I sighed as I stared into the water, my reflection staring back at me.
You really messed up back there, Pinks. What was that all about?
I probably freaked everypony out. No, I DID freak everypony out. Just imagine being a patient in there. Some ditz waltzes in, disrupts things, yells shut up, and runs away.
I would be terrified if I was them!
..Of course, I’ve calmed down since then. No more shut up, no more yelling in my head, no more eye twitching.
But this needs to change. You can NEVER do this again. One time is enough.
But what’s the issue with me. Why did I do that?
I sighed.
Sometimes I guess I just.. need to learn not to listen to my subconscious. Your worst enemy is yourself, after all. Your head has got nothing good to say.
Though, doesn’t really matter much. Wallowing in self-pity won’t heal those injured ponies. Nothing will, except rest. And you bucked it-
No, no. It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know.
I didn’t know.
I clicked my tongue, bit the inside of my cheek, did all of the other idle movements, and looked back at the water.
Grabbing a nearby stone, I adjusted myself, calculated the trajectory.. and threw the stone.
It skipped six times before it sunk.
That’s a new record for me! Woo!
I grinned at that. Grinned for what felt like the first time in a while.
I grabbed another one, skipping it across the lake as well.
It failed to skip, but that’s not so bad. The Canterlot gardens have plenty of skipping stones.
It’s a beautiful place, really. Flower beds on all sides, with lilac, daisy, and periwinkles; hedge mazes that look complex yet easy.. it was serene. The lake looked straight out of legends, and the stones were completely smooth. Perfect for skipping.
It’s nice, if you can ignore the constant banging from the zombies and sonic booms of the tiny monsters on the other side of that gate. If you can do that, you can enjoy yourself a lot!
That being said, it was highly distracting. Some radioactive stuff nearly hit me, too, but I just moved away from its line of sight. I want to be depressed, not be in danger!
...that’s quite sad.
This apocalypse is doing some things to me. Things I don’t like. I want to be cheerful Pinkie, party Pinkie. But it’s hard. It’s hard to stay the same when everything around you is changing.
I don’t know how many friends of mine have kicked the bucket by now.
Did Fluttershy even last a day?
See, that’s.. that’s what I mean. Had this been an average day, that kind of thought would’ve never even dared to pass through my mind. Now, though?
I’m casual about the possible death of one of my closest friends. Casual about it!
This is all just.. sick. Disgusting.
I hope everypony is okay. Rarity, Fluttershy, Twilight.
“Ah sh-“ I froze, and turned to my sister.
Sweetie Belle looked up at me, fear in her eyes, yet also curiosity.
“-shnikey.” I corrected myself. Swearing is both unladylike, and not good for kids.
I nodded to myself before I grabbed a pan in my magical grip.. and bashed the skull of the zombie pony at my door. It’s head split open and it’s brains splattered on my wall.
That makes me feel so.. unclean. And it ruined my nice walls!
These.. zombies and their “pony-like body yet monster-like actions”. Ridiculous.
I’m covered head-to-toe in zombie blood, but I had been able to avoid getting it on the walls. Until now, at least. I had gotten careless. I had let it get close, and I had paid the price.
Celestia, if we were going to have an apocalypse, could it have been with something I didn’t have to kill? Killing is gross. Both visually and mentally; I feel like a horrible pony for the crimes I have committed on this day.
But, as they say, “You gotta do what you gotta do”.
This is not ideal for doing what I gotta do, though.
“Mr. Bear!” I yelled out, pointing a hoof to a nearby window. Mr. Bear turned to it and roared.
The zombie pony at the window promptly ran away terrified.
I nodded to Mr. Bear, and he nodded back.
My eye twitches as I sit upon a throne I don’t feel I deserve.
I miss Spike.
“I’m sure they’re doing okay..” I muttered out-loud, imagining the worst ways they could all be killed.
Yikes.
I really need to get it together.
I fell into the gross water roughly, water splashing all around me as I yelped in pain. That hurt. I shut my eyes tightly as I rubbed my body, trying to quell the pain, despite the fact that the suit blocked all contact. Damn it.
I eventually gave up when the pain got less intense, and slowly stood. I didn’t fall that far, so why was I in such pain-
Health: 40
Suit: 0
..that explains it.
Shaking my head, I wiggled my hands to dry them off. Damn water soaked into the gloves. That blows.
Spike landed rather roughly next to me, but he actually landed on his feet. Lucky him.
