Silent Night (Anon) O Holy Night played softly through the speakers in your living room as you sat watching the fireplace crackle away, the wind blowing hard against the living room window as the blizzard rolls in outside and off in the kitchen you can faintly hear your wife Anna preparing supper for you both. It's Christmas eve; a time of joy for most but for you it's a time of memories, ones which you would sooner not have and so you stare into the fire and try to forget. To forget the pain of your parents and brother, all gone now and to forget the pain of the loss of many of your good friends as well. The fire brings you no peace so you get up and walk over to the window to watch the storm roll in, the weather bureau forecast the possibility of thunder snow to come in with this storm but you very much doubted it would, because the air felt too cold when you were out earlier. As you stare out the window trying not to think of the past a bright flash and a house shaking boom split the winter dark and just like that you're back there. Loud bangs always do it, less frequently now than in years past but it still happens from time to time, you remember it all the now, yes you remember. Boom, and you're a terrified 22 year old Corporal in the Royal Canadian Regiment again huddled in his slit trench and the thunderous roar of Russian artillery churns the earth around your companies lines, it's Christmas eve 2020 and the war between NATO and Russia has been raging for 5 months with no sign of stopping, for a month now the Russian's have been trying to break through the NATO line that runs from Gdansk to Krakow. The front became a thing that was devouring men and machines, but the Russians attacks had become increasingly aggressive lately, trying to press home attacks even after their assaults have been savaged by artillery and airstrikes, but it was no matter to you because you knew as you lay there in your hole wondering if its going to be you're turn, that not long after the shelling stops they'll attack rushing in on foot supported by tanks and bmp-3's. The roar stops and and the crying of the wounded starts, the medics check them over and work to stabilize the ones the can and try to get them back from the line. You dart through the trenches between the firing pits and check on your section, you find out the that three men from another platoon took a shell on top of their pit and were just gone. But you had no time to worry about because you heard the vehicles horns in the distance signalling the start of the attack. They came from the shattered remains of the forest in front of you, hundreds at your companies position and probably man thousand's along the front line, but they didn't have as many vehicles as they usually did and no tanks this time the mortar's in the rearward trenches open up first they dull thumping in the background signalling the start of the defense, then the companies .50 machine guns open fire and start cutting down the Russian's as they run, the vehicles are engaged with spike AT missiles and Carl Gustaf launchers but still they close in, more come out of the trees now backing up the already ravaged assault. The Russian soldiers get close enough to start engaging us with their rifles and the close in killing starts, but we're well dug in and ready so it's an unfair exchange after what felt like hours but was only 40 minutes the Russian's have had enough and break contact. everyone breathes and checks the wounded and looks for the dead, another 10 dead including two very good friends of yours Corporal Jack Stykes; found between firing pits dead from grenade shrapnel and his fur burnt off in places from the heat flash and your Sergeant Michael O'Rourke your platoon Sergeant shot in the head, you'll have to remember to write a letter to his wife. Night falls and things are settling back in after the attack, everyone is standing post before dusk in case of an evening attack. off in the distance you hear thunder in front of you, the Russian's are sending their Christmas presents for the evening it seems, soon you hear the whistling and everything starts shaking again. you race back to your firing pit when suddenly there a bright flash and ear splitting bang and then... (Anna) your stand near the stove watching the vegetable stew simmering as your tail swishes back and forth lazily behind you, you hear the music coming from the living room and think of your husband and how much trouble he has this time of year, plagued by memories of the war, he seems to be holding up well this year. you pour off some of the stew into a separate pot with beef in already good in it, you know he likes beef stew on Christmas eve as your stir in the stew with the beef you see a flash and hear ear folding boom as the thunder snow that was forecast arrives, you immediately listen to see if your husband is ok, you know that sometimes loud noises set off his PTSD. not hearing anything you turn your attention to the stove once more and the roll's you baked are ready to come out of the oven. Not five minutes later and there another bright flash and thunder so loud you think is hit the house, as your hearing clear you hear a crash in the living room and you know that he needs you now; you turn of the stove an race out the kitchen and through the halls, your hooves clacking hard on the hardwood floor. When you reach the living room you see something heart breaking, your husband with the curled up against the wall under the window shaking like leaf with his eyes clamped shut the table that was under the window thrown to the side. You step over to him and try to pick him up, he immediately clings tightly to you though at this stage he might not even be aware of it, you hold him close, his head tight to your chest as you nuzzle the top of his head to try and calm him down. Then you remember a song he told you that his mother always used to sing this time of year, he said it was the most calming sound he knew of when his mother sang it. So softly you began... (Anon) You're back in that trench, you're back in that trench and your screaming would scare the devil, you writhe back and forth clutching at your leg that feels like its been hit with twenty sledge hammers. you don't know when the shelling stopped all you knew was pain and terror even as the medics put a tourniquet on your thigh and worked staunch the bleeding of your other wounds, you are stuck in this moment over and over and over and....then you hear a voice a sweet and heavenly voice piercing the haze "Silent night, holy night." you slowly come back to reality as the