Equestia: Ballad of a fallen world

The year 2100 - Ten minutes before Operation Ragnarok

‘When you lose a person you care so much about, the pain is as intense as the happiness before.’

These words come from a book by Simone Elkeles. I used to read it and now after losing my aunt this quote is constantly on my mind. I can safely say that she was right. I am crying in bed being completely broken. First my father and now my aunt. It hurts so much. Zeira tries to help me by stroking and hugging me. It is unbelievable that a warrior as strong as her can be so tender. Her light kisses make me feel better but I know she has also lost a lot through this war. It is said that the Shadow King himself killed her parents laughing in her face and humiliated her by leaving her alive. Her family who were royalty fought against him. From her story they almost defeated him but the shadows came and killed her parents and left her alive. This is the biggest sign of disrespect in her culture. Her race is very honourable but also feisty. The best warriors in the galaxy had fallen so the rest didn't stand a chance.

When I heard the explosion literally moments ago I knew she had sacrificed herself for us. I cried and my girlfriend told Kit to check it out and she hugged me tighter to her chest. She knows very well that listening to the heartbeat of someone close to me calms me down so she put my head against her chest. Her heart was beating and that calmed me down. There was omnipresent chaos all around and that made it difficult for me to calm down but in her embrace everything was better.

"They're going to make us pay for all this." Zeira finally spoke up, looking menacingly at the lift doors. Her tail seemed to involuntarily hug me. The tail for her species is the most sensitive yet one of the most intimate places on the body. A tail hug implies great trust and I am grateful to her for that. "I will murder any Shadow. For my family and yours."

"Zeira darling." I touched her sad face. "We can only hide here for now. I understand you're angry but..."

"Don't kill?" She asked grimly. "Revenge for me is important. It is part of my culture. He humiliated me... " She closed her eyes and took a breath. "But I won't do it for you.... Mhm? Mmmm."

I interrupted her with a quiet kiss on the lips. It surprised her at first but she quickly reciprocated it. She smiled at me and hugged me and I had to tell her something. "I'm not going to stop you. "I think I shocked her slightly. "We're both going to beat him... and when that happens... I promise I won't take away your choice between life and death. I'll be happy to watch him die."

"Thank you Sasha." She touched my cheek lightly. "It means a lot to me that you understand. When we wake up we will move on him. Together."

We touched foreheads and just stayed like that for a while. I don't know how much had passed. Seconds, maybe minutes or hours. She just really made me feel better. It makes the apocalypse outside not so scary. Maybe we really can rebuild the world from scratch when we get up. I hope so albeit the mother of fools.

Suddenly at this point we heard another bang and the sound of ripping metal. The lift door began to bend and finally a shadow rushed into the room and threw Kit, who was barely functioning, under our feet. The monster roared and threw itself at its first victim. Zeira's pupils narrowed and a spear appeared in her hand. I stopped her but she wanted to go on. Just as I was about to say something to her she kissed me.

"Sasha. This is one of the Alphas. The one who helped defeat my parents. I won't let him kill us. I love you Sasha. I always will. And I'm sorry. Alpha code. Take him to safety."

She said this to the EIR unit. Before I had time to say more she moved on the shadow and the EIR took me elsewhere. I still had time to see one Goliath unit get chopped in half by the shadow and I realised I couldn't leave them without help. Mutation serum... I took the untouched syringe out of my trousers. It's not finished but I have no choice....

Before the monster had time to kill another man I ran my spear into his side pinning him to the wall. It roared in pain trying to hit me with its tail. He was unsuccessful. I cut through the spikes that came out of my skin on my arms. Fortunately, it's a spear made of my planet's metal, which is capable of killing shadows instantly. That's probably why they took our planet as their first target. Well. They succeeded but not completely. Every survivor of my race wants to kill them and I will stop at nothing. Alpha apparently recognised me and wanted to take out my weapon but I grabbed it and threw it at a pillar, which it pierced and landed under the stairs, which I smashed with my blaster. They collapsed on top of it and I summoned my spear.

"Run away." I said to the scientist as I created a shield out of magic. He ran away but I saw him hiding in the corner with another blaster. "Come on you bitch! I'm waiting! You will die this time!"

