War of Ali: New and Improved Version

by Soviet_Minister

Awakening...

Dragon Gem awoke to find herself in a bed with wrinkled, cream-colored sheets, and thin, rough blankets. She had never seen this bed in her life, until now. She looked around. She was in a small, white room. Inside the white room were multiple white cupboards, a white, marble desk and a very clean, reflective white floor. The door to the room opened. An earth pony, with an orange mane and a light-shaded yellow coat, rushed in frantically.

"It's about time you woke up! I think you're the new record holder for...something," The unknown pony said. "The name's Carrot Top. I'm one of the surgeons who helped operate on you. I really would love nothing more than to stay and chat, but we're evacuating the hospital. So I need you to get up. Now."

"Wait, wait. What are you talking about? Evacuating? As far as I can tell, nothing is happening that is bad enough for an evacuation." Dragon Gem stared at Carrot Top, confusion on her face.

"An announcement was put over the radio network that Intel had identified a Nuclear Warhead that was fired from an unknown location. Its estimated path shows that it might land in the ocean a few miles from here. Don't know why, and I don't really care. But we REALLY need to get going."

Carrot Top, with impatience, trotted over to where Dragon Gem lay. She pressed something, and the metal bands that kept Dragon Gem down on the bed, retracted into the bed. Dragon Gem didn't even notice them until now. She looked back at Carrot Top, who, looking even more impatient, started tugging at Dragon Gems' leg.

"Why was I bound down?"

"You started to have... spasms, in your sleep. It was starting to become dangerous, seeing how you were still healing from your surgery. We had a case where one of our incisions split back open, but we stitched it back up, and it healed back, good as new. Now, as I have already said, we MUST get going."

"Well, I'm glad I can see again. It was a curse, having no eye-sight. And the wings! I can fly now!" She let out a little squeal of delight.

She climbed out of bed, the weight of her new Cybonic parts weighing here down. She stood for a few seconds, trying to adjust to the weight. When she felt confident enough to walk, she took a step towards a filing cabinet, where the records of all major surgery records for this hospital were kept, and almost fell over on her face. She stood straight again, this time just standing there for a bit longer, and tried to walk again. She succeeded, and walked slowly across the room to the cabinet. She pulled out three records that caught her attention, and quickly read over them.

Patient: Twilight Sparkle
Species: Alicorn
Gender: Female
Age: 29
Diagnosis: Annoyance with wings.
Treatment: Wing amputation

Patient: Dragon Gem
Species: Unicorn
Gender: Female
Age: 27
Diagnosis: Blindness, No magic.
Treatment: Cybonic surgery.

Patient: Dell Fillivon [Currently classed as Escapee]
Species: Alicorn
Gender: Male
Age: 11
Diagnosis: Insanity, Unstable temper control.
Treatment: Uncertain. Await further instructions.

"OK, that's it. We're going. NOW!", yelled Carrot Top, who was now filled with frustration.

"Alright, alright, calm down. Lets go then." Dragon Gem, now kind of used to the weight, spun around, to see that Carrot Top was holding three pills.

"Take these, they will help you adjust to the weight of your new Cybonic parts."

Dragon Gem took the pills out of the yellow mares' hoof, looking at them as if they were riddled with disease.

"Oh, just take them, would you!? We don't have much time left!", Carrot raced to a radio that was sitting on a table, which was in the corner of the room. She turned it on, and switched it to the 'Alert' Channel. She listened attentively, still waiting for Dragon Gem to take the pills.

"This message is a recording, and is set on repeat, not lively. Please listen, as this may save your life.

'To anyone in the Celestial Valley; The Royalty Intelligence has identified a Nuclear Warhead, launched from an unknown source. We suspect it may be the Zebras of Zebrabwe, but it is not certain. Orders are to evacuate the area IMMEDIATELY. At the time of this recording, the warhead had forty-five minutes until impact. This message was uploaded to the network at 4:57am. Check the time immediately to see how long you may have. Good luck, everypony.'

Carrot ran to the nearest clock, seeing that the time was 5:13am.

Dragon Gem caught up to Carrot Top, the adjustment pills working quite swiftly.

"What did the radio say? Do we have much time?"

"No, we have to go. Now."

Dragon Gem and Carrot Top bolted down the corridor that led to the elevator down to the ground floor. Carrot flashed her ID card over the scanner, pressed the button to open the door, and waited. After a while, nothing happened, so she tried again. Again, nothing happened.

"Celestia, help us..." said Carrot, cursing under her breath.

"Ok, this isn't working, and we don't have time to just stand around and wait. We gotta take the stairs.", said Dragon, an impatient tone taking place in her voice.

Carrot said nothing, but agreed with a silent nod. They both ran towards the emergency exit, which took them down the stairs, towards the ground floor. Carrot, who was not much of an athlete, tripped on the last set of stairs. She hit the temple of her head with a wet crack. Dragon, with almost superpony reflexes, caught Carrot before she hit the floor. She pulled Carrots' unconscious body onto her back, so Dragon could carry her. The added weight did not really affect Dragon, as the tablets that Carrot had given her earlier were really starting to kick in.

