Fallout Equestria: project humanby Gaz1997Chapterschapter 1chapter 2chapter 3chapter 4chapter 6Chapter 7 Return to a place like hell.Prologue Re-Write completechapter 5chapter 1When to video stopped, the trio just looked at each other in bewilderment at what they just saw. Cables moved away from the monitor and over to the side of the frost covered tube and looked inside and he was surprised to see what was inside. He was looking at the exact same creature that he just saw on the video, the thing that called itself a human with the name ‘matrix’ he was desperately trying to remember where he had heard the word human before then his thoughts went back to story his farther used to talk about. Flashback “This is a story my grandmother once told me, this is the story of a creature. This creature was known a hero, a true legend back in the old world, the tale of this creature goes way back before the war that broke out 200 years ago”. “It was said that this creature was from a different world. His race was highly advanced maybe more advanced than us but no pony knows. So one day the creature was supposedly on the brink of death but the sun goddess saw him and took pity on him and brought him to our world. He landed in the world in some kind of big metal bird and claimed himself a human, a creature that walks on to legs and has claw like appendages”. “They accepted him in there world as one their own and he lived for a few years in peace from his home world. But then when the war came he was made into one of the greatest weapons they had at their disposal against the zebras and he did his job like now other he would sacrifice his for other if need be”. “But then when the bombs fell he helped the ponies into a stable, our stable to be precise, but no pony knows what happened to him”. “Did he die or live?” “Some say that there keeping him locked away in the very depths of the stable and we never knew but the over mare said that it wasn’t possible. Then over time ponies began to question his existence saying that it was only a myth but I know that my grandmother was right but I didn’t want to believe her”. Present: cables pov I couldn’t believe it I was looking at the creature the ‘human’ that was supposedly a legend but led on to being a myth and here it was right in front of me. A small smile crept to my face that I didn’t notice my brother and lil’ twist were looking at me with looks of confusion “Hey cables what’s with the face, you look like you know what that thing is” said my younger brother “I do, we all do, remember when our farther used to tell us that story of that legendary creature” I replied and I was answered with a nod from both of them “This is the same creature, the very same human, from all those years ago” I them moved back to monitor and looked at the message again “And look at the date of the message, it was made almost 200 years ago so that confirms it” I looked over towards my brother and twist. Their mouths were hanging open so low they could’ve touched the floor. I then turned my attention back to the monitor where a new message had appeared on the screen *unseal cryo tube yes/no* I was about to type onto the keyboard but then some pony shouted out. “HALT” I jumped in mid-air and landed on the monitor and by accident pressed the yes key. Third person view Cables fell of the monitor and onto the floor rubbing his head which would a bruise there later. The trio then looked over to where the voice had come from and they saw the over mare flanked by at least 20 security ponies. “Stop what you’re doing now” said the over mare but she was cut off by a loud hissing noise coming from directly behind the three young ponies who in turn moved away from the tube as it was the source of the noise. Steam was coming out the sides of the tube and the then there was a clanking sound like locks unlocking. then the front of the tube began to open upwards. When the door finally stopped moving and the mist cleared away the security ponies the over mare and the trio edged closer to see inside and the all froze when they saw it. A tall creature that looked like it walked on to legs was laying in the tube almost motionless it had these weird looking limbs on the bottom of its fore and rear legs. It had short brown mane and flat face, it skin was a very light shade of pink and it wore only a small piece of clothing over its midsection and there where cables connected to its chest. The over mare slowly edged over to the monitor at the end of the tube, She looked at the terminal’s screen and read in her mind “Cryo tube stasis, normal, project human ‘matrix’ is stable, lights show green across the board” As she was scrolling down the terminal one of the security guards walked up to here and asked “Ma’am what is this thing, is it dangerous” he said in a slight worried tone “I guess it’s time you all learned the truth, for the past 200 years our stable has been host to him” she gestured towards the human “He was the reason why you’re all here today, he saved the ponies that first came into the stable when the war ended. And now for the past 200 years me and the past over mare’s have been keeping hi m secret until these three found him” she looked over towards the trio. Then a low grumbling sound broke the sudden silence from behind her. The creature was beginning to waken. They all backed away from the cryo tube but the over mare moved a closer till she reached to end on the tube She could now clearly see that the human was now breathing but rather quickly and raggedly. She then spoke up hoping it would wake up “hello can you hear me” No response “I said can you hear me” she said in a slightly louder tone Then the humans eyes shot open a took in a huge gasp of air “Nooooooooooooooooo” It shouted” The sudden outburst shocked the mare as she stumbled onto her back, the guards quickly circled her, weapons at the ready in case the creature tried anything, but it just lay there staring at the ceiling, its eyes bloodshot Matrix pov I was dreaming that I was flying, flying through the clouds above the beautiful land I now called my home, I couldn’t remember how long it had been since I crashed into Equestria, years maybe but I was eternally grateful that I had, I could barely remember my old life on earth, but why would I, the planet I used to call my home was an absolute shithole. Equestria was my home now, I had made many friends: twilight, applejack, rarity, fluttershy, pinkie pie and rainbow dash and many more but rainbow was probably the most important to me, she is……… my wife after all. I looked to my left and I saw her flying alongside me, she looked like she always did. Amazing. And then I looked to my left and I saw the rest of my family, my adopted daughter scootaloo and my own kids. Two little Pegasus foals, lightning wings and blue angel, were all flying with me through the clouds, but then all of a sudden the sky turned black and I was then back on the battlefield between the ponies and zebras. I was in my combat armour and was holding my gun of choice. Bozar. I looked around and all I could see was death I couldn’t move my arms or legs or do anything but watch. I turned my head away from it all but when I looked back I now lying on a table. I knew where I was. I was in twilight’s ministry about to undergo an experiment I had agreed to be part of. Project human. The operation was to make me stronger, faster and more intelligent. Needles were inserted to my arms and legs but I could feel no pain. but when they injected me with whatever it was the pain was almost unbearable and when they started to use their magic for the next part I swore I felt like I had died and then I closed my eyes to open them again and again I was on the front lines again this time in my new armour that I had received after the operation. I was on a ridge watching as pony soldier’s charged over the ridge at the enemy, weapons drawn and firing. I had killed my fair amount of zebras on the battle field but one thought stuck in my head the whole time “I’ve killed the enemy but do not hate them” I turned around and I was back in pony Ville. Warning sirens where blaring loudly, ponies where running everywhere, in the distance I could see canterlot with a massive magical shield being pounded by rockets. Then suddenly on the inside, it erupted into a giant pink cloud and the shield slowly began to fall, the capital was gone, I closed my eyes again that were now filled with tears I opened them again to see my family running towards me. I tried to run to then but I still couldn’t move my legs. Then a giant explosion erupted from behind them and the shockwave was closing fast “Come on, faster, FASTER “I shouted but I was too late. They were caught in the blast and then they were nothing more. “No………no……….. NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” “NOOOOOOOOOO” my eyes shot open as I had awoken from my nightmare the same reoccurring nightmare, all I could see was white nothingness. I then looked at my surroundings to see a mare on the floor in front of me with several armed ponies guarding her and behind them I saw a trio of foal’s slightly shivering in a corner. I brought my hands up to my face and rubbed my eyes. I then remembered that I was inside stable 97’s hidden cryo chamber that only me, silver and the over mare I placed my hands on either side of the cryo tube and pulled myself to feet nearly stumbling over. The ponies moved back a bit when they saw how tall I was, they were at least half my height. Then one of the security ponies spoke up breaking the silence “w-w-what are you” he said he sound scared even though he tried to put on a bold front but before I could answer him, one of the foals said “He’s the thing from the legend ya, know the legend about the human, he’s been down here all this time after the war” beamed the young colt “You can’t be serious, that is nothing more than an old pony’s tail” said the same guard “Well that is a complete load of utter bollocks” I said finally speaking up They quickly turned to face me as they just heard me speak “You can talk” said the over mare in shock “Well not shit Sherlock, of course I can and I am very real. Now I’m sure you all have plenty of questions to ask me but first I have one question for you…….how long have I been down here?” They didn’t answer just stood there in total silence so I asked again “Didn’t you hear me, I asked you how long have I been down here?” “Two hundred years” mumbled the over mare “What was that speak up for celestias sake” “Two hundred years” she said this time so I could hear “What?” I replied “I said you’ve been asleep for two hundred years” she answered I just stood there frozen trying to take the words she just said, my head was full of emotions, sadness, pain but most of all…..anger. She could see the anger in my eyes. But then I lost it, I turned around and with all my strength I punched my cryo tubes terminal sending sparks flying all over, all the ponies jumped back at my sudden outburst . “AAAAAaaaaaaaarrrrrgghhhhhh TWO HUNDRED YEARS, IVE BEEN FUCKING DOWN HERE FOR TWO HUNDRED FUCKING YEARS!!!!” by now tears were forming in my eyes, I fell to my knees and just wept on the floor, the images of my friends, family and fellow soldiers in my head. they were all gone….just …….gone. well here's another chapter i know there may be a few mistakes but i didn't get it pre-read but the next one will be and now i bet you have questions hmm i bet you do but they will be answered......soon chapter 2I just lay there, tears in my eyes, the images and memories of my friends flowing through my mind. “Twilight ,applejack, fluttershy, pinkie ,rarity, scootaloo, applebloom, sweetie belle…….rainbow dash, everyone……gone………. there all gone……why……why did this have to happen…….…just why………200 years 200 hundred fucking years………..but I know RD is alive…I just know it………. no pony can kill her that easy”. Then I felt a hoof touch my shoulder, I immediately stopped crying and manned up to look to see who’s hoof it was, I turned my head to see the over mare who had her hoof on my shoulder and this time I took a proper look at her, she had a dark golden coat and black mane I couldn’t see here cutie mark from my angle and she had green eyes, those eyes reminded me of applejacks eyes, I pushed that thought out of my head and stood up but still felling slightly groggy. “Are you ok?” she asked Yeah I’m ok its….just a bit of shock to me I mean…… 200 years……Jesus….well ……who do I have to thank for waking me up from that bitch of a slumber” I asked stretching out my arms and legs after 200 years of lying down frozen. “That would be them” she pointed a hoof towards “they found you down here by blind luck, only I knew that you were down here but I didn’t know what you where until I saw you” she said “Thanks I said to her before walking over to the trio still huddled in the corner, I knelt down and pulled them into a hug. “Thanks you three, I you hadn’t found me I would have been down here for god knows how long maybe even forever, what are your names” “My names batter up” “Names circuitry” “I’m little twist” she said shyly “Well thank you guys again I’m really grateful I owe you one” I broke the embrace and walked over the wall besides my cryo tube and banged on the wall, a panel opened revealing a hidden terminal and I started typing on it but try after try it wouldn’t unlock “God fucking damn it open you stupid bitch” I then remembered my pip buck and face palmed I moved my arm up to the terminal but took a look at my pip buck first, Let’s just say I have a habit for customizing things on the left hand side I had taped a picture of my wife and kids next to the screen that had the word ‘come back home soon’, my mind went back to when she gave me the picture and when she whispered in my ear ‘for luck’. I sighed then broke out of my sudden trance and held it in front the terminal for a few seconds “Erm what are you doing” asked the over mare looking at the advanced piece of tech on my arm “Just watch and you’ll see” I replied and after a couple of seconds the terminal unlocked and a message appeared with a computerized voice saying. *cryo chamber systems offline, running diagnostics, cryo tube still functioning on emergency power, activating override sequence, synching to specialist matrix, pip buck prototype mark III………….. Sync complete, welcome specialist matrix, activating primary cryo chamber systems* After the message had finished the light came on and some machinery began to hum in the background and to me left a door opened revealing a smallish room on the other side of the room. “Whoa how did you do that” asked one of the guard’s “With this” I said holding up my left arm with my pip buck “the pip buck prototype mark III, I was given it by twilight sparkle herself back in the war to help me when I was sent on important missions, it’s a bit more advanced than your normal pip buck”. “What do you mean more advanced” spoke the over mare “Sorry but that’s classified info” I said before walking through the newly opened door into the room and shutting it behind me. “Where does he think he’s going” said a guard “I don’t know” said the over mare “you go have a look and see want he’s doing and see if he’s coming out” “Yes ma’am” then walked up to the door and knocked “Um sir what are you doing, are you coming out of there?” he asked Then the door opened slightly and I put my hand through the door and flipped them the middle finger then closed the door again. He must of understood what it meant as he walked back up the over mare and said “Erm that’s a negative ma’am” but a few seconds later I came out fully dressed. I was wearing my customized elite riot/combat armour with my helmet in my hand http://images.wikia.com/fallout/images/d/dc/Elite\_riot\_gear.png On the back of the duster was an emblem I had personally asked rarity to do for me, in the middle was celestia’s and Luna’s cutie marks and around them in a circle was the mane six’s cutie mark’s, it’s an old world symbol now but it’s a symbol of happiness to me, it brings back memories, good memories. On the top of my helmet was a painted rainbow streak running down the back of it like Mohican in a way, With RD’s cutie mark emblazed on the side. The ponies just looked at me with their mouths hung open in awe I think was there expressions “Man does it feel good to be wearing clothing again” I said out loud “Wow you like a total badass dude” said another guard “I’ll take that as a compliment” I replied as I moved over to the to the pod next mine and held my pip buck next to its terminal and let it work its magic the good thing about my pip buck is that it is capable of doing a lot more than a normal one like hacking terminals but It can’t hack all of them. After 30 seconds of waiting for my pip buck to override the lock on the pod, it finally bypassed it and opened up, a smile appeared on my face as I looked at the two sleeping foals, my children, even to this day I still wonder how me and dash where even able to have foals because were not even the same race but that’s genetics for you cause I don’t know shit about it. The thawing process was now well underway and the kids were beginning to wake but were still asleep, they’re both heavy sleepers, something they picked up from their mother. We named them lighting wings and blue angel, dash wanted a name that had lightning in it so lightning wings it was to be for our son and I came up with blue angel for our daughter, yeah so I took the name of one the famous aerobatic teams on earth but it fitted her perfectly. I was lost in deep thought that I was snapped out of it when I heard a yawn from lightning, his eyes started to flutter open but he tried to go back to sleep. “Come on sleepy heads, time to wake up” I said quietly to them “Five more minutes dad, I don’t wanna go to school” mumbled angel “You two are just so adorable that’s why I love and your my kids so why wouldn’t I” I let out a little chuckle and said “well then I guess I won’t make you your favourite breakfast then. Their eyes both shot open as I said that and they leapt out of the pod and into my arms, tackling me to the ground dropping my helmet in the process. “DADDY” they both shouted as they hugged me with all there might “Hey kids did you have a nice sleep, any nice dreams” I said whilst ruffling there manes “Yeah daddy I had the best dream ever” exclaimed angel “Hehe that’s good to know kiddo why don’t you tell me about later daddy’s feeling a little dizzy right now ok”. “Ok daddy she said as they both continued to hug me on the ground, I then rolled my head backwards to face the over mare “Excuse me miss, could you do me a favour and open my friends pod over there for me, and the password is twilight to unlock it” I asked “Of course and you can call me ‘lockdown’ miss ‘lockdown’. She said “Thanks” I replied and continued to embrace the two foals on my chest. Lockdown went over to the guards and told them to guard the door to the chamber in case any pony came down here then went up to the pod and started typing on its terminal, After a couple of minutes I heard the recognisable hiss of the pod unlock and open. I looked over to my left and I saw lock down standing in front of my friends pod then I heard a groan coming from inside. “Uurrrgghh my head” said the voice from inside the pod as the figure leaned forward and opened his eyes then his gaze fell upon the over mare. “Well heeeeelllooo beautiful” he said as he lifted himself out from the pod. Lockdown blushed and backed away from him slightly “Smooth dude, like sandpaper, do you honestly have to try and hit on all the mares” I said as I turned my head to him and sat up with the two foals on my lap. “Matrix my man, how goes it, sleep well” he said “You could say that silver, I was about to ask you the same thing” I replied “UNCLE SILVER” blue and lightning shouted before leaping of my lap and onto silver “Hey kids, you two ok” silver said “Were ok uncle, we had some awesome dreams, do want to hear them” said lightning “Maybe later, first I need to talk to daddy” he said to them “You do” I asked “well then” I looked towards the trio who were still sitting in the corner talking amongst themselves “Hey erm little twist was it, could you keep an eye on my foals for a second while a talk to my friend here” I asked She took a moment to think then answered with “yes” so I motioned for the two foals to go over to her and of they trotted. I put on a smile as they walked off to the corner then I turned my attention back to silver who had a serious look on his face. “How long” he asked “Promise you won’t freak out like I did” “What do you mean” he asked so I simply pointed towards the terminal I had punched “Ah, well then back to what I said, how long”. “You sure you want to know” “Yes I do, now tell me” “Two hundred years” I simply stated The words hit him like a bomb. Already I see a tear start to form and then roll down his face and he held his head low, I moved forward to him and put and arm around his neck and put my forehead on his carefully to avoid hitting his horn. Tears were starting to form from my eyes as well. “200 hundred years” he said through tears “200 bucking years” “I know dude, I know” I said in a calming voice “But there gone dude, all gone” he said whilst pulling me into a man hug “Hey don’t say that, I know it may sound like that but I have a feeling, I have a feeling that RD made it, know pony can kill her that easy” “And what about my twilight” “I don’t know dude, but remember she is the most powerful unicorn in Equestria, she’s smart so she would have had a good chance but I can’t promise everything, and if it helps I’m going to go find out what happened to them, if there dead or alive” I said then broke the embrace “Well im coming with you” “He he I wasn’t even going to object to it” I said then we bro-hoofed “Come on, let’s go get suited up and get out of this hole” “Im with you on that” he said then we both got up he made his way into the other room while I picked up my helmet and followed him into the room and shut the door. He went up to his locker’s and pulled out his combat armour and helmet then put it on along with side attachments for his weapons , I went up to my side of the room where three lockers were, One for my clothing, one for my weapons and another for personal belongings. I went up to my weapon locker and put in the code and opened it. I reached inside and pulled out one of my favourite weapons. Bozar. http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQgs4H7lCfC15XwJlEbcPwJVzODDNfWWz5A8BBtYszi\_8kPSI79 Fully automatic, 30 5.56mm round magazine, scope, it had a barrel that reminded me of a barret 50 cal. It put it on my back and opened up the ammo box next it. My HUD told me it had at least 1500 rounds “plenty” in thought to myself. I then pulled out my next weapon and it was a big one, an anti-material rifle to be exact, now this gun defiantly reminded me of a barret all though it was single shot but it had all the recoil I put this on my back also with my other gun and opened it ammo box. “250 rounds, reasonable and what’s this….oh hello” again thinking to myself as I put the normal ammo in my inventory and looked back into the box my HUD labelled it ‘explosive round’s 200’. “That will come in handy indeed” I mumbled quietly to myself whilst scooping up the clips and putting them in my inventory also, then I moved to my next weapons, to pistols, both berretta 9mm’s, I grabbed them by the handles and spun them round before putting them in my side holsters in concealed by my duster along with the ammo ‘200 rounds’ Finally I picked up my last weapons, my knife’s, I first picked up my two special knifes. (Sort of like this) http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ4l6m5-JWDhbdgKRbCzCMT7FtjUMac\_xaFnstgy3gTCsoi6UFK They were shaped like dashie’s cutie mark but without the cloud and they were painted in the same colours as well and on the side of them I had embedded the name of my foals. the special thing about these knifes is when I gripped the handle hard enough, when I stabbed some pony mainly a zebra, it let a small electric shock, perfectly killing whoever was on the receiving end of them, yet another great piece of hardware from applejack’s ministry. I put them into my shoulder sheaths and picked up my last knife. My old combat knife http://images.wikia.com/fallout/images/f/fb/Combat\_knife.png I had brought this with me from earth when I crashed here, it was an old thing yes but this thing has saved my life more times than I care to mention back in the war. It had a toothed edge with a curved tip, on its side I had dash’s name scratched into it this knife brought back memories, good and bad, but I had saved many lives with this knife in and out of the war as well as my own. I put it in its sheath on my chest went over to my personal locker, opened it and gazed inside. I pulled out a small wallet which held some money not that I needed it during warfare but what else it contained meant more to me, pictures of my family, friends and fellow soldiers of the field, all memories of better times and places, places that are now presumably gone. I pocketed the wallet and pulled out a device that most of you now, my iPod and earphones, yet another item I had brought with me from earth all those years ago. I put it in one of my pockets and pulled out the last thing I kept. My collapsible guitar, I never went anywhere without it on the battlefield, back home not anywhere because I loved my music and other ponies did to, I put it in my inventory and shut the locker door. I turned my attention to my comrade and he had finished getting ready himself. On his sides he had two standard issue assault rifles with suppressors. “Typical, he always has his silencers, always has, always will” he also had a 10mm standard pistol holstered across his chest along with his own knife that had twilight etched into it and he had his combat saddlebags on his flanks. He wore his trademark helmet that had ‘If you see stripes, shoot’ in white paint across the front with his captain insignia. He saw me looking at him and he gave me a nod which I returned, I put on my helmet and then we both walked out of the room both felling like total bad asses. Lockdown turned to look at us but when she did her face became a mix of shock, fear and curiosity, well you got to admit we did look a bit intimidating especially me when I had my helmet on. She than asked us when she had gained the use of her voice again “Erm are you planning on going somewhere because you defiantly look like it” "Yes, yes we are, were leaving” “Why” she asked I looked at silver that looked at me then I turned back to lockdown “Because we have to find some pony’s I even if we have to go through hell and back to find them” I had no idea what the world looked like after two century’s but I prayed to celestia that it looked ok. “Well ok but I must warn you that if you leave now you won’t be able to come back in” “Not a problem in my books now if you would be so kind to lead the way out” “Erm…ok then follow me” “Alright” I said “lightning, blue, come on were leaving”. hey guys hoped you liked the new chapter i bet your wondering how matrix and silver will react when he gets out the stable, will he completely lose it or deal, with it who knows well except for me anyway's hope you liked it character's: matrix (me) silver: Silverstein222 chapter 3Matrix pov ok so it’s been three hour’s since we’ve gotten out of that stable and I finally gotten over the shock of coming back into the world I called my home that has now been turned to shit, I have my friend silver with me, alive and my two foals, also alive, but now I’ve got to look after another three foals, bloody brilliant, I never asked to look after them and we nearly got killed after running into that band of so-called raider’s just an hour ago, but I’ll guess I’ll just have to deal with it for now, at least they can defend for themselves in a way. It was now night time, I was thinking about the events that had occurred over the last three hours, we had finally left the stable with the company of the three foals that had found me in the cryo chamber and where now resting in the camp where the band of raider’s had been previously. The trio had snuck out when the guards weren’t looking and were now with me, my kids and silver. I had given both of the unicorn brothers my pistols with some ammo for defence. It’s not like I needed those ones anyway, I have a better pair kept in a safe back home in pony Ville……….if it’s still standing……that is. Flashback, three hours prior, stable 97 main entrance Play this in a new tab music link We had finally walked to the main entrance and were waiting for lockdown to open the stable door but she was taking her sweet time. We had managed to make it up here without much hassle since it was what they considered to be late afternoon but when you’re underground you can’t tell. By now I could’ve opened the door with my pip-buck. After another five nerve-racking minutes a warning claxon sounded of and a warning light began blinking on and off. Then the heavy lock of the stable door unlocked, the door then moved back and rolled over the right of the wall On the other side of the massive door way was the dirt tunnel with the battered wooden door blocking out the last few rays of light. “Ok silver let’s roll” I said before I started walking towards the entrance, but I quickly stopped in the metal doorway and watched as my two foals now dressed in stable suit’s walked along with silver, I then turned my head back towards lockdown. “You know you don’t have to go” she said “I know but I must………….. But remember this is…….if you ever need me, don’t worry, just send out a radio message and I’ll come runnin, you hear” she nodded then I turned back around and walked up to the door where silver was waiting not noticing three small figures sneak out through the doorway and hide behind the rock in the cave. Me and silver took positions on either side of the wooden door with my kids behind me I looked back as lockdown shut the door and nodded to me, I returned the nod as the door finally closed again. “Alright silver, breach and clear, celestia knows what’s out there after two hundred years, you ready” “As I’ll ever be” he said before pulling up the mouth grip and cocking his rifles. I pulled Bozar of my back and pulled back the breach with a satisfying ‘ka-thunk’. “3….2….1….go! *crash* breaching! Breaching! I shouted as I kicked down the door stormed out and took up a crouching position on the right hand side of the door with silver to my left “Clear” said silver but I didn’t acknowledge him. I was looking over the edge of the small cliff that we were on, gazing at the landscape. I took of my helmet and let it drop the ground with my rifle, I then dropped to my knees. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing……..I refused to. “No….no……” “Matrix, come on, I know it looks bad but”- “NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” I shouted as loud as my lungs would allow, my voice echoing across the land. I could no longer seeing the lush green landscapes of Equestria. All I could see now was a barren dead wasteland, my home, our home…..was gone, turned to dust, filled with bale fire radiation. *Stop music* “MATRIX, SNAP OUT OF IT!” shouted silver as he smacked me upside the head to try and calm me down. Needless to say it kind of worked I sat there in the dirt rubbing the side of my face where my ‘friend’ had punched me. “Thanks silver…….it’s just….it’s just too much for me to take in right now…..wait…….did you hear something” “No” replied silver but then I heard something move directly behind us so I quickly spun around and pulled out my duel wields aiming at a nearby boulder, silver doing the same. “Who’s out there…….show your self’s” No answer I fired of a warning shot towards the boulder where I heard what sounded like some sort of whimper coming from behind it. “Don’t shoot us ….don’t shoot us!” came a young voice from behind it “Well fucking show your self’s then!” I answered back “Ok were coming out just please….don’t shoot” “Ppsstt silver keep any eye out, can’t be too careful” I whispered towards him but that’s when my expression changed completely when the same three foals from earlier came out from behind their hiding place, one colt was holding a baseball bat with his magic. “Oh come on, you have got to be fucking kidding me!” I said out loud “Matrix there just kids” said silver “that’s the problem mate ‘there kids’ I was ok looking after my own two foals but now we’ve got three more to keep an eye on and I’m pretty sure that right now this place isn’t the safest of places if you haven’t noticed that already. “I know that matrix but we can’t just leave them here and they can’t get back into the stable now so it looks like they’re gonna have to some with us” “Plus you said that you owe us one for waking you up and all that” said the youngest of the brothers. I let out sigh in defeat. Well…….fuck. “Ok silver they’ll come with us but I’m going to have to give them a ways to protect themselves and usually I’m against giving a kid a gun but in the world we are in now I think I’m just gonna have to give the big old fuck it to that rule” I stood up then flicked on the safeties of my pistols; I picked up my rifle and slung it then picked up my helmet and placed it on my head and motioned for the three foals to come over. I gave the two brothers the pistols and showed the basic rundown of how the gun worked and told them to take a few practice shots with their telekinesis, they both seemed to handle it well especially the younger one ‘batter up’ I think was his name. After half an hour of sitting around outside training the two brothers how to use the weaponry, taking inventory on our food and medical supplies we finally set off in the direction me silver and my kids had come from to get here. Home…………. pony Ville……...or whatever was left of it. After an hour of walking we had found the path that led to the town but it would take us at least another one and a half hours to get there if we didn’t run into any trouble, but now I had gone and jinxed us.as we walked up a small hill I saw what seemed to be a small smoke stack about 100 metres in front of us from what my HUD was telling me and I was too far away to see any new mark’s on my E.F.S. Could be a settlement but I’m not taking any chances. I raised my fist to make every pony stop behind me. The brothers pulled out there new toys and moved into defensive positions around my kids and twist while silver came up to my side. “What’s wrong” he said “got a visual, smoke stack, 100 metres, north east, could be a settlement, no hostile’s or friendly’s yet” I looked to my left and saw a small rock formation “Perfect" "i motioned every pony to follow me over and told the foals to stay low and keep quiet behind the rocks while me and silver climbed up top and lay down. I pulled put my anti-material rifle, my pip buck connected the scope to my HUD for better aiming, and silver pulled out a set of binoculars with his magic, acting as my spotter. “Ok buddy pick out any visual’s you find, I’ll use S.A.T.S to determine hostile, friendly or neutral”. “Copy that, just like old times” I zoomed in on the scope and I got a look at the makeshift settlement. “okay, I can see two visual’s, one mare, one stallion both wearing some make shift clothing of some kind, two metres to the left of that of that tent” said silver “On target, any hostilities?” “None yet, but they both have smg’s……….shit!” “What, what is it?” “Right of the tent, five new visuals two mares, three stallions” “On target, oh crap” From what I seeing it wasn’t good, the five new ponies that had come out of the tent where a site to look at, one mare and stallion where wearing similar clothing to the other two and both had weapons, the other mare and two stallions had cuts, bruises and scar’s all over them and their legs where tied just above the knee’s so they couldn’t run. I couldn’t determine if they were pegasi, unicorn or earth pony so I quickly entered S.A.T.S and looked over the two ponies with the guns and they were labelled ‘raiders’ “This isn’t good” in said as I exited S.A.T.S but was met with the sound of a gunshot. I looked through the scope again I saw that now one of the tied up stallions was one the floor with a bullet hole in his head and standing over him was one of the so called ‘raider’s’ with his smg aimed at his head, smoke pouring out the barrel. I couldn’t hear him but he looked like he was laughing, he then turned his gun towards the other stallion. “Ok this guy is a unicorn and he is defiantly ‘not’ friendly” “Matrix he’s gonna kill the other stallion, quick, take the shot!” I knew I had to do it but I didn’t want to, but he was going to kill this pony……I had to make this count. I went into S.A.T.S mode and selected the bastard’s heads. 50% chance of hitting him, I had to take that chance so I squeezed the trigger. *BANG* came the shot from the rifle as I absorbed the recoil as the bullet travelled towards it target and seconds later it made contact with the unicorn stallions head, instantly killing him, I watched as he dropped to the floor with the bullet hole as the new addition to his face. I never thought it would come to this, killing a zebra on the battlefield was easy to get used to after a while but I still didn’t like the idea of killing them as they did us, they were probably forced into the fighting, when it came to killing a fellow pony……..things were different, I had only killed a pony if they were a traitor or a sy for the zebras but now this wasn’t war, this was the future where things may be different, but the feeling stay’s the same. The other two raiders came now round from the other side of the tent to see what happened, that’s when they saw the body and the other mare with her mouth hung open, shocked at the dead pony in front then. There was silence, but that quickly changed as shit hit the fan when the three raiders charged at us with guns blazing, bullets missing us by inches, thank celestia they are shit shots. I took aim at another one of the raiders with S.A.T.S but it was still recharging. “Fuck” I said out loud but that’s when I felt a familiar tingling feeling in my hands. I looked down at them and saw the recognisable dark greyish aura emanating around them. I think now is the time to tell you something else about me. When I first came to Equestria, I didn’t have magic because being human we don’t have it obviously, but after my first few days of being in this world I got in a fight (totally self-defence!) where I discovered my new trait. I had slowly started to develop magic after being in this world and over time it got stronger. But here’s the catch, I can’t control it like a unicorn does, it just comes at goes, mainly at times when I need it the most. My magic allows me to be stronger, hit harder, take extreme amounts of pain and check it; it can slow down time for the short amount of time it appears. Anyway back to the moment at hand. I locked my sight with a mare raider pulled the trigger again and just like clockwork my magic kicked in and time slowed down, the bullet left the barrel with a bright flash and a slow motion bang filled the air I could see the metal projectile was engulfed in the same dark grey glow as is flew towards its target and after many seconds it hit the mare square in the eyes which caused her head to snap back from the force of the round impacting her face. Then time went back to normal and the grey aura disappeared as quickly as it arrived. The two left saw this but kept shooting from behind a rock. “Buck I can’t get them from this angle” shouted silver that had moved to try and get a better shot. “Don’t worry I got this” I replied over the gun fire. I ejected the clip from my rifle and brought out a new one from my inventory and loaded it into the gun, chambered a round and aimed just slightly behind the rock they were hiding behind. “Let’s hope these work as good as I hope they do” I pulled the trigger and was met with an explosion as the bullet connected with the ground directly behind the rock the raiders were using as cover. I could see a large spray of red and chunks of flesh fly through the air. The explosive round had killed them instantly……….one bullet………..was all it took. “Silver, anymore tango’s” “Nope, there all down” “Right let’s go get those other two at their camp, you get the kids but don’t let them see the bodies, there too young to experience death just yet” “Roger that mate” he replied and went behind the rock to grab the foals. I quickly pulled out the mag of explosive rounds and replaced it with the magazine I had previously and slung it over my back and began to sprint over to the raider’s camp. I walked up the tent and saw that the mare and stallion (both unicorns) had their fore arms around each other like they were waiting for the end to come. I walked over to them trying to look as less intimidating as possible but that didn’t work as planned, they took one look at me and they looked like they were about to faint. “Don’t kill us please” pleaded the mare. Just looking at her made me feel sorry for her, she looked like she had been through hell and a lot worse, so I took a step closer, knelt down to her level, took of my helmet and looked into her eyes. “know why would I want to do that” I said in my most calming voice, I then pulled out my combat knife and moved it over to the two of them they both flinched as if was going to stab them but they were wrong. When they looked back at me they saw me cutting through the ropes that were binding them, when I finished untying them, I put my knife away and sat down and brought out my canteen and offered it to them. “What are you and why did you help us” said the stallion taking a drink with his magic. I opened my mouth to explain but I was beaten to it by little twist who had caught up with the rest of our little party and began to tell them of the legend that I am, their mouths were hung open by the end of the story clearly they knew of the legend that was me but I was surprised that ponies even to this day still knew of it. “Is this true, you really are the hu-hu erm humone from the war?” asked the mare “Human and Yes….yes I am” “But how, that was over two hundred years ago?” “Let’s just say I’ve been…… asleep…… for all those years” “Oh…ok well thank you for saving us” “I’m sorry I couldn’t save your friend here” Its ok…… we didn’t know him but it’s not like you couldn’t do anything for him anyway” “I know but…..still” She then walked over to a box and pulled out what seemed to be a very battered pair of saddle bags, she put them on her back and walked over to me then rummaged through the bags. “Here……something for helping us” she pulled out a small bag and handed it to me. I took the bag and put my hand into it and pulled out what seemed to be bottle caps. “Bottle caps, why are you giving me these?” “Oh right, there what everypony uses for money round here” “You are pulling my leg” “Not kidding, well we better get moving I can’t stand to be here anymore and I’ll be sure to spread the word of you, good bye erm what was your name” “Matrix, names matrix” “Ok…..matrix …..Until we meet again” she said trotting of in the direction we had come with the stallion in pursuit. “Hey wait” I shouted to them “Yes” she called back “You might want to take these” I picked up the dead raiders gun and pulled out his extra mags and tossed then to her who caught them with her magic “if the situation arises” she nodded then walked off with the stallion. “I didn’t even get her name, oh well” “Well, all in a day’s work” I said out loud “To bloody right, I’m exhausted from all the walking” said silver “Me too, we’ll make camp here tonight, and then make way for ponyville tomorrow, sound good” “You know it” he replied Present time We had decided to stay in the camp for the night. I had disposed of the raider’s bodies and scavenged them of any ammo or supplies. I gave the poor stallion that was murdered a proper burial. I was now lying against a log playing on my guitar in deep thought with my foals on either side of me asleep, my helmet next to me. The trio where sitting on the other side of the campfire in the middle of ‘our’ camp also asleep. Silver however was still awake. He took one look at me and knew something was bugging me. “Mat……you ok……what you thinking about” I stopped playing my guitar “June, 28th” I simply stated “Oh…..shit dude” “Don’t give me that Sean, you weren’t there when it happened” I growled back, he cringed when