//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: Unconscious // Story: New Beginnings // by Black Alicorn //------------------------------// Wolf lay unconscious on the ground, the Hydra preparing to enjoy the spoils of it's victory. A familiar voice ringing inside his battered head. - - - - - “Hold on Wolf!” He looked up and he saw him. “Get up Wolf! We're supposed to lead the way!” “What the? Grizzly?” “Of course it's me! Now come on!” “No, this isn't real. You died 2 years ago.” “What the hell are you talking about? I'm standing right here! Now COME ON!” “Yeah....right.” “INCOMING!” The explosion knocked Wolf back into a wall. He fell to the ground, seemingly lifeless. “WOOOOLF!” Wolf closed his eyes and drifted to sleep. - - - - - A blue stripe barreled through the sky. It was a blue maned and light-brown coated pegasi colt. He shouted to the hydra. "Try to catch me dumbass!" Then he flew straight to the hydra's left leg and crashed into it, full power. The four headed animal was shocked by the sudden hit in its leg and uncontrollably fell to the ground. The still unknown pegasus yelled again, now with pain in his voice. "Quick!... Get him out of here! I can't hold out much longer!... Unless if..." Rarity rapidly responded to the call and charged towards to the still unconscious Wolf. While still running, she loudly asked the savior pegasi. "Are you allright dear? That must have hurt!" "I'm... I'm okay, just get him out of here." He shook his head then lift himself off the ground and began to fly in circles around the slowly rising hydra. "This will be a huge one, try to get as far as possible!" His voice was barely audible through the intensifying wind. The vortex was getting faster and stronger every second, it fully covered the hydra in a few moments later. After a loud frictional sound the animal hovered up. The blue tornado did it's job. The blue tornado slowly moved on its way. However, the hydra didn't want to lose easy prey. It streched all of its heads, so the pegasus inevitably crashed into one. The Pegasus lay on the ground reeling in pain. The hydra was pleased at the sight. Another addition to the menu. Rarity sat there, frozen in fear. * * * * * A yellow Pegasus was carrying a basket of frogs to Froggy Bottom Bog. "I'm sorry, but, um, if it's alright to ask, why do you keep coming out here?" Before the frog could 'answer', an unusual sight caught Fluttershy's eye. A hydra looking down at a rock face, licking it's lips. She looked at the bottom of the rock face and saw a wounded Pegasus, her friend Rarity and something she had never seen before. Anger built up inside her, she quickly dived down and let the basket on the ground. She then sped towards the Hydra. She arrived as the Hydra was about to begin it's decent. "OH NO YOU DON'T MISTER!" It turned to face the source of the voice. It scoffed at the sight of a yellow Pegasus. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" It couldn't help but whimper towards Fluttershy, who was staring right into it's eyes. "You should be ashamed of yourself!" It lowered it's head. "Trying to eat a poor defensless Pegasus, Rarity and a...whatever it is. Now you go back home and don't you ever come back again. It didn't move, it was obviously paralised by Fluttershy's dreaded stare. "GO!!" It quickly ran back into the Everfree forest. Meanwhile the wounded Pegasus lifted himself up, and asked: "What the hell happened?!" He tried to walk, but he quickly fell back to the ground. His eyes glazed over, he tried to keep them open. No good. The last thing he remembered was a yellow Pegasus walking towards him. * * * * * “How is he?” “Not looking good. Looks like his luck is running out.” “Luck?” “Yeah. I mean think about it, what are the odds of Fluttershy arriving at the last possible second and giving the Hydra The Stare long enough for Rarity to come in and make a rescue?” Twilight tilted her head down. “Slim.....” “At best. I'll be honest with you Twilight, I'm not sure we can save him. All we can do right now is hope. The best thing for you to do right now is go home and rest.” She nodded. She new that Nurse Redheart was right. “Yeah, I'll go.” But rest was the last thing she had in mind. * * * * * Twilight hadn't stepped into the library for a few seconds and she was already going through spell books. “One healing spell, just one please......” Two hours later, and Twilight has gone through almost every book in the library. It was usually nice and clean, but today it was a complete mess. Books thrown everywhere, ink on the floor, and a lavender unicorn sitting in the middle of the room, eyes bloodshot and reading through the last book in the whole library. As she reached the opposite cover, her horn glowed and the book slammed shut. Tears filled her eyes, and she began crying again. She had failed, she thought. And now Wolf was going to pay for her failure with his life. She backed up into a corner, tears streaming down her bloodshot eyes. An hour passed, then two hours, then three and she was still there, crying. She quickly got up,wiped away her tears, and went straight to the hospital. * * * * * “Twilight, I didn't expect to see you back here so soon.” “Has his condition improved at all?” Redheart's head shook. A quick sigh from Twilight. She went past Redheart. “Twilight!” She turned to face her. “Wolf's been moved to a more private room. That way. Number 217.” She raised her hoof to point the way. Twilight passed Readheart, muttering a few 'thanks' as she went. After a minutes walk down the halls of the hospital, she reached room 217. She opened the door and walked in. The room was everything but private. Applejack was in a wheelchair right next to Wolf's bed, the impact of the Hydra's head had broken most of her left ribs. Twilight looked to the right, and sitting on another bed was Rainbow Dash, in a tight embrace with an injured brown, blue maned Pegasus, a worried look on her face. Twilight turned back to the bed, and Big Macintosh had appeared right next to Applejack. They all turned to face Twilight, nodded, then turned back to Wolf. His head was covered in bandages. Twilight went next to him, leaned over next to his ear, and gently whispered: “Please come back Wolf.....please....” - - - - - “Come back Wolf! Wake up!” Wolf got up. His mind was racing. “What the hell is going on? This already happened.....” “When I say go, we both storm the bunker.” “No.” “What?!” “No, this already happened.” “What the hell are you talking about?!” “Two years ago, we did this and you were shot!” “Wolf, two years ago I was on Peace.” “I know this is hard to understand.” “Wolf, honestly, just shut up and come on!” “Right...........sorry.” - - - - - Nurse Redheart opened the door. Everyone looked at her. She asked if Twilight could come out. “Sure.” They both left the room. “So,any good news?” Redheart's head dropped. “We can't save him.” “What?” “I said -” “What?”" “Twilight....” “WHAT?!" “Twilight, listen...” “No, you listen! You are going to save him, you hear me?! You are going to save him!” Twilight collapsed to the floor, crying as loud as she possibly could. She grabbed hold of Redhearts hoof and held on to it tightly. A few minutes passed. Twilight looked up at the pony she was holding on to so tightly. “How....how long does he have?” “A few hours, a day at most.” “Okay.....” She opened the door into Wolf's room, trying to hold back her tears. No good. She fell to Wolf's bed and erupted into tears. She pushed her head into Wolf's chest. Everyone else in the room rushed to her side. Amidst the tears they could make out words. “Please wake up Wolf..........Please.” - - - - - “Go go go!” Wolf rushed out of cover and headed straight for the bunker, his gun blazing. His advance was interrupted by a Spinar airstrike. “Oh sh....FALL BACK!” The troops quickly changed course and ran back to cover. “FALL BACK!” Wolf jumped behind a wall and waited. An explosion sent a human soldier flying behind his cover. “BARNES!” - - - - - “He'll be alright Twilight.” Big Mac's attempt to encourage Twilight failed. “Maybe he has some kind of medicine in that 'ship' he came in.” Twilight's head snapped up. “That's it! Big Mac your a genius!” She jumped off of Wolf and gave Big Mac a quick 'thank you' kiss on the cheek. This caused Big Mac to blush a bit. Twilight burst out of the room and made a beeline for Nurse Redhearts office. She arrived and knocked furiously at the door. “Twilight? What has gotten into you?!” “Can Wolf be moved?” “What?” “Can Wolf be moved?!” “I don't know, why?” “I think I know something that could save him!” - - - - - “There's too many of them sir!” “Damn it trooper,hold your position!” Wolf got up and fired a few shots into the large group of approaching Spinar. “Damn it how did they get here so fast?” Wolf got up and threw a grenade into them. The explosion probably killed many of them. “What am I doing? This isn't even real!” A large spike penetrated the wall and came out right next to Wolf's head. “Real or not that was too close!” He got up and began firing again. - - - - - Twilight and everyone else arrived in front of the Red Dawn. They walked to the door, Wolf being levitated by Twilight. “Rarity,could you carry him for a minute?” “Of course dear.” The light emitted by Twilight's horn was fading, as the light from Rarity's was growing stronger. Twilight approached the door. A sudden voice startled her. “Unidentified life forms detected. Weapons armed.” The same 50 mm cannon targeted the group of ponies. “Friendly signature detected. Disarming weapons.” “Can you let us in?” “Negative. You do not have proper authorization.” “Open the door please.” “Negative.” “If you don't open this bucking door, Wolf is going to die!” Silence. It was broken by the same voice. “Overriding lockdown.” As soon as the door opened the group rushed in, Big Mac showing them the way to the med bay. Once they got there, they put him down on the bed. - - - - - “There's too many of them!” “Hold posi-” Wolf was interrupted by the same kind of Spinar that injured him a few years ago. “Son of a....” He quickly dodged the incoming stinger. It's legs came and pinned him to the ground again. He tried to break free, but his strength left him. He felt very weak. - - - - - “Life signs critical, injecting stabilizer.” A long mechanical arm came from out of the wall and injected a blue liquid into Wolf. - - - - - His strength returned, he could feel it. He quickly lifted the legs off of him and avoided the stinger once again. He drew his blades and slashed frantically at it's exposed stomach. It shrieked in pain. - - - - - “Life signs stable, please move subject into Operating room. I will guide you there.” They followed the AI's directions and arrived into the Red Dawns operating room. They put Wolf down on one of the tables and the voice asked them to leave. They obeyed, but as they left, Twilight turned to see more of the mechanical arms moving down towards Wolf's head. - - - - - He killed it. A victory. Wolf felt stronger than ever now. He charged straight at the approaching Spinar, his blades drawn, ready to do their job. He came closer and closer. It wouldn't be long now. - - - - - 4 hours later and the ponies were overjoyed to hear the voice say that he would be alright. They all left to let him rest. They would be back though. - - - - - Wolf stood atop a pile of rubble. He won, he actually won against hundreds of Spinar. The cheers from human soldiers could be heard all over the broken city. They had won. “Too bad this never happened.” Wolf thought to himself. He turned to face his men. “It's been an honor fighting with you. You're the best troops I ever had the privilege of commanding. But now it's time to go.” He could hear the men asking about what he just said. He ignored it and looked to the sky, while spreading his arms out. All of a sudden, he caught on fire. First his arms, then his legs, both heading towards his upper body. They met at the exact same moment and continued on to his head. He was unfazed, it was obvious there was no pain at all. All he could feel was the warmth of the flames as they reached his head. He smiled as the flames intensified, reducing him to ash. All the men were shocked at this sight. Even more so when the ashes rose and flew off into the sky. - - - - - Wolf opened his eyes, then after a few seconds, they were closed as quickly as they were opened. End chapter 9.