"Infinity"
Visions appeared in his mind, a towering pony… the silhouette of a big pony, the biggest pony he has ever seen in his life, was walking slowly to him… behind him… a wall of fire, reaching really high in the sky. Many screams were heard, anguish, agony, suffering… any type of scream were heard.
The big pony had a weapon in his hand and another in his other hand… The first weapon was some sort of sword, but it looked sharp indeed to make other ponies fall dead on his feet. In his other hand, a weapon he recognized easily… A Uzi… but that Uzi was not ordinary. It had a faint glow, he had no idea of what was it about. It was special, somehow?
The towering pony continued to walk towards him, but suddenly stopped, now standing in front of him and then he had began to raise his head slowly, the dreaming pony was unable to see his face since it was still a silhouette, like if something behind him was covering his entire body from anypony to see. But he saw something... he also recognized this... the big pony’s eyes... the dreaming pony's same eyes... the city-folk's eyes... the big pony had those eyes… his iris was red… light red… a flaming red… and he had a circular line surrounding his pupils, millimeters away from them... demonic-like... The eyes that many ponies saw before they perished in his hands...
The dreaming pony felt a shivering feeling down his spine, his heart sank... a coldness was felt in his entire body, he felt really ill, like if he was going to pass out from the impression... The dreaming pony asked...
"W-who are you?"
The big pony started moving his mouth, slowly... forming a smile... a few seconds later... a grin, a malevolent grin... The big pony started raising his hand with the sword in hand... ready to deliver a fatal slash to his head, the dreaming pony could see that he was really muscular, he could cut anypony's head clean, with a single slash of his sharp-looking sword... The big pony continued looking at him... his grin dissipated out of the dreaming pony's range of view from the position of his arm... the big pony then spoke... his voice was really deep... malignant... impossible to forget...
"Another kill for the War God..."
The big pony then slashed his sword to him, the dreaming pony feeling and hearing the flesh of his neck tearing apart...
"AHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
The dreaming pony's dream was no more... the pony woke up in his room, panting and sweating, his room was really tidy from a pony that lives in a violent city like his. He had his drawers, now empty, since he took all his clothes, like underwear and pants to place them on his big traveling bag, resting in front of his bed. He also had a small desk, notably used, with his laptop on it, also used. In front of his bed, a big wardrobe, also empty for obvious reasons, he also has a TV in his room, but it was enough for him to watch the local TV channels, which he was still happy about. He also had a little bookcase, where he stored some interesting books to read, his bed was made of wooden and was for one pony only, carved with some simple designs on the front area of it, in the wall to the right on the left side, was the door to the rest of his house, in the wall in front of it on the right side, there was his bathroom.
The dreaming pony's name is Blastmaster Fire-strider, a pretty long name given by his parents for some reason, but he was called "Blast" or "Strider", others, which seem they have all the time in this world, call him by his actual full name. He is a light brown earth pony, the dominant species in his city. There are no unicorns or pegasi in his town, but he has seen them before, in his books. His mane and tail is black, straight, messy and long, reaching his neck... he hates to get haircuts when he likes it that way, but his parents always ask him to do so, almost begging him, so he complies with his parents. Some ponies that has seen him and commented on his appearance, have said he resembles "him", but he doesn't know who's that "him", since they continued referring to that pony as "him", was it probably the War God? Or some other hero in the city that he doesn't know about? He is really handsome, but due to bad experiences with mares, he has low self-esteem. He has brown eyes, but they turn red, the same design that the big pony in his dream had... only happening when he gets really angry... was that pony angry when he saw him? But... he was grinning... like if he was happy to kill all of those ponies... that can't be possible... He also mentioned the War God... he killed on his name, somepony in the city was gonna commit a massacre if his visions are true... But when? He had no idea...
He got up from his bed, shaking badly from the intense dream he had, it felt so real... that slash on his neck... he rubbed his neck a bit, just to confirm he still had his head connected to his body, sub-consciously feeling a little bit of pain on it... he looked to his clock... 9:00 a.m... He woke up pretty early in the morning, perfect to start his journey towards the town that was said there was peace and nothing happened on it... Ponyville...
He was going to study in the newly built Ponyville World Class School, his parents telling him from several sources, which Blast doesn't know, that it is the most prestigious school on all Equestria. He was happy and nervous to study there, to learn everything related to Math. He loved Math, it was the only subject that made him really happy and eager to study, he hated the others, considering them boring and useless in every-day situations. Math allowed him to be deadly in combat, to be more precise when he aimed to a monster, it was incomprehensible for him how he learns to be better with Math, but if he gets better, he gets better and that's it!
He wondered what kind of students were going to be there, he hoped the students there were friendly towards him, just like he has been with everypony that he met in his life. He was worried that the students in Ponyville were psychos and murderers, just like when he assisted military school in the city. He was glad he was done with that education there, he didn't wanted to get killed by one of them, but if something like that happened, he had his ways to defend himself.
He lives in the glorious city of Machina Nexus, where technology was far more advanced than in any other city, many ponies in the city are intelligent enough to figure new technologies, but one of the biggest problems is that, many ponies are driven crazy sooner or later by an unknown cause, turning them into murderers or thieves, wasting their talents.
