A Pariah By Name, Another By Nature

by Blitz Habanera Tuscania

A Show for All

Morning came eventually though and Trixie stretched, the morning sun rudely awakening her from her comfortable sleep. One limb however seemed to be stuck and looking down she found her guest wrapped around her frame and one of her legs, face buried into her chest. Rolling her eyes she tapped his head once with her hoof and he immediately seemed to wake up, looking up into her face questioningly again with a cocking of his head.

To answer his unasked question she budged her trapped foreleg against him and he rolled away but curled back up in her blankets. Grinning slightly at his shenanigans she just got up and out of the bed to get ready for the day, a brush for her hair and another for her teeth. It took only a few minutes before she finished up and put her supplies away. Stopping for a moment to poke him back awake, because she knew she couldn’t pull the carriage with him inside of it, she went out front to pull it again, with him helping to pull again.

One hand of his on the carriage’s yoke and her shoulders pulling what little weight was left they continued on their walk to the next town. After a bit she realized that he was humming that song from last night again and after listening to it for a few minutes joined in on his humming, garnering a smile from him.

It took a few hours but she could finally see the tops of a few houses in a distance and she smiled, pulling the carriage a bit faster in anticipation of putting on another show. He kept pace with her and started pulling faster as well.

As they headed to the center of the town so she could set up, she noticed the odd looks that the local ponies were giving her little companion. And the odd looks her companion was giving back to everything, but staying by her side all the way through, looking around as wide-eyed as he could at all the things around them. To her it was just another town, with a few wooden cottages lining either side of the street they were on. The street was just some gravel, leading to what she thought was town hall ahead, judging by the fact it was made out of some stone and was a bit more modern than other buildings around.

Maybe not the best spot to set up in front of but somewhere close to it. So a few more metres ahead then. She was close enough to the town center and had already gathered a small crowd. Even if they were just foals and fillies following her little carriage. Although they couldn’t know about her show and were rather following around because of her friend. Taking off her harness she gave them all a small smile, while they seemed to mostly ignore her, watching Pariah as he watched them back.

One foal however took notice of her again and asked, “What’s that thing Miss?”

She half-shrugged to the foal. “I am not sure. I found him deep in the forest, and he has the strength of an Ox despite his size.” At that he let out an ‘oooooh’ and she rolled her eyes, turning to head back inside her carriage, finding her path blocked by some of her crowd. That immediately bombarded her with questions when they heard her answer the foal’s question. What he was, how strong he was,how long she had been with him, if he liked apples, why he was gangly, where his fur was, if he could fly, if one of them could keep him and why his eyes were so beady. All the while they were poking and within inches of Pariah looking him over, he returning the favor but seemingly overwhelmed by the dozen plus of them and wide variety of them.

Pink, green, blue, earth-pony, unicorn and pegasus all something new to him it seemed, judging by the look he was giving them in return. Wide-eyed as he could be, eyes seeming to sparkle slightly, constantly turning over and over as they poked him. Smiling she did her best to answer their questions, phrasing it just right to make their eyes sparkle with excitement and wonder, maybe exaggerating a little bit to make it sound a better story.

After she finished the first few questions though she had to excuse herself to her carriage to prepare it for the show later. After all she couldn’t have her bed and closet show up on stage otherwise it might ruin her performance. Or trip her up at least. So giving her friend one last look and seeing that he seemed happy to be poked and happy to poke some of the foals and fillies, she decided that he was fine by himself. “Be careful with him.” She said walking on into her carriage.

Inside she started the slow process of packing away her belongings, stuffing them into hidden compartments, folding it into the walls and what not. She was about halfway through it when she heard a high-pitched and pained yelp from right outside. Dropping what she was doing she ran to the door and swung it open, looking around for whatever made that noise. And she looked towards a foal sitting on his haunches, holding his hoofs to his ear and rubbing it with a frown. His eyes were a bit teary but he seemed to be okay.

Her friend just looked a bit curious and surprised at that, his hand withdrawn slightly from the foal on the ground while the crowd around just watched on with somewhat of the same expressions. “What’s going on?”

They all looked towards her and the foal answered. “He pinched my ear really hard. But I’m okay.” He revealed his ear to show the pressed down fur, thankfully free off any other marks. Though this showed to her that she couldn’t really leave him alone with others because he didn’t seem aware of his own strength.

Leaning down she inspected his ear for a better look. “Well I did say he was strong, but I think I should take him back into my carriage until it’s time for the show.” A collective ‘aww’ from the small audience she had but they did wave bye as she took him into her carriage, him awkwardly returning their waves.

But she did take him back inside and he looked over her room to see that a good portion of it was gone. He seemed to be confused, wandering around her carriage and waving his hand through the spaces where stuff had been previously.

Then as she started packing up things he whipped his head towards her and watched quietly as she did so. She was almost finished when she heard a knock on her door and decided to look again, slightly afraid that it was a parent come to complain or yell at her. Opening up the door she came somewhat face to face with what seemed to be a drunk mare. One she didn’t recognize.

Looking over the green unicorn mare and the bottle suspended next to her, she raised a brow. “Can I help you?”

The mare started at her for a moment, not seeming to see her. Then life appeared in the mare’s eyes as she snarled. “You.” A hiccup.

“...Me?” She slowly asked, not knowing what was going on.

The mare wobbled slightly, the bottle seeming to drop almost to the ground before being caught again. “Get outta my town.” Slow blink from her. “Don’t… need a jerk like you around here.”

Trixie merely frowned at the mare. “Have we met before?” Judging by the mare’s attitude towards her and recent events in her life she had a suspicion this pony might have been from Ponyville.

