A New Potential

by EnigmaShade

Chapter XIV: Last Breath

Part III: Remnants
Chapter IV: Last Breath

“Okay everypony, that concludes today’s lesson,” I sat down in front of the small room and many of the ponies and humans left. A few stayed to question me further, but they were normally the younger ones.

A younger college student—who had just went through his procedure today and was transferred to my class—named Mindshot, stayed in his chair and asked, “Hey, Enigma. You ever gonna talk about psychology?”

I let out a breath, “Psychology?”

“All you really talk about is sociology and politics when it comes to Equestria,” The young pegasus said, “I was a psychology student before all this crap happened. I wanna know how different it is there than here.”

I looked over to the other four students in the room, “You guys have quicker questions before I get into this?”

None spoke up so I jumped into an explanation, “I also asked the same thing when I got into Equestria. I dealt with a lot of these issues through my own career here on earth, so I was curious. Celestia’s not gonna like me saying this, but she’s in severe denial. She told me the most severe disorder was Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.”

“So they found cures for everything else, I’m guessing,” He inquired, “But then again if she’s in denial, there’s got to be some more severe ones, right?”

I nodded, “Indeed. In my nine sea—two years being there, I found an abundance of disorders. Since Equestrians are immortal in a sense, they treat death much worse than humans do. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression run rampant throughout the world. In fact, Barry is the only one not an apparent victim of PTSD or depression. While, yes, we’ve cured Downs Syndrome, schizophrenia, and even many forms of mental retardation, we still have dozens of disabilities like autism, dissociative identity disorder, and, of course, PTSD.”

“So a hundred or so human-made-ponies with PTSD won’t affect the world much,” He said shaking his head, “Perhaps I can still study psychology and assist in curing ponies.”

I nodded and smiled, “Simple as that. Look at your right flank.”

He gave me a confused look and glanced back to see if I was trying to pull a prank on him. He looked back to me for a second with the same confused expression, then his eyes widened and he looked back again noticing what I wanted him to find. The other four looked as well, then back at me for answers. On the young colt was a Psi, the symbol of psychology.

“One day as a pony and you already have your cutie mark,” I said, getting a larger smile out of the young pegasus, “Congratulations, Mindshot.”

“Thank you, sir,” He looked back again, “I suppose this is a big deal?”

I smiled again at him, “Go tell Pinkie Pie and you tell me.”

The door opened suddenly and dozens of ponies and humans flooded in the room. The humans clutched their rifles defensively, and the ponies looked vulnerably around the room. Pinkie bounced through the doors and up to me, “Shade, we have a problem. Sick people are climbing the walls.”

One of the younger leaders stepped up to help explain, “Infected have found us. They need you out there to help fight. I’m in charge of protecting this group.”

I ran out with Pinkie on my heels. Stellis was outside barking orders with Barry.

“You three are good with those weapons,” Barry cast a bubble shield around a building, “We need a few buildings with keen eyes on them in case they get over the wall.”

The three men saluted and climbed the shield. Stellis spotted me and jogged up to me, “How much can you carry on your back and still fly?”

“Two ponies,” I answered, “Three humans in comparison.”

“Good,” He signaled two humans, a man and a woman in Marine Corps cammies, “You two were heli-snipers for the Corps. Can you ride Enigma outside the walls and pick off some of the leaders? Slow the fuckers down a bit?”

The two saluted, “Sir!”

The Marines climbed my back and readied their rifles. I looked to Stellis questioningly, so he explained, “Mutants and infected hordes have found us. They’re climbing the North and East walls. Head count calls about six hundred and growing. If they get over, we’re dead. Go now and thin their ranks!”

Without another word, I jumped and flapped my heavy wings. After a quick warning to the Marines, I sped off towards the North wall where a dozen and a half humans stood peering over the edge with their weapons. I flew over them and glided over a horde of deranged humans—half of them climbing like spiders up the thirty-five meter wall.

“This is as steady as the ride gets,” I yelled to my passengers, “Take your shots while you got ‘em. Aim for the top and the middle!”

The shots of the recoil-free rifles were deafening to me. Several of the infected monsters fell and hit others on the way down the wall. After 30 rounds and 30 bodies, the Marines swapped magazines and outloaded on the East wall. The woman slapped my neck a couple times, “We’re dry—drop us on the wall!”

