Chapter XXVII: Bleeding Dreams
It was the dull thud of the cannon, signifying the fall of yet another tribute, which mercilessly dragged Twilight from the depths of her slumber, bringing her conscious to the fact that her throat felt parched. She coughed slightly as she reached over to the flask sitting in one of the many nooks of the tree, carefully trying not to wake Fluttershy as she did so. The pegasus in question barely stirred, sighing contently as she remained resolutely fixated in the world of her dream, briefly being granted the luxury of clearing her mind of any thoughts about the troubled place in which she slept. This was a state of mind that Twilight envied greatly, as no matter how hard she tried, how much she wished it, sleep offered her no such remorse.
After she had carefully put the flask back in the nook, her thirst now quenched, she lay back down into the sleeping bag, looking upwards through the leaves at the moon above. It offered no indication as to the time, but judging by the fact that she’d woken up with her throat parched, it must have easily been at least six hours since they had returned from gathering their assortment of apples and berries. Other than the cannon thud moments earlier, the night was peaceful enough, and there was no reason to disturb Fluttershy’s slumber for another few hours. The night was cool without being freezing, and was mixed with a gentle breeze that sang through the valley. The crickets chirped merrily around them, and all felt well in the world. Time seemed to melt around Twilight as she lay in the sleeping bag, bathing in the warmth of the timid pegasus to her side, eyes closed and listening to the sounds of the forest around her. Her tiredness had left her, so she thought it best to lie still for the night, preserving energy for the day ahead, as well as allowing her to enjoy the more peaceful moments as they came.
The peace was unfortunately short-lived, as Twilight felt a gentle spasm from the body next to her, timed seamlessly with a quiet squeal. Fluttershy was beginning to sweat profusely, but she was also shivering aggressively. Twilight sat up as Fluttershy let out several more squeals, but she was clearly still fast asleep. Peaceful times, even in sleep, seemed to be short lived in the arena. As gently as possible, Twilight placed a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder, only for her heart rate to triple as the squirming pegasus sat up straight in a shot, letting out a piercing scream that barrelled mercilessly into Twilight’s eardrums. It took her a few seconds to react, but as soon as the shock passed, she lunged forward and clamped her hoof hard over Fluttershy’s muzzle, rapidly silencing her. Her eyes shot open, as if she’d been asleep even while screaming, and stared at Twilight. It was rare to see anypony so terrified, even from a nightmare, so Twilight pulled her in tightly for a hug. The embrace seemed to work, she rocked Fluttershy gently back and forth, gently whispering “its okay” to try and calm her down as much as possible, to which the only reply that could be heard was a feeble whimpering.
Twilight continued the embrace for as long as she gave herself to calm down. The suddenness of the scream had legitimately frightened her, and her pulse was still racing. The cuddling was, in this case, beneficial for both of them, as Twilight could give Fluttershy the comfort she needed, whilst the calming words replied to by gentle cries allowed Twilight to calm down to a point sufficient for her to think straight. They two ponies, both still terrified, held each other tightly for what felt an eternity before Fluttershy finally broke the silence.
“I… I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Twilight said again, with a gentle chuckle. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“I guess so.”
“Okay then,” Twilight said as she let go of Fluttershy, before she carefully stood up. “If anypony is nearby, they’ll have heard you. Better not risk being found, we’ll head inland. You can tell me as I pack.”
“Okay,” Fluttershy said with a sniff, wiping her tear stained eyes with her hoof as she stepped out of the sleeping bag. “I was dreaming about the day my mom died.”
Twilight looked up as she started to roll up the sleeping bag. It was important that she pack their stuff up quickly, but she made it crystal clear by her body language that Fluttershy had her complete attention.
“See, um, during the war, everypony in District 11 who hadn’t gone to fight just tried their best to go on with life as usual. So one day, I was out with my mom in the fields, when we heard this weird humming noise, and it kept getting louder and louder. The cows around us started panicking, so we had to fly up to avoid getting trampled in a stampede, when this big hovercraft just appears out of nowhere. I mean, it literally just appeared in the sky above us.”
