Compilation of short stories, from competition in PH comment thread
Readers of Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons make a little competition in short fics about Fallout Equestria universe. Click "More", to see prizes. Here works of our authors. Judges were: Overlong Analysis Cobalt Sindri Necr0maNceR Winners: 1st place Tiroth's fic Never Again Prize. 2nd place SilentCarto's fic The Last Bearer Prize 3rd place Mel's fic Monster As an honorable mention, we have Jacky2734's fic Just Another Day
All fic's will be in form of chapters. Word count per fic 300/50+.
Lots of ponies have told me that travelling alone is a bad way to commit suicide, bad meaning it’ll hurt rather than it won’t work. I’d always shrugged in reply, picked up my saddlebags, and walked off. But every now and then, something would happen to hammer the point home.
Like running into a pack of zombie ponies.
I ran through ruined streets as fast as my legs could carry me, blood pounding in my ears. I knew I was faster than the monsters behind me, but that wasn’t much comfort - not when I’d collapse from exhaustion before any of them stopped for breath. I needed a distraction, or some hole to hide myself in where they couldn’t find me.
Hence, the ruins.
Most ponies think it’s stupid, but times like this are why I travel alone. I’m running for my life, and one wrong move equals death. If other ponies were with me, it would mean their deaths too. I don’t want anypony else dying for my mistakes. Not again.
I scrambled through a door-shaped hole in a nearby building and took a look around. No loot, no weapons besides my rifle, no clear doorways - wait, another room out back. Might be something useful there.
I leapt through the door and instantly went down in a tangle of flailing limbs. Twisting, I kicked against the floor and pushed clear, scrambling upright. I swing my rifle round, trigger in my mouth, sights lining up with - a pegasus mare. Heavily pregnant.
We just stared for a moment, before a loud crash from the other room drew our attention. The zombies were about to catch up with me. If I wanted to escape, I needed to move.
But there was no way the mare could outrun zombies, and I’d lead them right to her. It didn’t matter that it was an accident.
With a grunt, I spun on my hooves and blew out the brains of the first ghoul through the door. I wasn’t going to let this mare and her unborn foal die for my mistake.
"Consarnit," I growled, fiddling with my necklace. Rainbow Dash's necklace. "Where could she 'a' gone? The cave ain't that big!"
"We'll just have to find her, won't we, Calamity?" replied the charcoal unicorn beside me. "Keep getting ready, everypony. This shouldn't take long."
Homage and Charity chorused agreement. Ditzy just grinned, then returned to scribbling something to Lionheart and Silver Bell.
Velvet and I stepped out into Spike's main room. The big dragon hunched over his terminal, watching the feeds from a dozen spritebots he'd suborned into a perimeter patrol. Between him, Homage, and our little guardian angel, I reckoned no computer in the Wasteland that was safe. Speaking of which...
"Calamity? Velvet?" Littlepip's tinny voice crackled from the terminal's speakers. "Is something wrong?" The dragon looked up in surprise.
"Not 'zactly," I said. "Any o' y'all seen our Bearer o' Magic?"
"This camera can't see much," Pip replied apologetically.
"I'm afraid I haven't," a third voice cut in, mellow as melting butter. "But don't worry. I would have, if she had set hoof outside."
Velvet let out a relieved sigh. "Thank Cel-- ah, I mean, thank you, Celestia." Her expression reflected my own thoughts. That will never not be unsettling!
My fiancee trotted to the little tunnel that led to the barracks. "Only one choice left, then." Her horn lit up and a little white packet floated out of her saddlebags. She rustled the waxed paper loudly, then tore it open.
Moments later, the pale mare wearing the tiara of the Element of Magic trotted eagerly up the corridor, trailing fifteen feet of belted ammo from her mouth. Where in Equestria had she found that?
"There you are! Come along, now, Boo," Velvet said as the Bearer of Magic happily chowed down on a two-century-old snack cake.
She sniveled once behind a large, shaggy wall. The furry shelter imitated her sob, poorly.
