> Redemption > by Jack Hooves > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOOM!!! I awoke at the sound of that noise in a cold sweat wondering what was going on, I reached over and felt for my wife careful not to hit our newborn son, I reached over in the dark and found nothing but blankets and quickly sat up and saw that there was nobody else in the room with me and the ceiling fan was swaying a little bit as something outside began to rumble past and made the house shake and the floors groan in protest. I got up carefully after the rumbling stopped and quickly got dressed and began to wonder where my mare was at and our son?; I pushed these thoughts away as I walked over to my dresser and tripped over something wet on the ground that made the floor slick and slipped in it landing on the dresser and heard a loud crack as my ribs hit the corner of the dresser and winced in pain through my teeth wanting to cry out loud as I opened the drawer and took out my 9mm and tucked it into my belt and slumped to the ground resting for a few minutes while looking up at the moon and saw a black dot in the distance followed by more dots and wondered what it was. "These are the town evacuation leaders, we need to get out of here before the HOOF shows up, there seems to be some sort of invasion, just follow the designated leaders and everything will be fine." The town speaker blurted out form every corner, sending everypony to follow the leaders to the destinations. I managed to get up and walk to the door and got outside with the others but was stuck in the back of the group with someone helping a elderly lady along the way as I winced in pain when they stopped in front of me and bumped into my ribs as the leader began to count the people that were here. "Is Jack Hooves present with his family?" The leader called out while looking at his clipboard. "Present, but only me, I woke up with my family gone." I said while waving my Hand for him to see and sat down as a noise that sounded like thunder began to approach. I saw a few people begin to look panicked and afraid to be caught in the rain. "Nothing to fear people, just some noise." A orange furred mare said while fixing her blonde mane into her dusty hat. I stood up in time to be blown back as something exploded in the middle of the crowd killing half the group including the leader, and saw the others that survived struggling to get up like me while there was a ringing in my ears and I was blinking my eyes to clear away that bright light I saw right as it hit the group. "Mommy, has anyone seen my mommy?" a small child asked while looking around in the small crater amid the organs and blood while crying hysterically. "Come here kid." I said while managing to get to my feet and remembered where our destination was supposed to be. "Do you know where she went?" The kid asked while coming to me and the sound of creatures running was heard coming from behind us. "When I pick you up, wrap your arms around me and don't let go unless I say so." I said while the sound of twigs snapping and running was now close to me, I picked him after he nodded and looked as the others were still on the ground giving up and ran without bothering to help the others. I ran into the woods following the markers that were set, but stopped after I was sixty feet from the crater and looked back in time to see creatures come out of the woods with lights and shoot the remaining survivors on the ground before one of them spotted me. "There's another one!" He shouted while alerting the others who ran over to the one who shouted. "You know the orders, kill all hostiles!" The one in a grey suit shouted while lighting a cigar that was in his mouth and waved to the others to aim their rifles at me while I was to shocked too move as I saw their weapons. "Move you idiot!" The orange furred mare said while tackling me and the kid to the ground and moved us behind a tree that was next to us as bullets tore up the ground where we were just standing a few moments before, Waking me up from the shock as I saw the creatures begin to spread out. "Next time you can die with your kid, if he was smarter he would have moved." She said while taking a glance around the trunk of the tree and jerked her head back as a bullet hit the trunk where her head used to be. "We can't go anywhere.......and he's not mine, his mom was killed in the crater with the others......take him and run.....I'll distract them." I said in between shallow breaths as I took the kid off of me and handed him to her. "What are you going to do? You'll die." She said while the kid wrapped his arms around her neck and got in her lap while crying into her shirt while she looked at him. "Do what I said....when they chase me, take him to the bunker with the other groups that made it." I said while drawing my 9mm and pulled the slide back as I looked at her and smiled a little. "Are you going to be there?" She asked while the sound of the creatures began to get closer. "I promise.....now run but stay low." I said while standing up with my shoulder against the tree and took a deep breath. > Chapter One: Run > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I took a glance out from around the tree and saw that the creatures were slowly trying to make a circle around the tree me and the other two were behind and looked at the gun in my hand and saw that I was beginning to shake from the knowledge that I would be going to distract them and flicked the safety switch off. "If we're careful we can flank them." I heard one of them said while getting close to the tree but still far enough to not see us. "Take him and get out of here." I said while seeing a fallen tree that was thick enough to provide cover and it was only about 20 to 30 feet away from me. I waited till I saw them manage to sneak away into a small shrub bush that grew into the deeper parts of the forest. I took a deep breath and stepped out from behind the tree with my gun raised and fired off the clip at the group of creatures that was in front of me and was surprised when three of the creatures fell with blood gushing out of them with their comrades grabbing the ones that fell and rushed them over to the other group of them while I stood there frozen with fear as I realized that they could be killed. "Light that mother fucker up boys!" The one in the gray suit said while flinging his cigar to the ground and walked in the opposite direction that his kind was going and stepped into some kind of metal vehicle. "You heard him."Another said while approaching me when they saw me pull