Day 1: Hitting The Asphalt
A flash of red. A screaming horn. A rushing wind, and then- nothing. Absolutely nothing. Then- Voices. Voices crying, voices screaming, and something pricked my arm. I hardly noticed it though, because my entire body felt like it had been shattered. My thoughts were fuzzy, and slowly, my mind blacked out.
When I awoke, everything was white. A bright, painful, excruciating white. Where was I? I tried to ask, but somebody clasped their hand over my mouth, and murmured something. I couldn't understand them though, and I didn't try to.
I felt like shit.
Then, I remembered something.
I was crossing at the stoplight. I was on my way to the shopping mall. Stephenie had called me, telling me about this adorable pair of shoes she had found on discount at the Macy's shoe department.
I dropped my purse in the street.
Another realization hit me, almost as hard as- The truck.
While my mind tried to figure out everything that had happened, I was dimly aware of a burning pain in my chest, my legs, my arms. My entire body hurt, and felt warm, a sticky, gruesome warm. Was I bleeding? Oh no. No, no, no!
I tried to yell for help, but I couldn't speak. Hell, I couldn't breath.
Okay, I should probably explain a few things before I bleed out.
My name is Sarah Johnson, and I'm seventeen. I seem like your typical airhead blonde, but I'm actually smarter than I look. I have grey eyes, and school-wise, I'm a pretty good student.
But now, all of my achievements, boyfriends and girlfriends, everything- It's simply going to vanish, because I was going to die.
I finally managed a gurgled scream, as my assailant cut open my face, creating what felt like a large gash going from just over my right eye, diagonally down my face, until the fresh pain stopped at my jawline. Blood plugged up my nose, and flowed into my mouth.
I couldn't breath at all, and my lungs felt like they were on fire.
I was bleeding to death, and my only regret, ridiculous as it was, was that I never got to beat the shit out of my ex, Jeremy, for dumping me because I, quote-on-quote, 'Did not want to fuck'.
He was an ass.
As that thought echoed in my head, I felt myself growing faint, until- I blacked out, and the memory of what put me here played through my mind one last time.
I looked down, hearing Green Day's 'Good Riddance[Time of Your Life]' play from my phone. Stephenie, my BFF, and ex-girlfriend. The fact we were still friends was a miracle, in my mind. Stephenie had quite the mean streak, as far as break-ups went, but we were on good terms when we broke up, so we had agreed to stay as friends. Being each other's ex complicated things sometimes, but we managed.
I picked up the phone, and instantly, Stephenie's chatter flooded my ear. "Hey, Sarah! You have got to come to the Macy's Shopping Mall! I just found the cutest pair of heels! You have to come see them-"
"Calm down, Stephenie! I told you, I'm studying at home, okay?" That was a complete lie. While Stephenie was trying to be honest, I was lying about my activities. In fact, I was at a music store, sitting in the wonderful Hard Rock Café, where the radio was playing some form of rock, 24/7.
I facepalmed, as Stephenie continued to keep talking. "Please, Sarah! Just come by the store, okay? I'll even watch that cartoon you love so much!"
I stiffened, and a look of death crossed my face. "It's. Anime. Huge. Fucking. Difference."
The show Stephenie was talking abut was a short anime(Episode-wise, the series seems rather long compared to an individual episode) called Hetalia: Axis Powers. I didn't watch it very often anymore, but I did still watch it.
Stephenie snorted. "Just get to the mall, okay? Don't be late!" She hung up before I even had a chance to say no.
"Damn...She is just too much sometimes..." I grumbled, packing my things away. I stood up, and stretched for a minute, before slinging my purse over my shoulder, and walking out of the café.
Hurrying, I started across the intersection's crosswalk, the light blinking with the red-orange hand. I would have sprinted, but I didn't want anybody jeering or leering. I made it to the other side of the street, and hit the crosswalk button to cross once again.
The light changed almost instantly, and the right turn lane made progression. Then the walk light changed for me, and I started walking calmly across.
I heard an air-horn scream, saw a streak of red, and felt the wind rush, as if it was fleeing the red streak. Then, nothing. I was floating in slow-motion through the air, and hit the pavement hard, my head slamming against the ground.