“I not ask again, Marc Anthonie. What behind your back?”
“N-Nuffin…”
The fur wall shifted. Around it came a hulking, hairy monster that lunged for the filly. Before the hellhound had her, she was swept into a more defensive set of furry arms.
“No! She just a puppy, small and weak! I can take care of her and feed her and dogs teach her to be good! Please don’t take! Can’t hurt puppies!”
Marc Anthonie took several steps back, holding the child defensively. The filly cowered in Marc’s arms, decorated with somepony else’s blood.
“Marc Anthonie, ponies get big. Ponies iz monsters. You not change monsters. Give us the pony.”
Small tears splashed on the top of the shaking filly’s head as Marc Anthonie began to slowly back away. “She just puppy!” he repeated, “She not bad! Can’t hurt puppies!”
The hellhound looked sadly at his heavy companion. He avoided Marc Anthonie’s gaze while gesturing to the others who had come to watch. “Gentlemutts,” he ordered softly.
Marc Anthonie was built like an ox. It took several of the valley dogs to restrain him. When they did, one of them obediently brought the small filly to the leader. She was screaming for her mother; you didn’t have to be a pony to recognize that sound. Just by holding her, the leader’s claws drew rivulets of blood.
“NOOO!” Marc Anthonie thrashed and struggled to break free of his brothers and sisters.
“It for your own good, Marc Anthonie.” The leader looked into the filly’s eyes. His voice grew lower and lower until it was difficult to tell if he was still talking to Marc or himself. “Pony grow up, hurt dog. Always hurt dog. ‘Cause pony is monster.”
Two more shots from my twin .45 autos. two more dead zombies. Four more taking their place. That had been the pattern for the last two hours, but now things were starting to change. Our massive firepower was finally starting to take effect, and the hoard of undead horrors had finally begone to dissipate.
"Yeah that's right ya flake skins! Come and get your daily dose of Vitamin Lead, the only FDA approved cure for ferals!" Pot Shot, my second in command and heavy weapons specialist, exclaimed as he trotted forward with his minigun battle-saddle.
"Get back in line, Pot!" I yelled."Last thing I need is my heavy hitter getting swarmed just when we start making progress." That earthpony was good at what he did, but I swear that ego of his was going to get us all killed.
"Yea Yea." he sneered. "This is why nobody works with griffins, Kage, everyone of ya is a buzz kill."
"Well I'm the buzz kill that's keeping your sorry flank from becoming zombie chow. Now shut up and get that group to your right." He turned and fired a burst, shredding the walking corpses to ribbons.
Over the next hour, we systematically wiped out the remainder of the feral ghoul infestation that had been causing havoc in the west sewer scavenging tunnels for weeks. With Pot's minigun taking out the large groups and my pistols taking out any who escaped the rain of death, the ghouls never stood a chance.
"You were right, Kage." Pot stated,"We really don't need the Talons. With this contract, we'll be rolling in caps for months."
Before I could answer, Forceps, our resident medic, came running up behind us, out of breath and weapon spent.
"Reavers!" she wheezed,"Dozens, came up behind us when the shooting stopped!"
“Let’s check out the old Ironshod factory, you said, It’ll be fun!” said the olive unicorn as he fired another burst from his assault carbine. “Quit bitchin’ you can kick my flank when we get home” A silver colored unicorn said as a ruby beam flew inches past his head. There was an audible pop as a protectapony exploded. “I think that was the last of them, OD” he shouted from behind a large desk. The pair of unicorns approached the three downed machines. “How did I ever let you talk me into this, Sterling?” “Because if you didn’t come, mom would've killed you.” “Right” the olive buck sighed.
The brothers made their way up to the executive office and heard the sound of metal hooves patrolling the hall. OD reloaded his carbine and peeked around the door, “ alright it’s just one this time, now stay here while I deal with it, I really don’t need you drawing anymore attention to us.” He rolled his eyes as his brother snapped off a mock salute.
