Part 6 (Alex) - Chapter 3
“Was it really smart not to bring the unicorn with you?” Taylor’s voice in her earpiece didn’t sound petulant, or even all that questioning. Just curious. “They might or might not find resistance in the house. You already know most of them are waiting for you. You said they’re armed, and at least some of them can still shoot.”
“Yeah.” Alex shrugged. She was putting her life’s worth of confidence into the strange transformation the ponies of Equestria had worked on her. The magic was well-tested now. She had died in a car wreck, electrocuted herself, been impaled, irradiated, broken her neck… what more could these ponies do to her? Only one pony knew or even suspected her secret. That pony was now a captive. Had his will broken yet? Adrian had been a pretty strong-seeming pony, and he hadn’t lasted 24 hours. Thank God that Cloudy Skies and Riley had escaped. That pegasus was so delicate she probably wouldn’t have lasted the hour.
Alex wondered idly what would happen if her body was burned, or if she was beheaded. Would she stay dead then? Or did they have to stick coins in her eyes or something first.
It didn’t matter. Alex wasn’t supposed to get into any real danger. It was all about the appearance. “I am driving a tank. Well… you’re driving it.”
“It’s not a tank, it’s an APC. That’s an important difference for your survivability.”
Alex shrugged to nobody, propping herself up again so she could get a good look out the front display. Like all HPI vehicles, the APC had no true windows, only cameras and screens. “I’m expendable, Ms. Gamble. The others aren’t.”
She chuckled grimly. “Not really. This little group would have fallen apart months ago without strong leadership. If you die, they’re finished.”
“Alexander Haggard died three months ago. I’m something else now; I don’t think bullets are going to kill me. Not so long as you HPI folks still believe in your future. You do, right? You’ve still got hope?” She felt a shiver run through her body, one completely unrelated to the air conditioning blasting down at her from the right and making her skin feel clammy.
Taylor’s answer came hesitantly. “Some of us do. Hope doesn’t stop bullets, pony. Maybe unicorn magic does, but you don’t have that.”
“Yeah.” She didn’t try to explain any further. It was a waste of time. She switched channels with a flick of one hoof. “Joseph, Moriah. Are you two in position?”
There was a brief pause, then Moriah’s voice, with only a little static. “Affirmative. Waiting on you.”
“I’ll get that house empty.” Alex’s hooves gripped a directional joystick as tightly as she could, though she had next to no dexterity to control the damn thing. “God go with you two. Don’t take any unnecessary risks.”
Joseph responded, his voice somewhere between annoyed and amused. “You’re religious now?”
“Not really. But I feel like we need a miracle. Might as well not exclude anyone who wants to help.”
Moriah sounded approving. “Just so long as you don’t start invoking the Equestrian princesses like Sky does.”
“Nah, I wouldn’t do that. They didn’t really seem like the sort of ponies you pray to. I think if there was a god, it would eat less cake.”
Moriah spluttered and coughed. “W-What?”
“I’m starting. Cutting the chatter!” Alex switched back. “Okay Taylor. Let’s take my city back. Those turret-looking things on that library roof, let’s start with those. Try not to knock down the whole building if you can.”
She laughed. “No promises, horse. You’d rather have to rebuild that roof than have a fifty-caliber AP turret that still works, I promise you that. Those bullets take off limbs and explode elephant skulls.”
Alex shivered, forcing down the question of how anybody could possibly know either of those two things. She quickly decided she preferred not to know how it was possible. “Take ‘em out, keep the rest of your drones out of sight. You separated them into the three groups I suggested?”
“Yeah. Seems a little complicated for a civilian. I sure as hell couldn’t come up with tactics like this. Were you an officer cadet before the Collapse or something?”
Alex laughed, though her humor was cut short by the violent acceleration of the vehicle beneath her. “Nah, I was an auto mechanic. I’ve just been doing lots of reading. I didn’t come up with this; I’m just adapting something Caesar did during his campaign in G-”
An explosion off in front of her robbed Alex of breath, causing her ears to flatten and her to briefly take cover on the ground, covering her face. Though the APC isolated her completely from the earth beneath her, it didn’t stop her from feeling the shock. It burned against her retinas. The APC tore up the center of the road, making straight for the library and the largest gathering of ponies in the city. Including both of her captured friends. The one she admired, and the one she liked.
