Ain't That a Buck in The Head? (Chapter 1)
“Ugghh…" What are we even looking for again Dusty?” Scarlet Lily groaned as she turned on her flashlight, the thick dust of the underground cave slightly choked her words as they came out.
“Like I said one hundred times before we got here… pre-war rations!” Dusty Rose yelled out, he had been extremely stressed from the journey south…
“Sorry Lily… I’m just tired is all…” He took a deep breath and continued. “Like I said, we’re looking for some food that was stockpiled during the war.”
The two had navigated the long cave for a good half-hour, and Lily was getting impatient. Their food supply was almost as empty as the Marejave, and their water supply was so dirty it may have well been mud. Regardless, the two pressed on… The citizens of Sunset needed this food badly. Many of the caravans that supplied them food have been wiped out by Fiends, and without a stable supply of food and water… Sunset would dry up like a dead carcass in the blazing sun. This military bunker was Sunset’s last hope.
“There should be some guns and ammo around here too… we’ll have to salvage what we can and bring it back…” Dusty trailed off as he stopped abruptly, and Dusty Rose narrowed his vision in curiosity.
“What is it Dusty…?” Scarlet looked towards whatever had caught Dusty’s attention.
Dusty’s eyes peered into the distance. He could barely make out the glimmer of metal as he waved his flashlight in front of him. He then resumed his movement and investigated the strange shimmer that grew brighter as he came closer towards it. When the two had finally reached the curious glint in the distance, they were shocked to see a massive metal door before them. Dusty blew the thin layer of dust covering the door away, and he examined the markings on the door. It was a familiar cutie-mark, one that had only been heard of in legends when he was a young colt. It was a large sun that was a faint yellowish-orange… he knew this symbol…
“Dusty… what is that mark?” Scarlet inquired in the young and curious voice she always had.
“It’s… This is the mark of Celestia…” Dusty was mystified… He thought Celestia was just a fairy-tale.
“Celestia…? Who’s that?” Scarlet looked closer at the large sun-shaped symbol with a suspicious glare.
“Well… an old legend tells of a time long before my own…” Dusty looked back down at Scarlet. “Before the war… Celestia was an alicorn princess. She ruled over most of Equestria at that time, but when the war broke out she was one of the first to be killed.”
“Really…? An alicorn princess…? That is certainly a legend no doubt. How could one alicorn rule all of Equestria?” Scarlet laughed at the thought.
“Don’t ask me kid… I didn’t write the legend…” Dusty replied.
Dusty looked to his left and spotted the control panel for the door. He walked over to it, and examined it thoroughly. It was a simple mechanism, only having one lever. The panel reminded Dusty of the empty stables he used to scrounge in his younger days.
“Alright… let’s see here…” Dusty pulled the lever with a strong pull from his hoof.
The massive door opened with a deafening screech. The sheer amount of noise made the two cringe in pain, as it echoed across the cave. Sparks flew as the metal slid along the grooves holding it in place, and the door came to a halt as it was carried out of the way by the door mechanism.
“This is a lot more advanced than stable tech…” Dusty added as the door revealed a plethora of pre-war computers and terminals. “Whatever is in here… must be of great importance…”
Scarlet quickly trotted towards the nearest terminal and began digging into the data files, as she levitated her pen and paper out of her knapsack. Intrigued by the data on the terminal, she wrote down information frantically.
“This is incredible… There are files and records here that date back to before the war even started…” Scarlet looked to Dusty with anxiousness exuding from her spirit. “I think this is some kind of… “Data Stable”…”
As Scarlet mindlessly scoured the terminal for info using her notebook Dusty wandered off into a separate corridor blocked off by another metal door. Dusty looked down for a switch, but no such luck.
“Hey… Scar…” Dusty called behind him. “I need yer… science stuff to get through this door…”
“Uggh…” Scarlet said with a disappointed sigh. “Hang on… I get it for you … just a minute.”
Dusty examined the door, and it seemed a lot stronger than a stable door. “Perhaps it was a weapon cache…” Dusty thought to himself. Any kind of tech would defiantly be worth something in trade, granted the folks in Sunset were not arms-dealers. Dusty certainly knew that well.
“Wow… Dusty… there is something defiantly in there…” Scarlet added. “Almost all the power has been routed to that corridor… strange.”
Scarlet Lily galloped to the control panel on the door. She brought out her notebook and flipped through the pages in a hurry, a look of child-like eagerness still pasted on her young face. Dusty always liked that about Scarlet; she always saw adventure in every situation and certainly knew how to find a good trek now and then. She always had a spark in her eye Dusty felt nostalgic about, reminiscing back to a time when he was a young stallion.
