I hit the thing with my baton in midair. It fell to the floor and I stomped on it, killing it dead. I wiped my brow and looked towards the shaking colt.
“Come on, Dude. I’m here to help you.” I said, putting out a hoof. He hesitantly reached forward, and when he finally touched my hoof, I grasped and pulled him out of the box he was hiding in.
I put him on my back and turned my head, facing the guy. He was shaking in fear. I’ve gotta get him to the safe-house.
“Hang on tight, Bud. I’m gonna be going pretty fast.” I said. He nodded, and I turned to face forward.
Let’s go!
I took off, instantly reaching a high speed. The wind blew past my ears as I went in the direction of the castle, forming a pocket of deafness. My mane blew in the wind; all of these things were what I loved about flying. The colt on my back made sure to keep his promise of holding on tight, by way of nearly choking me. I can handle it though. As long as he’s safe, my safety doesn’t matter much.
I landed in front of the castle doors and knocked 3 times in quick succession. The door opened and the kid was taken off my back by an unseen hoof. The door was closed quickly after.
“Gee.. you’re welcome..” I muttered.
“Thank you!” Somepony yelled from inside.
Oh. Didn’t actually expect a response. Huh.
Well, no time to dilly-dally. I turned back around and flew off again.
“You know what these things are?” I asked, pointing to the bulbous, brain-like substance.
“Uh, no. Should I?” Spike asked, staring at it. “Should I shoot it?” He pulled out his crossbow as he said that.
I shook my head, “Nope. You should run into it at full speed, though.” I said. He flipped his head in my direction, and I swear I could hear a whip-crack.
“You want me to what?!” He yelled, shocked.
“Hear me out.” I said, and jumped onto the floating island it sat on. I walked around to the other side, and then hopped onto it. It bounced me up and forward in the air, allowing me to land on a pathway that used to be out of reach.
I rolled, and stood up. I looked down on Spike, as he dropped his crossbow in shock.
“Hey, pick that back up.” I pointed at the discarded weapon. “You don’t wanna lose it, now.” I scolded.
He blinked twice, shook his head, and picked it back up. He turned towards the island and jumped to it.
He miscalculated his trajectory and direction, however, which sent him straight into it.
My first thought was that he would instantly be sent into the shadow realm. “No-!” I started to yell, but froze when I saw what it did.
Instead of bouncing him off the edge, it instead.. bounced him backwards. And towards the pathway I stood on.
He fell right onto his back and let out a grunt.
“Holy shit..” I whispered. I didn’t expect that one!
Spike groaned, sat up, and stood with an exhale. He turned towards me. “Didn’t expect the direction change.” He muttered.
“Neither did I.” I replied, scratching my head as I held back an existential crisis. Out of habit, I checked my health number. 89.
I then had a flash of recognition. “Say, Spike. What do the two numbers in the bottom left of your vision say?” I asked, snapping my fingers.
His eyes moved slightly, and looked back at me. “The one on the left says 72 while the one on the right says 10. What does that mean?” He asked.
I cleared my throat, “Well, the left one is your health. The suit can monitor your vital signs. The right number is the suits power. The ability to absorb damage and.. function in general, highly depends on that number. I just wanted to check and make sure everything was going alright.” I explained.
“Well, thank you.” He said, smiling slightly.
I nodded, smiling too. The smile slowly waned as we walked along the path, but the happy aura was still somewhat present.
As I carefully walked past one of those explosive bulbs, I panicked as I heard a houndeye. The bastard’s gonna explode and kill us!
I looked up to find it and take it out, but saw that a bunch of them were by another bulb.
An idea popped up, thank god, and I shouted out to Spike,
“Cover your ears!”
I looked down the iron-sights, and fired.
BANG
BOOOOOM
The bulb exploded, and a shower of houndeye guts came falling down afterwards. I grimaced at the sight. That’s pretty fuckin’ nasty.
“Those things are like squeaky toys from Tartarus..” Spike muttered, rubbing his ears. I snorted at that.
We continued walking (carefully avoiding slipping on the guts, ew) and we stopped in our tracks.
We had nowhere to go.
The pathway was blocked off by a bunch of giant leaves, and shooting at them didn’t do anything. We were sitting ducks at the moment.
Something in Spike clicked as he noticed the big-ass wires, however. Thick, wide lines ran from two bulbous.. things and into the leaves.
He took out his crossbow and shot at one. The red lining quickly turned blue, and some of the leaves moved outward. His eyes widened, and he shot the other one.
“What did you just do?” I asked, watching as the leaves opened up completely, allowing us entry. The fuck..?
