One Year (Chapter number %i% )
One Year (Chapter number 1 )
“Vinyl, you ok?” Vinyl kept looking to the dark sky, without answering. “You are thinking of her, aren't you?”
“It has been a year...” Vinyl commented on a low tone of voice
“Don't worry, we'll find her, if what you have told me about her is true, she must be just fine, you just wait. But right now we have a bigger problem, come with me.”
Vinyl turned around, walked out of the balcony, and closed the door. After that she followed Stormbreaker. They walked downstairs in direction to the kitchen.
“We are low on food again.”
“I guessed so, last time we found food was when we first arrived here a month ago.”
“There's a supermarket near Doson Street, a few blocks from here.”
“Ok then, I'll get the team.”
They arrived to the kitchen, Vinyl replaced some candles with new ones, watered her little plant (it was a rose she found a few nights ago) and Blue Star´s cactus (he had this strange obsession with them). She crossed the door into the hall, almost everypony was sleeping, a few couldn't sleep, something pretty usual in the group.
“Colgate, you awake?” Vinyl asked softly.
“Yup! Tonight I don't feel like sleeping, just because.” The light blue unicorn was laying on the floor, playing with her hoofs.
“Berry?”
“I can't sleep, I´m hungry, there is no food by the way” Berry was sitting near Cloud Kicker, looking boringly at the ceiling.
“I know, that's why we need to go to do some shopping, want to come? “ Both ponies agreed.
“Ohh yeah! It's time to test my new baby. “ Colgate took out a large rifle painted with the same colors as her mane.
“New baby?” Vinyl asked.
“His name is Jeremy.”
“Why Jeremy?” Berry asked.
“Well, because I like that name, is a type 95 silenced with incendiary ammo, 3 round burst and night vision sight, if it's already dead, Jeremy will be its bus to hell, isn´t that right honey?.” Colgate hugged her gun like a mother hugging her child. Colgate Minuette was a dentist, but besides that she loved guns; when people asked why, she blamed her father, he was a member of the E.O.F. (Especial Operation Force) of Canterlot, and since a child, like the irresponsible father Colgate loved, He taught her the secrets of weaponry.
“Well then, let’s go, Storm is waiting for us outside.” They walked out and Storm was waiting for them, with bags lying near his hoofs.
“Your weapons are here, keep the bags, we are bringing them to carry the food.”
Vinyl walked to him and he asked him on the ear
“Have you seen anything interesting?”
“Some earth ponies, not much, should be easy.” Storm said.
Vinyl used her magic to take out two submachine guns from her bag. Berry Punch grabbed a modified baseball bat with a spike head. Storm himself took out a sub-machine gun, and Colgate just took a pistol because for her, his baby was more than enough.
“Doson Street is just a few blocks away, there are some earth ponies on the way, if we keep ourselves low, we won't have much problem.” Storm started walking, he didn´t like to lose time.
“Well then, what are we waiting? We need to get some food before the sun rises.” Vinyl said, and the rest of the small group started walking through the deep and dark night.
After a while they arrived to a dark abandoned supermarket. Stormbreaker took a C4 out of his bag, he planted it in the door and then he blew it up.
“How many of those do you have?” Berry asked surprised to see that he had such powerful explosives.
“Not much. It has been a while since we got these, our ammo is running low and I don't think we can find another military camp with at least some bullets.”
“Let’s get the food first and then we can focus on our ammo, Colgate, Cherry, go ahead and look if the vault has something, Storm and I will keep an eye to prevent any danger.” Vinyl and Stormbreaker were standing at the door, weapons ready, looking out for any signs of problems, vigilant. After a while, Colgate returned to them scared.
“Vinyl, Storm, come here quick.”
They ran towards the vault, when they got in, they saw Berry Punch on the floor, scared. Above her, on a bunch of boxes, ten pegasi where sleeping, they had blue wasted uniforms and blood was running through their wings. Vinyl had seen them before.
“Are they who I believe they are?” Berry asked.
“Wait a minute; is Davion Avenue near here Colgate?” Vinyl asked.
“Yes, a few blocks away, near the... Wonderbolt´s Arena...”
They knew who they were, the marvelous Wonderbolts; even if they were now part of the undead, pegasi zombies were able to fly as fast as they did alive.
“If this things wake up we are all going to be dead, we have to go back Vinyl.”
“I´m not moving from here, Storm, we need this food so let’s just keep ourselves quiet, we will be fine, grab everything you can, try to not get close to them.” Storm looked at her, he didn´t want to risk any of their lifes, especially Vinyl´s.
“IF WE WAKE THEM UP WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH THE FASTEST PEGASI IN EQUESTRIA, WE NEED TO GET BACK!”
“IF WE DONT TRY TO GET FOOD, THE ENTIRE GROUP WILL DIE OF STARVATION; WE NEED TO GET THIS FOOD!”
Colgate and Berry were just looking at both unicorns argue. After a few more minutes, Stormbreaker gave up.
“If we are doing this, we need to do it fast, and quietly. We make any sound, we get eaten by the Wonderbolts, we stay too long, Raiders will find us and kill us, let´s move.”
