Haywire

Chapter Four: Hell's Bells

Pipsqueak awoke the next morning to a frighteningly loud rumbling. His face was still wet from the countless tears he had cried the night before, but he had no time to think about that. He ran over to the pony immediately near to him, Fleetwood.

"Hey, Fleet," he whispered, shaking the older pony with his front hoof.

"What?" the half-asleep stallion muttered back, feeling his injured head.

"There's something out there! You gotta go wake everyone up!"

"Whatever you say," Fleetwood slurred, getting up off the table where he had layed only a few seconds ago.

Pip then ran to the back room, where Dash, Silver and Cupcake were sleeping.

"Guys," he repeated, "Something big's out there, you gotta come see this!"

By the time they had returned to the diner's front room, everypony was awake, and were staring in awe at something. Rainbow Dash forced her way to the front of the croud to see their worst nightmare come true: A Tiger 2 was trundling out from the rear of the building. All eyes were on Eldorado, glaring in unison due to the fact he had never told them he had a heavy tank at his truckstop.

"About that," he chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head, "I was plannin' on makin' a WW2 museum in the back shops...."

"I got this," Ray called out calmly, grabbing a LAW rocket launcher from the counter. As soon as he picked it up, the tank responded with a spray of machine gunfire into the diner. Everypony ducked as the rain of lead smashed glass, dented stoves, and shattered the porcelain mockup of Princess Luna in the middle of the diner, smiling proudly, holding a can of Lunoco Oil.

Rainbow watched in horror as Ray was blown full of holes, and dropped to the floor, dead. Several others followed, including Smokey, Bubba, Lloyd, and Checker, who was only shot in the leg.

Eldorado was furious at the damage, and quickly grabbed the LAW from Ray's hooves. "You sumnabitch!" he screeched, "Take this!"

The rocket shot out of the LAW, across the room, and penatrated the Tiger's front armor. The MG-42 was about to respond, but all that came was a clicking.

"The sucker's outta ammo!" Eldorado laughed to the survivors, but none of them shared his humor. Everypony stared at the dead bodies of five patrons. Finally, Scootaloo couldn't take it anymore.

"YOU CAN ALL DIE IN HELL!" She screeched, bolting for the doors, "I'M GETTING OUT OF HERE!"

"Scootaloo, wait!" The remaining two Cutie Mark Crusaders ran after her, but it was too late. Scootaloo was out the door and across the parking lot. About this time, Rainbow Dash realized there was nothing coming to get them except the tank, which was now lumbering across the gravel lot towards Scootaloo.

"NOBODY kills my students!" Cheerilee grabbed the LAW, loaded it, and fired at the tank, landing it in the track and disabling it.

"YEAH, CHEERILEE!" Checker cheered from his spot on the floor. He tried to get up and bro-hoof her, but he fell back because of his recent injury, "And can someone get these bodies outta here?"

"I'll get 'em," the newly mentally-imbalanced Fleetwood replied, starting to feel the consequences of being hit by a truck, "By the way, has anypony seen mah cuzzin? She's real purdy, I tell ya...."

While the rambling stallion got to work dragging the bodies away, Dash went out to investigate where the trucks had gone. When she stepped outside, she looked around the lot, and immediately spotted the burning tank, Smokey's destroyed Autocar, Fleetwood's crushed Cadillac, and several other trucks, which were surprisingly intact. Curious, Dash crept closer to the nearest one, Wilcox's Peterbilt. She checked it over for any damage, but there was none. It all made sense when she checked in the cab, the needle was on E.

"THEY'RE ALL OUT OF GAS!" she called to the others, "IT'S SAFE TO COME OUT NOW!"

After checking over the trucks, she continued over to where Scootaloo had been hiding, to find her rolled up into a little ball, rocking back and forth.

"Rainbow Dash!" she whispered feebly, "I knew you would come to save me! You're the best hero ever! Everyone here's gonna get us killed, we need to get out of here, and fast!"

"I think so too, Scoot, but we can't just leave everypony! We've gotta go back for them!"

Dash and Scootaloo went back inside, and announced their plan to everyone.

"So, our thinking is this: We find a couple of cars that still run, grab all the guns and ammo we can carry, and get out on the highway."

Eldorado didn't seem so enthusiastic.

"Are you CRAZY? If we get on the highway, we could run into some more trucks! And besides, where are you plannin' on goin'?"

"I know there's a military base that's just an hour's drive from here," Dash elaborated, "If there's anywhere safe, it's there!"

"I agree with her!" Twilight called out, "If there's anywhere safe, it's there!"

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Pinkie added, beginning to bounce with excitement, "Let's go, let's get on the road! Burn some rubber, shoot some bad guys!"

The rest of the patrons were too tired to argue, and began to gather all of their ammo.

Dash was grabbing her only possession at the truckstop, a copy of "Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone", when Carrot Top trotted up to her.

"Uh, Dash?" She said nervously, "You can use our car if you want! And maybe Fleetwood's car could be used?"

"Thanks, I appreciate your generosity."

Big Mac, Fleetwood, Soarin' and Applejack set to work flipping the Oldsmobile, while the Cutie Mark Crusaders, obviously trying to get their cutie marks as mechanics, tried to start the half-crushed Cadillac. After several failed attempts, they managed to get it running.

