1: The Beginning of the End
The day was dark, very dark, and storms could be heard. There was the sound of thunder in the distance. Lapis frowned, watching the sky through a window that was tinted with a pinkish haze that he could not figure out where it was coming from. He tried the door, only to find it locked. He kept looking for a way out of this room, but found all the other entrances locked. Suddenly, through the cell door, he saw the same pink haze that was outside, creeping through the hallway towards the room he was in. he gulped, backing up against the wall near the window. He wasn't sure what this stuff was, but judging by the screams outside, it wasn’t anything good. Soon enough, wisps of it went through the bars, seeming to melt them and twist them into something unrecognizable from the sturdy cell door mere minutes ago. The pinkish smoke, seeming to sense his fear, reached for him. As the cloud brushed against him, a horrible sinking feeling hit his gut, along with an intense burning pain. Lapis opened his mouth, and screamed.
Lapis shot awake, sitting straight up in his bed. He was coated in sweat, his blankets twisted, and his mane matted. He gulped, his throat seemingly parched, and looked around the room. Noting that it was not a jail cell, he sighed in relief. “Oh thank the gods… It was only a dream,” he muttered to himself as he got up for the morning, noting the time. He had a busy day today, having to meet a certain pony to discuss the potential expansion of his gem mines. He got ready for the day, trying to push the idea of his nightmare out of his mind. It was a great day today! He should enjoy it! Lapis chuckled to himself, and stepped out of his hotel room, walking down the hall, and to the entrance of the hotel he was staying at. He blinked, his eyes adjusting to the brightness of outside, with the gleaming flawless buildings, and the Palace. The birds were chirping, the city was already up and bustling, and Lapis smiled, walking through the town towards the designated meeting point. It was actually at a Café. Strange place to have it, but he agreed nonetheless.
Lapis sat there, sipping a cup of coffee, and reading a newspaper, while waiting for the representative he was supposed to meet. They were late, which was quite unlike them, as they had met before and they had always been on time. Still, instances happen, so he didn’t mind. He had the newspaper held out, flipping through the pages, when somepony sat down in front of him. He looked up, relieved to see his representative, but frowned when he saw a mare standing next to them, frowning at him. “Umm… Jade? Who is this? I thought you were going to be coming alone.” Lapis spoke, his voice soft and quiet, but confused as well. “Well, Mr. Star, I was going to come alone, but this mare from the Ministry of Morale wanted to come along for reasons she would not disclose to me.” Jade spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, staring at the table. Lapis let out a sigh, waving a hoof as he brought up a cup of tea to his lips with his magic, taking a sip. “Mmmm, fine, fine. Let’s get this over with then. Now, as I’m sure the Ministry, and you, Jade, know. I am wishing to increase the number of the mines that I have open. This would involve opening new mines, and allow us to further increase the amount of gemstones we could use for talismans or for weapons, if you so wish.”
The negotiations went on for a few hours, but no progress was made, and lapis sighed, pulling out a pocket watch and checking the time. “I am sorry Jade, but it would appear that we have made no progress today. Maybe we could try again tomorrow?” Jade nodded, and they agreed to meet at the same place tomorrow. Lapis watched her go, and went back to reading, then frowned as he realized that the Ministry of Morale mare had sat down in Jade’s spot. “Mr. Star. Now that she is gone, we can get down to business. Might I ask, for both myself, and the Ministry, what are you doing?” Lapis chuckled, setting his newspaper down as he had picked it up again, and frowned slightly. “OK, I’ll bite. I have no idea what this is about.” Lapis frowned more, not exactly sure where this was going, and straightened in his chair.
“Oh, Mr. Star. We aren’t fools. We know that you have been hiring Zebras to work in your mines. Although we do applaud your ability to this from us for this long, we do see all. Your actions are inexcusable, and you have broken laws that we thought you, of all ponies, would never break. But we have been wrong now and then.” Lapis, during this, had gone pale, all color seeming to drain from his face, and he scowled once she had finished, and spoke in a hushed tone. “Did you honestly expect me, to just up and ignore them? Are you insane?! Many of them were starving, weak, without homes or shelter! This is often the only way many of them will survive!”