My memory grew hazy at that point, but I thought the vehicle had run over my legs as the driver fled.
None of it mattered.
I'm going to die here, I remembered thinking.
My eyes shot open. I gasped for breath, my chest heaving. I tried to pull my arms over myself to warm up, but they were stopped suddenly by a binding that felt very uncomfortable. I drew my legs up, and realized they were bound, too.
"Where am I? Is this what death is like?" I asked, because if death was this, if there really was life after death, I hated it.
Someone whinnied- whinnied? What was going on? "You have changed so much, Tamora. So much, yet so little. Your hair has grown longer, your body more fit, though it seems you've lost a few inches in height."
"Tam- who? Let go of me, damn it!" I struggled against my restraints, and a different voice spoke now, from behind me.
"Calm down, Tamora. You hit your head pretty badly when you fell through."
The bindings came undone, and I jumped forward, hitting the ground and executing a perfect shoulder roll. I swung my arm out, and I thought I saw my hand glow. I wanted the voices to go further away, and when the wind jumped up, two shouts of pain echoed from the far side of the dimly lit room.
Did I just-? It seemed impossible.
"Tamora, when did you develop that!?" The more feminine of the voices asked, while the other voice just groaned.
"Just give it up, Sunset...she must have amnesia..." said the other voice. Male, I assumed.
"Are you sure? She seems pretty aware of what's going on, aside from not recognizing where she is," said the feminine voice. Sunset, I realized. Her voice was the only female voice right now, so I made the conclusion.
"Sun...set?" I asked hesitantly, my arm and hand outstretched. The dust was swirling gently, almost as if it was awaiting a command.
"Yeah, Sunset Shimmer." A pony stepped from the shadows, and I had to do a double-take, yet the pony kept talking. "And this is Flash Sentry. We're the leaders of what's left of the resisting forces against the monsters that took over after you disappeared."
The other pony stepped forwards, and I finally noticed that the female had a horn, while the new one, the male, had wings. "What kind of crazy, fucked up dream is this?" I stated, curling my fingers into a fist. The swirling dust immediately condensed into a solid sphere of grime, and shot towards the horned pony- Unicorn, I think would be the applicable use of the terminology.
Her horn lit up with a reddish orange glow, so much different from the brown glow around my hand, and the orb exploded in a burst of fire.
"Well, that's new." Sunset Shimmer smiled, and nodded. "If you have more powers like that , it may give us the advantage we need to reclaim Equestria."
I sighed, and lowered my head in disappointment. "I'm not this...'Tamora' you think I am. I'm not anyone you think I am. I'm supposed to be dead, for God's sake!" I threw my hands in the air, and shouted. "This is just some crazy, fucked up, hype caused by the meds!"
The ponies jumped back at my outburst, and the winged pony cleared his throat. "I..I think you need to calm down, Tamora-"
"I'm not Tamora! I'm a different person! Different girl, different fucking life, different fucking everything!" I knelt down, slamming my fist on the ground, and the earth split, creating cracks that surged towards the two ponies. They lunged to the sides, narrowly evading the fissures. "I! Am! Not! The! Girl! You! Want!" I screamed, and a powerful gust of wind swirled around, creating gouges in the ground and walls. The chair I had been tied to was sliced to pieces, and turned into firewood.
Both of them looked at me with a worried look, and Sunset Shimmer nodded grimly. "It seems you have more than Earth Magic, then. Tamora didn't even have magic, so I suppose this confirms it."
Flash Sentry, the winged pony(Pegasus, I think), shook his head fearfully. "Maybe the energy concentration prototype external armor will be of use now?"
Night 1: Uncovered Abilities
Several hours and a lengthy explanation later, I was standing on a mechanical platform, where half a dozen unicorn ponies were fitting me with armor that fit me almost perfectly. The one problem? My waist was too small.
"Celestia damn this metal, girl! You on a diet, or something?" One of the ponies scowled, trying to reshape the waist plating to fit me. Eventually, he reshaped it properly, and I gasped, feeling the cool metal press against me.
"Does it have to be this cold!?" I stuttered, shivering.
