Citizens of Cascade Falls, the enemy is dangerously close to your homes, and you must evacuate.
Citizens of Cascade Falls, the enemy is dangerously close to your homes, and you must evacuate. Feel no fear, for their attempts to take your town will be futile. A battalion of America's finest vigilantly stand on guard to ensure your homes are protected from the communist pigs. Vacate the area immediately after hearing this message. A refugee camp is prepared fifteen miles from here for any and all American citizens.
Please have your forms of identification ready upon arrival. Failure to comply with this rule will immediately result in execution. Please follow these steps, for they are your best hope of survival.
A number. That's all we are a this point. Before this damned war started a death used to mean something. A death used to be important. When hearing of a loved one's death used to bring depression, sadness, and sorrow. Now it's a statistic. It signifies one less soul to be destroyed by this god forsaken conflict. There is no end in sight. Today we will change that. Today the enemy shall no fear. Today they will be the ones to retreat. Today the tide of war shall be put in our favor. Long ago, the last era of battered bastards in this very division drove through the Siegfried Line. That is how we earned this nickname. That is how we became known as the Fighting 69th. Today we will make sure the enemy doesn't drive through this small village. This settlement nobody has ever heard of. We will stop them here, at Cascade Falls.
I stood outside of my wary fireteam's tent, uncertain of what would happen that day. We were all adjusting to a new routine. For the last month, we have been driven all the way back from Seattle, through Oregon, to this location. we had fought the enemy, delayed them, every step of the way. I had remembered my grandfather talking to me over the phone about how cowardly we were. About how back in the day, if those "beady eyed sons a' bitches" invaded their home, they wouldn't give a single inch of ground to them. I cant lie, a part of me wanted to see him on the front lines, trying to accomplish what he said, and failing. Miserably.
Before this war, in this division, we were all content. We were all the way on the east coast, in New York, living the good life (At least, in military standards). We were part of the national guard at that point. I had steadily risen through the ranks, being given the honor of being a sergeant, just to have it stripped away after a very unfortunate incident i would rather not discuss in detail, better yet, at all. By the time the war came, we were transferred from being a national guard unit, to being on the front lines in Europe, fighting the "Red Menace". The Russian soldiers were promptly given this nickname after posters were handed out all around headquarters saying that "The Red Menace awaits at the Gates of Hell, and the Army is gonna send em' in!".
After weeks of vigorous fighting, our division was finally relieved. We were shipped all the way to Seattle, for R&R we were told. At the time nobody had rejected the idea that all of us could relax defending a city that would never be invaded. We had actually enjoyed our time there. We were given leave from base, we had enjoyed the nightlife, and believe it or not, wearing your formal uniform (that fancy suit and hat thing, you know) is a great way to pick up ladies.
Than, the Russians came. They emerged from cargo ships, in massive numbers nobody on our side could have imagined. They overwhelmed our under gunned and under manned hold of the city in less than a day. The blow to our morale was unimaginable. In Germany and Belgium we were considered one of the most feared units on the whole front, only to lose one of the key cities in our own country. From then on we made a fighting retreat, using scorched earth tactics we delayed them as long as we could. Our division eventually split up, to break up the advancing horde of Russians for reinforcements, if they ever came. We were no longer an under-manned division, but an under-manned battalion. Morale was at an all time low, and that was before we were ordered to defend a town in the middle of nowhere.
At the time, none of us had realized why we had to defend here, after stripping so many towns like this of anything usable to the enemy, we were pretty much stumped. Some of us had thought that we were being used as bait to lure the enemy into attack the city, then reinforcements would counter attack, while others simply thought command simply left us out to dry. Either way, we were in for one hell of a fight that day.
As i had finished my reflections on the events that had happened in the last weeks, i had started to realize i was not the only one in my squad who was awake at the time. A few feet to my left i a face. Not just an ordinary face, the face of A man who experienced nothing but anguish for the last month. He truly wore the face of a veteran. He had taken the invasion more seriously than anyone in the entire battalion. He was a Seattle native, born and raised, and he still had family in the city during the invasion. The worst part was he did not even know if they were alive or dead. He had absolutely no closure, yet he still attempted to remember his family. He had worn a golden ring on his finger to remind him of what he was fighting for. I had attempted to approach the sorrowful Sergeant, but i was cut off, by the last thing a soldier ever wants to hear. An alarm. Me and the sergeant did not say a word, but we both looked at eachother, and knew what had to be done. Wake up the squad, and put on the gas masks. As we carried out this task, the rest of the encampment blared to life, with out a single word uttered, we all dug in our fox holes, and waited.
I, as usual, had taken up safety in the amount of men we had. We had a few thousand men and around fifty-seven operational vehicles. Most new guys see this amount of men and think they are invincible. While i knew better, it did temporarily relieve me that i wasn't alone. I had taken view of my surroundings. I had seen that almost everyone in my general area was either in a foxhole or behind sandbags on a fifty caliber. Those weapons teams, unfortunately, were usually the first to go.
I was never a christian, but the old army saying, "There is no such thing as an atheist in a fox hole." Was most certainly true. I had heard a few men with rosaries repeating the hail mary. Than, came the gas. After such a long period of experiencing Chinese attacks, we already had known how the events would play out. I had set up a mental check list of how the events would play out. First the gas, check.