The city has big buildings, functioning with energy, which made many electric and electronic devices function properly, the vehicles were crudely made, costing almost a fortune to acquire one, due to the hardships of attempting to make one. He had no idea how ponies made all of that, he was among the unfortunate ponies that lacked that genius intelligence those ponies had. Almost everypony in the city knows how to manufacture a vast amount of weaponry and bullets for said weapons, sold very cheap to other ponies due to the high amount of weapons in circulation. Aside from the great technology they had, they also had a big problem of crime in his town, gangs robbing every day or killing a pony for fun, thieves stealing from others and some considering thieving as some form of profession, and other crazy ponies asking to "duel" somepony, just to satisfy their lust of battle, often killing the duelist or leaving them badly injured in the end. He was very respected as a duelist, many has challenged him and he miraculously survived every single of them, leaving the challenger with as not many injuries as possible, in other words, harming them until they get the message that they should give up.
Blast's mother then entered the room, after hearing him screaming...
"Blast! Dear! What's wrong? I heard you scream, did something bad happened?" She looked pretty worried for her only son. Blast scratched his mane a bit, looking at his mother with that face of hers...
"No, Mom, I just had a bad dream, that's all." He smiled to her, letting her know everything was ok, his mother sighed, relieved...
"Very Well, Blast... Oh! Remember you have to go today, Ponyville is about 3 days from here, you should start getting yourself ready!" She smiled to him, she was also going to miss his son, Blast sighed...
"I know, Mom, everything is already there, except my laptop... Yikes! I can't forget it!" He quickly went to his damaged-looking table and took the laptop from it, then he went to his traveling bag and placed it in there, then he looked inside... he looked for a moment to his rainbow-colored bag, "Infinity", one of the artifacts of the War God he found in a expedition on some ruins discovered in his city, with other fellow ponies...
...
A month earlier... He woke up that day, lazily and yawning, then he got excited, he was going to visit some ruins that some ponies discovered in there, he was invited since he was a good addition to the team, he got up from his bed and stretched his arms and legs, then he went to take a shower first, going to the door of it and locking the door, then taking his clothes off, and entering the shower. The shower was pretty basic, with the essential stuff in it, the sink, a mirror, the toilet and an individual shower, a simple shower cubicle, made of glass. He then turned on the shower and started cleaning himself, his mane first, then he went to his body, taking soap from a soap holder and passing it through his body, making sure to pass it on his armpits, he didn't wanted to approach mares with smelly armpits or something, he passed the soap through his back and he then went to his legs and feet, he cleaned his stallionhood too, making sure there were no smegma on it, and then he washed all the soap off his body, he then grabbed shampoo from the floor, added a bit to one of his hands, and started rubbing his mane with it, he also added shampoo to his tail and rubbed it as well... when he made a lot of foam with his mane and tail, he washed it away with the water, when he clean enough, he turned off the shower and stepped out of the shower cubicle, taking a towel that was being held in one of the walls of the shower cubicle and dried himself with it, he then placed the towel around his hips, so his mother didn't see him naked, and went to the sink to brush his teeth, he took the toothbrush and took the toothpaste with one hand each, then he added a small portion of toothpaste on the toothbrush and started brushing his teeth, trying be gentle, to not damage his teeth, brushing his upper teeth, then his lower teeth, not leaving a teeth from being cleaned, after he made sure he cleaned them all, he spat the toothpaste foam from his mouth, leaving a bit of foam on his lips and around them... he then opened the sink to let the water run out, and grabbed a bit of it with his hand and took a mouthful, he then rinsed his mouth with the water, to let the remnants of toothpaste out of his mouth and spat the water in the sink, then he made sure to clean the sides of his mouth, for it not to have any toothpaste, he then used deodorant on his armpits, so he doesn't smell from any sweat he might produce after exertion on his body, then he messed his straight mane a bit, when he thought he looked good enough on the mirror, he started going out of the room, he then approached his drawers and took some casual clothes, if he was going to those ruins, he wasn't going to use his favorite attire, he might ruin it or something, so he used a red shirt, black pants, black shoes and no hat this time... he liked his green beret, but he didn't wanted to risk it... when he was fully dressed, he took the used towel and placed it again on one of the walls of the bathroom, making sure to close the door of it too, he then went out of his room to take a quick breakfast in the dining room, then he passed through a small hallway, then he went downstairs... his mother had his breakfast already, a whole portion of fried corn, filled with butter all over it, he sat down over the table and started happily eating the corn, filling his mouth with some of the butter... his mother then came to him when he licked his lips to clean the butter from his face, she smiled to him...
"I hope you liked your breakfast, dear!" Blast then nodded, leaving the plate in the table, then cleaning some of the saliva and some butter from his face with his wrists, grinning to his mother...
"Yes, thanks, Mom! Now I have to go! It's gonna be really exciting today!" His mother smiled to him and nodded, the he sighed, looking to Blast a bit worried...
"Please take care, Blast... You don't know what might be inside in that place." He then looked at her mother, with a small smile, like trying to reassure her from a distance...
"Sure, I'll take care, mother." Blast then got up and kissed his mother's cheek... His mother smiled...
"May the War God watches over you, Blast!" Blast smiled to her, then he went to the living room, his equipment was already prepared in a couch, and he equipped it on his back, he had several knives and weapons to aid him in combat, he preferred weapons with a faster firing rate, like his unmodified makeshift Uzis, he haven't had time to modify and make them better, but he should do so later. He also had many bottles of water and vegetables inside of his bag, so he doesn't go hungry or thirsty, very important for higher chances of survival, he also equipped his belt with many clips for his weapons, so he doesn't ran out of ammunition in a bad situation.
He then approached the door to the outside world, opening it and closing it behind him, not before waving at his mother, he then looked around... it was a dark place, just like always, it was always cloudy with big black clouds on the sky. He wondered if he could see the sun everyday without those clouds, but those clouds made it pretty difficult for him to do so. He then started walking in direction to the ruins, as he walked the sidewalk, he could see the vehicles going and coming, he was always impressed of those things functioning, how the hay did they function? Some of the vehicles were for various ponies and others were individual, really cool looking, with two wheels, he was unsure of their name, but they were cool still.
