The sky was lonely. The airstream flipped and snapped around every contour of their armor. The smell of stale ash swam all around them. It was still noticeable in Sable’s respirator, which caused his mouth to gum up. He wanted to take another sip from his water supply, but it was hard to justify it in such an irradiated wasteland — water was way too precious.
He looked to his friend and companion, Mercury. A pegasi just like him, and sporting the same insectoid power armor. It was sleek and menacing, covered in matte-colored plates, and armored every single appendage from snout to fetlock. If Sable’s Eyes Forward Sparkle didn’t outline him green in his Friend-or-Foe indicator, he wouldn’t have recognized that another pony was breathing under the carapace.
“Merc,” Sable called out on the radio. “How you holding up, buddy?” His eyes briefly glanced at the twisted crupper on his right flank, which melted a day ago to the savage beam of an energy rifle.
“You asking me that now?” Mercury’s chuckle cracked on the transmission. “I’m doin’ great. How about you?”
Sable bobbed his head from side to side, thinking. “I’m good. A little parched, maybe.” He looked ahead of him, to a lonely collection of mountains separated from the long stretch of the Appaloosan range far behind them. Below, a long line of patchy asphalt spanned from one end of the earth to the mountain, covered in the dilapidated wrecks of hundreds — no, thousands of pony vehicles of all kinds.
“Also a little nervous,” Sable admitted.
“Not a lot of fliers around here, so I wouldn’t worry too much,” Mercury assured. “But still keep an eye out for grounders. Not like those Appaloosan hicks crawling on the mountains, but, you know.”
Sable puffed out his cheeks remembering. It was only a two day flight through the mountains, but it was as much of a nightmare as it could possibly get. Shooters from every outcrop and holler, not to mention the overwhelming presence of those Ministry Rangers.
“Yeah. Who would’ve known that the surface was so lively?”
Mercury chuckled again. “Well, you know what they say about cockroaches.” Sable joined him in the laugh.
Sable moved his gaze to a corner of his vision, triggering the rest of the neon purple Heads Up Display to flicker back to life. He looked through a drop-down menu and pulled up a detailed map of Equestria. It focused on his position and approximate distance to his destination.
“Give us another fifteen minutes and we’ll be at the mountain.” Sable shut his right eye and moved the map with his left eye’s movements, dragging the map to his destination, boldly labelled CANTERLOT.
He’d heard of the city countless times as a foal, mostly from his grandmare. They were a many, many times descendant from a family of confectioners, and she would always remind him of it. But on top of these stories, she would always mention the secret to their success: A widely popular and well-guarded recipe for salt water taffy.
Ah, baby, it would amaze and inspire ponies from Manehattan all the way to Los Pegasus, Sable remembered her saying. It glowed with the fires of the sun and changed colors every time you took a bite. When you visited Canterlot, you’d always get ponies telling you that Taffy Twisters was the cream of the candy crop.
Sable would’ve come to Canterlot after the Grand Pegasus Enclave reclaimed the surface — it was inevitable, really — but Sable had a friend in high places. This friend served aboard the Thunderhead cloudship Overcast with him and played poker on Saturday nights. This friend also had a terrible case of loose lips around friends, and let slip a detail of the upcoming Operation: Cauterize.
The tactic was genius, in retrospect, Sable thought. The Enclave needed to establish itself as the power of the wasteland, and why not demonstrate it by blasting away the crown jewel of the pre-war government? This was a few weeks ago, and the plan hatched to sneak out, fly to Canterlot, gnab the recipe and become the next great post-war confectioner.
But after the disaster at Maripony, it accelerated plans — And that was two days ago.
The two pegasi approached the apex of the closest mountain, flying through a light snow flurry. As they crested the top, they saw gently rolling clouds of pink swimming around the capital. It was a strange juxtaposition, seeing something so cheery and benign as the cause for the fall of Canterlot.
They found an outcrop and landed, taking some time to rest. Sable breathed heavily behind his helmet. Though the servos helped him keep his stamina up by taking most of the stress, it was still flying.
He looked to Mercury with a nod. You good? He mentally asked. Mercury returned one of his own, as if to say, Yeah, I’m good.
“Equipment check,” Mercury said with machine cadence. Sable scrolled through his inventory management screen, checking off key supplies. That was just what to expect when chucking stuff into your suit, but you had to manually inspect it just in case it was wrong. This was advanced tech, but it was still old. Stuff was bound to be misplaced and unseen by the sorting spell.
Sable squeezed out of his suit after the exoskeleton hissed open, defaulting to a sitting position. The weapons on his battle saddle folded up at parade rest, and the wings splayed open to let his natural charcoal ones out. He was dressed in an interface body glove, studded with contact points and wires for intricate, split-second reaction from the suit. Jutting from under his chin were the controls for his battle saddle, bifurcated to slip between the molars on both sides of his jaw.
He pushed back the hood around his head and revealed his disheveled violet mane. He sighed, happy to feel the open air again, even if it smelled rank. Mercury slipped out of his armor as well.
Sable approached his suit’s bulky black crupper — ass plates as his fellow mechanics would say — and dug inside. He listed off what was in his suit: Spare energy gems, two health poultices, three rolls of bandages, bedroll, survival supplies, maintenance kit, four days rations, two water bladders… Everything was there. He also checked his on-board health monitor, checking for leaks in the injectors or the poultice vials. Good to go.
“How ‘bout you, Merc?” He called out.
Mercury flipped his ears back. “Uh, I think I’m missing a poultice.”
A bolt of lighting surged through Sable’s spine as he rushed to Mercury’s suit. “Oh, crap. We can’t share three across —”
“No, no! Wait! It’s okay!” Sable skid to a halt. Mercury dug a hoof into his bedroll, and revealed another crystalline bottle, swirling its red liquid. “I thought it was a bit heavy.”
Sable wheezed a sigh of relief and laughed. “Celestia’s ghost, don’t spook me like that!”
Mercury grinned, but his features looked grim. “You think that’s spooky, you should take look down there.” He pointed a copper hoof towards the city.
Sable followed it and brushed a hoof through his mane, gawking. His gaze slowly panned across the hazy, sickly pink metropolis below. It glowed gently under the columns of light that pierced through the cloud cover. The billowing gas rumbled from the streets with the idle brush of the breeze, carrying with it a mixture of an unholy, sickly-sweet scent of flesh rot and industrial ozone. Gold spires twinkled faintly like the final breaths of a beast, reflecting off of a solitary white obelisk that stood defiant against the decay.
“I can’t believe we’re going in there,” he remarked. Inwardly, he said: I can’t believe we made it this far. He shivered, partly due to the snow, partly due to the death.
Sable’s ears twitched at the delicate clink of a lighter’s flint, following with his muzzle scrunching at the lazy apple-tobacco smoke passing by.
“We’re going in there,” Mercury affirmed, mouthing his words around a slightly wrinkled cigarette. “Shit, never thought it would be this bad.”
Sable nodded, the battle saddle controls bobbing against his cheeks. “It’s funny, you know — You read about it from school and at the academy, but, wow. Look at how… Stars, how dead it is.”
As he said that, he saw a distant highrise buckle, like somepony squeezed it from the roof and pushed down. It slid into the mist of the Pink Cloud with a distant thud, echoing to their perch a few moments after disappearing. Squalling birds flapped wildly away from the scene, escaping the plume of dirty dust the wreckage stirred.
Mercury grunted, scrunching his brow. “That’s another problem.” He pulled up a wing and nonchalantly grabbed the cigarette between feathers, tapping off the ash. “I’ve read about Manehattan’s unstable skyline, but this is another level — It’s like the cloud decayed the buildings.”
He chuckled. “I’d rather be here than be spotted by a bunch of those tin cans down on the Keneighwa river, though.”
