//------------------------------// // Nice to See You Again // Story: Broken Swords and Battle Scars // by moonblossom131 //------------------------------// Chapter 6 I stared at my daughter with my wide magenta eyes. She knew how to save us? But there was no possible way! “Harp, we can’t be saved!” I said hopelessly. “We’ve ruled out everything but rocks, and those weren’t helping us at all!” I jerked my head towards the several dents in the lock to the cell. “Eventually, we just gave up!” I said, sighing. “And we fell asleep. We came up with a new plan.” “Which is?” Harp waited. I didn’t have the heart to tell her. “I’m waiting, Mom!” “You don’t want to know, sweetie,” I sighed. “But I’ll tell you this: we ain’t escaping. We ain’t being rescued. There ain’t no point. So there isn’t a point to life.” Harp stared at me silently for a few moments. And then, understanding dawned in her eyes. The understanding soon grew to sharp fear. “But you can’t leave here!” she whispered. “What will I ever do without you?” “Harp, honey, you got to understand that sometimes this is how ponies work,” I tried hard to explain. “Listen, it may mean that you will be without a mother and a father, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be without us.” “Wait, Soarin’ is leaving too!” Harp cried. “I don’t have anyone anymore!” “You have Spectrum!” I argued. “No, I mean I don’t have someone like you in my life anymore,” Harp whispered. She crashed to the ground, crying like crazy. I tried to reach her a hoof through the cell bars, but she just pushed it away and turned her head. “What’s going on down here?” a strong female voice yelped. “I was sent here to check on my prisoners. But why do I hear crying this early in the morning?” Spitfire’s orange coat glistened in the moonlight and her flame-like mane still held its regal styling. Her face had a look of harshness on it. Harp cried and ran into Spitfire’s shoulder. She cried into it and held onto her biological mother. “What have you done to her?” Spitfire said. Her gaze was ever-slightly softened. “What the hell did you tell her?” “I said-” –breathing a weary sigh- “That I was going to kill myself.” Spitfire’s eyes were now blazing with fury. “Why do you think that a young mare would like to hear that? Especially the mare who looks up to you like her own mother?” “Because she said that she knew how to save Equestria,” I said, my eyes faltering. I looked to the ground. “I told her it was a lost cause. It was all a lost cause. Which is why I’m going to kill myself. Because it’s all worth nothing.” “What about your unborn foal?” Spitfire said suspiciously. “Why would any mother want her unborn child to be taken away and trained for the bucking Equestrian navy? IT’S THE BUCKING EQUESTRIAN NAVY.” “Because there is a point!” Spitfire said. “Fighting against Luna!” “And what is Princess Luna doing that is so wrong?” I whispered. “Have you ever thought that you’re losing because you weren’t supposed to fight?” Spitfire just patted Harp’s back. “And have you ever thought that maybe obeying orders before now was never an option? You don’t know who I am, Rainbow Dash. And you won’t know exactly why we’re losing.” “What,” I said, my eyes screaming bloody murder. “Are we losing because of you? You’re working for Luna? You’re troops don’t have the brainpower to wrap their minds around a simple battle tactic?” “You don’t know me, Rainbow Dash,” Spitfire said with eyes colder than the Arctic North. “And you don’t know why my husband died. You don’t know who. No one does. No one except me. Because I was there. And you weren’t. So DON’T tell me what I am. And don’t tell me what I’m not.” I stayed silent at Spitfire’s words. They hit me harder than a thousand bricks. I was speechless. I couldn’t open my mouth. I could just stare at Spitfire with cold eyes. “Oh,” Spitfire said as she walked away with Harp still crying into her shoulder. “There’s someone here to see you. Again.” What, did they upgrade to POISON darts now? As Spitfire clip-clopped up the stairs, more hoof steps echoed down the staircase. “Rainbow Dash, I need to talk to you!” the harsh, hoarse voice sounded. It was hushed, but severe. “It’s more than important.” “Fine then, talk,” I said, trying to look through the shadows to see who it was. “But first I need to see you?” The pony coughed and hesitated a little, but soon stepped out of the shadows. My eyes widened so much I felt like they would pop out of my skull! The pony before me had a matted pink mane. Her pale yellow skin looked sickly and her bones were showing through it. Her eyes were the same blue they had always been, but they were tired and concerned. Her stomach was bulging a little. Too little that I hardly noticed. Her voice was harsh for many years, but now it was weak and failing. “Did you get hit by a bus or something?” I yelled at the mare. She stared at me with the huge, round, blue eyes. They were bulging out of their sockets because the skin was so tight. “Fluttershy, what happened?” “I need to talk!” she said in that scratchy, sick voice. She flew over to me, but it wasn’t flying. It was more of uncoordinated wing flaps lifting her wobbly body into the air and over to me. “I need to talk to you!” “I’m listening.” “I’m like you, I’m like you,” the sick version of Fluttershy said, her very presence screaming death. “And the war, and the war, it hit me too. What’s happened to us? WHAT’S HAPPENED?” The screaming, hoarse, sick voice pierced my eardrums and scarred them like battle wounds. This mare used to be shy and kind. Then she was harsh and mean. Now she was sick and frail? Hell, what this pony had been through. It was worse than what any of us had experienced throughout this war combined! “What do you mean, ‘you’re like me’?” I said, staring Fluttershy down. “Hoops… I went to see Hoops!” Fluttershy screamed. My eyes widened even more. Hoops was Fluttershy’s husband. They were married just before Flutters was drafted. “But, you two haven’t talked in months, maybe even years!” I protested. “No,” Fluttershy shook her head and