Resident Pon-Evil (Mission II) - Operation: Phoenix Fire

by Delta 727

Chapter 13: Dead Or Alive?

After a horde of infected ponies attacked the city of New Appleoosa, Harmony's Elements and the rest of the team return to a safe distance to figure out what caused it, and to build the next step of their plan. But what they don't know is that there's more to it than an infected attack, and that one of them knows something that will turn Harmony's Elements' world around in a way they never thought possible.

*Begin Transmission*

The light was blinding. He couldn't move. He felt a hard table underneath him, and a thin blanket over him. He heard a heartbeat monitor, and felt that his armor and suit were gone, and an oxygen mask was placed over his muzzle instead of his respirator.

X-Ray shielded his eyes from the light, and carefully sat up. He found himself in the recovery room of Canterlot's military station hospital. Somepony placed a hoof on his shoulder.

"You need to rest," a young mare's voice said. A light blue mare with a pink mane and dark pink eyes was looking down at him with worry. She was wearing a nurse's hat, and had a clipboard in one hoof. "You've been injured. Don't worry, it's nothing serious. A few of your joints were damaged and you have several lacerations and bruises, but you'll recover. How are you feeling?" X-ray couldn't respond, so the nurse just nodded. "Try to get some sleep. You need it." The nurse adjusted X-Ray's I.V., checked his pulse and blood pressure on the monitor, and left.

As soon as she did, Harmony's Elements, Marigold, and Itzel entered the room. Chaos and Nova team were nowhere to be seen. X-Ray just laid there, closing his eyes, too weak to respond.

"He's gonna be okay, right?" Marigold asked to nopony in particular.

"He'd better be," Chainlink said. "I ain't done with him yet."

"Will you give it a rest already?" Blade spoke up. "He nearly died out there. And he's still part of the Elements."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Chainlink sighed. "I've had a chance to simmer over since the city, but I still ain't happy about what he's been keeping from us."

"What was it, by the way?" Itzel asked. "We never got to find out."

"You might wanna hold onto something," Chainlink warned. "It wasn't any kinda technology. They were live ponies."

"Live ponies?" Marigold asked. "What fer?"

"Test subjects," Chainlink said. "Apparently, they wanted to try to make a cure for the infection, and needed live ponies to test on. So they took all the deadbeats and were gonna start experimenting. Canterlot wanted us to get the ponies from them, and bring them to safety in exchange for our work and some of Canterlot's money and protection." He grunted. "See how much that helped 'em?"

"So where are those ponies?" Blade asked.

"Dead," Chainlink said in monotone. "Never survived the attack."

"I dunno about this," Itzel murmured. "Lens Cap doesn't seem like the kind of pony that would do something like that. And I don't think it's X-Ray's fault either. He was just protecting his family. It didn't matter what Lens Cap was doing, X-Ray wasn't gonna rat out his own brother."

"Well, he shoulda said something to us," Chainlink said. "Then I wouldn't have flipped a lid as bad as I did back there."

"Yeah," Blade replied. "You would've just shot Lens Cap instead."

Chainlink tried to retort, but Marigold cut them off. "Y'all quiet! He's wakin' up."

X-Ray lifted his head, supporting himself up with one foreleg. He could barely open his eyes, and just kept staring down at the ground.

"Hey there, fella," Marigold said softly. "How ya feelin'?"

X-Ray didn't answer the question. He just lowered the oxygen mask, and his breathing became labored. His words were faint and dry as he spoke.

"Itzel... Marigold..."

"What'cha need?" Itzel asked.

X-Ray didn't open his eyes. "Leave... Now..."

Marigold and Itzel just stared on for a moment, then eventually left, closing the door behind them.

"What's this about?" Blade asked.

"I... Didn't want to... Give them... False hope..."

"Whaddaya mean, 'false hope'?" Chainlink asked.

"I... Might be... Wrong... But..."

"What?" Blade pushed him to keep talking. "What is it?"

"Back in... New Appleoosa..." He placed the oxygen mask to his muzzle, taking a deep breath. "I was... Too weak to... Stand... And something... Helped me up... I thought I was... Hallucinating... But I heard... A voice tell me to... Run or die..."

"Were you hallicinating, you think?" Blade asked.

"No... It was... Too real... But... It was... Impossible..."

"What?" Chainlink asked. "What's impossible about it?"

"I... I knew... The voice..."

"Who was it, X-Ray?" Blade asked. "Who'd you hear?"

"I... Have something to... Tell you two... But you cannot... Tell anypony... Else..."

"I know you're sick and all, but just spit it out already!" Chainlink moved right up to him, and so did Blade. "What do you need to tell us?"

X-Ray looked up at him, his light blue eyes were dilated, his overall figure looked like he would shatter like glass at any moment. After taking another puff of his oxygen, he stared them both straight in the eyes, and only managed to murmur a few more words before he slipped back into sleep.

"Acid... Is still alive..."

---

"It isn't always necessary to achieve great things. Sometimes, just surviving is a great achievement."
Unknown

*Transmission... Interrupted*