I said his real name “you could at least tell me what happened that day” “No” “Ok……well I’m going to sleep, you keeping watch” “Yeah, you go to sleep, I can’t anyway” “Alright then mate g’night” “Night silver” and with that he quickly dozed off, I just sat there and tilted my head back to look at the night sky but was disappointed to see that there were no stars just cloud. I rested my guitar next to my helmet carefully not to wake my sleeping children then pulled out my wallet. I picked out one of my favourite photos from the wallet and just stared at it. It was of me and my friends and family, about a month before I went off to fight in the war. I sat in the middle crossed legged, with my wife dashie resting on my head and my two foals on my shoulders, the rest of the main six were behind me with applejack’s ‘presumably’ colt friend (I forgot his name) as well as some others, ditzy doo, big mac, Lyra, silver, vinyl, my over friend frost storm (wonder what happened to him) and the CMC were there as well, sitting in front of me. That was one of my best memories but then the worst ones came flooding back. My thoughts kept going back to that one day, that day which nearly scared me forever. I knew that I couldn’t hold back these thought’s so I let them run through my head. 3rd POV Flashback, 1 month before the bombs Location: 1 mile over zebrican borders, unknown village, frontlines June 28th 16:00 Gun fire. Screams of the wounded and dying. the constant fire of artillery. that was all that could be heard on this part of the battle field. The soldiers of a small platoon of the equestrian army where held up in a hastily dug trench under constant fire from the zebra held village 200 metres north of them, the wounded where pilling up, ammo was running low and so where medical supplies. The captain was desperately trying to keep the morale up and had constantly kept requesting support. He was helping the medic attend to one of the wounded when he heard the sound of wings flapping from behind him. He turned his head away from the injured soldier and say a Pegasus clad in armour he could see on the flank of the Pegasus’s was a recognisable symbol A could with a multi-coloured lightning bolt. “General rainbow dash, is that really you” he said in disbelief before saluting “At ease and Yes it is me captain, what’s the situation here” she asked him "Where under fire from the zebra village to the north, we can’t advance, the wounded are piling up and were running low and ammo and supplies fast” “Understood have you tried calling reinforcement’s” “I’ve been trying but they keep denying me any support” Rainbow was about to speak but a familiar whistling sound filled the air and was getting louder “INCOMING ARTILLERY EVERYPONY GET DOWN!” shouted the captain. Seconds later the battlefield was filled with explosions and dirt and debris flying everywhere getting ever closer to there the trench. The captain picked up the radio and tried to get hold of command again THIS IS CAPTAIN WING FLARE, WE ARE GETTING PEPPERED OUT HERE, AND WE NEED IMMEDIATE ASSITANCE NOW!” No answer “FUCKING DAMMIT” he shouted then turned back to rainbow that was just standing in the trench not bothered about the artillery barrage falling down around the platoon. Rainbow dash new they would all be dead soon there was only one other option to get out of this mess. “Captain, give me the radio” she said sternly “Yes general, but they won’t listen to anyone right now” he replied “THEY WILL LISTEN TO ME” she shouted over the booming of the artillery as she brought the radio up to her muzzle “THIS IS GENERAL RAINBOW DASH, PRIORITY STAUTUS 1, CODE 61793, REQUESTING SPECIALIST MATRIX I REPEAT REQUSTING SPECIALIST MATRIX NOW!” ………………………… “We copy your request general, specialist matrix is inbound to your position E.T.A seven minutes” came the voice on the other end of the radio. “Roger that command, seven minutes, out!” she put down the radio and pulled her battle saddle grip to her face and walked up the captain. “General, who or what is specialist matrix?” asked the captain in disbelief that she had just managed to actually get through to command. “he’s our only hope of getting out of this mess but I don’t doubt for a second that ‘he’ will fail us we just have to hold out for at least another five minutes plus you'll know him when you see him” “But general we'll be overrun in five minutes” he said “Hold yourself together, he’ll be here in time” she said before looking over the trench wall “I sure hope he does” Five minutes away Matrix POV music link I’m sitting in the back of a vertibuck with loud rock-ish music playing through the loud speaker, the ‘zebra hunter’ the vertibuck was called. It was a modified version so that it could go faster and was slightly more armoured. Its pilots were ‘gold star, a unicorn mare and ‘honour bolt’ a Pegasus stallion. A married couple they were and completely inseparable, they were pretty much my chauffeurs, ferrying me to and from bases and the frontlines. I sat in the back, wearing my elite armour, holding one of my lightning blades while using my combat knife to embed the initials of my foals into its side. “Hey matrix, just got on the horn, we dropping you in to assist a platoon that’s trapped a mile over the border, E.T.A five minutes” said star from the cockpit. “Got it, thanks star” I said through my helmet’s mic, I had finished scratching the initials on my blade so I put it back into its shoulder sheath and my combat knife into my hip sheath. I had just been picked up from a base not ten minutes ago to head back to ponyville. It had been a week since I last saw my family and friends. Rainbow was on army leave to sort things out with her ministry and to look after the kids, but knowing her she would have been quite busy so she may have gotten a foal sitter. But I was completely unaware of where she was right now. I got up and walked up towards the cockpit and leaned in through the door. “Hey you two, how’s it going?” “Mighty fine matrix just mighty fine” replied bolt “That’s good to know” but that’s when I noticed that star was looking slightly bigger than usual “Heh looks like someone’s got a bun in the oven” I said sarcastically to star who now began to blush a little as well as bolt “So when did you do the dead, you might as well confess” “Six months ago” said bolt “That long ago huh eh bolt, am I expecting a filly or colt” I asked “Twin filly’s” said star “but we haven’t come up with names yet” “That’s great news and don’t worry you’ve still got plenty of time and if you can’t think of anything I’ll be willing to help out” I said “Oh thank you matrix, you’re such a dear” replied star “I know I am” I said jokingly getting them both to chuckle a little “Ok matrix were about two minutes out” said bolt “Alright mate I’ll get geared up” I answered then walked back into the crew compartment and began to load up. I picked up and loaded bozar then checked my pip-buck to see the status of my ammo, 1200 rounds, plenty for me. I slung it over my back and picked up my other weapons, my two dual weld pistols dubbed ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ they were both Beretta 9mm’s, when I came here I only had one but when I met my friend silver he took my gun and enchanted it, he made an exact copy of the gun so I had two of them, he also made them so that they had unlimited ammo and never broke, but that didn’t stop them from overheating. I spun them on my fingers and slotted them into the holster’s on my hips, I picked up a few grenade’s and checked my knife’s again, dual lighting blades in my shoulder sheaths with combat knife on my hip, check. I then turned and moved back to the cockpit. “We there yet” I asked them “Were about a minute out……wait I can see the drop zone now right there” said bolt pointing a hoof at the terrain in front of us “Holy shit” I said out loud. From what I could see there was a trench almost surrounded by black and white figures that were pouring out from a nearby village with artillery fire all over the place and bullets flying everywhere. “Guys this zone is too hot for you to land, just fly over the field, I’m going to drop in” “Erm I don’t remember packing any parachutes matrix” said bolt “You forget who you’re talking to bolt, I don’t need a parachute plus I don’t want to risk you guys getting shot down especially when you’ve got kids on the way, I don’t want to you guys to die because of me and you can consider it an order” “Ok buddy, your call, I’m opening the side door now” “Thanks guys I’ll see you on the other side” I said before exiting the cockpit and walking over to the other side of the compartment to the door, I quickly pulled out my iPod, and selected a track to listen to. I pulled of my helmet, put in my earphones and put my helmet back on. Now I just had to wait until bolt gave to word to jump. "10 seconds………..5….4....3….2….1….Drop! Drop! Drop!” Said bolt as we passed overhead of the trench. I then ran straight through the door and began to go into free-fall. Let me tell you when you’re falling from 300 metres and you’re picking up speed rapidly heading into warzone, most would freak out, but not me, I was trained for this and thanks to the augmentations I went through I was damn near hard to kill. Bullets and artillery shells missing me by inches but I didn’t even flinch, about 100 metres from making contact from the ground. I felt the familiar tingling feeling in my hands. My magic was kicking in and just at the right time too. Time reduced to a crawl as I approached the ground just in time for me correct myself before I hit the ground. When I hit the ground I sent out a small shockwave of dirt and debris knocking over a few zebra soldiers. I stood up from the position I had hit the ground in and pulled out my gun as time went back to normal. I aimed without S.A.T.S dropping a few zebra’s instantly then I ran backwards towards the trench where the platoon was holding up. Character switch Rainbow’s POV Five minutes, five measly fucking minutes, that’s how long we need to wait here for him to get here, please celestia helps us, help us survive just five more minutes. I peered over the edge of the trench and was met with three charging zebra’s so I pulled up my mouth grip and fired a quick round burst at them dropping all three of them. This continued for the next couple of minutes until I the captain spoke up “General, back up is inbound E.T.A 1 minute!” he said avoiding a volley of bullets fly overhead narrowly missing him by inches “I see the vertibuck, inbound from the east” shouted another soldier along the trench, I turned my head and saw the flying metal machine heading towards our position very quickly, then it passed overhead but didn’t stop to turn around but kept on going. That’s when I saw the a tall figure jump of the side of the vertibuck and went into free-fall and many seconds later he impacted the ground creating a shockwave of dirt around him knocking over some zebra soldier’s. He then stood up and pulled the gun strapped to his back and downed a few zebras he then turned around and ran towards us and jumped into the trench landing next to me, completely missing me , slamming his back against the dirt wall, he took off his helmet, revealing his dark brown hair and light blue eyes. Just further down the trench some soldiers had noticed him drop in so unexpectedly and where saying things like ‘oh my goddesses its him’ or ‘it the human were saved’ so seemed to notice them but not me so I think it’s time I surprised him. “You sure do know how to make and entrance, don’t you mat” I said into his ear “Rainbow?” he said then quickly turned his head towards me in complete shock “In the flesh” “Dashie, what are you doing here? I thought you were on leave” I took of my helmet then brought him into a kiss which he returned. “I was called last minute to help support these guys that’s when I requested you here” "Ah, right" he said before I pulled him into anther kiss “Wait dashie who’s looking after the kids?” “I asked ditzy doo if she could and she said yes thankfully” " That’s good to know” he said before he looked over my shoulder to see the captain looking at us “Specialist matrix, sir” said the captain before saluting him. “At ease captain, what’s the situation?” “Low on ammo, many wounded, were almost surrounded and there’s a crap load of them with the possibility of a zebra general in the village north of us” “copy that, they won’t be a problem just give me any covering fire you can and I get it done, dashie, shock and drop manoeuvre” he said before putting his helmet back on and grabbing his rifle and vaulting over the trench wall. “Is he fucking crazy? He’ll torn up out there” said the captain “He’s not crazy……he my husband!” I said as I flew out the trench to catch up with ‘mat’ Character switch matrix POV As I jumped out the trench the next track started playing through my headphones. music link “Linkin park, just what I needed” I thought as I gripped Bozar in my hands that were still glowing as I was greeted by two zebra’s but they dropped the floor instantly as I put two rounds in their heads, I heard the flapping of wings behind me and a pair of hooves wrapping under my arms and lifting me up into the air. “Ok dash, get me towards the entrance of the village then get back to cover” I shouted over the gun fire. “No, I’ve got your back on this one” “Well they don’t call you the element of loyalty for nothing” “Ok dash but stay behind me ok!” “Alright, ok were there” “Ok let go…….Now! I said as she flung me into the air and again began to free-fall and when I impacted the ground in sent out another shockwave with my magic, stunning anything in its radius. I quickly regained my stance and ran forward spraying lead at anything with black and white stripes, then the mag went dry so I just slung it and kicked one of the dead zebras rifle into the air, caught it and emptied it magazine before throwing it away and pulling out my lighting blades and just went mad with them slashing and electrocuting any zebra that crossed my path with dashie covering my back. We eventually made it to the middle of the village and where we couldn’t see any hostile’s at all so I sent rainbow upwards to check out the village from above. Wrong move I looked around and about five zebra armed with guns came out from the surrounding houses aiming at me, I had an idea so I slowly re-sheathed my knifes and went for the handle of my duals welds, “Time for a little gun kata” I thought then quickly pulled out my guns then started shooting as they were now a metre away from me (Kind of like this) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player\_detailpage&v=6PX4UYN\_a9I#t=90s They all dropped to the ground in seconds, full of holes, with in complete disbelieve I had just done that. “Holy shit that was awesome” said dash as she flew down beside me after just witnessing me pulling of that stunt I was about to thank her but was stopped when my gaze fell upon anther zebra who was walking slowly towards us, from what I could see he had some sort of high ranking attire and two samurai looking swords strapped to his sides and a general’s cap of his head…..wait …………oh shit its him. (Green writing means the characters are speaking in zebrican) “So it seems you’ve managed to defeat my fellow zebras” he spoke in zebrican “Please if they weren’t such shit shots they would have been a challenge” I replied “Ah so you speak our tongue, demon" he was right i knew how to speak there language, i wasnt sure how but i just could, there are some things i can do that even i cant explain oh god i'm becoming pinkie "I also see that you can shoot, but how good can you swing a blade” as he drew one of his swords and threw it at me which I caught by the handle “Dashie, get back to the trench and get the captain to bring up the platoon” I whispered to her who she nodded and slowly retreated backwards to our soldiers. The zebra was looking at her as she moved away. “Your fights not with her, it’s with me” I spoke in his language then charged at him, my magic make time slow to a crawl, he ran at me too then we clashed swords but with the amount force we had put into our attacks we both dropped them and we went for our pistols (And again kind of like this but Imagine the guy in the blue suit is the zebra fighting on his back legs hard to imagine yes I know but still, stop vid at 2:45 ish) video link this guy was one strong zebra but i managed to get the upper hand, When I pushed him of I pulled the trigger and the round slammed into his chest at close range sending him on his back. I turned around and saw that rainbow and the captain had arrived with what was left of the platoon, about ten other pony’s, then I heard the zebra general groan in pain and I shot a look back at him, if you could see my face behind my helmet my eyes were wide open in shock, he had pulled out what looked like a detonator of sorts. “Now…..you all die” he said in his language before pushing the button. Then a loud eruption sounded across the battlefield, that’s when we saw a barrage of missiles ascend into the air form behind the village and turned in mid-air……………heading right for us. “BASTARD LED US RIGHT INTO AT TRAP” my mind screamed stop current sing and play this video link “EVERYPONY GET BACK TO THEN TRENCH NOW, FUCKING MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!” I shouted as we turned tail and ran back towards the entrance of the village. I was running at full pelt, rainbow at my side the captain behind me somewhere and the rest of the platoon scattered running towards the safety of the trench. Time seemed to slow but I took at glance at my hands and noticed that they weren’t glowing at all but I just kept running. Then the first wave of rockets impacted the ground behind us knocking us over. I got to my feet but my foot caught on something, I looked and saw that rainbow was pinned under a chunk on debris and was gripping my leg. “DASHIE, NO!” I yelled before throwing the debris of her and picking her up in my arms and continued sprinting towards the trench. I reached it and jumped down into it and set her down gently before I helped the captain who was dragging an unconscious pony backwards in as well just before the second wave hit, I dived back down and covered dashie with my body using it and my armour as her shield as the barrage kept raining down on us. After five minutes of keeping our heads down the barrages ceased and everything went quiet except from the occasional firing of guns and artillery in the distance. I yelled for every pony to sound of and was met with a certain amount of replies, the captain had said we lost at least two during our retreat, we would get there body’s and tags later but for now we just attended the wounded. 30 minutes later I was now laying back against the trench wall with my eyes closed and rainbow resting on my lap, I was thinking about how I nearly lost her, but she only earned a broken wing so I was grateful for that, but until we could get her any healing potions bandages had to do. I had helped the medic heal the wounded to the best of our abilities with the supplies we had scavenged form the zebras. I had gone back into the now smouldering village and had gathered the bodies of any zebras I had found and buried them in the village centre marking their graves with their rifle with their helmets on top. Some of the pony questioned why I did that, some didn’t say anything rainbow and the captain didn’t say anything either. They understood why, I was just a thing I did to respect the dead. Now we were just waiting for reinforcement’s to help back us in case any zebras decided to come back. And it looked like our prayers had been answered as three vertibuck approached us and landed right next to us, the lead one was the ‘zebra hunter’ and I could see it pilots thought the cockpit windscreen. Then the side door opened up and out walked a familiar face followed by ten more ponies with rifles. “Silver? The fuck are you doing here?” “I’m your reinforcements and were here to get you and the wounded out” he said as I walked over to him with rainbow on my back eying up the ponies exiting the vertibuck’s. “Well it’s good to see you again old friend but a shame it had to be like this and such a short reunion” “ah well we can make up for lost time later but for now just get the wounded and yourself loaded and well take it from here” he said cockily I just shrugged him of and went into the ‘zebra hunter’ and put dash down of the bench then went to help get the rest of the wounded on board, we were now ready so I just stood at the door looking out at the now ruined, war torn landscape as we slowly lifted into the air, I glanced over at silver as he saluted me with a hoof which I returned with a two finger salute then shut the door and sat down against the bulkhead wall into a much needed sleep. stop music Well guys this chapter was an absolute nightmare to make took me two weeks on and off but I finally got there in the end hope you enjoyed and yeah i know some bits look odd like the giving guns to foals things and the hostage scene but my mind was troubled trying to get round that so they kind of stuck any spelling mistakes you find fell free to point them out and i'll change them now for some rest RM laterz songs used; never forget / halo 3 ost barra barra / black hawk down new divide / linkin park mad world / Gary Jules chapter 4Chapter 3 (Flashback continuation Matrix POV) Time; 23:00 pm Date; June 29th 36 hours after the fire fight over the border Location; unknown zebra industrial city, ten miles over zebra borders ‘Operation dagger charge’ Selected Squad; ‘the hell ponies’ Support; specialist matrix, leader of assault Squad status; assumed MIA/KIA for the mood “Well this op was a fucking bust” I shouted in my own head as I skulked through the alleyways of the zebra city with two ponies in tow, both of them friends back from ponyville, silver who you all know and frost storm who was a Pegasus, they were all that’s left of their squad of ten ‘the hell ponies’ as they were famously called, they were some of the most hardest soldiers of the equestrian army and they were called in when the going got tough and I should know…..cause I trained them. Right now we were in some fucking zebra city as part of the first assaults on the zebra’s homeland in the operation ‘dagger charge’. Rainbow had been taken back to pony Ville after the battle almost two days ago and silver and his squad had swept the area around the village which we now owned then he was picked up with his squad to be part of this operation. I was assigned to silver’s squad to lead the attack of nearly one thousand soldiers on the industrial city and let me tell you it was a fucking blood bath. This city reminded me of one of those poorer cities back on earth like Africa or south America with the main city centre and factory’s in the middle and the slum housing on the outer edges, it was now dark, raining and quiet except from the occasional gunfire in the distance, me and silver’s squad had been cut off from the main group in the main attack that were holding the lines on the southern end of the city whilst we had ended up on the northern side. Our squad had been ambushed as we had walked right into a slaughter, losing seven members in the space of five minutes……….five measly fucking minutes…………these zebras have now mercy what so ever, at least subtle rampage had managed to escape but he’s now on his own somewhere in this city, he may be a unicorn but he wouldn’t be able to get outa here easy, he would just get shot or have his magic paralyze………god I hope he’s ok. All three of us looked like shit at this point but we’ve been through worse, I moved up the corner of the building placing my back against the cold hard concrete, gripping Bozar in my hands with a silencer attachment, if only the same could be said for my pistols but who cares if things got close quarters, I always had my knifes and on my back and I had my anti material rifle I had picked up back at the base for the briefing of the op, silver had his twin assault rifles with silencer’s (no fucking surprise there!!) and his dual katanas and pistol, storm had dual smg’s in his battle saddle with silencers, combat knife and standard issue pistol. Even when silenced we were a force to be reckoned with…………but were not invincible I heard voice’s coming from down the street as well as seeing a number of red markers on my E.F.S so I ushered both of them against the wall, weapons at the ready, I peered round the wall and turned on my helmets night vision to see a group of zebra’s in a little makeshift scout outpost, they were all speaking zebrican but I couldn’t hear because I was too far to understand them properly, I scanned each hostile carefully, six zebras, two rifleman, one engineer, one flamethrower, one sniper and a radio operative. 'Well these guys look easy enoughooooohhshit me and my big mouth' I just love to keep jinxing myself as a zebra wearing a colonel’s uniform walks out of the makeshift tent on the right hand side of the street. I pulled my head back around from the corner and sank to the floor resting my rifle on my lap and taking my helmet of, revealing my dirt and blood covered face, I ran my hand through my now greasy hair ‘note to self-get a shower when possible’. “Matrix, what’s up?” whispered silver “Round the corner, 50 metres down the street, six hostiles plus one possible colonel” “What, let me see” he said so I shuffled over a bit so he get a look round the corner then he froze solid “Silver, Silver what’s wrong?” Asked storm “its…….its……” he was just stood there not moving so I pulled him back round from the edge of the building and brought him to face me “Silver what the fuck is wrong?” “It’s him…….that bastard………….colonel zakoto…….he’s the one that………….…..that killed my parents all those years ago……when I was just a foal back in…..back in Karalia” “WHAT, are you sure its him, how can you tell” “I don’t care, I just know it’s him…………and I’m gonna kill him!” “silver no” I stopped him before he gave us away “If you go out there you’ll get killed plus he’ll just call for back up or run so I suggest leave it” “But mat-“ “No. fucking. Buts silver, now is not the time for vengeance, so that will have to wait, you will get another chance but the way we are in now, now is just not the time” *sigh* “ok matrix……..so what now” “Hmmmm I have an idea” I put my helmet back on then leaned over and picked up a small piece of rubble and moved back up the edge of the corner and peered round again, some of the zebras had gone back into the tent leaving only the sniper and the one with the flamethrower. I lobbed the piece of rubble at the collapsed building on the right side of the street; both zebras looked towards to noise as all three of us silently sprinted across the street in the alleyway adjacent to the one we were just in. “Man that was close” I said as well all stopped for a second, I crouched down and brought up my pipbucks map of the city so we could plot a route back towards the main force. “hmm I seems we’ve gotta go down these set of streets and possibly through a small part of the slums to get back to our lines and hopefully that should be easy but we might have to make and overnight stop at some point too” “Roger that” said silver and storm in unison, we then moved down towards the other end of the alley and peered into the street, we looked to the right and saw nothing but an empty street but when we looked to the left we saw a crashed vertibuck, I prayed to celestia it wasn’t the zebra hunter as we cautiously moved down the sidewalk towards the crash site. As we got closer we could see the full extent of the damage done to the vertibuck, it was riddled with bullets holes, one engine was laying a few metres away buried in the ground and there was blood all over the ground We reached the downed bird and my prayers were answered as it wasn’t the zebra hunter, we then quickly scouted the surrounding area, nothing we couldn’t see so we proceeded to check the inside of the craft, the side door was open but it was pitch black inside, silver and frost stayed outside while in went in. When I saw the interior it was just a mess “Damn” I spoke “What you got specialist?” said frost from outside “A last stand……….” I said “Fucking zebras, they show absolute no fucking mercy” replied frost What indeed I was looking at was what seemed to be a last stand, there lay three bodies, two pony’s sitting back two back, one who was aiming down out the door and the other would have been aiming through a hole in the side of the fuselage, the other pony was lying against the cockpit bulkhead in a pool of his own blood, riddled with bullet holes and his gun in his hoofs, eyes wide open still in the same facial expression before he met his end, I moved over and closed his eyes slowly, I walked into the cockpit and to my surprise there was no body’s, This gave me three possible answers to this little mystery; One, they lived and managed to escape and link up with friendlies, two, they lived, escaped and are now somewhere in the city or are captured, three, they died on impact but some pony moved the body’s, but who would do that? While I tried to unravel the mystery the radio in the cockpit started playing static so I snapped out of my small trance and scanned through the channels, nothing, that was until I came across the emergency channel “to anypony out there listening to this on the emergency channels, please help us, this is corporal subtle rampage of the equestrian army, I am trapped on the sixth floor of an apartment building roughly twenty blocks north of a crashed vertibird with its two pilots, we are running low on ammo and medical supplies, one of the pilots is badly injured and I’m not sure if she’ll make it, so please if any pony hears this get here ASAP” ‘Well I’ll be, that crafty bastard managed to ‘not’ get his ass blown up, I’m impressed’ I turned of the radio and head out the cockpit to inform silver and frost of the news “Hey guys I solved the mystery behind the missing pilots and do I have something else to tell ya” “What is it?” asked silver “The pilots aren’t dead, there about twenty blocks up the road on the sixth floor of an apartment building but ones injured……badly” “And what is the news?” storm piped in “well its seems rampage is alive and is holding his sorry ass up with the pilots………….and where gonna get them out but first were gonna get as much ammo out of this here bird, rampage is running low and it looks like he may not survive for much longer if patrols keep coming” “Alrighty then let’s get to it” spoke silver About five minutes later we hade scavenged five boxes of ammo for a few weapons, two belts of grenades and five packs of explosives plus two medical cases, silver and frost carried the ammo boxes while I had the explosive and medical stuff, we set off down the street sticking to the alley ways and the shadows as much as possible to avoid detection, we were about two buildings away from the six story building rampage had described when a patrol of three zebras came into view. “Shit, get back!” I whispered them quickly as we backed up into the nearest alley “What’s up?” storm whispered “A Three zebra patrol, we either take em out now or were fucked!” I replied “Ok let’s do it” “Storm you take the one on the left, silver the right, I’ve got the middle, on 3…………..1…….2……3………..now!” We all burst round the corner, quickly locking onto our targets and dropping them with suppressed fire, once all three were dead I crouched over to the body’s and picked up one of their radio’s ‘Could come in handy later’ I thought After looting and hiding the body’s we finally made it to the apartment building, unaware we were being watched. we cautiously moved through the ground floor making our way up the stairs avoiding the elevator’s, I mean it’s obvious to avoid them isn’t it………right, we made it to the top floor and moved down the main hall in single file since it was quite narrow, we rounded a corner and was met with five dead zebras and a lot of blood “Damn rampage put up a real fight” “Frost, keep it quiet” I said sternly We kept walking down the hall until I spotted one door that was covered in…………..crystal? Oh yeah I forgot that rampage being that he is a unicorn, he has this rare power called crystallokinesis he calls it which gives him the ability to control gemstones and make them grow where he wants them to and how he wants them too. For instance he can coat his hooves in diamond, he must have used it to barricade the door but it looks like the zebras had been trying to get in as there were a few cracks in the turquoise crystal…….stuff We stacked up against either side of the door and I knocked on the wall “The sun rises in the east” came a voice from behind the door “The moon sets in the west” I replied answering the pass phrase “Mat, is that you?” came the voice “No it’s the fucking mailmare, of course it’s me dickhead, now are you gonna let us in or what?” “Yeah one second” replied rampage as the turquoise crystal barricade started to shrink then disappear quickly, then he started fumbling with the many locks on the door, “Fucks sake hurry up,” exclaimed storm “Hey frost, you know when I said shut the fuck up” “Yes” he answered in confusion “Well consider it a standing order” I spoke in my most badass voice just as rampage opened the door “Get your Asses in here” the Pegasus spoke before diving back in the room, silver went in first then storm then me and I shut the door for rampage to barricade it again “Man its good to see you guys” said rampage “You too man, I thought you had gone and got killed back there” I said in a relieved tone “Well you’re wrong because I’m still kicking and breathing” “Hmmm don’t go getting too cocky now, by the way didn’t you say on the broadcast you had the two pilots here?” I asked “Yeah she has an injured leg and is in the other room, you got any supplies?” “Yeah fuck loads” I said as me sliver and frost dumped the scavenged supplies in the living room which was a mess with ruined furniture all over the place and only a few windows weren’t smashed so the floor was slowly becoming one big puddle from the on pouring rain “Frost you’re the better medic out of all of us, you go help the pilot,” I said to him He mock saluted me then trotted off into the other room, I went and sat down on the only untouched sofa in the room where the earth pony pilot was sitting with a canteen in his hooves, he had a dark green coat and white mane and tail but I couldn’t see his cutie mark because of the flight suit he was wearing “Hey you alright there” I said as I put a hand on his shoulder “Yeah…………I’m fine” he said unaware of who I was…….until he looked up at me, letting out a small gasp finally realising who I am “Sorry sir, I didn’t know it was you specialist matrix, sir” he quickly sat up saluting” “no need for formalities here soldier, were all in the same shit for now just call me matrix or mat whatever suits you” “Ok then matrix how do you plan on getting back to our lines?” “Well if we spend the night here, we’ll go through the slums circling the outer edge of the city until we meet up with friendlies, that is if you have a radio, I heard a radio broadcast just before our squad got cut of that we were going to withdraw when the op went to shit” “Right, I’ll take your word for and I know my sister will as she thinks highly of you, she loved you back when you were Dj humanz, probably seeing you here will make her stop feeling crap about this situation” “Hehe I haven’t done that in a while……….Wait! The other pilot is you sister……………and she has…………..a crush on me?” he nodded in confirmation “Damn, well I’m sorry to disappoint her but I’m a married man, but I can try and cheer her up, what’s her name?” “Heh, you do that and I would be grateful, her name is red lilac, I’m hammer wood by the way” “Let me guess, wood carpenter?” “How’d you know?” he asked dumfounded that I knew what he used to do before joining the army “Name says it all” I simply said “Ah right well then I’ll leave you to help my sis” “Ok mate then back in a few” I said as stood up then walked over to the room where his sister was “Wait a sec!” hammer called back “Yeah?” I replied “Who did you say you were married too?” “I didn’t” “Well could you tell me” he asked “Rainbow dash, why?” “The ‘rainbow dash’ I refuse to believe that” “Oh really then how come in know the names of ‘our’ kids” I said back “Mostly everypony does but from what I heard only her husband has her foals name on…….his…….blades” he said trailing of from what he was saying as he looked at me I had drawn one of my lightning blades revealing my daughter ‘blue angel’s’ name on its side “Believe me now” “Yes sir” “Well I think that’s sorted now please excuse me” is said as I re-sheathed my blade then opened the door and I saw frost tending to her leg on the broken bed, she had a pinkish red coat and a light yellow mane and tail, and yet again I couldn’t the pony’s cutie mark because of her flight suit, she looked like she was almost out of it but still awake and she hadn’t recognized me yet, good, now I can surprise her “Hey storm, how’s she doing?” He just looked at me with a blank expression “Oh right, permission to speak, smart-ass” “She’s lost a bit of blood but she’s fine for now, she just need’s to keep of her hind leg is all” “Nice job, say could you give me a few minutes with her, I need to speak with her about something’s” “Erm sure, yes sir” he spoke before moving out of the room leaving me and lilac alone “Hey lilac, can you hear me?” I asked “Uuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh who are you” she asked out loud, lifting up her head lazily and opening one eye “Oh come on, how can you not recognise you own idol” I said taking of my helmet revealing my face to her, she opened her other eye and rubbed both of them with her forelegs, when she lifted her head up to me again her mouth dropped open as a smile spread across my face “Hey I heard that a certain somepony has a thing for me and my music” “Ohmygoshit’syouDjhumanzineverthoughtiwouldevergettoseeyouforreal” she said almost rivalling pinkie pie when she’s at her most hyper-ist, then she realises that I’m higher rank then quickly begins to apologize “Oh I’m sorry specialist, sir, it’s just that I’m a really big fan of yours, I had all your songs and went to almost all of your concerts when I was younger but I never thought I would see you up close and personnel” “Hey it’s alright and it’s been a while since I’ve had anypony talk about my previous job but what can you do when you’re at war, is your leg feeling okay? And please call me mat or matrix whatever you prefer” “Ok…………mat and I can’t feel anything,” she said “Good, that’ll be the med-ex kicking in I presume, also a little bird told me that ‘you’ have a crush on me” “W-what! Who told you that was it wood, if so I’m going murder him!” “No it wasn’t him at all, let’s just say I have a knack for spotting things like that, but I’m sorry to say I’m a married man I’m afraid” she put on a saddened face as I said that “But that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends and all, tell you what, once we get out of this shit I’ll buy you a drink sound alright?” I quickly said to get her hopes back up “WOULD IT EVER” she shouted with excitement “Ok, ok jeez keep it down, not exactly the friendliest neighbourhood right now” “Oh yeah right sorry” “It’s ok; just try not to get too excited ok” “Ok but could you please play me a song, its just that I haven’t heard you in a while, if that’s ok with you?” “Sure it is but I’m gonna have to keep it down a tad you know hostile territory and everything” I said as I pulled out my collapsible guitar, putting it together then finally tuning it “So, what do you want me to play?” “That one about the hero of war!” she instantly exclaimed “Ah rise against, haven’t played that one in a while but sure, anything for a fan” I said before I started strumming the guitar hero of war (Intro) He said, "Son, have you seen the world? Well, what would you say if I said that you could? Just carry this gun, you'll even get paid" I said, "That sounds pretty good" Black leather boots, spit shined so bright They cut off my hair but it looks alright We marched and we sang We all became friends as we learned how to fight A hero of war, yeah that's what I'll be And when I come home they'll be damn proud of me I'll carry this flag to the grave if I must 'Cause it's flag that I love and a flag that I trust I kicked in the door, I yelled my commands The children they cried but I got my man We took him away, a bag over his face From his family and his friends They took off his clothes, they pissed in his hands I told them to stop but then I joined in We beat him with guns and batons Not just once but again and again A hero of war, yeah that's what I'll be And when I come home they'll be damn proud of me I'll carry this flag to the grave if I must 'Cause it's flag that I love and a flag that I trust She walked through bullets and haze I asked her to stop, I begged her to stay But she pressed on So I lifted my gun and I fired away And the shells jumped through the smoke And into the sand that the blood now had soaked She collapsed with a flag in her hand A flag white as snow A hero of war is that what they see Just medals and scars, so damn proud of me And I brought home that flag, now it gathers dust But it's a flag that I love, it's the only flag I trust He said, "Son, have you seen the world? Well, what would you say if I said that you could?" I strummed the final chord and I was given a small applause from lilac as she clapped her hooves together “Thank you so much, I feel so much better now” “That’s good to hear,” I said calmly “Yo matrix, get your ass in here” said silver from the living room “Coming, back in a moment lilac, get some rest for now” I said quickly folding away my guitar before picking up my helmet and leaving the room shutting the door behind me “What you got silver” in asked him who was floating a pair of binoculars to his face, looking out the window “Movement, five blocks down, approximately ten zebras, probably just on patrol but they did look our way a few times” “Let me look” I said sternly, he floated over the binoculars and I grasped hold of them and surveyed the street below, silver was right, there were about ten of them, all surveying the buildings around them, I turned my attention away from the patrol and towards the rooftops after feeling a little paranoid, I scanned the building two blocks away from us, nothing there………..'wait what was that glint just then……….ohhhhh shit!' “SNIPER, GET DOWN NOW!” I shouted and ducked at the same time as the snipers shot narrowly missed my head by inches, we all dived behind any available cover as I put my helmet back on and picked my rifle of the floor and aiming through the window at the zebra sniper, I fired of a couple of silent shots but they missed being how far away I was but then what happened next made my eyes go wide, one minute he was there, the next he just turned invisible ‘Shit, this guy has a fucking stealth suit…oohhhh were fucked now!’ “Matrix there’s chatter on their radio!” shouted silver “Gimme that thing!” I said as I snatched the zebras radio from him and pulled it to my head “This is sniper out post 10; I need an artillery strike on the building, two blocks north of my position copy over” “………………” “We read you outpost ten, artillery is inbound” ‘Ok scratch that, NOW were fucked!’ “That sniper’s got a fucking stealth suit and he just called in an artillery strike, everypony get out of the fucking building NOW!” I shouted as I quickly got to my feet and barged down the bedroom door and lifted lilac onto my shoulders in fireman carry and back into the main room where rampage again had unblocked the door and headed for the stair’s but just as we started heading down them the whole building shook as an artillery shell hit the side of the building. We all fell to the floor from the force of the shaking, then the worst thing just had to happen, the section of stairs in front of me collapsed and fell bringing with the next to floors down as well. “FUCK THIS, GET TO THE ROOF” I shouted as well all turned tail up the stairs onto the roof with me still carrying lilac, we burst through the door and looked for a way to get of this building, nothing. 