The Last Watcher: Neighagra Falls

“So say goodnight to this
The final setting of the sun
Tomorrow dawns in darkness
The nighttime has begun”

My lungs burned and heart raced, the muscles of my legs feeling like they were on fire. This was good. Physical pains like this were old friends. I knew how to focus past them. I ducked down an alley to catch my breath and make a plan. Review the facts. Make a decision.

We'd been ambushed, which was all kinds of wrong. We were supposed to be doing the ambushing. Or, the other Watchers were anyway. My squad, working with a more veteran one, was supposed to handle one of the secondary locations. We'd been hit before they got there. I hadn't even seen the attackers, but I saw Ace-

No. That was another kind of pain. One I'd never dealt with. I swallowed it back. I needed focus; relevant details.

An unknown enemy had ambushed us while the whole of the Night’s Watch had been hired out to attack a different target. Well, I assumed our ambushers weren’t the target. Raiders don’t generally make such coordinated attacks.

I wasn’t going to puzzle out who it was or how with the limited information I had. What was important is someone knew the Watchers were coming and they were determined to stop us. The other Watchers had to be warned. Magnum was squad captain, so she was the only one with a Pipbuck; the one with the radio and broadcaster. So either she'd already warned them or she was... Focus on the relevant facts. Worst case is she hasn't warned them, so I needed to. And that means I need to get to them.

The main attack was to happen a couple miles away, and I wasn’t the best runner. As evidenced by the fact I was still winded. Still, I couldn't see an alternative. I took a deep breath and summoned my will. My horn and armor enveloped in an amber glow that matched my eyes.

“Spirit of Wind,” I said. “I need you to speed my steps like never before. The Watchers are depending on us.”

There was no response, but I stepped out of my hiding spot and started sprinting. The wind whipped up behind me, pushing me along. It filled my lungs, easing my breath. My mind emptied of everything but the task before me; saving as many Watchers as I could.

The speed was incredible. The sheer joy of running with Wind never diminished, even in such a dire situation. My stride stretched out as I felt pushed from behind. My heart raced and my breath came so easy. It had been like this since the first time I’d called on this spirit. It always felt like wild, unadulterated joy. The rush of pure freedom. The press of despair was there, but its weight lifted. Enough that I could ignore it at least.

A burst of light followed by the thump of a distant explosion ahead pulled me out of my momentary relief. I didn’t know all the details of the plan, but I knew the gist. A massive explosion was not part of it. My heart sank, feeling all the worse after the high I’d just been on. I tried to focus. A plan, I needed a new plan. Survivors would be falling back. I had to help them somehow. High ground, cover the retreat. But I'd only be covering them if they took this route. I had no way to coordinate, and running around like a panicked chicken wasn’t going to help. I just had to do my best and hope it helped.

I looked around the rubble-strewn buildings and picked one with an unblocked entrance, racing around since Wind was still with me. The joy of speed had a much harder time rising to the surface this time, and I wasn’t sure I wanted it to. Focus was what I needed. The staircase inside was traversable all the way to its third story roof, miraculously. I moved some trash around for a makeshift blind and settled in.

I got itchy quickly. I squirmed around and tried to settle in, but was unable to get comfortable. The more I fought it the antsier I got. Until I realized it was Wind. It hated to sit still and was urging me to move. I scowled at the distraction, horn glowing as I concentrated once again. “Thank you for your service Wind.” The spirit left its temporary container and I was able to relax, though I was now entirely alone with my thoughts.

I was going to need different allies for this anyway, so I set my focus elsewhere. First on my rifle, “Light, guide my eye, show me the truest path so I will not miss.” As my horn’s glow faded, the gun got a glow of its own. Glowing like a candle, it would be a dead giveaway in the dark, but it wasn’t night yet and the payoff would be worth it at this sort of range. Not done yet, I pulled the clip out and focused on it as well. “Fire, help me bring justice down on the deserving. We will not let them get away with this unscathed.” The bullet on top of the mag itself flickered with a red-orange light. I slotted it back inside and sighted down the rifle.

Waiting was the worst part. Knowing something was coming but not knowing when. Being patient when my heart cried for action. This was the best action available to me, though. At least, I was reasonably confident of that. I could feel my emotions, the urging of my allies wrestling with one another. So much had gone wrong. My squad could be dead. Many Watchers surely were. But not all. They couldn’t be. Who would fight the dark without them? And anyway, Watchers were harder to kill than that. Some still lived. Some would always be there to fight back against the dark. And I was here, ready to pay back those who had taken from my family. Yes, they would pay. They would burn.

