Remnants of a Dying World

by Dusk-Spark

Ch. 12: "Protégé"

"Haaaa." I breathed into my hooves in a vain attempt to warm them up. The moment my breath's vapor disintegrated, I immediately picked up the rifle, aiming it into the expanse of trees; my ears perked up, listening very intently to each sound. I didn't like the moments when I wasn't holding a weapon, I felt vulnerable and exposed. It didn't help that the two of us were out in the open, me at the base of the single tree and her next to me, using her magic to try and pick one of the low hanging apples (there was no way I was gonna let her climb).
"Now be very careful, some of it is dripping and you don't want any of the sludge on you." I warned her, for these were no ordinary apples.

"..." She nodded as a quiet snap played in my ear, I'd almost missed it entirely.

"Good, now just put it in the bag." I lifted up the large sack, holding it open as the infected apple was dropped in with the rest. It was quite a load and the sludge was dripping out the bottom. "Alright, help me lift. One, two-"

Mwirrr

---

---

"I'll continue the story to pass the time.
So, we had our plan. We knew what we were supposed to, everything was supposed to go exactly as planned.
But there are some things you're never truly prepared for."

---

---

"I've gone over the plan several times now, it's short notice but I believe you four will manage." Break stood before a crowd of 4, hooded ponies. He'd been explaining his plan to them for a good 30 minutes now, even quizzing them (apparently paper and pens were not luxuries the shanty town ponies owned).
"Remember, I'm counting on you. If this plan succeeds, we'll all have a chance at a better life." He motioned to Nox, as if he was some kind of proof of this better life Break had been using as a motivator.

There was a rather hoarse cough coming from the pony on the far left, that followed shortly after. When he saw Break stepped forward, he put a hoof up and choked out a forced, "I'm fine!"

"..." Understandably, Break didn't look at all convinced. Even if Break wasn't...well, Break, that sickly pony would have a hard time convincing anyone that he was in any state to explore the surface. But what choice did Break have? These were the only ones who volunteered for this, understandably dangerous task. Time was not a luxury the ponies could afford either.
No, they'd have to make do with what they have. "Very well." He took a moment to survey the ponies. "Well what are you waiting for, a starting gun? Get going!" At his orders, the ponies went on their merry way.

Nox stood next to Break, "You think this'll really work?" They were out of ear shot now, so Nox felt that Break could tell him how he really felt about this whole plan.

"It's my plan, so I know it will work. The problem is..." He paused, staring down at the scars on his forelegs. A deep, mournful sigh escaped his mouth. "The pony element makes any plan subject to failure." He turned his back to Nox and started walking down the path. "What makes me intelligent is not only my book smarts, but how well I can adjust things on a moment's notice."
Break froze, he turned back to Nox. "On an unrelated note, you have a little ghost following you."

"Ghosts?!" This place had ghosts now?! As if sludge monsters and killer robots weren't enough, he had to deal with ghosts! He hated ghosts! Too many bad Nightmare Night memories!
He hesitated to turn around, at first. But when he did, he saw nothing there? 'An invisible ghost?' He thought.

"I'm not a ghost, I'm a zebra!" A small voice shot up, lower from the ground. A hooded filly waved up to Nox before stepped past him.

"Well, half a zebra." Break's dead-pan response came quickly. "Come on, Nox. We've got work to do." Break had only taken three steps before the filly blocked his path. "Kumi, I can't play games right now, I'm doing something important." He said impatiently.

"But I've been practice, Break. See, watch!" The filly, Kumi, galloped past Break. Standing in front of Nox, she stared into his eyes. It was uncomfortable for the blue pegasus, to say the least.
. . . . . .
The uncomfortable silence continued for several seconds until she suddenly exclaimed, "...He's not from around here!"

"Obviously." He dismissed her observation (and that was being generous, anyone could spot the difference in a heart beat).
"Do you actually have a reason for bothering me, or are you just bored again? No don't answer that." He looked her over for just five seconds before he uttered, "You're not going with us."

"OH COME ON!" She whined, galloping to keep up with Break. "I thought I was your protege? I've been doing everything you've asked for two years! I know things that other ponies don't, I can get to places that they can't! I know I'm ready!" She had some good points, actually.

"You're not ready yet, especially not for a mission this dangerous. You lack experience, book smarts are one thing but there's a difference between reading about something and actually experiencing it." Break scolded, using a rather low voice that Nox hadn't heard him use since, well...he warned them about the contamination check.

"How will I get that experience if you don't let me help?"

"Kumi, this is not the time."

"When will it be time? Don't you always say that there's a better life waiting for us all out there, but we have to go out and find it. But then why won't you let me-"

"I SAID NO!" Break's sudden outburst shocked even Nox. He took a few deep breaths and brushed his mane out of his eyes, "I said no, Kumi. That's my final answer. Just...go back and watch Marigold's clinic."

"But I-"

"Now. Kumi."

