A veteran soldier returns home after wandering the landscape after escaping a prison camp for 4 years. How will she cope with the time she lost and her own memories?
Shimmering Blade was just your average Pegasus, then she joined the first ever standing army of Equestria in a thousand years to fight a war. She was serving her time fighting the war that she didn't understand when she was captured by the enemy.
She escaped captivity and ran for four years. Now she's home, but her world has changed even more than she has. Will she be able to cope with the sudden changes she missed, society's view on war veterans, and her own traumatic memories that still haunt her? Only time will tell.
Rain fell from the dark clouds above, soaking the field and the lone pony who decided to stay. Not that she had much of a choice.
Her neck creaked as she looked to the sky, the droplets of water gently landing on her face, but she didn't care. She had a job to do, and nothing could stop her.
Except for maybe that Celestia damned rust. The Pegasus stretched out her wings and looked down at herself. Her once polished iron armor had turned a dark red. It was worse in some spots and some spots she could even see holes in it as the rust ate away at the metal. She didn't know how long she had worn that armor, but she dared not take it off, not until she accomplished her mission.
Her mission was simple, get home. She estimated it was about three or four years since she last saw home, since she was captured and had escaped from the war. Hard to keep track when you're worrying about so much else, like when your next meal is... or if you'll be something else's next meal.
The creaking and groaning of the armor plates didn't bother her anymore, nor did the pain from the cuts and scrapes under her armor. It was just simply part of the job.
Suddenly, she froze. There was a light up ahead. She drew her sword, rusted and dull, and braced herself for the worst.
She lowered her blade when she saw a group of ponies approach her. One of them walked up to her, giving her a good look before speaking.
"Shimmering Blade? My name is Captain Shining Armor. We're here to take you home."
The pegasus smiled as much as her tetanus allowed her to, and she slowly reached up and took off her helmet. She cried for the first time in years.
"About bloody time..." She whispered, not being capable of any more volume. She wiped her eyes, smearing the filth and grime that had been accumulating for probably months. "About Bloody time"
Shimmering Blade opened her eyes slowly. She yawned, wanting to open her mouth more but being unable to. Sitting up in the white sheets of her bed she momentarily held a feeling of fear, confusion as to where she was or how she got here. It quickly passed however, and was replaced by feelings of joy and happiness. She was finally home. Four long years lost in the wilderness over. She smiled and set her head back down on the pillow.
She was sure this was the most comfortable pillow she had ever rested her head upon in the history of ponykind. She chuckled at her own joke and looked out the window of her room. The sun was just beginning its rise over the horizon. Four years since she had to wake up at dawn and she was still doing it. Some habits are hard to break.
Speaking of habits, she hadn't had a cigarette for at least two years. Not since she snuck into that village in the dead of night and stole some supplies. She never got over that feeling of needing to smoke, but it was controllable now and wasn't going to drive her crazy. If she was even still sane to begin with.
A knock at the door stirred her from her thoughts. The door opened slowly and a nurse walked into the room followed by a doctor. They both smiled and the nurse set about checking various readings from the machines in the room. The doctor approached the bed and held a clipboard near his face.
Shimmering Blade looked him over. He was an old army doctor, specializing in military-related injuries and illnesses, besides the few royal guards who got themselves hurt during training, he didn't have much patients. He read the clipboard for what felt like forever before setting it down. "Congratulations, private. I have word that you're recovery is going quite well. Your injuries are healing fine and the antibiotics appear to be working on those Tetanus and Gangrene infections. You're almost back to a healthy weight for somepony your height and everything else seems to check out fine. Unfortunately, you'll never be to where you were before. You'll still have muscle degeneration and tenseness for the unforeseeable future." He set a hoof on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, we've done all we could do, now we just have to wait and see how the rest of your recovery goes."
"Thanks, doc. I don't care. I'm just glad to be home." Shimmering Blade responded through the wire mesh around her jaw. It limited her speak more than the actual infection did, but she didn't question the doctor. He did outrank her by a substantial amount, with him being a Major and her only a Private, but he made it clear that the war was over, rank only matters in the guard now. The doctor smiled and nodded.