“Attack the families, try and scare the opposition into submission,” Twilight said with a nod, remembering something she’d heard Celestia saying when she was in District 13. She paused as she considered how militaristic and insensitive this sounded, before looking up at Fluttershy. “Sorry,” she said as she put rolled up sleeping bag into its carry bag. “Keep going.”
“So, lots more hovercraft appeared in the sky, and then these bombs start dropping, some at houses, but most of them were aimed at livestock pens. See my mom, she was always very sweet and caring, especially to the animals, but she never really thought ahead. This one hovercraft that appeared over us dropped a bomb, and mom had to push me out of the way so it didn’t crush me. And, I think it’s cause I nearly got hurt, she starts screaming and flying up towards the hovercraft that dropped the bomb.”
Twilight already knew the end of the story, just from hearing this. She’d studied diagrams of the Capitol hovercrafts, and she knew there was no way an unarmed pegasus pony could have gotten close. It was too heavily armed, to the point where only the strongest weapons, or heavily concentrated unicorn magic, could cause them any kind of damage.
“Then, I didn’t even see what did it, I just heard this dull thudding noise, and….” Fluttershy tried to continue, but her tears forced her to choke up, and she simply slumped back against the side of the tree. Twilight, now finished with the packing, knew there was nothing she could say or do to console her, not with memories like this. So she did all she could, by sitting next to her, and holding her in close for a gentle hug. She didn’t expect Fluttershy to be able to continue, so she just wanted to be there for her. A feeling of guilt washed over her as she considered her earlier thoughts about abandoning the quivering wreck cuddled up to her.
“T-t-t-the… w-w-worst… b-b-bit…” Fluttershy continued as she blubbered hysterically, pausing to take a deep breath. “I… I tried to fly up after her, maybe try and stop her. The sun was in my eyes, so I couldn’t see when I heard that thudding noise, but then I felt something warm splatter over me.”
Twilight grimaced, as she realised exactly what had happened. Every single Capitol hovercraft is fitted with swivelling Sonic Disruptor Cannons on the underside. These cannons fire concentrated sonic waves at specific points with pinpoint accuracy, effective from up to half a mile away. Correctly fired, they can obliterate a pony’s body. Flesh is ripped apart, organs are pulped, and even bones are reduced to nothing more than dust. The SDC’s are laser guided, controlled by the on-board computer, so a lone pegasus flying blindly towards the underside of the craft would have been a textbook easy target. Fluttershy’s mother would have been reduced to a red mist quicker than she would have been able to blink.
“So… I stop… and I look down at myself… and I’m covered in…”
“It’s okay,” Twilight said as she pulled Fluttershy in tighter, not wanting her to keep recalling this painful memory. “I think I can guess the rest.”
Fluttershy nodded, momentarily grateful to have somepony nearby to confide in. Sadly, despite the pony desperately in need of a friend, Twilight had other things she needed to focus on. Her mind racked with guilt as she realised that while the earlier scream could have alerted anypony nearby to their general location, the time spent trying to comfort Fluttershy was all time that somepony could be using to get closer to them. The makeshift bed was hard to see, but not invisible. If anypony had the common sense to work out that they wouldn’t be sleeping on the forest floor, it wouldn’t take them long to find them. In short, they needed to move. Quickly.
“Listen,” Twilight said as soothingly as possible, letting go of Fluttershy and standing up again. “We’ve been here too long. If your scream alerted anypony to where we are, this is all time they’ll have spent looking for us, and we should have spent moving elsewhere.”
Fluttershy was still in a delicate state, but she quickly managed to bring her crying down to a controllable level as Twilight tightly strapped her saddle pack on. Then, after a quick listen, she guessed there was nopony in the immediate vicinity. If there was, then they’d most likely be waiting for her to start climbing down, as she’d be at her most vulnerable point. She decided the best way to do it was climb down quickly first, then keep guard as Fluttershy climbed down. As Twilight lowered herself down, she noticed the sky turning from black to a darker blue, causing her to breathe a sigh of relief to the fact that daylight would soon be upon them. The cool breeze, which had earlier aided her relaxation, now only served as an annoyance as the brief span of hearing Fluttershy’s story had turned it into a bitter cold that bit at her as she carefully descended through the branches. Thankfully, nopony ambushed her as she dropped through and landed on all fours on the forest floor, before quietly calling up that it was safe to come down.
