Chapter XLV: Death in the Family
“That’s it, then?”
David blinked. “Yeah...yeah it is.”
This was his first time seeing a Tachyon Inhibitor up close. Sure, he’d seen them back during the end of the Collision War, but that was from afar as they were being loaded onto a ship at port. And he hadn’t been much in the mood for sightseeing after the destruction of Tokyo. Now, they apparently had gone through a few upgrades. The thing he’d seen being hoisted up onto the Obama back in the day had looked like one of those Tesla coils the inventor himself had used, complete with an orb up top he could imagine spitting lightning in the background of the mad scientist’s lair in a B-rate sci-fi movie. The humming obelisk before him with a few LEDs on its side looked much more modern, its sleek, plastic body rattling as if to inform him that it was a result of mass production, not the custom slap-dash job hurriedly thrown together he’d known all those years ago.
“It looks like a giant dehumidifier,” he remarked out loud. “Like somebody took something from Dyson and blew it up in photoshop.”
Twilight rubbed her temple with a groan. “So...how do we stop it? And fast, please.”
Anton looked it up and down, then shrugged, raised his rifle, and let off a few shots into its plastic chassis. Before Dave’s ears even had a chance to stop ringing, the LEDs blinked off and the humming came to a sputtering stop. David turned, watching Twilight move her hoof from her temple to her ear. “Some warning next time, please…”
“Was evil machine standing in our way.” Anton shrugged. “All the warning you need from a Russian.”
“Is your, uh…” even after all this time, saying ‘magic’ aloud made him feel too much like a character in a CGI Barbie movie, so he went with the next best thing. “...horn working again?”
Twilight blinked, then furrowed her brow. David felt a light tug at his waist, and looked down to realize the Preston Express had levitated out of its holster in a lavender hue.
“Ha-HA!” She gasped with an adorable giggle, beaming up to the men. “It’s back!”
“Wonderful,” David said, protectively yanking the pistol from the air and shoving it back down into its holster.
“Well? You feel the other princess?” Anton rasped, leaning forward.
Twilight paused, turned, her horn igniting. She gazed down a few hallways, her mane picking up in an unseen breeze. Suddenly, her magic dissipated, her jaw working up and down in terror.
“T-Twi?” Dave asked.
“She’s scared…” she gasped, shaking her head as she turned and bolted down a hallway. “Th-this way! Hurry!”
“Hey, wait!” Dave shouted, jogging to catch up. “Wait! You don’t know what could be…”
Even as he spoke, a few bolts zapped from her horn, and a man slumped over around the corner, body collapsing in the hall, a loud snore leaving his mouth just as David started to wonder if he’d just witnessed a man die.
“Something tells me it doesn’t matter what could be down there,” Anton chuckled, huffing to keep up as they stepped over the snoozing thug.
Dave chuckled back, having more than enough breath to spare for it. Soon, the younger, more fit man took the lead, edging out Twilight even as she directed them along, the subtle turn of her head as he glanced back telling him which moves to make to navigate the maze around them.
He rounded a corner, and skidded to a pause, a couple of thugs standing at either side of a thick door. They looked up as he neared. “Uh, shouldn’t you be…” one started.
He reached for the rifle, nearly clearing it of the shoulder holster before a couple of violet zaps smacked into each guard’s head, sending them crashing to the ground. David gasped, breathing heavily, just barely aware of the rifle in his hands.
“There! Through there!” Twilight screeched.
No time to think. No time to pause. David charged forward, rifle raised, heart pounding so hard it drowned out Anton’s screams to stop. He slammed through the door, watched it give way beneath his weight, rifle already at his shoulder…
There was another shot. Another explosion. James let out another breath, his grip tensing around the pistol. He gazed out into the hallway for the fifth time in the past ten minutes, ducking back in. The Old Man was nowhere to be seen.
“Are you worried about him?”
He turned to muster a half-hearted glare at the sun-princess, the one mare responsible for so much pain and loss. Or at least...someone who looked like her, but this was just pulling the damn thing out at the root before it could take hold. Preemptive strike to protect the species.
Wasn’t it?
“I’m worried about everybody,” he said without really knowing why.
