Chapter One: A long Night
CHAPTER ONE: THE LONG NIGHT
I miss how boring my life used to be sometimes, as a SSGT sitting in my barracks room just waiting for something to happen, when I wasn’t stationed in Alaska anyways, I was pretty lucky with my deployments there too, fortunately, I never got wounded by those dirty reds, until my last deployment anyways. Even though my MOS got switched and I was Voluntold by my lovely superiors that I was going to go to Infantry school to help our boys on the frontlines. After I got there the school time was shortened to get as many marines on the lines as the U.S military could. I was there for a whole year before they decided to give me a break and pull my unit back from the front so I could visit my family and decompress, needless to say, we all partied hard that night.
When we got back we learned that we weren’t exactly free to go home, they pulled us back so we could test some new equipment that some Tech devs were bringing out, namely the brand new armor system known as Striker, the S-55 an advanced suit of armor that encases the entire body and provides increased strength, and speed. The thing was an absolute ammo sponge, they trained some of the marines in my unit on how to operate it while the rest of us were taught how to make movements around the Armor using the firepower and the armor and we were also given Laser rifles but still in the standard configuration of a fireteam. Only ours would consist of the Armored marine now being the Grenadier and Heavy weapons specialist, I was the marksman of the group armed with a laser rifle equipped with a long-range barrel and sight. We also had an automatic gunner equipped with an automatic barrel. Then lastly there was our fireteam leader equipped with the standard laser rifle, with an attachable barrel-mounted shotgun.
After years of fighting on the frontline in Alaska and stabilizing the lines while the U.S government annexed Canada and the Army forced the annexation we finally began to see progress when the first sets of S-72 power armor started to see use in Canada and China. A few months after they began to deploy, my unit got ambushed by some reds in Alaska…I was the only survivor not without my own issues, I was found laying in the snow five miles from base bleeding out in the snow. From what I heard I very nearly killed the marines that found me. I was sent home afterward, after weeks of nightmares and some episodes I was approached by some agents that worked with a company known as Valor Tek. They told me about a way that I could get back into the fight. I wasn’t exactly happy since I just wanted to stay home at that point. I reluctantly accepted, it helped that my chain of command decided that they didn’t want to let me go from service yet and that it was either that or get put into a psychiatric care facility over in Boston.
Upon getting transferred to their facility I discovered that they wanted to put me into a program called the “American Way of Life Preservation”. That’s when I met a revenant for the very first time, a revenant is an individual which has been exposed to something called the Forced Evolutionary Parasite, or the FEP for short as well as radiation, what happens is that it reacts to their DNA, and somehow it makes them resistant to radiation it even heals them somehow, another effect is an extended lifespan although it seems to degrade their brain overtime and most lose their sense of self and become what we call “Ragers”. They enter an enraged state and attack people and consume them or they just go into a rage and attempt to kill. This effect doesn’t only happen to people however, It seems to also affect many animals in the animal kingdom.
The reason behind this program was to create stronger soldiers and extend the American way of life by discovering a way to force the revenant process and create revenants. They would even splice the DNA of animals with people in order to make the revenant transformation a guaranteed effect of the procedure, I was one of these unfortunate test subjects. Although at first, it seemed that for me it was actually successful as I gained the benefits with none of the side effects. As soon as the procedure was completed that’s when I heard it. The sirens seemed to be the only thing I could hear, as the world shook around me and everyone screamed it seemed to last forever. The walls cracked around me and as I watched them spread something hit me in the head and everything went black.
When I woke up the world was completely changed. Mutually assured destruction, everyone believed it would happen someday ever since the first atom bomb fell, and as it turns out they were all right. As America pushed the boundaries of technology, and the Reds further and further into their homeland the Reds decided that if they were going to lose then everyone else would lose too. No one knows for sure who fired the first one, but now all that matters is that it happened. I was one of the few unfortunate enough to survive the bombs. After many years of wandering the wastes and traveling all across the American wasteland, I learned that I wasn’t as safe from the side effects of the procedure as I thought I was. There was some kind of beast living inside of me deep in my subconsciousness. Sometimes this beast would escape and I would nearly lose myself to its lust for blood. The first couple of times I was able to keep it at bay and use its abilities to save myself and others from certain death, but eventually, it began to overpower me. I would lose myself to it and wake up either hours or days later. Eventually, it wasn’t just inside of me and I began to mutate outwardly.
I gained many companions over the years, and I even assisted some of them in saving the wastes from even greater threats than the occasional band of raiders or group of revenants. Unfortunately, I even watched some of my companions, who became heroes to the wastes, lose themselves to greed or power and take advantage of the weak or sometimes even the strong.
One day while I was down south around what used to be Texas something stranger than usual happened while I was on patrol for a group I joined called the Rangers, who worked for one of the wasteland’s greatest hopes the NAF (New American Federation). I was investigating a sound I heard that came from a nearby Tesla building when I discovered a strange device. Upon getting within five feet of the device it activated all on its own and some kind of black hole opened up and I along with a lot of the junk and rubble were pulled through.
