Act 2.1
Act 2
Moving Forward
Just like those old fairy tales and legends, the land was plagued by monsters...
“Will you be joining us soon...Brother?”
Aiden felt as though he was falling; completely at the mercy of gravity. This sensation only lasted for a fraction of a second, as he found himself on the cold marble floor, right beside the bed that Celestia had generously allowed him to sleep in while he resided in the Royal Palace.
“Good morning, sleepy head!” The familiar voice of a certain unicorn filly called out. Seconds later, Aiden looked up to see Lyra peeking over the edge of the bed, smiling back at him.
“Good morning to you too, Lyra,” Aiden replied rubbing his forehead as he got his bearings. “And happy birthday!” He added sitting up.
“You too!” Lyra giggled as she jumped down onto the floor next to him. When he sat, the two were eye to eye. Tomorrow, she would be leaving for this School for Gifted Unicorns, while Aiden had to stay behind in the palace. That fact greatly saddened him, knowing that he wouldn’t be seeing his young friend anywhere near as often. Classes ran through most of the day, and on weekends, she would be with her family. “But Celestia did promise for the occasional visit here in the palace,” He thought to himself. “That’s better than nothing.”
But at any rate, today they had two birthdays to celebrate. He was now officially twenty years of age, and she was now ten. Today wasn’t a day to worry; it was a day to celebrate.
The two of them were accompanied with the princess for breakfast in the Royal Dining Hall. Lyra sat right next to Aiden, happily munching on a fruit salad. Aiden quietly chewed on a mouthful of his own salad, when Celestia got his attention. “Aiden, I have a few things to say regarding your diet.”
Aiden swallowed nervously, but nodded for the princess to continue.
“According to the legends; and by simply looking at your teeth; it is obvious that your race is omnivorous.” She paused to take a bite from a slice of bread. “While you stay here in Equestria; which for all I know, it might be permanent; I must ask that you refrain from certain types of meat that you might be accustomed to in your world. According to the legends, humans raised ancient cattle, chicken, pigs, and in some cases...” she seemed to slightly lose her composure. “Equines...for food. Have any of these been used to sustain you?”
“All except for that last one, your Highness,” Aiden said. “Don’t worry, it won’t be a problem.”
“That is good to hear,” Celestia said with relief.
“I don’t think I would really be comfortable with eating something I just held conversation with, anyways.” He said with a few laughs. Aiden’s smile faded when he saw the shocked expression on the princess’s face. “Uh, sorry...” He sheepishly apologized. “Pardon my ‘unique’ sense of humor.”
“Indeed,” she stated as she continued eating her salad. A few more moments of silence passed.
“Oh, um, Princess,” Aiden said. Celestia looked up at him. “Do you think it would be possible to squeeze the occasional fish into my diet?”
The princess smiled. “Ah, that would not be a problem; I already have fish retrieved from the river to feed my dear Philomena.” She sipped from her cup of tea. “That’s my pet phoenix.”
Aiden nearly choked on his own cup of tea. “You have a phoenix as a pet!?” He cried in between coughs.
“I do,” Celestia giggled. “Would you like to see her?”
“I, uh...sure!”
After hearing that, Celestia stood up, and approached a nearby window overlooking the Palace’s courtyard. Lyra poked Aiden to get his attention. “Hey, Aiden,” the young unicorn asked. “What’s a phoenix?”
“A phoenix is a type of bird, Lyra,” Aiden explained. “They’re capable of renewing themselves by burning themselves into a pile of ashes; then they are reborn from those ashes.” He paused and laughed as amazement took over the filly’s face. “It seems a bit melodramatic if you ask me.”
“Tell me about it,” Celestia laughed as she poked her head out of the window. She then began to whistle a calm, peaceful note. “Come on, Philomena!” She chimed as she extended a hoof. “We have a guest that would like to meet you!” A few moments passed before Aiden could hear the flap of wings just outside, followed by the call of what sounded like a hawk or falcon. The large bird that flew in seemed to radiate with light; its feathers leaving small trails of flame as it flew. It looked almost exactly like the bird of myth that Aiden had pictured. It let out another of its calls as it perched itself on Celestia’s extended hoof.