Sable playfully punched his friend’s shoulder with a chuckle. “That was some quick flying, Merc — Guess grounders just don’t get agility like we do.”
“Hey dude, those Rangers weren’t ones to be fucked with! They must’ve been special forces Rangers or something, with all that red painted on them.”
Sable nodded. “That one with the anti-materiel rifle had your number.”
Mercury laughed. “Yeah, the bastard!”
They settled down on the river bank after their first hours away from the squadron, only to be jumped by giant Ministry Steel Rangers. If that sniper didn’t miss, they’d both be like the mole rat the rifle round turned into ground meat. If they could avoid that, they can avoid just about anything.
Mercury took another drag and exhaled slowly. “This is going to be a cake walk compared to them.”
“Oh, totally,” Sable agreed. “We have a map, we have power armor, and all we gotta face is just some old irradiated cloud.” He pointed to the swirling miasma. “I give us a pretty solid chance of getting that recipe. Get in, get out, back to the Oh, grab a pint, and” — he waved a hoof — “wait for all this to blow over.”
“Speaking of which.” Mercury popped the helmet off of his suit and slid it on. It was a little goofy seeing a giant bug head on a slender pegasus body, but the whole armored ensemble was a little more menacing.
His voice crackled through external speakers. “Forty-two hours and seventeen minutes in three. Two. One. Mark.” He slid the lip of the helmet over his brow. “Okay. We have about two days before Hurricane Squadron blasts this joint into oblivion.” He paused. “No going back now, Sab.”
Sable nodded, gulping. His wings twitched for a cigarette of his own, but he lost his chance. “I’m not going back empty hoofed. Let’s get ready.”
He slid back into his armor, clasping itself back together with a satisfying hiss, pressurizing the shell. The terrible smell followed him inside, and that ozone-death mix would not allow itself to be purged so easily. He mouthed the straw from his water supply and sipped enough to get the taste out of his mouth. It didn’t work.
“Okay,” he said, pulling up his map again. He flipped to a local view, which detailed a Canterlot map on an organized grid. “Let’s go over the game plan. You got your map up?”
“Give me a second, my HUD needs a reboot.” Mercury sighed. “You know, as much as I love that I have a chance to fly the thing I normally do maintenance on, dealing with its software is a pain in the ass.”
Sable chuckled. “Should’ve thought of that before we stole ‘em, then.”
“Yeah, well, as much as you would’ve preferred it, stealing a Raptor was more conspicuous than a couple of suits.” Mercury, like Sable, was a mechanic before leaving Overcast. Mercury specialized in power armor, channeling his love of salvaged pre-war model kits. Sable, on the other hoof, was more in tune with bigger vehicles, started from when he constantly played with his parents’ cloud tractor back in the day.
The plan originally was to take a Raptor, a sleek, cloudship personnel carrier, but it would’ve been much easier to find its cloudtrails compared to a couple of ponies hiding in the landscape.
“True,” Sable admitted. “I can fly myself much better than I can a machine, anyway.”
“Okay, I’m back up.” Sable saw his buddy smack his helmet a few times with an armored hoof, with a few sparks winking on contact. “Luna’s shadow, I swear to Celestia... Alright, Sab, let’s review.”
The plan was straightforward: Approach from the southeast and keeping under the Pink Cloud cover, following Sunshine Boulevard through Starlight Terrace, Gemcutter’s Quarter, pass through Ministry Walk, and finally to the University District, where Taffy Twisters stood.
Mercury nodded. “Easy in, easy out.” He wagged the jointed mechanical tail of the power armor in excitement. It moved as naturally as a regular ponytail would, only with the added benefit of a deadly, double-edged blade swinging at the end. It hadn’t been cleaned since Mercury used it last.
“Easy in, easy out,” Sable parroted, albeit with some reservation. His gut squeezed as he said it, and looked back down at the city. Who knows what’s down there, he thought, chewing on his water straw. Pink Cloud killed everypony, and that’s all I know. Real damn glad I’ve got this armor on.
“Holy crap, look at this,” Mercury chortled, ejecting Sable from his thoughts.
Sable’s ears perked. “What, what’s wrong?”
“Go back onto region view. There’s a place called Zebratown! That’s hilarious!” He was right. A little south of Canterlot blinked its settlement marker.
Sable scoffed. “Is this a post-war settlement? Who would let zekes sit around outside of Canterlot? That’s in poor taste!”
“I dunno, but maybe we can check it out after we’re done. Maybe put a little wipe in their stripe, you feel me?”
Sable shook his head. “That’s fucked up, Merc.”
“Consider it a little payback.” Mercury began to growl as he spoke. “I hear that Red Eye chump has a legion of zeke agents, and they planted the bomb behind the Maripony Massacre.” He stomped a hoof, shaking the stone. “I think it’s good to put down some eye-for-eye action.”
Sable’s face faltered, and he looked away from his friend momentarily. Maripony hit Mercury a lot harder than most ponies Sable knew personally — his marefriend Nephele was among the soldiers at the fight, blasted away from the sudden balefire explosion. Mercury wasn’t alone — Sable had his private feelings for her, too.
But, let’s just keep that to ourselves.
He approached Mercury and swung an armored arm around him. “Merc, now’s not the time to let your feelings get in the way,” he spoke softly. The tinted visor faded away to show his violet eyes, giving Mercury a comforting gaze. “Let’s get the recipe and then we’ll make the next move. I don’t think we should get in over our heads being surrounded by a load of zekes. We don’t have Stealthbucks, and they have cloaks. You know how these devils fight.”
Mercury’s sigh crackled in the radio. “I know.”
Translation: I just feel like a bum and I want to do something about it, Sable concluded. Don’t worry, buddy. If these buildings are as squishy as they look, you can break a few. I know I want to.
“When we get back to the Oh, we’ll help with the Operation. That’ll be our big contribution. We’ll do it for Neffie.” Sable pointed back to the city. “So, c’mon, pal — let’s get this and go home.”
Mercury nodded, and Sable could tell he was grinding his teeth. He always did when he wrestled with his feelings.
“You going to be alright?”
A prolonged silence followed. “Yeah,” Mercury finally dragged out. “I think so,”
Sable beckoned Mercury with his head and left wing. He startled himself briefly as the armored appendage passed his vision. It was still weird seeing sharpened edges acting as his wings. Damn good weapons, too, he mused. Cut through a melon like plasma through paper. Or, when he actually used it, on a Dash-high loony trying to crack concrete through his visor. He tensed his jaw as his lips folded over his teeth, trying to shake off the memory.
Mercury approached the edge with his wings outstretched, ready to take off. Sable joined him, and heard the servos and gears of his armor softly whine as his bladed wings extended. Together, they crouched, and the hydraulics squeezed together. He could feel energy — whether it was truly happening or not — grow on his augmented legs, charging like a unicorn spell. Then without a word, they both pushed up with shattering force, the energy releasing with a sound of a clapping thunderstorm.
They easily launched a hundred feet with no effort, and the world grew a little smaller. Sable looked below him, seeing a wave of dirt and snow trailing up and out. The stone rumbled, causing some of the cliff face to shatter onto the relatively flat stone floor of the outcrop.
“Gets me every time,” he remarked, his tail whipping. “I feel like a friggin’ titan!” He heard Mercury weakly chuckle.
Sable’s HUD’s altimeter cranked into gear as they rose, spooling up from the 2275.42 meter mark they were already at. Mercury was right there with him, staring at the ground below. As their height gain began to plateau, they jutted their wings out with a dangerously musical shing, and they glided towards their destination.
In another time and place, the world they flew over would’ve been the subject of artistic masters, once lush, green and teeming with life. Sweeping down the mountain, instead there were wide swaths of dead grass and shrub littering the slopes, now obstacles of the ghoulish, mutated goat monstrosities that stared at the pegasi as they drifted down. The branches of ancient Hippos firs gently swayed in the wind, as if they were reaching out into the world hoping to catch their long dead foliage.