"You've been through a lot. Initial tests didn't show any signs of PTSD or any other mental illnesses, but this could be a delayed trigger. If you need to talk to somepony I'll be here, and I only live ten minutes away, so don't hesitate to call."
"Thanks. That means a lot to know I'm not crazy." She laughed, the doctor joined in.
"Take care, a nurse will be here with your breakfast in about an hour." He and the nurse turned and left the room, leaving Shimmering Blade all alone again.
Outside in the hallway, the doctor turned to the nurse. "She's doing very well. Just don't let her see Dr. Ironwing."
"Why not, doctor?" The nurse asked in confusion.
"He's a Griffin. She was captured and tortured by Griffins. You do the math." He turned and walked down the hallway, the nurse wrote something in her file and quickly followed after. She caught up to him quickly.
"Is that why you asked Dr. Ironwing to take a vacation?"
"Partly. He doesn't work this wing of the hospital so interaction would have been minimum anyway, he was also stressing out over some things at home. But yes, she does have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and apparently she's incredibly racist. Given her position however, I don't blame her in the slightest. She's been through hell and back, and if I figure this correctly, she's only at the beginning of her journey." He sighed, stopping in front of the door to the doctor's lounge. "Do me a favor and tell Dr. Quickheart to prepare some therapy sessions. I need some coffee."
"Of course, Doctor." The nurse smiled warmly and walked away from the doctor and toward the nurse's station.
Meanwhile. Shimmering Blade had dozed back to sleep. She dreamed she was flying aboard an airship. The wind swept through her auburn mane as her green eyes scanned the clouds around the ship. She spread her wings and let the undercurrent sweep through her tan feathers. It threatened to carry her away as she felt a particularly strong gust lift her up a bit. A slight adjustment to the angle of her wings set her hooves back on the deck of the ship. She approached the railing and peered over, not afraid of the height at all.
Suddenly, a shout behind her caught her attention. She turned around just in time to see a pony in armor running down the deck. He was dripping blood and had a look of shear terror on his face. Shimmering Blade watched as he approached the railing. He stopped and turned around, nervously looking around. He screamed again as his pursuers attacked him from above. He dodged one of their attacks and hopped up onto the railing. He turned around to look Shimmering Blade in the eye before he jumped.
She watched as several of the attackers dove down after him, then a loud thump next to her drew her attention away from the jumper. She turned and found herself face to face with a griffin nearly twice her size. He smiled in a sinister way and raised his sword high above his head. Shimmering Blade watched in terror, unable to move from the fear inside her.
The griffin brought the sword down.
"Gaah!" She yelled, shooting up in her bed. She winced as the wire mesh cut her lips and her jaw started to ache dully. She looked around and took a deep breath. "Alright, Shimmer. No big deal. You just had a nightmare, no problem." She chuckled. "Okay, note to self- try not to let that happen again." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes again, opening them only a second later.
She peared out the window again. The sun was a little higher in the sky, she could even see some pegasai on their way to their jobs, lazily riding the breeze without a care in the world.
She flexed her own wings. They needed a good preening, but it didn't matter. She couldn't fly anymore anyway, those bastards had clipped her wings so she couldn't escape. She found herself filled with anger. She clenched her sore jaw, making the dull pain hurt worse, and fought back against the tears forming in her eyes. No, she wouldn't cry. Crying meant they won. She wouldn't let them win. She was free, they were probably dead.
That thought had enough of an effect to calm her enough to take a breath. "Alright. It's okay, they're dead, you're alive, they got what they deserved."
Another knock at the door got her attention. It opened and a nurse stepped in carrying a bowl. Shimmering Blade frowned, but accepted the bowl and straw anyway. Because of the mesh she couldn't eat solid food, at least until the mesh came off. She took a sip of the watered down oatmeal and a shiver went down her spine. The nurse tried to hide her laugh but failed.
"Still that bad, huh?" She said.
Shimmering Blade grumbled under her breathe, but said nothing to the nurse.
"Don't worry about it, hun. You'll be out of here in a few days, then you can eat whatever you like."
"Good."
"You're from Ponyville, right? I have a sister there."
"Yeah. My family is there too. At least I hope they still are, haven't heard anything from them yet."
"Oh you poor thing. I can't imagine how much that must hurt."
