From a Dying World to New Lands

by Electrician

Chapter 16: Confessions

Chapter 16: Confessions

Perspective: ???
Location: Southern United States
Date: October 27, 2025
2:13a.m.

“Hell to the YES! That’s the last of them boys, we did it!”

“Ya hear that Home Base? We’re all clear!”

“All personnel, switch to channel 14,” I ordered, pressing the appropriate buttons to get me to the desired channel. I waited a few moments, giving everyone else time to switch as well. “Everyone, it’s 2:13 in the morning. All Home Base personnel are probably asleep at this point. A shit-load of stuff happened to them today, and it’d be best if we let them rest rather than pester them through the radio.”

“Speaking of which, what the Hell was that teleportation shit they pulled?”

“Did anyone else hear them say eleven people were inside?”

“Ah did too, but ah reckon there ain’t eleven in there no more. The way they sounded after we came back, at least one o’ their guys are dead…or worse.”

“Alright, that’s enough,” I intervened. “Speculating will get us nowhere. I will check in tomorrow at nine personally to see if they’re alright, and to schedule a meeting. We can ask them all the questions we want then, but for now, let’s get some rest. Cavalry dismissed!”

I sighed as I put away the radio. “They’re quite the rambunctious group, aren’t they?” I asked. The woman next to me chuckled.

“They sure are Boss, but they do bring up some interesting points,” she replied. “Are you sure you can trust them anymore? They did leave quite a few things unanswered, very important things.”

“Well, to be fair, it wasn’t the most appropriate time for an explanation. Besides, I know those men very well, and I trust them with my life. I’m sure all this will be answered soon.” I frowned a little. “Also Julia, you are my wife now. You don’t have to use that silly nickname everyone gave me, just use my real first name.”

Julia rubbed the back of her head, a sheepish grin adorning her face. “Heh heh, sorry. It’s just hard to switch the name I’ve called you since forever ago for something different. But you’re right; I should use your real name, Phoenix.”

I smiled in reply. “Thank you darling.”

---

Perspective: Edgar Worthington
Location: Southern United States
Date: October 27, 2025
8:00a.m.

Sunlight filtered through my eyelids as I came to. The problem: I wasn’t ready for sunlight to filter through yet. Groaning, I attempted to pull the blanket over my head…only to realize that I didn’t have a blanket.

Or pillow.

Or bed.

“What the?” I mumbled, temporarily confused as to why I was on the floor somewhere instead of my bed. I looked around, the furnishings of the living room registering in my groggy state. I also noticed Jonathon and Mike lying around in different parts of the living room. Turning the mental gears for a few seconds, I finally remembered what happened. We had guests over, and unless I wanted to cuddle up next to a pony for the night, one of us wasn’t sleeping on the bed. So I ended up letting some of our guests use it, and apparently I wasn’t the only one. So with no bed and no extra covers, we all just ended up sleeping on the floor.

The others weren’t up, nor would they be for a while; last night was hard for everyone, and there wasn’t really anything pressing to do. For now. Not wanting to lie here and whittle my time away staring at the ceiling, I slowly pushed myself to my feet, rubbing a few spots that were a little sore from both yesterday’s events and sleeping on the floor. As I headed for the kitchen, I noticed that Eddy wasn’t in the living room. I’m sure I’d run into him later. Putting that on the back burner for now, I entered the kitchen and fired up the coffee machine.

I sat there, enjoying both the hot beverage and the peace and quiet that was sorely missed yesterday. It was a Hell of a day, one I’m not eager to repeat…ever. Forty minutes and two mugs of coffee later, I was feeling a whole lot more awake. I was beginning to get a little concerned though at this point; the house was dead quiet. If Eddy was awake, I’m sure I would have heard something by now. ‘Maybe he went out for a walk to clear his head?’ I exited the house to see if I could find my friend somewhere outside. And find him I did.