Far below them was the beaten skeleton of a broken highway, toppling against gravity and time. It was a latticework of metal and asphalt hanging off the cliffside, following what might’ve been an ancient mountain road, expanded to fit six lanes of highway. It shared space with the equally impressive decrepit rail line separating the in and outbound lanes in two. Its walls were once bleach white, studded with painted gold suns and blooming dark blue stars.
Now, it lies dead, Sable grimaced. He shook his head, trying to focus on the trip down.
“You’re a little quiet back there, Sab,” Mercury piped in.
“Just, uh…” Sable hesitated. “Just appreciating the scenery, I guess.”
“I get that. It’s a real mess down here. How anypony survived this shithole is beyond me.”
“Makes you appreciate the exodus after the lance shattered,” Sable agreed. Shattered Lance was the Equestrian military’s word for a live balefire deployment. But post-war, it became a phrase describing the Last Day. It had double meaning for pegasi, which molded into a term for the loss of Cloudsdayle, the old pegasus capital.
“Yeah, I gotta thank my many great grandparents for booking it when they did,” Mercury remarked.
They swung around and oriented themselves pointing northwest, approaching from the southeast, and followed the highway. More vehicles crowded the street, some piled up a story high. Creatures scattered at their presence, some glowing purple blurs darting between rusted hulks. Sable’s EFS labelled them a non-hostile yellow.
Mercury turned his head back to Sable. “I dunno about you, but after this I could stay for a real long time in the decontamination chambers.”
Sable laughed. “I get first dibs, right? This was my idea, after all.”
“I will fuckin’ fight you, Sable.” The humor was nice to have, but it was all just a ruse — a classic tool to calm the scared soldier. Sable was sure that Mercury was just as nervous as he was. His body was tense and his gut tied itself into knots unable to be untied. The lingering skeleton of Canterlot was nothing but a monumental graveyard, and he felt somewhere in the back of his mind that it was not a place they should tread upon.
“Okay,” Sable piped up. “I think that we — Gah! Wait, hold on.” His ears began to ring something fierce. It was more of an annoyance at first, but it began to grow harsher. He saw Mercury continuing onward, seemingly unaware to the problem.
“Merc! Stop!” As he yelled it, Mercury stopped in mid air to push a hoof to his head, and Sable’s helmet was filled with his screams.
“Luna’s shadow and all that’s — Gaaah!” He dove down towards the highway, making a nosedive.
“Merc!” Sable dove after him, tightening his wings together for an extra boost of speed. The ringing grew worse and worse, and so did Mercury’s screaming. The only thing he could do was switch his transceiver off just to have better concentration.
Mercury’s hooves and wings were latched onto his helmet as he fell, with his whole being struggling to pull it off. As Sable got close, he could hear his bloodcurdling cries from under it, desperate to be freed from the torture of this unholy wailing. With luck, Sable snatched his friend, only for the terrible screaming to return, causing his vision to slowly sink into a dull red. Mercury’s weight was tremendous, causing Sable’s exoskeleton to strain under the pressure, squealing madly at the stress.
“Get a hold of yourself, Merc!” He yelled out of his external speakers. “I got you!” As if on cue, Mercury fell silent.
The smell of copper filled Sable’s nostrils as he hauled Mercury away from the city, the noise slowly fading. With terrible strain, Sable laid him onto the roof of a bus, and forced the insectoid helmet from his head. Inside was a terrible flood of sanguine, gushing from every orifice on his face. Sable screamed in fright, bloody tears welling at the corner of his eyes.
“Merc! Merc!” He shook Mercury, hoping to whatever god there was that he’d be okay. Though he was bleeding, the flow had been stemmed, and he was breathing shallow. After a moment, he coughed, blood exploding from his mouth and nose. He pulled in a strained breath of life, bloodshot eyes wide and frightened.
“Oh Celestia! Oh stars!” Sable hugged his friend, tears streaming. “You’re alive!”
Mercury coughed again, splattering blood down the back of Sable’s armor. “Yeah, by the grace of I don’t know what the fuck.” He wheezed a weak laugh. “Glad these suits have built in healing units, or I’d be real fucked right now!”
Sable pulled back, wiping his eyes. “What just happened?!”
“Great question,” Mercury remarked, moving himself back onto his hooves. He spit more of his fluids out onto the roof. “But it sounded like it was coming from our helmets. Didn’t you see me trying to pull that thing off?” He looked at his, hesitant to approach it.
Sable went over to it and checked it out. Popping his off, he slid Mercury’s helmet on. The only thing different between Mercury’s and Sable’s was (aside from the terrible HUD color choice of yellow and noticeable bloodstains) was that his radio transceiver was still initiated.
“Give me a moment, would ya?” He called back, keeping his helmet next to Mercury. “I’m gonna try something out.”
Mercury was doing his best to clean all the blood from his face, rubbing it down with an armored hoof. “Take your time, I ain’t going anywhere.”
Sable took off. He approached the cloud again, and soon, the faint squealing started to ring again. Thinking he was at safe distance, he switched off the radio transceiver.
Fwip. Silence.
He switched it on. More squeals.
That tears it.
“So, two things,” he said as he landed back at Mercury, whose face was much cleaner. “One, I’ve fixed our problem.”
“Ah,” Mercury replied with a smile. “So there is a god.”
“But we can’t have our radios on.”
Mercury’s smile fell. “And she’s a frigid bitch.” He snorted and spit out bloody phlegm. “Color me surprised. Options?”
“I wanna go out on a limb here and say we can still use external speakers to communicate, but we can’t rely on radio transmissions.”
“You think it’s the Cloud?”
Sable nodded with a begrudgingly accepting face. “Considering there are actual rodents of unusual size popping about the backwoods, this isn’t an option I’d discredit.”
“Fuck me.” Sable unlatched Mercury’s helmet and passed it off to him. He rubbed a handkerchief through its interior. Satisfied with what he had, he pulled it back on. “Off to a good start.”
“How’s your poultice supply?” Sable asked.
After a moment of scrolling through menus, Mercury replied, “Half full. Painkillers are about a third down. I think I can survive a grazing and fill up after that.” He popped open the door to the injectors and Sable took a quick look, confirming it with a nod.
“Okay.” Sable nodded. “Let’s boogie.” He offered a hoof to his friend, who obliged. Mercury stood a little shaky, and tested his stability with some idle shaking of his hooves.
“Let’s boogie,” Mercury repeated.
Sable smiled. There’s my buddy!
As happy as he was to see Mercury up and about, Sable was on edge as they started again. His eyes darted to and fro, looking for anything that might come after them. The Cloud is now attacking us, he thought. Jeez, who knew the environment was literally working against us? If anything, it kept him more alert, more focused. More afraid.
If I knew it was this dangerous, I’d have told him to stay home. He must hate being here right now.
Sable took the front of the flying column as the city grew closer. The pink was faint from the cliff they were at a while ago. But here, close to the city, the haze grew thick fast. He was used to cloud mist and contrails from cloudships, but it paled in comparison to the fog that was the Pink Cloud. Shapes could still be seen, luckily. Buildings were obvious, and the general look of the city could still be discerned. But the sun was being choked here. By his suit’s clock, it was 10:24 Enclave Standard. But it felt like late afternoon.
They stayed silent, except for the artificial kee-haa of their respirators, their carbon filters unable to diffuse the flesh rot-ozone stench. Each breath tingled Sable’s lungs, fizzling like the static of a numb limb. The aftertaste of blood faintly touched his tongue.
The sounds of yelling and savage roars echoed in the cloud, like the beginnings of some untamed zoo. He took in a deep breath to try and steady his pulse. We’re not alone.
