Chapter 2: Can't you taste it's coppery taste? You have, I can see it on yours lips.
It was chaos. Not the chaos you'd see on a battlefield, bullets flying everywhere, but the chaos that a nightclub holds. A male was drinking from a cracked glow stick to see if it would make him sparkle, a female covered in purple glowing rings with piercings practically everywhere was riding on his back, her breasts out fully. "Focus on the mission F-654." I stated my command clearly. The nervous soldier tore his aze away from the female, his footfalls becoming harder, his heartrate couldn't have gotten any faster, the rapid beeping coming from speakers in my helm matched the heart monitors in the top-left corner of my HUD, all were slow but F-654's. "Focus F-654. We're here to catch a crusader, not women." I walk a little faster and nudge his back roughly with my rifle, he stumbles and leads the line faster. Behind me were a few , more soldiers, all of which were hardened. "S-433, what's the tracker say?"
The soldier right behind me nodded and pulled a tablet from a leg-mounted holster, he lifted it up to his eyes and turned it on. "He's in the back room." He had the same voice as the soldier in front of me, exactly the same, mine only being different due to the fact that I had my vocal cords removed forcibly via sniper round and had to get them replaced. I nod, looking back at the soldier's helm. Me and S-433 were the only ones who decided to wear our helmets in the humid air, the rest wearing respirators. "I swear, any more narcotic laced smoke and we'd be cooked when we left." S-433 joked, chuckling a little, out of over ninety million troops, only five percent of the cult of sol giggled, I was one of them. Letting out a small giggle at what was considered a joke in Cult of Sol terms we reach the door.
"Stack up!" The entire squad pressed their backs to the wall, the rookie in front.
"Who are we even going to get?" The rookie clearly hadn't read the debriefing.
"Augustus, one of the leading members of the 13th crusade, skip the debriefing and I'll have you scrapped." I threatened the rookie calmly, he let out a whimper. "Breach the door F-654, we don't have all day." He nods and walk in front of the door. As he raised his boot to kick it in the door exploded, the area was filled with soot and smoke. A long beep comes through my helmet, F-654 was dead. I heard screams, lots of them, S-433 dies, the long, drawn out beep invading my helm. "AHHHHHHHHHH!" I regain conciseness, Night Tussle is looking at me worried.
"Are you okay?" I frantically shake my head. "What's wrong?"
"I remember, It was a slaughter!" Tears start to fall from my eyes at an alarming rate.
"hey, it's okay, you're safe, away from all that horrible stuff now." Night Tussle leans forward and hugs me, I freeze up, this was my first hug.
"Why are you hugging me?"
"Because I'm worried about you, you fell unconscious for a bit."
"Oh, ok." I look at the house over Night Tussle's shoulder, I see the one story house, it looks nice, but cheap, there are a few garbage bags out front. "I've never been in a house peacefully before."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I'll tell you someday." He nods and wheels me to the door, I open it for myself and he wheels me inside. The room is clearly the living room, dominated by a large white couch, able to seat 5 people comfortably. A large TV sits in one corner of the room, it seemed, wrong, different.
"I just realized I never got your name. What's your name?"
"A-274."
"That's, nice."
"Thank you, can you show me where I will be sleeping?"
"Sure." He wheels me to a hall, this hall seems to lead to most of the house, he takes me to the first door on the right and opens it, showing a large bed low to the ground.
"Can you set me in it?" He nods and walks in front of the chair, he grabs me and pull me past him, onto the bed. "Thank you, I'm going to take a nap, when will we eat?"
"Whenever you're hungry."
"Can we eat when I wake? I suspect I'll be eating two times the normal amount to get enough mass to grow my limbs back."
"Sure, I'm gonna go watch MV." He starts his sentence with a suspicious tone and leaves. After a few moments I fall asleep.
Chapter 3: Have you seen it? Or did you gobble it down without sight?
I awoke slowly. There was noise coming from another room. A mare's soft voice accompanying it. With a grunt and a heave I failed to pull myself into my wheelchair. "Night? You there?" The music stops and Night Tussle walks in, he sees what I'm trying to do and assists me. With a heave he pulls me into my chair, I smile as I nestle in.
"What do you want to do?"
"Can we eat?"
"Sure!" With a chipper attitude evident he wheels me into the relatively large kitchen. "What do you want?"
"Anything you have."
"Ok, well, what about a sandwich?"
"Ok." With a nod Night Tussle set about to making a hay sandwich, with a smear of mayonnaise he hands me the sandwich and wheels me into the dining room, it is dominated by a table that is missing a chair on one end of it, he wheels me into that spot and sits down next to me. "Is it good?" I shrug and take a bite of the sandwich, I nod in affirmation to his question.
"Thank you, what next?"
"I don't know, what do you want to do?"
"Sit and watch MV?"
"MV? I thought it was TV?"
"TV? no it's MV, magic vision."
