Jake

The rumbling of a car wakes me. The dryness of my insectile tongue painfully sticking to my mouth as I slowly peel it away makes me groan. Then I almost whimper as I feel a throbbing across my entire body, aching and screaming for what I had given. For a long moment I wonder if this is what dying feels like. Even worse, I can feel a concentration of love nearby, a tangible substance I’ve only discovered a few days ago, now something I’ve become a slave to. I must’ve made enough noise to alert my ally...or captor, I’m not sure on that point yet. Luckily he breaks the silence fairly quickly.

“Hey, you’re finally awake. We’re just about to cross the border out of this crazy town.” The voice belongs to Tarsal. Opening up my eyes the world appears slightly gray, a rich pink haze floating through the air around him. He has eaten well, and recently. I feel the car pull over to a stop on the side of the road and he sighs. “Go ahead, just try not to kill me. I harvested from the hospital before we left. I need you alive after all.”

I can’t hesitate. The manipulation of the alien organ in my jaw coming naturally as I pounce and tear at the aura, sating the urge from such a small stockpile feels like just inhaling bread crumbs, but at least it’s something. Time becomes meaningless, only interrupted when I feel a firm blow to the side of my head snapping me out of my frenzy. “That’s enough!” He pants, looking tired from the whole process.

“Sorry...” I mumble, nursing the bruise. The pain is actually a welcome distraction from the hunger, if only a slight one. I have to get a hold of myself. To lose control of myself, like some sort of animal...it was terrifying. If having to live like this is the norm now, struggling against the lurking animal of starvation, no wonder they want to get out of here.

“Sorry means nothing, we both did what was necessary. We’ve all felt the hunger, we all do, constantly.” He takes a long shaky breath before turning back on the road. “I didn’t lie to you back there. I just...omitted certain details. In Equestria, where the changes happened, there was a lot more magic and changelings going through it together.”

I force myself to a standing position to at least look at him, half wondering if I should put on a seatbelt. “You were counting on me being knocked out, planning to drag me away all along without a protest.” He doesn’t reply immediately, his long sigh already confirming the truth.

“You need to get through the portal. As you said, if you stay here you’ll do something you can’t live with. You stated your terms, whether or not you’ll admit it, you know it was the right choice too.” He pauses for a moment. “Unicorn is in the back, resting.” Not taking his eyes off the road.

“I want you to remember this feeling.”, Tarsal continues. “Know what it’s like for all of us here, including you. You really think we can live like this? Spending every minute of every day in agony? Right now it's only uncomfortable, but a few days it’ll start to drive you mad. Then think of it over years, among hundreds forced to suffer by staying here. The others, the ones born or made here don’t know that there is a better life out there. Those of us hatched from the real Chrysalis remember how much better it was there. Still starving, but at least a decent meal once every few weeks...and the raid on Canterlot...so many of us feeling the pain abate for just a few moments. Before that invasion all failed horribly and we were left worse than before, but still. It was beautiful.”

“You know that sounds like a twisted cult’s fantasy right? Your obsession over fighting that pain together, look where that’s led you!” I squirm a bit in my seat, wondering if I should try escaping or something.

“Pain is our strength. These people are led by corruption, by others who seek to rule over them. But the pain of the hive unites us. We all feel it. We all endure it, even the Queen. It’s how we know her interests are always our own. Shared pain gives us unity, trust. These humans and ponies have nothing to fight for but themselves.”

“Pain makes morality blur through desperation. Your rash and violent actions justified at the mere thought of your own suffering. Shared pain? Your hive murdered children! At what point does the need for our own survival become outweighed by the atrocities we commit?”

“You think any species is any different? Just look at these humans, at least when we commit such atrocities, as you call them, it's for basic survival. You want to talk about barbarians? Think of all those who hurt others for nothing more than profits and gain. Wars waged, millions killed over resources these people didn’t even need. At least the changeling’s fight has always had a noble goal, however much you may detest our methods.”

“Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to be better.” I reply, as much as I hated to admit he had a point, not a good one, but a point, as sickening as it was. Our conversation is cut short though when I see flashing lights up ahead, the car grinding to a halt as I make out the form of police cars in the night, blocking the road. Not only that, but several military vehicles as well.

“Faust.” He curses under his breath. The car grinds over the gravel as he turns us around. “This isn’t going to go well.” The engine roars as he speeds us back down the road. “We need another way out of this, perhaps we can drive a ways out and fly over them. It’ll be a bit of a long flight though.”

“But what about Artemis? They’re hardly in any position to walk anywhere, could we even carry them?”

He rubs his forehead with his fingers and sighs guiltily. “Yeah...about that…”

Artemis

I wake up to a throbbing in my head, but feeling much better than I had before. There is an officer sitting in the chair next to my bed. A bit of a bigger gentleman, in a fit way, not a fat way. He seems to have fallen asleep though, a remote in his hand for a TV left playing the news. My hand shakes as I reach across my bed to get some water, still feeling a bit weak from what I assume to be blood loss and the drugs, but still functional, as I lean back and listen in on a little of what the news anchor's saying.

“Earlier today, several media platforms reported latency issues on multiple servers before the wipe occurred. Several thousands of videos and posts across Youtube, Facebook, and various other sites have been purged. Evidence points to a server failure occurring from a series of power outages that caused a cascade of failures across their shared networks. In other news, police are on the lookout for a white van in relation to a drive-by shooting that left two young boys dead and several others in critical condition. One has been identified as an ex-military member, the other two have not yet been identified. A motive has not been identified and officials have refused to release additional information as the investigation is still ongoing, though several terrorist groups have claimed responsibility. Up next, strange events in a small tow–”

The TV and lights turn off at once, and the thrumming of medical devices grinds to a halt. The hallways are quickly filled with staff moving about, the sound of flurried activity waking up the officer. A little under a minute later the lights flicker on again. “The hell is going on?” He glances at me, seeing me awake. “Stay here...I’m going to take a look.” He draws his gun and leaves the room.

I hiss as I lean forward, feeling the stitches in my middle pull at the torn skin. I can’t see my wounds under all the bandages and gauze, but I know it's going to leave a monster of a scar.

“We got a nurse down over here!”

I flinch at the suddenness of the officer's voice, and for a brief moment I’m back on the grass in front of the school. The knife drooling crimson and–.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

I snap back to the moment and see the heart rate monitor beeping angrily at me. I’m sweating heavily and my pulse is racing. “Fuck!” I slam my good arm against the bed with frustration. Then several more times for good measure before trying to get my hyperventilating under control. I just need time and I can get over this. I feel the memory just lurking inside my mind, threatening to come out again at any moment. The look on his face, the memory of that blade piercing my skin haunting me.

The officer comes back into the room, but then takes one look at me and yelps, staggering back. “Kid, I don’t know what the hell you are doing, but you need to chill.” He says tensely and quietly. I then notice his gaze is a bit northward of my eyes. I follow it to my horn, glowing intensely and emitting sparks.

I close my eyes and try to relax the new muscles? Organs? Whatever it is that has sprouted onto my head. I can feel the flow of energy swirling up my horn, the sensation giving me a huge case of déjà vu, but from a time I can’t really remember. How much did they...err...me use to know about how to use this thing?

“The power for the whole city has just been shut off. No one can get a phone signal either, the internet is severed everywhere, even our radio signals aren’t being rebroadcast on the towers.” The officer relays to me, his weapon still drawn. “All our communications have been cut off. I don’t need to know who it is to know what they’re after.” He looks me over, his eyes lingering for a few moments on my horn. “I need to get you out of here, can you move? Redmond told me a little about what’s going on, which isn’t much. How are...how are you feeling about all this?”

