Chapters Fallout Equestria: Wounded Worlds
Prologue: The New Era
In the beginning, there was nothing... I'm kidding. There was Equestria and the Goddesses, Celestia and Luna. The mighty alicorn princesses that brought night and day upon the citizens of their modest country. The zebras were from a faraway land that nopony ever really cared or knew about. The only thing the two really understood about each other, is that they had what the other needed. Equestria was practically sitting on a two mile deep hot spot of gems and the zebra land had an overabundance of coal. The zebras needed the gems for their incantations and miscellaneous spells and the Equestrians needed the coal to fuel their trains. So, naturally, the two countries traded. There was harmony between them for over a millennium. But on one fateful day, trade between the two locations ceased. Equestrians were without their transportation and the zebras without their spells. The countries reached a boiling point and war struck. Equestria changed for the worse, for it hadn't seen war in thousands of years. And as many know by now, war, war never changes. The greed, sickness, hysteria, and general lack of friendship tore the countries apart in anarchy. It was as if Dischord were there and behind the whole mess, but he had died along with the statue his soul was bonded to when Canterlot fell. When the megaspells struck, Equestria's greatest minds had prepared shelter for most ponies in the form of a Stable, or a fallout shelter, to protect them from the radiation and explosive force of megaspells. When the megaspells struck, everypony either withered away from the radiation or impact, or were safe in their Stables. That is, all except for the pegasi, who abandoned all their fellow pony after the strike on Cloudsdale. The day Cloudsdale fell would go down as one of the most horrifying attacks against pony-kind. Hundreds of thousands of pegasi were killed, injured, or left homeless. That day, the pegasi turned on their reserve cloudmaker and sealed the sky up forever. Nopony ever ventured from the stables to figure out what happened. Nopony ever left the clouds, such was the way of the Enclave. Our story starts here with a pegasus 150 years after the last of the megaspells fell. This is his tale. This is my tale.
Fallout Equestria: Wounded Worlds
Author's Note
Author's Note:
This is my first fanfiction I have ever written. I hope that you enjoy. This is a spin off from Fallout Equestria by Kkat. I am in no way affiliated with the author of the fanfic titled: "Fallout: Equestria". All of my thanks to the Dev. team and storyboard writers of F:E for the great inspiration. If you have not played the fallout franchise games, or read "Fallout: Equestria", you may be very confused. This story was co-authored at points and gramatically corrected by my friend Sam and my cousin Jacob. I owe you both. I am open to constructive criticism . Think something should be added? Drop a comment, shoot me a PM on the site, or email me at Halcyonpony@gmail.com I hope you enjoy reading as much as I did writing it.
Fallout Equestria: Wounded Worlds
Chapter 1: September
I was, yet again, above the cloud cover. The crisp autumn air whisked around me and through my mane, kicking it up into a heap. I knew it was a death wish to come above the clouds for somepony like me, yet, what did I have to lose? The Enclave has already stripped me of everything and everypony who had ever cared for me or loved me. I felt a nickering in the back of my head. It was my subconscious reminding me that the guard patrol would be back in a minute or two. Just one more look is all I need. Just one final peak at what had once been the home of my wife, two kids, and mine. I glanced at the corner where the guards would round in about seven seconds. I quickly flew towards a fluffy, white house and hid behind it. I took a deep breath and began to wait.
In no time, I was at my house. I stared at it for almost five minutes. I wanted to enter so bad, but I knew I couldn't. First off, the new owners probably wouldn't appreciate the lone dashite barging his way into the house. Second, if I entered the house, I risked an emotional breakdown of rage and sorrow. That was a risk I wasn't about to take. I took another long glance. And flew back down towards the Equestrian wasteland. But, of course, as I left, somepony saw my flank. Of fucking course. Alarms rose up around the city of New Haven quickly. Apparently the pony who had spotted me knew me before I left the Enclave. There was almost nopony left who would know me in New Haven. Though confused as to who could have recognized me, I made my escape before the Enclave even knew how to respond to the threat. I dove below the clouds to be greeted by the sweet tingling sensation of radiation glowing from below. The area was known as Fillydelphia when it stood, proud and tall. The city was, by all means, no longer glorious. It was a pile of rubble with a mile wide crater just east to the towns center. I flew past as quickly as I could as not to draw attention to the raiders and slavers that might be inhabiting the area.
