//------------------------------// // A Ninety Degree Slope // Story: Dawn of the Vanguard // by Mystic Song //------------------------------// Zachary sat in a creaky chair in the unnaturally cold lobby outside Dissimulare's higher console's courtroom and tried not to shiver. What went wrong? Well he knew what went wrong, but why did Dissimulare's higher console wanted to see him? Yes, he made contact with the ponies, if you could call it that, but did such things really need a one on one explanation? A few hours after he had left the destroyed clearing they had found him, for lack of a better phrase, licking his wounds in a large hollowed out tree. After a quick physical they had deemed him safe enough for travel. They didn't even wait until his blood had fully dried before giving him the court summons. So here he was. A walking mummy waiting in Paragon beside a ticked as ever Captain Timmins for a meeting with the leaders of Dissimulare, both military and civilian. Zachary tried not to groan as the clock struck nine. Well he couldn't really complain about being up late, with the concussion he had he wouldn't have been able to sleep anyways. However, he could complain about his hunger, he hadn't eaten since noon. "Captain, how much longer do you think this will take?" Zachary asked the silently seething Captain. "How the hell should I know that?" Timmins growled out, "Everything about this meeting is bullshit. You should be in medical not on trial." "I know," Zachary said adjusting the straps to his left arm's sling while trying to avoid jostling his neck brace, "these injuries would have already healed if I had stayed in medical." he sighed, "It can't be helped when a higher console gives us orders we have to follow." Timmins hissed harshly through his teeth, "What good is there in ordering a corpse around?" Zachary smirked, "You sound like Kim." He was saved from Captain Timmins' ire as the large oak doors to the courtroom creaked open. From within the courtroom a monotonous voice beckoned for them to enter. "Well, I guess the moment has arrived," Zachary's smile turned into a grimace as he knocked his bad leg while steadying himself with his cane, "Who knows maybe they want to personally congratulate me for not being captured." With Timmins bracing him when he stumbled, Zachary entered the imposing courtroom. Pinkie Pie shuffled deeper into her sleeping bag. When did it all go so wrong? Earlier that day she had woken up to destruction. The once green clearing was charred black and Twilight and Fluttershy had been yelling at each other. Both of their faces had been an angry red from the effort. Twilight said that the human was hateful and had no problems with killing them all. Fluttershy said that the human had wanted to be left alone and wouldn't have attacked otherwise. They were both so angry and hateful and sad. And Pinkie Pie didn't know what to do. For the first time in a long time she couldn't do anything cheer her friends up. The fight ended with their group splitting up. Fluttershy, Rarity, and herself in one group. Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow Dash in the other. They even went so far as to divide the clearing into two different camps. Pinkie Pie muffled her sobbing with her pillow. Hopefully they would only think that she was having a nightmare and leave her alone. It wouldn't have been too far off of the mark, this was a nightmare. Everything felt dark and scary and sad, and it just wouldn't end. Couldn't Twilight see that overpowering the human just didn't work, especially if they all could do that blowy uppy thing? Couldn't Fluttershy see that Twilight wants help Equestria the only way she knew how? Pinkie Pie shifted to cover her ears as her friends nightmares started, and they were crying and screaming and begging. Tears rolled down her face. Couldn't everypony see that this separation was only going to make everything worse? She wished that Twilight had never found the book, that they never had found that old cavern with old information, and that they had never found the griffin that brought them to the Forsaken Islands. Discovering new things should make things better, so why was everything worse? Pinkie Pie clenched her eyes shut. All she could do was help Fluttershy find the human first, then they could convince it to go to another island. Faraway from ponies that wanted to re-discover him and every human that he knew. On that thought she went into a restless sleep filled with fears that for once she couldn't laugh away. "What." Zachary's question hung limp in the silent courtroom. Commander Atwood looked down at Zachary from the podium, and with the same finality that she used before replied, "We need you to sacrifice yourself for the greater good of Standing Refuge. The ponies now know that we're here, they won't leave until they have something to bring