The Theory of Dove And Grenade

by TLC

Blood On The Mind

He was dead. Dead.

His body sat lifelessly against the wall. His blood sprayed off to the sides of his head which hung limp his his chin to his chest. His left eye stared down emptily at the floor, his other was gone. Smashed into his head, the cattle prod sticking out where it used to be. I had left his head a crater of its former self, all out of...anger? What had come over me? At the mention of my father, something clouded my thinking. I felt betrayed. Nothing mattered, the house. Buck it. The PG? Buck them, all of them. I needed to find my father, I wanted answers.

Before I knew it we were running, Summer was pulling me out of the house. We left Flamerider's body alone, there was nothing more to be done. I couldn't think straight, my hoof was sore. I glanced down at it, the fur stained with Flamerider's drying blood. We heard sirens just down the street as we dipped into an alley down the block from my neighborhood. We stopped and watched as armored vans sped past towards the house. Summer ran ahead and I followed her.

I...I couldn't shake the image, I couldn't get his blood out of my eyes! I just brutally murdered another pony. Somepony was Dead. Dead! And I can't remember any of it...I just blinked and Summer was holding me against a wall and shaking me. She looked so frighted. My stomach was turning, my heart pounding hard in my chest. How could I... When we were far enough, we stopped behind an old dinner. We stood at a dumpster, Summer waiting for me as I came in through the alley way.

"Hail." Summer said, grabbing me. "Come on, stay with me! What the buck happened back there?"

"I don't know!" I screamed. "I just blacked out and...and..." I nearly broke into sobs as she brought a hoof to my muzzle.

"Shh, shh. Okay..." She whispered. "Are you alright?"

I calmed myself, breathing slowly. "Y-Yeah. I...I think."

She took her hoof away from my muzzle, and began to pace the alley way. "Alright."

"Summer?" I asked, getting her attention. "Did...did I-"

"Yeah. You did." She said, rubbing the back of her head. "But, uh, don't worry. He wasn't really getting us anywhere anyway. Heh." She looked away from me, staring down at her hoof. "So, what made you..."

I thought back to everything he told us. "Remember when he mentioned S.C.A.V.A.?" I asked her receiving a nod. "He mentioned a Commander Showers."

She dropped her head. "Your father."

"Yeah." I said, my jaw tightening. "We need to find him."

"Wait, what? No way." Summer said, waving a hoof in the air. "We're in the shit as it is."

"I have to know if he knew it was me." I told her.

She walked up to me, her brow furrowed. "You want us to just walk into a S.C.A.V.A. base and look around? Do you know what they'll do?!"

I stomped my hoof into the alley floor. "Buck! We'll we can't just sit around anymore! Now that this actually involves me AND my dad, I'm not gonna run away from it!"

She sat in front of my, laying her hooves on my shoulders. "Look, relax. Uh..." She looked up to the sky, her eyes closed. "It's around midnight. Do you have any sort of clue where we might be able to find him?"

"No." I told her, my brain churning for ideas. "Wait, I might know where we could look him up. There's a checkpoint near Old Alabaster Park that should have a console.". I explained. "If we can get to it, I might be able to find files with station reports."

Summer nodded as I continued. "It shouldn't heavily guarded, it wasn't the last time he brought me there. It might have gotten more protection after the riots, though."

"Wait, how do you know about all of this?" She asked.

"When I was younger, my dad would sometimes take me there with his friends." I told her. Fond memories they were, though I feared that they would soon not matter anymore.

"Right." She sighed, standing up. She walked over to the alley wall, rubbing her eyes. "...are you sure about this?"

"What?" I asked. "Now you're scared?"

That got her attention. She turned around quick and stared down at me. "What? I'm not scared! I'm worried about you becoming Swiss cheese. You look like you've been through enough hell already."

"Please, Summer." I said, walking over to her. "I need to know. Maybe he can help us."

"Or kill us." She deadpanned. "Or just me, or better! Perform tests on my blood!"

I stared. "Please?" I had nothing, this was my only lead. It wasn't even a lead, I was just looking for a new hole to hide in. I was still running, just with a purpose.

She looked down to me, letting out a sigh and resting a hoof on my head. "Alright." She turned towards the alley entry way and looked back. "Come on."

We left the alley, ducking behind the passing carriages of the night. Street lights flickering over our heads as we went.

I thought this was the right thing to do...

~*~\~^~/~*~

"We have no leads..." Showers said, pacing his office with two soldiers standing beside the door. A stallion with a large black coat sat in a chair in front of the Commander's desk "There are vicious murderers, thugs, goddamn monsters under the control of Shard and we can't risk this getting out into the open." He sighed, stopping in the center of the room. "And for what? Heh...some failed science experiment I was against at the start. I knew this whole thing was a mistake."

"Commander, these little incidents happen more often than you know." The older seated stallion said, pushing his glasses up with a hoof. "In fact back in my day, when the enemy got hold of a weapon we knew could wipe us off the map if used correctly, we simply built another one. Something much more powerful, unearthly, and dangerous. So much in fact, that even The Princess ordered its destruction only after one use." He leaned forward in his chair. "Do you know what it was?"

