A Hole To Fill

Chapter 9

The ODSTs and Char geared up. Char kept the shotgun he was using and grabbed a new magnum and an assault rifle. The ODSTs looked at him like he was crazy.

“Think you got enough fire power mate?” One of the ODSTs asked as Char grabbed a few packs of C-6 plastic explosives.

“The guns are for getting in. The explosives are for making an impression. This probably isn’t their main base of Operations. Too close to Canterlot for that must be deeper in the mountains where we can see that doesn’t matter right now.”

The Pelican bay door opened and wind rushed into the bay. Char placed his helmet on his head, “Alright ODSTs your mission is secure everything else but the Main Building that will be my job as well as rescuing the prisoners. You are to shoot any armed hostiles and try to detain the unarmed ones. All ponies are to be designated hostile.” The Pelican lowered and the gunfire started. The constant pinging of bullets against the armor grew to a continuing thump. As soon as they were a few hundred feet off the ground they all jumped out. They were using flight suits for this insertion due to the fact that the ponies had human weapons so thusly they had rocket launchers just couldn’t figure out how to lock to vehicles was the sketchy part. The group fell and split the ODSTs would insert outside the compound and work their way back inside while Char landed on the roof of the main building. Char pulled the chord and the parachute unfurled from the pack. He quickly came in on the roof and landed quickly undoing the pack and dropping it. He grabbed one detpack for his insertion. He set it on the floor and armed it he walked away and detonated it and jumped down the hole, shotgun ready. The ponies inside didn’t expect the explosion so when he jumped down and blew the brains out of one of them. They started to fire their rifles but were quickly put down by Char. He ran down the hall using the thermal scans of the building and the layout built from that to guide him. His HUD had the whole building displayed in the corner but quickly changed to floor layout. The objective was three floors below him. He headed for the stairwell and a large group of ponies were waiting for him. They were waiting, all armed with rifles. “Where the fuck do they keep getting all these guns!?” He grabbed a grenade and tossed it while he rolled into cover into a separate hallway. The grenade detonated out of their defensive position so he switched to his rifle securing the shotgun into a back holster on his armor. He flicked his head around the corner and saw that they used furniture as cover. He laid down and crawled out of the hallway and fired into the furniture he heard screams as the ponies felt the bullets smack through the furniture and into them. He picked himself up and ran to their defensive position jumping over the furniture dropping a grenade on his way over. One of them saw the grenade and kicked it with the last of his might. The grenade sailed and down the stairs right after Char. It detonated sending Char down the stairs rolling. He recovered and get back up going back into full sprint. Ponies popped out of the rooms and start to fire but quickly hit by Char accurate fire. After going through a few small groups of ponies he arrived at the room serving as the jail. A steel door blocked entrance and it was locked. Another detpack set and another explosion. The prisoners didn’t expect the explosion so they cowered in the corner but when Char came running in they jumped up. “CHAR!” He smacked the lock off the cell door and motioned for them to get up, “Kingston I have the objectives secured. Heading out now what’s your situation?”

“WERE A LITTLE FUCKED OUT HERE! THEY HAVE TURRENTS! WE’RE PINNED!” Static broke into the radio and Char clicked it off. He turned to Celestia and Luna. “Get Twilight out of here go to Ponyville. I have to save Kingston and his squad.” Twilight cocked her head a little. “ODSTs? You called humans to come help you?”

“No I did.” Celestia answered before Char could turn back around. She motioned for them to move. They followed Char to the back of the building to a door leading to a balcony. “Alright get the hell out of here. Don’t come back.” He started to walk away but turned back, “Celestia if I don’t make it bury me next to dad.” Celestia nodded slowly. Twilight started to turn around and say something but Luna just shook her head. “Twilight let him go if he dies he dies. He is prepared to accept whatever fate he is given.”

They went out onto the balcony and took off the two Princesses carrying Twilight. Char started back towards the front of the building. When he opened the front door, his jaw dropped slightly the ponies had turrets aimed at the hill leading into the compound. Char placed his rifle down and grabbed his magnum. The one thing with a zoom function it had to be his pistol. He zoomed it not the best zoom factor but he quickly dispatched the gunners and holstered the pistol and picked up his rifle. He ran towards the closest group, he fired his rifle into the group. Bodies fell and others reacted to the gunfire coming from behind them, they turned firing their weapons towards Char taking their attention of the ODSTs. With that window the ODSTs moved up running to a small wall and took cover behind it. Kingston keyed his radio, “Thanks for the window! You gonna be able to hold them while we clear the first building?”

“I might need some help! They got me pinned here!” Kingston and his squad quickly hopped over the wall and started towards the group of ponies who were holding Char behind cover. The ODSTs walked right up to them and blasted them with their rifles.

“Alright you’re clear.”

“Thanks. Now get those buildings cleared! I got some explosives to string up!” The ODSTs ran into the first small building off to their left while Char went back into the main building. He slowly went through the rooms and cleared the first floor. He set an explosive charge at each corner of the first floor and started to move to the second floor to place the last one in the middle. The explosives probably wouldn’t bring the building down but he just wanted a large explosion.