"Either freezing temp, or melting point. Sorry, not many options." Another plate of metal pressed against me, and I shivered again. "Just be glad the Captains agreed to let you be fitted with your underwear on, and that Lady Sunset knows a little 'bout your kind."
"Yeah, no shit." The final plate pressed against me, and the suspension hissed, as the plates were bolted and screwed into place.
My new armor was more of an exoskeleton, the gloves equipped with electro-magnets, the boots equipped with electro-magnets as well and rotating thrusters, the leg pieces capable of enhancing my running speed and channeling my supernatural energy into my feet, the arm pieces designed to do the same as the leg pieces, and for my torso, twin energy sheaths with blades at my waist, and on my back, high density plating that was super-light. Probably magical. What I really loved about my armor though, was the helmet; a navy blue visor complete with a Heads-Up Display that gave me constant scans of my vitals, energy levels, even stamina.
"Alright, now, try to channel that Earth Magic o' yours through the suit. Let's see what it can take."
I bent over, and pressed my palms flat against the ground. Closing my eyes, I imagined taking hold of the earth, and ripping it upwards violently. My powers did not disappoint, as a chunk of stone erupted from the ground, lines of dark brown energy flowing down my arms, to my hands, and into the ground.
"Atta girl! Now what about that fancy unicorn stuff the Captains said you could do?" The worker nodded towards one of the pegasi, and a train car was slowly lowered down on a massive wench.
"Quick question." I looked around, and voiced the thought that had been bothering me for a while. "How can a race of magical talking ponies have technology this advanced?"
"We found it in the Southern Ruins. Apparently, there was this group of 'hue-manes' before ponykind" The clip-clop of hooves echoed from the door, and I turned around. Sunset Shimmer was trotting towards me, nodding in approval. "I see the testing is going well. I suppose we can move on to the next stage, and see what other kinds of power you have." Her horn lit up, and the train car burst into flame and started hurtling towards me.
I looked back to see it, and on impulse, I ran towards the train car, pulling an arm back for a swing. As the car bounced and was right on top of me, I launched the punch, and the flames went out instantly, as a torrent of water tore through the train car. It wasn't enough, however, as one half continued to fall towards me. Time seemed to slow down, as I leaned back further than I had ever leaned before, and swirls of air formed beneath my feet. The wind pushed me upwards, sending me into a backflip.
As I flipped over, the rear half of the car hit the ground and bounced again. Twisting in mid-air, I narrowly avoided getting hit, and slammed to the ground with the same force of the train car, and the concrete beneath me shattered, creating a massive crater where I knelt.
"Aerokinesis, telekinesis, hydrokinesis, terrakinesis...Interesting. You might be an Elemental Kinetic." Sunset appeared next to me with a 'pop', and tapped her hoof on my head. "I wish we had time to keep running tests, but there's a positive scan on a resistance base under attack in the Northern Manehattan ruins."
Flash Sentry dropped from the ceiling, shouting orders. "Alright, ponies! We're going to need an exfil team at Northern Base, Manehattan! Suit up, and move!"
Ponies all over the base were rushing towards different parts of the base. "Drop the suit. We can't afford to hold back, no matter how much of a loose cannon you are."
Half an hour later, we were sitting outside the Northern Base, in what was left of Manehattan. Despite the destruction and crumbling skeletons, I couldn't help but snicker. Of all the God-forsaken things to pun, this world made a pun on Manhattan.
"What's so funny-" Flash snapped, but cut off, realizing he didn't know my name. "Uh..."
"There! Hostiles at 11 o'clock!" whispered the 'demo-pony', Cataclysm. He pointed, and I looked, following his hoof. There, in the distance, were three figures tossing large chunks of debris aside. I couldn't hear them, but I knew they were looking for something.
"They must be searching for the emergency exit." Sunset lit her horn, the glow of her magic lifting a massive rifle from the ground. "This is Corporal Dead Aim's rifle. They must have gotten to him..." She trailed off, looking down. "Somepony, look for the tags. It's unlikely there's a body left, so we'll burn his tags and rifle instead."
One of the figures turned, and I saw a gold glint. That must be the eye, I thought, smiling. Ducking down, I started walking, crouched, towards one of the still standing sections of wall closer towards the enemies. When I arrived, I let out a sigh of relief. "Calm down, Sarah. You're still-" The wall exploded, and one of the figures appeared in front of me.
