Afterlife: A Martyr's Respite

by GallantNavy

Chapter 2: Rising Action

Necromorph.

By definition, these things are hard to kill, especially when compared to the other forms of undead out there. Unlike simple zombies or skeletons, which are nothing more than reanimated corpses given a simple goal to accomplish which generally involves attempting in vain to kill the heroes of whatever story they happen to show up in, Necromorphs have a different goal entirely:

"...nt.."

Become whole.

An abstract concept, mankind has taken several different ideas on what the words "Make us whole" actually mean ever since they was first uttered by those under the effects of the twisted obelisks known only as "Markers." These strange artifacts ingrain this message into the minds of sapient beings around them, eventually driving the majority of the affected to either commit suicide or murder in an effort to get the mutterings of the tainted objects out of their skulls, unknowingly giving the Markers the tools they need to bring entire planets to their knees.

The Markers, through some way unknown to mankind, take the flesh that is so easily presented to it and warp it. What was once the next door neighbor that stabbed himself in the throat to get the whispers to stop is now a drone designed for killing. Bones have shifted, organs have been converted to muscle, and all semblance of what he once was is gone under the twisted influence of the Markers. What he becomes is up to the Markers to decide.

"... nt... up.."

Most commonly they become Slashers, monsters with sharpened bone-blades at the ends of their arms and no vitals to aim for. The only way to truly end a slash is to remove both its arms and its head, at which point it is rendered unable to be of any use for its inanimate masters for anything other than flesh to warp later on, if given the time. There are other kinds of Necromorphs out there, each with different abilities that essentially boil down to different ways to destroy life. None are more terrifying than the dreaded Regenerator, however.

Essentially a Slasher that the Markers have had far too much time to play with, Regenerators are believed to be created by fusing a fuckton of dead flesh together with an existing Slasher in a process that is assumed to take at least several years. While this is unsupported by any true evidence, it is by far the most feasible explanation for how these abominations come to be and why they can do what they do: Regenerate lost limbs, just like their name implies.

"Gal... cup.."

The theory goes that these things have absorbed so much flesh that their torsos are nothing more than a form of hyper-compressed organic matter and that when they need to regrow something they just make themselves another whatever with the flesh stored within them so they can keep on killing. Not very scientifically plausible, but then again, alien objects reanimating corpses isn't very plausible either, is it?

"...nt, wake... cup... "

Regardless, Regenerators are one of the most feared forms of Necromorph out there simply due to the fact that there is no known way to kill one. Don't bother with body-shots if you find yourself up against one, these things can shrug off bullets like you can shrug off dust; the most you can do is blow off its limbs and get as far away from it as physically possible as it grows itself some stabby new arms to kill you with so you can help them in their quest to "become whole." Which essentially means kill the planet and all be dead together forever.

"Get the buck up!"

Or something.

Groaning in pain, the biped in question brought himself to a semi-sitting position before opening his eyes. Before him stood Shining Armor, who was currently struggling to keep up a barrier between the two of them and the undead brute hell bent on impaling them.

"Sir, he's up!"

Make that four: Turns out there were another two gaurdsponies inside the bubble as well, an armored unicorn (who had probably been trying to use the smelling salts floating in front of Gallant's face to get him back in the fight) and a pegasus with blades affixed to the ends of his wings.

"Thank Celestia; I don't know how many more hits I can block!" the Captain praised through gritted teeth as the 'morph landed another heavy blow on the shield.

"Then drop it just before it hits again, should buy us a second or two," Gallant suggested, bringing himself back to his feet and cursing the sudden pain in his chest that reared its head when he did. Fearing a broken rib, he asked the guard beside him how his "readout" was, drawing a confused look from the unicorn.

"Your wha-"

"NOW!" Armor bellowed, cutting the guard's confused response short as he dropped the barrier and dived out of the way, his companions following suit the instant afterward. As a result, the Regenerator that had been attempting to break in hit nothing but open air and stumbled forwards as a result. Its prey took this moment to distance themselves from the monster before it growled and gave chase, quickly catching up to the wounded Gallant despite his head start.

Sensing this, the human dived to the side yet again, rolling to face his assailant as he hit the ground in order to fire off a volley from the Overdriver, which appeared to the ponies gathered to be some form of rapid-fire, long-range weapon. This proved ineffective against the Regenerator, however, as it simply took the hits and turned to face the one foolish enough to dare harm it.

