The remnants

That morning a heavy toll was forced into my mind. I open one of the doors to Silver's room and stumbled out into the hallway. I had all my armor and clothes balanced on my back but they slid off as I stood in the dark hallway. It was early, everyone was asleep except me. I fell to the floor the darkened lights cast my lonesome shadow down the hallway in two directions splitting the black figure. I looked into the dimly lit corridors and then put the back of my head against the wall. "Celestia," i said breathing hard now almost on the verge of tears. I tucked my legs in, pulling my hind legs to my chest and holding on to them with my forelegs. "What sin have i done, to make these ponies tear me from my life, and now this."

A smell clung to me, a nasty musk of sweat and something else. I wanted a shower, something to wash away the essence of whatever foul smell was attached to my body. My mane fell into my face the sweat dripping off my bangs rolled off stinging my eyes. I couldn't sit outside this fucking place anymore, i need to go or else I'll go back into that room and kill that fucking bastard.

I got up slowly trying my best not to make noise. I rolled my shoulders back cracking them the noise echoed down the darkened,empty hallways. Doing the same with my back i arced it forward and the cracking of each vertebrae made me feel a little more at ease. Finally i place my helmet on quietly and put on my uniform as silent as i could and continued on down the hallway.

As I made my slow dragging pace forward. I kept my eyes locked on the floor looking through red visors. The heads up display flashed with oxygen levels indicated in bars below and a small geiger counter ticking to the left corner of my eye. This helmet was supposed to protect you from three shots to the head if the enemy was to shoot you there but something tells me it's not that powerful.

At long last my march was over and my quarters were just ahead. The light above my door had a makeshift sign above it that read "Crimson". I had put that there so many years ago, I put it there to no get lost so i could find my way back to my room and not confuse it with another. I have been here so long now I just know the god-damned way back to this place by heart. Something was mounted on the door though, a white rectangle of some sort hanging in the middle of the door.

Walking up to it, the square was a letter that was attached to the door by a circular magnet. The address was from the Canterlot Academy of the Arts. Blue leaf had covered the edges of the envelope and a red seal sealed it. I placed it in my mouth and with the same hoof that had the bar code printed on it placed it under the door. The red line went back and forth across my hoof and the a green light flashed where it had been. The door opened with a short whoosh.

Inside was a box, sitting at the foot of the door. It was a worn box, several stains covered the outside and it smelled of old wet paper, dust, and smoke all at the same time. It perplexed me, what was the doing here? I simply ignored it and moved on, pushing it out of the way of the door.

The inside of my room was small. Only about ten feet wide and about fifteen across. It had a bed, a desk, a clock, and a locker leaning on a wall. On the wall across from me was a door that opened up into the bathroom. The desk was across the way from my bed and had piles of blank papers on one side and on the other had a smaller stalk covered in writing. In the center of the two piles was another sheet of paper, half filled with writing, and a quill cartridge pen. The locker stood at the far corner of the room next to the bathroom door. It mostly held jumpsuits and some extra quills and paper and such. I tried to keep my room empty, as empty as possible.

I walked into the bathroom and turned on the water from the sink. Removing the helmet from my face i stared into my own eyes in the mirror hanging above the faucet. The deep purple hue they once were had faded to a dim violet grey. I missed that color, the color of innocence, the color of insolence, the shade of youth. Now that had changed. It was a color of experience a coat of knowing and intellect i did not appreciate. Those eyes i have missed so dearly though, those eyes I've envied will never return. I'd rather claw my own eyes out than have this be the color, the shade, the tint they will remain.

I looked at the red eyes of the helmet, eerily glowing. That metal helm angered me. It was symbolic for what my life had become: metallic, grey, dark, monotone, cold, dead, emotionless. The only three emotions i had now were anger, fear, and last but not least wanting. Once in a while that relaxing feel of peace will arise in my mind but only be shut out by the possibilities of how i would die in here. That mask stared me down now, it glowing red eyes flaring. The heathen of a face haunted me for too long for it to annoy me now. Out of pure frustration i picked up the helmet and looked at it.

"What the fuck did I do to deserve this?" I asked it. All it did was stare. I yelled at it now.

"What did I do?" Out of impulse I threw the Helmet. It bounced around the floor making clacks and dings until it sat in the middle of the floor between the shower and the toilet spinning.

