CHAPTER 10 (Part 2)
A Day of Loss
Having grown up in Ashen, I knew every single short cut that one could take to avoid the streets, which usually meant dashing through the alleys of the buildings, constantly avoiding any patrols. But as I got closer to the mayor’s house, it became harder, as the patrols became more frequent, but luckily for me, many of the soldiers could not find the source of the noises they heard as I ran through the streets, and by the time they would be at the spot of the noise, I would be a block away.
Eventually I found myself across from the mayor’s house, and much to my surprise, guards stood at every entrance of the house. But with a quick dash I quickly came into a bush that was not far from the back door, and as I peeked out, I saw one guard standing by the door, and he didn’t seem like he was going anywhere for a while. Despite not knowing much about stealth tactics, I did know the oldest trick in the book. Breaking off a large branch from the bush as quietly as possible, and levitating up a small rock up, I aimed it to bounce off the side of the house, and with a simple flick, the rock sailed through the air and clacked loudly against the house, and just as I thought, the idiot guard looked in that direction and began walking towards the source of the sound.
I quietly moved out of the bush and moved behind him, raising the branch above me, and just as he turned around, I swung as hard as I could with the levitated branch. Luckily for me, the branch was heavy enough to knock the guard out. I stood there for a moment, standing over the unconscious body of the guard, and I began to realize it, this was the second act of violence I've done to somepony in one night, despite them not being overly brutal, I still felt a shutter down my spine. After that momentary pause, I leaned down and skimmed through his cloak, and I sighed with relief as I picked up a small key ring, that I assumed was for the back door.
I quickly trotted over there, and unlocked the door, and with a steady hoof, I slowly opened the door. Just as the door was almost fully open, I heard a yell, and the next thing I knew, I was on the floor once again, a stinging sensation on the side of my face, indicating that this was the second time this night, I had been hit in the face for being everything but sneaky.
As I looked up I saw none other than the mayor himself standing over me, holding a large frying pan in his hooves. After he realized it wasn't a soldier he hit, his eyes widened in shock, “Frost Fall? What are you doing here? How did you get back into town?” he asked as he helped me up, I continued to rub the now growing sore spot on my head, as I smiled at him. “Please, I know this town like the back of my hoof, anyway, River sent me here, I just broke her out of the mill, I’m here to bring you with us” I said as I looked around the kitchen for the best possible exit. But the mayor continued to stare at me in amazement, “no Frost, you have to leave, if the General finds you here, the whole town will pay for it, and it will only make matters worse if I suddenly disappear, I have to stay for the citizens, you can take River somewhere safe from here-“ he said but was cut off my a knock on the front door.
We both snapped our heads in that direction, but the Mayor quickly turned to me, “Shit! It’s the General, you have to hide…here, in the pantry” he said as he opened the large pantry. Being the mayor of the town, he had the biggest house, his pantry was big enough to fit three ponies my size in there. He quickly shoved me in a closed the door, but not before opening the small slits in the door so I could see out, “okay, don’t make a sound, I’ll try and get him to leave” he said as he left the room, and went to open the door.
From outside the kitchen, I could hear the Mayor talking to the General, “ah General Brick, it’s good to see you again, please come in, I was just finishing up dinner” he said as they walked back into the kitchen, where the Mayor picked up the large frying pan and put it away, and turned to face the General. “It’s a pleasure to see you too Mayor Blue, but I’m not here to question you again, this is something much more serious” he said as some of the guards began to search the house. “Oh? Like what?” he asked trying to act innocent, which luckily for him, he was good at doing. The General chuckled lightly , but his face immediately turned serious, “indeed, my guards have reported that somepony has broken your daughter out of her…temporary cell, the guards said it was another pony who got the jump on them, and now she’s gone. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that?” he asked as he examined the room, even having his gaze cross the pantry door where I was looking through.
From inside the pantry, I could see the Mayor beginning to sweat, as his gaze ever so quickly glanced at me, but he straightened up and looked back at the General. “Well, I hope you don’t think I had anything to do with it, I mean, I was here” he said in a calm tone, I looked out to see the general smile at him. “Of course not, but I am here to remind you…that harboring fugitive is illegal” he said focusing on the Mayor with deadly intent. I could instantly feel my heart beat increasing, as I looked back at the Mayor who was beginning to sweat a lot more, but still the Mayor tried to defend me.
