Discharged

by The_Last_Centurion

Chapter 10

This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc.
Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.

Chapter 10

The sound of a million angry bees filled my ears. My head pounded with pain, my pulse feeling like a jackhammer inside of my skull. The buzzing-pillow alarm only worsened my condition, so I tried to throw it off of my head, but ended up getting tangled in my sheets and tumbling off of the bed onto the ground. The pain from the impact jarred my whole body, making the pounding in my head increase. I got up unsteadily, and tried to take a few steps. I almost fell back to the ground, but managed to reach the doorway and brace myself against it. I stood there for a minute trying to regain my breath and chase away the sense of vertigo clamping its jaws around my mind.

“What was in that Neighpolitan wine?” I said aloud, before regretting it. Talking even slightly worsened my headache and caused me to teeter on the edge of throwing up. I clamped my mouth shut with determination and walked out the front door of the library. I closed it behind me and started my arduous journey to Sweet Apple Acres.

In the Battalion, I had marched through some pretty extreme conditions. Blizzards, driving rain, heavy heat, jungle, forests, mountains, and even swimming across a few lakes. Every single one of them was a piece of cake compared to this. Staggering through Ponyville in the wee hours of morning was not fun. My first stop to throw up was in the bushes in Ponyville square. I hoped nopony would notice while they were selling their goods in the market. The next stop to throw up was as I reached the road leading to Sweet Apple Acres. I was leaving the town when I got the urge, so I looked around for something to expel my stomach's contents in. Luckily, the last house on Ponyville's edge had its garbage out, so I borrowed their cans for a few unholy minutes. When I finished, I placed the top back on the can and whispered a prayer to Faust that the occupants of the house wouldn't find out what happened to the can.

I left Ponyville feeling somewhat better, my headache starting to subside along with the feeling of vertigo. I walked slowly to Sweet Apple Acres, knowing I would be late, but not caring too much. I felt the final urge to throw up again, halfway to Sweet Apple Acres. I just walked off the side of the road and did the deed, knowing nopony would come out this way for a long time. I wiped my mouth of the foulness and continued on my journey, feeling better but also like shit at the same time.

I rounded the corner into Sweet Apple Acres after some time and managed to stumble to the barn where I found Applejack and Big Mac waiting for me. Big Mac snorted at the sight of me and shook his head. He started to walk towards the north with cart in tow, as he did the day before.

Applejack however barraged me when she saw me. “Where have ya been? We shoulda started buckin' half an hour ago! Wait a tic, you don't look so good...”

“Second day on the job and I already come to work with a hangover.” I said with chagrin.

Applejack eyed me with apprehension. “You sure you can work taday?”

I ducked under the cart to get into the pulling space and almost fell over. “Let's just get this over with.”

“Ok hon.....” she said as she slipped in beside me. We walked down a different path than we did the day before, but we still headed off to the east. From the look of it, the orchard we went to was pretty close to the one from the yesterday. We set up the cart and grabbed the empty bushels in silence, and started to get to work like yesterday.

Applejack started filling up her bushels much faster than I, since I was moving very slow to acquiesce to my head's constant pulsing. After Applejack had moved onto her fifth tree, I stopped attempting to buck the trees and took a deep breath, focusing on what I had to do. The pulsing in my head diminished as I reopened my eyes and started to buck the trees in my own martial way.

As I moved onto my third cluster of trees I noticed my headache was gone. I paused bucking for a moment as I thought I heard something. Some sort of gentle music. I looked over to Applejack who was diligently bucking her tree.

“Were you just whistling?” I asked her

“Nah, why?”

I blinked my eyes. “I just thought I hear some music...”

“I don't hear anything.”

I went back to bucking the trees and heard it again a little later. It was gentle, but it's tune spoke of the forest. It sounded vaguely familiar.

“You don't hear that?” I said wiping the sweat from my brow. It was really hot for so early in the morning.

“What?”

“That song. Does Big Mac play music or something while he works?”

