"...e's still alive! Ricky! You've got to wake up! Can you hear me!?"
Ricky groaned. 'That's some soreness,' he thought as he began to come back from the realm of sleep.
The bright light of the sun burned, even through Ricky's clenched eyelids. Slowly, he got adjusted to the point where he could open his eyes.
There was a cluster of people around the cot Ricky laid on. All three generals, Chrysalis, Jeremiah, and Aeneus all stood around him.
Jeremiah clasped his hands in prayer. “God, thank you for his deliverance,” the American breathed quickly.
“You okay, kid? You looked pretty bad when Decius carried you in here,” MacArthur mentioned.
“Aw, I didn't know you cared so much, Douglas!”
MacArthur scowled at Ricky's grin. “Can it, kid. I'm just saying that you looked dead as a doornail.”
“Hurts like hell still.” Ricky suddenly remembered Flaminitus. “Aeneus,” urgency in his tone, “is Flaminitus okay?”
“Yeah, he’ll pull through. He doesn't want to suffer the shame of dying to arrows twice.” Ricky relaxed as Aeneus smirked.
However, there was still an unanswered question. “Did we win?”
Everyone grew somber. Ricky looked around all the faces. “Well, did we?” He could already tell what the answer was.
Decius took a long breath. “No. We managed to decimate two ships beyond active duty, but the third managed to keep most of its crew alive, and the fourth noticed the confusion and weighed anchor before we could reach it.”
‘So that's why I didn't see it last night,’ the teen realized.
“Anyways, Ricky, the assault’s today. We’re still carrying on, aren't we?”
Ricky nodded. “Of course. I’ll be ready by-”
“Woah, woah.” Jeremiah pointed at Ricky with a finger. “You’re not going anywhere. I’m ordering you to stay here. Don’t want you to tear open that wound again, you were already lucky once.”
“But I have to lead the men!”
“I don’t care what you think you have to do,” the American shook his head, “I’m telling you that if you move from that bed, I’ll not hesitate to put you back with this.” He patted Pacemaker, which was tucked into his belt.
Ricky huffed, crossing his arms. “Fine.”
Jeremiah smiled. “Good. Now,” he turned to the others, “get outta here! Both of these idiots need their rest.”
Everyone gave well-wishes as they were shooed out. Only Aeneus and Jeremiah stayed, the former faithfully taking up position at the door without a word.
It was a while before Flaminitus woke up. Ricky was in the middle of counting wood planks in the roof when the legionnaire suddenly shot up, breathing heavily.
“The Gauls! They're in the trees!” He continued to look around. His eyes passed over Ricky, and in that brief moment, Ricky saw the telltale unfocused glint of a crazy flashback.
Aeneus heard the commotion and ran in, quickly shaking Flaminitus by the shoulders. “Flaminitus, wake up! The Gauls aren't here, you're safe, you're fine,” he soothed as Flaminitus slowly began to calm down, still muttering things like “Legion, we’re surrounded!” in a hushed whisper.
Jeremiah finally arrived. “Is he okay?”
Aeneus looked over his shoulder at the medic. “Yeah, he’ll be fine. This happens.” His voice was bitter.
Flaminitus’ rambling slowly stopped, and his eyes refocused. He looked around, seemingly seeing his surrounding for the first time. “Aeneus, Ricky, I-I…”
“Flaminitus, calm down. You just took a crossbow to the left arm. You're here in the hospital, healing.”
Flaminitus brought his arm out from under the covers, a shocked expression on his face. “Huh.”
“How articulate. Then again, I didn't say anything when I got hit. Could barely think.”
Flaminitus’ features lit up with a sudden realization. “Ricky, you got hit?!”
The teenager nodded. “Yep. Ruined my only good shirt.”
“This is all my fault. If I hadn't been hit, then I could've helped you,” the legionnaire lamented, looking as guilty as if he’d just got caught cheating on a test.
“Not really, I got shot in the middle of a melee. I don’t think you could've really helped anyways. But I appreciate the thought.” When Flaminitus continued to look glum, Ricky sighed. “Look, we’re both still alive. In the end, it doesn't even matter.”
Flaminitus did look up, although his expression remained the same. “Yeah.”
The conversation trailed off into silence. Ricky returned to silently occupying his mind by counting roof planks.
“I'm scared, Ricky.” Flaminitus looked Ricky in the eye.
“Why? We’re not in much danger, not now.”
“When I went on campaign, I was always the one sieging the enemy, the one on the outside. Being on the inside, it makes me feel different.” Flaminitus’ brow creased in anger and he spat. “Like a damned dog, trapped in a cage and whipped into submission.”
