The Light Despondent

by Doctor Fluffy

Episode 1: Riding the Gallows-Horse/Equcrux

Note: I apologize for the long chapter length, but it's just too much work to divide it all up.

The Light Despondent
Editors/Co-Authors
TB3 - His edits to this are beyond awesome.
TheIdiot
Kizuna Tallis
Redskin122004
Beyond The Horizon - Thanks for helping, even though the weaponry here is more like what you’d find in Metro 2033. At the moment, anyway. I like Metro 2033.
PART 1: RIDING THE GALLOWS-HORSE/Equcrux

“They call refugees ‘the Dispossessed.’ Well, that’s a relative term, one for people like Johnny C that’ve read too much Vandermeer. To you, to people who still have a house or apartment you don’t have to run away from, that’s people like us. But some refugees I know, like my friend Abraham… they have families, electronics, heirlooms, photos, stuff from the old world. To us, the Dispossessed are people that lost everything, even their minds. Johnny C, Abraham, his brother Dalibor, and I? We saw this one HLF woman in a hunting cabin near Errol, along the Magalloway… she had a newfoal she claimed was her son. She’d fitted a speaker to its stomach, and claimed she could hear thin, reedy weeping from it… begging for mercy, for her to save it. Crazy stuff.

That’s what being one of the Dispossessed means to us.”

Blossomforth, PHL pegasus.

“Sir, there is an era for what you have proposed, an era in which you would be lauded as a hero for your plan. I hope you’re capable of understanding this, but May 3, 1942, was a long time ago. Ponies and zebras alike shall be a monument to our shame if we continue with even one of your policies.”

President Jack Davis, responding to Senator Patrick Goleman’s plan to place refugee ponies, zebras, and other non-humans in internment camps.

“Some of you might dream of a day we fold most of their ranks in and have a united offensive, all humans and refugees and defectors against Equestria. Well, as of today, that last part won’t happen, because those bastards crossed a line. They’ve taken one of our own and tortured her, put what was left of her on the internet… and they laughed. Like it was funny. And they had the balls to ask for thanks from us, like they did some kind of public fucking service. If ever there was a moment the world needed to know the HLF is a bunch of goddamned sadists with no restraint or morality, maybe even more a threat to us than Celestia... now is that moment.

Now is the moment to show them they’ve no idea how to defend humanity.

Now is the moment to remember Sutra Cross.

Now is the moment to make. Them. PAY!”

Marcus Renee, just before the Battle of Defiance and the Great HLF Purges.

“We have to kill them. Slaughter their ranks and fold in anyone with enough shreds of sanity, anyone reasonable enough to accept that maybe killing every pony in sight doesn’t work! Harsh? You don’t know harsh. We don’t have the option of leaving them to their own devices! Say you have a stab wound, but you’re ignoring it for a race or something. We both know how that’ll end-the stress on your body will overwhelm you. You collapse. You’re probably bleeding. We’ve all seen evacs from the Barrier, hell, most of us have participated in them! I know what the HLF does at times like that. They and the PER will come out of the woodwork, scrabbling over the remains and fucking us over a barrel. We leave them, and the last bastions of safety in this world go to shit! Come next November, when the Barrier hits Canada, we’ll be fucked if we leave them as they are, and anarchy’ll reign! We need to defend the lines behind our home front, and the time to destroy them is now!”

July 15, 2022. Yael Ze’ev, member of the ‘Dominant’ faction of PHL, a subgroup seeking greater emergency powers during wartime. One week before the disappearance of Sutra Cross.

“I want to go home, Daddy! I miss Coal Embers and everyone from back in the city, I want to go back-

“This is home now, son. No matter what we go through, it’s better than the alternative.”

Conversation overheard between Aegis and his son Rivet.

“They were a gift to all, not just ponykind,
The cabins elegant, luxury defined,

Each bedroom a palace, it was quite palatial,
But the Queen saw it,
Found it quite low in appraisal,

All Equestria caught in her dark seduction,
set forth con-verting the palaces to engines of destruction…

Dirge of the Skyliner, sung and played by Octavia.

"The HLF? They're a joke. Their whole 'unit' is a joke. Hell, their name is a joke! Human Liberation Front, hah!

Front? What front? They're fractured, they have no unified front. They just sort of wildly flail their arms around in an attempt to garner support or power or what have you, and end up blowing up of slaughtering whatever they’re trying to get at. And then blame it on Ponies. Even if they had nothing to do with it. Even if they were miles away at the time. Trusting them to guard you is like asking a starving wolf to lead chickens to safety.