“Physically terrible, mentally...worse. Moved to this town, turned into an alien, abducted and stripped like a common animal, then realizing said animal was what I’ve always been.” I say bitterly, not even mentioning the stabbing and much too familiar memories from a fairy tale. I feel my horn spark again at my frustration before taking a deep breath, trying to keep it down. My heart races as I struggle not to just burst into sobs, but I know the dangers of staying here for whoever is coming. I simply nod, not trusting my voice.

“There are government officials out there who are aware of the situation, they’re willing to offer protection in return for some information, people Redmond can vouch for.” He looks outside at the rushing physicians and nurses. “I promised the captain that I’d let you choose. They may or may not know your name yet from others who saw the incident.”

“I need...I need time. Can you give me a hand?” He gives a pained empathetic smile, offering his hand to me.

“Maybe, from the look of you, you likely won’t have a hand of your own soon.” I offer my feeble grip to him and he clasps my arm, taking out the IV and the rest of the equipment. The machine beeping wildly, but the rest of the medical staff is evidently too distracted to do anything about it for the moment it seems. Simply moving to a vertical position makes the world sway beneath me, but he catches me, holding me firmly. Up this close, I can see pain in this man’s eyes. At his touch I can feel the tension in his chest, the strain and fatigue of his body making him nearly as tired as I am, he clearly hasn’t slept. Sharing his symptoms with my cursed talent is nearly enough to make me pass out from feeling double.

He more or less drags me along with him, my legs making just a bit more than a token effort to keep up. Each time one leg stretches out more than just a little it tears at my stitches, his pace isn’t a merciful one either, accelerating as we go, several steps forcing a whimper from my lips.

“I know it hurts, but whoever is coming they’ll be here soon. If we don’t leave now, then we won’t be leaving at all.” I’m too busy gritting my teeth to be able to respond, just leaning against him a bit more. My eyes water, as I hope that I’m not ripping anything. If I knew how to use this magic properly, maybe there is a healing spell I could cast, but all I have is the slowly encroaching wave of memories and nightmares that consume my sleep.

We take the elevator to ground level, despite it being well into the night there are a few people waiting around. I don’t really have the concentration to focus on anything other than trying to walk, feeling intensely self-conscious of my state and appearance with the people around us.

“Unicorn?”

We both pause for a moment, my head searching for the source of the voice. To the side of us is a little girl who appears to have been crying for some time. A few blinks to clear the water in my eyes and I recognize her as the little girl that I’d been drawn to that had caused my cutie mark to appear. I try to think of something to say but before the words can leave my lips she’s clinging to my leg and sobbing.

“Th-they took my wings! They stole them! P-please get them back for me!” The little girl is quickly pulled back by her parents, both of them looking towards me with confusion, apprehension, then anger.

“You? You’re the one that caused all of this?!” What I assume to be the father steps forward, clenching his jaw as he stares at my horn and my hooved feet. “I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing here, but you stay the hell away from my daughter, or there won’t be pieces of you to stitch back together.”

The officer holding me aims his pistol at the couple. “Back away sir, final warning. Whatever happened here, we’ll figure it out later, we’ve got bigger problems ”

The man glares but retreats back to his daughter. The older couple quickly lead the girl back away before I can think of what to say. What did she mean...wings? What happened after that wave? I can’t believe I never thought to check on her after what happened. It had just felt instinctual at the time.

“You know what that is all about?” The officer asks, half dragging me out of the hospital. The few medical staff we pass try to tell me to go back, but either we are too determined, or they’re too busy to really stop us as we make our way out to the car.

“Not as much as I probably should. There is a lot of strange stuff going on, being part of it doesn’t mean I understand it though.” I wince as I slide into the backseat. “Got any pain meds?”

“Under the seat.” He replies, shifting the car into gear as we pull out of the parking lot. A bit over halfway down the street an entourage of black vans passes us by, headed towards the hospital.

