//-------------------------------------------------------// Fallout Equestria: Remnants -by MisterMisterScratch- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Prologue/introduction //-------------------------------------------------------// Prologue/introduction Once upon a time.... In the magical land of Equestria...where Princess Celestia and Princess Luna reigned a peaceful land at most In the very early years of the reign of the two sisters that Celestia and Luna ruled Celestia her self was unsatisfied about the current protection over Equestria even with the Elements of Harmony she knew even they wouldn't be able to save Equestria at some point. In the early years Celestia knew her self that it would not always be peaceful and she demanded new order and power over the land, thus creating the Equestrian Mobile Task Force, a Elite army that swore to protect the land from harm secretly. Keeping quiet about it even to her dear sister Celestia chose a worthy leader for the Mysterious force after countless tests, this leader was known as RTW. Strange as it was RTW didn't fail to lead the Equestrian Mobile Task Force. For centuries the EMTF watched over and aided Equestria with advanced technology when the Elements couldn't stope the threat. 1000 years later Celestia's fear came true.this is the point of time Where friendship became a stranger, a foreign word buried under the hellish war that raged of greed selfishness and self destruction. It is now at the peak of the war. Celestia's secret army built a respite. A home that would blend in with the Stars. They called it the Fleetship, meant to ensure ponykinds survival and the survival of the EMTF. This is when experiments were conducted, experiment after experiment to produce the perfect soldier. An Elite, built by the DNA of Celestia the Elite was meant to aid Equestria if there effort. Meant to stop the war and finally end it one way or another but this unfortunately wouldn't happen as when Mega Spells rained over the skies the EMTF crumbled along with Equestria turning into nothing but a remnant, This is the story of Elite 005. This is the story of a handful of survivors that once stood in a mighty army. This is his Legend. Prologue Celestia and Luna stood side by side, covered in dirt and grime from a long fight. Both her and her sister had been fighting a creature that belonged in hell a creature that terrified early settlements of Equestria before there title as princesses even the generations before that and before that. It was known as Clasane, a Malevolent entity that struck fear into living beings hearts and transformed them into a deformed entity. "Sister watch out!" Luna yelled her horn glowing before letting out a powerful blast of magic hitting a demented looking pony twisted from its original shape to a horrifying monster that belong in hell. "Enough of this Clasane! It's time that you be locked away!" Celestia looked forward towards the tall evil creature that took the shape of a dragon like appearance that stood up on its hind legs, Covered in a black cloak his eyes stared at the two goddesess. His eyes like burning coals, piles of ponies layed around. Some In battered and destroyed gold plates of armour and some twisted and deformed, extra limbs or extended body parts. Quickly pulling out the Elements of Harmony the two Princesses stood fast as they held the Elements in place the ground shook violently, it shook because Clasane was sprinting towards them reaching a claw out reaching to grab her or her sister. With a bright flash and a combination of all the colours of the Elements the raw power created a stream and a powerful beam that fired upon the creature. But he didn't stop, Celestia gasped in awe of the resistance of this entity. He slowly walked forward his arm swung back and he readied its claws forward and slashed creating a huge explosion causing Luna and Celestia to fly a couple of feet hitting the ground. Before she knew it Clasane was standing above Celestia, he reached down and slowly picked her up by the neck his claws slowly piercing through her neck. Her eyes looked down at her saddlebag and glanced at the Element of Rage. It raged and vibrated with corruption and hatred. The Element by its self was far more powerful than the elements of Harmony. But it was dangerous and hard to contain, it might even change the terrain of the land of used. She had no choice, for her subjects she be willing to sacrifice her self to save them. Her horn glowed and grabbed the red Element floating it over to her face and grunted frowning forcing words out "You shall not rule Clasane!" "Sister no!" Luna looked over holding her hoof out. It was too late she had activated the Element, her eyes flashed and slowly turned black along with her vains. Clasane looked at the Crystal then back at Celestia and screetched before the massive explosion swallowed them both along with the battlefield they had created. "Sister!" Luna bursted through the snow, she gasped looking up at the storm whirling flashing lightning and blowing snow violently. rushing towards Celestia which was just slowly getting up before collapsing and using Luna as a stand support "I'm fine Sister...as...ah!" She dropped to the ground and violently vomited a black substance that boiled. "Hes...contained...that's the important thing..." Celestia slowly lifted her neck with a clenched face and stared at the stone box. Standing up she lifted the Element of Rage and slowly gave it to Luna. "Take it away to the EMTF...No pony should know about Clasane or this Element...I Celestia command that only my blood and spirit shall open his prison...not that we need to open it..." Luna looked at her in worry "Sister what about the corruption?..." Celestia looked up at Luna "It will fade...now go...take care of the Element and take it to the EMTF" Luna turned and dashed off flying fast and dissapeared in the storms as Celestia looked back at the stone box prison. "What are we gonna do when he escapes...if he escapes again...no pony must see..." Turning her head she clentched her teeth "That...Element..." She got up and walked towards Clasane's prison feeling the Evil presence still strong even though he has been captured. She knew that this wouldn't hold forever. 1 year later "Uh your highness" a royal guard bowed down in distress, he was sweating hard and panting and was obviously hauling it. "What is it?" Celestia said in her usual calm voice. "We were attacked her majesty. They call them selfs the Jiah...we were overrun while building the Prison..." She frowned and got up. Luna was laying down writing in a book before Celestia ran into the room. "Sister! The Prison was attacked" Luna instantly got up and they both were quickly trotting to the main hall of there castle. "Bring Star Swirl here quickly" Celestia said as three guards nodded and ran out of the castle of the two sisters. Minutes later Star Swirl walked in and bowed before gazing upwards at the princesses. "You summoned me?" Celestia nodded "Yes...the 'prison' was attacked recently and overrun by somthing" He stood up ears perking up "What do you need" "We need that spell of yours. A terrain formation spell" He nodded. "I just happened to have it in my baggage" His horn glowed and his saddlebags opened up, floating scrolls out of the way until he found the one he wanted "Here your majesty" He floated it forward, Luna grabbed "Thank you Star Swirl" He nodded once again "Do you need anything else or maybe do you need to perform the spell?" They both shook there heads, leaving the castle they by them selves took off flying, Star Swirl watching them. Celestias eyes were wide when they had reached the area. Those creatures from before had invaded Clasane's prison. "How is it possible...they were all blasted" Luna looked over "It's his magic...even though he is locked up I can still feel somthing. Somthing Evil lurking above...shall we?" They both nodded and stopped circling the Prison and landed. Once again they both combined there magic, creatures of all sorts were crawling around quickly even the guards and ponies who were just helping build its prison, the ground shook violently as the two sisters performed the spell s best as they could A circled perimeter was created and outlined by magic before it started to sink into the ground. Dust and snow rising up the two sisters kept there concentration. The screeches of the Jiah turned into distant echoes as then Celestia casted a spell into the sky, making the clouds pull together making a snow storm. "No pony shall be near here...this place will freeze over time..." Luna looked over at her sister "Are...you sure this will do?...keep his...actually...I don't feel his evil presence anymore...what about the Jiah?" "There gonna stay down there...trust me...lets just hope that nothing bothers his prison...." //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1: Birth of an Elite //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1: Birth of an Elite This story is an inspiration by Kkat and Fallout. All content here shouldn't be considered lore. It's a story created by my wild imagination. And CHECK MY INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT FOR THE EXPLANATION OF THE APPEARANCE OF THE MAIN CHARACTER "Ugh....why can't the Fleetship Commander just orders to bring up some decent coffee" the small brown unicorn stallion plops down in his chair letting out a sigh as the research centre is still quiet. Well of course it is five in the morning. The old small brown stallion in his white coat. Slightly stained from past small accidents and little food stains he dropped on his uniform during lunch. Suddenly the door in the hall unlocks and slides open as a small white mare walks in with her uniform all done up and In her horn is holding a pile of paper work "doctor Sparks?...I think we are ready to start to process" the mare said "Alright. Just head to the recarnation chamber units. I'll be there" with a small nod the mare leaves the research centre as Sparks finishes up the rest of his coffee. Thinking back to when the project started years ago. "Are you sure you want to do this Princess?" Asked DJRTW also known as Dj Red Tech Wubs. Or even known as the Noble leader of the Equestrian Mobile Task Forces. Although nopony never knew why he had such a silly name for a leader. He is still a great leader in there book's. The tall red stallion towers over the princess as two medical stallions are taking blood samples from her and fills into a A few IV bags it was really ancient experiment of cloning the power of Celestia. So far Experimental ELITE 003 and RTW himself was by far the most successful. You see, there has been many attempts to clone Celestia's power into a pony, but...it was too much on a pony and would kill them, there fragile bodies would not be able to handle such power. So we came up with a solution, it doesn't have to be a pony that wields such strength. It can be what ever, so these experiments are kind of a splice of Celestia's power, magic and some of the toughest creatures of Equestria. It was going to be beautiful. "Doctor Sparks, You will be in charge of this Project. I will leave samples in your lab along with other specimens" DJ said. The young looking colt stands up right at attention as Dj walk by him leaving though the main gates "y-yes m- sir I mean sir!" Sparks said nervously "I relying on you to complete this Experiment, Doctor" RTW said as the giant red coated stallion leaves the castle quietly and also making sure no pony seen besides the ponies in the hall at the moment. The very few ponies that know about the EMTF only have so little knowledge about it. Sparks certainly knows the history of the Equestrian Mobile Task Forces. About oh. Two thousand ago when the population. Of Equestria was still a little thin. Princess Celestia and Luna wanted to bring new order to the land by creating a Elite force with "modern" technology DJRTW was granted Alicorn horn powers and also changed his appearance just a tad. When the force was officially created with very few soldiers and ponies over all the princess sent out the small group to grow and do tasks as quietly as possible. Over the years DJ created what is known as a "Fleetship" the capacity holds up to personal is 4500 ponies aboard. There are your scientists. Soldiers. Fleetship mechanics, farmers all that jazz. One of the only things sparks didn't like is the dam coffee "Are you distressed Doctor?" Princess Celestias delicate calm voice rose up to speak to him. "Oh uh yes your highness I am very fine. Th-thank you" Sparks once again nervously "Well I hope you are. Seems like you've been given a very important task, I sense you are at least a little disturbed?" Asked Celestia as the medical ponies finished up taking a sample of her blood. "I am just a little nervous your highness heh...." Sparked nodded towards the ponies and they packed up swifty, leaving the castle quietly making sure no pony besides a few trusted guards seen. The castle fell into a awkward silence as the Medical ponies left. Doctor Sparks came out of long distance teleport with a suit case on his back, he approached a drop ship that waited for him in the middle of nowhere. "Welcome back Doctor!" The pilot smiled and yelled over the noisy aircraft as he peeked his head out of the cockpit's door frame. The Doctor waved his hoof in a circle "Seal her up and let's get back!" "Right'o sir!" The pilot jumped back into his seat, the ships sides slammed closed as Sparks sat in a seat, the seat was meant for a pony in CONtainment armour. The seats were all in three long rows, there was also two huge doors below him that opened up. In the case of the need of a quick drop off the doors opened and dropped all the soldiers at once. Such a thing has never been used though. There is barely any EMTF soldiers down in Equestria anyways. They were mainly used for scoutin for Equestria or just to guard distant outposts. "Hahah! Docotor, sir you better hold on I'm going up faster than usual!" "Why?" Sparks replied "The cloaking talisman is on the fritz again! we don't want anypony seeing us , hold on!" The engines rumbled loudly and sparks was pressed against the back of the uncomfortable metal seat that dangled with hooks and latches. "Doctor Sparks are you alright bud?" The stallion shook his head looking up to see that he is standing at the entrance of the research labs and a few feet away a averaged sized unicorn security guard in thick looking armour. "Heh. Yeah I am . Just a small trip down memory lane" "ah cool. Alright Spark the rest of your team is waiting get over there" The guard casually says as he turns and walks down the metal hall his gear rattling just a little as he dissapears in the metal hallways. "Fuck I need to stop zoning out like that" The stallion quickly pulls him self I together and quickly trotted out of the lab. "Where is that stallion?!" the red coated mare with a black mane asked annoyed and impatiently. "He's on his way Flask" said the guard as he walked in and stood aside the door. "He better be. The operation is gonna begin soon" as she said this the scientist looks up at the huge cylinder glass tube with water filled inside of it. Or it seemed to be water anyways. As soon as she finished talking James wonders in casually. "Hey there you are! Come on we're starting the procedure soon" The few ponies in the room nod as they pull over a Gas Mask. "Is the Serum ready?" Sparks looked over his voice muffled by the mask. They all stand around a cylinder tube. The water holding a small colt. "Yes of course it is sir..." "Alright. Begin the infusion..." And with that the three reactors and machines in the lab power up. The energy flowing into pipes and into the cylinder tube. "Sparks, the process is 34% complete the fusion is going fast....uh this..is moving way too fast" The doctor just stop there staring at the tube, during infusions the filly or colt would die from the infusion, but this one, the colt scrambled unconsciously with the mask over his mask as glowing tubes full of the deadly serum violently shot into the colt's body, this was a success "Release the Elite Serum. Now! All of it!" Flask hesitated and she slammed her hoof down on the controls, the whole room shook. The reactors building up with power. "I-it's to much power!" Then they finally things started to fall apart. Shaking there world, the Fleetship must have felt it. Being hit by a flying pipe Sparks was knocked to the ground as the cylinder exploded along with the reactors, the alarms blared as a thin later of water rushed along the floor. "Warning, Lethal radiation levels detected!" "Hey! Doc you alright?!" Flask yelled in the dark as emergency lighting came on. "Yeah I'm alright...everypony out!" They all did not waste a second to evacuate A couple of guards turned on there flashlights as others used the glow of there HUDs to look around. "My goddesess..." Sparks said quietly as he fixed the bulky gas mask on his face and paused and stared at a little figure, his little horn glowed a bright white and layed unconscious in a thick cloud of pink smoke "Shit t-the talisman was hit on the reactor! Doctor get the hell out of there!" The guard from before yelled at the door "His colours changed..." The Doctor stared at the colt before looking back smiling under his mask "It worked!" He rushed out into the cloud of lethal gas, picking up the little colt he rushed back feeling the radiation start to get to him. "Celestia bless my hoofs what's wrong with you?!" The guard pulled Sparks in and slammed his hoof on the emergency lock, slamming the door down and shut Medical ponies and a few RFSF units rushed up in response to the explosion "Take him to the medical room! I want him in shape as soon as possible!" "You too Doctor! You aren't looking so well.." Sparks laughed as a buck with a cross on his chest plate walked up and lead him away along with the colt. TIME: 1800 hours Location: Atrium 3-B Three weeks later... The large room was filled with ponies, mostly scientists and some guards here and there. They were having a celebration of the creation of Elite 005 "Congratulations Thermostat" Silver Bullet the Fleetship commander said smiling at Sparks. "Thank you sir! Isn't this exciting? I mean. We've completed five Elites!...you know when I first started on this project I though it would be a complete failure" Silvers face went droopy for a moment as he thought somthing listening to sparks. "Look...I...got some grave news for you..." Silver muttered. "What? What is it?..." "Elite...three...passed away..." Sparks eyes widened, so wide that they might as well be popping out "What do you mean?! We've...how?!" Sparks slammed his hoof against the table. Some ponies looked over as others just continued what they were doing. "I'm sorry thermostat! The virus in the food got to her and we had no choice out to put her down...she killed three engineers and four, FOUR of my RFSF Guards!" Sparks leaned back against his chair and put a hoof over his head. Now depressed. "So much work...i'll...I'll write a report about it to my crew.." He muttered "Sparks...im sorry..." Silver replied and got up fixing his slicked back shiny mane. "I got a meeting in ten minutes. Also telsa wants to meet you in the armoury" Sparks raised an eyebrow looking up at the commander. "What for?" "Somthing about the Elite's Armor" Silver replied and without anything else. Walked off leaving the Doctor with his thinking. "Hey you alright doc?" Thermostat looked up to see a middle aged made with a bright silver coat and two small foals as a cutie mark "Well this is a surprise..." Sitting down she raised a brow " how did it go in the chambers? The whole ship heard and felt that explosion" She chuckled "All the mechanics rushed around worried about the ship" Sparks shrugged and looked around before looking back at Silver Line "...it went terrific Elite Zero Zero Five was a success" She smiled with glee "So does this mean I get to look after a Elite?" He nodded and she laughed and it looked like she was barely able to hold her joy in. "Well...I should be going" Spark said standing up, sliver noticing his mood. "Hey. Somthing going on? You aren't looking so good" Stopping and turning his head to her he sighed " three is dead...dam crazy virus got her...she was the most successful Elite and 14 years of research and development wasted...she was the last hope to eliminating the live-" Being cut off ten Royal Fleet Security Force guards rushed in full with riot armor, there golden shiny masks reflecting Everypony, so clear as who all looks looks right at there true selfs there soul. "There's a breach! Infected Crazies are attacking Buck and Mare Sleeping Quarters all personal evacuate towards the CON safe holds or the RFSF holds! This is NOT a drill! Move now!" Everypony started to crowd around the entrances, mares and bucks picking up there foals. Some ponies were CONtaiment soldiers and guards already. "Doctor! This way!" A RFSF mare waved her hoof to a smaller exit being held off by a couple of bucks and guards. Rushing to them the Mare escorted him out of there, pulling him along with magic in a hurry. "How bad is it?" "Pretty bad the cafeteria has gone haywire" A buck spoke up following behind sparks, one of the Bucks snuck up to a corner peeking his head out a little. A moment later he waved his hoof forward. "Only if three was still alive..." The doc mumbled to him self keeping close to the ponies that were escorting him out of the sector. "There there!" A the mare stopped Spark by sharply sticking her hoof out, running into her hoof he lost his breath a little annoyed. But he went from annoyed to surprised when three ponies rushed around the corner of the hall "Get behind me!" The RFSF mare yelled pulling out a device from under her saddle bag. The bulky device in her magic started to unfold and extend into a rifle, at complete shock Everypony stared at the most lethal rifle ever created. The CON Goddess MK III. Quickly shoving a glowing cartridge into the top she held it up and fired. BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM The plasma and magic rounds filled the hall with streaks of red. Covering his ears Spark looked at the infected ponies holding guns that were nothing compared to what the RFSF mare had in her magic, he watched them explode into unrecognizable pieces of flesh and bone, the sound of wet flesh hitting the ground in a disgusting way as blood splashed on the wall creating a twisted piece of art out of there's blood. She nodded and pulled sparks along, despite him covering his ears they were ringing from the shots. "John! this is Plasma, me and the doc are coming close to the checkpoint. make sure you dont turn us into mush" "got it" her radio crackled as we ran down the hall into the atrium. three CON soldiers on the upper levels aimed there rifles down the railings. "its the doctor! hey unlock the door!" one of the doors opened up and a couple of RFSF guards rushed out taking in all the ponies that were waiting. "shit!" "get out of my way!" "We're gonna die here if we don't move!" ponies yelled. Plasma the guard fired a few rounds into the ceiling, everypony ducked and some even screamed "Let important ponies through first! Everypony just st-" A loud boom filled the atrium and Plasma fell to the ground holding her neck. Who ever shot her has a really good aim or was just really lucky to hit a weak spot, ponies were cramming the doors as CON soldiers pointed there weapons around trying to find the shooter. "Ah you gotta be kidding!" Spark said as he dragged the RFSF off to the side, things were clearing up and it was obvious who the shooter was cause a buck in CON armour was infected who was now battling the other soldiers. Hearing the struggles between guards and some rounds going off Spark tried his best to stop the bleeding. Plasma was lucky to only get a graze, anything else and she would have no chest or upper body, she would be chunk of meat. Grunting he picked her up or tried and dragged her through the doors, a CON took her away and yelled at Spark to get to the hold. "Rocket launcher!" At that very moment his heart stopped. Literally, the missile zipped past his face, leaving a burn and changing the pressure for a