As OD crept from the door he raised his carbine and fired off two bursts, reducing the robot to a pile of scrap. He poked his back in the doorway, “come on, squirt, let’s go.” he whispered and continued to creep down the hallway. As the pair slowly traversed the corridor when Sterling heard more hoof steps.
*click* *click* Shit, This couldn’t be. I looked into my saddlebags and grabbed another magazine, pressing the ejection port and sliding in the new set. Thirty rounds to take down all these ghouls.
The grey buck to the left of me shouted at the top of his voice. “Rose Petal, I refuse to die here!” “You won’t die if you do as I say, now. Jump with me!” We jumped onto the falling rubble and slid down the side of the building, the ghouls following us without a care for how they landed. I aimed for the rotting bastard flying towards us... his brains flew through the air as we came crashing to the ground.
“Rose. What the hell. You said this was meant to be a safe trip!” I turned to the coward beside me and lashed out at him in frustration, smashing a hoof against his armoured chest. “YOU COWARD!” I took a moment to recompose before continuing. “Of course, this was going to be a safe trip until we had to avoid those raiders. How was I supposed to know this trail was full of ghouls?”
The terrible, throaty raspy cry continued from behind us and we took to galloping as fast as we could again. There was no way these ghouls would be given an easy meal tonight, the stars in the sky made sure of that by giving us enough light to see. One of them caught up and bit me, I screamed in agony as its crooked broken teeth tore through my barding.
They were upon us. Our time was over. Suddenly out of nowhere a painful roar came from the darkness. From the direction the roar came, a single red dot was visible. “WHO DARES INTERRUPT MY PEACE?”
We looked on in fear... of the cybernetic monster ahead.
*Pant* “Let’s go hunt some critters, you say.” I was running down hill as fast as I could, while holding my machete with magic. *Pant* “Easy money, you say.” On my left hind leg was wound from radscorpion’s sting. “It’ll be fun...” Still running down hill, I raised my head up and yelled. “Screw you, featherbrain!” Gerrord was flying above me and tried to kill the remaining scorpions, who was chasing me. “Listen, I just forgot one little thing, don’t be so upset!” Gerrord yelled at me. “One little thing?” I jumped to the left side, avoiding scorpion’s sting. This one was big, I didn’t know if my machete could penetrate his hide or Gerrord’s guns in his battle saddles. “You mean THAT little thing? Like, ‘Unicorns can’t fly’?!” “Yeah, that little thing.” He replied, killing one of radscorpions. Only big one remained. I run like hell, but the poison from my wound start acted already, my movements became less accurate, vision begin to blur, but I keep going, probably on adrenaline. Suddenly I tripped over something and face planted on the ground, my machete fell somewhere behind me. My vision began to fade. Something big and yellow appeared before me, then I have heard firing from Gerrord’s guns. Then this big yellow blur picked up something from the ground and attacked big black blur. There was evil hiss and everything went silent. “Hey, Maverick!” Somepony yelled from distance. “Hey, don’t die, you hear me?! I’ll take you to doctor, just hang on!” Big yellow blur thing picked me up. Hmm...ground seem so small now, I wonder why. And why it’s so windy in here? And what tickles my nose?..Am I flying? Nah, unicorns can’t fly. Oh, the ground began to increase in size...funny. Hi, ground! Let me hug you! Darkness...