“You have a good heart, I can see that.” The evil bitch said with a warm smile and a nod.
He just looked away. “Shut the fuck up,” he mumbled. “Wasn’t talkin’ to you.”
“Well, I’m right here.”
The pistol rose, but aimed at nothing in particular. It dropped again after a few seconds.
“Your world is...filled with pain,” she started, and at that James almost rolled his eyes. He’d heard this speech before. The bitch had always prefaced her bullshit about ushering in a new world for mankind, about a world without pain, in ways exactly like this. “But…” yep, here it comes. “There is a lot of good here too.”
He turned to her, trying not to look too interested. This was a new twist he hadn’t heard.
“I have seen many things in my journey here,” she went on with a calming smile, not looking at him, just sort of gazing off. “But most of all, I have seen people trying to help. I have seen people holding on with everything they have. When I was imprisoned, I expected a nightmarish race of technology-worshippers, and instead I found a noble race, a civilization that rivals my own, and a people traumatized dearly by a face that looks like mine.”
She finally turned to him then. “I can do nothing about that, but perhaps I don’t have to. Perhaps I can just take a page from your people’s book, and try my very best. And maybe that won’t be enough, or maybe I can be the key that heals a lot of pain. Either way...I know I couldn’t call myself a kind ruler if I did anything less.”
He blinked at that, and cursed himself when the beginnings of tears blurred his vision. He would never admit it, but dammit…it was nice to have someone validate all the work, the struggle, the pain. Something that damned nice, that wonderful, it was like…
For a moment, he was transported back to a time when he’d come home with some godawful craft. He’d never remember what, probably something covered in glitter and macaroni, and how the Old Man could hardly be bothered to look up from his crossword puzzle or from the TV to look at it. His mom though…
His mom before the Newfoals took her…
She was dead now, but if he could have her back…
He wiped at his face. “Wasn’t supposed t’be like this. None a’ this was supposed to go this way.” He whimpered.
“Few things go the way we want them.” She leaned towards him. “What matters is how we react to them, and how we move from there.”
He looked up to her. Then his eyes drifted down to the gun again. She offered a tiny smile. He let out a breath. He’d been thinking about this, just this very question, for so long now. What comes next?
Wasn’t it about time he answered that question for himself?
Suddenly, the door burst open. “Ah, good.” The Old Man grinned his yellowed grin. “Well done, m’boy, well done.”
James visibly drooped where he stood, the pistol sliding back into its holster. “No problem, pop.”
The Old Man clamped a hand on his shoulder, squeezing as his old eyes wrinkled in a smile. “S’finally time. Gonna give the bitch what she’s got coming.”
James looked up. “Yeah, pop?”
“Yeah.” He whipped out his phone, smiling down at the signal. “Four bars…gotta hand it to ‘em, the Japs got their modern essentials up and runnin’ good.”
“Your…phone?” James’s eyes darted to the princess and back. “What about waiting for the camera? For everyone else? Thought we wanted t’do this right?”
“No time for that,” the Old Man hissed, handing the phone over with the camera app open. “UN goons’ll be bustin’ down the door any minute. We wanna do this, we gotta do it now.”
“UN?” James didn’t reach for the phone. “But…the defenses, they’ll take weeks to…”
“They’re already inside.” The Old Man now thrust the phone into James’s hands, forcing it into his chest until he had to take it. “We do this now, or they ruin everything.”
James’s jaw worked up and down. “So…it’s just us? Alone?”
The Old Man nodded and drew his sidearm, wrapping a scarf around the lower portion of his face. “I know you wanted t’be in the video, son, but things didn’t work out that way. I’m sorry.”
James just nodded, still staring at the Old Man, dumbfounded.
The Old Man, for his part, turned on the princess, glaring through his mask. “Just keep it steady, son, it don’t hafta be Hollywood work, but it does need to get the gist across.”
Finally, holding the phone out in trembling hands, James held the phone out and pressed ‘Record.’
