haven't seen cousin Braeburn in ages!"
"You just want to see him cause he always brings you some knick knack or sweet from Apple Loosa,"
"So?" Applebloom asked. Applejack just chuckled again and led her sister into the house. It had been a long day, and now was the time to help make dinner and relax. A great end to a great day.
"Come on you lazy excuses for soldiers! Move out!"
I continued to keep pace with the others pretty well, being careful not to trip on any loose dirt. I kept my gun loaded and had it set on single fire. When we slowed down a little bit, I checked yet again to be sure. The glowing number on the side still said one. I might be crazy for setting an assault rifle on single fire, but they don't call me One Shot for nothing. Years of practice has honed my skills to the exact degree. If I have a gun in my hand, be it a sniper, a carbine, or even a high octane-fueled slingshot, if you're my target, you're dead. And even if I somehow miss, I'll always hit you on the second shot. Period.
Maybe I've grown cold in my age. Maybe I've forgotten about compassion. I might have even forgotten my friends. Then again, this is a war. And my friends are long gone.
"March you sissies! March!"
I checked my gun again and saw the same glowing number staring back at me. The number one. Like me. Like the name that I worked so hard to forge. No, not just me. Me and my friends. Since the day we had met, we all worked together to be the best soldiers that we could be. No matter what, we would strive to be the best.
The three of us were inseparable.
I'm not sure how to explain it, but being with those two, Reddy and Ringer, made the world somehow feel...brighter. They made me feel less hopeless. Seeing Ringer's green eyes and Reddy's brown, I could look into them and read them like a book. We were that close.
"We got to keep moving! Let's go!"
Hell, I don't even know why I'm thinking about them. I guess it doesn't matter, but since that day, we trained together, ate together, made jokes and laughed together. Fought together. Even killed together. They were my best friends, and worst competitors. We may have been friends outside of battle, but on the field, we were simple soldiers that fought to live another day. Even so, I could trust them with my life.
But then we grew up.
As the years went by, we began to get noticed by the higher ups. They saw our potential and tried to recruit us to different squadrons, but we refused. We worked better together, even though our fighting styles were so different. Over the years, and with my friends help, I had become the best sharpshooter the trainers had to offer. I could hit the head of a nail from fifty yards away. With a pistol no less. Sure, I could be pretty fierce with a shock blade, but I wasn't near as good as Reddy. His true codename, Red Dragon, was given to him for a reason. Give him a sword or dagger of any size and he'd be so ferocious that he could send the enemy running. If they got that far. It was because of him that I'm so good with a blade. And then there was Ringer.
"You call that marching? March faster!"
I picked up the pace along with all the other soldiers. The other drones, as Ringer used to call them. I smiled as I remembered her happy face. Always happy. I could always count on her to make me smile. She was the best technologically advanced medic around. And by medic, I mean for computers, not people. She could hack into any system and knock it down within moments. As I recall, her record was at least four minutes. Not only that, she could also rewrite the targeting frequencies of turrets, to make them shoot their own soldiers. She could even make enemy bots stop in their tracks and explode on site. Took out any entire red squadron with that trick.
It was for these reasons that me and my friends were constantly being offered positions in other squadrons, but we always refused. Normally, we would have been ordered to another squad, but we were fortunate enough to be in General Fudge's squadron. Blue Squad 852, The Imperials. I'm still not sure why we were called that, but it seemed to fit. General Fudge was a genius on the field, and his soldiers weren't that bad either. My friends and I were picked up by him when he heard of our fighting skills. I will never forget his confident demeanor. I never considered him my friend, but he may as well have been. He stuck to us like glue and deliberately put us together in our missions. His stupid laugh would always make us cringe, hell, I can hear it now. His stupid face with his stupid grin and his breath always had an alcoholic smell to it. I hated his guts, but I couldn't help but like him. Reddy, Ringer and I couldn't have been happier.
But then I fell in love.
I had always liked Ringer, but something about her just made me...happy. It wasn't her attitude towards the drones of the battlefield. It wasn't her overconfidence in literally everything. I'm not sure what it was. Maybe there was something in her eyes...yeah…her eyes… her wonderful green eyes. Whenever I looked into them, I felt happy. Brave. I felt I could take on anything. Whatever she told me with those eyes of hers, I knew it would be the truth. I loved her, and she knew it.
But so did Reddy.
He was furious when he found out. Apparently, he had been harboring the same feelings for years, and despite his ferocity on the field, he didn't have the guts to tell her. In his anger, he quit the squad and went out on his own, or he almost did. Fudge stopped him before he could. He hid Reddy's resignation and confined him to his room. I wanted to go to him to make up, but he shot daggers at me every time he saw me. Literally.
Ringer, eventually, got him to calm down, but Reddy wasn't quick to forgive. He hated being stuck in the barracks. Hated not being out in the field. Hated Fudge especially for leaving him alone. Ringer soon explained that Fudge had saved his career, and his life. If his desertion had gone out as planned, he would have been branded as a traitor and hunted down. Reddy, realizing what he had nearly done, eventually made up with me, and life returned to normal. Ringer and I were still going out, but Reddy was cool with it. If not a little jealous. We were still best friends.
But then she died.
"Look out!"
One on a roof. Gone.
Two delivering suppression fire. They joined their friend.
Every time I spotted the red suit of an enemy, I fired and took another life. I hate this sound. The sound of battle. Of war. Of death. I hated it. Before I knew it though, it was over. I looked over at the bodies and saw the names of some of my fellow soldiers plastered across my visor. The different boxes also stated how each had died. The list was unbearable. I closed my eyes and looked away. I could hear the whining of some soldier screaming in pain. Just one long note of his dying...wait. Long note? great.
"Pitch grenade!" I yelled into the com-link. I quickly turned it off and saw the others do the same. But a few weren't quick enough. I saw one soldier grab his chest in pain, then fall over, dead. Another grabbed his head. I scanned the ground for the source of the grenade and spotted it in the middle of the clearing. I bolted towards it, scooped it up, and readjusted its settings as I spotted the grenadier on a roof behind me. The grenade began to squeal in different pitches as I overloaded its circuits, so I took aim and chucked it with all of my might. It landed just behind the enemy, right before it exploded. The grenadier fell off the roof and hit the ground. He didn't get up.
I looked over at the soldier who had grabbed his head, only to find him slumped against a wall. I looked away before I could see his name or the cause of his death. I already knew. Pitch grenades send out a high pitched frequency that, if you’re exposed to it for too long, can rupture certain organs in your body, namely the heart or the brain. Instant death, but more painful than a bullet.
The general electronically turned on our com-links again.
"Come on," He said, "We don't have all day,"
________________________________________
"OK. I'm stuffed."
Applejack leaned back contently in her chair at the dinner table.
"Eeyup." Big Macintosh agreed, who was sitting across from her. Granny Smith sat next to him and was still chewing her meal while Applebloom, who was next to Applejack, was licking the crumbs off of her own plate.
"Applebloom," Applejack noted, "Stop licking your plate. It's rude."
Applebloom stopped and asked, "Since when do you care about being rude?"
"Since you started licking your plate like Winona." The dog in question barked at that, causing the family of farmers to laugh. Shortly afterward the table was cleared and the two sisters were once again washing the dishes in the kitchen. They were almost done when the yellow filly spoke up.
"I wish you were coming..." she said with a distinct sadness. Applejack looked down at her and smiled.
"Now Applebloom," she began, "you know why I can't. I have to look after the farm. Besides, you'll be back tomorrow,"
"But they would have wanted you to come!" the little filly proclaimed. Applejack sighed and stopped cleaning. She leaned down and looked at her younger sister in her eyes.
"I know they would, but we normally go a week or so before the Summer Sun Celebration, and since the celebration is coming to Ponyville, I need to stay here to watch the orchards."
"But we only get to go there once a year!" her sister wailed. Applejack ruffled her hair and tightened the red bow in it with her teeth.
"Mom and Dad know how important the orchards are. They'd be pretty upset if we all just left, though, right?" Applebloom slowly nodded her head, but she was still upset. "Besides," Applejack continued, "You have my old hair bow. Mom and Dad will understand, I'm sure." The young filly tugged on the pink bow in her red mane and smiled again.
"OK," she said, "I'll tell them you say hi!" The older sister laughed and continued cleaning the dishes. When that was done, Applebloom ran off to her room to collect her things for the trip. Applejack sighed and went over to the couch in the living room. She flopped down on it after such a long day. After all, She, Big Mac, and Applebloom had been gathering rotten apples, plowing fields and checking and watering various other crops in preparation for the coming celebration. For the next two months, different members of the Apple clan would be coming in from all over Equestria to help out in taking care of the crops and preparing all of the food. This was the only time that they could visit the family ranch to pay their respects. And she was going to miss it.
"You did a good thing there with Applebloom." observed a deep voice behind her. She turned her head and spotted Big Mac with a kind smile on his face.
Big Mac chuckled and said, "Eeyup."
Moments later, the small family was standing outside the front gates to the farm. Winona was standing next to Applebloom and was whining at her, telling her not to go.
"You'll be ok while we're gone?" asked Granny Smith.
"I'll be just fine with Winona here. Just be sure to tell Aunt Tarty that I say hello."
"We will!" hollered Applebloom, and with that they set off for the train station. "See you tomorrow afternoon!" Applebloom called back as an afterthought. The older sister waved back, leaving only when she couldn't see them anymore.
"Come on Winona, we got to get to bed," Applejack told the still sad dog. The two of them went back to the house. Just as they went in, a clap of lightning shot across the sky, startling Winona and Applejack. She turned and looked up into the sky, expecting to see Rainbow Dash with a thundercloud, but instead saw a clear afternoon sky. There wasn't a cloud in sight. "Dry lightning," muttered Applejack, closing the door, "Just what I need," She calmed down Winona and went to get a drink of water. She would have to stay up for a bit to make sure that no lightning would hit the orchards. She was running water into a cup when a white flash shot out in the darkness, the thunder rolling across the sky moments later.
