Enclave's Remorse

CHAPTER 1: Landfall

“Alert. Hull breach on deck C-12. Alert. Hull breach on deck C-13. Alert. Hull Breach on Deck C-14. Alert, central computing center damaged. Unable to report status of the ship. It has been an honor, captain. Goooooodbye…….”

An explosion rocked the deck. The entire ship listed crazily in sky. The command center was a crater. The weapons were offline. The hangars were a burning wreck. Only the failsafes kept it from plummeting down into the Equestrian Wasteland below. And those wouldn’t last much longer either.

The crew lay dead or dying. Of the thousands of pegasi once cheerfully working together in harmony toward what their leaders had assured was a ‘better tomorrow’, only one remained whole and hale: Grey Summer. Yet he was not concerned with the ship’s death-spiral. The guns and cannons of the enemy held no fear for him. But the pegasus mare at his feet, she and she alone deserved his attention.

She lay there, in a pool of her own blood. More accurately, most of her lay there. One of her hind legs lay scattered across the room in a million, bloody pieces of bone and muscle. No matter how he tried to staunch the wound, no matter how many science-team uniforms he tore into pieces to staunch the flow, it did not help. Her fur and her Hellfire armor were red.

Her eyes fluttered open. “Grey…” She tried to rise.

He was by her side in an instant and pushed her back down. “Flash Flood! Easy there.” He swallowed. Words flooded out of his mouth, coming just as soon as the occurred to him. “The medical station. It’s around here somewhere. I...I need to get some bandages.” He frowned and shook his head. They would not be enough. “Yes, bandages. And maybe a potion and then…”

She frowned. Her eyes traveled down her flank to the bloody stump where her leg had been. She stared at it. A dry chuckle escaped her lips. “I guess the mission’s a failure then. Before we even started.”

“That’s not important now.” Grey sweated like a stuck pig. The deck rocked again. He clenched his teeth. Damn them! Why couldn’t they leave them alone? This wasn’t right!

Flash Flood weakly tugged her saddlebags open and pulled a thin metal box with a screen embedded on it out. She shoved it towards Grey. “The mission, it’s yours now.”

His eyes widened. “No! I...I couldn’t.”

“Take it!”

“I’m not leaving you!”

“You have to, Grey!” The pegasus clutched at the legs of her companion. Tears welled in her eyes. Whether from the pain of her missing leg or emotion, not even she knew. “You’re the only one left.”

Grey Summer’s limbs trembled. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. They shouldn’t have meddled. They should have just left well enough alone. Here, at his hooves, lay the his best friend and lover. Her dark blue coat, the color of a storm cloud laden with rain, was soaked in her own blood. Her eyes were wild. Her mane was burnt.

“I couldn’t,” he repeated, “I don’t have training! I’m just an archivist! This is your mission. You should be the one going.”

She chuckled darkly. “I’m not going anywhere. Not now. Not ever.” Her eyes wandered down to her leg. “That’s something you don’t come back from.” She chuckled but it turned into a cough.

Grey fell to his knees beside her. She was fading fast. Panic stabbed his heart. “We’ll get you to a medic station,” he said, “We can reopen the portal later. When you’re better.”

Her head flopped to the ground and she smiled. “It’s funny.”

“What is? What’s funny?”

“You…” She coughed again. “You actually care.”

“Of course I care!” Tears flooded Grey’s eyes. “I love you, Flash Flood..”

“No one cares,” she muttered.

“I do.” He tried to lift her. To get his wings underneath her flank. He could use them to drag her. Forget the fire that filled the hallways. Forget the way the deck tilted. Forget the explosions that rocked the base. There had to be somepony around here who could help! There just had to be. “I’m going to save you.”

Her eyes turned hard. “Save me?” she repeated. She pointed to the door, the door which led to the lab. “You can’t. But you can still…” She coughed and blood trickled from her mouth. “Save...everypony else…” Her head fell forward. The light in her eyes went out. Her last breath left her lungs.

