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“It has been a while, but I still remember seeing it on the news so clearly. It's like I can relay every single word in that first report that reached the public. Of course, the few days after the incedent at Discovery cliff, after I got Bun back to her home, all I did was wait for the news to break. I watched every single outlet like a hawk. I kept thinking in my head, either she got away completely, or Twilight found her and killed her. I was expecting one of the two to show up in my feed any second... But, as you most likely know, it wasn't that simple. What did end up happening, I can't think of any other word to call it apart from a miracle.”
“Cardinal, somehow, did this thing that not just saved that forest, she somehow awoke the pony population and made them all realize how terribly we were treating the world. It took time. It wasn't an instant change, and it is a change that is still happening, and you can see that as more facts are found. More ponies become informed, which this documentary will surely help with, along with the hundreds of other sparks in the media that are coming together to paint this picture of one pony who at first just wanted her and her home to be left alone, but was ignored and was tortured and punished, despite being perfectly innocent, for nothing more than our gain. Then history simply repeated itself, but this time in the real world where we all could see it. Cardinal went through all she did and ended up dying, not because Twilight found her, because she chose to stand and fight to protect that tiny little forest without a name. She selflessly gave her life protecting nature, and we were spending our entire lives polluting and and disregarding nature.”
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“Of course she died for that forest. The least we could do is name the the thing after her. And I would like to add that Cardinal Forest, which is now the largest forest in Equestria, is only the beginning to rebuilding our connection with the world.
“I've begun reading all these history books and learning about our purpose as a species. Ponies were meant to grow and protect nature. When we began paving over, it was a simple case of greed. We wanted more and bigger houses and cities. We wanted more technology and comforts and things like that. We lost that connection with the world and that is the problem that seems to be turning around.”
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“Twilight... Oh the things I can say about that mare... I do think that resigning from most of her leadership positions was the right call. Most ponies don't even want her to still be a princess after all of the lies and the abuse... Ponies used to look at her as this fearless, yet caring leader who would do anything for her citizens. What most ponies didn't realize is that she would do literally anything, including endangering innocent pony lives and lying to our faces... I've only seen one picture of her since the incident, which instantly made me realize why she had been trying to keep out of the public spotlight, and to be completely honest, I can't believe she is still breathing if they had to replace that much of her. She had cybernetic implants before, but with the amount she has now, she's practically as much of a robot as Cardinal was at this point… I guess that's irony, for you.”
The sun.
It rose today like it has done every other.
A forest shone with ferocious flames consuming the edges of the treeline. Royal Guards stood spread out at the blazing entrance of the forest, patiently waiting in preparation for their ambush.
Every animal, from rabbits to foxes, ran away from the flames cast by the monstrous mouths spitting fire into the foliage. Their entire world was about to be burned down, destroyed.
The air felt like it was bleeding. All of its freshness was drowned out by the toxic heat pouring out of the flamethrowers. The sky was grey, filled with black clouds without a single silver lining to be seen. When it rained, the water was contaminated, acidic. It was slowly killing the forest, and in turn, the rest of the wildlife in it.
Sadly, this was nothing new. This world was disgusting. It could be described as such without further elaboration. It was, simply, putrid.
This putrid world was the home to many creatures, the wildlife being at the bottom of the metaphorical food chain, with Ponies on the top. They roamed this land also. In their large herds, they built cities over the home of the wildlife, where they relaxed in their houses, consuming nature for their pleasure whenever they wanted it. Like birds pecking for worms, the wild animals stood no fighting chance, their only option to hide.
The landscape was tainted, no tree or cloud in its proper place, all because of the ponies that lived there found that nature, and even though they were supposed to protect it, they instead left it destroyed.
But there was one pony, who wasn't exactly a pony, who lived in this world. One pony by the name of Cardinal.
She was anything but a simple or regular mare. She was a Pegasus, but those details were the non-specifics. She was a sleek, bright yellow robot armed with an assortment of deadly weapons.
The mare was creeping upon the ticklish grass, her hooves and chest gliding across the ground as she snuck around, not daring to even draw a breath to remain as quiet as possible.
She wouldn't even blink her eyes as she observed the shifting shadows throughout the forest. There were more Royal Guard ''scouts'' around, looking for her while the heavy artillery burned down the forest, waiting to find any sign of Cardinal.
Cardinal shot out her hoof, testing its power as she hid behind a pair of bushes, listening as one of the cannon-fodder ponies approached her direction, terrified of every twist and turn. It was almost too easy to sneak around them. The closest thing to a forest most of them have been in would be a dog park, while Cardinal, Cardinal was born in one.
She watched as the pony’s eyes dilated till there was nearly no white showing, as Cardinal lept out from behind her cover and smashed his head down into the dirt, knocking him out. She quickly destroyed his radio and dented his assault rifle to the point of it being irreparable. She then dragged him behind some bushes, making his body as camouflaged as she could in the short amount of time she gave herself before sliding back into her prowl.
Cardinal saw the entire forest complex. She travelled from point to point, taking out the helpless Royal Guards one by one, remaining unspotted. At least, not spotted for long, as bodies dropped all over the forest. Every single one she took down looked more terrified and jittery than the last, the radios blaring with commands and information being passed back and forth of someone hearing a rustle here or a snapping twig there. Every time one of the ponies stopped responding, they all freaked out, to the point where they began grouping up into pairs in an attempt to protect each other as an assassin as quick and silent as the wind flew threw their ranks. This did not impede her efficiency, possibly even helping it as she could take down two in one go.
At the point where she had taken out a dozen or so of them, she began to feel satisfied with herself. Although she found that the she was being somewhat followed, as the brief screams helped in locating her.
“CARDINAL, SURRENDER NOW! WE KNOW YOU ARE IN HERE, AND WE WILL BURN DOWN THIS ENTIRE FOREST IF WE NEED TO! JUST GIVE UP! RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!” The echoing voice of the Captain blasted through the forest, the grit of magical amplification distinct in her voice as it reached around the entire woodland.
Cardinal couldn't care less. She felt like a deadly animal. She wouldn't be able to be stopped by any Royal Guard.
As far as she could tell, the scouts were gone. Either she had taken them all out, or they had retreated. Either way, the forest seemed to be clear on the inside.