Each one of them grabbed different kind of stuff, filling every single bag. Berry had her entire bag filled up, most of what it was there was fruit punch, she was happy now, so happy she drank a little bit of the punch, the feeling of the alcohol trough her blood was just glorious, after looking around a little bit, there was something that caught her attention, above some shelves, there was a dusty, fat bottle with a label that said on golden letters: "AGUARDIENTE". She had only heard stories about it, a Mexican beverage with so much alcohol that you could get drunk with just drinking a small cup. It was too high for her but she didn't care, she just wanted to have that treasure in her hands. She stood up in her back hooves, she raised her front hooves as high as she could, but she couldn´t grab the bottle, she tried to do it again and this time she touched the top part of the bottle, but as soon as this happened, the bottle started moving, no way to stop it, it was too late, it felt to the ground, but Cherry would not let that such a majestic bottle of such a legendary alcohol go to waste, she jumped pushing her body forward, her timing was perfect, she grabbed the bottle seconds before it touched the floor, the bottle was now safe, but when she stood up to put the bottle in the bag, her tail touched the unstable shelve, making it stagger. Berry walked away slowly, she didn´t know what to do, but run.
“EVERYPONY RUN!” The violet pony shouted.
“What? Wait, that shelve... Berry what the fuck did you just do????” Vinyl looked terrified at the moving shelve with all those glass bottles.
“I´m so sorry Vinyl, i didn´t want this to happen, I just wanted a bottl...” But Berry was interrupted
What was inevitable happened. All those bottles felt and broke, causing a noise that could be hear blocks and blocks away.
The sleeping pegasi woke up, their mindless brains could sense fresh flesh, they looked around and they spotted the group, without wasting time, they lifted up, and they started chasing.
“You go! Jeremy and I will hold them up, we'll gain you some time!” Colgate said, taking her gun out of her bag.
“No! I won’t leave anypony of my group to die!” Vinyl replied.
“I won't let you guys die! Don’t worry, I'll be fine.” Colgate said stubbornly.
Colgate took out her gun and she aimed in direction to the door, the ones that were once The Wonderbolts were chasing them at a high speed. She waited for the perfect time, she kept waiting, those seconds looked like hours, after a few seconds, the head of one of them appeared, she took the chance and she shot. Three bullets went straight through the pegasus' head, it instantly died and a horrifying scream was heard. She took down another one and she ripped off the left wing of another one, leaving it unable to fly, making it fall to its death. But they were way too fast for her, soon Colgate saw herself surrounded by two of the pegasi, she knew this would happen; she just waited for it to end. But she didn't feel the bite, she just heard the screaming. Both pegasus were laying next to her, dead. She looked around; Vinyl was holding her guns with her magic, pointing at her direction.
“I told ya I wouldn't let anypony of my group die.”
“And I told ya to get out of here.”
“Good thing I don't listen to what you say.”
“Now let’s get the heck out of here, there are 5 more coming here.
Where are Storm and Berry?”
“Back at the base, but we can´t go there, is way too risky. The Wonderbolt´s Arena must be nearby, if we get there, we can take them down there.”
Both unicorns ran towards Davion Avenue. After a while, they reached The Wonderbolt´s Arena, a year without maintenance transformed monumental, top quality stadium, into a dark, about to collapse arena. It looked like both unicorns would make it out of there, but luck wasn´t on their side. A wooden plank at the floor, made Vinyl fell off, Colgate went to help her, but it was too late, the three winged beasts were surrounding them, Colgate shot one down, but the other two were too fast for her, and a light blue pegasus threw himself at her, taking her to the ground. A few seconds later, a golden pegasus did the same to Vinyl. She saw her gun but it was way too far away and her magic was not strong enough, so she just limited herself to wait for the bite that was going to be her end, she looked at the pegasus, her empty eyes looked back at Vinyl.
But something happened, Vinyl saw a bright light in the sky falling at an incredible speed, falling towards her. On a certain point, this light turned, and as a drill, it went right through both pegasi, leaving them dead on the ground, after doing this, the light deployed a pair of wings, revealing both unicorn´s savior, a male, big phoenix. It went up to the sky again, and it started doing circles around the arena.
“That was a close one!! Where did that phoenix came from? Never mind, we are alive!!” Colgate said happily.
“I would not be happy yet, that phoenix is making some strange circles up there, maybe it´s purpose wasn´t to save us, but
to give our position away...” Vinyl replied in a worried voice.
“Away to… who?.” Colgate looked at Vinyl, thinking in what she meant with that, until she realized what was worrying Vinyl, the Raiders.
“We have to run, now, before is too…” Before Vinyl finished, an arrow passed by, centimeters away from her head.
“Shit, they are here, Colgate, we have to…”
“AHHG!!!” Vinyl looked at Colgate; an arrow was right into her back left leg.
“Fuck fuck fuck fuck!! Colgate, stay calmed, we are gonna get out of here, don't worry.”
“You are not getting out of here, ladies.” Vinyl looked behind her; a pegasus was looking at her, pointing her with a sword.
