Broken Swords and Battle Scars

by moonblossom131

Children of Different Blood

Hopefully this wouldn’t take long. Hopefully I could be in and out before sunrise. I had waited all night to get into that castle, and now I needed to get in. The bush that was my hiding place scratched at my bloodied cyan flank. My mane, dull and faded, got stuck on the honeycomb like leaves of the feeble bush, and it caught on cobwebs.

“Even spiders abandoned this Luna-forsaken place,” I muttered under my breath.

Guards were stationed in front of the crumbling gray castle. They had gray manes, even more faded coats. I could hardly remember the vibrant white of their flanks and the brilliant royal blue of their manes. The guards had bags underneath their eyes and their helmets and hoof-guards were worn down. The war had hit everyone. Battling was not for Equestria.

I sat silently, breathing slowly. I sat thinking about the old days. The hot sun slowly rose in the sky. Today was especially humid. Probably because I was in the Everfree and pregnant. I was sweating like a pig when I heard rustling in the bushes in front of the main gates. The guards lifted their spears and pointed them at the moving bushes. I wrapped my tail around my stomach. I crouched lower in the bushes, peering through the thick branches. The sun was about halfway in the sky.

The ponies that approached the guards made me almost gasp! After I regained my cover, I had to look back at the intruders again.

A lilac unicorn, with a faded, scratched coat. An orange earth pony with a loose mane covered in dirt. A pink earth pony with a matted pink mane. She looked so tired. I had never seen that mare tired in all my life! Another unicorn, with a dull and dirt-covered white coat, no longer radiant, and a faded, frizzy purple mane. But what interested me the most were the three little fillies cowering behind the first unicorn. One had a horn and a faded white coat like the older mare with the purple mane. One had a dusty yellow coat, a red mane, and a drooping bow.

The other filly with them was a buff orange. Her mane was a dark-magenta, cut almost exactly like mine.

“Scootaloo!” I gasped! My little sister! I had wondered where she was, how she was doing, if she was surviving. As her name was whispered, the orange filly stared right at the bush. I tried to make my eyes wider and brighter and make my mane more vibrant, but the little filly could not see me.

“Scoots are y’all okay?” the orange earth pony asked in her familiar country twang. “Y’all seem a little bit distracted.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing, Applejack,” Scootaloo answered, shaking with effort as she turned back towards the older mare. “I just thought I heard my sister’s voice…”

Applejack stifled a sigh. “Oh, Scoots, y’all know that I ain’t part of our lil’ family no more.”

“I guess I’m just a little paranoid,” Scootaloo said. She still huddled close towards her same-age friends.

The other mares had been talking to the guards. I decided to turn my ears towards their conversation.

“So you haven’t seen her?” the lilac unicorn asked.

“No, we haven’t, mam,” the guard said, grinding his teeth a little.

“Have you heard from my brother? Is he alright?” the unicorn insisted.

“Ms. Sparkle,” the other guard said. “Your brother is still in the dungeons. With Ms. Dash’s husband and a few other outlaws. He is… well.”

“Why was there a pause before well?” Twilight said suspiciously. Her eyes grew wide. “Why was there a pause?”

“Ms. Sparkle, he is fine,” The first guard said with tired, narrow eyes.

“Then are y’all sure ya haven’t seen I?” Applejack asked, holding the yellow-coated filly close to my. She was AJ’s sister.

“No, we haven’t!”

The second guard muttered something to the other.

“Look, look, Ms. Apple,” the second guard rubbed his forehead. “We did see a sonic rainboom – of sorts – in the forest the other day. One of the monsters was after the pony that made it.”

“Only my sister can do a sonic rainboom!” Scootaloo piped up. Her legs wobbled under the effort of standing straight.

“It wasn’t really a sonic rainboom, it was something like it!” the guard nearly yelled. Scoots shrank back behind Twilight.