“I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about?” he said in a calm yet unnerved tone. The General merely walked up towards him, a straight expression on his face, just as the Mayor began to sink back, until they were a few inches apart. “Really? Then care to explain the unconscious guard by your back door…and the pony in your pantry” he said in a low voice. Just as he did, a large soldier pony threw open the doors and threw me into the room, I cried out in surprise as I crashed to the floor, and immediately the soldier grabbed me and hoisted me up, but still made it impossible to move.
I looked up to see the General smile and walk towards me, as he upholstered his pistol, and pointed it at me. I could feel my heart painfully knocking against me chest in panic, but the fear of having a gun in my face, somehow dulled the pain. “I remember you, you’re the young stallion that volunteered in your sister’s place, Frost Fall right?” he asked me as he moved the pistol through my mane. I would say that I refused to answer him, but truthfully, I was too scared to.
After a few seconds of silence he stood tall again, and motioned for soldiers to restrain the Mayor as well, just as they did, he frowned and turned to him. “as for you Mayor Blue, as far as I’m concerned, this counts as refusing to cooperate with a high-ranking officer of the royal army, conspiring against the royal army, freeing a condemned prisoner, and especially…harboring a wanted fugitive” he said as he walked towards him. The Mayor fear-filled eyes switched from me to the General, but he turned more towards him as the General raised the pistol to him. “And since I’m in charge of this town now, I hereby sentence you to death for treason against the kingdom…any last words” he said as he placed the pistol right next to his temple.
The Mayor eyes filled with true terror, as he looked back into mine, which had equally filled with terror, he looked away for a minute and then back at me, a stronger look on his face. “Frost…I’m sorry…please…take care of River, tell her I love her” he said as he closed his eyes, I tried to say something back, but the situation left my mouth completely dry. Suddenly, a loud bang filled the room, and the Mayor Head snapped back and the soldiers let his body fall, blood leaking from the fresh bullet wound in his head, and his body went limp, and ceased to move again.
Despite the need to look away from the horrible scene, my head was frozen in place, staring at the dead body of our town’s Mayor, the ringing from the shot still going off in my head, as the General slowly turned towards me now, raising the pistol at me this time. “As for you, normally I’m against executing such a strong young stallion, but you must understand, I can’t levy a lighter sentence just because of your age” he said, as my eyes began to tear up with fear. I tried to struggle against the soldiers, but they were trained to hold me down, and they did a damn fine job at it.
Just as the pistol was a mere few inches from my face, he stopped and turned as another soldier came running into the house. “Sir! We have…reports that…there’s a growing number of rebels outside the town!” he said in a panicked voice. As the general talked to him, I took the situation to my advantage and focused my magic. As I did, my horn began to glow very bright, forcing all the soldiers and the general to shield their eyes, with the soldiers distracted, I reared back and bucked them in the chest, knocking them both to the ground, I immediately hopped on to the table and turned to see the general raising his gun at me.
Time around me seemed to slow as I looked around for a way out, luckily for me, I saw a window right above the sink, and I eared my hooves back and jumped out, but not before I heard two loud bangs as the general’s bullets chased me out. Time returned to normal, as I crashed through the window, and rolled into the snow, I cried out as some of the sharp glass pieces cut into my leg, but not enough to cause any real damage. Before the soldiers could come out and capture me again, I got up and sprinted across the street, and ducked behind another house.
Finally ducking behind the building, I leaned up against it and stopped as the intense situation caused my breathing to become erratic, to the point where it hurt my chest. As I stood there, I heard shouting and I leaned out to see the General emerge from the mayor’s house. “Find him damn it!” he shouted at the soldiers who began to spread out, and I knew I would be caught if I stayed here longer, but then one of the soldiers asked something, “sir? What about his family?” the soldier asked, I didn't need a physic to tell me what he would say next.
“he’ll be going after his family now, get there first and burn the house down, he can’t be the only one here, in fact, burn down all the houses with ponies who were associated with the prisoner’s, bring the young ones to me” he said and the guards took off into the other part of town.
“Mom…Misty, don’t worry I’m coming!” I said as I took off after them.
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As I raced my way through the alleys of my hometown, I felt the adrenaline rush through my veins, my hooves began to ache from the speed I was running, but the need to get to my family first drove me more. As I came to the street I lived on, I ducked into the alley and peeked out, so far nopony had arrived yet, few dim lights shown through the house, letting me know they were home. But just as I was about to move out, I felt a hoof on my shoulder, the pony grabbing me turned me around, and much to my surprise, I was staring into the smiling faces of Dust and Vapor.