"I'm having dinner!" crowed the thing. It was humanoid, but the flesh was an ashen grey, and the teeth were razor sharp. The one feature that really stood out though, was the gory, bleeding flesh hanging from its maw.
I reacted instantly, swinging my arm, but the creature was faster. It deflected my blow, and twisted my arm around completely. I screamed, and tried my hardest to use my aero-whatsit, but nothing happened. My vision began to blur, and I felt myself growing weak. My shoulder popped, and dislocated, and the creature pinned me against the wall, running its free hand up and down my back. "I haven't fed on human flesh in so long...You're going to taste delicious!"
In that instant, all I heard was 'taste delicious', and the first thing that snapped to mind was that the creature was going to rape me. The reaction was instantaneous: My entire arm caught fire, and the flames ran up to the creature, igniting the entirety of its being in seconds. Screaming, the monster lunged at me. "We are the hunters! You are the prey! Humans do not fight Yoma!"
I looked around wildly, and saw something whinging under a pile of bricks. Wasting no time, I lifted it up, but almost collapsed under the weight. It was a sword, and a massive one at that. The blade had a red reversed sigma on it, contained within a circle that had a line running down the middle of the circle and the sigma.
I dropped the blade, and lunged to the side, landing on top of a pile of broken glass and concrete debris. Shrieking, the glass and concrete ripped apart the skin on my arm, exposing the muscle underneath. The 'Yoma', as it called itself, turned, and sprinted towards me, hands outstretched. "I'm going to fucking kill you, bitch!"
I crossed my arms over myself, and violet blood spattered onto my body. I coughed and gagged at the stench, and barely heard the fwip of a sword flying through the other two. This new being was lightning quick, but when I recovered from the awful smell of 'Yoma' blood(Which smelled a lot like sulfur dioxide), the sound of metal falling to the ground emanated from the other side of the wall. I spat, and struggled to my feet. "What in God's name..." I looked around, in awe. The other two creatures, whose identity I could only refer to as 'Yoma' since they resembled the one that tried to attack me.
I felt deaf to the rest of the world, taking in the destruction before me completely now. The burnt bodies, the skeletons, the destroyed buildings; it was the reason Sunset Shimmer and Flash Sentry were fighting against their king. I could see now, a smaller skeleton hiding beneath a chunk of cement, the skull fractured, the shattered shops, med-kits that were scattered everywhere. Manehattan hadn't just been murdered; the entire city had been massacred. Finally, I snapped back to my surroundings.
"-work! Give me the dynamite! We're blowing this hatch open!" Sunset was in the middle of barking orders, pointing towards the metal plate on the ground. Cataclysm brought a stick of dynamite, and propped it on the hatch. "Stand back!" Sunset Shimmer shouted.
I said quickly and quietly, "May all of you have found peace," and rushed towards her. I stooped down, and snatched up the explosive stick before Cataclysm had a chance to light it. "That'll blow our position. Right now, we have the advantage, because none of those other creatures know we're here."
Sunset turned towards me, looking grim. "Oh, they know we're here, alright. They always know." She looked back at the hatch. "Do you think you can bash the hatch open?"
I shook my head. "I doubt it, but I can try." I stepped back towards the hatch, and cocked back my arm, envisioning my arm tearing through the metal like it was a bullet through paper. I launched the punch, only to have my fist bounce harmlessly off. There was a result, however, and that was a shockwave that sent me flying several yards. Weakly, I said, "Nice one, Sarah...You found something you need work at..."
Cataclysm apparently heard my remark, and asked, "Sarah? What kind of name is that?" His wings beat back and forth impatiently, the surrounding death making him agitated.
I slowly stood up. "It's my name." I tossed the pegasus the stick of dynamite, and turned towards the south. "I can do a bit of recon, if you want."
Flash snorted. "Not happening. You haven't mastered your powers, which means you could get killed pretty easily. Or worse." He was going to say more, but gasped, seeing the sword by one of the Yoma's bodies. "Sunset..." he said warningly, trotting towards the sword. "It's her sword."