“Well, how can we know that’s not her?” the pink-coated earth pony spoke. Her voice was hopeful, but it was cracked, sore, and tired. “She is the only pony that can do one!”

“Pinkie Pie, darling, I don’t think we should get our hopes up, it could’ve been any other Pegasus,” the white unicorn’s voice spoke. Though it still held its lavish accent, it was not as noticeable. And, as always, it sounded tired. Where could these ponies have gone in the course of just three days?

“Ms. Sparkle, Ms. Pie, Ms. Rarity, Ms. Apple, and fillies, I know this may be complicated, but since yesterday, we haven’t seen Ms. Dash!”

“Fine then,” Twilight said. “Have you at least seen Commander Fluttershy?”

“She reported back two days ago,” the guard answered quickly. “She left for Hoofington; there was a protest. I think she … took care of the problem.”

Twilight’s eyes watered. I knew what “took care of the problem” meant. I “took care” of Ponyville. Fluttershy had “took care” of Trottingham, Las Pegasus, even Appleoosa, and now Hoofington. Rarity just sighed and gathered the fillies.

“Just let us know if you see or hear from any of them,” she gave a weary sigh. “Now come, children, it’s time to make camp back in the forest.”

“Why can’t we just stay here?” the little yellow filly whined in her faint country accent. “I don’t want to walk all the way back through that forest!”

“Apple Bloom, you’re gonna have to!” Applejack almost raised her voice.

“But what about the Blanks?” Sweetie Belle, the littler unicorn, whimpered.

“We’re not going to even pass that part of the forest,” Twilight sighed. “Besides, it’s just a legend. I’m pretty sure that the Blanks don’t exist.”

“But Diamond Tiara said-”

“Why are y’all listenin’ to that mother bucker?” Applejack said.

“Applejack don’t curse like that!” Apple Bloom cried.

“I’m sure it’s just the stress-” Rarity huffed.

“Rarity, I don’t want to walk through the forest!”

“Applejack, why did you say those words?”

“Like Rare said, we’re under a lot of stress, so just forget about it!”

“Mams, you’re going to have to leave now!”

“I miss Dashie! I miss Flutters!”

“We all miss our friends Pinkie Pie, so just calm down!”

“Rarity, I was talking to you!”

“Mams, you are going to have to leave! Right now!”

“EVERYBODY QUIET!” Twilight shouted. She grinded her teeth and magic sparked from her horn. Everybody shut their mouths. Never once had Twilight been that harsh, that demanding, that mean. She turned to the guards. “Sirs, I am so sorry for the inconvenience. Give the princess my best. Now, the rest of you, we have to move. Maybe we’ll find Rainbow and Fluttershy tomorrow.”

“You’ve said that every day!” Scootaloo balled, but one glare from Twilight shut her up.

“I know what I said,” Twilight said. “But we will find them one day, whether it be their skeleton, their wing feathers, or themselves, we will find them. Somehow.”

I silently cried again as I watched my friends walk away. They were looking for me. After all that I had done to them, they were looking for me!

“Sweet Celestia, those mares were Drama Queens!” one guard smirked. The other guard just snorted back.

I scrunched up my face in anger. I waited until nightfall, slowly building up the rage inside of my, until I crept out of the bushes to the mindless, sleeping guards. I “took care” of that problem. The solution is called Zecora’s magical potion.

“Or should I say,” I smirked. “Poison.”

I leaned the heavy guards up against the fortress wall. Panting, I smiled.

“Two down,” I breathed. “Who-knows-how many more to go.”

I silently entered the fort. I was just a silhouette in the moonlight on top of the wall. The shadow of the wall was so immense that the guards wouldn’t be able to see my coat and mane in the darkness, no matter how colorful they were.