I felt a momentary wave of relief wash over me, “oh it’s you guys, what did you find, is River safe?” I asked them, Dust was the first to speak up, “yes she is, turns out Iron Star sent more troops, so I left River there, and then we searched for Vapor’s dad, brought him back to camp as well, what about you?” he asked, I sighed and looked to see if the troops had arrived, but the street was still empty. “my family’s in there, the General’s ordered all the families houses to be burned down, he’s gone crazy, we have to get them out of here” I said as I turned to look at the house, but just as I did, I saw a small group of four soldiers walk up to the house, and instead of being polite, they immediately kicked in the door. Even from here I could hear the shouts of confusion from my mother, and just as they did, I saw them dragging Misty out of the house while another pony seemed to be pouring something along the porch.
Gasoline!
The shouting grew louder as my mother chased after the pony holding misty. My body tensed up, as one of the soldiers shoved my mother back into the house. Time again seemed to slow as one of the ponies struck a match and threw it on to the porch, which immediately went up in flames. “NO!!” I shouted as I charged out of the alley, I was vaguely aware of Dust and Vapor calling out to me, but I was blinded and deafened by rage. The soldiers saw me charging at them, and two of them ran off into the next street, one of them carrying a tied up Misty on their backs, while the other two turned to face me.
Time seemed to slow as I charged at them, one of them unsheathed a sword and charged at me, but unbeknownst to him, I was in no mood for that. As we got closer I ducked down, under the swing of the sword, and brought my head up under his stomach, lifting him off the ground, and throwing him a few feet away, slamming hard into the next building, instantly knocking him unconscious.
The other soldier immediately charged at me, but was knocked off his hooves by the combined weight of Dust and Vapor, after tackling him to the ground, Dust delivered a hard blow to the head, which also knocked him out, I turned to them and yelled, “Go after Misty! I’m getting my mom!” I shouted, they nodded and took off down the street. I turned back to our house and saw the flames nearly making it to the second floor, knowing I wouldn't be able to go in the front, I made my way around to the side, and saw the small pile of wooden logs we had, and the window right above it.
I immediately began climbing up to the window, as I pulled up I could see inside the house, almost all the entire first floor was engulfed in flames, the smoke made it hard to see, but I could tell there was a form running around inside. Opening the window, I crawled inside the burning house, “MOM!!” I called out over the roaring flames, I continued to call out as I tried to avoid the flames, as they tried to reach out and lick my coat. After seeing the stairway collapsed, I made my way into the kitchen, when I heard a voice call out, “Frost…in…here!” I heard my mom call out.
As I entered the kitchen, I saw my mom pinned to the floor by the table, her hoof crushed under it weight, she was coughing loudly as the smoke chocked both our lungs. I ran over to her and lifted the table up as best I could, but as I was doing so, I heard a loud creaking noise, we both looked up to see the floor above us caving in.
Damn this old house!
As I continued to lift the table, my mom began to shout at me, “Frost…just go, save…yourself!” she shouted in between the intense smoke, “No! I’m not leaving you” I said as I lifted the table up, and she slowly slid out. Letting the table fall, I quickly ran to her, hoisting her on my back, I made my way to the side door, which was less consumed by flames as the front porch.
The cold night air was a huge relief on our throats and lungs, both of us still coughing to get the last of the smoke out, as I carried her to the front of the house. Finally letting the pain take over, my fore hooves gave out and I fell, my mother rolling off my, hacking her head off as she tried to adjust to the breathing.
I immediately ran over to her and hugged her, tears began filling my eyes, but she quickly pushed me away, her eyes were narrow and her breathing was slowing. “Frost…you shouldn't…have come back…for me” she said in a weak voice. I looked at her and smiled slightly, “no…I would never leave you behind, I’m here now…everything’s going to be fine” I said as my eyes watered up more, I knew I was lying to myself, but I refused to see the truth of the situation.
Her eyes began to fill with tears as she looked me in the eyes, “no Frost…it’s too late for me…” she said as she tried to speak, but the inhaling of too much smoke, must have damaged her lungs beyond repair, the tears in my eyes began to spill at her words. “no…don’t talk like that, I’ll find you a doctor, there’s ponies here who can help…please, don’t leave me alone” I said to her, she lifted her hoof to look me in the eyes, “it’s okay Frost, just…promise me…you’ll look after Misty, you all she has now. I love you both…” she said as she mouthed something else, but her voice was gone.