She didn't want to risk angering him again, so she just turned and trudged away with her head hung low.

Nox turned to Break and said in a low whisper, "Maybe that was a little harsh?"

"You think so?" No sense of sarcasm that time, was he genuinely asking? "I'm not a social pony. I can read them just fine, but I'm no good at interacting. Especially when emotions that override logic come into play." He sighed once again.
"Kumi, by the way."

"What?"

"Her name's Kumi, she's my protege. And before you ask, no. I didn't ask or want a protege, she was a just street urchin who attached herself to Marigold and I, a few years back. She's smart and picks up skills quickly, but she's impulsive and inexperienced. She'd be a liability on this mission, and I can't afford too many mistakes."

"...What happened to her parents?" It wasn't that Nox wasn't listening, it's just that Break didn't mention Kumi's parents.

"...Take a guess..." And there's the sarcasm again as he pointed to the path leading to the graveyard. "I'm glad she didn't see it though, I've seen what that kind of image does to foals. I don't want her to lose that sense of innocence. It's one of her good qualities, and lord knows we're starved for a little light in our time of endless night."

"...That was from; A Night To Remember by V.T. Sparkle." That was only one of Nox's favorite novels of all time. Shard owned a copy of the book, along with V.T. Sparkle's whole collection of works. Next to Rainbow Dash, V.T. Sparkle was probably the second pony that Nox looked up to the most. Those books were a bright spot in a...rather dark time in his life.
His wing stubs made an involuntary twitch.

"Didn't take you for a lover of literature." For the first time ever, Break sounded genuinely surprised. "Well then," Break stopped at the gate separating them from their path. "I pray that we find the key to a better future."

" Daring Do: The Trail of the Lost Princess by A.K. Yearling." Nox responded before Break opened the gate.

---

Nox peeked out from the crack of the hidden door. He was looking into a square room, empty shelves and web-covered barrels adorned the walls and much of the floor.
sniff sniff
"Ugh, it really stinks in here." It wasn't as bad as someone trying to murder his sense of smell, but it was certainly wasn't an endearing smell to him.

"Well you're not dead or shivering, so I'd wager a bet that it's safe up there."

Nox pushed open the door as he climbed into the abandoned storeroom. "Seems like it, hang on I'm gonna check the other door." He skulked to the opposite door, pressing himself against the wall, creeping up next to the closed door. He just barely nudged it open. Peering into the abandoned store, looking for anything that even vaguely looked like movement.
. . . . .
It looked and sounded clear. Didn't mean it was clear, luckily he knew someone special for that job: "Sally, movement?"

"...." Some beeps came from her body until she finally said; "No signs of movement, user. The store is abandoned."

Nox breathed out a sigh of relief before calling down to the others, "All clear." He smiled as he saw the others step out of the secret door in the floor. Before he could say anything more, the three ponies breached the next room, weapons pointed in all directions. He watched as they pressed their bodies against the windows and the main entrance, the rucksacks they were carrying didn't even slow them down.
"...." He just couldn't get over how much different they were from him.

"The library's across the street, we just need to make it there and we'll be in position." Break held the revolver in the talons (as opposed to holding it in his telekinetic grip). "Marigold, what do you see?"

Marigold was a lot closer to the main entrance, she was about to open the door to peek outside but hesitated. She looked up, seeing the bell above the door, and then used her telekinetic grip to rip the bell right off. Contained in her magic, no sound escaped as she set it carefully off to the side.
THEN, she opened the door, rifle first. "!" She quickly closed it and ducked down. She didn't even need to say anything. Her horn glowed, showing a depiction of a sludge wolf walking around. With an arrow pointing to its location.

'We're gonna have to deal with that, quietly.' Nox remembered the last sludge wolf they encountered. He was not in a hurry to do that again. At this point, he expected Break to come up with a plan.
Apparently, Marigold was waiting for the same thing, but all Break seemed to do was sit there and smirk.

He held up a hoof and pointed out to Aurora's...empty space by an open window.

'She's doing the ninja thing again.' Nox mentally sighed, deciding to walk behind the counter...only to see a pair of pony skeletons huddled together. Their uniforms were so dirty, covered in mold and torn to shreds, the golden letters adorning their aprons: Gem Bakery were so faded it was hard to tell if that's what it actually read. Had they suffered or had they gone quietly? Who were they? What were their names?

Their bodies were disgustingly adorning the room like...holiday decorations.

He tried not to think about what he saw back then. But, something told him that he would be seeing much worse sights until he finally made it home. 'All I wanted was to go home. How did things turn out like this?' Would the nightmare ever truly be over, would a fate like theirs happen to him? Maybe...maybe he should...

"Looks like she's all done, performed far better than I expected. Let's go."

