Ripples

Chapter 20

The Survivors

        The four of us walked in the direction of the Rebellion main headquarters. It was a little ways away, as we had apparently been teleported on the opposite side of Fillydelphia. Luckily, the open fields surrounded it on almost all sides, making the journey easy and straightforward. We decided Anon still needed some time to recuperate, so we stayed as silent as possible. I was thankful for the silence, as I had some much-needed time to think.

        These dreams I had...they were strange. Not like the normal, bizarre, no-sense-at-all dreams. These felt...different. Like there was meaning behind them, like I had them for a reason. I almost felt ridiculous thinking about them this way, surely they were just dreams... no. They were more, I could tell. I seemed to take the role of some mare, a recruit in the Equestrian Army...this must have been before the war. Or was it during? I have no clue.        Small droplets of rain began to drizzle from the sky. Small patches of sunlight were still exposed in the clouds, and a refreshing breeze blew across my face. The grass rippled in the direction of the wind: Fillydelphia. Captain sneezed.        Who was this mare in my dreams? Why was I dreaming about her...about being her? I’m quite positive even my wonderfully creative brain couldn’t process a past environment as convincing as that, let alone so many characters. I still don’t think I should tell anypony, though...it just doesn’t feel...right.        Something crunched under my hoof, and I stopped to examine. The other three noticed my abrupt pause, and paused to see what I had found. I lifted my hoof from the soft grass, and a mass of strange green goop rose from beneath my hoof, connecting it to some kind of squished blue bug. I looked at it with a disgusted grimace for a few seconds, and then wiped my hoof on the grass near it until it had been completely cleared of bug guts. Captain shot me a confused look.        “We’re fine, carry on,” I told them, and we continued walking.

~ ~ ~

        The steady drizzle had increased to a small downpour in the time which had passed. The camp had finally entered our eyesight after about twenty minutes of walking. It was still quite the walk before we actually got there, but it was clear enough to see what was happening - not much. Many corpses were strewn around the landscape, although it was unclear if that was just from the previous battle, or mutants.        Two equine shapes trotted towards the camp from northward, small and mostly indistinguishable from this distance. Some other unknown shape was moving from the opposite side of camp, but one of the laser turrets fired with a loud electric crackle and disintegrated it.        “Well, glad to see that’s working,” Captain commented. “I was worried about those. Also, that probably means there’s at least a few ponies still there.”        “The question is, though: whose side are they on?” Rage asked, his green mane becoming soaked by the rain. It was a very strange contrast to his orange hide, and honestly looked a little ridiculous. I decided not to comment, I don’t know Rage well enough to assume what his response would be.        Another large crackle sounded from the direction of the camp, however not from a weapon this time. After a few seconds of random noise, a voice boomed from the camp.        “This is a safety protocol. Ponies approaching from the southwest, please identify yourselv...uh...wait...is that...I- I...Captain?!” the voice stuttered. Captain stopped moving and smiled, waving his hoof.        “I...uh...this is an urgent message! Captain has returned! He is coming from the southwest! I repeat, Captain has returned!” the voice then said, clearly exuberant.        “Heh, feels good to be important again,” Captain said with a blush. A small squad of ponies haphazardly poured from the exits of the camp, merging into one group and charging straight for us. Holy crap, they are fast...        Within seconds, the entire group had come near us. As soon as they saw us close, however, they all skidded to a stop and collapsed into a great heap of armored ponies. A helmet rolled out from the pile, landing in front of my hooves. The four of us looked at them quizzically, eyebrows raised. They quickly rearranged into a crowd.        “C- Captain!” somepony yelled.        “Where have you been?!” Somepony else yelled.        “What happened to your wing?!” another soldier called, and the others immediately silenced.        Captain’s face turned from a modest blush to a look of severe shock.        “Well...um...I...” he began. No other words seemed to come out of his mouth.        “How could this have happened?” One pony said, stepping out from the mass. It was a blue mare with a black curled mane, and a small pink bow in her hair. She wore no helmet, and was only covered in torn leather armor. ‘TEMPORARY LEADER’ had been carved into her side.        “You LEFT us!” she yelled, stomping her hoof. “Why? First you bring back this mysterious pony from nowhere, then you start going on some kind of stupid adventure, next thing we know Dodge City Junction has been brutally wiped clean of life. Then you just disappear for three months, and suddenly the world turns to absolute, mutated, freaky shit.What happened?!”        Captain was stammering. “I, um...I don’t...er...we...I...”        “SHUT UP!” I yelled. I had to stop this. “Forget about Captain’s wing. He’s alive, he’s still a pegasus, even if he can’t fly. We have much more urgent matters on our hooves.”        The mass hushed as I spoke, and murmured softly.        “We know what happened to Equestria,” I told them. “No, we did not cause it, nor did we want to. We would appreciate it if you took us back to camp and let us rest for a little while, we’ve been through a lot of crazy shit recently. I’ll explain everything later!”        They murmured amongst themselves for a few seconds, and then the leader mare spoke again.        “We accept. We’re really just glad to see Captain’s still alive, we were about to have a funeral. Not much of us are left, you know...” She looked back at the base. “Whatever happened, most of the Rebellion was mutated or killed by the monsters. We were either lucky or quick learners, that’s how we managed to escape alive. Took us weeks to reclaim that base from the monsters...”        Captain began talking. “I- uh...I’m...sorry,” he stammered.        The mare twisted her face in confusion. “You didn’t cause this, did you?” He shook his head slowly, a look of guilt in his eyes. The mare just raised an eyebrow and turned around to lead us back to base.        “Name’s Daisy Petal, by the way. Call me Daisy,” she told us over her shoulder, and we followed the mass back to base.

