Once upon a time in a horrific wasteland that was once the beautiful land of Equestria...
I limped up a hill, going along an old beaten down trail from centuries ago. I could no longer hear slavers behind me, but that didn't mean that they weren't still there. Trees sprung up around me, dead and leafless for ages now. Yellow grasses swayed in the slight breeze as I made my way up.
Pain throbbed in my leg as I climbed up. The task became more and more difficult as I continued, not only due to the pain, but also the clawing hunger in my stomach. I hadn't eaten for days, the only reason I was alive was the mix of drugs the slavers had given me previous to my running away.
I heard the breaking of branches and not daring to look back, I ran harder, my hooves pounding against the hard packed earth. "You can run, but you can't hide, bitch!" A slaver shouted at me after a BANG! A shot whizzed past my ear.
I knew the shots weren't deadly, they were tranquilizer bullets designed to take back any runaway slaves like, well, me for instance. In the distance I saw a small Stable-tec building, relief filled my body. I recognized this building, it held a control panel for a stable. Which stable, though? Could I be trotting into something deadlier than the slavers behind me?
Taking the risk, I raced to the panel and slammed the big button reading 'elevator'. I swiftly ran back out and tripped onto the gear shaped pad as it retracted into the ground. I heard shots being fired and a slaver jumped onto the pad right before a hatch shut behind us. He was unarmed, but attempted to grapple me, to which I responded by turning and bucking him, causing pain to shoot up my leg. Adrenaline pumped through me as he let out a cry of pain.
I felt a hoof sharply come down on my back and it was my turn to cry out as the stallion pinned me down, putting his front hooves on my shoulders and keeping me down. Fear filled me as he struck me again, this time in the head. With all my might I flipped over, throwing the slaver pony to the floor just as the door opened. I galloped into the stable which appeared to be empty.
That's when I saw it- the perfect weapon- an adjustable wrench with rust on the head, I grabbed it with a magical aura and turned around. The slaver was right on my heels and I slammed the wrench into the top of his head with a thud and a crack. The slaver, disoriented, took a swing at me, but missed by a wide margin.
I hit him again, this time in the side of the head. With one more heavy blow to the head, the slaver fell down, his breathing shallow, and his eyes closing. I had just knocked him out, nothing too major. I smashed the door's controls in hopes that it would stop any slavers attempts to get in before continuing into the hall below. I went down a long hallway and into a chamber lined with pods. It was cold as all high hell and I found myself shivering.
The glass on the pods was all fogged up. I looked on the monitors by each one and saw signals that I assumed kept track of vitals all of them showing no signs of life, except for one. I wiped off the glass with my hoof, and kept an ear out for slavers, the wrench still held in my magical grasp.
Inside the cryogenic pod was a male griffin with a strong hooked beak that looked lie it could tear me apart. His open eyes were a gleaming place an amazing color here, and his feathers were onyx black. I went to the panel by his pod and read the buttons carefully, again and again, while listening for slavers before realizing that there was a lever labeled 'release' right above it. I pulled it and with a pneumatic hiss, the door opened and the griffin fell out of the chamber, shivering more than I was.
"Hey." I said, waving a hoof in front of him. The griffin seemed dazed, and didn't respond. Now that I could see him up close I noticed his front was all black, and when the light hit his feathers, they reflected greens, blues and purples he was built bulky and muscular, and he wore a tight blue suit that looked vaguely familiar. He looked powerful, capable, in comparison I must have looked miserable.
Suddenly there were several sets of clanging on the door. We needed to get out of here, and fast.
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Footnote, level up! New perk: Heavy Swing. When swinging a melee weapon or use any weapon as a melee weapon for that matter you do +25% damage!
"Cliff, Cliff, wake up." my mother's soft voice said gently as she shook me a bit. I opened my eyes and saw the mare I had called 'mom' ever since I hatched. I rubbed my eyes with my talons, yes, talons, I am after all, a griffin. "Good morning, sweetheart." the cream colored pony said with a warm smile.