"Thalven." Replied a husky genderless voice from the ever-present dust. "We have driven you out..."

"As the earthlings say of us.... We are like the Hydra. Cut off one head and two more will grow in its place."

The roar that Alpha let out was powerful. He threw himself at me emerging from the battle dust. This time he pinned me against the wall with his teeth, which I blocked with my shield. I hit him on the jaw with my knee. This distracted him for a moment. I kicked with my foot and hit the underside of his head with the shield. As he is a shadowy werewolf he yelped in pain and I was able to drive the weapon into his head but failed as his tentacle stopped my spear. The scientist tried to shoot at it but to no avail and I did what I could. I hit him with my head. Confused he let go of the spear but it only flew into his leg, which he ripped out inflicting a strong wound on my face and cut my upper left eye. Having a high tolerance for pain I didn't get too distracted so I was able to go for a counter attack this time with my knife.

I jumped on him tearing his paw. He rolled over onto his back and I was able to drive the knife into his neck. He roared once again. With his claws he scratched my back causing a mass of small bleeding wounds. I could bear it but I couldn't bear it when it pierced the wall with its tentacle, turned orange and breathed fire at me. Oh well. Absorption abilities that only Alphas have. At the last moment I shielded myself with my shield but the firepower was too strong and it reached me. I fell to the floor in pain. In the reflection I saw that half my face was burnt. This one wanted to run at me but I threw my shield at his stomach with all my strength. This sawed him in half. He was not indebted to me as he fired a spike which pierced me through.

I couldn't stay on my feet much longer so I fell to my knees and in the distance I saw a cooler of food. Maybe I could freeze it. So with my last strength I got up and started walking towards it. A little blood flew from my mouth but I kept going. I ordered ZEUS or the main artificial intelligence to open the nearest door to the cold room. There's a railing and I'll drop it there. Maybe it will work. Unfortunately, I don't know if I'll be able to get there because the Alpha started running towards me despite the lack of legs. I sped up my stride but at the same time summoning my spear. He caught up with me when I was already close but I blocked him with the spear. With my extra hands I cut him with my claws. This hurt him but to my misfortune not very well because he crushed one of them with my tentacle. I hissed in pain when he tried to pull the other one away from me. Then I started stabbing him with the blade using my tail. Each blow was felt by him but not quite when he turned orange again and was about to breathe fire but luckily someone knocked him away from me. It was Sasha with the metal prosthetic.

"You were supposed to run away!" I roared at him as Alpha stood up. "What are you doing here!"

"I saved you. You're welcome. The serum is apparently working. I don't know how much but it's working. Now what?"

"Sasha. You can't handle him. Even with this serum. You can't handle it."

"Don't treat me like a child! Zeira. I may not be a fighter but I can fight."

"You lost your arm in the fight with Omega. You are in no condition to fight...Watch out!"

I blocked the spear attack again but this time the monster threw me into the wall. I fell and noticed it coming towards me but Sasha takes one of my knives left in it and jumped on its head. He roared as he daggered his neck and neck again and again. The tentacle that was supposed to take him snatched it away and I stood up and realised he was on a perfect straight line to the freezer but maybe that won't be needed because Sasha is doing well.... unfortunately not anymore because he grabbed his denture with his teeth and threw him against the ground.

Alpha was surprised that the prosthetic easily stayed in his mouth and Sasha stuck a knife in his neck and tried to cut him open. He almost succeeded but grabbed it with his paw from the head, driving it into the ground. I looked at it with fear but to my surprise he was still breathing. In my mind I apologised to him and with a scream on my lips I started to run at him. He wanted to do it again but didn't make it in time when I again thrust my spear into his side and this time I jumped over the railings with him falling down hoping that Sasha was safe....

Present times - Canterlot

I've been sitting on this robot as Goliath put it for a couple of hours now and have been unable to activate it. Supposedly our new friend gave me his schematics but what can I do when I don't have the right tools. I have tried everything. There is nothing about it that is similar to Goliath. This is a THOT unit. He was in charge of gathering information so surely he will know how to open the door. From what Goliath said these robots were extremely curious and had the ability to develop abstract thinking which robots usually couldn't. This one is supposed to be created by that man without a hand on the video.