~ ~ ~

        Most of the old tents and buildings destroyed in the battle with the Resistance had beeen repaired or repurposed in the time we were gone, and anything that could be salvaged was taken and put to use. We had a small tour of the new and, uh, improved version of the base. The inner walls were rearranged, the tents which had survived were moved, and one corner of the area had been converted into a 'miscellaneous junk' pile.After Captain had seen all the most important changes to the base and let his presence be known to the survivors, we were taken into what was once Captain's quarters for a meeting."I think it is best to start with a quick history lesson of the past three months," Daisy explained from the end of a makeshift table fashioned from scrap metal, trash and fabric. "For some time after your initial departure, nopony really thought much of it besides you just...having fun, or something. We didn't exactly know why you had left, but it wasn't of too much concern. We began growing worried, however, when Dodge City had been brutally murdered, we started to worry about your location."        Three observers had accompanied us in the meeting. It wasn’t exactly clear why they were here, as they seemed rather quiet.Captain was clearly growing uncomfortable about the subject. Luckily, Daisy didn't seem to notice."It was an extremely brutal and merciless attack. After investigating the bullets scavenged from corpses, they appeared to have come from a BUCK-47 assault rifle. The citizens had almost no defense, and were slaughtered or left to die. I am amazed at how so many ponies could have been killed by one small attack!" Daisy looked at Captain and I."Do either of you know any of the details?" Captain and I exchanged a quick worried glance, and then shook our heads. It would be a miracle if she didn't notice something suspicious going on. To my horror, her face turned to a skeptical frown."I do not know how this intel correlates with any of these events, but DNA tests reveal small traces of Captain's blood," she spoke.Captain's face began turning an extremely bright red. Daisy's face became even more skeptical, and mine became very apprehensive."Nevermind that for now. Not very long after that little...event, the Resistance got very quiet. As in, 'no attacks or suspicious actions' quiet. It was as if they pulled a PT on us," she continued. "Two soldiers volunteered to investigate, despite our continued efforts to deter them. They insisted, however, and made the trek to the Resistance main base. Only one returned, claiming the base appeared abandoned - the defenses were still active, however, resulting in the death of his friend. Before he could make any viable observations, he fled the area."Captain's face had mostly returned to normal. Daisy passed out some kind of snack cakes to the members of the meeting, which actually turned out to be quite delicious."So what did you guys do after all this?" Rage asked from beside me."I was about to get to that," Daisy said with a hint of annoyance. "After about two weeks of missing Captain, we decided to elect a temporary leader until you returned, assuming you did. The popular opinion was clearly Lightning Strike, he had more than twice as many votes as the runner-up...me." Captain looked up from munching furiously on his snack cake."Things went okay for a while," she continued, "albeit slightly chaotic. Roughly two and a half months from your disappearance, the most strange and bizarre thing happened. A blast of magic seemed to surge across Equestria, a huge shockwave emanating from somewhere to the west. Every living thing felt the effects, it was as if a wind slammed into us. Next thing we knew, mutant monsters roamed the land, many of them had once been us."Captain spoke again after swallowing a huge gulp of his snack cake, finishing the last of it. Crumbs dotted his mouth and chin. "What happened to Lightning Strike?"Daisy sighed. "Killed within minutes of the event by who we think used to be Palm Leaf."Captain frowned, looking at the table. "So many of us...killed, mercilessly." Tears began forming in his eyes. "I...I've seen so much in such a short time...nothing is the same. My hope is gone, Daisy. I thought everything would be okay for a while, but...I- I..."I reached over a hoof in an attempt to comfort him, feeling quite hopeless myself...tears were starting to form in my eyes."WHY?!" Captain yelled, tears pouring down his cheeks. "Why did this happen?! All of this?! Goddesses...please..."I started to sniffle. He was right, why did any of this happen? How could the world itself be so cruel? Not just to me, or us, but everypony...everything. All thanks to Discord, that fucking son of a bitch. How could he have done this? Why did he do it?Captain was bawling, screaming like he was trying to expel all the pain from inside him. I felt a void inside me...guilt, sorrow...and...anger. I stomped my hoof on the table."Shut up, dammit!" I yelled to the members of the meeting...well, they may not have been talking in the first place, but fuck if I cared."The details about our stupid adventure are pointless. All you need to know is PT was behind this! Their leader is Discord!" As soon as I spoke the name, everypony who was not in our traveling circus gasped. "He had been building a machine to do this to Equestria. Not just that, but also to create alicorn slaves for his own selfish reasons! Discord. Must. Be. Stopped!" I screamed, stomping a hoof on the table with each word. The table collapsed inward into the floor, disintegrating and scattering around the room.Everypony looked at me in shock and awe. Captain's bawling had reduced to a withdrawn sob. One of the observers responded."I trust you will explain the smaller details later. I also trust any friend of Captain. I will spread the news, and assemble all remaining troops of the Rebellion. Meeting dismissed."We all slowly walked out of the meeting room, revenge on our minds. Well, on my mind, anyway.