//------------------------------// // Chapter 32 // Story: Mocha's Story // by Mocha Star //------------------------------// “So, then what happened?” she asked me. A little tension had returned to her posture and voice. A moment before I was a cute stallion defending his filly, now I’m a brute that was fighting my own kind. “Well, how about we take a break? I need a snack, want anything?” “No, I want to know what happened next,” she replied sternly. “Look, lady-” “My name isn’t ‘Lady’.” “Whatever,” I dismissed her with a wave of my hoof, “wanna apple?” “Wait, what’s my name?” she asked me, all indignantly, like she was all high and mighty all of a sudden. “Harpo, relax. I know you fine.” Her eye twitched as she lowered her quill and paper to the seat by her. “Harpo?” “Look, we slept together last night, and it was special and all, but I-” “HARPO?! You think my name is that… That… That?!” I was sitting across from her in the increasingly small room, I watched as her horn fired up, almost literally. She concerned me for a moment, and that doesn’t happen easily. Females, am I right? “My. Name. Is. LYRA!” I sat, stoically, as she threatened to let loose the arcane energies, unchecked from a hormonal surge, the power I could see was enough to ravage the entire car to nearly shreds if she knew how to focus it. As it was, all I saw was a pretty light show and a decent breeze. Intimidating to those who aren’t as, hmm, ‘well versed’, in the arcane arts. “Okay, fine, ‘Lira’, my bad.” I wanted to egg her on, just to see. If she had a fire in her heart she had potential. She didn’t disappoint. At that moment, that I pronounced her name as “Leer-uh” she took that as a focal point. I saw the energies focus to a nice, fine, coalesced point of energy just to the left of her horn. A sign she wasn’t in control of the energy that was being drawn by the right side of her brain. That meant she was being more primal. Emotional. Protective. Proud of her heritage and name, most likely. That meant loyalty, to a point, to her family... But that wasn’t pressing. At least, not at the moment. I closed my eyes and viewed the world through shadow sight, a special place few can view, that allows more details on the thaumic properties and effects of the world around me. I saw the usual pings of unicorns using magic all around. The dull steady ‘hum’ of earth ponies on the train. A group of Pegasi on the train. What I focused on was the mare in front of me. The magic in her was following the usual paths; from her heart and branching out through most of her body in a conduit of sorts, ending at her horn. Not much to magic at this level. What caught my mind’s eye was the energy. It was being taken from the aether directly outside her horn, not through her body the usual way. “Enough,” I said flatly, inhaling deeply. “W-what happened?!” she asked looking around as the air stilled and her neck wobbled from the sudden loss of energy. “I won’t have you going all ‘heat crazy’ and hurting somepony.” She narrowed her eyes and grumbled something inaudible. “I blocked the magic to your horn, silly filly.” Her mouth opened, a look of shock crossed her face and she tried to sit up. Tried; operative word. “W-what? Y-you can’t stop magic. No pony can.” I had to smirk. I hadn’t heard that for ages. I ruffled my mane and looked back to my tail. “Who ever said I was a pony?” I let that sink in for four seconds before her notepad and quill levitated and began to write again. She was startled. There was no aura surrounding it. “So, let’s continue where we left off. I’m feeling better than I have in centuries talking about all this! Sure, getting to this point was a bit slow; but let’s just get some story happening. Enough ‘character building’... for now. “I was in their clutches, and now we both knew what their game was.” They picked me up and hauled me from the room, out into a short hall, and out the door. Face met dirt and rock. It hurt. A lot. I leaned my upper body up a bit so I could look ahead of me, blood in my left eye from one of dozens of small cuts across my face. Two guards to my front plus the two that got me from the room. I let my face fall into the dirt and groaned. Feigning pain and or agony was always effective. I was trained for worse than what these softies were doing. I’d watched entire seasons of anime, where everyone loses at the end. ‘There are four lights’ was what I said during annual interrogation resistance sessions. “Please, don’t hurt me. I-I don’t know what’s going on. I just panicked, please. Let me go,” I nearly cried out. Whining like a weenie helps too. I had nearly bunched the tape into an unbreakable but mobile rope on my wrists when I was picked up by my collar and pulled by the two soldiers that were in front of me. I whimpered and whined as they drug me toward the cliff edge. My legs were freely dangling behind, just dragging along. They didn’t expect when I stepped one foot to the ground and kicked forward, right between the two holding me, sending them stumbling forward ahead of me over the ledge to the next lower path. I turned and bounced and rolled down the hill on my side for the fifty to eighty foot mostly slanted drop. I mentioned I was on a mountain, right? Because