Twilight and the two alicorns stood on the hillside watching the battle rage in the compound below. They couldn’t leave they wanted to but they couldn’t.

Char walked up the stairs onto the second floor the floor layout of this floor showed a large room at the end of the hallway he was in. He ran towards the door and busted through it. On the other side was a large group of ponies. Char dropped his weapon; each one of them had a gun trained on him. “Nice of you to join us human!” A single pony walked into the inner circle in front of Char. His body was a light tan and his mane was a dark indigo and odd colored mane. He wasn’t a unicorn like the rest of them either he was a Pegasus. “You thought you could just barge in here and take your princesses back without us capturing you or the rest of your human companions? We already have your friends captured and now you. You failed…”

“As long as the princesses and Twilight got out I didn’t fail.” The pony laughed.

“You seem to not care if you die humor me but why?”

“That’s how we humans can be were prepared to die for what or whom we stand for…”

“Noble…But foolish…Kill him.” He walked back out of the circle and the ponies started to aim, why were they aiming? Well at least they wouldn’t kill each other. Char closed his eyes and reached for the detonator. He did what he could he got Twilight and the princesses out. He knew he might be coming out of this one alive. The ponies still hadn’t shot yet, was it just savoring the moment that they could finally kill him? Whatever it was it allowed him to click the detonator. The explosion rocked the building all of the ponies and Char fell to the ground. The building started to fall apart.

Outside on the hill when they saw the explosion Twilight started to move but was held back by Celestia. All three of them were crying. They watched as the building fell, the screen of dust shrouded the compound from their sight. After a minute or two the dust settled the main building was decimated, and the ODSTs were out in the yard staring at the building.

“Dammit!” Kingston took off his helmet and threw it on the ground. Suddenly ponies came running out of the other building they looked towards the building and to the humans. They started to fire their guns but were quickly dispatched. Out of the sky came Luna and Celestia carrying Twilight. The last of the ponies came walking out of the building with no weapons saying they surrender. Each one of the new prisoners was tied and corralled into a group. Twilight and the Princesses stared at the rubble crying, Kingston came beside them, “I’m sorry…” His voice trembled as he spoke. “I know you guys took Frank’s death hard and now this…I just can’t believe he went out like this…” Soon they heard rubble shift and the tan Pegasus crawled out from the rubble. “How the fuck are you alive!?” The four of them were stupefied at the fact that a pony just crawled out of the rubble of a building destroyed by a large explosion. He brought himself to his hooves. Shaking his head, he looked to the group standing before him. “How did you escape my men?”

“What men? You mean the ponies in that building over there?” He jerked his head towards the first building, “All of them dead…What a poor ambush gave us the advantage by cornering themselves.” The Pegasus shook his head violently and started to move towards the group, when a small round object rolled through his legs. Kingston immediately pushed the Princesses and Twilight back and dived down to the ground. The grenade went off sending the Pegasus flying backwards and landing back in the rubble. Kingston and Celestia looked up quickly and saw a bloody Char standing amongst the rubble. A piece of wood from a support beam impaled through his midsection. He coughed and blood splattered onto his face and oozed from many of cuts on his face. He tried to step forward but stumbled and fell over. They shot up and ran to his side. He wasn’t moving, Kingston rolled him over and he was still breathing, ever so slightly. “I NEED THE PELICAN HERE NOW!”

“Dammit! We are not going to lose him! Not after what he’s been through!”

“There’s not much we can do!”

“I DON’T GIVE A DAMN THIS MAN WILL NOT DIE ON MY WATCH!” The sounds of electricity filled the room and then surged into the body of Char. His chest rose quickly then fell. “It’s not working!”

“Try again!”

Twilight Sparkle, Twilight, the Elements of Harmony and their children, their husbands, and the Princesses stood outside the room in the hospital watching the doctors’ work on him. All of them were tense and crying, a final shock went through Char. Nothing but the dull continuous beep came from the heart monitor. The doctors’ stepped back their heads aimed at the ground. One went to turn off the monitor when the most heavenly sound to all of the ears within hearing distance. The dull beep was replaced with a weak beep of his heart, Char was alive. The ponies started to cry tears of joy and hug each other. When the beeping started to become more regular all but one of the doctors’ left the room. Celestia entered the room and the doctor bowed slightly, “He is stabilized Princess but he is in a deep coma. I don’t know if he’ll wake up.”

“Is that all?” Her voice was choked.

“Yes.” The doctor exited the room and left Celestia with the comatose body of Char. Tears started to roll down her face, “I don’t know how I can fix this…” She slammed her hoof into the side of the bed. “I can’t fix this! Dammit!” She started to scream. This was eating at her.

Days passed Kingston and his men went back up to the UNSC ship that was orbiting the planet with the message that they could leave. Celestia visited Char daily. The others visited when they could Rarity’s children visited sung songs and left pictures. His body still sat their motionless except for his chest rising and falling for every breath.

