I Miss You Beau Velasco / Dare
Chapter 23: I miss You Beau Velasco / Dare
Co-Author: Jed R
Sometimes when your hopes have all been shattered
And there's nowhere to turn
You wonder how you keep going (going)
Think of all the things that really mattered
And the chances you've earned
The fire in your heart is growing (growing)
You can fly, if you try, leaving the past behind
Heaven only knows what you might find
Stan Bush, Dare
Yael
White River Junction Base
Yael sighed and fell against a bed.
“Sure would be nice,” she said to nobody in particular, “If I knew what was going on.”
“Tell me about it, Sergeant,” said Vera Low through gritted teeth. She was on the other end of the room, doing pull-ups.
“So it’s like what you went through?” Yael asked.
“Not exactly,” Vera said. “This? You have support. I have you and all your assets.”
Yael considered the Alaska Incident, and looked a bit downcast. “Sorry, soldier.”
“Is still pretty surreal,” Vera admitted. “And… would like to know what’s going on too.”
It hadn’t helped that whenever Yael tried to call Colonel Renee or Lieutenant Colonel Cheerilee, she’d gotten Babs Seed. Who’d pointed out that the two faces of the PHL were ‘busy’ with something. It also had not helped that every time Yael thought she had enough information, she’d have some thought along the lines of ‘Wait no but what if…’ and she’d felt like any information she delivered was horribly incomplete.
“Amen to that,” said the F.E.A.R man, Chen, at the far end of the room. “A-fucking men.”
Yael hadn’t wasted any time in enlisting their help as they’d taken over the basement. On their side were two cots, a TV, Yael’s gaming equipment, and a table full of weaponry that the two of them considered interesting. PER paintball guns and squirt guns, (emptied and decontaminated) a crossbowlike PER weapon, some kind of PER BFG made from scrap. Along with HLF weapons such as a crossbow firing superheated rebar, G36s, M4s that Yael had mostly kept for the expensive accessories, at least one FAL, an open-bolt .50 BMG automatic rifle that was a chore to lift, and bizarre Khyber and Darra Pass copies, with one Kalashnikov in 8mm locked in semiauto, and a few magazine-fed shotguns based on the same frame.
And of course, their own weapons, and some of the intricate devices that Heliotrope worked on in her spare time, such as a spare invisibility flightsuit.
They’d delegated F.E.A.R’s lot, at this point just the silent man, Chen, and one other man (shaven headed and goateed, with a permanent sarcastic twist to his brow), to the other side of the room. There, they’d constructed an ad-hoc laboratory, with input from Heliotrope, Ambrose Hex and PHL R&D personnel, and F.E.A.R’s expertise. Lying on one table was the communicator Yael and Heliotrope had found, but it looked… exploded, for lack of a better word. Wires and strange measuring devices ran in and out of it, and various radios lay scattered about the room. A thaumoemotive indicator sat nearby, gently spinning.
They’d also brought an array of weapons - Armacham tech, oddball guns and energy weapons.
Back on Yael’s side, however, just above her cot, there was a collage of relevant news articles and printouts.
‘Whatever I signed on for here, I didn’t fucking ask for this,’ Yael thought, looking the papers over.
“HLF Claim ‘Divine Intervention’ in preventing PER Attack on Small Town,” one read. Another, a captured HLF circular claiming the righteousness of the HLF, information from an angel, and saying that logically, the PHL was on the side of the devil. A blurry photo of a Reaver with a large gun that absolutely was not civilian-accessible or kinetic. A report from one Becker Kellman on Reavers accosting the HLF that had been about to attack their truck. A newspaper article on Gestalt’s broadcasts. A photo of an HLF fighter from Massachusetts, blood-eagled with Reaver graffiti nearby. A photo of a teleport spike. A list of recurring words and phrases in Gestalt broadcasts.
And the weapon the Reaver looked to have matched at least one Armacham gun on the other side of the room.
There’d been rumors of Reavers possessing energy weaponry for quite some time, and the thought of apprehending Kraber - perhaps having him resist arrest a bit - had been on her mind for quite some time. She’d hoped to focus on the HLF, but this conspiracy had almost literally fallen into her lap and from there it’d been inextricable.
She looked over the blurry photo of the Reaver. Kellman had been crowing about it for what felt like months. It hadn’t even been a week, but that was Becker Kellman for you. Yael had seen the effect of distrust for the PHL in bad situations - it never ended well. And honestly, who could just up and declare themselves allied with a group whose definition of ‘helping’ was destructive for all involved?
What a damn headache.
On top of that: with the Reavers, HLF, PER with such overt Imperial backing, and Gestalt, there was a feeling deep in Yael’s gut that something big was happening. So she’d asked F.E.A.R for help. Some of their personnel milled about the ad-hoc laboratory, many of whom seemed to be checking various instruments and computer readouts.
‘I have absolutely no idea what’s going on,’ Yael thought.
It was right about then that there was a sound like bells or wind chimes from the stolen communicator. Almost certainly a ringtone.
“We’ve got something!” someone yelled.
Quicker than Yael could process, she was answering the communicator.
“Three,” said the voice from the communicator and Yael craned her neck to listen. “There are three. There is the rage and grief - an incoherent, babbling mass. You hear it all the time. There is the logical process, but it is taken. And there is… me. I/we don’t know which one.”
Dammit! If only Heliotrope was here!
But then, Heliotrope had gone off to visit Aegis and Francis. Spy on them, more like, but ‘visit’ was their story and they were sticking to it.
Something simply wasn't right about Francis. His accent went in and out. His name was almost certainly false. And it was as if he’d popped out of nowhere from the train station in Littleton. He’d gotten on the train around North Conway, but beyond that?
“Actually,” Heliotrope says, “How did you get to North Conway?”
Kraber just shrugs. “Fok weet. I could’ve teleported there for all I know. My memory just sort of… of fokkin’ ends in Portland and picks back up in a hotel room.”
Imitating Heliotrope, she carefully twisted the knobs on what had once been a radio that’d been haphazardly hooked up to the communicator, and spoke into the microphone.
“Hello?” she asked.
There was no response.
“Who is this?” Yael asked, then mentally slapped herself. ‘’Who’ is probably not the right word...’
“I… guess it’s Gestalt,” the voice on the other end answered.
“So this is the bizarre thing that keeps speaking over the radio,” Vera said. “I had wondered.”
Yael knew how Heliotrope had built this, but didn’t understand how it worked. As far as Yael knew, Heliotrope had taken various crystal tech (for lack of a better word) ‘borrowed’ from PER, making something that could tap into the totem-prole networks that the PER used to communicate with Equestria.
They could be found seemingly everywhere back in Equestria - crystalline obelisks that played music, served as a computer network, gave useful information, and played horrifyingly jingoistic videogames. They’d managed to network Equestria together and allow it to coordinate themselves on an impressive level. Officially, it was computing technology that’d allow Equestria to function on a similar level to Earth.
Except not really.
Yael remembered being with Nny, Fiddlesticks, and the survivors of the ill-fated expedition to Alaska that’d turned into a battle for survival. The one he’d written a book about. The one that led to a few humans and ponies on a train from Deadhorse, Alaska, a totem-prole in tow.
And she also remembered the howl of anguish Lyra made when she found out just what totem-proles were in the first place:
Crystal ponies. Turned into machinery, the crystal overtaking their bodies and minds, shaping them into more machinery for the Empire. “Carne por la machina,” someone had said.
“Okay,” Yael said, trying to keep her voice level. “You seem more…. together... than the usual Gestalt broadcast.”
Except it was different. It was like hearing Nny imitate a cartoon character - she knew it was something or someone else, there were enough subtle details to make Yael absolutely certain it wasn’t the same mind that produced the usual borderline-indecipherable broadcasts.
“Yes, well, you don’t have to deal with the usual overflow,” Gestalt said. “The totem-prole network is…. Accidental. It was designed to emulate human-man-man-man networks before the war. Many of us have to work to get this message out there.”
A chill ran up Yael’s spine. That was one of the bits of information that, thankfully, nobody in the HLF had found yet - the invasion had been premeditated. Knowing that Queen Celestia had known of them and been angry for no reason that they existed wasn’t a comfortable truth, but all evidence pointed to it.
“There are advances in which it surpasses you-you-you-y-y-y-our internet,” Gestalt said. “But areas where the internet surpasses it. It wasn’t designed for my-my-my-my-y-y-y-your-y-y-y-our particular interface. Strong emotions of others over-over-over-our-flow through”
“Wait,” she said, her arms and legs limp and running on autopilot, “You mean… is there any information you can… On the war? Before the war?!”
“It’s not important,” Gestalt said. “What’s important is-is-is that you hear this clear as can be. The end is coming. I’m not allowed to tell you-u-u-us- what. My authority is limited.”
“What do you mean, limited?!” Yael sighed. “I hate this sort of thing. Can’t you just give us an instruction manual?”
There was a brief pause.
“What?” Gestalt asked.
“There will be an attack here,” Yael said. “You should stop the attack. It will be at this time.”
There was a brief pause on the end of the line.
“...What,” Gestalt repeated.