Her hoof fell from my face and to her side, her expression relaxed slightly as the tears spilled from her eyes, her breathing came to a stop, and I knew in my mind that she was gone now. My eyes widened in shock as I traced my hoof along her face, “Mom…no, please” I said as the tears spilled down my face in a torrent of force, she lifeless eyes continued to look at and past me, I slowly lowered my head and cried into her chest. Despite my weeping, I heard two sets of hooves come up behind me, and then a familiar female voice speak up.
“Frost…I’m so sorry, if we had gotten here in time, maybe we…” Vapor said, with a hint of sadness in her voice, I didn't need to look to know she was tearing up slightly, but as she did Dust spoke up as well. “I’m sorry…about your mother Frost, but…those soldiers got away, they…they still have your sister. They were making their way to the Town Square, if we’re going to get there in time, we need to go” he said in a calm and gentle voice.
I slowly raised my head and stood up fully, keeping my head low, I wiped the remaining tears away leaned down to close my mother’s eyes out of respect. I quickly turned and faced them, “where’s Iron Star’s troops?” I asked in a serious tone, they could see the look of pure determination in my eyes, “he’s…the troops are about a mile out, they can be here pretty quickly” Dust answered.
I looked back at my mother’s corpse briefly and then back at my friends, “alright…let’s go. I’m getting my sister back, let him know what the plan is” I said as I began walking past them. “Frost wait! We should plan this out, we can’t just charge in there” Vapor called out, making me stop in my traps. I slowly let out a shaky breath, and turned back to look at her, anger searing in my eyes, as I saw the uneasiness in hers.
“I’m not losing anypony else to that bastard…Let’s go”
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After getting in touch with Iron Star, who had decided to bring reinforcements as back-up, luckily for us, we needed back-up badly. I had agreed to cause a distraction and give them time to get into position, as the three of us came close to Town Square, we saw that there was a large amount of soldiers going around, some of them bringing in fillies and colts from across town, and loading them into the same kind of vehicles that had taken the volunteers, except they weren't being polite, they had turned to roughly shoving the poor foals into the vehicles, without any care.
As I looked around, I saw my younger sister walking along the line, waiting to be thrown into the large vehicle. I could also see the General walking around, taunting some of the young ones, I turned away and reached up to the earpiece. “Iron Star? Are you ready?” I asked into the ear piece, there was a bit of static, but his voice answered me back. “Yes we are, we got you covered, just make sure to keep their attention on you” he said, I nodded and turned to the others, who were all watching me with concern, “alright, I’ll go and distract them, you meet with the others” I said, they both nodded, but not before Vapor pulled me into a brief hug and ran off, Dust stayed for a moment and offered me his hoof, I smiled, and shook it, before he took off in the other direction.
I took a deep breath and stepped out into the square, I saw many parents of the foals crying and shouting vulgar words at the soldiers, but they knew they wouldn't be able to stop the armed soldiers. As I walked out, some of the soldiers took notice of me and stopped working, I stopped halfway into the square and called out.
“General Brick, you wanted me? Here I am!” I shouted out.
Not entirely sure how I would keep their attention on me for as long as I needed to, but I knew I would have to try, if I wanted to see my sister again. The soldiers all murmured to themselves, as they all parted and the General stepped out of the crowd, a mocking smile on his face. “Well, well, isn't this nice. So you finally worked up the guts to come forward? I suppose you’re here to turn yourself in?” he asked me. At this point many of the bystanders had gathered around to watch the developing situation.
As I looked off to the other side of the square, I saw a large group of ponies emerging from the alleys, and looking at me, some even appearing on the roofs. I smiled and looked back at the General, who clearly had no idea what he was in for. “No General, I’m here for my sister, and all the rest of these foals, whom you have so wrongly taken from their homes and families” I said as I tried to put on as good as a performance as I could get. Luckily for me, the General bought every word of it.
He began to chuckle to himself, “well, you certainly are a brave young stallion Frost, I’ll give you that. But exactly how do you plan on doing that?” he asked, just as I hoped he would. A smug smile cracked across my face and I chuckled lightly, “with some help from some new friends” I said, just as I did, a loud crack echoed across the square, as one of the soldiers head snapped back, blood splattering across the snow. This was quickly followed by more cracks as multiple rifles went off, the General and the other soldiers immediately began to scramble for cover, and I saw this as my chance to go after him.
