Prologue: or, How We Were Broken
“One, two, three, one, two, three,” a mare’s voice while soft spoken was still enough to easily be heard in the stillness. She moved in otherwise silence, gracefully avoiding all manner of motion detectors. Fortunately the architects had avoided using heat or sound sensors.
Even in the near pitch black, if one was looking, they would see the outline of an earth pony mare covered head to hoof to hide her identity. Of course she had made sure that no one would interrupt her elegant dance toward her goal. Well it hadn’t just been her who had a hoof in the set up so far as she was elegantly reminded over her ear bud communicator by a sound highly similar to that of somepony blowing a raspberry with their tongue.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the other side of the darkened facility another earth pony was at work making minute adjustments to what a layman might think was a pocket watch. True its design was based on that of the complex clockwork of a watch; however its purpose was far less to tell the time of day and more, to tell the bomb to which it was attached to explode.
The earth pony smiled as he straightened himself at the sound of something moving behind him. Well that and the sound of an ill-timed raspberry.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“PHBT!” another earth pony mare sat at a control console inside a rather unusual airship. It was carefully painted black and its highspeed turbines spun almost silently in the dark ready to be throttled to flight speed at a moment’s notice. She was idly spinning in the rotating pilot’s seat bored out of her mind.
“Damn it Divan.” A mare’s voice spoke sharply through the spinning mare’s earbud.
The pony called Divan stopped her spinning only a moment to reply, “Oh hi Cords! I’m so bored, do you want to talk?
“It’s just Cord. And no I don’t want to talk right now. I’m busy and you should be too.” Cord was beside herself trying to think of how in Equestria somepony like Divan got recruited for this kind of mission.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lying prone on a grassy knoll was a Pegasus mare staring through the telescopic lens of a rifle scope. Even Divan’s raspberry was not enough to disrupt her perfect breathing. Long steady breaths kept her aim stable. It was little more than practice at this point having already dispatched any possible interlopers who remained outside of the vast complex stretching out before her.
It spanned five acres and was complete with training grounds, barracks, motor pool, and mess hall. It was the very picture of a military instillation. Still not one pony on the team would ever say that looks could not be deceiving. After all their friends and loved ones would never suspect that any of them were about to eliminate an entire underground terrorist cell.
“Dog,” a stallion’s voice came through the team’s ear buds along with the sound of a low growl, “Chesterfield, you should still have a line of sight on me. Confirm visual on the canine.”
The sniper spoke with barely a whisper to keep her steady aim as she scanned the area near the Pegasus who had just addressed her. While she was a consummate professional in regards to her mission her voice cracked slightly as she replied, “sighting confirmed Commander, but I didn’t bring any non lethals.”
The stallion’s voice was clearly saddened as he let out a sigh, “I am sorry Chessy, there is no other option.”
“Take the shot. That dog barks and we lose Optics and Cord.” A new female voice crackled to life on the radio. Her tone was agitated by her sniper giving more value to the dog than the five ponies she had already killed not half an hour ago, but she had long since accepted the Pegasus for her unparalleled skill.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Optics watched as the dog fell without a sound. He said a quiet thank you to the sniper who had just saved both his own and another operative’s lives. He then turned his attention on the mare who had just convinced Chesterfield to fire, “I thought you were going to sit this one out. Shouldn’t you be resting?”
“Of course not. This little filly isn’t due for another week.” Her tone had been indignant but immediately became embarrassed as she uttered a single sentence, “Oops, I’m in trouble Optics.”
“FIBER!” The stallion Optics almost shouted blowing his cover before reigning in his speech to address the crew, “Divan, I need her location now.” “Sector four, northern most structure, third floor.” “Chesterfield, keep our exit clear.” “Yes sir.” “Cord, finish up and get back to the ship.” “Already done and screw that, I’m closer to her than you.” Optics seemed to growl as he began a dead sprint toward his expectant comrade.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A lone female Pegasus stood surrounded by a well-armed group of earth pony stallions. There were only six and Fiber knew she could have taken them if it weren’t for the filly currently taking residence in her womb. Still she would not simply surrender; after all there was no telling what these criminals would do to her foal in order to get her to talk. However just as the stallions were beginning their attack a window shattered revealing an earth pony mare moving like lightning to meet Fiber’s attackers.
“Cord, how lovely to see you.” Fiber smiled under the mask that hid her face, still if the earth pony mare were not busy killing she would have heard the Pegasus’s motherly kindness in her voice. Which wasn’t such a bad thing considering that Fiber’s tender character was something Cord simply couldn’t stand.