“That is not our problem. Our problem is with zebra sympathizers. Which, in this case, would be you. So, shall we do this the easy way, or the hard way?” Lapis scowled, standing up. “I do not have to answer to a bunch of corrupt, heartless imbeciles who ignore the fact that the ones I hire were once proud citizens of Equestria! You stripped that from them, just like everything else you held dear! I bet you never thought about why the issues with attacks within our borders were so often. It’s because you decided to destroy any relationships the current Zebras in our lands had with this country! Now, if you will excuse me, I think I will be going. I still have a job to do, despite what you think.”
As he got up to leave, the Mare calmly drew a strange sort of air pistol, similar to one a colt would use for fun, and shot lapis with it in the flank as he was walking away. Lapis felt a small prick, and frowned, looking back to his flank, noticing a now empty syringe sticking out of it, and he gasped, trying to run, but merely slipped, falling onto his face, and he groaned. While he tried to get back up, the mare, ignoring the looks she received, walked over to him, glaring down at him. “You’ll be out cold in a minute or so. That was an enhanced form of Med-X. It’s too strong for practical use on the battlefield, but perfect for stopping unruly ponies, or runners…” Lapis groaned. It was becoming hard to see, or hear anything, and he stared up at the Ministry representative. “I…. will see you in Tartarus…” He slumped over, everything going black.
When lapis next awoke, he was in hoof shackles, and had a magic inhibitor on his horn, along with being in a jail cell very similar to the one in his dream. He groaned, muttering to himself, as he sat up slowly. “Ugh. Well, this is going fantastic, Lapis… You just had to talk to her, didn’t you?” Nobody was around him, and the place seemed to be deserted. “Strange, nopony is around... Why would they leave a ‘war criminal’ unguarded?” Lapis frowned, walking towards the door way, when he heard a strange thundering. The floor under him shaking, and dust raining down on him, and he coughed, and trotted towards the window. When he got there, he saw flames engulfing some buildings, along with a shield beginning to engulf the city’s border, with what looked to be like missiles slamming into the shield. He gulped, backing away from the window, shuddering. “So… that would explain the lack of guards. Now I just need to get out of here.”
Lapis began by seeing if he had anything in the room with him, and frowned when he found nothing but a metal cot that was firmly secured to the wall. He scowled, thinking, and then tried to get the magic inhibitor off of his horn, growling when it wouldn’t come off. He kept struggling, yelping when he heard a crack and felt a flash of pain. The Inhibitor was in tight enough to actually crack his horn. “Well. I’m not getting out using magic. Maybe somepony will come along and let me out, considering it appears to be the End Times outside.” He sat down, looking around the room. Now comes the boring part of waiting…, He thought.
Just as he began to actually get bored, the room darkened suddenly. Lapis frowned, getting up and going to the window, and looked up at the sky, noting that clouds that hadn’t been there before, were now sitting low in the sky. “Interesting… why would the Pegasi close up the sky? One of their cities must have been hit... No, I don’t believe it. The princess’s probably had the sky closed so that missiles might miss their targets.” Lapis sighed, muttering to himself, and went to work on the shackles, managing to slip them off with surprising ease. “Well. That’ll be useful. Now to get the inhibitor off.” Lapis began to struggle with it, but had no luck.
Lapis heard screams, and went to window. Outside, he could see a strange pink mist beginning to flow out into the streets. “Well, just when I thought this day couldn’t get any worse, now my dreams are coming into reality. Shit. Well, I should have just stayed in bed this morning.” Lapis watched out the window as the sky opened up, lightning crackling and lighting up the sky as missiles continued to slam into the shield. Eventually, as it seemed inevitable, the mist started to creep down the hall. He proceeded to wait into it had destroyed the door, and was reaching for him, when he charged headlong into the mist, intent on running out into the street where it shouldn’t be nearly as concentrated. He gasped, yelling in pain as he kept running, the only thing he could compare this to, was when a cave in, in one of his mines, had broken his leg. And this felt at least ten times worse! It did not matter to him though, he wanted to be free.