“Nope. Are you sure yer alright Crimson? Yer sweatin' buckets.”

“It's just a little hot out.”

“No it ain't. I think you might be sick.”

Then it hit me. The song. I knew why it was familiar and I should have took heed of it earlier. I noticed I was getting hotter with a start.

“Applejack, you're right. Do you have rope on you?”

She looked alarmed. “Yea....yea in the cart. Why?”

I started to feel the heated pain in my neck. The world started to blur. The memories started to flood back as I left my body, but saw myself fall to the ground scream-wailing in pain.

The sun at dusk was so beautiful. She sat up in a tree, playing the only personal object she ever brought on missions. While the others in my unit brought pictures or small trinkets they said were 'lucky', she only ever brought a small guitar. And she played it beautifully. She looked prettier than both immortal princesses as she played the lovely sylvan song in the setting sun.

As the sun sunk under the horizon, leaving the sky left with a receding pink, she got down from the tree. I was there to be next to her.

I was back on Sweet Apple Acres thrashing about, overturning apple bushels and throwing myself against trees to stop the memories and the pain. A rope lassoed itself over my neck. I looked back at where it had come from through unfocused, mad eyes overflowing with tears. Applejack held the end of it in her mouth and my enraged body lunged at her. She sidestepped my attack and ran through the cluster of trees I had been bucking. She tied off the end of it onto one of the trees as I chased her.

The beautiful mare in my unit was my love. Not a family-bond like we all had in the Battalion, but she was everything that mattered in my world. She and I had this last mission to complete, then we were to be married by Luna herself and released from the Battalion. We had already talked to Luna about it, and we weren't the first to do an act like this. Two other couples before us had fallen in love and Luna wasn't against it. In fact she endorsed them happily, sending them off with a big celebration, wedding them, and even paying for their honeymoon. We just had this last mission to take care of. It was going to be a cake-walk anyway. We were working with Phobos unit, Luna's 'alpha' unit, so we had nothing to worry about. What really made me happy though, was that I had recently found out she was pregnant.

My mindless body chased Applejack around the tree, eventually being tugged back by the rope around my neck. Like a dog on a leash, I was jerked up to the base of the tree. Then before I could escape the rope, more rope fell across my body, pulling me to the tree and tying me down.

Through my tears and screams I could hear a scared country voice say “I'm sorry, Crimson. I'm sorry..”

The ambush was well planned. We never expected the militant unicorn-supremacist cult to set leave hostages in their place at their camp, making it look like they never left. They attacked on all sides raining down dangerous flame-magics which gave them their name. The grass and trees lit up the night as both Puck and Phobos unit started a fight for our lives. We were confused and scattered by the ambush, but still we fought back knowing what needed to be done. The first few cultists were dealt with after the initial shock disappeared, but they gave enough time for their comrades to act.

The flaming arrows fell from the beautiful night sky like shooting stars of death, claiming few lives, but wounding many, myself included. I was pinned to the ground by an arrow as the cultists pulled out their large weapons. The catapult they had was filled with a fireball created from a culmination of the twisted unicorn's magics. The launched it at us, and I was in the forefront of its path.

I yanked my leg, trying to free it from the ground, but the arrow held true to it's deadly nature. I gave up and excepted the inevitable, but a scream cut my thoughts short.

She ran to me putting up the largest force field I had seen any unicorn ever create. She funneled it so it would catch the whole blast, but I knew it was too much for her. The trotted over to me and gave me one last teary kiss.

“I love you” she said crying. She cantered up to her magical shield as I yelled in pain for her to come back.

The blast shook my soul and broke my heart. It only took one life of our comrades, but it took my world.

I became quiet in my memories and in the current. The tear soaked mare who watched me writhe in pain, breathed a sigh of relief.

I looked around me in my memories, seeing the land around me was covered in flames that licked every living thing mercilessly. The cultists were dead, all eaten by the very flames they tried to control. I looked down at myself numbly seeing my coat was red and splotchy. I was vaguely aware that this wasn't my blood. Then I saw her body.

