There was blood everywhere.
Mapleberry tossed and turned as the images penetrated her brain. The rock walls of her hiding place scraped against her skin, only enhancing her nightmare.
Feathers fell from the sky like rain. The sounds of the dying filled her ears as she hovered over the battlefield.
The battle was intense. The Equinoxian Pegasi had joined together, and the Water Clan Unicorns had sided with them. When the Surface Order Shakirans diminished, Dark Order Shakirans had risen from the ground like a black cloud of locusts.
But they were still losing.
Her infected wounds were making her mind delirious. She had to get out of this nightmare.
She flew over the field, searching for her sister Kestrelmist. Why had they begged their parents to let them join the battle? They were two winters. What she had seen today made her sick.
She found her sister fighting for her life against a bay Equinoxian stallion. Wings flared and nostrils quivering with their new-found fire power, Kestrelmist drenched him in flames with skill. Mapleberry closed her eyes as the stallion fell to his death.
“Hi May!” Kestrelmist smiled. “Isn’t this great?”
Mapleberry couldn’t hold back a shudder. “It’s making me sick.”
“Really?” Kestrelmist looked around, slightly confused. “I mean there’s a bit of carnage, but it’s nothing major.”
If she wasn’t trying so hard not to get sick, Mapleberry would have gone on a rant about the amount of carnage covering the ground. The land would never be habitable again. The stench would be too great.
“How many warriors have you taken?” She asked with a load of excitement in her voice.
Mapleberry was silent. How could she tell her younger sister that she hadn’t taken a single warrior? She’d managed to make excuses for her mother by saying she was scouting and counting the number of fallen.
She didn’t want to contribute to the death count she knew.
“Well?” Kestrelmist asked.
“I don’t know.” Mapleberry lied.
“Wow!” Kestrelmist’s eyes widened. “That many? I only took out five.”
Mapleberry winced as the wail of a dying pegasus pierced the air.
“Come on! Let’s go see if anyone needs help.” Kestrelmist zipped off, towards some other skirmish.
Her sister was born for this. She loved the rush, the pride, the glory that came with battle.
Mapleberry wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole.
“You’re awfully young to be on a battlefield.” A somewhat playful voice called out behind her. She whipped around and found herself staring towards a gold dun pegasus colt with gold feathers. An Equinoxian. So why wasn’t he killing her?
“I’m two winters.” She snapped.
“Four springs.” He said.
Mental correction—he was a stallion.
“Aren’t you going to attack me?” She asked, somewhat surprised that she wasn’t attacking him herself.
“Well I was… but you seem awfully young to be killed, so I’m going to move on.”
She was so shocked she nearly fell out of the sky. “But you’re Equinoxian!”
“And you’re Shakiran. You’re supposed to be mean and tough and snort fire everywhere. But I can tell you that’s not you.” The stallion shook his head. “No, I’m going to move on.”
“Come on!” She squeaked, surprised at her indignance. “Fight me! I can take it.”
He looked at her. “I guarantee you, if you fight me, I will end up killing you, and I don’t want that to happen.”
“What if I kill you?” She challenged. She hated the thought, but the impertinence of this stallion was getting under her skin, and someone from her herd would be watching eventually. She couldn’t risk her father hearing that instead of killing an Equinoxian, she had a pleasant chat with him.
He flipped his forelock. “I’d be surprised.”
That was it. Before she could control herself, she had thrown herself towards him and began tearing at his feathers. He twisted out of her reach and struck her left front leg. His hoof was sharp and the cut was deep. Blood dripped off the end of her hoof.
“I told you I didn’t want to hurt you.” The stallion said. “I’m giving you one last chance to back off.”
She bared her teeth and tore out a mouthful of gold feathers, biting down until she tasted blood.
He whipped his wing to the side, twisting her neck. He flew close to the sides of the cliffs, twisting to try to get her off.
She hung on for dear life.
His flapping was strained; the stallion was finally tiring. Now was her chance to finish him off.
As if reading her mind, he glanced back at her. “Sorry about this.”
He twisted alongside the wall and she cracked her head against the rocks.
Suddenly she was falling. She couldn’t move anything.
Something caught her wings. She managed to catch a glimpse of the face of the golden stallion before she passed out.
Mapleberry forced her eyes to open. Her eyes ached and her head pulsed with pain.
Everything was eerily quiet.
How did she get inside a cave? And what happened to the battle?
She shifted, wincing as her injured leg pulsed in pain. It was crusty and stank. Definitely infected.
She poked her head out of the cave, gagged at the smell from outside. The soil was stained red from blood.
A sense of alarm rose in her chest as she realized that she didn’t know where Kestrelmist was.
“Kestrelmist!” She shouted, feeling sick. “Kestrelmist!”
Her head swam. Her three good legs struggled to hold her weight.
She thought she saw a bloody collection of lime green and pink feathers. Her stomach churned.
It’s Kestrelmist’s feathers. They have to be. She thought. My sister was killed by the Equinoxians!
“I left her over here, Grayfeather.” A vaguely familiar voice said. She whirled around, almost falling over.
It was the golden stallion from earlier, leading a much older gray pegasus. Feather. The gray stallion was a commander!
She tried to scramble away, but her bad leg tripped her and she stumbled. The gold stallion loped forward and helped her up.
“Don’t touch me!” She shouted.
“I’m just trying to help.” The gold stallion said calmly.
The gray commander eyed her with suspicion. “I am still not sure why you would save one of the enemy, Eaglecloud.”
Eaglecloud. So that was the stallion’s name.
“She’s only two springs. I couldn’t kill her.” Eaglecloud said. “How’s your head?”
“It’s fine.” She snapped, struggling to stand. “Leave me alone. You killed my sister!”
“I agree with her, Eaglecloud. There’s no telling how Rowansun will react to this.” Grayfeather said.
“She needs our help.” Eaglecloud argued.
If her head wasn’t swimming, she would rip out the throat of this obnoxious Eaglecloud. Why can’t he see that I’m fine?
She turned to run but it was the last straw for her confused mind. Everything slowed, then faded as she hit the ground.
Oooh
Oooh, was exactly what I was going to say!