//------------------------------// // Eagle Down // Story: (Pony) Prisoner of War // by Briar //------------------------------// Perspective: Briar CRACK Bullets whizzed past the small royal guard patrol and I. Zoning out I looked over the battlefield, bullets whizzing past us, pained screams erupting into the air showing the truly mortifying parts of war, the parts that take parents from their foals, the parts that i’m needed to fix. When the whole world froze and the sound around me seemed to amplify. Dink. Clink Dlink. Looking down I spotted a grenade at my feet and panic spread through me faster then the esteemed Rainbow Dash's flight speed, as i kicked it away. BOOOM My ears ringing, I looked around with blurry eyes. As reality came back in to play, my vision steadied and I heard the sound of my commanding officer yelling. “BRIAR, GET THE BUCK OVER HERE, CREAM IS HIT.” Gathering my bearings, along with my combat dagger, I flew into the air in search of my good friend and commanding officer. What I found next was incomparable to the close call I had on the ground, because finding a pile of red and white pony was one thing, realizing it was my best friend was a Whole ‘nother ball park. CRACK CRACK CRACK Bullets whizzed past my head, and I could feel them caress my armor and fur, instinctively I dove for the nearest cover before redirecting the fly/dive I had going in to a ditch near my pile o’ friend and breaking down officer. Scrambling outta the muddy ditch, I made it to Cream’s side. His breathing was rather shallow and he had two wounds in his left front leg, one on the ear, and the one I was most worried about the one dead center in his chest. The overwrought officer next to me was not much of a help to the situation. If someone were to die as my patient, many tend tell me ‘it wasn’t your fault’ or shit like ‘you cant save them all’. I knew then and, along with every other doc, still do now, but that doesn’t make us feel less responsible. Working at your hardest to save each individual is incredibly difficult but not doing so is just as bad as killing them to us. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Perspective: Narrator After silently stabilizing Cream, Briar turned to her worried captain, “Take Cream to a hospital or medical tent and tell them that his right leg is broken and he is shot up quite well also, i’ve given him morphine, he’s stabilized right now but only for a short time. Go!” Briar commanded. The officers face transformed from worry to the kind you get for smarting off to a drill Sargent “Hey, you don’t talk to-” she objected but was interrupted by a firm slap to the face. “Lieutenant, do you want Cream to not die or do you want to lecture me on the ranking of this situation because i need to help those on the battlefield. You on the other hand are strong and don’t know a lick about medical practices on the battlefield.” her eyes softened as she saw reason. I put Cream on her back and then made sure to make sure his bandages weren’t torn “Now off with ya and don’t jostle him too much.” As she trotted off, I thought to myself Why is she so worried? Briar then noticed the 20 or so strong human lineish glob rushing toward them, when she yelled “SQUAD TO ME!” her squad huddled up to her “I’m the highest ranking officer here, so whats going to happen here is, i’m going to fly overhead the human line and distract them while you guys get everyone to retreat. I’ll loop around and meet back up with you at the barracks.” Briar put simply. Private 2nd Class Raymond or ‘box’ as we call after a nasty accident the second he showed up at the barracks, raised his hoof. “What if something happens to you.” Briar looked at him with a confident smile “i’ll be fine, you guys just go do your job. Hooah!?” “Hooah!” They chorused. Suddenly, a grenade landed at her feet. Time almost froze as she kicked away the grenade, screamed “GET DOWN” and, pushed over the nearest pony she could. After the grenade exploded she flew in to the air checking for injuries, ears still ringing, and then she flew off to enact her part in the plan. Celestia damn, how many times am I gonna kick some explosives today? Briar flew over the human front line that was taking cover in a ditch while yelling catching their attention, and she gave her friendlies the signal to retreat. “PEGASUS ABOVE, DON’T LET THE BASTARD GO FAR.” A group of what looked like five broke off from the main pack and followed her Good, their’s less for them to defend against now She flew just slow enough to keep the humans on her tail, and with luck she would be fine. Too bad Briar’s broke at least three (fairly large) mirrors in the past month (all at once). Briar felt a sharp pain sear through her right wing, she tried to flapped her wings as much as she could in a futile attempt to stay in the air, with no prevail. BUCKIN’ TARTARUS THIS SHIT HURTS LIKE BuUcK she grit her teeth trying to block out the pain while breathing hard and preparing for a crash landing. As she floppily plummeted toward the ground, Briar tried to slow her decent but instead redirected herself in to a tree. THUMP The tree shook mightily. “Oww” she groaned out in pain, as she began to slid off the trees pine branch. “Shit shit shit shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-” Briar yelled falling down the tree hitting what felt like every branch on the tree on the way down until she was abruptly cut off. THUD She pressed her face to the forest floor, her feet feeling a new pain in her right foreleg. Stunned for a moment she stood and began to stumble forwards remembering what she still needed to do. After a few minutes of stumbling she stopped to tend to her wounds. She then determined that her right leg was broken and a bone in her wing was shattered