World War: Equestria

by Xhadow

blank (hey, they said I could)

Darkness.

A hoof smashed into the side of my skull.

Pain.

I panted, reaching for the knife that lay just out of reach.

Blood.

I screamed in agony as the beast bit through my wing, spraying the wall in blood.

Desperation.

I twisted, reaching and praying.

Death.

I snagged the blade in my teeth, tasting blood I spun my neck around stabbing the monster in the throat. Slime sprayed from the wound, splattering against my armor and staining my coat.

Rage.

It tried to scream, letting loose only a weak gurgling before I smashed its skull with a brick.

Sliding the knife out of the beetle like scales, I allowed myself a moment to relax. "Told ya not to mess with Equestria," I spat at the corpse.

He didn't respond.

I sighed, "just stay dead," I ordered, picking up my crossbow from the burning pile of bricks.

As soon as my hooves touched the scorched streets flowers sprouted up and the burning, broken buildings disappeared, becoming replaced with giant faces of the friends I'd lost during the war. None of them spoke...they just sat there, watching me.

"No. You're not real," I denied, throwing a small rainbow colored pebble into Carlie's right eye.

"I don't like you anymore. You left me to die," he sang, every word cracking the earth around me.

Nothing felt real. The world started spinning and I felt my consciousness fading. "stay awake," I ordered myself aloud, stumbling as I tried to keep on my hooves.

"You were always the runt," Dad's voice echoed through my skull, cutting my heart in half with a frozen spoon.

"You'll never amount to anything. All you do is run away," mom scolded, slamming her hoof down on the table.

"We both know you'll never get your cutie mark, only special ponies get em," my brother taunted, punching me in the face.

"Come on kid, stand up for yourself," my teacher berated, as my world inverted and I was sent falling towards the stars.

I twisted end over end. Faster and faster, the stars becoming the gaping maws of a million dragons. I gave up, there was nothing I could do. They were right.

The rain drops splashed against my face, smashing me back into reality. I was captured. A prisoner of war. And there was no hope of the royal guard even coming close for...months at least. I was on my own.

Jenkins screamed as they tore out his insides. He tried to fight, and he did.

They took their time carving him up. After hours of hearing his screams and struggles the room behind the steel door fell silent.

"Fear...Pain...Rage...Hate," Rich repeated to herself over and over, rocking back and forth against her chains like a beaten dog, heck we all looked like whipped dogs and smelled worse.

"Rich, don't worry. you'll see your son again," I assured as best I could, blocking as much of the rain as I could with a hoof.

She laughed, "oh, yeah how are you going to pull that off, Wonderbolt? you can't even fly anymore," she scoffed, sitting up and glaring at me directly.

I winced as pain smashed into my right side, "don't remind me," I spat back, hoping she understood my escape plan.

The bars keeping us in our rectangular enclosure served more than one purpose. In a patch they were loose enough to pop out without too much effort and could be sharpened easily enough, and in a pinch the metal had several properties that made it combustible, giving us a signal for our allies.

She gave me a slow nod, "yeah, if the pegasi had stayed out of the war we would've won years ago," she spat.

Honor.

"Maybe if you philosophers would do an honest day's work we wouldn't need to do everything for you!" my anger burned even without the help my acting skills.

Courage.

She lunged at me, only stopping an inch out of reach by her bloody chains. "You better pray they get their hooves on you before I do because I won't be so nice!"

With a small kick from my hind leg I sent her flailing across the cadge, knocking her into the other bars with a loud metallic "clang!"

"What's going on over here?" the guard demanded, storming into the hut, eyes looking like a green inferno.

Step one.

In slight panic he ran over to the cadge, struggling to shorten the pissed off unicorn's chain.

She wasted no time in turning around and smashing the guard's face into one of the bars we'd managed to bend and sharpen for just this occasion. He froze, eyes bulging out and gasping for air. The green slime that was there "blood" pooled onto the dust floor that served as everything from bed to graves of our dead comrades.

Grabbing the keys in her teeth she tossed them to me.

The keys jingled one as they spun lazily through the air. I caught the foul tasting metal in my mouth, and set to work unlocking my restraints.

I heard the guard's skull give out under her hoof with a loud "splat!"

"Rich. Keys," I hissed, sliding the keys across the floor with my good wing.

She unlocked her shackles much faster than I did, but in my defense she didn't have her wing nearly chewed off...and she's a unicorn. They have weird skills.

Step Two.

The rain slacked off by the time we reached the armory. It was a small metal building with a straw roof...and a dog.

The massive black lab snoozed uneasily in the late night rain...right in front of the door, of course.

"Hey, Wonderbolt. Put the pooch out of its misery," Rich ordered, tossing the knife the guard had at my hooves.

I stared at the cruel jagged blade, shocked that she wanted me to kill the thing...with this monstrosity. "Nothing deserves that kind of death," I argued, clenching my jury rigged dagger in my hoof. A long moment passed. I took a breath and threw the knife.

The dog didn't even wake up. The sharpened blade ensuring instant death...I wish we had those benefits.

Step Three.

Captain Sparkle paced nervously along the floor of the forward command center. It'd been three weeks since they heard from the scouting party or that Wonderbolt colt they sent to find em. "Pie, get me some good news," he ordered the usually stoic stallion who monitored the signals from the front lines.

"Does no news count," Pie asked, a failed attempt at humor.

"Tell me something!" Sparkle raged, ready to pound the Pegasus into the dirt floor that he'd worn down overnight.

"Sombra's shadow guard finally surrendered, and we won the coast against the Diamond Dogs...I know it's not the news you want but the end of the war is coming," Pie replied, brushing his blond mane out of his eyes. How he kept it that long in the military was anypony's guess.

Sparkle sighed, "keep watching those channels...and the trenches," he ordered. Leaving the door open he went for a midnight stroll through the broken remains of Center Park, 'the edge of the green zone," he thought as he walked, 'I wonder if they're even alive. The bugs would no doubt keep them for interrogation...but what if they said something?' The question had plagued the aging captain ever since he filed the reports. "Two companies of the finest soldiers you could ask for," he wrote, hoping with every fiber in his body that they would come over the river. He could just see that young colt leading them across the river, flying over some raft that they invented on the way out of the prison, 'I would've chewed them out for being late...and then bought the first round.Why I would...' he stopped. What was that? No. It couldn't be.

"Sir...we made it," the bleeding pegasus reported with a salute before passing out in the grass.

"Medic," Sparkle barked, picking up the young colt and tearing off for the field hospital. Rich following weakly, barely keeping up but fortunately passed out half a foot from the hospital door.

The white coated unicorns took the patients inside with practiced precision, shutting the old stallion out in the dying night.