And soon. A line of bullets struck along the road in the intersection down the street. A moment later a Watcher came galloping around the corner at the top speed they could manage. I couldn’t make out who it was, but the armor with the shining eyes in a circle of stars was unmistakable even at this distance. My whole body relaxed. Ready to go, not too tight. My mind cleared of everything but what I needed to do.

Another pony came around the corner. I instantly recognized the armor as not our own and didn’t hesitate. Talent, training, and spirits were all true. The pony dropped not more than a couple of steps from the corner of the building. A third pony followed them around the corner and stopped on seeing the body. His cry of “Sniper!” reached me as I pulled the trigger, smooth and clean. The pony tried reversing course, but it was too late. This pony wasn't struck anywhere vital, but they didn’t need to be. Their flesh caught flame, Fire's power moving from the bullet to their own flesh, and their screams echoed up and down the hollow metal corridors of the ruins. They made it back around the corner, but the screams continued as they burned.

Nopony else followed and after a few moments, I examined the foe I'd dropped. No doubt a raider, what with the mismatched armor and the mane “style”, if you could call it that. One of the targets we were after then, not the more professional looking ponies who had ambushed my own squad. What exactly was going on here?
There wasn’t time to think about that. The other Watcher had apparently made their escape while I was focused on my targets. There were others to save anyway. I focused down the sights again and waited.

I heard the fighting elsewhere intensified. There was a period of quiet, a few Watchers and their pursuers trickled in. Then the floodgates opened. A good chunk of the Watchers chose this as their escape route from whatever fighting was happening further on. Some died. Many died. But I had the ammo and had the angle to take down a lot of raiders. My world became the sights and the intersection in the distance. Pick a target. Line up the shot. Pull the trigger. Repeat. Sometimes I had to reload or renew the spirit's strength so they could keep assisting me.

Then my concentration broke as something touched my wither. I jumped, reflexively casting. No words, the Spirit of Diamond was simply imbued into my armor, making it that much tougher.

“Longshot, relax. It’s me.”

After a moment I came back to the world beyond the intersection. The magical fatigue from sustaining so much for so long hit me like a truck. My mouth had the taste of copper in it, must’ve bitten my cheek again. My legs were stiff from laying on them so long.

And yet, all that was just background noise, just a part of me taking inventory. My focus was on was a sight that squashed that black hole in my chest. An earth pony in Watcher armor and a pair of holstered .44s. Those amber eyes that matched my own. Mirroring the relief that washed over me, making the fatigue so easy to bear.

“Magnum.” I couldn't bring myself to say anything else. I didn't need to, though. That one word carried with it everything she needed to know. What I'd been through in the time we'd been separated. How glad I was to know that at least the two of us still breathed. That we were still a squad.

“Longshot.” A hint of a smile touched her lips for a moment. She'd been through just as much and felt the same. The situation was still too dire to spend more time on it than that. “I knew it was you up here. Your improvising is as good as ever.”

“I didn’t have much to work with, but I did what I could." I tilted my head back toward the intersection. "What’s going on out there?”

“Comms are a mess, so it’s hard to tell. A lot of leadership is MIA right now so unit commanders are trying to coordinate as best they can.”

“Now is one of those times I wish we all had Pipbucks, not just unit commanders.”

“Isn’t that all the time? Would’ve found you a lot faster if we did. Have you seen Cornerstone? Or Silver?”

I felt the black hole start to reform. I'd been hoping Magnum knew. We stared at each other for a long moment as the mood broke.

“Right. We need to move-”

I immediately cut in, “No. I’m doing a lot of good here. This is right where I need to be.”

“It was, but they’ve taken notice of you. There’s a lot of movement coming this way. They’re going to try something to get you out of here at some point; they’re raiders, not morons. We need to pull back and regroup with the forces that are left.”

“There are still Watchers pulling back right? We can do more good here, especially with you to watch my back now.”

“We’re not going to do anypony any good if we’re dead, Longshot.”

“We can deal with whatever they try to throw at us now that we’re together. Plus, if you found me here, Stone and Silver could too.”

“That doesn’t make sense, they don’t have-” I spotted a metallic orb drop into sight behind Magnum and it felt like time stopped. My subconscious recognized it as a threat before I knew what it even was. My heart seemed to pause in it's beating a moment. I could hear Magnum was talking, but it didn't register. The orb fell almost gracefully as my mind felt sluggish as it raced to determine what it was and what to do. As it was disappearing behind Magnum’s frame, I recognized it for what it was.

