//------------------------------// // XVII // Story: What Came Before // by Lynwood //------------------------------// Twilight staggered as the Swirl deposited her back into her library. The walker had said something about ponies. Ponies! The humans were fighting the ponies 3000 years ago! That was insane! She turned to Cee to say something, but she spoke first. "I know it's distressful. We have to get through these." She looked her in the eyes. "You need to know the truth." Cee levitated up another Orb. This one was gray, black and white, and before Cee activated the Swirl, she could have sworn she saw a flash of red. The Swirl jumped out of its prison and engulfed her, sending her on a journey to the past. Far, far in the past. The colors formed a large room. It held many walkers and even a few ponies, milling about or sitting on chairs or reading magazines. "This way." Twilight turned to Cee, who was moving towards herself. The younger Cee was behind her father with a group of ponies who looked her age. One was the aquamarine alicorn. Another was Beta. The third was an earth pony, a mare with a rust-red coat and an orange mane the color of applejacks fur. The four talked as teenagers would, laughing and chatting about their days. Their father stood in front of a long, marble counter. It stretched in a curve, encompassing a fourth of the room. Behind it sat a number of walkers, talking to other walkers or ponies or small tablets. The father turned around, looking at the group of teenagers. "Alright, it's time to go." The teens celebrated. "Yes! Finally! This place is so boring!" Beta cheered. Delta giggled. Their father walked towards some glass panels, and his children followed him. The panels slid open when they neared, allowing passage through. They closed as soon as the last member of the group was clear. They walked towards a group of metal objects, packed tightly together. The father raised his claw, pressing something into it. A beep was heard from somewhere to the left, and the group turned that direction. Cee and Twilight trailed them. eventually, the group arrived at a large, white object. The two ponies with horns activated them and the sides of the machine slid open. The ponies climbed into the back, the doors closing behind them. Their father opened a swinging door near the front of the car, climbing inside and closing it behind them. The car began to move away, and Twilight looked to Cee for instructions. Cee's horn lit up, and Twilights vision was white for a moment. Twilight sound herself in the machine, sitting on a seat with the older Cee. Behind them, the four ponies talked, and in front their father piloted the machine. They drove towards a large city, and Twilight was awed when she got a good look at it. The city had multiple skyscrapers, reaching up into the air, towering majestically over the rest of the buildings. Some of them were easy twice the size of the biggest skyscraper in Manehattan. As the mechanical vehicle drove through the crowded streets, Twilight couldn't help but marvel at Walker engineering. It they could build this, what else could they build? "They're called 'humans', by the way." Cee's voice echoed in her head. Twilight rolled the word around in her head. Humans... where had she heard that before? Twilight noticed that the vehicle had slowed to a crawl. The cause of its loss of velocity was a crowd of people streaming the opposite direction on the car. Suddenly a human dressed in black metal plating knocked on the father's window. The window lowered, allowing the human to talk to Cee's father. "Sir, you have to turn around! There's a riot on seventh and main! Almost all uni's!" "I can't. Too many people!" The driver replied. The human started to say something but was cut off by a flash from above. It was green in color, but Twilight couldn't see it due to the vehicle having an opaque roof. When the human in black saw this, he quickly raised an object up and pointed it at something. The object suddenly spat fire, kicking back in his hands. The human yelled at the father to run, and they did. The group climbed out of the car, and the ponies followed their father. He quickly ran to the side of the road, where there were fewer people. Twilight and Cee followed. He turned to his children. "Listen, all of you. There is fighting behind us. We need to get back to the facility, quick. It's not too far away. Come on!" The father spun around and began to run. The ponies, including future Cee, followed, but Twilight stayed behind. More humans dressed in black armor were rushing towards where the flashes were. Twilight desperately wanted to see what was happening but noticed the world around her starting to slow and blur. She quickly turned and glided towards Cee and the others. When she arrived at future Cee, Twilight realized she couldn't see the rest of the group. Cee answered her mentally. "We got lost." Twilight saw that past-Cee was with Beta. Cee was crying, and Beta hugged her. "Cmon! In here!" He dragged Cee into a small alleyway, and the two hid behind a trash can. Twilight and Cee watched, as the human crowd running past the alleyway slowly turned into more human soldiers. Some held longer objects that spat fire very quickly. Then, Twilight saw the first pony. She was a mare; a unicorn. Galloping into view, she stopped in front of the alleyway. Her attention was focused forward and her horn lit up, but it was suddenly darkened when she was knocked backward by what looked like an invisible force. A spurt of blood erupted from her chest before the mare slumped to the ground, then lay still. Another pony leaped over the corpse, yelling and was followed by more ponies of all races, mostly unicorns. "She's dead." Cee's voice was stoic and stony, as was her expression. Beta said nothing, instead shoving her behind the trashcan so that her view was blocked. From the street, they could hear screams and loud bangs, along what Twilight recognized as magical discharges. The pair stayed stone still in their hiding spot, listening to the battle outside. "Here! In the alleyway!" A