POV: Markus
Darkness. A dreadful, yet calming Darkness. I lay there with my eyes closed, my head resting on a soft cushion and my mind enveloped by a feeling of complete and utter… déjà vu. I let myself drift into the memories of what happened last. The ambush in the forest, the battle and, finally, the slash across my face. Just thinking of it made the pain reappear. Though not nearly as strong as it was back then, it was still strong enough to be quite an annoyance.
I slowly opened my eyes and looked up into a white ceiling, which immediately told me, where I was. It wasn’t the first time for me, to be hospitalized. In all actuality, I was almost a regular at our base’s medical ward back home. Not because I am overly clumsy or anything like that, no, but there always seemed to be that one stray bullet that managed to get flung into my direction, just when we were about to wrap everything up.
Still, even though the hospital had basically become my second home, I could never feel quite comfortable in one. It’s not that the staff was rude or the beds were uncomfortable or anything, but it always made me feel like I had failed in a sense. That I was unable to do my job properly and as a result, I got hurt. I know it sounds quite pathetic. It does, even to me.
Nevertheless, this once, I was actually glad to have awoken in a hospital, as for once, it meant that I did not fail. That those I wanted to protect managed to get out of there and even had enough strength left to pull me along. Still, if I want to protect them further, it probably would be a good idea to practice using my magic in combat.
Suddenly, I noticed something on the inner rim of my vision. I strained my eyes inward to allow me to look at my nose, where I saw that there was a long, white plaster stuck on it and running down towards my left cheek. Nothing out of the ordinary, considering what had happened, but still, it reminded me that I should probably check the rest of my body for further injuries, just in case. My eyes wandered down towards my body, where I almost gawked in surprise at what I saw.
There, beside my body, lay Rainbow and Twilight, their heads facing downwards and rested upon their legs. For a moment, every process in my body was halted. Not a single thought went through my mind, as I watched both of their sleeping forms. The slow rising and falling of their chests, the occasional twitch in their wings and the sound of their breaths leaving their muzzles. Then, I realized that in order to be here like this right now, they probably have been by my side this whole time. A gesture, which had me feel absolutely flattered.
Still, I couldn’t let them be there like this forever. I wanted to say something, but I didn’t know what. I didn’t even know, if I should say anything. Maybe I should just let them sleep? In the end, I went for the most sensual thing to say:
“Mighty fine day, isn’t it?”
Both of them immediately shot up and looked at me with wide eyes. It was then that I saw that both of them must have been crying for a while, seeing as their eyes were reddened and their cheeks were stained with tears, with new ones already collecting over their lower eyelids.
“What? You look like you’ve just seen a gh—huff!”
Suddenly, both of them jolted forward, wrapping their legs around my neck and pressing their faces into my chest. My shirt started to grow wet, as I heard them sobbing, then outright crying, completely drenching my shirt in their tears.
I didn’t mind all too much, seeing as its predecessors had seen far worse. What I did mind, though, was that this whole situation came utterly unexpected. In vain I tried to find something about this whole situation to play it down, some last strand of professionality I could cling to, but there was none. As a result, for the first time in a long while, my emotions came in unchecked. All those things I had hidden in the back of my head came back in full, wrapping me into a blanket of happiness, embarrassment, arousal and love all at the same time.
I felt a wave of heat hit me, as half of my blood filled my head and a quick glance down at my blanket immediately told me where the other half went. Still, somehow I managed to calm down a bit, freeing me from some of the pressure and heat that had overtaken me. Yet, I did not manage to calm down completely, my mind still going completely haywire from the sudden rush of emotions. I could hear my heart thumping heavily, as it was hammering blood through my vessels like a blacksmith would hammer a sword. However, those heavy thumps seemed to have a calming effect on the two mares that were still staining my chest in their tears, as they slowly managed to calm down as well.
“We thought that you might not make it.” Rainbow said between sobs. “We thought that you might not wake up anymore… that you might d-d-d… die!”
“The doctors said that you had apparently lost a whole pony worth of blood, so they didn’t know about your chances.” Twilight added, her voice sounding strained from the amount of crying she had done.
They both then laid their heads on my shoulders, slowly ceasing their sobbing and at the same time, almost automatically, I pulled my arms free from underneath them and put them onto their backs, pulling them closer, which was rather hard considering that I currently had a hole in my right hand and an IV-Cord in my left arm. Regardless, I then put my hands onto their heads and began stroking their manes and occasionally scratching them behind their ears, causing them to momentarily interrupt their sobbing to give soft, pleasured hums.
