And with the sweat of your brow, The Stable can become your city, as well.
Under the ocean so blue.
Years have gone by, and Twilight Sparkle still lived with the haunting memories of that horrid night. She knew she had to get away, even if it meant leaving everypony behind. She was better off escaping.. right? She reached over and grabbed a photograph of two unicorn ponies with a small purple filly in-between them..
Twilight’s gaze was focused on the worn photograph in her hooves of two unicorn ponies with a small purple coated filly between them. The picture brought back painful, yet beautiful memories with her parents. With a glow of her horn, the photograph encased in magic. It floated into her side pocket of her carry-on bag that lay in the seat next to her.
I have to get away.. I need this. I hope my friends understand, and Celestia. My parents told me I could be something amazing one day if I kept studying under your wing. Please Celestia, understand how hard it is.. and how sorry I am.
Twilight was snapped back into the world and out of her thoughts as the flight mare tapped her hoof on her shoulder.
“Excuse me miss, but here is the hay burger you ordered! I’ll be right back with your sarsaparilla.”
Twilight nodded and thanked the mare. She sighed as she looked down at the mediocre looking burger before her. She couldn’t seem to focus on anything. The many sights and sounds of the plane flooded her senses as the plane engines roared fiercely; piercing the nighttime sky. She wondered what her new life in Manehatten would be like. She raised the burger to her mouth and began to eat. Maybe she would be a teacher? She always thought it would be a fun job, teaching fillies and colts.
Her thoughts of teaching were suddenly interrupted as the plane began to shake.
With a quick glance around the cabin, everypony looked confused and worried. Most of them tightening their seat belts with frightened looks. Some of the flight attendant mares had fallen over, spilling sarsaparilla onto the narrow walkway. The scent soon filled the air. It was calming smell, something she had smelled back in Ponyville way to often.
Memories came rushing back to the mares brain. She pictured her close friend Rainbow Dash, hitting the drink a little to hard as usual. She remembered she had only done that at Pinkie's parties. The premiere pink party pony of Ponyville, as she liked to call herself. She couldn't help but smile amidst the disorder around her.
Pop! Bzzt!
The speaker turned on and the voice of an aged stallion filled the cabin.
"Now don worry everypony, we're just experiencing some turbulence."
As the voice spoke through the static of the speakers, tension in the cabin swelled. The mare turned her attention towards the window, trying not to think of the words “crash” or “engine failure.” The sea only illuminated by Luna’s shimmering moon. For a second, she marveled the sight. She had only seen the ocean during the day, and never this far out. It seemed endless.
"Ma'am, are you finished with your hay burger?" a flight mare said, not receiving an answer.
"Ma'am.. excuse me.." suddenly, the purple maned mare turned her attention towards the flight mare.
"Oh! I'm sorry I was spacing out. The ocean is truly fascinating." A smile grew upon her face as she spoke. She had read many books back in Ponyville about the deep blue ocean, but none of them did it justice as actually flying over it. As the thought evaporated quickly, a faint glow grew around her horn, then the plate as it levitated into the air and onto the flight mare's cart. "Thank yo.."
Before the words could leave her muzzle, the plane jolted to the right. The cart went flying along with some ponies and luggage from the upper compartments.
The plane was now experiencing some major turbulence, or at least that's what she hoped.
She quickly grabbed her seat belt and tried to tighten it, but just ended up fumbling around unable to keep steady from the violent shaking of the plane. She glanced over toward the right of the plane to see a fiery light from out the window. Her eyes grew wide and her heart sunk to the pit of her stomach.
Pop!Bzzt!
The old stallion spoke through the crackling static one last time.
"It seems we're having difficulty with right wing of the plane. No worries though! It sho.."
His aged voice was cut short by the deafening boom of an explosion. The mares ears violently popped as the shock wave tore through the right side of the plane. She managed to look over to see the right side of the plane explode in a glorious flame, ripping the right wing from the body sending it hurling in a ball of flame into the night. The plane tore through the sky, heading directly for the deep water below. All she could hear was the screams of her fellow ponies as they either burned, held on, or were savagely thrown out the side. Soon, the suction from the gaping hole in the side of the plane was to much, she was yanked violently from her seat and thrown into the cold abyss below.
Water.
The purple mare was engulfed in the freezing water. Frantically, she looked around as she was suspended under the water only able to see the horrific sights. Ponies surrounded her, either already dead or drowning, some crushed by falling airplane parts. Finally clicking in her brain, she was running out of oxygen. She forcefully swam toward the surface, trying to escape the icy death that wait for her below the ocean. She emerged only to be blinded by the roaring fire atop the dark water. Pieces of the once seemingly indestructible plane, floated all around her. Most of the parts were already starting to sink, dragging down helpless ponies with them as the screamed for help. She quickly began to paddle towards a piece of the left wing she saw in the fires light.
It would be a place to rest, or so she thought.
She quickly approached the wing, but before she got to close, another deafening explosion pushed her back. The other engine, that had been sticking out of the water had caught fire causing it to explode just like the last. The blast dazed the mare, leaving her struggling to stay afloat. She managed to stabilize herself once more, but this time something caught her eye out of all the destruction.
It appeared to be.. land?
Oh, how she yearned for it to be land.
To have the solid feeling of the earth beneath her hooves again was something she needed after this hell. She quickly decided to swim towards it, in hopes it actually existed and wasn't just the trauma playing tricks on her exhausted brain. As she swam closer to what she prayed was land, she noticed a monolith of a structure, hidden by the darkness of night. She quickened her pace and saw it was raised from the water, the only access was a series of stone stairs with a slab of stone at the bottom. After using the very last bit of energy she could muster, she finally reached the base of the tower. She climbed the stone slab and collapsed. Breathing heavily, mentally and physically exhausted from the traumatic experience, her eyes began to force themselves closed and she saw nothing.
Chapter Two: The Stable “With the sweat of your brow, The Stable can become your city, as well.”
By: BroSteve (Steven Rodriquez)
Twilight's eyes slowly opened a little while later. She lay on the stone slab jutting out from the monolithic structure before her. She rose to her hooves and shook some of the water off herself. The moon was directly overhead at this point, giving off it's soft glow along with the quickly fading fire behind her. It was then she remembered what had just happened. Slowly, almost not wanting to, she turned to face the disaster that took place just behind her.
There was almost nothing left but the floating corpses of dead ponies leaving her heart aching. She was horrified at the sight, turned to the edge of the platform and vomited. She'd never seen anything like this before.
For a while, the mare just laid there staring out at the once thought to be majestic ocean. Now it only seemed like a horrible and dangerous place. Her breathing was finally back to normal as she rose from where she had been.
"How.. did I survive.."
She was talking aloud as if somepony was listening, though no one was left alive. It was then she really started to feel the cold ocean air wrap itself around her drenched coat sending shivers throughout her entire body. She decided to have a look at the building in front of her.
There was nothing left for her out here.
She hobbled over toward the large decaying stone staircase that lead to what she assumed was the front of the building. The stairs didn't look safe with no hand railing and their condition. Nevertheless, she started to slowly make her way up.
The smell of salt water was now becoming more apparent around her. The crashing of the waves against the sides of the foundation sprayed the water into the air, leaving a mist. This just made Twilight even more cold.
As she was about halfway up the stairs, she placed a hoof down on an extra decrepit looking step.
Crack!
The step had given way under the weight of the mare on top of it, sending her sliding down about twenty jagged stone steps. She caught herself and stopped from sliding down anymore. She lay there, in pain. Some of the steps cut her stomach and legs leaving small blood stains on the sharp rocks.
"Ow.." she whispered to herself as she winced in pain. Stumbling back to her feet, she pressed on towards the building. Finally, she reached her goal only, it wasn't what she had thought. The top of the staircase was the home of.. nothing. There was no door into the giant building, just it's large obsidian black wall towering over her. Twilight, now defeated, walked up to the wall and started to beat on it with her hooves as tears began to well up in her eyes.
"Why.. is this happening.. to me.. I just wanted to get away! I wanted to start fresh! Oh, Celestia damn this building!"
She collapsed against the wall as she cursed it. She closed her eyes as she sat there, hoping she just would wake up. This had to be a dream, just a bad dream. She was really still on the plane, on her way to start her new life, not stuck in the middle of the ocean. There was then silence, as the tears streamed down her face.
"I just want.. to go home.."
Suddenly, the sound of metal clashing against metal ripped through the silence. Gears began turning separating a small hole in the obsidian tower behind her. Startled, Twilight fell backward onto the floor as the doors screeched to a halt. Twilight was suddenly blinded by the strong beam of light from a spotlight overhead. She threw a hoof over her eyes and she stood herself up and peered into the large room before her. As her eyes slowly started to adjust, she saw a once rich red carpet, now dilapidated and more of a blood red, cover the room. The walls were lined with paintings of what appeared to be rich high class ponies in prestigious poses. The walls were a putrid dark green with faded golden stripes from ceiling to floor. The only thing that appeared to be in the room was a large bronze statue of Equestria with lightning bolts crossing it and a semi circle desk. The statue looked very beat up, dented, and splotched with.. no. It couldn't be blood. Twilight took a step into the room, as soon as her hoof set down on the floor another spotlight popped and threw it's beam of light onto her.
Pop! Bzzt!
A voice hidden by static began to speak loudly and echo through the room.
"Hey! You! Quickly! Get in here you silly pony!"
The voice, though covered in static, had a thick Fancy Pants like accent. Twilight just sat there, not quite sure what to do or what to say.. or who was talking to her.
"Come on now love, walk in!" with that, the huge black doors began to close behind her forcing her to trot into the wide open room.
Twilight spoke out, in a puzzling tone "Wh-who are you?"
The static still poured through the intercom even with no talking, leaving an eerie tone hang in the air of the empty room. The silence was quickly broken by the voice yet again
"I don't know HOW you survived that plane crash out there, but I'm just glad at least someone lived through that horrific.. accident."
The voice cut off, and the intercom popped again. There was silence now. Twilight began to slowly walk forward, confused by what was happening. In front of her was a large half circle desk that looked like it was outlined in gold while it held a lamp and some old torn up papers. She approached it and looked over and saw nothing except some empty cans strewn about.
Pop!Bzzt!
The unknown voice started to speak once more "Sorry about that love, sometimes I lose control of the speaker systems and have to rewire some.. ah nevahmind it's all techy mumbo-jumbo anyway. To answer your question, my name is..uh.. call me Doctor Blue. Or just Blue for short. Either is okay really."
This voice was so strange and so mysterious. Twilight wondered how he even knew she was there. She didn't see any cameras or anything. She then spoke again, needing to find some answers.
"What is this place? I don't ever remember reading about it or ever hearing about a giant structure like this in the middle of the ocean." She was starting to regain her wit as she grew weary of the desolate room around her. While she waited for an answer, she walked behind the desk and looked at the bronze model of Equestria that lingered over her. To her disappointment, what she had thought was blood.. was blood.
She cringed as she got closer to it.
The voice cracked a laugh and said "Not many people have heard of it! It's kind of a hush hush thing yah know?" Twilight didn't look amused. "Okay, okay, I think it'd be best if ah just showed yah." As the words emanated from the speakers, another series of spotlights came on that looped behind the giant model. Twilight quickly turned her head to face towards the newly discovered portion of the room she hadn't seen before. "If yah would be a doll and step back here, ah can show where yah are." Twilight cautiously trotted over toward the other side of the wall. A big staircase on either side led down to a large metal looking ball that sat several feet below where she was. "Go on now. Go down there, I promise you, one pony to another, it's safe."
Twilight didn't really take comfort in the disembodied voice attempting to calm her. She began to walk down the stairs until the front of the metal ball came into view. It was hollow, a door leading into it. She immediately recognized the design. She quickly spoke out "Isn't this a submarine?!"
The voice echoed from the speakers "Yes, love. It's a bathysphere. Go on and step inside. I won't be able to talk to yah once you're in there, but you'll be met by another who will tell yah everythin yah need to know."
As she stepped into the pod like submarine it quickly closed behind her, and sealed tightly. Her heart began to race as she realized she was trapped in there. The copper lining of the ship was covered in various knobs, wheels, levers, and dials. She could start to see the lights outside of the submarine start to fade, and plunge the room into darkness once more. What appeared to be a small window shade dropped down in front of the door. Suddenly it was illuminated by a small projector behind her. The dirty projector screen came to life as an elder stallion spoke.
"I am John Colt, and I am here to ask you a question. Is a stallion not entitled to the sweat of his brow?
'No,' says the stallion in Canterlot, 'it belongs to the poor.' 'No,' says the stallion who follows Celestia, 'it belongs to Her.' 'No,' says the stallion in Stalliongard, 'it belongs to everyone.'
I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose...
The Stable."
As those last words came out, the screen retracted uncovering the small windowed hole in the door. Twilight’s eyes popped open as she was plunging deep into the ocean where an enormous city lay. She was in complete shock that something like this could even exist. She'd never read anything like this before.
"A city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, where the great would not be constrained by the small.
And with the sweat of your brow, The Stable can become your city, as well."
Chapter Three: Under The Ocean So Blue No God. No King. Only Ponies.
By: BroSteve (Steven Rodriquez)
As the bathysphere continued its way through the underwater utopia, the voice finally finished it's speech.
"Th-the Stable?" Twilight said to herself softly.
The underwater ship was quickly approaching a docking station connected to a large chunk of the city. As the ship locked into place, it jutted back and forth, almost sending Twilight onto the floor. An excruciatingly loud sound hissed all around as a giant metal chain began to pull the craft towards a large circular door. As it was being pulled, words were engraved into the bars overhead.
No God.
No King.
Only ponies.
Welcome to.
The Stable.
