Greatsword woke up gasping desperatly for air, he still had no idea what had happened after he blacked out. All he knew was that now he felt cold, colder than what this time of year was supposed to be. He looked around, he saw nothing but a small room, one that he had never been in, but he somehow recognized. Once he steadied himself on his hooves he heard a faint crying from the opposite side of the door to the far side of the room. The crying was soft, more like a whimper instead. Greatsword walked closer to the door, the crying continued. With an unsteady hoof he opened the door, once he did so his jaw dropped in shock. The origin of the crying was none other than the shadowy mare.
“Y-you…” Greatsword said his hoof still over his mouth, “My Celestia… I-it’s you…”
“Y-you, you never loved me…” the she said between her sobbing.
Greatsword tried to embrace her, but the mare stopped him with her hoof. “I still love you, I have rarely had a night in nearly five years where I have not dreamt about you.” he said a tear falling from his eye, “After all we went through, how could I not love you?”
“Then what is my name?” she asked, “if your love for me is so strong, you MUST remember my name.”
“I-I…” Greatsword was speechless. In all his visions of her, her name was never spoken. “I don’t know…” he answered lowering his head.
“Then you NEVER loved me,” the mare replied, she looked to Greatsword making him flinch in shock. She had been crying tears of blood. “You just used me, whenever you wanted to use me. I was nothing more than a toy to you!”
“No…” Greatsword said shaking his head. “That’s NOT true… I would NEVER use you, especially like that.”
“No…” the mare said rising, making Greatsword to be backed into a wall that he swore wasn’t there earlier, “you NEVER loved me and you NEVER will…” her voice turned from her normal soft tone to a dark monstrous one, “and you will NEVER remember her…”
“NO!” Greatsword shot upright in his bed, breathing heavily and drenched in sweat he looked around again, he saw nothing but white. He looked down on himself he was in a slightly bloodied patient’s gown. “Thank Celestia…” he said to himself, “I’m in an infirmary…” he looked around for any evidence of a location, but to no avail, “but where?”
“You’re in Canterlot…” a surprised nurse pony said as she walked into his room, “Thank Celestia you’re awake, we thought that you were not going to pull through, I’ll get that mare that wanted to be informed if you woke up.”
A few minutes after the nurse had left him, Patches pushed her way through the small room’s door. She had one of her forearms in a cast, her body was covered in bruises and stitches, but she still had the power to rush to Greatsword’s bedside.
“How are you?” Patches said weakly, she looked like she had not slept in days.
“Not sure,” Greatsword responded, “but I know my back is ok, how are you holding up?”
“Just a broken foreleg and some superficial injuries,” Patches said with her eyes becoming misty, “but I’ll live…”
“How are the others that got out?” Greatsword asked “How are my brothers?”
“Lug Nut is fine now, but he nearly died using that much magic to keep the opening up, Long Shot lost an eye, but it wasn’t his aiming one…” Patches paused, “As for you brothers,” she continued, “Battleaxe has a few broken ribs and a few stitches, but he’s up and moving, he’s in Warhammer’s room actually. He took a direct hit from Smog, lost a lot of his right ear and most his mane down the neck, docs said a normal pony would be dead on the scene with the injuries he sustained, be he’s more stubborn than you are.”
“What about Comet?” Greatsword asked, “Is he O.K.?”
Patches quickly covered her mouth with her good hoof as her eyes began to release a small stream of tears. “You don’t remember…” she said between tears, “do you?”
“Patches…” Greatsword said sternly, “What happened to Comet?”
Patches bit her lower lip. Her tears began to fall without restraint as she tried to find the words to make the news softer for the both of them. “He’s… He’s…” she said struggling to find that one word, “He’s dead…”
Patches wrapped her forelegs around Greatsword’s waist. Forcing him to nearly weep from the sudden shot of pain, truthfully if it were anypony else he may have punched them to make them let go, but Patches needed to unleash what she had been holding back. So Greatsword allowed her to squeeze with all her strength for as long as she could. For almost ten minutes the two sat there, Patches releasing every tear she could while Greatsword did his best to comfort her.
“How did he go?” Greatsword asked. The words were almost as painful for him to ask as it was for Patches to answer the question.
“H-he saw that we weren’t going to make it through the exit before it collapsed…” Patches began, “S-so he used all the strength he had left and…and…”
“And what?” Greatsword asked softly.
