//------------------------------//
// Los Pegasus: Day 9 
// Story: Diary of a Soldier 
// by TheCamel 
//------------------------------//

We’re the only ponies left in...

No. We’re the only living creatures left in Los Pegasus. 

Swift and I hid for... I don’t know how long. But once we emerged from our hiding spot, the griffons have all left. All that’s left is countless bodies littering the streets. 

The shopping center, we ran back there to check for survivors. Maybe some other ponies managed to hide or get out. 

No, all that was left. Bodies of our friends, our fellow guards. All dead.

We wanted to bury our fallen, to let them rest peacefully under Luna’s skies for all of eternity, but there are so many. Too many. We can’t bury them all, not even if we were given a thousand years. The corpses of those griffons can rot away for all I care, but we can’t manage this many.

We found Nigh Sparkler’s body. He was backed in a corner, protecting three other wounded ponies. He was always like that; even as colts he would protect the weak. He even took the blame when I forgot to finish our astronomy project in school, allowing his own grade to drop from an ‘A’ to a ‘C’ just so I wouldn’t fail the class. 

Red Canyon. He wasn’t where we remembered him falling, it looked like he managed to pick himself up and kept on fighting. Tough bastard, even during basic he was unstoppable. During the log lift he would carry the entire thing just long enough for the rest of us to catch our breaths while never taking a break himself. Nopony ever wanted to be his sparring partner, I think the record was twelve seconds before he would knock out his partner. 

Max was where we saw him fall. All the injuries he had on his body, it’s an absolute miracle he could still move so fast until... yeah. It was painful, looking at his hoof stretched out reaching for the door, his other hoof still around the pegasus he was trying to save. That’s all he ever did, helping as many ponies as possible with his amazing speed. He was faster than most pegasi.

Swift and I dumped the griffon corpses into the street; they do not deserve to lay alongside our fallen. We can’t bury them all, but we can at least let them rest next to their brothers and sisters in peace. I hope Princess Celestia erects a memorial for them here. If she doesn’t, I don’t think... no, she has to. 

Swift is flying off tomorrow back to Canterlot to warn everypony of what happened here. Almost forty percent of the guards in Equestria are now gone from one battle. Swift said he found an undamaged train we could take back, but it would be faster for him to fly back alone. Besides, I can’t leave if there’s anypony left alive out there. Once I’ve rounded up all the survivors I can, I’ll bring them back to Canterlot with me. But until then, I won’t leave my brothers in arms.