“Indeed, unless of course, you give us something to trade, you know, freedom for some goodies, a good deal.” An unicorn appeared behind his partner, with a professional bow, and a bag filled with different types of arrows.
“You ain´t getting shit, I need this food…”
“Food, huh? We could need that.” The pegasus interrupted her.
Suddenly a third pony came out from the shadows; it had a helmet on and some kind of armored suit. He spoke with a deep voice.
“Please, don´t make this diffi…” He stopped his sentence as soon as he saw Vinyl, he kept looking at her.
“What? Do I look that bad for you?”
The suited pony kept looking at her, and after a couple more seconds, he turned back and he started walking,
“Leave them, we will food later.”
“What do you mean with leaving them?? You know better than anyone that we can´t do that, we need that food!” The unicorn responded at the suited pony angrily.
“You are right… Grab their bags, black them out if you have to, but do not, I repeat, DO NOT kill them.”
“Why not?? Common!! Well fuck it; ok you two give us your bags, you first red eyes.” The pegasus looked at Vinyl, pointing his sword at her.
“If you want this bag, you will have to kill me first.”
“See boss? Is not my fault, she is tempting me!”
“Just give him the bag, I don´t want to waste too much time, ok?.”
“No."
“What did you say bitch?“ The unicorn started pointing at Vinyl with his bow.
“I said, NO.” Vinyl looked at the unicorn directly to the eyes.
“This is it, I´m killing her.” The Pegasus took out his sword, but the armored pony was faster, and he hit him with a metal tube.
“What the fuck are you doing?” The unicorn asked angrily.
“If I say to not kill them, you don´t kill them.” the suited pony answered
Vinyl took advantage of the situation and she ran, picked up her gun, and she threw herself behind a fallen piece of concrete.
“Gosh dammit, do you see what you did?? Now we have to fight with this prick.” The unicorn shouted
“You grab the other one´s bag, I´ll deal with the red eyes.” The suited pony said, ignoring his partner comment.
The suited armor started running, Vinyl waited for him to get closer, to get the perfect shot. But before Vinyl could even look above the concrete, the suited pony was right next to her.
“Please, I don´t want to do this, just… just give me the bag.”
“My people needs me, my people needs this food.”
”The suited pony couldn´t hold it anymore, she took out her tube, and she threw a hit at Vinyl, but Vinyl knew this was going to happen, and she dodged that. Both ponies started fighting, both received multiple hits, but they were really resistant, and they kept fighting. Meanwhile Colgate was strong enough to grab her weapon, and she started shooting; the pegasus stood up, and as soon as he saw Colgate, he and his partner took cover behind some obstacles; Colgate took advantage of them running, and she escaped as well, she crawled till a nice piece of concrete, just as the one Vinyl and the suited pony were fighting at.
After a long time, Vinyl was defeated, she found herself at the ground, the suited pony was exhausted as well, she took the bag and she started walking; Vinyl grabbed her gun, and she shot at the pony´s head with her last breath; this bullet took away a piece of the helmet, revealing the right eye. Vinyl looked the eye, and she became paralyzed; that eye was completely familiar, she knew only one pony in the entire Equestria with the color of that eye. She looked at the suited pony go away, with her bag, and exhausted; she told his partners that they had to go. Both of them doubted, but they followed her anyways; the suited pony went to the exit door, but as soon as he opened the big black door, he got knocked back by a black unicorn with red and yellow hair, Storm never left them, he was watching them closely. Storm pointed a gun at the suited pony´s throat, the only part that wasn´t protected.
“One more step and she dies.”
“No, Storm… don´t do it…” Vinyl tried to shout, but she couldn´t, she was too tired.
“We could take you down easily you know, two vs. one, seems pretty solid for me.” The pegasus looked firmly at Stormbreaker, but he knew that his pet phoenix, Blaze, was up there waiting for his moment.
“Well how about twenty four vs. two?“ Behind Storm, the entire group was ready with guns on their hands, the unicorn and the Pegasus threw their guns, Storm picked up the bag and he raised it, but he didn´t notice that the phoenix was coming down at him at great speed; the phoenix took the bag and it flew away, but one of the guys from the group, shot the phoenix with his rifle, the phoenix went down to the ground at the distance, but the Pegasus wasn´t happy with that, tears came down from his eyes, and he shouted with rage.
“NO!! BLAZE!!!! YOU SON OF A BITCH YOU KILLED HIM!! DIE!!!! “The Pegasus ran towards the group, with his blade at his hoof, but Storm saw him in time, and he shot him. Three shots on his head, and the Pegasus was dead.
“Gosh dammit Burning Feather, what did you just did…” The unicorn looked at his partner dead body, he teleported at Storm and he punched him, knocking Storm back, he grabbed the suited pony and he teleported with him to the phoenix and the bag grabbing them, the suited pony stood up and both ran away.
“Vinyl, is that you?” Storm looked at Vinyl at the distance, he ran towards her, but when he arrived there, she fainted, only hearing Storm´s worried words.
