Chapter 5
“Do you hear ponies sing? I hear silence…”
The colt turned towards me as I stood there, White Tiger levitated in my magic. His red eyes gazed at me for a long time. A strange feeling burned within in me…
“Who are you?” he asked fearfully, backing away slowly. “What do you want with me?”
Kill him…
I looked to my right and saw Littlepip. Only there was something off about the little mare. How was she here? Her brown eyes turned to me. They were blazing with a cold fury I’d never seen the mare carry.
“He causes such pain in my future,” she said, her voice carrying a dark edge to it. Her eyes turned to Red Sickle, who was still gazing at me with wide fearful eyes. “His descendants will cause no small amount of suffering to innocents! He must die!”
I looked at the kid; he was absolutely terrified of me. He gazed at me with those red eyes, I saw a shadow come from him. Standing behind him was a much older stallion, clad in a black cape, with the same red coat. His eyes turned towards me, only, instead of two blue eyes, he had machinery covering the right side of his face. A cybernetic red eye gazing at me with a look of evil I could not ignore.
“Do it now, Private!” Littlepip cried. “If that boy lives then many will suffer and die! He’ll try to make himself a god amongst ponies! You can’t let him come about!”
I then pulled out Blackbird, and aimed it at Littlepip. I glared at her as her brown eyes blinked in surprise. “Are you nuts!? What the fuck are you doing?!” she asked in disbelief.
“Kid?” I looked at Red Sickle and asked, “You can see her, right?”
Red Sickle slowly nodded, looking at the mare as shock came over her face.
I glared at Littlepip and said, “The real Littlepip would never ask me to do something like that. I know because I was once asked to prevent her from being born by killing myself. I was pulled out of it because I knew, that all beings deserve a stab at life no matter how evil. Also, I don’t hear any chanting coming from me, so you are no apparition of Tenacity”
Littlepip’s eyes then glowed green, her grin became wide as she laughed. “You are clever, Private! Oh so fucking clever to the point of pure insanity! It’s no wonder Littlepip came about through you.” Before my very eyes Sombra’s shadow formed from the little mare. He grinned at me and said, “Did you think I forgot about you, thief?”
“Sombra!” I growled “What the hell are you trying to pull?”
“Once again it seems you can never do something when asked. I offer you a chance to do good for your precious Equestria and you turn it down!” He grinned maliciously and snarled, “It seems you are as foolish as your dear Twilight Sparkle.”
“If you hurt her-“
“Oh, I do not plan on hurting Twilight Sparkle. In fact, right about now she’s going to look for dear Aria’s heart. She’ll find I was very careful in my traps for anypony who plans to steal from me again. She will fail, and I will return and claim her…”
“Twilight will stop you, Sombra!” I growled “She won’t let you rise up again, and neither will I! I won’t let you murder Red Sickle through me, either!”
“Look at you; you actually expect to win…”
I opened fire on Sombra’s shadow. The bullets passed right through causing him to laugh and say, “Again resorting to bullets? How did Nightmare Moon ever lose to you? No matter, I have a date in the empire rig-“
Suddenly Sombra’s eyes grew wide, and he vanished in a cloud of smoke. I smirked; sounds like things weren’t going according to plan entirely.
To use Littlepip like that…
How much evil can one colt bring about?
I shook my head and turned back to Red Sickle, who was cowering from what he'd just seen. I put away my weapons and bent down to look at him. “Your name, it’s Red Sickle, isn’t it?” I asked gently.
“Y-yes” he replied, trying to sound brave. “My father is Red Hammer though! He won’t let you kidnap me!”
I closed my grey eyes and lowered my head so we were at eye level. “My name is Detective Private Phelps Eye; I’m not with the rebellion. I was here to collect a package for them, however. I had no idea it was you they wanted.”
“You are an odd kidnapper,” Red Sickle observed, “but how do I know you speak truth?”