back." Atwood's cool gaze never left Zachary's shocked face, "It's is your mission to be that something." Numbness washed over Zachary as he tried to process his last orders, he gripped his walking cane as his busted knee began to shake roughly under his weight. "Why?" His voice barely escaped his bruised lips. Atwood leafed through the report that was hastily given to her, "Your standing orders were to, and I quote, 'Observe and record the enemy, do not engage no matter what', yet you still made contact with them." "Specialist Zachary was not at fault." Timmins sharply interrupted, his eyes blazing, "He was forcefully exposed due to an unprovoked attacked from Specialist Mitch. If I may ask, why isn't he here?" Without looking away from Zachary, Commander Atwood replied, "Specialist Mitch's role in this is currently being evaluated and is not the subject of this discussion. As for the attack being unprovoked, Zachary did you not suggest that Specialist Mitch had 'too much of the Berserker breed in him', knowing how he would react?" Zachary nodded stiffly to the question, "That fact of the matter is that Zachary's actions caused the ponies to see a human for the first time since the rising of the Three. The very same Three that pointed our ancestors to Standing Refuge however many years ago." Atwood slowly closed the large report and slightly deflated, "I do not wish for this to be your punishment Zachary. I am not so heartless as to wish such a fate on any soldier under our command. However, this is bigger then both of us. Those ponies came to these islands knowing what they wanted, and came this close to getting it. They won't leave now that you've been dangled in front of them, the only way to keep the collective peace of these islands is to fulfill their search." She watched as Zachary's wide flawed crystal blues marched through thousands of emotions, "A sacrifice from the few for the good of the many." "And what a few that is." Timmins spat stepping pass Zachary, "How many of us are you willing to throw away to ensure your safety? What is the point of having a Military if we try to appease our enemies at the first sign of conflict?" "Captain stand down." Atwood ordered. "On whose orders? The nobles who should be behind that podium and in our ranks?" Timmins snarled, "Are we supposed to sacrifice ourselves so that their pampered asses can waltz back to their stations and live in peace?" Atwood slammed her hands down cracking the podium's wood causing the courtroom to swell with murmurs, "Timmins I ordered you to stand down!" Timmins glare darkened, "I ask again, on whose orders." The courtroom's cold air thickened with tension as Atwood and Timmins continued to size each other up. The room buzzed louder as the Commanders, Captains and leaders of the civilian console tensed as the fight mounted. "Timmins. I will only order you one more time. Stand down." Atwood's eyes took on a slight blue glow. Timmins glare hardened to something treacherous as the temperature in the room dropped drastically. "I'll go." The tension in the courtroom was sliced in half as Zachary's unsteady voice intervened. Timmins snapped out of the trance that fell over the room, "Zachary, this mission is..." "I know." Zachary roughly cut Timmins off, "You don't have to tell me, anyone that is captured is never seen again. Anyone that has an education worth a damn knows that." He shuttered, why did the textbooks have so detailed, "I also know that the longer that ponies are here the greater the danger the people of Standing Refuge are in. Standing Refuge is the only place that we have. My friends and my...my family live here. If my sacrifice will save their lives, I will gladly go." Atwood picked apart Zachary's now empty face and nodded. "Then it is decided. You have two days to get your affairs in order after which you will brought to Dissimulare's Lobby. There your memory of Standing Refuge will be altered, the location of the Seven great Cities and all smaller settlements will be erased. In there place will be 'memories' of the use of communication magic and survival skills of which the first settlers have used." Atwood's paused, "It has come to our attention that the ponies believe us to be, for lack of a better term, ignorant. Let them continue to believe that." "Understood." Numb, Zachary's body no longer shook as cold apprehension sunk well into his core. "Then you have your dismissal. Your sacrifice will be known to the public after your departure." Atwood finished. Stiffly Zachary saluted, good arm making an uncompleted cross over his neck. To serve humanity until your last breath. Zachary quietly walked out of the courtroom. He needed to be healed if he wanted to finish his last mission. Luna was the very picture of a serene regal. No hint of tiredness broke her form. Even though she had been holding both the night and day court for nearly a month now. Whenever a subject asked her were Celestia was she replied with the same calm answer. 