'Well…shit' Then another volley of artillery shells hit the building lower down, ruining the supports, the building started to sway a little a more artillery pounded the building, I looked over the edge of the roof railing and saw another building at least four stories high ‘I must be fucking crazy for thinking this’ The building started to sway more in the smaller buildings direction i moved back into the middle of the roof ready to sprint but not before I tell everypony my suicidal plan “Alright on my go, everypony run and jump behind me of the building!” “SIR, ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY!” shouts hammer “Maybe, maybe not” I said as the building then started to fall towards the lower building “GO, GO, GO!” I shouted as I ran forward at full speed with everypony else doing the same, the building made contact with the other as well all jumped through the air and landed roughly on the smaller buildings rooftop me silver hammer and lilac were dazed slightly but frost was ok,cause he being a Pegasus so he could glide down without difficulty, fucking figures. We regained ourselves with me picking up lilac were I had dropped her during the jump, we then burst through the door that lead downwards, rapidly running down the emergency stairs past the floors and breaking down the door into the alleyway and sprinting of in the direction of the slums before both buildings collapsed under each other. Present time, morning 05:00 am I slowly woke……..wait when did I fall asleep……..ah well it doesn’t matter but god that was a bad dream………..wait, no……..not a dream............a memory, a bad memory, god I hope this isn’t going to happen a lot, not like what happened all those year ago, I slowly opened my eyes to find I’m lying on my side facing silver, it’s still dark since it’s the early morning, I blink slowly a couple of times but then my gaze falls upon something behind silver, a dark figure was approaching silver, that’s when he started to wake as well. he yawned quietly then his eyes fell on me, he saw me staring at something behind him then he saw something that must be behind me, he looked back to me, I nodded at him slowly as did he, he sprung up, startling whoever was behind him while I quickly sat up and threw my arms back and grabbed the figure behind me, flinging them over my shoulders and onto the floor in front of me. I pulled out my combat knife and held it between the hooded figures eyes, whoever this was they smelt life death, I looked to my left and saw that silver was pinning another hooded pony to the floor with his gun in there face, our commotion woke the children and the three other foals, all were wondering what was going on, my attention then went back to the hooded pony I had pinned to the floor “Who the fuck are you?” I spat in his face then ripped the hood away revealing his face, that’s when I recoiled in shock at what the fuck I was looking at “What? Never seen a ghoul before?” hey guys another lengthy chapter for you hope its ok, so now we have left mat's mind for now and back into the waste's and with a rude awakening also introducing griffin starring as his oc subtle rampage cyclone flash with his oc frost storm and as you know silverstien222 as silver (songs belong to there original artist's not me) finally i want to give a shout out to veteranO'awesome check out his storys there pretty good so i suggest have a look or not but it's your choice RM laterz chapter 6Chapter 6 Matrix’s eyes shot wide open as he rapidly sat up pulling out his combat knife pointing it at nothing, after he finally manages to control his breathing down, he slaps himself with his hand across the head to bring him back to the present moment and put away his knife, thankfully he hadn’t woken his children or any-pony else by his sudden outburst. “It’s just a dream, just a stupid b****y dream” he mumbled as he held a hand over his heart then shifted it towards his left shoulder where he felt the all too familiar burning pain. Back on earth many years ago his old flight squadron was on a mission in Iraq to hinder enemy supply lines, but they went under incorrect information and were flying into a dogfight where they were outnumbered three to one. His squad was wiped out and his jet took a hit, so he drove his jet into the supply depot and ejected saving his life, but it wasn’t all a success, he ended up getting captured and tortured, a week later they dumped him in a near bye town with a broken collar bone a few broken ribs and cuts and bruises, all caused be a sledge hammer wielding maniac. when he was picked up by friendly forces patrolling around they brought him back to base and healed him up and that left him with a large bulge on his left shoulder where it healed, ever since then he would occasionally get a burning feeling where the bone had been broke, even though when he went through the alterations Luna and twilight did to him, they managed to fix the bone and make it normal again but the burning pain still remained even after all these years. “I need a shower” he spoke simply to himself so he stood up carefully to avoid waking everypony else up and went into the bathroom, he tested the water in the shower and luckily the water wasn’t radiated but he had to be mindful as the supply wasn’t infinite, but at least it could be purified with the miniature water crystal. After stripping of his armour and clothing, he stepped into the hot water for a good five minutes before emerging from the shower and drying himself off with a towel, it had been a while since he had a proper wash when supplies were being rationed on the front lines, after making sure he was thoroughly dry enough he put the towel around his waist he took a moment to look himself over in the mirror on the wall. Being in his mid-thirties-forties or in this case mid two hundred and thirties-forties, he was in very good shape for his age and even more so from the augmentations he endured, on his torso he donned a six pack with the abs to go with, his arm and leg muscles could be considered large and powerful, buff even by body builder standards, all this thanks to physical training, on his face donned a fair amount of faded scars from explosions and shrapnel and his darkish brown hair now clean was getting slightly long, some just reaching his light blue eyes, but the thing he was more impressed about, was his shoulder which was now normal again, all this made him physically stronger than he normally was and when his magic came in to use it almost doubled that including his strength, endurance and stamina. When he finished examining himself he began putting his armour back on starting with the trousers then boots and the under shirt, next was the chest piece and other amour pieces and after that he put on the duster and then finally the shoulder pieces along with the bandolier pouches, combat knife and canteen across his chest. Satisfied with himself he walked out the bathroom and sat back down on his mattress and looked at the rest of the group still sleeping, quickly glancing at his pipbuck told him it was 09:20 am, he would let them sleep another hour but there was no point getting some more shut eye himself, he wouldn’t be able to after waking up from the dream he had earlier, so he just sat on his bed with his back to wall, iPod earphones in his ears listening to one of his playlists to calm his nerves. Twenty minutes and many songs later matrix found himself in a rather bored mood, he contemplated waking them up but not wanting to, they just looked so peaceful sleeping there, he let out a sigh and stood up from his bed again taking of his helmet leaving it on the bed, he grabbed his rifle from the floor and took out the binoculars from silvers pack then unlocked the blast door up the stairs into the living before shutting the door behind him. After quickly checking the first floor was still clear he then proceeded up the staircase to the next floor and into his room, he looked out the window into the street to see what he could see, nada, not a damn thing was moving outside, so he opened the window and carefully climbed out onto the thatched roof where he could see the most of the town, he pulled the binoculars from his neck to his eyes and scanned around the town for a bit. Silence, that was all there was, just silence, besides the quiet whistling of the small breeze, matrix had been sitting on the roof for a good half hour looking around the town for any signs of life at all, but there just wasn’t anything, on one occasion though he did spot the same stable pony walking around on the other side of town, but other than that there was just silence “It’s quiet, just too f****** quiet” he said to himself as he lowered the binoculars from his face, he continued to sit there gazing at the barren wastes all around him, he contemplated going back inside but then he decided to mess around with his pipbuck some more, he came across the radio setting and just as he did so a notification saying he discovered a new station came up on his HUD, he selected it and turned it on “hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyaaaaa what’s, up waste landers, it is I, Dj pon3, your favourite neighbourhood disk jockey, what’s a disk hell if I know but I’ve got some news, but first the weather report, normal temperature, high chance of death and dismemberment and cloudy as usual or in other words just plain s**t” “but enough of that, I have an juicy story to tell that surprisingly only a few know about, now I’m sure some of you have heard of the tale of the human and how it’s all but a myth, but I have information and conformation that he is in fact, real” “Eeyup, that right kiddies ‘he’ Is real and has recently awoken from a long sleep back from when the great war ended, my source just happens comes from the pony that just have happened to have met him when he saved her from a gang of raiders, and I’ve also learnt that his name is specialist matrix or matrix so good one on you there for helping her out, and this is to all you ponies out there, if you see a figure walking around in pre-war armour standing on two legs that’s looks like one of them diamond dogs but a lot shorter, that’s him, from what my note here says, please show him some respect for he has experienced more hell than any of us, that’s is all, this is Dj pon3, and now some music” “I don’t want to set Equestria on fire……………..” matrix turned off his radio when the song had started to play “Dayum, a few days out of cryo and I’m already on the radio and……..wait did she just say she was pon3, that’s…………impossible, it can’t be vinyl, unless she’s a ghoul, no it can’t be” his moment was interrupted when something unexpectedly just had to happen, he heard a low rumbling coming from the road below him so he carefully slide down the roof to the edge and looked down at the road. The ground was lightly shaking and the rumbling sound was still present but then it began getting louder and louder as did the patch of shaking ground below him, just then something burst from underneath the soil, matrix brought a hand to his face to stop the small spray of dirt and dust, went it finally calmed down he looked back down onto the road at what he saw was bl***y terrifying, a creature that in a way looked like a diamond but a good ten times bigger that also fit the ghouls description of the death-claw he explained to them yesterday was standing just in front of the fairly large hole it had emerged from. “Holy Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, is that a f*****g death-claw, I thought that ghoul said they don’t live around here, crock of s**t that was” matrix whispered to himself as he looked down upon the creature, but luck wasn’t on his side for the time being as the two hundred year old section of roof below him started to crack under his weight “Aw f**k me” was all could say as the section collapsed, sending him falling into the street but his reflexes kidded in and he landed on his feet, as the dust settled around him he quickly glanced up and saw that his rifle hanging from a piece of wood jutting out from the roof, that left him with only his three knifes, not good, then he realised the current situation he was in, he slowly turned his head only to look into the face that looked like had taken a chainsaw to it. “You are one………. ‘ugly’ mother f***er” he stated simply “RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW” the death claw roared into his face some spit also flying at him, Matrix brought a hand to his face a wiped away the spit “That wasn’t so bad” was all he could state before he was slammed into the ground by the hulking creature, pinning him. “Sheesh you could have a least bought me dinner first, but I’m married so I’m gonna have to do this” He pulled his legs up and with all his strength and might, he kicked the damn thing in the gut, sending it flying of him and landing a few metres away in the street, matrix did a kung-Fu style jump to his feet and drew his shoulder lightning blades, blades facing outward, gripping the handles tightly making the magically enchanted blades crackle with electricity, by now the beast was on its feet and was in its own fighting stance staring at him and brandishing its claws at him. “Let’s dance” said matrix as he and the death claw slowly started circling each other. They slowly circled each other twice not once taking there eyes of one another, and then they stopped but continued their 1000 yard stare, matrix glanced down quickly at his hands, the grey glowing aura was there, this fight was his now that he had his advantage, he sprinted forward as time slowed to a crawl, when he got to about a meter he slide into a slide through its legs and dragged his charged blades down across its abdomen as it failed at trying to slash him. Still moving in slow motion he jumped up and grabbed its tail, swung round and carefully ran up its back “YaaaaaaaaaaaaaRRRRRRRRGHHHHH” he screamed as he jumped and landed on its neck, sinking his blades into its upper back electrocuting it where it then tried to throw him of, but instead drove straight into the building on the other side of the street almost brining the whole thing down on both of them. as the dust settled matrix pushed the rubble of him and sprang to his feet and walked over to the creature who was trapped under a huge support beam, he went up to its head and pulled out his combat knife and with his foot moved its head over for easier aim then plunged the knife down, twisting and finally killing it, he pulled out the knife wiped the blood of it then climbed on top of its carcass to reclaim his other two blades, after doing so he walked out the building slightly limping but his magic numbed the pain so he carried on back into the house not before taking a glance other his shoulder at scene behind him “Damn…………..should have recorded that” he said out loud before proceeding back inside rushing upstairs quickly to retrieve his rifle and goggles from the roof then back down to the basement. 30 minutes later matrix noticed that the others were starting to wake from there slumber, he wasn’t a harsh person except when he went into commando/drill sergeant mode so he let them wake up at their own pace, but his mind had other plans, he looked amongst the shelves in the basement, on them where your ordinary DIY and garden tools but his eyes set on one that he would need. An air horn. ‘been a long time since I became a troll, might as well have some fun’ he thought to himself as he slowly rose from his bed to grab the tool for his friends wakeup call as he would call it, once he obtained said item he crept over to silver as silently as he could, like the f****** ninja he is. When he was right up in his face he held the horn right next to his ear and waited for him to open his eyes slightly and when he did he pressed the button BlAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! “HOLY F*** THE HELL IS GOING HERE!!!” shouted silver as he jumped of his bed and into the air then again came back down onto the floor opposite side of his bed “Rise and shine f****t, get your fat ass of the floor and on yours hooves” matrix said plainly as her tried to stop himself from bowling over laughing but it was too late “Matrix you’re a d*** you know that” silver said as he rubbed his temples with his hooves to help stop the ringing in his ears “Aw I know you love me really” matrix replied sarcastically “Tw*t” “Colt cuddler” “Ok now that was just too far” says silver pretending to look hurt “Don’t sweat it, come on lets wake the others, I’m surprised that there still asleep at all besides from my children, they are heavy sleepers” “Just like their parents” “Huh, yeah” “…………………” “…………………” “Matrix………..you ok there dude” “Yeah, yeah…………….yeah…….im fine” “Ok then, I’ll go wake the trio you can get your kids” said silver as he trots to the other side of the room. ‘I swear I worry about that human sometimes’ he thought to himself as he went to go wake up the trio, matrix silently walked over to his bed where his foals lay, he sat sideways on the bed and stroked there manes “Come on kid’s time to wake up now” they didn’t stir “Kids come on now you need to wake up” “But dad I didn’t do my homework” mumbled lighting “You don’t want to get a detention, do you?” “NOPE” they both shouted as they bolted upright wide awake, innocent adorable cute smiles adorned their faces, it was hard for him not to hug them but he did so anyways “Well that was easy, silver, the trio awake yet?” “Eeyup” “You sure” “Eeeyer actually nope” “F****** hells bells, silver how hard can I be to wake up some kids honestly, sorry kids” said matrix apologetically to his children for swearing. “Well excuuuuuuuse me, why don’t you try and wake up three heavy sleeping kids” “Easy, when we get to that town, eventually, you’re buying me a drink” “Yeah right that’ll never happen” but silver was dead wrong, matrix simply walked over to his bed, picked up the air horn twirling it in his hand and walked over to the sleeping trio “Watch, and learn” BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR” “WHAT THE BUCK” shouted cables as he jumped into the air whilst his brother and lil twist simply shot upright. “And that my young padawan is how you do it” said matrix sarcastically “Dude stop f****** quoting star wars” “Tough s***” “Whatever, right now that everypony is awake, lets crack open this b****” said storm eagerly as he walked up the armoury door of the basement, mat walked over the left side of the door and flipped open a concealed panel and after typing in the password a small alarm began to sound of and the door hissed as it unlocked and slid open sideways. “ooooooooooooh baby, we are in gun heaven!!!” spoke silver giddily as he stepped into the room looking around as the shelves and boxes stacked full of ammunition and weapons some secret and only being lightly tested. But the first thing that matrix did was walk over the dish thing in the middle on the room and flip some switches and then the dish came to life “Ah sir matrix sir, you have returned from your cryo sleep, I trust it went well since it has been approximately 200 years and 65 days since you last logged in” “Yes thank you for reminding me Jarvis” he replied sarcastically “Must you call me that ridiculous name from that iron mare show?” asked the computer “Central intelligence unit change mane to Jarvis effective immediately” he ordered “New name accepted, CIU now designated Jarvis” “Matt, really” berated silver “Yes really now shut up and grab some gear, I’ll get you your things in just a sec, Jarvis give a rundown on supplies” After five minutes ‘Jarvis’ had labelled everything that was in the vault matrix walked over to one of the shelves and opened one of the containers and pulled out something very similar “Oh no she didn’t” “What is it” asked silver from round the corner “Applejack made me a fucking dessert eagle mother f****** that’s what” and he pulled out the magazine and examined the bullets “Holy crap she even made custom colour schemed bullets of the mane six as well!!!” “You’re kidding right; you made that joke up about having that gun” In truth, applejack had seen the many modern day gun designs of earth on matrix’s laptop and saw the dessert eagle on the internet and how matrix raved on having one, so she had secretly constructed one from scratch, it looked like a the one from call of duty with a gold and black frame, she also made custom bullets that were painted the same colour schemes of the mane six “hohohooooo maaaaan, I have seriously got to use this thing so bad right now” but matrix had something else to do, he picked up the holster for the experimental Deagle and strapped it under his shoulder and fit as much ammo as he could into his bandolier pouches as well as the gun itself in the holster, he then spotted his old duffle/army rucksack that he could use, so he took it off the shelf and opened it up stuffing in all the groups food and medical supplies then rearranging his ammo stock on his person so he had and even amount on him them put the rest in the bag, he did the same thing with silver supplies Luckily for him when applejack made the Deagle, she altered it so it could fire its normal rounds as well as 9mm rounds and any other kind of pistol ammo that you just happen to have on you, unless it were revolver rounds, she was very thoughtful, mat then walked over to the wall on the other side of the room where a safe was built into it, he entered the combination and opened the door. Inside lays his two original m9 barrettes pistols, enchanted by silver so now they had unlimited ammo and had some cool looking decals on them in addition to his hip holsters, he also pulled out two wooden sheaths with handles on one end and turned back to face his friend. “yo silver, catch!” he shouted as he threw them across to him “My katanas!” he answered as silver caught them with his fore hoofs and hugged them like they were his kids! “Crazy a** fool” matrix mumbled as het fit his own M9’s to his hips and checked each gun to look for any metal fatigue or rust, thankfully there wasn’t any and now he was satisfied he could sit down and plot out his plans and routes with the help of ‘Jarvis’ “Hey Mr Matrix sir what is that pony looking thing?” asked little twist “What is what?” he replied as he turned around to see what she could be looking at, in the corner stood a metal silhouette of a pony with a small metal frame/crane thing holding it up “oh that, that is if I remember from that meeting with AJ, that is one of the prototype T-45d power armour suits for the steel rangers, they were pretty good back in the day but they were brought in too late to see much action, only about a year before everything went to hell, which reminds me hey silver did you ever get any power armour training because I didn’t give the team any?” “Erm no why’d you ask?” came his reply from his head shoved inside a big ammo crate “Just saying that we have a suit right here” “Your f****** joking” “I’m sure as hell not, well since it seems that you don’t require the skills for the thing, we’ll come back for it later, pretty sure there’s a manual for it round here somewhere, either that or Jarvis here can give you it, Jarvis, do you have a quick power armour training tutorial installed” “Why yes sir, I have to whole tutorial stored in my databanks ready for use” “Alright, silver you got all your gear” “Eeyup” “ok if you have any spare mags or stuff, pass em’ here and I put em’ in my bag” As silver gave him some additional gear matrix went back to the safe and pulled out four black silencers, two for his M9’s one for his sniper and the last for his rifle and stuffed them into one of his pouches, now they sure that they could take on the world mat closed up his bag slung it on his back then picked up his anti-material rifle and slung it over his shoulder and attached the strap to his bag then picked up his own rifle and cocked it loading a new round into the chamber. “Jarvis” activate security protocols, security cameras and turrets; no-pony gets in this here house or out unless it’s me or silver” “Affirmative sir” “Alright silver, kids, brothers and little twist, let’s take on the world” “YEAH” they all shouted in unison as they all headed for the stairs. Chapter 7 Return to a place like hell.Fallout Equestria: Project Human. By Alonelypegasus, formerly RainbowMissile97. Chapter 7. Date: unspecified, estimated to be sometime in the middle of the great war Location: Forward Operation's Base Celestial, Equestrian territory, 50 miles from the main lines Things were going smoothly in and around the F.O.B, normal as they could be any ways, masses of vehicles moved around continuously dropping off or picking up supplies and troops to and fro, ponies moving around in groups training or resting from a bout of battles. in the barracks section connected to the mess hall, a platoon of 15 ponies were heading to eat after a ten hours sleep, they had just finished basic training merely a week ago and some of them were raring to get into a fight, others slightly skittish, they had only just reached the base yesterday after a three day journey from the training facility deep within the confines of Equestria. there platoon leader, lieutenant White Sails, a unicorn in his late mid fifties and former leisurely sailor, he donned a dark grey coat, navy blue mane and tail with two pearl white stripes through both, he had dark blue eyes that reflected like the surface of an ocean, his cutie mark, an anchor with a white main sail behind it, he was in charge of the newly formed platoon, dubbed 'fetlock company'. it was a mixture of of unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies, all in either there late teens or late twenties and they all had a hoof in all specialities, sails looked ahead of them as he trailed behind the group along the corridor, he was an ex-royal guard that served of the ships, an ex-military, when he left he spent his time doing what his passion was, a life on the sea, but when the war sounded, he knew he had to come back. "there so young, adventurous, foolish, and scared" He spoke quietly to himself as he followed them down to the mess hall, inside was full of others ponies eating and conversing with each other around high school like tables, he levitated a tray into his grasp and fell in line with his troops and collected his meal and sat alone on an empty table whilst his platoon sat on a collection of tables listening to other ponies battlefield stories, he sat on his lonesome and slowly ate his salad, thinking about what the situations were like 'over there', he felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned his head to look it was, it was one of the bases colonels, he turned and snapped to attention but the colonel waved it off, he un-froze and sat down. "this seat taken sails?" "Hills? is that you? I haven't heard from you in over twelve years!" "its been the same with me old friend, so I'll ask again, is this seat taken?" "no, it isn't.....sir" "good cause I need a word with you" he replied as he sat down next to him and took of his beret. "About what....sir" "oh please, drop that 'sir' act for now, it makes me feel older than fifty!" "but you are fifty? heheheh its been to long rolling hills" "I know, but now I need you and your platoons help, so it might be wise if they heard this" "of coarse....sir, FETLOCK COMPANY, ATTEEEEN HUT!" they all rose out there seats and lined up in front of there tables with a hoof in salute. "this here is colonel Rolling Hills, he has some information that he wishes to share with myself and your's as well, colonel as you were saying" "thank you lieutenant, first of all, welcome, fetlock company to Forward Operations Base Celestial, I trust you all had a decent training and trip over here, now onto business, I'm sure that some or most of you have heard of bleak hills. There eyes looked from one to another, they had heard of it, bleak hills wasn't just a mountain range full of passes and ambushes, at the end of the ridge itself lay a southerly stretch of over a twenty mile line of hills, flat grass land's and knolls. those parts where called the 'southern deaths knolls' as they had come to be known, trenches, artillery, basically no-ponies land is what the areas around there had become since the start of the war, death counts couldn't be properly collected, they were to high, for both sides. "I take it you have, any-ways, for three days now, we have lost contact with a group of four platoons that were sent to reinforce a section of trench-line and small town originally held by three, they have come repetitively under artillery fire for weeks and only just three days ago, we lost contact, so we are sending you......to investigate, mission objectives, find out what happened and if possible get any survivors out, and then we can reinforce that line again" one of the platoon members raised a hoof. "do we get any support at all? sir" "well for one with you lot being a fresh blood squad, yes" "was it is colonel?" asked sails "well 'he' should be here any....second....now" *SLAM* Everyone turned there heads to the main doors, which had been slammed open, and in said doorway stood a tall two-legged figure, his duster/armour covered in scratches, mud and the blood of others which he trailed across the floor as he walked in, he wore no helmet so they could see his features perfectly, he had pales skin covered in mud, scratches, blood and sweat, his brown muddy blood drenched hair hung limply over one of his green eyes, the other had two faint scratches criss crossed over his eye, though he could see through it, still... He lurched his way over to a table and slumped down his rifle, a weapon very rarely seen or used by anypony else, he rested his head on the table and let out a series of long breaths and sigh's. just from the look of him he hadn't eaten, slept or washed in days, he let out shallow sigh as a voice called out to him. "hey hon, I'll get you a steak just the way you want it, I'll bring it to you're table in a sec" the mare, sweet roll, behind the counter,the two were friends ever since he saved her brother by taking a bullet in the leg for him, he grunted in acknowledgement and turned to the group still in formation as the colonel looked over them. "ATEN HUT" they all saluted, but matt waved them off "nice reception you got me here hills" "I know I work hard, sir these are some new fresh bloods, so mares and gentlesatllions, any guess as to who this here is?" "is that...'the specialist' sir?" a suggestion came from one of the raised hoofs "bingo was his name" the group let out there own gasps and whispers amongst themselves, they all suddenly became excited from just being in the same room with a Equestrian war and civil hero and former celebrity. "specialist? what in the hell happened to you?" asked hills "me? you really wanna know?, i've just come back from a fight that was a fucking. hell. hole, there was so much blood on the battlefield you were practically swimming in it, for. five. days. I haven't stopped fighting, I haven't slept, eaten, washed, taken a shit, my hands are numb from the continuous trigger pulling, I saw hundreds die, in the space of a manner of minutes, seconds even, and all that was just for some fucking pussy reconnaissance mission........good honest ponies died out there.........none that I could bring back, high command honestly fucked this one up" he looked crest fallen down at the table and played with the wedding ring on his finger as the mare chef brought his meal out. "here you go Hun, you need this" the said and she gave him a friendly peck on the cheek and walked back behind the counter "you gonna be ok sir?" asked the colonel putting a hoof on his armoured shoulder, he merely nodded. this war was taking its toll on him, the constant fighting, the constant death, he's seen more blood flow than any man should see in a lifetime, he was slowly beginning to lose himself, this war was a like a combination of world war one, two, the Vietnam war, the modern war on earth, that and something based on futuristic war, a combined hell. right now the squad he would have normally been working with right now was somewhere else. "where's you're helmet specialist?" "in for repairs, some lucky fucker thought he could get a shot on me and although he skimmed me he got me right in the fucking lens and the back has been cracked after if continuous wear and tear, you got any normal combat helmet's I can borrow?" "sure sir, I'll still have your old one, you'll have it in an hour, you get some rest then report to the HQ for De-briefing then briefing of this next mission" "you got it, and everyone else can drop it now" they all dropped there stances and went back to the tables, matt just sat in silence whilst the ponies around him on other tables conversed between themselves with stories of each but mainly about him and his 'heroic' deeds. but where they really heroic deeds? he didn't feel like it, how many lives had he taken just in this pathetic, lie of a war, the reason for this whole conflict was all but lost to everyone now, he didn't regret following Celestia's or Luna's commands, he would take a fucking rocket for them, they had been to good to him for him to doubt them. not now or ever. /~~~4 hours later~~/~\ fours hours passed, mat being asleep for two of them, although he troubled himself with nightmares, the same ones he had been having for years now, being slightly sleep deprived he woke up anyway and undressed himself down to his boxes and left his armour on a bench and dumped his dirty underclothes in a wash basket, and grabbed a new set from his own personal locker, a simple olive green shirt and dark brown trousers, he picked a spare pair of boots and disposed of the old ones. looking like a new tool of war, he made way to the HQ, upon entering there were many ponies wandering around on radios and drawing out battle plans on tables, he walked up to the biggest one, a rectangular holo table with the colonel propped up against it as well as the lieutenant form earlier. "so what's the shit storm you got planned for me this time hills?" "it's a rescue mission you'll love it, there's some juicy mare soldiers out there that need rescuing form there virginity!" a few in the room let out a laugh, mat would've done too, that is, until he saw the name of the place on the hologram. "the death knolls......why are you sending me back there, you know I would rather die then return to that....that hell" out of all the places matrix would not go, the knolls was the number one of the large list, he'd happily take tartarus, or rainbow's heat period, any-day. "as I was saying, nine days ago, the original three platoons led by captain blackout requested support after taking a major beating in a fire fight, four more platoons were sent in to reinforce them and as far as we know they held the line, until three days ago we heard they had come under attack once again, we lost contact with them mid transmission and haven't heard from them since" "and why am I here?" "I need you to help this fresh platoon ease into the fighting, they may be newly trained but they are inexperienced and have yet to go through the site of constant death, so you're going with them, I also want you whilst you're there to get photographic and video evidence of whatever the situation over there is, we have no idea if the stripes have unleashed anything new and also get anyone out of there if they are still alive, for the next time we will re-enforce this section more thoroughly........you are the only one I got that can do this" "....................understood colonel" "ok, you got one hour to gear up and get ready before departure, same for you white sails, get you're platoon up and at em" "roger that sir" "and also for this mission, the specialist is in command of this rescue, so anything that goes, is his call" "affirmative" "right get going" sails saluted then cantered of and out to tell the orders to his men, hills walked up and placed a hoof on mat's arm, who was looking at the holo screen still. "I wont pretend to know the horrors you have seen there, but I have no other better suited for this mission, I know we have friends there but we need to do this, nopony left behind, no matter what kind". "nopony left behind, no matter what kind" mat repeated the motto as he stood and left. "stay with it" hills said to himself as he watched him leave. /~~~50 minutes later~~/~\ *click....click....click...clunk* mat finished loading the last few rounds into his tenth magazine before putting it his bandoleer pouch, he pocketed four grenades, four frags, he unsheathed and cleaned his shoulder blades and his combat knife to glistening perfection, his M9's , primed and ready for anything, and his own special rifle 'Hayley' also locked and loaded, he picked up and placed the combat helmet he used to wear before his current attire upon his head and checked its camera. after checking all his supplies and everything else. he made way to the landing pad's and waited for the platoon to get ready whilst the zebra hunter vertibuck and another one alongside were prepared for the mission. "hey matty! how you doing" asked bolt as he sat besides his wife, matt merely nodded back, they both took notice and didn't say anything, they had known him long enough to know his many moods, this one most of all, when he was at his most down, and the readiest to kill, sails cantered over form the other bird and approached the man. "sir, our second bird is fuelled and loaded, my team are green for go as well" he casually saluted him. the specialist nodded back and told him to get his platoon loaded into the birds. "star. bolt. lets go get our soldiers, nopony left behind, no matter what kind" "Hoah" they replied, mat watched as the platoon filled into the crafts and as the last pony stepped into his, he climbed in and and sat in the door way with his leg dangling out and his rifle on his lap, he sat there in silence, the others muttering to themselves. "is he normally this quiet" suggested one corporal "who knows? but now's one of those times, it pays to be the strong silent type answered sails. as the vertibuck left the ground, he spoke a phrase to himself under his breath that he once said the first time to the troops that went to where he was going all those years ago. "when we go into battle, I will be the first to set hoof on the field, and I will be the last to step off, and I will leave no one behind. Dead or alive, we will all come home together. So help me celestia, for nopony left behind, no matter what kind" and that's were the motto became known to everypony and official. all those years ago. "did you say something, sir?" asked a mare questionably as everypony else sat looking at him, he just smiled to himself with his eyes covered by his hair and helmet. "We who have seen war, will never stop seeing it. In the silence of the night, we will always hear the screams. So this is our story, for we were soldiers once, and young, I am a soldier, we are soldiers, what we do is something that most could never do and live with after, we experience things people and ponies should never see or do, yet we go through it because were trained to do it and because we choose to do it, each for our own reasons" they all looked over each other taking in this little piece of wisdom, unexpectedly to come from the man himself, matt gazed out at the scenery as it passed by, thinking back to that day all those years ago when he was the first to lead the battles, "nopony left behind............no matter what kind" /~\ 30 minutes later /~\ Youtube Video "alright soldiers listen up, I want a nice clean dispersal, look sharp" shouted sails from his seat and matt stood in the doorway as the bird came to the ground, seconds later, wheels touched the ground and matt was already in a crouched position as the others filed out and from the other veritibuck as well. "check you're weapons, only fire unless fired upon, you know the drill, lets go find our soldiers" the specialist shouted as the birds took to the sky and they all started sprinting upwards over the ridge towards the trenches, many smoke stacks were visible above the line, matt was the first to reach the top and instantly he regretted coming. red, a sea of red, of bodies, of limbs, of death, death lay everywhere, the smell was the most intolerable thing mat had smelled, so bad it made him retch. "dear celestia above" said one of the platoon troopers, they either had there snouts buried in there shirt collars or hooves, matt fought back the urge to vomit and surged forward. "company split in two, first half walk along and check our trench line, the rest of you are with me, sails you go with the first group" "sir!" matt, followed by his little team trekked across the bit of no-ponies land to the other trench, the zebra's trench, he cautiously walked along the edge, rifle aimed at anything that moved, he turned on the camera on his helmet and started filming and took a few snapshots then carried on filming. "lieutenant, anything?" he spoke into the radio, "negative sir, we've found the seven platoons all amongst here, what's left of them" "*sigh* roger that lieutenant, tag and bag any friendlies, there's to many bodies to bring home here, gonna have to wait till reinforcements come and do that" "copy" "shit" matt took a knee at the side of the trench and took of his helmet and in a small fit of rage smacked his rifle but in the ground. "fucking wasteland! fucking death! fucking war!" he shouted whilst throwing a rock into a nearby flooded crater, his squad just looked at him in worry and sympathy, they couldn't feel like he was a the time. he stood up and placed his helmet back on his head and gripped his rifle, holding it close. *rustle* *SNAP CLICK* "contact movement, twenty metres, trench ahead of us" matrix had heard something move in the nearby trench and almost instantly was he dialled on it, the ponies following his lead, moved behind him rifles trained where he aimed. matt dropped down into the dugout and kept moving along until he came to the source, under a pile of mangled zebra bodies, a black and white tail flickered, albeit a small one? "got a live one, pulling him out, cover me!" he grabbed the tail from under the pile and yanked out the struggling form, but just as squad had there guns trained and ready to shoot matrix shouted. "WAIT" he held his hand up then brought it back, they squad couldn't see what he appeared to be holding and couldn't make out his coherent mumbling but were shocked and pointed there guns at him when he turned around. "put you're fucking weapons down!" "but sir that's a fucking zebra!" yes, yes it a was a zebra, but it was just a foal. he was so scared he was so adamant to not jump into matt's arms into the first place, the foal was no older that of the cmc when they were younger, yet he was decked out in a smaller zebra military garb, why he was here? matt may have known why. "he's a fucking foal ass-hat, he shouldn't even be here! look at him, he's scared out of his mind and no doubt he's witnessed death already, something he should never have too! and you're not fucking helping by pointing that fucking gun at him so stand down or I'll shove that thing up you're ass and pull the trigger on full auto!" by now the other squad had walked over and had heard the beginnings of the conversation. "what's going on here sir?" asked sails "this dick face who is getting de-fucking promoted and quite possibly court marshalled if he doesn't put his gun down soon, was about to kill a innocent fucking child" "but he's a zebra!" the pony shouted again "does he look like a fucking soldier to you! DOES HE LOOK LIKE A KILLER!" "he could be a scout!" "bull. fucking horse shit. my ass! if you want to kill a innocent child that's been caught up in a war that shouldn't even exist! then you're just as worse as the fucking enemy" that shut him up, the poor foal was now clinging to the humans chest, although he couldn't necessarily speak Equestria/English, he understood partially what was going on, but he clung onto the his protector like a father would do a son whilst he shivered and cried all the while mumbling in his language. "you know what you are! you're just like the zebra's right now, wanting to kill everything without remorse, he's probably been taken from his family, forced to fight in a wrong war, witness death and be scarred for life, and you tell me we should 'shoot' him, hell if I thought like that I may as well shoot you in the dumb. fucking. hollow skull because how can a Muppet like you pass through the recruitment session!" with that mat turned away and walked off to a nearby fallen tree with the zebra foal wrapped in the folds of his duster as he clung to him, the platoon followed scowling at the one pony who realised his actions and lowered his ears then head to the ground in shame. the human ran his hand through the shivering colt's mane, wasn't necessarily proper fluent in zebrican, but he knew enough yo hold a conversation "it is okay little one, you are safe now" he spoke in his most calmest" "where is mama! where is papa!" the poor colt cried as his tears ran down the humans chest plate all the while hugging for all his worth, mat couldn't believe this whole situation, the stripes were crossing the line now. this poor child is that young that he can only speak the shortest of sentences. "im sorry young one, I do not know, but as of now, I will take care of you, you are safe with me" the colt let out another stream of tears, the rest of the platoon had caught up with him and were circling him and were trying their hardest's to keep their wits about them. 