When I woke up my head was throbbing and all I could see was the moon above me, although it wasn’t the same moon that I remembered. This moon had the strangest visage upon its surface, it resembled that of a horse or something like that. As I sat up and looked around I saw that I was in some kind of throne room that you might see in one of those medieval movies or tv shows. Except this one was old, very old, and falling apart portions of the roof had caved in and some of the pillars that once held up those portions lay on the ground. I was glad that my goggles instantly activated when the light level was low or I wouldn’t have been able to see much in this room, as I sat up to observe my surroundings I noticed that there were still some old tapestries and banners hanging from the walls or laying on the ground. I also noticed that there were two thrones on the dais at the end of the room. One seemed to have an image of a sun emblazoned on the backrest and the other had an image of a crescent moon. The civilization that built this castle must have been extremely old for their rulers to follow the sun and moon so closely.
I noticed upon getting closer to some of the rubble that it had very old scorch marks and the stone looked melted, my only guess was that they must have been attacked by some people with some kind of very powerful explosives, or they had thermite. This seems crazy to me because thermite was invented after the dark ages. After looking around the room I was even more perplexed by my situation, it seems that instead of showing off some of their regular armor they had some armor that seems like only small horses would be able to wear. This place was getting stranger by the second. I then decided it was time to make my way outside of the ruins, upon exiting through the surprisingly well-kept doors of the throne room I made it outside.
As soon as I got outside I decided to study the stars for a moment. Looking up I noticed one thing that gave me some hope, I could see all the constellations that I use to watch as a child. I also noticed upon looking at the moon that it was surrounded by other stars, four in particular that seemed to be very slowly aligning around it. I then decided to stop observing the sky as it was just disturbing me. There was a chance I was on Earth, I was on some other world, and that device must have been some kind of interdimensional portal of sorts. It was time to start looking for some kind of civilization and from what I could tell from looking around the castle grounds there was one ancient road that led through the ruins of what must have once been a proud civilization. From what I could tell from a quick glance the ruins of the homes or shops around the castle didn’t hold up nearly as well as the castle itself, all that was left of them was the foundation or just where the building once was. Traveling along the road eventually revealed a large chasm which was bridged by an old rickety footbridge that I could tell wasn’t very stable. I hesitantly and slowly crossed the bridge, with only a few broken boards, I was able to make it across where I was met with some very thick vegetation which was strange to me as it seemed impossible for the bushes to get very much sunlight because of how thick the canopy of the forest looked, there wasn’t a single beam of moonlight peaking through from what I could tell.
I didn’t like the look of it one bit so I un-holstered my trusty IF-54 battle rifle and kept it at the alert. Ready at a moment's notice for anything that might come through the bushes towards me, before heading in I turned the sensors on my Ranger helmet up so that I could hear even the slow crackle of a leaf being crunched underfoot, I also began to consistently activate the hostile scan. I learned early on when I first picked up this helmet that when you’re exploring a possibly hostile-ridden area even some of the stealthiest individuals can be spotted unless they have a stealth device. After traveling along the road through the forest for about twenty minutes I began to like it less and less with just how quiet this forest is. My sensors were picking absolutely nothing besides the occasional rock, or leaf under my own boots. Out of nowhere I heard a sound to my left, snapping my rifle in that direction I instantly let off a three-round burst into the bushes “PAT PAT PAT” it sounded off and I heard nothing, gladly I tuned the helmets sensors years before to deafen upon the retort of a weapon.
Upon approaching the bush I pushed the branches aside to inspect what I had shot. There was nothing there, I let out a sigh, must have been my imagination getting to me again. I then returned my rifle to the safe position before I turned to continue my journey through the woods. I moved for another hour and a half with more silence to accompany me, I really hate this fucking forest. Finally, I came across some scenery change, I found a clearing in the wood, and in the middle stood some kind of statue. Before stepping out into the moonlight I checked scans a couple of times, getting only clicks and no activation of the program I stepped out to check it out. From where I stood It looked like some kind of Pegasus with a horn rearing up on its hind legs, stepping around it I was at a loss for words. It was strangely expressive for an animal, it had a large grin with canine-like teeth inside the mouth, it wore armor on its hooves, chest, and head, its eyes were serpentine and it seemed like it was designed to look especially villainous. Almost like the people that designed it harbored some kind of ill will, maybe it was some kind of deity that represented evil or darkness.
SNAP spinning around in alarm I saw something in the treeline, a pair of glowing green eyes, then another and another and another, within seconds I saw around five pairs of green eyes in the darkness of the treeline. They weren’t moving however just watching me either waiting for me to make the first move or waiting for some kind of sign. How hadn’t I heard them before? I should’ve heard them before they even made it to the treeline, my sensors must have been bugging out from the device. The bushes began rustling as one of them charged through, I activated the scan program as soon as I could see it leave the darkness. The world came to a near halt as the creature was lit up by a red outline, upon studying it for a moment I discovered that it was some kind of wolf made out of wood. With a rating of ninety percent, I selected three shots for its head. I then switched to the next target, another wolf, the highest percentage on this one however was its front paws, I selected three shots for its legs. PAT PAT PAT the three shots impacted the forehead of the lead wolf and it exploded into splinters and some kind of green gas came out of it and hovered above the ground like a light mist. PAT PAT PAT the second wolf’s legs burst into splinters as well and it went down with a yelp.
