SGM. Clare, Field hospital:

The helicopter landed and I put both Daffodil’s and Shining’s bodies on my shoulders then rushed into the hospital.

There were doctors and nurses waiting. I placed Shining down on a stretcher and the nurse looked at him quickly. “This stallion has received blunt trauma, get him to an ER now” the nurse ordered and the other doctors nodded and wheeled away Shining. I placed Daffodil down on another stretcher and the nurse began to check his body for gunshot wounds.

After not finding any body wounds she looked as his head but as she turned his face towards her she screamed as she realized who he was. “Oh my goddess Daff” she cried, “Hey listen, he’s gonna be okay… Doc get him to an emergency room” I ordered and the doctors nodded then rushed away his stretcher.

The nurse had a silky light orange mane that smelled like oranges, no pun intended. The nurse pressed her face into my combat jacket and began to cry. “Hey come on. Let’s go see how he is” I told her and we followed the stretcher into an emergency room.

A doctor began to wash the blood of his head as the nurse and I stood close by to see if he would be okay. The doctor mumbled to himself as he inspected the wound on Daff’s forehead.

“Doc… will he be okay?” I asked and the doctor nodded. “Yeah… he’s just unconscious and we’re going to bring him out of unconsciousness… now” the doctor said as he dabbed a wet cloth around Daffodil’s forehead.

Daffodil suddenly became conscious again and was breathing heavily. Daff looked to me and I smiled then looked to the nurse. “Posey? Posey… what happened I…” Daffodil began but trailed off as he tried to recall the events prior to this.

“Well lieutenant… the bullet just grazed your skull, that was a million dollar shot right there” the doctor said and Daffodil sighed in relief. “Hey Lt, don’t believe a word he says, you won’t see a penny of that money” I joked. The nurse quickly rushed away as tears came to her eyes. “What’s her deal?” I asked and the doctor looked to me.

“Well being a nurse is quite stressful. She sees ponies die every day. You wouldn’t understand” the doctor told us, Daffodil and I exchanged looks then began to laugh. “It isn’t funny!” the doctor yelled and we both looked to him with raised eyebrows. “Oh… right sorry, I forgot. Oh and sergeant major? I’d suggest getting that leg wrapped up. You’re leaking blood onto the freshly mopped floors” the doctor informed me and I looked down to my legs, near the bottom part of my leg my pants were torn and blood was dripping out.

I nodded then walked out, in all the excitement I must’ve not felt the bullet. But I felt it now, it burned painfully and it hurt to walk. I flagged a zebra nurse, most stallions hated zebras because of the war but I knew there were a few good ones.

“May I help you?” she asked in a very charismatic voice. “Yeah, I know it’s not much but can you uhm, dress my leg wound. I’ve been shot” I asked politely and she nodded then brought me into another room.

She sat me up and extended my leg on a leg rest. She pulled up my pant leg and inspected the wound. “How could you walk, this is bad” she said as she began to clean out the bullet wound. “The adrenaline must’ve gotten to me. The bullet probably went right through. Didn’t hurt none, until now” I informed her.

She finished cleaning my leg and began applying the bandage wrap. She winced in disgust from the smell of my boots. “Oh yeah… sorry I sweat a lot” I apologized. She nodded and held her nose as she finished the bandages then handed me two crutches. “You need to stay off that leg for a while sergeant major. Use these” she said in a cute zebra accent.

“So uhm… will you be the one to change my bandages?” I asked curiously, she smiled as she continued to hold her nose. “Yeah… but only after you take shower” she laughed then trotted out of the room. I hopped my way out of the room with my crutches then proceeded to the recovery rooms where I was hoping Daffodil would be.

I entered the room to see many other ponies, some missing limbs. Others missing entire lower half’s of their bodies. I spotted Daffodil who had bandage wrap around his head.

I walked over to him and we began to converse about old times but no sooner had we started talking, a stallion and a zebra walked into the room towards us. “Sergeant Major Clare?” asked the stallion. I gave him a salute “Colonel” I replied and lowered my salute as he extended his hoof.

I shook his hoof. “Well sergeant major, I’m Colonel Ross and this is Major Tung. Your friend Shining Armor isn’t in the greatest condition to talk and we need the coordinates to The Apache’s mountain hideout” Ross informed me.

I scratched the back of my head and thought to myself. “Uhm… well… I’d uhm have to think about it for a little while before I could remember” I replied and he nodded. “In the meantime, if you wouldn’t mind to relinquish your firearms” he told me. I willingly handed him my M1911.

“And the revolver” he ordered but I shook my head. “Sorry sir… my revolver stays with me at all times” I replied and he scrunched his nose. “Sergeant major, only MPs are allowed weapons in the field hospitals” he informed me. I pointed to his and Tung’s handguns that rode in hip holsters.

“We’re officials, we are required to be armed at all times when in the confines of the Everfree” he informed me. I sighed then handed him my Smith and Wesson revolver. “Well sergeant, time is running so we need those coordinates as soon as possible” he told me. “Yah, Shining might be better at directions” I told him and he nodded then they both left.

