//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: An Angel and her Soldier // by Midnight Words //------------------------------// Chapter 3 ------------------------------ "MEDIC!" Roland yelled as he clutched his chest. Blood poured from his mouth and everything was graying out. The door on town hall opened and one pony came out with a scalpel and other medical supplies. "Not... Me... Him!" Roland said and pointed to Angel who was carrying Headshot's body. The medic nodded and sped off to meet them. The ponies were cautious with the wounded soldier but a few nurses came forward. "Don't worry, sir. You'll be fine." One of the nurses said. A soft glow covered the soldier as he felt his insides twist and meld. "This is going to hurt a bit..." The nurse's horn brighten and Roland felt like his insides were burning and melting and the sad thing about it is he was used to it. But that didn't mean he didn't scream. "GAHHHHHHH!" Roland screamed while blood dripped from his mouth. "Get the blood packets! Hurry up!" The nurse yelled at the others. Roland just noticed this but that nurse was actually a very skilled surgeon. He felt like his wounds close up and several organ he didn't even knew were missing were starting to grow back. It was disgusting, he had to admit it that his spleen, kidney and several of his bones had seen better days but unlike Zed's meds he felt like the insta-health shot were poison to his body and this felt like it was healing instead of merely "patching up". A needle jabbed itself in his arm. Blood poured into his blood stream and the nurse was finally closing the last of his wounds. The nurse whipped some sweat from her brow. "Whew, finished." The sighed and gathered some of the more masculine ponies to get a stretcher and carry Roland to the hospital. "Great work, Doctor Twilight." A pony from the group inside the town hall cheered. "Twilight the third if you don't mind." Across the street, another surgery was taking place. Angel assisted the pony doctor as he removed a large wooden spike that lodged itself on Headshot's left wing. "Breath... I need you to breath..." The doctor said and cleaned away some of the dirt and splinters. "You have several wounds that could get infected... This will hurt..." The doctor took out a piece of cotton and cleaned the wounds surrounding the spike in his wing. "I'm pulling it out now." The doctor yanked the spike and then applied pressure to stop the bleeding. Headshot gasped and felt his wing go numb. "Miss. I need you to put pressure on his wing. I'll go get some gauze." The doctor said and ran back to the town hall. Angel placed her palm on the large wound. Headshot grunted. "Sorry. I'll try to be more gentle." Angel said. Headshot shook his head. "No... don't let the blood out. Tell me you still have those herbs you found on the Minotaur back in the castle." Headshot wheezed. Angel opened her inventory and pulled out a few herbs they found. "Here" "Good... Grind them into powder and apply them to my wing. After that use some of it on your arm. I know your hiding that scar under your tattoos." Angel looked shocked that he noticed the scar on her arm. "I see everything, Angel and the way you carry yourself... It’s not the way of a warrior more like... a little girl, out of her element." "...Yeah... I guess you can say that. Having an over-protective father could do that to you." Angel said and crushed the herbs in her hand. "Tell me about it, I know how you feel." Headshot said as Angel applied the soothing powder. "Did your dad ever kill thousands just to prove a point not to mess with his daughter... He killed thousands in my name... I hate him." Angel paused and saw her tattoos on her hand. "He used me to charge a key that would summon a warrior to 'protect' me and, in the process killed me." "That's... I had no idea... Your father strangled you, he held on too tight..." "Too tight to power... He kept saying it was for me but I knew he just wanted to rule Pandora." Angel said and applied the powder on the wound on her arm. "Ain't that the truth." Headshot sighed. "Ever tell you about the time I got my cutie mark?" "Cutie mark?" Angel questioned. "That little picture on my flank." He said and pointed to the crosshairs picture on his flank. "When I was a foal. I moved around a lot and stayed away from the chaos and big cities." ------------------------------ "Don't you dare." My dad yelled as a thug held my mom at knife point. "Pay up or this fine fruit's going to get cut!" The thug yelled and pressed the knife on my mom's throat. "I'll kill you if hurt her!" I yelled and tried to charge at him only to be stopped by my dad. "Head, leave and I'll handle this." He said with a somber expression. "But dad..." I protested. "LEAVE NOW!" He yelled and I flew up and hid, out of sight. I couldn't hear any of the conversation but after my dad tossed the bag of bits to the thug he slid the knife and cut my mom's throat open and threw the knife at my dad's head. I kept silent. I was bitter, angry, depressed and some emotions I didn't even know. I will kill him. I swore on my parent's deathbed. I shaped a storm cloud to look like one of those rifles you're holding but with a scope. I spent one month stalking my prey, learning everything I can about it, the monster that killed my parents. A local thug by the name of Sunny or better known by his peers as Blade. One day I aimed the storm cloud at his head. Right between my crosshairs and then I saw something that made me wish I shot him sooner. I found out he was a father of a little filly by the name of Firecracker and was physically abusing the filly... and sexually too... I shot him dead in the head... and several more times for good measure... and that’s when this appeared on my flank. Me and Firecracker worked together most of