“Grenade!”

Time returned. Magnum turned her whole body to follow my line of sight. I reached out blindly with my magic to try and grab it, but not being able to see it anymore I missed completely. Even over the sound of fighting a few streets away, I heard the metallic sound of the grenade bouncing off the ground. Like nothing else in the world existed. My eyes tried to search the ground past Magnum but came up with nothing. She started to move.

And then a flash of light and muted boom tore away the world.

All was dark. Nothing hurt, which was a surprise. I thought I’d known what it was like not to hurt, but I'd never realized all the aches and pains I’d been accustomed to. Even beyond that was the lack of any fatigue. I’d been so tired. All the time. The sudden absence was blissful on its own, even devoid of anything pleasurable. What had I been before? What did it matter? Here everything was peaceful.

“No. Oh no. Sisters, please…”

That voice, though it felt distorted, murky, and distant, I knew it. Something familiar that I couldn’t place. It was disrupting my rest. She should relax into the peace like I was. What was there to be so upset about anyway?

He is here.

Another voice. This one much closer, crystal clear. I was sure he’d never heard it before and yet it was one I felt intimately familiar with. Confusion seized me but the presence was soothing; warm and soft.

Suddenly voices were everywhere, overwhelming.

Why do we hesitate?

We cannot let them get away with this.

He is most closely tied to us. He is our best choice.

There is the other-

She sees us as tools. She is useless to us.

“You’re going to make it. You have to.” Somehow I still heard the more distant voice clearly over the others. Like she was more solid somehow. She sounded breathless and weak, pausing occasionally to grunt like she was talking while she worked at something. “You’re too stubborn not to. You never did let Stone out-stubborn you.”

Stone… The word meant something. Something important. What was it? A rock, a lifeless object. Or, no. Wasn’t it name?

Quiet. You confuse him. The choice is his to make, not ours.

Where there is life-

There is hope.

But he must choose. We assist, not direct.

Someone had to fight? That would take a lot of energy. Energy I didn’t have, that's for sure. I'm glad it's not me. It's so much easier to relax and enjoy the lack of all those aches. Even all the talking wasn’t so bothersome.

He has chosen it before. He will do it again.

I am not so sure. He appears to be letting go.

He was born a fighter. He will fight.

A mortal only has so much fight in them. He has been fighting a very long time just to get here.

But he now has more to fight for than ever. Surely he will not give in when he is most needed.

Something to fight for… didn't I have that? It felt like an echo of a memory. I knew that drive once. It seemed like so much effort though, and for what in return?

“Just breathe damn it. You have to.” The more distant, yet more solid voice sobbed. “One of us has to make it. Please. Sisters above, please. Save him.”

Magnum. The voice belonged to Magnum. She was a sister. She was important. We had trained together to… do something. It was important. I couldn’t hold my thoughts together, they were fuzzy and refused to come together, but she needed me for something. I needed to get up.

He stirs.

Hold. He hasn’t chosen. He must commit.

He will.

We cannot lose him.

We'd trained to protect ponies. That was it. And we protected each other. She needed me now, for something. I couldn’t piece together what, but if she was telling me to do it then it was important. I was called. I must answer. I struggled against the darkness that seemed so inviting. Pain started to return and I couldn't help flinching back. Even the little sensation was too much after all the nothing. I wasn’t sure I could bear it, no matter how determined I was. I heard Magnum sob.

There.

Now.

Of course, Lady. As before.

Suddenly, something grabbed me, helped to pull me through the darkness. A warmth pushed back the pain and fatigue. It didn’t disappear but was manageable enough to fight through.

What do you think you are doing?

A new presence. Heavy. It grabbed hold of me, pulling me back toward the painless nothing.

You are too late.

I am here to claim what is my right.

Not today. Today, my son chooses to fight.

There was a pride in that voice that buoyed me, though I couldn't place why. Whatever it was, it was the last push I needed to get out of this noplace I was stuck in.

Everything was dark. Cold seemed to seep into my very bones. Somewhere beyond the ever-present cloud cover the sun had set, making it nearly impossible to see. I coughed hard, wracking my body with pain. I fought through it and struggled to my hooves, pain was nothing new. I was breathing and mobile, so I was good to go.