Luckily everyone (from what i could tell) had their gas masks on, so our numbers remained unchanged. But we all had known how it would play out. The Russians had wanted sheer chaos through our lines. And quite frankly, they had the perfect recipe for mayhem. Luckily, for the 69th, once you know of something, it becomes alot less scary. I had remembered an old Russian proverb. "A wet man does not fear rain." Before i had no idea what it meant, but after all this time, i felt like an idiot for not knowing earlier. A dead man does not fear death.
As if on cue, i heard the rain. not the ordinary drizzling of water. No, we were not fortunate for such a gift. It was the rain of steel. the undeniable whistle of the embodiment of death traveling at you at hundreds of feet per second. than the ground itself shook. The boom of dozens of one hundred and fifty-two millimeter shells that could make an earthquake blush at such ferocity.
Than came the screams. The screams of wounded men, Mentally and physically. I had thanked God it was not me who had died. At least yet. The gas was still thick. So thick I could only see two things on either side of me. One was a soldier in my squad, A private named Del. On the other side, a separated arm. not even I, who had seen enough blood and gore to make A Japanese horror film director cringe, could not help but grow pale at that sight. There was a wedding ring on one of those fingers. I shook my head to get the mental image out of my head. It was then i heard the undeniable war chants of the Russians soldiers. The gas had seemed to clear up a bit, for the Russians usually waited a few minutes after their strikes, but i couldnt see anything. Even after the unmistakable sounds of fire arms, big and small going off. I had than though to myself, "Oh shit, my lenses are foggy."
I had mentally facepalmed, and immediately cleared my lenses to see what was going on. Shadows, sprinting shadows heading straight for us. I had known it wasnt one of our guys, because it could only mean two things. It was either enemy soldiers, or fleeing allies, both of which we were authorized to fire at. I had immediately aimed at the fast moving figures, careful to avoid anything standing still, not even bothering to stop firing to increase my accuracy. I was so cranked up on adrenaline i could not even hear the screams of humans, begging for mercy, or bullets whizzing past me, from both sides of the fight. all i heard was the satisfying rat-a-tat-tat of my m16. Until i had heard the one sound you don't want to hear. click.
Seemingly perfect in que, a lone soldier stood out from the others, he was carrying a an AKM with a bayonet attatched. He had gotten closer and could only afford to bring my own M9 knife to challenge the enemy. In milliseconds he had figured out what to do. A quick stab into the spring soldier's left leg to throw him off balance and make him trip into the foxhole.eject knife from his left and quickly plunge the knife into his throat.
With pinpoing precision i had quickly done just that. Realizing i had no time to reload my assault rifle, i quickly raised my beretta and fired shots much more accurately before, due to the fog clearing out for the most part, most of them finding their targets, and i had ran out of ammo again, and raised my knife, for what would probably be the last moments of my life. Except they no longer advanced. the war seemed to stop as the Chinese dumbly stared into the sky. I cared little for what would be so interesting for them to stare into the cloudy skies like that, and reloaded my m16, and continued my killing spree. The Russian infantry in my line of sight slowly began to flee, apparently what grabbed their attention so much, combined with my gunfire sent them running. After i began reloading again i heard a noise. The noise of what sounded like fire. The noise was broken by a few soldiers, on both side screaming. I had quickly turned my head to what had been causing more chaos than the battle itself, and did not like what i found. It was a missile. That's when i realized, we were the bait, but not for reinforcements to arrive to bravely counter attack. We were there to lure the enemy into a mushroom cloud of death, and we were in the blast radius.
As i had observed the missile i had hoped that the missile would pass over us and hit another objective, but when the missile started angling down, i had known my fate was sealed. I had closed my eyes, and remembered everyone. Mom, Dad, Mike, Grace, Hailey.
Hailey. That last word echoed through my mind as the loud ringing in my ears were silenced, and my vision was completely black.
"I hate her! i can't stand her! I worshiped her for all this time, and she cant even give me lousy flying lessons!?" i had thought to myself as i drove my scooter to the clubhouse. I was steaming with rage. The last person who i thought cared for me stabbed me in the back. It was clear what everypony wanted. If nopony wanted to bother to give two bits about me, i'll give them what they asked for. " I'm leaving this town for good!"
I had pulled out a piece of paper but searched thoroughly for a pen or pencil, though there were none to be found. I had stepped on a few crayons through my search, and as i lifted up my hoof to see what it was i had destroyed, i had found two broken crayons. Orange and cyan. i had picked up a piece of paper they were sitting on top of. It was a painting of me and Rainbow Dash. I had taken the purple crayon that was on the side and sloppily jotted down a note.
Dear ponies of Ponyville, it's clear you dont want me any more because absolutely nopony even guessed where my home was or who my parents were. That doesn't matter though, as of this moment, i'm running away from this town. You shouldn't worry though, because i don't think this would be that big of a difference to your lives. -Scootaloo
Author's notes: This is my first story, constructive criticism is greatly appreciated, insults and such will not be tolerated in the comments sections. I hope to get chapter 2 (chapter 1 if you don consider this a prologue. . .) by the end of this week, please thumb up or down, and comment!
Authors notes :) Hiya folks, Fear not, i have not abandoned you yet. For the last month I have had the absolute worst luck with my first year of High school. I'm not really complaining, since it is like, my fault and stuff. But yeah, I have a chapter for you guys, finally! Please everypony, hold your applause. To those of you that have read my first chapter before I edited it, I have fixed the Chinese instead of Russian problem that, for some reason, alot of you didn't notice.... :P So yeah, Hope you guys enjoy the chapter, and please, have nice day.