She bolted out into the lobby. It was completely empty, seeing how most of the town was probably evacuated already.The main entrance was in her sight. She bolted towards it, glad to finally have the chance to get out of this horrible building. She ran, jumped over some knocked over tables and stopped at the doors. There was a problem.

They weren't opening.

"No! No, no, no no, NO!", she yelled, stomping her hooves on the ground as hard as she could. She checked the time on a clock that sat on the wall, in a near-perfect position.

5:17. Gotta hurry.

She set Carrot down gently, but quickly on the floor. She went to the doors, backed up, and with all her might, she bucked out, shattering the fragile glass that made up the majority of the door. The sound of the glass smashing and hitting the floor sounded deafening in the empty, silent hospital. She wondered if you could here it from space?

She dismissed that distracting thought, and ran to Carrot. She picked her up, now with hardly any effort, bolted out of the hospital, and down the street. A few ponies were still in town, either gathering possessions, or rummaging through the stores that were left, wide open for anypony who could give a shit to walk in and take whatever they want. Right then she felt, more than heard, Carrot regaining consciousness. She moved a bit, made a little noise, then fell back into the deep, dark abyss called unconsciousness.

Dragon looked back to check the state of Carrot. Blood. That was the first thing she noticed. There was blood covering nearly all of her face, dripping into her open mouth. And it was starting to soak down to her torso. Either way, she needed something to stop, or at least suppress, the bleeding. She decided that they would stop at a medical store, seeing as how she didn't want to go back to the hospital.

"C'mon Carrot, don't die on me now..."

She finally found a small medical center on the outskirts of town. She entered, and just as she feared, it had been ransacked. Most of what was useful had been stolen, and what was left wasn't really useful. But, luckily, she found what she needed right in the middle of the floor. She picked up a little bag off of the floor, and put the roll of bandages in. She then took the time to run around the shop, taking anything that may have looked useful. Morphine, weaker anesthetic agents, antibiotic tablets, antibacterial agents, anything tht could serve a good role in this situation.

When she was done, she bolted back to the front door, but check the time first.

5:27. Not much time at all.

She sprinted out the door, and down the street that led out of town. Anywhere that was opposite the ocean was an ideal route to take. She ran, and she ran. She pushed herself harder and harder, and when she would reach her limit, she would push even harder, and break that limit. It got to the point where she couldn't stop if she wanted to. Her legs were running for her. But, no matter how fast she ran, how much she pushed herself, she knew that in her heart, she wouldn't beat that nuke. She kept wishing that she had done something to her legs as-well, something that improved them Cybonically. Then she had a new wish. She wished that she could trade her wing upgrades for leg upgrades.

And that's when she remembered: She DOES have wings! She can fly! And everypony knows that flying is A LOT faster than running. She had hope, she had new energy. She ran a little faster, then, she jumped. She jumped as high as she could, bracing herself for a face plant, or falling on her side. But none of that happened. She was flapping her wings. She was flying!

"Oh Luna, and the other gods above... I'm FLYING! ME! HAHAHA!" she shouted as loud as she could across the sky, knowing now that she may have a chance of getting both her and Carrot to safety.

"Ugh... uh... what... what happened... why are we sO HIGH UP!?" Carrot screamed. She hung on for dear life as she looked down at the vast landscape below. Her fear of heights getting the better of her.

"I'm Flying! Carrot! I'm FLYING!" Dragon shouted again, with pride and joy filling her voice.

"Oh god... I think I'm... I'm gonna... uhhhh..."

Right at that moment, Carrot fainted.

"Pfft. Typical doctor..."

She flew and flew, until she was absolutely certain that the nuke wouldn't hit them. But Dragon was exhausted, and she couldn't fly for much longer. She had Cybonic wings, but that didn't make her stamina that of a superpony. She set Carrot and herself down in a large crevice that inhabited the cliff, which looked over the Celestial Valley. Dragon, who was absolutely tired, set Carrot down nice and gently. She opened the baggie she had packed the medical stuff in. She pulled out the bandages, and unwrapped about a metres length. She gripped Carrots head, and as gentle as she could, she wrapped the bandage around the cut on her head. She made sure it wasn't too tight, but made sure that it was going to stay on. Then Dragon herself decided to lay down next to Carrot, snuggling up to her, half to keep warm, and half because she had already developed feelings for Carrot.

But, before she could get to sleep, she heard an enormous 'BOOOOOSH', which shook the very ground they lay on. Dragon weakly looked up, a bright, orange glow filling the sky, and saw that infamous atomic mushroom cloud. The nuke had finally dropped. Five minutes early. But she couldn't focus on that any longer. She closed her eyes, and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.