I couldn’t remember much of anything though, so I tried to piece my memory back together in the dark. Something important happened. I went back to the most recent memory I was sure of. The ambush. Right. I worked forward from there, following the sequence of events as best I could until- The grenade.

“Magnum?” My voice croaked out into the night. I went for the canteen at my side and found it empty. I couldn't remember drinking the last of it... I shrugged it off and tried to look around but couldn't make out much of anything. I realized I was being stupid and I lit up my horn, though even that simple spell put a strain on me. I was well spent, but now I could see at least.

I wished I couldn’t. My light threw harsh shadows over a gruesome scene. Magnum lay right next to where I'd woken up, far too still and clearly missing a foreleg below the knee.

My body seized up, which was good because it prevented me from vomiting. The analytical part of my mind kept running, taking in the details of the scene that weren’t here before. The missing leg had a tourniquet tied to it. I had bandages over my chest, right where the pain had been most concentrated when I'd coughed. Nearby lay some cuttings from the fabric she’d apparently used to tie her leg off, and a single feather just at the edge of my circle of light. Between her and where I'd been laying were a single potion container and a pile of small metal shards covered in something that was hard to make out but was surely blood.

The story I pieced together was... bad. She’d been close enough that the explosion had managed to take her leg clean off. I hadn’t escaped unharmed, taking some of the shrapnel right in the chest. She’d remained conscious somehow or had come to shortly after, sheer earth pony stubbornness probably. She had tended to herself first, as best she could, tying off her leg. But there was no way to cauterize the wound with anything at hoof; dying from blood loss was inevitable. Even if she could have, she was peppered with shrapnel.

So she had tended to me, pulling out what shrapnel she could from my body, and using her only emergency healing potion on me. She had no way to know I would survive either, but judged my chances better and spent her last minutes trying to pull me back rather than save herself.

The hole in my chest returned, so much worse than the physical pain. There was nothing to separate me from it anymore. There was a scream, shattering the silence of the night in the city, the sound echoing off the surrounding metal canyon. I think the scream came from me. I fell to the ground and held her body. Something wet ran down my face. I begged for the Royal Sisters to bring her back. She couldn't be gone. I'd give myself for her in a heartbeat. Just bring her back.

The returning, enveloping silence was my response.

I had no concept of how much time had actually passed but the complete cloud cover started to glow with the light of the sun they hid. The growing light revealed Magnum’s missing leg some distance away. Attached to it was her PipBuck. Duty managed to worm its way into my mind and I went over to it. Pipbucks could survive balefire, so it’d surely be fine. A lot of functions wouldn’t work with its user ... but regardless the broadcaster should be one of the functional ones. I carefully pulled the hunk of metal from the detached appendage. After a little fumbling, I’d never handled one before, I managed to get the radio working. So it wasn’t broken at least.

“This is Longshot. Unit Leader Magnum is- I need orders, is anypony out there?” Static.

“I need orders,” I repeated. "Is anypony reading me?" I got the same reply.

I started to cycle through channels, hoping to find something. I got some music at one point, the ever-present DJ-PON3 cast. I cycled again, and again, finding nothing new. I stopped on the somber tune DJ-PON3 was playing and sat down. Or really, my back legs collapsed.

"I need orders. What am I supposed to do?"

"Good morning, wasteland. I'm sure you're all used to me starting the day with something cheery, get the day started off right. But not all days can be like that. Sometimes I've got to be the bearer of bad news, and this is one of those days.

"All my good little children will have heard me talk about the Night Watch out Neighagra's way. They took fighting the good fight literally, never hesitating to put themselves on the line to protect somepony else. Well ... last night was their last night on watch.

"Details are sparse, but it looks like they were hired for a big job not far from the edge of the crater in downtown Neighagra. Likely dealing with the raiders who are willing to deal with some potential radiation in their homes. I'm not sure how, but those raiders seem to have won the fight. Right now, there are no confirmed Watcher survivors. Their headquarters is completely empty. No report on if it was hit or if those who were there simply cleared out upon hearing about the attack. Even the little town that cropped up around them to support them is empty.

"I'm sorry my little ponies, but there's no upside on this one. I have no good news to share. The good fight has lost some staunch defenders, and we're all the worse off for it. Those of you living in Neighagra better keep your guns close to hoof. Things are looking to get crazy in the city going forward.

"This is DJ-PON3. Bringing you the truth, no matter how bad it hurts."

Big Debut: Failed

“The years now before us
Fearful and unknown
I never imagined
I’d face them on my own”

“But it was not, as some had predicted, the end of the world.”