I swooped down and dropped them off on the wall. We all peered over the edge and saw the creatures were now 25 meters up the wall, “We outloaded 60 rounds into those fucks and not even a fucking dent.”

“More are joining from behind the plateau,” A nervous woman in Army cammies said, “We have plenty of ammunition, but we’re outmanned. They’ve got at least twelve hundred by now, and we only have two hundred fighters.”

“We have at least three hundred humans still,” I said, “What about them?”

“More than half of us were soldiers before finding this place,” The male Marine said, “The rest are our families or cops or farmers or red-neck gun lovers.”

I shook my head, “Get my sister. I have an idea.”

The three saluted and I took off down the side of the wall. I flew close to the wall until my hooves connected with the sides of the wall. I ran along the sides of the debris-made wall, knocking several of the monsters off balance and dodging random protruding debris. In two sweeps, I was able to knock the climbers down to about 15 meters. I saw a flash of light and Twilight waved to me from the top of the wall.

“Twi,” I landed next to her, “Have you mastered that portal spell?”

“Not quite,” Twi said, “But if you want me to try, I can.”

“Can you aim it at the largest concentration?”

“I’m not sure,” Twilight said, looking over the ledge, “It could leave us wide open when the portal closes.”

“We’ll figure out something by then, but at least our problem will lessen.”

“Sir, we’re almost out of ammo,” A man in Air Force cammies said, “I hope that portal idea of yours works.”

“Start getting everypony back down to the rest of the group,” I said, “Conserve your ammo in case we need it more than now. This may get ugly.”

“I’m staying, sir,” The Airman said as the others heeded my orders, “I feel I may be of help.”

“Which window, Shade,” Twilight asked, her eyes onyx black.

“You know who.”

Twilight’s horn turned black, and purple sparks traced along it. A black dot of energy formed at the tip of her horn, and it shot down at the horde and started spreading.

“What is that,” The Airman asked.

Several blue-green tentacles sprouted from the black hole and dragged dozens of infected into the dark hole. One tentacle wrapped around the Airman’s waist.

Twilight’s horn glowed and so did the tentacle, “Oh, no you don’t. This one’s mine.”

The tentacle slinked away leaving a ring of goo around the Airman, “What the fuck IS that thing?!”

“He’s my fiancé’s pet,” Twilight explained, “He’s been dying for a chance to prove himself so that he could be released from Tartarus.”

“And this is his chance,” I said, “Nice work, buddy!”

The victory was short lived. The black hole was closing back up and taking the wall with it. I grabbed Twi and the Airman and took off to the middle of the refuge. The wall collapsed, but the slowly regressing hole in the ground kept the monsters at bay.

“Get inside!”

Anypony still outside rushed to their homes with exception to the rooftop snipers. Twilight built a shield and several ponies and humans rushed inside it. The horde, still 400 strong at least, charged into town and bashed on semi-defenseless homes. Several second story windows opened and weapons poked out of them.

Pinkie ran toward the bubble shield Twilight made, but found that the shield had already solidified, “Twilight, hurry! Let me in!”

“I can’t Pinkie,” She looked frightened, “The shield won’t soften for at least five minutes. Climb to the top!”

Pinkie bucked her hind legs to kick one of the monsters away. Tears streamed down her face as she struggled to climb up the slippery shield. When she got to the top she covered her head and cried. None of the creatures could gain traction enough to climb the shield, but they still tried. Gunfire sounded everywhere and many monsters dropped, but it still wasn’t enough.

“All this work,” Twilight said, “All for nothing…”

I snorted and ran my hoof like a bull waiting to charge, “Fuck it. I’m going.”

Just before I charged the infected climbing toward Pinkie, a sinister laugh filled the air. Pinkie’s head lifted, “I know that voice… I know that voice!”

A dark cloud formed in the air and lighting jumped from it. Pinkie started bouncing from her position on top of the shield, “I know that voice!!”

In another flash of light a body appeared in the sky. Its head was of a pony, but its body was long like a serpent. Its limbs and tail also appeared to be of different animals. The Draconequus laughed manically again, “Good afternoon, everyponyyyyy!”

“Discord,” Twilight smiled and jumped herself.