Lapis burst from the Jail doors, coughing up Pink Cloud and blood. The streets were slowly beginning to fill with it, and he groaned, continuing to cough, as he tried to get to the edge of town, making slow but steady time. Eventually, he managed to get ahead of the cloud, though not by much. “Ugh. Whatever this stuff is, whoever made it should rot in Tartarus. Though, it was probably Zebra’s so… it doesn’t seem too b~” Lapis had begun to walk off, only to find himself unable to move. He looked down at his hooves, to find his own hooves fused with the cement. It looked both like he had hooves, and that he had been made from cement from the hoof down. It was strange, feeling what he felt. He could mostly feel the grainy feeling of the cement mixed with his hooves. Lapis, now irritated, growled and pulled on his hooves. When he got nowhere, he sighed, looking around and almost screamed when he saw that the cloud was getting steadily closer. He gasped, and began to forcefully tug and pull on his hooves out of the cement. He heard cracking, and was suddenly flung forward. There was a loud cracking sound, a “Plink!” sound, and lapis felt a flash of burning pain, but that was dulled then suddenly intensified as the cloud began to brush against him, and he ran off again, the loud sound of cement on cement echoing as he kept running. He laughed, soon reaching the edge of the city, and all of a sudden slammed into something right where an empty road should be. He groaned, falling onto his back, but got up quickly, shaking his head. “What the…?”
What stood in front of him was a shimmering wall, and he groaned. “That’s right! They set up a shield… but why won’t it let things out? If that means that it won’t let me out... Please! No! You have to let me out! I didn’t get this far to be stopped by a shield!” Lapis began to beat his hooves on the shield, hoping, praying, that it would open. Even when the Cloud surrounded him, choking him, blinding him, and the pressure began to build, popping his eardrums and making it impossible to see.
Lapis collapsed against the shield, going limp, but just as he had given up, and was going to walk into the choking Cloud, the shield suddenly vaporized with a bang. Lapis stared, dumbfounded, before suddenly rushing through, cloud wisps clinging to him as he kept running, and cloud began to fall to the ground in wet pink drops as it began to rain. First the rain came in a drizzle, then a steady pour. Lapis kept running, till he was well past the city outskirts and was now in a rural area.
Lapis groaned. He had ended up in a house for the night, having broken into it. Nobody was inside, and he had managed to get lucky and find a Healing potion to at least fix his lungs so he wasn’t hacking up blood all the time. After drinking it down, he sighed, looking through the house. There were some pictures on the walls, of some happy ponies. He smiled. “Caring family… that’s good. They will need all the help they can get now.” He sighed, sadly, and then blinked, freezing up. Ruby! Lapis gulped, tempted to run out, but then realized they were days away, across the country almost. They wouldn’t be able to see him for several days at least, because of travel times. He might as well get some rest. Lapis sighed, walking around in the house until he found the bedroom, and then crashed on the bed, falling asleep almost instantly.
When Lapis woke up, it was still dark outside. There was a bit of light coming through the windows, but the thick dark grey clouds hanging in the air, and it was raining slightly. Lapis groaned, getting up, and going into the bathroom. He turned on the water, splashing his face, and then looked into the mirror. What he saw made him gasp. What he had not noticed, when he got up, was that most of his mane had fallen out, and his skin was showing in patches as his coat of fur was coming off in tufts. What was most surprising to him, however, was that his horn was missing. “That must have come off while I was running from the Cloud… huh. W-well, nothing that can be done about it. I guess I have to get used to it.” Lapis muttered to himself as he washed his face again, washing a surprising amount of hair down the drain. He noticed his hooves kept scratching him, and he finally looked directly at them, having been avoiding this moment for a long time.