“I’m just saying, it sounds more convenient than what normally gets through to us,” Yael said. “You know, like the HLF are getting.”
There was an uncomfortable silence on the other end.
“What… what do you mean?” Gestalt asked.
“There’s a connection, I know it,” Yael said. “You make those broadcasts and… want to give us information. Meanwhile, the HLF actually get…”
Gestalt was silent.
“I try,” Gestalt said, in that odd voice. “I promise, I’m trying. There’s… there’s barriers in this network. Endless machinery of minds - you would visualize it as pistons and gears, all churning forth to no known goal. But I’ll do as you asked: The Solar Empire plan to attack within a month. I don’t exactly know where, but they plan to bring this area you call home to hell before Barrierfall.”
“But… how would they get past the coastal defenses?” Yael asked.
“That’s what the PER are for,” Gestalt said.
“The teleport spikes,” Yael realized. “They’re going to put something over here. Something big.”
“Exactly,” Gestalt said.
“The only question is,” Yael said, “What do the HLF-”
And suddenly Gestalt screamed at the top of its lungs.
“What the hell is that?!” Yael yelled. “Give me a status report, now!”
“Activity is off the charts!” Chen yelled. “Dammit, wish we had Jin here!”
“Come on,” someone said. Calm, grandfatherly. It sounded for all the world like Captain Cactus. “We don’t need to be like that.”
“Yeah,” someone else said. “Come on. Back to work, Gestalt...”
Gestalt screamed again, and this time it seemed like multiple voices at once.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIEEEEEEEEEERGH!” Gestalt cried, before going quiet. “NO, NO NO NO… STOP… JUST MAKE THE PAIN STOP, WE’LL DO ANYTHING...”
“Just do your job,” Captain Cactus said. “It’ll be over quick, and we can be done. I just want all of this over, as painlessly as possible. Is that so wrong?”
The radio cut out before Gestalt could give their answer.
“Well,” said the shaven-headed F.E.A.R man. “What the hell was that?”
“I… think we just found out that whatever the hell Gestalt is, he’s… she’s… whatever damn pronoun, I don’t care,” Yael sighed. “Whatever they are, they’re high up enough in the Solar Empire that I don’t trust them.”
The silence lasted all of a minute before Heliotrope’s voice crackled over Yael’s headphones.
“Hello?” Yael asked. “Heliotrope, what’s-”
“Things are going to hell over here,” Heliotrope said. “The HLF went crazy, they’re…”
“I’ll be over as soon as I can,” Yael said.
“Well… we seem to have beaten them back,” Heliotrope said. “Me, Nny, Fiddlesticks, Francis… a bunch of other townies. I forget. But they took hostages - I’m with them, trying to get the hostages back. And Yael, they’re… they’re Aegis’ foals! He’s with us too. I’m following them from midair... ”
“Heliotrope,” Yael said, reassuring her friend. “You’re rambling. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Just hurry,” Heliotrope said. “I’ve got a really bad feeling about this.”
Yael froze, then looked back to the F.E.A.R personnel. Then remembered all the times Heliotrope had suffered from a bad feeling. That time with the anti-personal mine - yes, the anti-personal mine, the person had been turned into a potion bomb that begged for mercy. Nipville. Northern Africa.
“I’ll. Be. Right, there,” Yael insisted. “It’s going to be fine.”
Except with Heliotrope’s bad feelings, it probably wouldn’t be and they both knew it.
“Alright,” Heliotrope said. “Be seeing you then, lieutenant. We’re just north of Littleton, following the highway.”
“Be seeing you, Sergeant,” Yael corrected.
Heliotrope just snorted and hung up.
Yael sighed, and looked over her weaponry table. Then back at the Armacham table.
She shrugged, picked up her Galil, and surveyed what was available. Autoshotgun? Particle gun? Arc beam? MP20 Obregon?
Her eyes alighted on a particular gun, and she blinked, a hand reaching out to it. It was an Armachan Type-8 particle weapon. They were notoriously unreliable - always overheating. They'd been designed with the intent of doubling their energy output, but the cooling system was sub-par. This one, however, had been modified - stripped back, the overheating less of an issue as a result. Inscribed on the top of the weapon in shaky permanent marker were the words ‘Sam Yarrow Special’.
Samantha Yarrow. Maxi Yarrow’s daughter. Yael remembered her. They’d served together for a little while - Sam had believed in the PHL, believed in what they were doing… until she’d gone with Yael to Nipville. After that, after Yael was demoted but allowed to stay in the PHL, Sam had left her unit and the PHL in disgust for parts unknown. And now, here was a gun she had modified herself, delivered into Yael’s waiting hands. Is this an omen?
Ignore that feeling. Focus on the job, she thought.
“Right then,” she said. “Right now, there’s HLF taking hostages in a town that did nothing to deserve it. I’m sure you know how I react to that sort of thing.”
The room was silent. The shaven-headed man looked towards Chen nervously. The mute man just stared at her, and rolled his eyes. Nothing that was discipline worthy, but still incredibly sarcastic.
“So we’re going to stop them,” Yael said.
The silent man cracked his knuckles - the loudest noise that she’d heard from him - and grabbed a VK-12 shotgun from one table.
‘Where did he even get that?’ Yael wondered.
Vera, however, grabbed an MP20 Obregon.
"But... we're not trained for HLF action," the shaven-headed F.E.A.R soldier said.
"Maybe," Yael said, "But I'm sure as hell not standing by and letting it happen. I'm taking as many people as I can with me."
The silent F.E.A.R operative shrugged.
"Ah, fuck it," said Chen. "What're they gonna do? Cut our funding again?"
"Guess it can't be worse than Amarillo," the other soldier said.
“That wasn’t my fault, Jankowski!” the first said. “Christ, you're worse than Raynes!”
“If Raynes were here, he’d be worse, trust me,” Jankowski smirked.
“I have no idea at all what that means,” Yael said, “So I’m just going to say that’s the spirit.”
Chen winced. “Please don't use that phrase. Spirits and us don't get on.”
Yael raised an eyebrow. “You serious?”
“Amarillo,” Jankowski and Chen said together.
Aegis
Aegis sat in the bed of the pickup truck, too bulky to comfortably fit in the cab. Sixstring was next to him, uneasily manning the mounted machineguns in the bed of the truck.
“Cuz,” Aegis asked. “You know how to use those?”
Sixstring looked downwards a little. “Point. Shoot.” He tapped the narrow metal circle mounted atop the four MGs. “Plus, you look through here.”
Aegis just shrugged and looked along the road, convincing himself he could see the HLF vehicles along the highway.
He couldn’t.
When they’d left Littleton, there were smashed windows almost everywhere. Something burned in the distance. The unmistakable red-and-blue of police sirens lit up the hills.
But, that was all far behind them. For now, they were on the highway. Just near the reservoir.
Francis tapped the radio Heliotrope had wired into the truck. Currently, she was far ahead of the truck, tailing the HLF from the air. They weren’t the only ones that had one - Nny and Fiddlesticks had a radio linked up on the motorcycle they’d stolen. Heliotrope had done that as the bike was moving - which had been stupid, but Nny didn’t seem to mind.
Aegis poked his head in to speak. Paul grumbled as Aegis pushed his head inwards.
“So,” Francis said, thumbing on the radio. “You called Yael?”
“Sergeant Ze’ev,” Heliotrope corrected. “For the record, she says it’s kind of stupid to try this.”
“Kay,” Aegis said, his tone of voice making it abundantly clear what he thought. Dammit. If she’d gone through even a tenth of this, if she’d seen what happened to my foals…
“She also says,” Heliotrope added, “That this is exactly the kind of thing she might do, so she’s not really in a position to throw stones, and she’s probably coming anyway.”
Francis smirked. “I never thought I’d like her this much.”
“Any idea where these people are heading?” Aegis asked.
“North,” Heliotrope said.
“Any more specific?” Aegis asked, willing himself to sound calm. That was the only way to deal with things like this. To stay. Absolutely. Damned. Calm.
Judging by the way Francis was glancing at him, it wasn’t exactly working.
“Not really,” Heliotrope said. “They’re still moving. I’m kind of disappointed at how quiet they’re being…”
“Isn’t it good that it’s quiet?” Paul asked from the back of the truck.
“Probably, but she’s right,” Kraber Francis said. “I was thinking we’d have some kind of huge road war.”
He was met with silence from everyone, at least as much silence as there could be in a large, moving vehicle.
“You know, HLF on motorcycles running at us, ambushing us with RPGs, I kick people off the truck?” Francis asked. “High-budget car stunts? Awesome soundtrack by Junkie XL?” he sighed. “Fokdammit, I was planning on grinding a man’s face against pavement.” He frowned. “Did our budget get cut? Are the writers busy? Is it finals week?”
“Something is very wrong with you,” Paul sighed.
Francis just raised an eyebrow and started laughing uncontrollably.
“...What,” Heliotrope asked.
“Look,” Aegis said. “Don’t worry about him, he’s just coping.”
“And you?” Heliotrope asked. “How are you coping with this?”
Aegis was silent.
“Aegis?” Heliotrope asked. “Hello?”
