• Published 25th Dec 2013
  • 1,099 Views, 24 Comments

Diary of a Soldier - TheCamel



The griffons attack on Los Pegasus, from the view of one pony guard.

  • ...
8
 24
 1,099

Los Pegasus: Day 9

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.

Comments ( 21 )

Wow.
All i can say is wow.
But it feels somewhat incomplete. The description said that the book was found in the hoofs of a corps. But he was alive when swift left so what happened? Or is that just to be left to the imagination? :rainbowderp:

That was wonderful. Brief and to the point, yet detailed enough to make everything fit. Excellent job of capturing the emotions involved. 10/10 will read again. :rainbowkiss:

Well I don't think Ray can be stopped at this point, if he could. Its already to late for Los Pegasus.

i made the mistake of listening to the viva la vida album while reading this... it was like... 20% sadder... :fluttercry:

huh, not bad.......... though i sitll question this continuation here. the fact remains, that the gryphon that took sombra's horn does NOT stand a chance in tartarus should he encounter either regal sister. that horn is worhtless against them. sombra was powerufl indeed, but the regal sisters were all the more powerful than him. some creature wielding the remnants of his magic would stand even less of a chance.

so in otyher wrods the only logical conclusion is that guy suffering a horrible death by an enraged regal sister.

Heavy... But a fitting little side piece to help illustrate just how badly "we" fucked up the fate of Equestria after "A Griffon's Fate"...

3678939

Well, there's no telling how long it took Swift to get back to Canterlot and a rescue team to be sent out. Also, we only have his account to go on, so there's no way of knowing if there were still griffons or other dangers left in the city. There's also the very real possibility that he simply collapsed from starvation and/or exhaustion.

3680303

Well, Equestria does have three god-tier beings on its side so it's unlike they'll be able to completely defeat it, but allot of ponies are gonna end of dead... or worse... before this is finally over.

3681772 Well keep in mind that Sombra was killed using the crystal ponies and that crystal hart, I don't thing they can recreate the same conditions with Ray. Judging that he is smarter than Sombra, As for the ''Gods'' they could not stop Sombra in the first place.

Going on this theory, I think Equestria is Doomed.

3682034 ...............uuuuh, they DID stop sombra........... ded in his tracks. they did not kill him but it seems only because they just try to be above all that.

even if he is smarter, he is still only a gryphon wielding stolen power that is not his own, and even worse an incomplete power. the only reason sombra lived as likely because he prefered slavery over mass slaughter. also that he did not deal a personal blow to either ergal sister. which our dear, soon to be fried, gryphon has soo generously done.

powerful as sombra was, he was no alicorn. hell the only other shown corrupted unicorn, rarity in the idw comics when possessed by the nightmare force, was not nearly as powerful as a alicorn. sheo nly had advantage do two one part Luna, who took personal responsiblity, was dealing with fear and doubt, this whole thing a ruse to force luna to tke back the nightmaer force, and the fact that rarity was being controlled was more or less a hostage as much as a aggressor.
put simply, the gryphons are fucked. they are giong by a fool king's word who is wielding a power USELESS against the enemy's uper weapons, that being their rulers.

3681772 three gods and two demigods. one of which wields a, sadly, incomplete elemetns of harmony, the other the ruler of an empire that is powered by the very THING that slew sombra.

..............this whole war is flawed in concept as now the gryphon leader has put himself into a situation where he will be expected to directly fight celestia and luna. sombra was not nearly as powerful as celestia or luna, and even then he likely had hold of the crystal heart during hsi defeat. in other words, despite having home advantage, they tossed him aside and cast him into shadow, and it took all he had left to make sure that his enemies did not benefit from the crystal empire.
this is a gryphon, a species that does not use direct magic, attempting to use a mere fragment of sombra's power, which was a power nowhere near as great as the alicorn rulers evne when whole and with the cyrstal heart at hand. this makes it more tragic, in a sense, as this guy is driving his entire species to ruin and making his intent all the more futile.

3684452 I think we have leave this one up to TheCamel. I can't see any bad arguments in your statement.

3684662 simply pulling together observations. it just would make no sense for that gryphon to have anythign short of a very sticky end if he is using something like that. it would give him an advantage against msot enemies, i will not lie, but not against the enemies who are most capable of destroying him or his army. would even argue twilight is more powerful than him even with that horn. at thevery least she would be completely merciless against him. oneo f her friends are dead, someone who was all but a sister to her........... a alicortn with darkness growing in her heart within spitting distance of the last remnant of a dark unicorn.............. that is an almost inevitable formula of twilight becoming a Nightmare.

either way, this whole situation could only logically end with a wartorn equistria, fleeing gryphons, and their king bleeding out and begging for his life before an enraged alicorn, whether a livid celestia, luna, or a corrupted twilight.

3684690 Still, I'm not convinced about a good ending for Equestria.
But the more i listen to you the more i start to like you, you know you're stuff.

3684728 never said a good ending, just that it would not be a victory for the gryphons, nor a good death for their king................. would be a bitter ending of sorts. thevillain is defeated, but the cost is far too great for any happiness to be found. be especially bitter if celestia has to imprison her corrupted but emotoinally wrecked student for her own good.

Geez... And to think, all this over not collapsing a single tunnel. Shame this is marked as "complete." I'd love to see the ending. Good job on this, Camel. You are one of the best writers FiM Fiction has seen.

~Roo

Hey TheCamel. Can you please continue this series. It is my favorite one. Any main Stories or sides will be fine. I just want to know how this war is from everyponies point of view. You are my favorite author on this site.
please and thank you.

Comment posted by TheSylwester deleted Mar 10th, 2014

I have to say that this whole series have been most dark and disturbing to read, but you must finish it. This war must come to an end, for better or worse.

A sequel to what I thought was the end! I'm afraid I might be hooked to this and I don't want to end up feeling sad :fluttercry:

But, I must read, because I want to know what happens.

All this does is continue a cliffhanger with little to no knowledge about what has happened and what will happen. I disliked this story because it feels like some kind of transition between to larger stories and not a story in it's own right, in fact without the previous one we have no context for this and without a sequel we have no real ending either.

this could have been a prologue for a sequel but on its own it's just too insubstantial to mean anything. This is what, 4k words at best?

Login or register to comment