5: Burning Bridges

(………………………………………………………………………………………………………….)

You looked out into the dark desert. The arid climate sucked the moisture right out of your mouth; no amount of water lasts long enough to keep it away. You just leaned over and stared out into the desert, looking only at the occasional cactus and rocks. The low roar of the truck that carried you filled your ears, aside from the occasional bump on the sandy road that jarred the rusted axel, it was the only sound out here. You looked away from your spot on the back of the old truck and spared a thought for the other soldiers residing with you. There were about 12 of them, all soaked with sand and battle hardened. They had no identity, same as you. No one wanted to speak, no one wanted to have anything to do with anyone after what had just happened, yet they were the lives closest to you.  There was no other life out there, none worth saving anymore anyway. Not since the battle for Appleoosa.

That’s where you had just come from, along with the others. After the griffins 5th attack on echo, the base was given up for lost, and you were redeployed on the next closest bastion of civilization, Appleoosa.

When you arrived it was a ghost town, the people had been evacuated. You and around 1000 men were stationed there to protect the town. With close air and ground support guarding the perimeter.

You don’t remember how it started, or even most of the fight. You know it lasted two whole days. You know that all your heavy support was destroyed. You know that you got a severe concussion from something, and you know that you and the other 12 men were the only ones left. You're surprised that somebody bothered to send an extract, with the zone being so hot, in more ways than one.

You didn’t know where you were going. Right now you really didn’t care. You knew almost for certain you were going to die in this war, the only question was when and how painfully. Where ever you ended up next wasn’t going to any better, but you weren’t going to stop fighting until you were dead, you owed your family and comrades that much.

You look past the dust on the horizon in front of the truck and see the lights in the distance.  It wasn’t big enough to be a town, so you guessed that was your next station. The truck confirmed your assumption by halting at the entrance to the camp with a squeak. You all jumped out of the back end of the truck and made your way to the center of the collections of tents and crates that made up the camp for orders. You looked over to what used to be a sign, it had been scratched off multiple times, hiding the name, only a number etched into the bottom right corner remained. 13.

When your group reaches the center of the camp, one of the soldiers that was sitting by the campfire gets up and runs over to a tent, soon a man emerges. You look to his shoulder and see that he’s a captain, he certainly doesn’t look the part, he isn’t a royal guard and hes just as torn up as the rest of you.

“I commend you men on your valiance in Appleoosa, even though the city fell, you all fought bravely.” None of you really cared for his greeting, you all just wanted to go to sleep.

“Now I know all of you are eagerly awaiting rest, so Ive set up the third tent with adequate sleeping quarters. You are dismissed.” Now that is what you wanted to hear.

“Except you. Private (your name). I need something from you.” Goddamn it couldn’t this fucking wait till morning?

“Yes sir?” You stand at attention any way, even though you just wanted to snap and run into the desert to get away from whatever he wanted.

“I've read about what you did in echo, which was quite brave of you. You are now promoted to Sergeant.” This definitely could’ve fucking waited till morning, you thought.

“Thank you sir.” You say as politely as you can muster. In the last fight at echo the griffins had manage to take over most of the camp. With a skilled hand you silently took out many of them with a knife, and slowly led the majority of them to a stockpile of explosives, which you detonated in their face, effectively saving the camp.

“I also need something else from you. I need someone to infiltrate back into Appleoosa, and I need it done now. A troop stationing dossier was left in the captains quarters in the saloon in a safe. It was concealed so they may not have found it. If they do find it, it will compromise the locations and troop counts of all the stations in Equestria. You and one other man in this camp have shown the skills necessary to accomplish this task, the truck will take you back and we have air support ready to wipe the town off of the map should you fail. We need that defense point soldier, so I don’t want to do that, and the defenses they’ve set up around the town deter another direct attack. You leave in two hours.”

You are beyond pissed off at what you just heard. You are so upset that you aren’t even upset. You just go back to the truck, walk past the driver whose refilling and just crawl into the back and go to sleep.

A tap on the shoulder jolts you back to the realm of the living.

“So he lives?” You look up to find the man who disturbed your slumber. This guy looked like a professional, full black suit, NV goggles, two knives on his belt and a specialist SMG on his back.

“Fuck off.” You roll back over and fall asleep.

“Nice to meet you too. The names Pokey Pierce by the way, guess I’ll just wake you up when we get there.” You ignore him and just go back to sleep, savoring what little you can get.

…

After a horrible attempt to stay asleep through the bumpy ride you arrive on the outside of town, you crawl from your prone position and follow Pokey out of the truck.

“Just follow me. I’ll get us to the safe, you just do what I tell you.” You didn’t care to argue with that. Just less you have to do.

You walk through the alley ways in the town and can see griffins walking through the town on patrol. They were smart enough to use the buddy system, unfortunately. Pokey motions you to hide behind a dumpster. Just then a pair walks right by you. He then motions for you to take them out.

You stand up and embed your knife in the closest griffins throat and keep a hand over his mouth. Pokey does the same and the two of you put the bodies in a pile behind the dumpster.

The two of you move up to the street to the saloon. Unfortunately it is quite occupied with soldiers enjoying the last of the liquor still inside.

With intricate hand motions that you only half way understand, Pokey tells you to get on the nearby roof with him to get into the captains quarters. Doing so you get to the upstairs window on the saloon. Pokey lifts it open and steps inside.

“Alright, cover the door, I'm going to incinerate the safe contents.” Pokey motions as he pulls out some tools from his belt.

You lean against the frame to the side of the door and wait while Pokey goes to work. You hear the griffins on the bottom floor attempting to play piano and laughing to each other. Then you hear footsteps against the stairs outside.

“You might want to hurry it up.” You whisper across the room.

