9: The Mighty

                (.........................................................................................................)

You awoke to a barrage of foreign feelings. The first thing you could notice, is that your vest and shirt were gone. The cool air was very apparent to your form, since you had nothing on your upper body, but your pants and boots remained. Second, you noticed that, upon trying to move, you were all but closed off from escape by thick chains strapping you to what you could only assume was a chair bolted to the ground, since it wouldn't move either. Last, it was dark, very dark. You thought you just had your eyes closed, but once your disorientation left you, you knew better. You tried to tug again what was chaining your hands to the back of the chair.

This isn’t good, you thought. You try to recollect what led up to where you were now.

...

There was the tank, then HQ radioed in, then you ambushed the Griffin patrol, then... you couldn't quite put your finger on it. It seemed like you were winning that battle, but here you are anyway. It was almost like you just collapsed on the spot.

That was it, that neurotoxin grenade. You remember now, it hit you like a swarm of wasps, grounding you. You can hardly remember anything about it, but you know the medic from your team was with you. You don't have your dog tags, so theres no way of knowing now what could’ve possibly happened to him. You hope you gave him the serum. You know you took it, otherwise you’d be dead, but remembering the feeling, you didn’t know if you’d actually be able to move through that one.

A light glared into your retinas, for a moment, you were blinded. Shaking your head away from it, you look up to see the room illuminated. It was a small concrete room, with a big metal door with a lot of bolts in it and a slot to slide open and look into. Great, this was probably a torture chamber or something, but judging by the knocked out toilet and the place where a bed obviously used to be bolted down, this was probably an old insane asylum or prison. By the state of the city you were currently in, you doubted the realization helped your situation much.

The lock on the door groaned, and then clanked open violently, resonating through the room. The door swung open, and revealed what you just knew was going to show up anyway, a Griffin officer, flanked by two soldiers. Well, you guess that you are about to add torture to the list of shit you had to deal with. They went over this in training, so you knew how to deal with it, but easier said than done.

“Good, he is awake. You, bring the table in.” He waved off the soldier to his right, to which he hurried off down the hall you could see outside. Maybe he was going to feed you? Your hopeful stomach forced the thought into your head. No, this was going to suck.

“Alright cowboy, if you simply tell me what I want to know, I won't have to get my gloves all dirty again. And save the martyr bullshit for your gods, I have plenty of others to try and get information out of.” He said to you with a smug grin, but it felt like he had already been through this enough times today anyway.

“How about you give me a knife, and you an’ me get to settlin’ this.” you sneered back at him.

“I am afraid not you dog. I must get you to talk. Killing you like that won’t help either of us.”

“More like you’re a pussy who’s afraid of actually getting into a fight.” With that you spit at him. He stepped back in disgust, but stepped forward again to deliver a right hook to your jaw, throwing you to the side, and making you jerk on the chains.

        “Silence you Equestrian filth! I will make your death as slow and painful as possible.” He said with a frown.

        “Good luck, ‘cause you hit like a bitch, chicken shit.” You looked back up at him and spit out your mouthful of blood, you think he chipped a tooth.

        “You...!” He visibly started up in anger, but then took a deep breath and regained his composure. Just then, the soldier rolled the table into the small room, which didn’t have food on it, but an assortment of pins, needles, rusty scalpels, screwdrivers, saws, and a car battery on the bottom. All the makings of a cheap horror movie, but this time it was real. “All right, now we may get started.”

        He looked thoughtful for a moment as he stared down at the table. You looked at him, from his captains hat, to his pressed uniform, and flared out pants, he just looked like a jackass. You knew these uniforms were old, but you didn’t know that a whole lot of them actually used them. It didn’t matter though, you had to think of something fast.

        “Ahh, this will do for the first.” He said as he picked up a drill with a boring bit on it. He tested it out a couple times, and some fresh blood dripped off it from its apparent last use. He walked from his position at the table to you. He pressed the tip of the bit to your bare chest.

“First things first, I want you to point to the major resupply locations and medical centers that are not already circled on this map.” He pulled out a map that already had a couple of locations that actually were at the right places. Like hell you were going to give up the lives of the people there for your own.

