Chapter 5
"The Heat?" I ask
"Yep." He says, nodding his head. He then is getting up and stretches for a little. He looks back at me and says "Thanks for the chat!"
I nod, smiling. "It's good to see a friendly face in a world full of chaos."
He's about to walk out, but he stops. He says "Oh! Almost forgot!" and searches inside of a pouch hanging off of his waist. He pulls out an object, and hides it in his hooves. He then walks on two and holds his other two hooves behind his back and faces me.
"Close your eyes!" He says encouragingly.
"What is it?" I ask.
"Just close em!" He says, more giddy than before.
"Ok, ok!" I say. I close my eyes and hold out my hooves.
I can tell that Eagle Eyes is excited to give me this gift. I, on the other hand, am not so giddy. I mean, whenever I get gifts, they usually suck. Scratch that, they always suck. One year, my parents got me a scooter built for a three year old on my twelfth birthday. Another year, my friends got me a loaf of moldy bread for the holidays and said that it wad the equivalent to fruitcake cause they both taste like shit. Worst. Holidays. Ever. Oh, but that wasn't quite as bad as-
"Open your eyes!" Eagle Eyes says.
I open my eyes and look down at my hooves.
"Surprise!" He says.
I'm gonna faint.
The gift if a butterfly knife. A butterfly knife! Already awesome. But the thing that makes it 20% cooler is the fact that it's custom painted black with red splotches of what looks like blood, but it's also paint. The knife itself is balanced and stainless steel. And sharp, too!
"Th-Thanks so much! I-I-I don't know what to say. This is the best gift I've ever gotten!" I exclaim, not able to find the words.
"Ah it's nothin. Don't mention it!" He winks, pats me on the shoulder, and leaves the room, slowly shutting the door behind him.
Maybe friends aren't hard to come by.
I wake up this time, but without a start. I scratch my head as I get up. Oh yeah, I'm in the storage closet. I remember. Last night, I was using that knife nonstop to my hearts content! Swinging, attempting to learn to tricks but cutting myself at least four times in the process, stabbing fake targets, you name it! Eagle Eyes even gave me a knife holder to out on my waist!
I'm fiddling with my butterfly knife when the door swings open. Fluttershy is standing in the doorway, and she looks pissed.
I sit up and I'm ready to ask what's the matter when without reason she throws a Tomahawk at my skull. Luckily, I dodge in the nick of time, but just barely. I then look back at the tomahawk and then to Fluttershy.
"YOU!" She yells. "YOU SHIT EATING BASTARD!"
"Um..." I begin.
"YOU BLEW OUR LOCATION YOU IDIOT!" She exclaims. "NOW WE'VE GOT TROOPS FLANKING US FROM ALL SIDES OF OUR BASE!"
This is the side of Fluttershy I wish I haven't seen.
"What are you talking about?" I question. "When did I ever have communication with the outside world?"
She's about to answer when the whole room shakes. Concrete dust rains from the ceiling as the lights flicker.
"NO TIME!" She yells. "I'M NOT HERE TO SAVE YOU, BY THE WAY. IF THEY COME FOR YOU, NOT MY LOSS! I'M HERE TO TELL YOU THAT THEY DON'T WANT ANY OF US, THEY WANT YOU!"
"Me?!" I exclaim, confused to the fullest extent.
"DON'T ASK ME WHY THEY WANT-"
BOOM!
The ceiling collapses, and a shroud of dust fills the air. I sputter and cough, but luckily, I wasn't buried completely. I dig the rest of myself out and look at my hooves. Scratched up and bleeding, great. No time I thought. I need to get out of here. I quickly look around for a source of escape, but the only exit, the door, has been sealed off with piles of concrete rubble.
Now what?
I look in my backpack and find the chemical components. If I put my 11th grade chemistry skills to work, I might be able to blow a hole in the wall and escape.
I look at the companies and read the ingredients as fast as I can. I need to find ingredients that will make a big boom.