The world came back into real time as the sound of the rifle ended. The other three wolves began to fully sprint at me from the treeline, these fuckers were easily bigger than the average mutant hound from back home, a bit closer to the size of a yao gui. PAT PAT PAT I sent three shots into the next wolf the shots impacted its lower jaw and its front right leg. The Jaw flew off into the bushes and the leg crumbled. PAT PAT PAT three more into the next wolf, they were getting a little too close for comfort at this point, it fell apart completely just like the first, the splinters landing at my feet. The last one leaped at me at this point, I dropped to one knee as it was flying over me and with a vertical buttstroke to its chest I sent it flying behind me a good ten feet. PAT PAT PAT I brought the rifle back up to my shoulder and dispatched the last wolf, this one didn’t crumble whatsoever and the green glow merely faded from its eyes. The other two wolves that I injured were lying where they dropped and whined helplessly. The mist from the first one I killed just faded away back into the bushes, that’s when I noticed it. The wood splinters from the ones I dispatched began to get dragged back into the treeline by some unseen force. I had seen enough spooky shit in my life to know that now was the time to get the fuck out of dodge. Pulling a frag out from my belt I pulled the pin and tossed it into the group of wolves that were injured as they began to seemingly reform their broken limbs. That oughta slow them down for a bit.
I was running through the forest along the road at this point completely unsure how long I had been running, every few seconds looking over my shoulder to see if they were tracking me. A couple of times I had to turn around and drop to the prone to cut them back down. This wasn’t good, I was wasting ammo on the damn things. I had incendiary rounds but I would rather keep those in case I ran into something a little more difficult to handle. If these wolves continued to be persistent however I planned on using either incendiaries or a Molotov on them. A Molotov was sounding more and more appealing by the second as well, maybe burning some of this godforsaken forest down too. That was until I spotted a break in the forest again however and what looked to be light in the distance, maybe the sun was starting to rise. I broke through the forest and came out into the light of the morning sun. I spun around and got into a high knee fully prepared for the wolves to come out following me. I couldn’t see them hot on my trail so I decided it would be best to swap to my laser rifle. I brought my sights up and sighted in on the trail behind me. Spotting the wolves in the distance I opened fire with slow accurate shots. BRZZT BRZZT BRZZT BRZZT upon each landing of the lasers the wolves instantly fell into piles of ash. I sighed and holstered the rifle along my thigh.
I laid back on the ground and stared at the color-changing sky, the rich purples and oranges from the sunrise changing over to a solid light blue. I took that as my chance to breathe for a few minutes, I didn’t know how long it would be until I got that chance again. Sitting back after about fifteen minutes I decided to take a look at my immediate area. I didn’t spot much besides what looked like a small village in the distance. Finally civilization, I had to take a look even if that look was through the sights of my IFAM-50 anti-material rifle. Finding a hill just a little ways away from the treeline I brought the sights of my rifle up to my eye. I adjusted the zoom to eight times and began to take a look around the little town. Fucking what? Miniature colorful horses with big eyes and expressive faces met my eyes. My jaw may as well have traveled to the other side of the planet.
Hours later I continued to sit on the hill in utter shock as I watched them go about their day conducting transactions in the market area, or talking with other horses. What’s the proper term for a mini horse again? Ponies? Yeah, I think that’s the one, these ponies just went about their day. I noticed a couple of especially crazy-looking ones, one with wings that had a rainbow-colored mane and tail and seemed to have a problem crashing into other ponies as the first time I saw it they had just crashed into a purple unicorn. There was also this pink one that I swear looked right at me a few times before it continued with its day. I had to camouflage myself a couple of times because of all the pegasus ponies flying around. I was especially watchful of the purple unicorn because they were dropped off by a chariot that was flown in by two, pegasi is my guess for plural, pegasi with armor. The purple one also had some kind of big purple lizard that was writing on paper while following them around.
As the sun went down I noticed some strange things happen, first, the moon came up at a shockingly fast pace, second as soon as it reached its zenith the pony on the moon vanished. What in the actual fuck is that supposed to mean? Weird shit is never a good sign, I pulled a magazine from my belt and slapped the fucker into the chamber, if any weird motherfucker came at me it was going down, and boy was it going down hard. A few minutes went by and I eventually saw movement in the town, it appeared that all the ponies were running out of the town hall in some sort of panic. One, in particular, I began tracking first, the purple unicorn. I lost sight of it as some buildings got in the way, so I waited until I could see it again before something else caught my eye, some kind of blueish purple mist was making its way out of town towards the forest. I ducked down as the mist came close and flew right over me and into the treeline. My curiosity took over and I got up to follow whatever this strange mist was. I followed it for quite a stretch of time, it was seemingly traveling along the road in the forest. After we traveled for roughly an hour it settled in the middle of the path and began to take the shape of another one of those ponies. This one however was much taller than the ones from in town, to the tip of its horn was probably seven feet if I was judging properly. As its form solidified I recognized it, this one looked just like that statue from the clearing where I first encountered those wolves in.
“Those fools don’t even remember my name. They will learn, Oh will they learn. They will learn my name once more and they will learn it well. I will make them love me, their princess of the night. This night will never end and they will all love me, much more than they love that so-called sister of mine!!” The large equine spoke to themself as they formed from the mist and continued to walk down the path.
Princess of the night? What kind of crazy-ass world am I in? I slowly followed her down the path, except I hid in the bushes off to the side. It would not be ideal for her to catch me. If she could turn into mist at will I really didn’t want to find out what else she could do. She eventually walked right up to the same chasm with the bridge that I crossed previously, as she made it to the bridge her head snapped around and she growled. However it seemed that she didn’t notice me, she just looked off into the forest before a strange blue glow enveloped her horn, and some more mist appeared and drifted off into the forest. She must be more worried about something else following her into the forest. She then ignited her horn with that blue glow again before she suddenly vanished, before reappearing on the other side. Holy fuck, that was teleportation, don’t get me wrong I’ve seen it happen before but not without some crazy hobbled-together tech.