"That's right, no pretty ponies for you," Gallant taunted as it gathered itself to charge again, "Not while there's a tasty human rip apart, anyway."

In reality, Gallant was terrified by the beast of a Necromorph, but the situation demanded he keep a level head about this: If he didn't then innocent lives would be lost, and that's something he just wouldn't have. Unfortunately, four such lives had insisted on assisting him while the others either went for the Elements of Harmony or to gather the rest of the guard for the quite possible worst case scenario that it managed to slaughter everypony before help could arrive. The only real positive in this was that these three had just bought Gallant a few more minutes to distract the 'morph and keep it from rampaging through the castle. Speaking of rampaging-

"Get outa th' way!" The pegasus yelled as the Regenerator threw itself at the human, taking a wing to try and knock it off course before it could get to him. Gallant wasn't about to get thrown into another wall by attempting in vain to doge the hulking mass of reanimated flesh again, however, so he did what he should have done the first time: stop shooting and activate his Stasis module.

By making a gesture akin to that of throwing a ball, the various sensors in Gallant's suit registered the request to generate and release a burst of Quantum energy concentrated into a small orb along the would-be arced path of the imaginary throw, which the Regenerator happened to be in the path of. On impact, the orb destabilized and dispersed in a pretty blue flash, coating the 'morph in Quantum energy and dooming it to become essentially immobile as its personal timeline was rendered moving a fraction of the world around it. In a nutshell, Gallant just threw a (scientifically possible) magical blue ball that froze the Necromorph in time, or that's what the ponies watching thought anyway. Luckily the pegasus was able to alter his trajectory and not crash into his now stationary enemy or he may have broken something.

"How the buck?!" he questioned as he came back around to hover by the human, who was currently in the process of removing a silver canister from his weapon, "You said you can't do magic!" And indeed Gallant had, just after the same pegasus asked if he could magic up some bigger blades for his wings when he volunteered to stay and fight.

"I can't," Gallant began, tossing the container to the ground and holding his hand down to his side before continuing, "My suit just lets me do things. Like this: RELOAD!" Upon the verbal command, spoken clear and loud, an smaller secondary digi-struct light ignited on the inside of Gallant's hanging forearm, quickly building another silver cylinder. As soon as the light switched off the new object fell into his open hand, and he wasted no time in loading it into his weapon's open port and closing its hatch.

"I don't-" the pegasus began before realizing this wasn't the time or the place and sighing, "Nevermind, tell me about it after we've killed this thing."

"Fat chance of that, wings," Gallant replied with a weary smile, tapping a button on his shoulder which caused his suit to hiss, which in turn caused the both of them to tense, though for different reasons.

"What was that?" the quadruped asked, looking for another unseen foe.

"Meds hitting my system," Gallant chuckled, practically feeling the meter on his back rise few notches, "That's all."

"'Meds'? You mean that thing can heal you too?"

"Just a little," Gallant grinned, leveling his reloaded weapon at the 'morph, which was starting to speed up again. He paused, however, before opening fire again to ask a question, "What's your name?"

"Changed it to Blade Rush after joining the Guard," the pegasus replied, evidently proud of it.

"Well, Mr. Rush," Gallant began, getting ready to fight again as the 'morph's timeline synced back up with the world's, "You picked a good way to die."

---

Discord was happy.

Not happy that he was still imprisoned, mind you, he absolutely loathed that fact, but he was positively giddy due to the deliciously chaotic events that had happened to transpire today. Not only was there a wedding crashed (an event that made him grin internally by itself) but there also happened to be an invasion attempt that happened directly afterward! A practical smorgasbord of chaos and anarchy for him to feast on! It was almost a dream come true!

Almost.

Just when Discord was ready to go all out with a mental victory dance as all seemed lost for Canterlot and the foalish harmony worshiping buffoons that lived there, order was somehow restored by the "Power of Love" or some other garbage like that, and Discord was left utterly disappointed and facing an indefinite number of bored years trapped in stone once more. The part that made this defeat even more bitter, however, was the fact that if things would've gone the other way he could have easily busted free from his containment within a month, what with all the havoc those changelings were planning. Who knows, maybe he would've helped them as a way of saying "thank you" for getting him out of his concrete full-body cast! But alas, that would never come to pass, not within the next few centuries at least.

So, considering this, why was he happy now?