"Its alright, I haven't seen them since I was deployed, what's a little more time to track them down?"
"Well. I suppose you're right. Still, I hope you find them quickly. Do they know that you're here?"
"No, I want to surprise them. Plus I'm not really in the best shape to be seeing family. Would give my momma a heart attack."
"I can understand that." The nurse chuckled. "Well, I need to get going. I'll stop by later to see how you're doing, alright?"
"I'll be here, I guess." She waved as the nurse left the room, then turned to the bowl sitting on the table. She frowned and put the straw to her mouth again, taking a long draw and forcing back a gag. Sure she's had worse, but this didn't even seem edible.
She finished the bowl in silence, her mind drifting.
The day began normally, or as normally as it could for somepony laid up in a hospital. Shimmering Blade went through her routine that had been established, after breakfast a nurse came in and took away the bowl, followed by the doctor and a physical therapist to evaluate her range of motion. She hated that part.
"Alright, rotate your left wing for me, nice and slow." The therapist said in her I-am-going-to-be-your-best-friend-if-it-kills-you voice, irritating Shimmering Blade for the umpteenth time in the last ten minutes. She sighed and did as she was told, slowly rotating the weakened muscles with the use of damaged nerves. The therapist pressed her cold hooves against her wing, pushing it a little too hard, causing her to flinch.
"Hmm. Well that isn't good. You've seemed to have developed a bit of stiffness in your wing." She smirked. "I know I look good, but try to contain yourself."
"Doctor, some professionalism would be appreciated." The army doctor said, having heard one to many failed dirty jokes.
"Bah! You two have no sense of humor. Anyway, despite the stiffness, everything checks out. I'll give you some muscle relaxers and see how everything looks tomorrow morning. Won't be long now until you're home free."
"Yes, I'd say one, two days tops. Your recovery is something of a miracle. I've never seen somepony is such bad condition recover so quickly." The army doctor said, flipping through Shimmering Blade's chart.
"Yeah, sure, a miracle." She retorted, turning her head to look out the window. She didn't believe in miracles. Where were the miracles when they got to her? When she escaped, there wasn't any miracle to be seen, just her own will and determination let her escape, and it was her will alone that let her survive in the wilderness for so long, not some otherworldly force.
An awkward silence followed. Both doctor unsure of what to say.
"Well then. Something tells me we should step outside for a bit." The physical therapist said. "By the way, you have a meeting with Dr. Thinker, the psychiatrist, at two o'clock."
"Wait, what?" Shimmering Blade yelled, sitting up in bed. She turned to the army doctor. "Why do I have to see a psychiatrist? You said I didn't have anything wrong with me!"
"I said you didn't, that is correct." He sighed. "Its just a final thing before you get sent home, just double checking."
"Well, what if I don't want to go?"
"Go home or go to Dr. Thinker?"
"Take a wild guess." Shimmering blade said, crossing her hooves across her chest. "Of course I want to go home. Jeez, you doctors get stupider and stupider everyday. I feel fine, I'm a little sore, but I'm fine. This mask thing is really unnecessary, you said yourselves I've made an amazing recovery, and I definitely have nothing wrong with my head. I'm not crazy, and I don't need somepony else to confirm that for me."
"It's just a precaution, we could have missed something."
"That's a load of horseapples." She said, again turning to look out the window. "Fine. I'll go see him, but I'm not happy about it."
"You don't have to be happy about it, but it's necessary." He said, turning to leave. "He'll be here at two." the two doctors left the room, leaving her alone again. She watched them go, then turned back to the window. She was doing that a lot, not that there was anything else to look at in this boring hospital room. Outside, the sun was even higher than the last time she looked. However, what would normally be a beautiful day was going to be ruined. She could see the Canterlot weather team pushing large, menacing dark clouds into position. She thought about that for a bit.
She could understand why small rural farm towns like Ponyville and Boulder Province would need that much rain, but she never understood why big cities needed it. There's no farms in the cities that need that water, and most big cities, especially Canterlot with its hard-to-reach location on a mountain, got most of their drinking water from aqueducts. In fact, Shimmering Blade could make out the faint outline of one of the closer ones out on the horizon. Then she thought maybe it was for sanitation. The rain helped wash out the streets, cleaning up any trash or junk left out, and cleaning up the occasional puddle of blood in areas like the Broncs, where street crime was huge.