“Paul,” Francis was saying, “If I do something stupid, can you take the wheel?”
Francis and Paul barely knew each other. Hell, Aegis barely knew Paul. He was an American civilian (maybe) who’d lost a leg and an eye (the former probably to potion-bombing, the latter not so sure) who would stay at your house and knew his way around an M4 (definitely). He’d survive on other people’s money when he wasn’t on a job.
And somehow, at the moment, he trusted him more than Francis.
“Technically,” Paul said, “This whole thing is stupid.”
“Yeah, well, taking my foals was stupid,” Aegis said, “So I figure, why not outdo these assholes?”
“You’re being unusually talkative,” Francis said, keeping his eyes on the road.
“Yeah, well, knowing where my foals could be makes me…. upset,” Aegis said. “Hey. Francis. Would you have done this?”
Francis Kraber
‘Well, Mr. Huge Pony or Small Horse, I’m a notoriously fokkin’ evil war criminal who does bad things because they’re the only thing that brought me much of any emotion for the past few years, and I enjoy hurting people. It’s a bit of a resume-killer for a kontgesig like me, made worse by the fact that I also enjoy putting them back together. I know where they’re going because I used to live there, until I suffered a sudden, debilitating attack of conscience and tried to kill myself three times so far,’ Kraber thought. ‘So, y’know. Probably? By the way, I’m Viktor Kraber! I’d do unspeakable things to your foals up till about two weeks ago! Hey, do you have any beer?’
Of course he didn’t say that. That would have been fokkin’ dof. Instead:
“I think we’re getting closer, I’d floor this fokkin’ thing harder if I could,” Kraber said.
He saw a glimpse of Aegis’ face in the mirror. He looked… puzzled. Vaguely disgusted. Not, by any stretch of the word, trusting.
The night sky rushed overhead, and the nearby train rattled along the tracks. There’d be a hill coming up, soon. He could see the lights of another truck just around one bend. Was it an HLF truck? He didn’t know.
“Francis,” Aegis said. “Whatever your name is. You didn’t answer.”
“...But my name is Francis,” Kraber said, forcing a smile to his face as he looked at Aegis. The big stallion’s face was usually… not too expressive. There was usually a slight curve to his mouth that could’ve been a smile or a frown, and his expression didn’t seem to change too often.
Right now, there was an odd absence of… anything in Aegis’ face.
“Look,” Aegis said. “We both know you haven’t been entirely honest with me. But I need you to answer this question. Would you have done this?”
Kraber remained silent.
“And if you lie, I swear to Tartarus I will throw you out of this truck,” Aegis continued.
If Aegis was an elemental, one of those rare ponies like Firebrand of the Dragons of the East with some connection to the elements, h could have frozen a river. Even now, even in the heart of summer.
For a moment, Kraber wanted to protest. Wanted to say that he was Francis. Wanted to explain his childhood in Edinburgh, how he’d lost his family, how he’d lost everything until he met this stallion and his wonderful family, how it was the best thing, and how he’d never done anything evil, which is why he said-
Kraber didn’t want to answer, because the fact was that he had done things like this before, ripping ponies from their homes and torturing them for the crime of just being ponies.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Kraber said, focusing even harder on the road.
“You’re sure?” Aegis asked. “I mean, my countryponies have done some terrible things. Sometimes things happen, you didn’t even mean them to. Have a hard day, lose your temper, get drunk... it’d be better if we knew it now, right?”
“I really don’t want to talk about it,” Kraber said.
“Really? Sometimes guys do stuff. Doesn’t make ’em bad.”
“Actually,” Kraber said, “it does. The stuff we’re trying to prevent? That makes them bad. That makes me pretty fokkin’ awful. I can’t fix that. I can’t just… I can’t just wipe the slate clean, turn into some other person who never did any of this. But: You, your foals, everyone in the Neighborhood, and Sixstring, you showed me kindness-”
“Alright, that’s enough,” Aegis said. “Are you helping me get my foals back or not?”
“Absofokkinlutely,” Kraber said.
“All I needed to hear,” Aegis said. And then he looked slightly downcast. “I’m… sorry. For bringing that up. You’re… you wouldn’t have raped them, would you?”
Kraber found himself smiling. “I shot the last rapist I met in the dick.”
Aegis’ face abruptly failed. “Kay then. Francis. I’m not sure how to react right now. Logically, I shouldn’t trust you. You just admitted you’ve lied to me, and…” he sighed. “And I saw how you reacted there.”
“Would you have been okay if-” Kraber started.
“Francis,” Aegis said, “I am pretty fucking far from okay. My foals have been abducted. My house was vandalized. I saw you kill several people in front of me. But, if you’re not okay with what the HLF will do, and you’re gonna get them back… then we’re golden.”
“Good,” Kraber said. “Because-”
“Guys?!” Heliotrope interrupted. “Something really screwed up just happened.”
Heliotrope
Slightly earlier…
Heliotrope felt happier flying above tree cover as she watched the tractor trailer the HLF were driving northwards.
Not for the first time, she wondered what she’d gotten into after Nipville. It should have, by all rights, been reassignment to the flank end of nowhere. Nobody attacked places like this, they were supposed to be safe. Predictable. A place where they could just fade into the background, doing unimportant work up till Barrierfall.
Instead: Reports of Reavers. Shieldwall. HLF gone cultike, attacking a city. And the rumors about the Hotline or the ‘Angel’.
Oddly enough, it was the Reavers that worried her. Heliotrope and Yael had caused civilian casualties in Nipville (the reason for Sam Yarrow’s resignation, or part of it). They’d been decidedly unmerciful towards HLF wherever possible, and Heliotrope privately wondered if the Reavers would one day blood-eagle the two of them.
Thing was, though: Yael wasn’t paranoid, and stuff like this proved her right. What the HLF had done to her sister Netanya, the thing that had happened to Netanya’s pony friend, the desperate battles in the Middle East… Yael had known from those moments that the HLF couldn’t be trusted.
It wasn’t paranoia if they really were out to get you, after a-
And suddenly the lead vehicle flipped. Any suspension, anything that kept it on-balance seemed to abruptly lose any semblance of effectiveness. For a few seconds it tumbled through the air, then skidded on its side, one of its wheels toughing the ground. It was like it’d been thrown, but that didn’t make sense.
Then another HLF vehicle slammed into the wreck, spinning out on all of its wheels…
And swerving into the opposite lane of the highway.
Heliotrope hadn’t known much about human cars (There usually wasn’t a need) but even she knew what had to happen next.
Human cars swerved to avoid it, but the damage had been done - some drivers hadn’t reacted fast enough, or stopped short, smashing into the HLF vehicle.
The wrecks just piled up.
“My God,” Heliotrope breathed.
There was silence on the other end.
“Um. What?” Aegis asked.
“That can’t be good,” Francis said.
“There’s… there’s a massive pileup at the exit,” Heliotrope said. “The HLF are turning off-ramp, heading toward a town.”
“Were my foals in there?” Aegis asked.
“Um-” Heliotrope started, changing direction as she flew towards the nearby town.
“Were. My. Foals. In. There,” Aegis repeated. “If they aren’t, I swear to Luna that I’m going to-”
Heliotrope turned on her goggles’ thaum-imaging function. Barring a few residual traces, there didn’t seem to be any in there.
“No,” Heliotrope said, and heard Aegis breathe a sigh of relief.
“Oh, thank God,” Aegis sighed.
There was a pause.
“There’s more,” Heliotrope said, squinting and tapping a magnification function on her goggles. “Someone else is heading for the next town.”
“PER?” Fiddlesticks asked.
“Can’t be,” Heliotrope said. “For one thing, the PER don’t have anywhere near as much ATC equipment…”
“...Fok,” Francis sighed.
“You know, you swear way too much,” Heliotrope pointed out.
“Heliotrope,” Francis said, “I have many things to apologize for in this world. That’s not one of them.”
Then a thought occurred. “Frank? Do you know who might have a lot of ATC equipment?”
“Yeah,” Francis sighed. “I have a pretty good idea.”
Idle Preston
“So,” Preston was saying. “Don’t head towards Littleton? I thought that-”
“Yeah yeah yeah,” Idle said hurriedly, the motorcycle helmet holding his phone to his head. “Anyway. Some of the mediocre shitstains thought that taking pony hostages after Littleton went to hell would be a good idea.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line.
“Why?” Preston asked. He’d placed the phone near the dashboard, putting it in speakerphone, which made it easy for the others to listen to.
“These people were scared, the one person guiding them in the right direction was dead, and they have no idea what to do?” Idle asked. “Honestly, haven’t a damn clue.”
“Great,” Amber snorted from next to Preston.
“Idle,” Preston said. “Can you meet up with us in the next town? It’s... ” He paused. “St. Johnsbury. I think?”
“Sure thing,” Idle said. “I’m pretty much on the same road as you at this point. You’ll know me when you see me.”
He clicked off the phone, and Preston sighed. He was watching the trees blur past, wishing for the umpteenth time that he’d had a happier reason to end up in America and that their job wasn’t a necessity.