moment as the explosion swallowed a lot of ponies and guards, blowing out lights and causing spark to fly a couple of feet hitting his horn hard against the steel wall. Screaming in pain, spark held his horn. A good inch was missing from the side. "Dammit! Dammit! Oh...sshhhhhoot" Rolling around he suddenly heard the distant steps. They were coming, and they wouldn't hesitate to end him and any others. "The gun..." Spark looks down the dark hall at Plasma, shocked he noticed that she was holding a couple of empty healing potions. And a needle in her neck. She had forced her self to a kit saving her life, but was to weak to move. "Get the gun..." Spark knew he wouldn't be able to use his horn, so he started crawling towards Plasmas rifle, grabbing it he forced himself against the wall holding it with his teeth and muffled "Getting too old for this shit..." He mumbled and heard the scream of a buck and a single loud gunshot that echoed down the hallway, a wheezing twisted laugh accompanying it right after. Spark's heart was pounding, pounding so hard it might as well be loud as the rifle. Sparks had some experience with holding a weapon like a Pegasus or a earth pony. But a full on rifle? No way. "Yoohoooo geheheheheheh..." The buck said quietly through the smoke, a black figure started forming in the white smoke, crooked pony. Dragging a Royal Fleet Security Force Sword while waving a equestrian pistol around. He turned his head and as he did you could hear the broken bones and flesh in his broken mutilated neck. And stared right at Spark with blood shot eyes. "There you are...my meal!" He grinned and started to laugh like a crazy buck, he was a crazy buck. BAM BAM BAM The massive rifle tore the buck apart despite the armour on the buck, bits of flesh splattered on the ceiling and wall while his unrecognizable corpse hit the ground with a nasty wet thud. Screaming again the doc held his jaw, he had dislocated it when he fired. "Hello anypony?!" Medical bucks rushed down the hall, finding him and plasma. "Great Luna. Alright alright. Let's get you out of here" He kneeled down applying a numbing spell to both of them. And dragged them away out of the piles of dead ponies, the last thing he saw was a foal, being held in her mothers deceased hoofs. The little filly was gone too and her little eyes stared at nothing, lifeless. "Fucking crazies........." He muttered before going unconscious //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2: Blank Flank //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2: Blank Flank Time: 1300 Location: Fleetship and 005's Clinic... With a small moan and groan Elite Five The little white coated colt with a spiked red and black mane moves a little in his covers "OOW...." I wiggled around trying to find purchase of what is happening I was trying to find a reason why the body aches....wait..body...aches?... My eyes shot open and sat up before groaning again in pain my bright red eyes quickly ajusting to the bright metallic room "h-hello?..." I said quietly in a shaky way, I sat there waiting for a reply. But when anything failed to reply to my words I slowly wiggled my way to the edge of the bed and rolls off hitting the ground hard "oof!..ow" I said trying to get up and tried To scan my surroundings. Obviously I thought in my head that was sleeping on a bed and above the bed was a flourecent light in the metal ceiling. For the walls there was nothing but white paint and steel walls all around the small room and In the corner is a small deal with its partner chair nearly ontop of it with a funny looking terminal type computer. "Feels like a cell..." I said before trotting around the room sniffing at everything That was in the room almost fascinated by the simplest things such as a small figure of a CON trooper on the desk or even a chair leg and the desk. "Uh...is anyPONY here?....hello?!" I yelled out before shivering again and knocking against the metal door. Suddenly the door just unfolds and two layers of metal slide retracting different ways into the walls as that happened I was jumping back startled "wha?! What the!?" A small light chuckle is heard as I looked up in a curious way to see a tall brown stallion in a scientists coat "I see you are awake little one..." Said the stallion,he kneeled down looking at me, examining me in facilitating way. I on the other hoof give him a frown backing up little to the bed "um..who are you mister.." "I'm Doctor Sparks Thermostat. Don't be afraid. I would be confused too" "Why don't you come with me and I'll tell you who you are...and well even get you a cookie" I gave a dumbfounded look when the stallion said cookie "heh right you don't know so much. Sorry I'm not very good with..eh foals, now come along little one I'm safe trust me" Sparks says as he is trying to give his most sincere smile towards the colt. "Alright mister!" I said as we both leave the room. It was such a fascinating adventure for me! There's ponies everywhere in huge fancy armour there's all sorts of ponies the doctor talked about such as a Engineer or a Soldier pony called a CON soldier and guards and all but I can't remember what types there were. "alright. Ready to meet your caretaker little colt?" The Doctor says looking at the little white colt. "Yes siree!" With a chuckle the scientist presses the key pad and a metal door unfolded and slid open. There at a dining table sat Silver Line by the looks of it the mare looked like a medical mare or some kind of den mother. "Silver Line! Here there's the Elite...make sure to take care of him alright?" Silver looked over realizing that I was standing there and surprisingly the tough looking medical mare said in a sweet voice "hi there! I was hoping to look forward to actually seeing you little Elite" Funny how the mare called me...an 'elite' what was that?....elite.. "alright...This is your care taker Silver Line okay? She'll take good care of you I'm sure of it" Spark said nodding with a slightly raspy voice for an unknown reason. "Okie mister.....misterrrr...SPARKS! Okie mister Sparks!" With a chuckle and smiled once to the mare and left walking in the halls of the metal fortress "Let's go little one" I've never eaten a cookie before. But I loved it there was raisin and chocolate but obviously I chose raisin of course. Who couldn't? I ate the cookie up as the mare watched smiling at me as I was munching on the cookie she spoke "Little Elite...your an pony...just like everypony around here but...everypony will call you an Elite, it's because you are special. You are a special pony that's going to make so many thing better for all of us.." "Okie" I replied. As I finished the cookie somthing caught my eye. Somthing I've never seen before..well now I'm being stupid. Everything here is foreigjn to me very. I turn my head a little to see a window of some sort and beyond the window shows a green and blue circle planet with white smear looking things. "what's that.." I questioned pointing over to the viewing platform. "That is Equestria. It's a place where the rest of the ponies stay. Its our home. But you won't go down there....well...at least for now..." said the mare. "But what's all that blackness and those white dots out there for?...I don't like it. Can you make it go away?" Asked the little colt. And with another chuckle the mare nudges the colt gently "that is space. We're in space, we are in the atmosphere of the world. And those little white dots you see?...those are stars. Like the sun" the colt having a face of confusion and slight understandment as the mare giggles "to confusing?" "yeaaaah" Time: 0300 hours Location: Colts foal living quarters I during night hours sat at my viewing platform looking at Equestria from above. Intrigued by the beautiful scenery I sat, eyes wide and mouth gaped, it was almost like he was stuck in a trance to look at it. "hey! Who's the new blank flank!" A colt in a engineering uniform spoke up smirking walking in from the darkness into my room "Oh me? I'm Elite Five!" I said. "Well then 'Elite' let me get one thing straight around here!" He shoved me up against the window holding me up by my collar of my uniform. "I don't like you, REALLY don't like you and if you ever get in my way I'll beat you up! And if that isn't enough I'll beat your little ass so hard that your gonna end up with a broken bones!" He raised his hoof I closed my eyes shut, he was a bit larger than me "I-I promise I won't get in your way!" I squeaked as the colt shoved me against the glass even more "Im sorry I upset you mister colt, just don't hurt me" I yelled before shutting my eyes and next you knew the colt was pulled away. "POWDER! what are you doing up!? And what are you doing to him!" Shrieked Silver Line as the bully colt Yelp as she pulled out a large metal baton and hit the colts rump a few times hard. I swear I think she broke the colt's hind. "NOW GET TO YOUR QUARTERS!" My care taker shrieked once again before throwing the colt out of the door. Watching him scramble to his hooves hiding his face but not sobbing he quickly trotted disapearing down the metal hallway. "Are you alright?..." Asked the mare now in a worried tone. I was shocked and had no words for what just and and simply nodded a quick few times before backing up a little now afraid of the mare with a baton. "im sorry you had to see that, come here I won't hurt you" the unicorn said as the baton retracted and hugged tightly "O-okay" hugging back and shaking my care taker picks me up and puts me in my bed and gently tucks me in. "sleep now, okay...?" she smiles in a sweet way before nuzzling my mane gently and I smile as she starts to softly sing.... "hush now quiet now it's time to lay your sleepy head..." It was dark. It was dark and cold and all I could feel was...the feeling of rock and metal I was laying on. Hearing nothing but hearing loud muffled and rapid pounding noises. The feeling of somthing cold hitting my fur, and finally the muffled yells that I could hear in the distance. "SCRATCHES!!" The strange voice yelled at me. "SCRATCHES!! WAKE UP!" The voice again yelled. Why am I being called Scratches?...or was the voice yelling for someone else?....I don't know... "CMON GET UP" And the voice started to slowly fade away leaving me with silence. Time: 0700 I was running around the Fleetship with eagerness and excitement, scrambling through ponies legs I sat at the edge of the massive gathering of the ponies, they were all waiting for something, something from Equestria. Everypony watched in awe as the doors opened up and six tall looking things walked out, they looked like dogs. I was surprised. "Those are special ground units, they monitor Equestria and even fight sometimes. They are important for us because they collect and bring resources back up to our home" Silverline said as one of them looked at me, it's bright blue glowing visors shaped for intimidation looked into my soul before he disappeared in the crowd of ponies watching. Silver lifted me up on to her back giving me a better view. The dog looking things were wearing slim plates of armour that covered there whole body,over the plates of armour they had blacktrench coats that were nearly frozen, strange. "Whoa!" I smiled in awe at the sight of these dog looking things, they walked past us one of them glancing at me for a moment before disappearing into a set of doors, they had left a trail of melting snow, I hopped down trotted past the security ponies who didn't even notice me. With curiosity I trotted up to a chunk of snow and sniffed it, some went up my nose and I held my snout "Ah!" I rubbed my nose and sneezed, a guard noticed me and raised his eyebrow "Hey!" My ears perked up for a moment before I scurried off into the crowed before he could catch me he was stopped by the large crowd of ponies. Running back to silver lines side I stuck with her staying close. She walked in the direction the weird dog looking things went, guards letting her pass by. The same guard looked down at me. I smiled and happily trotted with silver, I was walking and I examined a big buff looking buck opening a panel, and in that panel was pipes and wires and all sorts of stuff. I wondered what all those pipes and wires did. "Oof!" I ran into another pony. A little filly with greyish silver fur and red tipped mane got up quickly and ran off and yelled "Sorry!!" I sat up and rubbed my head frowning. Then silver pushed me with her muzzle to Infront of her, I looked at her then up at a buck, he looked down at me with a serious face before smiling. "Hey B, meet the experiment" Silver said as the buck looked down at me looking at my features in awe. "Interesting...hello there, heh..." I backed up behind silvers leg under he and peeked out and looked up at him and he was laughing "Shy is he? Hahaha! Well I'm not gonna bite you haha!. I came to give you this little Five" He took off his bulky white trench coat and set it Infront of me "It's a little big but you should grow right into it" He leaned down and smiled and looked around "Its a special jacket meant for me but I'll give it to ya as a gift" Silver spoke up "This is the Commander of our ship. This is Silver Bullet" I looked up at her then Bullet "Really?" He nodded and chuckled "Here's the update on the MK II, you should find it really interesting" Bullet gave Silver a small folder and she snatched it up quickly and opened it. I tried to take a peek but it was no use, she smiled. "This is interesting, I'll read more on it later and maybe check it out tonight. For now I gotta get this little guy to his first day of stage one school" I smiled and my tail flicked around in excitement, both of them just stared at me surprised. "I didn't know he can control his tail that well at that age..." Silver picked me up and set me on her back, my caretaker had explained to me that school was a place to learn, and after school when I get old enough I am to go into a thing called S.O.T somthing fancy like that. TIME: 0900 "Okay Everypony this is the Elite Five. We haven't really picked you a name so...well just call you Five, welcome Five Everypony" I stood there at the front of the class feeling really uncomfortable with Everypony watching my every move. "Hello..." I looked around and I saw Powder, the bully from last night just give me a glare. "Right then! Take a seat and we'll begin our first lesson of the year today we will be learning about the basic functions of out Fleetship and Everyponys role to keep it running for generations to come" He kept talking as I sat in my desk along with the other ponies. And just listened, there were a couple of foals sitting behind and I just knew they were looking at me. I didn't like the feeling of that, it was easy to tell if somthing was looking at me even though I didn't physically see them. Time flew by and before I knew it class was over for the day and leaned all sorts of things. Soldiers, guards, engineers, scientists, all the types of ponies thy lived in this ship. The part I listened to the most was the ground units. They were so cool, they got to go to that big blue thing they called Equestria. Well a certain part of the big blue thing. I sat in my room looking at a mirror with the big white trench coat on. It was BIG on me and I could barely get my hooves through the hoof holes but the big buck said I would grow into it. "Haha! I'm the commander of the Fleetship!" Yelling playfully and ran around the room the big coat dragging behind me. I was suddenly stopped by a pair of two silver hooves, I looked up tilting my head to see My caretaker! She just chuckled picking me up and set me into the bed. "Get some rest, you'll need to wake up extra early tomarrow little Five" Nodding she slowly left the room shut off the light, the metal door closing. I scrambled to my hooves and jumped down from my bed trotting to the viewing platform, the only light that lit the room was a Dim blue that the blue planet radiated. It was beautiful. I couldn't help but just stare. "It must be beautiful...perfect..." Footnote: Silver Bullets Trench Coat has a pretty sharp look to it. +2 Charisma //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 3: Thirteen years later //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 3: Thirteen years later Time 0600 hours Location: Fleetship Living quarters "GOOOD MORNING PONIES of Fleetship 005 this is your beloved Overseeing Fleetship commander, Silver Bullet...now down to today's announcements, the Security Team of Sector B has finally contained a wicked virus that was located in foods and with heavy casualties put down the infected ponies with no mind but a desire for flesh...there names will be displayed on the Deceased files of your HUDs, also I have a announcement to make...We have received News from down below in Equestria Canterlot stating that they are now at war with the Zebra Capitol for ....resource reasons, this is very serious, we do have to keep to the Pirncess's orders and stay hidden. Doesn't mean there won't be sc-" With a tap of my hoof Against my HUD I sigh softly "another day of ..boring classes..." I said and yawned as one of the ponies beside me spoke up "You said it..." before getting up and stretching I noticing a small heat difference that it is cold in the mess hall. Stepping out of the tables I gave my tray to one of the cooks and headed back to my quarters to freshen my self up some more before going to fall in. I felt different today, today I felt that something was going on, like that feeling of going somewhere, as I shivered once And stretched my legs like a cat and pressed a small pad button as I do so metal shutters open up revealing the world of Equestria and as always since I was a colt smiled ear to ear. "Hmm..." Stepping away from the viewing platform I simply took a quick shower and brushed my mane/teeth. Normal stuff. Before walking out I looked back at my desk and smiled a little at the sight of a picture that sat there, It was a group picture of me, the Fleetship commander, and Silver Line when I came back from my intensive "Elite" training, although it felt like I barely learned anything. I turned to see silver line standing at the door. "Ah. Alright Five, I'm here just to inform you that You will not be having classes today nor your physical training period. there being used as medical stations for the returning ponies from Sector J-3 It's just today and tomorrow and we will continue okay?" Said Silver Line. I blinked a couple of times "well that's...surprising" "just consider this as a vacation alright?" "Alright..." "great I have to go and do what?....explore more of the ship?...." looking out my viewing platform I just stared at the green planet down below. I've always wondered what it was like down there. I've always wondered how things work or how the ponies were. I've Seen pictures and videos of the planet and country, I've heard of the Mane six that lived in ponyville. I have always wondered how grass and dirt felt if I were to actually step on it with my bare hoofs. After a few minutes of gazing at the beautiful scene like I have always done since a small colt I got up from my haunches and trotted out of my room and headed towards the Security office to see what's going on. Before being punched right in the muzzle, my eyes widened an I stumbled catching my self against the wall "Hey fuckface what's up" spoke The Grey earth unicorn, he leaned standing up right with his fore hoofs crossed and his little.friends standing close to him "What the hay was that about?" I held my bleeding muzzle "I'm not in a good mood today. You know why?" He fell on his hoofs and stepped closer to me and I sighed, he got annoyed by that "Remember when you stole my baton yesterday? I bet you were having fun with it just moments ago" I frowned in confusion as powder shoved me up against the wall and presses his front hooves against my chest. I grunt a little out of breath but manages to breath his and suprised by his heavy weight I yelled out "what are you talking about?! I didn't steal anything from you!" "Liar! Im gonna teach you not to temper with me!" He yelled as he raises his hoof and slammed it down on my face, then again, then again. Just then out of nowhere I heard quick running. There was powder. Then there was no powder, he was just dropped kicked by another pony, she just laughed on her back laughing pounding her hoof on the ground "OH MY GOSH! did you see that? He went FLYING!!" Laughing she stood up and bucked one of his little friends. Sending him flying too before tackling the other and started jumping on him several times like a bouncy castle. The thing that threw me off is the fact that she was laughing the whole time. She just bounced up to Powder and jumped on him and stared down at him with a suddenly shifty glare. "H-hey take it easy we were just having fun is al-" and with that the bullies face was jumped on knocking him out, she dragged the grunting bucks away Giggling she walked back before noticing me, she just opened her eyes and looked down at me in a curious way. "Hmm?...who are you?" "Gah! Don't jump on me!" I shouted and curled up preparing for a jumping pony on my face. But she just giggled. "What are you worried about silly? I'm not gonna beat you up" I looked up at her and she held a hoof out. Her coat was a almost pitch black colour, and her mane was bright pink and flattened out evenly neck collar low. Her cutie mark was a HUD and she was wearing a worn mechanics jumpsuit with large wrap around goggles above her head. She was also strangely carrying a large metal rod in her saddlebags "Those soldier ponies don't do there job good huh? Well your lucky I was here!" she said in such a optimistic way and jumped a little "What's your name silly?" She tilted her head sideways and nearly upside down balancing on her left hoofs "It's..." I stopped for a moment. I don't really have a name, SilverLine always called little Five "Umm...my name is Little Five" She shook my hoof "Nice to meet you! I'm Circuts!" I pulled my hoof back "I've never seen you here before, are you from another sector?" She jumped a little and nodded "I'm being sent from Sector B to help my father with the ponies that returned from the attack of Sector...I forgot. But you know that weird virus thingy? Yeah that! I'm helping my dad fix soldier ponies HUDs and Armour!" She smiled widely "I got to go now! Nice meeting you" she waved and she pranced off and I wave back and smiled a little thinking to my self, did I just make a friend?... Time: 1200 In the morning Circuts came by showing off her skills on fixing things. And she was good, she explained how the HUD circuit works and how it runs off your bodies heat with the assistance I magic combined with it. She got all fancy saying how that little thermal energy sparks up the smallest power levels then that little power turns on the magical assistance chip them after that the assistance ship gives it a giant boost and it repeats until it's fully powered. Then the magical power is connected to your head and it syncs ad that what makes a HUD controllable in a nutshell she explained. As she explained she took off her own HUD device and took it apart an threw it back together which was really surprising because she was able to do it less than a couple minutes. It baffles me still to this day how she works her hoofs like that. "So wanna go for a snack?" She smiled looking excited "Well...uh...I got nothing to do so...sure" I said "Right'o! . Cmon it's just gonna be a hour" She quickly left the room and dragged back in a metal crate moments later and stepped onto it, then she pulled out a large power drill and undid the ceiling covers. She then hopped up and looked down at me "Well? Are ya coming?" I shook my head "This is a bad idea. Silver is gonna be so mad" She shook her head "Who cares let's go!" I thought about it. I guess she wouldn't mind if I went to get lunch or somthing. "Alright then" I said stepping up on the large crate. She pulled me up and I was again, shocked I stared at her and was surprised at her strength. "What silly let's go!" We crawled through the vents and I we went passed through all the Bucks living quarters and I shivered "I really hope you don't stalk me anytime soon" She just looked back winking and giggled before continuing on through