That is all I could see, I was floating in an endless sea of darkness. I knew of a few people who wouldn't mind this as some sort of afterlife. i looked down at my body to see what i was wearing, but there was nothing there. my mind began to ponder to thoughts any rational human being would think after they had died. 'is this it?' and 'will I be here forever?' were the primary questions popping into my mind.
My questions were seemingly answered when I saw a light. Not an ordinary light, it was a bright red, and it resembled a shooting star. If said individual making this thought didn't include the fact that it was not disappearing, and was actually coming closer. Then I saw another light that resembled the first, but orange. Then i saw one that was yellow, green, blue, purple, and pink. All of them began to swirl in a circular motion, quicker and quicker each time. The peculiar lights had also begun to grow larger, and even created a ringing noise, growing louder and louder. It had eventually grown so bright i had attempted to close my eyes, but to no avail, all i could do is watch the blinding light get larger and larger, louder and louder, brighter and brighter, until,
Bang.
I had awoken in a snowy forest, very similar to the battlegrounds I had previously fought, and.... no. I had just realized A thought that would give any human being chills. I was dead. But that couldn't be true I thought to myself. If i had died why was I still capable of sentient thought, or feeling, or any other sense. Although at the same time, I remembered the battle that resulted in mine and all of my comrades' inglorious, betrayal by the government we loved. I had known it was our nuke for one reason and one reason only. It came from our side. Not the faction, but the direction. It had went west to us, and since west of us was US soil, i had quickly eliminated the other possibilities.
At the same time, where normal people would be horrified at the oh-so-horrible thought of not knowing if you were alive or dead, i was a realist. I was the kind of guy that would go, "We're surrounded. That simplifies our problem." In short, I tried my best to keep fears and any other emotion from clouding my decision. That didn't mean it always work, but my brain decided to pay me pity and made me think straight, so i was grateful. I had made a mental checklist in my head. Something along the lines of this: 1. Find food 2. Figure out where the hell I am. Very detailed right?
I had, unfortunately, received/remembered absolutely none of my survival training. So, i had picked a random direction, relying on my sheer instincts. And by that I mean I just guessed.
As i was walking I was experiencing growing pains in my head. I had very little prior experience with headaches, so ignoring hate pain was even more grueling. And before any of you say I was being a wuss, it felt like i was having a migraine, or whatever it is. I was also growing cold, even with my army issued survival gear on, and my gas mask to keep my face warm (I thought atleast), i was getting the chills.
My gambit seemed to finally pay off when I discovered a pair of tracks. I had no experience hunting, but I was sure at the moment that they were deer tracks. So, knowing that killing a deer would gain me food, and even a pelt for warmth, which I had direly needed, I, with a desperate determination, followed the tracks, with but A glimmer of hope that I could actually catch my prey.
The only thing was, after a few hundred yards of fatigued stumbling, I discovered a much larger print in the snow. It was, like a body. Not an actual body, but whatever made this Imprint undoubtedly made it. Seeing as how there were no other tracks, and since there was no blood, it was highly unlikely that a bird swooped down and grabbed the unsuspecting animal. But then i studied the imprints closer. They were too small for a deer I believed. But than again, they were not that much smaller than a few of the baby deer my uncle had photographed. Only one contradiction to my deer theory remained. A much lighter imprint in the snow, with a patch of hair. The slight difference in the snow was not deep, but had a small mark, most likely a tail. To support my claim there was A single strand of hair. It was a dark color, It appeared brown, or black. Predicting the color was hopeless, since it was but a single hair, so I got up and kept at following the trail, although I was more curious then hungry now.
"She's gone!" yelled A frantic and obviously stressed Apple Bloom.
"What do you mean she's gone!" I worriedly replied, instantly regretting my previous actions.
"Here's a note! look!" Sweetie Belle quipped, as she handed me a piece of paper.
As I had read the piece of paper, my heart stopped and my brain came to a shocking, yet so obvious explanation. Scootaloo was an orphan, and I had just ruined her life, possibly forever. No. You can't think like that Dash. I can still save her.... I hope. I was snapped out of my trance by Sweetie Belle shaking me, energetic as ever. I would have smiled, if this conversation were under better circumstances.
"What do we do!" Sweetie Belle heartbrokenly shouted.
Inside I sighed at what the brave Rainbow Dash everypony knew was about to obviously say. "I'll find her, tell everypony in town about this." I did not wait for a response, although they had clearly attempted to shout one, but it was to no avail as I had taken off, leaving, not a trail of Rainbow, but A new trail. One I had never left behind for anypony to see. A trail of tears.
As I flew away from the clubhouse, I had thought of good signs of tracking the orange pegasus, and immediately facehoofed at the most obvious answer. It was snowy, very snowy. I flew back to the clubhouse, and raced through the maze of trees, quickly following the tracks with all the speed and maneuverability Equestria's best flyer was known for.
I raced through the forest desperately plotting to save my number one fan, who I had betrayed so coldly.
"If i can hurry up I can still save her."
"What if it's already too late?"
"no.. it cant be true, it just cant be! She is still out there, and I can still save everything."
"It's over Dash. The Wonderbolts will never let someone who backstabbed her flightless friend."