Sunset whirled around quickly, as the dynamite exploded. "Impossible!" She shouted, deafened by the blast.
I walked towards the sword, and bent down to pick it up. "This is...who's?"
Flash grimaced. "Tamora's. She owned that sword before she...vanished. Everypony lost hope after finding out she was dead, but Sunset and myself held on to hope. When we found you, we thought maybe you were Tamora. We thought she had changed how she looked. But...no. We let go of that hope pretty quickly after you explained everything."
Sunset nodded. "Unfortunately." She looked over to Cataclysm, and pointed her hoof at the open hatch. "Go down there and see if there's any pony left. Report back in five."
Cataclysm nodded. "Got it, Ma'am." He jumped down the hatch, and the area fell silent. A minute passed. Then another. And another. Twenty minutes passed, and finally, we all heard a scream echo from within.
Sunset dove for the hatch, but Flash stuck his hoof out, stopping her. He shook his head slowly, as if to say, 'There's nothing we can do'. The orange mare's eyes were wide, and she slumped back. "How can we stop this if we can't even find enough ponies still alive to defeat Isley?"
I looked around, picking out details. The buildings, the bodies, the hatch, the fire, everything. I knelt down, running my finger across the thick blanket of dust and debris. "I wonder..." I hummed thoughtfully, inspired. "I need to go down there." I stood up, and turned around, trying to lift the sword up, but with no luck. "Do either of you have a knife?"
Sunset nodded, levitating a knife from her bag. "Why do you-"
"This was a base of military operations, which means there's an armory. It also means there should be explosives, and automated drones, right?"
Sunset nodded slowly, beginning to catch on. "Instead of spreading our supplies out, we should gather them up, and hit Isley with as much firepower as possible."
Flash didn't seem convinced. "Except, we don't have a transport team."
I gestured towards the center of the city. "We can hijack a vehicle."
Sunset frowned. "You mean the E.X.T.I.N.C.T? Those machines have more armor than Canterlot! We'd never be able to breach one!" She stamped her hoof. "Buck your plan! It's suicide!"
I snatched the knife before she could levitate it away. "That's why you two are staying out here. If I succeed, you have more firepower. If you come with me, and the plan is bust, the Alliance is left without its leaders. Right?"
Before either one of the ponies could respond, I darted to the hatch, and jumped down, hanging onto the ladder. As I slid down to the bottom, I realized that the ladder was probably why the base had fallen. I counted thirty seconds until my feet hit the ground, and guessed it would take about five minutes for a pony to climb that ladder. Long enough to get killed on the way up.
I stepped forward, and my foot immediately felt sticky. I looked down, and squinted. I reached for my wrist, and expected to find my watch, but it was gone. That's right. The technicians took my watch before they started fitting that strange armor. I felt around blindly, until my fingers wrapped around something cylindrical. I moved my thumb around, and pushed a nub upwards, and the hallway was lit by a small beam of light. The first thing I saw was Cataclysm's mutilated corpse. "Shit..." I muttered.
I kicked his body aside, and picked up the pistol grip crossbow that had been resting underneath him. It was light enough, and had six bolts that had red blinking lights at the tips. "Blinking lights...?" I asked slowly. Shaking my head, I started forward, swinging the light back and forth. I saw nothing, but the scrabbling of vermin was fairly loud.
I reached a room with flashing red floodlights, and I had to smash all three floodlights with a hammer to keep myself from being blinded. I thought I saw something move, and when I spun around to see what it was, something clattered to the floor with a metallic thud. I looked down, directing the light at it. A basic pistol, with iron sights. A knife was attached to the underside of the barrel, and I saw a small level on top. I picked up the gun, and pressed the level. The barrel flipped down, ejecting a bullet.
I caught the bullet, and jammed it back into the chamber, smiling. I searched the immediate area, and sure enough, I found a small box with thirteen extra shots, a smoke grenade, a grappling gun, and even luckier, a silencer.
I shoved the smoke grenade in my pocket and the grappling gun in my other pocket, and I spent a few minutes trying to figure out how to put the silencer on. Finally, I figured out I had to detach the under barrel knife, before I could screw the silencer onto the barrel. I fumbled with clipping the box of ammo to my belt loop, but managed to make do. Now I had two knives, and a decent amount of ammo, for a single shot pistol.