'there's nothing here, just bodies, nothing new to cause this, is was all a stalemate to the death...........I just want to go home' he felt a hoof touch his chin and thus his chain of thought was broken, he looked down and saw the little colt with the saddest face he ever did see, it almost made him want to cry. but he put on a kind smile and unclipped his helmet and plopped it onto the young striped colt's head, it was obviously to big for him but he adjusted it with his little hooves so he could see, the thing that got mat though was that he was now smiling. and of course he smiled along with the rest of them. he ruffled the fur on his back and put his arms around him like a barrier as the little soldier striped colt pressed into his chest. the mare soldiers where D'awing at the scene and the stallions had smiles, apart from the one from earlier who looked away from the group. it was a heart warming scene to break away from the torments of war, but it wouldn't last long. mats smile was suddenly lost, he felt a chill run along his spine, a sign of darkness and something bad about to rain upon them. with one hand he held the colt to his body and the other his rifle in hand. "something's coming! you radio, get the birds to start coming back now! shits about to go sour! everyone to the trenches move!" he started sprinting. the others in tow. they all jumped into the nearby trench that there fellow comrades had once held and hunkered down. they all cocked there rifles and readied themselves for whatever he predicted to come. "anyone got a mirror?" he asked, to no surprise a mare pulled out a small one from her front chest pocket, she tossed it to him as he set to young colt down to his side, he sat against the wall and held to mirror over the trench top. and what he saw in the reflection. three tanks. not of any zebrican design he'd seen before and certainly not of a ponies. but his suspicions were rested when he saw a zebra pop out of hatch. "shit" he spoke over the small distant noise of the engine coming closer. "what is it" "guys we got a tank, three of them, new ones it seems" "you got to be kidding me" "nope" 'well if this is one way of easing them into a fight I don't know what is' he looked over them, it seemed none of them had come along with any explosive, not good in this situation, that is until he saw a rocket launcher along the trench in the hooves of one of the deceased. "this is either one of the best plans i've had or the worst, yeah the worst it is" "sir? what are you planning?" "sails, i want to you take this colt and the rest of you to the LZ and get the hell out of here whilst i give you a distraction then come pick me up when you get out and after i've started running" "um yes sir" he then turned to the young colt "its ok little one, these ponies are going to take to away to safety, but don't worry I will come back to you" the colt protested as he shifted along the line to grab the weapon he needed along with some spare rockets "I want you to hold onto that hat" he smiled "sails, on my go.............3................2................1...................GO!" he jumped up the side and ran forward, took a knee, aimed and fired, the rocket flew true and hit it dead on and exploded in a fire ball of shrapnel and soil. "come get me you fucks!" the other tanks turned, there guns aimed dead centre on him, he had no time to react as they both fired upon him *KRA-BOOM!* Prologue Re-Write completeprologue Time… we never get enough of it. We have all sacrificed something to get that little bit more of it, but sometimes it can come with a consequence, and now it’s starting to take its toll for the ponies of stable 97 and the secret it has been holding for so many years now is almost ready to be revealed. Here’s the rundown of things. It has been two hundred years since the Great War between the ponies of Equestria and the zebras of Zebrica. The war was bitter, cruel and painful. And when it ended, all that was left was the hellhole that it is today. When the mega spells began to fall, hundreds of thousands of ponies were rushed into underground bunkers commonly known as ‘Stables’. Stable 97 was one of the lucky ones to have made it through the fires of hell and radiation, and this stable is one of those special stables. It holds a secret that has been lying dormant for two hundred years. No pony knows about it except the over mare and all the previous over mares. They know there is a secret in there but even they don’t fully understand what it is. Except just that it’s there, that something was a legend in the old world now it is a myth that is rarely spoke of. What lies deep in the bowels on Stable 97 lies a creature that no pony has seen in 200 years, that creature is……a human…... a creature that walked on two legs and had claw like appendages at the end of its forelegs. Most Ponies said that humans were just and old ponies’ tale and didn’t exist but they were proved wrong one day. It was said a human came to Equestria in a giant metal bird, and that he was about to die on his own world but the sun goddess gave him a second chance and he took it. He then made friends with the ponies of Equestria and lived among them as if he was one of them. Then when the war came to Equestria they made him into a machine of war, ready to die for others and the kingdom he called home. Then the bombs fell. No pony knew what happened to him… Did he die and become one with the goddesses or did he live? No pony knows except the Over mare of Stable 97. ____________________________________________________________ Stable 97, Lower Tunnels ____________________________________________________________ Three young ponies, two of them brothers and both unicorns, and one best friend that was an earth pony where walking down the lower levels of stable 97. Bored out of their minds, they had nothing to do so they had decided to go explore the lower levels out of curiosity and hopes of countering their ever growing boredom. Batter up was younger than his brother Circuitry, who was 12, whilst he was 11. He had a dark green coat and a black mane and tail with light blue eyes, his cutie mark was a baseball bat, the same one which he owned and always kept with him holstered at his side. He could swing it and hit the ball almost every time. His brother sported a yellow coat with a blue mane with green highlights and blue eyes the same as his brother. His cutie mark was a circuit board. He found his talent one day when the terminal for the sewage systems broke down, so he quickly repaired it with some spare cable that he found lying around. When the it came back to life, he restored the terminal back to functionality and that’s when he got his cutie mark, his special talent, both had pick buck’s on their forelegs from when they got their cutie marks and had gotten jobs. They both took care of each other in their own apartment since their mother died a few hours after giving birth to Batter Up; and their father raised them until a year ago when he died in an accident while at work. Little Twist followed close behind, looking around at the dull walls of the tunnels they were walking down. She had a burgundy coat with a light purple mane and tail. She had dark brown eyes but no cutie mark yet she was the same age as Batty (the Stable’s pet name for Batter Up) but she tried everything to find her talent. She lived with her parents but they never really cared for her very much so she lived the majority of the time with the brothers. They felt more like family to her than her own parents but that didn’t mean they didn’t drive her up the wall half the time they were together. As they were walking along the tunnel Twist gave out a load groan: “Uuurrrrrrgghhh, goddesses this is so boring,” she said looking at the floor. “I know, I know. I’m bored as anything too but if we keep looking, hopefully we might find something. You never know,” Batty said as he let a small chuckle. Circuitry then spoke up. “Come on, let’s try this way,” he said, pointing to the right at a T-junction. “Ok Cables, we’re following you since you seem to know where you’re going,” said Batty sarcastically. “Ha-ha very bucking funny Batty and how many times have I told you not to call me by that name?” Circuitry replied. “What? Cables?” asked Batty. Cables was his nickname for his brother and to be honest he knew that every time he called him that, it really pissed him off. “Yes! For the millionth time, just stop-” WHACK! Circuitry stopped mid-sentence as he had walked into a wall in front of him. “Great! A dead end!” Twist yelled out loud, as she turned her head and head butted the nearest wall with a loud thud. When she moved her head away from the wall, there was a loud clunking noise coming directly from where her head had just been. Next, a piece of metal that had been expertly disguised as part of the wall, swung open and behind the panel was what looked like a control panel of sorts. “Hey guys, look what I found,” she turned her head towards her two friends who in turn walked up to what she had found. Circuitry walked up to the control then spoke up: “This looks like a control panel for something, let me work my magic,” but before he could his hoofs on it he was stopped by Twist. “Whoa whoa whoa, what are you doing? You have no idea what this thing does and I know you’re a nerd and everything, but it doesn’t mean you have to go looking at every single thing that has a keyboard,” she did have a way with words but he was now anxious to find out what it does. “Come on Twist, don’t you want to see what it does? I know you do,” he was right, she did but at the same time she didn’t. However, she was overruled as Batty had taken his brother’s side on this one. “Fine. Go ahead, but if we get in trouble, I’m blaming it all on you,” she said with a huff. “Ooooooo watch out, we’ve got a bad flank over here!” Batty teased. “And you can shut your mouth as well, Batty,” said Twist was losing her temper. “Okay okay jeeze, some ponies,” replied Batty in a slightly defeated tone. They stood there for a couple of minutes as they waited impatiently for circuitry to work the panel. “Come on! What taking so long?” groaned Twist. She was getting even more impatient by the minute. Batty was just sitting in the corner swinging his bat back and forth with his magic, taking practice shots. “I’m going as fast as I bucking can, but this bucking thing has a really annoying password that is really starting to piss me off!” Replied cables, as he was now franticly tapping the keyboard and was growing more inpatient. Then he heard a satisfying beeping noise, and then a rush of air came past them from the wall directly behind were Batty was sitting. He quickly moved forward, then turned around with his bat at the ready. Twist quickly moved behind batty while his brother flanked him to his left as they looked at the wall. Suddenly steam shot out from the corners of the wall and a small red light began flashing and a spoken warning began: “Warning! Warning! Cryo chamber door now opening. Please stand back. Repeat, cryo chamber door now opening. Please stand back,” Then the robotic voice was cut off as the wall hissed loudly and then started to slowly roll downwards. the Over mares office. The Over mare was sitting at her desk, going through her daily routines of being the over mare, and in charge of a stable housing over a thousand ponies. She was busy typing some notes onto her personal terminal, then she turned her head away from the computer to take a quick sip of her drink next to her. The room was fairly quiet except for the music that was being played quietly over the radio speaker throughout the Stable. Then suddenly a new sound filled the air. Her ears quickly perked up as she looked back the monitor where a notice flashing on it that read: *Warning! Warning! Cryo chamber door now opening. Warning! Warning! Cryo chamber door now opening* “Oh shit,” she said out loud, almost knocking her drink onto the floor as she quickly scrambled over to where the microphone was. She pressed the button and began speaking into it: “This is the Over mare, I need all security to report to my office ASAP! Repeat, this is the Over mare I need all security to report to my office now!” she moved away from the microphone and began frantically moving about her office thinking to herself. “This is bad this is bad but wait the only way the chamber could be opened is from my office or-” She ran back over to the monitor and began scrolling through the security videos feeds. She then came across what she was looking for… three young ponies were standing in a dead end corridor and she saw the wall at the back move downwards. “This isn’t good,” she said out loud, worry now hung in her voice. ____________________________________________________________ Stable Lower levels ____________________________________________________________ The three young ponies’ eyes were as wide as saucers as they just saw the wall in front of them move, revealing another room behind it. Cables lifted up his pip buck leg and quickly brought up the map of where they currently were in the Stable, only to see that the room in front of them didn’t appear on the map. “What the hay? This room doesn’t even appear on my pip bucks map, it shouldn’t exist!” he exclaimed. “Well it’s right in front of us, clear as anything,” replied Batty as he began to move forward through the wall of mist that had formed in the doorway, with Twist practically hugging his leg. Cables gulped then followed behind his brother. Inside, the floor was covered in white tiles that twinkled when the light reflected of them. The walls were white as well and there were a few desks here and there, with equipment that looked like it hadn’t been touched in years. Everything was covered in frost and now the trio were starting to shiver a bit as they could see their own breath. “w-w-why I-i-is i-i-it s-s-so cold i-i-in h-here?” asked Twist, who was now beginning to shiver uncontrollably. “I-i-i d-d-don’t k-k-k-now,” replied Batty, still holding his bat in front of him. They rounded a corner and what they saw made their mouths drop open. Along the wall there were three big, long tubes jutting out from the wall diagonally. The front part of the tubes were made of glass but you could barely see through because of the amount of frost on them. At the end of each tube, there was a monitor all making beeping noises like a pulse monitor in the medical wings. They walked up to the first tube. Cables wiped the frost off the monitor with his hoof before getting to work on it. He came across a file so he opened it and read out loud: “Sean ‘Silver’ Silverstein” he scrolled down through the file and came across a picture of a unicorn with a brown coat, brown mane and Brown eyes. He then read underneath it. “Current cryo stasis, normal,” he moved up to the tube and peered in and he saw what looked like the pony he had seen on the monitor. He and others moved away from the first tube, and onto the next one. Cable started typing on its monitor. The screen kept saying: *No unauthorized personnel on this file please contact admin* He looked away from the monitor and they all peered into the tube. They could just make out the shapes of not one but two ponies. They looked surprisingly young and they could just make out that one was a colt, and the other was a filly. They then moved to the final tube, but this one was a lot bigger than the rest. Cables moved up to its monitor with the other two behind him. He opened the file with a lot more ease than the others and it was labeled ‘Project Human’. “Where have I heard of that word ‘human’ before?” he thought to himself as he continued scrolling down until he came across a video file. He opened it and waited for it to load while the others just watched the screen. Then the video began playing but appeared on the video shocked them. It was a creature that looked nothing like a pony. It had a very pale skin, short muzzle and was very short with dark brown mane, and blue eyes. On its front left foreleg it wore a pip buck, but not one they’ve ever seen. This one was very high-tech and advanced. Then the creature began to speak into the camera: “Hello there. My name is Matrix. I don’t know how long it will be before any pony finds this video but if you do just listen. If you’re wondering what I am, I’m a human. Yeah, you think your eyes must be deceiving you, but they’re not. I’m real as I ever would be. Right now I’m cryo sleep and have no idea when I’m gonna wake up. I have fought in the war between the ponies and zebras we thought we had won this war, but we were wrong…because today no pony won. Me and Silver just managed to get every pony into the Stable before the mega spells hit. We consider ourselves lucky on that one. I just hope that every pony else made it….I hope-” the thing that called itself ‘Matrix’ was interrupted by two foals leaping onto his lap. “Daddy,” the filly said. “When are you gonna put us to bed?” she said as she put on an irresistible cute face no pony could reject. “In a minute sweetie. Just go get into bed, both of you. I will only be a second,” said the creature, putting a smile on his face as the two foals leapt off his lap. He then looked back towards the camera and put its serious face back on. “I hope that some pony comes to find us some day. I don’t want to be in cryo stasis for the rest of my life……and I hope that rainbow dash got to the facility ok….I really hope she did…” The creature looked like it was about to cry, but then a brown hoof touched its shoulder. The pony spoke: “Matrix, come on. we need to go now,” said the new voice and then trailed off. “I’m coming. One sec,” he looked to the camera again. “If some pony finds this video, please wake us up……..this is Matrix, signing off,” the video abruptly ended. chapter 5Chapter 5 “Wait, so your telling me , that ‘you’ and your friend here are more than 200 years old and both can regenerate from radiation and every other ‘ghoul’ that is what you calls yourselves can do it as well, seriously I’ve seen some weird s*** in my time but not as odd as this, no offence” “None taken, I’ve heard it all before and in my two hundred years and counting of living this c*** life I haven’t seen anything like you, well not that I can remember anyway since I tend to lose track of things over time” “ you have my sympathy, well allow me to help jog your memory, but may I ask do you remember anything before the bombs fell, anything about where you were or who you were?” “*sigh* I think from what I can remember, I was in one of the main cities that got hit first either Fillydelphia or Manehatten I’m not sure but I was there when the balefire came raining down, I was a refugee there amongst all the fighting, I think that at one point I heard some of the soldiers that I was held up with talking about this legend fighter called the ‘specialist matrix’ or something, he was erm oh what was he I cannot remember erm a-” “Human” mat suggested “Yes, wait how did you………….wait a minute, your him, your that ‘human’ from the war, but how can it be, that would mean you’re more than two hundred years old ‘and’ you’re not a ghoul in fact you don’t even look older than what late twenties late thirties maybe” “Call it a 200 year long cryogenic slumber and leave it at that” “well alright then but since you seem to have not seen what has gone on in the last two century’s Its probably best that I give you some information that could prove useful in your travels” He then went on talking to matrix and silver about everything he could tell them about Equestria in its current state from the grand Pegasus enclave to the steel rangers and the dreaded red eye, they were surprised at the least at what they were hearing “Also you might want to head to the nearest settlement not far from here, it’s called new appleloosa and its just north east from the ponyville ruins, that is if they try and kill you first heheh” “Ok then thanks, wait you said new appleloosa, what happened to the original town?” “old appleloosa is run by raiders and slavers, best stay away from there but from the look of ya and from what I’ve heard you could kill them all with one hoof er hand I mean” the ghoul spoke is his raspy voice “You mean hand, and thanks for the info, we may stop by if we have the time but we gotta be someplace else first, see you on the other side then” “good luck to you to then, till we meet again………..specialist, and I’ll be sure to spread the word of your return, folks need heroes, and at times like these they have to be strong, you got that I can tell” he said as he and his companion turned about and walked away to wherever it is they were going “Well that was an experience in never gonna forget, *shudders* remind me to keep away from radiation” said silver as he put is helmet back on and checked his equipment again Matrix let out a half mused chuckle “you never seize to make me laugh and to be honest I second your idea, come on we need to get to ponyville if were gonna have a chance at living in this hell hole, I think there is some things that’ll make you happy back our house when we get there” mat suggested, although he lived with rainbow and his two kids, he also shared the house with frost and silver since it was a two story four bedroomed house, with a basement which was then converted into an armoury when the war broke out. Mat then looked at his Pipbuck as a notification came up on his objectives page Objective: travel to Ponyville ruins and get to home armoury (Optional) travel to new appleloosa “Well looks like we have our plans set out, let’s get our gear and get going, who knows who else we’ll run into and I’m not liking the sound of those deathclaws” “True that brother” replied storm as he began to pack up his things as did mat, mat looked over at the pony he considered his brother, they had gone through almost everything mat had done since he first came to Equestria all those years ago, they acted like brothers, lived like brothers and they always had each other’s backs no matter what, and they had seen some s*** in there time, and since then mat considered silver his brother that in turn made him the uncle of his children but silver didn’t mind at all, in fact he enjoyed it. Mat looked back to what he was doing and picked the wallet he had dropped before he fell asleep and put it back in his pocket, he folded his guitar up and put it back into his inventory and placed his helmet back on his head, he glanced at the time on his wrist and it had been an hour since he was rudely awakened. He turned his attention to the group and saw that they were all ready as well; silver was just putting his knife back into the sheath on his chest and smiled back at mat Mat looked over the children and noticed that will the bothers and twist were wide awake his children were still very drowsy, we kneeled over to his children and plopped them into his lap and stroked there manes, he took the moment to look at his two amazing little foals He ran his gloved hand through his sons always frazzled yellow mane and along his silver coat he took note of his wings which like his mane and tail, where always frazzled like he had been stunned by lighting, rainbow dash had said to matrix that she wanted a son called lighting wings when she was older and when his son was born his look fit the bill and that’s how he got his name. His daughter had a blue coat, a lot darker than her mothers and a yellow and blue mane and tail, when he saw her for the first time she instantly reminded him of the American aerobatic team, the blue angels, so he chose to name her after them, he and rainbow knew they had the potential to become some of the greatest flyers in Equestria with the help of their mother and father and friends Once mat made sure his children had drifted of he carefully stood up and placed his children on his shoulders and waited until they settled themselves by clinging into his neck, he let out a small laugh as he watched his children roll around on his shoulders out the corner of his eyes, he picked up his rifle then looked back to silver and the trio and nodded, they nodded back and so they began resumed their journey towards their destination. *two hours later* it had become boring walking for almost two hours straight so mat pulled out his iPod and played some music out loud which him and silver where singing along too, “I walk a lonely road The only one that I have ever known Don't know where it goes But it's only me to me and I walk alone” “I walk this empty street On the Boulevard of broken dreams When the city sleeps And I'm the only one and I walk alone” “I walk alone I walk alone I walk alone I walk alone” “My shadow's the only one that walks beside me My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me 'Til then I walk alone” “Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ahhh-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah” “I'm walking down the line That divides me somewhere in my mind On the border line of the edge And where I walk alone” “Read between the lines of what's F****d up and everything's all right Check my vital signs to know I'm still alive And I walk alone” “I walk alone I walk alone I walk alone I walk alone” “My shadow's the only one that walks beside me My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me 'Til then I'll walk alone...” “Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ahhh-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah I walk alone I walk alone” “I walk this empty street On the Boulevard of broken dreams When the city sleeps And I'm the only one and I walk a...” “My shadows the only one that walks beside me My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me 'Til then I'll walk alone” As the song ended they both let out a laugh for no reason but it’s not like they didn’t care. As they walked up the next ridge and looked over it they immediately stopped laughing, what stood before them where the ruins of their home mood music Ponyville…………… They just stood there in silence looking at the destruction of what was left of their home, mats duster flowing slightly in the small breeze; he swore he could see ponies walking around the town like normal. Like ghosts of the past. He shook his head then ushered the group to follow him towards a small mound of rocks and dead trees before pulling out his anti-material rifle “Silver you got spotter duty, brother’s you got our backs again, keep an eye out, ok, good” he said before climbing on top of the rock pile and setting up his rifle facing the town bellow with canterlot in the far distance, silver climbed up next to him and pulled out his binoculars while the two brothers watched their backs and kept an eye on the other three kids. “Okay let’s see what we got here” said silver in his usual sarcastic tone “Towns a mess, a handful of buildings are surprisingly still standing; I can see that applejacks ironshod firearms factory is still standing outside of town also. One or two raider parties, one of those is on the bridge to sweet apple acres and sweet apple acres barn is still up as well” matrix said in a dry tone as he continued to look over the dead town, looking at the crumbling ruins until his gaze came upon one statue. The Macintosh war memorial Memories came flooding back about the tragic news of that one day where everyponys favourite farm stallion had given his life to save princess celestia from a zebra assassin, matrix had been on the frontline alongside him many a time, when he heard of his death he gave his deepest condolences to the rest of his family and he sent a personal letter with a picture of him, big mac and his squad to applejack saying he was sorry that he couldn’t attend the funeral and how great a soldier big mac was as he was a friend to us all. That was one those days where matrix kept getting thoughts that they were going to lose the war, But in the end………………………..neither side won Matrix snapped out of his current daze as he spotted movement coming from the barn of the farm so he swivelled his rifle in its direction and aimed down his scope looking over the dead trees. “Silver can you see anything over at sweet apple acres” asked mat “I see……….if I am correct here I’m seeing a grey unicorn filly, brown mane, probably in her teens, wearing a stable suit?” “Which stable?” “Erm, number two I make it” “Applejacks stable” mat said under his breath “looks like they maybe opening it up, unless she’s on her own” “Well she’s on her own, wait scratch that she’s just joined up with some stallion” As they watched the scene take place, they saw the stallion take off and eventually a small skirmish happen between the unicorn and the group of raiders on the bridge “Is it just me or did I just see her take down those raiders, on her own” said silver “Nope your just blind, as per f*****g usual” matrix replied sarcastically They continued to lie there watching her as she traversed through the town “Well I know for a fact that she has a chance of surviving out here” mat said dryly “I was thinking the same thing” a metallic like voice spoke out from nowhere, they both spun around aiming their weapons at whatever it was, what they were looking at was a sprite bot, used by the ministry of moral during the war, what it was doing here they had no clue, “Did that thing just talk” mat said to silver not taking his eyes of the floating bot “Yes I believe I did, you can call me watcher” the spritebot answered the two just shrugged before mat spoke up “What was that you said before?” “I was simply agreeing with what you said, she has a good chance with living out here” “Yes she does………..wait a second, I recognise that voice……..spike……..is that you” “………………” “Spike.................” “………………………..” “………………………..” “Yes…………it is me” “Spike………….how are still alive, in fact where are you” “matrix…………..I……………I cannot tell you for the enclave will find me, in time though you will” he said before he stopped speaking before some random fanfare music started playing from the bots speaker before floating of too wherever, ‘If that really was spike, he must be freaking huge by now’ matrix pondered to himself “Dude we’re going f*****g crazy without the use of drugs” stated silver “I know, come on, let’s get going” mat said as he packed away his sniper rifle and brought out Bozar, jumped of the rocks and started walking along the path with the rest of the group in tow, ten minutes later they finally came across the town entrance and what was once the market place, everywhere they looked they could see bones of the long dead bodies of ponies they could no longer identify. “This place is just a fucking graveyard” silver said flatly “Well at least pay respect to them by not treading on their graves” matrix answered whilst carefully walking around a dead pony’s skeleton They walked past the old bakery and onwards through the town avoiding the piles of bones when mat came across the statue he saw earlier, he and silver went up to it and saluted in respect before doing the same to the statue of celestia, the former leader of Equestria had resigned after the incident where some foals where murdered in an equestrian school, mat couldn’t remember all the details but he knew that the princess was devastated after the event and so she stood down and left it to Luna to run the country, with the help of himself and the ministries of course. Matrix smacked his head to snap himself out of his current thoughts ‘God I need to stop zoning out like that’ He carried on walking until he came across the familiar street on which he used to live on, he readied his weapon and instructed the others to do so as well as they approached the building, matrix looked over it, a fairly large two story building with an attic, the plants in the front garden were long dead and some of the windows were smashed in but the front door looked intact He went up to and tried the door, still locked after all these years, so he dug out his house key and unlocked the door, before he entered he motioned for silver and the foal’s to stack up against the walls on either side of the door, when he was ready he opened the door with one hand whilst holding his rifle in the other and slowly stepped into the main hallway the lead into the main room carefully looking out for and traps that could be inside. “Main room clear” he said in a hushed voice to silver who answered back “roger that, brothers, you keep an eye on the kids in this room, mat I’ll check the rest of the ground floor, you check upstairs” he whispered to matrix who nodded then slowly crouched his way over to the stairs Matrix slowly ascended up the stairs, the two hundred year old wood creaking under his weight and heavy boots, when he reached the top of the stairs he checked each of the rooms one by one until he came to the last one His and dashie’s room He slowly entered to find everything was still in place except for a few of things that had fallen onto the floor and that it was all covered in a layer of two hundred year old dust, he took another step forward when he heard the sound of glass cracking under his foot, he looked down and took his foot away, revealing a now shattered picture frame of him and his wife rainbow dash with their foals on the sofa on hearths warming eve years ago, he bent down and picked up the picture from its frame and holding up to his helmeted face, memoirs flooding in of the day that picture was taken before all the s*** happened. Flashback Hearths warming eve, 02:00 PM A few years before the bombs, Matrix POV (Not sure how long the war lasted in the original fallout Equestria so for now I’m just winging it but I’m guessing it was quite a few years) I just watched as the zebra hunter touch down in front of me, my ride home to ponyville where I’ve earned myself two weeks leave, I lean forward to pick up my bag and walk towards the vehicle and as soon as I step in a voice comes from the speaker as I sit down in the doorway as music starts playing le mood music “mares and gentle colt’s my name is honour bolt and with me I have the lovely gold star and we’ll be your pilot’s this afternoon, equestrian regulation’s designate this as a non-smoking vertibuck, for those of you who have the zebrica frequent flyer program, you'll be earning a hundred free bits this afternoon, and as always, the air sickness bags are located in the seat-back, in front of you” “bolt, go f*** yourself” I shouted over the mic to him in the cockpit he just laughs as he pulls the aircraft upwards then spins us round then heads for home, So here I am on my way back to ponyville, sitting in of the ‘zebra hunter with my legs dangling out of the side door of the vertibuck as the scenery flashes by after another long stretch on the frontlines, thank god that dashie has leave as well so now I can spend some time off with my family and friends since its hearths warming eve as well. The sound system was playing one of my tunes on my iPod from earth by Elvis whilst star and bolt where just having idle chatter, I wasn’t really listening, but I decide to join in just as I see another vertibuck heading in the opposite direction we’re going and somepony speaks over the channel “Zebra hunter, this is dragon breath go to UHF secure, I have some bad news” “Limo is a word night shine I don’t want to hear about it” says bolt back over the mic “It is not a word. It's an abbreviation of a word” says the voice possibly this night shine pony from the other vertibuck, I listen in more as they continue to bicker “Limo is a word in common usage. That is the key phrase in scrabble (they have it in Equestria), my friend, common usage” shouts bolt “No! If it's not in the pony dictionary, it doesn't count” replies night “It doesn't have to be in the pony dictionary!” bolt shouts “It does have to be in the pony dictionary! Listen, when we get back to base, it's coming off the board” night speaks as his bird passed us “You touch my limo and I'll spank you, dragon breath, you hear me?” “Yeah, Promises” says night shine before he cuts of from the channel flying away in the opposite direction “Bolt who the hell was that” I asked “Just and old friend from a few years ago, keeps end up playing this stupid game and I’m surprised we’re still at it” he chuckles ‘Wow this whole scene deeply reminds me of something but I can’t really put my finger on it…………..ah well it’s not important’ I thought as I readjust my sitting position to where I was originally simply gazing of into the scenery again as the music continues to play, A few hours later we have just flew over the town of ponyville and circle round to land in the town square, as we touch down I grab my bag and rifle and jump out of the vehicle into the snow and walk past the cockpit where I tap my hand on it to signal bolt to leave, just before he pulls away he mock salutes me whilst I simply give him a middle finger salute back then he fly’s away leaving a small cloud of snow blowing up so I have to cover my face since I had my helmet strapped to my belt Once he’s finally gone off into the horizon I take a minute to look around and the town, snow is covering most of the ground and buildings but that will change soon as winter wrap up will happen in a about a week or since the seasons had to change times slightly because of the war, after looking at the view I start my trek towards my house where my family are waiting As I walk down the street I see a few ponies milling about and it doesn’t take long for them to spot me and give a friendly wave which I happily return and keep on walking through the town but not five minutes later I end up getting tackled by somepony or somepony’s and I end up face first in the snow “Hmmmmmmhmhmmhmhm” (*translation* could whoever it is please get of) I try to shout but my voice is muffled by the snow but whoever it was got the message and finally got enough me allowing me to get up and a take a breath of life giving oxygen “Ok who is it” I say sarcastically as I turn around and get hugged by our friendly neighbourhood Lyra heartstrings “Hey there Lyra, good to see you too” "Hey, I missed you ya big ape ya know with you going off and getting yourself killed in this stupid pointless bl***y war” she said trying to copy my old British accent “And what a good friend you are and it’s good to be back home for a bit, hey you mind letting me go I want to get home and see my family, I’ll buy you a drink later sound good to you” “Yeah that sounds good and I’ll keep you to that, tell dash I said hi for me” “Will do if ya say hi to bonbon for me” I say with laugh “Anything for you my favourite human” she finally say before giving me a friendly peck on the cheek then trotting of back to her own home, leaving me to continue my way homeward bound, a while later I ended up on the porch of my place of residence, I knocked on the door before entering and sarcastically shout “Honnnnnnnnnnnney, I’m home from work” and almost instantly I’m tackled by my kids, “DADDY! YOU’RE BACK!” my daughter exclaims right in my face as they hug me tightly “Hey kids how are you two doing” “It’s going awesome daddy moms just making dinner” says my son with a smile Sounds good son, how about you two going into the living room and I’ll be there ina minute while I go talk to mommy” “Ok dad” they both say in unison then sprint of into the lounge area, I put my bag down in the hallway and leave my rifle and pistols on the table top that is in the hallway but I make sure there on safety before walking into the kitchen “Hey honey, guess who has two weeks leave” I say as I enter the kitchen and get greeted by my beautiful wife with a peck on the lips “That’s great mat, so have I for the time being but after that I’ve got some things I need to sort out in my ministry” she says before leaning in for another kiss “That’s ok in my books which is kind of ironic since Luna says she needs to see me after my leave finishes and help with the other ministry’s as well so I may see you up in cloudsdale at some point” “Fine by me, oh dinner’s almost ready go get the kids and sit down at the table” One wonderful dinner later all four of us are in the living room later playing around the with foals after I changed out of my armour into some more body friendly clothing and after one play session later all four of us are just sitting of the sofa watching a movie on my laptop, the foals are hypnotized to the screen while my and dash are simply snuggling up to each other in each other embrace sharing the occasional kiss when I get an idea, I get up quickly and pick up the camera from on top of the fireplace and sit back down “Everypony smile” I exclaim as I hold up the camera with one arm and take a photo of us all as a happy family “Happy hearths warming guys” I as we all eventually fall asleep in front of the crackling fire Flashback end 3rd POV As mat finished recalling the memory in his mind, he carefully folded up the photo before pulling out his wallet and placing the photo inside then replacing said wallet back into his pocket, now that he was sure that the floor was clear he made his way back down the hallway and down the stairs with his weapon still in hand “Upstairs clear” matrix spoke out loud “This floor’s clear too” said silver as he walked out the kitchen chewing on something whilst floating what appeared to be a can of…………beans to his mouth his a fork “Dude…….are you eating a f****** two hundred year old can of beans?” Silver stopped chewing to speak “yeah…………..what of it?” "That’s just plain f****** gross dude, if you get stomach poising, don’t come crying to me” “Yeah whatever” responded silver as he continued to eat the food “f****** retard, silver grab the kids where go into the basement I would feel much safer down there than in the house” “Alright I see you down there in a few minutes” as he walks off into the living room to rouse the kids from there quickly slumber Mat walks down the hallway to the back of the stairs where he opens a hidden panel revealing a terminal, he swiftly enters his password which opens the heavy metal disguised door inwards, he steps in flicking on the lights surprised the still work and walks down the stairs into the underground room that had a set of two bulkhead doors which held the armoury part of the basement whilst the part he was currently in has spare beds food and water, pretty much a home fallout shelter As he inspects the supplies they have in stock he hears silver along with the foals walking down the stairs and through the blast door at the bottom into the room “So you finally managed to get your fat a** down here then “Not so easy as you out it when you have two foals running around like mad ponies” “Point taken but they are ‘my’ mad ponies and by the way did you lock the front door?” "Yeah I did and I locked the door at the top of the stairs as well so are we gonna open the gun’s yet or what?” “no not yet, I wanna get some more shut eye first, we could all do with it, then tomorrow we crack that bitch open, sound good” “Yeah I guess you’re right, well see ya in the morning then” “You too silver I’ll wake you all up at around ten” Silver nodded in agreement before collapsing onto a mattress and falling asleep almost instantly, matrix lied down on the bed next him with his foals curling up next him while the brother and lil twist shared another bed and pretty soon they all drifted off into unconsciousness. hey guys RM here sorry it took so long for me to get the chapter out its just that lately I've been getting caught up with things getting distracted writers block yadda yadda yadda but anyway here's the next chapter and for anypony reading my other story i and going to get the next chapter out for that as well soon that's all for now and if ya spot any mistakes just tell me prereaders are all offline (like always but i cant blame them) RM laterz :)