Rainbow Dash snapped like a twig, just like at the young flyers' competition. This time she did not crawl in a corner before her time though, she flew with more determination and velocity. She had even started to pay attention to the tracks now. She had just realized one thing. Scootaloo's tracks were not the only tracks anymore. Not thinking of any other possibilty, She blazed forward believing that Scootaloo was in mortal danger. She might have been right about the first part, but not in the way she imagined.
As I had walked forward, with my head angled down, knowing that unless this animal was clumsy enough to walk into stationary objects, I was fine. The only thing my brain had not calculated was the potential that there was a cliff. As I took one last step forward thinking that there was a patch of snow there, my foot dropped like a stone, and As i lost my balance I did a good amount of flips and landed. Not the flips you may be think of. The flips I were doing were a rough combination of uncoordinated rolls down the hill, ending with me landing feet first in the snow. Sorry, did I snow? I really meant ice.
I screamed out in agony as my injured foot burned in pain. At the time, I had no idea what creatures my cries of vulnerability provoked, but that did not stop me from roaring from the result of a clumsy fall. I had no idea what the status of my foot was, but I calmed myself. I took that as a sign that my bone was not broken. I still had my eyes clenched shut though. I lay sprawled across the ice, gripping my ankle, until I felt a rather unexpected touch. It was the undeniable grip of another man's hands. As i shockingly opened my eyes I saw one person I had not expected to see.
Authors notes: I know this release is alot sooner then some of you may have anticipated due to my tardiness, but I know now in A state of Nirvana. I am at peace with the triumverate, and my Jimmys remain unrustled. You may thank one of my most loyal fans, Traintrax for this. After observing at Octavia's beautiful plot in his comment to me, I had a shocking revelation. One of extreme... meaning. God Bless you Jesus, or as you may prefer to be called, Traintrax.
In disbelief, I looked at one of my friends before the attack. The man was in an M1A1 with the captain when the fighting erupted, and here he was, alone. It seemed we were all alone here, in this bitter, lonely wasteland. As he pulled me back to the cave, mumbling some inaudible words, I was thankful for my lack of pain. Not because I was some sort of grade A badass. The cold finally had a purpose. Numbing my limbs had finally done something other than destroy and trace of coordination.
What he said was probally the dumbest thing somebody could say when A man had A twenty food drop onto hard ice. Actually, the dumbest thing anyone could say after something painful happened to the person you asking.
"Are you alright?"
Still catching onto my world famous jackass sarcastic attitude, I proudly said, "Oh yeah, disregard my wounded legs, and yeah i'm just fucking dandy! Now please get me off of this ice?"
In retrospect, insulting your rescuer isn't a good idea, so I would advise against it. But, with A fitting 'sigh' he brought me into the shelter. My mind was still clear, besides the gaping headache, so, naturally, I grew curious as to what Thomas' story was. Before I could ask my question, He decided to ask me some questions of his own.
"So, you have any ideas what's going on?" Said Thomas
"Nope. One second, i'm dying, the next, i'm in a forest, freezing my ass off with a pounding headache."
"You too?"
Honestly, that hit me like a shitload of bricks, and I had no idea why. Maybe it's because It couldn't have been a coincidence that both of us survive a nuclear explosion and wake up feeling the same way in the same general vicinity of each other. Maybe this was a side effect? Maybe both of us survived and were in the hospital and wacky drugs were doing this? No... There would be more people here... I think.
Wait. He was cold, but he did not have his tanker vest and jacket on. His clothes save for his pants and A standard military tank top, very fitting might I add, seeing how he was in A tank. Oh where was I, oh yes. His clothes minus his pants and military tank top were folded in a pile. It looked like he must have worn alot of clothes in his tank for such a huge pile. Of course my oh-so curious being got the better of me very quickly and I asked him, "Why did you take off your clothes if your freezing?"
He sighed and said, "Here. Take A look at this." As he uncovered what was under the (formerly believed) waste of equipment, I opened my eyes in shock, and thanked God I was still wearing my gas mask to hide my flabbergasted expression. There was a horse. Not an ordinary horse. A baby horse with an orange coat and purple hair. With wings. Yeah, I was freaking out in my mind.
Seemingly telepathically reading my mind, he sat down and said, "Lemme tell you what happened." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Thirty minutes earlier.*
- Thomas-
"Damn it's cold." I thought to myself. I had went from being in a tank, knowing I was about to perish, to waking up in the middle of scenic nowhere. I was dazed, confused, and worst of all, heartbroken. I had A raging mental war in my head over my current status, alive or dead. Honestly, I would be happier with some closure. If only some magical voice from up above just randomly shouted out "You dead!" I would at least know a little more about what the hell was going on.
As I had examined my surroundings, I appeared to be in A cave of sorts. It wasn't big. The interior was about as large as A normal classroom, despite the different shape. There was, for a lack of a better word, a roof. Pretty much just A thing to keep snow out. The cold rocks on the inside weren't providing much warmth, but He could have woken up in much worse places. One of which being the very place he died in. Nuclear radiation wasn't a preferable means of death. Dark optimism. Only way I could keep a somewhat positive attitude. Positive as in not rolling up in a ball and crying, whilst sucking my thumb. Not a good thing.
Still, I couldn't help shed a tear for the ones back home who thought I was dead. I was hoping on getting back to them. As I sat criss-cross in the cave, I thought of the things I could look forward to. I would come home from my deployment, rightfully awarded A Medal of Honor from my posthumous actions at Cascade Falls, (4 T80's, 6 IFV's, just saying high command) and I would surprise my wife back in Illinois, buy a farm with the money the government gives me, and live happily ever after. I smiled and shed a tear, very hopeful to go home.
