We walked through the narrow walled canyon that lay beneath what used to be Cloudsdale. It's no wonder the area looked so familiar. Scattered pegasus carts, pegasus skeletons, Cloudsdale billboards. It baffled me how I didn't recognize it before, probably because it was the dead of night. Thankfully after me and Littlepip's long conversation the night before to try and take my mind off the dream I had about Twilight. She had been more than willing to ask me questions as we walked. Velvet had given my chest a once over before we left and insisted I take it easy. I had told her multiple times that I would be fine. Stimpacks increased my immune system healing and recovery drastically for a short period of time. Because nothing knows how to heal your body better than, well, your body. Still, she insisted on me not exerting myself.
Calamity was not concerned about me at all. Not that he didn't care, he just said that im one of the toughest, most sturdy things in the wasteland and that id been through the worst. He wasn't wrong. I did manage to tank and balefire egg from a balefire egg launcher one time and one time only. Which put me in a coma for like 2 months. Unfortunately, it also used my spare the dying talisman from my old royal days back home in Valen. It ruined my power armor as well, like beyond repair ruined. I guess id be dead if I didn't have it, but shit still hurt. Calamity was more concerned about looting all the destroyed shit he could so he could try to sell it back to me when we got to new appaloosa and my caravan. Which made me smile when I thought about it, the irony.
But we stopped when we came across a somewhat familiar delivery wagon. I remembered it as ditsy doo's old delivery wagon before the war when she delivered mail, then war supplies throughout Equestria. The rest of the gang was keen on investigating the wagon when I wanted to keep moving. Saying that an area such as this is much too dangerous to linger. But my words fell on deaf ears as they went anyway. I stayed with them, of course. Being alone in this area is a death sentence. I stood watch. Not wanting to be caught off guard. After a short discussion about Calamity and the pegasi with a tad bit of looting. I noticed a large amount of movement on my E.F.S in my helmet. All white dots made a sea of moving white, around our position.
My E.F.S was much different than most other pip-bugs. It was very tethered to me precisely than generalized like most. Rather than just saying shit was allied or friendly, it gave precise readings on hostility. So this sea of white was neutral, but could turn hostile. It didn't take long for my eyes to spot the MASSIVE hoard of zombie ghouls. They outnumbered us heavily, like several hundred to one. Thankfully there was a gap in their hoard that we could take to try and escape. Littlepip also caught wind of everything on her own E.F.S. Since she snuck out of the wagon with Velvet in tow.
I witnessed one of the ghoul ponies pick up their heads to look at me. One eye rotting as it gazed at me, the other eye completely gone with a gaping hole showing the interior skull. It gave a horrifying shriek as it charged me, causing the rest to frenzy.
"RUUUUUN!" I yelled, dashing for the gap in the hoard.
As I ran, the others in the group quickly shot ahead of me. It dawned on me that as a human on two legs with less horsepower than a pony. I was falling behind fast. I pushed my legs as hard as possible, but the ponies were still faster. My chest pounded as my sides hurt like hell, the pain from the ribs also taking effect. Thank god my duffle bag had a feather-light enchantment, so it weighed like nothing. I could hear the zombies breathing behind me as adrenaline shot through me, giving me that little extra boost to stay ahead of them. For maybe five seconds before one tackled me to the ground.
I was violently yanked back into the hoard with a near thousand growls and groans as the loud clanging of teeth on metal filled my ears. My armor was protecting me from their ravenous bites, but I couldn't get away. I flipped myself onto my back, my duffle bag giving me a little prop up as I drew my hand cannon and fired randomly. "GET THE FUCK OFF ME!" I yelled.
My gun was quickly knocked away by the swarm of ghouls trying to gnaw through my saving grace. Through my helmet, I saw ghouls and only ghouls. I punched wildly, throwing ghouls away with stunning strikes from my fist. But each one I hit was replaced by another blood-hungry ghoul. I heard gunshots ring out from Calamity's battle saddle in between the swarms of growls, but it made no noticeable change in the onslaught. I thought and tried every possible way to escape this situation, But nothing worked. 'fuck I have to reveal my big secret if I wanna live.'
I closed my eyes and thought of the elemental rune for fire from my studies back home in my head. I focused as I had, like every other time I cast magic, feeling something drain from my body as my mind surged with elemental energy. My body slowed to a still with exhaustion. I thought of a violent explosion of flame erupting from my body as the rune activated within me. Suddenly with great power and range, A nova of fire erupted from my body, clearing a large sum of the ghouls from my position, their bodies turning to ash instantly. I desperately tried to force myself to my feet but could only manage a crawl. I heard what's left of the ghouls approaching me, their growls of hunger growing louder. I used whatever elemental magic I had left to force my body up and run. It was more of a jog, but it's better than crawling.