'Celestia is ill with a rare alicorn sickness. It is not fatal and soon she will be well.' Her ponies would stand stronger with confidence before asking for her assistance. They would smile and ask. She would smile and answer. And they would both pretend that everything was just fine. Everything was fine even though she alone had to raise both the sun and moon. Everything was fine even though the questions from the nations surrounding Equestria became exceedingly intrusive. Everything was fine even though her ponies were making Militia's to protect themselves from an unknown threat. Everything was just fine even as rumours of monsters called humans that lived passed the Griffin Lands became more and more outlandish. Everything was fine. Even as her sister fell deeper into madness. "Luna," the feverish princess of the sun had said, "I know how we can protect our ponies." "Protect them from what?" Luna had answered, her worry increasing as Celestia turned unnerving glassy pink eyes towards her. "The humans. Nasty creatures they are, Daddy says that they are particularly hard to destroy." Celestia’s face had scrunched up as if she had remembered something particularly repulsive, "But I know how to kill them. They live near the Griffin Lands, right? Twilight never did tell me where exactly. To be sure I should burn the Griffin Lands. I should do it. I control the sun, and the griffin's are traitors. How dare they keep from us what is ours." "Celestia!" She had shouted eyes widened in shock and barely contained revulsion, "how can'st thou utter such things? Will thou murder thousands of griffins in cold blood on but a whim?" Celestia’s eyes had snapped out of their trance, and shakily she moved alabaster hooves to cover her own mouth. Disgusted at the vileness of the poison that had came from within her. "Oh Luna, I didn’t...I couldn't," Tears leaked from already reddened pink eyes, "Please Luna. I would never do such things. You must believe me, you must..." Luna had held Celestia as she cried herself to sleep, and she continued to hold her sister well into the night. Even as murderous dreams escape her sister's mouth as she slept. Luna pushed despair away as she greeted another pony. Luna wished that she could ask for Candace's help, but the princess of love had her own problems to deal with. The crystal ponies were slight things that panic at the first sign of danger. Many of them had locked themselves away when the rumours of humans had reached the empire. Candace and Shining Armour were up to their necks trying to defrost the Crystal Empire's economy and bring confidence back into the inhabitants. All the princess of the night could do was wait for Twilight's return. Hopefully once Twilight and the Elements were done with their wild chase they could help her heal Celestia. But for now Luna had to push peace into the ponies of Equestria before things got more out of hoof. "Guard are there no more citizens that wish for my audience?" Luna asked. "No your highness, there is another. A stallion." The guard said. "Well let him in, our break is upon us." Luna replied. She needed to sleep. Rest did not come easy to her and there was so much to do in both the day and night. The throne room's doors opened once again and the stallion walked in. Luna's eyebrow raised while the day guards tensed. It has been many a year since an armed civilian had walked freely into her presence. The stallion bowed low before the throne and spoke, "My highness, I am your humble servant Golden Leaf. I come here to speak to you about your current issue." "Pray tell, what issue do you speak of?" Luna said watching the golden maned stallion carefully. He walked with a certain determination that worried her. "Your problem with the humans." Golden Leaf replied face still low to the ground. "As I have told many ponies before, there are no humans and there is no threat to Equestria." Luna said already filing away the pony as another over zealous self appointed militant. "Pardon me my princess, but we both know that is not true. Your sister has already sent the Princess of Magic and the Barers of Harmony against the threat. The coast cities have begun to prepare for an attack. Also, smart ponies are evacuating their families from what they deem danger zones." Gold Leaf's voice took on an almost arrogant air, "You cannot believe that the truth can stay hidden any longer." Luna's eyes narrowed, "Who art thou to speak onto us as such?" "I am but a humble messenger from a order that is many centuries old. We wish to help your highness's defeat and neutralize the threat to our lands. Our order has trained and waited for years for the war with the humans." If possible Golden Leaf bowed lower, "We are at your service if you will have us." Luna