The Grey: Beginnings

by themouthofmush

Flashbacks and Grey

Drip drop drip drop drip drop…
The sounds of the sprinkling rain hitting and running off of my armor felt as a deafening bolt of thunder and that sound only increased as the sprinkling rain turned into a shear downpour.
Although I was bleeding, badly beaten up and injured, and barely holding onto what little bit of life I had left, I paid no attention to the pain and stood there, admiring the rain.
THWACK
One second I’m standing looking at the rain, the next I’m on the floor with half of my face buried in the mud.
I stayed as still as a statue, looking as if I didn’t know what was happening, even though I did.
The rhythm of the raindrops, although rather fast and sporadic, was calming to me, as if they were a lullaby.
“He isn’t responding Sir!” came a voice from somewhere nearby.
The sounds of footsteps trudging heavily through the slushiness of the mud along with the slight clangs of armor could be heard.
“It’s a shame really,” a voice I knew so well said with no emotion behind it. “I was looking forward to seeing him beg.”
“That ain’t gonna happen!” I snarled with as much force as I could muster behind it.
“Oh ho ho,” the voice said with mock astonishment. “Looks like the puppy is trying to be a big dog.”
“Even a puppy can beat a pussy as big as you!”
“ENOUGH!”
“Oh, what’s wrong?” I said with a smirk on my face. “Too afraid to show how much of a pussy yo-“
THWACK!
I was soaring backwards through the air, both sure and unsure of what sent me flying. All that I did know was that there was enough force behind it to make a rampaging, pissed off bull look like a kitten pouncing on a stuffed mouse.
As I landed on the softened ground, hard, my body skidded along the mud and grass until it eventually hit a hard surface, adding even more injuries to my list.
Despite everything that had just transcribed, the rain didn’t let up. The drops felt good against my skin, giving the illusion of the rain licking my wounds. The pitter-patter of its lullaby didn’t let up.
The sounds of multiple sets of armor moving became deafening. I was easily surrounded but I paid it no mind.
“I don’t see why you persisting on this,” the voice said with mock sincerity. “If you just simply beg, all of this would be over.”
“Like…I said…before,” I replied as confidently as I could, “’that ain’t gonna happen.’”
“I didn’t want to do this, but you leave me no choice,” the voice said, barely being able to control its glee. “Bring her.”
Her? Her who?
The sounds of footsteps shuffling and armor clinging and clanging were almost instantaneous.
What’s going on?
I tried to move my body, but nothing seemed to be willing to move, no matter how much I wanted.
Sighing inwardly, making sure not to show any form of weakness to this “soldiers,” I then tried to move my head to get a better look at what was going on. I tried more than I would nearly need to just to lift my head off of the surface a few inches before it fell back to where it was.
However, the movement of me lifting my head and it then falling back down was enough to allow my body to slowly slide against the slickness of the surface.
After a few moments, my face was half buried in the mud again.
Well, at least now I can actually see what’s in front of me.
Upon looking right in front of me, I soon found the source of my current predicament.
I was indeed surrounded. My old “comrades” formed a giant circle of armored statues, each looking ready to react at a moment’s notice.
But that wasn’t what got my attention; what got me to focus was inside of the circle in front of me a ways away.
A tall figure, completely covered from head to toe in armor – armor that was said to rival the midnight sky yet shine as brilliantly as a freshly cut diamond. A large broadsword was mounted onto his back in a way that allowed it to be sheathed and unsheathed fairly easily with his magic.
The most prominent feature had to be the emblem, his mark of power, leadership, and fear, right in the middle of his chest piece: the bare full moon with a crimson crescent overlapping it. The symbol of the Nightmare Moon.
“Hello your royal monster.”
“That’s Prince to you, you sad excuse of a soldier!”
“At least I’m not the one who’s using an old legend to do my work for me!”
“My my. Such a temper you have there. Why don’t you be a good boy…AND PLAY DEAD!”
My already beat up and swollen body was turned to ground beef as the Prince mercilessly kicked me. By the time he stopped to regain his composure, I counted at least two cracked ribs, a broken fore and hind leg, quite possibly a cracked skull, and a severely cracked horn to add onto the list.
