“Any word from our men up East?”

“Uh- n-NO SIR! None!”

“Lighten up Clydemax, no need to be jumpy. Unless, you’re scared?”

“N-NO SIR!”

“Good, ‘cause you might not make it back.” Well, our sergeant is pretty cruel with the weak ones. Wish she would act a little kinder with them, no need to freak them out before a big mission.

“Hey, sergeant, you sure you should be messing with the soldiers?”

“Oh, Ironbrazier, they know I’m just joking with them.”

“I don’t think they do sir. Perhaps you should clarify.”

“Heh, you’re lucky we know each other, or you would have a beating right now.” Then she gave me a punch on the shoulder.

“Well, it’s just that we don’t need any soldiers going out there and getting spook and wounded. I don’t want to have to replace any more armour than I already have.” She smirked at me.

“You never change Pig.”

“Neither do you Chicken.” She laughed and went back to instructing the team.

“You will go in there and recon, we are not going to be going on escapades quite yet, we have to find our point of interest, and mark its location so we may charge in and get what we came for! Are you with me!?” everypony cheered

“Yes sergeant!”

“Good! Now get in there!” They all charged in pumped up like Ironwill from those silly old performances I would see in town.

So we were divided into teams, seven to be exact. Tracking spells were put on us so that our group of tracking specialists waiting at our camp outside the cave could map out the whole cave system. I was put in a group with Sergeant Scootaloo heading down shaft seven.

“ Hey, I think I see something around this corner. Brace yourselves soldiers.” We carefully sneaked around the corner and saw a light. This light was bright and blinding after the dark murky cave we’ve been going through for the past hour, so it took a little bit for my eyes to adjust. When I was able to focus, I saw a big door that looked to be made of pig iron.

“It’s a door. Should we mark this position?”

“Neigh, we still don’t know if this is the place cadet. We should probably go inside and scout for a bit.” I don’t know if this is a good idea, we still don’t know what could happen if this IS the place.

“Uh, sir, what if this IS the place and we are ambushed by some sort of automatons or evil creatures?”

“Don’t worry Pig, we will be fine as long as we are able to fight. You know we can take anything.”

“Uh, I’m not so sure. It would be a better idea if we get some more troops in here to help out. Me and you can fight very well, but we still have a chance of losing to whatever is behind that door, and we have to worry about the other troops too.”

“I know, I’m just kidding. We should scout in there still, maybe send a few ponies in.” I suppose she has a good point, there is no way of knowing completely as of now.

“Alright, just try to keep everypony safe.”

“I’m the sergeant, I’m supposed to say that. And I know this already Ironbraizer.” So with that we head over to the door. It was bigger than I thought, it was about ten feet high and was beat up like somepony was already trying to break through it, though the door being made of pig iron that would be hard. We were looking for a handle of some sort so we could open the damn thing, but it just seemed like two giant slabs. There were no spaces or cracks anywhere in the door to peek through or to give us a hint as to how it might open.

“Well damn. How does this thing open!?” Sergeant is getting ticked off now, and I can’t blame her, This is aggravating all of us. After about forty minutes of this nonsense we gave up and took a break.

“Wow, this safe is hard to crack. seems more like a wall than a safe.”

“I know, right? Gotta tell you Pig, this thing can’t have any living thing in it. How they would get in is a mystery and how they would manage to live in there seems impossible. Is there even a place to put a key of some kind?”

“No, I did not see a single one.” This safe is impossible, I have never seen anything crafted like this.

“This is like the first mission me and you were on. We were bored out of our minds because we had to wait for the enemy to fall asleep. It was great, we were able to talk in the safety of our hole.”

“Yeah, I remember that. It was great, it was the first time we got to pair up and really take on some Changelings.”

“Our commander said our teamwork was like magic.” Magic.

“Magic! That’s it! The key to opening this door is magic, it must be some kind of a spell that opens it!”

“You may be right! But how do we know what spell opens it?”

“Hmmm.... Maybe it is hidden in this cave system. We should check in with the others and maybe find out?”

“Agreed.”

It was about three A.M. and me and Scoots have been in this cramped little hole for awhile now.

“Ugh, our target can’t be awake still! They have to have openings, how else would they be sneak attacked!?”

“Scoots, the point is to not be sneak attacked and I think they know it.”

“Yeah, but just waiting is so boring! I want to fight, take them down. All of them!”

“I know, it’s okay. I understand why you want to end this whole fiasco.” I paused, wondering if I should press this matter. “I heard you were there when it all started.”. She stayed silent for a moment.

“Yes, I was. I was there when everyone was happy, and then I was there when Discord started raining chaos on everything. Now, my home is his kingdom, and I will never forgive him for that...” We sat in silence for a few minutes.

“Well, just doing this out of hatred and rage is not the right way to do things, it will drive you mad.” I have seen ponies driven mad by that kind of thing. One time I met someone who went so mad from it he couldn’t stop banging his hooves into a Changelings face and wouldn’t stop, even when his whole body was completely covered in its blood.

“Hey Ironbrazier.”

“Yes?”

“I just want to say, thank you for being there for me through, well, everything. You’re a great friend.” Just then we heard a loud voice call out

“ATTACK!” Everypony charged out of the woods at once and startled the Changelings so bad that they started morphing into weird things that were obviously not disguising them. Our plan worked perfectly and we would be able to take them down and get the info we need! Scootaloo and I were flank to flank fighting off the hordes coming our way, it was like a beautiful dance. After awhile all the Changelings were either running or on the ground in pain, so we ran for the Hive they had set up to look for our documents.