I had made a new life for myself in Friendship City as Harbinger of Greatness with Capricorn. I didn't deserve the title. I was far too dark with a much too horrible history to have such an alias. Capricorn had left with me, but I asked him to stay below the clouds. He was far more recognizable than I was with his coat. Practically nopony had a black coat in the Enclave anymore. I landed on the outskirts of the city on top of an abandoned grocery store where I had left Capricorn to go to New Haven. As I touched down, he rushed out in a fit of rage. "I heard the alarm from down here, what did you do?!" He was worried I had done what I was afraid I would do. He thought I had entered the house.
"No, I stood there too long. I can't risk going there again anymore now that I know somepony still knows what I look like. Help me remember that please?"
I gave a weak smile. Dread filled Capricorn's face. He stammered, "Wha-wh-g, FLY!" He turned and struck out for the edge of the building and swooped to the ground in an arc that would put him at the entrance to the store. I spun my head while starting to take off to see the stark black armor of Enclave soldiers shooting towards me. I flew to the indoors where Capricorn would be waiting and we would have the upper hand in the firefight. I used the door on the far left and did my best not to set off any of the traps we had rigged up for invaders, or now, the Enclave. I met Capricorn behind the barricade of flipped over and sideways shelves that we had made. The traps hadn't been intended for the Enclave, they were meant for the bandits, raiders, and slavers that stopped by here on occasion, but I guess saving my reckless flank was their destiny. I quickly threw on my battle saddle, custom fit with two laser rifles, and took aim at the entrance. The soldiers burst in through the doors, and were met by an onslaught of grenades. A massive explosion rocked the room as they went off all at once. The battle was still far from won. The frags only took out 2 of the five fully suited personnel. I took to the air and fired the lasers as fast as I could, concentrating on the closest target. Capricorn supported me with a double barrel shotgun from the ground. I emptied my second clip into the nearest soldier before he died. I dove back to cover for a reload. I heard the blast of Cap.'s double barrel and the satisfying sound of blood and internal organs flying everywhere follow. That meant four down, one to go. I spun off from cover and squeezed off 5 rounds from both rifles when the last target vaporized from the heat of the lasers. I smiled, and heard another shot. This wasn't the friendly 'bang' a shotgun, but the zip of a plasma pistol. I fell to my right side from a lack of balance. One of the soldiers hadn't been finished, and hit me. I was bleeding everywhere uncontrollably from my newly stumped right hind leg. I screamed. Nothing I had ever done had even remotely prepared me for the pain and sudden nausea of losing a limb. I puked on the ground, and continued to scream. What was better still is I had used our last healing potions and bandages on a local back in Friendship City. I felt a little light headed from blood loss, but stood with my good legs anyways. I collapsed from pain and promptly passed out.
Fallout Equestria: Wounded Worlds
Chapter 2: Angels and Demons
Chapter 2: Angels and Demons
It was my senior year of Pegasus School. If you were to look me up in the yearbook, you would find that my name is Halcyon. I'm a navy blue pony with a straight, shaggy white mane that came to about the top of my shoulders at it's lowest point, and had light green eyes. My cutie mark, although invisible in the photo, is a silver set of binoculars. What you wouldn't have seen, even if the mark was in the photo, is the reflection of a monster on the glass of them. As far as I know, I am the only pony that can see it.