I could taste my own blood as I looked up at him.
“Guess I’m not what you expected me to be,” I said as I spat blood onto his boot. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
“Why you little…” the Prince started before looking off to the side, giving off a wicked smile. “Looks like the guest of honor is finally here,” he said with a sickening sense of pleasure.
Before I even had a chance to say anything, a figure was thrown right in between the Prince and me. I didn’t recognize the pony in front of me at first, but my stomach dropped when I finally did.
The pre-adolescent body she kept decently well was now made up of bruises, cuts, and swollen parts. The rags she once called clothes were all tore up. Her dirty blond hair was matted with deep crimson.
Her current was bad, completely bad, but one thing stood out amongst the rest. The one thing that had lead me to save her and her family from the forces of this regiment, her blue eyes that seemed to be always full with hope and courage, were now dull blue-grey husks of their former selves.
“L…Lilly…” was all I could muster up while looking at her.
“So, you do know her,” the Prince said as he stuck the sole of his boot onto her cheek. “I had my suspe-“
“Let her go! She’s innocent!” I yelled as loud as my injured lungs would let me.
“Innocent you say?” he said with no emotion. He smashed onto her cheek. “She is not innocent! She is a part of the enemy!”
“No she isn’t,” I snarled while looking at Lilly. “She doesn’t even know where she is! How is she the enemy?!”
“Simple,” the Prince said as he unsheathed his broadsword. “She isn’t one of us.”
“A broken, near death pre-adolescent girl is our enemy?!”
My outburst caused some of the soldiers to get disgruntled.
Good. They’re starting to see the truth.
“Look at what he –“
“ENOUGH!”
As if the universe was waiting on a cue, bolts of thunder boomed with the Prince’s outcry, completely stopping any notions of discontent within the “men”.
The Prince smirked at what just transpired and looked upon his subordinates. “Don’t you see it? Even now, even as he clings onto what little life he has left, the lies of this heretic, this little girl, is still corrupting him, turning him against his comrades, his kingdom, HIS PEOPLE!”
The thundering uproar and the banging of weaponry on armor could be heard all around me.
“Don’t listen to him! Don’t you see t-“
“NO!” the Prince said as he dropped his sword mere centimeters from Lilly’s face. “Don’t you see that I’m doing what’s best?! She corrupted your mind! She made you betray your people!”
“SHE DID NO SUCH THING!” I howled at the top of my lungs.
Gathering what little strength remained, I slowly lifted myself off of the ground, causing those around me to tense up.
“She showed…me something…that I knew…that we all know…for quite some time…TO BE COMPLETELY TRUE!”
“Oh,” the Prince said as he leaned on his sword’s hilt. “What might that be?”
“That this whole campaign…this whole war…every battle won and every life taken…was all for your blood-lust!”
“That’s enough out of -“
“NO!”
Thunder roared and flashed as the downpour intensified.
“I’ve held my tongue for far too long! Now, I WILL TALK AND YOU SHALL LISTEN!”
Another deafening boom accompanied by a flash of bright light.
“This war and all of its pointless fighting might have started for the actual reasons we were told, but that isn’t true anymore. We’re fighting just so you can keep your power and influence, while also letting you unleash your inner sadist.”
The Prince stayed quiet for a while, causing some unrest within his subordinates.
That was before he let out a bone-chilling laugh.
I glared at him. “What’s so funny?” I said with as much venom as possible.
“It seems that I was wrong about something. You aren’t a sad excuse of a soldier. I’m not sure if you ever were a soldier to begin with if you were corrupted as easily as you did. YOU ARE A WORM! JUST LIKE HER! AND WORMS DON’T DESERVE TO LIVE IN MY WORLD!”
The Prince removed himself from his sword and swung it towards Lilly.
It’s not that far. I can stop him!
The distance between me and the Prince wasn’t all that far, but it seemed to be expanding exponentially rapidly with no sign of it stopping.
Not knowing what else to do, I lunged forward as hard as I could, hoping it would somehow shorten the increasing distance somehow.
In a fraction of a second, I was within range of the sword. All I had to do was reach out and grab it.
It was then that I noticed I was too late. The blade had penetrated her neck deep enough to cut her windpipe and severe her jugular, causing her to gargle her own blood, but not deep enough to kill her quickly.