________________________________________
Fourteen. That's how many soldiers had died in the ambush. The general had stopped talking to us long ago, leaving us to our thoughts at last. I wish he hadn't, but he must be feeling pretty bad at losing almost a fourth of his squad. I don't think he cared that much about them, only that he had lost some good men, including a captain and his Lieutenant. A great blow to our plans, but we worked forward anyway. She would have cared though. I know she would have. Ringer would of gone straight to the general and forced him to at least gather their bodies for a group cremation. But no. We just left them there. I might have gone back with her to give them a proper funeral.
But she's dead.
It came as a shock to the whole blue squadron of 852. Not only that, but the Imperials had lost their general in the same blast. I know. I was there. I couldn't help but bring up that memory. One that I had kept away for nearly three weeks now, but it came back in full force. I remembered the day she died.
***
The base itself was large and circular in shape. Old buildings was surrounding it on three sides, leaving only one entrance. We had gotten word that the base had recently been producing a secret weapon, a weapon that could destroy a whole city. We were currently sitting on the second story of a burned out complex with a clear view of the base's entrance.
"Right," said Fudge in a deep, gravelly voice, "The plan is simple. Ringer and I will try to get in the base, while you two cause a distraction by wrecking as much havoc as possible. Got it?" We all nodded, so he lifted his fist in the air. We did the same. "We will keep in contact via com-link. Channel forty-two." I lifted my arm controller and set my com-link to 42. The others did the same thing. Fudge nodded and told Reddy and I to wait for his signal, and he left with Ringer. My gut hurt as I saw her leave. Reddy noticed my reaction and smirked.
"Oh shut up Mr. I-can't-get-a-date." I told him.
"Watch it," he shot back, "Or I'll make you eat those words."
"You two are so mature." we heard Ringer say over the com-link. We all chuckled and got back to waiting, ragging at each other every so often. It wasn't until Fudge gave the signal that we stopped, which was getting Ringer to overload one of the sentry bots with random orders. It went nuts within seconds, shooting everything in its sight. Other soldiers came out to stop it, and that's when Reddy and I struck. I was already taking shot after shot on the enemy with a sniper rifle, while Reddy used a recently acquired minigun to defend us.
"Is this enough havoc, or should we continue?" I asked with a smirk that I knew they couldn’t see.
"Just keep firing and let us do our jobs," Ringer told us. I smiled again and continued to fire. Reddy and I continued to attack the red soldiers, so it wasn't long until they got their big mechs out. They charged straight at us, but Reddy was, well, ready. He threw down his empty minigun and took up an energy launcher. He aimed, and fired a ball of electric blue energy at the nearest mech. It stopped in its tracks as its circuits were fried to a crisp.
"You always did like the big guns." I told him.
"Yeah, but he might have got us if he had fired his missiles..." I looked at the mech and recognized the long range missiles on its shoulders. I then noticed that the other soldiers were still firing at us, but from a distance. Something was wrong. Reddy thought the same thing as he fired another shot at a group of soldiers. Our suspicions were confirmed when the soldiers in question exploded. Soldiers don't do that, unless they were...
"Mechs!" I yelled, "All of them!"
"It's a TRAP!" Reddy yelled, "Fudge! Ringer! Get out of there! It's a-"
"We know," Fudge told us, "they were ready for us. Ringer's hacking as many of the bots and mechs as she can, but we can't hold out much longer!"
"We're on our way!" I yelled, getting up to leave.
"NO! Stay where you are and cover us! We're coming out now!"
I got back down and started to shoot as many mechs as possible. Reddy stopped using the launcher and picked up his shock sword. Before I could stop him, he leaped into the fray. I had to keep firing, so I couldn't help him. I spotted a truck bust out of the gates. I saw that it had been splattered with blue paint. Ringer and Fudge were in it, but all of the mechs converged on it immediately. I fired shot after shot, took out tens of hundreds of them, but they just kept coming. I yelled my head off at the unfairness of it all… then again, since when is war fair? I don't know what happened next, but something...happened. One of the big mechs blew up, which caused another to blow up, then another, and soon every single mech was exploding from a chain reaction… a chain reaction that engulfed the truck.
***
And she was dead.
Reddy thought I was somehow responsible. He never forgave me, and he never would. He told me to just kill myself, so he wouldn't have to. And he left. Fudge was gone, and so were two of the best soldiers in his squad. It was thought that I would lead them now. I was offered the position the day after Reddy left. I refused right there and locked myself in my room. There was no way that I would lead the squad. I knew they would just order me to hunt down Reddy. Not because he was my friend, but because I was the only one who could do it. I didn't want that.
But she was dead, and he had left.
I was reassigned later. The Imperial squadron had been disbanded. It was inevitable, but it still came as a shock to me. I found myself under a new squad leader. General Hag, as I recall. She was pretty good in strategies. But she wasn't Fudge. I found myself openly disobeying orders. I'd go forward when she said to go back, I'd stay and fight if she said to retreat. I was constantly put in court for my actions. I was always threatened with being discharged through death, but I was instead reassigned to a new squad on a daily basis. I didn't care. I wanted to die.
Because she was dead, and he was a traitor.
Reddy was eventually reported as siding with the enemy. I found this ironic. The Red Dragon now wearing a red suit. I now knew why I was never 'Discharged'. It was because if I was, no one would be able to stop him. No matter what, I would. He may blame me for Ringer's death, but I didn't do it. If he wanted my head, I'd take his.
Because she was dead, and he was a traitor, and I had lost the two people that I cared about most in the world.
I didn't even know their real names.
I checked my gun and saw that it had somehow reverted back to semi-automatic fire. A glowing three was shone on the side. Three. We used to be three friends. I turned it back to one. Because that's just who I am. One Shot. One kill. One man. No friends.
"Wait," I heard the general say. We stopped at once and looked around. Nothing. At least, so we thought. I saw movement to my left, so took aim and fired. A body in a red suit fell over. "TAKE COVER!" screamed the general, right before he was shot down himself. Half the squad was gone within seconds before the rest of us took shelter in the nearby shells of former buildings. They were ready for us. Just like before. I could only hope that I would live long enough to warn headquarters.
Red enemy soldiers were now charging at the few of us left and right with both snipers and shock sword wielders. I took down a few from my spot in an old structure before I finally ran out of ammo. They were on me before I knew it. Two soldiers with the lethal shock blades came at me. I took the barrel of my gun and smashed its butt into the nearest soldier’s head. His visor shattered and he dropped his blade, so I chucked my gun at the other soldier and grabbed the sword. The soldier that I threw my gun at recovered and charged. Our blades met and the sound of thunder rolled around us. I shoved him back and leaped over his fallen comrade, who appeared to be unconscious. He quickly followed and struck again. I used the side of the blade to parry, which caused a blinding light to appear for a second before the thunder rumbled around us once more. I took the opportunity to slide my blade towards him. He jumped away and struck out at my head, so I parried and lashed out myself.
We struck out and parried each other with such ferocity that it sounded like there was a thunderstorm coming. Parry, dodge, jab. Jump, spin, slash. Block, kick, miss. We flew around each other. I couldn't land a strike on him. He couldn't hit me. It wasn't until I realized this that I started to notice something...familiar about this guy. His movements were loud and obvious, but there was a certain finesse about it. He knew how to handle the shock blade, like it was an extension of his actual self.
This realization caused me to pause. It was enough. He lashed out and caught me in my right side. I heard the flexible armor there shatter from the blade, but I had went with the strike and fell to the ground to deaden the blow, yet I was still bleeding. My sword was then yanked out of my hand, so I rolled onto my stomach and tried to get up, but he struck my back then. The concealed bag that was strapped there broke apart, scattering my belongings.
I saw my sleeping mat hit the ground, an extra scope roll away, and the picture... Oh god, the picture! It slid to the ground and started to fly off, not before it was caught by my foe. Before I could react I saw the necklace bounce away. The small, green heart on a simple chain lay within my arm’s reach. I knew I was about to die, so I grabbed it and looked up into the visor of my oppressor's face.
Except he had taken it off. He was staring at the picture. I knew it showed the three of us together. We had gotten the picture when we were eight-years-old. He stumbled backwards and dropped his sword. I got up on my arms and un-shaded my visor so he could see my face. We looked into each other's face and wondered what would happen next. I raised my hand with the necklace in it, to show who I was.
And fire filled my ears.
***
"Soldier Red Dragon!" yelled his commander, "What happened?" Reddy cringed at the sound of his full codename, but he went back outside to explain the situation. Before he did though, he shut off his com-link and stared at the broken wall.
"One Shot?"
KRAKOOOOOOOOOOOOM
"WHAT IN THE HAY?!"
Applejack fell out of her chair and looked around the house. Winona was barking at the door and was pawing it, trying to get out. The lone pony had been sitting in the kitchen for ten minutes, waiting for the lightning outside to stop. The explosion outside just now wasn't lightning though.
"Stay here Winona." She told the dog as she got back up and went to the door. Before she left though, she grabbed a lantern and woke up the fireflies inside it. As soon as they were awake and full of light, she left the house to examine the damage.
There didn't appear to be any immediate damage. Applejack went around the house, but spotted nothing wrong. That's weird, she thought, I coulda sworn that noise was near the-
CRACK
Applejack jumped and turned her head towards the barn. She stood there for a moment, listening for another sound, but nothing happened. She turned away and started towards the-
CRACK
"Is somepony there?" Applejack hollered, turning towards the barn again.
CRACK
The young mare narrowed her eyes and crept towards the barn house. Every couple of steps she took, there was another cracking noise. She didn't know who or what was in there, but she was going to find out. She wrenched open the door and stopped. Inside the barn, at the far back, was a tall, lengthy, creature. The creature wasn't looking at her; in fact, it didn't even react to her presence. Instead, it was holding one of shovels that were kept in there. It appeared to be injured as there was blood dripping down its side. Applejack took one step backwards, and it smashed its face open with the shovel.