those have a lot of sharp rocks that cut. Not so many where the cliff face was leveled, but enough. Landing on one of the guards with the utmost luck, I heard a crunch from his body. A few more bones were broken when I landed on him and I grinned darkly. I rolled off him and looked around to see the back of houses, just like the ones I’d escaped before. The creativity of minotaurs was a lost cause. I sat up and spat out a tooth chunk, maybe, three. Mostly from my left side, which I could live with until I got to a medic, healer, or whatever. I heard shouting and the squawk of a radio echo from above. Time was short. I felt around the guys almost lifeless body and got a knife, I grabbed his weapon, a decent, post wars, high caliber weapon with enough rounds to make me smile. I grabbed the strap in my teeth and pulled it free from him, sucked my head into the strap, and stood up. I was sore, as you’d expect from somepony who rolled down a rocky hill. His friend was dead, landed on his head and rolled over himself like a caramel roll. But, I was alive. And pain is your best friend if you’re alive, because it reminds you that you aren’t dead, yet. I began to trot, um, jog between the houses while trying to get that damn knife to cut the tape without cutting myself. I heard hoofsteps and knew it was now or never. I braced myself and just cut the damn thing. I restrained myself from screaming in pain, as I’d filleted a nice bit of flesh and a little muscle from the inside of my right arm, just at the joint. “I ain’t got time ta bleed,” I growled as I grabbed the rifle. The bleeding was steady but a slow ooze. I’d have a few minutes to get to a place to start patching myself up. Hell, they had nanotech, maybe I’d get lucky and fall onto a nano-kit and get a full heal. What? Story too grotesque for your pony mind? Just you wait. I held the rifle at the ready as I reached a window. I peeked inside and saw a nice room. Something you’d see if you went to visit an aunt’s house. I opened the window and went it, closing it behind me. I took the knife that was now reddened across it’s black blade with my blood and looked at my wound. A flap of skin was dangling, hanging on for what little it could do. Cutting it off stung like getting a bee sting in the plot hole. I cut the quilt that was on the bed. A nice piece of it off, and wrapped my wounded wrist. Then I cut into the bed itself and used the stuffing to absorb some of the blood from my face and head cuts. I was on my way to being a full blown emergency self medic. I tied a strip of the darkest part of the quilt into a bandana with stuffing over my forehead and cracked my neck side to side. I’m coming, girls. I opened the door slowly and checked the hall. Silent night. I saw a silhouette pass the front window. Holy night. Then I saw another passing the first. All was calm. I lined my shot and pulled the trigger. The flash was bright. A lot of shouting and the blissful sound of rifles shooting blindly into the house. They took my family. I fell to the floor and laid in a prone position, tracing the path the bullets tore into the house from the lights they were using and the damage being done. Even the dust in the air was a tell. And they thought they were right. I began shooting through the soft wooden walls of the house, out toward where the soldiers should have been. For their actions. The world was silent again, save for groans of pain from outside the front of the house. I will slay them all tonight. I rolled to my side and aimed blindly, firing a shot at the window behind me that I’d entered the home through. Just on a gut feeling. A round discharged. I grinned at my sly action. I sat up and turned back to the front door, hitting the room door closed behind me so I could focus on the front of the house. Taking a quick rush, I went to a window by the main door and peeked out, very cautiously. They were all down. Five soldiers were down. Dead or wounded I didn’t care. I meant what I’d said. I grabbed a loose chunk of wood that was from one of the walls that broke free when they were shooting. I tossed it out and waited. The telltale crunch of boots on rocky dirt. I raised the weapon again and took aim. It was the new sergeant from before. I had her dead to rights. I could have taken her out of the world right then and there. I squeezed the trigger and her lower leg, just above the ankle, exploded from beneath her. The sound she made made me cringe. The blood curdling scream of pain, fear, panic. Two of the men from earlier were with her. I aimed and shot one in his outstretched arm, he was pulling her, now he was in the same boat. The last guy. Mr. Drunkass, panicked and ran away. Leaving his friends behind. He fell, but he wasn’t going to get up ever again. “Never leave a fallen comrade, asshole!” With that little bit of sage advice I opened the door and began running toward the injured duo. “Get medical help, you don’t need to die for their mistakes.” They were going into shock. “You’ll live. Get to medical, get some nano on your wound and they may save your leg. Your BF is on his own. I’ve got a horse and pony to save.” She gave me a look of curiosity as the blood drained from her face and I turned