“I didn’t shoot you,” I pointed out. “If I really wanted to kidnap you, I would’ve tranquilized you and carried you off on my back.”
He stared at me for a long moment, gazing the truth in my eyes. Slowly but surely he nodded and asked, “If you are not here to kidnap me, what do you want?”
An idea popped into my head; if I could get Red Sickle to talk with Snowflake then maybe something can be gained. There wouldn’t be a need to fight anymore. A diplomatic solution could be made if Red Sickle came willingly.
“I want you to meet somepony I know,” I said firmly, “but your father cannot know about it. You see, the pony I want you to meet is very important, and I want you to act as a liaison between her and your father.”
Red Sickle gave it some thought, and then he looked at me, asking suspiciously, “How do I know I can trust you? Father said that a lot of unicorns are liars.”
I knew that the kid probably didn’t know better, so I ignored the comment and said, “Listen, your father had good reason to hate unicorns. However, I’m different from them. I’m not a noble and I gain nothing for myself if I take you with me. I just want to help ponies here, and this is the best way of doing that.”
Sickle looked down again “I don’t know, my father didn’t have a lot of good things to say about the ponies fighting against him.”
“Listen, I swear I’ll take you back home as soon as all of this is over,” I promised, honestly. “I want to help, and I know you want to help your father too. This is the best way for both of our goals to be achieved.”
Sickle gave it a little more thought and then nodded, saying, “I’ll do it for my father. If it means father and this pony can get along, then I'm willing to try it”
I smiled but then heard the walkie talkie crackle to life. I heard Rush’s voice on the other end, “More soldiers have arrived, Private! Have you secured the package yet?”
Fury enveloped my voice as I growled into the speaker, “When were you going to tell me that the package was Red Hammer’s son?”
“I didn’t tell you because I knew you were going to object to it!”
“This is insane, Rush!” I yelled. “You can’t ask me to kidnap a colt.”
“What does it matter? His father would do anything to make sure he’s safe! Do you want to fight this regime or not?”
I growled, “I’m not going to use him as a bargaining chip! He’s only a foal!”
“Just put your gun back to his head, and get him out of there!”
I blinked and asked, “How did you know I took the gun away from his head, or that I even had it there in the first place?”
I turned around and saw Rush standing there. His expression was one of contempt. “What the hell are you doing, Private?” he asked, his voice reminding me too well of Shinebadge. “Get the brat and let’s go!”
Red Sickle stood behind me, peeking out at the old soldier. I glared back at Rush and said firmly, “I’m not going to let you hurt him.”
Red Sickle stuck his tongue out at Rush. I gave him a small smirk and he shrank back behind me. I’m guessing he was a little embarrassed from resorting to childish insults. Then he stuck his head back out again and said, “If my father finds out what you are doing he’ll kill you! Nopony hurts the ponies of Hammergrad on his watch!”
“Watch?” I blinked and looked back at Rush. “Just what the hell is going on out there?”
An explosion answered my question and I heard Raiden’s voice over the walkie talkie, “My suit hacked into your frequency. Dude, I hope you can hear me, because all hell is breaking loose out here!”
“What’s going on, Raiden?” I asked, keeping my eye on Rush, White Tiger and Black Bird at the ready.
“It's the rebels! They’re using civilians as shields! It’s a blood bath out there!”
“What the hell are you doing, Rush?” I yelled, glaring at him “Ponies are getting hurt out there!”
“They refused to do what was necessary,” he said, his voice full of firmness. “I’m willing to put everything on the line to bring this country to true peace. If it means kidnapping the brat whose parents murdered my king, then so be it.”
Before I could react he dropped something on the ground. I saw with shock that it was a grenade of some sort. It emitted a gas that entered my lungs with lightning speed. I coughed and felt my eyes grow heavy. I fell to the floor in a heap.
Rush glared down at me and said, “May you understand one day why I do this."
My grey eyes closed and I felt cold, as unconsciousness gripped me.
