Rubble

    “What’s wrong?” asked Carmine, a stubby grey mare with a pure white mane. “Nothing, I’m just thinking…” I replied, exiting my thought.

  “What are you thinking about? You’re not thinking about joining the service again, are you?” she asked back in worry.

“No, never again. I’ve just been thinking about those things that were found in Canterlot. Something doesn’t seem right about them and what’s been happening ever sense they were found. All the strange deaths, entire cities being overthrown.” saying this only made me worry more than I already was.

  “Its fine, I’m sure that whatever it is will blow over soon.”

“I hope so, I don’t know how much more insanity I can take…”

  “Ouch!” I yelped as the nurse filled the punctured spot in my wing with bio-foam, which was basically just temporary inner cast that was premade in a can. The pain brought me back to reality from a memory of before, what I liked to call, The Down Fall.

  The nurse just looked at me with a slight smirk on her face and said “Heh, not too fond of pain, are you? It’s alright; most the ponies here can barely take stitches little known bio-foam.” I simply gave a slight chuckle at her remark. “I can’t believe they let you in,” she continued. “Normally they bring ponies like you to the gate and “Tie up loose ends,” as they say.” Before could respond, Raven walked in the room. She flashed a fearful look at me for a second than looked to the nurse and asked “May I take him?” After hearing about what they used to do with other survivors, I was nervous as to where she wanted to take me and why. “Er, yes ma’am, he’s all yours.” The nurse replied.

  Raven took me out of the medics’ office and brought me to a tent in the middle of the court yard. “This is where you’ll be staying. There are clean clothes in the bag next to your cot and there’s a shower in the castle bathrooms. You can find your way to them, if you get lost, ask somepony for directions.” Raven said as she left me alone in the tent. I gave the tent a quick look over before walking to the black duffle bag near my cot and opened it. Inside the bag there were a pair of dark blue jeans and an all black shirt with a pair of black combat boots, and Moon.

  “There you are,” I said as I picked up Moon. “I was beginning to worry.” I set Moon to my side and zipped up the bag then threw it over my shoulder and stood up. “I guess a shower is in order, don’t you think?” I said as I picked up Moon and made my way out of the tent and toward the castle.

    By the time I reached the castle, I had been walking for about an hour, mainly because I was taking the scenic routes. By what it seemed, the ponies living here had restored the castle to its former glory. But my main question still stood; how long have they been here?

    Deep in thought, I lost my way, not that I knew where I was going in the first place, but now I was ore clueless than before. From what it looked like, I had stumbled across where an old festival had taken place. On the floor, there was old ribbons and confetti, around me there were ripped up tents, broken tables, and every so often there would be a pile of blood stained ripped clothes either on the ground or hanging from something.

    Distracted by my surroundings, I almost didn’t hear the hoof steps coming up from behind me. I snapped around, only to see a seemingly harmless old stallion wearing black pants and a black shirt. “Scary, isn’t it?” He asked, “How an entire species can be killed to near extinction by a little fuck up in science.” He continued, his voice raspy and worn by time. "Do I know you?" I asked, his voice was familiar, as if we had spoken once before.

    He slowly walked up to me, his eyes squinting, as if trying to get a better view of my face. After a minute, he finally said "No," to answer my question. I heard a clash come from behind me, to which I quickly snapped around, only to see another stallion. He was a young unicorn foal with a light grey coat and a yellow main. "Who are you talking to, mister?" He asked, he had a confused expression on his face. I turned around to look at the strange colt that I was speaking to, but, as mysteriously as he came, he was gone. "I... Don't know. Um, what are you doing here, little boy?" I asked as I turned to face him again. "Nothing, really, I just like to come up here and think every once and a while. What are you doing here?" He asked, his voice soft with shyness.

  "I got lost. Can you point me in the right direction?"

"Where are you wanting to go?"

  "The showers. You know where they are?"

"If you can find your way back to the main hall, you should just be able to continue down that until you reach the last door on the right, from there, keep going straight until you see a thick wooden door. Open that, and you're in the showers."

  "Thanks, um... What's your name?"

"Jeromia. And yours?"

  "Skywing. Well, thanks for the help, Jeromia." I said as I began to leave. He replied with a simple nod of the head before turning around.

    I followed the directions Jeromia gave me and before long, I finally reached my destination. I couldn't stop thinking about the strange stallion I met in, where ever the hell that place was, and the things the nurse had told me. Caught up in my thoughts, I hadn't realized how hot the water had become and it began to burn my skin. "Ow, fuck!" I yelled in pain. I looked at  moon for a second and said "Sorry, that just hurt a lot. It's been a while sense I've felt hot water."

    Suddenly, the ground shook and the lights flickered. I turned of the water and looked around to see if anypony was in the room with me. After a short quarter minute, I got dressed and threw Moon onto my back before making my way outside. When I got to the main hallway, there was an army of ponies rushing outside, covered in body armor and armed with riot shotguns. I stepped into the hall and one of the solders ran into me, almost knocking me down. He looked back at me, while I had his attention, I asked him what was going on. "The infection got into the colony, we're being sent over to contain it." He said before returning to his sprint.

    I looked back at Moon for a second than ran back to where they were coming from. If they cannot hold back the infection, this place will turn to a living hell before those things are through killing everypony. I traced them back to the armory, which still had plenty of guns and armor. The armor was bulky and looked like juggernaut gear, knowing that such heavy armor would just slow me down and make my more vulnerable, I only grabbed a shotgun and a bandolier for ammo.

    When I opened the door to exit the armory, I was almost instantly hit in the face by the but of a rifle. The force was enough to knock me to the ground and before I could react, I was hit again, this time the force knocking me out.