Chapter 7: Equinophobia

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flashbaks

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The sound of idle chitchat and the light of dawn were the things that woke me up. Something warm and fuzzy was stuck to my chest as I slept on my side. Not long after, I sense someone, or rather somepony's air being exhaled onto my neck, I open my eyes to see Jade sleeping soundly next to me, eyebags and all.

I already knew about the eyes from the others projected right at me the moment I sat up, it just became a forced trait after a while of settling here. Some faces looked idle, while others showed a small hint of distate at the human and pony sleeping next to each other.

I really wanted to wake Jade up, but I don't want to ruin this poor pony's sleep, she's worked hard enough to slumber for a little longer if those black bags under her eyes proved anything.

I quietly shuffle myself out of the bed, giving the rest of the duvet to comfort Jade as I stumbled across the infirmary. My bed was to the side of the room, next to others while another row of beds took up the other side. There was a large walkway in the middle of the two, which was layered with red crosses.

'Oh right, where the hell am I?' I thought.

My eyes tried to seek out the trainee nurse I momentarily met last night. Finding her wouldn't be a problem, since she was the one who wore a little hat with an 'L' shaped sign like the ones I saw on trainee drivers cars back on Earth. My efforts payed off as I saw her in the far corner of the room, forcefully feeding an injured guard with a spoon.

Sorry, not 'forcefully feeding', more like 'jabbing at his mouth and bringing it back out to jab it right in again'.

I casually make my way across, making sure that my blood-stained shirt and worn trousers cause no alarms to anyone as I got there. That reminds me, I should really get new clothes sometime, though how I'm going to acquire them without the help of Rarity would be beyond me.

"Excuse me, miss?" I called to the trainee.

"Oh, greetings alien." She smiled.

"Right. Do you know what I'm supposed to do here? and where I'm going to stay? because all I know is me getting headbutted straight to the infirmary without any knowledge of what I'll do tomorrow." I crossed my arms.

"Speak to Scarly over there, she's been watching you when you went to sleep!" Her hoof pointed towards the large exit, whilst the other one jabbed the soldier's nose, sending whatever was on it straight to his lungs.

"Oh shit."

My eyes slowly turned to the nurse's hoof confirm that it was indeed the bitch who almost killed me. Dead eyes and with a stoic face, she stared at me without moving a muscle.

"Scarly's been here since you woke up, I don't know why she didn't go to sleep, though. You must be a pretty special stallion to get her attention like this!"

'Flattery? No thanks.' I thought.

I saw her eyes peer down at my bloody shirt, followed by a grumble that was inaudible from the distance between us. Slowly I walked towards her, passing the sleepy Jade who was still on my bed. My face looked looked disgruntled, but not angry. I don't want another headbutt right after I recovered from my first one.

The brigadier maintained her stance, as though she were a statue. Me on the other hand, did my best attempts to hide my shaky gait from her sight, to no avail of course. I stopped once I got close enough to her, which was about a ruler's length to be exact. The buzz of patients and doctors carried around the background as 'Scarlett' and I fought in silence. Neither party moved, since we didn't really have to.

If anything, my size was the only thing I could use to intimidate her, since she was three-quarters of my full height.

Finally, she broke the silence.

"Come."

I end one half of my retelling to Soft Snow as she stared at me, mulling over what I've said. My hand was still on top of her head, ruffling it softly as I myself looked at the approaching sunrise.

"I don't understand how you could have helped me at that moment, since you watch most of what I do anyway." I said, not facing her gaze.

"I was injured badly, so it was only logical for me to have gone to sleep to recover." She replied.

"Sleep for 3 weeks?"

"Yeah."

I hummed, accepting her statement.

"You're still crying, you know that."

"I know, it's because I'm not finished just yet."

Out to the grounds we went, leisurely and with no conversation between us during our travel. Jeers and jokes came to me as I lagged behind the brigadier's side. This time, I felt different, it's as if I'm unable to hold off any of the terrible jokes that they give me. I felt like facing my head down the floor in shame, for no apparent reason.

Maybe it's just me getting softened by Jade, or maybe it was just the humiliating display of a female beating a guy up.

