Chapters Another life, another chance
Ever since I came into understanding my true self, I was in constant torment. No, it didn’t mean that I had some kind of somatic pain. It was mental pain, drilling deep inside my cerebral cortex. At least that what had to happen; otherwise, there’s no explanation about my state.
When I looked around I saw… them. I saw those who I hated and feared. Like wild animals, ready to attack any minute. Ready to strike and hurt me, without warning or even reason why they do all that. Because they can. Because they are bored. Because… just because.
Humans. Bane of the planet. Blight of the galaxy. Living insult to sapience.
I didn’t want to have anything in common with them, but being one of them is… well, doesn’t help much.
But it didn’t matter anymore. In fact, nothing mattered. Today was the last day on Earth. My last day.
They said I lack certain neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and serotonin, and it is making me feel the way I do. They call it depression.
But I call it ‘life on the wrong planet’. Sure, I can take all those meds they prescripted, wasting a shitload of money in the process. But not only I didn’t have that much (my insurance didn’t cover shrinks, so my mother had to step in) -- I also knew it won’t help.
I was standing on the edge of a roof, looking down on the evening street. Did anyone see me from there? I doubted that. Did anyone pay attention to me when I passed by? No chance in hell.
At least, that’s what I thought. Life was eager to prove me wrong.
There was a small crowd, gathering near the building I stood on. And some of them were from the local police department.
When you dream, your time perception is different. You don’t notice how much time have already flown around your head and how long you’ve been out.
But what about death? Does it feel the same?
I didn’t know. Until I tried to kill myself.
First what I felt was pain -- excruciating pain, as if somebody tried to twist my bones out of the joints. It was too much.
And just several seconds later everything went black again.
I opened my eyes, squinting then because of very bright light. If it wasn’t coming from a lamp, I’d have thought that I’m standing in front of the gates to heaven. Which was strange, because I heard that those guys above don’t like suiciders.
There was also fatigue, so severe that felt like I haven’t slept in years. I had to apply titanic efforts were necessary to keep my eyes open.
“...planning to do the same with her spinal cord?”
Who was saying this? I didn’t know. I couldn’t see because of this lamp.
“Certainly. Her current state is just one of the reasons. We need to...”
I fainted again, unable to fight that fatigue anymore.
Shadows. Lot of shadows around me. It was dark this time.
“Are you sure she will accept it?”
“I am. All tests were positive. She’ll make it.”
What are they talking about? I can’t see what they are discussing… this time because of darkness.
“Bones too?”
“Well...”
I wanted to scream on the top of my lungs, wanted to ask what the hell is going on, what are they doing to me… but I couldn’t.
“Another dose, please. Let’s start.”
The world disappeared once again.
“Engineer Twilight? I think she’s waking up.”
“Good. Let her some time to adjust. The transition was hard, especially considering her initial state.”
I slowly opened my eyes. It was strange, but… I didn’t feel any pain or even discomfort. Instead I felt warm… warm and cozy. As if I was covered with a soft tartan blanket.
“Where… am I?” I asked. And suddenly realized that it wasn’t my voice. In fact, I didn’t even use my mouth to speak! I only thought what I want to said and… that happened.
“Shh… don’t worry, you’re safe now.”
I turned my head and saw a strange creature. It reminded me a pony, but the general structure was different. It had big eyes, tiny snout and purple fur with violet mane with a pink strip in it.
“What is going on? Who are you? What...”
I looked down at my body which was a very big mistake.
“What have you done to me?!”
I pushed her away from me and hopped from the bed, looking at my body in utter horror.
“Calm down, it’s okay.” Another creature said, going in my direction.
“Stay away from me!” I yelled, going backwards until I pressed my back against a wall.
“What have you done to me?! ANSWER ME!”
“Just saved your life, nothing else.” The purple one spoked out in a stern, yet compassionate voice.
I was looking at her with wide eyes, scared shitless. And I had good reasons for it, because what used to be my body now looked like some kind of cyberpunk-obsessed fanatic dream: a metallic plate that covered it from my neck to the lowest ribs. Not only that, but it also had some sort of fabric… or something here and there.
