Will To Survive

I fall back into my seat and place my head down between my hooves. Pain was still seeping its way into me from my back. There is no easy way to describe it other than it feels as if someone was stabbing me were my wings used to be.

Across from me was the government agent who was still in a small state of shock at my presence, but glad to see me. He closes his eyes for a second and rubs them.

“So, are you ready for your next task then?” He asks with an emotionalist expression.

I look up from him and nod, but then another thought crossed my mind. Sparky was still out there, but I had no idea where. She went missing, and no one knew her presence.

“Before you search for Evergreen Reign, I need you to help me find someone else.”

He tilts his head, “Who?”

“My friend Sparky, you know? The yellow colored, high spiked up hair mare.” I said motioning my hooves above my head describing her mane.

He closes his eyes and nods his head. “Yes,”

“I need to find her; I think she may be alive if Evergreen went for me.”

He lowers his eyes and looks down at his desk for a brief moment. He looks back at me, “I actually know someone who recently left Vimont in fear of his life. Maybe he could help.”

“You want me to work with a Vimont member?” I said in an unsatisfied tone.

He shrugs, “What other choice do you have right now?”

I lower my head, “Yeah I guess you’re right.”

“Come back tomorrow and I’ll see if I can get a hold of him.”

With that I walk out the door without another question. When I closed the door I stood next to it for a moment. Working with a former Vimont member made me go cold for a second. However, I needed to find Sparky; she is of great help, and a loyal friend. With Black Mail and Golden gone, we need all the help we can get.

The rest of the day was wasted lying in bed and using the painkillers. My back was still in tremendous pain, and every time I placed my hoof back there, it reminded me of what I lost. Memories seep in and I realize I’ve lost more than my wings; I’ve lost two good friends.

Celestia raised the sun in a morning I wished never came. All throughout the night I had nightmares of Evergreen cutting my wings off; only in my mind he did it slowly with a dull jagged knife, like using a saw. I freaked out and woke up in a state of panic flipping out and screaming. Never once had I manage to sleep for a long period of time, so now I was extremely tired. Which makes me wonder how Cosmic Joy is sleeping through that, maybe she’s listening to music or something.

I sigh as I slowly get off the bed and leave the basement I’ve been concealed in. Strangely, Cosmic wasn’t around, she usually was. Usually she leaves a note or something telling me, but nothing at all oddly enough.

Ignoring this, I head out to what’s-his-face to see if he got some information on Sparky. We need her back, her experience on electricity is much needed. Sure she’s really a child at heart, but when matters are serious, she can control herself. Hopefully we know of her whereabouts.

When I got to the office there was a large number of police in the area. From the outside it looked as if a robbery had happened. This wasn’t the place to be at this time, and I began to head out. Just as I turned I ran into the pony I was looking for. He tapped me twice on the side and began walking without a word. I follow without asking questions.

When we were a good distance from the building we stopped and sat on a park bench.

“What’s going on?” I ask looking back at the building.

“Guess who broke into that building and stole all my files including a few of my co-workers?”

“Evergreen Reign?” I asked in more of a statement then a question.

“Spot on, everything I had on him is gone, including your files, Cosmics Joys, Snow Flurry who we suspect is dead, Tornado Watcher who is in the Witness Protection for slipping information about the Diamond Havocs, then there is…”

“Okay I get it.”

“Sorry, it’s just all the work I had put into it is now gone.”

There was a small silence until I broke it, “Any info on Sparky?”

He looks up with a slightly changed expression from weary to a bit of joy. “Yes, actually. The former Vimont member who is on the run does have her whereabouts. He is willing to help because he’s like you now, he wants Evergreen dead.”

“Why?”

“He said something about failing his task and he has to repay his debt.” He says and gets up, “Meet him at the pub near midtown around ten. Sit on the bench at the end of the bar.” He tips his hat, “Have fun.”

As he begins to walk away, I quickly grab ahold of him and pull him back. He looks at me with curiosity.