And yet it was. So many people had been dispossessed, displaced, dis-everything by the Barrier, and so many of them became HLF. And under Carter, a former airline worker of all people, they got angry. Even Carter’s incarceration hadn’t changed much of anything.
“It’s a shame,” Osterman said. “I heard Yarrow had high hopes for this Bowen person.”
“He did,” Preston said, nodding solemnly.
“Hey,” said Bentham, who they’d picked up on the Purity’s voyage along the St. Lawrence Seaway. “You ever wish it was easier for people like us?”
“All the damn time,” said Jacqueline Lourdes. She’d recently joined the Reavers around the same time as Bentham, leaving behind her old group of Canadian HLF.
“Does a bear shit in the woods?” Martell asked.
“Okay, okay,” Bentham said. “Point taken.”
“Yes. Every single day of my life,” Preston said, squinting at something on the horizon. The oncoming town - well, more of a small city - seemed a bit too big… too bright…
Wait a second.
“By the way,” Preston said, “it looks like St. Johnsbury is on fire.”
“What?!” Amber yelled.
“Well scheisse,” Osterman said. “That can’t be good.”
Aegis
“Yeah,” Heliotrope said sarcastically. “That town is definitely on fire.”
“...Shit!” Nny yelled, struggling to be heard over the wind.
“Well that can’t be good,” Aegis said. “But why would the HLF…”
“I’m not completely sure about that,” Francis said, looking deep in thought. “Something isn’t right here. I don’t know what, but I don’t fokkin’ well like it.”
But before he could explain the worried look on his face, Paul interrupted. “What the hell? Dammit. I grew up there. I hope things are okay...”
“I hope so too,” Sixstring said. “I just… I wish I could’ve done something to stop this. I was around for the beginning, I just… if I’d changed enough people’s minds, spoke louder, then we, we could’ve-”
“Wait. Around from the beginning? Are you PER?” Paul demanded. “Imperial? Or-”
“Watch it, Paul. I wouldn’t have gotten my family out of Equestria without my cousin,” Aegis said, biting back the minute flash of rage he’d felt. ‘I owe damn near everything to him. My foals, my home, being a universe away from Woven Fucking Sugar,’ he thought. “He’s Equestrian Resistance, actually,” Aegis said.
“Yeah, I think you told me about this,” Francis added.
“Never… never heard about that,” Paul said, confused.
“Not every pony dissatisfied with the regime ended up stranded here,” Sixstring said. “While Aegis was on vacation to take his mind off things and eating fish-”
“Don’t you fokkin’-” Francis started, right on the verge of yelling, right before-
“Don’t worry about it,” Aegis said. He wasn’t mad about that. That was just how Sixstring always explained their shared past. And Sixstring had never judged him for leaving for Earth, it’d just been that Aegis needed some time away from politics. From home. “It’s… it’s fine. He’s my cousin, and I love him.”
“Aweh. I didn’t think you ate meat,” Francis said, confused.
“It’s just… eh,” Aegis shrugged. “Not good. Not terrible. Just, eh.”
“Anyway,” Sixstring said, pointedly ignoring the interruption, “You don’t do the kind of things Queen Celestia did without upsetting a lot of ponies. While she was using a new world to distract us from how very bucked up we’d become, I was at demonstrations. Organizing strikes. Protesting for demilitarization after the Changeling Purges and the Crystal War, asking for the removal of the Equestrian Parliament’s war hawks. I thought we were going to turn attention towards us…”
Sixstring’s face darkened.
“Then we did. The royal guards were assigned to beat us up,” Sixstring said. “We were told we were being disharmonious or something. That by disagreeing with our queen-” he spat out the word- “We were going against her and thus Equestria. And a threat to everypony in the land...” he snorted. “Bucked if I know.”
Aegis looked off to the side, then draped one massive foreleg over his cousin in a hug.
Sixstring wheezed. “Why the Faust are you so huge? Cuz, you know that your hugs are like being crushed by a bear.”
Aegis reduced the pressure. “Figured you needed it though.”
“Yeah,” Sixstring admitted. “Kinda did.”
“Bullshit!” Fiddlesticks called up from the motorcycle. “Nny’s hugs feel way more like being crushed by bears.”
“Should we challenge him to a hug-off?” Nny asked.
“Sounds relaxing,” Aegis laughed. ‘That does sound fun…’
“So then why are you here?” Paul asked.
“There was only so far underground I could go when my cover was blown,” Sixstring said. “So, I’m helping the Resistance and PHL any way I can over here.”
“Oh,” Paul said. “I think I have heard of the Equestrian Resistance. Are those weird Gestalt broadcasts part of it or-”
“No,” Sixstring interrupted. “I’ve been working to transmit them back to the Resistance, and nobody has any idea what the hell they are.”
“Wait,” Francis said. “So, we have something that keeps referencing the, uh…”
“Crystal Empire,” Aegis supplied.
“Yeah. That,” Francis said. “And it’s obviously got some connection to ponies. But nobody knows what it is? PER, Equestrian Resistance, PHL, that weird guy Aegis and I met in the bar a couple hours ago?”
“That guy was really weird,” Aegis said.
“Yup,” Sixstring said. “Spooky, huh?”
Fiddlesticks clicked on the radio in the sidecar. “Damn right.”
They were quiet as they rushed towards St. Johnsbury, just ahead. It looked like it’d been small and unremarkable once upon a time.
That time had passed.
From what Aegis knew about the local area, St. Johnsbury had been relatively important when railroads ruled the day. Then it had stopped But when the railroad had been refurbished to carry materials to support the war it had awkwardly settled back into importance.
Either the palpable uncertainty that Aegis could feel came from the town’s history…
...Or the building on fire. The civilians milling around with strange looks in their eyes.
‘Poor bastards,’ Aegis thought. There were ponies in this town allotted to various farms not too far from here - he knew more than a few of them. A lot of these people had been resettled from Europe or Africa. Most were American, but in the last four years they’d seen horror after horror. The erasure of a country, backwards in time under the Barrier.... Only for it to happen time and time again, obliterating all of Europe. People turned into childish, tittering, broken little shadows of themselves, herded into Bureaus like cattle. The borderline-pogroms that the HLF had done. Once-comfortable lives breaking like wet, rotten wood.
This had to be bringing back memories. It definitely was for Aegis.
“You-” Francis asked, then stopped.
“You were about to say ‘okay,’ weren’t you?” Aegis asked.
“Well, you did say ‘pretty fokkin far from okay,’” Francis said.
Aegis nodded. “Just… this is bringing back memories. Of the Three Weeks of Blood.”
Francis went even paler than normal. “It was a terrible time.” Something about the tone of his voice made absolutely sure he didn’t want to talk about it.
Not that the swarms of people, looking for all the world like refugees from destroyed countries (probably because some of them were) rushing out of their homes to meet them would give them any chance.
“IT’S AN HLF TRUCK!” someone yelled. A woman with an M16.
“No, there’s ponies!”
“Ain’t we had enough of-”
‘Alright,’ Aegis thought. ‘Someone has to do something. Francis and Paul are driving. Sixstring is…’
He looked over at his cousin, who just looked kind of apprehensive. Nny and Fiddlesticks, who looked to be talking about something privately.
‘Fuck it. I’ll do it.’
“EVERYBODY CALM YOUR SHIT!” Aegis bellowed.
Inexplicably, it worked. Everyone in the vicinity seemed to quiet down at the sound of Aegis’ voice. Francis looked almost surprised to see him with such presence, while Sixstring looked up to him in quiet approval.
Nny flashed Aegis a quick thumbs-up. Aegis returned it with the pony salute he’d learned from the PHL.
“We’re not HLF, PER, PHL, any three-letter group,” Aegis said. “We’re just trailing the HLF that took my foals.”
“Shouldn’t you let the military do it?” someone asked.
“Either we wait, or we settle this ourselves,” Francis said. “I’ve lost one set of children on my watch. Aegis is my best friend in the world right about now, and I’m not fokkin’ well losing his.”
“You never told me about that,” Nny said.
“Yeah, well, you didn’t ask,” Francis said. “Not a fokkin’ happy subject.”
“So, are you with them?” one man asked, jerking his thumb towards the six-wheeled APC nearby.
It was impossible for Aegis not to notice how Francis went rigid at the sight. He swore in a language Aegis couldn’t understand.
“I have never seen that APC before in my life,” Aegis said bluntly, and cast a quick look towards Francis. “We’re just here to find my foals.”
Francis had opened the door to the truck and looked to be heading around to the other end when a man made his voice heard.
“My name’s Preston,” Aegis heard someone say, and watching a large man with a larger hammer walking up to him. “Who the hell are-”
He stopped as he saw Francis.
“You,” ‘Preston’ said coldly.
“FOKDAMMIT!” Francis yelled.
Kraber
“You,” Preston said, cracking his knuckles. “Here.”
There was a pregnant pause. The noise just seemed to filter out of the surrounding area, and the civilians inched away from the two men.