***
Pain. So much pain. Whatever I was hit with, it had shot me through a wall and had broken my life support system. I couldn't breathe. I tried to get my visor off, but the blast had locked it into place. The very thing that protected me was about to become my tomb. I scrambled about in the pitch dark, looking for something, anything , to help me. My hand soon knocked something over. I picked it up and, to my surprise, found it was a shovel. Not bothering to think about why there was a shovel in an old building, I stood up again and did the first thing that came to mind. I smashed it into my face. The visor cracked, but it wasn't enough, so I hit it again, and again. I kept on hitting it until the visor splintered apart completely, leaving nothing over my face. Pieces of it fell to the ground, and so did I.
I gasped for the air, taking in its intoxicating fumes into my fragile lunges. Except it wasn't dirty. In fact, it was...clean. This realization just made me breath it in all the more. I coughed a couple of times, my body not used to such fresh air. Soon, I collapsed against a wall. By the sound it made, I must be in some wooden structure, which didn't make sense, seeing as I was in a city. Or was I?
I looked around and let my eyes adjust to the darkness. After a time, I found that I was in some sort of big open house. There were a few wooden stalls around the place, and a pile of hay against the back wall that I was leaning against. The ground wasn't the familiar concrete of a city. It was the actual, honest to god, ground. I wasn't in the city anymore. I wondered where I was, and more importantly, how I got there, when the pain came back again.
"AAAARRGH," I yelled, grabbing my right side. It felt like it was on fire. My moments rest from nearly choking to death was now replaced with a new pain. My side felt raw, and something moist trickled through the suit's glove. I looked down at it and immediately regretted it. There was blood on my glove. The suit was supposed to stop the bleeding from any wound, but not something this big. Most of the side of my body was gone. What should have been there, wasn't. I looked at it more closely and saw that the wound spanned from just below my rib cage to the top of my leg. It was about two inches deep. I groaned in pain again and tried to grab it, but it stung like fire every time I tried. I knew it wouldn't be long till I died...
***
The creature had fallen to its knees and gasped. It breathed rather heavily, but it soon died down, and it slumped against a wall, still panting. Applejack didn't know what had happened to it, or how it had gotten in the barn, or even what it was, but it was still injured. It soon realized this too, for soon it yelled in pain and grabbed its bleeding side. She watched it examine the damage for a bit, then turned around and ran toward the house.
I can't go to town yet to get a doctor, but I can at least help it stop the bleeding. Whatever 'it' is… Within moments she was inside the kitchen, filling up a clean bucket with water from the tap. When it was halfway full, she turned off the tap, threw a towel in it and tossed another towel, this one dry, around her neck. She picked up the bucket in her teeth, got Winona to calm down, and bolted out the door again. She came into the barn and saw that the creature was still there. She crept up to it and set down the bucket.
"Hang on now, I'm gonna- WHOA!"
***
I'm dying, in an unknown place, with clean air, and a pile of hay next to me. The sword I had obtained is gone, my gun is also no good, partly because it was out of ammo and partly because I had thrown it away. Also, I'm dying. At that moment though, someone had come up to me with a large...thing...and had come straight for my injured side. I didn't know what the large thing was, but I wasn't planning on finding out, so, ignoring the immense pain I was in, I lashed out at it with the only weapon I had, which was the shovel.
"Hang on now, I'm gonna- WHOA!" It said, just as I struck for its head, but it dodged and the shovel struck the wall instead.
"Get away!" I yelled, swinging the shovel again. My side screamed in agony at the sudden movement though, so I ended up dropping the shovel. It skidded away, right out of my reach.
"What the hay was that for?!" Yelled the person. It sounded like a girl, but I didn't care.
"Who are you?!" I yelled, "Are you a friend or a foe?!"
"I don't know what your problem is, but I'm trying to help you!"
"Is that…so…eurgh…” I was starting to get dizzy from the blood loss, making my earlier panic subside. I finally managed to calm down long enough to get a good look at my antagonist, only to find that she didn’t even look human. If I didn't know better, I could swear that she looked more like a...horse? No, too small. Besides, horses are extinct. Maybe she's...
"A pony," I finally managed to say.
"Yeah, I'm a pony, and you're injured. Now hold still and don't attack me." I didn't know what made me listen to her, but I did. She came back up to me and got me to hold up my right arm. She took out a wet towel of some sort from the big thing she had brought, a bucket now that I got a good look at it, and wrung out some liquid back into it.
"What are yo-GAH!" She placed the rag on my side and it stung like hellfire mixed with acid. It was also very cold.
"I said hold still! I got to clean out your wound." I stopped moving and let her continue. After a while though, she muttered something about needing more light, so she told me she'd be right back and ran off. I looked after her and thought, Where the hell am I?
***
Where'd I put that lantern? wondered Applejack as she ran back to the house. She couldn't see that much in the growing darkness, so she needed the light to help the creature in the barn. It had been bleeding quite a lot, but its skin had somehow slowed it down. All the same though, it was still bleeding. She needed that lantern!
***
I didn't know how long the talking pony was gone, but I didn't want to take any chances in case I was hallucinating, which was very likely at this point. I had grabbed the bucket and was currently using the towel that was in it to clean my gaping wound, quickly turning it and the water red. My side was now bleeding a lot less now that my armor's back up life support system had started. It was currently attempting to stop the bleeding by pulling itself together and by injecting my side with a chemical drug that slows down, but doesn't stop, the bleeding. It doesn't stop it because if it did, then it might accidentally stop my heart by preventing the flow of blood. It helped, but I still wished it would stop.
Light appeared at the entrance, so I looked up and saw that the pony had come back with a small lantern in her mouth. I sighed, realizing she really was real, and looked at her again. Her coat was orange, and she had a yellow mane, which was tied back in an honest to god pony tail...maybe I was hallucinating.
She set down the lantern and saw that I had already cleaned most of the wound. She sighed with relief and smiled at me.
"Good," She said, "I was thinking you didn't have a brain in there, seeing as you were hitting your face with a shovel, and tried to do the same to me!" I frowned and tried to explain that I couldn't breathe because of the visor, but she just waved that idea away and got me to remove the now red towel. In the light of the lantern, which seemed to be powered by fireflies of all things, she could now clearly see the wound, which had started to bleed more profusely. Seeing that made me realize that my suit had run out of the drug, which was bad. I needed to close the wound, fast, otherwise I'll lose too much blood and I'll...I looked away, not wanting to think of the inevitable end.
The pony, who was still inspecting my injury, frowned and brought the lantern a bit closer. The light lit up her face at the same time. I gasped. She looked up at me, into my eyes, and the name slipped from my lips.
"Ringer..."
***
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Asked Applejack. The creature's face turned red and it looked away, apparently embarrassed at what he just said. Applejack shook her head and looked back at the wound. In the light, she could clearly see that it was hopeless. The wound was too big. More blood spilled out of it, so she put the dry towel on it to stop the bleeding. Soon though, she couldn't take much more, so she told the creature to hold the towel there, and she took off. Just outside, she bent over an empty barrel and retched into it.
The light was necessary, but it had enhanced the features of the wound too greatly for her to handle. She may know how to fix up a broken leg or clean up a small cut, but this was too much. When she felt her insides go empty, she sat down and held herself. What am I supposed to do... she thought, I can't stop a wound like that! I need a doctor or somethin... She shook her head from that idea straight away. The hospital was twenty minutes away, fifteen if she hurried, but that still left the return trip, and who knows how long it would take to convince the doctors to even come! They wouldn't even believe her anyway. This was one of those times where Applejack wished the library was open again so she could look up what to do. It had been closed for so long, that most ponies didn't even know it existed. Applejack shook her head and looked back at the barn. I can't save him... but what do I tell him?
***
Why'd I say that? I thought as I held the towel on my wound. It was getting worse. If it wasn't for that pony creature, I might already be dead. More pain pulsed through my body, making me cringe at the sudden throbbing. None of the cuts and scrapes I've had in my life could be compared to this agony I'm feeling now. I was in so much pain that I could barely think, but I had to stay awake. If I let the darkness take me, then my war against it would end, with me the loser. I couldn't let that happen, not after I just saw my only friend left in this world. I didn't want to believe that it was him who sent me here. I just couldn't. The way he looked at me before that explosion...it wasn't the face of a man seeking revenge.
"Reddy...Ringer," I said out loud, "forgive me..."
"I take it they're friends oh yours?"
I looked up and saw the pony again. This time she had a couple of bandages with her and another bucket of what I assumed was more water.
"...yes," I drawled.
She nodded and came up to me again. She gently pulled me forward and wound the long bandages around my body, making sure to keep the towel wrapped up with them. Once she managed to keep the towel in place, she tried to tighten it up, but she couldn't get a grip on the knot with her teeth. I mustered enough strength to help her tighten it, securing the towel in place. Unfortunately, it was nearly soaked through with blood already.
I tried to say thanks, but ended up groaning instead. The pony brought over the second bucket and splashed ice cold water on my face. The sudden shock of having water on my exposed face made me open my eyes and shake my head. Only to have a hoof hit my forehead.
"OW!" I yelled, grabbing my head. The pony stood back and glared at me.
"Don't move so much or you'll make your wound worse." She lectured. I narrowed my eyes at her.
"Look here pony !" I spat, "I don't know where the hell I am or even how I got here, but I don't like being hit in the head like that!"
"Well excuse me for tryin to save your life!" She shot back. In the light of the firefly lantern, I saw the green in her eyes again. Just like hers...
I relaxed and leaned back against the wall again, my body protesting at all the sudden movements from earlier.
"You have green eyes," I commented. The pony stumbled back at the sudden change of topic.
"So what if I do?" She asked me.
"A good friend of mine had green eyes," I told her. I didn't know why I was telling her this, but something about her just made me want to...open up. That, or I couldn’t think straight from blood loss.
