A Hole To Fill

Chapter 8

Char and Twilight headed straight to Canterlot, when they arrived the guards were shocked when Char was carrying a pony soaked in blood. “What happened to him?” Char said nothing and walked past them. He walked through the courtyards the ponies looking at him with horrible looks. When he finally got to the cells inside the castle he carried the pony into one and laid him on the floor. “When he wakes up notify me and Celestia.” He told the guard. He headed back towards the main hall and up a stairwell.

Celestia was in her library when Char entered, “Celestia…”

“Yes Char?”

“The Insurrectionists are armed with human weapons and there was a firefight. At least three confirmed kills and three wounded. No survivors from the crashes.”

She frowned, “You had to kill them…?”

“I had no choice they were firing at me and Twilight. Celestia I loved to go over the full details but I have to go talk with Twilight, I don’t think anypony could take killing another without having issues.”

He walked out and shut the door. Celestia looked back to her books with spite. She was sitting here working on this while her former student’s daughter is going through deep psychological trauma…But I can’t leave this work it is too important. Her mind raced with thoughts as she tried to figure out if she should help Char consol Twilight. She looked back to her work, “Fuck it…” She started to trot out of the room after Char.

“Twilight?” Char stuck his head into Twilight’s quarter room, she was sitting in the corner he could hear her crying. He walked over and he set his hand on her shoulder, “Twilight…You killed a pony that would have killed you and they were about to kill me you protected me. I know father is looking down at you from where ever he is in heaven with a smile on his face.” The reference to Frank made Twilight smile a little. Char’s hand squeezed a little on her shoulder, “It’s always hard to kill something…It gets easier every time…That may make me sound heartless but it’s true.” Char sat down next to Twilight, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small photo. Celestia walked into the room, Char was hugging Twilight. She started to open her mouth but Char but a hand up spotting her out of the corner of his eye. He let Twilight go and stood up, “She’s all yours Celestia.” He walked out of the room and Celestia walked over to Twilight. She saw her staring at a picture; the picture was taken 24 years ago when Twilight was first born. Twilight flipped it over written on the back,

Taking a life is always hard watching one being born is just as hard.

She didn’t understand what it meant, but the picture meant a lot. Frank was standing next to Twilight Sparkle who was holding Twilight in her hooves. Celestia put her wing over Twilight and started to talk.

The pony that Char had captured slowly started to wake up. His head hurt like hell and he was still covered in blood, he finally noticed the blood again when he looked down at himself in the darkness. Wait darkness? Suddenly a light shined in his eyes, blinding him for a moment till his eyes adjusted. “Now what are your plans?”

The pony remembered the human’s voice, “I won’t tell you anything human.” A fist smacked into the pony’s gut making him exhale harshly, he was breathing deeply when Char repeated the same question, “What are your plans?”

“I…Won’t tell you anything…” Suddenly he felt the feeling of cold steel against the side of his head.

“Now are you going to tell me what I want to know or am I going to have to splatter your brains on that wall?” The pony was shocked but he had heard the humans acted like this ruthless, but he sensed something in the human’s voice was it reluctance?

“I won’t tell you anything.” He dared himself to challenge the human. There was a loud bang and searing pain traveled up the pony’s body. The human just shot him! He looked down to his leg which was stained red but he could see fresh blood oozing from the wound.

“It didn’t go all the way through…what a pity.” The human’s voice had changed completely he sensed nothing just like a machine. He felt another sharp pain as the human stuck a knife into the wound, “I can easily make this hurt a lot more or you can tell me what I want to know.” The pony shook his head.

“Well then…” The human twisted the knife, pain traveled to the pony’s brain causing him to jerk and scream. Once again the cold steel feeling to the side of his head, “Tell me what I want to know…NOW!” The pony knew this was it he started to cry.