“Where to?”

I think for a few moments as we drive, considering my options. All potential choices seeming to point away from town and everyone in it. I take a deep breath, steeling my resolve before answering.

“Home.”

Officer Redmond

I should be dead. In fact, I clearly felt like I was dying, and yet I remain. I’ve been hit at least twice by a sniper round. Even at what was likely a significant distance I felt my body armor pulverized by the munitions. I know as much because I felt each round hit my skin, they had caused half my body to vibrate like a chime. Even now, I can feel the crystalline wave spreading, making it hard to breathe from how it contracts differently from the rest of me. I’ve been laying here, pretending to be dead with my hand wrapped around my knife, waiting for them to investigate. Reinforcements have to be coming.

“This one is saturated, but they clearly didn’t take it well. The Mage might want them if we can keep them alive at least for another day. Some sort of weird bird creature I think.” They are just a few feet from me, picking over the other bodies. One of them apparently still alive, if their scuffling is anything to go by.

“What are you doing?! That...that bitch did this to me! Go after her!” I hear the clicking of handcuffs as they’re pushed against the ground.

“Oh, we’ll get her. One doesn’t simply escape the Crimson Blade.” They move closer, I hear their rifles poking at one of the guys next to me. I force myself to calm, feeling my heart slow along with my breathing. I’ll only get one chance, are they looking for the mutated as well? Why did that soldier look so surprised?

“Think any of these guys got infected?”

“I don’t know, but be careful. If they got enough they might spread it to you too. The gryphon likely has enough to spread.” They jab at me next with the muzzle of their rifle, my new crystal parts ringing like a chime under the body armor. “Huh...” They jab at me, harder this time. I know it should hurt, but I feel it less than the first one, the chime ringing out much louder.

“What’s that?” The other guy asks. I pause, wanting to hear what they know before I make my move.

“I don’t know. Looks like some kind of...crystal. Not something I saw in the briefing.”

With them distracted with the chatter I yank at the barrel of the closest soldier's gun forcing him to the ground with me, then twisting so his gun is pinned underneath me while pressing my knife against his throat. “Drop your gun or I slice his throat!” I order the remaining soldier as he trains his rifle on me. The others in their group seem to have already moved on.

The sound of his laughing makes me realize I’ve perhaps missed something. “Sure old codger, but you might die before they would.” He sets his gun aside callously, smirking as he steps forward. “You’ve got arcane sickness, not a pretty way to go. The curse of humanity, we aren’t made to handle it.”

“Why’re you telling me all of this then?” I say, forcing my hostage to stand as I take a few steps away. As a soldier I’d gotten comfortable with the understanding of my own death, then had survived long past that expectation. Once a mind has broken like that, and accepted their own mortality with such finality...it’s not something even time can heal.

“Because killing the only people who know how to cure you would be a very bad move.”

“Good thing I’m full of bad ideas.” I yank my wrist in one smooth, practiced motion, then let the body hit the ground. That smug expression sure leaves his face pretty quick. He scrambles back for his gun, reaching it before I can reach him. He manages to get off a single shot that makes the cancerous crystal ring before I embed the knife in his stomach, then yank it upwards, completing the act.

“Guess I lived after all.”

Mike

I did my best, I really did, but sometimes even our best isn’t enough. Just a few minutes of flight and my father’s body had gone limp. By the time I finally landed outside the ER his heart had stopped. I sat in the ER as the befuddled doctors and nurses did everything they could. CPR, Defibrillator, and even an attempted blood donation they started to draw from me. Alien biology being little more than guesses and long shots.

He was dead before they could even get a needle in me.

I could do nothing but watch as he passed, but when he did, I felt it. A wave of sadness and warmth that I’d felt before, from my mother. I couldn’t see him, but I knew he was there. “I’m sorry father, I’ve failed.” I sit here in the corner of the OR, on the cold tile, feeling my tears stain my fur. I need to get Artemis, they have a healing cutiemark, they can fix this. I move to the door, intent to find them, but am stopped by a nurse.