"Alright, you little bastard...where, and what, are you?" I held the flashlight beside the pistol, and slowly made my way out of the room. Unfortunately, it wasn't a very silent egress. I tripped over a stretcher, and fell down, landing on my back, groaning. "Oh....that hurt. Why can't the lights be working?" I slid backwards a little, before struggling to my feet.
I heard the sound of an arrow being nocked, and I flinched; I had left the crossbow outside of the room before I entered. "Don't move a muscle, you bastard. I won't hesitate to kill you, like you did every pony else." The voice was female, with a southern drawl. She sounded fairly young, so I slowly turned around, my hands in the air.
"Alright, let's just discuss this like reasonable adults..." I said slowly. I saw the blinking light of the bolt point towards my hand, and I released the pistol, the weapon clattering to the floor.
"Why'd you come here? Weren't you happy with mah big sister!?" The voice drew closer, and I slowly knelt down.
"I'm not one of those things. I came here with an exfil team led by Sunset Shimmer and Flash Sentry."
The girl(Filly?) snorted. "Please. Don't try to trick me! I'm plenty smart enough to know you're one of them!"
"If I was, wouldn't I have killed you by know, and not have spent precious time searching for a weapon?" She didn't answer. Apparently, that had knocked some sense into her. Finally, the light lowered, and started pointing the other way. I picked up the pistol, and stood upright.
"Ah...Ah'm sorry. I haven't seen many ponies, or living things, other than them rats that have been scuttling around for the past month or something." She trotted into my flashlight's beam, and introduced herself. "Mah name's Applebloom. How long ago did you get here?"
I stepped towards Applebloom, and peered around both corners. "About an hour ago. I came down here about five minutes ago."
She nodded. "I heard ya trompin' around." Applebloom turned around, and started trotting down one of the halls. "C'mon! I have some food left in the mess hall!" The filly started running, and I had to sprint to keep up with her.
We quickly arrived in the mess hall, and I had to keep shining the light at the doorways. "I'm not here for food, I'm here for the armory. Do you know where that is?" I pointed the pistol at each doorway in turn, as Applebloom answered my question.
"The armory? I dunno where that is. It might be in the lower levels, but they're too dang flooded with muck and water that you'd have to be crazy to go down there." She trotted back into the kitchen, and came out with several cans of food on her back. "I've got canned carrots, canned apple slices, canned peaches, and canned oranges- Hey, where'd ya go?"
I had bolted out of the mess hall, following the signs that pointed to the 'Director's Office'. Because the signs still had plenty of power, able to keep glowing bright, I quickly navigated a path to the office, until- "Shit. Applebloom wasn't kidding." The current sign was pointing down a staircase that was completely flood with muddy water.
I looked around, and found a rusted clip; the kind that was used for key rings. I clipped it to my belt, and to the trigger guard on the pistol. "Well, I guess it's time to get a bit dirty." I waded into the muddy water, and immediately jumped out. "Holy fucking shit that's cold!" I shouted, my voice echoing throughout the entire bunker.
I thought I heard a giggle, and when I turned around, I saw what looked like a foot vanish around the corner. "Who's there?" I asked warily. "I'm...armed."
"Are you? Are you really? They thought..." A voice emanated behind me, and I spun around, my leg flying through the air, only to slam against the wall and causing me to yelp in pain.
"Show yourself! Ngh...More importantly, ID yourself!"
"They think you can save them...they think you're like her...but I know the truth. Scared little girl, whose acting brave because you feel like they need a hero..."
"A hero?" The voice was really getting on my nerves, though I wasn't ready to show it. Unfortunately, my kinesis showed my emotions for me, my hands igniting. A feeling began to tug at my heart, and my arms moved on their own. Left hook, a fireball, right hook, another fireball. Uppercut, and an arc of flame erupted.
"Natural combat instincts, though they need to be sharpened...Head for Canterlot, and you will meet me...I will teach you how to truly fight..." The voice said, turning into a faded echo.
I spun around, swinging my outstretched hand, and the ceiling collapsed, debris landing on me, and I blacked out, a large piece of concrete hitting my head.