“Please…I tell you want you want…Just don’t kill me! I have a wife and a young filly!” The human lowered the gun and started to untie the pony. Once he was untied the human went to work on his leg. He walked into the shadows behind the light and came back with a small canister. He drew his knife, “Don’t open your mouth when I do this, hold your mouth shut and do not scream.” The pony prepared and the knife dug into the bullet wound. When the pony heard the small clanking of the bullet against the floor he let out a scream he was holding in, “Now this might sting a bit.” The human inserted the tip of the canister into the wound and depressed a handle on the side, immediately the pony felt a burning sensation go through the wound, as quick as it came it disappeared. “There that should hold you till we are done with our discussion.” He started towards the door and the pony followed limping after him complying knowing that he would have to listen to get back to his family in one piece.

Char opened the door of the cell and light filled the room, waiting outside was two guards and Celestia, “Char! What the hell were you doing in there!?”

“Celestia if you want me to take care of this insurrection then let me do it.”

He walked past her and the prisoner followed he led him back to his original cell and sat on the bed. The pony stepped inside and Char nodded to the guard who shut the door. “Ok so what are your plans?”

“Our plans?”

“Yes what are you and the Insurrectionists going to do to get the so called “human scourge” off Equiss?”

“I really don’t know much but what the Commander said to me last. He mentioned something about raids on a town today.”

“What town!?” Char’s voice had a sense of urgency to it.

“I…think it was…Trot…No…Um…Ponyv—”Before the pony could finish his sentence Char was already out of the room and running for his Warthog. He heard a distant yell, “Celestia get the guards ready! Ponyville is going to fall under attack!” The prisoner slowly moved his tongue around his mouth, he spit out a small object. The object flashed…Good he had activated the beacon. The pony walked over to the door and knocked it opened and he was handed a rifle. “Let’s do this.”

Char gunned the Warthog down the road to Ponyville, his mind was clear. One thought moving through, protect Ponyville shoot anything that tries to stop you. He shook his head…No don’t shoot anything shoot at what shoots first. He passed his cottage and saw Ponyville everything was fine from what he could see as he approached. When he was close enough he brought the Warthog to a stop and jumped out into a full sprint to town hall. He ran through town crashing through groups of ponies who yelled at them as he passed and he would yell at them to head to town hall. Some seemed to listen others didn’t he couldn’t really tell. When he finally got to town hall he was breathing heavily, he took a deep breath and walked to the front of the steps, “Attention Ponyville!” His voice was somewhat rasp and few paid any mind. He quickly brought his magnum to his hand and fired a shot into the air. Immediately everypony stopped and looked at him. “Now I have gathered from a recent discussion with somepony whom I will not discuss that Ponyville is going to be attacked. I want all of you to gather everyone and prepare for evacuation or whatever the Princesses deem necessary for this situation! Do not panic though for the love of Celestia!” The use of that pony expression sort of sent a sense of he’s serious through the ponies for an odd reason, but they complied calmly they went around gathering everypony. Char waited for the inevitable arrival of the Elements. Rainbow Dash and Keyes showed up first. Char held his magnum out to Keyes, “Keyes take this and use it if you have to on anypony who tries to hurt your mother or anypony else ok.” Keyes slowly took it with his magic and nodded. Char looked to Rainbow Dash, “I want you to get going now. I have to get ready for the guards so we can hol—”

BOOM!

A loud explosion wrang out through the whole town, nothing in town actually exploded. Char looked towards a huge plume of smoke that came from Canterlot.

“NO!” Char took off. Running back to his Warthog, he jumped into the Warthog gunning the engine and taking off. He put his helmet on and made sure his gun was loaded. As he closed in he noticed something in the road. The Warthog was almost going to hit it. A black object, what the fuck is it? OH FUCK! Too late the mine exploded, Char was thrown from the Warthog which exploded chunks of metal fell everywhere, Char was laying on the ground his vision blurry and his ears wringing. His rifle next to his hand he grabbed it and stood up steadying himself. He looked towards the Warthog which was destroyed and looked towards Canterlot. Not too far…He started to run gun in hand adrenaline pumping ready to kill anything that stood in his way.