“You can’t go out there, there are people looking for creatures like you.”

“I have to find someone! They can fix this!” I shout through my tears, but she shakes her head, not understanding, the nurse even reaching down to pet me! I hiss and snap at her and she quickly pulls back. I can see the pity on her face, that pain behind her expression.

“You need to go, I can’t imagine how you’re feeling right now. But you need to run, we’ve seen things like you a lot lately, we know what happens when the suits show up at this part of the story.”

Deep down, I know she’s right. They’ve probably already grabbed Artemis. I give the nurse’s leg a squeeze, just needing to hold something. She flinches for a moment given my reaction earlier, but then slowly rubs over my back, reassuring me by whispering comforting words that I can’t be bothered to hear, but are comforting all the same.

The moment can’t last, the sight of my father’s body so close, and yet so far, hoping beyond reason that he would just wake up. I have to get home, I have to get away. This was all my fault, I made the call that brought him here. I agreed to go with those...those dead bastards. I take off down the short hallway back to the ER, then fly off into the night, feeling the darkness encompass me, my body turning to smoke as I let the moonlight take me. Over and over I feel myself bursting out of the moonlight, traveling what is probably miles in just a flash of light until my wings can move no more. I then crash into a sandy hilltop, and cry.

Angela

I’m seeing spots, each breath feels labored and my limbs ache. I’ve pushed my abilities too far this time. Even with my full focus, the car sways back and forth across the median line, our pursuers keeping just slightly behind us. Their multiple vehicles being used to block us off, forcing us into more and more empty lanes until we’ve been forced onto just one leading out of town without any places to turn off. My only passenger, Antoine, in the backseat and wounded, albeit minor, leaves us with few options.

My vision keeps going blurry, my yawns only making it worse. The adrenaline has long worn out by this point, just leaving a blanket of fatigue. I don’t even see them pull up alongside us. I just spot the front of their car to my left then the car turns, spinning off the road, a loud crunch is the last thing I hear as I fall unconscious.

When I’m back in the waking world, my senses come back in waves as I forget what was going on for several moments. Yet even as my senses return, everything feels blurred. Words I should understand sound alien and foreign, the ground in front of me rotating in circles. I can just make out the blurry face of Antoine above me, making some noise that I don’t understand yet. I eventually realize he’s shaking me. The airbag has gone off in front of me, given it all I figure I have a concussion, and a bad one.

“Angela! Come on, we need to move!”

I fumble for the gear shift, moving it into reverse and flooring it, but the only response is a very unhappy mechanical grinding noise that makes the entire car shake. Looking over the dash I can see the front of the car has been impacted heavily on my side. Given the concave look of the car and the pieces of metal torn from the axle we aren’t going anywhere.

“S-sorry...car.” I mumble, my words coming out with a distinctive slur. I fumble for the door before remembering my seatbelt, pressing around randomly until it clicks and I flop out of the door onto the ground.

The soldiers–no mercenaries are outside already, up near the road, their weapons trained towards us. I try to raise my arms, but just fall back over onto my hands. The moonlight giving me a better view of the blue fur coating my arms and I curse. “Now? Really...right now?” I hear Antoine come up behind me, starting to turn towards him. “It’s over Antoine, let’s ju–”

My breath catches in my throat as I feel a sharp blade pressed against my neck. “Take another step and I’ll cut her throat! You want her alive, you’re letting me go!”

Is he...is he really? No...he has to be bluffing! But why? To stall for time? But who would be coming to help us? “Antoine wha–” I wince, simply speaking causing the blade to cut into my neck. We’re in the middle of nowhere though, only a single other car even on the road. They’re heading toward us, perhaps they’d call for help?

