//------------------------------// // Nine New Faces // Story: Live and Let Die // by Dihinner //------------------------------// Live and Let Die The sun was mercilessly beating down on an empty field. The grass was dried out and burnt with the smell of dead trees in the air. A tall, unidentified figure walked onto the field with eight others following not far behind. From a distance they looked like every day ponies you’d see in a town or city. Only until you got close enough to actually make out the faces of these ponies would you be able to see what made them different. A cloud of perpetual smoke surrounded the tall one at the head of the group. A muffled cough escaped his mouth as he glanced back to the ones following him. The closest one to him had a navy blue coat with a black mane that covered his eyes. He looked in the direction of the tall smoking figure and gave him a feral grin and bounded towards him. The tall figure growled something at the navy coated stallion and he backed off. The tall figure sighed, walking through the heat was uncomfortable, especially with a cloud of smoke that was endlessly being emitted from the horn atop his head. To make matters worse, his coat was a dark grey, trapping the heat in it. The tall figure’s tongue hung loosely from his mouth much similar to a dog when trying to cool off. The figure turned again when he felt the ground shaking underneath him. The tall stallion sighed, a muscular, pony with a dulled out pink coat and a shaved off mane with a large scar on the right side of his chest walked up to him. “Are you sure you know where we are going?” he asked. The tall, smoky pony sighed, “Yes I now where we’re going. Just keep walking and we’ll come across it eventually.” The muscular stallion sighed, “I know but, she is losing it back there.” “How long does she have?” asked the tall unicorn. The pink stallion shrugged, “half hour tops.” “Then we should pick up the pace.” ********************************************************************* The streets of Ponyville were empty. The intense heat that had enveloped the town was near unbearable. Although it was not uncommon for it to be hot this time of the year, today was the hottest it’s been on record. It was so hot that a small amount of steam rose from the paved areas of the town. Some legends say that if the days are much warmer or colder than usual it’s an omen of things to come, good or bad. Today, of course, was warmer than usual, warm enough to not leave one’s house in fear of dehydrating out on the street. Many of the town’s ponies just assume that because it’s warmer than usual, the next season for growing food will be better than normal. Twilight sparkle gazed out of the window of the library uneasily, usually around this time of year the young colts and fillies were playing around outside, but today they were hiding away in their houses in an attempt to keep the heat out. The only one who wasn’t bothered by the intense heat was Spike, who had a natural resistance to heat and was currently away for the week. Twilight sighed just as nine figures walked into the center of the town. Twilight stared at them curiously; they looked like no other ponies she’d ever seen. An incredibly muscular pink stallion was standing close by a thin white Pegasus mare that appeared to be crying softly. Close to them was a small electric blue colt laughing like he had just seen the funniest thing in the world while a large olive green Pegasus mare with an oversized right foreleg glared at him. Standing just a few feet away from those two were a yellow green unicorn, a navy blue pony and a fat, mahogany stallion. Finally, at the head of the group there was a tan Pegasus a tall unicorn with a smoke cloud around his head. They appeared to be arguing. “Where is it?” asked the tan Pegasus in a white straight jacket around his forelegs, causing him to float off the ground with his wings. His voice was hyper and frantic. The tall charcoal grey unicorn with a cloud of smoke around its head replied, “I don’t know, must have taken a wrong turn back there…” The tan Pegasus flew right into the smoky unicorn’s face, “look here Smoky, you said that it was here! Not some pathetic small town! Where is the spot?!” The smoky unicorn stood up straight, looming over the Pegasus, “I told you I don’t know. Now shut up before you piss of Witch.” Twilight could tell just by the way the tan Pegasus backed off that he was scared of whoever Witch was. Another unicorn, the one with the bright yellow green coat and a brown mane walked up to the charcoal grey one. “Don’t worry Smoker, the one Hunter and I spoke to said it was somewhere around here,” said the green unicorn. Smoker sighed; obviously he didn’t want to stay here longer than he had to. Suddenly, he turned his head directly at Twilight, seemingly staring straight at her. His eyes narrowed menacingly as Twilight quickly turned away from the window, pretending that she hadn’t heard anything. Down on the street, Smoker