//------------------------------// // A Little Late // Story: Innavedr // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// With a chorus of coughing breaths, the two ponies crawled their way from the burning line of trees. Belle slumped on the swaying grass of the adjacent field as Phoenix, hobbling, turned to gaze at the wreckage behind them. There was no remaining pieces of the mana transport to be seen. The forest was being swept over in blue energy and billowing flame. Wooden trunks crackled as they snapped in twain, falling to ashen clumps on the bottom of the burning forest. He took several breaths, his exhausted body riddled with scrapes and bruises. Nevertheless, he shook his shivers loose with courageous poise and reached a hoof down to the mare. "It's over," he said. "We gotta make for cover someplace that isn't burning." Belle lay on the ground, shivering. The mustached stallion gulped and grasped her shoulders to lift her up. "Come on. We gotta go or else scout vessels might see us—" "Nnngh!" She shook him off with a feral shriek. Scrambling on weak limbs, she scooted away from him and grimaced as she spoke. "Why did you do th-that?! Why did you have to do all of that?!" "We were their prisoners! The Ledomaritans do not treat their prisoners with respect!" Phoenix exclaimed. "We are property to them! There's nothing to stop them from taking us apart!" "And that excuses nearly ripping us to shreds with that... th-that ridiculous stunt you just pulled?!" She panted. "What was the whole point, Phoenix?! What are you trying to prove?!" "Look, I saved us, didn't I?!" He barked, gesturing towards the darkening horizon north of them. "What should I have done?! Allow the enforcers to take us all the way to their hold in the mountains and torture us to death?!" She gulped and gazed at him with a quivering lip. "And yet, wh-why did you...?" Phoenix opened his mouth to retort, but nothing came out. His gaze fell to the windswept grass between them. She sat up on her haunches and squinted menacingly at him. "Where was that courage... that tenacity and resolve when we needed it?! Before you let those evil ponies attack your closest comrades?! Before you let them chase down Rainbow Dash?! Before you let them capture me and... a-and..." Her face melted as she covered her muzzle and collapsed into sobbing heaves. "My b-beloved... Nnnnghhh-Uhhhhh! Oh Spark, spare me... oh bl-blessed Spark..." Phoenix bit his lip. He trotted gently over and laid a hoof on her shoulder. "Belle... I..." "Get away from me!" she shrieked, shoving him violently off of her. She stood up on teetering limbs, her frowning face awash with tears. "I don't need your help! I never did! I never asked for it!" She heaved and spat, "Don't you see?! You've ruined everything! Evrerything! And it's... it's f-far too late to bring back anything that is special to me!" She hyperventilated, running two trembling hooves through her disheveled mane. "You c-can't bring back Pilate. You can't bring back the love and j-j-joy of my life! Why didn't you just let the Ledomaritans carry us for our doom?! It would have made everything simpler!" "You know I can't do that!" he shouted into the shadows of the dying day. "Belle, I'm sorry for what I did! They blew Zenith's head off and threatened my family! I was scared and I was stupid and I am sorry—" "If you are sorry..." She glared at him, her lungs roaring through her raspy throat. "If you are truly, truly humble, then you will leave me alone..." 'But Belle—" "Leave!" she howled at him, her voice echoing against the burning trees lining the field. "I don't want your help... I don't want your last second heroics... I don't want to see you ever again!" With quivering lungs, she spun from him and limped off in a southeasterly direction, sobbing the entire time. Phoenix gazed after her. He almost made a move to pursue the mare, but instead he slumped to his haunches, his face long and encumbered by weak lines. Closing his eyes, the bruised Enforcer sat perpetually alone in the field, surrounded by the meager sounds of his own shuddering breaths.