I was on the other side of the building as it happened. My brother, Cloudway, had never been the strongest willed pony. And it didn't help that there was a gang in the school. The Boltock gang was notorious for their bullying and extracting of lunch monies. Cloudway made an easy target as a freshpony to the seniors Buck and Squeaker. That day, they would never forget. Buck was the ringleader of the gang. He was a black coated pony with a brown mane and deep brown, commanding, eyes. He tugged at Cloudway's mane with his teeth. "Give us your lunch money, kid!" Buck spoke as if he were president of the Enclave. Demanding and cool. Buck had Cloud pinned on the ground. Buck's back hooves driving into his back and fore hooves keeping his wings on the ground. Cloudway sobbed quietly. A small, high pitched voice came from behind Buck. "Let me pull out his wings if he doesn't cooperate." Squeaker was the strongest pony in the school. A white stallion with a close cropped mane the color of hay. He lifted every day. Sometimes twice a day. Buck laughed and let Squeak in on the fun.
I had felt something was amiss. There were a few less ponies on their way to classes. More specifically, Buck and Squeaker weren't harassing passing ponies. That usually meant that they were in the freshpony hallway. I'd better help the poor soul being tortured today. Again. This wasn't the first time I'd been breaking up a fight. Something felt different about this one though. As I approached, I noticed a crowd of ponies circling the fight. The only other thing I saw, was that sky blue mane of Cloudway's being pulled longer than it should be. Time seemed to slow, then stop. Everything turned a sickly shade of red. I targeted the side of Squeaker's head. Faster than anypony anticipated, I struck him with all I had, knowing if I wanted to beat him, I had to do it all at once. Before he hit the ground, I bucked him again. This time in the chest, and sent him into the crowd. I had felt ribs crack under my hooves and, to my surprise, smiled . I hadn't needed to administer the second kick. I knew that. It was reassurance that he wouldn't want to fuck with me or my family. Ever again. I turned to face Buck and saw that he was scared shitless. His eyes widened with horror as he saw his companion in a useless pile on the ground. As an act to try to put something between me and him, he pulled out some of Couldway's mane. Before he could spit it out, I lost all restraints. I charged full force into him and hit him in the muzzle with my forehead, knocking him off balance. What happen next, I can only describe as what i saw in the aftermath. I beat him within an inch of his life, then stopped. I had regained enough control over my body to stop beating him. I looked at the deformed mass beneath me, drowning in a pool of it's own blood. I decided that I had the courtesy to not let him die, and rolled him over, then spat on the clouds next to him, still seething with rage. The Enclave had arrived to stop the Boltock gang, and instead arrived in time to see me as the monster I thought I had locked away years ago. The monster that did unspeakable things to anypony it touched or got in it's way. They trotted towards Cloudway to carry him to the infirmary. I shot them the most dangerous look I had and spoke. The intensity in my voice grew with every word until I was practically yelling. "Don't. You. Dare. Touch. Him." They backed away and instead turned to the medical attention of the two gang members. The two were rushed to a hospital. The group of ponies parted as I neared. I wasn't sure what I smelled on them. Fear, or respect. As I broke to the center, a beautiful mare helped my brother to his feet. I gathered Cloudway from her. I looked into her eyes and quietly thanked her, then made progress slowly to the nearest door. "Let's get you home Cloud."
A few days later, I was going back through the usual routine again. Honors Physics, Advance Placement Literature, Chemistry, and Sociology. It felt like everypony was avoiding me. behind my back I heard them whisper and call me names. The one that I heard most commonly, was "Malignant". The treated me as if I were a disease or that I were the monster that i caged inside of me. (To be honest, I would do the same thing.) Everypony except Summerfly. A mare that was not only attractive, but of high intellect as well. We shared classes for the last half of the day. She had a golden yellow coat and a blonde mane. Though, it was her eyes that held my attention most. (As an added bonus, her wings were nice). Her eyes were a kind of hazel that often seemed to change color to green, blue, or brown. My favorite was when they looked a mix of all four. She was also the mare who helped Cloud to his feet. I stared at the nearby wall. I had finished the lesson and reading for the day thirty minutes into the class. A group of Enclave soldiers interrupted my Soc. class. "Mr. Halcyon?" asked one of the soldiers.