Bloody and charred it laid on its side, making me think she was asleep and she'd wake up like every morning we spent together. I tried to crawl to her, but my leg was stuck by the arrow. I turned around and bucked it, driving it trough my leg and sending a jolting pain up my body. It was nothing to seeing her there though. I held her in my hooves, crying her name out again and again on that battlefield. I was aware that the captain of Phobos unit, Darkening Night, was calling for me to fall back but Solitary Shadow took Puck unit into a protective wall around us. I held her close to me as I cried, my tears streaming down into her lovely bark-brown mane. Her warm blood covered my gauntlets and hooves, sending wave after wave of grief to wrack my body.

I screamed out her name one last time in my memory and in the real world, startling Applejack, before the darkness took over again.

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I woke up in my bed in Twilight's house. The door was closed to my room and I was alone. I realized that I had an attack at Sweet Apple Acres. I sighed sadly. Wasn't working supposed to help keep my mind off the painful memories? I sat up and rubbed my face. This was just bucking fantastic. It felt like I'd never find a way to make the pain go away.

I got out of bed and opened the door. I walked out to the library to find Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and a Zebra sipping herbal tea on the couch. They started to get up as I entered the room, but Pinkie Pie with her physics-breaking way of travel, got to me first. She gave me a big hug filled with concern and empathy. I hugged her back silently, hoping the touch would convey more than words. I felt Applejack and Twilight join in on the hug while the Zebra mare I didn't know sat back down on the couch. After a few minutes I broke away from the hug and the mares let go of me.

“I......I don't know what tah say.” Applejack started, her eyes brimming with tears.

“That was probably one of my worst attacks to date. I'm sorry you had to see me like that.”

“No, I feel like I........” she stammered on the verge of tears .

“It's alright.” I told her. “So who's this.”

Twilight took up the conversation. “Crimson, this is Zecora.”

The zebra got up off the couch and came over to me. She eyed me up and down and walked around me in a circle. I felt like I was a museum piece up for display. She stopped in front of me and said “This condition, it is a serious one. If it does not get cured, life for you will be no fun.”

“I kind of already know that.” I said sardonically.

“The disease is not in your mind, but in your heart. The cure is simple: tell your story to someone as a start.” she said mystically before turning to Twilight.

“Thank you for the tea and use of your home. But now I must leave to roam.” she said before leaving.

“She's a medicine mare.” Twilight explained. “She is actually very helpful, even if her rhymes can be confusing.”

I looked at Twilight blankly before I asked “How did you find me?”

“I had a twitchy-twitch, and it was a doozy! But it felt sad...” Pinkie Pie said. “So I went and got Zecora and then we came to Twilight's house”

“You mean scaring the living daylights out of me by almost breaking down my front door.” Twilight said, a little peeved off.

“Yep! But it was important.”

“After Pinkie Pie and Zecora broke into the library, while Spike and I were having a lovely breakfast, Pinkie explained everything. So I teleported the three of us to Sweet Apple Acres. We landed in front of the barn as Applejack came running from her orchards. She was very distraught and led us to where you were. She said you had an attack and she had to tie you against a tree so you wouldn't hurt yourself.....”

“Or somepony else.” I finished sadly. I gave Pinkie and Applejack a sad smile “Thanks girls. I think I'm gonna need some rest.”

Applejack and Pinkie gave me another hug.

“You don't have ta come ta work tamorrow. Just take it easy, sugarcube.”

“I told you to take it easy today. Time traveling and parties don't mix well unless you're a time lord.” Pinkie reprimanded gently.

I hugged them back and said nothing. We let go and they left the house with their respective goodbyes. I turned to look at the lavender mare who wore a blatant look of worry on her face.

“I'm gonna get some rest.” I said walking past her and going into my room. She looked dejected as I walked past her, but she muttered a sad “ok” as I went into my room.