“How about you take that drill and stick it up your ass.” With that, he didn’t even respond. He pulled the trigger of the drill and pushed it into your chest. The pain spread instantly, you could feel the bit spinning into your flesh, and only go deeper and deeper until it seemed to push through the rib trying to stop it. He halted at the lung and took the bit out of the drill, leaving it inside of you. Breathing hurt, pushing your lung up against the protruding bit threatened to puncture it. But you were out of breath, and the pain only made you weak and delirious. Panting and hardly able to see, you look up to the officer again. He was putting another bit on the drill.

“Alright, lets try this again. You don't even have to point, just tell me the street names.” he said, trying to sound reasonable.

“F...Fuck...You...” You barely let out, you were in so much pain just from that, you thought you might just pass out.

“Only the first round and you have already lost your wit? For shame...” He put the second bit to you in the same place on the opposite side of your chest. Without a second word, he started up the drill again, and dug the bit in the same way. This time you screamed, and gritted your teeth so hard you fear they may break, if this didn't make you pass out, nothing would.

He stopped to admire his work, leaving you panting yet again, but with the stabbing pain in both lungs this time. You didn't think you were going to make it through this one. Barely a couple minutes in and you were already wishing he would just end it.

“Oh, this is just the beginning.” He grabbed the cables attached to the car battery. He hooked the negative one to your left side causing immense pain with the weight of it bearing down on the rib it was lodged into. Then he drew the positive one close to the right. “Last chance, cowboy.”

“N...No...F-fuck.” You could barely let out through the haze of pain, you couldn't move your legs anymore you were so worn out, but you weren’t about to give in. “If you say so.” he touched the cable to the protruding bit, and your world became nothing but sparks and pain. You lost your sense of self and could focus on nothing else but the current contracting every muscle in you, and frying your skin.

He stopped for a moment. Taking the cable off he simply looked at you expectantly. You drew up some strength, and spit the blood in your mouth onto his shoe.You mustered up a bloody smile, but you didn’t know if he could see it since you couldn't lift your head. “You will pay for that!” He said in a rage as he put the cable back in place. Your vision flashed to white and you were enveloped in pain again. This time you were going to do something about it. You blindly forced yourself forward to try to touch the officers hand, in the process, you forced on of the bits into a lung, which certainly felt like it punctured it. But the end result was you meeting your forehead with the officers arm, resulting in him getting shocked as well and pulling away from you.

“Agh, you fuck!” He said as he rubbed his arm in pain. “You are of no use to me, now you die.” He said with rage as he pulled out his pistol and put it to your forehead. This was it, you had a good run, killed a lot of Griffins, you just wish you could see the end of this damn war. You waited for a shot, then an eternal blackness to take you to the next world...

Instead, an explosion shook the room, and you could see pieces of debri fly down the hall. The officer turned his attention away from you to see what all of that was about. Instead of taking cover and peaking out of the hallway, he looked directly out into the hallway without a second thought. What a dumbass. He barely had time to raise his gun before he was littered with holes. You just wish you could’ve done that yourself.

Bullets rang out in the hallway from both sides. It didn't matter much to you at this point, you were slipping in and out of consciousness. After what seemed like a couple of days, the shots stopped. You looked up to see someone coming into your room, it was a familiar uniform, thank Celestia. In fact, that was really familiar. It was the zebra engie from your squad.

“Well a-ain't that something?” you manage to get out, or try to at least.

He meets your gaze and sees what has happened. “Sergeant... What evils have they done to you? Tin, he is here!” He yells back into the hallway. Then walks in the medic from your squad. He did make it, you gave a sigh of relief, but only blood came out. He rushed over to you and began taking out medical stuff. You didn't really know any of that nonsense.

“Get him out of this chair! We need to stabilize him!” The zebra got to work on the chains holding you to the chair. He cut around them with a torch, which you could feel the heat from. The medic started to stop the bleeding around the bits.

Then your arms were free. The two of them lifted you off the chair and set you on the ground. This was much more comfortable.

“‘Bout time you guys showed up.” you tried to say through a layer of blood.

“Well we couldn't just leave you here, could we?” The kid said as he smiled down at you. Tin, that was his name, you were going to have to remember that. He shoved a needle into you and all the pain seemed to fade away. Now you were so comfortable, you could just go to sleep. In fact, you were doing just that.