I sat with Daffodil for a while and the nurse, whose name was Posey, came in to look at one of the patients who only had half his body. “What happened to Taylors?” I asked, the shadow guard had been part of our platoon and I didn’t know what happened to him. “He stepped on a betty when on patrol. Blew off both his legs and the docs had to amputate” Daffodil informed me.

I could see Taylors crying and I walked over to him. “Hey Taylors… how yah doing?” I asked and he looked up to me. “Sarge… I ain’t heard from her lately… I think she’s forgotten about me” he said as tears rolled down his face.

I felt terrible for him, so many shadow guards and soldiers lost their marefriends during the war. “No, no. She’s hasn’t forgotten about you” I assured him. “Sarge… she ain’t written to me in a month… I… I think she’s forgotten” he said as he held up his hoof. I could tell he was close.

I held his hoof in both my hands. “No, Taylors. Come on man you know how slow the mail gets around” I reassured him. “No Sarge… she’s forgotten about me… tell my mama I love… love h…” he trailed off and gasped as his life slipped away. I felt his hoof go limp in my hand.

I rested his hoof down on his chest and wiped some tears from my eyes. Taylors was a good kid, only 21 years old. He didn’t deserve this, no-pony did. I wiped the remainder of the tears away from my eyes and looked over to see that the LT was gone, along with the nurse.

LT Daffodil, field hospital:

“Hey Posey, sorry about everything that happened between us” I apologized. “Daff… it’s not your fault, I never found another guy it’s just…” she trailed off. “Hey… shh it’s okay. What’s wrong you can tell me” I said soothingly and she shook her head. “The baby Daff” she replied.

“Yeah what about it?” I asked and she wiped away some tears from her face. “Abortion” she said through sniffles. “What?” I asked not exactly sure what she was talking about. “An abortion Daff. I had an abortion” she told me.

“Wait… wait what? Posey… why?” I asked and she wiped some more tears from her eyes. “Daff, I couldn’t raise our child thinking that her father could come home one day in a body bag” she cried. “Yeah, well didn’t you think to tell me?” I asked and she looked to me with teary eyes. “It was my decision” she told me.

“Yeah well it was my baby too yah know” I said in a somewhat louder tone but she got up and rushed off, crying to herself. I felt bad for my outburst but I had wanted to be a father so badly.

The next morning,

SGM. Clare:

I walked out into the open field out front of the field hospital where Daffodil sat in a helicopter. Several helicopters came and went, dropping off wounded soldiers. “Hey LT, you look like you caught yourself a case of the blue’s. What’s going on?” I asked and he exhaled through his nose. “Well you got that right sergeant major” he said. “Oh?” I asked and he nodded.

“Yeah something just happened, didn’t happen directly to me but it felt like it did” he said. “Well you want to talk about it?” I asked and he sighed as he lit a cigarette. “Something to do with your nurse?” I asked and he looked away. “Aw come on LT, lay it on me, you can talk to me” I said and he looked back to me with a depressed look.

“Yeah… Posey was pregnant, with my kid” he said and I looked to him. “She didn’t keep it?” I asked and he nodded. “Yeah she didn’t keep it” he said depressingly. I looked around as I thought about to say. “Well, how’s she feel about it. I mean did you guys talk about it much?” I asked and he shook his head. “She’s done all the talking. And all the decision making and right now she’s not happy about it. About who I am or what I am. I’m a dirty smelly… grunt” he said with a smirk.

I felt bad for him. “You know LT, I hear what you’re saying and I feel what you’re going through. And I envy you” I lied and he looked to me. “What?” he asked unsurely. “Well look at it from my point of view, at least you got some-pony mad at you. I got ponies all around me but I’m still alone all the time” I lied, I didn’t really feel like telling him about my secret relationship with Luna. “You’ve got some-pony special” I assured him. He looked up to me “Yeah but I’m feeling pretty lonely right about now though” he said and I nodded.

He chuckled and smiled. “I guess you’re right Sarge” he said acceptingly. I tapped him with my left crutch. “Come on, well go see what the mess hall has for coffee here” I said and we both walked back into the field hospital.

Third person, field hospital:

Major Tung followed Colonel Ross as he argued with a doctor. “Goddess dammit I need to talk to that stallion” Ross argued but the doctor shook his head. “He is in a critical state right now and you can’t just go demanding things from him” the doctor argued back.

“You don’t understand. Ponies will die unless we get the information we need from him” Ross yelled. “And if you try to get the information from him he could die” the doctor said in a stern voice. Ross scoffed then turned and left while the doctor went his own way.

Tung stayed in the hall and waited for both men to leave around the corners then walked to Shining Armor’s recovery room. The MPs at the door gave him a salute and he returned it. He opened the door then locked it behind him as he entered Shining’s recovery room. Shining lay in the medical bed resting peacefully. Tung pulled out a line of small rope and walked over to his side.

He unplugged the monitor so that the flat line wouldn’t alarm the nurses or doctors. “Captain. We cannot allow you to reveal our base location. You are a strong stallion but our will is stronger. Now be at peace” Tung said and wrapped the thin rope around Shining’s throat and began to strangle him to death.