//------------------------------// // Ties That Bind. // Story: Half-Life: Pastel Paradise // by I aint no damn brownie //------------------------------// I sighed as I entered the safe-house room once again. Everypony turned to stare, but I ignored them. I need to do something here. Something important, and something specific. “Excuse me, Miss?” I asked one of the nurses walking by. “Yes?” The nurse asked, clearly impatient with me. “Who runs this whole thing?” I asked, waving my hoof around slightly. The mare put a hoof to her chin in thought, “Uhm.. Applejack?” She said, not so sure of her answer. Though it seems she changed her mind, as she nodded. “Yeah. Applejack.” I nodded. “Thanks.” I walked away quickly, avoiding any more contact with her. Didn’t want to make her any more busy, after all. She’s got an important job. She doesn’t need my sorry butt annoying her. I walked over to the standing form of Applejack and tapped her withers. “Yeah, Ah belie- huh?” She stopped the conversation with herself and turned to me. “Oh. Howdy, Pinkie!” She said cheerfully. “Hello, Applejack.” I said calmly. Applejack sweatdropped at that. Tugging on a nonexistent collar, she coughed. “Uh, everything okay, Pinkie? What do you need?” Applejack was playing dumb. She knew what I had done, and she most likely knew why I was there, too. “I’m..” I started. Applejack blinked, and waved a hoof in the motion of ‘continue..’ “I’m sorry!” I said, and fell to the floor. I wrapped my forelegs around Applejack’s barrel and began crying. “Please forgive me!” Applejack looked around at the disapproving states of the nurses, and looked back at Pinkie. “Uh, Pink?” Applejack said, tapping my ear. “Yes?” I asked, my tears immediately stopping. “Think ya can calm down a bit?” She asked. “We kinda got sleeping ponies in here.” I nodded. “Yes, I know. I’m sorry.” I muttered, embarrassed. You did it again! “S’okay, Pinkie.” She replied, You idiot! You- “Wait, it’s okay?” I asked, not believing my own ears. “Well, yeah. Yer previous disruption didn’t do much either, actually. Some ponies even laughed, so Ah guess you accomplished yer goal.” Applejack explained, patting me on the head with a smile. I smiled back. rumble.. The building began to shake. What the..? Ponies around us began to either panic or remain incredibly calm, no in-between. ssskkkRRRRR.. That sounded like.. metal on stone? “Sir, I have to ask that you please calm down-“ A nurse said to a shaking stallion, when all of a sudden the shaking stopped. ... “Everypony okay?” Applejack asked, setting down her clipboard. A resounding ‘yes.’ Until, well.. it. “Okay, so.. does everything feel-“ A nurse started, before being cut off. SHRK ... “Gurgle..” The nurse let out, a giant blade protruding from the top of her head. The blade slowly got pulled out, and went back into the vent that was suspended above her person. The vent had clearly been broken through, most likely by whoever had the blade. Everypony began to scream, and soon after, the lights went out. It was dead silent. When the lights turned back on.. the room was a mess. Blood was all over the walls, there were bodies strewn about, and there were some poor ponies still clinging to what very little life they had left. And right in the middle of it.. was a pile of foals. Applejack, who seemed just as terrified as I was, walked over to the aforementioned pile of kids. “Are.. are y’all okay?” She asked them, gulping. They all nodded. “Any injuries?” They all shook their head. Applejack walked back over to where I was, grabbed her clipboard, and flipped through a few pages. Upon finding what she was looking for she turned to me, shakily showing me a page of names. I grabbed it and flipped through just as she did. “Every foal we had in the room is in this pile.” She stated, turning back to them. “Whatever just happened, whatever jus’ attacked.. it didn’t want ta harm the kids.” My eyes widened. What the..? Shaking my head, I set the clipboard down on the ground and turned to her. “So.. what does this mean?” I asked. “Who’s attacking?” “I dunno.” Applejack said, “But you have ta get moving. Go get help. Go get.. anythin’. Ah’ll stay here with the kids.” She finished, and turned back to them. Wait, that’s not fair- “What the Tartarus just happened?” A drowsy-sounding Rainbow Dash said. “-and Rainbow Dash.” Applejack added. “So, please- “Wait a minute.” I said. “How come I have to do it?” I asked. “These foals don’t know you. These are Canterlot foals, not Ponyville foals.” Applejack explained. “And how come Rainbow Dash can’t do it?” I asked. I’m not against the idea.. I just want to know why I was chosen to go. “She’s gravely injured.” My pupils dilated. “Oh. Dashie, are you okay?” I asked, genuinely worried for her safety. “I should be okay.” She shrugged. I sighed in relief. Thank Celestia. “Alright, then. I guess I’ll go get help.” I muttered I nodded, turned to the exit door, and began walking to it. When I reached my destination, I put a hoof up to the door and