the time and we stayed in contact but we've been seeing less and less on each other and only sent letters to each other lately. ------------------------------ Angel was speechless. "Yeah, I get that reaction a lot when I tell that story." Headshot sighed. The doctor came back with a few nurses with stretchers. He was surprised when he saw the wound was almost sealed up. "Those dynamites your using are her speciallity. Alrighty, doc, take me to the hospital. I need to have my eyes examined; I only seemed to hit the head and not the eyes anymore." Headshot laughed as he was lifted on to the stretcher and carried towards the hospital. Angel followed them to the hospital. Ponies stared at her with fear and confusion but some ponies had a look of gratitude as she walked beside Headshot. The hospital was a plain white hospital with a red cross on it. They stepped through the doors. The inside was like a regular hospital, tiled floors, white walls and the like. Headshot was taken to one of the rooms to rest. Angel saw a door slightly ajar and peaked in. Roland was sitting on a chair, wearing nothing but his pants, a small pony with teeth for her cutie mark was hovering in front of the disgruntled soldier. "Say 'ahhhh'." The dentist said. "Do I really have to do this?" Roland complained and earned him a smack on the head. "No but if you don't open your mouth, we'll have to knock you out again." The dentist said and smacked Roland on the head with her ice-cream stick. Roland sighed and opened his mouth. "Good... Good..." "Anngel?" Roland said through his open mouth. "Arr youu alriitee." "I'm fine. Really." Angel sat back down and examined the ponies that were rushing about outside. "How many were injured?" "Aboutzs aah fewew doszens." Roland said and the dentist smacked him on the head. "No talking." A large gray earth pony stomped up next to Angel. "You the one who helped protect the town?" "No idiot, its the other two aliens." Headshot said as he came out of his room. "Aren't you suppose to get some rest?" The large earth pony said. "Since when do I ever listen?" Headshot commented and sat down beside Angel. "It's nice to see you, Brick." "Brick?" Roland looked up to the giant earth pony and saw a few resemblances but he could tell it wasn't the Brick he knew. A thought came into Angel's mind. "What about the kids, the ones who were going to be the first ones to die?" Angel asked and the two ponies lowered their heads in shame. "I wasn't fast enough... The Cutie-mark crusader. Little Cream-top just joined up this morning..." Headshot lowered his head more. "No, you did all you could. I was just a bad mayor and made a poor decision." Brick put a hoof on Headshot's shoulder. Angel's eyes began to glow slightly. "No..." Roland said. "I should have planned it better. Some leader I was, can't even defend a few kids." Roland got up from the chair and took his clothes and put them on. "This asshole is worse than Jack." Angel said and a few things started to bend across the room. "Who's Jack?" The next few hours were more or less explaining the whole situation on Pandora, the Hyperion Corp and the Crimson Raiders. "That's Jack? Anarchy is ten times worse." Brick said. "From what you two told us, Jack is just a CEO of a company who is trying to take over the world." Headshot said. "That 'asshole' as you termed it is way worse. Imagine Jack as an all-powerful reality bending monster that already won, not the planet but the whole system and everything on it." Headshot said and slumped back on a chair. "We've got no way to beat him. The elements of harmony were lost after the Mane six were separated." There was a tense silence in the room. Brick decided to break the silence. "Well, no use mopping around. Let me introduce myself. I am Brickary Cinderblock, mayor of Ponyville." "I'm Roland, Leader of the Crimson Raiders." "And I'm Angel." Brick gave a hearty laugh. "You two saved my town and for that we need a big PARTY!" As soon as Brick said those words a large explosion rocketed from one of the surgery rooms. "... That wasn't supposed to happen..." Brick said and stepped forward. The ground shook as a large zombie, the only one that survived came around the corner, holding a dead body of a unicorn and several other bodies he dragged along. The zombie in question was larger than the doors and about two times larger than the mayor, it could almost be mistaken for an infant Ursa. It roared at Brick, spit covered the mayor's face. "It...Is..ON!" Brick yelled and charged the large zombie. Roland and Angel were about to help but headshot stepped in front of them. "Don't..." He said and turned around to face the raging battle. The zombie took Brick by the head and threw him to a wall and smashed through it. Brick shook off the dust and picked up some rubble on the floor. The pony zombie charged, smashing through unoccupied rooms and beds. "RAGHHHHHHHHHH" Brick yelled and threw the large piece of wall at the zombie. The speed and force of the throw sent the zombie back a few feet. The zombie roared and threw beds at Brick and smashed the tiled floor. Brick caught a large bed and threw it back using the momentum to multiply the force and speed of his throw. or simply put, threw it back at the big zombie for more hurt. The zombie staggered back and slumped back down, he looked up to see Brick's large hoof crash down on his skull, giving a large satisfying crunch. "DON'T YOU EVER HURT MY LITTLE PONIES EVER!" Brick yelled and spat on the rotting corpse. Roland stared at the carnage of one pony and a zombie twice the pony's size. The floor was completely ruined. The light hung only by a thread and the walls were close to crumbling. Brick came out of the rubble and smiled. "Welcome to Equis, Friends." Headshot rolled his eyes. "You have such a flare for the