Day 1: Great, today, a tunnel collapsed! In a Stable! Could you believe it? Anyway, its just me, all alone, behind a big ol' pile of rubble. It'll be a while for anypony to come looking, given the isolation of this part of the Stable. I don't know if this terminal is still connected to the net, but I hope somepony will one day find this, and update those damned tunnel braces! Day 2: Thank goodness a water pipe broke in the collapse, or I'd be dehydrated. However, there is little food in here, and the air is very stale. I found a closet with a few cans of cram, Goddesses, that stuff is awful, but it'll keep me kickin'. Day 3: I'm guessing the air I've been breathing is irradiated somewhat. PipBuck says I'm sick. I'm starting to believe it. Outta cram, too, so if this damned terminal is connected to the net, you guys better stop playing this game! Day 4: I threw it up. All of it still in my system, anyway. Mane is falling out a bit. Looks like I'm not getting out after all. Oh, wait, I hear digging! Day 5: Digging is coming from the opposite direction, from outside the Stable. Close, too. I'm really hurtin' now. Rads are up. Only a matter of time. I slip in and out of consciousness, and I'm not hungry anymore. Day 6: I can hear them! Creatures, mean-sounding ones! I'm in no shape to defend myself, so this looks like the end. I see something coming through the wall. Looks like a big ant? Make it two. They are pinching at me with their mandibles through the hole. I'm not afraid. I'll let em kill me. If they don't, rads will. Stable didn't care a bit about me anyway. ------ Sharp Quill read the entries made by the unfortunate Stable pony. He wondered out loud to his fellow Steel Rangers why the Stable's inhabitants hadn't come to help him. Although, it did explain the large amount of ants that were there before them.
Unknown psionic waveform detected, caution advised. This was unexpected. There should not be a powerful enough psionic on the Construct, except for the Imperial Heiresses… “Children! FLEE!!” A psychic scream slammed into my mind, and I barely held my own yell of pain. This was nothing like the Unity, nothing like Her gentle guidance – this new presence was crude, loud and invasive. I wondered briefly about the voice’s meaning. Then the EFS flashed red and informed me of a live megaspell weapon in close proximity about to go off. “Fly, my children! Save yourselves!” Despite the head-splitting pain, I was determined to know more about the voice and its “children” before the inevitable conclusion. I stopped the fighter at the projected edge of the safe zone, hovering over the barren hillside in mass-reducing fields, and reached out with the machine’s sensors. There were dozens and dozens of biomagical signatures speeding away from the doomed facility. I focused on one – and saw another impossibility. It was an alicorn. Not like the inferior Hybrids – and by that I mean no disrespect for the selfless ponies who gave their own individualities up for the Empress’ cause – but like my own sisters and brothers. Several minutes passed as the fleeing alicorns cleared the blast zone. Maybe the Project wasn’t as complete a loss as I feared. I would need to form a new plan, enlist the aid of the others. It would take longer, but in the end, the Kreegan would… This final scream was ten times as powerful. The weapon's blast wave buffeted the fighter – miscalculation! – and I was unable to react.
//==============================
I towered over the little gray mare. She showed no sign of fear – could be the daze from the link pod – and brought up a powerful-looking slugthrower in her telekinetic grip. My barrier reacted to the danger, going up in a blue glimmer, as did the targeting system – two crosshairs flashed into my vision. “Tell me why I should not kill you right now”.
That’s when I saw her… my wife was wobbling over a fallen girder, a jagged piece of scrap metal in her left eye, one hind leg was busted, broken it at least two places, going by the bone pipes sticking out of her leg, it just hung limply. She shone like a saint from the second layer of overglow that just erupted around her horn. That’s when I noticed that she was coming from the maternity ward… and had presumably the whole freaking ward in tow… around thirtysev-thirtysix bundles were floating behind her, encased in a flickering, magical aura.
I could just stand and watch as one of the bundles just fell into the… sickening purple ooze underneath. It gave out a sickly gargling before a bubble encased it and popped. The tiny shape lost forever... and… did the purple shit just sing? I could have sworn I heard something… and were those eyes? Could be from ponies that fell into it though… My wife let out a cry of pain and a third layer of overglow erupted over her horn and I could see blood starting to ooze out of her ears, nostrils, eyes and well, anywhere it could find an exit. I immediately knew what was in those bundles… or well, except the one that was a burnt lump… the sound of crying foals gave it away quite clearly.
“STAR!” she boomed out in the most authoritative voice I’ve ever heard, making my knees feel weak as she bore into me with the most determined look I’ve ever seen in her eyes, even more determined then when she asked me to marry her. I swear to Celestia, Dew had never looked more appealing nor heroic then she did right now, she shone of pure distilled awesome… she dragged herself off the pillar, her gaze boring into me. Then my awe was shattered as she broke down wailing, every ounce of my inappropriately gaining arousal instantly vanished as I saw tears stream down her cheeks. “I WANT MY MOMMY! I-I WANT TO GO HOME! Ge-ghet me my mommy Mowning…”
Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together, and created harmony for all the land.