I injected another stimpack into my chest, giving some of my strength back as I returned to a run, but unless I grew a second set of legs, I wasn't going to outrun these ghouls, and I certainly couldn't cast a spell like that again.
"Please tell me I still have it," I hoped, reaching around my back and digging my hand into an exterior pocket of the duffle bag. I gripped something round as my mind did backflips with joy. I pulled out the grenade with glowing orange windows to the very violently swirling insides.
"I sure fucking hope this works," I said as I pulled the pin and dropped the grenade. I didn't throw it back; I just dropped it. Three seconds later, I was hit by a powerful blast that rocked my insides as I flew forwards at a violent speed. Gaining a surprising amount of distance and altitude as I flew past Velvet and Littlepip. In the short glimpse I got of them as I flew past, they were shocked at my sudden appearance. I began to descend, and my foot caught a rock, causing me to slow quicker, and my upper body began to tumble downwards. Using the momentum, I tucked in and did a parkour roll as I hit the ground, springing back to my feet and continuing to run with the speed I gained before slowing to my standard sprint.
I came upon a large wagon meant for transporting many ponies at once. I wasted no time jumping through one of the destroyed windows into another roll and lept through the other side. I ran and took cover at a crashed pegasus military convoy. Beyond it was an outstretch of nothing, and considering the two explosions I've caused, I think we could take the remaining hoard. I hope.
I saw Calamity mount the top of the wagon shooting down the other side where I couldn't see. Velvet came running around the other side. And littlepip tried to mimic my maneuver but had her rifle strap get caught on the window. Fuck. I couldn't risk firing my hand cannon to free her from this range. If my hand cannon was built for anything, it wasn't ranged accuracy. Instead, I drew my rifle with its four remaining bullets and swapped it to a single fire. I missed her entirely with the first two shots. As Velvet dived into cover next to me, I finally managed to hit that stupid fucking strap with the last two. She dropped to the ground a few feet below her, losing her rifle unfortunately, as she ran towards us. Diving into cover with us.
I was surprised as a violent explosion of blue and purple light disintegrated the large pony carrier. The magic of the explosion consisted partly of sky elemental magic, it was unstable, but I could use that magic with a bit of pony magic tinkering. I held out my hand, palm facing the magic cloud as it glowed and using my mind. I created a sizeable white rune with a center circle. Out from that circle spewed several straight and curved lines. The whole rune spun slowly as the cloud of magical energy was sucked into the center of the rune. Gathering in a large ball the size of which that could fit in my hand. Glowing blue and purple and crackling with energy as more energy flowed into it.
Once the cloud was absorbed into the rune. Three lines shot out from the center into three smaller circles. The unstable magic flowed down those lines into the circles as decently sized bolts fired from the smaller circles in rapid bursts of three. Striking the hoard of ghouls that the others were barely fending off. Disintegrating them into magical dust. I held my hand cannon in my other hand, firing when I could and reloading thanks to the module in my belt with one hand. I gotta be honest, I looked badass. The battle came to a swift end when Littlepip managed to repair one of the pegasus gattling laser turrets in the convoy and turned it to fire on the remaining ghouls.
I stored the little bit of magical energy in a much smaller rune that floated next to me. I also took the liberty of taking the gun off that laser-gattling turret. I needed it for a certain... project... We took a small break to catch our breath before we got the FUCK out of that canyon. Only when we were safely beyond the canyon's dangers did someone finally speak, which happened to be Calamity, who stepped in front of me.
"Okay, now what in the hell was all a' that?" he demanded, "from wat' I know only unicorns can do magic like that, an' you ain't a unicorn."
"Calamity!" Velvet yelled at him, getting between us. "If it wasn't for whatever that was, he wouldn't be standing here with us! You shouldn't interrogate him about something that saved his life!"
"I am thankful! But I get a Lil' on edge when it comes to the supernatural, such as somepony other than a unicorn using magic. The last time somepony other than a unicorn used magic like that, we had a war with zebras, and that caused all a' this!" he pointed a hoof to generalize the wasteland.
"And?" she asked. "That was well over 200 years ago! With how much you preached about him on the train. Im surprised how suddenly you don't trust him. Not to mention he also used that magic to help us."
"I do trust him! Just... GAH," he stomped around in a circle, mumbling under his breath.
"Is it about the enclave?" I asked finally. "you don't want the enclave to find a way to use magic like that?"
His ears shot up, and his eyes widened as he whipped around to face me.
"thought so," I nodded, understanding, "I can't talk about that particular magic in the open, even though most of the wasteland loves me and what I do. I do have enemies, and I don't know if they're listening. But I can say with 100 percent certainty. There is no way for anyone other than me to use that magic. All I can say is it's the magic I learned from my homeland before Equestria." and I walked past him. Continuing onward. Effectively ending the conversation.
