Survival is Hell: Trottingham

1
“So, which one of you is the dead CEO’s daughter?” Twilight asked the group. Nobody answered, but a girl a few years younger than her who was on a stretcher, raised her left hand. The other arm was just a crimson-stained bandaged stub just after the shoulder and crimson-stained bandages covered her right eye.

“I see. I’ll get everyone to our med-bay.” Twilight said. The rest of the group that wasn’t injured nodded and joined the great mass of other people in the expanse of the warehouse. She snapped her fingers once more and the stretchers floated in front of her and through a door, which led to the workshop and her home. The workshop was relatively unchanged, but she had turned her home into a medical bay.

Extra doctors and nurses had been brought in to all the hospitals recently so they could evenly distribute medical staff to all of the shelters. She used her magic to set the injured onto medical beds in a line as doctors and nurses made sure they were fine.

“The medical staff at their shelter did a good job, they’re all stable.” Red Heart said.

“Good. Now, there is something I have to ask all of you.” Twilight said. All the injured were conscious, and they gave her their full attention.

“It will be painful, but If you don’t know who I am, I’m Twilight Sparkle. I’m not only the most knowledgeable in Biomechanical prosthetics and surgeries, I’m the only one that can actually put that knowledge to use in a timely manner. What this means, is that you have a choice. I have enough time, resources and experience to make any of you with handicaps able to live normally again.” Twilight said. The questions and exclamations came in a rush. She put a hand up to silence them.

“It’s your choice. You don’t have to choose now, but if you do I can either set up accommodations or prepare my equipment.” Twilight said.

“I hear you’ve got three limbs that are Biomechanical, and that they’re weaponized to the point of being a one man army...” The CEO’s Daughter rasped.

“I do, and yes... The weaponization is almost ridiculous.” Twilight said.

“I want a new arm, and I want it weaponized.” The girl said.

“As you wish. Anyone else? You don’t have to be weaponized.” Twilight asked. There were a total of five, out of the nine there, that had missing limbs and/or digits. One man was missing his four main fingers on his right hand and wanted a glove of sorts. When asked he said he crashed when flying to the shelter and they had to be amputated at the other shelter.

“My father and I ran into one of those zombie things.” The CEO’s daughter, who revealed her name to be Starry Night, said lowly.

“What happened?” Twilight asked as she took a measurement of the girl’s left arm for reference.

“I had a longbow with, but it caught us by surprise...It took my arm off with a swipe of it’s claws and when I fell, the longbow I had fell into a small puddle polluted with acid and it got in my eye. He managed to pin it to a wall with a longsword, but it had run him through with its claws. in the struggle it knocked our rebreathers off and they stopped working... When we get new ones, he collapsed outside of the shelter and bled out.” Night explained darkly.

“I thought it took days, if not weeks, for one of those things to come from an affected human and the first one to die from the stuff only died this morning.” One of the nurses said.

“Obviously they were created before today and was somehow hidden from our knowledge... I also suspect the toxin was modified to do that to it’s victims much quicker. Night, will you let me test something?” Twilight asked.

“That depends on what it is.” Night replied.

“I’m just going to test your blood for toxin or acid... Or both.” Twilight said.

“But, blood is soaking these bandages and they’re not burning...” Night said, wiggling her stump.

“That’s not fresh.” Twilight said, forming a small claw on one of her fingers and nicking the girl on her intact left arm. Night flinched, but did not protest. Twilight brought the claw to her face and tentatively licked half of it off. Her face scrunched up and she coughed for a bit.

“Oh yeah, toxic and acidic.” She said before dispelling the magic claw.

“What?” Night gasped.

“You were exposed to a lethal amount of the toxin, yet you survived and you’re still coherent. That means you went through the same thing I did in Canterlot.” Twilight said.

“... What about me? That crash smashed my first rebreather.” The man with the missing fingers asked. She tested him and had a similar, albeit not as powerful, response.

“Damn it, anyone else lose their rebreathers?” Twilight asked. Everyone else shook their head if they could. “Good... I’ll be back soon. I’ll bring you individually into the workshop to fit you with generic prosthetics until the real stuff is made but for now I have a shelter to run.” Twilight said, turned and left.

“So you’ve got one over there too eh?” Twilight said over the radio, she was talking to the woman in charge of shelter four.

“The syringe melted when we were taking a blood sample.” The lieutenant replied.

“Send him over before the changes to his body start, once that does he’ll pass out from the pain. I’ll be on the roof to watch for him.” Twilight said. She received an affirmative and looked towards the watchtower. The green fog that was the toxin had reached her feet, even while standing on the roof, so she wore the mask she made in Canterlot and used it’s optics to watch the man making his way out of the bunker. She noticed that he had a prosthetic leg, as his steps were rigid and awkward.

She signaled the doors to open when he reached them almost an hour later. She called down to him and told him to visit the med bay and she’d meet him there. She signaled that the man had made it safely to the other shelter and allowed the lookout to resume his duty in peace as she climbed back down the ladder.

“What is your name?” Twilight asked the man.

“Red hadouken, don’t ask about the last name... Story is too long.” He replied. He was wearing a red shirt and his hair was a two toned mess of gray. He was tall, but not quite taller than her and she was tall, and looked like he hadn’t eaten in days. He had deep blue eyes and she could tell he was withdrawn.

“Alright Red, you had better go lie down with the other two like us. They’ve already started to feel the changes, are you feeling any pains?” Twilight said.

“A little.” He replied.

“Go lie down, pretty soon it’ll get bad. When it really starts tell a nurse and she’ll give you some morphine to knock you out for a while so it won’t hurt all that much.” Twilight said. He simply nodded and did as he was told.