I first I thought he was conscious, and had spent the whole night in front of the grave. As I approached, I realized he was slumped over, his eyes closed. Quiet snoring emanated from the unconscious man. He probably spent so long in front of that marker, he might just have passed out like that.

“Jesus man,” I whispered in disbelief. I grabbed Eddy’s shoulder and began rocking it gently. “Eddy, wake up.”

He jerked and sputtered awake, slowly taking in his surroundings, only to realize he wasn’t alone. He looked up at me, his face telling me more than his words ever could. Dark bags drooped from underneath red eyes. His hair, his clothes, his everything was a mess. To top it all off, a forced neutral expression that tried, but ultimately failed to hide the grief felt behind it.

“Eddy, have…have you been out here all night?” I asked, a little shocked at the condition I found him in. He didn’t say anything though; the seconds ticked on by as if he hadn’t even heard what was said. “Well?” I continued to press. Eddy hesitated for a moment more, before nodding slowly.

“Eddy, this isn’t the way to deal with this,” I said. “I know you’re mourning, I know you’re upset, but spending all night out here is too much. What if some more Infected came back? You know as well as I do how dangerous it is to be outside at night.” Nothing. No acknowledgement, no words, nothing. This was starting to anger me a little. I grabbed Eddy by the shoulders and forced his gaze to meet mine. “Look at me. No amount of sitting here is going to bring him back. You have to move on, you absolutely have to, because we’re still alive here. And I need you with us if we’re going to get through this.”

Eddy rose to his feet, eyes narrowed a bit as he spoke. “So what, I’m just supposed to forget what happened? Forget about what he did for me?”

“That is not what I meant and you know it. I-”

“He saved my life Edgar! How dare you ask me to forget that?”

“Fucking Damnit Eddy, I’m asking you to pay your respects and move on, not wallow in ‘what-should-have-been’ and self-pity!”

“I don’t deserve pity Edgar Worthington, I deserve death. I fucked up, I was careless, but he ended up paying the price for my fuck-up. He used his life to save my sorry ass!”

“Well then he FUCKING WASTED IT if all you’re going to do is sit around and WAIT TO GET KILLED!” I screamed. Eddy stopped. It was as if someone had unplugged him. His anger vanished completely, only to be replaced with sorrow. Perhaps I had hit a tender spot with that remark? I didn’t want to hurt him; I just wanted him to see that he was being stupid. “Eddy, I didn’t mean-”

“No, you did mean it,” he said. “And…and you’re right.” He turned to look at the grave, staring at the piece of metal that marked the final resting spot of the guard. “You haven’t even been gone a day, and I’m already failing you,” he said wistfully. He stared a moment longer, before quickly wiping his eyes with his hand. “Edgar, what I did was fucking stupid, and it won’t happen again. We’re gonna stick together, and we’re going to survive.” A smile grew rapidly on my face.

“Now that’s more like it!” I said, patting Eddy’s back. “Let’s get back inside, we got a lot to go over, and we still have to figure what to do with our ‘guests’.” At the mention of ponies, Eddy’s frown returned full force. The argument from yesterday came to mind immediately. “Eddy, I know you’re not happy with them. Truth be told, I don’t exactly agree with the princess’ decision either. But like it or not, we’re a team here. We all want the same thing, and we could really use their help in this. Try to get along.”

Eddy mulled this over, saying nothing as he turned and headed for the house. It wasn’t until we reached the door that he spoke. “That depends entirely on them,” he said, grabbing the door handle and pushing the door in. It seems someone was just about to open the door from the other side as well, for a startled yelp came from the other side. Eddy swung the door all the way open to reveal the very topics of our conversation, Celestia and Luna.

“Morning,” I said, trying to be friendly.