“Uh.. I shot at those bulb things.” He said, and pointed to what looked like.. an egg sac? Kinda? I don’t really know how to describe it, especially considering it was rather far away.
I need a new prescription..
Things looked kinda like mushrooms. Whatever.
I shook my head to clear those thoughts and looked forward. Not important right now.
“So.. let’s go, I guess.” Spike said, shrugging. He began walking and I quickly caught up.
He jumped over the gap and into the cave, me following soon after. Jump, flex toes. You know the drill.
This cave was pretty. Again, as stated before, the aquatic theme was slowly dying out in favor of a more jungle-like theme. Vines hung from the roof, bulb plants sprouted from the floor, weird flowers glowed in the darkness, and moss was on every surface. Truly nature-ful.
The cave seemed to go upward rather than outward, which I wasn’t complaining about. After a couple turns, we came across another one of those bouncy brain pads. This one looked a lot more menacing, though. It had an orange backlight. Where from, I don’t know, but it looked intimidating.
So what’s the best course of action in this situation?
Put the pedal to the metal. Fuck it. Go all out. Right?
I jumped on the pad, and it bounced me up and forwards. The new place I found myself had a branch wall on the far end, which allowed me to see what was on the other side of it. Good. But.. there’s not much I could make out. Lovely!
Spike came up behind me, and did the same thing. “Uh.. looks like more of those wires.” He said, pulling away from the possible death trap. I don’t know, anything here could kill you.
But.. more of those wires? Which means more bulbous plant switches. Which means more shooting.
“Seems simple enough. More gun is what I’m good at.” I commented, turning towards the next step in our journey. Another pathway.
Another bounce on a pad, and we were up in another cave path.
You know, I’m glad that everything is pretty straightforward in here; knock on wood. This could’ve been way more complicated than it actually is. I’m glad the Black Mesa team went in here before we did, so that we could have a clear path. How nice of them.
Speaking of Black Mesa, there’s one of those tiny.. pack, things. Kinda like a quantum storage unit.
“These usually have some good stuff in them.” I muttered, turning to Spike. He seemed to be distracted with a flower or something, so he didn’t notice my speech. Whatever. Anyway, back to the pod.
I don’t know how they make these weird things, but I’m not complaining. I picked it up, popped the tab open, and poured it out. A glock magazine, some shotgun shells, a magazine for an MP5, a grenade for the MP5, and an actual grenade!
I pocketed all of these things and put the grenade on a front hook. This is great; more firepower! You know what they say.. A handful of shrapnel makes the medicine go down!
Or was it a spoonful of sugar?
I don’t know my folklore-
Something tackled me, knocking the gun out of my hand. Why was it in my hand? Well I always kept it out, just in case, and- that’s not important. Who (or what) tackled me?
“W-w-w- user—de-“ A glitchy, HEV suit voice spoke.
Oh, shit.
Spike looked over in confusion to the voice, but freaked out when he saw the source. “Gordon!” Spike yelled, and pulled out his crossbow. He fired it, but there wasn’t an arrow in the chamber.
He pulled back the sling, but nothing came up. The magazine was empty.
“RAAGHHH!!!” The zombie yelled, and chomped down. Or, tried to.
I had put my HEV-clad arm in the mouth of the zombie to block its bite, but that only worked SO well. These things have very strong jaw grip, and I could feel it denting the suit. It was going to break the damn thing!
Spike tossed the crossbow on the ground and ran to the glock that had been knocked from my hands.
“What did Gordon do?” He asked himself out loud, holding it with shaky hands. He didn’t know how the thing worked.
Realizing his plight, I opened my mouth. “Look- down the iron sights!” I yelled, trying to move my head out of the way of any potential bullets.
“I-iron sights?! This thing doesn’t have a scope, this is way harder!” He yelled.
“The iron sights are kinda like a scope! Just put the white dot on its head and pull the trigger-!” I yelled out in pain when it pulled away from my arm and bit my cheek. It tore off a small chunk of skin; but a chunk of skin nonetheless.
“Ah! Gordon! Okay, okay!”
Spike aimed, and pulled the trigger.
A bullet flew out of the barrel..
And smacked right into the zombie’s stupid head.
It died, right there. I pushed it off of me and quickly stood back up, allowing myself a few seconds to breathe. I live.. again!
I looked over at Spike, and he dropped the gun.
“Good job, man.” I breathed out. “But what’s up? You doing okay? Why’d you freeze up like that?” I asked.
After a few seconds of silence, I spoke up again, realizing why he was hesitating.
