I wish I could say it was silence that filled the room but it wasn’t. It was the sound of whimpering and panicked breathing, I had to look at both Lyra and BonBon before I realized that the object of their fears was none other than myself. Bon Bon looked terrified, like I was about to bite into her right then and there. Lyra was breathing heavily and looking between her marefriend and myself, as though she blamed herself for the imminent deaths of two thirds of the occupants in the room. I could kick myself for being so completely stupid, I brought fear into this house. Not fear of uncertainty but fear of myself, fear of what I might do.
I had gone from strange new friend to the monster that feasts on the bodies and souls of the innocent.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it!” I got to my feet and followed my first instinct, I ran managing to stumble over a low table, I almost ended up on my face but somehow managed to keep my legs underneath me. I was out the door before they could do anything more than flinch at my sudden movement. It was better that I get out of there fast before they started crying in fear or worse, begged me not to kill them, if they did that I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. Yes, I had no problem being an object of fear but only to people and creatures that deserved it. For me to be an object of fear to someone… somepony that had gone out of their way to be kind to me (even if she had ulterior motives) was unbearable, especially innocent ponies.
It was early morning in Ponyville and most ponies hadn’t yet started their day. Yet here I was, already fleeing from the fear I caused. I tried to avoid the main streets but, my goal was on the other side of Ponyville. I reasoned that if I made it to the Everfree Forest then I would simply become another monster in the forest to be avoided.
As it so happens Ponyville wasn’t big enough to have an abundance of small, poorly lit alleys and I was too alien a creature to try and blend in. I simply ran trying to keep the noise of my actions to a minimum. I focused on the alerts provided by my HUD to avoid ponies, the warnings keeping me out of public sight for the most part. I just wish I was better at being able to take the information in without focussing on it. I was still either looking at the display or focussing past it on what was actually in front of me. I was told that eventually it would become second nature to take in the display without even noticing it.
The downside of running through an unfamiliar town at breakneck speeds was that you ran the risk of ending up in places you didn’t want to go, like a market full of vendors setting up for the day. With no surprise the way my luck has been running, that's exactly where I ended up.
It seemed news of my arrival hadn’t yet become common knowledge as ponies kept greeting me with cheerful hellos meant for Alex. This only caused me to push myself even harder. My leg screamed in pain but I pushed through it knowing that the medical nanotech would kick in and dull the pain. I could already feel it fading, like a mild case of pins and needles.
I turned a corner, putting too much strain on my left leg. It buckled, sending me right onto the back of an orange and yellow pony, I landed across her hind quarters with a close up of a trio of apples. Or rather the cutie mark of them. I have to say they’re absolutely fascinating, I had the strangest urge to run my naked fingers through the design.
“Tarnation, Matt. Where’s the fire?” I shifted my weight as much as I could onto my right leg and leaned heavily against Applejack, trying to get in position to lift myself off her. My one hand on her shoulder the other on her cutie mark, I could feel the muscles under her fur and skin tighten as my hand brushed the apples on her flank.
“Uh, sugarcube. Ya might want to take yer’ hand off my cutie mark. That’s a mighty personal place to touch, and Elusive might a tad get jealous.” She stood frozen while I tried to lift myself from her back, my left leg struggling to hold my weight. She finally hit the limits of her tolerance and casually shrugged me off her back, something that shouldn’t be possible without some serious effort on her part. I fought to remain upright, my left leg shook for a moment before I could force it under control. I double checked that my helmet speakers were off before I issued what was under normal circumstances my favourite command.
I began issuing a practised stream of acronyms and abbreviations to the suit that would make no sense to someone unfamiliar with them but delivered dozens if not hundreds of commands to the system that enabled it to handle the trillions of calculations a second required to allow me to focus on where I wanted to go rather than fighting the world around me just to stay airborne.
I always thought jetpacks in sci-fi would be more fun and less ‘you have a 10% chance of dying whenever you use it.’
Blinking twice at the external speaker icon, I focused past the data to Applejack and almost did a double take, she was staring me right in the eyes. I shivered in fear before responding.
“Sorry Applejack, I was... uhh just out for a run, I didn’t mean to trip on you. I hope I didn’t scare you. You’re fine right?” She was still doing that soul staring trick and I could feel the sweat beading on my forehead as I waited for the orange farm mare to call my bluff
“It’ll take more than a simple bump in the flank to slow me down. If you need someone to talk to Matthew Brennan I’m willing to listen when yer ready to stop lying to everyp-” Shaking my head in disbelief I staggered away from her towards what I assumed was the direction of the Everfree forest, that looking through the visor trick
My brief encounter with Applejack had brought me back to my senses, but I still didn’t want to be an object of fear. I carefully made my way out of the market, drawing the occasional alarmed look, and one scathing scowl from a tan mare.
Once I was out the market I was free to get my bearings. Canterlot that way, check. Plains as far as the eye could see that way, check. Forest that looks like it would be crazy to venture into alone… Well process of elimination left only one direction, behind a group of houses. I looked behind me to check for flammable materials before taking off. The thrusters fired with a loud obnoxious hiss.
I realized pretty quickly that unlike other realities I didn’t have a monopoly on being able to fly, here. Ghost outlines appeared on my HUD showing me dozens of pegasi in the air, my eyes darted everywhere trying to keep track of them all I must have been distracted because a grey streak exited a window and veered in a sharp right turn that even my armor interception software wasn’t able to predict, what’s worse is that it hit my left maneuvering jet right in the sweet spot and hard enough to snap the connecting joint between the arm and backpack. So forget controlled landing, I imitated the grey streak and made a sharp right… right into a wall.
I stuck like a strand of perfectly cooked pasta.
Damage alerts and diagnostics scrolled through my HUD, unless I found a master mechanic there was no way in hell I’d be fixing this, the limited supply of repair nanites simply wasn’t capable of repairing such an intricate system. I groaned and fell off of the wall impacting the ground hard enough to make a human shaped crater, I decided that this world just hated me and decided that I was the perfect target for death by random circumstances, in the distance I could hear a familiar voice call out “Ooops my bad.” before flying off.
I sighed away my anger, well most of it. I was still angry but I couldn’t help but smile and accept it. Derpy was a force of nature, adorable in her own way but anger inducing if you had a first hand encounter with her.
I got to my feet once again ignoring the medical report for my leg. I could feel blood running down my leg, a sure sign that the nano sutures and bandage over my leg wound had ripped again, the bodysuit which would usually act as its own bandage was still being patched by the armor repair nanites. I can’t say I regret the injury but I need to stop stressing it like this, what I need is two or three days of bedrest, well maybe a week or two if the ‘magic’ radiation is as dangerous as my armor theorizes.
I cling to the thoughts as I struggle for the boundary between Ponyville and Everfree. I’m almost out of the town but each step is requiring more effort. Moving my left leg is sheer agony and finally half way up the hill my leg trembles one last time before giving out completely, even the muscle assist of my bodysuit couldn’t help me walk if my leg can’t even move. Even with the nano pain dampening this was some of the most intense pain I’ve ever experienced. The pain was only surpassed by the initial injury.
I rolled onto my side closed my eyes, trying to ride out the pain until the medical nano’s could fix whatever was hurting me. My breath was coming in gasps and panting and my eyes were clenched so tight that even tears weren’t escaping.
My helmet started gingerly letting off a proximity alarm, making me aware of my surroundings and what was watching. I managed to turn myself still cringing from the pain in my leg, to find Alex standing over me just staring down at me, the fire in his eyes made me want to just turn and run, but with a leg in this condition that wasn't an option
He stood there for a while longer looking me up and down of my condition, until he broke the silence, “You don’t look so good.“