“Good morning Edgar,” Celestia replied. She turned to Eddy, only to look down moments later. You see, I tried to be friendly. Eddy made no effort at all to conceal his disdain. He glared at both princesses, neither of them returning the gaze. The tension was thick in the air; this was suddenly very awkward. After what seemed like forever, Celestia spoke. “Eddy, I’m-”

“Save it,” Eddy cut in harshly, silencing her once more. His tone softened afterwards, but it was still obvious he was angry. “I’m not the one you should be apologizing to; this didn’t affect me, directly anyways. I’m…overlooking this, because it’s what Star would have probably wanted. As for the rest of them, you both want to make things right? Then you gather all your ponies, and apologize to them. Look every single one of them in the eye, and apologize for all the shit they had to go through.” Eddy broke eye-contact, and made his way over to the kitchen. “Whether they forgive you or not, is up to them,” he called out, before disappearing into the kitchen.

“He’s right sister,” Luna said at last. “We should apologize to our subjects for the wrong we have bestowed upon them.”

“If it makes you two feel any better,” I said, drawing their attention, “the guys have no qualms with any of you. Even if we didn’t exactly agree with your actions, they uhh, inevitably helped save our lives, and for that, we are grateful.” Celestia allowed a thin smile to grace her lips.

“Thank you Edgar,” she said kindly. The smile only lasted for a moment though. “We must still speak with our subjects though. If you’ll excuse us, we’ll be upstairs.” I nodded, and watched them start up the stairs, before heading into the kitchen myself.

Inside, I found that Eddy had taken advantage of the fact that I had left the coffee machine loaded to make himself a pot. I don’t blame him at all; he probably didn’t sleep until well into the night, and even then it probably wasn’t restful sleep, with him being hunched over like he was. Though I already had two, I decided one more couldn’t hurt and served myself another mug. I sat at the table, opposite Eddy.

“That…could have actually gone a lot worse,” I said, referencing the earlier encounter with the Royal Sisters. “I’m quite pleased with the way you handled that.” Eddy put his mug down.

“Like I said, it’s what he would have probably wanted,” Eddy replied. “Besides, you’re right. We could use their help, so we should probably get along.” He frowned for a bit. “But they still had to apologize to their ponies for what they did to them; that shit’s unacceptable.” I nodded. We sat there, enjoying the relative silence. It didn’t last.

“Morning guys,” Jonathon said as he and Mike shuffled in. “Wow Eddy, you planning on drinking that whole pot?” Eddy smirked.

“Make your own damn coffee,” he joked, motioning towards the pot. Jon and Mike chuckled, each serving themselves. They didn’t even get to sit down when a voice called to them.

“Home Base? Home Base, come in,” Phoenix’s voice filtered in through the radio. It wasn’t our Walkie-Talkies this time; it was an actual short range radio used for communication between the town and our house. The fact that Phoenix was using this meant he was in town, and he didn’t sound panicked, so the fight last night probably went well. I allowed myself to breathe a small sigh of relief. While Jonathon sat down, Mike, who was closest to the radio, snagged it on the way to the table. He set it down in the middle, before taking a seat.

Eddy grabbed the mic and pressed the talk button. “Home Base reads you, go ahead,” he replied.

“Good to see you’re all up. Are you all ok? From my understanding, one of you didn’t…didn’t make it.”

I cast a nervous look at Eddy. He didn’t appear to be angered like yesterday, just a little down. “It wasn’t one of our guys Phoenix; Mike, Edgar, Jon and myself are alright.”

“Oh thank God! I was so worried it was one of you four, but by the time the last Infected fell, it was too late to check. I’m glad you guys are alright.” There was a brief pause in the transmission. “However, while I’m glad you four are alive, this death just raises more questions. We need to have a talk. The boys over here are looking for some answers, and quite frankly, so am I. Some very strange things happened at Home Base yesterday, and we need to know what, and why.”

The four of us exchanged nervous glances. How do we go about this? We knew this confrontation was inevitable, but we, or at least I, have been dreading this moment.

“What do we tell him?” asked Mike.

“I’d rather not tell them anything,” said Eddy. “I know these guys; they’re not always known for their level-headedness.”

