The life and times of an Earth Pony.

by TheRealShadowFoot

Part 6: Day's End

Shadow was truly exhausted this time. He had fought restlessly, tooth and nail, hoof and tail, for hours upon hours so far. Hunkered down behind a now decimated building, he heard hoof steps not a few inches from him. He whipped around with a fierce snarl, and narrowly missed a wicked looking dagger wielded by an all-black pony with fierce red eyes, much the color of freshly spilt blood. Shadow took a couple steps back, dodging other swipes. If he could get off of this wall, he would have more room to move. Shadow took a menacing step forward, lowering his horn and readying a charge. Barreling down upon the black stallion like a red monster, Shadow slammed full force into his adversary’s chest, narrowly missing the bulging vein in the side of its neck.

The black fighter back flipped twice and landed hard on his side with a sickening crunch, the dagger immediately leaving his mouth and skittering a few feet away. Shadow proceeded to pull his blade from the sheath on his back, and sunk it deep into his enemy. The result: another dead stallion, another piece of Shadow’s soul gone. He had never wanted any part of this stupid idealistic war. But fate had other plans for him. He had to find somewhere to rest or he was not going to be any use.

North was heading back for one last wave of explosives, when a blur suddenly smashed into him in what seemed like an instant. This was not a friendly, judging by its’ armor. Recovering in a flash and righting himself almost instantly, North faced the punk. And sure enough it was Speed Razor, in full war regalia, and on the edge of insanity. Razor’s pupils were naught but pea sized circles, and he had a sadistic grin on his face. North knew he would have to put him down for good. North took off, hoping to purchase a few seconds’ time, to ready an aerial dive and try to knock Razor’s balance off.

Razor was much quicker than he’d anticipated, and was keeping pace with North. There was only one other alternative North could try. A full speed dive, and a sudden upward pull a few meters from the ground. He had very little energy left, and it would be expended quickly. At least with gravity on his side, he could buy a few moments to rest, and brace for the enormous force needed to come out of his dive. And hopefully Razor was too possessed by hatred and insanity that his self preservation switch was turned off.

North suddenly pulled upward, climbing higher and higher until his wings finally gave out. Then he let himself drop after pulling his wings inward, creating a powerful spiral vortex behind him. The vortex was turning blue and gold, which had never happened before. It pulled Razor in close behind North. Little did Razor know this was not going to end well for him. Razor felt invincible, possessed by seething hatred and insanity, after watching his twin brother taken out by a large wooden spear twice his length. It was launched from the ground, right at the edge of the forest, and that’s all it took.

North felt something like electrical energy crackling along his body, which was melding into the vortex he was producing. He no longer felt weak or exhausted, and his wings felt as light as air itself. North didn’t know where this sudden rush of energy was coming from, but he really hoped it didn’t leave him. Especially since beforehand, the time he hoped that would be enough to recharge his body, wasn’t enough. He knew it wasn’t going to be enough after he started the dive.

North counted in his head, readying his pull upward. He hit 12 meters, then, moments before he was a bloody pile on the green turf, North snapped his wings outwards, and pumped them fiercely, just barely getting out of the way of Razor. Fearing his wings would break; North looked down at the ground and did not like what he saw. But he knew from the small crater and bloody mess that the deed was done. A sudden pain leapt across his mind and body, and North dropped like a stone. He plummeted to the ground at nearly 40 miles per hour, and landed with a sickening thud. He instantly blacked out. He woke up who knows how many hours later, with two broken wings and several broken or fractured ribs, along with several cuts and bruises. He thanked the gods he was still alive, and laid back in the field cot. He earned his rest he thought, and fell into a deep, dreamless slumber.

Shadow finally found somewhere relatively safe to rest. He was down in the basement of a burned out building, a small fire lit so he could see around the area. He wasn’t alone. A colt, not much older than eight or ten years, was sleeping in a pile of rice and flour sacks. From what Shadow could see, he wasn’t in war regalia, but he looked like he was malnourished and dirty, his fur matted here and there with dust and soot. Careful not to wake the sleeping young colt, Shadow covered him with his cloak. It was very cold down here. Then he saw the most frightening sight in his life. Two dead ponies, male and female so It appeared. Shadow nearly lost what was left of his breakfast, and covered the bodies, coming to a stark, horrifying truth.

Those two dead bodies must have been the young colt’s family, murdered in cold blood by soldiers. He didn’t know any pony would be physically capable of that, but he was wrong. He could tell by the sword marks on the bodies that they were tortured and killed, probably in front of the little colt. Shadow was filled with the very hatred he had tried so long to keep controlled, but he was too exhausted to do anything. He was absolutely drained, and could barely walk, much less hunt Oldies down.

Instead, he resigned to keep the fire going until the colt woke up, and after trying to convince the colt to go with him, would take the colt to base camp, and then back home with him. Shadow had to rest now, though. Using a last spark of energy, Shadow lit a piece of tar-covered timber, and threw it into the pile. The tar would burn for a while, and the smoke would be masked by every other burning building in the vicinity. Then Shadow slept, dark, cold, and dreamless.