chapter 1When to video stopped, the trio just looked at each other in bewilderment at what they just saw. Cables moved away from the monitor and over to the side of the frost covered tube and looked inside and he was surprised to see what was inside. He was looking at the exact same creature that he just saw on the video, the thing that called itself a human with the name ‘matrix’ he was desperately trying to remember where he had heard the word human before then his thoughts went back to story his farther used to talk about. Flashback “This is a story my grandmother once told me, this is the story of a creature. This creature was known a hero, a true legend back in the old world, the tale of this creature goes way back before the war that broke out 200 years ago”. “It was said that this creature was from a different world. His race was highly advanced maybe more advanced than us but no pony knows. So one day the creature was supposedly on the brink of death but the sun goddess saw him and took pity on him and brought him to our world. He landed in the world in some kind of big metal bird and claimed himself a human, a creature that walks on to legs and has claw like appendages”. “They accepted him in there world as one their own and he lived for a few years in peace from his home world. But then when the war came he was made into one of the greatest weapons they had at their disposal against the zebras and he did his job like now other he would sacrifice his for other if need be”. “But then when the bombs fell he helped the ponies into a stable, our stable to be precise, but no pony knows what happened to him”. “Did he die or live?” “Some say that there keeping him locked away in the very depths of the stable and we never knew but the over mare said that it wasn’t possible. Then over time ponies began to question his existence saying that it was only a myth but I know that my grandmother was right but I didn’t want to believe her”. Present: cables pov I couldn’t believe it I was looking at the creature the ‘human’ that was supposedly a legend but led on to being a myth and here it was right in front of me. A small smile crept to my face that I didn’t notice my brother and lil’ twist were looking at me with looks of confusion “Hey cables what’s with the face, you look like you know what that thing is” said my younger brother “I do, we all do, remember when our farther used to tell us that story of that legendary creature” I replied and I was answered with a nod from both of them “This is the same creature, the very same human, from all those years ago” I them moved back to monitor and looked at the message again “And look at the date of the message, it was made almost 200 years ago so that confirms it” I looked over towards my brother and twist. Their mouths were hanging open so low they could’ve touched the floor. I then turned my attention back to the monitor where a new message had appeared on the screen *unseal cryo tube yes/no* I was about to type onto the keyboard but then some pony shouted out. “HALT” I jumped in mid-air and landed on the monitor and by accident pressed the yes key. Third person view Cables fell of the monitor and onto the floor rubbing his head which would a bruise there later. The trio then looked over to where the voice had come from and they saw the over mare flanked by at least 20 security ponies. “Stop what you’re doing now” said the over mare but she was cut off by a loud hissing noise coming from directly behind the three young ponies who in turn moved away from the tube as it was the source of the noise. Steam was coming out the sides of the tube and the then there was a clanking sound like locks unlocking. then the front of the tube began to open upwards. When the door finally stopped moving and the mist cleared away the security ponies the over mare and the trio edged closer to see inside and the all froze when they saw it. A tall creature that looked like it walked on to legs was laying in the tube almost motionless it had these weird looking limbs on the bottom of its fore and rear legs. It had short brown mane and flat face, it skin was a very light shade of pink and it wore only a small piece of clothing over its midsection and there where cables connected to its chest. The over mare slowly edged over to the monitor at the end of the tube, She looked at the terminal’s screen and read in her mind “Cryo tube stasis, normal, project human ‘matrix’ is stable, lights show green across the board” As she was scrolling down the terminal one of the security guards walked up to here and asked “Ma’am what is this thing, is it dangerous” he said in a slight worried tone “I guess it’s time you all learned the truth, for the past 200 years our stable has been host to him” she gestured towards the human “He was the reason why you’re all here today, he saved the ponies that first came into the stable when the war ended. And now for the past 200 years me and the past over mare’s have been keeping hi m secret until these three found him” she looked over towards the trio. Then a low grumbling sound broke the sudden silence from behind her. The creature was beginning to waken. They all backed away from the cryo tube but the over mare moved a closer till she reached to end on the tube She could now clearly see that the human was now breathing but rather quickly and raggedly. She then spoke up hoping it would wake up “hello can you hear me” No response “I said can you hear me” she said in a slightly louder tone Then the humans eyes shot open a took in a huge gasp of air “Nooooooooooooooooo” It shouted” The sudden outburst shocked the mare as she stumbled onto her back, the guards quickly circled her, weapons at the ready in case the creature tried anything, but it just lay there staring at the ceiling, its eyes bloodshot Matrix pov I was dreaming that I was flying, flying through the clouds above the beautiful land I now called my home, I couldn’t remember how long it had been since I crashed into Equestria, years maybe but I was eternally grateful that I had, I could barely remember my old life on earth, but why would I, the planet I used to call my home was an absolute shithole. Equestria was my home now, I had made many friends: twilight, applejack, rarity, fluttershy, pinkie pie and rainbow dash and many more but rainbow was probably the most important to me, she is……… my wife after all. I looked to my left and I saw her flying alongside me, she looked like she always did. Amazing. And then I looked to my left and I saw the rest of my family, my adopted daughter scootaloo and my own kids. Two little Pegasus foals, lightning wings and blue angel, were all flying with me through the clouds, but then all of a sudden the sky turned black and I was then back on the battlefield between the ponies and zebras. I was in my combat armour and was holding my gun of choice. Bozar. I looked around and all I could see was death I couldn’t move my arms or legs or do anything but watch. I turned my head away from it all but when I looked back I now lying on a table. I knew where I was. I was in twilight’s ministry about to undergo an experiment I had agreed to be part of. Project human. The operation was to make me stronger, faster and more intelligent. Needles were inserted to my arms and legs but I could feel no pain. but when they injected me with whatever it was the pain was almost unbearable and when they started to use their magic for the next part I swore I felt like I had died and then I closed my eyes to open them again and again I was on the front lines again this time in my new armour that I had received after the operation. I was on a ridge watching as pony soldier’s charged over the ridge at the enemy, weapons drawn and firing. I had killed my fair amount of zebras on the battle field but one thought stuck in my head the whole time “I’ve killed the enemy but do not hate them” I turned around and I was back in pony Ville. Warning sirens where blaring loudly, ponies where running everywhere, in the distance I could see canterlot with a massive magical shield being pounded by rockets. Then suddenly on the inside, it erupted into a giant pink cloud and the shield slowly began to fall, the capital was gone, I closed my eyes again that were now filled with tears I opened them again to see my family running towards me. I tried to run to then but I still couldn’t move my legs. Then a giant explosion erupted from behind them and the shockwave was closing fast “Come on, faster, FASTER “I shouted but I was too late. They were caught in the blast and then they were nothing more. “No………no……….. NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” “NOOOOOOOOOO” my eyes shot open as I had awoken from my nightmare the same reoccurring nightmare, all I could see was white nothingness. I then looked at my surroundings to see a mare on the floor in front of me with several armed ponies guarding her and behind them I saw a trio of foal’s slightly shivering in a corner. I brought my hands up to my face and rubbed my eyes. I then remembered that I was inside stable 97’s hidden cryo chamber that only me, silver and the over mare I placed my hands on either side of the cryo tube and pulled myself to feet nearly stumbling over. The ponies moved back a bit when they saw how tall I was, they were at least half my height. Then one of the security ponies spoke up breaking the silence “w-w-what are you” he said he sound scared even though he tried to put on a bold front but before I could answer him, one of the foals said “He’s the thing from the legend ya, know the legend about the human, he’s been down here all this time after the war” beamed the young colt “You can’t be serious, that is nothing more than an old pony’s tail” said the same guard “Well that is a complete load of utter bollocks” I said finally speaking up They quickly turned to face me as they just heard me speak “You can talk” said the over mare in shock “Well not shit Sherlock, of course I can and I am very real. Now I’m sure you all have plenty of questions to ask me but first I have one question for you…….how long have I been down here?” They didn’t answer just stood there in total silence so I asked again “Didn’t you hear me, I asked you how long have I been down here?” “Two hundred years” mumbled the over mare “What was that speak up for celestias sake” “Two hundred years” she said this time so I could hear “What?” I replied “I said you’ve been asleep for two hundred years” she answered I just stood there frozen trying to take the words she just said, my head was full of emotions, sadness, pain but most of all…..anger. She could see the anger in my eyes. But then I lost it, I turned around and with all my strength I punched my cryo tubes terminal sending sparks flying all over, all the ponies jumped back at my sudden outburst . “AAAAAaaaaaaaarrrrrgghhhhhh TWO HUNDRED YEARS, IVE BEEN FUCKING DOWN HERE FOR TWO HUNDRED FUCKING YEARS!!!!” by now tears were forming in my eyes, I fell to my knees and just wept on the floor, the images of my friends, family and fellow soldiers in my head. they were all gone….just …….gone. well here's another chapter i know there may be a few mistakes but i didn't get it pre-read but the next one will be and now i bet you have questions hmm i bet you do but they will be answered......soon
chapter 2I just lay there, tears in my eyes, the images and memories of my friends flowing through my mind. “Twilight ,applejack, fluttershy, pinkie ,rarity, scootaloo, applebloom, sweetie belle…….rainbow dash, everyone……gone………. there all gone……why……why did this have to happen…….…just why………200 years 200 hundred fucking years………..but I know RD is alive…I just know it………. no pony can kill her that easy”. Then I felt a hoof touch my shoulder, I immediately stopped crying and manned up to look to see who’s hoof it was, I turned my head to see the over mare who had her hoof on my shoulder and this time I took a proper look at her, she had a dark golden coat and black mane I couldn’t see here cutie mark from my angle and she had green eyes, those eyes reminded me of applejacks eyes, I pushed that thought out of my head and stood up but still felling slightly groggy. “Are you ok?” she asked Yeah I’m ok its….just a bit of shock to me I mean…… 200 years……Jesus….well ……who do I have to thank for waking me up from that bitch of a slumber” I asked stretching out my arms and legs after 200 years of lying down frozen. “That would be them” she pointed a hoof towards “they found you down here by blind luck, only I knew that you were down here but I didn’t know what you where until I saw you” she said “Thanks I said to her before walking over to the trio still huddled in the corner, I knelt down and pulled them into a hug. “Thanks you three, I you hadn’t found me I would have been down here for god knows how long maybe even forever, what are your names” “My names batter up” “Names circuitry” “I’m little twist” she said shyly “Well thank you guys again I’m really grateful I owe you one” I broke the embrace and walked over the wall besides my cryo tube and banged on the wall, a panel opened revealing a hidden terminal and I started typing on it but try after try it wouldn’t unlock “God fucking damn it open you stupid bitch” I then remembered my pip buck and face palmed I moved my arm up to the terminal but took a look at my pip buck first, Let’s just say I have a habit for customizing things on the left hand side I had taped a picture of my wife and kids next to the screen that had the word ‘come back home soon’, my mind went back to when she gave me the picture and when she whispered in my ear ‘for luck’. I sighed then broke out of my sudden trance and held it in front the terminal for a few seconds “Erm what are you doing” asked the over mare looking at the advanced piece of tech on my arm “Just watch and you’ll see” I replied and after a couple of seconds the terminal unlocked and a message appeared with a computerized voice saying. *cryo chamber systems offline, running diagnostics, cryo tube still functioning on emergency power, activating override sequence, synching to specialist matrix, pip buck prototype mark III………….. Sync complete, welcome specialist matrix, activating primary cryo chamber systems* After the message had finished the light came on and some machinery began to hum in the background and to me left a door opened revealing a smallish room on the other side of the room. “Whoa how did you do that” asked one of the guard’s “With this” I said holding up my left arm with my pip buck “the pip buck prototype mark III, I was given it by twilight sparkle herself back in the war to help me when I was sent on important missions, it’s a bit more advanced than your normal pip buck”. “What do you mean more advanced” spoke the over mare “Sorry but that’s classified info” I said before walking through the newly opened door into the room and shutting it behind me. “Where does he think he’s going” said a guard “I don’t know” said the over mare “you go have a look and see want he’s doing and see if he’s coming out” “Yes ma’am” then walked up to the door and knocked “Um sir what are you doing, are you coming out of there?” he asked Then the door opened slightly and I put my hand through the door and flipped them the middle finger then closed the door again. He must of understood what it meant as he walked back up the over mare and said “Erm that’s a negative ma’am” but a few seconds later I came out fully dressed. I was wearing my customized elite riot/combat armour with my helmet in my hand http://images.wikia.com/fallout/images/d/dc/Elite\_riot\_gear.png On the back of the duster was an emblem I had personally asked rarity to do for me, in the middle was celestia’s and Luna’s cutie marks and around them in a circle was the mane six’s cutie mark’s, it’s an old world symbol now but it’s a symbol of happiness to me, it brings back memories, good memories. On the top of my helmet was a painted rainbow streak running down the back of it like Mohican in a way, With RD’s cutie mark emblazed on the side. The ponies just looked at me with their mouths hung open in awe I think was there expressions “Man does it feel good to be wearing clothing again” I said out loud “Wow you like a total badass dude” said another guard “I’ll take that as a compliment” I replied as I moved over to the to the pod next mine and held my pip buck next to its terminal and let it work its magic the good thing about my pip buck is that it is capable of doing a lot more than a normal one like hacking terminals but It can’t hack all of them. After 30 seconds of waiting for my pip buck to override the lock on the pod, it finally bypassed it and opened up, a smile appeared on my face as I looked at the two sleeping foals, my children, even to this day I still wonder how me and dash where even able to have foals because were not even the same race but that’s genetics for you cause I don’t know shit about it. The thawing process was now well underway and the kids were beginning to wake but were still asleep, they’re both heavy sleepers, something they picked up from their mother. We named them lighting wings and blue angel, dash wanted a name that had lightning in it so lightning wings it was to be for our son and I came up with blue angel for our daughter, yeah so I took the name of one the famous aerobatic teams on earth but it fitted her perfectly. I was lost in deep thought that I was snapped out of it when I heard a yawn from lightning, his eyes started to flutter open but he tried to go back to sleep. “Come on sleepy heads, time to wake up” I said quietly to them “Five more minutes dad, I don’t wanna go to school” mumbled angel “You two are just so adorable that’s why I love and your my kids so why wouldn’t I” I let out a little chuckle and said “well then I guess I won’t make you your favourite breakfast then. Their eyes both shot open as I said that and they leapt out of the pod and into my arms, tackling me to the ground dropping my helmet in the process. “DADDY” they both shouted as they hugged me with all there might “Hey kids did you have a nice sleep, any nice dreams” I said whilst ruffling there manes “Yeah daddy I had the best dream ever” exclaimed angel “Hehe that’s good to know kiddo why don’t you tell me about later daddy’s feeling a little dizzy right now ok”. “Ok daddy she said as they both continued to hug me on the ground, I then rolled my head backwards to face the over mare “Excuse me miss, could you do me a favour and open my friends pod over there for me, and the password is twilight to unlock it” I asked “Of course and you can call me ‘lockdown’ miss ‘lockdown’. She said “Thanks” I replied and continued to embrace the two foals on my chest. Lockdown went over to the guards and told them to guard the door to the chamber in case any pony came down here then went up to the pod and started typing on its terminal, After a couple of minutes I heard the recognisable hiss of the pod unlock and open. I looked over to my left and I saw lock down standing in front of my friends pod then I heard a groan coming from inside. “Uurrrgghh my head” said the voice from inside the pod as the figure leaned forward and opened his eyes then his gaze fell upon the over mare. “Well heeeeelllooo beautiful” he said as he lifted himself out from the pod. Lockdown blushed and backed away from him slightly “Smooth dude, like sandpaper, do you honestly have to try and hit on all the mares” I said as I turned my head to him and sat up with the two foals on my lap. “Matrix my man, how goes it, sleep well” he said “You could say that silver, I was about to ask you the same thing” I replied “UNCLE SILVER” blue and lightning shouted before leaping of my lap and onto silver “Hey kids, you two ok” silver said “Were ok uncle, we had some awesome dreams, do want to hear them” said lightning “Maybe later, first I need to talk to daddy” he said to them “You do” I asked “well then” I looked towards the trio who were still sitting in the corner talking amongst themselves “Hey erm little twist was it, could you keep an eye on my foals for a second while a talk to my friend here” I asked She took a moment to think then answered with “yes” so I motioned for the two foals to go over to her and of they trotted. I put on a smile as they walked off to the corner then I turned my attention back to silver who had a serious look on his face. “How long” he asked “Promise you won’t freak out like I did” “What do you mean” he asked so I simply pointed towards the terminal I had punched “Ah, well then back to what I said, how long”. “You sure you want to know” “Yes I do, now tell me” “Two hundred years” I simply stated The words hit him like a bomb. Already I see a tear start to form and then roll down his face and he held his head low, I moved forward to him and put and arm around his neck and put my forehead on his carefully to avoid hitting his horn. Tears were starting to form from my eyes as well. “200 hundred years” he said through tears “200 bucking years” “I know dude, I know” I said in a calming voice “But there gone dude, all gone” he said whilst pulling me into a man hug “Hey don’t say that, I know it may sound like that but I have a feeling, I have a feeling that RD made it, know pony can kill her that easy” “And what about my twilight” “I don’t know dude, but remember she is the most powerful unicorn in Equestria, she’s smart so she would have had a good chance but I can’t promise everything, and if it helps I’m going to go find out what happened to them, if there dead or alive” I said then broke the embrace “Well im coming with you” “He he I wasn’t even going to object to it” I said then we bro-hoofed “Come on, let’s go get suited up and get out of this hole” “Im with you on that” he said then we both got up he made his way into the other room while I picked up my helmet and followed him into the room and shut the door. He went up to his locker’s and pulled out his combat armour and helmet then put it on along with side attachments for his weapons , I went up to my side of the room where three lockers were, One for my clothing, one for my weapons and another for personal belongings. I went up to my weapon locker and put in the code and opened it. I reached inside and pulled out one of my favourite weapons. Bozar. http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQgs4H7lCfC15XwJlEbcPwJVzODDNfWWz5A8BBtYszi\_8kPSI79 Fully automatic, 30 5.56mm round magazine, scope, it had a barrel that reminded me of a barret 50 cal. It put it on my back and opened up the ammo box next it. My HUD told me it had at least 1500 rounds “plenty” in thought to myself. I then pulled out my next weapon and it was a big one, an anti-material rifle to be exact, now this gun defiantly reminded me of a barret all though it was single shot but it had all the recoil I put this on my back also with my other gun and opened it ammo box. “250 rounds, reasonable and what’s this….oh hello” again thinking to myself as I put the normal ammo in my inventory and looked back into the box my HUD labelled it ‘explosive round’s 200’. “That will come in handy indeed” I mumbled quietly to myself whilst scooping up the clips and putting them in my inventory also, then I moved to my next weapons, to pistols, both berretta 9mm’s, I grabbed them by the handles and spun them round before putting them in my side holsters in concealed by my duster along with the ammo ‘200 rounds’ Finally I picked up my last weapons, my knife’s, I first picked up my two special knifes. (Sort of like this) http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ4l6m5-JWDhbdgKRbCzCMT7FtjUMac\_xaFnstgy3gTCsoi6UFK They were shaped like dashie’s cutie mark but without the cloud and they were painted in the same colours as well and on the side of them I had embedded the name of my foals. the special thing about these knifes is when I gripped the handle hard enough, when I stabbed some pony mainly a zebra, it let a small electric shock, perfectly killing whoever was on the receiving end of them, yet another great piece of hardware from applejack’s ministry. I put them into my shoulder sheaths and picked up my last knife. My old combat knife http://images.wikia.com/fallout/images/f/fb/Combat\_knife.png I had brought this with me from earth when I crashed here, it was an old thing yes but this thing has saved my life more times than I care to mention back in the war. It had a toothed edge with a curved tip, on its side I had dash’s name scratched into it this knife brought back memories, good and bad, but I had saved many lives with this knife in and out of the war as well as my own. I put it in its sheath on my chest went over to my personal locker, opened it and gazed inside. I pulled out a small wallet which held some money not that I needed it during warfare but what else it contained meant more to me, pictures of my family, friends and fellow soldiers of the field, all memories of better times and places, places that are now presumably gone. I pocketed the wallet and pulled out a device that most of you now, my iPod and earphones, yet another item I had brought with me from earth all those years ago. I put it in one of my pockets and pulled out the last thing I kept. My collapsible guitar, I never went anywhere without it on the battlefield, back home not anywhere because I loved my music and other ponies did to, I put it in my inventory and shut the locker door. I turned my attention to my comrade and he had finished getting ready himself. On his sides he had two standard issue assault rifles with suppressors. “Typical, he always has his silencers, always has, always will” he also had a 10mm standard pistol holstered across his chest along with his own knife that had twilight etched into it and he had his combat saddlebags on his flanks. He wore his trademark helmet that had ‘If you see stripes, shoot’ in white paint across the front with his captain insignia. He saw me looking at him and he gave me a nod which I returned, I put on my helmet and then we both walked out of the room both felling like total bad asses. Lockdown turned to look at us but when she did her face became a mix of shock, fear and curiosity, well you got to admit we did look a bit intimidating especially me when I had my helmet on. She than asked us when she had gained the use of her voice again “Erm are you planning on going somewhere because you defiantly look like it” "Yes, yes we are, were leaving” “Why” she asked I looked at silver that looked at me then I turned back to lockdown “Because we have to find some pony’s I even if we have to go through hell and back to find them” I had no idea what the world looked like after two century’s but I prayed to celestia that it looked ok. “Well ok but I must warn you that if you leave now you won’t be able to come back in” “Not a problem in my books now if you would be so kind to lead the way out” “Erm…ok then follow me” “Alright” I said “lightning, blue, come on were leaving”. hey guys hoped you liked the new chapter i bet your wondering how matrix and silver will react when he gets out the stable, will he completely lose it or deal, with it who knows well except for me anyway's hope you liked it character's: matrix (me) silver: Silverstein222
chapter 3Matrix pov ok so it’s been three hour’s since we’ve gotten out of that stable and I finally gotten over the shock of coming back into the world I called my home that has now been turned to shit, I have my friend silver with me, alive and my two foals, also alive, but now I’ve got to look after another three foals, bloody brilliant, I never asked to look after them and we nearly got killed after running into that band of so-called raider’s just an hour ago, but I’ll guess I’ll just have to deal with it for now, at least they can defend for themselves in a way. It was now night time, I was thinking about the events that had occurred over the last three hours, we had finally left the stable with the company of the three foals that had found me in the cryo chamber and where now resting in the camp where the band of raider’s had been previously. The trio had snuck out when the guards weren’t looking and were now with me, my kids and silver. I had given both of the unicorn brothers my pistols with some ammo for defence. It’s not like I needed those ones anyway, I have a better pair kept in a safe back home in pony Ville……….if it’s still standing……that is. Flashback, three hours prior, stable 97 main entrance Play this in a new tab music link We had finally walked to the main entrance and were waiting for lockdown to open the stable door but she was taking her sweet time. We had managed to make it up here without much hassle since it was what they considered to be late afternoon but when you’re underground you can’t tell. By now I could’ve opened the door with my pip-buck. After another five nerve-racking minutes a warning claxon sounded of and a warning light began blinking on and off. Then the heavy lock of the stable door unlocked, the door then moved back and rolled over the right of the wall On the other side of the massive door way was the dirt tunnel with the battered wooden door blocking out the last few rays of light. “Ok silver let’s roll” I said before I started walking towards the entrance, but I quickly stopped in the metal doorway and watched as my two foals now dressed in stable suit’s walked along with silver, I then turned my head back towards lockdown. “You know you don’t have to go” she said “I know but I must………….. But remember this is…….if you ever need me, don’t worry, just send out a radio message and I’ll come runnin, you hear” she nodded then I turned back around and walked up to the door where silver was waiting not noticing three small figures sneak out through the doorway and hide behind the rock in the cave. Me and silver took positions on either side of the wooden door with my kids behind me I looked back as lockdown shut the door and nodded to me, I returned the nod as the door finally closed again. “Alright silver, breach and clear, celestia knows what’s out there after two hundred years, you ready” “As I’ll ever be” he said before pulling up the mouth grip and cocking his rifles. I pulled Bozar of my back and pulled back the breach with a satisfying ‘ka-thunk’. “3….2….1….go! *crash* breaching! Breaching! I shouted as I kicked down the door stormed out and took up a crouching position on the right hand side of the door with silver to my left “Clear” said silver but I didn’t acknowledge him. I was looking over the edge of the small cliff that we were on, gazing at the landscape. I took of my helmet and let it drop the ground with my rifle, I then dropped to my knees. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing……..I refused to. “No….no……” “Matrix, come on, I know it looks bad but”- “NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” I shouted as loud as my lungs would allow, my voice echoing across the land. I could no longer seeing the lush green landscapes of Equestria. All I could see now was a barren dead wasteland, my home, our home…..was gone, turned to dust, filled with bale fire radiation. *Stop music* “MATRIX, SNAP OUT OF IT!” shouted silver as he smacked me upside the head to try and calm me down. Needless to say it kind of worked I sat there in the dirt rubbing the side of my face where my ‘friend’ had punched me. “Thanks silver…….it’s just….it’s just too much for me to take in right now…..wait…….did you hear something” “No” replied silver but then I heard something move directly behind us so I quickly spun around and pulled out my duel wields aiming at a nearby boulder, silver doing the same. “Who’s out there…….show your self’s” No answer I fired of a warning shot towards the boulder where I heard what sounded like some sort of whimper coming from behind it. “Don’t shoot us ….don’t shoot us!” came a young voice from behind it “Well fucking show your self’s then!” I answered back “Ok were coming out just please….don’t shoot” “Ppsstt silver keep any eye out, can’t be too careful” I whispered towards him but that’s when my expression changed completely when the same three foals from earlier came out from behind their hiding place, one colt was holding a baseball bat with his magic. “Oh come on, you have got to be fucking kidding me!” I said out loud “Matrix there just kids” said silver “that’s the problem mate ‘there kids’ I was ok looking after my own two foals but now we’ve got three more to keep an eye on and I’m pretty sure that right now this place isn’t the safest of places if you haven’t noticed that already. “I know that matrix but we can’t just leave them here and they can’t get back into the stable now so it looks like they’re gonna have to some with us” “Plus you said that you owe us one for waking you up and all that” said the youngest of the brothers. I let out sigh in defeat. Well…….fuck. “Ok silver they’ll come with us but I’m going to have to give them a ways to protect themselves and usually I’m against giving a kid a gun but in the world we are in now I think I’m just gonna have to give the big old fuck it to that rule” I stood up then flicked on the safeties of my pistols; I picked up my rifle and slung it then picked up my helmet and placed it on my head and motioned for the three foals to come over. I gave the two brothers the pistols and showed the basic rundown of how the gun worked and told them to take a few practice shots with their telekinesis, they both seemed to handle it well especially the younger one ‘batter up’ I think was his name. After half an hour of sitting around outside training the two brothers how to use the weaponry, taking inventory on our food and medical supplies we finally set off in the direction me silver and my kids had come from to get here. Home…………. pony Ville……...or whatever was left of it. After an hour of walking we had found the path that led to the town but it would take us at least another one and a half hours to get there if we didn’t run into any trouble, but now I had gone and jinxed us.as we walked up a small hill I saw what seemed to be a small smoke stack about 100 metres in front of us from what my HUD was telling me and I was too far away to see any new mark’s on my E.F.S. Could be a settlement but I’m not taking any chances. I raised my fist to make every pony stop behind me. The brothers pulled out there new toys and moved into defensive positions around my kids and twist while silver came up to my side. “What’s wrong” he said “got a visual, smoke stack, 100 metres, north east, could be a settlement, no hostile’s or friendly’s yet” I looked to my left and saw a small rock formation “Perfect" "i motioned every pony to follow me over and told the foals to stay low and keep quiet behind the rocks while me and silver climbed up top and lay down. I pulled put my anti-material rifle, my pip buck connected the scope to my HUD for better aiming, and silver pulled out a set of binoculars with his magic, acting as my spotter. “Ok buddy pick out any visual’s you find, I’ll use S.A.T.S to determine hostile, friendly or neutral”. “Copy that, just like old times” I zoomed in on the scope and I got a look at the makeshift settlement. “okay, I can see two visual’s, one mare, one stallion both wearing some make shift clothing of some kind, two metres to the left of that of that tent” said silver “On target, any hostilities?” “None yet, but they both have smg’s……….shit!” “What, what is it?” “Right of the tent, five new visuals two mares, three stallions” “On target, oh crap” From what I seeing it wasn’t good, the five new ponies that had come out of the tent where a site to look at, one mare and stallion where wearing similar clothing to the other two and both had weapons, the other mare and two stallions had cuts, bruises and scar’s all over them and their legs where tied just above the knee’s so they couldn’t run. I couldn’t determine if they were pegasi, unicorn or earth pony so I quickly entered S.A.T.S and looked over the two ponies with the guns and they were labelled ‘raiders’ “This isn’t good” in said as I exited S.A.T.S but was met with the sound of a gunshot. I looked through the scope again I saw that now one of the tied up stallions was one the floor with a bullet hole in his head and standing over him was one of the so called ‘raider’s’ with his smg aimed at his head, smoke pouring out the barrel. I couldn’t hear him but he looked like he was laughing, he then turned his gun towards the other stallion. “Ok this guy is a unicorn and he is defiantly ‘not’ friendly” “Matrix he’s gonna kill the other stallion, quick, take the shot!” I knew I had to do it but I didn’t want to, but he was going to kill this pony……I had to make this count. I went into S.A.T.S mode and selected the bastard’s heads. 50% chance of hitting him, I had to take that chance so I squeezed the trigger. *BANG* came the shot from the rifle as I absorbed the recoil as the bullet travelled towards it target and seconds later it made contact with the unicorn stallions head, instantly killing him, I watched as he dropped to the floor with the bullet hole as the new addition to his face. I never thought it would come to this, killing a zebra on the battlefield was easy to get used to after a while but I still didn’t like the idea of killing them as they did us, they were probably forced into the fighting, when it came to killing a fellow pony……..things were different, I had only killed a pony if they were a traitor or a sy for the zebras but now this wasn’t war, this was the future where things may be different, but the feeling stay’s the same. The other two raiders came now round from the other side of the tent to see what happened, that’s when they saw the body and the other mare with her mouth hung open, shocked at the dead pony in front then. There was silence, but that quickly changed as shit hit the fan when the three raiders charged at us with guns blazing, bullets missing us by inches, thank celestia they are shit shots. I took aim at another one of the raiders with S.A.T.S but it was still recharging. “Fuck” I said out loud but that’s when I felt a familiar tingling feeling in my hands. I looked down at them and saw the recognisable dark greyish aura emanating around them. I think now is the time to tell you something else about me. When I first came to Equestria, I didn’t have magic because being human we don’t have it obviously, but after my first few days of being in this world I got in a fight (totally self-defence!) where I discovered my new trait. I had slowly started to develop magic after being in this world and over time it got stronger. But here’s the catch, I can’t control it like a unicorn does, it just comes at goes, mainly at times when I need it the most. My magic allows me to be stronger, hit harder, take extreme amounts of pain and check it; it can slow down time for the short amount of time it appears. Anyway back to the moment at hand. I locked my sight with a mare raider pulled the trigger again and just like clockwork my magic kicked in and time slowed down, the bullet left the barrel with a bright flash and a slow motion bang filled the air I could see the metal projectile was engulfed in the same dark grey glow as is flew towards its target and after many seconds it hit the mare square in the eyes which caused her head to snap back from the force of the round impacting her face. Then time went back to normal and the grey aura disappeared as quickly as it arrived. The two left saw this but kept shooting from behind a rock. “Buck I can’t get them from this angle” shouted silver that had moved to try and get a better shot. “Don’t worry I got this” I replied over the gun fire. I ejected the clip from my rifle and brought out a new one from my inventory and loaded it into the gun, chambered a round and aimed just slightly behind the rock they were hiding behind. “Let’s hope these work as good as I hope they do” I pulled the trigger and was met with an explosion as the bullet connected with the ground directly behind the rock the raiders were using as cover. I could see a large spray of red and chunks of flesh fly through the air. The explosive round had killed them instantly……….one bullet………..was all it took. “Silver, anymore tango’s” “Nope, there all down” “Right let’s go get those other two at their camp, you get the kids but don’t let them see the bodies, there too young to experience death just yet” “Roger that mate” he replied and went behind the rock to grab the foals. I quickly pulled out the mag of explosive rounds and replaced it with the magazine I had previously and slung it over my back and began to sprint over to the raider’s camp. I walked up the tent and saw that the mare and stallion (both unicorns) had their fore arms around each other like they were waiting for the end to come. I walked over to them trying to look as less intimidating as possible but that didn’t work as planned, they took one look at me and they looked like they were about to faint. “Don’t kill us please” pleaded the mare. Just looking at her made me feel sorry for her, she looked like she had been through hell and a lot worse, so I took a step closer, knelt down to her level, took of my helmet and looked into her eyes. “know why would I want to do that” I said in my most calming voice, I then pulled out my combat knife and moved it over to the two of them they both flinched as if was going to stab them but they were wrong. When they looked back at me they saw me cutting through the ropes that were binding them, when I finished untying them, I put my knife away and sat down and brought out my canteen and offered it to them. “What are you and why did you help us” said the stallion taking a drink with his magic. I opened my mouth to explain but I was beaten to it by little twist who had caught up with the rest of our little party and began to tell them of the legend that I am, their mouths were hung open by the end of the story clearly they knew of the legend that was me but I was surprised that ponies even to this day still knew of it. “Is this true, you really are the hu-hu erm humone from the war?” asked the mare “Human and Yes….yes I am” “But how, that was over two hundred years ago?” “Let’s just say I’ve been…… asleep…… for all those years” “Oh…ok well thank you for saving us” “I’m sorry I couldn’t save your friend here” Its ok…… we didn’t know him but it’s not like you couldn’t do anything for him anyway” “I know but…..still” She then walked over to a box and pulled out what seemed to be a very battered pair of saddle bags, she put them on her back and walked over to me then rummaged through the bags. “Here……something for helping us” she pulled out a small bag and handed it to me. I took the bag and put my hand into it and pulled out what seemed to be bottle caps. “Bottle caps, why are you giving me these?” “Oh right, there what everypony uses for money round here” “You are pulling my leg” “Not kidding, well we better get moving I can’t stand to be here anymore and I’ll be sure to spread the word of you, good bye erm what was your name” “Matrix, names matrix” “Ok…..matrix …..Until we meet again” she said trotting of in the direction we had come with the stallion in pursuit. “Hey wait” I shouted to them “Yes” she called back “You might want to take these” I picked up the dead raiders gun and pulled out his extra mags and tossed then to her who caught them with her magic “if the situation arises” she nodded then walked off with the stallion. “I didn’t even get her name, oh well” “Well, all in a day’s work” I said out loud “To bloody right, I’m exhausted from all the walking” said silver “Me too, we’ll make camp here tonight, and then make way for ponyville tomorrow, sound good” “You know it” he replied Present time We had decided to stay in the camp for the night. I had disposed of the raider’s bodies and scavenged them of any ammo or supplies. I gave the poor stallion that was murdered a proper burial. I was now lying against a log playing on my guitar in deep thought with my foals on either side of me asleep, my helmet next to me. The trio where sitting on the other side of the campfire in the middle of ‘our’ camp also asleep. Silver however was still awake. He took one look at me and knew something was bugging me. “Mat……you ok……what you thinking about” I stopped playing my guitar “June, 28th” I simply stated “Oh…..shit dude” “Don’t give me that Sean, you weren’t there when it happened” I growled back, he cringed when I said his real name “you could at least tell me what happened that day” “No” “Ok……well