“Discord! Discord! Discord,” Pinkie bounced excitedly and even lost her footing.

He appeared next to Pinkie, “Oh, my dear friend Pinkie. Why is your face so wet? Why, you should be laughing. Want me to help with that?”

“Oh, if you could get rid of these pesky monsters I would love to see some of your new tricks,” Pinkie said with her silver tongue voice.

“Allow me to get rid of these pests, my dear friend,” Discord bowed his head, but several houses’ doors busted in and the hordes ran in. Discord flew into the air and snapped his fingers. Countless of the infected froze immediately and many others turned on each other, ripping each other to shreds. Ice picks made of pretzel sticks and hammers made of salt licks chipped away at the frozen monsters. Each chunk of ice the fell off burst into flames and fell as flower petals to the ground. Butterflies rained from the sky and munched on any still attacking mutants. The spectacle went on for five minutes until not even the bodies of the infected remained. The bubble shield popped and Pinkie fell on my back. She apologized briefly and jumped off my back and ran to Discord.

“Did you guys enjoy the show? I worked really har—“

Discord was cut off by Pinkie jumping on him and clinging to his elongated torso, “Oh, it was wonderful, Discord! I really loved it! Thank you so much!”

Discord’s face went from a surprised and raised face to a soft smile and kind eyes. He wrapped his mismatched arms around the pink mare, “You’re welcome, Pinkie Pie.”

I looked around at the damage. Four houses were broken into. I picked up Twilight and flew towards them. Her body went rigid for a moment and back to relaxed mid-flight. We landed outside the houses where Barry and Stellis were gathering the injured outside the houses.

“Can we heal them,” Stellis asked Barry, “If you can’t get rid of the infection, they’ll turn into them by tomorrow!”

Twilight ran up to them, “Ponies are immune to the sickness. Heal the humans first. Use the blood poison spell.”

About twelve humans were injured and at least ten more ponies. Bites and claw marks riddled their bodies. Stellis marched over to me, “What in God’s name were you thinking?! That portal destroyed our wall! Not to mention you almost killed us all! Now we don’t have a wall to protect us OR ammunition!”

I felt a slither behind me and Discord appeared next to me with a pipe in his mouth, a monocle on his eye, and a Pinkie Pie on his back. He spoke with a thick Scottish accent, “I do say I am not an expert in these sorts of things, but since I am the spirit of chaos, perhaps I can put some light on the situation. If, say, my friend here had not had Twilight Sparkle cast that spell, you would have been much more overwhelmed than you were, and you would have suffered more incurable casualties than you have. Right now it is only at one.”

“One,” Stellis asked, “There are no incur—“

I interrupted him, “Where’s Flut—“

“SHADE!!”

My head swam, and I flew as fast as I could towards Fluttershy’s fearful voice. I found her standing in the doorway of our rented home with claw marks in random places on her body and tears in her eyes. I sprinted up to her and found what she was screaming about. Right in front of her, lay a red and meaty mess.

Fluttershy looked at me with teary eyes, “Shade, get Twilight, hurry.”

Without a second thought I flew at Twilight and pulled her away from the group she was mending, “They can wait, they have longer than her.”

Fluttershy stepped away from the bloody mess to let Twilight and me see. Thanh lay on the ground with her abdomen torn open and her left arm torn off at the bicep. Twilight looked at her in horror and ran over to an open area and emptied her stomach. I walked closer to find that Thanh was still alive. She reached her only useful arm to me. I stepped closer and she weakly grabbed my foreleg. I surveyed her body. I could see her heart beat the blood from her body and her lungs shakily inflate and deflate. She coughed several times, blood spurting from her lips and landing in the mess of her body.

“Twilight, can you do anything,” Fluttershy asked through her tearful hiccups.

When Twilight’s heaving ended, she shook her head, “No… she’s too far gone, Fluttershy…”

I heard Velvet’s voice calling to me, “Shade?”

I looked over to Twilight, “Don’t let her see!”

Thanh squeezed my leg, “No… let me… see my daughter…”

Velvet saw us a moment later and stepped back, “No. No. This is a dream. A nightmare! No! NO!”

“Nhung,” Thanh reached her hand out to the young pink Alicorn, “Come here my baby.”

Velvet walked to her mother slowly and looked over her destroyed body before her mother pulled her face back to hers, “Mama?”

