//------------------------------//
// Prisoner of war 
// Story: Battle for Equestria 
// by BronyNathan 
//------------------------------//

	She had no idea how long she'd been walking. it seemed like forever. The tears were drying on her cheeks, crusting the light layer of yellow fur under her eyes. She fell to her knees and let more tears fall. "It's just not fair!" She cried out. "He's my friend and i don't want him to go!" She got up and stomped her hoof in a puddle. 
A twig snapped behind her. She turned her head as fast as she could. There was nothing. Then everything went dark. Something grabbed her by the back of the neck. it tied a sack over her head. She screamed in terror and tried to fight back. It was no use. They were too strong for her. She fainted from the fright and the creatures carried her away. 
Everything was coming back to her slowly. She awoke in a small metal cage. There were two tall creatures with what looked like big black metal sticks. A larger one came over, and the other two straightened as he got right up to the cage. Fluttershy lunged to the back in fear. The creature stared her dead in the eyes and spoke. 
"You're right to be afraid. Your world is ours now." 
She hid her face in fear from him and shakily spoke. "W-what do you want f-from me?"
He smiled and lit his cigar. "I want you to tell me where Woodwind is."
Woodwind raced to her cottage, it was empty. He went to the spot they were talking last night. Empty. He was frantic. He called her name as loud as he could. No reply. He kicked the dirt in frustration. he put his head down and saw his way of finding her.
Her hoof prints were barely visible in the wet ground. They led straight into the forest. 
He followed them in a panic gallop. "Oh please no. Please let her be alright." He said as he reassured himself. 
He ran for what seemed like forever. 
Then the tracks stopped in a small clearing. He looked around and called for her. Still no reply. Something was horribly wrong. He looked closer at the ground an saw it. 
boot prints. Two sets, leading into the middle of the clearing. Their was what looked like a scuffle. His heart sank. "...Fluttershy." Tears streamed from his eyes as he shouted as loud as he could. All that answered back was the emptiness of the forrest. He didn't know what to do. His anger was building. His stomach became a rock, and his thoughts raced. What did they do to her? Where did they take her? He couldn't sit around and do nothing. He flew back to library to tell them all what had happened. 
AppleJacks eyes began to water. "Are yah sure you don't know if she's alright?"
He hung his head low and croaked, "No."
Rainbow Dash, who was back now from Cloudsdale, stomped her hooves in anger. "We have to go after her! We have to save her!" 
She began to fly for the door but Woodwind stopped her. "And we will!" he said, "But we need a plan to go about it. We don't even know where they-" 
And then it hit him. the guidance chip the doctor gave him. It must have fallen when he crashed into the forrest. He pulled out a map of Equestria from one of the shelves and studied it for a minute.
"Their here!" He pointed to the map at a spot in the middle of the forrest. "Thats where i crashed, and thats where I dropped the guidance chip!" Twilight checked the map. "Are you positive?" She asked. He looked at her hard. "I know it. Now i need a team to go with me." 
Rainbow instantly flew forward. "I'll go!" She yelled puffing out her chest. 
Woodwind smiled. "Good, Anypony else up for it?" 
Pinkie Pie hopped forward. "Oh me, me me! I'll do it!"
Woodwind smiled, "Well alright. Lets get going."
Fluttershy looked up at him, "B-but you already know where he is. I-I heard you were there yesterday." She said quietly, closing her eyes hoping this was all a dream. Cole laughed. 
"Oh. Is that where he's staying? In that pitiful town?" He asked staring at her with hateful eyes. She instantly began to regret saying he was in Ponyville. She had to trick him. 
"N-no. He's not staying there. H-he left last week." She said sinking her head down. Cole hit the cage in anger, causing her to squeal and scurry to the back. 
"I know you know where he is. If I could still track him I would, but unfortunately he destroyed the tracking device we put on him. So now, I need someone we know he's close to." He said, staring her dead in the eyes. 
She turned her head and started crying whispering to herself, "Please Woodwind. Save me..." 

They had been crawling on their bellies for at least twenty minutes, much to the distain of Rainbow Dash. "ughh, Why do we have to crawl there? Flying would be easier." 
Woodwind had heard this ten times before. "First, Pinkie Pie can't fly," He said gesturing at the smiling pink pony in between them, "And second," he said pointing up at a sensor attached to the tree three feet ahead of them. "Thats why." 
Rainbow squinted at the small, glowing sensor on the tree. "What is that thing?" she asked.
"It's a security drone that will alert the camp to our presence if we cross it. And if we cross it, we're more than likely dead."
She gulped and slunk lower to the ground. 
The rest of the belly crawl was silent, except for the tiny giggle from Pinkie every so often, who was enjoying herself a little too much. 
The ledge came up suddenly. Below, the scope of the camp was greater than he expected. 
The camp was huge. Probably about a mile in diameter. Rows of tanks were lined up in the back, being loaded with anti-personnel shells. The Planes and choppers were being fueled and loaded, and troops were going about their duties and getting ready to go to war. 