With a loud crash, the bathysphere locked itself into place and was pulled inside a dark room. The water outside began to drain as a large metal door slid open in front of the ship. The bright glow of fluorescent and neon lights coated the room in a harsh glow. The door to the craft began to open as Twilight approached it. She pushed on it with a hoof and it swung open completely. She stepped out into the large room to get a better view. In front of her lay a mess of broken furniture that seemed to be organized in a sort of barricade. Beyond that was an enormous glass window giving her one of the most breathtaking views in all of Equestria, The Stable. To the right of the giant window was a large marble staircase with a flickering light at the top that seemed like fire.
Pop!Bzzt!
Before she could continue to enjoy the sights, she heard that familiar static begin to hang in the air once more.
"Oh thank the heavens, I was beginning to think the bathysphere malfunctioned or something along those lines. Nonetheless, I'm glad you're here now.. uhh.." the voice cleared his throat and continued "..What exactly is your name again love?"
Twilight looked around the room trying to find the source of Blue's voice this time. "My name is.. Twilight. Where are you talking from, Blue? And why does this exist? Who is John Colt, exactly? Who are you exactly? Why are you talking to me? Why is.."
"Nice to, uh, meet yah Twilight. I know yah have a lot of questions, but right now we do not have a lot of time. I'll answer any questions you may have but first yah have to listen to me. The Stable is not some sort of Rapture like John Colt says it is.. Nothing is like that bastard stallion says it is. This place has gone to hell and back, deary. You shouldn't be in this place, but given your predicament I didn't have too much of ah choice." As Blue was talking to her, she slowly inched her way out to the giant window ahead of her. She gazed out, looking at school's of fish swimming by, blinking neon lights scattered about the city and a couple of sunken bathysphere's on the sea floor. "I need yah to help me, so I can help you."
Twilight's ears perked up "You let me in only so I could help YOU?" The tone of her voice now lowering and deepening with anger.
"Deary, it was that or let you freeze to death out there. I promise this was the best option I could think of. Yah see, I'm stuck here in an engineering office that has been remotely locked down. Completely out of my power. The only person who can lift the lock down is.. John Colt."
"You mean to tell me.. I have to go knock on his door and ask him to let you go? Why did he even lock you up in the first place?" Her tone changed quickly to that of fright. "I don't even know what I'm doing here.. I'm not even supposed to be here right now! Now you want me to help you? I don't understand any of this!" If there was anything that made Twilight mad, it was not understanding something. The emotions began to stir and push her heart into the pit of her stomach.
She felt like she wanted to vomit again.
"Now, now, calm down. I want to help yah get out of here." There was a long pause before Blue spoke again. "You can trust me, Twilight. Turn to your left, and pick up the radio laying on the table, and put the earpiece and stick it behind your ear. I'll be able to talk to you anywhere you go with this nifty little device." Twilight walked over and did as the pony had asked. "Colt and I aren't exactly chums. An old grudge that I can explain at another, more suiting ti-"
Blue's words were cut short by a deafening screech that Twilight swore it should have shattered all the glass in the room. "And we're out of time. I need you to go up the marble staircase, make a left at the top, go straight till you get to the first intersection" Blue's voice was interrupted again by the blood curdling screech, even louder than before. This time it was followed by the scraping of metal against metal.
"Make a right at the first intersection, and go straight until you can't anymore." The stallion's voice was rushed, becoming frantic. He was again cut short as the screeching finally entered the room. A horrifically disfigured pony jumped down from the ceiling, sending a vent cover flying down alongside it. The pony was covered in large blistered gashes. It's mane and tail were chopped up and shooting out in all different directions. In it's blood soaked hooves was a large make-shift blade, crusted with the blood of other ponies. It's menacing red eyes fell upon Twilight as it stood before her.
"Look at you! Some fresh, delicious meat! I'm gonna tear you apart my pretty!" The crazed pony yelled in a horrific and frantic tone. Twilight took a few steps back at the grotesque sight.
"Now would be the time to run, dear." Blue spoke to her through her head piece.
------------
Twilight could her the mutated pony chasing right after her, screaming obscenities.
"I just want to play little pony!"
"Get the fuck back here!"
"I'm gonna KILL you!"
Twilight finally reached the intersection, gasping for breath as she quickly turned to the right and continued on.
She was terrified.
What was this.. this.. thing that relentless chased her and wanted to kill her. It was no pony, there was no way a pony could be this demented. She finally reached the end of the long hallway Blue had told her about to be met by a large bright pink vending machine. In large bold letters it spelled out "MANA." Blue quickly interrupted her before she got a chance to read anymore. "Okay listen dear, I need you to kick open the machine."
"What?! Are you crazy? I can't kick this open." Twilight yelled in exhaustion. She could quickly hear the horrid beast rapidly approaching as it's ugly face peered around the intersection down the hall.
"Kick open the door, now!" As Blue spoke, Twilight could feel the adrenaline pumping in her veins, her muscles giving it everything they had. She turned around to buck the vending machine, smashing the plastic cover around it. As it broke, a bunch of needles came pouring out onto the floor filled with a strange electric blue liquid.
"Quickly now! Pick up the needle and jab it into your foreleg." His voice was becoming more and more rushed as the mutant pony strolled towards the purple mare.
"Are you crazy yet again? I don't eve-"
"Trust me Twilight! This is no time to over think things. If you want to live, do it." His voice brought a strange feeling of comfort this time. She quickly picked up the small needle with her magic and shoved it into her foreleg. With a loud scream she injected it's electric blue contents into her bloodstream. She screamed in agonizing pain as it coursed through her body.
"This is normal! It's rewriting your genetic code, hang in there Twilight!" Blue's voice yelled, trying to overpower the mares.
Twilight's eyes shot open, beaming with white light as a bright energy field appeared around her. The mutated pony stopped in it's tracks for second, confused.
"You're fucking light show isn't enough to scare me! I'm still gonna rip you to pieces!!" it yelled as it charged at the purple mare.
Twilight's immense light soon filled every nook and cranny of the long hallway. She screamed once more in pain, as a white hot lightning bolt shot out from the tip of her horn colliding with the mutated pony. Relentlessly and mercilessly the lightning tore through it's body frying the thing from the inside out, it's skin bubbling from the intense heat. What was left of it's mane and tail was going up in flames, searing the skin below as it screamed, only for a second.
The white light faded and the mutated pony was nothing more than a brutalized and charred remnant of what it used to be.
Twilight collapsed, fighting to keep her eyes open.
Chapter Four: Iron Sights Live your life, the way you want.
By: BroSteve (Steven Rodriquez)
Twilight rose from the floor as the horrid stench of burnt flesh quickly overtook her senses. She rubbed her bleary eyes as everything was beginning to come into focus once more. Something felt different, she felt empowered. "Blue... what.. what just happened.." she asked, speaking through the ear piece to her companion.
"Twilight! Finally you've woken up! I was beginning to get worried about yah." He cleared his throat and continued "Thank Celestia you are okay!" Blue spoke in a truly thankful voice, putting a smile on Twilight's face. Suddenly she thought back to the horrible chase, the dreadful mutated pony that chased after her, spewing such horrid curses at her. The memories came flooding back of how she had jabbed the needle into her foreleg and the severe pain that followed. Her eyes wondered down to where she had injected the electric blue liquid.
"Blue.. what was that stuff?" She paused and looked toward the now charred pile of pony before her. "And how in the heavens did I do that? Did I do that..?" Her voice trailed off as the realization had finally hit her like a ton of bricks. She had a killed somepony. She had never even thought about killing anything before, let alone another pony. She began to tremble as the thought violently whipped around in her head. She could feel that all too familiar feeling of her heart sinking again, and tears were beginning to well up in her eyes.
"Now, now dear, I need you to breath for me. What you've gone and injected yourself with is something called MANA. Yah see, down here in The Stable.. scientists were free to experiment and create things that should have never seen the light of day. One of their first creations was MANA. MANA allows anypony to inject it into their bloodstream to gain a supercharged magical ability. This machine happened to contain that of electricity. There are tons of others out there. Now the first time you use a new MANA, it hurts quite a bit. You can only use one of the things at a time without killing yourself." Twilight listened intently as she looked back at the large vending machine now broken behind her. " The only difference between this kind of magic is it only last so many times. If you want to be able to keep using it, you must keep injecting the MANA into your body."
"That.. doesn't sound very safe." Twilight muttered wearily.
Blue laughed through the ear piece. "It's safe to a degree. The more and more you use it, you'll find yourself addicted. It changes your genetic code, so you're able to use the ability. You can still use it now, though I predict you will only be able to fire off another lightning bolt or two."
"Okay, next question.. what in the hay are these.. things." Twilight asked, her gaze now over toward what was left of the mutated pony before her.
Blue waited a little bit to respond to her. "These, dear. These are splicers. They were normal citizens of The Stable till all the testing mutated them, destroying any sense of morality that might have resided in their brains. Between the testing and effects from living under the sea, they've gone mad. It's truly a sad story. Nonetheless, they are extremely dangerous and extremely hostile towards anypony. Don't for a second think you can trust a single one of the bastards."
Twilight cringed at the description. They were insane cannibals.. awesome. She began to slowly walk past the splicer and down the hallway. "So, I now have to find and rescue you in an underground city, run by your arch enemy that is filled with these splicers?" This little venture down to the stable began to sound more and more like the most dangerous thing in her life.
"Precisely Twilight, my dear. Yet you shouldn't fear! You have me to safely guide you through this disaster of a city. I don't know everything though. There are still some areas that have been locked down from the inside that I do not have access to yet. Yah see, The Stable is broken down into five major sections. There is New Manehatten, the sector we are currently in. There is New Fillydelphia, The Gardens, Suburbia, and the engineering sector. Suburbia is a wasteland. A volatile suburban housing unit of death. Splicers run the joint over there. The Gardens, I don't really have any control over anything in there. I don't really even know if it's still there, it's completely locked down and off the radar for me. New Fillydelphia is the main business sector of the city. The engineering sector, is where I am."
"Okay.. that doesn't sound to difficult too remember. So I should do all I can to stay away from Suburbia. Got it." She continued walking till she reached the intersection she remembered barreling through a bit earlier. "So.. what do I do now?" Twilight asked Blue.
"Twi- he-wh-" static began to pour into the speaker distorting Blue's voice. "Ge- to fi- -el -ia."
Just like that, he was gone.
Twilight decided to go straight back at the intersection. The long grim looking hallways lined with a blood red carpet led her to a large open area. She looked around as she sat in the middle of the street. It looks like.. I'm outside.. or as outside as I can be without drowning. She thought to herself as she looked around the empty streets. Nothing but trash and make-shift barricades filled the streets. As she began to trot down the sidewalk, her stomach reminded her she hadn't eaten anything in over a day. Keeping a sharp eye out, she found what appeared to be a grocery store. She approached it cautiously, peering in through the window. It looked abandoned and completely run down. She pushed the door open slowly with a hoof making sure no more of those horrid splicers were in there. After the coast seemed to be clear, she trotted in examining everything. The room was barely lit, but the large posters on the wall stood out against the outside light.
Live your life, the way you want.
It was lined with pictures of smiling ponies, with one large brown coated stallion wearing a top hat, monocle, and a suit in the center. She turned her attention away from the poster, looking toward the food now. She quickly found some canned carrots and began to open them.
Suddenly a loud blast tore through the air around her, as cans exploded, sending canned beans around the room. A sharp pain ripped through Twilight's hind leg as she collapsed. Another blast tore through the air, ripping apart the boxes behind her. Twilight screamed in pain as blood began to drip from the wound. A bullet had grazed her skin, but tore a chunk away. Twilight didn't know what was happening. What did this to her? How did it? There was nothing around. She lay on the ground clutching her hind leg, she scooted back against a wall. There was nowhere to go. She looked up from her wound, to see another one. A splicer. It was standing at the end of the isle, a metal portable looking cannon glowing in a sickening green magic just like the splicers horn.
"Oh! Look what I found!" The splicer croaked as it slowly began to walk forward.
"What a beautiful little mare!"
His head twitched to the side as his grin was unlike anything she'd seen. His eyes, heart and soul were filled with such hatred and evil. Twilight cringed, as she curled up in against the wall. She was too injured to run and too scared to even cry for help. As the splicer drew closer, another loud bang tore through the air.
In an instant, the splicer pony's head was reduced to nothing.
Blood splattered against every wall around them, including Twilight. The splicer dropped like a stone. Behind it stood a large earth stallion, with a larger version of what the splicer pony had, in his mouth. He had a dark brown coat and a light brown and orange mane that stuck out to the side. Twilight was stunned. Horrified. She was now covered in the thick, warm substance as the now headless splicer lay bleeding profusely in front of her. Her eyes wide, pupils dilated she began to cry to herself.
The brown stallion stepped over the dead splicer and put his gun back in his saddle. "Hey there.. don't worry... I'm not gonna hurt you." the stallion chose his words carefully, and spoke in a soft tone towards the mare. Twilight shakily stood up, and held back her tears. She wasn't able to make it more than a step before falling. As she fell, the loss of blood and overwhelming emotions of the situation were just too much for her, she passed out.
Her eyes slowly began to open again. I need to stop doing that. She thought to herself. After her vision focused in more, she discovered she was not where she had been. There was no decapitated splicer in front of her. She looked around to find a very dimly lit room surrounded by metal walls. Towers of canned food were stacked all over. She sat up, feeling something soft underneath her, it was then she realized she must have been laying in the stallions bed. She was interrupted by his voice
"Finally awake I see!" his tone was very upbeat as he spoke to her.
"Y-yeah.. th-thank you.." she couldn't process any other words in her head. She had that feeling of wanting to vomit again. She quickly put her head in her hooves and sighed. She then reached down to see her hind leg all wrapped up in medical bandages.