You will end it for me. Favored son, champion. My strength is yours. Had she imagined that voice?
She hoped not. She hoped something was going to help her, or else she might really be dead this time. She saw flashes of magic on the screen, along with blaring alarms. “Take out those unicorns!” Alex couldn’t see them, but she felt the vehicle strain beneath her, as a flash of energy slammed her sideways into a parked car. Needless to say, against 25 metric tons of APC, the car didn’t stand much of a chance. She heard the turrets switching on, though of course she had nothing to do with it. She hoped nopony would be killed by rubber bullets today.
Alex didn’t know the first thing about her vehicle, but she did understand how to twist a knob. So she diverted all available power to the thaumic shield, slowing her forward progress but putting an end to the blasts of fire and light before they reached her. She could hear ponies shouting, and feel the little pings as bullets struck her vehicle. No small arms could penetrate the thick armor, and there were no windows to shatter. For once, she was thankful for that design feature.
“Four targets down!”
Alex could not draw on the strength of the earth, not the way she wanted to. Between the metal box and the thaumic shield, Alex was on her own. She had no strength but that her life had cultivated to steel herself against the ringing in her ears and the shock. She drew on images of burned ponies in Philadelphia, recalled in perfect clarity. Those dead, though nameless, would be with her forever. She was their champion now, nominated by Earth and Alicorn and aptitude. Her sister and mother would not return to a world ruled by a foul god of hatred. She would not bring children into such a world. She would not suffer her friends to be slave to such a being. She would not suffer any would be kept as slaves.
This planet was hers, damnit! Odium could find his own.
More ponies came rushing out of the library, Adrian among them. Alex watched several go down, wrapped up together and twitching in electrical spasms. “Is the house clearing out?”
“Affirmative. Three ponies leaving now, getting into a car. No more thermal readings inside.”
She switched signals. “The hounds are loose, Joseph! Send that thing straight back to hell; I’ll get our friends.”
“Got it! Good luck, Alex-”
She didn’t listen any longer. Alex took in every detail, her mind working as fast as it could. She saw the library, counted the ponies, and realized there were still five unaccounted for. “Ready for the big entrance! Make us a door!”
“You can’t imagine how long I’ve wanted to do this.” A loud BANG momentarily made her slide back, even as the main gun above her rocked the APC back on its treads. She watched the north wall of the building, far from the ponies she had seen, gain a tank-sized hole on the ground floor. Paper rushed into the air from the shelves and shelves of books. "Oliver’s in there, I see him. My saddle bags too."
“Don’t leave the APC, Alex! He might’ve already turned!”
Alex ignored the command. “Drive us into the opening. Neutralize any target you see.”
“Got it. One of my drones is down; one of the unicorns hit it with something before I could net her.”
“That still leaves three watching my back, right?”
“Yeah; but none of them can go into that building with you.”
“Park the APC in the door. Use the turret to shoot anything that moves and isn’t Joseph or Moriah or me.”
Taylor Gamble complied, and Alex felt the APC driving up into the opening she had made. The sound of gunfire was gone now, replaced with the low rumble of the APC’s main engine. Alex made her way to the ramp, sliding the gun over her shoulders as she did so. “Keep them off me.”
She flicked her bracelet against the proximity sensor. The armored ramp flipped open, disgorging her onto the ground. She expected to feel strength rushing back into her through the dirt, but she felt only coldness. The thaumic field kept all of that away. Alex had only her own strength, the strength of a frightened filly with way too much responsibility for her own good. It would have to be enough.
Alex rushed into the darkness of the library. A single overhead light flickered, before growing suddenly bright and burning out. Burned paper and books were everywhere. Several shelves had tumbled, and rock covered the ground near her entrance. There was no sign of ponies near the entrance, just as the drones watching the windows had indicated.