Now she had to deal with the bigger threat. She had to come up with a plan to not just stop the Guard, but to smother the flames before they spread to the rest of the forest. So far, the fire had gotten a few dozen trees deep on the one side. Cardinal had been avoiding getting too close, so she never saw how many super-soldiers they actually had.
She had to get them into the forest; that was where she had the advantage.
Cardinal quickly sprinted back toward her camp, finding it free of any intruders as she ran down the paths and bolted around some corners until she arrived at the cabin where she had tied up that first scout she found.
Approaching the door, she was surprised as it flung open from the inside, a delighted Royal Guard on the other side prepared to step out of her makeshift prison, glad to finally be free as she found her road blocked by a peeved Cardinal.
The pony fell onto her back, scrabbling for words. “I-I, uh... I wasn't...” she mumbled as she crawled backwards, recoiling as if she felt a snake graze her leg and saw the untied ropes on the floor she backed into.
“You're coming with me,” Cardinal said plainly while trotting into the cabin and grabbing the pony by the collar. She shoved her out of the room, causing her to stumble and trip into the dirt path outside.
“P-please! You don't have to do this!” she begged as Cardinal forced the pony up onto her hooves.
“Do what?” Cardinal asked, shoving her down along the road.
“You don't have to hurt me! You can use one of the other scouts! They are all over the forest! I can tell you where!”
“They'd need to be alive to be able to work as a hostage.” Cardinal gave the pony a playful glare. Even though she was just messing around with her, that did not lessen the level of absolute horror the pony expressed.
Cardinal and her new hostage travelled out of the camp. They moved through the bush, out toward the raging forest fire. On the way, Cardinal passed over a few of the pony bodies she had left out, freaking out the pony even more. Once they got to a safe distance away from the flame, Cardinal watched the hungry blaze devour her forest. A large wall of roaring flame made it blinding to look past, although she could hear the persistent onslaught of flame being thrown out at the wood. It was getting larger by the second, the pressure of the heat like a coating of lava pouring over them. The fire had eaten a bit more than a tenth of the forest so far.
Cardinal shouted out, knowing who lay past the flame. “CAPTAIN, I AM HERE! I HAVE ONE OF YOUR MARES!”
“CUT THE THROWERS!” she heard from the other side, the nozzles of the flamethrowers calming down. “STAND DOWN! LET'S MAKE THIS AS PEACEFUL AS POSSIBLE, ALRIGHT?” the Captain shouted over the blasting flames.
“ACTUALLY THAT IS NOT ALRIGHT! NOT AS LONG AS THIS FIRE IS STILL BURNING! SO I SUGGEST YOU PUT THAT OUT BEFORE SOMEPONY GETS HURT!” Cardinal wrapped her right leg around the neck of her hostage, placing the machine gun on her wing against the back of the pony’s head.
“YOU CAN'T HURT ANY OF US WHILE WE ARE ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE FIRE!”
“DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME?!? I HAVE ONE OF YOUR MARES HERE, AND IF YOU DON'T STOP THE FIRE, THE DOZEN OTHER UNCONSCIOUS GUARDS ARE GOING TO BURN TO DEATH!”
“DON'T LIE TO ME, YOU FUCKING MACHINE! YOU COULDN'T TAKE THEM ALL OUT!”
Cardinal sighed, turning her head slightly toward her hostage. “What's your name, sweetie?”
“M-Marble Sand...” The pony shook in fear.
“I HAVE A ONE MARBLE SAND HERE WITH ME THAT WOULD MOST LIKELY DISAGREE WITH THAT, CAPTAIN!” Cardinal took a step forward, the heat beginning to almost bother her which just made her angrier at them.
The Captain hesitated to respond, Cardinal could feel her begin to panic. Eventually she heard the disgruntled voice of the Captain respond back. “LET ME... LET ME HEAR HER!”
“PLEASE! DO WHAT SHE SAYS!!!” Marble yelled out without delay.
“FINE!” The Captain finally gave, and within a few moments, a multi-coloured magical aura began rounding off the fire's jagged edges as they grew smaller. Soon, the flame immediately in front of them was smothered by the many Unicorn Guards, leaving behind the barren, black hulls of the trees, ash all over the ground.
Revealed behind the burnt timber stood a long formation of ponies, thirty-odd wide with the Captain in the centre. Every pony, including the Captain, was in full, high-grade juggernaut armour, each pony standing as their own lumbering force.
Each Guard was armed with a large light machine gun, flamethrower, or rocket launchers. They all aimed at Cardinal as she was revealed from behind the flame.
Marble tugged at Cardinal's grip, trying to sprint to her allies, but was caught by her and pulled in tighter, having her two forelegs pulled slightly over the ground so they dangled in the air, feeling the robotic joint tighten around her neck and cause her to begin slightly choking.
“Marble, please,” Cardinal whispered into the frightened ponies ear, then turning to the Captain, the only pony with her mask lowered in order to speak to Cardinal with clarity.
“Okay, Cardinal, let her go and surrender yourself, or we will use as much force as is necessary!” The Captain lifted her head high, keeping a straight face which was surprisingly convincing to Cardinal.
“Captain, can I ask you a question?” Cardinal asked, which in itself was a rhetorical as she did not allow the Captain to respond. “Why did you come after me? I thought I made myself quite clear to Diamond about how I feel about surrendering.”
“It doesn't matter how you feel; Twilight wants you captured, so that's what's going to have to happen. The more you resist the worse things are going to get for you.”
“Where is Twilight, huh? I'd love to give her a few words in the flesh. I'm sick of having to deal with you.” Cardinal's tone sounded almost sassy at this point.
“Don't worry, she said she only wants to be bothered if we know where you are, and our flushing out tactic worked perfectly. She is flying here from Canterlot right now.”
Cardinal rolled her eyes. “Why in the world is Twilight so fucking adamant about killing me, anyway? What did I ever do to her? Why can't all of you just leave me alone?” Cardinal's frustration grew as she continued on, her movement becoming more expressive and loose.
“You’re a murder. You have to pay for your crimes!” the Captain fired back.
“I didn't know! Don't you understand that?! I didn't know that I was killing them forever! I killed my own soulmate, for fuck’s sake! That cost me more than any punishment that you can give me!”
“You also killed the Princess’ own daughter! She doesn't care! Now, I'm giving you ten seconds to let Marble go before we open fire!”
“What!?!” Marble shrieked out, seeing that the Captain cared more about capturing Cardinal than her life.