“Aiden,” Celestia said as she approached him. “This is Philomena. Philomena, this is Aiden; say hello!” The majestic bird cocked her head slightly as she gazed at him with her fiery orange eyes. It’s likely that she never saw a creature like him before. “Go on, Philomena,” Celestia gently encouraged. “Say hello to our new friend!”
Philomena cawed as she extended a wing as a greeting. Aiden smiled as he returned the gesture. “She seems to like you!” Celestia smiled. “Philomena, you wouldn’t mind sharing some of your fish with our friend here, would you?”
Philomena let out a ‘grumble’ of sorts at the suggestion.
“Now, now, young lady, there’s no need to be a greedy birdy,” Celestia teased. “There are plenty of fish in the river for the two of you to share.” Philomena cawed quietly after she said those words.
“That’s better,” Celestia said.
“You can understand what she’s saying?” Lyra asked her princess.
The princess giggled. “No, not really, my child, I just guess most of the time.” She nuzzled her phoenix affectionately. “She seems to understand me perfectly.”
---
The sunset that Celestia was demonstrating for the two friends was amazing; a perfect conclusion to a perfect day. The three of them were on one of the highest balconies in the Royal Palace. Celestia stood right by the stone railing of the edge, while Aiden and Lyra sat in their own chairs, staring in awe at the orange and red sky.
“It almost looks as though the world has once again been set on fire...” Aiden thought to himself.
“There’s no time left!” Logan shouted. “We need to go NOW!!”
“No!” Aiden shouted. “If we don’t stop that nuke, millions will die and the war will start all over again! All of the fighting we’ve done up to this point will have been for nothing! Is that what you want, Logan?”
“Uh, guys,” David interrupted. “I hate to interrupt, but we’ve got more Tesangan Military personnel incoming!”
Aiden looked out the window of the refinery building to see several dozen soldiers wearing the Tesangan Republic’s military uniform, one was decorated with medals and carrying a megaphone in one hand, and a revolver in the other. The general lifted the megaphone to his lips and spoke.
“Operatives of the Network, you are charged with betrayal of the people of Tesanga and working with the Saharan Liberation Army against our interests! Lay down your weapons and surrender yourselves peacefully and you have my word that no harm will come to you!”
Leon scoffed at the general’s ignorance. “God, what a tool...”
“This is the thanks we get for helping them take back their capital?” Alex asked.
“Aiden, we’ve got another problem!” Emily shouted from the other side of the room.
“Lay it on me,” he sighed as he rubbed his forehead in frustration. “You know how much I just love bad news...”
“We’ve got more SLA forces moving in on the north side of the refinery!”
Aiden moved over to where Emily was and gazed out to see more of the extremist militia moving in. One of them had an RPG.
“You have thirty seconds to come out peacefully, or my men will burn this refinery to the ground!” The general angrily shouted through his megaphone.
“Well, any bright ideas, Sergeant?” Leon asked Aiden. “Because from where I’m standing, our best chances are to hope that the SLA and the Tesangan Military fight over who gets to kill us!”
“I’m thinking, Leon!” Aiden retorted. “I’m thinking, I...ah, actually that might not be such a bad idea...”
“What...” Leon deadpanned.
“Aiden, you can’t honestly be thinking that we should take our chances and make a run for the extraction zone...” Alex said. “We’re low on ammo and provisions as it is!”
“Your choice...” the general outside said as he began giving orders to his troops. “Set the charges; flush them out!”
“Aiden?” Celestia asked her guest with concern in her voice. “Are you feeling alright? You were spacing out there for a moment.”
Aiden looked up and shook his head, trying to regain his focus. “Huh? Uh, yeah...I’m okay.” Celestia gave him a worried look. “I was just thinking back to an...unpleasant memory.”
“I see...” Celestia replied. The concern did not leave her face as she turned back towards the sunset she was working on. “Is it something that bothers you?”