The alicorn mare closed the book with a sigh. She knew the story by heart, she knew it was true, but it felt like an old ponytale. She peered through the window at the monotonous grey landscape dotted with meteorite craters. She sighed, observing the far, grey disc. She put her eye to the telescope and peered again. Same, grey, dead. Although the cloud cover was gone for half a year. There was life. It wasn't dead. No, there had to be life down there. There would be survivors in the Stables. "Two hundreds years and I still cry like a foal," the alicorn sighed, wiping a tear from her eye with her hoof. "Two hundred and seven next month. Yay me," she muttered sourly, peering at the dead orb again. Suddenly her body jerked, electrified. A spark of color! A blast of rainbow... leaving green behind, repairing the land! The Elements of Harmony! She could sense their singing, filling her body with energy and hope! Not only there was life down there, it was active, powerful and brave to wake up the Elements! No. I wass not her time. She lay down and couldn't withhold tears any more. She wanted to return, she wanted to have friends. Another eight hundred years of waiting. Will the ponies even accept her? Or will they make her suffer for sins of her mother and aunt? Another eight hundred years of solitude and waiting. And when she's back, she will be irrelevant and useless. The alicorn lay on the floor of the empty lunar base and cried. Just a long-forgotten, useless war effort project. Not a savior to reintroduce life, but a relic of forgotten past.
Down in the hub of the SPP Littlepip could not understand, why, of all the things, would Princess Celestia be so insistent on getting the space travel program back on track.
I walked past the guards into Tenpony Tower with ease. They didn't stop me for identification. I doubt that they even noticed me. That is my special talent, after all; not being noticed. Took me a while to realise that's what my cutie mark - or supposed lack of one - ment. I went from floor to floor, looking for my target. I don't know what she did to deserve to die, but it wasn't my job to know. I found her, eating at one of the restaurants with her family. She was younger than I thought she would be, not that it mattered. As soon as my horn started to glow, she was dead, her heart exploading in her chest. At least it was a quick death, which is more than I can say for a lot of ponies living in the wastes.
My spell is little more than telekinesis. I have studied the anatomy of almost every living creature, studied until it was burned into my mind. If you know where everything is, with enough practice you can move it around without actually seeing it. The rest is just moving the parts around until you get the desired results. However, the amount of concentration needed to manipulate objects without actually seeing them requires me to stay still, block out every distraction, and focus almost all of my magic one a single target. Doing it more than once without resting would blow out my magic for days, if not kill me.
She fell to the ground, and her mother screamed for help. I turned around, casually walking to the stairs to leave. As I entered the staircase, I heard her father start to cry along with her mother. I left the building. I have done this type of job many times before, and have become jaded. The wasteland isn't getting any better, I no longer delude myself into thinking otherwise. I went to collect my payment, and my prize was waiting for me. 20,000 caps and a new target; a member of the Reapers. I head off into the night.
Nightshift stepped out of the gates, looking back at the home he had to leave behind. “Goodbye, good luck, and good riddance” he said to himself, beginning his long march forward to who knows where. Never looking back the unicorn walked, never looking back.
One foot ahead of another he marched in silence, his head snapped to attention, there was a strange sound, it was rhythmic, and he wondered if this was music. The sound got closer and closer until he saw what it was coming from, a small spherical thing, floating over the ground.
The pictures in old books that he had seen was not enough to convey the sheer oddity of the device, it seemed impossible that it was able to fly but he knew that magic was in itself, impossible. He would have said something to it but the music stopped, he craned towards the machine, wondering why it had stopped. He let out a breath that he did not know he was holding in when a new song began to play. The music swayed back and forth and he did the same, becoming lost in the music.
