The Legend of Brave Rick

by Exelion

The First Contact

"I will not allow it!"

With his hands he wiped his teary eyes and stood up, unhooked the ceiling lamp, turned the knob to increase the fire and took a closer look at the report.

“I will not be manipulated by a sheet of paper!” He thought.

He was about to burn it, thinking that it would solve all his mental problems, he will stop dreaming about those strange creatures that he had to fight or at least, the blame will disappear.

“Is anybody there?” someone asked as he touched the door.

Instantly, Richard awoke from his trance and came back to reality. He spent all night fighting with his emotions that he didn't notice the dawn and the light of a new day.

He turned off the burner with a blow, he kept the report in his boot and got ready to leave.

“It's all yours soldier. Try to leave as clean as you found it.”

“Ca-Captain?” He hesitated for a moment “Got it.”

He went to the tent so he can't left the lamp and start with his daily tasks, but the guilty was present and didn't seem to leave him be, just like if the battlefield had moved into his head and the confrontation had no end.

“Maybe I'll find the solution in the origin of it, only I have to find an excuse to leave.”

Before entering the tent, David intercepted him at the entrance.

“Good morning Captain, how are you?”

“I'm fine, thanks for asking.”

“Do you need something?”

“Nothing, just came to leave this lamp that I took last night.”

“Allow me to do it sir,” David said as he grabbed the lamp, “I got it.”

“Thanks. Now, soldier, it's time to do our work. I told you we will be busy at dawn,” Richard said as he turned to leave.

“Wait!” David shouted “I have to tell you something.”

Richard stops and turns.

“Last night I forgot to tell you to go to the nursing for a check and then you must go to report yourself to the general, everything before starting your daily activities.”

“Thanks for the warning, but you are not relieved of your responsibilities, go and do them!” Richard ordered.

“Sir, yes sir!”

The captain went to the infirmary, the place had medical beds where the less urgent cases were attended, such as bruises or minor injuries. Behind a curtain was a room with a medical team to treat the seriously injured, in general, if a soldier received a deadly wound, first aid was applied there and then the soldier would be moved to a hospital on the Earth. If he got incapacitated, he was relieved of duty and sent home for incapacity.

Richard sat on one of the couches and waited for a nurse to attend to him, the place was almost empty, only a few soldiers being healed. A nurse makes its way towards him.

“Good morning Captain, How do you feel today?” She said while using a flashlight to light his eyes to see his reactions.

“I feel good, and if it isn't too much trouble…” he asked while the nurse hit his knee with a hammer to check on his reactions, “Can you please do this faster? I need to report myself to the general as fast as I can.”

“Don't worry, this will not take long,” she replied as she took his pulse with her fingers placed on his throat.

“Well done Captain Richard, this is the last thing to do. Just relax and don't move,” she said as she wrapped his arm in an artifact for measuring pressure, while she put a tight band in his wrist, Richard couldn't help feeling that someone was watching him, without moving his head he turned his eyes to one side and noticed that the soldier with a wounded shoulder never took his eyes off him.

“That's it, Richard, everything is in order, you are welcome if you feel sick.”

“Sure, lady.”

He was about to get up to leave, but a gentle touch on his uniform caught his attention.

“Excuse me, are you Richard Senedor?” the wounded soldier asked.

“Yeah, what do you need soldier?”

“I am Samuel Corner, the captain of the intelligence division, Don't you remember me?”

Richard was thoughtful for a moment, he didn't seemed to remember him at all.

“Thanks to you and your men, a part of my division could survive, I owe you my life.”

A spark ignited in his head, and he recognized him instantly.

“I Remember, what's up man!” He said while he hugged him.

With a grimace on his face, Samuel replied.

“I appreciate the gesture, but you should remember that I …”

“The wound!” He said as he walked off “What happened...?”

“It was the result of the battle, but it isn't deadly.”

“And how it turned out?”

“You should know, I thought that your men told you.”

“I had some... setbacks, and no, they didn't told me anything.”

“Well, get comfortable because this is going to be long.”

It was a sunny day without a cloud in the sky, the big forest prevented the passage of the sunlight and made it more terrifying than usual.

A dozen soldiers walked through it, while examining the range of the radio frequencies with multiple transmitters and measurers.

“Come on guys, if you want to return for lunch we must have marked the place for the next antenna” Captain Samuel said while they continued the exploration.