“A little bit,” Aiden answered. “I was thinking of a mission I was on a few years ago...”
“Mission?” Celestia asked. “Were you in your race’s military?”
“Eh, something to that extent.” Aiden stood up and joined Celestia at the edge of the balcony. “I was an operative within the Network; an organization that was privately owned and privately funded.”
“You mean you worked with mercenaries?” Celestia asked.
“Some called us mercenaries, yeah, but we didn’t exactly fit that definition.” Aiden answered as he looked back at a sleeping Lyra, curled up comfortably in her seat. He smiled as he continued. “What would you like to know?”
“When was this ‘Network’ founded?” Celestia asked as the sun finally sank completely behind the horizon, leaving only a thin shade of orange behind.
“I don’t know the exact date, but it was sometime during the Spring of 2138,” Aiden noted the confused look on the princess’s face. “That was about seventy years ago: when I left my world, it was October 29th, 2215.”
“I see, and what is it that the Network does?”
“Wherever there’s an active conflict or a natural disaster, there’s a good chance that the Network will be operating there to provide relief to the people affected by it, and in the case of war, will try to put a stop to it.” Aiden waved his hand over the horizon. “We operated all over the place.”
“Interesting,” Celestia said with a smile. “I’ve never heard of an organization that acted solely in the interest of others.”
“Yeah, but occasionally we had to implement the use of force to broker peace between the warring factions.”
“You ended fighting with more fighting?” Celestia asked as she raised an eyebrow.
“It wasn’t particularly common, but yes, we were willing to use any means to end a conflict and find the reasons for why it started.”
“How often did such conflicts occur?”
“Too often,” Aiden said with a frown. “The human race has been fighting each other since we learned how to sharpen a rock into a blade.”
“I see,” Celestia returned the frown.
“It’s almost as though one war leads to another, with little respite in between. It started with wars between city states, then it went to kingdoms conquering each other in the age of Feudalism, then to the Crusades in the Middle Ages.” He paused for a moment. “The Industrial Revolution brought new technology, and the Napoleonic Wars. Then there was The Great War in the early twentieth century. It was called the War to End All Wars.”
“Was?” Celestia asked, slightly horrified.
“Yes; I don’t know the details, but its name was changed to World War I, and a World War II occurred no more than thirty years later. After that war, the United Nations was founded; an organization of nations that was meant to prevent another world war from happening.”
“Did they succeed?” Celestia asked, although she believed she knew the answer already.
“No,” Aiden replied simply. “In the early twenty first century, the United Nations dissolved, and war erupted yet again. World War III lasted for years; fighting started somewhere around 2028 or 2029, and continued into the 2050’s. Then the nukes fell.” He explained the effects that nuclear warfare had on his world.
War was not a foreign concept to the princess, but the thought that the human race developed weapons that could reduce the world to a burning cinder horrified her. Even more so, the basics on radioactive fallout and mutation. “That sounds terrible...” the princess said looking out to the horizon. “What happened next?”
“An ominous silence fell over the planet for the next few decades. Governments were thrown into chaos with so many officials either dead or missing; some dissolved completely. While the destruction caused by the war was great, it was far from complete. Plenty of cities remained standing; some were even untouched by the warheads. New governments rose from the ashes to replace the ones from the old world.”
“Things aren’t any better I assume?”
“I wouldn’t know,” Aiden said crossing his arms. “I wasn’t born until November of 2195; more than a century and a half later, so I didn’t really experience the old world in any way.”
“I understand,” Celestia said. “Thank you for sharing.”
“Anytime,” Aiden replied as he leaned on the stone balcony railing. For the first time since he came to Equestria, he thought of what was going on back in his world. With the threat of the Reborn removed, how would this shape international events? He had no idea, and in all honesty, he was perfectly fine with that.
---
Aiden felt that he was sitting again, even though he remembered that he fell asleep in the comfortable bed that Princess Celestia was so gracious to allow him to use while he stayed here in the castle. He opened his eyes, only to be met with a pure white floor.
