//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Upon that day... // by TLSpark //------------------------------// KRAKOOOOOOOOOOOOM "WHAT IN THE HAY?!" Applejack fell out of her chair and looked around the house. Winona was barking at the door and was pawing it, trying to get out. The lone pony had been sitting in the kitchen for ten minutes, waiting for the lightning outside to stop. The explosion outside just now wasn't lightning though. "Stay here Winona." She told the dog as she got back up and went to the door. Before she left though, she grabbed a lantern and woke up the fireflies inside it. As soon as they were awake and full of light, she left the house to examine the damage. There didn't appear to be any immediate damage. Applejack went around the house, but spotted nothing wrong. That's weird, she thought, I coulda sworn that noise was near the- CRACK Applejack jumped and turned her head towards the barn. She stood there for a moment, listening for another sound, but nothing happened. She turned away and started towards the- CRACK "Is somepony there?" Applejack hollered, turning towards the barn again. CRACK The young mare narrowed her eyes and crept towards the barn house. Every couple of steps she took, there was another cracking noise. She didn't know who or what was in there, but she was going to find out. She wrenched open the door and stopped. Inside the barn, at the far back, was a tall, lengthy, creature. The creature wasn't looking at her; in fact, it didn't even react to her presence. Instead, it was holding one of shovels that were kept in there. It appeared to be injured as there was blood dripping down its side. Applejack took one step backwards, and it smashed its face open with the shovel. *** Pain. So much pain. Whatever I was hit with, it had shot me through a wall and had broken my life support system. I couldn't breathe. I tried to get my visor off, but the blast had locked it into place. The very thing that protected me was about to become my tomb. I scrambled about in the pitch dark, looking for something, anything, to help me. My hand soon knocked something over. I picked it up and, to my surprise, found it was a shovel. Not bothering to think about why there was a shovel in an old building, I stood up again and did the first thing that came to mind. I smashed it into my face. The visor cracked, but it wasn't enough, so I hit it again, and again. I kept on hitting it until the visor splintered apart completely, leaving nothing over my face. Pieces of it fell to the ground, and so did I. I gasped for the air, taking in its intoxicating fumes into my fragile lunges. Except it wasn't dirty. In fact, it was...clean. This realization just made me breath it in all the more. I coughed a couple of times, my body not used to such fresh air. Soon, I collapsed against a wall. By the sound it made, I must be in some wooden structure, which didn't make sense, seeing as I was in a city. Or was I? I looked around and let my eyes adjust to the darkness. After a time, I found that I was in some sort of big open house. There were a few wooden stalls around the place, and a pile of hay against the back wall that I was leaning against. The ground wasn't the familiar concrete of a city. It was the actual, honest to god, ground. I wasn't in the city anymore. I wondered where I was, and more importantly, how I got there, when the pain came back again. "AAAARRGH," I yelled, grabbing my right side. It felt like it was on fire. My moments rest from nearly choking to death was now replaced with a new pain. My side felt raw, and something moist trickled through the suit's glove. I looked down at it and immediately regretted it. There was blood on my glove. The suit was supposed to stop the bleeding from any wound, but not something this big. Most of the side of my body was gone. What should have been there, wasn't. I looked at it more closely and saw that the wound spanned from just below my rib cage to the top of my leg. It was about two inches deep. I groaned in pain again and tried to grab it, but it stung like fire every time I tried. I knew it wouldn't be long till I died... *** The creature had fallen to its knees and gasped. It breathed rather heavily, but it soon died down, and it slumped against a wall, still panting. Applejack didn't know what had happened to it, or how it had gotten in the barn, or even what it was, but it was still injured. It soon realized this too, for soon it yelled in pain and grabbed its bleeding side. She watched it examine the damage for a bit, then turned around and ran toward the house. I can't go to town yet to get a doctor, but I can at least help it stop the bleeding. Whatever 'it' is… Within moments she was inside the kitchen, filling up a clean bucket with water from the tap. When it was halfway full, she turned off the tap, threw a towel in it and tossed another towel, this one dry, around her neck. She picked up the bucket in her teeth, got Winona to calm down, and bolted out the door again. She came into the barn and saw that