Friends and Rivals

After getting on the road, Rico began to head back to the Paama capital. Rico began to sing a childhood favorite song.

"♫ In Equestria, there is a land. A land of peace and love. Where war is a myth. And hatred is a tall tale. The dead live on. In happiness. Come with me~ To this land of harmony and acceptance~♫"

But as he finished, he could hear somepony walking. He dove behind a rock. As he peeked out the corner, he spotted another soldier. It was the Aachen commander, Darksoul. She was injured in the side, but it wasn't a very serious wound. Most of her battle armor was gone, with only her civilian clothing and some armor pads left. A Paama soldier jumped out of nowhere and attacked the enemy commander. With no weapon, the commander had no way to fight back. They began chasing each other around the rocks. The commander grabbed a rock and bashed the Paama soldier in the head. The hit made the soldier die instantly. The commander fell to her knees. Rico recalled a reward for capturing a live commander. 9,000 bits and permission to leave the army. Peace was the only thing Rico ever cared about ever since joining the army. He always though joining would improve his life. He was wrong by a longshot.

But capturing that mare could change that. The commander had fainted and was on the dusty, jagged ground. Seeing this as the time to take action, Rico searched through the carriage he brought. With some luck, he was able to find some rope to hold down the enemy. Rico aslo finds a sack that he could wrap his captive in. After tying her up and putting her in the back, Rico begins to move the much heavier carriage.

Seeing as the trip may be tougher than he anticipated, and the fact that night was approaching, Rico decided finding some shelter would be a good idea. After hours of walking, Rico began to gave away. By that time, the captive was awake and was struggling to get free. It was beginning to rain. Luckily, Rico spotted a house on the side of the house. It was two stories tall and was barely standing. It appeared to be a restaurant. Being hungry, Rico's conscious got the best of him and he headed for the building as soon as the rain began to fall violently.

The building provided very pathetic cover from the rain. Many cracks allowed for small amounts of rain to penetrate through the roof and land on Rico. Starved, Rico put his captive on a table and removed the cloth that he used to gag the mare commander. By the time he removed the cloth from her mouth, she began spatting out insults. Rico brushed it off and began to look for food.

However, his luck ran short and he could not find any food. All vases and drawers were empty or filled with mold and dust. The rainclouds have blocked out the Sun, making it too dark to see clearly. As Rico continued to search, he heard a crashing noise. Rico looked for the source of the noise. Rico slowly turned around and jumped back into a pile of baskets. It was another mare. She had a short, purple and white mane. She had grey fur and a three star cutie mark. She was wearing a long, white dress. Along with her was a colt with blue fur. He had a crescent cutie mark. The mare looked terrified. At first, she did not say anything. Perhaps because she was too scared to talk. The colt looked like he was protecting the mare. He had a evil look on his face, but the mare did not seem that scared anymore. The mare began to warm up to Rico and she began to speak.

"You are a soldier. Of the Paama army, correct?"

"Yes. Who are you?"

"My name is Star Sparkle."

"And your friend there?"

"I'm Crescent Moon."

"What are you two doing here?"

"This is our restaurant."

"Not a lot of food for a restaurant."

"I know. Soldiers always come by for food. Who is that mare on the table? She looks familiar."

"She's the commander of the Aachen army."

"Impressive. You were able to capture a commander?"

Rico knew he didn't capture the commander, but he didn't want to pass down a chance to impress somepony.

"Um... Yes."

"Would you like some food or drink?"

"But there isn't anything here."

"Crescent has saved some food for us, but as thanks, we would like to give you some for your travels."

Rico was shocked by the kindness the mare and the colt have shown for him.

"I... I don't know what to say... Thank you..."

"Please, don't mention it."

Star handed Rico some bread and honey in a jar, along with some water. Rico began to chow down on the food, but he knew he had to save some for his captive, as well as himself on the trip. The water tasted extremely sweet for some reason. Rico goes into the other room and gives Darksoul some water. Darksoul tries to look away from the water, but she eventually accepts the water.

"Now, if you'll excuse us, we must get going."

"Get going? Where're you heading?"

"We're going to Hoofington. I hear that it's the only neutral city left in Equestria."

"What? What about Raiden?"

"Raiden? That was taken over by a rebel army weeks ago."

"Huh? What day is it today?"

"18th day of the 9th month."

"We were deployed on the 13th of the 7. I was out of almost a month?!"

"Were you by any chance in that group of soldiers that were ambushed at the Galloping Gorge?"

"Yeah, I was!"

"They said everypony was dead! I guess you can't trust everything you hear."

"Let that be a lesson to you."

The rain was starting to go easy. Rain was still falling, but not as hard as before. The Sun was reflecting off of the falling raindrops. It was as if pieces of the Sun was falling to Earth. Star and Crescent said their goodbyes and went off. As soon as they left, both Rico and Darksoul began to feel drowsy. The next thing they knew, they fell asleep.