//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: After Equestria // by Prometheus7 //------------------------------// Firestorm blinked, he was quite sure that he was awake but he couldn't see anything at all.Am I back in that moving contraption?he felt a surge of hope, maybe he was going home! Home. The word echoed in his mind, he realized with a jolt, that he didn't even know anything about his home! None of his relatives, nor any of his friends ( if he had any of course.) Who am I? he asked, yet he knew the answer to the question even before he had asked it, my name is Firestorm, I'm young unicorn colt and .... that was it, all he could remember about him self, despite the fact that he felt sure about himself, his name ect., he felt a twinge of doubt, uneasiness that comes with lying to some one when they desperately want the truth. A voice interrupted his thoughts, "he's awake." The voice was deep and had traces of southern accent, it was probably male. "Very well, begin questioning." A cool female voice responded, and then the darkness gave way to a sudden burst of light, Fire storm closed his eyes and turned his head away from it. "What were you doing at Ponyvile?" The voice demanded "I-wait, Ponyvile?" Firestorm stammered confused, there was an annoyed groan, probably from a guy judging from the deep voice, "Look Lyra, he obviously ain't no changeling , if he was wouldn't it have been a better idea to disguise himself into one of the Savior Six?" The same deep voice from before addressed the one interrogating Firestorm, who' name was, apparently, Lyra. Lyra, The name triggered a half forgotten memory in him, the pieces fell in place, "Your Big Mac, aren't you?" he asked turning his head to face the red stallion. "Yup." Big Mac replied with no change in expression, as if random peop- er ponies knowing his name was an everyday experience. Lyra on the other hand was not so mellow. "That's captain Lyra to you!" She snarled at him with hateful eyes "and how do you know our names? Are you changeling spy?" she said poking his chest hard with her hoof and glaring at him accusingly. "No!" Firestorm snapped getting a bit annoyed at his "interrogator", Big Mac raised an eyebrow at him. "Well Lyra, he doesn't seem to be lying and-" Big Mac was cut off by loud slamming sound and panting. "Is. It. True?" Firestorm turned to the source off the voice and found a juvenile pony with a yellow coat and red mane standing at the other side of the room in front of a steel door."Is ma big sis back or wha?" she asked excitedly. Lyra opened her mouth to make a angry retort but Firestorm beat her two it, "where's Applejack?" Instantly he regretted saying those two words, the filly's ears dropped. "Ya mean she ain't back yet?" she whispered barely audible The room was instantly silent, all three ponies hung their heads as one would do when remembering someone who passed away. Then, finally, Lyra responded, " the Savior six," she paused glaring at him with hard hateful eyes, daring him to interrupt, Firestorm, still remembered how she had ruthlessly ambushed him because she thought he might be an enemy,so, he decided it would be better for his health if he kept his mouth shut, "were the greatest heroes Equestria has ever known." She bit her lip and continued, "they died trying to save everypony, when Sombra ambushed and killed princesses Celestia, they fought him and lost. Sombra destroyed canterlot and killed the captain of the royal guard, Shining Armor. Celestia escaped, but then he tried to kill every pony who fought against him, so he went for the bearers of the elements of harmony." Lyra paused staring at him with a curious expression. "However, he never found them. Not one in one-thousand years did he find anything, then I ... no, we" she gestured at Big Mac. "Discovered that we couldn't die naturally." she paused, took a deep breath , and continued. "But we could die in battle, I ... learned that when .... Bon-Bon ... my friend .... " her voice wavered, she trailed off biting her lip and staring at the ground. Big-Mac took over, "after that Lyra took over the role a commander of the Lunar republic." he finished quietly staring at Firestrom with a calm expression. Firestorm was silent, he stared at the ground, shame crept on him, so what if he had no memories, isn't it better to have none opposed to having a living hell recounting times like that? Sudden thought struck him, whats the Lunar republic? but he decided not to ask in fear of agitating Lyra even more. "I-I'm sorry ... I -" Firestorm stammered