After an hour of walking, he entered the city wilderness, the part of the city that has nothing constructed yet, he needed to walk a couple of minutes more to reach the place, he had the location of the ruins in his head, so he didn't need a map. He stumbled with several branches on the ground, protuding from the trees, and hit his face sometimes with other branches that were overgrown, until he reached the ruins location, a couple of ponies were there, also with equipment on their backs, they noticed Blast and they waved at him...
"Oi! Blast! Quick! You are making us wait!" One of the ponies said, Blast ran quickly to them, rubbing his mane a bit...
"Sorry, I guess I woke up late today..." One of the ponies rolled his eyes and whispered to another pony, presumably his friend...
"Are you sure we should take him? He looks like a wuss to me..." The pony who was whispered, nodded...
"Of course! I've seen him fighting other ponies, he is pretty good! This will be a walk in the park, anyways!" Blast raised a brow to him, did he see him? Well... the duels are pretty public, but you have to be a fool to stand there and get hit by a stray bullet... Blast then said...
"OK, OK... When should we start then?" Blast tilted his head, the pony that whispered to the other pony then said...
"Right now! Of course, if you are up for it..." The pony giggled and Blast rolled his eyes...
"Of course I'm ready! Let's just go if you say we are going now, alright?" Blast frowned to him, the pony who whispered to his friend frowned too... The friend of that pony started talking before a fight ensued...
"Eh... Let's go, guys... We can't waste any more time..." Everypony nodded and they went as a group inside the ruins, the doors were made of moldy concrete, clearly it has been long since they have been opened again. Inside, everything was dark and with mold everywhere, on the walls and hanging on the ceiling, they had to go down through a set of stairs, but they weren't sure how large was that set of stairs due to the darkness inside, so one of the ponies asked...
"Somepony got a torch?" The pony looked at all of them, one of the ponies then quickly took from his bag, a flashlight...
"Got it!" The pony with the flashlight said and he turned it on and shined the light towards the void... it was a very long set of stairs... some sighed...
"Great! I just love going up and down stairs..." One pony sarcastically said... then they started going down the long set of stairs. They finished a section of it, and they needed to change direction to continue going down, Blast wondered if the stairs were made to make anypony who was there tired, because it was really long and he was for sure going to get tired after walking up the stairs again... One pony started to get worried...
"I don't have a good feeling about this, so we should take out our weapons... Dextros, keep your flashlight on, we'll protect you if something happens." Everypony nodded and they took their weapons out, Blast taking his makeshift Uzis, another pony taking out his crude shotgun, another taking out a rifle, and the other taking out his dual revolvers. The only one who was defenseless was the pony named Dextros with his flashlight only, shining everywhere, not leaving a single spot without light.
After a good while of walking down the big set of stairs they reached a big room, with 4 hallways, which will lead the group to the same exit if they were to take different ways, so there was no way for them to get lost. They also noticed some sort of passageway entrances, leading nowhere since they were blocked. They slowly walked together, watching every single direction. They went into the second hallway...
They continued until one pony stepped on a little string, a very thin string, impossible to see. It activated some sort of strange things in the passageway entrances, nopony was sure what were them made of, but they started looking at them curiously. They were some sort of holes, twisting around, they emanated a little light, but that was about it for now... Suddenly, a couple of monsters appeared from those entrance things, they started growling at them... Those monsters had big claws, they were big enough to pin anypony down easily and they crawled in their four legs, they were also pretty fast, as they started rushing towards the group... One of the ponies flinched...
"What are you waiting for? SHOOT THE BUCKERS! SHOOT!" He said and he started shooting the monsters, the entire group, except the pony with the flashlight, started shooting to those monsters that came from those things that continued twisting and producing a faint light... they started killing off the monsters, when they did so, they noticed a strange phenomenon, they started to banish out of thin air, nopony cared about that reason, they had to kill them all! They were quickly getting outnumbered, so they had to back away, but they started appearing too from the other side, so they needed to shoot from there too. Bullets were whistling and their weapons were loudly firing at them, the light of the guns firing, lighting the place for milliseconds... they wondered when the hay this madness will stop... One of the monsters managed to get close enough to a pony... he started hitting him with the back of his rifle...
"FREAKING DIE, YOU MOTHER BUCKER!" The pony said, unable to shoot the thing, since the monster might knock his weapon out... the monster slashed his big claws on that pony's left leg, breaking it...
"AHHHHHH! MY LEG!" He swiftly placed his weight on the rifle to keep himself balanced, unable to attack, the monster was going to slash him again with his claws, then the monster fell on his stomach, dead... Blast noticed one of his partners getting hurt and he swiftly attacked the monster... the pony looked at his savior...
"Tha-thank you... Argh! I need something for this damned leg..." He complained a bit... he was unable to fight now, Blast stood in front of him...
"I got your back, pal!" He continued fending off the monsters, the ponies yelling "Reloading!" to warn the others, so they can cover the pony reloading, they were pretty skilled on doing so, taking at least 5 seconds or more to do so, so they were constantly defending their position almost flawlessly. Soon, they found out the monsters were decreasing in numbers, making the job easier for them...
"We are winning! Keep killing them!" A pony yelled, motivated... as he continued shooting to the remaining monsters. A moment later, every single monster was dead, the portals swirling around slowly started disappearing, leaving them in the dark, with Dextros's flashlight illuminating one spot... One pony then said, with his eyes wide...