"So.. wh-who are you?" she looked up at him as she spoke "you don't look like one of.. them. Blue didn't say anything about there being others out here who were.. sane."
"My name's Iron Sights." he said as he took a few steps closer to her.
"Who are you? A better question is.. how did you end up in here? You certainly don't look like you belong here." He glanced over her, scared and a rather small mare as well. He could swear she was pretty cute, if it hadn't been for all the now dried blood all over her. He turned away from her, waiting for a response and grabbed a pot from the top of a small fire. He brought it over and poured what looked like more canned carrots into a bowl in front of her. He gently pushed the bowl forward with his muzzle.
Twilight carefully looked at the pony, then realized he was even making her food. "My name.. is Twilight. I was on a plane that crashed right above this place almost. I found the tower, and Blue let me in. I'm not supposed to be here.." she trailed off as she thought about all the events that had happened prior to this. A shiver found its way down her spine at the thought.
"What a nice name, Twilight. You looked pretty beat up when I found you. It's a good thing I did or that splicer would have had it's way. So you're the one who came in on the Bathysphere, eh? I saw it descending into the area." He sat back on his haunches and released a sigh of relief. It seemed as if he was happy to rescue her.
"Who's this Blue fellah?"
Twilight devoured the carrots rather quickly. She hadn't really had a chance to enjoy her last meal. She then blushed, realizing how fast she ate her food in front of him. She set the bowl down and looked over at him. She sighed "I'm not entirely sure. He helped me out when I first arrived. He said he was a captive of John Colt.. stuck in the engineering sector. From what I understand, they are enemies. He wanted me to help him escape, so that way we could both leave here." She stared off as she realized how crazy the words coming out of her mouth were sounding. She did think it was crazy at first, but to put complete trust in a stranger, especially one she'd never seen, was insane. "It's because of him, and now you, I'm still alive though." her head sunk, feeling powerless.
Iron smirked "I've never heard of the character before. I've lived here ever since the beginning of all this as well. At least he helped you. Can't let a pretty mare such as yourself be left to die out here I suppose." With a chuckle he stood up and said "Think you can walk yet?"
Twilight pondered what he had said. If he's lived here.. as long as it's been here.. why has he never heard of someone as capable as Blue. The thought bounced back and forth in her head. She wasn't quite sure what to believe but not everything in this place added up. Suddenly, she heard Iron ask if she could walk. "I suppose.." she began to stand, shaky, but able. She smiled and shook her head.
Iron waved a hoof over towards a metal door behind him.
Chapter Five: New Manehatten I can't.. I can't do this.. By: BroSteve (Steven Rodriquez)
Iron Sights swung open the door and light poured in from the opening. He stepped out; Twilight was quick to follow behind him. They were on top of the tallest building in the whole city. Twilight's eyes grew wide as she was in awe by the beautiful sight before her. The city was huge and she had the best view you could get of it. The giant dome around them held back the murky water infested with tons of sea life. She turned to look where they had just came from, seeing that it was an air conditioning unit atop the building.
"This place is incredible.. a city this big completely under water.. it sounds like a paradise." Twilight said quietly as she drunk in all there was to see.
"That's what it was supposed to be.. The Stable. Who would have thought it would turn out to be a death trap." As the last few words left his mouth, Twilight remembered the hell she went through even to get where she is now. "John Colt promised us an escape, a safe haven from the rest of the world. He believed that we were all equal. Nopony was better than the next. It was a beautiful idea but that's about all." He walked over towards the edge of the building, sitting back on his haunches. "It lasted for a few months. Then everything went downhill, fast. The same system they had tried to escape overtook once more. Living conditions for any other than the highest of class were absolutely dreadful. People started dying on a regular basis and not a hoof was raised to do anything." Twilight slowly walked over towards the brown stallion and sat down beside him, carefully listening. If she was going to learn anything she felt it might be from Iron. "The Stable Civil War broke out, upper versus lower class. It was a blood bath. Upper class having more resources, but lower having more infantry. I was one of the lower." He looked over toward Twilight, then back to the ground below. "I saw my friends and family die, Twilight. I want to wrap my hooves around that bastard John Colt's neck and not let go until I see the life drain from his eyes.." Twilight looked over as the shocking words escaped him, she could swear tears were forming in his eyes.
"I-I'm sorry.. Iron.." Twilight said in a low, soft tone attempting to ease the stallions grief.
"It's fine. I've dedicated my life to helping any poor pony that is unfortunate enough to have either lived through the war," he turned toward her "or find their way down here." He smiled at the last part.
"Are there.. more ponies that aren't crazy?" Twilight asked, intrigued as the last couple words Iron said hung in her mind.
If there was more ponies.. maybe.. we could fight back.. and escape!
Iron Sights smiled and with a deep laugh, "Of course there are! I'm a patrol stallion. I keep the splicers at bay and away from our home. I only ended up here because I saw your Bathysphere descend toward our home. I had to make sure you were safe."
Twilight's ears perked up as the brown stallion spoke. There were more! She couldn't believe it. "If there are more of you.. why don't you just leave.. or better yet. Fight back." Her voice sounded way too innocent to be suggesting such a guerrilla act against another pony.
Iron laughed once more, "You're a funny one, yah know that?" He leaned back, now laying down on the rooftop. "Truth is there aren't to0 many of us left. Not near enough to fight the Splicers, not to mention John Colt himself. We managed to lock down The Gardens completely. Nothing gets in, or out without us knowing and letting it." Twilight's eyes grew a little wider now staring at her new friend.
The Gardens! That was what Blue was talking about. It was the one place he couldn't reach or have any access to.
Twilight, now had a determined look in her eyes. She was plotting her next moves in her head. "Iron.. I need to help my friend Blue. He's stuck in the engineering sector. Right before he got cut off and I lost contact with him he said something that sounded like delphia. The only thing that makes sense is New Fillydelphia. I need to go there. There has to be something I can do to save him. He saved my life, and now I have to save his. After that, we need to go back to The Gardens. Like you said, it's the only safe place really. I can help us find a way out of here and so can Blue." Her smile was way too confident.
She didn't like this new world, but she had to admit: it was something new. Something she had never experienced before, she figured she might as well at least try to enjoy it a little bit.
Iron laughed at the random burst of confidence the young mare now had. "You are a crazy little mare aren't yah? There is no way. You need to go to The Gardens, and be safe. How can you stick out your neck for some random stranger?"
Twilight quickly responded in a harsh, angry tone. "Didn't you do that for me? I'm not going to The Gardens without rescuing my friend, whether you are coming or not." Twilight suddenly developed an attitude. Something reminiscent of what her friend Rarity used to have.
Iron focused on the mare's eyes and let out sigh "Fine, but I'm coming with you. There is no way in hell I'm letting you go alone!"
Twilight simply smiled, "Good.. I was hoping you'd say that. Now, first things first." She looked at the saddle bags on resting on his flank.
"I need you to teach me how to fight."
Iron grinned at the purple mare's request.
After some training with Iron, she knew how to use the newly discovered weapon called a gun. She was still unsure about using it, and wouldn't unless she really needed to. As soon as the finished going over the basics she spoke up, "Well, thank you Iron. I'll probably only use it when my, uh.. what was it called? Oh yeah! When the MANA I took runs out." She said with a slight smile, trying to suppress the awful memories she had of jabbing the glowing liquid into her leg.
Iron seemed shocked as he stopped in his tracks "You.. you've taken MANA..?" His instant concern frightened her.
"Yeah.. I had to.. it was a life or death situation. I ended up frying one of those.. splicers." Her voice became slightly softer as she spoke, unsure if she should really be proud of her actions, despite feeling proud.
There must be something wrong with me now.
He stared her over and said "You know, not everypony can use MANA effectively. You're really lucky it didn't kill you. At first, MANA was completely safe, but over the years it was illegally recreated, and then even the official stuff decreased in quality until it wasn't being produced anymore. You must be one special pony, or just really lucky."
Twilight gave him a such a forced smile. "Well.. considering my plane crashed into the middle of the ocean and now I'm stuck in a place like this.. I don't think luck is really on my side." Iron could tell she was holding back from letting the dark memories flood back into her head. "I guess I must be pretty special too." The two of them finally reached the bottom floor of the building and made their way into the streets. It was barren, desolate and a disaster. She wondered how such a brilliant city could really fall to pieces like this. They made towards the sector of New Fillydelphia. From where they were, it was a good day and a half walk. After hearing that from Iron, Twilight was impressed how large these underwater cities really were. As time went by the city's artificial sunlight system began to fade as nighttime was quickly approaching.
"We should really find somewhere to stay right now. You do NOT want to be caught out here at night." Iron told Twilight sending a chill down her spine. "The splicers go nuts at night, and sometimes it's pretty damn hard to even see them coming." Twilight simply nodded her head in agreement.
"That sounds like a go-" Twilight was quickly cut short by an explosion in a nearby window sending glass shards flying through the air. The blast knocked Twilight over onto her side as she grabbed her head in pain. The sound hurt even more than the aircraft exploding. The aircraft. She though, as her mind now raced to the horrors that happened that night. Her thoughts were interrupted by an even worse thought, splicers. Two of them jumped out from the blown out window, one holding onto a circular metal ball and the other a gun, a gun the size of Iron's "magnum" or at least that's what she thought he said. Iron quickly spun, lifting the gun in his mouth and aimed at the one with a gun. Seconds went by as he aimed down the sights and pulled the trigger. The splicer pony tried to avoid the gunshot, but it quickly tore off his right hind leg as it fell to the ground and within seconds bled out. The other pulled a small piece of metal out of the ball and threw it at them.
"Twilight! Run!" He grabbed her by the mane and pulled her up and pushed her as hard as he could towards an open building. They both barely made it into the abandoned building as the metal ball exploded, sending razor sharp pieces of shrapnel everywhere. The blast blew them through the door, landing on the hard floor. Suddenly, Iron screamed as a couple pieces of shrapnel buried their way deep into the stallions back and left hind leg.
As the smoke cleared the splicer popped out once again. This time his face held a satisfied look of disgust. He slowly made his way over to the two, picking up his fallen comrade's gun along the way. Twilight had just now noticed it was a unicorn splicer, the first she had seen. The gun levitated up in front of him and aimed directly at Iron. "Listen you son of a bitch," the splicer began to twitch "I'm gonna kill you. I'm gonna let you slowly bleed out while I have a little fun with your little mare friend here!" His voice was so sick and twisted, a shiver went through Twilight's entire body. "Goodbye, fucker!"
Before the unicorn could manage to pull the trigger, Twilight screamed "No!" Her horn began to glow bright. It wasn't the normal purple glow that came over her horn when she was casting regular spells, this time it was an electric blue. "Don't touch him!" She closed her eyes tightly as the words left her mouth. Another white hot bolt of electricity shot out of her horn toward the splicer. The splicer cried out in pain as electricity surged through it's body slowly popping every blood vessel. The unicorn began to bleed from it's eyes, ears, nose and mouth as it was cooked alive.
Finally it fell to the ground, twitching and bloody.
Twilight fell backward next to Iron, breathing heavily and a little light headed. She turned to see the unconscious stallion next to her. A look of pure fear came across her face. The words began to tear through her every thought. You do NOT want to be caught out here at night. It was already late, and they had already fought two splicers. She quickly began to call his name.
"Iron.. Iron please wake up."
"Iron please!"
She began shaking him slightly, then harder. Finally the earth pony woke up very groggily. "Wh-what happened?" He shot up from where he lay, only to fall back as the pain from the shrapnel shot through his back and leg. "Gahh!" he yelled out as he closed his eyes tightly at the pain.
"That thing exploded and hit you! I managed to.." she froze in her words. "..kill.. the other one." She shook it off, she had to. There was no compassion in this place. She had to be strong. "It's getting late though, and you're badly hurt. We have to find someplace to stay."
Iron shook his head, and tried to stand on his feet. He let the hurt leg limp as he tried to steady himself on only three legs. Twilight quickly stood beside him. "Put your hoof around me. I'll help you." As the stallion put his hoof around her, she couldn't help but let a small blush appear on her purple cheeks.
Come on, this is NOT the time for this. It is kinda nice though.
She let a small smile escape her lips. "Let's go up a couple levels and find a room to hide out in for the night." Iron quickly agreed.
The two ponies slowly made their way up the staircase and found themselves about four stories up. The building appeared to be a storage building. Each floor was filled with giant metal containers filled with lots of various items from the old inhabitants of The Stable. The inside of the building hadn't been taken care of or cleaned in, it had to be ages. Cobwebs and dust coated everything in sight. They finally reached a container close to a window and Twilight set Iron down. She turned her attention to the box and tried to open. It wouldn't budge. "Oh Celestia, please don't do this!" She kept trying to open it, forcing it, but it was to no avail. The lock wouldn't budge. She looked down toward Iron, who was half awake at this point. I need to think of something.. come on think girl, think! She closed her eyes focusing her thoughts. She quickly opened them and surveyed the room. Along with the coating of dust and giant metal containers, she found an office. There has to be a key in there! She started to trot away as she called back to Iron "I'll be right back!"
She made it over and pushed the door open. Instantly the smell of rotting flesh invaded her nostrils making her fall backward. The room was inhabited by a floor worker here in the storage facility, now a half rotten corpse. Twilight instantly felt sick, wanting to vomit. She held it back and held her nose. She carefully avoided the corpse while looking through the room. She couldn't find it.
Damn Celestia this cannot be ha-.
Her own thought were cut off by another, more gruesome one. She looked down toward the corpse, and of course, it was wrapped around his neck. She shuddered by just looking at the atrocity before her. She carefully reached down and grabbed the key off of the dead pony. She quickly pulled it off, but as she did the ponies jaw fell off and onto the floor with a light thud. As it did, maggots began to crawl from the ponies gaping mouth. She finally couldn't hold it back. She threw up again and fell backward out of the room. She slammed the door and sat there as tears began to well up in her eyes.
