Maybe if you were not so useless, others wouldn’t make fun of you so much.
Maybe if you actually served a purpose on this world, people would actually like you.
Speedlock repeated those thoughts in her head several times as she slowly walked towards her Rainboomer jet on the end of the runway. Ponies were rushing to refuel and arm the jets as soon as possible. The whole Ponyville AFB was on their hooves, with every single worker and pilot trying to do their best. Speedlock watched her breath condensate in the cold, morning air. She noticed that her co-pilot, a black unicorn named Onyx, was already on his seat, waiting for her.
“You took your sweet time, didn’t you?” Onyx said, taunting Speedlock
“Give me a break, you cunt. I was sleepy.” Speedlock responded
“Hahaha, you’re cute when you’re trying to be mean, but we both know you’re just too nice.” Onyx said
Speedlock ignored his taunts, strapping herself to her seat in the jet and tying her golden yellow mane into a ponytail. Nopony would ever take her seriously, assuming she was okay with all of their comments and mean things they’d say to her. She was sick of that.
I’d gladly kick the shit out of this asshole if I had a chance. But I’ll show him. I’ll show them a…
“Sunflare 1. Sunflare 1, respond please.” A transmission from the control tower interrupted her thoughts
“Sunflare 1 here, we’re strapped in and ready for take off.” Speedlock responded to the control tower
“Roger, you’re allowed to take off from runway 2. Surface wind speed 5 knots.” The control tower operator said
The plane shook as the engines kicked in. She wiped the condensation off her helmet’s visor and checked the instrument table once again.
“Taking off. ETA 10 second.” Onyx said
The plane spread its wings, preparing for take off.
“Come on, you’ve got this…you’ve done this before… just like in the simulation…” Speedlock said to herself
The plane shook once again as the hooks released it from the runway. Three powerful pillars of thrust coming from the VTOL engines lifted their Rainboomer off the ground. Speedlock turned the plane around for about 90 degrees and switched from VTOLs to the main engines, blasting off into the dark, morning sky.
“Sunflare 1 is airborne. Heading Southeast. Range 2 KM. ETA 5 minutes.” Onyx said to the control tower.
Speedlock felt insanely free when she flew a plane. She was a Pegasus herself, but she was a really bad flier when she used her wings. She was very talented when it came to planes, though, and she, even though her parents were against it, enlisted to army. She got assigned to an EQRAF squadron stationed in Ponyville military base. She graduated on the military academy like the best student, and she was very proud about it. She’d always score the best possible score in the simulator but…this was different.
Mountains switched place with forests, forests became grassy fields and fields became villages. A silhouette of the Iris Tower, Ponyville's biggest landmark, a big radio tower appeared in the darkness. The lights became stronger as they approached Ponyville center. Soon, the source of the lights became evident. The town was on fire.
Speedlock had never seen a dragon in her life, besides stories her mom used to tell her when she was a filly, she had no experience with them, and at that point in her life, she doubted they even existed outside of her imagination. These ones, however, were real. They spat fire, setting the wooden houses of the Ponyville's suburbs on fire like they were a bunch of leaves in the autumn.
“You ready, Onyx?” Speedlock asked Onyx.
“I was born ready!” Onyx used one of those worn out phrases they used in old movies she used to watch
She rolled her eyes. Speedlock wasn’t ready. This was her first engagement, over a heavily populated area, too. She was nervous, but she was determined.
She armed her plane’s missiles, separating one of the smaller dragons from the flock. She prepared to fire when she noticed a barrage of fireballs heading towards her plane.
“Onyx, I’ll have to evade! Prepare for evasive maneuvers! “ Speedlock said to Onyx
She turned the plane, making a Cuban eight. The fireballs flew right over the cockpit and hit one of the houses. She ended the maneuver, flying so low above the suburbs they were almost touching the roofs.
Then she noticed another barrage of fireballs, heading straight towards them from the front!
“Onyx, I won’t be able to evade this one, you’ll have to deploy the magic shield…Onyx?” She turned around to see Onyx’s head hanging from his neck, motionless. He'd blacked out from the evasive maneuvers. She tried to evade this barrage too, but it was too late. They crashed head on with the fireballs, Speedlock lost control of the aircraft and they crashed into a small wooden house.
The plane remained in one piece, probably due to their low altitude and the fact that the house they crashed into was made of thin wooden planks. The plane’s emergency systems opened the cockpit, but Speedlock struggled to release herself from her safety straps. Then she noticed it. The dragon she wanted to shoot down landed in front of the crashed plane. She had finally released herself from the straps, but when she tried to fly away, her wing got stuck in one of them, pulling her back to the seat.
The dragon laughed and approached her, grabbing her with it’s clawed hands. Her golden eyes were filled with fear, she was shaking.
“So you’re not that strong without your little toys, are you?” The dragon said in a crude, raspy voice.
He moved his head closer to Speedlock's face, so close that she could almost taste the decomposing meat stuck between his teeth.
"You’re scared, aren’t you? You are surprised we can talk? Well, we’re smarter than you ponies might think.” The dragon said with an evil grin “Hell, you know what, I’m not going to eat you. No, you deserve something far far worse.”
Speedlock watched in terror as the dragon formed a fireball in his mouth.
“N…no. Please…” She begged him
He laughed cruelly.