Cardinal, on the other hoof, dropped her brow in sincere curiosity. “Who was Twilight's daughter? When did I kill her?”
“What, you don't know? The Celestia damned scientist that created you!”
Cardinal became frozen, “W-what...” She shook her head, there was no way. “Seeker couldn't have...” Cardinal's eyes bolted open, “Seeker... Sparkle... She was, wasn't she?” Cardinal loosened her grip in her mesmerized state, this even prompted Marble to try and escape once more.
Cardinal immediately snapped out of it and tugged Marble back down towards Cardinal's chest, beginning to take steps back. Cardinal shouted over the Captain's counting, causing her to stop. “I SUGGEST YOU ALL LEAVE! THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE BEFORE I KILL EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU AND EVERY PONY STILL IN MY FOREST!” Finishing her sentence, she turned and ran, Marble being dragged along the dirt as they swiftly vanished into the wood, getting out of the line of sight of the Royal Guards before they could open fire.
Once she had dashed back into the forest, Cardinal slumped down behind a growth of bushes, harshly throwing Marble into the dirt. Marble fell onto her side, dazed as Cardinal pressed her down, making sure she couldn't squirm away. “Alright, Marble, I don't want you to die. Even less do I want to kill you. So I entrust that if I let you go, you’re going to run the fuck away and not look back because if you do, all you will see is a massacre of every single one of your friends and that hesitation might just mean you will join them. Do you understand?”
Marble nodded with wide, scared eyes looking up at the machine.
“Thank you. I suggest you advise anypony you care about to follow you.” Cardinal shoved off of Marble to lift her head back up, striding away back to her camp. She could hear the pony scramble to their hooves and throw about fallen leaves as she galloped away.
Cardinal found herself at the entrance gate to the camp, going off path to the side where another large patch of foliage grew out part-ways onto the path. She crouched underneath the shrubbery, hiding herself like a jaguar, waiting for her prey to pass by.
With her acute cybernetic hearing, she listened to the rustles and shifts that come with travel through a thick forest, many large figures moving in the distance, their metallic hooves stomping in the dirt in their sporadic search for Cardinal.
It wasn't long before one of the Guards found the Camp, stopping at the gate as if they were surprised that it was there. After a few seconds, the pony lit up their horn, a dim gleam visible from the seams of the rounded plate surrounding their horn.
Cardinal prepared herself to pounce the second the Unicorn looked away, but to Cardinal's surprise, the pony's magic trail from her horn began floating through the air in a glistening vapour-like cloud directly toward Cardinal's hiding spot.
The Unicorn pressed down on a walkie talkie on the side of her helmet, whispering into her microphone. “I think I'm close, outside the Camp Foxtrot gate.”
They then proceeded to follow their magic wisp as it guided them in Cardinal's direction. Cardinal's steel heart quickened as the pony was seconds away, with their magic even closer.
She watched as the magic cloud came over to her and stopped right above the plants Cardinal hid herself in, the Royal Guard recoiled as she witnessed her spell reach her target much faster than she was expecting.
Cardinal immediately stood up and threw her hoof over the thick brush, and then pushing herself of it she hopped over and landed in front of the guard.
They quickly snapped out of their surprise. Swinging their head around with a large spell, their entire body gained a gentle enchantment as they were propelled away, their hooves grinding backward against the dirt as they magically dashed backward. Then, with the smoothness of silk, a small steel cross flipped out in front of them from where it was previously latched onto their side. Its sides then erupted out with a sparkling golden sheen of solid magic as it expanded out evenly into a body-sized, curved barrier.
She then quickly spat out a few points of info into her radio, “Target located directly outside of Camp Foxtrot gate. Target is aware and engaging, over.”
“You should have gone when you had the chance,” Cardinal growled out as she leapt over to the Royal Guard.
“You should have surrendered when you had the chance,” the pony replied back, sounding quite cocky as she drew out a mace from a slot in her back, floating it at the side of the shield. The pony lowered their head. Cardinal could feel the smile.
Cardinal flipped out her wings, immediately opening fire with her machine guns. She shot a few dozen bullets, the gun rattle going through the forest and alerting the Royal Guards even more than they already were to Cardinal's position. She then realized how futile her projectile steel shards were against the pony's barrier.
The pony then charged into Cardinal, the mass of the shield going straight for her, leaving her with no option but to prop up her forelegs and press them against the barrier, planting her back hooves into their dirt, holding back the shield. Although that was when the mace came down onto Cardinal's skull. With a split second to react, Cardinal managed to shift her head to the right, only getting scraped across the side of her face mask with the jagged spikes along the mace’s length.
Cardinal swung back her right hoof, smashing into the barrier with her piston-powered slamming punch, actually causing a crack within the solid magic presence. Then, with a flicker, the shield shut down, leaving Cardinal's right hoof loose in the air and her left still pressing against the other pony’s magical strength.
The mace came at Cardinal again, dashing through the air, rotating into Cardinal's face as it came at her. Cardinal shoved off of the pony's shield base, just fast enough to move her head out of the way, the armor covering her muzzle being hit with the full force instead.
Cardinal felt as it dented in, her mouth earning a sickly pain a she tasted a blot of her blood on her rubber tongue.
This did not slow her down, as Cardinal just used this momentum to spin around, and with a lean, she found herself landing on top of the Unicorn, her left hoof grappling around their neck. She felt the Unicorn's magic envelop Cardinal's forelegs as she tried to swing her right hoof up to the pony’s head, being pushed away like a repelled magnet.
Cardinal pushed her legs to no avail. Every inch she pushed against the Unicorn was regained within the second, though holding back the force of Cardinal did take the Unicorn's entire concentration. Her mace just plummeted down into the dirt as it was let go.
The pony and Cardinal gave each other the stink eye for a brief moment, finding themselves in this short stalemate, quickly ended once Cardinal flipped off the bottom portion of her mask, revealing her open mouth and the tiny flame it bore. This shocked the Unicorn, immediately weakening her magic grip, allowing Cardinal to throw her right leg around the face and spine of the pony. The weight of both their armors combined made it quite an easy feat for Cardinal to yank down the pony's head while letting herself fall down with it.