the dark vents "What was that supposed to mean?!" Her giggle turned into a laugh. I just grumbled as we kept going through making sure I avoid from accidentally looking up at her flank. She finally stopped and she kicked open a vent dropping down. Peeking my head through I noticed it was a living quarters. But instead of a viewing platform there was a wall covered in blue prints and sketches and ideas of devices, dropping down I started to notice that this was a mares living quarters "Welcome to home sweet home!" She jumped a little and opened metal box and pulled out a small bag of Equestrian bits tossing them in her bag "Now let's go!" I glanced around once more as we left I noticed there was any normal lights but a dim artificial fireplace along with some hearths warm Eve lights in the back and a lot of trinkets and devices of sorts I did not know. Along with that there was several work benches and equipment. "How in the name of Celestia does the ship let you keep your room like this? She shrugged "I dunno they don't usually care about how clean or messy engineer ponies are" She hopped out and I followed her finally all the way to a little café shop meant for the Security an Engineer personal. A big buck raised his eyebrow and stood up my height. "Hey, your not supposed to be down here kid" "Ah shut up you big fool this is the Elite he's my friend!" She smiled and jumped wrapping a hoof around my neck, I just looked at her then the guard. "Oh! Uh...sorry Circut" He stepped down and I couldn't help but notice a slight tinge of nervousness in him. "So other than Engineering around what else do you do?" I asked as we walked up to the counter. The skinny mare and nodded to a pony in the window "I dunno...nothing really just wandering around in my free time?..." She tossed the bits up on the counter and took the brown bags with her teeth sitting at a near table and I joined her. "Hey!" Her muffled voice yelled at me and she set the bags down "You should have a better name! I mean...Little Five huh...your not...exactly...little..." She tilted her head "Judging by your mane you look like a....DJ pony!...lets see....uh...hmm oh! Shadow cast!....no...Green lan-" She continued on and I slowly gave a bored look as I munched on what appeared to be a hay burger "How about Scratches!" My ear perked up towards her and she slowly looked up "Ooh I see you like that one for sure...well then, Scratches it is?" "Yeah. Scratches it is" She smiled and we continued with our meal. I soon started to realize my 'specialized' training was coming up. A program designed only for me to gain the strength that I'm supposed to have as an Elite and "toughen" me up as my care taker says. I just remembered something! I need to see Silver Bullet on the details about that training thing. "Oh shoot I forgot I need to get somthing important from my teacher!" She looked from her hay burger chewing still "Oh tis okay! Go go!" She smiled "Thanks for lunch" I got up and ran off towards back to my sector TIME: 1400 "Where were you?" The commander stood by his chair looking out at Equestria "Oh heh... You'll be taking the Tram there" I picked up the kit list and my ID and nodded "Okay...sorry.." She shook her head once again "Don't be...just...please be on time" I slowly nodded and she left my room. Sighing in relief . A month has passed and training has finally come. I graduated from basic school and I was all packed up and ready to head step on the tram. I thought about this passed month, Circuts has came by everyday to visit me. Bringing a treat or meal for us to share. SilverLine my care taker has a fishy thought about it, always staring her down despite Circuts strength. "Hurry up and get on with you eh? The operator said as I chucked my bags in the corner "Yeah. Sor-" "Scratch!" Circuts came out of nowhere hugging me tightly. She smiled as I smelled the recent and usual burning smell coming from her as if she created an explosion earlier. "Gonna miss you a lot buddy" I chuckled "Gonna miss you too Circut" She messed up my mane and then I messed up hers "Oh for Celestias sake PLEASE just step on" The grumpy operator said Circuts just flattened her ears "Well....see you..." I nodded, as the doors closed. But next thing I knew Circuts lips were pressed up right against mine! I had no idea how to react to this. My mind was thinking a million things at once. Mostly how SilverLine would be pissed at the sight of this, or the fact that Circuts felt this way. But despite my thoughts, I just kinda...melted with her. Her lips were soft and that was surprising, she knew I haven't kissed a pony before due to how stiff my face was. She hopped back and smiled waving her hoof as I just held my mouth shocked at what happened. The doors closed and the Tram started its way to the training facilities. Foot Note: NOPE NOT LEVELING UP YET KID BETTER LCK NEXT TIME //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 4: Betrayal //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 4: Betrayal One year later... "Shit shit shit! I can't stop the bleeding!" I was scrambling around for a healing potion as the CONtainment soldiers blood kept spraying all over the place, the loud noise from the clinic and the alarms blaring accompanied by the clutter and clops of ponies hoofs against the metallic floor. "He he's go-" Me and my partner stopped and stared at the black straining blood vessels along his neck pulsing with that vile crazy virus and ready to infect us and we both panicked "Scratches!!" "I know! Infected infected infected!!" I and Prophen both stepped back shooting a dose of the Cell-224 anti virus shot into our chests and ran to the showers in the corners and stepped into it as ponies in hazmat suits stepped in taking the buck away as he screamed "Wait no no give me the shot! It's not to late NOO!!! Oh Celestia no I don't wanna die!!" He held onto the door frames in desperation for survival and that maybe some chance we would "cure" him I watched as he was beated with a baton and forced through the door still trying to in desperation to hold on I sighed "One hell of a day....right...?" Looking up Everypony was gone, my partner was gone and it was silent. The lights flickered and some sparked. Something pounded on the doors making me jump, I backed into the corner watching the metal doors get pryed open and the most horrible things climbed through, black rotten creatures stared at me breathing hard and chanting som thing I couldn't recognize. The lights turned off and orange emergency lights flashed around as the speakers played loudly a quarantine break protocol. I screamed in terror as hundreds crawled through the door and vents all screaming and chanting as there white blank eyes stared into my soul, leaving a black rotten substance on everything they touched Getting closer and closer. "No!" I sat up panting and groping my chest in my bed and calmed my self down and panted looking out the viewing platform. "It's just a nightmare Scratch..." Circut sat up and hugged me nuzzling my chest softly "I know...there more....frequent now...it's scary....do you think it could mean somthing?..." I chuckled quietly "I was working in the clinic as a nurse or something....me...medical..hah..." I looked down at her and she shook her head "No silly, I get nightmares all the time too. It's just natural at one point in our lives" She threw a really tired smile and gave me a quick peck on my lips "Happy birthday" I chuckled and held Circut close "Is there ponies still trying to get you to join the armed units before your career choice?" She just nodded "Yeah, silly ponies...I don't know how I'm any good in fighting" I cocked a brow and looked at her "Okay okay I know somethings in fighting but just cant a mare enjoy what she loves" I shrugged and fixed the covers And laid back down the blue dim light from the view platform shun on our faced gently "I guess not...as I learned it, ponies must do what there assigned to, Containment, Security, engineers, blah blah...despite there cutie mark and talent...in Equestria I hear ponies do what ever they want..." Closing my eyes I felt Circuts muzzle bury into my neck "Promise us you'll take us there Scratch..." I smiled gently and held her hoof "Yeah...I promise..." The bed shaked a little and before I even knew my world was shaking violently, jumping up and and looking around I noticed that Circuts wasn't here, I scrambled around trying to keep balance as the entire Fleetship shook. "What In Celestia's name!?" I pulled open the closet door and swung on my trench coat. My lucky trench coat, the smell of canvas and the never ending smell of the permanent cologne always helped me keep calm in situations. I stepped out of the door frame and stumbled down the hall as everything still shook, some bucks were looking around trying to yell somthing but there voices were drowned out by the blaring alarms of the halls. I sprinted towards the atrium and the shaking slowly stopped, I and many other ponies looked up at the chief of CONtainment standing on a platform. "Everypony calm down the situation has been dealt with. Now the situation is that well...Hangar B has had an explosion and nopony survived...we believe that somepony set off planted explosives and got away, Security is n-" "NOO!" All of us looked at a mare collapsing to the floor tearing up "My son was working in there! My only son was there! You fucking crazies....." She sobbed on the floor as ponies that I guess was kin pretty much picked her up and dragged her off "Everypony return to your quarters and security or CON will give out rations out no need to go to the mess halls, that is all" A buck whispered in his ear and he nodded leaving the stand as Everypony cooperated "Scratches I was worried you were there!" SilverLine trotted up worried and hugged me "No no I'm fine, have you seen Circuts?" She shaked her head "Not once since yesterday" I stopped and my head started to race with several thoughts, not only Circuts was a H.U.D tech she was a engineer pony, what I she was in that hangar and was...killed. I sprinted off towards the hangar pushing security ponies that blocked off the hangar as SilverLine tried to hold me back along with ponies. "Oh goddess Circuts please don't be dead!" I kept pushing my way through ponies and finally stopped at a large door locked down, red emergency lights flashing as I stared at a pony chopped in half. His body was forced into two I could tell he was still alive at one point due to the trail of blood and intestines I turned and started to vomit, feeling my stomach push out its contents, I could not get the image of the intestines out of my head. I forced my self to walk past the dead, the red rope like organ has always disgusted me. looking out the view window beside the door and looked in shock at all the lifeless ponies floating around along with debri and objects. "Circuts!" I looked around staring at every single body hoping it wasn't Circuts "Scratch!...." I looked off to the side where I thought I heard her voice, I trotted down the hall and ran until I slammed into a medical pony, she gasp and landed on her flank and looked up a little angry, I just walked past her and I was suddenly hugged, it was Circuts! I hugged back tightly and sighed in relief "You scared me..." "I-I-I barely made it out...I w-was going to wake you up a-and show you the new HUD I worked on secret but as soon as I got out the door just...close...And that pony...of goddess that pony was split in half!" She just sobbed and held onto me "It's alright...I'm here now..." She collapsed and I felt warm blood trickle down my side my eyes widened and I noticed the large piece of metal sticking out of her stomach "Where's the clinic?!" TIME: 0900 Location: Medical Clinic-V "Her hind hoof was badly scrapped by the door not only that the explosion launched a sharp metal object into her stomach!" The doctor said as Circuts layed on a bed with a bloody bandage all the way up her hind left leg "I didn't feel it before..." The doctor nodded "It was the adrenaline of the event, you probably didn't even fell it afterwards for a while" "Get her into surgery for the removal of the debri now!" "I can't get that...pony out of my head..." I leaned beside her and rested my muzzle against hers gently "Just don't focus on it, think of other things like...hmm...what was your present for me?" She smiled tired "It was a new HUD, it had a F-CT compressed processor so you could do more it also had a new shiny colour instead of boring blue...it was a red..." She smiled a little sad that it was lost in the event of the explosion before wincing in pain "It's okay, nothing is worth a silly machine..." A medical pony put a mask over her face and let some kind of gas through "I'm manually removing the debri, all the Emergency Surgery Docks are busy" The nurse slowly guided me back and shut a curtain over I sat against the wall trying to calm my self down and waited for minutes, and hours. A security buck tapped my shoulder I sighed and looked back cocking a brow showing how annoyed I was "What??" The buck kinda stuttered for a moment" "I-oh a sorry, I was told your requested at the Security office in your sector, it's urgent" I sighed "What the hell could they want..." I got up and slowly made my way over TIME: 1400 Location: Security centre B-2 "Well I'm here?...what am I needed for?" I walked in as a buck large buck my size stop up, he was a Royal Fleet Security Guard, at first I thought he was gonna punch me at how fast his hoof raised until I realized he was wanting to shake my hoof "Hahah sorry there, name is John, John Guard of the RFSF special Detective unit, I've requested your help due to your....usual buffed senses of perception and your ability of fig-" "Get to the point..." He tilted his head as I looked at him, my own reflection stared at me. His shiny golden visor stopped me from seeing his face or eyes. "Well...straight to the point, I need your help to solve who did this, it couldn't have been a infected no, it had to be a sane healthy but cruel pony, so...way to find out what the hell happened?" I looked at the guard for a few moments and slowly nodded "alright...sure lets go and see what happened" Time: 1600 hours Location: Fleetship Security C Head Quarters As me and John walked through the sliding double doors a few other guards looked up from what they were doing "hey there you are!" Plasma spoke. She was another Security Mare who's face I couldn't see again due to there golden visors. I could see that her coat was a lime green under her neck collar. "Yes? What's up" John spoke up before sitting down "the footage on the hangar cameras were actually saved. But unfortunately not on these terminals, do me a favour and go down to the Second post and check there terminals will you? I heard there systems are functioning again" I sighed along with John and I chuckled a bit. "I'll go" I said as I nodded "you guys just...do your work here and research the hangar" I said as I left and starts my way to the next security block. It was certainly far. I had to take the Engineering rought to get to the dammed sector. Examining the halls I've noticed the emergency lighting was on for an odd reason. But the main power is online, odd... "Hey hey whoa take it easy Elite what are you doing way out here??? Don't you know this place is under a quarantine lock down??" A CON soldier spoke aloud behind a metal barrier with a chain gun mounted to it "no I didn't, if this place is under quarantine where the hell is the gates??" "These are the gates" oh Sweet Celestia that's not a gate that's a nervouse stallion with a chain gun. "alright. Look I'm here under the order of Security B" I said. The pony in thick armour unfolded his helmet and nodded with his head nervously "Alright...your okay to go...just don't try anything" I rolled my eyes a little and walks forward Into the hall. Getting there I noticed there was debri all over.power lines were cut off and there was Plasmatic Rifle Cartridges everywhere. Along with blood stains. walking forward I noticed a CON mare in a beat up looking white Armoured radiation suit. As soon as she seen me the little mare jumped and even yellped as I raised a eyebrow "oh sorry you startled me...are you from B?" The mare tired her head looking up "yes I am, where is the Security C quarters" I replied "Oh it's just down this hall" she said "by the way...what happened here" immediately the mares ears folded back and smiled nervously "o-oh well that virus that broke out in the food supply once again broke out...over half of this block went crazy....we lost a huge number of security and soldiers..but we mostly captured and killed those horrible ponies, they kinda...ate each other......" The mare nodded "I didn't tell you anything okay?" She said and I nodded before walking down to the security HQ. The "Second Post" was a nicknamed CONtainment and security HQ in sector C,trotting in a found big pile of body bags and frowned as I looked around. The stench..of ponies rotting as flesh. A security stallion popped up and looked at me and smiled "oh well hey there Scratch..YA here f-f-for te tapes?...." I frowned a little at his speech stuttering and noticed his eyes a bit wider and his pupils small. Also he looked pale, too pale "yes..I am...do you have them?...and..are you alright" He smiled stupidly "o-oh yes yes I'm alright I've just been up for a while working heh....right as rain healthy as a horse!" He got up stumbling for the consoles and ejected a few memory tapes and stopped for a moment coughing "h-here you g-go.." he walked up to me and starts to float the tapes to me as I held my hoof out. Stopping he stared at my hoof for a few moments "are...you al-" and with that the guard lunged forward grabbing ahold of me or trying to as he bit through the flesh of my hoof "gah! Dammit what's wrong with you!?" My magic grabbed his baton and pulled, but it was stuck on his belt, I pulled harder and grunted pulling pulling pulling and finally the socket that held the baton snapped and broke I flipped the switch on the side of the weapon and it sparked up to life buzzing energy, the guard chuckled and looked up at me still nawing at my forehoof He muffled somthing but I didn't care, he was a infected. That means I could hit him right?...I yelled and slammed the baton onto his face. The shock got him, it also traveled through him and got to me and we both flew away from each other, the baton flying away a few feet "ah dammit you bit my hoof!" I yelled as I got up recovering from the shock and seeing him get up, those grey eyes narrowing towards me, I scanned the area quickly and limped backwards to a desk and quickly yanked the drawers out, finding a EMTF Plasmatic Bolt Magnum. Loading the weapon with a left over Cartridge I held it up with my magic and aimed for his head. He lunged forward and I fired, missing he tackled me and tried to bite my face but I held him back. I couldn't kill a pony...I couldn't, he's infected but this pony had a life. I don't want to take that life from him. He's still present...just insane. But somthing wanted me to pull the trigger, somthing wanted me to blast him and see his blood splatter. I stared at him trying to bite my muzzle, my magic gripped the gun harder and I lifted it to his head and growled "Son of a bitch!" with a loud bang the Part Metal and plasma turned his head into a red spray and his limp body jumped through the air and hit the ground heavily beside me. I panted hearing the bells ring as I shook my head and dropped the gun rolled over on my stomach and my hoofs pushed me slowly off the ground shocked at what just happened "I-...I just killed...a pony...." I talked to my self an tried to calm my self, that instant the rest of the guards ram through looking at me then the body. "What happened!?" One yelled "h-he just tried to fucking eat me!" I yelled as I pointed with my bitten up hoof "shit, get the dam medical mare and make sure to his this body in a bag" one of the guards spoke as I grabbed the memory tapes. After a few minutes a small brown mare trotted in quickly with a mane a few shades darker than her coat, she looked around and spotted me sitting down before rushing pulling out equipment I don't even now "now just stay still...this is the fourth dam time I had to treat a bite..." She sighed but starts to clean and after a few checks she injected a needle an started her suprisely fast stitching fluent work she was certainly more attractive than other mares for some reason..maybe it was the lack of muscle than most mares have on this ship...? I questioned my self in my head and before I knew it she was done. "Alright, your done now go and do your duty" she said as she quickly packed her stuff and left. I left to, on my way back to Security B. Time: 1800 hours, Loacation, Fleetship Sector B Halls "So..you..killed a pony?.." John asked in a curious way as we walked down the halls back to Security HQ B "I had no choice to...plus...it was just somthing that urged me to ..shoot..." I replied to his question "it's okay, ponies go wonky like that al the time. You get used to it kinda?" He tilted his head "I know by personal experience...what it like to mow down ponies infected, not fun I can tell you that" arriving to the HQ I walked into the room unlocking the doors,plasma looked up from his terminal, still not taking that dammed helmet off like John I could tell she was smiling though "first kill huh? Almost everypony gets at least a kill in there life" she chuckled. "Shut up and take the tapes" growled and tossed them to her she shrugged and shaked her head "not my fault the pony went bonkers" She said as she looked around "No more Plasma" John ordered and looked at me giving a smile " I appreciate your help we were all busy. Since you did get the tapes you can go and rest it's starting to get late, I'll call you in the morning and let's take a look at those tapes yeah?" I nodded and left kind of ticked off at Plasma's behaviour, before I got a chance to leave out the door the same medical mare walked in, she didn have her uniform but her bag and she lightened up "there you are I forgot to give you these" She said giving me a hoof full of needles "what for?" I asked "that shot I gave you will cause some pain...heh..." Even though Johns visors covered a small part of his cheek if you can see through the side it's hard but it's possible at the right angle "who's this?" the medical mare asked me pointing to John, once again I could tell...was he blushing?...I smiled a little knowing that he was blushing "uh...I'm Im John, John Guard" he took the helmet off revealing his faded blue mane and grey coat Along with his Bright green eyes..almost like, oh what's Her face...applejack that's what it reminds me of anyways "oh well nice to meet you John Im Syringe" she smiled and walked up to him shaking his hoof. I nearly laughed seeing his red cheeks so dam red. "Oh well that's a pretty name" he smiled "I'll heh...I'll leave to two alone" I said walking out of the quarters and headed back to my living quarters Time: 1100 hours Location: Scratches Living Quarters. Laying in my bed looking up at my ceiling I sighed and activate my HUD. The fuzzy blue hollow gram screen appeared and I started to fiddle with the radio suddenly the commander of the Fleetship spoke up "good evening ponies, today has been horrible for Sector B and C Secotor B hangar was destroyed due to a malfunctioning missile...every pony in the hangar died to the lack of air...an Sector C was infected with that mysterious Virus or disease in the food supply, story comes from the Security HQ in Sector C is that Scratches Elite 005 was down there in after math. The security team have told us that a infected pony attacked him and he repelled by shooting it in the head....I hope you are alright Five. And that's all I have for tonight. Rest well Fleetship, may Celestia rest those poor souls lost today. And now for High Strings newly released song! It's violin Solo... I give you...Cottage of the Rising Sun..." I sighed and turned the radio off as the Hollowgram dissapeared not in the mood for a song. I moved around and noticed I still had my saddlebags on. "Oh dammit silly me" I got up and unbuckled the to me comlicated straps and tossed