The Starlight Terrace approach was the aftermath of an unmitigated disaster of unbelievable proportions. The traffic jam on the highway was a terrible prelude to the result of the evacuation of Canterlot. A forest-like jam of cars were packed against the outbound lanes, and as they flew closer, showed to be a mass grave, with the litter of pony corpses lying lame in the pile.
While they passed over the pileup, Sable’s EFS went off like crazy, painting his display in a terrifying red hue. Undead ponies still stirred under the wreckage, moaning for… Well, if I were in their position — release.
This place was once a beautiful approach to the city, lined with then modern architecture, a seamless blend of pre-industrial curvature and natural lines, seamlessly embedded with cantilevered and boomerang designs, while sporting the colors of Canterlot’s gold-purple-white aesthetic. Long stretches of grass and dead trees gave glimpses of the pastoral feeling that was intended. But this beauty was stained with mummified ponies, bloodstains, vulgar, blasphemous graffiti and the unnatural decay of the cloud poisoning its flawless beauty.
Sunshine Boulevard did not lose the car clutter. They passed barricades and checkpoints, where it countless firefights broke out in days past. Ad hoc, post-war shacks and barriers were erected, perhaps in some futile attempt to stay the flow of the Cloud, but did not stem the tide.
“I’m starting to regret coming here,” Sable noted, looking back to his partner. As he twisted his head back, his eyes darted to the wine-red rolling clouds swirling around them. “In a sense, I’m getting the feeling that we’re being watched.”
As he said that, he could have sworn a patch of fog was pierced to his side, the whiff of cloudtrail following an unseen entity. He instinctively dipped closer to the ground, falling just at the height of most roofs of the city, about five stories up. The sight of the boulevard grew clearer, the detail of its decayed hulks heightened and enhanced with the more gruesome sight of the desecrated corpses sticking out of them.
He suppressed a need to puke up his rations.
“After hearing all that shit down there, I think the whole city has its eyes on us.” Mercury scrunched whatever neck was showing from between the helmet and the body, the squeaking of rubber barely audible under the air whip. “But — thank the stars — At least we have the advantage of blasters on our flanks. I bet most of these savages are chucking spears or digging their teeth into each other.”
Sable shook his head. “You said the same thing about the Appaloosan —”
“Yeah, yeah!” Mercury shouted. His voice was shaky. “Yeah, I know, and then they had guns. Celestia! I hate it down here!” A horrid, gurgling cry rang near, echoing off the dying buildings. “Hate it.”
Sable scanned the cloud cover again, looking for any more breaches in it. His ears focused on his robotic breathing, helping him focus his vision. He looked at his EFS — Nothing. Is this cloud fucking with my sensors? Another thought crossed his mind: Is the cloud fucking with me?
“Merc, are your sensors alright?”
Mercury was silent for a moment. “Looks green to me.”
Sable cursed under his breath. Squishy stone crumbled away from a facade near them, falling with an unnatural soft, heavy thump onto the asphalt roadway. His breath shut with a comical zip as he forced his lips shut in response. The chunk landed on a sturdy looking truck, causing it to casually crumple into a heap of twisted metal.
The savage cry shouted up again shortly afterwards, causing Sable to slow down.
“Sab,” Mercury started. “It’s okay. We’re alright.”
“For now,” Sable replied, his breathing erratic. “Something is out there, in the cloud!”
“In the cloud, are you serious? I’m not seeing anything on my EFS.” Mercury looked around, his helmet moving like a hellhound surveying its territory. “Doubt we’d have a Wonderbolt coming after our stupid butts.”
“Whatever it is, just keep your eyes peeled. We’re not alone out here, and it’s starting to freak me out.”
Mercury was at a firm sort of calm. “We’re almost at the Quarter. Halfway there. If we kick up the pace we’ll be out of this dump by sundown.”
Sable beat his wings faster, accelerating. “That’s a good idea. Doubt anything can catch up with us.”
“We’re pegasi, pal. Nothing can take us dowOOF!”
There was a sudden shout, like the wind was violently knocked from Mercury’s lungs. Sable quickly turned in place, seeing a blur of pony launch Mercury through the crumbling wall of a nearby building. Mercury’s cries were drowned out by a crazed roar, blood thirsty and hellish. They smashed into the wall with a terrible explosion of dust and rubble, and their fight echoed within.
“Merc!” Sable called. The combat carried on and boiled, their screams of battle growing more violent. As if on instinct, Sable looked to his weapons menu and charged them on. The blasters started to hum, their tone deep and menacing. The tips and ventilation slots glowed a deep blue. Sable scowled, steeled himself, and charged in.
It was the wailing that first caught Sable’s attention, which gurgled and exploded from the monster like a bursting cyst. The creature was sickly and worn like a piece of leather, with sickly patches of purple splotched over its skin. There was once blue fur over its body, but it refused to grow. It may have been pony once, but this ghoul had long taken its place.
It was trying to crack into the shell of Mercury’s armor, whacking its broken, cracked hooves on the composite plates with strength unseen on a normal pony. Mercury screamed in terror, overwhelmed by the literal zombie digging at him, thirsty for his blood. But after Sable flew through the hole Mercury and the ghoul made, the ghoul focused its attention on him, and went on the attack.
Without hesitation, Sable squeezed his jaw together, eliciting the unholy blue fury of his energy weapons with a satisfying, bassy kathuum. The barking weapons echoed hard in the room, magnifying the impact of its expulsion.
Only one of the projectiles struck home, streaking down the side of the creature and through the wall behind it. It exposed newly heat-scarred ribs and separated the ghoul's coffee cup cutie mark in two. The ghoul’s lack of recoil surprised Sable, considering a blast like that would incapacitate even the toughest of ponies — But that hesitation was enough for him to be tackled, falling flat on his back amidst another tainted croak from the ghoul.
As they fell, it gnawed on the end of Sable’s chamfron, trying to break through the respirator. With some finesse, Sable was able to roll with the impact, and launched the creature at the ceiling with a powerful kick. Forgetting that the building was still somewhat malleable, Sable blasted it through with all of the force he could muster. All that remained was debris falling through the hole.
He fumbled back onto his hooves and rushed to Mercury, who was just barely erect on his forehooves, dazed. He whimpered through his external speakers, “My wing is broken!”
Sable wrapped his forehooves and wings around him, helping to stabilize him. Before Mercury could give thanks, rumbling sounded from below them, accompanied with more barbaric yells echoing up the staircase behind them.
“We’ll deal with it in a few,” Sable shouted. “Just get your guns heated up!”
They quickly positioned themselves at the door, the only exit of the rectangular room. Soon after, the shouts joined them, with what felt like a thousand hooves rumbling the whole building. They poured into the room, scraping and gnashing at the doorframe, gurgling their undead battle cries. But with the preparedness of the two pegasi, the ghouls proved to be no match. In what was probably the first time in two centuries, these creatures saw colors other than pink shine in their vision as an onslaught of neon reds, purples and blues singed the air, barreling through the fog like torpedoes through the water.
Sable yelled savagely through his controls, his vision tunneling. A continual wave of bass and laser cut through the stampede, blowing through the ghouls with little effort. It felt like hundreds were willing to face this wall of fire, climbing over each other and the bodies that began to pile. Their charge was utterly relentless. But it only took a few moments, ending only when the wall around the doorway collapsed onto the ghouls with a dulled crunch.
Sable continued to fire, and was only stopped by the sudden shaking of his armor. Before he could return to fire, he stopped suddenly, only to see Mercury’s glowing orange eyes through his helmet’s visor. Mercury backed off suddenly, anticipating Sable to run him through with his blasters. But, Sable held back, loosening his jaw so not to accidentally kick off his guns. His breathing was quick and shallow, but began to slow as the adrenaline eased itself from his system. He nodded to Mercury, telling him he was okay.