What the buck am I doing here.. I can't.. I can't do this.
She sat there for a while as the tears just rolled down her face.
Please.. please let me get through this.. I just want to go home.
After a while, she was able to stand herself up again, and hold back the tears. Her new friend needed her, this wasn't any time to break down. She trotted back over toward her friend. She opened the door and helped him inside. Luckily the container had been empty. She set him down on the floor and wandered back outside. She began rummaging through other crates until she found some paper and a blanket. She gathered the paper in a small pile, and with her magic lit it to start a fire. Then before wrapping his wounds in the blanket, she used her magic to carefully pull the shrapnel out of his body.. She laid down on the other side of the fire, and quickly drifted off into a deep sleep.
Twilight was standing in the middle of a large open intersection in the middle of the underwater hell. The only other movement was that of the pieces of garbage tumbling past her eventually ending up rolling out of her sight. The silence was excruciatingly loud, tearing at her sanity. She put a hoof forward figuring she'd find out where she was.
Wasn't I with Iron?
As soon as the her hoof came in contact with the ground she heard a voice whisper her name. A shiver shot down her spine as the the whisper flew past her ear. She slowly turned to see Iron standing behind her. A smile of relief grew on her face as she spun around faster now.
"Iron!" she cried as she started to walk towards him. With every step the mare took, the distance between them didn't change.
She didn't appear to be moving at all.
"Twi..light.."
Iron whispered even softer than he had the last time. His tone was unlike any she heard him speak before. It was quiet, broken, and weak. He collapsed in front of her as blood began to pour from a gaping hole in his side. Twilight's eyes grew wide as she spotted the mortal wound. Tears began to form in her eyes and freely ran down her cheeks before falling to the road. The sound of agonizing screams started to fill the air emanating from every direction. The sky was a deathly gray and red as all of the buildings around them began to rapidly decay; crumbling to pieces before them. A thick dust poured over them from the collapsing buildings. She ran toward Iron's side and held him. As soon as she went to wrap her hooves around him, he grew cold. Instantly the life had drained from his body as he began to decay right in front of her. She screamed as she jumped back; the tears poured out even harder now.
"Iron no!" she cried as she watched her friend slowly wither away to dust. She collapsed on the dust covered ground as she cried in her hooves. She couldn't think of anything else to do then just cry.
She couldn't save her friend.
She couldn't save anypony.
As the thought finished in her mind, she felt a hoof on her shoulder. Quickly, she jerked her head up to see. The hoof was attached to a tall dark stallion. His eyes were drained of any color, glowing a bright white in contrast with his dark coat. A demented smile was strewn across his muzzle baring his blood covered fangs.
Twilight froze; petrified with pure fear.
The stallion suddenly lunged at Twilight, mouth open, not even giving her a chance to scream.
Twilight's eyes shot open as she woke up covered in sweat and her heart daring to rip straight from her chest. She jumped up from where she was to see the fire diminished and rays of artificial sunlight pouring in through the grime covered window. The images of the horrible dream still fresh in her memory, not wanting to be forgotten, made her look for Iron.
He wasn't there.
"Iron.. Iron!?" she cried out frantically looking around the small metal container they had slept in. She quickly galloped out to look around. A huge wave of relief rushed over her body as she saw Iron Sights standing by the window looking out over the street.
"Iron!" She quickly ran over and threw her hooves around him, squeezing tightly.
"Wh-what.. A-are you okay there Twilight?" Iron said confused by the small mare's random hug. He threw a hoof around her to return the hug. After a minute they separated. Twilight's cheeks were wet with tears as a now large wet spot was left on his coat. She blushed, embarrassed at her tears.
"I-I'm sorry.." she sniffled before continuing to speak. "I just.. I had this horrible dream. I couldn't save you.. I couldn't save anypony." Her head lowered, looking at the ground. Iron walked over and smiled.
"Hey, don't worry now. I'm okay and so are you! It was just a dream, Twilight." he said in a comforting tone as he gently pushed her head up with a hoof. Twilight smiled, assuring Iron his soft tone worked with the mare. "Come on now, we should probably get moving if you wanna help your Blue friend." With a nod, the two walked over toward the storage container and grabbed what little supplies they had left.
"We- we're going to need some supplies. Especially medical stuff. I used the last of the bandages and gauze on your wounds yesterday." She said waiting at the entrance for Iron to grab his weapons and ammunition.
"With our luck, we need plenty of those. I know there is a hospital around here somewhere. Each sector of the city has a hospital." He strapped a saddle filled with ammunition onto his back and walked up to Twilight. "I suggest we head there, I know how to get there from here I believe."
"Okay! That sounds good." She was desperately trying to forget her nightmare, along with her embarrassing behavior in front of Iron. She threw on a smile and headed toward the hallway.
The two had made their way down to the first floor again and looked out over the street where they had encountered the splicers just last night. The blackened mark on the street showed where the explosion that had injured Iron had been. Twilight look on with curiosity.
What was that metal exploding ball?
They proceeded to walk down the long and empty road ahead of them.
After around an hour later, Twilight questioned "Are we there yet?" Her voice was tired and was borderline whining.
Iron simply laughed.
"It should be about another hour or so. These cities aren't small yah know!" He continued walking forward when his mind couldn't help but think of what Twilight had said about saving him, saving everypony. "So uh, Twilight. You don't have to answer if you don't want.. but what did you mean when you said save anypony?" He was careful not to send the mare back into hysteria like earlier. The last thing he wanted was her screaming and crying attracting unnecessary attention to them.
Twilight kept silent for a while, leaving Iron wondering if he should have just kept his mouth shut.
He felt stupid, cursing himself in his head.
When suddenly, she spoke. "The reason.. I was on that plane. I was trying to get away." She paused again, trying to build up the courage to tell him. "About ten years ago, somepony went crazy in Ponyville. He wore an all white mask and a suit. Something in him just snapped and he went around.. murdering innocent ponies."
Iron's ears perked up as he could instantly tell this was no easy story to share. Definitely not one just anypony had heard.
"He broke into our house that night. He started destroying things. I ran into my parents room where they told me to hide under the bed. They held the door closed as he banged and bucked, trying to get in. Finally, he did. My dad tried to fight him off, landing a few good hits to the ponies face. My dad was no match for the knife the pony held." He could see tears starting to form in her eyes. "I watched him collapse in front of me. A huge slash down his side.. I ran out, trying to protect my mom." Twilight stretching to her mane and lifting it off of her body, revealing a large scar. "He swung the knife at me, cutting me, then kicked me out of the way. He thought I was dead. My mom was next." She stopped walking now as she looked down at the ground, the memories now danced in her head, tormenting her. Tears began to stream down her face
"I couldn't save them.."
Iron stopped and wrapped his hoof around her, comforting the mare as they stood there.
She sniffled and tried to fight back the tears. "I couldn't be there anymore.. living with the memory even ten years later. There was nothing for me there. I needed to move on. I was going to Manehatten, to start fresh. Instead, I ended up here." She breathed deeply as she started to regain her composure, stopping the tears.
Iron let go of her and looked down at her. "If there is anyone who can find a way out of here, it's you. Don't worry. Even if I have to swim you to the surface, I'm going to help you out of here." He was trying his hardest to calm the mare. Twilight simply smiled and nuzzled against him leaving a tinge of red in Iron's cheeks.
"Thank you, Iron!" Her mood seemed to do a complete change now. She seemed at ease standing next to him. Finally she broke the silence and suggested "Maybe we should keep moving toward the hospital." She paused and then said trying to sound like Iron with his much deeper voice "You do NOT want to be outside at night." They both laughed and continued walking
"Oh, come on. I do NOT sound like that. I did NOT put that much emphasis on the word not." he said, trying to hold back even more laughter.
"You just did it, Iron. Don't worry though! It's charming. Plus it adds extra drama to any situation!" She said in a playful tone toward the stallion. He just sighed and they continued walking.
After about another hours walk, the two found themselves in front of an enormous four story building in front of them. The outside was covered in ivy, running along the battered and decaying walls. Most of the windows had iron bars, keeping anything outside from coming in. Or maybe keeping whatever was inside locked up.
In giant red letters spelled "NM Hospital" along with a giant red plus sign. The giant lettering was falling apart, the “O” in hospital was laying on the ground in front of the entrance. The front doors were not those of a typical hospital though. They were giant steel doors that looked more like the entrance to some sort of military base than a hospital.
The two ponies stared at the massive rundown structure, wondering if this was really a good idea. Iron Sights raise a hoof; pointing at two small robots that looked like a screen with helicopter blades and guns.
"Security bots still guarding this place? Weird. I wonder if they are active yet."
Twilight looked up at him and back toward the intimidating entrance.
"Iron, how are we supposed to get in there if the entrance is a giant metal door with security, and all the wi-"
Just before she could finish her sentence a loud buzzing rang through the air. The giant double steel doors began to slowly slide open scraping the ground as they did. Finally they came to a halt. The security bots flashed green and the guns folded away into themselves. The two just stared at the door, then to each other.
"Looks like.. it wants us to come in.."
"Something doesn't seem right here." Iron said suspiciously at the open invitation. The inside of the hospital was dark and appeared to be lifeless. Twilight began to step forward toward the entrance.
"Whoa! What are you doing?" Iron quickly yelled in surprise.
"We won't find out unless we go in there. Besides, maybe it's Blue, or just another legitimately nice person wanting to help." Twilight said, praying she was right, as she waited for Iron to catch up.
"This is a horrible idea," Iron muttered as he followed Twilight up to the entrance.
As soon as they got past the doors, they slammed shut behind them. The room now blanketed with darkness. A foul stench filled the air now, similar to the stench of the rotting pony Twilight had encountered earlier; she tried not to gag. The two quickly backed up against the cold metal doors unable to see their hooves in front of their faces. "Twilight, stay close." She could hear him open his saddle and pull the gun out as he spoke cautiously and quietly to her.
Ahead of them a spotlight clicked on, blinding them. After adjusting to the light, illuminated in the spotlight was a wall with the world of Equestria painted on it. Blood drawn graffiti was all over the once beautiful mural saying:
We're all ugly, horrid creatures. I ... I can make you beautiful!
Two doorways on opposite sides of the room opened up, revealing one barely lit hallway and another where the only light source appeared to be fire. Twilight looked around the destroyed room, now taking in what was actually in it.
Dead ponies.
Mutilated. Decapitated. Disemboweled.
They were everywhere.
The waiting area, the registration counter, and even hanging from the ceiling from ropes tied tightly around their necks. Twilight couldn't hold it back any longer, the contents of her stomach quickly forced back up. What she had seen before was nothing compared to this horrific sight.
Iron cringed at the sight, even he had never seen anything quite like this. "This looks like more than just the work of splicers. We should really be careful in here and find a way out as soon as possible." He looked over toward Twilight who had just regained her composure and was now standing on shaky hooves. She nodded in agreement.
"Which path.. should we take..?" She spoke quietly and hesitantly.
After carefully thinking about it Iron spoke up, "We should take the way with the fire. That way if the lights go out, we'll be fine and have that light." He took a few steps forward before turning to Twilight again "Stay as close as you can. We can NOT get separated here.. who knows what is in this place."
She could sense a fear in his voice, that deeply worried her. She nodded and quickly followed directly next to him. They maneuvered around the overturned furniture and corpses and finally made their way to the door on the right. They looked in and saw a long hallway with a set of elevators at the very end of the hallway. The walls were stained with blood; hospital beds and wheel chairs strewn about while some were set ablaze. Twilight cringed at the dank looking hallway. Iron started to move forward, ready to take on the hallway.
"W-wait for me."
Twilight said in a loud whisper as she trotted up to him. Each of the rooms were barely lit from the fire outside, showing off more dead ponies and blood everywhere. Twilight felt her stomach do a flip. She could never get used to the horrible sight. That all-too-familiar stench of rotting corpses filled the air once again. She subconsciously moved closer to Iron, knowing if anypony could get them out of here it was going to be him. After making it a little ways down the hallway Twilight spoke up "Should we start checking the rooms.. for supplies?" She looked up at him waiting for a response.
"Actually, that's a good idea. It is what we came here to do.. just be careful and never leave earshot, okay?" Iron whispered, not wanting to be loud if he didn't have to. He turned to his right and started to walk into one of the open rooms while Twilight went to the room on the left. Iron walked into the room as it was barely lit from the outside fire. The bathroom to his left was jammed shut, so he turned his attention to the rest of the room. The privacy curtain was pulled over the bed, not letting him see anything past the bathroom door. Cautiously, he walked over as the sound of his hoofsteps echoed in the small area. Just as he went to grab the curtain to open it, the curtain flew forward to the shape of a pony behind it, pouncing on him.
It let out a horrible ear piercing screech as it pinned him to the ground and began thrashing in the curtain on top of him. He quickly bucked off the splicer and it flew back against the wall. Twilight quickly ran out of the room, not even having time to really search for anything. She grabbed Iron, quickly helping him up.
Just as he stood up, the splicer rose and ripped the curtain off. Standing before them, this splicer was wrapped in bloody bandages, wearing a surgical mask and a nurse outfit. On it's back and foreleg was metal plating, bolted into it's skin down to the bone. Attached to the metal plate was a sharp blade. This horrific abomination that stood before them let out another shriek as it stood in place.
Pop!Bzzt!
Twilight's ears quickly perked up faster than ever.
Blue?!
"Ello there Twilight! Been, uh, quite some time! Anyway, I have some bad news for yah.
You're trapped.
This building is run by.." the voice cut short by the sound of static.