the creature was still there. She crept up to it and set down the bucket. "Hang on now, I'm gonna- WHOA!" *** I'm dying, in an unknown place, with clean air, and a pile of hay next to me. The sword I had obtained is gone, my gun is also no good, partly because it was out of ammo and partly because I had thrown it away. Also, I'm dying. At that moment though, someone had come up to me with a large...thing...and had come straight for my injured side. I didn't know what the large thing was, but I wasn't planning on finding out, so, ignoring the immense pain I was in, I lashed out at it with the only weapon I had, which was the shovel. "Hang on now, I'm gonna- WHOA!" It said, just as I struck for its head, but it dodged and the shovel struck the wall instead. "Get away!" I yelled, swinging the shovel again. My side screamed in agony at the sudden movement though, so I ended up dropping the shovel. It skidded away, right out of my reach. "What the hay was that for?!" Yelled the person. It sounded like a girl, but I didn't care. "Who are you?!" I yelled, "Are you a friend or a foe?!" "I don't know what your problem is, but I'm trying to help you!" "Is that…so…eurgh…” I was starting to get dizzy from the blood loss, making my earlier panic subside. I finally managed to calm down long enough to get a good look at my antagonist, only to find that she didn’t even look human. If I didn't know better, I could swear that she looked more like a...horse? No, too small. Besides, horses are extinct. Maybe she's... "A pony," I finally managed to say. "Yeah, I'm a pony, and you're injured. Now hold still and don't attack me." I didn't know what made me listen to her, but I did. She came back up to me and got me to hold up my right arm. She took out a wet towel of some sort from the big thing she had brought, a bucket now that I got a good look at it, and wrung out some liquid back into it. "What are yo-GAH!" She placed the rag on my side and it stung like hellfire mixed with acid. It was also very cold. "I said hold still! I got to clean out your wound." I stopped moving and let her continue. After a while though, she muttered something about needing more light, so she told me she'd be right back and ran off. I looked after her and thought, Where the hell am I? *** Where'd I put that lantern? wondered Applejack as she ran back to the house. She couldn't see that much in the growing darkness, so she needed the light to help the creature in the barn. It had been bleeding quite a lot, but its skin had somehow slowed it down. All the same though, it was still bleeding. She needed that lantern! *** I didn't know how long the talking pony was gone, but I didn't want to take any chances in case I was hallucinating, which was very likely at this point. I had grabbed the bucket and was currently using the towel that was in it to clean my gaping wound, quickly turning it and the water red. My side was now bleeding a lot less now that my armor's back up life support system had started. It was currently attempting to stop the bleeding by pulling itself together and by injecting my side with a chemical drug that slows down, but doesn't stop, the bleeding. It doesn't stop it because if it did, then it might accidentally stop my heart by preventing the flow of blood. It helped, but I still wished it would stop. Light appeared at the entrance, so I looked up and saw that the pony had come back with a small lantern in her mouth. I sighed, realizing she really was real, and looked at her again. Her coat was orange, and she had a yellow mane, which was tied back in an honest to god pony tail...maybe I was hallucinating. She set down the lantern and saw that I had already cleaned most of the wound. She sighed with relief and smiled at me. "Good," She said, "I was thinking you didn't have a brain in there, seeing as you were hitting your face with a shovel, and tried to do the same to me!" I frowned and tried to explain that I couldn't breathe because of the visor, but she just waved that idea away and got me to remove the now red towel. In the light of the lantern, which seemed to be powered by fireflies of all things, she could now clearly see the wound, which had started to bleed more profusely. Seeing that made me realize that my suit had run out of the drug, which was bad. I needed to close the wound, fast, otherwise I'll lose too much blood and I'll...I looked away, not wanting to think of the inevitable end. The pony, who was still inspecting my injury, frowned and brought the lantern a bit closer. The light lit up her face at the same time. I gasped. She looked up at me, into my eyes, and the name slipped from my lips. "Ringer..." *** "And what is that supposed to mean?" Asked Applejack. The creature's face turned red and it looked away, apparently embarrassed at what he just said. Applejack shook her head and looked back at the wound. In the light, she could clearly see that it was hopeless. The wound was too big. More blood spilled out of it, so she put the dry towel on it to stop the bleeding. Soon though, she