There was a familiar face in the hall as I stepped outside. General Spectrum was there. He was a military green with a close cropped, white mane and a similar, white color for his eyes. "I was watching the monitors this afternoon and couldn't help but notice my top four body guards collide into each other where you had been standing not seconds ago. I thought it was magic at first, but remembered you weren't an alicorn. So, how did you do it, kid?" Spectrum asked, almost excitedly if I might add.
Fallout Equestria: Wounded Worlds
Chapter 3: Bootcamp
I thought Bootcamp would be a breeze. It wasn't. Eighteen hours a day of hard physical labor for seven days for a total of two weeks. The next part was easier for me, as much as I didn't like it. I always excelled at hoof to hoof combat. During the exercises, I spotted a pony who seemed to have the same problem with hoof to hoof that I had. He was good. Really good, but he never wanted to fight. I soaked in his details. He had a black coat and mane, making him easy to remember. I'd like to meet that stallion someday. I thought. On better circumstances, of course.
We then moved onto the the weapons phase and learned to use and how to fire them accurately. There was much more down time, but it was all monitored. We perfected our marksmanship over a course of seven days. Then, Blue phase struck. Harder than I thought it would. Blue was a combination of everything we had done. A lot of it was physical prep with weapons at our sides. Most of the platoon I was in failed and was sent to a new platoon. All but two of us in fact. Myself, and the completely black stallion I had observed in hoof to hoof. Our commander looked at the two of us and laughed quietly at first, then louder and harder until he was crying from laughing so hard. "Oh. Ohohohoh. Hoohoohoo. I bet. You are wondering. Why I'm. Laughing so hard." the commander took breaths spasmodically so that he wouldn't choke himself. "No, sir. I have not a clue." I replied. "Not a clue, sir." repeated the black stallion. "Because you two are the most adorable little recruits to ever pass! Useless maggots! How the hell you two passed and nopony else did is beyond me. Regardless, I was told by my superior officer to make you bitches fight for the spot on his platoon."
We had the rest of the day to ourselves. So, I decided to really meet Shadow Shot formally. "So, you're Shadow Shot?" I asked.
Over the course of the next week, Shadow and I became fast friends. We spent hours training together. Many exercises were combat scenarios. Whenever there was a sniper role, Shadow took it, and I was his spotter. After the final week of Bootcamp and basic training ended, Multiple ponies in our platoon commented on how we acted almost as a single unit rather than two ponies. The general had held to his promise. I was immediately promoted to major. The only thing I really wanted to do now, was more negotiations concerning my leave.
Fallout Equestria: Wounded Worlds
Chapter 4: Spot Me
Shadow and I would normally get our month leave in a couple of weeks, but we were in the middle of a war now. The Enclave was attacking Hatsevoir Mountain for resources. The reason it is a war was due to the not-so-friendly flock of griffins that lived on the mountain. It wasn't so much of a war as it was shoot-the-near-defenseless-griffin-for-their-gems. It was wrong. As far as I knew, we hadn't even tried diplomacy. Despite my thoughts on it, orders were orders. Shadow and I would snipe from a cloud 700 meters out.
We arrived at our location 45 minutes early, as per norm. It was about 4 in the morning based on the sun, but after Celestia passed, it was always hard to tell. Our power armor that had been provided was stiff from the chill of the early morning. Our mission today was to stop bomb carts from reaching friendly positions 500 meters south of our location. The hostiles were assumed to approach around 0700, 1500, and 2100 hours. Shadow and I set up adjacent to each other. I set up my spotter scope. It was a 21x zoom, built in with a wind gauge and S.A.T.S. (Stable Assisted Targeting System). It was a dull job, sniping, but we (more so, I than Shadow) needed to stay focused so we didn't miss anything.
It was around 0630 when the first cart showed up into view. I peered dow the sight.