The music halted again, but not in the same way as last time, it was cut off, the tune had ended halfway through a verse, the song should not have ended there. There was a brief crackling noise followed by somepony clearing its throat.
“Hello there, I know you’re new out here and I can help you, trust me.” The voice was very odd sounding as if it were being spoken by a robot; Nightshift looked at the thing, took one look behind him and ran off as fast as his legs could carry him.
“I need a better way to get them to trust me” the voice said before the music resumed where it left off.
They found a small hill overlooking the raider camp that terrorizes Fate's lone caravan. Because of the raiders, the town could only send out a single caravan once a week. Two of the four guards in Fate were sent with the caravan on these "Caravan Days."
Back Fire quickly set up her antimaterial rifle on the edge of the hill. "I can see about twenty of them," she whispered, "They haven't noticed us."
The stallion lied next to her. He took out his varmint rifle and peered down the scope. After observing the raider camp he remarked, "There aren't as many as I thought there were, maybe radscorps got some."
"We won't get a better opportunity, let's do this!" Fire whispered excitedly. This was her chance to be like the heroes of the Waste DJ Pon3 kept broadcasting about. Aiming at one of the raiders, she fired and the guard's head exploded. Suddenly the raiders started swarming, looking around wildly until they saw the reflection of the sun on Fire's scope.
The varmint rifle let out a quieter sound as raider was hit in the chest. The pair kept shooting the unorganized raiders, taking out half of them before they made it to the base of hill. Waterloo heard something behind them and let out a shout as he turned his head. He grabbed his pistol and shot a raider a few yards behind them, and saw nine more raiders charging past their fallen comrade.
"AMBUSH!" screamed Waterloo as a raider charged into him, stabbing repeatedly with a rusty knife.
"Waterloo!" Fire yelled with tears in her eyes, she turned towards the knife wielding raider as the original raiders finally made it up the hill. They tackled her and proceeded to cannibalize her and worse. She reached towards Waterloo, to feel his touch one more time as a raider stabbed a spear through her hoof.
"I'm sorry…" she whispered to the stallion as the light faded from his eyes.
Once the raiders were done they looked at the town. The brighter of the raiders had just realized something very important… It was caravan day.
FoE:PH Contest - Fallout Equestria: Wannabe by TheHolyTuna
With a gun barrel against your head and a blindfold pulled tight, all you can do is count the seconds until the swing of the hammer. I know the weapon; IF-11 'Minotaur' semi-automatic, short recoil operated, loaded with one hundred sixty five grain jacketed hollow point cartridges fed from a standard 7-round detachable box magazine into a five point zero three inch long barrel with a rifle rate of one in sixteen inches. I know this, because it is my gun. I also know just what a point four five calibre round accelerated to eight hundred twenty five feet per second can do to a pony's skull, that pony being me and that skull being mine.
I know lots of things, none of which made my choice any less stupid. In theory, running through a radscorpion nest was a brilliant idea. In theory, Equestria would never fall beneath a blanket of biomagical radiation, either. But to hell with consequence; if I'm dead anyway, I'm going to make killing me as inconvenient as possible.
I hear them mutter something in hushed tones, as if I might run and tell somepony. Not that I can. With broken legs and a slave collar pressing against my neck, there are very few places I can go. I feel the muzzle draw back, and let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding. Then the gun impacts against the back of my head and I collapse a twitching mess. Twitching and laughing. Squirming in a pool of my own blood and filth, and I'm laughing uncontrollably.
Thousands of caps in weapons and armour, with the best bounty hunters this side of Hoofington, all wasted on a wannabe vigilante trying to get his name on the radio. The gun is against my head again, and they're shouting. Shouting at me! ME! All the nameless wanderers in the wasteland, and they're threatening me! I hear the hammer drop and the primer ignite the charge, and wonder if the Stable Dweller ever has days like this.