Liberation? ... They haven't 'liberated' anything. All they do, all they know, is killing, raping, taking, and destroying. I haven't heard a single tale, a single word about them supposedly liberating anyone. All I've heard is that they leave a trail of bodies and fire behind them, and that any single person sane enough long ago fled from them.

And... Human? Human?! Barely! Only just micrometers away from being rabid animals. They talk a good storm up sure, 'true protectors of humanity' my fat ass! But what they are? What they really are? Hyenas, coyotes, vultures scavenging off the corpses of the fallen, killing anyone who disagrees with them or even slightly looks in their direction, and generally making a nuisance of themselves.

The only reason we haven't turned all our tender mercies upon them is because, one, the Tyrant Sun is a bigger threat, two, the PER is far worse than they, and three... well... they're doomed. Plain and simple. Even if all we did was toss them into, say, a box canyon or something, they'd tear themselves apart. They're a mess. They're broken. Have you even seen two HLF units trying to convince each other that they're friendly? Most of them have officers obsessed with code phrases and mock-official titles, and a lot of them are killed in friendly fire. Not only that, but you don't usually get promoted entirely for merit as a commander. Sometimes, people get promoted based entirely on anti-pony sentiment, which is how you get people like that utter fuckwit John Birch in a position anywhere higher than private! The most immediately bloodthirsty get promoted, while the few that have saddled themselves with the unenviable Sisyphean task of reform get either executed, ponified, passed over, or they defect! I talked to Viktor Kraber while working on his thermite gun proposal, and he relates a story where he was nearly shot in the head for suggesting not killing four ponies.... In favor of attacking the PER.... He was having a crisis of faith at the moment.

They're not worth one single bullet, honestly... Though, if they did decide to make even more of a nuisance of themselves...

They'd find me waiting for them with open arms, a bright smile, a suit of armor, and lots, and lots, and lots of gun.

Sebastian Irving, in an interview

“God help us all if the Barrier’s not gone in a year’s time. It’ll be anarchy out here, and we’re barely holding on as is.”

Jack Weiss, member of Barrier Evacuation Engineer Corps.

"Anger. That's what motivates the HLF. Not just any anger: fury at the pain caused, that kind of absolute rage that can only come from pain and suffering. In some cases, people turn their pain and suffering to causes that are just and true. But just as often, they turn their suffering to causes that are full of hatred. For every person who becomes a Gandhi or a Luther King, there is a person who becomes a Hitler. It is the curse of the human race, almost, that we have the capacity for great good, or great evil. And make no mistake: they have done great evil.

The worst part though... the worst part is understanding it. The worst part is knowing that, for want of a nail - or a kind word from a friendly face determined to make things right - you could have gone the same way. I could have been with the HLF. I understand their rage. I've felt it myself. And yes, I read the theories. I attended the rallies. I was on the HLF forum. One of the biggest posters too, at one point. There was a time when I agreed with them, when I wanted nothing more than to murder every single pony in the world. When I thought there was no better course than mindless revenge. I was lucky: a certain someone... somepony... convinced me otherwise, but it could have gone either way. But that doesn't mean I don't understand them. And God help me... sometimes I see what happens out there... and I can't honestly say that even now, some part of me doesn't feel that same rage."

- Prince Harry of Britain, aka Harry Wales of the SAS, when asked about tenuous links between himself and the HLF based on examination of some HLF discussion forums.

"As a great muppet once said, 'fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering'. That's the HLF in a nutshell. He forgot to add the part where suffering leads to bloody idiocy, mind. Who the fuck tries to bomb a munitions plant making the guns that’ll save humanity… and claiming they did it in the name of humanity?! Fucking idiot..."

- Anonymous PHL soldier guarding a train station, overheard by True Quill during her research for the article "The Many Faces Of Mankind".

“I don’t regret what I started, but I regret that it lead to those imbeciles. I’ll admit, I might’ve been like them just a little, but Lyra was a convincing mare, making it clear that she didn’t support ponification, and nor did the ponies behind her. I’m right up there with everyone when they say she should be sainted, and yet…. and yet some bastard in the HLF shot her. I think that’s when I knew there was little, if anything in them left worth saving. To the reformists, I say just stop. You’re too crippled by your own fears to come close to your goal.”

Reverend James Thomas

“Everyday I wake up, I get out and look at my home. The sun gets a bit… wouldn’t say darker, but just colder. Even at the height of summer, sometimes it feels like the coldest day of the winter out there. People get dirtier, a little more strapped for cash. I go a little more between routine appointments, same with everyone else. Everything gets a little more rundown. The railroad over that trestle up north gets rebuilt, and it’ll just be gone in a year and a half. Come this time next year, I won’t be able to recognize anything.

Burt Gransvoort.