After the war-blimp, the day felt boring. We sucessfully shot down the third cart at the time it was supposed to come. I guess the intel pony wasn't completely worthless. When we arrived back at base, there was General Spectrum. He always had a knack for finding out where I was. And when he was looking for me, he wanted something. As the general drew near, Shadow and I stood at attention next to each other and saluted with our left wing. "Sir!"
Shadow showed up around 15 minutes late, which was strange and unlike him. No matter. It had given me more time to stretch and psych up. When he did show up, he seemed short of breath. Perhaps it was a warmup prep I hadn't thought of before. "You ready to pump iron?" Shadow asked. I beamed. This was going to be exciting.
The next hour went by quickly. But as I had promised, we were soon walking into the sunrise. It was so beautiful, the sun. The way all that clouds seemed to dance around in vibrant pinks, purples, and blues was astonishing. I was compelled by it's beauty to kiss Summerfly again. Accept, longer because we weren't in danger of anypony mocking us on the base. I didn't want the moment to end this time. I let it go until she stopped for air. "Halcyon, there is something I have been meaning to ask you." she sounded worried. I hoped that she hadn't put the pieces of my past together, for her sake, yet.
When I returned, word had spread of my 'undying love' for the sexiest mare anypony had ever seen. In reality, all jokes were made out of jealousy. The way everypony teased made it quite obvious. They were just trying to get a laugh in. I spent 15 hours sleeping because I lacked rest from my excitement between the sniping mission and Summerfly. I woke up at around 2100 hours and ate a late supper before deciding to try to sleep again. I woke up at about 0300 to a strange sensation. The room was pitch dark but I felt something was in the room with me. As subtly as possible, I turned my head to face the rest of the room. The air tasted foul, and there was no noise except for the ringing in my ears from the silence and the sound of my heart beat. The room looked completely normal, other than a transparent silhouette in the shape of a pony near my bed, slowly drawing nearer now that I wasn't moving. The breaths were nearly quiet, but erratic, as if he were nervous. The scuffing of its hooves ever so quiet because of the stealth field created by the stealthbuck. I stayed still until whatever it was was right over top of me. I played the worst case scenario in my head. It was an assassin trying to kill me. Best case scenario, it was a soldier pulling a prank. Better act for worst. I slid off of my bed and swept the legs out from underneath the attacker then drove both fore-hooves to the rough location of the attacker's chest, but only lightly enough to knock out their wind, not crush the trachea. I felt a satisfying release of pressure and heard a slight gasp for air. I got off of the attacker. "Reveal yourself!" I challenged. There was a flush of color at my feat and a pony lay, gasping for air. Best case. "I expect a full report explaining your actions tonight after you recover in the infirmary." I called the medical ponies to my room, but ad I turned around, I notices the pony pointing at something. (Either that or he just fell that way). I looked at my bed and noticed a knife sticking out from the floor just beside it. Worst scenario. Even worse, the attacker was still in the building. Fuck, they were going to attack Shadow next. I raced to his room just in time to see that he was gagged and had his wings bound. Shadow was promptly thrown our the window and was caught by another unseen force that slowly pulled him up higher and higher. I followed as fast as my wings would carry me until there was almost no air left to breathe. Shadow stopped ascending, then a griffin tore a mask from it's face. It was the strongest looking griffin I had ever seen and it was at least twice as tall as I was. "Drop him. Now!" I couldn't think straight. This griffin had what little left that I considered family in his claws.
Fallout Equestria: Wounded Worlds
Chapter 5: Homecoming
"I won't let you go in there without backup! Especially after the incident last night!" Spectrum stomped on 'especially' to emphasize. "With all due respect sir, the griffin was sloppy. If it were an assassin, Shadow and I would be dead. This was the act of a radical individual with no consequences in mind." I hated the idea of imposing a military rule over another society. I wanted the griffins to see our views and be our friends. I might be ignorant enough to believe that would work, but I'm not stupid enough to go in makings threats on a diplomacy mission. "That still doesn't allow you to go in there with no reinforcements. There are very likely more of the radicals in their base!" Spectrum hardened his voice. "You are taking my personal guard as your own, is that clear?" "Yes, sir." Fuck that. I would just pay the guards extra to escort us and say they were there protecting us. I trotted out of the generals office. I figured I should check in on Shadow. He had been really beating himself up over being caught off guard, last I saw him.