As the sun faded away and slowly gave way to the night, we happened upon a farm. Everyone seemed interested in every minute detail about this place, like the three oddly placed fence posts outside and the smoke billowing out the chimney. These were fair things to notice, but they didn't see what I saw, like the massive buildup of magical energy inside the barn that I did make mention of. No one seemed to care other than Littlepip. However, she said we should make sure that if there was anyone living here, we should make sure it wasn't raiders. Which we all agreed upon.
Thankfully when we did try the door, we weren't met with a gun in our faces but a pink filly. Well painted pink and rather poorly painted, I might add. Even as she practically fucking worshiped pinkie pie making a 'museum' for her. But to be honest, it was more of a shrine. She wouldn't shut up about her. Like yeah, she's pretty cool and all, but like sheesh. she wasn't that good, and I knew the woman! She insisted we stay the night and gave us the most cramped room she could have for four people, one person, three ponies. Sorry I keep making that generalization.
The others were talking about this new position we found ourselves in. I set up a make-shift hammock in the upper corner of the room to give the rest of the ponies some more room to move.
"she doesn't seem right in the head," Calamity said, pointing a hoof to his own head to signify some form of craziness.
"Because she isn't, something must have happened," Velvet added, pacing in the small space.
"you're telling me," I added, taking off my helmet and setting it on a nearby nightstand. "especially when a unicorn gets her horn shaved off." All eyes in the room were instantly upon me. Like I said, something fucking demonic.
"don't tell me I'm the only one who noticed the nub of a shaved unicorn horn on that little girl? she has her hair covering it, so it's hard to see, but to anyone perceptive enough could've seen it," I asked.
The ponies erupted into a discussion. Theorizing and questions about this new discovery. But Velvet never took her eyes off me. She seemed concerned about something.
"Velvet, you look like I got a dagger in my neck. What's up? I asked. Hearing the other two cease their conversations to listen.
"I helped mend the ribs in your chest, worked for a while to ensure I got it right and didn't mend the bones wrong. But I don't remember your skin being that pale." She responded with worry.
I raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"
"Actually, I see it now. He looked more... tan before." Littlepip said cocking her head and squinting. Calamity doing the same before agreeing.
I walked over to a broken mirror on the wall. I'll be damned. My skin that was usually quite tan was fucking white as shit. I took off my forearm gauntlet and looked at the skin to find the same thing. I touched my pale skin to find it colder than usual. Still warm to the touch but not as warm as it should be. Then I remembered a very crucial thing that caused my shock to fade into a frowning realization.
"Don't worry about it,"
"what do you mean 'don't worry about it? You clearly know what's wrong, or else you wouldn't be doing what you are doing now!" Velvet stomped.
"It's not... ugh... it's just... hold on." I stuttered as I checked the window of the room overlooking the farm. Then closing the drapes.
"I'm missing a good portion of blood, enough to cause drastic changes in my skin color. Don't worry, It's happened before. I'll be back to normal in a few days."
"WHAT?" Velvet gasped, "Are you bleeding? When did this start? How could you tell me not to worry? Now Im worrying even more!" she panicked and started checking my body for injuries, patting down places, and hitting a few spots Id rather not be touched, which in turn caused me to slap her hoof away.
"AYE, watch where you patting lady! Take me to dinner first!" I added, causing her to blush and cringe as she turned away.
"oh my goodness, Im so sorry! I didn't know! I..." She apologized profusely while Calamity flopped onto his back and laughed.
"Stop and breath a sec, okay?!" I stopped her. "it's fine, just don't go frisking people randomly, okay? You're a medic, and I respect and understand the worry, but that's just not appropriate. Try and keep your inner Fluttershy under control, aight?" She nodded understandingly. Calamity's laughter ceased as he got back up, wiping a tear from his eye with a sigh.
"As for injuries, Im fine." I took a moment to think about how I would approach this topic. I didn't want to outright say how my magic worked. It's a very close secret that only one other pony alive knows. And if someone like redeye found out, that you can turn living matter like blood and skin into magical energy, it would be catastrophic. That and it comes out at a higher power than usual. If you turned a whole person into magical power and just detonated it, it'd be like a small nuke went off in a ten-mile radius. As much as I trust these ponies, even after only knowing less than two days, I couldn't risk it. There are things people are willing to do that can break even the most unbreakable people.
"When I combine pony magic and my magic, it can sometimes have unintended backlash. A magical loss of blood happens to be one of them." I lied; I hoped they bought it. Velvet's eyes narrowed at me. She knew something was up, but nodded in understanding.