“No, we have to tell them,” said Jonathon. “They already suspect something, and even if they didn’t, they come here every so often anyways. One of them, especially Phoenix, is bound to find out, and the unfortunate pony is likely to get shot.”

“I’d have to agree with Jon,” I added. Reluctantly it seemed, we had reached an answer. Eddy picked up the mic.

“Alright, round up the boys. We’ll see you in an hour, our place.”

“Roger that,” and the radio went silent once more.

“Well shit,” Eddy said. “Now what do we do?”

---

Perspective: Jonathon Burley
Location: Southern United States
Date: October 27, 2025

“So that’s kind of the situation,” I finished explaining. Shortly after getting off the radio, I went upstairs to inform the ponies of our friends’ impending arrival. I found them in one of the rooms. They all had red eyes, as if they had been crying, though were smiling for some reason. I would have asked what was going on, but time was of the essence.

“So, what do you suggest we do?” asked Luna.

“Well, the boys and I were thinking that you would wait in corridor to the master bedroom, out of sight, until we called you,” I responded. “That way, we have time to prepare them, instead of just dropping the whole alien thing on their laps out of nowhere. They wouldn’t respond too well to that.”

“I see. We shall wait in the corridor then until further notice.”

“Thank you Luna.” With that, I led the ponies downstairs, directing them where to wait. Once they were in place, I assisted the guys in preparation for the arrival of the Cavalry crew. The living room was designated as the meeting place, and all chairs, stools, and anything that could be sat on was brought into it. The sofas, as well as all the chairs, were arranged into a semi-circle of sorts, facing the corridor our guests would be coming out from. With that taken care of, all we could do was wait.

It wasn’t long before the first car came into view, followed by another. A total of four cars came towards us. It was a bit of a frightening sight, considering the group we called The Cavalry was originally twenty cars strong. The cars pulled off the road, having to travel on the unpaved dried ground to reach us. Guess we’ll need to pave a new driveway to our house, since the old one now leads to nothing. The cars came up to the front porch, parking haphazardly before shutting off. Their passengers disembarked, and I prepared to catch some flak for our questionable actions as of recently.

I was more than surprised to find that everyone was very friendly, as we shook hands and greeted like old friends. They had questions, but it seemed we were trustworthy enough in their eyes. The last one in the group was Phoenix, whom I greeted with a firm handshake and a quick hug.

“Jonathon, so glad to see you’re alright,” Phoenix said.

“We’re a little battered and shaken, but thankfully still standing,” I replied with a smile, though it faded shortly after. “Phoenix, is this everyone?” Phoenix’s expression turned solemn.

“A lot of men didn’t make it Jon. This isn’t the full unit, but it’s a sizable chunk of what’s left.” A lump formed in my throat. I tried to come up with a meaningful thing to say, something to express my sorrow for the loss, but all that came out was a simple “I’m sorry”. I didn’t realize how many cars had stopped working or had crashed during the fight. I heard a few cars died, they were picking up crew members from those disabled vehicles, but a lot of those crews probably perished, since most cars came loaded to capacity already. I couldn’t help but feel partly responsible, like a nagging feeling that we could have saved more had Home Base fought harder. There wasn’t anything I could have really done though; no one expected the fight to drag out that long.

Phoenix sighed, before replying. “So am I Jon, so am I. But that’s not what we’re here for.”

“I know,” I replied. “And we’re going to answer all your questions, I promise. Let’s step inside though; it’s going to take a while, and some of the things we need to show you requires you to be calm and collected.” Phoenix raised an eyebrow, but said nothing more.

“It’s been a while Jonathon,” a voice suddenly called out from behind Phoenix. An older man stepped out from behind Phoenix, sporting a standard lab coat, black slacks, and black shoes. Recognition dawned immediately from only a quick glance. The man in question is known by many, has done many things for the town.

Among other things, this was the doctor who saved Eddy’s life two years ago.

“Dr. Tidwell!” I exclaimed, shaking the man’s hand with a broad smile. “What are you doing here? I thought only Cavalry personnel were coming up?” I asked, glancing questioningly at Phoenix. “Did he join the Cavalry unit at some point?”