Or was it still a problem? Heck if she knew. All she knew was that she hated the rain. Rain meant things got wet, and wet things broke down. Broken things didn't work properly when you need them to, which means you're dead. At least, that was her experience with rain. It seemed that the main thing essential to life is also life's greatest enemy. She subconsciously reached over to the bedside table, opening the drawer and pulling out the metal chain made of small links, attached to the chain were two thin metal plates, they were rusted, like everything else she saved, but they were probably the most important.
She idly twirled the dog tags around her hoof before abruptly grabbing them with the other and looking them over. Standard issue tags. Aluminum chain and plates, machine stamped, with her name, rank, and serial number for identification purposes.
Private First Class Shimmering Blade, SN9284384
She turned the tag over, etched into the other side was her own personal signature, but it wasn't her name, it was a nickname given to her by her allies. She chuckled at it.
"Razor Waz Here"
Razor. Now that was a nickname. Shimmering "Razor" Blade. It had a nice ring to it. It came around because of how sharp she kept her sword, sharp enough to rival even Japeneighs Katanas. They had confiscated her sword when she was rescued, along with her armor, saying she didn't need it anymore, but she remembered it could cut down small trees in one swipe, or in many cases, cut through entire limbs...
Suddenly she sat straight up, shaking her head. No, she wouldn't think of that. She wouldn't think of that ambush, when she cut that kid's leg clean off. She wouldn't think of the blood, or how he grabbed at the wound yelling in pain before another soldier finished him off. She wouldn't think of the terrified looks those prisoners gave her when she watched him bleed, how they thought she was a monster for her cruelty...
She wouldn't think of it. She wouldn't think of it...
Celestia damn it, She was thinking of it. Her whole body shook. Her pupils shrunk in her eyes and she stared straight ahead. She kept swallowing even though her mouth was suddenly dry. She cradled her head in her hooves and began sobbing like a filly. This was not good.
Shimmering Blade wiped her eyes. Taking a deep but shaky breath, she tried to push those horrible memories away. When she was lost she didn't have time to worry about what she had done, she was too busy trying to survive, but now that she was home safe, her mind was beginning to make up for lost time.
A quick glance at the clock showed she had about 10 minutes to go before the therapist showed up. She sighed and slowly took off the covers, then swung her back legs off the side of the bed. She leaned forward slowly and set her front hooves on the floor with a soft clop.
She took a few small steps toward the bathroom. The doctors said she wasn't supposed to go anywhere without help, but she really needed to go, and she wasn't about to wait on some nurse to help. She stumbled on weak legs and entered the bathroom unscathed, using her medication drip to support her. She did her business and then looked in the mirror.
She watched her own reflection for a while, brushing a piece of her mane out of her eyes. She hated bangs. At the first available moment she was going to get a haircut. She looked at her face. It was a bit of a mystery to her, really. She had almost forgotten what she looked like, that scared her. A few scars ran across her face, most notably the three parallel lines across her cheek, near her jaw line. They were caused by her captors.
She smiled to herself, checking her teeth. They were yellow, two were missing, and a few were chipped, but she had gotten used to the odd shapes in her mouth. Overall, her face looked like somepony dropped a bomb on it, which wasn't too far from the truth.
She made her way back to the bed and got in slowly, pulling the covers over her worn-out legs. No sooner had it happened than a knock sounded from the door. It opened a moment later and a pony stuck his head in.
He was a unicorn, light green coat and a brown mane. he wore glasses low on his face, and he wore a sweater underneath his white doctor's coat. He lacked a stethoscope drooped around his neck like most of the other doctors, and instead had several pens stuffed into his shirt pocket.
"Shimmering Blade?"
"Let me guess: You're the shrink."
"In a way, yes. Though I prefer to be called a counselor. Shrink makes me seem like I deal with crazy ponies." He stepped through the door and pulled the chair in the room closer to the bed. He sat down in it and pulled a notepad from beneath his coat. Shimmering Blade briefly wondered what else was stashed in there. "Here's the deal: I know you don't want to see me, so I'll waste as little of your time as possible. Just a couple of questions and I'll get out of here."
