Bodies. Bodies in Fort Beta. Bodies of ponies, both unicorn and pegasus alike. Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor counted at least eight of them from his relatively high vantage point, none of them seeming to be alive, and all of them having been sliced and gouged in such a way that their lifeblood had spilled into the dirt and dust of the fort's floor. In the fast-fading light, Shining could also see the tools of improvised war - rakes, shovels, axes and pruning blades wielded by one side and some kind of crude spears wielded by the other - scattered between the dead, some broken as a result of their grisly usage.
Transfixed by the horror, Shining Armor slid down the side of the rubble pile he had been on top of into Fort Beta proper, only vaguely aware his command were scrambling - some by airlifting their comrades - to follow him into the fort currently only occupied by the dead of racial hatred and rebellion. The magic barrier behind him is dissipated when he turns off the glowing magenta magic eminating from his horn, and he hears others sliding down behind him immediately after that.
Shining Armor darts desperately from body to body, catching glimpses of others in his command doing the same. A pegasus with his neck sliced open, a unicorn with a shattered horn and gouged-out eye, another pegasus with his belly sliced open to expose the desiccating insides... all are horrible images, but he can't find any that look like the two main objectives of Operation Just Cause: renegade ex-Lieutenant Troilus or the pretender Prince Blueblood.
When Shining next looks up from examining a body, Lieutenant Vanguard is facing him. Behind Vanguard, a few of his command are seen darting back and forth. With little sunlight left, they are desperate to find some supplies that they hope the rebels left behind in the hasty abandonment of the fort.
"Sir, I don't think the prince or Troilus are..." Vanguard begins to report, before being cut off by the shout of another voice.
"Sir, one of the pegasi is still alive! His breathing is shallow but steady!" comes the deep voice of Guard Upper Class Buck Withers from Shining's right. Shining spares a glance in that direction, then turns back to Vanguard.
"Lieutenant, you and Excelsior work together to try to secure some supplies and get fires started for the night." Shining clips out. "We'll have to deal with the mess when we have more light."
"Yes, sir!" Vanguard replies with a salute, turning away and kicking aside a broken part of a rake as he does so.
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Shining now turns right and scurries toward where he heard the voice of Buck Withers coming from. In the fast-fading light, he stops in front of a badly-bruised but otherwise unhurt pegasus. Buck is looking down on one side of the pegasus, laying on his side with wings splayed open, the chest only very slightly moving with each breath. On the other side is the ex-Lower Class Petronius, who had come upon the pegasus the same time Buck did.
"Roll him on his back you two. Carefully." Shining orders, and the two subordinates silently comply in an appropriately symbolic display of cooperation. As the pegasus is guided onto his back, Shining can see the matted and dirty tight curls of mane and tail shift to reveal a scratched face, along with an upside-down apple symbol on the torn remnants of a uniform.
"The second Agent Deceit. The other rebels must've assumed he was too far gone, or otherwise deliberately decided to leave him for dead." Shining concludes based on what he sees.
The pegasus coughs a bit, then lets out a half-coherent moan: "Glowworm... my little Glowworm..."
"We won't be able to do anything more for him until we can get some fires going." Shining Armor concludes. "Get an emergency blanket on him, but don't do anything else for the moment."
"Yes, sir!" Buck Withers replies with a salute, the last Shining hears from him before turning away to continue surveying the area.
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One hour passes, then two, the sun completing the Celestia-controlled descent and Luna raising the moon in its place. The quarter-moon's soft beams of light is a reassurance to Shining as his command finishes occupying the fort for the night. Some are busy cleaning up the dead ponies and broken weapons, leaving them in temporary piles in a corner of the fort. Some are busy distributing supplies the rebels left behind when they abandoned the fort, which is put to good use in building fires and supplementing rations.
It is only once everything else is settled that Shining Armor can turn his attention to the former Agent Deceit, the only prisoner of the former Agents of Chaos he has right now. Despite the condition the pegasus is in, Shining needs as much intel as he can get out of him.
A pair of large campfires is now burning steadily inside the walls of the fort, one of which currently has several pots of broth bubbling over it. Shining Armor uses unicorn magic and a ladle to pour a measure of the thin soup into a mess tin, which he then directs over to where the injured pegasus is laying, still on his back, under the thermal blanket.
Shining sits down facing the pegasus, which has been drifting in and out of consciousness, and guides the mess tin in front of the pegasus, speaking as he does so: "Here, have some. You probably haven't eaten anything in three days."
The pegasus initially gives a sniff and suspicious glance, but after a moment begins slowly drinking the hot liquid, alternating between slurping and lapping with his tongue until the tin was empty, at which point the pegasus slid back to his face-up pose and Shining moved the empty tin away. The Lieutenant Captain also noticed a few tears sliding down the face of the pegasus, and he was reasonably sure they weren't from burning his throat.
"You're the only one we found alive - everypony else is either dead or gone." Shining explains, and the response is immediate on the former Agent Deceit - a few more tears welling up and sliding down to the dirt floor of the fort.
"Glowworm, Glowworm... what have I done to you?!" the pegasus moans out, his face twisting into an expression of grief as he does so.
"I'm sure it hurts that they decided to leave you for dead, but I need answers, and fast. I need you to talk to me." Shining Armor firmly states to try to get the pegasus to focus, and the slow nodding between the tears in response shows his willingness to cooperate at least in principle.
"Good. Do you know if Prince Blueblood and Troilus were captured alive by the other rebels in the assault here?" Shining asks, the pegasus responding with a slow nod.
"What about afterward? Would they have been taken to the other fort still alive?" Shining asks, and again the pegasus nods in response - this gives the Lieutenant Captain hope that the two most important objectives of the whole operation could still be rescued alive, albeit a hope that was already slim and would grow slimmer with each passing hour.
"Thank you, you've been very helpful. Hopefully in the morning we can get you back to the main path and on the way to Canterlot." Shining affirms with a smile.
"My little Glowworm... I need to see her again, what are they going to do to her..." the pegasus continues rambling.
"'Glowworm'? Who is that? You keep talking about her, why is that?" Shining asks one more time.
"My filly... Cozy Glow... never said goodbye...what are they going to do to her?!"
"Your daughter is still in Canterlot somewhere?"
"Don't... know... need to... get back... to her!"
"I promise, I'll make sure you'll get back to her. In the morning, we'll medivac you back to the main road and then somepony will get you to..."
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Shining stops talking when he realizes his words are not being heard by the pegasus, who has broken down in open weeping. The unicorn can only look down in somber horror as the pegasus cries himself back to sleep, realizing that this broken former Agent of Chaos was also a father that had made a terrible mistake, or more accurately a series of terrible mistakes, in raising his filly, doubtless the result of being blinded by the extremes of his former beliefs. Mistakes that much later would come back to haunt not just Shining Armor, but his younger sister and her friends as well...