“No, Sarge, stay with me! Just hold on for a little longer!” You weren't listening, you just wanted to rest. Just for a little bit. Everything was turning white. The medic seemed to be yelling at you.

“Don't you die on me! Damn it! His heart is stopping! Hold him down!” Everything he said was just drifting off. You wanted to tell him you were fine. You just needed a nap, and you’d be on the frontlines tomorrow. But for now, just sleep.

        (............................................................................................................)

You woke up to a pit of smoldering ashes, and light shining on you through a skylight. You didn’t remember that happening. That dream seemed almost new. But you knew it wasn't, it was just repressed. You had died, in that little concrete room. But you knew that you were still here now, so what had happened? Well, you can't deal with that right now. You had bigger things to do. You looked across from where you were planted in the old lawn chair, only to see a Griffin strapped to a chair in front of you.

She was still asleep. But the light coming through the skylight above you told you that you needed to make a decision about her fast, before you waste any more hours getting to the princess.

“Hey,” she stirred a bit, but otherwise remained dormant.

“Wake up,” yet again, nothing. Instead you decide to throw something at her. Ah, a splinter of burnt wood will do the trick. A quick toss landed it right on her cheek, which most definitely got her attention.

“Ugh, what...” She looked around for a moment, almost as if she forgot about last night. “Oh, damnit.” Realizing her predicament, she seems to have lost the fire that was so hostile last night. “So what now?” she looks at you dully, as if bored.

“I don't know, If I could trust you I would take you with me. But I can't, so its either kill you or let you back out into the snow.” You really didn’t see another way. If she came with you, she would just stab you in the back and rob you blind. But you didn't want to outright kill her either.

She sighed and looked like she knew what she wanted. She looked up to you with dead eyes and said “Just make it quick,”.

“You really want me to just kill you?” you were genuinely surprised by her attitude towards her own demise, but you still knew why you had to do it.

“I can't tell you how long I've been out here. If I had the guts, I would've done it a long time ago. I just want it to end already. So yeah, just go ahead.” She said without a scrap of emotion to spare.

“Alright I guess,” You gather all of your things up in your bag, then put on all of your clothes again, including her white covering. After gathering everything, you take your knife out of its sheath and slowly approach her. She has her eyes closed, just waiting for it.

You raise the knife to her throat to finish her off. One cut, that's all it'll take. Just put her out of her misery, she's already dying, she wants this.

But you gave her food, fixed her wing, and showed her mercy then, why not know? Your conscious nipped at you.

You can't take her with you, she'll only be trouble.

She's also unarmed, and doesn't have anything to live for anymore.

If you let her go, she'll just starve out there like she was going to anyway. You press the knife deeper into her throat, drawing a bit of blood. Now to just slide it across.

Luna gave you a second chance when you almost killed somebody...

        With a heavy heart and a frustrated grunt, you move the knife to her hands and cut the rope out, freeing her. She looks up to you shocked, as if somebody would if you actually killed them. You angrily turned and began to walk out of the store, yelling back at her, “Just try to keep up!”

        You make it out of the store, and hear her coming up behind you. She doesnt say anything, but you guess she doesn't need to. The two of you trudge through the snow, it had let up since last you were out here, but the snow still continues to pile up. You begin to violently scorn yourself internally, looking back at her occasionally, to which she just looks away.

Why couldn't I just kill her? She wanted it, I needed to do it. This is only going to come back to haunt me. What the fuck... What's changed? Just cause she wants it now you can't do it? If I can't kill somebody who already tried to kill me, I'm going to shorten my lifespan considerably. Ugh...

You decide to drop it for now, you had a long ways to go until you got to hoofington, and trying to justify not killing her wasn't going to get you anywhere right now. You look back at her one last time, she was looking at you, but averted her gaze when you turned. You open your mouth to say something, but realized you didn't have anything to say, so you just turned around. You would have to ask her about Hoofington, maybe she knew the layout a little better. Maybe this wasn't such a bad decision after all, she could be used for something.

        You pass the sign you saw in your scope and read it again.

Hoofington...........28

It was going to be a long boring day of walking silently.

        Fun.