“Before you go, what is your name?”

“Not important,” he tries to get up before I pull him back down.

“No, tell me, I’ve been working for you and I need to know.” I stared at him for a while before he raised an eyebrow.

“Just call me Ersatz Acumen if it’s that big of a deal.” He gets up and walks away before I could stop him again.

The dark city streets were being flooded by the large amounts of rain being produced by the cities weather team. Manehattan has been having a dry period so the city is being bombarded by heavy storms every once and a while to make it up.

This pub was subtle and quiet. There weren’t a lot of ponies in today, just a few sitting in booth drinking and talking. After a few minutes another pony waked in wearing a hoody and was keeping his appearance hidden. He sat on the other end of the bar and bought a glass of hard cider.

After a minute had passed the bartender had given me another drink. I didn’t purchase it. I looked down at the hooded pony who just lightly nodded to me, to which I returned it. He gets up and slides down next to me and sat down. He kept his line of sight in front of me and never made eye contact.  We sat in silence for a while until I saw him shaking a little.

“Hey,” I whisper to him. He looks at me and he tried his best to hold back tears until he looked away again. He eventually spoke up.

“Why?” he asked with his voice sounding choked up.

“What?”

He looks at me with tears slowly coming out of his eyes. “Why did you let me live?” he says through his teeth.

“I don’t understand.” I said. He takes his hood off and revealed himself wiping away the tears showing both anger and grief. Once he did that I recognized him. There was a large black eye he had from where he was hit, by me. He was one of the ponies who tried to kill the new mayor; he’s the one I let live.

“Oh, I didn’t know it was you. Why are you saddened by your survival?” I asked looking away.

He begins to tear up again. He looks away and tries to take a drink from his cider. He looks down as he tries to speak.

“Because Evergreen has taken everything away from me. My home, my money, my friends…” He pauses for a while as he tried to bring himself together to speak the next part. “My love…”

I look at him with open eyes. There was nothing to say more than he was filled with sorrow and sadness.

“She…” he chokes one more time “We were about to have a child her and I,” he said with a slight smile “but then I failed the task, the one you stopped. Evergreen looked at the failure and said it needed to be repaid. Instead of just killing me he went for my friends first, then my home. He burned my house down,”

He begins to cry and tried his best to keep quiet while saying the next part which he mumbled, “with my wife inside.” He turns his sadness to anger and he lifts his head. He looks at me in the eyes. “I want him dead as much as you. I want him for taking my family, you for taking your friends.”

“So, where going to work together to find him?” I asked nudging his shoulder.

He simply nods, wipes away his last tear, and looks back at his half empty bottle. “We can’t go after him; he can counteract it too quickly for us to assault him. We need to draw him in. Hurt everything around him so he comes out.”

“So he’s in hiding?” I asked in a slight confusion.

“Yes, the coward only goes in the open completely concealed with a group of ponies to blend in with. We need to lure him out to the open.”

‘How do you propose to do that?”

He begins to get back together. “He has three large ongoing productions that keep his money flow intact, the drug market, the sex market, and his assassination program.” He draws all three down on a napkin. He crosses the drug market and sex market off.

“Why take out the sex market and not the assassins?”

“As much as assassins may seem like a problem, it’s funded by these two. Take them out and it will fall without much effort.”

“Alright, but I need help first.” I said in which he quickly responded before I could continue.

“Sparky, I know. She was taken to a storage unit near the docks, about a mile from the largest drug lab in Manehattan.”

“How am I going to get her out?”

He perks his head up, “Oh that’s simple. She’s going to be in the north-west side of the building. Use some breaching charges or something to bust down the wall, get her out and leave without actually killing anyone.”

I nod my head, “Alright, I know where to get some charges. I’ll do it tonight.” I finish off my drink and begin to head out.

“Go get em’” he says waving his hoof on the air. He looks back forward and stares emotionless at the drink. A small tear forms in his eye as he places his head down on the table.