I was finally cheering up, my mind apparently trying to do so. Maybe it knew I would most likely lose it If i knew the truth? This was not something I pondered at the time. My train of though was broken by a loud and clearly audible 'thud' against the ice I somehow failed to notice. There lied the end of my cheerful optimism. The end of all hope of ever seeing my wife again. It was in a different form then I expected. Not a bullet, not an invisible trail of Gas, nor fire. It was in the form of an orange pegasus.
In immediate shock I raced forward onto the ice, which, for my luck, was not thin. I picked up the strange creature and dashed back to the cave. I laid it down and quickly examined it. It seemed to be unconscious. I looked for A place to check its pulse, praying to God it wasn't dead, for reasons unbeknownst to me even to this day. As I finally found it, at the very bottom of the neck, I, too my relief, found it wasn't dead. But it was very, very cold. But so was I. As I made my decision, I only thought one thing to myself. "Fuck."
Sweet Celestia! How long do these tracks go on? I thought to myself. I had been following this trail for fifteen minutes and still did not find an end to them. As my mind calmed itself down just enough for me to rationally think, I had wondered why the animal's tracks were right next to Scootaloo's. Maybe they found each other? Or maybe Scootaloo followed them. What if the animal wanted to eat her...
My eyes opened up in A mix of shock and anger, and my slightly more fatigued flight pattern slowly dissolved as I flew again with bitter determination to buck the flank of whoever took Scootaloo. My patience was finally rewarded as the tracks stopped. As I stopped and surveyed the area below, I saw small cracks in the ice. They must have both fallen. I convinced myself. As I looked to the snow to see if the tracks went on, they didn't. I knew this was where I would find Scootaloo's kidnapper. Never liking the Tactical and stealthy approach, I let out A feisty "RAAAAHH!" and swooped down to meet Scootaloo's captor.
Many ponies say when you have an adrenaline rush you cannot think clearly. Oh how wrong they are. On my diving flight down I had noticed every detail of the agressor's bodily details, and to my disadvantage their was a similar creature next to him, both staring at me. I had seen that they had slight differences in their apparel. One was wearing a backpack of sorts, and was also wearing a weird mask, while the other had nothing covering it's face. My main advantage was the fact that they were sitting. I believed I could make it an easy 1-2 punch, and knock them both out. I had no more time to analyze them, for I had just raised my hoof to strike.
The creatures had just realized/were confirmed of my true intentions, and the one I was aiming at the thing I was aiming at raised his fist hoping to deliver A blow of his own. I wasn't focusing on the other though, for he was too far to effect the outcome of my strike. I was merely A yard away from delivering my punch until I heard one final noise.
My eyes jolted open as I heard the nearly deafening 'bang!' I saw two creatures sitting, leaning forward, staring at something. I was deathly curious as to what they were looking at. The only thing is I was too weak to move an inch. That and the blankets or whatever that I were lying in were so comfy. As my eyes grew less blurry I noticed something on the floor. It looked like.... A tail? Maybe these creatures had found another creature? Maybe they are like, good guys. Yeah. It's kind of like that Zecora thing Apple Bloom always brags about. I just found two nice things or whatever that help ponies that are lost.
My confidence grew and I displayed a soft smile on my face. My expression slowly turned to one of confusion as I wondered who the pony was. I knew what that tail looked like. The pattern was so familiar, but I couldn't make out the name. I was in deep thought as I grew both surprised, and angry. It was Rainbow Dash!
"Hey man. nice shot"
My train of thought was interrupted as the thing said that. “What?”
"Yeah, I don't think it's dead." the other creature remarked? I grew even more confused, but I also became worried.
The masked creature got up and I saw part of Rainbow Dash's body. I could see from her wings to the tip of her tail. She was laying sideways in the snow, curled up in the fetal position.
"The hell you talkin bout? It's totally dead."
At this point I had stopped thinking, but listened. My disbelief was too hard to express.
"Well... For one, its curled up, twitching. Two, It's eyes are open in shock."
"Fine, but how long do you really think this thing is gonna last, I mean it did get shot, in the chest."
Shot? By what. Pinkie Pie's party cannon? A magic spell? What could be so severe that it could threaten her life?! My mind was buzzing with questions, none of them likely to get answered.
"Well, judging by our little friend here.." I could see the thing's eyes widen As he saw me lying on the blankets.
My mind was in a state of chaos. We just shot some awkward flying animal, and another one that looks like a kid or something woke up, and was scared shitless. I was never good with children, so i patted Thomas in the shoulder and asked, “So, what now?” Never taking my eyes off the animal. As I studied it closer it seemed to be shivering and its pupils were small and shaking. Thomas wouldn’t stop looking at it so I slapped him on the back of the head and repeated my question louder.
“W-well.. Hmm... we can’t just leave the other one to die. For all we know these things could be relatives.”
“Hey man, if you didn’t notice.” I said, looking around the cavern for emphasis, “We don’t have a medic, any medical supplies, AND we don’t even know what these things are.” The one thing I never liked about Thomas was that he was too compassionate. He was the kind of guy to run into a hail of gunfire to retrieve a dead soldier in the hopes of reviving him from the dead. Nice guy, but didn’t use his brain much.
