The Legend of Delta

“5 hours of flying later”

“Ok, Cloudsdale should be just up ahead” I looked down to my map after surveying the ground below me for the end of the Evertree forest’s tree-line. I banked left to avoid colliding with a cloud wall and as I had gone around it the sight was something that left me awestruck. It wasn’t just a town; it was practically a city in the skies!

“Whoa… now I’ve seen everything.” Was the only thing I could say as I approached Cloudsdale. But I noticed something wasn’t right. There wasn’t any ponies flying round and the sounds of distinct ‘popping’ was enough to raise my concerns, which were confirmed as I approached the city. The streets where popped marked with craters, the walls were holed with bullet holes and the streets were littered with the bodies of the dead and dying, the once water filled puddles were now tinted with their blood. Suddenly I felt a hoof grab my leg from behind. I quickly upholstered my side-arm and aimed it at the hoof’s owner, it was an old-ish stallion that was bleeding, badly.

“Oh god, hang in there mate, you’re going to be ok.” I said to him as I rolled him over and pressed my hooves down on the bullet wound, trying to stop the bleeding. But as I did so I could faintly see his lips moving, mouthing soundless words. “Say again sir?” I asked as I put my ear closer to his head, I could barely make out what he said: “Please… s-save my Daughter.”

“What’s her name? Where can I find her?”

“F-far end of the street on t-the left, h-her name is Rainbow. The soldiers are after her… p-please hurry…” After that I had noticed he wasn’t breathing, he was gone. I noticed that he had a locket around his neck that was open with two pictures inside, one had a picture of a cyan filly with a rainbow mane and the other had a picture of the Father, the filly and her mother in a group photo. I looked up to see a mare not far from the now deceased Stallion, it was his wife. But from what I saw she was covered in blood, she had been shot at least 5 times. I looked back to the dead stallion and took his locket while muttering a remark to his previous request “I will keep your daughter safe, I promise.” I then closed his eyes and stood up. “This genocide ends now.” As I turned around to walk away I took one last glance at the father and mother before looking back to my direction through the streets that were painted red with the innocent blood of the ponies who occupied them.

After some time of walking through the streets, the only thing I heard was the sounds of gunfire, explosions and screaming but soon I started to hear rumbling as I felt the ground suddenly start to shake. “The hell?” I looked round the corner of a street to see a metal beast rumbling towards me, they had a freaking tank! “There is no way my luck can be that bad.” I remarked to myself as I prayed the tank wouldn’t see me, but these hopes were dashed as if on cue, it’s turret turned face me and I heard the distinct sound of a shell being loaded. “Aw. Hell! NO!!”

Anticipating the tank crew’s next move I ‘dolphin’ dived back along the way I came behind the cover of the building I was beside and as I did, the entire corner of the building seemed to just disintegrate as the 120mm HEAT (High Explosive Anti Tank) shell tore it apart. The explosion had left a very loud ringing in my ears as I had hit the ground only to have various pieces of granulated cloud brick and air wood debris land on and around me. I got back up with my vision blurred by the concussion from the shell’s explosion but I had bigger problems, I soon heard the tank start to move again, probably to check if I had lived and finish me off if I did. I dove through the window of the partially destroyed building, shattering the glass as I did. I stayed down behind the cover of a table and pile of rubble to avoid detection from the tank. After a few tense seconds the tank had passed my position and continued along down the road “Well, that was a tad too close…” I remarked to my luck as I got back up from my cover and dusted myself off, luckily the ringing from the tank firing at me had dissipated and damn that gun was loud.