The steel door slid a lot smoother than the larger door as it opened, and the noise was a lot more tolerable than the last door. Another chamber was beheld to the pair… it was very alien to their eyes. More advanced circuitry lined the floors and walls leading to the end of the room, and they had to step over many of the large tubes and cables strewn about along the chamber. In the center… was a strange capsule that was a lot larger than the both of them, filled with some sort of dark-blue fluid that clouded the contents of what was inside.
“What in the hell…?” Dusty took of his large cowboy had in astonishment. “What is this thing…?”
“I have no idea… whatever it is must be important.” Scarlet assured Dusty as she searched through the next terminal beside the large capsule… her eyes widened as she found a file popped up on the screen before her.
“What is it darlin?” Dusty inquired as he approached her.
“Sweet Celestia on her throne… this is a stasis pod.” Scarlet’s eyes widened even larger as she dug through the records, she gasped in amazement. “Whoever, or whatever is in there is still intact!”
Scarlet began hacking the device to override the capsule controls. Dusty looked back at her with a worried expression on his face.
“Careful now darlin…” Dusty warned. “We have no idea what could be in there…”
“I don’t think this is dangerous… it actually should have opened a long time ago…” Scarlet looked to Dusty. “This pod should have opened many decades ago… I think the time calibration uplink system was damaged somehow.”
Scarlet began rerouting all the power to the terminal to overload the pod, and if she was right… and she knew she was right. This would disengage the pod’s locking mechanism, and release whatever was inside.
“Why do you think there weren’t any security systems at all down here…?” Scarlet asked Dusty.
“I haven’t a clue darlin…” Dusty replied
“The pony who built this defiantly wanted somepony else to find this…” Scarlet answered as the machines around her sparked and buzzed. “Stand back… that fluid is going to come rushing out once the pod opens…”
The capsule let out a hiss as it popped open, the blue fluid drained from the tank as the true contents fell out of the pod.
“Dear Luna!” Scarlet gasped in awe.
A mass of metal hit the floor like a ton of bricks with a loud “bang”. Scarlet and Dusty reluctantly approached the laying figure on the ground. Whoever it was… it was out cold. Scarlet peeked around to the figure’s head.
“It’s a stallion… a pretty big one too.” Scarlet examined the strange white-skinned stallion; however she was cautious about touching him.
“I’ll say… an alicorn!” Dusty agreed as he curiously observed the stallion. “Say… is his wings and horn made of… metal…?”
“Yes… in fact most of him his metal, except his neck and head…” Scarlet turned him on his back. “I’ve never seen arcane-cybernetics of this complexity before… super-advanced… defiantly pre-war military-grade.”
“Is he… alive…?” Dusty inquired with a serious look.
Scarlet put her hoof on his neck. “Not much of this stallion is organic, but I can just barely make out a heartbeat…”
Scarlet and Dusty’s attention however, had been stolen by another strange aspect of this stallion. A large and glass-like port-hole on the stallion’s chest had emanated a faint blue light. This intrigued Scarlet further, as she got closer to the strange stallion. His long blue mane half-covered the port and Scarlet brushed it aside.
“Now what is-” Scarlet gasped as she was abruptly cut-off.
The large stallion beneath her feet sprung to life in an instant, his large metal wings stretched out to an impressive length as he got to his hooves in a flash. He looked around to see alien surroundings; his eyes frantically scanned the area.
“Cadence…?” The stallion approached Scarlet quickly and menacingly. “Where is she!?”
“Listen fella… just calm down now alrigh-” A large metal spike protruded from the ground and grazed Dusty Rose’s neck.
“I’m not going to ask again. Where is Cadence!?” The white stallion boomed.
“Stop it! Calm down! We don’t know what you’re talking about sir!” Scarlet begged. “Don’t hurt him!”
The large metal spine retracted back into the ground as the stallion looked around in panic, his eyes tirelessly looking for anything familiar. Dusty let his breath go in relief, and approached the stallion again.
“Where… where am I?” The stallion asked, showing a weak desperation in his voice.
“Yer in the Marejave Desert… If that rings any bells…” Dusty answered.
Clearly, Scarlet could see the stallion was more confused than ever from that answer.
“You’ve been asleep… for a long time…” Scarlet informed the dazed stallion. “We woke you up from a stasis pod…”
“Stasis pod…? No… no… no… no! That can’t be right… I died!” The stallion backed up in a panic trying to process what he heard. “How long have I been in that pod…?”