Tidwell chuckled, before responding in his usual semi-formal manner. “No my dear boy; I did nothing of the sort.” He nodded slightly in Phoenix’s direction. “Boss here asked me to tag along, should you or your men require medical attention.”

“Thanks, but all of us are fine, really. Still, we should catch up sometime, as I’m sure the others will be glad to see you too. But we can’t waste any more time; as I’ve said before, we have a lot to explain.” I led the group of humans inside. A total of sixteen people, including Mike, Edgar, Eddy and myself were brought to the living room and seated.

This was it, no turning back now.

Mike cleared his throat. “Alright guys, I know you all have a bunch of questions, but a lot of them are bound to get answered when we explain what happened.” I looked out into the crowd, and noticed that most of the audience members were not only armed, but openly carrying their weapon. I wanted to tell everyone to keep their weapons holstered, but Mike continued speaking. “Now, a bunch of what we’re going to say is going to sound like total bullshit, but I swear it’s the truth.” He then turned to me. “Jon, would you fetch our friends?” I nodded. As I left though, a part of me couldn't help but realize that while we said we weren't going to drop the alien thing on their laps instantly, that was exactly what we were going to do! But I digress; it has to happen at some point anyway. While I collected our guests, Mike continued. “I’m sure all of you heard the transmission that stated we had more than four personnel inside Home Base. Well uh…here they are.”

As he said that, I stepped out of the corridor, followed by three guards, one student, and two princesses, all of them ponies. Dead silence followed their arrival; no one moved, shifted in their seat, or even seemed to breathe. Their faces were of confusion, which quickly turned to shock as they examined our guests.

One man in the front stood up, and backed away a little bit, fear evident in his face. Others started to do the same. Subtly, I positioned myself between the crowd and the ponies, as I saw a few of them reach for their belt holsters.

One of the Cavalry members voiced his concerns, a concern the others seemed to share. “Are those things Infected?” Immediately, the room erupted into chaos as everyone voiced questions, opinions and comments at the same time. Most in the crowd had stood up by this point, a few backed up, others kept their hands on their guns, ready to draw.

“Alright, enough, enough!” Phoenix yelled to his crew.

“B-but Boss-”

“No shut up!” he yelled again, this time getting his crew to settle down. “What the Hell did you think everyone screaming all at once was going to accomplish?” Silence met his rhetorical question. “I’m sure these, uh… guests are not hostile, right?” he finished that with a glance in my direction.

“Of course not,” I quickly jumped to the ponies’ aid. “Without their help, Home Base would have likely perished.” A quiet mummer ran through the crowd at that. Everyone sat down again, and I noticed with great relief that most had relinquished their hold on their sidearm, albeit watching the ponies cautiously.

“Now boys,” Phoenix continued. It was easy to tell he was a little shaken, though he was keeping a mostly calm appearance quite well. “Normally I’d think you were fucking with all of us with this, but I saw the wings on two of them move a little. I’m going to need you to explain everything, slowly, clearly. Ok?”

“Understood Phoenix,” I said, very relieved that he was here. His faith in us, and the influence he has over these men (due to the respect they have for him) just diffused a potentially lethal situation.

As he instructed, we took turns retelling our story. At certain points we needed the ponies to demonstrate something for us, or we would have sounded completely insane. When we mentioned magic, some of the audience members snickered. Twilight calmly stood up, and levitated a cup of water over one of the non-believers…and then proceeded to dump it all over him. Needless to say, no further interruptions were had.

At the mention of our teleportation to a new world, Luna asked everyone to hold hands in a circle. When the circle was hesitantly completed, Luna injected a vision of Equestria for all to experience. Since she had fought with a sword during yesterday’s battle, she still had plenty of magic left, and was able to do this without negative consequences.