coughed violently. “Before we were on top of that mountain… a few months before. I saw Hoops. I saw Hoops.” “Oh,” I said, understanding now. “So wait, you’re like me… like that?” “Two months,” Fluttershy coughed again. “Two months.” “Holy HORSEAPPLES, pony!” I nearly screamed at the sick thing. “Where the buck have you been all that time?” “Lighting fires, lighting fires,” Fluttershy’s legs wobbled underneath her. “And flying north, and flying. Didn’t know until Doctor… didn’t know until the Doctor in Hoofington.” “Oh my stars,” I whispered. I stared at the ground for a few moments. Silently thinking. Maybe she laughed at me. Maybe she used to hate me. But I would still be loyal to her. But her being pregnant changed everything. It made me have even more reason to fight. I suddenly came to realize something. I jerked my head forward, towards Fluttershy. “Then what the buck are you doing here, pony? Are you out of your mind?” “I’m out of life,” Fluttershy said. Her body curled up into a tight ball and she coughed up blood onto the dark cement floor. “Out of… life.” “Then why aren’t you seeing a doctor?” I protested. “Are you out of your bucking mind?” “Not just me, to see you,” Fluttershy said through her violent coughing. “But had to be quick and silent… Con Mane-style for them.” “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Shy,” I stammered. “And what’s with the movie reference?” “Wait a second,” Fluttershy uncurled herself. She was limping now and her whole, unhealthy, sick, skinny body was shaking like a tree in a hurricane. She did the fluttering thing with her wings again and she fell at the beginning of the stairs. She let out a hoarse, scratchy whistle. I rolled my eyes and turned back around into the cell. I was lying with Soarin’, sleeping together like we used to months before now. Little hoof steps. Bigger hoof steps. More coughing. Violent coughing. Deflated balloons. I stood on the edge of my seat, my curiosity demanding my eyes to see further. Then they were there. Six of them. They were a little different from the last time I’d seen them. More tired. More scared. But they were there. I had to smile and cry at the same time. They were there for me. To see me. To be with me. “Twi? Pinkie? AJ? Rare?” I whispered. “Sweetie? Apple Bloom?” “Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said. She was in a similar condition to Fluttershy. Except, of course, she was not pregnant. “It’s good to finally see you.” Pinkie’s eyes lit up at the sight of me. I reached my hoof through the cage to see her. Applejack smiled at me warmly with eyes that looked like they were going to cry. Twilight was just smiling. A tired, sad smile. But a smile nonetheless. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom huddled close to each other. They smiled at me through their bright eyes. “I thought you didn’t want to talk to me,” I whispered, retracting my hoof back into the cage. “Not after what I did to your home.” “What’s friendship without loyalty?” Twilight said, her voice breaking as she started to cry. Her horn glowed and the lock on my cage broke. “Elements of Harmony” was now uncrossed off of the list. I raced out of the cage and dived into a tight hug with my friends. We all hugged each other, crying, smiling, and laughing all at the same time. It felt so good to see them. To hear their voices as they laughed with me. I eventually drew out of my tight hug. I sat down and smiled warmly at my friends. I was crying so hard, yet I was silent. I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see Soarin’ smiling at me. I pulled him into a tight hug as well. And then he kissed me again. My friends smiled as they watched. Even Pinkie had a husband now, but everyone except Flutters (apparently) didn’t know where they were. Now we were all just sitting in a circle on the rustic floor of the dungeons. Soarin’ had his foreleg around my shoulders. He smiled at the rest of the Elements. I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I had to tell them everything. Everything after the fire. “I almost turned you in,” I sniffled. My friends faces fell as their laughter stopped at my words. “So Soarin’ and I could be free.” “But she didn’t,” Soarin’ said, still smiling. I turned my head to him, confusion in my eyes. Soarin’s eyes were troubled, but he smiled at everyone else nonetheless. “She didn’t want to betray you again. And she didn’t want the Cutie Mark Adventurers to be without big sisters. Scootaloo already lost hers.” “Crusaders,” I corrected him with a laugh. “Hey wait a second where is Scoots?” My friend’s faces turned from saddened to nervous. Applejack’s ears flattened and she closed her eyes. Twilight stared at the ground. Pinkie’s eyes shifted from me to the ground, finally staying on the ground. Rarity stared at me sadly. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom stared at me, huddling close, with quavering sad eyes. “Well?” “Ah don’t know how ta say this, but yer sister…” Applejack spoke the truth. “She ain’t with us.” “She DIED!” I exploded, jumping up, my eyes burning with fire-fiery. “No no no!” Twilight said. She stood up too, but in a more calmly fashion. “It’s just… I don’t really know how to explain this…” Twilight at a loss of words? Now I knew it was serious. “What Twi is trying to say, darling,” Rarity spoke up. “Is that your sister… well… she sort of … disappeared.” “She was with us in the forest,” Pinkie pitched in. “And we were just walking, just a few hours after we came to the entrance to the castle. We heard this strange BOOM! And all of the sudden there SHE was! RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!” “Where who was?” I whispered, having a very good idea who “she” was. “Princess Celestia,” Twilight said, putting a hoof on my shoulder. “She has your sister.” “That bucking son of a-” “Hold it, hold it!” Soarin’ said. If this were any more surreal he would have a lightbulb over his head. “I think I know what to do. That is, if you don’t mind taking a risk.” All of the elements smiled. It’s time for another adventure.