"WHAT THE HAY WAS ALL THIS ABOUT?" The pony with the broken leg then said, groaning a bit from the pain in his leg...
"Who-Who cares!!? Ca-can we go back? I... I can't continue with this... Nnmgh... Damn leg..." Dextros, the pony with the flashlight, shook his head...
"No, that's a bad idea, those things will come back or something, we have to continue until we reach the end, maybe we can find treasures, and become rich!" He grinned to them, everypony except Dextros sighed...
"Fine, but somepony please take care of Damacus, he'll not shoot with that leg like that..." The pony with the eyes wide said, Blast then offered himself to protect Damacus...
"I'll take care of him, come on..." He then approached Damacus... grabbing his right arm, and placing it around him... so he can place his weight on him, to keep his balance... but this will mean they'll have to advance slowly from now on...
"OK, let's continue..." The pony with the eyes wide from before said and started advancing. They reached another set of stairs, a wider set of stairs. Luckily, it was much shorter than the big set of stairs from before. They went downstairs...
This time, they reached another big room, with no hallways. It was empty... Dextros looked around with his flashlight, shining its light everywhere, deep in the room was the exit to the next area in the ruins... The pony with the wide eyes from before then said...
"Piece of cake..." He then started walking to reach the exit... he then noticed he activated a pressure plate in the ground... he stood there, looking the plate... the last thing he will see... due to a big rock falling on his head and breaking his skull. He instantly felt to the ground, dead... activating 2 pressure plates with his body and his head... 2 more rocks fell on him, one rock hitting him directly on his chest, and the other falling on his head again, crushing it. Blood started coming from his nose and his ears while everypony looked at his dead body with horror... Damacus, his friend, yelled to him, his voice cracking... knowing the injuries were incompatible with life...
"SALVADOR!!! BUCK!!!" Damacus then knelled and started to cry, Blast let him go to do so, everypony looked down, Dextros then started talking...
"May the War God guides his soul through a better place in the afterlife..." Damacus continued crying, his tears hitting the floor, still refusing to let his friend go, Blast then knelled to him and placed an arm on his shoulder...
"Look... I know it's hard, but we have to continue... This will sound harsh, but your crying won't do anything for him, not even for us... We need you to get over it for now... then you can remember your friend later, OK?" The pony looked at Blast for a few seconds, sniffling, his face covered in tears, Damacus cleaned himself and nodded to Blast. He then got himself on his feet, clenching his teeth from the pain of his leg...
"Easy, easy..." Blast helped him get up, again, placing his right arm around him, Dextros then got an idea...
"I have an idea! I'll cover my head with my rucksack, if something tries to hit me, it will hit the rucksack instead! Damacus, take the flashlight! Keep it focused where I am going, OK?" Dextros gave the flashlight to him, but first, Damacus put his rifle on his back, then Dextros took out his rucksack from his back and grabbed them with both hands above his head. Dextros then proceeded, going straight to the exit... he stopped a few steps away from them...
"On second thoughts, keep the flashlight, we need firepower, and I can provide it..." He said, without turning his head to them, and continued... He looked to the pony's body for a moment, then he forced his eyes shut, breathing deeply to keep the bad thoughts away, Dextros then walking over the dead body of Salvador, then continued his way to the exit. He then activated several pressure plates, which made rocks fall onto his head, his rucksack absorbing the blunt damage, his idea was working really nice, so he continued, activating other pressure plates on purpose, to make the walk to the exit safer for Blast and Damacus, in a moment, he reached the exit, then he turned his body to them, putting his rucksack on his back again, and waving to them, telling them that it was safe now to continue...
"Alright, Damacus, let's go..." Blast said, Damacus nodded, grunting a bit.
"Right... Nnngh..." They then started walking slowly where Dextros did, while Damacus shined the flashlight were they were going to safely go to the exit, to go to the next area, Blast smiled to Dextros...
"Good job! Let's continue!" Dextros smiled and nodded too, and they continued, Damacus shining the light of the flashlight to the exit. It was another set of wide stairs, as short as the last set of stairs they went down. They then went down those stairs, finding another empty room, Dextros then said...
"Damacus, shine your flashlight to the floor! There might be more traps like before!" Dextros said, Damacus nodded and filled the floor with the flashlight's light, they found nothing... There was no pressure plate or any trap that can be seen strangely enough. Dextros scratched his mane, confused...
"What's up with this room? Is it unfinished or something?" He looked around, where Damacus pointed with his flashlight, still nothing interesting to be seen, Blast then said...
"Don't get too confident, remember what happened in the last room, we don't want any more deaths!" Dextros turned to see Blast and nodded to him, then they started going slowly, Damacus shining the light, still to the floor, so Dextros wouldn't accidentally activate a trap. Unfortunately, the traps were hidden, they were movement sensors, decorated as the room to camouflage them from their sight. As soon as the sensors detected them, a part of the ceiling started moving and the room suddenly produced light from a section of the ceiling, from small light panels. Everypony stepped back to prevent the trap or whatever that was coming to them to fall on their heads. When a section of the ceiling opened, it dropped a big monster with a big face and a big mouth, the monster stood on 2 legs... It had sharp teeth and big horns, it was enough for the monster to ram towards anypony to impale anypony with them... The monster growled loudly, enough to make the room tremble a bit, and started going slowly towards them, due to his big size and his small legs, it was unable to run.
Everypony flinched when the monster dropped from the ceiling, as soon as it started approaching them, Dextros then took out his revolvers, while Blast took out his Uzis, leaving Damacus on the floor, Damacus then turned off the flashlight, there was no use for it when there was light around...
