Daedalus' New World

Daedalus was in New York City. He was certain of it. If the massive skyscrapers, the streets full of cars, or the clusters of trash lining the edges of the road didn't give it away, then the utter state of ruin and infection it was in did. The city was once full of life with millions of residents all from various cultures around the world. Yet now it was an utter ruin. The once strong cement buildings were now broken down and crumbling to pieces. Those that hadn't been impacted with massive force or shelled into oblivion by VRF artillery were now host to Hives with giant viral pods hanging off the sides. Though they weren't visible, Daedalus knew that the interiors were full of man-sized pods that served the same purpose - growing the various monsters that Mercer used as his army. Though not as fast as the mutation templates the Greaters could use, the pods were entirely self sufficient and able to produce near endless armies as long as they had access to biomass, and with the amount of dead Blacklight left behind there was plenty to go around.

He felt eyes on him as he gazed across the ruin. It wasn't a surprise. Mercer was usually somewhere near one of these raids.

Even as he watched, one of the large pods hanging off the side of the building began to rip open. It was the last one he was waiting for. The great beast fell from the pod, impacting the ground with an earth shattering thud that rumbled every building within four blocks. As it stood up, Daedalus examined it with an appraising eye. This was the first time these new beasts were being used in battle and Mercer had tasked him with ensuring they had developed properly, as well as stress testing them out in the field.

The beast was massive, easily sixty feet long and twenty feet tall. It mostly appeared like a beetle as six giant legs supported the monster, each one three feet thick and ending in hooves. A small, narrow head turned side to side, taking in the sight of its corrupted world as eight beady black eyes adjusted to the light. Thick, pure white plates of chitin formed a hardy exoskeleton around the monster, protecting it from small arms fire and emplaced weapons. Supposedly. Finally, four giant and razor sharp tusks extended from the beast, capable of impaling just about anything. Daedalus stood up, reaching out across the hivemind and willing the Behemoth to the waiting point where it would join three others of its kind. As its primitive mind received its orders, a great bellow shook the air and Daedalus imagined the sound would be rumbling his very bones had he had them. A few seconds later, the roar was echoed by three more and Daedalus allowed himself a small smirk. The VRF would definitely be scrambling to get ready, though it wouldn't help. Then he stepped off the edge of the building, plummeting to the ground three stories below.

The Greater Evolved impacted the ground hard, shattering the already cracked asphalt under his immense weight. Taking off into a sprint, he connected to every monster he passed and urged it to join the massively growing horde that was beginning to wander after the Behemoth. The slow Walkers were often simply thrown aside by the large Gladiators, each one standing eight feet tall and covered in the same viral plate armor that Mercer himself could use. Every single one of them had a deformed shield of bone on their left arm with some crude variation of a viral weapon on their right. As he ran, he saw claws, tendrils, blades, and even giant fists yet all were crude, imperfect versions of the weapons the Evolved used.

From a collapsed building, a veritable horde of Warpers took to the air, banking hard and flying to land on the Behemoth's back. His viral eyesight allowed him to easily make out the small dog-sized monsters. Canine in nature, each one was equipped with large, scaled wings that allowed them to fly. Because they were physically weak due to a need to keep their weight light, they were best as swarm creatures. With short, spiked growths on their body similar to what hedgehogs had, each one was capable of killing a man in kevlar simple by body slamming him. Further than that, they were able to easily throw a helicopter off balance and causing it to crash just with their numbers.

Two hours later and Daedalus was ready. His 'loyal' army awaiting him, he quickly scaled the side of a tall building and walked to the edge. On his right were six people, all Lesser Evolved. Truth be told, he couldn't be bothered to remember their names. Most were probably going to die here anyway. Turning his attention back to the large, ruined park in front of them, Daedalus couldn't help but smile. All around the trampled trees, rocks pulverized into dust, and the remnants of burned out APCs scattered here and there, a massive viral army awaited. Connecting to the infected, he took a quick head count. "Six hundred Warpers, six hundred Gladiators, four Behemoths, and three thousand Walkers. This'll be easy."

"What are your orders?" One man asked nervously, swallowing as Daedalus turned to regard him with icy eyes.

The Greater Evolved shrugged lightly. "Split the Gladiators, Warpers, and Walkers between all of you evenly. One hundred of the two former and five hundred of the last side by side. You already know what to do and how to do it. With the outpost so heavily outnumbered, there won't be a need for any specific strategy. Just let my Behemoths break the walls and then pour in. Any questions?"

When no one spoke, Daedalus gave the command. Each of the four great monsters began to walk through the streets, two on either street that headed toward the VRF outpost. Jumping away, he felt the smaller monsters form up into something approaching ranks behind the Behemoths as they were directed by the Lessers. A few minutes later and Daedalus found himself on the edge of a large clearing, gazing at the outpost that signified the edge of the infected quarantine zone. Normally, the edge of Blacklight controlled territory would have been unimaginably reinforced. State of the art weapon emplacements, squads of augmented super soldiers, armored and air assets, and enough munitions to flatten the Rocky Mountains. Six months ago, that was the case.