The guards were all shivering by a campfire. They all had their rusty golden armor on, shining in the silvery starlight. The fire crackled, hissed, and spat. Sparks flew into the air but they died out quickly. I didn’t feel like seeing fire. The only thing I actually ever enjoyed about fire was the smell. It was like burnt firewood roasting something delicious, emitting a bitter sweet smell like a campfire would. I had always loved camping. Ever since I was little, my parents would take me down to the ground from their home up in Cloudsdale, and they would sleep under the stars with no tent at all. When my parents were snoring (my father quite loudly), I would sneak away from the camp and take off into the air. I loved the cool night winds tugging at my mane and tail. I loved the crisp air hanging still until my beating wings stirred it. I missed how the lavender-looking clouds would gently swirl into nothing as I puffed through them with my wings, flying backwards and upside down. I missed the starlight swirling and twirling into muddy, pretty designs underneath my eyelids. I missed how cool and clean and fresh and peaceful the air tasted. I missed how I could relax and fly without knowing where I was going, or caring for that matter. I missed when I didn’t have a battle to fight, a commander to obey, or a princess to fight for. I missed when I could laugh, and fly, and play, and just smile without any particular reason.

A cold wind stirred my thoughts. I knew that the path of a rebel soldier was long and lonesome. I could not survive with my fellow comrades. Nor could I survive with my former-friends. As I crouched in the darkness, a cold shiver ran through my body. I pushed it through me. My eyes turned a desolate cold as my mane fluttered gently in the cold breeze. It fell softly and silently as the gentle wind stopped. I felt ice in my veins, but like every other time the evil came seeping into my body, I pushed it away. I knew that in just a few short months, I would have a child to take with me on me lonesome journey. There were no allies for a fighter like me.

Then why am I rescuing my husband? I thought. Why am I here now?

The ice had melted. I found myself focusing on the soldiers around the fire. They were talking about a recent battle.

“In all my years of serving with Celestia,” one guard with a deep voice spoke. “I have never seen so much blood on one battle field.”

“I wish that I didn’t have all these scars to remind me,” a younger, inexperienced female voice said. “I wish that I never joined the navy at all.”

“I’m with you on that one,” I said.

“Did you guys just hear something?” the younger voice said, her ears perked.

The moonlight acted like camouflage on my coat as I walked calmly out of the shadows. The pale firelight lit up the faces of the other soldiers as they gazed at me.

“Rainbow!” a young male voice said. He sounded excited! He was a light yellow stallion with a wavy purple and flame-like orange mane.

“Spectrum Fleet!” I gasped! It was Spitfire’s son in the flesh. I quickly sped over to him and hugged him tightly. Ever since Spitfire became the top commander of the army, Spectrum had been on his own. I took him under my wing, though. He was like the son I never had.

“Oh my sweet Celestia!” Spectrum gasped again. “Oh, my sister will be so glad to see you!”

“Spectra Harp is here too?” I said, pulling away from my tight hug with Spectrum.

“Spectrum? Have you seen Sundrops?” a painfully familiar voice said. Out of the corner of the castle came a light blue mare. She had a long and wavy red-and-light-pink mane. “Spectrum?”

The mare came to the campfire and gasped, breathing in, before she saw me! Harp giggled and ran towards me at full canter! She knocked the breath out of me as she hugged me.

“Rainbow!” she squealed. “Oh my Celestia, you’re here! I never thought I’d see you after Spitfire sent you to… oh never mind you’re here now!”

I hugged Harp back.

“Oh, Harp! How have you two been?” the two twins smiled at me as they answered my question.

“I’ve been amazing!” Spectrum said. “I’ve been learning how to do magic just as well as my Father did!”

My smile faded a little. The twins’ father had gone to fight in Fillydelphia just as they were born. He did not return.

“I’ve been just fine,” Harp answered. “Oh, I also met a new friend. His name is Sundrops and-”

“Harp!” the younger male voice from the campfire said. The stallion came running towards Harp.

“Sundrops!” Harp gasped. She hugged him, tight. I raised my eyebrows. Spectrum rolled his eyes. “I was so worried when you went into battle!”