"DAMACUS! GET OUT OF HERE FOR NOW! We'll take care of this thing!" Blast yelled to him, Damacus nodded, and started going upstairs, grunting as Damacus grabbed his own leg, crawling slowly with his broken leg... Both ponies started shooting the thing, but the bullets rebounded off of him, they were unable to penetrate its body, the monster continued advancing to them... Dextros was getting nervous...
"What the... He is taking the bullets like if they were nothing... Now what? "He looked to Blast, with a worried expression in his face, Blast then looked at him, seriously...
"Go behind him, he must have a weakness or something!" Dextros nodded and started running around the monster, so he can be behind it, the monster focused his sight on him and started going after Dextros, Dextros continued shooting the monster with no avail, the bullets making a metal sound and hitting the floor, it was like the monster had some sort of hardened skin in front of him. Blast then shot the monster's back, the monster then let out a scream, Blast could see several lines of blood going down slowly from the wounds he managed to inflict on the monster's back, Blast figured out its back was vulnerable and not as hardened as its face, the monster then turned to Blast, angered by the wound and started going slowly towards Blast. Blast then started backing away...
"DEXTROS, SHOOT ITS BACK! IT'S ITS WEAKNESS!" Blast yelled and Dextros nodded, he started shooting with his revolvers, making bigger wounds on the monster's back, the monster let out more screams, he then faced again to Dextros and went to him, he was now bleeding from his mouth too, the blood coming from his mouth and his back going to the floor slowly, it was badly injured, it seemed... Blast again shot at him on its back, penetrating its sensitive skin, the monster now had multiple bullet wounds, the bullets definitely staying inside the monster, if the monster had organs, maybe some of them are completely ruined.
The monster turned slowly to Blast, panting and whizzing, it looked pretty tired, Dextros didn't shoot at it, they looked how the monster went to Blast really slowly, then after a moment, it went on its knees and fell to the ground slowly, making the floor tremble, making both ponies jump slightly, almost falling to the ground, due to the quake it generated.
The monster then started to vanish slowly, leaving small puddles of blood in the floor... Dextros then sighed, relieved...
"Wow, thank War God you managed to find that monster's weakness, or else... it'd punch us to a mulch!" Blast nodded...
"Yeah, I'm glad I did... Anyways, I'll go for Damacus, he should be nearby." He then went quickly upstairs, Damacus was just a couple of steps away, waiting for the fight to end... Damacus was sitting, he had his hand on his face, looking down, then he sensed movement downstairs, it was Blast... Damacus blinked to him...
"What happened?" Blast smiled to him...
"It's done, the monster is dead... I think..." Damacus raised a brow...
"You... think?" Blast nodded...
"Yes, the monster vanished, after we killed it, just like the rest of the monsters we found so far..." Damacus nodded...
"I understand, well... I guess we can go further, right?" Blast nodded, smiling...
"Of course, let me help you get up, then..." Blast then approached Damacus and grabbed his right arm, Blast then got up, pulling Damacus with him, so Damacus can get up, Damacus grunted a bit...
"Tha-thank you, Blast... Nngh!" As they were on their feet, they started going downstairs where Dextros was waiting for them, Dextros then smiled...
"Well... Ready for the next room?" Blast nodded, so did Damacus...
"Yeah! Let's go!" Blast said, then they were together to where the next pair of stairs were, they then noticed light deep in the next room, they also need to go down a small set of stairs, the same length as the others they went so far... Damacus turned on the flashlight to shine its light to the stairs, so they don't fall down accidentally... after going down the set of stairs slowly... They found out that the source of the light, came from torches... Dextros, looked at this...
"What the... It's impossible there are torches on fire down here... is somepony living in here?" Everypony looked around, it seemed like it was the end of the dungeon... there was no way to advance further. Deep inside the room, right in the center, Blast noticed some sort of bag in the distance, a bit obscured since the light of the torches was not enough to light the entire room, Blast then said...
"Damacus, can you light that spot for me, please?" Damacus nodded and shined the flashlight to the center of the room, there was indeed a bag, a strange bag. It was multicolored, the colors of the rainbow, it looked more like a purse than anything else, it had a symbol of a spiral, used to open and close the bag, Blast gasped, the others did the same...
"Guys! Is... Is that what I think it is?" Dextros went pale, he had to kneel with one knee because he was going to faint from the impression, he was speechless...
"Ahhh... Ah..." That's all Dextros managed to say, Damacus was also as impressed as Blast...
"Holy shit! It's "Infinity"!!!" Damacus saying, his eyes wide as he shined the light to it...
"Infinity" is one of the artifacts of the War God, a deity worshiped in the city, he is considered to be the ultimate war resolver, since he ended many wars thousands of years earlier with his powerful abilities, he is able to produce elements from his own hands, and he was really strong, far stronger than the strongest pony in the city, there was nopony capable of surpassing him thousands of years earlier, not much is known about him, since the information has been lost after so long, passed over to ponies, generations after generations, the original information started changing over time, the original information losing his meaning...
"Infinity" is the War God's storage artifact, it can hold anything in the world... it's an enchanted mechanical bag, looking more like a big purse, that can reduce the size of everything, depending on the size, it will take longer to shrink the desired object, and can hold infinite stuff, the object has to be called by its name, and the bag will throw it onto the hand of the user, increasing the size of it, until it's the normal size, it also can follow certain commands like searching for a desired object depending on his color, size and type, the only drawback is that it can't store liquids or edibles, any liquid including water, medicine, potions, etc, dries out, and any type of food rots.
Blast sighed, knowing he has to carry Damacus to the exit...
