The First, and Final Chapter
The Fallen Veteran
The First and Final Chapter.
The spear glided through the air, its arrowhead reflecting the light of Celestia’s sun. For the soldier there was no sound, nothing, as within a moments notice he saw the spear headed right for him. He had no time to react...
No time to dodge.
The spear impacted him right through his armor and not stopping as it punctured his chest and imbedded itself, partially inside his lungs. Time slowed to a crawl as he started to fall over to his side, pain overtaking his ability to move.
Hitting the ground with a solid thud, he exhaled sharply and began to wheeze, coughing the blood that was filling his lungs. The other soldiers continued their fight, the death count was too high to notice but another falling victim to the cold embrace of death. He reached out slightly wheezing trying to call out for help, but all that came was a whimper.
His mind screamed at him, he tried to get up. He tried to keep moving, to fall back and get help, but the spear embedded within him seized his ability to get up and move, and left him to die on the grass stained red.
His foreleg reaching out trying to reach his team, neigh, his brothers to call for help, but all they did was keep moving forward, for they did not see him fall in a heap. His team was pushing forward along with everypony else. He was left with the corpses of all the fallen, a dying ember in the mass of ash.
He coughed more and more violently as the blood filled his lungs slowly from the small but fatal wound. His mind rushed back to that of his family, his wife, and child.
He snarled as his mind reached his family. ‘No, I will not leave them.’ as he moved his foreleg to the spear, grabbing it and with his might, removed the spear. His energy left him as the pain skyrocketed and he tried to yell in pain, only to cough more and wheeze with more pain, blood was flowing more freely into his lungs.
He knew what was going to happen, his body growing colder and more numb as time passed, slowly, but surely.
His mind raced back to his family once more, and the last moments they had before he left for the guard. For the greater good, he trained and fought in a war he wished would just be over. He longed to embrace his wife and child once more and tell them he was finally done. He would have gotten to so soon, for this, was his last mission.
Then he could have returned home.
“Why do you have to go daddy?” a small colt asked the stallion.
“Because son, we need all the help we can get.” he responded. “Take care of your mother, you're the stallion of the house now.”
The colt smiled back to his father but the sadness in his eyes remained. “I’ll be sure to! Then when your back we can all go spend some time together, right?”
The father looked at his son and smiled, “Of course, we’ll all go out and have fun together.”
The colt accepted the answer and with a long group hug, he turned and left his son and wife standing side by side to see him off.
A tear fell from his eye as he saw his last moments, and that he will never again feel the love from his family once more. His mind shutting down slowly, all he could hear was the muffled yells from others facing the same fate as him.
He laid on the ground blood pouring inside and out of him, from the wound, and into his lungs. His breaths were no more than a wheeze and a soft voice trying to reach out, begging for help.
His breaths became more ragged as he slowly lost his senses, hearing was first to go, as everything turned to a dull muffled mess. The copper taste in his mouth began to drift away and he could no longer taste it. The smell of blood and smoke dulled down to nothing as his breathing began to stop. His pain melted away and numbing cold drew in, and with his final breath, his eyes closed and his body shut down.
There he laid, in the blood stained soil, stabbed through the chest and bled to death.
Never got to say his last goodbye.
Never got to hold his family one last time.
And he would never get to see them again...
Days and weeks passed and a pair of scouts were traveling through the destroyed battlefield. Walking through the mass of bodies, the blood stained the grass and the fires had finished burning a long time ago. One of the scouts had spotted something in the distance, a flash of red light.
With that they set off to find out what it was. They walked up to the top of a hill and there laid a stallion, a spear next to him, the ground bloodied and his body pale. his helmet had a jewel encrusted onto the front of it and once more, it flashed.
The scouts removed the jewel from the helmet, and with that a image of the soldier stood there, before the scouts.
“Hello, if you are listening to this message, then there is a good chance I am dead. I... I am-” The crystal flickered its glow and the image of the stallion cut out for a moment. “I may be dead, but I still have one request... If you are my ally please... take this to my family, they will understand what this means.” The scouts listened to the soldiers last request and followed his steps, he at least deserved this.
Inside a nice house stood a mare, cleaning something within the house. As she walked over towards a chair to take a break a knock resounded on the door. Her son was at school so it wasn’t him, and she wasn’t expecting any messages. She walked over to the door and opened it to reveal a guard wearing golden armor, a small package levitated over to her.
“I am sorry.” and with that he turned around and left.
Confused by his actions she took the package inside and opened it. The wrapping held a box, within the box was what hurt her heart so dearly. There in the box, was a letter....
And a ruby jewel she gave her husband before he left...
Authors note:
This story was made just a little late, I made this for Veterans day, as a final moment of a soldier. To those who lost their life.