“Okay, all parties report to the main camp area now!” All of the teams came together in a line in front of us in lines. “Okay, we have found what might be the door to what we are looking for, but first we have to know if anypony found anything we need and sure enough, group 3 found a book that might contain the spell we need to open up the door we found in the cavern. Don’t get your hopes up, but we think the answer to all our wishes is in this vault.” That’s all they needed to hear, and so we slept until day break. Well, everypony except me and Scoots.

“Hey, you awake Pig?”

“Ye-Yeah.” Scoots has never come to visit me in my tent. Something must be up with her.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“Oh, this is a weapon I’ve been working on for awhile.” I’ve had this sword for a few years and I’ve always cherished it.

“That looks familiar...”

“Should, it was my dad’s.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

“No, it’s okay. I don’t mind talking about him.”

“It’s weird, we’ve known eachother for so many years, I hardly know anything about your family other than the old war stories.”

“That’s because I try not to think about it.”

“We all know that your father is gone bu-”

“My father is not gone... Not completely”

“wh... What?”

“Uh- nothing. Sorry, forget I ever said anything.”

“Ironbrazier, what’s going on?” I sighed long and hard. Then I looked at Scootaloo, her eyes had confusion, accompanied with anger. It was obvious I could not get out of this without giving her a answer.

“I don;t.... I don’t feel like my dad is dead.”

“What? How so?”

“Well...” I paused.

“Well what?”

“No, it’s just.... Nevermind.”

“Ironbrazier, are you alright? You sure you’re up for tomorrow's mission?”

“yeah, I’ve been looking forward to it, it’s just... I keep getting this feeling like we are getting close and just falling so short.” Scootaloo gave a look like she had known this feeling, but never came to terms with it.

“That’s why we try to keep up morale. We don’t want to think like that ‘cause that’s what the enemy wants. If we think like that, we will fail.” She had a point. But it’s hard to shake this feeling.

“Scootaloo, do you remember when we met in boot camp? When we were forced to partner up?”

“Yeah, you kept arguing with Cloudsmith to partner you with somepony else. He just wouldn’t let up though, and now we’re...” She paused.

“We’re partners.”

“Uh- yeah.” Scootaloo gave a sad expression to the ground. “Are you sure you’re okay?” I chuckled.

“Yes, Scoots. I’m alright. Now go back to sleep, okay?” She didn’t seem convinced, but she left after that. “Ugh, what am I doing. I can’t make Scootaloo worry over me. She treats me like a brother. I can’t have her worrying so much, she might get herself hurt someday because of me. That’s why I must train and learn to fight harder.

The next day started the same way they usually do, we all wake up at 5AM, get a light breakfast and head out to do our mission. I could not find Scootaloo for the life of me, she must still be getting ready, so I went to get her.

“Hey Scootaloo, you awake?” Silence. “Scoots? You up? We kind of need you right now.” Still nothing. I entered the tent and was presented with many badges and patches that she once wore on her suit, but now we never dressed in such ways. We were too busy to do things like this, never any time for fun anymore. I found a screen leading into her sleeping quarters and pulled it away. She was laying there on her bed just sound asleep wrapped up in her sheets. I always wondered what she would carry everywhere with her, turned out it was her bed set. She looked so peaceful, and for once, that look that we all had in our eyes, that deep fear or worry or stress was void of her. She looked completely blissful in her dreams. I could not bare to wake her up, but I had to. I reached for the covers and pulled them away. “Scootaloo?” She pulled them back and turned away. “Come on, you have to wake up.” She has never been this way before. Well, she usually got herself up, but that is besides the point. I climbed on the bed and went to shake her shoulder. “Scoots?” She started to mumble in her delusional slumber.

“No.... Don’t leave...” Don’t leave? was she thinking about her parents? Perhaps it was a memory type of dream from when the war started. Just as I was about to shake her again, she grabbed my hoof. “No... Don’t leave me again.” Her voice had more harshness to it, and I saw tears streaming down her face.

“Scoots...” I laid in the bed for a moment, and that was all it took for me to pass out next to her.

“Pig?” I was dazed and confused, I was just woken up by a hoof on my shoulder. It was Scootaloo’s hoof. “What the heck are you doing in my bed?”

“Uh, you grabbed me in your sleep and you have a really tight grip...” She looked at her hoof, she was still holding mine. She sat there staring at her hoof for a while and then her face burned bright red. “UH! I-Uh, I can leave if you want!”

“P-P-Please do!” I ran out of the tent. A few ponies confronted me and asked where the Sergeant was, and I just told them she was feeling a little off today and would be a little longer. After around ten minutes she finally came out with her hat covering her face.

“Uh, hey. You ready to go?”

“Never speak of this to ANYPONY!”

“Oh, okay. I won’t” She walked away to the troops looking a lot calmer now. Guess she was used to sleeping alone. Well, most of us were now. If we got to know anypony, they would most likely be gone the next day. For a little while now though, we have been pretty low on the loss of ponies and mares. Still, no pony wanted to risk losing a new friend and therefore stayed loners. Me and Scootaloo have known eachother for a while now and we are pretty confident that we won’t lose each other.

“Okay, get ready phillies! We are heading into the mines in forty minutes, don’t dilly dally!”

Author's Note

Hey, I put my cowardly OC in this chapter :D