She could already see Oliver, standing still in the center of the room. His eyes were wide and his ears erect, clearly in shock. Curiously, she sensed no sign of struggle anywhere. No ponies leapt at her, none shot her from the corners. It was eerily quiet, save for the sound of the drone engines in the air above them. Alex rushed in, and saw that the lumps Oliver had been standing over were in fact the prone forms of ponies, resting in sleep, surrounded by his medical kit. “Oliver.” She reached out, resting a hoof on his shoulder. “We’ve gotta go!”
Oliver looked at her as though gazing across a great distance. She focused her attention on him, tugging with all her might on his forelegs. He tumbled, but not before catching himself. This seemed enough to break his trance.
“Oh God, Alex.” She felt his forelegs wrap around her in a hug so tight it threatened to crush the wind from her. “You shouldn’t be here.” He released her, shoving her towards the APC. “The CPNFG is keeping him away, but it won’t work for long! He wants you dead, Alex… You need to leave, before he claims you too!” He shook, face pale. “Thought I could cure it… thought I could treat it… not easy. Thoughts metastasize. Desires mutate. Too strong. He wants you too, Alex! You need to get out!”
In her ear, Taylor was screaming her agreement. Alex ignored them both. She was about as likely to leave her friends behind as she was to grow wings and fly away. “We’re taking care of it, Oliver! There’s no reason to leave. We’re going to send this monster right back where it came from. Then you should get better!” Alex reached for him, her body quaking, but he pulled away. Alex would get no strength from him now.
“You can’t stop Odium. No ordinary person could stand a chance against it. Not just that… Alex, it knows what you are. It got in…” He whimpered, beginning to sob. “Saw everything I know. It knows how to destroy you! It has to; it hates everything about humanity and what we represent! It’s going to-”
But Alex didn’t get to hear what it would do. Really, she should’ve been listening to Taylor. If she had been paying a little less attention to Oliver, she might’ve noticed her screaming about the loss of her other drones. She didn’t hear any of that, though.
When the APC went down, she heard that. It was all she could do to stumble back in shock as a lance of sickly black crystal shot up from the ground, burning through the soft underbelly and out the other side. Several little explosions shook the inside, before the thirty tons of tank were lifted contemptuously into the air and thrown back onto the street. It landed on its back with a crash that knocked more books off their shelves and shattered windows.
The thaumic shield went down.
A figure moved into the opening, flanked by several other ponies. Alex could tell it was Ryan, or it had been. Pits of living darkness had replaced the pony’s eyes, his mane and tail transformed into flickering shadow. Ghostly wings formed in the air around him, in a mockery of an Alicorn. When the figure opened his mouth, Alex heard two voices. One was Ryan’s, as deep and gravely as that pony could naturally sound. The other was, unmistakably, that same voice she had heard in her nightmares. Odium.
“You arrive at last, slave and worse than slave to pretenders. At last I see your face.”
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Now would be a great time to fire the orbital friendship cannon.
Hmm... Interesting...
Just want to say, saw it coming.
Less likely, even.
Oh snap! The big bad reveals itself.
Also, something tells me next chapter or the one after it we'll see
some serious Hominem Ex Machina. That's Right. Not Deus, Hominem.
(And no, any reference to anything is purely coincidental.)
Well, thaumic shield down and cards on the table. Nice knowing you Alex.
Didn't she promise Oliver 'it' wouldn't get him like the others? Seems it did anyway.
Oh buggerance. Magic strong enough to overwhelm the shield. Every insulator can be overloaded with a strong enough charge, after all. Now it becomes a contest of wills. This is going to be tense.
Well.... um... what was plan B again?
So it seems the CPNFG can only repress Odium rather than destroy him. And he has decided to stop playing around and gone all one-winged angel on them on top of it. (Please be his final form...)
Odium has assumed direct control. Well... buck.
On a side note... is it just me, or do astral beings and nightmare creatures tend to prefer horned ponies to take as their avatars? In canon, we've got Luna, Rarity and to a lesser extent, Sombra. In fanfics, I can't recall ever coming across a Big Bad that wanted to possess an earth pony.
(Poor mud ponies, unicorn master race! 
)
Well, except for NightmareJack, but that one was played entirely as a joke.
6360367
Don't even give him time to launch into a monologue, just blast him.