“You need these for what?” Roseberry says levitating the explosive charges in mid-air with a puzzled expression.

“I need to use them to get something.” I try to grab them out of the air, but she moved them away too quickly.

“Tell me first, I don’t have a lot of these in stock.”

I sighed, “I know where Sparky is and I can get her back. I need to use them to blow a hole in the wall and get her out without killing anyone inside.”

Roseberry’s expression changes, her eyes go wide open. “Why are you going alone?”

“Because I need to, okay?” I said flatly.

She backs away, “Do you like her instead of Cosmic!?”

My eyes go open, “No! We need her back and I’m going to get her.”

“Why are trying to keep it a secret then?”

Finally I gave up trying to compete with her, “It’s how I found out. Now can I please have the charge?”

She smiles, “Only if I can tag along.”

I sighed, “Fine, let’s go.”

She grabs the charges and places them in a saddlebag and puts them around her and follows along behind me.

12:24 AM

Roseberry and I overlook the docks from a vantage point on a bridge that connects to one of the islands that are highly industrial. The smoke stacks were spewing out large clouds of smog into the air. We see the warehouse sitting close by. A few ponies kept guard, but not too many to take alarm.

As we began to walk over Roseberry stops me. When I look at her to find out what she wanted she points at the warehouse near the large door that let boats in and out of the warehouse. When I looked Evergreen walked out of the warehouse. It was easy to tell it was him; he was wearing a full black outfit and was surrounded by ponies, some wielding assault rifles.

To the right of the warehouse was a large building that was a large building composed of indoor storage units. Most of the building was dark, except for the offices on the bottom floor. This was in the same location that the Vimont member mentioned. Roseberry and I begin to head down. Quietly we made our way to the outside of the office rooms.

We get to the end of the building where Sparky was supposed to be. Roseberry walks up to the wall and looks in the window. A sheet covered it, but there was a small enough crack to see inside. Very faintly you could see the spiked up hair of Sparky.

Roseberry pulls out a small pistol and gives it to me and loads one for her. She places the charges on the wall.

“When the charge goes off, the guards inside will be stunned and confused long enough we should be able to get Sparky out.”

“She’s strapped to a chair.”

She nods her head, “Leave that issue to me. Just make sure none of the guards gets up and tries to attack.”

I nod my head and pull the action back on the pistol. Roseberry times the charge for ten seconds and leaned her body up against one side of the wall. The silent timer ticked down and my mind was beginning to focus in.

3…

2…

1…

A loud eruption goes off. The wall complete comes out and flings inside stunning everyone who was in the room, including Sparky. Some of the ponies inside where unconscious while other had fallen on the ground and took a while to recuperate. Roseberry was quick to use her magic and break the bonds holding down Sparky releasing her. Without a second thought I pick up Sparky and place her on my back and ran out the hole we created. Roseberry was close behind firing her pistol to keep the oncoming pursuers at bay.

We headed quickly into the dark to get out of the line of sight. We ran into a nearby park and ducked into a bush to hide from the Vimont members. A few ran up and looked around; they searched for us but didn’t see us. I checked on Sparky to see if she was fine, she was breathing, but unconscious. In the dark I could barely see her physical appearance, but with what I could see, it didn’t look good.

Once the enemies were gone Roseberry helps me up with Sparky on my back and leads me to an underground subway. We quickly sprint in and jump on the tracks. This area was still in use, and we got some strange looks when we ran onto the tracks and headed down the dark tunnels. We were quick enough, luckily, to get into the abandoned area without having to doge oncoming trains.

After a few minutes of running around we got back to Roseberry’s shop. We get into the light and place Sparky down on the comfortable couch. Roseberry and I have no knowledge on medical treatment, but we needed to get a doctor, Sparky was beaten quite badly.

