//------------------------------//
// Chapter Eight 
// Story: Prisoner of War 
// by Radiant 
//------------------------------//

        Groaning, I slowly woke, the remnants of my last dream fading away. I must have had several dreams, because I couldn’t remember much about any of them, and what I did remember didn’t seem to mesh together. Something about Princess Luna stood out in particular. The specific details eluded me, but I knew I had questions to ask. 

        There was a faint throbbing in my head, and my body was stiff from going too long without moving, especially my left shoulder. Attempting to move the joint, I found it was immobilized, but that didn’t stop an ache from developing as I did so. Using my free arm, I reached up and rubbed my eyes.

        “I think he’s really awake this time, Sergeant.”

        “Looks that way. Stay here, Private, I’ll get the doctor.”

        “Yes, Sergeant.”

        I heard a door open, and hoofsteps leaving before I opened my eyes. Everything was blurry, and I could only make out shapes. Blinking several times, I rubbed my eyes again. Things were much clearer when I looked around this time, but there was still a faint haze. I was in a hospital room, with the lights dimmed, resting on a bed with my torso inclined. The room’s door was straight ahead of me, and next to the door stood a bat pony. Several blinks later, to clear the last of the haze from my vision, I could tell this bat pony was a mare. I didn’t know if she was the one from that night, since I was assuming she wasn’t the only one they had. 

        “Hey.” My voice was hoarse, and came out barely above a whisper. It didn’t help that my throat was dry as well. God, I sound as good as I feel.

        It didn’t seem to matter, as she heard and responded. “Yes?”

        I coughed, and was rewarded with an ache in my chest. “Can I get some water?”

        “Of course.” 

She left her spot, moving to my right. I watched as she stopped at the sink on the right wall. She picked up the lone glass there, clutching it in her wrist, I guess, since I didn’t know what what part was actually called. After filling the glass, she walked over to the bed, and offered me the drink. Taking the water, I took a slow swallow, letting the cool liquid sooth the dryness of my throat. After my initial drink, I slowly drained the rest of the glass.

“Thanks, Private…”

“Midnight Breeze, and you’re welcome.”

There was a small table next to the bed, and I put the glass on it as Breeze moved back to her place to the right of the door. I pushed the blanket that was over me down far enough to give myself a once-over. Instead of a cast of any kind, my arm was held against my my side with several straps placed down its length, obviously to keep me from moving the shoulder. It was also the arm with all the IVs in it. The only article of clothing I was wearing were my boxers. Guess they don’t have stuff for humans. There was a massive bruise on my chest from Cobalt’s stomp, and another, smaller one visible on my right side. Additionally, my right knuckles were in a similar state from my punching the pony. My head wasn’t wrapped in anything, but since I wasn’t bleeding, that wasn’t surprising to me. After all the time I spent sleeping, I must have been in pretty good shape, despite feeling like shit.

“Um… Can I ask you something, Corporal?”

I looked up to Breeze. She was staring at me, a curious expression on her face.

“Sure.”

Breeze paused for a moment. “I’ve heard you humans are cold-blooded killers, who feel no remorse when you take a life… Is it true?”

Sighing, I considered my answer. “I guess that depends on who you’re talking to. Some guys are like that, some aren’t.”

Private Breeze’s head tilted to the side. “Are you?”

“Do I give you that impression?”

She shook her head.

“Good, because I’m not one of those types. I don’t like killing, but I’ll do it if I have to.”

“Have you killed any of us?”

“Ponies? No.”

“But you would have?”

“If it meant protecting myself, or my friends, yes.” While Breeze was mulling that over, I took the opportunity to ask a question of my own. “I thought you were under orders not to talk to me. Sergeant Clipper was when I first saw him.”

“Those orders were rescinded.” I wonder if that has anything to do with the dream that I can’t really remember.

“Can I ask you another question, Private?”

Breeze simply nodded.

“Do all bat ponies look so awesome, or is it just a guard thing?”

Midnight Breeze reacted about the same way as Sergeant Clipper did the first time I’d talked to him. She stood there, dumbstruck, staring at me. The difference between her reaction and Clipper’s was that she blushed, and I could see it from where I was.

I didn’t get an answer from her, because the door opened a couple seconds later, and Sergeant Clipper—again, I could only assume it was him—walked through, followed by a white-maned, light blue unicorn wearing a stethoscope and lab coat. Clipper took up position opposite Midnight Breeze, turning up the lights as he did, then frowned when he looked at the private.

“Everything okay, Private?”

        Breeze coughed and nodded. “Yes, Sergeant.”

        I was distracted from any more of their conversation as the unicorn approached my bed. “I’m Doctor Gentle Needles. How are you feeling, Corporal Duran?”

        Gentle Needles? Bullshit, there’s no such thing. “Like I got kicked by a horse, twice. Can I go now?”

        Doctor Needles gave me a blank look. “No.”