When I entered Shadow's room, I caught a stifled laugh. The sound came from him, except, it wasn't a real laugh. It was hysteria settling in, taking it's serene pleasantness and casting it's humorous veil over his thoughts. "We, more so I than you, almost died. I don't know what to say. If I hadn't been so, so unaware, so stupid, I may have stopped that from happening." Shadow chuckled to himself. "The only reason I even live right now is because of your quick wit and how perceptive you are. It's almost like you can see a few seconds into the future." I whinnied.
I stepped into Spectrum's quarters. It was a large rectangular room with a closet on the left of the entrance and a bed in the back right corner. In the front of the room there was a water hole and a counter with an intercom broadcaster on it. To my surprise, the room looked really bare. there was a lot of open space between all of the objects. I was completely alone. Upon other circumstances, I may have been disappointed, but I needed to borrow his intercom. I pressed the orange button on the radio box and began speaking. "This is Major Halcyon Sparkle ordering all recruits and privates to the mess hall. Repeat. All recruits to the mess hall." I removed my hoof from the button that allowed me to project my voice and turned to leave. I was met by the unhappy face of General Spectrum. "What the hell do you think you are doing? You shouldn't have access to this room." I jumped in surprise. I hadn't heard him enter while I was making my announcement. I relaxed, the general was typically real soft on me.
I was only down the hall when I heard the commotion coming from the mess hall. There were shouts of questioning and uncertainty in the air, and most of them included my name. Majority of them were simply wondering where I was. I quickened my canter to a trot so as to lighten the bombardment of questions from Shadow, seeing that he was overwhelmed as I entered. The instant I walked in, everything ceased and all ponies returned to their lines. I quickly saw the respect that they all held for me. It only took one glance, and they were also afraid of me. Good, that's what I wanted. I walked up and down the first row of ponies, studying each ones movements and image to see if they were the attacker. I stopped longer on some ponies to build suspense in the others. It was too much fun to toy with them like this. I decided that my fun with the first of the three rows was done. "Row one!" All of the ponies stood at attention and raised their left wings to their brow. When they spoke, it was in unison and in a monotone.
We walked into the cell I had cut from the mainframe of security before my morning announcement. It was no longer being monitored or bugged. nothing could see or hear from outside the room. I sidestepped and Shadow pushed Sterling inside, shutting the door behind us and watching for passing ponies.
I wasn't surprised with how messy Spectrum left his room. There was trash littering the floor accompanied by dirty laundry, most of which I wasn't entirely sure were his... I picked up all of the laundry between my hooves to prevent from getting substances on the clothes on my mouth. There were laundry bins in the back corners of the room to put the, occasionally, wet clothes and the dry clothes. When i had finished cleaning the floor I decided to take care of the horrendous smell. The entire room reeked of ecstacy and alcohol, but I needed to find the source, or sources, of the stench. I looked under the bed first for more bottles, but found it shining. I did a damn good gob with the resources given to me, a bucket with about 5 ounces of water and a coat-brush. I was about to give up on finding the smell when I passed the closet. The horrid smell intensified around it and seeped through the cracks.