spoke to the navy blue pony in his group, who nodded eagerly as it agreed to its task. “Now remember Hunter, don’t hurt it. We just want to know why they were watching us,” muttered Smoker to Hunter. Hunter grinned and bounded off to the house where Smoker saw someone looking at them. The yellow green unicorn called after him but her calls were ignored. When he arrived at the door, he seemingly stared at it for a few seconds, screeched loudly, and then he leaped onto a nearby tree and crashed through a window into the house. Twilight yelped in surprise and flew down the stairs as Hunter paused for a moment to shake off some of the glass that landed on his coat. He then cautiously crept down the stairs after her. “Who are you?!” Twilight demanded as Hunter froze half way down the stairs. “Me? I’m Hunter,” said the stallion almost cheerfully. “Why did you break into my house?” asked Twilight, her horn glowing. Hunter however, seemed unfazed at the obvious threat replied like it was an average conversation you say on the street, “Smoker wants to know why you were watching us.” He then turned his attention to a fly that was buzzing around him. “I wasn’t-.” Hunter turned away from the fly and cut her off, “look, cut the crap. Smoker saw you and frankly, you’re lucky he didn’t think of you as much of a threat. We wouldn’t want Charger or Tank involved now would we?” “Who are they?” asked Twilight as she backed away to the door. “Tank and Charger? Well, I would tell you but, you’re going to meet them in a second. Hopefully under better conditions,” said Hunter as he slowly started to go down the stairs, being careful where he was going. Twilight found this peculiar; a moment ago this ‘Hunter’ pony had broken into her house by crashing through her second story window. Now he was afraid of stairs? For the briefest moment the black mane that covered his eyes shifted to reveal two bloody carved out eye sockets. Twilight recoiled away from the sight before she could get a better look. Twilight bolted out of her house just as Hunter got down the stairs. The heat hit her like a punch to the face. Immediately she began to sweat and gave a quick glance back to see Hunter running through her house towards her. Twilight quickly slammed the door just as Hunter began to run through the door way. A sickening crunch was heard as Hunter’s face smashed into it. Twilight spun around to get away and turned to be face to face with the thin white Pegasus. “Gah!” yelped Twilight. The other seven noticed the absence of the Pegasus and the smoky unicorn’s eyes visibly widened when he saw Twilight and the Pegasus, who started to growl at Twilight. “Don’t move,” called out the smoky unicorn. Twilight looked at him confused, “why not?” the white Pegasus was now growling louder, almost to the point of shrieking. “Don’t move, don’t speak and whatever you do, don’t touch her,” said the grey unicorn as he motioned to the large muscular stallion that was standing near the Pegasus earlier. The pink stallion slowly walked up to the Pegasus and started to speak with her. “Witch, would you move out of way of purple spy? Smoker would like to speak with her not maimed,” said the large pony. The white Pegasus stopped growling and slowly turned to him, then back at Twilight. “Please?” asked Twilight quietly. Blinking, Witch slowly made her way to the large stallion and sat down beside him. By this time Hunter had managed to open the door and growled at Twilight. “You’re lucky I’m not supposed to hurt you,” he growled angrily. Twilight turned to him, “well you broke into my house!” “How else was I supposed to get it?” Twilight glared at Hunter, “well, you could knock and ask nicely instead of jumping though my window.” “Well I-.” Smoker cut him off, “look, I’m sorry if Hunter did something he’s going to regret later,” Smoker shot an angry look at Hunter, “but I seemed to have noticed that you were spying on us through your window.” The yellow green unicorn spat out a small bit of bright green fluid and angrily walked up to Smoker, “is that what this is about? Someone happens to look out a window when we’re speaking and you have to sic Hunter on them? Just because you have paranoia problem doesn’t mean the rest of us do,” the unicorn turned to Twilight, “sorry about him, he’s just a bit grumpy because of this heat wave. I’m Spitter; these are Hunter, Jockey, Charger, Tank, Screamer, Witch, Boomer and Smoker,” Spitter motioned to the navy stallion that attacked her, the small electric blue colt, the olive green Pegasus, the muscular pink stallion, the tan Pegasus with a straight jacket, the thin white Pegasus, the fat mahogany pony and the tall smoky unicorn. “ “We’ve been looking for a specific pattern that will help us find… something and we spoke to someone that said it was in this area,” said Spitter, “have you seen anything like that recently?” Twilight looked at the nine ponies standing in front of her. All of them seemed to have a serious medical condition or