_____________________________________________________
I was standing in the black space again. I slowly stood up and looked around. After a while I heard hoof steps behind me. I turned around and saw Littlepip walking towards me. She was clad in her strange jumpsuit and high tech watch. She wore a guilty expression on her face.
“Littlepip,” I said, gazing at the small mare.
“I guess we both screwed up, huh?” she asked, her brown eyes cast down. “Sombra used me.”
“Littlepip,” I said with a sigh. “It wasn’t your fault. Sombra was hoping to get to me. You were just a victim.”
“Not an unfamiliar occupation.” she said with a small smile.
“I have to ask,” I said, my grey eyes meeting her brown ones. “Would you have killed Red Sickle, if you knew what would happen?”
“You mean you were bluffing with Sombra?” she asked, giving a small laugh. “Good Luna’s Horn. You are definitely like me.”
I gave a small laugh and then went back to being serious. “So, would you?”
“Although I saw how it could benefit me, I don’t know if I would. For all the evil that Red Eye has done, if it wasn’t for him, I never would’ve been able to help in the future.” she replied thoughtfully.
“But he was a villain, right?” I asked, staring at her.
“Private, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from what I’ve done, it’s this, if good does not have evil, it will eventually turn evil to satisfy itself.”
I nodded; there was wisdom in such a small mare. I felt a strange feeling again. I turned around and I saw another sight. An Alicorn, tall and dark blue with deep blue eyes judging by his rather masculine features he looked like a male version of Luna. Granted, he was much taller than the princess of the night. His blue eyes gazed at me with a look of sheer contempt and then, he simply walked away disgusted.
I blinked, why did I feel a deep fear of him?
Suddenly light enveloped me and everything faded…
_____________________________________________________________
I blinked open my eyes to see Raiden and Big Mac standing over me. “Dude, you okay?”
I shook my head and stood up, all five of us were together again. I spoke quickly, “Where’s Rush?”
“Rush was here?” Swarm asked in shock. “We didn’t see him, when you weren’t back at the hole we came to find you.”
“Then they ran inta us,” Big Mac said, then his green eyes looked at me. “What’s wrong, Private?”
“That package he asked me to get,” I said, my voice grave, “was Red Hammer's son.”
“Dude, that’s nuts!” Raiden said, his wings flapping in contempt “I can’t believe he tricked us into helping kidnap somepony!”
“He needed a hostage,” Applesnack remarked. “Red Hammer would do anything to get his son back.”
“That still doesn’t make it right,” Raiden said, smacking his metal hooves together. “When I get my hooves on that bastard I’ll-“
“Calm down everypony,” I said firmly. “Look, let’s focus on getting out of here first. I looked at Swarm and asked, “What about the tunnel? Is it clear?”
Swarm shook his head and replied, “After we found you I ran back to check and there were guards all over the place. We can’t go back using the hole.”
“Then we’ll have to fly our way out” I said firmly, looking at Raiden and Swarm. “One of you is going to have to carry two.”
Swarm nodded and transformed into a very large pegasus stallion. I recognized him as Roid Rage, a gym going pegasus with a large body and ironically very small wings. He lifted Big Mac onto his back and grabbed Applesnack around his middle. “We’re ready to go! Yeah!!”
I nodded and Raiden’s mask closed over his face and he wrapped his hooves around me. “Dude, get ready for speed.”
“That’s what I’m hoping for, fly boy, get us out of here!”
Raiden aimed one of his hoofs at the ceiling. A lightning bolt shot out and caused a small explosion at the ceiling. The open sky was before us as Raiden spread his wings to their full length. I held on for dear life as we shot out of the headquarters.
I looked down as Raiden and Swarm flew for the clouds. I saw a horrible sight, hundreds of soldiers and rebels were fighting openly in the streets. Buildings were burning and I could hear the screams from here, not all of them came from dying soldiers. Such a waste…
“I spy a cabin over there, dude!” Raiden called, pointing to a cabin sitting on a nearby snowdrift. “It’s far enough away from the fighting that we won’t be spotted by the troops.”