        “Damn… Can I at least have my arm back?”

        “Perhaps. I’m going to assume you’ve already tried to move your arm. Was there any pain?”

        “Little bit, nothing I can’t ignore.”

        The doctor nodded. “Your chest? Any pain when you breathe?”

        I shook my head. “Only when I coughed.”

        “How about your head?”

        “No.”

        Needles thought for a moment. “Hmm, I suppose we can release your arm. I do need to check it’s movement.”

        The instant I heard the doctor light his horn, I freaked the fuck out. With a scream, I immediately started clawing my way out of the bed. The fact that I could only use one arm slowed me down, but my brain was screaming at me to get away, and I was listening. Moments after I started moving, I felt myself being dragged back into place by the doctor’s magic. That only made me fight harder to get away. Not again!

        “Let go! LEMME GO, MOTHERFUCKER!”

The pull vanished, and I resumed hauling myself away, only to find myself being physically restrained by Sergeant Clipper and Private Beeze.

“Corporal! Calm down!” Clipper’s voice came from behind me as he tried to pull me back, while Breeze held me from the front.

She must have seen the terror I felt, because she spoke up next. “Nopony’s going to hurt you! You need to calm down!”

Her words didn’t register in my desperation. I had to get away, that was all that mattered. As I continued struggling, I saw two more night guards come into the room. They were both unicorns. As soon as I realized that, I started giving everything I had. No, no, no, no, NO!

As they entered, I heard Clipper yell, “No magic!”

One stopped, the other still moved to assist.

“Grab his legs!”

I was almost out of the bed when I felt him trying to follow that order. After receiving a couple ineffectual kicks for his efforts, the guard managed to get both my legs. Simultaneously, Breeze pinned my free arm beneath her wing, effectively ending my attempts to get away. That didn’t stop me from squirming around as much as I could.

“Corporal! Corporal, look at me!”

My gaze locked with Breeze’s. Despite everything that was going on, she looked remarkably calm. My struggles lessened, but didn’t stop.

“Everything is fine. None of us are going to hurt you. Please calm down.”

There was something in her eyes, and the way she spoke, that told me I could believe her, but I don’t know why. I went limp and lay panting, trying to recover. It was then I noticed my eyes were burning. I never thought I’d be so terrified of something that I’d start crying. I’m beyond fucked up. Private Breeze released my arm, and the guard holding my legs followed suit. Breeze and Clipper eased me back into my previous place on the bed, as the consequences of my actions made themselves known. I closed my eyes as the stiffness from earlier was replaced by an intense ache, and a sharp pain in my left arm.

From the foot of the bed, I heard, “Can you handle him?”

“Yeah, I think we’ve got it from here.” Clipper responded. “Good work, Private Breeze.”

Breeze didn’t give a verbal reply, and I heard  the two other guards leave. From my left, I heard Doctor Needles voice. “That was… unexpected.”

“Your magic triggered that. Is he scared of it?”

        “Terrified.” Breeze said. “I could see it in his eyes.”

The doctor sighed. “Good thing his arm was still restrained. He almost ripped out the IV as it is. Are you going to be okay, Corporal?”

“I feel like shit.”

“I can use magic and help with that now, or you can wait for a painkiller.”

As soon as I heard ‘magic’, I could practically hear the distinctive sound it made when it was being used. My eyes snapped open, and my heart started pounding harder. Fuck that shit.

 “I’ll wait.” I answered quickly.

“Very well.” Doctor Needles addressed the guards. “I’ll need one of you to assist, since I’d like to avoid doing that again and I didn’t bring a nurse. The other can go find a nurse for a painkiller.”

“Stay and help the doc, Breeze. I’ll go find a nurse.”

Clipper turned to leave as Breeze said, “Yes, Sergeant.”

“If you’d sit up, Corporal, we’ll remove these restraints, I’ll fix the IV, and get that shoulder checked.”




        So… how’s that Magiophobia treating you today?”

        I looked away from Sergeant Heartmender’s gaze. “How do you think?”

        “And if I were to use magic right now?”

        My eyes flicked back to the unicorn. He was sporting a stupid grin. “That wasn’t funny the first time, it’s not funny now, and I’d kick your fucking ass.”

        “Before or after you run away screaming?”

        I glared at him. “You must really want to get your ass kicked. Keep it up, and I’ll oblige.”

        Heartmender opened his mouth, but was interrupted before he could say anything. “Enough, Sergeant.”

        He sighed. “Yes, Sir.” Returning his attention forward, I dimly heard him mumble something about ‘killing his fun’. If Lieutenant Steel heard him, he didn’t acknowledge it.

        To be fair, I wouldn’t normally get so wound up by getting a little shit. Every time we had SRP, I received a lot of flak for my aversion to needles, and I could deal with that. Right now though, I’d just been released from the infirmary, having spent a total of eight days there, and this wasn’t the first time Sergeant Heartmender had given me shit about my new phobia. 