Eventually, I give up and mix all the chemicals together in an empty Drano can. I light a match, and drop it in. I run away as fast as I can, but no matter. It made more than just an explosion, it made a show of lights and colors as the chemicals had made a Goliath hole in the wall.
That went better than expected.
I run to the hole and climb out. As I'm climbing out, I'm thinking to myself on what happened to Fluttershy? I shake those thoughts away and run through the hallway, knife in hand. I turn the corner and there they are. Standing on a puddle of rubble and blood.
The bosses minions.
"Ey, look who it is, Frankie!" One of the stallions mentions.
"Is that the guy who destroyed our business and killed our boss, Jerold?" The other one asks
"Indeed it is, Frankie!" He clarifies for some reason.
"And is he gonna get outta here alive, Jerold?" Frankie asks.
"He sure ain't!" Jerold says with a wicked laugh.
"I may die, but I won't die without a fight!" I yell back at them.
"Ah, we gotta tough guy here. Let's see who's so tough with my bullets in your skull!" Frankie intimidates.
I charge at the with my knife flipped out and ready for battle. I jump and come down for the strike. Frankie and Jerold dodge the attack and spin around me. I turn around just in time to see Jerold pull out a Sawed Off Shotgun and open fire on me. Most of the bullets miss, but some hit my flank and my back legs. I yelp and fall to the ground. I rub my flank, the fresh blood staining my hooves, and the pain, oh the searing pain running through my body.
"Have fun on the other side!" Jerold taunts, pointing the barrel of the gun at my face.
Bang!
Jerold drops.
Bang!
Frankie drops next.
I expect another shot to be at me, but nothing happens. I stay on the ground until a familiar face runs to me and covers me in bandage.
"Eagle Eyes!" I exclaim.
"Sh! Don't move! You'll make the blood flow in greater amounts if you do!" He says.
I don't feel offended that he shushed me, I'm just glad to be alive.
"There!" He says, cutting off the excess bandage.
"You saved my life!" I say in a thankful tone.
"Like I said before, don't mention it!" He helps me to me hooves and puts my front left hoof over his shoulders.
"For support." He says.
I feel a leather strap under my hoof. I look over my arm. A black rifle is slinged over his shoulders.
That's new.
We start dashing through the rubble and chaos when finally we arrive at a pile of corpses. Too many to count. I almost puke not only at the sight, but at the smell. We close out eyes and walk over the bodies, the disgusting feeling of pony flesh below me makes me shiver on every step.
All these dead ponies for me?
We prevail over the pile of bodies and climb out of a big hole which used to be an entrance, but it's been bombed, so it looks like a bigger version of the hole I made in the storage room. After struggling to climb out, we get taken off guard with the sudden change between the warmth underground and the cold up here. We shiver and dash along, squinting our eyes against the thick snow pounding down.
Cold. So very cold.
We find a patch of dry ground under a tree and lay down there. Eagle Eye pants rapidly while I rub the bandage on my flank. I catch my breath and ask the question:
"Why were we invaded?"
Eagle Eye looks at me and shrugs.
"Don't lie to me." I say deeply.
Eagle Eye sighs, and says:
"Your father, Sin Shadow, was a great man. Even I knew who he was before I met you. I'm not sure you understand his importance, do you?"
I shrug. "He never came home much. When he did, it was in brief segments. My mother used to call him an abandoner, so I never really knew anything about him."
"His job was one of the most important in Equestria." Eagle Eyes explains. "He was an inventor. But not just any inventor, he was the inventor of this."
He pulls out a cube and shows it to me. It has no unique traits about it as much as I can see. All it is...is-
"A small black box" Eagle Eyes finishes. "And you are correct. But not only is it a small black box..."
Eagle Eyes twists the lid of the box, and out of nowhere, the box begins to levitate. The sides of the cube slowly float off and reveal a glowing green matter.
"What is that?" I ask, eyes wide in awe.
Eagle Eyes stares me straight in the eyes, the mint green color of his eyes meeting mine strike me. He gestures for me to get closer. He then whispers:
"The solution to the cold!"