I honestly prefer the former.

Using her hooves, brigadier Scarlett casually pushed the doors to the courtyard wide open in one bout. It did nothing but impress me, because those doors were probably three times as tall as me, not to mention the wood that came along with it. The harsh sunlight glared at my eyes and the unnaturally hot air tickled my own skin. It had been the first time since I've experienced weather like this before, probably due to how close this place is to the sky and to the sun.

The grounds were pretty barren in contrast to the hedge walls that surrounded it. There were ponies in brown leather armor that were fighting with dummies and some were just flying around like they were in a circuit. From what I saw, the unicorns were practicing their own magic in a separate section from the other two kinds, using books and teachers as their source of learning rather than physical training.

Brigadier Scarlett continuously pushed me to the center of the battlefield, where the golden-clad guards surrounded us.

Oh God, ARE WE GOING TO FIGHT AGAIN?

"Stalkhoof, come out" She spoke. From the ring came a smaller-than-average pony, whose size was a tad bit smaller than the beefy stallions (and mares?) and whose build almost matched mine: which was rather thin. His brown irises gleamed with fury, yet his overall appearance seemed like it would run away from the sight of this human in front of him.

"You, hooman. Fight Stalkhoof. First to bleed a mug's worth of blood on the floor loses, got it?" She said with such blandness. It's as if she has done this many times before.

"First of all, it's human, human.And second of all, I'm outmatched either way. From earth pony to pegasus to unicorn, I'm going to be the one who loses, it's just plain knowledge." I complained formally.

"Then use this..'Elder Dragon' then, that should be more than enough to entertain us." She replied.

"How the fuck am I going to do that? I can barely keep myself up from the pain you gave me yesterday." I said.

"H-hey, don't s-swear." Stalkhoof whispered discreetly.

"Shut up." I retorted as I faced the brigadier once more. "And besides, I'm in no way shape or form to even fi-"

*Crack*

Was all I heard as my face get's pulverized by the hoof of a very angry colt. The fight hadn't even officially started and I'm already down on the ground by the quick bastard. I could feel his deceivingly heavy body collide against mine as he tries to knock me down.

My arms tried to reach around his head to hopefully put him in a choke hold, but unfortunately my hands slipped and scuffled about as we hugged abrasively. His damn armor along with the sweat that piled in my palms was more than enough to make them slip at first contact. In addition, I wasn't really in the right place to put him in a choke hold either, since I was in front of him and had now way to turn him around without the fucker doing it himself.

Eventually he got the upper hand as I received a lucky hoof to the cheek, disorienting me long enough for me to get tackled to the ground.

That little fucker even managed to break my ribs once more as his hooves slammed on them, pinning me to the ground. I could feel similar sensations hit me once more as the sharp bones are stabbing every fibre of my being internally. I only hoped that my lungs protected my heart as he continuously crashed down to me.

My left ear rang like crazy as I felt something leak out of it. My head wasn't in better shape either, since it was just facing the floor sideways, blankly staring at the ponies who laughed at it. My arms feebly push the colt away, to no avail of course, as he just flicks them away from his being and continues his merciless pummeling.

I felt like screaming, I really did. But I just couldn't find the breath to do so.

My legs twitched in tandem to the smashes and so did my coughs.

"F-fuck! Dude, stop! fucking stop!"

"Don't you DARE SWEAR WHEN THE BRIGADIER IS WATCHING."He whinnied, adding emphasis to his words as his metal hooves dig deeper to my chest.

Everything happened so quickly, it's as though it felt all too real. I thought battles were meant to be long and hard, and here I am getting beaten up by a small horse. I did nothing but force tears out as I could feel all the nerves inside my chest get slashed, ripped and overstimulated to the point where all I could do was just lay in shock.

I'm pretty sure that I had bled enough for the match to be over, but it doesn't look like that's happening until the little fucker that's on top of me has had his fun.

"Am I...doing well?...Brigadier Scarlett?" He panted between actions.

"Good enough." She sighed. "Stalkhoof, stop now. We don't want to kill him."

"Wish I did.." He muttered under his breath.