the bags aside. With a thud a extra memory tape fell out "huh?...must've forgot about it..." I got up and turned on my desk lamp for enough light and picked the heavy little Metal rectangle. I could see the input on the rectangle metal case. "well I am helping after all..." I said before grabbing it with my magic. Just hope that it ends before waking hours or what ever. I Layed down and floated to my HUD activated it, connecting it flashed onto my hologram. seeing through a camera lense as the head swivels side to side watching everything going on near the Transportation ships, watching ponies do there work is...boring honestly. After a few minutes a pony in a guards uniform walks around Mostly examining the transportation ship my camera was closest to....is that?....John?...hearing him walk past a few engineers as he looks around and quickly steps into a transport ship and into the cock pit for a few moments before jumping out and running off ' no he did not!?!' My head yelled. Did he just arm the missiles?!. It was his armour I seen his ID number on his chest...no he wouldn't do tha- my thoughts were cut off seeing a few missiles from the wings of the transportation ship fire and fly hitting extra explosives as the entire hangar went dark. Time: 0500 hours Location: you know where dummy Turning off the tape I jumped up looked down at the tape and panted before picking up the tape with a hoof "why would John do that..." He wouldn't do anything like that... It's easy but I know innocence and bad behaviour when I see it. "Sweet Celestia...." I sigh and slowly got out of my bed and quickly make the bed before looking around and placing the tape in my saddlebag "okay...my job is to....show this to Security...but...John is Security..." I told my self "well..maybe maybe I can go see the Fleetship Commander! Yeah thats it!" I said before fixing my mane to its proper spiky form and opened my door up and started heading to the Bridge. Time: 0600 hours Location: Fleetdship Bridge(near) On my way for an odd reason all the types of ponies came to thought in my head...there's the CON soldiers that have the duties of Containing deadly creatures or viruses or just being there to fight, then there's your typical Fleet Security guard, the ponies that are supposed to stop violence when it happens quuckly, they do there job decently but lots of bad things are start to happen and I just have a feeling the guards aren't goingto be able to be much help, then there's the engineering pony, there all over the place making sure this Fleetship is alright and is in order, there's all kinds too..there's the HUD tech pony then the rare Elite Sword crafter or just known as the Sword engineer. And did I mention the new type of soldier? Not new just new to me They call it a diamond dog warrior...uses all kinds of fancy equipment. That thing..heard it's gonna be usedfor special stealth missions in the future im Equestria. There's also the Very rare Elite pony...a special pony that's designed to be a super soldier. A pony that's stronger and faster than most...a perfect soldier...and appearently I am one it seems like I'm the only one...not a good one though. Walking up to steps I by pass a few guards and opens the door to the bridge. I've never seen the bridge, Oddly he was alone and he looked different from other ponies, his coat was a silky looking silver coat that seemed to glimmer at the time and his dark grey mane that was neatly done up, his cutie mark was three large silver bullets "Five? Is that you? My goodness come here I haven't seen you for months now" I frowned a little as I walked up "uh...sir there's no time for that stuff right now....I have evidence to the 'malfunctioning' missile in B hangar" I replied to him as he frowned and walked up to me holding the memory tape "I thought those go to the security guards" I stopped blushing as if Just stole it, did I? "no no sir it's all a funny story heh...I was the one to retrieve these from sector C and well I forgot this one in my saddlebags" he examined the tape "so why didn't you take it to security?..." I sighed "because...one of the Security guards is the one who set the Missile in the hangar..." He stood there a little hesitant before snatching the tape and quickly trotting to his room "I'm sorry Five I need to check this out..." And with that he disappeared behind the Fleetship halls . Time: 0800 hours Location: Fleetship Masters Bridge The masters bridge was the most fanciest,lots of dark polished wood by the looks. Silver bullet walked out as he sighed and looked up "it is Security....Unit 77...my own hoof picked RFSF...l He said as I stared at him "well what are we doing about it!?" I yelled "I'm sending CONsoldiers after John.. putting him into a cryo chamber" he looked up "well what are you waiting for lets go" I replied To him as he grabbed his key card "I'm seeing this guard myself cmon five" he said as followed the commander off bridge. Time: 0930 hours Location: Stallion Security Living Quarters As we walked down the hall the sight of the commander caused ponies to stop and stand on the side, went into there rooms or moved aside as the big CON soldiers move to Johns door and starting bypassing the panel. A few moments later and the door opened up the doors over lapping sliding away from each other, the stallion quickly got up along with Stringe who was sitting beside him. "Unit 77! You are under arrest for the destruction to the Fleetship and the death of several engineering ponies and three foals!" SilverBullet yelled as the soldiers run up to him there horns glowing "what the hell are you talking about!?" He yelled as he turned and bucked one of the CON soldiers, despite the thick armor and the motion assisted servos and stabilizers he had sent him flying across the room and he grabbed his baton, Activating the piece of metal the baton sparked and slammed it several times against the other CONs helmet breaking the visor eyes, he continued to beat the soldier's helmet as she was stunned grunting inside the suit. BANG John hit the metal floor hard missing his left hoof as Syringe tried to get to him "John!" Syringe tackled the commander before getting pulled off by the guards in the hall. I just stood there....watching at I had just seen. "you bastard!" The mare scrambled in the guards grip as she was dragged away, the commander getting up and sheathing his magnum "clean this dam mess" he dusted him self off and angrily left the room as two more guards and dragged the bodies out. After that...I don't know..I didn't know how to react to that...how they acted.....perhaps John didnt activate that 'malfunctioning' missile... "Scratch dear son please head back to your quarters quick quick" one of the old guards said in a discrete tone and with that I took off running back to the medical centre that Circuts was in. Footnote: Level up. Iron grip magic. your magic's grip is strong and deals 20% more damage with MeleeHello //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 5: Pre-War //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 5: Pre-War TIME: 0300 hours LOCATION: Stallion living quarters I sat and stared out my viewing platform looking at the distant Equestria. I wondered what it would be like down there, Cold or hot windy rainy all that stuff. Even the type of creatures the world holds. To feel the soft grass in your hoofs, to swim in a cool lake that holds fish and frogs. I try and wonder why we are even up here in the first place. Then a time came up in my head when Silver Line told me why. About 1000 years ago Princess Celestia wanted to bring a new sense of order in that anamynously helped pony kind. A test was conducted of five strong hearted ponies and DJRTW was chosen for the duty. And this order was known as the Equestrian Mobile Task Force. so on then Celestia granted DJRTW with Alicorn powers to say, DJRTW was then to lead the force to a rural part of Equestria even I don't know. There they built themselves up. Learned and even managed to create a higher grade of technology over time, after centries finally the EMTF created a ship known as a "Fleetship" due to the fact that the Army was getting larger and it was harder to keep under cover they took off into the atmosphere keeping themselves undiscovered. Only 10 ships were created. And they all used a piece of technology mostly known as the "cloak" appearently it took our engineers hundreds of years perfecting it and trying to cover the whole ship. Each Fleetship has nearly 7000 personal depending on how many breeding units there were. The more breeding units the more fucking and the more ponies. The less breeding units less fucking and less ponies fairly simple hm?. Well wrong. Lots of ponies wish to have the permission to breed and resort to keeping there foals hidden if one ever has a foal without a breeding permit. So the exact number of a crew is very unknown. Fleet 005 is the largest ship there is and probrobly the last. You see after the incident of one of the Fleets ships power caught in a EMP blast by a exploding satterlite the ship somehow just...flung out of orbit and just faded from radar and we've sent out more ships but they just vanished as well. Ever since it was cut down the 005 we've just remained as a stationary ship orbiting our planet. "I gotta lay off the dessert" I said in a shallow way clutching my gut as it ached. Closing my eyes I relaxed and soon, fell asleep. Time: 0600 hours "WAKE UP ALREADY" the mare yelled as she kicked my side and I grunted falling off the bed onto the floor. "Ah the hell is wrong with you?!" I yelled standing up fixing my mane quickly noticing that...the emergency alarms were going off and that behind circuts the red flashes of the lights can be seen going off as well. "What's going on??" I said walking to the door "Sector B has gone absaloutley crazy with that. Crazy virus in the foods and everypony is eating each other!!" Circuts yelled with a scared voice "I got worried about you so I broke through security and came and found you..." I felt I little touched by that. Not in a weird romantic way but a way where nopony left behind feel. I smiled "don't worry about me. I'm tough" She eased up a little and her pupils dialiated to being normal unlike when she woke me with a feared look "the Fleet commander is coming to get you. A-a certain protocol was activated where every important pony are forced into chambers!" She yelled "YOU THERE" A raspy and loud voice spoke it's self. Both of us turning our head we looked at a CON soldier covered in blood that is not his by the looks. His shaky moments and red rimmed mouth he grinned. "Looks like I found another stash to stash away in my stash....hehe" he grinned as he walked forward and lunged holding a knife. Dodging his attack I slammed my hoof into the back of his head and held circuts behind me as he recovered quickly. "God dam bitch!" He yelled as he bucked my chest and I stumbled back clanging into my desk. "Stupid CON!" Circuts yelled as she picks up my desk chair and slams it against his armor wich just deflected it with no problem before uppercuting circuit sending her to the floor. Getting up. And getting tackled. Shit, he pinned me against the wall as I tried to set my self free. BANG my eyes widened as his head and whole upper body just...dissapeared and decorated my wall with red mush. My ears ringed due to the round being shot in such a Confined space. "Fucker..." A familiar voice spoke and Commander Red Shell stepped into the room with a couple of guards behind him. Okay. At this point my eyes were ready to pop out as I stood shocked at the commander. Red Shell is the commander of the R.F.S.F the Royal Fleet Security Force.what was a pony like him doing way over here in this end of the ship. Well I put two and two together, he was obviously here for me. "Circuts!" I helped her up and looked at the large cut on her cheek "Are you alright..?" I said in worry. "Yeah I'm fine.." she said shrugging me off. "Elite. Come with me I've been ordered to contain you in a cryo chamber until the problems of the Fleetship are under control" I tilted my head "Circuts is coming with me" pulling her closer to my side "I'm afraid that isn't possible Elite" One of the guards said as he walked forward. "Well I'm Making it possible" I growled. "I'm sorry you just ca-" That's all the guard said before my hoof met his muzzle breaking through his visor. Grabbing his helmet with magic I slammed his face once more into the wall just adding the blood as the other break whipped out his baton and struck my side. But that didn't stop me as I stopped his next blow with it and started to beat him senseless. "Enough!" RedShell yelled with a surprised face watching as I dropped his guard to the ground groaning "Enough! I'll let her come" I sighed in relief grabbing Circuts hoof tightly we followed RedShell his guards getting up following after us with the commander. On the way to the chambers there was fresh blood running down the walls , pools of the red thick substance streaming down ladder hatches and stairs and even on the ceiling it dripped and I mean it. The blood wasn't the unsettling part, it was the fact that there were no bodies laying about, maybe your occasional chunk of flesh strewn about but other than that it was just the disgusting amount of blood that laid before us. The alarms were starting to get a little annoying. Every now and then a explosion followed by screaming and gun shots is heard above us or below or even on our level, the guards including red would stop and get twitchy. "This way this way!" The commander pointed his hoof down a dark flickering hall, ahead were the shadows of ponies on the walls and floor moving quickly followed by the flashes of gun fire and screaming. We continued this a couple of times avoiding groups of crazy ponies. All the Bucks stopped an looked around shocked and dumbfounded "Sir...there were bodies here literally ten minutes ago...did...they...did they just get up again..." Red She'll shook his head "There's no way they can turn in minutes while dead....and if so...were doomed..." As a whole we kept moving through . There must be the security force trying to contain this sector for all the distant battle noises. but nothing seems wrong due to actually not seeing anything yet, besides the blood that remained by the deceased. I knew that for some reason I should've brung my valuables. For some reason I have a gut feeling that there's no returning after this. TIME: 0340 hours Location: Fleetship Cryo chambers no.4 "What took so long, red? I've expected your arrival at least an hour ago. Luckily crazies haven't overun this area" The Overseeing Commander SilverBullet said in a worried tone as we entered a large hallway connecting to the chamber. I noticed all the flashing lights and the door to the chamber being guarded by CONtainment soldier suited in heavy Raid armour. "Forgive me sir on the way to extract Five here we encountered a group of Raiders" RedShell said as I walked forward. "Raiders...?" "My boys have been nick naming them that sir" He frowned turning to me "Scratches dear buck Our Fleetship isn't safe...and until we can get things under control again...your gonna be in a Cryo chamber . I'm not sure how long. But I hope you are released soon...it's a protocol called broken wings where the ship is crippled and critical and we lock important ponies like you into Cryo Chambers" Before he could say anything else a broke out down at the entrance of the hall and alarms started going off as the emergency doors kicked in and started to close. those crazy ponies broke through holding a gun or some makeshift weapon as they charged down the hall. "Get in that cryo chamber now! Protect Silver Bullet!" RedShell yelled as five of the guards lined up in the hall forming a barricade of them selves and held up there weapons and started firing. I turned to see the chamber door locked and sealed and looked at Circuts. She looked scared and nervous. For a engineer she was pretty tough. "What's Gonna happen scratch!?" She yelled over the blaring alarms and gun fire. "I don't know.." A small green...grenade landed in between us and the guards. "GRE-!" BOOM I flew back as blue plasma swallowed the defending guards and Silver Bullet hitting my head on the wall. Things were a blur and I could barely see anything due to the flash. The bells were ringing in my ears and all I heard were the distant sound of..heavy hoof steps and yelling before a huge figure stood over me. I shaked my head and looked up. It was RTW standing in the smoke, the leader of the EMTF. I choked as he held up a Elite Sword and forced the thick door to open and jammed it there. He slowly picked me up. His large bulky armour felt smooth but cold. Before I knew it I was in a cryo chamber in the dark and my eyes widened at the sight of him standing and the entrance forcing the doors shut. He looked at me one last time before shutting the doors completely. Along with the light. "Wait!. Wait dammit! Circuts!" I yelled as I pounded against the hard cold glass of the chamber and felt my body going numb. "You have to let circuts in..." I hit the glass tube and gave it a small Crack as I grew to numb to actually move. And soon, darkness and the cold slowly took over. -- "In here!" Circuts yelled and I hopped into a closet with her. We both stayed silent as a security buck ran past "I seen them this way!" One yelled "We split up on the maintenance tunnels I know her tricks cmon!" We heard there fast moving clops fade, after a while minute we both laughed as I rests my head against the wall in relief "Pretty funny prank huh?" Circuts giggled "Yeah that was! Next time let's double the little bombs in there toilets" I laughed recalling the memory in my mind. Me and Circuts had dropped little remote controlled bombs that Circuts whipped up in the toilets of one of the security checkpoints. We had waited for one of the up tight bucks to enter and BLAM, right in the middle of a shit we got him. "The look on his face!" Circuts would not stop laughing I put a hoof to my gut trying to stop my self "Okay...Oka-HRRM?!" And just like that Circuts had kissed me, To be honest I was completely surprised. We had been friends for years, and now she does this? Does she really like me? I didn't know how to react. I just stared at her and let her enjoy the moment as I turned a crimson red. "Heh...you are a terrible kisser..." She smiled "I-I-I never kissed before! D-did you expect me to know h-how?!" She just laughed and patted my chest with her hoof "Hahah! Don't be so shocked scratchy! It was gonna happen sooner or later! Plus you kinda gotta learn silly....cuz sooner or later your gonna sleep with your first mare~" "H-hey hey! I'm not even into that stuff!" She turned her head to the side and grinned "Your still a terrible kisser..." I chuckled and smiled "Well...wanna try that again...?" She looked up and smiled "sure..." I slowly leaned down before the closet's door slowly slid open. We both stopped and stared up at RedShell with his golden visor lifted up. He looked amused and sighed softly chuckling. "Circuts and the Elite...didn't see that coming...cmon you little love birds to the detention centre" -- Time:... Location: Cryo chamber no.4 Silence...silence is all I heard for a long time and out of the blue was a hiss growing louder and louder, it was my consciousness coming back to me, after the hiss of air I heard the door slide up quickly. Slowly I felt my perception and my eyes shot open as I gasped panting and fell out of the chamber falling forward onto...Rusty...a rusty floor. It was pitch black, or maybe it was the fact I couldn't see anything. I started to panic a little maybe I was blind from the Cryo chamber but I realized why, I could remember during when me and Circuts were eating lunch she had explained that Cryo chambers can cause temporary blindness. I calmed and felt the rusty cold floor the only thing I could grasp onto before pushing my self up. I had no idea where I was going, everything felt so uncomfortable. I stopped and listened to every sound I heard. After minutes of walking around blind I leaned against a wall and listened to my own breathing while occasionally rubbing my eyes in frustration. "Come on....come on!" I grunted realizing my voice sounds rather raspy. I must've fallen asleep because when I opened my eyes I could see again, it wasn't much improved because it really was pitch black. I shook from the coldness and looked around only to see the Cryo Control's panel and the blinking red alarm signal on the panel as well "h-hello?....Anypony?..." when the darkness failed to reply I stood up and rubbed my eyes and shivered. Checking my surrounding I closed my eyes and thought to my self what had happened...I was put in here by RTW...and..that's what happened..the grenade...Silverbullet..........Circuts... Since I was released the ship had to be at normal status now...right?... I turned around and stumbled towards the cryotubes panel anxious to see how long I was asleep. I tapped and wiped the dusty cracked screen and looked at log.... "218 years......" I said quietly and started backing up staring at the screen. "218 years...oh Celestia..." I shut my eyes. This had to be some dream... I sat on my rump and sighed. Okay...if the ship was at a normal state then there would be medical ponies here, welcoming me back or somthing. The I heard a hiss. I looked up as a distant blue panel lit up. I stumbled to my hoofs and ran to it. And to my suprise...it was another pony in a cryo tube. "Hey!" I yelled as I looked at the panel and then at the glass sliding up as a light sparked and blinked alot before coming on showing a mare. A...pilot...a EMTF Fleet transport pilot mare... She fell forward and I caught her by her vest, fur frozen and shivering. "Hey. Are you alright?...can you hear me?..." Her eyes shot open same as I did and she freaked out punching me. I ignored and tried to bare how much that hurt and looked down "Ah! Dammit that hurt...Hey hey! Your alright! Your safe! Calm down, pilot" She panted and looked up again and took another look and she too shivered. "W-where am I...? I can't see anything!" I could tell. Her eyes were just a blur of blue. "What's happening?! W-ho are you?!" "Hey it's alright your safe. My names Scratches, what's your name?" I said picking her up and carrying her to a corner and rested her head on my chest, she was cold. Very cold, she buried her muzzle into my chest for warmth and panted rapidly. "M-my names Flare...F-Flare Signal..." She managed to whisper out "That's a cool name, what do you do for a living?" She paused for a moment thinking "I'm a Transport Pilot...best in the 12th Lead..." "That's great really great...what do you like doing..." "I like...to...pause....for a moment....and...just look at our.." She passed out and breathed calmy, I sat there letting out another sigh and sat making sure she lays in a comfortable position or I hoped anyways. I didn't move waiting hours and hours. It must've been five hours until she finally started to move a little. "Hey...." Her eyes slowly opened and fluttered before looking at me. Her eyes before were blue. But now how ever, her eyes were a bright ruby red. Much like mine but I've never noticed how red stood out so much "I u-um are you alright..." "Yeah...I am..." She nodded replying to me "Wait where are we..." She got up putting a hoof on her head rubbing her temples "We're in a Cryo chamber room...if it weren't obvious...put here under that emergency protocol thing" "I...I think I remember now...I knew they would fail" I look at her and frowned getting curious as I noticed her short mane just barely seen under her large pilot like helmet. Her heavily padded suit with metal plates. Despite it was thick. She had a very attractive slim figure. I could tell her coat was a light grey and her mane was pitch black and red tipped, something was familiar about it. "What do you mean fail?" I said She simply sighed and slowly took off her helmet. Revealing her mane, long and wavy I caught me off guard I thought it was short "The protocol didn't work...I had a feeling it didn't. ..the plan. The ponies..." The mare looked up and stared up at me "As all I know right now...we could be the only ones on this ship unless there are other undisturbed tubes...I highly doubt it though...our home is gone..." Her horn glowed and lit the chamber with a light blue, why didn't I do that earlier "Well..." I thought about circuts. The thought stalled my words and the mare pilot tilted her head again. "Well what?" She asked dumbfounded "Well...we should go check it out" She stopped and wondered for a second or two "Agreed we should find supplies and anything useful first...and figure a way to open that door" She finally replied "Names Flare Signal, if I didn't tell you already I don't know" I turned and looked at some empty shelves on the sides. //WARNING. NO FLEET SYSTEMS DETECTED. ACTIVATING EMERGENCY HEADS.UP.DISPLAY SURVIVAL SYSTEMS.