“Flash?” Grey nudged her. His breath caught in his throat. “Flash!”

Another explosion rocked the deck. A portion of it collapsed not two feet away. He yelped. The ruined, blasted fields of the Equestrian Wasteland loomed below him, rotten and putrid with radiation and taint. He backpedaled very quickly. “Help! Somepony! Anypony!”

But nobody came.

Tears flooded his eyes. The bodies of the strike team, the groan of the ship as it threatened to break in half, the ruins of the land below, and Flash Flood’s broken form at his feet: they fueled a cold hardness in him that he hadn’t known was there. It steeled him and gave him strength. He turned toward the lab. “I can stop this,” he said, “I can stop it! I can make it so this all never happened!”

He kicked the door open. In the center, fed by all the power the base could spare, a shimmering portal waited. It was beautiful, mesmerizing. On a better day, he would have stopped to study it. But there was no time. He gulped and trotted toward it. What was the best way to do this? Jump through? Step through? He decided a running start would be best.

“Alright then, you,” he growled, “You better not malfunction this time.” He bowed his head. “For the...” No, ‘for the Enclave’ didn’t sound right. Not anymore. The Enclave was shattered, tearing itself apart. A knot rose in his throat. “For Flash Flood.” With a battle-cry, he charged. His hooves pounded the steel deck. His wings folded tightly to his back. He made his expression grim so as to stop any errant tears. The portal drew closer.

The very instant he passed through, the whole world changed. The sounds of battle faded. The ship itself disappeared. So did the ground. “Oh,” he muttered, “Right.”

Normally, this would not have been a problem. Pegasi were known for their powers of flight. It was their distinguishing mark as a species. Their birthright, even. The wings made the pegasus. However, in Grey Summer’s case, there was one teeny, tiny little problem. He’d never learned to fly.

He fell screaming.

////////////

Lord Tirek was defeated.

There were many things clamoring for Twilight’s attention. Her new castle, her responsibilities as a princess, the destruction of her old library home (that one had really hurt. All those books gone in a single moment.), and the new, deeper connection she and her friends had with the Elements of Harmony. But right now, she was determined to set all that aside. Lord Tirek was defeated. That was all that mattered tonight. Yes. All that mattered. Mm-hmm.

Pinkie Pie’s “We Saved Equestria for the Millionth and a Half Time” party (also known as the Twilight’s New Castle party or the Rainbow Dash appreciation, as the rainbow-maned pegasus called it), was in full-swing. Everypony could just relax, laugh, and enjoy themselves again. Most importantly, do it with friends. And if that wasn’t cause for celebration, what was?

Discord had already left. Said something mysterious and ominous, like usual. “Look out for guests any uninvited guests that decide to ‘drop’ in!” he’d said with a cheerful wave and a coy chuckle.  But she wasn’t going to let that bother her either. Nope! Not at all. Definitely not going to let it join the circus of thoughts swirling round and round in her head driving her to distraction and…

Where was a scroll and a quill? She needed to make a list of these things so she could properly deal with them.

“Twilight!” Pinkie Pie waved at her from the dance floor. “Get up! Get up! You don’t want to sit on that chair all evening, do you? I mean, I know my cake is good, but it’s not glue-you-to-the-ground good. That one comes after the dancing!”

Twilight blinked. She came back to the present. Tonight was...well, beautiful. And Pinkie had done a great job with the party, as always. She took a deep breath and let it out. The tension flowed out of her. “Coming, Pinkie.”

She trotted over to the center of the square. DJ-Pon3 and Octavia’s sweet music echoed through the town, providing a steady rhythm anypony could dance to. She looked around for her friends. Pinkie was dancing, naturally, and encouraging all the young colts and fillies to do the same. Rainbow Dash napped on a cloud, though Twilight wouldn’t put it past her to be secretly cooking up some mischief.. Applejack supervised some games (apple-themed, of course). Fluttershy and Rarity dined together, wrapped in conversation, though it seemed Rarity did most of the talking. Not that Fluttershy minded. Everything was perfect.