The cement had fused with his hooves. His normally black hooves, now having a grey splotch coloring to them, chunks of cement stuck from his hooves, some sharp. They could be useful weapons in a fight. He scratched at them. They itched, and he sighed. “Well, just even more things I’m going to have to get used to… I hope my hair comes back.” He said softly, and then began to make a plan, and went through the house, gathering items he would need in some saddlebags he found that fit him. Food, Water, and a shotgun he found that he almost blew his head off with, because the previous owner left it loaded. But now he knew how to fire it. He grabbed it, and all the ammo he could carry, and put the weapon in a holster that was slung over his shoulder. “Ugh. I really, really hope that I will not have to use this. But who knows what people are like. It’s the end of the world…” Lapis sighed, then unlocked the door, then stepped out into the rain, determined to make it to Manehatten, to see his family.
Meeting a Friend in the Wastes
Lapis groaned. The trek was hard, and arduous. Lapis was soaked, and kept leaving hair as he walked along. It had become apparent to him that whatever the cloud was that he had been exposed to in Canterlot, was not something natural, or healthy. He kept walking, ignoring the itching and aching his hooves were doing. He had to see his family again, and know if they were alright. He had made good progress over several days, but he couldn't quite figure out why the Zebras would attack. It was mutually assured destruction, as both the zebras and the equestrian nation exchanged bomb payloads on each other.
Lapis sighed, stopping at what appeared to be an office building. Good enough place to camp, I suppose. Lapis thought, and looked around for a way in after finding the door locked. He saw a window, and shrugged, pulling out his shotgun and used the butt end of it to smash the window in, then climbed in after knocking glass away so that he didn’t cut himself. He looked around slowly, not sure what to expect. For all he knew this office building could have turrets in it, like some of the buildings he had heard about in Manehatten. That could go very badly for him, if this were the case here. Fortunately, he found none, and set up in some of the cubicles spaces, laying there, and sighed. He wasn’t tired just yet, but he did notice one of the terminals was on, so he shrugged and got up, walking over to it. He saw however, that it was locked, and didn’t fuss with it. He explored, finding some health potions in a Med-box in the bathroom, and smiled. “These should be useful… Hopefully I won’t have to use these for awhile.” He went back to the area he was setting up camp, and moved some furniture around, quickly working up a sweat as he always had the help of his horn.
Eventually, he tired himself out, and lay down on the floor. As he was about to fall asleep though, Lapis thought he heard the sound of hoofsteps in the hallway outside the office room he was camping in. He frowned, getting up quietly, well, as quietly as he could with cement hooves, and walked out into the hallway. “H-hello? Is anyone in here?” Lapis gulped nervously. There was no response, so he went back to his cubicle. However, shortly after that, and Lapis was on the floor again, an energy gun barrel was stuck through the doorway. “Don’t move an inch, buddy.” Lapis froze, staying still on the floor with his back to the door. “Look… I don’t want any trouble.” Lapis spoke softly as he heard hoofsteps getting closer and closer to him. “Just take whatever you want, and d~” There was a sharp crack, and things went black for Lapis.
When Lapis woke up, he was tied to a chair, and there was a campfire going. He groaned, shifting in the chair as much as he could, everything a blur for him as he tried to see what was going on. “Ugh… What the hell.” Lapis soon caught sight of a shape moving towards him, one that came with a noise as it dragged a chair over to be in front of lapis, and sat down in said chair. Then, once everything got clearer for him, the voice spoke. “So… Who are you?”
Lapis groaned, muttering to himself. “Just can’t catch a break, can I? First the arrest, then the Cloud, now this…” Lapis sighed, and after considering his options, then spoke again. “My name is Lapis Star. I came from Canterlot, or whatever’s left of it. The moment the shield broke, I ran my ass out of there, considering I was choking on some sort of cloud. Found m~” “Look. I asked for your name, not your life story.” Lapis scowled, not like being talked down to. “Then what’s your name, wise guy?”