The Reavers filled the void. All around Preston, Kraber could see familiar faces. Reavers wearing the same wholly incongruous armor that he remembered from the last year - though it’d been painted over with odd symbols, and seemed to have taken quite a few nicks since then. Amber Hill, John Idle, Peter McReady, Osterman, Martell…
And a few new faces too. Some that he hadn’t met. Just off in the distance, he could see Idle riding up on a motorcycle, bolt-action rifle and shotgun on his back.
“What’s going on?” one of the townsfolk asked.
‘Yarrow must’ve been going overdrive in recruiting,’ Kraber thought. Then he remembered just what that meant last time Yarrow had gone overdrive in recruiting, dredging him up from the sands of the American West. ‘They feel it too, then. They know something big’s coming.’
“Aweh. Me,” Kraber said after a moment. “Here.”
“Was… this, you?” Preston asked.
“I promise, it wasn’t me this time,” Kraber said. He hoped he sounded calm. He probably fokkin’ well didn’t, but sounding calm was preferable to the obvious outcome of the Reavers fokkin’ well shooting him. He… hadn’t exactly left things on good terms with them. “If it was, I wouldn’t be here.”
Preston said nothing, before looking at Aegis. “You trust him?”
“I trust Frank more than I trust you,” Aegis replied bluntly.
Preston snorted. “Huh. ‘Frank.’ Fair play, big pony.” He looked at Kraber again. “Problem?”
“Only if you have one,” Kraber replied, trying to keep a smirk from his face. Oh, Lord, I know I’m the worst person for you to listen to, but don’t let me piss them off right here!
“I’m a professional,” Preston replied shortly, nothing but cold disdain in his tone. “I have problems when Maxi tells me to, not before. You're not on my agenda, Frank. What's the sitrep?”
Kraber exhaled. Thank God for semi-professional fokkin’ standards! I should get those sometime. Later, though.
“Some HLF came to Littleton to… surrender? Volunteer as guards? I don’t know what the fok, but I admire the effort,” Kraber said. “Took a page from your playbook.”
None of the Reavers seemed happy to hear him say that. Martell visibly tensed, his rifle raising ever so slightly.
“Then…” Kraber said. ‘Should I tell them it was my fault? Oh God. Was it my fault?! I shot them, and then… and then there were those other…
He paused for a second, deep in thought. ‘I sparked it off, and that’s fokkin’ kak. But the other shots I heard… Couldn’t have just been me!’
“You shot someone, didn't you?” Amber Hill asked sarcastically. “And then it all went downhill from there, right?”
“You WHAT?!” Nny yelled.
“I can’t fucking believe this,” Aegis sighed, facehoofing.
“No,” Kraber said slowly. “Well, yes, but -”
“Ha! Pint’s on you, Karl,” Martell barked in tired amusement.
“Well, how the fok would you react if… fok it. I’m not going to get anywhere with this,” Kraber sighed.
“We’d react like professionals, Frank,” Amber said.
“But it wasn’t just me,” Kraber said, knowing how weak that sounded. “I’m telling you, somebody was out there just waiting for this to fail. I swear to God, to whatever anyone here finds holy, that one’s not on me!”
“An agent provocateur?” Preston asked with a frown.
Kraber paused. “How the fok do you know that word?”
“Cambridge University,” Preston smirked. “So you think that was it?”
“Uh, yeah, an agent provocateur,” Kraber repeated. “I heard a sniper rifle. And suddenly, this peacemaker has a hole in her head. And then the HLF… they go crazy.”
“Really, Frank?” Amber said, in a tone that was much inquisitive as accusatory.
“They started looting, yelling, screaming…” Fiddlesticks explained. “Tried to kill me and Nny, too!”
Nny nodded, though he still looked angry at Kraber.
“Yeah,” Idle said. “He didn’t lie about that - Someone was definitely stirring them up. I shot a few of them for it, too. Can you believe that some of them even used a flamethrower?”
“Fok… That was you?!” Kraber asked. “Damn. Thanks, that saved my ass. Anyway, they took some of the ponies there as… hostages, I think? So. There’s these foals in another HLF truck that we’re trying to find. I’m trying to help this horse-” he pointed to Aegis.
“Pony,” Aegis interrupted, deadpan, in that special Aegis kind of deadpan he used whenever he was out of his depth. Thankfully, he didn’t seem mad at Kraber.
“Sorry, you’re huge enough it throws me off a bit,” Kraber said, and turned back to the Reavers. “Look, we need to get these foals.”
“Why are you helping them?” Amber Hill asked.
The fire crackled off in the distance.
“Are you tuning me kak?!” Kraber asked incredulously, immediately regretting the use of the Cape Town slang he’d grown up using. Thankfully, nobody seemed to notice.
“You've met you, right?” Hill said, tilting her head with a smirk.
Oh, so many answers to that question, Kraber thought, though he smirked. Fok…
“Well?” Preston asked. “I’m waiting.”
“Good point,” he said, shrugging. “See, thanks to the stallion with the guitar flank-mark-”
“Hey,” Sixstring said, weakly waving with his right foreleg. “I’m here too.”
“-I live with Aegis. He gives me room and board, in return I…” Kraber sighed. On some level, this still sounded a bit humiliating. I used to be the most terrifying, badass motherfokker around and now I’m a foalsitter. Not even a babysitter… a foalsitter.”
Preston tapped his foot impatiently.
“...foalsit,” Kraber admitted.
“Bodyguard sounds cooler,” Nny called over.
“It’s what it is,” Kraber shrugged. Eh. Fok it, it’s an improvement.
“So, with us living together, being friends,” Aegis cut in. “He’s gotten to like me and my foals.”
“Really,” Idle said, folding his arms. Nny and Fiddlesticks looked at the incredulous Reavers, their eyes darting back and forth.
“It’s true!” Kraber protested. “I have. And I said I wasn’t letting another father lose his children again.”
“Buggery-fuck, you’re serious again,” Idle said. “Look. Large pony. Small horse. Whatever.”
“Eh?” Aegis asked.
“Whatever you’re doing to keep him like this,” Idle said. “Keep doing it. It's infinitely preferable to how he was before.”
“How…” Aegis asked.
“You’re better off not knowing,” Idle said.
“Seconded,” Preston agreed. He turned to his troops. “Alright! Civvie retrieval! Hostiles are mediocre dogs - accept quarter where requested, we might make something of them, but don't hesitate to take them down!”
“They kidnapped my foals,” Aegis said angrily. “I don't care if they surrender, I-”
Preston turned and gave him a Look, and even Aegis paused.
“We’re civilised creatures,” he said coldly. “We follow the rules of war. It is what makes us Not Them. Fight the right way or stay out of ours.”
“They aren't your foals,” Aegis said coldly.
“No,” Preston replied. “Mine are already dead. PER took them. I killed what was left of them. But I’m human. Not a beast. What about you?”
Without waiting for a reply, he headed off, most of his group following. Idle stayed out for a moment, smiling ruefully.
“He always was a cold motherfokker,” Kraber whispered. Not that I’m better, but…
“He’s a professional,” Idle said quietly. “More than me or some of the others - we’re just trying to be.” Then he turned to Kraber, suddenly. “Hey, honest question. Did that unicorn over there make you this way?”
“What unicorn?” Aegis asked, looking over to their stolen truck. Just in front of it, he could see an albino unicorn mare, looking incredibly out of place.
“I have no idea who that is,” Kraber said, looking profoundly confused. Could a unicorn have done that, though?
“You don't?” asked one other Reaver that Kraber didn’t know. A woman with a thick Canadian accent. “Huh. I… kind of assumed she was one of yours. She looks familiar though...”
And then a sobering thought occured.
Fok. Does it take me being brainwashed to be a good person? That’s an awful thought.
He looked back to the unicorn, only to find that she’d disappeared.
Wait, is that the Surreal Unicorn from back in White River Junction?
“Huh. She’s… gone. Well, whatever it was, I’m not questioning it,” Idle said with a sigh. “Just - I dunno, don't eff up too badly, Frank. I want to get my people home.”
He headed off after Preston.
“So, are we going with them or what?” Sixstring said.
“I like our odds better with them than without,” Kraber said. “So, we’re going with.”
“Should I tell them about calling-” Heliotrope whispered over the radio.
“We’ll explode that bridge when we come to it,” Kraber said. “Right now, we need them as reinforcements more than I need to explain and waste any more time. And I… I don’t know how willing they’d be if they knew Yael was coming.”
“Don’t you mean ‘cross’-” Sixstring started.
“I fokkin’ like explosions,” Kraber said, almost petulant.
“You worry me sometimes, big guy,” Heliotrope said. “Wait, they… they don’t know I’m here.”
“Idle probably does,” Kraber pointed out.
“Yeah, well… these people really don’t like us,” Heliotrope said. “I can see where you’re coming from, by all accounts they treat Yael like the devil. But… do you really think they might refuse to help if Yael’s coming?”
Kraber didn’t have an answer.
“I’m just asking because I don’t think they’d take it well if I came over and said so,” Heliotrope said. “I’d tell them if I could, but…”
Just nearby Kraber saw Nny, and Fiddlesticks talking to a woman with a missing right arm. She looked like a potion-amputee - they all had that look to them. ‘Brittle’ was the first word that came to mind. There was a Spanish woman in Reaver’s armor standing next to them, listening intently.