After a few hours, one of the soldiers reported.

“Sir, we have reached the limits of the signals.”

“Well, mark this place.”

They took a map of the forest and marked the place with an “X”.

“Eric, get the telephone ready to report to base.”

There was no response, which enraged Samuel.

“What part of get the...!”

His only answer was a muffled sound, as if he was trying to speak without air on his lungs. The scene shocked all the intelligence division, a sword with a blue aura passed through Eric's body, destroying the telephone he was carrying on his back, drops of blood fell from the tip of the sharp weapon, a lot of it flowed from the wound and a small wire of it was coming out of his mouth.

“He... Hel... Help me.”

It was the last thing he heard saying out after coughing blood and dying.

The unicorn pulled out the sword from the corpse, the two soldiers were about to shoot when, from the trees, a storm of arrows killed them almost instantly.

“It's a trap, take refuge behind the trees!”

Everyone ran and hide, but one of them was hit by three arrows in his back, killing him instantly.

“Take the emergency pistols, but be cautious and don't waste bullets.”

They quickly began exchanging shoots, bullets and arrows were breaking branches and impacting on trees, the minutes seemed eternal. The humans kept their heads down to avoid arrows on their skulls and the fear invaded them, they had the strange feeling of being outnumbered and the arrows were just the tip of the iceberg.

By the fear and the shortage of ammunition, Samuel took his radio and he tried to communicate.

“What are you doing!?” the uniformed who beside him asked “You know we are out of reach, leave the damn radio and help us save our asses!”

“I have to try, is the only way out of this mess!” He said as he turned the radio station to find any frequency that allow him to ask for help.

“I am Samuel Corner, captain of the intelligence division, we are under attack! we need reinforcements immediately.”

No one answered, just the sound of dead signal is heard.

“I am Samuel Corner, captain of the intelligence division, we are under attack...!”

The transmission was interrupted by a strong impact on the tree where he was hiding, he saw the magical shots came from the other side, making things more difficult.

“We need reinforcements immediately!” He shouted desperately.

But there was no response, he dropped the radio and sat down. He wanted to give up, get out his hideout and let the arrows do their thing with his body, make God laugh at his peculiar destiny as if it were a comedy and finally end the waiting. The day he was told to go to war in a place never seen before, he never thought he would fight in another world with ponies. At first he didn't cared about it, but then he realized that he was no different of a bullfighter or an organizer of dogs or roosters’ street fights. He was killing conscious and intelligent animals, living in society and organized, whatever the reason he was fighting for or whatever he was told in the military, didn't care anymore.

He turned his head to see who considered his brothers die, no matter what was his stance on the war, he had to help them, he slowly grabbed the radio and lit it, taking air he shouted:

“Someone who can get my signal, answer please!”

He put the horn on his forehead, begging God for a sign, whichever was it, he was about to drop a tear and surrender, until:

“Here the captain of the infantry's fourth division.”

“Oh, thanks for answering, I am the captain Samuel Corner of the intelligence division, we are under attack!”

“It must be a sign from the Almighty” he thought.

While receiving Richard's instructions by radio, the situation didn't let them catch their breaths, a soldier was shot down by a magic lightning in his head, for some strange reason, the magic they used to fight didn't go through as arrows and bullets, but a good shoot given with enough power could break bones and kill anyone.

After the transmission ends, he pulled from his bag a flare gun and fired into heaven without delay, which produced a bright spark in two colors to inform their location to backup.

The ponies looked stunned at the lights, for them it was something majestic and hypnotic, one pegasus came out of his trance and asked the officer:

“Can I leave now? I have to deliver an important letter to the governor of Manehattan”

“Until we clear this area we can't allow you to continue with your task, Miss ...?”

“Derpy Hooves” The pony said reluctantly.

“Don't worry, we have a plan to exterminate this group of humans.”

“Okay.” Derpy replied as she sat and pulled a Muffin out of her bag and took a bite.

The officer saw her with tenderness and looked at the battlefield with a neutral expression, hoping his strategy would work.

The minutes were eternal, Samuel was waiting for reinforcements, the ammunition was almost over and there was no sign of help, suddenly, from a bush, an Earth pony emerges holding a sword between his teeth, his plan to sneak proved successful, he was positioned behind the captain, ready to cut his head off.

“Hey, dwarfish horse!”