“We have no business with you, our contract is on them. But harm our target again and you’ll see just how good our aim is.” The soldier speaking seems to be the most outfitted of the bunch, dressed in black, but they have a glove with a small red gem on the outside. “We’d maim her to kill a bastard like you anyday. This isn’t Hollywood, kid. Killing her you’d lose your only leverage, and we’ll just kill you after anyways.” They raise their gloved hand, the gem glowing as they point it at me and Antoine. “The only way you’re getting out alive is by our mercy, we aren’t paid to off twerps like you unless you get in our way.”

As soon as the glove glows I feel a sick feeling wash over my insides. I don’t know what has just happened, only that it feels deeply wrong. Like I want to vomit with some other organ besides my stomach.

The other car on the road pulls over to a stop, the leader signalling the rest of his group to stand down. I have to do a double take when I see who it is though. One looks like a well armed soldier, taking cover on the other side of the car and the other is the woman that chased us at the party. I’m clearly not the only one who recognizes her either. I can see the leader visibly pale as the others look at him with some confusion. Apparently he’s the only one in the group who knows her.

“Weapons down, dearies. I’d hate to make a graveyard for the poor medics to pick up.” She says, a glowing cylinder levitating in her hand and a scowl on her face.

“You can’t!” Their leader protests, looking at all of us. I silently wonder if I could sneak away while they do...whatever is happening here. “The Blood oath will kill you if you use magic outside the chambers!”

“You think I swore into such nonsense? The pact was already broken the minute your financier started selling magical artifacts to the highest bidder after I wiped the floor with him in ritual combat. The pillar binding us all to secrecy is nothing but rubble, magic should be a gift for all mankind, not for the pompous assholes to hoard to themselves.”

The leader raises his gloved fist, but the instant it starts to glow the lady makes a slashing motion with the conical mechanical looking wand in her hand and with a purple flash, his hand tumbles down to the ground, blood splurting from the stump of his arm as he falls down screaming. She looks at the other mercenaries, a few stare stunned, some turn to run but two of them raise their guns to shoot. One quickly gets dropped by the soldier by the car, but while the other gets manages to fire off a shot it deflects off of a translucent purple barrier the women had summoned before getting dropped like the first one. The woman winces, holding a hand to her head, her device’s glow considerably weaker as her barrier cracks then fades out of existence.

“Well? Get him to a hospital. Would hate it if he died before telling ol’ daddy I’m coming for him.” The rest of the mercenaries look at her, debating their options before grabbing their leader and running back to their car. The soldier from the car looks like he wants to still shoot a few of them, but steps forward with the girl into the ravine.

The mercenaries gather up their numbers, only about half a dozen of them remaining. One tries to grab their leader’s severed hand, but a threatening flash of light from the woman deters them of the notion. They wait for the mercenaries to head back down the road before coming over to us, with the enemy gone she looks a lot more tired... “You didn’t run this time.” She says, looking us over catching her breath.

I really don’t know what to do at this point, but Antoine finally drops the knife from my throat. “Who are you people?” I ask, staring a bit warily at her horn-shaped device. Now that Antoine has stopped trying to slit my throat I step away a bit as they approach, my wings spreading instinctively, moving away from Antoine a bit more at the same time, not really trusting him at the moment.

“That’s...a bit hard to explain, there are also soldiers and government operatives crawling everywhere for you. Now, to be clear, I’m not here to try to take you off somewhere, or perform crazy experiments, or whatever else you might think. My name is Nova, and all I want is your help in restoring magic back to our world.”

Tempest

“Hurry up.” I mutter under my breath, staring up at the patrolling guards. I don’t know when the next rotation is, but it’s very likely to be soon. “We go any slower and it’ll all be dry before we get our shot and then we’ll both just be dead.”

“If I had known this was the plan I might’ve reconsidered agreeing.” Petrov hisses under her breath, wincing in pain. The plan is slightly complicated, but a simple plan would be easy for the guards to see through. They’ve also already moved the rest of my squad to who knows where.