"Pony...could you hand me that bucket? I'm thirsty,"
"Uh...sure thing…" She bit onto the bucket's handle and walked it closer to me. "Oh and my name's not 'pony'. It's Applejack," I nodded my head as I took the bucket. I noticed it was filled with ice, which explained why it was so cold, so I took a mostly melted cube and popped it into my mouth. The ice hurt my teeth, but it still relieved my thirst.
"One Shot," I mumbled around the slowly melting cube.
"Huh?" Applejack asked.
I swallowed the rest of the cube before saying, "It's my name, or my codename anyway,"
"A codename? Like the names that some of ponies in the guard have?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, but sure,"
"Sounds like a drinking name," She told me with a smirk.
"It's a name for killing," I stated. Her eyes widened at that.
"K-killing! What in the hay do you mean by that?!"
"I'm a soldier. It's what I do," I told her. I picked out another ice cube and started to chew on it.
"You're a soldier? You don't look like one with that shiny black skin." She pointed her hoof at my body. I looked down and saw the black glow of my armor in the light.
"It's not skin," I explained, "It's armor,"
"Armor doesn't move like that," She commented.
"It can stop a bullet before it can puncture the skin. It's armor,"
"Well I don't know how to tell yuh this, but armor also doesn't break apart like that..." I looked down at the bloody towel and some of the exposed skin. I hated to admit it, but she was right. Armor shouldn't do that.
"HA!" I proclaimed, making the pony called Applejack jump a little, "I guess you're right!" I set down the bucket and tried to sit up, but fell back when the pain hit. I groaned and almost fell down, but Applejack caught me before I could. She sat me back up and went to sit by the lantern.
"What's..." She started to say, but stopped and looked away.
"What's what?" I asked her.
"What's a bullet?" She finally asked, still looking away from me. Now my eyes opened up.
"You're serious,"
"I've never heard of it," She said defiantly. She doesn't know... I shook my head, incredulous that no one's heard of a bullet before.
"It's a sharp piece of metal that you shoot from a gun,"
"OK...” She said, “What's a gun? Is it, like, a fancy sword or somethin?" I stared at her with a blank look.
"Sure...I guess..." She apparently didn't like this explanation very much since she still refused to look at me. I sighed and told her that it was like a miniature cannon that shoots the bullets.
"What...what does the bullet do?" She slowly asked in a retreating voice. I could tell she had an answer for that already, but I told her anyway.
"It can kill another...living being..."
"It 'can'?" She asked finally looking me in the eye. I stared at her stunning green eyes for a moment before looking away myself.
"Sometimes a bullet...it can..." I didn't know how to explain it to this pony. I stared at my left arm for a second before carefully detaching the skin tight seal by pressing the hidden button beneath my glove. "Here..." I said while I pulled up my now loose sleeve, "Let me show you..." Applejack gasped before I had completely revealed my arm. I stared at it and nearly shuddered myself. There was a pretty large scar covering it. There were also large pockmarks and grooves moving in and out of my skin, almost as if some beast had ripped away at it for its evening meal. I looked over at Applejack and saw that she had put her forehooves to her mouth, blatant shock in her eyes. "Most of my arm isn't real," I told her, "Parts of it have been replaced by artificial skin and bones. I got the doctors to let me keep the scars though. My legs are are like this too," I pulled the sleeve back over and reactivated it, making it tighten against my damaged skin once more. "I got it from a collapsing roof of a building, my legs too. I might not be talking to you now because of it, but I am," I stared at my throbbing wound, "A lot of good it did me though, seeing as I'm injured again. It's what you get for fighting a war..."
"War?" Asked Applejack.
"Yes." I looked away and closed my eyes. We sat there for a while, neither of us saying a thing. I grew sluggish in the silence, so I popped another ice cube into my mouth to keep me awake.
"There hasn't been a war in centuries though..." Applejack said in a quiet voice.
"I don't know what era you're living in kid," I said, "but there's a war going on right now. In fact, I must be hallucinating or something, cause where I come from, ponies don't talk." Actually, I thought, their extinct, which only makes this all the more improbable.
"If you're hallucinatin,” she said in a rising voice, “then I am too. Creatures like you don't exist here, I think..."
"Impossible. We can't both be hallucinating. That would imply that we're both not real."are real and we both think this isn't really happening." The pony was looking a little angry now.
"Which it isn't."
"But it has to since I know I'm not imaginin the blood on my hooves!" She started to yell at me before she even finished. I looked at her as she stood up, letting the light reveal the blood, my blood, clearly stained on her forehooves. There was a panicked look in her eyes that said she couldn't stand this. That she wasn't used to seeing death.
I lowered my voice before asking, "You said there hasn't been a war in centuries?"
Applejack just glared at me, refusing to sit back down. I stared right back into her eyes. Soon, she relaxed and slowly lowered herself to the ground, the fire dying in her pupils. She looked right at the ground before saying, "Yeah...so?"
"Good..." I told her, "Good..." Applejack looked back up with a confused look. "War is a terrible thing little pony. If you don't know it, keep it that way," I closed my eyes and let the memories cover my mind. Pictures of allies and enemies alike, charging into battle. Loud explosions covering a landscape. Chemicals of unknown origin melting flesh and boiling blood. Pictures of my friends, battered and bruised, fighting to stay alive. I finally opened my eyes again and stared at the pony. She stared back, not moving an inch from where she lay.
"Keep it that way, no matter what," She slowly nodded her head, keeping her eyes level with mine the whole time.
"How long..." She started to ask, but I beat her to the answer.
"All my life." She looked up at me with those green eyes of hers, and I opened up, without needing any more provocation.
"The war started before my time," I began, "But that didn't matter. Since the day I was born, I was thrust into a daycare that would take care of me, but would breed me for the battlefield,"
"That can't be right," stated Applejack, "You couldn't have been taken away from your mom and dad that early in your life,"
"And yet I was," I got into a better position to talk after this, seeing as I had slid down the wall a little since we started to talk. It hurt to move, but I ignored the pain and moved anyway. I continued when I was firmly against the wall once more. "As is normal for all soldiers, from where I come from anyway, not one of us knows who our parents are. For that matter, we don't even know if we have any brothers or sisters. We could be fighting right next to them, and we wouldn't even know it. This may seem cruel to you, and it is, but it is necessary to-"
"Necessary to not know who your own kin is? Your own flesh and blood? Why would that be necessary?!"
"Because it is war," I calmly stated, "But just because I didn't know if I had any siblings, that doesn’t mean I had no friends,"
"You mean the ones you asked to forgive you earlier?" I looked at her face and saw that she was trembling a little. I was scaring her, yet I forged on.
"Yes, actually. Out of all the soldiers I've met in my life, Ringer and Reddy were my closest friends. They stood up for me since the day we met as kids. Since that day, we worked together and fought together. In a way, they were the closest thing I could get to having an actual family. Reddy was always gruff and a tad violent, but he was kind underneath his hard shell of a personality. Ringer, though I always thought of her as a sister who always looked out for her unruly brothers, became more than that..." I turned away and imagined her face. Short, blond hair with freckles and eyes that could melt your heart. "She was the most talented person I knew. Her expertise at every mechanical behemoth we faced was unimaginable. And her eyes would always..." I stopped speaking for a moment, thinking of her once again.
"Always what?" Applejack almost whispered. I turned towards her and saw her leaning towards me, staring at me with the same face that I had imagined just moments before. Except for the longer hair, and species for that matter, she was the spitting image of Ringer. The realization nearly brought a tear to my eye.
"You almost look exactly like her," I told Applejack before I could stop myself. She shot back from the light, obscuring her face in shadow.
"Really?" She asked.
"Yes..."
"Did you like her?"
"More than anything in the world,"
"...something...happened, didn't it..."
"She died..." I said. I shook my head, not wanting to relive the memory again, but I continued anyway, "She died while escaping from an army of robots..." I thought about whether or not Applejack would understand what they were. "Er...a horde of mechanical beasts brought to life by our enemies," I said instead. She seemed to understand though, so I continued. "She and another friend of ours, not Reddy mind you, was escaping from them, but they got surrounded by the beasts. One of them...blew up, which somehow made the rest blow up with it, and they were caught up in the explosion..." Now I was crying again. Thinking of that day definitely wasn't a good idea. Here I was, spilling my heart out, both figuratively and literally, to an orange pony of all things, but...telling her still felt...good.
"I'm so sorry..." Said Applejack.
"It's not your fault, but I still wonder...why? Why did they just...go like that?"
"Well...didn't you say your...friend...was pretty good with machines? Maybe she made them explode,"
"I thought of that, but it doesn't make sense. I mean, why would she do that?"
"Was your friend Reddy there?"
"He was. Why?"
"Then that's your answer,"
I narrowed my tear stained eyes, "How?"
"She probably blew up those beasts to keep them from hurting you two,"
"She did? No, she couldn't have...but she might of..." Applejack leaned forward again and smiled in the light. For the second time that night, I realized she was right. Thinking it over, I found that Ringer would have done that. I loved her, and she loved me and Reddy. Enough to sacrifice her life for us. Knowing this, it felt like an immense weight had been lifted from my chest. I didn't even know it was there, until it was gone. "Thank you," I told the orange pony.
"What for?"
"For releasing me from my ache..." I started to feel all drowsy again, but it felt better than the darkness from before. I wanted to let it come then, but I couldn't let it at this point. Applejack didn't want that either.
"Whoa there! Don't you go out on me. You still have a chance on surviving this!"
I thought for a bit, and then asked, "Then where are the medics? Where's the doctor with the med kit? Shouldn't they be here by now or something?" Applejack turned away from the light and sat back.
"Just hold on there. I...sent for them a while back. They're on their-"
"Don't lie to me," I interrupted, "Not now." Even in the shadows, I could still see the look of surprise etched on her face.
