//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Prototype 2: Equestria Zero // by 2ndGearSage //------------------------------// Chapter 6 “-ilight! Twilight, can you hear me!” “Ugh, five more minutes.” “Twilight, wake up!” Twilight’s eyes shot open at the sound of Pinkies voice and she quickly jumped to her hooves. Looking around, she could see that she was still in the forest. To her right, she saw Rainbow Dash sitting on her haunches staring ahead with an empty look on her face. To her left she saw the rest of her friends: Pinkie Pie, her hair still straight, was looking at her with concern. Applejack was lightly shaking Rarity, who woke up a few seconds later. As Rarity began to come to, Applejack slowly limped over to the unconscious Fluttershy, wincing with each step. As the memories of the last few minutes began to come back to her, Twilight rubbed her forehead as she asked “Are you girls okay?” “I’m fine.” Pinkie Pie answered softly, her usual smile replaced with a frown. Twilight worriedly looked at the normally happy party pony. She had never seen her so depressed. “Mah legs are a lil sore, but I’ll live.” Applejack answered next as she helped the newly awakened Fluttershy to her hooves. “Aside from a few bruises, I am unharmed.” A disheveled Rarity said. Fluttershy, rubbing her head, took a bit longer to answer “I-I think I’ll be okay. Ow.” Fluttershy winced as her hooves brushed against a sore spot on her head. Looking over at Rainbow Dash, she saw that the cyan pegasus still hadn’t moved from her spot. “Is Rainbow Dash okay?” “I don’t know, she’s been liked that ever since the monster left.” Pinkie answered for her. “And how long ago was that?” Twilight asked, silently praying that they hadn’t been in the forest for too long. “About five minutes.” Twilight breathed a sigh of relief at hearing that. Remembering Dash, she cast a worried look at her friend. Although she wanted to question the normally brave pegasus on why she did nothing to help, she knew getting her to safety was the bigger priority. As she began to walk over to her, Rarity’s voice stopped her. “Well, what are we going to do now?” Applejack looked over at her at her like she was crazy. “What kinda question is that? We’re gonna go after that varmint and-“ “No Applejack.” Applejack looked over at the purple unicorn in shock. Twilight continued. “We’re going to go back to Ponyville and alert the Princess to what happened. We’ll let the Royal Guards worry about the creature.” “But Twilight-“ “Look around you Applejack!” Twilight shouted. “We lost! All of us! That creature managed to beat all of us together! Not even Discord managed that! He had to corrupt each of us one at a time. Whatever this creature is, its way more than we can handle. I know you’re mad, but are you really willing to lose your life over your wounded pride?” As Twilight finished, Applejack looked like she wanted to say more, but instead she sighed and looked down.” Yer right Twilight, I’m sorry. I’m just so darn mad that that varmint made a fool out of us. An’ I don’t feel safe knowing its still out there.” “Me either Applejack, but like I said, this creature is way too much for us. Maybe if we had the Elements of Harmony we could win, but without them we don’t stand a chance.” Twilight replied. Applejack nodded, but didn’t say anything. “Cheer up darling. Once the Royal Guard’s find that creature, it will regret ever harming us.” Rarity tried to assure her. “I hope yer right Rarity, I hope yer right.” Applejack responded, not sounding entirely convinced. “Um, not to interrupt or anything, but maybe we should think about leaving the forest now before something else show up. I-if that’s okay with you guys.” Fluttershy’s nervous voice reminded them. Nodding her head, Twilight quickly instructed the group. “Pinkie Pie, I want you to help carry Applejack; her legs are bruised and I don’t want her to injure them further by walking. Rarity, I want you to…” Twilights instructions were lost on Rainbow Dash, who continued to stare blankly ahead. Inside her mind, she replayed the events of the last few minutes again and again, trying to understand what happened. ‘I froze up. That thing was hurting my friends and I froze up like an idiot.' Her mind raced, trying to think of an explanation for her behavior. She could only think of one, and what it was hurt her more than any physical injury ever could. ‘I…I was afraid.’ She thought, wincing as she said those words.’ Me, the great Rainbow Dash, the toughest, fastest flier in Equestria, was actually afraid of something.’ As she tried to comprehend such a fact, she thought back to the look of disgust that the creature had given her. ‘It was disgusted with me. I’m disgusted with me. How can I call myself the toughest, fastest flier in Equestria if simply looking at a monster makes me nearly wet myself? How can I call myself the Element of Loyalty if…if…’ She closed her eyes as she felt hot tears roll down her cheeks ‘…If I can’t even help my friends?! That thing was hurting them and I just stood there and let it happen! Applejack, Rarity, Twilight, even Fluttershy had acted braver than me! I don’t deserve such good friends. I don’t deserve to be called the Element of Loyalty. I…I don’t….’ Her eyes shot open, the sorrowful look on her face replaced with rage. ‘No! I…I won’t let it get away with this. I refuse to let it get away with this. Even if it kills me…even if I get ripped apart…it will pay for what it did.’ Her resolve restored, she called out “Twilight!” The purple unicorn in question swung her head in Dash’s direction, shocked at actually hearing her speak. “Y-yes Rainbow Dash?” “Which way did the monster go?” She questioned. Pointing her hoof in the direction she had seen the creature walking before she blacked out, she replied “Th-that way, but why-“ She stopped when she saw the look Dash had in her eyes, a look she had seen so many times before. It was a look she had whenever she was about to- “No” She whispered. “No, Rainbow Dash don’t-“ Too late. Before Twilight could even try to stop her, she zipped into the sky, leaving behind a rainbow-colored trail as she flew in the direction pointed out by Twilight. Driven forward by rage and regret, she didn’t even hear her friend’s pleas and cries for her to stop. _______________________________________________________________________________ ‘I can slaughter an army of soldiers. I can take down a nest of monsters. I can rip the heads off creatures taller than buildings. Yet it was a bunch of colorful, talking, horses who nearly ended up capturing me.’ It was only when Heller finished that thought did he realize the embarrassment of it all. He had been walking nonstop since he had left the clearing, wanting to get as much distance between himself and the horses as possible. Not out of fear mind you, but so he could find a new location where he could relax and regain his strength. His battle with the horses had seriously drained him, and he needed to find a new area where he could rest and heal. And hopefully find some biomass to consume. He mentally cursed himself for not consuming the timber wolves when he had the chance, but he had been so caught up in the fight, that it had completely slipped his mind. He had seen a few birds and squirrels during his travel, but he decided that chasing after them for what little biomass they had was not worth the effort. Instead he brought his thoughts back to the fight. ‘Of course you can’t really blame me for almost losing to them. Had no idea they could use magic.’ He winced as he said that word. Even in his head it sounded wrong, but what else could he call it? They had even referred them as spells. Besides, they weren’t carrying any weapons with them, and he could think of no other way they could have been able to use telekinesis, paralysis, and…whatever the hell the yellow one had done to him. ‘But still, magic? This place gets more and more insane by the minute. Should’ve just killed them and saved me the headache.’ He stopped walking as he considered that last thought. Why hadn’t he killed them? They had openly attacked him and he still let them live. Had anyone else tried that he would have killed them without mercy, so what made these horses so different? A memory came to him, a conversation he once had with his daughter. Before he had left to serve in Iraq, Maya had begged him not to go, wondering why they couldn’t just bomb everything in the country and kill everyone including the bad guys. He still remembered the answer he gave as he looked down at her tear stained face: ‘Just because you can kill something doesn’t mean you should.’ The beings on this world were insane, annoying, and downright hostile. But they were also innocent. They had nothing to do with his revenge and consuming them would bring him no closer to finding Maya. He didn’t like them, but he wouldn’t kill them unless they gave him a reason to. The ones from before only seemed to be interested in capturing him. ‘Jesus, would you listen to me. I must be getting soft. Next thing you know I’ll be holding hands with them while singing Kumbaya.’ He actually laughed at the thought of something so ridiculous happening. Feeling a little bit better now, he actually began to look forward to another walk through the forest. The sound of something landing behind him ruined his good mood however. Turning around, he nearly facepalmed when he saw who it was. “Oh God, not you again.” He groaned as he glared at the cyan Pegasus from before. “Jesus, don’t you ever giv-“ His ranting was interrupted when the pegasus gave a shout of fury and charged at him. Rainbow Dash was blinded by rage as she charged at the being she had been hunting for. She would end this now! She would finish this thing once and for- Rainbow felt the familiar sensation of soaring through the air before she impacted harshly against a tree. She landed on her stomach and had to suppress a scream upon doing so. Blinking back tears of pain, she looked up at her attacker, his foot still in the air from the kick he had given her. Merely shaking his head at her antics, he looked at her with pity before turning around and walking off. Dash coughed into the ground and her knees wobbled as she struggled to stand. She had not come this far to be beaten so easily. Upon regaining her bearings, she looked up to see that the monster had put a great deal distance between them. Chasing after him she yelled “Get back here!” Heller shook his head as he heard her quickly approaching hoofsteps pick up speed. ‘Can’t she take a fucking hint? Even I’m not this stubborn.’ He couldn’t help but feel a bit of déjà vu when he actually began to think about the situation. Here he was, a man with god-like powers, being chased by a mortal with a huge chip on her shoulder, screaming for him to stop and face her. ‘Was this how you felt when we first met Mercer?’ He thought amusingly. Rainbow Dash’s thoughts on the other hoof were filled with anything but amusement. “I said get back here and fight me!”She repeated, but he once again ignored her and continued walking. It didn’t matter though because she was slowly catching up to him. She was seconds away from pouncing on him when he did something she was not expecting: He stopped and bent down. Her look of confusion at such an action turned into one of shock when he suddenly launched himself at least 20ft in the air before slowly descending on the other side of the forest and out of her view. Rainbow just stood there wide eyed at what she had just seen before it suddenly hit her that she had just lost him again. “Darn it!” She cursed under her breath before flying into the air to see if she could locate where he landed. Despite her brash and seemingly unintelligent behavior, there was one area that many would be surprised to know she excelled at while at flight school: physics and applied aerodynamics. It made sense really. She wouldn’t have been able to perform all of her amazing tricks and maneuvers if she didn’t have at least a little bit of knowledge of those subjects and right now, she was using all of her knowledge to find the creature. ‘Okay, he jumped at least 20ft in the air and from where he was standing that would have landed him right…there!’ Praying that her calculations were correct, she flew down to where she hoped the creature had landed. She seemed to be right; there was a huge crater on the ground where the creature had obviously landed but as she looked around she couldn’t find a trace of the creature itself. “Where are you?!” She yelled out, not even remotely concerned that another predator might hear her. “You think you can hurt my friends?! You think you can humiliate me and get away with it?! I won’t let you! Come out and let’s finish this!” Silence was her only answer. Giving a scream of frustration, Rainbow Dash began stomping her hooves on the ground continually shouting as she did so “Why are you hiding?! Why are you so afraid?! You were acting all brave before, but now you’re acting like a COWARD!” As she said those words, she couldn’t help but feel that she was directing them to herself as well as the creature. Fighting back angry tears, she looked around the area once more, hoping to see the creature standing there so she could finally have her revenge and heal her wounded pride. Nothing. Nothing was there. She was still alone. The creature had gotten away. She would never have her revenge now. She would have to live the rest of her life with the knowledge that something had hurt her friends and that she had done nothing to stop it. She closed her eyes and let the tears fall. Her earlier assessment of herself was right: She didn’t deserve to be called the Element of Loyalty. “DAMN IT!!!” She rarely cursed, but she felt this situation called for it. Bucking a small rock that was behind her, she began to walk off in shame, unable to stand being in this forest anymore. The sound of the rock colliding with something stopped her in her tracks though. That sound….It wasn’t the sound of a rock hitting a tree or hitting the grass. It sounded like it had collided with something with a rocky surface. There were no boulders in this area so what did it hit? Her curiosity piqued, she began walking in the direction that she heard the sound come from. What she found filled her with both hope and dread. It was a cave. A large cave that had formed on the bottom of a mountain. She could see the rock she had bucked near the entrance. Obviously it had collided with the outer walls of the cave. She squinted her eyes to see inside but it was useless; it was simply too dark. Already she could hear the warning bells going off in her head. The rational part of her mind was telling her to listen to them. To turn around and go home. That this was not worth losing her life over. But the more irrational part of her mind was telling her to go in, find that creature, and kick its butt from here to Cloudsdale and back. As usual the irrational part won. Taking a deep breath she slowly began to walk towards the cave entrance. The warning bells were getting louder and louder the closer she got but she ignored them, determined to face the creature and regain her lost pride. She stood just outside the entrance when she began to hear it. Breathing. Deep breathing. All rational thought gone now, Rainbow stomped her hoof on the ground and shouted into the darkness of the cave “I knew it! You are afraid! Get out of that cave and come fight me you c-“ A monstrous roar emanating from the darkness immediately stopped whatever she was about to say and froze her to the spot. She began to see movement inside the darkness as well as two glowing red lights apparently floating above the ground. It took her only a few seconds to realize she was staring into two glowing red eyes. “Oh buck me.” She flew upwards into the air… and narrowly avoided the torrent of flames that erupted from the cave. Rainbow Dash floated in the air, watching below as the flames reduced several of the trees that rested in front of the cave entrance to ashes. A creature soon emerged from the cave soon afterwards…only it wasn’t the creature she was expecting. ‘Oh buck, what have I gotten myself into?’ Below her, the dragon roared in response. A/N: Can't say I'm happy with the way this chapter turned out. I don't know, it just seems off to me. Tell me what you guys think.