from being shot. She bandaged her wing and prepared to leave when she heard a noise a few trees away. Ducking down and slinking into a bush, she spotted the source of it. It was a shaking young looking human, male from the looks of it. During her survey of it she inched forwards and snapped a twig underhoof. He jumped and pointed his gun at the bush she was hiding in as she backed away. “Hello?” he asked tiptoeing forwards timidly. "fucking come out or you're dead horse." He was inches away from the bush when he spotted her. Her pupils shrunk in fear. “ Buck buck buck buck buck buck buck buuuuuuuuuuuuck! ” Briar said aloud scrambling away. “GUYS, I FOUND THE PEGGY, ITS OVER HERE.” The young man yelled. Filled with fear and adrenaline she yelled “NO, I’M NOT, BUCK OFF” nice play dumbass. she stated to her self dryly, still limping away, she heard the sound of heavy foot steps behind her and she got distracted and tripped falling flat on her face and chest. “Well looky here boi’s, Lieutenants gonna be happy to see this.” said a lengthy looking human snapping a photo and pressing Briar’s snout into the ground with a boot. “Quit it you guys, we were ordered to capture her and take her to base not beat her up and have a photo shoot.” The smaller human next to her abuser had a look of fake hurt on his face “well i’d never have thought to do such a thing. I know you’d just hate it if we had any fun and messed with her for her friends messing with Duran.” he said pulling out oddly shaped hoofcuffs, that obviously wouldn't fit her. A muscular human waltzed over and picked her up and began to carry her as a restraint. She wriggled to get comfortable, well that was until she passed out heavily lacking breath. She woke up to water being poured on her face and they resumed their trip to who knows where. Briar found out the voice who had stopped the two men nearest to her from turning her capture into paparazzi time was the timid young boy from before. I’ll thank him for intervening later. she thought to herself. As they walked they went to a dirt path where Several other men and a few women from the battle, joined the group in the return trip back to their base. A smaller man that was tagging along with Briar’s carrier looked up at her, “You mus’ be mighty smart hollerin’ ‘Ah’m not over ‘ere to us." Briar huffed looking away. “Buck off, hillfilly.” She retorted. They snickered at her frustration. “Ya know I think we jus' found ourselves a horse that can take a punch. We just gotta teach ‘er to curse right” he joked. During their weird loop of banter and jokes, Briar noticed a woman lone wolfing at the back of the congregation. She tapped on the giant shoulder of her carrier and asked “who’s that at the back of the group” The bear of a man responded “she does not talk much except commanding officers, her name is Amelia and she is the medic." he said while he unknowingly tightening his grip on Briar “Okay, can you ease up on the grip, please.” she wheezed. His grip on her loosened and she sigh happy to breath again. “What’s your name big guy ‘cause my name is Briar.” He nodded and said “I am borschov, i come from very east Ukraine. ” As they continued to walk the rest talked and Briar began to nod off I wonder if I can fall asleep like this. She was draped over his shoulder like a saggy duffel bag. She thought for a moment before reaching a possible solution to her sleep problem. “Hey. How good are you at knock out punches?” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Briar woke up with the girl Amelia at her side and the buff guy next to her. “I answered question.” The girl sighed and looked up at him. “Punching someone in the face isn’t a response.” she growled. “i disagree.” he frowned. Briar sat up and checked herself over, only having a slight head ache and bruising on her left cheek. “Well some warning would have been nice.” Amelia stared at her like she was stupid. “You mean you actually ASKED him to punch you in the face?!” “No, I ASKED how good he was good at knocking ponies out. even though I was going to ask for a demonstration.” Briar retorted. she looked at Briar admiringly at the fact anyone could ask him to knock them out and angrily at how ignorant she was of the dangers. "You could have died were I not present. Not a single person here is trained in field medical operations but me.” Briar chuckled and coughed in to her hoof then pointed to her medi-bags and said “Then why do i have medical supplies and how would a punch kill me?” The girl looked over to the bag stared at her blankly then got up and walked away. Leaning over to her, the big guy said “She's pissed.” Briar sighed and attempted to get up before collapsing to the floor in a gasp. “Ah... My leg, get me some painkillers from my bag.” The large man scrambled over to the small bag and opened it with his large meaty fingers. “You find this.” he handed Briar her bag and she began to dig through it violently looking for some kind of painkiller. Didn’t I organize this... Oh wait, the crash.. Pulling out some alcohol she took a swig or two and raised it to the human. “You want any?” Tucker looked at her with an expression that only said ‘wha?’ “Its bourbon.” He grabbed the bottle with a smile saying “Ah, equestrians know how to do medicine.” She looked at him said a bit embarrassed “its... not standard to have alcohol like bourbon.” giving him a sheepish smile. After several painful moments of trying to stand she succeeded and began to try to put her weight on it. Then she remembered her alcohol and started to drink holding it in her wing as they walked. So off they set off to the human base, and after about half a bottle Tucker took her bag from her so they didn’t have a drunk P.O.W. These horses all look gay. Tucker thought