I nodded and Raiden changed course for the cabin. It would provide shelter while we sort everything out. I landed along with Raiden, and looked back at the burning city. Just stared at it all as it was burning and exploding from the fighting.
I felt a hoof on my shoulder and looked to see Raiden there. He gave me a look and I knew he and I were feeling the same thing.
Did we pick the wrong side? Was it really worth all this?
I looked over to see the others land nearby. Big Mac got off Swarm as he transformed back. I noticed that Applesnack was looking a bit wobbly on his legs. I’m guessing he’s not a flying pony.
I looked down and then saw it. A trail of blood was leading up to the cabin. Somepony was here…
I looked toward the cabin and withdrew Blackbird. I was about to open the door when suddenly somepony opened it for me. A solider was standing there, clad in the same armor as the rest of Red Hammer’s soldiers. He was clutching his side; a deep wound was bleeding badly.
Before I could say anything he fell to his knees in front of me. He coughed up blood as he spoke weakly, “Please, are any of you doctors?”
“Why should we help you?” Raiden asked, aiming his hoof at the solider. “Your buddies have been trying to kill us all day!”
“It’s not for me!” He begged, coughing again “It’s for them…”
I looked behind him and saw a terrible sight. There was Driftly, the colt I gave the candy bar too. A red colored filly with a red and green highlighted mane was standing next to him, crying her eyes out. I could only imagine that was his sister.
Driftly looked up at me as we all walked into the cabin. “You, you’re the one who gave me the food”
“What happened to you ki-“ My grey eyes grew wide as I stared at his forelegs.
Or should I say, foreleg?
His foreleg was covering his bleeding wound where his foreleg was as his sister cried nearby. His green eyes were crying deeply “I was trying to find mommy and daddy in the wreckage. Then some soldiers came by and shot at me and Rosey here.” He gestured with his head at his sister, fighting tears the whole time. “Then a house exploded and next thing I know, I don’t have a foreleg anymore!!” He cried even more at the pain he probably felt in a limb he didn't have anymore.
The solider looked at me and begged, “Please, you have to help the-“ He was cut off as he fell over. Swarm caught him before he could hit the floor. He started helping the stallion to a nearby chair.
I looked at my group and asked, “Does anypony here know anything about medicine?”
Big Mac spoke up “Shy showed me some thangs, but I don’t think Ah can handle an amputee.” He bowed his head sadly.
Applesnack looked at Driftly, his face giving away nothing. “I’ve seen this before, the blast must’ve sent debris or something his way, cut it rather clean off, you’re lucky kid” he said.
Driftly didn’t know how to handle it and just cried more. His sister tried to hug him but Driftly pushed her back.
Applesnack then looked at a nearby fireplace and ordered, “Big Mac, get something made from iron, and then heat it up.”
“What do ya plan tah do?” Big Mac asked wearily.
“Cauterize the wound,” Applesnack replied grimly. “If I don’t do that then his wound will bleed out and he’ll die. This is the best we can hope for.”
Big Mac looked ready to object for a second before nodding. He walked over to the fireplace and withdrew one of the tools used to move the logs inside.
Applesnack then turned to Raiden and said, “Take his uniform.” He gestured to the soldier, whom Swarm was attending. “We’ll use the cloth as bandages.”
“Anything I can do to help,” the soldier asked weakly as Swarm set him on the ground. Raiden went through the process of helping him out of his uniform.
“Why are you helping us?” Raiden asked “We’re the enemy.”
“I don’t care at this point,” the solider said. “I have a lad of my own his age; I don’t want to see him die.”
I closed my grey eyes and then opened them again to see Big Mac coming with the hot iron. He slowly gave it to Applesnack, who turned to look at me. “I’ll need you to hold the kid while I do this,” he said.
I nodded and then looked at Big Mac. “Move his sister away; we can’t let her get in the way.”