“Welcome back.” That voice; it was that man again.
Aiden looked up to see the man from the previous night sitting from across the same metal table.
“You again...” Aiden tiredly mumbled as he tried to get his bearings. “Why am I here?”
The man smiled and snapped his fingers. A folder suddenly appeared on the table, causing Aiden to jump slightly. The man pushed the folder forward and gestured for him to open it. Aiden obliged despite the feeling of suspicion that he had towards this man.
Inside the folder, Aiden found several papers and photographs of Washington D.C. immediately after the Ashen attack five years ago.
“You remember who and what the Ashen were, don’t you?” The man asked.
“Yeah,” Aiden solemnly replied as he flipped through the pages in the folder. “They were some special type of mutant. I don’t know the science behind it, but from what I’ve heard, the Ashen were created by some kind of highly evolved virus.”
“You remember where they came from as well, correct?”
“Yes,” Aiden said looking at a picture of a fallen Washington Monument. “The Western coast of the United States took the brunt of the nukes, while the East coast was spared for the most part, mostly due to the fact that the West coast was also the first location hit. The Ashen made the ruins of the West coast their home.”
“And you also remember how and when the Ashen marched on Washington?”
“Yes...”
“And that’s because you were there; you experienced the battle first hand. That was also the first time that you and your team of six experienced actual combat. Is that correct?”
Aiden looked down at a photograph of a street littered with bodies, both human and Ashen.
“Is that correct?” The man repeated.
“Yes!”
“It’s hard to remember those horrors, Aiden, I understand--”
“No,” Aiden interrupted. “I’m fine...”
“Very well,” the man replied. “Now then; you and your team were initially just cadets; not meant to participate in direct combat, but with so many Network operatives getting slaughtered in the city, Central Authority needed every single pair of boots they could get.”
“Yeah,” Aiden sighed. “The military was also taking pretty heavy casualties, so much that they started giving a gun to any civilian who was mentally stable enough to use one.”
“Now let’s go to the moment you and your team arrived in Washington: the Ashen had already commenced their siege of the city, the American Republic’s military and the Network had taken heavy losses, and the rest of your platoon had moved on without your team. Your teammate, Corporal Logan Somers suggested to use the D.C. Metro tunnels to get to your objective.”
“Yes,” Aiden replied. “But first, we had to make a mad run down a street swarming with the Ashen...”
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Well worth the wait. Shaping up to be a rather interesting turn of events.
I'm unsure what sort of things Aiden is going to get up to in Equestria, though. So far, the main story is coming from flashbacks.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Good another chapter
Damn, cliffhanger. I want to know what happens! Who is this guy?!
Personally, I really like how you're telling the story through flashbacks of his world. It's unique and very interesting, and I'm looking forward to more of it.
“Oh, um, Princess,” Aiden said. Celestia looked up at him. “Do you think it would be possible to squeeze the occasional fish into my diet?”
I laughed. Hard. Me and my corrupt mind.
The flashbacks are a form of PTSD and anything can trigger it. So far only he has stalled out and just stared but anytime later he could start screaming and attacking something without realizing it. I know people that have it and have learned that you can gain even if not in a combat situation (Just being in a place that doesn't get along with you in some ways can cause it [I should know]). Wonder when Celestia will look into his mind while he is sleeping (If not her then Luna).
Great new chapter, keep e'm comming.
979465 I understand (just forgot about that). Though that doesn't stop nosy unicorns with the right knowledge of spells.
MOAR!
That coverpic is from Gone With the Blastwave, isn't it? I'm definitely adding this to my read later list.
977768
Reminds me of the Gman
celestia damn cliffhangers
this induced awesome dreams last night (dry ones)
It's probably been said before, but I'll say it again. Is this reminding anyone of Fallout?
1128298
?Dry ones??
1624017 He is saying it was not a wet dream about Celestia.
1207699 I assumed this was a Fallout crossover at first, and was wondering why they were calling the Brotherhood, 'The Network' and why the super mutants were being refered to as 'The Ashen' (even has the same storyline.)