///*beep* SYSTEMS ONLINE.// I blinked and stared at the hollowgram that popped up in front of me go red with the alert and my HUD powered off. A few moments later it flickered back to life Excepted...things were different. the arrangement of everything. Stats of my body Condition were put into its number one concern. The Hollowgram was a bit smaller and our HUDs were glowing red instead of blue.I looked at Flare and hers did that exact same process. My eye caught somthing sitting on the top shelf. A small worn carboard box. My horn glowed and I floated it down. What ever it was it was pretty heavy. I pryed the box open and seen...my saddlebags. I was confused. I thought I didn't bring anything. I pulled it out dropping the box and looked inside. I looked at a old equestrian tape recorder with a tape already in it and picked it up carefully hitting the play button. "By the time you hear this I shall be long gone dead or alive .Perhaps you might need this for when you wake up. I know your going to be very confused and maybe scared. I'm never around and that is a valid reason to not trust my words but I need you to do a favour for me, escape...Yes indeed it is something that Anypony wouldn't dare doing but for the sake of the EMTF do it for us do it for me...The commanders escape shuttle still hasn't been used when you get to the master bridge the code to open the shuttle is 55j-690-22c5. I put a pony there with you a mare who is able to fly the shuttle down. I got to go but when you get to Equestria you reunite the remnants of the EMTF, and maybe if I'm not dead by then...come find me at a large mountain with hot internals...I programmed the shuttle with a guid that will land you in a certain area. Remember who you are no matter the shape or form, this is RTW Leader of the Equestrian Mobile Task Force....signing off" My eyes widened. Did he go back and get some of my stuff?. I opened the bags and looked in. my book of medical research. I dug around more eventually finding a couple of rations, damn they really don't have a shelf life. There were maps of the Fleetship, Anti biotics, water and finally a picture of me and circuts... I sighed and lifted the picture out of the bag and looked at it. I was sitting with a bored look while circuts was standing beside me with the most brightest smile a pony can expect. "Is that your special somepony?" Flare said as she peeked over. Blushing I frowned and tossed the picture in my saddlebag. "M-my uh...closest friend..." "Oh uh sorry" Flare said as she found a saddlebag as well. I packed my journal and books and turned to the door and looked at Flare. "So what's the plan?" Flare looked up at me fixing her pilot's helmet "First I want to know if you were put here purposely and if you had anything to do with a plan to escape" I held the tape recorder and played it again letting her listen to it. afterwards her ears pinned back and shook her head "I don't know, they just broke into my quarters as I was getting ready for a transport flight and took me here saying I was 'important' that's the last thing I remember" I observed our surroundings looking at all the empty Cryo chambers, strange they only put two ponies here. "We have to escape....sounds easy..." "sounds simple" Flare nodded once in agreement Looking at the door I examined it and tried the pad and nothing. I rolled my eyes sighing "What now?" putting as much distance as I can away from the door I charged forward putting 110% into pushing my self forward sprinting I pushed my self off of the ground turning my self around mid air and pointed my hind hoofs at the door and slammed into it as hard as I could. The giant door nearly came off entirely as a whole if it weren't my hoof smashing through a layer of the metal door getting it caught inside. "Ahh!" I wiggled around and flopped onto my face and got up dusting my self off. "That should've done the trick...." Flare stood shocked and awed at what just happened. Not everyday you'll see a pony knock something big down everyday I guess. "It's one of the perks from taking hoof to hoof combat training hah" We managed to get the door pryed open enough for a pony to fit through with a crow bar, as soon as we stepped out we were both horrified at the mess that layed before us. 200 year old battle grounds. The skeletons scattered the floors along with what remained of there armour and clothing. Everywhere where we stepped dust arose from the ground and rushed into the air and danced around the heavy air. "Hey! Hey! You two there! I know you just got out of that Cryo pod. Listen my name is Captain blind flash of the CONtainment force! Me and my soldiers woke up like you and were being attacked help us please! We're at the new armoury that was built right before the fall of Equestria!" The speakers crackled and went out before he could say anything else. Flare looked at me "I know where follow me!" I trust he's a captain, maybe he was in a chamber like us-no time to think but must just trust him and act now, I followed Flare towards the armoury. I stopped no, we stopped at the sight of a large pile of bones,skeletons and rotting armour. It was weird, I might have known one of those ponies, it's weird to see something Me and flare see so run down and old almost like a relic. It was also disturbing, we both made our way around the graveyard like room and opened a hatch door and ran until we could hear the distant gunfire and yells of other ponies, we both looked at each other and nodded. I took the crowbar and ran into the hall way watching ponies in makeshift plates of armour firing at others in CON suits, I knew who to help. I charged and a mare looked at me surprised as I swung the bar upwards taking the helmet off and snarled slamming the crow bar's hook into her skull. Leaving the bar in her I snatched the Equestrian Assault rifle she had and unloaded the magazine into the buck that just noticed me. I tackled the last pony that was in the back suppressing fire on the armoury and started to slam my hoof on his head until he stopped moving. I panted heavily and looked at the dead bucks smashed face and gasped before pushing my self up and leaning against the wall shaking from the adrenaline rush. I had just killed a couple of more ponies, but...they were the crazy ponies right? I looked at the mare with a crowbar in her skull and noticed the crazy in her eyes, it was obvious to tell the difference between a infected pony and non infected. But I still wasn't satisfied, because that pony had a innocent life before. Even that buck that I just smashed his skull into mush had a life. "Hey you, get your ass in here!" A buck dressed in heavy assault armour waved his hoof standing under a huge gate. We both scurried into the armoury As the giant door slid closed and locked. Me and flare both jumped out of our fur at the sight of the captain who had half of his face burned or mutated or something! "Oh Celestia you certainly live up to your name, blind flash!" Flare kicked my rib and frowned "What. Haven't seen a ghoul before son. Well, I'm not really a full ghoul" "Ah! Uh no no no I just. Yeah I've never seen something like...that before" I yelled back still in surprise "Hah well you should probably get used to it, I'm not the only one with this mug around" I nodded quickly "So what are you two, wait a minute are you Scratches? That Elite experiment or what ever??" I looked around and nodded "Uh yeah that's me" He shook his head and trotted around me examining me. "I knew they froze your ass up but I didn't think you'd come out any time soon! You could really help us take this ship back!" Flare spoke up interrupting him "Well...I did my home work on Elites and without there suits he" She pointed at me "Doesn't have the full potential of a Elite. He doesn't even have a Elite's sword or lance!" Okay I was confused at this point "Hey just wait a minute did I say u was gonna help you guys?" I looked at the captain and he stared at me deep in thought "You have a choice, you can help us or leave, but we will bump into each other again regardless. If you help us. I will help you, I'll give you some time to think about it" He nodded as I leaned on the wall again as flare trotted up to me "Scratch, this is an opportunity to get there help and fight our way to the shuttle" My ears perked up and I looked at flare then the captain. If we help them he will help us. His soldiers can clear a path to the masters bridge and to the shuttle. I liked the sound of all of this. I grinned "Alright. Watcha need pops" Footnote: level up Mare killer: your experience with taking to a mare has added a advantage in combat amplifying all damage by 20% and you also have a higher chance of persuading a mare while talking //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 6: Take Back our Home //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 6: Take Back our Home Time: 0900 Location: Containment Force Armory the captain told us lots of what happened he says he doesn't remember the past 200 years but knows how the Ship has gone to shit and how the disease that was going around mutated and prevailed againt the vaccine. "those egg heads were pretty devastated when that virus or disease mutated or what ever it was called...sometimes its hard to remember things every now and then...of what happened..." "well...what did happen?...what happened to everypony and...the Overseeing Commander?" "he is dead...I remember that part crystal clear...like it was moments ago" he frowned and looked down as many of his own soldiers or some of the other ponies looked shocked as if they hadn't known them selves. were they frozen up like us too? "hey wait a minute I recognize you! your that Elite thing that dated that mechanic mare!" my ears perked up and I looked at a rather chubby security buck. "I yes that's me! you knew Circuts?" I stared at him with hope, hope that maybe Circuts was still alive maybe even in a cryo chamber like us! soon everypony looked at each other all whispering about Circuts "yeah we knew her! she was the one who lead ponies like us to those chambers! if it weren't for her well...we would be extra bone décor to the floors..." "so your the Elite who was with that mare...mother of Celestia how did I not recognize you earlier...oh thank Celestia were saved!" they all started to talk to each other all full of hope. I didn't want to crush there hopes, but I had to tell them that I wasn't even fit for combat yet, I barely even know how to use a gun! "I...look I'm No-" "are you going to make the bad ponies go away?" a small filly looked up at me tugging my coat, she looked up at me with hope too. I just looked at the little filly, amazed that something innocent and beautiful still exists on this ruined ship. I couldn't back down now, I couldn't let innocent ponies be trapped here. not now "yes I'm an Elite, and I was trained fully on close hoof to hoof combat along with Weaponry training" I didn't lie about Hoof to Hoof combat, at least there were some truth. the little filly smiled and jumped around happily running off to her mother who was a CONtainment soldier. I looked at the captain and nodded "ill help any way I can" He grinned "Finally some good news...right....right lets get you suited up and get you up to date on whats going on" The captain yelled around at a couple of ponies that nodded and they escorted me to a Large room with shelves and shelves of protective equipment and crates of rifles and ammunition "good goddesses you ponies have enough to supply a whole attack!" one of the Bucks nodded and laughed. "that's our plan! were gonna take over the ship one bit at a time! from those dam crazies" "wait till you see what were gonna retrieve to really put a number on them fucking cannibals" the mare spoke and chuckled "so pretty much the captain wants you to choose anything here...also...isn't that the Commanders coat...?" I looked at my white trench coat and nodded "yeah it sure is, he gave it to me when I was just a filly" they both just looked in awe and I just stood like an idiot and chuckled it felt weird for almost every pony to get worked up about something like me. I remember I was a experiment long ago, but a failed one according to my carte taker.... "Silver Line.." "what was that?" "hah, nothing anyways...ill take a look around see if I find anything" they left and I wandered around the massive room full of killing devices and protective gear, nothing caught my eyes I wasn't too much of a fan of the CONtainment armor or the security gear either, I sighed softly thinking about Circuts now worried again. Next thing you know I was laying on the ground with a big metal crate laying on me "cock sucking son of a fucking pig bastard bitch!" I kicked the metal crate off and the top broke, getting up surprised by my vulgarity. I trotted to pick up the crate to only find one thing in there, it was a Black Tactical vest, a big one too that was in good shape and it looked sharp as well. "well well what do we have here..." looking up at the broken shelf above I looked down at the vest and picked it up looking at its details it had four magazine pouches on the top and a few pockets at the bottom, peeking on the insides it had many pockets meant for Bullet resistant plates. and they were filled with heavy ones. I smiled and looked at my coat. I undid the cape and it fell to the floor leaving me with a fancy jacket. then I put the vest on zippering up and tightening it and I put on the cape again. "whoa, fancy much there....you sure that's all, that's kinda...simple" the buck said with a cocked brow" "yeah I like this, just this is fine" "alriiight" they both led me back and the captain smiled "so you say you know how to use any of the weapons yeah?" I kinda hesitated "yeah, just kinda rusty is all. but yeah I know how to use any weapon that we have" he smiled and chuckled "well then your gonna love what we have in store for you!" he nodded his head to one of the guards and a couple of ponies carried a wooden crate out from under a table and placed it down. they opened it and lifted something out of it, placing it down they ripped the foam from it and pulled it out "a Minigun?..." I didn't know the first thing about those things! I felt nervous and my legs got shaky under my coat. "nice huh?? the CONtainment force and the RFSF took the design from Equestria and fitted it to use this" I looked at the giant weapon and started to think, If I was going to use it I might as well get a good look on how it works. Ive seen CONtainment soldiers use it when ever I would walk by the shooting range as a colt. "wait until what were gonna take back..." the captain walked over to a table and I followed him, he layed out a map of the whole Fleet ship and all of its levels and sectors, now I think of it, our home was gigantic. the ships length entirely was 4 kilometers and had 20 different large levels. he put his hoof on a certain part in the back. A large room it was, he was putting his hoof on a Hangar used to load things into the Fleetship back when it was first launched. It was one of the bigger places in the Fleetship. "we happen to have a Walking Pilot with us..." he smiled "and were gonna go take this hangar back for one important reason...to get our hoofs on a UCCMS" My eyes widened and I gasped "the Universal Combat and Construction Mechanized Suit..." The captain laughed and tapped his hoof on the map "That's right, we move out early in the morning so get some rest...but...the only thing I ask from you is to cooperate and do what ever it takes to save ponies...and make sure that Pilot isn't hurt in anyway..." Afterwards a couple of the ponies lead me to a small makeshift room that once served as a extra small room for the armoury, this place might as well be a safe house rather than a "armoury" "Yay your gonna make the bad ponies go away?!" The little filly from earlier ran into the room and tugged on my coat again. I couldn't help but smile and slowly sit "That's right, all of us will make them go away" She smiled happily and dug into a little bag she carried with her and pulled out a small figure of one of the famous violinists aboard the fleet ship, it was a figure of Pleasance Shine one of the talented violinists that played all sorts of styles. I don't know her much or I haven't listened much either but she's well respected. The little fully put the little figure on the floor and looked up at me "I want you to have it, it's my lucky lucky lucky lucky lucky lucky lucky hero figure! My daddy gave it to me for my birthday!" I looked at her surprised from how long the title of the little figure was, I chuckled and picked it up with my magic and looked at the little white Pegasus figure playing the violin with her wings "Why don't you keep it? Your dad gave it to you after all" She jumped a little like a little dog barking "No I want you to have it! It will give you luck even though it may not seem like it it will never fail to save you from the deepest of problems!" I started to laugh "What's your name little one?" The little fully tilted her head "My name is Little Espy Jr! My momma named me after my big sister who is right now down in Equestria isn't that cool!" I froze for a moment and stared down at the little gift. She has no idea how long it's been, I started to feel really bad for her still looking at the little figure "What's wrong mister...don't you like it..." "Huh no no of course I like it it love it in fact" I picked the little filly up and hugged her "Don't worry Little Epsy. I'll make the bad ponies go away" The little filly giggled while I set her down again. A mare in CONtainment armour walked around the corner and looked at me and then at her daughter. "Come along Epsy, it's bed time" The little filly quickly ran to her mother and followed her out "Thanks, she needs friends after well...you know.....but thanks again..." The mare said while they walked out. I got up and sighed softly "That's adorable" Flare peeked her head around the corner of the door "Yeah..." Flare walked in and looked at the little figure that I still held with magic "My isn't that Pleasance Shine?...is somepony a fan?" "W-what?! No of course not that music is boring! That little filly gave it to me as a good luck charm" Flare smiled and laughed a little "That's adorable! I'm a little jealous" Flare walked up and grabbed the figure with her magic and examined it "Scratches...I think I bumped into you once when I was just a filly...I remember I was late for school and when the special ground units were returning I slammed into you..." My eyes widened and I stared at her, I remember now. I was with my care taker and the Fleet Commander "It was you...you were that filly huh..." She smiled and blushed a little scratching the back of her head with her hoof "Yeah...after that I realized who you were and well...I kinda...stalked you for a couple of years...well....kinda still do" I stared at her with the most unamused look "You....stalked...me...?" She blushed even more "D-don't take it the wrong way you idiot it's not like a have a crush on you!...I was just curious how you lived is all...since you were a big deal amongst the ponies" "I see...well...we should get some rest big day tomorrow" She nodded and agreed saying good night and left, I layed on my cot and looked at the little figure eventually falling asleep despite the noisy generator next door humming. I had fell into a deep dream. "Don't be foolish pony!...all looks are deceiving" The octogenarian zebra studied and judged me silently. He stood fast in a combat ready position "I want to test your strength...hit me..." I had told my teacher he is a bit old looking to be a trainer for Elite Experiments. I had offended him? I wasn't sure, I raised my hoof to strike him as he ordered. "Foolish pony!" Swiftly past judgment he in a blink of an eye swooped me off my hoofs into the air before slammed both of his hind hoofs into my chest, sending me on my back wheezing for air. "W-what the hell is wrong with you?!" I stood up and yelled "you told me to hit you and you continue t-" I was again, sweeped off my hoofs, how ever this time the old buck forced my face into the cold hard floor causing my nose to bleed. "First thing to learn about your enemy is to always pay attention! Bah! Your a waste of my time" I wriggled out from under his hoof and stood up backing up, fearing that he might try something again "Well at least tell me what's going o-" I seen it, he struck when I was talking, a obvious off guard point for anypony. His hind hoofs moved again and he lowered himself once again he again was ready to use his entire lower body to swoop me off the ground again. Reacting quickly I turned and looked back and kicked but he rolled to his back and stopped my kick easily without effort. "Ah, so you seen it" He smiled and slowly got up, a bit shaky from his old age and looked up at me. I was convinced that looks were really deceiving, my ass was kicked by a old small Zebra "Now that you know to always pay attention we shall begin our first lesson" "And...what's this le-Gah!" I held my throat as he just hit it with his hoof, he then jumped in the air and with a scary spin slammed the side of my head. I landed with a hefty thud on the metal floors as he landed silently and looked over smiling and laughed. "The first lesson is to learn to pay attention all the time! Hahahah!" Time:0600 Location: Containment Force Armoury "Waaaaake up wake up!" Flare ran and jumped on top of me and started to bounce pressing her hoofs on my stomach "Gah! What?! What's going on?!" I shoved her off and rolled off the cot hitting the floor, I expected to hear ponies screaming and rushing around but only to hear Flare giggling "Hahah! You should've seen the look on your fa-" Before Flare could say anything else a while cot was thrown at her knocking her down "I'm going to eat breakfast..." I sat down in a medium sized room with about 15 other ponies eating there meal. I looked down at a ration pack that said "Maple Oats" "Huh...lets see...two century food that seems like a good idea" I teared it open and took a bite of the cold oats packed together in a small aluminum like foul pack. My ears perked up and I looked down at it, it wasn't all that bad it was actually pretty good. I then continued to stuff my muzzle in the packet until the captain walked up reading a dusty looking book. "Hey, you know how you said your going to Equestria....? Well since your going I had found this old book in a locker from the Speacial Ground Unit's quarters..." He said while flipping through the pages and tossed it on the table, I picked it up while still munching on the oats. "Equestrian Mobile Task Force Presents...the Equestrian post-apocalyptic Survival Hoof Book...huh...I guess I'll give it a read" "I'm sure it will come in handy...anyways I have somethings to take care of" and with that he walks away, Flare right after plopped down beside me. "So...what are we gonna do once we get down there?" I looked over as she daintily opened up her ration with her magic. "One thing at a time...lets focus on this first..." After a hour the captain ordered a lot of his soldiers to line up by the door along with me after breakfast. There was about 20 CONtainment soldiers suited up in your normal set of Heavy Reactive combat armour and I along with a few others stood around the UCCMS pilot who stood there with nothing but a black jump suit on. "Hey. Your that Elite thing huh?" The pilot looked at me with a cocked brow "Yeah...that's me..." She just huffed "I'm