It was just another day on the front lines for us. Except half of us were dead, and another quarter bleeding out as the medics were overstretched. The trench was quickly becoming a river of blood as the zebras made another damned push. I’d been so doped up on Med-X that i didn’t even notice the widening hole in my chest and my missing leg. I was beyond healing potions now. Only the zebra katana and obscure bullet casings by my side showed any sign of them breaking our lines. Through the smoke and risen dirt were the faint outline of zebra tanks advancing on our lines. Further up the trench, one of their shells got lucky and caved in the trench on that side. Some of my squadmates were cowering in fear, knowing we were all going to die. I had to inspire them. Somehow.
Then it hit me. Not a bullet, or a shell, or some enchanted zebra crap, but an idea. Everyone was so caked in dirt and blood it was hard to see who was who. so i just shouted for the nearest guy. “Hey, give me a boost would ya?”
“Sure thing, Captain.”
As he lifted me, my plan suddenly looked really shitty. Some of our troops had already evac’d the trench, in suicidal rage or fanatical hope. The zebras were all over them, their blades slaking their thirst for death. That was my plan, to hold them off in a push that would leave them shaking in their stealth cloaks. After organising what little I had in the way of support, it was kill or die trying. “FOR LUNA!” we screamed at the top of our lungs. We must have looked pitiful or psychotic. I was still atop somepony’s back, I don’t know or care who. The zebras actually stopped to gaze in amazement at our fanaticism. We dropped countless of them in those few seconds. When the zebras regained their composure, it was over for us. We knew it anyway. Nopony survives on the front lines anymore. Nopony.
“Wave off or you're going to die!” The carrier dispatch screamed in Windhover's ear. His gyropter was hovering a few metres above the evacuation centre's landing pad for the umpteenth time that night. In the distance, innumerable fires burned, reflecting from the low, angry clouds as Equestria came to its end. Throughout the day, balefire missiles had rained from the sky, Windhover thanking Godesses for each missile that wasn't aimed at him, every nauseating flash killing thousands of other ponies instead and allowing him to ferry more civilians to the Radiant Dawn, hanging like a steel leviathan in the sky above. Below were hundreds, maybe thousands of earth ponies and unicorns desparate to escape. Any pegasi or teleporting unicorns had already taken their leave a long time ago, leaving those poor souls who couldn't to fend for themselves. Of course, luck always runs out.
Word must heave spread about the missile being tracked coming straight for the centre because ponies were panicking and rushing the gyropter's landing pad. Some down there had probably given up their places on the last few craft to injured ponies, unwittingly dooming themselves. Windhover looked down at them, with the calm air traffic controller in one ear announcing that the Radiant Dawn would be performing an emergency teleport jump in three minutes and his dispatcher in the other pleading with him to get back aboard. Windhover had been a rescue flier since before gyropters had even be invented, it felt wrong for him to simply leave all of these ponies to die. He was fairly certain his girlfriend had perished in Cloudsdale, so noble an end trying to spare as many ponies from the cataclysm might not be so bad after all.
“For Celestia's sake you're going to be left behind!” Almost instinctively Windhover pulled back on the control stick, the gyropter eagerly leaping higher into the air. His courage failed, Windhover couldn't help looking at the ponies left behind through a veil of tears as his machine roared away towards the waiting carrier.
As I crept around a blackened stump, I saw a pair of equine shapes trotting off in the distance. I edged closer around another stump, and peered around to glimpse a tan earth pony buck, and a grey unicorn mare. Suddenly, the buck sniffed the air, and immediately turned towards the stump I was hiding behind, looking right at me with the most bloodshot, piss yellow eyes I’ve ever seen. The mare turned as well, right before the buck screamed and charged straight towards me. “Get ready, Karat!” I yelled as I gripped the Hunting Rifle in my mouth from my saddlebags. I rolled around the stump to take a shot, just in time for the buck to nearly take my head off with a machete, I ducked and leapt forward, slashing with the metal blades of my “wings” that were grafted onto my barding. The blades sliced across his flesh, eliciting a maniacal cackle as his blood splattered me. The unicorn mare took aim with a levitated pistol, and fired a shot just as I planted a .32 caliber round into her neck. The shot nicked my horn, but fortunately, the nerves in the broken appendage were long dead and all I felt was a dull pressure against my skull.