“Alright, lemme take a look at its wound real quick.” Thomas slowly move towards the odd rainbow highlighted creature, hoping to examine it’s wounds. It expanded it’s hooves, in a futile attempt to push him away. “There there, I won’t bite. Just let me see what happened.” unphased by Thomas’ not-so-soothing comment. The creature still would not budge and I sighed at his patience and limped over the creature and grabbed it’s two front limbs. Thomas stopped what he was doing and looked confusedly at me,“Sheesh man, if you want to take care of this thing now’s the time!” I annoyingly remarked. The fall hurt my right ankle and I could barely walk, so I was pretty mad. Thomas simply shrugged and got back to examining the near-fatal wound he ironically caused.
“Alright,I’ve got bad news. Wherever I shot this thing it definitely won’t last long unless we get a medic, who miraculously has experience with animals and a lot of luck.” Thomas matter-of-factly stated.
“Don’t you mean we need a vet?” I replied, still questioning whether or not to help this creature.
“Oh whatever! Point is, I, the kind and loving generous soul I am, Will not, leave this creature to die! So, what I intend on doing, is venture out into the forest, and look for anybody else in A US uniform. It’s kind of a longshot, but I don’t see any other options.”
I rolled my eyes under my still present gas mask at his odd boasting and dumbly nodded, having enough of Thomas’ stupid cares for this, admittedly weird, fascinating, and rainbow-colored creature. As Thomas took my pistol and a clip of ammo for it, he ventured out into the snow. As much as I hated the guy, I didn’t want to forsake him to do randomly trek through a forest, but I could not accompany him with my wounded ankle. Instead, I came up with more of a longshot idea. “Hey Tom! If you’re in trouble, just shoot your gun in the air, with luck I’ll be able to hear it!” I suggested, feeling a tad helpless
“If you insist, but I mean not much is out here during the winter. Hibernation, remember?” Thomas amusingly implied. I had enough of him, with an annoyed sighed I layed on the ground and waited to release my unheard assault of obscenities until he was out of hearing range. As I heard the crunching of snow fade until I knew he was out of hearing range, and I waited just another minute to make sure he couldn’t hear me, and I started the onslaught of curses that would make Satan himself blush.
Now I know you guys don’t want to hear the most obscene (creative) combination of curse words the universe has ever seen until SlimShady LP came out, so I will simply say this. I cursed, a LOT. I was three fourths the way threw explicitly blowing off steam until I heard a shout. Not an ordinary shout. Not a plea for help, a funny or sarcastic goodbye, but more of an annoyed shout. I heard two telltale words, trying to get some sort of message across.
“SHUT UP!!”
As I heard these lied noises I jumped up in surprise, and immediately wondered what made this noise. I could have sworn it came from behind me. I scanned the horizon, “who said that” I said, thinking out loud. I do really think it came from behind me th-
“ME!”
Once again, I jumped up, but as i landed I gave a yelp and fell onto the hard cave floor. I immediately got up, shaky, as my pride may have been somewhat destroyed as I realized what had scared me. I would have been shocked, and by all damn rights I should have. But the first thing that came to my mind was the horrifying thought that she (Atleast I had now presumed) had heard every single curse I heard those black kids I used to live across the street from say in their entire lives. So, embarrassingly, I asked her one thing and one thing only.”Heheh... You didn’t happen to hear those beautiful lyrics I so caringly sang to you and your, err... friend, right?” I nervously chuckled, hoping she would would buy into my horrible, futile (and pretty funny) lie. As she gave me her version of the ‘Are you freaking kidding me?’ look, I scratched the back of my head, which was inconveniently covered by my helmet.
Instead of replying to me, she laid down by her acquaintance’s body. My nervousness was replaced by a mixture of guilt and sadness. I tried to find some words of comfort, but nothing came out. So, dumbly, I watched the child’s look of anger turn into a fit of tears as she rested her head against the larger one’s coat. I only sat down and stared dumbly as they hugged each other for what might be the last time, and I could have sworn I might have felt a tear roll down my cheek. I heard various breaks between the sobs. From what I saw it seemed the youngling ran away, and was sorry. The elder (who can also talk now, to my shock), apparently showed the child not enough attention, and was the driving factor to why she ran away.
I finally remembered one of my medical lessons during PT. If someone sustains severe enough wounds, and if the weather is bad, they will go into shock if they are too cold. I immediately saw the improvised blankets the orange one was laying on, picked them up and walked over to the wounded one, gaining both of their attention. The healthy one picked herself up and purposely stood between me.
I was deciding what to do until I noticed a hissing sound coming from the cyan one’s wound. It was the last thing I wanted to hear. A sucking chest wound. I told the young one to hold her hand (or hoof was it?) over the wound. But of course she wouldn't listen to me. I was never the best negotiator, so I used (what I considered) reason.
Hey, if you don't help me your friend is gonna die!" No, she couldn't listen could she? I went for plan B. I pulled out my knife and said, "If you dont put your foot right here i'm gonna cut it off." That definitely got me her compliance.
And with that, I took out my gauze and use my knife to cut it out of the wrapper and put it on the ground. I then cut the wrapper ends, and folded it open. I had some tape in pocket, thank god. I put the wrapper over the wound and starting taping three sides while the child held it down. It wasn’t until that the older one felt pain again that I felt hope again. The more pain she feels, the better, lets me know she’s not as close from dying.