couldn't take much more, so she told the creature to hold the towel there, and she took off. Just outside, she bent over an empty barrel and retched into it. The light was necessary, but it had enhanced the features of the wound too greatly for her to handle. She may know how to fix up a broken leg or clean up a small cut, but this was too much. When she felt her insides go empty, she sat down and held herself. What am I supposed to do... she thought, I can't stop a wound like that! I need a doctor or somethin... She shook her head from that idea straight away. The hospital was twenty minutes away, fifteen if she hurried, but that still left the return trip, and who knows how long it would take to convince the doctors to even come! They wouldn't even believe her anyway. This was one of those times where Applejack wished the library was open again so she could look up what to do. It had been closed for so long, that most ponies didn't even know it existed. Applejack shook her head and looked back at the barn. I can't save him... but what do I tell him? *** Why'd I say that? I thought as I held the towel on my wound. It was getting worse. If it wasn't for that pony creature, I might already be dead. More pain pulsed through my body, making me cringe at the sudden throbbing. None of the cuts and scrapes I've had in my life could be compared to this agony I'm feeling now. I was in so much pain that I could barely think, but I had to stay awake. If I let the darkness take me, then my war against it would end, with me the loser. I couldn't let that happen, not after I just saw my only friend left in this world. I didn't want to believe that it was him who sent me here. I just couldn't. The way he looked at me before that explosion...it wasn't the face of a man seeking revenge. "Reddy...Ringer," I said out loud, "forgive me..." "I take it they're friends oh yours?" I looked up and saw the pony again. This time she had a couple of bandages with her and another bucket of what I assumed was more water. "...yes," I drawled. She nodded and came up to me again. She gently pulled me forward and wound the long bandages around my body, making sure to keep the towel wrapped up with them. Once she managed to keep the towel in place, she tried to tighten it up, but she couldn't get a grip on the knot with her teeth. I mustered enough strength to help her tighten it, securing the towel in place. Unfortunately, it was nearly soaked through with blood already. I tried to say thanks, but ended up groaning instead. The pony brought over the second bucket and splashed ice cold water on my face. The sudden shock of having water on my exposed face made me open my eyes and shake my head. Only to have a hoof hit my forehead. "OW!" I yelled, grabbing my head. The pony stood back and glared at me. "Don't move so much or you'll make your wound worse." She lectured. I narrowed my eyes at her. "Look here pony!" I spat, "I don't know where the hell I am or even how I got here, but I don't like being hit in the head like that!" "Well excuse me for tryin to save your life!" She shot back. In the light of the firefly lantern, I saw the green in her eyes again. Just like hers... I relaxed and leaned back against the wall again, my body protesting at all the sudden movements from earlier. "You have green eyes," I commented. The pony stumbled back at the sudden change of topic. "So what if I do?" She asked me. "A good friend of mine had green eyes," I told her. I didn't know why I was telling her this, but something about her just made me want to...open up. That, or I couldn’t think straight from blood loss. "Pony...could you hand me that bucket? I'm thirsty," "Uh...sure thing…" She bit onto the bucket's handle and walked it closer to me. "Oh and my name's not 'pony'. It's Applejack," I nodded my head as I took the bucket. I noticed it was filled with ice, which explained why it was so cold, so I took a mostly melted cube and popped it into my mouth. The ice hurt my teeth, but it still relieved my thirst. "One Shot," I mumbled around the slowly melting cube. "Huh?" Applejack asked. I swallowed the rest of the cube before saying, "It's my name, or my codename anyway," "A codename? Like the names that some of ponies in the guard have?" "I don't know what you're talking about, but sure," "Sounds like a drinking name," She told me with a smirk. "It's a name for killing," I stated. Her eyes widened at that. "K-killing! What in the hay do you mean by that?!" "I'm a soldier. It's what I do," I told her. I picked out another ice cube and started to chew on it. "You're a soldier? You don't look like one with that shiny black skin." She pointed her hoof at my body. I looked down and saw the black glow of my armor in the light. "It's not skin," I explained, "It's armor," "Armor doesn't move like that," She commented. "It can stop a bullet before it can puncture the skin. It's armor," "Well I don't know how to tell yuh this, but armor also doesn't break apart like that..." I looked down at the bloody towel and some of the exposed skin. I