A sudden thought came into my mind and I quickly palpated my throat. So that’s why I couldn’t talk -- it was metal too!
I looked at my legs and nearly fainted. At least my chest didn’t look like a freaking metal skeleton, unlike my legs.
“You… you turned me into a fucking robot!”
The purple one shook her head.
“Cybernetic implants were necessary to save your life. You were at the brink of death when we found you.”
I tried to laugh but it didn’t work. I couldn’t laugh so I just asked:
“So, the likes of you are now roaming around human cities? The more you know...”
It looked at me with concern.
“No. In fact, it was you who ended up in another world, not the other way around. I do not know why the interdimensional device worked the way it did, but it… brought you here. I’ll use this word for convenience.
“But… why did you put all those iron scraps on me? And how did you know how to fix me, if I’m not even one of you?”
The purple one raised her hoof.
“First, it’s not iron. It is a biocompatible grade of titanium alloy reinforced with boron nitride nanotubes.”
“...Wut?”
“And second -- we ran several biological programs to decipher your DNA and gather other information about your structure. Since all the information procession was made by the Canterlot supercomputer center it didn’t take much time.
Besides, we are both carbon-based life forms so it wasn’t too hard anyway.
As for your throat, it was damaged so much that there was no way to restore it. So we were forced to replace with cybernetic implants that are able to synthesise voice.”
I just sat on the floor where I was standing, accompanying it with the sound of falling railway carriage.
“Titanium is quite resistant to impact force, especially with BNNT, but still try to be careful. How is your reactor?” Another creature asked me.
Good thing I was sitting or I’d have fallen down right now.
“Excuse me, what?! My reactor?!”
“Well, yes. How do you think your synthetic muscles would function without power supply? Not to mention other systems.”
Before I could add anything the purple one spoked out:
“Don’t worry about safety. It is a typical nuclear fission reactor with the capacity of 31 MW. In addition to the advanced safety protocols controlled by artificial intelligence it also has cutting edge shielding made of composite material which includes hydrogenated boron nitride nanotubes among other ones; it performs extremely well in radiation shielding.
And radioactive waste is collected in impervious containers that can be easily removed once you need to supply the reactor with another portion of uranium. You won’t need to do this in the next 720 hours, though, until the standard supply of 2.2 pounds will be used.”
Awkward silence.
I don’t know how much time it took me to process everything I heard, but they waited patiently. I noticed that much.
“Where am I?”
Another life, another chance
I was sitting on a cushion, staring blankly at the wall, painted in bright blue color. It reminded me sky. The real sky, not that cheap surrogate humans have instead of it. I realised that I’m not there anymore, but I didn’t think the damage they caused to me will be repaired anytime soon.
I heard a gentle sound of approaching ponies and sighed. I knew that this will happen, and still wasn’t properly ready for this.
But I promised. I promised that I will tell everything to get it off my chest, because even a blind sloth with anencephaly would’ve noticed that something’s bugging me. Not to mention ponies. That’s why they asked me to do this.
To be honest, only humans would ignore my state. Even a virus wouldn’t. But they would.
I opened the door before they knocked on it and just let them all inside, simultaneously getting back on a cushion.
I sighed and nodded. Sure I wasn’t ready, but I couldn’t prolongate this any further.
“I’m from the crapsack world known as Earth. I was born there and had no choice but to live in that burial ground swamp, full of monsters that are called humans.”
I looked at them, noticing their expressions.
“Yes, it was that bad. Actually, no -- imagine the worst thing you can. You did? Now, living on Earth is even worse than that. Infinitely worse. Any, literally anything is better than living there.”
“Human are even worse than Earth itself. They are hypocritical and genocidal slavery supporters. And their offsprings ain’t no better -- they are bully monsters. They are… yes, Twilight?”
A purple pony was raising her hoof. She lowered it now and asked in a worried voice:
“I’m sorry for interrupting you, dear, but… there are some things we don’t understand… in particularly, the definition of the next words: hypocritical, genocidal, slavery and bully. While we do understand what does a word ‘monster mean...’”