I think that Alex's biggest asset in the coming confrontation is that Equestrian mastermind-type villains have an immense and uncontrollable need to monologue. I'm sure that Night Speaker (or, rather, Odium, as Night Speaker is clearly just his meat-puppet) is going to spend an age going on about his plans and how everything that has happened has done so according to his design.
I wonder if Sky and Reilly will be the joker card that decides this?
AHHHH SOMBR- IM MEAN ODIUM.... AHHHHHH!
Is it me or did Ryan's cutie mark look like an anarchy symbol?
Damnit. I love these short, daily chapters normally but this part is too intense! I don't want to wait!
6360415 Sorry pony, Deus is in another story.
For all the need, and drive, he had to waste a very large chunk of magic to take out an apc, and drones. those are meant for some pretty high power ratings. and you can bet the drones aren't going to be an easy shot firing in at him to dodging his own fire.
6360520 CU&*!!!
I might feel more strongly about things going south if I knew just what Alex thought she was going to do.
I'm just Saiyan, if this goes all DBZ on us like the end of season 4? I won't be surprised.
6360466
Well there is Champion of Equestria, it is about a mud pony
-Equinox_
6360466 I'm assuming unicorns are easier to control.
Now, how to deal with this Odium...
"My strength is yours"... whoever this is it isn't the Equestrian Princesses who did (apparently an alicorn) "something" to Lonely Day in LPoE. Meaning I doubt Archive has tapped on this strength yet.
If the voice is is Gaia, would her Love be enough to power a Rainbow Cannon? (as Love is a tangible force in the MLP cosmology)
When did any of those but the last happen? I don't recall any of those other then the last.
And was I just me, or was Alex considering having children in the future? I recall her previously being vehemently opposed to the idea previously.
Haha, not so big and mean with human anti-magic blocking you, are y...
...Oh poop.
So, you mentioned .50's, huh?
Heh. I don't think you're giving Cloudy enough credit, Alex. After all:
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A remotely driven tank/APC? That's a nice piece of gear.
Nice.
I dunno about God, but someone is definitely with Alex.
Ooooo, and the APC comes with a thaumic shield? Makes sense since it would have been intended to carry humans in a dangerous post-magic world, they'd need the protection.
*fist-pump*
Uh oh, so Oliver is already partly compromised.
Crap! Crappity crap! On the other hand, though, it turns out that staying in the APC wouldn't have been particularly safer.
40.media.tumblr.com/e28c4639e6233ca5df434e111c46aa0b/tumblr_ntoe4kwY4Y1rsmidfo1_500.png
Yikes.
There's still plenty of room for hope, though. Cloudy and Riley. Abrams and his Trojan Horse reference. Whatever force it is that has been all italicsy speaking to Alex. Not to mention whatever Alex might pull out all on her own.
Hi, Odium. You've met Alex. But have you met Momma Gaia?
I get the feeling you're gonna, in short order. Momma Gaia don't like your sort messin' with her kids.
6360466 Unicorns excel at direct application of magic. The evil world-conquering sorts value that.
I love how, the second any character in any work of fiction gains super-regenerative immortality, they immediately start getting killed in gruesome ways over and over again. It's like, the universe starts getting revenge for all the times it couldn't kill them before due to plot armor.
Send that eldritch abomination back to Tartarus, Alex!
Dude... shut the fuck up, your just a parasite living inside the body of a likely prejudice piece of shit, so here's the thing, you DO know where you are right? You are on a planet, with the concept of Earth itself being a personified existance, and now it's supercharged with magic.
You have walked into the tiger den, and are currently messing with the cubs.
Your going to get OWNED.
I feel there is an empty power niche that is waiting to be filled, a little "Discord" for Earth's "Celestia"
Whelp, looks like it's time for plan B: KILL IT WITH LOVE! FRIENDSHIP! POSITIVE FEELINGS! HIGH CALIBER WEAPONRY! ABRAMS PISTOL WHIPPING THE CRAP OUT OF THEM!
Because whatever your plan A was, your trump card is gone. Though I guess there was always ways of dealing with an immortal that don't require killing them permanently...
6361203 I know right? its like characters with regen powers are the universes pinata or something.
6360994
I still like the balloon idea.