After all of the cars were ready, the caravan set out down the highway. They passed the ruins of other cars, a plane that had split a van in half, and many other signs of machine's revolt. Their nice drive was interrupted when they approached the remains of a police roadblock.

Some of the cars' lights were still flashing, and most were still in line across the road, but two or three it has seemed had been rammed, and shoved out of the way.

Soarin' and Spitfire went over to the block to investigate. Soarin' was looking at a cruiser to the right of him, when he heard Spitfire gasp in shock. He trotted over to see the female Wonderbolt pointing in shock at something behind the cop car.

"What's the matter?" he chuckled, "Lost your nerve?"

When he went around the other side of the car, he saw what she had seen. A Highway Patrolpony was crushed against the side of his cruiser, still clutching his C/B, his eyes permanently wide in fear.

By this time, Wilcox had come over to see too, and began to cry.

"What's wrong?" Soarin' asked him compassionately.

"This pony...." He choked stopping to wipe the tears from his eyes, "....Was my brother. Officer Flegel Stevens of Equestrian....Highway Patrol...."

A while more of driving brought the survivors to the military base, but noone was there. Everypony looked around for signs of life, but there were none. All of a sudden, Twilight realized there was an Apache attack helicopter flying over the ridge, it's guns trained on them.

"RUN!" she screeched, but it was too late. The helicopter fired it's machine guns, taking down Lyra, Bon-Bon, Carrot Top and the schoolkids, and then took the lives of Eldorado and checker with a rocket.

The remaining survivors responded quickly with shooting off the LAW and all of THEIR machine guns, but by the time they had downed the Apache, they were low on ammo. The trauma had made the brain damaged Fleetwood show signs of conciousness.

"They're gone...." he whispered, poking Eldorado's lifeless body, "It's just us....Maybe we're the only ones left on the PLANET?!

"I doubt that," Rainbow Dash objected, "I bet there are SOME survivors, we just have to find them." She turned to Wilcox, who was staring blankly at the body of Apple Bloom. "See if you can go find a radio! Cheerilee, Soarin', you two go with him!"

The three trotted off toward a barracks nearest to them, and Rainbow turned to face Scootaloo, who somehow barely survived the attack.

"Look, Rainbow!" she chuckled hoarsely, pointing to her kneecap, "A gunshot to the knee! Get it?"

"Sh, young one." Silver whispered, treating her wounds, "Save your energy..."

Eventually, Wilcox and company returned with a shower radio. Rainbow turned it on, and flipped back and forth down the dial. Nothing.

Finally, she found a small signal, and turned it up full volume.

"It's been....A day now since the occurrences began." She could hear a deep voice broadcasting, which she recognized as Delray, a rock 'n' roll DJ from Ponyville. "Millions have been killed, countless bits in damage has been reported...But, my friends....There is hope. There is a safe zone, which I am broadcasting from right now. Camp Wanahoova. Please, hurry. We can't hold them off much longer alone, but we'll have strength in numbers. Don't worry, Equestria, it's almost over. This is Delray, signing off."

"Well, didn't you hear him?" Rainbow announced, "We've got to get to that safe zone!"

"Whoa, whoa, WHOA!" Cupcake interrupted the cyan pegasus' motivational speech. "You were wrong about the base, so what makes you think you'll be right about Wanahoova?!"

"She's right!" Silver Sketch agreed, nodding, "We're going it alone. See you in hell!"

"You CAN'T leave!" Wilcox protested as they trotted off into the desert, waving his front hooves wildly, "You'll die!"

"Cmon, Pip!" Silver called, "Let's go!"

"No."

"What do you mean, NO? We said we were gonna make sure you survived!"

"I feel safe with Rainbow dash." Pipsqueak stated calmly, stepping next to her. "I think she makes good decisions."

"Aw well," Cupcake sighed, "It was nice knowing you, we'll visit your GRAVE!"

"No you won't," Fleetwood interjected, pointing to something behind them. "We'll visit YOUR'S."

The two turned around to see an 18 wheeler rattling over the rough surface of the desert toward them. Everypony was sure they would've died, if it weren't for a blast that came from behind the truck, making it burst into flames, inches away from hitting them.

"WHO SAVED THEM?!" Fleetwood called to the unseen savior, "SHOW YOURSELF!"

A midnight blue unicorn mare with a magenta mane and green eyes trotted over to the two mares, huddled in fear. She carried an RPG, and helped them up, and knudged them on their way.

Fleetwood had never seen such beauty, such grace. He couldn't believe when she joined the group of survivors, and even stood next to him!

"What's your name?" he asked in awe as the unicorn shook hooves with Dash and the survivors.

"Nightwish, now let's go."

As the few survivors got back into the two cars, they continued down the highway. Some rode on the roof, keeping watch for machines, others rode inside, and chatted about what their new life at Wanahoova might be like. There was another brief instance of hope between the survivors, one that was even stronger than the first, and would carry them all the way to the safe zone.

Approximately 3 weeks later, Equestria cleared the tail of the Rhea-M Comet, just as planned. The Canterlot Royal Guard later found the shattered shell of the Discord statue in the royal gardens, and blamed him for the cause of the disaster. Eldorado was revived by the royal sisters for his past bravery in wars.

The survivors of the Big L

Are still survivors.

THE END