I then began to follow her, she swiftly made her way into the castle. I wasn’t far behind her, I peeked into the old throne room and watched her as she made their way up the dais to the thrones, creeping closer the entire time until I was behind some rubble about twenty feet away. She stood in front of the one with the crescent moon for a moment before she walked around it, extending a wing to trace the outline of it as she did so. She had a serene yet victorious-looking grin on her face as she came back to the front of it and sat down facing the hall before the thrones. She then looked over to the other throne, a frown breaking through the smile that she had on her face. As I snuck through the shadows I noticed that her expression seemed melancholic and sad, before the shadows cast by the moon grew darker and her frown turned into a sneer then her horn lit up again and a beam of light shot into the other throne causing it to explode. As the dust from the small explosion settled I could see that the previous throne was now just a pile of rubble, that symbol of the sun was now cracked in half sitting at the top of the pile. Definitely didn’t wanna find out what that could’ve done to me had it hit me. It reminded me of a suped-up version of a laser rifle.
With a sinister smile, she stood over the pile of rubble,” Our Equestria won’t have room to see images of that sun-loving freak.” I noticed a single tear run down her cheek as she stood over that rubble. She must not be completely happy with what she did to get rid of the image of her sister, or that lone tear was just a fluke but I also noticed her mouth twitched a little when that tear fell. So maybe, just maybe she was one of those rare individuals who could come back from the dark place that they had fallen into. I had met a couple before in all my years, they were few and far between but occasionally there were individuals that could come back from the darkness that had consumed their hearts and taken over. I remembered this one super mutant specifically that called themself Precious, they had learned about poetry from some guy in Florida, which had inspired them to protect those weaker than themselves.
I ejected the magazine and cleared the chamber as I stepped out into the moonlight.” Ah, there thou are, thou must have thou-” She froze mid-sentence as she turned to look at me, what had previously been a smug grin on their face turned into one of confusion as her eyes met the lenses of my helmet. Her eyebrow raised as she inspected me for a moment.
“How peculiar, tell us creature what are you?” She spoke as she stepped down from the dais, slowly approaching me.
“My name is Emily, where I come from they call my kind, revenants, I don’t look like the rest of them but I fit the bill. The rest of my people are called humans” I replied as I inserted the free round back into the magazine.
“How peculiar ‘Human’ thou sayest. Well, Emily, We are the princess of the night, protector of the dream realm, and keeper of the moon. Now bow before us or we will show you the might of our night.” She strode up to me, her curiosity turning into confidence and smarm as she came close with a smug grin on her face.
“No, I don’t think I will, after all, I am not one of your subjects, and from what I heard it sounds more to me like you're actually quite unsure of your position. After all, one doesn’t monologue to themselves about making their citizens love them, eternal night, or call their sister a sun-loving freak.” I spoke with a smug tone of my own since she wanted to be so smug right in my face. Her face turned to one of rage and anger as I spoke. That may have been a mistake, did I mention that I wasn’t good at the whole talking people down thing? I then found myself barely avoiding her hooves as she spun around to give me a good ole double kick. Fuck that was a close one, maybe I shouldn’t have gaslighted her. I rolled under her as she kicked at me, I brought my buttstock up against her lower jaw. Her head snapped back and she grunted as she attempted to swipe at me with the blade on her helmet, I headbutted her with my own helmet.
“Insolent little freak! We will make thou pay for striking against us human!” She screeched as she gave a powerful flap of her wings and used her legs to jump into the air at the same time. She hovered for a moment and aimed that horn of hers at me, it charged and she sent off a quick blast of energy at me. It hit me square in the chest, I rolled back about five feet before I jumped back to my feet, my gloves tore at the fingertips and my fingernails extended into claws. Dammit, that nearly knocked the wind out of me and woke up the beast. I growled as I slapped the magazine I had in my hand into the anti-material rifle before I pulled the bolt back and sent a round into the chamber. I pulled the rifle up and pulled the trigger KRATHOOM it sounded and displaced the layer of dust around me. The round hit its mark, right in the center of her chest piece. With a scream, she fell to the ground, after a moment though she got back up. There was a large dent in the chest piece and it was scorched to hell but it didn't pierce it, she grimaced as she looked at me, her eyes full of rage at this point.
Holy fucking hell, I had taken out even the most advanced suits of S-103 power armor with this rifle and her armor was able to hold up against it. I pulled the rifle up to send another shot at her, her eyes widened and she put some kind of bubble up to block it. KRATHOOM it sounded off again and the round was sent, the bubble shattered like glass and pierced her shoulder. She screamed in pain but held her stance and sent another blast of energy at me. I rolled forward and prepared to shoot again, I then felt two impacts against my back and I was sent flying. I dug my claws into the ground and stopped my flight about ten feet away from Nightmare. My gums began to bleed and I felt blood running down my chin as I felt my teeth break and begin to lengthen to sharp points. This was not good. I needed to end this quickly before the beast could get out.
“Hey listen! I wanna apologize for calling you out and shooting you, why don’t we just talk about this!” I shouted at her, lowering my muzzle towards the floor. She scowled at me with rage but her mouth slowly turned into a grin. She gave up her defensive position as she stood up straight full of confidence. This pissed me off, and I felt my ribs crack and open up a bit. I gasped a bit from the pain, Fuck I needed to calm down.