"Take it, Dextros, it's yours, but you have to share it, alright?" Dextros then looked at him for a moment, trying to recover himself from the impression and slowly stood up on both feet, he then nodded with a grin, and went to where the bag was, looking at the ground to prevent any trap from activating if he was too greedy to get it, he then picked it up and put it around his neck, Blast then said...
"Very well, let's... Huh?" Suddenly, a slow bleeping noise started sounding from nowhere, everypony looked everywhere, except for Dextros, who found out the source of the bleeping. Dextros then said to them, with a smile...
"Guys, don't worry, it's just Infinity that is making the bleeping, probably identifying me..." Dextros continued looking at the bag below him, which was still bleeping, the bleeping started to get faster, like if it was a ticking bomb, Blast started to get worried...
"Dextros? Are-are you sure? It seems that "Infinity" is not trying to do that." Dextros shook his head...
"Of course! It's not like "Infinity" is gonna..." After "Infinity" speed up his bleeping for a good while, it let out a loud beep, and the bag went down, hitting the floor really hard, shaking the ground and making the ponies jump slightly, taking Dextros with it, making him fall to the ground, pulling him hard and fast. Everypony looked at this with their eyes widened... Damacus then asked...
"WHAT? WHAT DID "INFINITY" DO? HUH?" Damacus looked to Dextros, still laying on the ground, with a neutral expression, with his eyes opened and not moving at all... Blast gulped a bit, knowing what exactly happened to his friend... Blast then said...
"Damacus... it's no use... "Infinity"..." He gulped again... "...broke his neck, I don't know how, but it seems like it..." Damacus looked at him, still with his eyes widened, and said...
"But... But why? It's supposed to be the reward from here! What did he do wrong? Did he picked it up badly? Does he have to say some words to it, so it can be available, WHAT?" He almost yelled at Blast when he was reaching the end of his statement, Blast then closed his eyes, and shook his head slowly...
"I'm sorry, Damacus, but I don't know..." Damacus then looked at the body of Dextros, still on the ground with the bag on a side and then looked to Blast, seriously...
"We'll get that bag, Dextros's soul may rest in peace under the War God's watch, but it's one of the best discoveries of all time... If we can't pick it up, at least, we can call for other ponies to take the bodies of our companions, so they can have a burial worthy of heroes..." Blast was hesitant with that... he didn't wanted to die, but the bag already gave signals to tell him that it was going to do something if he doesn't let go of the bag, like if it's some sort of self-defense mechanism, Blast sighed... and talked to Damacus, seriously...
"Very well... Let's see if we can get that bag, then we call for ponies to bring the bodies of our companions" Damacus smiled to him, and Blast started walking with Damacus to the bag slowly, Dextros didn't activated any trap, so they were safe to go near it.
After they reached the bag, they looked for a moment the body of Dextros, expressionless, he probably didn't see this coming, and he probably died instantly, they looked down for a moment, saddened by his fallen comrade, and then they tried to move on. They then looked to the bag and Damacus, looked at Blast, to talk to him, with a little smile...
"I'll pick it up... I can use a hand still!" Blast nodded and said...
"Go ahead, but be careful..." Damacus nodded at this, then they approached a bit more to the bag, so Damacus can pick it up... When Damacus reached for the bag, he pulled the bag, but it didn't budge from the ground, it was really heavy... if the bag managed to make the floor tremble like that, the bag probably had a couple of tons of weight... how was that possible? Damacus continued pulling the bag, clenching his teeth, and blushing from the exertion, but it was impossible to pick it up... Damacus gave up, panting, and looking to Blast, cleaning some sweat from his forehead...
"No, I... I can't pick the damned thing up... Perhaps you can, Blast?" Damacus tilted his head to him, Blast shook his head, chuckling in disbelief...
"You couldn't pick up the bag, and you think I can do that? Please..." He continued chuckling a bit... Damacus then raised a brow to him...
"You know... maybe you can do it..." Blast then rolled his eyes, with a smirk on his face...
"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." He then approached the bag a bit, to be in his other arms' length... "...The only thing I need to do is to pick the bag like... Uhhh..." Blast then picked the bag up, it was not heavy as Damacus made it seem to be, the bag was not bleeping at all, it stayed normal... Blast's eyes went wide for a moment, then he looked to Damacus, Damacus's jaw dropped, unable to say anything, just like Blast... Damacus then gulped and looked at him...
"Bla-Blast... Do-does this means... you are... you..." He stammered on his words, gulping from time to time, Blast rised a brow to him, not understanding...
"I'm what? Ju-just say it!" Damacus then took a deep breath...
"Th-th-the War Go-God?" Blast felt a cold feeling on his entire body, was the war God himself? But he can't be him, Maybe... those ponies were right, he had a resemblance to "him", and he was able to pick up one of the artifacts of the War God, while one of them perished and the other was unable to move it an inch. He looked to the bag closely, feeling the leather fabric on it, he then looked at Damacus...
"We need to go, Damacus... this is no place for us to be in here..."
...
