Nihil Novi Sub Sole

by Wheller

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The armoured car bucked and bounced over the terrain, it had been nearly an hour after they’d crossed the borders between Western South Island, and into the rockier, and remote Northern Protectorate. Fusilier Willoughby sat in the driver’s seat, to his left, in the co-driver’s spot sat Vinyl Scratch. Princess Luna was behind them, poking out of the top hatch keeping an eye on the land behind them, which Willoughby couldn’t see.

“So?” Vinyl asked, turning to Willoughby. “How are you?”

Willoughby raised an eyebrow at the question. “I’m fine?”

“Cool,” Vinyl said with a grin. “How’d you sleep last night?”

“Pretty good actually, slept through the entire night,” Willoughby said, unsure of where Vinyl was going with the line of questioning.

“Glad to hear it,” she said, turning back forward.

Willoughby was confused to say the least, but said nothing, and continued to drive.

Vinyl was satisfied that he had not been listening to her and Princess Luna’s talk last night. “Willoughby? Do you think I’m pretty?”

“I... what?” Willoughby said, being caught completely off guard by the question. “I... sure? I guess, for a pony.”

“Cool,” Vinyl said with a grin.

“Are you trying to make me feel uncomfortable for your own amusement?” Willoughby asked. “Because if you are, it’s working.”

“I’m bored and there’s nothing to look at,” Vinyl said with a shrug.

“I’m... sorry, that you lost your sight,” Willoughby said.

“It’s cool, it was ether going to be me or Twilight, better off me,” Vinyl said.

Willoughby frowned, regretting bringing it up at all, and decided to change. “How is everyone? Derpy, Lyra, Bon Bon, Big McIntosh, Braeburn, and Trixie?”

“Lyra and Bon Bon were fine before I left. Derpy and I... are kind of together now. I saw Big McIntosh once, delivering Apples somewhere. I think Braeburn is in Appleoosa... and as far as I can tell, Trixie disappeared off the face of the planet, nopony had heard from her in nearly a year... and I don’t think they wanted to,” Vinyl said.

“Why not? She seemed pleasant enough,” Willoughby said.

“I’d agree, but apparently she wasn’t always...” Vinyl did not get a chance to finish her sentence, as the armoured car hit something causing it to jolt around, smacking the unicorn’s head against the metal interior of the car with a loud crack!

Crunch!

Willoughby felt the suspension of the armoured car give way, grinding the bottom of the car against the ground and skidding to a halt. Princess Luna lost her balance and fell back inside the car, landing hard on the metal floor plates.

“Bloody hell!” Willoughby called out in frustration. “Everyone all right?”

Vinyl Scratch groaned in pain from Willoughby’s left, she was clutching her head, a slight trickle of blood flowed from where she had smacked her head. “Why does it always have to be the head? Just once, can’t it be something not useful? Like the spleen?”

“I’m fine,” Luna said. “What happened?”

“I don’t know yet, Princess, could you take a look in front of us from the top hatch? See if you can’t see what we hit?” Willoughby asked.

“Of course,” Luna said as she crawled up and poked her head out of the top hatch. “I don’t see what we hit... there’s a little white sign a few metres behind us though.”

“Little... white... sign?” Willoughby asked, a look of horror forming on his face. “Crap! How did I not see that?!”

“What’s wrong?” Vinyl asked.

“I know what we hit,” Willoughby said. “We hit a landmine.”

“A landmine?” Vinyl asked.

“You know, little bits of explosives that are buried in the ground, when someone or something goes over them, boom!” Willoughby explained.

“I know what a landmine is Benny,” Vinyl said with annoyance in her voice.

Willoughby did not respond. He climbed out of the driver’s seat and climbed out of the top of the armoured car; he pulled a pair of binoculars out of his vest and began looking towards the northeast.

“Lovely, ‘mine clearing in progress,’ Looks like you missed one!” Willoughby called out in frustration. “Everybody out! We’re walking the rest of the way.”

“But, these landmines...” Luna began to protest.

“Don’t exactly have any other choices, we can’t just burry the artefact anywhere we damn well please, and going back the way we came isn’t an option,” Willoughby said. “We stick to the canyon wall and follow it as far as it goes. We’ll figure out what to do from there.”

Luna hopped off the armoured car and turned back towards it. She could only watch as Vinyl Scratch struggled to make her way out of the car, she lost her balance and tumbled off, landing hard on her flank.