Twilight moved to join the dancers. Equestria wasn’t going to end in the next few minutes, right? She could afford to just kick back and relax. And dance! She’d never been the best dancer (that went to Pinkie), but it had always been fun. At least amongst friends.

“Hey Twilight?”

She glanced over and blinked. Pinkie was not dancing. She was staring at the sky. Odd, especially for Pinkie. “Yes, Pinkie? What’s wrong?”

Pinkie pointed at the sky. “Should a pegasus be falling like that?”

Twilight followed her hoof. She gasped. “Oh dear! Rainbow Dash! Wake up! There’s trouble!”

/////////

Grey Summer didn’t know what he’d been thinking. Of course he’d appear hundreds of feet in the air! That’s where the ship had been flying. He tumbled helplessly through the air, knocked this way and that by whatever breeze happened to want a piece of him right then. This was bad. This was very bad.

“Get ahold of yourself, Summer!” he growled, “You’re a pegasus! And what does a pegasus do? Fly!”

He spun around and spread his wings wide. The force of the rushing air ripped at his feathers and forced them straight up. He strained to push them out, just a little bit, to turn this fall into a glide, but they were not strong enough to fight the current of air.

The ground was getting a lot closer.

He began to panic. He kicked and bucked, against all reason trying to find a place to set his hooves. His wings flopped about uselessly and he began to spin out of control again. Well, this was how it ended. He should have listened to his commander. An excellent scribe he might be, but he should at least have bothered to learn how to fly without a rig!

A rainbow streak shot up towards him. Strong forelegs wrapped around his torso. “Gotcha!” a mare’s rough voice called triumphantly. His descent slowed to a slow glide. He heard grunts and sounds of exertion from his rescuer. “You can...start flapping anytime,” she snapped.

He strained to look over his shoulder and see who it was. His eyes went wide. A face, one he’d seen only in the records. A rainbow mane and tail. Blue hair covered her body and an annoyed look was in her eye. “R-Rainbow…” He muttered.

“Yep! That’s me,” she grunted, “Time for autographs later. You’re light for a stallion, but still heavy.”

A tremor went through Grey’s spine. He trembled. Something snapped. A mad light entered his eyes. “Let me go!” He began to thrash and buck.

“What?! Whoa! Hold still!” Rainbow Dash tried her best to hold on, but a hoof in her stomach knocked the wind out of her. She recovered easily enough, but she dropped her cargo.

Grey Summer fell once again. The ground wasn’t far now. He couldn’t fly. He couldn’t glide. But, there was a banner that, if he aimed just right, he could use to break his fall. Summoning all his strength, he forced his mad tumble towards it. With a thunderous crash, he tore through Pinkie Pie’s banner, through the front window of town hall, and landed on the stage with swathes of canvas wrapping him up like a mummy. He briefly fought against unconsciousness and lost.

The next thing he knew, somepony was talking to him. She sounded worried, frantic even. “Hey! Are you alright?!”

His eyes fluttered open. A beautiful, purple pegasus stood over him, concern and a little panic in her eyes. His foggy mind couldn’t process anything other than awe. A niggling voice warned him that something was wrong, but he couldn’t think what. No time for that now, either. After all, first impressions were very important.

He struggled to rise, but she pushed him down. “No, don’t get up. The doctor will be here soon. Just rest.” A faint glow came from her forehead. Grey squinted, trying to make it out. Oh, it was coming from her horn. She wasn’t a pegasus, she was a unicorn. He’d never met one before. He frowned. No, she had wings. She was a pegasus. Unicorn. Pegasus. Uni--

Alicorn.

Adrenaline surged through him. Limbs that should not have been able to move did. He thrust the monster away from him and jumped upright. “Hey!” she protested.

