The Quickverse Chronicles

by Quick Fix

Hidden Scars (Peace Walker)

Author's Note:

This piece serves as a second epilogue to Heart and Mind so, naturally it contains major spoilers.

I'll admit this isn't my greatest work. There's a lot more I wanted to do with it but I'd probably have to change up to an M rating to do so.

Groundside University Hospital, Las Pegasus
April 6th, Year 23 under the Four Princesses

---

The silence was unbearable.

There was nothing she could do to break it though. Nopony was due to check on her for several hours, the drizzle coming down from the clouds that made up Las Pegasus' sky district wasn't loud enough to knock on the window, even the clock in the room had an unnaturally quiet tick. There wasn't much else in there either, just a standard hospital bed, a bedside table with a small vase of flowers in it, and the occupant pony herself. A sapphire blue earth mare with a short, professionally cut platinum mane, saffron orange eyes that gave off a sense of tired resignation and a black peace symbol for a cutie mark. Peace Walker knew that at least she didn't have to be here, bored out of her skull, for much longer, the doctors had only needed to treat her for mild dehydration, tomorrow though she was being transferred back to Canterlot for more...Psychological help.

It was one thing to stand her ground in the face of a lunatic like Starlight Glimmer while Pinkie Pie and Apple Bloom got the unicorn's prisoners to safety. It was something else to deal with everything that had been done to her before that night a week ago. Held against her will, stripped of everything that made her special or given her a personality, abused in just about every sense of the word...Just the slightest thought of it made her mind lock up all over again. At the time, too much had been riding on her, combined with the rush of getting her cutie mark back and pure adrenaline, for her to put any thought toward it. Now though, with nothing to do and being back into good health, it just kept coming up in her mind, looming over her like an untouchable spectre. It was, for lack of a better word, depressing. Even now she simply sat by the window, resting her head on the ledge, silently watching the rain fall over an otherwise energetic city and the South Luna Ocean beyond. It was much easier to turn her mind off that way and simply lose herself to focusing on the spots of rain.

This wasn't what she'd expected to happen when she'd joined the Equestria Defence Force all those years ago. Of course, back when she'd joined she hadn't expected to become a full soldier after the way her training had gone. Transferring into a recon unit had been a good move, scouting trouble spots across Equestria for the frontline troops. By the start of the year it all seemed to be working out, steady work, surprisingly stable social life and a husband who understood what it meant to have a military partner. Then she'd been deployed to the San Palomino Desert, been caught by Starlight's accomplice and everything had gone to Tartarus. Now here she was, trapped with her wide awake nightmares.

Her ears twitched slightly as she heard the door to her room opening. Compared to the silence that her come before it, even that sound of a regular slow opening cut through the air as firmly as if the door had been slammed open. Normally such a sound would have been jarring but in her current mind-set it was a welcome relief to break the monotony. It still took a few moments to re-engage her brain from the numbing sight outside before she lifted her head and back toward the door. Standing there was an earth pony stallion with a russet coat, though much of it was obscured by a grey body glove that was clearly designed to cushion armour panels. Only his head and neck were left open, leaving a trimmed gold mane, steely but concerned emerald eyes and a general look of worry. In spite of her mood, Peace couldn't help but smile at the sight.

"Bulwark? You're still here?" She asked softly, feeling a wash of relief as he nodded. Just the fact her husband was standing in the same room as her helped her mental state more than she'd realised. At this point she also noticed something wrapped up on his back, overlooked in the initial joy of seeing him.

"Well I wasn't going to leave without checking you were alright, was I?" Considering how stocky he was, every bit the image of a soldier, he carried a lot of emotion in his voice.

"Yeah, I guess you wouldn't. Don't you have a guard detail to stand though?" Peace asked as she turned and looked back at him fully, doing her best not to look too worn down.

"Ah, Buddy and Soul transferred her out earlier today," Bulwark explained, getting a small shake of the head from his wife for it. She never understood how his squad, or really any of the Defence Force units, came up with such nicknames for each other. "The rest of us were given a few hours off duty before we have to head back to HQ so I went and got something for you to make things more bearable until we can both get home."

Every time he came out with things like that, she couldn't help but stop and wonder how she'd been so lucky to meet a stallion like him. If she'd been pressed for an answer she would have to say dumb luck, the two had first met during a self-defence class where he had ultimately thrown a sparring match against her after realising she needed the confidence of the win more than anything. At the end of the next class she'd sought him out, told him she'd understood what he'd done and treated him to a round at the bar as thanks. That had been the beginning of their friendship that had eventually spiralled into something more. As Peace Walker got up from her spot and moved closer to him, she told herself that she was alright now, that there was nothing to worry about with her husband here to help her through it.

Then she felt his hooves round her shoulders in what was meant to be a gentle, caring hug.

Her entire body went rigid instantly. Her mind locked up for a moment before memories she'd desperately tried to shun came flooding back. The quiet but peaceful hospital room was gone from around her, twisted into a cold room of stone with barely any light. Her mind screamed for any kind of movement from her body, movement that was denied to her not by Bulwark's hold but from a turquoise magic aura that pressed uncomfortably against her, forcing her body to move only according to the whim of its master, Starlight Glimmer. She could see only darkness beyond her, broken only by the silhouette of what she knew to be an amber unicorn silently watching. She could feel a body press against her chest, breath at her neck. The hold around her eyelids loosened up enough for her to scrunch them shut tight. Her breathing was shallow and quick, her chest constantly stopped short of the full exhales it wanted by the force of magic before her.