But the VRF were practically in the closest thing to full retreat as they could get. Daedalus knew that twenty miles out a new Red Line was being built, the VRF pulling every trick in the book to anti-virus their defenses. This was just an outpost, the scraps of the scraps that either couldn't have been evac'd fast enough or were chosen as unfortunate sacrifices to slow down the ever expanding tide of Blacklight. A few APCs, an IFV, and a few hundred soldiers. Daedalus saw two manned emplacements totaling four fifties, but that was about it. The only thing that was operational was the wall itself and his Behemoths would soon fix that.

Alarms sounded as VRF scouts spotted the Behemoths that were still a few blocks away. Daedalus frowned but in the end, it wasn't a major issue. The Lessers had just missed at least one man. That, or they had killed the scouts too early and so the lack of a check-in alerted the enemy. Rising, Daedalus gave the attack order to his army of monsters.

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Daedalus was not happy. The attack hadn't gone to shit, necessarily, but it wasn't going flawlessly either. When the Behemoths were just a block away from the outpost, entering into the leveled no man's land that surrounded it, a fast mover had passed overhead. Series of small cluster bombs had been dropped, decimating a portion of his horde and killing one of the Lessers. It would have been worse had his infected been clear of all the buildings as they absorbed a decent portion of the damage, but it had still cut his numbers down by about a fifth.

The walls had been breached just fine, the Behemoth's large tusks and gargantuan strength easily ripping apart the concrete and rebar in mere moments. Hordes of Gladiators tore into the infantry, leaving behind piles of slashed, impaled, and pulverized corpses as standard kevlar armor did nothing to stop the infected. The sound of helicopters in the distance filtered in through the gunfire, screams, and roars. Only a moment later, four Blackhawks crested the no man's land as eight door guns began firing at every non-human thing they could see. With a mental command to the Warpers who no longer had a Lesser, one hundred black beasts filled the air as they swarmed toward the helis even as the door guns turned skyward, each heli taking a different elevation to reduce the risk of friendly fire. Scoffing, Daedalus turned his attention back to the ground as he heard the sound of screeching metal. To his surprise, one of the Behemoths had impaled the IFV on it's tusks then began to use it as a weapon against the APCs. Reaching out to it, he felt that no other Evolved had given it an order since his last one and nodded approvingly. Mercer was right, these things would have higher intelligence than the other monsters they had.

Finally deciding it was time to join the fight, Daedalus passed on his intentions to the rest of the Lessers before leaping forward. Impacting the ground with an earth shaking thud, he grabbed the burned out husk of a civilian car before hurling it at one of the Blackhawks. The heli, nearly blinded by all the dog-sized monsters around them, hadn't even noticed the impromptu projectile. It impacted with a horrific sound, an explosion following soon after as the heli detonated into a fireball, everyone aboard most certainly dead. The pressure wave destabilized one of other air assets, apparently knocking one of the gunners either over or out as a door gun stopped firing. Seconds later, that door was utterly swarmed as Warpers entered the heli, ripping apart it's occupants before the whole thing began to fall out of the sky. With half the air support already destroyed, Daedalus paid them no mind as nearly four hundred Warpers were more than enough to take out the last two.

Charging in the breach in the walls, Daedalus quickly grabbed a disabled APC that looked to had been in the process of repairs. Aluminum alloy crushed beneath his fingers as the M113 buckled, the hull immediately compromised as he heaved the twelve ton vehicle into the largest clump of soldiers he saw. Seconds later, his massive claws bisected an unfortunate soldier who happened to just be vaguely near him. From there, he turned into a whirlwind of death. Every slash ripped soldiers to pieces, every kick pulverized bone underfoot, and every drop of blood and corpse was consumed as he became a whirling mass of tendrils. Human form falling apart, all that was left was a corrupted god of war as dozens of spiked and bladed tendrils lashed out at anything near him. Both humans and infected were destroyed, biomass replenished faster than the fifties could tear chunks through his flesh. Eventually, the twelve point seven millimeter guns ran dry of ammunition, the gunners soon joining their comrades as they were overwhelmed by Walkers.

Twenty minutes. Twenty minutes from the alarms going off to the last heli being knocked out the sky was all it took to completely overrun the outpost and kill every last man there. Daedalus allowed himself to smile, then reached out across the link. Not to his surprise, the Lessers had all been killed. He didn't know when or how, nor did he care, so he just gave the order to start collecting bodies. Those who were still mostly in one piece would be infected by the Behemoths, regurgitating a vile red fluid that rapidly set on mutating the still living tissue. There were not many of those. The rest would be brought back to the hives to be recycled into biomass. Still, it was a good sign. One of these outposts used to take days to fall. Now it only took minutes. The new Red Line that the VRF were setting up would be much harder to break, but with the new creations he knew it was only a matter of time.