hated to admit it, but she was right. Armor shouldn't do that. "HA!" I proclaimed, making the pony called Applejack jump a little, "I guess you're right!" I set down the bucket and tried to sit up, but fell back when the pain hit. I groaned and almost fell down, but Applejack caught me before I could. She sat me back up and went to sit by the lantern. "What's..." She started to say, but stopped and looked away. "What's what?" I asked her. "What's a bullet?" She finally asked, still looking away from me. Now my eyes opened up. "You're serious," "I've never heard of it," She said defiantly. She doesn't know... I shook my head, incredulous that no one's heard of a bullet before. "It's a sharp piece of metal that you shoot from a gun," "OK...” She said, “What's a gun? Is it, like, a fancy sword or somethin?" I stared at her with a blank look. "Sure...I guess..." She apparently didn't like this explanation very much since she still refused to look at me. I sighed and told her that it was like a miniature cannon that shoots the bullets. "What...what does the bullet do?" She slowly asked in a retreating voice. I could tell she had an answer for that already, but I told her anyway. "It can kill another...living being..." "It 'can'?" She asked finally looking me in the eye. I stared at her stunning green eyes for a moment before looking away myself. "Sometimes a bullet...it can..." I didn't know how to explain it to this pony. I stared at my left arm for a second before carefully detaching the skin tight seal by pressing the hidden button beneath my glove. "Here..." I said while I pulled up my now loose sleeve, "Let me show you..." Applejack gasped before I had completely revealed my arm. I stared at it and nearly shuddered myself. There was a pretty large scar covering it. There were also large pockmarks and grooves moving in and out of my skin, almost as if some beast had ripped away at it for its evening meal. I looked over at Applejack and saw that she had put her forehooves to her mouth, blatant shock in her eyes. "Most of my arm isn't real," I told her, "Parts of it have been replaced by artificial skin and bones. I got the doctors to let me keep the scars though. My legs are are like this too," I pulled the sleeve back over and reactivated it, making it tighten against my damaged skin once more. "I got it from a collapsing roof of a building, my legs too. I might not be talking to you now because of it, but I am," I stared at my throbbing wound, "A lot of good it did me though, seeing as I'm injured again. It's what you get for fighting a war..." "War?" Asked Applejack. "Yes." I looked away and closed my eyes. We sat there for a while, neither of us saying a thing. I grew sluggish in the silence, so I popped another ice cube into my mouth to keep me awake. "There hasn't been a war in centuries though..." Applejack said in a quiet voice. "I don't know what era you're living in kid," I said, "but there's a war going on right now. In fact, I must be hallucinating or something, cause where I come from, ponies don't talk." Actually, I thought, their extinct, which only makes this all the more improbable. "If you're hallucinatin,” she said in a rising voice, “then I am too. Creatures like you don't exist here, I think..." "Impossible. We can't both be hallucinating. That would imply that we're both not real." "Or that we both are real and we both think this isn't really happening." The pony was looking a little angry now. "Which it isn't." "But it has to since I know I'm not imaginin the blood on my hooves!" She started to yell at me before she even finished. I looked at her as she stood up, letting the light reveal the blood, my blood, clearly stained on her forehooves. There was a panicked look in her eyes that said she couldn't stand this. That she wasn't used to seeing death. I lowered my voice before asking, "You said there hasn't been a war in centuries?" Applejack just glared at me, refusing to sit back down. I stared right back into her eyes. Soon, she relaxed and slowly lowered herself to the ground, the fire dying in her pupils. She looked right at the ground before saying, "Yeah...so?" "Good..." I told her, "Good..." Applejack looked back up with a confused look. "War is a terrible thing little pony. If you don't know it, keep it that way," I closed my eyes and let the memories cover my mind. Pictures of allies and enemies alike, charging into battle. Loud explosions covering a landscape. Chemicals of unknown origin melting flesh and boiling blood. Pictures of my friends, battered and bruised, fighting to stay alive. I finally opened my eyes again and stared at the pony. She stared back, not moving an inch from where she lay. "Keep it that way, no matter what," She slowly nodded her head, keeping her eyes level with mine the whole time. "How long..." She started to ask, but I beat her to the answer. "All my life." She looked up at me with those green eyes of hers, and I opened up, without needing any more provocation. "The war started before my time," I began, "But that didn't