As I had finished with the wound i had noticed that she was in alot of pain, because she was grunting, and actually screamed a couple times. I knew I could ease her pain from the treatment with my morphine, but i could easily give it to myself to ease mine so i could find Thomas if he fired his gun off. I could probably hoof (no pun intended) it anyway. As I sized her up, I figured I should play it on the safe side. I only gave her as much as I thought she could handle. Although it didn’t work wonders, it did seem to help her take the treatment more. Unfortunately, with barely any medical experience I had no idea whether or not she would make it, but atleast I increased her odds of survival. Not bad if I do say so myself.
Seeing as how these beings could somehow talk, I decided to atleast try to communicate with the little one, with a foolproof line sure to start up a meaningful conversation.
“So, how’s it going?” Welp, nevermind. The young one, once again, gave me her seemingly trademark ‘seriously?’ look. I chuckled nervously, thinking of something to say, settling on something more reasonable, if not a tad personal. “So, umm... you two know eachother?”
“Yes... Rainbow dash went out looking for me after I... Got lost.” What. Did she really just say ‘Rainbow Dash’? I struggled not to collapse into a fit of laughter, and was once again thankful for having a gas mask still present covering my face.
“Riiiight. So, do you have like, a town or something then? Your friend over here may or may not need a doctor... or something.” I was somewhat hoping that there was a form of civilization, where I could settle down or something, y’know? I mean, I was awkwardly optimistic. Would be nice to be with these creatures. Live in a small town full of them, and make a small fuckin cupcake house in the middle of their god damned town (Little did I know there already was one, right where I planned on building mine).
“Yeah, Ponyville is somewhere around here, if you don’t mind walking I guess.” That was a tad sad. She already told me. Then again I did help her friend and like, save her life, because I’m kinda awesome, but still.
“Alright, we can trek out when Tom (Thomas) gets back, speaking of which, where is the bugger?” I just did realize he was gone for a good twenty minutes. He also did forget his now somewhat bloody jacket. He was walking through the forest with his standard non-winterized gear. Friggin idiot. “Well, he’ll turn up eventually” I reassuringly said. I didn’t exactly know they didn’t want him back, since he did shoot this ‘Rainbow Dash’ in an admittedly effective area. It’s not like anyone can be affected by snow in this amount of time anyway.
“Fastest flier in Equestria!” Groggily replied Rainbow Dash between a few coughs.
“These are some crappy names.” I thought to myself, amusedly thinking at how quickly someone named ‘Rainbow Dash’ would get the living crap beaten out of them. She still did seem, even if her color did contradict my statement, tough. She must be either very over-egoed, or actually hold this title to have this be the first thing she say to me in her state. “Cool” I replied. “My names Griggs.”
Author’s notes- Sorry for the wait my loyal fans. Been pretty busy, Projects and whatnot, also been grieving the loss of a friend, so umm... yeah, here ya go!
“Soo, Scootaloo? Uhhh, how far are we from this town?” I asked, worried for her friend’s sake at the answer. Of course my (genius) surgeon skills helped her, but without proper treatment, she’d most likely die.
“I dunno, I think I walked for like forty-five minutes from the clubhouse, so yeah.” Scootaloo replied casually, most likely thinking everything was alright. Oh if only she were right.
“Alright, if Tom doesn’t get back in twenty minutes, we’ll just walk back, assuming the tracks are still there, which they should be, we’ll zip down to umm... what’s the town again?”
“Ponyville... PONYVILLE. Do you have a memory problem or something?”
“Yes. So yeah, while I wait I’m going to poke a hole in the ground with my foot.” Quite frankly, I had nothing else to do. Questioning a pony that more than likely wants to ‘buck me into next week.... wait, that sounded completely inappropriate, I’m never saying that again. Anyway, it’s not in my best interests to question the childish... pony
About five minutes later, I had yet to dent the surface of the stone, which was surprisingly resilient, until a sound hit my ears. a faint gunshot could be heard. I did not hesitate to get up, and grab my equipment. “Hey Scootaloo, I gotta-” ‘bang’ I heard it again. “I have to-” ‘bang!’ “GO!” I ran as fast as i could. Even with my damaged ankle i still managed to keep a fair pace.
I was panicking on the way to where thought I heard the gunshots from. I had sprinted for about five minutes, and was running out of breath, until I heard a sinister noise. One that would inspire fear into any lone soldier. Not just because of the noise, but the effects that came with that noise. The infernal and hellish noises that would only come from one weapon. A Russian AK47. I had no doubt in my mind, and any fatigue or pain from my run was gone, as I went into a flat out sprint. The snow, about one foot deep did not slow my progress. Any fatigue or pain I had felt before was replaced by adrenaline.
As I continued my run I began to stop hearing gunshots, and hear shouts.
“Иди, иди, иди!Американский не должны бежать!”
I heard a man shout out... something. I was thankful enough I heard it in the first place. I had spotted an old grizzled man. Clearly a Russian officer, shouting at a young soldier, who clearly suffered what we had called “Shell shock.” The boy, no older than 18, stood still, shaking at his officer, who was obviously frustrated.
“Что вы?Старик, или трус? Получите проклятый двигаться дальше, прежде чем я застрелю тебя сам!”