angel sings and the haze clears, you feel the tight embrace and warmth of the greatest joy in your life your loving wife Anna, you can hear heart strong Equine heart beating and you feel the warmth of her fur against your face and you remember again; you remember when you first met her. you had been lying in this hospital bed in Berlin for nearly two weeks now though you were barely conscious for the first week they kept you mostly sedated so you didn't tear any stitches, but you were awake now and you were gripped by the chemical haze of pain killers and the anxiousness of worrying about your buddies at the front and hoping they you might find a back to keep fighting with them. You knew your war was over though, you knew every time you looked at the empty space under the blanket where your left leg ended just above where the knee would be, you were no good now, crippled and bed ridden. at the start of the next week you noticed some non medical folks coming into the ward were you were, they looked like young women and men humans and anthros alike the walked through and approached the wounded and sat with them seemingly to talk and keep them company, a nice gesture but one you weren't sure you wanted to subject some poor soul to, no one would want to listen to a morose and broken corporal talk about his troubles. so you shut your eyes and tried to rest. (Anna) You had volunteered for a program put on by your university to go to the hospital's and visit with some to the severely wound from the war, the hope was that giving them someone to engage with who was not in the same boat would help them mentally to come to terms with their situations better. When you walked in to the ward you were assigned to your heart broke seeing all the wounded warriors in their beds, you were halted by everyone rushing in to find someone to talk to or just sit with and in the end you saw one man in the back corner of the ward looking at what was happening with a forsaken look on his face; he shut his eyes and seemed to try and black out his surroundings, you knew this was the one who needed you most and so you walked towards him. (Anon) you laid in your bed with your eyes shut as the sound of voices and some sobs filled the room then you heard the soft knocking of hooves on tile approaching close to your bed and when you open your eyes to see who had approached you. You saw her; a tall statuesque mare with a silver grey coat with a snow white mane and tail and the thick curves that most equine women seemed to have and eyes that were like the brightest sapphires, when she spoke it was in English with a with a fairly noticeable German accent, she introduced herself as Anna Bauer and said she was there to keep you company and to talk about whatever you wanted, she never asked about the fighting or your wounds except to make sure you were comfortable. the first day she visited you talked about simple thinks, what music you both liked, films and that sort of thing. She came back every day that week to see you and you started to feel human again, when she left on thursday she brushed her hand though your hair and kissed you on the forehead and you knew then and there that you were starting to get feelings for Anna. When Anna arrived Friday morning you sat up to meet her with a hug which she gladly accepted, then you got to talking again; she finally asked you about your home on the east coast of Canada you told her all about it, and she said she would like to see it sometime, you told her you would bring her over too see it and you meant it. But then she said "your family must be happy to know you're alive and will probably be home soon." you replied that you had no one to go home too because your parents and brother were killed when the Russia's lost a cruise missile attack against the naval base in your city, some of the missiles went wild and hit residential areas your family was killed in one of the blasts. Anna suddenly hugged you tight and apologized for bringing up such a painful memory to which said its fine because you couldn't hurt this girls feelings. The time came for you to be sent back to Canada to continue your convalescence and start getting used to civilian life, you had one last morning with Anna and you talk about the future, you told her to write down her e-mail and phone number so you could keep in touch and that you still promised to bring her to visit your home, but soon it was time to go; one last hug and she kissed you on the forehead again and your spirits ascended. you got back to Canada in mid january and into a rehab clinic to start working getting you used to the missing leg and the soon to be prosthetic limb. It was now the second week of February and the war was over, NATO had successfully managed to wreck enough of russia's fuel dumps and refineries that their war effort came to a halt and the sued for peace, the prewar border were re-established and eastern Europe once free and independent once again. Life got on you settled your families affairs and found out that between you military pension for being wounded and they money your folks had invested that you were basically set for life and could live comfortably. You and Anna talked pretty much everyday via text message and skype, she would be finishing the first part of her psychology degree this spring and was hoping to travel a bit over the summer, so of course you offered to fly her over to you to see your home city, she accepted without hesitation; it seemed she missed you too. when she arrived you showed her all your favourite places in the city restaurants, provincial park on the outskirts. it was during this visit that the two of you fell madly in love with one another and spent much of the rest of her visit doing what young couples tend to do. Anna Decided to finish her degree at a local university and you got married not long after she moved over and now you were back in her arms in your living room your heart and mind at peace. You reach up and grab the sides of her muzzle and pull her into a deep passionate kiss and thank her for pulling you back once again, you stand in the light of the fireplace and in each others arms for a while longer then shes drag's you off to the kitchen for supper. After supper you are cuddled up by the fire with Anna neither of you saying a word, nothing needs to be said, a tight hug here and a kiss there says it all. you get to have the best present of all this christmas, you get to wake up next to the love your life. It's Christmas eve 2025 and the two you sit there basking in each other in the silence of the night.