____________________________________________________

        You made your way over a small hill to see a horizon filled with destroyed suburbs, with the background adorned with technological marvels of buildings that tore into the cloud cover and seemed to ooze dangerous from their pointy outer surfaces. This couldn't be right, you only traveled maybe seventeen miles, not twenty eight. From the looks of it, the violently constructed core seemed to be around ten miles out, so this suburb may not technically be a part of hoofington. You haven't seen a sign since the one at the supercenter, so you had no idea what to judge this by. You decided to just soldier it out and walk into the suburbs to Hoofington. You Get about two steps down the road before a hand tugs you back.

        You turn around to face Gilda. She has a look like you were just about to commit suicide. “What the fuck are you doing? You can't just walk into the outskirts!” she said with genuine shock of your actions.

        You turn around to continue as planned. “Watch me,” you said, still not really wanting to talk to her.

        She starts with an exasperated tone.“Have you ever even seen the shit that crawls around this damn city?” she stands still, refusing to follow you.

        “I’m sure I've seen worse.” you make no signs of slowing into the city.

She walks up to you quickly and grabs you again, this time much more forcefully. She gets much closer to you and her tone sharpens drastically. You disregard your first impulse to take her down and put a knife in her chest for coming at you like that, and instead decide to hear her out, mostly because you just wanted to get this out of the way.

“If we’re going in there, I'm going to need something to protect myself with. I'm not getting killed out here without a fighting chance.” she says, determined.

“Twenty four hours ago, you would’a shot me without a second though. Why should I trust you now?” you jerk your arm out of her grasp.

“Because I can assume I’m much more valuable to you if I'm not fucking dead.” and here you thought she lost that smartass tone.

You considered for a moment. She did know this place better than you, and if she is that concerned over something crawling around the city, maybe you should just humor her. You were faster than her at the moment after all, any sudden movements and you wouldn't have to think twice about putting her down. Fuck it, what's the worst that can happen?

You pull your 1911 out of its holster and two magazines, you flip it around to where the handle is facing her. “Here, take it. Any sudden movements towards me and I won't think twice. Understand?”

She takes the pistol out of your hand and takes the two magazines in her jacket pocket. “Yeah, I got it.” she looks at you expectantly.

You grab her by her arm and force her in front of you, then push her to get her to start walking. She gives you a hateful stare for a moment before giving in. “You’re also taking lead. Not only do I not want you behind me with that, you know this city better than I do. Get us to Hoofington. Walk.” you give her another “gentle” push before she starts walking towards the city.

“I’ve never been as close as Hoofington. Besides, we'll probably die before we even get close anyway.” you didn't think the snide smartass tone was going anywhere anytime soon.

“You’ve been closer than I have. You just let me worry about whatever is out there.” With that you unholster your rifle and began down the road behind her. She seemed apprehensive, with the gun always at the ready. She held it like she knew what she was doing too, both hands on it with a proper position.

With that, you started your innercity journey. It was still snowing. The suburbs were blanketed in a white veil that failed at hiding the scars on all of the houses and buildings. It seemed to be mostly just neighborhoods as you walked, but occasionally you'd run into a strip mall or a grocery store along the road. Everything was so tightly packed, there was no room for any of the buildings to have any semblance of creativity in their architecture. The houses traded brick or wood and old styled shuttered windows with a shingled roof for what seemed to be stone in some places with a metal roof and doors. All of the houses looked the same. A futuristic “resource saving” outlook gave all of the houses the exact same size and shape. The only differences in them were the gashes and holes blown into them from the war that must’ve torn through the streets.

Blackened stone and torn metal gave the buildings almost a serene independance, like some sort of morbid work of art. You hated to even think it, but maybe they were better this way. None of the buildings sparked you as inspired or cared for, but the ravaged debri filled craters where half the house laid gave it a sort of violent charm. Maybe it was growing up out west where every house was hand built and designed independently for its own uses. Every city was always different though, so it wasn't surprising that the technological center of Equestria would be as efficient as this.

You had made it a ways into the city, but it was obviously going to get dark before you had a chance to make it all the way to the Hoofington center to find Celestia. You figured it'll come time to set up camp somewhere sooner or later, though there weren't many appealing places around.