kicked it inwards. A double-swinging door. Neat. But back on track. No time to be opening doors. There are ponies in danger, and attackers that need to be dealt with. Don’t worry. Auntie Pinkie Pie has got it all under control. Just you wait and see. Speaking of seeing, I cannot see. The nearby light switches don’t work, so I’m testing my luck with the windows. Clearly, that won’t last long. Day does not last forever. I need a lantern. “Hey, we can exit this way!” A stallion said, pointing down a hallway. I turned towards him and he pointed to me. “Look, see? Come on! Let’s go!” He waved. When I stayed still for too long, he groaned and ran to whatever destination he seemed set on getting to. This is when the building shook again and debris fell from the ceiling. I gagged at the sight of the innards showing through the stone and shingles. After that.. experience, I turned and kept walking. I kicked open another door and moved on. Yet, as soon as I turned a corner, I saw a mare crawling on the ground. She was bleeding out, and I rushed over. But just as quickly as I began to gallop, something.. fell from the sky and landed on her, stabbing a blade into her head. I winced at the sight, and turned a little green. That was.. that was so gross. And that poor pony.. The blade.. turned out to be an appendage. The appendage of which belonging to what looked to be a pony with.. beige skin and.. no eyes. They had bandages all over their body, and their limbs were replaced with the aforementioned blades. Their head didn’t rest on a neck, as it instead rested on what looked like a metal pike. That’s brutal. But also terrifying. This is not a beast that I can just laugh away. It brought the blade up to its face and licked the blood off of it, going into a martial arts stance afterwards. It wanted to fight. Narrowing my eyebrows, I turned my head to a nearby pipe on the wall. If it wants a fight, I’ll give it a fight. I bucked it in two different spots and grabbed the remnant. A semi-long pipe. Perfect for smashing. I now had a weapon. And when the beast charged, I did what felt right. WHAM splurch It’s head burst open from the power of my swing, spraying blood over the nearby wall and, subsequently, all over me. It was gross, but I didn’t have time to stop and be disgusted. Taking out its head didn’t make it stop moving. I thwacked it three more times, each time listening to it make a horrifying squeal that sounded straight from Tartarus itself. One more swing and it fell to the floor, where I then thwacked it’s body two more times. It finally ceased its movement, and I dropped the pipe. ..when it all caught up to me, I violently puked all over its corpse. What the heck was that. Why did it k-kill that poor pony, why did it lick the blood from the blade, why did it HAVE blades (for legs!), why did it attack me, why did I attack back so easily, and WHY ARE THEY HERE!? ... ...Slowly calming down, I went back to my original objective. Find a light source. I shook my head, wiped the blood from my pipe, and continued walking. I schmooved down the hall, and kicked open the first door I came across. Some barracks for the guards. This is a good place to look. And, as it turns out; I was right! Two oil lanterns sat on a bench, and I grabbed one. I refilled the oil and turned the dial, lighting up the area around me. Perfect. Now.. where will I put it? I can’t hold onto it, that removes my ability to both move easily and fight. Oh! I smashed my hoof into a locker and it popped open, allowing me to grab a guard uniform. No, not armor. A uniform! The armor wasn’t nearby. You see, what I was wearing was.. sort of like a suit. They all had separate uniforms that they would wear for ceremonies and things of the sort. Parties, even..? Hehe. So, after equipping myself in a fitting uniform, I bent and hooked the lantern handle onto the shirt pocket. It hung from my breast, illuminating a small area in front of me. Nice. Moving on to another locker, I hit it and opened it up. My world slowed as I stared at the body that fell out. Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I shook my head. Ignore it or get used to it, Pinks. I doubt that’s the last dead body you’ll see. ..jeez. What has my life become? To the point where I have to think about stuff like that? I shook my head. Clear it all away, Pinkie. Toss the bad feelings in the trash. Going back to the real world, I opened up the next locker. A bottle of what looked like painkillers and a small carton of oil for the lantern. I pocketed both. Next locker. Nothing. Next locker. A cloth strap. Looking at my pipe, I got an idea. After I fastened the strap to my barrel, I slid the pipe in. Doing this allowed it to sit comfortably and in-reach, yet also kept it out of the way. Smart thinking, Pinkie. I exited the barracks and continued on. Shortly after my departure, though, my life was once again threatened. “Reargh...” It’s behind me. Quickly rolling left, I watched as it flew by and missed its target completely. I