Turning my attention back to the new area, I looked around to find out where we were. As was usual for the past little stretch, it was very red. Two weird spires were off in the corner, and some of those branches were covering up what looked like a giant archway. The river was shit brown- definitely didn’t help my disgust with it already.
But.. it’s nice. A thought I voiced almost immediately.
“It’s rather-“
Only to be cut off at the sounds (and scent) of burning wood.
Those branches that blocked off the archway were burning. Something was-
BWOOOM
The branches were blown away, and out walked one of those giant blue bastards with the flamethrowers.
I took two shots at it, and turned to Spike. As I did so, he turned to me.
“Run.” I said, and he nodded.
I dashed off into a random direction, which just so happened to be the best thing I could’ve done. I climbed up the rather steep side of a mountain, following the river. I ducked under a glowing branch and continued running, but turned back to look at the thing. It bashed through the branch easily, which further reinforced the want to get the hell away.
I ducked under another one and boosted away, towards one of those giant branch walls. This one was red, but because of that, I could easily notice the opening on the side. I squeezed in and continued running, making sure Spike was following. He was.
I ducked under a piece of debris that was smashed away and nearly took my head off. After that truly awesome experience of near-death, I ran through the next hole in the wall. Upon seeing that the next surface I had to run up had the texture and look of something slippery, I silently prayed that I could make it up easily.
Luck proved to be on my side for the first time in history, as I was able to flawlessly climb up. Spike almost slipped, but he was able to correct himself.
I jumped off the ledge and into the water right as the blue thing destroyed the wall again. I couldn’t avoid the huge debris this time around, so I tanked the hit. I lost 10 health, but it thankfully didn’t slow me down much. I was able to catch myself and continue running.
I heard a roar, and a different branch wall lit up. Oh my god. Two of them?
I turned in the only available direction, and took a long fall off the cliff. I began to panic but remembered that I would be okay. Why?
The landing jets kicked in, and I continued running.
I ran straight for a wall of branches as I saw an opening, but I quickly turned right and onto a different path when another one of those things burst through the wall. I ran through the cave system and boosted across, hoping to get SOME distance on these guys. It would not last long, but it worked for a second, and that’s all I ask.
I boosted across a lumpy path and straight into houndeye territory. Shit!
I pulled out my magnum and took 4 shots, killing 4 of them easily. Had to get moving though, as ANOTHER ONE SHOWED UP.
I jumped over one of the exploding ones and pulled out my Glock to shoot the next explosive ones. They blew up easily and I continued on. Spike still followed, which I was eternally grateful for. Homies gotta look out for homies, after all.
I ran past a pillar and up the side of the wall along a path. When I reached the end of it, I took a big risk and jumped to the second platform in the line. I landed directly on one of the Black Mesa pods, but I had no time to grab anything.
I have to keep moving.
...
Or do I?
I looked around. Those blue guys weren’t following us anymore.
Upon it all being over, I fell to the ground with a wheeze. “Jesus, man!” I called out.
“Oh my Celestia..” Spike said as he fell onto his back. “That was stressful.” He muttered as he took in deep breaths.
I nodded. “Hell yeah it was.”
I sat up and grabbed the two suit batteries from the pod. Tossed one to Spike and kept the other for myself. I plugged in the cord, charged up the suit, and tossed the now empty container away.
I grabbed two health packs and did the same process. This doesn’t give me infinite life or anything, but it sure does help.
Upon lying back down to truly appreciate the resting time, I looked around this new area.
We were on an island. Giant pointed edges came off the sides, and some weird red branch material formed what looked like a fence. There was a cubby on another island we can easily get to, but it looks like a dead end.
Then again, this one does too, so it’s either that or stay here and rot.
I sighed. The world needs saving. No time to be lazy.
On that note, I stood up and stretched, walking over to Spike. “Time to get going buddy.” I said, letting down my hand.
He grabbed it and pulled himself up, also groaning. “But I’m so tired!” He whined.
“Me too.” I muttered, and ran to the edge of the island. I jumped, clenched toes, and boosted to the other side. I landed in the cubby, and listened in as Spike landed near where I did.
FWOOM
BOOOOMMM
Fuck.
I turned around to run away, but saw nothing and remembered.
We had jumped down to get here.
I ran to the edge of the cliff to find anything to work with. Anything at all.
But by the time I noticed the brain-like booster, it was already too late.
I felt my back erupt into agonizing pain as fire scalded everything. Feeling the retribution of 1000 sun gods, I let out a yell as I ran away from the pain and quickly jumped to the boost pad.
“Gordon!” Spike yelled, not even noticing the fire hitting his back. Damn dragons..