"Morning, mom." I replied with a yawn. I threw off my blanket and got up, unfolding my wings and stretching out. "What's for breakfast?" I asked, trotting over to my dresser and searching for my favorite hoodie.
"Eggs, hash browns and your favorite, chocolate chip pancakes." My mom said pleasantly as I rummaged through my dresser, to no avail. Maybe my hoodie was in the wash. I followed my mother to the kitchen where a beautiful smell hit my nose. My dad, a retired Steel Ranger, was talking to a stallion in a tan fedora and trench coat.
I paid no mind and sat down at the counter where there was a plate of food ready for me. I wolfed it down as fast as I could, choking a bit in the process. "Ummm, guys, you might want to see this." My sister, a small unicorn filly with a white mane said apprehensively. She turned up the volume on the tv as Dad shut the door.
"Bombs have been dropped on several locations, and we don't know where they might strike next-" The pony on the television screen said before he was cut off and a screen that read 'technical difficulties' showed up, the sound of static strong in the background of our stunned silence.
"We need to go NOW!" my dad broke the silence, flinging open the door and making sure al of us galloped out before him. "Cliff, fly ahead of us, make sure you get to the stable up on the hill they've been building." Dad told me grimly, taking my sister onto his back as he and Mom ran as hard as they could. Other citizens of Concord were emerging from their homes and heading for the stable.
"Oh, hell no!" I defied, running alongside my family. "There's no way that I'm leaving my family behind!" I may have been adopted but that didn't make our bond an less valid or real.
my father smiled and nodded before looking forward again. We raced up the hill and met a chain link fence guarded by two stable-tec security ponies. "Are you on the list, Miss?" One pony asked a mare who was trying to get in.
"List? My word, shouldn't you just let anypony in?" She asked incredulously. The stallion gave her a stout no as the pony that was on our doorstep earlier gave him a clip board and ran off to attend to something. My father came forward to the other security pony and put down my sister.
"Hi, we're on the list, Harrings?" He asked quickly. The security mare looked at her stallion partner who had the clip board. He nodded to her and they opened the gates, much to the outrage of many ponies who were gathered by the fence. My dad gave a heavy sigh as we followed instructions from a mare who shouted from a small structure.
"Get on the platform, everypony!" She shouted, I could tell she was starting to go hoarse. We stepped onto the platform and it started to lower as a flash of light went off in the distance and a green mushroom cloud went up, and a wall of dust swiftly made it's way towards us. There were screams of panic, cries of despair and then the hatch closed above us, blocking out all noise.
My sister started to cry. "Daddy, why did all those people out there get left behind?" She asked, starting to sob. My sister had always been a kind soul and couldn't stand the notion of others in pain.
"Because ponies can be cruel." He answered, a single tear running down the fur on his cheek. At this I had to fight back tears of my own. I really hated how awful the beings of this planet could be, not just the ponies and zebras. Dragons and griffins were greedy, ponies could be discriminatory, and zebras were... Well, I don't really know. I've never met a zebra, much less enough zebras to make a judgement on the whole of them.
The elevator ride smoothly ended and a set of doors opened without a sound. "Alright, single file." A mare wearing glasses and a strange device on her forehoof, who I assumed ran the operation, directed us, pointing towards another pony who also had one of those devices. The pony wore a lab coat and was giving us blue suits, showing us the best way to put them on. When it was our turn we were told to pull it over our haunches first, then up our torsos and finally we slipped out forelegs into the sleeves.
The suits were skin tight, yet comfortable, with a big yellow number 111 on the back. I assumed this was the 111nth stable they had built, but I had no idea why they had to broadcast it on these stable suits. "This way." Another scientist pony with goggles said, leading us down a passage way and into a chamber. "These are decontamination pods, they'll eradicate any disease causing agents you may have carried down here with you."