The Old Man turned, now standing behind Celestia, her bound frame still giving him plenty of space to be seen. He raised the pistol. “This is a message from the Human Liberation Front, one that all the little technicolor shits the world over oughta hear loud and clear! This is not your home! Earth is ours, not yours! Even if the UN won’t do anything about ya, that doesn’t mean the human race is willing to turn over and show its belly!”
“Please…” Celestia whispered. “You’ll only cause more—”
She was cut short with a cry as the butt of his pistol cracked against her skull, sending her swooning to the concrete. The Old Man stepped forward, leaning with his boot against her neck, the barrel of his weapon pressed to her head.
“You wanna shut the hell up before I shut you up,” he whispered into her ear. Then, he turned back to the camera. “Humanity stands ready, and we are the sheathed sword waiting to lash out. You may think we can be talked to, that we may be all talk, that we can be manipulated into slicing our own throats, but I tell ya now: if you come here, you and every other yellow-bellied species-traitor you get on your side will meet the same fate as this little bitch.”
For emphasis, he drew back, dramatically pulling the pistol up to make cocking the hammer visible, theatrically lowering it in a line with the princess’s head in a slow, deliberate motion. “Now, watch the mightiest among you die.” The harsh whisper came out as his finger squeezed the trigger.
For her part, Celestia’s eyes squeezed shut. In the end, she just couldn’t bare to watch the shot that would kill her. Still, she kept her chin high. At the very least, the world would see how a true Equestrian died with pride. The camera trembled, focused on her face for a minute, then with a rustle of cloth, a shot rang out.
Celestia’s eyes darted wide open, clearly expecting to see the reaper standing over her. Instead, she saw the Old Man, bracing back, watching the pistol clatter to the ground as his eyes widened in surprise. Blood dribbled out from his hand as he held it up, revealing two of his fingers blown off at the knuckle. She watched in shock for just a second, then rounded on the reluctant cameraman.
James had dropped the phone, leaving it resting on the ground, its screen shattered. His hands gripped his own pistol, the barrel now smoking. An acrid smell filled the air. He stared down the sights at his father.
“J-Jimmy?” The Old Man squeaked. “What…didja shoot me for?”
“I-I’m sorry…” he whispered, and the teen felt tears stinging his eyes, blurring his vision even as his gaze remained locked down the sights. “I’m sorry, dad, I’m sorry…”
“S-sorry?” The Old Man rounded Celestia, stumbling past her, still clutching his bleeding hand. “You shot me.” He said, not accusatory, just a statement of fact.
“I-I, yeah, I did…”
The Old Man looked down at his hand, then back at James. “You shot me.” He stated again. “Why?”
“There’s…dad, listen, there’s gotta be a better way.” James whimpered, cringing even as the words left his mouth, but drawing a blank when he reached for better ones.
“A better…way?” At that, the rage James had been expecting made an appearance, his face clouding with it. “A better way!? There is no other way! You know that!”
“Wait, dad…”
“How many!? How many more cities have to get blown to hell before you realize that!?” The Old Man approached, his hand held to his chest. “How many people hafta die!? What, one island nation blown to shit ain’t enough for ya!? We gotta lose the Brits too!? How many before—”
“Get the fuck back!” James cried, the gun now waving wildly. “Just stay the fuck back goddammit, just stay back!”
The Old Man blinked again, and backed up, both hands raised. More blood spotted on the concrete. “Okay. Okay, I’m backed up,” he said evenly, his voice under control again. He took a few deep breaths, steadied himself, and locked eyes with his son. “Jimmy…this is crazy.”
“No, goddammit, you’re crazy! You’ve been crazy!” James screamed now, voice cracking. “Look at you! You bent these kids all around and you fucked ‘em up in the head enough t’follow you all around the world! You convinced everyone you’re the savior of humanity! But you’re just another crazy fucking cult leader! Spat the bullshit for so long you believed it all yourself!”
The Old Man stumbled back as if he’d been shot again. For her part, Celestia didn’t even want to breathe from the tension mounting in the room. A breath hissed out between the Old Man’s yellow teeth. “Jimmy, c’mon…” he said, shaking his head, forcing a smile. “This is all for your mom...”
“You killed mom, you fucking psychopath!” James screamed. His voice rang out in the room, and it sucked all other sound out with it. The tears were flowing free now, James crying, still holding the weapon, his choking sobs the only sound in the room.
