Greed and Power

by TheStoryMaker

Chapter Four - Awakening

Darkness and death get the best of us.

Fear gets the best of us, I can't imagine it. How did my grandfather do it? How did he do it all? Using gunpowder and dynamite and nothing more but just a knife? The ponies probably don't have guns, but stuff from the Medieval Times. Shields and swords, they use trenches, we used swords for Calvary during the Great War.

I see a bright light.

It was like I was underwater.

8:45AM

July 2, 1863

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Battle of Gettysburg

---

"Oh god," I felt drunk, or dizzy if you recalled it. I couldn't get up I was on my back lying, it felt like I was on mud I then moved my left arm hitting of what felt like a board of wood.

I wipe my face which felt more wet, than usual. I open my eyes which greeted the Sun. I was then going to move until.

"AAAAHHHH!" Yelled a loud battle cry. Then the sounds of war came, of cannons and revolvers.

"Oh SHIT!" I yelled as a soldier came holding gun carrying a bayonet with a rifle, I held the bayonet at the end, with my hands meeting the barrel of the rifle.

"Jesus!" I exclaimed as he blocked the Sun and I did my best to hold off his weight. I did my best as the blade slowly came to touch my body but I heard a yell from the right side of me.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!" As a twelve-year-old kid stabbed the man, kicked him in the abdomen letting him fall on the bottom right of me, then shot him with a revolver. The rifle fell on me, so I grabbed it to all of my might.

The kid looked at me, "I'm not gonna shoot you," He said, as he let out a hand for me to get up.

"Thanks, fo-" I stopped as soon as I got up looking at my surroundings, men in the same uniform as the kid killed came to the left of us trying to get a flank. I saw the grounds of the battlefield explode every second of my vision, people in navy blue and in a light gray color uniform lied on the floor dead. Some parts of the battlefield covered in red, complete red. "Oh my God." I was shocked at what I saw, the horrors of war. I touched my head to realize I as wearing a hat. "Crap!" As I turned my body the other way, ducking down lying my back against the wooden board.

Shaking.

Then let out a loud breath, "Kid," I said. Looking at him.

"What?" He was reloading the revolver he just shot, without removing the chamber he used a little stick to remove the shell of the bullet. Then placed it in.

"What day is it?" I asked looking at him as a near explosion caused the mud and soil to rain down on the both of us of a second.

"I think it is around July the second." He answered this made more fear into me.

"Where are we at? And what's your name?" I asked him to answer. How did I get here? Where are we and that I already know the day, all I need to know is the year.

He started to move through the opposite of the front lines of the battlefield. So I swiftly followed him. He started to talk as he moved through the trench we were in.

The trench had nothing more but hills and barb wire at the top in an almost open area. It wasn't the trenches we were fighting the ponies but instead, the 'trenches' were just well ditches.

"First of all, we are near Gettysburg." He said then grabbing a rifle he had on his side reloading it. "Second of all, my name is Alex." He answered grabbing his knife to clear the dirt in the musket. "What's your name?" He asked me in which I was not prepared for.

"My n-name i-is N-Nathan." I choked. I couldn't believe who I was with, in all of the twelve-year-olds I was with my...

My grandfather.

I thought of this for a second, staring into space. "Hey!" Alex then snapped his fingers, "Last time that happened, the American Revolutionary War started." He said as he laughed then followed by me laughing with him, he was the same person as he was back in Nineteen Twenty-two or for all of my life.

He then added the gun powder into the rifle and then proceeded to insert the metal ball into the rifle as well. But for me, I had no weapon or anything but my uniform.

We were fighting the Confederate States of America.

"Um, do you have any spare muskets or revolvers?" I asked with the fear of not able to defend myself.

"Yeah," Alex said, grabbing an extra revolver out of his pocket.

"How the hell do you have so many guns hidden in you?" I really wanted to know his secrets of the ways to stay alive in the battlefield.

"Um," He started. "If you get captured, they won't see it coming." He said. Handing me the revolver, with obviously six bullets in the chamber. "Old school, wild west revolver." He then snapped his fingers, at the same time moving his index, making almost a 'gun' shape with his hands.

"Are you supposed to shoot me?" I want to know if it was a sign to kill the Confederates.

"What? No, it means 'looking good stud'." He said, then moving to my location past me in the trenches. I followed him upon a hill in the dirt, with smoke covering most of the view with again cannons hitting their targets. The sounds of war will always stick with me.