abnormality. Like Smoker had large tumors all down his left side along with his unnaturally long tongue and Charger’s oversized right arm. Even Tank had a large circular shaped wound on the right side of his chest. “Um, are you feeling alright? Some of those things on you guys look kinda painful,” said Twilight, “maybe you should check at a hospital before you go looking for the thing you’re looking for.” Charger shook her head, “nah, going to a hospital would just make things worse. Our… aw hell I’m just going to call them what they are deformities haven’t bothered us in the three weeks we’ve had them.” Twilight’s eyes bulged, “you’ve had them for three weeks without going to a doctor?!” Charger and Twilight continued to talk about the situation of finding a doctor while the other eight newcomers spoke amongst themselves. “It’s kinda hard to get a doc when four maniacs are shooting everything in sight,” muttered Screamer. “Quiet, if things go as planned we’ll be outta here within the day,” replied Boomer in the same harsh whisper. “Back to what? Running for our lives while everything we cared about is destroyed? I don’t care if you eight go back, but the way I see it my life will be better here.” “We don’t belong here,” replied Boomer, “you’ve seen them in other towns, even in this pony world we're freaks. At least on earth we’ll be at home.” “If you haven’t noticed, we have no home to go back to,” said Screamer as he walked off. ************************************************************************************ The moon has risen, signaling the end of the hellish heat and the start of a cool night. Ponyville was silent except for the public park, which held a group of nine deformed ponies looking for a mysterious pattern to return home… “Alright, Charger agreed with Twilight that we’ll go see a doctor tomorrow. Now, I’m certain that we’ll find the teleportation pattern somewhere around here within the night,” said Smoker to his fellow companions, “if all goes well, we’ll be home before you know it.” Smoker was answered with silence, he sighed. “Yes I know that it’s better here but, we don’t know anything about how this place works. At least on earth we knew what to do.” Tank spoke up, “I think that living in this, bright happy place would be best for Witch. If we do find the spot, at least let Witch choose to stay or not.” Smoker looked at Witch, who returned the look with her bright yellow eyes. Smoker looked at the others, each of them seemed reluctant, Screamer the most. “Look, we can’t stay here. What if we spread it like back home?” That statement made the other eight freezes on the spot. Even Jockey stopped his constant crazed laughter. Back on earth they were all infected with a highly dangerous disease called ‘Green flu’. They all had been heavily deformed by it, more so than the average person. It had changed them into monsters. Boomer was the first to speak. “Are you sure that they can even become infected by it? Three days we’ve been here and now sound of anything out of the ordinary here.” Smoker nodded, “true, but how long the first infection take back home?” The others thought about this. It was Spitter who gave the answer, “if I remember correctly, about two days. If it’s our third going into fourth, I think we’re in the clear.” The other infected beside her nodded, if they were indeed spreading it, they would have noticed something. “Alright, so maybe we aren’t spreading the flu, but that still doesn’t mean that we should stay here.” “Why not,” asked Screamer, “have you seen what home looks like lately? It’s a death trap. I don’t give a damn about what you say, unless this place turns out to be worse than there, I’m staying.” The others nodded, much to Smoker’s annoyance. ‘That screaming bastard is going to regret his decision. I can feel it.’ “So, does anyone want to go home but me?” An awkward silence enveloped the deserted park. Slowly, Hunter raised his hoof, “I guess I’ll go. Sure, here’s alright but, it’s not home.” Smoker smiled in the moonlight, he could always count on Hunter to agree with him. But, his slight relief that he wasn’t the only one going back was short lived as a loud scream came from the sky. All nine of the ponies ducked for cover as the object fell from the sky above them. “CATCH ME! CATCH ME! CATCH ME!” A loud boom echoed through the town as large chunks of debris exploded out of the ground, making a rather large crater. The sound caused Witch to start freaking out. Tank rushed over to her to stop her from doing something dangerous. The nine stared at the crater until Spitter decided to break the silence. “What the hell was that?” “I don’t know, maybe a meteor?” suggested Boomer. Suddenly, a robotic voice emitted from the crater, “are we still is space?” Another robotic voice sighed, “Nope, we’re out of space now, mate.” Smoker, who was closest, peered into the hole. To his surprise, inside were two heavily damaged spherical objects with a blue and yellow eye respectively. “what the f**k?!“