I’m going to sleep, you keeping watch” “Yeah, you go to sleep, I can’t anyway” “Alright then mate g’night” “Night silver” and with that he quickly dozed off, I just sat there and tilted my head back to look at the night sky but was disappointed to see that there were no stars just cloud. I rested my guitar next to my helmet carefully not to wake my sleeping children then pulled out my wallet. I picked out one of my favourite photos from the wallet and just stared at it. It was of me and my friends and family, about a month before I went off to fight in the war. I sat in the middle crossed legged, with my wife dashie resting on my head and my two foals on my shoulders, the rest of the main six were behind me with applejack’s ‘presumably’ colt friend (I forgot his name) as well as some others, ditzy doo, big mac, Lyra, silver, vinyl, my over friend frost storm (wonder what happened to him) and the CMC were there as well, sitting in front of me. That was one of my best memories but then the worst ones came flooding back. My thoughts kept going back to that one day, that day which nearly scared me forever. I knew that I couldn’t hold back these thought’s so I let them run through my head. 3rd POV Flashback, 1 month before the bombs Location: 1 mile over zebrican borders, unknown village, frontlines June 28th 16:00 Gun fire. Screams of the wounded and dying. the constant fire of artillery. that was all that could be heard on this part of the battle field. The soldiers of a small platoon of the equestrian army where held up in a hastily dug trench under constant fire from the zebra held village 200 metres north of them, the wounded where pilling up, ammo was running low and so where medical supplies. The captain was desperately trying to keep the morale up and had constantly kept requesting support. He was helping the medic attend to one of the wounded when he heard the sound of wings flapping from behind him. He turned his head away from the injured soldier and say a Pegasus clad in armour he could see on the flank of the Pegasus’s was a recognisable symbol A could with a multi-coloured lightning bolt. “General rainbow dash, is that really you” he said in disbelief before saluting “At ease and Yes it is me captain, what’s the situation here” she asked him "Where under fire from the zebra village to the north, we can’t advance, the wounded are piling up and were running low and ammo and supplies fast” “Understood have you tried calling reinforcement’s” “I’ve been trying but they keep denying me any support” Rainbow was about to speak but a familiar whistling sound filled the air and was getting louder “INCOMING ARTILLERY EVERYPONY GET DOWN!” shouted the captain. Seconds later the battlefield was filled with explosions and dirt and debris flying everywhere getting ever closer to there the trench. The captain picked up the radio and tried to get hold of command again THIS IS CAPTAIN WING FLARE, WE ARE GETTING PEPPERED OUT HERE, AND WE NEED IMMEDIATE ASSITANCE NOW!” No answer “FUCKING DAMMIT” he shouted then turned back to rainbow that was just standing in the trench not bothered about the artillery barrage falling down around the platoon. Rainbow dash new they would all be dead soon there was only one other option to get out of this mess. “Captain, give me the radio” she said sternly “Yes general, but they won’t listen to anyone right now” he replied “THEY WILL LISTEN TO ME” she shouted over the booming of the artillery as she brought the radio up to her muzzle “THIS IS GENERAL RAINBOW DASH, PRIORITY STAUTUS 1, CODE 61793, REQUESTING SPECIALIST MATRIX I REPEAT REQUSTING SPECIALIST MATRIX NOW!” ………………………… “We copy your request general, specialist matrix is inbound to your position E.T.A seven minutes” came the voice on the other end of the radio. “Roger that command, seven minutes, out!” she put down the radio and pulled her battle saddle grip to her face and walked up the captain. “General, who or what is specialist matrix?” asked the captain in disbelief that she had just managed to actually get through to command. “he’s our only hope of getting out of this mess but I don’t doubt for a second that ‘he’ will fail us we just have to hold out for at least another five minutes plus you'll know him when you see him” “But general we'll be overrun in five minutes” he said “Hold yourself together, he’ll be here in time” she said before looking over the trench wall “I sure hope he does” Five minutes away Matrix POV music link I’m sitting in the back of a vertibuck with loud rock-ish music playing through the loud speaker, the ‘zebra hunter’ the vertibuck was called. It was a modified version so that it could go faster and was slightly more armoured. Its pilots were ‘gold star, a unicorn mare and ‘honour bolt’ a Pegasus stallion. A married couple they were and completely inseparable, they were pretty much my chauffeurs, ferrying me to and from bases and the frontlines. I sat in the back, wearing my elite armour, holding one of my lightning blades while using my combat knife to embed the initials of my foals into its side. “Hey matrix, just got on the horn, we dropping you in to assist a platoon that’s trapped a mile over the border, E.T.A five minutes” said star from the cockpit. “Got it, thanks star” I said through my helmet’s mic, I had finished scratching the initials on my blade so I put it back into its shoulder sheath and my combat knife into my hip sheath. I had just been picked up from a base not ten minutes ago to head back to ponyville. It had been a week since I last saw my family and friends. Rainbow was on army leave to sort things out with her ministry and to look after the kids, but knowing her she would have been quite busy so she may have gotten a foal sitter. But I was completely unaware of where she was right now. I got up and walked up towards the cockpit and leaned in through the door. “Hey you two, how’s it going?” “Mighty fine matrix just mighty fine” replied bolt “That’s good to know” but that’s when I noticed that star was looking slightly bigger than usual “Heh looks like someone’s got a bun in the oven” I said sarcastically to star who now began to blush a little as well as bolt “So when did you do the dead, you might as well confess” “Six months ago” said bolt “That long ago huh eh bolt, am I expecting a filly or colt” I asked “Twin filly’s” said star “but we haven’t come up with names yet” “That’s great news and don’t worry you’ve still got plenty of time and if you can’t think of anything I’ll be willing to help out” I said “Oh thank you matrix, you’re such a dear” replied star “I know I am” I said jokingly getting them both to chuckle a little “Ok matrix were about two minutes out” said bolt “Alright mate I’ll get geared up” I answered then walked back into the crew compartment and began to load up. I picked up and loaded bozar then checked my pip-buck to see the status of my ammo, 1200 rounds, plenty for me. I slung it over my back and picked up my other weapons, my two dual weld pistols dubbed ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ they were both Beretta 9mm’s, when I came here I only had one but when I met my friend silver he took my gun and enchanted it, he made an exact copy of the gun so I had two of them, he also made them so that they had unlimited ammo and never broke, but that didn’t stop them from overheating. I spun them on my fingers and slotted them into the holster’s on my hips, I picked up a few grenade’s and checked my knife’s again, dual lighting blades in my shoulder sheaths with combat knife on my hip, check. I then turned and moved back to the cockpit. “We there yet” I asked them “Were about a minute out……wait I can see the drop zone now right there” said bolt pointing a hoof at the terrain in front of us “Holy shit” I said out loud. From what I could see there was a trench almost surrounded by black and white figures that were pouring out from a nearby village with artillery fire all over the place and bullets flying everywhere. “Guys this zone is too hot for you to land, just fly over the field, I’m going to drop in” “Erm I don’t remember packing any parachutes matrix” said bolt “You forget who you’re talking to bolt, I don’t need a parachute plus I don’t want to risk you guys getting shot down especially when you’ve got kids on the way, I don’t want to you guys to die because of me and you can consider it an order” “Ok buddy, your call, I’m opening the side door now” “Thanks guys I’ll see you on the other side” I said before exiting the cockpit and walking over to the other side of the compartment to the door, I quickly pulled out my iPod, and selected a track to listen to. I pulled of my helmet, put in my earphones and put my helmet back on. Now I just had to wait until bolt gave to word to jump. "10 seconds………..5….4....3….2….1….Drop! Drop! Drop!” Said bolt as we passed overhead of the trench. I then ran straight through the door and began to go into free-fall. Let me tell you when you’re falling from 300 metres and you’re picking up speed rapidly heading into warzone, most would freak out, but not me, I was trained for this and thanks to the augmentations I went through I was damn near hard to kill. Bullets and artillery shells missing me by inches but I didn’t even flinch, about 100 metres from making contact from the ground. I felt the familiar tingling feeling in my hands. My magic was kicking in and just at the right time too. Time reduced to a crawl as I approached the ground just in time for me correct myself before I hit the ground. When I hit the ground I sent out a small shockwave of dirt and debris knocking over a few zebra soldiers. I stood up from the position I had hit the ground in and pulled out my gun as time went back to normal. I aimed without S.A.T.S dropping a few zebra’s instantly then I ran backwards towards the trench where the platoon was holding up. Character switch Rainbow’s POV Five minutes, five measly fucking minutes, that’s how long we need to wait here for him to get here, please celestia helps us, help us survive just five more minutes. I peered over the edge of the trench and was met with three charging zebra’s so I pulled up my mouth grip and fired a quick round burst at them dropping all three of them. This continued for the next couple of minutes until I the captain spoke up “General, back up is inbound E.T.A 1 minute!” he said avoiding a volley of bullets fly overhead narrowly missing him by inches “I see the vertibuck, inbound from the east” shouted another soldier along the trench, I turned my head and saw the flying metal machine heading towards our position very quickly, then it passed overhead but didn’t stop to turn around but kept on going. That’s when I saw the a tall figure jump of the side of the vertibuck and went into free-fall and many seconds later he impacted the ground creating a shockwave of dirt around him knocking over some zebra soldier’s. He then stood up and pulled the gun strapped to his back and downed a few zebras he then turned around and ran towards us and jumped into the trench landing next to me, completely missing me , slamming his back against the dirt wall, he took off his helmet, revealing his dark brown hair and light blue eyes. Just further down the trench some soldiers had noticed him drop in so unexpectedly and where saying things like ‘oh my goddesses its him’ or ‘it the human were saved’ so seemed to notice them but not me so I think it’s time I surprised him. “You sure do know how to make and entrance, don’t you mat” I said into his ear “Rainbow?” he said then quickly turned his head towards me in complete shock “In the flesh” “Dashie, what are you doing here? I thought you were on leave” I took of my helmet then brought him into a kiss which he returned. “I was called last minute to help support these guys that’s when I requested you here” "Ah, right" he said before I pulled him into anther kiss “Wait dashie who’s looking after the kids?” “I asked ditzy doo if she could and she said yes thankfully” " That’s good to know” he said before he looked over my shoulder to see the captain looking at us “Specialist matrix, sir” said the captain before saluting him. “At ease captain, what’s the situation?” “Low on ammo, many wounded, were almost surrounded and there’s a crap load of them with the possibility of a zebra general in the village north of us” “copy that, they won’t be a problem just give me any covering fire you can and I get it done, dashie, shock and drop manoeuvre” he said before putting his helmet back on and grabbing his rifle and vaulting over the trench wall. “Is he fucking crazy? He’ll torn up out there” said the captain “He’s not crazy……he my husband!” I said as I flew out the trench to catch up with ‘mat’ Character switch matrix POV As I jumped out the trench the next track started playing through my headphones. music link “Linkin park, just what I needed” I thought as I gripped Bozar in my hands that were still glowing as I was greeted by two zebra’s but they dropped the floor instantly as I put two rounds in their heads, I heard the flapping of wings behind me and a pair of hooves wrapping under my arms and lifting me up into the air. “Ok dash, get me towards the entrance of the village then get back to cover” I shouted over the gun fire. “No, I’ve got your back on this one” “Well they don’t call you the element of loyalty for nothing” “Ok dash but stay behind me ok!” “Alright, ok were there” “Ok let go…….Now! I said as she flung me into the air and again began to free-fall and when I impacted the ground in sent out another shockwave with my magic, stunning anything in its radius. I quickly regained my stance and ran forward spraying lead at anything with black and white stripes, then the mag went dry so I just slung it and kicked one of the dead zebras rifle into the air, caught it and emptied it magazine before throwing it away and pulling out my lighting blades and just went mad with them slashing and electrocuting any zebra that crossed my path with dashie covering my back. We eventually made it to the middle of the village and where we couldn’t see any hostile’s at all so I sent rainbow upwards to check out the village from above. Wrong move I looked around and about five zebra armed with guns came out from the surrounding houses aiming at me, I had an idea so I slowly re-sheathed my knifes and went for the handle of my duals welds, “Time for a little gun kata” I thought then quickly pulled out my guns then started shooting as they were now a metre away from me (Kind of like this) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player\_detailpage&v=6PX4UYN\_a9I#t=90s They all dropped to the ground in seconds, full of holes, with in complete disbelieve I had just done that. “Holy shit that was awesome” said dash as she flew down beside me after just witnessing me pulling of that stunt I was about to thank her but was stopped when my gaze fell upon anther zebra who was walking slowly towards us, from what I could see he had some sort of high ranking attire and two samurai looking swords strapped to his sides and a general’s cap of his head…..wait …………oh shit its him. (Green writing means the characters are speaking in zebrican) “So it seems you’ve managed to defeat my fellow zebras” he spoke in zebrican “Please if they weren’t such shit shots they would have been a challenge” I replied “Ah so you speak our tongue, demon" he was right i knew how to speak there language, i wasnt sure how but i just could, there are some things i can do that even i cant explain oh god i'm becoming pinkie "I also see that you can shoot, but how good can you swing a blade” as he drew one of his swords and threw it at me which I caught by the handle “Dashie, get back to the trench and get the captain to bring up the platoon” I whispered to her who she nodded and slowly retreated backwards to our soldiers. The zebra was looking at her as she moved away. “Your fights not with her, it’s with me” I spoke in his language then charged at him, my magic make time slow to a crawl, he ran at me too then we clashed swords but with the amount force we had put into our attacks we both dropped them and we went for our pistols (And again kind of like this but Imagine the guy in the blue suit is the zebra fighting on his back legs hard to imagine yes I know but still, stop vid at 2:45 ish) video link this guy was one strong zebra but i managed to get the upper hand, When I pushed him of I pulled the trigger and the round slammed into his chest at close range sending him on his back. I turned around and saw that rainbow and the captain had arrived with what was left of the platoon, about ten other pony’s, then I heard the zebra general groan in pain and I shot a look back at him, if you could see my face behind my helmet my eyes were wide open in shock, he had pulled out what looked like a detonator of sorts. “Now…..you all die” he said in his language before pushing the button. Then a loud eruption sounded across the battlefield, that’s when we saw a barrage of missiles ascend into the air form behind the village and turned in mid-air……………heading right for us. “BASTARD LED US RIGHT INTO AT TRAP” my mind screamed stop current sing and play this video link “EVERYPONY GET BACK TO THEN TRENCH NOW, FUCKING MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!” I shouted as we turned tail and ran back towards the entrance of the village. I was running at full pelt, rainbow at my side the captain behind me somewhere and the rest of the platoon scattered running towards the safety of the trench. Time seemed to slow but I took at glance at my hands and noticed that they weren’t glowing at all but I just kept running. Then the first wave of rockets impacted the ground behind us knocking us over. I got to my feet but my foot caught on something, I looked and saw that rainbow was pinned under a chunk on debris and was gripping my leg. “DASHIE, NO!” I yelled before throwing the debris of her and picking her up in my arms and continued sprinting towards the trench. I reached it and jumped down into it and set her down gently before I helped the captain who was dragging an unconscious pony backwards in as well just before the second wave hit, I dived back down and covered dashie with my body using it and my armour as her shield as the barrage kept raining down on us. After five minutes of keeping our heads down the barrages ceased and everything went quiet except from the occasional firing of guns and artillery in the distance. I yelled for every pony to sound of and was met with a certain amount of replies, the captain had said we lost at least two during our retreat, we would get there body’s and tags later but for now we just attended the wounded. 30 minutes later I was now laying back against the trench wall with my eyes closed and rainbow resting on my lap, I was thinking about how I nearly lost her, but she only earned a broken wing so I was grateful for that, but until we could get her any healing potions bandages had to do. I had helped the medic heal the wounded to the best of our abilities with the supplies we had scavenged form the zebras. I had gone back into the now smouldering village and had gathered the bodies of any zebras I had found and buried them in the village centre marking their graves with their rifle with their helmets on top. Some of the pony questioned why I did that, some didn’t say anything rainbow and the captain didn’t say anything either. They understood why, I was just a thing I did to respect the dead. Now we were just waiting for reinforcement’s to help back us in case any zebras decided to come back. And it looked like our prayers had been answered as three vertibuck approached us and landed right next to us, the lead one was the ‘zebra hunter’ and I could see it pilots thought the cockpit windscreen. Then the side door opened up and out walked a familiar face followed by ten more ponies with rifles. “Silver? The fuck are you doing here?” “I’m your reinforcements and were here to get you and the wounded out” he said as I walked over to him with rainbow on my back eying up the ponies exiting the vertibuck’s. “Well it’s good to see you again old friend but a shame it had to be like this and such a short reunion” “ah well we can make up for lost time later but for now just get the wounded and yourself loaded and well take it from here” he said cockily I just shrugged him of and went into the ‘zebra hunter’ and put dash down of the bench then went to help get the rest of the wounded on board, we were now ready so I just stood at the door looking out at the now ruined, war torn landscape as we slowly lifted into the air, I glanced over at silver as he saluted me with a hoof which I returned with a two finger salute then shut the door and sat down against the bulkhead wall into a much needed sleep. stop music Well guys this chapter was an absolute nightmare to make took me two weeks on and off but I finally got there in the end hope you enjoyed and yeah i know some bits look odd like the giving guns to foals things and the hostage scene but my mind was troubled trying to get round that so they kind of stuck any spelling mistakes you find fell free to point them out and i'll change them now for some rest RM laterz songs used; never forget / halo 3 ost barra barra / black hawk down new divide / linkin park mad world / Gary Jules
chapter 4Chapter 3 (Flashback continuation Matrix POV) Time; 23:00 pm Date; June 29th 36 hours after the fire fight over the border Location; unknown zebra industrial city, ten miles over zebra borders ‘Operation dagger charge’ Selected Squad; ‘the hell ponies’ Support; specialist matrix, leader of assault Squad status; assumed MIA/KIA for the mood “Well this op was a fucking bust” I shouted in my own head as I skulked through the alleyways of the zebra city with two ponies in tow, both of them friends back from ponyville, silver who you all know and frost storm who was a Pegasus, they were all that’s left of their squad of ten ‘the hell ponies’ as they were famously called, they were some of the most hardest soldiers of the equestrian army and they were called in when the going got tough and I should know…..cause I trained them. Right now we were in some fucking zebra city as part of the first assaults on the zebra’s homeland in the operation ‘dagger charge’. Rainbow had been taken back to pony Ville after the battle almost two days ago and silver and his squad had swept the area around the village which we now owned then he was picked up with his squad to be part of this operation. I was assigned to silver’s squad to lead the attack of nearly one thousand soldiers on the industrial city and let me tell you it was a fucking blood bath. This city reminded me of one of those poorer cities back on earth like Africa or south America with the main city centre and factory’s in the middle and the slum housing on the outer edges, it was now dark, raining and quiet except from the occasional gunfire in the distance, me and silver’s squad had been cut off from the main group in the main attack that were holding the lines on the southern end of the city whilst we had ended up on the northern side. Our squad had been ambushed as we had walked right into a slaughter, losing seven members in the space of five minutes……….five measly fucking minutes…………these zebras have now mercy what so ever, at least subtle rampage had managed to escape but he’s now on his own somewhere in this city, he may be a unicorn but he wouldn’t be able to get outa here easy, he would just get shot or have his magic paralyze………god I hope he’s ok. All three of us looked like shit at this point but we’ve been through worse, I moved up the corner of the building placing my back against the cold hard concrete, gripping Bozar in my hands with a silencer attachment, if only the same could be said for my pistols but who cares if things got close quarters, I always had my knifes and on my back and I had my anti material rifle I had picked up back at the base for the briefing of the op, silver had his twin assault rifles with silencer’s (no fucking surprise there!!) and his dual katanas and pistol, storm had dual smg’s in his battle saddle with silencers, combat knife and standard issue pistol. Even when silenced we were a force to be reckoned with…………but were not invincible I heard voice’s coming from down the street as well as seeing a number of red markers on my E.F.S so I ushered both of them against the wall, weapons at the ready, I peered round the wall and turned on my helmets night vision to see a group of zebra’s in a little makeshift scout outpost, they were all speaking zebrican but I couldn’t hear because I was too far to understand them properly, I scanned each hostile carefully, six zebras, two rifleman, one engineer, one flamethrower, one sniper and a radio operative. 'Well these guys look easy enoughooooohhshit me and my big mouth' I just love to keep jinxing myself as a zebra wearing a colonel’s uniform walks out of the makeshift tent on the right hand side of the street. I pulled my head back around from the corner and sank to the floor resting my rifle on my lap and taking my helmet of, revealing my dirt and blood covered face, I ran my hand through my now greasy hair ‘note to self-get a shower when possible’. “Matrix, what’s up?” whispered silver “Round the corner, 50 metres down the street, six hostiles plus one possible colonel” “What, let me see” he said so I shuffled over a bit so he get a look round the corner then he froze solid “Silver, Silver what’s wrong?” Asked storm “its…….its……” he was just stood there not moving so I pulled him back round from the edge of the building and brought him to face me “Silver what the fuck is wrong?” “It’s him…….that bastard………….colonel zakoto…….he’s the one that………….…..that killed my parents all those years ago……when I was just a foal back in…..back in Karalia” “WHAT, are you sure its him, how can you tell” “I don’t care, I just know it’s him…………and I’m gonna kill him!” “silver no” I stopped him before he gave us away “If you go out there you’ll get killed plus he’ll just call for back up or run so I suggest leave it” “But mat-“ “No. fucking. Buts silver, now is not the time for vengeance, so that will have to wait, you will get another chance but the way we are in now, now is just not the time” *sigh* “ok matrix……..so what now” “Hmmmm I have an idea” I put my helmet back on then leaned over and picked up a small piece of rubble and moved back up the edge of the corner and peered round again, some of the zebras had gone back into the tent leaving only the sniper and the one with the flamethrower. I lobbed the piece of rubble at the collapsed building on the right side of the street; both zebras looked towards to noise as all three of us silently sprinted across the street in the alleyway adjacent to the one we were just in. “Man that was close” I said as well all stopped for a second, I crouched down and brought up my pipbucks map of the city so we could plot a route back towards the main force. “hmm I seems we’ve gotta go down these set of streets and possibly through a small part of the slums to get back to our lines and hopefully that should be easy but we might have to make and overnight stop at some point too” “Roger that” said silver and storm in unison, we then moved down towards the other end of the alley and peered into the street, we looked to the right and saw nothing but an empty street but when we looked to the left we saw a crashed vertibuck, I prayed to celestia it wasn’t the zebra hunter as we cautiously moved down the sidewalk towards the crash site. As we got closer we could see the full extent of the damage done to the vertibuck, it was riddled with bullets holes, one engine was laying a few metres away buried in the ground and there was blood all over the ground We reached the downed bird and my prayers were answered as it wasn’t the zebra hunter, we then quickly scouted the surrounding area, nothing we couldn’t see so we proceeded to check the inside of the craft, the side door was open but it was pitch black inside, silver and frost stayed outside while in went in. When I saw the interior it was just a mess “Damn” I spoke “What you got specialist?” said frost from outside “A last stand……….” I said “Fucking zebras, they show absolute no fucking mercy” replied frost What indeed I was looking at was what seemed to be a last stand, there lay three bodies, two pony’s sitting back two back, one who was aiming down out the door and the other would have been aiming through a hole in the side of the fuselage, the other pony was lying against the cockpit bulkhead in a pool of his own blood, riddled with bullet holes and his gun in his hoofs, eyes wide open still in the same facial expression before he met his end, I moved over and closed his eyes slowly, I walked into the cockpit and to my surprise there was no body’s, This gave me three possible answers to this little mystery; One, they lived and managed to escape and link up with friendlies, two, they lived, escaped and are now somewhere in the city or are captured, three, they died on impact but some pony moved the body’s, but who would do that? While I tried to unravel the mystery the radio in the cockpit started playing static so I snapped out of my small trance and scanned through the channels, nothing, that was until I came across the emergency channel “to anypony out there listening to this on the emergency channels, please help us, this is corporal subtle rampage of the equestrian army, I am trapped on the sixth floor of an apartment building roughly twenty blocks north of a crashed vertibird with its two pilots, we are running low on ammo and medical supplies, one of the pilots is badly injured and I’m not sure if she’ll make it, so please if any pony hears this get here ASAP” ‘Well I’ll be, that crafty bastard managed to ‘not’ get his ass blown up, I’m impressed’ I turned of the radio and head out the cockpit to inform silver and frost of the news “Hey guys I solved the mystery behind the missing pilots and do I have something else to tell ya” “What is it?” asked silver “The pilots aren’t dead, there about twenty blocks up the road on the sixth floor of an apartment building but ones injured……badly” “And what is the news?” storm piped in “well its seems rampage is alive and is holding his sorry ass up with the pilots………….and where gonna get them out but first were gonna get as much ammo out of this here bird, rampage is running low and it looks like he may not survive for much longer if patrols keep coming” “Alrighty then let’s get to it” spoke silver About five minutes later we hade scavenged five boxes of ammo for a few weapons, two belts of grenades and five packs of explosives plus two medical cases, silver and frost carried the ammo boxes while I had the explosive and medical stuff, we set off down the street sticking to the alley ways and the shadows as much as possible to avoid detection, we were about two buildings away from the six story building rampage had described when a patrol of three zebras came into view. “Shit, get back!” I whispered them quickly as we backed up into the nearest alley “What’s up?” storm whispered “A Three zebra patrol, we either take em out now or were fucked!” I replied “Ok let’s do it” “Storm you take the one on the left, silver the right, I’ve got the middle, on 3…………..1…….2……3………..now!” We all burst round the corner, quickly locking onto our targets and dropping them with suppressed fire, once all three were dead I crouched over to the body’s and picked up one of their radio’s ‘Could come in handy later’ I thought After looting and hiding the body’s we finally made it to the apartment building, unaware we were being watched. we cautiously moved through the ground floor making our way up the stairs avoiding the elevator’s, I mean it’s obvious to avoid them isn’t it………right, we made it to the top floor and moved down the main hall in single file since it was quite narrow, we rounded a corner and was met with five dead zebras and a lot of blood “Damn rampage put up a real fight” “Frost, keep it quiet” I said sternly We kept walking down the hall until I spotted one door that was covered in…………..crystal? Oh yeah I forgot that rampage being that he is a unicorn, he has this rare power called crystallokinesis he calls it which gives him the ability to control gemstones and make them grow where he wants them to and how he wants them too. For instance he can coat his hooves in diamond, he must have used it to barricade the door but it looks like the zebras had been trying to get in as there were a few cracks in the turquoise crystal…….stuff We stacked up against either side of the door and I knocked on the wall “The sun rises in the east” came a voice from behind the door “The moon sets in the west” I replied answering the pass phrase “Mat, is that you?” came the voice “No it’s the fucking mailmare, of course it’s me dickhead, now are you gonna let us in or what?” “Yeah one second” replied rampage as the turquoise crystal barricade started to shrink then disappear quickly, then he started fumbling with the many locks on the door, “Fucks sake hurry up,” exclaimed storm “Hey frost, you know when I said shut the fuck up” “Yes” he answered in confusion “Well consider it a standing order” I spoke in my most badass voice just as rampage opened the door “Get your Asses in here” the Pegasus spoke before diving back in the room, silver went in first then storm then me and I shut the door for rampage to barricade it again “Man its good to see you guys” said rampage “You too man, I thought you had gone and got killed back there” I said in a relieved tone “Well you’re wrong because I’m still kicking and breathing” “Hmmm don’t go getting too cocky now, by the way didn’t you say on the broadcast you had the two pilots here?” I asked “Yeah she has an injured leg and is in the other room, you got any supplies?” “Yeah fuck loads” I said as me sliver and frost dumped the scavenged supplies in the living room which was a mess with ruined furniture all over the place and only a few windows weren’t smashed so the floor was slowly becoming one big puddle from the on pouring rain “Frost you’re the better medic out of all of us, you go help the pilot,” I said to him He mock saluted me then trotted off into the other room, I went and sat down on the only untouched sofa in the room where the earth pony pilot was sitting with a canteen in his hooves, he had a dark green coat and white mane and tail but I couldn’t see his cutie mark because of the flight suit he was wearing “Hey you alright there” I said as I put a hand on his shoulder “Yeah…………I’m fine” he said unaware of who I was…….until he looked up at me, letting out a small gasp finally realising who I am “Sorry sir, I didn’t know it was you specialist matrix, sir” he quickly sat up saluting” “no need for formalities here soldier, were all in the same shit for now just call me matrix or mat whatever suits you” “Ok then matrix how do you plan on getting back to our lines?” “Well if we spend the night here, we’ll go through the slums circling the outer edge of the city until we meet up with friendlies, that is if you have a radio, I heard a radio broadcast just before our squad got cut of that we were going to withdraw when the op went to shit” “Right, I’ll take your word for and I know my sister will as she thinks highly of you, she loved you back when you were Dj humanz, probably seeing you here will make her stop feeling crap about this situation” “Hehe I haven’t done that in a while……….Wait! The other pilot is you sister……………and she has…………..a crush on me?” he nodded in confirmation “Damn, well I’m sorry to disappoint her but I’m a married man, but I can try and cheer her up, what’s her name?” “Heh, you do that and I would be grateful, her name is red lilac, I’m hammer wood by the way” “Let me guess, wood carpenter?” “How’d you know?” he asked dumfounded that I knew what he used to do before joining the army “Name says it all” I simply said “Ah right well then I’ll leave you to help my sis” “Ok mate then back in a few” I said as stood up then walked over to the room where his sister was “Wait a sec!” hammer called back “Yeah?” I replied “Who did you say you were married too?” “I didn’t” “Well could you tell me” he asked “Rainbow dash, why?” “The ‘rainbow dash’ I refuse to believe that” “Oh really then how come in know the names of ‘our’ kids” I said back “Mostly everypony does but from what I heard only her husband has her foals name on…….his…….blades” he said trailing of from what he was saying as he looked at me I had drawn one of my lightning blades revealing my daughter ‘blue angel’s’ name on its side “Believe me now” “Yes sir” “Well I think that’s sorted now please excuse me” is said as I re-sheathed my blade then opened the door and I saw frost tending to her leg on the broken bed, she had a pinkish red coat and a light yellow mane and tail, and yet again I couldn’t the pony’s cutie mark because of her flight suit, she looked like she was almost out of it but still awake and she hadn’t recognized me yet, good, now I can surprise her “Hey storm, how’s she doing?” He just looked at me with a blank expression “Oh right, permission to speak, smart-ass” “She’s lost a bit of blood but she’s fine for now, she just need’s to keep of her hind leg is all” “Nice job, say could you give me a few minutes with her, I need to speak with her about something’s” “Erm sure, yes sir” he spoke before moving out of the room leaving me and lilac alone “Hey lilac, can you hear me?” I asked “Uuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh who are you” she asked out loud, lifting up her head lazily and opening one eye “Oh come on, how can you not recognise you own idol” I said taking of my helmet revealing my face to her, she opened her other eye and rubbed both of them with her forelegs, when she lifted her head up to me again her mouth dropped open as a smile spread across my face “Hey I heard that a certain somepony has a thing for me and my music” “Ohmygoshit’syouDjhumanzineverthoughtiwouldevergettoseeyouforreal” she said almost rivalling pinkie pie when she’s at her most hyper-ist, then she realises that I’m higher rank then quickly begins to apologize “Oh I’m sorry specialist, sir, it’s just that I’m a really big fan of yours, I had all your songs and went to almost all of your concerts when I was younger but I never thought I would see you up close and personnel” “Hey it’s alright and it’s been a while since I’ve had anypony talk about my previous job but what can you do when you’re at war, is your leg feeling okay? And please call me mat or matrix whatever you prefer” “Ok…………mat and I can’t feel anything,” she said “Good, that’ll be the med-ex kicking in I presume, also a little bird told me that ‘you’ have a crush on me” “W-what! Who told you that was it wood, if so I’m going murder him!” “No it wasn’t him at all, let’s just say I have a knack for spotting things like that, but I’m sorry to say I’m a married man I’m afraid” she put on a saddened face as I said that “But that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends and all, tell you what, once we get out of this shit I’ll buy you a drink sound alright?” I quickly said to get her hopes back up “WOULD IT EVER” she shouted with excitement “Ok, ok jeez keep it down, not exactly the friendliest neighbourhood right now” “Oh yeah right sorry” “It’s ok; just try not to get too excited ok” “Ok but could you please play me a song, its just that I haven’t heard you in a while, if that’s ok with you?” “Sure it is but I’m gonna have to keep it down a tad you know hostile territory and everything” I said as I pulled out my collapsible guitar, putting it together then finally tuning it “So, what do you want me to play?” “That one about the hero of war!” she instantly exclaimed “Ah rise against, haven’t played that one in a while but sure, anything for a fan” I said before I started strumming the guitar hero of war (Intro) He said, "Son, have you seen the world? Well, what would you say if I said that you could? Just carry this gun, you'll even get paid" I said, "That sounds pretty good" Black leather boots, spit shined so bright They cut off my hair but it looks alright We marched and we sang We all became friends as we learned how to fight A hero of war, yeah that's what I'll be And when I come home they'll be damn proud of me I'll carry this flag to the grave if I must 'Cause it's flag that I love and a flag that I trust I kicked in the door, I yelled my commands The children they cried but I got my man We took him away, a bag over his face From his family and his friends They took off his clothes, they pissed in his hands I told them to stop but then I joined in We beat him with guns and batons Not just once but again and again A hero of war, yeah that's what I'll be And when I come home they'll be damn proud of me I'll carry this flag to the grave if I must 'Cause it's flag that I love and a flag that I trust She walked through bullets and haze I asked her to stop, I begged her to stay But she pressed on So I lifted my gun and I fired away And the shells jumped through the smoke And into the sand that the blood now had soaked She collapsed with a flag in her hand A flag white as snow A hero of war is that what they see Just medals and scars, so damn proud of me And I brought home that flag, now it gathers dust But it's a flag that I love, it's the only flag I trust He said, "Son, have you seen the world? Well, what would you say if I said that you could?" I strummed the final chord and I was given a small applause from lilac as she clapped her hooves together “Thank you so much, I feel so much better now” “That’s good to hear,” I said calmly “Yo matrix, get your ass in here” said silver from the living room “Coming, back in a moment lilac, get some rest for now” I said quickly folding away my guitar before picking up my helmet and leaving the room shutting the door behind me “What you got silver” in asked him who was floating a pair of binoculars to his face, looking out the window “Movement, five blocks down, approximately ten zebras, probably just on patrol but they did look our way a few times” “Let me look” I said sternly, he floated over the binoculars and I grasped hold of them and surveyed the street below, silver was right, there were about ten of them, all surveying the buildings around them, I turned my attention away from the patrol and towards the rooftops after feeling a little paranoid, I scanned the building two blocks away from us, nothing there………..'wait what was that glint just then……….ohhhhh shit!' “SNIPER, GET DOWN NOW!” I shouted and ducked at the same time as the snipers shot narrowly missed my head by inches, we all dived behind any available cover as I put my helmet back on and picked my rifle of the floor and aiming through the window at the zebra sniper, I fired of a couple of silent shots but they missed being how far away I was but then what happened next made my eyes go wide, one minute he was there, the next he just turned invisible ‘Shit, this guy has a fucking stealth suit…oohhhh were fucked now!’ “Matrix there’s chatter on their radio!” shouted silver “Gimme that thing!” I said as I snatched the zebras radio from him and pulled it to my head “This is sniper out post 10; I need an artillery strike on the building, two blocks north of my position copy over” “………………” “We read you outpost ten, artillery is inbound” ‘Ok scratch that, NOW were fucked!’ “That sniper’s got a fucking stealth suit and he just called in an artillery strike, everypony get out of the fucking building NOW!” I shouted as I quickly got to my feet and barged down the bedroom door and lifted lilac onto my shoulders in fireman carry and back into the main room where rampage again had unblocked the door and headed for the stair’s but just as we started heading down them the whole building shook as an artillery shell hit the side of the building. We all fell to the floor from the force of the shaking, then the worst thing just had to happen, the section of stairs in front of me collapsed and fell bringing with the next to floors down as well. “FUCK THIS, GET TO THE ROOF” I shouted as well all turned tail up the stairs onto the roof with me still carrying lilac, we burst through the door and looked for a way to get of this building, nothing. 'Well…shit' Then another volley of artillery shells hit the building lower down, ruining the supports, the building started to sway a little a more artillery pounded the building, I looked over the edge of the roof railing and saw another building at least four stories high ‘I must be fucking crazy for thinking this’ The building started to sway more in the smaller buildings direction i moved back into the middle of the roof ready to sprint but not before I tell everypony my suicidal plan “Alright on my go, everypony run and jump behind me of the building!” “SIR, ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY!” shouts hammer “Maybe, maybe not” I said as the building then started to fall towards the lower building “GO, GO, GO!” I shouted as I ran forward at full speed with everypony else doing the same, the building made contact with the other as well all jumped through the air and landed roughly on the smaller buildings rooftop me silver hammer and lilac were dazed slightly but frost was ok,cause he being a Pegasus so he could glide down without difficulty, fucking figures. We regained ourselves with me picking up lilac were I had dropped her during the jump, we then burst through the door that lead downwards, rapidly running down the emergency stairs past the floors and breaking down the door into the alleyway and sprinting of in the direction of the slums before both buildings collapsed under each other. Present time, morning 05:00 am I slowly woke……..wait when did I fall asleep……..ah well it doesn’t matter but god that was a bad dream………..wait, no……..not a dream............a memory, a bad memory, god I hope this isn’t going to happen a lot, not like what happened all those year ago, I slowly opened my eyes to find I’m lying on my side facing silver, it’s still dark since it’s the early morning, I blink slowly a couple of times but then my gaze falls upon something behind silver, a dark figure was approaching silver, that’s when he started to wake as well. he yawned quietly then his eyes fell on me, he saw me staring at something behind him then he saw something that must be behind me, he looked back to me, I nodded at him slowly as did he, he sprung up, startling whoever was behind him while I quickly sat up and threw my arms back and grabbed the figure behind me, flinging them over my shoulders and onto the floor in front of me. I pulled out my combat knife and held it between the hooded figures eyes, whoever this was they smelt life death, I looked to my left and saw that silver was pinning another hooded pony to the floor with his gun in there face, our commotion woke the children and the three other foals, all were wondering what was going on, my attention then went back to the hooded pony I had pinned to the floor “Who the fuck are you?” I spat in his face then ripped the hood away revealing his face, that’s when I recoiled in shock at what the fuck I was looking at “What? Never seen a ghoul before?” hey guys another lengthy chapter for you hope its ok, so now we have left mat's mind for now and back into the waste's and with a rude awakening also introducing griffin starring as his oc subtle rampage cyclone flash with his oc frost storm and as you know silverstien222 as silver (songs belong to there original artist's not me) finally i want to give a shout out to veteranO'awesome check out his storys there pretty good so i suggest have a look or not but it's your choice RM laterz