That static seemed to trigger the splicer as it leaped toward the two. Iron quickly pushed Twilight away back into the dark room where she came from. The splicer lunged at Iron, it's iron blade ripping at his flanks, leaving a small slash wound. He fell back and winced at the sudden pain. Fresh blood dripped from the splicers blade as it howled once again. Iron quickly jumped to the side, reaching for his gun and drawing it. The splicer leapt and landed on top of him.
Just as the blade was about to pierce the mocha colored stallions throat, a purple glow consumed it. Soon the purple glow covered the whole splicer as it was launched against the wall with a powerful thud, knocking lose of the blood stained tiles. It's scream pierced the air again as it struggled to get free. Twilight's horn was glowing extra bright as she used ever last bit of magic she had to keep it pinned there. Iron Sights quickly stood up, took aim, and fired two shots into the beast.
One; piercing where it's heart should have been. Two; right through the forehead.
It quickly went limp as blood splattered on the wall behind it and dripped down. Twilight let go with her magic and fell back to her haunches.
Pop! Bzzt!
The static filled voice quickly came back once more.
"Sorry 'bout that love. Lost control of the wiring again." There was a brief pause, as Iron quickly rushed over to Twilight, his side still slightly bleeding. "Now where was I.. Ah! Yes. It appears yah ended up stumblin' upon the home operations of one Doctor Skitz. I don't know how you ended up here, but lemme tell yah. This fellow is not one we should be messing with. The stallion.. well he is not fully there if yah know what I mean."
Twilight stood up, a little wobbly on her hooves as Iron helped her.
"Blue.. where did you go.."
Her voice held a sort of sad tone to it. She was happy the person who had helped her live had finally returned, but couldn't help but feel betrayed as he left her for dead, hadn't it been for Iron Sights.
"Ah dear, I do apologize.. really. John Colt really doesn't like me talking to yah, and cut off my communication methods. I tried everything to get them back, and I did it as fast as I could." A sigh could be heard through the speaker as he paused.
"Besides, I see you found yourself another pony? Who might you be, lad?"
Iron hesitantly responded "My name is Iron Sights. I'm part of the resistance from The Gardens. You’re this Blue fellah Twilight here has been talking about. I suppose I should thank you for saving her earlier. I've been taking good care of the girl."
Iron spoke almost like he was talking to Twilight's father, upon trying to get approval to date the mare. The thought crossed his mind, but quickly was cast out as Blue spoke again.
"Ah! Good! A pony of the resistance! Pleasure to, uh, meet yah Iron Sights. I have not been able to talk to any of yah, seeing as I have absolutely no way to contact yah locked up in there. Seeing as you are a friend of Miss Twilight here, you're ah friend of mine!" Blue spoke, almost trusting the stallion way too easily.
"I'm glad you're back Blue. I'm gonna get you out of wherever you are. That's where Iron an-"
Twilight's words were brought to an abrupt end as an ever louder static filled the air as all of the fluorescent lights flickered on in the building.
"Welcome! Welcome fillies and gentlecolts! Hehehahehe!"
A deranged voice croaked over the hospital intercom rather loudly.
"I see I have some new.. TEST sub..jects... HAHAHEHEHA!" The voice seemed sick and desperate as it echoed through the building.
"I.. am.. Doc-TOR Skitz! Ha!"
"Oh boy.." Blue spoke to the both of them as they looked around, the hallway now being illuminated by more than just the first revealed the grotesque graffiti painted in blood saying "He will make us perfect."
"I kn-oh.. We! Are all im-Perfect! creatures. I-I can help you. I can- make you BEAUTIFUL hahaheheahaha!" The sick desperation in his laugh was enough to send shivers down Twilight's spine.
"Well-come! To your worst night-mare! Hehehahahahe!”
The voice on the speaker finally came to a crackling conclusion, leaving Twilight petrified at his words. Iron Sights quickly turned towards her to see if she was okay.
“Well.. This is not where you two should have gone. I s’pose there’s no way out now.” The radio stopped for a second as Blue paused, it seemed as if it were almost dramatic effect now “You’re gonna ‘ave to kill him. It won’t be easy. It’s the only way though, love. He’s killed way to many innocent ponies to be left alive.”
Twilight looked forward, down the gore painted hallway and over toward Iron to see him returning the stare. She simply shook her head and smiled. Iron grimaced and said “Well we better get moving. I say we get our supplies, take down this Dr. Skitz guy and get the hell out of here.”
“That’s the spirit there Iron! Put your best hoof forward love. I have access to some stuff in the hospital so I can help yah out as best as I can. Before yah go any further though, I have something that might help yah. If yah find your way down to the basement, where the maintenance staff is.. or was I probably should say. There is a device down there that could really help you two out.”
Twilight responded curiously “What is it?”
“Ah! So glad yah asked dear. It’s a Portable Enemy System, or P.O.N.Y for short. The nifty little device should display when a threat gets near. It's probably been out of use for a while but it should still wo-” In Blue’s true fashion, he had lost connection to them at the worst possible time.
Now the two were left alone in the giant maze of a hospital. The hallways grew dark once more as the hospital fell silent once again. Horrible things had been festering inside of these walls for years. They were the first two ponies to stumble across it since.
Twilight turned toward Iron and looked up at him. Despite his recent burst of courage before, his look was now home to fear. He finally met her gaze and forced a smile. “Come on... Let’s stick together and get down to the basement as fast as possible. The sooner we get this done with the sooner we can get out of here.” Twilight nodded and they both began to trek forward.
They came to the end of the hallway were a large set of double doors was tightly closed before them. Iron tried to open it, but to no avail. After repeatedly throwing himself into it a few times, he finally stopped.
“I don’t think this door is opening..”
Just as the words left his lips, a purple glow caught the corner of his line of sight. Twilight’s horn illuminated the darkness and quickly surrounded the door hinges, making quick work of the screws holding it in place. Iron smiled and quickly bucked the now loose door down and out of the way. The glow faded and the room sank back into darkness.
“That unicorn magic really comes in handy, doesn’t it?” Iron said with a laugh.
“Saved my flank a few times down here already.” She chuckled and smiled before the next hallway quickly extinguished the emotion. The hallways was identical to the one they had just came from. Blood painted the walls and floors while wheel chairs and various other medical equipment were strewn about. Iron hesitated to walk in but remembered his own ‘get in, get out’ speech to Twilight. In his moment of hesitation, Twilight walked in first.
“Let’s start checking rooms for any supplies we can use. I don’t want to be caught with no way to heal ourselves.” She waved a hoof toward Iron for him to follow her into the first room on the left.
After quickly trotting after her they both were in the doorway of a large black room. Void of any light, Twilight focused her magic and her horn lit up. “A temporary illumination spell should be enough to find any supplies in here. Quickly go check while I hold it.” Iron ran into the now lit room and rummaged around till he found some bandages and a couple health potions. The pair continued this until they had more supplies than they really knew what to do with. It seemed the jammed doors and mutated nurse ponies were enough to stop anypony from getting this far in.
They finally reached the end of the hallway and realized with another illumination spell that the hallways split. One pathway led to the left and another to the right but immediately turned again. Twilight stood to the left and Iron to the right. Iron began to talk “Twilight, I think we should head over here. The left looks like it just goes straight, this may lead us down to the base-”
A loud screeching ripped through the silence of the hospital as a nurse pony jumped from behind the turn in the wall, grappling Iron to the ground. Twilight quickly jumped up and began to run towards him. Another loud sound pierced the air causing a large metal wall to slide down from the ceiling between Iron and Twilight. Twilight screamed and pounded on the wall between them. The other side of the wall fell silent. Twilight could feel tears well up in her eyes as she began to pound even harder on the wall. “Iron!! Iron!! Celestia-dammit be alive!” She collapsed at the wall and her eyes began to close.
Her eyes sprung open. A burst of adrenaline exploded into her veins. She jumped up and focused her energy on another illumination spell. She put one hoof before the other, faster and faster, until she was running down the hallway dodging destroyed medical equipment. She had to find a way around. She made a sharp turn down another hallway to the right. At the end of this hallway was another one of those nurse ponies bound in a white apron and covered in blood. A white surgical mask covered it’s mouth as it hissed loudly at her and began to charge. Twilight quickly jumped into the nearest room and slammed the door behind her. The light flickered on in the room and a MANA machine was lit up in front of her.
“Welcome! Try Incineration today!” A prerecorded crackling voice rang through the air, fighting to be heard over the intolerable hissing of the nurse pony quickly approaching. A small screen on the machine lit up as cracks spider webbed across it with faded color. It showed a pony shooting flames from their horn burning another pony in a pure comical sense. “Fend of those baddies today!” Twilight thought there was just something eerie about the voice coming from the machine. She took another gaze around the barely lit room and spotted a chair, it was soon encased in a purple aura and slid over toward the door. She propped it up and ran over to the MANA machine.
Memories began to flood back to when she had used this stuff the first time. The extreme pain of the first few seconds. She also remembered Blue saying it only really hurts the first time per type. Most of all she remembered the amazing effects of it all. It had given her such incredible powers such as being able to control lightning. She couldn't even think of any magic she’d known to do that. She turned and bucked open the machine, shattering the front plastic covering with her hooves. Needles began to pour out onto the floor, this time filled with a brilliant red and orange colored liquid.
She was quickly knocked out of the deep thought by the sound of nurse pony now slamming on the door with it’s hooves. She could hear the door begin to splinter with each hit it received. Her horn encased the needle and rose it to eye level. She was scared to do it, but knew she had to. Just as the ponies leg burst through the door, splintering the dingy blue colored wood, the needle sunk deep into her foreleg. A rush of warmth quickly spread throughout her body, and that horrible pain came back. She screamed and closed her eyes tightly as she felt it course through every inch of her being.
Just as suddenly as it came, the feeling had passed. She opened her eyes and looked around to see nothing was different, just like the last time. There was only one way to truly test it. She turned toward the nurse pony who was now halfway through the door bucking like crazy to try to get through completely. Twilight focused and aimed her horn at the nurse just as it let out an ear shattering scream. Suddenly from the tip of her horn, fire began to develop and with some concentration it blasted toward the nurse pony. The room illuminated in the soft glow of the deadly flames that now engulfed the pony, door, and chair in front of her. The nurse splicers screams could be heard all throughout the hospital as the skin slowly started to bubble and melt off. The apron and face mask quickly lit up only helping sear the flesh beneath. It flailed it’s limbs trying to put out the fire but only managing to spread it more. Finally the wild flailing of it’s burnt limbs stopped as blood began to pour from it’s mouth. Twilight sat back in horror at what she had done. Despite how evil this thing was, she burned it alive. The smell of burnt hair and flesh filled the room she was in. She wanted to vomit again. She tried to hold it back, she told herself she was going to be strong and face anything this place had to throw at her.
A lot easier said than done.
She turned to the side and threw up again. She fell to the ground and coughed it out. Her heart began to race and her breathing quickened. The room began to spin around her while staying conscious was a fight she was losing. Why is this happening?! Were her only thoughts before everything went black.
After the wall fell, the floor opened up sending Iron and the nurse splicer cascading downward into a pitch black hole. The light from above was quickly fading as Iron saw the nurse splicer push itself off of a wall and into Iron. The walls were covered with what seemed to be rocks which quickly tore into Iron's back. The force flung him away from the wall with the splicer trying to bite at any part of him it could. It's face mask was off revealing it's mouth which was filled with razor sharp pieces of metal where it's teeth should have been. The skin around the mouth was completely gone replaced by bloody flesh and steel. Iron bucked it off sending it head first into the wall, the metal teeth sparked against the stone as it's neck quickly snapped leaving a lifeless body now sailing down into the darkness.
The falling seemed to last forever until the end was in sight and rapidly approaching. In an instant Iron was shot deep down into the dark water below. Despite living underwater, Iron hated it. He had always been protected by the enormous glass domes sheltering them. He flailed his legs as the cold water stung the fresh wound on his back. He finally erupted from the surface taking in a big gulp of air as he struggled to keep himself afloat and fight through the pain. He looked around and found a small ledge. Quickly, he made his way over toward it and climbed on. Breathing heavily he laid on the ground and tried to figure out where he was.
Twilight?!
He thought out aloud, but may have ended up yelling it. After forcing himself up from the wet ground he walked back to the edge of the pool of water and looked up. The light was dim and barely visible.
"Twilight!?"
"TWILIGHT!?"
His screams echoed through the long shaft above him. I have to find my way back up there! The thought roared through his head as he turned around to find a long barely lit hallway. "I must be.. underneath the hospital close to the bottom of the whole city since that damned water." The hallway seemed incredibly damp and slippery. The dim light left him unable to tell what exactly the walls were, he could only see the metal grating of the floor. The pain in his back rushed to his senses as a small amount of blood trickled down his back onto the grating. It wasn’t a very bad cut, but enough to remind him it was there. He took a vial out of his saddle bag and quickly drank it. It was only a minor healing potion that he had been carrying around, but it would help close the wound faster than not doing anything. Finally he hesitantly he decided to press on and hopefully find a way back up to Twilight.
The sound of dripping water and his own hoofsteps were the only thing that could be heard echoing through the small corridors. The hallways were only big enough to fit around two ponies standing side by side.
Finally he reached the end of the hallway only to find it lead down another long pathway. Walking carefully down each path was maddening with the constant sound of water dripping. He could imagine the walls giving way to the ocean beneath him and slowly drowning. He tried to shake the images from his mind, but to no avail. He finally reached the end to the path to find a large wooden door. For some reason the door didn't seem to be as water damaged as the rest of the hallways he had just come from. He reached for the handle and noticed it was locked by a large padlock only opened by a key.
"Fuck."