"How long did you-"
"Know?" I finished for her. Applejack lost the surprised look and stared at the ground. "Since you didn't immediately take off from here the moment my bandages were secured. Also, you're the only one helping me out, so I suspected that you're alone and have no one else to turn to. You even could have gone and gotten help yourself, but instead you stayed here and kept me company in my final hours. I know I'm a dead man,"
"If you knew that, then why are you talking to me?"
"I still don't think this is real, but being here with you is...nice, for a change," I looked up at the building's roof and closed my eyes once more, but instead of seeing the dark pictures of war, I saw my friends with open smiles on their faces. "I've known the sound of war since the day I was born. The loudness of it. The abrupt shocks from it. Even having it pounded in my ears day after day. Being here, where that sound seems to be nonexistent, is nice. I want to just sit here and listen to it," And I did. I listened to the sound of the wind blowing through the building, the sound of a quiet chirping in the distance, I even heard the fireflys in the lantern bounce about in their tiny container. Yes, this wasn't the sound of war. It was the sound of peace.
"That is a right pretty noise on the wind," Applejack said after a while. I opened my eyes and noticed that the darkness was growing dim. It seemed that the moon was shining on the building at last. I saw that the pony had a content smile on her face. "How'd you get here anyway?" She asked me when she saw me looking at her.
"I'm...not sure actually,"
"In that case, try to think of the last thing you saw before coming here," She advised. I thought about this for a bit, thinking of the events that led to my getting there. I thought of Reddy and how he had almost killed me. I thought of how he seemed to recognize me at the last moment. I thought about that loud explosion that somehow sent me here. What was it? I don't know, and I don't really care. Reddy probably thinks I'm dead, and I'm going to be soon, but at least he saw that old picture of us...the only picture of Ringer, Reddy and I that actually have all of us smiling at the same time. I remember it well.
Upon that day, Ringer had made the three of us stand together for the photo, 'to prove that we were friends' she had said. We had gotten the photographer, stood straight for the camera and set our jaws to keep from showing our emotions. Just like the soldiers we were. Except Ringer had been standing between Reddy and I, and had grabbed our shoulders and pulled us together in a half embrace. The photographer accidentally took the photo, forever capturing the three of us together. Ringer in the middle, her arms wrapped around the two boys on either side of her with the biggest smile you ever saw on her. Reddy on the left, a look of shock and amazement plastered on his face, yet he still had a smile himself. And myself on the right, not really knowing what happened, but grinning all the same. Ringer had asked, and then forced, the photographer to give us each a copy of the picture. After we got the copies, Ringer then gave Reddy and I a present. It was a simple gift, but precious nonetheless. Her gift was a small green gem in the shape of a heart on a small chain, a necklace that she had found in an old store. There were three of them, all of them green. She gave each of us one and held on to the other. She never explained why she did this, but then again, she didn't need to. The necklace was and still is my most prized possession. I opened my hand, expecting to see it there in my hand, but it wasn't. It was gone.
"The necklace..."
"The wha- HEY! Wait a moment!" I tried to get up, but the moment I tried pain shot through my ravaged body, but something was...wrong. The pain somehow felt...distant.
"You can't just get up all willy nilly like that!" Lectured Applejack. She had stood up again and was looking at me with a mix of anger and worry, "And what's this I hear about a necklace?" I groaned before I could answer. Applejack sighed and picked up the bucket of water and brang it over to me. I grabbed it and helped her bring the bucket to my parched throat. When I had my fill and we put down the bucket, I asked her if she had seen a necklace with a green heart on it. She told me that she didn't and that it was too dark to find it, even with the lantern. I groaned again and hung my head down.
"That necklace," I told her, "was given to me by Ringer. It was the only thing she ever gave me that I still have, and now I've lost it..." Applejack looked a little shocked at this. She slowly raised her hoof to the hat on her head. I closed my eyes, not wanting to think anymore. The fact that the necklace, the one thing, aside from the picture, that I cared about the most was now gone made the light around me seem dark.
I breathed in the clean air instead. I didn't want to think about the necklace anymore. I just sat there and took in the surrounding air and thought, I'm so sorry...Ringer please forgive me...
How could I have lost it? HOW?
Knowing that I had lost the necklace was distressing. Somehow, between leaving the city and coming here, the necklace was lost. My only connection left to her was gone. And it was all my fault.
I closed my tired eyes and breathed. Breathing usually helped calm me down, helped me to think of something else when I needed to. No use crying over spilt water. What’s done is done. While taking in another breath of clean air, I caught a whiff of something…sweet.
In the growing darkness, I could smell sweet scents all around me. Despite myself, I tried to discern the different smells, if only to distract myself some more. There was a strong scent of hay in the air, but behind that, I could smell something fresh and...alive. I could even smell what appeared to be... "Apples?"
I lifted my head and looked at Applejack, who asked, "What about them?" She seemed to be glad of the change of topic.
"I can smell apples... As a kid, I loved to eat the apples the teachers served at mealtimes. They were usually overcooked, but they tasted delicious to me..."
"Glad you like em!" Applejack proclaimed with a smile, a hint of pride edging into her voice, "My family's been growing them since before I was born. Our apples are even considered the best in the whole country!" I couldn't help but smile at that, but something she said didn't seem...
"You have a family here?" Applejack stopped smiling then, quickly looking away from me. "I asked you a question,"
"Yeah? so?" She mumbled.
"So answer it. And look me in the eye when you do," Applejack seemed to be debating with herself about what to do, but ended up looking at me any way. In the light of the lantern, I saw her green eyes looking right at me once more.
"I do, but they're not here," She said.
"Where are they then?" I asked.
"Visiting other family,"
"Without you?"
"Somepony's got to look after the farm,"
"Then you're alone here,"
"I'm not entirely alone. I've got Winona, my dog, to keep me company." I suddenly thought of a colorful dog talking to the pony in front of me, advising her on what to do next. The image made me laugh.
"Does this 'Winona' talk too?" I asked with a smirk.
"Of course she doesn't! She's a dog!" She shot back at me.
"Talking ponies are normal here, but talking dogs aren't?"
"Ponies talk all the time. It's you that isn't normal around here,"
"Me? You're the one alone on a farm talking to a complete stranger who's dying!"
Applejack began to get annoyed at me, "I said I wasn't alone. And besides, my own family only left this afternoon. They'll be back tomorrow evening."
"That doesn't seem all that long to visit some family..."
"Well it is for the family they’re seeing!" She lashed out at me, "They have to go and visit them now, and I would have come too, but my parents wouldn't have-"
"Parents?" I asked her. Her moment of anger passed then when she realized what she just said. Sweat began to run down her face. I figured this was a tricky topic for her, so I tried to tell her that she didn't need to tell me, but it was too late. She was hyperventilating now, her gasping echoing around the building. Her eyes were shooting all over the place seeing images that I couldn't even imagine...
***
Why won't these memories just leave me alone?! Thought Applejack, but they came anyway, forcing themselves upon her once more. Even after years of coping with the memories, she still found it hard to think of them.
The first to come was when she was five or six-years-old. It was the night that Applebloom had been born. She could hear her little wails coming from the room next door. The rest of the Apples and nurse Redheart were gathered in the large living room. A younger Granny Smith was holding onto her grandchildren, while her son stood by with a shocked expression on his face. Nurse Redheart was explaining to them that although the foal is alive and well, there were...complications...with her mother. The mother couldn't take the pressure in the end, but before she went, she was able to say she wanted the foal to be named Applebloom.
Tears were shed. Accusations were made. Apologies came soon after.
Soon, when the foal had been left in the care of an old friend, the rest of the family was taking a train out to the old ranch. The ranch had been the place of the Apple's founding, and was ultimately where each family member went when they...passed. Other family members had come as well. They may have been spread out across the entire country, but news travels fast when a relative is lost.
The ceremony was short. They got back onto another train shortly after it was over. After all, they had a farm and a new foal to take care of.
Sweet Celestia...make it stop...
The next memory came just as quickly as the first.
Now Applejack was eight-years-old. She was playing with Applebloom in the west fields. The little pink bow that had once belonged to their mother, and then to Applejack for a time, was now carefully tied in Applebloom's bright red hair. They had been bouncing a ball back and forth to each other, when Big Macintosh stormed over to them from the house, a panicked look on his face.
Their father had been slowly falling ill since the death of their mother. He went into a critical state a few weeks ago, so a nurse was dispatched to watch over his condition. Moments before, he started to have a heart attack, and Granny Smith told Big Mac to get his sisters. Big Mac carefully placed Applebloom in a carrier strap he had brought and told the older sister to follow him. The two of them ran as fast as they could, but it was too late. By the time that they had gotten to the house, their father had passed away. They were told that the grief he had felt from the loss of their mother was what was causing his illness. They could heal a great deal of wounds and mend broken bones, but nothing can heal a broken heart.
More tears were shed. A foal’s wails were eminent. Grief covered the house.
Like before, they soon traveled to the ranch. Applebloom came with them that time, although she didn't really understand what was happening. They went back to the ranch the next year too, and the year after that. It became a tradition of theirs to go out to the ranch, to visit their graves, and to remember...
...make it stop...
***
"Make it stop...please..."
"Are you ok?"
Applejack jumped at the sound of One Shot's voice. She found herself curled up on the ground. Her face was wet from her crying earlier, and her throat felt tight and closed. She slowly got back up and looked over at One Shot with puffy red eyes. One Shot frowned at the sight, so he offered her the bucket of water. Applejack gratefully accepted and, instead of picking it up and drinking the water, she dunked her head into it. The cool water on her face calmed her down greatly. When she couldn't breathe anymore, she pulled out her head and let out a long gasp. One Shot watched her for a bit before taking back the bucket.
"Are you ok now?" he asked again. Applejack nodded and lay down again, not looking up at One Shot. "I'm...I'm sorry..."
"Sorry for what? You didn't..."
"I'm sorry for mentioning...them. I didn't know you had lost them,"
Applejack didn't respond at first. She simply lay there with her head in her hooves. One Shot waited until she said, "Is it that obvious?"
