ZFallout Equestria: Order
Chapter 1: Time
By: Swift Writer
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“Make sense? Aw, what fun is there in making sense?”
Time… time can be a relative thing when you're a being of immense power. So I didn't really notice as time went by, all I knew was chaos was free, and I had no way to climb from the depths of Tartarus and stop that big buffoon before he goes too far.
* * *
I lifted my ethereal hooves up, the chains that held me rattled and constricted, my head ached as I retook in my surroundings, Tartarus.
Something was off though, there were no screams, no calls for revenge, no crying for help from the others trapped here. There was only silence. This was wrong.
I struggled against the grisly chains to turn my head, everywhere I looked, empty sets of chains, empty cells. There was no explanation of what may have happened, just opened shackles and empty cages.
I struggled against the chains that suppressed me, my energy being sapped away by their magic, I would never make it out, not if the little power I had left was drained from my body.
I slumped, losing hope as time ticked by, I could almost hear a clock hand moving, counting the seconds.
A low rumble began, caused by something of incomprehensible power. It didn't end for what may have been an eternity, I closed my eyes and began to cry. I don't know how long I cried, it didn't matter. I would never be free, never be enough to stop the destruction that discord was certainly forcing those poor ponies to suffer through.
Time slipped by, I cried, and nothing changed. At least I didn't notice the changes, the rust appearing in the enchanted chains, or the stone around me slowly wearing down.
I sniffed for the last time, looking up, taking in the surrounding area that was once tartarus. I looked down at the rusted chains, and gave a tug. The chains clanged to the ground around me! This was a prison meant to hold evil for the entirety of time itself, how could it be in such a state!
I floated over to the platform meant to be holding some sort of evil. The same restraints that held me lay in a heap. These ones weren't rusted though, they were simply, open. This isn't good, no force can open the chains of Tartarus, yet they lay there mockingly. A small shake pulled me away from the sight, light fell across my face, a light I hadn't felt since before discord ruled the overworld.
Light wasn't supposed to make it to the depths of tartarus, something was wrong, even worse than I had feared. As the light spilled into the cavernous space, I floated towards the small hole that was opened in the ceiling.
My “body" felt as if it were being torn into a million pieces as I reached the hole. I let a scream tear out of me as the pain became almost unbearable, then everything stopped.
* * *
An unfamiliar feeling washed through me as my eyes shot open, my fleshy, real eyes. A stench like I'd never smelt in my very, very long life flooded my nose. Rough gravel bit into me, into my flesh! I heard somepony talking, although muffled for some reason. My eyes finally cleared up enough for me to make out the side of a wooded cart, a very dirty wooden cart.
“We didn't have to take her, we could have left her back in that hole.” A lovely mares voice said, although the voice was sweet it carried a dark tone to it.
“We’d done that, y’all woulda kept bugg’in me ‘bout it till I flew back and dug ‘er out just ta shut ya up.” A gruff stallion called back from what sounded to be somewhere above.
“Well at the way you are complaining Calamity, I might just bring her back to shut you up.” the smooth voice replied.
“No mama! We can't put her back there, those dogs would have found her!” The third voice was of a colt, a child.
I turned onto my other side as they continued arguing about what they should have done with me, my eyes caught on the glint of metal as the cart caught a bit of sun.
I shifted over towards the metal, I'd never seen something with that kind of sheen, I'd seen the gold and ebony of the royal guards, but never a silver like this. I pawed at it gently, it shifted as my hoof passed over it. A small object, dinged up pretty badly. I levitated it up, it was strange, it had a mouth grip, so it was meant to be held by the earth ponies I had once loved.
The ponies outside the cart were still bickering back and forth, the topic had changed to something called “raiders”. Apparently they were not so loved as the things I thought of. I looked at the small object closer, it had a few moving parts, the entire top could be pulled back, a small metal part on the mouthgrip could also be…
A loud pop rang out as I inspected it, my ears were ringing furiously at me. The argument had stopped and was replaced with shouting that I couldn't understand as the ponies all came up to the edge of the cart.
A rusty looking pegasus with a strange hat was shouting at me. “Drop that gun and git out here!” So that's what it was called, a gun. I did as he said, pulling myself over the edge of the wooden cart and plopped down on the dusty road, a pain spiked through my hip when I hit.
I sat on the ground In a daze, my ears still ringing. The brown pegasus turned to me with a smirk on his face, his name popped into my head, he was Calamity, the one who wanted to leave me behind.