The mare nodded and took another drink from her bottle before continuing. “You were a jerk the whole time,” She jabbed a hoof at Trixie. “And I don’t need some creep like you around…” The mare trailed off for a moment before hiccuping again, life coming back to her eyes again. “My kids. So just screw off creep.” She said actually jabbing her hoof into Trixie’s chest, catching her off guard and stepped back.

Just for her space to become occupied by her little friend, his hand slamming into the mare’s throat, her eyes bulging out almost immediately. The mare swung wildly at first, bottle crashing to the ground, caught off-guard more than Trixie was at the fact he was strangling somepony one-handed with an almost underwhelming frown on his face. It took her a second to react, because of the fact it was so unexpected.

But when she realized she need to react she screamed at that, “What are you doing?!?” Only to make him turn towards her and look curiously at her. The mare kept swiping pitifully at the hand wrapped around her throat and Trixie realized she needed to pry him off and as such she grabbed his hand and ripped it off, it yielding easily to her pull. The moment he let go of the mare she dropped to the ground and started coughing roughly, weakly grasping at her throat with her free hoofs.

While Trixie glared at her guest, who just stepped back and kept watching the mare impassively. Shaking her head she jumped down to the ground beside the mare to try and check on her, just to get nearly hit by the mare’s hoof. The mare kept choking but Trixie could tell that she was trying to say something. “You need help or anything? Whatever you need?”

The mare only responded by shakily standing up and continuing her whooping cough, wobbily starting to walk away. Trixie paused in following after the mare to help her, noticing a few ponies around all frowning or looking as if they were scared. It would be best if they left now, before any police ponies came by or a mob formed. So she ran around to the front of her carriage to pick up her yoke and put it on, pulling as hard on it as she could as fast as she could to get out speedily.

It helped when the one responsible for her problem grabbed the yoke like he always did and matched her speed as she raced out of town.

Comments

[Past Participle]

A second chapter in so many days? Color me pleasantly surprised.

[Blitz Habanera Tuscania]

7428663 I feel I owe some chapters to those that read this. Plus I want a break from my Worm fanficiton.

[Necron Lord]

I have just realized that after all this time I accidently left a thumps down instead of up.

[Europa]

Yikes. Just a little reminder of exactly WHICH game Pariah hails from...

[TheFlyingNugget]

T'was a surprise to see this in my updates, I'm joyously startled.

[Ese Wey]

Oooh, pariah gets protective. Well, at least she no longer has to worry about getting mugged or anything. Where can I learn more of him? I haven't played the game he's from.

[trondason]

7430219 He's only vaguely mentioned in Prototype in a number of Web of Intrigue entries (memories stolen to learn secrets), and then is not mentioned AT ALL in Prototype 2. So there is next to no information available about him. So lots of what he is is left up to the author of whatever fanfic he's in (and there are woefully few of those).

[ErikPhantom]

7430219
7430244
I always assumed that Pariah was (spoilers for Prototype 1 end) Captain Cross; since he's able to fight equally with Mercer and has single handedly captured a Runner previously. In addition Cross is the final boss, he reveals himself as a Blacklight being on the aircraft carrier and you/Mercer have to beat him, it makes sense since it's established that Blackwatch captured Greene at Hope while she was giving birth (to Pariah) and thus weak, therefore they would have captured Pariah as well and thus have a natural baby Runner/Black/Redlight being which they could brainwash/control and use to hunt Runners or cleanse outbreaks on it's own, there's just no way the Blackwatch would let that opportunity slip by them, Cross is the leader of their Runner catching team and the best at it. I was sure this was obvious from the game's ending but it seems lots of people don't agree/are still unaware as to who Pariah is. Maybe I was one of the few who completed the memory map and the final clue was in there?

[trondason]

7437347 Nah, you aren't the only person to think that, you are just wrong. For one, all memories on Pariah point towards him STILL being at Vandenburg Airforce Base. Two, if Cross was Pariah, the Supreme Hunter could not have consumed him like he did.

[ErikPhantom]

7437470
Wait so it was Supreme Hunter that is the final boss? And it wasn't Cross working with Mercer against Blackwatch but the Hunter who had consumed Cross? Htf did I miss that, or maybe I just forgot, I did only play through once back when it was released, never did play Prototype 2 either so my memory may just have blanked over Cross' consumption. I have absolutely no memory of Cross getting eaten whatsoever, weird.

[trondason]

7438944 No, it was Cross who was working with Mercer, just prior to the final mission the Supreme Hunter consumes Cross and then poses as him for the final mission, betraying Alex at the last moment intent on consuming him and becoming strong enough to survive the nuke.

At 34:36 you can see the cutscene where Cross is killed.

[ErikPhantom]

7439116
Wait, that's it? No wonder I missed it in no way does that look like Cross' death/defeat, just seems another random infected about to get owned by him. That is so incredibly vague I'm not really seeing much evidence against my original theory of Cross having always been a Runner. It looks to me like either theory could fully explain the extremely vague implications of that cutscene and onwards.

[trondason]

7440013 Because in teh final battle, you are fighting the Supreme Hunter, which had disguised itself and taken the place of Cross? The only way it should have been able to do that, is by having consumed him.

[ErikPhantom]

7440130
Having consulted the wikia for Prototype, I see that the consensus is on your side, still that is pretty easily missed from the cutscene, I must have forgotten about the Supreme Hunter's survival or something, or one Blacklight monster being begins to blur into another after awhile and I didn't recognize him as the final boss.

[verypeeved]

memegenerator.net/img/instances/48986101/op-will-deliver-any-second-now.jpg

[Viper Pit]

I'm calling it the story is dead