“...Took my sister,” she said. “Ran over pedestrians. Fucking HLF…”
It was hard for Kraber not to miss Preston’s sigh.
That’s my fokkin’ fault, isn’t it? he thought to himself.
“Did they set the building on fire?” Fiddlesticks asked.
“It wasn’t them,” said one man nearby. “Not all of it, anyway. It was… it was a monster.”
“A monster?” Kraber asked. “What even...”
He had no idea how to finish that sentence.
“Wha?” Aegis added. “That doesn’t make sense, what kind of…”
“Some… other group was following the HLF, too,” said a man with an American accent. Kraber had him pegged as a local, someone who lived here long before the War. “Not you. Not the Reavers. Whatever did this, it wasn’t human.”
“Then was it… a pony?” Fiddlesticks asked, looking curiously regretful as she asked it.
“No idea. Nobody got a good look at it, but it was trailing fire everywhere,” the American said.
“It’s enough to make me worry about you chasing them,” the woman with the missing arm said. “Shouldn’t you wait for the authorities?”
“They took my fucking foals,” Aegis said, snarling. “I’m not waiting to get then back.”
“Then I hope you get to them before the monster,” said the woman with the missing arm.
“Okay,” Heliotrope said, appearing out of nowhere. “Now I’m worried.”
Heliotrope
The crowd parted, and she was certain that he heard a few sounds like the pumps on shotguns, or charging handles being pulled.
Frank looked… worried, when he saw her.
“Corporal Heliotrope,” said a Spanish woman in Reaver armor. “What are you doing here?”
Heliotrope raised an eyebrow. “I… don’t know who you are.”
“Heliotrope?” Preston asked, turning around before he could get into the APC. “What are you doing here?”
“I told you over the phone,” Idle said, swinging one leg over his motorcycle. “She was in Littleton. I just didn’t think she’d…”
“Of course I’d follow them,” Heliotrope said. Who did this man think he was? “I’ve been leading them for awhile,” she continued. “Giving them information on the road.”
“Without her,” said Yael’s cousin Nny, “We wouldn’t be here.”
“I can connect my equipment to your radio, so you can get… well, the same information I’m giving them,” she said, pointing to Aegis’ truck.
“I think,” said one Reaver, an American woman with decidedly longer hair than would be regulation for anyone, “that some of us might not like one of the-”
“Verb,” said another Reaver. Heliotrope couldn’t remember her name. “Easy. Sometimes you need to accept help from the runaways.”
“Consider it an act of good faith,” Heliotrope said. “When we’re done, I’ll even undo it.”
“Would you?” asked the Reaver named Preston. “Would you really?”
“Absolutely,” Heliotrope said. She wasn’t sure if she was lying. Though… they seem well-intentioned. I just… Rewarding people who genuinely seem like they want to help with eavedropping… it’s just unconscionable, it is. “Just give me your frequency, and we’ll be all set.”
“Fine,” said Preston. He glanced at ‘Verb’. “Like Bowman says. Faith. Maxi says it to. We’re all fighting the good fight.”
‘Verb’ shook her head and sighed. “Whatever, boss. You're the boss.”
Preston smirked. “Damn right.” He motioned to Heliotrope. “I’ll key you in.”
Heliotrope hesitated. “Uh…”
“Why would I sabotage your gear?” Preston asked, with the patience of a saint. “You want us to trust you? Then trust me.”
Heliotrope hesitated a moment longer, then passed him her radio. He keyed in the frequency, and passed it back.
“It's a little battered,” he said as she fitted it back on. “I'd advise getting it checked over when we’re done.”
Heliotrope blinked. “Uh, yeah. Thanks.”
Kraber
The night was too peaceful for what had just happened in the past few hours, Heliotrope was silent, he could see the stars…
Kraber didn’t like it.
Kraber liked to think of himself as somebody who… well, ‘not easily rattled’ was something he knew did not fokkin’ well apply. He rattled like a box full of pottery fragments from a broken vase. It was more that he liked to think of himself as somebody who’d seen it all.
But whatever this ‘monster’ was? Somehow, it did not inspire confidence in the least.
Sure, it made him feel better to kow that people actually felt happy to see him. All the townies around here, they looked… they looked happy to know somebody was just as fokkin’ woedend as them, and that they were doing something about this. Though some part of him just wanted to fall to the ground on his knees, and scream something like ‘I’m not worth being welcomed! I AM A HORRIBLE FOKKIN’ PERSON’
I really hope the part of me saying that isn’t my conscience, Kraber thought. I can think about what a fokkin’ kontgesig I am later. Right now, I am going to help someone out, so fokkin’ help me-
“The monster?” Nny asked as they headed north.
“That… can’t be good,” Paul said.
Kraber laughed nervously, then wished that that the lorrie could drive faster. ‘I would fokkin’ kill a man for one of the LAVs from Dust 514. Actually, I would kill several men. Also, a Swarm Rocket Launcher. I would fokkin’ smaak that. FASTER, FOKDAMMIT!
It was only from the looks Paul gave him - and the look he could see Aegis and Sixstring giving him - that he realized he’d said it out loud.
“You okay?” Heliotrope called down. She looked down to Kraber, her head visible just through the window.
“No,” Kraber said.
The speedometer was not climbing fast enough. Kraber stared at it, wishing he was psychic, wishing that he could do anything other than press the pedal harder and hope to God that he could get to Aegis’ foals quicker.
“If they are where I think they are,” he said, “Then I’m really fokkin’ worried.”
“What do you mean?” Aegis asked.
And Kraber told him. “PER,” he said, not quite sure how he knew but absolutely certain all the same. “It’s PER chasing those HLF.”
The chain of logic was not actually… well, logical. There were a few fragmented thoughts along the lines of ‘but who else would,’ and ‘other group’. Then ‘No, maybe if’ and then the memory of Reaper. Then: ‘Who makes monsters?’
Aegis’ fur almost seemed to get whiter. “How can you be sure?”
“I’m not,” Kraber said. “But-”
He floored the gas pedal, speeding northwards. “Think about it. Who else uses things described as monsters?”
“The HLF?” Sixstring muttered.
Kraber’s train of thought nearly derailed, but he kept it on track. “Well… yeah. But no. Who could’ve just made an HLF truck crash, just like that? I’ve seen those things crash, that was like it was being thrown, not like it fokkin’ hit something.”
“I noticed that too,” Heliotrope said. “I just… I hope you’re wrong.”
“I hope so too. But… It’s the PER, I’m sure of it,” Kraber replied. ‘Can’t this fokken lorrie go faster?’ he thought, pounding the pedal so hard he had to wonder if it’d punch through the floor. Any signs of habitation were gradually beginning to thin, the trees seemingly growing closer together and looming over the road.
“I’m… gonna head up and do that observing,” Heliotrope said, “Beginning to feel like I’m not doing enough.”
“Heliotrope, you’re doing fine,” Kraber said. “I promise.”
She didn’t leave. There was… something in her eyes. Some look that told Kraber that she absolutely was not sure.
“You really mean it?” she asked.
“Yes,” Kraber said. “Look… we’re all scared.”
“Or absolutely goddamn livid,” Aegis added.
“Or both,” Kraber said. “Yeah, I think Aegis and I… we’re both. And I think we all need some reassurance.”
“Awww,” Heliotrope said, smiling slightly. “In that case... “ she tapped her earpiece. “Everyone here’s doing fine, too. Especially you, Frank. And Aegis.”
“Get a room, you two!” someone called over from the Reaver’s truck.
Heliotrope and Kraber looked at each other uncertainly. They weren’t blushing, they weren’t contemplating anything.
Kraber was more confused than anything, honestly.
“I’m… gonna go,” Heliotrope said, looking at Kraber strangely. She flew off before he could say anything.
He’d been driving about ten minutes before Heliotrope saw it.
“There’s wreckage ahead,” she said. “Looks like… HLF truck, I think. Maybe a car?”
“Are my foals there?” Aegis yelled.
“No,” Heliotrope said. “No signs of life.”
Kraber believed her by the time he saw it.
The HLF truck looked like the carcass of a great beast. The trailer had ruptured outwards, and there was a fleshy mass on the road. They were going too fast for Kraber to know what it was.
There looked to be a car wrapped around a tree - not that the crumplezone had folded around it, just that it had been wrapped like a particularly pliable band of metal.
“What,” Paul said. “Just… seriously, what?!”
“Is this… is this normal for car crashes?” Sixstring asked.
“No,” Kraber said. “No, it’s not.”
“Hey,” Nny called over to the truck full of Reavers. “Just so we’re clear, this had nothing to do with you guys, right?”
“How could we?” one Reaver called down from the APC’s turret. “We only just got here!”
“Guys?” Heliotrope asked. “There’s something wrong with the next town…”
It was just then that they saw the town of Lyndonville, just ahead. Kraber had been there once or twice, checking with their usual arms dealers, picking up recruits.
Kraber had liked it, more or less, just for its quiet.
It wasn’t so quiet anymore. A couple buildings looked to have been flattened. None of the lights were on except for one building, a great sixties-era brick monstrosity.