He knocked on the door hoping someone would open it somehow. He wasn't even sure at this point, the overwhelming sense of his darkest fear kept nagging at the back of his mind causing him to not fully pay attention to his surroundings. He began to pound hard on the door but no one came. He turned around and bucked it as hard as he could. He could feel the wood give in the slightest bit. There would be no way he could buck open the door fast enough. The stallion’s eyes focused on the lock and an idea sparked in his head. I'll just shoot the damn thing open! He drew his gun from the saddlebag and took aim at the lock.
The lock exploded off and the door began to creak open slowly. After saddling the gun Iron pushed the door open with a hoof. The fire lit room was a lot larger than he had thought. It was a massive room filled with machines, pipes, leaky holes, and fire. It appeared to be the underworking of New Manehatten, an engine room of sorts. He walked in as not only the sound of dripping water hung in the air, that of fire and machinery moving overcame him. He didn't have time to explore this time and had to find a stairway back up to the hospital.
It was then he noticed a peculiar smell in the air. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but automatically assumed it was from the running machinery. Nevertheless he venture fourth into the dreary gray room. Each of the machines seemed to be running perfectly fine, like something was still keeping them maintained and running. The placement of them all made the room a maze of metal and steam. After reaching what he assumed to be the middle of the room a loud scraping sound filled the air. Instantly he reached to the saddlebag and drew the pistol once more frantically pointing it at any direction he heard a noise. The scraping sounded like it was in front of him one second then behind the next. He couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from.
Suddenly large lights overhead filled the room with a harsh fluorescent glow. After Iron's eyes adjusted, he looked forward in horror. A mutated beast of machine and pony stood before him. It's legs were coated in steel armor while large steel arms protruded from it's back. Most of his skin was covered with metal, screws, and gears. It's tail was a long snake like contraption of razor sharp segments of steel. His face looked like that of the splicer pony from earlier. The peculiar smell was now made clear where it had come from. The beast wreaked of body odor and oil. It grinned as it lifted itself off of the ground with it's metal arms making him the height of maybe two or three ponies.
"Mmm, hello there." It lowered itself and moved closer to Iron, causing him to step backward into a machine. "Excuse my..." It paused and took a step closer. "Excitement. It's not to often I get visitors." It's voice was like nothing Iron had heard. It had this incredibly disturbing curiosity to it and was so raspy and low the voice was almost hard to understand. "Allow me to, introduce myself. My name is Moonlight Gear."
Iron was flat against the machine at this point trying to avoid the beast before him. He finally opened his mouth "Wh-what are you..?"
Gear let out a soul crushing chuckle that sounded outright demonic. "I am a creation of John Colt. I was a pony at one point, but I don't really remember that anymore. Doctor Skitz said I needed to be beautiful. Now I'm condemned to keep Manehatten alive and working. I can feel the life in these machines. I am one with them. This is the job I'm forced to for eternity. If it weren't for me, New Manehatten would fall to the ocean floor. Everypony would die."
Iron looked horribly shocked. "You.. Dr. Skitz made you like this? Then forced you to run the entire city of New Manehatten by living down here?" Gear simply shook his head in agreement.
"I will do whatever it costs to keep it running. Not because he wishes it, because I know it's right. Who am I to decide to kill those who inhabit the world above? I'm a sort of.. protector of them."
Iron quickly replied "Why would you protect them!? All that is up there is the damned splicer ponies and evil ponies like Doctor Skitz!"
Gears razor sharp tail spun around and went straight to Iron's neck as it's robotic arms took hold to the machines around him. "Do NOT speak ill of the splicers! They were once innocent ponies. John Colt introduced MANA, causing them to lose their minds. It was not their fault. Forced into insanity by civil war and drugs. As deadly and unforgiving as they are, they too are ponies like you.. and like I was. I feel sorry for them, the only thing I can do is give them a place to live. Nopony was left alive after the war. There is no one left for them to kill. This city will be their grave and they will be remembered. Let them live the little bit of life they have left."
Iron was astonished. This.. pony. He actually sympathized for the splicers, and in a way.. he was kind of right. Iron shook his head "You're wrong though. There are still ponies up there. I saved a beautiful mare who stumbled upon this Celestia-forsaken wasteland on complete accident. I've killed a lot of splicers to keep her safe. She doesn't deserve the same fate as them! No one does." Gears interest looked peaked at this point. "Listen, Gear. I respect what you've done and are doing, but please. Help me. Help me save anypony who wasn't turned into a splicer. Help me save them, Gear. I know you care about them. Just as much as you care about the splicers. It's in your nature."
Gear retracted his tail and moved away from Iron. His mind was processing Iron's words. "Iron." He let himself down, so his hooves touched the ground. "I understand. I hate what has happened here, and I must prevent those I watch after from doing anymore harm. I will do everything I can to help you. Wait here." With that he quickly thrust himself into the air and his robotic arms began grabbing pipe after pipe until he was out of sight. Quickly he swung back into sight with something in his robot hand. After landing where was previously. He handed the device to Iron. "Take this, it's a P.O.N.Y. This will help you avoid my brethren. I've also programmed the direct route to Doctor Skitz. You'll also be able to communicate with me from this. I have eyes and ears everywhere and the ability to protect you and the mare you speak so fondly of. I really am sorry for the trouble they have given you. You must kill Doctor Skitz, so the splicers can finish their lives here."
Iron nodded and slid the device over his hoof onto his leg. He turned it on and a green light appeared on the radar in front of him showing Gear. "Don't worry Gear. I will stop him and John Colt and I have someone by my side who will help the whole time. I need to ask a favor.. how can I get to her?"
Gear simply smiled and waved a hoof. He began walking through the maze while Iron quickly followed closely behind. They finally reached a large wooden door which Gear's robotic arm opened revealing a large staircase. "Here you go, Iron. Do as you said. I'm glad I could finally meet you and help."
"What do you mean.. meet me?" Iron stopped in the doorway and turned to the twisted metallic pony. "Did you.. open the floor so I would fall?" Gear smiled and closed the door, pushing Iron onto the staircase. "What the hell just happened?"
Gear walked away from the door and climbed his way back to the other side of the room. The machines hissed and blew steam out over the room and continued their busy jobs. He landed by what seemed to be where he lived and walked over to a console. The robotic arms shrunk down and plugged into the back of the console as the screen lit up. A white stallion with a bright blue mane with a dark blue streak that spiked backward on top of his head appeared on the screen.
"Good job, friend! I thank yah a whole bunch! As soon as they ah out of there I promise to shut off all entry way to New Manehatten. It will be yah own paradise, friend."
Chapter Eight: Reuniting Come on Twilight! You can do this girl..
By: BroSteve (Steven Rodriquez)
The rancid smell of burnt flesh and hair hung heavily throughout the small hospital room. The orange light from the burning wooden door flickered brightly, stirring Twilight from her unconscious state. Twilight rose, shakily from the cold tiled floors to see the charred remains of the splicer pony that had tried so desperately to kill her. The sight made her cringe.. then feel sick to her stomach.
I did that.. I mean.. I needed too.. right..?
As she was starting to adjust to the smell, and regain her composure she suddenly remembered. Iron! She thought as she immediately began to panic again, her chest feeling heavy. Horrible images of her previous nightmare replaying in her head as she held the dying stallion in her hooves. She shook off the thought and quickly bucked the charred corpse out of the way, sending it and the still flaming door out into the hallway. She was grateful for the small amount of light that emanated from it. She quickly began to race down the hallway haphazardly. In her frantic state she tripped over the shredded body of another pony, or at least she thought it was. She landed flat on her face as she winced at the pain. She tried her best to hold back the tears, surprised she had any left in her.
Come on Twilight! You can do this girl.. we need to get to Iron! Keep it together!
A look of determination grew on her face as she rose again. She shook herself off and darted down the hallway, following it as the path veered left. Once around the corner she saw a glowing neon sign that simply stated 'Intensive Care Unit.' She felt a chill run down her spine as she realized the air grow colder and the fires light not reaching. The only light was the glow of the florescence down the hall. She quickly gathered her courage and began to slowly move toward the ICU.
As she approached the large glass doors, riddled with spiderweb cracks, they opened automatically. She stepped inside the nearly pitch black room only to have another spotlight spring to life and shine down upon her. A security door quickly fell from behind her, locking her in.
Pop!Bzzt!
"The GRRREAT Dok iz heeRREEEEE!" Doctor Skitz menacing tone played over the speaker once more followed by stiffled laughter. "The EYE SEE YOU hmmm purple MARE?! I MAY HAVE TO COME DOWN AND.. AND.. VISIT!" his words were followed by wild cackling as the speakers abruptly cut off. Twilight gritted her teeth as the lights turned on in the ICU.
Iron stood confused at the bottom of the staircase then turned his attention back to the task at hand, finding Twilight. He raced up the decrepit steps and swung open the door in front of him revealing a dimly lit cafeteria. The P.O.N.Y now strapped to his forehoof beeped slightly as two red dots appeared. No sooner the ear piercing scream they had become so accustomed to ripped through the still air as two splicer ponies quickly turned to face him. Iron wasted no time pulling out his pistol and firing about four shots toward the two splicers, two bullets connected with the splicer to the right, quickly tearing part of his head off as he dropped lifelessly. The other two missed their target and the metal twang echoed through the cafeteria as they collided with a metal table. The splicer leaped forward raising it's clawed hoof and slashing at Iron's face. Luckily he easily avoided, turned and gave a nice hard kick to the splicers side, cracking it's ribs and sending him flying. It screeched as it lay on the ground in pain before another gunshot rung out through the air silencing him.
"God damn splicers.."
He quickly made his way out of the rundown eating area and into another hallway, coincidentally down the hallway was a glowing neon sign with the words "Intensive Care Unit' humming over a glass door.
Pop!Bzzt!
It was then he heard Skitz speak over the intercom and address the purple mare he had been looking for. Suddenly his ears perked up and he immediately rushed toward the glass door. He quickly kicked through and jumped just as soon as the metal door slammed shut behind him, just missing the earth pony. His jump lead him directly into a puddle of cold, sticky blood. The feeling of it matting against his coat made him sick. He got up quickly, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling and shouted out to Twilight.
"Twilight!!"
The purple mares head spun around as he heard Iron's voice call out. "Iron!" She quickly turned tail and ran in the direction she heard him. Finally the two came back into view as they lept into each others hooves and held on tightly. They didn't even speak, only sharing their embrace happily. Twilight nuzzles herself into Iron's chest as she heard his heartbeat. The rhythmic thumping of his heart calmed her and almost made her forget the Celestia forsaken place she ended up in. After their embrace they looked at each other as their cheeks flushed and both of the ponies smiled to one another.
Chapter Nine: We're All Imperfect Come on Twilight! You can do this girl..
By: BroSteve (Steven Rodriquez)
The two ponies gaze was cut short as the dim lit entrance to the Intensive Care Unit made itself known to them. The waterlogged room was covered hoofdeep in water as it dripped down from cracks strewn throughout the room. The receptionists desk was caked in gore as pictures of ponies slashed to pieces and stitched together with mismatched limbs adorned the dark wooden wall behind it. Something was carved into it, welcoming those who entered.
"We're all imperfect, but I can fix us all."
Iron read out loud as a shiver worked its way down Twilight's spine. The images of ponies corpses mangled together made her sick. "This is.. horrible.." She turned to see around the wooden wall that separated them from the entry way. The next room over, was a common room where nurses would file their paperwork and deal with visitors. The nurses station was encircled by large rooms with glass doors, filled with medical equipment. It would have been quite the impressive medical marvel if it weren't for the disarray, blood, water stains, and the horrible stench of death. With apprehension the two began to tread forward through the water. A thought passed through Twilight's mind 'I could not use my electricity MANA in here..' The thought made her mind escape for a second, thinking about the feeling of using the MANA. The feeling of warmth and power that coursed through her with each tear of the needle.
Klang!
Her hoof had struck a metal tray attached to a wheelchair. The resonating sound echoed through the damp hallways. She immediately froze as she received a glare from Iron. "Wh-whoops.." No more than a second later the screeching of a splicer could tore through the air as it popped into view from down the hallway. It leaped forward, somehow avoiding the two shots that rang out from Iron's pistol as it pounced on Twilight.
"YOU'RE SO UGLY! UGLY UGLY UGLY!" The splicer said as she stomped her hooves on the purple mare underneath her. It didn't take long for Iron to buck the pony off as it's head spun around from the force of the kick, snapping like a twig. With nothing more than a bruise on her foreleg, Iron helped her up out of the water.
"Well they know we're here now.." Twilight stood on her hooves and looked up as another one made himself present.
"Pretty or not we can still have some fun!" The splicer cried out as he began to charge. Before Iron could even shoot, a purple aura encased one of the glass doors, swinging it open with such force. The splicer collided and shattered the glass as it broke into sharp spears, making quick work of the crazy pony. Iron just looked over and smirked "Let's go."
The two made their way down the hallway and come across a large dilapidated double door. Iron went to push the door open and everything went white. A loud ringing followed by an immense pain shot through both of their bodies feeling themselves fall. The opening of the door had triggered an explosive that took out the floor beneath them, hurling them down another floor. Water from the ICU poured down onto them and into the new floor. Twilight reeled at the pain in her head and chest. She coughed violently at the smoke as she tried to adjust herself from the explosion. It took what felt like ages for her eyesight to finally return from the intense flash. The only sound around her now was running water, even that she could barely hear. As her wits came back to her she looked around her to see what had happened. She looked up and saw the hole way up in the ceiling where they had fallen from.
They.
She shot her head around to find Iron only to find him thrown against a wall passed out. She managed to rise to her hooves, shakily, and make her way toward him. "I-Iron are you okay? Iron wake up!" She plopped down next to him as he was out cold. She used her magic and carried him into one of the rooms close to her, which turned out to be a janitorial closet. She laid him against the wall carefully and kept trying to grasp him from unconsciousness. Like clockwork it seemed, another splicer had began screaming and running to where they were. Twilight cursed. Something she never used to do. She popped out from the closet and spotted the splicer a good 20 feet from where she was. She took no time to aim her horn and release a flaming torrent, melting the splicer where it stood. The glow from the fire lit up the area which appeared to be a.. nursery. 'Celestia no..' As she realized her surroundings more she heard a fainy voice in the distance.