“We’ll be out of here soon,” Ricky promised.
“I hope so,” Flaminitus answered, quiet once again.
The sun carved a fiery path through the sky, counting the minutes. Ricky laid in bed, still counting ceiling planks as his mind wandered. ‘Should be soon.’ His ears strained, listening for gunfire.
‘Still silence. They've got to get moving soon, or else we’ll be fighting a night battle.’
Suddenly, a low boom reverberated throughout the floor. It continued for a good five minutes uninterrupted. However, it did eventually die out. “The attack’s beginning,” Ricky commented aloud. “And I'm stuck here.”
Ricky began to count planks again, but he couldn't focus.
‘Ah, to hell with it all.’ Ricky slowly eased himself out of bed. Grabbing his rifle and gladius, he quickly slung the former on his shoulder. Without another word, he left.
The artillery crews cheered when the Scot passed them. “Go get ‘em, commander!”
‘Jesus, this one’s balancing on a knife edge,’ Ricky thought as he watched his men.
MacArthur had stated that “My boys are itching to prove themselves to you, kid,” so Ricky had assigned them the left, the hardest flank. The pony position was strong and the terrain was unfavorable for an attacker, and it showed. MacArthur’s men were the furthest down the slope, being showered with crossbow bolts and cannon fire. Ricky even saw the occasional flash of a magic bolt.
Legio V Alaudae had taken the middle. They were attacking head-on into a fusillade of magic. ‘They’ve positioned their best ranged troops in the center.’ However, the legionnaires had pushed through and taken the small valley between Thicket and Applewood, effectively cutting the pony lines. However, the position was hanging by a thread: ponies were furiously shooting down into the gully from three sides, and the pony commander was seemingly committing some reserves to a developing melee.
The Grossdeutschland had taken the right. ‘I knew those damn ships would come back and pound that cliff,’ Ricky thought as he watched the two remaining ships pound away at the cliff.
However, the ponies on the right were being overrun by the Germans swarming their fortifications. ‘The pony commander’s going to commit their reserves to the right to preserve the encirclement. That's when we smash through the middle and break them!’
Ricky quickly ran over to a nearby horse, tethered to a pole. He untied the reins, giving the cream-colored beast a weary eye.
With some hesitation, Ricky mounted the horse. “Uh… giddyup!” He kicked the horse in the ribs.
The horse whinnied, before shooting off at a breakneck pace. “Aaaah!” Ricky let go of the reins for a split-second, before clutching them again. He leaned down, trying to stick to the horse’s neck.
Ricky experimentally pulled on the rein, and the horse followed, turning left. It didn't slow down, however.
“MacArthur, watch out!” The American turned and noticed at the last second, diving out of the way as the horse thundered past.
“Ricky, what the HELL!”
Before MacArthur could say any more, Ricky was out of earshot. ‘Oh crap, I'm running off the battlefield!’ He quickly jerked the reins right.
The horse suddenly turned, nearly throwing Ricky off the side of the saddle. “Jesus H. Christ!”
His turn brought him right through the lines of Americans. Men cheered as he hurtled through, the sight of their commander enough to inspire the Americans into a new push forward.
Riding on, Ricky narrowly swerved past the reserve line of legionnaires, who whooped and shouted in Latin and English.
“Come on men, forwards! Devil damn us all!” The line, no longer able to restrain itself, broke formation, scrambling up the hill to swarm the ponies above.
“General, the humans are committing their reserves in the middle!”
Shining Armor lowered his binoculars to look at the messenger. “Come again?”
“The humans have committed their middle reserves into the fight! Sir, we’re being overwhelmed!”
Shining nodded. “Tell the reserves to jump into the middle. Hold them back, at all costs.” He eyed the messenger. “Make sure Captain Bucephalus understands the gravity of the situation.”
“Yes, sir. Also, we've spotted what appears to be the enemy commander, who does appear to be Richard Welfork.”
Shining snorted. “Show me.”
The messenger quickly led him to the top of a redoubt, then pointed down, into the human lines. “There. He's riding that horse.”
Down the hill, they could make out a human riding at a frenzied pace. “Slavery too? These humans are really demanding to be removed from Equestria.”
Shining charged his magic. He squinted, trying to gauge the distance. Once his mental calculations were satisfied, he took aim and let off a spell.
Without warning, Ricky felt the horse suddenly drop beneath him.
“Oh shit!” Ricky tumbled head-first over the horse’s head, both collapsing to the ground and bouncing around like ragdolls, before slowly coming to a stop.