Without speaking, they looked to the doorway. It was a horrific sight, with the pile of bodies sitting cooked by the superheated energy, lightly smoking with an accompanying stench and sizzle of meat. Severed limbs and gore splattered across what remained of the doorway and the ceiling, coating every surface with a sickly off-purple goo. It visciously slid from the walls with the consistency of tree sap.
A sudden tightness squeezed at Sable’s gut. Before it was too late, he furiously unlatched his helmet and doubled over, regurgitating the remnants of the morning’s rations.
“Sab!” Mercury cried out, wrapping his unbroken wing around Sable. Sable hyperventilated, spitting bile between breaths.
“You okay, Sab?”
Sable nodded, slowing his breathing to keep his innards in order. His lungs burned with each breath and he yearned for his helmet. “I’ll be fine," he flatly replied, replacing his helm.
They walked over to the bodies, seeing equines of all shapes and sizes laying static, in various stages of decay. They were all wingless, with and without horns, and of different ages. A shiver slowly crawled through Sable’s body when he approached, locking eyes the corpse of a teenaged stallion. It stared deep into oblivion, long before the body should have. He grimaced, but didn't want to look away.
Who were these ponies? Sable asked himself, feeling that nausea creep over again. What lives did they live before it all ended? He looked away, folding his ears back under the helmet. His gut tensed as a wave of shame washed over him, regretting he even helped in the carnage — but he knew in his heart of hearts that this was probably a godsend for these ponies.
To be alive for so long, losing their minds like this? The thought terrified him. I think I might’ve done them a favor, as horrid as it is to admit.
Mercury was having the same thoughts. “Poor bastards,” he muttered. “I hate to even say it, but I think they would’ve wanted this.”
“I know I wouldn’t want to be stupefied and feral like this for two hundred years,” Sable agreed.
The pile all shared the same characteristics of the first ghoul, with that same leathery-patchy look. Some had more intense glowing spots, and curiously, some had their skin fused with clothing. Sable bent down and inspected one, who had a Stable-Tec technician’s uniform on.
“This is kinda weird.” He gingerly tapped on a leg. He felt a twinge of discomfort prodding the corpse. “You seeing this?”
Mercury nodded, who was doing an inspection of his own. “Yeah. It's a little freaky. What do you think?”
“This is all clothing — Do you think the fibers have some sort of effect with the Cloud?" Sable pulled back up. "Maybe they fuse with biological matter, or something?”
"You got me, pal," Mercury shrugged. "It sounds like some sort of chemistry experiment gone wrong."
“This might be a symptom of extended exposure. I wish I knew more about the Cloud's composition to give us a clue. But we need to be very careful — Speaking of which, let’s take a look at that wing.” Sable beckoned Mercury over, who came to his side pensively. He whimpered trying to extend it, but couldn’t go all the way. The armor wasn’t hurt in any noticable fashion, aside from the odd dent.
“I’m feeling it near my shoulder,” Mercury said. He tried to flex it again, but flinched after he barely extended. “Sweet Celestia, it hurts!”
“Then, quit trying to move it,” Sable scolded. “Can you unclasp your armor real quick?”
“What? Can't we fix it without doing that?"
Sable shrugged. “I need to at least apply a splint while the poultice helps you heal. The exposure won’t be long. Also, pop open your ass plate, I’ll replace the poultice while I'm thinking of it.” He then cursed under his breath. “And we need to figure out a better path to the shop.”
Mercury obliged, causing the armor to split apart neatly, splayed apart to reveal a terribly warped limb. The upper bone, the humerus, was swollen and disjointed. Sable, mortified, twisted his face, feeling a phantom pain in his own wing. He snapped a few spokes from the back of a nearby chair and offered one to Mercury.
“You’re going to feel some discomfort.” He wiggled it near Mercury’s snout.
“Some discomfort?” Mercury’s helmet decompressed and he slid it off.
Sable crooked his brow. “Do you want me to tell you the truth?” Mercury shook his head, his brow scrunched together with concern. “Good. Now bite this.”
Mercury slid his tongue around it, and then clamped down. With some expert movement, Sable quickly twisted the bone as straight as he could. Mercury stamped a hoof, fuming through the spoke-bit, doing his best to keep from exploding in a scream.
Quickly, Sable took the other spokes and wrapped them in a magical bandage in the jury rigged splint. The bandages should help with the healing, Sable noted while Mercury curled the wing back into place. Sable then replaced the potion just as fast.
Mercury spit the bit out, which was heavily indented with bite marks. “Next time, just let me die,” he quipped after a belabored groan. After he pulled his helmet on, a faint hiss sounded. Magenta cloud jettisoned from a vent on his side.
“You’ll get better,” Sable said. “Next time, land on your ass — it's a a little sturdier.” After he said that, he coughed. He tasted a hint of blood.
“Well, you saved me again, so, at least I’m with somepony capable.”
Sable weakly chuckled. “As capable as a virgin in a whorehouse.”
He looked around the room after they shared a laugh, trying to ignore the corpses. He was curious to find any more evidence of the flesh fusing, but ended up walking to the other end of the apartment, browsing the decayed remains of whoever lived here.
It was a fairly well-off location, and were it not pink-tinged, would’ve been a fair example of pre-industrial aesthetic, made of woods and plaster, augmented with the post-industrial amenities of electric appliances. Bookshelves lined the walls, cluttered in materials long since rendered incomprehensible by time. Many pictures hung — some painted, some photographs — many with the same two earth ponies in them. The couple who lived here were prolific, as Sable found a well-worn paint set and photography kit near the kitchen. As he passed them, his fur stood up on end, and he couldn’t explain why.
He did find a few things somewhat fused together — Noticeably a stove near an open window which was awkwardly congealed with a tipped over blender, which might have suggested something else at play. All he could surmise was that it wasn't just flesh that was at risk of this ailment.
Mercury's call to him echoed from a hall adjacent to the kitchen. He was positioned in front of a door, the only one shut in the apartment.
"I got a locked door over here," he said, motioning to the doorknob. "I'd kick the thing down, but since we already blew up one wall, I might not try and risk having the apartment collapse onto us."
Sable nodded. "Good call," he said. "Though, I appreciate the confidence in my ability — You know I'm still crap at breaking locks." He bent down in front of the door and two articulating arms jutted from his hooves. He slotted them in and began to work.
"Eh, you have a better eye for this than I do. I can extract a secondary bypass gyroscope from power armor, but Luna forbid I try and open up my hooflocker after forgetting my key."
Sable had only recently developed a knack to play with locks. It first grew in interest after Mercury lamented about it, became a skill to develop after they had the plan to fly to Canterlot. He only had enough practice on a few lockers on the Overcast, so the majority of his experience came from the wasteland. He was lucky power armor had built-in lock picking tools — holding the tools in his wings was a much more difficult task. This was really more a task suited to unicorns.
It took him a couple of tries — thankfully his tools were sturdy, lest he'd snap them against the tension. On the fourth attempt, the lock popped with a satisfying click, eliciting a victorious laugh. He turned the knob and opened up. Looking in, he gave pause.
Inside was a long dead couple in the midst of an embrace on a bed, their eyes squinted shut for hundreds of years. Though their mummification made them look ancient, the photos of them suggested they were in their twenties. Once happy, before that old war.
As they walked in, Sable approached a computer winking on the far side of the room, near the bed. Mercury kept his gaze on the couple, his whole body coming to a stand still.
"Merc?" Sable piped up. Mercury lagged before turning his head to Sable, silent. Before Sable could speak up again, Mercury shook his head and looked to the floor.
"I'm sorry, dude," he said distressed. "I need to... " He halted, and his voice choked briefly. "Stars, I dunno. Look at them. Maybe we shouldn't be here. I think they should be left alone."