When he got to the gate to the castle he could see bodies. “Fuck…” Both guards and Insurrectionists bodies lay strewn all over the gate. Empty shell casings and guns lay at ponies’ feet. He checked a few of the ponies for spare magazines and then headed through the gate. As he walked deeper he heard faint gunfire, an explosion symbolized a grenade going off. The gunfire intensified afterwards and was on the other side of the next wall. He sprinted over to the gate and but his back to the wall bringing his gun and head ever so slightly around the corner. The courtyard was in utter chaos guards were at the main castle entrances holding off Insurrectionists, all of them being lead by a blood re- SON OF A BITCH! He aimed at the pony a flicked the trigger back he fell his brains all over the wall he was next to. Bursts of gunfire erupted from his gun his rage fueled mind scoping heads taking out multiple ponies with single bursts. The guards noticed the ponies falling and the bursts of fire. One spotted his gun fire and waved. You idiot he thought as quite a few of the ponies turned towards him and concentrated on him. He kept firing as most of the ponies couldn’t fire for shit.

Click the infamous click, he dropped the gun and grabbed his last grenade. He pulled the pin and tossed it running into the fray. Bullets landed all around him arcane bolts from crossbows that deflected off walls from missed shots were all over impaled into the ground or for the shots that didn’t miss impaled into ponies. A bullet skimmed his shoulder causing him to flinch but he kept going. He had no expectance to come back from this alive. As soon as he came to the first ponies he threw his knife into the ponies head, his body fell and he scooped up his gun and started to fire. Click he dropped it and picked up another, a shotgun…He pumped and fired into a group all of them taking 8 gauge pellets into them screaming. He ran decimating the group that was holding the guards at the entrance. Once he was complete he grabbed the shotgun he was using before but ran out of ammo and searched for slugs and shells. The guards came running out of their cover to congratulate him but they all stopped when another explosion occurred. Celestia’s tower exploded debris fell everywhere ember sparks filled the air from the fires starting, smoke already filled the air. Neither nopony nor anybody would see the face Char had when Celestia’s tower exploded. He was there then he was gone running through the castle halls shotgun in hand loaded his brain not giving any thought to the wound on his shoulder his mind only thought of combat. He ran up the stairs and Insurrectionists were waiting they started to fire but he ran through the spray and downed the two groups with a few shots. He reloaded he didn’t slow down to do it voluntarily no it was an automatic reaction to firing. Never let the click happen and you’re safe. When he got to the remains of the tower, he let out a scream to the world below. A note was left in paint,

WE HAVE THEM.

Suddenly a Pelican came out of nowhere hovering over the tower’s remains. The bay door opened and a trooper beckoned for him to get in. He jumped on not thinking straight crying in his helmet. Inside the Pelican was a group of soldiers, ODSTs. They all saluted and he waved them off removing his helmet. One of the ODSTs walked over to him and stuck a biofoam canister into his shoulder wound and depressed the handle. Char looked at the wound, when did I get that? One of them took his helmet off, his face was old. “Hello Lieutenant Commander. I’m Lieutenant Kingston.”

“Hello Kingston thanks for the lift.”

“You’re welcome so you ready to get the Princesses back?”

“You know where they are!? Wait how did you know we were in trouble?”

“Celestia messaged us with the TAC-PAD that the UNSC gave her to keep in contact with us. Were a little late but we have their location. They are in a remote village in the mountains.”

“We can’t just raid a village!”

“I probably chose the wrong word it’s more like a compound all thermal scans show that the only friendlies are the princesses and one other pony.”

“Who is it?”

“From what we can tell they are in armor but that’s it.”

“Unicorn?”

“Yes.” Char frowned and punched the wall.

“GOD DAMMIT! I’ve failed too many fucking times!” Kingston put his hand on Char shoulder.

“That’s why we’re getting them back. Ready to fucking do this cause were about five minutes out.” He shook his head.

“Yeah let’s fucking do this.”