“Princess Luna? The universe has an odd sense of humour,” Vinyl said.

“So do you,” Princess Luna mused as she helped the unicorn to her hooves.

“Yeah, but my sense of humour isn’t as cruel,” Vinyl said simply.

Willoughby looked around; He’d been riding along a rock formation for the last few kilometres and knew that it would be safe to follow. CSI had placed landmines all across the Outback years ago, severing several key areas from being accessible with each other. Thirty years ago, when it had looked like open war was going to break out between South Island and her allies and the Twin Gryphon Kingdoms, minefields separating the Northern Protectorate from Western South Island and Kingsland had seemed like a good idea. After all, nobody lived out here to wander into them. Then, Princess Celestia of Equestria had managed to negotiate a peaceful solution to the problems at hand then. Then, come present day, or at least, last year, the new Liberal Government of South Island declared that the minefields should be removed.

Of course, even if they hadn’t been removed, it wouldn’t have been a problem. Willoughby was a soldier. He knew the pattern; he could guide even a blind person through with no issue, which was fortunate for him, because that was exactly what he had to do. The trio stayed along the ridge, where it would be safer to travel. These minefields had been put into place to stop tanks, not people; there wouldn’t have been a point in that, since gryphons fly.

They spent several long hours following the ridge; both Vinyl Scratch and Luna were silent the entire time, as if they were afraid to speak, for fear of getting Willoughby distracted. He could understand the ponies’ uneasiness; after all, here they were, out in the South Island Outback, completely unfamiliar with the lay of the land. It had to have been a big deal for them. After all, the ponies of Equestria left their homeland rarely, even in this new world.

The sun began to set again, soon they’d have to stop and make camp. Willoughby had taken as much as he could in the way of food and survivalist gear from the wreck of the armoured car. Couldn’t exactly go looking for food, the field may have been marked as cleared, but that didn’t mean that they all got picked up, obviously.

Willoughby tended to Vinyl Scratch’s wound, changing the bandage on her head, he smiled at the mare while he did his work, becoming disappointed when he got no reaction from it, and kicking himself upon remembering her lack of sight.

He’d lied to her this morning, when she asked him how he’d slept. He’d been awake during the time Vinyl had her break down. When she had tried to change the world, he didn’t dare interrupt it. To be perfectly honest, Willoughby would have been fine with the world going back to the way it was. As Trooper Willoughby, he had direction in his life; he knew exactly what he needed to do. Fusilier Willoughby wasn’t quite so sure. He missed the crew he rode with. He didn’t even know where Stephen McNair and Armando Vickers were. Not that he would have tried to contact them. They wouldn’t have remembered.

“Should we be burying the artefact?” Willoughby asked finally. “Is it really the right thing to do?”

Both mares’ heads shot up in surprise at the idea.

“What would you have us do with it?” Luna asked.

Willoughby thought about it for a moment, the more he thought about it, he really didn’t want the world to go back to the way it was. What he did want was for the people he’d served with, his friends, to remember him.

“I want to find all my old friends and bring their memories back,” Willoughby said. Not only did he want his former crew mates back, but his friends in Equestria as well.

Luna bit her lip, she was afraid that someone would have suggested that. “We can’t.”

“Why not? Everyone who does remember is fine,” Willoughby said.

“Yes, but not everyone is cut out to remember,” Luna said. “Could you imagine; what would it be like for Rainbow Dash if she remembered? The shock of remembering her death might just kill her again. What of the police ponies who were butchered? What would happen if they remembered?”

Vinyl Scratch nodded in agreement. “Luna’s right Benny, as much as I would want my friends to remember me, the artefact is too dangerous. Some people just aren’t meant to remember.”

Vinyl put her foreleg around the kangaroo, sympathising with his plight.

“Sometimes, it’s just better to forget.”

Comments

[thecakeisalie]

12384 It's Willoughby. It was in the epilouge part of the last one.

[DreadedCandiru2]

Hmmmm......Not only do we get a bit of a reminder of where the ponies Willoughby befriended are, we also remind ourselves that not everyone would want to know what once was....or, for that matter, survive it. Imagine, for instance, sweet little Fluttershy remembering becoming Murdershy.

[Apocalypse Pony]

14052

ALALALA I CANT HEAR YOU OVER VINYL BEING ABLE TO SEE AGAIN ALALALALA