"Blast? BLAST! BLAST! Can you hear me?" Blast blinked a bit, then shook his head, looking to his mother, which knelled to him to look at him better... he was again in his room, he was remembering how he managed to get one of the artifacts of the War God, after doing so, he and Damacus left the ruins, they called with Damacus's phone to the hospital to bring ponies inside, so they can remove the bodies of his expedition companions. Damacus was taken to the hospital so they can fix his leg, he waved good-bye to Blast and Blast did so too, the ponies in charge of removing bodies noticed the bag, and knelled briefly to Blast... Blast rolled his eyes, picking the bag doesn't mean that he is the War God, he may have picked correctly the bag, but he wasn't sure... He protected the ponies from any harm, but the ruins were harmless now... After they did the removal of the corpses, they knelled once again to him, and departed... He then returned to the city, many ponies looked at him and had different reactions... some gasped, some blinked to him, some whispered to his friends about the bag, probably a copy of the original bag, some ran away from him when they saw a potential candidate to "duel", some knelled to him, some knelled, but to try to not faint when they saw the bag the War God used thousands of years ago, some mares hugged him, some wanted a photo with him, which he accepted nervously... some tried to kiss him, but he refused... a couple of prostitutes approached him and offered a good night to him, but he ran away from them, he didn't wanted to do that with those dirty ponies... and so on, many different reactions ponies had from him, he was feeling more nervous than usual, he didn't wanted to be the center of attention. After he reached home, his mother hugged him tightly, and gasped when she saw the bag, he lied about it and said that it was just a copy, so his mother wouldn't kneel to him or something in the house... when his father came home, he also noticed the bag, he was going to kneel, but Blast stopped him, telling him it was just a copy... And this is how Blast got his bag... After that day, Blast started testing his bag, saving stuff inside it, he tried everything... Pencils, books, the chair that he uses on his desk, that same desk, the wardrobe, even his weapons... when he found out he was able to save his guns, he smiled, he had a way to carry his weapons around and take them out when needed, that motivated him to work on his weapons, constructing more of them and modifying them... After a month, he managed to make a lot of weapons, they were heavily modified too, even naming them... "Peace-keeper", "Street-sweeper", "Quick-Silver", "The Terrible", and other unnamed weapons... He also was motivated to find the other artifacts, other ponies commenting that they were scattered all around Equestria, in order for him to leave the city, he needed to pass a psychological test, to prove he wasn't affected by madness or blood-lust, like most of the ponies in here, he had to answer thousands of questions, then, they needed to evaluate his answers further... after a couple of days, he went for his results, nervous about them... only one pony managed to get out of the city, he doesn't know who was he or she, but he was probably as good as him... the ponies in charge of the test gave him the green-light to leave the city, giving him documents of authorization for him to leave and enter the city as much as he liked, Blast asked why they haven't left the city too, if they were sane enough to do so... They say they prefer helping other ponies in here, and there are a lot of ponies that needs this help.. It made sense in some way, but it was a lost cause, too many ponies in here were too crazy and the best cure for that madness is death, to prevent those ponies to kill innocent ponies... He then heard from his parents that a college on a town was being constructed and it was almost finished, he then remembered the Math books he had, he wanted to study more of that subject since it was very interesting... he didn't know how a college worked, but he needed to ask around for it...
Back to reality, Blast scratched his mane a bit, and looked to his mother, which was worried for his son again...
"Sorry mom... I was just thinking in something, don't worry!" Blast smiled to him, Summer Ice-breaker, the name of his mother raised a brow to him, looking at him for a couple of seconds, then sighed...
"This is the first time you do this, Blast, dear... You can tell me if something bothers you... OH! Is probably the college?" Summer tilted her head, and Blast shook his head and lied...
"No, mom, I was just thinking about my future." Summer smiled and ruffled Blast's mane a bit...
"Oh, dear... I'm sure you'll be a gentleman in a future, surrounded by a lot of mares" Summer winked at him teasingly, and Blast blushed a bit...
"Mom, don't do that..." Blast looked away, blushing more, Summer laughed a bit, smiling to her son...
"Oh, you are still really shy, dear... You should socialize more! I'm sure that shyness will go away!" Blast then sighed, and nodded to her, for her not to insist on that topic...
"Alright, mother, I'll try..." Summer continued smiling to Blast and she then got up and proceeded to get out of his room, stopping on the doorway for a moment...
"Oh, Blast, breakfast is ready!" Summer then went out of his room... Blast then looked to "Infinity" inside his traveling bag, he then sighed... but he needed to take a shower first, so he went to the shower, took his clothes away and stepped inside the shower, turning the shower on, and cleaning himself like he usually does, then he turned off the shower and stepped outside, getting the towel and placed it around his hips, then brushing his teeth and using deodorant on his armpits, then he messed his mane to look good, and he stepped out of the bathroom, when he made sure no one was looking, he dropped off the towel and he looked in the drawers for his favorite clothing: His brown fisherman's vest, with many pockets on it, his brown pants and his green beret, he then picked up the towel on the floor and went to put it in its place in the bathroom, closing the door of the bathroom behind him, then he picked the traveling bag up and proceeded to get out of his room, he also stopped in the doorway, wanting to have a, probably, final look to his room, before departing... he then reached the dining table, this time, on the table, there were pancakes with butter in the center and maple syrup all over the pancakes, Blast licked his lips, wanting to devour them, and he did so, happily eating the pancakes by cutting portions of it with a knife and taking them with a fork to eat the pieces, after a while, Blast finished his breakfast, licking the plate a bit, then he got up... Blast picked up his bag and proceeded to go outside... Summer then came from behind him and talked to him...
"Blast? Are you going out without saying good-bye to your mother?" Blast blinked to her, he was expecting her to be in the entrance, but Blast sighed, and kissed Summer's cheek...
"Bye, mother" Blast simply said, and his mother smiled...
"May the War God provides you with a safe travel, my son..." Blast smiled too and approached the door, then he remembered something, so he turned his head to Summer and said...
"Mom, tell Dad my farewell..." Blast said with a smile, Summer nodded...
"I will, Blast. Don't worry!" Blast smiled at her, and he opened the door and closed it behind him, leaving his house probably for the last time in his life if he doesn't come back... he looked again to the somber environment of the city, was Ponyville a town where he could find that peace he always sought for? No more gunshots at night, fearing he might get hit by a stray bullet? No more stealing? No more deaths? No more suffering? No more of the same shit he has to go through everyday here? He inhaled and exhaled and started going to the exit of the city, many ponies who were passing through, good ponies and innocent, waved at him or knelled to him still...