Both the pony and Samuel turned around, the soldier that shouted opened fire, leaving the pony in a pool of his own blood.

A group of soldiers positioned themselves on the battlefield, Samuel reported the situation to the manager while others fired at will.

“Damn!” The officer shouted “We were so close!”

Derpy just looked at him, confused, as she took another muffin his saddlebag.

“Prepare the magical shields, we will end this once and for all!”

The sound of machine guns and rifles took over the battlefield. Snipers had great difficulty in finding their targets. Without notice, on the other hand, the ponies came in two, which were formed by an unicorn and a knight accompanying him with shooting arrows as they walked slowly towards the soldiers, because although the used medieval weapons, those had an advantage on melee-fight, which humans left behind over the centuries.

“Get the grenades ready!”

The soldiers took their grenades from their backpacks and they undid the safeties.

“Throw them!”

The grenades flew through the air, some fell in the hooves of some ponies and others hit and bounced off the magic shield, a big explosion filled the woods with dust and smoke, but it wasn't enough. From that haze, the ponies came out intact, the shield had several signs of cracks that were fixed quickly, without hesitation, the soldiers kept throwing grenades, hoping to break that powerful magic defense that had caused troubles some time ago, but their firepower wasn't enough, as evidenced by the steady and threatening advance of the ponies.

“Hurry up captain, we need it” His men thought.

They were a few meters from them, the grenades were over, it seemed that at any moment they'll jump and kill them all using their vengeful swords, some ponies begun unsheathing them, when suddenly, three missiles came out of nowhere and hit the shield, breaking it into pieces like some glass broken by kids playing baseball in the street.

“Fire at will, and don't leave any of them alive!”

From all sides, the soldiers broke into the field, outnumbering the ponies that didn't give much resistance to the attack of the human's reinforcements.

The pony officer looked around terrified, he saw his comrades being exceeded in all aspects, explosions, gunfire and cries of pain, a show that no one should ever watch.

His eyes stopped on the gray pony that has been intersected while serving his role as mailmare, she was stunned, his face showed a reflecting of terror, anguish and fear, her half-eaten muffin was lying on the ground.

The officer felt something inside of him, something he remembered from his training at the academy.

"Defending the innocent."

Derpy's expression represented all the innocent ponies who died in the war.

“Derpy, snap out of it!” the officer shouted, but he received no response.

His mind was a mixture of bad emotions. The officer didn't know what to do, every second was a death sentence, as a last resort, he took Derpy's face with his right hoof and kissed her.

"Talk to me please, I need you to do it."

With his eyes closed, he kept kissing Derpy's lips, waiting for a response, such was his cluelessness of the situation that he didn't saw the slap coming from Derpy hooves that made him fall to the ground.

“You pervert, How dare you?!” she said angrily.

“There's no time to explain, retreat!” He shouted at the remaining soldiers, throwing a smoke bomb to distract the humans.

The gray pegasus was about to take off, but the officer grabbed his hoof and brought her to the ground again, and dragged her through the floor.

“What are you doing? I can fly ya' know?!” she said angrily.

“I know, but…” in that moment, a missile passed over them, exploding in front of them and cutting off the road, they turned in another direction and continued their escape “...but if you took off there, the enemy had you seen and you would've been dead by now.”

Derpy gave him the reason whit a helpless face.

“Don't worry, hold on a little more and you can go to deliver that important message” the officer said.

The forest seemed infinite and with no apparent exit, the shots broke branches and penetrated the armor of the few ponies that were still standing, killing them without any mercy.

Derpy and the officer continued their escape until, through the trees, they could see an armed group of humans who were going towards them, trying to intercept them, knowing that they were going to be surrounded, the official told Derpy:

“Go away, fly as fast as you can and send the message!, I’ll distract them.”

Without hesitating even a second, she spreaded her gray wings and took off, leaving the officer alone.

Samuel with a group of soldiers surrounded the alone pony.

“Do you think that we should take him as a prisoner?” one of them asked.

“We should, we'll get some useful information” Samuel said.

On that moment, a soldier looked up and saw a pegasus flying away.

“Captain Samuel, look there!” He warned while he pointed at her with his weapon.

Some set the target to shoot, but Samuel interrupted them.

“Leave this one to me.”