Her mane was tangled in every which direction. She had a large black eye that had swollen up largely and had cracked leaking a small trail of blood. Cuts all throughout her body, her tail cut short, and some teeth missing. It was difficult to see her in this state, but even harder to think of what other things may have happened to her. She may be an adult, but she’s a child at heart.

Roseberry is a quick runner and got Cosmic Joy and the doctor back very quickly. Instantly the doctor picked her up and took her to a separate room and began to treat her wounds. Cosmic ran up and gave Roseberry a huge, and me soon after.

“How did you two find her?” Cosmic said in amazement.

“Blue Spark found her location and asked me for some help.” Roseberry said tossing her saddlebag onto a counter stacked with grenades.

“How did you…” Cosmic stops for a second still in some shock, “never mind, I’m just glad she’s okay.” Her ears droop down, “Well, somewhat okay.”

Cosmic ears perk back up as she walks over and embraces me in another hug.

“I’m going to go help the doctor with her.” She releases me and heads into the room with the doctor.

Roseberry and I stood there in silence. Roseberry levitated a bottle of liquor from the counter and takes a straight shot from it. She places the bottle back and salutes me as she walked into a dark hallway to her room.

I sat down on the couch and closed my eyes. After about ten minutes I fell into a light sleep. I was still awake, but was having a vivid dream in my mind.

The streets were cold, and the fog only added to the nip in the air. I sat on a rooftop of an old house that was abandoned after a fire had destroyed half of it. This neighborhood, once being a rich part of the city was now gone and abandoned and is now used by street gangs as drug production and prostitution.

The old house overlooked a large portion of the city. It was near a beach and from their viewpoint they could see the colossus skyscrapers that dominated the sky, day and night.

I sat next to a random pony I never met before. She was like me, hungry and looking to survive. However, she seemed to doing alright. My ribcage was visible to anyone who looked at me.

The mare looked at me and opened up her worn down saddlebag and offered a slice of bread. My eyes opened at the friendly gesture from the stranger. We looked over the city. Neither of us talked, but we watched the beauty the city gave off at night.

Eventually I decided to make a conversation with her.

“Hey, I know we’ve never met, but, what’s the point to life, or even living, especially here?”

She gives a warm smile while still gazing at the city.

“It’s quite simple, it’s to care for each other. Your friends, your family, strangers” she turn her head to me and pokes my shoulder, she pauses for a second, “and even your enemies.”

“Enemies?” I asked confused.

“If we hate each other, we destroy each other, no winners and no losers. Just mindless bickering, fighting, and in some cases, bloodshed. We need to learn to accept each other and come together, to help each other.”

I nod my head in agreement, “It isn’t easy though.”

She frowns, “Yes it is quite true, and it’s sad to see out city tearing itself apart, over what. Money? Power? Drugs?” she shakes her head in disappointment, “I hope to see this city come out of this in one piece.”

I nod my head again and gets up. “Thank you for the bread, and what is your name if I might ask?”

She smiles but it quickly fades, “I can’t say, I don’t know you enough. It’s for my safety, you understand.”

I closed my eyes and nodded my head once more before leaving.

I wake up to the sound of hoof-steps coming towards me. Cosmic walks to the kitchen and pulls out two glasses and fills them up with a dark liquid, most likely the same drink Roseberry had, but it was a different bottle. Cosmic walk back and gives one of the drinks to me and sits up close.

We sat in silence for a moment before she places her head on my shoulder.

“How is Sparky?” I asked.

“Unconscious and badly injured,” she said a grim voice, “but alive.” She said and took a sip from her drink.

“Hey, I wanted to ask you a question.”

She lifts her head up and looks at me. “What is it?”

“I’ve heard a lot about how you’re highly wanted, why is that?” I gave the question bluntly. I know Cosmic, and she’s not one for delays or subtleness.

Cosmic sits upright and takes another sip from her drink. She places it on the coffee table and looks at me.

“It’s a long story.”

“I can tell, but please tell me.”

She sighs, “Okay, it all started back when I was twenty one and I just joined the Royal Guard…”