“No, you don’t. You have no idea what does this word mean. All your hydras, manticores, chickens that turn into a rock with a glance and others like this are newborn kittens compared to humans. I’d rather spend a day with a pack of timber wolves than a minute with humans.”
“But… but they’d… eat you...” Fluttershy whispered.
“It’s infinitely better compared to things humans would do to me. Wolves would eat me, but humans… they will make my life so horrible that neither of you can ever imagine.”
While they were stunned in silence I continued:
I won’t answer your questions, Twilight, because the answers will be too horrible to process. You already know about humans everything you need to know. And even this is not enough. Humans are way, way worse and more horrible than any words can describe them.
It’s a morbid, surreal type of evil, way beyond redemption. If anyone, no matter how horrible, would destroy humans, he should be considered as the greatest hero the universe ever produced. And no, a human cannot be that person. Because humans cannot be heroes. Humans are scum, horrible violent scum, pure and simple.”
I was watching as ponies were sobbing. Fluttershy and Rarity cried in each other’s coat, Twilight, Pinkie with deflated mane and Applejack hugged as they sobbed and Rainbow Dash turned around so nobody could see her tears.
I suddenly realized how kind they are. They are crying because they are so sad to hear things I said to them. Just incredible -- it’s an alien world, far away from their happy land and unable to corrupt their land, they should be happy that they are so far away, but no -- they are sad because things are so horrible there.
It was so strange, so… unusual.
It was kindness beyond any human understanding whatsoever. Those mad dogs thought that their ‘champions’ like Ghandi and Teresa were kind. Well, to be honest, if by kind you mean primitive cruelty, then yes they were kind.
And not a single human couldn’t ever achieve the level of kindness ponies treat as common. Heck, they wouldn’t even understand that it’s kindness. Yes, they are that horrible and dumb.
I waited until they stopped crying and until Twilight asked, trying to sound stern.
“How did… how did you survived? How did you get through all this?”
I shrugged.
“I don’t know, girls. I have no idea. Maybe it’s my hidden abilities, maybe I didn’t get myself into trouble by any means necessary or, which is more likely, by sheer dumb luck.”
“Consider this for example. When I was unconscious you picked me up and nursed me to be healthy again. If I was on Earth in the same state, I’d be dead, robbed and raped the second I got there. And don’t ask me what do two last words mean. You’d better not know it.
“We… we do understand that you’ve been through a lot, my dear, but… now that you’re here and not in that awful place… maybe it’s time to forget about it?” Rarity asked.
“No! I won’t ever forget about it and I will be hating humans forevermore! And don’t you suggest me such things. True friends, not like that cheap surrogate humans have, are always do what a friend in need wants and always agree with her.”
“Of course, of course. We are glad that you’re not there and we agree that you should hate them, if that’s what you want.” Applejack said quickly, while the others nodded in agreement.
I relaxed, hearing her statement.
“Thank you girls. But for now… I need some time to recover myself. To sleep...”
“We’ll be here, dear. Always.” Twilight said, running her hoof through my hair.
I nodded and soon fell asleep.
Another life, another chance
I was standing on a destroyed tank with my hands crossed, looking indifferently at the last survived member of its crew, who desperately tried to crawl out from under the wrecked gun turret.
“You okay, sweetheart?” Fluttershy asked, landing next to me.
I shook my head and jumped off the metal hunk, then kicked the soldier so hard that the upper part of his body flew into the nearest storefront, shattering the glass.
“Can’t say I’m okay… but at least I’m feeling myself better...” I replied after several seconds of silence.
“Are you still sure that it’s what you want to do?”
“We’ve already went way too far to stop now, Fluttershy.”
“Doubtful. You mentioned there are around 7,600,000,000 humans out here, and we liquidated only a million of them.”
I snapped my fingers, triggering a huge *KA-BOOM!* many miles ahead. Chicago ceased to exist.
“...three and a half, now.” I corrected her without even showing a little smile.