He loaded his rifle and pointed it at Derpy while the others watched, anybody realized that the pony officer was grabbing something, in a matter of a second, he took a crossbow and shot Samuel to prevent him for hurting the pegasus, but a millisecond before the rifle emitted a thunderous sound accompanied by a spark. The arrow went through Samuel's right shoulder, leaving him bleeding on the ground, while the soldiers riddled the pony officer and took care their injured captain.

Derpy wasn't a normal flier, which made it a difficult ascent, as it was like it, she touched her lips and remembered the kiss of that pony that didn't produce anything more than anger, but it brought back happy memories of Dr. Whooves and her daughter Dinky.

“Soon ... I will be with you” she whispered to the wind.

Suddenly, she felt pain in his neck which caused her wings closing and began to fall in a big free fall, although she tried, she couldn't open her wings, she only had to wait for her death as she saw the blood going out of her neck and "flying" with her.

“My dear Doctor…” she said in a muffled voice.

“... My dear... Dinky” she continued with opened eyes.

“... I will always take care of you, I promise I will, no matter how ridiculous that sounds …” his body was hit by several branches, producing her serious injuries “... I will be back.”

she hit the ground with her head, breaking her skull and killing her instantly, blood rained down for a second and finally, two tears wet her face, sealing, a promise of unconditional love.

The soldiers came to where the pegasus fell, they looked in her backpack and they found a letter.

“Let's take it to the general, he will translate it.”

“Got it.”

They kept the letter and left, leaving another pony corpse forgotten into oblivion.

The bandages on Samuel's shoulder dried completely, while he was ending his story, leaving Richard perplexed, feeling sorry for the fallen and the thinking of the difficulty that victory resulted for his men.

“Captain Samuel, you are ready,” The nurse said “Seeing your condition, I'm afraid we'll have to put an end to your service, we will prepare the papers and you prepare your things and retire to your home, a compensation will be granted to you any time.”

Samuel nodded, he stood up and went to his shared tent. Richard accompanied him to help with his stuff.

After a talk with the members of his division, both went to the portal, the fresh air of the earth was going through it, inviting him to cross it and go back to his normal life, but carrying all the weight of this senseless war.

They hugged slapping their back with his hands fraternally.

“Take care Samuel, thanks for everything,” Richard said.

“Don't mention it, I should be thanking you.” Samuel answered.

They ended their hug and Samuel got ready to go, but turned and looked at Richard.

“Listen” Samuel said “I'm going to tell you this now because if I told you before, I would been shot for traitor.”

“What are you talking about?”

“This…”

He quickly got close to Richard and whispered to his ear. Like a knife that penetrated his brain. Something that surprised him, thought he was the only one who had these doubts and concerns, maybe that was the reason why he seemed happy to leave.

He walked away from Richard and entered the portal, leaving Richard whit his mouth wide open, how he would deal with that issue? Certainly, he already had his own mental problems and now this revelation only added more weight to his thoughts, but he ignored it, and reported himself to the general.

Meanwhile, Philip Armander was inspecting a bloody letter, covered with a scarf to avoid soil his desk. With a cold and indifferent look, he grab the knife and opened the letter as if it were a statement from his mother-in-law. When he was about to read it, a known figure walked through the entrance of his tent.

“Captain Richard reporting sir!” Richard said doing the classic military gesture of greeting.

“Rest captain” Philip answered, leaving the letter to pay attention.

“I've come to take responsibility for all the events that took place yesterday, for make decisions that were beyond my range and the consequences” Richard nervously said.

“Let's leave the formalities behind Captain” Philip replied standing up “If it weren't for you, we would have lost an important squad. We are also at war and, as bad as it sound, can't be sorry for every dead man in a valuable and sad way, unfortunately it is a burden that the families and loved ones must endure, but we must move on.”

Richard didn't seem happy with that answer, he already knew the cold and serious attitude that the general had, but for some reason, he never could deal with it, he was never ready for it, which bothered him at times and made him more nervous for question he was about to ask.

“General…”

“I told you to leave formalities aside, I don’t call you Rick for anything.”

“All right, Phil, why we invaded this place?”

The general wasn't expecting that question, but he knew the captain since high school, they were the typical friends of a lifetime, which kept them in touch after high school and were surprised when they knew that both of them were in the military, Philip before Richard, explaining why he had a higher rank.

Expressionless, he grabbed a bottle of water and took a long sip, closed it and give it to Richard inviting him to drink, and he said.