Optics spoke in a less relaxed tone as he entered through the door, "I thought I ordered you back to the ship.” Cord only shrugged as she finished off the last of the guards to find her commander being forced forward by a rather haggard unicorn stallion whose gravelly voice grated on Cord’s sensibilities as an admirer of beautiful sound.
“Yes the nice little family reunion is rather heartwarming. Unfortunately if you don’t disarm the explosives scattered around my facility I’ll have to let you all die in a rather unpleasant way. Of course Doctor, you will have to be the last to die. I personally would find it rather amusing to let you watch your foal being born and then be murdered the moment it laid eyes on you.”
Fiber’s heart skipped a beat at hearing Optics’ old code name. It was a name that hadn’t been used in years. Not since… Turning to Optics and the stallion behind him her suspicions were confirmed. Yet another villain climbing out of their old dossier to exact an ill-conceived revenge plot. Unfortunately this Unicorn was one of those villains that was just dangerous enough to be a real threat as evidenced by the magical binding holding Optics.
Still Optics only smiled at the mother of his foal as he spoke, “Well that seems all well and good, but I can’t let you hurt anyone anymore.” He paused only a moment to turn his head toward the other mare in the room, “Cord, as much as he wants me to suffer, he won’t hesitate to kill all of us if we resist in a way that will endanger him. So I want you to take Fiber out the window and back to the ship.”
“What! Hell no! We can…!” Fiber’s pleas soon degraded into cursing but stopped when Optics continued.
“If this doesn’t work, tell that dinky little Pegasus that his father loves him.” It was then that Fiber saw the explosive trigger in his hoof. She barely registered being lifted by her middle and being carried toward the window behind her. She saw the explosive flash, the fire, the flash of a teleportation spell, and Optics being overtaken by the expanding flame and she cried out praying to Celestia that he would hear her, “She’s a Unicorn!” Fiber could have sworn she saw optics smile as his face was fully engulfed in the firestorm. The vision in her right eye went black as a miniscule shard of fiery brass melted to glass cut into her eye. Strangely the pain was only momentary and her vision was restored soon after the sting was gone. It was as if it had been little more than dust washed from her eyes by the now flowing tears.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Help! We need help right now.” A pink maned Earth pony with a pink coat cried out as she helped a yellow Pegasus with an equally pink mane rush into the Ponyville General Hospital carrying a second Pegasus toward the front desk. That third mare could easily be seen to have a yellow mane and a grey coat with golden eyes wide open as if they had just seen something mind crushingly heartbreaking.
A nurse known by all three mares as Redheart gasped as she saw Pinkie and Fluttershy holding a shaking Derpy in their arms, “What happened? Where is Mr. Turner?”
Pinkie Pie was about to speak when she was interrupted by last mare anyone would have expected to interrupt anyone Fluttershy, “She just got news that her husband died in a work accident and she went into labor. “
“She’s not due yet, is she going to be okay?” Pinkies question almost seemed to be ignored as Nurse Redheart almost jumped over her desk to help the two mares get Derpy into a wheelchair. She had to stop the two mares from following as two more nursed began wheeling Derpy to a birthing room. Still she was warm and kind to the two young mares that had helped their friend. Her tone was even more reassuring as she finally replied to Pinkie’s concern, “Don’t worry Pinkie, such a short time before the estimated due date isn’t going to harm Derpy or her foal in any way. Especially since you got her here so quickly.”
Fluttershy gave Pinkie a knowing look as they thought about how long it really had taken them. Still their relief at Redheart’s kind words was enough to have them sitting comfortably in the waiting area when a rather recognizable mare entered the hospital.
“Octi!” Pinkie cried out before Octavia even had a chance to look around the room for her friends. She let out a heavy sigh at the use of the rather annoying nickname while Fluttershy addressed her.
“Oh hello Octavia. I’m sorry but, Derpy is delivering right now. So we have to wait.”
Octavia only smiled as she began to respond only to be interrupted by nurse redheart addressing the three mares, “Oh Miss Philharmonica, I’m glad you’re here. Mrs. Turner has just asked to see all three of you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As the three young Mares entered Derpy’s recovery room they saw her leaning back with a tiny bundleclutched gently to her chest. Despite the smile on her face and the expression of motherly love and joy on her lips, her three friends all saw the echoing sadness in her eye. Just one of them? The other was wrong somehow. While her left eye was focused on the three of them, Derpy’s right eye was staring to the opposite side of the bed.