The Unicorn stallion, as he could see that now, was holding an energy weapon which was being pointed at Lapis. “Well, considering you can’t do much, I’m Lieutenant Lance Ire of the Equestrian Army. Or I was, at least, until this happened. Now, well… I honestly don’t know what to do. I’m not sure if you heard, but Canterlot, Cloudsdale, Manehattan, Maripony and Splendid Valley were hit. There were also reports of Whitetail Woods having been heavily irradiated, but I do not know for sure.”
Lapis gulped, his eyes widening when he heard that Manehatten had been hit. “I really need to get home now. My house is on the edge of the city, in the outlying neighborhoods. My wife and kid are there! You have to untie me! I have to get to them!” Lapis began to struggle in his restraints, frenzied by this new key piece of information. Lance, however, remained calm. “I am not releasing you until you calm down. If you go out now, you will probably not live to see them. Radiation is everywhere. Unless you have the clothes to ward it off, you won’t last a day. And I encountered a few ponies that seemed to be looting. They were taking advantage of the situation, and decided they wanted my stuff. So, not only do you have environmental hazards, you have other ponies that have devolved to raiding. With your limited knowledge of that shotgun, which I don’t think is yours to begin with, you won’t last very long.”
Lapis growled, but sighed, relaxing. The stallion was right. He wouldn’t do well if he didn’t have a clear head. Lapis didn’t respond for a bit, and then sighed. “Fine. I guess I have nothing better to do. But you have to understand, they are the only thing I have left.” Lance sighed, and nodded. “I understand your need, but you must look after yourself if you wish to see them again.” Lance leaned forward, looking lapis in his dark grey eyes, looking for any sign of betrayal. “I will release you, but you have to promise to not attack me. Got it? If you do, I will shoot to kill. It’ll get messy, very quickly.”
Lapis nodded, waiting for Lance to release him. When he was untied, he got up. “Want anything to eat? The cafeteria was limited, but it has something to eat, at least.” Lance smiled. “Yes please. I’ve been moving ever since the bombs fell and I was released from duty at my military base. Now everything’s gone quiet on my radio, but that’s probably because of the balefire radiation producing interference. But, anyways, please. I would love something to eat.” Lapis smiled, nodding, and walked off to the cafeteria, to get some cans of food. Coming back, he used one of the jagged pieces of cement to open the cans, wincing as it caused his hooves to itch again. After that, began to dish out the food, putting it on plates and putting the plates near the fire to heat them up. Soon, the food was properly heated, and Lapis gave Lance his plate, and sat down, and began to eat.
They ate in silence, mainly focused on eating. Lapis hadn’t realized how hungry he was, considering he hadn’t eaten in days. He had forgotten to pack food, and because of that, he hadn’t had anything to eat while travelling until he found the office building. He wolfed down his food, sighing when his plate was empty. “Oh… that’s it? I Thought I had more food.” Lance chuckled at hearing this, and smiled. “You ate faster than a new private after beginning training. When’s the last time you ate?”
Lapis’s cheeks were soon dusted with red, and he grinned sheepishly. “Well… a few days ago? After I left Canterlot, I have been moving except for at nights, when I would just sleep after stopping.” Lapis sighed. “I just want to make sure my family is alive. I can’t stand the thought of knowing that they are dying and that I cannot do anything about it! So, I will not stop until I am either in my house, or dead.”
Lance frowned. “I guess that sounds good enough. You really should learn how to use that gun though… Get some rest, and if you are willing to stick around, I’ll show you how to shoot that thing. I will take the first shift for watch.” Lapis frowned. “What makes you think you can order me around?” “Well. For starters, I could easily kill you and not give a damn. Second, I am military and you are merely a civilian. Third, I know how to use the guns I carry.” Lapis sighed. “Fine, I guess I will listen to you… For now I will, at least. And if it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be having that gun. I own most of the gem mines in Equestria. The gem stone in your energy rifle probably came from one of my mines.” Lapis flopped down, laying next to the fire, and closed his eyes, quickly falling asleep.