Considering how well armed these soldiers were, I knew that the filly ‘rainbow’ wouldn’t have much time so I figured it was best I’d get moving again and so I did. As I continued down the war torn streets I had came across several equestrian guards, unfortunately, all were dead but that gave me an advantage; more equipment. I had found and in a way; ‘looted’ 4 dead guards. I managed to acquire a better knife sheath which I used to replace my old one, 5 M67 fragmentation grenades, a Colt M4A1 and even a AW .50cal sniper rifle, to make things even better, all of the weapons that I had, including my side-arm had quite a lot of ammo on the soldiers who once fought with them, I guess they were expecting a long fight and by the load-out on each soldier, except for the sniper, had a standardized load-out. Hell I’m surprised that they even all had their own wallets with them, that ment that they were expecting to live through it or had been taken by surprise while on patrol, in all I had acquired a total of 1560 bits. The ammo and grenades had fitted perfectly on my tool belt and each weapon had it’s own sling so carrying all this wasn’t that much of a problem, even my sack of bits had fit on my belt, I just hope this doesn’t count as stealing. But now that I was now physically ready for battle, I loaded my weapons, readied my assault rifle and pressed on into the war torn city, hell bent on saving as many ponies as I can.

“Ok, the house should be just ahead.” I said to myself as I turned to corner of a neighborhood and there it was a house that seemed to be untouched by the gunfire at the end of the street but considering how far the enemy had advanced through Cloudsdale, I knew it wouldn’t be for long. So I trotted up to the door of the house and tested the door handle, it was unlocked so I slowly opened it and entered the house. The house itself looked like it had been looted, furniture had been scattered, windows had been smashed, photo frames broken and their contents distorted by the broken glass that once shielded them.

Sometime into searching the house, I had come up to a door that had a sign saying ‘Dashies’ room’, “This must be her room.” I thought to myself as I slowly opened the door and entered the bedroom. “Hello? Anypony here?” I called into the room as I walked in, soon I stopped as I heard what sounded like a scared whimper, it came from under the bed so I looked under the bed and sure enough there she was, a lone filly, rainbow mane, cyan coat, scared stiff and face soaked in tears as she peered up at me. “P-please *sniff* d-don’t hurt me…” She squeaked to me amongst her terrified whimpers.

“I’m not going to hurt you, I’m here to help c’mon we need to go, now.” I told her to try and calm her down enough to get her to move, the soldiers would be on the house in a matter of minutes if not seconds.

“N-no! W-where’s my daddy? Did he send you?” She asked in worry, I was about to say what had happened to him when I realized that would just make things worse.

“Yes, he sent me, he wants you to be safe… and he sent me to get you out of here.” I replied.

“*sniff* H-how do I know you’re not lying?” She asked me. I have to admit, she’s got me there, I had no real proof but then I remembered the locket, I pulled it out of my tool bag and gave it to her. “O-our family locket? H-he had this when he left with mommy. S-sorry mister, I guess you did meet them, ok, let’s go. B-but *sniff* are they safe?” This question made gave me a dilemma, if I told her the truth, she’d be in a nervous wreck and wouldn’t be able to leave, but if I lied, she’d eventually find out and think that I killed them. Damn, I hate karma. I sighed as I knew I had to make a decision. I chose to lie.

“Yeah, but the one thing they want you to do is get somewhere safe, there are bad ponies coming, so right now we need to go, ok?” It pained me to lie to her, but I knew I had no choice, her parents were long dead, but I couldn’t let her have the same fate. I held out my hoof to help her out.

“Ok, *sniff* let’s get out of here.” She said as she wiped her tears and took my hoof to help her crawl out of the bed. Soon as we were leaving the house she had stopped to take one possibly last look at her home, I knew that she was in a bad position right now; leaving her home with a stranger that she could barely trust, so I gave her a minute to take one last look of her home and with a sigh she slowly closed the door to the house and rejoined me by my side. I asked her if she was ok, but she bluntly relied, I will be the sooner I meet up with my mom and dad. *Sigh* I wish that would be true.

After sometime of walking down the streets towards lines where the equestrian military was slowly pushing back the enemy I started to hear a rumbling noise again, the tank was back! “Uh mister? What’s that noise?” Rainbow asked me, obviously concerned and she had a big reason to be. I grabbed her hoof and quickly lead her to an alleyway. As we hid, she took a glance round the corner and saw the tank roll down the street about 50 meters from us and stop to turn and drive down the street we were in. In her panic she tumbled back and in a loud whisper said to me: “Mister! That… thing is coming towards us!” Realizing that the tank might find us, I lead her further down the alley and hid her behind a trash canister.