gruff voice called, and the sound of hoofsteps clicking on the concrete floor drew closer. A mare's voice was heard. "We can hide here! when the cops come, we'll get the jump on 'em!" Various replies of the agreement were heard and the footsteps drew closer and closer. Beta's breathing slowed, becoming little more than a whisper. Cee followed suit, but her lungs began to ache from the lack of oxygen. She was stiff from being cramped behind the trash cans, the cold metal pressing against her shoulder. She longed to move, but Beta beat her to it. "Stay here, don't follow me," He whispered. Without warning, he jumped out from behind the trash cans and quickly ran towards the exit of the alleyway. "Whoa, kid!" Cee heard a voice call out. She barely shifted her head to peer through the crack between the trash cans. Beta was being held up by an aura of purple magic. Its corresponding user, a gray and pink unicorn stallion spoke, matching himself to the previous voice. "You can't go out there, kid. You'd get killed in an instant! leave it to the adults." The unicorns companions were a green pegasus stallion and an earth pony mare who looked similar to the unicorn. Probably related. Instead of a pink mane, she possessed a regal purple one. The unicorn spoke again. His voice was soft, despite the constant sound of the mob right outside the alley. "Sit down, and stay here. We're gonna have to go out there soon, and I know you're afraid that- " He was cut off by the mare. "Hey, how'd you get in here anyway? I didn't see anyone else other than us come in here." The unicorn scowled at her. "Priscilla! Don't interrupt me! But, you do have a point. How did you get in here?" His voice had lost its softness and now was cold and questioning. "I don't see any doors. Unless..." Quickly, the unicorn yanked up Beta's right back hoof with his magic, studying the bottom. His eyes widened, then narrowed. "Look! He's a lab rat!" The unicorn showed the others Beta's hoof, and all three rioters tensed up. The pegasus spoke. "A lab rat huh? I'll show you what we do to dirty fucking lab rats!" He raised his hoof up, then brought it town on Beta's knee. The crunch could be heard the sound through of the riot. Beta screamed in pain, and the earth pony laughed. The unicorn sneered. "Shut up! Nobody cares!" He yelled, before lifting him clean off the ground. He hung in the air, his broken leg hanging limply below him and twisted at a disturbing angle. The earth pony turned around and bucked, her hooves smashing into Beta's hip. Beta screamed again and began to cry. The unicorn's face gained a twisted grin. "Heh. It's time you learned your place." He said, before dropping Beta onto his head. The green unicorn began to kick at Beta while the earth pony laughed and the unicorn looked down at him. Twilight thought she could see blood beginning to pool around Beta, who had stopped screaming and was lying motionless on the ground. Two figures stepped into the alley. They were dressed in black padded clothing, obscuring their genders. One raised a sleek dark object and pointed it at the rioters. It spat fire, shouting its loud bang. The rioters fell. The unicorn and earth pony had died immediately, but the pegasus crumpled to the ground with a scream. The other figure ran over and stood above him for a moment before using its weapon, quieting the pegasus. Then it seemed to notice Beta, lying on the ground. "Ma'am? There's another one here- looks like a kid. I think they were beating it up." His voice was muffled through the mask he wore. It was male, and the slightly high pitched tone in his voice indicated he was young. The other one jogged over, looking down at Beta. "Check its hoof." This one had an obviously female gruff sort of no-nonsense voice. The first soldier bent down and examined the hoof that the others had been looking at. "He's a lab pony!" The figure exclaimed, before pressing his hand on Beta's neck. "Still alive, too! he doesn't have much time left, Ma'am." The other soldier motioned upward with her hand, sparing a glance toward the alleyway entrance. Instead of colored ponies there were more like the two humans in the alleyway. Their weapons flamed and roared. A large armored vehicle was rolling through the crowd. "Well pick it up! C'mon!" The first soldier hoisted up Beta, who hung limp. His blood began to trickle down the soldiers clothing, staining the fabric. The soldiers began wards the entrance of the alleyway. Twilight saw Cee's body tense up even more before shoving aside the cans. "Wait! Wait for me! He's my brother!" The soldiers whipped around. The woman spoke first. "If you're a lab one too then come on!" She gestured towards herself and Cee ran over. The soldier scooped her op, and the soldiers ran out into the street. Twilight and Cee hastily followed. It was chaos. Corpses scattered the streets, and blood ran down the storm drains. There were far more colorful pony corpses lying mangled in the street than black ones, but both sides had suffered heavy losses. All the ground level windows had been smashed, and small fires raged here and there, vomiting smoke into the air. The soldiers ran to an armored vehicle similar to the one before only this one was yellow and had a red cross on the front and sides. The soldiers quickly rushed to the back and yanked open the doors. The inside of the vehicle was occupied mostly by cots that lined the walls. Three soldiers lay on the cots, tended to by humans wearing lightly armored yellow clothing. The soldiers escorting Cee and Beta wasted no time, hoisting the pair into the back of the vehicle. The female one yelled out that they were lab ponies before shutting the door. Without missing a beat, one of the humans scooped up Beta and set him carefully in a cot. Cee looked around before spotting a small metal box bolted to the wall with a thin cushion on top. It sat across from Beta's cot She quietly climbed onto it. The humans in yellow ignored her, instead tending to Bay. The muffled sounds of the riot pounded were all Cee could hear as stared straight ahead. Quietly, she began to cry.