Lapis woke up feeling somewhat off, and got up. He noticed that Lance had fallen asleep in a cubicle, his finished weapons still on the desk, and walked towards the bathrooms. When he looked in a mirror, however, he yelped, backing up. What he looked like, was something that might have come from a horror novel. Almost all of his fur was gone, and his hair was only a few strands left. His skin was in a bad state. He groaned, and went to the sink, washing his face. “Whelp… This just keeps getting better and better. Why is it always me that gets the weird stuff?” Lapis washed his face, groaning, and went back out to the work area. He began to heat up some food, muttering to himself.
Lance woke up to the smell of food, and groaned, sitting up straight, and looked around. He noticed lapis sitting there, and he sighed, brushing away some of the hair that lapis had dropped in his sleep, and he sat down next to him. “How are you feeling? You don’t look so good.” Lapis, looking up after rubbing his eyes nodded. “Hmm? Yeah, I feel fine. I must not have gotten enough sleep. I feel tired, but I slept soundly… Maybe it’s just everything I have gone through during the past week…”
Lapis nodded, and finished his food while Lance made and ate his own food. Lapis scratched at his hooves, and looked around, bored and not feeling so well. Lance finished his breakfast, and got up. “Ok, come with me. I will show you how to properly shoot that weapon, and how to care for it.” Lapis, after giving this some thought, nodded, getting up and following him.
After teaching him how to use the shotgun properly, and how to clean it, they packed up their stuff, and began to travel towards Manehatten. The walk there was overwhelmingly silent. No birds, or animals could be heard, and the only sounds they could hear was the sound of their own hoof steps. Every now and then lapis would have to stop, getting sick, but he absolutely refused to just give up. He had a family to take care of, and he wasn’t going to abandon them just because of an apocalypse! Even as his skin began to peel and his fur coat began to fall out, he kept walking, ignoring the looks he got from Lance. When night fell, he kept walking until not even Lance could continue.
They stopped for the night, Lance tearing into a few Rad-Away packets while Lapis got a fire going. When Lapis asked for one, Lance shook his head. “With the way you look, I would say you have merely a few days to live. You must have absorbed an ungodly amount of radiation.” Lapis, blinked, just sat down numbly as he received this news. Lance had never told him that he was dying, but Lapis could feel it. Deep inside, something felt off. But, it didn’t feel right either, like what could be perceived as dying, but… Something else was there, something Lapis might not like. But, ignoring those feelings, he sat down and pulled out a bottle of water, drinking it down. Lapis sighed. “Lance? Do you think there is a life after death?”
Lance frowned, not sure how to respond. “Well… I wish for it, but I do not know if it actually exists. I lost a lot of friends in this war, so I sure hope so, so that they didn’t die in vain.” Lapis, a slight smile crossing his face, sighed. “Well… I sure hope so. Because I can only hope my family is there, if they are…. If…” Lapis blinked, gulping, and Lance shook his head. “Lapis… They are fine, I am sure of it. We just have to get there. You’ll see! Now, let me check my map…” Lance pulled his saddlebags in front of him, pulling out his map, and reading it by firelight; he began to determine their location. “Well… Judging from our surroundings, and from the map is telling me… It looks like we are near Junction R-7. So, that means we are about half way to Manehatten, so within the next couple of days, even a day if we push hard enough, we will be getting to the outskirts of Manehatten, and to your house. So, you are in luck. You might just see your family again before you die.” Lance sighed. “Let’s get some sleep, it’ll be a long walk tomorrow.”
As they fell asleep, and the fire died down, off in the distance, there was the soft pops of gunfire, to which Lance sat up at. Lapis remained asleep, his weakened body not caring about the noise, and Lance stood up, looking around. It would appear that he would not be getting a lot of sleep tonight. He picked up his gun, an assault rifle, and sat down on a rock, keeping guard.
Author's Note
Once again, I am looking for feedback on this. if you have any suggestions as to what i should do, send me a private message and i will be more than willing to communicate with you.