Then, they both just lay there, seemingly content on staying like this and I would be lying to say that I was opposed to the idea. However, our sweet little calm there was suddenly interrupted by a knock and the door being opened.
“Howdy there, Rainbow ‘n Twi! Ah thought we might join y’all here, in case Markus… wakes… euh…” Applejack said as she entered the room. The moment she laid eyes upon us, she began to trail off, her face slowly taking on a shade of red, which she tried to hide behind her hat. Rainbow and Twilight, meanwhile, had shot up the moment the door opened and were now looking at Applejack, their faces reddened in embarrassment.
“Ah see, y’all are occupied, so ah’ll just come back later, alright?” She said, as she slowly began to retreat behind the door.
Twilight quickly jumped down from the bed and began to frantically gesture with her hooves. “N-No, we weren’t, ehm, you know… AH! Markus is awake!” She quickly changed topics.
Suddenly, I saw a pink blur shoot towards me which stopped just short of my face. Now, there were two large eyes locked onto mine, parted by a pink nose and with a large, pink curl of hair dangling in front of them.
“Ooooooh, Markus is awake!” Pinkie said, as she pulled me into a staring contest.
Meanwhile, Rarity also stepped forth behind Applejack and into the room. “My, it is truly delightful to know that you are well, Markus.” She said, in her classic, ladylike tone.
“Yes, uhm, it’s good to know that you are okay.” Fluttershy whispered, as she as well entered the room.
Meanwhile, Pinkie and I were still staring each other down, though Pinkie’s eyes were slowly growing red. My eyes, meanwhile, were still completely fine thanks to three years in the Luftwaffe and one year behind a desk having steeled them. Still, she kept going, her eyes slowly beginning to fill with tears, until finally, a few seconds later, she couldn’t take it anymore.
She jerked away, blinking frantically and rubbing her eyes. “Wow, you are better at staring than Fluttershy! You two definitely need to compete next!” She said excitedly.
“Well, maybe another time, but right now, I doubt that either of us is in the mood.” I answered.
Pinkie ‘aw’-ed at this, but nonetheless jumped down from the bed. With my vision now free of any obstructions, I noticed that Applejack still hadn’t moved from the door and still hid behind her hat.
“Applejack? What are you still doing back there?” I asked with a hint of humor placed in my voice.
Applejack jerked slightly at this and put her hat back on. She then laughed humorlessly and walked over to my right side, where she started staring at my hand with a guilty expression.
“Ah, you know, ah just… Ah wanted t’say ahm mighty sorry… for that.” She said, as she pointed a hoof at my hand. “Ah mean, if ah had listened to you and not moved, that might have never happ’nd.”
In response, I gave her an incredulous look. “Applejack, how often do I have to repeat myself? I am a soldier, it is my duty to keep others safe and I took this duty willingly and in full awareness of its risks. Besides, even if you hadn’t moved, that arrow was already nocked and aimed at someone else. Your movement simply just made you the target, so in the end, I would have had an arrow sticking through my hand either way.”
For a moment, no one said anything, the silence only broken by applejack shuffling around, until finally she managed to get a few more words out.
“Ah… guess so. Still… thank y’all for saving me, Markus.”
I leaned my head over to one side and gave a gentle smile. “No problem, Applejack. It wasn’t your mistake after all.”
“Yes, but speaking of mistakes:” Rarity then chimed in. “Markus, you seem to have forgotten to give me measurements for your request. I wanted to ask you yesterday already, but Rainbow wouldn’t let me.” She shot a quick glare over to Rainbow, who, in response, could only smile sheepishly and give a humorless laugh.
Meanwhile, I had noticed another problem. “Wait, yesterday? What time is it exactly?”
I was shocked to hear the response being that it was already Sunday morning and the next train to Canterlot would leave in about an hour. I quickly jumped up from the hospital bed and got into my shoes, slightly wobbling away, as I felt a bit dizzy after getting up too fast. Just as I reached the door, however, I felt a tug on my left arm and as I looked at what it was, I noticed that I was still connected to the IV.
“Wait, where are you going?” Twilight asked.
“Back to Canterlot, I need to do some things before the next week starts.” Came my quick reply.
“What?! But we haven’t had a ‘Markus is alive!’-Party yet!” Pinkie exclaimed.