“I’m not mad.” I clarified. He sighed in relief, and seemed to loosen up.
“I don’t know. I was panicking. I had never fired a gun before.” Spike explained, touching his claws together.
“But you shot the crossbow plenty.” I said, pointing at it, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah, because firing a crossbow is definitely the same.” He said, sarcastically.
“Well, in the end, yeah. Only difference is that one doesn’t have a scope and explodes.” I chuckled. “Aw, whatever. It’s fine man. I lived, you lived, nobody got hurt!”
“Minor lacerations detected, earlier. Seek medical attention.”
Oh right. My cheek.
“Come on, kid. Do I really look that intimidating?”
“N-no.. but, but daddy was a normal pony! And then he attacked mommy!” The filly yelled, hiding inside a locked building. One with glass doors, might I add. “That thing jumped on his head and he went crazy!”
I sighed. This had been going on for several minutes. How can she not trust me!? I’m Rainbow Dash; Element of Loyalty, hero of Equestria, and fastest pegasus in the land! I’m super trustworthy!
But I can understand where she’s coming from. Her mother was just killed (I’m assuming) while her father turned into one of those zombie bastards. She probably isn’t very trusting at the moment, especially of authority figures.
“Look, Kid, do you have any injuries?” I asked. Mental isn’t very important right now, I need to assess this kid.
She shook her head. “No, I don’t.”
I sighed in relief. Thank Celestia. She’s okay, physically.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
She looked away, hesitating. She seemed to realize that a name wouldn’t mean much to a zombie, though. “Moonlight Breeze.” She whispered.
She’s yellow, and a unicorn.
Fitting.
I rolled my eyes, “Okay, Moonlight. What’s a way I can get you to trust me?” I asked.
She put a hoof to her chin.
After about 2 minutes of painful, agonizing silence, her eyes widened and she smirked. “What’s my name?” She asked, letting out a triumphant ‘hmmph’.
I facehoofed. “Moonlight Breeze.”
She gasped. “How did you know!?” She exclaimed.
“You told me.” I replied.
“Oh right.”
I groaned.
She had another idea. “Hey, there’s a town in the sky. Near Ponyville. What’s it called?” She asked, closing her eyes in confidence.
“Cloudsdale.” I said, raising an eyebrow. She gasped again.
“How did you-“
“Because I’m not a zombie!” I groaned. “Come on, Moonlight. There’s a safe-house at the castle. I need to take you there, and I can’t be wasting time like this. Open the door.” I demanded, exasperated. Just let me the buck in.
She took a moment to think it over, but nodded hesitantly. Finally!
She walked up to the door, and unlocked the latch. She opened it up shortly after.
“There, that wasn’t so hard, was it-“ I started, but froze as a hot liquid splattered into my barrel and part of my flank.
I looked at the offending liquid, and saw that it was green.
...And.. burning.
I turned in the direction it came from and saw a bullsquid.
“There are these other things called.. bullsquids, that shoot toxic mucus and can swipe their spikey tail at you. Avoid that.” I recalled a certain memory.
“Shoot toxic mucus.”
“Toxic mucus.”
Oh... buck.
I began to yell as I felt it eat away at my flesh. I needed to wash it off. Now!
“M-Moonlight, stay here! Lock up!” I yelled, and instantly began flying off.
I was in the air for three seconds before my wings flared up in pain and I fell to the concrete, hard. I stood up quickly and began galloping instead, wiping the tears from my eyes. This really hurt! But.. there should be a wishing well nearby. I’ve seen it before!
I ran to Canterlot park, knowing where the well was. The real question is, though.. can I make it before it’s too late?
Maybe I can. I see it in the distance. I’m almost there.
Right when I was about to reach it, my legs gave out. I let out a yelp as I fell into the grass.
I crawled to the well, hoping, desperately hoping that I could survive this. That the damage done wasn’t too bad.
I climbed up and over the well wall, and just fell inside. I didn’t care for the ramifications.
Sweet relief was felt throughout my entire body as the water cleansed the toxic substance.
I let out a shudder at the cold temperature, though. It was freezing in here.
After I felt I spent enough time in there, I began to fly out.
Only to quickly fall back in, as a shockwave of pain rippled throughout my entire backside.
I looked back to the injury, and almost puked. The fur had burned away; but so had a lot of the skin. I’m pretty sure I could see an organ. It was bleeding rather profusely, and my wing was hanging on by what looked like a few threads. The damn.. thing! Had completely destroyed my backside.
And I can’t fly out of this well without my wings. I’m stuck here.
I’m doomed to die of blood loss.
Alone.