That one gave pause to the Old Man. He lowered his hands now. Looked his son over, eyes watery. “You knew?”
Another sob barked. “I noticed the pills went missing right after you left, dad,” he whimpered. “And then ma just happens to have a seizure right after you leave the hospital? Nobody knew shit about the Newfoals, you knew it’d get written off as a conversion side effect, you fucking knew you’d get away with it! You did it, and you knew you’d get away with it! You murdered her!”
The Old Man’s look darkened. Blood spattered on the floor as his hands clenched into fists. “Your mother was already dead.” He hissed.
“But she’d have a chance! She’d have a chance to come back…”
“She was already dead, goddammit!”
“You didn’t know that! You couldn’t know that!”
“Jimmy--”
And then the door burst open, and everything went straight to hell.
In hindsight, David could hardly be blamed for killing the kid. He burst in, saw a teen wielding a handgun aimed at the princess, and he acted. There was no time to judge the actual angle of the gun, no time to notice the old man against the wall, there was only time to raise the rifle and squeeze the trigger. In a burst of rounds, the teen with the gun fell, his hoodie acting as so much tissue paper for protection.
David paused. He blinked. The room remained utterly still.
“J-Jimmy?” The old-timer against the wall gasped, drawing Dave’s attention at last. He raised the rifle again, totally out of instinct, but with the blood gushing out of the old-timers hand, his finger quickly slid out of the trigger guard. Stepping over the princess like she was so much chopped meat, the old man stooped at the body of the kid.
“What…happened?” A tiny voice asked. Twilight. He stood, watching over the room, almost feeling her and Anton in the doorway, her massive eyes beating into the back of his neck.
“I…had to…” he gasped. “I had to, he was…he had a gun pointed at her…”
“He was pointing it at him.” Celestia finally spoke, her voice booming over the room. Dave looked to her, then to the old man, now cradling the lanky body bleeding out on the concrete. Details finally filtered in through his adrenaline-fueled senses: the other gun, covered in blood, lying where the old man had been standing, the scarf around his face, the shattered phone on the ground, all adding up to…
Oh. Oh, God.
He stumbled over to the body. “Move! Set ‘im down!” He barked, rushing to kneel at the kid’s side. He pulled the body from the old man’s arms, his training keeping the rifle close even as he set the weapon down. But the old man did nothing, just made long, wheezing sounds like a man with a baseball lodged in his throat. Wrinkled hands reached up, the old timer falling back while clenching at his thin wisps of gray hair. Still scrabbling, Dave turned the body over on its back, and his heart sank. Despite the days away from the range, his shots had been dead center. The kid’s chest was bathed in red, his hoodie soaked through with it, his wide eyes staring blankly at the ceiling as his mouth hung open.
“Fuck, fuck!” Dave propped himself up on his knees, pressing his hands to the kid’s chest, immediately starting compressions. Blood instantly soaked his hands, pooling up around his clenched fingers. His mind blanked, frantically reaching for the right ratio of compressions to breaths, and he realized, ridiculously, that he hadn’t even checked the kid’s breathing. Some part of him knew he wouldn’t have to. He decided on ten compressions to two breaths.
As he worked, frantically trying to restart a heart that had been turned into a bloody pulp, he barely noticed Twilight and Anton entering the room, Anton holding his weapon as he looked over the old man, but not raising it, locking the door behind him as an almost subconscious move. The old-timer didn’t even acknowledge him, only kept his eyes on David, gaze darting between him and the teen on the ground.
His breathing growing frantic, Dave threw himself into the breaths, even as each one left a coppery taste in his mouth. His own breathing heaved, sweat gathering on his forehead, his heart racing. “Goddammit…Goddammit…” he cursed at first, but stopped as his pulse skyrocketed and little stars started appearing in his eyes, not wanting to waste his breath. He didn’t stop even as the mares joined the little group, Celestia not even bothering to kick off her bonds, letting them slide away from her slender legs as they watched.
Finally, as if it pained him to do it, Anton rested a hand on his colleague’s shoulder. “David.” He whispered.