“Even in this case...” Fluttershy started but was interrupted with a barrage of lead, hitting her from several blocks away.
She used her wings to anchor herself on the ground to prevent herself from being knocked off her hooves.
“So anyway, even in this case we can go to Equestria and forget about them once and for all.” She continued as if nothing had happened.
I took off my portable railgun, that used a pony’s inner magic as an energy source and plugged the charging wire in Fluttershy’s ear.
“I won’t find peace until they all die.” I replied, aiming it at the shooting Bradley.
I pulled the trigger, punching a big and cute hole all the way through the war machine.
“A bit grim, don’t you think?”
I shrugged.
“Wasn’t asking your opinion. You’re not supposed to question my motivation or actions. Just do what I want you to do, that’s all. That’s what friends are supposed to do.”
“We are ready, tell us how to help you and what to do. But being friends also means being concerned about a friend’s condition.”
“I’m fine, Fluttershy.”
I sat on the ground, waiting for Rainbow Dash and Twilight finishing the underground thermonuclear device, similar to one that was under Chicago. The could use an ICBM to drop that 80 megatons of TNT device (unlike humans with their paleolithic means of delivering nukes), but I wanted to irradiate the area as much as possible.
Although I decided to save cobalt bombs for the dessert.
I looked at my watches, counting seconds until the city of Minneapolis ceased to exist as well.
“Good pace. We might to finish when I’ll be 80-years old.” I commented, not even meant it to be a joke.
Fluttershy didn’t answer, but judging by her guiltily expression she understood that I reproach her and my other friends. Good thing she wasn’t trying to exonerate herself -- I hate when those who are guilty do such things. They are supposed to ask forgiveness and find a way to make it up for me.
“I’m… really, really sorry for that… I promise, we will find a way to speed it up.” Fluttershy didn’t fail to do the right thing.
I smiled for the first time since I was here.
“I trust you, Fluttershy. But even if you won’t, we still have cobalt bombs. Sure, I wanted to use them as that special finishing touch of my magnum opus, but...”
“They still can serve as that touch -- after all, they will kill all the life on Earth.”
I wouldn’t have been so shocked even if a lightning struck me now.
“I can’t believe how blind I was -- you’re right, Fluttershy!”
I was about to say something else, but she immediately gave me a bear hug that easily crushed all my ribs. Well, it’d have, if I still had bony bones.
My cell phone came to life.
“So, how was the last one?” Rainbow asked on the other side of the magic line. Nuke detonation couldn’t harm it.
“Spectacular, Rainbow, absolutely spectacular. I hope you and Twilight were able to get the heck out of there?”
“You bet! No lame shockwave can catch up with my hypersonic speed!”
“And Twilight?”
“Eh, I carried her with me, of course. She still can’t break the sonic barrier.”
I chuckled at her casual voice. What would I do without them…
“Anyways, we are ready to mount another device under a major city. Just waiting for your command.”
I looked at Fluttershy who was still hugging me and suddenly understood that I’ve had enough of this world. Time to burn it to the ground.
“Rainbow, Twilight -- gather all the nukes we still have and place them and all cobalt bombs as symmetrically as you can all over the globe. I want it to end today.”
“You got it, my friend!”
**************************
I was holding a remote control with a huge red button, just like I wanted. They designed this doomsday device using my instructions as a guide. And now I was able to end this world. I wanted to be the one who will destroy humanity; I didn’t want anyone to share this honor with me -- not even my friends.
I checked my magic protection from the small barrier, that contained a little peace of Equestria. It was a temporarily space dilation, made to shield me from all harm.
“Well… I guess that’s it. It’s time for me to get a new life and to discard an old one. Right along with the world that caused me so many troubles and so much pain.”
I pushed the button, they just lied down on the soft Equestrian grass and watched, how the sky burns, vaporising clouds in the process. I have finally finished my magnum opus -- human omnicide. And now, under the burning sky and above the melting ground, invulnerable to any hazard from the dead planet, I stood victorious. Well, metaphorically speaking.
And back in Equestria my friends waited for me to grant me a new birth, a new life and a new name.