I reared up my back hooves and took off at top speed, just as some of the other Night Ranger’s charged into the square, the soldier all began to look around in panic as an unexpected battle unfolded before their eyes. As I charged through eh group of soldiers I saw the general fighting off rebel after rebel, but luckily his back was turned at me.
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The General cried out in surprise as I tackled him from behind, while he was exceptionally trained in hoof-to-hoof combat, having the element of surprise was a major help to me. I immediately turned him on to his stomach and repeatedly punched him in the face. I got off one or two punches before he caught my third, and reared his back hooves, delivering a hard kick to my stomach. I could feel the wind get knocked out of me as I flew off him.
Many of the other soldiers were too busy fighting off the Night Ranger assault, to care for their leader. After I was knocked off, I groaned as I sat up, not used to taking such a hit, my vision was momentarily blurry. After it cleared, I was met with a hard punch to the face, sending me to the ground again. I looked up to see the enraged face of the General, staring down at me, “you really think you can stop me, I’ve been doing this since before you were even born” he said as he lifted me up by the collar of my cloak, and reared back for another punch, sending me to the floor again.
“I was going to keep you alive and send you to the king himself, but now…I think I’ll just kill you here, but not before I take care of that bitch of a sister you have. My eyes instantly snapped open at that and I yelled out, NO!!!” I yelled as I pushed myself up and balanced on my front hooves and delivered a particularly painful buck to his face. He cried out in agony as he stumbled backwards, I immediately got up and grabbed him by the shirt and punched him in the chin, sending him to the floor.
Just as I was charging at him, he pulled out his pistol, making me stop dead in my tracks. He smiled as he pushed himself up, “that’s right Frost, never faced a pony with a pistol like this before, hope you’ve enjoyed your short life” he said as he levitated the gun up to my face. Fear filled my body as I stared down the barrel of the pistol, but just as I was doing so, I remembered I had my wood cutter’s axe, holstered at my side. I quickly levitated the blunt end and upholstered it, bringing it up between us, the General cried out in surprise as the pistol flew from his grip and landed a few feet away.
In his moment of shock, I quickly brought the blunt end across his face, knocking him to the ground with a pained scream. I immediately dove after the pistol, but I could hear the General scramble to his hooves and jump after me.
For the third time that night, time seemed to slow around me.
As I dove for the pistol, I grabbed it with my telekinesis, and rolled on to my back, just in time to see the general leap at me, a look of bewildered rage on his face, I brought the pistol up and fired off two shots.
Bang. Bang.
The entire area went silent, as all the soldiers turned to look at us, my eyes were sharply closed but, since I felt no pain, I slowly began to open my eyes. The barrel of the gun was still smoking, but I looked in front of me and saw the General’s body staring at me in shock, I cried out in shock and stood up, a look of horror written on my face, as I realized what I had just done.
I had just killed a pony.
I looked down at the pistol, and quickly threw it aside. As I did, I looked around to see all the soldiers under his command stare at me with a mixture of shock and fear. One by one the soldiers slowly lowered their weapons, even those who were armed with pistols and rifles slowly dropped them. Perhaps they felt they could not fight without the command of their General, either way, the Night ranger troops quickly kicked them away.
Iron Star emerged from the crowd and walked up to me, he did his best to smile at me, as he glanced at the General’s corpse, and then back to me. I looked down in shock from what I did, knowing truly that no matter what I did, my life had changed.
Iron star turned to the other troops, “those of you who were under the command of General Brick, lay down your weapons and you will not be harmed, you have my word!” he called out to the enemy soldiers. Just as they had done before, they all began to drop their weapons, un-holstering them, and throwing them to the ground. The other Night Ranger troops began to gather up the weapons, while Iron Star walked away, Dust and Vapor walked up to me. I had trouble looking them in the eyes, but I slowly willed myself to do it, and saw the comforting gaze in their eyes.
I did my best to smile, but it came out weak. “Frost!” I heard a familiar voice call out, I turned and saw Misty run at me and throw her smaller her hooves around my neck, I immediately hugged her back, as fresh tears poured from my eyes. What followed was something that surprised all of us, soon the surrounding citizens began to cheer, as all the foals were reunited with their parents.
I smiled as I put my sister down, and turned to see none other than River, walk towards me. We simply stared at each other for a minute, before she suddenly pulled me into a tight hug, I was shocked at first, but I quickly hugged her back, but much to my surprise, I felt tears hit my cheek, and I could tell they were hers.
I smiled to myself, thinking that we finally had a momentary time of peace.