It was as the leaves rustled above her, signalling that Fluttershy had begun to climb down, that Twilight’s ears twitched slightly, picking up on a familiar sound in the distance. A quick glance up showed a look of horror on the face of the yellow pegasus, confirming that she also recognised the dull thud in the distance.
There wasn’t even time for Twilight to shout up before the first wave hit. Bombs exploded all around them, landing in continuous fire. Twilight was knocked onto her stomach by the first blast barely fifty metres away, the power of which also knocked Fluttershy straight out of the tree. She squealed as she fell several metres onto her back, right next to Twilight on the ground, ears ringing violently. As it was days earlier, she was lucky to have fallen onto a soft forest floor, and she was only lightly winded as instinct kicked in, adopting the stance her father had taught her, lying on her stomach and using her hooves to shield her face. The bombs continued to explode in a wide radius around them, clearly being intended to level a wide area, not a specific target.
“What do we do?!” Fluttershy screamed out, though it was hard to hear for both of them due to their ringing ears.
Twilight couldn’t respond, not without risking looking up and taking a large piece of shrapnel to the face. Instead, she kept her head buried firmly in her hooves, and prayed to any divine spirit that Fluttershy was doing exactly the same. Moments passed by, feeling like hours, but finally the bombs began to slow down, and after a few minutes of silence, the pair finally looked up.
The forest around them was decimated. The fact that they’d survived without a scratch was nothing short of a miracle, as every tree for half a mile was reduced to a splintered stump. The most intact of the trees around them was in fact their tree, which was relatively intact up to the lowest layer of leaves. Everything above that, the thick log, the heavy branches, the bed that had been the closest thing in the arena they could have considered home, was gone. With the amount of shrapnel and wood splinters around them, it was impossible to tell what had come from which tree.
It took a few minutes for Twilight to finally snap out of the trance, gazing at the scene of destruction around them, and turn her attention to Fluttershy. She looked panicked, and her back was now dotted with bloody splinters, but she was otherwise unharmed. There weren’t that many of them, so upon checking that Fluttershy wasn’t too disorientated, Twilight set to work on removing the splinters, pulling them out one by one with her teeth. It surprised her how little Fluttershy complained about it as she was doing it, but she just put it down to shock.
“T-t-twilight?”
“I know it hurts, but it won’t take long,” she answered as she pulled out a long one.
“T-t-twilight?”
“Look, I know you must be scared right now, but the sooner I get these splinters out, the sooner we can get going.”
“T-t-twilight?”
“What?” she answered, now beginning to get irritated. “What is it?”
“Um… your flank.”
Twilight spat out the splinter and turned her head around to look at her left flank. She could only just see around the saddle pack, but she couldn’t see anything wrong.
“Um… other side.”
Twilight slowly turned her head around to look at the other side, only to nearly faint. How could she not have felt it? Maybe the intense adrenaline rush of the situation had briefly blinded her to the pain she should be feeling. Whatever the reason, Fluttershy’s splinters were now almost insignificant in comparison to the shredded piece of bloody metal, almost certainly part of a bomb casing, which had embedded itself deep in her flank, right in the center of her cutie mark.
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FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!
YOU HAS UPDATED!!!
YAY!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!
I've been waiting, and you never disappoint.
Yes! Finally!
And I guess they're plan to move kinda blew up in their faces. Amiright?
...ill take my leave now...
Oh yay! I'd nearly forgotten about this fic.
But jeez, that sure didn't end well. Is there an actual bomb inside Twilight, or just a hunk of sharp metal? Regardless, that can't be good, but if I was Fluttershy I'd run if it was the former.
Also poor Flutters.
Still dunno much about Twilight's past, though. She's very closed off about it... makes me curious.
Anyways, it's awesome to see updates again!
Well worth the wait.
*Cough cough*
OH HELL YES YOU'RE BACK!
Sorry, Imma just... yeah... *Walks away*
IT'S ALIIIIIIIIIIVE!
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Just so you know, this isn't meant to be a direct copy of the original book, so there will be (hopefully) very few parallels to draw with how the events play out.
As for the ending I have in mind, it may be considered open-ended by some, but to others it may not be. Just wait and see!
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*hands box of tissues*
Can we get a thunderlane one