Into Ashes: Act I

Day 10

Stupid Fluttershy. I take care of her, feed her, patch her up.. And as soon as she’s feeling back to normal she bails.

I angrily stuff all of my belongings back into my bag.

That’s what I get for trusting one of them.

All my food, water, and ammo, I shove it all where it fits.

Maybe I should have just left her to die in the rubble. I wouldn’t have ended up wasting so much time in this useless town. This place is garbage. Small sleepy country town? Pfft, what did I expect to find here anyway?

I throw two nights’ worth of firewood on top of everything.

I don’t know. If it weren’t for her I would have left Ponyville days ago. What a waste of my time and energy…

I make one final sweep to make sure I’m not leaving anything important behind.

I can manage on my own just fine. I’ve spent my whole life training for times like this. To be alone. Surrounded. Starving. Weeks or even months away from reuniting with friendly forces. I don’t need her… I don’t need anybody but myself. Canterlot can’t be that far. I already know which way to go, I just have to follow the roads.

How could I have let myself become so weak? To lie to myself and think I need someone else to survive? Nonsense.. Utter nonsense.. Nothing this world has to offer could possibly be more proficient at survival than I. I was bred to be the perfect warrior, the grandmaster of evasion and infiltration. The pinnacle of human technology and evolution.. What could I possibly be given that is so grand that I couldn’t survive without it? It’s not some stupid Equine that’s for sure..

I check the time. 6:31 am. Better get a move on, no telling how long it’ll take me to get to Canterlot.

I exit the door flap and tear it down, ripping the fabric away and stuffing it between my back and my bag. The morning is still very young. The sun is just barely beginning to peek over the hills. A morning nip still breathes heavy and cold against the back of my neck. I begin my journey down the same road Fluttershy pointed down earlier. I start following it all the way out of town, moving quickly, eager and motivated to get there as soon as I can manage.

I don’t care how far Canterlot is from here. I don’t even know if that’s really where I’m headed. I’ll run into something eventually. Anything beats the sad pile of hot trash that is Ponyville. If it takes me more than a day to get there then sobeit. Drones don’t frighten me. And either way, dead by drone or dead by dehydration, it makes no difference to me. But I’m not going to let anything bring me my death for me. I’ll walk straight through the night if that’s what it takes. I have my DSR. All it takes is one full power shot to completely obliterate anything or anyone I come across.

I quickly reach the edge of town. The far reaching buildings dotting the outskirts become nothing more than a fleeting memory in my mind as I pass them and they fade away into the thick fog behind me. I don’t even bother so much as to give them a final glance back. There’s no reason to look back there. The only way to look is forward unto Canterlot. From now on I’m only going forward with my mission, myself, and my life. I’ll follow it blindly but with confidence, going wherever the roads may take me.

• - - -

Soon, it is midday. The warm yellow blob of a sun hangs high overhead. The ashen fog today is particularly thick. And it seems to only build as I strive further and further down this lonely road. I can barely see more than just a few meters in front of me in any direction. Everything everywhere, however close it may be is clouded in visual nonexistence. No terrain features, no buildings, no fallen trees. The only juxtaposition is the road, dirty and brown against the endless world of gray. Along the sides of the roads is just the same. Bland. Gray. Featureless. It’s almost surreal, like I’m caught in a dream where the ground in front of me stretches and repeats perpetually as I move forward. The only disproof of this not being a dream is every few meters, just off to the side of there road there’s maybe a petrified stick or solitary stone sitting alone and undisturbed. Just as covered in ash and damned to this hell as I.

I stop, dead, a faint glimmer of some lustrous metal sheen pokes me in the eye. Something in the road ahead reflects the light of the sun back at me. But what could it be?

I raise my rifle scope to my eye. The thermal signature I find is exactly what I would have guessed it to be. A single drone, JN87, folded up and vulnerable as it charges its solar cells, completely oblivious to the happenings of the outside world. The glimmer comes from light bouncing off the photovoltaic panels covering its back. What an unfortunate circumstance for this little drone.

It slumbers as it charges, unable to awaken until it is moved or loses its source of light. I power down my rifle, switching off circuits 10 through 6 for a half power shot. I take aim. It just sits there, helpless and unaware.. It’s so close I don’t even need to bother getting a range to it for the ballistic computer. I pull the trigger. St-clack! The supersonic crack of the round breaking the air rings out against the ghastly silence. The tungsten-steel bullet, only given half of what it could have had, smashes into the ground and blows out a crater several inches across, throwing up all that hardened dirt high into the air. The drone blows apart into three separate chunks, all of which are sent hurling skyward. It all comes plowing back down, kicking up more clouds of dust from their heavy impacts. All at the same time as the expended round’s battery casing is ejected from the rifle’s chamber and lands at my feet. The world returns to its reclusive silence, the dust settles, and I continue my way down the road with a grin on my face. Satisfied to know there’s one less monster in this world.