He softened a little bit as he saw my blank expression. “Are ya okay?” I cocked my head to the right a little, I'd never heard someone speak so relaxed as him, and especially none with that accent.
“I am alright.” I said, rising to my hooves. I click came from the strange saddle he wore, two large pieces of metal and wood hung at his side, a small rod of metal rose up from each of them to his mouth. “My name is Imperium, lady of order.” I said with the traditional bow of my head.
“Well I'm Calamity, and I'm protectin’ these here traders, you shootin’ at em from the inside o’ their own cart makes that a bit hard.” He said without a hint of recognizing my name, “and what kind o’ name is imp’rum?
The small colt hopped to the top of the cart, balancing with surprising ease on the thin edge. “Oo oo, I've read that name before!” he shouted with a squeal of joy.
“Oh c’mon, you ain’t th’ readin’ type kid” he said, the colt started to shout some gibberish, something along the lines of
‘icantooreadyouuglysum'bitch' I didn't understand the end of what he said.
I repeated my introduction, hoping he would recognise me, “my name is Imperium, I am the lady of order.” Calamity looked just as confused as the first time I had said it.
“Ah got that missy, ya don't need ta repeat yer’self.” He turned to the front of the cart, regarding the pony pulling it. “Ah say we leave ‘er fer them red ahh folks ta come git.” I stomped my hoof, surprising him enough to get his attention.
“My name is Imperium, I have returned from Tartarus to find Discord and stop his silly games.” I sighed, “I have no idea what he has done for the time I have been absent, but I will fix…” ...He was laughing. LAUGHING!
He finally got a sentence out between fits of cackling, “ya mean ta’ tell me, that you're lookin’ fer Discord, god o’ chaos an’ the like.”
I sighed, planting my rear to the ground in defeat. “Nevermind.” I hung my head, these ponies didn't know me, they thought I was a joke. I guess that's what time in Tartarus does to a reputation.
I felt their eyes peering into me, picking away to find something.
“Why do you look like my mom?” The colt asked as he hopped off of the cart.
“Now kid, she don't look nuthin’ like yer mom, but she does have an awful resemblance to an ol’ freind, only diff’rence ah can see is the lack o’ wings.”
Now they both looked Confused, both convinced that what they saw was real.
“Now would you believe me when I said I'm looking for discord?” I asked calmly, “Now that you can see I'm… how should I put this… different.” They looked at each other, the mare finally unhooked herself from the cart and coming around to see what was going on. “When you look at me you see what you want to see, it is something I cannot control.”
“Now jus’ cause you weird don't explain nuthin, I met a few quirky ones before, like that pip girl, ‘bout got ‘erself shot with that armor she was struttin’ around in.”
The mare from the front of the cart came up close to me, as if inspecting. Taking in every little detail. “You don't look special to me.” She said in her beautiful voice. “But you are certainly different, are you from a stable?”
“no ma'am, I have been in Tartarus for an amount of time I am not sure.” Calamity snorted, a barely muffled laugh. “You still doubt me?” He straightened up at my tone. I stood, making him bite down in the metal ride in front of his mouth, I could feel my vision change to a more, disgusted, point of view. Energy rippled through my body as order surfaced holding the face of power. I looked down at two small pieces of metal floating before me. I brought my eyes back up to Calamity his showing fear as the contraptions on his sides rang out over and over again. Each time sending more pieces of metal to float at my chest.
“What in th’ hell are you?!” He screamed as the bits of metal dropped to the dirt.
“I am order, and you will obey as you should!” He backpedaled wheeling around to run, but a gun was in his face. A solid white version of the one I had misfired from inside the cart. “You seem to like pointing these things at me when they go off, what happens when I do to you?” I almost purred the words, like a low rumble.
I looked down a little bit, my snout had turned black as the night, another gun, the same save that it was solid black floated by my side.
“Mama! I’m scared!” The colt yelled, running towards the frozen mare.
I heard a screech, not from any of the ponies present, not from me even. I turned around, and met the eyes of an abomination. It stood at the same height as a pony, it even resembled the shape of one. But this, this…. Thing, was no pony. I brought around the black gun, not knowing what would happen as the abomination lunged at me.
It hit the gun as it came around beside me, but it held fast as the beast fell backwards. I leveled the small black object at the monster's forehead, and pulled the little tab that let out a loud bang. Green goo sprayed back, and the beast fell.
A sharp pain erupted from the back of my head and my vision blurred, I turned in time to see Calamity kick me upside the head. The world slipped away, I felt as if I were in Tartarus once again.