“Oh so the human wants to surrender already, but we just started. Nopony has ever dented our armor before, nor has anypony injured us in years. Things were just beginning to get interesting.” She didn’t seem to notice the changes happening to me as she gloated.
“Not necessarily, but I do commend your strength Princess, not many sets of armor could stand up against a weapon as powerful as mine. I just wanna talk, surely we could settle this over some conversation instead. Now you were saying something about your sister, do you really crave the attention of your citizens so badly that you would hate her for the attention that she gets?” I asked as I worked to steady my breathing and calm myself down, I felt my ribs settle. I then pulled the magazine and ejected the chambered round.
Her eyes widened as I finished speaking. “ Our sister stole all of the glory and love from our ponies all for herself, they idolized her and rejected our wondrous night. Not like thou wouldst understand. We just wanted their love for a change, we don’t hate her though.” As she spoke the moonlight brightened the room for a moment before her look changed to one of shock and the room dimmed once more the shadows growing longer seemingly reaching for her. You noticed her eyes grew watery for a moment before she blinked hard and shook her head.
“W-what hast thou done Human, we do not wish to speak of our sister!” She screamed before she shot another beam of energy at me. I dodged right and pulled out my laser rifle, I lowered the charge though because I didn’t actually wanna hurt her, that was the second time I saw her falter, if I could get through to her then I wouldn’t have to put her down.
“Listen I know it hurts to see those you love receive more love from others, but causing an eternal night is not the way to get your people's love! What you're doing is inspiring fear in the hearts of your people, fear will never inspire love. It only brings hatred and disrespect.” I said as I sent a burst of shots at her BZZT BZZT BZZT. Two shots hit her chest piece causing small scorch marks, while the other hit the opposite shoulder to the one that was injured. She winced as the muscle locked for a moment and the fur burned.
“ NO!! They have to love us, they will love us. They will experience the night for a week before we return to the normal cycle. Then they will see just how beautiful our night truly is and they will love us! Then we can bring our sister back and we can go back to the fun times we used to have!” Tears began to flow down her cheeks at this point and her eyes changed to a softer look. She then lowered her horn and fired another beam at you. You didn’t even have to dodge as it went wide. This was stupid, you could tell the fight in her was gone, she was just desperate for the attention of her citizens, and her sister.
I then had a stupid idea, a crazy risky stupid idea. I holstered the pistol on my hip before I ran up to her. Her eyes widened and she sent a few blasts at me, I dodged them and made it to her. I grabbed her around the neck in an embrace. She didn’t immediately react but she voiced her thoughts.”W-what are thou d-doing?”
“Shhhh, Shhhh, you don’t have to be angry anymore. I got you, and I’ll help you show your people that the night can be wonderful and beautiful.” This was the single stupidest thing I had ever done, I really put all my money into the pot on this gamble. Her breathing hitched and she began to sob openly into your shoulder. Just then you heard movement behind you. It sounded like multiple sets of hooves clopping on the stone. Then there were the gasps of shock, the princess seemed not to notice as she continued to cry into your shoulder. I stroked her mane and rubbed her back as she wept. We stayed like that for quite some time, eventually, she went quiet and her breathing steadied, did she fall asleep? Yes, she had fallen asleep, I checked as I slowly picked her off of my shoulder and set her on the ground.
Turning around I was met by six shocked faces, all of their mouths were wide open in shock. The purple unicorn stood at the front of the group, she was flanked by two on her right, a white one with a horn and a purple mane and tail. A regular orange one with a stetson with blonde hair and a blonde tail, ribbons kept it in a neat bunch. On her left were two pegasi and one regular pony, the regular one was pink and had an extremely poofy mane and tail. One of the pegasi had a cyan coat and a rainbow mane and tail. The last of the group had a tan coat and a pink mane and tail.
“What are you?” The purple one asked with a quirked eyebrow. I then made a major decision right then and there, they were so cute and fluffy up close!!! They all stood at around five foot five, with small height differences here and there. I brought my hand up to the mask and pushed the sealing button, with a hiss it released the locking clamps. The plates on the back slid back into the main housing of the mask and it loosened from my head, the mask and helmet were all one piece, there were just plates that slid and locked into place. I removed the helmet and gave the ponies the most sincere smile I could.
“Howdy, the name’s Emily, I am what is known as a human. Obviously, as you can tell I’m not from here.” I said as I hooked the helmet onto my waistband. I then moved over to the wall and picked up one of the ancient tapestries, walking back over to the Princess, I folded it up and lifted her head placing it underneath. Then I looked back at the group of ponies.
The purple nodded at me with a calm smile on her face. “Hello, I am Twilight Sparkle and these are my friends, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy.” She pointed at each of her friends as she introduced them. Rarity was the unicorn on the right, Applejack the regular pony next to her. Rainbow Dash was the cyan pegasus, and lastly was Fluttershy with the tan coat and pink mane and tail. They all nodded in kind at their names being said, Rainbow Dash and Applejack looked kind of skeptical.
“How did you stop her? The prophecy said that only the Elements of Harmony could defeat her.” Twilight looked at you inquisitively, her head slightly cocked to the side.
“Well it was simple really, I overheard her talking to herself as I followed her. Learned a bit about her situation, then I listened to her and talked to her. She just wants to feel loved, and she misses the way things used to be between her and her sister. It seems though when she wakes up I’ll have to convince her to return the day and night cycle to what it should be as well as bring her sister back.” I told Twilight as I looked back at the sleeping Princess. She was seemingly sleeping pretty peacefully, a small smile was on her face. That made me smile too, how sweet.