Now that the injured were taken care of and her unit had things under control in the shelter, she was able to begin working on Biomechanical limbs. She first started work on the man’s finger replacements.

“Oh my.” She said suddenly, a thought gripping her mind.

“What?” Red heart asked, having just entered the room.

“I’ve realized I have no idea what to call us now.” Twilight said.

“What do you mean?” The nurse asked.

“before it was just me... now there’s at least three other people like me. What should We call ourselves?” Twilight asked.

“Well, I don’t know about you but the medical staff just started calling you guys ‘Altered’.” Red Heart said.

“Hm... That’ll do for now...” She said and rephrased her thoughts. She decided to work on the other Altered’s replacement fingers and get the framework for Night’s arm at least planned out. Now that her thoughts were on the girl, she thought of her abilities. She was an amazing archer, according to her father when they discussed weapons in the past, and the loss of her right eye would eliminate that ability.

“Hey Starswirl.” She said. The familiar sphere that was Starswirl popped out of the wall and floated to her.

“Yes Twilight?” He responded warily.

“Sorry to wake you, but do you think I could make a Biomechanical eye and attach it to the retinal nerves if they’re intact?” Twilight asked.

“If they are then I don’t see why not, it’d have to be pretty complicated though. As you know the eye is not as simple as a finger or a leg.” Starswirl said.

“Alright, I’ve got an idea then.” She said, looking at a disassembled optics visor on the shelf above her.

“What is that?” Night asked the next day. The injured had been given generic prosthetics while Twilight worked on the Biomechanical prosthetics, she had already finished the hand for Hiiro, which was the third altered’s name, and was putting the finishing touches on Night’s new eye.

“Your arm was easy enough to make, all I needed to do was take one of my spares and modify it to your lengths and sizes. I decided you’d still be a very good sniper even with handicaps, so I decided to try and get that eye back.” Twilight explained. She was currently using a magic laced pocket knife to scrape away excess material from the piece.

Altogether it looked like a camera lens was fitted in the middle of a mask that only covered the area around the eye. There were complicated systems of wires and such inside the thing and Night couldn’t make any sense of it.

“Exactly what will it do?” Night asked.

“Well, I took a look at your eye when you were sleeping. The acid has corroded it nearly all away through, so when it comes time to put this in I’ll detach your eye and attach this surgically. The nerves and retinal nerves will all connect, albeit rather painfully, and you’ll be able to use that eye as if it’s one of my optics masks. I’ll make a special mask for you to go with your armor so it’s comfortable.” Twilight said.

“Wait, what armor?” Night asked.

“I’ve already talked to the other two. Basically, we’re the only things in this place that can stand up to large groups of those things at a time. Think of it like we’re super soldiers, and we’ve got the arsenal to help us even more. It’s going to be up to us to keep all the survivors safe and to figure out how to stop this toxin again.” Twilight explained, having noticed the other two Altered enter the workshop.

“Hey Twilight, you told us that you had loads of biomechanical stuff... I believe you but where is it?” Hiiro asked.

“You’re looking at them. Both arms and my left leg.” Twilight started, before pulling what looked like her skin down like large sleeves and socks. “I had these artificial skin sleeves made when I got out of Canterlot so I wouldn’t freak people out anymore than I would.” Twilight said, pulling the sleeves off of the rest of her body and showing her limbs.

“What kind of weaponization do you have there?” Night asked.

“My right arm is the Longsword military model. It’s got the blade and I’ve added sharpened claw-like fingertips and an internal pump to pump my blood when I need to get rid of toxin or corrode something. My left arm has my shield and my longbow.” Twilight started, showing each of her arms off as she explained. “This one also has an internal pump, but it pumps what eliminates my blood from things like water and stuff. This is what I used to save many lives today, because when it’s in early stages it cures the effects of the toxin. But if it got into my own bloodstream it could kill me.” She continued.

“And lastly, I’ve got a blade that goes along with my knee, one on the toe and high fall hydraulics. On each of the limbs and on my armor there are steam thrusters that I use to dash around in battle, plus my wings.” She said.

“I’ve never seen you carry a quiver, nor did I see a string on that bow of yours.” Night said.

“I make the string from magic and i condense my magic into arrows of solid magic. Once I shoot them I can make them dissipate and give most of the energy spent back, taking whatever ambient energy nearby with it.” Twilight said.

“I want one.” Night said.

“Already did. Now, Red, your leg is the last thing I have to finish. Is there anything specific you want me to do?” Twilight asked. He nodded and showed that his right leg was severely bandaged.

“The only thing keeping this leg intact is the medical staff’s magic... I want it amputated so I can have both of my legs biomechanical. I want those thrusters so I can move faster, I want detachable blades in the thighs so I can pull them out as if they’re in scabbards and I want hydraulics that would make me run and jump higher and faster.” He explained passively.

“I can do that. Now, Hirro. You’re only missing fingers but I’ve made you a Gauntlet to go with the hand. If you’d like I could make a second instead of bracers for your armor.” Twilight said, turning to the red haired boy with slanted eyes.

“That sounds acceptable.” He said with a smile.

“Good. I’ll have everything done, finished and ready to go tomorrow. Tell that to the medical staff and they’ll prep you for it.” Twilight said as she walked towards the door.

“Where are you going?” Red asked.

“Apparently there was some trouble last night when it came to sleeping arrangements and I had to come down and glue some people to the walls. It’s about time everyone started waking up so it’s time to take them down.” Twilight explained with a smirk.

“What’d they do?” Night asked.

“The ‘richies’ were complaining the floor was uncomfortable, there was no room etcetera andante... so I glued them to the wall and put a silencing spell over them for the night.” Twilight said and exited the workshop.