chapter 6Chapter 6 Matrix’s eyes shot wide open as he rapidly sat up pulling out his combat knife pointing it at nothing, after he finally manages to control his breathing down, he slaps himself with his hand across the head to bring him back to the present moment and put away his knife, thankfully he hadn’t woken his children or any-pony else by his sudden outburst. “It’s just a dream, just a stupid b****y dream” he mumbled as he held a hand over his heart then shifted it towards his left shoulder where he felt the all too familiar burning pain. Back on earth many years ago his old flight squadron was on a mission in Iraq to hinder enemy supply lines, but they went under incorrect information and were flying into a dogfight where they were outnumbered three to one. His squad was wiped out and his jet took a hit, so he drove his jet into the supply depot and ejected saving his life, but it wasn’t all a success, he ended up getting captured and tortured, a week later they dumped him in a near bye town with a broken collar bone a few broken ribs and cuts and bruises, all caused be a sledge hammer wielding maniac. when he was picked up by friendly forces patrolling around they brought him back to base and healed him up and that left him with a large bulge on his left shoulder where it healed, ever since then he would occasionally get a burning feeling where the bone had been broke, even though when he went through the alterations Luna and twilight did to him, they managed to fix the bone and make it normal again but the burning pain still remained even after all these years. “I need a shower” he spoke simply to himself so he stood up carefully to avoid waking everypony else up and went into the bathroom, he tested the water in the shower and luckily the water wasn’t radiated but he had to be mindful as the supply wasn’t infinite, but at least it could be purified with the miniature water crystal. After stripping of his armour and clothing, he stepped into the hot water for a good five minutes before emerging from the shower and drying himself off with a towel, it had been a while since he had a proper wash when supplies were being rationed on the front lines, after making sure he was thoroughly dry enough he put the towel around his waist he took a moment to look himself over in the mirror on the wall. Being in his mid-thirties-forties or in this case mid two hundred and thirties-forties, he was in very good shape for his age and even more so from the augmentations he endured, on his torso he donned a six pack with the abs to go with, his arm and leg muscles could be considered large and powerful, buff even by body builder standards, all this thanks to physical training, on his face donned a fair amount of faded scars from explosions and shrapnel and his darkish brown hair now clean was getting slightly long, some just reaching his light blue eyes, but the thing he was more impressed about, was his shoulder which was now normal again, all this made him physically stronger than he normally was and when his magic came in to use it almost doubled that including his strength, endurance and stamina. When he finished examining himself he began putting his armour back on starting with the trousers then boots and the under shirt, next was the chest piece and other amour pieces and after that he put on the duster and then finally the shoulder pieces along with the bandolier pouches, combat knife and canteen across his chest. Satisfied with himself he walked out the bathroom and sat back down on his mattress and looked at the rest of the group still sleeping, quickly glancing at his pipbuck told him it was 09:20 am, he would let them sleep another hour but there was no point getting some more shut eye himself, he wouldn’t be able to after waking up from the dream he had earlier, so he just sat on his bed with his back to wall, iPod earphones in his ears listening to one of his playlists to calm his nerves. Twenty minutes and many songs later matrix found himself in a rather bored mood, he contemplated waking them up but not wanting to, they just looked so peaceful sleeping there, he let out a sigh and stood up from his bed again taking of his helmet leaving it on the bed, he grabbed his rifle from the floor and took out the binoculars from silvers pack then unlocked the blast door up the stairs into the living before shutting the door behind him. After quickly checking the first floor was still clear he then proceeded up the staircase to the next floor and into his room, he looked out the window into the street to see what he could see, nada, not a damn thing was moving outside, so he opened the window and carefully climbed out onto the thatched roof where he could see the most of the town, he pulled the binoculars from his neck to his eyes and scanned around the town for a bit. Silence, that was all there was, just silence, besides the quiet whistling of the small breeze, matrix had been sitting on the roof for a good half hour looking around the town for any signs of life at all, but there just wasn’t anything, on one occasion though he did spot the same stable pony walking around on the other side of town, but other than that there was just silence “It’s quiet, just too f****** quiet” he said to himself as he lowered the binoculars from his face, he continued to sit there gazing at the barren wastes all around him, he contemplated going back inside but then he decided to mess around with his pipbuck some more, he came across the radio setting and just as he did so a notification saying he discovered a new station came up on his HUD, he selected it and turned it on “hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyaaaaa what’s, up waste landers, it is I, Dj pon3, your favourite neighbourhood disk jockey, what’s a disk hell if I know but I’ve got some news, but first the weather report, normal temperature, high chance of death and dismemberment and cloudy as usual or in other words just plain s**t” “but enough of that, I have an juicy story to tell that surprisingly only a few know about, now I’m sure some of you have heard of the tale of the human and how it’s all but a myth, but I have information and conformation that he is in fact, real” “Eeyup, that right kiddies ‘he’ Is real and has recently awoken from a long sleep back from when the great war ended, my source just happens comes from the pony that just have happened to have met him when he saved her from a gang of raiders, and I’ve also learnt that his name is specialist matrix or matrix so good one on you there for helping her out, and this is to all you ponies out there, if you see a figure walking around in pre-war armour standing on two legs that’s looks like one of them diamond dogs but a lot shorter, that’s him, from what my note here says, please show him some respect for he has experienced more hell than any of us, that’s is all, this is Dj pon3, and now some music” “I don’t want to set Equestria on fire……………..” matrix turned off his radio when the song had started to play “Dayum, a few days out of cryo and I’m already on the radio and……..wait did she just say she was pon3, that’s…………impossible, it can’t be vinyl, unless she’s a ghoul, no it can’t be” his moment was interrupted when something unexpectedly just had to happen, he heard a low rumbling coming from the road below him so he carefully slide down the roof to the edge and looked down at the road. The ground was lightly shaking and the rumbling sound was still present but then it began getting louder and louder as did the patch of shaking ground below him, just then something burst from underneath the soil, matrix brought a hand to his face to stop the small spray of dirt and dust, went it finally calmed down he looked back down onto the road at what he saw was bl***y terrifying, a creature that in a way looked like a diamond but a good ten times bigger that also fit the ghouls description of the death-claw he explained to them yesterday was standing just in front of the fairly large hole it had emerged from. “Holy Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, is that a f*****g death-claw, I thought that ghoul said they don’t live around here, crock of s**t that was” matrix whispered to himself as he looked down upon the creature, but luck wasn’t on his side for the time being as the two hundred year old section of roof below him started to crack under his weight “Aw f**k me” was all could say as the section collapsed, sending him falling into the street but his reflexes kidded in and he landed on his feet, as the dust settled around him he quickly glanced up and saw that his rifle hanging from a piece of wood jutting out from the roof, that left him with only his three knifes, not good, then he realised the current situation he was in, he slowly turned his head only to look into the face that looked like had taken a chainsaw to it. “You are one………. ‘ugly’ mother f***er” he stated simply “RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW” the death claw roared into his face some spit also flying at him, Matrix brought a hand to his face a wiped away the spit “That wasn’t so bad” was all he could state before he was slammed into the ground by the hulking creature, pinning him. “Sheesh you could have a least bought me dinner first, but I’m married so I’m gonna have to do this” He pulled his legs up and with all his strength and might, he kicked the damn thing in the gut, sending it flying of him and landing a few metres away in the street, matrix did a kung-Fu style jump to his feet and drew his shoulder lightning blades, blades facing outward, gripping the handles tightly making the magically enchanted blades crackle with electricity, by now the beast was on its feet and was in its own fighting stance staring at him and brandishing its claws at him. “Let’s dance” said matrix as he and the death claw slowly started circling each other. They slowly circled each other twice not once taking there eyes of one another, and then they stopped but continued their 1000 yard stare, matrix glanced down quickly at his hands, the grey glowing aura was there, this fight was his now that he had his advantage, he sprinted forward as time slowed to a crawl, when he got to about a meter he slide into a slide through its legs and dragged his charged blades down across its abdomen as it failed at trying to slash him. Still moving in slow motion he jumped up and grabbed its tail, swung round and carefully ran up its back “YaaaaaaaaaaaaaRRRRRRRRGHHHHH” he screamed as he jumped and landed on its neck, sinking his blades into its upper back electrocuting it where it then tried to throw him of, but instead drove straight into the building on the other side of the street almost brining the whole thing down on both of them. as the dust settled matrix pushed the rubble of him and sprang to his feet and walked over to the creature who was trapped under a huge support beam, he went up to its head and pulled out his combat knife and with his foot moved its head over for easier aim then plunged the knife down, twisting and finally killing it, he pulled out the knife wiped the blood of it then climbed on top of its carcass to reclaim his other two blades, after doing so he walked out the building slightly limping but his magic numbed the pain so he carried on back into the house not before taking a glance other his shoulder at scene behind him “Damn…………..should have recorded that” he said out loud before proceeding back inside rushing upstairs quickly to retrieve his rifle and goggles from the roof then back down to the basement. 30 minutes later matrix noticed that the others were starting to wake from there slumber, he wasn’t a harsh person except when he went into commando/drill sergeant mode so he let them wake up at their own pace, but his mind had other plans, he looked amongst the shelves in the basement, on them where your ordinary DIY and garden tools but his eyes set on one that he would need. An air horn. ‘been a long time since I became a troll, might as well have some fun’ he thought to himself as he slowly rose from his bed to grab the tool for his friends wakeup call as he would call it, once he obtained said item he crept over to silver as silently as he could, like the f****** ninja he is. When he was right up in his face he held the horn right next to his ear and waited for him to open his eyes slightly and when he did he pressed the button BlAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! “HOLY F*** THE HELL IS GOING HERE!!!” shouted silver as he jumped of his bed and into the air then again came back down onto the floor opposite side of his bed “Rise and shine f****t, get your fat ass of the floor and on yours hooves” matrix said plainly as her tried to stop himself from bowling over laughing but it was too late “Matrix you’re a d*** you know that” silver said as he rubbed his temples with his hooves to help stop the ringing in his ears “Aw I know you love me really” matrix replied sarcastically “Tw*t” “Colt cuddler” “Ok now that was just too far” says silver pretending to look hurt “Don’t sweat it, come on lets wake the others, I’m surprised that there still asleep at all besides from my children, they are heavy sleepers” “Just like their parents” “Huh, yeah” “…………………” “…………………” “Matrix………..you ok there dude” “Yeah, yeah…………….yeah…….im fine” “Ok then, I’ll go wake the trio you can get your kids” said silver as he trots to the other side of the room. ‘I swear I worry about that human sometimes’ he thought to himself as he went to go wake up the trio, matrix silently walked over to his bed where his foals lay, he sat sideways on the bed and stroked there manes “Come on kid’s time to wake up now” they didn’t stir “Kids come on now you need to wake up” “But dad I didn’t do my homework” mumbled lighting “You don’t want to get a detention, do you?” “NOPE” they both shouted as they bolted upright wide awake, innocent adorable cute smiles adorned their faces, it was hard for him not to hug them but he did so anyways “Well that was easy, silver, the trio awake yet?” “Eeyup” “You sure” “Eeeyer actually nope” “F****** hells bells, silver how hard can I be to wake up some kids honestly, sorry kids” said matrix apologetically to his children for swearing. “Well excuuuuuuuse me, why don’t you try and wake up three heavy sleeping kids” “Easy, when we get to that town, eventually, you’re buying me a drink” “Yeah right that’ll never happen” but silver was dead wrong, matrix simply walked over to his bed, picked up the air horn twirling it in his hand and walked over to the sleeping trio “Watch, and learn” BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR” “WHAT THE BUCK” shouted cables as he jumped into the air whilst his brother and lil twist simply shot upright. “And that my young padawan is how you do it” said matrix sarcastically “Dude stop f****** quoting star wars” “Tough s***” “Whatever, right now that everypony is awake, lets crack open this b****” said storm eagerly as he walked up the armoury door of the basement, mat walked over the left side of the door and flipped open a concealed panel and after typing in the password a small alarm began to sound of and the door hissed as it unlocked and slid open sideways. “ooooooooooooh baby, we are in gun heaven!!!” spoke silver giddily as he stepped into the room looking around as the shelves and boxes stacked full of ammunition and weapons some secret and only being lightly tested. But the first thing that matrix did was walk over the dish thing in the middle on the room and flip some switches and then the dish came to life “Ah sir matrix sir, you have returned from your cryo sleep, I trust it went well since it has been approximately 200 years and 65 days since you last logged in” “Yes thank you for reminding me Jarvis” he replied sarcastically “Must you call me that ridiculous name from that iron mare show?” asked the computer “Central intelligence unit change mane to Jarvis effective immediately” he ordered “New name accepted, CIU now designated Jarvis” “Matt, really” berated silver “Yes really now shut up and grab some gear, I’ll get you your things in just a sec, Jarvis give a rundown on supplies” After five minutes ‘Jarvis’ had labelled everything that was in the vault matrix walked over to one of the shelves and opened one of the containers and pulled out something very similar “Oh no she didn’t” “What is it” asked silver from round the corner “Applejack made me a fucking dessert eagle mother f****** that’s what” and he pulled out the magazine and examined the bullets “Holy crap she even made custom colour schemed bullets of the mane six as well!!!” “You’re kidding right; you made that joke up about having that gun” In truth, applejack had seen the many modern day gun designs of earth on matrix’s laptop and saw the dessert eagle on the internet and how matrix raved on having one, so she had secretly constructed one from scratch, it looked like a the one from call of duty with a gold and black frame, she also made custom bullets that were painted the same colour schemes of the mane six “hohohooooo maaaaan, I have seriously got to use this thing so bad right now” but matrix had something else to do, he picked up the holster for the experimental Deagle and strapped it under his shoulder and fit as much ammo as he could into his bandolier pouches as well as the gun itself in the holster, he then spotted his old duffle/army rucksack that he could use, so he took it off the shelf and opened it up stuffing in all the groups food and medical supplies then rearranging his ammo stock on his person so he had and even amount on him them put the rest in the bag, he did the same thing with silver supplies Luckily for him when applejack made the Deagle, she altered it so it could fire its normal rounds as well as 9mm rounds and any other kind of pistol ammo that you just happen to have on you, unless it were revolver rounds, she was very thoughtful, mat then walked over to the wall on the other side of the room where a safe was built into it, he entered the combination and opened the door. Inside lays his two original m9 barrettes pistols, enchanted by silver so now they had unlimited ammo and had some cool looking decals on them in addition to his hip holsters, he also pulled out two wooden sheaths with handles on one end and turned back to face his friend. “yo silver, catch!” he shouted as he threw them across to him “My katanas!” he answered as silver caught them with his fore hoofs and hugged them like they were his kids! “Crazy a** fool” matrix mumbled as het fit his own M9’s to his hips and checked each gun to look for any metal fatigue or rust, thankfully there wasn’t any and now he was satisfied he could sit down and plot out his plans and routes with the help of ‘Jarvis’ “Hey Mr Matrix sir what is that pony looking thing?” asked little twist “What is what?” he replied as he turned around to see what she could be looking at, in the corner stood a metal silhouette of a pony with a small metal frame/crane thing holding it up “oh that, that is if I remember from that meeting with AJ, that is one of the prototype T-45d power armour suits for the steel rangers, they were pretty good back in the day but they were brought in too late to see much action, only about a year before everything went to hell, which reminds me hey silver did you ever get any power armour training because I didn’t give the team any?” “Erm no why’d you ask?” came his reply from his head shoved inside a big ammo crate “Just saying that we have a suit right here” “Your f****** joking” “I’m sure as hell not, well since it seems that you don’t require the skills for the thing, we’ll come back for it later, pretty sure there’s a manual for it round here somewhere, either that or Jarvis here can give you it, Jarvis, do you have a quick power armour training tutorial installed” “Why yes sir, I have to whole tutorial stored in my databanks ready for use” “Alright, silver you got all your gear” “Eeyup” “ok if you have any spare mags or stuff, pass em’ here and I put em’ in my bag” As silver gave him some additional gear matrix went back to the safe and pulled out four black silencers, two for his M9’s one for his sniper and the last for his rifle and stuffed them into one of his pouches, now they sure that they could take on the world mat closed up his bag slung it on his back then picked up his anti-material rifle and slung it over his shoulder and attached the strap to his bag then picked up his own rifle and cocked it loading a new round into the chamber. “Jarvis” activate security protocols, security cameras and turrets; no-pony gets in this here house or out unless it’s me or silver” “Affirmative sir” “Alright silver, kids, brothers and little twist, let’s take on the world” “YEAH” they all shouted in unison as they all headed for the stairs.
Chapter 7 Return to a place like hell.Fallout Equestria: Project Human. By Alonelypegasus, formerly RainbowMissile97. Chapter 7. Date: unspecified, estimated to be sometime in the middle of the great war Location: Forward Operation's Base Celestial, Equestrian territory, 50 miles from the main lines Things were going smoothly in and around the F.O.B, normal as they could be any ways, masses of vehicles moved around continuously dropping off or picking up supplies and troops to and fro, ponies moving around in groups training or resting from a bout of battles. in the barracks section connected to the mess hall, a platoon of 15 ponies were heading to eat after a ten hours sleep, they had just finished basic training merely a week ago and some of them were raring to get into a fight, others slightly skittish, they had only just reached the base yesterday after a three day journey from the training facility deep within the confines of Equestria. there platoon leader, lieutenant White Sails, a unicorn in his late mid fifties and former leisurely sailor, he donned a dark grey coat, navy blue mane and tail with two pearl white stripes through both, he had dark blue eyes that reflected like the surface of an ocean, his cutie mark, an anchor with a white main sail behind it, he was in charge of the newly formed platoon, dubbed 'fetlock company'. it was a mixture of of unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies, all in either there late teens or late twenties and they all had a hoof in all specialities, sails looked ahead of them as he trailed behind the group along the corridor, he was an ex-royal guard that served of the ships, an ex-military, when he left he spent his time doing what his passion was, a life on the sea, but when the war sounded, he knew he had to come back. "there so young, adventurous, foolish, and scared" He spoke quietly to himself as he followed them down to the mess hall, inside was full of others ponies eating and conversing with each other around high school like tables, he levitated a tray into his grasp and fell in line with his troops and collected his meal and sat alone on an empty table whilst his platoon sat on a collection of tables listening to other ponies battlefield stories, he sat on his lonesome and slowly ate his salad, thinking about what the situations were like 'over there', he felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned his head to look it was, it was one of the bases colonels, he turned and snapped to attention but the colonel waved it off, he un-froze and sat down. "this seat taken sails?" "Hills? is that you? I haven't heard from you in over twelve years!" "its been the same with me old friend, so I'll ask again, is this seat taken?" "no, it isn't.....sir" "good cause I need a word with you" he replied as he sat down next to him and took of his beret. "About what....sir" "oh please, drop that 'sir' act for now, it makes me feel older than fifty!" "but you are fifty? heheheh its been to long rolling hills" "I know, but now I need you and your platoons help, so it might be wise if they heard this" "of coarse....sir, FETLOCK COMPANY, ATTEEEEN HUT!" they all rose out there seats and lined up in front of there tables with a hoof in salute. "this here is colonel Rolling Hills, he has some information that he wishes to share with myself and your's as well, colonel as you were saying" "thank you lieutenant, first of all, welcome, fetlock company to Forward Operations Base Celestial, I trust you all had a decent training and trip over here, now onto business, I'm sure that some or most of you have heard of bleak hills. There eyes looked from one to another, they had heard of it, bleak hills wasn't just a mountain range full of passes and ambushes, at the end of the ridge itself lay a southerly stretch of over a twenty mile line of hills, flat grass land's and knolls. those parts where called the 'southern deaths knolls' as they had come to be known, trenches, artillery, basically no-ponies land is what the areas around there had become since the start of the war, death counts couldn't be properly collected, they were to high, for both sides. "I take it you have, any-ways, for three days now, we have lost contact with a group of four platoons that were sent to reinforce a section of trench-line and small town originally held by three, they have come repetitively under artillery fire for weeks and only just three days ago, we lost contact, so we are sending you......to investigate, mission objectives, find out what happened and if possible get any survivors out, and then we can reinforce that line again" one of the platoon members raised a hoof. "do we get any support at all? sir" "well for one with you lot being a fresh blood squad, yes" "was it is colonel?" asked sails "well 'he' should be here any....second....now" *SLAM* Everyone turned there heads to the main doors, which had been slammed open, and in said doorway stood a tall two-legged figure, his duster/armour covered in scratches, mud and the blood of others which he trailed across the floor as he walked in, he wore no helmet so they could see his features perfectly, he had pales skin covered in mud, scratches, blood and sweat, his brown muddy blood drenched hair hung limply over one of his green eyes, the other had two faint scratches criss crossed over his eye, though he could see through it, still... He lurched his way over to a table and slumped down his rifle, a weapon very rarely seen or used by anypony else, he rested his head on the table and let out a series of long breaths and sigh's. just from the look of him he hadn't eaten, slept or washed in days, he let out shallow sigh as a voice called out to him. "hey hon, I'll get you a steak just the way you want it, I'll bring it to you're table in a sec" the mare, sweet roll, behind the counter,the two were friends ever since he saved her brother by taking a bullet in the leg for him, he grunted in acknowledgement and turned to the group still in formation as the colonel looked over them. "ATEN HUT" they all saluted, but matt waved them off "nice reception you got me here hills" "I know I work hard, sir these are some new fresh bloods, so mares and gentlesatllions, any guess as to who this here is?" "is that...'the specialist' sir?" a suggestion came from one of the raised hoofs "bingo was his name" the group let out there own gasps and whispers amongst themselves, they all suddenly became excited from just being in the same room with a Equestrian war and civil hero and former celebrity. "specialist? what in the hell happened to you?" asked hills "me? you really wanna know?, i've just come back from a fight that was a fucking. hell. hole, there was so much blood on the battlefield you were practically swimming in it, for. five. days. I haven't stopped fighting, I haven't slept, eaten, washed, taken a shit, my hands are numb from the continuous trigger pulling, I saw hundreds die, in the space of a manner of minutes, seconds even, and all that was just for some fucking pussy reconnaissance mission........good honest ponies died out there.........none that I could bring back, high command honestly fucked this one up" he looked crest fallen down at the table and played with the wedding ring on his finger as the mare chef brought his meal out. "here you go Hun, you need this" the said and she gave him a friendly peck on the cheek and walked back behind the counter "you gonna be ok sir?" asked the colonel putting a hoof on his armoured shoulder, he merely nodded. this war was taking its toll on him, the constant fighting, the constant death, he's seen more blood flow than any man should see in a lifetime, he was slowly beginning to lose himself, this war was a like a combination of world war one, two, the Vietnam war, the modern war on earth, that and something based on futuristic war, a combined hell. right now the squad he would have normally been working with right now was somewhere else. "where's you're helmet specialist?" "in for repairs, some lucky fucker thought he could get a shot on me and although he skimmed me he got me right in the fucking lens and the back has been cracked after if continuous wear and tear, you got any normal combat helmet's I can borrow?" "sure sir, I'll still have your old one, you'll have it in an hour, you get some rest then report to the HQ for De-briefing then briefing of this next mission" "you got it, and everyone else can drop it now" they all dropped there stances and went back to the tables, matt just sat in silence whilst the ponies around him on other tables conversed between themselves with stories of each but mainly about him and his 'heroic' deeds. but where they really heroic deeds? he didn't feel like it, how many lives had he taken just in this pathetic, lie of a war, the reason for this whole conflict was all but lost to everyone now, he didn't regret following Celestia's or Luna's commands, he would take a fucking rocket for them, they had been to good to him for him to doubt them. not now or ever. /~~~4 hours later~~/~\ fours hours passed, mat being asleep for two of them, although he troubled himself with nightmares, the same ones he had been having for years now, being slightly sleep deprived he woke up anyway and undressed himself down to his boxes and left his armour on a bench and dumped his dirty underclothes in a wash basket, and grabbed a new set from his own personal locker, a simple olive green shirt and dark brown trousers, he picked a spare pair of boots and disposed of the old ones. looking like a new tool of war, he made way to the HQ, upon entering there were many ponies wandering around on radios and drawing out battle plans on tables, he walked up to the biggest one, a rectangular holo table with the colonel propped up against it as well as the lieutenant form earlier. "so what's the shit storm you got planned for me this time hills?" "it's a rescue mission you'll love it, there's some juicy mare soldiers out there that need rescuing form there virginity!" a few in the room let out a laugh, mat would've done too, that is, until he saw the name of the place on the hologram. "the death knolls......why are you sending me back there, you know I would rather die then return to that....that hell" out of all the places matrix would not go, the knolls was the number one of the large list, he'd happily take tartarus, or rainbow's heat period, any-day. "as I was saying, nine days ago, the original three platoons led by captain blackout requested support after taking a major beating in a fire fight, four more platoons were sent in to reinforce them and as far as we know they held the line, until three days ago we heard they had come under attack once again, we lost contact with them mid transmission and haven't heard from them since" "and why am I here?" "I need you to help this fresh platoon ease into the fighting, they may be newly trained but they are inexperienced and have yet to go through the site of constant death, so you're going with them, I also want you whilst you're there to get photographic and video evidence of whatever the situation over there is, we have no idea if the stripes have unleashed anything new and also get anyone out of there if they are still alive, for the next time we will re-enforce this section more thoroughly........you are the only one I got that can do this" "....................understood colonel" "ok, you got one hour to gear up and get ready before departure, same for you white sails, get you're platoon up and at em" "roger that sir" "and also for this mission, the specialist is in command of this rescue, so anything that goes, is his call" "affirmative" "right get going" sails saluted then cantered of and out to tell the orders to his men, hills walked up and placed a hoof on mat's arm, who was looking at the holo screen still. "I wont pretend to know the horrors you have seen there, but I have no other better suited for this mission, I know we have friends there but we need to do this, nopony left behind, no matter what kind". "nopony left behind, no matter what kind" mat repeated the motto as he stood and left. "stay with it" hills said to himself as he watched him leave. /~~~50 minutes later~~/~\ *click....click....click...clunk* mat finished loading the last few rounds into his tenth magazine before putting it his bandoleer pouch, he pocketed four grenades, four frags, he unsheathed and cleaned his shoulder blades and his combat knife to glistening perfection, his M9's , primed and ready for anything, and his own special rifle 'Hayley' also locked and loaded, he picked up and placed the combat helmet he used to wear before his current attire upon his head and checked its camera. after checking all his supplies and everything else. he made way to the landing pad's and waited for the platoon to get ready whilst the zebra hunter vertibuck and another one alongside were prepared for the mission. "hey matty! how you doing" asked bolt as he sat besides his wife, matt merely nodded back, they both took notice and didn't say anything, they had known him long enough to know his many moods, this one most of all, when he was at his most down, and the readiest to kill, sails cantered over form the other bird and approached the man. "sir, our second bird is fuelled and loaded, my team are green for go as well" he casually saluted him. the specialist nodded back and told him to get his platoon loaded into the birds. "star. bolt. lets go get our soldiers, nopony left behind, no matter what kind" "Hoah" they replied, mat watched as the platoon filled into the crafts and as the last pony stepped into his, he climbed in and and sat in the door way with his leg dangling out and his rifle on his lap, he sat there in silence, the others muttering to themselves. "is he normally this quiet" suggested one corporal "who knows? but now's one of those times, it pays to be the strong silent type answered sails. as the vertibuck left the ground, he spoke a phrase to himself under his breath that he once said the first time to the troops that went to where he was going all those years ago. "when we go into battle, I will be the first to set hoof on the field, and I will be the last to step off, and I will leave no one behind. Dead or alive, we will all come home together. So help me celestia, for nopony left behind, no matter what kind" and that's were the motto became known to everypony and official. all those years ago. "did you say something, sir?" asked a mare questionably as everypony else sat looking at him, he just smiled to himself with his eyes covered by his hair and helmet. "We who have seen war, will never stop seeing it. In the silence of the night, we will always hear the screams. So this is our story, for we were soldiers once, and young, I am a soldier, we are soldiers, what we do is something that most could never do and live with after, we experience things people and ponies should never see or do, yet we go through it because were trained to do it and because we choose to do it, each for our own reasons" they all looked over each other taking in this little piece of wisdom, unexpectedly to come from the man himself, matt gazed out at the scenery as it passed by, thinking back to that day all those years ago when he was the first to lead the battles, "nopony left behind............no matter what kind" /~\ 30 minutes later /~\ Youtube Video "alright soldiers listen up, I want a nice clean dispersal, look sharp" shouted sails from his seat and matt stood in the doorway as the bird came to the ground, seconds later, wheels touched the ground and matt was already in a crouched position as the others filed out and from the other veritibuck as well. "check you're weapons, only fire unless fired upon, you know the drill, lets go find our soldiers" the specialist shouted as the birds took to the sky and they all started sprinting upwards over the ridge towards the trenches, many smoke stacks were visible above the line, matt was the first to reach the top and instantly he regretted coming. red, a sea of red, of bodies, of limbs, of death, death lay everywhere, the smell was the most intolerable thing mat had smelled, so bad it made him retch. "dear celestia above" said one of the platoon troopers, they either had there snouts buried in there shirt collars or hooves, matt fought back the urge to vomit and surged forward. "company split in two, first half walk along and check our trench line, the rest of you are with me, sails you go with the first group" "sir!" matt, followed by his little team trekked across the bit of no-ponies land to the other trench, the zebra's trench, he cautiously walked along the edge, rifle aimed at anything that moved, he turned on the camera on his helmet and started filming and took a few snapshots then carried on filming. "lieutenant, anything?" he spoke into the radio, "negative sir, we've found the seven platoons all amongst here, what's left of them" "*sigh* roger that lieutenant, tag and bag any friendlies, there's to many bodies to bring home here, gonna have to wait till reinforcements come and do that" "copy" "shit" matt took a knee at the side of the trench and took of his helmet and in a small fit of rage smacked his rifle but in the ground. "fucking wasteland! fucking death! fucking war!" he shouted whilst throwing a rock into a nearby flooded crater, his squad just looked at him in worry and sympathy, they couldn't feel like he was a the time. he stood up and placed his helmet back on his head and gripped his rifle, holding it close. *rustle* *SNAP CLICK* "contact movement, twenty metres, trench ahead of us" matrix had heard something move in the nearby trench and almost instantly was he dialled on it, the ponies following his lead, moved behind him rifles trained where he aimed. matt dropped down into the dugout and kept moving along until he came to the source, under a pile of mangled zebra bodies, a black and white tail flickered, albeit a small one? "got a live one, pulling him out, cover me!" he grabbed the tail from under the pile and yanked out the struggling form, but just as squad had there guns trained and ready to shoot matrix shouted. "WAIT" he held his hand up then brought it back, they squad couldn't see what he appeared to be holding and couldn't make out his coherent mumbling but were shocked and pointed there guns at him when he turned around. "put you're fucking weapons down!" "but sir that's a fucking zebra!" yes, yes it a was a zebra, but it was just a foal. he was so scared he was so adamant to not jump into matt's arms into the first place, the foal was no older that of the cmc when they were younger, yet he was decked out in a smaller zebra military garb, why he was here? matt may have known why. "he's a fucking foal ass-hat, he shouldn't even be here! look at him, he's scared out of his mind and no doubt he's witnessed death already, something he should never have too! and you're not fucking helping by pointing that fucking gun at him so stand down or I'll shove that thing up you're ass and pull the trigger on full auto!" by now the other squad had walked over and had heard the beginnings of the conversation. "what's going on here sir?" asked sails "this dick face who is getting de-fucking promoted and quite possibly court marshalled if he doesn't put his gun down soon, was about to kill a innocent fucking child" "but he's a zebra!" the pony shouted again "does he look like a fucking soldier to you! DOES HE LOOK LIKE A KILLER!" "he could be a scout!" "bull. fucking horse shit. my ass! if you want to kill a innocent child that's been caught up in a war that shouldn't even exist! then you're just as worse as the fucking enemy" that shut him up, the poor foal was now clinging to the humans chest, although he couldn't necessarily speak Equestria/English, he understood partially what was going on, but he clung onto the his protector like a father would do a son whilst he shivered and cried all the while mumbling in his language. "you know what you are! you're just like the zebra's right now, wanting to kill everything without remorse, he's probably been taken from his family, forced to fight in a wrong war, witness death and be scarred for life, and you tell me we should 'shoot' him, hell if I thought like that I may as well shoot you in the dumb. fucking. hollow skull because how can a Muppet like you pass through the recruitment session!" with that mat turned away and walked off to a nearby fallen tree with the zebra foal wrapped in the folds of his duster as he clung to him, the platoon followed scowling at the one pony who realised his actions and lowered his ears then head to the ground in shame. the human ran his hand through the shivering colt's mane, wasn't necessarily proper fluent in zebrican, but he knew enough yo hold a conversation "it is okay little one, you are safe now" he spoke in his most calmest" "where is mama! where is papa!" the poor colt cried as his tears ran down the humans chest plate all the while hugging for all his worth, mat couldn't believe this whole situation, the stripes were crossing the line now. this poor child is that young that he can only speak the shortest of sentences. "im sorry young one, I do not know, but as of now, I will take care of you, you are safe with me" the colt let out another stream of tears, the rest of the platoon had caught up with him and were circling him and were trying their hardest's to keep their wits about them. 'there's nothing here, just bodies, nothing new to cause this, is was all a stalemate to the death...........I just want to go home' he felt a hoof touch his chin and thus his chain of thought was broken, he looked down and saw the little colt with the saddest face he ever did see, it almost made him want to cry. but he put on a kind smile and unclipped his helmet and plopped it onto the young striped colt's head, it was obviously to big for him but he adjusted it with his little hooves so he could see, the thing that got mat though was that he was now smiling. and of course he smiled along with the rest of them. he ruffled the fur on his back and put his arms around him like a barrier as the little soldier striped colt pressed into his chest. the mare soldiers where D'awing at the scene and the stallions had smiles, apart from the one from earlier who looked away from the group. it was a heart warming scene to break away from the torments of war, but it wouldn't last long. mats smile was suddenly lost, he felt a chill run along his spine, a sign of darkness and something bad about to rain upon them. with one hand he held the colt to his body and the other his rifle in hand. "something's coming! you radio, get the birds to start coming back now! shits about to go sour! everyone to the trenches move!" he started sprinting. the others in tow. they all jumped into the nearby trench that there fellow comrades had once held and hunkered down. they all cocked there rifles and readied themselves for whatever he predicted to come. "anyone got a mirror?" he asked, to no surprise a mare pulled out a small one from her front chest pocket, she tossed it to him as he set to young colt down to his side, he sat against the wall and held to mirror over the trench top. and what he saw in the reflection. three tanks. not of any zebrican design he'd seen before and certainly not of a ponies. but his suspicions were rested when he saw a zebra pop out of hatch. "shit" he spoke over the small distant noise of the engine coming closer. "what is it" "guys we got a tank, three of them, new ones it seems" "you got to be kidding me" "nope" 'well if this is one way of easing them into a fight I don't know what is' he looked over them, it seemed none of them had come along with any explosive, not good in this situation, that is until he saw a rocket launcher along the trench in the hooves of one of the deceased. "this is either one of the best plans i've had or the worst, yeah the worst it is" "sir? what are you planning?" "sails, i want to you take this colt and the rest of you to the LZ and get the hell out of here whilst i give you a distraction then come pick me up when you get out and after i've started running" "um yes sir" he then turned to the young colt "its ok little one, these ponies are going to take to away to safety, but don't worry I will come back to you" the colt protested as he shifted along the line to grab the weapon he needed along with some spare rockets "I want you to hold onto that hat" he smiled "sails, on my go.............3................2................1...................GO!" he jumped up the side and ran forward, took a knee, aimed and fired, the rocket flew true and hit it dead on and exploded in a fire ball of shrapnel and soil. "come get me you fucks!" the other tanks turned, there guns aimed dead centre on him, he had no time to react as they both fired upon him *KRA-BOOM!*