"I might not have known my own parents, but I know grief when I see it. I know how it feels," Applejack sat back up and rubbed the tears from her face.
"I'll be fine. I just need to go work in the fields and-"
"You can't keep doing that you know," Applejack stopped rubbing her face and looked One Shot in his own. He looked sad.
"Doing what?" She asked.
"Lying to yourself like that. I can see it in your eyes," The orange pony looked shocked, once again, at that.
"You can...see it? In my eyes ?"
"Like I said earlier, you have green eyes, like hers. I can tell from just looking in them that you're lying,"
"Not possible. You can't-"
"I can, and I did, and you know it," Applejack looked away, not wanting One Shot to read her face again.
"I'm not lying," she states, "I just need to...not..." She stopped talking and closed her eyes before yelling, "I don't have to explain myself to you!"
"I know you don't have to," One Shot tells her, "but you need to tell some one. Even I know that keeping your emotions bottled up for too long is bad for you, and I'm a soldier." Applejack lay still for a moment, not moving an inch. Eventually, she looked back up into One Shot's eyes.
"Have you ever had to do something all by yourself?" She started.
"Over and over again,. One Shot told her.
"Then you know how I felt when my parents died," One Shot didn't know how to respond to that, so he let her continue, "My family and I have been working this farm since the day we were born. My parents knew every trick in the book to make sure the apples were harvested at just the right time. They knew how to keep an old tree from rotting away before its time. Heck, they even knew how to keep all the local critters away from the orchards. They were the smartest farm ponies in our whole family, but..." Applejack looked at the ground then, "Mom passed away when she gave birth to Applebloom, my little sister. Her passing was a shock to all of us, especially my father," She took off her stetson and stared at it before continuing, "My father gave me his hat after he got sick with some nasty cold. When he finally passed himself, we were told that he had been sick with grief from my mother's passing. They're both buried in the family cemetery now, along with all the other Apples in the Apple clan,"
"Is that where your family went? To visit their graves?" One Shot asked.
"That's right," Applejack answered.
"Why didn't you go with them?"
"I have to stay here to watch the apple orchards because of the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration," One Shot gave her a confused look, "We normally go in about two months," She started to explain, "But there's this big event happening that we agreed to cater. The rest of our extended family is coming to help with harvesting the apples and to help prepare the food. I said I would stay here on the farm to keep an eye on the coming crops, cause, well, some pony's gotta do it,"
"That was very nice of you to do that, but why? It's not like someone is going to steal them, I mean, they're just apples..." He regretted saying that the moment the words left his mouth. Applejack glared at him with a look that almost seemed to burn through his skull. Her earlier sadness erased in that one moment.
"Just apples?" She asked as she stood up, "Just apples?" She walked over and put her face close to his, leaving only a few inches between their noses, "For generations, my family have traveled all across the country, finding different seeds and growing a great many crops, but we've been growing apples since our founding ancestors, and any Apple in the family will gladly tell you that growing our trade name is the highest honor in the world. I doubt that any of them think that we grow just apples," She stood back from him to examine his reaction, but frowned when she saw him smiling.
"Now THAT'S what I'm talking about..." He said in a quiet voice. Applejack frowned even more and sat back on her flank, waiting for him to explain, "You really believe that?"
"Of course I do!" Applejack said indignantly. She stared straight into his tired looking face.
"I can see it in your eyes..." He continued, slowly lifting his hand to point at her face. Applejack blushed, but didn't look away, "You're telling me what you really believe... what you truly think is the truth..." She didn't dare move from her spot, resolute in keeping to what she said. "You speak the honest truth..." Applejack broke her stern look at this, "Honesty is a rare trait you know...very rare indeed..."
"Honesty? You must be jok-"
"I'm not...I'm telling you the truth as well when I say that it is a rare quality...a quality that I only saw in one person...and you have her eyes..." One Shot licked his dry lips a little before placing his hand in the bucket to draw out some of the water within. He lifted his palm and splashed the liquid across his face, "You have her eyes..." He moaned.
"Are you ok?" Asked Applejack, her face now full of concern.
"I'm fine...hey...could you do me a favor?"
"Depends on what it is,"
One Shot chuckled before asking, "Could you go get me an apple?"
Applejack came back moments later with a red apple, which she was holding in her mouth by the stem. She walked over to the still bleeding creature and placed the fruit that she was named after on the ground a few inches away from his left side, the side that didn't have a towel that was now soaked through with blood. One Shot smiled as she went back over to the lantern and shook some of the bugs inside it awake again. As she sat down in her usual spot across from One Shot, she saw in the renewed light that he hadn't touched the apple yet.
"Well? Aren't you going to eat it?" She asked him.
"I'm...thinking..." He replied.
"About what?"
"I'm trying to remember when the last time I actually saw a whole apple before..." He smiled at her reaction and slowly picked up the apple in his left hand. At first, he seemed to struggle with the effort, but he managed to lift the red fruit to his mouth. A loud and audible crunch was heard as he took a rather large bite out of it. For a while, he didn't do anything but let the juice run down his mouth as he enjoyed the ripe taste of the apple. A slow munching was soon heard throughout the building. Applejack watched in silence, waiting for him to finish. When he finally swallowed his first bite, he glanced over at the waiting pony. He mumbled something to her, but she didn't catch it.
"What did you say?" She asked him. He lifted his right arm and beckoned her over. Applejack nodded and went over to him, but she couldn't help but look at his wound once more as she did so. The towel had been bathed in his blood for quite some time now, and the bandages keeping it in place were also stained red. At that moment, they were a little loose and seemed to be sagging. The towel and the bandages should have been replaced ages ago, but she didn't know how to do that without opening up the wound even more than it already was. One Shot saw her sit on his left, away from the gash, but she was still staring at it. He tried to speak again, but ended up mumbling again. The pony looked into his face again, a questioning look on her own. One Shot cleared his throat and tried once more.
"Thank you..."
"For what? I didn't-" Applejack started to say, but One Shot cut across her.
"By all means," he said, "I should be dead by now, but I'm not. Even with all of your help, a simple bandage like this," He gestured to the bloodied towel and the loose and dirty bindings, "Couldn't have kept me alive all this time. No...I think it was something else that has kept me from leaving this world...I think... it was you,"
"Me?" Applejack asked with her usual shocked look.
"You..." Continued One Shot. He stared at the apple that he still clutched in his hand, and smiled, "You have shown me who I really am. I'm not just some soldier who has lost a dear friend. I am a soldier who has lost his purpose..." He finally dropped the arm that was holding the apple onto the ground with a loud thump that seemed to resonate through the air. "Thank you Applejack for helping me realize that my dear friend didn't die because of me. She died protecting the ones she held most dear to her heart. I know this now. I know that that is the honest truth..."
"The...honest...truth..." Whispered Applejack.
"Yes..." One Shot mumbled. He was barely moving by now. His chest rose every now and then while his eyes stared off into the distance. Applejack didn't know what to say to him, so she just sat at his side until he spoke again, "I just wish..." He murmured, "That I could speak to Reddy..." He closed his eyes then and nearly stopped breathing altogether. Applejack saw this and got scared.
"No..." She said, "Don't you dare close your eyes!" One Shot opened one eye and looked over at the panic stricken pony, "Stay awake, you hear?" She grabbed the bucket to throw some of the water into his face, only to discover that it was nearly empty, "I'll be right back. I-I need to refill the bucket!" She gripped the bucket's handle and started to run towards the door. In her haste to get there, she accidentally knocked over the lantern, freeing the bugs from within. She silently cursed herself for doing that, but she continued on. At the door, she dropped the bucket and looked back at the creature. Even without the lantern, the light from the moon still showed her that he hadn't moved. "Stay awake!" She yelled before she ran off with the bucket clamped in her teeth.
One Shot ignored her though. It would be dumb to delay the inevitable any longer. In fact, he had started to remove the bindings on his body the moment the pony left. He grunted with pain when the towel fell off, releasing the steady flow of blood once more. One Shot lay down his arms and closed his eyes.
Just in time to hear the sound of fire once more.
***
"Ishts oh keh! Aum bauk" Applejack yelled around the bucket's handle moments later. She had run straight to the water spigot by the house and had filled the metal container with more water. A low rumbling noise had come by, but she ignored it and continued to fill the bucket. As an afterthought, she ran inside the house and grabbed a third towel before running back out to get the bucket. Now, the orange pony was standing just inside the barn house door, waiting a moment for her eyes to readjust to the darkness within. Before they had properly readjusted though, she bolted straight inside, sloshing water all over her front. She set down the bucket next to the now lightless lantern and said, "I got more water. Just stay still and..."
He was gone.
"What...?" Asked Applejack. She came closer to the wall, just to make sure she was seeing things ok, but it was true, for the spot he occupied not long ago was now bare, "How...where did he...?" Applejack couldn't understand what had happened. After a while, she decided to investigate the area, which she did, but all she found in the end was a few pieces of glass and the crusty red towel and bandages laying in a pool of dried blood right where the creature had been moments ago. There weren't any tracks, aside from her own, that led outside, no trail of blood leading to a convenient haystack that he might have hidden in, and there wasn't a single trace of his strange smell in the air. He was simply...
Gone.
Applejack stared at the blood on the wrappings, the only trace that he had ever been there. She sighed and went over to the hay pile and sat down in its soft-
"OW! What the-" A sharp pain had stabbed her in the flank when she sat down. Applejack rounded on the hay pile and rummaged around in it to find the object that she had sat on. Moments later she found it. "Now let's find out what the hay I sat on..." She nearly slapped herself from the unintentional pun and proceeded to pull out- "A necklace?"
Resting in the center of her hoof right then was a necklace that had a single gem on it. Applejack raised it up into the moon light to see that the gem was green and was shaped like a heart.