“Stay back!” he shouted. She wasn’t alone. Dozens of ponies were behind her. Horns and wings. Horns and wings. His eyes swam. He couldn’t tell who had what. Were they all alicorns? Had he fallen into a forsaken den of those creatures? “Stay back or I’ll…I’ll...!”

“You’re hurt,” a pink-maned pony with a soft voice said. She had wings. Did she have a horn? Everything was a blur.

He laughed wildly. “Think you can take me? I serve the Enclave! I’ll not go down, at least not without a fight.” They were looking less and less like ponies and more and more like blobs of color. Everything was so colorful here.

“If it’s a fight you want, how about you start with me?” A rainbow blob said.

“Rainbow Dash!” a white and purple blob said with a gasp.

“He kicked me in the stomach!” the rainbow blur protested, “It didn’t hurt ‘cause he’s a weakling and I’m awesome, but--”

“We aren’t going to fight you,” the purple blob interrupted, “We just want to help you.”

“Help me?” Grey repeated, “Help me right into an early grave you mean!” His legs trembled. The burst of adrenaline was fading and the pain was coming back. He stumbled and careened sideways. “I won’t be deceived. I won’t be…”

He tripped and hit his head on something hard and vaguely podium-shaped. The world faded. The last thing he heard was a very refined and ladylike, “Oh dear.”

////////////////////////

Boing! Boing! Boing!

“Wheeee!”

“Miss Pie! Please, stop...bending the laws of physics in my hospital! You are getting hoofmarks on the ceiling!”

Grey’s ignored the noise, just like he had all the others. No reason to pay attention to them, right? At least not if he could ignore them. Everything was lovely here. He drifted on clouds of sleep and bliss. Why would he want to leave?

A loud screech tore through his quiet reflection. A giggle followed it. “So! When he’s going to wake up? You said he’d wake up today and I so I baked a cake and got all my “Welcome to Ponyville” supplies ready! Tell me!” Boing! “Tell me!” Boing!

“Ms. Pie!” The second voice let out a weary sigh. “Please sit down. Yes, he might wake up today. Or tomorrow. There’s no way of telling. He could sleep forever.”

“Forever!” The first voice gasped in horror. “Forever as in forever? But that’s...forever! He’d never get to eat his cake! Or have ice cream ever again! Or…”

“I assure you, even if he wakes up this very instant, the one thing he will not be doing is eating cake. Hospital food for the next week, perhaps longer. He needs to make a full recovery.”

“B-but!”

Grey flicked an ear in annoyance and tried to roll over, away from the voices. If he could wrap the pillows and blankets around himself and his head, he just might be able to block out the sound of their conversation. Pain, horrible, aching pain, flared up and wracked his body. He let out a sharp gasp. His eyes flared open to see a pink earth pony staring down at him with a huge smile on her face.

“GAAAH!” He recoiled and fresh pain shocked his system. “Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!”

“Hooray!” the earth pony shouted. Confetti exploded from...somewhere. “You’re alive! I can’t believe you’re alive! You were all like “AHHH! I’M FALLING!” and then it was Crash! Boom! Bang! Right into the town hall! And then you were shouting and Rainbow Dash wanted to fight you and--”

Grey gritted his teeth, fighting off the pain. He was a grown stallion. He wasn’t going to cry. “We’re going to need more painkillers,” the doctor said, “Nurse Redheart! Come in here please.”

The pink pony was now bouncing about the room. Not just the floor either. The ceiling, the walls, the other beds… Grey tried to follow her with his eyes, but his neck protested too much.

“Ow,” Grey replied. He wanted to smack himself. Real eloquent. Keep that up and you’re sure to get all the mares, Grey. They just love a stallion who speaks in monosyllabic sentences. And did he have to moan like a little colt with a bruised knee? Seriously, pull it together. You are a soldier of the...the…

A white-coated earth pony entered pushing tray of medical supplies. “Painkillers?” she asked in a droll, businesslike voice. The pink one waved to her and she sighed. “Ms. Pie. I do believe after the last...incident you were forbidden from entering unless you sustained some injury.”