"Sounds perfectly fine to me."
"So do you know why I was asked to see you?"
"Because they think I'm crazy?"
"Nope. Because you have a very special situation on your hooves here. You are the last pony to be rescued that is still alive. Its been what, three years?"
"Four."
"Right. My mistake. Anyway, four years is a long time. A lot has changed in that time. And I mean a LOT has changed."
"Humor me, doc. I know stuff's been changing. I know we have 2 princesses now, but what else?"
"Oh my." The doctor said. "You are very far behind, I'm going to have to get you caught up before we continue."
"Well, get started then. What did I miss in the last four years?"
"Sheesh. Where do I even begin?" He pondered briefly. "Alright. So a little over four years ago, right after the war ended and life was beginning to go on as normal for us back home, some student from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns figured out that some ancient prophecy was going to come true, she was right, and Nightmare Moon, who was Celestia's Sister-turned-evil, returned from her imprisonment to dethrown Celestia and rule with total darkness."
"And obviously she was stopped."
"Right. Now She's the second Princess. Her name is Luna, and she's not much of a socialite from what I've heard, but she always hosts a huge festival at the castle during Nightmare Night, any way, so after that we had less than a year of peace, before Discord, who is some twisted animal thing and supposed "Spirit of Chaos" was awoken from his imprisonment and tried to take over. Again, he was stopped by the same ponies who had stopped Nightmare Moon, using something called the "Elements of Harmony" which are, to put it bluntly, like a super weapon of world-ending proportions if used incorrectly, which is why these six ponies are the only ones who can use them."
"Okay, you've got me interested here, what happened next?"
"Another year later, A third princess and her fiance are planned to get married, but it turns out she was kidnapped and replaced by a Changeling Queen, big bad motherbuckers who trick you into thinking you are someone you love, then feed off your love, slowly killing you in the process."
"Bad ass." Shimmering Blade scratched her chin. "Actually, I think I've heard of those guys before. They're from the badlands, right?"
"I think so, we really don't know, and there was a huge paranoia after they were stopped, almost by the Elements of Harmony, but get this, supposedly they were stopped by The power of love, the very thing they feed off of!"
"Well, they do say too much of a good thing is a bad thing..."
"I guess so." The therapist chuckled. "And then, get this: one year later A curse put on a kingdom called the Crystal Empire is broken, and a slave-driving evil king comes back from the dead to rule the kingdom or something, so that third princess, MiAmore Cadenza, her new husband, and the Elements of Harmony stop him, and now the Crystal Empire is a State of Equestria until they can modernize enough to function on their own."
"Okay, that's cool, I guess. Anything else?"
"Well, that Discord guy came back and was reformed, so he's supposedly a good guy now, and that student who predicted Nightmare Moon, who is also the leader of the Elements of Harmony, became a princess, so now we have four of them."
"Sweet Celestia, just how much did I miss?"
"A lot, actually. I can fill you in on some of the finer details if you like."
"Alright, go for it." Shimmering Blade said, shrugging. This doctor wasn't like the others, she could tell he actually cared for what the patient wanted more than what he wanted the patient to do. She liked that. And although she hated history is school, she couldn't help but be interested in what he was saying. And, despite all her best efforts, Shimmering Blade felt a small smile make its way onto her face.
"And when the patient woke up, his skeleton was missing, and the doctor was never heard from again!" The psychiatrist laughed. "Well, actually, they did hear from him again, he was arrested and given a life sentence in Trottingham Prison, but yeah. That's why I decided to not be like my brother, he was crazy." He sniffed and wiped a single tear from his eye. "Anyhow, tell me a bit about yourself."
"You really spent all that time telling me about your entire life story and you just try to get me to talk like that?" Shimmering Blade said, running a hoof through her mane. "You're good." She smirked. "Alright, I'll bite. Mom and pop are originally from Hostralia, Dad's a herpetologist, they moved to Equestria because he wanted to study some rare reptile, then they decided to settle here. A couple years later I was born.
"That's not the strangest tale I've ever heard."
"Oh, it gets better. As a foal I had a really weird fascination with sharp things. I would get in trouble a lot because I'd steal scissors and knives from the kitchen and play with them, never did cut myself though." She laughed. "Mom said I was destined to be one of 'those' ponies. You know, the ones with really weird kinks like whips and chains, yeah we had a pretty open way of speaking like that."