“He threw both of us through the exit.. the mine collapsed on him… he… he was about five feet away from the exit when they dug him out.” Patches squeezed Greatsword tighter, causing Greatsword to grit his teeth and let a tear fall, not just for the pain, but for the loss of his best friend.
“I-I’m Sorry, Patches,” was all Greatsword could say. “It should have been me…”
“Then he and I would be having this conversation about you…” Patches said still clinging to Greatsword.
“At least he had a family, a lot of friends… and somepony who loved him.” Greatsword said remembering all the times they talked to one another.
“If he would have told anypony, he would have told you…” Patches said looking up to Greatsword, “he proposed on the train ride to Los Pegasus… did he tell you that?”
“No… he never did.” Greatsword said looking down to Patches, rubbing her back with his hoof, trying to provide comfort as best he could.
“We were going to do the whole ‘retire from the military and live quietly’ thing,” Patches explained to Greatsword, “his sister told him that there was a nice place that just went up for sale where she lives, we were going to buy it, live in it, raise a few foals… the whole deal…” she teared up again, “but not anymore…”
“I’m not going to tell you that I know how you feel,” Greatsword said still looking at her, “but I will tell you that I do feel for you…”
The two sat there for some time, in silent reflection of the loved one lost to the both of them. After a short, another pony entered the room. Commander Garrison looked at the two ponies and shook his head. “Patches,” he said, “Go check on Long Shot for me will you? Greatsword and I need to have a talk…”
“Yes sir.” Patches said releasing Greatsword from her embrace, allowing him to breath properly again.
As she stepped out, Commander Garrison closed the door behind her and then turned to Greatsword again. “Did you know that I had a family once, Greatsword?” he asked.
“No sir,” Greatsword said with a bit of shock, “You never told me that.”
“It was a long time ago,” Commander Garrison said looking toward the ground, “I had a wife and son.”
“Why did you tell us that?”
“The past can be far more painful than any physical injury, Greatsword. My wife became pregnant with our second child, but during birth there were complications… she and the baby died together…” a single tear fell from the Commander’s eye. In the five years he knew the Commander, Greatsword never saw him cry. “My son fell very ill soon after, as if he simply lost the will to live… he died only a few months after his mother… that was nearly twenty years ago today.”
“No parent should bury their child, Commander…”
“I know… My service in the Royal Guard was the only thing that kept me alive after my son’s death. Then the old Commander of the Special Forces division stepped down, I volunteered to take his place. Those were some very long days, Greatsword, I’m sure that you could imagine it.”
“I can… and I don’t like what I’m imagining.”
“What I actually went through was probably about twenty percent harder than what you are thinking I went through.” Commander Garrison said as he looked up at Greatsword, “but nearly seven years ago, a sky blue pegasus with a white mane came to me with a letter from his former command…”
“What did the letter say?”
“It said ‘fix him’. He and Flare Flash were trouble makers in their old unit, they sent them to me so I could deal with it,” the Commander smiled a little, “but as I tried to ‘fix’ them I saw a lot of my son in Comet, it was like he had just switched bodies. So, I formed the 1025th, my personal Special Forces unit, Comet and Flare Flash were my first two members.” Commander Garrison’s smile faded, “it was like I was given a second chance to be with my son, but I never really capitalized on that opportunity… Hell, I even knew that he was with Patches from the start, but I said nothing because I wanted him to be happy, like I wanted my son to be happy…”
“I’m sure he would have loved to hear that from you, sir.” Greatsword said trying to comfort the Commander.
“But now he never will…” Commander Garrison said lowering his head again, “losing him is like losing my son all over again…” another tear fell from his eye, “I never told him that I was proud of him…” he looked up to Greatsword again, “If you ever have a son, Greatsword, tell him your proud of him as much as you can…” the Commander took a deep breath, “and don’t forget to tell him that you love him, because you never know when you’ll never see him again…”
“I’ll keep that in mind, sir…” Greatsword replied with a nod.
“You better…” Commander Garrison said in an authoritative tone, “now I’ll go get the other pony that wished to speak with you once you woke up.”
“You mean IF I woke up…”
“I know you well enough, Greatsword,” Commander Garrison said looking back at him as he walked out the door, “and what I said was right, it’s ONCE you woke up.”