She couldn't think, could barely feel. She was trapped...Again...She could hear the word 'discipline' echoing faintly through her mind as a hoof went to her side and slowly traced downward, taking in the feel of her barrel. Muscles she didn't even know she had were tensing up as she realised what Starlight was planning, the aura around her legs tightening as she did to ensure she couldn't move an inch.

She couldn't let it happen, not again.

Peace gathered every remaining shred of willpower she had left and felt the life coming back to her legs. Her front hooves went up to the mass at her front and bucked forward in defiance. The hold around her shattered and she gasped for a full breath as she staggered backward, landing flat on her rump. The world came back into focus around her slowly, her breathing returning to normal but her vision distorted as she realised she had started tearing up. She was back in reality though, sitting on a chilly but not stone floor, neither of the two psychopaths she had been held by before her, only her confused and concerned lover who had merely tried to show her support and been refuted so strongly. She hadn't meant to hurt him. He may not be showing it but she knew that she had hit him in her attempt to get some space and that thought, that she had been affected strongly enough to not feel safe with the closest pony in her life, that hurt her more than anything.

"I...I'm sorry, I..." She panted, looking down at herself and realising her hooves were shaking as well. "I just...Things, a lot of things happened, back in the compound."

"I see..." Bulwark replied quietly, stepping next to Peace and sitting down next to her. He didn't make any movements just yet, knowing that if there was any further contact it would have to be on her terms. "Did she, Starlight, do anything to you?"

"...Yes."

"Well, she's lucky I can't reach her anymore." He replied, calmly, but she knew him well enough to know just what he wanted to do. Peace sighed slightly and subconsciously leaned herself against his side, feeling that familiar muscle tone beneath the body glove.

"I know. It's just...I don't even know why. You mean everything to me and yet..." Peace shifted slightly in place, feeling her body steadily start to relax again. Simple contact like this still left her hackles slightly raised but she could bear it to know that the stallion she loved was there with her.

"It's ok sweetie, we'll work through this together." Bulwark replied softly, smiling down at Peace reassuringly. She managed to smile back, hiding the fact that between his duties and where she'd be going, she'd have to work through the worst of it without him. Any kind of distraction from that thought would be welcome.

"So, what was your gift?" She finally asked, sounding a little more like herself as she stood up again.

"Oh, yeah!" He stood up just after and went to fetch the package that he'd dropped in the confusion. By the time he'd brought it over, Peace Walker had returned to the bed and settled herself down on it, taking it when it was offered and opening it up, easily ripping through the brown paper and string to the contents inside.

"A pony guide to the figures of Minotaur mythology?" She commented as she examined the leather bound tome inside the wrapping. She sounded happier than expected about it, welcoming both a distraction and another opportunity to examine her religious outlook from a fresh angle.

"Modern edition, so it includes their adjustments to include Equestrian figures." He confirmed, chuckling at the little squee she gave in response.

"You're amazing, you know that?" Peace said, managing a proper smile at her husband again. She knew that this might be the last time she could see him for who knew how long. At least she had something both to help keep her calm and remember him by in the meantime.

---

By the time Bulwark needed to leave, Peace Walker had managed to calm herself back to a normal level again. She still couldn't bring herself to show any of the closer gestures of love and affection that she both wanted to and felt he deserved. Every time she'd tried, she memories came back and she locked up again. It still stung that that was the worst that had been done to her, but at the same time it only made her more determined to find a way through. She had beaten Starlight Glimmer in a physical battle, now she needed everything she could get to win the mental battle. She really wished she didn't have to do it alone though. Even as she said goodbye to Bulwark as night had fallen outside, she already regretted that she wouldn't be able to follow him. The nature of his unit meant she hadn't even been able to ask where he was being deployed next.

Back on her own, with only the ceiling light of the room, she could feel the memories creeping back up from dwelling within her. She wasn't alone this time though, she was stronger. Peace laid herself out on the bed and took the book her husband had given her again, starting up where she'd left off from an initial skim through. Some ponies found it odd that she not only practiced a Minotaur religion but welcomed alternate angles on it. Right now though it was even more of a blessing than usual, she was quickly becoming so engrossed in the writing that everything else had been pushed from her mind. Either she was going to get into trouble for staying up so late, or somepony was going to find her after she'd read herself to sleep. Either way, she was going into tomorrow tired but far more prepared for the biggest challenge of her life, in her own way.

"So if 'Kemas' is Celestia, then it was Luna's actions that led to Parre becoming the redeemed and returning to God? Huh." Peace mused to herself as she turned another page.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

This story will be a long one, right?

[Comickook]

Hello there. Once again, superb work on this chapter. The exchanges, emotional content and wrap-up were, of course, well done in all the right places. I will definitely be looking forward to more of this.

[Quick Fix]

7638041 Depends on your definition of story. I mean, for this individual piece that's about it. For the chronicles as a whole, it's just a gathering of my short story ideas that I add to based on time and motivation.

7638070 Thanks, that's a boost after the trouble writing it was. Some bad news though, the next piece I upload will likely be the last for some time. My focus has shifted onto my next main story for now and any other chronicles I've completed require context of unwritten pieces before they're ready to post.