Big Mac then walked and picked up the filly in his large forelegs. Rosey struggled for a minute, trying desperately to get at her brother. Big Mac held her tight, pressing the little thing against his chest. Rosey cried into the big stallion as I moved to Driftly.
The brown colt looked at me with tear stained green eyes. “I can still feel it, but I can’t move it because it’s gone.”
“Shh,” I said, rubbing his mane gently. “It’s going to be alright. We just need to close up the wound, Driftly.”
“Will it hurt bad?” he asked, looking at the red hot iron wearily.
“It will,” I said firmly, “but you gotta be brave, okay? It’s the only way we can help you.” I gave him sympathetic eyes “Be strong, for your sister.”
Driftly nodded slowly and I held the colt down. He didn’t struggle but closed his green eyes as Applesnack set the hot iron on his wound. The colt screamed and struggled from the pain but I managed to hold him down as best I could. He kept crying and screaming then mercifully he passed out from the pain.
Why a colt? Oh Celestia, why a colt?
I shook my head and looked down as Applesnack gently removed the iron, throwing it in the snow outside before Raiden came back with the bandages. We started wrapping Driftly’s wound in the bandages. Big Mac let his sister go and hug him tight, she cried into him.
They’re just kids, scared kids, they shouldn’t be suffering like this…
I closed my eyes and turned back to the solider. He laid on the floor, his breathing shallow. He looked up at me and smiled. “Thank you, for saving them.”
“You can’t die yet,” I begged. “You’ll pull through too.”
“I’m afraid this is the end of the road for me,” the soldier said, coughing up more blood. “I got some shrapnel in me, some damn rebel bombed me. There’s no way I’ll live without a surgeon.”
“Then we’ll find one!” I shouted “Nopony needs to die anymore! We’ll find help!”
“Too late, my friend,” he said, staring at me with soft blue eyes. “I never believed that what Red Hammer was doing was right, but I fought for my people, my home, my family… and I’ll see them again.”
“Yeah!” I said excitedly. “We’ll get you home! You’ll get to see your family again! You’ll be fine!”
“My friend,” he said, a smile forming, “I’m going to see them now…”
My face drooped at what he was saying. I looked at him and said, “Your name, let me know it so that I may know you died saving Driftly and Rosey.”
He nodded and said, “My name, is Sargent Purple Heart. I was a doctor before all this happened.” He laughed a little. “Irony I guess.”
I shook my head and spoke firmly, “You’re going to make it, I…I…”
“I’m going to see my family now,” Purple Heart said, closing his eyes and drifting off into death.
I then just started walking out, just walking away from it all into the snow as the sun started to set. I yelled out to the world with all my fury
“WHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYY?
I slammed my hooves into the snowy ground and cried, “So much pain! So much death and for what? So that some princess can get back on the throne? What price are they willing to pay to make sure this all happens!”
I felt a chill run down my spine, and then I was suddenly not on the snowy area, but instead back in the black area. I looked up and saw Sombra’s eyes glaring down at me. He smirked and asked, “So how does it feel, Private? To know you’ve come this far and couldn’t prevent another from dying?”
“You son of a bitch,” I cried, rushing towards him with a raised hoof. I punched air and suddenly I felt a constricting feeling on my forelegs. I struggled against… blue mist?
Sombra looked down at me. “You constantly struggle, trying desperately to try and fix everything for everypony, but the truth is you are nothing more than a worthless detective. You’re far out of your league, Private Eye.”
“Shut up!” I growled at him. “You have no idea what you’re talking about!”
“Oh, but I know everything about you, Private, everything…”
“How can you be here?” I asked, glaring up at him. “You’re supposed to be where Twilight is!”
“While my main concentration of power is there indeed, I always have a small trace of myself within Tenacity.” He flew and looked at me from muzzle to muzzle. “No matter what you do, you can never truly be rid of me. For so long as the dark power inside you exists, so do I.”
“Shut up!”
