Game of Circumstances

Chapter seven: A day through the ruins

‘’ Well.’’ Sirius said. ‘’Welcome on the 3rd highway. It’s been so long since in wandered there for the last time…’’ He sighed. ‘’ We’re only twenty kilometers far from Hellhole, so we’ll be there in… hmmm… five hours if we walk reasonably fast, counting the fact that we’ll have to sneak a little to dodge raiders and others dangers that are numerous in this part of the Canterlot’s wastes.’’

We had quitted New Hope for one hour now, the time needed to reach the highway. The 3rd highway was the biggest road in the Pre-apocalyptic Canterlot. It’s long, and makes its way through all Canterlot, passing by all the most important buildings. Of course, the earthquakes after the Breath destroyed a majority of it, so the road is horribly longer. Although following this road is the only one way to reach the upper town.

But still, we were in the ash desert, so it matched damn well its name. It was well, grey, with an old tarred road crackled, surrounded by old ruins and covered in ashes. Again, I have to emphasize how beautiful this landscape is.

It’s boring.

I brought up the rear, Sirius was quietly walking before me, carrying our food, and Hap’, well… was being Hap’, bouncing and humming a song before us. I always wondered how she bounced.

Anyway.

I caught up with Sirius. He seemed to tire under all the food.

‘’ Need help, partner?’’ I asked.

‘’ No… pfff… I’m pff… fine…’’ He said, gasping for air.

‘’ Yeah, yeah, I trust you…’’ I said, taking one of the food bags and putting it on my bag. It was damn heavy! How did he do to walk one hour with three bags like that on him…? Something made its way from my memory. ‘’ Hey, Sirius?’’ He seemed to have much less difficulty to breathe right now.

‘’ Yeah?’’ He replied.

‘’ You seemed annoyed, like sad, when we talked about going to Happiness, why?’’ He winced.

‘’ Well… it’s a rather sad story, and I don’t want to ruin your good mood, so…’’

‘’ Oh, come on!’’ I cut him. ‘’ All is better than to look at this ugly grey landscape for four hours. THIS is sad.’’ I said, pointing at our surroundings. He seemed ready to say ‘no’, so I took my better teary puppy-eyed face –memory from when I was a foal-, and said with a little voice. ‘’ Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaase?’’

I kept using this face and this voice, spamming him with my cutest ‘please’. Cuter than that, you would have mistook me with Fluttershy! What? You don’t know Fluttershy? Oh, come on, I’m sure you’ve read this story about the magic of friendship. Ah, remember now? You see that this expression is perfectly adapted.

Finally, he gave up, and turned his head away.

‘’ Okay, okay! I give up!’’ He said. ‘’ But I must warn you. It’s a sad story.’’ Hell, he wasn’t lying when he said that. After, he mumbled something, but I caught only the words ‘cuteness’ and ‘forbidden’.

‘’’ It was… ten years ago.’’ He started. ‘’ I was ten, and I had just got my cutie mark. My parents and I had been wandering in the ruins of the upper town for long, as far as I can remember. One day, we settled in an old ruin, near from the Royal Pony Sister’s castle. Quite quickly, other wanderers came and built their house here. In three month, happiness was founded. We were already fifty in town, with a doctor -I was an assistant at his cabinet-, some bars, and a supply shop.’’

‘’ Three other month later, the town counted three-hundred-and-fifty-five residents. It was known around as the last freedom bastion in Canterlot. The town had well-grown, and counted its own repairer, and its own town guard.’’

‘’ But, as always down here in the ash desert, you run out of luck someday. The town was getting bigger and bigger, and it started to interest the rotten apples of this blasted town. Discord’s cults started to root themselves in town. Raiders, pillagers and other mutants attacked the town. The outside attackers were beaten each time, but they kept coming. The insiders were another problem.’’

‘’ Six month later, all the important ponies in town were corrupted by the cults, apart my parents and some others, like Blood Rain, the town guard’s chief, a Pegasus. The town’s councils were becoming a battlefield, each pony waiting for an excuse to jump at each other’s throats.’’

‘’ Six other month later, happened a fateful night for Happiness. Somepony opened the town’s doors to the Black Eyes, and they began to raid inside town. But, the horror reached its summit as the town’s guards, instead of fighting the raiders, started to pillage as well. The last loyalists were outnumbered, but they fought with the inhabitants, prying for this nightmare to end.’’

‘’ Blood was staining the houses and the streets as the town was ravaged by an urban war. You couldn’t trust nopony, apart your family. One by one, the town’s defenders were being killed, or raped, for the mares. My father was killed in the firsts, when the town’s guard betrayed, shot dead in the back. My mother and my little sister were raped, then tortured to death by raiders and guards that they thought they were friendly.’’

‘’ And me? I passed all night crying, hidden under my bed. Like the coward I was. I could hear them calling for help, I had a gun, but I didn’t move. I was frightened.’’

‘’ Finally, the next morning, I was discovered by Blood Rain. He was severely hurt, and he had lost his faith. It’s the only one time in my life that I saw my father’s best friend cry. He cried tears and blood as well, but he had still his mind clear. He told me that my family was dead, that I had to move from this hell, escape from here before they found me.’’

‘’ I followed his order. I ran away, and I wandered along this road for years, before finally move in New Hope. I heard by visitors that Happiness had been saved, the cultists killed, and the raiders chased out of town by the Ash Rangers. I heard that Blood Rain lived without a spine and his hind legs because of a grenade, and that the town was being rebuilt.’’

‘’ And here we are.’’ He ended. I noticed that tears were rolling down his cheeks, but I’m not going to complain, I could, and still can, understand why he was crying.

‘’ I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake up these painful memories.’’ I apologized. ‘’ Or, rather, I meant to, but I didn’t think it would be that painful.’’ My awkward apology had at least the power to make him smile slightly.

‘’ No, it’s fine…’’ He paused. ‘’ I think I needed to speak about it. Plus, it was long ago, so I’m getting used to this, even if it still hurt.’’

We walked silently from that moment to the lunch, where Hap’, seeing our faces, even if I’m pretty sure she had hear the story, made jokes and other funny things that launched us cheerful on the road.

Two hours later, we were still talking about things like the weather, that would have been sunny if there was a sun, and other useless things that you speak about to avoid boredom.

‘’ Hey! HEY!’’ Hap’ shouted suddenly. We stopped and looked at her. ‘’ There’s some funny ponies that are camping just before us!’’ I looked to see what she had called ‘funny ponies’.

Shit, mutants! Three of them.

‘’ Shit! Mutants!’’ I said. Too late, they had spotted us. I took the saver, ready to put up a fight; Sirius took his pistol with his freakin’ magic, and Hap’ put out a baseball bat from nowhere. The mutants, as ugly as they are usually, began to rush against us. I loaded my shotgun, took a comfy position to fire, and…

The mutant head exploded suddenly before I could pull the trigger.  Blood began to rain everywhere as the other mutants knew the same end, their beheaded bodies falling against the tarry road as their blood recolored it red.

I looked at my partners, but no one of them seemed to have done something.

‘’ What the hell…?’’ I asked.

Suddenly, a pony got out of the ruins on my left, soon followed by others. He had a sniper, so I figured that he was the one that had saved us. He threw his forelegs in the air, and said:

‘’ Welcome in Hellhole!’’