It didn't help me how we were bunched up with other Union soldiers waiting to die in the dirt. With all of that out of the way, the sound of death came louder than ever.

"Is, is that a train?" I asked him pointing to the right it was a good distance away from the battlefield we were at. The train looked like it had armor, and hole for the projectiles

"I think it is!" He replied. I was shocked with just that but then.

'BOOM' 'BOOM' 'BOOM'

The train fired artillery shells, landing in the battlefield where to the point where well, 'What's the point of firing it if everyone is all dead?' I thought cocking back the hammer. "Holy shit," I exclaimed in agony. "You have got to be kidding me."

Alex then exclaimed, "Jesus,"

"I know, right?"

We have to defend, the Confederates were flaking to the left or trying at least. To get the advantage of the battle, I stayed with my grandfather, or Alex. To survive, this... This hell.

"I hope you know how to kill." As he went prone on the dirt hill.

"Why would you say that?" I asked.

"Because you look like you never killed somebody before!" Alex exclaimed.

I scoffed then replying, "No shit, Sherlock." I moved my body to prone seeing Confederates charging from a distance to us.

"Who the hell is 'Sherlock'?" He asked.

"Trust me, in the future you will," I replied, taking my first shot. Damn, I really need a musket. No, not just that I need an M1927 to kill them fast.

I took shot after shot, killing any Confederates I saw. The union was pushing forward, they were falling back to me and Alex followed them forward and onward as we went off.

"Watch out!" I yelled as a soldier almost shooting me with a musket. I moved his arm as he took the shot, luckily not hurting anybody. I grunted and punched the Confederate, wounding him then shooting him with my revolver.

"Nice shot," Alex said. "Where did you get those moves from?"

"Had some practice," I replied as the sounds of muskets and revolvers literally heard every second it took over my head. It was like I was hallucinating crazy. I was afraid that the ditches will close on us like an avalanche, it wasn't mud so thank God for that. 'I swear after this I'm gonna eat, some Tomato soup and some sandwiches!' I thought to myself in a way where I can laugh it off tomorrow, about our 'Grand Adventure'

"You need a musket?" Alex asked me picking up the musket from the Confederate I just killed. Picking up shaking it to get the dirt out and the mud too.

"No, I good," I answered, I didn't want to use it. Why? Well, first of all, it takes forever just to reload it, second of all nothing but smoke gets in your vision as you take that shot.

"Just..." Alex threw me the musket, the barrel was pointing to the sky so I was safe from getting shot by the damn thing.

"Alright, never mind!" I said cocking it back ready to kill. I prone with Alex on the hill leading up from the ditch we were in some soldier dead screaming, shouting, bleeding. Some, dead. I looked through the Iron Sights which was a little line pointed at the end of the barrel. "What the hell..." I mumbled. I didn't want to complain about because I knew other muskets would have the some Iron Sights. "Okay,"

I pointed to the Confederates shooting with again smoke blocking my view. I didn't even know if I confirmed the kill. Alex did the same thing, this time better and more skilled than me. Shooting the musket then reloading quickly as I took my time copying him because obviously the only thing I know what to reload is bolt-action rifles, semi-automatics, and automatics. "You look like you've never been camp," Alex stated as I watched him with every move, he was implying about me in training.

"Uh, I been there just you know, I just went through different training." I didn't know what to say to him it was like having to say things in a complicated way.

He scoffed, "Okay!" He replied as he stretched his face in a confused glance at me, reloading inserting the metal ball in the gun, then lying on his stomach looking through the Iron Sights to kill another Confederate.

I quickly placed the metal ball in as I followed the same tactics as he did.

After shooting reloading, kill after kill. We both didn't seem to notice that we were pushing forward leading to a victory.

We both got up as we swiftly went through the battlefield with our comrades, the Union charged with bayonets some throwing dynamite into the ditches, exploding some dirt hills collapsing into the ditches to how unstable they were.

"Holy, shit," I said as a hill collapsed into the ditch buried some Confederates. "There!" I exclaimed and pointed as we jumped into the ditch.

I pointed to a Confederate flag as it waved in the wind with a pole holding it at the top.

The pole was metal and was held by concrete attached to the ground up on a hill surrounded by a network of ditches.

"This is insane! You want to capture that flag?" Alex asked me shocked, as dead bodies gunpower, soldiers killing enemies, as screams and cries took over the sound of mud, and dirt. As cloud covered the Sun making us not raise our cheeks to over our eyes.