"Try Lightning today! Spark up a conversation!"
The tinny voice of the MANA machine made her smile. She trotted down the hallway to find the entrance to the nursery hoping to find the source of the MANA machine. Once she found the doorway the beautiful machine was in sight. Dedicated to delivering the silver liquid to the citizens of The Stable. She wasted no time bucking open the machine, grabbing the last two needles. She stored one for a later date and injected the other straight into her foreleg. The slight tinge of pain as the needle separated her skin and pierced her blood vessel faded away as the warm, numbing and powerful sensation overcame her. 'Why am I enjoying this so much? This can't be good.. but.. I need it.. to help us. It's the only way I can protect and fight with Iron. I need it to help.' She was torn from her inner monologue as she heard Iron say. "Twi.. wh-what happened?" He was now walking down the hallway, taking in the surroundings holding his head.
"A trap.. as soon as we opened the door it exploded and sent us a floor below. Are you okay?" She asked as she walked up to him and looked him over, not seeing any blood, just bruises and what looked to be a killer headache. He nodded "Oh, I've been through worse.. I'll be okay.. but he managed to set us back a bit.. son of a bitch." Twilight could only nod "I just want to get the hay out of here.. as soon as possible, I do not have a good feeling about this.. we're in the nursery." Not a second longer than her finished sentence they heard the sound of what seemed to be a foal crying. The two froze in fear, there was no way a foal could be in here.
Apprehensive to turn around, they both forced themselves to turn and see a foal across the hall from them. They couldn't make out any features in the dim lit hall.
"Hey there.. little one.. don't cry.. how did you get in here..?" Twilight said as she took a step closer toward the mysterious foal. If there was an off chance this was an actual foal that somehow got lost here, she was going to waste no time helping the poor thing. Iron voiced his caution bringing a hoof up to her tail, gently pulling her back. "Twi.. wait.." As he spoke the filly came into view.
Her eyes.. were black. With a hiss four flesh colored, spiny arms reached from it's back. Twilight's eyes grew at the horrific sight.
"Twi!"
It launched itself onto her as the arms spun around to her side and stabbed into her back. She howled in pain as they pierced her flesh. Iron wasted no time in drawing his gun and careful to not hit Twilight, shot the parasite right off of her. It dropped limp to the floor as the arms that pierced her slid right out causing blood to swell up at the puncture wounds. She fell to her haunches at the sharp pain. Iron quick opened her saddle bags and pulled out some bandages and a healing potion, tending to the mare. "We don't have any luck do we? We've burned through just about all the health supplies we got from the first floor already.."
Twilight wincing as he wrapped her in bandages nodded in agreement. "We need to get to him now.."
After the two had trekked back up to the ICU they entered again, this time ready to take on the Doctor. They marched down the same isle they had before, carefully avoiding the now gaping hole in the ground. Once through they found and L shaped hallway with a sign pointing forward reading "observation room."
"Observation room.. for what?" Iron questioned as they started to walk down the hallway. It didn't take long for the observation room to come into sight. A beam of light illuminated a pedestal behind thick glass revealing an operation table. Strapped to the table was a splicer thrashing about trying to get free from the harnesses that held her down. Looming over was a rather large griffon dressed in a damp and bloodstained lab coat. Metal surrounded his claws as fresh blood dripped down, clearly from the splicer. The two stood their scared stiff. Finally the griffon looked up to see them and smiled.
Pop!Bzzt!
"Well well.. if it isn't my two favorite rebellious little ponies.. you've caused quite the mess for me you know?" He brought his claw down jabbing it into the splicers stomach as it howled in pain. Twilight couldn't help but almost feel bad.. it didn't even have a chance to fight back. "I just want to make us all perfect.. it's just so HARD when these DAMNED SPLICERS ARE ALL I HAVE TO WORK WITH!" As he shouted he ripped open the splicer with the metal claw. Blood and organs spilled out onto the table. The violent shaking from the pony had stopped abruptly now only followed by minor twitches. "These damned ponies wouldn't know true beauty if it SLAPPED THEM IN THE MUZZLE!" Spotlights sprung to life as he howled revealing tables hung from the ceilings with ponies still strapped down. Their faces torn off and mixed together, crudely sewn on. The skin stripped revealing soft muscle and fat dripping with blood. "YOU'RE ALL JUST SO FUCKING UGLY! LET ME SET YOU FREE INTO THE HEAVEN THAT IS BEAUTY!" He slashed more at the pony on the table, tearing her to pieces. Disgusted he did not get the results he wanted, he picked up and threw the table at the glass, shattering it.
His massive and dark wings spread as he howled, charging at the two ponies. Iron and Twi jumped toward the surrounding doors, avoiding the shattered glass. Both ponies kept their attention on him and stayed sharp. As Iron drew his gun, he swept down swatted the gun away, cutting Irons foreleg a bit.
"Oh, you're sOO UGLY LET ME FIX YOU PLEASE!" Skitz raised his metal claw to send a slash toward Iron's face. His balance thrown off by a strong force from behind. Twilight had leaped onto the griffons back and wrapped herself around his neck. She cried out "Get the gun!" Iron jumped over where the gun had landed.
"You diSGUSTING BITCH!" with an elbow Twilight flew back and hit a wall, dazing her. Skits rushed up to her and looked down, standing tall over the mare. "Don't wor-"
Shots echoed out through the room as blood trickled down Skits expanded wings. The pain only acted as an adrenaline boost for the griffon. He turned to throw a nearby table covered with medical equipment straight at the stallion and making contact. The attention was back to Twilight. She raised her horn and prepared to use the lightning spell. Before she could even begin to conjure it.. pain.
The most intense pain she has felt so far.
The talons had ripped their way through her stomach, leaving four larges gashes pooling with blood. She collapsed on the damp and cold ground. She couldn't move her body, at all. She could barely see. The pain tore through her, unbearable as she fought to keep consciousness. She felt the same cold and bloody talons now wrap themselves around her neck and begin squeeze. Skits picked up the mare and brought her to eye level with him.
"You don't even deserve to be beautiful.. to be gracious enough to be under my scalpel. You're nothing more than these abominable splicers running around ruining all MY HARD WORK!" He began to squeeze tighter. "I'll just tear your insides out and leave them for those disgusting creatures to feast on, not that you're worthy of even that." His other claw pushed against her stomach as he prepared to disembowel the mare.
"Darling, that is simply hideous! Let me make you some worthy of being the one and only Twilight Sparkle! You know you have to treat yourself like royalty sometimes dear. It does wonders for a mare!" Rarity beamed a smile, even after insulting the outfit Twilight had decided to wear. Twilight could only roll her eyes.
"But this is a replica of the same outfit that Starswirl the Bearded wore.. it's not meant to be fancy and pretty.." She looked over to see Spike sitting beside Rarity trying to cover his mouth with a claw and stifle a laugh.
"Not fancy OR pretty? Tell me again why this Strawberry the Bearded was so important?" She replied, a hint of playfulness in her voice as she immediately began work on a new dress for her friend.
Twilight sighed and plopped herself down on the closest chair to her and watched her friend begin to sew away. She couldn't help but find herself smiling at her friends attitude. She realized that Rarity had only cared for her 'well being' and that she always wanted Twilight to look breathtaking. 'You never know when a big strong stallion, or exquisitely beautiful mare is going to trot right up to you, darling!' she said to herself in a tone that mocked Rarity's, only playfully. Spike couldn't help but laugh that one which caused him to receive a dirty glare from Rarity.
"It would behoove you to watch what you laugh at HUBBY. You know the couch is always free to sleep on." This time Twilight got to laugh at Spike, something that happened a lot more now that these two were together. She sighed and sat their watching as Spike tried to sweet talk his way into being able to sleep in the bed tonight. Seeing her brother and best friend happy like this always made her happy to have her be a part of the.. family.
Family.
"Come on Twily! It's time for school!" a blue coated unicorn stallion called up the spiral staircase. He turned and took his seat at the table where fresh plates of fluffy and delicious pancakes resided. A blue aura surrounding ever more as the landed on the table by a beautiful white coated mare.
"Coming Dad!" a small purple filly called out as she looked herself in the mirror and gave herself a big smile. "Today.. I'm gonna learn so many new things! Mommy and Daddy will be super happy and I'll be super smart!"
A white hoof came out from the door way and rubbed her mane, messing it up. "Talking to yourself again Twily?" A deeper voice said while only cracking once. Twilight turned to her older brother and pushed him away with her hooves. "Stop it! You're gonna mess up my maaaane! Moooom!" She cried out in a whiny tone.
"Get down here for breakfast you two, or you're gonna be late! You know what happens when you're late, no snacks for a WEEK." the mother scolded the two unicorns. They both replied in unison "Yes Mom." The two ran downstairs to meet their parents and start their day.
Iron shakily rose from the ground as he looked up hearing Twilight scream. His eyes grew wide and adrenaline filled his body, heart racing. He turned his head side to side to try and find someway to stop him, not sure where his gun had landed. He could hear Twilight whimper as he frantically looked through the water. Then it hit him, the table Skitz had thrown held a host of sharp objects. He found the carts contents and grabbed an already bloody knife with his teeth.
"Goodnight little ugly du-" Doctor Skitz words cut off by a scream.
"LET HER GO!!"
He tried to finish his sentence but couldn't speak. A wet gurgling sound was all that came out, along with a now steady trail of blood. Iron had plunged the knife deep into the side of Skitz neck, blood pouring out as he immediately dropped Twilight. Gasping for air but getting nothing but blood he collapsed to his knees trying to figure out what was happening. Iron pulled the knife out as a shower of blood poured out followed by one last, wet and horrific sounding gurgle as the griffon went down. Blood pooled around him, draining onto the floor of the room he used to take so many lives, splicers or not. Iron tried to brush off some of the blood that leaked onto him, to no avail. He turned to Twilight and put a hoof under her head and neck lifting her gently. Bruises and slight cuts were around her neck from where the griffon held her. Her stomach still bleeding way more than was safe.
"Tw-Twilight! Hold on! Please stay with me!" Fear overcame him. Absolute fear that he may lose her. Twilight opened one eye, only half way and slowly as she looked up at him. She couldn't talk, and tried to raise a hoof to touch his muzzle, but couldn't even manage.
Tears.
This was the first time Iron had remembered crying in a long time. He opened their saddlebags and pulled out what little bandages remained. He managed to cover her stomach wounds, but they wouldn't last long. He needed something more for this. Time was running out.. fast. He carefully laid her head down on the now half empty saddlebag and dashed into some of the rooms to try and find some medical supplies. He came across two medical potions and a few more bandages.. not a lot, but it would have to do. He dashed back to her.
"Twilight, stay with me now, please. Wake up!" His words caused her to stir and open an eye again. "Drink this.. please." He brought the vial up to her mouth and slowly poured it down her throat. He wrapped her up with the other bandages, not getting the entire cut and wrapping them tight. She let out a whimper as he pulled them tight around her. Finally he turned back to her with the second vial and began to give it to her much like the first, only a little spilling out of her mouth. He looked around the sickening room and knew they should leave. He went down the hallway and cleared some debris making way for one of the hospital beds that was only partly intact, but it was enough. He pushed it over and lowered it, carefully lifting her on. This proved to be quite the struggle. His heart was racing, he was sweating, and ignoring his own injuries he hadn't even realized. Scrapes and cuts from the cart and the sharp instruments on it, an extra sharp scalpel had even embedded itself into one of his legs. That didn't matter though, Twilight was the only thing that mattered.
Hours later Iron had not only managed to push her into a less waterlogged area but managed to protect her from roaming splicers as well. Exhaustion was taking hold of him at this point. Desperation was making him slip up, earning him a few more slashes. He found a room intact enough, and barricaded the two inside, bringing furniture in just to pile against the locked door. With the hospital bed low to the ground, he carefully laid in the bed next to her. Beaten and bruised he looked over at the pathetic looking mare. He didn't know what else to do.. he couldn't even think straight. His eyes grew dangerously heavy as he watched her sleep. He needed to. He had.. stay... awake.
Chapter Ten: The Music Box His eyes were a brilliant shade of green
By: BroSteve (Steven Rodriquez)
After what seemed like an eternity sleeping on the shanty hospital bed next to Twilight, Iron woke, stomach growling. He groaned, still wishing he could whisk himself away back to sleep and not have to worry about this wretched place. With blurry vision his eyes sprung open to see Twilight still laying there, breathing lightly in her restorative sleep. Something about seeing her lay there made him smile. Hell, he could even feel a slight tinge of red pop into his cheeks. Something he was growing to fond of around the mare. As most joyous things in Rapture, it was short lived as the wounds appeared back in his line of sight. The bandages were almost unusable at this point, he had to find more. Possibly some food as well. His stomach growled even louder this time. 'Don't worry Twi.. I'll be right back.'
He turned towards the door, removing just enough of the barricade to exit. Leaving the door vulnerable to attack and Twilight alone was incredibly risky. The thought of a splicer managing to get in sent a cold shiver through his body. He had to be quick. Taking a deep breath, he leaped forward and galloped down the hallway toward the kitchen he first found himself in. It didn't take him too long to find his way back. The hospital seemed.. empty now. Which was something Iron would not find himself complaining about. He rummaged through the kitchen only to find moldy and outdated food. Finally he managed to find a can of potatoes and carrots. 'Perfect!' He quickly threw them in his saddle and began his trot back toward their room. He made sure to stop by a few abandoned room in search of some more medical supplies.