“Suddenly, recycling is a matter of life and death. Some ponies go behind the Barrier and make primitive axes or bring back wood in any way they can, but every material grows in worth by the hour. If there’s any wood, any abandoned metal, anything at all you think can be useful, then by the Golden Lyre, bring it here. Somebody’s going to need it.”

Reclaimed Beauty, PHL pony in charge of the acquisition of materials for PHL weaponry, refugee housing, and the Barrier Evacuation Engineer Corps. Reclaimed Beauty was an artist in prewar Equestria, and one of the first ponies to make her way to Earth.

“Clive Mudget? You are hereby placed under arrest for refusing to support not only the American public but refugees displaced by the Barrier, hoarding food, arming anti-American militias, and the murder of equines helping to tend nearby ranches. Anything you say can and will be used against y-”

“You fascist bastards! They’re the enemy! They’ve been forcing themselves into our culture after destroying our homes!”

“They’re refugees like some of my friends, and most of my family. And you’ll be too soon if people like you don’t stop fucking around and getting in the way of people are helping.”

Transcript from a policeman’s body camera, taken during the arrest of Clive Mudget, an HLF supporter who refused to provide food outside the HLF.
“Years ago, I never would have guessed I’d end up here. A thousand years ago, we were fighting Luna and Celestia, and then there was a flash of light and all of a sudden, we were a millenium away. Then the Element Bearers came as emissaries… of course, we learned just how much regard Celestia had for others.”
From 'The Last Ditch: Four Weeks of Anarchy', written by Brighthoof.

“The path of the HLF man is death on all sides - the death of whatever you call a soul, the death of countless hundreds, the death of anything approaching a noble cause that can be found within someone, pushing everyone towards doom with a bayonet at one end of a stolen or homemade rifle, throwing away advantage after advantage just out of anger.The path of the HLF reformist is infinitely more hopeless… The only advice I can give to HLF members even attempting that is to leave. Just not to try. If being HLF is like falling the height of Mount Everest with full kit, then trying to reform is like bouldering Lhotse face with people shooting at you.”

Enitan Adebayo.

“Whatever you do, trusting the HLF is the worst mistake you can make in these times. Tomorrow, you can do what you want. But for now, you. Are. Listening! You are going to do this. I’m not even saying please. I’m not even giving you any fokking evidence, cause the HLF are all the evidence you should need, and any satire I could try for would immediately be followed by them trying to one-up me, with me looking like I’m defending them. I say one unit uses poison gas, five would use thermite on naked civilians begging for mercy, or strip them of their clothes, take everything of value, burn the house down for kicks, kneel them and everyone else they did it to against a wall, and fire rounds into their heads.

Everything I just mentioned has happened, and they’re the worst heroes anyone could dream of. They’re the kind of bliksems that would settle a hostage crisis with airstrikes and napalm. There’s no more terrorists, which is good, right? Yeah, for everyone but the people they’re trying to save! Granted, they don’t have napalm, not since they lost government support, but what they do have is overwhelming force, a lot of bathtub semtex, and stolen or homebrewed military hardware. They consider it their duty to ‘save’ you from being within a mile of a pony. Whether you like it or not. And even worse, their idea of ‘saving’ you just means killing ponies. They’ve no regard whatsoever for collateral, no regard for people trying to evacuate.

Think about it - when have you ever seen the HLF assist in an evacuation? They don’t. Just kill and kill and kill. Thanking the HLF for saving you is like thanking a hurricane for destroying a KKK rally. The rally’s gone, but then so’s your house, your family and friends. There’s no line they won’t cross… the kontgesigs have killed children and foals. I’ve seen it. Sometimes they did it cos’ they were desperate for supplies and called it collateral, and others just attack towns cos’ they’re bored. They are just as likely to leave with bodies in their wake as shoot you, empty your house, and rob you blind. The inmates are running the fokking asylum, and the wardens and orderlies are few and far between.”

Viktor M. Kraber, showing up unannounced (and ad-libbing) in a PHL propaganda video. True Quill attempted to remove him from the scene, but Photo Finish declined. Curiously, Kraber was later considered the most memorable part of it.

Author's Note:

...Well.
It's finally here. The story I told y'all I was going to do. AND HOLY BALLS IS IT LONG! Thanks so much to TB3, who made this what it is.... by which I mean ENORMOUS! Hope you liked it! Also,HERE is Ambassador Nikai The First, the wolf pup that Kraber's stuffed wolf is named after. AIN'T HE CUTE?! OH, I WANT TO HUG AND SNUGGLE HIM, IT'S JUST ADORABLE!
PS: This is not a one-shot. There are really more chapters coming.