“Mama has to go now, Nhung,” Thanh said, “She wants you to be a strong girl for her.”

“No, Mama,” Velvet’s tears mixed with the now red sand, “We were going to be safe! We were almost there!”

“It’s okay sweetheart,” Thanh pet her daughter’s mane, the blood making the hairs stick together, “I would rather die now who I am than who I am not.”

“Mama,” Velvet repeated over and over again.

“How is she still alive,” I heard Stellis’ voice whisper next to me, “It doesn’t seem possible.”

“Magic,” Twilight said, looking pale and her eyes brimming with tears, “Some sort of magic powered by her will to live a few moments more. She won’t die for hours, though. She’ll be in pain the whole time.”

Thanh released her hand from Velvet’s mane and motioned for Twilight to come closer. More blood than was humanly possible still pooled on the floor with more coming. Twilight stepped toward her.

“Twilight,” Thanh started, “My daughter loves you. Please take care of her. Guard her. Love her. Protect her. Please.”

Twilight couldn’t hold the tears anymore either. She nodded, “I promise, Thanh. I will.”

Stellis walked forward with a magnum revolver in his hand, “Ms. Nguyen, would you like me to take the pain away?”

Thanh took a deep breath in and cringed from the pain, “Yes.”

He kneeled over her and put the gun to her head, “Any final words?”

She looked at us, “You ponies. You are not ponies. You are angels.”

Even I flinched when the gunshot sounded.

*

The flames licked the skies and the men tried to keep the flame under control to keep it from spreading to the mourners. Several soldiers wrapped Thanh in a thick white sheet and set her on a stone tab Discord grew from the ground. Several other of the humans gathered ignitable material and spare firewood for the ceremony. The cremation lasted only ten minutes. Discord made the flames dance in sorrow and change different colors ending in blood red.

Stellis stared at the flame with his stone face. He avoided any contact since firing that shot. Velvet took the event just as hard, but she would still speak—if only simple two or three word sentences and only to Twilight.

When the flame finally died, the ashes rose into the sky and into an urn that appeared out of nowhere. The urn floated towards Velvet and set itself on the ground. Discord spoke before anypony else, “The issue here now is: Do we want revenge, or do we want to keep to ourselves and prevent any possible casualties?”

Stellis stood from his stone chair, “What do you mean revenge? All the little fuckers are dead!”

“Not necessarily,” Discord said, his pipe appearing in in his mouth, “There is still a camp of them behind that plateau over there. About two hundred, a possible three hundred. They are awfully civilized for the monsters they are.”

Fluttershy snuggled up next to me, her cuts still not healed since she refused help. Twilight and I agreed to fix that while she slept. She looked over to Discord, “What would be the cost of this?”

“Well, I do know that you have a hidden stockpile of very powerful weaponry,” Discord said to Stellis, “We can carry fifteen of your best soldiers and massacre every last one of them.”

“What makes you an expert,” Stellis asked, “And how do you know about the stockpile?”

“I’m the spirit of chaos,” Discord said, “What better chaos than war?”

“And the weapons?”

“I can see more than you know,” Discord said, walking about with his pipe, “In your culture, I am what you would call a god. Or a demon. Take your pick.”

Several of the mourners got nervous and started fidgeting. Stellis glared at the Draconequus, “Then how do I know you’re not about to send 15 of my best soldiers to their slaughter?”

Discord feigned an offended look, “Oh, I just saved your whole town from being overrun when I could have just taken my friends and went right back to Equestria. Why would I save hundreds just to send 15 to their deaths?”

Stellis glared still. One Marine stood up, “You had a stockpile of powerful weapons and you didn’t get them for the attack?”

Stellis shook his head at the woman, “Of course not. It would take me at least twenty minutes to get them out of there. I was saving them for a shortage.”

“The attack went on for thirty minutes,” An Army Ranger said, “You had plenty of time to get those fuckers out of there. We might have actually stood a chance with military issued over these shitfuck civie weaps.”

Stellis let the berating continue. He sat with his stone face plastered and unmoving.

“Guys,” the soldiers stopped and looked at me, “Leave him be. You have no idea how much stress being a leader has. A stockpile of weapons could easily slip your mind if you’re trying to order people into position.”