‘Something warm… on my shirt… wound ripped open again.’ Slowly, Ricky sat up. Indeed, there was a dark stain spreading around the area of his new stitches. Ricky got to his feet, but a sharp pain from his left ankle forced him to sit. ‘Twisted ankle too.’
Ricky could hear that, even through all the fighting, his men had noticed. Wails of anger rose from the Romans, who sent a small detachment, before turning back to fight the ponies with new vigor. The ponies, for their part, cheered, also sending a small company of pegasi, who flew over the line and made a beeline for the downed horse.
It was a race the legionnaires, on foot and burdened by armor, just couldn't win. The pegasi landed, forming a circle around Ricky.
“Damn it all,” Ricky muttered as he fumbled for his gladius. It was stuck under the horse.
One pegasus approached. Ricky looked up to see a pegasus in guard armor staring back down at him. He was wielding a spear, which he brought up. “For the Princesses!”
Ricky slashed at the pony, cutting him across the face. “Agh!” The pony reeled, blood seeping out from under the hoof he held to his face. However, he did not retreat. Instead, he quickly approached Ricky’s hand, stomping on it with his other hoof.
Ricky screamed as the bones in his hand were snapped like twigs. The limp hand let go of his only defense, which was swiftly kicked out of reach.
“For Equestria!” The pony had rearmed himself and was poised to stab Ricky again. This time, the teen had no defense. ‘Hell, here I come,’ Ricky thought bitterly as he squeezed his eyes shut and prepared for the pain.
A rattle caught everyone’s attention. Ricky opened his eyes to an astonishing sight.
Guderian was miraculously in the middle of the pegasi, unloading hot slugs into ponies as they tried to attack or flee. He spun wildly, never letting go of the trigger. The barrel began to spew steam, extremely overheated from the constant firing.
Even as his ammo belt began to grow short, Guderian was still surrounded by pegasi, who began to attack. Most were cut down instantly, but some managed to land their spearheads into the German, who just shrugged them off.
An officer, identifiable by the large plume in his helmet, got behind Guderian. She wore the wingblades that Ricky had seen Tailwind use earlier. “Guderian!”
The machine gunner swung to face Ricky. Before anyone could say anything, the pegasus slashed.
Guderian fell to one knee, teeth gritted. The ponies moved in for the kill. But the German wasn't through. He staggered back up and sprayed a few ponies, riddling them with bullets. He turned a half-circle before the belt fed all the way through. He threw the MG42 to the ground in disgust, drawing a Luger.
‘Where's my damned rifle?!’ Ricky finally spotted it, laying on the ground a few feet away. He crawled over to it.
Opening the bolt, Ricky was greeted with the one bullet he had left. “Damnit,” Ricky swore as he closed the bolt and slowly moved around to face Guderian.
The machine gunner was being surrounded as he quickly jammed another magazine into the pistol. Ricky took aim at the officer, who had moved behind Guderian. He held his breath, quickly aimed down the scope, and fired.
The pegasus cried out, collapsing as the bullet entered his stomach. However, the others were undeterred, and all of them began to pile onto Guderian.
“No!” Ricky could only watch as Guderian collapsed, stabbed over twenty times. Their eyes met, as Guderian’s slowly glossed over.
“Sir, what should we do? The humans are headed this way!”
“I don't know, I'm not the commander!”
“You are now, Lieutenant.”
“Horseapples… the General wanted him alive.”
“We don't have time to carry him up, they’ve got platoons bearing down on us right now! We'd be mincemeat by the time we got halfway up the hill.”
“Yeah… Sergeant, put the bastard out of his misery, then we’re hightailing it the Tartarus back.”
Ricky watched as a forest-green pegasus trotted over, spear clutched in hoof. He eyed Ricky hesitantly.
“Do it now Sergeant, or else!”
The pegasus took a deep breath, shaking slightly. He drew the spear up, looking Ricky right in the eye the whole time. Without a word, he jabbed Ricky.
‘I’m going to die,’ Ricky realized instantly. The tip nestled itself between two ribs, and his breathing suddenly became heavily labored as the spear punctured his lung.
The pegasus company quickly took off, swerving around pila thrown by desperate legionnaires. Everyone crowded around Ricky.
A chill began to grip Ricky’s extremities, numbing his arms and legs slowly. Black began to creep around the edges of his vision.
The centurion removed his helmet, putting an ear to Ricky’s chest. He looked up after a second. Although he said nothing, his defeated expression was enough.
Ricky opened his lips, trying to find the strength to speak. Everyone huddled closer.
“Carpe… diem, legatus,” Ricky whispered. His strength left him, head lolling back. His vision closed into two pinpricks of light, and then all was black.