I opened my eyes to a room that was not mine, but looked as if it belonged in a hospital. It was a square room and I was standing near the back, I thought. The room was completely dark with the exception of a single light, hanging just a foot to the right of the center, so it was impossible to tell my location relative to the room itself. The position of the light bothered me, so I looked at the ceiling as little as possible. The bulb swayed lightly back and forth as if something had brushed past it. There were overturned gurneys everywhere and the air had a metallic tang to it. It was the taste you only got if you had recently been bleeding from your mouth or nose or if sweat had been beaten by the wind on your coat. I felt around the inside of my mouth with my tongue, but felt no bleeding. The same went for my nose. The air was warm and stuck to my coat, but strangely stagnate. That left only one other choice. I tried to think of other possible solutions, but none came. The air had an intense amount of blood in it, which was aiding in it sticking to my coat. I looked at the bottom of my mane over my shoulder and saw that it was already turning a slight pink. The floor was slick from a small amount of liquid all over the ground. I heard a thud from behind me, and whipped around only to see the empty darkness of nothing. I now realized that the light in the room was dim enough that I couldn't see the walls. I opened up my wings to hover over the floor, but some unknown force kept me grounded. I stretched and flexed my wings to make sure that I still had them, which I did. It was time to leave this place. I shuffled to the right wall while keeping the light in my line of sight so I didn't get too far away if the wall wasn't where I thought it was. I touched the rounded wall with my hoof. The room was actually a circle. I reached out my left wing to touch the wall, and followed it while still keeping the bulb in sight. I ran into a few rusted gurneys, but pushed them out of the way. I followed the wall until I hit a flat surface, making the room a semi-circle. I guessed that the door would be in the middle, and started walking. My wing quickly touched a handle for the door, but it was almost right next to the wall. I looked at the off center light, then back to the door. I shouldn't have been surprised. I tried the handle to open the door only to find it locked. I cursed under my breath. Why were the doors always locked? I looked towards the door to find that my eyes had adjusted and I could see the walls and door. The door looked flimsy and had rusted to the point where it was practically falling down on its own. Kicking it down would be a cinch. I bucked hard, only to get knocked on my flank from the repercussion. The door still stood strong, not even hindered by my kick. I figured it was the same force that had held me down on the ground earlier that strengthened the door. I guessed that I would need to find a key. When I turned back to the center of the room, the light was even darker than it was originally and there was a dark, shapeless figure standing directly below the light. Its form constantly morphing between a horrifying two legged creature with a long body and a small neck, to ponies, to unspeakably wicked renditions of creatures from the books I had read on the past of Equestria. It seemed to like the first form the most, because it spent the most time on that one before switching again. The monster stopped shifting and turned into the creature with only two legs permanently. It's arms and legs were about the same length with a thick torso and a small neck. The head of the creature was small in proportion to the rest on it's body. It had only a little hair on the top of it's head and under its arms, but nowhere else on the torso. the lower half was covered with blood-stained leggings and it's feet had weird nubs coming off of them in the front, like talons, except fleshy and small. The creature was a peachy pink color, and would tower over me. I was frozen in place in fear as it approached me. slowly stepping and dragging its legs as if they were too long. The creature was smiling wildly with a sheen covering its eyes, making it look dead. It opened its arms, as if to hug me, but there was murder in its smile. The creature's arm morphed into a large knife, and Yelled as it swung the knife at me. I could do nothing but watch in horror, and the creature cut off my left wing, which was still touching the wall. I screamed in pain, not knowing what else to do but sit there, staring at the malicious being. It swung again, dismembering my right foreleg cleanly. The blood was gushing from my stumps. If this, this thing didn't kill me, I would die of blood loss. It cut my back right leg off, putting me off balance. I fell for what felt like hours, then hit the ground. I landed on the stump of my foreleg and pains shot through my body. I scrawled in agony, laying helplessly on my right side. It cut at me again, this time only wishing to see me suffer longer by slowly slicing tendons and muscles until the bone was visible. It continued until the only thing left to chop off was my head. The thing towered over me, now looking into my soul. It crouched and whispered into my ear; "I'm so sorry. I didn't want to, but-" It sounded sad, like It really meant it, but the voice cut off and the maniacal smile creature returned. "DIE!" shrieked the thing as it swung down to decapitate me. Time slowed as the blade arm sliced towards my neck. When it drew close, I felt my muscles tense in my neck, then relax. I had never felt so blissful or at peace with myself. My eyes slowly shut in finality.