“Yeah, and you’ve barely spent a day here, of which you were asleep most of the time!” Rainbow joined in.
“Yes, I know, but I really need to speak to Celestia and Luna before the next week starts and I can only do that if I take the next train that leaves toward Canterlot. I promise that I will spend time with you next week, but I really need to go now.”
In the end, Rainbow and Twilight both argued that I was still injured and lacking blood and thus potentially could collapse, but Nurse Redheart quickly debunked their claim after a short examination and removed the IV. I could imagine that they wanted to make this claim in order to get me to take them to Canterlot with me, but that would be pretty preposterous, wouldn’t it?
In any case, I quickly made my way to the Library, got my stuff and then barely made it to the train. Six hours later, I arrived in Canterlot and at the Palace. Instead of going to my chamber, I went straight to the Throne Room, where Celestia was still holding day court.
The guards were looking at me with their usual, almost unreadable expression, but I could very well see that they were curious as to what happened to me. Not all-too surprising, considering that I had a big white plaster stuck along my face and my right hand was wrapped in Bandages.
“I would like to see the Princess. Is she currently available?” I asked, as I waited before the portal.
“No, sir, you may talk to her. We will quickly announce your presence.” A guard answered.
He quickly opened the portal just enough to stick his head through the gap. “Your Majesty, Captain Markus Becker wishes to talk to you.”
“Oh, Markus wants to talk to me? Very well, he may come in.” Came the reply from Celestia.
The Guard bowed and fully opened the portal for me to go through. Inside, I spotted Celestia sitting upon her throne and wrestling herself through a pile of documents that was placed beside her.
“Good afternoon, Markus. What do you want to talk to—OH DEAR FAUST, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!” She exclaimed, as she glanced up from the Document she was currently holding and laid eyes upon my bandages.
I held up my right arm to showcase the bandaged wound, while giving a devious smile.
“Well, you see, I had a little run-in with an old friend of ours. Tell me, did you know that Sugarcoat is on free hooves again?”
While Sugarcoat had already answered that question, I wanted to make sure. After all she is a criminal, whose statements should be taken with caution.
Celestia averted her eyes, looking at the ground to her side, like she has been caught stealing cookies from the jar.
“Sadly, I have to admit that I indeed knew that. I am sorry for not having told you this earlier, but Sugarcoat managed to escape her confinement a few days ago and we have yet been unable to find her.” She then finally said, as she looked back at me.
I breathed a short sigh of relief, as I heard that Celestia had indeed not set her free. Still, it remained a fact that she was back out there, away from our control, so I will have to deal with that one later on.
“But be at ease, I have already commanded my guards to search for her so she will hopefully be found soon.”
Coming back from my thoughts, I smiled back at her. “I have no doubts about this, your highness. Though, to speed up the process, you might want to have them look in the Everfree forest.”
“The Everfree? Why do you think she’s hiding there?”
As she asked this, I didn’t answer, but instead ran a finger along the plaster in my face. Celestia seemed to understand the gesture, as she formed an ‘o’ with her lips and slowly nodded.
“In any case, I thank you for the audience, your highness. That is all I wanted to know.”
I gave a bow, which Celestia returned, and then headed out through the portal, then up towards Luna’s chambers. It probably isn’t hard to imagine that she showed a similar reaction to Celestia.
“OH SWEET SISTER, MARKUS, ARE YOU OKAY?!”
But after a few seconds of calming her down, I managed to bring up the topic, which I wanted to talk to her about.
“So, about the thing I had asked you: Did you manage to arrange something?”
Luna’s earlier expression of shock morphed into a smug grin. “Who do you think I am? Of course I ‘managed to arrange something’. There is an old factory just outside of Canterlot, which you can use. Also, I have arranged for you to be provided all the materials you have requested.”
Hearing this, my face moved to copy Luna’s grin. Those were truly magnificent news.
The week went by rather smoothly, even though I found myself with yet another problem. Luna had provided me with a factory and enough materials to produce the ammo needed for the weapons I am going to give to my company. The problem with that is that a factory needs at least someone to run it, but I didn’t want to include any more ponies than necessary, in order to keep it secret. Sadly, I lack the knowledge to fully automate the process and having all the ponies sealed away within the factory is something Celestia would never allow me to do.
… In fact, I doubt that anyone of them would allow me to do that.