"I love being begged. But you know what? I’m sick of you ponies. I’m sick of you hunting us and using us for your experiments. Besides, you’re the one that killed my son!” The dragons accused her. He probably couldn’t tell the difference between planes, so he assumed she was the one who killed his son! Somepony else shot down his son, not her. And now she’s going to get killed because of someone else’s mistake.
The dragon opened his mouth, spitting the fireball straight into Speedlock's face.
She screamed in pain as her face melted away.
***
Speedlock woke up in cold sweat. Only thing she could see was darkness around her. Her eyes slowly adapted to dark. She was in some kind of a hospital. She had electrodes connected to her chest and wings and she was connected to a heartbeat monitor which slowly beeped in the background. She stood up, but she collapsed on the ground. She regained balance, and slowly gagged up to the bed next to her. There was a pony in it sleeping, covered in sheets
“Uhhhh…sir? Miss…? Wake up.” She tried to wake the pony up.
No response. She lifted the sheets, revealing a horrific sight. In the bed was a decomposing corpse of a long dead unicorn. She backed away in terror. Then she noticed. The whole room was full of those beds, with corpses covered in sheets. Dozens of them. She tried to calm down, convincing herself that it’s just a nightmare. She hoped it was just a nightmare. She ripped the electrodes from her chest and wings, causing the heartbeat monitor produce a high pitched sound. She was too weak to turn it off, so she just kicked it, destroying it.
She looked down the end of the room. One of those creepy laboratory-like doors that lead to the hallway stood there. It was unlocked. Speedlock slowly walked down the eerie, grey corridor, dimly illuminated by the neon lamps. The hallway was filled with doors, each of them leading to the room similar to the one she woke up in. Each of them was filled with those hospital beds. Each room was filled with dozens upon dozens of dead ponies. She couldn't take it anymore, she was sick from the stench. On her left side she noticed a bathroom door. She rushed in, trying to hold herself from puking. The water in the sinks was still running, surprisingly, so she used the opportunity to wash her face.
Refreshed, she lifted her head, gazing into the mirror. Her jaw almost dropped. Half of her face was covered in horrible burns. Her purple coat was charred on her neck. Her left eyes was of a sickly yellow color, instead of it's usual gold. She had noticed that there was something wrong with her sight, but she couldn't tell from the dark in the hospital room, but now, under the strong light... She closed her right eye. Her left eye was destroyed completely. It was blind. With the realization that she just got scarred for life, she slowly exited the bathroom.
At the end of the hallway was a door locked with an eye scanner. She tried unlocking it. No avail.
"Greetings, mistress. How may I be of service?" A robotic voice asked her from behind her back.
Speedlock turned around to see a small, hovering bucket-shaped robot behind her. It had a red cross on it's 'chest', and it looked at her with a smile on it's LCD face.
She froze at first, not knowing what to reply. Then she had an idea.
"Uhhhh...hey. I am trying to get this door to open, but it was set to recognize my left eye which is...well, out of order, so to speak. Can you...umm...please unlock it for me?" Speedlock lied. She didn't like to lie, but she liked the idea of being locked in a facility with a bunch of corpses for the rest of her life even less.
"Directive accepted, stand back." The robot said and deployed a small wire with a chip on one end and inserted it into the side of the scanner. The door opened with a click. "Is that all?" It asked.
Speedlock recovered from the surprising realization that her bad lying skills actually worked.
"No, that is all...thanks!" She replied.
"Have a nice day." The robot said, hovering away from her and resuming it's patrol scheme.
So much for a security system...
She found herself in a big, round lobby. A couple of pots with dead plants were in the corners. Still no windows, only neon lights. She noticed more corpses on the ground, but these seemed older, so decayed they were almost skeletons. She noticed a map on the wall behind the receptionist's desk in the middle of the room.
"Base: Paradise 1, hospital and biological experimentation wing, floor -12" The map read. The number was negative, which meant she was underground.
She noticed an elevator door in the wall on her right. Pressing one of the buttons several times, she called the elevator. The door opened with a *ding*. She almost stepped inside when her heart almost stopped. There was no elevator. She almost stepped into an empty shaft!
She looked around, searching for a staircase or something else, but she found nothing. She realized she was trapped underneath tons upon tons of steel and concrete.
She calmed down, slowing down her breath.
Calm down, idiot...there must be another way out...
She searched through the desk, finding more maps. These were a top down plan of the floor. She noticed a few more rooms. They were marked as "deceased storage". She tried to ignore those and looked at the rest of the room plans. There were vent openings in some of the rooms. A spark of hope appeared in her chest as she looked at the ventilation system plans. Only one of the vents lead to the surface, however. It was the one in the dead storage.
She stood in front of the deceased storage room's door. She glanced through the window. She couldn't see much, but she could see some bags on the floor. She swallowed the lump in her throat and entered the room. Bags had a shape as if there were bodies in them, but she didn't want to check them and took a look at the vent shaft. It was dark and noisy, presumably because of the main fan. She kicked the vent several times before it fell on the ground with a loud noise. She hoped that she was the only one in the facility that could hear that. She entered the shaft, gripping the flashlight she got from the receptionist's desk in her mouth.
Suddenly, one of her biggest fears awoke in her. Most pegasi hated enclosed spaces, but she hated them even more. She was claustrophobic.