Resistance: The Equestrian War Effort

Y’know that expression, “Looks like you’ve been through Hell!”?

Or maybe, “Man, my life is a living Hell!” or “I’ve been through Hell!”

The terms can relate to a lot of things.

It can describe how you feel about life, or what struggles you’ve overcome.

It can also mean you’re an over exaggerator complaining about everyday problems.

Or it could mean you’ve been through Hell. Like me.

I’ve LITERALLY been through Hell. No kidding.

When the Chimera first hit, I died for about five minutes. Now I wish I would have stayed dead. The Chimera have stolen, drained, killed, or eaten nearly every resource we had. If that’s not bad enough, they’ve also taken innocent ponies, some foals, and infected them with whatever they’re made out of.

Maybe you’re a little confused. I guess I should explain in English.

The Chimera are a distant alien race, far advanced beyond anything ponies have ever seen. They invaded Equestria looking for either refuge or a planet to conquer. They typically have two to six yellow eyes. Their grey-ish flesh makes them petrifying to behold. They love to eat.

A LOT.

They eat about, I dunno, fifty times more than anypony I’ve ever seen. It backfires on ‘em, though. Their metabolism causes their bodies to generate insane amounts of heat. They actually have to wear coolant generators on themselves at all times, in order to avoid cooking themselves from the inside out. One shot to the coolant generator and they’re finished.

And that’s what we’re hoping to beat them with.

Heat.

We’ve developed a way to generate large amounts of heat, using Celestia’s Final Wish.

I’m gonna rewind myself a little. Explain my story from the start.

My name’s Vita. I’m a mare unicorn. I was only fifteen when the Chimera first invaded. They hit Ponyville first. I had just finished an interview with my soon-to-be boss. I think I was supposed to escort apple cider all over Equestria, or something. I can’t even remember.  Anyway, as soon as she had given me the job, Plasma-mortar-shell things had left me riddled with shrapnel. I didn’t even have time to be scared. Luckily for me, a friend of my new boss was a unicorn with powers almost paralleled with Celestia herself.

Twilight Sparkle, I think her name was, brought me back to life.

It didn’t matter much, though. More mortars and laser fire were already tearing Ponyville to pieces.

The Chimera showed no prejudice. They slaughtered foals along with mares and stallions. I was too weak and confused to run away in any meaningful direction, but somehow, I made it out. I had only been in Ponyville a week when this happened.

I ran until my nostrils burned, until my body gave out.

I collapsed near the EverFree Forest. The remains of a little cottage were still aflame with a ghastly yellow glow.  After a few minutes of rest, I quickly returned to my hooves.

The noises of destruction sounded behind me. I dared not turn my head to face them.

After an hour of pondering over my next move, I decided to hide within the remains of the cottage.  I curled up underneath some ruble, hoping it would hide me from the terrifyingly violent world outside.

I must’ve fallen into unconsciousness. When I woke, it was nighttime. I was being carried on the back of a turquoise stallion with a short black mane.  He was arguing with a large built grey stallion.

“We can’t just take in everyone, Fidelis. We’ve already got two families here, we won’t be able to feed everypony if you keep bringing in more survivors. And besides, I mean, LOOK at her. She’s been torn to pieces. She probably won’t last the night.”

“What was I supposed to do? Leave her with all those monsters? And besides, hypothetically, if you’re right, and she does die in the middle of the night, then there’s no problem.”

“Don’t I get to say anything?” I managed to utter.

The grey stallion pondered a little while.

“Fine, but both you and her have to leave by tomorrow.”

“Deal.”

The turquoise unicorn, Fidelis, carefully placed me on the couch.

“Alright, let’s get down to business.” He started working on my lesions and other injuries. I watched him take a large bottle of Applejack Daniel’s from a saddlebag. He took a quick swig.

Then, he gagged my mouth with some gauze.

“I’m not gonna lie. This is gonna hurt like Hell.”

If my mouth hadn’t been gagged, I probably would’ve drawn the attention of all Chimera from here to the moon.

I started sobbing. It really did hurt like Hell.

“Aw, come on, I had to. It would’ve gotten infected. Last thing you need is an infection.  Honestly, I’m surprised you’re not dead.”

If only you knew.

He wrapped me up with gauze, stopping a lot of bleeding wounds.

“Alright, that should keep you steady for the night. Anything I can get you? Something to eat? Drink? Miss, uh…”

“Vita. My name’s Vita. No, I’m fine. Thanks for everything, though.”

He trotted over to a couch opposite me. “Alright, I’ll be right here if you need anything.”