“Thaumic readings are off the damn charts,” Heliotrope said. “Whatever’s happening there is big. And magical.”
“Fok,” Kraber said.
Aegis
“Sixstring?” Aegis asked. “You have a pair of binoculars?”
Wordlessly, Sixstring reached into a saddlebag and picked out a set. They looked strangely modified, a curly wire snaking to one lens, and a crystal in a glass box on one side.
Aegis stared down the lenses. It looked like they’d turned the town into a processing center of some kind - He could see humans and ponies that were leading humans into what looked like a former school, jabbing them with blunt-ended spears.
Whenever a human took the strangely blunt ends of the spear, they’d convulse and scream. Aegis looked through the binoculars at one of the building’s windows.
He tapped on a switch that’d been awkwardly fastened to the top, zooming in on one window. He stared through one window, watching a man twist and warp, his silhouette melting like a candle.
But the thing that really commanded Aegis’ attention was the purple glow.
“They have a portal,” Heliotrope said.
Everyone went silent. Reavers, Aegis’ truck, Nny, Fiddlesticks.
“But why here?!” Nny wailed. “Why, for God’s sake, can’t I just-”
“I don’t know,” Heliotrope admitted. “But we’re stopping this. Here. And. Now.”
“I have an idea,” Kraber said. “Heliotrope, can you distract them?”
“Is this the painful kind of distraction, or…” Heliotrope asked.
“No,” Kraber said. “Eh, probably. Death is distracting, so use that on anyone that could spot us. I have a plan!”
“You,” Idle said. “You have a plan.”
“Strange, isn’t it?” Kraber asked. “I don’t think I’m actually calming down. I think I’m so angry that I’ve come full circle.”
Kraber
One of the PER was a bearded man in street clothes. He looked to be carrying a rifle, with what looked like an attached flare launcher. Contrary to popular belief, PER did carry human weaponry, as potion vials had a distinct lack of range, penetration, and velocity compared to conventional guns.
As Kraber demonstrated, gunning the engine and ramming the bastard with the truck.
He awkwardly fumped against the grill, tumbling over the windshield and landing behind them in a broken heap.
“Potion this, bitch!” Kraber laughed, as the body tumbled through the air.
On the street nearby, the Reaver APC had come to a standstill, firing off its turret at the PER guards, the improvised Conversion station, anywhere but the crowd of humans being herded inside the school. The high-calibre turret didn't “kill” things so much as it “splattered” them.
“Bullets taste like chicken, don't they?!” called the gunner maniacally.
“Potion them!” screamed an earth pony with a pickaxe for a cutie mark. “They came for the prisoners, let’s get them some-”
There was a rattling, roaring sound from the back of the truck. Aegis tapped on the roof, just behind Kraber.
The earth pony with the pickaxe cutie mark had fallen silent. And he’d probably just fallen in general, but there wasn’t enough of his body left to tell.
Kraber grinned, noticing three newfoals rushing towards them, each carrying parts of what looked like a large crossbow.
He flung the steering wheel to the right, spinning the truck out at speeds it simply was not meant to reach.
“Wha-?!” Aegis yelled, but it was lost in the roar and squeal of tires as the rear of the truck hit each newfoal, one by one. Each went sailing up through the air, awkwardly tumbling.
Then Kraber floored the truck, catapulting it through another newfoal.
“What the hell is wrong with your driving?!” Paul yelled.
“Blame my upbringing!” Kraber yelled, throwing open the door. “Aegis, we’re getting your foals. Paul, Sixstring? Hold down the fort.”
Aegis hopped out of the bed of the truck. It noticeably shook and rattled as he hit the pavement. The two of them rushed into the street, guns ready.
A human woman stepped out of cover. She held a paintball gun, watching the two of them running full-tilt into the town’s center. She looked at Kraber, her gun already shouldered-
BANG
Kraber held the revolver in one outstretched hand, still running.
Neither Aegis nor Kraber would be able to explain it, but one second the PER woman was shouldering her paintball gun. The next, Kraber’s revolver had been in one hand with no indication as to how it had moved so quickly.
And then the PER woman’s skull was gone, her headless body collapsing to the ground like a puppet with cut strings.
“So,” Kraber said, striding forward. “Couple of us, whole army of PER. Doesn’t look fair for them.”
Kraber would later learn that, at that moment, Aegis desperately wanted to someday make a one-liner that badass. He strode forward with Aegis, taking measured, accurate shots with the massive pistol and assault saddle, respectively. Where either one of them pulled the trigger, someone fell.
And then suddenly, the clattering of a submachinegun and pain.
“FOK!!” Kraber roared, staggering backwards. His body armor had caught most of the hits, but the 9mm rounds at this range hurt. At least, on some level, he understood that it hurt.
Mostly he just understood that he was absolutely pissed off that this PER asshole had gotten him. With a gun, no less!
One round had gouged through his triceps on his left arm, and he pulled himself back to his feet. Still bleeding.
“Thought you bawbags hated the things!” he called, left arm to the bleeding runnel through his arm.
He looked around, wildly, viewing a PER man with what looked like a crossbow firing ineffectually at Reavers. It was off in the distance, but it was all Kraber needed.
Suddenly his bleeding arm didn’t matter. It was a difficult shot with a pistol, but Kraber managed. The .44 Magnum spat fire and smoke, its muzzle flash illuminating everything for a brief second. Kraber saw the crossbowman collapse like a marionette whose strings had been cut, blood spraying from just above where his neck used to be.
“Needs must as Tartarus drives!” a PER woman said, walking out from behind a house with what looked like a sawed-off shotgun.
Fokdammit! Wrong one!
Then she saw Kraber.
“It’s you!” the woman gasped. “Oh, I can’t imagine what kind of form Shieldwall will give me as a rew-”
Aegis chomped down on the mouth trigger that hung just below his lower jaw, stitching through the PER human with a flurry of bullets.
“Guess we’ll never know,” Aegis said, surveying the damage.
‘Aegis… he saved my life! Wait… I should probably do something about the bleeding. I’m bleeding, right?’ Kraber thought. “Oh, fokkin’ thank you so much!” he gasped, sighing in relief, carefully moving into cover. “Aegis - you have any strips of cloth I can use? I need to stop the bleeding.”
Aegis nodded, galloping towards the man Kraber had shot in the face, dragging his corpse over by the feet.
Kraber stared down at it. “Little unsanitary, but-” he grabbed a knife, cutting off a long strip of it and wrapping the fabric around his bleeding arm. “-It’ll do. Thanks, Aegis. You’re the best bru I’ve had in awhile.”
Aegis was silent. For a few seconds, Kraber could see something dawning on his broad, slablike, unsubtle face.
“What’re friends for?” Aegis asked, finally.
“Yeah,” Kraber said, finding himself smiling. “Friends.”
He holstered the revolver, trading it out for the Kalashnikov he’d stolen back in Littleton. Goddammit I missed using Kalashnikovs!
“Now,” Aegis said, “Where do you think my foals are?”
Kraber pointed to the school. The one that was being used as a spur-of-the-moment Conversion Bureau.
“Oh, Tartarus no!” Aegis yelled.
“It’s the most heavily guarded place,” Kraber said. “Besides, if we get in there, PER die. Not seeing a downside.”
“You need your head examined, Frank,” Aegis said.
“Tell me something I don’t know!” Francis laughed, and they rushed for the line of humans feeding into the Bureau. The Reavers looked to be doing so as well, trying to organize the frantic mess of nearly ponified humans.
It was chaos. Their combined forces seemed to have wiped out of most of the PER, and the Reavers were moving prisoners to nearby buildings. To places that sounded at least somewhat safe.
Kraber saw a PER man with what looked like a crossbow, and drilled him through the head with the Kalashnikov.
“Didn’t think you’d be inviting Reavers,” Heliotrope said, reappearing next to them. “Can’t believe it, Frank, but it looks like you have a knack for this. You could be a decent squad leader, someday.”
“Like thit’ll evir fokkin’ happen,” Kraber said, rolling his eyes. Honestly, watching her just appear doesn’t even surprise me.
“So,” she asked. “You’re here till Yael comes. What do we do?”
“The Reavers look like they have it covered pummeling the hell out of PER, and that building looks important,” Kraber said. “We flank around, and cut the PER down as they’re retreating.”
“Paul? Sixstring?” Heliotrope asked, one hoof to a button just by her ear. “I need you to cover us. We’re going in.”
As the three of them looked up the street, they could see the battle taking place. Nny, taking potshots with the odd rifle he’d been given, as Fiddlesticks opened fire with her saddle minigun.
There really couldn’t be too many PER left, Kraber reflected, taking a look over at Paul and Sixstring in the truck.
Right up until the moment the truck exploded.
Kraber would never truly be able to describe how it happened. One minute, it’d been there, Paul in the driver’s seat, Sixstring blazing away with her machinegun.
The next, it’d been like a meteorite hit the truck, impacting with such force that it left a crater. That the truck lay folded upwards in the middle, not quite bisected, each half on fire. The guns twisted into vaguely noodle-like shapes. Paul’s neck lolling at an improbable angle.