Sable hesitated. “I want to agree, but look around you — These ponies were artists, don’t you think? It’s been sitting here for so long, and nopony knows who they are.” That same gooseflesh feeling returned. “We’re going to blow this place up. Then, nopony will ever remember them. We should do something!”
"That's not what I — I mean..." Mercury sighed. "Fuck it. You know what? I'm gonna look for some supplies before we make the next move. You do your thing."
Mercury stormed out, and were he able to so, would have slammed the door behind him. Sable kept his gaze on the door with a scowl. But he softened his gaze. He placed his oversized hooves on the two dials that acted as the keyboard, turning them in place to access individual letters and to scroll through the screens. There was no encryption, but there were files innumerable. Journal entries, correspondence, notes and much more. Years of entries were on the hard drive, and unfortunately, many were corrupted.
But the most recently created file wasn’t. It was dated just a few days before the lance shattered, addressed only as, “To Brushdancer:”
Long have I found the ways
From the riverfront to the mountainside
To see your face for countless days
And never will my heart subside.
From the ages of the world all told
Til the day the earth will die
I know my body will grow old
But not my loving, not my pride.
When you give your final sigh
I’ll remember you until the end,
To some other’s loving eye
Never will I ever bend.
Sable’s ears folded back, looking back to the old couple on the bed. He stared for a long time, wondering. He had so many questions about this pair of lovers. What were they like? How did they meet? But he returned to the computer, empty. He knew he’d never find out.
He attached the data cord from his onboard computer to the console and downloaded the poem. After he took it, he left the computer where it was.
He spied Mercury trotting out of the bathroom with his plunder: a bundle of bandages and a half-used vial of swirling red potion.
"You alright?"
Mercury didn't say. Instead, he asked: "You find anything?"
Sable shrugged. “It wasn’t much, unfortunately. Mostly corrupted files — But at least I found who the poet was in the family.”
Mercury’s brow furrowed and he looked away. “What was it about?”
“Here, take a read.” Mercury came to his side and plugged the data cord into his suit. He was silent while reading.
“I think this was his last words to her,” Sable noted after a short while. “It sounded like she was dying when he wrote it.”
Mercury kicked a rotting book to the side wordlessly. He stood in silence for a while, stewing in his thoughts. Sable was about to speak to him, but not before Mercury dug his head into his shoulder. Mercury's respirator expelled an unstable kee-haa pattern, pulling in and out unstable breaths. Sable could only wrap a wing around him.
Sable felt Mercury’s body pulse. The suit was too bulky to feel the heartbeat, but he saw the convulsions of a body that cries: the heaving breaths, and the digging into his shoulder, hoping to disappear from existence. The whistling wind and the creaking of the building were the only sounds of comfort.
"I miss Neffie," Mercury cried.
Sable nodded, understanding his feelings. Nephele was a mare that he missed just as much. The strongest of their once unbroken trio, adventurous and headstrong.
Not to mention beautiful, supple, funny… He sighed within the helmet, keeping quiet like his friend. He kept his tail from wagging as he recalled countless memories. I know you grieve, Merc, but I would throw myself into the pits of Tartarus if you knew about us. His skin crawled with the thought. I’m so sorry.
A secondary objective of his trip to the surface was to help alleviate Mercury's berievment. They had always known a soldier, from the front line combatant to the radio operator, had a duty to serve, and that service also meant the threat of death. After the post-engagement reports of Maripony came in, Mercury was on the edge — The hours after, he had kept his chin high, worked the flight deck as well as he always did. But Mercury had his ways to cope after work. They weren't always healthy. Once they learned the Operation was finally put in motion, Sable knew this would be the best way to get Nephele's death off of his mind.
Good to know I dropped the ball on this one.
They sat for a few moments before Mercury’s head rose.
“Thanks, Sab.” He nodded to Sable. A sniffle crackled through the speakers. “Half the time I’m wanting to die, and the other half… I dunno.”
“Yeah, dude. I know how you feel.” Sable’s body tensed up, thankful his visor was still darkened while he looked away from him. But his head still was cloudy when thinking of her. “We’ll get through it.”
He looked up at the clock on his HUD. 11:38. “C’mon, pal. We need to figure out where to go next.”
Mercury nodded, steeling himself with a determined scowl. His visor went dark again. “You’re right. But as you said, we need to find a better path into the city. I mean, we were just gonna fly in, but that plan went hoofs up.” He motioned with a hoof at the skyline, falling in and out of sight between the passing Cloud. “If you can get a good view of the roads, you might be able to find a relatively easy path. The map has the road network on it, but we can’t be sure if they’re all open or not.”
Sable stared out, nodding. “I think that if we follow the boulevard, we'll be slowed down by the wreckage. The side streets might not be as congested.”
He turned back to Mercury. “I really don’t want to go without you. It could be bad.”
“These guns rip through just about anything.” Mercury patted Sable’s shoulder plate, his voice still weak from his crying. “You’re going to be okay. I’ll hang around here for a little bit.” He looked back at the pile of corpses next to them. “Maybe even tidy up.”
Sable smirked behind the helmet, sure that Mercury was doing the same thing. He offered an armored hoof, which Mercury bumped.
Sable chuckled nervously. “Okay. I’ll be back soon. Don’t get into trouble.”
“No promises.” Mercury gestured with his body back out into city. “Now hurry up, daylight’s burning.” With a nod, Sable approached the hole, crouched down, and pushed himself out into the sky.
Canterlot chilled Sable. Surrounded by nothing but swirling Cloud, it was like gliding through the dreamscape of some forbidden evil. Its tendrils were the dilapidated buildings below, poised to grab him at a moment’s notice. With his heart racing, he opted to fly just a little higher, hoping to not test that theory.
Not to mention those ghouls can jump from buildings and be fine, he thought.
Still flying within Starlight Terrace, the modern architecture was still here. But they were on the border of Gemcutter’s Quarter, where the pre-industrial architecture was more prevalent, including the apartment building Sable flew from. A noticeable delineation was detectable from the air, jagged from street to street, switching between the styles with irregularity.
As the city passed below him, more of that street-to-street carnage could be seen, jammed with wrecks, bodies, and unfortunately, roving bands of those ghoul mutations. His EFS sparked frequently, his worry growing.
He glided over a feral tribe as it entered melee with another, abound with the shouts of combat. The final squeal of a dying ghoul followed him as he passed. He looked away grimly. I hope that isn’t going to be us, he thought.
He shook his head, dismissing it. Of course it wasn’t going to be them — We’re wearing some of the best Enclave tech ever to exist. If anything, we’re doing these ponies a favor! We're allowing them to pass onto the afterlife — Or whatever these wastelanders like to believe in. He tried to chuckle, but didn't find the strength.
He sighed, doing his best to calm his nerves. It’s convenient to joke about sending somepony to the other side, but one slip up, and he’d be passing on, too.
He craned his head around, scanning the urban sprawl. He wasn’t wrong when thinking the boulevard would be a slog to traverse, as the traffic was total carnage. Looking below him, the side streets weren't as clogged, and a noticeable string of roads were relatively clear.
Being an ancient city, Canterlot didn’t really adhere to the city configurations that came after it, which grew naturally over the course of its long development. Unlike from the industrial roads that bore through it, roads were like tentacles sifting through a pre-war ocean reef, finding the path of least resistance.
If they weren’t careful, or their maps were somehow disabled, navigating the maze of streets would be a lot more dangerous. But time was a resource they couldn’t afford to lose. Jumping up and around cars on a crowded thoroughfare would be far slower.
He noted these paths down on his map as he flew over, marking waypoints on intersections with a quick double blink with his right eye. His path was akin to connect-the-dots puzzles he’d seen on pre-war coloring books.