a little surprised your not boasting about such a thing, your okay in my book" I gave a puzzled look "Uh....thanks?" "ALRIGHT listen up everypony. We are heading out now but before we go I just wanna recap on what's going down in a nutshell. That mare right there in the black jump suit!" The captain pointed with his hoof "Should be not harmed by anything at all costs! Remember when we get to the lower levels it's LEFT not right Hangar B-221! Don't get it mixed with the other local hangars! Now let's take back out home!" Everypony cheered as the captain waved a pony to press the control the massive door. It slowly opened up separating into the sides and ceiling making a terribly loud rusty noise that echoed into the darkness. "Go go go! Let's make this quick!" Everypony charged forward into the dark hall, before I left Little Epsy waved. "Good luck mister!" I smiled and waved before running off with everypony else, with Flare by my side. We passed by the ponies who tried to attack yesterday, I leaned down slowly and grabbed hold of my crowbar and yanked it from the mare's head. I was sickened and kept following the group as black ooze leaked from her head wound. It was eerily quiet. We were all surprised that we haven't run into anything yet. A buck opened up a hatch to a ladder "Everypony down here!" Instead of using the ladder a lot of them just jumped down, no pony moved or said anything when they jumped down. I climbed down and found out why. When I put my hoofs on the floor I was greeted with a thick slimy substance. It covered our fore hooves slightly "Oh Celestia fuck me what is this shit?" One of the soldiers yelled out "I don't know maybe just some polluted water...after all it has been over 200 years..." We all kept moving forward making our way through the high viscosity like fluid. "Hey. This is a maintenance door, it should lead up to the hangar, panel is still working so...I should be able to work on it..." One of the soldiers took off her helmet and with her horn started to fiddle with the panel with a bunch of instruments that I didn't know. BANG We all jumped and looked at the door. "W-what was that..." "It might be one of those crazies!" "They can't get us....so when I open this door make sure you guys are re-" Then a mare's voice muffled through the thick steel door "Somepony please let me in! Is there any pony there please those things are after me!" I quickly pulled a magazine from my vest and clipped it into the assault rifle I scavenged off that crazy pony earlier, I pulled the bolt back and turned the safety off and held it close to me as the mare at the door looked at me and nodded to me and a few others ready. She slammed her hoof on the door control and it opened quickly, I stopped my self from shooting "Stop!..." We looked down at a dirty mare in a ruined mechanics uniform, she looked up at us crying "Please help! There after me!" I waved a couple of the soldiers to move forward with there rifles at the ready. "Hey hey your okay now we got you what happened..?" One of the bucks from the back walks forward and the mare clung to him "I'm fine now....that we all get to see Celestia TOGETHER!" The mare looked up with a crazed look and revealed a vest full of C4 blocks and started to laugh crazy as she pulled on a cord and the explosives beeped rapidly, everypony gasped, before I even knew it my self I shoved the buck to the side and turned and lowered my self and kicked the mare off her hoofs, I pulled my self forward again and with all my force smashed my hind hooves into her chest sending her flying back. I realized what I had done and tried to warn the two soldiers in front "WATCH OU-" BOOM I watched as the explosion decimated the crazed mare...along with the two soldiers that were in the hall. The force of the explosion sent nearly all of us into the disgusting water. I quickly got back up to hear everypony's muffled yells. I stumbled forward in hopes that maybe the two bucks in front were fine. I was wrong...horribly wrong...stared at the hall that dripped with flesh from the mare and the two bucks. The first buck looked fine. If it wasn't for the missing legs and shredded chest. The second buck was pushed into a sharp piece of metal debris from the wall, his helmet had came off revealing his last and horrified expression as metal stuck out of his chest and forehead. I stared with a horrified face "There...dead..." I leaned against the wall not knowing how to react "Hey it's fine it's not your fault! We were just...just...stupid to not realize it's not your fault Scratches you saved most of us" Flare yelled as my sense of hearing came back "There still dead..." I shook my head as everypony moved forward "Let's focus on our task...we can't focus on our losses later..." One of the Bucks spoke, I started to walk forward with them again and looked back at the scene once more before continuing towards the hangar with the group The mare again started to fiddle with the door controls until it finally opened up we watched as the gigantic gate opened up. A couple of soldiers lit some red flares and tossed it across the room. Dimly lighting the hall of downgraded machinery and crates. "It's all empty...I dunno...I got a bad feeling about this..." Flare said only making it more creepy We walked forward, but there's one thing that bothered me. When me and flare left the chambers I noticed there was a lot of dust when ever we took a step but here there was barely any. Put me in a state of unease "Keep your eyes peeled...I don't think we're alone in here..." I said as me and flare walked into one of the ruined Transport ships. Flare stopped and looked around the interior of the ship, and sighed slowly before leaning against the wall of it "I miss my ride..." I looked at her remembering that she is a Transport Pilot. "What did you transport anyways?" I said while walking into the cockpit that was meant for two ponies. They had to sit down in a weird way. She made her way past me and flopped into the left seat and looked out the cockpit's window. "Mostly supplies, from one end of the ship to another sometimes I transport security units to a situation" She lifted a cigarette but from the ground and looked at it and gasped "Look at this!" She floated it to my face and I examined it and my eyes widened, it was recently put out. Smoke still emitted from the used up cigarette, Just then the hangars lights flashed on and there was ponies all around on the cat walks above pointing there weapons down "fresh meat guys ahahahah!" We both scrambled away from the cockpit as bullets flew right through the old glass. "Return fire!" One of the Bucks from outside yelled as a bullet hell skirmish broke out. I peeked my head out and look out "Where's the pilot?!" A couple of the Bucks shrugged as they were reloading there rifles. "Hey you your the one with the big fucking gun remember use it!" I looked down at the minigun slightly hidden from my cape. I had no idea how to use it, or how to even aim it! Flare then flipped a switch on the weapon started to push me out of the ship holding down the trigger on the side with her magic "Stay still!!" She yelled as then the bulky weapon began to release hundreds of rounds a second. She aimed at the cat walk and blew a couple of the crazy ponies away. "I got it!" I yelled over the gun fire I pulled from flare and pointed the hefty gun up at the other side of the cat walk "Get the big fucker with the Minigun!" Before they could fire I unleashed bullet hell on them and watched as the bullets teared through them. I continued to fire along the cat walks. Spinning in a slow circle as many of the crazy ponies tried to take cover. Half way the weapon stopped firing and let out a loud beep. It had run out of ammunition. I clenched my teeth in fear and jumped behind the ship avoiding the returning fire from the ponies again. "Where is that pilot! Is she with anypony?!" I peeked my head around the corner and by some pure luck, I felt the hot flame of a missile shriek past my head and hit the ship by us turning half of it into a burning wreckage "You gotta be kidding me!" Panting feeling lucky I rushed out from cover and lifted my rifle and aimed as best as I could and fired upon the enemy. I watched as two dropped and laughed "Got a couple..." "There's even more coming from the way we came in!" One of the soldiers yelled as a bullet bounced off the top of his helmet. I felt a jerk and a thud along with a stinging sensation and I fell back onto the floor "Ah fuck that hurts!" I held my side and looked at my vest to see a large hole with the large bullet barely stopped by the plate inside "Oh Celestia I feel lucky..." I crawled back Into cover and tossed the bent bullet away from me and unclipped the used magazine from my rifle and tried to put in another "Come on you son of a bitch just go in alre-Ah!" I squirmed and rolled behind the other side of the ship and looked down my hind leg to see it with two holes. "Ah! Not so lucky this time!" I tried to unjam the magazine from my rifle but it wouldn't budge I yelled in frustration. "ALRIGHT YOU FUCKIN FAGOTS COME TO MOMMA!" We all turned our heads to a gigantic metal behemoth. It was the pilot, she was inside of a UCCMS. I watched the yellow mechanical suit walk on two legs making a loud metal boom everytime it took a step. She raised its arms and smashed the two fists of the behemoth together making a loud clang noise "Let's have some fun!" The speakers blared as she lifted the right arm and firing a huge gauss rifle that was attached to it. We stared in awe as its left arm raises and we watched as a missile popped out and activated rocketing into the group of ponies that were firing at us, she fired another and another watching the catwalks fall along with the remains of the crazy ponies. We all stood still watching the pilot climb out of her seat she stood on her hind legs while holding onto a metal bar by the cock pit and waved "It's been a long time since I've done that!" I sighed and dropped my head to the floor in relief. "Scratches! Are you alright?" I looked up at a worried Flare and patted her head "I'm fine it's just a flesh wound!" I smiled attempting to relieve her. She calmed down a bit loosing up a bit with a sigh "I'm lucky that this stopped that round...that would've ended horribly..." Before we could say anything else a missile hit the giant metal behemoth "Ah! My leg!" The pilot yelled and started to back up. There was a large button meant for the UCCMS to access other parts of the hangar. She slammed on that and the doors opened up. "Everypony in this hangar!" We all started to make a run for it as the pilot do as best and she could. I watched as a soldier in front of us exploded. I looked back and seen a pony in thick looking armor holding a huge rifle. I pointed at him "Hey you pilot get that big guy!" She popped another missile from her silo and I watched it rocket into the catwalk. I turned my head and gasped as I fell into a smashed up part of the floor that was a hole and caught my self hanging "Ah! Dammit!" I tried to pull my self up, Flare came to my aid dodging bullets as they whizzed by us like metal mosquitoes. "I got you Scratches I got yo-" I watched and fell as a round hit her chest. She fell back out of view, and I watched as I fell down the dark void. TIME: Aprox 21:00 Location: Lower maintenance levels I say up quickly and gasped holding my chest. My HUD blinking blue being my only light source "Flare...." I slowly got up and winced in pain and I looked down at my leg with two bullet wounds all I can do is hope that it doesn't get infected. Limping around I noticed I was in a maintenance room. Completed with the bones of ponies decor, perfect just perfect. "Alright Scratches...you were down here once...just...where am I..." My HUD still blinked in the dark every few seconds. I managed to find my way out of the room by a half closed door. I was scared I'm not gonna lie. I stared down the old rusty hall as dust flew up everywhere and the old place creaked and echoed in the darkness. I jumped at every distant sound as I limped my self down the hall way. It was much more crowded and small compared to the upper levels, Bonk "Ow..." I held my muzzle and looked up at a door that read 'Maintenance Storage' "There's gotta be something useful..." I turned and looked behind me and looked down the hall once more quiet as possible. I let out a small sigh and raised my hind legs and slammed my hoofs into it, again and again and and again until finally the old door busted down loudly and dropped to the floor letting out a loud boom as it hit the floor, I cringed and looked around and limped in my leg hurt in more than ever. There was a pitifully made barricade that the door knocked over, I walked past it and looked at a single skeleton sitting in the corner with a lot of vodka bottles and a single old rusty gun laying by him, suicide. I walked closer and closer until I spotted a weird device on his forehoof. "Now what is this..." I muttered quietly and lifted it off his old skeleton, it was a rather bulky looking device. It was smashed up and had a bullet hole right in the screen. "Pip-buck...3000...pip-buck?..." I played with it for a while until the topped opened up and popped out a cold cartridge. I jumped back and dropped it hoping it wasn't another dam trap I picked it up slowly again and examined it. It appeared to be an old tape? "Pip-buck 3000 huh?...weird...weird..." I rummaged through the storage but found nothing. That is until I spotted a cylinder dusty glass tube laying by a mail shaft. I limped over and picked it up with my magic. As soon as I picked it up My vision went blurry for a few seconds and I heard the screams of a whirling storm "TO THE STABLE TO THE STABLE!" I dropped the thing and backed up lifting my rifle. "W-what the hell was that!...." I took a deep breath and slowly picked it up again, but that feeling wasn't there again. I blew the dust off and I looked down at the exact same device that the skeleton had. I looked at it with excitement and tried to open it up, it was not use I even tried smashing the glass, that only broke it from its holder inside of it and it now jiggled around inside the tube, I think it turned on? The screen was a bright green but it stayed bright green and nothing else. I sat there with disappointment. "What's this?...a message..." I looked down at a little chip tape to the side of it, I ripped it off and put it into a little slot that had a cord leading up to my HUD. /Message playback/ Date: Corrupted Time: Corrupted /play/. "Hey there guys. I know your all having a rough time with the air recycler and all and I know how you love those Pip-Bucks from Equestria. So to pay up for all your hard work I'm sending one to each maintenance storage and checkpoint! Also your monthly pay on bits is DOUBLED. We hope that the Commander and I satisfied your complaints about pay. Have a good day!" /message complete/ I blinked a few times "Pip-bucks...from Equestria? What the hay is going on here?" I sighed and looked down at the device in the glass wanting to use the strange device. "Maybe another time..." I slid it into my saddlebag and limped my way out of the storage room. My HUD still being my only light source. I sat in the room for a while eventually unjamming the magazine from the assault rifle and properly clipped it in and let it hang on my side ready to use, it was my last magazine so I had to make sure each round counted. "Bzzzzz-....Bzzzrzzrrzzzz. Scratches! Is your radio working?" I jumped and looked down at a pocket, I had forgotten about that radio. I quickly pulled it out of its prison pocket and responded "Yeah! I'm here! Is Flare alright?!" I shouted My voice echoed through the dark room and halls before the radio blipped a few times "Yes she's fine she's resting right now. look I know where you fell. Your in Maintenance travel tunnel 23-A. There should be a maintenance checkpoint nearby, turn left of that and you have to pass through the oxygen recycler in order to get to the ladder hatch do you g-bzzzzzzzz" The captain's muffled voice disapeared "Captain?....hello...?!" I sighed and stuffed the radio back into the pocket of my vest and peeked out looking down the hall ways "Alright...this way..." I walked down the hall I was supposed to go quietly as possible. It all smelled of musty rot down in the hall, but the darkness of the hall and the combination of dead silence with the occasional creaks made things creepy. I continued to walk down the dreaded halls my HUD lighting my path every few seconds. CLANG I was startled by metal clanging around in the distance, I quickly reached back for my rifle and lifted it with magic now more nervous than ever, what could possibly be alive down here? Then I heard a small steady clicking noise, I looked around puzzle and pulled out the glass cylinder and looked at the strange device emitting a constant clicking sound, my ears twitched as the dead silence made even this sound loud. But the clicking meant one thing and one thing only. "Radiation..." I mumbled I started to walk faster and faster I knew the basics of what radiation can do and I've seen some ponies get seriously messed up by it. I finally met a door half open and squeezed my way through. "Y-you!..." I jumped and might have squeaked a little and turned. My HUD blinked and revealed a face that made me jump out of my fur "GAH!" I jumped back and lifted my rifle, and stopped my self taking a closer look. He was a ghoul like the captain only fully ghoulish? "I-I- I'm sorry I thought you wer-" I was cut off "Your from a Cryo chamber weren't you...Celestia praise our work...the Cryo chambers...they really worked! Hahah! They really worked!...look at you!...perfect!...oh Celestia praise our work!" He yelled and tried to cry, but he couldn't he could only let out a few dry sobs. He looked around as if somepony was after him as spoke in his sandpaper voice "What happened to you.." He shook his head and paused "Long story short....this oxygen recycler was attacks by...t-those dam crazy ponies long ago, I was caught in the radiation blast and...well...turned into this..look...I-it's dangerous here kid...uh..." He quickly looked around and dug into a couple of blankets in the corner of the room by a few old control panels "Take this...go. Go that way until you get to a hatch its safe up there, there's others like me but there not sane hurry go for it! And...good luck....Elite..." I looked at him shocked as he slid a old bat and a grenade across the floor, picking them up I gave him one last look before leaving "Why don't you come with me?" He shook his head " I'm finished...but...go...live...reunite what we once were. You are my last hope, that's why We created those pods now go!" He yelled as I quickly ran cross the room and passed the other door racing down a cramped hallway. That's when I heard the most ear piercing screech, I looked back and was horrified. I looked at several 'ghouls' that glowed, there hair was missing and some of there jaws were hanging down to there chest. I screamed and looked at a ladder in the distance. Lit dimly by a orange spinning emergency light, I ran faster and faster and finally got to it. Before I could take a step on it how ever I felt one of there cold slimy jaws bite down right on my shot leg, I let out a scream of pain. "AHH!...dam son of a bit-" I was quickly pulled down by another I was getting beat down by large hoofs and one of them even closed their jaws on my side I squinted and lifted the rifle and let loose hot lead on them. It did the job, I got up in a instant and winced at my wounds. Another jumped at me, I moved pulled the crowbar from my side and slashed sideways taking the top of his head off with pure brute force from the tool. More came my way and I backed up repeating the last move over and over. The floor shook and a larger ghoul revealed its self from the darkness, it was faded but it had a torn up RFSF jump suit on. It roared and slowly walked towards me. I froze and watched as the thing even taller than me walk its way over, snarling as its rotted small eyes focused hard on me. "What area you doing I said run!!" The ghoul from before ran up and jumped up on its back holding onto it with all his power. He was holding a makeshift grenade and pressed a button on it and it started to beep rapidly "Go on kid! Do this old buck a favour and don't make my mistake of watching!" He smiled sadly as the orange emergency light lit his face, more of those monsters started to scratch at him as he closed his eyes looking at peace. I turned towards the ladder forcing my self up, ignoring the pain listening to the rumbling roars of that thing along with the beeps of the bomb. BOOM! Everything shook as that little makeshift bomb created a blast wave so hard that it felt like the whole Fleetship was going to blow. I jumped up and watched dust blow out of the hatch and panted, at this point wheezing and trying to hear things again "Dammit...dammit scratches DAMMIT!" I yelled, another pony with a good mind died. I peeked my head down in the darkness "I'm sorry...I didn't even know your name..." I sighed and slowly got up and looked around, I limped my way out back into a familiar hall. I pulled my radio up "Captain...? Are you there...?" It buzzed for a few seconds and I got a response "Ahahah I knew you would get out!...now come here...lets talk about that little escape shuttle of yours" Location: CONtainment Forces Head Quarters Time: 1900 My HUD created an annoying beep along with "/Radiation Sickness Detected! Seek medical help immediately/" The 'Pip-Buck' also just clicked rapidly it being near me. I painted and felt my legs go numb from exhaustion and this radiation sickness. My vision was getting blurry. I powered through my wounds until I got to the gate with a couple of bucks in security riot gear. "There he is, hey are you alright?" I looked up and slowly leaned to the side and collapsed hearing the muffled voices of the Bucks calling for help. "Ouch..." I whimpered quietly as my eyes opened up again. I slowly tried to get up but failed and I felt regret when a sharp pain caused me to wince and fall back "Hey hey easy now, you really messed your self up" I looked over at a nurse what held a clip board jotting down something. "Where is Flare? Flare Signal" I said, my voice raspy and hard sounding. "Oh I'm sorry she has passed away" My eyes widened as he burst out laughing "Hahah! I'm just kidding my friend she is Oka-" I grabbed his collar with my magic and pulled him close growling as I was disgusted by the twisted joke. "You thought that was funny?! That is a friend of mine how dare you!" My raspy voice added to the intimidation. Something took over me for a moment, and before I could even register it I had slammed my hoof into his face. He fell to the floor holding his bleeding muzzle, he didn't say anything as I flopped back on the bed coughing. "A-ah I'll go get her actu-" He stumbled to his hoofs and looks at the mare already standing at the door with a curious look. The nurse just walked out leaving me and her in the downgraded room. She walks up to the bed and sat down beside me. "You know I told him to say that...heh...didn't expect you to well...punch him" She was startled when I hugged her tightly, holding her close I did not let go for a long time, she hugged back too. "You scared me flare....when you got shot..." She let out a small chuckle "Ah this mare will be fine. My suit barely stopped it" She gave a grin as her chest had a bandage going around her chest "So...how does it feel to sleep for three days straight?" I choked a little and held a hoof to my forehead "I was out cold for three days?!...I don't even feel all that well rested.." She tapped a IV bag hooked up to my forehoof. "It's probably all that Equestrian crap getting rid of your radiation" I sighed softly looking at the ceiling "Hey...I know it might be kind of personal...but...who are your parents?" I stopped and thought about it. She had a fair point, who were my parents?... RTW?...Celestia? No of course not! Why would they be? I looked at the pilot sitting next to me, she smiled and looked over putting her meal down for a moment "Don't worry about me, worry about your self there scratch. I'll