I looked over, and saw the buck had already bled out, I stepped around the clearly dead mare, and stood at the top of a hill, overlooking a city of black spires illuminated by a faint green glow. I took out a deep orange hair bow from my saddlebags, looking at the dark stain on one of the ends. “Well Karat, this area is called Hoofington, from what I hear it’s dangerous, but as long as we keep our heads down, we’ll be out of here and to Fillydelphia before you know it, and don’t worry about mom & dad, they’re safe in the stasis pod for now.”
“For his own sake, this Red Eye better be everything he’s cracked up to be.” I said as I looked at a billboard in the distance with “Hoofington Rises” splattered across it.
No one had seen it coming. Sure, your little town had enough security set up along its borders to deal with the occasional set of troublemakers…but this? This was a full-blown assault.
*Another twist of a screw…*
The bandits came in without warning and stormed the town, and you can’t imagine why. All you know is had you not been cloistered in the confines of the workshop as usual, you probably would have been taken out, too.
*A joint locked into place…*
You remember the screaming, the outright panic, hysteria and bloodshed brought on by the attack…
*The sparking of a frame being welded…*
You recall the look of terror on the face of a mare - one of your childhood friends, as she was taken away along with some others for goddesses-only-know-what unfathomable reasons.
*A set of spark batteries coupled into place…*
And what of your uncle’s friend, that Dashite? It was his job to help protect the town - where had he gone? What did it matter anyway? All who fought back were slaughtered, and you ran. You ran as fast as your four legs would carry you, thanking your lucky stars you got out of there with your life.
You insufferable coward.
*A piece of metal furiously hammered into shape...*
You ran till you couldn’t run anymore, stopping at the nearest suitable shelter – exhausted, weak, and self-reproachful. Fortunately for you, you wound up in an abandoned mining settlement. Where there’s mines, there’s machinery, and you knew your way around machinery – your cutie mark a testament to this.
Determined, repentant, and with plan in mind, you got to work.
Another turn of the wrench…“That should do it.”
A blue unicorn buck stood up, wiping the sweat off his brow, and took a look at his finished creation - a strange, carriage-like contraption, powered by a set of spark batteries. To some, it might have looked like just another hobby, and yes, in another situation it might have been. But to him, it was much more.
Pained sobbing filled the dark room, occasionally punctuated by a hiccup. The abused zebra filly was spattered with blood, tears, and other bodily fluids. Her mother lay next to her. Bound, gagged and beaten, she was forced to watch the numerous atrocities performed on her foal. But her attention was focused elsewhere at the moment, at the unicorn buck standing in front of them.
He removed the gag from the mare. She flinched, jerked, and was met with the butt of a revolver cracking against her temple. The zebra swore in her native language, and the filly began to sob louder.
“Cute,” the unicorn said. “Now shut that thing up, we have some business to discuss.”
“What more do you want from us?” the mare replied, nuzzling her child. “You’ve already taken everything. You murdered my husband, burned our village and raped my daughter.”
A schink, then a scream, and the zebra was left looking at the handle of a combat knife sticking out of the spine of her filly. She would never walk again.
“You know exactly what I want, bitch,” he said. “The megaspells. We know they are being launched soon, but when? I want specifics. Speak anything but a date and the next blade goes into her eye.”
“You monster! I-”
Schink.
No scream this time. No sobbing.
“Now, one last time,” the buck said, pulling back the hammer on his revolver. “When do they fall?”
“Forty eight hours. The cleansing comes in two days. You are too late to stop it.” the zebra said, in an emotionless tone.
“A pity, but it isn’t in our best interests to stop it. Thank you for your cooperation,” said the buck. He holstered his revolver and walked out of the room, leaving the mare with her child’s corpse.
“Tell the O.I.A. its showtime,” he said to the bucks just outside. “Leave the bitch locked in the room, but feel free to have a bit of fun. After all, we’ve only got two days until the end of the world.”