"Alright, so are you?"
"Am I what?"
"One of those ponies?"
"I'll have to let you make the decision for yourself." She laughed again. "Anyway, I got into a lot of trouble playing with sharp stuff, then dad thought of a way to make it productive. Next thing I know I'm learning how to fence and how to sword fight, anything from scimitar to rapier."
"You are something else, You know that?"
"I wasn't very good at most of it. I wasn't fast enough for some of the smaller swords, and some of the bigger ones were too heavy at the time. When I got older I was more able to control the other ones, the rapier became my best weapon." There was a moment of silence as she thought back to those days. It seemed so long ago, when was the last time she actually fenced? Six, seven years ago probably. Senior year in High School, before she joined the army. She was the president of the fencing club because of her skill with the blade. "Then the war started. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my future, so I thought 'well, this is better than nothing, and they'll pay for college or whatever.' So I joined the army fresh out of High School. I think you know the rest."
"I believe I do. Let's take a step back and talk a bit more about your childhood. You said you were fascinated by sharp things. Do you have any idea why?"
"Nope. No clue at all. I think it was because they were shiny. Like any foal I thought the shinier the better. Pots and pans, knives, even mirrors."
"I see. Most ponies would actually be afraid of sharp things at such a young age, especially after they cut themselves. Learned behavior and all that."
"I never cut myself, remember?" Shimmering Blade smirked. "I was one hundred percent stab proof. Nothing got through this skin. I even wrestled a manticore in a field of cactuses and only got a few bruises."
"And now you're lying." The doctor said. "And I believe it's called 'cacti'"
"I'm enhancing the truth, yes."The two stared at each other for what seemed like along time. Eventually, Shimmering Blade broke thee silence. "Why are you staring at me, doc?"
"You are a very hard pony to read, miss Blade. I can't tell what's going on in that mind of yours."
"Is this the part where things start to get creepy?"
"Depends what you mean by creepy. I am still a psychologist, so I still need to figure you out. I have a feeling things aren't as they seem with you."
"And you know this just by looks?"
"Body language is a powerful thing. Ever hear the phrase 'Actions speak louder than words'? Ponies can easily hide their emotions through their voice. That's why it's sometimes difficult to determine what a pony is feeling by just their voice. To really get to know what goes on in someone's mind, you need to read their body." He smiled. "Like right now, You're feeling insecure. Something is bothering you, and I can tell because of how you're acting. You may feel like you're putting on a convincing act, but you're tense. You haven't relaxed your shoulders since we started this session. Your legs are constantly shifting, like they can't get comfortable. You keep glancing at the door and the clock, like you're expecting something to happen."
"You're crazy, doc. I'm fine, really."
"And you're going to keep telling yourself that because it's easier than facing the truth. I already know something is wrong, Shimmering Blade. I'm here to help you, but I can't do that until you learn to stop lying to yourself. I know it isn't going to be an overnight change, but when you're ready to talk to me, my office is always open." The doctor stood up and turned to the door. "I believe our time is up today. Remember what I said, okay?" He walked out the door, then turned back into it.
"And one more thing, I'm not the enemy. Right now I'm the closest thing you'll have to an ally for some time. I'll see you later."
The view from Shimmering Blade's room was slowly becoming boring. The rain hadn't let up at all, and in fact had gotten much worse. Water poured from the sky, clouds blocking the sunlight and casting dark shadows onto the streets below. She thought again what the doctor had told her, about how she needed help, and how he was her only ally.
"Bullshit." She muttered to herself. "Bucking Bullshit. He wouldn't know a good ally if it bit him." She turned away from the window and grabbed her dog tags from the drawer again.
"Good allies have your back, no matter what. They'd never leave a friend behind. I had great allies..." She gripped the chain tighter, the tags rattling a bit as her hoof began to shake. "They never leave a friend behind..." She grit her teeth, breathing heavily.
"Remember the oath, guys? Remember the oath? The oath we all took and swore to uphold? NEVER leave a friend behind!" She pounded her other hoof against the bed. "Well what about me? was I not good enough? Not a priority for you?" Her voice began to rise as her anger grew.