I finally feel painful relief as the attacks stopped. My face turned to the sun as it bled silently, ominously, and pitifully. I didn't even dare to breathe so much as a cup's worth of air as the excruciating pain from my lungs would just force it out immediately, rejecting it to save itself from the wall of spiky ribs that it was encased in.

There was no point in telling that my shirt was white, since it was just red all over, some darker in some areas whilst others were lighter due to it appearing there at an earlier time. Pain already became something that was associated with my blood: it was just plain everywhere, to the point where I could easily die from the shock. I already knew that I would have to be accustomed to this kind of thing whilst I'm going to stay here.

"Kill me now, please." I croaked.

No-one was laughing this time, none of them at all. I couldn't even see their faces as they presumably stared at me, shocked at such a gruesome sight or just showing a silence which pitied the human on the baked floor. None of them responded to my pleas, and since I was unable to move an inch at all, I could do nothing but wait for somepony to drag me to the pony morgue.

"Jade, take him to the medical wing. Full recovery." The muffled voice of brigadier Scarlett reaches my ringing ears.

Thanks, I don't know whether to thank you or to despise you anymore.

My last moments of sight were filled Jade's sorrowful eyes and her blurry face as she softly nuzzles my cheek, which I probably didn't feel at the time. Her horn glowed with a bright emerald, covering me and comforting the pain incarnate.

"Poor soul. I hope you get better."

Whether it was Jade or Scarlett, I didn't really give a damn. I just wanted some sleep.

Yeah, sleep would be nice. It's like dying for a while.

"The more about your past I hear, the more I begin to sympathize about your current persona." Soft Snow admitted.

"Gee, thanks." I chuckled.

"We're almost to the end aren't we?"

"How do you know?"

"I just do."

"Are you awake sleepybones?" Jade whispered to my ear.

"Go away." I muttered as I drag the short covers to my face, revealing my feet and legs for compensation. The brush of cold air was more than enough to keep me awake, but I just wanted to close my eyes for as long as I could. Just anything to make me go back to sleep again.

"You've already recovered, there's no sense into lazing around here you know, Scarly's been watching you this whole time." Jade replied as she poked my ragged trousers.

"Tell her I'm dead."

"Well, I can't."

"Why not?"

"Your chest already shows that you've recovered."

"My what now?"

I open my eyes to see the afternoon light shine behind Jade from the skylights, I perked up to her pure smile and bagged eyelids as she sat patiently beside me on a stool.

A certain draught breezed across my chest.

My eyes look down inside the covers to see that they had taken my bloody shirt off. In fact, I could already see it being used by the trainee nurse as a head band to pretends as if she were injured herself. I couldn't help but smile as she scared the pale and injured with her mock screams of pain.

Sweat and pin-like stains of blood littered my body, so I cleaned them off with my hands. I directed my attention towards Jade, who nudged her head in the direction of the brigadier, whose face was adamant as always.

"Jade."

"Yeah?"

"I'm going to be visiting this place quite a lot aren't I?"

"Unless you get better at fighting, which I hope doesn't happen, I'll be meeting you here each time you get knocked out, bleed profusely, get a disease, get maimed, almost die...etcetera etcetera." She said with a smile.

"...Thanks. Because to be honest, I'd prefer just being here getting treated or even taught by you rather than be seeing you whilst I bleed to death." I chuckled. Jade laughed awkwardly whilst dark spots momentarily appeared on her cheeks.

I got off the bed, politely wiping the sweat off my chest with the covers as I trudged towards the brigadier. I shivered quite frequently along the way too, which was probably just me and my body not coping without a shirt in prolonged periods for the first time in years. I straightened and puffed up my chest, to show whatever pride I still had after today as I met Scarlett once more.

"So, am I going to have to fight another small pony with gold-clad armour?"

"No. You've already proven that you're terrible at fighting."

"Am not...bitch." I muttered, using the lowest volume I could use.

"Well then what am I gonna do for the afternoon besides eating and sleeping?"

"..."

"Well?"

...

...

"Come with me."

Here it comes.

Flashback will probably end with the next chapter, which will probably be twice as long to accommodate most of what I put in it.

Oh, and there's gonna be a fight.

A big fight.