Celestia walked into the room, she had a small saddle pack with her. She placed the pack on the small table across the room and sat next to the bed. She nuzzled Char’s head…The doctors’ told her he might be able to feel so she was trying to reach him in the coma. “Come on Char I want you to wake up…please…I just want you to wake up…” She sat there for ten minutes then left forgetting her saddle pack. She was half way to the castle when she remembered her saddle pack. When she came back it was open nothing was moved except for a picture that was now on the floor. The picture was of Frank and Celestia after the signing of the UNSC Equiss treaty thirty years ago. She looked to Char his body hadn’t moved to a different position since she was there twenty minutes ago. She shrugged and picked up the saddle pack, and put the picture on the small end table next to Char’s bed. She hugged him and started to pull away when she was pulled back. A whisper escaped Char’s lips, “Don’t leave…” His eyes were still shut but he was awake, she started to cry again. Her tears dropping onto Char’s face, “Celestia its ok I’m awake just like you asked.” His hand moved through her mane. She finally pulled away from Char. She wasn’t quite overwhelmed by Char’s awakening but more or less confused her emotions were out of control. What was it that she was feeling was it relief? No it couldn’t be it was something more…Love? She scolded herself at that thought; she couldn’t be falling in love with a human could she? Her mind flashed back to Frank her feelings slowly became close to what she was feeling now when he was around for so long. She was falling in love wasn’t she…Is it because it’s Frank’s son or is it because she actually sees qualities beyond his father that she likes? She shook her head and focused on him being awake. He was looking at her with a strange look, “Something wrong Celestia?” She shook her head.

“No nothing’s wrong.” She smiled and sat down next to his bed. He started to sit up but immediately winced in pain. Celestia slowly brought him back to laying down, “Char you need to rest.”

“When I have to take care of my duties?” He looked at her right in the eyes, “I don’t have time to rest. I have to deal with the Insurrectionists.” He tried to sit up again but was met with Celestia’s hoof.

“You already dealt with them…?”

“There was no way that was their main base of operations…Was it? It was just too easy.”

“How was that easy!? You had to blow up a building you were in to kill them!”

“That’s not what I’m talking about. The pegasus that survived then died by my grenade he did call all of the ponies his men…Still I’m not sure.” He finally sat up after pushing Celestia’s hooves out of the way. She started to get out of the bed wincing in pain.

“Char! You can’t keep pushing yourself like this! You got blown up at least twice in the past week and shot who knows how many times!” Char’s mind flashed back to the Warthog and the landmine then to the castle courtyards and the halls of the main building and how many close calls he had he still stood. He was still in his fatigues that he wore under his armor the clothes had plenty of holes in them; a rather large one in his midsection he felt the skin, there was large circular scar. He turned back to Celestia, “Just get me back to my cottage I can rest there.”

“Why can’t you rest here where there are doctors’ to help you?”

“Just take me to my cottage…Please?” Celestia walked around the bed and used her wing to give him support. They walked out of the room surprising the doctors and nurses with Char being awake and moving. Celestia lead him out of the hospital. Char remembered something, “Uh Celestia I forgot. How are we going to get me to the cottage?” Celestia looked at him and smiled, her horn started to glow and suddenly the world kind of darkened and changed. They were at Char’s cabin. “How?”

“Magic.” She giggled at Char’s expression. “I used a teleportation spell.” He chuckled, and scratched the back of his head.

Celestia helped him inside and he lay down on the bed. “Thanks. You can leave if you want no need to keep me company.”

“It’s fine I want to stay.” Char sat back in the bed his back against the wall his head resting on the wall as well. His eyes were closed, and he took a deep breath. “Celestia is there something wrong with me?”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know I just killed a couple dozen ponies and I haven’t been shaken by it.” Celestia frowned.

“Char I don’t know why you haven’t felt anything after killing those ponies. Maybe it’s because they almost killed you and Twilight the first time that you killed them? Maybe it’s because you think that it’s useless to cry over the dead? I don’t know.” He scoffed at her, "Whatever it may be I just don't feel right that's all I never cry when the guy next to me took a needle to the throat did I?" She looked at him puzzled as she didn't know. "Of course not. I think it's like that picture Dad left, it's always harder for a soldier to watch life come into this world than watching it leave."

They sat and talked for a few more minutes going over the experience that had happened days before. Celestia mulled over her feelings in her head the whole time but she never brought them up hoping that she could deal with them herself.

“Shush…Someone’s at the door.” He said in a hushed tone. The door slowly opened and a pony stepped inside. It was Rainbow Dash, when she looked to the bed she jumped back in surprise. “Char your awake! Wait what are you doing with Celestia?”

“Talking with her…Now why are you here?”

“I’ve been coming here since you went into the coma…to pay my respects.”

“You couldn’t do that at my room in the hospital?”

“I just couldn’t face you well your body I had caused you so much trouble before—“

“Rainbow Dash I really don’t care what happened before…You forgot what my father did before didn’t you?”

“Yes…But—“

“No. No buts about it you forgave him and I’m forgiving you. Now if you may I’d like to continue talking with Celestia in private.” Rainbow Dash cocked her head in confusion but obliged. She left the cottage without another word.

"Now Celestia I think we all could use some well deserved rest well that's all I've been doing but... you look like you've been u this entire time." She nodded and smiled. "Celestia...I'm serious go get some sleep." Celestia sighed and left the cottage she said goodbye as she opened the door.