"Well, in that case, I don't want you attempting any more magical stunts like that again. Doctors orders." She ordered sternly. Letting a small smirk slip in.
"ha, you'd be surprised how often im told too by Romulus." I looked out the window towards the barn and the massive gathering of magical energy. "AIGHT," I said, moving towards the door and grabbing my helmet on the way. "Im gonna go figure out what the fuck is in that barn. There is no need to have that much magical energy in one place." I grabbed the doorknob to find the door had been locked.
"that little shit," I whispered. Turning back to the other. "Our host locked us in. Luckily for us..." I Rounded on the door and kicked it as hard as I could. Sending the age-worn door off its hinges. "I got a key."
We worked our way outside to the barn, which was also locked from the inside. Littlepip said she saw Pinkiebell go in there earlier. I insisted on trying to kick the doors open but was stopped by all of my party member's protests. Which I crumbled in submission too. I respected them enough to fall in line with their plans at least. However, we quickly realized that the barn door was locked with a large wood plank latch. Thank god I didn't try to kick it in; I would have broken my leg. Littlepip couldn't pick a piece of wood. With her lack of telekinesis, we couldn't move it anyway. She was too spent magically to perform even basic levitation.
I snuck away to try a different entrance to open the door to the inside. I was a man of action and didn't like sitting around. I went around the back of the barn to find an old window on the barn's second story, broken from age. I got a running start and jumped up the wall, barely grabbing the edge of the window and pulling myself up. I pulled out the broken glass, letting it fall to the ground below, not wanting to make a lot of noise on the inside, and climbed in. The second story was clearly used to store duplicate pinkie pie knick-knacks and collectibles that didn't have a place in the so-called 'museum.' In the gaps of the floorboards, a dim light of a torch or lamp was on the floor below. The room I was currently in was darker and dusty as shit, But I could still see. Not that hard when my helmet's still glitching HUD highlighted things in the dark.
I worked my way around the room, trying to find a staircase or a door to one at least. I managed to find a door behind a giant cardboard cutout of pinkie pie. Which was creepy as hell to look at. I opened the door to a small hallway with another door and a staircase at the end leading down.
I tried the other door and peeked my head in to find a food and water storage. There was at least a few months worth of food and water stored up. How much was still safe to eat was to be seen. Closing the door, I Heard conversations from the room below. Muffled, but I could tell it was Between Littlepip, Velvet, and our host.
How the fuck did they get in already?
I slowly made my when down the stairs trying to listen in on the conversation. I turned the corner at the bottom of the stairs, and my heart sank. There weren't many things in the world I was genuinely afraid of. I've seen some of the most horrifying things, things that would leave you scarred for life and change the way your mind works in the worst ways. The wasteland was constantly hitting me with curveballs left, right, and center. The first thing to actually surprise me recently was the alicorn in old appaloosa. Besides that, not much caught me off guard, except the fucking undetonated balefire bomb in front of me.
I was heaving hard, and my head felt light as I stared into the swirling mass of magical energy. I was terrified. The nightmares of souls of the masses being cleaved like a scythe through wheat as these things wiped cities off the map raced through me. The lives of my closest friends were ended by the superweapon in front of me. As the terror took hold, I dropped to my knees, slowly falling back onto my rear as I panicked and scooted back fiercely until I hit a wall. My eyes did not leave the bomb. I was sweating so hard it felt like I'd just taken a shower. I was lost in my own fear.
I felt something touch my shoulder, causing me to flinch as my sight broke from the bomb to whatever touched me. I found myself looking at Velvet, who held a heavily concerned face. My gaze drifted to the tiny foal who was our host behind her. She had clearly been crying. My fear changed drastically into rage as I shot to my feet.
"WHERE DID YOU FIND THIS?!" I yelled, catching everyone in the room off guard. The little foal was too scared to speak now.
"I ASKED YOU A QUESTION, YOU LITTLE SHIT, WHERE DID YOU GET THIS FUCKING THING?!" I somehow got louder, stomping toward the foal. Only to have Velvet step in front of me like a wall. Her face shifted from concern to fierce determination mixed with anger.
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" She yelled, stomping a hoof. "The poor girl has been through enough already! She doesn't need anypony yelling and cursing at her!"
I tried to calm myself but was only able to regulate my tone. "You... have no idea... what this is, do you?"
"No, I don't, but-" She started only to be cut off by me.
"THAT IS A BALEFIRE BOMB!" I shouted, pointing to the deadliest weapon known to pony kind.
Her eyes widened as she slowly turned to gaze at the magical monstrosity.
"There are not many things in this world that scare me, but that..." I paused, letting fear creep back into my soul. "That thing is number two on the list."