My dad nodded and backed into one, my mother and I followed suit, using the ones next to him. My little sister, still red eyed and teary backed into the one next to me. Once all the pods were filled, the glasses mare from before pushed a button on her control panel and the doors closed before us.
A gas filled the pod and suddenly I felt cold, I started to shake and I looked on as the mare walked by us. I got colder and colder until I couldn't move, I couldn't really think either. Then, I blacked out.
I slowly came to, shivering but standing well enough. It crossed my mind that decontamination was quite a process. "Hey." A gentle voice said. Suddenly there was a banging on the door. I shook the cloudiness out of my head but the world didn't come into focus for a good little bit. In front of me was a half starved unicorn filly with a white mane, and a lavender coat. Light blue made it's way to her knees from her hooves and covered her muzzle and chest. The filly's horn was long for a mare's and her eyes were a warm brown. The mark on her flank was a sparkling heart, what that meant I had no idea.
"We need to hurry!" She told me, leading the way hurriedly down the hallway, in the opposite direction of the exit.
"Where are you going, the elevator's that-" I was cut off by more clanging from behind the door that led to freedom. "You know, maybe that way is the best way." I said before following the little pony. She opened the other door, but I stopped. "Wait, I need my family!"
I raced to the control panel and hit the same button the glasses mare used to close the pods and they slowly opened, releasing clouds of white gas. That's when the dead bodies of my mom and dad fell out of the pods. I slowly walked to them, paying no mind to the sounds coming from the door and tried to wake them up. I looked around at the other pods... Empty aside from two more dead ponies.
"Wh-where's my sister?" I asked the filly. "Where's the Stable-tec staff?" Questions bubbled to the surface of my mind, but I shook them away.
"Staff? They've been dead for centuries!" The pony exclaimed. "And never mind that, come on!" At another series of bangs I followed the pony down the hall. We went past several labs, it came to mind that those pods may not have been for decontamination.
We came across two doors, one wouldn't open and the other was opening and closing so, it'd be very difficult to get past without getting squashed. While the filly worked on the non opening door, I had an idea. With my talons, which I always kept sharp, I pried off the face of the control panel. I watched the door as I sliced a wire, causing a small shock to travel through my body. The door slowed considerably but did not stop. This gave me hope.
"Hey, I think we can make it through this door now." I said to my new friend. She turned around and put down the wrench she had been using to attempt to turn the door's control switch.
"Good, cause I had no clue if what I was doing would even work." The unicorn said. She got into a position to run, but I stopped her before she had a chance.
"Let me carry you, I'm probably more able than you are to get past this door." I said, looking at the ribs that showed under her coat. She let out a sigh and agreed. "Come on." I bent all my knees so she could climb on my back. When the unicorn was comfortable enough I waited for the door to be halfway open before charging through, ending up safely on the other side.
The filly tumbled off my back and stood up. I hardly noticed, as I was staring at the skeleton on the ground in front of me. It wore a tattered lab coat and there were several cracks in the bones. "It's like I said, dead for ages now." The filly said.
Sadness blossomed in my chest, weighing heavily on it. "All my friends and my family are gone?" I asked, my heart sinking and shattering. I felt forelegs wrap around me and hold me tight. Well, tight as she could anyways.
"I'm sorry." The filly said to me. "I don't really know what it's like to lose family, but I certainly know what it's like to be sad." I wrapped my arms around her in return and let a few tears slip by. Everyone I knew... Everyone I loved or even remotely cared about... Gone forever.
The unicorn pulled away. "You know, we were never properly introduced, I'm Darling Charms." She said. I knew she was doing her best to distract me, so I went along with her efforts. I extended my claws for a shake and used the other to wipe my face off.
"I'm Cliff, Cliff Harring."
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Footnote: Level Up! New perk, Bladed Heart, You've been through some trauma, but not to no avail. Words will never penetrate your fierce heart and you now do +25% damage with bladed weapons, including those claws of yours.