I landed right on the boost pad and flew upwards, right, and straight towards the top of the island we were just on.
FWOOM
The flames from this one barely missed my flailing body.
After what felt like an eternity, I landed incredibly hard on my back. Pain shot up my spine as I began coughing. I had the wind knocked out of me.
Spike landed on the island and pulled me up harshly. “Come on, no time! We gotta go!” He said, and pulled me to my feet. There was another blue thing going after us.
I felt so weak. Everything hurt.
But I had to keep going.
For Equestria.
For Cheerilee.
They need me.
Forcing myself to go on, I slowly worked my legs. I slowly took in shallow breaths. I slowly began running again.
Come on, Freeman.
Let’s not die that easily, eh?
I turned around a large pillar and continued on.
This was a weird-ass place, I don’t know if I mentioned that. Branches sprouted from weird places, the general caving architecture was so backwards I couldn’t even begin to describe it, there were glowing mushrooms, barnacles, spires.. it was all just a mess.
I narrowly avoided a huge chunk of debris from another wall smash and continued my jogging session. I ran up another hill, this time narrowly tripping on a few rocks. Not good. Get your head in the game, Freeman.
Avoiding a fall to my death, I boosted across to the other side of a pit. I recalled the texture this wood wall shared with each other one, so I immediately ran away from it.
Oh, fuck. It’s one of those huge houndeyes-
BANG BANG
“Oh, thanks Spike.” I wheezed out. Shit, I’m tired.
“No problem..” he wheezed back.
I ran up the last stretch of hill and did a big jump into the brain booster. It boosted me in the direction of the next area and I continued on. I avoided the blue guy and ducked under an overpass, going back to following the river. The classic tactic.
I jumped over a branch, ran a bit, and climbed up the narrow path of what looked like a meat branch. Ew.
I boosted across the next drop, though, because the only way out was through that ring of wood.
Had I failed, I would’ve been stuck.
I didn’t want to mess that up. Thankfully, I didn’t. Woo. Go me!
I turned around to check if it stopped the running man, but nope. He just kept trucking on.
I continued, squeezing through a skinny branch hole. Came across another wall, went in a different direction.
Turned left, and crouched into a tight fitting hole. Hehe.
Avoided the debris and continued moving. The water was splashing all around us as we crawled.
BWOOM
BWOOM
Two more popped from out of the walls as we ran and ran. It was getting to the point where I could hardly breathe, but I had to keep going.
If I stopped, I would actually fucking die. I definitely didn’t want that, believe it or no.
Oh, how I wished for some water.
Wait, there it is!
The end is in sight!
The bastards can’t make this jump!
In one last boost of adrenaline, I began running.
But my world slowed down..
As I slipped in the water.
Spike boosted across the way and landed easily. He turned back to me, only for his eyes to widen.
“Free-“
I quickly jumped up. These guys were right on my tail, but I had to bust a fucking move if I wanted to escape. I don’t want a premature death. I don’t. I don’t I don’t.
Terrified for my life, I began running again. I ignored the fire on my back, the fire in my lungs, the fire in my legs.
But, unfortunately, my worst fear was realized.
BWMP
BZEEEEEERRR..
The red dot attack. Fuck!
I ran as fast as I could and boosted across early. The attack stopped as it didn’t feel the ground anymore, but that was the least of my worries.
I’m not gonna make it.
I’m gonna miss, and I’m gonna fall to my death.
..
This is where it ends, huh?
Slipping in water. Genius stuff, Gordon. What’s your next plan- oh yeah. You’re dying!
I sighed, and closed my eyes.
You tried, Freeman.
It’s time for Spike to take up the mantle, though. Your days are done.
Now all you have to do is-
“Urgh!” I let out as I felt my arm being yanked hard.
“I’m not letting you go.” Spike said, and I cracked open my eyes at that.
Spike was hanging onto my hand for dear life, hanging off the edge of the platform by his sharp talons.
He grinned. “‘Morning, sunshine.”
He swung back, and then forward.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
Back and.. SWING!
He flung me upwards and I landed roughly onto the island.
..
I lived.
I’m alive!
I’m not dead! I’m not dead yet, you fucks!
Freeman keeps-
“Uh, little help?” Spike asked, still hanging,
I quickly kicked myself out of my stupor and got to my feet. I ignored the pain in favor of helping my buddy out.
When I got him situated up top, he almost immediately passed out onto the ground.
I checked his pulse, and he was fine.
I sat down on my own ass and laid back. Guess he was just-
snore..