Break's sudden declaration brought Nox out of his dark thoughts. When he tried to remember it, all he felt was a weird sense of disconnection with how he had been acting. 'What was that?' Nox wasn't an optimist, it didn't make sense for him to consider...something like that. It's this place! It must've been, it's messing with his head. Doing weird things, the sooner he gets on that secret train, the sooner he can put this whole thing behind him.
Nox galloped out with the other ponies, stopping only to see Aurora wiping a bloody, sludge-covered knife off the ground as she stood over a dead sludge wolf. 'She's way too good at that.'

---

It's a good thing they brought cloaks, the biting chill of the wind was something Nox was glad he was missing. Didn't help that they were on the roof. Nox paced around impatiently while Marigold was Engaged in unicorn stuff with Aurora. Meanwhile, Break was holding out a pair of binoculars, looking around the empire.

Nox walked up to him, "So, we've been up here for nearly 30 minutes. Do you think-"

"There'll be there." Break cut him off sharply, "As much as I'd like to engage in idle chatter, I need to keep my eyes open. So, go bother Marigold, will you?" Still as rude as ever.

Nox sighed, 'Probably just stressed or something.' With nothing else to do, Nox trotted over to Marigold. Apparently done with the unicorn stuff.

"Hey there, dear." She greeted him, was that a bit of weariness in her voice or was Nox imagining it?

"Hey..." Nox's eyes locked onto Marigold's rifle.

He'd been staring, Marigold picked up on that. "Never seen a rifle before?"

"....er..." Honestly, he's never seen a gun until recently. "Not really." He had a pistol, a bit like Aurora's but a little smaller. Sally was still holding onto the knife and there was a sheathed machete attached to his back. A rather weak selection of weapons though.

"Hm...well then, would you care to learn how it works?" She offered up the rifle to him. "Alright then, first: Sit. Next up, puts your hooves here." Marigold used Nox's limp hooves to position, what she thought was a good rifle holding position.
"Then all you have to do is aim down the sights, line up the target. Squeeze the trigger and prepare for the recoil, good thing you have talons. This gun seemed to be made for gryphons and then modified for a pony build."

Wasn't all that different from using the pistol, "Wait, recoil?"

"Yeah, guns usually have a kick back when they're fired. That pistol you got won't give too big of a kick back, but this rifle's got a much bigger kick to it, for example-" Marigold's explanation would have to wait. There seemed to be, blue smoke coming from a building far off from them.
"Looks like we're gonna start up soon."

"What's the blue smoke mean again?"

"Well, you see we have a system in place. We don't have radios and the smoke doesn't produce a smell and it's relatively quiet. Usually, blue means clear. Green will be our ignition, once Break lights the green smoke their blue smoke will switch to green, one at a time within minutes of each other. When it turns yellow, that means the next pony in line has to create the distraction. It's a sign of danger. If Break puts out the yellow signal, then that means the plan is off."

That was their plan. They would guide the sludge monsters around the base of the spire away, giving them a much safer path in. It wasn't full proof, some of them might ignore the distraction or someone could get discovered before their turn is up. Still, it was the best plan they could come up with.

"There are two other smoke signal." Her voice dropped, "When something is red, that means they can't continue, need immediate back up or that they've accepted their fate. The last color, we never use, when the smoke is black that means-"

"What the hell?" Break's voice could barely contain his anger. Did something go wrong with the plan?
No, Nox could see the billowing blue smoke. Break put down his binoculars and trotted over to the rucksacks. He pulled out a yellow bar, but Marigold stopped him.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm calling off the plan."

While Break and Marigold argued, Nox took up Break's binoculars. Looking to the blue smoke signals, they all seemed fine except for one.
......
That was not one of the ponies Break had agreed to.

"Kumi is not supposed to be out here!" Break was trying so hard not to shout, and he was really struggling to grab the yellow flare out of Marigold's grasp. "Give me the bar, Marigold."

"Break, you were saying how important this is. And now you want to go home and quit because Kumi MIGHT get hurt?"

"Give me the bar, Marigold."

"You can't keep shutting her away forever, we're not gonna be around forever."

"The bar. Now."

"Break. You said this was our best chance, all you need is someone to light the smoke signals and-"

"The. Bar. Marigold."

"Guys." Nox tried to get their attention.

"Why can't you just trust her..."

"Guys." Nox tried again.

"She's too young, inexperienced, she's gonna get hurt and-"

"Guys!" Nox said, louder this time. He pointed out Kumi's smoke signal. "Isn't black smoke the bad one?"

The arguing stopped immediately, all eyes were on Nox now. Marigold stepped forward, her eyes widening. A look of pure terror plastered on her face as the color drained from her, "B-Break..." She squeaked out. "That's...black smoke."

"...I know..." Even Break had lost his dead-pan expression. For the first time since Nox met him, Break looked afraid. Afraid of what though? Well, they wouldn't have to wait too long...

The clouds seemed to be twisting and swirling over the black smoke. Something bad was happening, and Kumi was right in the middle of it. A red light shined through the clouds, illuminating Kumi's building.

"It's back. It's been years, but it's back..."