“It’s getting dark Gilda. You know anywhere around here we could hole up for tonight?” you asked her.

“That’s really not a good idea, dude.” she told you.

“And why not? It’s going to be ten times more dangerous out here if we try to fight something we can't see,” you shoot back at her.

“Theyll be able to find us if we stay in one place.” she said as she brought her voice down to a whisper.

        “Machines still in the city, built to keep the griffins out, the-” She continued talking about the robots, but your attention was elsewhere. The sun was drawing down as best you could tell against the cloud cover, so light was growing dimmer. A whirring sound accompanied by a light flickered to life behind you. You turned around to see what it could be.

        You were met by a tiny flying robot. Is this what she was talking about? This couldn't have been that big of a threat. It looked like a maintenance robot. Two metal wings covered what seemed to be a propulsion system that shot out hot air and made the whirring sound and kept the machine afloat. The body was small and boxy, with two eyes on top of each other looking at you, as well as a small flashlight illuminating your face. Gilda was still talking when she noticed the machine start to make another noise.

        “...and then the seekers send the signal out to sentinels to...intercept...” She looked back at what seemed to be a moment too late.

bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........click.......

“NO!” Gilda screamed and pulled her gun out and put three rounds into the tiny machine. The tiny robot flew in a circle towards the ground before impacting in a ball of flame while the lights on it died out.

        “RUN! They're coming!” She tugged on your arm as she bolted down the street. You caught up to her and tried to talk to her as she ran for her life.

        “What's coming? Slow down, we can deal with this.” You grabbed her and attempted to slow her down, she turned to you with a hard look of fear.

        “Deal with this! I'm trying to deal with this! We need to get the fuck out of here before they-”  she stopped mid sentence and all of the color drained from her face as her mouth stood agape. She looked above you at something as she slowly started to back away.

        That was never good.

        You turned around to discover just what she was running from in the first place. It was a robot, that was for sure, but it was nothing like you had ever seen before. It had a long armored body beginning in a twelve eyed metal face and ending in a short tail curved in with a spike on it. One the sides it had eight legs like a spider, and they worked well, considering it was hanging off a vertical surface and staring right at you. Below its metal face plate were two tiny arms and two large miniguns that were revving up at the sight of you.

        You decided to take Gildas advice and run for it.

        You got a shot off at the spider thing and turned to run towards where gilda was already halfway around the street. Hopefully the bullet had some effect. It certainly didn't put it down as you heard the metal ligs scurry down the wall and the miniguns roar out and a thunderous wall of bullets tore into the ground beside you, taking pieces of your clothing with it.

        Gilda waited for you behind a car as she let a couple of shots off at the beast. As you sprinted down the street you looked back to see that the spider thing was gaining on you fast. You got to the car and slid into position beside Gilda. You pulled out your automatic pistol and let the magazine loose into the monster’s faceplate. To your surprise all of the bullets merely bounced off, which was a problem.

        The continuous clicking of the spiders legs sounded out in fast succession between bouts of it filling the air with minigun fire.You attempt to slow it down with your more high powered rifle, but much to your dismay it has much the same effect as your last attempt. Gilda fled into an adjacent house as you slowly backed away from the car and tried to place a shot where you think the weak points would be.

        A clear shot to the eye didn't even affect it as it stormed up to the car between the two of you and used its front legs to stab into the sheet metal and forcibly throw the car out of the way to get to you. the car slammed into the house Gilda was in, breaking the windows and falling into the driveway. The miniguns rang out again as it strided toward you. The shots  felt like a sewing machine had just been grated across your chest. Thankfully the kevlar in your shirt saved you, but it wouldn't hold up to another volley like that.

        With an act of sheer stupidity and desperation, you charged the spider moving towards you to try and get out of the path of the minigun bursts roaring out at you. The spider moved towards you as well, meeting you in the middle. You pulled your shoulder up to the beasts pointy face plate, but it gave no ground to your assault. You halted in place as a half second stalemate occurred. You stared into the spiders red eyes that were right above eye level on you, not really knowing where to go from there. The robot took the initiative, jerking its head forward, knocking you backwards, and trying to fill you with bullets that just roared past you as it landed you on your ass. It came up on you and pinned you to the ground as it started trying to stab you with its sharp front appendages. You managed to get one embeded in the stock of your gun, but the other continued to puncture your clothing and leave you bleeding under them.