Ignoring the sword completely, I put pressure onto her cut in hopes of stopping the bleeding.
The bleeding slowed down a bit, but it was then that I realized that I was essentially strangling her.
What do I do? If I keep adding pressure, I’ll strangle her to death. If I stop, she chokes on her own blood and dies. Either way, she dies.
Hot tears began to fall down my face as I began to silently bawl like a baby.
She doesn’t deserve to die. She’s innocent. She’s innocent, damn it! She shouldn’t die like this!
Something touching my hoof brought me back to reality. A hoof, Lilly’s hoof.
“L-Lilly…”
She couldn’t talk, I knew that, but she really didn’t need to. Although her face her half buried in the ground, half of a smile was on her lips. Her left eye, the only eyes that wasn’t covered, looked up at me with a flicker of the life they used to hold. It held comfort, reassurance, and forgiveness, telling me what she wasn’t able to.
She was dying, and she wanted to thank me for all that I’ve done.
A smile sneaked its way onto my lips, but disappeared as the last bit of life left her eye.
She died and I wasn’t able to stop it.
Looking down, refusing to actually accept what happened, I realized what I was sitting in. The rain had created a fairly big puddle of water, causing the ground inside of it to turn into a pool of mud. The area immediately surrounding me was stained with the dark crimson of Lilly’s blood, causing the dark brown of the pool to slowly turn into a dark burgundy as it slowly moved towards to water’s edges.
I’m being soaked in her blood…
I kept looking down at the liquid mixture, unsure why I couldn’t seem to look away, and noticed something odd. The dark burgundy was working its way up my body, turning into dark crimson and gaining warmth along its way.
In a blink of an eye, it went from being right at the middle of my thigh to the middle of my gut. Another blink and it was barely past my chest. One last blink and it covered me completely.
The heat being given off wasn’t enough to cause me any kind of burns, but it gave off the unpleasant distinction of having bad sunburn.
The slight pain of something piercing my neck brought me out of my stupor.
Looking down, I saw the Prince’s broadsword in place right next to my neck, not penetrating it but causing a small big of discomfort. It dug into me more, just a fraction of an inch, releasing a small trickle of warm crimson.
“It’s fitting that a worm dies in the mud,” the Prince said with a twisted grin. “It makes it easier for their predators to take –“
In a blink of an eye, I grabbed hold of his sword, twisted it, and took possession of it, cutting myself in the process.
“Guards!” the Prince said, fear evident in his voice and eyes. “Take him down!”
Most of the guards were caught off-guards with what just happened, but the archers heeded their leader’s orders and fired at me.
Arrows hit me all over, but none of them were particularly fatal, though I decided to act as if they were deadly.
I got down on my front knees, hunched over and breathing heavily and weakly, letting the sword “fall” to the ground right next to me.
The Prince let out a victorious cackle as he moved towards his sword. “Looks like this is the end.”
He knelt down a little besides me, thinking I had no strength left. He was wrong.
I quickly pulled out one of the imbedded arrows and stabbed him in his foreleg. While he was screaming in pain and the rest were in shock yet again, I grabbed the broadsword with what magic I had left and slashed the air with it with the intent of cutting the Prince anywhere. I was able to cause a serious gash on the left side of his face, cutting him from his chin to over his left eye.
I went for another swipe, but the sword was deflected by the Prince’s vambrace, causing both of them to recoil.
As the sword was sent backwards, the Prince lunged forward to retrieve it.
I moved it back, my magic on the point of it disappearing, putting it out of arms reach, but the Prince kept moving forward and delivered a deadly blow to my gut. I hunched forward, right into the blade of a dagger, it cutting me well enough for more crimson to trickle freely.
I clenched my neck, hoping to somehow slow down my blood from leaving me, but it did fairly little.
The world around me started to spin as I felt my head get lighter, my depth perception went from great to hardly there due to the world being covered in a rapidly approaching fog, and I was having trouble breathing.
“You put up a valiant effort,” the voice of the Prince said, “for a worm.”
The sound of a sword being sheathed could be heard, but I had trouble locating it.
“I’ll…make…you…pay,” I said, gurgling the words in between me frantically gasping for air.
