//------------------------------// // Chapter Fourteen // Story: Prisoner of War // by Radiant //------------------------------//         Several minutes after the princess had come to my cell, I’d been taken to an interrogation room, this one was a little larger than the others I’d been in, and empty. All my questions on the way had been ignored, and when I’d sat down in the hallway and refused to cooperate, I’d just been dragged. When we got to the room, I was dumped in the middle on my face. Standing up, I looked around. The guards had taken up positions around and facing me, but otherwise did nothing else. They were all still armed with their spears, which I found odd. I guess it was just for intimidation. Celestia was currently absent, having left us saying she’d be back soon.         “So when is someone going to tell me what happened?” I asked no one in particular.         “When it becomes pertinent for you to know.” Steel answered.         I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, which had the consequence of dragging the other arm along, thanks to the shackles.         “Why can’t you just tell me?”         “I already answered that.”         Ass. “I bet you just don’t know,” I said, trying to get some kind of response. It didn’t work. Since I wasn’t going to get anything out of them, I started thinking about what the guys could have possibly done to put me in this position. Almost unconsciously, I started pacing. This got an annoyed huff out of Stormfront, but I ignored him. Given our current orders, I couldn’t imagine anyone doing anything too crazy. Either something’s changed since I got caught, or someone violated those orders and fucked everyone else. I doubt that’s the case, but if it is… what did they do? If someone was willing to disobey those orders, what else would they be willing to do?         I heard the door open behind me and spun to see Princess Celestia walking in. Her expression hadn’t changed, still passive, betraying nothing. She said nothing as she stopped between Heartmender and the other unicorn, Private Plane, and stared at me.         After an uncomfortable amount of time passed, I finally broke the silence. “Are you just going to stare at me, or is there actually a reason behind all this?” I gestured to the room in general as I asked.         A few seconds passed before Celestia answered, “There is, of course, a reason, and you will see it soon enough, but you will have wait till everyone is present first.”         Seriously… “Well, while we’re just standing around, why don’t you tell me what happened?”         I heard one of the guards behind me sigh, but Celestia gave no reaction. I thought she was going to give me a similar answer that I’d gotten from Steel, or just ignore me, but the princess did neither.         “Since you are likely keep asking, as you have been, I will just tell you and save us the ongoing headache.”         I don’t know if it was intentional, but I could hear an edge in Celestia’s voice. Rather than say anything, I just waited for her to continue.         “About an hour ago, I received word that your allies killed five of my ponies… they were civilians.”         I stood there blinking for a moment, processing what I’d just been told. It didn’t take long for me to come to a conclusion. “You’re lying.”         The princess slowly approached, stopping out of arm's reach and looking down at me. “And what, Corporal, makes you think that?”         I ignored Celestia’s accusatory glare as I answered, “We don’t kill civilians. It’s one of our rules.”         “I have five dead ponies that say one or more of your friends do not follow the rules.”         Frowning, I shook my head. “I still don’t believe you. That’s a one-way ticket to Leavenworth. Nobody would risk that. Besides, for all I know, this is just your latest attempt to get me to talk.”         Her eyes narrowing, Celestia said, “Believe what you want, Corporal, but this has happened, and you are going tell me the location of your camp, so that we might remove the lot of you from Equestria, and punish those responsible.”         Either the princess was doing an excellent job of acting, or someone had actually killed civilians, because I found myself second-guessing my last argument. Before I could come up with another counter-argument, the door opened again. This time, it was Princess Luna who came through. I heard something in the hallway, and Tovey, restrained like me, was magically thrown into the room a few moments later. A lone unicorn guard entered, lifted Tovey once again in his magic, and followed behind Luna.         “This one puts up more of a fight than the Corporal.” Luna said as she joined Celestia. “I wonder why that is,” she mused, directing her attention to me.         “Because I’m lazy and don’t like wasting my energy on something pointless.” I said, waving a hand dismissively and watching Tovey struggle uselessly in the magical grip that held him. When the guard reached us, he dropped Tovey, bowed to the princesses, then left, closing the door behind him. Tovey got to his feet and made to take a step forward, but was stopped by a spearhead being shoved toward him. Taking a step back, the private looked around angrily. “Welcome back.” His gaze locked on me as soon as I spoke. “Fuck you.” I’ve had enough of that shit. Quickly reaching out, I smacked Tovey upside the head. The action was made clumsy thanks to my shackles forcing me to move both arms. Tovey flinched when I moved, but wasn’t quick enough to stop me, or avoid the blow. “Wha– “Shut the fuck up, Private.” I interrupted. “I told you what would happen.” “Enough.” Celestia said, moving between us, which forced me to take a step back. “You weren’t brought here to bicker, and now that you’re both here, we can begin.” The feeling of dread from earlier returned, brought on by the uncharacteristically dark tone the princess’s voice had taken. Lieutenant Steel and Sergeant Stormfront moved up from behind, and forced me back a few steps with their spears as Celestia strode a few steps away, then turned back. She was joined by Luna a few moments later. I glanced over at Tovey, and saw him looking back at me, his anger gone, replaced with uncertainty. “Now,” Celestia began, drawing my attention back to her, “I’ll give you one last chance to simply tell us what we want to know, and avoid this unpleasantness.” I didn’t even have to think about it. “I’m gonna go with ‘no’,” I said, giving them a defiant look. Celestia sighed, and Luna shook her head. “As expected from you, Corporal.” Celestia said, before addressing Tovey. “And what do you say?” I looked back to the private. It wouldn’t surprise me to see him break and start talking right then, but it didn’t happen. After a few moments of silence, he responded with a shaky, “I–I won’t tell you.” When he looked to me, I gave him a nod. Regardless of how I felt, he’d made the right choice, and we were in this together. “Very well. You brought this on yourselves.” My gaze returning to the sisters, I gave a humorless laugh. “Go ahead, read my mind. You’ll be scarred for life.” Celestia gave me an emotionless stare, while Luna almost looked like she pitied me. “That will be saved as a last resort… should you make it that far. We have something else in mind, something you’re more likely to respond to.” “Whatever it is, it won’t work. Do your worst, I can take it,” I challenged. I may have sounded confident, but that was for Tovey’s benefit. Internally, I was on the verge of panic. I had no clue what they had in mind, and I honestly didn’t know if I could take whatever it was. “Knowing you, Corporal Duran, you would just resist till you are no longer able to respond,” Celestia said, her gaze hardening, “but I believe I can break you without even touching you.” What is she planning? I got my answer a second later when Celestia’s horn ignited, and a bolt shot from her horn, filling the room with a crackling sound. The bolt hit Tovey in the chest, sending him to his knees, his face contorting in pain as he screamed. I flinched away from Tovey and the magic. “Son of a bitch!” The crackling of electricity faded several seconds after the bolt did. Tovey fell forward to his hands, gasping. When that happened, I tried to go to Tovey, to help him somehow, but was blocked by the spears of Steel of Stormfront. “Tovey, talk to me!” I shoved the spears aside, but they stuck them right back into my face. When I continued trying to get past them, Steel just pushed me back with his magic. Because I wasn’t expecting it, and the fact that he was using magic, I stumbled backwards and lost my balance. Landing on my back, I sat up quickly. “Bastard!” “You are quite devoted to your country, and your fellow soldiers, Corporal." Celestia commented. "An admirable trait indeed, but it will not help you now.” “Fuck you!” I yelled, getting to my feet, glaring at the princes. “That is not what I wanted to hear.” The crackling returned as the princess fired another bolt at Tovey. The private screamed again, and fell to his side. As he began writhing, I tried again to get to him. Heartmender and Plane had joined the other two now, and as I attempted to go around the lot of them, Steel just picked me up and held me in his magic. Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK! With no way to break free, all I could do was try to keep my panic in check, and watch as Tovey was tortured. “God damn it, leave him alone!” When she stopped this time, Celestia said, “Let him through.” I was dropped, and scrambled away from the guards. When I’d collected myself, I moved to Tovey as fast as I could. He wasn’t moving when I knelt next to him. A quick check showed he was still breathing, but his pulse was weak. I gave him a gentle shake. “Tovey! Tovey, talk to me!” Tovey coughed, then groaned in response. Without opening his eyes, he weakly said, “D–Duran, I c–can’t take it… please... let’s j–just... just tell…” The private went limp before he finished. “Tovey? Tovey!” I tried a couple different ways to get some kind of response from him, but got nothing. “Fuck!” Another check told me he wasn’t dead, just unconscious. “I thought he would last longer than that.” Celestia commented, nonchalantly. “I suppose I will