Cardinal, in the fraction of a second she had while falling, kicked her hind legs forward, leaving her to land on her back, a relatively soft landing in the dirt compared to the other pony, who was pulled down not just by gravity, but by Cardinal's hooves as they slammed the pony’s head down to her side, their neck coming to contact with Cardinal's exposed belly.
A very grotesque cracking and snapping sounded as Cardinal shattered this pony’s neck against herself.
She fell back in relief, taking a quick breath after that very stressful, very short encounter.
Cardinal bucked the body off of herself, hoisting herself upright and stumbling toward a tree, spitting out a gloop of her own blood onto its bark.
She did not give herself much time as she heard more Guards approaching the commotion she had made. Cardinal ran into the camp, going along the brush for more cover, but before she could reach the cottages, she looked back to see a pony arriving at the scene of yet another murder, so she dropped down into a bush and tucked her head into her forelegs, becoming a still statue, avoiding detection for the moment.
She listened attentively as multiply ponies arrived just a few dozen paces away, Cardinal tilting her head slightly to allow one of her eyes to peer through the bushes. Her refined eyes, with their ability to zoom, made it remarkably easy to witness what was going on.
Two Guards, an Earth Pony and a Unicorn, met over the corpse, quickly lifting their guns and scanning the forest around them. “You see it?” the Unicorn asked the other Guard.
“Dead silent... Although she has to be close. Cast that spell of yours,” they replied.
The Unicorn's horn shone from behind the cracks, the same wispy spell emanating out from their forehead and out into the air.
Cardinal turned away from them, searching around her to see if she had enough cover to escape before she was found by their magic once more. She began crawling further into the forest, trying her hardest to not make too much noise as her hooves crunched against the roots of plants.
She paused her prowl, leaving a hoof in the air as one of her eyes darted back and saw the small cloud of magic begin moving in her direction, only to stop at one of the trees near the body.
It swirled around the tree before evaporating, being dispelled as the two Guards took a few steps toward the tree and inspected its bark. One of them lifted up a hoof and touched the strange pink substance splashed along the trunk. Pulling their hoof away lead to a streak of goo being pulled along with it until they wiped it off in the dirt.
“She's bleeding.” The pony lifted up their machine gun. “And she's close,” the Unicorn said, stepping past the tree and casting a spell once more, the same vapor coming out.
To his disappointment, the magic was yet again drawn in by Cardinal's blood. “It's aura is too strong. We gotta search manually,” the Unicorn said to the other Guard, who was giving out info over their comms. Once the Earth Pony finished up, the both of them returned to slowly stomping through the forest.
Cardinal swayed her head down. Seeing that her muzzle was damaged, she placed a hoof gently against her lip, pulling it away to see the blood now on the tip of her hoof.
She smirked, flipping up her mask she continued her crawl through the leg-high foliage, matching the Guards speed as she snuck away.
Once she had gotten to a secluded area in the woods, she nuzzled down next to a tree for cover as she extended out her right wing and took out one of her sharp feathers. Placing it into the seam of her hoof she very precisely pricked open one of her own veins. Then, using the blood that stuck to her wing, she spread out a small blot of it into the roots of the tree.
Cardinal then stepped away with a soft hoof, finding a large patch of bristle bushes to crawl into only a few paces away.
She then waited, listening to the two Guards on her tail as they inevitably approached her direction.
“No sign of her at the camp still, over,” the Earth Pony relayed into his mic as they came within a few yards of Cardinal's hiding spot.
They trailed in her direction, the Unicorn preparing to cast their spell again. They stopped in their trail and waved their head, attention grabbed once the spell found something new this time, leading them down toward one of the hundreds of trees that surrounded them.
Both of them raised their weapons, treading closer to where the spell lead them with a spring in their step at the glee of finding Cardinal.
The Earth Pony allowed the Unicorn to lead the charge as he reported their finding, “Spell came up positive just due east of camp gate. Investigating now, over.” The pony said, watching their ally kick through some shrubs, eager to open fire.
Cardinal also watched them do so. Although she wasn't close to where they were searching, she instead was sitting pretty, directly behind them. She pulled her body in tight, springing her legs up for launch, and with a fluid motion with her entire body’s effort, she sprang out of her hiding spot with enough force to send her flying a few yards out, landing onto the Earth Pony.
As she landed, she made sure to pull out both of her wings and point the sharp ends down beneath her hooves, immediately stabbing into the base of his neck, piercing a weaker point in their armor as she wrapped her front legs around his skull and twisted hard. Barely a squeal escaped their mouth before Cardinal heard the crunch of their spine being severed, both of them landing into the cushioning dirt with a light thump and rattle, right behind the thick foliage.
The Unicorn immediately jumped back, noticing his friend was nowhere to be seen. “Yumi! Yumi, respond!” they called out in a panic, having heard the unsoothing sound they could only assume be his friend being murdered by that fucking robot.
Without hesitation, they swiped their head side to side, casting a strong aura around them that sent a harsh wind sweeping all of the plants around them away. Bushes and leafy greens were ripped from their roots, including the ones giving cover to Cardinal and their dead friend just a few hoof steps away.
They were not given the chance to react before Cardinal galloped at them, a swinging hoof coming from down south, connecting with their jaw and sending their head toppling over the rest of their body, flying back and collapsing into the earth, unconscious, if not dead.
Cardinal smiled over her victory, standing proud over her hunt before hearing another target approach from the distance, leaving her to dash back into the forest.
As she flew through the woods, she made sure to pour a few drops of her blood every now-and-again, not just making the Royal Guard's magic useless, but also distracting them.
She managed to take out a few more Guards using the element of surprise. They were very easily picked off by her when she attacked them from stealth.
Cardinal also ran into one Guard trying to escort out one of the scouts she had taken out from earlier, making them even more susceptible to attack when Cardinal struck.
She predicted that she had dealt with at least a third of the Guards she had seen before she met with a larger cluster of the Guards, three of them sticking within touching distance slowly pressing into the camp while watching all angles, back to back with each other.
Cardinal kept her distance and left for easier prey, but as she saw another group of four patrolling together just a few minutes away, she realized that they were wising up to Cardinal's ambush tactics.
She disengaged for now, traveling back up toward the camp as she tried to think of how to deal with them in a large group, and she had nearly reached the gate when she spotted something horribly eye catching.
As she crept along, her eyes stopped at a red splatter on a tree. A rabbit was hanging limp from a spear impaled into its center of mass with its innards scattered around the bark of the tree. The spearhead stuck out from the trunk rigidly, buried deep into the wood to make sure it would slip off.