The answer was quite obvious, actually, and if you didn't see it coming when I first mentioned Discord being happy, you are far to intellectually underdeveloped to be reading this story.

Quite right, The God of Chaos affirmed, gladly breaking the fourth wall after the narrator demonstrated this was acceptable. One would think a "Teen" rating would keep small children from reading this, right?

Agreed.

However, Discord continued, giddy over the fact something like this was currently allowed, As much as I like breaking the rules, I think we should stop before we take it too far, don't you?

I'm the narrator. I'm the one who decides when we've gone too far.

Wrong~ Discord though in a sing-song tone, The readers are~

Beg pardon?

You and I both know you'd stop writing if people stopped reading, Mr. Gallant.

Touche.

Thata boy! Don't worry though, I'm quite looking forward to that other story you've been planning.

Now's not the time for that, Discord.

True, but I can't wait for them to read about our little escapades in an actual self-insert rather than this pseudo one you've been writing. Maybe it'll keep you from breaking the seriousness of this one up with things like this, hm?

Shut it and get back into character.

Make me, the draconequus replied, mentally sticking out his tongue before realizing he was being narrated again and sighing, Cheater...

Fourth wall shattering and duct-taping together again aside, Discord was still happy. Not because he had gotten to destroy the immersion of this tale, but because wellspring giant of mental chaos was currently in the middle of fighting with a lesser one in the tale, which in turn was creating corporeal chaos in the corporeal world, chaos Discord to grow stronger from. What's more, the larger wellspring was sapient, which meant he could not only feed of the chaos it caused, but tweak this and that in its mind so it would inadvertently cause more chaos without even trying!

Maybe this won't be near as long as I thought, Discord admitted to himself as he floated among the wrecked thoughts of the large wellspring, quite surprised that something so chaotic on the inside could be so unassuming on the outside. Honestly, what's going on in here would have driven just about anypony I've met into wonderful insanity by now. He stopped for a moment when another thought struck him, however, Except Pinkie Pie... Then again, one can hardly count her as sane, can they? Just like my little Screwball, I suppose. Shrugging it off, he continued onward, looking for something that he could use to dredge up some more chaos and make sure that this potential escape didn't get himself killed.

---

Meanwhile, on the other end of the castle, Celestia and her element bearers had finally reached the room that contained what they believed to be their only hope at stopping that apparently unkillable beast and were currently in the process of donning them so they could head back and save the day. Unfortunately, it was at this time that Pinkie's entire body went into a fit of shakes and spasms, something Twilight and the others recognized as her real Pinkie sense, not whatever she had done to know about Gallant's extra weapon. Twilight was still trying to figure that one out, actually.

"What in tarnation does that one mean, Twi?" Applejack asked as Pinkie involuntary bounced past the apple farmer.

"I haven't the slightest idea," Twilight admitted, never having seen this particular sequence, or anything rivaling it actually. The closest thing was just after she had finally given in to the impossibility of Pinkie's power, but even that hadn't lasted a full thirty seconds!

"Whatever it is," Dash observed, "It's friggin' huge!" Fluttershy nodded in silent agreement.

"And positively dreadful, I might add," Rarity indeed added as Pinkie started an bouncing on her head, of all things.

"This isn't normal... Is it?" Celestia observed. She knew Pinkie had her moments, and often had them frequently, but nothing of this magnitude.

"No," Twilight sighed, growing increasingly concerned for her rubbery, candy guzzling friend. She needn't worry long, though, as a few seconds later, precisely 42 seconds after she had started, Pinkie came to a stop on all fours and was still.

Until she wasn't.

"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooosh!" The pink earth pony screamed, panicking worse than she ever had before (barring the time she thought her friends had abandoned her, that is.) "Wegottamovewegottamovewegottamooooooooooooooove!!"

And with that, she was gone, hurling back the way they came as fast as her hooves would carry her. Obviously the others gave chase, but it they didn't have to go too far before Rainbow Dash carried the panicking pink party pony back to the group, refusing to put her down until she explained what that spurt of Pinkie-ness meant. Unfortunately she was unable to even register Dash talking to her, or even carrying her in this panicked state as she continued to paw (hoof?) at the air as if she were still running along. Eventually Celestia had to resort to gently taking Pinkie from her flying friend and ask her in her ever-motherly tone what was wrong. The answer, while uncharacteristically concise for such a long outburst, shook everypony to their core:

"If we don't get back as super-dee-duper-lee quick as we can, somepony's going to DIE!"

