I woke up to the top of the green tent. I looked around but Spitfire was nowhere to be seen. I wonder where she went. I got up, pulled up my pack and grabbed my helmet. I walked out of the tent and began to pack up. Once I was finished I slid on my helmet and pulled down the radio.
“Spitfire, you there?” I heard nothing but static.
“Spitfire, come in spitfire.” I began to hear a voice.
“Will you shut up, I’ll talk to you when I get back. Just stay there.”
I sat at the camp for about a half hour before Spitfire returned. When she got back I was eating a can of beans.
“So how did you sleep.” She said.
“Not bad, you?”
“Like a foal, now follow me I’ve got something to show you.”
I got up and followed her until we came to a cliff. I began to walk towards it until she threw me to the ground.
“What was that for?”
She pointed off the edge of the cliff. I peeked my head over the edge. Shit. There was a massive circle of tents as well as a few cars.
“That is a big camp.” I said.
“Yes it is. I suspect thats where the fuckers that shot us down are.”
She handed me a pair of binoculars. I held them up to my eyes and started looking. There were ponies everywhere, all wearing the same types of cloths over their faces from Elektro.
“Bandits.” She said “They all wear that cloth over their faces, I don't know why, but it creeps the hell outa me.”
“So what do we do?” I said
“You got a map?”
“Yeah.”
“Let me see it.”
She took out a pen and began scribbling on the map. She handed me back the map. There was a red X marked “Bandit camp”.
“So I’ll ask it again, what do we do?”
“We stay the hell away from it for now. When we get back to the camp we’ll tell the leader and and begin planning for an attack. The sad truth is it's the ones that aren't dead you gotta worry about most.”
We began walking back to our camp again.
“So, if you have the parts I can probably fix that heli for you. It would take a while but I could probably do it.”
“Really now, that thing was shot to shit, you sure you could do it?”
“Positive.”
We walked for hours until we came to a town called Novy Sobor. My feet were beginning to ache.
“This reminds me of this one time in boot camp this one guy started talking back to the sergeant and as punishment we all had to run around the base for the whole day.”
“Boy, that sounds like it was fun.”
"Not really."
After walking for another half hour we made it back to the camp. We were greeted by Thunderlane when we arrived.
“Storm, what the hell happened.”
“Bandits, thats what happened.”
“Shit dude, you guys alright?”
“Yeah but I wish I could say the same about the helicopter.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, the heli sort of broke.”
“How in the hell do you break a chopper?”
“One of the fuckers got a lucky shot to the engine block.” Spitfire jumped in. “If theres one thing I don’t like about little birds is the armor. All aside we need to speak with the leader”
Spitfire began walking towards a building in the back of the camp. I followed her. When we walked into the building my heart dropped when I saw who was standing in front of me. The very person who ran this camp was my mare friend.
“d-d-Dash?”
She stopped dead in her tracks at the sound of my voice. She turned towards me.
“Storm!”
We hugged and our lips met. Having the girl I cared about most in front of me made me almost forget about all the terrible things happening in the world.
“I thought you were dead, how did you make it out?” she asked.
“I don’t know, the last thing I remember is waking up on a beach.”
“Wait you seriously don’t remember anything?”
“no.”
“Well sit back, it’s a long story.”
--------------------------------------------------Flashback--------------------------------------------------
It was a beautiful may afternoon, the sun was high in the sky and the sound of birds chirping was in the air, the ideal clique summer setting. I was sitting on our porch next to the love of my life Rainbow Dash. I couldn't imagine being happier anywhere else. The silence was interrupted by the static of a nearby radio. I got up and picked up the radio. One of my good friends was telling me i was being called in for assistance on a hostage situation in town. I walked back over to dash.
“I gotta go, something about a hostage situation, bank robbery gone wrong i take it.”
“Do you have to go?”
“It sounded pretty serious, they're saying the national guard is involved. I’ll be home as soon as I can.”
I rushed into our bedroom and opened the closet. I put on my fatigues and body armor then rushed outside to the car. After a few minutes of driving i could see the lights of cop cars as well as a few humvees. I got out of my car and approached the commanding officer at the scene. He tossed me an M4A1 and explained what was happening. The second after he finished the street erupted in gunfire. I raised my weapon and returned fire. I felt a massive impact to my chest and fell to the ground gasping for air. As sudden as the firefight began it ended. Once i caught my breath I looked at my chest. Few, just took one to the kevlar. I got up and assured everyone that i was ok. A colt walked out of the building holding his hands up. He started reaching towards his waist, and quickly pulled out a handgun. He fired off two shots before falling to the ground. I looked down and saw that my fatigues were stained red. I unbuttoned my top and saw a bullet wound in my side. Everything went black as i lost all consciousness.
I woke up to the sound of a mare screaming. I was in a hospital bed hooked up to various machines. I pulled out the machines and got up. As soon as I got up I felt a shooting pain in my side. I looked down saw a large bandage on my side. There was a change of clothes on a chair next to my bed. I quickly changed into them and walked towards the door to my room. I opened the door to find what was left of a mre being eaten by another pony.
“What the fuck?”
It turned towards me and got up. I turned and ran down the hall. There was blood everywhere. I ran until i found a door labeled EXIT and opened it. I was showered in sunlight once i could see there were people everywhere running and yelling. I saw a soldier carrying a little girl.
“My name lieutenant Storm Chaser of the Equestrian Armed Forces. can you tell me what the hell is going on?”
He had a tone of worry in his voice.
“Theres some kind of disease going on, Ponies are eating other ponies. It’s like they aren't themselves. I need to go, I have to get my little girl to safety.”
He ran off. The first thing that popped into my head was my mare friend Dash. I started running and caught up to the soldier that was getting onto his car.
“Please, can you give me a ride, I need to see if my mare friend is ok.”
He nodded and I got in the car. I told him where I lived and he started driving.
Once we arrived I bolted out of the car and into the house to find Dash in the kitchen packing supplies. She saw me and ran into my arms.
“Thank god you’re alive. I didn't know if you would make it out alive.”
“how long have i been in the hospital.”
“You’ve been in a coma for 3 weeks. I was so worried after I heard what happened.”
“All that matters is I’m alive and we’re together. We need to get out of the city. I have a brother in Chernarus that can take us in. He has a home on the countryside, secluded. It would be perfect.”
“Alright, it’s settled then.”
We packed enough supplies to last us for awhile and got into the car. We drove for an hour until we got to the bridge that connected the island of Chernarus to Hoofington. After another hour of driving the traffic in the middle of the bridge was stopped. We got out of the car to see what was going on but couldn’t see to the front of the jam. We were sitting in lawn chairs on the road while we waited it out. I heard the sound of a semi truck horn getting closer. I looked over my shoulder to see a massive truck barrelling in our direction at a high speed. I looked at Rainbow and told her to get out of the way. I ran over to the car and started grabbing everything I could. I heard her call my name and as I looked towards her I felt the car be impacted with a tremendous force as it was shoved off the bridge and into the ocean. I started crawling out of the car and a piece of debris fell from the bridge and struck my head. Everything went dark as I felt myself being pulled by the current of the cold salty water.