A long and silent pause went on as Scarlet Lily looked at Dusty, then back to the stallion before her.
“I said how long!?” The stallion yelled.
“Hundreds of years…” Scarlet Lily walked towards the large stallion “Captain Shining Armor…correct?”
The Broken Road Ahead (Chapter 2)
Shining Armor had gone off and searched for Cadence, she had wandered out into the garden in the middle of the night again. It had been this way ever since the violence in the streets broke out, and Armor knew how much it hurt Cadence to see her subjects suffer. Whenever she was sad or down Cadence would always go to the garden, it was the one safe place amidst a world full of chaos and anarchy. He walked down the hall, down the steps, and into the courtyard. The stallion could smell the aroma of flowers blooming in the distance.
“Roses…” Armor raised his eyes to the beautiful mare before him.
Cadence was in front of her rose-bush with her back turned to him, she plucked a fragrant petal from the rose-bush. The smell reminded Armor of the first time he met Cadence, as she turned to see a rose tucked behind her ear. Shining Armor could see the thorn had dug into Cadence’s skin; he quickly pulled it out and placed the rose-bulb in her hair instead.
“There… that’s better…” A feeling of relief had swooped over Armor’s mind. “You shouldn’t play around with rose-thorns…”
Armor trailed off as Cadence dove in for a kiss, to his surprise. His eyes closed as the long embrace ended in a warm hug. Cadence lowered her head for a moment; Armor could clearly see something had been bothering her more than usual.
“What… what was that for?” Armor asked in confusion.
“For being there for me even when I couldn’t bear to see you…”Cadence looked up at Shining Armor intensely. “I was just… thinking… Armor…? Oh, forget it…”
“Cadence would you tell me what’s wrong…? Armor worried for Cadence as she avoided eye-contact once more, as her head lowered to the ground.
Cadence hadn’t slept or eaten in days, the bags and lines beneath her eyes made her look old and weak. Armor felt every ounce of pain Cadence felt, as he saw her tired eyes.
“War is brewing Armor… my people are dying.” She looked back to the rose-bush. “This war is claiming more and more lives every day… there will be a breaking point eventually. Whether or not we get involved, the chaos will still consume our kingdom.”
“It’s already consumed you…” Armor walked over to Cadence and looked in her deep-violet eyes. “I want to save you… please… let me help you… we’re in this together…”
Armor’s hoof pulled Cadence into his embrace. Tears streamed from his face as he caressed her soft hair, his hoof wrapping the pink mare in his warmth.
“Damn it, I’ll get consumed by this madness as well if I have to… as long as I’m with you…” Armor cried out as he held her even tighter.
At first Cadence resisted the embrace, but now she hugged him back. A warmer feeling spread through her soul as she accepted his love, and the two separated from their long hug… a wave of happiness filled her heart. She looked back up at Armor closely, making sure he understood her words.
“Armor… I want you to promise me something…” Cadence moved closer. “I want you to promise me that no matter what happens… we’ll always be there for one another…”
“I’ll always be there for you…” Armor answered with a warm smile across his face.
“Thank youuu-” Cadence began to moan and cry in a deep voice, her eyes turned a ghastly green.
Armor watched as Cadence melted and formed into a cloud of pink ash, the ash then swirled around him and enveloped him. It choked him as he breathed it through his lungs, and he could feel himself losing consciousness. Words danced in his mind like a chaotic ballet, “We’ll always be there for one another”, “It’s already consumed you…”, “Consumed you…”, “Consumed…” The voices got deeper and the pink smoke blotted out his vision, he heard the beating of wings… like a fan. Dark figures with glowing green eyes swooped onto him. The last thing he head was a loud cackle.
Shining Armor woke up that morning in a sweat; it had been five days since he had awakened from his long slumber underground. His metal wings were numb and felt fresh… even though they had been on his back for centuries; it still felt as if they had been crudely pasted on last night. The town of Sunset was shocked at the presence of this strange guest Dusty and Scarlet had brought back with them. Many had complained as the small town had enough mouths to feed as it is, but Scarlet and Dusty defended Armor.
Armor put on the long trench coat Dusty gave him; he cut holes in it for Armor’s wings to fit. Armor walked to the bathroom by his bed, Dusty was still sleeping soundly unlike him. He glared at the mirror for the longest time, peering at his left eye. It had been a different colour from his right eye, as it was red and metallic… another piece of him that wasn’t his.