We gave a brief description of what transpired during our two week absence. Edgar came up with the idea of showing everyone all the biofuel he made during our time there, to prove we were actually gone for some amount of time. Phoenix knew we had little fuel left, everyone had little left, and none was made before the attack. Thirty five gallons of biodiesel doesn’t just come out of thin air. To further drive the point home, Eddy asked Luna to do the same thing she did on the stage during Nightmare Night. Everyone was treated to a POV video from Eddy’s perspective, and saw clips of the brief events we described.

By the time we were done, everyone was quiet, either rendered speechless or quietly contemplating what we said. The look of surprise was uniform though. “So…thoughts anyone?” I asked, as the silence was getting awkward.

“You really meant it when you said it was a lot to take in,” came an answer from one of the audience members.

“I’m still having trouble believing it,” came another reply.

“Amen to that!”

“So wait…y’all went to another universe?”

“Boss, what do you make of this?”

Phoenix pondered this a while more. The lack of response slowly silenced his crew, and all eyes turned to the middle-aged man in expectation of an answer. “I’m not sure what to think,” he finally said, turning to look at the four of us. “I mean, on one hand, you weren’t kidding when you said this would be hard to believe.” He turned his gaze away, where it focused instead on the subjects of this whole talk, the ponies. “But on the other hand, the evidence is right in front of my face. In some weird way…everything checks out. It makes sense, and none of this should.”

Phoenix studied each of the ponies closely, as if his opinion of them would be made clear if he stared at them long enough. “And you said they were here to help?” he questioned. “How? Why?”

“I can personally attest to them being here to help,” Eddy said confidently. Phoenix turned to look him in the eyes.

“How so?” Phoenix asked. There was no hesitation in Eddy’s reply, his face steeled into a look of determination.

“Because one of them is now six feet under for saving my sorry ass.”

There was complete silence in the room for a few moments. Phoenix’s eyes widened in surprise; clearly he wasn’t expecting such a convincing argument. A look of realization crossed his face. It seemed the mental gears in his head had turned and put two and two together.

“So the transmission yesterday…” Eddy nodded his head.

“Morning Star was his name, from what I’ve heard,” I informed Phoenix. “We walked into the office after the fight and he was lying dead in Eddy’s arms. We were later informed he took a bite for Eddy, and Eddy had to…‘lay him to rest’, after the fight. He’s buried outside.”

Phoenix addressed the princesses. “I’m…sorry, for your loss,” was all he could say in his surprised state.

“He made a noble sacrifice, and will be dearly missed,” replied Luna with a sad smile.

“To answer your other questions Phoenix, they’re helping us out of the kindness of their hearts, but I don’t know how,” said Mike.

“They learned of the real situation back on Earth kinda last minute, and decided to help us even more last minute,” added Edgar.

“I see,” said Phoenix. “So you are here to help.” He smiled for perhaps the first time since this meeting began. “Thank you for your assistance. Did you have anything special in mind?”

Celestia stepped up. “We need to know more about the disease, as all I know currently is that those creatures outside used to be human once.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tidwell flinch. No one was around him, no one speaking to him, and nothing was heading his way. ‘Strange…’

“I’m afraid that aside from the fact that the disease is caused by a specially designed cell gone haywire, I don’t know much.”

“That’s a shame. Perhaps we could study some of the…bodies, outside.”

“The cells are probably dead at this point in those bodies.” Celestia looked down in thought at this, trying to figure out what to do.

“Sister, is there nothing we can do?” asked Luna.

Edgar smiled at the princesses. “Don’t worry, I know we can find something for you-”

“Stop.”

The command came from the most unlikely of sources. Everyone turned to the person that voice came from, Dr. Tidwell.

“I know a way our visitors can help us,” he continued as he turned to face the ponies. “But first, allow me a story if you will, one that should have been told a long time ago.” Eddy, who finally noticed the aging man, addressed him.

“Dr. Tidwell? How did-never mind. What’s this about?”