glare intensified, her eyes nothing but pools of angry white light, "We will not have thee! Equestria is a peaceful nation and wishes not to begin a war with any race, especially not a fictional one. We have heard enough, remove thyself from our presence." Golden Leaf slowly rose, "As you wish Luna, princess of the night and all that profit from it." Luna watched as the armed pony left the throne room, weapon making soft clinks as he moved. One of the day guards then addressed her, "My highness, are you truly going to let his insult go unchecked? To suggest that you condone the dark dealings of the night..." "Leave it, one cannot rise to the bait of every challenger. Let any pony that asks for me know that I am taking a break." Luna walked out of throne room wishing that Twilight's wild chase came up fruitless. Mechanically Zachary adjusted his rather old styled outfit, before shifting a old hide and draw string bag over his newly healed shoulder. The last two days were absolute hell. He had to calm both Kim and Alec down and keep them both from outright fighting their way down to Paragon. After which he got patched up by a uncomfortably morose medical team and was sent home to be with his family. Every metal surface in his house had buzzed with static when he informed his mother about his impending sacrifice. She had screamed. Then she had attacked him, weakly punching his chest, face a tearfully cracking mask of rage. Finally she collapsed sobbing, dragging him down with her causing him to cry with her. Emma ever the ease-dropper had joined them soon after. None of them had eaten that night or had wanted to sleep alone. They had spent the entire night wide awake next to each other on a blowup mattress in the living room. Zachary collected himself as he slip his sock-less feet into an older style of moccasins. He he'd told Lizzy, Thomas, Mayumi, and Nico about the mission the next day in the middle of a unseeded field in Fare. It was a good thing too, Thomas's flames didn't destroy anything important and there wasn't anything for Nico and Mayumi to fight other then each other. Elizabeth's reaction surprised him. She didn't start crying and he wasn't crushed by her overwhelming projecting emotions. She demanded that he stay put before flying away on near white feathered wings, later she came back with half of a library of books in her arms. "If you're going to hand yourself over to the ponies you need to know somethings." Elizabeth had said her voice a cool monotone cutting through their anger as she spoke, "They are going to erase your memory of Standing Refuge, not your memory of the time before that. It won't be much but this should help." They had sat in that field for hours tearing through Elizabeth's books looking for information that could be useful. A lot of their time was spent on historical fiction. "I's don't get it. Zachary fought an Alicorn, how did he get away if theys can do all this?" Nico had commented. "It's because the Alicorn is rather young, if what the griffin had told us was true," Elizabeth said, her eyes blasting through page after page of information, "If she was older and more experienced he wouldn't have escape, at least not on his own." She had then turned to him, "Zachary know this, those ponies are extremely inexperienced, they are going to take what they see as fact. If you look weak and act weak they will think you are weak, and would never question whether what they see before them is true or not. Be very careful of what your body language tells them." She had then blushed at their intense stares, "You guys know I hate it when you look at me like that, please stop." Zachary exhaled centering himself before leaving the small prep room. He looked and felt like he was thousands of years old. At least he knew what time period they were going for. Two thousand years after the first settlements showed up on Standing Refuge during the Great Mixing era. Which is why he was wearing moccasins, a traditional black Mandarin vest with blue piping, and white Baji. To put it lightly, he looked weird. The other clothes he had packed didn't stray from that time's thinking, the stranger the mix the better. He tried to ignore the looks he was getting, one could only take so much pity. Only the Three knew how tried he was of people he barely knew acting like their world was crumbling. Zachary walked to the base of the Great Stairs and steeled himself for his departure. Kim and Alec were back at the makeshift base that Aira had in the Fare. Their last words to him were as cruel and yet reassuring as he expected them to be. "If you go down bring as many of them as you can with you." Kim said with the same brashness that she always had. "Remember that there is no shame in a messy kill." Alec had said his words dripping with venom before shifting to their normal monotone, "Also, we will ensure that your