Cutting Wind had never felt as hopeless or terrified of anything in her life as she was right this moment. Her belly was pressed against the sucking mud beneath her, her legs imprisoned by it regardless of how hard she struggled while a coil of what appeared to be muddy water was wrapped around her neck as tightly as a living rope. Lightning Dust had never trained her for a situation like this... no one had! She had stopped trying to break free of her bonds after the captain... closing her eyes, Cutting tried to piece together were she had gone wrong with her life to deserve this. 

The squad had been following the alicorn since the incident in Appleloosa. It had taken some time to pick up the trail amongst hearsay, but they had found it. The discovery of the dead smiling dolls had merely been confirmation that they were on the right trail. Following it to a side road that bypassed Dodge Junction, they had found their target walking along at a leisurely pace. Like the professionals that they were, they had ambushed their target properly, coming down from above and slamming their spears into key areas in order to kill their prey outright... She remembered the golden blood that had poured out of the wounds... and the darkening of the alicorn's coat from a light blue to one that was so dark it looked black...

Cutting didn't remember the battle itself... if it could even be called that. It was just over so [i]fast[/i], her squad mates imprisoned by the mud of the land just as she was. It was then that the alicorn had walked up to the rookie, a stallion that had only recently been accepted into Lightning Dash's forces, placed his hoof on the kid's head and then forced it under the mud. Despite the rookie threshing around with his muffled screams and the rest of the squad yelling at him to let the kid breath, the alicorn kept the rookie's head submerged with his hoof until the muffled screaming and the struggles stopped completely. 

He then moved to the next pony in line and did it again in silence... then again... and again...

Cutting's head jerked up as something moved to stand in front of her. Tears escaped her eyes as the same hoof that had been the end of the rest of her squad almost lazily rose to deliver the same judgement to her as well. "No... please no. Anything but that. Please. PLEASE NO! I'LL DO ANYTHING YOU WANT JUST DON'T KILL ME LIKE THIS! I'M SORRY I ATTACKED YOU JUST PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!!!!!"

The world grew still for a moment.

"...Anything?"
..............................................................................................................................

 As Star Dancer followed the road, she would be passed by a mare going the other way. While utterly caked in mud, a few things were clear. The mare was wearing a tattered Earthborn uniform underneath all the mud, she had clearly been crying heavily and seemed to have only stopped because there was no more water left to give... and there where stubs that had been the base of where her wings had once been. 

The mare hadn't stopped at the sight of Star Dancer. She didn't say hello or make any move to acknowledge the passing mare on the road. All the now wingless mare seemed to be able to do was look down the road and keep putting one hoof in front of the other, her mind clearly lost somewhere far beyond the world where her body walked.

Cutting Winds had a message to deliver... and what little of her remained would see it carried out... only afterwards would she be allowed to die and escape the horrible loop of images that were haunting her dreams.