The men and women didn’t say another word, but they still huffed their indignation. I continued, “If Stellis hadn’t done what he did as it were, we would have had more than just one casualty.”

The half dozen soldiers went back to their seats with irritated expressions. Stellis stared at me and refused to say another word.

Discord snapped his fingers and a rack of weapons appeared next to him, “Here is your stockpile. Not very large, but quite a bit of firepower.”

The rack held three heavy machine guns and about thirty assault rifles. On the bottom several machine pistols, pistols, and revolvers were lined on pistol racks. Discord snapped his fingers again and a paper appeared in front of him. He called off the names, ranks, and military branch of fifteen soldiers and told them to come grab a weapon.

Discord appeared next to me, “Perhaps you want to join the fray?”

I looked over at his sinister face. The dam that held back my rage began to crack, “More than anything.”

At another snap of his fingers I was 100% human with my old Air Force cammies on. I looked down at my hands. They held a high powered G365 automatic scoped rifle. Discord pat me on the back, “That’s the good thing about Draconequus magic. Quick and painless. Not like that unicornian magic. You’ll turn back when your mission is complete.”

Fluttershy looked up at me with the same look as she did when she thought I was making a mistake. I slung the rifle and leaned down to hug her. She whispered into my ear, “What will this accomplish?”

“Nothing,” I said, releasing her from my grasp. She seemed small even in my human form, “But I still have that bit of human in me.”

She looked down at the ground sadly, “I hope it’s worth it.”

“Worth what,” I asked, confused.

She just shook her head, “I don’t know.”

I stepped away and towards Discord, trying hard to keep my balance, not used to two legs. Discord was standing on all fours waiting for his passengers, “All aboooaaard!”

The rest of the squad climbed the Draconequus’ back and I took my spot in front of the rest of them. Saddles and seatbelts appeared out of nowhere and held us all in place as Discord took off into the dark skies toward the westward plateau. We landed about seventeen meters from the horde of sleeping and wandering infected. My mind raced with what Fluttershy had said. I didn’t notice it at the time, but Twilight and Pinkie Pie had also looked at me with sad disapproval. I was in this now, though, and there was no turning back. A pang of regret slapped me in the face for every single bullet fired, for every single body mangled by them, and for every time I pulled the trigger.

*

Discord had decided to stay the night. Barry gave up his bed and found another place to sleep to give Pinkie and Discord privacy, unsure of their relationship. Velvet retired to her room before dinner, so Twilight brought her some food to force her to eat before bed. Pinkie and Discord went off to their room shortly afterwards leaving me with Fluttershy and Barry.

After a brief and awkward silence, Barry said, “So Enigma… How’d it go?”

I shifted slightly making a shuffling sound from my now ponified cammies, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Well I do,” Barry, the usually joking one, had not made a single joke or cracked a single joyful smile since coming to this dimension, “And I want a full report.”

Fluttershy turned her beaten and scratched face away from me when I replied, “It was horrible, okay? I do everything I can to keep this disgusting human behavior out of my life, but it just keeps coming back.”

Barry kept coming full steam, “And this disgusting human behavior will keep coming back. Get over the fact that you are human at heart. It will never go away. You just have to figure out how to stop their manifest.”

“Barry, please,” Fluttershy tried, but Barry spoke again.

“You came to us to stop what your people created,” His face was blank, but his words stung. And it pissed me off, “We owe nothing to you, but we’re here anyway. Any innocence of war-free memories these young ponies may have had was ruined today. They’ve witnessed mass death and murder today. Then you go off and kill, not in self-defense like it was before, but in revenge. You aren’t one of us, and you can’t be one of us, but we can always be one of you. Look what you taught us today.”

“Barry—“

Barry cut Fluttershy off again, “No, I won’t quiet. Your little human pet needs to hear it.”

I shook my head, “For what purpose?”

“To prove a point,” He was in my face now, “I’ve studied you humans since we got here and each day I’m sickened by it. The only good I see here is that child that lost her mother today. A death you made worse by allowing the massacre Discord brought up.”

Fluttershy pushed him, her force even taking him by surprise. He stumbled back a few steps and sat down to keep from going further, “What’s gotten into you, Barry?”

“Maybe it’s the scum of Equestria being in the next room,” He said, “Or the other one sitting in this very room.”