Cardinal immediately sprinted up to it and placed her hoof on the tree as she gazed at it. The dead rabbit was at head-height, murdered by one of the Royal Guard, using one of their spears. With further inspection, she saw that the rabbit also contained a bullet hole, seemingly shot and killed before being put up on display like this. Cardinal could feel a disgust in the back of her throat as she stared at it, wondering why anypony would possibly do such a thing.
She couldn't stand just leaving it there, so she removed her mask and grabbed the spear's shaft with her teeth, yanking her head to the side a few times as she dislodged the spear and spat it out onto the ground. She then continued to snap it where it pierced the bunny using the raw weight of her hoof, having the rabbit's body slip off.
Standing up straight, she looked down with a heartfelt sigh.
Then, to her shock, she felt a sharp pain in her neck as she felt something get shot deep in between the plates of her neck, accompanied with a gentle ''pew'' from the distance.
Her head darted off to see a Guard snuggled into a bush, aiming a strange looking rifle toward Cardinal. She listened to the pony as they whispered into their comms, “Target is tagged. I repeat, target is tagged, over,” and then immediately realize that Cardinal was staring directly at them.
Cardinal shoved off the tree and began galloping toward the Guard. Ignoring the small shard stabbed into her neck, she made it to them just as they were stumbling upward, trying to pull out their machine gun, dropping her other, strange rifle she had shot Cardinal with.
Both of their hooves met together into a wrestle, as Cardinal swung at the pony and they shielded their face, lessening Cardinal's blows.
“Wait, please!” the pony called out in fear and pain, trying to protect themselves from Cardinal's onslaught of attacks, getting continuously smashed in the face. Cardinal eventually beat them down into the dirt, overpowering them and kicking their head in until their resistance ended.
She loosened up, taking a breather before twisting around her head to try and see whatever damage she had received, and by pressing up her iris against the side of her eye, she saw a strange red flashing light come from beneath one of her plates.
She pulled up her wing and pressed it between the two plates where the light resided, trying to pick out the device.
Only a few moments passed of irritated scratching before she heard shouting coming toward her. “She's this way!” It came from another artificially grizzled voice.
Cardinal dashed away, crouching down low in an attempt to conceal herself as she ran away from the scene. To her dismay, she heard another troop shouting and rushing right toward her.
She took another turn and saw the wooden cottages past the dense collection of trees. Running toward them, she managed to reach the camp's cleared pathways before the Guards caught up with her. She slowed her run to a canter as she entered the camp's center, searching around for any oncoming enemies.
She heard several metallic, pumping stamps as several groups of Guards could be heard coming from all directions. With fear of being overrun, Cardinal ran into the closest building for cover, ending up inside one of the tiny cottage homes.
Once inside, Cardinal bolted the door shut and drew the curtains, then crawled down underneath one of the several bunk beds inside. Then she turned her attention to the noisy regrouping of ponies outside. By the sound of it, at least a dozen sets of hooves came together outside, their voices barely audible through the log walls.
“She just ran through here!”
“Hey! You guys seen her?”
“She must be hiding somewhere. One of you scan for the tracker again.”
“One sec!”
A silence set in, so quiet in fact that not even a step was heard from outside as the guards stood perfectly still, waiting for said scan to complete.
Something about this gave Cardinal a grave and intense feeling, like she could feel the beat of her own heart.
“There,” someone said with reluctance.
The same silence dawned upon them once more, although the intense beat of her pulse was no longer from fear of being caught, but from anticipation of the Guard busting through the door. She braced herself, preparing herself mentally by taking a bunch of deep breaths as she knew she was going to have to fight her way out.
Although as she watched the door out of the corner of her eye, she felt the slightest ease as she heard more speech, along with another percussion of stomps approaching, delaying her battle, even if its only for the slightest amount of time. “Captain!” Somepony exclaimed from outside, “She's locked in there! Someone tagged her! She can't hide anymore!” They said with pride, happy with their own effort.
The Captain soon spoke, partnered with a light chuckle. “Well, well, well... Finally.” She picked up her voice to speak to Cardinal directly, “CARDINAL, YOU'RE CORNERED! YOU'RE BEING TRACKED! THERE IS NO WAY OUT OF THIS! YOU MIGHT AS WELL SURRENDER NOW!”
Cardinal denied her a response, instead sliding out from under the bed and slowly and powerfully angling her body down into a pounce aimed at the door, flipping up her mask with a click.
“OKAY, THEN, GUESS WE'LL DO THIS THE HARD WAY!” the Captain yelled out, a sadistic joy recognizable in her voice.
Within the second, the door came flying open, crashing against the wall with a terrifying rattle, wood chips being sent into the air. A fully armored Guard turned their machine gun into the room, catching Cardinal in their sights.
Cardinal leapt out. With the agility and grace of a feline, she landed against the wall with a sprint, getting a few steps on the horizontal surface as bullets from the pony came after her, creating a clear trail as she bounced of the wall and landed atop of the Guard.
She fell against them with her speed and weight, and by wrapping her wing around their neck, she managed to pull the pony along with their momentum of following Cardinal, causing them to pivot toward the door with their gunfire and sending shots outside onto the group of Guards who were about to breach along with this pony while Cardinal sent him to the floor with her body's force.
The pony was heavy enough to fall into the wooden flooring, forming their own personal crator in the plank floor, with Cardinal on top of them, now firing the Guards weapon for them.
While the bullets just blinked off of the other Guard’s armor, it did an amazing job at dazing them. Not being used to the complete bullet proof protection of the suits, they recoiled to defend themselves from the bullet fire, especially the pony who was just on the steps of the house who dropped down to the ground and lifted both hooves over their head.
Cardinal dropped the machine gun from her wing, and by shooting herself up from all four hooves she launched herself out of the doorway. The cowering pony lifted up their head at the cease of gunfire, allowing for Cardinal to land a powerful buck into their face that sent them flying as she exited the cottage, landing on all fours with a stopping force that blew all of the gun smoke around her away.
She gazed up to see the Captain within a crowd of a dozen of her ponies, slightly dazed.
While the Captain was understandably shocked, Cardinal had no intent to hesitate. She charged directly for the Captain, shoving past a few of the disorientated pony Guards to get to her.