"Well I'll be...this is the necklace that One Shot was looking for," Applejack looked back at the various objects around the barn. There was two buckets full of water, one of which had its contents stained red with blood. There were also two towels, also stained with blood, a pile of dirty bandages, and a lantern with no light in it. Applejack set down the necklace and just stared at her surroundings, thinking of the various things the stranger had said.
"Ringer..."
"You have green eyes,"
"One Shot...It's my name."
She got up and wandered around the barn, not really knowing what she was doing.
"It can kill another...living being..."
"You almost look exactly like her"
"All my life,"
"Because it is war,"
His words began to echo around her head. They repeated everything he said, everything he did, everything he pointed out. The words began to make her nervous.
"She died..."
"...where are the medics?"
"Don't lie to me"
Applejack collapsed in the middle of the barn. The guilt of not being able to help more, of not knowing where he went, became too much for her. Tears began to run down her face again.
"I'm...not sure actually"
"The necklace..."
"Apples?"
The tears were flowing now. Not only could she not help her parents, she couldn't save a complete stranger. He probably ran off, not wanting to give me any more grief on how I failed...
"Are you ok?"
"You can't keep doing that you know," "Lying to yourself like that..."
"Why didn't you go with them?"
Applejack couldn't take it anymore. She started to yell, wanted to scream, but the words kept on rolling across her though, relentless in their haste to remind her of how she failed...
"...they're just apples..."
"You really believe that?"
"Honesty is a rare trait you know..."
And there it was. That word he used to describe what she said...no… to describe who she is...
"Thank you..."
"I should be dead by now, but I'm not...I think... it was you,"
"You have shown me who I really am... I know that that is the honest truth..."
"The honest truth..." Applejack whispered to herself. She was laying in the middle of the barn, her face stained with tears and her throat sore from yelling. The words had stopped coming long ago, but they were still echoing around the barn. Slowly, she got up from the ground and went back over to the necklace. It was still in the same place that she had left it. Picking it up, she examined its simplicity.
It was a simple emerald in the shape of a heart that was hanging on a gold chain. Nothing about it seemed unique. There wasn't an insignia or an initial on it, and she was pretty sure it wasn't enchanted. Applejack sighed and took off her stetson. She placed the chained gem inside it and replaced the hat onto her head. After this was done, she set to work in cleaning up the barn. It wasn't all that hard really. She just had to slosh the clean water all over the barn's floor to clear away the blood. The hard part was cleaning the towels and the buckets. After dumping the red water a safe distance away from the farm, she took it and the towels back to the house to clean. It was a little over an hour before dawn when she finally finished.
Winona had gone to bed long ago when she realized her master was safe. Applejack replaced the buckets and the towels, stuffed the old bandages deep inside the trash can, and finally headed off to bed. She knew she would have to get up in a few hours, but she needed some sleep after all. When Applejack got to her room, she took off her stetson and pulled out the necklace. Not knowing what to do with it, she set it on her bedside table and got in her bed. Just before she drifted off to sleep, she remembered to set her alarm clock for seven-thirty. After doing this, Applejack snuggled into her bed covers and closed her eyes.
"You have shown me who I really am... I know that that is the honest truth..."
"Honesty..." Applejack mumbled, "Has a nice ring to it..." She glanced at the necklace and smiled, "Thanks One Shot. You showed me who I am too. I'm a member of the Apple clan. I have helped raise this farm since I was small. My dad did the same when he was small too. He went on to meet my mom, who found her love in farming like him. They raised this farm together, and they raised me and my siblings. We are the heart and blood of this farm. And that is the honest truth." Applejack, content in what she said, closed her eyes and finally fell asleep for the first time that night.
Where...where am I?"
I opened my eyes to find that I was inside a dark room. I tried to activate my suit's light feature, but then I remembered that the battery, as well as the back-up, had both died while I was with that pony...wait. Where did the pony go?
I examined the area around me. Soon, my eyes adjusted to the darkness enough for me to see that I was in a featureless room with a collapsed wall just across from where I was laying. There was no sign of the wooden building, and the metallic and smoke ridden air was once again collecting in my lungs. I tried to look around some more, but I was too weak from the blood loss. I knew I should be dead. I knew I would be eventually, but something kept me alive.
Was it all just a dream? Did I really go to that strange building? Was that pony...was Applejack...real? I tried to tell myself that no, it wasn't, but I somehow knew, in my dying heart, that it was. I had smelled the clean air, felt the agonizing pain of my fresh wound, even the water I had splashed on my face had felt real. And the apple...It tasted so...sweet...
I tried to remember the taste of that apple, the freshness of it, the reality of it. It even felt real in the palm of my...hang on...
There was something in my left hand, something...round. It...it can't be... I thought, but it was. When I glanced down at my hand, I saw it. The apple. It was still there in my hand. Why it was there, or even how it was even possible, I will never know. I just knew, deep in my heart, my slowly dying heart, that she had been real.
I tried to lift the apple, if only to taste it one last time, but I was just too weak to move. My time was up. And I started to laugh.
It was a slow, deep and throaty laugh, but I was laughing anyway. The fact that I, One Shot, the best sharpshooter of the blue army, would now die here, alone, just made me laugh while I still could. The irony of it all came crashing into me like an artillery shell. I stopped when my lungs began to hurt, and I stared at the apple. In the little light that I had in the room, I could just make out the red skin of the fruit. Red. like my draining blood and the name of my best friend...
Reddy. He's alive. And he's just outside. This realization practically knocked me to the ground. A plan began to form in my head. Granted, it was stupidly simple and might not even work, but it was all I had. I needed to try. There was just one problem at the moment. Both the batteries in my suit were dead. At least, I thought they were.
Knowing I couldn't move an inch, I tried to use the one thing I knew would allow me to make sure the battery was alive. I wet my lips and spoke.
"Voice control activate," I croaked. Nothing happened. I tried again, but the suit remained silent. Great, I thought, there goes that ide-
"Voice control acknowledged ,"
The sudden voice startled me, but I was soon grinning like an idiot. Now to start part two of my plan...
"Activate message system..."
"We're nearly through! We just have a few feet left!"
"Soldier Red Dragon, is this really necessary?"
Reddy stood stock still as he stared at the soldier who had asked him that. When the soldier in question saw the look in his eyes, he nervously nodded and walked away. Reddy shook his head and looked back at the picture clutched in his hand. The three children in the pic were smiling away at each other and the camera. They were so happy back then... we were so happy back then Reddy corrected himself. A small smile crept onto his face as he stared at his own shocked expression. Even though he was smiling in the picture, he knew he had been utterly surprised at...Her actions.
At that moment, there was a loud crash in the distance.
"We've broken through!" Another soldier called out. Reddy wiped away his smile and stuffed the photo into his pocket. He picked up his shock sword and strapped it onto his back. His general saw him and motioned him over.
"Now..." His general began when Reddy was within earshot, "Keep your com link on at all times and find this One Shot. Once you find him, dispatch him immediately. And if he's already dead, bring his body directly to me."
"Why would I do that?" Asked Reddy.
"It's no secret that you were once an ally with that man," The general explained, "I want to make sure he's dead, and your word just won't be enough," Reddy nearly protested, but nodded his head in consent anyway, "Good. Now get in there and make sure you kill him!" Reddy nodded again and sped off.
Moments later, he was crouching at the small hole in the rubble of the building wall that One Shot had been blasted through. The hole was just large enough for him to get through. He glanced at the general, who had his arms crossed and was glaring at his back, before he crawled through the hole. Once he got to the other side, he stood up and looked back at the hole. It had been carefully broken through so as not to upset the integrity of the rest of the rubble around it, but it still looked unstable. Reddy decided to ignore it for the moment and began to look for One Shot. It didn't take him that long.
The moment he turned on his suit's external lights on his shoulders, he spotted his friend slumped against the back wall. Well...he found his body at least. Reddy knew it was too late the moment he saw him. In the light from his suit, he saw that One Shot had a considerably large chunk of his body taken out of him. A pool of blood had gathered around his right side from the large gash. He had probably died moments after he was blown through the wall. Reddy sighed and reported his findings. A loud cheer had gone off in the distance, but Reddy didn't hear it. He just fell to his knees and stared at his old friend. The general soon barked at him to bring him the body, but Reddy ignored him. He didn't want his friend’s body to be massacred by his "teammates". The general grew impatient though and threatened to send in another soldier, so Reddy sighed again and got up to retrieve the body.
He dusted off his legs and was about to proceed, when he noticed something...strange. Reddy saw that there wasn't a trail of blood leading to the body, for there certainly should have been one after he had been hit like he had. He also noticed that his friend had died smiling. Reddy walked over to examine his old friend's face and saw that he was indeed smiling.
"Strange..." Reddy muttered out loud.
"What's strange soldier Red Dragon?" Asked the general in a gruff voice. Reddy silently cursed to himself for forgetting about the com link before replying.
"He's smiling..."
"And why is that a problem?"
"It's...not,"
"Then stop delaying and bring me that body!" Reddy flinched at the loud order and told him he will, but he remained motionless. Reddy knew that One Shot wouldn't have died with a smile for no good reason. No...he must have wanted to tell him something, but what? The red suited soldier took a step back and examined the body once more. His arms were splayed out while his helmet had been un-solidified and draped behind his head. There wasn't any secret messages written in blood, and he appeared to be weaponless. Reddy nearly gave up and turned away, but his suit's lights landed on a small red object in the body's left hand. Upon closer inspection, Reddy saw that it was an apple.
There was a single bite taken out of it.
Curious, Reddy bent down to pick it up. The moment he tried though, the suit his friend was wearing turned on.
"Enemy detected! Enemy detected! " It shouted, just before a green light turned on and some sort of energy shot out of it in a massive wave. The wave of energy hit Reddy, but he didn't move an inch. The hole he had climbed through wasn't so lucky. The wave smashed into it, and even though it barely affected Reddy, it caused the rubble to collapse around the hole, once more locking the room in complete darkness.