He hovered in place while noting the final mark, nodding with approval. He took a quick glance at the river to the north, and at the bridges that crossed it. He considered the bridges had been destroyed, which was partly true — While two of the main bridges had collapsed, the central one had not, and from his angle, reinforced. Advantageous for them when the time came to cross, which piqued his suspicion.
Also suggests there might be somepony maintaining it, he mused.
He also noted the proximity they would be to the massive white obelisk they saw before entering the Cloud. It was across the river, obscured by massive spires that served as the core of the city. The obelisk lagged in and out of sight as thick rolls of Cloud tumbled before his vision. If they could see it as a point of interest from the ground level, then it would be a good navigational aid if things got hairy.
He then took some time to review his map. However, as he did so, his screen looked a little off — while zooming out, it looked like his visor had a layer of paraffin wax smeared over it. Sable scrunched his neck back, and carefully scraped a hoof over the cloudglass. He tried again after it didn’t work.
When he moved his head, it was like he was looking through a piece of unrefined glass, the light shimmering and contorting through it. He reached out with his armored appendage and tried to touch whatever it was — but before he could even press the hoof to the form, the glass moved.
His brows shot up and his eyes widened. “What the —” Before he could even say another word, his whole body was contorted, manipulated by a purple aura of magic. He sucked up a surprised breath, causing him to cough furiously between exclamations of “Wh-! Hey! Stop it! Not cool!” His wings were splayed out, and his legs were fiddled with. He felt like he was being posed like an action figure.
He furiously darted through his menus and reactivated his weapons. As the deep humming resonated from his guns, the aura quickly dissipated. He was dropped, causing him to flap furiously to return to his position.
“Now, c’mon! That’s not a way to say hello!” He craned his head to and fro, his guns following his gaze on their gimbals.
“Hello, pony,” a feminine voice replied.
Sable glanced down, seeing the shimmering mass of what he assumed to be a pony. But, a pony with magic and flight? The jig is up! The Enclave found us! They must have some advanced Wonderbolt after us! He then shook his head, surprised that an Enclave agent decided to speak before attacking him. “Look, miss — I know we jumped our post, but I have a very good —”
“No-no, pony,” the voice interrupted. “I am not someone you know — Whatever 'post' you may have lept over is of no concern of mine!”
The invisible figure’s effect melted off of her body from front to back, dripping off her silverine tail. She was big. Huge, compared to him. He had met some tall pegasi in his day, but this creature was something else.
Her — Sable was sure it was a mare — coat was an azure color, but her right hoof was completely bare, just skin. But what struck him was her horn, sharpened to a deadly point. His heart beat into overdrive as his eyes drifted across this elegant form. An honest to the stars alicorn! I can see why wastelanders worship the princesses — It’s like looking at a god!
Sable, slack-jawed, could only umm and uhh as a response to her emergence. The alicorn slowly orbited Sable, occasionally tapping her horn against the plates.
“I have never seen a pony dressed like you before,” she mused. Her cadence was slowly paced and selective, like she was not completely fluent in Equine. Her eyes scrutinized every detail of his armor. “Are you a pony, I wonder?”
“Y-yes!” Sable spat, following a slight wheeze. He straightened his tone and untinted his visor. “Yes, I am. I may look sorta bug-like, but I’m a flesh and blood pony under here.” The alicorn hovered around him, taking in his gear. “Have you never seen a pony like me before?”
“Mmm, if you are a winged pony, then yes. From afar. It had guns on its side, like you. Funny hat. It had a friend with armor similar to yours, but it did not fly.”
How old is this alicorn? Sable asked himself. It sounds like she’s talking about some pre-war partnering. He shivered at the thought. It sounded terrifying to live so long.
Sable asked, “Have you been following my friend and I?”
“Yes-yes,” she responded. Her face briefly scrunched up, like she was admonishing herself. She closed her eyes and refocused back to Sable. “Yes. I first thought you were polyps, but you were not. I was then tempted to destroy you.”
Sable gulped.
“But it is okay. You do not seem to hunt polyps.”
“Oh,” he said flatly, surprised at her admission. He continued: “What are polyps?”
“Oh, you will see them. Do you know what a jellyfish is?” Sable had to think hard. He had heard of them, from a long time ago. A fish made of gelled matter? That sounds about right.
“I think I do?” He admitted.
“Good-good.” The alicorn nodded. “Do not kill them —” she scowled and her eyes narrowed, causing Sable to go wide-eyed “— for I will rend you from existence if you do.”
As soon as her grim face appeared, she became cheerful again, giving Sable emotional whiplash. “It was nice to meet you, pony. I should go now. Watch out for polyps! They like to hug! Bye-bye!” She quickly cloaked again as she sped off, her little silver tail the last thing to lose its color.
He hovered there, tracing the path she left behind as she retreated back into the clouds. He felt nearly out of breath, and his heart raced like a speeding sky tank.
“What —”
“— The fuck?” Mercury exclaimed. His lopsided eyebrows showed he was just about to toss Sable into the loony bin. “There’s an alicorn out there? No way. No absolutely fucking way.”
“I’m serious, Merc. It was an alicorn. Light blue, silver mane, goes invisible. I think it’s what I saw in the clouds!” Sable exhaled loudly, still reeling from the meeting. He bolted back to the apartment, rambling about what he saw. Mercury had to calm him down with a good shake of his armor. “And on top of that, there are these things called a polyps out there? There’s another thing we have to look out for.”
“There’s an alicorn! I thought they all were killed after the war! Are they related to the princesses?” Mercury groaned. “And what the hey are polyps? Are they hunting us?”
Sable shook a hoof. “No, dude. Just” — he sharply exhaled — “It’s okay. If we haven’t seen them yet, then maybe they like to hide. But she said they hug, or something, so we shouldn’t try to make them aggressive.”
“Alright, alright,” Mercury responded. “We’ll keep eye out for ‘em. Not like we already have enough to look out for.”
“If anything, we have — I dunno — some kind of guardian angel out there. She didn’t shoot me or stab me, but just gave me a once-over.” Sable chuckled. “Kinda funny looking back, actually.”
“You’re lucky she didn’t dismantle you after threatening you. If the legends are true about Celestia’s powers, then she must be incredibly dangerous.”
Sable nodded, agreeing with his friend. “Yeah, but I’m still here — and she gave me a warning. Who does that? Not some raider.”
A pregnant pause followed, broken by Mercury’s hmm crackling through his speakers. “I guess. What are the details on the path you found?”
Sable connected himself to Mercury’s computer. “Good of you to bring it up — I’ve compiled a set of waypoints off Sunshine Boulevard and through the side streets. They look relatively open from the sky. The only thing we really need to look out for is what’s going to kill us.”
“Well, I’m halfway to death,” Mercury noted. “Least I could do is take a few out while my wings are being gnawed off.”
“That’s the spirit!” Sable motioned to the hole with his wing. “Alright, let’s go.” He walked up to the opening and assumed the launch position, but not before Mercury cleared his throat a few times.
“Sab,” he said plainly.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
Mercury gently wiggled his broken wing. “Can’t fly.”
Sable hung his head. “Sorry. Let me take point, then. Keep your guns on, too — I think that it might save our skins if we just keep them ready.”
Mercury cocked his head to the side. “Won’t that drain our gems quicker?”
“Yeah,” Sable replied. “But, one: We have spares. Two: these things have a power exchange rate that’s good for at least a few days. I think we can handle a day of extended use to keep us living just a wee bit longer.”
Sable heard Mercury puff his cheeks from the static generated by the speakers. “Okay. I’m right behind you.” While Sable moved next to him, Mercury offered up his hoof, which Sable returned with a solid bump. “After you.”
“Quite the gentlecolt, mister Petty Officer Mercury!” Sable bowed dramatically. “Doth thou wish to taketh me through the Gala?”
“You’re gonna regret saying we should keep the guns on, pal.”