be fine 'it's just a flesh wound' " She let out a chuckle and patted my muzzle with her hoof "Just...don't get your self almost killed again...do you know how much radiation you soaked up? The doc was surprised you didn't succumb to death!" I looked up from my meal again and our muzzles met, snout to snout we both blushed catching a glimpse of each other's eyes "Ah! Uh...um...that was...kinda...weird..." We both awkwardly sat there tapping our food We continued to eat and the captain approached us "I owe you a huge thanks Scratches...with out you out there in the battle escorting my soldiers none of them would have have made it...we lost a few good ponies but it was for the better of others...now...about that little escape you had planned..." Me and flare looked up from eating a 200 year old ration pack "Mm! Yes!" I wiped my mouth "Before that..." I floated up the strange device from my saddlebag sitting in the corner of the fixed up room "My my is that a Pip-buck? Now where did you get a little treat like that?" He grinned "I found it in a maintenance storage check point thing...is it...Equestrian?..." He nodded "Yes of course it is. It's been a while since I've seen one...they come from a company called 'Stable-Tech' crafty little things..." I looked at the device "How do you get it open...?" He stopped stumped for a long moment "You know...I don't even know...I guess your gonna have to find a key or something...keep it anyways. Maybe you'll find it useful at some point" I set the cylinder down and looked at flare slurping up a hay burger out of a packet, I chuckled and turned back to the captain still a little uneasy from the radiation "RTW left a note when I woke up...he told me to get the hell off of the ship in a nutshell saying a code that will get us off in the Commander's shuttle" The old buck thought for a second "RTW....I'll help you...just...be careful down there...when I've been receiving 10 year old messages from equestria...others...like me have survived, who ever this was said that it was hell down there....just...be careful..." I nodded in agreement, only because I had no idea how the world below had become. Suddenly we were cut off my blaring alarms and spinning orange lights. Me and flare looked at each other and then the captain "We can't get a break can we!" He yelled, everypony rushed around. Most of them climbing into there suits while others hid in rooms "You know! How about let's get you set up now before we run out of luck!" He nodded and we nodded in agreement I swooped up my saddlebag and lifted my rifle from the table. I nodded at flare and we followed the captain out into the hall where more ponies rushed. "Don't leave mister!" I heard that familiar voice and turned looking at a Little Epsy tugging on my sleeve Kneeling down I smiled "Don't worry these ponies will make the bad ponies go away, I promise. And...ill promise I'll be back soon...okay?..." I smiled reassuringly and she have a little smile too "Okay mister! Bye bye!" She smiled and seemed pretty calm for a filly in this situation. She ran off into a room and me and flare continued to follow the captain all the way to the Master's Bridge. They cleared out a lot while I was resting. "Alright the shuttle is down there I hope you know the code!" He hollered and he waved a couple of ponies with saddlebags of ration packs and ammunition down into the shuttle "Of course we do!" I yelled out "Whoa whoa whoa! I'm piloting that thing?!" She pointed at the shuttle and we all tensed up as a bullet whizzed by us like a metal mosquito "I think it's time to go!" He widened his eyes and we climbed down the ladder and into a small cabin that was the shuttle, then I stopped in my tracks. How could I forget...? What about Circuts?! Or my caretaker and the Commander. How could I forget about them what happened I can't just leave...can I...? "Scratches what are you waiting for? the code!" Flare screamed I snapped out of it and rushed up to the cockpit and looked around for the panel and started to press in the code with my hoof "55j...690...22c5!" The old shuttle powered up the panels flickering to life as old lights dimly lit the cabin. "Commander's Emergency Shuttle in effect! All systems nominal! Pilot launch at anytime!" I looked over at Flare Signal "Now or never..." I rushed back to the door and sorted the saddlebags full of supplies in a storage box and looked at the commander "Stay safe Scratches...I'm sure we will meet again soon!" He smiled and watched him lift a shot gun rushing back as doors to the bridge and the shuttles slammed shut and sealed. I stumbled back into the second seat by Flare. "I...I haven't used a ship like this before...it's all different there's...it's just" I put my hoof on her nervous shoulder "Its fine...it has to fly the same way with those sticks right?..." She looked over with her helmet on and nodded "Yeah...alright let's just hope this Rust bucket doesn't blown up on us...A-A.I...L-LAUNCH!" She yelled and I quickly strapped my self in, I thought about Circuts again and felt guilty as if I just ditched her We both were pressed against the seats as the engines blasted and the thrusters powered us down a narrow tunnel until we hit a cover. I watched scared and amazed at the same time as we flew out. It was a smooth feeling, not long after zero gravity kicked into place "Hello pilots! A- oh my your not the Commander's pilots...where is the Commander...?" The little screen in the middle of all the controls showed a picture of a little filly A.I "The commander and his pilots are dead! And we're just trying to get to Equestria! Can you do this?!" The shuttle rattled as we got closer to the planet "Of course! I'll help anypony in need! I can't guide you guys since your the pilots silly but I am a gunner bot A.I isn't that cool?! I'll make sure I protect you from debri because there's plenty!" Along the rattling we heard a whirr and a click as a old satellite bounced off the side "Wow this thing has a lot of advancements!" Flare yelled "Of course silly! This is the Commander's shuttle!" The little fillies voice yelled as the turret boom and vibrate above, we watched as large debri and satellites exploded silently. "Clench your ass cheeks to the seat cause it's gonna get bumpy!" Flare yelled as things started to shake violently. It was not long before the front view was covered by a large flame "Is that normal?!" I pointed "Uh...maybe?! I dunno I've never done trips to the ground don't ask me!" "That's great to know!" I yelled back at her and things started to clear up "Incoming transmission:...HAULT YOU CRIMINAL SCUM. You are locked on by missiles of the Equestrian Air Force! Identify your self!" Flare plugged a cord into her helmet and started to yell "This is Transport Pilot FlareSignal! Serial number 22-554 currently in an escape shuttle preparing for an emergency crash landing!Abort missile strike I repeat Abort missile strike!" The robots voice returned "Identity not valid in Equestrians logs have fun burning and crashing Zebra Scum! ALL MISSILES AWA-Bzzt" "Oh dear! That's gonna be a lot to handle! 24 Equestrian Arcane missiles are headed are way. Would you like me to try and counter them?" The A.I Asked I yelled over the noise of the shuttle "NOOO just let us get hit!" I yelled in sarcasm "Okay!" We both tensed up "No no! Uh counter them please!" "Of course! There closing in 800 meters and fast!" The optimistic AI said as the turrets buzzed. We passed through the clouds as Flare struggled with the controls. My heart skipped a beat as a missile exploded right In front of the wind shield "That was close teehee!" The AI said as we cleared from the clouds. I peeks my head up and stared at a few snowy mountains and gasped! "Flare!" "I see them!" She slammed her hoof on a button and a huge burst of energy from the thrusters sent us gliding to the right, we bounced off the side and we jerked around violently "Incomimg!" BLAM We started to spin violently as fresh cold snow blew everywhere inside blowing across our bodies. I had no idea what was going. "Shit!" We hit another small mountain ridge before crashing in the void between the mountains. Parts of the shuttles crumpled as the supplies in the back flew around free. I banged my head against Flare's helmet and Everything went dark, again...ugh. Footnote: level up Rad resistance: you've soaked up so much radiation so far you've gained a small amount of radiation resistance Espy's figure: Gained 1+ Luck //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 7: Winter Wasteland //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 7: Winter Wasteland "Just do what I do and don't think about it" TIME: Unknown LOCATION: Unknown I shot up gasping and coughing hard, after my fit I let out a pained groan and looked around the metal bucket that had brought us down safely? I sighed and glanced down at my right hoof. There was several shards of glass stuck in my leg, although I was not alarmed because of that. I was freaked out because it barely hurt I was freezing in fact. "Flare!" I said baffled by my own raspy sounding voice, I sounded like a 'ghoul'. I forced my self up and took a deep breath before I limped through the wreckage and peeked out the side of the shuttle. I gasped and stared out at the darkness, the wind blew hard as the flakes would follow a pattern in the wind I was only able to see this because there was a fire in the rear end of the wreckage. I yelled out again into the snowy darkness then back into the wreckage and limped back looking for her hoping she wasn't...dead. She was nowhere to be found I began to panic and worry for her, maybe she was thrown out of her seat? No maybe she woke up and went to go find help. I sighed in annoyance and felt dumbfounded. I kicked some debris in anger and groaned at my hurt leg and cursed, it was a green light that had taken my mind off the pain and cold for a moment, what ever it was it was buried under snow and it blipped. I scrambled towards it and dug it out and lifted it with my magic. "What do we have here..." I mumbled as I grinned now looking at this 'Pipbuck-3000'. "It must've broke out of it's case when we crashed down here, lucky it didn't brake it's self..." I said to no pony. Turning it around several times I was amused and looked at my forehoof "Well if they're anything like these HUDs then it's one size fits all...here goes nothing for my big ugly ass hoofs..." I floated the device onto my left forehoof before closing the casing and locking it into place, it was at a surprise very cozy. I sat on my rump and manually pressed the power button. The screen flashed to life and a strange looking mascot pony smiled giving a hoofs up before numbers scattered across the screen introducing it's self as the 'Pipbuck-3000'. Blipping a few times in a cheerful chime I was met by a diagram of a pony and all of it's limbs along with a map,Geiger counter, Inventory management, and even a radio! "Celestial and Luna it has more features than my HUD so far! does it maybe have a hollowgram?" I smiled and fiddled around with it for the top to open and a tape to launch at my face. I rubbed my muzzle and looked down at the tape and pushed it back into the strange device. "So...this is it...after 25 years of crumbling the cracker has finally snapped...it's only a matter of time before they crazies reach me...I was hoping for a good day today because it's my. Birthday...this is ironic isn't it...I just hope my family is okay...sure is a lot of shooting upstairs...and screaming too...I don't have much to say...hey captain...if you hear this...go fuck your self...and your good for nothing Royal Feet Guard..." The Pipbuck blipped twice as I stood there interested by the two hundred year old tape that somehow survived. After a good few minutes of fiddling around with it I stood up again and sighed "I need to find Flare..." I said to my self as I realized the mare that had actually brought us down was now missing, looking out the side of the wreck again into the darkness the darkness stared back as the wind howled loudly as snow quickly poured into the wreckage only making my situation even more worse that it already was. checking the Pipbuck on my hoof again there was a single arrow on the compass with a note in the corner titled 'Find Flare'. my first thought was how and why, does this thing listen to what I was saying? and how did this thing know where flare was in the first place? it was my only lead and chance if I wanted to find Flare, she had to have found shelter. My journey had begun as I stepped out, my hoof falling into deep snow as the rest followed until I stood with snow half way up my legs. the snow crunched softy under my hoofs with each step as I felt the unfammilar ice and bits of rocks that I stepped upon, all completlely alien compared to the metal meshed and hard cold steel floors that I had walked on my entire life, it was exciting and I felt adventurous. My muzzle was already freezing along with my ears, searching around I managed to find a bit of the supplies that was loaded on earlier by the captain. All that was left was a grenade, a flare gun with two shots and one military ration meal. I let out a sigh and put the two into my saddlebag and I looked at my assault rifle that hung by it's strap on some metal bar. It was in bad shape. "Okay...alright...I'm going to find you Flare..." I trotted past the luggage netting that blew wildly at the new entrance to the ship, crawling out I felt the snow hit my face hard so hard that I could feel each individual particle zip and sting into my face. I walked forward with the assistance of my HUD and the Pipbuck 3000's lights "Pretty useful...ah...it's cold!" I stopped in my tracks when my eyes met a single black figure in the darkness barely able to see what ever it was. Calling out Flare's name again I was met with no response. I yelled out again in hopes it was her, I swear I saw a pair of eyes, what ever it was it back away slowly disappearing. It was too big to be a pony. Ignoring it I struggled through the deep snow pushing my way through the sea of white. Turning my head back I glanced back at the shuttle once more looking at the wreckage that served as a safe haven from the wicked winds that perform a frigid dance around me accompanying the wind was the snow that also blew up and embedded them selves on my coat and fur I yelled again again for Flare and pushed my way further and further, I repeated to say this. All that answered back was my own echo and the howling night winds. On my way to where ever I only met snow, snow and even more snow with the occasional large rock. "This was a bad idea! Ah gotta turn back!" I heard a low rumble. I tensed up in my spot Like a cat encountering a large dog. My ears twitched and moved trying to pick up the sound again, it was a constant rumble. The rumble got louder and louder and before I knew it a wall of white hurled it's way towards me! I quickly jumped to the large boulder moments before the hurl of snow tried to carry me with it. The boulder shielded me from the wave of snow, some shot over the rock and curved around the edges. Grunting and panting I held onto that boulder, my life depended on it greatly. "What in the name of Celestia was that!".... It didn't take long for this wave of snow to go by or rather settle. I sighed in annoyance as there was even more snow than than before. I was once again spooked by a sound. This was no natural sound, it was a howl a angry howl. "Was that a lion? No you dummy it must be...a...a Wolf!" I blurted out then I continued to facehoof. I was being too noisy and I would give my position away to these beasts. In weather like this...anything would be hungry... "Okay okay scratch stay calm you got this you got this just...fire a flare and light your path of course your a genius!" I started yelling to my self only for comfort at this point. how ever I did listen to my self. I slid a flare into it's launcher and fired a single red flare into the air. It exploded like a firework dimly tainting my surroundings with red light. Nothing...just more snow...I kept walking as the flares in the sky burned out eventually leaving me with just my devices to light my way again. I was freezing and it was worse than before, I legs began to feel...no...I didn't even feel my legs. My ears and muzzle were pretty much frozen and my main had froze in place along with them. It was hard to blink and after a while it was hard to see. I fell and panted trying to breath. Then I heard it, steps several steps in the snow what ever it was it was light or very sneaky as it did not crunch the snow below it's hoofs or paws. Out of fear I loaded the flare gun and fired it into the air one again pushing the darkness back. My eyes widened with horror as giant wolf like beasts snarled and retrieved into the darkness, their eyes glowing in the dark "Oh fuck!" I yelled and began to run. I'm not sure how but I was running again, stumbling and rolling through the snow I came to a stop as I eyes met a steep slope into darkness, looking at my Pipbuck the arrow pointed down into the slope. "Ah fuck me with my soul you gotta be kidding me! ugh!" looking back at the fast approaching beasts I jumped down putting little hope and trust into this Equestrian tech that was around my hoof I slid and rolled, grunting and cursing as I hit the bottom of the slope, I hit rock. Shrieking in pain I tried to get up again. I forced my self up and yelled in pain before my eyes had met something again, it was distant lights. Adrenaline rushed through me as I hauled ass through thick snow that the beasts behind me ran around in with such ease. I called out desperately in hopes that somepony would hear my calls for help. One of the wolfs had snatched at my leg and caused me to fall into the snow, turning onto my back I snarled and slammed my hoof into it's face, it yelped and fell back laying lifeless. I must have one hell of a kick to make it stop moving. I shot up again my limp worse than never as I left blood soaking into the snow behind me. I needed to get their attention, I focused and performed a spell that lit my horn brightly, I was never one for spells and with my already weakened state I felt weaker and weaker by the second. "I help pony!" A very blunt voice rose as a wooly beast charged with a bright lantern on it's side rammed into the group of beats, he managed to grab one by the head and slammed it down into the ground. standing on his hind hoofs he slammed down into the wolf several times crushing the beast to death. A wolf pounced as I yelled to warn him, he had drawed a shotgun and with a loud boom the flash from the worn well used single shot shotgun lit the snowy darkness for a brief moment before the darkness overtook us again leaving the pipbuck and the wooly beast's dangling lantern to illiminate our surroundings. The hot metal from the shotgun hit the beast causing the wolf fly back into the snow. the group of beasts yelped and began to run back into the darkness spooked by the loud buckshot they eventually disappeared. I finally fell from exhaustion with my ears ringing from the killing device the wooled gaint wielded. The wooly thing walked up to me and began dragging me before I had finally went unconscious "can you two stop grinding each other? there's foals here" I nudge my friend zephyr as both him and his marefriend both snickered as they looked at me. "Don't worry Scratch we do it all the time in public it's just our kink! plus we got away doing it in a transport shuttle heheh" I rolled my eyes as the two continued to have borderline sex in their gear. Both were security guards of my sector and I wouldn't know them if it weren't for Circuts to semi-drag me to meet them half way across the ship in their barracks. "Where's your little marefriend anyways?" Zephyr said as him and his marefriend both looked at me finally stopping with the whole grinding up on each other thing. "She's busy with her work, not a day that goes by around here without something breaking. it's funny ho-" I screamed in pain and choked, ripped from my dream I was shocked and quiet literally as my entire body tensed up in a locked position as electricity zapped through me before it cut out and I went limp with my eyes squeezed shut. "good good he's awake" an ominous voice rose and echoed around me "was that necessary? rude way to wake up the pony" I heard the familiar voice as the skimpy voice arose again "the boss wants him awake right aw-" I jumped a little as a loud bang erupted from behind the voices. hearing calm yet heavy hoof steps I slowly opened my eyes as I now looked up at a big pony wearing rusty plates of armor that covered his chest and legs. rebar shaped to cover the entirety of his head. he had a black helmet on with 'Security' faded on the side slightly scratched out. My muzzle scrunched up as the air was filled with a rotting stench of the buck, did he not wash or something? "well look at this oh...look how healthy he is!" he laughed wickedly showing his crooked yellow teeth that had many cavities and many looked like they were on the verge of falling out. He looked back at the wooly beast and the scrawny pony. "you caught him ahahah good job ahah!" the wooly beast smiled and stood proud. my body still ached and I groaned softly as I felt my side all bruised and beaten up. But I was astonished that there was living ponies here. Living things in this hellish snowy land. I found the buck strange though due to his armored up body of metal scrap. I guess a lot can happen in Equestria after 200 years. "I need help...I'm from-" I stopped my self thinking that they would probably not believe that I came from a big old ship in the sky and I stopped thinking as I stared up at the buck leaving us in awkward silence before I finally said something. "I'm a traveler my name is Scratches from..uh... Equestria..lower...Equetria...uh...Canterlot" I cringed at my horrible lie as the buck laughed and I tried not to groan in disgust as his breath washed over me. "Canterlot!? ahah you must of hit your head pretty hard! you can't be from there" I stared up and tilted my head as I slowly stood up now towering everyone excepted the wooly beast. "yeah?...I'm from Canterlot" The buck shaked his head "are you living under a rock? do you know that Equestria was oh I don't know was destroyed about two centries ago. There's no way you're from there. no way you can get past the storm" he looked up and grinned as he examined my body I stood shocked speechless. Equestria? destroyed? that can't be, I knew there was a war but we were shielded from it and instead were taught Equestrian history and locations. "E-Equestria...destroyed?..." I stared still speechless as my mind forgot about my bruised side and aching body. I suddenly felt hopeless and lost at the news and it might have explained his queer armor. If there was no Equestria then what was there? just the ruins? the left over scrap. The thing that I questioned the most was who or what destroyed Equestria. "Eyep heheh...now now...let us not keep the crowd waitin'..." being pulled from my thoughts and shocked state the big buck grinned slowly backing out of the doors as they slammed shut two bucks wearing the similar armor around them poked me with a stick only to be shocked. I cursed and yelled as these fuckers were backing me up using cattle prods, forced back onto a platform like a damn animal I stared and looked around now panicked noticing that the platform I was not began to whir and slowly rise up a long shaft the ponies below disappearing as now I was left in the dark. I lifted my forehoof the pipbuck still there clinging to my leg with scratches around the casing indicating that they might have tried to get it off forcefully and I imagined my HUD had been scratched up as well. I checked my self and found my saddlebags missing along with my coat and vest. "what the hell is going on!?" I yelled now pissed off as the platform pushed me closer to the surface. My ears twitched as I picked up the sound of a cheering crowd and it sounded big along with a roaring voice dwarfing the crowd's cheer as I picked up the big buck's voice again. "Hello again! My it's great to see such a large crowd again! You all can't admit each time you watch blood hit