Reddy was confused at the sudden change in light, when he realized the lights on his suit had turned off. He tried to turn them on again, with no luck. He then tried to raise the general, but found his com link had gone out too. At that moment, he knew what had happened. One Shot had set his suit to give out an EMP pulse that short circuited basic devices. Reddy stood up and examined the once again collapsed wall. He then surmised that the pulse had been calibrated to be weak when it was first sent out, but to increase in power the farther it traveled. Reddy's suit had gotten the weaker blast, and its fail-safes had prevented any more damage to it and its wearer. This locked out the more powerful discharge that had collapsed the wall again.
"Very clever my friend, but why?" Asked Reddy out loud now that he knew the general couldn't hear him anymore, "Trapping your foes when they came to retrieve your body is fine, but I can still get out. This is a pointless trap...unless..." Reddy turned back to the body of his friend to discover a faint light emanating from the neck of the suit, "you wanted to tell me something without being heard..." He leaned closer and saw that the light was illuminating his friend's face as well as a small button. Reddy recognized it as the message relay that was used to record private messages found on the hacked com link channels. It was also used, to a lesser extent, to record a soldier's last words to the living. Reddy swallowed back his nervousness and pressed the button. At first, nothing happened, but a low static was soon heard. One Shot's voice came soon afterwards.
"Hello Reddy," Said the staticky voice of One Shot, "Or should I call you 'Red Dragon'? I've heard that you're going by your actual code name in the red army now," Reddy stumbled back from the blatant message to him. The voice sounded older than he remembered, but slow and tired at the same time. Hearing his voice, even a recorded one, sent shivers down Reddy's spine.
"I honestly have no idea if you're alone, if you're listening to this with some of your new buddies, if you have any, or if you're even listening to this at all. Still though, I have to say this, before I leave you forever," Reddy didn't know how to react to this at all, so he just kept quiet and listened.
"I know you probably still blame me for Her death. You might even still hold a grudge against me for dating Her. I'm sorry for having to remind you of that. I'm also sorry for having to remind you of how She, Ringer, had died," Reddy shuddered from hearing her name. He hadn't thought of her in years, but he still couldn't stop the occasional memory from coming. He hated when that happened. Reddy sighed and continued to listen.
"You may recall that General Fudge and Ringer had been escaping from the army of mechs. I swear to you, I tried with all of my might to keep them from being killed, but, as you know, this effort was in vain. One of the mechs blew up and...well, you know the rest..." The recording paused for a moment, which gave Reddy enough time to reflect on that day and the events that transpired afterwards. He remembered that day well. Almost too well. He also remembered how he had lashed out at One Shot for not saving her when he could not. Reddy had left the squad and the blue army moments later, and he regretted that decision ever since. After he had realized what he had done, he knew he couldn't go back. After all, he was a deserter now, an enemy of the army. For weeks he had gone around the ruins of the city, looking for a way to get back, but the red army got him first. They recruited him on the spot, and since then, he started to kill the ones he once thought of as allies. The recording said something about storing energy to his suit before continuing.
"Recently...I...well I met this girl..." Reddy perked up at that and leaned in closer so he could hear better, "I...I know what you're probably thinking. I mean there are a lot of girls in the army, but this one was...different. I can't really explain why, but trust me when I say that she's different. I...told her about Ringer you see...about how she died...but she seemed to understand. In fact, she told me something that I never thought of before...and it actually makes sense when you think about it. She told me that Ringer...might have intentionally blown up that bot," Reddy jerked back from this new theory. He stared at his friend, not really knowing what to think, but anger soon came over him. Reddy wondered why One Shot would make such an accusation. Why would he even think that Ringer had...deliberately killed herself. Why? Why would she even-
"She did it save you and I. She saved our lives that day," Reddy's anger drained away from this thought, "Please Reddy...this isn't just some theory of mine to make me feel better. It's the truth. It's the honest to god truth," One Shot stopped talking and said something about placing a trigger in his left hand, but Reddy didn't hear this. He just heard the same words repeated over and over in his mind. She saved our lives that day... Reddy didn't know what to say to that. It sounded simple, too simple, to be the truth, but it made sense. It made complete and total sense.
"I don't know why I believe this to be true, but I do know for a fact that Ringer held considered us to be the only reason for her to continue to fight. Without us, she wouldn't have been able to fight anymore. Please...Reddy...you must believe me that upon that day, she died to keep us alive, like I'm dying now..." At that moment, One Shot started to cough and wheeze. Reddy nearly jumped up to aid his friend, but then he remembered that he was already gone...
One Shot coughed some more before continuing in a quieter voice, "I'm a dead man Reddy...I'm already dead in your eyes now, but that doesn't change the fact you're still alive. That girl I spoke to earlier released me from the heavy burden of Ringer's death, and now I release you from yours. She herself had lost some...friends of hers...but she continued on for their sake. Before we left each other, she gave me this apple in my hand. I've taken a bite out of it, and it is the sweetest thing I have ever had the pleasure of tasting," One Shot coughed some more at this. He didn't stop for a while this time, and it seemed that each cough got quieter and quieter...
...uuungh...sorry...Reddy I'm just...so...sorry...reroute power to EMP and send out increasing charge when triggered... Acknowledged...Reddy...I hope my little plan works...forgive me my friend... Reddy somehow knew he wasn't talking about the coughing fit he just had. He also knew that the message was nearly over. Reddy stood up and stared at his friend's illuminated face, but the power he had stored in the suit was now on its last dregs. The small light slowly began to dim. One Shot kept on repeating the same words over and over again until they finally stopped altogether. Reddy thought the message was over, but to his surprise, One Shot spoke up one last time.
"I...I can't see anything..." He continued, "I think...I think this is the end for me...Reddy...Thank you. Thank you for coming to me when I needed a friend all those years ago...Ringer...she told me that...she told me that it was you who had the idea of speaking to me then...so I thank you with all of my dying heart..." For a moment, he didn't say anything more, but a slow gasp soon emanated from the suit's speakers. "Is that...no...It can't really be...oh...I get it...I guess my time is finally up...isn't it? Ringer?...
The breathing stopped soon afterwards. There was simple static on the machine for a while until a loud rumbling was heard. A voice called out moments later saying that they were nearly through. The suit picked up the foreign voice and terminated the message. The small light finally turned off, sending the entire room in complete darkness. Reddy's own suit picked up the dark room and turned on its shoulder lights so Reddy could once again stare at his friend's face. He didn't even know that the suit had recharged. Despite this, he just stood there and stared at his friend. He wasn't sure what he just heard, but he knew for certain that his friend wouldn't be pulling his leg like that.
Reddy stared at his friend's content smile, happy that he had gotten to say his final farewells, even though he wasn't even sure that the person they were meant for would even receive them. The apple still lay in One Shot's hand. Reddy bent down and picked it up. As he stood back up, he turned on his com link.
"-ed Dragon! Do you read me? What happened in there?!"
"One Shot had set his suit to release an EMP pulse to trap any who disturbed his body," Explained Reddy, "I'm fine. What's the status out there?"
"We're trying to dig you out now," Replied the general, "Is the body secure?"
"One Shot's body is fine sir...Sir?"
"That's good. Hang on there and wait for us to dig you out,"
"Sir? What-"
"We should be able to reach you in about fifteen minutes,"
"What do you plan to do with his body...sir?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, what will happen to his body once you get it?"
"...well, nothing."
"You mean you're just going to leave him?"
"He's dead isn't he? Who cares if we leave him. Wait there and keep the body safe. Over and out," The com link's static echoed in the dark room. Reddy looked back at One Shot's body and sighed. He stuffed his free hand into his pocket, only to find the picture within it. He pulled this out and held it up to the lights on his shoulders.
"How happy we used to be..." Muttered Reddy. He stared at the picture and thought of Ringer. If she were here right now, she would be balling her eyes out. Then, when she heard about how her lover would be treated, she’d march right up to the general and demand that they give him a proper burial. Reddy chuckled at the image, then thought, why not?
He figured that he would most likely get suspended if he did that, or worse, but the thought of how Ringer would have reacted stayed in his mind. Why not? Reddy thought again. He shown the shoulder lights around the room and found that there was a door to the right. He replaced the photo and stored the apple inside the same pocket and walked over to his friend.
"I'm sorry for deserting you," He said out loud, "But that's going to change. Now," Reddy bent down and picked up the body of his friend and went over to the door. He kicked it open and went into a wide hallway. Setting down the body, he went over to another room and found a large shelf inside it. It took some doing, but he eventually managed to get the shelf into the hallway. As an afterthought, he tossed the photo into the first room and yelled. "I quit!" into the com link, just before he blocked the door. He shut off the com link and picked up One Shot once more.
He knew this was probably stupid. He knew that he might not survive that long outside either of the armies, but he had been fighting for so long, he almost forgot how to smile. This wasn't going to happen. Reddy soon found another room with a bed and a window in it. It was here that he lay down his friend. He positioned him so that he was laying down as if he were asleep. As another afterthought, he took out a small green gem on a necklace and draped it around his own neck. The gem was in the shape of a heart.
Looking down at the heart shaped gem, Reddy smiled a genuine smile. He hadn't smiled like that in years. There was shouting in the distance, but Reddy ignored this and just stood there. When the shouting got louder though, he turned around and piled up the broken furniture in front of the door. He then walked over to the window and climbed out of the building. Reddy stared through the window one last time before turning around and running away. The gem banged against his chest with each step he took. He didn't know where he was going, but he didn't really care either. He just had to get out of there. Fast.
Eventually, he got hungry and took out the apple. He looked at the single bite in it and noticed something black in it. Reddy stopped running and stared at the tiny black capsule that was now in his fingers.
It was a seed. A tiny, black apple seed.
Amazed, Reddy placed it into his pocket. Once I get to a safe enough area, thought Reddy, maybe I can start an apple farm... Reddy grinned as he took his first bite out of the apple, being careful to not bite into any of the precious seeds.
It tasted delicious.