“Just remember what I told you and we might make it out alive.” I growl loudly for show, watching as she squeezes the cut on her arm, whimpering from the realistic pain as more blood drips over me.

Then I blast her. She flies back against the ground, a substantial snap sounding from her ankle where the manacle is holding her. I tense my expression to avoid showing a wince. I hadn’t anticipated that, but her screams certainly are convincing. The guards are enticed from their positions to watch, but as I assumed, are at orders not to interfere.

At least not yet.

Her hand shakes as she reaches for the controller that the dagger man had given her before twisting the dial and slamming a button on it. Electricity courses over my flesh through the manacles around my legs, the trail of blood matted onto my fur guiding it for the most part harmlessly between electric terminals. Despite that my teeth burn and my fur stands up on end causing loud snaps of charge. I’m not really an actor, but I know what a real scream sounds like. I charge my horn in weak, but showy blasts, lashing out at any and everything around me, screaming as I aim my blasts at her, only most of them missing. She still gets a few real ones.

Carefully counting down the seconds I make it look like my struggle weakens before finally collapsing within my restraints, feeling the full burn of the electricity near the end, damn that hurts.

“H-help!” She yells to the guards, likely showing them her bleeding arm as I had recommended. Her display is heartily motivated by her own pain. “I...I need a bandage! P-please! I’m bleeding out!” I resist the urge to grin as I hear the soldiers draw near, the tell tale sound of their boots against the tile telling me exactly where they are with each step, the rustle of their weapons making it almost too easy. “I...I did what you asked!”

“Did you get all of that?” One of them asks towards the direction of the camera operator. I assume they signalled nonverbally because they keep moving closer.

“The fate of a hero, unfortunate that you died from the wounds of your skirmish.” I hear the brush and clink of movement as the rifle rubs against their uniform. It takes only a fraction of a moment for my power to coalesce before I expel it right at one of them. The one I hit sprays ammunition from his gun across the room as his limbs spasm and their entrails drip out the other side of their chest, the other soldier adjusts their aim towards me, but isn’t fast enough, their fate similar to the other, though a bit less graphic as I hold back just a little. The smell of ozone and entrails fills the air quickly, a rather unpleasant combination. The camera operator grabs something out of their device and just runs for their life.

Petrov fumbles over their bodies, her shaking wasting precious seconds as her revulsion makes her hesitant to search the bodies for the keys. She unshackles herself. Then without hesitation turns and starts to limp away.

“You know there are more of them, Petrov. I know you don’t trust me, but you can trust that we both want the same thing right now.” She hesitates again, cursing quite colorfully under her breath, limping back to me and fumbling with my locks as I keep watch for reinforcements. Gathering my strength, not dropping my guard just yet. I can see the remaining guards, presumably the shift change, peek out of the hallway before rapidly retreating back down the hallway, probably waiting for us to come to them while they hold a more defensible position.

They must think we are going to take the only way out.

Now that’s just cute.

“You monster! You damn nearly tore my leg off!” She hisses, wincing as she lays on the ground, clutching just above her twisted ankle that is hanging in a way that I’m fairly certain is unnatural for her species. “You didn’t say you were going to kill them!”

“I don’t know the limits of your species. I would say it was an accident, but we both know that’d be a lie. If I erred on the side of caution we’d both be in the same position they are.” She presses her fingers to their neck, confirming the kill, before strapping on the equipment of the less-charred soldier. “Let’s just get out of here, the sooner I escape this nightmare the sooner I can get a therapist.”

“There goes my Friendship Grade.” I mutter, searching over where they stored the rest of our equipment. My scars leave me feeling vulnerable, my body a patchwork of war wounds, reminders of my failures and hard-learned lessons. Despite the pain from my burns, strapping on my armor is calming. My prosthetic horn takes a bit longer to find, but one broken safe later I find it, and stash it back inside my saddlebags. I can hear the sound of soldiers down the hallway, though the number seems suspiciously constant. Where are all the others? They aren’t advancing on my position as I’d expect jailkeepers to do, instead keeping back in their reinforced position. Now it seems they know a fraction of what a monster like me is capable of. “Stand back and get ready to move. This place needs some renovation.”