“You will see soon enough Eddy.” He quickly looked at all the humans present. “I’m so sorry my friends,” was all he said before turning back. I was worried at this point. What story? Why is he sorry? Where the Hell was this coming from?

“Long ago, I was a simple practitioner of medicine,” he began. “I took great joy in helping people; they came to me in need and I would always deliver. But I also had a passion for experimenting, for pushing boundaries, for seeing what was possible. When I wasn’t tending to the sick, I was exploring new cures, publishing everything I found. I became a scientist of sorts.”

Tidwell seemed nostalgic of those times, retelling those times with a smile. “It was a weird thing to do, going from practicing medicine to studying it. Seems like it should be the other way around! I was noted for several interesting finds, but nothing completely ground-breaking. I didn’t think I had accomplished anything truly note-worthy.” His smile vanished. “Eventually though, someone did take notice. I’m sure you’ve all heard of G-Netics?”

I’m sure every human present in the room felt the same way as I did when we heard that name. It felt like the bottom of my stomach dropped out, and my heart immediately began to pound in anxious fear.

“T-Tidwell, that-”

“Please, let me finish; this is something I must do.” He addressed the ponies. “I know the name doesn’t mean much to you, but G-Netics eventually created the cell that was responsible for this mess.” Now it was the ponies turn to be surprised, as they realized what we did just moment s ago. “When the accident happened, I was able to escape by hiding instead of running away when things got ugly. The broadcast made it seem like everyone had perished, and I used that to go ‘under the radar’, as it were. I’ve been nothing but a ‘simple doctor’ ever since.” A single tear ran down the doctor’s cheek, tangling itself in his beard. “And that my friends, is why I can help you help us.”

‘…Well, this day has certainly been full of surprises!’

Phoenix stood up. “Tidwell, this…you never said anything about this.”

“Of course not Phoenix! Don’t you see? Being on that damned team was the greatest mistake I ever made, the source of my greatest shame! I wanted to help. I thought we could raise humanity to its greatest height yet…” He looked away, unable to face anyone any longer. He said in a quiet voice, “but in my arrogance, we doomed it.”

Nobody moved as the man began to silently weep, covering his eyes with his hands. The man who moved here long ago, who decided to practice medicine in the middle of nowhere as a simple doctor, was one of those responsible for this whole mess. It was quite the shock, and no one could show any other emotion than pure, blatant surprise. No human at least.

Slowly, Celestia made her way over to the distraught man. She placed a hand on his shoulder, catching his attention, and making him turn up to look at the pony. Celestia wore a smile that seemed to calm the man down, if only a little.

“We ponies have a quote for these situations. ‘The road to Tartarus is paved with good intentions.’ It means that even with honest motives, good ponies can sometimes do bad things. We have all made mistakes before, and I can say I have personally made some decisions that I thought would benefit everyone, only to have it backfire.” She finished that with a glance at Eddy. Through the stoic mask, Eddy gave her a small nod, his facial features softening just a bit. “But dwelling in the past will only make you miss the present. You made a mistake, but all is not lost. You still have your friends, whom while shocked at the moment, do not seem like the kind of people to turn their backs on you. In addition, if you can help us understand this strange disease, perhaps we may be able to help.”

Even from here, I could see the hope flare up in Tidwell’s eyes. As the moments passed, his whole attitude began to change. This was his chance, to undo the wrong he had done, to truly save humanity. The sadness from before seemed to give way to determination, and he met Celestia’s eyes with renewed confidence.

“Well princess, then it seems we have a lot to discuss.”

Author's Note:

The next few chapters aren't going to contain as much action as in chapter 15, as most sane individuals wouldn't be eager to jump back into a grueling fight with Infected without some semblance of a plan. Hopefully, 17 will come out much faster. See you guys next chapter!

Comments

[shy sad jaded shard]

nice i do hope he will be able to help them just hope there is no g=man in the bunch.

[setablaze53]

I finally come back to fimfiction after months, and you buy me a one way ticket on the feels train and personally drive it off a cliff. Why?

It's good to be back.