"Come on." I said to myself. "After all, there must be a way to activate you! Just how?"

Eh. I'm already too tired for that. Cadance and Shining are arriving tomorrow so maybe they can help us. The princesses sent them letters with news of the ancients. They stated that they were coming immediately because they didn't believe us. I smiled slightly at this. Just a few days ago I would not have believed such information and now? I sit in the same room with the ancient robot trying to activate it and I look through the so-called black box of the immortal. To be honest I am stopping all the time on a man without an arm and Thalven which is a race from another planet. Slightly blushing all the time, I wonder how their story turned out. Maybe they are still living behind that door or maybe they were killed by the shadow monsters. This I do not know. What I do know is that for creatures alien to me they look even nice. Eh. What am I thinking about?

Maybe I'll just go to bed now. I hope Pinkie has given Goliath a break by now. She kept jumping around him and asking lots of questions. Even the princesses who had to ask diplomatic questions asked less than she did. I'm a bit annoyed that I can't activate it as easily as Goliath but maybe I'll get something tomorrow. So I tried one last spell on it, which did nothing, and went to bed.

I fell asleep, quite quickly but in between I heard strange sounds. I don't know what it is but maybe it's just the nobles being pranked again. In the castle fortunately it's not so audible so I fell asleep. Surprisingly I didn't have any bad dreams so in the morning I woke up quite sleepy. However, I heard someone walking around my room. Thinking it was someone from the staff or a friend of mine, I opened my eye to say hello. What I saw was not a pony but a metal eye staring at me. For a moment I thought it was a dream, but when I touched it and met resistance I realised it was not a dream.

Surprised, I screamed and shot out uncontrollably with magic. The robot I was trying to activate activated and also started screaming raising its limbs up as my magic projectile bounced all over the room until it finally flew out of the room hitting something.

"MY CABBAGES!"

Shouted the pony who was apparently selling cabbages. I apologised to him as the robot continued to shout. For moments we stood there, unsure what to do until I grunted. "Emmm. Why are you shouting?" I asked myself as politely as I could. The man stopped and flew over to me.

"You shouted first. I thought that was your habit." Honestly yesterday I had so many questions for him and now they had all escaped my mind. So I ran to get my notebook. I grabbed it and walked over to him. I was already about to ask a load of questions but I noticed that he was just standing still by the window. He was looking out at the landscape without moving at all. I stood next to him and looked along with him.

"Excuse me Mr THOT. Is something wrong?"

The man continued to say nothing. I guess he is surprised that after this war there is still life on his former planet. So we sit in silence for a while. He seems to be enjoying the view. Apparently he fell asleep when his home was ravaged by these monsters and now it is different. "We did it." He finally speaks up. "Life has been reborn. I'm Kit, by the way." He handed me his tentacle. I handed him my leg, which he shook. Apparently this was how people used to greet each other. "And who are you?"

I didn't immediately register the question so I didn't answer but after a moment I realised he had asked a question and I was just staring at him. "Oh I'm so sorry Mr Kit. This is all so new to me. I'm Twilight Sparkle. I'm very pleased to meet you. I take it you are happy with your new world? Despite the lack of these people?"

"Satisfied? It's beyond our wildest expectations. And the people are alive and in capsules. I am sure we will live together in harmony."

"Oh for sure. It's their world after all. It's changed a lot but I'm sure we'll be able to live together in harmony side by side. If I may ask. Do you know how much time has passed since the fall of humanity?" This clearly left him in quite a bit of consternation.

"Well, probably a lot. Certainly more than two million years because my counter stopped there. We'll get more data when we get into the cryogenic rooms."

"We're going to meet your makers! I'm so happy... And terrified. What if we make the wrong impression?"

"I'm sure we'll be fine Twilight. Admittedly people had a hard charter but I think you'll like each other."

Before she could ask him another question I heard some commotion outside the door and then more, more, more until finally my friends and princesses came running through the door along with Cadance and my brother, who at first asked what was wrong that I was screaming and then Pinkie fainted with happiness when she saw Kit. Oh dear. This is going to be a long conversation....