family will be able to morn in peace." They would have came with him, he knew they would have, however they had been ordered to keep their distance. The Dividing Woods had been cleared out to keep anyone from performing any last minute heroics. It was a good thing too, half of the base had looked like they were ready to commit treason on the spot. Captain Blake stood solemnly at the base of the Great Stairs a mage wearing soft greens stood silently beside him. Zachary saluted. A stiff x over his throat to show his willingness to cross out his own life for Standing Refuge. Blake nodded solemnly at him before pointing at the expansive staircase, "I believe neither of us wants to rush this, shall we?" A heavy cloud of inevitability hovered over them as they ascended. He kept his eyes forward knowing that if his gaze were to drift he would lose his resolve and collapse. His jaw clenched tighter as a light breeze wafted the soft sent of peaches toward them, and he blinked threatening tears away. Their melancholic group exited the stars and walked into the empty marble lobby. "Well son this is it," Blake said his voice echoing in the deceitfully peaceful cavern, "I don't think I have to tell you that this is your last chance to back out?" "No sir." "Please, call me Blake," The captain said gesturing for the Mage to come closer. "I'm going to be brief. After the Mage is done the only things you will remember is your family, your closest friends, everything you may know about our history under Conquering Wind's rule, and how to navigate and live in Dividing Woods." Blake paused as the Mage's hands began to glow, "Once the spell is casted I need you to run out of here and deep into the woods. Don't change course, don't look back, just run. Understand?" "Yes si-Blake." Zachary said catching himself as the Mage's hands encompassed his vision with a dull grey light. Blake watched silently as the Mage's magic pulsed and hummed as Zachary's mind was altered, "Son, Zachary, if their was any other way to get rid of the ponies without exposing ourselves or bringing suspicion to Standing Refuge..." "I know." Zachary said voice layered with dead acceptance as the glow around his head died down into nothing. He blinked away the lingering grey spots in his eyes, and without another word he ran. The lobby around him burred and fizzled out has he picked up speed. From the corners of his eyes he saw the world around him grow darker and darker until he was running in shadowy void. The oppressive chill of the world stuck it's thin claws into deep his skin, freezing it and bringing him gilded pain. But he continued to run. He had to run Captain Blake ordered him to. The darkness around violently broke open and he was propelled into the morning sun. The warmth of the sun chased away the invisible fingers of ice from his skin and the wrongness of that place. What place? His face scrunched in confusion. He didn't know. But the place was cold and painful he didn't want to be there. Besides, a friend asked him to run. Zachary ran through pass the warmth that came from the clearing and into the coolness of the woods. He liked this coolness it wasn't like...somewhere that was unpleasant for whatever the reason. He continued to run. He had to because, because... Zachary slowed to a stop. Why was he running? He racked his brain. There had to be a reason why he was running. He wouldn't have been running is there wasn't a reason. Confused Zachary sat down being mindful of the pink deaths that littered the ground. Why was he here anyways? Shouldn't he be journeying farther inland, after the wildbeasts? He should go, chicken-snake got boring after awhile, and soon the rains will come. Chomp-ants will leave the ground to follow the ground worms after it rains, and that was never good. He got up and dusted off his pants. Maybe after he got back he will find Mayumi and trade for warm clothes. Then he could take Emma to see the snow on Ever Frozen. They always had to leave to Ever Warm before the snow came. But first he should eat something, he couldn't make the journey back to the migration spot on an empty stomach. He opened his Manticore hide bag, a good trade, he should talk to Nico and get one for his mom. It would make a good gift for birth week. Zachary pawed around the inside of the bag and froze when his hand came into contact with something thin. He slowly pulled his hand out and marveled at the thin parchment in his grasp. 