I sat back down on my bed and thought about the attack. I was really lucky to have some friends that looked beyond the scariness of the attack, and worried about me. That never happened in Canterlot. I wondered how I would cure this, or even it there was a cure when I remembered the strange Zebra's words. Tell my story? I hadn't done that, ever. It was all in fear of having another attack, and I was never able to be around my close friends long enough to tell them the whole thing when I was in Canterlot. Maybe she was right. Maybe I should start talking.

I walked over to my door and opened it. “Twilight? Could you come here?” I called out the door.

She entered my room shortly after and I sat down on the bed. “I've gotta tell you something. You might want a chair cause it'll take a while.”

“Ok.” she said gently and went back out the door only to enter moments later with a chair from the kitchen. I let her sit down and then I got up, closed the door to my bedroom and walked over to the wardrobe. I sighed heavily in front of it, steeling myself for the pain. I opened up the doors and looked straight at the picture that I had asked Twilight to put in there on the day of my arrival. My eyes started to glisten with tears as I picked it up. I caressed it for a moment, then turned around and gave the picture to a curious Twilight. She looked at it in confusion as I sat on the bed again.

“What I'm going to tell you is something that I have told nopony else. I'd like it if you didn't tell anypony else, even our friends. I think I'll tell them when the time is right. It's just that....you should be the first.”

“Thank you Crimson. I...” she said before I silenced her by holding up my hoof.

“Please just listen. I.....I'm gonna tell you what I see during every attack. It's obviously related to my condition, but I want you to hear it as a friend, not somepony who just wants to cure me.”

She nodded her head in understanding. I took a deep breath, and started to talk.

“The reason I pulled out that picture is because I loved her. The unicorn mare in the picture was named Oakleaf Harp, and I loved her with all my heart. She was part of Puck unit and we had fallen in love over our time in the Battalion. I was going to marry hera nd she was pregnant with our baby. That is, until my last mission.”

I paused and took another breath that racked my body. I stared distantly at the floor and hoped that the story wouldn't cause another attack.

“My last mission was a rescue mission. Puck unit was working with Phobos unit for this one. Phobos was the Battalion's best unit for things like this. They had the most actual fighting experience, but for things like intelligence gathering and diplomatic missions they, weren't too good. That's why Puck was going with them. We of Puck unit were a well rounded unit, we were kind of the jack of all trades unit. We had a four really good pegasi that were fast as lightning and had sharp eyes, so they were great for recon and intelligence gathering. Our three earth ponies, myself included, were all good fighters. One of them, Parchment Declaration, was a great speaker and could take the place of any ambassador if we were ever in deep trouble. And finally, we had three unicorns to round out the unit. My best friend and Lieutenant, Solitary Shadow, was our offensive magics expert, while our medic, Syringe Poultice could fix almost anything. The last unicorn, Oakleaf Harp, was our defensive magics expert.”

“Our mission was to rescue hostages from a Unicorn-supremacist cult know as the Fire-Eater because of their use of offensive fire magics. They were militant and want to rid Equestria of all other races. They even denounced the princesses.”

“Well we were in the south in the middle of a small tropical forest tracking them. They had taken a small village hostage and threatened to kill them if their demands weren't met. It was our job to get into the camp, rescue all hostages and deal with the cult.”

Twilight listened intently to my story, shock growing on her face as she heard about the Fire-Eaters.

“Hard to swallow?” I asked her.

She looked at me in surprise and said “But things like that don't ever happen in Equestria...”

“They do. That's why the Battalion was formed.”

“But we never hear about it in Ponyville.”

“That's because most of the time, we take care of the problem before it gets out of hand.”

“Why wouldn't the princesses tell us about these problems though?”

“Like I said, we take care of them. And they don't tell because they know that common ponies like yourself would get worried. I don't always agree with it myself, but it keeps everypony happy.
When the problems actually effect you, they make sure to warn Ponyville and put some Solar Guards around to Police right?”

“Yeah...” Twilight said slowly.

“So there you are. Nice and safe without a care in the world.”