Pinkie Pie was the first to let out her disbelief. "Holy guacamole!" She recoiled back and started to shake. All the happy energy she had before was drained away. She was regretting coming, Woodwind could tell. He sighed and slunk back a little ways. "We have to wait till nightfall, when the camp is mostly asleep. We'll find her then." 
Rainbow Dash nodded. Pinkie gave a salute. 
The next five hours went by slowly. The mares played tic-tac-toe in the dirt to pass the time, but Woodwind kept watch on the camp. 
He began to notice their pattern. Every hour the guards switched shifts. The patrols went through the middle of the camp every fifteen minute, and the guards on the wall closest to them turned his back on their position every 10 seconds. The math was easy to do. As soon as the sun went down, they'd wait five extra minutes, At that time, the guard on the wall will be facing away from them, The guards in center patrol would be finishing and heading back to the edge of the camp and the guards would be switching shifts at that time, too so it would give them four minutes of uninterrupted recon through the center of the camp. He smiled "Get ready girls. We go on my mark."		
Fluttershy was awoken with a start as a bowl of water was thrown on the floor in front of the corner she was hiding in. The monster in charge had let her out and put her in his office. He sat at his desk just staring at her. "I thought you could use some seeing as how you've been cooped up here for hours."
Fluttershy pushed the bowl away and sank into the corner. 
"I know you don't feel like talking to me. I understand." He stood up and lit another cigar and inhaled its sweet smoke. "But i'm afraid you have no choice. Tell me where we can find him, and you're free to go." 
She looked up at him. He was standing a few feet away from her smiling. She could tell he wasn't being truthful.
"You're lying. You're not going to free me." she said shakily.
He smiled and inhaled the cigar again. "You got me. I've never been a good liar. But, if its all the same to you, I'd like to know where you all are hiding him." 
This time he was right in her face. He breathed a heavy puff of smoke in her face which caused her to cough.
"I-I don't know who you're talking about." She said and lowered her head. 
He smiled wider. "Now who's the bad liar?" He raised a fist to hit her, but an explosion stopped him cold. Alarms began to ring and soldiers were running up and down the halls. Fluttershy hid her head even more. 
"Woodwind!" 
"Good work Rainbow!" Woodwind yelled from above. He grabbed another rocket launcher from the tower and shot at the guards coming out of their barracks. They flew through the air wildly and hit the ground with loud thuds. "THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" he yelled at the top of his lungs with a laugh. "Rainbow, get Pinkie and get out of here. I think i know where to find Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash threw her spent launcher at a guard running along the wall. It hit him square in the chest with a thud and he fell into the brush below. Rainbow swooped Pinkie up and flew back to town. 
Woodwind headed for the more formal looking building. He looked inside the window and saw him. The man who was in town that day. He ran out of the room with his gun drawn. He knew his name now.
Cole.
In the corner of the room, Fluttershy continued to cower. He had to get her.
Fluttershy's heart was pounding. She didn't know what would happen to her, but she knew it couldn't be good. Cole grabbed his weapon and headed for the door. "You stay here. I'll be back to finish this conversation in a minute." 
He bolted out the door and slammed it behind him.
Fluttershy broke down again. She couldn't believe this was happening. 
A loud crash broke her out of her hysteria. Nothing could have prepared her for who she saw. 
She bolted out of the corner like a bullet and slammed into him. She hugged him as tight as she could. She never felt more safe than she did right then.
"Fluttershy! I'm so glad to see you!" He said hugging her back. He heard voices outside the door. He pushed the desk in front of the door right as it began to open. The yells were getting more frantic and one of them he easily could make out. Cole was back. 
"C'mon, Fluttershy, lets go!" He said trying to grab her. but she flew towards the desk to grab something. 
"Hurry! There's no time for that!" He said grabbing her and flying out the window. 
Cole had had enough. "Give me that gun!" He shouted. He grabbed it and shot the wooden door with the entire clip and kicked it down. He yelled in anger and threw the rifle at the wall in the now empty room. 
"This war is not going to end well for them! They're going to suffer for this!" He stormed off and with that, the soldiers ran to their posts to finish preparing for battle. This time, they worked at double the pace. 
They landed outside the library and Fluttershy was met with hugs and cheers from all her friends. Woodwind just stood their and smiled. They all acknowledged him and walked over. He kinda hesitated but walked to meet them. 
"Ah reckon we all owe yah a big one. You brought Fluttershy back safe an' sound, just like ya promised." AppleJack said smiling. 
Rainbow Dash flew over and roughed his light brown mane up. "You were AWESOME!" she said. 
"I can't believe we did it!" Pinkie Pie bounced around them. "That was amazing! We went in and zoom, BOOM! Blew stuff up, took out the bad guys, and ZOOM we were off!" 
They all laughed at Pinkies innocent account of what happened. 
The ponies stood back and let Fluttershy talk to him. "Here, I grabbed this before we left." 
She lifted up her wing, and underneath it was his Medal of Honor. "I saw that monster just staring at it, but it had your name on the plaque, so i assumed it was yours, unless... i was mistaken." She grabbed it with her mouth and clipped it to his fur. He just stared at it deeply. Another memory came flooding back and he was lost once again to reality.