have to deal with you directly after all.” “BITCH!” In one motion, I stood and charged the princess. I didn’t know what I would do, I just knew that I wanted to snap her horn off her head. It didn’t matter in the end, since I never got close. I was blown off my feet by a burst of magic from Luna. Landing at the hooves of the guards, I rolled to my stomach and rose to my feet again. As I rose, the four of them surrounded me, each one directing their spears at my upper torso to prevent me from moving. In response to that, I grabbed the spear pointing at my chest and pushed it to the right, then kicked its owner —which happened to be Stormfront— in the barrel, where he had no armor. The pegasus’ wings flared in surprise, and he staggered back, holding a foreleg to the area I’d hit. This allowed me to get control of his spear. As soon as I did, I was encased again in the green glow of Steel’s magic. The spear was ripped from my hands by Plane, and returned to Stormfront once he’d recovered. I knew everything I’d been trying to do was pointless, and contradicted what I’d said earlier, but I was too pissed to care. “So the Corporal does have fight in him.” Luna commented, speaking up for the first time since she’d entered. “Come over here and I’ll show you just how much fight I’ve got!” That probably wasn’t very threatening, considering I was currently helpless, and Luna would certainly have no problem dealing with me if she wanted. “Release him. Tend to the other one, Sergeant. See that he survives.” Celestia ordered, stepping forward. I heard Heartmender move to where Tovey was as I was released. Addressing me, the princess continued, “I would save that energy if I were you. You are going to need it.” Looking up, I fixed Celestia with a searing glare. “I already told you to do your worst and if you think I’ll tell you anything after what you did to Tovey, you’re out of your fucking mind!” The princess gave no discernible reaction. “We will see if you still feel that way in a few moments.” As soon as she finished talking, Celestia hit me with the same thing she’d used on Tovey. The instant the bolt hit me, my world exploded with pain. Immediately, my eyes clenched shut, and moments later I faintly registered an impact on my right side as I hit the floor. I don’t know how long the princess hit me with that thing. It couldn’t have been more than six or seven seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Somehow, I managed not to scream, though why is a mystery. When the pain finally ended, I let out a long, ragged gasp as my whole body throbbed and twitched. As I lay there, I was vaguely aware of the sound of hoofsteps next to me. When I finally opened my eyes, I was looking at Celestia’s gold-clad hooves. Slowly, I turned my head to look up at her. She was once again wearing her neutral mask, hiding any emotion. “Would you like to reconsider your position, Corporal?” Celestia asked when she saw me looking at her. Fighting through the ache, I rolled left, and got into a kneeling position. After a break to catch my breath, I shakily got to my feet. I wavered, but stayed upright, and turned to face Celestia.         Looking her in the eye, I finally answered the princess’s question. “No.”         “Consider the consequences of your choice, Corporal,” Luna said, approaching. “Your decision only leads you to more pain and suffering.” She stopped beside her sister. “Tell us where the rest of your forces are, and the pain stops.”         Slowly, I looked to Luna. “I will not betray my friends.” In that moment, I made another decision that I wouldn’t change either. “I would rather die.”         Luna’s look turned to one of pity. “We do not wish for this any more than you do. Please reconsider!”         “No.”         Celestia made a sound of exasperation, then leaned towards me. “What is it that drives you, Jaden Duran, pushes you to endure all that you have?” she asked. “Are you truly this loyal? Perhaps are you simply too stubborn for your own good, or maybe are you just doing this to spite us at this point? I honestly cannot tell.”         All of the above. I didn’t answer the question, and I couldn’t muster the energy to openly act defiant anymore, so I just stared off into the space between the two sisters.         “I’m only going to ask one more time. Where is your camp located?”         “Duran, Jaden. Corporal. 523–”         Celestia zapped me again before I finished. I think I blacked out this time, because the next thing I knew, I was on my side again. Since it hurt too much to do anything now, I just lay there with my eyes closed. I must have screamed that time, because my throat was scratchy and sore. My mind felt sluggish, and at this point, I started to wish the princess would just kill me so I wouldn’t have to worry about anything again. I’d go home a hero, provided the ponies had the decency to return my body after everything was said and done, because really, it was only a matter of time till they found the camp.         “He’s conscious.” It took a second, but I recognized the speaker as Heartmender.         “Good, it is time we ended this.” That was Celestia. It sounded like she was behind me.         Against my better judgement, I cracked open an eye. Initially, I couldn’t figure out what I was looking at, but it became clear that I was looking at the hooves of all my guards. I must have done a lot of flailing around if I was facing them. Closing my eye, I waited for whatever was going to happen to happen.         “Sister, stop! If you try to read the Corporal’s mind in his current condition, he won’t survive!”         “How else do you suggest that we get the information, then, Luna? He’s already proven he won’t tell us!”         “I… I do not know… But we shouldn’t resort to killing him.”         “And what about our ponies? If we’d just read his mind from the beginning, they would still be alive!”         “This is true, but we agreed we would avoid doing that, and the Corporal’s death now will not bring them back. Furthermore, there is no guarantee, in his current state, that he will survive long enough for us to retrieve the information.” I heard hoofsteps followed by more sounds that I couldn’t identify. “I believe our best course of action is to wait till he recovers, then extract what we want, if you still believe we should.”         There was a long pause then I heard Celestia give a long sigh. “You’re right, Luna. I was letting my emotions control my actions.”         It would have been nice if they’d come to that conclusion before they’d tortured us. Groaning, I tried to roll to my back. The pain was incredible, and almost didn’t make it.         “Easy, Corporal. You shouldn’t try to move.” Heartmender’s voice was accompanied by a hoof being placed on my chest and the sound of a horn igniting. When I tried to squirm away, which only succeeded in bringing me more pain, the pressure from the hoof increased. “Just relax, Duran, I’m going to help you.” Despite everything my instincts were telling me, I relaxed, and the pressure from Heartmender’s hoof lessened. An odd sensation washed over me, and after a few moments I began to feel better, but the change was nearly imperceptible. “How is he?” Celestia asked. “He’ll need to spend a lot of time horizontal, but he’ll recover, Princess.” “Why do you care? You’re the one who did this to me.” Talking hurt, but not enough to stop me. “I took no pleasure from what I did.” “Whatever. I just wish you ponies would make up your minds. I don’t think I’ll survive the next time.” “I–” The door slamming open interrupted Celestia’s response. Someone, a guard most likely, came galloping over. “Princess! We found them!” With the exception of the newcomer’s heavy breathing and the sound of Heartmender’s magic, the room fell into a stunned silence for several seconds. Luna spoke first. “You found the humans? Where?!” “They were hiding at the base of the Unicorn Mountain Range, using caves to stay out of sight.” I knew it was inevitable, but that didn’t mean I was ready for it to happen. Sighing in defeat, I muttered a faint, “God damn it.” “That would explain why we couldn’t find them.” Celestia was saying. “Whenever we found one of their patrols, they were out in the woods, so we thought that was where they were. We were searching in the wrong place… But now the search is over. Lieutenant!” I heard Steel snap to attention. “Yes, Princess?” “Go inform Captain Armor. Tell him I want a strike force ready, and in position to attack by tomorrow morning. Also, take Private Plane. I do not think you two will be needed to watch the Corporal any longer, and I want you to take part in the attack.” “Yes, Princess. Let’s go, Plane… You too, Thunderhead.” Thunderhead must have been the name of the messenger. “Right behind you, Sir.” The sound of three ponies leaving in a hurry filled the room. Once they’d left, the room fell mostly silent again. Opening my eyes, I looked up at Heartmender, who was still using whatever spell on me, and still had his hoof on my chest. My instinct was still telling me to run, but I was in no condition to do so. Plus, after what I’d been through, and the recent news, I lacked the motivation to do anything. When he saw me looking, the unicorn gave me a sad smile. “At least this war is almost over, right?” I just looked away. “Take the Corporal to the infirmary when you feel you can do so.” I heard the princesses start towards the door. “Yes, Princess. Shouldn’t be much longer.” As the sisters left, I couldn’t help but feel I was forgetting something. After a minute, I realized what it was. “What about Tovey?” “He’s stable, but unconscious.” Heartmender answered. “I’m going to get you to a point where you can walk, then I’ll carry him.” “Will he be okay?” “In time.” Closing my eyes, sighed. As much as it sucked to admit, Heartmender was right. This war, regardless of the outcome, was almost over. Soon, I’d be on way home. Acknowledging that didn’t bring me any happiness. The knowledge that our forces were about to be attacked and me being unable to do anything about it killed any enthusiasm before I could muster it. Lying there, waiting for Heartmender to finish what he was doing, I could only wonder how everything was going to turn out.