awkwardly, way to go idiot. Lyra turned and ignored him, and he couldn't blame her. "Big Mac please escort Firestorm to the training room." She said coolly, Big Mac motioned for him and Firestorm to leave the room, he pushed opened the door and entered a silver hallway with a couple doors here and there, they look like the doors to the rooms on cruise ships, except there dull and grey, just like the wall! Firestorm blinked confused, what's a cruise ship? Firestorm decided to break the awkward silence "I didn't know ... I would have never asked if I had guessed that ..." Firestorm muttered shamefacedly. "Don't worry, it wasn't your fault that you didn't know, just don't try to ask questions like that again." Big Mac said calmly, "ah, here we are, the training room!" He indicated two doors bombarded with dents and claw marks and-Wait, Firestorm thought, is that, blood? He stopped right before the doors reading the Training room sign with unease, gulping he stepped forward and opened the doors ... ~ "You're going down punk!" a brown Pegasus colt sneered at a grey unicorn who stared back obviously uninterested, the Pegasus, who by the way, was hovering in midair. The colt scowled at the unicorns lack of expression, "I'm going to wipe that smirk off your face, scumbag!" and with that he dive-bombed at the unconcerned grey colt. Zap! A sound similar to the one that Firestorm had heard when he had teleported, and ... BOOM! A explosion blasted bits of rock in all directions, "Holy shit we got to help!" Firestorm cried rushing for ward, Big Mac held a hoof to his chest to stop him, "Don't worry, he's fine, just watch" Big Mac said unconcernedly Firestorm peered past the dust to look for the unicorns body but the Pegasus what there instead. He looked around nonplussed, then, zap! The buzzing sound cut through the stunned silence once again, except this time a red beam of energy blasted the Pegasus sending him sprawling into the ground. "Your first mistake, underestimating me. Dive-bombing and assuming that would be all that needs to be done,did you even take into account my magical prowess? " The unicorn told him calmly, " second mistake lowering your guard and relaxing, giving me an open shot. Finally, letting give you this stupid lecture instead of talking the opening and attacking." And with that he sent another blast of red light which blasted the Pegasus into unconsciousness. Firestorm starred at the carnage, appalled by the ruthlessness of the unicorn. "Well, let's go and meet him," Big Mac said walking toward the unicorn, seemingly not appalled by the show of unnecessary cruelty. " 'sup Eclipsed Star," big Mac said causally holding out his hoof, does he want him to shake it or bump it? Firestorm thought "Hey," Eclipsed Star said monotonously, he turned his head and saw Firestorm, "who's the new kid?" he asked with no change in tone. Firestorm felt a surge of anger, "I have a name you know, and I can hear you." he snapped at Eclipsed Star who simply ignored him and turned his attention to big Mac, "So who is he?" he repeated calmly as if he could not hear what Firestorm was saying. Firestorm opened his mouth to dish out a verbal thrashing but big Mac cut him off, "he's the new recruit," Eclipsed Star looked slightly more interested than before, but only slightly. "So you're the newbie huh?" he asked staring at Firestorm with pitch black eyes that gleamed as if Firestorm had finally earned the right to speak, cocky jerk! Firestorm thought angrily, you think the world revolves around you don't you? he knew that wasn't true deep down but he just, hated the way Eclipsed Star looked uninterested at practically everything, except for Firestorm. To him Firestorm was a somewhat interesting science project that he was observing for a unusual reactions. "Yes." Firestorm spat with as much venom as he could, glaring at Eclipsed Star with angry, hate filled eyes. He noticed a scar running down the unicorns right eye, he was tempted to ask who gave him that scar, but thought better of it. Why would I ask such a stupid question? Why would anypony want to tell pe-er ponies how they got there scar? That's just wrong Eclipsed star raised an eyebrow, he didn't smile, "I like you kid, see you next training session." he told him with no change in his neutral tone and expression. And with that Eclipsed Star left, leaving a dumb-struck Firestorm behind. "Well, um ... that was, uh ..." Firestorm stuttered as he looked for a word to describe what just happened. "Unexpected?" Big Mac asked, smirking. "Yes, yes it was."