“Oh you’ve become quite adept at showing how you truly feel,” he said, laughing a little. “However, you are just a colt playing with matches in a gun factory. You have no idea of Tenacity’s true power.”
I blinked and shook my head. “What are you talking about?”
“I speak of the power within it. For Tenacity, like all the other elements has a power unique to itself. Instead of empowering its owner, it empowers those around him. The weakest of peasants can turn into the fiercest of killers with the right command.”
“Which is why you’ll never get your hooves on it, you bastard!” I growled, “I know exactly what you’d do with that kind of power. You’ll never touch its power so long as I breathe.”
“The thing is, I know of its power far more than you do. A thousand years ago I once ruled the land around you, an empire rivaling that of the great Crystal Empire. I was poised to conquer it, and when I did sweet Crystallite thought she could get in the way. She sent her little astronomer to steal what was rightfully mine, and then your princesses sealed me away for a thousand years.”
Little astronomer? That had to be Eclipse, my ancestor.
“Now I wonder, what is it you truly fear? Not broken bones, not bruises or cuts or any physical harm. No, you are more then happy to throw yourself into the fire. What you truly fear, is not being able to go into the fire in the first place!”
I blinked and the next thing I knew I was in a cage. I looked around and fire was all around me. I tried bucking the cage but it wouldn’t budge. What the hell is going on?
“Private, help us!”
Twilight?
“Private! We’re dyin' over 'ere!”
Applejack!
Help us! Help us!!
Everypony! Everypony was getting hurt and I couldn’t help them!
I tried bucking harder on the bars but they wouldn’t give. I heard Sombra’s taunting laugh as more and more screams came about. I heard so many hurt, dying, and pain….
Suddenly I felt something slap me on the face.
________________________________________________________
“Private, snap out of it!” Raiden said, standing in front of me, his armor off. “Dude, what the hell is wrong with you?”
I shook my head and then I saw a horrible sight. Sombra was behind my friend. “Raiden, look out!”
Raiden turned just in time for Sombra to enter him. Raiden blinked his eyes, they were green with red irises now. He started shouting suddenly, “No, I’m not him!”
“Raiden, are you okay?” I asked, stepping towards him.
“No, don’t call me that!” he cried. “I’m not Raiun! I never was!”
“Raiden?” I put a tentative hoof towards him. Suddenly Raiden started writhing in pain. Sombra was inside him!
I smacked my friend across the face and Raiden blinked his now yellow eyes and asked, “What the hell?”
Suddenly I heard shouting inside, Raiden and I ran into the cabin to find Big Mac looking around fearfully. His eyes showed he was possessed by Sombra too.
“Nah! Don’t do that! Ah don’t wanna hurt nopony!”
“Dude, what’s going on?” Raiden asked me, looking worriedly as Big Mac started writhing around.
“Some dark spirit is showing everypony their worst fear!” I concluded, and then saw as Sombra left Big Mac and entered with a laugh into Swarm.
The Changeling transformed into his true form, only his eyes glowed green. “Pinkie! Pinkie no don’t be dead! Please I didn’t mean too!”
Applesnack walked to Swarm and slapped him across the face several times. Sombra was forced out of Swarm and entered Applesnack. Only, instead of writhing and twisting, Applesnack was calm. He just stood there, and didn’t say a word.
Sombra then flew back towards me, I had to get him away from the others! I ran outside, keeping up the chase as long as I could until he finally caught up with me.
I fell to the ground in a heap, feeling the cold once again…
_________________________________________________________
I was standing in the black area again. This time I stood my ground against the growing shadow against me.
“Even your so called allies are weak against me. You have absolutely no hope against my power.”
“Maybe I don’t,” I smirked, “but never underestimate Twilight.”
“Ha! Right now my body is claiming dear Aria’s heart. Nothing can sto-“
Suddenly a bright light emanated from far away. I looked up and saw Cadence flying towards Sombra. She was different however, her coat was glowing like pure crystal. She had with her a glowing heart shaped crystal. Sombra’s eyes grew wide in fear at the sight of it’s light.