“How’s a dying worm like you going to make me pay?” the Prince boasted with pride.
The movement of armor came from nearby.
I turned, trying to find and block it, but a second later I was sent backwards, landing abruptly on the ground with my face facing the clouds.
I could hear the muffles of sounds, but it was getting harder and harder to understand them every passing second.
My vision was long sense gone, everything being mashed together into nothing more than a big blob.
It was getting harder and harder to focus and remain awake, but the onset of total body numbness and a bone-chilling freezing cold made it all too easy for me to shut my eyes.
The faint resemblance of noise could be heard around me.
Blink.
The noise from before was far away and barely audible.
Blink.
The only noise that could be heard was the pitter-patter of the rain as it kept up its lullaby.
Someone well find me soon. I’m sure of it.
I let out a heavy cough and a dry wheeze.
Maybe I should rest for a bit…save up my strength…for when…help…arrives…
I slowly closed my eyes. Just for a little bit, I told myself.
My body was as stiff as a board yet it didn’t hurt.
The last bit of warmth was leaving my body, but it didn’t matter.
As I dove into the darkness, I could still feel the pitter-patter of the rain on me, causing me to smile.
It’s still trying to calm me down…

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

I woke up laying on a hard surface with a small pool around my head.
What happened? Where am I?
I slowly pushed myself up, the stiffness in my joints making it harder than it should.
I looked at my surroundings: a single bed with its covers in disarray, a small, beat up couch, two small tables of varying height and length, a phone connected to the wall, a small fridge, and a newish microwave.
I’m in my apartment? But wasn’t I just in the middle of a field?
I scratched my head, trying to figure out what was going on.
I either lost my balance somehow or my knees gave way, since I fell and landed flat on my face.
I can’t seem to get a break today.
I sighed.
The taste of something pretty salty danced with my tongue for a fraction of a second before I closed my mouth.
What the…salt water?
I lifted my head up, propping my chin against the floor, and looked around, seeing that I was on the edge of the puddle I woke up in.
Okay, where did this come from?
As I took a breath, something foul scurried its way through my nose, causing my face to scrunch up.
And what’s that smell…Wait a second. Salty water, foul smell, I woke up in it. It’s got to be…
Sweat. I was laying on the edge of a puddle of sweat. The same puddle that I woke up in.
I woke up in a puddle of sweat and one of the first things I do is question why I’m not in a field…
I let out a sigh as I made my way to the bathroom.
It was a pretty vivid nightmare. It actually felt like I was being injured and cut.
I turned the bathroom sink’s faucet and dunked my head in it.
After being submerged for a few seconds, I drained and turned off the water and dried myself off.
Though, knowing the overall ‘battle torn’ condition of my well-being, I wouldn’t doubt that I was actually in pain somehow. Guess I’m lucky that my neighbor is a doctor. I’d be worse for wear if it wasn’t for her.
I went to the kitchen and heated up some water for my herbal remedy, Dragon’s Breath.
While the water heated up, I added the herbs needed in the exact time and amount required.
Once the last bit of the herbs was put in, I did the final step – I added more water, closed the kettle, and torched the buck out of it for one straight minute.
I braved the molten touch long enough to server myself a drink.
I looked down at my mug and gulped.
This is going to seriously burn…like always.
Swallowing as much as I could, which was always all of it, in one go, I felt the molten lava of the brew as it went down to my gullet.
Once the momentary feeling of being cooked from the inside-out was over, I felt the brew do its purpose – the muscles in my esophagus felt like they were melting away yet somehow getting as stiff as a board at the same time, causing a mild pain accompanied by a soothing relaxant.
I burped and a small violet flame escaped my lips, causing me to sigh.
Still not the color I need. How much longer will it take before it’s healed?
I touched my neck and felt the rough yet tender skin that was the scar.
How much longer will it be before I’m able to hear my voice again?
I put away the kettle and mug and looked to my only window to see the early afternoon skyline of the city.
Today’s going to be an odd day, I can just feel it.
A sigh escaped my lips.
After a few seconds of enjoying the ‘view’, a small smirk made its way to the edge of my mouth.
Oh well. Might as well make the most of it.