“Wow, I never thought of it that way. Should we still find the elements just in case? Who’s her sister? Who does she wanna feel loved by?” Twilight began pacing the room as she began to mumble all kinds of questions to herself. Rainbow Dash and Applejack hid their snickering behind their hooves. Rarity approaches you and begins to look you up and down, slowly circling while tittering.
“Emily darling, this simply will not due. That outfit you are wearing is simply horrid!! You must come to the boutique and allow me to make you a new wardrobe!! And your gloves, how can you wear those they’re absolutely torn to shreds!!” She said to me as she inspected my trench coat as well as the rest of my armor. Fluttershy approached next, inspecting the bandages on my arms as she reached me.
“Oh goodness, A-are you okay? You should let me get a look at whatever wounds you have under these bandages!” She pulled my right arm into her hooves and began to unravel the bindings. I instantly pulled my arm back and tucked the bandages back in.
“NO!! don’t touch me!! I- Sorry please don’t touch me, my arms are fine. I dressed the injuries a couple of hours ago, they’re healing just fine. Rarity I don’t wear this to look good, I wear it to stay protected, but I might take you up on that offer after all I don’t have my old clothes and I could use a new stetson.” Fluttershy made an ‘EEP’ sound and jumped back from me frightened for a moment. Rarity also jumped back at my sudden outburst. The others also stopped what they were doing and looked at me, Rainbow Dash and Applejack took defensive stances for a moment before they saw that everything was okay. My vision was then suddenly turned pink
“OhmygoshIcan’tbelieveitLyrawasrightHumansarereal!!MynamesPinkiePieeventhoughyoualreadyknewthatthankstobookhorseCanIthrowyouapartypleasepleasepleas.” That was the single fastest I had ever heard someone speak, I didn’t even process what Pinkie Pie said and she was already on the ground pleading. After I took a moment to think over the literal word vomit she had just spat at me, I shrugged as I looked at her.
“I mean yeah as long as there’s booze I’m game. Oh, fuck the Princess!” I suddenly remembered that she was still bleeding profusely from her shoulder. I pulled out my med kit and grabbed some gauze and an H-bandage, I checked her pulse and discovered that her heart was indeed still beating thank the gods. I packed the wound and made sure the bleeding stopped before I applied the bandage to keep it tight. Then I pulled out some med-X and injected it into the site of the wound. She winced and groaned in her sleep but continued to dream peacefully, her serene smile returned to her face. From the corners of my vision, I could see the ponies watching me work on the princess. I noticed Fluttershy nod in approval as I finished my work. Was she some kind of doctor?
“What did you just inject into her? And did you just call her princess?” Twilight asked as she stepped into my field of view.
“Well I gave her a strong painkiller for the pain, and yes I did call her princess. She told me she was the princess of the night.” I replied as I moved a lock of her strange starfield mane out of her face and looked up to meet Twilight’s gaze.
“Also what could have caused such a grievous wound on her shoulder?” Twilight asked me as she pointed at the wound.
“Well my little pony friend, that would be my trusty IFAM-50 anti-material rifle. Honestly, she’s lucky I decided that I didn’t need to kill her. I could've used my armor-piercing dragon killer round. Specifically designed by yours truly to stop a vehicle designed by a group called the Last American Bastion.” I held the rifle up as I told her about it, raising the round I was talking about, it looked just like the regular round except I used an engraving machine to put an alchemical symbol on it. The round was specifically designed to penetrate armor and ignite once the chemical inside was exposed to air.
“K-kill her? But it’s wrong to hurt anypony.” Fluttershy whispered, the other ponies might not have even heard it, but I could thank my disgusting mutated body for that. Oh god, she was one of those types.
“WHAT??!! You should never kill nopony sugar cube! That’s wrong, maybe injure so they can’t hurt you but that’s terrible!” Applejack shouted with a look of shock and disgust on her face. No fucking way, as I observed the ponies they all had shocked and disgusted looks. Holy fuck how could I have been sent to a world of pacifists?
“Listen, she could’ve easily killed me too. How could I have known that she wasn’t intending to? For all, I know she could’ve been planning to blast me into pieces with that fucking horn of hers. I was trained for that to be my first action whenever a threat appears. The wasteland taught me that more often than not everything and everyone is your enemy.” I defended myself by holding my hands up in a placating gesture.
“Wait a second? Trained like what, a soldier? Wasteland like the Badlands?” Rainbow Dash was now in your face asking questions hovering off the ground a couple of feet. I backed up slightly as she encroached into my personal space bubble. At the soldier's accusation, I spit off to the side.
“Hell no, I wasn’t some kind of weak pansy ass soldier! I was a fucking marine man the best America had to offer. The one percenters! The wasteland could be called a kind of Badland I suppose except one full of terrors.” I walked a bit away from the princess, the six ponies followed me and I pulled up a bit of a pillar to sit on. For the next few hours, I told the ponies what it was like to be a Marine and a couple of stories about the wasteland. I made sure to keep it all as pg-13 as I could. As I spoke they interrupted here and there with questions about some of the things that I had experienced. The stories were met with gasps and oos and awes.
“Just how old are you Emily?” Everypony gasped at the voice of the princess, she had approached while none of them noticed, I saw her walk up. She had sat down just outside of the circle of friends around me, her chest piece and helmet now disregarded, and set off to the side next to where she had been previously laying down. The six looked at her all in different states of shock and fear. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight had taken up different defensive stances.