Nevertheless, the weekend came and just as I had promised, I used my entire Saturday to spend some quality time with Rainbow and Twilight, leaving the Sunday for me to do some stuff. What exactly, though, I had no idea myself, so I went to do what I had done back before the whole Luna-incident and went for a walk around Ponyville, thinking about how to solve this little problem of mine.
I went towards Sweet Apple Acres, hoping in the back of my mind that Applejack would have some idea, but it turned out that I didn’t need her. Just before I was about to knock on the door, I heard an elderly mare call out behind me.
“Good morning, Markus! Mighty fine day, aint it?”
I turned around and saw Granny Smith walk towards me with a bottle of some translucent liquid on her back.
“Good morning, Granny smith. Say, what do you have there?”
She tapped at the bottle with one hoof. “You mean this here thing? That’s some of this miracle tonic, them brothers are sellin’.”
I immediately knew what she meant, even though I seem to recall that the beverage was more greenish in color, but it could be faulty memory. After all, it has been a while since I watched the show.
Setting that aside, I asked her if I could have a look at it. I took the bottle up to my eyes and started to analyze the liquid. I gave it a few gentle shakes, took a test of smell and a test of taste, until finally I could determine for certain:
“Truly, Granny Smith, they have sold you one of the most miraculous liquids in the known world. It has brought forth all life that we know and still is the main component of many processes in every living organism. Its properties make it influence the weather and even the climate as a whole! Truly a miraculous fluid, going by the absolutely melodic name of… water.”
Granny Smith’s smile fell quickly and she was now looking at the bottle in my hand, as if she had just seen a ghost.
“B-But, I don’t understand. They even had somepony test it before our eyes!”
“The oldest trick in the book. They pretended to pick a random person, but in reality, they already had someone, whom they are paying to pretend to be a random person, waiting for their cue.”
Suddenly, Granny smith began to fume. “Ah them bucking liars! Ahma gonna give them a taste of them hooves of me!”
She wanted to ‘storm’ off, but I held her back. “Wait a moment, Granny smith. You can’t just go there and slap them silly! You will only get yourself in trouble with this.”
She turned around and looked at me with fury in her eyes. “So ya sayin’ that ah should just let ‘em go?!”
I quickly shook my head. “No. Maybe you can’t go after them…” I tapped on my sword, which I had elected to always carry around by now. “… but I sure can.”
Also, the solution to your little problem here could also be the one for my major problem…
I had Granny Smith lead me to the tent, where I heard Applejack already shouting about. I followed her voice and found her and Flim and Flam behind the tent, having a shouting match. I quickly stepped in, in order to avoid Applejack punching them before I could.
“Flim and Flam, in the name of the crown, you are under arrest.”
The shouting match stopped and Applejack seemed more than happy to see me, while Flim and Flam sure didn’t.
“Ah yes? And who says that?” Flim asked, before Flam quickly pointed him to the sword on my side, which was, after all, my symbol of authority.
Both of them broke into a sweat and Flam stepped forth to defend his brother. “What my brother wanted to say is that we don’t know why you are here, officer. We are just running a simple business of ours, completely legal and in harmony with the law.”
I cocked an eyebrow at this. “Oh really? Let’s see here for a second. As far as I can remember, you are wanted for: Tax fraud, advertising and selling of a fake product, illegal production of taxed goods, with stolen resources no less, and lastly endangerment of the health of multiple ponies. That should amount to a looooong prison sentence.”
Both of them tensed up as they heard this. “P-Prison? Oh, no that’s not… I mean, there surely is some other way we can go about this, can we?” Flim tried to negotiate.
I pretended to think for a moment, before I spoke again. “Hmmm, now that you say it… I’ve heard that you two have a talent for automation, don’t you?”
They looked at each other for a moment, before they frantically nodded. “Yes, yes! We have built quite a few machines, which make everyday life much easier, like—“
“Splendid!” I interrupted Flam, “In that case, you will pay back your debt with the crown by working it off.”
Their enthusiastic faces from earlier vanished instantly, replaced by a pale look of shock. “What? Do you mean force labor?! But I thought that it was outlawed long ago!”
I simply shook my head slowly. “Ts ts, forced labor is such a strong word. I prefer: ‘Community Service’.”
Without another word and with the help of Applejack, I brought them to the local guard station, from there they will be transported to the factory, later on, in order to start their forc—ehm, their community service. Now, with the last major problem gone, all that is left to do is to equip and train my company and finally enter service.