//------------------------------//
// 36 - Death, Part 6 of 10 
// Story: The Last Cutie Mark Crusader 
// by Jatheus 
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Sparklefly began gearing up even before she’d heard the bugle sound the call to arms. When the deafening explosions shook the earth, she knew that the game had changed. Feeling quite refreshed from a day off, she had her armor on in a flash and was ready for action. Before she knew it, she was out of her tent and galloping toward their command center. Smoke rose from all around the heights, and Sparklefly felt a sinking inside. Whatever was underway, it was big. Defensive shields had gone up over several areas, and Sparklefly had to be let into the command center by a unicorn guard. Orders were being shouted as she arrived at her post.

"Look who came back," Pacer said in his usual cocky way. "You're not getting too important to actually come out are you?"

Masher rolled his eyes. Sparklefly wasn't sure, but Pacer might actually have been the least-liked soldier in the entire army. He did have a gift for strategy that made him valuable, but just once she wanted to see somebody punch him in the face for his mouthing off. She brushed aside his comment.

"What's our status?" she asked.

“Reports are coming in from all over the field,” Masher replied. “Apparently, they have tunneled underneath the heights. The CAP reported an explosion in the center, and then what looked like tunnels collapsing from there to the edges. They’ve split our lines, and are attacking from every breach. We’ve got widespread fighting everywhere, and the CAP has dropped down to reinforce the edges so we can form up fighting lines.”

General Brax ordered, “Pacer, get down to the center and relieve Scootaloo. Charging Lance will have his hooves full on the west side, and we need to get the CAP back in the air.”

“You even have to ask?” Pacer shot back as he galloped away.

“We’ll need to order phalanx,” Sparklefly offered.

“It has already been done,” Mane Crusher replied. “We need to abandon this position, immediately.”

Several loud explosions went off, as if to punctuate what the former traitor said.

“Not until the rest of our air support is back,” Brax declared. “If we cut and run now, I doubt if there’ll be anypony left when we return for them.”

Flittergear approached Sparklefly, but didn’t say anything.

“I agree,” Sparklefly volunteered. “It won’t do to split our forces any more than we already have, not while we’re vulnerable.

The words were barely off of her lips when a barrage of magic rained down on the command center from the sky. It crashed through their defensive shield in seconds, and the lethal bolts of energy poured into the ponies on the ground. Sparklefly looked up only to be blinded by the sun. It was as if time froze and she thought, 'Now that was clever. They attacked from the one blind spot we couldn't do anything about.’

General Brax was hit and went down; Masher used his own magic, returning fire blindly into the now open sky. It was recklessly futile. Flittergear had already dropped beneath a table. Others were being pelted with magic and being cut down, even through the armor they wore. The imbued plates that they had received from the Crystal Empire did repel and absorb a limited amount of magic, but multiple hits in rapid succession were enough to overcome the charms. Many others also attempted to return fire with crossbows.

Before she had a chance to run, Mane Crusher threw Sparklefly to the ground and jumped on top of her.

"Stay down!" was all he had time to say.

A bolt of magic struck him in the head and the traitor’s lifeless weight collapsed on top of her. The ferocity of the attack didn't let up. All of the scouts and aids that had been working there were hit and many already killed. Masher also took several direct hits and fell. Screams and the scent of charred metal filled the air. Dirt and debris were being kicked up all over in the relentless onslaught. Sparklefly was blinded by grit that got into her good eye. She put her head down and covered it as best she could.

She was helpless. She tasted again the overwhelming fear that she had experienced in the caverns under Canterlot. Her heart raced and her breaths became fast and shallow. The body on top of her took several more hits, shuddering with each impact, and more than once it made a sickening sound that was somewhere between a forced exhale and a grunt. The noise was as deafening as firecrackers being set off next to one's head as concussive bursts of fiery magic exploded all around. Nopony was returning fire. Nopony was moving.

As suddenly as it began, the attack stopped. The only thing that remained was a loud ringing in Sparklefly's ears. She lay there, perfectly still as the last of the debris fell. Everything became still, but for the thumping of her own heart and the great heaving breaths she took in an attempt to calm herself.

Eventually daring to move, she cleared the dirt from her vision and opened her eye; a great deal of smoke surrounded what had been their command center. The lifeless bodies of no fewer than two dozen lay scattered about, many of them still smoldering. It was such a horrific sight, that she stared in disbelief at the bodies for a long moment. Brax had been butchered; Masher was completely unrecognizable. She couldn’t see Flittergear, but everypony else was been massacred. The mare’s heart became heavy at the loss.

It seemed safe to move.

Sparklefly felt trapped beneath Mane Crusher's remains and worked to wriggle free. He was much heavier than she would have guessed, but after a solid minute, she was finally able to push him off. Speed would be the next course of action. Pushing off of the ground she intended to take off at a gallop and reconnect with any other part of their force and establish a new command center. Instead, something went wrong.

She fell forward, her face hitting the ground. She only saw stars now, and the taste of blood and charred earth was in her mouth. She spit it out and waited for her vision to come back. Something wasn't right. She didn't feel hurt, but why had she fallen? Had she tripped? As her eyesight returned, she tried to roll over, but found this incredibly difficult. Her hind legs didn't seem to be responding, like they were caught in something.

Sparklefly managed, through no small amount of effort, to twist using her upper body and propped herself in a half sitting position. Her legs weren't caught in anything. They were just laying there. She bent as far as she was able and slapped her outer thigh. It felt completely numb; and her blood ran cold as she realized what had happened. Pushing herself over, she rolled onto her back and pulled at the straps to remove her armor.

Then she saw it.

Blood was freely flowing out of her abdomen. She had been hit multiple times. She touched the bleeding area, and it was as if she were touching somepony else's body. There was no sense of feeling at all; one of the shots must have hit her spine. More blood filled her mouth; she spit it out as a cold sweat formed on her brow.

With lightning speed, she took out her med-kit and retrieved the bandages, stuffing them into the wounds. Within moments, they were soaked through, totally ineffective. She began to panic and swiftly stuffed dirt into the gaping injuries to stanch the bleeding. As she did this, her cold intellect took over. ‘You don’t have permission to panic. Assess damage, take action,' she thought to herself.

'This is no good. There is only so much blood in a pony, and I’m losing it too fast.’ Looking at the injuries, she counted the ones she could see that shredded her belly, 'At least seven separate exit wounds. Even if I were in a hospital, this is too severe to be fixed.' Her heart nearly stopped at the line of thinking she had reached. A fresh wave of fear gripped the mare as she continued packing dirt into her body.

Her mind raced to thoughts of her family and friends. Determination was kindled within. She couldn’t die, not yet. Reaching into one of her harness pockets, she pulled out a flare gun and loaded it, firing a red spark into the air.

Sparklefly continued to pack the wounds with dirt, but the other side of her brain told her that it didn’t even matter at this point. She had seen enough catastrophic injuries for her cold intellect to understand the score on this one. Despair flooded through the mare. The damage she had sustained was far too extensive for her to survive for more than a matter of minutes, if even that. 

It was a biological certainty.