"Ok." He smiles as I finish the sandwich and wheels me into the living room, he sets my onto the couch and turns the MV on, he walks back and sits next to me as the picture on the screen turns on, sadly, it's in black and white.
"This good? I love this movie." Night Tussle gets up for a moment and gets a bowl of popcorn, he returns and offers some to me, I gladly accept. The movie was an action romance mix, I preferred what little action there was and completely ignored the romance. "Do you like it?"
"Not as much as you seem to, I am not a big fan of romance and like the action."
He nods and turns the channel, this time it's color and shows a few royal guards explaining their equipment and tactics.
"This show good?" I nod.
"That one doesn't have his armor on right."
"Which one?"
"That one, right there." I point to the screen at the so-called 'armor expert' you know, the one who had his armor on wrong.
"How is it wrong?"
"One, he doesn't have his skullcap on, two, his straps, on the bottom of the armor there, they are too loose, three, his helmet is crooked."
"Wow, that's a good eye for gear you have there."
"I used to work with military equipment. You have to learn these things."
"Ok." With a note of finality we go back to silently watching, my face twitching whenever a mistake was made. "you okay? you're twitching a lot."
"Yes, I am fine." I am clearly lying.
"Come on! you can tell me."
"This show does everything wrong! They don't wear there armor properly! They don't use their weapons right! one of them even fell over!" I am angry by the end of my rant, Night Tussle is staring at me, wide eyed.
"That's, you, why are you so peeved?"
"Cause messing up stuff like this kills ponies!" Night Tussle looks sad at my statement.
"Sorry, I didn't know."
"It's fine." My eyes drift closed, I fall asleep, Night Tussle looking a little concerned.
An hour later Night Tussle shakes me awake. "Yes?"
"I'm so sorry about this, but I just got a letter from the guard, I have to leave you alone for a few days, so sorry."
"It's fine, when are you leaving?"
"Tomorrow morning. What do you want to do until then?"
"I don't know, I can't stand anymore MV."
"I can understand that, what do you want to do?"
"A lot of things, most of which I won't tell you, one of those things is have ice cream for the first time."
"You've never had ice cream before?"
"Nope, do you have any?"
"Buck yeah I have some." With an exaggerated spin he turns around and trots into the kitchen, he returns with a bowl of green ice cream with chocolate chips scattered about it. "Here." He hands me the bowl and a spoon, I take the bowl in my hoof and the spoon in magic. I take a large bite if the ice cream and swallow it, It tasted minty.
"What kind of ice cream is this?" I take another bite.
"Mint-chocolate chip." He smiles brightly. "You like it?" I nod my head and take another large bite, my head starts to hurt. I breathed in through my teeth, my hoof tapping my forehead. "Brain freeze?"
"my brain is freezing?"
"No, you're fine, it's just an expression."
"Ok." I take my hoof off as it fades. I hesitantly take another bite of the ice cream.
"Don't worry, it doesn't bite." He giggles a little, I nod and keep eating the ice cream. "So, do you have any family?"
"Yes, don't wanna talk about it."
"That's okay." He hops up on the couch next to me, he looks sleepy.
"You tired?" He nods. "Want to sleep here?" He shakes his head, he is about to get up when he falls asleep, his body falling on top of me. My eyes widen and I set my ice cream bowl on the floor. With a twist I move so I am no longer laying on my side but my back, His head is set on my chest, his cheek pressed against me. With a sigh of defeat I let Night Tussle lay on me. After a moment I fall asleep too.
I dreamt of steel.
Chapter 1: Look around you, even the world bleeds.
"For Sol!" I rush forward, my heavy armor slowing me only slightly, my empty rifle held tightly in my hands, a bayonet fixed to the end.
"Take him out!" A Gang member turns around to face me, his submachine gun held to his hip, his leather jumpsuit and denim jacket covered in Gang logos, however he's too late, I slam my shoulder plate into him, knocking the air out of his lungs. I take a step back and then lunge forward, slamming the bayonet into his stomach, he gasps and drops his gun as he reaches down to it, grabbing it. I twist it and put my boot to his shoulder, pushing on it with my leg so I can pull the bayonet out, I do, it draws blood and it takes ripped skin with it, the Gang soldier falls over dead. I look around as bullets slam into my armor, all not piercing. A Gang enforcer runs up, a metal club in his hands, he bashes it over my head, stunning me, I fall to my knees as he hits my head again, I grunt and lunge forward, tackling the enforcer. I start to hit him in the face over and over again, almost laughing at his lack of a helmet as my knuckle plates become stained red with blood.
"Glory to Sol!: I get up from the corpse of the enforcer and look for another target, all I can see is a glimpse of a scope a few hundred feet away. "Fuck! Sni-" My line is cut off by a bullet traveling fast enough to enter my armor, hitting my heart, killing me. My vision goes dark
All I can hear is a beeping. Hospital? no, I would be killed for bounty before I would be saved. I felt, different