“Bar—“

I cut her off this time, “I’m sorry.”

Barry looked to me with his empty expression and Fluttershy with confusion. Any rage that came up during his rant subsided and was taken by depression, “I can’t fix who I am, but I can try. If anything, I didn’t get any joy out of that revenge massacre. All I felt was guilt. I let everypony down. I still feel that guilt. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I can’t be one of you.”

The room went quiet with only the crackling of the fire and the ticking of the clock audible. Fluttershy stepped over and snuggled up next to me, wincing from her multiple cuts. Barry looked back and forth between us. After a few moments he stood and walked out of the room to check on Velvet.

After a few more moments, I turned to Fluttershy and kissed her on the head, “You should really get those fixed.”

She shook her head, “No. I don’t deserve it.”

I sighed but didn’t argue. Twilight was going to do it whether she wanted it or not. We sat in silence a few moments longer before she said, “I don’t care what he says. You are one of us.”

With that, she kissed me on the neck and floated off to bed. I watched the fire for fifteen minutes and decided to head outside. I took off and flew over to the South wall, landing on it and staring out into the desert. The wall on the North end was guarded by a small squad of snipers. Discord promised he would fix the wall in the morning, but he wasn’t in the mood tonight.

I thought back over the last twelve hours. In such a small amount of time, the world seemed to have shrunk. I looked down at my hooves remembering the hands the clutched the gun awkwardly. I saw the feet that stood and moved just as awkwardly, like an infant learning to walk. I was glad to be rid of that form. The first transformation had little effect on me since most of it was spent in bed getting over the pain of the transformation spell. The second one felt even worse. After being a pegasus for only ten seasons, I could not stand to think about my human self. But even with my body changed, my spirit would never change.

“Shade,” Barry’s voice came from right next to me. Broken from my trance, I noticed he was sitting right next to me. His slightly larger frame slumped making it look nearer my size.

“I know,” I said, staring back out over the wasteland, “You’re right. Who am I to come to you guys for help?”

“Actually, I am wrong,” Barry said, “And I knew that even as I was saying it. Fluttershy’s right. There’s something about you that’s different. Something she can see, but I can’t.”

“But you’re right about everything you said,” I said, looking back at my hooves and seeing hands again.

“No, I was wrong,” Barry said, “We are here by Celestia’s request. You went to Equestria by Celestia’s request. She saw what Fluttershy sees. While it was wrong to go out and destroy that faction of infected, it may have done good in the end keeping us from getting attacked in our sleep.”

I sighed through my nose, no longer looking at anything. Barry continued, “You are more pony than human. But there’s something you gotta know.”

“What?”

“Humans are very similar to us,” He scratched his neck, “Humans just have a desire for war and conflict. Like that Stellis guy. We should really keep our eyes on him.”

“Why are you telling me this anyway,” I asked, “Completely going against what you said just twenty minutes ago.”

“Well,” He started, “It was something of a test. Instead of fighting back and causing conflict, you took the abuse and sat there just to get it to stop. Then Fluttershy still went to your aid even with all these terrible things I said.”

“You went through all that just to test our relationship?”

“No, not at all,” Barry shook his head, “Fluttershy can never be mad at somepony for long. She’d be back at you by morning as if tonight never happened, but instead, she came to your aid. Whatever she sees, it must be pretty strong.”

“And how do you know?”

“She’s my niece,” Barry said, “I was with her every second as she grew up, and even took a vacation from my job until Fluttershy was old enough to go to Flight School. This was just before Twilight was accepted as the Princess’ apprentice. I know her better than my own brother, and we’ve been together since Celestia’s birth.”

Barry nudged me and stood, “I talked to Fluttershy before I left. She was a little mad at me for making you feel bad, but she sees why I did it. She sees a lot of things. She can see light in a world made of nothing but shadows.”

I smiled, “She can see the heart of a soulless pegasus.”

He nudged me again, “Quit being so hard on yourself. That’s my job from now on.”

“I’ll try,” I said, kicking a rock off the wall.

He stepped toward the ledge and spread his wings, but spoke before taking off, “Please take care of her. And whatever I may say now or in the future, I am proud of both of you, and I am honored to have you in our family.”

He took off back to the house. I shook my head. This Alicorn is a bigger Enigma than me.