• - - -

It isn’t long before I come across something else in the fog ahead of me. It’s only been a few minutes since my last encounter with something. This time instead of a small glittery point, I spot a huge hulking mass slowly manifesting in the deep fog as I get closer. It doesn’t summon much of my alarm as much as it does my intrigue. I continue forward. The mass slowly becomes more prominent. Once close enough I’m able to make out the fine details. Tracks on both sides, a turbine exhaust port, a turret, twin rail cannon… What in the world is this doing here? Who would just abandon a perfectly good looking tank on the side of the road? I get close enough to it and find no discernible impact marks or battle damage. Everything on the outside appears to be in perfect working condition. Perhaps the problems lie within. A tank and a drone all on the same stretch of road so close to each other? Maybe I am dreaming. Hmm.. If this thing still works it could save me a lot of walking. I’ve never been trained on how to drive one of these before, but I have all the time in the world to figure it out.

I decide to investigate the tank. I drop my rifle and bag to the ground beside the track. It’s a truly mammoth vehicle. The height from the bottom of the track to the top is almost as tall as I am. On one of the side skirts near the front, a foot ladder is carved into the metal. I use it to climb to the top of the front slope.

Once on top of the hull, I find that the turret hatches have been left wide open. “Well don’t mind if I do.” I say aloud as I pull myself up the steeply sloped turret armor. I peek inside one of the hatches. There’s no light inside, all of the master power units were left turned off. I listen, but also hear nothing. It’s completely abandoned, left here alone to slowly rot away. I wonder why the crew just left it here. Maybe they ran out of fuel? Unlikely, but maybe if there still some juice left in the batteries I can go through its maintenance logs and find out what happened, and also if this thing is still able to move.

I sit down on the edge of the hatch and lower myself in, feeling around with my feet for places to set them. Eventually I find a flat surface and drop down to the turret floor. I find the interior to be surprisingly spacious. There’s more than enough room for each of the crew members to not only work at their stations, but sleep there as well. You could probably fit all the gear, weapons, and tools of each of the four crew members and still have enough room to live comfortably. Several monitor screens can be found at each station, all of them surrounded by buttons, knobs and switches. I look to the gunners station. There, in the seat I find three boxes stacked on top of each other. It’s hard to see what’s written on them. There’s just barely enough sunlight coming in through the hatches to read the inscriptions. I step to the side to move clear of the hatches. The sunlight hits the crusty brown face of the box on the bottom, just brightly enough to read it. “Zeta Rations”.

I widen my eyes with excitement, and a grin stretches from ear to ear. I’ve might have just found more food! And a lot of it. Not only do these boxes hold several Z-Rations but packets of water as well! Yes! I finally found more food! I might as well crack open a box and start celebrating right now, this is literally weeks worth of food!

What are the odds? What a lucky find. A tank, in great condition, full of food and water - I knew I had something good coming my way! And I can keep it all to myself. There’s no one around to share it with, it’s all mine!

I snatch the box on top of the stack with vigour. At the same time I hear a metallic click that I ignore, blinded by my excitement. I pull the adhesive holding the box closed and rip it open. Inside, full casings of Z-Rations and water, all still packaged and untampered. My eyes glitter with the enthusiasm, enthusiasm to finally get rid of this never ending bout of starvation.

Just then I hear a loud metal bang, something drops to the floor at my feet. I look down, and there, just now rolling to a stop between my feet, a live grenade primed and ready to explode. “Uh oh.”

It was a trap!

I throw the box down and scramble back to the exit. I reach up and grab the side of the hatch ring and leap out. But just short of time. I only manage to throw myself halfway out of the hatch before the grenade detonates. The deafening blast hurls me out of the hatch. My upper body slams down against the top of the turret, and I roll down onto the front slope, smash my head against the armor and roll off the tank. I land face first on the ground and everything goes black.

• - - -

Tug… Tug… Tug… Tug… My eyes twitch open to a world turned sideways. Ashen ground to my left and orange sky on my right. The tugging continues. The world stutters back and forth, gradually shifting from top to bottom. There is no sound.. No feeling.. No ability to move. There is only sight, the sight of an orange sun dropping behind the hills. Inch by inch, tug by tug, the world continues to shift.

I find enough energy to look up. My arm is ahead of me, raised from the ground. At the end of my arm, a blurry pink and yellow figure floating above the ground. It clings to my hand and heaves. It’s Fluttershy. Tugging at my arm, dragging me across the ground. I see six of her, and six of my arms. No, four of each. The blurred figures tightly phase in and out of each other.

I let my head fall back down to meet the view of the same sideways world as before. Ahead of me, in the distance, a shadowy, featureless figure of a winged unicorn approaches.

The tugging continues.

The figure is pitch black, black as night itself against the dying sunset. It comes closer at a steady pace. Soon I begin to see color. It’s mane, flowing elegantly in the wind is the only contrast from the dark figure. Shades of blue and purple, and shimmering white specks dotted within like the wake of a starry night. It continues to walk forward. Never stopping or changing speed, just an effortless stroll. The only sound I begin to hear, as the figure walks, is my own heartbeat. The thumping grows louder as the figure comes closer. But like the shadowed Equine, it too never changes in its speed or rhythm.

The shadow gradually closes the distance. My heart grows louder. The figure eclipses everything behind it. More and more of the world disappears behind it’s dark veil in its approach until finally, the figure reaches to just before my eyes. My vision is completely eclipsed. Buried deep in an abyss of total darkness. With the coming veil that drapes over the world I go blind, and the beat of my heart ceases to persist...

End of Act One