Sundrops just hugged Harp tighter. I could see tears beginning to form at the edges of his eyes. I noticed black scars on his pale white coat. His shaggy orange and yellow mane was faded and covered in ashes like mine.

“I got a little bruised up, but I’m fine now,” Sundrops said, letting go of Harp. She smiled gently at him.

“Sundrops!” the older soldier from before called to him. “We need to discuss our next battle plans! You’re going to present them to Celestia this time.”

Sundrops shrugged and smiled gently at Harp. He ran back to the campfire. Low mumbles started as the soldiers planned their battle.

“Oh, Rainbow, can we talk in private?” Harp said, her cheeks getting a little red.

“Sure,” I laughed. “Hey, I’ll catch up with you later, Spectrum.”

“No problem.”

Harp led me into the castle. My coat prickled as we walked down the hallways towards the sustainable, non-crumbling shelters. I knew that Harp worked here as an apprentice to the doctor who treated soldier’s wounds. We walked down the silent hallways. Well, silent all but the clip-clop of our hooves on the broken stone floor. We soon came to a corridor. There were three doors. One had a rainbow painted over it. The other one had a sword. And the last one had a pure white plus sign on it.

“This is where me and my two siblings live,” Harp explained.

“You and Spectrum have another sister?” I said, surprised. Spitfire had been so hurt about her husband’s death. It’s what drove her to get revenge on Luna’s soldiers for his death. I simply couldn’t imagine her with another stallion.

“You could tell by the rainbow, huh?” Harp chuckled. “She’s not blood-related, but I was out in Everfree, searching for the poison joke that could cure some form of insanity. At least according to my mentor. Anyways, I found her hiding in the bushes. I asked her what her name was, but she seemed too frightened of me. Maybe she recognized my eyes or something. I think her village was one of those small, nameless ones around Canterlot. They were of the first few to be… well, you know. I guess she’d been roaming the Everfree for years. So I just decided calling her Raindrop Sparkle.”

“Oh,” I said, somewhat dazed. There was a pit at the bottom of my stomach. It lurched a few times and I had to ask Harp- “Where’s the bathroom?”

“In my room to the left, why?”

I didn’t answer her question. I just entered Harp’s room, the one with the white plus sign on it. I took a left as she had directed and my stomach lurched one more time. A foul odor entered my nostrils. A sharp neigh sounded as Harp entered the bathroom.

“Oh… dear, what did you eat?”

“Nothing,” I answered. “At least not for a day or two.”

“That’s not very healthy!” Harp speculated. Her mouth was twisted in a frown. “Come on, let me put you on my spare bed.”

My adoptive daughter led me to a little bed right beside her own.

“Sometimes Raindrops has nightmares of when her village was attacked, so I got her this when she gets scared,” Harp explained.

I sat down and sighed. I wiped off my mouth with my foreleg. I had feared this since five months ago.

“If I didn’t know any better,” Harp laughed, standing next to me. “I’d say your pregnant!”

I just stared at her through cold, pleading eyes.

“Wait,” she breathed. “You’re not, right?”
I closed my eyes and turned my head to the side.

“Oh dear, how many months?”

“Five.”

“Then what were you doing settling a village on fire?”

Her loud voice echoed through the hallways. I realized the door to her room was still open. Harp quickly raced to the gaping door and slammed it shut.

“Please, you can’t tell anyone!” I begged. “I don’t want my daughter being trained for Celestia straight away!”

“Of course I won’t tell anyone!” Harp gasped. “But you were near smoke! And you haven’t eaten for two days! What is wrong with you?”

“Sorry, but I couldn’t let anyone know,” I sighed. “For the safety of my daughter.”

“Well, with these six months, you’re going to have morning sickness, your stomach is going to get larger, it won’t stay a secret for long!”

“I’m not staying here for long.”

Harp fell silent. I could see her eyes were troubled. She paced around the front of her room, in the space where the bed weren’t. Her bright orange eyes were wide and sharp. She was intelligent, but I could see that this was troubling her.