the ground you all feel great! Now for our weekly scheduled arena battle! Here we caught a 350 pound beast in the snow this evening and mare's and gentle colts I got you all a real treat here with our newest fighter! Mares and Gentle colts!.... I welcome you the most dreadful looking pony we've seen in a long time! Scratches!!" I raised a eyebrow as the elevator finally stopped as I rose from the ground into a arena, bright lights forced me to squint my eyes as I heard ponies cheering above the metal walls that was the arena's border limit. "Look at this monster of a pony! tall and strong means we need a tall and a strong opponent! what do you think my subjects?! who should it be!" I was surprised and panicked my eyes darting around left and right as I searched for an exit. but the walls were too tall to jump or climb over. I was startled again as the crowd roared a name "Dominator! Dominator! Dominator! Dominator!!" I stared up at the big buck now grinning down at me from the high platform he sat on "you heard it!! let's hear it for the strong, mean machine DOMINATOR!!" A loud bang erupted from one of the walls as a well hidden door slowly opened and metal on metal created a loud ear piercing screech. I was scared not gonna lie. it felt like not to long ago I was on the Fleet ship enjoying a safe life under the protection of soldiers and security. Now I was standing in a makeshift arena sitting in a winter wasteland with the news of Equestria destroyed by war. It was too dark past the corridor to see what ever was in there. A light flashed on it's shine reflecting off the cement walls it walked past. Coldness filled the air as an uncomfortable breeze of air brushed over my coat making my fur stand. The thing finally stomped out of the darkness and under the light from bright lights revealing the giant metal pony shaped...wait that was a pony! the pony was inside of some sort of huge armored suit and it stood to my height. half of it's armor looked scavenged and the other half looked welded and hastily sealed on. Rust fell off of it with every step. My mouth gaped as the sight of it as two more ponies were forced up from other platforms just like me, I choked at the new stench and noticed that it was the two ponies. They looked crazed and I sank as I recognized the crazed look in their puffy yellow eyes, Crazy ponies "Bonus opponents! because if there's no blood and guts there's NO FUN" The speakers blared with the buck's voice as the crazy ponies both looked at me then the metal pony already armed with wooden bats. They were scared like me, it didn't take words to tell that they were willing to work with me and one of another to work as a temporary team. "BEGIN!!" I didn't notice it before but the metal pony had a two large weapons mounted on it's sides. My eyes widened as two miniguns spun up and began to fire a shower of lead. Leaping to the side I stumbled looking back watching one of the crazy pony's chest and face shred apart before falling to the cement ground with a disgusting wet thud. the other ran the opposite side and didn't waste time to attack the metal pony. his bat just bounced off it's thick armor with a solid bang. The thing just pulled the buck close and lifted him in the air with magic. slamming him down the pony yelled in pain letting go of the bat and cried for help as the metal monster crushed the pony's back and stomped a few times now leaving a bloody mushed mess on the ground all while the crowd cheered wildly. Turning to me it's miniguns spinning up again as the several barrels spun in circles faster and faster before letting out another shower of bullets, one hit my leg as hot lead found a home deep in my leg as I tried to flee along the sides, the storm of bullets following me. after a game of cat and mouse, the Bullets being the cat and me being the mouse I heard the guns stop. I turned my head and watched as the metal pony was now reloading, pulling two large boxes from under the miniguns, I could only imagine that so many bullets must take awhile to reload. I rushed to grab one of the bats that the crazy ponies wielded and took my only chance to attack. Charging I yelled as I slammed the bat down as hard as I could, the bat snapping in half as it did little effect against the beast. It slammed it's metal hoof into my chest that took my breath. It tried to reload again as I caught my breath again and wheezed before grumbling. I turned quickly and with all my might I kicked the metal pony's head hard, hard enough to hurt and sprain one of my legs. I winced in pain as the metal pony grunted and stumbled back dropping one of the minigun's big bullet cartridge that held all the rounds. I picked it up with magic and slammed it against the helmet over and over backing the pony further and further and I managed to break a part of it's visor as a bright blue eye stared down at me with rage. It finally prevailed my attack and backhoofed my face, I backed up yelling and nursing my face with my numb and hurting cheek bone that now bled from the metal pony's sharped edged hoof that pierced my flesh. "son of a bitch!!" I yelled furious as the metal beast managed to load one of the miniguns. It fired again and a bullet grazed my cheek and a few hit my chest, with nothing to protect me the bullets dug far into my chest and it stung. As the pain shocked me more lead flew at me and also hit my legs filling them up with a few extra small holes, eventually if I allowed more and more bullets hit me I would be looking like the first pony that got shot up. I jumped to the side again with more knowledge on how to dodge the big bulky gun. Sure it was furious but it sure as hell wasn't fast. Zig zagging my way toward the metal pony I ducked and turned around again about to buck the thing in the face as hard as I could again and managed to do so. With a violent thrust with my hind hoofs they hit the helmet hard, but the welded up looking helmet had many jagged objects on it and a piece of metal pierced my hoof and buried it's self in causing me to grunt and back away from the big pony. I panted looking at the metal beast that caught it's self from falling, I felt the warm blood ooze down my body from the bullet holes and the bruised and probably cracked ribs from my long fall from the wolves. But I had to shake it all off now. The big pony charged fast despite the heavy looking armor and rammed into me lifting me and pushing me against the wall. I grunted and screamed as it just applied pressure against all my wounds, I pounded the top of it's helmet with my hoof but it shook off my pathetic attacks. I was feeling weak again and I looked around for something to hit it with. My eyes spotted the other bat and I magically grabbed it and pulled it towards me slamming down the metal bat over and over until it let me go. Before I could swing at it again a giant metal hoof slammed down on my chest digging the metal hoofs hard. whinned and coughed and was struck again, this time being fully on bucked in the chest once again. I let out a pathetic and pained grunt as I smashed against the walls falling to the ground now wheezing. I fought to just breath as blood came up making me sputter and it all out as I tasted my own blood, it tasted a bit like copper. "let's make this a bit more exciting shall we!?" The speakers blared as both me and the metal pony stopped and looked at the buck as he grinned down a us. Another door slowly opened as roars emitted from the darkness and a beige monster crawled out. it looked like a lion, but with a massive stinger as a tail and what I could tell wings but they were tied back against it's body. The metal pony stomped it's hoofs against the ground as it stared up at the buck on the platform, I could sense that this metal beast might have been betrayed. "MANTICORE!!!" The crowd cheered once again as the strange monster focused on the metal pony. Before the metal pony could get a chance it was lifted into the air by the beast before being slammed down against the ground once again grunting as bits of metal broke and scattered across the arena as the monster began to slash at the pony over and over breaking off bits and bits of armor. I forced my self up and coughed while feeling tears form around my eyes, the pain was all to much. I eyed the metal pony getting pummelled by the manticore's claws, anger surged through my veins as the rage building up blocked the pain temporarely. I yelled charging towards the two and jumped on the beast's back trying to bite down the pain and covered my entire body. I rammed the pointy thing on my head into it's side. My horn plunged into the fur as some blood oozed out, it let out a roar of annoyance and pain and yank me off now focused on me. it pounced growling as I managed to duck and slip past under it. it's stinger slammed and sunk into my flank, I shrieked in pain as it's venom sprayed into me. I had forgot about the tail. It turned around as the tail whipped out leaving venom and my blood trailing down my flank and legs. I grunted and limped grabbing the metal pony and began to drag the pony to the wall. I turned around only to get my body swiped by claws sending me flying across the arena and slammed against the wall and hit the ground. I grunted and stared up at the dark sky wheezing for air once again as I felt my blood gushing from my chest, four long deep cuts into me made from the manticore's claws bled profusely. The venom began it's job as to weaken and kill me, my vision began to go blurry and I coughed as it was getting harder to breath, evry breath got shorter and shorter. I forced my self up now trying to breath as the beast stared at me, it's mouth drooling of saliva. I looked around to see if there was anything to use as a weapon. I found satisfaction with a curved piece of rebar from the metal pony's armor. "cmon you fucking fur bag..." I managed to say quietly while locked eyes back at the Manticore as it charged. Jumping up I attacked before it could, the piece of rebar found it's self in the monster's eye. It screeched and backed away and thrashed violently as the crowd of ponies gasped in surprise, limping to the metal pony it got up as the beat helmet finally fell off revealing a mare. I stood in shock as the pained yet pissed off mare stared up at me as blood trailed from her muzzle ruining her tanned beige coat. I noticed there was a patch over her right eye and her horn was chipped. half of one of her ears was missing, her short black mane covering any further scars. "What are you fucking looking at, let's get out of here!!" she got up as she pulled me into the closing door she came from. smashing right through it she ran down the hall as the speakers blared. "Dammit!! Catch them!!" The mare bashed open a door and trampled a guard only knocking him out as we raced into her ready room which consisted of tools, tool boxes and a station for her armor. grabbing a large saddle bag she ordered me to grab items she pointed out, I grumbled and obeyed, after all she was helping me escape. "drink this" She ordered as she forcefully shoved a bottle to my mouth. I rejected by sputtering and letting the fluid run down my neck, she just narrowed her eyes and growled. "it heal you now drink it!" I accepted the drink as I gulped the fluid down, I started to feel instantly yet only slightly better as my wounds began to close, I gasped for air as if I was about to drown in water only to reach the surface barely in time and coughed. Satisfied, the mare piled more equipment on me and in a quick hurry. Now equipped with saddlebags and a few heavy metal boxes we bursted out, looking around we were in a large trade street. shops and makeshift signs covered buildings as we stood on wooden pallets that sat above the cold snowy ground. Ponies in makeshift armor lifted rifles of all sorts. "There they are!" Me and the armored up mare both ran as I used her armor to my advantage using it as a running shield. We found cover behind a old looking wagon that chipped away with each shot from the ponies not to far from us. She galloped fast, her heavy armor thudding loudly as she ran down anything in her path. As we ran through streets and ally ways the shouting of the chasing ponies behind us got louder until finally the mare leading us out bursted through a gate door and ran out towards a bridge that blew in the wind. I stopped as the mare looked back. "Coming or what!?" I gulped and stared down as the void that separated the piece of land that the town sat on from the desolate snowy darkness that I came from not to long ago. I stepped onto the bridge and peered down at the seemily endless void. A boom filled the air as a bullet whizzed past me and bounced off the mare's armor, I booked it and was now running across a long rope bridge. I sighed in relief as we finally got to the other side safely, she beat down another guard taking his weapon. Looking back at the settlement I turn and ran again as a mob of ponies stopped as the mare shot the bridge up with her miniguns causing it to fall. "cmon! hurry up you slow bastard!" She was already running into the storm that I came from not to long ago. My tired body followed her as the venom from the Manticore started taking it's toll and drained more of my life away. Coming back annoyed she grumbled as she helped me and pulled me along into the snowy darkness. TIME: 0400 Location: ??? At this point my vision was so blurred I wasn't able to see two feet infront of me. The mare pretty much pulled me through a door and dragged me across the ground as I winced at the pain of the wide wound on my flank rubbed against the rugged rough floor. Finally she dropped me onto a bed that smelled of musty rot and she slammed the door before forcing me to drink something. It was not long before I fell asleep. My senses came back to me slowly as my eyes opened up, I now looked up at a ceiling with it's paint chipping off. Hair line cracks spread across the old paint and cement as grafiti consisting of paint added the last touch. My HUD let out a loud spark and a cloud of smoke flared up as I tried to view the time using the hollowgram. I groaned, great my HUD is damaged. "Good morning sunshine" The mare made her self present, sitting up I squinted my eyes and wanted to punch my self for doing it to fast. I fell back in pain and looked down at my chest and hoofs that were covered in bandages that were dampened by my blood. "Take it easy...I'm not very good at patching ponies up but I managed to yank those bullets out of you...you're....one tough bastard I'll give you that" I turned my head looking at the mare now out of her suit, she was small now that she wasn't in some huge metal welded suit. "Who are you....?" The mare fixed her glasses that I didn't see before. "You can call me Dominator, until I get to know you better I wanna keep my name to my self...I did help you after all" I turned over and winced at the sharp but more bearable pain that was now calmed down slightly with medicine. "You tell me your name...I saved your life first after I charged that...thing" The mare raised her eyebrow now closing a magazine she was reading in the red comfy chair she sat in "And I returned the favour by getting you out of there and saving YOUR life on that very bed" I thought and nodded to my self as she had a point, I rested my head now defeated of my persuasion. "What...what is this place...this...land" I waited for her answer, her chuckle filled the air "You saying you aint from around here...? Don't see that everyday. Don't tell me you're one of those Stable ponies" I raised an eyebrow, stable pony? "No I'm not a stable pony..." I heard her get off of her seat and trot up to the bed now tapping the pipbuck that clung to my left forehoof "I guess you just found this huh...? But...that thing on your back...never seen anything like it before...mind explaining?" I stared at the mare now thinking again, if it true that Equestria was destroyed and had no sense of order, the town of freaks who put me into a battle arena supporting that then was it so bad to tell just a pony about the EMTF? Then again she probably wouldn't believe me. But I suppose it was worth a shot, it could also probably establish trust between each other. "How do I explain this...well...I'm from a secret force...eh...called the Equestrian Mobile Task Force and I know this may sound silly but it's the truth" The mare sat down and raised an eyebrow with a smirk "I'm in for a little story, my minds open. Fire away" I blinked a few times and sighed now thinking where to start "Twelve hundred years ago at the very beggining of Equestria and the two Royal Sister's reign a secret and technology advanced group was created by one of the sisters, Celestia. She feared that the Elements of Harmony would not always be there to protect Equestria from all dangers and she had created the Equestrian Mobile Task Force in order to stealthly protect Equestria from harm they did not see or if the Elements could not stop a crisis. fast forward one thousand years the Equestrian Mobile Task Force had grown to be large...in the thousands...and Equestria was running out of space for us and no matter what we were supposed to remain secret from the public eyes. So they developed homes called Fleepships...only five of these massive ships were built and they were meant to fly up into space, they were built in the middle of nowhere far off in Saddle Arabia before ultimately only Fleetship 004 and 005 actually succesed on launching into the atmosphere...it sounds stupid but you have to believe me...the ships were surrounded by a huge magical spell that allowed invisibility entirely" I sighed amd facehoofed expecting her to not believe what I just told her. "I believe you" Her words shocked me into surprise as my eyes focused on her, she was sincere about what she said. I questioned her why and she chuckled fixing her glasses once again. I hadn't noticed or even bothered before but now that I examined the mare she was cute despite the scars that covered parts of her body. The colors of her body reminded me of a mare I once heard in a fictional story, I couldn't remember what though. "Iv'e seen all sorts of crazy stuff here, Trust me...I believe you. So mind telling me the rest of the story, Special agent pony sir" I cocked a brow as she grinned and sat, patiently waiting for me to continue. I grinned back softly feeling...comfortable and at ease again, something only Circuts could do. Through the course of a few hours I had told her from when I was born all the way up to when I was put into cryogenic storage and finally when I was recently launched down into Equestria in search for the leader of the EMTF. I stopped my self and realized that Flare was still missing, the pain had dissipated slightly more now allowing me to sit up. "I need to find Flare...." I mumbled and looked around, the mare's ears perked in interest as she looked up at me. "Flare...Iv'e heard of that name before...now to think of it she had a simmilar thing on her back...she came around and well, my used to be leader, Brass Bore that big pony that was announcing the fight had an eye for her. She is a looker and he listened to her saying a friend needs help. I'm guessing that's you" Worry and relief shot through me at once as I sat up even more as I pulled the mare close shaking her as I begged for more info. "Y-you have to tell me where she is!" The mare back away and sighed softly "I was gonna say Brass took her across the lift to the main town...Poor mare...she's probably being forced to be a sex slave" My eyes widened, I couldn't imagine Flare, my closest companion being forced as a buck raped her. Rage filled me as I got up, the newfound anger filtered out my sore wounds as I grabbed the mare with magic and slammed her against the wall, despite what she was earlier in the arena she now had a scared look on her face as she looked up, her one blue eye staring at me with fear. But I pressed my hoofs on her neck harder, because she worked for them, and she was okay with it?! I growled as I reared up, now dragging her up the rough and worn wall. "And you let this happen?!" The mare the mare squirmed under my grasp as she choked out "I'm not like them! Please don't kill me! I swear! I-I'm just" I let go and backed away watching the mare gasp and cough while looking up at me and yelled up "I'm not like them!...I'm not...I just...use them as protection...after all...where else could you go right...? The reason why I'm there is because the one good thing they're doing is protecting the town that is actually there...sure they may be forcing some ponies to fight but they are protecting the town...and if they weren't there then they all would wither away by the land's monsters...at least we protect against raiders..." I let out a sigh and stared down the mare, what was I doing...? I just choked mare that saved my life and felt empathy for my missing friend. "I...I'm sorry....I am just worried for my friend..." I looked down in shame as I leaned against the bed now feeling my sore pain come back, guilt being a new asset to it all. The mare got up and trotted up to me putting a hoof on my chest gently "Then let's go find her...I got nothing else to lose...I'm now seen a traitor of the town...so I might as well follow you..." I glanced down at the mare with a hopeful look and smiled "Yeah...sure...." It was another hour and I had changed into thick winter clothing that the mare had brought with us and now she was kicking her suit in frustration. "Ah the damn Spark Cores are all out of juice...looks like I'm hoofin' it until I get some new ones" I looked back at her as I mounted some saddlebags full of canned food and water "Who are these ponies anyways...the ones in the town" She turned to look at me as she wrapped her self into a orange jump suit before sliding on a leather harness. "They are Mercenaries slash slavers hired by Demise, he runs a Mafia across the lift into the big city...those mercs are jokes compared to the power Demise has" My fur stood up, someone who runs a mafia with the name of Demise had to be pretty dangerous and scary. "Well...if they're nothing compared to the mafia...what's our plan to take out Brass...?" She smirked "I have an idea" Footnote: Level up New perk: Blinding Rage: when pissed off enough anger will block out all sense of pain, temporarely giving a boost of strengh to beat down your opponents! //-------------------------------------------------------// H.U.D Info //-------------------------------------------------------// H.U.D Info What is a HUD?...well of course give me two minutes of your time to listen to this prerecorded message. A HUD is a advanced piece of technology created by the EMTF, it is located ontop of the spine and it sinks and syncs in with the brain and spine using nerve technology. The HUD spinal device has the following features such as a Radio, Radar, Map, Weak Magical Shield for emergency use, Geiger counter and lastly the ability make your status appear in your vision. Oh one more thing the New Fleet. Targeting System! Or F.T.S for the short of it, the the F.T.S was created and is created for Royal Fleet Security Force units and CONtainment soldiers to aid them when trouble hits the Decks! The trick behind it is since we have mastered to put a small hologram in your eye we can now put cross hairs in your vision. Just sync your weapon with the HUD's Utility cord and your set. Lastly I would like to remind you that the Weak magical shield was also created for Armed units, but here in Fleetship 005 our mechanics and pilots also are equipped with them for safety reasons. Oh one more! If there is any trouble that our trusty soldiers can't handle and, ahem worst case scenario the Fleetship loses power. Or your stranded, don't worry! The new SURVIVAL PROGRAM is equipped in everyponies HUD and activates when you are stranded from the Fleet, is ensures your survival by allowing a weak shield to be equipped, or it activates and authorizes its F.T.S system! And that covers it thank you Citizen of The Equestrian Mobile Task Force! And have a wonderful life on the Beau--ful Fle-t ship 0-5!-------------/// End of message "Hah! This is nothin' compared to the pipbuck ahahahah! I can't believe we used to use these thin-" BAM "Shut up John!"