stood up and ran towards it, jumping up into the air and pulling out my pipe as I did so. I slammed the metal into the back of its weird head and watched as the body hit the floor, where it then began to crawl around like a spider. Ech! I swung down hard on its head once, and then twice on its body. It ceased all movement almost immediately. I put my pipe back in its resting place and continued walking. It’s a gift, really. These things are incredibly dangerous and deadly.. yet they are very easy to deal with. I thank you, whoever.. whatever.. that created these things.. for making them easy to deal with. You have my respect and my hate. I still despise you for creating them in the first place, though. Your creations have done nothing but cause harm- “Road Trip to Delta.. I repeat, Road Trip to Delta. Do you come in, Delta?” Wait, is that another pony? It might be! Getting excited at the thought of not being alone anymore, I quickly ran towards the voice. When I heard it getting louder, I kicked open a nearby door and saw what looked like a pony dressed in all camouflage. “Hello??” I asked, which caused it to flinch. It slowly turned around, and I quickly realized the mistake I made in getting his- its attention. Almost instantly, it turned from what looked like a normal pony into a.. beast. A beast that reeked of pure malice and hate. Its hooves grew to the size of a Minotaur’s muscles. The gas mask it wore quickly turned into what looked like a fleshy mess. Its chest opened up to reveal a rib cage and a black heart, that of which was beating very slowly. Six appendages sprung from its back; each holding what looked to be a black.. metal.. thing. Red text could be seen on the sides, and it was rather skinny. Instantly sensing that the metal thingies were going to do immense harm, I rolled to the right. Good choice, too. They immediately shot out projectiles at what looked like light speed, damaging the wall behind me. I quickly shook off any sense of shock or fear and pulled my pipe back out. I took a swing at its turning head and it backed up slightly. It’s appendages turned towards me, but I quickly swung and it got knocked back again; the appendages failing to locate a target. I swung again. And again. And again. Finally, and with a groan of pain, it fell to the floor; dead. I dropped my pipe and walked over to its body. Bastard. Grunting, I ripped off one of the appendages and pulled out the metal thing, taking a gander at the red writing. It actually wasn’t text at all. It was drawings of.. something, and a dial. The dial was currently on the drawing of 7 circles, and could be moved to either a drawing of only one circle, or one that had a white circle. And on a different part of the weird object, it read.. Cal .177 (6.5mm) HK MP5 What does that mean? Studying the object a bit more, I began to get more and more confused. How does this thing work? If I can get it to shoot those projectiles, I would be practically unstoppable against those blade things. But can I? I looked back to the dead body. The appendages seemed to be holding it so that this weird plastic part could be.. pulled. Getting a sudden idea, I stood up and pulled open a nearby file cabinet. I grabbed a quill and sat back down, pointing the weird object away from me and sticking the quill into the tiny area. Once I did, I pressed down the plastic piece. CRACKCRACKCRACK I dropped the weapon in fright at the loud noises and projectiles being fired. It clattered to the floor, and I held my hooves to my ears. I watched as these weird metal pieces also clattered to the floor. Gold shells, it seemed. Huh. So.. guess I figured it out. But how am I going to use it? I can’t only use that thing with a quill pen, that would be such a handicap. If only this weird plastic ring wasn’t here.. Now, maybe if I could.. Wait.. I just got another idea. Quickly picking up the metal object again, I dashed out towards the dead body of one of the bladed guys. I sat down next to its appendage, but stopped. ..this will inevitably fire on accident. How do I stop it from doing so? I began hitting it anywhere, to see if maybe I could trigger some safety system or something. Instead, what I did do was press a button and have a different metal piece pop out. Looking inside the discarded thing, I saw these little metal shells. They looked like the ones that came from the weapon when I fired it. Is this.. some form of ammunition? That’s neat. So it should be perfectly safe- CRACK ..guess not. But now it won’t fire anymore. So I guess it just had one left in there for some reason. ..anyway, back to the reason I came out here. I put the weapon up to the giant blade and began to saw. I began to cut. Please work. Thankfully, though, and slowly but surely, the plastic ring around it was cut off and the plastic piece was free to use. I put that ammunition-filled metal piece back in and held down the plastic, aiming it at a wall. CRACKCRACKCRACK I let go of the plastic piece and smirked. This is perfect.