“We have to save Sweetie Belle!” Apple Bloom choked out. All around her, fire, smoke and destruction filled the air. She coughed again, tears shining with pain as she looked at her one remaining friend. Scootaloo stood tall; her eyes narrowed in defiance, wings flared. For a moment, she said nothing the only sounds falling rubble and cackling fire. But when Scootaloo spoke, Apple Bloom felt like the bomb had gone off inside of her, not in the building they had just fled from, the building Sweetie had not been fast enough to escape from.

“No.”

“No! Whatdya mean, no?!” Apple Bloom shot back. Her demand was filled with pain, not anger. She had dealt with so much pain in the last week, since the war began. She had seen her family die and her home destroyed. She had seen more blood than she thought possible and more deaths than in her worst nightmares. But she was still shock by what her friend had just said.

“I mean no,” Scootaloo said calmly. The young mare turned away from the destroyed building and began to walk away.

“Now wait just a dang minute!” The yellow Earth Pony ran over to her friend, her sister’s old Stetson hat almost falling off. Stopping dead, Apple Bloom faced her friend, blocking the path. “We have to save her!”

“There is nothing left to save. You saw the bomb; we were lucky to have gotten out as we did. We cannot save her. We are too late.” Flapping her wings, Scootaloo flew over the other mare’s head. Landing behind her, the orange Pegasus started to walk again.

“Well, we should try! We should at least try to save her!”

“Apple Bloom, we can’t! There is no time and no hope! We have to go.”

“But what about my cutie mark?” Apple Bloom asked. She had only recently gotten the apple shaped like a heart. It was on the first day of the war that it appeared. The tree of them had decided that the apple represented her heritage and the heart shape showed how she is caring and loving to almost all and always eager to help other. Her selflessness, in short. “We have to try! We have to help Sweetie Belle! We just have to! It’s my talent. My cutie mark, Scoots. What about my cutie mark?” It was a low card and Apple Bloom knew it. But she refused to give up.

“What about your cutie mark?” Scootaloo asked, her voice sharp as shrapnel and cold as a long-dead corpse. “Your cutie mark? What about this one?” the mare demanded, moving her wings and gesturing to the scraps of paper taped to either flank. Both sheets were crinkled and slightly scorched, but it was still clear enough to see what was drawn on the paper. The cloud shooting a rainbow lightning bolt stood proudly on the mare’s flank, a defiant bold of colour in a dark gray world. “What about this one?” Scootaloo demanded again. “And more importantly, what about the pony who’s it was?! Do you remember what her last words were? The ones she spoke to us, the three of us? ‘You have to win,’ she told us. Then she died. Do you remember that, Apple Bloom?” the orange pony paused. She bent and checked the bandages on her right legs. The bleeding had stopped, but too much excitement could start it flowing again. Raising her head again, Scootaloo could see her friend was almost in tears. She sighed and spoke again, in a softer tone this time. “I’m sorry. If I thought there was a chance that she had survived the explosion, we would be in there looking for her right now. As it is, I honestly do not think she could have lived. She knew what she was signing up for when she chose to stay and fight, rather than flee.

“There will be time to mourn for her. And the others. The ones who have already passed and those who have yet to fall, we will mourn them. I promise you that. I promise. But that time is not now. Right now, we have a war to fight. Not just fight, but win. I’m only a blank-flank and your cutie mark has to do with the opposite of war, but we are only hope Equestria has right now. Luna and Celestia have vanished and the Elements of Harmony are dead. Almost everypony has fled or been killed. It is up to us to save Equestria. There will be time to mourn, but not right now. Right now, we need to get going.” Scootaloo turned around and began walking down the path. Apple Bloom cast one last look at the destroyed building that would be Sweetie Belle’s final resting place before limping after her remaining friend.

“Alright,” Apple Bloom finally agreed, “let’s go.” Scootaloo nodded.

“We have a war to win.”

Author's Note

I might do more on this topic. What happens after and/or what lead up to this moment. If I do, I will probably move this chapter and that one to their own story. But I might not. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this!