        Desperate for any sort advantage you could think of, you pull out your knife and try to fight with the little arm for leverage. The miniguns roared out beside your ears, attempting to get at you, but only filling the ground beside you with holes, and leaving your ears with a severe ringing. You look up at the monster for anything at all. The body was connected armor plates as links with a small opening in between the links, where you could almost see wires poking through from the many years of neglect. You take the opportunity, and thrust into the openings over and over, hoping to severe something important. The beast screeches as its back legs give out. Its front have still works as you keep thrusting though. The miniguns are now on full fire, not even stopping in controlled bursts, you wonder how much ammo this thing actually carries.

        As the arm continues to litter you with holes, you start to desperately thrust into the cavity right below the face plate. If this didn't work you'd be dead before you could get out of here. You close your eyes and thrust one last time as hard as you can. You arm splits into the crevice and your hand embeds itself into the head of the beast, cutting your hand apart relentlessly as the gears and wires around it go awry. You hear a satisfying pop and fizzle as the machine above you twitches and the goes limp on top of you.

        You push the massive hunk of now useless metal off of you. You have to put a boot on the body to pull your hand out of the cavity it embedded itself in. Yanking out of the machine, you fell backwards onto the pavement, but your hand was still attached, no knife though. You had a lot of minor cuts and stabs all over your hand, but it wasn't serious. Your entire body was covered in cuts and bruises from that fight, but at least you won.

        You call out to the house behind you that Gilda was in.

        “Hey, that wasn't so bad!” You said as you see her walk out of the doorway.

        She started at you with a very pissed tone, “Want so bad? We almost died! If you would've just listened to me in the first place we could’ve avoided all of this! But you had to be a dipshit and stare at the robot for it to record you for the sentinels, didn't you? I’ve dealt with these things before, If you would've just-”

        “Oh, can it. We’re alive ain't we?” You get up and look around the street, everything seemed to be empty now. You made your way towards the house Gilda was at, hoping to sleep this off. Hopefully none of your wounds were very serious. You didn't feel like you were going to bleed out, but that may have just been adrenaline.

        “Just barely alive. I guess now we're staying here for the night.” she crossed her arms and said to you.

        “You'd guess right.” Just then, over the dull ringing still in your ears, you heard the familiar clicking of the spider legs against the concrete. You looked over to find two more of the sentinels coming down the street straight at you. Great, that’s just what you needed.

        “Get back in the house! Go!” you yell at her and she listens, you try to run into the house but your body just wants to stop where it is.

        You limp towards the door as the sentinels charge toward you. Making it close to the doorway, one of them stops for a moment. You make the mistake of trying to discern what it was doing for a moment.

        Part of a plate on the back of the machine opened up to reveal two short spikes. At first you couldn't really tell what the point of them was, until they fired out into the air with a burst of smoke, swirling towards you at great speed.

        “Shitshitshitshitshitshitshit,” You let out as you try to get in as fast as you could. The rockets were faster though. The swirling projectiles hit the car in the driveway instead of nailing you directly. The sheer force of the blast sends you flying into the room and right into the wall flipped upside down. You slide to the floor on your head and look up into the room.

        Gilda is in a corner on her ass looking incredulously at the door way, seemingly knocked back from the blast as well. You look out the doorway and see one of the sentinels has reached it. Man, this is going to suck.

        It attempts to tear into the room with its miniguns, but only succedes in tearing into the wall beside the door. Scuttering back for a moment, it decides to try to enter the room instead. The beast rears back and rams into the wall with all the force it could muster. It was rewarded with entrance to the room, but the damage to the house caused something else as the added weight of the machine on the floor caused something to groan.

        Everything seemed to stand still for a moment before something cracked in the floor and it bounced once, startling all parties within for a moment. Then, without warning, the whole house seemed to collapse on itself, causing beams and sheets of wood, metal, and stone to rain down as the floor collapsed into the basement below.

        As the dust settled, you couldn't move, and everything in your vision was darkness. The only thing you could do now was pass out. Which you did.