Pinkie was the first to speak in a rather overly joyful tone, “Hey what’s wrong wi…” Octavia was quick to intercept the rather rude line of questioning with something a little less uncouth.
“Oh she’s beautiful. Did you and.. did you decide on a name?”
Derpy was unfazed as she responded almost immediately, “Dinky, we picked Dinky. As for the eye, it got burned a little in the explosion. Don’t worry about it.”
Oh Derpy. I told you I was joking about that name.
“You could have aimed for my ear you know. Maybe I’ll learn to read lips so you can’t talk about me behind my back.”
The three mares now stood beside her as Fluttershy took the opportunity to speak, “Sweetie, a-are you alright?”
“Would you four just leave me and my Muffin alone?” two thirds of Derpy’s friends immediately looked behind themselves for the fourth pony she was talking about.
As for Pinkie, she was actively staring holes directly through something that only one other pony could see if only halfway. She then employed her greatest skill, despite being an earth pony, Pinkie had the magical ability to transcend reality, to an extent. She always felt as if she were falling when she left Equestria to visit the space between worlds, it was an action that her team had affectionately termed, ‘going outside’ and it carried with it a rather heavy cost in the form of minor brain damage. True the brain damage wouldn’t ever truly harm her as long as she was careful. Still over time she would begin to lose her grasp on her reality.
Are you a ghost?
Pinkie? I should have known if anypony could really find me it would be you.
Don’t count your parasprites before they’re finished eating. You’re fading rather quickly out of my trans-dimensional jurisdiction. Failed time travel seems like the most likely culprit.
Wait you mean she… I’ll disappear?
Not exactly. I think that you’ll still be you, but Derpy and I will only see you out of the corner of our eye for a while, then…
You won’t see me at all.
Right.
Do me a favor. Don’t tell her. I might be able to get back to you all someday, but I don’t want to hurt her if I fail. Also try not to let her break the gift I made for her. It’s in our kitchen in a blue box.
Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.
“Pinkie.” The extra-dimensional mare was forced back to reality at the sound of her name. Derpy was addressing her and she found that Octavia and Fluttershy had already left. She was about to turn and leave when Derpy stopped her, “I’ve got questions for you young filly. First, that unicorn. Did Turner kill him? I saw the teleportation spell.”
“He’s very dead. Enough of the explosion teleported with him to turn him to ash before he made it to his destination. And the other question? Also if I might ask didn't he have a name?”
“He probably had a name. It's beyond my pay grade to remember every pony we capture and lock up. As for my next question, while you were outside, were you talking to that?” Derpy pointed a hoof toward the spot where she had seen the image of her husband. Pinkie only nodded allowing Derpy a sigh of relief that she wasn’t hallucinating, but that relief was short lived as her next question came to mind, “What is it? What does it want?”
Pinkie smiled with her response, “Just a shadow, Derps. He can’t hurt you and he’ll be gone before you know it.” Though you’ll no doubt begin wishing he would come back. “If you don’t mind me asking, why were you there? We could have handled the mission without you.”
Derpy made a strangely out of character glare at the question, and softened only slightly as she replied, “Sorry Pinkie, that one is beyond your pay grade.”
Pinkie only shook her head and was gone, leaving Derpy alone with her filly peacefully sleeping in her arms and the silent ghost watching over them.
Stats
Page generated in 0.017 seconds
Total duration
985 users online
2,259,528 hits today, 2,782,760 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
all in all an interrresting prologue In my opinion, enough to make me want to read the next chapter. but one thing you might need, is a prereader of some sorts. here´s what I found on my first readthrough:
it´s actually a statement that she questions it, so the question mark kind of questions that she´s questioning why said pony is there in short, just replace it with a dot.
double 'if'
you forgot the starting quotes for the speech there
nurses
forgot the spacing
I guess you missed the color coding, but not sure
two thirds of
looked was the word that you where searching I guess
again this color coding thing, but this time oposite
I am extremely confused.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, though.
Also, you used the word 'hands' in the description.
3832442 Holy crap... yeah you are right I do need a proofreader... I figured I missed some stuff but everything there is so damn obvious... well it was late last night. So proof reader and no more posting stories late at night when I"m crazy tired. Thanks for the bit of proof reading you just did.
3832456 Confused works... I think... I don't know, I'm so confused.
Also thanks for catching that in the description. Here I thought I was doing so well keeping hands out of places that hooves should be... Like I said in another comment I need to stop posting these so late at night... and a proofreader would not be the worst kind of person I could find.
3832919 It's actually one of the hardest things to do myself. I can't tell you how many times I've caught myself writing it.