dramatic." He dead-panned. Angel turned to Roland. "A splitting image of our Brick, huh?" Roland just stared and nodded dumbly. "Yeah..." Headshot and Brick walked out the hospital, leaving the two humans alone. "You're worried about the Crimson Raider, right?" Angel asked and placed her soft palm on Roland's shoulder. "I was just thinking that Brick might kill more of the Crimson Raiders if they even say anything about losing." Roland said and gently removed her hand on her shoulder. Roland saw a ping on his HUD and saw that Angel had it too. There was a new ECHO recording marked "Claptrap's pet" Roland pressed the play button. "Hey! This is Claptrap from Fyrestone and after my badass-reconstruction machine exploded sky high. I found a little baby pup skag that breaths purple fire. Having near infinite memory of EVERY recording I ever had, I decided to feed the little guy but instead of eatting the ECHO he burned it to a smoldering crisp... Well more like incinerated it, there wasn't anything left after that." Claptrap sighed. The Skag howled at Claptrap. "I know you're hungry and those Rakk meats I feed you were a little raw." The Skag howled again. "You wanna say hi to whoever is listing to this. Okay!" Claptrap placed the ECHO on the floor and the little Skag took a curious sniff. "Go on little, Spike the little skaggy waggy, say hi" Claptrap said. Spike howled. "Good- hey wait don't burn it!" The ECHO ended. "That was... Weird..." Angel commented and stared at Roland who was in deep though. "If the Skag burned the ECHO then why do have a copy of it?" Roland wondered and looked closer at the ECHO, burn marks were on the edge of both of their ECHO recordings. They both decided to ask Headshot about it later. They both walked out the hospital and were greeted with cheers and claps, or was it clops? from the ponies. The ponies made way for the two warriors and lead them to the town square, which was still under repair. Brick was on a small podium with a heartfelt smile plastered on his face. "And I happily welcome the two heroes that have saved the town! ROLAND AND ANGEL!" Brick yelled into the microphone and everypony in the crowd cheered. Roland noted that it sounded more like a wrestling entrance than a hero's entrance. Roland hated publicity even though he had several dozen propaganda posters in Santuary, thanks to Lilith and Mordecia placing it everywhere they went. Roland sighed. He missed those two idiots. Roland and Angel climbed up the stairs and looked onto the crowd of ponies, all waiting for Roland to say something. "Hello. My name is Roland and this is my...friend Angel." Roland motioned towards Angel who waved at the crowd. "We are trying to find a way back to our home, Pandora, we can't delve into the details but we were at war and I need to be with my troops..." Roland sighed. "And I know that will take longer than I thought because I see that this planet needs more help than Pandora and I know my best soldiers could take over for me while I'm gone." Roland looked over to Brick and nodded. "We'll be staying here for a while." Those words made the crowd cheer and holler. Something foul went through the air. A dark monstrous form appeared over the startled crowd, some bowed, some ran away, others fainted, but Roland and Angel knew what that thing was. Anarchy... Anarchy smiled at the two would-be heroes. Roland took out his rifle and aimed it at the monster. "Relax," Anarchy said and pinned Roland to the ground with his magic. "I only want to talk to those who ruined my fun or should I say made all the much better." Angel flared up and used her Phase Shift only for it to be block and returned to her. Her head swam in thoughts and head-aches while she tried to recover, only to be picked up by the neck and held twenty feet above the ground. "You're an odd bird aren't cha? Mystical powers that, if matured could destroy the minds of everything in its wake. I could have some fun with you." Angel choked as Anarchy's claw was tightening his grip. Anarchy levitated Roland to meet him face to face. "And you soldier-boy, I think you left this back in the forest." Anarchy lifted his lion paw and shown Roland's broken scorpio turret, completely unrepeatable but not unsalvageable. "I'm an all-powerful being, soldier and I know what you're thinking. So how's about a little challenge, hmm? I'll put this in the most blood thirsty griffon clan in the area and you try and get it, sounds like a good idea?" Anarchy pinched Roland's cheek and made him nod. "Good." With that Anarchy disappeared in a puff of smoke. Roland was falling fast towards the ground but some of the ponies were fast enough to bring out a mattress to cusion the fall. But... The mattress turned into venomous snakes. Angel was too weak to use her siren powers to fly. She began to go into unconsiousness. In one last desperate attempt, he threw his last stick of dynamite at the snakes and grabbed Angel and held on tight. The explosion broke their shields as they got rocketed off to the side and crash into a small bakery. "Roland! Roland!" Headshot's muffled voice called out. Angel was still safely by his side, he took most of the damage from the explosion to protect Angel. He saw that he was bleeding everywhere. He tried to think of something else to keep his mind away from the fact that he might die and not come back. My scorpio turret could replenish our ammo, maybe, if I could somehow fix that feature... Roland thought as he coughed up some blood, paramedics began to treat his wounds. We're going to need some fire power to fight those griffons if they go airborne... The medics began to use magic. Some explosives might work so we could break in. Above all the murmurs and the voices from the crowd one sentence stood above the rest. "She's not breathing..." Roland blacked out.