One hoof on the machineguns.
No, Kraber thought. No… No no no no…
The hoof rolled off bonelessly. Something stood in the ruins of what might have once been either Sixstring or the truck.
I was just some fokkin’ bergie to him. I gave him cash for a ticket, and that chommie gave me everything. I had a family. A quiet life. I was fokkin’ happy, goddammit. Thanks to him!
He found himself slumping to the ground.
“Sixstring,” he said. “No…”
Aegis
‘Cousin Sixstring! And… that guy!’ Aegis thought frantically.
“Sixstring,” Francis said, just subtly collapsing. “No…”
“He knew the risks,” Aegis said, but he was trying to reassure Francis. “He knew the…”
Francis looked downcast.
“Uh,” Aegis said, pointing with one foreleg towards the flaming wreck of the car. “Francis, there’s something in there, there’s-”
Something walked out from the flames, and the flames followed, wreathing it. Something pony-shaped.
“That can’t be good,” Heliotrope said, almost conversational.
The flames licked against the pony coming from the truck’s wreckage. And it laughed maniacally.
“Guys,” Heliotrope said. “Run.”
Aegis and Francis didn’t need to be told twice. Aegis picked himself up and galloped away from the laughing flame-pony, Francis close behind him.
And still the flaming pony laughed.
If the humans the Reavers were steadily moving had seemed at least somewhat calm at their unexpected rescuers, then this had undone everything.
People rushed away, screaming.
And then, just as suddenly as the chaos came, it stopped. An extraordinary coldness deeply out of place with the summer heat seeped into the town’s air.
A pony stepped out of the doors to the school. He was as white as Aegis, but not as stocky. So pale that Aegis actually had to squint to see his eyes. He had a deep indigo mane, the only bit of color on his body.
It was as if the life had been beaten out of him everywhere else.
“It’s him!” Heliotrope hissed, a look of abject hatred on her face.
“Son of a fokkin’ whore, what the fok is going on, fok this fokkin’-!” Francis hissed.
“Who the hell is-?” Aegis asked.
“Shieldwall,” Heliotrope said, and Aegis’s blood ran cold. The face from the wanted posters.
Oh no. The PER, they, they attacked the HLF, and… and my foals are with him...
“Who,” he said, “Is screwing. With my. Work.”
“Shit!” Osterman snapped from his firing position. “Are you seeing this?!”
“Yes,” Preston said evenly. He motioned to Martell and Amber. “Keep these people moving! However you can!”
Amber waved and motioned to Martell, and the two of them moved to try and keep the remaining people in some semblance of order.
Preston, meanwhile, scowled. God, if you're out there, I think we’re due a little divine intervention.
“I think He’s busy,” a voice said from next to Preston. He glanced to his left, to see an albino mare with red eyes staring up at him with a neutral expression. “But I'll see what I can do.”
“Wait,” said one Reaver. A woman named Lourdes. “You’re the same unicorn from St. Johnsbury. Who-”
And then she was gone. Preston blinked, and shook his head.
Remind me to talk to Preacher after all this, he thought. Because clearly I'm not as with it as I thought I was.
Heliotrope
“WHO’S SCREWING WITH MY WORK?!” Shieldwall repeated at the top of his lungs.
It was an immensely arrogant move, standing in the midst of several humans with weaponry. Letting them stare right into the face of the enemy.
Shieldwall did it anyway.
“I’m in the middle of something important,” he said. His voice was loud. Too loud. There was some kind sorcerous enchantment nearby, Heliotrope was sure of it. “You all. Have. To wait your turn.”
The area fell silent.
Heliotrope stared over at Nny. He was trembling in rage, a stolen LMG in both hands. Fiddlesticks was next to him, her mouth firmly on the
“All these people ponified, and for what?!” Aegis yelled.
“You apes and traitors think I’m ponifying people? Here?” Shieldwall laughed.
“I saw somebody getting ponified, you piece of shit,” Aegis said. “Unlike you, I know exactly what that does.”
“That was just getting ponypower,” Shieldwall said. “Half the people we took? The HLF? These backward little villagers?”
“Fiddlesticks, hold me back,” Nny said, almost conversationally.
“I haven’t done anything to them,” Shieldwall said. “Does a surgeon yearn for a clean sterile operating room, or the grime of the battlefield? I just kept them so that I could work in peace.”
Aegis’ blood went cold.
“Are my foals with them?” Aegis asked.
“There’s no need for that, Claw Hammer,” Shieldwall sneered. “That’s right. I know your real name. I know that you think you’re like a superhero. Honestly, I thought you’d be happy about where I put them? Aren’t they safer?”
“They’re not with me,” Aegis said. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s the same thing.”
“All of you fighting out here,” Shieldwall said. “And for what? For war? Martial law? Chaos? Bigotry? This world makes a big show of how it can choose, Claw Hammer. Maybe you thought you could share in it, but look at how it is now. Most of the people I’ve sent through the portal for processing were HLF. Is this how you thank me?”
“That isn’t what we-” Amber started.
“Spare me,” Shieldwall said. “This world is too stupid to know what’s best for it. And as the divine instrument of the pony form, of Celestia… I will save it. Whether all of you like it or n-”
It was right about then that Francis lost his temper.
Atypically, there was no joke. There was no setup. There was just a sudden absence of emotion from Francis, and he was opening fire with the ACR. “EAT MY DICK!” he yelled, blazing away with the ACR.
Nny and Fiddlesticks shrugged, opening up full-auto with their weaponry.
And then everyone was firing, Shieldwall’s voice drowned out by the roar of countless firearms.
“Enough!!” Shieldwall yelled, inexplicably unharmed.
And then Aegis saw it. The bullets, rockets, all of them - they had simply hung in the air above the head of a yellowish unicorn with a brown and orange mane, collected in a massive ball of lead. His horn’s magic radiated in a bright orange color.
“I thought you’d be like that. Firewhirler?” Shieldwall said, turning to the flaming pegasus.
Then he turned to the yellowish and brown unicorn at his side. “Vanilla Ice?”
Shieldwall then looked at them all, murder in his eyes.
“Kill.”
Aegis had just enough time to consider the sheer absurdity of the latter’s name before the screaming started.
The absurdly-named unicorn closed his eyes, and his horn TK glowed with such brightness that it became almost white.
“GET DOWN!” Francis yelled.
Then Vanilla Ice let loose.
The captured bullets exploded outwards in a veritable tidal wave of lead. It wasn’t as fast or damaging as it would’ve been if it’d been fired from the barrel of a gun, but it was close. Very, very close.
They were catapulted through the air, tumbling end over end. Some of them penetrated the humans that the Reavers had been trying to rescue.
They hit everything in a wide, almost horizontal spread, peppering every surface in Vanilla Ice’s field of vision. Cars. Buildings. Trees. People.
Sometimes they tumbled inside people’s bodies.
They all fell silent. Like that, the unicorn had slashed through the hostages that they’d hoped to take. Managed to hit almost everyone, Reaver, townspeople, and PHL alike.
“I think,” Shieldwall said, smirking, “That this might just be my masterpiece.”
It was just then that it hit Aegis. They were in the middle of nowhere, no support, facing down PER…
‘Oh no.’
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Was a joy to work on this chapter :-) FEAR, Reavers, a certain Albino mare...
7989072 I had a lot of fun! Also, Transformers music. Why do Transformers and hair metal go together so well? That's a good question. The world may never know.
7991185 Thank you! ^~^ I love Transmetropolitan, it's Warren Ellis at his best. It's got some of my favorite jokes, and it's spookily politically relevant.
No, really, I am genuinely spooked by how politically relevant it gets sometimes.
7991539 It is very relevant especially at the moment. I'd like to get the whole set some time.
Something must be wrong with FiMFic as for some reason I didn't get any notification of your reply.
I am loving this! Can't wait to see what happens next!
7991539
I just heard about the Spectrumverse shakeup (Read: I saw the new version on the front page and was completely confused), and my first thought was to check up on The Light Despondent. Regardless of cananality (Is that a word?), is this fic still updating?
Edit: Replied to a comment from an older chapter. Fixed so that you would actually get notified.
8240486 ...Yes and no. I've got about two more docs in the pipeline for this, but when I've released them (or maybe before it) I'm going to be rebooting Light Despondent. The first chapters aren't really up to snuff for me, and I... REALLY don't want to write more classic spectrumverse stuff.
It's too painful.
8243056
...and I suddenly had second thoughts about using a Pinkie Emote. Eh, he got along well enough with the Canon Pinkie, so I'll let it slide.
Fair enough. However, you did say the magic word: Reboot. As in, confirming Kraber's existence in Spectrum 2.0, which is all I needed to hear.
Edit: WTF? Why is the
emote there? I clearly clicked on 
!
8243348
Like hell I'd write a conversion bureau story that doesn't have Kraber! ...Unless it was Starvation, but eh. Before his time.
EDIT: Also, when Kraber meets canon!Pinkie in SPECTRUM, it will have more energy and stuff. I couldn't work on it last time I tried this, working on the same thing as Red just annoyed me too much.
8243474
*Sympathetic Hug*