All i could do was accept it. This was my life now, probably will be for a while. I picked up the Helmet and placed it on my head again. The heads up display was not on anymore. I tapped the side of it and it hummed to life again, but only the geiger counter was on.

I walked out of the bathroom over to the desk taking the letter and throwing it onto the desk, the thing spinning on entry to the table's surface. I turned my back on the desk and sat on my bed. My head hurt, i gripped my forehead. Looking over at the clock i didn't realize the time. The long hand had set at the eight, the other at the four. I had to be at the bench at five. It'll take me 20 minutes to get there. I guess I'm going to have to pass on sleep tonight.

Upon walking out i noticed he letter i had thrown onto the desk.

"Academy of the Arts?" I said aloud to the empty room.

"I wonder what they want?"

I grabbed it and placed it in one of the empty pouches in the utility strap tied to my waist. The door was still open to the hallway, a figure stood in the dark doorway. Light had illuminated his face from a small light hanging from it's mouth. It stood on its hind legs and leaned on one of the sides of the door.

"I take it this is your room?" It asked. I nodded.

"I got lost, going to the bench. Your room was the first I stumbled across." The light toned down a bit and then returned to it's normal brightness.

"Star?" I asked the figure.

"That you?"

"Yeah." He said calmly.

He dropped to all four hooves.

"We need to get to the bench and I'm completely lost." He said looking down the hall.

"I know where it is." I said walking out the door pushing past him.

"I figured." He said trotting up right next to me.

As we followed the dim lights something felt strange. The air felt heavy and thick. It had a strange smell to it. Starblazer stopped his march and had his nose in the air.

"Crimson," He said looking at the air vent above him.

"I'm not the only one that smells that right?" He asked. I nodded.

"Something's not right," I said to him.

''I'll check on the vents later." Something was definitely wrong with the air. Even as we went down the hall farther the smells remained and clung to the walls.

The bench was not too far ahead. The smell was almost repulsing me away. Down the hallway a glowing red sign hung at an angle. "Bench" was all it said, a smear of grease was slapped across the "N" leaving "Bech" hanging from the ceiling. Outside a massive cart was sitting on four wheels, rust covering the sides.

The Bench was just wall to wall parts and tools. Drawers and drawers of nuts, bolts, screws, and scrap metal that could be used to repair armor. In the center was a melting and torch table. The melting table was where you put in the mold of what you want the part to be and it melts it down according the the frame. The torch table was to finnish off and sharpen edges. On the outer rim of the room were tables covered in parts and old tools. Everything was covered in rust and had a metallic smell to it.

Starblazer walked into the room first.

"So is this where we work for now?" He asked looking around the tables. I walked over to a computer mounted into the wall at the far end of the room.

"Yeah, this is where we do our thing." I said looking at the repair orders.

Each day we get repair orders from the soldiers and from the civilians. As soon as we finish we take the part or whatever we fixed and bring it to the one who needed it. It was a broken cycle, yes, and an even more tiring one, but i have to do it.

I quickly scanned through the lists of things that needed repair.

"Helmet, mixer, audio file, outer camera" I read off out loud. I heard some clanking behind me. Whipping me head around to see Starblazer had pulled out a stool from under one of the tables.

"Dammit Star," I said turning back to the computer.

"You scared the shit outta me."

"Woah dude." He said.

"No need to get anal about everything, damn." He finished as i heard him dropping his sorry plot onto the seat. I didn't think he realized the sick context I took that for from what had happened the previous night. I got a chill from the thought.

A single idea crossed my mind. Why not kill him? It would be easy; take the cart outside and put a gas tank in it, put it in his room and open it and just wait for him to suffoca- Crimson! Dammit, Crimson this place is driving you insane. Listen to yourself, plotting murder? My thoughts were broken by the sound of Starblazer's voice.

"What's our first order?" He asked.

I scrolled back to the top.

"One of our crew members yesterday has a bad microphone in his helmet, needs some minor repairs." I said turning to one of the work benches. Starblazer looked out into the hallway.

"What was that?" He said getting off the chair.

"You heard that too right?" I looked at the door. A deep throat moaning echoed down the halls being slightly distorted by the sounds of static.