Something touched his shoulder.

The Greater Evolved spun around, reflexes kicking in as he kicked whatever had touched him in the chest. Bones cracked under his force, launching it back at astounding speed. Daedalus only really got a sight of something blue before he punched the ground, tendrils spidering through the weakened asphalt ready to impale his attacker in a hundred places.

A pulse of a strange presence and suddenly Jay realized what he was doing. He gasped, snapping his connection to the tendrils in an instant, just seconds before he killed Luna. Bounding forward toward her, he dropped onto his knees next to her as the sounds and smells of the dream faded into the background, the world dulling as the dreamer was no longer focused on it. To her relief and amazement, Luna was alright. Bones that should have been naught but dust were perfectly healthy and she didn't even have a pained look. Instead, she had a look of concern and horror on her muzzle as she gazed around what he realized was a dream. No, not a dream. A memory.

"Sadly, thy Lady of the Night must leave." Luna said teasingly, giving him a short nuzzle. "I must return to my duties as the Guardian of Dreams. Perhaps I'll meet you there one night."

It clicked then as he understood what she meant. Jay flinched as she turned her attention to him, his eyes straying away from hers. Unable to bear the veritable waves of worry emanating from her, he stepped back as she stepped closer to him.

"Jay... what is this?" Luna asked, her voice full of pain. Not for what she had no doubt seen him just do, but for what he had to go through if this place was what she thought it was. Jay was silent for a long time, unable to meet her gaze. Finally, he looked up. Icy blue eyes that seemed so vulnerable met her teal ones, nothing but concern for him in those beautiful portals to the soul.

"It was my home."

That was all she needed to hear. Somehow closing in on him faster than he could react, her hooves and wings wrapped around him together as they fell to the ground, Jay not even trying to remain standing as she leaped on him and instead just hugged her back. Burying his face in her mane, he held her as tightly as he dared to avoid hurting her anymore. She hummed softly, a wordless tune that she new quite well as her soft voice filled the air, drowning out the last sounds of the Blacklight around them.

"I tried to hurt you, Luna." Jay said quietly, his voice heavy with emotion.

Luna responded just as quietly, nuzzling the top of his head. "You can't hurt me, not in a dream."

Jay nodded slowly, relieved to know that. The two stayed quiet for a long time as Jay slowly calmed, Luna's continued humming helping him relax. Luna, for her part, felt so very sad. She had seen Jay do some terrible things just now, and despite knowing that he only did it under Mercer's control, she still felt a pang of fear. The man in her grip had told them what Blacklight was, what it could do, but seeing just what Jay was capable of, seeing humans wielding weapons and machines she could barely comprehend being ripped apart like paper, the alicorn couldn't help but think just how lucky she was that Jay wasn't truly evil like Mercer. After Jay seemed calmer, she pulled back from him and gave him a reassuring smile, receiving a weak one of his own in return.

"I'm sorry you had to see this." Jay said, glancing around at the ruined outpost. No longer in sync with the memory, he couldn't help feel disgust at his actions. "That you had to see the monster I am."

"What you were forced to be, Jay. Something that was forced on you by a truly evil monster." Luna disagreed, wrapping her wings around him tighter as she rested her head on his shoulder. The Evolved let out a shaky breath as he wrapped his arms back around her, seeking comfort from the soft blue pony. "You are not a bad pony. You were controlled by someone who is a bad pony."

"That doesn't take back what I've done." Jay said quietly as he rested his cheek against hers. A second later, he opened his eyes as a cool breeze touched him. The outpost, and all of New York, was now gone entirely. Instead, the two of them were now on a green hilltop beneath the stars. All around the crest of the hill were thousands of flowers, each one a different shade and shape than the last. Jay had to admit, Luna knew how to pick a spot.

"No." Luna quietly agreed, nuzzling into his cheek. "It doesn't change what happened. But it also doesn't make you evil, only another victim in a different way. The only thing you can do is live your life and do everything you can to make sure nothing like this happens again."

"I just don't know if that's enough for everything I've done." Jay said softly, receiving a firm nip from Luna. He turned to look at her in surprise as she continued.

"It's all we can do. We can't bring back those we've hurt or fixed the scars we've caused, only move on and better ourselves." Luna said, making Jay pause as her phrasing.

"Have you..?" Jay asked, not finishing the question.

"Have you heard of Nightmare Moon?" Luna asked, answering his question with one of her own.

"Only the name."

"A thousand years ago, I gave in to my jealousy and anger. I rebelled against my sister, tried to overthrow Equestria, and nearly brought about an eternal night. I was only stopped when my sister was forced to use the Elements of Harmony on me, banishing me to the moon for a thousand year stasis." Luna explained, gently rubbing her nose against his as the dream around them began to change.