---

Back inside Gallant's psyche, Discord was laughing, no, scratch that, he was merrily blasting something that resembled laughter out of his apparently sub-woofer strong lungs in celebration for what could be the discovery of the decade, if not the century. Within the twisted, cramped openness of the human's mind, where memories collided and broke and the orange flicker of Marker-taint was slowly building itself a shrine, Discord had somehow found precisely what he had been looking for when he had first entered.

And it had only taken five minutes of real-time!

You see, Dischord knew from the moment that he had set mental foot into this space of delicious chaos that there had to be some dark side to this boy of a man, this being who for all intents and purposes should never had existed beyond his first death and thus should never had come anywhere near Equestrian soil. Granted, this "dark side" was now in fact a part of the Marker-taint's little shelter from the rest of the chaos, but there was one region of his mind in particular that for whatever the reason it had decided to take the memories of specific people and leave the rest. Maybe to warp them and turn them against him, perhaps? Discord salivated at the thought of what that could do to the boy, though he made a mental note inside his mental projection that if it got too out of hand he may have to intervene: he had to preserve his source of strength, right?

Potential future life/sanity saving aside. Discord was still nearly as happy as he had been earlier today when Chrysalis had nearly won. Because he had found it:

He had found Pandora.

Author's Note:

Cliff Hangar, hanging from a cliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiif!

And that's why he's called Cliff Hangar!

All joking aside, it surprises me just how much building up I was required to do before "unleashing the beast" as one could say. It's actually kinda forcing me to break this up into two chapters! ^^;

But hey, I'm hardly complaining: This was fun to write and ties a few things together quite nicely in my opinion. I especially had fun with the Necro-explaination and Discord's mental escapades, along with Pinkie's bit. As my lord and savior has said in the past: "Chaos is a wonderful thing~" (Please don't take offense to the joke, religious folk, I mean no offence to your God or his Son.)

Now, onto the interactivity!

As I stated last chapter, I was going to give a better idea of what the whole voting thing was going to do to influence this story, but unfortunately I've realized that if I were to do so now, I'd be giving away a bit too much about the next chapter (and possibly the one after that, if I somehow find a way to make two chapters out of that too.)
So, in apology, two questions of power will be added to the one asked last one along with the promised hint in exchange for more time to refine the vote system and work it into the story naturally. This also means the votes from last time will be carried over. Those who have already voted, you may also vote on this chapter as a reward for your patience.

Chaos of Harmony?
Question of Power 1: What album title is the title of the first chapter influenced by?
(The Artist who created the album in question taught "Little Stevie Vai" how to be more awesome than Rainbow Dash, at least where music is concerned)
Question of Power 2: What are the the universes referenced in the first chapter during Gallant's rant about death?
Question of Power 3: Why 42 seconds, and who's going to die?
CvH Tech Influence: None accrued, none allocated

Comments

[DetectivePingles]

Good chapter. I think that's all the explanation for Gallant and the necromorphs you'll need for at least three chapters, and that leaves the way open for advancement.

[GallantNavy]

2460294
Ironically, I figured that out just after writing the word "Die." What was initially going to be a chapter filled with action had turned into a story filled with exposition, and I'm perfectly happy with the result.

[DetectivePingles]

Also, in answer to questions of power one and two, I shall make two guesses, both of which I know are wrong, but I still wanted to say. Respectively, Professor Satchafunkalis and the Musterion of Rock, idklol, and Realm of the Mad God.

[GallantNavy]

2460324
Close on the first one, just think a little newer. Good to know I'm not the only on on FiM that follows the Professor, though. Surprizes me how few people 'round here know about him... Blast ye, South Carolina, even Michigan had more instrumental lovers than you...

As for the second, you were mildly close with the Mad-God's realm, but unfortunately there were in fact three realms he can actively draw memory from that were referenced in that rant, so you're still a long way off. Better luck next time?

[DetectivePingles]

This story deserves more views. Also, this concept deserves more fics.

[GallantNavy]

2489961

I suppose the views will come in time, and the stories if this thing ever gets popular. Only thing to do is keep on working on it, really... And add it to some groups. Kinda forgot about that until now.

[NightmareKnight]

Question number 3? Because 42 is the answer to all problems. Play AC: Brotherhood and you'll see why.