“But....”

“Let me continue.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“We tracked the cult back to their camp, a few miles away from the village they attacked to get the hostages. We kept an eye on them for a day, having the pegasi do nothing but recon. We learned their patterns and knew a night ambush would settle this issue easily and quickly.

So, during the day before the attack, both units woke up two hours before sunset to prepare and get a final recon on the camp. I had my unit get prepared and after, I spent the time until sunset, our time to leave, with Oakleaf. Her cutie mark was a lyre surrounded by a sun, and true to it, she could play the most beautiful music. She always brought a guitar that was small for me, but perfect for her. She played it with her magic every chance she could get, and she did before sunset that night. I remember that some of the Phobos troops had a problem with her playing before we were to leave, but I told them to back down. We were far enough away from the camp that we couldn't be detected by sight or sound.”

“At sunset, both units set out through the jungle. The pegasi recon team told us that the supremacists were in their camp getting ready to sleep. We found out the recon team was wrong as we came to a clearing in the jungle and were ambushed by the Fire-Eater.”

“A small group of them, about eight or so, came out of the trees surrounding the clearing firing flames from their horns. We were stunned that our recon was wrong, but Oakleaf and the other unicorns of our units started putting up shields and snuffing fires as the others in the units dispatched them. We found out that they were just meant to keep us busy. The brunt of the cult had seethed out of the far end of the clearing with magically drawn bows. Each arrow they launched was searing hot, and cut throught flesh like butter. As the first few lines of archers ran out of arrows, they dropped their bows and drew swords or came at us firing the same flame magics their fallen compatriots had.”

“They charged us while the other few lines of archers emptied their quivers on us. Many of us were wounded, but one pegasus from Phobos lost his life. I fought off the Fire-Eaters as they kept at their tactic of loosing a rain of arrows, then charging as another line of archers took their place. As we slayed the charging Fire-Eater, we knew they couldn't keep at this for much longer, since they only had a force of about 50. Sure it was twice our size, but we were trained. They fought out of desperation. Everypony there knew that, but I was still amazed at their foolish suicide attacks.”

“After they had sent at least 30 ponies to their deaths, I was hit with an arrow in the back of the leg. It sunk through my muscle and pinned me to the ground. Luckily, another wave of charging Fire-Eaters didn't come. But this was just as suspicious as I thought it was 'lucky'. At the far end of the clearing, the remaining Fire-Eaters pulled out a well concealed catapult from what we thought was jungle. In the catapult sat a large magical ball of flame ready to kill us all. I realized that their suicide runs weren't meant to hurt us, but to keep us busy as the first ambush had been. I also realized I was at the forefront of the two units, and I was stuck right smack in the middle of the catapult's trajectory.”

“The other soldiers took up defensive positions as the unicorns from both set up shields to ward off the blast. Darkening Night, the Captain of Phobos, called for me to fall back into the position, but I showed him my leg. I told them to hold their positions. If we could all survive with only one casualty to that behemoth, then I'd be glad it was me and to somepony else. I accepted my fate, crying because I wouldn't be able to see our child grow up, but Oakleaf broke position and ran up to me as the Fire-Eaters launched the fireball.”

“She kissed me and told me that she loved me and ran in front of me. I struggled against the arrow to pull myself from the ground to stop her, but all I could do was watch. As the fireball came closer to us, she set up a large, cone shaped shield that would catch the ball. It caught the ball, but Oakleaf was too weak from casting earlier to throw the ball back. She looked back at me crying and smiling and said I love you one last time.”

I paused to taking a broken breath and realized I was crying. It was strange. I expected to feel the heat and the pain of one of my attacks, but instead, I felt nothing. I was numb, and that scared me more than an attack. I looked over to Twilight to find she was crying too, and trying to stifle her sobs.

She moved from her chair and sat next to me on the bed. She gave me a hug and tried to say 'I'm sorry' but I cut her off by concluding the story. I didn't want to hear any condolences. Not yet.