"What in the hell?" I went to look down the hallway, but-but something was odd. Besides the eerie noise the lights were down all the way down the halls, some lights flickering on and off and some only dimly lit the corridors. The moaning grew louder.

"Crimson, you hear that right?" I nodded. That noise is not normal, it's like a moaning but with a gargling. The slight distortion of the static made it even worse.

"I hear it, I have no clue what it is though."

Just then, one of the lights flickered on. A figure stood in the hallway. It's head crooked to one side, it's red jaw slung sideways. It was on two legs and it slowly trudged forward.

"Starblazer do you have a gun on you?" I asked him. I heard no response.

"Dammit Star! Do you have a gun on you?!" I asked again.

"No why?" He looked out the door and into the hallway.

"The fuck is that?" I heard him say under his breath.

The thing got closer. Like I said before, it's head was crooked to one side. It's jaw was hanging from it's face by Celestia knows what. It wore a helmet similar to mine but with the bottom half completely torn off. It's chest was opened up completely by what looked to be claws. One single part of one of the eyes opened up to reveal black. It had no eyes, or, it had eyes but they were black. A deep dark shade of pitch black even shadows couldn't replicate.

It stopped it's slow drag forward. The smell of blood was now overwhelming. The low sounds of dripping echoed from the thing, whatever it is. Looking closer, the bone in it's chest was warped. Like his rib cage went through a drill press.

"Starblazer get inside and radio for help." I said going out into the hallway. He nodded and went into the room. I stood there face to face with it. It was still on two legs and towered over me with that advantage. He looked down to me strangely. It then cocked it's head to the left now, almost flipping its whole head around with a loud crack.

"What are you?" I asked myself. When i finished saying that it charged.

I jumped sideways evading the rush from the creature. It turned around and bolted towards me. This time he was far enough away that i could ready myself to counter. I turned my back to him and locked my front hooves. Raising my hind legs I thrusted my hooves into it's face. A loud slam followed by an unholy crack dropped it to the floor. I turned to look at the damage.

I cracked the mask off its face and i was right the first time. No eyes, but red streaks leaked from where the eyes had been once. It's jaw was torn half off. Hanging by a thread of flesh but no bone. It's teeth were different. Normally blunt, they had sprouted wickedly. Twisted or strait, or a variation of the two. The were jagged and razor sharp, all covered in blood. The back of it's armor was torn open as well to where the spine was visible, coated in torn skin and tissue. It was a mess.

Something caught my eyes amongst the mound though. It's hoof's cuff had been torn off and a barcode was visible.

"Crimson!" I heard Starblazer call out.

"I got two or three guys to get down here ASAP." I heard him say as he trotted up to my side. I heard the metal clops against the ground stop.

"Wha-"

"He was a soldier. I saw him as we were switching shifts outside the door." Just now remembering the broken microphone on that stallion that i walked by.

His name was Dusty, I remember him fondly. He never quarreled with anypony and never had a second thought. He was a good pony by nature, calm and collected. He had a brother in Manehattan and his parents lived there too. He wanted to do some work to bring some coin in for the family, but now? Seeing his body laying there it made me feel horrible, like a monster.

"What happened to him?" All i could do was shake my head. My head wasn't the only thing shaking though, i could feel my legs shaking under my. I had to sit down now. Something hit me, I just killed somepony. A chill ran down my spine at the thought.

"Did-d-did I just murder somepony?" I asked anyone who would respond. Starblazer put a hoof on my shoulder.

"Crimson we don't have time, there might be more of those things." He said pulling on my shoulder. I nodded best i could through all my shaking.

What was that thing? Was it a pony? Was it dead? How did it get here? All these questions were racing in and out of my mind. A puddle had been created from the blood seeping from it's face. I looked down and it was on my hooves. Even through armor you can feel death and somepony else's blood could not get you any closer than dying on your own.

I lifted my hooves to my face. They were stained red, crimson red. It trailed down my foreleg and rolled off at the shoulder. There was so much blood, it was covering my hooves. They were shaking, my hooves that is. I couldn't control it my body just shook. So much blood. My head felt empty now, I felt dizzy. My vision became blurry. I stopped shaking but i felt lose like the whole world was shaking. Then I felt it, the gravity shifting and then black. All I could see was black. All I could feel was emptiness. For that spit second I felt myself drop out of consciousness.