Sable giggled, trotting past him. He was happy to see that the bodies at the doorway were disposed of, afraid he’d have to step over them. They were lined up neatly on the walls, with makeshift veils thrown over them. He was surprised to see that Mercury found sheets that had survived the centuries.
“Oh, Sab. Just a heads up,” Mercury piped up. “I think I saw a building collapse down the street — It might give us a little trouble getting to the first checkpoint.”
Sable nodded. “Shouldn’t be too bad. Might be the only real difficult climb we’ll have.”
As he passed through the standing door frame, he looked back briefly to the door hanging on by the last hinge. 2232 Sunshine Boulevard, Apartment 408, he mentally noted. Thanks for letting us remember you, Brushdancer and company.
Mercury gave him a quizzical look. “What’s the hold up?”
Sable shook himself. “Just noting this place. I dunno, man. It’s just a bummer we have to level it...”
“We don’t have any say in the matter,” Mercury said succinctly. “Which should inspire us to hurry up so we don’t get caught up in the crossfire.” Sable nodded, moving ahead.
They descended the stairs into an unholy darkness, light choked away by the Cloud and the undamaged exterior walls. Their guns’ glow silhouetted them against the walls as monsters haunting the stairwell. Soon, their headlamps flickered on to expose the decrepit interior, which was just as bad as it was upstairs. The wallpaper had peeled long ago, and holes were dug through the interior walls. The floor was covered in shattered ceramic and glass, along with piles of refuse littering every corner. Sable was surprised how often he saw this look across the wasteland — But it made a shiver crawl up his body every time, reminding him how truly wild the world was.
Sable took a peek into one of the other apartments, noticing just how well lived in it was. It was less of an apartment and more of a nest, presumably occupied by the ghouls who charged up the stairs earlier. It was strange to see the debris as a large bed, and made him briefly melancholy — He didn’t really think creatures would have a post-feral life after their conditions developed, but it seemed like they were like any other animal.
It made him think again of the apartment’s residents upstairs. So many lives forgotten by the ravages of the war, discarded like the husks they blasted apart just half an hour earlier. He had no choice in the matter, as he recalled — He sighed. Well, it’s our fate too, I suppose.
The boulevard outside was worse on the ground level. Looking up, the skeletons of the buildings around them were more harrowing, like tombstones of ancient, dead titans. Their silhouettes loomed over the road as watchful guardians. Down here, the light struggled to shine through the many layers of the Cloud. The pavement cracked like a dried riverbed, and the rusted cars were the old, smoothed rocks the river once passed over.
The struggled squealing of metal echoed down the street as they walked, accompanied by the occasional thumping and groaning of stone and creature. Ahead of them, his waypoint pointed straight into a thick, deep red miasma, at least a hundred feet high. He could barely see it at first, but this was where the building collapsed. The pile of rubble that spilled onto the road was a story high, at least, that’s what he could see on the street level.
Wow, Sable mused. The Cloud is so intense here. Could it have built up because of a lack of ventilation? He chewed on his cheek in thought as he hesitantly approached. It looked like a solid wall compared to the looser Cloud around him, but he wouldn’t let it slow him down. He steeled himself and began to climb.
His breathing grew noticeably harder as they entered the thick miasma, which he kept thinking was because of the climb. He tried to suck in more air, but the more he did, the more copper he tasted on his tongue. He coughed again, it becoming a consistent string of hacking and wheezing. What in the hey is going on?
“Sab, are you good?” Mercury called from behind. He coughed too. “Do we need to stop?”
“No,” Sable called back. He pushed himself to keep going, taking another strained step. “Let’s just get through this crap and we’ll talk then.” As he said that, a miniature potion icon winked on his HUD, flashing yellow — Low potion. Seeing it, he was perplexed, as he hadn’t been hurt. He quickened his pace, climbing as well as he could over the mountain of rubble. The pull on his body was hard, like he was trotting through a wall of molasses.
He coughed harder. His waypoint was so close, sitting just outside of whatever this thick eddy was. But all he wanted to do was sit and rest. Just a moment, he convinced himself, lowering himself on the crest of the pile. I can handle a little bit. His breathing was weak and overwhelmed his senses with the stench and taste of blood, causing his body to shake in response. His chest felt like it was transforming into concrete, seizing in pain.
Before he could close his eyes, his whole suit was shoved hard, enough for him to stumble down the onto the inverse slope.
“Get up, Sable!” This took Sable by surprise — Mercury almost never used his whole name. “Get your ass up. We’re almost there.” Mercury pulled on Sable’s chassis, forcing him up. Sable could hear Mercury wheeze while he did.
Sable expelled another terrible cough. Mercury kept him steady as he struggled to rise. He was thankful the servos in his suit amplified his movement, allowing him to stand. Mercury pushed him, forcing their suits to whine at the force.
“C’mon, Sab! You’re almost out!” The two slid down the rubble, kicking up clouds of dust. With some balance, they were able to coast down the slope and out of the thick Cloud. Sable tripped on a jutting brick and landed on his side, causing him to expel a globule of blood into his rebreather.
The potion icon flashed a fierce red. Without a hesitation, he opened his poultice injector and crupper, collapsing onto the pavement.
“Merc,” he called weakly. “My poultice has run out.”
“Hold on, pal. I’ll see what’s up.” Mercury looked in, and pulled his head back in shock. “Luna’s shadow, your poultice is drier than —”
“Change it! I don’t care about —” He didn’t finish the sentence as he fell into another coughing fit. Without speaking again, Mercury quickly dug into the crupper, and pulled out a fresh poultice. In a few moments, he clipped in the new potion, and Sable’s HUD lost its glowing red icon. Quickly, his body eased, and the pressure was lifted from his chest. His next breath was deep and greedy, desperate for more, even if it smelled like death.
“Sab, you okay?” Mercury asked, coming to Sable’s front.
Sable nodded, squeezing his eyes shut as his anticipated another bout of coughing. But it was only that wheeze. It was slight and bubbly.
“I think I am.”
Mercury offered a hoof to him. Sable reached for it, but hesitated. Just a moment to rest, he reasoned to himself. It wouldn’t be — No! I have things to do! Get up!
He grabbed the hoof, and pulled himself up with a groan. He steadied himself, and then looked down the long side street, leading to the second waypoint. There wasn’t a large amount of that deep, dark cloud down there, but he would have to stay vigilant.
“What happened?” Mercury asked. He put his hoof onto Sable’s shoulder. “Are you going to be okay?”
Sable shrugged, still a little disoriented from the literal suffocation he just experienced. “I think it’s the Cloud,” he replied. “I don’t think our respirators are filtering out whatever the heck is in it.” He pointed to the dark red mass behind them. “And that thick shit isn’t helping us, either. We need to be more careful about it.”
"More careful! It's getting a little hard to do that.” Mercury quipped. He looked ahead to the road. “You think that thick Cloud could build between the buildings?”
Sable walked over to him, testing his balance. The suit naturally helped him, its internal gyroscopes allowing him to keep steady. “I wanna say… maybe? I mean, if we’re in a real tight space, it’s possible. But considering there’s ample ventilation down here, I think we’ll be okay.”
They stood silent at the head of the road. Sable wasn’t sure if he was awestruck or afraid, but his body shook. The Cloud cover ahead swam and swirled, strangely inviting the pegasi to explore. A few faint glows winked in and out of sight, and the hazed passing of creatures showed them what was ahead.
The two stallions look to each other, sharing a moment of silence. Sable’s wheezy breath crackled his speakers slightly, and Mercury nodded to him. Sable’s gut tensed, the deep abyss of the road putting his whole body on edge. His whole being told him to make about face and just fly home. He looked back to Mercury.
“Before we go in, Merc,” Sable said after a minute. “A question?”
“Yeah?” Mercury replied, mesmerized by the path ahead.
“What does a jellyfish look like?”