“You’ve lost, Sombra!” Cadence called, her horn glowing a bright blue “Now step away from my future brother in law!”
Before Sombra could say anything, Cadence fired a beam of pure light at him. Sombra was literally ripped apart by the magic. I covered my eyes to keep the light from blinding me.
When it was over Cadence was walking towards me, a smile on her face “I’m happy you’re alright. Twilight’s been worried about you the whole time she was here.”
“How are you here, Cadence?” I asked, taking in her new appearance. “And what’s with the crystal?”
Cadence went on to explain that while I was working here, Twilight was off saving her own nation. A lost nation known as the crystal empire that wasn’t too far from here. “I used a little of my Aunt Luna’s magic to enter your dreams here. I knew Sombra was hiding somewhere here.”
“Either way,” I smiled at her, “thanks for the assist.”
She smiled in turn. “Anything for my future brother in law.”
“Cadence!” I yelled, my cheeks burning.
The princess of love giggled and then her expression softened “Twilight’s been missing you, I’ll put her on.”
“How can yo-“
Cadence then reached out as if reaching through a wall. Then she pulled out Twilight and…
Oh boy…
Twilight’s coat sparkled like pure crystal; her eyes were the same jaded ones from that crystal pony from earlier. Her hair was done up in a bun with a hair ribbon in it. She looked positively stunning…
She ran to me and embraced me tightly. “Private, you’re okay!”
I held her tightly, and then felt tears enter my eyes. Twilight looked at me with those jaded purple eyes and asked, “Private, what’s wrong?”
“I screwed up on my end,” I said with a sigh. “Just so much death… so much.”
“Shh,” she shushed, wiping a tear from my eye. “It’s okay, Private, I know it isn’t any easier on your end.”
I nuzzled her gently, feeling her warm coat on mine. Was this really a dream?
She spoke tenderly, “Private, you’re strong but you’re not invincible. I said it before; you don’t need to face everything alone.”
“I know, Twilight.” I said, smiling at her. “But I must say, you look beautiful as a crystal pony.”
Twilight looked at me, a deep blush on her cheeks. “Well, it’s only a temporary effect, I mean, you really, oh my gosh.”
I smiled, there was the Twilight I knew and loved…
I then kissed her gently on the lips, she was eager to return it. After a moment of pure bliss between us we parted. Twilight looked at me, and then touched the scarf on my chest and said, “I’ll always be with you, Private, no matter how far away.”
“I love you; Twilight,” I said, “and I will finish this and make you proud!”
She smiled and kissed me one more time before turning to leave. She gave me one last smile before leaving with Cadence. Twilight, every moment I’m with you, you make my world seem so much brighter.
I will always love you, my Twilight….
____________________________________________________________
I blinked open my eyes and looked around. All four of my friends were looking at my warily. Raiden helped me up and asked, “Dude, what the hell was that all about?”
“Just, something I had to deal with” I replied, and then I looked at the others. “We’ll stay here for the night” I said, gesturing to the setting sun. “It’s getting late and who knows how cold it’ll get.”
“What do we do about Rush and the rebellion?” Swarm asked, buzzing his wings a little.
“We’ll find them,” I answered “but after we go to the Yards.”
“Dude, are you nuts?” Raiden asked. “The yards are where all the unicorns and pegasi go and are never heard from again.”
“Yes,” Applesnack said, “but if we were to recover Red Sickle, then Red Hammer will just use the prisoners there as a bargaining chip again. Nothing will be gained from a simple prisoner exchange.”
With that, the faintest hint of a smile came to the soldier’s face. Then he just walked off, saying something about burying the soldier.
I looked out at the burning city, Applesnack was right. If we were going to finish this, we couldn’t let Red Hammer have any cards on the table. Tomorrow, we go to the yards, and free the prisoners trapped there.
Twilight, stay safe until I come home.