matter. Since the day I was born, I was thrust into a daycare that would take care of me, but would breed me for the battlefield," "That can't be right," stated Applejack, "You couldn't have been taken away from your mom and dad that early in your life," "And yet I was," I got into a better position to talk after this, seeing as I had slid down the wall a little since we started to talk. It hurt to move, but I ignored the pain and moved anyway. I continued when I was firmly against the wall once more. "As is normal for all soldiers, from where I come from anyway, not one of us knows who our parents are. For that matter, we don't even know if we have any brothers or sisters. We could be fighting right next to them, and we wouldn't even know it. This may seem cruel to you, and it is, but it is necessary to-" "Necessary to not know who your own kin is? Your own flesh and blood? Why would that be necessary?!" "Because it is war," I calmly stated, "But just because I didn't know if I had any siblings, that doesn’t mean I had no friends," "You mean the ones you asked to forgive you earlier?" I looked at her face and saw that she was trembling a little. I was scaring her, yet I forged on. "Yes, actually. Out of all the soldiers I've met in my life, Ringer and Reddy were my closest friends. They stood up for me since the day we met as kids. Since that day, we worked together and fought together. In a way, they were the closest thing I could get to having an actual family. Reddy was always gruff and a tad violent, but he was kind underneath his hard shell of a personality. Ringer, though I always thought of her as a sister who always looked out for her unruly brothers, became more than that..." I turned away and imagined her face. Short, blond hair with freckles and eyes that could melt your heart. "She was the most talented person I knew. Her expertise at every mechanical behemoth we faced was unimaginable. And her eyes would always..." I stopped speaking for a moment, thinking of her once again. "Always what?" Applejack almost whispered. I turned towards her and saw her leaning towards me, staring at me with the same face that I had imagined just moments before. Except for the longer hair, and species for that matter, she was the spitting image of Ringer. The realization nearly brought a tear to my eye. "You almost look exactly like her," I told Applejack before I could stop myself. She shot back from the light, obscuring her face in shadow. "Really?" She asked. "Yes..." "Did you like her?" "More than anything in the world," "...something...happened, didn't it..." "She died..." I said. I shook my head, not wanting to relive the memory again, but I continued anyway, "She died while escaping from an army of robots..." I thought about whether or not Applejack would understand what they were. "Er...a horde of mechanical beasts brought to life by our enemies," I said instead. She seemed to understand though, so I continued. "She and another friend of ours, not Reddy mind you, was escaping from them, but they got surrounded by the beasts. One of them...blew up, which somehow made the rest blow up with it, and they were caught up in the explosion..." Now I was crying again. Thinking of that day definitely wasn't a good idea. Here I was, spilling my heart out, both figuratively and literally, to an orange pony of all things, but...telling her still felt...good. "I'm so sorry..." Said Applejack. "It's not your fault, but I still wonder...why? Why did they just...go like that?" "Well...didn't you say your...friend...was pretty good with machines? Maybe she made them explode," "I thought of that, but it doesn't make sense. I mean, why would she do that?" "Was your friend Reddy there?" "He was. Why?" "Then that's your answer," I narrowed my tear stained eyes, "How?" "She probably blew up those beasts to keep them from hurting you two," "She did? No, she couldn't have...but she might of..." Applejack leaned forward again and smiled in the light. For the second time that night, I realized she was right. Thinking it over, I found that Ringer would have done that. I loved her, and she loved me and Reddy. Enough to sacrifice her life for us. Knowing this, it felt like an immense weight had been lifted from my chest. I didn't even know it was there, until it was gone. "Thank you," I told the orange pony. "What for?" "For releasing me from my ache..." I started to feel all drowsy again, but it felt better than the darkness from before. I wanted to let it come then, but I couldn't let it at this point. Applejack didn't want that either. "Whoa there! Don't you go out on me. You still have a chance on surviving this!" I thought for a bit, and then asked, "Then where are the medics? Where's the doctor with the med kit? Shouldn't they be here by now or something?" Applejack turned away from the light and sat back. "Just hold on there. I...sent for them a while back. They're on their-" "Don't lie to me," I interrupted, "Not now." Even in the shadows, I could still see the look of surprise etched on her face. "How