Blackness obscured my vision.

Then, I heard screams and explosions. I saw foals holding onto their mothers. Ponies were scurrying in pointless directions. Chimeran troops were slaughtering innocents with weapons nopony could even fathom.

Then, one of the Chimera grabbed me. It began shaking me. Screaming at me. I couldn’t understand the garbled vocalizations exploding from its mouth.  I felt sharp pain hit my left foreleg. Blood was dripping from it. Everything became red. The disaster and the death began shrinking from view.

“Her heartbeat’s going down… Whew…”

Fidelis was standing over me with a syringe.

I had gone into cardiac arrest. Whatever that meant. Fidelis had been woken by my convulsions, and had come to my rescue.

Fidelis wiped a sweat drop from his forehead. “Got my ticker running pretty fast, too…”

Then, out of nowhere:

“Leave. Both of you. Now.” The grey stallion had an air of authority in his voice.

Fidelis pleaded with the grey stallion. “She’s in no condition to leave. She can barely stand up!”

“You should’ve thought about that before you decided to take care of her.”

I interrupted their conversation.

“Hey, I can take care of myself!”

Fidelis shot his head toward me. “Shut. Up.”

“You see? She’s fine.  Now, You. Your crap. Outta my house.”

Fidelis’ eyes met mine. If looks could kill…

We had traveled about a mile before anypony said anything.

“Um…Sorry, Fidelis.”

“Oh, shut up. It wouldn’t have mattered either way. Wreck’s just like that. He doesn’t think of anypony but himself.”

I dropped my ears low, and pointed my head downwards.

“Don’t beat yourself up over it. We’ve gotta long trot ahead of us. Next town’s around thirty miles from here.”

“Well, what if-“

He cut me off:

“Assuming those monsters haven’t leveled it yet.”

“Yeah…”

He gently rested a hoof on my shoulder.

“Don’t think about it too much. I have an idea. Why don’t we get to know each other a little better?”

I acknowledged him with a quick nod.

“So, my name’s Fidelis, as you already know. I’m a Physician’s Assistant pony.  I was hanging out in the Ponyville Hospital break room with Wreck, um, y’know, the grey pony?”

I nodded my head.

“Anyway, I was talking with Wreck when those things first hit. All Heck broke loose. Ponies upon ponies started flooding the hospital… I saw a lot of them die… Then, those monsters started tearing the hospital to pieces…I was so scared… Wreck and I ran away…and…and…”

His voice started quaking.

“Ahem, anyway, so, um… Wreck started fortifying his place. I brought in a couple of ponies, which he was okay with, but after the second family... Things became tense. He said I was gonna get us all killed. He made me promise that I wouldn’t bring in anypony else. I agreed. I was actually out looking for food when I found you…I couldn’t just leave you there. I carried you back with me…Wreck wasn’t too happy---you were awake for that. And then…here we are.”

He stared at me expectantly.

“Oh, uh… I’m Vita. I’m from Manehattan. My parents sent me here to stay with my aunt. I was doing part-time jobs to save up for a trip outside of Equestria when Ponyville was attacked. I was hit by this… yellow bomb, I guess it was? So, uh… My boss’s friend used some of her magic to heal me. I…don’t remember much after that. I ran as far away from Ponyville as I could. I crawled under some debris…then you found me. I guess that’s where our stories meet.”

He turned his head from me to the road.

“Oh. Okay.”

He spoke up again.

“Um, not meaning to pry, but, uh… How old are you?”

I lied without thinking.

“Oh, I’m seventeen. I turn eighteen in a month.”

“So, uh, well… are you, uh…Single? Not interested, just asking!”

He finished the end of his statement pretty quickly.

I never could believe that, even when the world was ending, he tried to...Ugh...

“I don’t see why I should tell you.”

“Okay.” His cheeks melted into a light pink.

I thought better of it. “Well, if you must know, I’m single. And, in truth, I would like to remain that way.”

He spoke up. “Oh, that’s fine, of course! There’s nothing wrong with a mare who likes her independence. And besides, I wasn’t hitting on you anyway. Just asking. I mean, if we’re gonna travel together, we may as well be friends, right?”

An awkward silence ensued. I almost didn’t notice the town in the distance.

“We’re here.”  Fidelis’ voice had an exasperated, yet relieved, tune to it.

“I guess so…”

The town looked untouched. It was almost… unfair.

Little did I know that this town would be the epicenter for the largest revolution in Equestria,  and I would placed straight into the heart of it.