I awoke with a start to my regular room. It had all been a dream. I tried to shake the looming, black, depressing feeling of death from my aura. My head cleared after splashing my face in the small water hole in my room a few times. I was not going to forget that anytime soon. I needed to get to the gate to meet Shadow and Sterling for the mission, but how were we going to disguise ourselves before we went? I trotted out the door and left for the main gate. It wasn't too far from my room, it was just down the hall to the left and out the door. When I stepped out to the base's main exit, I was greeted by two bodyguards now walking to my left and right, both fully suited in the signature power armor of the Enclave. It was stark black armor that was magically powered by gems and came equipped with a plasma rifle. The spell matrix from the armor whirred with life as the two guards walked beside me. It was kind of awkward walking the length of the field between the door and the gate with them. I would have liked to converse, but they would have remained silent. When I got to the gate, Sterling and Shadow were already there, waiting for me. They too had been greeted with two guards to escort them to the gate, and from there to Hatsevoir. The guards were going to make the disguising and bribing thing very difficult, I had intended on this being just Shadow and I, but when I added Sterling, I forgot about the personnel that were accompanying us the whole time. I trotted up to Shadow for some idea sharing, and got only a slight nod and a wink. I hoped that meant that he had it under control. A courier rushed to catch us before we left to make sure that we were all properly accounted for and in healthy condition. His eyes bounced from pony to pony, then stopped on Sterling. "Major... who is this, and have his saddlebags been checked? There was only supposed to be the six of you going." His tone quivered, as if I were doing something dangerous, or he was regretting doubting my actions.
The trip over to Hatsevoir mountain was about 20 minutes by flight, but to avoid being attacked, we were walking there. There are reasons that pegasi have wings, and that is to fly. I hated being denied the right that I had had since birth, even though I may not have been able to, nopony ever stopped you. The walk was boring and quiet, the guards didn't let me get near Shadow or Sterling. I looked over to Shadow, and he looked from me, to the clouds, then back to me and nodded. I guessed it was time to stir some panic, or start our escape, or whatever Shadow's plan was. I stumbled to grab the attention of my escorts, then sank into the clouds. From above, I heard cries of surprise, followed by those of pain. I resurfaced to help Shadow, and found all of the guards tied to one another with rope. And, of course, none of this would have been possible if they were not all unconscious. I scolded Shadow for his lack of thinking things through. "Nice. How are they going to get back to base? Or was your intention to starve them? You know that is too much weight for them to try to fly off when they wake up. Untie them please, we will be halfway there and we can make a hiding blind before they wake up."before you go to bed."
I had gotten roughly four hours of sleep, but that was more than enough for me. I normally got two and a half to three hours. There was something about sleeping in the clouds instead of on my bed that was soothing. I guess it reminded me of when I used to camp with Cloud, Mom, and Dad. Those were the good days. The days lost to everypony but me. I stood to stretched my legs and wings, then went outside to take my turn at watch. When I stepped outside, Shadow was still there. I looked inside the blind, and saw that Sterling was still fast asleep. I reached out and lightly tapped Shadow in the back with my hoof, declaring my turn. He silently nodded, then went inside for some rest. The late night air was cool and crisp. There was little wind to prohibit my viewing of the stars be obscuring them with my mane. The little lights danced and sparkled in my field of vision, putting on a little show. The charade was enticing and took my thoughts away from me, and turned the spotlight up into the night sky. It was one of the single most beautiful things in what was left of Equestria. I enjoyed the scene a moment longer, and went back to the task at hand. Watching nothing.
Author's Note
I apologize for dragging out the amount of time it is taking for me to write this chapter. My main source of writing was my Ipod, Ben. Sadly, In a terrible accident involving a cracked screen and a water bottle spilling in a soccer(football) bag, he drowned. I have been busy with school as well, but I will get back on top of it ASAP! Don't forget to drop a comment if you wish to give me suggestions, thanks!
~PonyThumbs