I aim my horn at the reinforced wall, charging it up as I unleash a blast, wincing at the ringing in my ears from the concussive force of it. Fractures coat the wall’s surface, but the metal bars are still holding in place. Another blast makes quick work of that, the edges singed and glowing slightly from the heat. The effort tires me much more than it should, despite the magical retention devices we had. Back in Equestria this would be almost effortless.

Petrov limps towards the hole, looking warily outside. The soldiers, finally getting a clue, begin to hustle around the back of the building. We’re a floor up from the ground, rubble from the blast having tumbled down and crushed some of their metal vehicles. I jump forward without hesitation, scouting our escape route. It’s dark outside, the buildings around us looking broken-down in disrepair. Like I’d expect from a ghost town in Equestria, but I’m still surprised to see them occupied. “C’mon already! We can’t give them time to reposition!”

She slowly crawls down the side as I hesitantly slap on my prosthetic, expecting us to need more sophisticated spells to escape. I help levitate her down out of necessity, but she still whimpers as she lands; my dexterity is not exactly perfect. “We need transport, can you get these doors open? You need to lift those metal pins.” I focus on them, then give them a hard yank, rubbing them free of their casings.

“Not th...nevermind. Just get in.” I jump inside beside her as she fumbles around grabbing at a device under the dash. I see her grab a hold of two wires. “Small spark right here, I mean the smallest you got and hold it.” I don’t question her logic and do as she says, for once following her orders. I hear the chariot roar and vibrate as I do so, holding it until she signals me to stop. She adjusts a lever on the side, and the chariot moves forward, squealing as we rapidly accelerate forwards. “Sit back and put that belt on, we’re in for a ride.”

I just grin like a maniac, feeling the power in the machine. “I have to get me one of these.”

Author's Note

Wow...this one took waaaaay to long to finish. I've had the rough draft since February and been working it over and over since then. Thank you all for being so patient with my terrible release schedule and continuing to read my random horsewords. Answering all the questions to try to make up for slow release.

A huge and gigantic thanks to Alsey and Golden Skies for helping review and pre-read this beast of a chapter. In addition a huge thanks to Hyreia for being such a great friend and helping me get this out.

To Aaron: How does he feel about these people that he has just met and their recently acquired powers? What makes him stick with them? Is any part of him jealous of their powers, or perhaps worried that he could somehow get infected?

I really don't know how to feel about everyone in our little group. Angela and Artemis just opened up an entirely new world for me, something out of a story book. Yet, with the attacks and hearing the story of how they actually came here I'll admit I'm starting to have second thoughts. I'm envious of these gifts of theirs, saying otherwise would be an obviously weak lie, but not so foolish as to throw my life away in pursuit of something I likely can't even have myself. What do you mean infection? Is there something they haven't told me?

To Nova: How deep into the government does this truly go? Who's in charge here? Who's going to take the fall, win or lose?

How deep? I think a better question is what is the highest government position that believes all of this. Attention into the subject has waxed and waned. Every time a little magic pops up people would look into it, but once removed from preservation the magic wouldn't last long enough to show to others. When the changeling's first assaulted a government facility a few years ago, a lot more people got involved. The big wigs in the pentagon and the president are aware of the threat and actively involved, but unlike us they know almost nothing about the nature of magic or how it works. As to whoever is going to take the fall? That's a politicians game.

Inspired by the wonderful Damaged I've started doing a few "Ask X a question." To help answer some reader questions from the perspective of the main characters. Feel free to ask any character a question for a chance at having it answered in the next!

Comments, as always are very much appreciated!