It wasn’t just Heartmender’s shit either. This fear seemed to come out of fucking nowhere. I’ll admit I’d never been comfortable around the ponies magic, since up to the point of my being captured, it’d been primarily used as the ponies weapon of choice to fight us, but it never actually terrified me. I’ve been shot at more times than I care to remember, but I’m not terrified of guns. Maybe it just took being nearly strangled to death, then smashed against a wall with magic for my brain to realize I should be scared of that shit. I don’t fucking know. A psychiatrist would probably have a field day with me right now.

        After the attack in my cell, I’d been assigned four guards. They were ‘for my protection’, meant to prevent any more attempts on my life. Midnight Breeze joined the night group, along with the other two, and Lieutenant Steel and another joined Heartmender and Stormfront during the day. I’d been assured all eight had been hoof-picked by their respective princess, and would neither allow anyone to hurt me, nor do so themselves. 

All four of the new guards were unicorns. I thought that was pretty fucking stupid, as their magic scared the shit out of me, but apparently unicorns would be the best at preventing anything from happening. On the bright side, they’d deemed shackles unnecessary, plus it meant there were less ponies going out to search for, and fight, my friends.

We were entering an area I recognized, after several minutes of walking, and I was actually looking forward to my cell, and breakfast. It was fairly late in the morning, and I still hadn’t eaten yet, which definitely wasn’t helping my mood. As we continued down a very familiar looking hallway, the group took a right into another hallway, and my hopes for breakfast fell. Are you fucking kidding me? Another couple minutes had us standing in front of the interrogation room door. Sergeant Stormfront opened the door and I was ushered towards it. Taking a look inside, I stopped. Fuck this.

“Nope.”

I did an about-face and tried to walk away, but was immediately stopped by the guards.

Lieutenant Steel blocked my path. “Corporal, don’t make this difficult.”

“I’m not going in there.” I pointed back to the room. “That’s cruel and unusual. I’d rather go hungry in my cell than be tortured like that.”

The other guards closed in around me. “It’s not what you think, and you don’t have a choice.”

I folded my arms. “Bullshit, and there’s always another option. Just take me back to my cell.”

Steel didn’t budge. “Corporal…”

“If I have to crack some skulls, I will.” The infirmary was kinda nice.

“Is this really necessary, Corporal Duran?”

Celestia’s voice came from right next to my ear, and I jumped to the left, nearly landing on Heartmender. God damn! How’s something her size move so quietly?

When I looked to her, she was wearing her unreadable expression. “I do not see what the problem is.”

I frowned at the princess. “The problem is: I haven’t eaten, and now you’re going to interrogate me, using the food in there” I pointed to the room again, “to encourage me to talk.” 

Celestia blinked. “Is that what you think?” 

I refolded my arms. “Yep. It’s just another interrogation method.”

She studied me for a moment. “The reason you have not had breakfast yet is because it is in there.” Using a wing, the princess motioned to the room. “Now, would you join me for brunch?”

I looked to the guards around me, then back to the princess. I was going to say no, but my stomach growled. Yeah, that would be uncharacteristically cruel of them to do things that way. Sighing, I walked into the room and sat in the chair. Celestia, entering right behind me, sat on the opposite side of the table. The door closed, leaving the two of us alone. 

“What is this, Princess?”

“I... do not know what you mean.”

“This.” I gestured to the small spread of food. Included in the meal was a fairly generous portion of ham. It in particular was the reason I hadn’t wanted to enter the room in the first place. Since ponies don’t eat meat, I’d figured it was just the next thing they were going to try to use against me. I hadn’t had real meat since I’d left on this deployment, and I didn’t really count the stuff in MREs as real meat.

“You ponies don’t eat meat, so...” I didn’t know how to finish, so I just gestured to the food again.

“Do you believe that we would not be prepared to host dignitaries and the like who have a more carnivorous diet?” The princess smiled as I realized just how stupid I had sounded.

“... Touché.”

Celestia’s smile faded and she sighed. “This is my apology to you for what happened.”

“But you didn’t–”

I was cut off by a raised hoof. “I promised you that you would be treated fairly. In taking the oath of a Royal Guard, they too made that promise. Their actions reflect on me, and in breaking their oath, so too, have I.”

Wow… the princess takes her position pretty seriously if she believes that. I didn’t know what to say. I just sat there, thinking about how similar, yet so different, things in Equestria were. 

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah… What about those two guards? What happened to them?”

“Prism and Cobalt had been exemplary guardsponies. Their actions, however, were inexcusable. They were both discharged, dishonorably.” I wonder if that has the same stigma here as it would back home… Can’t imagine that helped their disposition towards humans. 

Celestia’s expression returned to its unreadable state as she poured herself a cup of tea, using her hooves. “Do not think things have changed. You are still my prisoner, and this is a one-time thing. Eat up, Corporal, we have a busy day ahead of us.”