'Paper? How did I get paper?' He open the neatly folded letter, and started to read...since when could he read? Dear Zachary, Your password is: Nuclear Fission. ~Alexandria 'The Mage' Campo PS. Eat this note once you have been activated. Annoyed, Zachary scrunched the note up and began to eat it as his mind returned. This is why he hated mind bending spells and enchantments. They always screw up the person on the receiving end. He was this close to killing then skinning a chicken-snake to trade... Chicken-Snake. He stopped moving. "Chicken-snake." Zachary said slowly trying to find another more appropriate word for the creature and coming up with nothing. Huh, the spell also kept him from saying the modern version of some words. Overkill, but effective. The spell was probably the reason why he wasn't freaking out right now. He stood up and looked tried to place his surroundings, and found that he was totally unfamiliar with a forest he had basically lived in during his youth. "Okay I have no idea where Dissimulare is, whatever that is," Zachary said scratching his head, marveling how that fact didn't cause him to break down right there. To lose your people is to die, a saying that every human knew in some form, "but I do know where the are ponies camped. I should set up camp away from them and slowly integrate myself. Just running at them screaming 'take me' is too suspicious." Zachary slung his pack over his shoulder as he altered his path and walked deeper in the forest, "They would expect me to approach them from the direction I fled-retreated to," he said catching himself, "if this is going to work I have to set up camp a little ways pass that direction." Zachary took a path that he somehow knew would take him around the pony's camp, ignoring the painful swelling in his chest that told him that he lost something important. Commander Atwood glanced away from her papers and down to the two disgruntled recently promoted specialists in front of her. "Do you know why I called you here?" She asked. "Don't know," the red hair soldier's cold grey eyes hardened, "do ya want to zombiefy us and send us to our deaths so ya don't have to get your pretty little hands dirty?" Atwood gaze hardened, "Specialist Kimberly, do I need to remind you the price of insubordination?" Kim's only response was a heavy snort. Unsatisfied but willing to compromise Atwood turned her gaze to the brown haired, orange eyed soldier beside Kim, "Specialist Alexander do you have any thing to contribute to this?" "What can I contribute? Zachary has left, and the entrance to Dissimulare has been sealed." Alec stoically answered, "Unless you have perfected time travel, this conversation and in extension this meeting is pointless." "From your point of view this meeting would seem pointless. However, it is not," Atwood said ignoring Alec's venom, "I was testing you. Of the squads that i've spoken with only five have answered in the negative about Specialist Zachary's fate, you are apart of that five." Alec sent a quick glance at Kim and spoke, "I fail to understand the purpose of the test. Isn't answering in the negative a bad thing?" "Normally, yes it would be. However we need soldiers that can make decisions for themselves, a soldier that cannot think or act without being carefully lead would be useless for this mission." Atwood paused and breathed evenly out, "Specialist Kimberly and Specialist Alexander we need you to infiltrate Equestria and unearth any information that would be beneficial for our invasion force, should we come to that." Atwood keep her face still as both Alec and Kim did their best impression of a beached fish. Alec eloquently recovered with, "But... what?" "We need you to infiltrate Equestria..." Kim cut her off, "We understand that, but what the hell! I thought Zachary was supposed to be some sort of martyr or something? How the hell is that suppose to happen if we go with him?" "We're not," Alec said his brows furrowed as he mentally went through the information provided to them, "Zachary went alone to give the ponies what they wanted, to keep them occupied, without sacrificing too much." Alec blinked in realization, "He's a distraction." Pleased Atwood nodded at Alec's deduction, "Quite. The ponies both here and in Equestia will be too distracted with Zachary to notice that they have been infiltrated." "His flight to cover our own." Kim muttered before blinking rapidly, "You said something about an invasion force?" Atwood sighed, "Many people are, hesitant, about starting a war with Equestria. Our Ancestors have gifted to us a great thing. Over their dead bodies and unmarked graves they gave us peace, something that humanity has wanted for so many, many years. If we are to throw away this gift we better be damned sure that we need to." "And if we have to?" Alec asked, orange eyes shimmering with something absolutely savage. Atwood silently closed the files on her desk, "I believe you two have some, aggression, that you need to work out?" She said he voice barely moving pass dull apathy. Two wide malicious grins broke out on the soldiers in front of her, "So I take it that you are agreeing to this mission?" The two specialists saluted almost gleefully. "We accept." They spoke in sync, voices coming out as a bloodthirsty echo for revenge.