"Good bye, War God Blastmaster Fire-strider!"
"Farewell, Mr. War God"
"War God, may I have an autograph please?" Blast rolled his eyes at those questions...
"I'm not the War God, it's just a coincidence..." He always replied like this to the questions... he finally reached the big metal gates of the city, leading him to his freedom outside, ignoring the brothel, where many mares wanted to give him a good time just for being him... pestering him, they probably were thinking he was rich or something, but he only had the money that his parents got for him... it was a nice amount, 1000 bits, the currency of every other place in Equestria... the city was independent and isolated from any other pony who has the misfortune to find it. The city utilizes another type of currency, bills instead of coins, green bills, with the picture of a certain important stallion or mare and the value of the bill written in every corner of the bill, they were called "Dux", nobody knows the origin of the word, it just appeared out of nowhere...
As soon as he reached the gates, a couple of guards stopped him, they were heavily armored and they were using high-tech weaponry, probably the same quality he can make after practicing non-stop for a month...
"Halt! If you are going to leave, show us the authorization for that matter, otherwise, piss off..." A guard said, frowning at him, tapping a bit his rifle... Blast then said...
"Su-sure... I have the papers, hold on, please..." Blast then started looking for the documents in his traveling bag, he unzipped a small area of the bag, and he found the papers, they contained his name, his ID number, the day when he was born, his signature, his gender, the address where he lives and the place where he was born, it included a couple of documents that he didn't understand much, but the important part was the big green stamp that said "Approved" on a part of the document, he provided the documents to the guard and he looked at them a bit, the guard then rises a brow to him...
"Give me a moment... Hey, Axebuckler! Come here a second!" His partner then came to him...
"Take a look at this... is this..." They then mumbled to each other, flipping the pages and pointing to stuff, like if they were checking it the documents were fake, or something, their eyes widened when they found out the documents were real and looked at Blast, then the document, then to Blast...
"Wow, kid!" The guard with the documents said, still with his eyes wide as plates... "Congratulations! This documents are legitimate, you are now able to exit and enter the city as many times as you like, but keep in mind not to tell anypony about this location, nopony wants more death ponies than the ones we have right now... but... if you meet somepony who is proficient with combat or does that strange thing that other pony who left did, then bring him to the city, he might want to cleanse this city of all of this scum... now... we need to provide you with the password to enter and exit the city... come here to whisper it to you..." Huh? That strange thing? What is he referring too? He never met somepony who does that "strange thing" or whatever he is referring... but he shrugged off the comment and approached the guard, the guard the whispered in his ear...
The password is... "Eterna Gloria", did you get it? "Eterna Gloria", yes... Eternal Glory in the language we don't use often... Keep the password in mind, or you won't be able to get inside, me comprendes?" Blast then looked at him after he finished whispering to him and nodded... he was really proficient with that old language nopony seemed to use, but it might be useful in a future, maybe... The guard then said...
"Good, you are settled now!" The guard gave him his documents back and Blast saved them on the small area of his bag, zipping the area again... the guard continued speaking...
"Now we'll open the doors for you, Axebuckler...?" His partner tilted his head... "Open the gates for him, and tell the guards outside and above the gates that a city-folk is leaving the town with authorization... you know what? Do the second first... I don't want Mr. Firestrider to be filled with bullets, if they think is a fugitive of the city..." Blast blinked to that... he then looked to Axebuckler, like begging him to do so, he didn't wanted to be turned into those holed-up cheese he has seen on the cartoons, Axebuckler nodded and went to an intercom, that lead to the guards outside the gate and above it... Axebuckler started talking...
"Be careful, partners, a city-folk will be leaving the town, don't harm him, I repeat... Don't harm him... he has authorization to do so." Axebuckler then gave the thumbs up to his partner with a smile... the guard then nodded to him and said...
"Good, now open the door for Mr. Fire-strider!" Axebuckler nodded and he went to a numeric pad in a side of the big gate, and he inputted the code to open the door, it was pretty long, since he touched the pad 15 times in different buttons, he wasn't able to see which were those buttons, since he did it so fast... suddenly, the doors started opening slowly... the guards took aim deep in the city, to see if a pony was stupid enough to try to get out... when they were open fully, the guard said...
"Good bye, Mr. Fire-strider, we'll watch your back..." He scratched his head, but it was probably for other ponies to not get outside without permission, Blast then nodded to them...
"Thank you!" He said with a smile and walked out of the city for the first time... he looked outside, it was a big field, with nothing... only a road which led to other places he didn't know, he took the map his parents gave it to him... Machina Nexus wasn't on the map, but they pointed where he was and where was Ponyville, they said it was a good 3-day walk, including the rest... he looked to where he had to go and nodded, he needed to go straight first... in the distance, he could see a big structure, some sort of building, with a camp-like thing outside of it, he paid not much attention to it, since he needed to reach Ponyville as fast as possible, he then noticed the guards who were outside, probably they were there to warn other ponies to ask for the password... they were not dumb, they were outside just to take care of the door, if they try to run away, they will be gunned down by the ponies above the gates, in which they had a clear view of everything in front of them... they just waved at him and he did the same, he then started his journey towards the place that is Ponyville, where peace awaits for him... peace that he sought so much, and he'll have it, at last... but... he has one of the artifacts of the War God, and he has the information about the others, is his destiny to get them all? Or should he live peacefully like he always wanted?