His hooves pounded on the ground, but he couldn’t hear it over the thump of his heart pulsing blood to his exhausted muscles. A high-pitched whine came from behind, and without thought, he jerked his body to the side. The spell detonated just outside of lethal range, but dirt and pebbles turned shrapnel pelted his coat. Still, he didn’t stop, not even as his best friend howled in agony.

“Gah, oh, Celestia, Mel!”

“Stay with me, Luck!”

“Ah! Ngrah, it hurts!”

“That’s wh—what happens when you step on a landmine!”

Caramel gnashed his teeth and poured on more speed, muscles screaming in protest. All around him the sounds of combat rang like a manticore’s roar. Griffonian spells whizzed over his head, strangled cries of pain danced through his ears. The battle was over, he knew. They’d lost, and soon, the Griffon war machine would sweep across the—

“Nngrraaahhh!” From atop his back, his best friend writhed in unknowable pain, crimson staining the white bandages covering the shredded remains of his rear legs. Caramel shook his head and stared straight ahead. He focused his attention to the struggling body on his back, doing his best to not notice the still bleeding corpses he leapt over, the cries of the retreating ponies around him. The weight on his back grew heavier the longer he ran. Warm life kept spilling down his flank, marring his cutie mark.

“Just… hah, hah… just hold on, Luck! I can—“ Another whizzing. “No!” In a movement he didn’t think possible, he leapt to the side, curling his body around the No sooner had he hit the ground, than the world around him erupted in a blaze of mana fire.

“Ggraaahhh!” The magic-fueled inferno charred his fur, but he held fast. Beneath him, Lucky kept writhing, screaming, bleeding. Finally, the blaze died off. Somewhere in his mind, he registered that that must have been a mortar, tossed by the berserkers that had decimated the Equestrian line, maybe even—

“Hey, Private, you alright?! We gotta keep moving!” A voice from behind, and a hoof touched his back, and Caramel’s world erupted into a torrent of pain. Stinging, burning, cutting, freezing, every word he could think as his wailing cry echoed across the battlefield.

“Oh, oh jeez, dude, I’m so—“

Zip!

A splash of crimson across his face. By the time Caramel had blinked it out, the headless blue unicorn before him had already fallen dead to the ground, a hoof sized hole torn through the side of his head.

“C-C—Car…”

Biting back the pain of his scarred back, he turned back to his friend. Two bloody stumps no longer kicked as bright red blood spurted out.

“Ah, damn it, Luck, the tourniquets fell off. Don’t worry, I’ll—“

“I’m scared, Mel. I-I don’t…” A wet cough sprayed blood on Caramel’s face, but he didn’t even notice.

“I’m sorry, Celestia. Please, don’t… d-d-d-don’t let…….” Eyes wide. Tongue limp. Head lolled back.

“Luck?” Caramel shook him gently, but the tear falling down his face told that he knew. The crimson life no longer flowed from his ruined back legs. “Lucky, please. Don’t...”

In that moment, the war—the fighting, the blood, guts, and death, the cries of glory and howls of shame—all fell away. The world faded to white but for the grey corpse in his hand, a twisted caricature, a parody of his life-long friend.

“This was all your idea, you son of a goat. Heh, I followed you. You…” He gnashed his teeth. “I should be back at the farm, bucking apples and trying to get AJ to notice me, but you j-just had to try and be a hero.”

Lucky said nothing.

Slowly, mechanically, he brought the lifeless husk to his chest, Trying to offer a final comfort to his friend. Lucky didn’t notice, nor care.

“It’s… it’s all okay, Luck. We’re gonna be fine.” A crunch from behind him, that awful smell of burnt feathers,. Caramel didn’t twitch. “It’s gonna be okay, Luck, we’re gonna get you h-home…”

“Nien, little pony. You won’t,” growled a voice behind him.

A cold metal pressed against the back of his head. A cold chuckle graced his ears.

Caramel closed his eyes.

He joined his friend.