//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: The Price // Story: The Stone Queen // by albedoequals1 //------------------------------// Six Hours Later Inferno gazed with unfocused eyes at the shattered remnant of the enemy armies as they fled in all directions. Her sword fell from her aching jaws and she leaned weakly against a rock. Tales would be told of this victory for centuries, but it had not been without cost. Inferno was covered in blood from poll to pastern, and a significant portion of it was hers. She had lost track of how many times she had been wounded. None of her wounds was serious alone, but they added up and she was starting to feel dizzy. Looking back towards her army, she saw many of them had started trying to help their own casualties. She took a calming breath and pushed herself upright again, and went to join them. Draping her wounded foreleg over the broken end of her spear, she hobbled on the other three, and started looking through the fallen for those that still lived. Pulling aside a shield, she found a familiar red mane and let out a small gasp. “Oh no…” She tried to pull off the corpse on top of Fotia, but she was barely strong enough to stand, and the extra weight pulled her down to the ground instead. She struggled to rise, but couldn’t seem to make her legs obey. “My Lady!” Inferno looked up to see Nera and Giatros running towards her. Nera’s neck and chest were covered with blood from a wicked slash across her face that had cost her both the right ear and eye. She had found and was wearing a scabbard, but the sword was missing. “I found Fotia,” Inferno called. “Help her!” Tears were streaming from Nera’s remaining eye, but she shook her head. “You’re more important, my Lady!” “I don’t care!” Inferno started to cry, herself. “It’s not right! Help her first, I command it!” Giatros frowned, but did as he was told, pulling Fotia’s body out from under the one on top. One of her hind legs was gone below the haunch. The stump was still bleeding but she looked deathly pale. “She wasn’t even a soldier, why!?” The combination of blood loss, emotion and total exhaustion was finally too much for Inferno, and she blacked out. * * * * * * Inferno woke in a cot in her command tent. Her body ached and she felt disgusting, but she pushed that aside and looked around for someone to talk to. O was sitting next to her cot. He was wearing bandages on his neck and rump, but seemed to be in pretty good shape. He gave Inferno a sad smile when she looked at him. “You really have to quit doing that, Steph. We all believe you’re invincible; you don’t have to keep proving it.” “Did Fotia make it?” O’s smile vanished. “She’s alive, but barely hanging on. Giatros managed to stop her bleeding, but even if she recovers, she’s crippled for life. "Nera's in pretty rough shape, too. She lost an eye, but she's going to survive, and she asked me to give you her sincere thanks for all you’ve done for them.” Inferno turned away to look at the tent wall. “What about the others?” “Well nobody came through completely unscathed, but Li, Ther and Vodi should all make a full recovery. We lost about a tenth of our army, and about half of the survivors were wounded. Giatros is teaching everypony he can how to keep wounds clean, but…we’re probably going to lose a lot more before we’re done.” O sighed and continued. “On the bright side, the Fresian cities won’t be bothering us any time soon. Our best estimate is that only a fifth of their soldiers escaped, and they scattered to all directions of the compass. All three commanders were killed, and we took as many prisoners as we have soldiers. Many of the prisoners are already begging to join us.” O turned Inferno’s head back towards himself and wiped some blood off of her nose with a cloth. He carefully looked around to make sure nopony was watching, then leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. “You were amazing, Steph. Nopony will dare to stop us now. We can make our city and fix things up the way we want.” Inferno sighed. “It will be nice to take a break from war. I…I’ll be okay, O. Just give me some time to mope.” He nodded. “Sure.” He stood up to leave. “Get some rest. You’ve earned it.” * * * * * * The next day, Inferno managed to get out of bed and hobble around with her foreleg in a sling. She made her way slowly among the tents, checking in with her friends. When she didn’t find the twins’ tent, she checked the field hospital and found Nera sitting by Fotia’s bed, talking quietly to her. Nera’s head was wrapped in bloody bandages, but her remaining eye and ear were exposed. “Oh! It is good to see you on your feet, my Lady.” “Don’t stand up, it’s fine. And just call me Inferno, please.” Inferno walked up next to the bed and looked down at the crippled twin. “How is she?” “The doctor says she probably won’t wake up until she has recovered some more blood. She twitches in her sleep sometimes; I think it still hurts her.” Nera timidly put a hoof on Inferno’s shoulder. “Don’t blame yourself. She knew what she was doing.” Inferno shied away from the touch. “No. She didn’t. Both of you are just bath house mares. I had no business bringing you onto a battlefield. I might as well have cut off her leg myself.” “That’s not true!” Nera shoved herself in-between Inferno and the bed so she could look at her queen’s face. “You set us free. We could have left right then, but we stayed willingly. We promised to stay with you and we were both ready to die for you if need be.” She gently stroked her sister’s pale face. “And maybe we will, but we’re not dead yet. You are our truest friend, Inferno. We’ve received nothing but good at your hooves. You can’t start doubting yourself just because we got hurt. You got hurt too. I have no regrets, and neither should you.” Inferno stared at her silently for a minute and finally gave a nod. “You’re right. I want to keep my ponies safe and fight all my battles alone but...I can’t. I just have to trust you.” “I’ll tell you when she wakes up.” Inferno nodded. She looked at Fotia again, then left without a word. * * * * * * Fotia lived, but it was weeks before she was strong enough to start learning to walk all over again. Inferno spent an hour each day helping Nera support her sister so she could get exercise without falling. O composed a song to honor the heroes of the battle, giving special mention to the twins. Vodi and Liquor came up with a wooden leg that strapped onto Fotia’s haunch so she could at least rest weight on it while she moved her other legs. Inferno and Nera watched as Fotia made her way slowly to a tree stump and back. “You’re doing great, Fotia, keep it up!” Inferno called. Fotia just nodded and kept hobbling towards the stump. When she reached it, she rested for a moment and then started back. “You’re halfway there, keep coming!” Nera called. She turned to Inferno and quietly added, “I think. I can’t really judge distance very well anymore.” She smiled ruefully and pointed at the canvas patch over her right eye socket. Fotia finally made it back to her friends and stood panting. Her flanks were soaked with sweat from the exertion of simply walking. “Heh, heh, wow...I’m out of shape.” “It’s not just that.” Inferno offered Fotia a waterskin. “You’re using different muscles to compensate for the ones you lost, so it takes time for them to develop.” Fotia unstrapped the wooden leg and flopped down in the grass, rolling around on her back with her feet in the air. “Ah, that feels good. Won’t you join me?” She pointed at Inferno with her lone hind leg. Inferno and Nera exchanged a glance and then flopped down on either side of her. “I had forgotten how much fun that is,” Inferno commented. Fotia looked straight up at the sky and smiled slightly. “Are you happy, Inferno?” “What? Well, I’m not sure. Are you happy?” Nera turned on her side so her eye could see Fotia’s face. “Well, losing a leg is pretty awful. It hurts all the time, and I can’t do stuff like I could before. But… I still have my friends and my freedom. I can roll on the grass and feel the sunshine. I feel like I made a difference, even if it was costly. So yeah, I’m happy.” Inferno thought about that. “I guess I’m happy too. Some things have been hard, but I don’t think I would do anything differently, given the chance.” “You scared an entire army by sheer force of personality,” Nera teased. “That was pretty neat.” “I’m sure your grooming job helped with that.” Inferno rolled to her hooves. “Ready to stand up again?” Fotia sighed. “Yes, let’s get back to it.”