Once she had done so, she was met by the Captain's ferocious swing as she brought down her spear toward Cardinal.
Cardinal, with her wings already prepared to respond, threw her right wing in front of herself, the front feather stabbing into the spear shaft and redirecting it to the side. She then spun around, dragging the spear out of the Captain's grip and lining up a buck with her hind legs. With the smashing force of a wrecking ball, Cardinal's two back legs met with the Captain's chest, both hooves creating the indenting, pumping action that amplified her strength by a groundbreaking amount. It almost killed the Captain instantly, just telling by the wheezing cry that came from air escaping her lungs as it was kicked out of her.
Cardinal could hear the Captain's body collapse into the ground a few seconds later, not bothering to turn around to see. Instead, she flipped down the bottom of her mask and opened up her flamethrower. Seeing she was a safe distance from any trees, she turned it up to full blast as the ponies around her regained their senses and armed their weaponry, each machine gun and rifle trained at Cardinal.
In response she took in a deep inhale to the bottom of her stomach, feeling the canister of fuel in the pit of her chest, feeling a pressure build as the flammable liquid that sloshed around inside of her came surging up her throat and blasting out of the nozzle in her mouth.
With a spark, she sent out a flame larger than any of the ponies around, breathing a blaze as if she was a fully grown dragon. Then, with a sweeping motion of her head, she sent it around to all of the Guards surrounding her, scaring the daylight out of each one as they felt the heat of a blazing fire pour over them, even if it was only for a brief moment.
The ponies all stumbled back as Cardinal ended her attack. She looked out onto the shocked Guards, seeing that they were all terrified of her. They stood shaking in terror of this monster.
“WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR...” the Captain panted, “SHOOT HER!!!”
The Guards looked at each other, delaying any action as Cardinal eyed them down into submission.
“YOU IDIOTS, KILL HER!” the Captain continued to rant out.
Cardinal took a light breath before turning around to see the Captain struggling to get to her hooves. “Just give up, I could kill every single one of you if I wanted. It would be better for everypony if you just left me alone... Indefinitely,” she said, looking down at her.
While Cardinal knew she could be beaten by the amount of Guards that surrounded her, she had based that knowledge from her encounter with the green Pegasus she fought in the arena. But in that fight, she was missing her most powerful weapon.
Fear.
She turned to address the Guards. “You will leave this forest, and never return, or I will not be so generous as to spare your lives, DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?” she yelled out, getting a fearful retreat from everypony as they shifted back a few steps away from her.
Cardinal felt the accomplishment of victory. She had won. Nopony would dare contest her. It was finally over.
That was what she taught until she heard the Captain chuckle.
“What is it?” Cardinal turned around at the Captain, seeing her uncontrollably laugh to herself.
She laughed maniacally, overselling it so much that Cardinal's curiosity was taken to an unbearable point. “WHAT?” Cardinal screamed out, standing over the Captain's body and pressing her down into the dirt, trying to get her to spill what was so funny.
“Bow...” The pony couldn't finish the sentence before laughing once more, Cardinal simply leaned her head away in a jarring confusion.
That is when Cardinal heard a whooshing noise, almost a screech coming from the sky. She turned her head up to the clouds and dropped her jaw.
Eventually, the pony's laugh died down and she managed to finish her bold statement.
“Bow for your Princess, Cardinal.”
...
“When I grow up I want to be a scientist pony, so I can help make things that don't hurt the trees, like batteries and things that work because of enviro... envirow-ment friendly things like sunlight or moonlight, because burning coal and trees is bad because the chem-eh-culs are not good and hurt the plants. I learned that in school...”
...
“Who?”
...
“This? This is Cardi! I painted her a long time ago. It used to be a Rainbowdash, but then I changed it because Cardi is the most awesomest pony and also my best friend! She is the nicest pony because she helped me so much! My mom doesn't hurt me anymore, and at school the fillies stopped making fun of me and calling me names.”
...
“I did get sad because that means I won't see her again for real, but it still makes me happy because I can remember her, and sometimes I see her in my dreams and I can talk to her then... And I have this little toy that I can play with, and I can pretend that it's really her... And can I tell you a secret?”
...
“When I play pretend now, it doesn't feel as pretend... I don't know, but it kinda feels like it is really Cardi... I know she is dead and that means it isn't really her, but it really does feel like it is her.
“Sometimes Surrie visits. She is very nice. Sometimes she brings me gifts, other toys to play with and have tea parties. Lots of things like that are better now. I feel happy more now. Even the bad, bully ponies didn't come back. I think Cardi scared them all away, which is very good too. That was the scariest day of my life, when they didn't let me go and had a gun to my head...”
“I'm happier now. I think Cardinal is too, wherever she is.”
The next moments the Cardinal experienced were the most terrifying moments of her life, since the day of her birth, when she experienced death for the first time.
Princess Twilight Sparkle, the third most powerful pony in the known world, second only to Princess Cadence and Princess Celestia, came down to the earth like a meteorite.
After flying there all the way from Canterlot, the Princess shot down like a ballistic missile. She came down a few meters away from Cardinal. The moment she came into contact with the earth, something strange happened.
Nothing.
Cardinal watched this pony go to what truly looked like it was veering on the edge of super-sonic directly into the dirt, and without slowing down even the slightest amount as she reached the soil, she landed as gently as a feather, while still creating an enormous wave of air that came gushing out from her, knocking everypony, including Cardinal, onto their asses.
Cardinal could hear windows shatter all around the camp. Leaves and plants for the next mile violently shook, but the ground beneath the Princess, untouched. She realized quickly that this was because of the Princess’ magic as Twilight's horn continuously glowed with a light purple.
Cardinal gathered herself back up, looking up onto the towering pony standing powerfully above her. Twilight had her head down after that landing, her cybernetic shoulder parts sticking out obtusely to Cardinal. This was the first time she had laid eyes upon this Princess she has heard so much about, and her raw image was one to put fear even in the cold, metallic nerves of Cardinal.
Although she wouldn't dare to hesitate, that could cost Cardinal her life against an opponent like this.
She pressed all four of her hooves against the dirt, preparing to launch out at Twilight, and with her pistons tightly contracted, she shot out from th-
She couldn't move.
It's like she was frozen, not that her joints had stopped working, more like she was encased in ice. Like no matter how hard she pushed, she could not move a single inch in any direction.