“Listen Rick, I swear that if you were another soldier who had asked me that, I would lie, telling him patriotic things that you only see in movies or in Uncle Sam's advertisements. Giving him the thrill of being able to defend himself using weapons and making him feel ridiculously invincible”

He said while holding the US flag.

“But you, you're someone I trust, it seems strange that you asked that, when not long ago I told you the real reason, you know the answer and I see no need to tell you again” he concluded sitting back in his chair.

Richard froze in place, all what his superior said was true, he just didn't want to admit it, why he asked something that already knew? Perhaps the blame spoke for him, wanting to punish him for what happened, but the general didn't cared about it.

Seeing the expression on the face of his friend, Philip felt bad.

“Listen, if you feel confused in some way, we can arrange you a little vacation, you can afford it thanks to these victories you had, since we have to manage all the acquired territory and take control of the remaining cities. We need you healthy and focused,”

That proposal seemed tempting, but Richard couldn't escape of his problems, not anymore.

“Phil I'm fine, there's no need for that” Richard said with fake smile.

“That's my captain!” Philip said friendly hitting Richard's forearm “I knew I could count on you!”

“Of course my general” He replied with a sigh.

“Well, that's all, I think you can retire already, there is a lot to do today.”

“Okay General” Richard said.

As he walked to the exit, he stopped, remembering the reason why was there.

“Actually, there is one thing I wanted to say.”

“Tell me captain.”

“I know how to find the fugitives.”

“You know Richard, I don't think we should spend resources to search two rogue horses” he laughed “it's better spent that time finding the refugees” he said while he was reading the letter he left earlier.

“Listen, the possible hideout of the fugitives is probably the hideout of the refugees“ he said.

“I see …” Philip said paying attention to the captain.

“If resources are the problem, I can go alone on foot with only the essentials, bringing periodic reports of my activity and my findings” he said, decided to go.

“And how long will the expedition take?”

“Only the time needed.”

The general was thoughtful for a moment, I was a little sceptical for a minute, but he always trusted his sidekick.

“All right Rick, go and take care of this, don't forget your Telephone to contact me to reportarte, travel fast and don't take too long, who knows what this ponies are capable of, good luck captain” he concluded with a military salute.

Richard answered the salute and left the tent to grab the things he needed.

With a great determination and a giant backpack, not counting how heavy it was, Richard began a slow walk so he didn't have to take too many breaks and arrive as quickly as possible to the marked tree. Part of the way reflected on the track, in the way he thought about the clue he had, that embarked him on this misadventure, made him feel guilty, he made him live dreams and nightmares, he had the feeling that if he found these ponies he could clear his thoughts.

When he least expected it, he could see the “X” in the hollow tree, he touched it with his right hand with a vague memory of what happened and he continued his travel to nowhere.

A rock formation was the first unusual thing that Richard saw, it had three points that anged as if they were a wet cave's stalagmite. He went around the formation, trying to find a secret entrance, but it was all in vain, there was no access.

Leaving the option of hideout behind, he got frustrated and went back to the beginning of the formation, thinking that more boring walks that will lead him to who knows where were waiting for him.

He took the phone to send the first report. At the base, the general raised his phone as he finished chewing a piece of bread that he was eating with his soup.

“Base, this is General Philip Armander."

“I'm here to give a general report of my research” Richard said, while Phil swallowed the last piece of bread.

“Well, I hope you have good news for having interrupted lunch,”

“Actually... It isn't general” he said with some interference “I found in a rock formation but there's no way in.”

With an annoyed sigh, Philip replied.

“It doesn't matter, you have three days to find, at least, a hint of the location of the hideout.”

“Alright, got it” Richard concluded.

He put the phone in his backpack and he closed it, wondering if it was worth the effort he was putting on that travel. He heard several birds suddenly cross the sky, as if something scared them, clueless, he stood up and as he was about to pick up the backpack, some kind of lightning hit his back, throwing him to the ground and causing a great pain in chest area. His mind was blank and his face was eating dust. He was slowly turned by the responsible of the attack, all he could see was a blurry multicolor figure, with a last effort, Richard raised his hand to touch the creature but the pony stopped him, hitting him on his stomach, removing any remaining of air and knocking him out.

Seeing that man couldn't resist, the pegasus loaded him on his back and flew over the formation, and at the top of the highest stalagmite, she threw him to what looked like the entrance to a fireplace, getting lost in a dark tunnel.