Ohhhh yeah... big climactic face off! I now have a reason to wake up tomorrow!
Ya know...I think we need to kill both that pony and Odium...That cutie mark is really fishy...
Also...Odium. It seem you forget or don't know about mother Earth, and she isn't exactly happy with you messing with her children. Especially now that those children are a lot more connected to her through thaumic radiation/magic.
6356667
Oh yeah, I just noticed that the first story implies the journal is a continuation rather than a new thing. Never noticed that before.
6363050
He may or may not be in the air, still.
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Driving up to school all day tomorrow, really should be asleep already. Still, I'm already a day behind, so let's see what I can catch up on. I will try to stick to the comments that specifically address me to save time. Sorry everypony! Hopefully I'll have more time for the next one. At least we've got a backlog of content, so we don't end up behind.
6356961
That does seem supported by the current evidence. She clearly doesn't have wings and horn, but...
6357006
Yep, exactly. I would've changed it if it hadn't been in dialogue.
6357045
6357543
I'm not sure if they can project fields with that level of precision yet. They can control its strength, but right now it's always omnidirectional. I guess you could use a ring of projectors and increase their strength gradually in the middle.
6358474
I hate when immortality is either overused or undervalued. To me, it ought to be incredibly special and rare. It ought to change you, make it hard for you to relate with and understand the beings that don't have it. It ought to make you suffer. That's what makes it compelling.
6359309
Of course! She'd approve of any plan that wasn't very sensible.
6360367
They have to build one first!
6360423
Don't worry, it's not a JRPG. Otherwise we'd have to worry about whether or not Alex had acquired all the little items to make this possible along the way, and learned all those one-time-use skills she'd never need until now.
6360466
It's those spells. Hard to compete with spells when all you want is power.
6360475
I've always pictured Alex more as The Fool, though I suppose she's got a little queen of cups in there, maybe page of swords...
6360493
You'll be even more upset tomorrow. z.z
6360685
Heh heh heh. THEY HAVE NO IDEA!
6360891
Alex was disgusted about having children in August. It's now November. Lots of things have clearly happened in her life to change her since that time in many ways, not just that one. Some we hear hinted about in the other chapters (like the car accident and being impaled, which are both in her previous journal entries this story). Others we just have to guess at, since her narrative has been interrupted. Only the irradiation and the electrocution didn't happen or get mentioned in this story.
6360993
But is there enough hope for her to emerge alive at the other end? THAT IS THE QUESTION.
6361203
I think a lot of it in Alex's case comes from personal recklassness. She has one accident and learns she won't die, and suddenly she doesn't care what happens from then on. She lives much more on the edge, putting herself in harms way far more often for her ponies. At least, that's what I think.
6362119
We'll all just get in a hot-air balloon and float away! Or at least him. I love the color of those balloons.
6363168
I have no problems with this. I actually like that she's becoming more in-tune with her new pony/female nature. It pleases me quite a bit.
Okay, so the impalement was in interlude one, and she somehow did it in the Museum on a previous visit. I'd read it as her accidentally cutting herself pretty decently at the time, not somehow managing to entirely impale herself.
And the car accident is mentioned in Interlude two, practically in passing with no more detail given. It comes across almost as jut turning a phrase, basically.
You can be a very sneaky author, you know that?
As for the irradiation, I can only imagine it happened with the Hummingbird and Alex approached it before the anti-radiation shield came online.
You know, I'm coming to the conclusion that Alex is a rather accident prone little pony.
6363168
A very reasonable explanation, and one that fits Alex's character well. She's the sort to put herself in harms' way to protect others.
6363106 All my love Zucha, ALL. MY. LOVE.
Can I point out that Ryan sounds, looks and acts ALOT like Mad King Ryan form AH?
Anyone else notice that?
6366445
I'm also the one who drew him.
Yes, yes I noticed.
Why do I get the feeling that this guys somehow related to Sombra..,
6361203 The later seasons of the Dead Zone strongly insinuated that the increasingly unlikely dooms and near-supernatural incidents were a direct result of the protagonist save point spamming his way around fate. Fate doesn't appreciate being thwarted, and such offenses against its order attract its full attention.
Ha!👏
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