Commander Garrison closed the door behind him, leaving Greatsword to reflect on the their conversation. It was a short reflection however, because not ten minutes after Commander Garrison had left another pony entered his room. A unicorn, Greatsword expected his brother, but instead it was the Capitan of the Royal Guard. Shining Armor approached his bedside, looking over the injuries that he had sustained. Greatsword noticed that Shining Armor had a black eye that was in the process of healing, Shining Armor then did something that Greatsword did not expect.
“You gave me this,” Shining Armor said pointing at his eye, “but I thank you for it.”
“And to why do I have the pleasure of a visit from you, Shining Armor?” Greatsword asked him.
“It’s because of you that I’m having this conversation with you right now,” Shining Armor responded, “because if you hadn’t pushed me out of that dragon’s way, I doubt that I would even be breathing at this moment.”
“Well, I guess you’re welcome then.” Greatsword said, with a small smile growing on his face.
“I know that you and I have never seen eye to eye since we met nearly five years ago and there still might be bad blood between us for the rest of our lives. But what you did out there showed me that even if you hate somepony, you can still find something about them that makes them worth saving.” Shining Armor looked back up to Greatsword, “After all the things I have done out of hate to you, what could you possibly see in me that made me ‘worth it’?”
Greatsword looked back at Shining Armor with knowing eyes. “You have a wife that you love, parents, and from what I’ve heard, a little sister that love you, not to mention a foal on the way. If that were to be taken from me, I would be devastated. It does not matter to me how I feel about the pony, I refuse to let any evil take away anypony from the ones they love.”
“What about your brothers? You love them do you not?”
“I do, but I would rather my life be taken than the life of somepony who has a great deal more to live for. I would not wish anything less for them. Though they would grieve my loss, Warhammer has Princess Luna and Battleaxe has his drink and college mares…”
Shining Armor laughed at Greatsword’s final comment, then he looked to the door, “I guess you are right about that, Greatsword,” he looked back to Greatsword, “but tell me, what is it that you live for?”
Greatsword answered without hesitation, “I don’t live for myself. The way I see it, Celestia didn’t put me here to be selfish, she put me here to be selfless, I live for others, to protect those who can’t protect themselves, to stop at nothing to insure that those who are innocent are safe, no matter the cost.”
“Sounds like you had some time to think about that. I can’t think of a more honorable philosophy.” He paused as he found the words that he should have said so long ago, “I’m sorry…” he said quietly, “I’m sorry for everything.”
“You don’t have to be, Shiny…” Greatsword said as he reached out and put his hoof on Shining Armor’s shoulder, “I forgave you a long time ago.”
“Thank you…” Shining Armor said with his eyes growing misty, “again, I thank you for saving my life and I’m sorry for what happened…”
“It’s alright, I will recover… what’s the verdict?” he asked to change the subject, “Is the foal a colt or filly?”
“Oh, right,” Shining Armor said as he gathered himself, “we’re having a colt, something I would not have known if you were not who you are.”
“Congratulations.” Greatsword said to him.
Just as that moment passed, Battleaxe barged in with three nurse ponies and a doctor trying to hold him back. “Bro, you’re finally awake!” he said as he pulled the four struggling ponies with ease to Greatsword’s bedside. “Damn, Smog really messed you up…” Battleaxe said as he examined his brother’s bandages, “You should see Warhammer though, he literally looks like a zombie pony, I hope he doesn’t get any weird cravings soon…”
“Always the chipper one.” Greatsword said as Shining Armor quietly stepped out of the now crowed room. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”
“That’s what we’ve been telling him!” the doctor pony yelled aside the nurse ponies trying in vain to drag Battleaxe away from his brother’s bedside.
“Was never much for following ‘doctor’s orders’,” Battleaxe said looking back at the medical ponies, “but it looks like you are going to have one hell of a scar in front of your eyes bro.” He pointed to a bloodied bandage over Greatsword’s muzzle, “That should help your game, bro, all the mares dig scars and when you tell them how you got it, damn, I kinda of makes me wish that I got one.”
“Get him out of here, please.” Greatsword said covering his face with his hoof.
“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow bro.” Battleaxe said, turning toward the door. “We should be getting debriefed in a few days.” he walked out with the exhausted medical staff to his room.
Greatsword watched them all leave, when he was sure that nopony was there, he allowed a single tear to form his eye. Placing his head in his hooves he let the tears come. His first command cost the lives of all but six and those still alive were in critical condition. If anything came from the mission it was his new found hatred, for dragons. On that bed, stained red with his blood and the lives of the ones he had failed, he swore to himself that he would never let something like that happen again.