“Stay here and keep quiet. I can handle this. Oh, you might wanna cover your ears too.” I explained to her as I came up with the idea that if I could drop a grenade inside the tank, I could blow it up. She nodded at this and kept crouched down behind the trash canister while I walked back up to the corner of the street and waited for the tank to drive by after a few seconds of tense waiting the tank had drove down the street pas the alley me and Dash hid in, but when the tank did, I followed it. I unclipped a grenade from my belt as I gave a short flight to hop on the tank; I pulled the pin of my grenade and popped open the hatch to see the crew look up at me dumbstruck of what was happening.

“Hot potato, assholes!” I joked to the tank crew as I chucked the grenade down the hatch and slammed it shut, as I dove off the tank I heard the crew curse in panic as they tried to get out or throw the grenade back out it only took 3 seconds after I dove off the tank for the grenade to detonate, what I hadn’t counted on was that this tank had it’s ammo stored around the turret, so instead of just killing the crew of the tank, I blew the whole damn turret off! The turret was sent flying in the air as it separated from the tank but as I got up I realized it was coming back down at me!

“OH CRAP!!!” I cursed as I instinctively ducked down when I saw the turret fall towards me, anticipating my certain death I closed my eyes in fear. I soon heard the loud ‘clang’ of the turret impacting, a few tense seconds had passed but then I realized that I was still alive! I opened my eyes to see that I had been in the exact spot of where the turret hatch was on the turret, I then stood up, astonished of my luck that I wasn’t crushed. “Whoa… that was a close shave.” I stumbled out of the turret and regained my bearings. I came back over to Dash’s position. “Ok, the other soldier’s probably heard that, we’d better get moving.” She nodded at this and we continued our journey.

Sometime later, we had progressed through the majority of the city and towards Equestrian Quick Reaction Force’s lines I stopped at the corner of a house and peeked round to see some soldiers in E.Q.R.F uniforms, we made it. I was about to turn the corner but stopped myself and looked back at the city, I had got one civilian out and the terrorists were still putting up a fight, if I joined up with the E.Q.R.F, they’d dis-arm me but if I didn’t and turned back I might be able to do some more help. I realized what I had to do. “Dash? Listen, these ponies are going to help you ok? I need you to go with them.” I told Rainbow as I turned back to her.

“Wait, w-what about you? You’re not coming?” She asked in shock thinking that I was an everyday civilian here in Cloudsdale, looking to escape the chaos. But considering where I woke up the first time as in some kind of experimental base, there was a reason these soldiers wanted me dead, that could risk the lives of everypony around me. So I shook my head at her question but what she did next I have to admit surprised me a little. She wrapped her hooves around me in a tight hug and uttered; “Thank you, I won’t forget you.” To be honest I couldn’t help but smile and hug her back. But I knew that there was no time for heartfelt moments so I released her and turned back to face the corner of the building.

“HOLD YOUR FIRE!!! CIVILIAN COMING OUT!!!” I yelled to the E.Q.R.F soldiers, they heard acknowledged my call and responded; “Roger! We got you covered!” I tapped Rainbow’s shoulder as a sign for her to go, and she dashed round the corner and towards the soldiers. I was about to turn back but then things gone to hell.

“ENEMY TANK!! FALL BACK! FALL-!!!” This panicked call was just down the street to my left in the opposite direction of the E.Q.R.F soldiers we met up with, but the rest of the panicked call was muffled b the explosion of a tank round blowing the soldier across the street. “There were two tanks!? Oh now you’ve just GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!” I mentally yelled at myself as I saw the tank slowly turn the corner of the street. I had to stop this tank, if I didn’t everypony would die. Then an idea came into my head, it was a suicidal risk; but I had no choice. “Well, buck it, this will either save them or make me a red mist.” I remarked to myself as I drew my rifle and “cowpony” rolled into the center of the street; I fired 6 rounds to get the tank’s attention away from the E.Q.R.F and survivors, it worked; the tank’s main gun turned towards me as I aimed at the tank’s main gun barrel as heard the confused calls behind me saying what I was doing was suicide. Hell, I had to admit I kinda agreed with them, if I didn’t miss and get killed that way, the near molten copper from the tank’s shell would rip me to pieces. But I had already let down one little filly’s father, I was not about to let down anypony else!

