One Year later
Flash grumbled to himself. Lost in his thoughts and dreams in his sleep. He woke from his slumber as he felt the ground around him and pulled himself up from it, before looking around him; it was pitch black in every direction, gouging his eyes out wouldn't make a difference in visability. He was wearing his guard combat armour with bumps and scars all over and holding a spear in his hoof. It seemed like he was fighting something before he woke up. Looking around himself again, he lowered he spear and stood on his hind legs.
Suddenly, a flash of green light from behind blinded him and he stumbled back in shock, gripping his eyes with his hoof before squinting around him whilst pulling up a defensive stance. Without a warning, a limp body of a royal guard fell from above and crashed in front of him. The sound of the armour hitting the floor echoed through his ears, leaving them ringing at the sudden crash. The blood of the body splattered all over the floor and a dark figure faded in behind it from the dust caused by the impact. It looked like a dark unicorn with transparent abstract wings with blood dripping from the horn to the ground, like the horn was used to impale the pony in front. It looked at him with heartless blue eyes. Flash looked back, his eyes locked onto the figure's with a strong glare.
Something's familiar about this, can't quite put my hoof on it though. He thought to himself as the eyes became glowing red and the figure began to advance towards him; fangs unleashed from under it's muzzle and the wings flared outwards as the horn glowed green, readying to strike.
Flash suddenly realised the situation he was in and stepped back away from the figure quickly, reaching behind him for his weapon. after feeling nothing he realised that he was unarmed and unarmoured.
I swore I had armour on! He mentally screamed to himself. Flash looked at the Figure before looking at the corpse on the ground.
Something was very familiar.
"No... No! NO!!!" He cried out.
Flash ran forwards and lunged at the figure before his movement was halted midair. He felt something behind him and turned his head at a shadowy figure behind him. This one was much more taller and slender, its eyes glared at him before starting to grin, the bright white fangs exposed themselves from the darkness.
He stared back at the figure with a confused frown, then he felt a tingling, numbing sensation in his chest. Looking down at his body, he saw a blade sticking out of his chest from behind, his blood slowly dripping out from his body and running along the edge of the blade.
What? How? He murmured to himself.
Suddenly the large figure pulled the blade and flung him the opposite direction over a bottomless ridge, leaving the Pegasus flying off the blade, paralyzed as he watched himself plummet down helplessly.
"AHH!" Flash fell out from sleep, after feeling like he was falling off the bed. He looked around himself to see that he was still safely on the bed, clutching his pillow tightly as if he was hanging from a cliff.
"Bucking hell," he cursed under his breath.
He got up and looked around. He was in a small wooden cabin that consisted of a window, three beds and a chest. Tappenfield was resting in his bed next to him, staring at the ceiling.
"Glad you're awake," Tappenfield muttered. Flash rubbed his eyes and then the back of his head, scratching the itch on his neck. He looked around and saw Snapshot's empty bed.
"You sounded scared, what hap..."
"Where Snapshot?" Flash cut him off, trying to change the subject to save his embarrassment of yelling out for later, which earned a groan from Tappenfield.
"He went out," he moaned, pointing at the window.
A massive blizzard had hit the crystal empire, winds sweeping the vast expanse of snow and ice. Flash and some of his mates including Tappenfield and Snapshot had been moved to the crystal guard a few months ago, and a blizzard had conveniently struck as their new sergeant told them to 'make yourselves at home,"
Flash looked out the window, the blizzard had seemed weaker than before; or that they were getting use to the weather of the winter front (the border of the Crystal Empire that faces north into nowhere). He hopped out of his bed and place his covers back neatly on the bed, preserving as much heat as possible from the night's rest. he grabbed his cloak from his bed and started putting it on.
"I'm going out now," he informed Tappenfield, who looked as if he had no intentions to even get out of bed.
Flash looked at him and gave a sigh, "If the headache's that bad, you should probably tell somepony," he said before grabbing his body armour.