“Oh chill out you guys she’s not gonna eat you or anything. To answer your question, I'm two hundred and thirty-three years old. For the next one, no Humans aren’t meant to live that long, the average for the pre-war time was eighty to ninety years old. Post-war was approximately thirty-five to forty. I’m a special case, I don't age.” I explained as if it was nothing, and all of them looked fairly shocked, Nightmare Moon giggled at me telling the others to chill out, she didn’t look surprised at the new information though. She had a small smile on her face.
“Yes Emily the human is right, we will not eat anypony even though propaganda from the war said otherwise. We would also like to apologize for our actions, we realized what we did was wrong and frankly, stupid. We will return our sister from her temporary banishment to the moon and surrender to her and whatever punishments she deems fit for us.” She replied a bit dejectedly as she looked at her hooves and around the room. Her horn then lit up and we could all see the sunlight from the sunrise in the distance, as soon as the sun crested the horizon there was a brilliant flash of light. In one of the windows now stood another pony with wings and a horn. She had a stark white coat, her mane seemed to flow in some non-existent breeze and it was colored like a soft rainbow.
“Congratulations, my young student Twilight Spar-” Her eyes widened when they landed on myself and Nightmare Moon. She then looked at the six ponies and observed all of us for a moment.
“Well, it looks like you’ve made some friends and saved Equestria in a way I never anticipated. Nightmare Moon, I must say I’m not exactly ecstatic to see you again. If you would release my sister now that would be lovely.” Her gaze finally landed on me, looking me up and down.” Hello to you newcomer, I am Princess Celestia. The current ruler of Equestria.” She gave me a soft smile and a slight bow of her head. I returned a bow of my own as she addressed me. She seemed nice to me, sure a bit miffed with Nightmare Moon but still being fair.
Nightmare moon cringed at Celestia’s response to seeing her there. She then started to avoid her gaze, staring at the ground instead, her eyes occasionally darting to look back at Celestia. “Now hold on a moment Princess, this is your sister all she wants anymore is your love! She only did this because she was discarded and thrown off to the side while you made the attention you got from your subjects all that mattered to you!” I defended NIghtmare as I stood in front of her. I gave Princess Celestia a hard look, baring my teeth at her just like the beast I was.
Her eyes widened in shock at my outburst. The six gasped at the way I spoke to their princess.”Luna? Are you in there? Sister, I have missed you so much, please tell me you’re still there.” She practically pleaded with Nightmare Moon. Nightmare slowly looked up at Celestia.
“Y-yes she’s still in here, Celestia we want to apologize for the many atrocities and wrongs that we have committed against thou and thine ponies, we surrender our life to thou. Execute us for our wrongdoings. we are truly unworthy of life.” Nightmare spoke softly to Celestia. Her voice sounded depressed. I turned around and lifted her eyes to meet my own.
“No Nightmare you do not deserve death, you can’t repent for your sins if you're dead. Celestia, there must be some other way! You can’t just kill her now! Give her a chance to make up for the things she has done.” I shouted to Celestia as I turned back to look at her one hand still on the side of Nightmare’s face.
Celestia then cocked her head to the side.” Nightmare, I never planned on killing you. Luna is my dear sister, yes, but it appears you both inhabit the same body. I wouldn’t dare condemn one mare simply for her dark past. But we must find some way to separate the two of you. So that you may have a life of your own and I can have my sister back. I believe there may be a way to safely separate the two of you using the Elements.” She replied calmly with a serene smile on her face. She then began to mumble to herself as she drew some kind of equations in the dust on the floor.
“Wait for a second hold on Princess, I don’t mean to go against your ruling but are you really sure that she can be trusted to be left on her own like that?” Rainbow Dash said as she pointed at Nightmare Moon with one hoof.
“Well my little pony, it seems we have the perfect solution to that problem standing amongst us. Miss I didn’t seem to catch your name, I hope you wouldn’t mind taking care of Nightmare Moon after she becomes her own mare. At least according to my calculations here, if the elements were used on Nightmare Moon then Harmony would not deem her a threat and would instead separate the two of you safely.” Celestia never even looked up from her equation as she replied.
“Wow, you figured all that out just from a few seconds of writing in the dirt. You really are incredible. I guess it’s time to work on finding those elements again.” Twilight whispered to herself as she watched Celestia.
“Wait a tick you want me to watch over her? You don’t even know my name though? For all you know I could just lead her back onto the path of darkness. Lastly you never even asked me if I wanted to keep watch over her.” I replied while waving my arms in front of me and gesturing to Nightmare Moon.
“I didn’t need to know you or your name to know that you are noble enough to take this task upon your shoulders, and I mean it seemed like you had already agreed to do so when you defended her character,” Celestia said with a small smile and a slight chuckle.
“I-I okay you got me, I would’ve kept watch over her to make sure she stays on the right path whether you had asked me to or not.” I sighed in defeat, she was right I would make sure Nightmare stayed on the right path whether Celestia or anyone else liked it or not.
For the next few hours, everyone searched through the ruins of the ancient castle to find the Elements of Harmony. They were found by Celestia, on some kind of pedestal that looked like a diorama of the solar system. I didn’t get how special they were, they just looked like a bunch of stones to me. The others were pretty confused too by the group of five stones. Twilight mentioned the number of stones to Celestia, she merely said that this was something Twilight had to figure out with the help of her friends. Then she pulled Nightmare and I back to the throne room, where she began to question the both of us about what had happened. Upon learning of my specific situation she began to ask me more questions. Multiple times she was interrupted by Nightmare, which brings us to now.”