to leave her. I picked up both their weapons and took out the ammo clips, dropping the empty rifles a few paces uphill from them. “New tech, quality stuff too. Must be a hundred rounds in these things. What the hell was I issued?” I asked as I took to a steady jog again. More importantly, why are these weapons so neat? As an armory tech I should have come across these, or something like them. Even in the hushed whispers of rumors. I looked at the weapon closely in the moonlight. It was a rough polished charcoal black. A digital readout on the side by the stock read how many of what type of rounds were chambered. The sights were variable between iron sight, holographic, and full 20x zoom. It was nearly two feet in length and made from some alloy. It was nearly as heavy as any smaller rifle I’d used but it’s power was far above them. Maybe a heavy weapon could best this thing. Maybe. There were things about this that I had no idea about yet. If I had my implants I could interface with it, maybe, and figure it out in a few seconds. As it is, I’ve gotta learn the old fashioned way. My wrist and flared with pain with every heartbeat. I could still taste blood in my mouth, and the weight of actually having killed one person for certain was starting to weigh on me. I began to wonder about what I’d done. Who I’d taken from the world, what could he have offered the future of us all? I couldn’t push all the thoughts aside, but I was trained to carry out the mission so I silenced them, somewhat. I came upon the stables again. Guarded by three this time. Armored up too. Luckily the new weapons were heartier than the classics I had. Switching to a more damaging round I took aim and walked up into view. “Lower your weapons or he dies,” I said calmly. They all raised their weapons to me. I trained my sights on the chest of the center soldier. If I killed him, they’d have to shoot at me, giving me a chance to dodge and shoot one of them. Then while the last one is stunned from his friends being dead... “I’ve got a D.U. loaded and I will fire. Give me my horse, Lom, and I’ll be on my way to get my pony. Then you’ll never hear from me again.” They had a chat inside their helmets, maybe with Ops. “Mocha, you are requested to lower your weapon and submit to reconditioning.” That’s more like it. A little honesty through the lies. “You have until I count to five. Hair trigger. Aimed at his chest. If I hit him, he’s dead no matter what. Once I hit him I’ll shoot you,” I nodded to the soldier to his left, “then you,” I nodded to the soldier on his right.” They reacted by moving back. I’d already taken down a squad and I had a radioactive bullet ready to fire. The DU is a radioactive element that’s bonded to a round. It’ll melt through armor and irradiate whoever it hits. I was on the offensive and they weren’t what I was expecting. “Who are you all?” I asked switching the round to an airburst. I didn’t know I had those. Three of them and these guys were close enough for me to concussions blast them all in one shot. Yeah, I’m gonna talk about things you don’t understand. Hush, let me remember. It’s so nice to reminisce. They didn’t answer. They were weak and soft. Whoever they were, they weren’t trained for active combat. Maybe some modern first world country that was on the cusp of a golden age that had their renewed tech and vigor do their fighting. Who cared? “Last time, my horse. My pony. Now.” They tightened their hold on their weapons. A sign they were hoping to get the initiative. I pulled the trigger. I felt the slight kick from the weapon as the round left the clip and chamber. I watched as, in less time than I had to register the event, the round exploded dead center mass on the center guy and I saw a shockwave emanate from where he stood, taking down the other guards. I was flung back onto my ass, I covered my ears and shouted. The concussion was heavier than I expected and it hurt. A lot. Those three were guaranteed dead, and I was probably deaf in my left ear, but whatever. Still alive. Gotta get ‘em. I stood after a minute of gathering my wits and stopping the world from spinning. I would have thrown up but that was one skill I had. I could stop myself from vomiting. Usually. I held the rifle tight as I stood, a bit hunched, and began trudging toward the stables. Shit… Lom wasn’t there. If she was she’d be one of the dead or panicking horses that was probably going to be suffering from hearing loss for the rest of their short lives. It broke my heart, but I had my mission. I turned and ran past them, higher up the hill. I climbed a ladder that took me up to the next level. Nothing new. The next ladder took me to a row of colorful houses. Out of the corner of my eye I saw clouds moving, pegasi watching the carnage, no doubt. Blue house. In sight. I took aim and fired a round into the houses two spaces away on either side. The explosion shattered them. Screams of agony and pain. Fear. The majority of his soldiers were in those houses. It was too easy. They were making the most basic mistakes. What kind of soldiers were these? I took a knee and looked around. Scanning for movement. Almost there. This Chin guy had better be easy going. I didn’t want to kill him too.