Me? I could have cared less. I quietly put the M16 into my hands, aiming down the sights. I turned off my safety, gaining the officer’s attention. I could see him mouth out a Russian curse word, which only made me smile. Then, I pulled the trigger.within a handful of seconds both of them were on the floor. The officer lay dead, two 5.56mm cartridges lodged inside of his skull, and another in his neck. The boy however, was shot in the stomach and chest a fair amount. He weakly and futilely reached for his pistol in it’s holster, but I didn’t let him. Throwing my rifle to the ground, I pulled out my pistol with the speed of a cowboy and aimed it at the kid, and fired. *BANG*. What was left of an unfortunate draftee was a rotting corpse, oozing red liquids onto what used to be a pure and beautiful white blanket of snow. The site had made me sick. I put my pistol back and gripped the M16 in my hands, and tactically jogged, observing like a hawk for any signs of movement or noise, following what was now a horde of footsteps. I had heard more gunfire though. “Oh no” I thought to myself, as I tried to quicken my pace through the maze of trees, following the holes in the snow.
One can learn alot from hearing. I had heard shots, and russians yelling, possibly wounded. It wasn’t until I heard an American obscenity that I had really gotten worried. “SHIT I’M HIT! FUCK!” That voice...that didn’t belong to Thomas. I had reached the scene of mayhem. The russians were firing at a giant boulder, with a few american corpses in front of it. I knew they weren’t shooting it for fun. Men were pinned behind it. The Russians were tightly clustered together in a firing line, of what seemed to be 7-8 people. Now I was pissed. I had one chance to kill them all. A grenade. My last grenade, to be precise. The last green ball of death I had known and loved, was to be sacrificed to kill the group of soldiers standing in front. I gleefully pulled the pin, and took a last look at what I had etched into the side of my grenade. “Complaint Department” The pin was marked with a number 1. I chuckled to myself As I let it leave my hands. The impact, which would have normally left a noise similar to a step in the snow, was silenced due to the sheer noise of the guns going off. I knew that if those two ‘ponies’ didn’t get those people in Ponyville’s attention by now, I did it for them. The hails of gunshots was replaced by a deafening explosion.
“Scheiße! My ears are ringing!” I had yelled with a german curse word, which would, in my younger days, be rewarded with a slap from my grandmother. I had ignored the pain in my ears and went forward to the giant boulder, and looked at the two american corpses. One wasn’t familiar... But the other... No. “No... no, no, no no no!” I ran towards the grave man, overwhelmed with grief. “God damnit!” I had yelled, overstruck with sorrow. One of the only people I could call my friends was dead. “Tom... Why you? God damnit! I’m fucking tired of these stupid ass Russians, and this fucking war!” I paused, my grief replaced with sheer rage. “Someone... Someone’s gonna pay.” I stood up and took out my pistol. I walked towards the mess that was the Russian squad, and saw two survivors. Another boy. His legs were a grotesque version of their former selves, and he was trembling. Another, A more experienced soldier to my right, on the ground crawling towards his severed arm. I didn't let him pick up that useless piece of flesh. without even looking I calmly turned my pistol to the right and fired, hitting him in his throat. He clenched his neck, gagging on his own blood, and fell to the floor dead. I reached the kid, with horrible intentions on my mind.
“Oh hi there kid. How ‘bout we play a little game? It’s called, Russian Roulette. Here, I’ll even play with you. I go first.” I turned on my safety, and smiled like a maniac. I put the harmless gun up to my head and pulled the trigger. *Click* “Damn.. Must be my lucky day, hahaha!” I turned the gun on him and switched off the safety. “Your turn. Here, I’ll pull it for you.”
*BANG!*
I dropped to my knees in front of the dead russian, and started laughing, “heheheh... Hahaha!” After my brief moment of joy, i rose up, and was met with a pretty bad sight. Scootaloo, and A... umm... unicorn? purple... But, a unicorn... “Gott verdammt.” I muttered. I also turned my head to see two americans emerge from behind the boulder. Atleast something good happened. Ignoring the two equines, I turned to the Americans and yelled, “Oh, Hi!” The two soldiers displayed looks of sadness on their faces as they passed their fallen comrades, and saluted me. “Huh? Oh...” They were both privates, and I was a corporal. “Umm. At ease.... and, ermm.. never do that again.” They nodded. Must be the quiet type, I thought to myself. and then I realized we weren’t alone. I turned to the ponies, and then I heard the funniest thing all day. “WHAT THE HELL?” the two privates said simultaneously. “Not as quiet as I thought” I mentally chuckled. I would have laughed out loud, but then I realized the two ponies probably witnessed my ‘escapade’ AKA, I thought I was pretty screwed.
The looks on both of the ponies faces was literal fear. Never in their lives could they have seen more death than they just witnessed in mere seconds. The brutality I had displayed scared Scootaloo more than anything. I had saved Rainbow Dash’s life, then killed all these people in cold blood. Twilight tried to mouth out something, but simply couldn’t. Their eyes were the size of beads, and Scootaloo had tears in her eyes. I brought myself to reality and tried to make my way over to her, but Twilight’s horn glowed bright with power as the two Equestrians in front of me disappeared in a bright light, leaving me alone with the two surviving Americans and the bloody victims of this God forsaken war. "Gott verdammt, können die Pferde Magie jetzt zu nutzen. Mein verdammtes Glück." I muttered as I picked up the ammo off of the two deceased Americans, and closed Thomas’ eyelids for the last time. I, once again, followed footsteps. But with me were the two privates following me. We had not even said a word, because as little as we understood this species, they were horrified of us now. I had no idea how to redeem myself for the killings of 8 different people to these ponies, but I had no choice. Even with all our training we could not survive in this winter death trap more than one week. We had our rifles in our hands as we trudged in the cold snow we knew all too well, weary of the new nightmarish presence.