“Got it!” He opens the safe and then drops a pellet inside. With a fwoosh, the contents go up in flames, and it was a little louder than you would’ve liked

“Did you hear that? Get to the office!” the boot steps grow louder and faster and you speed towards the window with Pokey.

Only to be met by a rifle sticking into the window at your face

“Looks like two of them forgot who owns this town now.” The griffin at the window yells down at his comrades.

You turn to face your rear and see three griffins kick the door in and hit Pokey with the butt of their rifle, and doing the same to you, knocking you out.

…

You wake up on your knees on the ground floor of the saloon with Pokey to your right, and two griffins flanking the both of you. You look up and see a griffin officer standing over the two of you, loading a pistol. Around him must be 8 other griffins. This was probably going to be your last moment.

“So you think you can walk into OUR camp and trifle with us?” He speaks in his thick griffin accent.

“Well, I don’t think we’re going to send a message back that this is a bad idea.” He laughs and points his gun at Pokeys head.

In a last ditch effort for his life Pokey yells, “You do that and this whole place is going go up, there wont be any sur-“ A shot rings out and Pokeys face turns into a red mash of brain matter and blood.

“You Equestrians talk too much.” He walks over to you and points the pistol at your face, you lok right down the barrel.

“Any last words, dog?” Something inside you snaps. No, not like this. Not by him. You jerk up and let out a yell that could’ve woke the dead in echo. Then you black out as you lunge forward.

…

You wake up. Around you the saloon is covered in a coat of red, the floor is soaked in entrails, and so are you, your uniforms normal drab green is coated, boot to helmet in dripping blood and gore is hanging off you in places. In your left hand is your knife, the right had holds the griffin commander, by his throat.

“Any last words, you feathered fuck?” he spits blood from his broken mouth into your face.

You rear your arm back for the killing blow.

(……………………………………………………………………………………………………………)

You awaken in the train cart. Drifting out of the doze you find yourself standing up, in the same position as your dream, just before you woke.

You look to your right hand and see what you had done.

Rainbow Dash is in your clutches, bloody nose and a gash across her cheek begging for mercy.

“Please…urk….I'm not a griffin…..please….” her feet are dangling off of the ground and she can’t breathe,  you look back to your other hand and see the knife poised, ready to strike.

“No… I'm so sorry.” You release her and she curls up and puts her hands over her head to try to protect herself.

“Just don’t kill me…I'm not a griffin…please…” she manages to choke out between sobs. You are both still naked from your last interaction. You just stand there and stare at your hands, contemplating what you were about to do.

Just then AJ bursts into the door and attempts to take in the scene in front of her, most likely hearing the screams from next door. “WHAT DID YOU DO?!” Her face turns from terror to rage as she looks from Rainbow to you. She comes at you and throws a straight punch at you. Your training kicks in and you spin backwards, grab her hand and her belt at the back and flip her over her unbalanced weight from the punch.

You spin to meet her downed figure and pin her and put the knife to her throat. She looks up at you with anger and disgust, unable to fight back from the position you put her in.

“I'm so sorry.” You try to reconcile, but you know it’s no use. You get off of her and grab your clothes. Looking to the window you see that you’ve arrived back in Ponyville. Exiting the room you see AJ still staring at you angrily, but not getting up, whether from fear or injury, you don’t know. You put your clothes on and exit the train. You run as far away from the train as you can. Fearing your own actions, and what you might do to any of these poor people.

Your lungs are set ablaze after a couple of minutes and you stop and sit down at a tree, you put your head and your hands and try to chastise yourself as best you can.

You almost killed her! All because you can’t fucking control your own dreams, you think to yourself. All I wanted was to find somewhere nice to settle down away from the horrors out there, I spent so long out there I've become one myself. I've effectively banished myself from this town, I can’t stay here anymore, I'm putting all of their lives in danger just by being here, you rationalize.

I've just got to tell Princess Luna about the supplies, then I've got to get as far away from here as possible, you think, more wanting a final interaction with this sweet town than wanting to let Luna know.

You get up and solemnly make your way towards the library, to make your last goodbye.

You walk up to the library, you don’t know what to do at first. If Twilight answers the door, she could be in danger from me, I cant just knock, I don’t even kn-, your thought process is interrupted as Luna opens the door to great you.

“Ah…You have returned, I trust your journey was successful?” she asks.

“Yes your majesty. We retrieved the components you asked for.” You say in a somber tone.

“Wonderful, I will have them installed at once, I do not currently have anything else for you now. Here is your payment, you may use it in the shops around town,” She holds out a bag of coins for you. “Enjoy the city soldier, you have earned it.”

“No Princess I cant, I…I have to leave here.” You start backing away from her.

“Why in Equestria would you have to do that dear soldier?” she asks, confused.

“I'm a danger to your subjects, they aren’t safe with me around, I almost killed…” you choke up, not even being able to talk about it. “I just…I can’t stay here!”

You turn and run off as fast as you can towards the city limits, it’s a couple miles off, but you have to get out of the city as fast as you can before you're able to hurt anyone else.

“Nay soldier, wait!” She yells after you, but you ignore it.

You race as fast as you can to the edge of town, it took you almost 30 minutes of solid sprinting, but you had to get out, before anything else can happen. You reach the edge of town and move into the broken battlefield surrounding Ponyville, the war torn earth and demolished machinery. This is where you belonged. You were too polluted to be in that town with those innocent people. You had to leave them, so that they will never have to face the cruel outside world, So that they could make a better life from the ashes of the old civilization. Without you.

You reach the top of the hill where you had first seen Ponyville. You look back at the pristine town and collapse to your knees. You were exhausted, you had pushed all of the energy you had into getting out of the town. You no longer even have the energy to get up.

With Ponyville fading in your vision, you collapse onto the grass and pass out.