“I haven’t seen you for nearly a month, and you’re not even going to stay here for a week!” Harp cried. “I need to spend some time with the only pony that’s ever treated me like a daughter. Not even Spitfire loves me, I don’t think. That’s why I call her Spitfire and not Mom! I should be calling you mom!”

“Listen, sweetie, I only revealed myself because your boyfriend and his troop are not the bad ponies. I used to think that all the soldiers were bad, and that they were the enemy. But it is Celestia who needs talking to,” I admitted. “The only reason I came here was to break Soarin’ out of prison and escape to the Arctic north. I didn’t know that I’d be seeing you and your brother here.”

“So you were just going to break into the most heavily guarded prison in Equestria and leave without even saying hi?” Harp looked like she was about to cry.

“Originally!” I emphasized. “But I’m glad that I’m seeing you. I’m glad that your boyfriend convinced me otherwise.”

“Mom,” Harp said without even thinking over it. “He’s not my boyfriend.”

“What?” I said. Now, we were getting a little off topic. Thank Celestia, I thought. “But- you- why?”

“We’re just best friends,” Harp said. “I don’t think he really loves me. I think he likes the other doctor’s assistant in that way.”

“But you love him,” I reasoned. “Does the assistant like Sundrops?”

“Well, the last time we had to get some more supplies, she asked me to ask Sundrops if he like her.”

“This is why I got married while I was still young,” I laughed. Talking about crushes seemed to make Harp forget that her “mother” was leaving in just a few days after not seeing her for a month.

“What do I do?” Harp complained. “Why is this so complicated?”

“Welcome to marehood, enjoy the ride,” I sighed. “Growing up ain’t easy, that’s for sure.”

“How do you feel around Soarin’?” Harp whispered.

I had to think for a moment. After all, it had been awhile since I’d seen him. “Well, when I first started hanging out with him after I was drafted, I was all dizzy, confused, ‘bit by the love bug’ as they say. After we got married, the first few months I never stopped smiling. Luckily, I wasn’t on battle duty then. After it was my turn for the battlefield, every time I saw him, even when he was covered in blood from being whipped, I would feel so much hatred for whoever tortured him. I knew it was pure love that made me feel this way.”

“That’s exactly how I feel!” Harp said, jumping up. “But him the assistant are getting even closer now! I feel like I’ll never get a chance with him.”

“Have patience, Harp. I’m sure he’s just playing hard to get.”

Harp was about to say something when a knock came on the door.

“Coming!” Harp shouted. She raced to the door once again and opened it a little. After seeing who it was, she turned to me with alarm in her eyes. She stepped back and opened the door fully. There stood Spitfire and Sundrops.

“Hello, Spit- I mean Mother,” Harp stammered. “I thought you were in Hoofington.”

“Well now I’m not,” the former-Wonderbolt said coldly. “Spectra Harp, I need to talk to you. Rainbow Dash, there is someone waiting for you in the hallways.”

“How could that pony know I was here?”

“There are no secrets in Everfree that I don’t know.”

I left the room, and the door was shut behind me. I could hear muffled yelling coming from the inside. I sighed and exited into the hallways.

“Hello?” I said, the hallways mocking me.

Hello? Hello? Hello?...

“Is anyone there?”

Is anyone there? Is anyone there? Is anyone there?...

“Spitfire said someone wanted to talk?”

Wanted to talk? Wanted to talk? Wanted to talk?...

Silence greeted every word. I was confused, Spitfire had said someone was waiting-

A soft blowing sound. Pain in my neck. Closing darkness. Soft hoof steps. And then cold.

Author's Note:

Yes Spitfire is a jerk now. And I had to change it into first person because I kept writing it like that, so sorry if you find any weird typos or something. I notice that a lot of the time it says "my" instead of "me". And also instead of saying her or she is says I and my. I think this is because I used the replacement tool, so really sorry about that! I'll keep fixing that.