"A half of a health potion and some bandages.. it'll have to do.."
It wasn't very long before the stallion returned to the mares side, trying to enter the room without waking her. After a quick rebarricading of the door, he made his way to her side.
"Twi.. Twilight, wake up.. I got some food!" He tried to keep his voice low, but the promise of actual food had him a little more excited than he should be.
Twilight stirred, her hooves twitching as the lay out in front of her. Her eyes slowly began to open. At first, her vision blurry not able to make out anything other than a large brown shape moving closer to her. She panicked, fearing it was a splicer. Iron made sure to stop until she recognized him, which didn't take long. Her vision focused and the brown stallion that smiled down at her. She couldn't help but give a smile, even if it was a weak one.
"I got some food, Twi! We need to get you eating if we want you healed up again and ready to go!" His voice, was positive. More positive than it had any right to be.
She nodded and tried to lift herself up, to no avail. She was still too weak to really even get up from her spot.
"Th... thank.. you Iron, sweet..ie." She managed to say with that same weak smile on her muzzle. Iron could feel that tinge in his cheeks again, being sure to hide it.
"Lemme just get these open somehow.. err..." He looked down at the cans in confusion. He hadn't really thought about how he was going to open them. His ears perked up as he remembered his smaller knife buried in his saddlebags. "Ah!" He dug through the messy bags and grabbed the knife and began to open the cans. "Now we just need someway to warm these up.. I mean we could eat them cold.. but that's not as good. Everyone likes their food at least a little warm.. but it depends on what it is.." He quickly realized he had started rambling to himself. Causing a small giggle from Twilight. He turned and tried to ignore it. "H-how about just cold?"
Twilight nodded.
'Oh Celestia.. how am I going to get her to eat if she's on her side.. uhh.. I could hold her up..' He liked the sound of that, though he would never admit it. "Okay Twi.. I know you're probably gonna have a hard time with this, but I'm gonna help yah!" He quickly sat next to her and wrapped his hooves around her as if she were a little foal. He lifted her just enough to rest her upper body against his. He was so lucky she couldn't see his bright red face right now. 'Sh-she's so.. soft..' He took haste in purging the thought from his mind. 'I'm doing this to help her eat and heal up faster!' He sighed 'Just keep telling yourself that Iron..'
Twilight went along with the stallions motions holding herself up against him, wrapping a hoof around his back and holding onto him with the little strength she had. Once she realized he was using himself to hold her up, she could relax and not have to exert her strength. Iron raised the can of carrots up to her mouth, letting a few slip out into her mouth. It took her a bit longer than usual to chew and swallow, but it was evident she was just as hungry as him.
It wasn't long before the food was gone, most of it going to Twilight. Iron only took a few carrots for himself and let her eat the rest. He knew she needed it far more than himself. After the makeshift meal Iron went to lower Twi back down onto the bed.
"N-no.. can I.. stay here..?" She said softly, but with a little more energy in her voice than before.
Of course, Iron lit up like a Hearth's Warming tree. With a smile, that again he's happy she couldn't see, he held onto her. "Of course.." Twilight took no time to nuzzler herself into his coat and closed her eyes, letting sleep soon sweep over her.
"I think we pretty much drained this place of any usable supplies or food at this point." Iron chuckled as Twi sat there looking at him.
"Yeah.. sorry about that.." Twilight said, a somber look worked it's way onto her face.
"Hey now.. it wasn't your fault or anything! I really didn't mind caring for you an.." He stopped himself after saying that. "You know, healing you up and stuff.. I'd do it a million times over if I had to."
Twilight smiled at him and stood up, still a little shaky and sat next to him and leaned on him. "Thanks, Iron.."
A few days had passed as Twilight and Iron got a much deserved rest and healing time. Twilight was still sore, and the bandages still needed to be on just in case. No running or doing anything crazy, but she could walk and actually feed herself now. Which Iron would never admit to her that he would miss being able to help with that.
"Can we please get out of this place..? I think I've spent enough time here.." She said nudging him, trying to get him to finally say she was healed enough to leave. With a long sigh, Iron looked down at her. "I guess so.. isn't too much else here to use anyway.. we're gonna take it nice and slow okay? Make sure we find a place to sleep before the sun goes down and try to not get caught by splicers as we're so exceptional at doing." She couldn't help but give a little laugh.
The two gathered what supplies they had left, fitting everything in Iron's saddlebags since twilight couldn't wear hers. They made their way out toward the main entrance.
"It's open..? When did that happen?" Twilight said curiously as they approached the large metal doors.
Pop!Bzzt!
"Bout time you two made your way outta there, hmm loves?" That familiar voice sprung to life over the intercom system in a teasing tone of voice. Even if it sounded like it was coming from a robot.
"Blue!" Twilight practically yelled at him with an over excited look on her face. "Where have you been!" Her excitement and happiness turned to what sounded like anger. You could almost hear Blue shrink back at the sudden shift in moods.
"S-sorry, Love. I didn't want to wake you from yellin' about through the intercoms, besides.. you two needed your alone time." He said with a chuckle causing Iron to scrunch his nose and look away from Twi, hiding his red cheeks yet again. 'What is wrong with me..'
Twilight sighed. "Oh shush you." She looked over at Iron and held back a laugh. He was never very good at hiding his blushes and it was just as easy to read what was on his mind. 'Like Mom said.. stallions are the easiest things to read..'
"I am quite glad to see that you're in tip top shape though! I'll admit, yah had me mighty worried. Looks like ol' Iron Sights here is more helpful than I originally thought!" Iron scoffed
"H-hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Blue just laughed.
"Seein' as you two are both alright.. I saw we get a move on here! We're getting closer and closer to finally meeting. Might have to give Iron here a stern talking too." Iron growled at Blue's playful antics with the two. "You're next stop is going to be New Fillydelphia. That's all that's standing between us at this point! It's hard to believe really."
Twilight nodded happily. "I can't wait to finally meet yah!" She looked over to Iron again, who regained his cool and was looking up at the intercom speaker.
"Well let's go!" Iron said with a burst of confidence, hoping to meet Blue as well.
"Perfect! Ah can't wait to se-" Bzzt!
Just like that, Blue's signal was gone and silence quickly fell over the entrance hall. Twilight sighed "Looks like he lost connection again, ah well.." She looked at Iron and nudged him playfully. "Shall we get moving?" Iron smiled in agreement and the two began to walk toward Fillydelphia.
Twilight and Iron walked side by side, the two going at a much slower pace due to Twilight's injuries still slowing her down. All around them the once beautiful city of New Manehatten lay in ruins under the deep blue ocean. The air was damp and it was common to find overflowed areas from broken pipes, spilling into the streets. It was getting closer to the evening hours as the simulated sunset now began to pour an orange light across the hollowed out buildings and flooded streets.
"I remember back when these streets were bustling with life.. everypony was so happy and hopeful.." Iron spoke in a quiet and somber tone. "At least the simulated sunset still looks beautiful, heh."
Twilight looked over at him, their pace beginning to slow as he spoke. She wondered how he had gotten here.. why he was here. Did he choose to? She didn't know if asking would appropriate.. but then again, when didn't Twilight ask when she wanted to know something?
"How did you.. uh.. end up in the Stable..?" She wanted to kick herself for just being blunt.. but she wanted to know more about him. Ever since they met, he had opened up more and more with every passing day. When they first met he seemed like a hardened soldier.. but now.. she was beginning to see who he really was.
He let out a deep sigh as they were almost standing still now close to the middle of an intersection.
"I grew up in the real Manehatten.. with my mother and father. It was a pretty normal life, yah know? We had a decent sized home, I was popular in school. All till I was about 10. That's when my Mom got sick." Twilight looked up at him, knowing this wasn't going to end happily. "It wasn't bad at first, just seemed like the common cold.. but soon she couldn't work.. she couldn't do anything around the house.. and she eventually couldn't get out of her own bed. My Dad had done his best to take care of her, and get all the medicine she needed, working crazy amounts of overtime. Then things just got worse.. she ended up in the hospital. The sickness was pretty far in it's cycle, but they said an operation might be able to save her. Only about a 30% success rate. The only thing was.. despite my Dad working non-stop.. we didn't have the money. We had tried reaching out for help from insurances and health care.. but none of them wanted anything to do with us."
He paused, taking in a deep breath.
"We got to watch her die. I pretty much dropped out of school and went right to work to try and help us keep the house.. which we weren't able to do. We ended up living in a small, crappy apartment. I think my father coped worse than I did. He began drinking.. a lot. Any money we would get, went towards alcohol. I wish it had stayed there though. Soon it grew to things I'd never seen before. Needles. Drugs." The word needles made Twilight cringe. The thoughts of the MANA and how amazing they felt crept into the back of her mind. That wasn't a drug though? Right?
"They just.. ate him away. It wasn't until we were completely broke and he lashed out during one of his withdrawl days. He beat on me, saying I was the reason Mom had died. It was then I knew I had to leave, his mind was gone and I no longer had a home. That led me to working and staying with a friend. Which of course didn't last long. That's when I heard of The Stable. Some place to start fresh. Where artists weren't limited. Doctors would help no matter what it took. What they played up to be a paradise. So I ran. Celestia knows good things never last for me though, the place went downhill quickly." He was sitting on his haunches now, looking toward the group as he sighed. "Sorry.. probably more than you really wanted to know.."
Twilight was trying to hold back the tears that were starting to form in her eyes. She looked up at him, never realizing how troubled a a past he could have possibly had. Yet he was still so cheery at times, and confident. While she.. was a miserable wreck who ran away from everything.
"I.. I'm s-sorry Iron.." She wrapped her hooves around him and buried herself into his coat again, something she was becoming all too familiar with. Iron was slightly taken back, why was she crying? He smiled and hugged her back gently, nuzzling into her mane.
"Don't you be sad now.. it's all okay really.. like I told you back when we first met. I made it my job to protect everypony who ends up down here.. that is including you." He said as he looked down at the unicorn, still crying onto him. It didn't take long for the waterworks to slow down. She pulled away and saw the wet spot on him, which he didn't mind.
"I'm sorry.. I just.. I know how it feels. I lost my parents when I was just a filly. I saw it all happen.. and that's why I ran. That's why I was on that flight.. I just never pictured I would have ended up here.." They both knew how the other felt. Iron wrapped a hoof around her, holding her. "Even though I ran.. I'm glad I did now. I felt weak for running.. and I still do. But everypony has their limits, and everypony deserve the right to find something new and start fresh. While it may not be paradise.. at least.. I found you.." Iron leaned down and gently kissed the top of her head, eliciting a bright blush from the mare. They stayed there for a moment, holding onto one another.
It didn't take long for the cascading light to fade into a darkening purple as night approached. "We better find somewhere to camp for the night. We wouldn't want to be caught in the dark aga-" Irons words were cut short as both of their ears perked up. The distant sound of a music box sang in the distance.
The two ponies started walking the direction of the faded music, somewhat enchanted by the sounds. They found themselves at the doorstep of an abandoned school house. It was a small time school house closer to the edge of the city where the business of it settled down. The sky starting to transition into the cool dark blue of night as the fake stars twinkled overhead. The two made their way inside and found the source of the music. A small white box, covered with light purple and iron colored stars. As the music faded, they examined their surroundings.
"Well.. guess we could stay here the night. Just do some quick barricading and we should be perfectly fine here, sound good?" He said with a soft smile as he turned to Twilight. She nodded in agreement, her gaze still focused on the music box in her forehooves. Iron began pushing all of the furniture up towards the doors and windows, closing any windows he could trying to hid themselves as best as they could. The decided to search for a place to hide out inside of the school. They entered the larger classroom toward the back of the buliding to find row after row of empty desks all facing the front chalk board and the larger teachers desk. The room and entire building was in a better state than they expected, being on the outskirts must have done well for preserving it. The chalkboard still managed to have writing on it "2+2=4 4+4=8" and so on. Seems like this was mainly for fillies and colts. They pushed the teachers desk over toward the corner, making a small fort out of it. Childhood memories of blanket and pillows forts came flooding back to both of them. They couldn't help but smile at the thought of how many years later, both grown ponies, and they are making a fort together. The thought quickly turned to more of a blush. Twilight quickly took her place underneath the desk and laid her head on her hooves and let out a sigh, closing her eyes for a moment before reopening them and examining the music box. She turned the dial and the beautiful melody filled the air once more. Iron was making sure everything was as locked down as it could be before heading back into the classroom. He looked over as the music began to ring through the air and smiled at the mare on the ground. He trotted over toward her and took his spot right next to her, both of their sides touching eliciting blushes from both of them. As the music hummed along the two began to talk.
"I just.. want to say.. thank Iron.. thank you for everything. Keeping me alive.. caring for me.." Twilight said as she leaned her head against him. She was beginning to like having someone around to lean her weary head on.
With a confident, yet warm smile Iron nuzzled right back. "No need to thank me.. I was more than happy to.. and I'd be more than happy to keep doing so.." With that he instantly felt Twilight get warm.
"I.. I think I'd like that.." She looked up at him, meeting his gaze. She never had time to notice before, but his eyes were a brilliant shade of green. He looked down and began to slowly lower his head towards hers. Suddenly her heart was pounding, trying to rip right out of her chest. She slowly closed her eyes, lifting her head to meet his half way.
Just like that their lips met. Everything around the two seemed to melt and drift away. Flares of pleasure and happiness tore through her body. She lifted a hoof and put it to his chest as they held their embrace. Iron felt like he might fly right through the ceiling as her soft lips were pressed softly against his own.
The two continued, neither one wanting to stop. A fiery passion now growing quickly between the two as each kiss became harder and harder. The music box's music slowly came to a stop, but the air was not silent. Not tonight.