“So these super mutants were once human like thyself before they were forced to become mindless brutes? This so-called FEP was what forced such a transformation upon them?” Nightmare moon asked me as she interrupted me again. I was beginning to feel a vein pulse in my forehead from the constant interruptions of the two mares, they told me that was the proper vernacular.
“How about this princess, you must be a powerful pony, and you are probably really good at this magic stuff you were telling me about. So what if sometime you just use those fancy spells of yours to take us on a trip through my memory lane, then I don’t have to let my voice go hoarse and I can just show you all of these things?” I asked her while I leaned back against the pillar that lay behind me. I gave a little stretch as she began to mull the idea over in her head.
“Okay, I think that’s something that can be done. I just need a bit of time to search the royal library for the proper spell. We can even make an event out of it, Luna and I can step into your mind and you can give us a proper tour of your memories.” She said matter of factly as she looked back at me. I simply smiled and nodded before I put my hand out for a handshake, she gave me a confused look as she brought her own hoof up. I grasped it in my hand and gave a small shake.
Our conversation ended when the six mares re-entered the room all adorning new jewelry, Twilight had a tiara with a symbol of her ‘cutie mark’, Celestia told me about those before surreptitiously sticking her rear in my face she giggled at my uncomfortability, the rest of the mare’s had their own matching necklaces with their cutie marks. They approached us and stopped in front of us, Twilight gave Celestia a determined look.
“Princess, we're ready to try out your plan.” The six friends all had determined looks on their faces. Celestia nodded and they all took up positions around Nightmare, Celestia and I stepping back and giving them space.
Twilight’s horn lit up with a brilliant purple glow, then she raised up into the air. She rose about four feet before her eyes opened and glowed a bright white light. Her friends then raised into the air as well, each of them opening their now glowing white eyes. A band of light came out of each of them before meeting above Twilight’s head and coalescing into a rainbow sphere. Then a rainbow erupted from it stretching towards Nightmare, it hit the ground and began to wrap around her form. With a flash of bright white light it all ended, the six mare’s lowered back to the ground. Where that flash of light exploded now sat two ponies, each slowly shaking their heads seemingly clearing them up. One was an alicorn with light blue fur, and a sky blue mane, her cutie mark was a dark black splotch with a crescent moon in the center. The other was a dark blue filly, if my assumptions based on Celestia’s brief description of her ponies were correct, she had a dark navy blue coat, and her mane and tail had purple roots with a strip of a dark blue separating that from a light blue coloration. She had no cutie mark, no horn, tufts at the end of her ears, and instead of feathery pegasus wings, she had leathery bat-like wings. When she opened her eyes I saw that same turqouise-like coloration that nightmare moon had.
“Sister! We missed you so much! We’re so so sorry!” The smaller alicorn ran to Celestia crying. Celestia had tears in her eyes as she wrapped her wings around her younger sister.
I approached the filly slowly.” Nightmare, is that you?” I asked as I knelt in front of her. She was shaking like a leaf but as soon as she heard my voice and saw me in front of her she practically leaped into me and wrapped her forehooves around my midsection.
“Thank you! Thank you so much! We were so scared that we were gonna be sent back to the moon. But we trusted thou and kept our calm!” She shouted with joy as she held onto me. I chuckled and ruffled her mane before I returned her hug. The girls stood off to the side watching the reunion of the two sisters.
“Thank you, Emily, I don’t know how to repay you for what you have done here today. You gave me back my sister and gave somepony a new chance at life. Truly Equestria owes you a debt.” Celestia said to me as she made her way over and gave me a deep bow. I smiled and returned a bow of my own. Then she looked at Nightmare.
“As for you my little pony, it seems that Harmony has blessed you with a new look. You were there previously during our conversation, should you accept, Emily will become your caretaker and mentor. If you do not wish to go with her, you can come with Luna and I to Canterlot where we will take care of you ourselves.” Luna did not look very happy with her sister’s words. But she also looked upon Nightmare with sadness and heartbreak.
“Well, what do ya say kiddo? You wanna stay with me?” I asked her as I pulled her back a bit so I could look at her face and see what she had to say. She smiled as she looked at me and then back to Celestia.
“As long as thou sayest it is okay with thou we would like to stay with Emily.” She said as she looked between the two of us.
“Well, I’d be happy to have you…fuck now we gotta find a place to stay. I think we’re gonna have to change that name of yours as well since you're getting a fresh start here. It doesn’t exactly suit you anymore, you’re not exactly scary anymore. I think I got a good one too based on your appearance and what I think I’ve been able to piece together from the pony names I’ve heard so far. What do you think of Frostbite?” I asked her, gauging her reaction to the possible new name. A couple of the girls gasped, and Celestia’s and Luna’s eyes widened as they looked at each other. The filly gave me the biggest toothiest smile I had seen yet as her eyes watered a little bit. Huh, she had fangs, that’s pretty fucking rad.
“I think it’s a splendid name. From this day forward you shall be known as Frostbite of the Moon. The crown will cover your living expenses as well as a monthly dividend for anything that Frostbite might need as a growing filly. Until housing is provided you may stay in the library with Twilight, there should be enough space for you all until adequate housing is available.” Celestia then pulled out a parchment and quill, she marked it in a few spots before she handed it to me. She then had me sign a few spots and told me to take them to Mayor Mare in Ponyville.