The pink one stopped bouncing around the room and donned a sheepish grin. “Oh it’s okay! I just had to be here when he wakes up! He’s new in town! I need to find out what sort of party he wants!” She...materialized by Grey’s bedside, a huge grin on her face. “Soooo...what’s it going to be? Do you like balloons? I like balloons! And cake! Want some cake?”

“No cake!” the doctor snapped.

“Right now, painkillers sound nice. Can we get to those now?” Grey replied.

“Ooh, a practical pony.” She lightly punched his shoulder. “I like that.”

“GAH!” An explosion of pain rocked Grey’s world again.

“Pinkie Pie!” the doctor, the nurse, and the soft-voiced pegasus snapped.

She grinned sheepishly. “Sorry…” Immediately, she bounced back to her feet and out the door. “Better get going! This party isn’t going to plan itself!”

The nurse let out a sigh of relief and turned toward Grey with the bright and cheerful smile which something told him all nurses wore when dealing with patients. “We were not sure what dosage you would need and, due to the recent incident with Tirek, ran a bit low. Sorry about that. Let’s get you properly doped up, hmm?” She produced a needle. “Hold still, sir.”

Grey gritted his teeth as the needle entered his foreleg, but relief washed over him. He relaxed and sunk down into bed. “Thank you, nurse…?”

“Redheart,” she replied, “Nurse Redheart.” She pulled out a clipboard. “And you? What’s your name?”

“Grey Summer,” he replied, “of the…” He frowned and raised a hoof to massage his forehead. “Um…the something.” His head felt fuzzy and strange. “I...I know it’s something…”

Nurse Redheart scribbled down something on the clipboard. “Any family? Friends?” Grey stammered but nothing sensible came out. “Anyone at all we can call?”

“I...I don’t…” He shook his head and looked at her blankly.

She glanced over at the doctor, a worried expression on her face. Something passed between them. He exited the room. “Thank you, Grey Summer,” she said in a soothing, comforting voice, “It’s alright. There’s no pressure or anything. Memory loss is...common amongst patients with traumatic head injuries.”

“Or who spend too much time around Ms. Pie,” the doctor added under his breath.

“I or another nurse will be on call,” Redheart said, “If you need anything, do not hesitate to ask. If you want a book, we do have a small collection. Smaller since Rainbow Dash visited here last, but…”

Grey brightened considerably. “Oh yes! I love books. They’re a bit of a passion of mine. It’s my cutie mark, after all.”

“Yes, I saw,” she said, “Do you prefer adventure? Sci-fi? Romance? Mystery?”

Grey tilted his head to the side. “I’m sorry, I’m not sure I understand.”

Nurse Redheart rolled her eyes. “Genre. What is your prefered genre of fiction?”

Something clicked in Grey’s brain. “Fiction! Right.” He chuckled. “Do you have any good technical manuals I could read? Or the latest treatise on technology? I never fictioned any read.” He frowned. That was new. “Er, read any fiction.”

“Never read fiction!” That was one of the saddest things Nurse Redheart had ever heard.

Grey shrugged. “I suppose they didn’t have any around where I lived.”

Nurse Grey smiled, and this time it was an honest one. “Well, you are in for quite the treat then. Why don’t I pick one out for you?”

“That would be…” ‘Acceptable’ wasn’t quite the word for it. Grey racked his brain for the right one. “...Kind of you. Thank you.” Remember! Be polite to those who had authority. Deference, always deference. He didn’t know where that idea came from either.

Nurse Redheart left the room, a cheerful bounce in her step. Grey’s mind sank into quiet reflection. This place was nice. More cheerful than a hospital should be. A small smile crept over his face. Very nice, yes. It even felt...safe. How odd. He lay back and felt the quiet calm and peaceful clouds of his dreams come back to him.

“This mission, it’s yours now.”

He sat bolt upright, heedless of the muted pain in his shoulder. “Who’s there?!” The room was empty. “Show yourself!”

There was no answer.