“She managed to divert the blast of the ball outward so it killed the Fire-Eaters, but not all of it. Some of the blast kicked back and caught her, some hitting the units and I too. But what hit us was nonlethal. We wouldn't be able to hear correctly for a while, but that wouldn't be a problem. The blast shook me and caused me to black out for a quick second. I looked around to regain my bearings and I found out there was fire all over the place and I had spots of blood covering me. I saw Oakleaf's body on the ground where she once stood, and I raced to go to her. I was still held back by the arrow, but I bucked it through my leg. I hobbled and crawled over to her. She looked like she was asleep, but I knew otherwise. I held her there and cried for an eternity before getting up in a fit of rage. I marched on to the camp with only Phobos and parts of my unit following me, while the rest of my unit took care of the body of the pegasus from Phobos and Oakleaf.. Solitary Shadow never left my side.”

“We made it to the camp to find a small force of three Fire-Eaters left to guard the hostages. I mercilessly killed all of them. I even beat their dead bodies, so that Solitary had to pull me off of them. The Phobos troops found out the pegasi recon group hadn't been wrong. The hostages all had small wooden horns magicked to their heads, and if they were pegasi, had their wings turned invisible. One hostage told us fearfully that they were forced to act like the Fire-Eaters while the real ones went out to prepare the ambush. Apparently, the Fire-Eater leader suspected our coming, so he had a constant detection spell going on the surrounding jungle. They knew we were there before we even started a recon on them.”

“For a while I blamed the pegasi. I started blaming everyone, from Unit members to Luna herself. I then came to blame myself. I know I shouldn't, that 'it was just a fluke' but it will always be my fault. Always.”

I was cried silently as Twilight sobbed and hugged me.

“Oh Crimson! When you had you attacks, you always screamed out in pain, but that......” she broke off crying.

I just held her as she cried. Tears trickled down my face too, but I was to numb to feel them. We held each other for an eternity, lost in my sadness and her empathy. Eventually, the tears stopped and we just stayed close to one another. Twilight finally broke away.

“I've had a rough day.” I told her. “I'm gonna get some sleep.”

“Ok.” she said again gently. “Thank you for telling me. We'll find a way to stop the attacks, I promise.”

I smiled at her and climbed under my sheets. “Buona Sera darlin'.”

“Good night, Crimson.” she said smiling as she left the room.

I wasn't really tired, so I laid there looking up at the ceiling of my room without thinking. I glanced out my window and saw that the sun was resting on the horizon. I sat back up feeling better than I had since before my final mission. That Zecora was right. Telling somepony made me feel better, but I knew it wasn't a cure. I could still the PTSD in my body. It sat in the shadows of my mind, nestled in with the most traumatic memories.

Nevertheless, I still had a good feeling growing inside me. It was a vast freedom from not having to carry the burden of pain and blame. Don't get me wrong; the burdens weren't gone. I still blamed myself for Oakleaf's death and every time I thought about her, I felt my heart break. But I still felt better knowing that one other shared my loss.

I sat on my bed watching the sun slip beneath the horizon and watch the sky turn dark. This was my favorite time of night. When the bright sky cools into the peaceful darkness of night, and the lovely stars come out. I heard Twilight and Spike go up the stairs to bed, and I had an idea. I waited a while until I heard no more movement, then moved. I picked up the light camping bed and looked underneath it.

I found something unexpected and what I was looking for. Surprisingly, Twilight had put away my trinkets back into my suitcase and underneath the bed.

But what I was looking for was two clasps on the underside of the bed. I found them and pulled them, folding the bed in half. I picked it up and snuck out of my room, opening the door as quietly as I could. I tiphoofed through the library, kitchen, and out the back door I had entered in last night. I went to the backyard and popped open the camping bed. I put on the grass and laid down on it, looking up at the stars. I felt all my worries and thoughts in general disappear as I looked at the beauty of the night sky.

Shortly, I felt myself drift away into the best night of sleep I ever had.