long did you-" "Know?" I finished for her. Applejack lost the surprised look and stared at the ground. "Since you didn't immediately take off from here the moment my bandages were secured. Also, you're the only one helping me out, so I suspected that you're alone and have no one else to turn to. You even could have gone and gotten help yourself, but instead you stayed here and kept me company in my final hours. I know I'm a dead man," "If you knew that, then why are you talking to me?" "I still don't think this is real, but being here with you is...nice, for a change," I looked up at the building's roof and closed my eyes once more, but instead of seeing the dark pictures of war, I saw my friends with open smiles on their faces. "I've known the sound of war since the day I was born. The loudness of it. The abrupt shocks from it. Even having it pounded in my ears day after day. Being here, where that sound seems to be nonexistent, is nice. I want to just sit here and listen to it," And I did. I listened to the sound of the wind blowing through the building, the sound of a quiet chirping in the distance, I even heard the fireflys in the lantern bounce about in their tiny container. Yes, this wasn't the sound of war. It was the sound of peace. "That is a right pretty noise on the wind," Applejack said after a while. I opened my eyes and noticed that the darkness was growing dim. It seemed that the moon was shining on the building at last. I saw that the pony had a content smile on her face. "How'd you get here anyway?" She asked me when she saw me looking at her. "I'm...not sure actually," "In that case, try to think of the last thing you saw before coming here," She advised. I thought about this for a bit, thinking of the events that led to my getting there. I thought of Reddy and how he had almost killed me. I thought of how he seemed to recognize me at the last moment. I thought about that loud explosion that somehow sent me here. What was it? I don't know, and I don't really care. Reddy probably thinks I'm dead, and I'm going to be soon, but at least he saw that old picture of us...the only picture of Ringer, Reddy and I that actually have all of us smiling at the same time. I remember it well. Upon that day, Ringer had made the three of us stand together for the photo, 'to prove that we were friends' she had said. We had gotten the photographer, stood straight for the camera and set our jaws to keep from showing our emotions. Just like the soldiers we were. Except Ringer had been standing between Reddy and I, and had grabbed our shoulders and pulled us together in a half embrace. The photographer accidentally took the photo, forever capturing the three of us together. Ringer in the middle, her arms wrapped around the two boys on either side of her with the biggest smile you ever saw on her. Reddy on the left, a look of shock and amazement plastered on his face, yet he still had a smile himself. And myself on the right, not really knowing what happened, but grinning all the same. Ringer had asked, and then forced, the photographer to give us each a copy of the picture. After we got the copies, Ringer then gave Reddy and I a present. It was a simple gift, but precious nonetheless. Her gift was a small green gem in the shape of a heart on a small chain, a necklace that she had found in an old store. There were three of them, all of them green. She gave each of us one and held on to the other. She never explained why she did this, but then again, she didn't need to. The necklace was and still is my most prized possession. I opened my hand, expecting to see it there in my hand, but it wasn't. It was gone. "The necklace..." "The wha- HEY! Wait a moment!" I tried to get up, but the moment I tried pain shot through my ravaged body, but something was...wrong. The pain somehow felt...distant. "You can't just get up all willy nilly like that!" Lectured Applejack. She had stood up again and was looking at me with a mix of anger and worry, "And what's this I hear about a necklace?" I groaned before I could answer. Applejack sighed and picked up the bucket of water and brang it over to me. I grabbed it and helped her bring the bucket to my parched throat. When I had my fill and we put down the bucket, I asked her if she had seen a necklace with a green heart on it. She told me that she didn't and that it was too dark to find it, even with the lantern. I groaned again and hung my head down. "That necklace," I told her, "was given to me by Ringer. It was the only thing she ever gave me that I still have, and now I've lost it..." Applejack looked a little shocked at this. She slowly raised her hoof to the hat on her head. I closed my eyes, not wanting to think anymore. The fact that the necklace, the one thing, aside from the picture, that I cared about the most was now gone made the light around me seem dark. I breathed in the clean air instead. I didn't want to think about the necklace anymore. I just sat there and took in the surrounding air and thought, I'm so sorry...Ringer please forgive me...