"Let's do it! Follow me!" I commanded to which he nodded.

We fought like lions, killing every single Confederate we saw as the Union army surrounded killing the weak Confederates. Blood splattered everywhere as cuts and bruises took over our bodies. The train came closer with creators of projectiles landed around us as hills came down. Every step of victory we took came closer to victory. Alex and I stood our ground as we came to the flag in the ditches then a ditch that would follow to the flag ending with about six feet of 'No Man's Land surround by ditches in a hill-top, but the only problem was that the bottom was covered in barb wire.

"As if things didn't get any worse," I said to myself and Alex, I could think of anything to raise the flag without touching the bard wire. We needed dynamite to destroy the thing.

"Yeah, you're right but how to we put our flag up?" I looked around to find dynamite, but just as I looked around a corner in the ditch I saw a stick of dynamite land in the ditch beside me of where we were at. "Watch out!" Alex called.

I picked it up as fast as I can and threw the stick next to the pole. Exploding mud and dirt launching it into the sky. It took a second of rain-fire of dirt to rain down on us but we were fine.

"Ok, now all we need is our fla-" I was cut off by Alex who yelled at me, the guns of smoke and explosions would still take shape of the battlefield.

"Oh, alright." He took out the good old red, white, and blue. The flag was folded so I unfolded to open it ready to be hanged on the pole making it our territory. "Hey, Alex!" I called out.

"What?" He asked in replied.

"Cover me as I put the flag up!" I took out a revolver on the right side of my hand, using my thumb and middle finger as I held on the end of a flag and used the other hand to hold the other end. "Okay," I mumbled again ready to set our territory.

I went up the pole running, sweating hard of the fear of getting shot and killed. I came to it the rope holding the flag made the flag hold in place so I shot the rope making the Confederate flag fall into the cold muddy, smoky dirt. Every gunshot I heard made me want to speed up my process. "I got this, I got this!" I exclaimed pushing the rope off of the holes in the flag, then inserting the rope in the three holes of the America flag. I tied the now two separate ropes together that I shot making it into one rope then pushing the rope down making the flag reached the top of the rope.

By now the Confederates retreated by still had defensive positions at the end of the battlefield at their side.

Alex came up to me. He and I were covered in blood and mud, and sweat. "Here is your musket," He said handing me my musket, I grabbed it then secured the rope making sure the flag won't come down.

Again the flag was thirty-six star instead of the forty-eight stars we had in the present.

Which again. How did I come here? How?

I tried to leave those questions at the back of my head, as worry and fear hit my heart.

My heart became cold by the thought and made me shiver.

"Today, Alex" I looked at him as the rest of the Union looked at us, resting in the ditches or just wiping their face off of mud and sweat. It was around sunset so we were okay. "Today is the day where we fought through hell and bac-" I hit the stock of the musket to the ground, but then as that happened everywhere, everything was darkness. "What the hell?" I replied back in shock as the battleground, ditches, and smoke disappear in an instant. There was only a moon right directly up to me. I tried to look at the bright circle but no luck. But as soon as I give up in hope to blind my eyes. A... A

A shadow appears.

I tried to examine it closer to get a better look at what it is. "Oh no," I exclaimed in shock of my sight. It was a silhouette of the 'Princess of the Night' I saw as the pony showed her front part of her body only seeing the front legs. It looked down on me and just stood there wondering and wondering...

I looked like an idiot just staring at it back, the moon, and what else? I thought of the flag I saw in my dream there was a flag that showed her and what else? Nothing came to my mind as ideas but instead fear and weakness.

But, just then as she looked down she turned her body 'walking' back to of where she came from as soon as the moon became a whole it seemed to get bigger and bright. I thought I was going to go blind, the moon became bigger and bigger, brighter and brighter. So much so that when I looked at the ground, I could see my shadow and the reflection of the bright light. "Oh God, oh God." I started breathing heavy to the point where I thought I could pass out.

Suddenly, the sound of an 'e' sound came with it.

I saw a bright light, moving and swaying "Oh god," I said as I covered my face. I got up to it seemed that I was lying down on a bed. As soon as my vision cleared there were five people looking at me with worry and confusion.

My forehead felt like bleeding.

"Son, this morning you hit your head hard back there."

Comments

[Sunny Starscout]

I don't get it...

[TheStoryMaker]

8209129 You don't get what?