Dave stopped. He looked up, eyes blank as if he were in shock. His breath heaved in and out. His shirt started to stick to him from the sweat. As he looked from Anton’s serious face to Celestia’s glittering, watery eyes, a wail filled the room.
“Jimmy!” The old man sobbed, falling over the body, hugging it close to him, blood soaking his shirt. “Jimmy, you were s’posed to be there until the end, oh god…”
David had never heard an old man sob like everything he ever valued had just been set on fire in front of him before, and he hoped he would never hear it again. He just kept rocking back and forth, repeating that name like the body would just spring back to life and return the bear hug he was squeezing into it. As he kept at it, the hand on Dave’s shoulder squeezed.
“Princess is safe,” Anton said simply. “Let’s go.”
After another moment of staring, David nodded, slowly rising to his feet, collecting his rifle. The quartet turned, heading for the door, away from the sobbing man cradling the body of the kid. Anton raised his weapon, ready to charge back out the door.
“My son too…you bitch…”
The group turned as one as the Old Man stood, one arm cradling the body as he glared directly at Celestia. “You took my wife. You took my boy. You took everyone. Now, there’s nothing left.”
Celestia only stared back sadly, her vermillion eyes watering.
Letting out a shaking breath, the Old Man sighed. “At least that means I have nothing left. This is a good death.”
It took David a second to realize what was happening, and another moment to realize he couldn’t see the Old Man’s other hand. He thought he heard the beep of electronic circuits connecting, of a radio signal broadcasting, of a final buzz of electricity pulsing through a detonator hidden in the room, but surely that was just his imagination playing tricks on him.
A titanic roar tore up from the other side of the room. His breath was knocked from his body. A blinding flash. The hum of magic. A shield in front of him. But…
Anton wasn’t in the shield.
He’d started towards the Old Man.
Brave. Stupid.
Dead.
David reached a hand out. A fireball reared up, engulfed the room. Both old-timers vanished in a wall of fire. Lightning shot up his arm. And then, there was no more.
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Wont lie, was kinda hoping this story would take the untraveled route and that Celestia would die and escalate this even further along the bleak path this story has held so far. Cool to finally see this update though.
Even in the end the old man still couldn't admit he screwed up.
10722461
That's how fanatics work. They double down on their own insanity. They either fall even deeper in, or they just go "oh well." And fail to see the full repercussions of their own stupidity.
10722365
I dunno, then what would be the point. Only she and Celestia could finish this. And with Princess Celestia dead, Twilight would either have a mental breakdown, or be forced to flee back to her Equestria, while the whole world realizes that their only 'hope' got killed by (I'd like to say 'absolute fking morons,) traumitized individuals, where they basically point a camera at the real Xenolestia as she laughs in their faces, the portal to hope and a peaceful existence vanishing forever behind a purple flash.
Short chapter, really.
oof, not Anton. Also atleast that old bastard's in hell
10722365
Except... this story has specifically not tread that path. The original Xenolestia represents the bleak path that most TCB humanity at war stories take: Equestria is irredeemable and humanity must kill to win. By including canon(?) Celestia, kildeez has so far created a story that is dark, yes, but always has a light at the end. It seems to be his intention to make a TCB humanity at war story, but to specifically take it a direction that none of the others have gone: Celestia is not Xenolestia, and Equestrian ideals are still worthwhile for defeating Xenolestia.
everyone here deserved better than this shit.
One possible problem that I see; why did Celestia not defend herself or try to defuse the situation after the Tachyon Inhibitor was deactivated? Unless the inhibitor was literally next door to Celestia's cell (which would be a huge security problem), Twilight and company had to spend some time running to Celestia before they arrived, which is all time that Celestia should have had her power back. I don't buy for a minute that she would have purposefully let herself die in this situation, and Twilight established that they can "feel" when they're being blocked, so Celestia would have known the instant it fell.
10723804
1 ponies are known to not use there head logical at times now add the inhibitor ring on her horn allso the guilt nd fear she feels of a really real posibility off death make rashonal thinking be thrown out the window so that is a few reasons why
Boy... That was one depressing chapter. Gotta say that I feel extremely bad for the kid, feel absolute hatred towards the fanatic and some probably unjustified anger towards David.