"It's fine," Tappenfield weakly said before rolling over to a side.
Flash rolled his eyes. Good O' Stubborn Tappenfield, he thought, buckling up his chest piece before grabbing his helmet.
"Watch over Snapshot for me, he seemed like he needed somepony to talk to when he left," Tappenfield muttered.
Flash then slipped on his helmet and hoofguards, grabbed his spear and tied his scarf around his neck before heading out to the storm.
"That's the reason why I'm heading out."
Flash marched through the snow and ice to where their usual post was, where he saw Snapshot standing on the edge of the cliff face, looking down at the vast snowy landscape. He approached him slowly, wading through the thick snow, until he was right behind him.
"Hey Snap," Flash blankly greeted the stallion as he halted next to him.
"Oh, Flash!" Snapshot greeted in surprise. "Thought it was about time you got up."
"The clock was broken, what's the time now?" Flash muttered, adjusting his gear.
Snapshot looked down at his small pocket watch and replied. "It's just pass mid-day."
"Doesn't look like it," Flash commented on the snowy weather. "I forgot what it feels like to touch the sun now."
Snapshot chuckled, "We'll be back at the empire soon. The week went fast; it only felt like yesterday we arrived here."
"Yeah..." Flash replied in thought, before another thing to ask about; it seems Snapshot is the one who knows everything today.
"Yeah, By the way, where's Corporal Stone Cut? He wasn't at the cabin."
"He's gone back to Empire to make final checks about our relief force." Shapshot replied.
"By himself?"
"Yeah, you and Mr Headache over there were fast asleep, and somepony... "He gestured to himself, "had to keep watch over the post, as well check out the difficulties back at the Command Post, so he decided to take matters into his own hooves."
Stone Cut wasn't a stallion who followed direct orders, nor was he a complete rebel; he would stick to his duty no matter what, but the way he does it is questionable to a few. One time, according to a few members of the Crystal Guard, when a filly was stuck in a cavern, he hopped down into it and dragged the filly out while everypony else was busy preparing their safety harnesses despite being a wingless, crystal pony, there was also once when he was in a escort, he demanded the pony who they were escorting to apologise to his mate for demanding too much from him. In the end, despite his somewhat reckless acts, he was promoted to Lance Corporal.
From what Flash could tell, some of the Crystal Guard despised his ways of doing things while others, especially his commanders as well as Shining Armour, thought of him as intelligent and a pony who will always takes the initiative.
"So... What are ya planning to do once we get back?" Snapshot chirped out of the blue.
"I don't know.. Maybe find a doctor for Tappenfield," Flash joked.
"He's probably not gonna go with that," Snapshot replied, stating the obvious.
"Then what do you suggest?"
"I think he just need a rest. I mean... we all need a rest. How do you feel about going to the club? I heard they got some great food there."
"From where?" Flash asked with a frown on his face. "Where do you get all this information from? We've just been training since we got here."
"I have my ways," Snapshot boasted.
They both stared out into the flat expanses of snow and ice. Watching the snow being pushed about like waves from the wind. Snapshot took off his helmet and fore-hoof guards and grabbed a lighter from his sack as he sat down onto the icy ground.
"It's about lunch time, don't ya think?" He said happily as he pulled out more supplies and rations.
Flash chuckled back as he watched Snapshot go to work on a vegetable stew. He looked out at the flat expanse again before deciding to sit with his friend, grabbing out his own supplies.
They sat and ate for a while before packing up everything and burying the hole they dug, making sure that there are no traces left behind. After another hour of patrolling, A figure appeared from the distance behind them.
Snapshot instantly recognised the figure and watched as it closed in with them.
"Corporal," He acknowledged as he approached.
He's got really good eyesight. Flash though as he tried to recognise the figure from a closer distance.
"Corporal," He said once he was close enough.