“Must be terrible…” Scarlet chimed into Armor’s solace. “Looking in a mirror and not seeing you in there…”
Scarlet had been leaning on the entranceway to the bathroom the whole time, watching Armor intently. She grabbed a small bag out of her knapsack on the floor and levitated it towards Armor, her smile still large on her cheery face.
“Here take this…” Scarlet placed the bag on the bathroom sink.
“What is it…?” Armor asked as he lifted it off the porcelain surface with his horn.
Armor opened it up and grabbed the hidden object with his magic. It was an eye-patch. It was made of dark brown leather, and had a small crosshair symbol on the patch.
“It was my dad’s… He wore it after he lost his eye…” Scarlet walked closer to Armor and put it on him. “He was a ranger once… but he’s been dead for years now…”
“Scarlet I can’t take thi-…” Armor looked back at Scarlet… he could tell she wanted him to have it. “Th-Thank you… really…”
Armor began packing his few belongings in another knapsack scarlet fashioned for him. He made sure he took enough food and water for when he would leave that morning.
“Armor… where do you plan on going…?” Scarlet asked with worried eyes. “You can’t just walk off into the Marejave by yourself… you’ll die… you can’t even fly.”
“Uh huh…” Shining Armor ignored Scarlet’s attempts at keeping him grounded.
“Uggh… sweet Celestia… fine then!” Scarlet grabbed her large knapsack from her room. “You’ve left me no choice!”
Scarlet began packing various notepads, pens, food, and other gear into the knapsack, and once it was full she swung it on with a determined face. Armor hadn’t seen this kind of attitude in years… the look on her face reminded him of… Twilight. He knew it was hopeless to persuade her otherwise… he knew that face well, so he let out a large sigh and walked downstairs.
*
At the dinner table, Scarlet informed Dusty of Armor’s plan
“Do you even know where yer goin Scar…?” Dusty asked with a look of outrage on his face.
“I want to help Armor find this “Cadence” he’s been having nightmares about…” Scarlet replied.
“How does he even know she’s alive…?” Dusty was clearly teeming with frustration.
“Even if she isn’t alive… he needs closure…” Scarlet whispered.
“Okay! Fine! So, lemme get this straight… you want to go out into the wastes and find… what? A memento…?” Dusty boomed.
Armor twitched in anger at the statement, but he knew getting involved in the argument would only make things worse…
“Just let me do this Dusty… please… dad would hav-…”
“He would have what Scar…? Let ya go out and die in the Marejave just like him…?” Dusty processed what he had just said quietly. “Sweetie I’m sorr-…”
“Don’t you talk bad about your brother Dusty! You loved him just as much as me!” Scarlet screamed as she walked to the door, tears rolled down her cheeks.
“I’ll… I’ll go talk to her…” Dusty walked out the door.
Armor felt guilty for not even trying to change Scarlet’s mind… to him she seemed so… driven. He shook off and loose feelings he had and thought about what Dusty said, He thought about the dream he had last night, and more importantly… he thought about what happened near the end of his dream. That laugh… he knew it meant something. Quickly he had a brainstorm… the green eyes, the beating wings, and the laugh… it made sense what he needed to do. He knew someone who once was Cadence, who looked in her memories and dreams… yes… if anyone knew anything about his beloved it would be… her.
Scarlet walked inside with Dusty not long after Armor’s epiphany, and Armor had sprung on them the instant they walked in the door.
“Dusty? Does the name “changeling” ring any bells?” Armor inquired.
“Yeah I think so… I heard tales of those things kidnapping folks further west…” Dusty answered, scratching his beard. “Haven’t seen any myself… but I heard they’re ugly lookin critters…”
Shining Armor knew very well the habits of changelings. They always are attracted to the emotions in which they feed off of, they stay close to populated areas, and… without a queen… they will die. Armor walked over to the kitchen and took the map of the Marejave from off the wall.
“Scarlet, hand me your pencil.” Armor demanded.
Scarlet grabbed the pencil from her knapsack, and Armor levitated it to him. He began drawing a circle over Sunset.
“Okay, so we’re here…” Armor looked up to Dusty. “What is the most populated city to the west?”
“Well that can only be New Maneas…” Dusty stated. “It’s the biggest city in all of the Marejave…”
“Then she won’t be far from there…” Armor looked back down at the map, and drew a large circle around the New Maneas area.
“So you’re going to New Maneas then?”Dusty asked?
“Yes… we’ll leave at dawn tomorrow….” Armor answered with a driven look upon his face.
“Might I ask who this friend of yours is?” Scarlet inquired.
Shining Armor looked back to Scarlet. “A long time ago most ponies called her Chrysalis…”
“Queen of the Changelings…”