* * *
My head ached. Violence had never been aimed at me before, it was an exhilarating experience. I pushed myself up from the dirt, the world swirled around me as I fell back down. My vision was blurred, it may have been doubled but at this point I couldn't tell.
“Now girl,” a strange raspy voice, not anyone I'd met so far, “What would you be doing out here, taking a nap in the middle of the road?” I looked up, my vision filled with cotton as I attempted to take in whoever was speaking.
“Head… hurts," was all I could manage slumping down and closing my eyes, I loved the feeling of flesh, but it all ached, “Why…. Where's….. Calamity?” I could feel the presence of the stallion on my left, but I still couldn't open my eyes without feeling as if I was going to pass out.
“The caravan guard? What would a fine mare such as yourself want anything to do with a hick like that?” The voice seemed to get rougher as he spoke of the other stallion, “he’s just some ruffian who spends all of his time and caps in the bar, never trust him dear, he’ll buck you in the head and take all of your caps just to get another bottle of that wild pegasus piss he always seems to be drinking.” I'm not sure why, but it felt off. Calamity felt like he was a kind stallion, a little rough but loyal. He had an aura about him, just being near him made me feel as if he would protect me.
“Is that…” I paused to calm the edge in my skull, “true? He seemed kind.” The gruff stallion let out a sound that I thought may have been a laugh.
“In case you missed it miss, he's the one that bucked you in the head, granted you were a lot… scarier… when he had done it.” I heard a rustle and clinking of glass and a bottle was pressed to my lips, a sweet liquid trickled down my throat and the throbbing in my head subsided.
I opened my eyes slowly, as to not bring the pain back. Thankfully it didn't. I finally took in the “stallion" I had been conversing with, if you could call the corpse in front of me a stallion. I hopped to my hooves, the black and white guns appeared at my sides again.
“Woah there, no need to draw on me, I'm a friendly, we're all good here" the beast stammered, his milky eyes showing more fear than i’ve ever seen.
“What are you!?” I advanced on him and he fell to haunches. “Speak!”
He opened and closed his hideous maw many times before he finally got any words out. “Now girl,” he paused and looked down at the floating guns, then back to me “th-there's no need for any killing to happen here, I'm a ghoul, I'm surprised you haven't seen any before.” He chuckled, then saw my stare.
“I'm not sure what has happened since I was imprisoned, but this world never had any ‘ghouls’. Nothing in this world was as hideous as you.” I turned away, my guns disappeared as I walked away from the rotten corpse behind me. One day I'd have to learn how these things worked, And what they were for.
* * *
Two hundred years, two hundred years since the world I knew had been destroyed, why hadn't the sisters stopped this they were the chosen to protect equestria, they were the ones to challenge discord. Why would they let the world so hard fought for crumble into a state of savagery that was only seen before even me and discord had been formed.
And now, sitting here I get to learn that, I have been gone even longer. The world had flourished, grown past the chaos discord had wrought, and I couldn't experience it. I had to do it, I had to get locked in the pits to protect the sanctity of this once beautiful world.
The walking rot had followed me. And was explaining what had happened. Two hundred years ago the world was unsettled, technology had advanced to a state that was too much for ponies to handle. The once friendly relationship with the Zebras had turned into a hate that led to the use of “mega spells”
“What are those?” I asked entranced in the story as we walked in a direction I wasn't quite sure of.
“Well those are like normal spell, but they're escalated to be violent and destructive. So much so that they killed the world, made me this.” I felt sorry for the thing that was once called Swift Writer, for those “mega spells” had turned him into something less than a pony.
I turned to him, and he stopped getting a nervous look on his face. I simply inspected him looking for a glimpse of what he may have looked like before those spells changed everything
“What did you look like before your death?” I asked flatly.
“I am not dead ma'am, merely dying very slowly.” I stared blankly at him awaiting the answer I seeked, “ well ma'am, I had a green mane, with a light tan coat.”
“And your cutie mark?” I asked looking to the rotting flesh on his flank.
“Well, I was a journalist,” he looked to the ground, “I had a notepad and quill once.” He looked sad. I heard him repeatedly saying “do not remember” in his head.
“What if I said I could give that back to you. Would you accept that? To be beautiful once more?” I saw his mind. He was thinking of how he once looked. He was quite a handsome stallion.
Author's Note
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Thank you for reading. I have not watched the show in quite some time and need to reread the main foe and horizon to be sure I have locations and names correct so this may be slow but I do hope you enjoy -Swift