the trigger but only a loud click noise was heard showing I ran out of ammo in my clip. "This is going to be fun." The one that spoke before said while lowering his rifle and throwing it on the ground while pulling out his knife and smiled when he knew I was out ammo and took a step forward. I stepped back when I saw that he was the only one advancing on me and the others went back to smoking something and panicked when he rushed me and took cover in the forest while he chased me and darted the right of me and made a few zig-zags and lost him but could hear he was close. "Fucking hell." I muttered to myself when I realized I didn't have a spare clip of ammo on me. "Come out, come out, come out little horse so I can break your neck with my bare hands." He shouted in the area I was hiding in. I looked around in the dark and found a small rock and threw it as hard as I could in the other direction and sighed when it didn't make any noise, I looked and saw that he was backing up and walked in the other direction shouting more, I took this chance to make a run for it and bumped into one of the creatures, making us both to fall to the ground, he got up before me and had his pistol aimed at me when I looked up. "I should kill you." He said while looking at me. "I...I....I have a family." I said while crawling back a little bit but hit a tree trunk and stopped when he walked over to me. "Y....you understand me?" He said surprised and lowered his gun a little. "Yes?" I said while unsure of myself. "So they think you died."He lowered the gun till it was aimed at my leg and then shot."Now run." I cried out in pain as the bullet went all the way through the muscles in my leg and managed to stand up and limp away briskly as I began to run in extreme pain and fell to the ground as I neared a small cliff and heard the sound of approaching creatures again and saw the one ahead of everyone else was the one that shot me. I lay down on the ground and gave up and looked up at the same one that shot me had his gun lowered to my head. "Kill him cadet! Get your first kill!" The ones behind him were shouting. "I'm sorry." He said while I closed my eyes as he pulled the trigger but shot the ground next to my ear and then kicked me in the stomach to push me over the edge into a river that I didn't even know was there and fell into the river sinking slowly as I realized I couldn't hear out of my left ear and then began to black out as I didn't attempt to swim up and let my body go limp and looked up one last time before I blacked out and saw a pony above me grab my hand and begin to pull me to surface before I gave up and blacked out with water beginning to enter my lungs. > Chapter Two: Awoken > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I jerked awake coughing up water from my lungs as the person over me stopped doing CPR and backed up to give me room, I looked around blinking as I managed to stop puking up the water, and saw that the ponies around me where dressed in black swim suits, one of them was talking to another one a little ways from me, but loud enough for me to hear. "He killed three of them sir, isn't that enough?" One said while grabbing his pack from behind a rock. "Pure luck, he just got lucky.....that's all." The other one said while also getting his back and waived over the other three that were next to me. "But isn't that all that run on?" He said while leaving that group and walking over to me while I got up shakily. I stood up fully and looked overhead to see that I was not near the ledge I fell from. "Why'd you do it?" He asked while throwing me a small handgun, that I caught after nearly dropping it. "Do what?" I said puzzled by this question from nowhere. "Distract them so Applejack can escape with the kid?" He said while pulling out a pack of cigarettes, and taking one out slowly while lighting it before it even reached his lips, letting the flame cast a quick light over his red fur and short orange mane that made his green eyes stand out. "They couldn't defend themselves." I said while shrugging, and taking a cigarette that he offered after I spoke and lit it off of his own. "You threw yourself at death just because they couldn't defend themselves?" He asked while the glowing red tip of his cigarette was all that was visible in the darkness as the moon was covered by clouds. "Yes." I said while feeling the pain in my leg beginning to creep in, making it difficult to stand still. "That's all I needed to know." He said while flicking his cigarette to the river and walked back to his group and began talking to the one he was talking to earlier. "Did you even look for us?" A faint whisper in the wind said from behind me making the fur on my neck stand up on end. "Tavi?" I asked while turning around quickly and saw nothing but two glowing red eyes in the utter darkness. "You didn't even search the house for us.....you're a bastard of a husband, leaving your wife and kid to die all alone in the darkness till the bomb hit our house, you should have died with us." The shadow said while taking a step closer and turning redder as it raised something. I stumbled backwards crying out as I tripped over a root and shielded my face as nothing hit me or caused me any harm in any way, but left me shook. "What's going on?" The group leader asked while walking over to me, and looked at me disappointingly while raising his rifle and looked around. "You?......nothing, a mere trick of the light." I said while wiping the palms of my hands on my jeans and walked off into the woods to clear my mind. *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** "Follow him, and report what you find out.....he just might be of use." The group leader said to the his second in command. "Yes sir." He said while putting on a muzzle guard and followed after the man they pulled out of the river. ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** I walked aimlessly till I fell into a ditch, and froze when I heard loud noises on some log above the ditch hanging right above me. "You think the Iraqis are to blame for this?" A creature said to another one. "Could be some desolate place in Afghanistan we're in." The other one said while throwing a bottle off the log, and nearly hit me as it landed with a dull thud. "I dunno.....think Bin Laden planned this? You know some nerve gas that is fucking with us?" The first one said while lighting a match that revealed his face for a second, and his uniform. "That's a good theory, who knows, maybe these so called ponies are secretly planning a attack!" The other one said while laughing and nearly losing his balance. " Then what do you say?" The first one said while waving his cigarette that now lit. "I say that we just got lost and stumbled into a incest ridden al-qaeda group that is too dumb to defend itself........look I know your new and all, but lifes tough, here in Afghanistan it's either be killed or kill, And I choose to kill, besides would you rather it be fought here or in america where your wife and child could be in harms way, and besides.......these women make pretty nice whores if you know what I mean." The other one said while elbowing his partner in the ribs who burst out laughing. "You are a sick fucker ma......" He slumped forward after he was cut off mid sentence, and fell into the ditch with the other one tumbling in trying to catch him. THWAP!! THWAP!! THWAP!! That was all I heard as I saw three small tranquilizers sticking out the back of the one that was trying to stand up before he simply lay still and began to snore. > Chapter Three: What is happening? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 3 I stared at them till they started snoring loudly and someone from the shadows shot again and caught me in the leg making me feel very sleepy while I got up and tried to climb out of the ditch without falling asleep, I managed to get out but looked up in time to see a small barrel pointed at me and I fell asleep I felt another hit me in my arm as someone picked me up and began to carry me somewhere. I awoke and saw nothing but a few rays of light coming into the room I was in, the rays lit up a little of the floor, showing that I was in some type of stone room, I Moved my hand and saw that there was a cuff and chain attached to my hand. "Our guest is awake." A voice said from the other side of the room in a odd laugh that was joined in by another. "They imprison their own, Almost like us." The other one said when I rubbed my temples trying to get rid of a headache I had. "Who are you?" I asked while standing up and walking the length of my chain and found that it reached the to just the edge of the light. "The question is, who are you?" They asked while one laughed hysterically. "I'm....I'm...." I said while I began to rub my temples and felt no fur there, and couldn't remember what my name was or who I was. "He kinda looks like Jackson." One said while calming down as a loud echo began to come down through the halls. I looked over at the outline of a door and watched in horror as some troops came in wearing full armor covering them all together, and walked over to me and grabbed me like I was nothing and dragged me out of the room while the others in the room laughed, while I looked around and saw nothing but darkness in the hallway till we reached a brightly lit room. "His mind isn't rejecting the host." someone to my right said when I was let go. "What's going on?" I asked while looking at my hands and realized that they looked like the ones that belonged to the creatures. "You are the first one to be hooked up to a human, Jack calm down." He said while motioning to a body that was on the table in the corner with wires running into it. I got up shakily and walked over to it and saw a scar that looked familiar, the scar ran over a eye making it visible through the fur, and the fur shone a pale black as it was breathing like it was asleep. "Is.....is that me?" I asked while looking into a mirror and saw that I was dressed in some sort of camouflage and there was a gun on my hip, and the boots I was wearing were tight and moved with my legs as if they were flexible. "Yes.....we need you to become one of them for a while." He said while showing a exit. "Just stumble around for a while and they will find you, and if they ask......... you can't remember anything." He said while opening the door and pushing me out of it. > Chapter Four: Who I really am? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Four: Who I am really? I was pushed outside into the blinding light, feeling the suns warming rays against my skin as I struggled to blink away the light until I was able to see the surrounding foliage, and began to walk around aimlessly for hours, watching as the sun began to set when I heard a vehicle approaching me as I stumbled onto a dirt road and saw several flashing lights as they began to get closer to me and stopped a dozen yards in front of me. "We found him!" One of them said while getting out and yelling into a radio while motioning the others out to get me. "Come on mate, don't you remember us?" A tall one in a suit asked while stepping out and walking over to me. "I....I...I Don't know who I am." I said sheepishly as he stood in front of me and frowned while grabbing my arm and ushered me back to the car. I got into the back and sat on the seat and saw a few more that were covered in sweat and dripping blood from a few areas. "At least some made it." One said while taking out a rag and wiped it across his forehead removing the beads of sweat. "That one that caught charlie by surprise.....Sneaky fuck got away, If I was there he would have been dead." Another said while I had a flashback and remembered I was the one that they were talking about. "So Chuck....do you remember anything?" One asked me. "Idiot, If he can't remember his name how would he remember anything?" Another one said while defending me and said it angrily. "Damn things must kick like a mule." He said while laughing at the way the conversation was turning. "It's fine....I should be fine after a while." I said nervously while looking at the rifles that were on the floor of the car and saw that there was even a turret mount above us with a enclosed dome to protect whoever had to get in it. They both turned and looked at me weirdly before returning to their idle chat. "We're getting the frontier area with just tents set up and no other buildings." The one next to me said quickly to the others. "What the fuck you mean only tents?" One said angrily. "It's just till we get more supplies." He said quietly. "Fucking bullshit, Might as well hang us all with our throats open while we're sleeping." The other one added. I rode with them in silence till we reached the area he was talking about, it was a small area with a couple dozen tents pitched at the walls of canterlot borders and I couldn't help but feel sick as I knew they were going to kill them with no mercy. "Can't take a risk of other species......not after the war last time." The one said quietly while a light shined across his face and I saw it the one that shot me earlier and kicked me into the river to save me.