“This colt’s outta his mind, EVERYPONY DOWN!” I heard an E.Q.R.F soldier yell as the tank finally got it’s main gun to aim at me since this version didn’t have a coax machine gun, time seemed to slow as I aimed down my M4A1’s Red Dot Sight, I saw the light of the tank’s interior disappear as the shell was loaded, I had to time this right, if I fired to late, I’d be killed, too early and the shell wouldn’t detonate, these shells were safe until fired or used as an I.E.D. Tense seconds had passed but sure enough, amongst the ominous silence despite the tank’s engine rumbling away I heard the tank commander yell one word: “FIRE!!!”

I squeezed the trigger and as time slowed even more I saw my bullet slowly protrude from my rifle, the AP 5.56mm N.A.T.O round’s copper layer glistened in the shine of the sunlight as it sped towards the tank, at the time when the bullet had covered half the distance between me and the tank, I saw the tell-tale fire ball of the tank firing it’s massive projectile towards me. What had actually happened in a ‘flash’ was feeling like hours to me. I saw the projectile’s get closer and closer until ‘clink-BOOOM!!’

The sheer blast of the shell had blown me off my hooves as the shell’s shockwave torn the top of the tank clean off and blown up the stored ammo inside it, destroying the tank. By then time had seemed to go back to normal as the fragments of the tank’s armor landed all over the street, leaving the tank to be nothing but a topless heap of metal that burned like a Romane candle. I soon got to my feet and took a first hoof glance at the result of the destruction that I had caused to the iron beast. Luckily the crew was killed in the blast so I wouldn’t hear their screams as they burned to death. By now the ponies behind cover had peeked out to see that the tank that would have ended their lives had been reduced to piles of burning scrap metal and in doing so they realized that I had saved their lives. A few seconds later as I stood before the bewildered crowd of survivors, an E.Q.R.F soldier had walked towards me, seemingly mind-blown as he glanced between the tank and me. “Nice shot.” He complimented as stood in front of me, soon I had heard a broadcast over his radio.

“All units please advise, the all of the hostiles seem to be retreating! I’ll say it again, he terrorists are retreating! We’ve won!!!” I heard the other soldiers and survivors then had started to cheer with the battle being over and them being the victors. Soon I had took my attention back to the cheering crowd as they rejoiced with a smile on my face, soon I saw the ominous flash of a camera and realized that this photo would probably appear in the papers, I had attracted too much attention as it was, so I turned away from the crowd and walked past the tank but soon the crowd had noticed of my leaving and the soldier that was once beside me had ran up to me and asked. “Hey, where are ya going? You just won the battle here for us, you saved our lives and you ain’t even going to let them thank you?”

I merely nodded at his question and replied. “If their lives are safe, then my work here is done.”

“Then can you at least tell us your name? So the press will know who to call a hero in the newspapers?” He asked as we reached a sheer drop off the city, I would fly off and find somewhere to stay from here but I figured that the tow should at least know who saved their lives.

“My name is Delta, but as for that whole hero thing? No-one asks to be a hero, just sometimes turns out that way…” And with that message I jumped off the ledge and free-falled a good distance before opening my wings and flying off to find a refuge, I flew underneath Cloudsdale and found a cloud-cave near one of it’s edges of the city. I flew into the cave and was surprised to see that it had looked like somepony had lived here a long time ago, I recognized the shapes of a workbench, table, kitchen, bedroom and there was even a hole in the floor that I cloud use to jump out of to fly whenever I need to. But I turned my back to the entrance of the cave to see a sight that left me in awe, the sunset had started to appear on the horizon as it pained the sky a significant tone of orange, it was the most beautiful sights I have ever seen so far.

But soon I started to feel the outcome of the day’s battle; my body had soon felt like I just galloped a marethon with a ton of weight on my back. I soon took all my equipment off and set my belt, weapons and ammo on the workbench and went onto the bed, it wasn’t exactly comfortable, but I didn’t really care, this was as close as to a real home as I would come. My eyelids soon felt heavy and I slowly drifted to sleep.