Cardinal's head bolted away from staring at Twilight and down at her own body, trying to see what was wrong.
A painful shiver went down Cardinal's spine as she saw that her entire body was enveloped in Twilight's Magic, Cardinal's mind raced with the question, how powerful was this pony?
It was soon answered as Cardinal's head was forcibly lifted up. She felt her joints bend in her neck as she resisted to no avail. Cardinal’s eyes were then drawn to Twilight's head. She was standing in a manner that almost perceivable as calm.
“You...” Her voice echoed throughout the entire forest, the Guards all watching in absolute awe.
Cardinal felt the top half of her mask, which was still covering the top half of her eyes begin to peel off. Then, in a painful instant, it was ripped off. Cardinal wanted to scream out in agony, but even her speaker was held in this magical cryostasis.
Twilight lifted her head to meet eyes with Cardinal. They were sharper than any blade Cardinal could imagine.
“You waste my time...” Twilight said in a menacing growl. It was then when Cardinal felt a sharp pulling on her left and right wing joints. The place where they met her body was being torn apart by the invisible, vicious strength of Twilight. They merely lasted seconds before Cardinal felt her wings detach, the pair of them being carelessly tossed to the side. Cardinal wanted to scream, she wanted to cry, but she wasn't able to. Which may have hurt more than anything else.
“You waste my money...” Twilight continued, Cardinal then feeling the same process continue with her left hind leg, feeling it rip apart from her inner flank as it was torn away from its tendons, the steel stretching like a gorey flesh before being tossed aside, the hole dripping blood.
“You kill my guards...” Twilight ripped off Cardinal’s other hind leg, the pain not becoming any easier the second time around as her face filled with the suffering of her helpless torture.
“You ruin my reputation...” Cardinal roared out on the inside in her affliction. Being pried apart piece by piece was a torture, the severity of which, she never could have comprehended before now. She watched both of her forelegs fall limply to the floor, seeping blood.
“But worst off all...” Twilight took a step forward, causing Cardinal's and every pony else's hearts to skip a beat. Cardinal felt her jaw shoot down, along with her flamethrower nozzle, and Cardinal could feel a vomit-inducing pain in her mouth as the nozzle was torn out from the roof of her mouth, being chucked out, leaving Cardinal unarmed.
Twilight then leaned in, her muzzle touching Cardinal's. “You killed my daughter.”
Twilight gave a seconds pause where she leaned back up to her full towering stand before continuing. “I wonder, what do you possibly have to say for yourself?”
Cardinal instantly felt her speaker and mouth be set free, and without reluctance, she just screamed out in agonizing pain.
Twilight just watched for nearly a minute as Cardinal just shouted and cried out, it slowly becoming more of a pathetic sob as she went on, eventually whispering the words, “I loved her...”
“What did you say?” Twilight spoke sternly.
Cardinal turned up her head to look at Twilight, tears flooding her eyes. “I loved your daughter. I loved Seeker and she loved me. She gave me life! She was willing to die for me!” Cardinal dropped her head again, not having the strength to keep it upward. “I didn't know I was killing her...”
Twilight was stunned by the answer, taking a moment to comprehend what Cardinal said before shouting back in rage. “YOU DARE SAY THAT ABOUT MY DAUGHTER?!”
“It's true!” Cardinal replied before Twilight could hurt her anymore.
“YOU... You...” She began breathing heavily, reforming her thoughts. “You disgust me.” Twilight leaned down to Cardinal's height. “For what you have done, Tartarus is too good of a place for you... As punishment, I will bring you to my personal chambers, where I will rig you into a machine that will make you feel a thousand painful deaths every second for the rest of time... It will be a literal, personalized hell designed specifically for you... Anything to say now? Robot?”
Cardinal recoiled in horror, looking up at Twilight, seeing the heartless monster that hid from behind her eyes.
After a few moments of staring into each other's eyes, Cardinal softly spoke out to her. “I didn't kill your daughter.” She spoke with confidence.
“What?” Twilight snarled back.
“You killed her...” Cardinal said, making the Princess's eyes shoot down into a ferocious expression of pure hatred, but Cardinal did not give her time to respond before she elaborated. “She wanted to save me, and you didn't let her... She died because you tried to stop her, because you didn't let us be together... Maybe you were just trying to help her, but so was I... So if anything, we both killed her. It is your fault as much as mine.” Cardinal looked deep into Twilight's eyes, fearlessly. “Let me go, before it's too late... I don't want to anypony else to die.”
Twilight's anger persisted for a few moments as she thought about what was happening, coming to a personal realization, leaving her to eventually change into a smile and a chuckle.
Twilight talked down to Cardinal, mocking her. “Threats? Ha! You think you can talk your way out of this, don't you?” Twilight floated Cardinal's body up to meet Twilight's eyes as she stood in full height. “It's not going to work... Any other strategies you want to try before this little game is over? Go ahead, try what you will, but be warned that the board is stacked heavily in my favor.”
Cardinal tried to move her body, checking for any options she had... She had no legs, no wings, no guns, no weapons. She shifted every gear in her body, seeing it was all futile until... Until her head shot up both in realization and in feeling something slide down the side of her body. She looked down to the dirt, a few meters beneath her, seeing her Saddlebag which had just slid off of her body in her struggle.
Twilight gazed down gently, the bag grabbing her attention as well. She levitated it upward in between the two of them, undoing the latch and letting the flap roll open.
She then dropped the bag, pulling out the only item inside.
A small white chess piece, that in the shape of a princess.
Twilight's eyes gently came up from the piece, looking into Cardinal's. “What is this?”
Cardinal swayed her head around, seeing that all of the Guards had regrouped around Twilight and her, the Captain standing at Twilight's side.
This put a disappointed, deep grief on Cardinal's face, looking back at Twilight. “I’m eternally sorry for what happened to Seeker, I really am...” Cardinal sighed, looking down at the chess piece, knowing what she was about to do, for the second time. She proceeded to solemnly speak one more word.
“Checkmate.”
Cardinal flipped open her cup holder as Twilight's grip loosened around her body, one of the two grenades which had its pin latched onto some metal piece inside of Cardinal had its pin pulled out by the action, not giving Twilight or anypony around enough time to realize what she had just done. The grenades ignited, and along with the gallons of flamethrower fuel sloshing around in the pit of her chest, the blast would end up killing every single pony around Cardinal, with the exception of Twilight.