I know how fanatics work, so deep in their mindset that they don't even realize their wrongs. But here's he's literally describing what the terrorists are doing. "How many more innocents have to die before those terrorists realize that what they're doing isn't a grace to the world but a curse ?"
This paragraph here alone makes me absolutely despise this man and absolutely not regret that he died. A shame that he had to take a protagonist with him and that his son that still had some good in him got killed because of a misunderstanding. Guess not everyone's stories have an happy ending, do they ?
He describes exactly what makes fanatics dangerous. There's the saying "Nothing is more dangerous than a man that has lost everything" and here it is true. Those people recruit weakened persons that have lost everything and make them their "disposable minions" for their dirty work. We even see it in this chapter when he doesn't hesitate to send two almost-kids to their deaths.
And here is the nail in the coffin. Blaming someone else for what he has done himself. Killed his own wife and then dared say it was all Xenolestia's fault. Given she's at fault for causing this whole mess to begin with.
But as I see it, the main vilain of this story paradoxaly isn't Xenolestia. It's more "war" in general that is and what it causes. Xenolestia is just a medium to bring it in the story.
War is what caused all the deaths we are told about here.
War is what caused millions of people to lose their loved ones.
War is what caused people like him to become mentally ill fanatics.
I never thought I'd say this for a My Little Pony fanfiction, but I think I learned more about the horrors of war and their impact from this than in almost any other media.
I begun reading this because it felt like a cool take on a concept that I don't really like but in the end I'm reading something that uses MLP as a medium to convey historical and political lessons into it very well and in a good way, or at least to me.
But enough of me rambling about stuff that I don't know anything about. I'm really looking forward to the next chapters cuz this story really has become one of my favorites, but not for the reasons that I'd usually say. And to that I tell you congratulations.
PS: I'm not familiar with the writing rules of the site but you might wanna either tone down the swears or put the story into M rated because of them along with the gore. I'd personally say that it's fine but some sites count excessive swearing as mature content. But once again, I ain't familiar with how it's handled on this site so I may be wrong.
10725757
Thanks, to you and everyone else still reading. Stuff like this keeps me writing
Loved the tragedy of it.
Well if I didn't detest the Old Man before, I do now. And dang, that bit with Jimmy hurt. I'm with Celestia on that. He could have had the chance to heal with some help, but sadly not everyone gets that chance. And Anton... my goodness, they may have saved Celestia, but no one won in this tragic exchange.
Damn, this is really good tragic writing. I took a break from reading fanfiction on this site, and coming back to it now, I got to read a burst of like six chapters. This one really drives it home. The disillusioned father who got what he deserved but took a better man down with him, his son who just wants to make amends cut down by mistake... man, that's some good writing right there. I don't know what else to say about it, but that's a perfect tragic end to those character arcs. RIP Anton though.
You've made me feel.... a lot of emotions I wasn't expecting to feel. And I love it.
You're doing good here, Kildeez. You're doing good.
I wonder if well learn what the divergence between canon Equestrian and Alternate Equestria is. What happened to the alternate Luna.
10806291
Same i wonder why xenolestia is the way she is...
What happened to drive her that way. Or was it just her decision
10806635
That is quite true. Did something, such as the things she's possibly had to do to keep her people safe eventually break her? Was she corrupted by something/someone? Was she always like this, but put up a front? ETC
You didnt have to hit me with the depression man.
Why you gotta lay poor jimmy so low
He just wanted to do good T.T
10806291
My guess is the divergence happened at least 1000 years ago and she killed Luna or Luna never existed I also think the alicorn amulet might have something to do with her power like she drained it somehow
True enlightenment is realising the old man is right, based, and the ponies and their sympathisers are wrong, cringe. Good riddance. Even if there is an alternative, you still kill the xenos. You need no justification.
10725757
You are wrong. You are morally detestable.
11034330
i.imgur.com/fiarURY.jpg
11034330
Watch out, we got an Internet badass over here
Nobody is safe in war. War marks everyone with its scars…
11634238
War never changes...