Prologue Re-Write completeprologue Time… we never get enough of it. We have all sacrificed something to get that little bit more of it, but sometimes it can come with a consequence, and now it’s starting to take its toll for the ponies of stable 97 and the secret it has been holding for so many years now is almost ready to be revealed. Here’s the rundown of things. It has been two hundred years since the Great War between the ponies of Equestria and the zebras of Zebrica. The war was bitter, cruel and painful. And when it ended, all that was left was the hellhole that it is today. When the mega spells began to fall, hundreds of thousands of ponies were rushed into underground bunkers commonly known as ‘Stables’. Stable 97 was one of the lucky ones to have made it through the fires of hell and radiation, and this stable is one of those special stables. It holds a secret that has been lying dormant for two hundred years. No pony knows about it except the over mare and all the previous over mares. They know there is a secret in there but even they don’t fully understand what it is. Except just that it’s there, that something was a legend in the old world now it is a myth that is rarely spoke of. What lies deep in the bowels on Stable 97 lies a creature that no pony has seen in 200 years, that creature is……a human…... a creature that walked on two legs and had claw like appendages at the end of its forelegs. Most Ponies said that humans were just and old ponies’ tale and didn’t exist but they were proved wrong one day. It was said a human came to Equestria in a giant metal bird, and that he was about to die on his own world but the sun goddess gave him a second chance and he took it. He then made friends with the ponies of Equestria and lived among them as if he was one of them. Then when the war came to Equestria they made him into a machine of war, ready to die for others and the kingdom he called home. Then the bombs fell. No pony knew what happened to him… Did he die and become one with the goddesses or did he live? No pony knows except the Over mare of Stable 97. ____________________________________________________________ Stable 97, Lower Tunnels ____________________________________________________________ Three young ponies, two of them brothers and both unicorns, and one best friend that was an earth pony where walking down the lower levels of stable 97. Bored out of their minds, they had nothing to do so they had decided to go explore the lower levels out of curiosity and hopes of countering their ever growing boredom. Batter up was younger than his brother Circuitry, who was 12, whilst he was 11. He had a dark green coat and a black mane and tail with light blue eyes, his cutie mark was a baseball bat, the same one which he owned and always kept with him holstered at his side. He could swing it and hit the ball almost every time. His brother sported a yellow coat with a blue mane with green highlights and blue eyes the same as his brother. His cutie mark was a circuit board. He found his talent one day when the terminal for the sewage systems broke down, so he quickly repaired it with some spare cable that he found lying around. When the it came back to life, he restored the terminal back to functionality and that’s when he got his cutie mark, his special talent, both had pick buck’s on their forelegs from when they got their cutie marks and had gotten jobs. They both took care of each other in their own apartment since their mother died a few hours after giving birth to Batter Up; and their father raised them until a year ago when he died in an accident while at work. Little Twist followed close behind, looking around at the dull walls of the tunnels they were walking down. She had a burgundy coat with a light purple mane and tail. She had dark brown eyes but no cutie mark yet she was the same age as Batty (the Stable’s pet name for Batter Up) but she tried everything to find her talent. She lived with her parents but they never really cared for her very much so she lived the majority of the time with the brothers. They felt more like family to her than her own parents but that didn’t mean they didn’t drive her up the wall half the time they were together. As they were walking along the tunnel Twist gave out a load groan: “Uuurrrrrrgghhh, goddesses this is so boring,” she said looking at the floor. “I know, I know. I’m bored as anything too but if we keep looking, hopefully we might find something. You never know,” Batty said as he let a small chuckle. Circuitry then spoke up. “Come on, let’s try this way,” he said, pointing to the right at a T-junction. “Ok Cables, we’re following you since you seem to know where you’re going,” said Batty sarcastically. “Ha-ha very bucking funny Batty and how many times have I told you not to call me by that name?” Circuitry replied. “What? Cables?” asked Batty. Cables was his nickname for his brother and to be honest he knew that every time he called him that, it really pissed him off. “Yes! For the millionth time, just stop-” WHACK! Circuitry stopped mid-sentence as he had walked into a wall in front of him. “Great! A dead end!” Twist yelled out loud, as she turned her head and head butted the nearest wall with a loud thud. When she moved her head away from the wall, there was a loud clunking noise coming directly from where her head had just been. Next, a piece of metal that had been expertly disguised as part of the wall, swung open and behind the panel was what looked like a control panel of sorts. “Hey guys, look what I found,” she turned her head towards her two friends who in turn walked up to what she had found. Circuitry walked up to the control then spoke up: “This looks like a control panel for something, let me work my magic,” but before he could his hoofs on it he was stopped by Twist. “Whoa whoa whoa, what are you doing? You have no idea what this thing does and I know you’re a nerd and everything, but it doesn’t mean you have to go looking at every single thing that has a keyboard,” she did have a way with words but he was now anxious to find out what it does. “Come on Twist, don’t you want to see what it does? I know you do,” he was right, she did but at the same time she didn’t. However, she was overruled as Batty had taken his brother’s side on this one. “Fine. Go ahead, but if we get in trouble, I’m blaming it all on you,” she said with a huff. “Ooooooo watch out, we’ve got a bad flank over here!” Batty teased. “And you can shut your mouth as well, Batty,” said Twist was losing her temper. “Okay okay jeeze, some ponies,” replied Batty in a slightly defeated tone. They stood there for a couple of minutes as they waited impatiently for circuitry to work the panel. “Come on! What taking so long?” groaned Twist. She was getting even more impatient by the minute. Batty was just sitting in the corner swinging his bat back and forth with his magic, taking practice shots. “I’m going as fast as I bucking can, but this bucking thing has a really annoying password that is really starting to piss me off!” Replied cables, as he was now franticly tapping the keyboard and was growing more inpatient. Then he heard a satisfying beeping noise, and then a rush of air came past them from the wall directly behind were Batty was sitting. He quickly moved forward, then turned around with his bat at the ready. Twist quickly moved behind batty while his brother flanked him to his left as they looked at the wall. Suddenly steam shot out from the corners of the wall and a small red light began flashing and a spoken warning began: “Warning! Warning! Cryo chamber door now opening. Please stand back. Repeat, cryo chamber door now opening. Please stand back,” Then the robotic voice was cut off as the wall hissed loudly and then started to slowly roll downwards. the Over mares office. The Over mare was sitting at her desk, going through her daily routines of being the over mare, and in charge of a stable housing over a thousand ponies. She was busy typing some notes onto her personal terminal, then she turned her head away from the computer to take a quick sip of her drink next to her. The room was fairly quiet except for the music that was being played quietly over the radio speaker throughout the Stable. Then suddenly a new sound filled the air. Her ears quickly perked up as she looked back the monitor where a notice flashing on it that read: *Warning! Warning! Cryo chamber door now opening. Warning! Warning! Cryo chamber door now opening* “Oh shit,” she said out loud, almost knocking her drink onto the floor as she quickly scrambled over to where the microphone was. She pressed the button and began speaking into it: “This is the Over mare, I need all security to report to my office ASAP! Repeat, this is the Over mare I need all security to report to my office now!” she moved away from the microphone and began frantically moving about her office thinking to herself. “This is bad this is bad but wait the only way the chamber could be opened is from my office or-” She ran back over to the monitor and began scrolling through the security videos feeds. She then came across what she was looking for… three young ponies were standing in a dead end corridor and she saw the wall at the back move downwards. “This isn’t good,” she said out loud, worry now hung in her voice. ____________________________________________________________ Stable Lower levels ____________________________________________________________ The three young ponies’ eyes were as wide as saucers as they just saw the wall in front of them move, revealing another room behind it. Cables lifted up his pip buck leg and quickly brought up the map of where they currently were in the Stable, only to see that the room in front of them didn’t appear on the map. “What the hay? This room doesn’t even appear on my pip bucks map, it shouldn’t exist!” he exclaimed. “Well it’s right in front of us, clear as anything,” replied Batty as he began to move forward through the wall of mist that had formed in the doorway, with Twist practically hugging his leg. Cables gulped then followed behind his brother. Inside, the floor was covered in white tiles that twinkled when the light reflected of them. The walls were white as well and there were a few desks here and there, with equipment that looked like it hadn’t been touched in years. Everything was covered in frost and now the trio were starting to shiver a bit as they could see their own breath. “w-w-why I-i-is i-i-it s-s-so cold i-i-in h-here?” asked Twist, who was now beginning to shiver uncontrollably. “I-i-i d-d-don’t k-k-k-now,” replied Batty, still holding his bat in front of him. They rounded a corner and what they saw made their mouths drop open. Along the wall there were three big, long tubes jutting out from the wall diagonally. The front part of the tubes were made of glass but you could barely see through because of the amount of frost on them. At the end of each tube, there was a monitor all making beeping noises like a pulse monitor in the medical wings. They walked up to the first tube. Cables wiped the frost off the monitor with his hoof before getting to work on it. He came across a file so he opened it and read out loud: “Sean ‘Silver’ Silverstein” he scrolled down through the file and came across a picture of a unicorn with a brown coat, brown mane and Brown eyes. He then read underneath it. “Current cryo stasis, normal,” he moved up to the tube and peered in and he saw what looked like the pony he had seen on the monitor. He and others moved away from the first tube, and onto the next one. Cable started typing on its monitor. The screen kept saying: *No unauthorized personnel on this file please contact admin* He looked away from the monitor and they all peered into the tube. They could just make out the shapes of not one but two ponies. They looked surprisingly young and they could just make out that one was a colt, and the other was a filly. They then moved to the final tube, but this one was a lot bigger than the rest. Cables moved up to its monitor with the other two behind him. He opened the file with a lot more ease than the others and it was labeled ‘Project Human’. “Where have I heard of that word ‘human’ before?” he thought to himself as he continued scrolling down until he came across a video file. He opened it and waited for it to load while the others just watched the screen. Then the video began playing but appeared on the video shocked them. It was a creature that looked nothing like a pony. It had a very pale skin, short muzzle and was very short with dark brown mane, and blue eyes. On its front left foreleg it wore a pip buck, but not one they’ve ever seen. This one was very high-tech and advanced. Then the creature began to speak into the camera: “Hello there. My name is Matrix. I don’t know how long it will be before any pony finds this video but if you do just listen. If you’re wondering what I am, I’m a human. Yeah, you think your eyes must be deceiving you, but they’re not. I’m real as I ever would be. Right now I’m cryo sleep and have no idea when I’m gonna wake up. I have fought in the war between the ponies and zebras we thought we had won this war, but we were wrong…because today no pony won. Me and Silver just managed to get every pony into the Stable before the mega spells hit. We consider ourselves lucky on that one. I just hope that every pony else made it….I hope-” the thing that called itself ‘Matrix’ was interrupted by two foals leaping onto his lap. “Daddy,” the filly said. “When are you gonna put us to bed?” she said as she put on an irresistible cute face no pony could reject. “In a minute sweetie. Just go get into bed, both of you. I will only be a second,” said the creature, putting a smile on his face as the two foals leapt off his lap. He then looked back towards the camera and put its serious face back on. “I hope that some pony comes to find us some day. I don’t want to be in cryo stasis for the rest of my life……and I hope that rainbow dash got to the facility ok….I really hope she did…” The creature looked like it was about to cry, but then a brown hoof touched its shoulder. The pony spoke: “Matrix, come on. we need to go now,” said the new voice and then trailed off. “I’m coming. One sec,” he looked to the camera again. “If some pony finds this video, please wake us up……..this is Matrix, signing off,” the video abruptly ended.
chapter 5Chapter 5 “Wait, so your telling me , that ‘you’ and your friend here are more than 200 years old and both can regenerate from radiation and every other ‘ghoul’ that is what you calls yourselves can do it as well, seriously I’ve seen some weird s*** in my time but not as odd as this, no offence” “None taken, I’ve heard it all before and in my two hundred years and counting of living this c*** life I haven’t seen anything like you, well not that I can remember anyway since I tend to lose track of things over time” “ you have my sympathy, well allow me to help jog your memory, but may I ask do you remember anything before the bombs fell, anything about where you were or who you were?” “*sigh* I think from what I can remember, I was in one of the main cities that got hit first either Fillydelphia or Manehatten I’m not sure but I was there when the balefire came raining down, I was a refugee there amongst all the fighting, I think that at one point I heard some of the soldiers that I was held up with talking about this legend fighter called the ‘specialist matrix’ or something, he was erm oh what was he I cannot remember erm a-” “Human” mat suggested “Yes, wait how did you………….wait a minute, your him, your that ‘human’ from the war, but how can it be, that would mean you’re more than two hundred years old ‘and’ you’re not a ghoul in fact you don’t even look older than what late twenties late thirties maybe” “Call it a 200 year long cryogenic slumber and leave it at that” “well alright then but since you seem to have not seen what has gone on in the last two century’s Its probably best that I give you some information that could prove useful in your travels” He then went on talking to matrix and silver about everything he could tell them about Equestria in its current state from the grand Pegasus enclave to the steel rangers and the dreaded red eye, they were surprised at the least at what they were hearing “Also you might want to head to the nearest settlement not far from here, it’s called new appleloosa and its just north east from the ponyville ruins, that is if they try and kill you first heheh” “Ok then thanks, wait you said new appleloosa, what happened to the original town?” “old appleloosa is run by raiders and slavers, best stay away from there but from the look of ya and from what I’ve heard you could kill them all with one hoof er hand I mean” the ghoul spoke is his raspy voice “You mean hand, and thanks for the info, we may stop by if we have the time but we gotta be someplace else first, see you on the other side then” “good luck to you to then, till we meet again………..specialist, and I’ll be sure to spread the word of your return, folks need heroes, and at times like these they have to be strong, you got that I can tell” he said as he and his companion turned about and walked away to wherever it is they were going “Well that was an experience in never gonna forget, *shudders* remind me to keep away from radiation” said silver as he put is helmet back on and checked his equipment again Matrix let out a half mused chuckle “you never seize to make me laugh and to be honest I second your idea, come on we need to get to ponyville if were gonna have a chance at living in this hell hole, I think there is some things that’ll make you happy back our house when we get there” mat suggested, although he lived with rainbow and his two kids, he also shared the house with frost and silver since it was a two story four bedroomed house, with a basement which was then converted into an armoury when the war broke out. Mat then looked at his Pipbuck as a notification came up on his objectives page Objective: travel to Ponyville ruins and get to home armoury (Optional) travel to new appleloosa “Well looks like we have our plans set out, let’s get our gear and get going, who knows who else we’ll run into and I’m not liking the sound of those deathclaws” “True that brother” replied storm as he began to pack up his things as did mat, mat looked over at the pony he considered his brother, they had gone through almost everything mat had done since he first came to Equestria all those years ago, they acted like brothers, lived like brothers and they always had each other’s backs no matter what, and they had seen some s*** in there time, and since then mat considered silver his brother that in turn made him the uncle of his children but silver didn’t mind at all, in fact he enjoyed it. Mat looked back to what he was doing and picked the wallet he had dropped before he fell asleep and put it back in his pocket, he folded his guitar up and put it back into his inventory and placed his helmet back on his head, he glanced at the time on his wrist and it had been an hour since he was rudely awakened. He turned his attention to the group and saw that they were all ready as well; silver was just putting his knife back into the sheath on his chest and smiled back at mat Mat looked over the children and noticed that will the bothers and twist were wide awake his children were still very drowsy, we kneeled over to his children and plopped them into his lap and stroked there manes, he took the moment to look at his two amazing little foals He ran his gloved hand through his sons always frazzled yellow mane and along his silver coat he took note of his wings which like his mane and tail, where always frazzled like he had been stunned by lighting, rainbow dash had said to matrix that she wanted a son called lighting wings when she was older and when his son was born his look fit the bill and that’s how he got his name. His daughter had a blue coat, a lot darker than her mothers and a yellow and blue mane and tail, when he saw her for the first time she instantly reminded him of the American aerobatic team, the blue angels, so he chose to name her after them, he and rainbow knew they had the potential to become some of the greatest flyers in Equestria with the help of their mother and father and friends Once mat made sure his children had drifted of he carefully stood up and placed his children on his shoulders and waited until they settled themselves by clinging into his neck, he let out a small laugh as he watched his children roll around on his shoulders out the corner of his eyes, he picked up his rifle then looked back to silver and the trio and nodded, they nodded back and so they began resumed their journey towards their destination. *two hours later* it had become boring walking for almost two hours straight so mat pulled out his iPod and played some music out loud which him and silver where singing along too, “I walk a lonely road The only one that I have ever known Don't know where it goes But it's only me to me and I walk alone” “I walk this empty street On the Boulevard of broken dreams When the city sleeps And I'm the only one and I walk alone” “I walk alone I walk alone I walk alone I walk alone” “My shadow's the only one that walks beside me My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me 'Til then I walk alone” “Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ahhh-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah” “I'm walking down the line That divides me somewhere in my mind On the border line of the edge And where I walk alone” “Read between the lines of what's F****d up and everything's all right Check my vital signs to know I'm still alive And I walk alone” “I walk alone I walk alone I walk alone I walk alone” “My shadow's the only one that walks beside me My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me 'Til then I'll walk alone...” “Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ahhh-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah I walk alone I walk alone” “I walk this empty street On the Boulevard of broken dreams When the city sleeps And I'm the only one and I walk a...” “My shadows the only one that walks beside me My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me 'Til then I'll walk alone” As the song ended they both let out a laugh for no reason but it’s not like they didn’t care. As they walked up the next ridge and looked over it they immediately stopped laughing, what stood before them where the ruins of their home mood music Ponyville…………… They just stood there in silence looking at the destruction of what was left of their home, mats duster flowing slightly in the small breeze; he swore he could see ponies walking around the town like normal. Like ghosts of the past. He shook his head then ushered the group to follow him towards a small mound of rocks and dead trees before pulling out his anti-material rifle “Silver you got spotter duty, brother’s you got our backs again, keep an eye out, ok, good” he said before climbing on top of the rock pile and setting up his rifle facing the town bellow with canterlot in the far distance, silver climbed up next to him and pulled out his binoculars while the two brothers watched their backs and kept an eye on the other three kids. “Okay let’s see what we got here” said silver in his usual sarcastic tone “Towns a mess, a handful of buildings are surprisingly still standing; I can see that applejacks ironshod firearms factory is still standing outside of town also. One or two raider parties, one of those is on the bridge to sweet apple acres and sweet apple acres barn is still up as well” matrix said in a dry tone as he continued to look over the dead town, looking at the crumbling ruins until his gaze came upon one statue. The Macintosh war memorial Memories came flooding back about the tragic news of that one day where everyponys favourite farm stallion had given his life to save princess celestia from a zebra assassin, matrix had been on the frontline alongside him many a time, when he heard of his death he gave his deepest condolences to the rest of his family and he sent a personal letter with a picture of him, big mac and his squad to applejack saying he was sorry that he couldn’t attend the funeral and how great a soldier big mac was as he was a friend to us all. That was one those days where matrix kept getting thoughts that they were going to lose the war, But in the end………………………..neither side won Matrix snapped out of his current daze as he spotted movement coming from the barn of the farm so he swivelled his rifle in its direction and aimed down his scope looking over the dead trees. “Silver can you see anything over at sweet apple acres” asked mat “I see……….if I am correct here I’m seeing a grey unicorn filly, brown mane, probably in her teens, wearing a stable suit?” “Which stable?” “Erm, number two I make it” “Applejacks stable” mat said under his breath “looks like they maybe opening it up, unless she’s on her own” “Well she’s on her own, wait scratch that she’s just joined up with some stallion” As they watched the scene take place, they saw the stallion take off and eventually a small skirmish happen between the unicorn and the group of raiders on the bridge “Is it just me or did I just see her take down those raiders, on her own” said silver “Nope your just blind, as per f*****g usual” matrix replied sarcastically They continued to lie there watching her as she traversed through the town “Well I know for a fact that she has a chance of surviving out here” mat said dryly “I was thinking the same thing” a metallic like voice spoke out from nowhere, they both spun around aiming their weapons at whatever it was, what they were looking at was a sprite bot, used by the ministry of moral during the war, what it was doing here they had no clue, “Did that thing just talk” mat said to silver not taking his eyes of the floating bot “Yes I believe I did, you can call me watcher” the spritebot answered the two just shrugged before mat spoke up “What was that you said before?” “I was simply agreeing with what you said, she has a good chance with living out here” “Yes she does………..wait a second, I recognise that voice……..spike……..is that you” “………………” “Spike.................” “………………………..” “………………………..” “Yes…………it is me” “Spike………….how are still alive, in fact where are you” “matrix…………..I……………I cannot tell you for the enclave will find me, in time though you will” he said before he stopped speaking before some random fanfare music started playing from the bots speaker before floating of too wherever, ‘If that really was spike, he must be freaking huge by now’ matrix pondered to himself “Dude we’re going f*****g crazy without the use of drugs” stated silver “I know, come on, let’s get going” mat said as he packed away his sniper rifle and brought out Bozar, jumped of the rocks and started walking along the path with the rest of the group in tow, ten minutes later they finally came across the town entrance and what was once the market place, everywhere they looked they could see bones of the long dead bodies of ponies they could no longer identify. “This place is just a fucking graveyard” silver said flatly “Well at least pay respect to them by not treading on their graves” matrix answered whilst carefully walking around a dead pony’s skeleton They walked past the old bakery and onwards through the town avoiding the piles of bones when mat came across the statue he saw earlier, he and silver went up to it and saluted in respect before doing the same to the statue of celestia, the former leader of Equestria had resigned after the incident where some foals where murdered in an equestrian school, mat couldn’t remember all the details but he knew that the princess was devastated after the event and so she stood down and left it to Luna to run the country, with the help of himself and the ministries of course. Matrix smacked his head to snap himself out of his current thoughts ‘God I need to stop zoning out like that’ He carried on walking until he came across the familiar street on which he used to live on, he readied his weapon and instructed the others to do so as well as they approached the building, matrix looked over it, a fairly large two story building with an attic, the plants in the front garden were long dead and some of the windows were smashed in but the front door looked intact He went up to and tried the door, still locked after all these years, so he dug out his house key and unlocked the door, before he entered he motioned for silver and the foal’s to stack up against the walls on either side of the door, when he was ready he opened the door with one hand whilst holding his rifle in the other and slowly stepped into the main hallway the lead into the main room carefully looking out for and traps that could be inside. “Main room clear” he said in a hushed voice to silver who answered back “roger that, brothers, you keep an eye on the kids in this room, mat I’ll check the rest of the ground floor, you check upstairs” he whispered to matrix who nodded then slowly crouched his way over to the stairs Matrix slowly ascended up the stairs, the two hundred year old wood creaking under his weight and heavy boots, when he reached the top of the stairs he checked each of the rooms one by one until he came to the last one His and dashie’s room He slowly entered to find everything was still in place except for a few of things that had fallen onto the floor and that it was all covered in a layer of two hundred year old dust, he took another step forward when he heard the sound of glass cracking under his foot, he looked down and took his foot away, revealing a now shattered picture frame of him and his wife rainbow dash with their foals on the sofa on hearths warming eve years ago, he bent down and picked up the picture from its frame and holding up to his helmeted face, memoirs flooding in of the day that picture was taken before all the s*** happened. Flashback Hearths warming eve, 02:00 PM A few years before the bombs, Matrix POV (Not sure how long the war lasted in the original fallout Equestria so for now I’m just winging it but I’m guessing it was quite a few years) I just watched as the zebra hunter touch down in front of me, my ride home to ponyville where I’ve earned myself two weeks leave, I lean forward to pick up my bag and walk towards the vehicle and as soon as I step in a voice comes from the speaker as I sit down in the doorway as music starts playing le mood music “mares and gentle colt’s my name is honour bolt and with me I have the lovely gold star and we’ll be your pilot’s this afternoon, equestrian regulation’s designate this as a non-smoking vertibuck, for those of you who have the zebrica frequent flyer program, you'll be earning a hundred free bits this afternoon, and as always, the air sickness bags are located in the seat-back, in front of you” “bolt, go f*** yourself” I shouted over the mic to him in the cockpit he just laughs as he pulls the aircraft upwards then spins us round then heads for home, So here I am on my way back to ponyville, sitting in of the ‘zebra hunter with my legs dangling out of the side door of the vertibuck as the scenery flashes by after another long stretch on the frontlines, thank god that dashie has leave as well so now I can spend some time off with my family and friends since its hearths warming eve as well. The sound system was playing one of my tunes on my iPod from earth by Elvis whilst star and bolt where just having idle chatter, I wasn’t really listening, but I decide to join in just as I see another vertibuck heading in the opposite direction we’re going and somepony speaks over the channel “Zebra hunter, this is dragon breath go to UHF secure, I have some bad news” “Limo is a word night shine I don’t want to hear about it” says bolt back over the mic “It is not a word. It's an abbreviation of a word” says the voice possibly this night shine pony from the other vertibuck, I listen in more as they continue to bicker “Limo is a word in common usage. That is the key phrase in scrabble (they have it in Equestria), my friend, common usage” shouts bolt “No! If it's not in the pony dictionary, it doesn't count” replies night “It doesn't have to be in the pony dictionary!” bolt shouts “It does have to be in the pony dictionary! Listen, when we get back to base, it's coming off the board” night speaks as his bird passed us “You touch my limo and I'll spank you, dragon breath, you hear me?” “Yeah, Promises” says night shine before he cuts of from the channel flying away in the opposite direction “Bolt who the hell was that” I asked “Just and old friend from a few years ago, keeps end up playing this stupid game and I’m surprised we’re still at it” he chuckles ‘Wow this whole scene deeply reminds me of something but I can’t really put my finger on it…………..ah well it’s not important’ I thought as I readjust my sitting position to where I was originally simply gazing of into the scenery again as the music continues to play, A few hours later we have just flew over the town of ponyville and circle round to land in the town square, as we touch down I grab my bag and rifle and jump out of the vehicle into the snow and walk past the cockpit where I tap my hand on it to signal bolt to leave, just before he pulls away he mock salutes me whilst I simply give him a middle finger salute back then he fly’s away leaving a small cloud of snow blowing up so I have to cover my face since I had my helmet strapped to my belt Once he’s finally gone off into the horizon I take a minute to look around and the town, snow is covering most of the ground and buildings but that will change soon as winter wrap up will happen in a about a week or since the seasons had to change times slightly because of the war, after looking at the view I start my trek towards my house where my family are waiting As I walk down the street I see a few ponies milling about and it doesn’t take long for them to spot me and give a friendly wave which I happily return and keep on walking through the town but not five minutes later I end up getting tackled by somepony or somepony’s and I end up face first in the snow “Hmmmmmmhmhmmhmhm” (*translation* could whoever it is please get of) I try to shout but my voice is muffled by the snow but whoever it was got the message and finally got enough me allowing me to get up and a take a breath of life giving oxygen “Ok who is it” I say sarcastically as I turn around and get hugged by our friendly neighbourhood Lyra heartstrings “Hey there Lyra, good to see you too” "Hey, I missed you ya big ape ya know with you going off and getting yourself killed in this stupid pointless bl***y war” she said trying to copy my old British accent “And what a good friend you are and it’s good to be back home for a bit, hey you mind letting me go I want to get home and see my family, I’ll buy you a drink later sound good to you” “Yeah that sounds good and I’ll keep you to that, tell dash I said hi for me” “Will do if ya say hi to bonbon for me” I say with laugh “Anything for you my favourite human” she finally say before giving me a friendly peck on the cheek then trotting of back to her own home, leaving me to continue my way homeward bound, a while later I ended up on the porch of my place of residence, I knocked on the door before entering and sarcastically shout “Honnnnnnnnnnnney, I’m home from work” and almost instantly I’m tackled by my kids, “DADDY! YOU’RE BACK!” my daughter exclaims right in my face as they hug me tightly “Hey kids how are you two doing” “It’s going awesome daddy moms just making dinner” says my son with a smile Sounds good son, how about you two going into the living room and I’ll be there ina minute while I go talk to mommy” “Ok dad” they both say in unison then sprint of into the lounge area, I put my bag down in the hallway and leave my rifle and pistols on the table top that is in the hallway but I make sure there on safety before walking into the kitchen “Hey honey, guess who has two weeks leave” I say as I enter the kitchen and get greeted by my beautiful wife with a peck on the lips “That’s great mat, so have I for the time being but after that I’ve got some things I need to sort out in my ministry” she says before leaning in for another kiss “That’s ok in my books which is kind of ironic since Luna says she needs to see me after my leave finishes and help with the other ministry’s as well so I may see you up in cloudsdale at some point” “Fine by me, oh dinner’s almost ready go get the kids and sit down at the table” One wonderful dinner later all four of us are in the living room later playing around the with foals after I changed out of my armour into some more body friendly clothing and after one play session later all four of us are just sitting of the sofa watching a movie on my laptop, the foals are hypnotized to the screen while my and dash are simply snuggling up to each other in each other embrace sharing the occasional kiss when I get an idea, I get up quickly and pick up the camera from on top of the fireplace and sit back down “Everypony smile” I exclaim as I hold up the camera with one arm and take a photo of us all as a happy family “Happy hearths warming guys” I as we all eventually fall asleep in front of the crackling fire Flashback end 3rd POV As mat finished recalling the memory in his mind, he carefully folded up the photo before pulling out his wallet and placing the photo inside then replacing said wallet back into his pocket, now that he was sure that the floor was clear he made his way back down the hallway and down the stairs with his weapon still in hand “Upstairs clear” matrix spoke out loud “This floor’s clear too” said silver as he walked out the kitchen chewing on something whilst floating what appeared to be a can of…………beans to his mouth his a fork “Dude…….are you eating a f****** two hundred year old can of beans?” Silver stopped chewing to speak “yeah…………..what of it?” "That’s just plain f****** gross dude, if you get stomach poising, don’t come crying to me” “Yeah whatever” responded silver as he continued to eat the food “f****** retard, silver grab the kids where go into the basement I would feel much safer down there than in the house” “Alright I see you down there in a few minutes” as he walks off into the living room to rouse the kids from there quickly slumber Mat walks down the hallway to the back of the stairs where he opens a hidden panel revealing a terminal, he swiftly enters his password which opens the heavy metal disguised door inwards, he steps in flicking on the lights surprised the still work and walks down the stairs into the underground room that had a set of two bulkhead doors which held the armoury part of the basement whilst the part he was currently in has spare beds food and water, pretty much a home fallout shelter As he inspects the supplies they have in stock he hears silver along with the foals walking down the stairs and through the blast door at the bottom into the room “So you finally managed to get your fat a** down here then “Not so easy as you out it when you have two foals running around like mad ponies” “Point taken but they are ‘my’ mad ponies and by the way did you lock the front door?” "Yeah I did and I locked the door at the top of the stairs as well so are we gonna open the gun’s yet or what?” “no not yet, I wanna get some more shut eye first, we could all do with it, then tomorrow we crack that bitch open, sound good” “Yeah I guess you’re right, well see ya in the morning then” “You too silver I’ll wake you all up at around ten” Silver nodded in agreement before collapsing onto a mattress and falling asleep almost instantly, matrix lied down on the bed next him with his foals curling up next him while the brother and lil twist shared another bed and pretty soon they all drifted off into unconsciousness. hey guys RM here sorry it took so long for me to get the chapter out its just that lately I've been getting caught up with things getting distracted writers block yadda yadda yadda but anyway here's the next chapter and for anypony reading my other story i and going to get the next chapter out for that as well soon that's all for now and if ya spot any mistakes just tell me prereaders are all offline (like always but i cant blame them) RM laterz :)