The figure halted and looked towards them. "There you are," He said and walked towards Snapshot. "New changes, we're leaving in thirty minutes. Get your gear from the cabin ready. Flash, you stay guard; Tappenfield will relieve you once he's done, then get your gear."
"Corporal!" They both acknowledged.
Snapshot gave Flash one last grin before heading with Lance Corporal Stone Cut towards the cabin.
After a while, Tappenfield arrived at Flash's location with his own gear.
"Hey," He solemnly greeted.
"What's up?" Flash said back.
"Not much," he muttered as he took over Flash's post.
"See ya," Flash said before heading towards the cabin.
Back at the cabin, Snapshot was packing away the last of his belongings while Stone Cut was dressed in all his gear, waiting outside.
"Hurry up, we haven't got all day." He muttered as Flash trotted in the cabin.
Flash packed up his few belongings into a sack and strapped on his saddlebags before taking off the bed sheets and pillow, tucking them into his sack.
"Need help?" he asked as Snapshot was having trouble packing the rest of his possessions.
"Nah, I'm good," he replied as he rammed his pillow into his sack.
After having finish with their items, they went outside with their gear, and waited along with Lance Corporal Stone for the relieving force. After a few minutes of waiting and limited chatting, a squad of five ponies appeared form the distance.
"That's them," Stone Cut muttered, pointing his left hoof backwards, commanding the two to form a line before marching forwards to meet the ponies in front.
They halted in front of the squad and Lance Corporal Stone Cut stepped forwards towards their commander and told him, "We got a guy at the post, send one of your guys to relieve him."
"Acknowledged," The pony replied, before gesturing to one of the ponies to fall out.
After Tappenfield got back, they took a quick check before marching back to the empire's gates. When they arrived, they put their blankets and pillows in the laundry to be washed and headed to their room. After sorting out the rest of their gear, they washed their utensils and placed them down in the barracks.
After that, they went on the parde ground to be briefed, very briefly.
"Good work on your first day, your commander has been speaking well of you," Sergeant Steel Sapphire told them as they stood lined up in ranks. "For now though," he continued. "Your services are not required until the 15th of June on 1200 hours. At that time, I recommend that you come early to prepare your squad, Corporal."
"Sergeant!" Stone Cut replied.
"Squad! Dismissed!" He boomed, followed by the turning and then marching of the squad.
"We got three days!" Snapshot cried aloud as they made their way towards their room.
"Yeah," Flash monotonously acknowledged.
"What should we do now?" Snapshot wondered aloud.
"Maybe just walk around. It's been a while since we really relaxed." Flash answered.
"Yeah sure, but where? Oh! I know, how about we go to that place I was talking about! We can walk around and have dinner there, after all, we did get our pay!" He responded excitedly whilst jiggling his bit-bag around, sounding a bunch of coins clashing against one another.
"Sure, why not," Flash agreed monotonously.
Tappenfield just groaned in response.
"Are you sure you're fine?" Flash asked him.
"Yeah... It's fine. Don't worry about it." He muttered back.
"Alright, how about we go the jousting! It'll be fun!" Snapshot chimed.
"How about tomorrow, it's pretty late." Flash replied for both him and Tappenfield.
"Okay... Let's see... What about the mines?"
"That's too far out of town, we can do that tomorrow."
"The farms?"
"It's closed now."
"Um... The circus?"
"Don't think Tappenfield's in the mood."
"The clinic, then."
Tappenfield just shook his head in response.
"How about... the strip club?"
The last comment made both Flash look at his friend with disgust and Tappenfield doing the same but with disapproval.
"I'll take that as a no."
"You can go there yourself." Flash muttered.
Tonight was gonna be a long one.
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Much better then the previous chapter, I can certainly see improvement in your writing. I really like the dream part and look forward to seeing how Flash handles PTSD. Keep up the good work!
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Flash, Tap, Snap...where’s...? Oh...oh no. Hoof...he didn’t make it...did he.