She needed to go. She needed to go for a walk, clear her head, relax. She couldn't have another blow-up.
"Celestia, what's wrong with me?" She sighed, trying to calm herself down. "Maybe I am crazy." She began to cry again, rage building up inside her from it. "Damn it... just bucking great..."
She wiped her face and set the tags down on the table. She stared at them for a moment before picking them back up. She looked them over one more time before she decided to put them on. She felt the cool metal chain slide over her head and onto her neck. Suddenly she felt calmer. More relaxed. She felt at peace with herself and the world. Those images of fire and chaos that filled her head before were replaced with happier ones.
She closed her eyes and smiled. The first genuine smile she had felt creep onto her face in years. Her breathing slowed and steadied, her body relaxed and she soon felt herself falling asleep...
She opened her eyes. Looking over the field below her. The grass had been cut back and worn down and replaced by dirt and mud, but it was home to her. She leaned against the sandbag wall and looked over, observing the 20 foot steep slope of dirt down into the field. The forests and woods had been burned and chemicals dumped on them to kill the trees so the enemy could not hide, but there were a few trees that still somehow survived. Evergreen, her squad mate, had said they were a special kind of tree that incorporated magic into its system as a defensive measure, making them really hard to kill.
She thought about Evergreen. He was an Earth pony, built strong and tough. He knew everything about trees but not a lot else, probably because he was a tree farmer back home. His brownish red fur was the color of fall leaves, his eyes were bright green and his mane a golden brown. His spear was always decorated by a small twig of pine bound by some tripwire, which he replaced everytime it dried up from the only pine tree in a hundred miles, located just outside the Quartermaster's tent.
He was from Boulder Village, a small town near Rainbow Falls that was known for its tree farms and rock farms. She never understood how ponies could farm rocks...probably magic again.
She looked back over the field. Though she was a swordsmare, she still had the eyesight of an archer. So she was able to make out the sneaking shadows among the ruined trees. Unsure if they were friend or foe, she watched carefully and waited...
Suddenly, a high pitched woosh filled the air. She ducked out of instinct and an arrow embedded itself into the wall a few feet from her. Thoughts about trees and Evergreen abandoned her mind. She yelled out to some other soldiers nearby that they were under attack, and soon the whole camp was alive with activity. Archers ran to the wall to return fire while spearponies and swordsponies grabbed their weapons and armor in preparation to strike back. Shimmering Blade, already armored and armed, grabbed her shield leaning against the wall and tightened the straps on her forehoof. and drew her sword.
She cried for her squad to rally on her, and they answered the call. Six ponies total, Two spearponies, two archers, a combat mage and herself as squad leader and swordspony. A few words were exchanged and the squad lept over the wall and slid down the slope. Shimmering blade led the charge into the dead forest to bring the fight to the enemy.
She dodged another arrow as she neared the tree line. The griffon that had fired the arrow couldn't react in time to defend himself as she leapt into the air, bringing her sword down on top of him. Blood flew as she pulled the blade from his neck and turned to observe the carnage of the battle. She saw Evergreen pulling his spear out of the chest of another griffon, She looked to the left where Quicksilver, the mage, called upon her magic to throw bolts of energy into the woods after the swiftly retreating. The archer, Bowstring Fletcher, fired a few more arrows, downing one more enemy.
She smirked. The cowards always did this. They would sneak up on them, pester them for a bit, then retreat while they still could. She turned back toward the camp, where a few more ponies had come over the wall and wandered the field before the woods, but her squad was the only one that actually went into battle.
An officer, upon seeing her squad emerging from the woods splattered in blood, ran up to her and started yelling about not following orders and abandoning the camp during an attack. She silenced him by taking a blood stained rag from her armor pocket and wiping the blood from her still drawn sword before sheathing it.
He angrily glared at her. "The commander will be hearing about this."
Shimmering Blade woke up. She slowly opened her eyes and looked around the hospital room. A quick peak at the clock had shown she had slept for most of the night, waking up the next day at her usual time. The early morning sun shone brightly in the sky. Something seemed different about today from yesterday. Shimmering Blade couldn't put her hoof on it, but somehow, deep down, she felt like today was going to be a good day.