A great flaming combustion blew out like hell fire. The flames erupted and surrounded Twilight and all of the Guards. The fire stuck to them like napalm.
The blast blasted Cardinal’s body like shrapnel around the forest, leaving only her head somewhat intact as it was shot out deep into the forest.
The grass in the blast radius erupted in flame, the fire traveling through the houses, the entire camp burning down to ash, eventually climbing the trees up to their leaves, everything catching fire in a glorious, shining cascading flow of flame spilling into the sky and transforming into toxic smoke.
By the morning, the entire forest had gone.
The sky filled with clouds of searing hot ash, blacking out the sun.
The sun rose that day like it had done every other.
Cardinal did not wake up for a long time after the incident.
When she did, she was not just unaware of how many days had passed, she didn't even know where she was.
At first everything was black, and all she could feel was a light, wet grazing on her muzzle. She found the power in herself to open an eyelid, being met by a pleasent surprise as she saw a small bunny licking the tip of her nose.
Cardinal's first joyful feeling faded quickly as her attention was drawn to the burned forest, hundreds of collapsed and lifeless husks of trees scattered in the background of her vision. It made her feel a painful sense of deja vu.
She tried to stand up, but she couldn't, she had no body, it was blown cleanly off of her. She couldn't do anything but sit there and look upon a dying forest that she had subjected this bunny and all the other creatures dwelling here to, she felt no better than the ponies she tried to stop. She began to cry, wishing for anything, anything at all...
Her eyes drifted down in her grief.
Then she noticed something, something shiny. just underneath her muzzle, she saw a tiny golden shaped heart with a string-thin chain moving around where her neck should be, circling her head. It must have been blown away with her.
The bunny then placed a paw on her cheek, inspecting the strange creature he had awoken.
Cardinal's eyes came up bright. Just maybe she could do something... All she needed was a little help from her friend here.
She looked into the rabbit's eyes, who was immediately drawn by the colorful balls Cardinal had for eyes. Then, having its attention, she shaped her eyes into a heart, changing their colour to gold.
After a few seconds, the bunny reacted, realizing he had seen that shape somewhere else. He looked down to see the locket around Cardinal's head, shut tight.
He leaned down and using his two big teeth, the bunny began fiddling with it, curious on what it was.
Then, in a heartbeat, it flipped open, leading the bunny to jump back as it saw the shine of the emerald inside.
Cardinal felt it, the energy immediately leaving her head.
A bright yellow flower sprouted directly in front of Cardinal. It was gorgeous. Just as gorgeous as the next one that grew, and the next. It took only a few more seconds before she was surrounded by nothing but flowers.
Then, she watched as bushes sprouted out of the ground and vines climbed the dead trees. New trees began forming as saplings, growing at a steady pace.
Cardinal felt a sense of joy wash over her as she watched the bunny gape in awe at the world coming to life around him.
Then her vision began to grow blurry. The world began growing dark for Cardinal. She focused her last look on the beautiful little bunny, before willingly accepting her own death.
Then, using her last morsel of energy...
She gave a broken smile... She was finally happy.
She began to drift off into a deep, deep sleep...
And
then,
everything
slowly
faded
to
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It's so sad, how a good story ends...like you are saying goodbye to someone you had just gotten to know. How you were with them through thick and thin. How you've gone to see what they've seen and experienced. Realizing that it is over...but in a way, her story isn't really over is it? In a way this is a new beginning, too...
Thank you for this. It was tragic, heart warming, intense, and had an ugly beauty to it.
I can only hope they see each other again. To learn what love really is for them both.
8932409
Wow, I was pretty surprised to open Fimfiction to see 8 notifications, but wow, thank you for the kind words!
I am very happy you enjoyed the story, and if you like this style of world I hope you are pleased to know that I am working on making an interconnected series of stories based on this world, (The only other currently that is out is called War Pony, but there will be lots more.)
Also thank you for pointing out some mistakes, my editor can only get so many of them and with my dyslexia, there is a lot. I've been trying to fix them as they are pointed out to me but I am slowly getting better.
Anyways thank you for reading and commenting, it truly is inspiring. - Cz
8932580
Glad to give them for a great story! I read some yesterday, but then I just sat down and couldn't pull myself away! That kind of story that just pulls you in and keeps you tied to it is great to see, and I am immensely thankful for the chance to read it.
I must say I am curious to know how things got to such a state in this AU, and to learn more about the world that Cardinal found herself in. As ugly as it may seem at some points, there is still kindness and beauty to find within it. Hope, as you put it. I'll have to read War Pony soon, and am eager to see what else you put out, connected or not to this world you have brought to light.
I have some slight issues with reading comprehension at times too, but the important thing is to keep working at it. A pointer here and there about a mistake is a chance to improve and make a connection with someone, so I feel that's something that can bring out the best in both sides of the conversation! That and I was almost miffed at how nobody had posted -any- comments in this story, good OR bad! With how this story reached me I felt I should put at least something out there and hope others will too, so you and others can make their own connections with you and this great read.
I now see the near-wall of text I've put up, so I'll finish by saying thanks again, and I hope to read more of your works soon!
This was an amazing and also emotionally draining and sad read. Apart from a few spelling errors and grammatical issues, this was an absolutely beautiful story.
How were you able to make almost every chapter exactly ten thousand words?
9777000
Eh. Pure coincidence ;)
(But for reals, yeah that was very intentional and took a lot of work, this whole book took a lot more to make than any regular story. The point of it is showing that every chapter the same themes are being repeated from the first chapter of Cardinal's initial journey in it, and only at the last chapter does that cycle end as she breaks free from it.)
This was pretty amazing to read. The amount of time and care that went into it must have been insane. Easily one of my favorites that I've read. I especially loved the use of colors throughout the text to emphasize things.
9949373
Thank you very much!
Luv <3
Absolutely Amazing.... like seriously. Amazing. Hate the ending though because I dont like death. Lol. Still wish I knew what happened after she blew up though.... how the world and such reacted im extremely curious to know.
10624811
Thank you very much! And if you are curious on how the world changed afterwards, I'm currently working on Harmony Of Machines, which is a direct sequel to this story following Bun!
This is an interesting story!
It's like The Mind Electric meets House Of Leaves. This has my attention