Showers turned to the stallion. "No, what?"

The stallion grinned. "It was simply a great metal cylinder filled half way to the base with a chemical we found in magic and super charged it. The rest was filled with basic PxT explosives. Before they had a chance to attack, our bomb vaporized everything but the fillings in their teeth." He said. "In the locker rooms, we called it 'The Final Bell'."

Showers watched the stallion, then shook his head. "I don't understand. How do you expect us to find or build something to fight back PG? It's only a matter of time before Shard gets too anxious and orders a full on pony hunt for the subject."

The stallion sat back in his chair and reached into his coat pocket, pulling out a rag and wiping his forehead. "Tell me, Commander. Are you married?"

Showers stared down at the carpeted floor he stood on, his eyes closed and breathing still. "Once...years ago."

"Ah. Any children, Commander?"

"Y-Yes." Showers walked back behind his desk, sitting down in his chair and staring at the single picture frame that sat on the desk's surface. It's frame worn and glass cracked, the picture of a smiling colt faded with time. "One. A colt, a smart colt."

"Yes...Now, hypothetically, when PG do happen to release the hounds and chaos spreads throughout the city...how long before your son is caught in the cross fire?"

A loud slam echoed through the room, as Showers kicked back his chair and slammed his hooves on his desk. "You better watch your bucking words, Theory." He growled through gritted teeth. "I'd hate to have these two recruits start their service by scrubbing you out of the carpet with their tooth brushes."

Theory chortled. "Oh, ho! Well...I guess it is true what they say about your temper."

Showers glared at Theory, his hooves scraping the surface of the desk as the stallion stood up and laid his hooves on the desk. Theory leaned in and whispered. "Dismiss your guards."

Showers stared into the stallions aged eyes, darkened and yellow. His man was damn near gone, his fur paler than the papers that sat upon his desk. He thought about ordering him to leave, or having his recruits beat any and all information he had regarding PG.

"Backfire, Shrapnel." Commander Showers grunted. "Dismiss."

The soldiers nodded and exited his office, leaving him with the mad eyed stallion.

"Good, now." Theory said, pulling a file out of his coat and placing it on the desk. "Tell me...how much do you already know of Project Grenade."

~*~\~^~/~*~

Summer and I walked side by side down the many empty alley ways of Manehattan towards the base, the filth and trash I saw scattered across the ground didn't surprise me. But then I thought, how could anything cause any sort of emotion out of me at this point? My muzzle burned from the stench, stung from being broken. My skin crawled, the constant feeling a bug crawling under my skin began to numb my mind.

As we made our way to an underpass, we stopped. "Are you sure this is the way?" Summer asked me.

"Of course I'm sure." I said. "I'm not walking for my health here, I feel like I'm being together like a raggedy doll."

We continued under the pass, old train carts and abandoned cars crowded around. Phone booths and dumpsters, practically a hobo's paradise. As we walked, I watched Summer. I wondered what she was thinking, about our situation, of S.C.A.V.A. About me. Nothing I could make of her made sense. Since the day we met in the hospital, I couldn't make heads or tails of this mare. Only that she was a killer; a brutal one at that, and held some sort of gene that PG wants back badly.

"You've been staring at me for an awfully long time, Dove." Summer spoke as she walked, I turned my head away just as the heat rose in my cheeks. "You know, ponies are gonna to start having less of a problem with me killing than running around with a colt."

"Hey, one; I turn eighteen in three months. Two, I was just wondering...what do you think of all this?" I asked, looking up at the mare.

Summer chuckled, shaking her head. "All of this?...The killing, the constant running, not knowing what I am. What I truly am..." She said, looking up as we found our way on the other side and out from under the overpass. "To tell you honestly, I'm scared."

I listened closely as we walked, blades of the moon highlighting us as we walked down the city streets. "I'm scared of what I am, and even more of what I could become. I'm numb to the killing, only to those who deserve it. All this bullshit about Dead Zone, S.C.A.V.A., and those crazy PG bucks...It all blurs together for me."

A silence fell upon use as we soon found our selves walking through Alabaster Park, the cold wet blades of grass refreshing my senses. The night sky appeared particularly clear, the left half of the moon light the park along with the gold of the street lights. My mind finally began to calm down. Despite all that had happened, I could breathe steadier and fall more into the calmness of the night.

"Now I get to ask you a question..." I heard her say, bringing me out of the background.

"Okay," I said, "go ahead."

She went silent, stopping in the middle of the park. We both stood still as she looked up into the night sky.

"...Are...you okay knowing you could die?"

Comments

[-Brutus]

"...Are...you okay know you could die?"

knowing, instead of know. But excellent chapter, this indeed moved the plot along!

[Luna Secret Stallion]

Why the hell is this cancelled? Dude give one good reason why I shouldn't hate you for canceling this story?

[TLC]

5313045 I don't know...I just kinda felt the story was falling apart. I'm sorry. If it means anything, I plan to revisit this when I have the mindset...

[Luna Secret Stallion]

5317656 Its ok I really love this story though.